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The Spring 2015 Anime Preview Guide


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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:15 am Reply with quote
Battle Spirits: Burning Soul seems totally generic and unremarkable so far, from the battle where the rules are explained and characters react to parts of the game as though they've heard them for the first time in order to mirror an audience doing just that to the skilled main character avenging a newbie's defeat at the hands of a swaggering bully. Best parts are Kanna and sharing the same narrator from Kaiji. I will watch every episode hoping he utters the word "kuyashii". Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list.

Danna ga Nani o Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken 2-sure-me is a good start to a new season. The narration from a saccharine romantic moment declaring they later had lots of sex was a great callback to the first season. Looking forward to following this show again. Would give it 3 stars if it were on the list.

Re-Kan! was nice enough. A bit disjointed, though I did like the sequence near the end with the ghost children, and I didn't dislike the dynamic between the main two characters. 2 1/2 stars.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru. Zoku was all right. I was never a fan of the first season, but there was nothing really to dislike in this episode. I gave it 2 1/2 stars.

Dungeon ni Deai o Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka? was all right. Nothing about it particularly grabbed me. Characters were average; story was average. Gave it 2 1/2 stars.

I've only read a bit of the manga for Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha ViVid; I keep meaning to read more, but haven't been able to get into it. I enjoyed checking back in with Nanoha and Fate and seeing the latter's bafflement at Vivio's adult form. It was nice enough overall, but I wasn't hugely impressed. Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list.

Read a bunch of Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu a couple of years back, and found the anime much as I remembered the manga: decent but unremarkable. There are cute moments with Yuki I'm looking forward to, but at the moment it just sort of is. Chuckled in a few places, probably more than with most other comedies this season. Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list.

Shokugeki no Souma was meh, but people seem to say it gets better. No particular opinion on the foodgasm scenes; they were nice enough. I'm interested in seeing how we go with the cooking tournament school in the next few episodes. With the concept and characters in the first episode, I gave it 2 stars.

Vampire Holmes was utter garbage in visual terms. Inferno Cop, for comparison, looked to have a 0 budget and glory in it, whereas this just plain looked terrible. The jokes were also very bad; 1 star would probably be generous, but I'd live with giving it.

Denpa Kyoushi was kind of weird. The concept could be amusing, but I thought the main character was more yell-y and annoying. His whole vigilante plan also made me roll my eyes, but I suppose it could have potential. Gave it 2 1/2 stars on the poll, but I'm not feeling it as much as the other shows I rated the same.

The placement of the episode of UBW starting the season is kind of unfortunate, as the battle we're hyped for sort of ends and then there's some slower emotional development on material from three months ago. That said, the material was good, so I guess it has that going for it. Gave it 3 1/2 on the poll.

I found more entertainment in Gunslinger Stratos: The Animation in just watching the characters' faces going off model than the actual show. Clichéd and lame, not a nice combo. It wasn't awful, though, I guess. Gave it 2 stars.

High School DxD BorN was more of the same, though there was nothing incompetent in the first episode. Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list, but I expect that to get dragged down by unconvincing drama before the season's end as usual. Lots of breasts, so I suppose there was that if you like it.

Kekkai Sensen was one of those shows that tries to do a lot with setting and plot right off the bat; it reminded me of Shingeki no Bahamut or Rolling Girls in that respect. I liked the everyday nature of it all, from the diner the main character frequents and the free-but-not-free meals he gets there to the dozens of aliens everywhere. The progression of the story so far was a little predictable, but amusing enough. Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list.

Kyoukai no Rinne was somehow workmanlike, but I enjoyed it. Both main characters were interesting and their dynamic intrigued me. Something about the whole picture makes me feel we won't get a whole lot of development from here very quickly, though I can't quite put my finger on what it might be. Would give it 2 1/2 stars if it were on the list.

Owari no Seraph was what it was: very predictable, very by-the-numbers, moderately entertaining. I liked all the development that happened in the first episode, but I somehow doubt we'll keep it up. I'll see how we do, though. The presentation was more-or-less competent, so I gave it 2 1/2 stars.

Plastic Memories was good. It plays its cards more than a little obviously, but very well. I thought some of the humorous moments were a bit lame (the escalating offers of tea are easy enough to single out for this), but never too much to pull me out of the show. Then, of course, there was the woman and her Giftia. It could easily have been mishandled, but I found it convincing and very affecting. Gave it 4 stars on the poll.

I haven't watched new PriPara, as I'm watching the last season as it's subtitled. Not really sure why it needs a consecutive new season, but there we go. Might grab and check out the new OP and ED songs at some point, though...

Along with Plastic Memories, Puru Purun Charm to Asobou is my top show so far. I really liked Tesagure (though I'm not sure viewers coming into the it with this season are going to get that much – that said, I have no familiarity with Puru Purun Charm, and I believe there were references to its manga and/or radio shows I missed, so that might be a bit hypocritical) and I'm glad to see it not only moved to a 30-minute slot but properly released. The first half was simply murderous: the shreds they left the fourth wall in were spectacular, and the general air of not giving a crap was hilarious. Very atarashii. The two segments following them were good, though I did prefer the Tesagure one. Hopefully the cast of Puru Purun Charm grows on me somewhat. Would give this one a conservative 3 1/2 stars were it on the list to rate, as it wasn't quite firing on all cylinders consistently, though when it was it was fantastic.

Lastly, for the moment at least, there's Uta no Prince-sama - Maji Love Revolutions. I think I need to get into the right mindset to absorb the cheese, because it sort of washes over me without leaving much of an impression, even with the Headmaster's vocal performance by Norio Wakamoto. Gave this one 1 1/2 stars.

dtm42: You know, I'd read someone pointing out that a spoiler for some show was in a Funimation ad, managed not to notice what it was, had scanned over spoilered discussion of the same ad, and then read your comment not only mentioning what show it was, but providing a screencap of the ad and the element in question. Sad I likely would have noticed it before watching the point in the show where it was revealed, but still.


Last edited by jymmy on Sun Apr 05, 2015 11:10 pm; edited 1 time in total
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:28 am Reply with quote
^
Well I didn't mean to cause harm to you, I didn't think anyone could miss seeing the ad so it didn't cross my mind that putting up the screenshot could be harmful because I believed the harm had already been done.

But really it's FUNimation's fault for placing any old image in their ad without thinking about their customers, and ANN's fault for running the ad at all let alone in such an awful location on the site. And while you personally didn't notice it, most people - except those who are running adblock - will have noticed it, because it's so prominently placed.

I refrain from using adblock because I want to support the site and FUNi and ANN screw me over for it. Sigh.
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Cecilthedarkknight_234



Joined: 02 Apr 2011
Posts: 3819
Location: Louisville, KY
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:32 am Reply with quote
aside from fate/stay night I see nothing but shi* this season. Maybe I've become to damn jaded/miserable but none of these shows looking appealing to me. Oh well I guess I'll go back to secluded in my cave playing retro gaming.
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jymmy



Joined: 11 Nov 2011
Posts: 1244
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 3:34 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
I didn't think anyone could miss seeing the ad

Let's be generous and say that's because I was manipulating my subconsciousness to avoid ads. I can't remember what adblock I am or am not running, or whether or not ANN has an exception in it, but it's definitely on the page for me to look at. Ah well, I'm not really bothered by it.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:02 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
^
Well I didn't mean to cause harm to you, I didn't think anyone could miss seeing the ad so it didn't cross my mind that putting up the screenshot could be harmful because I believed the harm had already been done.

But really it's FUNimation's fault for placing any old image in their ad without thinking about their customers, and ANN's fault for running the ad at all let alone in such an awful location on the site. And while you personally didn't notice it, most people - except those who are running adblock - will have noticed it, because it's so prominently placed.


From what I can see, that it took this long to have it pointed out indicates that for those not in the know, they likely wouldn't have identified it as a spoiler; both cases so far in this topic were someone said it was a spoiler was from people who already knew what was going to happen.

Me, I saw the image already, but I saw it before remembering that the plot points that would lead up to that image didn't happen until after the events told in the first episode. I just thought, "Okay, FUNimation is promoting Seraph of the End and we have those two."

That being said, I know a lot of promotional artwork for the manga has those two characters front and center and depicted as rivals, so it'd be very easy to pick an image like that by accident.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:26 am Reply with quote
leafy sea dragon wrote:
From what I can see, that it took this long to have it pointed out indicates that for those not in the know, they likely wouldn't have identified it as a spoiler; both cases so far in this topic were someone said it was a spoiler was from people who already knew what was going to happen.


I'm not sure what you're saying exactly.

I want to make it clear that I haven't read the manga, no-one has told me what happens, and I haven't read any spoilers anywhere on the internet about the show. I said it was a predictable plot twist only because the basic story itself is so predictable; anyone who has seen enough of these types of shows generally knows what to expect. But I didn't actually know about the plot twist until I saw the ad, where I had my suspicions confirmed.

As for the ad, the picture is spoiler[so obviously of both of the boys as their teenage selves] that anyone has seen the first episode should have spoiler[identified them as such.] Even if you weren't expecting the plot twist, unless - like jymmy - you avoided looking at the ad at all, you'd have to be blind not to see spoiler[the striking resemblance between the two characters in the ad and the two main characters in the episode.]



note: spoiler tags included just to be safe, not that it really makes much difference given the spoiling information in the ad itself. Which, by the way, is still there.


Last edited by dtm42 on Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:27 am; edited 1 time in total
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maxwell3094



Joined: 28 Mar 2014
Posts: 148
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:26 am Reply with quote
dtm42 wrote:
^
Well I didn't mean to cause harm to you, I didn't think anyone could miss seeing the ad so it didn't cross my mind that putting up the screenshot could be harmful because I believed the harm had already been done.

But really it's FUNimation's fault for placing any old image in their ad without thinking about their customers, and ANN's fault for running the ad at all let alone in such an awful location on the site. And while you personally didn't notice it, most people - except those who are running adblock - will have noticed it, because it's so prominently placed.

I refrain from using adblock because I want to support the site and FUNi and ANN screw me over for it. Sigh.

Actually as a fun bit of trivia adblock doesn't block that sponsorship ad. I even double checked it on my alternate browser. You WILL see that spoiler no matter what.

I was kind of worried that bringing it up at all would prompt people who missed it to notice it and get spoiled themselves. With that said id still rather have it be mentioned so it hopefully doesn't happen again next time. Plus I was also kind of figuring most people wouldn't miss it considering its actually REALLY hard to miss that ad. All I did was give it a quick glance as I was going to read one of the reviews and that was enough to make me stop and go "wait what?!".

To be fair though you cant really tell its a possibly major spoiler until you have seen the first episode. Well seen the first episode or looked at the source material.

leafy sea dragon wrote:
From what I can see, that it took this long to have it pointed out indicates that for those not in the know, they likely wouldn't have identified it as a spoiler; both cases so far in this topic were someone said it was a spoiler was from people who already knew what was going to happen.

You seem to be slightly mistaken. I cant speak for dtm but I DONT know what is going to happen. I have zero experience with or knowledge of the source for Seraph. What I put in spoiler tags a few posts back was just a conclusion I was able to reach due to that image.

On a side note I wouldn't really call less than a day a long period of time. Literally the first time I checked the page after having seen the first episode I noticed that.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
Posts: 14084
Location: currently stalking my waifu
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:44 am Reply with quote
maxwell3094 wrote:
Actually as a fun bit of trivia adblock doesn't block that sponsorship ad. I even double checked it on my alternate browser. You WILL see that spoiler no matter what.


Really? Huh. So there's no way to avoid it then.

maxwell3094 wrote:
With that said id still rather have it be mentioned so it hopefully doesn't happen again next time.


That's my opinion too. This time round it was a predictable spoiler for a mediocre weakly-written show, but what happens if next time it's a complete shocker for a show that people actually care about? Would Cross Game's first episode be as powerful if you already knew spoiler[Wakaba was going to die because of some stupid ad showing her funeral?] I think not. So ANN and its advertisers should strive be more careful in the future and think about the feelings of their customers.

maxwell3094 wrote:
Plus I was also kind of figuring most people wouldn't miss it considering its actually REALLY hard to miss that ad. All I did was give it a quick glance as I was going to read one of the reviews and that was enough to make me stop and go "wait what?!".

...

On a side note I wouldn't really call less than a day a long period of time. Literally the first time I checked the page after having seen the first episode I noticed that.


I also instantly noticed it after watching the episode and couldn't believe my eyes. I mean it's right there on the same page.

maxwell3094 wrote:
To be fair though you can't really tell its a possibly major spoiler until you have seen the first episode. Well seen the first episode or looked at the source material.


You're right, but that doesn't make it any easier.

maxwell3094 wrote:
I can't speak for dtm but I don't know what is going to happen. I have zero experience with or knowledge of the source for Seraph.


As I said in my previous post, I too had no idea of what really would happen.
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Ohoni



Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 3421
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:44 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Yeah, nice going ANN. Not only did you accept an ad for FUNimation that spoils a major plot twist for Seraph of the End, you then had the gall to put it up on the same page as the Preview Guide:


It's not a "major" spoiler. I forget the exact pacing of the manga, but that outcome should become apparent within a few episodes, it's not like a major mid-season reveal.
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dtm42



Joined: 05 Feb 2008
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 4:54 am Reply with quote
^
Just because we might learn of spoiler[Mika's survival] in the next few episodes doesn't change the fact that as of the end of episode one it is a big spoiler. The episode didn't even have an OP, avoiding the spoilers that OPs usually bring.

Plus the spoiler in question is a really important one in the context of the show's plot, its character dynamics and its themes, since if spoiler[Mika didn't survive] this would become a vastly different show.
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Maidenoftheredhand



Joined: 21 Jun 2007
Posts: 2632
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 5:24 am Reply with quote
I enjoyed the latest FSN ep in fact I was surprised how much I enjoyed the final moments with Rin & Shirou. But I did not enjoy seeing Saber tied up panting in that pose.

It's strange how Saber is treated so differently in Zero vs Night. I realize it is a different writer but I hardly recognize her at times.
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DangerMouse



Joined: 25 Mar 2009
Posts: 3980
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 5:24 am Reply with quote
Hellwarden wrote:
Is the new season of Lupin even happening?
Because, I haven't seen anything.

walw6pK4Alo wrote:


Shoot, you're right. I had mostly forgotten it was even happening because I saw no promos or info. Not like it's hard for shows to get lost in the mayhem of the Spring season, but still.



The Coffee God wrote:


Last I heard it was an exclusive Italian TV broadcast.
So I doubt we'll see anything about it until the Italian broadcast is over.

{Fixed your inline quotes. You have 1 strike for over-quoting.~nobahn}
Awww man, the wait's gonna be rough.
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Random 21



Joined: 03 Jul 2014
Posts: 198
Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 7:42 am Reply with quote
Baby Steps 2 - 4/5
It's more Baby Steps, which is all I really wanted anyway. The series was never a high octane action fest, but it doesn't need to be. If this show continues to be the down to earth, engaging yet modest show it was last year, then I'm looking forward to having it back once again.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan - 4/5
I think I'm being a bit generous with my rating because it had a lot of visible flaws. The CG was, er, something. and the character designs look so much like they were ripped from FMA that I would be forgiven for thinking it was an adaptation of an alternate universe fanfiction.

But even so, I was engaged while watching, I was never bored, and although I can't claim it to be the most original story ever, I still want to know where the story is going. I can see this being really dated in it's depiction of female characters (Especially if the ED is anything to go by), but hopefully it'll be the JoJo kind of "This is pretty dated but who cares" rather than the Parasyte kind of "This is pretty dated and the poor story only makes it stand out more. Cautiously optimistic.

This hasn't been the strongest season, but it seems we're finally getting some good shows. Plus Funi need to goddamn hurry up on Blood Blockade Battlefront because I need that show now

Also call me slow but I only just realized that the ED to Shokugeki is supposed to be a Last Supper parody. I don't quite know what to make of that, cool I guess?
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 9:29 am Reply with quote
I emailed Funimation about the spoiler art. It's up to them to decide if they want to change it or not, but I've done all I can.
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Kadmos1



Joined: 08 May 2014
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 05, 2015 10:06 am Reply with quote
The new Digimon series will likely be a easy hit for various people, especially Digimon fans.
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