Checking in once again, it's been quite a while since & I've been busy, though sadly not busy enough when it comes to this blog. Anywho this may be a bit delayed but happy New years all, there's a great deal of returning series coming out & I wanted to give a small rundown of what's to come.
First we'll start off with Konosuba Seaosn 2.
If you haven't already noticed by now, you'd find that I raved over the first season and liked it quite a bit. No it didn't make my wall of fame, though, none the less when it was renewed for season 2 I was bouncing off the walls, even more so when it actually aired just a while ago. The first episode of the season 2 was pretty decent, nothing particular of note happened though, for me personally, I'm just glad it came back, & that Studio Deen is willing to flesh out and adapt more of the subject matter from the Light novels. Fun stuff!! Just imagine Sao or Log horizon, but instead it's a parody of that, which pokes fun at the cliche's of the genre in a hilarious ways. You basically follow along kazuma's growing harem and how much a a failure at life he is, which is set in a MMORPG fantasy type setting. This series is airing right now so if you haven't already check it out and watch the first season If you haven't already.
Gintama - 4th Season
Over the break I also finished watching Gintama, just in time before I got wind of season 4 was going to start airing (Jan 9th). It's been one heck of a ride, & Gintama for a year now has always been my fallback when I didn't have anything to watch (Like right now) so when I actually finished season 3 and got caught up to episode 316 (the last episode) I was totally bummed out.. like really bummed out. You see, Gintama is a really cozy gag anime, with lot's of hilarious cultural references and our cast constantly breaking the fourth wall. Lot's of DBZ, bleach parodies and all the like. Though i have to admit, this show until recent years was really dragging it's knuckles, not that I didn't enjoy the slice of life episodes in my downtime, though the Author of the manga, Sorachi Hideaki, kept trying to laugh off the fact that he still hadn't completely manifested or actually worked upon the over arching narrative. Sunrise and now Bandai Namco pictures only gave us small hints of the good stuff in the OP and ED themes and some vague and short references within the show. This may completely discourage you from watching this anime, but I really ought a tell you that it's only when you get to around episode 130 that this show begins to spill it's beans and the good stuff it has in store. That's a LONG ASS time to wait.. a very long time..this is around the time that the Yoshiwara arc started, and thankfully BOY was it it great, like I mean really really good. Sadly the next time the story get serious is around I believe around 120-30 episodes later where we get an arc called "Courtesan of a nation", and then only 50 episodes later (the last episodes of season 3) do we get another dig into the more series side of gintama which would be the "Shogun assassination arc" & the "Farewell Shinsengumi Arc".
Now, those are the only the really major arcs, you would still get a good arc lasting 2-3 episodes for every 6-13 episodes you watched, but still, to get to this point, where were now they're actually spilling the beans took an awful long while. Though I still enjoyed the ride there, and the vast amount of hilarious standalone episodes and small arcs that I cherished such as the red spider Arc or the Ghost Ryokan Arc. It's episodes such as episodes 228 from the "Love choriss arc" that make my eyes pop out because there so god damn funny. Despite all the knuckle dragging and stalling, they still made it a worthwhile experience with clever humour, gags that will be immortalized as classics, and ever-growing cast of both strong female heroines and interesting male characters. Like konosuba, Gintama is like a parody of all other anime out there, and pokes fun at Japanese culture, particularly Otaku's. It's also about protection, heroics, revolution and defiance. Hidden in Gintama with all it's antics and whatnot, is a precious story about a student and master relationship, fighting for one's ideals and dreams and taking arms against even the "gods", which would be the Tendoshu, in all they're mythical evil.
This is a great anime to watch on the side, I personally don't recommend making Gintama your main swing, though it's a good anime to follow along with on your down time every now and then like I was doing the for the past year. For me I was really glad I had Gintama around so I'd be able to have a sly and satirical comedy of worthless outlawed samurai bums on the side, whilst mainly watching traditional 1-2 cour shows such as Non non Biyori or Hibike Euphoium. Gintama for me is my "Chill" show that also has a juicy beans when it wants to get serious. So my first piece of advice to you is to not mistake this as a narrative driven show, because it's not, and not to mistake it as a battle manga or anime, because it's not. Don't get me wrong, there's a good amount of action and combat in this series though not from a daily episode to episode basis like in Naruto or Bleach. The 300+ episodes your getting yourself into is an adventure filed with gags, heartful stories and character developments and a generally casual atmosphere. Gintama is now renewed for season 4 and has aired 2 episodes already, and I hope you guys will pick up the series as well.
Stiens;gate 0
Oh boy now this is a series I was excited about when it was announced, and as of today, it's only around the corner, waiting to air. It's pretty much set in an alternate universe where Okabe fails in rescuing Kirisu, and he's given a second chance at it or something along those lines. I really don't know how the series is gonna play out or how it's gonna live up to its reputation as the last time around, the original series was an absolute smash hit. Stiens gate is a series time travel and is one of the few series out there that actually pulls it off amazingly well, despite the complicated mechanics of it all, and through this it drives a sense of mystery, investigation, it gets people wrapped up in situations where people are forced to clash and be put under pressure. The core of this series is truly about it's heart wrenching drama, and it's cleverly beautiful romance that takes place. It also has a really great english dub too. None the less I'm excited that one of my all time favourites is getting a renewal and if you are so inclined to find out about what this great series is about please check out my review, and yes, it absolutely made my wall of fame.One Punch Man Season 2
Many of us as you know, where really scared this might not get another adaptation, simply because of a couple of reasons, first, the studio animating this "Madhouse" has a reputation of not following through with adaptations and finishing the lore of the adapted material and second, they announced that season 2 depended on if the English dub was going to be successful overseas, which now that it has been renewed, I guess it did do well. Like the other anime mentioned about, One punch man this time around gets it's gags from poking fun at cliche's about other Shonen anime to much hilarity, both with it's visuals, plot, and it's dialogue. It's truly great and like many other Madhouse franchises, it's another impressive production about a warm yet awfully hilarious story about an unlikely superhero who's way to powerful for his own good, hence "one punch man". It's jam packed with good action scenes and hilarious gags, along with a nice casual environment. A highly recommend watching this series, so please support this franchise by tuning in on Crunchyroll and other legal streaming services of the like, it's usually free and your still supporting the creators.Attack On Titan Season 2
Fufufufu, the hype is real... It's been 4 long ass years, many delays, and much angst. I reviewed this series, and of course I thought it was great enough, that I put it on my wall of fame. despite it's flaws, it's incredibly jam packed with terrifying violence and gore that rivals even Game of thrones, with an interesting cast of characters, a strong over arching plot, and then some. I was totally pumped for season 2, though since Kabaneri of the iron fortress I'm perhaps a bit worried, you see, Kabeneri of the Iron fortress was alright, I mean I did pick it up on a whim of course, though I wasn't all to impressed. What I'm saying is, before Kabeneri of the Iron fortress I has a lot of confidence in wit studio, now I'm not so sure. Though if I go upon my initial gut instincts, I anticipate that this either may be incredible, or this series will come crashing down in walls of flame, I can't tell, though I'm still excited as hell to see how it all plays out.
Chihayafuru - Manga
Now although Season 3 has yet to be announced/renewed, so I've recently only until now read the entire manga and am finally caught up and up to date with where the series is going. was I right to be excited? hell yeah!! Chihayafuru, as always is incredible, trust me, I don't want to spoil it, but there are some really crazily great upcoming Karuta matches that continued within the manga so please read the manga, it's so good!! Also there's some pretty great developments that happen, of which I won't reveal here. Though sadly as of Chapter 130ish this Manga kinda took a slump with one of those developments, it was bound to happen but still... now that I'm caught up to date... it seems there's a very small amount of room left to explore in this series now.. I mean.. The anime of this series is probably my favourite to rewatch and enjoy, I mean it was absolutely great, and when season 2 ended, I really thought there was so much more that needed to be expired and now that I'm here, I'm sort of sad that it's kind of going to end soon..I sort of wish that Chapter 130 was written differently so that things wouldn't turn out this way (Cough Cough you Cough Ruined it Cough Cough Taichi!! Cough) anyways, there is still much left in store, If your reading this please watch the the anime, it's among the best and one of my highest rated anime on this blog it's truly great, and just recently, I reviewed it in depth in a previous post. You Don't want to miss it!!
Ajin Season 2
Ajin is Yet another Series that somewhat recently finished airing it's 2nd season, an anime produced by Polygon Pictures, a 3d Cg company. Yeah yeah I know how it is, the of you out there detest Cg, well truth is, regardless of what it is, Polygon Pictures from what I've seen has there team up to snuff.
You see recently I've also watch Knights of Sidonia & I loved it, it really wouldn't have been the anime it is today without CG, simply due to the setting and the numerous battles in space that took place. With Ajin, though it could have been done without C.G, I still quite enjoyed the fact thatr it was done all in CG.
Ajin is a set in world where people who are immortal, dubbed Ajin, are hunted down, persecuted and experimented on, sadly for or protagonist, Nagai, after getting run over by a bus, he turns out to be one of the fabled Ajin he's heard so much about. He's a cold calculating character, that somehow, throughout trials and tribulations finds his humanity in the process. This story gets more combative when Satou forms a groups of terrorists, comprised of Ajin to take over Japan by force & as you might imagine, proves to be somewhat unstoppable. It's a great story, with thrilling story telling chops about government corruption and collusion, the falsehoods of politics and the media & an arms race against several countries. Throughout his quest to stop Satou and fight to take back his once peaceful life he finds new ally's and comrades, some of which are really notable characters.
This is a great series to binge with a bucket off popcorn, since it's definitely one of those productions you can flick on with your girlfriend, little cousins or little sister and everyone would still be entertained and in to it. If you liked series such as Ghost in the shell S.A.C or even Psycho Pass this one may be up your alley. It has great action scenes, intense drama, a variety of characters and a more serious over arching plot line, so I really recommend you tune in. The only downside to this series is to me, it's how Satou is somewhat of a shallow character for the main villain & with all of his extreme measures it's really hard to grasp why he would go so far, other than the fact he's a maniac.. For me that isn't quite a good enough reason, though I still found him entertaining enough for it not to bother me in the end.
Both Knights of Sidonia & Ajin are on Netflix, with both dub's and subs, I strongly recommend the sub, as I found the Japanese Va's to prove to be much better.
The Monogatari Series - Kizumonogatari Film Trilogy
Oh yes how can we not talk about the Monogatari series... finally well be talking about the latest two movies of the film trilogy Kizumonogatari. Over the winter break I finally got my hands upon the second film of this trilogy titled "Nekketsu". Now the first film "Tekketsu's" production was absolutely mind glowingly amazing, again I continue to marvel at Shafts capabilities in the digital realm of animation. The CG was top notch, unlike anything I've ever seen before, the character designs were improved and are great, and the soundtrack was cheeky as well too. I won't get it into to much though the first film was definitely a really nice teaser for the next two to come, I was dying waiting months and months to get my hands on a Bluray since I live in good Ol Canadia there were no screening available in my country and I wasn't about to drive to the U.S just to see a 1 hour movie either, so like the first time around I was dying of angst to get myself a Bluray, in short.. This Christmas was fucking amazing!!
Now, Nekketsu continues where Tekketsu left of, where Araragi does battle with the three vampire hunters/exorcists: Guillotine cutter, Episode, and Dramaturgie which turns out most of them are f*%^ing wimps lol. Now the battle with Dramaturgie was pretty cool and kind of funny, though kind of a let down as well. This is because Araragi defeats him relatively easy, simply by throwing baseballs at towering giant, and him defeating Episode, while cool sort of seemed more funny rather than awesome, though both battles were still pretty good. With each and every battle Kiss shot's stolen limbs are restored and she regains some of her original form, with each and every form she grows more mature and more beautiful of course. Asides from the battles, what also takes place of course is Araragi's relationship with Tsubasa, and his reluctance to get her involved or even be friends, a small heartening aspect of the film, and arguably the best. I'll save all the production details and jargon for a latter time when I review the monogatari Franchaise in full, though thankfully Oishi was the one in charge of directing this series. For me personally, I loved what he did with Bakemonogatari, his work continues to be playful, outside of the box and he is able to accurately able to fully realize and articulate a vision. This film trilogy, at least in terms of animation, will probably sit atop of shaft productions, the pinnacle/apex of their creations for a long time. It's truly a fabulous production, even despite being underwhelmed with the second , it was still an amazing experience.
Reiketsu....
Sign me up!!
That concludes the news for today,
2017 Is truly gonna be a F&*$%ng blast, you really don't want to miss out..
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