Iaboo, Youaboo, Weallaboo for Anime!

Of course all the anime I want to check out releases on the weekend. So let's talk about some them as I work through them all!

First up, the elephant in the room, is Trigun Stampede. Like Wisteria, I'm cautiously optimistic with the new version. I feel like the choices to reveal some of Vash's past in the first episode are for the most part good as people watching it are already familiar with his backstory. Robert will be an interesting change from Millie to help maybe temper Meryl's enthusiam. The CG animation is fluid and looks awesome, but I am slightly sad we don't get needlehead Vash but his original design is firmly in the 90s so the change is good.

Next up is Handyman Saitou in Another World. It's an isekai, but the premise seems interesting. Saitou is for some reason in a fantasy world where his skills make him a pretty effective thief. The first episode doesn't reveal how Saitou gets to this fantasy world, instead giving us an introduction to his fellow party members: Morlock the 80 something wizard who has the beginnings of dementia and a bad back, Lafanpan the fairy cleric who charges a gold per healing and Raelza the warrior who clearly has a crush on Saitou but is self conscious of the scar on her face. There's a few other non party members introduced, like a heavily armored dwarven mage, as the episode is broken up into small sketches. It's pretty humorous so I'm definitely going to keep watching to see where things go. Also because Raelza wears armor that is appropriate for a warrior, basically full plate. She does mention that she has a chainmail bikini and we do get to see it modeled. On Morlock, so yeah.

The Tale of Outcasts' first episode wasn't bad but it also wasn't that great. Wisteria is an orphan that is forced to beg on the street at the church run orphanage who can see demons that most normal people can't. The immortal Marbas is one she sees and they strike up a friendship where he tells her all that he has seen. Until she's sold to a nobleman who plans to torture her. Marbas can't just take her as that would violate some demonic creed to not provide aid without a payment. Of course when he finds out that Wisteria has been sold he rushes to her side and starts to fall apart so of course Wisteria gives him the only thing she has, her eyesight which heals him and lets him fight at full power. Oh and her older brother happens to have been taken away years ago and is now working for the church as a demon hunter. So you know these two are eventually going to come to blows over Wisteria. Not a bad start, but if Wisteria can see demons, why didn't this organization also take her? Or is it a boys only club? Again, not bad but they better explain some more in episode two.

Buddy Daddies will fill the Spy x Family shaped hole in my heart. Assassins Kazuki and Rei accidentally adopt Miri the four year old love child of the mafioso they killed. In the brief time we spend with Miri I can tell you that I will destroy anyone that hurts her. She cute without being obnoxious and her exuberance is delightful. Oh and obviously Kazuki's wife has taken his biological child and left him, refusing to have anything to do with him. Yeah, yeah shut up and get back to Miri.

The final show I watched this weekend was Chillin' in my 30s After Being Fired from the Demon Army, that show that also has a "just fine" start. Dariel can't use magic so he's fired from the Demon Army. He then saves a large breasted girl from a monster ape and becomes an adventurer. Oh, and he just so happens to have off the chart levels in the four categories that are fueled by aura which only humans can use. So yeah, I'm calling it now: He's The Hero and will eventually trash the demon army. It's a junk food anime that I will probably keep watching.

I still have the Nier and Cold Steel animes to check out, along with a bunch of returning shows.

The Magical Revolution of the Overly Long Light Novel Title had one of my favorite premieres in a while. The protagonist is a fun ball of energy/chaos, and I've heard the series is committed to the gay.

"Ippon" Again is very promising, looks to be a solid, serious, non-fanservicey girls' sports anime, of which there has been a dearth for the past decade or two.

MarcAlan said:

Of course all the anime I want to check out releases on the weekend. So let's talk about some them as I work through them all!

First up, the elephant in the room, is Trigun Stampede. Like Wisteria, I'm cautiously optimistic with the new version. I feel like the choices to reveal some of Vash's past in the first episode are for the most part good as people watching it are already familiar with his backstory.

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Are they? The original series aired 25 years ago, and it's honestly always kinda felt like one of those things where people are weirdly good about not spoiling it. Even the out of left field recent-ish movie didn't get into the backstory stuff at all.

WisteriaHysteria said:

so far I don't feel bad about recommending everyone (except Beat) give it a look and judge how it is for themselves.

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It's spelled BEAT get it right.

q 3 said:

The Magical Revolution of the Overly Long Light Novel Title had one of my favorite premieres in a while. The protagonist is a fun ball of energy/chaos, and I've heard the series is committed to the gay.

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Wait. Is that an actual title?

Daikaiju said:

Wait. Is that an actual title?

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The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady is the real name.

“Old man yells at cloud” moment incoming, but man, I feel like the idea of characters being defined by straight-up video game stats and classes was a fun diversion when Mahoujin Guru-Guru did it literally thirty years ago and now I’m tired of even reading plot blurbs of series that do it. I have truly become a grump.

I mean, I feel exactly the same way. And it was fun when Majoujin Guruguru did it! That show is *still* fun!

After years of it being unavailable, Monster is now streaming again. If you like a good thriller, Monster is tops!'

EDIT: OK, but it only has the first thirty episodes. *sigh*

Speaking of revisiting things that you loved; I’ve been Rewatching Excel Saga. For one thing, it holds up very well and Excel remains at the forefront of my favourite anime protagonists. So I just want to say that my impending “However” is not directed at the show, but merely the way it is presented to me.

H’wever

Crunchyroll has, in their wisdom, decided that the English dub shouldn’t have any subtitles on it. Which is an issue as a lot of the jokes, and necessary plot information, is conveyed by on screen text, and some characters only ever speak in subtitles. So… that’s basically all gone. Also, the show really needs subtitles, since Excels VA talks like she’s achieved her lifelong dream of selling Micro Machines. Which is honestly pretty damn astonishing that she could keep it up as long as she does, and which easily explains why they had to recast her midway through the series.

More shows! After a season or two of maybe a few shows catching my interest, this deluge of stuff catching my eye is a bit overwhelming but on we go!

First up is one I missed from my previous watching The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague. Fuyutuski is noted for her cool and stoic personality and has started her first real job. On the way to her first day, she comes across Himuro, a descendant of an ice woman whose emotions cause him to freeze things. Like himself to the road. Fuyutski helps him out and then heads to work. Where, surprise surprise, Himuro works as well as his first job. Toss in a regular human and a fox girl and we have a show where Himuro has a crush on Fuyutski and causes blizzards in the office. I really like this one and I hope it doesn't swing into some maudlin territory as to why Fuyutski is stoic.

Another one that caught my eye is Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill. Regular salaryman Mukoda is accidentally summoned to another world to defeat the demon lord, like most isekai. He's quickly dismissed for being just a regular guy. Except for his Online Grocery skill which allows him to access said grocery and buy ingredients. It doesn't hurt Mukoda is a pretty good cook and it's flavors people in the fantasy world have never had, so things go over well. Until a big fluffy wolf demands food and once he is satisfied makes Mukoda his contract partner and expects 3 meals a day. It made me giggle to see that happen, so I'm for sure going to keep watching this one.

Bofuri is back! There's something comforting seeing Maple and her antics. It helps that there's no villain that's trying to ruin the game for everyone or other such nonsense. Just people playing a game, developing friendly rivalries, and having fun.

What I watched

A Place Further than the Universe (partially due to getting a major spoiler via a no context screencap)

What I expected

Cute girls go to Antarctica (and then there is a devastating ending)

What I got

Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait wait. WAIT! Is this actually the K-On! Season 3 that I've been wanting for over a decade?! Right down to the bubbly airhead moeblob who cuts her own hair?
Considering the writer for this wrote for K-On (and other Kyoani joints), would not surprise me.
Also the -spoiler- was... yeah the series built up to it.

What I enjoyed most

Not-Nodoka got the better Antarctic experience in this (going there when there is more night time so more visits to Skinner's kitchen, I mean more views of Aurora borealis ) rather than being completely abandoned when Not-Yui founds her band.

The dub of Trigun Stampede showed up on CR, and, gotta say, I liked it. A lot. I’d have been disappointed if it was just the exact same story again, or if it was a sequel, but this is enough of a remix that I’m really interested.

Not sure if it’s the same VA for Vash, but he sure sounds similar enough to how I remember him, and his redesign is, while a little busy, very distinctly Vash.

Bosch reprises the role, yes. Remarkable after so long, but then again, he was only in his mid-twenties when he first played the character.

Oh also

Started watching Final Fantasy Unlimited. And this is just starting off real good. You can definitely feel a lot of influence from the earliest parts of Digimon, just with Final Fantasy monsters and also with far more adults in the cast. And by that I mean, the world and everything in it is weird af. Also, except for the Chocobos, none of the monsters are distinctly FF ish, so much as FF Inspired, and everything has Generally really cool designs.

My only complaint is that the two kids have some pretty rough VA, but I suspect they’re voiced by actual children, so I’m not going to judge them harshly for it.

really hitting all the right buttons so far.

Octopus Prime said:

The dub of Trigun Stampede showed up on CR, and, gotta say, I liked it. A lot. I’d have been disappointed if it was just the exact same story again, or if it was a sequel, but this is enough of a remix that I’m really interested.

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I usually do a big review dump but I just can't this season due to all the other things I have on my plate (enjoy the Top 50 Adventure Movies thread!) but having only watched the first episode, I'm sort of in between everyone. I like the animation, the action is very good and I like that it's getting plot points that are already known out of the way to be a different thing. But I also feel like the first episode doesn't have enough "Vash is a dork" (great in the climax but it's a little too serious for stretches in that first episode when I prefer some of that be a turn) and wished it put the fun side of the character first before a lot of the tragic worldbuilding. Also, I'm hoping the plan is for De Nero to die tragically to up the stakes, then Milly happens because no Milly is by far the show's biggest miscalculation.

Well, regardless of overall quality of this, they have to leave something behind in order to make sure there’s still reason to watch the original.

If Milly is only in that, then there’s debate as to which is the best one

I remember FFU being pretty good and ahead of its time. It's unfortunate it got the reception it did, but that's Gamers for you.

I watched the first episode of "Lupin Zero" - which is a prequel Lupin III show that nobody wanted or asked for. If you think watching a Middle School delinquent/brat Lupin run around with a Middle School delinquent/brat Jigen sounds like a good time, it probably will be. The show is ok, but it's also supremely uninteresting to me. Lupin III is kind of like The Joker - where he works better as this unknowable, enigma of a man who is more akin to being a walking natural disaster than a real person who had an origin as a regular dude once upon a time. It's wild to me that people don't understand that appeal, and continually try to make origin stories for both. I'm only one episode in, but I feel like the whole point of this show was to prep audiences for swapping out Lupin's VA again. Anyways, show is fine. Looks pretty good for a Lupin-thing too. And the OP/ED reuse the original show's so that's fun.

Vinland Saga's 2nd season is good so far. It's visually a big step down from teh first season, but that first season went hard and it's not surprising that they'd reign things in budgetarily for "Farmland Saga".

Well yeah it's VINland Saga, not Axeland saga. Get some vineyards going.

Roughly through half of Star Blazers 2199: Space Battleship Yamato (the remake, not the original), and it's really great. It's a grim show, and goes into pretty heavy stuff. And while it is very close to the original, it does update the story a bit (like how Earth wasn't without fault in starting the war, but also showing us more sides of the enemies).

Enjoying my time with it a lot, but will need something lighter afterwards.

Also, I love the intro.

Too many shows that I want to watch that I'm falling behind. Nier, Trails of Cold Steel, and Trigun are going to have to wait until I finish up with the ones I'm currently watching. I also want to binge Trigun with the English dub, just for old times sake.

The only show that I've added in is Don't Toy with me Nagatoro: Second Attack. The first season left me with mixed feelings, but this second season is better at establishing that Senpei is a bit creepy for not thinking things through or being in his head too much but that Nagatoro does have a crush on him but doesn't have the maturity to express it in a way that is not teasing. Her older sister and friends are around to call the two out and that just makes me giggle.

I watched the first episode of The Misfit of Demon Academy season 2 and realized I did not give a single care for any of the characters. Hell, other than vaguely remember Anus Anos I have no clue how anyone is. Into the bin pile it goes!

If you would have told me ten years ago that you'd get a new Trigun show (that's actually really good) and a Vinland Saga anime in the same season, and that the thing I'd look forward to the most from a week-to-week basis was a high school romance show, I'd have laughed in your face.

Which high school romance show are you thinking of?

I will follow up and say I don't know if I can or would want to recommend this show to anyone. It's not particularly clever or good looking. It's almost cloyingly hetero, and it's a a touch too horny. But to me it's entertaining romcom comfort food, and relatively wholesome. I like the character dynamics/the cast is pretty likable, the gags are amusing, and the title character Tomo is a lot of fun watching her beat the crap out of everyone, especially the guy she's crushing on.

I have started Trigun. I'm making a dedicated effort to not treat it as an exercise in hate watching but fuck it's not making it easy.

The first episode mostly just made me tired and sad.

I made it halfway through the second before tapping out because I wanted to stop watching TV and walk around outside. It was better than the first so far.

I have yet to see anything justifying the terrible new designs, Robert fucking sucks and I hate how they took Meryl, the frazzled but determined and in control leader of her two-woman-team, and turned her into Meryl, wannabe reporter who gets getting bossed around by the guy that fucking sucks. That's a HUGE fucking downgrade.

The 3D keeps trying to justify itself with big camera pans and tracking shots you could never do in 2D and I'll admit it, they're cool. That said, the character models feel weird and off to me, and the way that they keep the framerate on the humans low to emulate the style of 2d Cartoons is really off-putting to me. It feels like everything is moving too much and too little at the same time. Sets off some weird alarms in my brain.

Also they're wringing as much emotion as they can out of those new designs, and the effort is laudable, but the lack of Vash, weirdest little fucker alive feels WRONG.



No less than 3 separate stupid asshole randos have flooded my twitter mentions to tell me I JUST DON'T GET THEY SHOULDN'T DO WEIRD FUCKER VASH BECAUSE THEY'RE ADAPTING THE MANGA WHICH HAS A DARKER TONE! No you fucking morons! That's not true! They're NOT adapting the manga! They made a big deal about how they're not doing that! And I know! BECAUSE I FUCKING LOVE THE MANGA! And while it definitely has a darker tone, IT ALSO HAS WEIRD FUCKER VASH ALL OVER THE FUCKING PLACE.

Anyway yeah it's not a complete failure but also fuck it and fuck anyone who tries to UM ACTUALLY me about anything underneath this post seriously I'm not in the fucking mood.

I told you not to watch it lol

I just watched episode 3 of Stampede and, gotta say, Knives Millions finally makes a lot of sense as a name

Still WAY behind on shows but finally caught the last three first episodes of shows I was planning on watching.

The tale of outcasts (all lower case for some reason) is... I'm mixed on it. I find it interesting but it's a show that toys with being fraught. The big climax begins with our heroine threatened with sexual violence and torture (and accidentally diffuses it with two goofy-ass decisions) but it isn't really reading as the creators trying to titillate to me (it doesn't go into a lot of specifics and doesn't linger very long on stuff). I like the caring relationship between the two leads. But I'm less a fan of the implication (nothing ever overtly stated) that it also might be romantic because the female protagonist reads as pretty young and the very old demon is drawn to look like a 20 something (in human form). I'm going to give it a chance but I'm hoping it backs off on the stuff I didn't like and goes with "a demon learns to care".

Much better is Ippon Again, a sweet little sports anime about a girls judo club. The art is fairly nice and I really like the lead character.

The best, though, was The Fire Hunter, which looks really promising. It has the kind of world building I find interesting. Not "this is where our superpowers come from" but "OK, we learned that everyone on Earth is now super combustible. How do we live in this society." It's already juggling a lot and looks like it is going to feature two narratives that might take a bit to dovetail but it doesn't feel overwhelming and it's mysteries don't feel like they are being super coy or pointed. Really interested to see this one goes.