Dilettante Fascination
As the Spring season comes to a close this week and the Summer Season starting right on its heels, it’s about time I bring this season proper closure.
I had a whopping 17 shows on my list this season. It’s a lot more than I usually take up which is normally 5 or 6. There were a lot of interesting shows in the Spring preview, so I thought it would be a good idea to check them all out.
…I’m never doing that again. While I’m an avid supporter of expanding one’s mindset (in this specific case, by watching shows with diverse elements and of various genres), keeping up with 17 shows was a burden which actually dulled my excitement towards watching anime as a whole. Most of the time I’d stockpile a specific show for weeks on end and then marathon later. Of course, most of this was due to the end of semester finals studying, but I never recovered from the three week backlog it caused.
This season was on the verge of being a hassle, which is what something done for enjoyment should never become. Fortunately, there were just enough interesting shows to keep my motivation up to complete the season on time (for the most part).
That said, I’m posting my final priority list with scores, with a mini-blurb of thoughts on each show in twenty words or less (not unlike my Spring 2012 watch list post). Consider this a follow up to the initial Spring 2012 post, and note how priority doesn’t always equal the highest objective score. A * denotes a series continuing into the summer season.
- Fate/Zero 2nd Season — 10 — It’s a pity that such an amazing show is limited by it’s status as a prequel to F/SN.
- Sakamichi no Apollon — 9 — Manga fleshes things out a bit better, but anime cuts corners in all the right places.
- Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna — 9 — The tongue-in-cheek “Story of Mine Fujiko” thing at the end was very witty.
- Aquarion Evol — 8 — Troll anime of the season. Best soundtrack of the season too, though.
- Eureka Seven AO* — 9 — Very “Evangelion”-like with real world political themes interwoven into it.
- Tasogare Otome x Amnesia — 8 — The final arc trumps the original content by miles. And I don’t say that often.
- Tsuritama — 8 — Melodrama was excessive at times, but seeing everything tie together at the end was cool.
- Sankarea — 8 — The ending is literally an open door for a second season.
- Acchi Kocchi — 8 — Gotta watch the calorie intake. Very “sugary”.
- Nazo no Kanojo X — 8 — Simple first love story. Ended as simple as I thought it would.
- Accel World * — 8 — I think otaku like to project themselves onto the main character…
- Mouretsu Pirates — 8 — At least the last arc is somewhat interesting.
- Natsuiro Kiseki — 7 — Ha. Rocks can have cousins. All lessons it tries to teach are undermined by the rock’s presence.
- Hyouka * — 8 — Just because it’s animated well doesn’t mean it makes for good mystery. At least some character development is starting…
- Medaka Box — 7 — Ha. Cheat code moment happened. Why does it have a second season?
- Uchuu Kyoudai * — (8?) — On-hold. Got bored.
- Jormungand — (8) — Dropped. Bored.
TL;DR—Final Score for the Spring 2012 anime season—8.176. ~B. Not half bad.
Stay tuned. I’ll have an “Anime Watch List for Summer 2012” in three weeks :D
Jazz medley composed of three songs:
My Favorite Things (from The Sound of Music—most likely derived from Coltraine’s jazz version)
Some Day My Prince Will Come (derived from Bill Evans)
Moanin’ (derived from Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers)
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I was waiting for the episode to air before posting this track, just to avoid spoilers. It’s an awesome track.
They executed this scene well. I would go as far as saying that it’s one of the few instances where the anime captures this scene better than the manga does—and that’s to be expected. After all, you can’t hear music through the pages of a book. And you can’t really convey the scene of people rushing into the gymnasium just to listen to jazz through static panel images. The anime chose not to include the inner monologue going on in the characters’ heads, instead opting to just focus on the music being played—which really works for this scene.
On a similar note, the pacing for this series is astoundingly fast, but yet it still feels natural. I actually expected this episode to be near the end of the series, not the middle. With this scene, they just closed out Chapter 23 of the manga, and there’s still five episodes to go. Between all the jazz scenes, this series manages to fill every episode with substance—a little friendship bonding here, some romantic tension there (it’s a very funky cyclic love pentagon, too. Cyclopentene XD), with a light sprinkling of drama and melancholy in nearly every arc. But it’s done in such a way that it doesn’t confuse the viewer; in fact, it’s portrayed in a way which most people can understand and perhaps empathize with. The characters are likable, dynamic, and one can argue very “down to earth”.
Wow, didn’t intend to make that sound like a review.
TL;DR—the soundtrack is fantastic. And so is the show.
- Fate/Zero 2nd Season —stunning quality
- Sakamichi no Apollon —jazz
- Lupin the Third: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna —exquisite plots hidden in retro style
- Uchuu Kyoudai —Space bros
- Sankarea ** —different spin on zombie genre
- Tasogare Otome x Amnesia ** —lighthearted but has a deeper plot to it
- Nazo no Kanojo X ** —panty scissors (weird premise but legit interesting love story)
- Medaka Box * —cheat code student council president (it’s making sense for now…)
- Jormungand —he f*cking deflected a javelin missile with a frag grenade.
- Aquarion Evol —sex puns everywhere
- Acchi Kocchi —cute antics
- Accel World —Action?
- Eureka Seven AO —Post-apocalyptic world
- Tsuritama —The color palette’s so damn colorful
- Mouretsu Pirates —Where’s the plot?
- Ozuma —Character designs look 80s, yet everything else looks modern
- Natsuiro Kiseki —stop flying please. I mean…yuri?
?. Hyouka — ? (It hasn’t aired yet. Airs next week)
Not on this list is Mirai Nikki ** (—batshit, insane crazy), which ends its run this week. If I were to place it, it’d probably take the third slot.
To be honest, I’m slightly uneasy about watching 18 series this season. Normally I watch 3 or 4. However, the first four have such high potential to them that I can’t forgo them. The following four are adaptations of mangas I enjoy reading, so I can’t let them go either. The others are just icing on the cake. This is one hell of a departure from the norm.
Furthermore, I actually have a life in which I have to study for exams, so I can’t even watch most of these regularly (you’ve probably noticed the lack of activity during the beginning of every week. Mon-Wed are my hell days >.>)
Again, I don’t blog about what I watch during their run, so as to not create unnecessary spam (but I do post if I find something extremely noteworthy). Just thought I’d put up a post like this one just to show people what I think of the current season, and maybe convince them to check out ones they haven’t heard of before.
