Anime Spring 2011

[Compass]

A new season of chan is upon us. Feel free to add/discuss your favorites/most hated.

A-Channel



Slice of life anime that just started airing. Pretty cute.

The miniature Tooru begins attending her (older? by a year or two maybe?) best friend, Run's, high school. She's not in the same classes (I guess 'cause she's younger? they don't make this clear, or maybe I missed it), and becomes jealous of Run's close friends, and even chases boys off with an aluminum bat.

Tooru is mega chiisai, wearing sweaters with arms long enough to cover her hands. Run is oblivious and flighty, nearly defenestrating herself on two occasions. There's a chesty girl who Tooru's particularly envious of, and then one last brainy one we don't know much about yet.

Just one episode so far, but... yes, pretty cute. Cute enough for me to write this anyway. Tries too hard to be Azumanga Daioh at times (especially with the music), but that's nothing new.

AniPlex (Baccano!, Durarara!!, Working!!, Kamichu!, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai) produces.

[Dunlap]

It's moeshit. If you like that kind of stuff, here's more of the same. The only series like it I've liked was Azumanga. Yes, Tooru's a first year student and the rest are second year. I hate Tooru's character, but the other three don't have anything going for them, either. I don't know why I watched this. The art seemed well done.

[Bacon McShig]

There's some good shows this season. This... isn't one of them.

Nichijou channels Azumanga much better, that's the moeblob show to watch this season. Hanasaku Iroha's really good, too.

[Compass]

I actually watched Nichijou right before A-Channel. If the order had been reversed, I might have made a thread about that one! I don't know, I like 'em both. If "moeshit" is cute girls acting cutely, I'll take it any day. As long as it isn't super low budget or something (as this isn't).

[Bacon McShig]

I feel ya. I love K-On so I guess I've got no room to criticize. Some dumb shows are just good junk food.

But on the note of 'this thread could have been whatever I just watched', the thought had occurred to me that we should probably start doing a catch-all thread for each season's anime. Maybe we could turn this into the Spring 2011 thread?

To expand on the Hanasaku Iroha recommendation, it starts out looking like it's going to be "yay let's go have adventures at granma's country inn!" but totally subverts that expectation. Life actually gets pretty damn harsh for our charming moe lead.

[Compass]

But on the note of 'this thread could have been whatever I just watched', the thought had occurred to me that we should probably start doing a catch-all thread for each season's anime. Maybe we could turn this into the Spring 2011 thread?

I thought about doing that as well, but decided not to since despite my chaniness, I'm hardly the authority on anime, and will usually only watch a few shows a season (if that). Plus, I'm really lazy.

But as long as I'm not responsible for summing up a bunch of shows in the first post, and people could just add as we go, yeah, that sounds good. ::changing::

I'm d/l'ing Hanasaku Iroha ep. 1 now.

[Bacon McShig]

Thanks Compass!

Ooh! One of the awesome things that came out recently was the Young Animators' Training Project 2010; Four one-shot shows directed by up-&-coming folks in the industry. It's such a rare treat to see original, short-form works out of anime:

Kizuna Ichigeki (One-Hit Bond)- This one's about a little girl who wins a martial arts championship, but it's not cheesecake or anything, comedic and sketchy character designs and some great fight choreography. By far the best of the group, imo, just fun as hell.

Wardrobe Dwellers- A young salarywoman recieves an old dresser from her mother and comes to find it's inhabited by a bunch of kids/spirits who help her learn to better manage her life. I have kind of a soft spot for anime that acknowledges that a girl can be a slob, come home drunk... be a real person, basically. Good stuff.

Ojisan no Lamp (Grampa's Lamp)- An old man recalls his younger days establishing himself as a small town's first lamp salesman as westernization began to spread around Japan in the early 1900s. Realistic style, pretty dramatic. Well-executed but nothing super-memorable.

Super Veggie Torracman- A young girl who hates eating veggies finds them come to life, giving her life guidance and helping her save her friend's lost puppy. Style kind of reminiscent of Moto Hagio (Honey & Clover) with some Looney Tunes-esque animation for the titular character. Cute but maybe a little oversimplistic.

[gg] subbed all of these, you can find them there.

[Compass]

This chick really hates A-Channel. All that after one episode? lol. I can't imagine ever mustering up the energy for that kind of venom when it comes to anime.

Nichijou is pretty damn great so far. I think I've laughed out loud twice now in three episodes -- which is a lot for me. It's the over-the-top sequences that do it for me (grabbing for the octopus-shaped food -- don't know what it's called, and then chasing down the man porn notebook). Definitely the closest I've seen to Azumanga yet (and now that I have a second episode of A-Channel under my belt, I kinda wonder why I thought that was similar at all!).

I watched all those Young Animator shows, Bacon. They were all solid (think I gave 'em all 6s and 7s on myanimelist). I liked the Super Veggie one the best, with Grampa's Lamp coming in second. I also watched the first two episodes of Hanasaku Iroha. Seems okay so far. I really wish the main girl would just tell her mean old hag of a grandma to shove it, and ship out somewhere nicer, though. Maybe give her good slap on her way out. See how she likes it.

[Fe 26]

you guys need to post more pictures of the shows you are talking about.

And fuck the art style of the show in the first post. That shit makes my skin crawl.

[Compass]

しね.