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[Reelya]

Nah, I actually only started with sports animes fairly recently, so I haven't watched many of them except the recent ones.

The worst "popular" one in my opinion is Haikyuu (highschool men's volleyball). In the words of the moesucks blog writer "it's the most 'sports-anime-y' sports anime I've ever seen". It basically feels like the writer got a big checklist of things all sports animes need, and just stuck to that checklist 100% It's trying to be Kuroko's Basketball but for Volleyball, but everything just feels like you've seen the same thing in other shows, done with more originality. But a ton of people rave like it's somehow the greatest show ever.

One example is that all sports animes have at least one token girl, usually the manager. But there's a big difference in how the writers use such a character.

In Kuroko's Basketball, she's an awesome character, enough so that feminists rave about how cool she is. Whereas in Haikyuu you first meet her via close-ups on her big boobs and butt. She speak in a timid whisper, and her hobbies seem to be cooking and doing the laundry. In other words she's a cringeworthy character that basically does nothing except have boobs and act submissive.

[Draxis]

Just checked out Comet Lucifer - and that's not Rei, it's Rei Inori from Guilty Crown, from the appearance and bird motif to the bridal carry to the shipping.  Who they just broke out of a pillar of blue and pink crystals before getting into a mech fight over - with one of the mechs somehow coming from her - and then cutting to an unexpectedly cheerful credits song.  I'm getting some familiar vibes from it.

That said, I'm perfectly happy for someone else to try not to screw that up.

[GreatJustice]

Watched Overlord and GATE. Both have neat premises, fairly decent characters, and good animation albeit with terrible CG sequences.

They definitely have pacing issues, though. Overlord has three arcs, of which only the second feels like a proper arc. It starts somewhat slow, picks up a bit midway through, and almost feels rushed near the end, as though the producers realized that they wanted a credible villain to be fought before the end and thus crammed a fairly large amount of material into a handful of episodes. Thus, the transition to the last arc is really awkward, the dramatic final fight basically comes out of nowhere, and nothing is really achieved by its resolution. I feel like the series would benefit from a longer run, though I wonder whether it'll get a continuation or not. Still worthwhile, though.

GATE, on the other hand, seems to have weird ideas about when to begin and end episodes. It does this weird thing where 2/3rds of an episode is walking around/talking, the last 1/3rd is an action sequence, and then the first 1/3rd of the next episode is the conclusion of the previous action sequence followed by another 2/3rds of exposition and dialogue. The realism also varies wildly all the way from "Fantasy world invaders with dragons don't last long against modern equipment" to "random short female JSDF member can easily kill hundreds of medieval swordsmen in hand to hand combat with a bayonet" and "America tries to get benefits from close ally Japan by blackmailing the PM and sending hit squads because muahahaha". Doesn't feel as crammed, but it still definitely has its problems.

[Neonivek]

Overlord really only finished its first arc as far as the larger story is concerned.

[JoshuaFH]

In the news, Yowamushi Pedal season 3 announced.
http://myanimelist.net/news/42516205
I have to say this is probably my second favorite sports anime after Hajime no Ippo. I really wasn't expecting any more since the ending of season 2 was so epic I thought it was completely done. Best cycling anime ever (as far as being the only one I've watched). It's nice how people can have manly conversations while pedaling bikes in a sprint to the finish line at 200km/h.

I checked out Yowamushi Pedal, and I'm only just on ep 5 now but it's really caught my attention. It just seems like one of those animes where it's easy to breeze from one episode to the next, and I like that alot.

[IronyOwl]

It seems like the idea that Anno made Rei as a "screw you" to Otaku is from a creepypasta theory and is not backed up by any actual source. I tried to traced sources for this rumor and it comes up blank. Basically Anno quotes were taken out of context and twisted around into creepypastas. It's about as legit as the Rugrats theory.

Aw. It was such a hilarious notion.

"random short female JSDF member can easily kill hundreds of medieval swordsmen in hand to hand combat with a bayonet" and "America tries to get benefits from close ally Japan by blackmailing the PM and sending hit squads because muahahaha".

The version I got (from angry, angry sources) was that the whole thing is basically an excuse for the JSDF to fuck up anyone who crosses them without pissing off too many people IRL.

[Frumple]

Eh, I wouldn't call that a very accurate evaluation. Gate does have that going on, but no more than just about any piece of milwank fiction for <insert respective military> -- it's pretty genre normative as that goes. Folks calling it like that are ones I'd say have never actually read any other military-themed fiction in their life :V

[Radio Controlled]

"random short female JSDF member can easily kill hundreds of medieval swordsmen in hand to hand combat with a bayonet" and "America tries to get benefits from close ally Japan by blackmailing the PM and sending hit squads because muahahaha".

The version I got (from angry, angry sources) was that the whole thing is basically an excuse for the JSDF to fuck up anyone who crosses them without pissing off too many people IRL.

A friend described the manga to me as a 'JSDF power fantasy'.

[Reelya]

I think the only reason that would stand out is that people aren't used to seeing power fantasies about armies which aren't the American one. The equivalent to Gate in western cinema tend to be rip-offs of War of the Worlds but with American military might playing a bigger role compared to the virus (think Independence Day).

[Flying Dice]

Yeah, it's same-old same-old milwank, just with the SDF instead of anyone else. The part about a team of Japanese special forces outfighting and outmaneuvering black ops teams from Russia, China, and the U.S. was slightly laughable, even if they did their best to justify it.

Funnily enough, I also just finished my binge of Overlord and Gate. Definitely like the anime more than the manga for the former, gonna catch up on the LNs now. As for Gate... eh, the anime is enough for me. I don't particularly care enough to bother reading for the sake of gore or lolicon-baiting.

That said, Gate is wish fulfillment done right: it's like a mix of haremshit shows with one of those trashy milSF novels published by Baen that spends the entire time jerking off humanity, wrapped into a decently amusing plot.

[Neonivek]

Yeah, it's same-old same-old milwank, just with the SDF instead of anyone else. The part about a team of Japanese special forces outfighting and outmaneuvering black ops teams from Russia, China, and the U.S. was slightly laughable, even if they did their best to justify it.

It actually reminds me a lot of one anime (that shall remain nameless for spoiler free) where they outright say that the recon and stealth team doesn't stand a chance against the combat unit.

Which is RARE for any anime to come close to saying that. Usually "assassin" means they are the best of stealth AND combat.

[Reelya]

I just noticed myanimelist has added seasons to all the entries. You can click on the season for any show and it has integrated season charts you can search backwards and forwards.

Since it's now integrated with mal, there's a little button in the corner that lets you tags shows with "ptw" (plan to watch) with one click, and all the show titles are of course hotlinks for the shows mal entries. This looks like it will save a HEAP of time checking out both new and old seasons. No more googling season charts, then having to google search the show to find the myanimelist entry and get more info/add the show to a list.

In place of the "ptw" button there's a "cmpl" label for which shows I already finished. It's amusing looking back at some previous seasons before I started college and what a large percentage of those seasons shows I actually completed :/

[Neonivek]

Ok now I know this cannot be a recent trend, and I am likely only noticing it more often now because recently I've been watching anything (rather then just interesting anime that turn out to be trash).

But what is this trend, in my very limited experience a trend, of creating a lot of Animes that go on for about 12 episodes and then end without even really being complete?

Is this how a lot of animes work now? they throw a bunch of shows against the wall and only continue what sticks?

[Criptfeind]

They run for a season and are not popular enough to be renewed? Sounds like a normal show making thing to me. That's how most shows work from what I recall.

[Furtuka]

It's a symptom of how so many anime these days are light novel adaptations. They're made that way to get people to buy the books to find out what happens next.