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[Max™]

No I know that anime is picked up on a much shorter basis than shows over here are, but yes I am used to the treatment of shows like naruto/bleach/one piece.

[Reelya]

No I know that anime is picked up on a much shorter basis than shows over here are, but yes I am used to the treatment of shows like naruto/bleach/one piece.

Yeah, it's not a big deal, but those shows are sort of an abberation, because just airing them is actually profitable. They're so lucrative that the TV networks won't let you stop making them. e.g. when Diamond no Ace (a baseball shonen anime) went on a three-week break they had three recap episodes in a row. And it wasn't the studio who wanted to make those.

For a lot of anime however, they air late at night, e.g. midnight or later, in the "budget airtime" segment, so they're not paid very much by the networks, and they don't turn a profit until they sell DVDs and other stuff.

[EnigmaticHat]

So what you're saying is, they're the adult swim of Japan?

[Leafsnail]

The very strict scheduling for anime is another contrast to American cartoons, which often seem to be done on a "we'll release episodes whenever" basis. It means they absolutely have to produce something every week, and often the TV run will have obviously substandard parts that are fixed for the BD release.

[Reelya]

The very strict scheduling for anime is another contrast to American cartoons, which often seem to be done on a "we'll release episodes whenever" basis. It means they absolutely have to produce something every week, and often the TV run will have obviously substandard parts that are fixed for the BD release.

However, without those production screw-ups, we wouldn't have classic moments like the cabbage incident:

and Kamichama Karin's butt-ugly face in this shot:


... And these things enrich everyone's lives even if you never saw those shows.

However, I should point out that 20 years ago it was more like American shows, with 26 episodes being abnormally short.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 So with the typical show running a year or more, then shows being cancelled or continued was much more practical, since you didn't really need to plan out that far ahead of the current show. You just needed to know whether you had been ok'd for another 6 months or not. Also, each new season in the mid 1990s could premiere as few as 3-4 new shows, not 30-40 new shows. People complaining about lack of options and how great it was in the Golden Era should slap themselves and check the history.

 e.g. if you go back through mal's season charts, 1-season shows only started appearing regularly* in Fall 1996, then gradually it becomes more normal, to the point by the early 2000s, 1-cour shows are the norm, so to ensure sure studios have work, they need to plan out the next 3-4 shows they're going to be working in. Digibro (dirty cosplaying millenial hipster: a triple whammy of nerdsauce) talks about the seismic shift caused by NGE in mainstream anime. That's bullshit, it just didn't happen. What really changed mainstream anime was going from super-long 26-52 episode shows as the norm, to 13 episode shows as the norm. Suddenly as well as the drawn-out shonen/shoujos you're also getting things like Lain, Kino's Journey and Paranoia Agent. Those own nothing at all to NGE and owe everything to the one-cour format making niche content viable.

*before Fall 1996, a 1 cour show would appear but very rarely e.g. the last one before that was in Summer 1994. So it would have been an abnormal measure, perhaps because the next long show had delayed prodution.

So what you're saying is, they're the adult swim of Japan?

I wouldn't really know, since I'm in Australia, and I don't have cable. I know adult swim is a thing, but I haven't seen it.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

 But hey, SBS Australia (public broadcast network that focuses on foreign-language material) was airing NGE with original subtitles in 1999, while America didn't get a full broadcast of that until 2005, and that was on cable and dubbed. So yeah, I was hearing my aussie friends rave about NGE well before the Americans go onto it. Plus they used to air stuff like Patlabor and Bublegum Crisis, so we were getting a lot of subtitled mecha anime films / OVAs playing in Australia on free to air broadcasts back in the 1990s and 2000s.

Kind of around 2005 was when America started getting things soonish (e.g. Death Note only 1 year late) rather than a whole fucking decade later in some cases. So that was probably NGE's big contribution to the American scene: A big enough hit that wasn't some plasticky toy-looking show, so it opened up the market for other "dark" shows, and caused importers to speed up the licensing process in order to score the next "hit". The timing is probably why Elfen Lied is widely remember, while the better show Serial Experiments Lain isn't. Elfen Lied dubbed DVDs were released the same year NGE was airing in the USA. The 'Lain DVDs were released years too early to cash in on the boom.

... Heh, i've just had a bit of fun by restricting Google to dates from 1990-2001 and seeing how people were discussing the new-fangled "anime" thing to the 'net back then:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://home.connexus.net.au/~bruce42/Manga_Comix.html

The most famous examples of HG is the English-dubbed Robotech series. ... However the middle part drags on a lot, particularly with the removal of all the footage of the female lead's endless shower scenes

Shit, man, maybe I'll have to watch Super-Dimension Cavalry: Southern Cross after all ...

The Americans liked the transforming robot idea so much that they ripped off Macross to come up with Transformers. Transformers so intrigued the Japanese that they bought the rights from the Americans and did a few original stories of their own.

... close, but no cigar. This guy had a few things backwards. Both Macross and Transformers were based on mecha by Shoji Kawamori. He did the Transformers ones about 2-3 years before the Macross ones, for the Diaclone toy series. In fact, Optimus Prime was called "Battle Convoy" in Diaclone, and the transforming flagships in Macross 7 and later (those directed by Kawamori) are called "Battle <something>", which is actually a nod to Optimus Prime. So it was Hasbro who bought the rights to Japan's Diaclone, changing it to "Transformers" in English. They then commissioned Japanese studio Toei to animate it under contract. Toei retained distribution rights in Japan as part of the deal, so when it stopped airing in America, the merely decided to keep making it in Japan, no need to "buy the rights" at all.

[EnigmaticHat]

Okay, what actually is wrong with the cabbage incident?  Just that cabbage doesn't act like that, or is there some deeper continuity error I'm not seeing?  The fact that its a perfect green sphere?

Part of what I meant by Adult Swim is that Cartoon Network isn't usually willing to invest much money into animating their adult shows.  That would line up with strict deadlines and short runs for late-night anime.  In both cases it shows a lack of faith that the channel is going to get much money back from their investment.  Rick and Morty is the absolute top of the line for adult swim, there have been some adult swim shows that were about the same quality as online Flash MX animations from 10-15 years ago.

[Reelya]

Okay, what actually is wrong with the cabbage incident?  Just that cabbage doesn't act like that, or is there some deeper continuity error I'm not seeing?  The fact that its a perfect green sphere?

Yeah, the point was that it's a perfectly-formed platonic solid with perfectly concentric layers, being cut in half perfectly with a single, even stroke of the knife (and as you mention, the physics is off, too. Plus, the cut should be an ellipse, not the pinched thing we see). Like you mentioned, the whole thing was re-drawn for the DVDs. Note that this includes the girl's arm and her outfit, so I'm guessing more than just the cabbage was off-model in this shot.

Part of what I meant by Adult Swim is that Cartoon Network isn't usually willing to invest much money into animating their adult shows.  That would line up with strict deadlines and short runs for late-night anime.  In both cases it shows a lack of faith that the channel is going to get much money back from their investment.  Rick and Morty is the absolute top of the line for adult swim, there have been some adult swim shows that were about the same quality as online Flash MX animations from 10-15 years ago.

Yeah, well it all basically comes down to the fact that you just can't get a lot of money for adverts late at night, so those times end up as a dolldrums with either infomercials or reruns of old shows, in the West. In Japan however, they get low-budget anime during that time instead ... which is better than infomercials or I Love Lucy re-runs, at least The network is definitely not going to pay you more money for that than they expect in advertising revenue, right? So any additional cash for a level of quality above "shitty" comes from external investors who are getting a cut of your profits on DVD and merch sales in return. I'm guessing the short runs are mainly because having new stuff all the time maintains a constant level of new buyers / viewers rather than having it slump off. The revenue streams are marginal so that makes it riskier.

[Cruxador]

People complaining about lack of options and how great it was in the Golden Era should slap themselves and check the history.

People making that complaint usually mean "lack of options that I personally like" and often that's a subset of what's getting talked about widely enough to be heard of. We talked just recently about the dire state of the mainstream market, but even before that discussion I was pretty sure that the typical (pleb) anime viewer doesn't actually try everything, or a significant portion thereof, that comes out each season.

 

In Japan however, they get low-budget anime during that time instead ... which is better than infomercials or I Love Lucy re-runs, at least

Why you picking a bone there? The show was excellent and Lucille Ball was a national treasure.

[Reelya]

In Japan however, they get low-budget anime during that time instead ... which is better than infomercials or I Love Lucy re-runs, at least

Why you picking a bone there? The show was excellent and Lucille Ball was a national treasure.

I love Lucy is fine, but you don't need to see the whole thing more than a couple of times.

The reason for using it as the Ur Example was because it was the first show in history that was ever re-run, so it's been re-run for a longer time than anything else. Hence if you're criticizing re-runs as a concept, then it's the go-to example. It's been in constant re-runs for about three times as long as the typical bay12 forumite has been alive

[Cruxador]

Here's the last of the shows I'll be assessing this season, barring one taking off hype-wise and getting my attention for that reason.

UQ Holder opens by stripping a bunch of girls, so presumably that'll set the tone. I really like the aesthetic they go for in the OP though, and the setting seems potentially interesting. It's also surprisingly gruesome from the get-go. It's not going to be a timeless classic or anything, but you can enjoy it if you like that sort of thing.

Anime Gataris seems like a nice slice of life and I like the OP. It's interesting because the voice acting doesn't really seem to stand out but the characters did a good job of capturing my attention anyway. Definitely getting some gay vibes off of it, in case that bothers you. Or doesn't just feel like yuri pandering though, it feels like actual homosexual romance, though it could easily stop at shoujo ai. Also despite being SoL there's something weird going on with a cat and a hat.

Spoiler: previous such short reviews (click to show/hide)

Kuujira no Kora was Sajou ni Utau is really good at conveying an interesting setting. It has a lot of promise so far. I have no idea where the story is going, which could be a good or bad sign. So far though, I'm leaning strongly towards good. If they can keep this up, it's bound to be the kind of anime that's famous for decades. Well, assuming it gets seen in the first place, which isn't a given since there's no simulcast and that's sort of a standard these days. But apparently it's on Netflix so maybe that helps? I don't really know their system.

Osake wa Fuufu ni Natte Kara is a good short if you want something cute to teach you new drinks to mix.

Imouto sae Ireba li is kind of on-the-nose but it's a fun little mockery of certain incest-oriented shows. And yet it seems like it's also potentially a serious slice of life about working young men; it's comedic but the comedy is just about kids in their 20s screwing around. And then there's a significant section on a riddle. So I'm not sure what kind of show this is.

Omiai Aite wa Oshiego, Tsuyoki na, Mondaiji is pretty much just porn.

Black Clover seems like typical shounen so far. Potential to be big, but with one episode, it hasn't done anything yet. I'm seeing tropes played straight and excessive voice acting from the MC. If it doesn't subvert expectations, I won't recommend it highly. That said, it's probably the show that will be hot to make fun of this season, if Dies Irae doesn't surpass it in that.

Ousama game is melodramatic deathfest. The kind of thing that we see fairly often and it plays out pretty much the same each time. From the first episode alone, I wouldn't say it's a particularly excellent example of the genre. Since one episode isn't enough to extrapolate much, I asked manga readers if the series is as shit as it seemed, and responses varied from "yes" to "it's shittier".

Urahara has a nice aesthetic. Pastels, crayon-brush lines and fabric textures. Some unconventional cuts in the videography. Very artsy. Not yet sure if the substance lives up to the style. Speaking of western popularity, this show won't be getting high viewership numbers. But a discerning individual might give it a shot. I was impressed in the first few minutes, but found it to be at once frenetic and slow over time, and as such I grew weary of it before the first episode ended. Seems like a show would have been better on a 12 minute timescale than 24.

Konohana Kitan is very cute. It makes your heart happy to watch, so if that's what you need, watch it. On the other hand, it's set in a hotel/bathhouse so if you hate nudity, that may throw you off. It's not sexualized so far but I already got some shoujo ai type vibes off of it, so it may veer into light yuri territory. You can bet there'll be fans who assure you it already has. As far as content, there is some substance to it but anyway it's cute, so the rest is just details.

Just Because is very slow-paced, but unlike Urahara, it's not that the time is empty; even when it's moments of silence between characters, it feels better used than that. If you want a peaceful and mellow show, it's a good way to spend 20 minutes.

Dies Irae is tremendously overwrought. But then, what do you expect from a show about magical nazis? So far there doesn't seem to be any clear plot, but the first episode doesn't really match the description that's gone around to the various sites, so I suspect it's sort of a prelude/background.

Kino no Tabe is a comfy anime which promises to have social commentary. It seems to me like a serious contender for anime of the season so far (but we'll see how the adaptation of Mahoutsukai no Yome plays out). It does have some CG though, and if you're into fandom stuff there'll likely be arguments about whether the main character is trans, since she uses boku and the subs are translating gender-neutral pronouns as male for some reason. Leaving aside that ticking time bomb, and complaints from fans of the 2003 version about differences, the show itself is great. Even a bad guy type character who served as an object lesson was treated with human dignity, which give me great hopes that it'll live up to itself in its portrayal of societies.

Two Car is cute and cheerful. The aesthetic doesn't stand out, and I found the pacing a bit off; the intro dragged on for six minutes before the MCs spoke. But when they did, they were endearing, which forgives a lot of sins. I also found the way the first episode was cut to be really effective at introducing characters in a relaxed way while simultaneously having action. In other words, the pacing improved. This is the Tamura Masafumi's second show as a director (he debuted in that role with Ange Vierge) and for a fresh director, it looks great. The comedy's a bit hit or miss for me, but anyway it's the kind of show that makes you smile and go "ah, youth".

Blend-S seemed like it would be simple and cute but then there was cat balls and an evil glare and then there was a boy and a weird cut with stars and it's all over the place and that's before the OP. It's super comfy and the comedy is great and the main character is cute and has a great VA. If you like that sort of thing, it might be the best show of the season.

Infini-T Force is ugly as sin and cheesy as a tourist trap in Wisconsin. But I found the story to actually be kind of intriguing. The over-the-top "cool" characters portrayed a "so bad it's good" feel so it could definitely be enjoyable even if you're not in the 10-14 demographic that it feels like it was shot for.

Ancient Magus Bride has top-tier subject material and great sound design. This is the only one this season where I'm familiar with the original material, so my appraisal may be harsher for that reason. I thought the intro was too explicit about motivations and revealed far too much far too quickly. Maybe my expectations were too high but I don't think it'll live up to its potential. That's not to say it won't be good in its own right, the source material guarantees that at least the story will be good.

Net-juu no Susume is a super comfy show. I feel like these mini-reviews are revealing my preferences a lot, but it's a cute show with a nice little romance to it so far. I can already see some of the plot points coming a mile away, but it doesn't matter.

In Shoujo Shuumatsu Ryokou, somehow starving and holding a little girl at gunpoint for food feels cute and comfy. The atmosphere is great and it's a pleasant sort of melancholy the whole way through.

Sengoku Night Blood is perhaps the most typically shoujo thing around right now. It's a romance with a self-insert MC set in a historical period but all the historical figures are attractive vampires and werewolves. Honestly that should tell you pretty much everything you need to know.

[Ghazkull]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQG2Ma4sedk

[NullForceOmega]

Farewell Alexander Anderson, you magnificent bastard.

[Jopax]

On UQ Holder, I've seen 2 eps and I'm still not sure if I like it or not. It's really weird tbh, the combination of silly antics and rather brutal gore is rather jarring. A lighthearted take on ultraviolence I guess. And it really loves to play around with fanservice, especially the second episode takes the piss, which I really like I guess, seems rather self aware for something so shallow at a first glance.

Guess I'll watch a few more eps, not like I have anything else to follow for the time being. Hopefully they keep up the weirdness and it doesn't devolve into haremshit/fanservice nonsense after 3 eps

[Max™]

Did you like Negima and found yourself going "waiiiit, where's the rest, there are dangling plots, unanswered questions, lots more backstory, and all we got was a couple of peeks at the way things ended up?"

Well, UQ Holder is literally that, and it's Akamatsu so you've got it backwards; it starts with the haremshit/fanservice nonsense and then grows a plot somewhere along the line.

[Jopax]

Never watched Negima actually xD