:;()$&@"\The Anime Pub/:;()$&@"

Damn, what a well and truly magnificient first episode in every meaning of the word! Violet Evergarden started off with everything I hoped for: a very good story, strong world building, no narration to do so, amazing soundtrack and gorgeous animation.
Seriously, were those 24 minutes? Felt more like 1 or 2... that episode just sucked me in and never let go. I'm really REALLY looking forward to the next episode(s). It definitely lives up to the hype imo.

I'm glad. Even my Macross-Gundam-addicted friend over in Tokyo said it 'wasn't bad', so that's really saying something.

Anyway, we finished Devilman Crybaby (uh, yeah, uhm...) and it was her pick, so we're doing Utakoi for now. Since it's based around the 100 poems used in karuta and we fairly recently did Chihayafuru, we're getting a LOT of the references but it's still pretty much aimed at women with an interest in Heian-period romance. Lots of awesome seiyuu and humour keeps me into it -- as usual, Suwabe is in lecture mode. Sumanai.

Then it's going to be Gargantia.

My FApoc box is on the delivery truck. GAHHHHHHHHHH.

Ok, so apparently VE got quite a bit of hate aswell, that the characters aren't that well developed and such... well duh, it's the first episode... you know,where you establish the general setting and such.
Sometimes I just don't understand people.

Overhyping leads to crying.

Also omfg these Apoc BDs are shoiiiiny.

I watched both Miira no kaikata and Hakumei to Mikochi just now. Good stuff. Both slice of life, the former goes slightly towards comedy, while the latter has a more fantasy-ish setting. Both are really good imo, but I personally prefer Hakumei to Mikochi. It's yet another of those shows that has some ghibli vibes going on. Can totally recommend both.

I also watched Darling in the FranXX: Makes little sense so far, but barely enough to follow the story (which seems rather decent this time around), has some sort of post apocalyptic dystopian setting and WAY over the top action. Yep, it's trigger. Definitely, definitely trigger. And just like that I got my obligatory guilty pleasure show for this season. Well, this one and killing bites.
The soundtrack of Darling in the FranXX is pretty amazing though, I really like it. Gets you hyped as hell. Then again... trigger IS good at doing that.

Darling did it. It proved that Trigger's 2d sakuga-addiction and A-1's grounded 3D compositions is a marriage made in animation heaven. That first episode was just insane. It wasn't as batshit as Trigger's stuff like Kill la Kill and it wasn't as static as most A-1 productions. It was just the right blend of the two. That was delightful. Eva meets Pacific Rim meets KlK...or something. Will take more episodes to pin it down.

Sangatsu

Mango bride

Slow Start

I actually got to see Kimi no na wa in the movie theatre today, they showed it as some sort of special. NO idea why they just didn't release it the normal way here in germany... the run they had today was in japanese with subtitles (at sundays they always show something in the original language).
And (I know, BIG SURPRISE!!!!) it was well received overall so they will actually show it again next week. Who would've thought that the most successful anime film up until now would be... sucessful???

"

Sangatsu

Spoiler

went there and did it justice. No anime has so thoroughly explored the real issue of Japanese school bullying with such eager depth (Great Teacher Onizuka used it to show how cool Onizuka was with a hammer though) and Shaft did it justice. But damn am I glad it's over. It was...almost too much. And holy shit, that pseudo-Mayoi moment with the finger bite. No one does a crunchy finger bite like Shaft.

Oh, and I didn't pick Aoi Yuuki as Takagi (the sociopath bully). Damn!

The new teacher reminds me of my english teacher in 5th grade... he was without a doubt the best teacher I ever had. He just knew how the class worked and kept them in check (I tell you, no easy task with those classmates...). I don't think I've ever seen him angry... nobody even thought about letting it come to that though. We didn't dare. Not that he was intimidating. We simply had that much respect.
Enough derailing the thread for now.

Well, Gargantia lasted a whole afternoon and night. Wow, that was good. It was like Nadia done right. I only found out five eps in it was written by the Urobutcher. And the composer was the legendary Iwashiro Taro. There's a winning team. Quality stuff.

It was actually quite a lot like Now and then, here and there in reverse. Instead of genki shounen being sucked into a grimdark world, it's a grimdark soldier being sucked into a fluffy, happy, colourful world. And both had very high end composers: Iwasaki Taku for one, Iwashiro Taro for the other. At times, Iwashiro channeled a little of Iwasaki *and* Naoki Sato in this one.

BUT the result for both anime is surprisingly similar: that world shocks the stranger, forces him to mature, and then throws the full weight of its horrors at him. And both anime, incredibly deceptive on the surface, stretch the idea of 'humanity' to the very limits.