SubscribeI must admit, I haven’t approached this autumn season with my usual enthusiasm for all things Japanese animated. Every review I read says it all sucks, I’m confused; has anime suddenly turned bad? So, since I don’t have the will-power to sit through dozens of mediocre first episodes, I’m asking you instead; what’s worth watching? What am I am missing out on? It can’t all be bad, right?
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Owen S
/ October 12, 2007Clannad is awesome, and I can attest to that, really worth the hype. Testing out the others at the moment, stay tuned for other stuff.
ik
/ October 12, 2007Randomly dropped by~.
Clannad is good stuff, if you liked Air and Kanon. I am also loving Kaiji (this series is pretty much the opposite of Clannad in many ways).
Anonymous
/ October 12, 2007Sketchbook is the only show I like enough to actually watch. Sadly it’s also tragically unsubbed. Some of the manga is translated though, by Anonymous (just search for “sketch book” on rapidsearch). Pretty entertaining + charming.
Jobrill
/ October 12, 2007A lot of people are calling Myself;Yourself pretty generic, but I’m rather enjoying it so far. Good character designs, and I’m a sucker for the whole childhood sweetheart angle. Plus the girl who looks like she’ll be the main love interest pushes a lot of my buttons – plays the violin, Miko, Tsun without being overly abusive, etc…
psgels
/ October 12, 2007I agree how the current season isn’t as awesome as the previous ones, though I’d like to blame that on just a bad season, not the overall quality of anime declining.
Some potentially good series for me include Moyashimon, Shugo Chara, Blue Drop, Suteki Tantei Labyrinth, Kaiji and of course Ghost Hound.
bateszi
/ October 12, 2007I’m looking to watch my first Kyoto Animation show, so I may well give Clannad a fair chance to impress. Also, Kaiji – I’m destined to follow it! The character designs are especially “nice”
Anyone bothered with Gundam 00 or Mokke? I’m especially interested in Mokke, given the pedigree of its source material (being serialised in the same magazine as likes of Mushishi).
Also… Ghost Hound looks like it could be the fashionably late winner. Any other interesting shows that have yet to air?
kauldron26
/ October 12, 2007personally i thought clannad was pure crap… then again i also thought kanon was crap considering that i tried to watch it 3 times and i went to sleep 3 times without making it past the 8th ep. im just not into the whole moe thing at all. kyoani to me is the very definition of wasted talent. they have yet to move from their comfort zone. FMP -TSR is the only good anime they have done IMHO. but then look at madhouse from Beck to kemonozume to black lagoon. 3 different styles 3 different genres. has anime become bad? that is definitely a yes, however for every 10 bad shows there is a good or atleast interesting one. Spring gave us the masterpiece Terra, and Terra reminded me that although anime may be dying to me, there are still some gems out there. for every 5 harem/moe/loli anime there is an anime like the amazing BACCANO. if i can find one baccano/kemonozume/DTB/Noein/Terra in a group of 50 shows it’s worth it. im enjoying dragonaut, genshiken and rental magica. they are the only thing interesting from fall. im also watching kimikiss solely because its supposedly from the same guy that gave us honey and clover and nodame cantabile. everything else ive been watching is kind of old. im waiting for rXj and Bokurano to finish so i can marathon it. u should also check out Lovely Complex it was very good. meanwhile the new gundam is full of hermaphodites dudes that look like chicks, chicks that look like dudes. it was all to confusing i couldnt even pay attention to the mechas lol
qwertypoiuy
/ October 12, 2007Kaiji and clanned
Kim
/ October 12, 2007Lurker deciding to comment.
This season is definitely very dry but from what I remember last fall season was also not that great. Maybe all the good shows come out during the spring/summer season and they leave all the generic crap for the fall.
I am excited about Ghost Hound though.
Sasa
/ October 12, 2007Bateszi, I seriously doubt you will like Clannad – but feel free to make your own experiences.
Also, I am watching Blue Drop, Kaiji, Moyashimon, Minamike and of course Ghost Hound when it comes out. I haven’t seen Mokke yet even though I liked the manga – actually most people have said it’s a rather slow-paced show which has pushed me of so far.
Boulayman
/ October 12, 2007Well, actually I am pretty happy with what I have seen so far
Dragonaut (great first episode but at the same time quite a few things could go wrong and they kinda did in the second one actually), Clannad, Kaji, Myself yourself, mokke are the ones I am watching for now.
Was really dispointed in ef a tales of memories (I don’t like the narration style)
I also picked up sainkuoku but that’s actually from last year I believe.
It really is a matter of taste, I mean someone above quoted baccano as a good show, I really don’t like it personally so …
I am also planning on giving kimikiss a shot and still waiting for the underdogs that will pop out of nowhere (gurenn lagann anyone ?)
Ivy
/ October 12, 2007You should definitely give CLANNAD a try, as for the rest I’d recommend hero tales, Ghost hound (Its bound to be good), Dragonaut (The breasts aren’t so bad that I’d warrant it unwatchable), Moyashimon (Very original I like), Gundam 00 (Sunrise with an actual new and not rewritten script, count me in), Ef (I loved it a lot, maybe I’m a little biased towards the designs cause of Sola which was awesome), Shugo Chara (It might be sugary but I’m not embarassed to say that I really enjoyed this lol)
All in all a pretty good season.
Martin
/ October 13, 2007I’d recommend Mokke but it might be a bit ‘tame’ for your tastes…I’m not sure since I seem to be the Grumpy Old Fart of the blogosphere these days. I’d avoid Myself;Yourself unless it takes a marked change in direction after the first episode though – it looks like generic harem fanboy stuff.
Clannad seems to have taken the blogoshphere by storm even though I know absolutely squat about it…Kaiji sounds like a good start though, mainly because it seems to refreshingly different (odd character designs and random sound effects FTW). I’ll probably check that out once I get through my Wordpress Upgrade Hell since everyting else seems to be geared towards a teenage male audience! There’s always Gundam 00 I guess.
Equitan
/ October 13, 2007It’s no surprise Clannad is so popular. If it ends up on 4chan that’s that, and given the numbers of suckers for Kanon, well…
I’d be quite surprised if you liked Clannad to be honest. You actually have *good* and refined tastes. That’s not to say Clannad is bad – I watched the first episode and it’s quite okay and enjoyable – but it’s just typical stuff and if it’s going to be the best series of the season we’re in trouble (unless it develops amazingly, but I somehow doubt it). It’s just the same old obviously lifted from an H-game anime, with the signature Key / Kanon elements looming on the horizon to make a mess of it all. Maybe I still can’t get over how Kanon ended (at least the original series I watched) because that was just really bad. I say all that but I’ll stick with it to see how it goes, I’m just not sure it’s something you’ll be able to get that into.
Out of the first episodes I’ve watched thus far I’d say KimiKiss has probably shown the most promise. Fine, I bashed Clannad for being typical, and KimiKiss looks like being another high school relationship series. However at least this series set up a number of interesting relationships from episode one that make me want to come back for me. The nice character designs don’t hurt either. I am something of a sucker for this genre so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this progresses well. With a director like Kasai Kenichi at the helm things ought to do so.
Myself; Yourself is more generic fluff – young boy returns home to that town he left all those years ago, yada yada. Again, this was okay and I’ll give it a shot for a couple more episodes to see where it goes. Doubt it’ll be a sticker though. Chiyo-chan’s seiyuu being used for a character that is to be objectified is just wrong though.
I loved the first arc of Zettai Shonen (lets forget what came after) but Mokke really isn’t anything like that. The first episode seemed to race along at 100 MPH, like a number of first episodes from this season actually (Clannad included), and has an oddly budget animation style (very early 90s in aesthetics). This first episode went by so fast it felt impossible to get a grip on anything. Not actively bad – unlike Ninomiya-kun (talk about the usual lecherous genericism (not a word, I know) of modern series) – but not a series I feel like coming back to.
Minami-ke had a pretty funny episode. So many series this year – Hidamari, Lucky Star, Potemayo, Zetsubo Sensei – have been touted as hilarious and none of them did anything for me. Thus I was eternally thankful that this first episode managed to elict more than just the occasional chuckle from me. I would have preferred a more even-handed look at each of the three sisters, and hopefully that’ll come in the next couple of episodes, but this was amusing and promising. Fingers crossed here too.
Annnnd that’s my long rant on this season based off of the first episodes I’ve watched thus far ^^
qwertypoiuy
/ October 13, 2007ok Ef a tale of memories is awesome its like having a sweet dream
the dude with strange hair ( Renji ) is simillar to me so that helped me to get in to it
i dont know but suddenly i hear i believe i can fly in my ear
yeah that episode touched my heart
Protodude
/ October 13, 2007Yeah, I’m pretty sure you wont like Clannad, but I would say as far as KyoAni goes you might like Full Metal Panic and, if you can ignore the fandom, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. And I’ve never seen the anime, but if it’s anything like the manga, I’d say you should give Hunter x Hunter a shot. And The Big O, you said you were watching that, right? And I’m currently watching Busou Renkin which is turning out okay.
So yeah, fuck this season I guess.
bateszi
/ October 14, 2007I wish I could respond to each of these comments individually, but there are so many that it’d take a good hour or so. Basically, what I’ve inferred from everyone’s opinions is that I probably won’t like CLANNAD (you guys know me too well!), but Kimikiss could be a winner. I was totally in love with Honey & Clover and that the same team are working on Kimikiss is just… brilliant! I’ll definitely check it out. Thanks for your advice, everyone, I’ll keep it all in mind for the future!
@Kim: Thanks for the nice comments on your Live Journal. I would have replied there but comments are restricted to LJ members; anyway, I wish I could update a little more but my energy is diverted in so many different directions. Sometimes I just want to jack it all in and write on my blog exclusively, but then I realize that’s pretty crazy!
Anyway, I hope you keep reading (despite my lack of daily updates!).
Kim
/ October 14, 2007This teaches me that I probably should be more careful what I post on that journal because I don’t know who is reading it.
And I am happy you blog at all so don’t worry about updating more frequently (despite what I said in my journal I do understand people have lives besides blogging and anime.) I really like reading your thoughts so I will definitely keep reading.
bateszi
/ October 14, 2007No, you don’t have to be careful – it was really nice to read your comments about my blog and I appreciated your honesty. After all, it’s your fault I ended up checking out Mononoke
dengar
/ October 15, 2007I’m equally disappointed. The only show I plan on watching thus far is Genshiken Season 2. Maybe i’ll have to rewatch the first episode of Clannad, but the first time I tried to get through it I didn’t even manage to get past the first 10 minutes.
JKTrix
/ October 15, 2007Ok, I have a couple of suggestions.
Moyashimon doesn’t appear to be subtitled yet, but when I watched the raw of it (with very little japanese knowledge) it was still highly entertaining. Had a bit of a Mushishi vibe to it. I really would love to see this translated.
Kaiji so far seems quite interesting. I was put off by the strange art style, but when watching the first episode I was engaged the entire way. I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but it managed to hold my undivided attention all the way through.
I suppose I should say that I’m generally not a fan of ‘moe’ shows, so I’m usually repelled by things like Clannad.
That said, I also enjoyed Minami-ke quite a bit. At first glance it had the sort of ‘moe’ stuff that I avoid, but when watching it I found myself often amused. I prefer the humour in this than the type of humour Hayate no Gotoku or Lucky Star offered (Neither of which I followed for very long).
So far: Kaiji, Minami-ke and Moyashimon are the 3 shows I’ve seen that I’m the most excited about. I’ve looked at several others including Gundam, You’re Under Arrest and Da Capo, but the 3 I listed so far have something extra that just clicked with me. However, nothing so far has impressed me as much as the first episodes of Seirei no Moribito and Denno Coil in April yet. Then again, Gurren-Lagann’s first episode wasn’t super impressive to me either. Looking forward to watching Ghost Hound.
Equitan
/ October 16, 2007Hey, you not tried Dennou Coil yet? I was amassing episodes and finally began watching it last weekend. I think you might like it. It’s a really creative and interesting series. Episode four featured the best little “battle” I’ve seen in anime for a long while, and Madhouse’s animation is great too. Not to mention DC plays it straight without none of the annoying clichés that so often pop up in series. I’m really enjoying it and think it’s worth you taking a look if you haven’t already.
qwertypoiuy
/ October 16, 2007@ Protodude
HxH anime is better than the manga until green island
Martin
/ October 17, 2007I’ll jump in here again with another recommendation that will I’m sure be more up your street: Kaiji. It’s hard-boiled, darkly funny, has a rough and un-cute approach to the art, story and and character designs…it’s everything the rest of the season isn’t. Great stuff. I think you’d enjoy it.
anon
/ October 20, 2007Kaiji.
Michael
/ November 6, 2007I am currently only watching KimiKiss. So far, it’s great.