The New Release Club's General discussion

My scores (subject to change):

BlazBlue: Alter Memory - 9/10
Kill la Kill - 10/10
Kyokai no Kanata - 8/10
Little Busters!: Refrain - 8/10
Log Horizon - 8/10
Magi: The Kingdom of Magic - 9/10
Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru - 8/10
Strike the Blood - 9/10
Unbreakable Machine-Doll - 9/10
Yozakura Quartet ~Hana no Uta~ - 9/10
Yuusha ni Narenakatta Ore wa Shibushibu Shuushoku wo Ketsui Shimashita. - 8/10

I'm considering watching Miss Monochrome & Non Non Biyori, somehow I end up watching some of he most crazy anime of the seasons

 

I dropped Strike The Blood now.
It turned into everyone wanting the Vampire D.

 

Tokyo Ravens 5/10
Nothing special here, yet another bad supernatural show with a romance element and a misunderstanding that no one wants to point out. Characters are blandish and there is nothing else in it worth watching. Don’t try it unless you are a die hard supernatural fan such as myself, and even then reconsider.

Spoiler

Not even kidding, the main heroine can be classified as his sister or someone related to him.
I'm saying this because like many other females, she falls for him but he's dense.
Not Natsuru or Ichika dense though.

 

^ I know right, strike the blood was never going to be a good series which was evident from the first 3 eps, but to turn into just another harem is even more disappointing. I was already finding it a best of average with an addition of fan service but now I don’t know if I’ll be able to complete it.
And since everyone was rating what they are watching recently I’ll do that same, this is going to be long.Arpreggio of blue steel 8/10
I’m actually enjoying this series, originally I wrote it off before giving it a shot because female battleships with moe appearances for a seinen seemed ridiculous. But after 1 episode I was pleasantly surprised. Maybe it was because I had low expectations before starting it but I find it better than a lot of the others this season despite its dull MC’s. The fleet of fog are definitely more interesting than the humans so far, and the CG doesn’t bother me at all in fact I actually like it. The themes are enjoyable as well.Kill la Kill 8/10
Enjoyable, nonsensical and from the creators of Gurren Lagann what more could be wanted? Well personally I’d like there to be a bit more body to this show, make fights last longer or give the characters some other sort of emotion instead of gluttony, hunger and anger. On a quest to find the murderer of her father, great show some more emotion instead of skin for a change.Log Horizon 8/10
An enjoyable and better take at the virtual world than SAO, no sudden focus on the romance nor harem setting has been hinted at so it is better by default. With the strong focus on the gameplay and correcting the world it is staying true to an MMO kind of feel, and with its animation I can’t find a single thing to complain about.Strike the Blood 5/10
Score is likely to decrease, see above for reasoningTokyo Ravens 5/10
Nothing special here, yet another bad supernatural show with a romance element and a misunderstanding that no one wants to point out. Characters are blandish and there is nothing else in it worth watching. Don’t try it unless you are a die hard supernatural fan such as myself, and even then reconsider.
Blue Steel: I have to admit I am starting to enjoy this show a little more. But the CG just bothers me a lot and the dull MC and much more interesting fog fleet makes me wish the scene would just focus back on them whenever he is on screen. There is nothing wrong with a level headed and calm MC but give the guy a damn personality! They could revel at the end that he was a mental model of the fog (One that didn't embrace human emotion) all along or some kinda robot and I'd completely believe it. He is just that dull that flat. I'm happy that so many fog fleet members joined the main cast in the last episode. That should make things get more interesting but I'd still only call this average.Kill La Kill:I really like the fights. They aren't horribly short but they aren't drawn out DBZ style either. They could stand to be a little longer but it feels like they are pretty close to that balance between action and non action scenes. Plus the recent fight with the big guy was just beautiful and a lot of fun to watch. I like how it seems neither he or Satsuki seem like bad guys. I don't know what he ultimate plan is or what she knows about the MC's father and what her role in it may have been but they seem to be genuinely doing what they believe is for the best. They know the world is screwed up and have chosen their path to try and fix it. So I'm really interested in seeing where this goes. For example I could see Ryuko and Satsuki working together at some point to achieve a common goal at some point.Log Horizon:I actually wouldn't mind just a little romance as a minor sub plot. Nothing big or harem like in SAO but just a couple characters growing closer together as the series progresses would be nice to see. Like maybe Ninja girl and Shiroe or the Cat guy and the red headed girl. Again don't devote the plot to it but showing that develop as everything else progresses would be nice IMO.Strike the Blood:I knew from the moment I saw the preview what this show was going to be like. It's really just an average shonen with average characters and average plot and average fan service. I'm a bit fond of shonen shows so I am enjoying this a bit but I still wouldn't recomend it to anyone who isn't a fan of this kinda series to begin with.Tokyo Ravens:This show has a major problem going for it. IT WATES FAR TO MUCH TIME!!! It took several episodes just for them to get to the academy, a few more to get settled into the place, and only at episode 8 does it feel like the main plot is really moving at all. In a way this in itself isn't a bad thing. They have taken time to really establish their characters and setting rather well which will help set up some good things down the road. But the problem is there are only 12 episodes! It feels like this series has barely accomplished anything and it's already reaching the final stretch. At least Strike the blood has 24-26 episodes to work with and they are going at a somewhat faster pace. So really not only is this show average at best it's not going to end well at all because it feels like the writers have no idea how to pace things for a 12 episode season.

 

Wait, why aren't we talking about AOTS?



Are you not aware that this is one of the best SoL anime out there since Hidamari Sketch?
Seriously, this anime is good, most of you should check it out regardless.

 

Wait, why aren’t we talking about AOTS?Are you not aware that this is one of the best SoL anime out there since Hidamari Sketch?
Seriously, this anime is good, most of you should check it out regardless.
I'll pick this one up once I finish Medaka Box, soon I'll watch something big

 

Wait, why aren’t we talking about AOTS?Are you not aware that this is one of the best SoL anime out there since Hidamari Sketch?
Seriously, this anime is good, most of you should check it out regardless.
I disagree. Uchuu Kyoudai and Daily Lives of High School Boys or even K-ON! easily surpass these two anime for me.

 

Supernatural Knight wrote:
Tokyo Ravens 5/10
Nothing special here, yet another bad supernatural show with a romance element and a misunderstanding that no one wants to point out. Characters are blandish and there is nothing else in it worth watching. Don’t try it unless you are a die hard supernatural fan such as myself, and even then reconsider.Spoiler:
Not even kidding, the main heroine can be classified as his sister or someone related to him.
I’m saying this because like many other females, she falls for him but he’s dense.
Not Natsuru or Ichika dense though.

Speaking of Natsuru and Ichika someone should make a dense scale. With Natsuru being at the high end, Ichika being a bit lower and having Keima or that guy from Rouge Hero at the other end. Then you could use the scale to decide just how dense any character is.

 

There was one that I can't find anymore that compared the density of Ichika and Natsuru to stars.
Of course Natsuru was at the top and Ichika was below Neutron Star.

Speaking of Ichika, IS looks like it'd been better off making him female instead of male.
That way, we can have cute Yuri SoL harem for the first time in Anime history.

 

There was one that I can’t find anymore that compared the density of Ichika and Natsuru to stars.
Of course Natsuru was at the top and Ichika was below Neutron Star.Speaking of Ichika, IS looks like it’d been better off making him female instead of male.
That way, we can have cute Yuri SoL harem for the first time in Anime history.
Perhaps. I'm starting to lose interest because of all the filler like episodes. It's like in each episode only about five minutes of plot related stuff actually happens and even for a harem series that is pretty bad when you only have 12 epiosdes to work with. The last couple episodes were a little more interesting but that is because a new girl fell for him so they are focusing on her. Besides that hardly anything has been happening all this time. It's not like harem series are typically known for their deep and involved plot but again IS2 seems bad in this respect than most harem anime. Either way being a harem series in no excuse for so little happening each episode.It kinda feels like they are trying to make the plot some kinda dark and secret conspiracy but instead it just comes across and episode and after episode of generic fan service with a little plot slapped in during the last few minutes so that the episode can't be called pointless with the excuse that since the threat is meant to be secret the main cast isn't actively facing this threat.

 

Don't expect anything good to happen, period.
It's all turned into pointless harem filler with density.
Honestly, how did this even get an adaptation in the first place?
There is plenty of better Light Novels out there that deserve an adaptation.
Why couldn't they just exclude the MC, like what they did with the Koihime Musou adaptation.

 

Don’t expect anything good to happen, period.
It’s all turned into pointless harem filler with density.
Honestly, how did this even get an adaptation in the first place?
There is plenty of better Light Novels out there that deserve an adaptation.
Why couldn’t they just exclude the MC, like what they did with the Koihime Musou adaptation.
I've stopped expecting anything by this point. Like I said there are good harem anime out there. I'll bring up DxD again because it really is a good example of how an ecchi harem anime should be. Some shows would be better without ecchi but if the makes of something insist on putting a bunch of fan service into it then DxD is the model to follow. They don't take 10 to 20 minutes from the show to show fan service they are flashing the fan service during the actual plot and they did it efficiently. It was done in such a way that it wasn't taking away from the rest of the action and sometimes it would even be used in the plot in some way (Mostly to motivate the MC). Now I'm not saying every show should be like DxD but if a show is going to go the ecchi harem route making the fan service flow with the plot and not detour from it is the way to go. Fan service shouldn't be padding to fill out the half an hour because the writers couldn't think of enough actual material it should be exactly as the name implies and be a service or a bonus to the fans. But IS2 is just horrible in how it constantly loses focus from the plot for the sake of long winded ecchi hijinks.

 

If we're saying DxD is good, then TO-Love-Ru must be a masterpiece.

But I think what we should do with Infinite Stratos is just stop watching it and just let it fizzle and sell horribly, put 8-Bit out of business I say, well just after Yama no Susume 2 airs and sells well.
We did it with GAINAX with C3-bu and Silver Link with WATAMOTE (This one bombed hard).

Fun fact: Did you know C3-bu is now among one of the worst selling Anime in history, it only sold less than 500 copies. Just look at how far GAINAX has come from EVA.

And now for something off topic, but for people who will be watching Chuunibyou 2 next season, a new image is out:



And yes, that person with the black hair is Nibutani.

 

If we’re saying DxD is good, then TO-Love-Ru must be a masterpiece.


To Love Ru isn't too bad either. The anime is mostly crap but the manga really isn't half bad. While the "Falling on girls in a perverted way by accident" joke gets old fast There are two things the manga has going for it. Firstly Rito actually is pretty dependable when it counts so while he acts like an idiot most of the time you can see why girls would fall for him when he finally goes into serious mode and not only saves them but will often help the girls with personal issues and give some surprisingly good advice. That is also the second reason I find To Love-ru to be not too bad. The girls have actual reasons to fall for him (Well most of them anyway).

What series like R+V and IS screw up on the most is how the girls fall for the MC. He isn't really their type normally and most of them hate him at first. But all he has to do is save their life ONE TIME and suddenly they are like putty in his hands. Sure if he saved their lives they'd probably be less inclined to hate him and might even be friendly with him but they normally fall ridiculously head over heals for the MC. Like in IS Charlotte clearly hated him but all he had to do was save her one time and from that point on he has to struggle just to keep her out of his pants! The problem is harem anime are made up of three things fan service, romance, plot. If the base of the "Romance" is "He saved my life that one time and he's kinda a nice guy" then the romance is kinda boring. So in To Love-Ru I appreciate the authors attempt to have them fall for him not because he saves them once or twice but because he has a very supportive and dependable side along with a few other reasons that felt hinted at. DxD is the same none of the girls fall for him because of something as shallow as saving them. Most even take quite a while to actually fall for him which is good.

Spoiler

In The president's case it was sorta more of "Love at first sight" but it's incomplete at first. You see she has a soft spot for him but she doesn't pursue him until near the end of season 1 after she has gotten to know him and seems to have fallen for him because he is an honest and passionate person.

Asia falls for him more quickly but in her case he was the first person to show her kindness without wanting anything. The church that raised her cruely threw her out over a "Mistake" and the guy she was traveling with was evil and treated her like crap. So she had a good reason to fall for him because he was the first one to help her and befriend her.

The vice Prez falls for him for much the same reason as the pres but minus the love at first sight. In her case she grew fond of him over time but falls for him completely when she reveals she's was a fallen angel and is still half fallen angel (Meaning she is the same species as some of the people he hates the most). But he acts mostly unfazed and completely accept her saying he doesn't think any less of her for it. again we have ACTUAL REASONS HERE!

Harem anime tend to get a bad rep for being low quality and most of them are. They were just made to appeal to perveted Otaku and anyone else in the male demographic that they could nab. But they don't have to be low quality. While DxD and to Love-Ru can hardly be called masterpieces by any stretch of the imagination they are rather good at taking what they have to work with and just going with it. They don't just throw girl after girl at the MC with no thought of character development or plot. Each girl comes into DxD for a specific reason or role and fall for the MC for actual reasons and emotions. Again unlike IS where there seems to be no reason for them to fall for him. Heck most of the girls in IS don't seem to actually know a thing about him especially when they first fall for him. Just once I'd like to see a girl in a harem anime drop out of the running not because the MC chose a girl and she lost hope but because she realised she didn't like him after all. You know like people do in the real world!


and once again what I planned to just be a thought out reply ended up multiple paragraphs. I really don't know how this happens sometimes.

 

To be fair to R+V the adaptation to that was really badly done.
I've read bits of the manga and it's good, MC turns into one hell of a badass.

The problem with To-Love-Ru is just how you've got nearly everything in this one Anime, even gender-bending.
Though the manga has turned to shit now, so there's really nothing to say about it anymore.

With IS, they're just cock-hungry mules, they want Ichika just because he's the only guy on campus, which really shouldn't happen considering there is still NO REASON FOR ICHIKA BEING THE ONLY GUY TO PILOT AN IS.

While harem Anime is shit yes, it's one of the most popular genres out there due to the art of self-insertion.
The point is to have a dull, idiotic male MC just so male otaku can insert themselves as the actual MC, and feel happy knowing they're being covered in girls.
I'll admit I did self-insert while watching DxD.
But with the genre so popular, you'd think they'd want to take risks eventually, such as have a strong MC (Like in that one with the pink haired girl and the badass MC) or have a gay harem (They've already done a Yaoi one back in 2006, so why not a Yuri one).
But the problem is if the guys can't self-insert, they won't buy it.

 

To be fair to R+V the adaptation to that was really badly done.
I’ve read bits of the manga and it’s good, MC turns into one hell of a badass.The problem with To-Love-Ru is just how you’ve got nearly everything in this one Anime, even gender-bending.
Though the manga has turned to shit now, so there’s really nothing to say about it anymore.With IS, they’re just cock-hungry mules, they want Ichika just because he’s the only guy on campus, which really shouldn’t happen considering there is still NO REASON FOR ICHIKA BEING THE ONLY GUY TO PILOT AN IS.While harem Anime is shit yes, it’s one of the most popular genres out there due to the art of self-insertion.
The point is to have a dull, idiotic male MC just so male otaku can insert themselves as the actual MC, and feel happy knowing they’re being covered in girls.
I’ll admit I did self-insert while watching DxD.
But with the genre so popular, you’d think they’d want to take risks eventually, such as have a strong MC (Like in that one with the pink haired girl and the badass MC) or have a gay harem (They’ve already done a Yaoi one back in 2006, so why not a Yuri one).
But the problem is if the guys can’t self-insert, they won’t buy it.
Yes Over all I don't hate the R+V manga. I don' like the anime but I like the manga. But even if I like it overall it still has the flaw of every girl falling for him because he saved them ONE time each and "Is such a nice guy". Overall he really doesn't have any points for them to really fall in love with. They all have nothing apparent in common and he has no specific characteristic that they seem to fall for. When half of your manga is about the girl who fell for him there is something wrong when the basis for all these relationships is so weak.But about To lose-ru. Are you talking about Darkness? I think Darkness is actually pretty interesting although I wish the author would stop going over board with the fan service. Every since he switched magazines to one with less strict censorship he has taken full advantage of it and it gets in the way too much at times. But on the bright side there are less filler chapters so more is actually getting done plot wise despite this. Also that stuff I said about Rito being more reliable and actually doing what he can to help the girls through their problems thus making him the kinda guy girls might actually fall for? He shows more of that in Darkness so that is a plus. Now if only chapters would get released more than once every few months.But about the Ichika thing didn't the end of season 1 imply that the reason he is the only guy that can use one is because of Hoki's sister, the maker of the IS units? I thought they said that she made it so taht only girls could pilot them on purpose but made Ichika the exception either for her sisters sake, since she loved him, or for her own weird reasons. I could have sworn they mentioned all that.I wouldn't really say that harem anime in general is shit. More like harem anime in general is painfully average. Early harem anime like Tenchi helped create a basic template for harem anime and while that Template has shifted over time and some do break the mold and make new standards (DxD and To Love-Ru are examples I think) most make little attempt to deviate from it. Some have more unique characters and some had more unique settings but the majority follow all of the basic plot elements and archtypes of harem anime. So most feel average at best and at worst they don't even try to be unique with anything and end up so painfully bland that even people who haven't seen harem anime before get bored rather quickly. BTW I don't enjoy harem anime for the self insertion. I enjoy them, when they are good and not the bland ones I just mentioned, because they tend to have a large and varied cast which can be fun if all the characters are at least written decently. I like a good comedy and most harem anime have comedic elements so if the comedy is done well then I can easily enjoy the anime regardless of fan service. But it is probably true that it's massive popularity is due to the self insertion thing.

 

I wouldn’t really say that harem anime in general is shit. More like harem anime in general is painfully average. Early harem anime like Tenchi helped create a basic template for harem anime and while that Template has shifted over time and some do break the mold and make new standards (DxD and To Love-Ru are examples I think) most make little attempt to deviate from it. Some have more unique characters and some had more unique settings but the majority follow all of the basic plot elements and archtypes of harem anime. So most feel average at best and at worst they don’t even try to be unique with anything and end up so painfully bland that even people who haven’t seen harem anime before get bored rather quickly. BTW I don’t enjoy harem anime for the self insertion. I enjoy them, when they are good and not the bland ones I just mentioned, because they tend to have a large and varied cast which can be fun if all the characters are at least written decently. I like a good comedy and most harem anime have comedic elements so if the comedy is done well then I can easily enjoy the anime regardless of fan service. But it is probably true that it’s massive popularity is due to the self insertion thing.



I agree harem anime is either average, shit or generic.
But while I respect your opinion, I have to say that DxD is average.
It reminds me of Maken-ki, and while I haven't seen Maken-ki nor I ever will, I've seen little bits of it and it's just.. fanservice.
Some harem anime try to be different, and fall into shit-tier shows, while some try to divert from the comedy, like Clannad.
But I don't think the template has shifted, everything is still the same.
You've got:
- The generic male MC
- The childhood friend who may or not be the Tsundere
- The loli
- The big breasted girl
- The tomboy
- The glasses girl
- The hyper-active girl
- The fanservice
- The plot point that makes the MC the love interest for all the girls
You can watch any harem show and 9/10 most of these will be prominent there.

 

Metazoxan wrote:
I wouldn’t really say that harem anime in general is shit. More like harem anime in general is painfully average. Early harem anime like Tenchi helped create a basic template for harem anime and while that Template has shifted over time and some do break the mold and make new standards (DxD and To Love-Ru are examples I think) most make little attempt to deviate from it. Some have more unique characters and some had more unique settings but the majority follow all of the basic plot elements and archtypes of harem anime. So most feel average at best and at worst they don’t even try to be unique with anything and end up so painfully bland that even people who haven’t seen harem anime before get bored rather quickly. BTW I don’t enjoy harem anime for the self insertion. I enjoy them, when they are good and not the bland ones I just mentioned, because they tend to have a large and varied cast which can be fun if all the characters are at least written decently. I like a good comedy and most harem anime have comedic elements so if the comedy is done well then I can easily enjoy the anime regardless of fan service. But it is probably true that it’s massive popularity is due to the self insertion thing.I agree harem anime is either average, shit or generic.
But while I respect your opinion, I have to say that DxD is average.
It reminds me of Maken-ki, and while I haven’t seen Maken-ki nor I ever will, I’ve seen little bits of it and it’s just.. fanservice.
Some harem anime try to be different, and fall into shit-tier shows, while some try to divert from the comedy, like Clannad.
But I don’t think the template has shifted, everything is still the same.
You’ve got:
- The generic male MC
- The childhood friend who may or not be the Tsundere
- The loli
- The big breasted girl
- The tomboy
- The glasses girl
- The hyper-active girl
- The fanservice
- The plot point that makes the MC the love interest for all the girls
You can watch any harem show and 9/10 most of these will be prominent there.
I think DxD is a bit more unique to not be average. For example the protagonist is perverted and not shy about it rather than irritatingly dense and gutless. It's still not a work of art or anything but it did feel like the writers made an effort to both have their cake and eat it to by having fan service but not distaract from the plot by mixing the fan service into the plot. I generally try to be objective when describing an anime to other people, so I try to give an anime credit when it shows effort and has good elements. So even if it didn't impress you much I do feel the show had a lot more going for it than a lot of harem anime do. It's still a harem anime though and still follows quite a few cliche of the genera so I don't want to over praise it. It's just a bit above average.Well anyway I'm enjoying the discussion but this talk of harem anime has probably been going on a bit long. So since this discussion started because of the harem elements in Tokyo Raven and Strike the Blood want to move onto something like Shonen or action series is general? We can continue this discussion if you want but I thought a change of topic would be good about now.

 

Oh no I agree we should discuss something different.

Spoiler

So we can all agree that we thoroughly enjoyed this weeks episode of Kill la Kill.