This week, for a change of pace, I’d like to talk about some of the shows that I’m watching this season!
Fate/Stay Night
A little while back I blogged about the Fate/Stay Night universe to try and clear up some of the confusion about it and encourage people to watch it. The remake’s second season just end and I AM COMPLETELY IMPRESSED. People, you have to watch this thing. It’s leaps and bounds better than the original and while I certainly enjoyed Fate/Zero a great deal, this new Fate/Stay Night is even better than that. Anime cliches were stricken from the script! Animation is dazzling! The story is very compelling, the characters were all really great and interesting, and all in all I just loved it. Go watch it right now!
Is It Wrong To Pick Up A Girl In A Dungeon?
This show is fun. Just nice, easy fun. You may have seen it around the internets due to Hestia’s famous boob ribbon which is taking over claw machines and Akihabara in general. This will most definitely make for some awful, awful cosplay, so prepare to avert your eyes or stare in horror at upcoming cons.
Anyway, the main premise of the show is that it takes place in a world that’s kind of like a game (but is not a game) in the sense that there are adventurers going to a dungeon and that sort of thing. And they level up, collect loot, buy gear, you know, game-y stuff. The adventurers join these sorts of clans, called Familias (which, if you were made to watch Selena in high school as much as I was, you know is Spanish for “family”) and the Familias are named after and serve a specific deity. Our hero, Bell Cranel, is the sole member of the Hestia familia and the series is about his adventures….adventuring and his mishaps with the ladies.
It’s not a very substantial show. It’s not my favorite, but it’s pretty fun and the time passes quick when you watch it.
My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU (season 2!)
I loved the first season of this, so I was so thrilled that it got a second season, and man! This thing did not disappoint.
The first season of the show introduces us to Hikigaya Hachiman, an unpopular loner who almost seems to enjoy his loner status, and is extremely cynical about everything (but not in your typical anime cliche way- he’s just very pragmatic and his low-self esteem causes him to have some negative views.) He ends up joining the school’s Service Club to offer advice and help solve problems for other students and the first season is about a slow-developing friendship between him and the other two club members, Yukino- a beautiful but cold and ambitious girl, and Yui- a bubbly, sweet, pink-haired girl.
We just wrapped up season two this past week, and I have to say that this season really kicked things up a notch! The first season had made me feel vaguely nostalgic for high school, correctly capturing sentiments of slight embarrassment and the general dismay of awkward social situations. But season two is an entirely different beast. The characters are forced into even more extremely awkward situations and really pushed to their limits, and sometimes it felt so bad to watch (but in a good way, if that makes sense.)
For example, Hikki is out with his friend Hayato (popular guy) and runs into a couple of girls he knew from middle school. Hikki had tried to ask one of the girls out but she wasn’t interested and didn’t really get the message, and the girls didn’t think too highly of him then or now. The girls really want to go out with Hayato, and he pressures Hikki to go with them. Hikki doesn’t really want to even be there but ends up going along anyway. The girls make fun of Hikki by criticizing things he does or belittling him during the entire date, even if it’s as simple as trying to choose a restaurant, and look to Hayato as their golden boy and admire everything he does. However, Hikki doesn’t stand up for himself and in the end, Hayato harshly tells the girls that he doesn’t like the way they are treating Hikki just because they thought he was unpopular in middle school and are kind of embarrassed to be seen with him, and that he’s actually a more popular guy now who can have his pick of girls and chose to spend time with them.
tl;dr: I like the way this anime made me feel things.
Nisekoi
Season 2 of Nisekoi just wrapped up as well. This series has been on an interesting journey.
I liked Season 1, but I say that tepidly. I didn’t think it was a great show by any means, and it falls into this shounen/shoujo trap of watering the romance way down, but the focal point of the series is also romance, so it’s tricky.
Season 2 started off a little rough in my opinion, but got a lot better as it went on. After introducing MORE female characters at the beginning of season 2, it had this weird harem anime feel but you know that’s not at all what it is trying to be. It’s really more of a love triangle light high school drama, but too much weight on the characters clamoring for Raku’s love made things a little weird.
Chitoge is still probably my favorite female lead, but I have to say that I loved the little bits of character development we got from Onodera too. There’s definitely some silliness in this season (magical girl episode?) but overall it had a more substantial feeling to it by focusing on character development and putting the characters into new situations to evolve them.
Even if you passed on the first season of Nisekoi, it’s worth picking back up.
Food Wars!
This show…! Oh my stars. I have never seen anything quite like this one. I’ve watched a LOT of anime, guys, and this show is just another animal entirely.
The premise of food wars: Soma Yukihira’s dream is to become a chef just like his father. His father ran a successful restaurant in Japan, but decides to close it down to go to America, leaving Yukihira high and dry right as he’s graduating middle school! His father challenges him to attend and graduate from a crazy elite culinary school with a 90% fail rate. Can he cook his way through school and impress his hardass teachers?
So from the description, it doesn’t sound like anything too crazy. Cooking? But there are innuendos EVERYWHERE and at least one character has a food orgasm kind of thing per episode. Definitely not a show for the faint of heart or pure of mind. I don’t really know what else to say about this show. It lives, as some kind of Dr. Frankenstein/Julia Child lovechild.
Drrr!! (Durarara!!)
I was fairly satisfied with where we left things in season 1 of Drrr!! so I was surprised to hear that there was a season two. Not disappointed, just…surprised. It’s even weirder than the first season, if that is possible.
The second season is divided into three sections, the first of which aired January through March, and the second portion is scheduled to start next month, so it’s a great time to catch up and dive in.
Drrr!! is too complex for a simple synopsis, but suffice to say if you enjoy a good action-type anime with a dash of Fantasy and a splash of Drama, you’ll definitely love it. The story is quite intricate but told in a way that is not so hard to follow.
Season two brings us information broker Izaya Orihara’s younger twin sisters who might be just as much trouble as he is, as well as new heights to the Izaya – Shizuo conflict (watch your head for those vending machines Shizuo has been known to toss about!) Additionally, Celty is losing her head over her part time job (bad pun, sorry) while the Dollars face new challenges and threats. Chaos as usual, but all of it very fun and entertaining.
Psychopass
I have not watched season 2 yet SO DON’T SPOIL IT FOR ME. I’m sure there will be a writeup coming soon.