Toa of Gallifrey

Luluco was incredibly enjoyable, it's my third as of first impressions right behind JoJo Part 4 and Re:Zero. Gonna watch Joker Game as soon as it's up, hopefully it's a good one!

Now that all but two of the shows for the Winter 2016 anime season that I watched are over, I can give more finalized (brief) thoughts on them. (ordered from worst to best, the two unfinished ones are asterisked) On the flipside, Spring 2016 has begun and I've started 4 of the series so far. For non-seasonal series, I'm in the midst of watching Vampire Knight with my sister, which is fairly enjoyable, and Revolutionary Girl Utena on my own which I'm absolutely in love with. I had no idea what to expect from it and am loving its crazy style and heavy symbolism. At first I wasn't too into the fights but now I'm really enjoying them. The strobing effects for the Sword of Dios and the like are incredibly annoying, though. I wish it made less use of recycled animation but the Absolute Destiny Apocalypse sequence is incredibly enjoyable every time and so is the student council's elevator so I can deal with it.

I just found it more enjoyable overall than Ninjago, though that's just my tastes.

While it was a pretty funny episode, I thought it meshed badly with the tone set by the last couple episodes and felt fillery/distracting, as I thought the next few episodes would be sorta an arc on Treasure Island. Since it's two cours I can excuse it, just feels a bit disorganized. It wasn't truly filler, but it took away from what seemed to be the main plot by adding something new coming out of nowhere. I also didn't really like how wacky expressions looked in 3DCG, I feel like the two don't mix well.

I'm very impressed, especially as it comes from Studio DEEN, infamous for such animation as in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni's first season and OVA and Pupa. I've heard the 2006 Fate/stay night series had some shoddy animation here and there as well but I haven't seen it myself. Now being caught up to both series, these would be my rankings for everything I'm watching this season. 1-Boku Dake ga Inai Machi 2-Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu 3-Ajin 4-Oshiete! Galko-chan 5-Kono Subarashii Sekai ni Shukufuku wo! 6-Akagami no Shirayuki-hime 2nd Season 7-Hai to Gensou no Grimgar 8-Dagashi Kashi 9-Pokemon XY&Z 10-Bubuki Buranki 11-Dimension W 12-Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu 13-Musaigen no Phantom World 14-Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara 15-Divine Gate 16-Luck & Logic 17-Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut

I finally had some time to pick up Shouwa Genroku. Since I was already picking that up, I decided to also pick up Kono Subarashii which I kinda wanted to pick up a couple weeks ago but decided against it as I already had enough. Being the irresponsible watcher that I am, I threw caution to the wind and picked up both. So far, seen the first 3 episodes of both so this is more first impressions than anything. Shouwa Genroku - Wow, all I can say is wow. This is so different from any other anime I've ever seen, I love it! I wasn't familiar with rakugo before so I paused the first episode early on to quickly google it and I was very intrigued. I love theater so I was able to dive into the first episode looking forward to the rakugo, which I thought to be a brilliant concept. Apart from the brilliant rakugo scenes in the first episode, what really stood out to me was the storytelling in the flashback in the second and third episode. Only Boku Dake ga Inai Machi and this show have managed to get me so invested in their characters this season. Overall, I'm in love. I can't say where I rank it yet. Based on these 3 episodes, I put it above Ajin but a cut below ERASED. Only by the time both shows are over will I be able to determine which I thought was better. Can't wait to keep going! Kono Subarashii - Really enjoying this one, it's hilarious. I think the art and animation are okay. The animation isn't anything above what is to be expected but the art looks good to me, especially the character designs. The episodes all have at least one good laugh out loud moment and this is something I can look forward to watching on Monday, as the other comedy anime this season that I look forward to (Dagashi Kashi and Galko-chan) are on Fridays. EDIT: Just realized these two are done by Studio DEEN. Damn, I would've thought Genroku in particular was done by Madhouse. Good work, DEEN!

Yeah I know Showa is airing. I'm very much looking forward to it based on what you said! I'll definitely post my impressions here. Yeah, Divine Gate's OP is beast. It, Dagashi Kashi's and Ajin's stood out to me the most this season.

If you're having trouble keeping track of series, I use MyAnimeList. I'd be completely and hopelessly lost without it. I just added Showa Genroku to my plan to watch list and will try to binge it next weekend. I picked up 15 series this season (2 of them were new installments in other series I'd seen before) since there were quite a few that piqued my interest and I wanted to watch more than just like 3 seasonal series while catching up on old series (I started watching anime in late summer 2014, started watching Akame ga Kill! and Parasyte from late fall 2014-winter 2015, High School DxD BorN from spring 2015; Shimoneta, Gakkou Gurashi! and Okusama ga Seitokaichou! from summer 2015 and One Punch Man from fall 2015). In alphabetic order: Ajin - My second favorite this season so far. I'm not a fan of 3DCG anime and it took me half of episode 1 to get used to seeing it but aside from slightly stiff expressions when the characters aren't expressing rage, sadness or another extreme emotion, I'm with it. I would much rather it were 2D but I will admit some scenes have been fantastically pulled off and wouldn't be the same in 2D. Akagami no Shirayuki-hime 2nd Season (Snow White with the Red Hair Season 2) - I'm enjoying it more than season 1, on virtue of having a more thrilling arc right off the bat. I feel like the first season had better interactions and atmosphere but this one has better character development and action. Just an observation I made while watching today's episode earlier. I feel so conflicted, I don't know whether to ship Shirayuki x Zen or Shirayuki x Obi. Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) - My absolute favorite thus far. Great plot, great characters, gripping suspense. I love it. It's the series I'm currently watching with my parents (we did Another last time and we'll probably do Ajin next). My only concern is the pacing, given some manga readers have been quite vocal about their concerns that the series is moving too slowly through the manga to be covering it in its entirety in 12 episodes. I really wish it was 2-cour so I could feel a bit better about it, but I'll worry about that when we get to that point. So far it seems to be moving along fine for me as someone who hasn't read the manga. Bubuki Buranki - I think this one has a lot of potential and I feel like it's going somewhere. The lore's pretty interesting, the characters are getting slowly fleshed out and I love the villains (especially Reoko). I love the mecha designs and I'm very glad this one's full 3DCG, because the mechas would be 3DCG anyway given modern animating practices (OPM and other series that the animators are super passionate about notwithstanding) and by making it full 3DCG you can avoid visual clashes like what I'll mention a few series down. Dagashi Kashi - Wasn't sure what to expect from this one, I mostly started watching cause Hotaru reminded me of Anna from Shimoneta but boy has this enraptured me. I expected the humor to fall flat since I'm not familiar with Japanese candy but this show has such an energy that I can't help but follow it with my full attention. I've learned more about candy from this show in a little over a month than I have anything from Biology class since the 2015-2016 school year began. My biology teacher, if you're reading this, I'd appreciate this level of energy from your classes. Dimension W - I was really with it when it began but it kinda started going downhill for me from around episode 3. I find it to have a great atmosphere, animation, characters and intriguing lore but suffer from feeling unfocused and episodic. It kinda picked up for me with the last 2 episodes, especially the last one . I'll stick with it and seeing as it's starting to air on Toonami next week I'll probably watch it there dubbed as well for the lulz but I'm not gonna expect much from it. Divine Gate - Started off so well and has gone so badly downhill. It has everything I mentioned in Dimension W but cranked up to 11 (except for the animation and characters, I'll get onto that in a sec). It started off with a great pace, then slowed down to former-half Steins;Gate levels of slow (minus the highly entertaining characters and mystery to keep you around for when it speeds up) and then sped back up with the last episode to the point where events just feel random. The only characters that feel interesting to me are the main trio, and even then that's mostly due to intriguing backstory than actual merit as entertaining characters and the animation feels a bit shoddy to me with too much all-black shading and (thankfully now ditched) 3DCG integration for battle scenes that mixes with frames rendered in 2D in the same sequence. I've got some hope for it but not much. Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar of Ash and Fantasy) - Wonky pacing and insert songs (some of them, anyway, a couple are nice touches) aside, I really dig this one. The watercolor backgrounds are a neat idea (which clashes a bit with 3DCG setpieces here and there but they're far and few enough in between to bother me), the concept is pretty interesting (even though it feels as though it's been forgotten) and the characters are very sympathetic. . I enjoy seeing this one even if I don't expect the actual main plot to be addressed until the ending, which is a big flaw but it's a good enough show to drag you along for the ride. Luck & Logic - I had high hopes for this one right off the bat but after one too many anticlimaxes/copouts/buildups-turned-gags, I kinda gave up. I've stuck with it due to the highly erotic transformation sequences and so I could see how many more times it could make me groan. I must say, the last episode was a huge step in the right direction in terms of character development and tone. I just hope it sticks with that and gives off at least a decent conclusion, because the concept it has is neat (if a bit overused at this point) and I feel like it tries to emulate Evangelion in the pace and the way the missions play out but it fails at that by having no tension at all in the overall arc and boring character interactions, and copying Evangelion's pace in a 1-cour series is the definition of suicide. Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara (I'm Sick of Being a Magical Girl) - Pretty fun short series. I don't really care for loli fanservice and the humor falls a bit flat at times but it's a fun series that pokes fun at magical girl cliches. I enjoy watching it with my sister to see what torture poor Mitton will be put through this week. Musaigen no Phantom World (Myriad Colors Phantom World) - Really interesting concept, really poor execution. Gorgeous KyoAni art, really dull and cliched fanservice. Good character designs, dull characters. Good atmosphere, lame plot. Great sound, terrible pacing. For what Phantom World does well, it does something else very badly. The result? Eye of the beholder. To be honest I enjoy it, I like to see what craziness they'll pull this week, but I'd definitely classify that as a guilty pleasure. Oshiete! Galko-chan (Please tell me, Galko-chan!) - I came into this as a joke/curiosity, stayed for the fun humor and great characters. I expected Galko to be some shallow stereotype but she's nothing of the sort. I expected Otako to be yet another stereotypical nerd, not quite. I expected Ojou to be the stereotypical dumb rich girl and kinda is but feels more like London Tipton in early Suite Life of Zack and Cody (kinda dumb but nice and hilarious). What I started watching as a dumb time waster has become my third favorite series of the season. Pokemon XY&Z - There's really nothing new to Pokemon that hasn't been there since Johto, except for the significantly better battle scenes that have been around since Origins and XY and the excellent handling of Team Flare so far, they're much more interesting than in the games. I like the Ash-Greninja power-up but I can see this making for some really cheap battles and awkward pacing at the league when we get there. Right now I'm just waiting for the next episode to be subbed so I can see my waifu Alan fight with Ash. God, I miss the Mega Evolution Special. Still, XY&Z is as serviceable as the early XY episodes (why couldn't the entire XY series be like the first 6-8 episodes, why must we have endless filler) and anything's better than freakin' BW. Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut (The Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle) - Easily the worst this season. Every single harem, mecha and light novel cliche is in this series. Like someone said on another forum, every episode of ERASED ends in a flash whereas Bahamut drags on forever. I nearly fell asleep to this, which is something that only Divine Gate has gotten close to doing for me before (and that was mostly cause I was tired that day). I'm not gonna go into detail cause there really isn't much more to say other than list the cliches. I really only continue to watch it so I can argue with my friend about it and reasonably defend my stance. Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mesazu (Girls Beyond the Wasteland) - I was hoping for this to be a Shimoneta-esque series that made me laugh nonstop and it's kinda fallen flat for me by making an attempt to be more serious while not really offering much to be serious about. The character interactions are great, the characters themselves are fun and the premise is cool but there's not much else beyond that and the humor, which sometimes falls flat. I have more hope, given the last episode's events, but I'm not expecting much more than some laughs with the characters' antics.

Anyone watching anything from this anime season? ERASED and Ajin are spectacular.

For creatures I basically want something like the G1 Rahi, creatures that vaguely resemble real life animals but have their own unique spin. Kinda like the creatures this year in that Akida is a shark with cannons. I really like the creatures this year and would love to see more on a larger scale.

Finally found the sets at my nearest Toys 'R' Us and got half of them + Rey. Got Ikir, Tahu, Akida, Gali, Kopaka & Melum and Umarak. Rey - Glossing over her cause this isn't the Star Wars thread but she's easily my favorite. Such interesting construction, great incorporation of cloth, great face mold, wonderful. I wasn't huge on the gear functions at first cause I thought that'd take away from the figure's looks but it looks just fine. Ikir - Beautiful construction and colors, love the function. I love the little details like the talons and the tail. Tahu - I was worried about him due to the lack of red and differing textures but I can't help but be impressed. Yes, he's overstuffed with gold. While he has design problems, he looks seriously impressive. Especially when united with Ikir, he is very imposing. I can't hate him even with the aforementioned flaws. Akida - Love the construction, love the function, love that it's not another bipedal humanoid-ish. The stand is a nice touch too. Gali - I really like her. The asymmetry looks a bit elegant and I love her mix of colors. I prefer her alone than united with Akida. If she is united, I also prefer her normal mask to her gold mask. Kopaka - I absolutely love Kopaka. The arms aren't perfect but they're very different and that's the thing I love seeing most: innovation. It's not perfect, it needs work but it's something new that has potential to grow. Melum - Cute but not as nice as Ikir or Akida. His mauling (or as I call it hugging) function is adorable. Umarak - So cool, so imposing. Love the antlers and the mask. Doesn't look very good with the MoCo but his normal mask is wonderful. His bow is a bit awkward to wield.

I'm a bit unsure about Chibnall, I loved him in Torchwood but not as much in Doctor Who. Still, what matters isn't writing great individual episodes but being able to make a good arc. I hope Moffat sticks around for writing the odd individual episode like he did for Davies, Moffat tends to write best when it's just for 1 or 2 episodes' worth of story. I still want Davies to come back for the odd episode, too.

I started the randomizer way as well, but I've been meaning (read: procrastinating) to start at least from Jon Pertwee in order

Yeesh that's a lot of trans blue on Ekimu. Others look ok but nothing really stands out to me like with the previous waves.

Series 1 had some kinda shoddy effects, mostly with the CG used for the Slitheens and the Daleks, and Series 2 had some very dodgy effects in the beginning, but from around the end of Series 2 and until Series 6, the CG improved quite a bit in my opinion, to dip a bit in Series 7. Of course, this is only a minor nitpick and poor effects have always been a staple in Doctor Who, but poor CG effects are much less charming and are a bit more distracting than poor sets or props. This hardly hampers my enjoyment of the show, it's just some CGI-heavy shots sometimes throw me for a bit, a recent example being the shots where the Cybermen were flying in Death in Heaven.

The practical effects seem fine to me but the CG is of noticeably lower quality to me, which I mostly owe to The Mill not doing the effects anymore since series 7.

I'm glad the Creature descriptions are individual and not the same one over and over like it was for the Protectors.

Could you post a picture of Ikir on Gali please? I don't have them and I'm really intrigued by what you said, I'd really love to see them combined.

Just got the set today. Its head is really loose, I'm guessing it's a problem with my particular piece but I still wanted to ask, does anyone else have a really floppy Cody head?

I got Island of Lost Masks today as a present. I really enjoyed it, certainly moreso than the animations. I wonder how Revenge of the Skull Spiders will tie in, will it be a prequel, an interquel or a sequel?