Whoa, you’re all still here? (UPDATE)

So it’s been 3 years since this blog ended, and to my surprise I still get traffic from all the posts we’ve made. I’m truly thankful for all of you still checking in, so I thought maybe it’d be for the best if I return for a bit. I won’t be hitting a set schedule, but I’m going to try making some posts again at least for another year. In the meantime, here are some old posts I’ve made for my other blog that might catch your interest.

One Piece Film: Strong World (is not THAT good)

https://stephensrambling.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/one-piece-film-strong-world-is-not-that-good/

Fragtime: the gayest ep of Kokoro Connect

https://stephensrambling.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/fragtime-the-gayest-ep-of-kokoro-connect/

Welcome to the Space Show (a beautifully rendered mess)

https://stephensrambling.wordpress.com/2020/04/20/welcome-to-the-space-show-a-beautifully-rendered-mess/

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (and why I don’t hate it anymore)

https://stephensrambling.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/ghost-in-the-shell-2-innocence-and-why-i-dont-hate-it-anymore/

I’ve also made some anime mashups on my Youtube channel, thought copyright has been really bad recently.

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Welp, 18 months have passed since I last posted anything and my only excuse is a lack of motivation. Ever since exploring TV shows, cartoons and ESPECIALLY older anime, I’ve found myself dedicating less time to digging into seasonal anime (at least until recently). Nowadays a seasonal show has to immediately grab my attention before even picking it up, and previous attempts to put my thoughts into words (of which there are many) have either devolved into sentence-long blurbs or paragraphs of mindless rambling.

I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of writing, but I have gotten tired of speculation on what could possibly be good or stating the obvious on shows that have just been finished recently. I’d rather gush/rant about shows I genuinely care about or dabble in storytelling of my own. Having said all that, I don’t want to leave this on a silent note like past writers. I at least want to let you know that I’ve been actively watching shows when I could (check my MAL for proof), and have several drafts for posts I plan to finish (in the middle of posting one right now). I’ve made a back-up blog you can find a link below with some drafts in the work (Stephen’s Ramblings) and Stuart111 has flourished with his blog (An Overlooking View). Whether I write here or there depends on my mood, but i’ll announce it here if that becomes the case.

For a quick update of what’s been going on, I’ve spent much time talking to fellow bloggers via twitter. I went to AX last year and had a great time attending the Your Name premiere, seeing Shoji Kawamori and Gigguk, and watching Re Zero for the first time. Food Wars has also inspired me to cook, Boku no Hero Academia has been a blast, and UCHOUTEN KAZOKU got a SEASON 2!!! Star vs the Forces of Evil is my favorite cartoon, and I finally got to play Persona 4 Golden. Also Macross Delta is the first great Macross show in over a decade, and seeing Kawamori while it was airing was a big fanboy moment for me.

A lot has happened in the time I’ve been gone, and I felt that this death should be announced officially before we move on. Thank you for following this time and hope you’ve had a good time reading this content.

Stuart’s Blog:

https://anoverlookingview.wordpress.com/

My Back-up:

https://stephensrambling.wordpress.com/

MAL:

https://myanimelist.net/profile/weirdy8

https://myanimelist.net/profile/Stuart111

Twitter:

@overlookingstu

@stephenweirdy8

Battery – Review

Battery isn’t a great show. In fact, I think saying Battery is a good show might be stretching it a little, because out of the all the anime I watched last season, Battery was by far the easiest to gloss over. Every time I watched Battery, I flashed back to myself in elementary school during an innocuous birthday party, feeling disappointed after receiving a baseball chapter book. Of course it was kind of rude of me to feel that way, it was a present after all, but I had what I liked and it definitely wasn’t sports books. What I’m trying to say is that I probably would have hated Battery as a kid! Its plot is a series of moralistic vignettes told through the lens of a sport I don’t care about (I was soccer kid, what can I say), and the fact that this anime is an adaptation of a series of children’s novels is clear in almost every aspect of the story. From the emotionally unstable middle school protagonist Takumi, to the slow and lackadaisical pace, Battery is a Mike Lupica book in animated form.

Kiznaiver – Review

Kiznaiver was probably the most controversial show of the Spring 2016 season, and for some pretty obvious reasons. Not only is it the product of the divisive studio Trigger, but it’s also a teenage melodrama written by Mari Okada. If there weren’t a few angry and/or thoughtful think pieces written for this show, I’d be very surprised. However, in the months leading up to its airing, no one seemed to notice these red flags; and now that everyone has shouted and made stupid hot takes about Mari Okada’s personal life (which we know nothing about, by the way), I’m here to sit in the dust and write my own unoriginal thinkpiece about how Kiznaiver is kind of a mess.

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime S2 – Review

Back in the summer season of 2015, I was absolutely in love with Akagami no Shirayuki-hime. I adored its characters, relationships, setting, animation, basically everything it had to offer. I will admit that it’s not the greatest shoujo series to have ever graced the world of anime, but what it lacked in intricate writing was more than made up for by the beautiful atmosphere the first season presented. The show streamed on Funimation.com every Monday here in the States, so watching Shirayuki was like an exercise of after work relaxation for many people. Sometimes you need a complex piece of fiction, but other times you just need something heartwarming and optimistic. Shirayuki definitely filled that void for me (while also just been really well put together in general), so I was clamoring for the second season even before the first one aired its final episode. So, did the second season live up to my high expectations?

ERASED – Overall Impressions

Disclaimer: This post contains some very, very minor spoilers. Also in case you need a brief plot summary, I’ve linked one in the opening paragraph. Just click on the first mention of the show’s title and that should take you to it’s MAL page.

Last season I covered a show called The Perfect Insider: A Noitamina block mystery anime produced by A-1 Pictures that was a fascinating character drama with a downplayed mystery– at least until the ending came around and ruined everything. And today I’ll be covering ERASED (otherwise known as Boku dake ga Inai Machi): A Noitamina block mystery anime produced by A-1 Pictures that is a fascinating character drama throughout a majority of its short runtime– at least until it’s tenth episode where it stumbles and then disappoints a majority of its audience… Huh. That’s weirdly similar.

Ushio and Tora – Overall Impressions

Modern day adaptations of very 90’s material have become increasingly popular over the past few years of anime. Ever since the release of the new Hunter x Hunter adaptation in 2011, more and more of these shows have been popping up. Parasyte is one of the major examples, which I personally found to be a disappointing mess. I’ve had a really hard time pinpointing what made that show fall apart at the end of its run. I mean on a lot of levels the show was fundamentally the same as it was at the beginning. Sometimes I wondered if they didn’t do enough to modernize the material, or maybe the modernization was the problem itself. Well, apparently Studio MAPPA heard my idiotic questions, and they decided to take their own stab at the topic by producing a show based off another critically successful 90’s shonen manga, Ushio and Tora. So, how does this attempt fare overall?

Winter 2016 Decisions

Ok, we aren’t gonna try to even excuse our output lately. With school starting up again and other interests on the side, we just haven’t found the time to post when we want too. Not to mention this season hasn’t been too exciting when it comes to new releases, so we’ll mostly be focusing on catching up to half a year of posts. As for me, i’ve gotten into a slew of older anime and even caught up to a lot cartoons (Rick and Morty, Steven Universe, Star vs the forces of evil, Gravity Falls). And to top it all off, the new year brought us the end of the most popular anime podcast, PODTAKU! It was quite the shock to see them break off as they were part of what motivated me to form this blog. But even with the lack of members, I still would like this blog to survive. We might start changing focus if necessary so that all anime are included, but for now we’ll try keeping it running the way it is at least until summer. I’ll try pushing out posts for more current shows and add posts for those from last year in between. Thanks for your patience and here’s our choices. (In the meantime, check out Stuart’s personal blog An Overlooking View)

Shokugeki no Soma Really Quick Wrap Up

To be honest, my plan was to make this longer.  but due to time restraints (and my personal laziness included), I decided to just wrap this up.

I love this show I really do and no amount of my words will let me express that.  So here are my quick previews on the rest of the show.

Tsukimonogatari + AssClass ep 12-22 impressions

Happy New Year to you all! Hope you’ve all had a great time with family and friends, and hope you’ve all seen STAR WARS! We’re truly thankful with your patience thus far and hope our recent posts have met your expectations. Here’s a blast from the past and a signal to catch up. The surprise became too long to fit here, so expect an entire post for that.