I always liked reading through this thread on /r/anime. Hope I’m not breaking some sort of etiquette by creating it here. I guess if kbin keeps exploding, this will get buried in a few days anyway.
- Aku no Hana (2013) - A psychological horror/drama about a boy and a girl who commit acts of social rebellion together in order to uncover the “deviant” sides of their souls. Worth watching for: its unique rotoscoped animation, unique concept, sense of constantly impending doom, soundtrack, and its secondhand cringe that rivals and surpasses that of NHK ni Youkoso! It’s not a show you turn on to be lightly entertained by, it’s a little heavier and not good second-screen watching. Caveat: the anime adaptation is incomplete - it teases a 2nd season that presumably would have given us a proper conclusion
- Chobits (2002) - A sci-fi rom-com set in a 2002 version of Japan where lifelike androids called Persocoms are commonplace. It’s about our earnest and honest MC falling in love with a kuudere Persocom. Worth watching for: its S++++ tier OP and ED, upbeat classic pop/rock soundtrack, best mascot character Sumomo, good direction, good English dub (if you’re into that), and cheery and likable characters. Also of note, this was the following project that the director of Cardcaptor Sakura worked on immediately after finishing that series.
Symphogear
This show was a narrative mess until season 4/5, and had some slightly problematic scenes early on, but I can’t help but love it. It has such a rough start but continues to improve, and was probably the most hyped I’ve ever been watching a show.
Girls und Panzer
A ridiculous show, like Symphogear, but man are the tank fights real fun to watch. Still working through the Das Finale short films, and I’ve been enjoying it.
86
Watched a couple episodes of this and damn it’s so good. The plot is great and the characters are fun. It can be real heavy hitting at times. Can’t wait to watch more.
As a huge Kill la Kill fan, I really, really, really wanted to like Symphogear, especially since I have seen so many recommendations along the lines of “If you liked KLK, you will love Symphogear!”
And after watching the excellent 1st episode of season 1, my expectations were sky high and I couldn’t wait to see what they had waiting for us next. Sadly, I felt like the overall season plot had serious issues, the show could not consistently find a way to harness its chaotic/absurd energy, the animation got derpy really quickly after around the 3rd episode, and the ending (the final final scene in the last episode) did not land for me.
Nonetheless, I still very much appreciated the setting, the music and the overall creative idea for it. If it starts to come together in the later seasons, maybe I will pick it back up. I didn’t hate it, I just had really high expectations for it and it didn’t quite get there for me.
I’ve only seen the first few episodes of GuP, and that was years ago, I barely remember anything about it except for the cafe the girls go to in episode 1 that has the tank desserts roll out on a conveyor belt, lol.
86 I watched right after it finished airing, so I was able to binge it all in one go. I thought the first part was fine, but I almost dropped it since it didn’t seem like it was worth the hype. However, I thought part two was one of the best cours I’ve seen in years. It was so good I watched the whole thing again right after finishing it.