Fate/Zero Analytical Review

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Haro Is Useful! (Also Hi, I’m A New Writer)

Hello, I’m Conrad’s (Digiho’s?) younger brother, Iconclasm (AKA Victor). I’m finally being forced to do posts for his blog because I actually keep up with current anime while he’s busy snorting pony crack and doing… whatever it is he actually does. I’m a big mecha dork and I generally end up enjoying any show I sit down and watch. I’m not totally sure what kind of posts I’ll be making, but I will try to make them not suck.

It May Be 2012, But I’m Finishing the Fall 2011 Season Here and Now

[Week 1] [2] [3] [4] [Halftime] [8] [9] [10]

So ends the first and last season that I’ve ever blogged from start to finish. I may have missed a few weeks, but what’s important is that I covered the first episodes, last episodes, and many in-between episodes of these shows, and that’s more than I could ever say about a season before. My off-puttance of these final episodes wasn’t only caused by my current gaming addiction—a little over a week ago, I got sick and had a hard time trying to watch anything. Even now, I’m still hard of hearing in my left ear for reasons unknown to me, which is dampening my viewing experience. Nonetheless, I’ve persevered to arrive here tonight.

A disclosure: I haven’t watched the last three episodes of Mashiro-iro Symphony, nor the last two episodes of Working’!!. The reason is that I don’t give a shit about said shows and am not up to watching them. I’ll finish Working’!! because my little brother will make me, but I don’t intend on returning for a third season if such a thing comes to pass. That out of the way…

After all the rum I drank last night, the phrase "release the kraken!" is nightmare fuel.

Fate/Zero (S1 Conclusion): This show was all the A-class entertainment I expected it to be. Rider rode away with the show in terms of dialog and character presence, but that’s not to forget how interesting Kotomine, Kiritsugu, Archer, and others have turned out to be. Plus all that suit-wearing Saber. Fate/Zero doesn’t have the exciting, fresh, masterpiece quality of Madoka, but it’s so fucking good and well-made that certainly deserves hearty recommendation. Take this chance to get all of your friends into it before the show returns in April.

Ben-to (Conclusion): I had a ton of fun with this series. The first half was definitely better than the second, but the show still ended in a very satisfying way, and very much deserves a second season. It had the kind of cool and spicy bombast that you can only get from shows like Durarara!!, and while it’s nowhere near that level of greatness, it’s still very worthwhile. Yarizui Sen saved it in terms of characters, stealing the best dialog in the ending while still sick and bedridden.

Un-Go (Conclusion): At the very least, Aikawa Sho didn’t fuck up the ending like he almost always does, albeit it would’ve been pretty impressive to screw this one up. Un-Go was consistently interesting and somewhat entertaining, and the conclusion was satisfying. I just never cared about anything in the show and can already barely remember most of it (I finished this show a week ago).

Sorry it’s so short and sweet, but that concludes my Fall 2011 coverage. I will not cover Winter 2012, nor do I even know what I may or may not watch.

It’s Almost Over… Fall 2011 Week Ten

Ten sounds like a reliable number. Yes, Fall is almost over, and so is 2011 as a whole! It’s December now, which means time for me to go ballistic with anime watching like I did last year. I’ve got a ton of shows lined up so it’s going to be a lot of fun. In the midst of everything, I almost lost track of the new season, but it’s way too close to the end to give up now. That said, I’ve gone ahead and preemptively dropped Persona 4 without watching episode nine. After reading ak’s post, I decided it wasn’t worth putting myself through that for a show I’m not even into. That aside, here’s Regularly Scheduled Programming.

Continued Coverage of Fall 2011 Anime (No Effort, Everything Together)

Since it’s hard to decide what week it is, today’s post title is a shout-out to some guy that thinks I put effort into my posts. The weeks got jumbled because at first I was making these posts on Friday before the new Fate/Zero, Working!!, and Ben-to, but now I’m making them on Sunday after those shows, so the episode numbers are all over the place. It seems like every week I’ve got more grouped at the end, with this week having me watch all of the new episodes at once, simply because I spent most of the week watching Fullmetal Alchemist and Sky Girls, and trying to watch Gosick which was impossible. I think Kujo is possibly the worst male lead I’ve ever witnessed. Anyways, here’s continued coverage.

Fall 2011 Week… Eight? Still Watching: Ben-to, Fate/Zero, Mashiro-iro Symphony, Working’!!, Persona 4, and Un-Go

We’re deep in it now. At this point, it would be rather meaningless to drop any of these shows, although I’m quite willing to drop a show in its final stretch if it pisses me off enough. For now, though, I wanna keep the faith and believe I can ride these shows to the end, making this the first season I’ve ever watched and blogged from start to finish. It’s exciting!

Totally Not Behind On: Fall 2011 – Halftime Report (OR Makin’ Deals)

All that punctuation in the title is my way of foreshadowing the eventual return of my Serial Experiments Lain episodics, as demanded by animekritik, whose relevance to the title is twofold: I’ve struck a deal with him. In exchange for his watching Ben-to, I picked up Persona 4. This was the best deal I’ve ever made.

It’s halftime! All things considered, I’m not doing that bad! I missed weeks five and six entirely save for Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, which I watched and posted about, meanwhile skipping a whole post that could’ve been written about episode four of Ben-to. But let’s leave that and all this meta behind and get on with it!

Fall 2011 Week Four – The Short Version

Short because after those first three weeks, there’s not much new to say—the shows are going to be consistently awesome/bad now, so no point in talking about every single episode unless something special happens. Also, I’m prepping for Nanowrimo 2011 so blogging isn’t at the top of my concerns right now. Here’s the short version:

Shows I dropped:

Last Exile – Ginyoku no Fam (ep 2): I find it ceaselessly ugly and boring. Hate to say it, but I don’t get what some people are finding to like about this show. Not even Toyosaki Aki is doing it for me here.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! (ep 4): There’s little visually happening except fanservice that isn’t attractive. The dialog can be okay but eh—don’t care enough to continue. I feel like there’s nothing here I can’t get in the package that is Gintama.

Guilty Crown (ep 3): I had my fun but yeah, this show is as stupid as Fractale.

Shows I didn’t drop:

Ben-to (ep 3): Dialog and directing are constantly exciting and everything else falls into place with that.

Fate/Zero (ep 4): Omo mentioned “DBZ formula,” which is a good way of putting it. For that kind of fighting it’s of course top notch—but that kind of fighting is usually something I endure in anime, not look forward to. But I’m not ready to fault this show with anything yet.

Mashiro-iro Symphony (ep 4): It continues to feel like a harem show with the spirit of Hidamari Sketch living inside of it. Only problem is, what’s up with character personality whiplash? Reign that shit in.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai (ep 4): Rika is overpowered—she’s way too good for this show, and I suspect will dominate every scene she’s in. As an aside. Hanazawa Kana had just a couple of lines in this ep and all of those were amazing. But I’m surprised I even remember that after the GUNDAM X UNIT02 SEX SCENE.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE (ep 3): Ghostlightning is certainly right that this episode proves the show good. I still won’t be into it until it moves along, which it’ll surely do now.

Working’!! (ep 4): Was I wrong that this season is something different? It’s seeming more and more like the same old Working, though at least it still hasn’t been about Inami and Takanashi’s relationship yet.

Un-Go (ep 3): This show is always straddling a line between totally fascinating and totally awkward/unapproachable. As a result I find myself saying “this show is so well-directed” and then in the next scene, “what the hell’s up with this directing?” I dunno but I’m still interested.

Fall 2011 Week Three (Never Exercise Extensive Triteness)

[W1] [Week Two (Next Episode: Enticing Tidbits]

Today, please welcome my new guest writer, who’ll be running her column in these weekly posts for as long as is necessary. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Remilia Scarlet’s Chopping Block!

Fall 2011 Week Two (Next Episode: Enticing Tidbits)

[Week One (Because NEET Stands For “Nothing Except Excessive Time”)]

One way to be sure this gets done: write it as the week goes along! Like last week, this week has been an emotional mood-whiplash rollercoaster, but through it all there’s always time for watching and blogging anime (and making music). Not sleeping helps! Worth mentioning: I finally got my driver’s license this week! Woohoo!

We’ll do the shows in the order that I enjoyed this week’s episode.