blog好き

May 01 2013

Categories: seasonal thin slicing
Tagged: attack on titan, gargantia, hataraku maou-sama, hayate the combat butler, oreimo, toaru kagaku no railgun

26 Comments »

GONNA MAKE YOU SWEAT!

Like a clock running slow, the granddaddy of gimmick posts is once again upon us. That’s right– thin slicing has returned!

Thin slicing is based off of Malcom Gladwell’s Blink, a book about– OH FUCK IT. YOU’VE READ THIS SAME BOILERPLATE FOR EIGHT YEARS NOW. You either get how this works by now or not. And, yes, I’ve been writing thin slicing posts since 2005 where I ranked Nanoha A‘s over Mai Otome. Back in 2005, I had a lot more free time to watch anime and blog, so I am a lot pickier at what I watch to completion. Younger me may have watched Hayate Cuties to completion, older me is like, “They use the Hayate crossdressing trump card way too soon. Pass.” Older me is like, “I rather take my puppy for a walk than watch another episode of Red Data Girl.”

Back to this season, there’s a lot of shows. A lot. And, interestingly enough, none from the big guns, especially Kyoto, which is its first season without a project in years. For people who want to know how this ranking is done, I suggest reading last season’s explanation. If you’re like, “This show is ranked too high!” or “Too low!” then, well, you obviously don’t know how this works. For every show high, there has to be a low. Deal with it.

Quick recap from last season: I ended up falling asleep during the last episode of Sasami-san. And I gained 50 pounds from eating mochi non-stop.

#MR IRRELEVANT. Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride
Arms, “KOBUN”

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride is a fairly unredeeming fanservice show. There’s a lot of tits and asses, but there’s not much else to this show. Don’t people understand if we want tits and asses, we can just look for them on the interwebs? For fanservice to mean something, we have to connect with the characters, which is one reason why Kanbaru lounging nakkid or Arararagi bathing with Shinbou is good fanservice, and this show isn’t. The plot revolves around present day (?) Japan, where a dojo slash meido cafe run by a group of historical samurai genderswapped into nubile young haremettes (stop me if you heard this before) fight another group of historical samurai genderswapped into nubile young haremettes. I don’t really understand the appeal of genderswapping historical samurai, but it’s getting old. Can we at least get an anime about genderswapped American Civil War generals? Lee would be a total tsundere, Grant would be a wrathful loli, Sherman would be the ojou-sama, and Lincoln would be a flower girl. I would totally watch at least an episode of it.

(Who writes this stuff? Oh right, Akira Suzuki, who has Lime-Iro Sekitan and Happy Lesson on his resume.)

(The cel shading makes this show seem like a giant mess. There’s too much greys and blacks for a show that is supposed to be about fanservice. Just a bit deary. It’s like if we tried to launch a goth cooking show, but used nothing but Martha Stewart pastel kitchenware for it.)

#20. Arata: The Legend
Satelight / JM Animation, Kenji Yasuda / Woo Hyun Park

First off, the animation for Arata: The Legend is atrocious. It made my HDTV cry. It’s on par with Studio Deen back in the last 00’s… that’s how terrible it is. The character designs are also terrible, with the basic faces and bodies looking similar with only fabulous wardrobes separating the huge amount of male characters. The show is also not very interesting as somehow a dude in modern Japan named Arata gets switched with a dude in a fantasy world with the same name. Uh, okay. There’s not a lot of reason given early on to care for the characters nor is there really any explanation of what’s going on in this world that would cause people to switch bodies. The show feels too mechanical as it is just connecting the dots rather than trying to tell a story. (*cough* Demon King and Hero *cough*) I feel like this is a show that would do better if it were slower paced and made us care for the characters before having their lives shat on.

(I thought this show was a dark comedy at first with one of the characters being totally emo and the other crossdressing. Nope. Also, even though Satelight is mentioned as the studio, most of the work seems to be done by JM Animation, which is a Korean house, and they are apparently terrible.)

#19. Red Data Girl
PA Works, Toshiya Shinohara

I feel asleep during RDG, and that was pretty much enough for me. The animation by PA Works (remember when they were supposed to challenge Kyoto?) is not their best, and it is definitely not True Tears (five years old!) or Angel Beats level. The main girl, Izumiko, likes to stick her head forward a little bit. The main guy, Sagara, is a major asshole. He’s supposed to protect her since she’s some special maiden (Chidori/Sagara? Kagome/Inuyahsa? Sasami/Onii-chan?). It’s not an original setup, and there’s not an interesting hook. Bland characters, bland animation, bland plot… makes me sleepy. Though if we were ranking shows for curing my insomnia, this show would do quite well.

(A bit disappointing since the scriptwriter is Michiko Yokote, the group responsible for Princess Tutu, Genshiken, Hare+Guu, Xxxholic, and the Aa! Megami-sama movie. Then again, the original material by Noriko Ogiwara might just be weak.)

#18. Mushibugyo
Seven Arcs, Takayuki Hamana (Prince of Tennis)

I don’t get why almost every female character in Shonen Sunday manga have ridiculous bosoms. Does the audience of Shonen Sunday care about boobs if they’re reading Mushibugyo or One Piece? Or is it because 13 year olds are entranced by boobs, but they don’t fully understand why? I mean, if we compare average bra sizes for Shonen Sunday manga vs. popular harem dating sims, I wonder which would be larger? Anyway, Mushibugyo (get it? BUG BUG YO!) is boring. It’s about a plucky group of superheroes who battle huge insects in feudal Tokyo. It’s perfect as a 7:30am Saturday morning cartoon, and that’s about it. Just sandwich it between Pokemon and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic.

#17. Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince
Dogakobo, Keitaro Motonaga

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince is a lackluster mecha space combat show in a season that has some more interesting takes on the mecha space combat genre. I think my main issue with this show is that it doesn’t make any logical sense even in the confines of the series. Hey, let’s take our worst students and then make them pilot these ultra powerful mecha. I mean, at least try to explain it like “Oh, our mecha can only be piloted by horny teenaged boys, clones, red heads with eyepatches, or gay friends of said horny teenaged boys.” This show doesn’t; it just tosses random shit out there just so we can have purple explosions in space (the name of my next album will be “Purple Explosions in Space”). The mecha combat is also Gundam-class nonsense with a few ultrapowerful suits able to destroy an entire fleet that another fleet couldn’t destroy. But then I thought about it some more, and I think the main issue of this show is that it can’t decide if it wants to be a funny parody or a serious drama, so it tries to do both, but it doesn’t work. Either go the funny route and be like Nadesico, or go serious and be like Break Blade, but don’t try to do both. Sure, Gurren Lagann pulled it off, but Majestic Prince is no Gurren Lagann. It’s not even a Muv-Luv Alternative.

(Colors to distinguish mecha? It was boring when Vandread tried to do it.)

#16. Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge
Studio Gokumi, Yuji Yamaguchi

Most striking thing about Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge is that it makes no apologies for the main character’s hair fetish. My gosh. It gives Nisemonogatari‘s toothbrushing a run for its money. The main character gets off cutting hair using a knife that his ancestor used to kill people. Apparently, these weapons can kill again! I don’t really understand the whole “killing tools” concept as why can’t they kill people with new weapons or guns? Why does the girl need to get her hair cut almost every episode? Does the main character like to use his own jizz for hair mousse? The whole show is silly, and the romance between the main characters seem quite awkward, as any romance centered around hair cutting should. On the bright side, the animation is average, and the hair fetish is at a so bad it’s good level.

(Studio Gokumi is a studio founded by former Gonzo staffers. And it shows… A Channel? Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!? The Ambition of Oda Nobuna? Not exactly teaming with great anime, more like a Sentai Filmworks bargain bin. Oh wait…)

#15. Photokano
Madhouse, Akitoshi Yokoyama

Photokano is about a guy who gets a seven year old camera and joins a club that specializes in taking creep shots. The premise is either uninspired or rage-inducing (nothing like dispelling the myth that anime is misogynist than an anime that promotes and glorifies creep shots… hey, take creep shots like this guy, and you can have any girl you want!), the animation is below average, and the photography is terrible.

(I am still raging about how he gets like super zoom photos, yet it’s obvious he is using a kit lens. Gimme a break. Guilty Crown‘s Japan is more realistic than the photography in this show.)

#14. Date A Live
AIC PLUS+, Keitaro Motonaga

Date A Live is like a cocktail of anime. It has the mecha from Sky Girls/Strike Witches, the ridiculous setup of Asura Cryin’, battles of Fate/Stay Night, and the capturing mechanics of The World God Only Knows. Yep. You guessed it: little sister leads an organization that uses Strike Witches to hunt down evil spirit heroes. This doesn’t go too well, so she goes with plan B, which is make the evil spirit heroes fall in love with her older brother. He then “captures” them on day-tos. The show is crazy and ridiculous and doesn’t take itself very seriously. For that, I give it credit. But it’s just not good as none of the concepts really go well together, and plot points are really just sideshows to an almost non-stop cavalcade of panty and fanservice shots. I think I would have liked this show more if it picked a direction: either be full on serious or go Sora no Otoshimono-style perverted comedy. But don’t try to do both.

#13. Devil Survivor 2 The Animation
Bridge, Seiji Kishi (Persona 4 The Animation)

Devil Survivor 2 is pretty much as generic as action anime gets, and it’s fairly standard as an RPG turned anime. The animation is okay at best, the fights are ridiculous (turn-based RPGs make for terrible battle sequences), and the characters are so generic, they might as well be named Plucky Shonen A, Plucky Shonen B, and Plucky Shoujo A. I guess my main problem with the show is that there’s no urgency. I remember playing this game long ago, and it had urgency to it, but I don’t sense that from the anime. I also don’t like the characters are able to travel so much early on, which seems to be against the game. I thought Seiji Kishi did as well as possible with any RPG turned anime with Persona, but without Persona‘s quirkiness and animation budget, Devil Survivor 2 is pretty much dead out of the water. Welcome to the bargain bin, Devil Survivor.

#12. Hayate the Combat Butler Cuties
Manglobe, Masashi Kudo

Hayate the Combat Butler trudges along like Hidamari Sketch. You’re either in or out at this point, and you’re probably out. Hayate is much the same slow as last season, except this Love Hina-style dormitory thing is a desperate attempt to shake things up (like the A-Team introducing the Hispanic character in season five), and it doesn’t work. It just becomes yet another low calorie harem comedies in a sea of low calorie harem comedies. The show hasn’t evolved, the cast is way too big, and most of the jokes are just in-jokes between characters (wait, did I just describe The Simpsons… actually, this would also apply to TWGOK…at some point, the cast just gets too unwieldy). This franchise a bit of a breather or a swift kick in the ass at this point.

(Warning sign? They break out almost all of the big guns early on. Broken Hayate? Hinagiku and Maria fanservice? Izumi being lost?! You don’t see Oreimo piling on Kirino panty sh– nevermind.)

#11. Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san
Tatsunoko Production, Tatsuya Yoshihara

For what it is, Mermaid-san On the Shore (波打際のむろみさん) isn’t bad. It’s a lightweight, 15 minute comedy about a guy and a mermaid. The gags aren’t always impressive, but they are occasionally funny, the show is well-animated, and it’s a low calorie snack. If you’re expecting moe, fanservice, deep Game of Thrones-like plots, or action, this show isn’t for you. However, if you’re looking for 15 minutes to kill, and you’ve enjoyed Maico 2010 or REC, then this show is worth a spin.

#10. Yuyushiki
Kinema Citrus, “Kaori”

Yuyushiki is definitely born out of K-On!‘s success. I can only imagine Kinema Citrus going, “Hey, if they can turn a 4-koma about a light music club into a juggernaut, we can at least do okay with a 4-koma about a Data Processing Club.” Yep. Data Processing Club. You read that right, bitches. Unfortunately, I don’t know what goes into a Data Processing Club (I would assume statistics and a lot of Origin or Matlab), but it seems like the three main girls just google crap and comment about it. It’s basically a sanitized for otaku version of Adam Carolla’s podcast visualized via three high school girls. The show isn’t bad nor good, as it’s a lightweight comedy, and it does that fairly well. The show doesn’t try to be more than what it is, and the animation is passable for 2013.

(My favorite moment thus far is when the girls run into a flyer for the Data Processing Club that basically said, “Join us! We have no members!” Who made that flyer, and how they can join “us” if there’s no members in the club? I want to know.)

(Also, Horie Yui voices the mousy cute teacher, which is the only other kind of teacher [other being sexy teacher] in this season’s shows. Then I realized Horie Yui is 36 years old. Wow, I feel like it was only yesterday that I was praising her performance in Love Hina.)

#9. The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat
JC Staff, Youhei Suzuki

My earliest memory of Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko (変態王子と笑わない猫) is over a year ago, I was riding BART, and I noticed the person in the seat in front of me was reading a Japanese light novel. I only recognized “hentai” and “cat” on the cover, so I googled it… and found out about this series. The story, I feel, has it wrong. The main trio of characters make a wish to a stony cat the beginning of the series that swaps their personality. The problem is that, originally, the characters had less common personalities, i.e. the girl that was a bit secretly perverted, the guy was a Shinji Ikari-level coward with the fake confidence of Kamina, and mystery girl. Then they swap and become typical pervert loser male lead, quite girl, and, well, this character imported directly from another franchise.

(Animation by JC Staff is above average. It is many steps up from Little Busters. Key, was it really worth it to not wait for Kyoto and settle for JC Staff’s B-team? Couldn’t you at least gotten A-1 or AIC?)

#8. Aku no Hana
Zexcs, Hiroshi Nagahama (Mushishi, Jubei-chan 2)

I decided it was tough to rank Aku no Hana. I seem to fall asleep whenever I try to watch it, which normally results in a terrible ranking, but I do kinda want to see why the hell did Zexcs decide to rotoscope this show. I don’t know how I feel about this show. On one hand, I don’t like the rotoscoping because it’s too distracting, but I do understand how ridiculous the production values are for this show. Then again, would this show be less interesting without the rotoscoping? Is that what makes it interesting? I don’t know. It’s hard to separate how I feel about this show from the rotoscoping… you know the end of A Time To Kill when Matthew McConaughey tells a story about how a little girl is brutally raped and killed… and then he reveals that it was a white girl rather than a black girl, and it made everyone gasp? Well, that’s rotoscoping and Aku no Hana. They’re like the trial in A Time to Kill and race.

(Also, I dislike how Zexcs rotoscopes but cheaps out too often. There’s too many scenes where background characters or even main ones get a frozen frame from too long. I can only imagine how sparse the rotoscoping will get by episode eleven. If you’re going to rotoscope, do it well, and don’t overpower the plot with it. I don’t know if this show is the next Paranoia Agent, but at least keep me interested somehow until the plot kicks in. Also, how they decide to fill in faces or not… well… even Shinbo is cringing.)

(Oh, yeah, the plot. Seems typical anime fare. When you devote an entire episode to angst poetry and then follow it up with an episode about stealing gym clothes, well, I’m ready for some giant mecha action.)

#7. Valvrave the Liberator
Sunrise, Ko Matsuo

Valvrave the Liberator is terrible. It makes no sense. The plot is a poor man’s Gundam Seed, and the logic and decision making make the cast of Code Geass seem like Lannisters and Tyrells. But I don’t care. It’s grade A train wreck material not seen since Code Geass and Guilty Crown. By this time, you know what you’re getting: nonsense, giant mecha destroying everything, useless high school student friends, emo main character who vacillates between various archetypes by episode, romance elements that make Photokano seem like Scarlett O’Hara and Rhett Butler, and people coming back from the dead. And now body-controlling vampires. What will Ichirou Okouchi come up with next? Valvrave is not something to watch because we want character development or suspenseful storylines, it’s for the OMFG moments like when Suzaku couldn’t stop spinning or when Shu became, literally, Hitler. That’s why you watch something like Valvrave, the Honey Boo Boo of anime.

(For all the people going, “Wait, how can you rank Valvrave over _____?!” Well, I like train wreck. Some people like mindless Shonen Sunday action. Some people like yaoi. Some people like to stick eels up their ass. I like train wreck anime. And if you’re still reading this blog, you probably enjoy it too. Or at least are tsundere for it.)

#6. My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
Brains Base, Ai Yoshimura

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru (やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている, Hamachi) is yet another terribly named anime. When I first watched this show, it seemed like any old boring harem comedy. And then I watched another… and another… and it started growing on me. It’s basically a homeless man’s Haruhi Suzumiya. There’s a club that doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose, random people tossed into said club, and a loser male lead who internalizes a lot of things in a Kyon way (while despising the nubile haremette club leader who he secretly wants to bang). The show is also somewhat cognizant that it is an average harem comedy. It makes no apologizes for showcasing tropes or making fun of them. I would say Hamachi hits all the right buttons for a harem comedy. It has just the right combination of male lead/female lead tension, the right amount of cheesiness, and the right amount of fanservice. But what this show really has is probably the second greatest (behind Sunohara, of course, with a toilet seat cover) wingman to the male lead: Zaimokuza, voiced by Nobuyuki Hiyama (Viral!) doing Viral things. My gosh, he is awesome.

(Just me or is “eighth grade syndrome” being brought up a lot this season? Is it because of Chu2 popularizing the term? Basically, Zaimokuza is Viral with a huge eighth grade syndrome, and the poor harem lead is trying not to let Zaimokuza drag him back into his Dark Flame Master days.)

(I also enjoyed the resolution of the tennis episode. ROOKIE OF THE YEAR!!! I’m easily impressed with movie plots from the 90s.)

#5. A Certain Scientific Railgun S
JC Staff, Tatsuyuki Nagai

We know what we’re getting from Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S: Kuroko being creepy, Saten being Saten, a lot of explosions, arcs that vacillate between below average and above average, spoilers and fripSide galore in the opening, and a low calorie action show with comedic elements. It’s more like Nash Bridges or 21 Jump Street than Homicide or New York Undercover. I actually like the Railgun branch more than the Index tree because I like Misaka more than Kamijou. The final fight at the end of Railgun‘s second cours was excellent while Kamijou solves 60% of his battles by just sticking his hand out. Plus, Railgun has an anime X-Men-ish feel, which felt more like X-Men than the X-Men anime. Also, JC Staff does a good job at translating the material, maintaining pacing, and not skimping too much on animation for this franchise. It has to be their workhorse now that Shana is over.

(You’d think with so many perverts and peepers in anime that there would be more female characters who wear shorts under their miniskirts. Is Misaka the only one?! Does this automatically make her the most sensible haremette in anime?)

#4. Ore no Imōto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai 2
A-1, Hiroyuki Kanbe

You’re either in or out on Oreimo (俺妹) at this point, and I’m totally in. (Same goes for Nyaruko and Haganai. You’re either in or out on them at this point. You don’t need a thin slicing post to tell you if you need to watch them.) This second season doesn’t feel as fresh and interesting as the first season as Kirino and Kyosuke already have an understanding with each other, so I am just hoping for more otaku-based hijinks. And maybe some subtle incest. We got a really great character episode about Saori, which got my hopes up that we’ll flesh out the brokeness of all the characters… but then we get the most tropetastic of all second season tropes: new character! My gosh. You know how Lois and Clark, X-Files, and The Office all went downhill once the sexual tension between the main characters was resolved? That’s Oreimo, except the trip to America seemed to have reset Kirino’s and Kyosuke’s relationship in an attempt to have tension. But it doesn’t work. All the character growth from the first season went poof for no good reason, and it feels weird that four episodes in, Kuroneko and Manami are like cutout background characters. It’s like the show turned into a generic harem comedy. I still have hope, while clutching my Meruru plushie.

(Is it weird that I want Kyosuke to end up with Ayase? I’m in a super minority as Kuroneko gets like 60% of Oreimo fanart, Kirino 30%, and everyone else the leftovers. She’s the perfect pick to annoy Kirino, and once Kyosuke goes with Ayase, wouldn’t that lead to possibly getting Kirino jealous enough to make her want Kyosuke as well? They also have an interesting Jessie Spano/AC Slater dynamic, which was way more interesting than Kelly/Zack, which is more Kuroneko/Kyosuke pairing. Saori is wonderful, but she’s too boring when paired with Kyosuke. I’m in this for entertainment value people. This is why I cheer for terrible life decisions in Mai Otome. Nothing more soap opera-ish than Kirino walking into Kyosuke’s room as he’s in a moment of passion with Ayase as Ayase is moaning, “Onii-chan~”.)

(The show is also getting a bit Shafty with the self-references, like the otaku boys “hoping for a third season.”)

#3. Attack on Titan
Wit Studio (Production IG), Tetsurou Araki (Guilty Crown, High School of the Dead, Death Note)

The number one best thing about Attack on Titan (進撃の巨人, Shingeki no Kyojin) is the opening, Linked Horizon’s Guren no Yumiya. Besides fitting the show really well and feeling like a throwback opening to something from the mid to late 90s, the shit works with everything. Everything. Beyond the opening, the concept of a world overrun with titans is intriguing, and it has a similar feel Tales of the Jedi where Ulic Qel-Droma was dispatched to Onderon to mediate a conflict in a world that had developed into a huge walled city because of the monsters that roamed outside the walls. Of course, it turns out that the real monsters are humans (which, I suspect, is what titans are… I mean, steam coming out of the advanced one? I am guessing they are huge mecha). Still, it’s an interesting world that could be fleshed out better. The prologue is a bit rushed, and it makes the protagonist seem like whiney brat instead of making us feel for his plight. Okay, I get it. His mom was eaten by a titan. At least go through the stages of grief instead of just anger, anger, and more anger. If anything is going to sink this show, it’s going to be Wit Studio. There’s some really impressive 3D scenes and some great animation, but there’s also some really lackluster animation. And as I stated before, the pacing is a bit off. Some of the plot points are also really stupid, like why the protagonist had issue training with the 3D gear initially. But you know what worries me the most? Wit is recruiting animators on Twitter. Wait, they didn’t have enough staff to start with? Are we going to be getting recap episodes in a few weeks?

(Mitigating factor: I do like all the thrusting. The 3D gear makes it looks like everything is just thrusting into space. Did anyone tell the animation department that, “Hey, just so you know, it looks like all the humans attacking the titan really look like they’re trying to fuck his nose.”)

#2. Suisei no Gargantia
Production IG, Kazuya Murata

The first ten minutes of Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet (翠星のガルガンティア) were horrible. The show tosses you into an incomprehensible intergalatic battle with boatloads of jargon that it makes you feel like you just walked into ME480, Advanced Thermodynamics for Sadists. I was pretty bored. Then… the show shifted to its After Earth setting (What is with 2013 and After Earth settings? This show? Oblivion? After Earth?)… and it became a lot more interesting. A bit of Eureka 7, a bit of Gundam Seed Destiny (especially the part where Ledo tries his damned best not to kill anyone with his pew pew mecha), a lot of Waterworld, and a bit Pokemon (the villains in this show are about as dynamic as Team Rocket… and, yes, they do blast off again). Production IG delivers some satisfying visuals (but a bit ridiculous mecha designs), Gen Urobuchi is scripting, and there’s not much going against it at the moment.

(Is Gen Urobuchi the Joss Whedon of anime? We’ll find out this series, especially when Amy is killed. Anyway, one thing I liked about the start of the show is that he put in a language barrier. Not enough shows have language barriers… like how the hell did someone get transported into another world a la Arata immediately understand the native language?)

#1. Hataraku Maou-sama!
White Fox, Naoto Hosoda (Shuffle)

Out of all the shows this season, the one that Usain Bolt’ed out of the gates is Hataraku Maou-sama! (はたらく魔王さま, The Devil Is A Part-Timer!). Just has it. What is it? Well, this show has it. It is hard to describe, but it encompasses comedy, competent animation, interesting characters, comedy, great pacing, not sucking, and more comedy. Since I have already sung the praises of the show, I’ll just leave this here.

(I consider Hataraku Maou-sama! a great support anime. Analog would be either Windrunner or Ezalor. Really strong early on, maintains presences all through the season, won’t end in a blaze of galaxy-ending glory, but it’ll make some great early plays that you’ll remember fondly. Attack on Titan is the hardest of carries, like Spectre or Faceless Void. It’s either going to be the best show of the season or the most disappointing, and, most likely, disappointing. But feel free to prove me wrong! Gargantia is a softer carry like Naix or Gyrocopter. There’s a lot of promise, and it doesn’t need to do much to fulfill it. Basically, keep the fucking Hideous out of the show as the trope and jargon-tastic space apocalypse is the absolute worst part of the show. Photokano, of course, would be Bloodseeker. I wonder how badly this paragraph would age in a year…)

Finally, three small sample size MVPs of the season…

1. Tomokazu Sugita, Kyon, as Chamber is excellent. Really enjoying his work, and, really, the whole evolution of Ledo learning the language has been really, really well done. I like how Ledo starts speaking a bit for easy stuff, but he goes back to his native language with Chamber translating without missing a beat.

2. Linked Horizon’s Guren no Yumiya. It has inspired genius.

3. My puppy. For not judging me when I scream things like, “Fuck no! Don’t waste your demonic power on making french fries! No!” and “Did he just jizz in his pants? He just touched her hair!”