Scars Unseen

Yeah, that's pretty much what I mean by it needing to be 2-cour. It touched on a couple of issues, but treated them as episodic throw-away content. The show needed more room to breathe and establish some world-building.

Okay, so that ending just bumped my opinion of Plastic Memories up a few notches. It wasn't the show I was expecting to get, but for what it was, it was well executed. I do think it would have been better as a 2-cour show, but we can't have everything...

I've kind of got mixed feelings about Plastic Memories. It wasn't anything at all like what I was expecting. I don't hate it, but I'll probably forget about it down the road. It was enjoyable and that's all. Given it had the scenario writer from Steins;Gate on board, I was expecting more than that. Still worth a watch though.

Sachi from Grisaia no Kajitsu would be pretty scary in a way.

Well some of the obvious content added/changed just off the top of my head: Fate route related exposition and flashbacks added to add content for Illya and Saber as well as to help with world building(something that is done throughout all three routes in the VN) Anime original flashbacks to add backstory to characters(most noticeably Caster and Archer) as well as to tie the show into Fate/Zero Added scenes giving more screen time to Caster's skelepuppies Changed Caster encounter from Emiya residence to random bridge so that Caster could use water skeletons for some reason Highly reduced internal monologue for Shirou(no surprise there) Never got the full incantation for Unlimited Blade Works Highly altered fight at the Einsbern castle, and not in the way I would have expected(or that was particularly consistent with the rest of the show) All in all, I liked the adaptation, but I can't say that it was a fantastic one. There was a lot they could have done within the allotted episodes that would have made it truer to its source while still being a good stand alone show. But it's not like they went Grisaia on us or anything. I'd say it's about as faithful as the Steins;Gate adaptation(though Steins;Gate stands on its own better due to the difference in route structures). In an ideal world we would have gotten a Fate adaptation in place of Fate/Zero, with F/Z coming in after Heaven's Feel instead. That alone would have fixed a lot of UBW's problems.

Does Saya count? I think Saya should count.

Yeah, I think that much of the enjoyment I have of DanMachi is derived from the fact that I was expecting it to be a show I dropped after a few episodes. The action ranges from decent to pretty great, the characters are pretty good(not outstanding, but most are fairly memorable), and all in all, it's just a good take on the whole JRPG/fantasy premise that we've been seeing lately. The music is good too, which helps. Compared to some shows that I had greater expectations for(fucking Owari no Seraph), I found DanMachi surprisingly good.

Top three for me this season(no particular order): Knights of Sidonia - The Battle for Planet Nine: Vastly improved on the animation from season 1; Great action, good drama(though there was more of that in season 1), and the weirdest harem in anime. Also probably the best sound design in any mecha show ever. Ore Monogatari: Holy shit was I not expecting this show to be as good as it is. This is the romance comedy that I've always wanted and didn't know anime was capable of. DanMachi: Yeah, it's full of cliches; yeah, its premise has been used a lot recently, but damn it, this show just hits all the right beats. This is the first light novel adaptation that has me tempted to actually go buy the light novels.

...one more word we must eliminate if we are to ever be rid of that useless letter "X." In all my years, in all the lands I've traveled, I've never seen...

...eat that yellow snow. Five times he asked, and five times...

Phone advertisement featuring voice actress for Kanede from Angel Beats, Sengoku from Bakemonogatari and more...

It's summer, and that wide brimmed hat is perfect for protecting that fair skin from burning. 10/10.

Holy shit, was this week's Knights of Sidonia episode amazing. Between that and UBW, this has been a great week for awesome battles.

Well, Owari no Seraph cour 1 ended, not with a bang, but with some cool jazz. The show wasn't horrible, but other than Shinoa, troll extraordinaire, there wasn't a single aspect of the show that wasn't at least a little disappointing. It certainly wasn't what I was hoping for when I hear the words "post-apocalyptic vampire action animated by Wit Studios, and scored by Sawano Hiroyuki." The animation was lackluster, the music was somehow subdued, and the plot was extremely slow moving. Here's hoping the show picks up the pace in cour 2.

I feel there should be a site dedicated to promoting topics to be outraged about. Call it GateStarter. Wait, never mind. Twitter already exists.

I don't think she was the protagonist at all.

I'm trying to see the negative here, and I just can't find it. As a consumer, I have two possible modes when it comes to a Kickstarter project that I want the final product of: I pledge I don't If I pledge, I am only harmed if the project fails after being funded. As far as I'm aware, that hasn't happened. So no harm done. If I do not pledge, I am only harmed if a project I want fails to be funded and not brought over as a result. And even then, that only holds true if it would have otherwise been brought over if Sekai Project had been using a different business model. Since this is pretty much impossible to accurately gauge, the default assumption based on Sekai Project's past performance is that no harm has been done. If you don't pledge to Kickstarters, or even just not to Sekai Project's Kickstarters, you are still able to buy products they release. So in that aspect there is literally no difference between different methods from a consumer standpoint because the result is exactly the same. The only other reason I could see for claiming that Sekai Project using Kickstarter is a bad thing is from sort of ideological standpoint predicated on the premise that Kickstarter should only be used as a desperation move. And frankly, I doubt that's a stance that Kickstarter would stand behind, so it only holds as much water as the crowdfunding populace grant it, which is to say not much. Evidence suggests that people prioritize their crowdfunding based on what they are interested in rather than what projects need outside funding the most. The only other other reason I could see would be if one were to claim to be some sort of moral or ethical authority on how crowdfunding should or should not be pursued regardless of the actual consequences to the consumer or desires of those doing the funding. In which case I guess I just don't believe in your authority as much as you do.

Yeah, I have to laugh at people wanting VNs to remain niche. It reminds me of black metal fans who can't stand it when bands make music that doesn't sound like it was recorded in a dumpster and call anyone who becomes popular a sell out. It should be pretty obvious that the inclusion of explicit sex scenes in a VN is going to limit its potential audience. Even R rated movies conceal most of the action and generally only give the indication that sex is happening rather than going into fine detail of every action. I do think that H-scenes fit in some visual novels. Grisaia is one of them simply because sexuality is core to the VNs structure. I don't think it needs explicit sex scenes, but I am fine with how they fit in(though some do make me cringe). Most non-nukige VNs, however, could do just as well or better with a simple boot scene.

Wait. Owari got decent? All I got was a slide show battle and a few talking scenes.

Of possible interest to you then is that someone made a beta patch for the Steam version of Higurashi to change the text display to ADV style.

Gotta say that this is the first time I've been really disappointed by UBW. Between the Fate flashbacks, the F/Z flashbacks, the anime original flashbacks, and the standing around and talking instead of combining the action and dialogue properly, the most important scene of UBW hit RuroKen levels of action pacing.

Well, if ufotable sticks with Type-Moon stuff, they're bound to get to it eventually. Speaking of, just finished Ciel's route in Tsukihime. Unlike with Arcueid's route, I actually prefer the true ending here. It was happy ending in general without being... well the good ending was a bit too ridiculous for me.

I think they're doing a good job considering they have to work around viewers not having read the Fate route. Most of the alterations are either additional backstory(which I heard was written by Nasu, but I can't confirm that) or omissions due to the lack of inner monologue(which the Steins;Gate adaptation is just as guilty of). It's hardly sinning on the level of stuff like Tsukihime, Deen Fate or Grisaia no Kajitsu.

Ore Monogatari is the standout show of the season for me. Knights of Sidonia and UBW are giving me about what I expected(not that I think that's a bad thing). DanMachi is entertaining in a SAO's best hits sort of way. Plastic Memories is probably a show I won't be able to properly judge until it's over. Seraph of the End... I'm still waiting for it to be good, but so far Shinoa's the only thing holding up the show; even Sawano seems subdued here. Arslan I like, but I have a feeling it's going to be a long haul kind of a show. Ore Monogatari was the show I had the least expectations for, and yet it's the one I look forward to the most each week at this point. And I don't even usually like romcoms.