The Metropolis Mind

So this will be just a quick list-type of a post. Spring has already started and it won't be too long before I start watching a few shows from it as well as writing my first impressions on them in my new blog. Because of that, I want to just give you a guide on which amongst the shows this season I can recommend to you.

Without any further ado, let us begin.

First up is...

1. Marginal #4: Kiss kara Tsukuru Big Bang




5.  Youjo Senki



6. Spiritpact

 And lastly,

7. Kuzu no Honkai

Based on that, you may think that every episode in this show is lighthearted but let me tell you now that it isn’t, well at least for some parts.

Most of the episodes feature the characters go through personal development as their natures as demis aren’t yet fully known in the society, in this anime’s setting however, most of it take place in the school. If the episode's not about them going through a personal development, the episode will probably go and make the viewers get to know more about them and their backgrounds.

Through these episodes, one can be assured that every character is getting explored properly.

One thing that really keeps the show interesting is the fact that every demi is different - one is a vampire, the other is a dullahan, the other is a snow woman and one teacher is a succubus. Because of their different and unique natures, they all call for different wants and needs. Which is, albeit, accepted in the society in general, is never given a second-thought by the people in that society.

The demis tend to be misunderstood by real humans in the society and that gives them a hard time to adjust accordingly in the society. That is, until, a beacon of light will probably be lit, which takes form as a biology professor named, Tetsuo.


Tetsuo is teacher who has taken an interest on studying demis. Because of this drive to learn more about them, these students open up to the teacher, which can be both an easy and a hard task to do for the demis as some can be very controversial. Through this exchange of knowledge between Tetsuo and the demis, both of them gains knowledge and information on the characterstics of the different demis.



Hence the title of the anime in English is called "Interviews with Monster Girls".

Little by little, light is shown to a normal human being, Tetsuo, just how demis are pretty much different, yet still the same as to human beings. That even though demis will have different natures, they all have a similar human-like characteristic whoever and whatever they are and that is, human emotions.



The show uses their emotions as a way to move the story and develop the characters throughout the show and let me tell you that the dynamics are beautiful to watch.



It is a guy like Tetsuo is what we should achieve - someone eager to know more about the marginalized people in the society, the outcasts and the ones that we usually ignore. For it is by knowing others that we get to learn how to live with them in peace.

I really like how this show also mixes all that seriousness with very comedic scenes. Some contain double entendre which is very funny. But at the same time, doesn't mess with the overall message of the plot.

Yes, this show doesn't have harem in it's labels. But even so, Tetsuo actually builds a small harem of people who look up to him and admire him which is such a sight to see knowing that the admiration these people have for him is for his eagerness to learn more about them as well as his current profound knowledge for their kind.

  
Of course, any post of mine about anime will not end without me acknowledging the theme songs. The opening song is good but what astounds me is the ending theme. The ending theme of this show is one of my absolute favorite ending themes for the winter 2017 season. Here's a link to the video:

I have a few reasons why I love this theme song. First, I really love the mood and the tone of the song. It makes you feel relaxed and calmed - after all, this is a really heartwarming anime and what a better way to close off an episode than a closing theme that will strum your heartstrings.  The second reason why I love this is the visuals! Given the visuals are creative already, the directing of the clip gives off a playful vibe and will definitely give you a smile on your face or will make you tear up (which happens to me) and which will finally lead us to next big reason. And that is, this song is done by Sangatsu no Phantasia. YES, it is THE Sangatsu no Phantasia that did one of my all-time favorite anime's ending theme songs and that is Kiznaiver! That show was also given a title as my spring 2016 highlight last year! Coincidence? I think it's fate. Sangatsu no Phantasia is an underrated group that really deserves more. Because of this reason, though the song is a very cheerful song, it makes me teary-eyed at some episodes.



Okay, I got a little sidetracked there.


To sum up the reasons why I love this show and to why you should give it a shot is that every single episode is truly heartwarming. You will clearly see beautiful character development throughout this 12 episode show. Before I even realized it, my love for the characters are only ever-growing as it progressed.

The show knows how to deliver an inspiring message after every episode and will make you think of how much this applies to the world today and to your surroundings. Some episodes will also make you think of how life is actually a very beautiful thing.

And honestly, I couldn’t think of another anime that can describe and explore these themes wholeheartedly more better than this show.

I'm back for another post! As you can probably see, I've changed my layout. Because of that, I'm not yet finished customizing my menus so that'll probably be fixed ASAP!

A new season has begun and therefore, more new anime to start watching. My initial plan is to finish up all of the shows that I'm still currently watching in order to be much more organized (which I, actually, was able to do) and now my watchlist of ALMOST cleared to add up new animes.

I'm sorry because this post is delayed since we're already mid-way through the Winter 2017 season so I'm gonna make up for that by adding interesting stuff to this post. Not only will this post showcase watchlist, it also contain my first impression review! Hurray! Without any further ado, let us start with my Winter 2017 watchlist!

First up on the list, we have....

"Masamune-kun no Revenge"

"As a child, Masamune Makabe once suffered greatly at the hands of a wealthy and beautiful girl named Aki Adagaki, who nicknamed him "Piggy" due to his chubby appearance. Seeking revenge against his tormentor, Masamune works hard to improve himself and returns as an incredibly handsome, albeit narcissistic, high school student. When he encounters Aki once again, he is prepared to exact vengeance. With the aid of the rich girl's maid, Yoshino Koiwai, Masamune slowly begins to build his relationship with Aki, intending to break her heart when the time is right. However, as his friendship with Aki begins to grow, Masamune starts to question the objectives of his devious plans, and if bringing them to fruition is what his heart truly desires."

The first episode really set up my expectations pretty high because the "revenge" aspect of the show sparked interest in me and made me thought: "How is this gonna unfold?" but as I watched the succeeding episodes, I feel that it's not going to go the way I expected it to happen and made me feel that it'll fall into "another one of those cliche romance" stories. I'm losing hope. OP is average, ED is brilliant. Rating: 7/10

Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil)

"On the front lines of the war, there is a little girl. Blond hair, blue eyes, and porcelain white skin, she commands her squad with lisping voice. Her name is Tanya Degurechaff. But in reality, she is one of Japan's most elite salarymen, reborn as a little girl after angering a mysterious being who calls himself God. This little girl, who prioritizes efficiency and her own career over anything else, will become the most dangerous being amongst the sorcerers of the imperial army."

Heard the OP before watching this one out so let me just say this first and that is, the OP theme is so good! The show's first few episodes were really interesting, I must say. Tanya's character and personality, itself, will really make me you want to find out more about her. Overall, this show gave me a really good impression. Gonna look forward to the next episodes! I haven't heard the ED theme yet (but I've been hearing lots of good things about it). Rating: 8/10

"Kuzu no Honkai (Scum's Wish)"

"To the outside world, Hanabi Yasuraoka and Mugi Awaya are the perfect couple. But in reality, they just share the same secret pain: they are both in love with other people they cannot be with. Hanabi has loved her childhood friend and neighbor Narumi Kanai for as long as she can remember, so she is elated to discover that he is her new homeroom teacher. However, Narumi is soon noticed by the music teacher, Akane Minagawa, and a relationship begins to blossom between them, much to Hanabi's dismay. Mugi was tutored by Akane in middle school, and has been in love with her since then. Through a chance meeting in the hallway, he encounters Hanabi. As these two lonely souls spend more time together, they decide to use each other as a substitute for the one they truly love, sharing physical intimacy with one another in order to stave off their loneliness."

Really interesting premise, has a fresh concept and is excellent in showing a mature outlook on love, romance and relationships. The first few episodes will blow your mind away, if not the first episode itself, may it be because of it's massive "love tree", it's explicit graphics (yep, some manga readers were saying that they were happy that "those scenes" weren't tone down from the source material). OP is brilliant, ED is outstanding. Rating: 9/10

"Demi-chan wa Kataritai (Interviews with Monster Girls)"  

"The story takes place in an age where "Ajin" (demi-human), more casually known as "Demi," have slowly started to become accepted into human society. Tetsuo Takahashi is a biology teacher who ends up teaching three such Demi, hoping to understand more about them while also managing to catch their attention."

A simple anime that is a lighthearted one. This is easily one of my candidates for my most favorite anime of this season. The pace and how the story goes by is as smooth as a sailboat sailing on a calm sea under a clear weather. It's a treat! Go ahead and try it! OP is slightly above average, ED is so brilliant gaah (I love Sangatsu no Phantasia)! Rating: 8.5/10

"Spiritpact (Ling Qi)"

"Heir of an old famous family of exorcists, Keika You is stricken by poverty after losing his parents. He struggles as a street fortune teller and computer recovery part timer to earn money. One night in a junkyard, he meets the mysterious yet charismatic exorcist, Ki Tanmoku, fighting an evil spirit. This encounter is the beginning of a fated story for Keika You. Unfortunately for him, he was actually hit by a car and became a ghost. That was when the handsome exorcist Ki appeared and asked Keika to make a “pact” with him to fight evil spirits together. Here starts the friendship of our heroes!"

The first episode gave me a bad impression. The animation was a bit weird and off and that also includes the effects placed around the villains and the characters were also uninteresting. Even so, I told myself that I'd never drop this one because I wanna stick with it to see the BL. The story pacing is pretty slow but they didn't disappoint me with the BL. I got used to the animation and now I can see it as just average. The characters grow, I guess, little by little. And overall it has become a pretty bearable show for me to watch. I not only enjoyed the BL scenes but I also liked the cute & comedic moments done by the characters (though some are applied in the wrong timing which can probably annoy some people). Bottomline, I enjoy it and I can, personally, see this show growing slowly, yes, but surely! OP is spectacular, ED is below average. Rating 7/10

P.S: I read this blog post in someone's blog a few weeks back that said that even though Spiritpact's first episode is bad, Spiritpact is actually a good show. That blog post also made me feel like sticking with it.

"Little Witch Academia"

"Atsuko Kagari is an ordinary girl who joins the renowned witch academy for witch girls, Luna Nova Academy. When she was younger, she went to Magical Festa, a magic show hosted by a witch named Shiny Chariot. Atsuko was so mesmerized and inspired by Shiny Chariot's performance that she dreamed to someday be a "cool" witch like her. This young and impressionable Atsuko takes Shiny Chariot's words as her own motto: "Never forget, a believing heart is your magic.“ As part of a class, Atsuko and her classmates go into a labyrinth under the Tower of Luna Nova. There, a sealed ancient dragon was unleashed by one of her classmates. Atsuko tries to stop the dragon, but…"

One of the shows that I was most hyped about! It's by Studio Trigger and if you don't know, I love Trigger! Anyways, let's just say that they are doing a brilliant job with this show so far. Everything's episodic, there's not really much of an underlying plot going on. The whole story is really easy to digest. This show makes me feel good. The characters are really interesting and unique - all of them has their own quirks. I can't wait to see more episodes. Go check it out! OP & ED is really beautiful! Rating: 9.5/10.

Now, those are the shows that I'm currently watching. But I actually have a few more that I'm planning to watch! These are:


1. Kobayashi-san Chi no Maid Dragon

2. Tales of Zestiria the X 2nd Season

3. ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ka

4. Chain Chronicle: Haecceitas no Hikari

5. Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu: Sukeroku Futatabi-hen

6. Super Lovers 2 

My watchlist is basically all of these but, they're not LIMITED. I may, or may not, add a show here and there when I feel like it.

Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and I'll see you guys on my next post.

What are you guys watching for this season?



*ALL ANIME SYNOPSIS WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR MYANIMELIST ENTRY*



Authors Note:

1. I'm finally done with this post. Yay!

2. My next priority are my top theme songs.

3. I'm thinking of creating a wordpress version of this blog sometime soon. It's not yet final though because I know that I already have a lot too handle!

Looks can deter but content will always prevail, that is one of the things that always surprises me when I watch anime. I, personally, find that anime with good art style and good animation quality pretty much one of the huge factors, if not the main one, that can turn an anime into something pretty likeable and enjoyable. Though I like to look at the facade of the show, I find that the story, at the end of the day, will still be the judge whether or not a show will be a potential favorite of mine.

Ajin, a Winter 2016 anime, is the perfect example that underwent the road down to proving that though bad looks may put you off, the story can turn it around and make the adventure an even better ride than you'd expect it will.




This will be my review on the first "cour" of Ajin. Take note, I'm technically reviewing a first season but I find that "cour" is a much better term as the first season ends on an open one which doesn't completely make it a standalone anime.

Oh and also, this will just be a quick review on this.


Background:

Ajin is a part of my winter 2016 watchlist - which contains shows I'm trying to catch up that were a part of this year's winter lineup.
.

Thoughts/Opinions:

Let's get started with the review. First things first, I was put off by how the CGI was done. It wasn't eye-catchy at all. It was my first time to watch something done in full CGI so it might be because of that but I just didn't find it pretty attractive. I got mixed impressions when the whole show started


First, let's start with the animation and art style. For the first episode, it really gave me a bad impression. The CGI looks so choppy at times and I don't know if it's just because of my computer but it was really not a treat for my eyes. A few months ago before watching Ajin, I was already watching a show which implements the usage of CGI (it's Tales of Zestiria the X by the way) and that show's CGI was very beautiful. That show set the standards pretty high in terms of CGI usage and watching Ajin's first episode really wasn't good.




Second, I'll talk about it's OST. This will be pretty short & simple because I didn't find the OST really memorable to be honest. It did it's job well and was decent enough but it isn't something off-excellent quality. The background music played however at the more intense scenes of the show were really effective. With that being said, the opening and ending theme songs were MAGNIFICENT. They were both really good songs that matched the mood of the whole show (go check them out because they're really good).




Third, let's talk about the characters and the story of this show. For me, this is where the show outdoes the bad impression set about by the looks of this show. The concept, though may not be original - a boy gets to become something everyone despises (ehem Tokyo Ghoul), the premise however - a boy who's become despised by everyone (except for his best friend) becomes a selfish person as he avoids battles and uses people, if the situation comes down for it, just for the sake of his own survival - was rather interesting. Which then brings us to talk about more in the subtopic - the characters.


The characters are what shines in this show. The characterization of the main character as well as the other side characters makes this show really interesting to watch. In fact both the story and the characters are the factors that helped me in finishing the first season of this because they always keep you on your toes - not knowing what move/deed will they do next.


Adding personal opinion on this review, the characters tend to annoy me sometimes but I guess that proves how effective they really are. Another note worth mentioning for this show is that the side characters (most especially the antagonist) are the ones getting the most focus rather than the protagonist in this first season (though that is not to say that the protagonist doesn't get it's fair share of screen time).


Overall this show is quite good. If you're looking for a nice story with really good characters then you should try this one out. If you're looking for something your eyes can feast on, I'm sorry but this show might not be for you (unless you like watching choppy CGI then you'll like this he he).


The season two, or shall I say the second cour, just finished airing I think? So I'm off to start watching it within the next few days/weeks and I will probably be giving my part two review on this after watching that.

Expectations for season 2? I don't know because I'm probably going to dive in there blindly hoping that it'd surprise me. I am low-key expecting for more character and plot development though.


Anyways, that's all for now and I'll see you guys on my next post (which will probably be my Top Fall OPs and EDs)



Authors Note:

1. It has been a long time since I last posted and now I'm finally back! This has been in my drafts for a solid few months now and I took a break from writing because I wanted to focus more on my videos as well as catching up with anime.

2. From what I said earlier, I took a break from writing and because of that, my writing skills will probably be a bit off unlike the last time so please bear with me as I try to ease up back into how I usually write. Thanks!

Hello guys, I'm back and this is just going to be a pretty quick post to give you an idea on which shows from the winter 2016 line up am I going to catch up within this month.

As you all probably have known, Winter 2016 is ALREADY DONE a few months back on March and we are currently on the last season of this year which is Fall 2016 which started this month and will end on December later this year. Because of that, I can say that I'm so way behind on my winter anime.

I've only finished two shows from the Winter 2016 lineup and those are Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (ERASED) and Hai to Gensou no Grimgar (Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash). I know those two shows aren't enough to make my "Top Anime Shows of 2016" post before this year ends much more substantial and that is why I'm going to catch up on some other Winter 2016 shows during this fall as quickly as possible.

Take note, I won't be watching A LOT since I'm also catching up with with my remaining leftover shows from Spring and Summer + I haven't even started yet on my Fall animes except for Bungou Stray Dogs' 2nd Season.

And with that, I present you the list of shows that I'm going to watch that are from winter 2016 earlier this year.

I'm going to be ranking them starting from the shows that I'm most interested to watch and will end on the show that I find the least interesting to watch

Let us now start up with!

1) SHOUWA GENROKU RAKUGO SHINJUU (M.A.L SCORE = 8.60)

2) DIMENSION W (M.A.L SCORE = 7.36)

3) AJIN (M.A.L SCORE = 7.78)

4) HARUCHIKA (M.A.L SCORE = 6.50)

5) Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows (M.A.L SCORE = 7.75)

6) Prince of Stride: Alternative (M.A.L SCORE = 7.04)

The series is about an extreme form of sport known as "Stride." It involves 6 players on a team that runs relay races in towns. The story takes place at Honan Academy where first year high school students Takeru Fujiwara and Nana Sakurai try to recruit members for their "Stride" club. They request Riku Yagami to join with the help of Takeru and Nana. Their goal is to compete and win the "End of Summer," a top competition hosted in Japan alongside other schools.

7) Reikenzan: Hoshikuzu-tachi no Utage (M.A.L SCORE = 7.19)

8) DAGASHI KASHI (M.A.L SCORE = 6.74)

9) Luck and Logic (M.A.L SCORE = 6.23)

10) MUSAIGEN NO PHANTOM WORLD (M.A.L SCORE = 7.03)

11) KonoSuba (M.A.L SCORE = 8.03)