Winter Season 2020 Discussion

[Manimal]

https://myanimelist.net/anime/season

It's the season of the White Album and, I'm making another thread like this? Yes I am. This is the thread to discuss all anime of Winter 2020 as it airs. I've been out of things since Fall 2017, but there is no time to start again but the present. and something about a new decade and this and that sort of gets one going. So let's do it, Winter anime time.

[Coryn]

I hope the second season impresses! I really need to check out what is on the radar. Not much popping up on Crunchyroll as of this last weekend. I'm curious what they'll have, as they've sorta been dropping the ball for shows recently. Hulu and Amazon keep stealing shows.

[Vacant]

We all know what the smash hit of this season will be.................

[Manimal]

It's only natural. I think I'll have to check out Overflow just to talk about it.

It's my intention to check out...   

- Nekopara (Of course)
- 22/7 (Purely for Sally Amaki, the show itself looks standard fare boring idol school series) 
- Boku no Tonari ni Ankoku Hakaishin ga Imasu (or Bokuhaka, I'll go with that)
- Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na! (Looks like a unique twist art wise on a familiar thing) 
- Murenase! Seton Gakuen (For our cheesy harem looking thing but with creature girls to be trendy) 
- Natsunagu! 
- Ishuzoku Reviewers (Insane premise with the line "different girls, different opinions, different boners" in the summary)
- Dorohedoro until I watched the PV and the reptile man is in CG so maybe not 

and yes Crunchyroll only has I think two or three of these series so looks like the good ol' sites will have to be used. If I can keep up with atleast three of these series that'd be cool. I expect very little out of this season, I just want to get back into watching anime.     

[Suuper-san]

yeah I'm looking to get back into anime. I doubt I'll be watching current series for a while as I've got a bunch of old ones that I'm half way through. nothing special.
But the trouble now is finding time to watch it, because I draw with every little space of time I have now.
I have tried drawing at the same time as watching, but then that means I can't listen to music, which is a bit annoying :/ but otherwise it almost works, surprisingly :P

[Nezuko]

Dorohedoro is something that I always wanted an anime made of it and even if it has a CG crocodile, I want to watch it anyway.

[Manimal]

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! : First Impressions


 
A world of imagination lives inside Midori, a girl with big dreams to make anime. Along with her lanky money motivated best friend Kanamori the two come across Mizusaki when going to a screening from the anime club. Mizusaki is a rich family's daughter who's kept under strict surveillance from dudes in sunglasses who make sure she doesn't join the anime club. Wacky antics ensue and Midori finds Mizusaki is a great character artist who matches with her background concept art. Now the three aim for their dream of making anime together. 



This show is very unique. It takes place in a very detailed world with interesting architecture that is all build on the sea. The art is simple but moves really well, each character is distinct and their personality is all revealed in their features. Even the voice acting is quirky, Midori is voiced by debuting voice actress Sairi Itou who has an oddly raspy boyish tone. There is a lot of creativity to this show and extreme levels of passion for the art of anime in Midori and Mizusaki. When they design a dragonfly ship together there is a whole imagination world sequence of them escaping in it which is very fun and wholesome.

I love Midori's passion, she breaks down to Kanamori about the brilliance of the animation in the anime they watch at the screening. Kanamori is fun herself, she agrees to help Midori and Mizusaki because she sees it as a way to make lots of money. Mizusaki is sort of the rich girl who doesn't understand common things like the laundromat. I love the introduction of her character being cased by FBI looking guys who won't allow her to be in the anime club so it doesn't damage her image.   



Everything in this episode shows imagination, the plot summary sounds common until you see how it's brought to life in this unique looking world. I think this is a very promising episode worth checking out. If this show keeps up this creativity and fun then it should be a really solid series. 

SUMMARY : Very good first episode with lots of creativity, worth watching


Koisuru Asteroid : First Impression



Doga Kobo bring their variety of cute, shiny and slick Slice of Life with a very bland story and set of characters. Mira is a high schooler who had a fateful meeting at a campsite when she was a kid with a boy named Ao who has interested in star gazing. The two promised to find an asteroid and name it after Ao. Years later Mira joins the Earth Sciences Club at school which serves as merged of the Astronomy Club and the Geology Club. Also in the club is the person Mira made the promise with long ago, only Ao is actually a girl. Soft yuri themes ensue and the club has to find common ground with the six members being split between their two interests.   



Koisuru Asteroid sets up a pretty unexciting story right away. Mira is a bland lead character and it feels like her meeting with Ao as a kid was the only event that ever happened in either of their lives. They talk about it like their entire purpose in life was to find each other again. Ao even has a whale charm on her bag to remember Mira's name. Ao has changed since than, we see a life changing event for her as a kid where she accidentally said wet instead of humid. Due to this evidently extreme embarrassment she is now more reserved and chooses her words carefully.   

There are a few amusing details, such as the Astronomy Club having the president come out in a bunny outfit to advertise "Sexy Astronomy" for their area at the previous cultural festival. Contrasted with the Geology Club's display of...rocks. Now the two clubs are forced to come together and find a common ground. A show like this doesn't need an exciting premise to be good, it just needs solid characters that we like to see interact with each other. I found the cast to be fairly boring in this episode aside from Ao. and Mira's instance that Ao has changed even though she only knew her once for like 5 minutes when they were kids was pretty silly. Clearly not much else has happened in Mira's life. 
 


The character designs reflect this blandness. They are a very generic looking cast that look like nothing more than a light copy and past from other shows. Doga Kobo always have great art and animation, they did a great job on New Game, so it's a shame to see them using that on a boring show. I'll check out the next episode and see if it does anything amusing, as of now this is a very average first episode that didn't do anything interesting.   

SUMMARY : Generic first episode with little of interest besides good animation

[Suuper-san]

damn you got my mouth watering for watching new anime nowwwwwwwwww

[Coryn]

Can't wait to jump into this season. Having looked at the listings, i think I might jump a bit out of my usual fair. Wandering dangerously close to Manimal territory with some of the shows that peaked my interest.

[Manimal]

Murenase! Seton Gakuen : First Impressions



You've seen animal girls before but you've never seen a show that's done the quite the same as this. Our main boy Jin is the only of two humans in his school which is made up of classic animal girls and straight up actual animals. The principal is a T-Rex in a suit, the headmaster is a crab, the lunch dude is a gorilla, it's the Noah's Arc of anime. Jin hates animals and wishes they would all go extinct. Hino, his love interest, is the only other human and together they befriend Ranka, a pink haired wolf girl. Now they are part of a pack in this school of wild life and antics ensue. 



This show was unexpected, right away it makes you go...oh okay when you see the world has straight up normal animals in clothes going to school. This leads to many funny moments like the blushing donkeys with glasses and the lunch gorilla who turns into a Sponge Bob style live action thing for a few seconds. This instantly gives the show distinction. The main guy Jin is a post-Konosuba male protagonist who is very mean and dismissive of Ranka at first until he sees her being bullied by the zebra girl, which makes him come in to save the day. He's rude and irritable but will throw himself at a pack of bears to save someone. I can only imagine this show will turn into a harem as more characters are introduced and Jin's attitude towards animals changes. 

This was actually quite a funny episode and the craziness of having real animals going to school made for a lot of great scenes and overall was the factor that makes this episode worth checking out. I mean the principal is a T-Rex, that's amazing. Jin and Hino are the only humans in this zoo and have to deal with things like raw meat and plants being the only items served at the cafeteria. The comedic aspect of this show is certainly going to be the strong part. Ranka is a very annoying character, her voice is grating and she is automatically irritating as a clingy vicious little thing. Although she proves to be weak and is just looking for a pack. The zebra girl was funny, she acts like an elite thinking she is like a rare horse but Jin proves she is closer to a donkey which leads to an amusing moment that teaches us about animals and exposes her ass to show the jackass she is. Sorry I had to.



The art for the animals looks pretty good but everything else is basic and with classic anime Popsicle hair colours. The animal girls are naturally just bright schoolgirls with ears and a tail. I think this episode is worth checking out for the general wackiness of it's set-up and all the various high school animals. It's unique and makes a generic looking show have something going for it. I don't expect much out of it besides some laughs, but atleast it has something that makes it stand out. Let us pray for a Zoboomafoo girl.

SUMMARY : Unique world makes for funny moments, worth a watch 

[Vacant]

Darwin's Game: First Impressions


                   Darwin's Game follows Sudo Kaname, a high school student who gets unwittingly roped into Darwin's Game, a mobile app that pits players against one another in a literal deathmatch in the real world. If you're getting Mirai Nikki vibes from this, you're certainly not alone. The first episode weighs in at 45 minutes, so I think it gives us a pretty decent look at what the show will offer throughout the season. To sum it up...It's okay.
                   The format for the first episode is very by the numbers for this kind of offering. Protagonist is thrown into the game wholesale by pure chance and has to learn as he goes along from the cast of supporting characters. Luckily for Kaname though, the game grants people special powers called "Sigils" to use during the battles and his is OP as hell. I wont spoil his power for those wanting to watch it, but it is pretty damn handy.

                   Visually, the show looks fine. There's a couple of times the facial expressions looked off, but overall pretty standard animation. They do have some interesting lighting effects that work nicely in the show. The music again was about what you would expect, not bad but not a mind blowing score either. I did like the little sound effect for when a dude would activate his Invisibility power too.
                   As for our cast, Kaname is the basic sort of MC you'd expect for a show like this. Good natured, brave, dumb enough to require details about the world to be spelled out to him via expository dialogue and an instant hit with the yanderes. Speaking of yanderes, say hello to Blonde Yuno. Now at this moment, I'm definitely exagerating when I use that term, she's a killer sure and wants some of that Kaname D by the end of the episode, but on the Psycho scale, she's not tipping it into that kind of territory so far.


                     
                   The usual questions about how the special abilities are physically possible and how the game could function and not have the entire CIA, FBI and whatever Japan's equivilant pouring all over it do persist. But I would venture these would be answered in time. Overall, I can't say I hated it and the lore of the game could prove to be interesting. The sigils also give the creators free reign to make interesting battles happen every week as well. 

SUMMARY: Darwin's Game treads a path already well worn at a steady pace. While it doesn't do anything new, what it put out so far is fairly entertaining and enough to make me want to watch another episode to see if it can grow into something more.         
                       

[MoonFlame]

the only animes that i've already read the manga so far, is darwin's game and murenase.

darwin's game was quite fun at the beginning, but became a bit boring later on, maybe its because i usually drop everything midways. I dont think it's going to be that bad at all and i'm looking foward to it, maybe i will be able to follow up with the animation.


Murenase it's a comedy thing, it's quite hilarious sometimes and have some unbeliavable situations, the mc is the "kazuma style" protagonist, in a world of crazy people he looks the more natural of all (but he is not), he does some crazy things sometimes and although he says that he hates animals he is a really kind person on the inside.

[Coryn]

Somali and the Forest Spirit: First Impressions




From MyAnimeList: The world is ruled by spirits, goblins, and all manner of strange creatures. Human beings are persecuted, to the very point of extinction. One day, a golem and a lone human girl meet.

This is a record of the pair, one a member of a ruined race, the other a watchman of the forest. It tells of their travels together and of the bond between father and daughter.



This show is absolutely beautiful. It's incredibly vibrant in its color palate and creative in its world design. All of the backgrounds look like they were done with watercolor, and it really lends this sense of otherworldliness that you don't experience a lot with your usual fair of high fantasy settings. It feels a lot more like James Cameron's Avatar than it does LOTR. The titular forest spirit is a golem, which admittedly looks a lot more like one of the cenobites from Hellraiser instead of a peaceful forest guardian, but he's extremely chill and fun to watch interact with a world he isn't overly familiar with. He takes care of Somali, a human child he found hiding in his forest, and together they are on a quest to find more humans who can take care of her. Somali herself is a distillate of adorableness and naivete, and is constantly vexing the supposedly emotionless golem who professes to experience no emotion.

There's no indication that this is going to be a high action show. The concentration is definitely on the characters and their relationship, as well as the world. There is a bit of heavy handed exposition thrown in, but the world fills very much alive, and the two main characters have an easy rapport that you are immediately on board with. It's so far light, fluffy, and with out a doubt will move me to tears at some point, as it's already been hinted at that the golem is suffering from being away from his forest as his arm is beginning to crack apart (although that's sorta spoiled in the opening too, so I'm fine giving it away here).


SUMMARY: If you're looking for a show about a robot man learning to understand emotion and be a father, at the same time this is a must watch. I'll tell you right now that if you like the Mandalorian (a topical reference at time of writing which I'm sure will age like milk), you are going to like this one as well. Give it a try if for no other reason than to stare at the wonderful background artwork.

[Manimal]

Basic notes.

Nekopara : First Impressions



Very bland. This was an episode that did nothing interesting. The name has novelty for anyone who knew a passing thing about visual novels just as they began to grow into a game of increasingly outrageous concepts. It's about cat girls who work in a restaurant. The characters are boring, the animation is boring, everything is boring. There was no spark of life for me in this episode, not much to say here.

22/7 : First Impressions



I like idols, mostly of the Alternative variety, and I like to try idol anime. Unfortunately the genre doesn't have a good track record. 22/7 is a show I checked out purely on the basis of Sally Amaki voicing the blonde character. Sally is an amusing online character but not much of a draw to the overall show and certainly not something that makes it worthwhile. 22/7 seems to be idol mixed with the supernatural. Eight girls are chosen seemingly at random to be idols and are brought to a weird room with a weird decoration on the wall by a weird stoic beast of a man. There are some weird things at play here with idol spirit perhaps powering some thing...I don't know it was pretty stupid.

The man character is really dark and tragic. She loses her job for being unfriendly and seemingly has to take care of things at home with no father and a sick mother. Along with her little sister. She is angsty and hates adults because they lie and are evil I guess. In the end she finds resolve to be an idol just to pay the bills. I'm sure we will get backstory on the other colourful characters who all have pretty defined personalities. I'm kind of interested to see what happens next because the angst really surprised me. I expect a mediocre, even stupid, series but I'll watch more.

[Manimal]

I've found my definite four for this season and I intend to stick with them. Some notes. 

Eizouken (Up to Episode 4). A very nice show full of heart. My kind of series, it's about passionate people with lots of love and knowledge about the medium they pursue. The show gets it good by being full of imagination with it's unique designs, backgrounds and fantasy sequences. It has top notch presentation and it feels more alive than the onslaught of mediocre shows we get every season. It has something human, a burning heart behind it's subject of anime creation. It also shows us some of what goes into making animation all while keeping things fun. This show is very nice and it single handily made me feel it was worth coming back to seasonal anime. 

Koisuru Asteroid (Up to Episode 4). After giving the following episodes a chance I found this show to surprise me. While it's not anything good or even memorable it has oddly good interactions and fun dynamics among the characters. They have small details that make them interesting and I like to see them interact with each other. We are taught random things about the stars and rocks in the process. Episode 1 seemed generic but there is something behind this show's dialogue and energy that makes it enjoyable. It's something good to watch every week.

Murenase! Seton Gakuen (Up to Episode 3). This show is shaping up to be an enjoyable harem comedy. The animal element gives it something fun and unique. It plays this up with new characters every episode who act like the animals they represent in a variety of ways. I really like the sloth girl and the naked mole rat girl who finds it shamefully and embarrassing that people wear clothes. Her minions as well were really amusing in episode 3. The sidecast is very fun in this show and it makes things enjoyable. It's pretty decent for a "harem" type show.

22/7 (Up to Episode 2). What a weird show, this is the one I have the most to say about because it's such an oddity. It's like a show that is 10 years behind it's time and it has the strangest tone and story. There is an all powerful wall that is a supernatural force that assembles an idol group of random girls and makes the angsty bangs girl the leader because...I don't know. This show has strange energy and seems to be full of drama. I don't think it's going to be good but I do think it will be worth watching to see how stupid and crazy it gets. I haven't watched episode 3 yet but I'm sure it will be more weirdness.