The Anime Thread

Well, since some of the summer shows are winding down, expect a few reviews. LOL

What surprised me is that My First Girlfriend is a Gal is already done. I guess they've already announced an OVA, but it just surprised me that it was only 10 episodes.

Anyhow, if you watch the first episode, you know right away that "fan service" is on the menu. Lots of bouncing, lots of close-ups, but the way they handle the editing for broadcast was pretty fun and funny, and it continues throughout the series. Beats the usual "convenient clouds of steam" or "mysterious rays of light" you see most of the time.

Even with the heavy fan service aspect, there's a nifty little story in there with an amount of character development you might not expect from a harem show with that level of fan service. We aren't talking great works of fiction or anything and they do hit some expected clichés with some stories but there's actually a little meat on the bones of the story.

The big downside and something that might be a "nope, not gonna watch it" kind of thing is one of the protagonist's friends. They try to play up his deep affection for young girls for laughs, but it really doesn't work as well as they might have thought. It's just too much on the creepy side, and the show could have done without it.

If you can get past that character and are a fan of romantic comedies with some harem elements, it's worth a look. If nothing else it could be used as the basis for a drinking game (as a co-worker has done LOL).

And just as a side note, between the last episode of First Girlfriend is a Gal and the opening episode of Tsuredure Children, I swear I'm reliving some of my romantic encounters from high school and college, for better or worse.

One of the old fashioned types: prefer owning the DVD (or even VHS)

I can relate to that. But one thing I do like about streaming services is that it helps take a LOT of guesswork out of whether or not you want to add a particular series to your collection.

Trying to get an accurate read on a series from the back cover of a DVD/Biu-Ray/VHS package is risky at best because they're going out of their way to make it sound good, and it doesn't always live up to the hype you can see there. And with most broadcast anime (at least in the US) consigned to a programming block on late Saturday nights, the opportunities to catch shows on TV is pretty limited.

Man, that makes me miss Toonami's old weekday afternoon programming block from back in the day.

Anyhow, if it wasn't for streaming services I might have been foolish enough to give a show like World Break a shot via purchase, just from going by the description on the package. *shudder*

#toonamipromos

A surprise show that I am pleasantly enjoying is GAMERS! It sold me after the 2nd episode with the direction its going. It's still ongoing and I would recommend it

That's one of the "must watch" shows for me this season, and I'm getting a little frustrated because there's been some kind of delay on Funimation's latest dubbed episode (their dub version has been great).

I can't wait to see where it goes, but I think I might have to forego any sort of review attempts on that one. It's mainly because I don't want to spoil anything from the show, but also because keeping track of stuff can make a person's head spin. LOL

It's been a super fun show to watch, though. I can only imagine all the discussions/arguments/knock-down-drag-out-fights that might be erupting over possible pairings in that show.

I've seen it, it's absolutely incredible and I will be going to the theater showing in NYC next month, I'm soooo excited, it's such a good movie, definitely up there with "Your Name" (which I highly recommend to anyone who hasn't seen it).

Three of my absolute favorite summer anime that I also recommend to everyone are:

Re: CREATORS (if you're a content creator like myself or are incredibly invested in your DCUO OCs and/or fan fictions, then this is definitely the show for you!)





Little Witch Academia (just a really cute, feel good anime made by Studio TRIGGER that has a lot of very nostalgic Harry Potter vibes and every character is given some sort of focus and development that will make you love them all)





Welcome to the Ballroom (a fun, humorous, and sometimes emotional series about the world of ballroom dance!)

Oh my.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.cc/review/neo-yokio/.121543

To be honest the show had kind of flown under my radar, and I wasn't aware of it at all until a co-worker mentioned it in passing. But goodness, the highest grade they gave it in any category was a "D" and it still only got an "F" overall?

Yeesh.

2 words....Jaden Smith. That is enough for me to stay clear. I mean come on, even IGN Anime gave it a bad review. I would also go so far to say for those interested to see it, don't see it on Netflix, just pirate it

OMG!!!
Hey Everyone
Going with what I wrote before about the new animation project for GIRLS UND PANZER. It's been confirmed that the series will continue in six theatrical films with the first to be released Dec 9th. From the looks of it it seems it seems the girls will be facing a French themed school. I cannot wait. Panzer Vor!!


PS: Hopefully, the other future films will showcase more of the other schools from the manga and also do promotional stuff like when they did back at an AnimeExpo

Unfortunately one of my favorite shows of the season finished up, Tsuredure Children.

For a shorter format show (about 12 minutes per episode) and a rather sizeable cast, it seems like it'd be easy to lose track of the pairings or challenging to get engaged in any of the stories told in those pairings, but dang it all it works. You get some good moments in both comedy and romantic comedy and many of the couples are quite adorkable to watch in their vignettes.

Best of all, though, you get to see growth and development in some of the relationships so that by the time the series wraps up the season you're left with some really great warm fuzzy moments all the way through. They don't get through ALL the relationships they feature throughout the run, though, so if you've got a favorite couple to watch you aren't guaranteed to see any sort of resolution for them in this season.

For whatever it's worth I'd highly recommend the show. Even if you aren't a huge romantic comedy fan, there's some great general comedy moments to go along with the relationship comedy and you're sure to find a laugh somewhere.

Can't remember if asked this before (or what the reply may have been, have a lousy memory ), but does anyone know if they released "Girls und Panzer" on DVD? The usual place get stuff from only has three volumes of manga and some models (girls and tanks), or maybe a nice free site to watch the full episodes? Have only seen little snippets or fan-made edits, same goes for the 'Girls und Boats' episodes linked earlier

Amazon's got the film, series and the complete OVA collection listed on their site, but only the series and the OVA collection are listed for Blu-Ray and DVD. They only have a Blu-Ray listing for the film.

That whole series was licensed by Sentai Filmworks, and they just recently announced that they were going to be phasing out DVD releases by 2019, but shows that had previous seasons released on DVD would continue to get DVD releases. So you might want to keep that in mind for future purchases from that company.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/dai...i-filmworks-to-phase-out-dvds-by-2019/.121502

Use to have an Amazon account, but any attempts at getting back in fail
Which version has that zippy little Finnish tank? That's the one want to see more of

Couldn't say, the Girls un Panzer series wasn't one that hooked me enough to check out. LOL

Regardless, even if Amazon isn't an option those are available on video. There's always other sites, or even going to Sentai's website to see if they have a store there to use.

Thank you, knowing they are out there means there is a chance they might show up one day (in about twenty years )
Dang! Just looked at their website, has four DVD (or Blu-Ray + DVD packs), but they only ship to the US

Maybe check RightStuf (with one "F")? They do a lot of anime, manga and related sales there.

RightStuf looks good, but waayyy too difficult to navigate (can filter it by A-Z, but still have to scroll through dozens of pages just to get to the B's, and that's even when you skip pages... )

The Finnish tank team and their BT-42 trollwagon made their intro in the GIRLS UND PANZER movie

Also I would suggest getting the Blu-Ray for the series and movie because it also includes the ova specials

Well, buying wise, the dvd or blu-ray can be ordered via Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, and various online anime vendors. Now, if you want to stream it, there's Crunchyroll or Kissanime