Opinions on Spring 2013 Anime?

First topic message reminder :


^Shamelessly copied from DNF's anime section Spring Anime 2013 thread.

So...whatcha guys think about the lineup so far?(This list is most probably credible)

I myself am definitely looking forward to Devil Survivor 2 animated, Oreimo season 2, Katanagatari(Although I haven't watched the first season yet, but hey the author is Nisio Isin. Like hell I'm not gonna watch it), Date a Live, and the Steins;Gate movie. Maybe Railgun S2, but I haven't even watched Index yet.

danna45 wrote:

Nour Force wrote:

danna45 wrote:

dropped Red Data Girl(not to my tastes)

W-Was it bad, or did you just not like it? How much did you watch?! ;~;

For some reason I just didn't like it. It's not bad per se, but its not clicking with me. I watched an episode and a half, but then dropped it. Even I'm finding it strange that I'm dropping it, considering anything with Shinto myths usually has my interest.

Not quiet shocking, actually. Not everyone enjoys a character like dat main. I'll be frank honest, I'm not showing much interest either >_<

Hmm, so I watched a few of them (lies, I watched over half...) and here's my opinion/impression/suggestion/gameplan on some of them.

Aku no Hana:
Direction in general with the anime is hard to digest. Storytelling wasn't the simplest thing to begin with, so this might be making it too much. On the other hand, maybe it matches the story, but as it is, it's one of the rare cases where the anime is harder to watch than the manga (manga was much easier to deal with). I probably won't be watching it, but that could be because as it is, you lose a lot of interest when you have gone through the story once before, it's not the kind of thing most people would go through again or try to from a different perspective. It's the kind of thing you read/watch once. So regardless of personal plans, story is good, memorable and worth the watch if you haven't read the manga (or read the manga instead since it is actually easier to deal with). Noting though, my aversion to embarrassing moments was kicking in hard with this story, but I guess it isn't the same for everyone.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge:
I still haven't watched the latest episode of this and I may end up dropping it. While it's the cute anime type, the underlying background theme is serial killer stories (not that serial killing happens or anything, it's like, the wallpaper on the background or something). It's not really bad, but the characters and story keep giving me some some strong "That's kinda stupid...", "Is that really necessary?", "That's just weird and pointless..." impressions. Maybe it will get me more interested in the future, iunno.

Date a Live:
Romance and comedy and stuff. Not amazing, but it's good, it's cute and kinda funny and I like it, and it's of the addicting type too so I'll be watching it. Story is ok, characters are good, and it's cute. I recommend it if you are into those stuff.

Devil Survivor 2: The Animation:
It's a good anime, but I dropped it after episode 2. Reason being, I want to play the game instead, and will probably do so over the orthodox easter vacations, and I don't want to spoil it with the anime. If you don't plan on playing the game, I recommend watching it, it's one of the pretty good anime of the season.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince:
What if Gundam Seed was less homosexual and a lot more dumbed down to shounen vanilla level? Majestic Prince is here to answer that question, vividly. It could turn out well, but story seems meh at times, and most characters can be added to the following categories:
1)"Forgettable"
2)"Meh"
3)"If it wasn't for that one repeating character trait, would he still exist?"
4)"You just look like a generic extra, you are bad, why are you trying to gain importance?"
5)"Is there really a point to this guy wearing high tech visors that hide his eyes?"

At least it's not Gundam Age I guess... But then again, but then again that too was a rippoff...
of ygo zexal
anyways, iunno if I'll have the patience to keep watching it.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W:
Unlike the Cthulhu mythos where this gains its background, this is pretty damn easy to digest. If you watched the one before, it's more of the same, but that's not necessarily bad. Characters aren't the deepest thing ever, but they are fun to watch, as is the anime itself. I'll be watching this one too.

Hataraku Maou-sama!:
Seems like it's gag. Was it originally gag? Latest episode was full, but other than that it could be. Anyways, it's comedy. A pretty good one. Great characters, funny story and even though it's close to gag, meaning you don't get much story with your episode, it is still interesting to watch what happens next. It's one of the anime I look forward to the most in the week in the season. I recommend it if you aren't watching it already.

Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties:
HnG is always fine and nice to watch/read. There's one thing I'm not certain of though. I remember the first episode being in the manga, but I can't seem to remember the second, and I can't seem to remember where the preview of the third comes from, but then again HnG is a long manga so I could have just forgotten. Anyways, my point here is, it's either an original story like the last anime, or adaptation of manga chapters (description suggested it's original but...). This should only matter to you if you are reading the HnG manga (but if you are reading manga, you should be reading that already anyways), in which case you wouldn't be watching it for the first time, but regardless, HnG is still fine to watch a second time so it's not that big of an issue. It's always a great comedy manga/anime, and this series is probably no exception.

Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko:
Hmm, here's the thing. As danna said, 2 of the best in the season are SnK and Hatarakou Maou Sama. I wanted to say that along with this, they are the best 3 in the season, but then again, there is Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru which is pretty awesome, so I guess it's a best 4. Anyways, Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko, is among the best 4 in the season. Surprisingly we got enough good anime this time around, I didn't expect that.
It's a romantic comedy again. This is a character driven story and the characters driving it are great. The unwillingly honest male lead is always very funny to watch, and the female lead who is unable to show her emotions has now that great subtlety moe, you'll get it when you watch it. As I said, one of the best 4, so one of my top 4 recommendations for the season.

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride:
Service anime (meaning you'll see a lot of boobs and stuff and it's probably late night in japan), more of the same as season 1. Don't expect the deepest thing ever. But you can get into it and it can be interesting to watch for non boob related reasons. There are bad service anime, there are decent service anime and there are amazing service anime out there. This one is decent.

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Season 2:
Light novel adapted anime are usually great, by my standards at least. Oreimo is like that too (although I'll say it's certainly not among my top light novel adaptations). I don't really have much to say though. It's one of the better anime in this season, you'll know what it's like if you watched the first. From the first episodes I'll say it's still interesting, although episodes are standalone up to now, so that's a bit less interesting for me.

Photokano:
Kinda seems like a cash-in of a galge, haven't looked into it but it probably is. Anyways, it's not particularly bad, but it's not great either. The issue is, while watching it I get the impression "he/she is probably brain damaged..." or
"well, that's pretty stupid, what was the point of it and why did you do it then?" a lot.
I'll give it points for soul searching though as it tackles the age long question: Is IQ inversely proportional to boobs?
I'll actually probably be following it. "Why?"? iunno

Shingeki no Kyojin:
When I heard this was being animated I was worried for 2 reasons. First is artwork, I was worried about how it would carry over to animation. Second was length. SnK is monthly, meaning you shouldn't expect it to go far, and looking at the current length of the story, I didn't expect it to be able to fill the season. For the first I was pleasantly surprised. Animation is great while actually carrying over the original artwork nicely. Looks like a pretty high production actually, and the OP, which people seem to love, shows that too.
As for the length, I was wrong. I guess I was viewing it as pretty short, but that's just an inherent issue of the story I guess. You tend to lose focus a lot so it seems shorter than it is. Seeing that the anime progresses as it is, story up to now could fill at least 2 seasons of 12 episodes.
There are 2 big differences between manga and anime.
1st is that they actually held back on the gore and horror a bit (I know it still is there, but trust me, manga was harder on depicting those stuff), which is probably a good call to both make it tv friendly and help it with popularity.
2nd is where they put the soldier training arc. In the manga it was put after the first big battle. That's because the fall of Shiganshina, even though it introduced the concept which is interesting in itself, did not generate enough interest to manage and throw you into a boring training and character introduction arc, so the choice of the original author to not keep things in chronological order and instead save training for later, was probably a better one.
Now character introduction isn't necessarily a boring part in stories, but in this one it kinda is, since you tend to forget characters in SnK a lot as I mentioned in that manga recommendation post. A bunch of characters are thrown at you, and you just won't be focusing on all of them. Even though they all have characters and backstories, it's not weird to just consider everyone to be an elaborate extra from a point onwards and just remember 4 characters, the current main 3 and Rivaille later.
I won't talk much about the story and characters and how it goes since it could be spoiling things, but I'll say that on top of being a great story, it's also a great production so if you are going to watch 1 thing this season, watch this.

Suisei no Gargantia:
I never really liked superman. You know, it's the whole op thing. He won't have an eventful fight unless his weaknesses are exploited or there are hostages or he is forced to do a handstand while his bank account is being drained.
So if you talk about action in Suisei no Gargantia, that is the problem. There is no suspense or anything, unless there are a bazillion of pointless restrictions, it will always be an unsuspenseful breeze. The story, animation and characters are great though, so if you are not looking for the giant robot fight of your life, this is a great anime and one of my recommendations for the season.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S:
Toaru is always good. Many people say that railgun is their favourite among the two (because Touma just punches people, while misaka has variety, but it's a light novel so it makes sense that you can't have elaborate fight scenes), but I disagree. Railgun is far too girly. Not in the shoujo sense, in the moe k-on sense, where you are watching girls do stuff. I don't think there are many males in the series whose main motives don't include murder, rape or theft, it's surprising how easily males are attracted to crime (especially if they are skilless, strong=good, weak=evil) in railgun and it grows to be a pretty annoying repeating stereotype easily.
Regardless, Railgun S is a good anime to watch, and especially now since it covers the sisters arc from Misaka's side (not really a spoiler here, sisters theme is all over the place), and you won't just be seeing what you learned from index just from a different point of view, because there is a lot of action preceding it and building up to it. Personally I can't wait to see Misaka's side of the action animated, remembering how it was in the manga, so it should be an interesting one to watch as well.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru:
Another Light Novel adaptation I'll guess because of the narrative, and one of my personal best 4 anime in the season. Basically, a cynical male lead with a romantic comedy background theme to it. The loner main character demonstrates his actually pathetic sides and does not just get miraculously flung into a romance situation (sorta, I mean theme is there, but the story and character is critical of it). It's a funny and interesting story, while being a nice one. Either that or I pathetically happen to relate. But that's fine. It's still among my top 4 recommendations.

Al-Bhed wrote:

Hmm, so I watched a few of them (lies, I watched over half...) and here's my opinion/impression/suggestion/gameplan on some of them.

Aku no Hana:
Direction in general with the anime is hard to digest. Storytelling wasn't the simplest thing to begin with, so this might be making it too much. On the other hand, maybe it matches the story, but as it is, it's one of the rare cases where the anime is harder to watch than the manga (manga was much easier to deal with). I probably won't be watching it, but that could be because as it is, you lose a lot of interest when you have gone through the story once before, it's not the kind of thing most people would go through again or try to from a different perspective. It's the kind of thing you read/watch once. So regardless of personal plans, story is good, memorable and worth the watch if you haven't read the manga (or read the manga instead since it is actually easier to deal with). Nothing though, my aversion to embarrassing moments was kicking in hard with this story, but I guess it isn't the same for everyone.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge:
I still haven't watched the latest episode of this and I may end up dropping it. While it's the cute anime type, the underlying background theme is serial killer stories (not that serial killing happens or anything, it's like, the wallpaper on the background or something). It's not really bad, but the characters and story keep giving me some some strong "That's kinda stupid...", "Is that really necessary?", "That's just weird and pointless..." impressions. Maybe it will get me more interested in the future, iunno.

Date a Live:
Romance and comedy and stuff. Not amazing, but it's good, it's cute and kinda funny and I like it, and it's of the addicting type too so I'll be watching it. Story is ok, characters are good, and it's cute. I recommend it if you are into those stuff.

Devil Survivor 2: The Animation:
It's a good anime, but I dropped it after episode 2. Reason being, I want to play the game instead, and will probably do so over the orthodox easter vacations, and I don't want to spoil it with the anime. If you don't plan on playing the game, I recommend watching it, it's one of the pretty good anime of the season.

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince:
What if Gundam Seed was less homosexual and a lot more dumbed down to shounen vanilla level? Majestic Prince is here to answer that question, vividly. It could turn out well, but story seems meh at times, and most characters can be added to the following categories:
1)"Forgettable"
2)"Meh"
3)"If it wasn't for that one repeating character trait, would he still exist?"
4)"You just look like a generic extra, you are bad, why are you trying to gain importance?"
5)"Is there really a point to this guy wearing high tech visors that hide his eyes?"

At least it's not Gundam Age I guess... But then again, but then again that too was a rippoff...
of ygo zexal
anyways, iunno if I'll have the patience to keep watching it.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W:
Unlike the Cthulhu mythos where this gains its background, this is pretty damn easy to digest. If you watched the one before, it's more of the same, but that's not necessarily bad. Characters aren't the deepest thing ever, but they are fun to watch, as is the anime itself. I'll be watching this one too.

Hataraku Maou-sama!:
Seems like it's gag. Was it originally gag? Latest episode was full, but other than that it could be. Anyways, it's comedy. A pretty good one. Great characters, funny story and even though it's close to gag, meaning you don't get much story with your episode, it is still interesting to watch what happens next. It's one of the anime I look forward to the most in the week in the season. I recommend it if you aren't watching it already.

Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties:
HnG is always fine and nice to watch/read. There's one thing I'm not certain of though. I remember the first episode being in the manga, but I can't seem to remember the second, and I can't seem to remember where the preview of the third comes from, but then again HnG is a long manga so I could have just forgotten. Anyways, my point here is, it's either an original story like the last anime, or adaptation of manga chapters (description suggested it's original but...). This should only matter to you if you are reading the HnG manga (but if you are reading manga, you should be reading that already anyways), in which case you wouldn't be watching it for the first time, but regardless, HnG is still fine to watch a second time so it's not that big of an issue. It's always a great comedy manga/anime, and this series is probably no exception.

Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko:
Hmm, here's the thing. As danna said, 2 of the best in the season are SnK and Hatarakou Maou Sama. I wanted to say that along with this, they are the best 3 in the season, but then again, there is Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru which is pretty awesome, so I guess it's a best 4. Anyways, Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko, is among the best 4 in the season. Surprisingly we got enough good anime this time around, I didn't expect that.
It's a romantic comedy again. This is a character driven story and the characters driving it are great. The unwillingly honest male lead is always very funny to watch, and the female lead who is unable to show her emotions has now that great subtlety moe, you'll get it when you watch it. As I said, one of the best 4, so one of my top 4 recommendations for the season.

Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride:
Service anime (meaning you'll see a lot of boobs and stuff and it's probably late night in japan), more of the same as season 1. Don't expect the deepest thing ever. But you can get into it and it can be interesting to watch for non boob related reasons. There are bad service anime, there are decent service anime and there are amazing service anime out there. This one is decent.

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Season 2:
Light novel adapted anime are usually great, by my standards at least. Oreimo is like that too (although I'll say it's certainly not among my top light novel adaptations). I don't really have much to say though. It's one of the better anime in this season, you'll know what it's like if you watched the first. From the first episodes I'll say it's still interesting, although episodes are standalone up to now, so that's a bit less interesting for me.

Photokano:
Kinda seems like a cash-in of a galge, haven't looked into it but it probably is. Anyways, it's not particularly bad, but it's not great either. The issue is, while watching it I get the impression "he/she is probably brain damaged..." or
"well, that's pretty stupid, what was the point of it and why did you do it then?" a lot.
I'll give it points for soul searching though as it tackles the age long question: Is IQ inversely proportional to boobs?
I'll actually probably be following it. "Why?"? iunno

Shingeki no Kyojin:
When I heard this was being animated I was worried for 2 reasons. First is artwork, I was worried about how it would carry over to animation. Second was length. SnK is monthly, meaning you shouldn't expect it to go far, and looking at the current length of the story, I didn't expect it to be able to fill the season. For the first I was pleasantly surprised. Animation is great while actually carrying over the original artwork nicely. Looks like a pretty high production actually, and the OP shows that too, which people seem to love.
As for the length, I was wrong. I guess I was viewing it as pretty short, but that's just an inherent issue of the story I guess. You tend to lose focus a lot so it seems shorter than it is. Seeing that the anime progresses as it is, story up to now could fill at least 2 seasons of 12 episodes.
There are 2 big differences between manga and anime.
1st is that they actually held back on the gore and horror a bit (I know it still is there, but trust me, manga was harder on depicting those stuff), which is probably a good call to both make it tv friendly and help it with popularity.
2nd is where they put the soldier training arc. In the manga it was put after the first big battle. That's because the fall of Shiganshina, even though it introduced the concept which is interesting in itself, did not generate enough interest to manage and throw you into a boring training and character introduction arc, so the choice of the original author to not keep things in chronological order and instead save training for later, was probably a better one.
Now character introduction isn't necessarily a boring part in stories, but in this one it kinda is, since you tend to forget characters in SnK a lot as I mentioned in that manga recommendation post. A bunch of characters are thrown at you, and you just won't be focusing on all of them. Even though they all have characters and backstories, it's not weird to just consider everyone to be an elaborate extra from a point onwards and just remember 4 characters, the current main 3 and Rivaille later.
I won't talk much about the story and characters and how it goes since it could be spoiling things, but I'll say that on top of being a great story, it's also a great production so if you are going to watch 1 thing this season, watch this.

Suisei no Gargantia:
I never really liked superman. You know, it's the whole op thing. He won't have an eventful fight unless his weaknesses are exploited or there are hostages or he is forced to do a handstand while his bank account is being drained.
So if you talk about action in Suisei no Gargantia, that is the problem. There is no suspense or anything, unless there are a bazillion of pointless restrictions, it will always be an unsuspenseful breeze. The story, animation and characters are great though, so if you are not looking for the giant robot fight of your life, this is a great anime and one of my recommendations for the season.

Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S:
Toaru is always good. Many people say that railgun is their favourite among the two (because Touma just punches people, while misaka has variety, but it's a light novel so it makes sense that you can't have elaborate fight scenes), but I disagree. Railgun is far too girly. Not in the shoujo sense, in the moe k-on sense, where you are watching girls do stuff. I don't think there are many males in the series whose main motives don't include murder, rape or theft, it's surprising how easily males are attracted to crime (especially if they are skilless, strong=good, weak=evil) in railgun and it grows to be a pretty annoying repeating stereotype easily.
Regardless, Railgun S is a good anime to watch, and especially now since it covers the sisters arc from Misaka's side (not really a spoiler here, sisters theme is all over the place), and you won't just be seeing what you learned from index just from a different point of view, because there is a lot of action preceding it and building up to it. Personally I can't wait to see Misaka's side of the action animated, remembering how it was in the manga, so it should be an interesting one to watch as well.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru:
Another Light Novel adaptation I'll guess because of the narrative, and one of my personal best 4 anime in the season. Basically, a cynical male lead with a romantic comedy background theme to it. The loner main character demonstrates his actually pathetic sides and does not just get miraculously flung into a romance situation (sorta, I mean theme is there, but the story and character is critical of it). It's a funny and interesting story, while being a nice one. Either that or I pathetically happen to relate. But that's fine. It's still among my top 4 recommendations.

God that is probably the longest post I've seen in a long while. A good one too.

Welp, originally wasn't planning to watch them, but Hentai Ouji and Yahari are now on my watch list. Guess I'll find time to torrent an episode or two later.

After seeing an episode of SnK, and then one-shotting the manga, I had the same worries, but seems the anime is taking it pretty slow? Episode 3 with SASHA BLOUSE and more training camp stuff seems slow compared to the manga where they just skipped all that and have it appears flashback later.

Ya haven't tried Valvrave yet? Despite how I prefer Gargantia over it, its still pretty good.

Kitouski wrote:

"Date A Live" is the only thing I'm really looking forward to, (and looking forward to, I AM A TON) otherwise this spring season looks like it's going to be a fairly anime free one for me minus watching backlogs. Can't say I'm too interested in nearly all of these...

Handful of movies I'll probably watch just cause (Steins;Gate, Higutashi no Naku Koro ni Kaku) and I MIGHT thumb through the new Railgun and Oreimo but not exactly looking forward to them both per say.

Just an update from this, Date A Live disappointed a lot, gonna watch a few more before I drop it but it's entire style is meh. It's not that it's that bad, it just isn't what I was looking for. Only thing of this season that I watched that hit me as cool is Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko... which is retardedly awesome. Still haven't gotten to the new Railgun or Oreimo though.

Kakumeiki Valvrave. Bloody mecha anime. Hell. Yes.

ANGEL BEATS ALL THE WAY

Jaden H wrote:

ANGEL BEATS ALL THE WAY

This is too relevant so you have to be more specific. Are you refering to angel beats as a spring 2013 anime or as a bloody mecha anime? Could be either but we gotta be clear.

So, as the season's very close to being over(Devil Survivor 2, Hataraku Maou-sama, Oregairu, Valvrave, and probably more ending next week), what are your opinions on the titles seen? 

After some thinking, Hataraku Maou-sama wins as best anime of Spring 2013(For me). Solid, consistent story with great comedy, some nice service, great action, and epic facial expressions. Has entertained me throughout its entire run, and not a single episode bored me. The story may not be that deep, but it has that spark. 

Second-best of the season is most likely Suisei no Gargantia. A strong, if not somewhat plain cast of characters, but a great protagonist, deals with its themes and shows the cultural clash very well, has a fascinating setting, although later episodes start to become dramatic, but at the same time more bland. Doesn't lower the quality or overall enjoyment of the series that much, but just letting you know.

Third best, I'm tied between Kakumeiki Valvrave and Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatte Iru(Oregairu). The former being a traditional Sunrise mecha with concepts very similar to Gundam SEED, but is infinitely more ridiculous and most of all, its unpredictable. Although the first two episodes had me this close to dropping it, I'm glad I stuck by. The latter being a more or less normal love comedy, except its main character Hikki wins the award for best anime protagonist of romcoms of all time. He's corrupted to the core, a loner, believes he is a loner, tries to be a loner, and doesn't stray from his path as a loner, even if he yearns for recognition and friendship. While the premise and other characters are okay, Hikki alone makes this anime worth it.

DEVIL SURVIVOR 2 THE ANIMATION is a decent adaption of a video game(Although nothing will ever beat Tales of Phantasia The Animation as the best adaption of a video game of all time). It starts great, towards the middle is somewhat mediocre,  but at the end is still great. Hibiki Kuze is kinda Mary Sue-ish(As much as I hate using the term, its about the shortest way to express it), but he is bearable. It's most enjoyable for people who has already played the game, although I'm not sure how people who haven't played the game will react to it. Overall I liked it.

Oreimo. starts strong, becomes more pointless and boring as time goes on. Sure, Kuroneko is cute and adorable, but overall the plot and drama feels redundant, and obvious incest is obvious. 

Shingeki no Kyojin, great concept, good characters so far(I kinda already read the manga, so not much to say on this), artstyle is beautiful, pacing not quite. It's very faithful to the manga, but still. As awesome as Armin is, I don't want a whole episode on him monologing whether he's useful to Eren and Mikasa or not. 

That about it. Dropped everything else/never followed them either cuz boredom, or will just one-shot them all later.

Kakumeiki Valvrave: Vampires, consensual rape, body switching, love triangles, shut-ins, glasses girl, attention whore... + Mecha. It's... a strange anime, but still a good one.

I want to comment on the rest of the animes but I don't know what to say...