Sakura Con 2016

As someone who is an anime fan as well as some who has gone the convention for almost every year since it's founding, I went to Sakura con this year. Like most years I rode the bus down to the convention center because a bus ride is the cheapest and most efficient way down there as well as a good way to travel home after you are dead tired from convention going. I arrived early enough that the preregistration line was non existent and wandered about the convention for a while. I wandered about for about a day and half at the convention and did various thing there. Here are a couple of notes of the more salient things that I noticed and did.

1. went to two of the idol panels and learned the following things. The idol boom is so big because there are a significant number of female fans. Thus both the Love live and Idolmaster panels were packed in a way that a To Love Ru panel could never be.
2. I went to the Sentai panel, no not company, the stuff that is turned into Power Rangers when it comes to America. It was interesting to learn about what was an inspiration for so many anime shows.
3. I saw Anthem of the Heart. A review will be coming soon but in a nutshell this movie was really good. Sometimes you get to watch a movie at a convention and this was one of the times when it was truly worth it.
4. I went to the dealers room to get some anime related goodies. I noticed that there were few items about shows that started last year. Offerings seem balanced between shonen dominated by One piece and Dragon ball, Various moe shows, and the trinity of Fujoshi bait shows, Free, Kuroko's basket and Haikyu.
5. The noticable favorite in terms of Cosplay this year is Undertale although like last year there is a good mix of different shows.
6. I did get one figure from Love Live. I decided that throwing fifty dollars for a random figure in a bag was the Love live way. I ended up with a Rin figure.
7. I ended up doing less that I had hoped to but I was undone by dehydration. Remember to drink plenty of water before you go to the convention and get your hands on any free liquid you can. 
   
   
   You can find the various convention pictures I took at think link

Spring 2016 season overview Pull the trigger

It's getting late in April and I am thinking that it's also getting a bit late for season preview articles about spring anime, not too late for summer ones though but I can't time travel so those won't come out for a while. A couple of the anime shows that I am reviewing I have seen more than one episode of and guess what they are both of the Studio Trigger shows and I found them to be rather enjoyable.


Kiznaiver

Agata is a strange boy who can not feel pain and thus is indifferent to most of the world. One day he is drafted into something called the Kiznaiver project which causes a group to be able to share each other's pain. I found this be a cool show and if it stays true to it's possibility it could turn out to be a great show.

Space patrol Luluco

Lulu is a young girl who lives in a town where many aliens live but still lives a normal life. One day her father is frozen and she is drafted into the space patrol. Even though this is a short show I found this show to be a stylish way to spend eight minutes and it is pretty funny and not too generic.

Twin star Exorcist

Rokuro lived through a tragedy and thus no longer trains to be an exorcist. However one day he meets another exorcist girl named Benio and his passions a rekindled. This show feels like a pretty pedestrian shonen adventure show and it could be good but it looks average right now.

2016 spring season overview part 5 Genki is unbreakable

In the future the military will be staffed entirely by teenage girls, if anime to be believed. Given the state of anime did you really think there would be only one segment devoted to cute girls. So back by popular supply there are three shows, two of them slice of life kind of shows. While I haven't seen any spectacular there are at least in my opinion, no real stinkers either.

Anne Happy

At a certain school there is a special class dedicated to helping unfortunate students find happiness. The show consists of a group of girls, each of whom has a particular misfortune. This show is one of the slice of life show, straight out of the four (five actually) girls sit around and eat cake. I wouldn't expect greatness out of this show.

High School Fleet (Hai Furi)

In the future the sea levels have risen and a popular group is the blue mermaids. The main characters are the students of the destroyer the Harekaze. The first day of the student's voyage takes a dramatic turn when they are fired on. While this show has the whole cute girls are the navy thing happening the events in the second half of the first episode make me think that this will be a somewhat decent action show as well as a moe fest.

Flying Witch

Makoto is an entry level witch who has left her parents home and has moved into a relative's home to go to high school in the country. I found this to be a nice show that takes the slice of life genre in a different direction than your usual moe girls show.

Spring Overview part four In search of excellence

About some time in the middle of my season overviews if the past is a good indicator I start getting to some of the really good shows. This is not to say that can't be found anywhere in the season but usually in the middle you start running into the shows with a bit for intellectual meat on them. One of the shows here is certainly fits that bill, another might and the third is a comedy but at least it is a different sort of comedy than what we are used to seeing.

Joker Game

In the year 1937 the embers of World War II are beginning to glow. Japan is working on beefing up their intelligence capacities and thus has formed the D agency. Lieutenant Sakuma is a soldier tied to the group who is about to learn about the world of spies. This show is one that looks like it is going to be very dark and very intellectual as this show's concept of spies has far more to do with complex manipulation than James Bond style antics. Color me interested.

Bungou Stray Dogs

Atsushi is a young man who has just been kicked out of his orphanage and is now on the side of a river starving. He runs into a strange man who is looking for a runaway tiger. This ends up having Atsushi join a supernatural detective agency. This show is an action mystery type of show with a good dash of style. I have a feeling that a certain type of fan who isn't too into moe or typical shonen will really dig this show.

Don't you know I am Sakamoto?

Of all the students in school the coolest so far is Sakamoto. All the girls in school love him and many of the boys are jealous of him. However no matter what happens or who tries to mess with Sakamoto, he is utterly unflappable. I found this show to be a one joke comedy show. However it is a really good joke and I wonder just how far this show can go before it gets stale.

Spring 2016 Season Overview Part 3 The service is Fantastic

Some people say fan service is destroying the anime industry. I would disagree although there are plenty of shows that try to hide their weakness behind it. However this is not always the case. It is my job as a review to step on those mines for you, the reader. In this batch I ran into one stinker, one boring average show and one that looks pretty interesting.

Hundred

In the future there are huge monsters and the only way to combat them are these special weapons called hundred. Our protagonist is sent to the ship school called little garden to study how to use his weapon. This show is the most blatant rip of of Infinite Stratos I have ever seen in the overcrowded field of magical school anime and that show wasn't all that great to begin with. In all honesty I suggest you avoid this show.

Cerebus

Ten years years ago the evil dragon Zot was almost sealed and now Hiro, the young son of two people who tried to seal the dragon is now on a quest to finish what his parents started. I don't know about this show. It could be okay but just looking from the first episode it is pretty boring and average and it doesn't really tell you all that much.

ReZero

Subaru is a young gamer who has been transported to another fantastical world. The one special twist he as we learn about in the second episode is that when he dies he restarts from the point where he entered the world. After watching the first two episodes released I have the feeling while this might not be some ultimate classic of artsyness I have the feeling that ReZero is a someone intelligent and well put together take on a well worn anime concept.

Spring 2016 season over part two Cute girls save the world

I have posted and now posted again in timely fashion so I can honestly say that this blog isn't dead. So I have decided to review the first episode of three new shows, this time the theme is groups of girls, something that is very common in anime. In truth these shows are rather different as there is a slice of life and the latest installments of a seminal magical girl and mecha shows. All three of these shows are at least decent and worth checking out.

Bakuon

Sakura Hane is a new high school student who rides to school on a bicycle and one day meets a girl who rides a motorcycle to school and is introduced to the world of motorcycles. In short this is show about cute girls riding motorcycles. Judging by the first episode I am finding this show to be something that uses it's premise to good use like a girls und panzer. Also I found the character designs to be slightly old school and I found that to be a slight plus.

Macross Delta

In the future humanity has expanded out into deep space and have run into various types of aliens. The latest threat is a disease called Vars which causes people to turn violent. There is an idol unit called Walkure that is used to combat the threat of Vars. The first episode does little more than introduce the two main characters as well as the fact that this show will contain a lot of singing and well doe cg dog fighting. You can only get this off of fan subs but I found this to be an interesting show.

Sailor Moon Crystal

Sailor Moon and her friends have defeat the threat from the future but a new threat looms and it seems that Mugen academy could the be the center of the problem. This show continues the sailor moon tradition in reanimating the third story arc of the sailor moon epic. It look like there is better animation than the first season of sailor moon. There is also a new ending showcasing why a lot of people are interested in this season in particular.

Spring 2016 Season Overview part 1 A mystery wrapped inside an enigma inside Crunchy roll

I am hopefully casting off the doldrums of blog hiatus and starting up regular posts with this posts today. As usual one of my regular deals is to review the first episode of every show I watch. I don't know how long I will walk this proverbial minefield for your hopeful benefit. With this particular post I tell you about the first three shows that I have seen this season, all of them on Crunchy roll.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Diamond is Unbreakable

One day in the town of Morioh Jotaro arrives to inform Josuke that he is a member of the Joestar clan and entitled to part of his father's fortune as well as to avoid some mysterious threat. However Josuke possesses a supernatural power known as a stand. I rarely review season four of a given franchise in these overviews but I find this show to be a special case. I have found this show to be a bit slower than your usual Jojo fare but I have heard good things about this section of the show and it still felt good enough that I will continue watching.

Mayogiga (aka The lost village)

A bus with 30 people who wish to do their lives over again heads for the mysterious town of Nanaki. However there subtle hints that not all is going to end well. I found the first episode to be mostly setup since so many characters are difficult to remember and although I don't feel it is a modern classic it looks like it could be at least a decent show if you like mystery and possibly horror shows.

Ace Attorney

Naruhodo is a brand new attorney ready to taken on his first case. To start out he is tasked with proving his friends innocence in a murder trial. This show is based off of a series of games known in America as Phoenix Wright. I found the first episode to be merely passable but from most mystery shows (and any work about the legal process counts) tend to use the first episode as a mere proof of concept and are never among the best episodes.