Watch that anime episode 1

For those of you that have been following this blog for some time you might have thought to yourself, this blog calls itself jeckyllcast and blog but oddly enough there is no Jeckyllcast. I have thought that myself at times and have finally gotten around to creating a podcast. Currently there is only the Youtube upload of the first episode but I will create a download file when I get around to it. 

Here is the Link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEWvpKm8Iwg

Jeckyllcast Watch that anime episode 1 Girls Un Panzer / School Days

Review Atelier Escha and Logy

Slice of Life with occasional Golem fight

In a land which battles an encroaching desolation called the dusk there are special people who study the long lost technologies to make life better, they are called Alchemists. In a small frontier town called colseit Escha is an alchemist who dreams of exploring the ruins floating in the sky. Her life begins to change when another alchemist named Logy is assigned to the Colseit alchemist guild.

Trust me there are story reasons why she has a tail

Atelier Escha and Logy is a show based off a video game of the same name from the Atelier series. As for a genre classification the show is pretty much a slice of life show with copious fantasy elements. I am not familiar with the game so I can't make a comparison on the faithfulness of the show.

And that task involves staying in this thingy somehow.

I found this show is nice and charming and serviceable as a slice of life show. There is a decent amount of character development although some things could use some more closure. I found the show to be charming with most of the attention in the show paid to individual characters and with a mixed cast it felt a little less cloying than your usual “four girls doing nothing” show with just the barest amount of plot substance to it but not much.

Overall I found Escha and Logy to be just a simple diversion of a show.  

Rating the bronze Hadouken (Street Fighter II ) for being a decent anime show based off of a video game.

Spring 2015 Season Overview Part 2 Love, strange and exciting

Romance is one of the most reoccurring subjects in anime, to the point that it bigger than a single genre. I decided to cover three romantic shows of varying quality and subtext.

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon?

Bell is an adventure under the protection of the Goddess Hestia. Even so he is only a weak beginner and much less someone able to impress important adventures like Aiz Wallenstein. This is a somewhat gimmicky and average light novel adaptation. I won't say the show is bad but in all honesty I can't say that it is all that good.

My Love Story

Takeo Gouda is a large and intimidating man who has never had any luck with girls. This is partially because his friend Makoto is incredibly popular with girls. Thing might change when he saves a girl named Yamato from a molester. I found this show to be rather different that most romantic comedy shows and one that looks fresh and interesting. I recommend this show.

My Romantic Love Comedy Snafu Too

After the events of the cultural festival (as seen in the first season) the adventures of Hikigaya and aquaintances continue. To begin with they are tasked with matching up a pair of students while on a school trip. If you don't know by now I love this show and the second season looks like it will be as good as the first one.

Spring 2015 Season preview part One The End is the Beginning

Welcome again to the Jeckyllcast and blog's seasonal preview of a bunch of the shows (as much as I try I never seem to get around to all of them). As I went to Sakura con and then had to work a couple of long shifts just as the season was starting I got to writing about this later than I would have hoped. Fortunately this first batch of shows turned out to be a bunch of really enjoyable shows.

Heroic Legend of Arslan

Arslan is the prince of the country of Pars. He is but a boy in the first episode but the future promises that his life will not be peaceful. I remember that there was a six episode Oav made of this story and I am really happy that there is a more compete version being animated. I have high hopes for this show.

Seraph of the end

In the future there was some apocalyptic disease and now vampires now run the world. The first episode is a back story since a lot of people die but mostly it is why the main character really hates vampires. It is somewhat interesting but I can't say much about the show except for it's about fighting vampires.

Plastic Memories

In the future there are human-like robots called Giftia. Giftia have a set lifespan and when the end of that lifespan nears the company has to collect the Giftia and turn them off. I found this show to be a rather cute show but one that can easily promise being a thought provoking show as well.

Hidamari Sketch 365

Staring the day with a real alarm clock.

Yuno was a bit aprehensive about living away from home to go to an art focused High School. However she found that the other three girls who lived at the Hidamari apartments were really nice and Yuno became good friends with all of them. This story focuses on the everyday lives of the girls that live in the Hidamari apartments.

I am surprised the people on the left are drawn.

As you could probably guess from the introduction paragraph Hidamari Sketch 365 is obviously a slice of life show. As with many shows of the genre this show is incredibly episodic, even more so in this show, as even though 365 is the second season of Hidamari Sketch the first episode is the first that happens chronologically. Other episodes happen at random intervals during Yuno's first year at High School.

Yuno is the quiet pillar of maturity

I found the character chemistry in Hidamari Sketch works a bit better than in most slice of life shows and since the show is very character driven this is a big plus. The strength of the girl's friendship allows the show to be somewhat heartwarming as opposed to the cloying feeling that can happen when a show focuses totally on being moe. Also this show is Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and it shows given how the show can slip into odd visual style with barely any notice.

Overall I found Hidamari Sketch 365 to be a cut above most slice of life shows and if you are wanting to give the genre a look this would be a good option.

Review Glasslip

I think I'm a clone now

Toka Fukakami is a young woman who has the hobby of blowing glass like her father. She lives in a small town with four of her closest friends. Things looks like they could change when a new boy named Kakeru comes to town. His arrival awakens a strange power to see the future in Toka when she looks through glass.

Weren't expecting that in a slice of life show.

Glasslip is a thirteen episode show which is sort of cross between slice of life and drama which seems to be a new specialty of P A works, the studio behind this show.  While this formula has worked in other shows I found that it falls completely flat in the case of Glasslip. The problem I feel is that it is a combination of two genres but lacks the usual draws of both.

Dramatic undressing

As a slice of life show it fails as there isn't any good comedy or cuteness to distract from the lack of a plot. As a drama this show fails as there isn't any really good character development and much of the show lacks a clear direction. While some high concept types might accept this as naturalist storytelling, the presence of supernatural elements in the show ruin even that angle.

Overall Simply don't watch Glasslip. I wanted to like this show but it simply doesn't work at any level.

Rating the Tin flower (Aoi Hana) for being a dreadfully boring story about teenagers

Review Clannad the movie

Our charming Heroine

Tomoya Okazaki was a young man who drifted through life after an altercation with his father resulted in an injury that made him quit basketball. One day he meets a mysterious but very cheerful girl named Nagisa. Nagisa eventually tries to draw Tomoya in an effort to reestablish the disbanded theater club. Tomoya also has a reoccurring dark dream, how will Nagisa fit into that as well as the rest of his life?

I will make this into a sports anime, darn it.

The Clannad movie is one based off of a visual novel and has another adaptation done as a television show. The most obvious difference between this movie and other versions of the story is that given that the movie is only an hour and a half long there has been a lot of material cut out of it for sake of brevity.  While there are movie adaptations that can handle this well in the case of Clannad important emotional scenes in the television show were neutered. 

Some interesting visuals in this movie though

While it is to be expected that the movie would limit it's material to Nagisa's route in Clannad it even trims things down to the point of things like Nagisa's parents and Ushio are gutted in terms of personality. The movie has a strange visual style to it and the high point of this movie is the directing. I do wonder if someone who is totally unfamiliar with the franchise would enjoy this movie more.

Overall I found that Clannad was too large of a story to place in a hour and a half movie. 

Rating the bronze curry (angel beats) for a movie that was cut too short to be made in it's full potential.