Hataraku Maou-sama

Otherwise known as the Demon Lord works at McDonalds. Yes, McDonalds was the only one evil enough to hire a demon lord. 

Hayate no Gotoku S3

It seems like Hayate no Gotoku is getting shorter and shorter seasons. The first was 50ish episodes, the second was 20+ and the third is only 13. The fourth is probably just going to be a bunch of OVAs -_-

Right, so what is Season 3 of Hayate no Gotoku about? Well, it's mostly about the backstory of Nagi's parents, with a new character claiming to be Nagi's half-sister showing up. It's also said to take place several months ahead of the current manga continuity, which really bummed a lot of readers out. Mostly because the manga had a much better storyline going on but judging by the state of the anime; it'll be status quo again -_-

The anime is fairly weird in the sense it's supposed to take place in the future but it also borrows a lot of one-shot stories from waaay back in the manga's past and then animates them. This leads to a bit of continuity discontinuity. Although to be honest, I'm not that huge a fan of the animes setting since I don't really care about Nagi and I'm not that interested in the overarching backstory about the kings jewels either.

To be honest, I can not understand why on earth they chose to animate this particular arc. Why the future? That kind of kills a lot of the suspense for readers of the manga since now we know WHAT'S going to happen (spoiler; NOTHING AT ALL) and secondly, there are a lot of better arcs to animate.

Seriously, what about the Athena arc? What? That's not even going to be animated??? One of the MOST important arcs in the manga, along with a shitload of hints and revelations about Hayate's backstory and we're skipping it??!?! 

And let's not even mention the elephant in the room. What about Ruka?? What's up with her missing from the movie and the anime? She was a popular character introduced in the last 80 chapters and there's NOTHING about her at all? She just appears in CVs on TV and provides idle commentary? What a WASTE!

Overall, Hayate S3 wasn't as good as the first 2 seasons for several reasons. It skipped too many important arcs, didn't introduce enough of the popular characters whose arc we would actually like to see ANIMATED and also, not enough Hinagiku. 

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate

Love, Elections and chocolate. 'What a strange name' was the first thing I thought to myself. But surprisingly, it's a decent enough series and a pretty apt name.

Tears to Tiara

Right, another fantasy 'epic' from Aquaplus; the makers of To Heart and Utawarerumono. I've only managed to catch the anime version a few years later but I thought I'd give it a try since I liked Utawarerumono.

Thundercats S2 Wrap up

Now that it's pretty much confirmed that TCats is dead and won't be getting a new season, I guess I can post my thoughts on S2 and the series in general.

Papa no iukoto o Kikinasai

Right, so I've finally watched this series from last year. I've had it lying around for a while but didn't really bother to watch it until I read the LN translations over at baka-tsuki.

Legend of Korra

So I marathoned Legend of Korra with a few friends. To be honest, I thought the show was pretty good. A hell lot better than a lot of other shows during the same season. Yes, I'm looking at you, writers of Thundercats -_-

Persona 4 Anime

Spoilers abound.

Persona 4 has lots of issues with pacing. We're currently at episode 20 out of 25 and  So we're at episode 20 out of a 25 episode series and the game hasn't even gone into the kidnapping nor has it shown the fake final villain, the 2nd final boss or the real end boss. At this rate, I'm not sure how they will fit this into 5 episodes. I'm guessing 2 to cover the kidnapping and the fake villain. 2 to cover the real end boss and the last one to cover the final boss, with the defeat of the final boss in the last few seconds of the episode and then a cutscene and when the credits start rolling, they'll show the characters saying farewell to the protagonist as he leaves town. 


On the other hand, this frantic pacing isn't exactly new to the show. I could see it coming back in the single-digit episodes where they would cover near entire social links in 1 episode. These social links would take months to build in the game and the anime pretty much finished them in 1 episode. It's one of the things I'm quite disgruntled about with regards to the anime. 


But then again, I suppose the real problem is that they're too faithful to the source and trying to put in everything or almost everything from the game into the show, even if they have to cram it in by bastardising it. However, the end result is a slightly disjointed plot that seems to skip here and there in terms of scenes and pacing. It might have been better if they had decided to leave out certain things in an effort to make the story flow a lot better but I suppose people would have been bitching about that too so it's sort of a catch-22. 


So in the end, is the Persona 4 anime worth watching? Sure, if you're already a fan of the game since you'll know what's happening better than newcomers. 

Guilty Crown #18

  It's a testament to Guilty Crown's writing staff that I now consider the evil aliens invading earth and then KILLING EVERYONE a good ending to the story. Seriously wtf, there just aren't enough redeemable characters in the entire show to care if they live or die anymore. Well, okay, I lie. There's still Ayase and Tsugumi but my liking for their characters is severely drowned out by my disdain and disgust for almost EVERYONE else in the series. So yes, death by fire. 

Aquarion Evol #8

Stripping for great justice!

Aquarion Evol episode 8 is....weird to say the least. I can understand why producers and directors put fanservice into anime but I wish they wouldn't do it in such a ridiculous way. Stripping so you can dodge missiles better? Right....


Mix once again proves why I really really don't like her. There's a difference between being an Ice Queen and a bitch; and Mix sorta falls into the latter category. But then so do many anime tsunderes nowadays *coughKirinocough*. It's yet to be seen if her inevitable 'defrosting' will improve my impression of her in any way (I'm betting not). She also sort of reminds me of Nanase from Macross Frontier, who was also another useless character and remained so throughout the entire show. 


Andy needs to stop having this unnatural obsession with holes. I understand the whole hole = female innuendo the show has been pushing but seriously Andy, classes are now CO-ED. For some one who's been so gung-ho about interacting with girls, we seem to see him spend more time DIGGING holes instead of trying to pick up the chicks that are now in the same class as him.

Zessica does more teasing of Amata; a lot like how Sheryl teased Alto in the beginning of Macross Frontier. Why he bothers with Mikono when Zessica is in front of him, I have NO idea. However, it does seem like she eventually starts feeling something for him at the end of episode 8.

Dere Zessica

Also surprisingly, Kagura DOES seem to have some feelings towards Mikono as when touma-lookalike taunts him about Mikono being hurt, he seems genuinely upset/hurt which seems to indicate he DOES see her as a person and not just a 'possession' or a thing. Otherwise he would just be getting angry someone is messing with his things. 


Meanwhile fan-theories about why Altea is abducting women proves to be true. They really don't have any women left on their home planet because a mysterious disease killed them all off. Sadly, none of the women survive a inter-dimensional teleport (while the males seem to be fine...for some reason). However, that doesn't really explain why Alicia; Amata's idol, seems to be known on BOTH Earth and Altea. Unless it's like some weird remix of Macross: DYRL where the Alteans watched her movies and become fans of her as well >_<

And I suppose the big metaphorical take-away from the episode is that basically people shouldn't be shy to expose themselves -_- No, not in that way although the whole stripping off of clothes to prove that point in the show kinda went waaaaaay overboard. But basically, there seems to be an underlying motif in Aquarion that people hide way too much of themselves. Hence the allegory of showing your true self by ....stripping. Then at the end, frog-girl shows up and buys a picture of Amata WITHOUT rendering herself invisible first by using her element power. Compare that to the beginning of episode 8 when she went invisible out of embarrassment. And once she did that, all the guys started wanting photos as well (For some reason, the girls had already gotten over that inhibition already, girls mature faster maybe in the Aquarion universe?)

Aquarion EVOL = Macross Frontier?

After having watched episode 7 of Aquarion EVOL, I'm starting to wonder if Kawamori purposely made certain characters in EVOL very similar to characters in Frontier.


Amata = Alto

• They're both teenagers who suddenly fell ass-backwards into piloting robots; Granted, this IS a mecha anime staple
• They both have something they're running away from. In the case of Amata, it's his ability and in Alto's case it's his past.
• They both 'fly'. Although ironically, Amata is running away from his flying while Alto wants to fly

Zessica

Sheryl Nome

Zessica = Sheryl

• Surprisingly, it's the green-haired girl who's the parallel for Sheryl and not Ranka.
• She's tough on the outside but soft on the inside; as seen in episode 7
• Both start out ambivalent towards the main lead
• Both like teasing the main lead a lot in the beginning
• She's undoubtedly the more assured and experienced of the two female leads in Aquarion EVOL

Mikono

Ranka

Mikono = Ranka

• Who's a lot like Ranka in the sense she's shy and insecure
• Has a protective older brother -_-
• As of episode 7, has shown a pretty insecure side although it's nowhere near as bad as summoning an alien fleet to destroy the fleet

Right now, it's just a crack theory but it's NOT the first time Kawamori has reused character concepts. Just for fun, here's some more photos proving very ambiguous proof.

Look at the positions of the three and look at the positions of the characters in Aquarion EVOL

+

Oh look, it's the main lead saving a female character while in the cockpit of a mech -_- That's uncommon in a mecha anime.......