Winter 2014 W1: I have seen things (not many, though)

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This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.

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This is my attempt at episodic blogging. I’ll probably do these every Friday until I get bored of it.

Thoughts

Buddy Complex

MFW this show
MFW this show

This is probably the most generic mecha anime I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Suisei no Gargantia.

The general philosophy behind Buddy Complex seems to be “We had enough money for one more episode of Valvrave but decided to spend it on an entire series instead.”

Fuck, they copied half the shit from Valvrave (and by extension every anime that Valvrave copied from) just so they wouldn’t have to hire someone to think.

  • Random jackass kid becomes a super mech pilot
  • Love interest-san “dies” in the first ep (technically “disappears”, but we’ll call that good enough)
  • Space war initiated by incompetent villains, few of which can even put up a fight against random high school fuckwits

I don’t think I encountered one original idea in the entirety of the pilot episode.

[Ohys-Raws] Buddy Complex - 01. (MX 1280x720 x264 AAC).mp4_snapshot_16.54_[2013.12.31_12.26.35]
Guess which one is the hero and which has to fake-die in order for the other one to have easy character development?
The worst part is the show could have pretty damn good if the first episode established that we had reason to show concern for the characters’ fates.

[Watakushi] Buddy Complex - 01 [720p][E28AB81D].mkv_snapshot_11.08_[2014.01.03_12.58.09] [Watakushi] Buddy Complex - 01 [720p][E28AB81D].mkv_snapshot_11.08_[2014.01.03_12.58.19]

Take this scene for example. If MC-kun’s friends were actually killed by the falling gun, it would be established that actions actually have consequences in this universe. But instead we got:

Don't worry, child viewers! They're okay! Nothing of consequence happens in conflict at all!
Don’t worry, child viewers! They’re okay! Nothing bad happens in conflict at all!

If I don’t have a complex of my own by the end of the series, it’ll be because I didn’t finish it.

Fuck Japan. I hope they drown themselves in a wave of radiation.

 

 

Witch Craft Works

Witch Craft Works really doesn’t work. The premise is MC-kun is super special

"I've got chromosomes to spare if anybody wants some."
“I’ve got chromosomes to spare if anybody wants some.”

and the most popular girl in the school is obsessed with him for this reason and has to protect him from evil witches.

The thing is, all the other witches are incompetent, so the plot ends up just as “MC-kun gets in trouble and is then saved because he’s just so fucking amazing that the strongest witch ever wants to protect him”.

I realize I’m bitching past the confines of the first episode, but this ain’t a goddamn episodic blog and I don’t give a shit. That’s just how the series is going to be.

[Ohys-Raws] Witch Craft Works - 01. (Web 1280x720 x264 AAC).mp4_snapshot_16.54_[2013.12.30_23.39.15]
The cute witches are about the only saving grace of the series, and they’re all just common tropes anyway. This one’s a cat girl with a temper. Hope I don’t choke on all that original flavor.
The ED’s cute though, even if the song sucks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUTQuzoROdY

 

 

Thoughts, Graphed

Note that the score you see here is my overall impression of the anime.

Temporary graph
Because I know you care.

And yes, my standards are pretty low right now.

 

Take that, episodic anime blogs: innovation. Your fucking move.

25 thoughts on “Winter 2014 W1: I have seen things (not many, though)”

    • See that’s what I really don’t get about Japan. How mentally ill do you have to be to think “Hey, I’m basically that character, and those girls therefore want me”? There has to be some truth to people like that existing, but that can’t sustain a multibillion-dollar industry (and yes it is that big, even in just America – sauce).

      It just blows my mind that that’s what Japan is focusing all their attention on. Fucking hell.

      Reply

  3. I tried to graph your thoughts for Fall 2013, but had to give up halfway cause the data stopped flowing in (in fact it was flowing out as you kept removing stuff from the list)…

    Reply

    • Oh man, I can’t even imagine how fucked that graph would look.

      …not that I promise this one will look nice and pretty either. :3

      Reply

  4. Sunrise is going through a weird “all of our new anime series are Gundam but with a few minor differences that probably won’t matter much in the long run” phase. The time travel element was kinda cool because it made certain things a little less annoying; but again, it probably won’t matter at all.

    Funny how they tried shaking things up with Gundam for a spell, but then said “screw it, let’s just remake various Gundam series but give them different titles.”

    The only thing I liked about WCW was that Orange did the 3D animation.

    Reply

  7. I only want to know the software that you used in creating the graph. I plan to use it on my next executive demo/presentation.

    And if you really are into this kind of thing :innovation: now, it should be for the unusual sister, IMHO.

    Reply

  9. First episode for Imocho was so fucking weird. Might wanna wait for the blurays though, the censors take up literally half the screen.

    Reply

  10. “This is my attempt at episodic blogging. I’ll probably do these every Friday until I get bored of it.”
    More like your thinly veiled attempt at somehow classifying this thing as an anime blog to hijack your own tournament and win the finales entering at the last moment.
    I’ve seen through your ruse, it’s over.

    Reply

    • I would never think of destroying the sanctity of this tournament with such an underhanded move!

      Though I do wonder what you would classify this blog as if you don’t think it’s anime blog already.

      Reply

  11. No idea where else to post, so you better read this, DS-kun!

    Before the next season kicks in, would you mind reviewing FFF and Refrain Subs’ versions of LB Refrain? MAL seems to prefer the latter, but MAL has no idea what it’s talking about most of the time, so yeah…
    Would be pretty cool if you could that for your loyal readers. <3

    Reply

    • Refrain Sub’ version is garbage because it copies the visual novel’s translation verbatim for the sake of of nostalgia, which contains mistranslations and terrible phrasing.
      “CHEAP TRICKS!!” and “Called game” are prime examples of this.

      Reply

    • I watched like two eps of Little Busters and dropped it, so no. On top of that, I have a large backlog of reviews I want to get to and won’t anyway.

      So yeah, you’ll have to rely on the thoughts of other people (like Jark) or something.

      Sorry.

      Reply

  12. Witch Craft Works was fucking terrible. God damn. They’ll make anything into an anime as long as it’s packed to the gills with awful cliches. Shame on you, J.C. Staff.

    Reply

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