Endless Paradigm

After watching episode 4 of OreShura:

Kokoro Connect extra episodes: just another story, similar to those in the main season.
It's interesting that they end it at the beginning of their sophomore year.  Maybe hinting at a second season?

Kokoro Connect rating? Still got last arc of TV and the extra arc to go.

So it seems like I forgot to put up a few things that I thought I had :/
Okay, will do it here.


Kokoro Connect
This one initially seemed like one of those shows which put forward an "unusual" idea, then base the entire show around it.  As such, I was expecting the first few episodes to be interesting, with the interest dying down once the idea is no longer intriguing.
Kokoro Connect avoids this fate by taking a more dramatic angle, and by keeping each phenomenon for a few episodes.
It's interesting to note that source of all this craziness doesn't appear to have much reasoning or logic behind it, beyond just messing everything up for the viewers' pleasure.  This is kinda fun I suppose - impose random phenomena upon a group of people, see how they react and give them absolutely no means to fight back - although it has a bit of a detrimental effect with actually sympathising with them and their issues (then again, the "person" responsible for this doesn't seem to be too sympathetic - perhaps implying a breaking of the fourth wall).
Despite being put through these situations, it seems that the characters actually gain something in the end, perhaps to make it not so harsh on the characters.
Enjoyable overall.  3.5 stars

Hayate no Gotoku S3
They've decided to try integrating more plot into this series, but I can't say that the plotline is particularly great.  This comes at the expense of the show's comedy aspects.  I ultimately think that HnG has taken a bit of a downward turn with this, then again, I suppose that if they had to continue, continuing to do what they did in S2 probably wouldn't work that well either.

hey Zinga, have you already watched Rainbow? im checking old animes and checking its summary, i think this kind of story is for me hehehe, and can you suggest any shounen animes beside JoJo and Fist of the North Star?

I might check that one out some time.
And I'm probably not the one for recommending shounen to be honest...

There's some pretty disturbing imagery in Rainbow.

Actually bothered to go and update my MAL list.  Also scaled like 1/2 the stuff down 1 score so the median pivots closer to 6 rather than 7.

Guess I'll go through some of the stuff I've watched over the last... wait, when was the last time I posted here?



Clannad
Like Kanon but worse - the slice of life is more boring and the arc conclusions don't have nearly as much impact.
7/10


Clannad After Story
This one is more like AIR than Kanon.  Another one of Key's nakiges (crying games, in this case the anime adaptation) that are built around trying to get on top of your emotions.  Except people dying doesn't really work on me, especially if I predicted it 15 episodes ago, I predicted the 2nd time too.  Episode 18 on the fields did work however, but 1 positive effect in 22 episodes isn't really a high hit rate.  The ending was also pretty confusing.

I don't know, maybe I had too high an expectation because of people propping it up to be a masterpiece to end all masterpieces (both on the VN and anime side), and also people saying stuff like "it had a profound effect on me and completely changed the way I approached life".  

Now that I'm older, I can't help but think that those kinds of stories, stories completely and wholeheartedly designed to make you cry, without much else going for them otherwise, are kind of "cheap".  More so if stuff like mysterious illnesses (coined "Key aids" by the community, since it always happens in Key stories) and people dying are involved.
8/10


Hanasaku Iroha
Slice of life story.  The slice of life is decent, better than that in Clannad in any case.  Not much to say.  Oh yeah, this had rather nice visuals, the backgrounds and stuff.
7.5/10


MLA Total Eclipse.
Yeah, more BETA please, and less "Greedy Americans won't hesitate to fuck everyone else over to advance their own interests", "No U, filthy Japanese doll", "evil plotting Russians sacrifice people's lives like nothing" bullshit.  I didn't watch this to see racial conflict.  Also, this show like lets grim-dark -» lets boobs + beach + fanservice -» lets grim-dark -» lets fanservice again -» lets grim-dark... or something like that.  But all in all, it's not too bad.  The action in particular were pretty good.

But if you're expecting the 2nd coming of MLA the VN, this definitely isn't it.  Even though they're share the same setting, the underlying themes are completely different.  Also, BETA never flee, never, not even if it's the last one standing against 10000.
7/10


Fate/Zero
Has extremely impressive visuals in the same style of Kara no Kyoukai, an extremely impressive soundtrack by Yuki Kaijura, and pretty good opening and ending songs.  The series is consistently good throughout the whole 25 episodes, however, it has pacing issues and the ending wasn't stellar.  By pacing issues I mean the 1st season was noticeably slower placed than the 2nd season, and towards the end stuff were quite rushed.  As for the endings, it just wasn't very satisfying (pretty much a "to be continued in F/SN") and is sort of confusing, especially so for people unfamiliar with F/SN (note: I am familiar with F/SN).

Further more, I though the speeches and conversations in F/Z, on topics like Kingship, purposes and ideals, pleasure and sin, a lot more interesting than your average slice of life convos.  Other people's mileage may vary.

Heaven's Feel OP for Vita looks pretty cool.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG9MFbCIArI
Fate/Extra CCC OP for Vita also looks pretty cool.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrlLqnc3vlI
Totally different styes, Ufotable vs Shaft.
9/10


Tenjou Tenge
One of those fighting + boobs shows, like Ikki Tousen.  However, this one is a bit better in that it actually has a semi interesting plot, unlike most of the other ones that are almost completely fanservice.  The ending was either really bad or really unfinished, depending on how you view it, neither of them a good thing.
6/10