Yeah, bakemonogatari didn't really live up to the hype for me either.

Just finished The World God Only Knows S3, and I have to say I quite enjoyed it.
Was initially worried that it'd be like S2, but the animators figured out that wasn't the right thing to do, made things different and even mixed in an overall plot.  Well, the plot wasn't particularly great on its own, however, despite being serious in degree, is generally not focused on too much; I quite liked how they stayed true to their roots of being a comedy/romance and sidelining the plot to something beyond the scope of the main focus.
Also, the plot serves as much better filler than the stuff they put in for the first two seasons.
The change of pace was really welcome, however they had to skip some of the story to accomodate it into the third season.  As such, some of protagonist's conquests lose a bit of impact, since you haven't seen their backstory (unless you read the manga).  Actually, considering how they allocated the time and didn't give more than one focused episode on most of the girls, it cheapens the arcs a fair bit, although I never really felt that convinced in the original two seasons anyway.  Despite the change of situation, it still retains much of the basic structure of the first two seasons (each girl having an arc, mostly being unrelated to each other except for the "common route" at the beginning), which has its pros and cons, and arguably this is intentional.
There's also a few seeming bits of questionable logic, especially on the part of the bad guys, although you can say they somewhat accounted for this.  (Lune seems to be the only character from the evil side with half a brain)
The final episode rounded things up fairly well.  After episode 11, I was wondering how they'd tie up all the plot elements well in just one episode - I quite like the way they prioritised what was actually crucial to the show as opposed to the story.

Overall, they manage to mix a number of elements in quite well to make it enjoyable.  The main problem with this is the lack of focus* on any particular thing in great detail, but considering only 12 episodes, I think they've done a good job.
* well, most of the time at least

Edit: heh, so much for a "quick review"

(This post was last modified: 24/09/2013 05:27 PM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

(24/09/2013 05:29 PM)eKusoshisut0 Wrote:  You're slipping ZiNgA. THAT WASN'T QUICK AT ALL. Unless I read only the first sentence.

You learn well from newspapers then.
But seriously I quite enjoyed it.  I don't really rate sequels, but I'd probably give it a 4 star rating if I did.


On the other hand, the new Higurashi Outbreak OVA is really meh.  The Dice Killing Chapter was way better.
^ Quick huh-

Welcome to the NHK
IMO, captures what it's like to be a hikikomori fairly well for a TV show, and manages to do it in a fairly entertaining way.
I found it a bit coincidental at times, as well as a little over the top at other times, but I suppose it's to be expected.
3.5 stars


Railgun S
Similar in structure to the first season (two primary plots).  I liked the first plot better than the rest, although it's drawn out a bit too long.  Unfortunately, it's not particularly conclusive either, and certain issues just seem to be brushed away.
Decent for enjoyment, if you don't think about it too much.

Hanasaku Iroha Movie
As expected of a slice of life, similar to the main TV series.  Explores a bit of a backstory, and does a decent job.  I think they tried a little too hard to squish a bit of everything in there though, and it feels a little rushed trying to fit it all in a movie of that length.

Date A Live
This was surprisingly better than I had expected.
Firstly, don't just it by the first half of the first episode - in fact, I don't even know why they even put it in.
The idea of mixing a dating sim parody with some more typical harem aspects and magical girls (and a bit of sci-fi) seems to be fine.  It doesn't really merge them all - instead it switches between "modes" (in dating mode, the girls don't have any magical abilities; onsen episode etc).  I suppose one could argue this being part of the parody - I'm not convinced though.
The ending isn't conclusive, but I suppose this was for the second season next year.
In general, somewhat entertaining, but doesn't feel particularly refined.
3 stars

^ OVA of the above is actually decent IMO.
Fits two stories into one, though I prefer the first one over the second.

Can't believe I didn't notice that Kotori switched her hair ties depending on the role she's playing - I thought something was different, just didn't see exactly what...

(This post was last modified: 07/01/2014 06:37 AM by ZiNgA BuRgA.)

Chuunibyou movie is rather pointless - could've been better, but is basically a condensed version of the TV series with some very minor changes.
The first and last 10 minutes is new material though.

Unbreakable Machine Doll
This mixes a fanservice/comedy type show in with a decent story line, and works quite well IMO.
Actually, it's broken up into 3x 4 episode stories, however there's definitely progression on the overall story line.  As it only gives 4 episodes per story, it packs in a fair amount, meaning there isn't really any filler within the story (beyond the fanservice parts) but does have the downside of requiring you to pay attention to some details to understand what's going on (and in some cases, you won't really understand until the explanation they give you later on).  Even with that, I'm still struggling to understand some of the logic/reasoning behind certain events.
The main character is amazingly (and probably unrealistically) astute, but has the typical shounen tendency of being stubborn about protecting/saving the various female characters, and somehow never dies despite his injuries.

Unfortunately, despite the pace, the first season does not end the story.
3.5 stars