Month: September 2020

Categories
Previews Reviews

Autumn 2020 Anime Preview

Now that Summer is over, we’re starting to trudge into the weeds of a few anime series that were bumped later due to Covid-19. Add to that the anime that was meant to premiere during Autumn all along, and we have a pretty healthy crop of new anime series to sift through. There are lots of websites that do very comprehensive rundowns of soon-to-be-released anime; I value their contributions, but I don’t have the time or resources to go all-out in that way. But I do get excited about new anime and enjoy picking and choosing a few of my most anticipated titles to feature here.

As usual, these are just my personal opinions and are limited by the amount of information I have to work with. These are also (mostly) based on what looks cool to me; as always, it’s good to remind ourselves that anime series that look great in preview form might turn out to be mediocre, while those that might not appear to be that interesting might turn out to be more than meets the eye.

Below are the resources I used to help put this together:

  • ANN’s Fall 2020 trailer watch-along (this was a stream on their YouTube page which appears not to be recorded – I suspect they might not have the rights since there were PVs from several different companies and sources)
  • AniChart for Fall 2020
  • MAL chart for Fall 2020
  • The ANN Encyclopedia pages for series and their sources, if applicable
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Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Courting Controversy – A Look at “Interspecies Reviewers”

Oddly un-sexy at times and burdened by several other issues, but a fascinating example of ecchi anime with decent production values, a great sense of humor, and an unorthodox focus.

Streaming: N/A (Formerly on Funimation; AnimeLab in Australia and New Zealand continued to stream the remainder of the series. The show is now licensed in the US by Right Stuf with an upcoming disc release).

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Check out my first impressions here!

Note: some elements of this review may be considered NSFW. This review also contains many general and some specific spoilers for the series.

These past few months I’ve been on a quest to get my anime groove back. Typically I don’t have trouble watching several episodes of a series at a pop, but for reasons that I’ve explained probably too often by now these days are anything but typical. And now, after a couple of anime seasons, my anime queue is looking pretty daunting (luckily there are websites to help one keep track of these things…). For me, having too much to do is a paralyzing feeling that creates more problems than it addresses, so sometimes it pays to stop being analytical and just dive face-first into something ridiculous.

For me, “ridiculous” has always been the marker of something I probably wouldn’t want to watch under normal circumstances, but which might serve as a good palate-cleanser. Years ago I made a habit of watching anime that was distinctly outside of my wheelhouse or even actively irritating to me, just as a way of level-setting and reminding myself of the general competency level of the majority anime. At some point I came to the realization that I was spending a lot of my time watching anime I didn’t really like and getting angry about it, with the added negative side-effect being that my voicing my opinions about gross fanservice or whatever tended to garner a fair amount of abuse; an added burden that I wasn’t emotionally ready to deal with. I can’t say that I was the most eloquent writer back then (nor am I now), but getting told to kill myself just because I didn’t appreciate an overabundance of anime tiddy in my face never seemed like much of an equivalent exchange for the level and reach of my work. At some point it was no longer worthwhile to feel crappy on both the front and back end of an anime viewing, so I decided to focus more on anime that I enjoyed watching.

Continue reading “Courting Controversy – A Look at “Interspecies Reviewers””