Kimiko_0's Anime
take a look at Kimiko_0's Manga| Seen all▲▼ | Rating▲▼ | Comment▲▼ |
| SaiKano: Another Love Song (OAV) | So-so | More SaiKano. Same sad story, just from a different perspective. |
| Sailor Moon (TV) | Good | Overall this was enjoyable, but there were several things that other magical girl anime did better. What irked me most was how focused everyone was on boys and dating and marrying and other straight/cis stereotypical stuff. It's one thing to acknowledge that many teenage girls are like that, but quite another to push it this much. Nothing wrong with wanting to be like that, but for folks who don't, ugh. Tuxedo Kamen's presence got explained later in the series, but I still think he got in the way of the senshi kicking ass too often. Sailor Moon's super long transformation and speeches took up a lot of time that could have been used to detail other characters more. And the ending was a little too abrupt to satisfy the long buildup. And reset endings are bleh anyway. Overall it was worth watching though. |
| Sailor Moon R (TV) | Decent | Only one new senshi this season, and quite a bit of filler. Oh, and ChibiUsa. |
| Sailor Moon R: The Movie | So-so | This mainly shows off everyone's transformations and attacks in full detail. Some drama that's kinda shallow if it's introduced and forgotten in minutes. And a gay guy gone crazy. Yep, can't let any of that be endorsed :( |
| Sailor Moon S (TV) | Decent | This was a better season than the last, but that's not saying much. It is rather varying in quality though. The bits that I suspect followed the manga were what made it pretty good. All the rest was low-quality filler. Finally getting to see Michiru&Haruka was nice, but their personalities were rather abrasive, and at the end they just disappeared :/ Chibiusa was as annoying as ever (and apparently is returning next season too) :( The ending fizzled a little. Big buildup, so-so climax, too long (3 eps.) epilogue. With a whole solar system worth of planets being in this season, there was also very little attention for the inner senshi. Sure, we have seen them for three seasons now, so there's not much new to tell, but reducing them to caricatures or pushovers is a bit much. I suppose I'll finish the last two seasons for completeness sake, but this Sailor Moon anime is getting a little long in the tooth. |
| Sailor Moon S: The Movie | Decent | As usual, everyone's full transformations and attacks are shown. A bit of drama-of-the-week. It's all very heterosexual-centric though. |
| Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (TV) | Decent | Wow, it's finally the end. Nice about this series was that all the outer senshi appear again (including Saturn even). Chibiusa only appears in the first part, but in the second part we get Chibichibi, who is also pretty meh. At least she doesn't steal the show. The Starlights were on one hand pretty cool, on the other I didn't really care for them being male in civilian form (apparently they're always female in the manga) and the tension between Seiya and Usagi. The finale pulled out all the flashy effects and costumes and stuff, but the plot was a little shaky at the end. Ah well, it's okay. No movie for this season, so, yes, I'm finally done with this anime. It feels like I've spent half a year on it, but it was probably at least four months. |
| Sailor Moon SuperS (TV) | So-so | This was the weakest season so far. Too much ChibiUsa, too little other senshi. Depending on Pegasus to save them every time was also a little meh. Ah well, only one season to go now. |
| Sailor Moon SuperS (special) | Decent | Three short eps. The first was just a clip ep., the other two were okay. |
| Sailor Moon SuperS Plus - Ami's First Love (special) | Not really good | A short stand-alone ep. kinda. Rather ridiculous, but that's not much worse than most eps. |
| Sailor Moon SuperS: The Movie | Decent | Oh, look, it's the outer senshi, dusted off for the movie. A forgettable story as always with movies like this, but that's okay. |
| Saint October (TV) | So-so | Again no idea why this was on the to-watch list. It has a magical girl tag, but that's all. Well, the first ep. looks weird. Two girls run a detective agency of sorts, with some gadgets and hacking, then one gets transformed into Loli Black. Yes, that's her magical girl name. Both the good and bad folks transform with tarot cards, which is kinda interesting (the transforming that is; the tarot thing might be, but so far just fits the goth theme). Hmm. Neither the characters nor the art are very detailed. It's all just lacking something. And with ep.12 we lose the most interesting character (Sophia), while Ryouhei still hasn't been kicked out :/ Well, that was completely mediocre. The characters keep changing, and have very little depth. The tarot thing looks interesting, but doesn't really get much attention, as does the loli thing, which really only applies to the girls' costumes when transformed and nothing else. I can't say there's anything really bad about this anime, but it's just not good either. Mostly it's boring. |
| Saint Seiya: Saintia Shō (ONA) | So-so | Saintia Shou is the girls version of Saint Seiya, right? Wow, quaint art style. '90s? It's also clearly an OVA (or ONA in this case). The first ep. introduces everything really quickly. Well, the Saint Seiya franchise has been going for a long time, so they probably expect viewers to know the background (I don't). And it's also clear that this is a spin-off of the main story. Saintias are women who don't fight in whatever war the main story covers, but instead only protect Athena. Way to make the women play second banana. Well, I'll just ignore that part and hope this is a decent story on its own. Hmm, they keep bringing up that the Saintias really are much weaker than the Saints (who apparently aren't all men, just mostly). Pretty annoying that even in an anime that's supposed to be about them, they need saved by some Saint or other all the time. I also get the feeling this is a rather compressed form of a long manga. Some events that apparently take fairly long go by in minutes, then one or two scenes get more screen time. Like we're just seeing the highlights of the story. Just get rid of all the men already. The story would be much better. Oh, looked it up, and yeah, the manga is 66 chapters/13 tankoubon, while this is only 10 eps. It was also written as a side story within the setting of the original Saint Seiya story. Which means those events and people (mostly men) appear/happen regardless of what the main characters here do. Which means they mostly don't do much of anything, or fight without accomplishing anything, or get saved by one of the original characters now and then. Well, I'll finish this, but it's not really great. And done. The latter half jumped even more quickly between parts of the story, and focused on Saints instead of Saintias more than half the time. About the only good part of this anime was the OP theme unfortunately. |
| Saint Tail (TV) | Not really good | Recommended by the folks on #precure IRC. Sort of a magical girl without real magic, just magic tricks. The church side entrance reminds me of Saint October. Or more exactly the other way around of course, since this anime came first. I don't like the rival romance thing. It feels forced as always. Hmm. If it's not going to change the current setup, it'll be a whole series of idiot plots. Ep.10. I think I'm finally beginning to get used to the romance plot. It felt very uncomfortable awkward at first. Apparently the episode plots will stay silly for the whole series. And finally finished. Probably because of the awkwardness this anime didn't go by as quickly as usual. The basic episode plot is repeated for the whole series, with only minor variations now and then. Toward the end the romance is tuned up a little, but it's not until the last two eps. that there's any real development. That final plot is as full of plotholes as the rest of the anime, so the ending doesn't feel very convincing. The short flashforward to 8 years later was completely unnecessary in this case, but I guess there wasn't any good way to wrap it up without drawing even more attention to the plotholes. Overall I didn't like this anime all that much. Not a complete waste, but it would've been enough to watch one or two eps. |
| Saki (TV) | Very good | Mahjong is serious business. Can we please tone down the tits and panty shots though? I'd like to watch this for the characters, not fanservice. Wow, whoever said this is like Dragonball Z with mahjong wasn't kidding. One match was spread over three eps., and the tournament has already lasted for seven eps. It looks like the creators intended to make two seasons all along. The tournament lasts for nearly the whole series, but Saki and Nodoka clearly made a promise to go to the national competition, and Saki wanted to confront her sister. The ending of ep.25 also suddenly introduces (or at least shows) a whole bunch of new characters. Aside from the fanservice, this is a fun anime. Sure, the game is hard to follow, and the dramatics are over the top, but that's what makes it fun, and there are so many characters that some are bound to be interesting. Yuri is hinted at, but that's mostly as fanservice too, no actual relationships are there. The fanservice is very heavy though, which seriously detracts from my enjoyment. I would definitely watch a second season, but won't buy this anime. |
| Saki - The Nationals (TV) | Good | And this is the national tournament from Kiyosumi's half then. A bit of a slow start, with ep.4 the first actual match. The other teams look interesting again. I guess they won't get through the final match as well? It's already ep.11 and it's still only the quarter-final.. :/ Well, that was kinda weird. The season is called Zenkoku-hen, but it actually covers only the preliminary and quarter-final matches. The last ED's animation hints at a next season, but Zenkoku-hen is from early 2014, so either they didn't get to make one due to disappointing sales or they overtook the manga or something. Biyori is scheduled for later this month, but that's only an OVA and doesn't concern the main characters from the first two seasons anyway. Overall I liked the first season best. The second and third did better on the fanservice (toned down a lot, although the last eps. of this season ramped it up again), worse on the mahjong dramatics (although the later eps. of both season improved a little), and worse on the character interaction. The relationships between the players and teams just didn't feel as lively as in the first season. There's still yuri potential of course with so many girls, but it's nowhere near as outspoken as in S1. |
| Saki Biyori (OAV) | Decent | Single ep. of 4-koma gags in slightly SD form. Only characters from the first season are included (and not all of them at that). |
| Saki Episode of Side A (TV) | Good | I started the Zenkoku-hen season after the first Saki, but I think I'll watch this side-story first. Huh. Saki spent more than half the season on preparing for and the prefectural tournament. In Achiga that's all over in just three eps. And they didn't even show them practicing. Maybe this season will cover the national tournament as well. Yep, the nationals are a big part of this season. This season's animation is not as good as the first season's. Lots of limited animation, and the characters seem more subdued. Looks like they saved the fireworks for the later eps. It's not quite as boisterous as S1, but more excited than the earlier S2 eps. Well, that ended more or less as expected, Achiga and Shiraitodai continue to the finals. Zenkoku-hen is then about Kiyosumi winning their semifinals, and the finals between Achiga, Kiyosumi, Shiraitodai and one unknown. |
| Sakura Trick (TV) | Good | The fanservice is quite prominent, especially focusing on the girls' thighs :? Past that though, it seems to be a decent, silly comedy about a group of lesbian highschoolers. I can see it being a popular side comic in a lesbian magazine for example. Nothing deep, and a bit single-topic, but occasionally funny or endearing. Yes, there is an annoying amount of fanservice, but the characters are just so cute ^_^ And how often do you see characters actually kiss in anime? Pretty rarely. |
| Sasameki Koto (TV) | Good | Sumi-chan is cute ^_^ The theme of this anime is nice of course, but except for Sumika and Ushio the characters are rather flat, and their relationship doesn't really develop at all. There's an awful lot of fanservice too. |
| Sasami: Magical Girls Club (TV) | Good | I needed something light-hearted and fun, and this anime seemed to fit. So far it looks a little childish, but it is fun and cute and colorful :) |
| Sasami: Magical Girls Club Season 2 (TV) | Good | Hmm, things get rather more complex and sinister in this season (actually, at the end of season 1). These two seasons actually make up one continuous story. No idea why it was split this way. The ending was a little meh in that it didn't really resolve the bigger problems other than the girls getting rid of the bad guys. There wasn't really much fanservice, although there are some hints that the makers were very much aware of the seinen demographic among their audience. The insert song "Daichi No Uta" (song of the earth) is beautiful, although not a perfect fit in the setting. Overall I'd rate the series between Good and Decent. |
| Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei (TV) | Good | Another anime by Shaft about a school class (just like Pani Poni Dash and Negima!?). I didn't like this one as much though. Maybe it's the art style, maybe the fanservice. Or maybe things are getting repetitive. |
| Scorching Ping Pong Girls (TV) | Very good | Recommended by Andrea as "fucking fantastic" and "Saki with table tennis". I guess I should try it. Hmm, it looks a bit Sakiish at least. I wonder if there'll be similar far-out fireworks, and yuri? Oh, ep.6 has a character named Kimiko. Nice, even if she's a bit weird. Well, most of the Mozuyama girls are. Hmm, I guess this is like Saki in another way. We're already up to ep.8 and the first practice match hasn't even finished yet.. :/ Yep, that practice match lasted until ep.10. The last two eps. were a training camp, plus some hinted-at future opponents. Quite like Saki. However, this anime is from 2016, and there's no second season yet (the last update of the homepage's news section is from 2017 too) :/ Anyways, this was a pretty good anime, with plenty of yuri pairings. |
| Scrapped Princess (TV) | Good | Oh, this looks like it'll be fun. The main character is a woman, and there's lots of magic. I ended up watching almost the whole anime twice because I got distracted back in January. The first time I thought the writers had crammed too many ideas into one story. The second time it made more sense how everything fit together. I think Pacifica was realistic as a naïve fifteen year old kid, but towards the end her apologizing for being who she was got to be a bit much. Otherwise it was a good anime, although I would've liked to see more of Raquel and less of Shannon. She was much more fun than her brother. |
| Second Renaissance (OAV) | See Animatrix. | |
| (The) Secret World of Arrietty (movie) | Very good | A very sweet and touching movie. Very pretty also, especially in HD, and the music and sound were good too. Really another superb Ghibli movie. The character designs were very recognizably Ghibli, as well as the overall style of the movie of course. They may finally have found a suitable successor to carry Studio Ghibli after Hayao Miyazaki's retirement. |
| Selector Infected Wixoss (TV) | So-so | Listed on TVTropes under feminist fantasy. It seems to have a mostly female cast at least. Not sure about the card battles thing, but hey, I liked Saki and Angelic Layer. Wow. All the explaining in ep.1 is a bit much, isn't it? It's a lot like Angelic Layer, but the setting and atmosphere also remind me of Madoka Magica. Let's hope it doesn't end up a tragedy. Hmm, maybe it's more like Black Rock Shooter than PMMM? Well, they're both pretty depressing until the ending, so not much of a difference. Ah well, we'll see where it goes. Is making girls desperate and depressed the new moe? I hope the ending at least is happy. So far it's just going from bad to worse to worst. Yah, this really is just like PMMM and BRS. Oh, sequel hook ending, with the second season already announced. Guess they didn't want to finish it in 12 eps. after all. Question is, do I want to watch more of this? On one hand, the story isn't finished yet (but I don't know if S2 will do so, as a movie is planned for early next year), but on another, this wasn't really enjoyable. Meh. |
| Selector Spread Wixoss (TV) | Decent | I guess I'm watching this after all. The ending of this season is supposed to be moderately happy and conclusive. I hope that's true. Ep.8 is a bit infodumpy. It was about time the backstory was finally explained, but maybe they could've spread it out a little more. Well, this season was a lot less dark than the first. Still not quite happy, and the ending was a little vague, but at least not as dark as S1. I don't think the movie can add much to this. Either it's an epilogue, or an enemy of the week without much of a story. Might be nice if every character from the series gets to play some role, but that probably won't happen. Ah well, we'll see what it's like when it comes out. |
| Senki Zesshō Symphogear (TV) | Decent | Second season (SZS G) is said to have a lesbian character. Hmm, the first ep. is very actionful and dramatic. A little bit confusing though. It starts in 'present', flashes back to, uh, a few years ago, then it says it goes back to 'present', but apparently it's still before the first part :? Ah well, ep.2 will probably clear things up. So far it wasn't super fanservicey. This kind of outfit is nothing unusual for action anime, and isn't even much beyond standard magical girl outfits. There is an 'ecchi' tag on it though, so it'll probably get worse :/ Hmm, there's definitely a lot of male gaze going on, sometimes pretty badly even. Plus there are a few times when Ryouko gets inappropriately touchy-feely. So I guess it does deserve the 'ecchi' tag after all. Not that this is good, but it could've been worse. Ep.9 is a 'day off' ep., which is a bit of a waste in an anime with only 13 eps. Maybe they won't finish the story and instead continue in G? There's certainly a bunch of unexplained details yet. Hmm, the last few eps. were a little messy, what with the back and forth between winning and losing. Decent ending though, and the first part of ep.1 was finally explained too. All in all, if it weren't for the fanservice/ecchi, this would make a decent modern magical/action girl anime. With it, I'd only recommend SZS if you're able to ignore it. |
| Senki Zesshō Symphogear AXZ (TV) | Decent | Seems only Commie subbed it completely so far, and they were really bad with key terms in previous seasons :( Looks like another group is subbing the BDs. They're up to #6/ep.12 now (2019-01-09). Seems like they're only slight edits of Commie's though. Updated batch hopefully soonish. Well, it looks like the key terms thing has become inconsistent. The early eps. have Commie's old substitutions, the later ones don't. Meh, whatever, it's the only set available. The fanservice isn't as bad as in GX, but still very noticeable. The three Alchemists being trans isn't really mentioned after that one remark about getting perfect bodies. It's sad that they didn't join the Symphogear group at the end but instead got to nobly sacrifice themselves. Bury your transfolk it seems :( Speaking of which, that return of Cagliostro and Prelati at the end was pretty badly written. The writing felt worse than earlier seasons. You expect some second and third forms of the big bad, and extra hidden superpowers from the good folks, but the last three eps. here stretched it out a bit too much. The last half of the last ep. was full of sequel hooks, but I guess that's natural if S5 and S4 were announced at the same time. I hope we get to see the Alchemists again, but I doubt it. They didn't get enough depth really :( Anyways, it's otherwise a decent addition to the franchise. VX in three months (or six until it's finished and subbed I guess). |
| Senki Zesshō Symphogear G (TV) | Decent | Aw, the last ep. of the first season's new powerup is already gone. Ah, so this season is going to be 3 vs. 3. And that bad guy-looking guy from ep.1 was indeed a bad guy. So far (ep.7) it's pretty good. There is a lot of very noticeable "as you know Bob" talk though. Well, overall it's partly not so good, partly awesome as before. The not so good aspect is the writing, which is kinda clumsy (that "as you know Bob" thing, a few dues ex machina plot saves, a few "random pointless remarks that somehow keep the heroines from doing their thing", etc.). The good aspects are the kick-ass music, and the ass-kicking fights it accompanies. The characters are likeable, but the opponents don't get much depth really. The lesbian character(s) I was promised (no idea by whom though) didn't exactly occur. Kirika and Shirabe are pretty close, but it's the sort of close that can too easily be explained away as friendship. |
| Senki Zesshō Symphogear GX (TV) | Weak | The first ep. is spectacular as usual. Again some "as you know Bob"-ing though. All this losing is getting annoying. Even with the new powerup the girls are getting their asses kicked. Or powering up through suffering in some cases. Still not really the unfettered ass-kicking we want to see. Another theme this season seems to be daddy issues. Hibiki gets most of it, but Tsubasa also has her moments. Oh, and Carol of course. Really, the writing this season is just awful. The explaining things to eachother, irrelevant macguffins, a plot that wanders without aim, characters who act completely out of character for as long as the plot requires, forgotten experiences, etc. etc. Overall, season 1 was okay, S2 was slightly less but still tolerable, S3 is bleh. Only watch it if you want completeness. The music on the other hand is still kickass. |
| Senki Zesshō Symphogear XV (TV) | Good | Starts Summer 2019. Just in time to have to rewatch the whole series? Well, I ended up rewatching everything anyway because of the game. New season, new set of enemies. Too bad none of S4's opponents survived. S3 at least gave us Elfnein. Regrettably predictably, the enemy trio from this season went the noble sacrifice route as well. Well, at least we got to see Carol&Elfnein in their gear again, and Miku got her gear back at the end too. The final eps. were a bit messy, but that's not really new I guess. A decent end to the series. |
| Seraphim Call (TV) | Weak | Maybe some yuri (subtext?) in some eps. The format reminds me of Diamond Daydreams, but this seems to have more plot. Well, that's rather different than what I expected. That "reminds me of Diamond Daydreams" bit was kinda misleading. More like Patlabor in ep.1. And there's that old ridiculosity of a girl fainting from phobia at the sight of a man. *rolleyes* Hopefully the rest of this anime is better or I might have to drop it. Hmm. Ep.2 is a different story. Same universe still, but different MC and different tone. Still had some questionable elements though. Ep.3 is okay. Ep.4 is about a girl who is told she should become more feminine, despite clearly preferring a more neutral style. She's not shown to have changed at the end, but the pressure still feels worng. The subjects of the stories are so-so, and the character designs are sometimes pretty meh, but the variety in storytelling styles/structures/perspectives is interesting, and although the art is quite rough at times, they do experiment with some uncommon angles. There's a lot of male gaze going on too. Feels a little uncomfortable. It's not just the occasional male gaze, the whole anime feels like it's made by someone who looks at these girls/women as mysterious/foreign. The last few eps. are more meh, then the final ep. is short interactions between some of the cast. All in all this wasn't really worth watching. |
| Serial Experiments Lain (TV) | So-so | Psychedelic. The makers read too much American conspiracy theories I think. A bit heavy, but might appeal to philosophical types, after a toke or two.. |
| Shakugan no Shana (TV) | Decent | Far-fetched, but reasonably well executed premise. Yuuji and Shana aren't very likeable though. Yuji is too average-like, and Shana too cold. Her voice says she'll be defrosting later on, but won't admit it. Meh. Well, she did admit it after all, but that didn't really change anything. The ending is mostly a reset, with everyone and the status quo surviving. The action and some of the secondary characters are good, but, like I said, the main characters and plot are too predictable. And of course there's the question of why everything happens as it does. There are too many gizmos and premises that exist only because that's how the writer wanted it, without structure or explanation. |
| Shamanic Princess (OAV) | So-so | Dark magical girl? Sounds interesting. Or maybe not. There's very little action; even conversations are slow. Characterization is good, but the story just isn't all that interesting. |
| Shanghai Dragon (movie) | Decent | Part of Genius Party. This one's pretty cool actually. Well, the little boy is a little whiny, but otherwise it's fun. |
| Shangri-La (TV) | Weak | Hmm, there's a lot of info dumped in the first ep. I hope things get clearer later on. I'm not completely sure, but did I see two trans characters? I did, I did see two trans characters. They're still in the man-obsessed entertainer caricature corner, but at least they're actually trans, and shown in a positive light. I hope they survive.. *worried* I take back that positive light part. They are part of the good side, but the depiction is just as over the top as always. Actually being trans apparently doesn't change that. Also, does Japanese not have a word other than okama to describe queer folks? Sheesh. Hmm. This E-D sub is worse than the O-L one I wanted to replace with it. The eps. continue to be very info-dumpy, and, like the reviews said, still don't go anywhere. So many plot holes, so many unexplained plot twists. Really, things just keep happening without any proper reason at all. This whole anime's plot, but the last part in particular was just one giant ass-pull. Huge plot holes everywhere, held together with a lot of pointless action. |
| Shattered Angels (TV) | So-so | Suggested by Carin. Rewatch Kannazuki No Miko and watch Steel Angel Kurumi and Nyan Nyan Taruto first. Oops, almost forgot Kannazuki. Seems it also references UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie, but I think I can live without that. The characters are somewhat based on earlier Kaishaku works, but you could watch this without knowing those. It's really just the names and character designs. Kuu's story is quite tearjerky so far. And there really are too many meaningless bath scenes. They're not even that fanservicey, just random. Well, Setsuna and Kaon/Himiko's stories are also pretty sad. With basing both Kuu and Himiko on Kannazuki's Himeko, it seems the makers will get to keep their cake and eat it. On the other hand, there's still the psycho and suffering lesbian Mika :( Well, the last part ended up being pretty random, what with Kazuya and Valteishia, and the Angels combining and stuff. All in all, it was not really bad, but not actually good either. |
| She and Her Cat (OAV) | Good | Very short, and monochrome. It's sweet, although with some Shinkai melancholy in it. It feels a little voyeuristic to hear the woman's life in third person, but at least it's not fanservicey like so many other anime. I wish there were more female anime directors so we could have women's stories in first person. |
| She and Her Cat -Everything Flows- (TV) | Good | Got a pretty good review. Just rewatched the old short. Wow, this is a lot brighter and more colorful. Still has some of that male gaze thing going on that the original had too. The woman not telling her own story, but being described by a male voice, and her description focusing on her looks, which are irrelevant to both the story and a cat. Hmm, the rest is nice though. A bit wistful, and with a bittersweet ending, then an epilogue that seems to link to the original. Which makes it both optimistic and not because the original was kinda melancholy. Overall, nice, but I'm not sure I'd buy it if it got a physical release. |
| She Professed Herself Pupil of the Wise Man (TV) | Bad | Well, after some research, it seems the LN version, while leaving some details and particular scenes unchanged from the WN, also made some bigger changes in between, and left out some lesser details. Then the manga mostly copied that version, adding very little and only smoothing some things to fit a visual medium, and finally the anime f'ed that version up with very ugly CG and extremely limited animation (basically just slow pans over stills, barely above a VN). The end result is something that, while here and there reminding of the original WN, is nearly all garbage. The character designs are okay, but that's really all. If anyone is interested in this story, stick with the WN and avoid all the other versions (the anime even has the real reason behind Danbulf's nickname spoiled in the first ep. instead of being revealed around ch.100 or thereabouts). |
| She, The Ultimate Weapon (TV) | So-so | Chise is so confused and clumsy all the time that it's hard to see her as an equal to Shuuji emotionally. Shuuji on the other hand acts most of the series as a complete jerk. He scolds Chise all the time, forces himself on her a time or two, cheats on her with Fuyumi-san, bleh. Couple that with a setting that varies from boring country town where nothing happens to outright war where people are dying left and right to devastated town where people desperately try to survive, and you'll understand that this isn't really a pleasant anime. If it were a book, it would surely be classified as Literature (with capital L) because it is very depressing, and in the end nothing is accomplished except showing human suffering and the utter stupidity of war. |
| Shigofumi - Letters from the Departed (TV) | Excellent | I was expecting a nice and sweet slice-of-life anime, but this looks to be a little darker than that. More like Hell Girl maybe. Not that that's a bad thing; just different. Okay, it started somewhat Hell Girl-like, but it was mostly happier, and had much more of a plot. Highly recommended to fans of supernatural/drama anime. |
| Shiranpuri (movie) | Decent | Not exactly a happy theme, but the ending is decent. Can't say I'm a fan of this animated sketch art style though. |
| Shirobako (TV) | Excellent | Got a lot of praise when it aired. Whoa, lots and lots of characters :o I'm not sure I remember any names after just one ep. After several eps. I'm starting to remember a few more names. Doesn't really matter a whole lot though, as the characters' jobs are more important. This anime is not just interesting for its subject, but also fun to watch. Yep, this was pretty awesome. Zuka not getting added until almost the end was a little less great, but I suppose we can put that under realism. Overall quite educational and a lot of fun too. |
| Shirobako (movie) | Good | Overall I liked this movie, but it's not quite as great as the TV series. The strong point is the enthusiasm for animation that the creators have, but there are two weaker points, both writing related. The first is that it insists on including every character (in-universe fictional or not) that appeared in the TV series, even ones that didn't play much of a role there and are completely unnecessary here, on top of adding some new ones, some of whom don't really add much either. This, on top of the already limited running time of 120min. compared to the series' 2×~240min., leaves very little time for characters to be shown doing their jobs. We're just assumed to remember who does what from the TV series and believe that they're working hard off-screen. For example, Tarou and Daisuke appear early on just because they were prominent in the TV series and should be shown to still be around. They don't seem to have actual jobs that pay an income though. When they later join MusAni again their addition likewise doesn't seem necessary the way Daisuke's addition was in the second half of the series. They're only there to complete the headcount. The most prominent new character, Kaede, appears a few times throughout the movie, most prominently in the bar-hopping scene and the battle against the badguys near the end. It's not quite clear what she adds though. The bar scene didn't give much development or info, and the battle was technically/artistically cool, but was story-wise a repeat from the second half of the series, and Aoi could've been on her own for it like Seiichi was. The second weak point is that the characters' struggle to make their movie is mostly implied and not shown. The TV series showed them hard at work, running into setbacks and obstacles, and overcoming them with effort and inventiveness to create small miracles that added up to a large miracle. Here, the characters are hardly shown working. Difficulties in managing the workload are only implied or mentioned, but not actually shown, even when they could be expected to be very hard to overcome. This makes the small miracles not appear all that miraculous and the large miracle at the end feel merely okayish. For example, early on MusAni is said to be in very dire circumstances, barely making ends meet. Their workspace looks drab, the characters look tired or depressed, but we're not shown them working overtime to make just barely acceptable crap, only a little the end result. This sequel to 3rd Wing indeed looks like an insult to their first season, but the distaste they must feel is barely acknowledged. Later on, Misa quickly accepts Aoi's invitation to work on Siva, but her colleagues remind her she already has a pile of work to do for some other anime. She just says she'll do both and that's that. She's never shown struggling to do all that or making mistakes because of exhaustion from the double workload, it all just works out without a hitch. These things add up to make this movie feel kinda weak overall. The musical and action scenes are neat, but they feel like they're there just because of that and not because they fit well into a complete story. |
| Shirobako (OAV) | Good | Two eps., one each from the anime "created" in the main series. Pretty cool to see the result of all the characters' hard work. I think the Dai-3 Hikou Shoutai one's idea has been used in an actual anime? Forgot the name of it though. |