AniFriday Issue #23: July 25th, 2014 (Star Platinum/Jonathan Joestar wants you deep inside his body!)

I will refrain from going on a rant this week.  Instead, I’ll just say that I’m having a lot of fun with anime right now.  Especially since I’ve started narrowing down and finishing off lingering series.  Ao Haru Ride, Argevollen and Glasslip are gone.  Tokyo Ravens and Chaika are almost done.  It’s a whole lot more satisfying than what I have to deal with when it comes to manga.  The impression is being given that mega manga Bleach and Naruto are ending, but those lingering final battles are going to last a long time.  And if they aren’t f*cking amazing battles, it’s gonna leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.

There.  Nice and short.  Here are the anime & manga I’ll be covering in order:

• Stardust Crusaders ep15 & 16
• Tokyo Ravens ep21 & 22
• Chaika the Coffin Princess ep7
• Akame ga Kill! ep3
• Hajime no Ippo ch1059 & 1060
• Naruto ch685
• Bleach ch589

AniFriday Issue #20: July 4th, 2014 (I get everything I want, except for a vacation)

 

It’s a holiday, so I don’t really have too much to say.  Hopefully while you’re reading this, I’m eating blue crabs and chilling with my family.  If I’m not doing that, then I’m at work, or fretting over what I’m going to start watching for this upcoming Summer anime season.  I always found it interesting how the anime seasons start not when you expect the actual seasons to start, but at a point where you can’t deny what season it is.  I you’re watching an anime in July, it’s clearly a summer anime.  If you start watching a new show in October, you can’t deny it’s fall and that usually the weather will be appropriately  matching.  It’s not like some other activities where you go, “GEEZUS!  It’s really too hot for football!”  Or “how is hockey even a playable sport right now?”  It’s not like a sale either, where you see the phrase summer sale and wonder what the f*ck they mean when it’s just barely May.  Nope!  So while anime does specifically signal any particular season, at  least in its own strange round about way, it’s a clear sign of the seasons when new ones start appearing.

AniFriday Issue #19 (June 27th, 2014): Chaotic Neutral vs. Neutral Evil

 

Had to adjust my AniFriday schedule a bit, even if it meant pushing back the post a whole week.  I just couldn’t allow to call this series AniFriday, and all my posts go up late on a Saturday night… Damn you JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure!  But I won’t dwell on that.

I will say, it feels great to be in a groove with a couple of series again.  Tokyo Ravens is fun as hell, Chaika is damn near my favorite thing to watch right now, and even though Stardust Crusaders has been a little stale for a bit in my opinion, it’s still better than most shounen battle material I’ve watched or read this year.  As for the manga, I’m pretty much hyped for everything except for Umi no Misaki, and you’ll see why.  I don’t know what it needs more of.  Perhaps more tits and/or plot – wait!  That’s the same thing isn’t ?!

Here are the anime and manga I’ll be covering in this post, in order:

• Stardust Crusaders ep12
• Tokyo Ravens ep18
• Chaika the Coffin Princess ep4
• Naruto ch681
• Bleach ch585
• Hunter X Hunter ch342 – 344
• One Piece ch750
• Team Medical Dragon ch105
• Umi no Misaki ch6

Check-in Station: Chaika the Coffin Princess ep4 (I am man, she is loli!)

Watching this episode, I was a little bit surprised at Chaika’s reticence towards conflict.  I know she doesn’t want it, but she seemed extremely apprehensive given her life goal is to retrieve those remains.  Good grief, I wonder how much farther she would have gotten if not for Toru and Akira?  In contrast, I do admire Toru’s professionalism.  He’s trying to be nice and respectful while attempting to balance his need to be efficient and opportunistic to do his job as a saboteur.  I’m sure he didn’t want to incite conflict either, both because he was saved by the same woman he’d have to fight to the death, and because  she is supposed to have a dragoon on her side to match her skill and its easy access to magic.  By the halfway point of this episode, the group is already in a very awkward situation, probably hoping they could assume the role of scoundrels and thieves again so that they may more easily obtain their goal.

AniFriday Issue #18 (June 13th, 2014): there’s no “I” in team, and there’s no creepy monster in my mirrors anymore

Summer’s here!  And that means that I have more time to watch anime and read more manga!  Why?  It’s not because I’m out of school, I’ve been done with that forever.  It’s because my kids aren’t in school, so I don’t have to waste time picking them up and because I can get more sleep.  I don’t have to wake up four hours after going to bed to take care of business!  Couple that with the time I plan on spending at the beach and drinking more beer, and I’m thinking that I’m going to be in a much better mood over the next couple of months.

AniFriday Issue #17 (June 6th, 2014): all you can eat buffet of creepypasta

There must be a special on creepy this week.  Almost every anime episode I watched this week had some creepy as hell sh*t in it.  From some guy bragging about how much he enjoys using a toilet that uses a pig to clean your butt, to evil mirror hopping murder monsters, to government lackeys who enjoy being way to far inside an alien girls personal bubble, to a magical familiar who just stares at teenagers with murderous intent.  It’s anime, so it’s a rule that it’s always weird, but even that stuff has its awkward moments among the awkward moments.  And all this crap is obscuring the death of a character I really liked!  Damn you anime weirdness!  You make everything uncomfortable!