I pretty much ran out of steam (HA!) towards the end of the season. Haven’t really finished most of what I started, and with the new season here, it further unmotivates me to really bother. So this will be a quick-and-dirty rundown of the other shows I watched and their review scores. Don’t expect anything fancy. Like the soda in the glass most people use for drinking alcoholic-based beverages in. I was at a wedding. Someone had to drive. Except I still don’t drink. Someone has to blog sober.
“The Littlest Engine that Could “
If you were looking for a harem show, Rail Wars fit the bill perfectly. Because it was twelve episodes of everyone except Iwaizumi flaunting around Takayama’s dick. But I could put that aside if the rest of the show was at least moderately interesting, or it at least made an attempt at a salvageable romcom, but it didn’t. It was just a circle-jerk the entire fucking time. The whole subplot of MUH TERRORISTS barely registered as a blip on the radar. Hell, Railgun did a better job with that angle than Rail Wars, and it was pretty much a reverse-harem with Misaka-in-the-middle. Even worse still, I at least hoped they would sort of nerd out and feature some trains, but you got maybe three or four seconds of something before it swung back to Takayama busting a nut over it while his party-posse swooned.
Put-to-the-point, Rail Wars was a disappointing ride from beginning to end, never once stopping to appreciate the technical prowess of trains, or the scenic beauty a train ride has to offer in an age dominated by boring highways, sightless plane trips, and WATERWORLD boats. The train is what I consider to be the last bastion of reliable, authentic transportation that we in the United States have largely forgotten about because we’re too busy consuming the world’s oil in shitty Honda Civics or NASCAR events. If I ever get to travel to Japan one day, which is extremly unlikely, I will probably spend several days just riding trains.
Title: Rail Wars
Sub Group I Watched: FFF
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 6
“Trigger Warning: Dicks”
When you live in a country that has turned being homosexual or transgender in to a cultural fad, it’s difficult to approach a show that puts on a blatant show for blatant audiences. I don’t know how that social movement is in Japan, but I imagine it’s not the same as it is here. I am even betting the most respectable of LGBT folks I know might shake their heads at this one and ask why, mainly because it’s an anime. Himegoto is what it is though, it’s a short series about crossdressing. Parts of it are humorous, and if it wasn’t a short series, I might’ve not bothered. So if you like chubbies in women’s panties, here’s your sign.
Title: Himegoto
Sub Group I Watched: ?
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 6
“Rino does it for free.”
FFF still hasn’t finished the series, standing at ten of thirteen, but since they’re all thematically the same, I figured I’d get this out of the way. Besides the action and allure of Aldnoah and Tokyo ESP, Jinsei was by far my favorite show of the season. It hit all the right buttons at all the right times. Rino will likely be my COTY when I do the year-end power rankings. The whole cast was great too. It reaffirms my faith in the anime industry remembering how to make a simple show with a simple plot and simple-yet-complex characters. You don’t need to overdo this shit, and it’s the formula that brought me back to Servant X Service a few seasons ago. I could use more shows like this on my seasonal roster.
Title: Jinsei
Sub Group I Watched: FFF
Episodes: 13
Rating (1-10): 8
“The one-room solution”
Honestly, I rather enjoyed Rokujyouma, and like Jinsei’s simple approach to three girls one club, Rokujyouma channeled the spirit of Tenchi Muyo to bring back five girls, one guy, and one room. It actually channeled it quite well, and that is saying a lot. Tenchi Muyo was interesting because of the fact he gathered alien girls all around him, but what made it a sci-fi classic were the adventures they wound up on as the direct cause of their meddling with his life. Rokujyouma doesn’t quite hit that high, but it does hit the individual character depth quite well, all things considered, and does romcom properly compared to Rail Wars, with credit to the male lead, Koutarou, who is willing to be the bad guy more often that we might’ve thought. It was a good show to cut the mustard with this season, and I do mean nearly-literally.
Title: Rokujouma no Shinryakusha
Sub Group I Watched: FFF
Episodes: 12
Rating (1-10): 8
Akame ga Kill and Shirogane no Ishi Argevollen continue in to this season, so I may have a halfway marker for them eventually, though probably just wait and review them both at the end. Akame will get some manga comparison, as that might be important to note in context with the show. I did not finish Hanayamata, just did not gel for me. So le done. Now to fire up the next season, and more Firefall.
One Comment