#gurazeni: money pitch

[best-underrated-anime]

Best Underrated Anime Group H Round 2: #H1 vs #H2

#H1: Pro baseball player cares about money

#H2: Girl is sent to family hotel in the country

Details and poll under the cut!

#H1: Gurazeni

Summary:

This is the story of Natsunosuke Honda, a pro baseball player—a relief pitcher who has been playing pro in a team called Spiders for 8 years. The team operates as a highly-stratified society, where the player's performance determines his annual salary. Natsunosuke is one of the highest paid players in the game. He measures how good players are by how much money they make, and he intends to be on top and stay there, and as such is always looking for players to challenge and does everything to insure that he is better than they are.

Propaganda:

Gurazeni appeals to me as a show where all the characters are adults and are written as such. I would not say that Gurazeni's art is particularly good, but the writing has a charm to it. It gets into the little details of baseball stats and how they affect salaries, as well as which position pays more. The characters are fun and likable and the story goes some interesting places. I only saw season 1, but it did get a season 2.

Also, Gurazeni's music is pretty good, with a great OP and ED.

Trigger Warnings: None.

#H2: Hanasaku Iroha: Blossoms for Tomorrow

Summary:

Ohana Matsumae is an energetic and wild teenager residing in Tokyo with her carefree single mother. Abruptly, her mother decides to run away with her new boyfriend from debt collectors, forcing the young girl to fend for herself—as per her mother's "rely only on yourself" philosophy—in rural Japan, where her cold grandmother runs a small inn. Driven to adapt to the tranquil lifestyle of the countryside, Ohana experiences and deals with the challenges of working as a maid, as well as meeting and making friends with enthralling people at her new school and the inn.

Propaganda:

It’s a really great one season show about a teen girl figuring out who she is and what she wants out of life. She makes friends and creates a home for herself despite having no dad and a lackluster Mother. She grows and blossoms into a better, kinder person who enjoys life. It’s a genuinely sweet anime, and everyone in it is trying their best. It’s a feel good show, and if you need a smile, give it a shot. Frankly, it’s very much character-centric, and you can’t help but root for them and feel for them when they suffer.

Trigger Warnings: Mild Emotional Abuse in the past. The Mom isn’t abusive physically, but she does suck and neglects her kid emotionally, so maybe Child Abuse?

When reblogging and adding your own propaganda, please tag me @best-underrated-anime so that I’ll be sure to see it.

If you want to criticize one of the shows above to give the one you’re rooting for an advantage, then do so constructively. I do not tolerate groundless hate or slander on this blog. If I catch you doing such a thing in the notes, be it in the tags or reblogs, I will block you.

Know one of the shows above and not satisfied with how it’s presented in this tournament? Just fill up this form, where you can submit revisions for taglines, propaganda, trigger warnings, and/or video.

[arbitrarygreay]

Gurazeni's tagline should have been "Inside Baseball (pun intended)" Gurazeni is the kind of show I want idol shows to actually be: a look at the ruthless workplace dynamics of a professional industry where talent, competition, and politics all awkwardly jockey against each other. Working as a pro means that there aren't really natural endpoints to your ongoing life. It's just a daily grind, so short-term and long-term goals are completely different from when there's a final championship or upcoming graduation. Traditional sports narratives, even at the pro level, almost always ignore the fact that everything resets after The Big Game. What seriously irks me about Western workplace dramas is that they basically flatten everything out into relationship drama. They don't actually depict the kind of problem-solving that goes on in the industry, and how all of that problem solving is ultimately in service of earning that paycheck. These shows inevitably become untethered from whatever industry they were nominally placed in, where the characters could be airlifted into another career and the plots would be unchanged. Meanwhile, baseball is a perfect sweet spot to do the kind of storytelling I want. It's a sport that's pretty well known, so they don't have to spend too much time explaining mechanics (as well as fairly straightforward, no offsides nonsense), and is already pretty quantified to begin with, thanks to moneyball. And while I said I would love to see an idol version of Gurazeni, entertainment industry jobs have a way more disconnected relationship between talent, performance, and popularity/financial return. Sports does have some popularity politics, but ultimately players do have to git gud to get paid, so authentic stories in the field can have more of a feeling of justice for the audience, with narratives satisfyingly being justifiably tied to numbers going up. Speaking of justice, the S2 ED animation is not on Youtube. INJUSTICE.

[captainwilldeezer]

Gurazeni: Money Pitch Season Two Episode 4: “Celebrate! The League Pennant.”      An Episodic Impression by WillDeezer

     The Spiders continue to trudge through the pennant as a final match between the Tempters and them arises. The episode focuses on Bonda and Itsuki as they struggle to keep ahead of the curve. The episode comes to an end with Bonda and Itsuki helping each other out to win the pennant for their team.      “Celebrate! The League Pennant” is a good episode though it’s a bad ending to Itsuki’s character arc. The conflict between Itsuki and his family continues to grow as his hit streak escalates. Itsuki refuses to return home because he wants to focus on himself and his game. This focuses cause guilt to form as he doesn’t know how to balance his hot streak and family. I like the conflict between baseball and his family. It feels real, like an issue that a bunch of baseball players goes through, however, we are never shown an actual answer to the problem. Itsuki loses his streak when he visits his family but is able to hit the tying home run when he can’t think of anything other than his newborn baby. It sends a mixed message of Itsuki, making it hard to figure out what he learned from this struggle.      The mix messages continue with Bonda. I have no idea what change was supposed to happen to him. He starts out having a conflict with the “softy” nature of Itsuki and by the end, he has no problem with his way of playing baseball. There might be character development of Bonda isn't taking baseball seriously, but I’m not so sure considering he talks about money and glory in the last game.      This episode wasn’t a bad watch. The music was still fantastic, and it had some entertaining elements. The real problem is with the message the episode is trying to send. I have no clue what the writers were trying to tell us with Bonda and Itsuki’s friendship. So, if you don’t look too deep into it, “Celebrate! The League Pennant” is a decent way to waste twenty-four minutes.

[ljaesch]

Crunchyroll to Simulcast the Gurazeni: Money Pitch Anime

Crunchyroll to Simulcast the Gurazeni: Money Pitch Anime

Crunchyroll has announced that it will simulcast the Gurazeni: Money Pitch anime beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT on April 6, 2018. The stream will be available in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, South Africa, Netherlands, and Latin America. Ayumu Watanabe is directing the anime at Studio DEEN, while Hideo Takayashiki is supervising and writing the…

[myanimerecs]

Gurazeni: Money Pitch

Rating: 2/3

Categories: baseball, comedy, drama, manga adaptation, seinen, sports, work life

With his 30th birthday only a handful of years away and the chances of becoming a baseball coach slim Bonda must fight his way up through the pro baseball ranks and stay there. With performance dictating salary he must find challengers and do everything possible to be better than they are to secure a raise.

S1, 12 eps

S2, 12 eps

[newtypezaku]

[fictionerd]

Good to see you, friends!

D’aw Bonda has a crush! That’s adorable. Shame he has to beat the crap out of her favorite team. >: )

If you’d told me at the beginning of the season that one of my favorite shows out of the thirty or so I started back then would end up being a comedy show about a pro Baseball Player I think my response would have been something along the lines of:

Now here we are, twelve episodes in, and I’m seriously hoping that this show just keeps on trucking forever. I want more. 

I praised it early on for giving us tense moments once or twice an episode that most other sports anime would take whole arcs to get to. That still feels true of a lot of episodes, but it’s not universally true. The thing is that it replaces that tension with something when it doesn’t have it. Either humor, or the human element come into more direct focus when the tension isn’t being ratcheted. What makes that work, is that it’s all there. Every episode has its sense of humor and we care about Bonda. I thought he was going to be a joke. The synopsis paints him as one, but over the course of the season he’s become a friend I look forward to hanging out with. His stories are funny, and I probably know more about baseball now than I have the entire rest of my life combined. 

All told, Gurazeni is a great watch. I’m glad I stuck with it through everything. This will be my last LTA on the show, but I plan to keep watching it as long as it keeps airing. Love it to bits.

Until next post keep talking fiction, friends. I’ll see you soon.

[hisuirt]

S.W.A.T. Reviews: Spring 2018

S.W.A.T. Reviews: Spring 2018

Follow us directly, on Stitcher, or on iTunes

The premise of these reviews is simple: watch the first episode of a series and then immediately sit down to record a review mini-podcast. The reviews are five- to ten-minutes long and entirely off the cuff. As always we only review new shows (so no sequels or continuations) and try to avoid anything that just looks outright awful.

Sentence: Free to Go

[sinuyasha]

Miroku (Inuyasha) Voice Actor Kouji Tsujitani Passes Away at the age of 56

Kouji Tsujitani, Miroku’s Japanese voice actor, passed away on October 17, 2018, at the age of 56, due to a stroke.

Tsujitani voiced Miroku in Inuyasha, as well as characters in Yu Yu Hakusho, Blood+, Hajime no Ippo, and Eureka Seven. The actor also starred in a variety of Mobile Suit Gundam titles.

Outside of voice acting, Tsujitani was also involved in sound direction. In fact, he directed work on series like Fate/stay night and Gurazeni: Money Pitch.

We will all miss him :(.

Read more here and here.

[illeity]

The Best of Spring Anime 2018!

Spring has come.

Overall Best

Golden Kamuy

"Immortal" Sugimoto Saichi is a veteran of the Russo-Japanese war. Before his closest friend died, he promised to provide for his friend's wife, and believes he can do so by uncovering a story of hidden Ainu (Japanese minority) gold hidden somewhere in Hokkaido. Alongside Asirpa, an Ainu girl out for justice, they seek the treasure, survive out the wilderness, and make good food off their fresh hunts.

The series is at once exciting and brutal as Sugimoto and Asirpa rush to recover pieces of the map. Each map owner is a minor story arc unto themselves as they are all broken, bizarre, and violent people, driven by their desires and finding the frozen forests of Hokkaido the perfect place for its expression. Sugimoto and Asirpa are roughed up in terrible ways, especially the former, as each stabbing, bludgeoning, and torture bring home the point that the people we're rooting for are not superhumans and that they  tend to find themselves in over their heads.

In addition, the story is excellent representation of the Ainu people, their culture intertwining with the story and themes. As Sugimoto and Asirpa run around the island, Asirpa becomes the link between Ainu culture and the encroachment of modern Japan. It's an adventure story, assuredly, but it's also a living memory to a people fast disappearing due to time and modernity. Highly recommended.

Best Drama

Gurazeni (Money Pitch)

The series examines the merciless world of data-driven Baseball from the viewpoint of Natsunosuke Bonda, a left-handed relief pitcher for the Jingu Spiders. The entire work is low-key drama, because the undercurrent of anxiety is very subtle and runs through every episode as Bonda and the pros around him realize they could very well be forced out of the profession they worked long and hard to get in.

It's a fascinating sports anime in that it doesn't rely on high emotions and heroic plays for its drama. Instead, it shows what it takes to be a professional and growing into maturity and the humility and hard work needed for the work at hand. Some may argue that Aggretsuko and Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii are supposedly accurate depictions of growing up and taking responsibility, but compared to those, the struggles present here are far more varied and focus more on the job and personal growth than relationships: Joy, sadness, and worry are expressed within timespans as short as baseball games and triumphs replaced by losses within the span of an inning.

Best Comedy

Hinamatsuri

Yoshifumi Nitta is a yakuza for the Ashikawa-gumi, dealing in real estate. Everything was going well for him until a large silver egg dropped on him from out of nowhere. The egg held a girl named Hina who has powerful telekinetic powers. She decides to stay on and mooch off Nitta, much to his dismay and resentment.

The fantastic thing about this comedy is that the world of Nitta was already weird before Hina came into the picture. This is a world where school-age girls become bartenders serving up drinks better than the best bartenders of Ginza, where the yakuza get their lawyer to write up a speech for a student council election and where everyone yells the same words with the same squeaky intonation when they're hurt. It's cleverly written because the stories rarely ever depend on Hina's telekinesis; it plays on the contrasting expectations people have of each other when they interact and the escalation that happens as they go along with the flow of the story, too freaked out to have the wherewithal to clarify and too curious to stop now.

Honorable Mention

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

Kohiruimaki Karen dislikes the fact that she's abnormally tall for a girl. On the suggestion of a friend, she decides to deal with this issue by joining an online virtual reality game called Gun Gale Online. There, she gets to play an avatar with her ideal body form: a short, petite girl wielding a short, petite, weapon, the FN P90. She expresses a unique affinity for the game, being well known in the community for being a skillful player-killer.

Except for a few episodes which act as cool-down between action set-pieces, the bulk is exceptionally entertaining tactical action. The characters ascertain the distance of hostiles and weapon type by their sound, they plan and adapt depending on their location and remaining resources, and they intelligently use and abuse the rules set by the game to get ahead of the competition. Victory isn't achieved by cutesy platitudes and super-cool moves, but by cleverness, thoughtfulness, and a bloodthirsty desire to win.

As divisive as Sword Art Online is, you can dive right in without any knowledge of the original series. Whereas SAO was epic(relatively speaking) in its scope of trying to survive alongside 10,000 other people trapped in a game world, the story here is much more personal, which starts with Karen working out her height issues and ends with her trying to save one single life.

Best Fantasy/ Sci-Fi

Hisone to Masotan

Amakasu Hisone had sleepwalked through most of her life, hoping to someday be able to do something that nobody else can. She ends up in the Japan Air Self-Defense Force with a desk job until one day, she becomes chosen to become a dragon's pilot.

In terms of story and tone, it has a definite point where it can be halved. The change isn't jarring, but you're left to wonder why things weren't foreshadowed well enough. The first half is told as slice of life and magical realism, as Amakasu opens up to her destiny and the daily work of becoming closer to her dragon, Masotan, dealing with people with a stake in the fulfillment of her duties, and her tendency to speak without tact which tends to offend people.

The second half kicks it up a gear and a half as it moves on to folklore, mysticism, and spirituality, as the purpose of the dragons is revealed, tragedy is met, and Amakasu is forced to wake up in service to her future self and the future of Japan. It's not very exciting action-wise (except until the last episodes), but it is very moving, as Amakasu shows a willingness to change, but with a tendency to be ignorant about what to change in the first place. She is groggy, stumbling to growth, challenge, and finally, love.

Best Cute Girl Anime

Comic Girls

Kaoruko Moeta is in a creative slump. Her editor sees potential in this 4-panel comic artist, so she sends Moeta to a dormitory in the company of other Manga artists in the hopes of honing her storytelling and helping her overcome her shyness.

As with most Cute Girls Doing Cute Things (CGDCT) anime, the tone is cozy, the conflicts light and minor and the plotting is thin, so most of the weight is carried by the strength of the characters and the little idiosyncrasies they exhibit that prevent them from becoming too stereotypical.

Is this case, what the characters write and draw often reflects their character. One creates a serialized shonen manga, so she is driven, masculine, and unable to get into girlish things. Another creates teens love manga and erotica so she is elegant, the straight man, and deeply embarrassed for herself. The third writes shonen manga so she fashionable, energetic, and drawn to strong feelings. Moeta writes comedy, and is often the punchline for the episode's plots: Her story pitches keep getting rejected, she is shy and deeply self-deprecating and for some reason, enjoys being doted on by older, mature women.

As someone who draws and writes, I may be a little biased, but I do appreciate anime that explores the lives of creatives (Barakamon and Sore ga Seiyuu! come to mind) and the anime does a decent job of exploring the madness of creation with a dash of cuteness. There is even a layer of bittersweetness via a second set of characters that used to create manga but had to leave it because of real life. A professional manga career may be out of the question, but they're living lives driven by creating and creativity as a little reward for their daring.

Best Girl

Asirpa, Golden Kamuy

Born of the Ainu, and experienced in the hunt, Asirpa is Sugimoto's partner as they run around Hokkaido collecting the maps to a secret hoard of gold that was stolen from the Ainu. Growing up with her father in the wilderness, she never stayed with her family, preferring to stay out for long swathes of time, hunting animals, and providing for her tribe in her own way.

The cruelty of the wilderness and nature hardened her by having her aware of the constant possibility of losing the people and things she cares about. She puts up a front when she needs to, but drops it when Sugimoto and family offer their hand in kindness.

With a fine hunt, knowledge that she is loved, and good food, the deep part of her soul bubbles out and rounds out a strong and compelling character.

Best OP

Rie Murakawa – Distance, Hinamatsuri

TV size - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St2HefvqnxY

Full size - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riX7EKXSoBQ

If you've ever seen the intro to Puella Magi Magoka Magica, you can tell how extremely deceptive it was by using bright colors, quirkiness, and a cheerful song to hide an anime that explores magical girls as torment and psychological horror. The opening to Hinamtusuri is also extremely deceptive, however, with the intent of comedy, because as straight-faced as the opening song is about yearning and memories, the drama is never as serious the opening makes it out to be. Sure, you'd see the characters staring out with uncertainty and three consecutive scenes of characters crying, but the stories these scenes talk place are played out for laughs. The opening gains even more potency a few episodes in as you get a taste for the series' style and you begin to realize how effective the opening is at being utterly ridiculous.

Best ED

D-Pai – Le Temps de la Rentrée (cover of France Gall's original), Hisone to Masotan

D-Pai version - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgKs3F2NB9w

France Gall original - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBi_Dr_QdaI

The visuals are very simple on this one, which are counted to three:

The female leads of Hisone to Masotan dancing about as if they were still in High School and things were still awkward with the opposite sex.

Quick close up rotations of the various airplanes that the dragons take shape.

Extreme closeups of each female lead during the bridges of the song.

Otherwise I'm picking this one because of the voice actor's perfect rendition of Le Temps de la Rentrée by France Gall. It's unique joy to hear a French song in an anime. It sets them apart from the rest, especially if it is as jazzy and ebullient as this one.

[megareviews]

Okay I’m pretty late on this one as the Spring 2018 season is about 4/7ths finished by this point, and I could be giving excuses, or I could just get to the review. I’ll opt for the latter, so here we go for first impressions of Spring 2018, under a read more because this season is pretty massive, and I realized the first one should probably also be under a read more.

3D Kanojo (3D Girlfriend): The main character is a super otaku in high school with only one other friend who’s also an otaku dude. After being late one day he gets stuck cleaning the pool with another late student, who happens to be female. Judging her on her appearance and tardy frequency, he assumes she’s not going to come help clean. Surprise surprise, she shows up and is earnest in her work cleaning, and they end up getting along. I like the female lead, but I hate the main guy and also the concept of the show in general so that’s a no watch.

Aikatsu Friends: There’s a lot of Aikatsu and I’ve never planned on watching any of it as of this point.

Akkun to Kanojo (Akkun and His Girlfriend): A guy who’s a jerk to his girlfriend, but actually loves her very much and can’t express it well. The show is a short about a guy who’s a tsundere, but it’s pretty painful to watch for even a few minutes, especially since I’m not a big fan of the tsundere archetype in the first place.

Alice or Alice: Siscon Niisan to Futago no Imouto (Alice or Alice: The Siscon Brother and His Two Sisters): Well the title of this show is one of the largest red flags I’ve seen in a while, and it’s just about as bad as what can be expected from the title. From watching one episode it seems like the sisters are more into their brother than the other way around but that’s still pretty bad the way the show portrays any of the characters.

Amai Choubatsu: Watashi wa Kanshu Senyou Pet (Sweet Punishment: I’m the Pet of the Guards): This is pretty much a hentai that just barely sneaked by without the hentai tag. Don’t.

Amanchu! Advance: It looks pretty cool like the first season, but I have that on my plan to watch so I can’t say or watch anything about the second season.

Beyblade Burst Chouzetsu: I generally preferred playing with Beyblade toys or games rather than watching the anime is most cases, and this is the third season of Burst, so there’s really nothing I have to say on this one. Why are there so many sequel seasons at the beginning of the alphabet this year?

Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu HAPPY KISS! (Cute High Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS!): I was not a fan of this for the first episode of the first season, so I’m definitely not watching the second season of it.

Boku no Hero Academia 3 (My Hero Academia 3): Finally, a second (third) season that I’m actually watching and can talk about with knowledge. While the first episode was kind of pointless and more of a recap of the previous seasons, two of my favorite characters will be introduced in this season, so I’m looking forward to it.

Butlers ~Chitose Momotose Monogatari~ (Butlers x Battlers): I almost understood what was going on in this show, and then everything, including the genre, changed. Then I look up the description of the show and got even more confused, because there’s like butlers who travel through time and fight things, which wasn’t indicated at all through the first episode. I’d only suggest this for people who could be oddly curious as to what the heck will happen in the show.

Caligula: Our main character here is a psychology geek, but besides annoying his friends every so often with attempted psychology lectures, lives a normal high school life. That is, until he goes into his high school graduation ceremony and the speakers start giving entrance ceremony speeches. After that people start turning into monsters and attacking the people who are still normal. After fleeing the school, we run into a guy with a black spike running through him and a black arm holding a black gun. I really liked the character designs from the game this is based on, which I never got to play, so I’ll be watching it to see how it goes. I’m also a fan of the importance the music seems to play in the show, so bonus points there.

Captain Tsubasa (2018): Probably like the one from 1983, but in 1080p. It’s an elementary soccer anime, so there’s pretty much no reason that I’d watch it, but it’s probably fine for fans of sports anime or the original.

Cardfight!! Vanguard (2018): Another season of a card game anime. I physically own a deck of CV cards and that’s about the extent of my knowledge of the series.

Comic Girls: After ranking poorly in her magazine, a young mangaka moves to an all-female dorm for mangaka to learn from / with others. Knowing that she has issues writing high school kids despite being in high school herself due to the fact that she has no friends or communication skills, she accepts readily. After meeting her roommate and some neighbors she finds out she’s got a long way to go in the manga business, but is hopeful of the possibility of getting better with the help of her new friends. I’m a fan of many of the content creator anime, and this feels like a moe version of Bakuman., but I think I’ll just put it on hold now for other shows that I’m more interested in for this season.

Cutie Honey Universe: Another reboot of a popular Nagai Go series, I’m not sure how much information I’m supposed to have of the series before watching this iteration of it. The other series, Devilman: Crybaby, seemed much more comprehensive in how the story was told so that someone starting the series from there could understand what was going on. Either way I’m applying the same decision to this as to D:C, watch the original first, and then try this one.

Devils Line: Don’t let the title fool you, this is about vampires. Vampires who get sexually aroused by human blood. The show has the main female plot device and the actual main character is a half-vampire in a police division for fighting vampires. There’s plenty of shows with similar concepts that are better than what I’m feeling from this with the amount of murder and rape alluded to as of ep 1 and the fact that there is a romance tag in the genres.

Dorei-ku The Animation (23 Slaves and Me / Slave Ward): The main object of this show is called an SCM, and what it does is let the users of It engage in duels, with the loser becoming a slave of the winner. The term duel seems to be pretty loose and left up to the users, which is pretty interesting, mostly consisting of some type of game. The show seems pretty edgy with characters being introduced with an into card of their name and them in bondage, plus the whole “slave” thing, and the implied rape scene. Since I pretty much consume any media with characters fighting each other through games, no matter how edgy (No Game No Life, Rengoku Deadroll, etc.) I will be watching this, and I’m pretty sure it’ll be interesting, if nothing else.

Duel Masters!: It’s a children’s card game anime, there’s a million of them and I have no clue what season of this it’s supposed to be. It could be the first or the fiftieth, and I would be none, the wiser, not that I care.

Fullmetal Panic! Invisible Victory: My friends all say FMP is good, so I’ll watch it… eventually. This is a sequel, so not much I can do to change people’s opinions on watching this.

Fumikiri Jikan (Railroad Crossing Time): It’s a short about conversations that people have while waiting at the crossroad for trains to pass. It looks like just a series of episodic conversations that are only slightly absurd from the description and the first episode, so you’re not losing much by trying it out.

Future Card Buddyfight X: All-Star Fight: I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot at this point, but there are so many children’s card game anime airing this season. And this one is coming in as the fifth season, so my dig at Duel Masters! Is justified as I write these all in alphabetical order.

Gegege no Kitarou (2018): A youkai child who goes around helping humans not be annihilated by other evil youkai. This is a reboot for the fiftieth anniversary of the series, and it looks pretty interesting. From the first episode, it’s probably going to be episodic and aimed in the family friendly direction, so anyone can watch it and enjoy.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu – Die Neue These- Kaikou (The Legend of Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis – Encounter [wow, one of the few times I can use my German and Japanese knowledge at the same time]): There sure are a lot of reboots this season too, and I’ve seen a couple of people with mixed opinions on whether you should watch this or not, whether you’ve seen the original or not, so I decided to skip this one until I make it through the original Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu.

Golden Kamui (Golden Kamuy): A war veteran of the Russo-Japanese war is trying to eke out a living during the Hokkaido Gold Rush, and hears about a hidden Ainu stash of gold with a map etched into the bodies of a bunch of prisoners as tattoos. As he starts his search for the pieces of the map he runs into an Ainu girl, who helps him survive in the wild and collect the map on the condition that she won’t kill anybody for the map. I enjoy the dynamic between the two main characters and the show has a really good balance between comedic wilderness survival sections and brutal combat scenes, so this is near the top of my watchlist.

Gundam Build Divers: I got no clue on how the Gundam Build series fit together, and maybe I never will.

Gurazeni (Money Pitch): It’s a major league baseball anime where the main character is a left-handed relief pitcher, who enjoys studying the salaries of other players in the league. The show description says that player’s performance determines their salaries, but as far as I know, that’s just how it works in America, and I don’t know if it’s a different system in Japan, or if the show just gets really focused on the money aspect of it.

High School DxD HERO: BOOOOOOSTO! (I’ve watched literally no DXD). This is the fourth season, and the studio animating the show changed for this season, from TNK to Passione, a newish studio that I’ve enjoyed how all their shows looked, if not the shows themselves.

Hinamatsuri: After a tough day of yakuza work, the main heroine drops onto the yakuza man’s head in metallic egg thing. A day later the yakuza releases her and she starts going on a psychokinetic rampage and breaking a bunch of valuable vases. After the yakuza generously decides to accept this girl into his house until further notice they just try to live together in as peacefully as possible. It’s full of a lot of goofy scenes played completely straight, which is pretty funny. The artstyle constantly reminds me of Tsuki ga Kirei, which is pretty much the only reason I’m not adding it to my watch immediately list, despite the comedy being right up my alley.

Hisone to Maso-tan (Hisone and Maso): The main character is in the Japanese Self Defense Force’s air force when she gets transferred to an assignment that very few people have been able to qualify for. This assignment involves being eaten by a dragon that can transform into an aircraft and piloting it from inside it’s digestive tract. The artstyle is pretty unique, and I can’t quite pin down a genre to call it, so I’ll say check it out, but I won’t be keeping up with it in season.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu 2: Sono ni (Hozuki’s Coolheadedness 2: Part 2): Have you watched part 1 of season 2? Then you can now watch this.

Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin: You only need to have watched the first Inazuma Eleven to understand what’s going on in this soccer anime. Unfortunately, I don’t even have that fraction of the Inazuma Eleven series watched.

Juushinki Pandora: As humanity continues to make scientific progress, accidents are going to happen. One such incident caused the world to be blanketed by a mysterious energy, that caused most life on earth to start hybridizing with machines. These hybrids then started evolving at a faster rate than humanity’s technological progress, and start destroying humanity. Various mechs are piloted by humans to protect the dwindling lands that can support humanity, and that’s where the main character steps in. A brilliant scientist on the verge of a breakthrough that will bring the mechs built by humanity up to par with the wildlife, or even stronger. While I like how the hybrid wildlife looks, that’s about the only thing I like about the show and don’t care to sit through CG mech fights for that purpose. That’s what Horizon Zero Dawn is for.

Kakurio no Yadomeshi: The main character of this show has grown up being able to see youkai, and enjoys feeding them to prevent them from harming other humans. One day a youkai shows up and brings her to an inn in the youkai world, telling her that her grandfather owes him a large debt, with her being the collateral. To this she responds with a swift “No way” and decides to work off her grandfather’s debts instead. To this end she tries to find someplace in the inn where she can help, and by the end of the episode finds a café in the yard that’s about to be closed down, so she decides to work with one of the kitsune employees to reopen the café so she can start paying off those debts. Not my cup of tea so I’ll be passing on this one.

Koneko no Chii: Ponponra Daibouken 2 (Chi’s Sweet Adventure 2): CG kittens doing CG kitten things I would assume from what I know about the series, but it’s the second season, so, even more kitten things.

Kiratto Pri☆chan: With a massively popular system for a variety of user created shows and capabilities to upload from any device, the Pri☆chan system can let anybody be a star. The two main characters decide to become an idol duo basically through a challenge, and end up doing well with their debut live show. The CG for the live show is pretty good, but I’m not really a fan of idol shows so I don’t have any plans on further watching this.

Kuroneko Monroe (Monroe the Black Cat): I have not been able to find a source on this one, which is an issue with a lot of the children’s shorts.

Ladyspo (Lady Sports): After getting about 5 minutes in, I had to give up. It was a different still image every 15~30 seconds of women on the toilet while some kind of mascot character talked to them. There is no subbed version of this so I only got the gist from listening myself, but this barely qualifies as animation.

Last Period: Owarinaki Rasen no Monogatari (Last Period: Story of an Endless Spiral): A show of magic-users called Periods fighting monsters called Spirals. Though the guild branch of the main characters suffers from the theft of everything of monetary value, and the main characters are tasked with taking quests to recover enough money to buy back their guild hall. That’s the setting at least, and as revealed later in the show, the show’s just really about making fun of gacha games while (probably) following the plot of the game it’s based off of. I think the roasting of gacha games is an untapped anime market, so I’d recommend this to anyone else who suffers on their own quests for full ☆☆☆☆☆ or UR teams.

Layton Mystery Tanteisha: Katori no Nazotoki File (Layton Mystery Detective Agency: Katri’s Case Solving File): An anime about the famous professor Layton’s daughter, solving mysteries, just like her dad. It’s a mystery show for kids, the first episode’s mystery was kinda quick and weak, but the characters are pretty interesting. I can’t think of a detective mystery show that’s come out since Kindaichi R2 finished so this show can be useful for scratching that itch, and later episodes might have more interesting mysteries.

Lostorage conflated WIXOSS: There’s so much WIXOSS and I have no idea how they are ordered, but this definitely isn’t the first season of a show, which may not be obvious to people who don’t know the series. Unlike a lot of the other card game based shows that have way too many seasons for me to understand, I do actually plan on watching this one at some point.

Lupin III: Part V: Part 5?!

Mahou Shoujo Ore (Magial Girl Ore): There’s just… so much going on. The basic premise is a comedic magical girl show, except the transformation is into a buff dude. As of episode 1 it is a series of absurd comedy skits leading up to this reveal, and the show can go literally anywhere from here. Being a fan of absurdist humor is the main reason to watch this show.

Mahou Shoujo Site (Magical Girl Site): And now, the complete opposite, a psychological horror magical girl show. We spend the first half of episode 1 watching the main character get brutally bullied, then she becomes a magical girl through one of the creepiest ways possible, and then accidentally exacts revenge. The show finishes introducing another magical girl who seems to have her schtick down a bit better than the main character. I really like most of the visual aspects of the show, and am a big fan of dark magical girl series in general so this was a no-brainer watch for me.

Major 2nd: It’s a baseball show about a kid who’s father casts a large shadow of baseball greatness on his son. You get to watch the kid play baseball with his team.

Megalo Box: While this show was created for the 50th anniversary of Ashita no Joe, this show is unlike the reboots and alternate series of this season as this show is completely unique and separate from the old show. An underground boxer who makes a living throwing matches who wants to compete for real is given a goal of a countrywide boxing tournament called Megalonia. There are many issues with a nameless man with no citizenship trying to get into such a tournament, but a fight with the number one ranked boxer sparks a fierce desire within the main character. In addition to the show looking amazing, the boxing is also upgraded in the future that the show takes place in, with mechanical boxing gear that increases the offensive and defensive capabilities of each boxer.

Neko Neko Nihonshi 3rd Season (Cat’s Japanese History 3rd Season): Another short this season about cats, but now they’re teaching Japanese history. It’s the third season, so there’s about 12 hours of the show to catch up on if you want to watch this season.

Nil Admirari no Tenbin (The Scales of Nil Admirari): This story is about books which become infested with negative emotions to the point of causing readers to injure themselves. The main character’s brother nearly committed suicide due to one such book, and the experience caused the main character to see these negative emotions in books. Due to this ability she gets scouted for a secret branch of the government that deals with these books. I honestly can’t figure out how to make the show interesting with the way the story is set up now, so I might actually watch more of this to see what happens.

Nobunaga no Shinobi: Anegawa Ishiyama-hen (Ninja Girl & Samurai Master: Anegawa and Ishiyama Arc): The third season of ninja comedy shorts.

Omae wa Mada Gunma wo Shiranai (You Don’t Know Gunma Yet): As the main character is moving to the Gunma prefecture, he texts one of his old classmates that moved there before, telling him about the move. An immediate warning to not to is the response, but as he gets it, the mood on the train suddenly darkens and he can’t get off the train. Overall the show seems like a weird comedy with factoids about the Gunma prefecture, if you want to learn about it for some reason.

Oretacha Youkai Ningen G (We Are Youkai People G): I literally cannot find anything about this show, and the image provided is kinda terrifying to be honest. It seems to be related to the series with the same name minus the G, but they don’t look anything alike. Hopefully I can purge knowledge of this show from my mind after writing this.

Oshiri Tantei (Butt Detective): Another short that I cannot find any traces of online, even though it seems to be something Crunchyroll picked up and was supposed to air sometime this month. I’m just gonna go ahead and say it’s probably a lot of butt puns while vaguely following some mystery.

Persona 5 The Animation: An anime of Persona 5, just like it says in the title. The show seems to follow pretty closely to the game, so this looks like it might be a good way to get the story of the game without a lot of the grinding battles and relationships. It will be 24 episodes, so the entirety of the show is about 10 hours, rather than the game’s 60+, though whether this is a good or bad thing will only be known after the show is well on it’s way.

Piano no Mori (TV): This show is about two pianist children who meet each other in elementary school. One is the son of a prostitute who lives in the forest and plays an abandoned piano he found there, and the other is from a prodigious family who’s had piano lessons since he could reach the keys. I think this show could an interesting watch, except the CG used for the piano scenes is ugly as hell and keeps switching on and off depending on if a character’s fingers were on screen. CG on it’s own is fine, but the constant switching during a singular scene drives me crazy, the same issue I had with Toji no Miko last season.

Puzzle & Dragon: I cannot find subs of this version of the PAD anime, as it is completely different from PAD Cross. Now that I actually play the game it’s based on on occasion, I thought I’d check out the anime based on it.

Rokuhoudou Yotsuiro Biyori: A couple of dudes running a tea shop. That’s about it and judging from the first episode I’m going to say it seems like an episodic show focused on relaxing, both for the viewers and the characters. Probably a fine show if you’re okay spending your time watching the staff interacting with each other and learning about their individual traits and how they interact, but it’s not doing anything for me.

Saredo Tsumibito wa Ryuu to Odoru (Dances with the Dragons): The story of two bounty hunters in a world of magic and dragons. A human with offensive magic fighting with another humanoid species who fights with a sword and strengthening magic. The show’s visuals are pretty average and the story seems to be of the main characters balancing their personal lives and expenses with their abilities to defeat dragons. I wasn’t feeling like keeping up with it from the first episode, but it doesn’t look like a bad choice to watch.

Shiyan Pin Jiating (Jikken-hin Kazoku / Creature Family Days): Okay so a genius, a dog, a plant, a spider, and a psychic walk into a Chinese restaurant. This isn’t a joke, this is just what happens in the first episode. The main characters are all siblings who are exceptional in some way, the oldest four as being experiments of their parents, and the youngest child who is the genius. The story takes place some time after the parents of this family are arrested for performing illegal human experimentation, and are about the family trying to live the most normal life they can. I like the characters and their mix of supernatural traits, and it’s a pretty cute show overall. It’s a bit shorter than a normal show, but longer than a short, and airs with both Japanese and Chinese audio, so there’s a lot of oddities mixed into the show in many ways.

Shokugeki no Souma: San no Sara – Tootsuki Ressha-hen (Food Wars: Third Plate – Totsuki Train Arc): I still gotta catch up on the third season of this, but I’ll finally be able to see Rindo animated, so that’s great.

Souten no Ken: REGENESIS (Fist of the Blue Sky: REGENESIS): The second season to the prequel to Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star), I think?

Steins;Gate 0: The Science Adventure Series will eventually be watched by me, as people keep yelling at me to watch it.

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online: I can’t watch this until I fulfill both conditions of finishing the main SAO series and another project I’m working on, so it might be a while before I get to this. The author for this story is completely different from the main series writer, and I’ve heard that this is a vast improvement.

Tachibanakan to Lie Angle (Love to Lia Angle): After moving from her hometown as a child, the main character returns to a student dorm to start high school. Soon after finding it her dreams of a high class dorm are shattered, but at least there are plenty of other friendly girls living there, and two of them were friends from back when she used to live in her hometown. Other than that, the main premise seems to be related to the residents chilling in various states of undress, so I’m planning on just skipping this short.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai (Tada Can’t Fall in Love): After saving a foreign girl from the rain by bringing her to his family’s café, the main character learns that she came to Japan and even learned Japanese almost exclusively because of an old samurai anime. That’s all I really remember, and it’s a romance show where none of the characters really resonated with me, so I can’t vouch for it, and my reason to not watch is that I couldn’t find a reason to watch it.

To Be Heroine: A sequel to To Be Hero, which I couldn’t finish, so I couldn’t start this. The art looks pretty good from what I saw when searching for a screenshot.

Tokyo Ghoul:re: I don’t understand the order and relations between the Tokyo Ghoul series, so I’m still stuck somewhere in season 2.

Uchuu Senkan Tiramisu (Space Battleship Tiramisu): The show follows the ace of humanity’s alien defense fleet, one of the youngest men fighting to protect Earth. This age difference causes the main character to not get along well with any of his teammates, and he usually just ends up isolating himself in his mech’s cockpit for some peace and quiet. But things never go as smoothly as he likes, and the show is just watching this poor man struggle to relax in space, which has been pretty funny as of so far.

Uma Musume Pretty Derby (Horse Girls Pretty Derby): A show where we got racehorses, but instead of actual horses they are anime girls. I was somewhat dubious of this as an idea for a show, and watching made me realize how wrong I was to doubt this show. It’s pretty funny and while the main character doesn’t enter a race, one of the other main characters does race, and it looked pretty good. There’s plenty of factors coming together to make this into a promising show from the first episode, like the writing, the animation (90% of the time), and the fact that it’s exactly like an actual sport, but not actually.

Usagi no Matthew (Matthew the Rabbit): It’s a kid’s short, and therefore, nobody has bothered ripping and subbing the show, so I can’t really say anything about it.

Wakaokami wa Shougakusei! (The Inn Mistress is an Elementary Schooler): After her parents die in a traffic accident, the main character moves into an inn run by her grandmother. Then after a few misunderstandings mostly caused by trying to talk to a ghost and real people at the same time, she ends up getting formal training to take over the inn for her grandmother. I’m not particularly interested in where the plot goes and the characters are all kind of annoying, so I’ll be passing on this show.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (Love is Hard for an Otaku): This is one of the few shows where I’ve read the source material before watching the show so it’ll bias me a bit, but it’s a good rom-com. The main character broke up with her former boyfriend after he learned she was an otaku, and even changed companies because of how ashamed she was, only to find an otaku friend she hadn’t seen since elementary school. They start to date each other because they’re good friends and don’t have to hide their otakuness from each other, and just go through office life balancing work and fun. I relate very strongly with the guy and how he lives his life so I will follow this show to the end of the universe.

Youkai Watch: Shadow Side: Season ??? of Youkai Watch. What else can I say at this point?

[recentanimenews]

Maaya Sakamoto Plans to Release Her 4th Concept Album "Duets" featuring Various Duet Songs

    As part of her debut 25th-anniversary project, voice actress/singer Maaya Sakamoto plans to release her fourth concept album "Duets." As the name suggests, she will duet with various singers in the album, including Hiroki Wada, who performed the ED theme song "MYSTIC EYES" for the TV anime The Vision of Escaflowne in 1996.

  Sakamoto made her singer debut with "Yakusoku wa Iranai," the OP theme for The Vision of Escaflowne, in which she also voiced the protagonist girl Hitomi Kanzaki, in April 1996. So the two have a relationship that goes back 24 years. Since then, Wada has been very active as a composer and arranger under the name "h-wonder" and has written many songs for Sakamoto, but this is his first revival as a singer in 22 years. He stopped his career as a singer in June 1998 after releasing his seventh single "Kitto Daijoubu." 

  Her official website has been revealing the singers to perform with her in the "Duets" album one by one. The singers announced so far have included Asako Toki (Gurazeni: Money Pitch ED theme), Kohei Dojima (KochiKame 3rd OP theme), and Yumi Uchimura (la la larks vocalist). Further details including its release date will be announced at a later date.

    #MaayaSakamoto has announced her 4th concept album "Duets". As the name implies, she will be singing duets with various other artists. The third duet will be: Maaya Sakamoto x Kohei Dojima https://t.co/Lp6J6nga3g

— FlyingDog(ENG) (@flyingdog_eng) December 21, 2020

    As reported, her two-day special concert to celebrate her debut's 25th-anniversary will be held at Yokohama Arena (capacity: 17,000) on March 20 and 21, 2021. The general sale of the tickets is scheduled to begin on March 6, 2021.  

    Artist photo

    Source: Maaya Sakamoto official website

  ©FLYING DOG

  By: Mikikazu Komatsu

[newtypezaku]

[myanimerecs-links]

G

Gabriel Dropout (x), Gakuen Handsome (x), Gakuen Heaven (x), Gamers (x), Garakowa - Restore the World (x)

gdgd Fairies (x), gdgd Men’s Party (x)

Gegege no Kitarou (x)

Ghost in the Shell (x), Ghost Stories (x)

Gintama (x), Girl Beats Boys (x), Girlish Number (x), Girls’ Last Tour (x), Girls und Panzer (x), Girly Air Force (x), Given (x)

Gleipnir (x)

Goblin Slayer (x), Godzilla (x), Gokujo (x), Golden Kamuy (x), Golden Time (x), Gorgeous Butterfly: Young Nobunaga (x), Gosho Aoyama’s Collection of Short Stories (x)

Granbelm (x), Granblue Fantasy (x), Grancrest Senki (x), Grand Blue (x), Grave of the Fireflies (x), Gravitation (x), Great Pretender (x), Great Teacher Onizuka (x), Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash (x), Grimms Notes (x), Grimoire of Zero (x), Groove Adventure Rave (x)

Gunbuster (x), Gundam Build Divers (x), Gundam Build Fighters (x), Gun Gale Online (x), Gurazeni: Money Pitch (x)

[captainwilldeezer]

Bonda as Featureless as He’s Lonely

Gurazeni: Money Pitch: Season Two Episode 6: “Lonely Season”     An Episodic Impression by WillDeezer

    Bonda’s offseason continues as he begins to train for the upcoming season. After being rejected to go to the special training camp, Bonda is paired up with three of his teammates. The men Bonda is matched with start to disappear as two of them are fired. The final member of Bonda’s training team is traded. Believing that his friend is still wanted in their league, Bonda decides to take his friend out to celebrate. The rest of the episode focal point is on Bonda’s buddy dealing with the trade as they eat at the restaurant that Ebisa works at.     There are some interesting ideas in this episode. The idea of a player getting traded off of the team he loves is great. The character's constant mood swings about the issue feels genuine. The episode doesn’t do anything new with the idea, nothing that you haven’t seen in other sport’s movies or shows. That aside, it is well delivered and entertaining to watch.     The animation wasn’t of the same quality. There are two shots that center the characters in the middle of the screen while inside a wide shot. Both of the shots look dreadful. The characters become featureless blobs that are hard to make out other than the basics needed to resemble a human. It’s a pity because some frames that focus on the character's face look great. 

[uniquestream]

Gurazeni: Money Pitch: Season 2 Episode 12