Sunday, July 5, 2015

Weekly Round-UP: June 28th-July 4th Edition

So, The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress review still isn't out yet but I'm just going to refocus and get it out when I can, more of a thought piece than an actual review. Fighting lots of stress here (current job, incoming new job, balancing two jobs, Otakon stress, hormonal stress, extra review stress, weird stress dreams involving a CGI Lambchop accosting me in bed and trying to make me sign a magical girl contract....) but I'm gonna live, I'll just be super tempted to call in sick to work since at this point I only have three, maybe two, free days left before Otakon and oh god let's think of something else now.

I start the spring anime reviews with Wish Upon the Pleiades (thoughts on all the spring shows in general below the cut) and for Shoujo You Should Know I talked about Cardcaptor Sakura and Muse talked about the Earl Cain saga which I tried a bit of in high school actually. It didn't click with me and I think her review is a good example of why, I can totally see why people adore it but I see a lot of things I don't like so I feel okay about dropping it (and damn I wish Pandora Hearts was shoujo so I could talk about it there). I didn't mention in my review but I do also recommend the CCS anime as well as the manga! It has a lot of "filler" but it's cute fluff and my only real beef with the series is at the very very end (regarding Clow's magic) which isn't enough to keep me from buying those NISA blu-ray sets someday. I also talked about the BBC radio production Earthsea, not my favorite but I liked it well enough to go looking for the books again which I consider a good thing.

Now, onto the anime!
For a season that felt "light" it was actually an alright one. I ended up following a few shows I didn't expect (Show by Rock!, Sound! Euphonium) and just about everything I expected to like I did, the only exception was how far Fate/Unlimited Blade Works went downhill with literally three episodes in a row of the same two characters monologuing. Other than those three I also finished Yamada and the Seven Witches, Wish Upon the Pleiades, Seraph of the End, and I am also waiting with everyone else for the finale of Blood Blockade Battlefront/Kekkai Sensen (technically I'm only halfway through SBR! right now but I do intend to finish, just got sidetracked).  I think the reason the season felt so weird to me was that I followed seven shows but two aired Sunday, one Tuesday, another Wednesday, and then three on Saturday, just unbalanced enough that I either had nothing to watch or I was trying too hard to catch up and couldn't even enter in APR. Outside of what I did finish this season, I'm still mildly curious about Punchline (which I watched three episodes of) but that sounds like it was such a mess it's really not worth finishing, and it sounds as if Assassination Classroom turned out pretty well in the end so I'll be sure to go through and catch up with it, there's a second season next year so I have time. Other than that, I'm all set for the summer season! It looks like I'll post the grand total of my thoughts on this season on Monday the 20th (so juuuust before Otakon), so far it looks like summer is continuing the trend that there's only a few series I'm super hyped about to start but a number that look like they'll be okay entertainment, narrowing those down to what I really care about is the hardest part of the season honestly.