[Anime] Anime Night Line-Up
Thanks in part to discovering Hulu's catalog, and a decent season, we've got enough series that both Gwendel and I am interested in to resume our old tradition of "anime night" on Wednesdays -- when work doesn't interfere, that is.
School-Live!
(Crunchyroll) Ongoing. A slice-of-life anime about a group of high school girls who are members of the "School Living Club," so devoted to school life that they stay at school 24/7.
Actually, there's more to the series than that, but I recommend going into this WITHOUT READING ANYTHING FURTHER about the series, and starting at episode 1. That's what Gwendel insisted upon when she showed me this series; she's been following the manga, hence her interest in this series. I think it's worth it.
GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class
(Crunchyroll.) 1 season, 13 episodes. A slice-of-life comedy about some students at an art school. There's no overarching plot here -- it's just harmless, light viewing.
Charlotte
(Crunchyroll.) Ongoing. Supernatural. In this world, certain rare individuals develop psychic powers for a brief time as teenagers, but inevitably lose them "by the time you graduate high school." So, yeah, we're stuck in high school again, because that's the only place where anything interesting happens in anime. Mostly tongue-in-cheek, but it has its memorable moments.
Classroom*Crisis
(Crunchyroll.) Ongoing. Sci-fi. Various moons and planets of the solar system have been colonized, but, you guessed it, we're still going to focus on SCHOOL. The slight twist here is that in the megacorporate-dominated future where lines between nation-states and corporations are blurred, this school is run by a corporation specializing in spaceship design. There are some bits I find a bit uncomfortable (one of the adult female teachers is openly smitten with a male student, etc.), but it's still pretty tame compared to a lot of stuff we've been subjected to lately.
The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-Chan
(Hulu.) 1 season, 16 episodes. Slice of life? Given this franchise, I'm expecting something sci-fi-weird to pop in any episode now. Okay, first off, this anime won't make much sense unless you've seen "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya." We're still working our way through this, and it looks as if this is an "alternate universe" story of what might happen if Haruhi hadn't used her bizarre abilities in the original anime. I think. The Haruhi series is pretty bizarre, with lots of time loops and paradoxes, alternate realities and such, right from the very start (even the original anime is shown OUT OF ORDER DELIBERATELY). But both Gwendel and I made our way through it, and we're curious to see where this goes. Oh yeah, and once again, everyone is in high school.
Barakamon
(Hulu.) 1 season, 13 episodes. Slice of life. The protagonist is a calligraphist (college age? I'm not sure) who has some issues with pride and lack of self-control, and ends up slugging an unfavorable critic -- then is sent by his father to "cool down" for a while in a house in a small island village. After only one episode, I'm not quite sure where this is going, but I find the glimpse of Japanese "country life" intriguing. I hope we don't get even a GLIMPSE of a high school in this series. Sorry, no sci-fi or fantasy elements here -- just slice of life and drama.
Gate
(Crunchyroll.) Ongoing. Fantasy. I give this props for daring to have a protagonist who isn't in high school, college, or even an academy. Yay! Anyway, I'm still a bit undecided about what to think of the series. In short, a gate opens up between modern-day Japan and a fantasy world. On the one hand, I appreciate that this anime avoids several tropes I would expect with such a premise. On the other hand, it feels a bit cheapened by the rate at which the series is collecting "anime fantasy girls." I'd like to see a little more weight given to the serious considerations of how modern military tech might stand up against standard fantasy tropes. It's interesting, and might even make for some interesting ideas for an RPG campaign, but I don't have high hopes that this is going to go much of anywhere by the end of the season.
There are several other series we've tried "episode ones" of, but ... wow. Some of them, we didn't even get through the opening credits before it was pretty clear this wasn't going to be something we could stomach watching. Of course, for any series we haven't finished yet, something crazy-awful could happen, but these are just the ones that seem to be okay (or better than okay) so far that we're working our way through at present.