Categories
Conventions

Anime Fusion 2019 – Panel Materials

Hi all. By this point in the weekend, J.C. and I are finished with our panelist responsibilities at Anime Fusion. We made a conscious decision to cut way back this year, mostly out of a sense of self-preservation. It’s been a year full of personal ups and downs for both of us, and we didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves with convention prep and an overly-ambitious schedule. In any case, below are the panel materials from out one substantial panel this year, Shiny New Anime. If you’ve followed us for a while you’ll like not find much new here; we update the panel on a rolling 12-month basis, so we really just added some stuff from recent anime seasons and took out a few things that were older.

Just a note about the information included in the materials. Firstly, feel free to take these and re-purpose them, just provide credit back here (while the materials themselves aren’t mine per se, it does take a lot of work to compile summaries, cut clips, and watch the series enough to have an opinion of them in the first place). Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, if an anime series you like hasn’t been included, don’t take it as a personal affront; J.C. and I are two people with opinions, and there are many other people in the world who likely share your love for something that we didn’t include. We are just people with limited time who like to shine a spotlight on shows we personally enjoyed, so please take that in the spirit it’s intended.

Let me know if the links are broken or if there are any other issues, and I’ll try to resolve it.

Shiny New Anime Hand-out
Shiny New Anime PowerPoint Presentation

Categories
Conventions

Anime Fusion 2019

Hi all. I know this is a bit (very) belated, but J.C. and I will be at Anime Fusion this weekend. We’ve deliberately elected to put on less programming than usual since our year has been really full and we’ve been busy. Below is where you can see us this weekend!

Friday, October 18th

11:30pm – 12:30am – Anime By Numbers Trivia Game in Panel 2
It’s our anime trivia game where you don’t really need to know anything, just be a good guesser! All answers are numbers, and it’s a team event.

Saturday, October 19th

4:00pm – 5:00pm – Shiny New Anime in Panel 1
Our annual survey of the anime we really enjoyed from the past year. If you attended this at CONvergence there’s not a whole lot of new material, but we’re happy to see you if you decide to attend!

I will likely not be at the convention late on Saturday or at all on Sunday, since I’m trying to save some time for myself (and to post more updates here!), but I suspect J.C. will be there longer (he’s there now, while I’m still at work… don’t tell anyone!)

You can check out the full convention schedule HERE!

Categories
Anime Reviews Reviews

Anime Review – Astra: Lost in Space

The source of the ship's name.

In the year 2063, travelling through space has become commonplace. Eight students from Caird High School, along with one child, set out for a school camp on a nearby planet. However, the students are then mysteriously transported 5,000 light years away from home, with no way to call for help. Aboard an abandoned spaceship they call the Astra, these nine students slowly try to make their way back and figure out why they were transported in the first place. – ANN

Streaming: Funimation and Hulu

Episodes: 12 (episodes 1 and 12 are double-length episodes)

Source: Manga

Read my first impressions here!

Review: Note – This review may contain minor plot spoilers for the series. Because this show presents major revelations in its second half, I’ve done my best to only speak as generally as possible.

Despite the fact that many fans my age were introduced to anime through the iconic science fiction titles that trickled their way over to the West in the early years, it feels as though it’s been quite a while since the sci-fi genre has really been front-and-center. While the surge in slice-of-life anime in the early 2000’s has certainly provided me with many favorite series, and the current popularity of isekai stories is starting to bear more fruit for fans of my tastes, sometimes I just get nostalgic for stories about space travel and the intrepid spirit of humanity. Astra: Lost in Space, a recently-concluded series from this Summer, does a real bang-up job of scratching that itch.

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Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 4

So far I think my new system for first impressions has been working out pretty well. Even just plugging along on the weekends, I’m more than half done with the new series already (excluding continuations and sequels… of which there are seemingly a whole ton this season). I’ve even had time to finish watching some of the stuff from last season that I wasn’t able to make time for, which likely means there’ll be some more series reviews on the horizon.

Just to reiterate, the intention of writing shorter reviews at the outset is to give myself more time to follow-up and write on other topics as well. Hopefully this will lead to a more robust blogging landscape around here.

Content Warning: The Blade of the Immortal review includes some violent imagery in the screen captures that accompany it.

Continue reading “Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 4”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 3

It’s the most interesting time of the year in my home state, where the weather can whip-lash between 70 degrees Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) and sunny, and 30 degrees F (-1 degree C) and snowing in a matter of hours. Right now we’re in the snowing portion of the week, and with my partner gone for the weekend and a lack of motivation to leave the house, it’s time to dig into a few more first impressions!

Note: This post contains some mildly NSFW screen shots.

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Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 2

Only 2D girls will do.

It’s time for another round of seasonal previews! We certainly uncovered some interesting ones in the previous post, but none that I’d necessarily qualify as “gems.” What will this group have in store for us?

By the way, If any readers have opinions on how many premieres to include per post, please feel free to provide some feedback. Is 5 too many, or just the right amount? Let me know in the comments if you like, or I may post a poll at some point.

Continue reading “Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 2”
Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Autumn 2019 First Impressions – Part 1

A new anime season is a great time for a fresh start. I mentioned previously that I was planning to switch things up here at the blog, and this is the first step in that project. My goal will still be to write a little bit about all the anime premiere episodes, but the format is going to be a little bit different. I plan to group batches of episodes together and to provide more succinct impressions. Series that I find more interesting, or that seem like they might prompt some interesting discussion, will then get stand alone feature posts where I might watch a few more episodes for a broader and more nuanced picture.

With all that out of the way, let’s dig into some of the Autumn premieres!

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Categories
Meta Personal

Summer 2019 – It’s Time for a Change

Hi all, it’s been quiet here for a few weeks, hasn’t it? Without going too deeply into the gory details, my partner and I are currently undergoing IVF/ infertility treatment, and since I’m the one with more involved anatomy the medication has left me feeling really exhausted. Unfortunately, I get home from work feeling exhausted, and that leaves me with very little energy to indulge in my hobbies – including this blog. The down time has given me the opportunity to think things over a bit, and I suppose now is probably a good time to implement a few changes.

  1. Regarding the remaining first impressions from this season – I don’t know if I’ll finish them or not. There have been a lot of great things airing this season and I feel a little bit guilty about not providing my personal input, but at this point many series are wrapping up and it feels a little silly to talk about first episodes when many people have already watched the final ones. It’s not like I haven’t been watching stuff, so I may come out with some kind of wrap-up or summary or something similar, but that will depend highly on my free time and energy (I’m getting close to finished with this round of medication and I anticipate there will be some down time after that, so hopefully I’ll feel a little bit more up to writing).
  2. Going forward – I’d like to start switching stuff up a bit. Obviously I enjoy doing first impressions and surveying the anime landscape each season, so I don’t want to stop doing that. Instead of deep-dives into each series, though, I have been thinking about doing a few posts with shorter impressions on some of the series I’m not quite as interested in, and then writing a few “feature” impressions of the things I think are more worth talking about. These could be ones I really like, ones that misfire in interesting ways, or just episodes that provide a lot of food for thought. Part of what makes my current system really difficult sometimes is that I feel obligated to write at length about episodes that I just don’t have very strong feelings about, and that’s always really frustrating for me and wastes a lot of time.
  3. I’d like to spend my energy writing more thoughtful pieces – digging into the details of certain anime series and writing more full-series reviews. Those are the types of things I find more satisfying to write about, but as soon as first impressions start falling behind my time to write these types of things is diminished quite a bit.

It remains to be seen how this will all end up playing out – I’ve got a surgery scheduled right around the start of the new anime season, so my ability to put into practice the things I’ve planned may be compromised somewhat (though on the other hand I’ll have a few days of free time with no obligations, so it might work out to my advantage). But hopefully the new direction will be a good refresh and re-focus for me. Thanks for reading!

Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – The Ones Within

Akatsuki Iride and seven other charismatic game streamers wake up in the world of a mysterious free-to-play game called Naka no Hito Genome. Now they are competing in real-life games with life-or-death stakes, but clearing several game tasks could earn them 100 million lives.  – ANN

Streaming: Funimation and Hulu

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: One fateful night, several “Let’s Play” video game streamers are offered the opportunity to participate in a special top-secret gaming session. Streamer Akatsuki awakens in a forest soon afterward, and he and a fellow streamer are soon pursued by a giant panda. Akatsuki’s thoughtfulness wins out when he identifies that the panda isn’t hostile. After clearing the obstacle, they’re approached by Mr. Paka, and alpaca-headed individual who fills them in about their special status.

Akatsuki and seven others were chosen to participate in this real-life streaming event, the goal being to grow a viewership of 100,000,000 individuals. They’ll be completing tasks in small groups to obtain genomic objects for some unspecified purpose. The first goal is to complete the 3 requests of “Kokkuri-san” (the Japanese equivalent of using a Ouija board to summon a spirit). While the others in the group are rightfully spooked when the spirit appears, Akatsuki’s kindness and offer of friendship allows them to fulfill the ghost’s desires.

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Categories
First Impressions Reviews

Summer 2019 First Impressions – Re:Stage! Dream Days

The story centers around the first-year student Mana Shikimiya as she pursue her dreams of winning at the Prism Stage, the competition that determines the top middle-school idol. – MAL

Streaming: Hidive

Episodes: 12

Source: Mobile Game

Episode Summary: It’s unusual for students to transfer schools right away in the Springtime, but that’s first-year student Mana Shikimiya’s situation. Despite being an oddity, Mana would really like to lay low and not call attention to herself. Unfortunately there’s a school-wide rule that all students must belong to a club or other extra-curricular activity, and so she resigns herself to that reality. After a member of the student council gives her a tour of the campus and its clubs, Mana feels overwhelmed by all the potential choices. By chance, however, she ends up passing a basement room in which the Lyrical Tradition Dance Club holds their meetings.

The president of the club is not-so-subtly looking for new members, and nearly dupes Mana into signing up despite the point of the club being a complete mystery. When Sayu, the only other club member, arrives for the daily meeting Mana learns the truth; despite its traditional trappings, the club is focused around the thoroughly modern art of singing and dancing to pop music. Mana turns out to be a natural, but suddenly insists that she can’t join. It seems she may have some kind of related trauma in her past, and though the club members are sure she’d be a great addition to the team, getting past that trauma may end up being too high a hurdle.

Continue reading “Summer 2019 First Impressions – Re:Stage! Dream Days”