October Roundup

There’s no way around a the fact that this season is just not very good. Thankfully we have plenty of anime still continuing on, and in the case of Cross Game and Umineko, two anime that are not only continuing on but also improving dramatically. The thing is, even with all these anime I’ve been dropping, I still haven’t had time to get back to Gintama. I watched the Jump Festa OVA, which is fantastic and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s wondering if they should start watching Gintama, so I’ve really got to get back into it ASAP. I’m about 100 episodes behind at this stage.

A note about my ratings: The rating that’s given is a reflection of how that anime has performed this month alone. For example, while Hetalia is a better anime than  Umineko overall, this month of Umineko has been better than Hetalia.

A Grade: One of the tops of the year. Get ready for some fanboying here

A- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

This month hasn’t been quite as awesome as last month but who bloody well cares! FMA continues to produce the good week in, week out. It has finally reached the stage where I’ve had to finally admit that Brotherhood is now, in my eyes, equal to the original FMA series. Yes, it may have taken almost 30 episodes to reach that stage but I think Brotherhood has proven itself worthy. Now it’s a question of will it be able to keep this form up until the end.

A- Darker than Black: Comet of Gemini

Yet to watch episode 4 but leaving that aside for a second, what a start this season of Darker than Black has had, eh! Especially when you compared to the painfully confusing first few episodes last season had, this time it’s managed to combine confusion with awesomeness far more effectively. 12 episodes really isn’t enough for this series…unless a season 3?

B Grade: Hugely entertaining stuff. Not amazing but definitely worth watching

B+ Book of Bantorra

The most under-rated show of the season in my book. It’s difficult to say what exactly it is I love about this series. It proves that one can do fantastic fight scenes with a limited budget if you choreograph it well. It’s a shame what happened in episode 4 since I thought the ever-laughing witch storyline would continue for several episodes longer. Maybe we’ll see a return from her later on, Laughing Man style…hey, a man can hope can’t he?

B Cross Game

The best month Cross Game has had by far. Those baseball games were surprisingly tense, even though I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen (Cross Game sucks at subtle foreshadowing). Even the recap episode, which I basically fast-forwarded through made me sniffle…Wakaba *sniff*. Plus, the twist that the next episode preview showed was something I did not expect. A Wakaba lookalike eh? This could get very interesting very quickly.

B Trapeze

I still can’t quite make up my mind in regards to this anime. Episode one was so wacky and wild that I roared with laughter the entire way through. However episode 2 lacked the shock tactics of the previous one and ended up being an uninspired lump of penis jokes and I started to wonder whether this anime was all art and no depth. Episode three proved that instantly wrong with a fantastically poignant point to prove. No idea what the rest of this series has in store though.  

B- Letter Bee

In its own quiet way, Letter Bee has been one of the relatively few impressive anime to come out this season. In a world where unoriginal ideas, crappy sequels, even more fanservice and Hetalia rip-offs have dominated the scene, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch Letter Bee in all it’s simplicity. It’s not an amazing anime by any stretch, but you can’t help but love them anyway.

B- Umineko

I had written something here but then I decided I should watch episode 18 before I post this. Basically, everything that happened in the last game has been thrown completely out the window. It was by far the best arc of the series so far but….I dunno, I can’t work this series out.

C Grade: It’s good enough to keep watching but it’s not that memorable

C+ Hetalia Axis Powers

It’s still making me laugh consistently, but this has still been a poor week for Hetalia by its usual  standards. But what’s really made it drop down to C territory is the return of Chibitalia. I know the have barely taken up a minute so far but they’re presence can be felt by the rest of the cast and it casts a shadow over the entire series. Damn you Chibitalia!

C- Sacred Blacksmith

It’s remarkable that I’m still watching this series. There doesn’t appear to be a shred of originality of imagination in the plot or the dialogue. But I can’t bring myself to drop it. I actually quite enjoy watching the series, especially Luke in all his grumpiness. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if this ended up in the D section next week though.

D Grade: I’ve lost interest in this anime. If it’s a D then I’ve probably dropped it 

D Nyan Koi

Over the course of the past month I’ve been a pretty busy bloke. I’ve been trying to finish the second season of Honey and Clover and from there move onto watching Gintama again. The thing is, I don’t think there’s been a time this month where I haven’t had at least two unwatched, weekly airing episodes sitting on my computer. So I’ve had to cut down my list. Hence, Nyan Koi is dropped. It wasn’t that bad…but it wasn’t really any good either.

D- Kobato

Now really Clamp. Yes you’ve certainly dabbled in moe before and I can certainly stand a little bit of moe in my anime. Heck, I might even go so far as to say a little bit of moe can be a good thing. But this has been no more than K-ON. Actually, K-ON was better than this. If you say that you disliked K-ON but like Kobato then you are a raging hypocrite. Please pick up this anime Clamp. I don’t want to lose faith in you guys.

E Grade: Unlike D grades where I drop out of disinterest, E grades are dropped in Disgust. 

E+ Natsu no Arashi

What a load of absolute bull this season has been. It’s basically repeated the exact same fucking thing for every episode so far. What the hell is the point in these episodes anyway and why on earth do they have to spread out this plot point over the course of 4 fanservice laden episodes? The only reason to watch this anime anymore is the salt guy. Screw you Shaft, you guys seriously suck at sequels. I’m not sure if I want a second season of Bakemonogatari anymore.

F Grade: Any F standard anime I would only watch 1 or 2 episodes of so god only know how an anime could last to the end of the month and still get an F but I’m sure it will happen some day

Since I don’t include anime I’ve only watched the first episode of in here, you won’t see any F grades today. In fact I only watched one F grade anime this season and that was Kampfer. Then again, I never watched the flying panties one. Oh wait, Miracle Train. That was pure F grade material, how did I forget about that one.