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Anime Film TV

Preview of 2017 Winter Anime

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Although I’m still pretty busy watching the series that I mentioned being interested in my 2016 fall anime post, I’m already curious and excited to see what’s coming up next. Thankfully, AniChart already has a pretty good look at what we can expect to see during the 2017 winter season, and here’s what I’m already thinking I’ll be checking out (based on what little info I have).

ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu-ku
I’m pretty much just interested in this based on the overall art direction. It does sound like a neat political drama set in an alternate reality. Could be uninteresting, but I’ll check out the first episode.

Granblue Fantasy: The Animation
I’ve never played the uber popular mobile game this is based on, but I like the character art, and I’m curious to see what this is like. I don’t expect I’ll be watching a lot of it, but I’ll definitely be checking out the pilot.

Onihei
There’s very little info on this series — and especially no trailer or screenshots yet — but the description sounds interesting to me, of a historical drama set during the Edo period, following a main character who goes after robbers/arsonists.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
I’m still in the process of catching up on this series, watching the first season, and still really enjoying it. The second season that started in the fall continues over winter.

There are also three anime movies I’m interested to see: Gyakusatsu Kikan (Genocidal Organ), Hiruna Hime: Shiranai Watashi no Monogatari (a film Christophe Ferreira is involved in), and Lupin the Third: Chikemuri no Ichikawa Goemon.

Update: Here are my thoughts after watching the first 2 episodes of ACCA, Onihi Hankacho, and Granblue Fantasy The Animation.

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Debaser Uncategorized

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

As I mentioned in my fall 2016 post, the second season of this Gundam series started this month, and that got me wanting to check out the series from the start. I’ve gotten into Gundam this year in a big way, but have been sticking so far with shows that take place in the Universal Century timeline — I’m currently more than halfway watching Zeta Gundam, that aired in the mid-80s — but I’ve been in the mood to watch something Gundam that is more modern (sometimes there’s just so much 80s-style animation that you can take in) and despite this being one of the non-UC series, I’d heard good things about it and so figured I’d give it a shot. The first season runs 25 episodes, and I watched the first 4 over the weekend, and really enjoyed what I saw. So far, it’s the darkest Gundam series I’ve watched, as it deals with child soldiers and the horrors of war (although the horrors of war is a running theme in Gundam), with a main character (the pilot of the main Gundam suit) who is a child who show an absolute and scary level of desensitivity to violence. I’m very much looking forward to watching the rest of this series.

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Anime

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

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As I mentioned in my fall 2016 post, the second season of this Gundam series started this month, and that got me wanting to check out the series from the start. I’ve gotten into Gundam this year in a big way, but have been sticking so far with shows that take place in the Universal Century timeline — I’m currently more than halfway watching Zeta Gundam, that aired in the mid-80s — but I’ve been in the mood to watch something Gundam that is more modern (sometimes there’s just so much 80s-style animation that you can take in) and despite this being one of the non-UC series, I’d heard good things about it and so figured I’d give it a shot. The first season runs 25 episodes, and I watched the first 4 over the weekend, and really enjoyed what I saw. So far, it’s the darkest Gundam series I’ve watched, as it deals with child soldiers and the horrors of war (although the horrors of war is a running theme in Gundam), with a main character (the pilot of the main Gundam suit) who is a child who show an absolute and scary level of desensitivity to violence. I’m very much looking forward to watching the rest of this series.

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Anime TV

Fall 2016 Anime Season

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Towards the end of 2004 I started writing two monthly columns for a culture site called Tokyo Q, and one of them was about anime. Each edition was usually made up of reviews of shows, as well as news items, but at the start of each Japanese TV season I’d usually do a round-up of what I thought looked promising in terms of new (and returning) series. In that spirit — and with the warning that I don’t watch a lot of anime series at this point in time, because I have zero interest in the vast majority of what gets produced these days (i.e. the moe type cutesy animated stuff that rules the airwaves) — here’s what I’m at least interested in checking out once the fall season kicks off in October (based on what I’ve seen announced on AniChart’s Fall 2016 page).

Ajin (Season 2)
I’m a huge fan of the manga series this is based on (I’m still currently reading it) and I loved the first season that aired earlier this year — it was a very close adaptation of the manga storyline, with a nicely done cell-shaded animation style (similar to what you see in Knights of Sidonia, which was done by the same studio). I can’t wait to watch season 2, which I expect to be just as good.

Fune wo Amu
I don’t know anything about this series other than the description, which says that it’s the story of a man who works at a publishing company, who is trying to find a successor as he approaches retirement age, and may have found one to work on a dictionary they are looking to publish. Sounds like an interesting setting, and I like the character designs in the preview art.

Occultic Nine
I was sort of interested in this, about a group of students brought together through a blog for some paranormal and occult happenings, but then seeing the ridiculously floppy breasts in this trailer really turned me off.

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans (Season 2)
I’ve only recently become a fan of Gundam, and am currently watching the 1985 series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam. The thing with Gundam is that you get stuff that follows the timeline of the original series (“Universal Century”), and then wild spinoffs that have absolutely nothing to do with the original setting, but share certain ideas and themes. So far I haven’t been interested in watching any of the spinoff shows, but I’ve heard very good things about Iron-Blooded Orphans, so I’m tempted to give the first season a try, just as the second season is about to start.

Update: I’ve started watching these series, including Occultic Nine and Iron-Blooded Orphans. Also part of the new season, I checked out Izetta: The Last Witch.

Update: Here are my posts for Ajin and Fune wo Amu.