January 1, 2014

Autumn Anime Season 2013 Review [v.P]

Having trouble deciding what animes from the Autumn (2013) season that you should watch?
I have split (the majority of) the animes into 7 categories. So follow through this post and ask yourself 7 questions to decide which ones you want to watch.
I've included a simple summary/description for each anime (some comments may include mild sarcasm); You can Google the titles for more details.
Note, the numbers in square brackets are my rating of the anime out of 10. I won't rate anything that I've dropped.

  • Do you like sports animes?

If yes then I recommend:
    • Ace of Diamond [6] - An anime based on baseball.
    • Kuroko no Basket 2 [7] - A continuation of an anime based on basketball.
    • Yowamushi Pedal [7] - An anime based on cycling.

  • Do you like fanservice (for males)?
If yes then I recommend:

    • Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova/Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova [8] - Battle ships turn into cute girls and they start firing torpedoes at each other.
    • Coppelion [6.5] - A part of Japan suffered a radioactive disaster. A group of genetically modified teens/robots/dolls gets sent to the disaster zone to rescue all remaining humans. They encounter bad people who want to steal the radioactive waste and rebellion. Firearms/shooting involved.
    • Kill la Kill (Dropped) - Something about clothes with personalities and can talk, and girls wearing these clothes.
    • Walkure Romanze (Dropped) - Girls and Horses.
    • Strike the Blood (Dropped) - Girls. Vampires. Super natural powers.
    • White Album 2 (Dropped) - Girls. More girls.
    • Outbreak Company [7] - An anime that parodies other animes. MC is an otaku and hikikomori that gets sent to alternate universe to promote Japanese culture. Highly recommended for hilarity and fan service reasons.
    • Miss Monochrome [7] - A robot that desires to be an idol. This is a short 3 minute anime. Recommended for hilarity reasons.
    • Machine-Doll wa Kizutsukanai/Unbreakable Machine-Doll [8] - Yaya. Need I say more? Set in a universe where there are machines called "dolls" that can come alive, act like humans and fight under the command of their masters called "puppeteers". A teen boy joins an academy aiming to be the best "puppeteer" so he can avenge his dead family. Highly recommended for pure Yaya love.
    • Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Come wo Zenryoku de Jyama Shiteiru (NouCome) [7] - Many times in life you are forced to choose, what if those options really suck and will make you look like a jerk? On the bright side because of your choices you get to hang around a group of girls ranging from flat to busty. Highly recommended for hilarity and fan service reasons.
    • Nagi no Asukara [7.5] - A love pentagon relating people that live under water and people that live above water. The art is really pretty.
    • Log Horizon [7] - Players of a MMORPG game suddenly get trapped in-game and their consciousness gets transferred into their playable characters. The set-up is similar to that of Sword Art Online. However, the plot development is different, LH focuses more on team play and building up the community, whereas SAO focused more on a single player (Kirito). The plus side of LH is you get to hang around this cute chibi ninja girl.

  • Do you like fanservice (for females)?
If yes then I recommend:

    • Diabolik Lovers [8 - rated high because I'm a sucker for reverse harems]- Main character is "forced" to live with six vampire brothers and their cunning vampire uncle. "Drama" (a lot of blood sucking) ensues. 
  • Do you like flashy/colourful series with minimal/difficult to understand plot?

    • Meganebu! [8] - A quirky anime about glasses and people obsessed with glasses. If you're a glasses wearer, you'll find yourself nodding in agreement with the issues they raise regarding glasses.
    • Kyousou Giga [7] - A family lives in/meddles with 13 parallel universes. It's confusing. Don't try to understand what's going on. Just immerse yourself into the story and accept everything that's thrown at you.
    • Galilei Donna [5] - Set in an alternate era where the most common transport is flying airships, the famous inventor Galileo Galilei left behind clues regarding an important invention. His descendants fight evil organization and authorities to discover such object. 

  • Do you like (soppy) Shoujo love stories?
If yes then I recommend:

    • Golden Time (Dropped at ep 11 after seeing that it's 24 eps in total) - Something about how a love-struck Girl A (with Boy A) eventually falls in love with Boy B, who is friends with Boy A, that turns out to be a ghost, that used to love Girl B who is now senpai and friend to Girl A.
    • Gingitsune (Dropped) - Something about a girl who serves at a shrine that meets a Fox deity and some feelings develop. Consider it as the boring and not-so-pretty-art version of Kamisama Hajimemashita.

  • Do you like action/battle-type/Shounen genre stories?
If yes then I recommend:

    • BlazBlue: Alter Memory [6] - Set in an alternate universe where time looping is possible, good guys fight bad guys using super powers and fancy weapons.
    • Kakumeiki Valvrave 2 [8] - Second installation of the tear-jerking and suspense filled story with fighting mecha machines.
    • Pokemon: XY (On hold) - A young boy journeys across the land aiming to be the best pokemon trainer by fighting various opponents and kicking Team Rocket's buttocks.
    • Samurai Flamenco [5] - An amateur male model/actor aims to become a super hero and fight crime by donning a costume and teaming up with a cop. It starts off very funny and realistic but then the anime turns sour when they start introducing aliens/sinister super natural beings into the plot.
    • Tokyo Ravens [6] - A group of teenagers training at a school to fight demons using supernatural powers.
    • Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta [7] - A group of teenagers running a city and try to fight demons using supernatural powers.
    • Magi: The Kingdom of Magic 2 [6.5] - Second installation of action/fantasy story. Personally, I loved the manga, but I was sad that they turned the anime all "kiddy". I only watch for the sake of the seiyuus.
    • Kyoukai no Kanata [4] - A group of teenagers fight demons and make friends using supernatural powers. If you like typical KyoAni art work (eg. Free!, Hyouka, K-On, Tamako Market) then this is the one to go for. The storyline and character development were typical and 'by-the-book'. On the bright side there's not much thinking involved to understand what's happening because the explanation hits you in one single episode (episode 10) and then all the puzzle pieces click into place. Ending was terrible.

  • Do you like slice-of-life humour?
If yes then I recommend:

    • Super Seisyun Brothers [7] - Two pairs of brothers and sisters talk about and making fun of their daily lives.