Yeah, wow, I completely forgot that a new season started. Since The Seven Dadly Sins belongs to Netflix, I guess I'll have to wait a while until it's finished before I can watch it, yeah? Not that I'd watch it week-to-week, anyways. My brother and I both tried to watch My Hero Academia weekly as sort of a bonding thing, but neither of us can tolerate the anticipation, so now we're watching it monthly, I guess.
That leaves Somali and the Forest Spirit as the only other series that looks interesting, IMO. I'm not usually into Slice of Life, but the trailer really captivated me somehow. I dunno, I guess stories about little kids connecting with something distinctly inhuman really strikes a cord with me. We'll see if I'm just being suckered, or if it has something going for it, I still haven't watched it yet.
Either way, this season is definitely a wash. Which is fine, we had a few really good seasons in a row that I'm still trying to get caught up on. Not to mention I tend to spend most of my anime time on older series, anyways. Especially now that I signed up for VRV, so I also get HiDive and the two or three shows that only barely warrant the extra $13 a year I'm spending vs simply buying yearly subscriptions for both anime services. Really, I'm just paying for convenience at this point.
So far I've watched:
Flip Flappers - Binged the entire series in two days, and man, what a ride! I went in assuming it was stream-of-consciouness nonsense, and that's definitely what it seemed like for a while, but eventually it connected the dots and came to a satisfying conclusion. I'm not saying it was a masterpiece or anything, but I still think it was smartly-written, and I'm glad I watched it. Considering I started my decade as an anime fan with Kaiba, which had a similar initial expectations and surprising twists, and Flip Flappers tended to change entire genres between almost every episode, I really think this was a great way to end 2019, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for the medium!
Gasaraki - I got nostalgic for 90's mecha and remembered that I never finished this one, so I gave it another go. And I gotta say: No matter how many times I see it, I'm still floored at how terrible the first episode is. It's slow, meandering, throws non-stop techno-jargon, and in the end, you're just left with 20+ minutes that don't make any sense whatsoever to the audience until you're further in...and even then, it's still a rough sit just due to the plodding pacing. I admire its attempts to adhere to realism in certain areas, like the news broadcasts couldn't have been more spot on if they tried, and good lord do these machines look and behave like something I'd expect to see on the battlefields of the near-future...but all of that realism is undercut by the fact that dude starts dancing until he gets hypertension (seriously, 500 bpm?! I'm surpised his heart didn't burst!) and has a psychic battle with a girl in a cocoon while they try to summon a black hole. No one is going to take this seriously!
RWBY Volume 7 - I'm all caught up now, and this series is still a treat. The next episode is tomorrow, but I still can't wait to watch it! I wish I had more to say, but overall, it's just a good show. Honestly, it feels like a Tales game turned into an anime - has that same comfort food aspect to its story and characters, and everything's just as vibrant, not to mention the action definitely feels Tales-inspired to a degree. I guess it also helps that constantly looks like an in-engine cutscene. At least they upgraded to a PS4 by Volume 5. =P
Oh yeah, and I also reupped my Funimation subscription, so I also started The Rolling Girls and Gun X Sword over there. Haven't gotten far in either of them, so all I can really say is that Rolling Girl is very pretty to watch, which is fitting since I started it and Flip Flappers just to remind me how vibrant and imaginative animation can be. I gotta say, it's really impressive to look at a lot of the time. Gun X Sword is pretty cool, too, though I hope they don't get too creepy with the teenage girl that declared herself Van's wife.
