Sweet Dreams

Now that the summer anime season is over (for the most part; The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan has a weird amount of episodes and will cross over into next season, although it's still the same cour), I'll give my thoughts on the shows I watched.

Sailor Moon Crystal - Love, love, love the second half of the series! A definite improvement on the somewhat mishandled first half, which was helped by not making any huge changes to the manga plotline. I still think the new musical version of this arc is my favorite, but a lot better than the old anime, with the nonsensical and badly-handled break-up and stupid attempts at a MotD plot when that kind of plotline doesn't really work with the arc. Just one more episode left! (Got my fingers crossed that a new season will be officially announced soon. I need the Dream arc animated!)

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works - I wish they hadn't taken a break between the first and second halves of this show. I absolutely loved the first half, but by the time the second half started airing, I had forgotten a lot of what happened, so there were some definite moments of confusion on my part. (I get the feeling that it would have been helpful to be more familiar with the original VN during this part as well.) For the first time, I understand why sometimes there's a need for recap episodes. I would have benefitted from one at the start of this season! I was also disappointed by some of the things that happened to Rin and Saber and how they reacted to those things, which seemed out of character to me. I still enjoyed the show, though, and think it's one of the most gorgeously animated shows I've ever seen.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying - More of the same, really. Nothing much else to say, although I actually really liked the final episode. That was my favorite of the entire series.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! - Technically a continuing series, but since I watched both seasons back to back, I'm counting it as a new one. Anyway, I LOVED the first season and thought it was hilarious, but the second season isn't quite as good, IMO. I mean, I still really liked it and all, but for most of this season the relationship between Hachimon, Yui, and Yukino was kind of strained, which put a damper on a lot of the humor I enjoyed from the first. Plus, the "cases" they work on aren't as fun and were way drawn out. Seriously, how many episodes did they spend on planning the Christmas event with those annoying people from the other school who just liked to talk and wouldn't make any actual decisions about anything? I just looked it up -- five. freakin'. episodes. Three episodes too many, if you ask me. One episode to establish how annoying those people were and one episode for somebody to stand up and tell them to start taking things seriously...that's all that was needed. (Okay, so Hachimon and the others learned a lot of good lessons during this arc, too, but still...five. freakin'. episodes.)

My love STORY!! - If I had to sum up this series in one word, it would be...ADORABLE! Seriously, it is impossible to watch an episode of this show and not end up grinning like an idiot by the end. It's just so sweet and fluffy and heartwarming and...well, adorable! I do wish that Yamato (the main female character) was a more developed character -- you can basically describe her in three phrases: really nice, likes to bake, and finds Takeo very, very sexy -- but other than that, I have no real complaints. (And since the show is continuing into next season with a second cour, maybe Yamato will get more development later on.) My favorite of the season!

Sound! Euphonium - This show makes me wish my sister and her husband were anime fans, because I think they would really like it, too. (They're both junior high/high school band directors.) I'm no band geek -- I was a choir nerd instead -- but the music talk comes across as being mostly realistic, and the characters look like they're actually playing the instruments correctly. Being a Kyoto Animation show, there's no real need to point out that the animation is gorgeous, but...well, the animation is GORGEOUS. I also quite enjoyed the characters. It ended in a great spot, but I definitely wouldn't mind if we got a second season of this!

The Disappearance of Yuki Nagato - This is an AU version of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, based on the movie The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya. I liked the original MoHS well enough, but I think I actually like this version more. Granted, the plotlines are nothing special -- the first few episodes are just your typical Christmas/Valentine cliche fests -- but the characters are more likeable, especially Haruhi Suzumiya herself, who loses her more...sociopathic qualities (like molesting poor Mikuru all the time, although she does do some boob-groping during the hot springs episodes) while still remaining mostly true to her original character. Plus, it's really fun to pick up the allusions made to the original series.

Amagi Brilliant Park - Technically, this was from a couple of seasons ago, but it never got picked up for legal simulcast for some reason. Crunchyroll finally got the rights this to it season, so I'm counting it as part of the summer season. Anyway, love, love, love this show! The humor was great, and again, Kyoto Animation, so it looked fantastic. Sure, it would have been nice to get a new season of Full Metal Panic (by the same author), but I loved ABP just as much as FMP, so I'm not complaining. (Okay, one complaint: When is CR going to get the rights to the 13th episode? From what I understand, it's not a necessary episode -- everything wrapped up nicely in Episode 12 -- but I still want to see it!)

So it was a pretty successful summer anime season! (And I haven't even watched the Heroic Age of Arslan yet. Never got around to it, but it's on my list.)

Not much has caught my eye next season, though. I definitely want to watch Snow White of the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayuki-hime), and Rokka: Braves of the Six Flowers might be worth a shot, but that's about it aside from new seasons of series I've already watched before (Hetalia and To-LOVE-Ru). Oh, and I'm kinda interested in Gangsta., but I'm super on the fence. Might just wait until the end of the season and see what the general opinion is.