Search Results for: Black Rock Shooter

Season Preview

Spring 2022 Preview

Ah, spring, when the bone-chilling snow melts into refreshing puddles that feed the budding spring blooms. Similarly, our dashed hopes and exceeded expectations from winter melt into our hopes for a blossoming Spring anime season. Will the anticipated premieres bloom into a beautiful sakura-lined avenue or a putrid bed of carrion flowers? Well, we will have to tune in to see! What I can say is that there are some very promising buds.

Back in fashion for the season are Tiger & Bunny 2, Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari, Kingdom, and Komi-san wa, Komyushou Desu. On the sports field, we have the unique horse-racing anime Gunjou no Fanfare and the anticipated Aoashi. While not a sport (although some may claim it is a game), love is in the air too with the high school romance Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori-san, battle-crossed lovers in Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de, or the hilariously stubborn Shinomiya Kaguya and Shirogane Miyuki in Kaguya-sama wa Kokurasetai for added (viewing) pleasure. For a heartwarming story of a not-so-usual “family”, check out Spy x Family (which I think may be one of the standouts of the season). Or, for a bit of supernatural mystery, Summertime Render may be just the thing. Sometimes (at least for me), life is about the finer arts and Dance Dance Danseur, a coming of age story about finding one’s own self-expression through the art of ballet, promises just that. Spring really is here at last, and anime isn’t far behind: this is Random Curiosity’s Spring 2022 Preview!

Miscellaneous

Introduction – “A wild rice cake appeared!”

BakaMochi

Hello world! Stepping outside the ‘frozen foods’ section in local grocery stores, I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance.

So what prompted the sudden change of habitat? RC, of course! As a lurker, when Divine opened applications for new writers, I applied since it’d give me an opportunity to combine the two greatest love affairs of my life: anime and writing.

As far as my anime watching habits go, I definitely don’t watch as much as others, but I’m always up for suggestions – so if you have any good recommendations, please let me know! I’d love to have more series to sink my teeth into. This season I’ve been keeping up with Aquarion EVOL, Chihayafuru, Guilty Crown, NichiBros (did they ever come up with a proper abbreviation for it?), Mirai Nikki, Another, Brave 10, Black Rock Shooter and Inu x Boku SS. Technically, that last one’s been sitting in my hard drive, but it will be watched soon enough! There’s more info in My Anime List, but it is a little lacking… And um, please disregard the huge time gap between the series that are listed on there – there were a couple of years when I was forced to contend with shows airing in YTV’s Bionix block.

More after the jump…

Season Schedule / Series Introduction

Winter 2012 Schedule

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Smile Precure!
08:30 EX (2/5)		 Natsume Yuujin-chou Shi
25:30 TX (1/2)		 Bleach
18:00 TX		 New Prince of Tennis
25:50 TX (1/4)		 Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2nd Act
23:00 MX (1/5)		 High School DxD
11:00 AT-X (1/6)		 Area no Kishi
06:00 EX (1/7)
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
17:00 MBS/TBS (10/9)		 Ano Natsu de Matteru
25:30 TVA (1/9)		 Papa no Iu Koto wo Kikinasai!
25:30 MX (1/10)		 Thermae Romae
24:45 CX (1/12)		 Senki Zesshou Symphogear
23:00 MX (1/6)		 Zero no Tsukaima F
08:30 AT-X (1/7)
Rinne no Lagrange
22:00 MX (1/8)		 Another
25:35 KNB (1/9)		 Chihayafuru
24:59 NTV (10/4)		 Black Rock Shooter
24:45 CX (2/2)		 Shakugan no Shana III (Final)
25:30 MX (10/7)		 Nisemonogatari
24:00 MX (1/7)
Mirai Nikki
23:00 Niconico (10/9)		 Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou
26:00 TX (1/9)		 Recorder to Randoseru
25:00 TVS (1/5)		 Last Exile -Ginyoku no Fam-
26:00 CBC (10/7)		 Mouretsu Pirates
24:30 tvk (1/7)
Aquarion EVOL
25:35 TX (1/8)		 Kill Me Baby
25:25 TBS (1/5)		 BRAVE10
26:00 MX (1/7)
Guilty Crown
25:15 CX (10/13)
Persona 4 the ANIMATION
25:30 MBS (10/6)
Amagami SS+ plus
25:55 TBS (1/5)
Inu x Boku SS
26:00 MBS (1/12)
Legend: 4 Divine 1 Prooof 3 Takaii 4 Guardian Enzo 2 Unlisted 3 Verdant 4 Stilts Not covering

With the countdown to the new year happening tonight (or already happened for some parts of the world), here’s a tentative overview of Random Curiosity’s blogging plans for the new season. As usual, everything listed here is subject to change.

…More after the jump, including a poll for reader feedback on blogging format.

Season Preview / Series Introduction

Winter 2012 Preview!

It feels like 2011 went by in the blink of an eye, as I haven’t even had a chance to look back on my favorites of the year. Before I do so, let’s first take a look at what’s just around the corner in the new year. Winter is generally not one of the busier seasons, but there are actually 23 offerings in 2012, which is pretty close to the 27 this past fall. Of the new titles, some of them stood out immediately — the sequel to my favorite romance of 2010 Amagami SS, the horror series Another, the sequel to Sousei no Aquarion, the TV version of Black Rock Shooter, the sequel to Bakemonogatari, and the fourth and final season of Zero no Tsukaima — but as is often the case when I put together a season preview, I discovered many are a lot more interesting than they originally appeared. Best of all, there is a wide variety of shows from various different genres, so there’s a good chance there will be something for everyone. Care to find out which ones I’m talking about? Then do read on.

* This preview will be kept at the top for the next while, so be sure to scroll past it or check the Recent Entries on your right for new posts.
* A season poll will be available a little later is available on the sidebar.

Miscellaneous / Random Musings

An Interview with Yamamoto Yutaka

The Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun published an interesting article (translated) just over a week ago on an interview with Ordet studio founder and director Yamamoto Yutata, whom most people are probably aware is behind the original series FRACTALE airing this season. In the interview, he talks about the declining state of the anime industry and how business practices have driven down wages and hampered creativity, which Wall Street Journal also looked into over a year ago. While outsourcing to China and South Korea is nothing new, Yamamoto makes an eye-opening point about how it’s not necessarily for cost reasons, but because they’re short-staffed in Japan due to lack of interest.

Given the dire working conditions and dismal pay of animators, I can’t say I’m surprised when I can easily picture young bright-eyed individuals with visions of a lucrative career in anime get disillusioned once they actually get into the industry. The benefits, even if it’s simply personal gratification in seeing one’s work come to life, can only take most people so far and hardly offset the corporate politics that surely go on. There’s no denying that the anime medium has fallen into the trap of recycling character stereotypes and rehashing similar premises in slightly different settings, which may retain most of its current audience but clearly doesn’t reach out to new ones. Recently, there’s also been a growing trend towards using the “moe” aspect, which Yamamoto admits being guilty of. However, as someone who’s seen a fair share of corporate politics and business practices that don’t encourage creativity, I get the feeling that the problem lies more in the people who get the final say in what goes into an anime, as they’re often afraid of breaking outside of their comfort zone and trying something new.

Director Yamamoto Yutaka posing with a FRACTALE poster. A Black Rock Shooter one can be seen behind.

* More after the break…

Best of Anime

Best of Anime 2022

With 2022 officially over, now comes the moment that many of you have been waiting for. It’s time for our annual foray into annoying everyone with our questionable opinions, the Best of Anime 2022 post! Continuing in 2021’s wake this will be a collaboration between writers. That would be me (Pancakes), Choya, FJ Freeman, Princess Usagi, and Miss Simplice. We didn’t quite manage all the shows this year (or complete this on time…), but we heavily focused on watching entries that made a serious clamour within the anime community. This is a third time for us, and we’ll inevitably get things wrong. So please feel free to be brutally honest while giving us constructive feedback. And if we picked something you disagree with don’t hesitate to voice your opinion – best of posts are always subjective!

Continuing from 2021, there are numerous categories in the following areas: Production, Miscellaneous, Genre, and Notable Others. Due to lack of series candidates, and/or the belief that we may not have watched enough shows to make an informed decision about specific genres, some categories present in previous years were ommitted. Without further ado, let’s get started!

Season Preview

Winter 2023 Preview

Winter, it’s truly here at last. While we’re all concerned with the seasonal festivities and utterly annoying freezing temperatures (or sweltering heat for our friends below the equator!), anime has once again returned for another helping of fun times and entertaining stories. For all winter lacks in last fall’s ridiculous offerings, don’t think we are lacking this time either as both crowd favourites Tokyo Revengers and Vinland Saga return for round two amid continuations of the ever-popular supernatural series Bungou Stray Dogs and dungeon crawler Danmachi. In the mood for fantasy? You’re spoiled rotten with everything from Maou Gakuin’s sequel to the second go of slice-of-life focused Kamitachi and even some shoujo flavoured misting in Sugar Apple Fairy Tale for spice. And the fun doesn’t stop there as Urobutcher fronted Revenger, the eagerly awaited Nier: Automata adaptation, Legend of Heroes original Northern War, and the second bout of perpetual teaser Nagatoro prove. Heck, can even toss in TRIGUN Stampede and sly romcom underdog Kubo-san wa Boku o Yurusanai if in need of a couple stocking stuffers.

Winter often sucks and the lack of daylight hurts, but anime is back to keep things shining and loving life. This is Random Curiosity’s Winter 2023 Preview!

D_Cide Traumerei the Animation / First Impressions / Series Introduction

D_Cide Traumerei: The Animation – 01

「覚醒」 (Kakusei)
“Awakening”

D_Cide Traumerei: The Animation is a little hard to explain, while the narrative might just seem like your typical ‘otherworldy monsters attack our world’ story, it’s what Sanzigen does with the animation that makes D_Cide stand out. 

Season Preview / Series Introduction

Spring 2015 Preview!

I can’t believe a year has already passed since I last wrote a preview introduction. I love spring; not only because it brings us warmer weather, but it’s one of my favorite anime seasons, and it marks the anniversary for a handful of writers here at Random Curiosity. This April we welcome back a ton of sequels to everyone’s favorite series. We have newly announced sequels after last year’s successful prequels (Nisekoi:, Sidonia no Kishi: Dai-kyuu Wakusei Sen-eki), and some series with long-awaited sequels (Digimon Adventure tri., Yahari Ore no Seishun Rabukome wa Machigatteiru. Zoku). There’s also a good combination of new (Kekkai Sensen, Shokugeki no Souma) and old (Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works 2nd Season) adaptation favorites. And if none of that tickles your fancy, you still have completely original anime (Plastic Memories) to look forward to. Regardless of what your preferences are, I don’t doubt that you’ll find something that catches your eye this season. After a mediocre winter season, I’m so pumped for spring! Bring on all 46 shows!

* This preview will be kept at the top for the next while, so be sure to scroll past it, check the slider on top, or the Recent Entries on your right for new posts.