So ... Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro is getting an anime.  I hope it does these terrible yet hilarious girls justice.

Alright I'm a few days late to change the poll. I realize a few Summer anime haven't wrapped up yet, so I'll delay the poll change for...hm...let's say tomorrow unless someone doesn't like that. Get your vote in if you care enough!

Most of my anime have wrapped up, I think just Tada-kun and DarFranxx are left. I'll comment on both when the wrap up, but I'm enjoying the former a lot, just hope it ends on a good note. I'll do a quick run-down of what I liked or didn't like of what I cared to keep watching, though I'll do my giant wall of pictures later too. Probably.

Hinamatsuri - Mao returns! That was an interesting way to end the season, hopefully that means we'll get a season 2 confirmed soon. Overall this was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the randomness and the characters were really likable. 

Grancest Senki - I could write more on this, but while it wasn't great, it left me satisfied overall. Had a lot of plot points that just appeared out of nowhere and resolved anti-climatically, the overall sense of tension kinda vanished about half-way in, and the MC was pretty dull, but the world-building was well done, the large-scale military fights were cool, and the main girl was awesome. I also like those happy fuzzy endings with ship confirmations. Double blonde girl marriage FTW!  

3D Kanojo - It was fine overall...I'll watch season 2, which apparently was already confirmed. The MC made me cringe a lot, and the drama was off the charts, but the main ship was cute and that's all I need.

Shokugeki - Pan shots...pan shots everywhere. As someone who reads the manga, there wasn't a lot here to get excited about, basically just seeing manga panels with voices and sound in the background. Very little actual animation, which was a disappointment.

Buuuuut...JC Staff apparently knows how to win me over despite all that. That Sorina montage in the end was heavenly. This pairing is just...too great. *sniffles*

Wotakoi - Nani? It's over?

Good anime overall, felt super relatable. I remember a funny episode with Narumi trying to hide her depression at work after a character she liked died. Then I finished Your Lie in April the week after. Hm...

Not the first anime about otaku I've seen...but I can't think of another one that hit this close to home, which makes this one super memorable overall.

My Hero Academia - Probably the critical darling this season, though in this case, I'd say it's well deserved. Probably the strongest arc in the manga so far with brilliant direction, sound design and OST placement and voice acting to match, honestly this anime definitely deserves the hype it's getting currently. Not every big manga gets this type of anime treatment (*glares at Shokugeki*), so it pleases me to see how well it's been handled. 

I'll be baaaaaack....

God dammit. I'm further behind in a season than I ever was and what am I doing? Rewatching Kill La Kill. What the fuck am I doing with my life?

Alright so its been almost a month since my last post in here. It seems like I would have a lot more time, but that time seems to be spent elsewhere. Regardless I did manage to finish 3 shows.

Violet Evergarden- A highly rated show, but I am unsure why. I really liked the atmosphere of the show with war and the consequences of such. Letters basically being a lifeline of old wars for many people, and thus smooth letter writers are quite valued or Auto Memory Dolls in this show. I liked the plot between Gilbert, Dietfried, and Violet, but many of the other plot lines were boring and episodic. The side story that I really did enjoy were between a sick mother and her child. However Violet is a very similar character to Sabre from the Fate series. As much as I disliked the original, I did like Violet a bit more but she was pretty strong in the later episodes despite her major life changes. One of the worst offenders was the amateur music direction, the OPs and EDs were okay, but the actual anime music was quite poor in my view. So many scenes where they just insert the random music, when the effect would have been greater without.

Aggretsuko- The 3rd show that I started, but I finished it 2nd since it is so short. It is quite a fun show that deals with real life issues. I especially liked the latter episodes when more characters show up. Almost all the characters are funny in their own way. Metal music is only a plus.

Mahoutsukai no Yome Season 1 and 2 (24 episodes) - Another highly rated anime, this one I can understand. Unlike Violet Evergarden, this show has very strong direction, especially with its music. Early on their is a scene with a dragon being able to fly and the music to go along with it is quite nice, there are many other scenes like this where the music fits quite well, and sometimes omission of music. The plot itself is quite interesting, but not without flaws. Constant meaningless cliffhangers, but lucky for me, I can just watch the next episode right after. The mystery behind the 2 and the overall character development was quite strong throughout, as well as all the differing morals of all the beings. The side stories like with Leanan SIdhe were all quite good, even as good as the main story. One thing I don't like in anime is the theme of impending death, because unless it is Game of Thrones, the main character probably won't be dieing... Still it is interesting on how they sidestep the issue. There is still a lot of content for another season, so it will be quite interesting if they continue this anime.

Okay I lied, now I'm changing the poll.

Winner of VGC's Spring AOTS is: My Hero Academia Season 3

New poll: Most Hyped Summer Anime!

Honestly...I haven't done a good job keeping up on what's coming, so I apologize if your choice isn't here. Also leaving off My Hero Academia, since it's boring for that to win all the time, and FLCL...since that's almost over.

I want to say I liked this one...but I honestly don't remember much about it other than a few strong episodes. I suppose it looked super nice, but that's never been a problem with Kyo-Ani stuff. Violet's character arc towards the end was well done, though that action heavy finale was kinda weird. Why was that blonde boy James Bond all of a sudden?

Overall it felt really episodic, which isn't really a good or bad thing, just the type of story they wanted to do. My favorite episodes were probably the one with the princess writing letters to her fiance, the playwright who lost his daughter, and the dying mom writing letters for her daughter for years to come. Some of those might have been cheap hits to the feels, but got dang if they weren't really well done. Especially that last one...holy crap that had me bawling.

Episodic isn't a problem as long as it is done well. I recently watched Kino no Tabi, and it is entirely episodic but still quite entertaining.

Violet Evergarden does it in an odd way with half the episodes being about the main story, and the other half being episodic. I liked the side stories and all the lands along with it, but it really took away from the main experience, just like the weird last episode did. Essentially I would call the episodic episodes as filler, which is just plain ridiculous in a 12 episode series. In longer series I often skip filler, but there was no way of knowing that in such a short series.

Season was, alright I guess, went from 5 to 3 animes.

Dropped Amanchu Advance, because most of the time the series forgot that it was about diving and character development and not supernatural trips with really bland incidental characters and some poor taste downright OOC dialogue.

Dropped Hisone to Maso tan because...it tried to have a pretty shitty subplot that couldn't sound any more forced.

Comic Girls was pretty nice, basic premise and overall simple series, but with some really strong moments and good comedy, I also liked the way they handled Koyume's crush on Tsubasa, less so of a gag and more part of her development, something that would usually be reserved for strictly yuri series. Overall a fun comfy time.

Uma Musume surprised me quite a bit, a really strong sport series with really good characters, especially enjoy the way Special Week developed across the episodes, her relationship with Suzuka, Suzuka herself was quite nice, was expecting a more cold character, but it was a really nice supportive relationship between the two, the general chemestry of the cast was great especially with some background stuff. Also like how the character models are, a tad subtle, but the definition and muscles of the girls is quite more, guess you could say normal than most other series. And of course, Special Week having two moms that she is proud of is precious as hell.

Megalobox is freaking amazing, the 2000's vibe art direction, excellent music and just general badassery of the show is sooo great, sucker for underdog stories combined with boxing, it reminds me so much of films like Rocky don't have much else to say other than I'll definitely watch Ashita no Joe after this is over.

@poll My most anticipated summer anime is Happy Sugar Life. Also planning to watch Asobi Asobase, Hanebado, Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight and the third season of Yama no Susume.

There are a few manga that I read that are being made into anime.  I'm looking forward to watching them soar ... or crash and burn.  

I've already mentioned Chio-chan no Tsuugakuro.  It's about school girls.  Not the kind you see in most anime, however.  They certainly aren't ladylike, that's for sure.  Chio is a CORE GAMER!  She likes western games, especially the kind where you kill people.  She often pretends to be a female version of Sam Fisher.  Payday and Assassin's Creed are often referenced.  She is part of the "lower-middle" in terms of school ranking.

Her best friend Manana is by far my favorite character.  She's smarter and more mature than Chio but she is also unscrupulous and blackhearted.  I love it.  They can stab each other in the back and then walk to school together the next day like nothing happened.  That's where most of the manga takes place, actually--not at school but rather in the morning on the way to school.

Looks like the anime is going to really focus on Chio's violent, game-fueled imagination.

Another is Grand Blue.  Honestly, I've criticized this manga a lot.  Especially all the male nudity.  Yeah, that's what I said.  It's basically the Japanese version of American Pie except it's actually funny and has some stuff about diving.  The main character ends up staying with his two (hot) cousins while he attends college.  Because their father runs a diving business, the diving club often meets there.  The diving club forces the main character to join and to party ALL THE TIME.  It's a shame that it's always the male characters who strip naked when the alcohol starts to flow.  It's a joke it leans on way too much.

However, the reason I keep reading is that it's really funny and the female cast is really good.  I like all of them, they give the series focus and make it interesting.  

Finished Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex couple of weeks ago and this was definitely a good show. It was hard to follow at times and had a lot of "blink and you will miss it" moments but it was still really good. Gonna start the second season soon.


Also I'm currently rewatching Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood and this show is still one of my favorites. Got a couple of episodes to finish but man this show still holds up.