Winter Anime 2014 Genius Compendium

The Winter Anime Season Has Arrived. This Pretty Much Means Me Ranking A Ton Of New Anime And Pretty Much Being Dead Wrong By The Time February Rolls Around. Let's Get This Started!



Now, for those of you who don't know how my Compendiums work, it's simple: I only rank all of the new TV anime that's making their debut this Winter. No Sequels (*looks at Silver Spoon and Chuu2Koi2*). No already existing franchises, or I guess long running franchises (*Looks at Saki, Seitokai Yakuindomo*). No Shorts (*looks at Pupipo, Strange +*). And of course, no films or OVAs. It just makes everything easy for me/I get to shine all the new faces in anime. For better or for worse. So, you get how things work? Then I better get started!

Galilei Donna

No review of a noitaminA series is complete without a discussion about the perceived declining quality in its programming in recent years, is it? Starting with Fractale, there have been more and more series on the timeslot that have not only been mediocre or uninspired, but even outright terrible! Black Rock Shooter and Guilty Crown are easily the worst offenders, but there's been plenty that justdon't feel like noitaminA series? Not in the way series during the 'classic' era of noitaminA were, at any rate. Psycho-Pass, Robotics;Notes and Silver Spoon are some notable recent examples of shows that, frankly, could have been on any timeslot regardless of how good they may have been; there was nothing that made them feel like a noitaminA show. The most recent season that fits the bill would probably be spring 2012, with the fantastic double whammy of Tsuritama and Kids on the Slope.



2013 in particular had been a pretty concerning year for the previously esteemed timeslot - the winter season was just the second halves of autumn season shows, spring was dedicated to a Katanagatari reairing of all things, and summer only had Silver Spoon (as excellent as it was). But the autumn season inspired some hope that maybe things could change - two completely original series, with imaginative premises and some interesting promo art. One of which was Galilei Donna, a story about the three Ferrari sisters, who are all descendants of Galileo Galilei and end up on international wanted lists quite early on.

Winter 2014 Anime Preview

Hey all, it's season preview time again - doesn't time fly!?Anyway this upcoming Winter season is surprisingly decent looking, which is a good thing since it's cold and I don't want to go outside.These days it feels like the quality shows are being more evenly spread out over the year, rather than being clustered into the Spring & Autumn seasons - those seasons are still bigger, but Summer & Winter are definitely much more packed now than they were in the past.Hopefully the trend continues!



Right on to the preview then~!

Status Update: December

So I felt it was time for another post, this time a bit more of an update than a review or something like that. First things first: It's closing in on Christmas pretty quick! I've been busy trying to figure out what to give as presents, because I'm really bad at that. I guess I lack the creativity, as I've been asked myself what I want for Christmas only to disappoint with an answer like "I dunno". Anyway, Christmas is supposed to be a holiday to spend with your family, enjoy the best of the Christmas movies (I heartily recommend Die Hard, if you remain unconvinced here's) and eat great food. I might however not have that chance this year, due to work.



On the other hand, I've received some great news! I've gotten accepted into the language school for my one-year Japan trip, and now I only gotta wait for my Student Visa, along with other paperwork to be done. I am seriously excited to go to Japan. I'll probably end up taking a lot of pictures, maybe making a few videos as well, who knows. I'll toss them up on this blog and attempt to make some sort of regular schedule for them by then. Not promising anything on a regular schedule as of yet. Another thing I wanted to mention real quick, is the weather. Normally at this point in December, we'd have loads of snow in Norway, and freezing temperatures of around -5 to -10 degrees Celsius at least. So far we've had two snowfalls, both being washed away by rain the days after with the warm weather. Today it's 5 degrees Celsius. I went out with a T-shirt and an open college-jacket today and still felt warm.

2013 Anime

Another winter, another end of year Top 12 list~ Starting as ever with the anime opening themes that have entertained me the most, both at the start of the episodes themselves, and often as songs in their own right in my music library. :D Links to the OP videos will be in the titles, at least until Youtube takes them down or mutes them.



Ga-Rei Zero isn't a 2013 anime, but I liked the pic. And I do still play the OP a lot.12: