Summer 2016 Anime - Reviews & Recommendations

[shadowhunter]

Souma Ep 10Show

Fun fact: Souma's dad has lost at finals of Autumn Elections.
Waiting for Stagaire Arc.

Love Live Sunshine Ep 10Show

Kurosawa sisters carry so hard.
ChikaRiko? Too much yuri.
Poor You.
Another "good" visuals.
Typical Fanservice episode.

[RailWarrior]

Qualidea Code Episode 9Show

Well, the twist was predicted from episode 7 so I'm glad they didn't stall the revelation any longer. What I'm interested in is what happens from now on.

[Rupy]

Souma Episode 10Show

This should be the last episode of S2, but they had to rush it because they want to make Stagaire Arc in just 3 episodes!? I have a bad feeling about that.
Anyway I'm excited too see Hishoko's ark <3.

Alderamin on the Sky Episode 09Show

That's all?? I have been waiting a good battle with Ikta performing a decisive and ended in a shitty way and was only like 5 minute long.
Didn't like this chapter at all.

[Reverend]

Love Live! Sunshine - Episode 010Show

Effing sub don't sub the important text at the front...
Well, but this is Love Live! so it's not really that necessary

I'll just do this for now.
Btw enough of this zura shit
Btw shit the shitty engrish usage is back
and btw, when I said I want to see Dia's sister side more, that doesn't mean I want to see her patting and pinching Ruby's cheek like some doll
Back to topic I want to talk about: Character's development. Now that the cast is complete, we can already start.
To understand what each character is and how they work, first we need to understand what they're trying to do with the show.
As everyone already know and as I've said repeatedly: the key word for Love Live! Sunshine is "dream". (No need to explain this, yes?)
So, let's start with everyone's dream:
- Chika: to be like Muse.
- You: no idea, tbh. She's all mask, so far.
- Riko: to achieve the highest state of art a musician can achieve. And that means to create a composition she can feel satisfied at. (She started at not being able at playing music again, because "she felt something was missing.")
- Ruby: to be an idol. Holyshit that Ruby hairstyle, btw. <3
- Hanamaru: to make her beloved best friend Ruby be honest with herself and happy. (Whoa that's pretty weak... But that's why she's a great bookworm character.) Holyshit that Maru's hairstyle, too. <3
- Yoshiko: to be cured of her chuuni, or, more precisely, to be accepted as herself by someone.
- Dia: for her beloved(s) to be happy.
- Mari: to save the school, the place where she & her best friends spent their memories of youth. (basically she just wants them to be together again.)
- Kanan: to be an idol.

So, let's see how much we've progressed so far (up til episode 10):
- Chika: this is a copy of Love Live!, so of course we knew already she will get it in the end. But when a person's dream is achieved, we should know that there will be others' who don't. The challenge of this series is that: how to achieve an ending where everyone's dreams are achieved without turning the series utter shit. (Well... but, fairly speaking, it's already shit as it is. )
- You: Can't really say anything since I don't know a shit about her. Her moe mask is still very thick. I wonder what they have in store for her.
- RIko: In this whole 9 episodes, she abandoned her dream of achieve the height of music, lowering herself in the utter shit that is idol music. I'm quite happy Episode 10 talks about that. Fuck it I want to hear more of that piece that would probably be turned into Aqours song.
I wonder how they will drive it from here. A season 2 is definitely already planned, so I guess they would copy the old plot and Aqours won't join the current Love Live! and they would join the next one, instead. (of course, bullshit device like "they choose to move the next Love Live! ahead of schedule" will be use. No matter, since I'm not expecting anything out of shit.)
- Ruby: She got her wish in Episode 4. (and it was good. Still best episode, so far.)
- Hanamaru: Same as above.
- Yoshiko: She got her wish in Episode 5.
If only they developed her dream further than it was in Episode 5. I mean: in the end, it's not as defined as Ruby's & Kanan's dream (their dream... has the object "idol" as the final goal, while Yoshiko's can be further developed into something else.)
- Dia: very empty character, so it's easy to slot her into supporting cast while making sure she gets her dreams. Episode 10 tries to thicken the mask with all these antiques of her, in hope it would go thick enough for people to not care about the truth (just like people did with You, currently.)
- Mari: She got it back in episode 9. Time to slot back to supporting cast, for her.
- Kanan: hoping the last 2 episodes will talk about this, now with Riko's being unavailable for the competition. You is next week, so after that... I hope Kanan's (& Ruby's, to an extend) get talked about more, again.

Qualidea Code - Episode 009Show

Hey new OP. And they use the other LiSA song on that mini album, nonetheless. <3
Let's see how this attempt of another GitS goes. (though GitS... isn't a right comparison, either.)

So, in overall:
They pretty much cleared up the mobs from previous episodes. Good.
The only thing still left uncleared... is Kasumi being in two worlds. But that would be easy.
Let's see how much they can achieve in 3 episodes.

Rewrite - Episode 010Show

Whoa the pacing is so goddamn fast there are no death flags other than the final one.

Or is it a death flag?

[Rupy]

Re:Zero Episode 23Show

Why Felix has to be male!!?? Just why ??

Leaving that behind, this episode remind me the reason I love Emilia.
Also poor Subaru, even when he finally defeated the witch's cult has to find a way to mess it up turning into Subaru/Petelgeuse

Qualidea Code Episode 9Show

Well, the twist was predicted from episode 7 so I'm glad they didn't stall the revelation any longer. What I'm interested in is what happens from now on.

Same thoughts here. Let's see how this end.

[CureRainbow]

Re:Zero episodes 19-23Show

Whoa, the white whale is gone? Beetlejuice is also gone? God damn, they really accomplished a lot, huh? I guess being Subaru wasn't that bad after all-

*sees last bit*

BEING. SUBARU. IS. SUFFERING.

[Homura]

Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no YumeShow

Finally it's over.
Finally I can say: SHIT ADAPTATION!

Well, at least they didn't change the last chapter at all. Not a single word, not a single period.

SpoilerShow

I decide to tell this to you at the end since you're a real fan of it. First of all, I definitely can understand if you're well known about the original material and truly love it, mostly you wouldn't be fond of the adaptation. But still, I want to tell you I really like the anime, which is from someone who's not a fan of Key and never touched the original work. I was probably lucky on that in a sense so I could enjoy the anime from zero. I finished the last episode a month ago, and I was surprised at the moment, if it hadn't been my mom doing housework outside my room, I would have cried, no kidding. The story is so simple, and with a main heroine as you described who is innocent, naive and faithful. When they come together, with an unusual setting of a planetarium set in a world after apocalypse, I found the anime really touching, and memorable. Hoshino Yumemi, she is a robot running on programs, and so every aspect she has been showing including her kindness is devoid of any sense of fakeness; And because she is a robot, the character she possesses doesn't give me a sense of being unreal. This is really important to me, otherwise I wouldn't have been into the story. At least 10%, I start getting the reason why you have been so fond of her. My favorite episodes are ep. 3 and 5. I have never been to a planetarium in my life, and I found the special presentation Yumemi presented in ep. 3 fascinating. I think that was well animated. For the last episode, besides my liking for the content itself, I think the background music has done a good job. There are really many more things I can talk about, but if to say one at the end, it's the line "kami-sama, please don't separate the heaven for human and robot".

Even though I'm aware you're not that fond of the adaptation, I think the anime has indeed made more people come to know and like the work you love. So I'm telling to you.

[Reverend]

Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no YumeShow

Finally it's over.
Finally I can say: SHIT ADAPTATION!

Well, at least they didn't change the last chapter at all. Not a single word, not a single period.

SpoilerShow

I decide to tell this to you at the end since you're a real fan of it. First of all, I definitely can understand if you're well known about the original material and truly love it, mostly you wouldn't be fond of the adaptation. But still, I want to tell you I really like the anime, which is from someone who's not a fan of Key and never touched the original work. I was probably lucky on that in a sense so I could enjoy the anime from zero. I finished the last episode a month ago, and I was surprised at the moment, if it hadn't been my mom doing housework outside my room, I would have cried, no kidding. The story is so simple, and with a main heroine as you described who is innocent, naive and faithful. When they come together, with an unusual setting of a planetarium set in a world after apocalypse, I found the anime really touching, and memorable. Hoshino Yumemi, she is a robot running on programs, and so every aspect she has been showing including her kindness is devoid of any sense of fakeness; And because she is a robot, the character she possesses doesn't give me a sense of being unreal. This is really important to me, otherwise I wouldn't have been into the story. At least 10%, I start getting the reason why you have been so fond of her. My favorite episodes are ep. 3 and 5. I have never been to a planetarium in my life, and I found the special presentation Yumemi presented in ep. 3 fascinating. I think that was well animated. For the last episode, besides my liking for the content itself, I think the background music has done a good job. There are really many more things I can talk about, but if to say one at the end, it's the line "kami-sama, please don't separate the heaven for human and robot".

Even though I'm aware you're not that fond of the adaptation, I think the anime has indeed made more people come to know and like the work you love. So I'm telling to you.

Hmm...

Planetarian fan-made (that uses the scenario of the VN but Anime…Show

Planetarian Ending (fan-made)
Credit to the owner of the vid.

Sorry, I don't know how to put vidme tag in this forum.
But you'll get the difference: vibe-settling stuff, like: screenplay, dialogue composition, etc.

So yeah, a fan, with only very basic movie editing skill, can do that much.
That's what love is. That's what doesn't exist in the anime.

[Homura]

Planetarian: Chiisana Hoshi no YumeShow

Finally it's over.
Finally I can say: SHIT ADAPTATION!

Well, at least they didn't change the last chapter at all. Not a single word, not a single period.

SpoilerShow

I decide to tell this to you at the end since you're a real fan of it. First of all, I definitely can understand if you're well known about the original material and truly love it, mostly you wouldn't be fond of the adaptation. But still, I want to tell you I really like the anime, which is from someone who's not a fan of Key and never touched the original work. I was probably lucky on that in a sense so I could enjoy the anime from zero. I finished the last episode a month ago, and I was surprised at the moment, if it hadn't been my mom doing housework outside my room, I would have cried, no kidding. The story is so simple, and with a main heroine as you described who is innocent, naive and faithful. When they come together, with an unusual setting of a planetarium set in a world after apocalypse, I found the anime really touching, and memorable. Hoshino Yumemi, she is a robot running on programs, and so every aspect she has been showing including her kindness is devoid of any sense of fakeness; And because she is a robot, the character she possesses doesn't give me a sense of being unreal. This is really important to me, otherwise I wouldn't have been into the story. At least 10%, I start getting the reason why you have been so fond of her. My favorite episodes are ep. 3 and 5. I have never been to a planetarium in my life, and I found the special presentation Yumemi presented in ep. 3 fascinating. I think that was well animated. For the last episode, besides my liking for the content itself, I think the background music has done a good job. There are really many more things I can talk about, but if to say one at the end, it's the line "kami-sama, please don't separate the heaven for human and robot".

Even though I'm aware you're not that fond of the adaptation, I think the anime has indeed made more people come to know and like the work you love. So I'm telling to you.

Hmm...

Planetarian fan-made (that uses the scenario of the VN but Anime…Show

Planetarian Ending (fan-made)
Credit to the owner of the vid.

Sorry, I don't know how to put vidme tag in this forum.
But you'll get the difference: vibe-settling stuff, like: screenplay, dialogue composition, etc.

So yeah, a fan, with only very basic movie editing skill, can do that much.
That's what love is. That's what doesn't exist in the anime.

I'm pretty lucky. The video was viewed 70 times in total before I watched, and you're one of the very few who has seen it. I watched the last episode totally 4 or 5 times; including my first time, every time my emotion started to decay after the point where the fan-made video begins. Maybe that's because the anime just didn't done well enough on the ending, as you pointed out. I think the director Tsuda Naokatsu recommended himself for the directing after David Production obtained the right for adaptation (this can be very inaccurate. I saw that a couple of months ago and don't have the source anymore). But in any sense, Tsuda himself also likes/quite likes the original material, though "love" is probably a bit too much for him.

Anyway, even the adaptation failed to meet your standard, there are people who hadn't known the original liking it! So not so bad. The story itself is just brief and touching, even not-so-good adaptation cannot obscure that, which is my point~ Thanks for the video.

[DarknessHid]

Mob Psycho 100 ep 4-9Show

I'm so glad I picked this show back up.
Literally after the intro of Teru, the show became much more intense (and a lot more interesting)
Tbh, not really a fan of how angsty Ritsu is, but I'm glad that Teru is still stronger than him bc I'd be annoyed if Ritsu was so strong right away.
It's funny how similar psychic Ritsu is to old Teru. Also, mad props to Mob for sticking to his beliefs and trying his best not to use his powers against people (but I'm totally ready for him to kick some esper butt!).

P.S. Mob and Reigen are just perf. Perf the way they are.
P.P.S. Looking forward to next ep where Mob wrecks Claw. Also hope that there's time for Mob to whip his lil bro into shape.

[Reverend]

@Homura: I'm glad you liked it, the anime. Not that I'm saying it's bad (it's better that 90% of VN anime adaptation) but I am unhappy because with what potential the story has, I think it could have got much more attention. (I even went as far as saying if it's done right, Planetarian could possibly be KEY's most famous anime ever. Well... it didn't go to that extend, unfortunately. )

I read what Tsuda said. He said along the lines of "he enjoyed the story"(?). As for him recommending himself, I think it's something every director would have done in his position.

Well, here's to another 10 years of waiting. *cheers*

ps: Being VN reader, it is my obligation to suggest you to read the KN.

---

Re:Zero - Episode 023Show

"Hey, why does Subaru have death flags around him again?"
~10 minutes later~
"Holy shit..."

[Homura]

@Revvie I will.

[Reverend]

Not the best quality but... Yey~

Kimi no Na waShow

Long live piracy! RIP YN-009

Oh I miss Shinkai Makoto's work. <3

Wait what? I don't recall reading Kana-chan's name on the voice actors list. Now this is a very nice surprise. <3
Sensei, please teach me, too! <3

Did he deliberately choose that phrase? Parody?

Btw, that's some long tutorial. Episode 1?

Whoa dem sceneries <3

Heh the boy's an artist? Or is he trying to replicate the sight he saw inside Mutsuha's body? Mind explaining, Mr. Story-teller?

lol why did senpai and Taki's friend got more relationship building than thie main pair?

... what the fuck...
Here comes the big twist.

I see. Underworld.
Grandma is real miko, it seems.

Whoa this is like FSN dolphin only much prettier <3
Story-wise it's just some plot device, though.

I wonder why he didn't spout the truth...

... so, she met you. So what?
and of course he has to cheat.

aw and I wanted it to stay bittersweet.
I was so close to crying and now I don't want to cry anymore. Shit.


Here's in overall:
- Story: The premise of the idea itself is so overused. Luckily this is Shinkai Makoto, so people will come for more of his work. Plot stays interesting by each second, which is a very good thing. Pacing is as perfect as you can get. Ample characterization for our main pair, decent characterization to everyone else.
- Animation: KyoAni level. (well, Shinkai Makoto level is more proper.) Design & coloring, motion, screenplay, light effects, background, everything... Wow.
- Voice act: I would have loved a more manly-sounded Taki (since he's supposed to be a little delinquent-ish.) But maybe that's just me misreading Taki's character. Mutsuha's great, though.
- Music: We knew it's expensive. We will know it's expensive.
- Enjoyment: 9/10, simply because it's not my fav bitter end. But it deserves every single 10 it got and will get.

I'll keep the note here for now, til I get time to rate.

Nejimaki Seirei Senki Tenkyou no Alderamin - Episode 010Show

What the hell with this osananajimi shit?

... and of course this shit religious kingdom has to come in and ruin the day.
Yeah yeah enough of this crusade in the name of some unknown spirits we don't give a shit!
And keep your politic motive in pocket. It's boring, in-innovative, and shit as hell.
(This is why putting shitty leader as shitty antagonist is shitty. He's a general. At least

And of course, Ikta and friends have to be OP. Shit.
Come on. At least explain the tactic properly!
And enough of this humanity bullshit! This is war, mate!

Btw, oi, Nana, so much for humanity when you don't even try to stop Ikta from cutting his fingers.
For the sake of what? Tradition?
So, where's the arrogancy you had as Chief? Shit.

And of course, nemesis character and then this battle will take the last 2 episodes and we won't get the real plot.
Heuh... I'm just not in the mood for an open end.
(Maybe because the story isn't that good in the first place. I mean: Nana doesn't even get raped. I'll probably complain if there's rape but no rape scene, but at least I know the rape happened thus I won't kill the story on that department. But this... Nana doesn't even get raped. How the hell am I suppose to sympathize with Nana, and then with Ikta?

So, in overall:
SHIT ANIME.
Tactic follows the text, which is good, but lacks creativity. (It's clear he read the official text and battle scenario too much, the writer.)
But the script skips a lot on this because they're trying to emphasize on friendship and the gruesome thing that is war. But nobody will give a shit about that if the main characters are all one-dimensional OP bastards. (Hell, if they call Kirito shit, I don't know what to call these guys. Utter shit.)
And worst: thanks to that, tactic is not well-explained, as well as the world where this war happen.
Thus, when Alderamin Kingdom comes to attack the Empire, it doesn't feel as shocking as it should be. (Well, to me, it doesn't feel shocking at all, actually.)

Kono Bijutsubu - Episode 010Show

And now the romance feels buried under the friendship theme.
Shite.

Thunderbolt Fantasy - Episode 010Show

Yeah yeah next episode already, I want action.

Amaama to Inazuma - Episode 010Show

And that is the extend of Kotori's & her friend whose name I forget's effort for Summer Homework.

[Reverend]

Mahoutsukai no Yome Prolog OVA - Episode 001Show

Finally!
The best romance anime of the decade is here! Or well, at least the prologue.
Can't wait for next year. But for now: let's see what Wit has to offer. (because, you know: Wit is good animator, but I don't recall a good romance anime from them.)

Hmm Chise sounds a bit more brighter than I expected her to be from the PV.
Still sounds great, though. (But I just hope they doesn't bring her too close to Shitrayuki, instead, later. Two very different characters, Chise & Shitrayuki, so should anyone try to bring them together... he/she would ruin the story.)

And of course, you have to carry her and put her on your lap and the close all the windows, Elias you goddamn pedo!

Qualidea Code - Episode 010Show

Heh? Wait? What? Aoi? How? Ain't her chip repaired? When did it got destroyed again? Mind explaining that first, Mr. Director?
Btw, ChigusaMama is cute.

Hmm so the Unknown also thinks of the children as hers. That the whole relationship building between Yunami & the children ain't just tactical bullshit.

... Icchan knows nothing of being a hero. But even more so the writer who probably thought the reverse is true. I wonder who did this scene.
Btw, A-1, that's a key scene. Mind doing it more seriously?

I just love ahous in this anime! <3
They're the ones with true conviction. (well, them and Kasumi. The rest are utter shit.)
Btw, ChigusaMama's got pretty iris.

Whoa that's pretty lackluster for an A-1 action scene.

So, in overall:
So many sad beauties hidden in this story, yet Mr Director's lack of skill in story-telling destroys it. (well, the lack of minutes, too.)
Like:
1. ChigusaPapa probably was one of those "who chose not to abandon the children".
2. Moehime gramps' was described to "have died in a war." Well, we know which war was, now.
3. Asuha doesn't know her mom even though she was taken when she was like 4(?), an age where she should have remembered. And her mom said Kasumi used to cry when her he saw her Mom away. And Moehime's a child of a prestigious family. Whoa the similarity... that they are all children whose parents probably were too busy to actually gave enough care to them.
4. And that makes the Unknown's motive... far kinder than what the humans think (and far kinder than what is depicted. This anime tried to explain this, too, I think, but failed. Mostly because they failed to explain Yunami' (& Okuni) correctly.)

Now, things I like to ask:
1. WHY THE FUCK ARE ALL THE CHILDREN HERE NOW? SO CONVENIENTLY REMOVED! (WHERE DID TOKYO'S 2ND LIEUTENANT GO?)
2. So, what about the children who were already removed from fighting post (back in Episode 3, if I recall right. Ichiya visited one of his men who were on hospital.) What did that b*tch from Episode 8 mean by "moving the children inland?" What good would that do to the Unknown other than them holding the hostage for longer?
3. The children's power are related to their dreams while on Cold Sleep, imaged via the chip. Now that the chips are destroyed... how do the likes of Ichiya, Canaria, Moehime, Asuha retain their power? (I would understand Rindo's and Kasumi's, because one is a swordman (and this is anime, so long-distance strike is normal) and Kasumi's a sniper.)

What belongs to the demons belongs to me, and what belongs to me is the whole world!
The sentiment of human race.

Love Live! Sunshine - Episode 011Show

Whoa I thought the piano competition comes at the same time as the qualifiers.
So, there will still be time?
Btw, now that I pay closer attention, holy shit there's a death flag for Chika in the OP!

Yeah, me, too, Kanan, Riko.

Holy shit that You astounded expression... <3
(though yeah, she's not supposed to be astounded.)

GG You. Next time, break the bitch's neck, too.
The world can do better with less Mari.

You know: change Chika to male and this episode would probably be eroge material.
And yeah, of course Mari's messy engrish has to come back.
And yeah, of course she has to play the wise girl. FCKING NOZOMI.
Btw, this BGM is pretty depressing.

Yeah yeah Mari. Even if you're not saying bullshit since you've gone through your own hurdle, too, that doesn't mean you got every right to play wise girl.

Btw, I like You Seiyuu's childish voice.
The various cosplay and roleplay of You. <3
Why the hell they're trying so hard to keep the regular format, btw?

And of course, FCKING HONOKA!

Eroge material shit, this episode is.
Btw, what? So they allow it if the members are not complete?

Now that's more like it. The 3DCG and the dance in the overall.
Those lights in the BG are beautiful.

So, in overall:
Eroge.
Well, at least here, they're no longer directly copying the first franchise.
Even though the series composition is still the same.

Rewrite - Episode 011Show

"All we wanted was someone by our side."
*fell into depression*
Well, at least I know this time I won't get depressed, simply because it's 8-bit thus I knew everything would lose its beauty.

You're not allowed to hug a loli and get away with it, Kotarou.

And now I remembered why Rewrite is my least favorite of KEY's work: because it spouts bullshit of peace.

[RailWarrior]

Rewrite Episode 11Show

I don't get it. Rewrite is no stranger to killing off its heroines, and it never really makes a point of hiding that fact. So why is the staff shying away from killing off Lucia? That whole battle with Midou is know rendered pointless. That's annoying.

Love Live! Sunshine!! Episode 11Show

...I'm starting to think the scenario writers for Love Live hate me.
Look. I like You. But this episode was shit.

[Homura]

Souma Episode 10Show

This should be the last episode of S2, but they had to rush it because they want to make Stagaire Arc in just 3 episodes!? I have a bad feeling about that.
Anyway I'm excited too see Hishoko's ark <3.

I now get what you were talking about. Yukihira and Hisako, this is way too surprising, jeez.

[Reverend]

Last Week's Danganronpa MiraiShow

Yeah yeah we all knew that from the start.

ps.: Btw, now I'm kinda sad that Ruruka is dead.

Last Week's Danganronpa ZetsubouShow

Ah I see.
So the reason why Munakata kills boxer guy... is because he knew both boxer guy and Yukizome have been brainwashed.
He had already lost his two best friends before "that" begun.

But then... Mirai is as simple as Munakata doing murder? Hmm rather doubt it, tbh.
I mean: he had to retrieve Monaca's robot log to know the Forbidden Code of everyone's.
So it can't be him.

ps.: Btw, about that Yukizome screaming and moaning fan service... thank you very much.

Argh I skipped Episode 7 of Mirai. No wonder it got messed up.

[Rupy]

Souma Episode 10Show

This should be the last episode of S2, but they had to rush it because they want to make Stagaire Arc in just 3 episodes!? I have a bad feeling about that.
Anyway I'm excited too see Hishoko's ark <3.

I now get what you were talking about. Yukihira and Hisako, this is way too surprising, jeez.

Souma Episode 11Show

Sadly they made it in only 1 episode and everything is rushed... but I always love to see Hisako in action <3

[Grish]

Love Live! Sunshine ep. 11Show

It's about time someone reacted to Nozomi's Mari's groping antics with a good old smackdown. Good job You, you're awesome

[avery-kun]

Fate/Kaleid Episode 11Show

Sigh... This was the fight scene I had been waiting for all season. This moment right here was supposed to be the turning point for next season where Fate/Kaleid turns into a much more true Fate series. I had been worry about the pacing of the season a bit, but figured they had it planed out.

Then today the episode was delayed on Crunchyroll by half a day, so the hype that started at the end of last episode was at an all time high.

But as I watched... things didn't really meet expectations. Barely even the real expectations and far below my inflated ones. This episode might have just moved Fate/Kaleid into the same category as WIXOSS and Black Rock Shooter. Its a show that I REALLY REALLY want to love, but its execution continuously falls short and despite how engrossed I am into each episode, others aren't nearly as interested and it fells like watching the show puts me into a niche where the only other member of the audience either really love the show or are just watching it ironically. Season 1 was great and got me into the series in the first place after dismissing the manga almost a year prior. Season 2 was a nice build on that. Season 3.... was a think that happened until Gilgamesh finally showed up, and even then the ending, while cool, felts... out of place. And this season starts with a handicap because every manga reader knows all the crazy awesome shit won't fit into this 12 episode season, so at best they can not screw things up until Shirou arrives. Luckily, Silverlink managed not to screw it up until Shirou arrived (except he should have showed up an episode earlier, but I digress), but this episode just shat on all that hard work.

I know that the response to the ending of season 3 was mixed. The quality of that final fight as a whole was... a bit lacking. But personally, the quality in which the initial Gilgamesh fight was handled, especially the Gate of Babylon spam, was top notch. Perhaps the best animation I've seen of Gate of Babylon, surpassing even ufotable's work in some ways. Each blade stayed a high quality object from start to finish, even landing on the ground as blades should and not simply exploding like bombs. There was little to no GoB "blaster" fire that Deen's GoB was infamous for; it was just a true work of art. That was the Gate of Babylon I've always envisioned.

And even earlier this season. Gate of Babylon was still a well executed work of art. It didn't match the end of Herz, but it was still great. However, what I saw today was perhaps the worst, most grotesque, execution of GoB I've ever seen. You couldn't even pretend that those specks of light were sword spam. It was just bad. And that's not even factoring in the rushed fight as a whole.

This episode, while not terrible when compared to anime in general, was bad in comparison to what I've come to expect from Fate/Kaleid as an anime and short of what I was expecting of this battle based on the manga. It just smells of pacing issues where the earlier story boarding gave too much time in the earlier episodes, and definitely too much time to the Illya-doll arc. C'mon! Gilgamesh alone got like 4-5 episodes last season. This whole fight was supposed to be on that kind of level.

Emiya/Kuro vs Angelica can't be done justice with barely half an episode and Berserker Sakura was supposed to be a major turning point in the fight, and far too little attention was given to Illya/Kuro fighting the mud-servants while Rin struggled to save Shiro. 1.5 episodes really, at least, preferably 3 . And it was so poor animated that I will have no choice but to hope the Blu-Ray release can redeem it so that I can remove this bad taste in my mouth.

I understand that Silverlink had only 12 episodes to work with and this was the natural stopping point for the season because the manga isn't the fastest to release new issues, and depending on how the manga progresses, next season will probably be the last for 3rei. However, I still think we needed a little more shift in the pacing. Perhaps the issue was last season had too little content, so Silverlink could easily focus on the Gilgamesh fight, while this season had too much.

Well, next episode is the last I believe. It'll end on a cliff-hanger, they'll quickly resolve their escape plan, then I'll begin a 1-2 year wait for the next season as the anime has now effective caught up to the manga now, so assuming we even get another season, I wouldn't be surprised if there was an additional year wait.

Frankly, I continue to blame the director for the execution woahs of the anime. Silverlink has shown that it CAN animate fight scenes very well, but pacing the season has been an issue for at least the last 3 seasons, with season 3 being the absolute worst, primarily because they decided to fill in their time with fairly boring slice-of-life filler that was likely the lasting low-point of the series with the audience.

I still like the series, of course. Fate/Kaleid is still entertaining to watch and read. However, I fear season 3 may have proved too damaging and this season fell short of the needed redemption. Given that vastly more popular shows are still struggle for a new season despite plenty of source material (i.e. Spice and Wolf, No Game No Life, Raildexm etc), I'm still surprised how long Fate/Kaleid has survived. I still hope for a season 5, but if I must, I'll prepare myself to be confined to the manga if the next season isn't green-lit.