The Anime Season Round-Up! (AKA: Mike, Cam, and Millennial Mike flip Peter Jackson the Bird!): Tooned Up #20.2
This time, on a very STUFFED episode of Tooned Up, Millennial Mike joins our duo to tackle the incredibly stacked Anime season! An episode so big, we had to SPLIT IT! Suck it Scorsese, we're as long as your movies!
Here’s part one:
And take a gander at part two:
Welcome back to another installment of Tooned Up! Tis I, The Director once again, bringing you an absolutely STACKED episode where our boys in cel shading are joined by Millennial Mike, and go through almost 27 new anime seasons! But hey, don’t take my word for it… take it from OUR BOYS!
Assault on Lily Bouquet
Mike’s thoughts: Not bad, but nothing really going for it outside of an admittedly great opening and closing sequence and the occasional cool fight scene. But I find it difficult caring for any of these protagonists, and the villains are just a bunch of faceless metal monsters. 3 episodes may just be enough, unless the show gets better later on.
Cam’s Thoughts: Based on the light novel of the same name by Kasama Hiroyuki, directed by Hajime Otani and Shoji Saeki, and animated by Shaft, this action anime is stuck in a tough spot, because it wants to be like the studio's previous smash hit Madoka Magika, but it can't be bothered to stand out in any real way with the first three episodes. It takes up too much time introducing the viewers to the many, and do I mean many characters in the first episode, and then hand us an extremely boring villain group. It doesn't help that the characters all run on one character trait that acts that is mistaken for a personality. It's a show that's also more invested with its girl-on-girl romance and fanservice. Because, why would these teenage girls carrying giant weapons wear anything other than gothic french maid-style outfits into battle? When your first impression of the first episode is that there is a shot of the girl's thighs approximately every minute, then that's a bad sign. It's starting to show some story growth and has decent action, but it's easily one of the shows that I am willing to drop without hesitation.
Noblesse
Cam’s Thoughts: You know what's fun, a show that punishes you for not watching an OVA of the same property before you watch the actual show in question. This series based on a South Korean manhwa by Son Jeho, produced by Production I.G, and directed by Shunsuke Tada and Yasutaka Yamamoto, the show's story starts after the OVA that was released back in 2016. If you do not watch the OVA, then be prepared to be confused as the show assumes you remember or watched the OVA in question. Also, be prepared to be underwhelmed by the animation downgrade. So little happens during the first three episodes, and while it's now picking up, it's a dull vampire anime as well. I liked some of the more low key moments between the characters, and some parts were funny, but it's a little too late to get people invested if it's only becoming interesting by episode 3. You can tell Production I.G has their hands full with Moriarty the Patriot and the acclaimed Haikyu series, because Noblesse is yet another disappointing Crunchyroll Exclusive.
Talentless Nana
Mike’s thoughts: the fact that I had to force myself to stop watching after the third episode should tell you how invested I am in this series! Up until a major rug-pulling twist at the end of the pilot, I had no idea what I was walking into. At first it felt like a variation of My Hero Academia, in which our main protagonist was a “normie” in a school full of superpowered students, but then they flip the script and reveal a far more interesting premise. What I said is still true, that the titular Nana is a “talentless” individual, but it turns out she’s an incredibly skilled detective on a mission to rid the earth of the “enemies of humanity,” wiping them out one at a time. The writing is incredibly sharp, and the mystery surrounding this island is genuinely intriguing that I can’t wait to keep watching as this story unfolds.
Alright! Abadeabade THAT’S ALL FOLKS! Keep a weather eye to the site for more posts, thanks once again to the well fitting Kawaii Kyle for taking on this Scorsese joint, and to Millennial Mike for joining us! If you got a moment, please check out the fundraiser for Kevin Smets’ on GoFundMe right here. Thank you all, and see you guys… next time!
Tonight, on an INTERGALACTIC EPISODE of Renegade Animation, Captain Kaye and the Animation Guru shoot for the stars to talk about Lightyear, as well as Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness.