New Series: What am I Watching? Week of 4-30-2018

Greetings! To continue the trend of new and hopefully shorter content, I will be adding a new (hopefully weekly..no guarantees) series where I just simply pass along what I have been watching in the watching in the past week. This will include both currently airing shows and those shows from my backlogged to watch list. I will be discussing briefly my thoughts on the anime I watched the previous week- mainly what stood out in a good or bad way.  This will hopefully be posted every Wednesday for the previous week. I will get started with this past week where I watched a bunch of really good anime. So let’s get started!

 

Here is the run down of what I watched this week:

Sub Episodes

Megalo Box -Ep. 3-5

Crossing Time -Ep. 3-5

Darling in the Franxx- Ep. 16

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online- Ep. 4

Golden Kamuy- Ep. 3-5

Steins; Gate 0- Ep.4

Wotakoi -Ep. 4

Dub Episodes

Steins; Gate 0 -Ep. 2

Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid- All Episodes

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory- Ep. 1

Hinamatsuri- Ep. 2

Golden Kamuy -Ep.2

Re:Zero Ep. 1

My Hero Academia Ep. 43

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes Die Neue These Ep. 2

Highlights

Where to start? I watched a lot of great anime in the past week and pretty much all of it was incredibly entertaining.

Over the last couple of weeks in anticipation of the dub premiere of the current season of Full Metal Panic, I decided to check this franchise out for the first time. This last week, I was able to complete The Second Raid and it did not disappoint. I will certainly say that I am a fan of the franchise as it has a lot to offer. This was followed (immediately as I finished with The Second Raid as Ep. 1 of the dub was posted) by the start of the new season of the series. I also really enjoyed the episode, it didn’t skip a beat even with a new studio taking the helm. I am glad they brought back the original dub cast as well as they have done a superb job with the franchise.

As for currently airing series, Steins; Gate 0 has been great from episode 1 and this latest episode continued to impress. Studio White Fox has not missed a beat with this series from the witty banter to the inane plot twists and turns. This last week, the plot pace starts to pick up with new characters, elements, and questions introduced. Everything about Steins; Gate 0 is top notch. We were also treated to the premiere of the dub last week, which was excellent as expected. The dub for the original Steins;Gate was incredible and the cast continues their great performances here.

On the lighter side of things Wotakoi has been absolutely fun and funny to watch. The series perfectly encapsulates what dating is like for geeks/otaku and delivers many funny and memorable moments. Last week’s episode certainly didn’t disappoint by capturing the experience of people trying to share their geeky passion with someone else and sharing what we love with the special person in our lives. of course things go bumpy as one would expect but life is really a bumpy road isn’t it?

Golden Kamuy is another fascinating series from this season (and yes I had to play catch up on this one-life happens) and the plot has really started to ramp up in recent weeks. For me the highlight of the series is the interactions between Sugimoto and Asirpa. As leads go, these two are incredibly well written. There are some interesting plot elements to be had and the setting is certainly refreshing. It has also been fun to learn about the Ainu culture (with episodes 3 &4 focusing on this). I have been impressed with the series so far (even with the bad the CGI bear lol).

Speaking of refreshing, I would be a fool if I didn’t talk about Hinamatsuri which is easily one of the surprises of the season. Episode 2 is incredibly ridiculous and absurd- and I enjoyed the experience immensely.  Combining the super powered elements with the criminal underground and making a comedy out of it, really has no business working but it does. I especially enjoyed the sequence where Hitomi gets stuck tending bar and dragged along to the adult establishment- comedy gold right there. Also the battle between Anzu and Hina was hilarious as well. The series has a wonderful charm to it and hopefully it will continue to be entertaining going forward.

Megalo Box has been receiving a lot of praise and especially after catching up on the last few weeks, I can certainly understand the praise. I love the classic feel of the series mixed in with a very cool underdog story. Underdog stories are always entertaining to watch but add in interesting side plots and funky attitude and you have a perfect combination. I’m anxiously awaiting the next episode as that cliffhanger really left me wanting more.

Darling in the Franxx gave us an interesting episode with some nice character development and left us with a few questions as to what was to come. It was nice to see the group really mesh and get along. Also seeing the vast change in Zero-Two was fun to watch as well. Obviously all this won’t last as of course there are hints of darker times ahead. This episode was certainly good- not as good as previous weeks though those episodes are a tough act to follow.

It was also exciting to see the dub premiere for Re:Zero this week as well. As longtime readers know, I am a huge fan of the franchise and while this doesn’t fill the hole of an elusive second season, having another reason to check out this series again is always good- especially with a different viewing experience.

Disappointments

There actually weren’t any shows or series that I watched which angered or disappointed me this week. I am quite happy to say that.

And that’s a wrap for me today. What did you enjoy from last week? Did you enjoy this new type of post? Please comment below or message me on Facebook (Railgunfan75’s Geek Blog) or Twitter (@railgunfan75). So until next time, this is Railgunfan75 signing off. See you soon and stay geeky my friends!