This season´s fugly CG show Rusted Armors (more cross-media dreck) might be the least competent looking yet? I am truly astonished how Japan keeps coming up with worse-looking CG year by year. Even China would be embarrassed to release donghua with comparable production values in 2022.
It turns out I missed a solid original anime in 2021 as it flew under everyone's radar. Let´s remedy this before the summary movie comes out next season.
Odd Taxi ended up being my 4th favorite show of 2021 in retrospect and is what Aggretsuko (Netflix version) and Beastars want to be. The many subplots were a bit rambly at times and the show lacks a final scene but April´s movie version promises an epilogue. Trimming some of the fat and making things more chronological might be a plus here. We´ll see. 7/10
FreakAngels is accurate to the webcomic. That is a minus as it was extremely forgettable and I only fished it back then due to the author´s name value. The last thing I want in my life now is more of Warren Ellis so I am hardly sad that the anime failed to improve on the source material. The show also looks cheap but that is Crunchyroll for you. Does anyone even know this miniseries exists? 5/10
Shenmue Gaming anime don´t have a good track record and rushing through an already bland story won´t do anyone favors as 2 games are being adapted. The original barely has a story so that section of the anime could become the definitive version of Shenmue 1. Shenmue 2 is decent on the other hand and has a plot so turning it into cliff notes can’t work. No ending will ever come even if the anime gets a sequel as the 3rd game reset all the progress achieved in the 2nd game. It’s also all around bad and failed to sell. Again. The animation by TMS is alight so far. The anime original scenes and improved characterizations are the show´s strengths. The game´s strong score also works here. A visual downgrade is already noticeable in ep 2, the pacing becomes near incoherent and clip show bits are already in play. The next ep will easily pass the halfway point of the first game so I think I am good. Barely a 6/10 so far and quickly steering towards a 5/10.
Shingeki no Kyojin: The Final Season Part 2 Whoever decided to put the plot of nearly all the material the season will cover into the cringy OP is a master troll. Respect. It’s nice to, for once, like a Shounen battle manga the rest of the world also likes. Let’s enjoy it all while it lasts as chapters 138, 139 and the epilogue will have to be part of the movie that apparently closes the show. Knowing the ending is already ruining aspects of the season for me as I know that the current themes and character parallels are going nowhere but the stuff being adapted now is good on its own. 8,5 to a 9/10.
The Orbital Children is so boring that I have no idea how children are supposed to get through these 2 movies turned into a miniseries. Too much of the dialogue is also blatant exposition. Watch Infinite Ryvius if you want to see a better take on this setting (its resolution sucks) or the director´s/writer´s Den-noh Coil instead. His previous show is way too long at 26 eps but it has an identity. This is just boring. 5/10
The animation budget of
Catwoman Hunted isn´t remotely high enough for its action to work, the cast is bloated beyond reason and Greg Weisman´s dialogue is annoying. A first for him and the endless talk and constant one-upmanship comes off as a Whedon imitation. The last thing I want these days and the plot has no 1st or 3rd act. Don´t bother I say. 5/10 The best DC anime continues being 2008´s Gotham Knights.
Space Battleship Yamato 2205: A New Voyage hit home media. It is the first half of the 2205 duology and basically forms ep 1-4 of 8 of season 2.5. Or ep 53 to 56. The whole movie is set-up and there is no way that the sequel can resolve this story as a 26 ep flow-up show was just announced. I liked what I saw even if the villain(s) left me a bit confused. 7/10
Last edited by residentgrigo at 9:29 am, Feb 25 2022________________
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters,
My ANN-Lists + Imdb
