Weekly Review

[Side B] Fall 2017 – Week 3 in Review

edsamac4 Comments

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I finally re-hooked up my streaming server at home, as well as my pre-amp setup connected to my headphone and box speaker setup… and it’s beautiful. I swear, nothing beats watching animu on a 40-inch HD-TV.

Anyway, side-projects aside, this is a little late because one title airs every Sunday, but I’m kinda wondering if it’s worth keeping it around given it isn’t really doing much for me, to be honest. Of course, I’m talking about a certain show that’s going up on Netflix next year, which seems to be a common theme with regard to western-sponsored anime projects. I don’t know if it’s because people have weird tastes, or if I’m just being a little too pretentious. Probably both.

Anyway, [Side B] is decidedly more jam-packed with heavy hitters, which seems to be the case with most of the seasons I’ve written about. There always seems to be one side that’s a bit more engaging than the other — and without a doubt, this season’s bias lies heavily towards [Side B]. So yeah, without further ado, let’s run down just what happened last week! Continue reading →

[Side A] Fall 2017 – Week 3 in Review

edsamac4 Comments

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Ever since coming back from the United Kingdom, I’ve found myself busier than ever. It’s like I forgot I ever had a job in the first place, and here I am juggling a bi-weekly blog review on top of editorial articles for something I’m passionate in.

But that’s precisely WHY I’m trying to such lengths to preserve this little obsession of mine. I spent the last week serving as a judge panel, reading scientific research entries by resident hospital staff, ranging from amazingly well-done to insufferably unbearable. So consider this my little pick-me-upper to round off a hectic week. And yeah, sorry for the delays and incessant excuses. If anyone out there actually looks forward to my entries — delayed as they may be — then thank you, thank you!

So yeah, third week in review. I decided to lump in the two shows that were left from Summer 2018 in [Side A], while everything else goes into [Side B]. As far as this group of misfits is concerned, they’re currently stacking up in a way I wasn’t quite expecting. Quite an interesting group, indeed.
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Summer 2017 – Week 4 & 5 in Review

edsamac3 Comments

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Okay, so apparently someone here doesn’t know how to count. And that same person couldn’t half-ass himself to correct his previous post so he decided to just combine weeks 4 and 5 in one post since for some weird reason, one show had two episodes aired in the same week. I’ve always been terrible at timing these week-in-review posts, anyway, so I guess it’s about time people were used to it by now.

But then I realized that a problem with my weekly review naming convention is that episode numbers can be ambiguous to the actual week in question, meaning if my naming sense for the week is totally off, it can throw of a reader unless I explicitly state what episode I’m talking about.

So to reduce confusion, I’ll be including the episode number in the header titles for each of the shows to be discussed — that way, no matter how stupidly I label my week-in-review post, you can be assured that you’re reading the right thoughts on the right episode.

So with that aside, let’s run down just what happened this week in animuland. It’s been a bit tiring — both in real life and in anime itself — but hey, that’s the way it is once the honeymoon of the first few weeks of a season has ended. Continue reading →

Summer 2017 – Week 3 in Review

edsamac2 Comments

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Ed, you said you’d forego weekly reviews in favor of editorials, what gives? Maybe I should give you a forehead flick every time you change the specs!?

Yeah, pretty much. I’m ready to receive any number of forehead flicks if it means I get to do my regular spiel of sharing my weekly thoughts on anime, so sue me. At the very least, there’s a more manageable number of titles not requiring a split post to fit them all, so I feel more inclined to doing it more than before. Old habits die hard, I guess.

Anyway, we’re starting at week 3, because apparently I didn’t miss THAT much at the start of the season. So sit back and relax as we run through just what happened in week 3 of Summer 2017! Continue reading →

[Side B] Spring 2017 – Week 8 in Review

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I feel just as helpless as Hanamori at this point.

Yesterday had me working in the lab for half a day, and today I just spent a good 12 hours on one experiment, only for much of it to be mostly meh. Why does RNA have to be such a finicky molecule?

But yeah, who cares about what happened to me these past few days, all that matters is the animu. Yeah, I know — but at least I can sleep to the fact that the shows this week in Side B were pretty okay in their own right. It’s not enough to make me go “wow” or anything, but it’s enough to make the frown of a bad day do a little uppity-up and make me forget about the worries that bog me down.

So let’s do this, week 8 of the Side B shows, coming right up! Continue reading →

[Side A] Spring 2017 – Week 8 in Review

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Yeah, just rollin’ along through the week and I’m all like O_o

It’s stressful enough as it is that my deadlines are fast approaching and I have a f**kton of experiments to do. But at least I was able to carry out the stuff I messed up on last week this week, so I got that going for me… which is nice.

But on a sorta related note, Week 8 for Side A actually did reasonably well compared to its past few attempts. That’s not to say that the shows in general are any much better; rather, I’m starting to get used to their general “temperament” to the point that nothing really surprises me anymore. So yeah, enough chit chat and let’s DO THIS! Continue reading →

[Side B] Spring 2017 – Week 7 in Review

edsamac1 Comment

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I’m such an idiot.

I made another mistake today in my experiment. So I have to move it… AGAIN. This is frustrating. I wish that someone could just hit that fast-forward button and skip to the part where I get my diploma and a trip back home. And then I spend a year preparing for my PhD placement in Japan.

Yes, I want to study in Japan. I DO need the PhD, but I’ve always dreamed of studying in Japan. So I guess that’s the only thing pushing me forward at this point in time… but till then, it’s this shit I have to deal with. So yeah, someone find that fast-forward button, quick.

Speaking of fast-forward, my viewing this week was rudely sped up no thanks to two shows taking a hiatus to post recap episodes, instead. And it didn’t help much that the two shows in question were actually my favorites among this bunch. Thanks, Japan.

But surprisingly, even without those two powerhouses (Tsuki ga Kirei and KADO, if you were wondering) the shows actually did pretty well this week!

Shocking? Yeah, that makes two of us. So let’s move along and run down just what happened this week:
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[Side A] Spring 2017 – Week 7 in Review

edsamac4 Comments

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This week, I facepalmed so hard, I became a woman. 🙂

Kidding aside, this was a pretty weird week for me. I made a mistake in a couple of my experiments, so I have to do them again next week. All the more reason why I’m starting to panic because I need to produce results for the writing of my dissertation. Damn, is this stressful.

So I’m giving an advanced warning that I might suddenly disappear during the end of this season, and maybe up to the first few weeks of summer. That’s just the way it is, I guess. And as much as I’d hate to not post any content, I think I’ll skip writing weekly reviews when that happens in favor of shorter articles, like the Lost in Translation series or some other editorials that I’ve been promising since God knows when.

Anyway, this week in Side A felt pretty much unchanged in terms of my impressions towards the series contained. It’s come to the point that I don’t really care anymore, so let’s just hop on to it and talk about just what happened this week. Continue reading →

[Side B] Spring 2017 – Weeks 5 & 6 in Review

edsamac7 Comments

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Give me back my dumplings, and nobody gets hurt.

No seriously, someone jacked my dumplings in the freezer over the weekend. I was planning on saving those for dinner tonight, so I ended up having some instant noodles, instead. Sheesh, what a douche.

Anyway, food grudges aside, the last two weeks in Side B was a bit weird. I know it’s been quite obvious that I’m a bit biased towards this side because the shows contained in it are generally much better than Side A, but the shows that were doing pretty well started to veer off track a little, while the not-so-good ones actually faired a bit better. All-in-all, you could say that each of the shows evened things out, making for a generally satisfying two weeks. Not bad — I was just about to knock one of the shows off of this list, but it actually proved itself worthy of a little more attention.

So yeah, let’s not spoil things and just run straight to it! Continue reading →

[Side A] Spring 2017 – Weeks 5 & 6 in Review

edsamac5 Comments

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Oh dear, I’ve done it again.

Only this time, I’ve come back from the dead in a reasonably more fashionable manner. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, exactly one year ago, I stopped writing on this blog because I attended a conference in Singapore, which really threw my viewing schedule in for a loop. As much as I wanted to return to writing the moment I got back, work crept up on me, and the result was that I ended up taking an unexpected hiatus from blog writing for well over four months.

This time around, the culprit is the very same conference, only this time it took place in London. I figured it was quite fortunate for me to be in the UK, and that my viewing schedule would proceed unperturbed… only to discover that Holiday Inn Express has this weird internet usage policy that kicks you off if you’re hogging too much bandwidth, or if you’re simply trying to sync up your laptop, smartphone, AND Switch all at the same time.

So yeah, no animu for a week.

But yeah, I don’t want this to be another disappearing act, so I took it upon myself to make up for lost time. To be honest, I’m probably going to limit my thoughts a bit, because I really… really want to write more editorial articles. But yeah, I’m rambling at this point.

Anyway, hope this explains the sudden disappearing act. But enough talk, and let’s discuss just what happened these past two weeks in Side A of the Spring misfits!
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