ACCA 13-ku Kansatsu Ka

Winter 2017 – Season Ending Ranking

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Whew, that was a hectic season.

The latter half had me leaving on a trip, and even these last few weeks had me rushing to clear up the backlog, only to find myself in Edinburgh for a week for yet another conference. That and the fact that the Nintendo Switch came out and basically ruined the lives of many a gamer with what could perhaps be regarded as “one of the best video games of all time”.

Regardless of whatever obstacles there were to be had for me this season, I was finally able to get it over and done with. Nine shows neatly tucked away — save for two that will be carried over to the next season — and for this season-ending post, I decided to go ahead and include on-going series to the listing.

Overall, I think this season was pretty ho-hum. It wasn’t really strong to begin with, and most of the shows pretty much stayed within the general spectrum of expectations. Nothing to flashy and nothing too dull, either. Just… mediocre, I guess. So sit back and relax as we run down the shows I watched this season! Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 7

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ALL RIGHT! Brought out Side B before the weekend starts for a change! I feel pumped up!

In fact there are a lot of reasons for me to get excited. Not only are the shows on this side of the fence doing reasonably well, but also the Nintendo Switch is coming out in a week’s time! Yeah, I’m super hyped at the moment — and watching all of these teaser videos on YouTube isn’t helping much.

So yeah, I’m distracting myself with Animu. Strange predicament I’m in, but what the heck. Enough talk and let’s run down how the shows fared this week! Continue reading →

Winter 2017 – Mid-Season Round Up

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It’s that time of the season again folks!

As usual, I’ll be giving a short synopsis of the shows I’m currently watching, ranked in order of my personal preference. Hopefully some of these titles might be appealing to you, should you be one of those that likes to wait things out before binging on sure-hit titles. I don’t blame you if that’s your style, in fact I commend you for being able to binge watch in the first place. But yeah, that’s the general mechanics of this mid-season round up.

Also, if you’re lazy, look for the tl;dr in bold at the end of each entry. Lastly, I highly recommend the Top 4 of this season. And with that said, let’s do this! Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 6

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Yeah… I did it again. Another translation project took me by surprise, and this one was pretty complicated. Goddammit Japan, why do you have to have five different sound effects for something that could just be “WHAM!”

Ahem, that aside, it’s really strange how the weeks just creep up on you. I mean, wow… we’re officially mid-way through the season. That means I’m gonna have to put up a mid-season rundown for you guys, and then I have to write up my own thoughts on A Slient Voice, which I watched… crap, last week. D:

So yeah, I’m gonna make this a little quick, but suffice it to know that the top runners in this side have been scarily consistent in their thematic delivery and overall pacing. I won’t say this season has been a home run success by a long run, but it definitely is pretty solid despite my describing it as “odd” just six weeks prior.

Anyway, enough talk and let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN! Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 5

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Oops. This post is obviously really late.

Part of the reason is because of work, and the other is because I had to do a last-minute translation check that had me up late at night over the weekend.

So yeah, I’ve only JUST caught up with the shows of last week for Side B as of this writing. The last reason for the delay is because I watched Koe no Katachi (also known as A Silent Voice) at the cinema today. My thoughts on that in a separate review, but yeah — let’s get down to talking about how Side B did (last) week!

Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 4

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I love reading books, but as of late, there have been many other things getting in the way of my personal reading time. For one, there’s a ton of scientific journals and textbooks that I have to read in relation to my projects. We’re talking 30+ journals a day for the sake of referencing just once sentence. And that’s probably 80% of what I have to read. The other 20% is sorta compulsory, because they’re updates for my medical practice.

The other distraction is video games. I also love playing video games — heck, I’m so psyched for the Nintendo Switch because it’s renewing my desire to play all over again. In fact, the last console I’ve ever purchased was a Sony PlayStation 2…

So yeah, I love reading books, and so I envy Lotte here, but I don’t envy her choice in reading material. But meh, to his or her their own. I can’t hate on someone just because they enjoy reading something I’m not particularly fond of. And that’s an attitude I wish other people had, as well. Rummaging through the comments of YouTube or Facebook, for example, turns up a lot of ugly responses to people who think differently. It’s a shame we can’t simply engage in sensible conversations IN SPITE of our differences.

But hey, how did we snowball into that topic? What about the animu? Yeah, I hear you. So let’s run down what happened this week in Side B — and SPOILER ALERT: all the shows actually did pretty darn well… Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 3

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Yeah, it’s been a manic week. I think I’ve been overreacting a bit too much in my lab work to the point that I forgot certain steps in a protocol because I was trying to do too many things at once. And then when that blows up in my face, I go all crazy like Gabriel here.

And the same goes for anime. I dunno what happened, but I was under the impression that Granblue Fantasy was scheduled to be a Winter 2017 release, only to realize that they just aired two episodes as a teaser run, and the real series was to start in April as a Spring 2017 title. Er… Yeah, I think I missed the memo.

Oh well, that just means one less show to worry about. I dunno if I’ll share any thoughts on those two episodes, but I guess I might as well at one point. It’s an interesting show that has a different feel compared to Tales of Zestiria the X, and the artwork is just as impressive.

But yeah, on to what happened this week. I must say, the shows are actually doing a pretty solid job at selling themselves to me. Again, Side B has a hefty bunch of titles even without shows like March comes in like a Lion or Shôwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjû in them — so enough chit chat and let’s do this! Continue reading →

[Side B] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Weeks 1 & 2

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Ah, what I’d do for a nice cup of coffee at a roadside café together with Lotte.

Anyway, fanboy fantasies aside, it’s time for Side B of the weekly thoughts! This half has a pretty hefty list of titles, making it a little difficult for me to rank them alongside one another. I’ve come to realize that creating a Side A and Side B based on date of airing has the tendency to do that, but regardless once the two other titles come up, I’ll just add one to each of the sides to keep things balanced. And even if I drop a show or two from one or the other, I’ll keep them in their original arrangement to save me (or readers) the hassle of having to look for my thoughts on a different side throughout the season.

tl;dr – the Side A/B style has weird quirks to it, but whatever — I’ll manage it one way or another. So with that out of the way, let’s run down what happened in Side B for this week! Continue reading →

Winter 2017 – Initial Impressions

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Okay, so it looks like I’m looking at nine shows for this season, with another two in-waiting, one continuing series from the previous season, and one odd-ball show that will pop up an episode or two whenever it feels like it. That’s a hefty number of shows to deal with, meaning I’m either going to have to trim them down a bit or, perhaps, find a different strategy when it comes to sharing my weekly thoughts.

That said, I’m planning on splitting up the thoughts to two separate entries throughout the week. That gives me a little more wiggle room to squeeze in extra thoughts (long posts, joy…) as well as allow me some leeway with regard to remembering what happened in the shows, themselves. Because to be honest, I sometimes have to backtrack to shows that aired earlier on in the week, making me feel like I might have lost some details in the process.

But before I get too engrossed in the details, let’s just enjoy what we have on out plate now, shall we? As with previous seasons, this list is arranged in descending order. Now do take note that the order here might not necessarily reflect the initial ratings I gave in previous posts, given things change over time, especially once I’ve ruminated over how each individual show actually appeals to me from a series-to-series perspective. I’m one of those people who believes that a 7.5 for one show might mean something else for another. That’s one of the reasons why I give pretty poor scores to shows I otherwise sound invested in, because my expectations for the said show are much higher.

And there I go again getting too caught up with the details. I might as well shut up for now and just CARRY ON WITH THE RUN DOWN LET’S DO THIS!– Continue reading →

Winter 2017 – Previews (Part 3)

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I was actually expecting four parts for my winter previews (like in previous seasons), but for some reason I had to cut them short given two of the shows on my list are actually premiering at a later date. Oh well, doesn’t really matter, especially since this last installment of shows were actually quite compelling in markedly different regards.

But that said, it looks like this was a rather lukewarm premiere week for shows this Winter 2017. And this comes right after the recently-concluded Switch Conference that debuted the ultra-hyped console that had been making its rounds since October of last year. The presentation was similarly “lukewarm” with a few points that kinda watered down whatever fanboy expectations I had for the system, but at 279.99 GBP and retail price and a teased Collector’s package of Zelda: Breath of the Wild? Fanboy faith in Nintendo restored.

UPDATE: I went and pre-ordered it… gaaaaaaaaaah

So yeah, before this turns into a rant-post about Nintendweeb, let’s run down the last bunch of shows I’ve looked at this season — featuring mandrakes, dragon tails, cigarette butts, and unrequited love. Continue reading →