Tales of Zestiria the X

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 A] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 7

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That screen shot probably needs no explanation.

But to be honest, I’ve lived a big chunk of my life experiencing sleep deprivation, probably due to my training as a doctor back during my residency training days. On average, I sleep 3-4 hours a day, but I can sometimes knock out 30 minutes while sitting on a chair during the day. It’s an odd phenomenon to the point that my colleagues have found some amusement in taking random pictures of me in all sorts of bizarre sleeping “configurations”.

So seeing a sleep-deprived Shimada is pretty much the story of my life, at the moment. But yeah, I’m so glad there’s always Animu to help me unwind. There are only so many times that Anime as actually lulled me to sleep — and thankfully, none of the titles this season save for a few are capable of doing that.

So how were things this week in Side A? Well, I’ll be honest and say that this wasn’t the best of weeks. Things were, how should I put it… noisy? Yeah, noisy works. So enough talk and let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN! 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 A] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 6

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What the– it’s mid-season, already?

Holy crap how time flies. That means I need to prepare a mid-season round-up soon. I dunno if it’s because so many things have been happening as of late, or maybe I’m just having too much fun this season. Because to be honest, I’m actually quite surprised with how the shows have been fairing this season. I mean, there’s March comes in Like a Lion, Rakugo Shinjû, and even Scum’s Wish and ACCA that are doing just fantastic. I mean, I hope I’m not sounding overly optimistic for a critic, but the shows are actually GOOD for a change.

But then again, every time I say that mid-season, I get disappointed when it comes time to pack up. Not that I’m getting anyone’s hopes up — I just honestly feel like I’m enjoying myself this season. And I guess that’s something to be happy about.

So just how were the shows on Side A this week? Let’s RUN ‘EM DOWN!

Continue reading →

[Side A] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 5

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Strange realization when I saw this scene in Demi-chan wa Kataritai — I was scheduled to donate blood last Saturday, but I forgot to show up.

Oops.

Well yeah, go figure. The blood donation center is a good 2 miles from my house, and I can’t half-ass myself to take the bus going there at a chilling 5 degrees celsius at midday. UK weather is just incredible — if it isn’t freezing, it’s friggin’ raining!

Oh well, more reason for me to shut myself indoors during the weekend and enjoy a well-deserved break from a manic week. So enough chit chat, and let’s run down how Side A is doing so far! Continue reading →

[Side A] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 4

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And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the art of “clickbait”.

Well, if you’re in to that sorta thing, at least. But what does this have to do with my week so far? Actually, I’ve been pretty into following up on what’s going on with the Nintendo Switch, so much so that it’s come to the point that a big chunk of news articles online — from “reputable” sources, at that — are creating poorly-researched articles just to get in on the hype surrounding the reputed hybrid-console. Then there’s the over-hyped coverage of Trump’s recent executive order that’s got people bawling their heads out in agony. But don’t get me wrong — I’m not undermining the repercussions of these news articles in general. I’m simply trying to highlight the fact that there’s always an underlying message that is being communicated in the way all things are presented — be it politics or, you guessed it, anime.

And for the anime, at least, I think if they aren’t trying to push for a meaningful message, then they’re probably just toying around with the mainstay stropes that people have grown accustomed to. And that’s all fine, I can live with that. But that, in itself, has made me toss aside some titles in favor of things that offer more than pure self-gratification.

So what the heck happened this week to make me say all that? Well, let’s find out! Continue reading →

[Side A] Winter 2017 – Thoughts on Week 3

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Be unproductive. Be lazy. Be Edna.

But seriously, I had such a lazy weekend. That and the fact that I have so many deadlines, so yeah that’s definitely not a good thing. Still, Edna is just chill as f**k.

Quite similarly, things have been pretty “chill” during the third week of Winter. It’s funny in that the shows seem to be pretty comfortable quite early on, regardless of how quirky each of them might be. And that’s probably because one of them is the venerable March comes in like a Lion, which is by far just owning the pack at this point. But even without its head start, shows like Shôwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjû and, yes, even the prodigal Tales of Zestiria the X are re-proving their worth as the weeks go by. That almost makes the newer titles in this group, Demi-chan wa Kataritai and Urara Meirochô, pale in comparison.

So what just happened? Let’s run ’em down! Continue reading →

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

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Gaaaah… That’s what I get for saying things and then end up jinxing the situation. As much as I wanted to get out a week in review a bit earlier this week, lab work had me fully decked and basically coming home too exhausted to write, let alone even watch anything.

But yeah, so is life. C’est la vie and all that jazz. I’m happy I can get back to writing. So like I said, I’m splitting up my weekly thoughts into two parts, which have been re-named somewhat and are labeled “Side A” and “Side B”. Not to sound patronizing, but in case some of you out there might be too young to remember this, we used to listen to music on audio cassettes that had you flip it around when it got to the end. There were also things called laser discs, which were basically the spiritual predecessor of the DVD — and yes, they had two sides, as well. Likewise, my thoughts have two sides to them. Neat, huh?

Anyway, that’s enough history for one post. So let’s get down to it then, shall we? Side A of the weekly thoughts — let’s do this! 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 2)

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When I stepped back to take a look at what I wrote down on my “to-watch list”, I realized that there weren’t actually THAT many shows. On top of that, there seemed to be too many “speculative” titles, so although I might have seemed a little enthusiastic about the Winter offerings, on second pass I’m actually a little skeptical at this point.

So I went around and asked a couple people what titles they were planning on watching, and it turns out that a couple of them weren’t in my list, so I thought I might as well… true enough, I’m quite glad I didn’t pass out on them, as they turned out to be actually pretty amusing.

And so that brings us to this next installment of Winter previews, featuring a shepherd with imaginary friends, a teacher with mythological students, and an angel with legendary failings. Let’s do this! Continue reading →