The art rock band PASSEPIED just posted a new track this week called Hyper Realist, the first displayed here, and as always it is just as much about the visuals as it is about the music. I had to also include TOKINOWA, their ending theme to the anime Rin-Ne, a story about shepherding lost souls to their next reincarnation written by Rumiko Takahashi herself. To finish the set off, Nagasugita Haru, another music/visual tour de force from about 8 weeks ago.
Tales of Zestiria the X jumps straight into fantasy statecraft and combat, right from the beginning of episode 0 (yes, this series starts at the actual first integer of any numeric sequence). The artwork and animation are both quite good, although so far not spectacular except for a few fleeting scenes. The characters and dialog introduce what seems to be this series strong suit; its densely layered plot elements and action sequences, weaving together to form the basis of an excellent story, and story telling environment. Like all the other shows from this season, it is only 4 or 5 episodes along at this point, so there is no way to know if this is going to end up being one of the classics or an also ran. But I really like what it has shown us so far, and will keep watching it to the end of the season if only to find out if they can keep up the quality throughout, and deliver on the implied promise. I have high hopes, since this year marks the 20th anniversary of the Tales Of family of animations, with this being the latest.
I am watching this series on Daisuki, which has a number of shows you can’t see anywhere else, which makes sense; they are a consortium of Japanese Anime creation companies, and not a North American distributor of Anime, after all. They have just entered the Premium Subscription phase of a streaming services life cycle, and I am happy to report they are following the Crunchyroll Anime Business Model. In other words, your free registration with them allows you to watch everything the paid premium service gives you, with 3 differences:
1) Premium watches 1 hour after it airs in Tokyo, Free sees it 1 week after.
2) Premium has limited commercials (Free’s more numerous commercials are currently only promos drawing you into other anime shows they are running, but that won’t last once they can market it).
3) Premium can watch in true HD, as can Free. Guest (you didn’t sign up for a log in) tops out at SD.
That last point is different than Crunchyroll, which does not differentiate between unregistered and registered free, as far as I can tell. And the second point reminds me a bit more of Hulu rather than Crunchyroll, come to think of it, because there are NO commercials on Crunchyroll Premium. And all of these differences between providers explains why I watch it on Daisuki rather than Funimation, even though I have a Funimation Premium account which I really enjoy. For the most part, they only let you watch a few episodes of any given series until you sign up for the Funimation Premium account. I understand the business model, but would rather support the others, which are more appealing to me as a consumer.
Or if you prefer Every Harry Potter Spell in a single video edit, and in alphabetical order no less. I didn’t realize how many times they used some of these until I saw them back to back. Davide Rapp was the editor with Giorgio Zangrandi as the assistant editor, and just finding all of these probably meant they had to re-watch the series from the beginning; I’m sure they were heartbroken about that! *grins* They did an excellent job on this project, thanks to Games Radar for the heads up on this one.
Alderamin on the Sky is told as a history of a legendary tactician and general, who became great because he was lazy and had no interest in fighting. It is set in a very steampunk universe, with compressed air rifles and airships, and a technology base from around 1820 or so. It opens with our protagonist traveling with a childhood friend he is escorting on her journey to a military academy. They meet new friends on the ship they are sailing on, which runs into trouble leaving them stranded behind enemy lines. I was hooked by the end of the first episode, and every episode since has been better than the one before. We are up to the 4th episode, with a new episode popping up every Friday.
There is no actual genre I could find for western Movies and TV, but I will mention Hardcore Henry because it has such a unique visual style. Too bad they didn’t do it as VR. We did much better with Anime, where Arpeggio of Blue Steel brings the warships of the Fog into direct contact with the humans they isolate and attack. Log Horizon: Season 2, Collection 2 has the next dozen episodes about the trapped gamers, who are following up on some rumors about a potential way out while continuing their quest. When They Cry: Rei is the OVA collection with a few comedic episodes and a few more in keeping with the vibe of the main series, dark and chilling. One Piece: Season 8 Voyage 2 brings episodes 469 through 480 home (they are currently running episode 762, to put that in perspective). There are also a couple of shows being released in a S.A.V.E. edition, Date A Live: Season 1, and Code:Breaker; Complete Series.
We are only 3 episodes into the fall season, and already Taboo Tattoo has me looking forward to the new episode each Monday when I get home from work. The Tattoos are technology from an ancient civilization, each with a special power they give the wearer, a specific trigger that activates them, and a price they exact in return for the abilities they grant. The protagonist is a middle school kid who ended up being given his tattoo when he stepped in to defend a stranger from some street punks. He was promptly tracked down by a couple of American Army tattoo wielders. They had been tasked with locating a group of stolen tattoos and were hot on the heels of the man he had defended. There is also a psycho princess who just used her tattoo to murder her parents and take over the government of her island nation, as a stepping stone to world domination. She has agents with powers going to other countries to kill off the gifted and bring their tattoos back to equip her army. And that’s just in the first 2 episodes; it’s going to be a wild ride!