The OP and ED songs have been stuck in my head all week. I’ve rewatched episodes 1-3. I lightly skimmed the first light novel to see how faithful the anime is. I watched episode 4 when it came out this morning, then read the epilogue to see what they changed (mostly same events, different actions and implications; Tirana’s outfit was not described in the book…).

As expected, they finished off book 1. Unexpectedly, they finished it early and went right into book 2. All the other books are about 20% shorter than the first one, though, which means they’re either going to try to get all the way through book 4, or spend extra time on 2 and 3; not sure how either plan would work out based on how they handled this one.

It has some flaws (including the animation budget), but I like it.

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Unrelated to this picture, the DanMemo mobile game is currently running bonus drama vignettes related to each episode of season 2 as they air.

Some of the many side stories in the game are focused around the waitresses at Bell’s favorite pub. They might collectively be called, “Is It Wrong To Force Level 4 Adventurers To Wait Tables In A Dungeon Town Restaurant?”​.

Pro tip: grabass == permadeath.

Pet peeve: romanizations from the Japanese creator that don’t match their own text. For instance, the heroine of Cop Craft is named ティラナ, which is pronounced Tilana or Tirana, and that’s how everyone in the anime cast says it. But in the color art supplied with book one, it was written “Tilarna”, which makes that The Official Name.

I bought the Kindle edition of the novels on Amazon Japan, grabbed the latest version of DeDRM and KindleUnpack, and dusted off my Yomitori scripts (last updated in 2013…) to extract the pictures and make the text easier to read. To my surprise, the scripts mostly still worked, except for the one that uses dviasm.py to optimize the furigana, a tool that no longer handles uplatex output correctly (looks like I’ll have to switch to dv2dt/dt2dv to molest DVI files now).

After the jump, the magic words are: “She’s 26 In Elf Years!”

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“​…until the recording studio explodes.”

(via)

He’s a jaded chain-smoking detective out to avenge his partner.
She’s a loli knight elf with a chip on her shoulder.
THEY FIGHT CRIME.

From the author of FullMetal Panic! and Amagi Brilliant Park, with character designs by Range Murata (who also illustrated the light novels). The first two episodes were better than I expected, so I watched the third as soon as it was released on Funimation. There’s nothing terribly new here if you’ve heard of Alien Nation or Bright, but so far the execution looks solid, if a bit rushed. I doubt it will get as lively as the OP animation, however.

They’ve got 6 light novels of source material to work with for 12 episodes, so they shouldn’t run out. Just in case, though, the credits promise loli-elf-service, and episode 3 delivers a bit of it. Caveat: there are some gaps in the storytelling that feel like they were a little too focused on making sure they only spend four episodes per book.

On that note, it looks like book 7 is timed for mid-season, after a three-year hiatus.

Short clip after the jump.

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…is mostly disappointed with this season.

I gave the obvious pandering-fan-service series a look: Are You Lost?, Magical Sempai, and Hensuki.

Sempai is just a weak premise poorly executed; I gave it two episodes, which is two more than it deserved. The writers of Lost seem to have already forgotten which trope each girl is built around, except for Survival/Exposition Girl; honestly, the high point of the third episode is that they finally stopped making urine-drinking references. Hensuki at least has well-drawn girls who are visually distinctive, with a premise that’s more chūnibyō than kink-of-the-week. Our Hero, however, is duller than stale white bread, so as each girl reveals her “kink”, she also has to spend several minutes telling this dateless loser why he’s so amazing that she fell for him. I’m going to go out on a limb here and bet $10 that clingy little sister is behind it all.

Not sure if I’m up for watching the Accelerator spinoff of the Railgun spinoff of Index. I kind of lost interest in the whole franchise while trying to catch up a while back.

The OP for DanMachi season 2 gleefully spoils the outcome of the first story arc, but since I already knew it was coming from the light novels, it’s no big deal. The opening act’s a bit of a slog, though. The bright spot is that Lili now shows off her figure without being beaten to a pulp first. This is a distinct improvement over the first season, where the combination of casual brutality and Lili-service was jarring (yes, someone turned those scenes into a doujin porn comic or three, sigh). I could do with less Snidely Whiplash from the villains, but I’ll just have to grit my teeth and hope that the upcoming damsel-rescuing makes up for the mustache-twirling ugly people spitting into the camera.

Speaking of pandering fan-service, I recently got around to watching the second season of Rosario And Vampire, which had all the flaws of the first season and a few new ones, but was worth it for Kurumu. I also skimmed the wiki for the manga, and it sounds like the attempt to reconcile fluffy and dark went about as well as you’d expect, with increasingly-convoluted plotting and power-ups leading to Our Hero Becoming The Strongest Ever and Getting The Girl But Not That Girl.

I also rewatched some good stuff: various episodes of Endro, Dog Days, Manaria Friends, and Restaurant To Another World, as well as the AsoIku OVA (nekkid alien catgirls!). I think what makes these series stand out for me is the obvious affection the creators have for the characters. It’s like the anime were just created as an excuse to spend time with them.

In live-action news, I’m already two weeks behind on Krypton, because even though Lobo appears to be out of the picture (woo-hoo), it feels like they hired a bunch of old-school soap opera writers for this season. Like when Seg makes a desperate attempt to turn Lyta against Zod by schtupping her like there’s no tomorrow.

I don’t think it’s possible to parody the isekai genre, so clearly it’s time to make my own…

(art by Milkpanda; swiped from Pixiv without permission)

1: This Clumsy Princess Is Falling All Over Me!

2: A Wild Loli Appears!

3: Holy Shit Those Tits Are Huge!

4: Her Cooking’s Terrible, But At Least She’s Naked!

5: All The Maids Wear Glasses!

6: Everything’s Better With Catgirls!

7: This Butch Palace Guard Secretly Collects Plushies!

8: My New Robot Girlfriend Needs An Off Switch!

9: Naughty Elves Need Love Too!

10: The Secret Valley Of Monster Girl Sex Slaves!

11: That Alien Nympho Is Over 18 Officer I Swear!

12: There’s Always Room For Slime Girls!

13: Trapped In The Lyin’ Witch’s Wardrobe!

14: Turns Out My Little Sister Is A Succubus!

…

23: Where Does The Third One Go?

…

29: Hers Is Bigger Than Mine But She’s Still A Girl So It’s Okay!

…

37: Mom Is That You?!?

23 33 confirmed dead in arson attack at Kyoto Animation’s studios. Many more seriously injured.

Thoughts and prayers.

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Japan Times says at least 33 dead, but there’s no link to details. Sentai Filmworks has a GoFundMe page that’s already raised nearly $700,000.

BBC agrees with the 33 number.

ANN has details with links to sources.