Life in Quadrant 4

Just a couple quick notes on the shows and stuff.

K-ON!

Yeah. Moe, slice-of-life, comedy, we got it all here. Except music. For an anime about music, there sure isn’t a lot of it! Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s bad. The fact that they wrote a full song based off Mio’s lyrics does deserve some praise. Adaptation-wise, you could just skip the live and it’d still follow, but I guess it satisfies the lack of music. Just a bit.
The show is really fun to watch, but whenever some sort of drama goes on, the show feels like it grinds to a halt and it doesn’t really take off again ’til it gets back to its comedic roots. To put a IIDX analogy, it’s like one of those abrupt BPM changes in Fascination MAXX or Pluto; it disrupts the flow and it’s like it was just put in there for the sake of it being in there. Otherwise it’s a great kick-back-and-relax kinda show. A shame it’ll be ending next week already.
One of the biggest factors in any slice-of-life show is the characters. Because of the lack of epic plots and drama and things like that, the people are really the ones in the spotlight. Kyoto Animation seems to have gotten the hang of creating a well-rounded cast, giving them very classic, archetypical personalities, yet enough nuances to differentiate. Furthermore, they assemble these characters in such a way that they compliment each other and it almost feels natural for the group to be one cohesive whole. In other words, the characters feel natural enough for the viewer to enjoy the show.

Valkyria Chronicles
Proceeding surprisingly well! Except for all the messed up military tactics. Animation quality is just about consistent, and it seems to like alternating between vacation episodes and action episodes. And even then the action’s not the full episode, but around half of it or so. Not that it’s a bad thing though! Instead, we have the more relaxed, non-action segments where the team’s just chilling out. These are where we get to know the other side of the characters, and I find them to be just as enjoyable as a well-executed strategy against innumerable odds.
What tjhan said is probably true. The anime itself doesn’t have much action or fighting, but the character development which apparently is missing, or at the least, sorely lacking, in the videogame. The 7th squad is a diverse bunch, and getting to know every one of them will take quite a bit of time. A lot of which has been spent focusing on the romance factor between Welkin and Alicia. It would be great if we had some more episodes focusing on the rest of the group, but assuming Valkyria takes only half a season (13 episodes, give or take), I guess we just don’t have that privilege.
That aside, it’s actually enjoyable to view, though rather than marathons or single-episode viewings, I have a tendency to watch it in sporadic bursts, usually 2-3 episodes at a time. Since one episode usually focuses on the squad on break, then the next one or two on a fight or something serious (eg. plot stuff), watching it a few episodes at a time helps keep the balance.

Eden of the East

Wow, just… Wow. Everyone was raving over this and it took me 10 episodes to get this excited, nervous, anxious for the next one. The final few episodes where everything just comes together in one big mishmash of awesomeness.
As I said earlier, this was one of the most anticipated shows this season; it doesn’t disappoint. Eden’s got a decent amount of humor and is just loaded with suspense. The plot keeps me on the edge of my seat as we’re continuously fed little bits and pieces of Takizawa’s past and the environment they’re in. However, now that we’re approaching the show’s end, the curtain will soon be lifted and we’ll find out everything that happened, is happening, and will happen. Nothing else to say about it for now because it’ll probably be just blind praise anyway. I just cannot get enough of EotE.
Also, that NEET rush reminded me of a certain zombie-survival game…

Fullmetal Alchemist -Brotherhood-

Hm, what can I say about it? It continues to be an enjoyable watch, but it hasn’t done anything to elevate its level to that of say, Eden. Production quality is consistent and there’s nothing bad to take note of, but there hasn’t been anything good to take note of either.
FMA2 takes the approach of presenting short story arcs, spanning anywhere from one to several episodes, while having an overarching, grander plot occuring in the background, and presenting bits and pieces of the world setting and background. Typical of a long-running series, but the balance between the aspects is well-executed in that it doesn’t really feel dragged out, or that the viewer isn’t forced to watch the episodes in some hope of getting the bigger picture. Each smaller, self-contained arc is enjoyable in itself and is substantial enough to keep the audience interested enough, while still going at a slow, steady pace in the main story.
On the recent episodes though… Yeah, uh, no comment for now. Haven’t gotten to watching them for some reason.

Phantom

The production is pretty good, and we’re actually getting somewhere with the violence being more proper violence with blood… Or something. Not much to say about it, but the pacing feels really, really slow. It feels like rather than focusing on the plot on a whole, it’s more the characters’ growths that are given priority, with the events used as triggers for changes to them. Zwei, for example, had Ein’s initial feelings towards being a member of Phantom – it’s just a way of life, have no sympathy, kill your emotions and thoughts, and so on, until McCunnen came along.
I initially said that the show was ostentatious, but it doesn’t hurt to have a super-serious show once in a while.
One complaint – why did we get 16 minutes of filler shoved up our asses in episode 11?

Tears to Tiara

There… really isn’t anything I have to say about it right now. It’s a very average show, with an average plot, average characters, et cetera, but the production values, I must admit, are definitely noticeable (in the good sense). Hopefully the story can finally move along, now that everyone’s in the party! And I sure hope it does on the simulcast later.

Hayate no Gotoku! S2

Like K-ON!, this is a fun, relaxing affair. Things between Ayumu and Hina are perhaps heating up a little since they both already know each others’ feelings for Hayate. Poor Nagi. Nothing else for now.

Asura Cryin’

The show continues to be in the slightly-above-average-but-not-quite-above-average range, which is actually quite low, given some of the season’s offerings. Mysteries continue to surround the key elements of the series – the Asura Machina, the burial dolls, and so forth. I seriously hope they don’t toss out lengthy explanations regarding these things; lengthy exposition is a telltale sign of sloppy writing, which I honestly don’t want to see in here. There really isn’t much to nitpick about except for the somewhat inconsistent animation. Plus, Tomatsu Haruka does a great job in voicing; not so much a fan of Nonaka Ai in general though, but her voice is really, really distinct.