It’s roughly the mid-point of the autumn 2014 anime season, so it is about that time to share my thoughts on the series I have been watching so far.
Cross Ange: Rondo of Angels and Dragons
I dropped this after episode four. I disliked what I saw, and I shall never speak of this again. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Encouragement of Climb 2nd Season
Ah, an anime about mountain-climbing. When they aren’t climbing mountains, it’s very much a ‘cute girls doing cute things’ anime – which happens to include a lot of affection between Aoi and Hinata. It has been fairly enjoyable so far.
Fairy Tail (2014)
The Grand Magic Games has concluded, and has been followed up by a filler arc focusing on the Celestial Spirits. Don’t really have much to say on this, but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing the Sun Village and Tartarus arcs.
Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
This anime is at its best whenever there is a fight. The animation for the battles is great. I’m not expecting this to be as great as Fate/Zero – which probably makes sense as Gen Urobuchi is my favourite Japanese writer, so I am biased on that point.
Girl Friend BETA
I really like this ‘cute girls doing cute things’ anime so far. French exchange student Chloe Lemaire is arguably the highlight of the show, and there’s plenty of yuri subtext going on between the girls.
Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls
Anthropomorphised Sega consoles going into various Sega games to earn medals – it is as silly as it sounds. You can learn a bit about the history of Sega games with this one as well. Mega Drive is my favourite character.
Log Horizon 2nd Season
The second season is only six episodes in, and I’m certain that it is going to be as strong as the first, if not better. The anime manages to take standard game mechanics and mold them into a new reality. This is definitely in the running to be my favourite anime of this season.
One Piece
This is still in the Dressrosa arc, slowly moving towards the action. Luffy met with a familiar face, and it is that particular character I am looking forward to seeing in action. The slow pace for this one is probably due to how close the anime is to the manga.
Psycho-Pass 2
Probably not going to live up to the first season, but it has been good so far. The new antagonist and one of the new enforcers are characters I can’t wait to see more light shed on, whilst the new inspector hasn’t really done much to make herself likeable so far. She does seem to have a thing for Yayoi, so maybe her attitude will change.
selector spread WIXOSS
I’m enjoying this. It’s a little tough to talk about properly without mentioning any spoilers, but so far it has been a worthy follow-up to selector infected WIXOSS.
Shirobako
This one is interesting. It is an anime about people who make anime. The large cast of characters are under constant stress, and even the smallest thing can have the biggest repercussions. This anime also contains the theme of dreams vs. reality.
Yuna Yuki is a Hero
My favourite new anime of this season. I’m sure everyone knows that it is a magical girl anime by now, but it is a good one. People keep comparing it to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which I completely disagree with – nothing extremely dark has happened so far. For me, this anime actually feels a lot more like Symphogear.
Rory Muses 