Things that we haven’t dropped yet from the current season—there’s a bumper crop:
Classroom Crisis—does for corporate politics what Shirobako did for anime production. I have had those conversations with management...
Game of Laplace—trappings of a detective/mystery series, but more psychological thriller than particularly rational so far; still, has potential and the thriller is well done.
GATE—still not sure, but still watching. Fantasyland attempts to invade Japan, Japan retaliates, SDF starts a softly-softly invasion of fantasyland (after basically a massacre of their entire combined armed forces, medieval knights vs modern weapons isn’t really a contest). It raises interesting issues, and could get very good if it actually follows them up—though it has not so far, and will be quite banal if it never does; will report back here either way.
Honourable mention: Shimoneta. I was expecting a series with this premise to fail the ten second fanservice test, but we ended up watching the entire first episode and it is surprisingly worth seeing an episode (no idea if it remains worthwhile, we have not been brave enough to try a second!). Laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly high production quality. Think Fahrenheit 451 crossed with Gurren Lagann crossed with a whole lot of WRONG and WTF and NSFW.
EDIT: have read ahead in the GATE manga. It doesn’t quite ascend to the epic “The Irregular at Magic High School” Kim-Jong-Il-propaganda levels of Gary Stu, but that’s sadly the direction it’s firmly headed in and unless they’ve rewritten the script for the anime it looks like it’s going to avoid any redeeming features it’s raised the possibility of. Pity. Dropping.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I’m also enjoying GATE and hope that it plays to its original elements rather than being too haremy. I tried reading the manga but the only translation available in a readable resolution is very rough.
Gakkou Gurashi failed the “you have five minutes to make me care about any of this” test initially for us; a friend later convinced us to watch the first episode all the way to the end—they were absolutely correct and it is now firmly back on our to-watch-more-of list, but haven’t got round to confirming it stays good yet, good to have corroboration.
Another honourable mention: Akagami no Shirayukihime; strong, actually intelligent female protagonist in a misogynistic fantasy setting. Straight romance. It’s a little self-aware initially—she tears up in surprise a bit too often when men aren’t actively horrible to her—but gets better. Not as strong as Akatsuki no Yona though, would really like to see a second season of that.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I picked it up on recommendation from /r/rational. Then I fell over laughing, having accidentally downloaded ep 4 instead of ep 1. Then I watched ep 1 and was so excited to get to the “flip”.
Things that we haven’t dropped yet from the current season—there’s a bumper crop:
Classroom Crisis—does for corporate politics what Shirobako did for anime production. I have had those conversations with management...
Game of Laplace—trappings of a detective/mystery series, but more psychological thriller than particularly rational so far; still, has potential and the thriller is well done.
GATE—still not sure, but still watching. Fantasyland attempts to invade Japan, Japan retaliates, SDF starts a softly-softly invasion of fantasyland (after basically a massacre of their entire combined armed forces, medieval knights vs modern weapons isn’t really a contest). It raises interesting issues, and could get very good if it actually follows them up—though it has not so far, and will be quite banal if it never does; will report back here either way.
Honourable mention: Shimoneta. I was expecting a series with this premise to fail the ten second fanservice test, but we ended up watching the entire first episode and it is surprisingly worth seeing an episode (no idea if it remains worthwhile, we have not been brave enough to try a second!). Laugh-out-loud funny, unexpectedly high production quality. Think Fahrenheit 451 crossed with Gurren Lagann crossed with a whole lot of WRONG and WTF and NSFW.
EDIT: have read ahead in the GATE manga. It doesn’t quite ascend to the epic “The Irregular at Magic High School” Kim-Jong-Il-propaganda levels of Gary Stu, but that’s sadly the direction it’s firmly headed in and unless they’ve rewritten the script for the anime it looks like it’s going to avoid any redeeming features it’s raised the possibility of. Pity. Dropping.
Gakkou Gurashi is by far my favorite show of the current season. For anyone who doesn’t mind moe and wants to see a more exciting twist on the genre, I’d recommend watching the (entire) first episode with as little information/spoilers as possible.
I’m also enjoying GATE and hope that it plays to its original elements rather than being too haremy. I tried reading the manga but the only translation available in a readable resolution is very rough.
Gakkou Gurashi failed the “you have five minutes to make me care about any of this” test initially for us; a friend later convinced us to watch the first episode all the way to the end—they were absolutely correct and it is now firmly back on our to-watch-more-of list, but haven’t got round to confirming it stays good yet, good to have corroboration.
Another honourable mention: Akagami no Shirayukihime; strong, actually intelligent female protagonist in a misogynistic fantasy setting. Straight romance. It’s a little self-aware initially—she tears up in surprise a bit too often when men aren’t actively horrible to her—but gets better. Not as strong as Akatsuki no Yona though, would really like to see a second season of that.
I picked it up on recommendation from /r/rational. Then I fell over laughing, having accidentally downloaded ep 4 instead of ep 1. Then I watched ep 1 and was so excited to get to the “flip”.
As much as I enjoy the show I’m not sure what makes it rationality material...
Well, it was mentioned in the Friday Open Thread where things don’t have to be rationality material.