Animu

Being a place for the planning of communal anime viewing.

Summer 2019 Schedule

• Granbelm
• Kanata no Astra
• Lord El-Melloi II's Case Files
• Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These
• Machikado Mazoku
• O Maidens in Your Savage Season

End of Summer

	Feb 12	Feb 19	Feb 26	Mar 4
Granbelm	9	10	11	12
Kanata no Astra	10	11	12 (double-length)	(time used for double-bill below)
El-Melloi	8	9	10	11
Galactic Heroes	9	10	(skip to make time for Astra 12)	11+12
Machikado Mazoku	9	10	11
O Maidens	9	10	11

(Galactic Heroes nominated to be the show making room for double-length Astra 12, because it has a 2-part episode titles for ep 11/12, so might make the most sense to watch consecutively)

Winter 2020 Planning

This is a draft schedule. Everything is open for discussion. Presence of a single show in a slot just means it's the only currently identified named candidate.

• Action: Fate/Grand Order Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia
• Sci-fi: In/Spectre (Kyokou Suiri)
• General 1: Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These Second
• General 2/Sports: Chihayafuru
• Comedy:
  • Zombieland Saga
  • Maidragon (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid)
  • Fate/cooking (Today's Menu for the Emiya Family)
• Drama/Romance: Domestic Girlfriend

Longer comments on shortlisted shows above

• Chihayafuru (season 1, and if liked seasons 2 and 3 too)
  • The basic premise is a "sports" anime set around a Japanese card game Karuta
  • Chihayafuru was previously shown to the anime group back in Autumn 2011 - Winter 2012, but that's before most of the current attendees joined - need to check with Mark and Mark whether they saw it back then and what they think about a rewatch if so.
  • maxb opinion: I haven't actually constructed a personal top 10, but if I did, I think this would be on it. Some of the things that set it ahead of the pack for me are:
    • an excellent cast of characters, who each have their own nuances, and aren't there just because a club needs 5 members
    • taking two cours per season, and actually making use of that time effectively to give us a lot of story, appropriately paced
    • sequel seasons which actually measure up to what went before and contribute to the whole
• Note to anyone previewing this: It's relatively hard to get a feel for what this series is going to be like from watching a few episodes, as after briefly showing the "present day", it then delves into a flashback to the main characters' younger selves that lasts through to the first few minutes of episode 4. Be prepared to watch more than 3 episodes if you're evaluating it thoroughly, or consider skipping some of the flashback if you're just sampling some fragments of episodes to assess it for the schedule.
• Kobayashi-san's Dragon Maid 小林さんちのマイドラゴン
  • A light-hearted series with an underlying theme of interpersonal relationships improving people's (and dragons') lives. Best last episode that I've seen for a long time. --maxb
  • This show was on and off the proposals list a couple of times over the years. Interest from Dexter too, but never quite managed to catch the interest of enough of the group to make it to the schedule.
• Fate/cooking (Emiya-san chi kyou no gohan)
  • Semi-short, episodes are ~13 minutes each.
  • maxb: Very little happens in this show, but it does so in a soothingly fun way, apt to leave a smile on your face.

Psycho-Pass 3 was also suggested, but on further investigation turns out to be 8 double-length episodes, so that's not fitting into a regular schedule without quite some disruption.

Future possibilities

Shows that we considered schedule-worthy

• The Legend of Korra
  • Mixed feelings. Episode 1 was painful, Korra is like another Subaru at the beginning. Fortunately they ease off the "this character is naive due to her upbringing and we need to show it" pretty quickly. Seems like it could have some promise, but the plot development seems very formulaic ("Introduce Heroine. Introduce Teacher. Inevitable heroine/teacher conflict. Introduce allies. Introduce nemesis.") - does it manage to grow beyond this? Also a bit wary of another year-long show. --maxb
    • Does it ever cease being a fantasy adventure show? No, at least not in the part I've seen. Does it get into more complex/ambiguous territory, develop meaningful longer-term arcs, and go beyond simplistic good vs evil? Yes, absolutely. (And Korra does suffer for her mistakes and start to learn from them - she'll always be headstrong but not to the point of incompetence the way she is in the first few episodes)
• Have some reservations about immediately diving into this right after FMAB but I could be persuaded. -MP
  • Have already seen season 1, but would be super enthusiastic for this. - maria
• Ore Monogatari
  • An unconventional romance, with lots of storytelling to do along the way, and some comedy moments. Though the subject matter is completely different, the viewing experience feels a bit like Shirayuki-hime - there is a continuity, but it's very episodic. --maxb
• Akanesasu Shoujo
• Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba)

Proposals which have not been fully evaluated

• The Magnificent Kotobuki
  • It may seem like some frivolous fun leaning on aerial combat scenes at first, but it's actually some some fair light sci-fi world building by the time it finishes up, too. --maxb
• Hugtto! PreCure (general) --lmm
  • Enormous committment that will likely be pushed aside, but mentioning just in case
  • Definitely the best PreCure that I have watched, outdoing HeartCatch, Suite, Yes! 5, Yes! 5 Go Go (I dropped that one). I'd be on board with watching this again. It wasn't perfect (I think they could have used a bit more budget in the middle of the third cour) but it was fun, endearing, and critically managed to avoid over-using the monster-of-the-week formula for most of its content, which is a pitfall many of the earlier PreCures have fallen into to various extents. Given the format of the show, it could actually work to decide to watch 1 cour and then reassess, if people are hesitant to sign up for the whole 49 episode run. --maxb
  • Probably have to give up on this one, as no-one spoke up in favour beyond us two :-/
• Fire Force (action) -- AIM
  • I watched episode 1 - no strong opinions either way. Needs an action fan to opine. --maxb

See also: Animu/OldProposals

Special candidates

• Gundam The Origin (3/6 watched)
• Gunbuster --lmm
• Garakowa: Restore the World - a 1h film from Winter 2016, pretty, good music, and interesting enough, though did leave me questioning why they handled the pacing the way they did. --maxb
• Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?? ~Dear My Sister~ (ご注文はうさぎですか?? ～Dear My Sister～) [~60mins] - More GochiUsa for those who liked the TV series. Feels like a 60min episodes more than a movie. --YYY
• "Blame! Movie" -- AIM
  • https://anilist.co/anime/21498/Blame-Movie/
  • A group of humans trying to survive in a self-replicating city that is trying to kill them. Action/Sci-Fi.
• Mary and the Witches Flower
  • https://anilist.co/anime/97981/Mary-to-Majo-no-Hana/
  • AIM: I wanted to see this one when it came out, but missed it.

Informal planning principles

• None of this is absolute. These are guidelines only and if following them would mean watching bad shows and not watching good shows then we will overrule them
• We watch about 2:30 each week - normally 6 normal-length TV episodes from 6 different shows (watching each show from start to finish at one episode per week)
  • If a significant number of attendees will miss one or two meetings (e.g. during holiday periods) we set aside the regular schedule and show "specials" instead.
• We try to group the schedule into "seasons" (i.e. start and finish a group of shows at the same time) to provide some structure and (at least theoretically) to give newcomers a reasonable point at which to join.
  • Seasons are long enough to complete a "short" show (i.e. 12 or 13 weeks) and do not necessarily align with calendar seasons
  • We aim to start shows when they are still airing, but after enough episodes have aired to reasonably evaluate them (usually three or four)
  • Seasons are named on this page after the "anime season" from which shows could have appeared in that season
    • i.e. if we start a season just before spring ends and summer begins (or even after a few summer episodes have aired, but not enough for summer shows to be considered for the schedule), we will call that season "spring"
    • i.e. at any given time we may be up to a season "behind realtime"
• Avoid falling into a rut
  • We try to enforce a mix of genres by using "slots"
    • Approximate slots
      • Action and/or general fast-paced
      • Sci-Fi
      • General, faster and/or more serious
      • General or sports, slower and/or more lighthearted
      • Comedy
      • Romance and/or drama
  • Slot order is so that the tonal arc of the evening makes some sense
    • This sounds really wishy-washy, but at the same time it genuinely is surprisingly important - we've had meetings where we watched things in the "wrong" order for technical reasons and it didn't go well
  • We can skip, reassign or "fudge" a slot if there really are no good shows in that genre that season, but we should be very wary if we find ourselves repeatedly skipping the same slot
  • "Current" shows generally take priority over older shows
    • If there are not enough schedule-quality shows then we look to recent shows that we considered schedule-quality but did not make the schedule in a previous season, and/or to "classic" shows
• Try to reach a consensus but also to broaden our horizons
  • We largely rely on attendees watching at least the first few episodes of a show and then proposing it for the schedule
  • We try to avoid scheduling a show that any attendee strenuously objects to
    • This is not absolute, particularly if there are enough "vetos" to make it difficult to assemble a schedule at all
• We would prefer to air a show that some love and others dislike (though not hate) than one that everyone is "meh" about
  • This is not to say that shows have to be controversial or provocative (though at the same time we don't shy away from such shows)
    • There is plenty of space for a well-crafted "safe" show, just not for a mediocre one.
    • Shows that are ambitious will ideally be given slightly more leeway regarding weaknesses in other areas.
      • But only slightly.
  • Conversely shows that are content to remain within their genre ("if you want x you know where to find it") will ideally be held to a slightly higher standard.
• We call shows that two or more people supported and no-one strenuously objected to "schedule-worthy" and list them separately below
  • Experience suggests that we will most likely air them sooner or later
  • This is solely as a matter of practicality; it doesn't imply any firm commitment
• We can and do drop shows partway through, even partway through a season, but only when there is a firm consensus for doing so
  • Generally if even one attendee was still enjoying a given show we would not drop it
• The host retains an absolute veto over anything they find genuinely objectionable
  • i.e. not just shows I don't like
  • Animu/HostVetoes

History

Animu/History