Roving Thoughts archives

My (Twitter) reactions to the first episodes of the Winter 2018 season

As before I'm collecting here all of my tweeted reactions to the first episodes I've seen (in the order that I saw them).

• Laid-Back Camp episode 1: That was laid back and charming, plus it had bicycles. Unfortunately I may get tired of the genki maniac girl, which is a pity since the show seems pretty well directed. #yurucamp ♯

• Devilman Crybaby episode 1: It's going somewhere and it's not the personal turn-off I sort of expected from initial commentary. It is very over the top, but I guess that's Go Nagai for you. The man doesn't go small. →

• Violet Evergarden episode 1 was interesting, intriguing, and very pretty (of course). But it was all introduction and setup and as such says very little about what the show will be like in the long run, although it did persuade me to watch the next episode. ♯

• Darling in the FranXX episode 1: That was a solid introductory episode, even if it was a bit narration heavy. But as usual it doesn't say much about what further episodes will be like; it's just doing a good job of selling us the show's basic premise. ♯

• Beatless episode 1: That was flavourlessly generic, with only an occasional flash of anything particularly interesting. Nothing stands out and I have no interest in more. #

• Maerchen Maedchen episode 1: This was popcorn but decently fun and amusing popcorn. It's good enough to entice me into watching the next episode, at least. ♯

• Katana Maidens - Toji no Miko episode 1: That was a quite snappy and interesting first episode, with surprisingly excellent fight scenes and an intriguing setup and more showing than telling. →

I took a brief run at watching the widely acclaimed A Place Further Than the Universe (aka the 'going to Antarctica' show) but didn't feel like watching more than a few minutes of the start, so I've tentatively concluded that it's not for me even though it's clearly very well made. This is not very surprising; I'm almost entirely burned out on watching high school teens in ordinary life.

(Laid-Back Camp is working for me so far because of the camping segments, making it like Long Riders and biking.)

I may at some point look at Hakumei and Mikochi, but it doesn't seem compelling based on current descriptions. Perhaps I will look at Pop Team Epic briefly just to experience it a bit, but I can't imagine watching even an entire episode much less the entire show.