== Brief impressions of the Spring 2017 anime season so far

We're somewhere between three and five episodes into everything I'm
watching, which is long enough for most shows to show their cards and
my opinions to firm up (and for me to drop some things). So, [[as usual
Winter2017Brief]], here's how my views of this season have shaken out,
to follow up on [[my first episode reactions Spring2017FirstEpisodes]].

Excellent:

* *Eccentric Family* second season: This doesn't have as explosive a
  start as I remember the first season having, but then we know a lot
  more of the background this time around. It's still great, with all
  of the good stuff from the first season and more things being thrown
  into the pot. I like that we're sort of seeing a different side of
  Yasaboru this time around, and he's certainly getting to sparkle.

Good:

* *WorldEnd* (aka *SukaSuka*): I refuse to use [[the show's
  http://www.crunchyroll.com/worldend-what-do-you-do-at-the-end-of-the-world-are-you-busy-will-you-save-us]]
  [[gigantic full name
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%ABmatsu_Nani_Shitemasu_ka%3F_Isogashii_Desu_ka%3F_Sukutte_Moratte_Ii_Desu_ka%3F]],
  which is very light novel (which it is). To my surprise, I've wound
  up feeling that the show is unreasonably good, much better than I
  expected, and it's ended up as my current second favorite show of
  the season. It has ordinary looks (in terms of character designs,
  background, colours, and so on) and some straightforward {{AB:LN:Light
  Novel}} elements, but its characters and writing are surprisingly deep
  and good and it's convincingly sold me on its actual drama. It's also
  quite well directed and storyboarded, which really helps hold my
  interest despite its generally ordinary looks.

* *Alice & Zoroku*: While the action isn't bad, it's the character
  interactions that continue to make this show, especially anything
  involving Zoroku. The show is sufficiently well written and directed
  to have given what could have been an over the top villain an affecting
  back-story that made her basically a tragic character (still a villain,
  though).

* *Rage of Bahamut - Virgin Soul*: This is not as great as the start of
  the original *Bahamut* was, but it's pretty good. It helps that Nina is
  a solid, interesting character with a lot of appealing elements, plus
  there's Rita. Unfortunately the show has not sold me on the actual plot
  going on, partly because it feels a bit too crazy and so I've wound up
  feeling detached from it.

* *Re:Creators*: This has an interesting concept but a concept is nothing
  if a show can't execute it well. The good news is that *RC* has been
  executing pretty well so far, not just with good action but also with
  good characters and good character and story interaction. It's not
  perfect, and in particular it has leaned a bit too much on exposition
  in sections. Of the shows I'm watching, this is the one that I feel
  is most balanced on an edge where it could easily tip over into merely
  okay or tolerable.

Same as it ever was:

* *My Hero Academia*: This continues the original's frustrating mix of
  excellent work and slow, padded pacing that robs that work of a lot
  of its impact. I enjoy watching it but it's always frustrating to see
  how it could be better if only it would stop with all of the delaying
  tactics.

  In short, this is probably a great shonen show dragged down to being
  okay by its pacing. I'll still miss it when the season is over, though,
  [[just as I did the first installment Spring2016Retrospective]].

Dropped:

* *Grimoire of Zero*: The characters and their interactions were very
  nice, but they couldn't make up for the bland, cookie cutter overall
  story writing. The second episode was especially painful for me, as
  it plodded through entirely predictable story elements without any
  particular spark, so I dropped the show.

Misses:

* *Granblue Fantasy*: Far, far too generic, [[as I tweeted
  https://twitter.com/cks_anime/status/848328940636835840]].
  Unlike *Grimoire of Zero*, this didn't even have interesting characters
  to make up for its painfully generic storyline.

Not considered for fuzzy reasons:

* *Atom The Beginning*: This might ordinarily be my kind of thing, but
  [[the ANN preview guide
  http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/preview-guide/2017/spring/atom-the-beginning/.114908]]
  failed to make it sound appealing enough to sample.

* *Eromanga Sensei*: Despite [[Author's praise
  http://ani-nouto.animeblogger.net/2017/04/14/eromanga-sensei-begins/]],
  I have various reasons for giving this a pass, including [[the setting
  OrdinaryLifeSettings]].

* *Seven Mortal Sins*: Not my kind of thing in general (I generally don't
  wind up liking fanservice-heavy shows even if they throw in action
  as well), and like last season's *Gabriel Dropout* it's probably more
  entertaining to sometimes watch people watching it on Twitter rather
  than actually watch it myself.

* *KADO: The Right Answer*
* *Frame Arms Girl*
* *Clockwork Planet*
* *Twin Angels Break*

As seems to have become my pattern, I'm not watching any popcorn shows,
by which I mean merely okay or passable shows that I watch primarily to
pass the time while I have some coffee or whatever. There are such shows
airing this season (*Grimoire of Zero* probably qualifies, for example),
but I'm just not interested these days. If I'm not actively enjoying it,
I appear to drop it aggressively or not even consider it.

I continue to not look at *Sakura Quest*, as covered earlier [[here
Spring2017FirstEpisodes]]. Some commentary suggests that the fourth
episode is a significant step down, so I feel justified in this so far.
There are some fairly acclaimed shows airing in this season that
are just not in my area of interest as far as plot and setting go,
such as *Tsuki ga Kirei* (see eg [[Nick Creamer's writing on it
http://wrongeverytime.com/tag/tsuki-ga-kirei/]]).