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The Winter 2020 Anime Preview Guide


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Stark700



Joined: 30 Jan 2012
Posts: 11762
Location: Earth
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:12 pm Reply with quote
Somali and Magia Record are among my favorite so far from this season. Both anime had unique visual quality and some interesting characters introduced already. Somali in particular had a world fiction setting that I find fascinating.

Given the length of Magia Record, they could do a lot of storytelling for this season.
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pharmboy23



Joined: 05 Oct 2018
Posts: 198
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 1:17 pm Reply with quote
That astronomy show sounds like catnip to me. And the other two sound good too! Already an optimistically strong start to this season (if I can keep up with three shows that’s a huge win for me).
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meiam



Joined: 23 Jun 2013
Posts: 3450
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:09 pm Reply with quote
Somali first episode was great, if it can keep this quality (and not do anymore "as you know..." conversation) it'll be a great time. I'm slightly worried that it'll turn into a shonen fight show, but i doubt it.

Asteroid in love has 0 ambition, which wouldn't be so bad if yuru camp didn't exist and set the bar way higher for CGDCT. As it stands it's just so painfully generic that I couldn't get trough more than 10 minutes.
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Megiddo



Joined: 24 Aug 2005
Posts: 8360
Location: IL
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:11 pm Reply with quote
Not surprisingly, I really enjoyed Asteroid in Love. Seeing the flustered Ao reach and grab the phone to call Mira and letting go of her formal speech was so heartwarming. Also I really like how they didn't go with "oh no the club is shutting down" as a result of lack of participation. The idea to combine two science-focused clubs into one works well and I love the little competition feel that the geology girls have toward the astronomy side. Definitely should be one that I keep watching for the season.

Unfortunately, I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of Somali and the Forest Spirit as I saw one anime that did it better and for this type of show it's impossible for me to watch at least a full episode without thinking about how the other show did it so much better so it came across as painfully generic.
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BSW



Joined: 22 Jun 2012
Posts: 116
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 2:17 pm Reply with quote
meiam wrote:

Asteroid in love has 0 ambition...


Completely agreed. If it had at least either appealing characters, cute or interesting interactions, a comfy feel, or decent visuals, it could be watchable - yet lacking all of these, not to mention in episode 1 already kills any reason to continue. And we just know that the two girls will never go beyond "very close friends" either ways.
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rahzel rose
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Joined: 19 Apr 2011
Posts: 834
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:09 pm Reply with quote
Megiddo wrote:
Unfortunately, I couldn't watch more than 10 minutes of Somali and the Forest Spirit as I saw one anime that did it better and for this type of show it's impossible for me to watch at least a full episode without thinking about how the other show did it so much better so it came across as painfully generic.


Im curious to know which show you’re referring to. I loved Somali so if you know of something even better, I’m interested.
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borobor



Joined: 05 Sep 2019
Posts: 18
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:22 pm Reply with quote
Asteroid was lovely. It's the kind of peaceful and relaxing show I expected to like, but that was some unexpectedly lavish character animation -- they managed to draw out so much of the characters' personalities in one episode with the little ways that they move and respond to each other. I hope they can keep it up.

Somali is also a beautiful show, and it's just saturated with this subdued stained-glass melancholy without actually feeling sad. I'm really hoping it stays subdued because this one feels like it could develop in a lot of possible directions and I don't want it to turn into a total downer.

A good start to the season, for me at least..
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Key
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Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18507
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 3:45 pm Reply with quote
BSW wrote:
Completely agreed. If it had at least either appealing characters, cute or interesting interactions, a comfy feel, or decent visuals, it could be watchable - yet lacking all of these, not to mention in episode 1 already kills any reason to continue. And we just know that the two girls will never go beyond "very close friends" either ways.

I disagree that that Asteroid shows zero ambition. I won't dispute at all that there's a lot of fluff to it, but the relationship development between Mira and Ao is already more ambitious than most CGDCT get.

That doesn't mean that I'll actually follow this series, but I may follow the reviews if it gets voted in for weeklies.

In general, I'll also heartily agree that this is a pretty solid start to the season. It's not often that I'll rate the first four series all at 3.5 or higher.
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squirrelmecha-2.0



Joined: 01 Jul 2018
Posts: 28
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:46 pm Reply with quote
Bet Magia Record will be Different Dokes for Different folks.
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Kicksville



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 1261
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 5:42 pm Reply with quote
Somali and the Forest Spirit

I expected:
The Ancient Magus' Daughter

I got:
My Dad is Star Platinum
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Covnam



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 3854
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 6:09 pm Reply with quote
Haven't watched anything yet from this season, so can't comment on that, but it's too bad they couldn't get Yuki Kajiura back for Magia Sad
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BodaciousSpacePirate
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Joined: 17 Apr 2015
Posts: 3019
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:36 pm Reply with quote
It'll be a week before I get to see Madoka, but it's great to hear it wasn't awful!
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BSW



Joined: 22 Jun 2012
Posts: 116
PostPosted: Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:54 pm Reply with quote
With Madoka, it depends if you just want a little extra for the game, or if you want to enjoy the series on its own merits, cause if you don't play the game, then it IS going to be awful, and the first episode is already awful.
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Juno016



Joined: 09 Jan 2012
Posts: 2436
PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:08 am Reply with quote
BSW wrote:
With Madoka, it depends if you just want a little extra for the game, or if you want to enjoy the series on its own merits, cause if you don't play the game, then it IS going to be awful, and the first episode is already awful.


I'm not sure where you're getting this impression. I mean, art is subjective and all that, but much of the anime hasn't really been able to take off yet, regardless of your thoughts. And the first episode is mostly original content not in the game. I watched with a group and no one else had played the game, yet everyone enjoyed it and wanted to see more (and yes, we had seen Madoka, I made sure of that--MagiReco was more of an excuse to marathon the original series with the group if nothing else lol).
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kotomikun



Joined: 06 May 2013
Posts: 1205
PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2020 2:16 am Reply with quote
So Funimation gets Magia Record a week early, apparently. Hopefully CR is allowed to catch up next week, otherwise I may be in the bizarre position of considering pirating something that's on a service I'm paying for. Not like I'm gonna buy a new service just to get it a week earlier...

Somali was good, though. Interesting world and art style. Since it's, y'know, made by humans, the "humans were a bunch of barbaric jerks so we killed them all, the end" backstory as told by the beasts probably isn't entirely accurate; presumably we'll learn more about that later. (And, unfortunately, I had exactly the same thought as James, that the dad-figure being an emotionless golem probably means this won't go in a weird direction. Quite low bars we've created for ourselves. I thought the kid was a boy, though.)
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