No one can stay away forever...

It's been a while and I will admit, I stopped posting because there hasn't been anything good to watch. The animes that I have seen have been mostly generic, cookie cutter products of overused tropes, plots, and cliches.

I usually give an anime three episodes to see if it can hook my attention. There have been some animes that have started off well, only to fall into dejavu land by episode two. Other animes have started off in a "meh" like fashion only to quickly improve and grow into something unique and charming.

ReZero comes to mind. This anime uses a plot that had become popular in the east: being sucked into a video game-like world. This is probably due to the overwhelming success of Sword Art Online. 

ReZero started off kinda "meh" as the main character was over the top, somewhat annoying, and fell into the "love at first sight" with the other protagonist trap by the end of episode 1. But his special ability of traveling back in time after death and having to redo everything way unique. As an added bonus, his friends would have no memory of the previous take and his curse mad him physically unable to tell them. Watching his emotion struggle and the progress of his maturity made the anime truly engaging. I even shed a tear at some parts.

Maybe I'm just a jade fan, but I expect more out of animes these days. With the end of Studio Ghibli and the last few years of mediocre madness and cliches I had to take a step back. I began reading more mangas and was pleasantly surprised when some of them became animes. Animes such as ReLife and The Disastrous life of Saiki K were fresh new takes on stale concepts. The cheap antics of perversion and meaningless over the top slapstick are left out for humor that is better developed, more intelligent, tongue in cheek, clever, and actually funny to people over the age of five.

I'm also seeing a resurgence of more serious animes that deal with tough life situations. 91 Days is a noir type anime where a man returns to seek revenge on the mob family that killed his parents and younger sister. He doesn't come in guns a blazing, but instead takes a more tactical approach to bring down each participant one by one.

Gundam Iron-Blooded Orphans is another anime that looks at the human struggle as this unwanted group of young soldiers try to find a place where they belong. While IBO has plenty of cliches, it's told in a simplistic fashion and the characters are interesting to watch. (Plus, it's Gundam. GUNDAM! yes to all the robot fights/). Sometimes, simple is good.

With all that said, I will be starting up One Episode at a Time again. The format will be a little different as I will watch and review different animes other than Sailor Moon. I will also probably be doing more than one series at a time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you like what's coming soon.