CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

Can't believe the summer season is here, but is.

Once again, I'm just going to link to MAL's list of the summer season, rather than trying to describe it myself.
https://myanimelist.net/anime/season/2017/summer

I see some continuations and sequels this season, but also some new stuff. What looks good to everyone else?

Me, I'm kind of curious about Tsurezure Children, but I don't know anything about the source material.

Plan to watch:

* Owarimonogatari 2nd Season - Because Monogatari, of course! And anyway, if the last couple of seasons (and the way the overall story is going) are any indication, this is gonna be epic.
* THE REFLECTION - There's two things going on here that made this a PTW for me. The first thing is that I'm a pretty massive fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and one of this show's two creators is Stan Lee. Even more importantly, however, the second thing is that the *second* creator (who also happens to be the director) of this show is the same guy who was the director of Mushishi, which I think pretty much everyone will agree is one of the best anime of all time (in no small part due to its direction). So, logically, there should definitely be a better-than-50/50-chance that THE REFLECTION is gonna be great. Now, obviously, I'm going to keep my expectations measured just out of practicality; but judging by that staff, this is likely a pretty solid bet.

Oh, and I've got the Tsurezure Children and Welcome To The Ballroom manga in my PTR list, but I haven't started them yet, so can't comment on their goodness except to say that I've heard they are.

Mouse2010 wrote:Me, I'm kind of curious about Tsurezure Children, but I don't know anything about the source material.

Tsurezure Children is great and it's going to be of my favorites of the season. It's basically like the Tsuki ga Kirei shorts but better. It's a bunch of short skits of couples interacting with each other and failing to get their feelings across for various reasons. Don't expect anything beyond skits and comedy, because the number of couples is something like 30, and the episodes are half as long as full length anime. I don't think the anime will cover all of them but suffice to say there's not much plot here, but they're all pretty entertaining skits/characters.

Owarimonogatari and Fate/Apocrypha are also going to be really good. I'm pretty curious to see how the new Jigoku Shoujo turns out. Can't believe that's getting a sequel.

Owarimonogatari S2 ep.'s 1-7 (1-3 on Crunchy, since they handily combined the arcs together ) (complete):

...Oh. Man. I am so happy at the way this turned out!!

The first ep. picks up right after that kicker of a cliffhanger at the end of Koyomimonogatari, with SPOILER: Highlight text to read: Araragi having just been sliced to death (literally!) by Gaen, then waking up in 'the lowest level of hell,' and Mayoi meeting him. Their reunion starts off precisely as expected (this *is* Monogatari, after all) , but then they start walking through some major points in his life, and it gets real interesting real quick-- talking through a few what-ifs, but always confirming that Araragi wouldn't have done anything differently a second time. Also, wow, major revelation(s) about the dude Ononoki 'killed' back in her arc... (And, of course, another little tidbit on how awesome Meme Oshino is. ) As for the arc with Senjougahara: It was so nice to see her again (and the date day had me grinning throughout the entire thing {the end was super sweet, too <3 }). As for Ougi's little dream infiltration there, the thing with the constellations matching up to the situations was pretty fascinating; and wow, so *that's* why those characters were cursed! ...Oh, and her stating at she's "not the darkness"? Holy crap!! Seriously, that twist pretty much blew my mind at first; however, once it's explained in detail later, it actually made perfect sense. And finally getting the true history of the snake shrine and everything that led up to the whole story was great. Also: Wow-- that was actually a pretty darn ingenious solution there with Mayoi/etc. Ohhh crap, though-- as soon as Gaen said that Araragi needed to deal with Ougi "by himself, alone," because he was the only one that could do it, and then that quote about people having to help themselves reappeared, I finally guessed where that was going. As for the endgame: Ah, that sequence with Tsukihi and Sengoku was sweet (and it was really good to see the progress the latter has made! ). And the entire sequence all the way from the conversation between Tsukihi and Ougi (complete with meta mystery novel deconstructions!) to the little reveal about why Tsukihi cannot be exterminated even if her nature is revealed to be a lie ( <3 ) to the conversation between Ougi and Araragi was excellent!! And, of course, as (partially) mentioned earlier, the final, complete explanation of Ougi's true nature made absolute perfect sense (as there was no reason why Araragi *shouldn't* have an apparition problem of his own, after all). And then holy crap again-- that scene where Araragi 'saved himself' (finally fully accepting all of himself and all of his own choices, finally learning to value *himself* as well as others, and saving his literal other half in the process) was so beautifully emotional!! <3 (And best timing on the return of Meme, too {awesome work, Hanekawa}! ...And oh man-- Meme saying that he respected Araragi, plus his genuine "Well done..." So powerful, and so rewarding! <3 <3 <3 ) Oh, and the scene with Araragi and Shinobu was incredibly emotional, too. <3 <3 It's no surprise at all that they bound themselves to one another again (after all, Araragi had already previously pledged himself to Shinobu once Senjougahara eventually dies from old age {which is beautiful but also a bit sad}; so, as he said, there's no way he'd let anything break their bond now). Actually, ever since Hanamongatari (which chronologically occurs after this) and all the talk of loss making one mature and such in there, I'd been expecting (and dreading) the possibility that Araragi's maturity in that entry was due to him losing Shinobu or something; so that was a huge relief as well as being powerfully emotional.

TL;DR: This was an utterly *perfect* ending, and I am 100% satisfied in this being the grand finale of the entire franchise (though I know there actually is still one more epilogue-ish entry in the main story to go {Zokuowarimonogatari} + a bunch of side stuff still being written, which all sound pretty interesting). I couldn't possibly be happier with the way this turned out in every respect, and I can safely say that (yes, even with the content issues strewn throughout the Monogatari franchise ) this was very much worth the journey.

...Also: Decided to hold off on THE REFLECTION until I can just marathon it, and added Tsurezure Children to my plan-to-watch list as well.