This post reviews: Tamako Market, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, GJ-bu and Kotoura-san.

Watching:

Tamako Market

Tamako Market is a pleasant, amusing and relaxing anime with a vibrant community living in a gorgeously animated world.  The stunning visual style has a definite emphasis on the setting too, with an array of colors and details in each background to place importance on place, specifically the indoor mall which Tamako frequents.  The characters that populate this world parallel this feature with a broad, diverse display of emotions which replace their rather simple design with humorous and expressive appearances.  The cast thus far show some promise, not in the individual people themselves but how they function and interact as a community.  Of particular is how the players of the market gathered together to celebrate Tamako’s birthday, showing a sense of community that is otherwise absent in most other anime.  Additionally, the conflict between the Kitashirakawa mochi shop and Ooji mochi shop hints at some rather comical history between the two families, too.  However, after that, Tamako Market begins to fall off.  It’s an anime with a dazzling style but not much in the way of substance.  Although I praise the community aspect and how it integrates minor character in with the main, all the characters seem rather plain and uninteresting, even Tamako and her family.  That’s a bit unnerving considering that they are the focus of this anime.  The talking bird, Dera Mochimazzi, certainly has some personality and spunk but seemed too out of place for this story, even with the fantasy/magic elements that were hinted to us.  Not a lot can be said about the plot thus far but it doesn’t seem to be anything special or original.  There’s plenty of time for that to change but it failed to make a positive impression.  However, the other aspects of the anime did which is more than enough for me to want to see more of Tamako Market.  Considering how much I enjoy the aesthetics of this anime, the community aspect of the market and the amusing comedy, this one is a keeper.  There is quite a bit of room to improve with the characters and the plot but that should improve as the anime progresses over the next few weeks.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

Another delicacy for our eyes, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai is a visual delight with its magnificent art style, keen cinematography and heavy accent on this watercolor effect to give Sasami’s bedroom a distinctive and exceptional look and feel.  What helps contrast this is how clear and detailed the other environments are, making the real world look like the real world and giving Sasami’s room a creamy, fuzzy, almost dream-like feel to it that’s both tender and comforting.  It’s brilliant in how the two settings are expressed so differently through these two remarkable art styles, creating this powerful schism between Sasasmi’s comfort-zone and the harsh reality beyond her bedroom doors.  While on the subject of the art, I must add that the character designs are outstanding and probably my favorite for this season.  The characters themselves, however, are a different story.  While everyone is some wonderful combination between cute and captivating, the personalities and interactions are somehow insufficient.  There isn’t much more to describe the two lead characters between your basic hikikomori and your basic perverted male.  The super-special fighting trio is only slightly better.  However, the five seem to have a bit to them that suggest they’ll improve soon.  The plot features some rather fascinating fantasy elements to it and shows some potential, but it felt a bit empty or rushed in this episode.  The first episode did manage to make me laugh a handful of times, so at least there is comedy to keep me going in case the plot turns out to be something mundane or lazy.  However, depending on how the story evolves, it has the potential to be something innovative which would be something both pleasant and surprising.  Overall, Sasami-san is a charming, delightful anime with a truly unparalleled art style that is both lovely and emotional.  The way the art represents both the setting and emotion is really quite noteworthy and a highlight of this anime.  Beyond that, there is some work that needs to be done with the characters and the story but the first episode showed plenty of promise for both to develop into something pleasant and rewarding.

Kotoura-san

Although I originally decided to pass on this anime, I found myself watching the first episode of Kotoura-san after some surprisingly positive reviews and the request of a commenter.  Thanks to the voices and enthusiasm of these fans, I have found another anime to watch for this season.  The first half of the episode had me rather worried considering how hilariously forced the entire melodramatic section was.  It was ugly with how it tried to make everything dark and emotional when every character was just being stupid and insensitive.  Contrasting that it little Kotoura who went from an adorable, smiling psychic child to a complete emotional wreck over a matter of minutes.  Not saying that it isn’t reasonable considering everything she went through but that it was so woefully forced I figured that this anime would be nothing but lazily written stories about irrational characters that wanted us to feel sad because bad things were happening to cute girls.  Thankfully that only lasted for half an episode with the second half much more enjoyable and a sign of what to expect with future episodes.  The latter half of this episode featured Kotoura warming up to her very first friend, the dimwitted and perverted Yoshihisa.  The comedy was refreshing and amusing, the story was heartwarming and meaningful (thanks to the silly, ‘dark’ first half) and I found myself enjoying Kotoura’s character more after witnessing and understanding her hardships (again, thanks to the first part).  I’m not sure how much I’ll enjoy the comedy and romance going forward but the psychic aspects and conflicting personalities made for some innovative comedy that left me smiling.  The art and animation are charming and cute which is something that fits the now-lighthearted romcom that is Kotoura-san moving forward.  I appreciate some of the visual techniques employed in this episode too, like the darkness shattering that split the first and second halves and how Kotoura tried to breakaway Yoshihisa’s thought bubbles with her hands after reading his mind.  The anime will likely end up being hit-or-miss weekly considering that it is a romantic comedy but I believe I’ll find a way to enjoy it regardless of its ups and downs.  Thanks again for everyone who recommended this anime to me, either directly or indirectly.

Undecided:

GJ-bu

GJ-bu lands here due to a few positives, a number of negatives, and a bit of curiosity that might prove to be worthwhile or another waste of 24 minutes.  The anime is cute, charming and comical; I found myself enchanted by simple yet endearing art style.  While all the characters are attractive, there really isn’t a whole lot in the way of animation or motion in this episode, mainly because the whole show is character sitting around and talking to each other.  There isn’t anything wrong with that as it is but it just doesn’t do much in the way of catching our eyes and keeping us focused.  One way to avoid that issue is to have some engaging dialogue (definitely not this anime) or some hilarious comedy.  While I did find a few jokes to be amusing, most of the comedy was rather dry and clichéd, such as with Short Tsundere Loli getting mad over something stupid, Genius Ojou-sama being the best in the world at something (this anime: chess), Airhead Maid being… I guess pouring tea constantly, I didn’t get her joke, and the Catgirl being silent and animal-like.  However, it is quite interesting to see a character be more animal-like than the Catgirl but the main character is some sort of invertebrate considering how he lacks any backbone in addition to a missing personality or any positive traits.  My God is he banal and boring.  What compounds this issue even worse is that there’s some sorta romance/harem-ish thing going on between him and the four girls which was just absolutely painful in this first episode.  Not only did it feel unnatural and forced but it kept popping up time and time again throughout the episode.  What’s even weirder about it is that there’s no cohesion or comradery with the characters with each doing their own thing to start every skit.  It’s like they’re uncomfortable with each other but, at the same time, they all wanna bone the one male character.  And while all this is somewhere between terrible and regrettable, I found some entertainment and enjoyment from this episode that keeps me lingering for some more.  I know I probably won’t enjoy this anime going further but I figure the characters can’t get any worse and the comedy is certain to improve now that the introductions are finished.  GJ-bu will get another episode and, depending on how it performs, it’ll either be kept or dropped.

Dropped:

Nothing this week, though if you are curious, I did scan through Vividred Operation and Mondaijitachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Sou Desu yo which helped reinforce my notion on skipping them.

And that concludes the First Week Impressions for Winter 2013.  All that remains are all the shorts which are airing this season but I tend to exclude them from this blog since there really isn’t too much to say or add regarding these shows that last between 2 to 5 minutes.  However, for those who are curious, I will be watching Puchimas!, Inferno Cop, Yama no Susume, Mangirl, Ai Mai Mi, Senyuu, and Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan this winter.  Each one is entertaining or cute or in some way fun to watch and only a couple of minutes, so I have no problem if they have a number of problems or aren’t very good.  None of them are really anything great but each produces some laughs, some smiles and are satisfying to watch.  Adding those in with the other shows I’ve picked up and with the other shows continuing from 2012 and it appears that Winter 2013 will be quite busy.  Looks to be quite entertaining, enjoyable and fun, too.

This post reviews: Red Data Girl, Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince, Devil Survivor 2 the Animation, and Karneval.

Right now, it seems as though there will be a total of three parts for the First Week Impressions posts.  If you don’t see a certain anime in this post, it will probably be reviewed in a post that follows this.

Watching:

Devil Survivor 2 the Animation

Although the first episode of Devil Survivor 2 did not leave me terribly impressed, there were plenty of positives in the first episode alone to warrant keeping the anime as well as hints that it should pick up rather quickly.  The most notable positive from this episode would be that it isn’t afraid to thrust the characters immediately into these bizarre fights and thrilling or suspenseful scenes.  It’s an anime that isn’t going to shy away from action which indicates that there should be plenty of action and excitement in this anime.  The story and set-up, at least at this juncture, is surprisingly dumb given what we’ve seen, especially with this death clips app controlling life/death/summoning and a super-secret organization overarching the whole monster battle system.  The main characters are borderline boring right now (except for the sidekick, he’s boring) but it should pick up once the story does and, if not, there should be interesting characters joining the extended cast soon.  The art is respectable and the animation splendid although the subway battles were a bit too dark to really appreciate the character and monster movements.  As for the setting, it seems to be another rehash of Tokyo getting invaded by whatever and having teens fight back.  Nothing terribly impressive there but the monster battle system might prove to be a strength depending on how it integrates with the story or the individual characters.  So while not the best show of this young season, it’s definitely one worth keeping given its positives and its potential.

Undecided:

Red Data Girl

The first episode of Red Data Girl proved to be both surprising and impressive, showcasing a rather remarkable setting, one that intertwines a rustic rural landscape with Shinto magic in a modern Japan.  Not only that but how the setting affects the characters, specifically Izumiko with her divine hair, sheltered upbringing and spontaneous magic, I am honestly intrigued.  The visuals in this anime are spectacular and remarkable, too.  The characters and backgrounds were beautiful throughout the episode but the most impressive illustrations were during the underwater scene where the computer lab flooded and submerged our heroine.  That scene alone really changed my opinion on the anime for the better.  However, as you can see I’m still undecided on it which brings me to the other aspects of the anime.  The whole guardianship with Miyuki’s character, certain to evolve into a romance over time, is all I need for me to drop this anime.  I absolutely hate the set-up with his character and the direction the story is going.  I am willing to give the anime a chance to correct itself out of this spiral, but this type of romance story is one I cannot stand.  The other issues I have with the series beyond the story are that the remainder of the cast failed to make much of an impression on me.  Hopefully some more interesting characters show up soon because there needs to be something this asinine story about forcing a young boy to be the guardian of a young girl.  I’ll give Red Data Girl a chance to improve with its second episode but, given its plot thus far, don’t be surprised if this anime gets dropped next week.

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge leaves me feeling conflicted.  The first episode proved to be fun and entertaining, especially when the two main characters Kiri and Iwai were involved in generating the humor and laughs.  The ordeal with Iwai being ‘cursed’ and the ‘Killing Goods’ being weapons for a death game sound intriguing and I’m curious to see how they will be used.  The only other characters that were featured in this episode, the two ‘murderers’ have the potential to be interesting too, depending on who they’re used since they’re both still mysterious at this point (except one is a student at Kiri’s school or something?).  As for the rest of the anime… meh.  I’ve never really been fond of survival or death games before, so depending on how Crime Edge manages this aspect will prove vital to whether I keep it or not.  You already know the romance angle will be played strongly throughout the anime between Kiri and Iwai and that’s something I’m not looking forward, too.  These types of forced romances are always the worst kind of stories and that alone would be an excellent reason for dropping this anime.  Also, considering that this will be a death game anime, you figure the remainder of the cast will be gimmicky players with specific weapons, so there isn’t too much hope for genuine interactions between the characters unless the two other girls watching over Iwai join their side.  The action might be the best part of the plot but I’m not sure how a battle between a pair of scissors and a syringe will work out.  Well, I suppose in the next episode, I’ll find out how that battle ends up, as well as whether I’ll want to keep Crime Edge or not.

Dropped:

Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince

You know you’re dealing with an abysmal anime when the best thing that I can recall from the first episode is that I only watched it for 9 minutes.  And even then, I still regret lasting that long.  Majestic Prince isn’t so much of an anime than it is a lengthy list of problems.  For starters, the characters aren’t so much as humans as they are wandering one-dimensional personality traits.  The klutzy girl is always klutzy in everything that she does, the stupid protagonist is stupid in everything he does and the other three reacted not as a person would but how their one flawed personality trait defined they would.  I don’t even recall the characters thinking or showing emotion once during my experience with Majestic Prince.  And speaking of flawed, there is art and animation in Majestic Prince.  The CG animated space battles was passable at best, you can’t be terrible impressed with 3D models flying through open and empty space.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the art.  The stylization or appearance of the characters in Majestic Prince is a balanced combination of lazy and ugly.  None of the characters show any discernible detail or effort besides the wacky faces that popped up whenever someone attempted something humorous.  It’s something I’m not used to and something I don’t plan on getting used to either.  I didn’t make it far enough into the episode to understand or appreciate the plot but it seems like a bunch of losers are going to save the galaxy for no practical or gratifying reason.  I mean, I could understand it better if they were the best fighters in the school or something, but this is the equivalent in stupidity of asking a bunch of 4-year-olds try to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner (except that would be more entertaining than Majestic Prince).  Oh, I suppose there is one other positive that I can comment on from this first episode: that I won’t be watching this anime anymore.

Karneval

It’s amazing how much of an impact one character can have on an anime and, unfortunately for Karneval, the protagonist here absolutely ruins the anime for me.  Nai is way too needy and dependent as a character, never thinking for himself or even about himself and always going on and on about his boyfriend, Karoku.  Even during the fight and subsequent escape, he never showed interest or really any appropriate reactions to the events going on.  I could understand if he were drugged or sedated somehow but it seems that he was too busy thinking about Karoku and where he went.  The rest of the cast, however, proved fine, especially Gareki who really carried this episode once he began setting off the bombs.  The action in this anime does seem a bit variable with the fight in the mansion being lame but the one on the train enjoyable, possibly because the one in the mansion was just bombs going off twice and the train scene featured an actual fight.  As for the plot, I left the episode without a clue on what was going on besides Circus being a super-secret organization and Nai is searching for Karoku because he never ceased to mention that whenever he could.  I’m not really certain who or what the other characters are doing yet but I suppose that it will be revealed eventually.  The art and animation in this anime is gorgeous, especially in terms of its detail and character design.  I’d love to continue watching the anime based on its aesthetics alone since it is pleasing to the eye, but it just isn’t my type of anime.  After watching the first episode, I already hate the helpless, absentminded and emotionless protagonist Nai and the story never really hooked me with its factions and groups waging a magical war against each other.  It might be worth checking out if you can get beyond the protagonist, but for now, I’m done with Karneval.

This post reviews: Hataraku Maou-sama!, Photo Kano, Yahari Ore Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru, and Aku no Hana.

Watching:

Hataraku Maou-sama!

Hataraku Maou-sama! is a charming anime thanks to its genuine comedy and pleasant cast of characters.  While the first episode focused primarily on setting up the story with Sadao meeting Emi in modern Tokyo, Maou-sama provided tremendous insight into its sense of humor and its presentation, working in a number of amusing jokes regularly throughout the episode.  In addition to that, we also witnessed the transformation of Sadao and his underling, Ashiya, from world-conquering demons to underemployed foreigners.  It really introduced the series well and gave us a baseline to go from, already showing us development in the characters that’s both meaningful and hilarious.  The story will only progress from here and it will likely show Sadao and Emi compete with each other in this new realm but instead of awesome super-powers and magic, they’ll be competing as ordinary humans.  The results are sure to be hilarious and I wouldn’t be surprised if some romance blossoms between these two fated rivals.  Given that the physical setting is Tokyo, I’m not entirely impressed, but I do enjoy the fantasy undertones throughout and the fact that the characters are all from another world and one that’s modeled after an RPG video game.  The art and animation were above-standard and pleasing to watch thought nothing noteworthy occurred in this episode.  I’m already excited about the next episode of Maou-sama and I hope that every episode from here on out can reproduce the same level of quality and amount of comedy that made the first episode so enjoyable.

Undecided:

Nothing here which means the other three are…

Dropped:

Photo Kano

Hey, did you know you’re watching an incredibly dry and derivative harem anime?  Let me remind, again, you that I am childhood friends with the smartest, most popular and athletic girl at our school?  And that I’m buddy-buddy with the busty tomboy on the Softball team?  And like every girl at school because of my camera?  Oh, and how could I forget that this is generic every-school in Japan?  And that super wacky club I joined, the one with those crazy characters and that one otaku girl, why, everyone does that in Japan, right?  Yeah, you can totally self-insert yourself into this miserable excuse of fan wank, especially if you’re one of those camera otaku who loves to take those slightly ecchi pictures of girls without their permission.  Oh, what’s that?  The girls in this anime want you to take their pictures and that they don’t mind if you’re spying on them from afar?  Wonderful!  It’s like this anime was written by the hopes and dreams of every lonely otaku with a camera who dreamed about taking upskirt of every girl in school.  Yeah, that’s probably the only type of demographic that could possibly watch and appreciate this mess of an anime.  And if the entirely unoriginal story, characters and setting weren’t enough of a reason, the art is clearly substandard and the animation nonexistent.  Hell, even the fanservice in this anime is awkward with all those spine-breaking poses everyone is doing.  Really, there is no reason to continue watching Photo Kano unless you’re the kinda guy who wishes they could photograph every girl in school in a variety of outfits doing supposedly sexy poses without getting arrested and thrown in jail.  Yeah, that’s it.

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru (Oregairu)

Pretty much take the Photo Kano review, place it here, remove “perverted camera otaku” and replace with “typical anti-social loser” and you’ve got my impressions of Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Comedy wa Machigatteiru.  It’s pretty much got the same set-up you see in every harem anime with guy meeting girls, guy being forced into new club, typical Japanese high school, and every other cliché that’s necessary for these type of anime so that the otaku that depend on them never have to face change in their lives.  Like, even if there were an ounce of originality in this anime, would the audience that this is intended for throw up their arms and riot?  I really wonder why there is no innovation or imagination in this genre that feels like the same anime on repeat.  And is it supposed to be funny that the premise here is “this isn’t going to be a romcom” and then it goes head-first into stereotypical romcom jokes and relationship development?  Newsflash, it isn’t.  Not only that, but the characters are incredibly shallow and the dialogue throughout the episode was monotonous and predictable.  Not only that, but it is incredibly boring for the entire first episode to be the main two to three characters conversing the whole time.  The art is fine yet unimpressive, but the animation was completely absent since it was just people sitting and talking in an empty classroom for 20 minutes.  I am stunned that I am saying this but somehow Photo Kano was better than Oregairu.  However, unlike Photo Kano, I may revisit this anime since it has the right properties to be an effective sleep aid should I ever develop insomnia and need a way to quickly fall asleep each night.

Aku no Hana

Since the visuals are the most defining, most noteworthy and most conversed subject of Aku no Hana, let’s start there first.  I must admit, I was skeptical about the animation style from the screenshots I saw but I am impressed with the level of animation and kinetics throughout the entire episode.  The sheer amount of movement is remarkable, especially with all the insignificant and wasted motions, like shifting one’s eyes or acting goofy in public.  I really enjoyed that aspect of this episode, especially since the animation was constant and consistent throughout.  Even with a few scenes of recycled animation, I found this to be the single best aspect of this anime.  However, the other aspect of the visuals, that of the art, is a disaster.  I realize there is an exchange between art and animation and that the one must be sacrificed for the other, but the characters are just way too plain to look at.  There is no detail in their appearance.  It’s lackluster.  It’s boring.  I realize that there was a compromise to accommodate for the level of the animation, but this is unpleasant.  What it did was pass a certain threshold of art quality for me, placing it somewhere below the baseline of what I consider acceptable for an anime.  If they wanted the story to be portrayed as realistic, why not just film it as a live-action TV show?  In fact, if it were a live-action show, I think I’d definitely keep it.  If it were a live-action show, I’d have no gripe about the low-quality art and I would be able to appreciate the artistic merit of the story more so.  But no, the character art is too worrisome for me, something that I just can’t appreciate for an story of this caliber.  I’m in love with the animation and kinetics in Aku no Hana but the art is just way too simple and dull.  And when the anime transitions into dialogue-heavy scenes where the animation is nil, I know I won’t be happy with the appearance of this anime.  I’m really conflicted on this issue, both simultaneously loving and hating different aspects of the concept at the same time.  If only the art quality were better, then I might be talking about this anime in the Watching section instead.

Alright, as for the rest of the anime, I can’t say I’m terribly fascinated.  The protagonist here is just another high school loser who’s horny for the most beautiful girl in school.  I know the story will pick-up quickly now that Kasuga found Saeki’s gym clothes in the classroom, but I was never thrilled with the idea of a romance/drama where blackmail is the dominant concept.  It may or may not be interesting but it doesn’t seem like the kinda story I enjoy or appreciate.  And given the way the first episode was directed, I really have to wonder how slow and meaningless the rest of the anime will be.  This first episode felt unnecessary given how little development occurred, and you really have to question the message the producers were trying to send with this first episode.  I know that they’re trying to be artsy and emblematic but this was just bad.

This post reviews: Free!, Stella Jogkuin Koutouka C3-bu, Danganronpa, Love Lab, Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku, and Servant x Service.

I realize that about a dozen shows have aired at this point and that, as always, I’m late with these posts, so if the show you’re looking for isn’t in this post, it should be up sometime soon… hopefully.

Watching:

Stella Jogkuin Koutouka C3-bu

Honestly, C3-bu probably belongs in the Undecided section since I wasn’t terribly impressed with the first episode, especially with this style and set-up in the shadow of Girls und Panzer and resembling Upotte!! with its girls and guns motif.  The anime has only a minimal amount of originality so far and the all-girls club at school has become so tired and cliché it’s becoming a negative.  The only positive here is that the girls actually do what the club says, but we’ll have to wait and see what future episodes hold, especially if cake and tea are involved.  Regardless, the first episode proved to be somewhat entertaining with its cast and comedy and the battle sequence at the end proved that it takes the survival game aspect seriously but with some lighthearted fun, too.  To say the episode was enjoyable would be accurate but that mainly stems from the action sequences at the end.  The first episode did lay a solid foundation as this anime has room to grow with its characters and story which should be facilitated by the girls shooting each other with airsoft guns.  The art is a bit cutesy, helping out with the lightheartedness and comic aspects of this anime, and the animation was rather remarkable during the battle sequence, leading me to hope that the survival games in this anime are drawn as well as this first episode.  Overall, the anime did enough to warrant me keeping it and I have faith that it’ll continue to be fun throughout but this one is probably destined to mediocrity, even in a mediocre season like this summer appears to be.

Danganronpa

With the first episode of Danganronpa serving exclusively as an introduction to the characters, the setting and the plot, we weren’t able to infer much about how the remainder of the anime will play out or even how the episodes will be structured.  Nevertheless, given its unparalleled style and fairly interesting plot, I have to say that Danganronpa has me interested in what it has to offer.  The art and animation are what stands out to me the most, particularly with its striking character designs and attention to detail.  The cast hasn’t really had enough time to establish each character beyond what they look like and what they’re good at, but it seems there’s plenty of potential for them to grow, provided they don’t end up dead first.  As for the story, Danganronpa seems to have strong elements of comedy, mystery and horror at this point which is a unique combination that has caught my attention, but I’m curious which one will dominate as the series progresses.  Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode despite it being 24 minutes of introducing everything, so I figure the series should get even better once the real action starts in episode 2.  Definitely a series worth keeping around for now.

Love Lab

Love Lab’s first episode was cute, charming and comical, a combination that’s a reliable recipe for success.  Add in some rather humorous (and impressive) animation and a pair of characters with ideal chemistry and Love Lab actually comes in as one of the best anime of this summer.  What makes Love Lab so enjoyable is that everything seems to fit in well with each other.  The style of comedy is mild and situational but the presentation is often physical or visual which fits in nicely with its delightful art style and smooth animation.  The characters both have amiable personalities, making them both fun to watch, and they complement each other by how they contrast each other.  Furthermore, the anime has hardly any substance to it and all the romantic aspects are downplayed for comedic purposes making this one a pure comedy through and through.  I was originally expecting this to be have heavy yuri or romantic undertones to it but there was none whatsoever in this first episode.  And as for complaints, I don’t have any.  Love Lab has proven to be the most surprising of all the shows this season and is already among my favorite for the Summer.

Servant x Service

Another comedy, Servant x Service features a style of quick jokes around an office setting that focuses on workplace humor and other young adult circumstances.  Servant x Service is pretty mild but consistent when it comes to its comedy and it doesn’t try too hard with irrational or unbelievable characters, so it’s actually pretty fun to watch.  That being said, it doesn’t really ever become hilarious but it does lead to a number of smiles and smirks throughout.  The art and animation for Servant x Service is actually pretty basic and uninspiring, but it’s sufficient to keep its characters cute and to deliver the comedy in an appropriate manner.  It doesn’t seem like it’ll be one of the better anime of this season, unless it grows quickly with its comedy and characters, but I do like its setting and its adult characters as a change of pace from schools and teens like every other anime in this post.  Furthermore, I have a sweet spot for this anime because it does remind me slightly of my work, especially the aspect where people yell at you for no goddamn reason when it’s something completely out of your hands.   So while it isn’t near the top of this season in terms of comedies or other aspects, this one is certainly a keeper for me.

Undecided:

The six anime in this post were fairly easy to determine based on what I like and what I’m looking for, so there’s nothing here.  All that remains from this first week review are the two anime that failed to convince me that they’re worth watching…

Dropped:

Free!

In what’s probably the most polarizing anime of the season, thanks in large to a cast of supposedly sexy and scantily-dressed teenage swimmers, Free! seemed like one of those anime that’d you’d either love or hate.  But after watching just one episode of Free!, I realized I feel into a third category that seemed to be underrepresented among the hype and the hatred: boredom.  The first episode of Free! was completely underwhelming and unimpressive, a combination that kept me largely indifferent throughout, much like Haruka’s reaction to everything that isn’t water, swimming or speedos.  His apathetic personality, together with Makoto’s anxiousness and Nagisa’s happy-go-lucky nature, left me with no real feelings or connections to any of the characters.  At least Rin is a jerk and likes competition, so he’s somewhat enjoyable as a character, but was too much of a bitch to his friends to make him likable.  And honestly, with all the club anime going around, I have to say that swimming just doesn’t do anything for me.  Surpisingly, the art and animation seemed to be subpar for Kyoto Animation save for the brilliant and gorgeous water effects, but it felt like watching a lower-quality episode of Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! that wasn’t funny or charming at all.  I was actually kinda hoping that Free! would be fun or interesting or even original, but it seems to be another run-of-the-mill school club animation without a plot and without an interesting cast.

Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku (Chronicles of the Going Home Club)

Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku is yet another school club anime, except instead of being a club that actually does stuff, this is a club about girls who go home after school… or so it seems.  In reality, it’s another anime about a bunch of girls who get together and do stupid stuff.  Yeah, it’s another one of those anime.  Unfortunately for Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku, it doesn’t really have any merits to it besides the fact that you can stop the episode after 6 minutes and not feel bad for yourself.  None of the characters are particularly interesting or enjoyable, being a grab-bag of your favorite anime tropes, like the super rich girl, the strong tomboy, the super energetic club leader and two wildcards.  The comedy is always something silly or wacky with the main girl shouting a punchline like, ‘That’s so crazy!’ or something to that effect.  I can’t say I’m too terribly impressed with the art, especially with so little in the way of animation, but I suppose it would be the best aspect of this anime if I had to choose.  Either way, I decided to go home myself after only a few minutes of this unsatisfactory anime, and I strongly suggest others do the same.

This post reviews: Kirino Mosaic, Gen’ei wo Kakeru Taiyou, Monogatari Series Second Season, Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi, and Uchouten Kazoku.

Looks like there’ll be three parts for my First Impressions posts for Summer 2013.  After this, I might post a couple of Weekly Anime posts before I go on hiatus, though I might try something different for the month of July.  I guess we’ll see once these posts are finished up.

Watching:

Kiniro Mosaic (Yellow Mosaic)

Easily the cutest anime of the season, Kiniro Mosaic is a delightful and entrancing anime full of endearing moments, heartwarming skits, and a style of adorable comedy that makes you want to hold and hug the characters instead of laughing at their jokes.  It also helps that the art and animation are presented in a way to compliment these elements, always in a bright pastel style and frequently featuring chibi characters and simplistic, cartoony faces.  It’s easily the most charming anime of the season and I couldn’t help but find myself smiling throughout.  As for the substance of this anime… well, let’s just say it really isn’t the strength of Kiniro Mosaic.  I doubt that Kiniro Mosaic will have much in the way of a plot or character development, though you figure that something will have to happen for this anime to fill a full season.  You figure the anime will be primarily comedy and slice-of-life, something which this anime seems to succeed at, though you figure there will be stories throughout.  It’s hard to say exactly what this anime will be like since most of this first episode was reliving a flashback when Shinobu lived with Alice in England and then introducing Alice’s arrival in Japan.  I hope that the anime stays as cute as this first episode, but I wouldn’t mind sacrificing some of that cuteness for an original plot and expressive, emotional characters.  That being said, the captivating and charming nature of this anime is reason enough to watch Kiniro Mosaic and any sort of meaningful plot and character maturity will be an added bonus to what is already a delightful anime.

Monogatari Series Second Season

I’ve always loved the Monogatari series, though lately, I’ve been a bit disenchanted with the series.  I feel in love with the first few episodes of Bakemonogatari, specifically Hitagi Crab and Mayoi Snail, but the remainder of the series kinda pattered out when it became obvious that the show was following a repeating pattern and offered nothing new besides another addition to the harem and another unique obstacle to solve.  I immediately forgot all this by the time Nisemonogatari started and dove head-first into the series only to otherwise regret my decision by the time the incest reared its ugly head and the Tsukihi arc was almost forgotten.  Nekomonogatari rekindled my interest for the series by recalling some of the more favorable aspects of the early episodes of Bakemonogatari, but it never recaptured that magic that caused me to fall in love with the franchise in the first place.  Enter Monogatari Series Second Season which begins the series again by revisiting all the girls of Bakemonogatari with follow-ups to their original issues which spawned the stories of the original anime.  Hoping for something different or, at least something to differentiate it from all the others before it, I have to say I am somewhat happy with what the first episode of Monogatari Series did though I’m reserving my opinions until more of the series and the sexualization reveals itself.

That being said, I absolutely love that the series began again without Araragi appearing and instead, focusing on Tsubasa, the evolution of her problem and her complicated but amazingly engaging relationship with Senjougahara.  It certainly helps Monogatari that this was the first time to see the series through the perspective of someone other than Araragi and that we were able to witness a wonderful conversation between two of the girls, so I was pleased to see that.  Furthermore, I found the writing and the use of those unique ‘Scene Cards’, particularly the ones that read ‘It didn’t hurt at all.’ ‘Yet it hurt a lot.’ to be brilliant displays of character expression and self-reflection.  And I do like how the girls have changed too, with Tsubasa having short hair, ditching her glasses and with Senjougahara also wearing her hair short.  Oh, and having Senjougahara playing around with Tsubasa in her underwear, this time with crab panties instead of the distinguished stapler/scissors/boxcutter panties from before, was a nice tribute to the original Bakemonogatari.  That being said, the only real negatives from this series are that the art, cinematography and directing for this series feels the same as all the others before it and, while still entirely unique and often breathtaking, it has become a bit anticipated or expected.  Like I mentioned before, I want something more from Monogatari to differentiate it from the series or to do something that replicates the magic from Hitagi Crab/Mayoi Snail that I loved so much.  Either way, you probably get the point that I’m expecting a lot from Monogatari, so hopefully it can deliver in either one of two ways that I’m looking for with this new season.  And even if it doesn’t, it still will probably be my favorite of this Summer.

Uchouten Kazoku (The Eccentric Family)

Uchouten Kazoku is an anime that has featured quite a stunning and gorgeous visual style but left me feeling unimpressed with its story thus far and its limited cast of characters.  The strengths of Uchouten Kazoku lie in its illustrations and its animation, both featuring a distinct presentation that rank among the best of this year.  The first episode featured numerous scenes with large amounts of seamless, dazzling animation which is certainly pleasing to my eyes.  I wasn’t really certain whether I’d like the character designs or not, but after seeing them move around in the elegant world that they reside in, I’ve grown to like these character models, especially since they facilitate the high-quality animation that this anime should be known for.  The setting, mixing together the heritage of tanuki, tengu and humans in Kyoto is certainly something that appeals to me.  However, that’s about where my praises for this anime stop, as all that really remains are the story and the characters.  I can’t say I find any of the characters particularly interesting or engaging, though I do enjoy Yasaburou Shimogamo’s sense of individualism and adventureism by running around the city dressed as a trap in that serafuku.  However, I fear that once he looks like a guy again, I probably won’t like him as much, so hopefully he crossdresses for the remainder of the series.  As for the story thus far, I can’t say I’m particularly interested in it either.  I do seem to enjoy the storytelling thus far and how the story has evolved, but the romance isn’t really all that enjoyable, at least not as much as seeing the tanuki and tengu sides conflicting with each other.  I hope that the anime begins to take another direction soon with its story.  Otherwise, Uchouten Kazoku had a fun first episode with its magnificent art and animation, so I’m looking forward to watch more, even if the story and characters don’t evolve the way I want them to.

Undecided:

Gen’ei wo Kakeru Taiyou (Il Sole Penetra le Illusioni/Day Break Illusion)

Although Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou featured enough positives in its first episode to warrant watching a second, there’s still that sinking feeling based on its PVs and its Opening animation that this anime just won’t be that good.  The main reason why I have doubts about this anime is not because this strongly resembles a poor man’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica, but that this series will try too hard to make itself seem serious despite it having no emotions or progression to validate its depressing and thoughtful nature.  For example, the whole tentacle plant attack and murder of her friend were done without much in the way of expression or significance, but rather came across as cheap and petty shock tactics.  The same can be said for the runaway truck and the mansion on fire, too.  And while it is unfair to compare this to Madoka, it’s almost like someone explained to them some of the highlights of that magical girl anime but forgot to mention the character growth, the writing and dialogue that made that anime so enjoyable.  The PVs and the Opening animation seem to reiterate this point with scenes of blood, tears and despair, so all the warning signs are there, after watching the first episode, to think that this anime will be little more than a frustrating plot told through substandard storytelling.  That being said, I did find a few aspects of the story to be enjoyable, particularly the day after Fuyuna died, with Akari going on as normal, so I can’t say that everything about this story is terrible.  I do figure that with everything introduced, we’re in for a bit of an explanation in the second episode, so hopefully then I’ll understand the direction of this anime and whether it’s a positive or a negative.  The art and animation aren’t too much more than mediocre and it is super loli (though with the number of loli anime this season, it really isn’t that significant), but I do like the cutesy, colorful style that was featured in this episode and I thought that the battle sequence at the end was visually appealing with its use of colors and animation.  I’m not sure what to think about the characters right now, but they seem to be a pleasant group of girls.  I guess I’ll have a better idea about them and the story of Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou after the second episode and, by then, I should know whether this is worth keeping or not.

Dropped:

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi (The Sunday Without God)

Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi is one of those unfortunate anime where the negatives simply outweigh the positives.  What was particularly damning about Kami Nai is that none of the characters were enjoyable, with Ai being another tiresome, lackluster loli and Hampnie being an absolute dick.  The comedy and chemistry between the two seemed to be lacking and the whole situation that Ai was placed in, with the whole village being slaughtered like that, came across as detached and confusing.  I can’t say I really enjoy the setting of this anime either with no births and zombies predominating the world but it did show the potential to grow depending on the various villages and settlements Ai visits.  The art was one of the few positives of this series, though I did run across a few scenes where the quality dipped and a few others where the quality nosedived.  And really, I just kinda felt bored throughout the first episode which left me with a poor impression of what’s probably to come in future episodes.  I mean, if I’m already feeling apathetic to the characters and the story at this point, there really isn’t much reason to continue, especially when the other aspects of this anime fail to differentiate themselves to me.  Hopefully this anime will improve but I won’t be sticking around to see whether it does or not.

This post reviews: Kyoukai no Kanata, Coppelion, KILL la KILL, Nagi no Asukara, and Strike the Blood.

You can also add Kyousogiga in this post as a keeper but, since it was simply a repeat of the original OVA, I really have nothing new to add.  Except that Kyousogiga is still awesome in just about every way.  I am a slight bit disappointed that it wasn’t a new episode but I can’t fault them by wanting to start from the beginning again for this new TV anime.

Watching:

Coppelion

Two things that hardly ever change in anime are the setting and the background art.  With stunning, gorgeous visual environments and a magnificent setting in a forsaken, post-apocalyptic Tokyo, Coppelion has a solid foundation for which to construct a great anime.  And what will help build up this anime are the development of a proper story and its trio of main characters.  To be fair, I didn’t think the story or the characters were all that great but both showed plenty of potential moving forward.  The three personalities started off as purely ‘anime-ish’ but that’s only the starting point, not the ending point.  I’m sure once the characters have more time on screen and are challenged by the events of this anime, they’ll develop into well-rounded and interesting characters.  I’m not sure what to make of the story but, at this point, I figure it’ll involve the girls finding out some mystery and fighting against the organization they’re a part of.  And while that doesn’t excite me all that much, it might turn out to be pretty decent.  The one negative aspect I have with this anime is the character art and character design.  The characters look superimposed on these backgrounds, almost like the anime is made with 2 separate layers throughout.  Doesn’t look all that great.  And seeing as this anime has some minor fanservice (upskirts where you see their butts, no pantyshots), I’d rather have the three main characters wear something else than schoolgirl outfits.  I mean, are you trying to be cute or funny or ecchi?  Maybe there’ll be an explanation but it looks like it’s just cheap fanservice right now.

KILL la KILL

Kill La Kill has everything I want in an anime.  Not only does it remind me of two of my favorite anime, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Needless, but it has plenty of its own uniqueness and distinctiveness to differentiate itself from virtually every other anime.  The style and presentation is unparalleled and Kill La Kill uses its animation to make every scene thrilling and invigorating rather than a means of filling space with talking heads.  The fighting and action sequences are seamless and within the story itself, and let’s not forget that they’re visual marvels to enjoy, too.  And Ryuuko as a character, both personality and looks, matches perfectly with my personal favorite archetype.  The other characters are pretty great too, notably Mako, and all have a great role in this anime to start.  The story has plenty of elements for fun while also exploring a serious, captivating plot and plenty was described clearly with this first episode.  Honestly, I can’t say anything bad about this series.  Even the frequent fanservice was a positive.  The fanservice never felt distracting or tasteless, only being used at times for fun, humor or to add spice to already exciting scenes.  Then again, I had anticipated this to be my favorite anime of the season when I saw it announced, so I expected it to be right about here after one episode.  Nevertheless, to have Kill La Kill perform at or beyond my expectations is a wonderful way to start this series.  This should be the first episode of what will be a phenomenal and memorable anime.

Nagi no Asukara

As stated with Coppelion earlier, the setting and background art are two aspects that usually don’t change in an anime, and fortunately for Nagi no Asukara, these are two of the biggest strengths of this anime.  The visual environments of Nagi no Asukara are colorful masterpieces with plenty of detail and lighting to bring the setting to life.  And the setting itself, one that links a troubled, conflicted underwater civilization with a pompous landlubber society, it not only imaginative but holds the potential to greatly influence the characters and story.  The characters seem decent so far and I enjoyed the focus on Manaka’s difficulties coupled with the fact she’s a timid crybaby who doesn’t respond well to challenges or problems.  The story seems pretty plain thus far but the undertones of societal (or even racial) relations between the two sides, not to mention the environmentalism aspect, is sure to lead the series in the right direction in whatever plot it hopes to explore.  The character designs are pretty typical for PA Works which is a pleasant, cute style that has grown on me.  The one thing that worries me about this anime is that, while it has the potential to mature into a wonderful anime, it might not have the appropriate pacing to satisfy me.  That is to say, I’m worried that the anime will be slow and boring at parts.  However, it never felt that way with the first episode, so hopefully this issue doesn’t pop up in the middle of the series when the initial charm of this anime begins to wane.

Undecided:

Nothing here.  All five anime in this post were fairly easy decisions.

Dropped:

Kyoukai no Kanata

Although Kyoukai no Kanata surpassed my expectations as an anime, I’m still planning on dropping it.  Sure, the battle animation was remarkable and the comedy was genuinely funny, but the entertaining aspects, undoubtedly my favorite features of this anime, were just too infrequent in this first episode.  Whatever momentary joy I derived from this episode was sandwiched by long, boring conversations.  The writing and dialogue was only decent when Mirai was on screen and painful when Mitsuki showed up.  Ugh, her character was an absolute waste of time and space and I wonder if I’d be watching this show if it were just Mirai and Akihito the whole time.  Then again, the series didn’t offer me anything particularly interesting through its story or its setting; it’s just a couple of kids with overactive imagination.  And while the anime might develop into something fun later on (doubt it, it’ll be another lackluster romance), the serious perspective on everyone’s chuunibyou personalities was a turn off.  If only it had more comedy and style to it to make it fun and entertaining.  Oh well, it won’t be long before Chuunibyou 2 comes out, so I think I’ll just wait until that comes out again.

Strike the Blood

Strike the Blood was painful in just about every aspect.  The characters were completely devoid of personalities or anything to make them interesting.  The whole time, it felt like there was no emotion or excitement or energy from the cast.  Hell, the tone from the vampire protagonist was unchanged from talking with friends to being stalked to stopping a street fight.  Where’s the interest in this anime if you’re not going to be interested in anything?  The story, from what I gathered before closing out the episode early, is about these supernatural monsters that live on this secluded city island for whatever reason and cause chaos and destruction when hitting on demon-hunting schoolgirls.  That might be fine but you know the story is never going to improve when the dialogue was so dry and unintelligent.  Pretty much all the conversations were straightforward exposition, like the anime thought we were too dumb to understand anything unless it stated everything directly rather than attempting to make it sound like people conversing.  The only action in this first episode was a brief fight that seemed to be over before it started.  And the only comedy revolved around seeing the main girl’s panties three times; not only a cheap joke but a wasted opportunity since the joke was never funny to begin with.  Instead, it was pretty much fanservice that stopped the story for 30 seconds before allowing it to continue.  But at that point, why would you want to continue watching this?  If there was a reason, I couldn’t find it.

This post reviews: Gingitsune, Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta, and Non Non Biyori.

Looks like there will only be one more of these previews with the last few remaining anime covered there and then moving onto my Weekly Anime after this.  All that’ll be left after this is to decide which anime to write about each week.

Watching:

Gingitsune

The first episode of Gingitsune was a mix of positives and negatives, but the negatives were more along the lines of worrisome problems than the anime being bad.  It’s more that I have a sinking feeling that this anime will deteriorate as it continues than anything else.  The main reason why I feel this way is that there was very little excitement or energy from the cast and no real foresight on problems or conflicts to build on.  Sure, the setting is cheery with a school-age shrine maiden who can see and communicate with a messenger of the gods named Gintarou.  I like that.  And I enjoyed the honest, genuine feel of the characters and their interactions with each other.  It isn’t over-the-top or unbelievable but realistic problems where a girl gets mad at Makoto because she was hurt by her advice.  That’s great, too, brilliant even.  But it didn’t really set up anything for the long term, such a goal for Makoto or a struggle that both are needed to solve.  Instead, I wonder how long the anime will be an episodic slice of life anime like this one.  Sure, the anime might be fine, but episodic anime are largely hit-or-miss and I can see a number of misses if it’s tame or dry.  That being said, I am sufficiently intrigued by Gintarou’s character and his relationship with Makoto.  The fact that none of the previous shrine maidens had personal relationships with Gintarou is sure to set up for some wonderful development with his character and his blunt yet honest personality makes for a fantastic pairing with a stereotypical moe girl lead (thank heavens it’s not another angsty teenager or perverted idiot).  I’m looking forward to that and I’m also looking forward to how Gintarou will influence Makoto’s character, too.  The art style is lovely though the execution is somewhat sloppy at times, especially with some of the insignificant animation.  I know that’s being nitpicky but there were times when it looked off.  And that’s really the final negative I had with this anime.  Everything else was pleasant and I’m looking forward to more episodes soon.

Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta

First and foremost, did anyone else notice the seamless and fluid transitions between 2D and 3D animation in Yozakura Quartet?  The animation director (Satonobu Kikuchi) and anime studio (Nomad) turned out a marvelous performance with this episode, making the switches between 3D models and 2D drawings almost unnoticeable.  The two styles complement each other, with simple 2D character designs that parallel the 3D models and 3D characters with cel-shaded expressions that reflect appropriate anime facial expressions and movement.  I mean, if it weren’t this great, I don’t know if I’d want to keep the anime or not given how I dislike 3D modeling but this first episode really left a positive impression on me.  As for the actual content of the anime: it’s good but not great.  The setting is pretty much wonderful, an enjoyable mix of magic and monsters, chaos and action and features a mysterious cast of villains who are quite a bit more vibrant and interesting than the trio of school kids and an adorable blue-haired catgirl.  I appreciated the use of superpowers as a means of combat and the action sequences were fun, but I can’t say the same about the rest of the first episode which was best summarized as ‘meh’.  It was pretty slow at times but you figure that’d happen with the content was focused on introductions rather than fighting giant runaway goldfish.  There were frequent pantyshots spread throughout the first episode, but none where shoved in your face leading me to believe they wanted to include some panties but not to go too overboard and devolve it into a shitty ecchi anime.  It would do fine without it but I imagine there will be fanservice throughout this series because why not?  I’m excited to see where this story will go and what the characters will do but I’m not expecting anything profound to be explored here nor do I expect the characters to mature or develop into fascinating characters with sophisticated personalities or elaborate details.  In fact, I’m just hoping this anime is fun and not much else.  If it’s able to deliver that, then I know picking up Yozakura Quartet for this season will be worth my time.

Undecided:

Non Non Biyori

Non Non Biyori isn’t the comedy I expected it to be, so I need to adjust my expectations for this series to see whether I want to keep it or not.  And while Non Non Biyori had plenty of comedy moments, the jokes were just spread way too thinly throughout to keep me sufficiently entertained and the focus was entirely more slice of life than comedy, so that set me up for a bit of disappointment with this episode.  That being said, knowing this is a slice of life anime, if I adjust my expectations and what I want from this series, then I’ll have a better idea if I want to keep it or not.  That being said, I did enjoy the comedy and the slife aspects but I also found myself bored through parts the middle parts of the episode.  I just wish more happened in each episode since certain jokes had lots of dead space and dragged on longer than they should have.  At least the comedy was all based on the oddities of rural versus urban life rather than a single straight man YELLING AT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS.  It was a rather pleasant, relaxing episode to watch and it might fill the void left by Tamayura ~more aggressive~.  I’ve always loved the rural Japanese setting and this anime is no exception.  The art style is basic but fits the bill for what the anime wants to be which is simple and fun.  And I like simple and fun, just that I was expecting a little less simple and a little more fun.  All in all, Non Non Biyori is a decent anime, just not what I expected and not what I wanted it to be.  If it continues to be enjoyable or amusing in the next couple of episodes, I’ll continue through to the end.  Otherwise, I wouldn’t lose sleep over dropping it and focusing on some other anime instead.

Dropped:

Nothing dropped from these three but I’ve scanned through pretty much everything that hasn’t been reviewed yet and given them a simple ‘no’.  It’s been pretty easy this season.

This post reviews: Buddy Complex, Space Dandy, Nobunaga the Fool, Noragami, and Tonari no Seki-kun.

Considering that we are already two weeks into the anime season, there really is no point in publishing a Season Preview since all of the shows have aired 1-2 episodes by now.  And considering that the previews are mainly geared toward my tastes and preferences, it sorta doubles over here into these First Impressions where I document my opinions based on these first episodes.  So in short, I’m starting the season off with my First Impressions for the first anime that aired this season.

Watching:

Space Dandy

Despite the hype and acclaim for Space Dandy received prior to its release, I had my reservations for a series of this style and caliber.  While I am enthralled with the prospects of watching another anime directed by the distinguished Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo, Sakamichi no Apollon) and am intrigued by the collaboration with international broadcasters (including an English dub airing on Adult Swim), I never felt invested in the story or the characters.  For whatever reason, whenever I saw promotional artwork or PVs, it felt like Space Dandy was too much of a parody or too satirical.  Fortunately, the first episode dispelled these worries with a style unparalleled in anime today.  The style of the show, both in terms of its art, its personality and presentation, is amazing in how it utilizes retro details, like its characters and story, to embellish its charm.  Furthermore, it has updated these retro appeals to interject enough parody into the genre that it feels original rather than a comic mockery of fantasy space exploration.  There is some genuinely humorous comedy too, which is always a plus.  I can’t say I’m thrilled with the story or characters at this point, but those are always details that develop over the course of the series.  That and my original worries about them being too much of a parody were quieted when seeing their relationship and how they go about their adventures together.  One other point is that Space Dandy has a real deep space setting which is an automatic positive for me, especially with how rare space anime are now.  I still have some reservations with the anime but I won’t let that get in the way of enjoying this spectacular anime.  I must say, I am impressed with the series and finally starting to buy into the hype and excitement that I passed over before the season began.

Noragami

Noragami failed to impress me with its premise, its characters or through its PVs largely due to how generic or derivative it felt.  However, when watching the first episode, I found there to be some value in a series that feels like a cliché.  While unenthusiastic about the story of an impoverished god looking to make it big, I did find myself enjoying the female lead character, Hiyori, particularly her sincere and strange personality and her legitimately comical moments.  Often times, in these types of shounen anime, you see female characters being serious and sensible while the male character plays the fool and generates all the laughs.  It’s refreshing to see Hiyori be the awkward or abnormal one, like jumping out of bed and unexpectedly hissing like a cat or her reactions to her out-of-body experiences or during the fight against the giant, demonic toad.  She really impressed me with her personality and I’m excited to see what happens to her with her outlandish problem of becoming a cat-girl spirit.  The art and animation were never spectacular or magnificent (besides the opening scene) but there’s nothing wrong with being mediocre when it gets the job done and I enjoyed the style and directing.  The mild fanservice was a bit of a surprise but the panty shots were only really noticeable if you were actively searching for them.  I do wonder if my interest in this anime will last for the season, but the anime is off to a good start.  I’ve always liked Bones as a studio and think of them as one of my favorites, so it shouldn’t be shocking to see me picking up both of their anime this season.

Undecided:

Nobunaga the Fool

Nobunaga the Fool is the first anime of the season that I truly feel conflicted with.  On one hand, I loved the setting of this anime with its fusion of arbitrary historical figures in a fantasy world with distinctive mecha robots.  The style is noteworthy too, with attractive character designs (who doesn’t already love Leonardo da Vinci?) and fluid animation during battles and action sequences.  I must say I’m enjoying those aspects of the anime.  But on the other hand, I was honestly bored throughout the entire episode.  The pacing was insufferably slow, the episode heavy with too much dialogue and the story seems painfully plain and unoriginal.  It’s never a good sign when I stop caring about the characters/story near the beginning and stop paying attention toward the end… but I’m willing to give the anime another episode to see if it can salvage this wreck and produce an entertaining anime worth watching and enjoying.  It’d be a shame if I dropped this anime since the setting and art are two unquestioned strengths but the mundane characters and tepid story might keep this anime grounded if they don’t improve significantly by the end of episode 2.

Dropped:

Buddy Complex

I’d like to start off with saying something good about Buddy Complex but I can’t.  The premise features no creativity or innovation in the mecha genre with a normal Japanese high school boy becoming a heroic mecha pilot because whatever.  Then there’s the lead female who has a secret crush on him and is also a mecha pilot and, though she can’t bring herself to confess her feelings, she’s able to rescue him from generic evil teenage boy and his giant mecha.  Then there’s like a school and a military and a war and probably other mecha pilots.  And if I’m wrong about any of these details, it’s because I only watched the first 8 minutes and fast-forwarded until the end.  There is literally nothing about this anime that makes it worth watching.  The only difference between this anime and all the other mecha anime you’ve watched recently is that those anime were good and this one is bad.

Tonari no Seki-kun

Ugh, what a letdown.  I come into the anime with no expectations whatsoever and was still disappointed.  The anime is about what I figured it’d be with the main character goofing off, the girl overreacting to literally every little thing that happened and shouting about it (note: shouting should never be the punchline of a joke, ever) and then getting caught by the teacher for another non-joke.  But what made it worse was that the “joke” was so drawn out that it consumed the whole first episode.  Why not divide it up and fit in two or three stories, especially since the final scene in this was the definition of anticlimactic.  Thankfully, I only wasted 7 minutes of my time.

Before moving closing this post, I really want to bring to your attention the Witchcraft Works ED.  It’s so adorable (especially how they sing out the word “activity”) that I am actually thought about watching the anime just to see what it’s like.  Then I reread the synopsis.  Yup, still not watching it despite probably being the best ED for Winter 2014.

This post reviews: Nobunagun, Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta, Hamatora, and Hoozuki no Reitetsu.

I realize that I’m pretty late on everything since the second episodes of all these anime have aired, but these are still just my thoughts on the first episodes alone.  I’ll have some thoughts, opinions and whatnot on the second episodes when my Weekly Anime post comes out, hopefully sometime this weekend.

Watching:

Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta

With great potential to be the best new anime of Winter 2014, Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta flies high with it first episode thanks to an tremendous, creative setting, a powerful and intricate story, and a sophisticated cast of characters that are based on emotions and personalities rather than clichés and archetypes.  There were literally no faults or negatives with this first episode and, prepare yourself for this shocker, I actually enjoyed the genuine romance between Kal and Claire.  Really, it was somewhat sudden and forced but the scene was innocent and heartwarming, especially sailing through the clouds and playing in the water after crashing the bicycle.  Moving onto the setting, I doubt I will see a better setting than this for 2014.  Not only is the world gorgeous, with its dazzling scenery, and detailed, with it cryptic history and steampunk-ish aviation, but the way the setting is used in the story is phenomenal.  I absolutely love the floating island and searching for the ‘End of the Sky’ and whatever secrets it will reveal.  The setting is a strong reminder of one of my favorite anime with Last Exile, so there’s no doubt I would fall in love with this when there are so many parallels.  The cast thus far has been outstanding and the chemistry between the characters is perfect, especially between Kal and Ariel.  The anime isn’t terribly heavy either, despite the dramatic implications from the beginning and from when Kal saw Nina Viento, but The Pilot’s Love Song has been somewhat lighthearted and fun.  There’s no doubt in my mind that I’ll continue this anime, though I do wonder if 12 episodes will be enough for a series of this caliber.  I guess we’ll see how quickly the story advances and how thick the plot is, but I’m sure it will be great whatever happens.

Hamatora

Hamatora isn’t the best anime I watched or even a favorite of mine, but it’s a solid anime that’s worth watching.  The series is brimming with positives, ranging from its colorful cast to its appealing set-up as detectives to the striking and vibrant art style to the use of various superpowers to augment the action.  But perhaps the best thing about this anime is its potential.  There are so many things that this anime can do that it can really branch out in any direction and be an engaging and fun anime.  The cast of characters, the set-up and the setting can literally turn this anime into anything it wants, and I’m excited to see where it will go.  And given the episode nature of this first episode, I can see this anime dipping in various genres like comedy, drama, mystery and even adventure.  I can’t say that I’ll always like where this story goes or what the characters are doing, but I think I’ll enjoy this anime more often than not.  And it’s for that very reason why I’m keeping Hamatora this season.

Undecided:

Nobunagun

Nobunagun was actually one of the anime I felt highly of before the season began.  From what I saw in its previews were some brilliant and creative uses of colors, a crazy yet charming main character and a story that seemed to enjoy itself for being silly.  Then the first episode came along and I began to have my doubts over this anime.  While it delivered in terms of its directing, using a dazzling array of colors and overlaying patterns on the characters, the art and animation were a subpar and I’m beginning to think the use of diverse colors is a way to mask the low budget.  Still, anytime an anime can utilize various colors for an artistic or dramatic effect is a strong positive for me.  The little words that kept popping out and describing stuff was a nice, unique touch, but it did feel a bit excessive at times and I wonder if I will tire of it before the series is over.  The main character is wonderful with her awkward and innocent personality but she’s the only one I think and the only one I think I’ll like as the series moves forward.  I’m not sure if she can carry the anime on her own if I decide to keep it but she might.  The story is silly but only somewhat entertaining since it seems to want to take itself seriously with this first episode feature some questionable drama.  I hope the series realizes how crazy it is and just goes nuts with its story, not caring for how brainless it is, but that’s not what I saw with the first episode.  The anime reminds me quite a bit of Symphogear, another anime I felt heavily conflicted about.  Considering that I’m already watching a dozen anime, I won’t feel bad if I drop this is the second episode is another disappointment.  Otherwise, I think I’ll keep this anime.

Hoozuki no Reitetsu

Hoozuki no Reitetsu will be a hit-or-miss anime for me.  Some of the skits will hit; some of the skits will miss.  The question becomes, will there be more hits or misses for me with Hoozuki no Reitetsu?  Or rather, will there be enough hits for me to warrant keeping the anime for the entire duration of its run?  That’s what I hope to find out with the second episode of Hoozuki no Reitetsu after the first episode was a hit followed by a miss.  While I am interested in the setting and find a subtle charm in the stoic, hard-ass nature of Hoozuki, the second half of the first episode felt entirely listless and monotonous despite a few jokes I smiled at.  I do realize that Hoozuki is supposed to be a bit boring in his personality and nature, but it doesn’t help when that bored radiates all the way from Japanese Hell and affects me, too.  Still, the first episode had more positives than negatives, particularly on its unique art and style, so I’m thinking I’ll be keeping it.  It really depends on how the second episode performs and whether there are enough hits to justify keeping it around.  If the second episode is a couple of misses for me though… well, let’s just say I won’t miss it.

Dropped:

Nothing new has been dropped, though I did scan through Super Sonico and Wake Up, Girls! just to see what they were like.  I never had any intention of keeping them, so I don’t feel inclined to write about them but both were about what I thought they be.  Didn’t expect there to be so many panties in Wake Up, Girls!, so I wonder if that was some “first-episode fanservice” to bait and hook an audience and then have nothing sexy later on (besides maybe some skimpy idol outfits).

This post reviews: No-Rin, Sakura Trick, Nisekoi, Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda, Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil, and Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.

Decided to wait until all the shows aired before wrapping up the final of my First Impressions with Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha being the last.  Since I never did post a Season Preview, I suppose all the anime I reviewed during the First Impressions is a surrogate for the shows I decided to watch besides Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! Ren and Silver Spoon S2 which are sequels to shows I’ve watched and liked.  So with that, onto the last remaining anime of Winter 2014!

Watching:

Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda

I don’t think Sekai Seifuku – Bouryaku no Zvezda is particularly good or intriguing or thought-provoking or anything of that nature, but I was thoroughly entertained with this first episode and it left me wanting more.  That being said though, I’m not sure what other merits this anime has besides its amusement.  The characters are all too one-dimensional and they’re all based off silly or outrageous features which means the cast is going to suffer in this one.  Yes, that even includes our deceivingly attractive male lead (yes, imagine if he were actually a girl, you’ll understand) Jimon and super-loli super loli Kate.  The story might be fun or intriguing depending on how it’s played out, and I’d enjoy it better if they struggled and failed often (a la Team Rocket style) but the fight at the end of the first episode convinced me otherwise.  It’ll probably be a series of minor skirmishes that escalate and build up as they begin to control more of the world which… is meh at best and deplorable at worst.  However, I did find myself entertained by this anime and by the antics of Kate, or Venera-sama as she’s dubbed herself.  Whether this proves to be entertaining throughout or discovers some other worthwhile merits will remain to be seen.  That being said, I’ll be around to see it since I have no plans of dropping this any time soon.

Wizard Barristers – Benmashi Cecil

One of the more impressive anime this season, Wizard Barristers is a complete anime that combines a stimulating plot with plenty of satisfying action, a hint of delicate comedy, and set in a pulsating, incredible world with the refined and iconic art style from Yasuomi Umetsu (Mezzo Forte, Kite).  What I enjoyed the most out of Wizard Barristers that it’s dynamic.  And I’m not just talking about the powerful and exciting action, like the opening scene with the Wud (wizard) going ballistic on the train, but rather the emotion and enthusiasm of its characters, like Cecil’s ambition to take a client despite still being a rookie or Moyo’s obsession over Cecil.  I love this energy and passion that’s oozing from this anime and I’m thankful there’s plenty of action, too.  The cast hasn’t been fully introduced yet, but they show promise in their limited time thus far.  Cecil is spirited and can carry the show on her own, but I’m hoping someone else will step up and that it will be someone in addition to her budding rival, Hotaru (because you know she’ll step up).  That being said, the character designs for this anime are sensational, especially Ageha with her butterflies and Seseri with his vivacious, blue hair.  Although the pacing was slow in the first episode, it was never lethargic and stuff was always happening, meaning I never felt bored.  You could even say the pacing was set to such a pace to keep the story thorough and detailed, but I’m anticipating it was done so to finish this little story arc by the end of episode 2.  Really, I have no qualms with Wizard Barristers at this point and figure that this will be one of the top anime of the season for me.  Where it will end up at the end of the season will depend on how well this series performs from here on out.

Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the season thus far is a simple anime called Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.  This delightful and charming anime centers on a timid and simpleminded schoolgirl, Inari, who has an innocent crush on one of the most popular male classmates.  And while it sounds dull, unoriginal and unimpressive, it’s really Inari who makes this anime great.  No, it’s not because of her newly acquired shape-shifting ability and all the potentially hilarious and heartwarming stories that will unfold but because her character is a blank slate for which to construct a magnificent character from.  What I love most about this anime is that Inari is a cheerful and compassionate girl who has her share of troubles.  What this anime will be about will be Inari maturing as a character and growing as a person, overcoming her deficiencies and correcting her mistakes and becoming a shining person that makes everyone around her happy and not awkward.  And with her metamorphosis ability granted by Ukanomitama-no-kami, the anime will be able to explore her character and demonstrate her growth through a variety of hilarious and heartening ways.  The romantic angle is also encouraging to me (what’s this, two romance anime I like in one season??) since it was naïve and innocent, ranging from pulling down her crush’s pants to crying over learning he has a girl he likes besides her.  The romance feels genuine and not forcefully one-sided or with a clueless character, so I thank Inari for being smart with its romance.  Beyond that, the anime does a number of other things well, too.  The art style is aggressively cute which matches Inari’s personality perfectly.  The mysticism is a pleasant touch, though I wonder what role Ukanomitama-no-kami will play going forward.  I also found the jokes to be sweet though not very humorous.  All in all, the anime is one of the better ones this season.  I can only hope that this anime delivers with its character development of Inari since that is what I’m looking forward to the most with Inari, Konkon, Koi Iroha.

Undecided:

Nothing in this section, which means the other three anime are…

Dropped:

No-Rin

Shin Oonuma is my favorite director (and he should be your favorite director, too) and his vivid, exhilarating and colorful style shines brightly in this anime, though it’s not enough to illuminate the abysmal source material that he’s working with in No-Rin.  The style reminds me heavily of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu with its frequent cutaways to chibi comedy, pastel coloring, dramatic cinematography and enthusiastically animated characters.  But the major difference between that and this are in its story and its characters.  Unfortunately for No-Rin, it’s an F-class in both.  It’s bad enough when I don’t like the story, but when I don’t like any of the characters either, it’s impossible for me to enjoy, let alone watch, an anime.  The idiotic story and uninteresting characters of No-Rin are more than enough for me to drop it, even after going through the brilliant mind of Shin Oonuma.  Then again, the only reason why I wanted to watch this anime was because his name was attached to this title.  I never thought I’d enjoy the story or the characters and was more curious to see what kinda magic Shin Oonuma would work with this material.  Turns out that his work is still phenomenal but not phenomenal enough to keep me invested and make watching a full season of this worthwhile.  That being said, I’ll eagerly await his next anime and hope for better results.

Sakura Trick

Although the visual style of Sakura Trick is a delightful array of soft and gentle colors, the characters and plot could not have been more boring.  Yes, it’s sweet and innocent yuri love but that being the only thing in this anime is a pathetic excuse for a story.  I wouldn’t mind if it were a subplot or maybe something important to explain or explore the characters with, but when that’s the only thing going on in the show, what’s the point? There really is none, is there?  Unless you’re a diehard yuri fan, I can’t see how anyone could find this show enjoyable, especially after one episode.  It’s cute and colorful and lighthearted but it’s clearly not for me.

Nisekoi

I want to like Nisekoi, but I can’t.  There are a number of reasons why I want to watch this show, but I won’t.  It’s successful in its comedy, has a magnificent visual style, and features two effective characters as its male and female leads.  But that’s still not enough.  What’s keeping me from watching and enjoying Nisekoi is Onodera.  I cannot stand characters like her.  I hate characters like her.  She is literally the key that’s keeping this anime locked for me and it’s because of that stupid key why I hate her character.  The whole childhood romance, ‘let’s-remember-each-other-in-the-future-and-get-married’ bullshit was bad enough but the fact that she refuses to reveal her identify to Ichijou is painful to watch.  Not only that but she still has a crush on him.  What a miserable excuse for a character she is.  And the fact that she’s the other lead female in this anime is appalling.  If it were just Raku and Chitoge, I’d be singing the praises of this anime since those two were actually enjoyable, featured a decent romantic story, had wonderful comedy and made the anime fun to watch.  But the fact that Onodera will be back and will be important to the anime destroys everything about this anime for me.  You might be thinking I’m unreasonable but her character archetype in this type of anime is unforgivable.  That being said, I’d gladly watch the anime if she were to die in the next episode.  Or maybe if someone edited the entire series to remove her, that could work, too.  Otherwise, I’m done.

And with that, we’re done reviewing my initial thoughts, opinions and reviews for the first episodes of the anime of Winter 2014.  Seeing as we’re already into the second week of the season and transitioning into the third, I’ll be back to my regular Weekly Anime posts again shortly.  In the meantime, I’d like to thank you again for stopping by and reading my First Impressions posts for this new anime season.  I can only hope you enjoy this season as much, if not more than, I plan on doing.

This post reviews: Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou, Akuma no Riddle, Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei, Kamigami no Asobi, Captain Earth, and Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii.

In addition to the anime that are covered in this post, I am also watching Mushishi Zoku Shou and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders. I tend to avoid covering sequels in these First Impressions posts, so I won’t be mentioning anything about them other than they both had phenomenal and magnificent first episodes. But since those developments were expected and rather than gushing on and on about them, I’ve reserved this post for all the new anime that debuted last weekend.

Watching:

Akuma no Riddle

The first episode of Akuma no Riddle is probably not the best indicator for what this battle royale anime will become, but it did enough to spark an interest in the characters and their scenario. The anime doesn’t feature a strong cast of characters with everyone being one-dimensional and lacking diversity (they’re all slightly different crazy assassins) and it’s doubtful we’ll see them with any level of complexity or character development besides Tokaku and Haru. However, it’s the dynamic and relationship between these girls that I find intriguing. Unlike most female-dominated anime where it’s all happy or shiny or whatever (or with artificial drama between mean girls and good girls), this anime has genuine hatred and malice between the characters. I’m not confident that the interactions between the characters and the rationale for fighting will be sound for every instance, but it provides a different flavor than most anime do. The art is charismatic and the constant use of darkness and shadows establishes an uncomfortable atmosphere which bodes well for this scenario. The brief glimpses of action we’ve seen do seem to indicate that the battles will be frightening and well-animated. The scenario is a bit… dumb, but it’s more of a concept or idea to segue into an anime where girls fight each other for the sake of action and entertainment than being anything intelligent or a critic of social norms. What I want from this anime is for there to be action and entertainment with anything extra will be a bonus. That being said, I’m not expecting great things or having high hopes for this anime, and I’d be satisfied if this ends up being a 7 or higher.

Captain Earth

As good of a series as I expect Captain Earth to be, the first episode was honestly underwhelming, and not just because this is essentially Star Driver -1. Without a focus story or an exhilarating battle to culminate the episode, the first 24 minutes felt very lethargic and haphazard. With the excessive number of flashbacks, the pacing jerked back and forth, starting and stopping and interrupting the flow of the story with limited importance for the first episode. The content of the first episode were also very cliché for a mecha anime, which is surprising since the first episode of Star Driver was tantalizing and marvelous (and fabulous). I can’t say I’m terribly surprised that we saw our shounen male lead go from normal highschool boy to giant robot pilot in space in the span of 20 minutes, but I will say it’s lackluster after seeing this pattern for the nth time in anime. It could’ve been better and should have been better. Still, the positives outweigh the negatives with Captain Earth and that’s about all the negatives I have with this anime. The first episode did more than enough to capture my attention and my interest and I’m fascinated in where this anime will go. I’m looking forward to exploring the characters of this anime, the technologies of this setting and see what the conflict is between the villains and GLOBE. The art and animation are gorgeous and there’s personality to the style that heartens and brightens up the characters. I’m positive the anime will improve once these introductions are over and that this first episode is more an idiosyncrasy than any sign of concern. I’m not lying when I say that this first episode was a bit disappointing, but I expect that this will be the last time I use that word to describe this anime.

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii

If I had only one word to describe Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii, it would be “charming”. Just about every aspect of this anime can be accurately described by this word, from its charismatic and delightful main character, Nike, to its enchanting, intricate fantasy setting, to its amusing comedy and even at times to its art style, which featured many cute chibi or simplistic scenes. The dynamic and focus of Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii might change significantly now that Nike has met her future husband, Livius, but the atmosphere and the ambiance of the anime shouldn’t change all that much. I can imagine as the story progresses, the relationship will start off rocky but then slowly repair and that Nike and Livius combine to save the Principality of Rain from whoever the shadowy, evil military people were. The story for Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii has the potential to be quite good depending on how the romance develops and how they use it in this setting to save Nike’s homeland or expand upon Livius’ empire. We really haven’t seen much of anyone besides Nike, but her personality and attitude to her setting and surrounds bodes well for this anime, especially if some of the other characters are weak or uninteresting. The fantasy setting is elegant and depicted well, with a significant amount of effort used to design a world that will impact the characters and their story. I’m not exactly quite sure of how the setting will do this, but the idea of the Sun Kingdom being a rainless capital and a princess who can summon the rain is already promising. If I had any negatives with this first episode, it would be that the latter half was not as interesting or amusing as the beginning, but isn’t any cause for concern since the series will be different now that Livius is in the picture. Otherwise, this seems to be the most impressive new anime of the season for me, so I’m pleased to be picking up and keeping Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii for this season.

Undecided:

None in this set, which means…

Dropped:

Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou

Perhaps the most damning aspect of Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou is that I did not find any of the characters interesting. And the most damning aspect of that is that the only other male presence than the tsukkomi main character is the roommate who’s character bio could be summarized as “hilariously un-hilarious pervert”. His comedy is so tired and old in these types of shows that it’s painful to watch. Yes, we’ve seen perverts before in anime. Yes, they all tell the same, exact jokes. No, they were never funny to begin with and will never be funny. Please stop making these characters. As for the remainder of the cast, they weren’t nearly as bad but none were impressive. The male leads is plain and uninspiring, and it’s sad that this “Insert Yourself Here”-kun is the norm for anime in a school setting. The drunken adult will be a free-spirit who flips between manic and depressant depending on her dating scene. Yawn. The only character that had any potential was the heroine of the series, Ritsu, but I won’t stay around to see if that’s true or not. The scenario is pretty much like any of the other co-ed dorm anime out there, and nothing about the writing or storytelling seemed innovative or original. The comedy was banal, predictable and tediously boring. The only positives are that Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou has striking visuals thanks to its outstanding use of lighting and liberal use of colors. The anime is certainly nice to look at, but there needs to be more in order to keep me watching. The directing did elevate the product with its pleasant illustrations and choice cinematography, but everything else about the first episode was a quick turn-off for me. One episode is all I need to know that Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou is not an anime for me.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei

So, I originally thought the whole siscon/onii-chan/incest relationship between the male and female leads would be the downfall of this anime for me. Turns out it wasn’t, mainly because there were plenty of other elements to criticize, in conjunction with that, for this unsatisfying light novel adaptation. I’m not exactly thrilled at the dynamic of the relationship between Tatsuya and Miyuki, but it bothered me fall less than I had anticipated. It was still troublesome, but it’s not as bad as the relationships shown in other franchises. Instead, the worst offender for Mahouka is the whole ‘magical school’ setting, especially with the division in classes as a means to establish an artificial social hierarchy in school. The whole thing is such an unimaginative and routine setting nowadays in anime that I can’t help but feel bored when they’re reviewing their world history and the laws governing magic uses and whatnot. Couple that with the 10,000^th school anime out there and the setting turns into quite a powerful sleep aid. The male lead, Tatsuya, is supposed to have a cold and difficult personality, but it comes across as unwelcoming and uninteresting. With him being one of the stronger (strongest?) characters too, it just makes his character unappealing. Miyuki was markedly better, but still is flawed thanks to her attraction to her older brother while being the most beautiful/athletic/smartest/blah blah blah girl in the school. Seriously, it’s just light novel fanwank at that point, to have the two main characters be perfect like this. And without any real positives to counter these titanic negatives (the best aspects of this series are mediocre at best), I just can’t find a good reason to continue this anime.

Kamigami no Asobi

The best thing going for Kamigami no Asobi is that I absolutely lost myself during Apollon’s ‘way-too-long’ transformation sequence at the beginning. I haven’t laughed that hard at an anime in seasons. The next best thing was riding the giant, neon pink Pegasus through space into battle right after. The last best thing about this anime is that I stopped myself after about 7 minutes with the rationale that nothing would ever beat those two things. That and I was miserably, miserably bored. Kamigami no Asobi was a longshot for me to keep, but I thought it would be worthwhile to watch the first episode since Greek mythology is cool and the main girl was pretty cute. Turns out the anime was much more than I expected in terms of unintentional (or was it intentional?) comedy in the first couple minutes. Then, after that, it was pretty much what I expected with a reverse-harem scenario that registers a zero on my scale of interests. It did more than I anticipated, which is great, but I just can’t see myself watching this for an entire season, especially when I can’t even make it through half an episode.

I have also scanned through the first episodes of a few anime not included in this post, but I did not see anything worthwhile in any of those shows. That shouldn’t be terribly surprising since the anime that aren’t mentioned in this set were shows I was not seriously considering before the season began. That’s not to say some shows turned out to be better than expected, but that there’s nothing worth keeping or even thinking about keeping among those anime.

This post reviews: Haikyuu!!, Gokukoku no Brynhildr, Isshuukan Friends, and Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to.

Based on how the anime are airing this week, it looks like there will be four posts in total for my First Impressions and that I will start my Weekly Anime posts next weekend.

Watching:

Isshukan Friends

Isshukan Friends is a beautiful anime, both in terms of its visual style and how it utilizes perception and emotion. Together, the enchanting art and charismatic writing combine to make one of the better anime of this young Spring season. Perhaps the most distinctive and recognizable attribute of its art are the incredibly simple and somewhat incomplete backgrounds. That ambient light and white nothingness work perfectly to isolate the two main characters, Kaori and Yuuki, and feature the two of them with no outside noise or distractions to interrupt their intimate dialogues. Link that with the simple, pastel colors and attractive character designs and there’s no wonder why Isshuukan Friends is one of the most visually powerful anime of the season, even beyond how it establishes the mood and atmosphere. And having a visual style like this is significant in how it influences the writing. Already, we’re left wondering how the relationship with Kaori and Yuuki will evolve over time based on the zenith of the first episode. The writing was successfully able to toy with Yuuki’s emotions and with our own perception of Kaori from start to finish. Although the episode could be categorized as slow or relaxed, the content was fascinating and captivating. It is the subtleties and developments which turn this episode from potentially boring into something watchable and something worth continuing. It’ll be intriguing to see in which direction this charming anime will go.

Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to

Comedy is my favorite genre of anime, so it shouldn’t be surprising to see someone like me pick up something dumb like Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to. Yes, I know, I realize Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to is nothing more than unimaginative and simple otaku humor revolving around a perverted manga artist and the unfortunate girls who wish they could be anywhere else than working with him. But the whole point of comedy anime is to keep me entertained, to make me laugh and smile, and that’s exactly what happened with the first episode of Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to (I should really shorten this title to just ManAss but that would be a misnomer). Sure, every scene is full of derivative comedy and cheap ecchi fanservice (like the montage of pantyshots during Yuuki’s speech), but some of the jokes were able to make me smile and keep me amused throughout. Furthermore, this is a pure comedy, so there’s no need to worry about a story or something that’ll be boring or shitty. But actually, a story or something might not be bad in this since the writing and delivery were above-average for this level and style of humor. This is a good indicator of success with comedy anime since I don’t imagine the content of the jokes will ever become anything more than anime-related fanservice or anything intelligent or witty (and no, the Panty Wars monologue was nowhere near intelligent or witty). The techniques and styles of delivering comedy are just as important as the content itself, so I do feel strongly that this anime will be able to keep me amused throughout. As for the other aspects of the series, the characters are all likable and the art style is dazzling, especially during the punchlines. ManAss isn’t terribly impressive nor do I expect it to be near the top of the season, but I do expect this to be a serviceable comedy anime and keep me delighted throughout. If it can do exactly that, then this anime will be worth watching this Spring.

Undecided:

Gokukoku no Brynhildr

Gokukoku no Brynhildr is the first anime of the season where I feel largely conflicted. On one hand, the anime did cater to my interests with its pleasant sci-fi setting, the serene yet airheaded magician Neko, and the heavy emphasis on aliens, remorse, and destiny. Furthermore, many of these positives indicate long-term success too, as these are variables that are unlikely to change unless something drastic happens. So in that regard, I want to continue watching Brynhildr to see where this story is going and what will happen to these characters. On the other hand, I found the first episode to be tedious and boring. The writing, especially the lengthy exposition in the latter half of the episode, was a major turn-off, and the pacing slowed to tedium after the midway point. Additionally, there wasn’t really anything exciting in this episode, though I will admit the almost-drowning did catch me off-guard. However, the ending of the episode with the landslide and the boulder came across as ‘meh’, and I don’t have high hopes for future fights between characters with this as a reference to how Brynhildr will handle its action. So in that regard, considering my bored and disinterest with the second half of the episode, I won’t mind dropping it. With the two sides pulling each other, the best course of action is to give it another episode and evaluate which direction it’s heading in or how it addresses its weaknesses. The nice thing about Brynhildr is that there was plenty of material and aspects to evaluate from the first episode alone, which is always preferred over an anime that doesn’t show you enough in its first episode. Hopefully the second episode will show me more of the good than the bad, since that’s what will be needed for me to keep this anime around.

Dropped:

Haikyuu!!

I always figured that if I had enough time, I would watch just about every anime in every season. The reason for these posts are for me to identify which anime are likely to be fit my interests and which ones will be the most worthwhile based on my limited time. With this idea in my head, I always try to think about anime that I would like to watch but aren’t able to based on my circumstances. And that brings me to Haikyuu!! which is an anime that falls into this unfortunate category. The main issue with Haikyuu!! is that I know that I will lose interest in this anime at some point. My draw to Haikyuu!! will be the volleyball matches which, if they’re like the one shown here in the first episode, was brilliantly animated, had exceptional pacing and featured astute writing and directing. But alas, sports anime are more than just competitive games and the anime is sure to devolve into training, practices, conflict, drama and potentially romance or bromance between the players. It’s that where I know I’ll lose my interest in Haikyuu!! and that’s why I still have a positive impression of the anime despite dropping it after one episode. And going back to my original point of willing to watch every anime if I had the time, I’d be willing to suffer through all the training and teenage drama just to watch all the matches in this anime. But no, unfortunately, I’m not that fortunate, and I have to make sacrifices. For the sake of knowing how these sports anime flow and what the content will be, I’m going to drop Haikyuu!! for now. It’ll be best to wait and see how the anime is received by others in order to know whether it’s worth picking up again, but for the time being, I’m done with Haikyuu!!

This post reviews: Black Bullet, Soul Eater NOT!, No Game No Life, and Hitsugi no Chaika.

Since I never really talk about short 2-5 minute anime, I figure here is probably the best area to cover the few new shorts airing this season. Of the new shows, both Mahou Shoujo Taisen and Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san are quick yet enjoyable comedies. Neither are unique or special in any way but are worthwhile if you want a couple minutes of amusement. Puchimas!! makes a return with a sequel that’s more of the same (which are episodes too short for more than one or two jokes). There’s no need to watch the first season of Puchimas! or The Idolmaster in order to appreciate the show, but it doesn’t hurt to know who the girls and their chibi counterparts are. In summary, looks like all the shorts are decent to good but still nothing phenomenal like Teekyuu.

Watching:

No Game No Life

Although the setting and scenario of No Game No Life is not out of this world for anime (typical Japanese teenager [plus little sister] are transported into and stuck in a mysterious fantasy realm) it is the main character, Sora, that makes the difference between this anime being fair and being good. Whereas virtually all other anime where characters are trapped in these imaginary worlds with no chance of returning, we see Sora embrace his new home as it proves to be more interesting and agreeable than the modern Japanese society that he previously resided in. What this means is that the story will take a different direction than what’s expected, with Sora wanting to stay instead of finding a way back home. Additionally, Sora is interesting in that he does not behave like a typical protagonist in that he strives to satisfy the common good or his ideals of justice. Sora is a true competitor, even becoming a cheater, and doing whatever he wants to get what he wants. It’s satisfying to see a character like this in anime and even more rewarding to see him as the main character. Furthermore, the anime does feature a number of other positives, including a gorgeous and vivid fantasy world and a pleasant art style to complement it. I’m curious to see where the story will go as it has captured my attention, but I can see the story going either up or down at this point depending on what happens with Sora and Shiro. Still, there’s plenty to look forward to with No Game No Life and I’m looking forward to watching it this season.

Undecided:

Soul Eater NOT!

Since I am unfamiliar with the Soul Eater franchise (haven’t not watched the anime or read the manga), it’s taking me a bit longer to properly assess and evaluate the spin-off, Soul Eater NOT!. I don’t think I saw enough material and characterization in this introductory episode to give the anime a fair assessment, so I’ll delay my decision until after the second episode. The take-aways from this first episode though do bode well, as I am intrigued by the dynamic with the three main characters and their evolving relationships. Of particular note was the scene at the end of the first episode with Anya clinging onto Tsugumi’s sleeve and appearing conflicted, rejecting her superficial personality and stepping out of her character into stay with Tsugumi. That was the best part of this episode and I want to see where she goes as a character, as well as how Meme and Tsugumi develop as characters, too. I can’t really speak on anything else since I have a limited knowledge of the setting and scenario, but the art and animation are fine and I enjoyed some of the comedy. But really, I don’t think I’ll have anything meaningful to say until after the second episode… so until then, I am undecided on Soul Eater NOT!

Hitsugi no Chaika

Hitsugi no Chaika had an underwhelming first episode, but the anime flashed signs of potential towards the end, that it might be something more than what this introductory episode showed. Whether this anime improves or not remains to be seen, but that uncertainty should be answered before the end of the second episode. The main issue with Hitsugi no Chaika is its lack of anything interesting or remarkable, whether it be the characters, story and setting. Nothing about this anime seems extraordinary or exciting. The whole first episode was dull and predictable, with this being the thousandth time (probably an underestimate) when we’ve seen a random guy meet a strange girl for an anime adventure. The highlight of the episode, which I’m guessing was supposed to be the battle with the unicorn, was simple and unchallenging… and, in terms of excitement, was mundane at best. The character personalities are all cookie-cutter, so there’s nothing encouraging there. The setting has some basic creativity, but nothing that makes it memorable. I will admit, however, that the final scenes during the mansion break in were significantly improved compared to everything that had occurred prior, so the anime does show some promise that it can be better than what it showed for most of the first episode. If the anime can continue on this trajectory and carry this momentum into the second episode, then Hitsugi no Chaika might prove itself to be a worthwhile anime this season. If it reverts back to the uninteresting, unexciting garbage of the first episode, then that will be the final nail in its coffin (haha, puns).

Dropped:

Black Bullet

Black Bullet will probably be remembered as the most frustrating and disappointing anime of the season. While I did not have high hopes for Black Bullet, even calling it ‘generic’ in my initial assessment for my Season Preview, I did not expect this to flop so quickly and be dropped in just one episode. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of this anime are the characters with the second-most being the writing. Nothing about the characters seemed realistic or believable, especially with how they acted or reacted, with the loli being the worst offender. The dialogue was elementary and abysmal, some of the worst I have ever seen in an anime. The funniest part about this anime is that it attempted to include comedy, which is something humorous to think about.  The fanservice was awkward and unwanted.  The world isn’t terribly interesting with its monsters and methods for fighting them, but it probably doesn’t help that all the action sequences sucked in terms of pacing, directing or satisfaction. Nothing about this anime was original or innovative. Instead, it was cliché after cliché. It’s as if Black Bullet is the bastard child of all the negative aspects of all the sci-fi anime from the past 5 years. There’s nothing good I can say about Black Bullet or that I am done with it.

This post reviews: Ping Pong the Animation, Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin, Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?, Knights of Sindoria, Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi, and Mekaku City Actors.

Due to the timing in which anime aired in Japan last week, with the week being heavy on the first episodes for a number of new anime and only a handful airing their second episodes, I’ll be starting my Weekly Anime posts for Week 2 starting this week and hopefully out sometime this weekend.

Watching:

Ping Pong the Animation

Ping Pong will be one of the best anime of the year. Based only on what I saw in this first episode, I can say that this anime will be among the very top, if not the top, of the new anime airing this season. Ping Pong features an immediately distinguishing and effective art style that encourages passionate movements, ideal for depicting the lightning-fast pace of the table tennis matches. The directing is exceptional, utilizing cinematography to emphasize shots with motion and emotions, bringing the characters and games to life. Tsukimoto (“Smile”) and Hoshino (“Peco”) are both ideal protagonists for this type of anime, with raw but established skills, different enthusiasms and their own unique flaws, making them the perfect characters to watch as they develop and contrast each other throughout the series. What little we saw of the story is a promising indicator of events to come and the table tennis matches were engrossing and charismatic. I don’t think I could say anything bad about this anime besides it being in a high school setting, but it’s almost necessary since this is a school club and it does break away from the rest of modern anime by focusing on table tennis and being set in the late 90s (the manga was published from 1996-1997). Ping Pong has demonstrated enough to already become one of my favorite sports anime of all-time and, if it continues to impress like I anticipate it will, Ping Pong has the opportunity to surpass Chihayafuru as my favorite of this genre.

Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin

What makes Ryuugajou Nanana no Maizoukin a keeper is that it is an anime that promises to be lighthearted, entertaining and make sure the audience is having fun. The whole setting, scenario and story are all quite silly and unrealistic, but the characters are enjoying their current situations with smiles on their faces despite the fact that one of them was murdered and is now a ghost. But even then, the only aspect that would be considered dark is a cheery girl who loves pudding, plays video games and desperately wants to make new friends. It comes across as quite simple, which works perfectly for an anime of this style. The cast is relatively small at this point with only Juugo and Nanana being significantly introduced, but the remainder of the cast will probably range from pleasant to wonderful with Juugo at the bottom (generic, pervy male lead) and Nanana being at the top (fun, active, compassionate female lead). I can’t really tell whether the story will be good or not at this point considering that it’ll be treasure hunting, but I anticipate it will fluctuate and be episodic, which can be either good or bad. The setting isn’t terribly unique with a futuristic and isolate city where most of the population are students, but the treasure hunting aspect should be enough to differentiate it from the rest. The fanservice was a bit of a turn-off, but thankfully, the anime did not go overboard besides the whole groping scene joke. But besides that one minor flaw, the episode impressed me and certainly left me in a good mood wanting more.

Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?

Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? is a delightful and relaxing anime, with some amusing comedy and nothing more. If you’re looking for something with dynamic characters, a thought-provoking story, some stimulating commentary or an insightful message, then this anime is certain to disappoint. Fortunately for Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?, all I want from it is a cute and calming comedy that makes me smile for 24 minutes and that is exactly what I saw with this first episode. The characters are incredibly moe in terms of their designs and personalities, but each has their own charming attributes and the chemistry was unexpectedly good for something so shallow. The comedy never really produced laughs or anything remarkable, but the humor ranged from ‘they’re trying’ to big smiles with nothing producing a negative reaction. The style is very serene and the setting is picturesque, two aspects that help improve the soothing atmosphere and nature of the anime. The anime was surprisingly ecchi in that we had a character in only her bra and panties for an entire scene, the entire cast changing in the locker room and a bath scene at the end, so it’s clear that there will be mild and innocent fanservice throughout. I do wonder if the anime will ever become stale or stagnate once the entire cast is introduced, but I enjoyed the characters and comedy enough in the first episode to guess that it won’t become a major problem later on. I could be wrong, but I still predict that Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka? will be a pleasant and comforting anime to watch this Spring.

Undecided:

Knights of Sindoria

I’m a sucker for sci-fi, space and giant robots, so it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see me try Knights of Sindoria to see if it matches my interests. As for its compatibility with me… that remains to be seen after just one episode. The biggest drawback before watching the anime is that I don’t really care all that much for 3D animation for anime characters (I’ll get into the mecha and environment later), and that really doesn’t change after watching one episode. I will add though, that I did adjust to the character designs rather quickly, but it is still my least favorite visual style for an anime this season. The 3D style does, however, match very well with the setting and the mecha, though I’ll have to see a real battle first before knowing whether it’s merely nice or something more. I don’t really know much about or care for any of the characters at this point, but that’s largely because this first episode installed the setting. Still, I find the main character to be very standard and stereotypical for a male lead in a mecha anime, so hopefully he’ll prove his worth in the second episode. What fascinates me about the setting is the amount of detail and description we’ve seen in this universe, especially in regards to their history, the biology and social structure of humanity and the technology. It actually has one of the better settings this season and the setting is the main reason why I want to give this anime another episode. However, with the characters lacking, the story being nothing impressive and an animation style that I don’t like, I don’t see a bright future for Knights of Sindoria in terms of me keeping it or not this season. What needs to happen in the next episode is that there will need to be some meaningful improve on the characters or the story or for the anime to feature a kick-ass battle with giant robots in space. Or better yet, let’s just hope it can accomplish both.

Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi

Another anime I am undecided on, Escha & Logy no Atelier: Tasogare no Sora no Renkinjutsushi is a show that had a decent and delightful first episode but lacks potential to significantly improve and shows signs of potentially growing boring or stagnant rather quickly. Although I am in love with the setting, I do not anticipate significant development for the characters or the story at this point. The anime just doesn’t present itself as one that will show the characters grow and mature over time or feature stories that challenge the characters and force them to make decisions while under stress. There was just very little to find exciting or dramatic about the anime with the episode teetering around boring and mildly entertaining throughout. I suppose there are some issues when adapting a JRPG into an anime, especially in terms of dialogue and exposition and when creating scenes which were intended for gameplay, but the anime was fairly successful overall in terms of its pacing and content. And while I still do enjoy aspects of the anime, I’m not sure whether this JRPG-adaptation will allow for the anime to develop or progress in a way that shows meaningful or remarkable difference and contrasts in its characters. So while I do still appreciate Escha & Logy as an anime, I think I might be better suited to pick up the game it’s based on and play that instead. I’ll give the anime another episode to see if it improves, but this one is likely to be dropped.

Dropped:

Mekaku City Actors

Something must be wrong with Shaft if since they’ve failed to impress me with their two latest anime, Nisekoi and now Mekaku City Actors. Perhaps repetition and a lack of significant change has caused me to develop tolerance and expectation to Shaft’s classic art and animation style, but there must be more to it than that. After all, Shaft continues to thrive as one of my favorite anime studios and I do adore their visual presentation and cinematography. Still, there was nothing innovative or distinct about the way Mekaku City Actors looked. Or rather, it seemed to be a medley of elements from previous Shaft anime, with bits of Monogatari Series, Sasami-san@Ganbaranai, and Hidamari Sketch blended nicely together (with a reference to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei thrown in for good measure, too). Then again, if I were being fair (and when am I ever fair?), I could say the same thing about a number of other studios with P.A. Works being a worse culprit than Shaft. However, I’m already off on a tangent about aesthetic similarities within anime studios, so let’s end this here and refocus on why I’ve dropped Mekaku City Actors.

Besides the aforementioned point about the artistic style being nice but uninspired, Mekaku City Actors had a number of other faults that doomed it before episode one concluded. One of the biggest motives for dropping this anime is that it failed to inspire me or fascinate me in a way to make me care about its characters or its story. Virtually the entire episode was watching a loner talk to a shockingly intelligent and friendly bot (like a futuristic version of Siri or SmarterChild or something) and then venturing outside for the first time in 2 years to buy a keyboard. Thankfully, some terrorists showed and tried to make the anime interesting, but by that point, I didn’t care what would happen and, unfortunately, nothing interesting followed. I don’t really relate to or care about hikikomoris, so there’s almost nothing for me to like about Shintaro. The rest of the cast didn’t do much besides Ene, who’s best character element is that she is voiced by Kana Asumi. The setting and story were underdeveloped in the first episode, but I figure those elements will be introduced and implemented later, so I can’t really comment on them at this point. However, without finding anything likable about the main character, being indifferent with the visuals and finding myself bored from the content of the first episode, I think there’s more than enough to say that Mekaku City Actors is not for me.

This post reviews: Glasslip, Shirogane no Ishi: Argevollen, Tokyo Ghoul, and Rail Wars!

These first impressions posts will be divided into four separate entries and are organized by the date these anime aired. Hopefully all four posts will be out by this weekend since many of the shows, including everything in this post, have already debuted their second episodes.

Watching:

Glasslip

Glasslip is the quintessential PA Works anime. Before even beginning the first episode, you could tell Glasslip would feature that bright, cheery and unquestionably distinctive PA Works character design, that it would feature dazzling and brilliant background art, both for interior and scenic shots, and that the anime would be a relaxing slice-of-life/romance that explores the lives of a tight-knit clique of high school kids in a suburban seaside community. That much was known going into Glasslip, and the first episode did well in confirming our expectations. What the first episode did beyond that was that it provided us with a taste of its own personality. Not much can be said about how the anime will differentiate itself from all the other PA Works anime, especially shows like Tari Tari and Nagi no Asukara, but the show has a bit of a quirky personality and a thing for chickens. It’s hard to say how serious, how silly or even how sophomoric the anime will be, but the calming, tranquil atmosphere of the anime, combined with the elegant visuals and the amiable personalities of the cast, leads me to believe that I’ll enjoy this anime overall. I highly doubt that Glasslip will venture into the upper-half of my favorite anime for this season, but that’s fine for a show of this caliber and style. I’m anticipating that Glasslip will be both amusing and relaxing and be respectable choice of anime for the summer.

Tokyo Ghoul

Although I expected there to be quite a bit of action and fighting in the first episode of Tokyo Ghoul, I was surprised to see the emphasis on the character’s emotions and their thought-processes. Most of the time, anime like these only offer a glimpse into the mind of their protagonists, but Tokyo Ghoul spent a significant chunk of its first episode inside the mind of Ken as a means to explore its main character and explain his thoughts, emotions and subsequent actions. Watching these characters analyze their situations, debate with themselves and then see how this affected them, especially in regard to the food and his identity as a human or ghoul, was easily the most attractive aspect of Tokyo Ghoul. If this anime continues to be a psychological horror anime like this first episode suggests, then I can see Tokyo Ghoul being among my favorite for this season. But… then there’s the rest of the first episode. That is to say, what keeps me worried about Tokyo Ghoul is that everything outside of those psychological scenes were generally pretty mediocre. While the art and animation during Rize’s assault and during Ken’s hunger crisis were superb, the rest of the anime felt pretty tame and bland. Overall, it’s a plus since the anime did look outstanding at times and can achieve that level again, but I have to wonder how this anime will perform over the course of the season when there aren’t fights or action-sequences in every episode. And while on that subject, the conclusion to this first episode was a bit of a downer. The whole fight/rescue/knowledge of underground ghoul organization for Ken to join is very, very shounen. It’s a development I’m not too thrilled about and leaves me wondering about the direction of this series. Still, I ultimately enjoyed the first episode and am intrigued to find out more about this setting and about Ken. Even if Tokyo Ghoul doesn’t live up to these new, loftier expectations, I’m still predicting that this will be a solid anime for Summer 2014.

Undecided:

Nothing in this post, which means the final two anime are…

Dropped:

Shirogane no Ishi: Argevollen

I have nothing good to say about Argevollen. The first episode of this mecha/war anime was just one giant cliché; it’s every mecha/war anime you’ve already seen before. You had the old, arrogant and villainous military leaders from the evil country who don’t care about their personnel dying during battle. You had the young commander who clearly wanted to disobey orders and save the lives of his soldiers because he’s really a nice guy who’s just misunderstood but ultimately followed orders because he’s on the evil side and that’s what those people do. Then you had our hero, who is an up-and-coming young punk who’s new to the military and mecha piloting but has his own sense of justice that is apparently more important than anything else in the world. You also had the young, sassy female sidekick who is a better mecha pilot and berates the rookie because that’s what they always do. And let’s not forget the cute scientist/engineer girl who is transporting this super high-tech and invaluable experimental mecha through a war zone and needs to be rescued by our hero because they had no one else around who could pilot it in case of an emergency. Well, it just so happens that our hero, who almost died and should’ve died, gets to pilot this super-powerful, awesome mech because not following orders was the right decision all along and he’s totally not going to be court-martialed for this when this is all over. Then the enemies that he had trouble beating before are now… yadda yadda yadda, you know what happens next and what will happen in the next 11 episodes. What makes it worse is that the first episode had terrible pacing, substandard art, and no good or fun characters. There really is no value in continuing to watch Argevollen, so I’m dropping it after just one episode.

Rail Wars!

Rail Wars! is everything I don’t want in an anime put into an anime. The anime went right into a tailspin from the start with the scene where Aoi retrieves the balloon for the little boy. At first, you think it’s about showing how compassionate and athletic Aoi is, but the scene focuses on her breasts bouncing, then to the wind blowing up Haruka’s skirt and Aoi calling Naoto a pervert for looking. Great. Then there were the school scenes that should never have happened… especially the failure that was the “jiggle” scene. Seriously, they could’ve skipped the first half of this episode and the show would’ve been significantly better. But still, if it were the second half alone, it would’ve been dropped anyway. Just to summarize, there was even more terrible, terrible fanservice and the climax was stopping some thieves from stealing a purse. Wow. Other faults with this anime were the awful artwork, the lack of interesting characters, the fact that this anime takes itself seriously. Rail Wars! is all kinds of bad and likely to be the worst anime of the season. Save yourself the time and skip it.

This post reviews: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal, Aldnoah.Zero, Barakamon, Akame ga Kill!, and Sabagebu!

Since Space Dandy 2 and Sword Art Online II are both sequels, they will not be reviewed in these first impressions posts. I was already planning on watching both shows this season, so there was no major decision to be made when watching the first episode and there’s little to add on those anime right now. I’ll have more to talk about those sequels as this summer continues.

Watching:

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Crystal

What I enjoyed most about the new Sailor Moon is how it retains the charm and appeal of the original series. Yes, it’s important to note that this episode was a direct copy of the first episode of the original anime, so you’d figure that it would still have the same charm and appeal… but that’s exactly what I want from Sailor Moon: Crystal. Had the series tried to reinterpret the story or had it gone in a different direction, such as changing Usagi’s character or the dynamic between the characters, then I’d be troubled by this updated version. The distinctive and modernized visuals are less cartoony or chibi than the original, with this having a more elegant and mature feel, but it doesn’t detract from the asinine humor and childishness of Usagi. What I want from Sailor Moon: Crystal is the same magic that made Sailor Moon fun and amusing, and the first episode of Sailor Moon: Crystal indicates that this series will be virtually the same as the old series. Hurray! And since I enjoyed the old series, I figure I’ll enjoy this new one, too. The one thing I’m still uneasy about with Sailor Moon: Crystal is that the show will air every two weeks for a year. It’s a schedule I am not happy with but it’s something I’ll need to deal with if I want to watch this anime.

Aldnoah.Zero

Wow, what a way to start an anime. Not only was Aldnoah.Zero impressive on the surface, with its visual appeal, its promise of action and the climactic end to the first episode, but the anime was effective at establishing its cast of characters, its premise and its setting with no wasted efforts. Every scene had a purpose and a message, and the episode flowed seamlessly, hallmarks of excellent writing and directing. The dialogue was clever yet it never felt forced or unnatural, especially for Inaho. Though the personalities are somewhat unremarkable for now, it’s still early in the series and there’s room for them to grow and mature as the war for Earth begins. That’s not to say the characters aren’t pleasant or amusing, just that there’s nothing innovative or unique about them yet. Another notable aspect of Aldnoah.Zero is that it doesn’t mess around. The scene where Asseylum was attacked by homing missiles and the obliteration of New Orleans shows how critical and determined this anime is. People died. There isn’t some magic bullshit that’ll save everyone and give us a happy ending. We watched people vaporize. And that’s something you don’t see a whole lot of anime do, especially since it was utilized to make an impact. Often times, a show will chicken out right at the end, but no, Aldnoah.Zero killed a significant proportion of its bystanders. And why this point is so important is that this will carry over to the war and be a lasting quality for this anime. Although this episode featured the start of the war, we can already tell how grave and somber this anime will be and how the lives of the cast will be in jeopardy every week. I’m absolutely thrilled with the first episode of Aldnoah.Zero and am more enthusiastic than ever before. If you haven’t given this anime a chance yet, I strongly recommend it.

Akame ga Kill!

Although I often use the word ‘shounen’ as a negative term, habitually when describing traits or attributes of an anime that are stereotypical of shounen anime/manga, I want to describe Akame ga Kill! as a good shounen anime. Or at the very least, it had a solid first episode. What elevates Akame ga Kill! above the other shounen anime is that it was able to demonstrate genuine humor, satisfying action, and an intriguing setting all while still being very, very shounen. The series found a satisfying balance comedy and action, and both those aspects of Akame ga Kill! were well above-average. I actually found myself smiling at a few of the jokes which is challenging for something that isn’t a true comedy. The action sequences were adequate with swords and guns and whatnot, but the fact that people are killed in Akame ga Kill!, and often in violent ways, made each skirmish satisfying in their conclusions. I’m ecstatic to see a collection of protagonists who aren’t afraid to kill other people in order to achieve their goals. And the fantasy setting centered on a corrupted government is fine by itself, but seeing the culture extend beyond them to the townsfolk makes for a more interesting premise than in most shounen stories. Often times, you see the big, bad government being the villain in these shows while the citizens are victims and need to be saved… but here, they’re just as guilty of the crimes and pay for their sins with their blood. Perhaps what I like most about Akame ga Kill! is that it’s a shounen anime that wants to be more than a shounen anime. And the aforementioned points validate that statement. Unfortunately, Akame ga Kill! is still very, very shounen and that can be seen elsewhere in the show. The whole fight/rescue/knowledge of underground ghoul organization for Ken to join assassination organization for Tatsumi to join is very, very shounen. Right from the start, when Tatsumi looked up at the blood red moon and they were posing in the sky for no reason… you could tell this anime was going to be super shounen. And the collection of strange, diverse characters… yeah, that, too. Not to mention the hero with his robust sense of justice and the big, bad faceless government and people doing evil things for the sake of being evil… yeah. Not everything about Akame ga Kill! is good, but it’s good enough. I am optimistic that the series will retain these qualities and manage to stay consistent throughout, but I can’t help but feel the humor and violence might dip now that the introduction is over. All I hope for is that there isn’t a training arc starting with episode 2 and going on to whenever.

Sabagebu!

Easily the biggest surprise of the season, Sabagebu! is a delightful, wacky comedy that will make you smile throughout. Hell, it’s a real challenge for an anime to make me laugh at its comedy but Sabagebu! actually made me laugh several times. Without any other strong comedies this season (with the exception of Space Dandy 2), Sabagebu! is a definite keeper. Beyond that, Sabagebu! has other merits too, though none surpass the excellence that is its entertainment value. The cast of characters are all oddballs but none are too excessive or one-dimensional. Each character possesses some qualities that make them fun, but the series doesn’t define their characters by these traits. The survival game club dynamic does feel a bit like ­Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C3-bu, but that one was entirely more serious and analytical than this carefree comedy doppelganger. In fact, Sabagebu! reminds me more of Love Lab than last year’s all-girl survival game club anime. The art and animation are upbeat and colorful, which complements the variety of comedy this anime enjoys and contrasts pleasantly with the dark and dirty survival game themes. Overall, I found this to be one of the best anime this season based on this first episode and the potential for the series. And though I am incredibly biased toward comedies, I think everyone should give Sabagebu! a chance.

Undecided:

Barakamon

Barakamon had a better first episode than some of the anime I’m keeping, but it wasn’t enough to bring it out of the Undecided category. The reason for the indecision on Barakamon is that I am unsure how the anime will perform for the remainder of the season. The first episode was wonderful. Fantastic, even. I was pleasantly startled at the genuine characterization of Seishuu and even more astonished to see a significant amount of character development in the first episode. The comedy was polished, able to make me smile on a few occasions, and I found the characters to all be meaningful in how they interact with Seishuu. The problem with the series is that I’m not sure what the anime can do to top it. I have a sinking feeling that this show will find itself in a rut where Seishuu has a new problem each week and the islanders help him with their quirky behavior and whatnot and then he’s able to draw words prettily again. I’m not sure if I want an anime with that pattern or a show of that dynamic, even if this was one of the better first episodes this season. I’m just very weary of the potential this series has and whether I’ll enjoy it throughout. I enjoyed this episode greatly and would be overjoyed if the anime performs this well throughout, but I don’t see it at this point. That being said, I’m eager to give this anime a second episode to see if it confirms my suspicions or proves me wrong. However, even if the show does fall into a predictable pattern every week, I’m planning on keeping this anime so long as I enjoy each episode individually.

Dropped:

None of the shows reviewed in this post were dropped.

This post reviews: Hanayamata, Ao Haru Ride, Persona 4 the Golden Animation, and Zankyou no Terror.

I am debating whether I want to keep Re:_Hamatora and Fate/kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei! this season. While I did enjoy Re:_Hamatora, I only enjoyed it while Nice was gone. The dynamic without Nice was much, much better than anything from the first season and I was hopeful that the sequel would have him gone for most of the time. Looks like it’ll just be one episode. Oh well. If the series returns to mediocrity in its second episode, I won’t hesitate in dropping it. And it’s the same for Illya, too. I kept hearing that the manga gets darker and that it’s worth the wait. Well, it’s been more than one season now and the only thing remotely dark about Illya is now we have a tan-skinned Illya. If that’s what everyone’s definition of a ‘darker’ anime is, then I’m through with taking advice from anonymous anime fans. I can’t see how the anime will get better… and even if it does, it’s still a long way from good. It’ll get one more episode before it’s dropped for good.

Watching:

Hanayamata

Hanayamata had a solid yet unremarkable first episode. Although the anime is entertaining and engaging, primarily due to Hana’s vivacious and infectious personality, the actual content was rather ordinary and one-dimensional. The plot so far is fairly routine for an anime; it’s about a shy girl who makes friends through the X club at school. Been there, done that. But for Hanayamata, the X is what makes this anime special. I know nothing about Yosakoi dancing, so the subject of this anime will be unique compared to its peers, and I’ve always enjoy smooth and bountiful animation, something the opening sequence promises with various scenes of the quintet of girls dancing lively and beautifully. And though I bemoaned the anime for being conventional earlier, I see it as somewhat of a positive. That combination of being entertaining while having a dull story bodes well for Hanayamata seeing as it can carry itself through on entertainment value alone when not much is happening. Still, the first episode of Hanayamata was far from impressive, but it indicates that the series will soon improve, especially once the Yosakoi dance club forms and all the characters are together. What I’m looking forward to the most with Hanayamata is the comedy, the dances, and to see Naru grow as a character. If the anime can satisfy me in regards to these aspects, then picking up Hanayamata for this summer will be a success.

Persona 4 the Golden Animation

To me, Persona 4 the Golden Animation (P4GA) is different enough from Persona 4 the Animation (P4A) to warrant watching it. Even though the events of this anime will parallel P4A from start to finish, I’m fascinated to see how Marie factors into the story and how one new character alters the dynamic of the series. You could call it an experiment in seeing how much of an influence one character can have on a story. You could also say I’m curious to see how A-1 Pictures handles P4GA after AIC produced P4A. Yeah, even though the staffs are virtually the same between P4A and P4GA, I’m entranced by the fact that we get to see this story developed by two different studios. Sure, it might be a little like Endless Eight with slight alterations on the same story, but I wouldn’t mind reliving Persona’s story one more time, especially if the anime is abbreviate and only 12 episodes long. I doubt I’ll enjoy P4GA as much as I did P4A, but there’s enough new material and a new style to keep me invested in this anime for the duration of its run.

Zankyou no Terror

Zankyou no Terror is a dazzling display of how astute directing, insightful writing, and authentic characterization are the foundations for which to develop an unforgettable anime. These fundamental concepts were executed brilliantly in the first episode, starting at the very beginning with the Nine’s and Twelve’s raid, all the way through to the end with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building crumpling after the terrorist attack. Of particular note is Lisa’s character, who’s monologues and symbolism were perfect. Her descriptions of Arata and Touji provided invaluable insight into her perception of their characters and the scene where she jumped drew remarkable parallels to the earlier scenes when she was bullied by her fellow classmates. Zankyou no Terror is incredibly cerebral and intelligent and will continue to be fascinating as the series continues, especially after their first major attack. In addition to that, the anime features a vivid and pragmatic art style that dwells heavily in realism… and it’s gorgeous. The anime can go in any number of directions from this point forward, so it’ll be interesting to see how this series develop and how we come to understand the characters of Arata, Touji and Lisa before the finale. I’m already enchanted with the prospects of this series and can’t wait to see what happens next. Definitely a keeper for this anime season.

Undecided:

Ao Haru Ride

Wow, that art style… it’s just like watching Kimi ni Todoke all over again. Unfortunately for me, it’s not quite the same as Kimi ni Todoke. What elevated that shoujo romance over this shoujo romance, and also the main reason why Ao Haru Ride is in the Undecided category, is that I don’t see the charm here. Ao Haru Ride is decent at best, largely because the romance started off on a huge red flag – a stupid misunderstanding with neither side talking things out. Furthermore, I don’t think I’ll like Futaba and Kou as the leads for the romance in this anime. Futuba would be fine as a sidekick, but her artificial personality is already a bit tiring. Kou is a huge dick to the girl he once liked, so to see him act this way is a huge turn-off. And given the tedious personalities of these two, I’m not sure I want to see what the other characters are like, especially the male love rival who we already know will be blonde/light brown and nicer and whatnot. Yeah, I want to drop the anime after just one episode, but I did enjoy it and I am really fond of the animation and art style. It isn’t the same as Kimi ni Todoke, which featured a more charming cast and superior comedy, but Ao Haru Ride is a decent anime, and the first episode will probably be the hardest for me. If the series picks up in the second episode, then I’ll strongly consider keeping it. Otherwise, if it falls into the same pattern that every shoujo romance anime does, then it’s gonna be dropped.

Dropped:

Again, nothing was dropped from the shows covered in this post.

This post reviews: Yama no Susume Second Season, Majimoji Rurumo, Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?, and Tokyo ESP.

Although Psycho-Pass is returning this summer with an extended version, combining two episodes together and running for 11 episodes before Psycho-Pass 2 this autumn, I think I’ll be giving the series a pass. After giving the first extended episode a try and not noticing anything new or substantially different, I think I can invest my time better by watching 2 new anime rather than the hour-long episodes of Psycho-Pass. I am hoping that some observant fan out there will catalogue the difference, redraws and any new material here, but I’m not going to spend 11 hours rewatching an anime when I’m already crunched for time and trying to juggle a dozen new shows. Instead, I’ll just wait patiently and see if there’s anything worthwhile from it or not.

Watching:

Yama no Susume Second Season

The first reason why I am writing about Yama no Susume here when I skipped over all the previous sequels, continuations, re-adaptations and whatnot, is because the structure and dynamic of Yama no Susume is completely different between this second season and the original. The first series had 12 episodes of 3 minutes each for a total run-time of 36 minutes. This new season is features episodes that are much, much longer and there are twice as many episodes, meaning this season is roughly 360 minutes or 10 times more Yama no Susume than the original Yama no Susume. This is like getting 10 sequels of Yama no Susume! And because of the extended run-time for each episode, the anime has a different style than before – being able to accomplish more with each episode and being able to provide depth in specific areas or topics where it couldn’t before. The second reason why I’m writing about Yama no Susume here is because I absolutely loved the first season and feel the exact same way after watching the first episode of this sequel. And that’s always a good reason… right?

Yeah, of course it is. But back to the subject at hand, the second season of Yama no Susume is great. The one major flaw I had with the original is that the episodes were too short and that the anime really could never expand on its topics to build a base of knowledge on mountaineering and camping or to develop the characters and their stories. Now, with quarter-hour long episodes, we see that Yama no Susume is able to do complete subjects in detail and even provide time to explore the four mountain-climbing girls. The anime still has the same charm and amusement as the original shorts, along with the same super-moe art style. I found this episode to be more enjoyable than any from the original series, which did well for a short anime series, so don’t be surprised if this quickly becomes one of my favorite this season.

Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!?

Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? might not be heavy on having a wholesome story or noteworthy characters, but that’s not really the point of this anime. Instead, Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? is a harem comedy that tries to fit as many anime clichés as it can into one episode. It pretty much takes all the random harem backstory for all the special ghosts/magical girls/aliens/whatever and puts it into one show. I often critize anime for being unoriginal, derivative or direct copies of more popular franchises, but this is what Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? wants, and Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? knows just how silly and stupid it is. The fact that it’s making fun of itself and it knows that it’s making fun of itself is what allows the anime to be amusing and ultimately enjoyable. If it wanted to be a good, serious harem romance (wait, is there such a thing?) it wouldn’t be concerning itself with wacky characters, their zany backstories, and making fun of everyone as soon as they appear. The whole point of this is to laugh at all that stuff. But yes, the comedy anime does have some flaws, particularly on how well it’ll hold up for the duration of the season. Often times, these self-aware and critical anime often become the monsters they’re making fun of, and I am weary of Rokujouma no Shinryakusha!? becoming the lame, ecchi harem comedy that it was poking fun at in this first episode. If not, I’m wondering how much material this premise can bestow since it seems as though most of the humor was used up in this first episode. I can see the anime going around and trying to resolve the issues of each girl and trying to save the apartment for Satomi, but the fact that this has 15 volumes of light novels already leads me to believe the story won’t be short and predictable. Nevertheless, I did find myself laughing and smiling at this first episode and am interested to see just how well this comedy performs. I’m not expecting this anime to perform any miracles or have a genuine story or anything value, but I am assuming this will keep me entertained for the next 11 weeks.

Tokyo ESP

Tokyo ESP probably had the most intriguing first episode of any of the anime this season. Without knowing much about the story, the characters or the style of the anime, I found Tokyo ESP to be rousing, remarkable, and rewarding. I’ve always been a fan of shows where various people have superhuman abilities, such as Needless and Darker than Black, so to be reminded of those familiar anime while watching Tokyo ESP is a definite plus. The serious nature of the anime, evidenced by the character designs, the gore, and the plot thus far, does help give the anime some weight in its story and its characters. The art and animation are adequate for this type of anime, without having any faults but never being too impressive. The first episode did well in establishing the setting and laying the foundations for the series to build off of, but it’s hard to predict what the rest of the anime will be like since the main character and her gang were absent for all but the end of the first episode. I’m not sure what the rest of the anime will be like, but I do know I’ll be watching this anime to find out. Yes, I often put shows like this in the Undecided category until I can confirm my expectations and know what to expect, but Tokyo ESP was among the upper-half of anime this season and proved enough to rationalize keeping it after just one episode.

Undecided:

Nothing for this post, which means the last anime is…

Dropped:

Majimoji Rurumo

What’s most remarkable about Majimoji Rurumo’s first episode is you can absolutely tell what material was from the debut and where the manga’s story began. That is to say, the entire first half of the episode was based on a one-shot (one chapter long manga) the mangaka originally wrote and probably won an award for. Because so many people liked it (barf), a mangazine probably wanted him to continue the story, so he came up with the second half of episode one and what will be the remainder of this season. It’s plain to see how different the two halves were, not only in terms of the story, but in terms of the background characters, the school setting and even how Rurumo’s magic works. Hell, Chiro was never explicitly mentioned in the first half and now we know he’s Rurumo’s familiar and can even talk. So you can tell right from the start that this anime originates from a one-shot and was probably never designed to be a long-running manga or anime, and that observing this stark contrast is a guarantee of a poor adaptation or poor directing. Or at least that’s how I see it.

But besides that critique, there’s not much for me to like about Majimoji Rurumo. Unlike Rokujouma before, this anime takes itself too seriously, especially with the perverted male lead and the innocent and naïve magical witch girl. The characters are simple and shallow, meaning there’s little opportunity for these characters to grow or mature as the series develops. And yes, having a perverted male character like Kouta is a huge negative. The comedy was abysmal, too. I fail to see the obsession with comedy derived from girls not wearing their underwear (which was the main joke twice in this first episode), but maybe there’s one or two people in Japan that can’t get enough of this monotonous rehashed material. Maybe this show caters to them. All I know is that this show is not for me. And though I’ve seen enough to justify dropping it after just one episode, I am curious how the anime will sustain itself for the duration of the series. The opening sequence did promise a throng of characters, so it doesn’t look like poor Rurumo will be stuck with Kouta for 11 more episodes. Couple that with the fact that this was originally a one-shot, too, meaning the original premise was for this to be a stand-alone story with just Kouta and Rurumo. I might keep an eye out for what others are saying about this series, but I can’t find enough motivation to continue watching this anime after how disappointing and frustrating this first episode was.

This post reviews: Terra Formars, Gundam Reconguista in G, Denki-Gai no Honya-san, Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, Madan no Ou to Vanadis, and World Trigger.

As of right now, I am planning for four installments of my first impressions posts for Autumn 2014. Since the anime in these posts are always grouped by the dates they are released, four separate entries seems appropriate for a season this massive.

Watching:

Gundam Reconguista in G

The first episode of Gundam Reconguista in G failed to impress me, but it fulfilled the purpose of making it a Gundam anime by featuring in no particular order: a Gundam, a protagonist that’s an unlikely candidate to pilot said Gundam, conflict between space and Earth (presumably), mobile suits fighting, a romantic character (x2), and a mysterious character. What, no masked antagonist (or anti-hero)? Well, as the ending sequence promised, that necessary component will appear sometime soon. But really, the episode felt safe, and that the series wasn’t ready to take risks with its characters, story or setting just yet. The second episode, however, proved to be the deciding factor for my by developing those key aspects. Here, I was able to see what made this anime worthwhile and gave me a reason to continue watching. What I’ve enjoyed from Gundam anime in the past are the characters and the settings with the stories, the mecha fights and the visuals all secondary. The second episode helped me adjust to the main trio of characters, rather than focusing on the pseudo-military personnel, trainees and cheerleaders from the first episode. The world was also developed, and we saw more than just a space elevator, a couple of nuts (that’s the term they used!), space pirates and mobile suits. We began to learn more about their world, their conflict, and the politics involved. It is what I want from a Gundam anime. And while I do appreciate the distinctive art style, I can’t say I was too excited with the mecha fights or the story at this point. Still, this second episode was enough to convince me to keep watching, and that’s what I’ll do with Gundam Reconguista in G.

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works

Even though this was just the prologue, episode 00, there is no question about my commitment to FSN: UBW. This is one of the few times where I have nothing negative to say about an anime without resorting to nitpicking details. What blew me away, and probably the single most exceptional trait of this first episode, is the prop design. Prop design refers to the objects that are used or included in an anime, such as chairs, tea cups, weapons, books, bento boxes, and magic circles, just to name a few. In Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works, each prop had an exceptional number of details and effort, helping create environments that felt vibrant and life-life. The props each had a remarkable uniqueness to them, from the furniture in Rin’s living room to her tea set and again to Archer’s, Lancer’s, and Saber’s weapons. This is extraordinary, and it might be the best prop design I have ever seen in an anime. Oh, and the rest of the episode wasn’t bad, either. I would love to continue in that level of detail on other aspects of the anime, such as in the backgrounds, the fighting, and the characterization, but I’ll leave those topics to better writers who’ve already covered those subjects and write their posts on time (and the reason why I decided to do prop design is I doubt anyone cares about that as much as I do).

Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works impressed me in every category where I evaluate anime: art, characters, entertainment, setting, sound, and story. FSN: UBW might have the best visuals of the year thanks to its mature and powerful art style and its magnificent battle animation. The characterization felt genuine and human, and I already like Rin more than from my previous experiences with the Fate universe. The first episode was wildly entertaining, and the scenes that weren’t combat or comical were still engrossing and educating. The setting and the story are currently the weakest of these six categories, but those develop with time, and if my understanding of Fate/stay night is correct, I do not foresee any issues with either moving forward. Lastly, I found myself wholly impressed with the sound, not just the music that played in this episode, but also with the voice acting and sound effects. Time will tell if FSN: UBW will be the anime of the year or not, especially since it has some solid competition with my inane obsession with KILL la KILL, but this might be the anime to do it.

Undecided:

Nothing here, which means…

Dropped:

Terra Formars

What’s the point?

Denki-Gai no Honya-san

Denki-Gai no Honya-san is a simple anime about a normal teenage who inherits super magical powers has the love of his life fall on him from the sky discovers an ancient mecha robot that can finally defeat the aliens gets a part-time job at a manga store with a bunch of strange girls. It’s supposed to be a comedy centered around otaku or anime culture, but most of the humor was derived from the wacky character traits and not from the manga store. Sure, there were a few entertaining moments, like Sensei’s trip through the shrink wrap machine, but most of the humor was being a clumsy and shy girl, failing to meet a manga deadline and perverted or ecchi jokes. Been there, done that… and if I comedy isn’t going to entertain, what’s the point? The art style is nice, but it’s not really cute or charming since it makes these teenage girls look like their younger than the cast of Ichigo Mashimaro. Sensei was the only character to make me laugh, but she’s not strong enough to carry the show with on her own. And the manga shop setting was a distinguishing characteristic, but the first episode failed to utilize it to its advantage. Denki-Gai no Honya-san isn’t really worth it, especially with better comedies on the horizon.

Madan no Ou to Vanadis

There were some positives to Madan no Ou to Vanadis, but not enough to outweigh the negatives. The anime has a pretty appealing fantasy setting, which is what attracted me to this anime in the first place, and I enjoyed learning about the world and seeing the dynamics within Ellenora’s domain. But besides that… I think my initial thoughts on this anime would suffice, “[v]ery standard, very generic, very boring and not worth my time.” The art was substandard, the characters were one-dimensional, and the story uninteresting. At no time did I feel particularly interested, and the harem set-up and forced fanservice felt like cheap hooks as an attempt to develop an audience. Tigre was remarkably lackluster, and Ellen felt robotic, not even diplomatic, in her approach to Tigre, the man she’s supposedly in love with. And I don’t see the anime improving any time soon, especially as the harem develops and the number of ecchi scenes skyrockets over the next few episodes. If I can’t find a single reason for watching an anime, what’s the point? Dropped.

World Trigger

Back in my preview for the Autumn 2014 anime season, I originally tagged this anime as a generic shounen anime. Now, after watching the first episode, I feel the need to apologize to generic shounen anime; at least generic shounen anime have decent characters and satisfying action. World Trigger couldn’t even meet those needs, not by a long shot. The first episode was a complete waste, never getting better than tedious and unpleasant, and only telling me a story I’ve heard a thousand times before from better anime. The two main characters were unlikable and failed to exhibit anything that resembled a personality, and I would probably use the same words to describe the setting, too. I found nothing of value in this first anime, and have no plans of even finishing the first episode. Again, I ask the same question that I’ve asked the previous three anime: what’s the point? If there’s nothing there to make this anime worth watching, what’s the point?

This post reviews: Magic Kaito 1412, Cross Ange, Sora no Method, Grisaia no Kajitsu, Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis, and Gugure! Kokkuri-san.

As I expected, it looks to be another busy season with a number of shows meeting or exceeding my expectations. This post will give you an idea of the predicament I am facing, and the fact that I may need to drop decent anime to manage everything this autumn.

Watching:

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis

Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis is an anime with an undeniably distinctive and appreciated personality. Not only does the anime look original, but it feels innovative too, in its writing, characters and setting. The picturesque fantasy backgrounds, both interiors and landscapes, are marvelous, and it’s the perfect backdrop for a story about bounty hunters, demon summoning, and the ability to turn criminals into cards for whatever reason. Favaro is a remarkable protagonist, and the other characters introduced thus far are pretty decent, too, though not on the same level as our hero right now. The story is a little thin at this point, which isn’t abnormal, and there’s certain to be more as the introduction blatantly told us there’ll be an ambitious battle at the end with a massive dragon. Call it a hunch, but I’m guessing the dragon’s name is Fluffy Hugs. Bahamut is my second guess. The mature art style, especially the character designs, are strangely appealing to me and help the anime step apart, and step above, most of the other anime this season. After one episode, my primary curiosities are about how well these characters will be developed, how interesting or engaging the story will be, and if the animation can remain this superb throughout. However, those are details for down the road and my decision right now is one of the simplest of the season. Shingeki no Bahamut: Genesis will likely be one of the best anime this season, and I am thrilled to be watching it this autumn.

Gugure! Kokkuri-san

You know an anime is effective when in the middle of it, I stop and ponder the compulsory question, “when was the last time I watched a pure comedy that was this good?” The answer? Well, we’ll have to wait and see how Gugure! Kokkuri-san performs throughout the season, but if this delightful anime is anywhere near the comic genius that this episode demonstrated, Kokkuri-san will quickly be one of my favorite pure comedies of all-time. And considering that comedy is my favorite genre, that’s quite an accomplishment. What makes this anime outstanding compared to the other comedies this season is how well it presents its characters, how it manages its chemistry between Kohina and Kokkuri and how everything feels balanced. No one character dominates the humor at this point, which is often what happens in comedy anime with a manzai style. What helps is that the roles are fluid in Kokkuri-san; Kohina and Kokkuri alternate between the roles of tsukkomi and boke frequently, so the humor is not controlled by one character and each scene feels fresh and humorous. It keeps you guessing and helps prevent the show from being saturated by one character and their brand of entertainment. It also helps that the jokes are well written and that the director of the anime is bringing them to life through ideal timing and seamless delivery. Furthermore, the art is adorable and endearing, especially with Kohina as a chibi character most of the time. It kinda reminds me of Kill Me Baby which might be the best thing I can say about this anime at this point. This is a no-brainer for me this season, and I passionately recommend that everyone give this anime a chance.

Undecided:

Magic Kaito 1412

Of the four anime in this category, Magic Kaito 1412 is the most likely to be dropped. The reason why it hasn’t been dropped yet is because the first episode felt unique compared to what the rest of the series will be. This episode did well in establishing the characters, introducing the story, and creating a motive for Kaito. The rest of the series, however, will likely be adventures-of-the-week where Kaito must steal something or do something as he inches closer to his mysterious father’s death (despite the fact that the shadowy figure he saw at the end is probably his father). And while this episode content works well for shows like Lupin III or Detective Conan, two shows that I’ve enjoyed, it feels like it will be hit-or-miss with this show. Sure, the first episode was fun and I am fond of the cast… but that’s about it. In fact, my least favorite part was the theft at the end since it felt very predictable and methodical. And based on my impressions of Magic Kaito 1412 thus far, that’s what I’m expecting the series to be for the majority of its duration. The reason why Magic Kaito 1412 hasn’t been dropped yet is that I want to confirm my suspicions by watching the second episode. There’s always the possibility that I’m wrong about this anime, and I believe it deserves a fair chance after having a respectable first episode. Another feeling I have with Magic Kaito 1412 is that if I had more time to watch anime this season, then I wouldn’t be having this internal debate. Unfortunately, one of the problems with watching so many anime is the necessary task of budgeting my time appropriately and dropping good anime that I don’t think I’ll enjoy as much as the others. For now, Magic Kaito 1412 is one of those anime, but it has a chance to prove itself with one more episode.

Cross Ange

Sunrise employee #1: “Say, you know what… Geass is popular. Valvrave is popular. And porn is popular. You know what I’m thinking?…”

Sunrise employee #2: “…go on…”

Sunrise employee #1: “I’m thinking we should combine all three together and make the most popular anime ever! And we can call it ‘Gea Rave Porn’!”

Sunrise employee #2: “I. LOVE. IT! Not the name… but the idea. The concept. The money that we’ll be showering in. Oh, and let’s add dragons. Everyone loves dragons, right?”

Sunrise employee #1: “Oh my God, this is going to be amazing! Everyone is going to love this anime. I don’t see how anything could possibly go wrong.”

Well… there’s quite a bit wrong with Cross Ange: Tenshi to Ryuu no Rondo. For starters, the anime is over-the-top, but not in the good way. Previous Sunrise anime like Code Geass and Kakumeiki Valvrave were over-the-top in a silly and pointless way, and it helped make these shows ridiculous and fun. They added to the enjoyment of these anime and helped make those shows memorable. Cross Ange is over-the-top, too, but not in the same context. Rather than being silly with its setting and characters, Cross Ange is over-the-top in its melodrama, and this causes the anime to feel strained and uncomfortable. The anime desperately wants to be edgy and in-your-face, but it doesn’t know how. Cross Ange thinks that stripping nude and violating the former princess Angelize will build context to her story and develop her character through the harsh reality of their world. But there are hundreds of better ways of doing this through legitimate forms of drama, especially since that embarrassing scene only accomplished showing us how far she’s fallen as a character. Except it didn’t… and it didn’t add anything of value or help establish how the world is shit which was already sufficiently accomplished with the military police taking the norma baby away or the death of Angelize’s mother. In fact, this over-the-top melodrama had the opposite effect with me, as I found a number of these scenes to be hilarious… as in hilariously bad. So then why hasn’t the anime been dropped yet?

The reason why I’m continuing Cross Ange, for now, is that I want to see where Cross Ange goes from here. This first episode was spent exclusively on establishing the setting, Ange’s great demise, and hinting that future episodes will promise gorgeous mecha battles (fanservice) against dragons (fanservice) while sexy heroines (fanservice) wear skimpy outfits that maximize their cleavage and highlight their asses (I’m not sure but that might be fanservice, too). The first episode is barely a representation of the series as a whole as we’ve only seen one character, Ange. The majority of the cast for the majority of the story was stranded on this island – probably posing nude or bathing or interlocked in sexual poses the whole time – so we really can’t critique the cast besides Ange and maybe her maid, Momoka. Currently, the story of the anime, presumptively Ange’s growth as a character and involving her experiences learning about the normas, their oppressed lives and the world in which they live, actually sounds like a pretty solid story. In fact, if this happens, Cross Ange might have one of my favorite stories of the year since I’m fond of stories like that. So with that in mind, I doubt the first episode really represents the series moving forward. It is important to note, however, that the series will still contain too much of over-the-top melodrama, which I ranted about in the above paragraph. Another concern with this anime that we saw in the first episode and is likely to persist in the series is the ecchi fanservice. Sometimes, ecchi fanservice can be a dealbreaker for me, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as some of the other anime I’ve watched or blogged. And that’s one thing I’ll give the anime credit for… it knows it wants to be ecchi and isn’t hiding it. It’s shameless in how it includes boobs and panties in every scene… and I was fine with that for the entire first episode until the princess was raped at the end. Also, I think we have enough evidence that the the art, animation and music will be well above-average for Cross Ange.

What I need to see from the second episode of Cross Ange is there to be some progress and some value to the anime. I want Cross Ange to start building up Ange’s character, to introduce the cast of other normas who pilot these mecha, and for the anime to tone down its edgy, in-your-face attitude. I can live with ecchi fanservice and can tolerate mild amounts of melodrama, but I want to see the anime move in a positive direction with episode two. I am fairly confidence and optimistic about the anime moving forward, and I anticipate picking it up for good soon, but I felt the need to voice my concerns, especially since they’ll be the foundation for my rational for dropping this anime if it fails to improve.

Sora no Method

Sora no Method had a solid first episode, but it ended up here due to one primary cause. The issue with Sora no Method at this point is that is lacks substance and purpose. Then again, just about every other anime does, but Sora no Method failed to establish what the series will eventually be about. Every other aspect of this anime is a strong positive – from the art, to the characters, to the setting. In fact, there’s already a lengthy list of reasons on why I want to continue watching this anime since I enjoyed the first episode throughout. But right now, I don’t really see any material or any meaning to what’s going on thus far, and I’m questioning whether the positive I’ve seen can carry this anime for an entire series. I know that as we continue, we’ll eventually get a substance and a story, but I can’t say that I’m entirely enthused with what’s transpired thus far and what the plot of this anime might be. I’ll likely end up keeping this anime based on the positives everywhere else, especially with the magnificent backgrounds, the charming cast of characters, the intriguing setting, and the cute art style. However, this anime could eventually be dropped if the story is uninteresting or tedious and I run into issues of budgeting my time every week, especially if there are better ‘Undecideds’ as more of these new anime debut this week.

Grisaia no Kajitsu

I’m not a tsundere (at least, I don’t think I am), but I have conflicting and contrasting feelings about this anime after one episode. Part of me was seriously awestruck with Grisaia no Kajitsu while the other half was severely disappointed. I am extremely impressed with the visuals of this anime, especially with its cinematography, its use of soft light, and its animation. Michiru’s introduction completely blew me away with how well it was animated and how we saw her energy visually and how alive her character was. That sequence of brilliant animation and cute reactions were almost enough to convince me to keep this anime, and I’m hoping we continue to see scenes like that with her character in every episode. The cinematography was encouraging with its shot selection, keeping the visuals in many of the scenes diverse, utilizing a number of different angles and making the anime more than just talking anime faces. The ecchi fanservice wasn’t bad either, though you always wonder if it’ll increase or decreases as the series progresses. To summarize, the sights and sounds of this anime are reason enough for me to pick up this anime, but the other half of me, the one that evaluates the content and meaning of the anime, strongly disagrees. The other half was dissatisfied with the substance of this first episode and discouraged by its cast. The story of the episode failed to excite me since it was comprised entirely of clichéd character introductions. The story should improve, but the first episode failed to impress me here. The character themselves all seem very primary and flat at this point, though the final minute hinted some degree of complexity or depth with each of the girls displaying some hint to the deep, dark secrets they’re hiding. Still, it doesn’t help that each girl is just one of the five standard archetypes of almost every eroge’s harem and that the main character is devoid of any quality. Then again, this anime is based off a successful eroge, so I suppose I can’t fault the anime too much here. Still, there are a number of faults with Grisaia no Kajitsu, and I want to see how the anime improves upon these areas before committing to this anime for good. For now, Grisaia no Kajitsu is here, but it stands a decent chance of being picked up if it manages to stimulate my brain rather than my eyes and ears.

Dropped:

Nothing was dropped from this list, though that should change after I finish watching the first episodes of everything this season and decide which needs to be cut.