Some Quick First Impressions: DD Hokuto no Ken, Date A Live and Red Data Girl

DD Hokuto no Ken

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives in a world where there are too many delinquents.
I have two main qualms about the current season, at first sight. First of all, it looks relatively bland for a Spring Season on average. The second is that two of the biggest talents in terms of direction are doing silly comedy shows. DD Hokuto no Ken is the first, which shows Akitaro Daichi, one of the most consistent comedy directors out there, doing a Hokuto no Ken parody. The result is undoubtedly really weird, and you can again see his influence. This episode had some good jokes in it, but I also think that it’s nowhere near his best work. For the first time in a series directed by him, the jokes are hit and miss: some of them just try way too hard to be funny. But we’ll see. There is some potential for a good parody of that series especially when it’s done so well. Obviously you need to know some background on the series to fully enjoy it, but with that, I think that knowing the general premise of the series will suffice.
OP: Quite catchy.
ED: Just…. what?
Potential: 70%

Date A Live

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has to date girls in orer to save the world (no, really)
This thing… was actually much worse than expected. AIC, why? WHY? What made you go for such an incredibly stupid premise? Who… in their right mind… made the leader of the sole organization that is able to save the world… the male lead’s sister? Yeah, this show has incest written all over it (screw it: if the opening scene shows the sister showing her panties, it’s going to get to incest at some point). None of the characters are any good, the show is full of jokes that are 10 years old, and the rest of the humour also is just terrible. No potential whatsoever here.
Potential: 0%

Red Data Girl

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a shrine maiden with special powers.
Red Data girl is… weird. I mean that in a good way, but I’m also rather confused because there are some parts that it doesn’t bother to introduce. Because of that you’re thrown a bit into this episode without knowing much about what’s going on or anything. I do have to say however, that if it can explain all of this well, then we can have ourselves quite an interesting series here. It has ingredients you see everywhere, but also ingredients that you don’t see anywhere. The lead male and lead female hate each other, but this does create a strange chemistry, and especially the lead female struggling with her own shyness was quite well done: she’s got special powers and everyone takes care of her, yet she is completely weak at the same time, causing a lot of trouble for others. This still needs to be fleshed out a lot, but the series has eleven episodes left to do this. I’m positive for now.
OP: A dull song, but nice symbolism for the rest of the story.
ED: Great vocalist. The visuals aren’t really that interesting though.
Potential: 80%

22 thoughts on “Some Quick First Impressions: DD Hokuto no Ken, Date A Live and Red Data Girl

  1. Psgels, I have a request, do you mind writing the studio for each anime in your first impressions (either in dedicated spot, or make sure you write it in your entry)? I usually use your first impressions as a point of reference for what to watch and knowing the studio as well helps. You usually mention it in your synopsis text (and that’s fine), but here for example, it’s not mentioned for Red Data Girl.

    (and before anyone says anything, obviously I can google it and obviously it’s not that big of a deal).

  2. Date a live is the only novel to make me want to stop reading it after the first page.
    It’s that bad.

  3. Sadly, Red Data Girl has commercial disaster written all over it. But if Date a Live outsells this, I’d facepalm.

      1. Sadly, while i’m loving rdg, unless an anime aimed at girls is a reverse harem like utapri these days the sales aren’t as good as say for something like a shounen action/ecchi series and rdg has shoujo vibes.

        1. I so agree, there are just no marketable elements in the show (and its at ep 3). I mean if your fetish is braids maybe…But I honestly dont think it will sell.

        2. you shouldnt underestimate the fujoshi market in Japan. It’s the main reason Kuroko no Basket is a top seller in Japan.

    1. Me too

      Is it the same studio?

      I think it was the first scenes where we’re flying over the scenery that did it. Art style seems similar, and the tone and atmosphere is as well.

  4. Date a Live has the worst first episode in the last 3 years.

    No seriously is just bad, fak u japan for liking these things.

    1. I like light hearted shows but I don’t even think I would want to watch something like data a live.

  5. Well, between the totally self-centered and humorless Red data Girl and Date A live I certainly prefer Date A Live.

    That’s Japanese mainstream anime at best : over the top voluntarily silly comedies.

  6. It’s good to see that you, psgels, who I assume hasn’t seen the Hokuto no Ken anime or read the manga, managed to enjoy the new parody series. I guess that means I’ll get a kick outt this.

  7. RDG up to now (ep.3) turns out to be unexpectedly brilliant.
    What’s wrong with the pacing? It’s so smooth!
    I didn’t get bored for a single second, what is this black magic?

    But really, there is so much fail potential there. Nevertheless, everytime I suspected trainwreck, it turned out to be the opposite.

    Cannot judge this show at all. There is a 50/50 chance it will be a good one…
    Lemme flip a coin: …Dammit, it’s gonna fail :/

  8. About RDG: “Hate each other”, that’s definetely not staying like that, since they’re obviously going to be a couple. I don’t think that’s good or bad, it all depends how they’ll get there. Let’s see.

    1. Yes, they already are as of ep 2 end. Sounds trashy, but strangely doesn’t feel that way.

      I mean, the build up is fantastic, but I’m sceptical about where we are actually building up to.

  9. “Yes, they already are as of ep 2 end.” Seriously? o.o
    I mean, I didn’t even know ep. 02 was out. I definitely wasn’t expecting to see that development so soon lol

    1. I already watched episode 03 as well. Yes, it’s already subbed.

      Of course, it is not suddenly the cheesy love couple, but it’s obvious where they are heading.

      Usually, I can judge a series within the first three episodes quite accurately, yet NOT for this series. It is walking on a very thin rope, and under it, there a lot of space to fall.
      That’s why the show feels very intense for me:

      It’s like watching an unsecured tightrope walker.

  10. RDG’s pacing to me is more similar to a good drama series than the usual anime pacing. I hope it can maintain that 😀

  11. Red Data Girl is soooo good. I beg to differ in that it does have a strong audience in Japan.

    It’s at the top of my list for this season, that’s for sure.

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