Absolute Duo
Short Synopsis: Our main character is called Thor and goes to magic high school.
There are some shows in anime which make you wonder if there’s a random story generator in Japan in which you pull the handle and it just pulls a series of random tropes together. Then an author shoves them into the age old light novel formula and hey presto! Best selling light novel. I tried to keep an open mind and hold some hope that maybe this would prove to have the slightest bit of creativity even when my opinion dropped at the sight of a school setting. But all was lost when the main character introduced himself as Thor and not one person laughed. To make matters worse the main didn’t know about the mythological hero at all. I was bored through the first half of the episode and the second half was downright painful to watch with some terrible comedy. Followed by fanservice and the main all flustered because he is living with a girl. Never seen that before….Even if you like these kinds of stories done at least once every season, I would not recommend this.
OP: The song started with potential but fizzled out.
ED: Bland.
Potential: 0%
Yuri Kuma Arashi
Short Synopsis: Chibi Bears are eating schoolgirls.
Only one minute in and we got lesbians coupled with lily symbolism. Kunihiko Ikuhara isn’t wasting any time. For those that don’t know, he is the director of Penguindrum, revolutionary girl Utena and some seasons of sailor moon. I can see he has not changed much. A good sense of aesthetics and narrative focus on symbolism over sense. But damn me for this if you will, but the animation of this episode was abysmal. This would be the level of animation I would expect from a 70’s anime. The number of still frames was ridiculous. After penguindrum I have come to hate Ikuahara’s style as I see it as pointless intellectual fluff covering for a weak poorly plotted story. I understand that others may look at it differently and find value in untangling the bundle of threads into a cohesive plot. If you liked penguindrum then this looks like it will be more of the same. However I can’t enjoy it. I find it irritatingly pretentious with every line. Though the premise is mildly interesting with it’s light hearted nature even when the subtext is quite dark, I just can’t get into it after seeing how much potential was squandered in Penguindrum. I will give it a 50% for intrigue and being different but I am sorry, this just isn’t the anime for me.
OP: Very suggestive. Fanservice off the charts. I’m honestly not sure what to think of it.
ED: A still image and a dancing bear. Come on guys, even Absolute Duo tried with it’s ED.
Potential: 50%
Binan Koukou Chikyuu Bouei-bu Love!
Short Synopsis: Our protagonist makes a contract with a fluffy animal and becomes a magical…boy.
The first four minutes were nothing but food jokes. Unless you are well versed in japanese food these will fly over your head. As for the rest, well…basically the problem is this. I am sure there are those of you who are familiar with those anime episodes or specials where they take the characters from a series and parody a magical girl show. However rather than point out the genre conventions of magical girl shows and poking fun at it, the joke is usually just placing the characters in the setting and saying how much they don’t fit in it. It is essentially one joke that gets tiresome before the episode’s end. This looks to be an entire series that is that in a nutshell. If they want to keep this going they need to bring something else to the table because the joke has been made. You have said the punchline. Saying the punchline another twelve times will not make the joke any funnier.
OP: Silly and cheesy.
Potential: 0%
Even though I don’t plan on watching these (well, Yuri Kuma Arashi, almost), this post was informative and amusing to read. I’m looking forward to more of your first impressions. =)
watch anime episodes online with english subtitles at http://animecombo.com
Looking back on this old post, made me realize yurikuma was an Ikuhara show I actually hadn’t seen.
I marathoned it over the past two days.
In general I saw it as being an easier to grasp, smaller show in his work that didn’t really take off for me until near the middle and second half, but despite universally poor animation and some repetition, his weirdness and the visual style brought it up for me and its not as if I disliked what it was saying even if it felt more clear than his other stuff.
I liked Ginko. More Yuri series should have endings like this one too.
I enjoyed the first half more than second half. Agreed that this is Ikuhara’s lesser work, but I have a soft spot for it for its total weirdness and extremity. One such “extreme” is that it features an all female cast, as far as I can remember only one of the bear judge is male. The ending is absolutely madness as well.
“Won’t back down on love” -> one of my favorite episode title ever