Joker Game
Short Synopsis: In the beginning of WWII a group of spartan trained spies attempt to catch an American spy hiding in the country.
Marvelous. Maybe it’s the lack of teenagers, maybe it’s the uncommon setting, or just maybe it’s because the spy leader is remarkably similar to Houzuki from the visual novel Sharin No Kuni but I loved this episode. Our protagonist is a straight laced Japanese Nationalist which makes him the perfect viewpoint for this story. As while we aren’t the type to die for the glory of Japan, our mains straight laced morals act as a good venue to highlight the nature of a spies work. For we aren’t dealing with the guns and glory James Bond style of spy but instead the true nature of a spy. Deception and stealth are the name of the game with combat being the last resort. This opening episode sets that up perfectly as we have our team of spies introduce our main to the “Joker Game”. On the surface a normal game of poker but on a deeper level a game of sabotage and deceit as players try to out cheat other players through bribery and hand signals. Having thus be viewed from an individual whose doctrine is set in honor gives us a clear picture on the nature of a spy. A spy resorts to any means necessary to complete the mission, no matter how dishonorable it would be to the masses. The atmosphere of this episode had a level of style that immediately caught my attention from the opening. However what’s obviously going to be a rather controversial matter is with the setting. As we all know, Japan wasn’t exactly playing with the good guys in this war so how that is shown here might cause some outrage if not handled delicately. However if this episode is an example of what is to come then I am very much looking forward to how this turns out.
Potential: 95%
Twin Star Exorcists(Sousei no Onmyouji)
Short Synopsis: A boy becomes an exorcist again to save a strange female exorcist.
SIgh…oh Studio Pierrot. First let me say that this first episode wasn’t bad per say and I am more in despair over how the rest of this series will likely turn out. I have read the manga of this and I can say it’s pretty good. Nothing revolutionary but a fun read. Now the first chapter or two of this series is admittedly not all that impressive as it plays by the numbers up until the main defining aspect of this series. (Namely about how it has been foreseen that these two are destined to get married and give birth to an exorcist who will save humanity) This first episode does cover the events of the first chapter but rather loosely. There are lots of small little unnecessary changes such as adding additional scenes and omitting some jokes. One casualty is that in the manga when Rokudu jumped into the water to save Benio; she had already swam to the shore and saved herself. Then she needed to jump back in to save him because he didn’t know how to swim. Considering how the humor was handled here though I think it would be less amusing. Jokes that were in the episode that made me smile in the manga left me stone faced here. It’s hard to pin down but there is something off about the presentation here. Of course that could be because the animation is fairly lackluster and considering it’s Studio Pierrot that’s really to be expected. The soundtrack is quite disappointing as the music featured in the PV looks to be the opening theme and the episodes music really isn’t noteworthy. Most of my gripes with this episode are surely minor as it did a decent job despite the needless changes. There is terrible news that comes with this however for you see I have heard word that this anime will have four cours. Now that’s pretty rare for an anime to have four cour’s and would be a cause for celebration…if the manga didn’t only have enough material for about an cour and a half. Filler ahoy! We already have an anime original character who has only been heard yet already annoys me. Looks like we have another Naruto adaption on our hands people; if you remember; the first part of Naruto was 220 episodes long and more than half of that was filler. But who knows? Perhaps they can pull through and present us with an original adaptation with it’s own merits such as the original Fullmetal Alchemist. I highly doubt it but hey they haven’t screwed up yet. Yep, not yet but sadly eventually.
Potential: 30%
Macross Delta
Short Synopsis: Saving the world with Mecha and JPOP idol tomfoolery.
Um….hah? I am rather perplexed as to how to react to this one. I was um…new? Our story revolves around a stowaway girl who wishes to join a group called Walkyurie which is some kind of Galaxy counter terrorism organisation mixed with a JPOP idol group. Their main job is to stop cases of a virus called VARS which is a strange disease which causes people to have tons of engorged veins on their skin and start causing destruction through…suicide bombings…and mass shootings…and the attack in this episode is in a middle eastern named planet…subtle guys. Real subtle. My ventures into the Macross franchise haven’t been many(Those being Plus, Zero and Frontier.) but I think the series has moved very far away from what Macross is supposed to be. Them Idols throwing around magic shields and such while singing JPOP were a bit too reminiscent of Symphogear and completely ridiculous. But I suppose that’s the big issue here. I am supposed to take this seriously or laugh and just roll with it? Based on the presentation I can’t really tell because it goes from serious mecha battles to magical girl idols with the same level of sincerity. One of the idols fires a laser that turns into a bunch holographic back up dancers. Our main protagonist has a method of fighting that makes his robot look like it’s dancing. Our main heroine has this weird design were one of her strands of hair ends in a heart which glows. Is that some weird growth or is she some kind of alien hybrid? Or is it there just for no reason? I mean really, just what am I to make of this? I guess there were parts I liked…maybe? Mecha seems decent and even some of the JPOP is catchy despite being cheesy. I was getting reminded of Frontier and that wasn’t too bad a show. But for the most part I just don’t know how to react to this.
Potential: 40%
Joker game was simply beautiful, will probably be the Rakugo of this season. Onmyouji felt boring, just like hero academia.
Macross on the other hand, that shit left me speechless, I usually avoid anything that has mechas in it, because, well, not really a fan of robots and even less of robot fights, but this one was good, really good, the action at least and that last song was good too, the ones before were pretty weak so it was kinda of a surprise.
@JokerGame I’m glad I’m not the only one who think that spy head guy were reminiscent of Houzuki (SnK is also one of my most favorite VN). I almost heard Norio Wakamoto’s voice in my head when he spoke.
As for the rest, I basically shared your opinion. My only complain is that the entire 8 spy candidates are very same-y and it’s going to take a while until I remember even half of them.
@TwinStarExcorcist This is becoming repetitive but I’m glad that I’m not the only one who notices that there’s a presentation that felt really off here (most big anibloggers that I read seems to don’t have any problem with the premiere). I haven’t read the manga, but indeed I think comedy is one big part of the problem. The other main presentation element that I dislike is the constant pacing cut every time there’s a new weapon/new taliman/new character introduced. That kind of pause cutscenes may work at video games or some styles for over the top shows, but not in this kind of shounen. (I also dislike that part in Kill la Kill, but that might be personal preferences)
@NewMacross I haven’t watched Delta yet, but I think you’re not supposed to take anything in Macross too seriously lol. Just roll with it.
Well macross always had some crazy bullshit on it, this one just went with 7’s absurdity amped up to the eleven. As zeroyuki92 says. just roll with it, and enjoy Kawamori’s wild ride.