Some Quick First Impressions: Taboo Tattoo, Puzzle and Dragons Cross and New Game

Taboo Tattoo

Short Synopsis: A boy is given a magical tattoo by a man who clearly doesn’t care about his well being.

I can certainly tell this got the short straw when it comes to the animation budget as this is very cheap animation even by JC staff standards. You may be looking at this statement with a puzzled look as on the surface this anime looks like it’s fine. In fact the fight animation in the middle of the episode was quite dynamic. But I ask you to take a closer look, they try to cover it up with digital effects but the amount of movement in this show is utterly barren. Keep an eye on how often a character moves their body and you will find that a majority of the scenes in this episode were just still pictures with moving lips. With some camera zooms and digital movement of still images to try and fool you otherwise. Well that aside what’s here isn’t all that noteworthy. That one fight scene was good but this is pretty by the book shounen in all other regards. I said the same thing about Hero Academia last season but this is to a much higher degree. There’s very little in this episode that you haven’t already seen before in dozens of other shounen. The story feels lazy in that regard, particularly in how it handles it’s exposition so clunky. I say this isn’t worth your time.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Already in this first episode, there are so much “coincidences” that it becomes jarring. The main character happens to help a guy who has a secret weapon. The next morning, he happens to meet a girl who knows about that tattoo. In the climax they happen to encounter the randomly guy who happens to be their target as well. This is just weak storytelling, and judging from the main character’s name “Justice”, I don’t think this show attempt to take their characters seriously. Even worse is the comedy, most notably the sequence where the main girl drinks milk like a cat: the whole sequence is awkward and the pacing is just plain out of place. We even have the side character who has big boobs and totally has a feeling for the guy to the point wants to cook for him. Such character tropes are so overdone that they immediately turn me off. The main storyline about the nature of the tattoo is the only plus point from this episode, oh and Justice’s natural fighting style (which is not some random fight but a for me look like a real martial art); but even in that respect I don’t think it will be anything worth remembering.

Potential: 10%

 

Puzzle and Dragons Cross

Short Synopsis: A boy finds a dragon egg and is pulled into a fight alongside someone who controls dragons.

Well this is an anime based on a Phone app with is essentially Bejeweled mixed with Pokemon. In that regard it’s pretty much expected that the end result of an anime base on it feels so reminiscent of the start of the likes of Pokemon, digimon, monster rancher, take your pick. One particular aspect that annoys me is that it holds the same annoyance of the monster doing all the hard work while the owner plays Pokemon trainer and steals all the glory despite doing practically nothing. Well he does stand back and play bejeweled to power up his dragon so maybe he does a little more than nothing. I also think it’s cheap to reuse the animation at the start of the episode again before the end. Either way, our main character hold the tradition of having ridiculous hair(The show is called cross and the main has a visible cross in his hair. Just in case you forgot the title.) and likely a pedigree ancestry seeing as he’s already special despite having done nothing to earn it. Lets face it, we are all a bit too old to be watching this. Maybe back in the old days when I watched Pokemon,(Ugh…my terrible embarrassing memories with that series.) if this was airing alongside it I would give it a watch. However now, frankly there are better shows worth my time.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Well, don’t have really much to say about this one really. While I don’t say I wasted those 20 minutes there’s nothing to stand out either. The main character is destined to be “the One” so much that he already well-liked by almost everyone and seems almost like a superhuman, even before his dragon comes out of its egg. The fight scene is so-so and more of Yugioh card fight (which is understandable since this one based on card games as well). I’ll say if you a fan of this game, or if you like Yugioh, this one is for you. Other people won’t see any reason to spend time with it.

Potential: 0%

 

New Game

Short Synopsis: Cute girls doing cute things show, this time they are in game company and start to make a new game.

Meh. Too much cute girl antics, too little industry insight. Call me ignorant if you wish but I highly doubt there’s a game company with an all female workforce like this. These people act less like human beings and more like exaggerated anime characters. True they are anime characters but I am not supposed to see them as anime characters. These are the kind of people you see in a sitcom whom seem almost aware of the existence of a watching party and act as quirky as possible to entertain. The comedy is a miss for me as it’s more the 4 koma style of various one note jokes. Their isn’t really much meat in regards to game production and I suspect that’s going to remain the case for the rest of the series. I hope they don’t drag out things by relying too heavily on the characters quirks for the comedy as that often gets repetitive. It’s fairly watchable but not noticeable, if you want to add another show to your schedule you can certainly do worse.

Potential: 25%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I’m kinda curious to see how the team makes their game, and it seems to be the series main plot (I get some of Shirobako’s vibe here), but for this first episode, not a lot has happened beside the new girl get to know everyone working in the company (is it just this company or Japanese game companies just employ female hey?). The cast is variation of cute, cuter, cutest with each of them has their cute quirk (shy to the point of prefer messaging instead of talking; a girl who loves Star Wars) and they act just like how anime characters would act, meaning that they never feel like real people.On the other hand, I’ll say that I have an enjoyable time, the show is safe and light on character’s development and occasionally fun but I don’t think this will be a great show. I will give it more watch just to see how they get on with the game.

Potential: 35%