Koukaku no Regios
Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters a school in a world where people have strange powers.
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (Might be interesting)
You know, this may not be the best series, but this was exactly what I’ve been looking for this season: originality. Sure, this episode was full of clichés, but for every bad idea, the creators seem to have included a good idea, and I’m interested to see where the creators can take this. This episode took place on two different places: a desert city that’s attacked by a huge monster and a strange kind of high school, and I especially liked the former, and I wonder how it’s going to tie in with the high school setting. The high school itself had all the necessary archetypes present, but that female lead felt refreshing and much less one-sided than I suspected. It’s also a nice touch: if you live in a world where everyone has powers, then there are of course people going to abuse them, especially if they’re bratty high school kids, and you need a bit of extra effort to keep these guys in check. So overall, I like this: there are lots of different characters despite the clichés and a lot of potential. The soundtrack is pumping, though the OP is going to suck.
Slayers Evolution-R
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters meet a strange talking armour.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Not after that first season)
I really wasn’t looking forward to watching this series. I planned to just watch it and drop it to get it over with. And then this series came and delivered the best episode of the new Slayers so far. Okay, so that may not say much, but for once I wasn’t bored out of my skull, the talking armour was actually quite funny and I laughed more in this episode than during the entire first season. I really don’t want to go through the same pain as the first season, but if it’s true that all Slayers get better in their second halves, it might be interesting to stick with it.
Ride Back
Short Synopsis: Our lead character accidentally gets to try a motorbike-mecha-thingie.
Chance of me Blogging: 90% (Madhouse Rocks!)
Well, that’s Madhouse: here it comes and delivered the without a doubt best first episode of all the new shows this season. Sure, the lead character is yet another one of those teenagers who accidentally gets to possess a super-weapon, but apart from that everything about this episode was superbly done. The art looks excellent and yet down to earth, the soundtrack fits the series exactly and the series has a number of very likable lead characters. I was immediately a fan of the female lead character, but the rest of the support cast are also defined and varied. This is promising to be one of the highlights of the Winter-season if the creators can keep this up.
At first, I thought the motorcycle mech thing would be LOLWUT and otherwise unintersting. Then it turns out that Rideback is actually about a ballet dancer who gets to ride a motorcycle mech. (Trust Japan not to settle for something weird if it means they can settle for something weirder. :P) The first episode made really great use of that contrast, and the female lead seems very likeable, even if her hair is one of the most hilarious attempts at drawing ‘messy hair’ I’ve ever seen. The only character I’m not looking forward to is the blond girl, who will probably be the ‘rival that becomes a friend.’
And the soundtrack in Regios seriously sounds like an arcade. I’ll admit the setting is very interesting, but most of the characters are flat cliches. Considering that two girls are already in love with the protagonist, and a few other interested in him or otherwise pointless, I’m dropping it before the characters make me damage my computer.
“This episode took place on two different places: a desert city that’s attacked by a huge monster and a strange kind of high school, and I especially liked the former, and I wonder how it’s going to tie in with the high school setting”
It’s not really a desert city. All the cities
are moveable biodomes.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=10243
Slayers: I’ve watched most of the slayers series. The most recent one was BAD compared to
most of the others, especially the earlier ones. The characters were the same, I guess, but it all seemed a lot stupider and less funny.
Looking forward to seeing Ride Back.
I had those same thoughts on Koukaku no Regios. Though, I really liked the OP.
Ride Back: I didn’t like it much, I must stay the storytelling is good, but I don’t know, what I hated here is the character – design , well I don’t like this down to earth art, I’d better like smthg like Clamp’s design ( don’t know why most of the time it’s not appreciated), perfect art without ” stains”( like here), but most of the time I like the chrter – designs, I have a greater amount of chrter- designs that I just love , but I despise this style, the same thing happened to me with Linnebarel and the new Shikabane hime, but I won’t drop it just now cause I like the story (the other two ones were dreadful to death!!!).
Koukaku no Regios – I was waiting for someone to shout “bankai” when they did their “DBZ” mode on the the hollo-ehm-gigantoid insect.
“Slayers: I’ve watched most of the slayers series. The most recent one was BAD compared to
most of the others, especially the earlier ones. The characters were the same, I guess, but it all seemed a lot stupider and less funny.”
This. I’m not too keen on Pokota either, but the second half of the season looks a little bit more entertaining, at the very least.
Guess 11 years is a bit too long to wait in between seasons. >_