Sora no Manimani
Short Synopsis: Our lead character joins the local astronomy club and falls in love.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Nope)
Ah, dammit. Just when I thought that this Summer Season did so well in avoiding the biggest cliché in the book (the childhood friend), Sora no Manimani comes around, in which the lead character moves to his new high school and runs into the girl he hung out with when he was six, and the two of them nearly instantly fall in love again. So this episode definitely had its boring moments since I’ve seen so many first episodes with the EXACT SAME premise, but thankfully there are a bunch of twists here: for once the male is the tsundere, instead of the female, while the female has ADHD and feels a lot like Haruhi Suzumiya without the tsundere part. This episode had its amusing parts, but it lacked proper build-up: the crying scenes really came from out of nowhere and felt forced and with such an excellent season, I really doubt that I’m going to continue with this one.
Spice and Wolf II
Short Synopsis: Our lead character looks for his next dal to make him some money.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Too many great shows this season!)
Ah, it’s nice to see this one back. Spice and Wolf was the big surprise in the season in which it originally aired, because it came from absolutely nowhere, it had the most incompetent staff imaginable and yet it turned out to be such a solid series. What I’m expecting from the second season is much of the same subtle charms that made the first season so enjoyable. My big fear is that it’s going to let its success go too much to its head, go too much in the mainstream direction and become an unsubtle romantic comedy and moe fest. Ah well, we’ll see in which direction it’s going to go, and this episode was enjoyable as one that set up the upcoming arc. It was nothing special, but the first season also started out rather underwhelming, so it’s nothing to be surprised of. My one complaint of this episode is that even though it’s got a much more superior animation company (Brains Base, of all things), the animation cut a lot more corners: there were lots of pointless flashbacks just to recycle some of the used animation of the first season, so I do hope that the creators have saved the rest of the budget for later episodes.
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Short Synopsis: Our lead character ends up in the middle of an earthquake.
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Sounds very promising)
And so the next Noitamina series appears. It’s pretty similar to Eden of the East, actually: it’s set in the current day, it’s very realistic, it too criticizes Japanese society subtly and it too has high production-values. Both series have something that’s very rare in anime nowadays: a storyline that’s based on actual topics of today’s society. Production IG already did such a series with Real Drive, but for Bones it’s something totally new. Or should I say, for Studio Kinema Citrus, as they seem to be the main ones responsible for this series, much like Trans-Arts who like to slap the Production IG label on their work. In any case, this first episode was very promising. It’s easy to think that you’re never going to get hit by such a disaster, but what if it does happen? It doesn’t just go for Tokyo, but what if New York was suddenly flooded (which did happen in the past), or what if the oceans continue to rise, and half of The Netherlands ends up drowning? Great food for thought, and the creators chose a likable lead female to center this story around. Usually Noitamina is about adults, but in these days in which teenagers are growing up more and more spoiled by technology and conveniences, she is indeed more suited. I’ll stop rambling now, otherwise this entry is going to get too big.
I see sora no manimani’s main couple as the younger versions of nodame cantabile’s main couple though xD I enjoyed the manga, I hope the anime didn’t make it bad o_O
There was a childhood friend cliché already – Aoi Hana.) It wasn’t bad, but still it was there.
I’m watching this anime if only because the director has been one of the most consistent directors in terms of comedy.
Nomus: ack! I knew I missed something…
Tracer: when I found out that it’s being directed by the guy who directed the first 100 episodes of Gintama, then I indeed started looking at this series in a whole different way. Especially since Gintama also had a crappy first episode, just like this one…
This is one of the best shows of the new season so far. Humor and personality. All the main characters were enjoyable for me, and I thought Itou Kanae was terrific as the lead girl. Anime without cliches are few and far between and not necessarily very good. The thing is to do something new with the cliches, which this show does, as you note.
Woah, it does not disappoint. I will definitely watch this one. The animation was not that splendid or amazing but at least it told a solid story. The tsundere bookworm guy and the haruhi-clone might not be the most original characters, but you cannot deny that they’ve got chemistry.
Comedy + Slice of Life = Sure Watch
Finished Sora no Manimani just now. It’s another decent show that I don’t mind watching. Characters are fairly well done, if a little cliche. It made me laugh a few times, so it’s quite worthy as comedy as well.
The main concern for this one would be that they’re already rehashing jokes in just the first episode, and it doesn’t seem like the kind of anime that has a big overarching storyline full of character development in store; I doubt it’ll evolve much.
Right now it’s #7 on my list of anime this season, since I was planning to pick up around 7 shows I doubt I’ll be watching more, as I still need to see shows like Spice & Wolf II and Tokyo Magnitude.
Why don’t you post quick impressions each in separate posts? When reading you blog by RSS in Google Reader it’s hard to look for updates of old posts
Haha, Psgels, it’s hard to please everyone, huh? I definitely prefer either the way you’re doing it now or what he’s suggesting over going back to waiting for 3 anime to air. Scrolling down is not exactly a lot of effort, but separate posts would be fine too.
Hmm, yeah. I’m going to have to think of a new system, because this isn’t working. I’ll still post my impression about Tokyo Magnitude in this same post, but for the upcoming Fall Season I’ll try something different.
My question is: aren’t people going to be bothered by such an onslaught of one-paragraph long posts like this?
“likable” lead?! I think she’s a very strong lead and it’ll work out great, but she’s anything but likable right now! At the end of the episode I really wanted to punch her in face. What a hypocrit bitch, constantly refusing to take responsibility for things and yet claiming no one treats her as adult. Always whining, treating parents like shit, being spoiled and refusing kindness of others; no, I wouldn’t call her likable, haha.
I think she’s definitely an interesting lead, but I am afraid she’ll frustrate me even further by not proving very adult even in this extreme situation, probably bitching about stuff when there’s other people dying. But at least she’ll learn to care about people and hopefulyl become a bit more mature later on in the story.
Almost forgot to comment on the anime itself: *very* strong. They kinda overdid her personality IMO (yes I’m sure teenage girls fight with their parents and have hormonal issues, but she’s worse than Light in Death Note at the start!).
Animation is fine, but this anime is mostly going to rely on how well they convey emotions. The moment the earthquake hit was done really well. The ending suggests the brother survives but in some ways it’d be more interesting for the story if he dies and she feels guilty.
Meh, Violence Jack already did this Earthquake thing nearly 30 years ago
Which, if ratings are any indication of quality (and usually they are), sucks. It’d be great to have a good anime about an earthquake.
James: there are actually plenty of times at which I disagree with anidb’s ratings.
Anonymous: it obviously isn’t something new, indeed. There have been plenty of disaster movies, and Porfy no Nagai Tabi also had a big one, but it’s still good to see a depiction of an earthquake in 2009, rather than twenty or more years ago.
Tokyo 8.o seems promising. But, dang, that family has some communications issues.
Nothing too far from the norm, I suppose. :/The female lead is just going through some pre-teen awkward angst so her behavior is to be expected. The father needs to friggin’ help around the house more and the mother is trying to do too many things at once. The only one who seems blissfully happy is the son, but then again his family’s troubles sometimes bothers him too. And who is the motorcycle chick? :O And I love how they animated the ending sequence. 8D The picture idea was awesome.Can’t wait for the next episode. 😀
I think my favourite think about Tokyo Magnitude in how the typical “younger brother is annoying” trope is reversed. In actuality, the sister is being the bitchy one whilst the brother is fairly polite and kind, which goes against the typical view that older sisters seem to have.
It’s nice to watch series with that premise of disaster beacuse where i live doesn’t has ANY natural disaster =O
Sora no Manimani is great. The only problem is that it’s too short to bring out the whole story. Also, throughout the story, the main character, Saku, has not fallen for anyone…………..yet.