B Gata H Kei
Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to have sex with 100 men.
Look. Those who know this blog know that I often talk down on fanservice and moe series. I do not do that for the sake of fanservice. However, it’s more because shows that have lots of it tend to be really cheaply written without any depth whatsoever, and have a type of comedy that I don’t find funny at all. There really are too many of these things! Yet, when a fanservice series comes around that’s actually good… then who am I to complain? Really, B Gata H Kei is indeed full of fanservice. It has a lot of boobs, along with your typical male lead character. It also however, had the best opening episode I have ever seen of a shounen romantic comedy (and seriously, that has to be the most densely populated genre in anime out there). What made this episode so awesome was that even for a romantic comedy, it was surprisingly clever. It was full of a ton of witty jokes about the two lead characters. The dialogue really made this episode and you can really see that the creators have understood the characters they’re working with. Rather than just inserting random panty-shots, the creators really play with their premise, making for a hilarious episode.
OP: Well, decent enough for J-Pop
ED: Again, decent enough.
Potential: 80%
(Yes, this is the fifth year that I’ve been doing these first impressions. And yes, I have never given a fanservice show such a high rating before. I really hope that it continues to be as good as this episode.)
Heroman
Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds his own giant robot in the trash.
Yeah, so it’s no surprise that the first episode of Heroman would be a rather bad one. The lead character starts out as even more of a wimp than your average lead character (nerd: check. Unpopular: check. A cute girl is in love with him: check. Really high-pitched voice: um, check?). The bullies and popular kids also were just… bad. This episode was clearly rushed and not as solid as we’ve come to expect from Bones’ opening episodes. My least favourite part was probably the part at which the hero’s romantic love interest just ‘happened’ to end up in a car crash accident (of course without any scratch whatsoever other than unconsciousness), right when the titular Heroman makes his appearance. Whether this show is going to be good or not is very hard to determine at this point, because the scenes in which Heroman starred were actually interesting enough, and had some potential, confirming even more that this series works best as an action series. And that’s the biggest potential pitfall of this series: there was surprisingly little action there. What if the rest of the series is also going to drag on like this episode did?
OP: Boring J-rock.
ED: Interesting style.
Potential: 40%
Marie&Gali 2.0
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is forced back to this series.
I’m really glad to see that this awesome series has made it to a second season. This episode was a bit low on the science, but that’s understandable since it was meant to introduce the premise of the new season, and introduce the new kid. The show still has its wonderful sense of timing that made the first season such a wonderful comedy. You can also see that the creators have taken a lot more liberties with Marika as well: she’s no longer the deadpan straight man she once was, but she also manages to keep the balls high. The new girl has this strange posh accent that moe series often like to abuse (seriously, do people actually talk like that in Japan?), but she has potential to be hilarious. The animation wasn’t as solid as it used to be, though. It’s still very creative, but the characters’ faces were a bit too often rushed.
OP: Um yeah, a rather annoying J-pop, but it’s not like the first OP was good either.
Potential: 80%
Considering Stan Lee is working on Heroman I highly doubt it will lack in the action department. That’s what I’ll be anticipating the most considering it’s bound to be a completely cliche action show even more so with the Marvel influence. Also Bones can animate action scenes very very well.
Completely stunned with your B Gata H Kei impressions. I wrote this show off as the usual rom-com fanservice show but I guess I’ll give it a chance now.
Heroman looks like a trainwreck waiting to happen
I hate fanservice shows since most of them replace substance with tits and ass, so maybe I’ll give B Gata H Kei a try.
Dunno, what to say about Heroman, it looks generic.
Well I had heard that there was more to B Gata H Kei than fanservise,and this confirms it.
Though it is april fool’s day,but I don’t think psgels has ever done anything before.
“(Yes, this is the fifth year that I’ve been doing these first impressions. And yes, I have never given a fanservice show such a high rating before. I really hope that it continues to be as good as this episode.)”
Wow you just shocked me Psgels I’m reading you for 2 years and I’m really surprised it’s an April’s fool right lol.
Well I intended to watch this series anyway.
I haven’t watched it yet but just from reading the synopsis, it seemed like B Gata H Kei seemed like it might actually want to do something with this genre. You get the facepalm first sentence about 100 men. But then the second sentence about pursuing only one guy makes it seem like the 100 guys thing is only the premise for the pilot or something.
Despite my efforts, I failed my saving throw vs. Bones and watched HEROMAN. I now have another entry on my list of regrets. While I won’t be watching the rest of it to find out how it ends, I do hope that the aliens are victorious. That will really teach Freddie and the gang.
Heroman is really corny and generic, but for some reason, I’m hooked on it. Fail… Or maybe it’s the music that gets me hooked on it. Yeah… I definitely like the music.
Umisho was also a series about boobs, fanservice and swimming naked. In the end, you gave the series a positive review. I don’t know if the first impression is positive as well, but I don’t think that this is the first time you enjoyed a series aimed at fanservice. I remember Umisho because I read your review about it and gave it a shot. And surprise, surprise, I enjoyed it as well 🙂
Anyway, B Gata H Kei is currently queued right now (will watch it after I get some serious sleep) and seriously, psgels, if this is a bad april fool’s joke, you’ll receive a serious whack in the ass. I’m not joking >.
Bad april fool’s joke psgels! i watched B Gata H Kei and it was some of the worst i’ve seen. It actually rivals Ladies vs Butlers.
80% for B gata h kei !!!! hey psgels, trying to make us all april fools or something 😛
For the people wh thought it was an april fool’s joke: it wasn’t. I genuinely enjoyed B Gata H Kei.
I actually kind of like Heroman as well. Not sure why. Perhaps it’s kind of nostolgic. There is something redeeming about superhero stories like that, and yes it has all of the cliches, but it seems to enjoy relishing in those cliches. It’s like it’s saying, “we know this is overdone and cliched, but we want to remind what was good about the cliches in the first place.” I think it’ll be fun.
Most comments I’ve read elsewhere about Yamada (B Gata H Kei) seem to have misunderstood what she is all about; she is pursuing her subjective, amorphous idea of what sex is, not what sex actually is.
It’s a clever little detail.
B Gata H Kei was a pleasant surprise. I just hope it doesn’t get old fast, it seems to be heading that way.
should I believe this or ANN?? (@ B gata)
“For the people wh thought it was an april fool’s joke: it wasn’t. I genuinely enjoyed B Gata H Kei.”
I’m… very confused by this. I downloaded B Gata H Kei on your recommendation, since it’s so rare for you to give a series like that such high marks… and I just finished watching it… and, uh, it’s really pretty awful! There’s no depth to it at all… it’s predictable, poorly conceived, premisey fanservice, like all the other rom-com shows you’ve professed to hate. I see absolutely nothing that distinguishes it from any other rom-com show, and actually would say it’s SIGNIFICANTLY LESS CLEVER with SIGNIFICANTLY LESS WELL-DEVELOPED CHARACTERS than shows you’ve professed to hate in the past, like Kamisama Kazoku (which I still consider to be one of the best rom-coms, alongside Midori no Hibi).
I think maybe your tolerance for the genre has just gone up as time progresses!
-Tom
Kamisama Kazoku is just a bad excuse for any harem/ love triangle animes.It sometimes take itself too seriously also.Comparing this to KK is like comparing Clannad to Shuffle in my opinion…
B Gata H Kei. Hey…It is the fanservice show !! and The character design that looks so awful. Although Your recommend is high.I will not watch it for sure.
But Heroman is the different story. Although the premise story didn’t sound unique or hooked me so much. But something tell me that this show can going to superb if it has the correct direction.
Somehow this show remind me of Gurren Lagann Because of Superrobot thing. (Ahh..Nostalgia). And that show didn’t look interesting too much at the beginning too.(But has the nice action and leave something look potential to make me watch it more). But what the thing that it turned out at the end !! One of my favourite show !
So for me Heroman didn’t started to bad at all.But I looking forward to this show more and more !
Heroman is lacking on the back story department and explanation of all things. A robot toy struck by lightning makes it suddenly have super powers and multiply it’s programming capabilities by a hundredfold. I find this hard to accept because I just can’t accept the logic behind it. I just noticed that Joey doesn’t sleep at all. At nighttime he goes to work at a cafe and around 7:30 in the morning he leaves to go to school. LOL! Even if he does get to sleep how much? 3-5 hours everyday? No health problems at all, really?
Heroman looks like a nice lighthearted, oldfashioned, cliche filled, sunday morning american cartoon, which can be fun enough to watch if you don’t take it too seriously. Plus, it’s co-written by Stan Lee, so I’m a bit curious.
The “With great power comes great responsibility” line in the preview made me grin.
“Kamisama Kazoku is just a bad excuse for any harem/ love triangle animes.It sometimes take itself too seriously also.Comparing this to KK is like comparing Clannad to Shuffle in my opinion…”
Well, I guess this goes to show you how different people can see things differently. Kamisama Kazoku – in addition to being absolutely hilarious – also did a great job of lampooning religious doctrine, and also had a great cast of well-developed characters with actual chemistry for one another. It’s a complex, interesting, well-written, and well-acted show, with a very satisfying ending and a great mixture of serious and silly.
And I guess that’s how some of you guys feel about B Gata H Kei, too… but I can’t comprehend that, myself. B Gata H Kei seems like throwaway fanservice to me. Nothing seems well-developed, interesting, or even remotely SURPRISING about the premise. It’s a pure exploitation show, designed to appeal to fanservice and moe fans, and no one else. As far as I’m concerned, you guys are seeing depth that isn’t there – making something out of nothing.
I predict this show will end up getting dropped pretty quickly.
-Tom
Wyrdwad: in the same way, I couldn’t get into the humour of Kamisama Kazoku, and was rather cheapened out when the crators kept pushing reset-buttons to restore the status quo. Enjoying the characters and execution is probably a key here. What I liked about this episode is how the creators played around with the characters, and how, while we never got a good look at what went on inside the male lead’s head, his expressions and reactions showed a lot about what was going on in there. It’s these subtle characterizations that I labeled as ‘clever’.
But you’re right in how this could just have been a fluke. there have been tons of comedies with great first episodes only to bomb afterwards. But still, I’ve been wrong way too often to bother and predict whether a series is going to be a trainwreck without any big hint.
I usually cant stand the fanservice shows either, but seeing you recommend this, I decided to give it a try, and wow, it IS good
Dont know what these people are talking about, it was funny and entertaining… And I loved the fact for once, it talks about sex naturally, not some sacred “unspoken” thing like most animes
Well, to each his own! Glad to see there are people out there enjoying it, even if I don’t personally “get” it. (:
-Tom
” it talks about sex naturally, not some sacred “unspoken” thing like most animes”
Yep,that’s what I like the most about it,there’s a mention of condoms for exemple,can’t really remember another anime that mentions them like that
” or even remotely SURPRISING about the premise.”
Now i’m not an authority on this kind of anime because I don’t watch much of it but…
really?how about the fact that for once we’re not following some random dude that for some reason has tons of girls fall for him for no apparent reason.
Here we’ve got a girl that seems she could get get any guy she wants but can’t get that one simple plain guy.
In lots of other animes girls are “pure” and guys are “perverted”,here the girl says she just wants to get into the guy’s pants.
And for a fanservice show,there isn’t much of it,like 1,maybe 2 pantie shots and even the bra flashing scene was more about comedy than fanservice,hell,the fact she showing her bra is a bit unusual,in the series I’ve seen the fanservice always happens by “accident” or because the male lead is perverted and spying on girls,that’s not the case here.
I find it clever because in a way it plays with the usual stereotype of the genre.
The girl wants the guy to be interested in him,but doesn’t know how too,so what does she do?Tryout different strereotypical things to do that she might have heard of,things that might attract a guy in other animes but here it just confuses the guy.
So in a way,it’s also making fun of the genre itself,kinda like katanagatari with shounen
Or maybe like you said i’m seeing things that aren’t there
See, that’s just the thing, though… it’s reversing roles, sure, but that’s ALL it’s doing. Replace the main girl with a guy, and the main guy with a girl, and it’s the most predictable “loser trying to score” story you’ve ever seen. Just because they switched the genders of the main two archetypes doesn’t make them any less archetypal – they’re still just horny guy who doesn’t know how to hit on women, and shy woman who doesn’t know how to react when a guy likes her – except the other way around. And I’m sorry, but just swapping genders does not make a cliched, predictable premise into something unique and interesting.
-Tom
I think we’ll see what they do with it in a few episodes, for now I’m skeptically optimistic about it.
“Replace the main girl with a guy, and the main guy with a girl, and it’s the most predictable “loser trying to score” story you’ve ever seen.”
Disagree with that since the lead isn’t a “loser trying to score” at all,she’s quite the opposite,she’s the most poular girl at school.So if you were to reverse the genders like you say it would be more like a popular guy falling for a regular girl (which has also been done before I know,though generally told from the girl’s pov)
By somehow i already predicted that B Gata first impression by psgels will be very high XD
“Disagree with that since the lead isn’t a “loser trying to score” at all,she’s quite the opposite,she’s the most poular girl at school.So if you were to reverse the genders like you say it would be more like a popular guy falling for a regular girl (which has also been done before I know,though generally told from the girl’s pov)”
I stand corrected! But as you say, that’s been done before as well.
-Tom
c’mon guys… what kind of plot that haven’t been executed for romance story?
popular guys/girl- normal girl/guys?
popular guys/girl- popular girl/guys?
naturalpower guys/girl – naturalpower girl/guys?
list as much as you can and i’m pretty sure it have been made before. What we want see now is the crew can make a something good with material they have or not.
Yeah, you have a point. I shouldn’t be so harsh after one episode, I suppose. I just feel like I’ve already seen the whole series… it feels like I can predict everything that’s going to happen, as it’s setting itself up to go entirely “by the book.” If I’m wrong, that’ll be great, but that first episode did NOT fill me with a lot of confidence.
I guess I shall keep reading this blog to see if and how things change in the coming episodes!
-Tom