Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000%
Short Synopsis: Our lead character enlists on a school for idols.
This. Was camp. Heck, if you took four body-builders and made then play bagpipes while playing monopoly they still wouldn’t be as camp as this. I’m not sure how the creators did it, but they somehow succeeded in getting every single scene in this episode to not make any sense whatsoever. This show takes every reverse harem cliche, and takes it even further. The guys in this episode are completely ridiculous stereotypes, drawn by girls who I can only imagine haven’t spoken to guys in ages: that’s how ridiculously hammy they all were. Seriously,t his series takes bad acting to a new level. An sich, there is nothing wrong with campness: Antique Bakery did it and did this with great results. The thing however was that Antique Bakery had real characters. This is just a collection of badly acted stereotypes with an extra dose of sparkle. The one positive point is A-1: they made sure to make this show look good, plus the soundtrack too is surprisingly good. Whenever characters aren’t singing, though.
OP: This one is just… wrong.
ED: Again: it’s well produced, but the vocals are pretty bad.
Potential: 20%
Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise
Short Synopsis: Our lead character are magical girls who fight crime.
What the..? This is really weird: at first sight this series seems exactly like the OVA. In fact, the entire first scene was completely borrowed from the OVA. However, as the series went on, it became clear that there was one major difference that changes pretty much everything: they changed the villain! If you never saw the OVA you might wonder why this is such a big deal, but here is the thing: the OVA was meant to subvert the magical girl genre: it showed that fighting crime shouldn’t be taken lightly and it uses its far superior villains to teach the lead characters not to goof off just because they have special characters. In this episode however, the creators swapped this villain out for a bunch of total idiots. The result is that this series is now a really camp kaitou-series, with the bizarre effect that it tries to deliver a bunch of really weird scenes straight. This episode tries to take itself seriously while pulling a number of horses who have long since been beaten to death. This isn’t in the way most harems keep repeating each other. This episode was full of the plot devices that nowadays only appear in parodies. They’ve been long since beaten to death that writers don’t even bother with them anymore, and here this show comes and expects them to still make sense. It just doesn’t work, especially with all of the silly acting.
Potential: 20%
Blood-C
Short Synopsis: Our lead character hunts monsters.
Oh boy! Talk about a standard set for the rest of the season. This episode was rock-solid in every single way. Even the Noitamina series are going to have their hands full on trying to come close to the level of detail in this episode. Especially the big action scene at the end: now THAT is how you animate a fight scene. This episode also really screamed Clamp, but I really mean that in a good way. It has some of the elements that return in a lot of their other series, but also plenty of new stuff for them, not to mention the rock solid characterization. Saya is a teenager this time (who has nothing to do with the Saya of Blood+, by the way), but most of this episode was laid back and made excellent use of this to establish the main cast. They already seem like a unique bunch. Everything was really well acted, the pacing was really fluid, the characters are strong. All that’s left now is an engaging story. Please, someone say that this will go on for more than 13 episodes!
OP: A strong contender for the best OP of the year. Utterly gorgeous with music that fits it perfectly.
ED: Simple but effective.
Potential: 95%
oh psgels, dont tell me you were fooled by the typical “extremely well animated first episode that will be followed by one or more episodes that looks like it was animated by a 2 year-old.”
Rex: tell me, how do you distinguish those kinds of series from series that do manage to keep up a consistent budget throughout their run?
It will be 12 (or 13?) episodes long but next year there will be a BLOOD C movie.
I didn’t like animation that much. The monster was done in CG.
Apparently this is going to be streamed subbed from niconico but blowed if I can find anything on that site 🙁
Hmm .. psgels where did you see this episode? The first episode is not supposed to air until the 8th correct?
Saw this RAW, but it wasn’t too hard to follow. The characters are interesting, but I don’t really connect well with them. I know I should characters grow on me, but I find with shows I really love I connect with the characters from the start. The slice of life atmosphere is very Cardcaptor Sakura which I love. Can’t say I was a fan of the story. The action scene (and the rest of the episode) had beautiful animation, but the way it was choreographed was really boring. I may have had my expectations set too high, but it wasn’t a bad introduction.
Well, I for one really thoroughly enjoyed it- I will be frank and say that this doesn’t seem to have much on Blood+ but then again, Blood+ is a fifty episode anime and this is only 13. So let’s not turn it into a competitive fest shall we?
That said, I do have some- not really irritations- questions going around in relationship with the rest of the blood series? Like, in blood+/blood; the last vampire Saya is the daughter of a Chiropteran Queen and thus, her blood is the only blood that can kill them (well technically her blood is lethal to that of her twin who made them). Over here it doesn’t seem like we’re going to meet Diva, and thus I’m not sure why Saya is chosen to wield her sword- it seems more of a family passing-down thing than a biological reason, and if so it’s a little bit disappointing because the best part about the fights was having a sword with the little cut in it so that she could draw her own blood and douse her sword in it to crystallize the other Chiropterans. But here we don’t really see much of a Chiropteran as a statue that just randomly kind of transformed into it? I’m not sure what they’re planning to stick to- it just seems like the basics as in the character name and the fact that she fights monsters- but I did like it a lot, and i’m excited and intrigued to see where it goes next. Looking really forward to the next episode!
I have not watched any of the blood series yet and had trouble placing the events of this episode in any sort of context. Is Saya a vampire? Should I watch the previous series in order to appreciate this, or are they unrelated?
Damn, just for the fact that Saya’s swordsmanship is based on real kenjutsu, and the whole fight was humanly possible – for a really athletic and martially trained person – and accordingly with the laws of physics, is enough for me to follow the show, just hope they keep it up and this series will be a 10 for me, at least as far as action goes. Being someone that really liked Blood+, I’m curious at what clamp is wanting to do with the story and scenario, but I’m a fan of clamp, so I’ll just trust them on that. I already like Saya, but it’s still too soon to say something about the rest of the cast.
It’s a shame if it really is only 12 or 13 episodes long, let’s hope they use the time well, anyways I’m betting this will will be the better series of the season, even with Natsume and noitaminA and every other potential show still to air.
Blood-C is everything that I was hoping for, and that was only the first episode! Also, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed an opening so much since Shiki, that was WONDERFUL!
And for those asking about the connection with the other Blood series? I’d say give the series some time. We don’t know much of anything about this Saya except her age and that her father appears to be human. We’ll probably be getting more info later, just be patient!
Well, Blood C is, of course, Clamp Style, a very lot of mystic things and characters that always appear in theirs series, we already have a Yukito from Card Captor Sakura and the twins from XxXHolic, well, at least they didn’t use any characters already made (Tsubasa Chronicles). And I still didn’t say about the “perfect-well-behavior-girl-example”, who always help the children, old people, loves and respect (I mean, a LOT) her father, almost a father-complex, and so on, this is just unbelievable, this is for both shoujo or shounen style.
The fight was good, indeed, but I think it was not natural in this episode, it was… just there… just to show some fight in the beginning, maybe was the timing… But it was very weird.
It’s not like I don’t like Clamp work’s, I like XxXHolic, Sakura and some others, but… My first impression was bad… I will give more chance, but, I don’t believe in this so much.
Sorry, but I found Uta no Prince-sama to be surprisingly good. Forgive me!
The long pauses and long periods of seemingly unimportant stuff made me a bit more interested in this I think. It threw me off kilter. I’m interested enough to watch next week but I hope it throws in something more interesting to keep my focus.
@Tomtom
If you want to see the original Saya, you can start with Blood: The Last Vampire OVA. Saya is should I say half-blooded? But nothing fully revealed yet about her in Blood-C.
All the Blood series/movies are not really related (exclude Blood live-action movie). For a 1st episode, I find this quite lighthearted compared to Blood+ and OVA. But nevertheless animation is very detailed and fluid. Even to show how heavy the sword is when Saya accept it in her hands.
Meh, I really thought I would like it more. I’ll watch the next episode to see.
I was seriously diappointed by Blood-C. I agree with Hikaru that the characters were recycled. (Not just Yukito, but Touya too?) And those who werent were just flat stereotypes. Even more, I was disappointed that they decided to go with another airhead character whose already obviously hinted to have interest with the tall and brooding character. It feels a lot like Kobato again.
While the action and animation was great during the fight scene (loved the movements of the monster) for me if was overshadowed by the other 20 minutes of boring moe antics and stereotypical highschool anime. (3 minutes of which was Saya singing to herself about breakfast and beautiful days? what was that?)
I just dont think I can stomache another episode. Not even for another fight scene.
That voice,that character design…second coming of Cure Blossom? Yeah but I do agree with the others, I didn’t like the school parts at all. Same old gimmicks, same old lines, same old characters. I do like the silent moments as she walks home from school though, it gives a very dark feeling. Well at least until PUPPY!!!
Does this series require knowledge of the other Blood series/movie?
@ Kilocron – No, I don’t think you need any knowledge of the previous Blood series. Blood-C appears to be a full-out relaunch.
I rather liked the first episode. It’s a pretty different Saya from the last two versions, but I think she’ll be interesting. The fact she’s a miko sounds like something fun for Clamp to work with in this.
Though I know no one will read this on such an old post, I have to say the sound effects of this episode were some of the best I have ever heard. It makes absolutely wonderful use of silence, and you can just feel in the air that something is profoundly off in the setting.
Expect some major plot twist to turn that town upside down.
Yikes, Blood-C was utterly generic. After all these comments I expected something dripping with atmosphere and a gripping fight scene. All I got was a silly, gratuitous mahou shoujo episode with a bit of blood and no transformation scene.
All those “quiet” scenes that supposedly felt atmospheric and intriguing to people just made it feel lazy and “off” to me (in the bad way). When that grandfather clock was ticking I thought for a second they threw it in as a joke about how like clockwork this episode was.
With the lack of a twist or edge, I guess I’ll have to wait a few episodes for them to do something interesting. And no, I’ve never watched Blood/Blood+, so I hope it at least surprises me a little.
OP: A strong contender for the best OP of the year. Utterly gorgeous with music that fits it perfectly. ???
personally i thought it was average..there were some very nice effects but it’s just so typical and ordinary..some ordinary shots and then some shots with blood and her waving a sword around..it’s nothing unique