BIRDIE WING: Golf Girls’ Story
Short Synopsis: Blondie with a tragic upbringing plays underground golf to survive.
Mario: Most of its runtime Birdie Wing is ridiculous and inconsistent, but that’s precisely the reason why it has its own charms that other sports anime seem to lack. It frames its main character not as a traditional sportsperson, but as an underdog superhero at times (what’s with all the special moves and money-shot still images?). The plot carries the same bizarre sense of logic – you have a girl who poses as another pro golfer and gets away with it, inconsistencies across the board (look at the tree that gets chopped down within just a few frames), and uneven production that looks bad half of the time and looks great only in key moments… but guess what? I’m buying it all. At least, all the characters are fun to watch and I cannot wait to see what ridiculousness they can cook up next. Count me in on this ride.
Potential: 50%
Lenlo: The sad truth of Birdie Wing is that… it just doesn’t look good. It’s ambitious at times, I’ll give it that. Going for these full-green camera shots, following the ball as it bursts through trees and over the rough. But the CGI is painfully bad and the composite is about the same. I understand why Birdie Wing did it. They had to try anything they could to make golf of all things interesting to watch. So they made it about hot girls, added in some Jojo-esque super-powered swings and tried to have some crazy action shots. It’s kinda fun and wacky, going for that same energy Sk8 had last year. But unlike Sk8 or Jojo, Birdie Wing fails to nail that thin line where camp is good for me. At the end of the day this is still an uninteresting golf show and I have little desire to watch more of it. Which is a shame, because I was hopeful that this might be a surprise of an otherwise sequel laden season. Least the blondie is kinda cute.
Potential: 20%
The Greatest Demon Lord Is Reborn as a Typical Nobody
Short Synopsis: If you don’t have friends, just reincarnate! [This is actually a really, really terrible message if you think about it]
Lenlo: Dear Lord who art in Heaven, please free me from the garbage Fantasy Light Novel trend. Surprisingly enough, despite its similarity to I’m Quitting Heroing in premise, this isn’t the worst series I’ve seen today. Turning a big demon lord into a chuuni got a chuckle or two out of me. I don’t think that’s enough to carry the show, I was still checked out for most of it. But it’s more promising than the other crap I’ve watched today so for that it gets a slightly higher score. Watch this if you want the not-worst fantasy light novel of the season to fill some time.
Potential: 5%
Amun: I’m pretty sure you could graph Lenlo’s scores vs mine and find a perfect inverse correlation. While he thinks Greatest Demon Lord is better than I’m Quitting Heroing, I think it’s quite a bit worse. This is an annoying evolution of isekai – the reincarnated OP demon lord trying to find friends. However, I think this is likely better than last season’s Shikkakumon, which was a monotonous march to the finish. There’s some potential for an interesting backstory with the reincarnated pair with betrayal, elf-racism, etc. – but I really didn’t engage with either character’s sob story. This is Silver Link, so expect some of the awkward fight scenes they’re known for – I’m not expecting this series to look amazing. The bottom line? “Watch this if you want the not-worst fantasy light novel of the season to fill some time.” (See – Lenlo and I did agree on something.)
Potential: 35%
RPG Fudousan
Short Synopsis: A pink-haired mage finds employment as a real estate agent and gets to know her coworkers (and shows superior knowledge of flowers to close a deal).
Wooper: This is Tomoaki Koshida’s fourth attempt at directing a series that anybody cares about, and from the looks of this premiere, it’s destined to be his fourth failure. This episode commits a big faux pas not even a minute into its run, when it directs two characters to excessively praise the female lead for something she’s not very good at (in this case, her unremarkable singing). Whenever you read a script or watch a series that flatters its own protagonist this way, you can be reasonably sure the rest of the story will take the easy route as well. Sure enough, RPG Fudousan does this at every available moment. In place of a plot, it tosses off a few lines about its fantasy land experiencing a post-war golden age, then busies itself with vapid exchanges and gags among its cast. The characters are designed with a single-minded focus on cuteness, to the point that they don’t seem capable of anything other than basic biological functions and cloying pleasantries. There’s a girl named Fa who exists strictly as pedo bait, shedding her clothes at various points and speaking with a childish lisp that’s sure to drive its intended audience wild. That’s the only value RPG Fudousan has, really – as a honeypot to attract lolicons so they don’t congregate around better shows.
Potential: 0%
Amun: Mmmm, this was a bit of a letdown. If you came in expecting cute girls to work in a cute workplace, doing cute things – this was spot on. I was hoping to see a slice of life dealing with a forced change of professions based on post-war circumstances in a fantasy land. What I got was a nudist loli dragon, an exhibitionist/type-A/genderbender warrior, a blonde perfect girl, and our generic lead – who, and this is weird that it bothers me this much, has shoes that do NOT match the rest of her outfit. Seriously, those little heel boot things completely clash with the rest of the quasi-Victorian witch outfit going on. Her professional attire matches them a little better, but still – get her a different pair of shoes! Like some flats with a cat design buckle would have been perfectly on character there – even given her some extra depth. Maybe it was to drive home the point of a country girl trying to not look it – it still annoys me. Sorry, we got off track there. There are probably better slice of life series this season – go watch those.
Potential: 15%
These first impressions make me depressed. This season doesn’t look good either 🙁
Most of the stuff that people are expecting to carry the season is yet to come: Kaguya-sama 3, Spy x Family, Summer Time Render, etc. There don’t seem to be any dark horses or diamonds in the rough, though, that’s for sure.