Spy Classroom
Short Synopsis: It’s a classroom. Of Spies. Who are girls. And apparently not very good at spying. Think Princess Principal meets Assasination Classroom (the ones who were bad at it).
Mario: It’s an interesting premise that does feel like a proud child between Assasination Classroom and Princess Principal. There are some nice setups – the girls are not the best but are the worst students, and the teacher is so skillful but teaches poorly… but overall I feel that something is missing in this episode, and that it doesn’t flow well at all. Take, for example, Klaus’ motivation for picking these girls. Some might say that he scouts them thoroughly and picks them specifically for the mission, all I see is that he just doesn’t give a damn. In the second half the episode focuses only on Lily and Klaus one-upping another, and that brings a fair share of goodies and baddies as well. The bad news is that it occasionally trades logic for “sounding smart” (she who can withstand toxic, is she Poison Ivy??) and the tones are all over the place. The good news is that it does make both Lily and Klaus a more interesting lead to follow along. With all that said, I am still curious so I might tag along to find out more.
Potential: 40%
Amun: You know, I did the comp with Princess Principal and Assasination Classroom, but I’m feeling a bit more Talentless Nana-san after all. And you know what, those are all pretty good shows. Is Spy Classroom? Well…that remains to be seen. For starters, I really like the trend towards having strong characters with obvious flaws – and a genius at everything but teaching is worth seeing. My issues start with the rest of the class. It’s pretty clear we’re going to have an attempted assassination of the week, culminating in a team mission that succeeds despite all the odds. That’s fine – my problem is that this is a rather large cast (7 girls, I think?) That’s over half a season of just introductions…and I’m not sure I’ll last that long. Despite that, this was a pretty decent start – I think the twist was pretty obvious, but there was a fine line between a klutz and a psychopath here that was navigated quite deftly. So I don’t know – will this exceed expectations or just fade into an oversaturated season? Odds are on the latter, but I’ll give it a few more episodes to see.
Potential: 30%
Tomo-chan is a Girl!
Short Synopsis: Tomo Aizawa is an athletic tomboy trying to get her childhood friend and crush, Junichirou Kubota, to see her as a girl and not another one of the guys.
Lenlo: It’s time! The season has begun! And first up is… Tomo-Chan. Gonna be honest, this doesn’t look that good. Visually it’s alright, some nice colors and direction. But it’s nothing too special, nothing that’s really going to elevate the material. And boy does that material need elevating. It’s not a good sign when every single relationship in the show is better than your leading couple. Junichiro and Gundo, Tomo and Misaki, Gundo and Tanabe, the list goes on. I enjoyed their interactions far more than I did the actual leads, Tomo and Junichiro. In fact the only thing those two have going for them is that Junichiro appears well aware that Tomo is a girl and is purposefully denying/pushing back on it, likely because he himself is afraid of a committed relationship. If Tomo-Chan actually dials in on that and gives him a reason to say no beyond “To stupid to notice she’s a girl”, then maybe there’s some potential here.
Potential: 30%
Amun: I guess I didn’t hate Tomo-chan, but I can’t say I loved it. This feels very much like a lesser Shikkimori-san, which was decent enough, but certainly not worth formula copying. Tomo-chan is more in the vein of “shout until it’s funny”…or well, punch until it’s funny. Like Leno says, the supporting cast has some potential – and the hints that Jun is actually not as dumb as he looks are pretty much all that’s keeping me going. Gundo is pretty funny though; I did love the whiplash of the poor duo – I guess some of the comedy did land after all. I just need a bit more from the titular Tomo-chan to make this worthwhile.
Potential: 40%
Revenger
Short Synopsis: A samurai teams up with a special organization to clear his name and take down the local gang boss.
Mario: Overall it was a solid premiere. True to Urobuchi’s brand, the episode features a protagonist whose ideals and honor are crushed and destroyed. Sounds familiar, right? The episode lays out some neat choreography and music, so on the production side it is a delight. From a writing point of view, so far it establishes well the main characters, namely Kurima and Usui, and I certainly want to see more of them. It doesn’t shy away from the violence (a plus for me. There are some creative killing methods there), but at the same time it’s also on the verge of melodramatic and heavy-handed. So far, that isn’t a big turn off but I really hope it doesn’t rely on that later on.
Potential: 60%
Lenlo: You know, I really wasn’t expecting much from Revenger. I thought it was just going to be another Pretty Boy Samurai Show. You know what I’m talking about, the ones where every character has a shtick and a different hair color. And to an extent, it is still that! There are 5 pretty boys fitting different archetypes that each fight differently. But what I wasn’t expecting was the sheer brutality of the show, nor the legitimate tragedy that is the lead’s backstory/motivation. One leads me to believe Revenger will have a far more adult style to it moving forward, rather than the generally safe style these kinds of shows usually do. Meanwhile the other gives me hope that there may be an actual story here to enjoy. Only time will tell if it can live up to these hopes, but it’s done enough to make me want to actually watch and find out more.
Potential: 50%
