Hayate The Combat Butler
Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to be the butler of a rich girl.
Good: Hayate’s parents.
Bad: Oh god, where to begin? Ugly character-designs, thinks its funny but actually is horribly dull and much, much more.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10
Ow, the pain. I knew that this series was going to be bad, but at least it was labelled as a comedy, so I would get a few laughs from it. At least, that’s what I thought. This anime just isn’t funny. Apart from that, we’ve got your usual loser who runs into a beautiful girl who quite conveniently happens to be rich and in need of a butler for no reason at all. He’s also got some inhumane powers, especially for someone of his age. Events are forced, don’t make sense or are just way too cheesy to be true. The only moderately interesting parts were Hayate’s parents. I’d love to see what drove them to neglect their child so much, but there is no way that this anime is going to focus on that. Avoid this one at all costs!
Seto no Hanayome
Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to marry a mermaid. (Start to notice a pattern?)
Good: The Mafia-boss, concept seems to have potential.
Bad: The main character, appears to be trying too hard.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
Lots of people have been anticipating this, but I’ve yet to be impressed. The first episode so far was decent, but the fact does remain that the OP was the funniest sequence of the 24 minutes of airtime (seeing Mafia-bosses play in a band looked great :)). The rest of the episode basically consisted of the mafia-boss screaming, the main character freaking out, and the mermaid getting impressed over him. Like I mentioned above, it seemed to be trying too hard. But then again, Muteki Kanbanmusume also started off with one of its weakest episodes, so I’ll at least watch the next episode before dropping. But with a season with so many potentially good series, I’ll probably end up dropping this. I’ve also got lots of issues about the main character. Not only is he your typical loser, his character-design also looks rather ugly (luckily he’s the only character in this anime, as compared to Hayate the Combat Butler) and he’s rather annoying as well.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Short Synopsis: Ten years after A’s, we see two new (hopefully not main) characters… show their skills in a test-mission.
Good: Good to see this back.
Bad: A bit too much action and a bit too little characters.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
This one probably is the most hyped show of the season. Still, I’ve been looking forward to it myself. The original two series had some great character-studies, which is what I’m expecting from StrikerS as well. So far, the first episode hasn’t impressed me yet, but that was to be expected. Nanoha never was great in its first or last episodes. The episode focuses on two new recruits. So far, they’ve got the potential to be interesting, though I do hope that Fate will get off of her chair at one time. Her character-design looks a bit off, by the way. I also didn’t quite like Nanoha, this episode made her look like some kind of superhero, instead of a compassionate character. One final remark: why do all these new recruits have to be women? The first two seasons showed that the space-time agency also employs a fair amount of males. While it does give potential for cheesy romance, this series has proved before that it can handle a mixed cast, instead of an all-woman one.]]>
Some quick first impressions: Hayate the Combat Butler, Seto no Hanayome and Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Technically one of the new recruits (not in episode one), Elio, is male. Of course, he’s a ten-year old boy, so I’m not sure if he counts.
Okay, so it’s one male in the current cast. I must admit that I didn’t notice him, but I doubt that he’ll play a really big role, compared to the males of the first two seasons.
Your impression of Hayate Combat Butler amazes me. Is it possible to be any more wrong about a series?
I’ll forgive you for not knowing of the manga (current scanlations are on volume 5), but that doesn’t forgive making assumptions that anyone who’s looked through the manga would know are dead wrong. Hayate is not a “typical loser.” Far from it. He doesn’t have “inhumane powers” any more than what’s to be expected in a comedy series–especially a shounen comedy series, and these follow logically from the life he’s led. The girl needs a butler because her last head butler quit, and if you knew her character, the reasons for that would be fairly apparent. She’s absurdly wealthy and thoroughly used to it. Furthermore, she’s tsundere, and even practices being tsundere purposefully in a later chapter.
The parents are just horrible, failures of human beings. The idea of wanting to see more of that is so patently absurd that I still can’t really believe you’re serious in your assessment of the series.
Unfortunately, I was serious about that post. First of all, any human who can overtake a car full of gangsters on a mere bicycle, and be able to stop it has inhumane powers, in my opinion at least.
I can forgive the fact that he randomly ran into a girl who needs him, as it seems to be plaguing many anime nowadays. What I can’t forgive is that this show just didn’t draw any laughs from me, the fact that Nagi is annoying to watch, and that the character-designs are rather ugly.
Also, regarding the parents, they’re indeed horrible failures of human beings. But that’s what’s good about them. I’d love to see how they actually became that way, and to see the more psychological side of them, rather than their faced being sealed-off by strange kanji. I find a parents-child-relationship much more interesting to see than that of Nagi and Hayate, who’ll predictably end up together in love anyway.
Then your problem is obviously that you don’t like comedy, as looking for the psychological ramifications of a character’s behaviour is something you should never do while watching anything in the comedy genre. Looking too deeply into a pile of coincidences is also something you should never do, and that applies to any comedy, whether it be anime or Shakespeare. Likewise one should not ask of slapstick why a character survives.
Well.. I must admit, the first episode was a bit on the bad side. However the series gets better. (I was gonna drop this on the first episode however as i got it in 1080P[no idea where i found it] i decided to watch it. And it gets better at the end.