Dokyuu Hentai HxEros
Short Synopsis: Literally Horny Power Rangers.
Wooper’s review:
If you’re opting not to watch this show because it has “Hentai” in the title, you should be aware that there’s no sex in this first episode. Instead, there are dozens of better reasons to avoid it, including a stupid premise, insipid character designs, thinly-veiled sexism, and a Mad Libs-tier script. Most of the establishing dialogue plays out along the lines of, “Hey [main character], what’s your opinion on [antagonist]?” or “Still, it’s too bad that [character] has been [personality trait] since [backstory].” These long stretches of conversation play out across slow panning shots, usually of the female lead, whose sexiness is of particular concern to the series. It wasn’t enough for her to be hot – she had to be so horny that an evil alien who tried to absorb her sex drive exploded as a result (she was around 12 years old at the time). In the present day, she fights aliens with her repressed eroticism, which naturally dwarfs her male counterpart’s libido, because women are sexy devils. The only reason I can think of to watch Dokyuu Hentai HxEros is if you think I’m exaggerating and you want to confirm how dumb this thing really is.
Potential: 0.69%
Amun’s review:
This is somehow worse than Shimoneta (props to Aidan for remembering the name off hand). This…is not good. Like….why? Is good source material that scarce these days? Project No 9 has adapted silly shows well before – do a second season of The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done or Heroes have it Tough. Those were good. HxEros is a misfire any way you look at it. And you really should only look at it once – at most.
Potential: I have never seen a first episode interest me less. And that includes Arifureta and Plunderer.
Fire Force S2
Short Synopsis: Devil Boy, Idiot Knight, Workout Fanatic, Hot Witch Gorilla, Sister Nun, Catgirl, and Lack of Fashion Sense work to uncover why people randomly catch on fire. And do a (lads) nude calendar.
Amun’s review:
Ayyyyyyy – that’s how you start a second season. This episode was everything right with the first season…and had none of its problems: catgirl was kept to a minimum (and actually showed her personality and not “personalities”), the fight was FLUID AND BEAUTIFUL AND NOT CHOPPY – plus the second half had me rolling with laughter. I mean, man, if the rest of the season is even half this good – we’re in for a treat. Okay, there is a really weird perv shot in an otherwise amazing OP so we still have a bit of immaturity infecting from the source material. But that premiere definitely has me nice and hyped. Props to Tatsuma Minamikawa for starting off his tenure on the right foot! Latom!
Potential: 100% (I think I’m going to blog this)
Wooper’s review:
This comeback has me unsure whether to clap my hands or roll my eyes. There’s an extended fight scene against an infernal in the middle of the episode, but it’s disrupted by nearly ten “remember the characters’ names?!” title cards. There’s a strong sense of fun about the episode, but a lot of it is airy to the point of irrelevance. The animation in the OP is eye-poppingly cool, but it’s backed by Aimer’s best impression of early 2010s uptempo J-rock, which is decidedly not her lane (girl’s gotta eat, though). Assuming the series keeps growing its character tree and doubles down on the metaphysical combat from last year, I’d say it’ll be the same decent, off-kilter shounen as before. A largely untested director and an initial avoidance of narrative drive are reasons to be wary, though.
Potential: 50%
Lapis Re:LiGHTs
Short Synopsis: a girl who joins a Magic Academy and meets up her teammates, plus 20 other girls while she’s touring the school.
Lenlo’s review:
In anime’s latest “Cute Girls Doing Cute Things” we have a new multimedia franchise that is making an anime, game, manga and LN all at the same time. That seems ambitious to me, especially considering the quality of the show itself, but I can’t tell Tokyo execs what to do with their money. As for the show itself, all I really have to say is that it isn’t for me. The background’s clean, especially the night shots, but do little to really inspire. We haven’t seen enough of the animation to judge that since this episode was 90% walking around the school. Meanwhile for the cast, we spent this whole first episode meeting all of the important ones at such a fast pace, they really didn’t have much time for any more than “I’m the Genki one! And I’m the [insert dere here] one!”. All in all, Lapis is shaping up to be another standard seasonal series without much to offer. It’s entirely possible it will try to pull the rug out from under me, the ED hints at some conflict to come. But as far as first episode impressions go, I am not impressed.
Potential: 25%
Mario’s review:
You know, without what it says in the premise and the OP clues, I wouldn’t have figured that Lapis Re:LIGHTS as an idol show based on this first episode. That plays mostly to its advantage, as the premiere concerns more about establishing its light-fantasy magic academy, its system and the characters. In fact, it has high-school fantasy flavour all over it, this time excluding any horny male character who accidentally encounters girls changing clothes. On that front, I appreciate its paying attention to various magic classes, and we have a serviceable protagonist to boost. It’s the supporting cast that does nothing for me so far, as the show introduces a lot of them in the first 20 minutes and so far they are stock characters with different hairs at best. The turning point for me is when Tiara bursts out and sings out loud. Yes, the combination of CGDCT, light fantasy highschool and idol is something of a selling point for me, and I still am interested to see how the show cooks up these ingredients. So I reserve my comments until the “idol” part or whatever twist plays out to see if this show is for me or not.
Potential: 30%
