What this season lacks, is quantity. The amount of series that really stand out here. There are the obvious stand-outs of Shingeki no Kyojin and Aku no Hana, in terms of comedy there are the hilarious Maou-sama and Azazel-san, and also Gargantia has potential, but beyond that… I don’t really sense enough ambition, not to mention the complete lack of long series aside from Shingeki no Kyojin. To me this feels more like a strong winter/summer season, instead of the Spring season that it is.
Red Data Girl is a bit of a wildcard. I intended to just blog the TV-schedule of it, rather than keeping up with the pre-release. It has the potential to become a very charming or interesting series, although it probably never will hit its heights. Still, I’m intrigued, especially by the first episode. The second episode was a bit of a step back for me.
I like the atmosphere. The music rocks. The backgrounds are very well drawn. I like the side characters. These guys make it worth watching and they are engaging to follow. The lead female though… needs work, and it mostly has to do with how at the moment, she fits in a very annoying cliche: the useless character. Everything gets done for her, most of her powers are just passive, she holds everyone back. Mind you, she’s well acted, but there is only so far that you can take a character doing just nothing. These first two episodes were full of hints that they are going to put a spin on that uselessness for later: don’t let me down on that.
Oh and about this season’s strong point: voice acting. There are lots of series in which the voice acting is really good and engaging. They try to emote and connect with their adience, rather than yelling way too hard all the time.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)