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April Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

This season is massive! Seriously, do you know when the last time was that I ended up listing 49 or more series during my monthly summaries? October 2006. And back then I didn’t watch raws yet, and I included series from past seasons that hadn’t finished yet, along with a bunch of really old series. This season definitely is something special in terms of all of the series that have come out that are trying something interestingand trying to stand out.

Does that mean that we’ve got one of the best seasons ever? Well, no. There is a lot of mediocrity in this season, not to mention there are too many series of only 13 episodes for it to be really able to rival the major seasons like Spring 2006, Spring 2007 and Autumn 2008. I made the mistake in the past of announcing a season as awesome right at the start (did that to both Summer and Autumn 2011), so I’m not going to do that until this season is finished. But damn: things look good here.

#49 (new) – Sengoku Collection – (2,25/10) – Oda Nobunaga… what have they done to you? Dropped.
#48 (new) – Naruto SD – (2,75/10) – The forced attempts at comedy were horrible to watch. Dropped.
#47 (new) – Pretty Rythm – (3/10) – Even for a kids’ show, this one was bad. It was nothing but one girl whine over and over and over and she would just never shut up. Do kids really enjoy watching those kinds of characters?
#46 (new) – Queens Blade – (3/10) – Completely retarded. Also, boobs. Dropped.
#45 (23) – Hiiro no Kakera – (4,5/10) – I tried giving this a second chance, but bailed out immediately. This is an incredibly generic bishie show that is badly acted and has absolutely nothing that stands out whatsoever. Dropped
#44 (new) – Upotte – (5/10) – Wow. That first episode’s only sense of humour came from having random innuendo jokes about guns. Xebec, I really see that you’ve exerted yourself on this one… Dropped.
#43 (new) – Ginga he Kickoff – (5,75/10) – Very annoying lead character. Dropped.
#42 (new) – Recorder to Randsell – (6,25/10) – The gimmick of this series has worn off for me. It’s nice and all for one episode, but two entire seasons of this. It needs to try harder for me. Having “being a cute premise” as the only redeemable factor is not enough for me to keep watching. Dropped.
#41 (new) – Haiyore Nyaruko-San – (6,4/10) – This show also is a gimmick that’s a bit fun for just one episode, but not much more. Yeah, she is an insult to the works of Lovecraft, let’s have a laugh and then drop this to move on. Dropped.
#40 (20) – Ozuma – (6,6/10) – So in the end, what did Ozuma really do? This month brought in some of the background of this series, but that’s what it was: just background that that one girl read as from a script. It made no impact on the rest of the show whatsoever and could have been omitted without changing anything else about the show.
#39 (new) – Yurumates – (6,9/10) – 2 minutes of random college antics. It didn’t capture my interest. Dropped.
#38 (new) – Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? – (7/10) – I gave up on this show when it tried to recycle its gimmicks from the first season.
#37 (new) – Tasogare Otome X Amnesia – (7/10) – The guys over at Silver Link really need to learn about how to get characters to act properly. This is their umpth show of theirs that might have been interesting, if only it wasn’t so badly acted. Especially the female sidekick who can’t see ghosts was a pain to watch. I’d almost say: drop all the visual effects, and focus on your basics and priorities. Dropped.
#36 (new) – Gon – (7/10) – Another gimmick show: it’s fun to watch for one episode, but after that it dies off. Dropped.
#35 (new) – Accel World – (7,1/10) – Interesting premise, but the execution leaves things to be desired. Annoying main character who doesn’t belong in this series, Wastes too much time with boring exposition, has no interesting characters whatsoever. I see no potential for this one in the long run, unfortunately.
#34 (new) – Acchi Kocchi – (7,25/10) – Acchi Kocchi is… just there, I guess. It’s just a bunch of high schoolers doing random stuff with its annoying and cute moments. I could find nothing that really stood out or made it more than just random fluff, though. Dropped
#33 (new) – Folktales from Japan – (7,4/10) – Random Folk Tales. They were interesting from a cultural point of view, even though they really played on what a bitch Karma tends to be. It’s not interesting enough to continue watching, though. Dropped.
#32 (new) – Jewel Pet – (7,4/10) – Getting the director of Milky Holmes and Lilpri to do Jewel Pet. Whoever found that kind of madness a good idea? The result was a bizarre first episode that was funny as a gimmick, but unsustainable in the long run. Dropped
#31 (new) – Kuromajo-San ga Tooru – (7,5/10) – Cute, but not cute enough for me to spend my time on. Needs to try harder. Dropped
#30 (new) – Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan – (7,5/10) – I don’t care if you’ve got an interesting story. If you don’t try to show this off, then how am I supposed to know? This series really needs more ambition. Try to stand out like a lot of the other shows are trying to do, for god’s sake. Dropped.
#29 (new) – Saki Episode of Side A – (7,5/10) – The problem with Saki is that its characters are quite charming, but its mahjong is an insult. With the first two episodes, I saw no hints that this time it’ll be different, so I’m bailing out while I still can. Dropped.
#28 (new) – Arashi no Yoru ni – (7,6/10) – In the end, this series suffers from too much competition. I had to cut out some series, and I have already seen this story and it is overacted.
#27 (17) – Smile Precure – (7,75/10) – In the end I dropped this series. It’s a nice show and all, but this season has way too much competition.
#26 (new) – Kuroko no Basuke – (7,75/10) – This had some fun first episodes, but I see no future in this series as a shounen jump adaptation. There is no potential for the characters to improve, it probably will drag on with random opponents that also have shounen-like powers. I feel like I’ve seen all that’s good about this series in just the first episode. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Medaka Box – (7,75/10) – I can see potential in this series. The writing shows that it knows what it’s doing, but at other times it’s aggravating to watch and how everyone keeps going on about how perfect Medaka is. This is a show where it really stands out that it violates the “show, don’t tell”-principle, and it’s not like I’m often bothered by that.
#24 (new) – AKB0048 – (7,75/10) – The plot just makes no sense whatsoever! It has potential though, because at least the characters are bearable enough to continue past the first episode.
#23 (new) – Sankarea – (7,9/10) – Here is the thing: that third episode was really, really good. That’s the reason why I haven’t dropped this yet, and I have to admit that Rea is very well acted and interesting to watch. My big problem is that most of the rest of the cast isn’t, in particular that cousin and the other classmates of the lead character.
#22 (new) – Saint Seiya Omega – (8/10) – Saint Seiya’s problem is that it stays a bit in the shadows of everything. On one hand it’s still in the shadows of Heartcatch Precure and Casshern, who both were written much better and had much more interesting characters, and it’s overshadowed by the rest of this season being incredibly good and good-looking as well.
#21 (new) – Jormungand – (8,1/10) – Slick action in a gritty setting, with characters who can’t stop snarking. So yeah, that combination didn’t work in this show’s favor, but as a gun-slinging show it still is quite entertaining and holds a lot of potential.
#20 (7) – Aquarion Evol – (8,1/10) – Aquarion Evol is in the middle of a bunch of training arcs. To make up for this dull-sounding premise, it has made this some of the weirdest training arcs in a long while. This show has gotten completely bizarre at this point. Whether the character-development worked or not depends on the finale, though, because the character-development has been a bit unimpressive. Especially Zessica is in the danger zone.
#19 (8) – Hunter X Hunter – (8,25/10)

The thing with Nen is that in order to realize how amazing it is, you first need to sit through a bit of explanation about how it works. It’s gonna be worth it, though. I’d also like to say something about the animation in this series: it does have Madhouse’s trademark CG and the inbetween animation can be quite smooth at times. But it’s all feels too much like manga panels that move around. It misses some dynamic movement. Some extra touches on the animation, and I mean more than once in a while showing a character who is shaded really well. Give me interesting movement.

#18 (new) – Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki – (8,25/10)

The peculiar thing about this season is that in terms of pure comedies, there isn’t a lot noteworthy, if you ignore series like Uchuu Kyoudai, where the comedy isn’t the main focus. I could only find two good comedy shows this season, one of which is Poyopoyo which carried over from the previous season. Still, it’s a genre that is over-saturated, so I don’t mind. Poyopoyo still is awesome in how it consistently manages to take everyday situations for cat owners and make them fun. It’s also surprisingly sadistic at times.

#17 (new) – Hyouka – (8,25/10)

A Kyoani series I care about for once! Great animation and dialogue. The big potential pitfall of this series will be taking too long to build up; something that plagues a lot of Kyoani series.

#16 (new) – Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199 – (8,25/10)

They actually gave a new coat over the original Yamato series. The first episode followed the plot of the first episode of the TV-series, but a lot was added to it, and the creators still nailed the epic feeling of the good Matsumoto Leiji series. I’m keeping my eye on this.

#15 (new) – Legend of Korra – (8,25/10)

This really is an exception. I am not going to watch Avatar. I do not have the time for that and there are too many other things that I want to spend my time on. Nevertheless, to keep track of this every week is just enough. What I really like about this is how it subverts Korra’s status as a hero and plays with it.

#14 (new) – Shirokuma Cafe – (8,25/10)

This series has no business being as good as it is, and yet, I love it. It’s just about a cafe run by a polar bear that has a penguin and a panda among its regular guests. The panda in particular is very annoying. But this show completely nailed all of these characters and their random conversations. It’s brilliant in how it uses the fact that the characters are nearly all animals and how they behave.

#13 (new) – Eureka Seven Ao – (8,25/10)

Interesting setting, completely different from Eureka Seven’s setting. The action is very solid as well, and the characters also are well acted. I like how there are many different parties with all their own interests. This show is building up to something very interesting here.

#12 (5) – Phi Brain – (8,25/10)

The new season has a ton of potential… IF the creators use it. If not, then it can also come crashing down horribly. That’s the kind of double-sided sword that brainwashing is. So far though, things are looking good with some nice side-character development. The visuals also look prettier compared to the first season.

#11 (new) – Kimi to Boku – (8,4/10)

The advantage this season has over the first: we already know the cast, and they’re already a bit developed. That has made this season much more bearable, and even though the blond kid still is annoying, it’s much less apparent compared to how he was in the past. The result is a very charming slice of life series that really knows its drama.

#10 (10) – Mirai Nikki – (8,4/10)

A fun and exciting ending to conclude the series with. This show really went over the top and delivered some very unexpected plot twists. It had some humps along the way, but with the finale I am still glad to have kept up with it.

#9 (new) – Nazo no Kanojo X – (8,4/10)

A very weird show, but I must say that the interplay between the two main characters is very entertaining to watch. It’s also got a terrific soundtrack.

#8 (new) – Tsuritama – (8,4/10)

This is the most grounded work of Kenji Nakamura to date: it’s just a show about a bunch of guys and fishing. It’s still really fun and uplifting, with a lot of quirky and fun characters to watch, on top of quite an artistic look. Can it live up to his other works in terms of depth, though?

#7 (new) – Natsuiro Kiseki – (8,5/10)

Natsurio Kiseki is forced. But considering its premise, it’s no wonder, and the creators make perfect use of this. Every episode had the girls find out something new about themselves, or come to terms with something,resulting into them growing as a character. This show loves to play around with its cast and put them into interesting situations. And really: the four of them work really well together.

#6 (6) – Mouretsu Pirates – (8,5/10)

Mouretsu Pirates has actually gotten better over the past month. The most recent developments are a bit forced to get all of the characters at the right places, but the result of this is incredibly fun and interesting science fiction.

#5 (new) – Lupin The Third – (8,5/10)

Very artistic and mature. You can really see that the creators are trying to turn this into a fun adventure, while also emphasizing on how incredibly feminine Mine Fujiko is. The result has style, and it’s quite fun, even for someone who isn’t a fan of the Lupin franchise. It’s in any case the most unique series of the season.

#4 (new) – Zetman – (8,5/10)

Having not read the manga, I have no idea how good that was, and I don’t care. Zetman is a very fine show with a lot of heart put into it. The animation really knows how to accentuate the characters’ faces, and the acting is bold and gripping. This show stands out, and it has really grabbed my attention, and for that I’m willing to overlook some pacing issues. In fact, I’d say that despite these issues, it still manages to know which scenes to focus on, instead of trying to rush through everything equally.

#3 (new) – Fate/Zero – (8,75/10)

Fate/Zero has really been fired off in this new season, wasting no time and showing huge developments in nearly all of its episodes. The wait after all of this build up was definitely worth it. Episode 2 also was a visual orgasm.

#2 (new) – Sakamichi no Apollon – (9/10)

The star of this season. I can’t believe how well this show is executed. The animation when the characters are playing instruments is incredible, and the best that any television series has ever been in portraying musicians. The drama between the characters is also amazingly well acted. The creators managed to put so much emotion into this series. Oh, and Yoko Kanno… she really delivers on the soundtrack for this one.

#1 (new) – Uchuu Kyoudai – (9/10)

In a season with so much competition, Uchuu Kyoudai stands very confidently at the top with pretty much the best characters of the season. No other show comes close to the amount of development that these guys have already had, and Mutta is an absolutely wonderful character to watch. It’s all just so down to earth and incredibly fun to watch. Now let the rumour that this will have 51 episodes be true!

Some Quick First Impressions: AKB0048 and Hyouka

by psgels, posted in Hyouka, Some Quick First Impressions

AKB0048

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to be an idol.
Okay, so like expected, my brain just exploded by all of the reasons in which this series just does not make sense. The premise, but also the small details and decisions the characters make; for god’s sake there are just so many things about this series that are in no way possible when you think about them. The good news however, is that this was the best first episode of an idol show that I’ve seen for a year now. For once, it had no annoying characters. Surprisingly, the voice actresses (presumably members of AKB48) actually take up on cues and actually are able to act a bit. It’s nothing stellar or anything, but I expected much blander and annoying than what we got here. And granted, the idol series for the past year aren’t really a big standard to live up to (Uta Prince, Symphogear, Pretty Rythm… only Idolmaster was anywhere near decent), but still this actually felt well paced and had decent writing. It caught my interest. The big question is how on earth are they going to about the ludicrous plot of this. In the original Macross, the idols made sense in the story and had an explanation, but ever since that seems to have gone more and more into the background for Shoji Kawamori. Having an evil government that bans music is by far not enough. Oh, and I also hope that the concert scenes will be better than what they showed in this episode. Ugly dancing CG is something that I don’t ever thing has been done right.
ED: Ugly dancing CG.
Potential: 60%

Hyouka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be friends with the school idol.
Well, in a season that has so many visually standing out series, Hyouka comes and joins them with some very realistic animation. Along with its own share of very artistic shots. Other than that, this was very solid for a first episode: the dialogue is all well written, and it uses its mystery very subtly by making its mysteries small, and then explaining them with ordinary logic. The characters are already dynamic and far from cliches and it’s definitely the most realistic high school series of this season. However, Kyoani: you are some amazing animators. So why do you always have to go back to high schools? There is a vast diversity of different settings that you could explore. Well, at the very least I’m happy enough because this finally is a show I’m interested in. It’s not just random antics but this episode is clearly building up to something, and with writing and animation that are so good I’m definitely going to follow it. My only fear would be that it would take too long to build up. This series is 21 episodes long, and if it uses this well it can turn into a great series. However if this starts pulling a Pesona 4 it can get boring quite fast.
OP: Nice use of the water ripple effect. The song’s boring, though.
Potential: 85%

Ozuma Review – 67,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews

So… Ozuma. What is there to say about it, really? After years of absence, another Matsumoto Leiji series has come out, adapting a story of his that’s more than 25 years old by now about sand submarines. After six episodes, I’m still not quite sure what I watched.

Ozuma’s biggest problem is that it’s plagued by production issues. While in theory it’s nice to see a series who says an entire “screw you” to broadcasting schedules, this series feels very sloppy, and way too short to really do anything with its premise. It just delivers a bunch of ideas, but doesn’t connect them well. The ideas are great, don’t get me wrong about that, and this could have been a great retro series, but in the end nothing really comes together and the whole execution lacks soul, not to mention the sloppy animation.

I think what also was pretty bad for this series was its cast of characters. The main character is a very annoying brat, and the ones around him just fail to be interesting. They have neat ideas behind their characters, but their delivery is all just so lackluster. I miss passion here, I miss attention to detail, I miss the build-up that stories of the Leijiverse are so good at. You can see that the original Ozuma story had potential, but it’s like the creators didn’t care or something.

Storytelling: 6/10 – Lackluster is the best way to describe this. Doesn’t care at all about standing out.
Characters: 6/10 – These guys feel like caricatures of the usual Matsumoto Leiji characters. You can see flashes of other, better characters in them. Oh, and be aware of the male lead. He’s annoying.
Production-Values: 7/10 – Great character-designs, but very sloppy animation and doesn’t stand out at anything else.
Setting: 8/10 – Great ideas! Sand submarines? Awesome! Bloody shame that it doesn’t use them, really.

Suggestions:
– Space Pirate Captain Harlock
– Hi no Tori
– Secret of the Cerulean Sand

Mirai Nikki Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Mirai Nikki



Mirai Nikki: grab a bunch of psychopaths, hand each of them a diary that predicts the future, make them kill each other and you’ve got yourself the germ of an entertaining story.

This is a show for those looking for some over the top entertainment. It has action and suspense, but unfortunately also plotholes and a lead character who is a wimp for a good first portion of the series. In the end the pros do make up for the cons in this series, but it takes patience.

The bigggest problem with this series is that the characterization takes a really long while to get going. At the beginning of the series, Yukiteru (tha male lead) is a typical coward who once in a while does something heroic. The side-characters are all pretty dull and one-sided, and it doesn’t really feel like any of them comes to his or her right. The only one who really stands out is the lead female: Yuno. The biggest selling point of this series and the mother of all yandere. But even she takes a while to really get going, and is for most of the first half of this series a deranged psychopath without much depth either. The interesting stuff only starts when the characters start to develop and change over the course of the series. This is where the cast gets depth, Yukiteru grows balls, and the characters come together more and this is where the series gets really fun to watch.

Something also needs to be said about the plot: it can get quite creative in the plot twists it delivers to the viewer. It however is not as clever for this premise to really work, and as a consequence it’s full of plotholes. When you stat to watch this series, you really need to realize this, because there are way too many leaps in logic and weird coincidences that would instantly break any normal suspense of disbelief. It’s the kind of series where you need go go along with the flow, no matter how ridiculous it may get t times.

Because in the end, this does reward, even though it takes a while to get there. Mirai Nikki’s biggest problem is that it stumbles on for a good 10 episodes in uninteresting fights, challenges and characters, and it’s not even for the sake of build-up either. At one point it just decides to make its character arcs longer and actually use some character development effecitvely, and that’s where it becomes quite an entertaining ride. The ending is a bit weird, but heck, this show at least doesn’t skimp on entertainment value.

Just one thing: try to avoid getting spoiled about this series. It’s the kind of series that is hard to rewatch, because a lot of the fun is in its surprises that it pulls you.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Very entertaining plot twists, but is a bit annoying in its first halves.
Characters: 8/10 – The side-cast in particular really needs a long while to get going, but in the end the character development is pretty good all around.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Good soundtrack, animation that’s nothing special, but does what it needs to do.
Setting: 8/10 – The setting is just insane, but that’s part o this series’ charms.

Suggestions:
– Ben-To
– Ga-Rei Zero\
– Shikabane Hime

Some Quick First Impressions: Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan, Eureka Seven Ao and Tsuritama

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao, Some Quick First Impressions, Tsuritama

Shining Hearts – Shiawase no Pan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with three cute girls.
This episode threw me off. With a title like “Shiawase no Pan”, I thought that there was a character named “Pan” or something. Not that the main characters would actually be bakers. Beyond that, this episode… it felt like playing an actual RPG: the characters went from one place to the other, talked to a few people and then went home again. That is not the way you should adapt something like this. RPG adaptations are meant to take liberties in order to weave their storylines because RPGs have things that just cannot be translated to anime format, more than any other kind of source material. So yeah, this was a bit of a boring way to close off such a streak of excellent first episodes. All the characters do is walk around and sell bread. Now, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There were some intriguing parts that will probably be explored later, the characters were all moeblobs with really bad character designs, but they weren’t forced into stereotypes, and this show had a relaxing atmosphere that would have worked… if it wasn’t for one thing: throughout this episode I really got the impression that the creators have no idea what they’re talking about. I’m referring to the bread: it just assumes that the characters can make great bread, but it doesn’t even put an ounce of thought into why this bread is great, or how it’s made, or where they get their ingredients from. It’s just “Okay, we have bread! Let’s give it to people and make everyone happy!” I mean, if you’re going to bother making a show about bread, you should at least do your homework, right?
OP: Granted, this does have that RPG-feel, despite the annoying vocals.
ED: I… just… what did I just watch? Who found this a good idea?
Potential: 30%

Eureka Seven Ao

Short Synopsis: Our lead character will supposedly pilot the strongest mecha in existence.
With Eureka Seven it is of course a bit difficult to really judge its first episode. I remember how I actually dropped it for a while, until I saw how good it got after a while. This epiode of Eureka Seven Ao definitely made a better first impression than the first episode of Eureka Seven did. For starters its lead character isn’t as annoying as Renton, and the creators immediately start by showing some good drama around him, and his feelings towards his parents. His girlfriend still fits the bill of “female lead”, but there are small parts where she sets herself apart from her counterparts. The action and soundtrack also sound very promising based on the small tastes they gave us here. I do have to say though, that this episode also had a lot of parallels with Bounen no Xamdou’s opening episode, and compared to that series’ opening episode, this unfortunately lost out, especially in its characterization. Still, the potential is definitely there for this series to both deliver engaging action and characters. It’s now up to the rest of this series to develop the rest, and it definitely has some good papers for that. It’s a shame that this couldn’t get 50 episodes, but 25 works too.
ED: Not the most memorable ED, but also definitely not the worst. Also who’s the kid?
Potential: 85%

Tsuritama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute boy.
Above all, this was really refreshing. In a world in which most of the teenaged series try to see who can rip each other off the most, here we have a show who really makes a point in being original. It’s not just the theme of fishing, but the characters and their antics are all delightfully fresh and the cliches that are there are executed different from usual. For example: for as many transfer students that we see in anime, we actually rarely see people move. the lead characters’ grandmother also feels refreshing in her light-heartedness: she was old, yet not the same kind helpless old woman you see everywhere. And yeah, in a season with Shinichiro Watanabe and Sayo Yamamoto, you’d almost forget that Kenji Nakamura also is an incredibly good director. This episode was fun and whimsical, and A-1 at the helm combined with a number of very interesting animation techniques. The end of this episode also hinted that there will be much more than meets the eye at first sight, and I feel like this time, Kenji Nakamura went with a series that DOES fit perfectly in just 11 episodes. After sitting though Guilty Crown, I am really glad to see that Noitamina is back again.
OP: Some actually decent J-Rock. Finally.
ED: Dreamy song, and surprisingly catchy.
Potential: 90%

Some Quick First Impressions: Sakamichi no Apollon, Jormungand and Haiyore! Nyaruko-san

by psgels, posted in Sakamichi no Apollon, Some Quick First Impressions

Sakamichi no Apollon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character befriends a cute girl on his first day of school transfer.
Yes, this is clearly influenced by Madhouse. their subtle touch is all over this series, and combined that with Shinichiro Watanabe’s excellent sense of style and Yoko Kanno’s music, this was a wonderful watch. Out of all the series that aired this season, this series had the best acting: characters are portrayed wonderfully subtle, and this episode was really restrained. There was a ton of emotion in this episode, yet most of it was hidden between the lines. The point where this series really caught me however, was when one of the characters started to play the drums. That was a piece of incredible animation. Playing musical instruments in anime is something incredibly hard to do, but the creators here did it perfectly. The movements synchronize perfectly with the actual soundtrack, and something like that is incredibly rare in anime.
OP: This definitely is an OP from the guys from Mappa: the visuals really remind of OPs like Mouryou no Hako’s. Again restrained, but very well done.
ED: Simple yet effective.
Potential: 95%

Jormungand

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a giant sea serpent who surrounds the entire earth and… wait, wrong story.
So, this turned out to be quite a slick action-series with a heavy emphasis on gunplay. It’s got a neat soundtrack and the action scenes are well polished, with quirky humour on top of it. It had charismatic characters, especially the lead female, and quite a few characters were already likable in just this episode. I twas pretty much a textbook delivery. Now, textbooks are boring, so what does this show plan to add in order to really stand out? How do you plan to keep your 26 episodes interesting? Will your plot be varied or will most episodes be like this? Is 26 episodes the right amount for this series, or is the manga this is based on still on-going?
OP: Good visuals, but too much autotune on the vocals.
ED: Prertty picture… and that’s all this ED is.
Potential: 80%

Haiyore Nyaruko-san

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a cute girl.
Surprisingly, this didn’t turn out to be the worst of the season. The reason? This turned out to be a self-aware parody of the moe genre. It actually poked fun at the overused tropes you see in this genre, and Nyaruko’s energy was surprisingly addictive, rather than annoying. It’s strange to admit, but I actually laughed during some of the jokes it made. Unfortunately it also has the elements of a bad parody. You know, the shows that try to parody by just adhering to the tropes they’re making fun of while trying to look tongue-in-cheek. Another problem that this series has is that the moe genre is overcrowded: a lot of the jokes this series made were just copied from other bad shows, perhaps only done slightly better. If this series wants to be a good comedy, it really needs more material and it needs to keep the jokes coming. Since comedy is the only thing that this series has, it needs to be consistently funny, but for that, it still falls short: it had a few good jokes, but not enough of them to warrant 20 minutes.
OP: Terrible song.
ED: Parody 101: an ED is also a very good thing to make fun of. This instead was completely generic
Potential: 40%

Some Quick First Impressions: Saki Episode of Side A and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2199

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a giant battleship sunk in WWII.
For the record: the actual Yamato TV-series only airs in 2013, this was just a preview episode. The first movie however, premiered a few days ago, which means that we probably also have to wait around 9 months for more of this, so this really was just a very early appetizer. Based on just this episode though, things are looking very promising. This episode covered about the same as the first episode of the 1974 Yamato series, but the creators added a lot of things to it as well, and they really succeeded in turning this into a modern version of the story. You can especially see the influence of Xebec’s science fiction department department. The creators managed to put a lot of their own influences in, yet they also captured the epic spirit of Matsumoto Leiji’s stories. I also love the soundtrack, which is new, yet is sprinkled with the influences from the original Yamato’s soundtrack. I do wonder though if the rest of the series will be as accurate as here, and I’m especially curious how this series plans to handle the infamous plotholes that pop up at the end of the series.
OP: No OP, unfortunately. I’m dying for the rendition of Yamato’s classic OP for this series.
ED: Quite sentimental. A bit too restrained, but I can see this growing on me.
Potential: 80%

Saki Episode of Side A

Short Synopsis: Our lead character isn’t even in this series…
If I had to name one theme that keeps recurring through this season, it is annoying characters. There are much, much more of them than usual, making checking out every show get a bit more on my nerves than usual. Saki though… fortunately doesn’t have that. Okay, so it’s cheating a bit by being a sequel and all, but it feels good finally watching another moe show without getting the urge to strangle the characters. In fact, I’d say that this was one of the best episodes of Saki overall. It was a nice look into Nodoka’s past, the characters were overall much less obnoxious than the main cast of Saki, and it was even slightly heart-warming. That’s all I ask of just a first episode: convince me that I can enjoy watching this. The development and the good stuff can come later. This episode did have a number of flaws, though. For example this episode tried to make cliched boob jokes whenever Nodoka was around, and one of the reasons why this episode also was pretty nice was because there was no mahjong in it. That’s not very reassuring for a series where that is its selling point, but what series reduces these games to a mahou shoujo context in which the winner is the one who manages to manipulate luck the most?
ED: Dull J-Pop.
Potential: 50%

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a peudo-harem containing a ghost.
I’ve got quite a few problems with Silver Link, but by far the biggest of them is the reason why I never finished more than one episode of any of their series: their unwatchable characters. Tasogare Otome x Amnesia… unfortunately has this too, which is a shame, because if you strip away that and all of the cliches, then you’d have an interesting series. This episode played around with its narrative by making the titular character invisible to one of the cast members, and it did a number of interesting things with its visual direction throughout this episode. But yeah, I already know that I’m not going to continue this much longer because for most of the episode I was too busy wanting to punch the characters in the face. The girl who can’t see ghosts was particularly obnoxious, and she just wouldn’t shut up. The male lead was also incredibly dull due and nothing more than your average harem lead. The titular maiden Amnesia could have had potential as this playful ghost, but unfortunately she too just got reduced to a member of the lead guy’s harem. There is not much fanservice in this episode, but the fanservice that was there was dumb, forced and shameless. Seriously though, it’s getting very annoying that Silver Link’s series still are plagued by bad acting. Where Shaft has actually moved on and changed, they still seem the same as they ever were, save perhaps for prettier visuals.
ED: A good vocalist, wasted on a cliched and cheesy song.
Potential: 20%

Some Quick First Impressions: Phi Brain2, Pretty Rythm Dear My Future and Nazo na Kanojo X

by psgels, posted in Phi Brain, Some Quick First Impressions

Phi Brain 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character solves puzzles.
Okay, so the big question: how on earth will the second season be able to top the first? Well, for starters it’s got a new soundtrack, the graphics got a bit of an upgrade (seriously, the budget for this series isn’t big, but the characters look really good in the shots where some time was spent on). And the new set of villains also has potential. However, these villains use two tropes that can work really well or fail miserably, depending on the execution: amnesia and brainwashing. the exact how and why of things isn’t explained in this first episode, but it was very heavily hinted that these will be major themes of the new season, in which the creators really try to get Kaito’s friends against him. This has a ton of potential, especially with Sato Junichi (who by the way changed positions a bit: he’s now the main writer of this series, instead of the director). However, whatever you do: give these characters a good reason to turn against Kaito. Don’t just do some mumbo jumbo and completely change their character for the sake of drama.
OP: Love the use of guitars. Also dying to see that scene of Nonoha with her hair down.
ED: Such a shame that they didn’t follow up on the first ED by using some other clever visual effect. This was rather all over the place.
Potential: 80%

Pretty Rythm Dear My Future

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to become an idol.
It probably isn’t a surprise to most, but I hate the idol culture. The concept of huge corporations dressing up ditzy girls without any sort of talent and make them sing very cheesy J-pop that is the complete opposite of my taste in music… that is one part of Japan that I have no interest in whatsoever. And yet, I don’t dislike idol anime. There are a bunch of really good ones out there, like Fancy Lala, Full Moon wo Sagashite, White Album and of course Perfect Blue. On the other hand though… there is Pretty Rythm, which embodies every reason I hate idols. This, was an incredibly cheap cash-in that overglorifies idols. It was incredibly poorly produced, the graphics, especially when the characters are turned into CG, look horrible and every single character was incredibly annoying. By far the worst offender was the main character, though. She just keeps whining and whining over and over again about becoming an idol. Even in this season which is full of obnoxious characters, she stands out by being among the worst of them. “Baby… Twinkle Star! It’s… New World!”
ED: Very bad J-Pop
ED: “Who cares about animation? Let’s just advertise some random idol group of ours!”
Potential: 0%

Nazo na Kanojo X

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date a cute girl.
Okay yes: I have a bias against series with a lot of moe. That played a big part in why I didn’t like Accel World and Sankarea, but this is a genre that has annoyed me so often by now. However, I do give all of these series a chance, and let it be known with this series that I’m more than willing to set this bias aside when the content is actually really good. At first sight Nazo na Kanojo X was a recipe for disaster. I don’t care if the manga was supposed to be good: the porn producers of Hoods could have easily turned this into this bore-fest solely dedicated to the people with a drool fetish. But they actually did it: they took the source material seriously and delivered a very fun and especially weird first episode. The drool doesn’t matter: the two leads play quite well off each other and actually bring something unique to the shounen romance genre. Also, this is a season with a lot of good soundtracks (Lupin, Fate/Zero, Kuroko, Zetman), but surprisingly this one turned out to have the best.
ED: Such a good soundtrack, and then they bring in such an annoying vocalist for the ED.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Kuroko no Basuke, Upotte and Fate/Zero 2

by psgels, posted in Fate/Zero, Some Quick First Impressions

Kuroko no Basuke

Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays basketball.
Well, they did it again. After the disappointing Prince of Tennis, Knight in the Area and Ginga he Kickoff, there again comes a sports series that really caught my interest, even though I don’t care about sports shows. This episode was fun, and the soundtrack also was great (I like how the guys from RON kept a bit of their influence from when they were working with Bee-Train). The cast of characters is nicely balanced together, and there are a lot of interesting characters in this first episode. It’s not the best, though. The fact that it’s a shounen jump series did come through, in the way that it gives everyone gimmicky powers rather than playing with a more realistic depiction of skills, but at the least they kept these powers subtle instead of over the top. And yeah, by far the big problem with this series will be length. Ideally this should just take 26 episodes. If the creators start dragging on the different matches, it’ll probably lose its appeal quite fast.
OP: Nice inbetween animation.
ED: Guys. If you can’t sing very fast… then don’t try it.
Potential: 80%

Upotte

Short Synopsis: Our lead character teaches cute girls.
I tend to like bizarre stuff. Upotte is bizarre: rather than with Strike Witches, the girls here really act like guns and go to school to learn how to be guns. It had the potential to be this surreal comedy, but instead most of this episode used its premise… for innuendo. Yes guys! Whenever you can’t remember the name of a girl you met, just refer to her by her underwear. You’ll be beaten up, but the girl will take the blame for it! Apart from that, a lot of this episode was about comparing underwear to the handle of a gun, and firing it to an orgasm. Yes, like all other Xebec shows this has its mind in the gutter. The girls also all have one defining personality trait, and it’s pretty much exactly like their other dull, uninspired and completely stupid comedies. The only positive thing I have to say about this series is that at least one of the writers did some research on guns. Also, I get that the main character is offensively dull and all, but why did you censor his face?
OP: Copy&Paste OP with the same dull J-rock you hear everywhere else.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 5%

Fate/Zero 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights giant monsters.
Most series that consist out of two seasons have a clear separation between the two. Not this one: it continues immediately where the first season left off, in the middle of a huge climactic battle. So no, this is not a good point to enter for those who haven’t seen the first season. My impression of this episode was that it was pretty interesting. There also was this particularly interesting dogfight, and especially Archer caught my eye. There were some moments that were a bit silly, like when two random fighter jets randomly popped up. Also, Ufo-Table need to work on how they animate monsters. The whole caster thing didn’t really feel threatening, more like very annoying and hard to get rid off. The CG for this thing just wasn’t used well.
OP: A Yuki Kajiura OP! Not her best work, but still very nice to listen to.
ED: A bit cheesy, but it’s an ED that actually tells a story rather than showing a bunch of random pictures.
Potential: 85%

Some Quick First Impressions: Jewel Pet Kira Deco, Yurumates 3D and Sankarea

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Jewel Pet Kira Deco

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a mascot.
Jewel Pet always was this really annoying series with WAY TOO MUCH SUGAR, even for your average show for young girls. This time though, it seems like some crack slipped in with the sugar, because what the hell did I just watch? This episode got surreal at times, as some really bizarre ideas passed the screen. I am really not sure who found it a good idea to turn the moon into a television or a disco-ball, or why there is a sentient bus made completely out of jewels. Speaking of which: this show has a really, really unhealthy obsession with Jewels. I know it’s called Jewel Pet and that the first episodes of the previous seasons had a gair amount of them in it. But it’s just taken completely overboard. These guys stick jewels on almost everything. I’ll never be able to look at “bling bling” the same way… But granted, due to these surreal ideas, this was indeed the best first episode of Jewel Pet that I got to sample. Not that that standard is particularly high to beat though…
OP: Terrible song.
ED: The singer here can’t sing, but also doesn’t help that the song is again terrible..
Potential: 40%

Yurumates 3D

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves to Tokyo.
Here is another one of these series with 5-minute episodes. And again it was pretty dull. It’s about this girl who moves into a new apartment and gets totally overwhelmed by her new roommates… and that’s it. This series did try to be funny using the usual tricks… only it wasn’t. I really don’t have much to say about this one: this is just a boring slice of life series, nothing more and nothing less. Oh, but the voice actress of the female lead is very annoying. Way too high-pitched.
OP: Bad J-pop and giant robots.
Potential: 0%

Sankarea

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to date the hottest girl in town.
Well, this was also pretty boring. Sankarea is like the show you sometimes see, that has a lot of moe, yet decent dialogue and good acting, yet still consists out of way too many cliches. This episode already established a pseudo-harem of three girls for him (no, I don’t care that two of those are his sister and cousin; that’s never stopped anime before anyway), there is the standard whining best friend, and the encounter between the main couple happens the same way as usual, with the male lead running into the main girl’s moment of weakness. Too much of this episode was “been there, done that” and there was little to make up for it. The only thing that caught my attention was the main characters’ feelings for his dead cat, of all things. But yeah, other than that this pretty much is Studio Deen’s second zombie show this season, only this time it’s the girl who gets to be one. At least the visuals looked pretty. I could recognize that the artists who worked on this episode also worked on Jigoku Shoujo.
OP: Creative use of visuals, at least.
ED: Actually good song.
Potential: 30%