Category: Other:

Autumn Season Preview

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

This season is interesting. It’s got some very notable strengths and weaknesses. First of all, this season has about as many series as the Autumn of 2010: 29, which was overall a tad disappointing, and it only has three more series than the current Summer Season, even though traditionally Autumn Seasons are always much larger than Summer Seasons. On the other hand though, I need to pick up 10 new series to blog next season, and I probably won’t have any trouble picking so many. There’s actually a lot to watch. Though, there are a few catches.

The first catch is that there isn’t something that seems like an instant classic, or something that immediately stands apart from all of the others, like Hyouge Mono or Penguin Drum last seasons. Things only start to get interesting as soon as you look a tier below.

The second catch is that this is going to be a very delicate season. With that, I mean that there are a ton of interesting premises, which could very easily fall pretty to very often made mistakes. A lot of care will be needed to get them all to avoid their big potential pitfalls. When they do though, it will be glorious. Half the shows this season have imaginative premises. And original stories. There are A TON of original stories this season.

The third catch is also pretty bad, though: there’s only one series that doesn’t have a teenaged cast. Unfortunately for three months, the only adult casts will be that show and Hyouge Mono. It’s especially aggravating after how well the past spring season balanced its ages. This really is going to be a juvenile season.

Working’!!

Summary: “The story is set in a family restaurant named Wagnaria in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. Takanashi Souta works part-time among the restaurant’s high-spirited, mysterious, yet cool staffers. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Atsushi Ootsuki
Series Composition: Takao Yoshioka
Other Notable Staff: Monaca (Music)
The Positives: So, how do you call a sequel of a show that already has two exclamation marks in its title? Just pick any random character, of course! An apostrophe? Why not!
The Negatives: My heart sank when I found out who the director was. I mean, I dropped Working!! after only one episode mostly because of the reason that there were too many annoying characters, but it wasn’t the worst thing out there. However… Atsushi Ootsuki… why is this guy still getting work? He’s pretty much the worst currently active director out there, with works ranging from Kanokon, Ladies Versus Butlers and To Love-Ru. This guy will grab all of the potential that was left and turn it into a blatantly stupid fanservice fest.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Cross Fight Bedaman

Summary: It’s about kids who fight each other with robots that shoot marbles…
The Positives: None.
The Negatives: Out of all of the kiddie show franchises out there, the Bedaman franchise has got to be amongst the worst (perhaps only surpassed by
Summary: “The series centres around Ooyama Takeru, a young normal yet perverted minded guy, who enrolls into Tenbi Gakuen, which was once an all-girls school now turned into a co-ed school. Unbeknownst to him, the only students admitted are those who are able to control a source of energy found in all living things called Element, and furthermore can use magical artifacts called Maken, which give the users specific and varied abilities. On the first day, he meets again after three years, Amaya Haruko, his childhood friend, Kushiya Inaho, a weird big busted girl who declares she’s his fiance, and Himegami Kodama, a blonde oujo who wants to kill him. After a whim by the school principle Rokujou Minori, he and the three girls end up living in the same room. Furthermore, after being persuaded by Haruko, Takeru decides to join the Maken-ki, a special force unit under the school student council, whose responsibility is to mediate duels between students in the school. However, he later finds out that no Maken is acceptable for him. How will his life continue in this school, where the students get into duels that showcase their magic and combat power, which he seemingly does not have.” – (Taken from Maken-Ki)
Director: Kouichi Oohata
Series Composition: Yosuke Kuroda
Other Notable Staff: Nobuderu Yuuki (Character Designs)
The Positives: Yosuke Kuroda baffles me sometime. He’s a very talented writer and adapter (Ookiku Furikabutte, Phantom, Honey and Clover, Madlax, Trigun? This guy rocks!), but his resume also contains tons of really questionable shows…
The Negatives: .. I mean, Maken Ki is pretty much just a big walking cliche. Noting about it feels original, not to mention that having the director of the various Ikkitousen series and Bakuretsu Tenshi pretty much destroys all hope of Yosuke Kuroda’s presence.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Mashiro-iro Symphony: Love Is Pure White

Summary: “Shingo’s school is decided to be joined with a girls’ school. As a selected student, Shingo temporarily transfers to the girls’ school until they officially consolidate. He meets various unique girls there, but all girls dislike male students. To remove their misunderstanding, Shingo works hard and…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Eiji Suganuma
Other Notable Staff: Toshie Kawamura (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Eiji Suganuma can deliver on a great series if this gets handed to him.
The Negatives: Okay. That’s it. Manglobe has officially sold out. The Sacred Blacksmith and TWGOK were one thing, but with a hentai game adaptation, there’s no going back. It’s a shame, because they used to be one of my favourite production companies, but their direction of the past years has unfortunately turned a studio who once stood at the creative edge of anime to another one of those mediocre moe companies. Mashiro-Iro’s premise and title are so pretentiously stupid that there is no way for this to really work.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Summary: “The game this is based on follows Naoe Yamato and his childhood friends plus 3. The group is called the Kazama Family after their leader. The player has the choice to go through the 5 main heroine routes, 3 sub-heroine routes, 4 friendship routes and finally a sort of harem end route.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Keitarou Motonaga
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Mayumi Watanabe (Character Designs, Chief Animation Direction)
The Positives: I’m very iffy about Katsuhiko Takayama: he can write some very good series…
The Negatives: but also some very bad ones. The first season of Natsu no Arashi was very good, Ga-Rei Zero was excellent and ef also was top notch. He’s terrible with sequels though, and even when something isn’t a sequel, there are things with which he just can’t do anything, like Asobi ni Iku Yo, which is exactly what “Please love me seriously!!” feels like. It’s in some way related to They Are My Noble Masters, and that was just mediocre from top to bottom. What seems to seal the deal here though is the director of School Days, Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka and Onii-chan no koto blah blah. It’s the same romantic comedy we’ve seen a dozen times before.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Shakugan no Shana III

Summary: “Sakai Yuuji was a normal student, but one day his normal life was gone. He was assaulted by a monster, Guze no Tomogara.It was a monster which came from another world, and was able to turn humans into light for him to eat. It was a girl with burning hair and red eyes (shakugan = flaming eyes) that saved him, while he was too surprised to move. Then, that girl said to him You don’t exist anymore. What she meant was… “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Series Composition: Yasuko Kobayashi
Other Notable Staff: Ootani Kou (Music)
The Positives: Ootani Kou brings one final bulb of light to this show.
The Negatives: Ah, Shana. It’s one thing for her to just be annoying, but what really turned her into one of my most hated characters was because of how she just kept returning and returning in all kinds of other shows. She started one of the most obnoxious stereotypes out there, and with this there will be 70 episodes of the original. The director and series composition guy will be exactly the same, so I doubt that any of the problems will be resolved with this third season, even though both have worked on some very good series in the past.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai

Summary: “The story revolves around Hasegawa Kodaka, a half-Japanese/half-British transfer student whose delinquent-like blonde hair scares people, and a seemingly perpetually sullen girl named Mikazuki Yozora. The two decide to form Rinjinbu, a club for people with hardly any friends.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hisaishi Saitou
Series Composition: Tatsuhiro Urahata
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Watanabe (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Somewhere within this is a good premise about outcasts. I mean, if I just read the premise, without looking at the title, I wouldn’t mind it and it seems like a nice drama.
The Negatives: So why do these girls look like they’re about to have orgasms? Why does it have such a silly title? Why is it directed by the director of Sora no Otoshimono? With AIC, there really is no question possible: the creators are going for another silly fanservice show that just keeps repeating itself. Tatsuhiro Urahata also is the Mari Okada of this season: he’ll be working on a ton of different shows at the same time. Considering the fact that he adapted Monster and Master Keaton this is a good thing, but the promo art leaves little hope here.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Battle Spirits Heroes

Summary: I could list the premise of the first Battle Spirits series here, but they all seem to have completely different protagonists, so that defeats the purpose. It’s basically another show based on a trading card game.
The Positives: The bizarre thing about the Battle Spirits franchise is the big names who worked on previous seasons. The weirdest one being the writer of the first season: Dai Sato. You know, the guy who wrote Ergo Proxy. The past two seasons have been written by Atsuhiro Tomioka (a bad adapter with Disgaea, Nishi no Yoki Majo and Trinity Blood under his belt, all of which could have become classics with better balance, but he has done a pretty great job on Crystal Blaze, Samurai 7, and, from what I’ve heard, Yugioh 5D’s and the first Inazuma Eleven series) and directed by Akira Nishimori (Hitohira, Rumiko Takahashi’s Rumic Theater, two very underrated but very good series), which would have been a really solid staff if this weren’t a kiddie show.
The Negatives: Here is my problem with kid’s series nowadays, though: they don’t seem to take their audience seriously. They just tell the same random adventure over and over again with unmemorable acting and subpar animation. I mean, these will be the series that today’s kids will remember 20 years from now as nostalgic. Wouldn’t it rock if people would actually put a ton of effort into them? Come on and aspire to make something of the caliber of the Mysterious Cities of Gold, not the umpteenth Yugioh-clone.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi 2

Summary: “” – (Taken from )
Director: Chiaki Kon
Series Composition: Nakase Rika
The Positives: Chiaki Kon certainly isn’t a bad director, especially now that she stopped pulling a Shinbo and just works on one series at a time. The first season of Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi actually had some very good points and was actually quite an interesting look at being a manga publisher.
The Negatives: Here is the thing though: I remember that the creators pulled the exact same thing three years ago with Junjo Romantica. Junjo Romantica 2 got significantly derailed and unbalanced. On top of that, I already dropped the first season because of how it went from actual characters in the first arc, to the generic yaoi stereotypes in the sec ond arc that make it part of such a notorious sub genre. I like a good shounen ai series like Uragiri or Antique Bakery, but when things are nothing but “kiss kiss rape rape kiss”, I don’t have to watch that, just as how I don’t want to watch shows who insert way too much fanservice. If you want to make these guys kiss, do it at logical points in the storyline. Don’t just MAKE it the storyline.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Summary: “In the far future, humans abandon the devastated Earth and move to the upper world “Tenjo”. But Tenjo and the law of causation collapse in a war and humans return to the Earth, which has turned into an inhabitable planet except for Shinshu area. Shinshu is too small to accommodate all the humans, so they duplicate the area and create “Juso Sekai” in a parallel world. In order to rebuild Tenjo and the law of causation, the returned humans start reproduction of the history from B.C. 10,000. When the reproduction proceeds to A.D. 1413, a war breaks out in Shinshu and Juso Sekai falls onto the original world. The humans living in Juso Sekai lose their land and invade the original world. People in Shinshu surrender and the land is divided by the invaders from Juso Sekai. They try to resume the history reproduction from A.D.1457, but the update of the history terminates in A.D.1648. A rumor of apocalypse begins to spread the world. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Uruhata
The Positives: Tatsuhiko Uruhata is an excellent choice to adapt this series (this show is based on a series of novels), having previously adapted Monster, Hitsuji no Uta, Master Keaton, Hajime no Ippo and Cardcaptor Sakura….
The Negatives: … at least, that’s what I would have said four years ago. Ever since, he really took a nose-dive and worked on just mediocre projects. Oh, and yeah: this show has the director of Dragonaut. Dragonaut! This really could have been an interesting premise, but instead this guy will probably make a moe mockery out of any potential that was left. Especially the character designs here are abysmal. How can they actually walk around with that?
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Busou Shinki Moon Angel

Summary: “The story will follow the coming of age and Shinki battles of Tsubasa, a boy who dreams of becoming a Shinki Master, and his Shinki partner Arnval Mk. 2.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Masayuki Kojima
Series Composition: Megumi Shimizu
Other Notable Staff: Takayuki Yanase (Design Works), Fumikane Shimada (Design Works)
The Positives: It’s easy to dismiss this show. It’s to promote a bunch of action figures, its episodes are only five minutes long. It’s probably the same uninspired stuff as usual. But take a look at who’s going to direct and write it: they would have been an utter dream team if they were put on an actual series: the director of Monster, Master Keaton, Hanada Shounen Shi, A Spirit of the Sun and Piano no Mori, and the main writer of Bounen no Xamdou. What are they doing here?
The Negatives: What are they doing here indeed? I mean, this is a very risky series: if they get full creative freedom it will of course be awesome. However, the premise really seems to suggest that a lot of executive meddling will be involved. My biggest reason for believing this is that the two people behind the designs are the designer of Ergo Proxy, Bakumatsu and Terra e… and the character designer of Strike Witches and Sky Girls…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Kimi to Boku

Summary: “The story revolves around four teens — the good-looking twins Asaba Yuuta and Yuuki, the effeminate Matsuoka Shun, and the class head Tsukahara Kaname — who have known each other since early childhood. While they are not necessarily good or bad friends, they continue to hang out well into high school. The half-Japanese transfer student Tachibana Chizuru joins the circle of friends in this comedy about the everyday life of adolescence.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Masayuki Onji (Character Designs)
The Positives: I was surprised to learn that this isn’t a romance. The title just seems so similar to Kimi ni Todoke. I was also very surprised to learn that this has the director of Elfen Lied and Sora no Oto behind the direction. Reiko Yoshida however is going to be the real force behind this series: if the source material is good, then she can get it out.
The Negatives: But yeah, it’s all going to depend on the source material manga here, which to be honest I’m not feeling yet. It just seems like yet another high school show, only instead of having an all-female cast we now have an all-male cast. It’s indeed nice to have something different and all, but the problem with those shows lies a bit deeper than just that.
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Ben-To

Summary: “The story revolves around a poor high school student named Satou You. Satou goes to the supermarket one day and discovers a bento (boxed meal) on sale at half price. Just as he reaches to grab it, he ends up on the floor unconscious. Satou has just entered the fierce, no-holds-barred supermarket survival battle for half-price bento.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Shin Itagaki
Series Composition: Fudeyasu Kazuyuki, Shin Itagaki
Other Notable Staff: Taku Iwasaki (Music)
The Positives: The director is also looking over the series composition. That helps in making this show whole and consistent. Oh, and he also directed the awesome parts of Basquash, which could work to make such a premise work. I really hope that with this, David Production aren’t selling out like what Manglobe is currently doing, because beyond the busty character designs there is a recipe for a good comedy in here.
The Negatives: Seriously though, this show is one big question mark: both the director and series composition guy have worked on great and boring series, and it’s up to the novels to provide enough inspiration for a full season, and for them to correctly translate the jokes to animation. Fudeyasu Kazuyuki did write Milky Holmes, so he can definitely be funny. He also wrote Kampfer, though.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Hunter X Hunter

Summary: “Gon’s father, long believed to be dead, is still alive and was once one of the greatest Hunters in existence. Gon believes he will be able to meet his father once he himself becomes a Hunter. However, before he can become one, he has to pass the Hunter Exam first, an exam made of numerous tasks and dangerous trials. Persevering and refusing to give up, Gon manages to reach the Hunter Exam, all the while keeping his innocent attitude. Throughout many of the tasks and trials of the Hunter Exam, Gon manages to make many unique friends. Kurapica, a sole survivor of his clan seeking revenge, Leorio, who wants to become a doctor, and Killua, a member of an infamous assassin family, all eventually join up with Gon in hopes of passing the exam together. Each of them have their own reasons for taking the exam, but will they manage to pass it alive? It will be no easy task, as the tasks and trials in the exam are not easy. Aside from worrying about dying from the exam itself, Gon and his friends also have to watch out for killers participating in the exam…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Hiroshi Koujina
Series Composition: Atsushi Maekawa
Other Notable Staff: Takahiro Yoshimatsu (Animation Direction)
The Positives: Hunter X Hunter? One of the best shounen fighting series ever made returns? Awesome! The character designer is also a really good one, who delivered excellent work on both series as Trigun and Supernatural, but also Ooedo Rocket and Les Miserables.
The Negatives: There is a big problem with this one, though: why is this one even getting made? I mean, the creators are really planning to start from the beginning again. You know, trying to tell the story that we’ve already seen throughout 92 episodes of Nippon Animation doing an absolutely wonderful job adapting it (aside from perhaps the Greed Island finale). What do they hope to accomplish? Sure, it’s bound to be an awesome series and all, but what’s the point of creating a story that’s exactly the same as an already existing anime? What’s even worse, is the guy who’s going to adapt it: Maekawa Atsushi. The director is probably fine, although nowhere near as good as the directors that Nippon Animation got for it. However, who the hell finds it a good idea to let one of the smartest shounen fighting series get written by a guy who is known for his utterly stupid series? Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Jewel Pet, Dragonaut, Fresh Precure and the Prince of Tennis. Who looked at that resume and thought: “yup; he’s the one we need for this job”?
First-Glance Potential: 65%

C3

Summary: “The story begins when a high school student named Haruaki Yachi receives a mysterious, super-heavy black cube from his father overseas. That night, Haruaki wakes up to a suspicious noise in the kitchen, and he discovers a fully naked female thief of rice crackers. The girl, Fear, is the first of several surprises that Haruaki receives. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Shin Oonuma
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote
The Positives: Very solid staff. Michiko Yokote behind the series composition is awesome (she also adapted xxxHolic, Kobato, Squid Girl wrote Strange Dawn and Princess Tutu), and Shin Oonuma will be fine as long as this doesn’t get a second season.
The Negatives: There is such a thing as “functional nude”: if nude fits in the storyline, there’s no problem with it. Having said that though, when this nudity becomes part of the actual premise, you’ve just got straight up porn.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Shimanchu MiRiKa

Summary: “The anime revolves around three girls — Mai, Ruri, and Kei — who are into music and dance, Ryubu or Okinawan stage productions, and karate.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kyuma Oshita
Series Composition: Yasushi Hirano
Other Notable Staff: Hiroshi Katou (Art Supervision)
The Positives: This is quite the peculiar series. It’s meant to promote Okinawan culture and it’s actually sponsored by the Okinawa prefecture. The director will be the one who designed the characters for Rocket Girls and Hi no Tori, which both had quite unique characters, plus he directed the animation of Himitsu The Revelation, which really looked gorgeous, so I really wonder what he can do as an actual director.
The Negatives: The last thing that Yasushi Hirano wrote was a cheesy dinosaur fighting kiddie show, and before that he didn’t really work on anything notable. The trailer looks good, but has cheesy monster design. I also fear that it gets too restrained by its sponsorship to really give a good picture of Okinawa beyond the level of a tourist brochure.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Bakuman Second Season

Summary: “Bakuman follows the story of high school student Mashiro Moritaka, a talented artist who does not know what he wants to do with his future. One day he draws a picture of Azuki Miho, a girl he is secretly fond of, during class and forgets the notebook at school. He comes back to find that his classmate Takagi Akito is waiting for him with his notebook. Takagi tries to convince Mashiro to become a mangaka, a manga artist, with him, only leading to Mashiro’s disagreement. Mashiro goes home and thinks about his mangaka uncle, who had only one successful series before he died in obscurity. Mashiro is interrupted by a phone call from Takagi, who says that he is going to tell Azuki that Mashiro likes her. Mashiro runs down to Azuki’s house to find Takagi waiting for him. Once Azuki comes out to meet them, Takagi tells her that he and Mashiro are aiming to be mangaka. Mashiro then learns that she wants to be a seiyuu, a voice actor, and has shown promise in the field. Mashiro, once again thinking about his uncle, accidentally proposes to Azuki who accepts. However, she will only marry him after they achieve their dreams. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Kenichi Kasai, Noriaki Akitaya
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
The Positives: The staff behind this is going to be the same, which means that it’ll still be rock-solid: Kenichi Kasai of Aoi Hana, Nodame Cantabile and Honey and Clover fame and Reiko Yoshida of Maria-Sama ga Miteru, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Popolocrois and Kaleido Star fame.
The Negatives: Something didn’t go right with the first season, though. The pacing was really slow, and looking back on the series, it was quite repetitive. Trying to blog it also turned in a bit of a chore due to the slow pacing and I’m not sure whether I want to do that again.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume

Summary: “The comedy centers around a squid girl who vows to invade the beaches of mankind since humans have polluted the seas. However, her invasion is less than successful, and she ends up on dry ground. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima, Yasutaka Yamamoto
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote
Other Notable Staff: Masakazu Ishikawa (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Squid Girl’s Back! The first season was a really adorable and funny comedy full of really likable characters. Especially Tsutomu Mizushima surprised me: usually his pure comedy series try too hard, but this was completely different from his other comedies. Michiko Yokote is also back, which is quite nice to see, because she is excellent at adapting.
The Negatives: Who the hell drew that!? The promo art, I mean; it’s like Squid Girl just suffered from a stroke or something. Also, it is very difficult to make a comedy sequel good. Mitsodomoe did it because its first season was really flawed. Squid Girl however was a perfectly fine comedy with plenty of laugh out loud moments, with just a very disappointing ending. What can the creators add to it at this point?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Mobile Suit Gundam Age

Summary: “The new series will have three generations of father, child, and descendant as the lead characters. The main characters pilot the Gundam unit to fight against an unknown attacking enemy (UE) and save Earth in a One Hundred Year War – an apparent homage to the One Year War of the first Gundam series. The first main character is Furitto Asuno, who developed the Gundam AGE-1 mobile suit (humanoid mobile weapon) equipped with the AGE System (a self-adapting computer). The second main character is Asemu Asuno, Furitto’s child. The third main character is Kio Asuno, Furitto’s descendant who inherits the Gundam. The Gundam AGE-1 can be augmented as the Gundam AGE-1 Titus for more power, or as the Gundam AGE-1 Sparrow for more speed. Other characters include Emily, Furitto’s friend since he was 7. Guruudekku is a Commander in the Earth Federation Forces and the captain of the battleship Diva. Mireesu is a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Federation Forces aboard the Diva.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Susumu Yamaguchi
Series Composition: Akihiro Hino
Other Notable Staff: Kanetake Ebikawa (Mechanical Designs), Junya Ishigaki (Mechanical Designs), Kenji Teraoka (Mechanical Designs)
The Positives: My big problem with the Gundam Franchise is that it’s not going anywhere. And with that I don’t mean that their premises all look alike, but instead the way the plot progresses is always the same and nearly always disappointing. I can however appreciate it a lot that Sunrise are finally trying to move into a different direction. The “three main characters”-concept in particular intrigues me. The director can go anywhere, having only directed a bunch of Keroro Gunsou movies that I’ve never watched, which is interesting to follow, at least.
The Negatives: The Father, Son, Descendant bit is interesting, yet it can also very easily degenerate into the standard Gundam formula, which first starts very interesting and diverse, yet by the time we get to the descendant it devolves into a string of random fights by completely ignoring all sorts of potential for interesting setting development. Also, I have a big problem with the main writer, Hino Akihiro, the founder of Level 5. I admit that he’s better than the usual kids’ series writer, but I especially noticed with Inazuma Eleven GO, that his characters are often just empty and uninteresting. They’re often overenthusiastic cliches that just weren’t interesting to watch at all, with the sole exception of Professor Layton himself. If he wants to make Gundam AGE work, he really needs to work on his characterization. On top of that, this series also has some very solid mechanical designers behind it. Now don’t waste them by oversimplifying things, like you do with your other series.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Guilty Crown

Summary: “The story takes place in Tokyo in 2039. After the outbreak of an unidentified virus Lost Christmas in 2029, Japan has been controlled by a multi-nation organization GHQ. Ouma Shuu is a 17 year old boy, who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power Ability of King to extract tools or weapons from his friends. He has been avoiding making troubles for others but his life has changed when he met a girl Yuzuriha Inori, one of the members of a resistance guerrilla Undertaker.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Tetsurou Araki
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Other Notable Staff: Ichirou Ookouchi (Series composition)
The Positives: So, Production IG has pretty much created a huge ticking time-bomb with this. If only because of that it’ll be fun to watch, but beyond that: this is an original story, directed by Tetsurou Araki, of Death Note and Kurozuka fame. With him, you just gotta make sure that he’s not with his mind in the gutter and this can become really interesting and well directed. Meanwhile the series composition assistant is the writer behind Angelic Layer, Overman King Gainer, but also Code Geass and Shigofumi.
The Negatives: While the writer of Code Geass is already risky enough, the real concrete wall right on top of this series’ train tracks lies within the guy behind the series composition, who happens to have written the really good Mai Hime… only to afterwards write the really bad Mai Otome, Dance in the Vampire Bund and… Seikon no Qwaser. Oh, and he also assisted in writing Code Geass. He did write two good shows: Macross Frontier and Denpa-Teki na Kanojo… but yeah. Macross Frontier also had a ton of problems. Have I already mentioned that this despite being Noitamina focuses on a teenaged boy meets girl story?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Lupin III – Fourth Series

Summary: “Lupin III chronicles the adventures of Arsene Lupin III, the world’s greatest thief, and his partners in crime: master marksman Daisuke Jigen, beautiful and scheming Fujiko Mine and stoic samurai Goemon Ishikawa XIII. Lupin and his gang travel around the globe in search of the world’s greatest treasures and riches and always keeping one step ahead of the tireless Inspector Zenigata, who has vowed to bring Lupin to justice.” – (Taken from AniDB)
The Positives: Nothing is known about this series, but it really looks like we’ll have a fourth Lupin III TV-series, since the previous one ended in 1985. I have no idea who is going to make it other than the people of TMS Entertainment, but I’m still eager to check this one out due to its remake status: very often these series are made by big fans who try to do justice to the original source material, while also giving them a completely new spin. I hope that the same will happen here.
The Negatives: Just to make things clear though: I am NOT a fan of Lupin III. I only checked out Castle of Cagliostro once, but I never even wrote a review about it. After watching it, I just had one thought in my mind: “…that’s it?” It was nice and all, but I expected much more from a movie that’s consistently heralded as a classic.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Tamayura Hitotose

Summary: “For her first year of high school, family circumstances force Sawatari Fuu to move to Takehara, a scenic old town near Hiroshima on the Inland Sea and live with her relatives. Her father, who has passed away, grew up in Takehara and always spoke fondly of his childhood while living there. Sawatari learns to love taking photographs with his old film camera, a Rollei 35S while making friends and learning about the town.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Sato Junichi
Series Composition: Sato Junichi
Other Notable Staff: Haruko Iizuka (Character Designs),
Mamiko Ikeda (Script), Tatsuhiko Urahata (Script), Yuka Yamada (Script), Reiko Yoshida (Script)
The Positives: Sato Junichi sure is on fire these days. First there was Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, next up will be Tamayura as gentle slice of life. The OVAs weren’t anything special, however with an entire series dedicated to it they can grow out pretty nicely. Amongst the series that just focus on a bunch of random girls, it’s great to see a series at least not focusing on boob jokes or overly forced jokes.
The Negatives: By far the biggest potential pitfall for this series will be a lack of ambition. The staff behind this thing is really excellent with scriptwriters who really know what they’re doing, and it would be awesome to not just see one string of random slice of life, but also show the girls gradually grow up, like how these series used to be in the past before they got too small to actually do that. And in theory this series can really do that: it’s original, there is no source material that can constrain them. Make use of this! Screw conventions! If any series has the potential to break them, then it’s this series!
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Mirai Nikki

Summary: “Second year middle school student, Amano Yukiteru, finds it difficult to make friends. He only thinks of himself as a bystander, just someone who watches the world go by, writing down everything he sees in his cell phone diary. Tormented by solitude, Yukiteru begins to imagine things like a friend called Deus ex Machina, who is apparently the Lord of Time and Space. Seeing Yukiteru’s miserable state, Deus gives him a new ability. His diary now spells out events that will happen in the near future, updated daily, for the next 90 days. This gift inadvertently forces Yukiteru to participate in a game where the winner — the last one alive — will become Deus’ successor. Should Yukiteru lose the diary he will be dead, and there are quite a few other scrupulous players participating in this very deadly game.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Naoto Hosoda
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Hidetsugu Harayama (Character Designs)
The Positives: The pilot OVA was quite promising: the direction was snappy, the premise seemed very interesting and it made me hungry for a full series, which later indeed got announced. Katsuhiko Takayama is a very good writer when handed either complete freedom or a very good source material. As for the director… ah, it could be worse. The problem with this guy is that he has always been directing mediocre or outright bad premises. Based on the things he did in Shuffle though, he can pull this off. “All kinds of awesome reality altering diaries” sounds much more interesting than “bunch of princesses fall in love with dude”.
The Negatives: The main problem with this show will be its length, but in a different way than usual. You see, this is the rare kind of series where the creators were actually smart enough to wait until the manga gets finished, so that they could fully plan it in. No, the real problem with this show is going to be that Katsuhiko Takayama will turn it to crap as soon as it goes past episode 13. Seriously, to me it seems that this guy hates long series with such a passion that he’ll refuse to put in any effort once they go past a certain point.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Chihayafuru

Summary: “The story is about a high school girl, Ayase Chihaya, who after seeing her sister become a fashion model, is inspired by a new classmate to take up karuta, a Japanese card game, competitively.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Asaka Morio
Series Composition: Naoya Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Kunihiko Hamada (Character Designs)
The Positives: More Josei? Awesome! At first sight this really looks like a shoujo series, though. But at least we finally get something more than yet another high school series. The card battle seems really interesting, especially considering that it’s for once not a cheap way to sell more toys. It’s also got a truly excellent director: the director of No Longer Human, Nana, Gunslinger Girl, Chobits and Cardcaptor Sakura. Oh, and the series composition of Supernatural also really helps.
The Negatives: It’s a manga adaptation, and there are already 13 volumes published, and it hasn’t finished yet. This one’s gonna have ending problems again…
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Persona 4 The Animation

Summary: “Due to family circumstances, Narukami Yuu moves from the big city to his uncle’s place at rural Inaba. However, on his first morning there, a woman is found dead dangling from a television antenna.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Seiji Kishi
Other Notable Staff: Shouji Meguro (Music)
The Positives: Seiji Kishi is quite an interesting director. He did a number of very funny comedies before, but now he seems to focus much more on action-packed stories, like with Angel Beats and Kamisama Dolls. He’s a very solid choice for this and will probably work with this premise. The first Persona series was the perfect example of “wasted potential”, so I really wonder whether this guy can do anything different. (Oh, and for those wondering whether you need to have seen Trinity Soul for this series: I do not recognize any of its characters in the promo art). The musician behind this has also never composed music for an anime before, which holds interesting possibilities.
The Negatives: AIC. But heck, they’ve made great shows. Let’s hope that this will be another one, but we don’t know yet who’s going to write this things, so let’s hope that I’ll be someone who can really deliver.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam

Summary: “Four characters, three fifteen-year-old girls and one nineteen-year-old girl, have so far been revealed on the anime’s official website: Fam Fan Fan who pilots a small-sized vanship named Vespa, Jizel Collette who is Fam’s close friend, Milia il Velch Cutrettola Turan who is a princess of the Kingdom of Turan, and Liliana who is Milia’s older sister. The story will revolve around the conflict between the Commonwealth of Adess and the Kingdom of Turan. The MacGuffin will be Exile, but whether it is the same Exile from the original series is not known.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Kouichi Chigura
Series Composition: Kiyoko Yoshimura
Other Notable Staff: Range Murata (Character Designs), Osamu Horiuchi (Animation Character Designs), Hitomi Kuroishi (Music), Makoto Kobayashi (Production Design)
The Positives: Well, the long wait has certainly increased my appetite for this series. In the meantime I’ve managed to watch the first Last Exile, and there is still plenty of potential to expand upon its universe. Kouichi Chigura returning as the director holds a lot of potential. The designs of this series, especially the mechanical ones that you can find on the main website, look absolutely gorgeous and it’s awesome to finally see Gonzo back in the picture again with an actual series.
The Negatives: The only question mark here really is the one who’s gonna write it: Kiyoko Yoshimura. I’m mostly referring to Dogs and Kurogane no Linebarrels, which I felt were quite some disasters in terms of adaptations. But then again, she seems to have learned since Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu and this time she’s not held back by original material so who knows and she might be a very good original screenwriter.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Phi Brain

Summary: “The anime revolves around a high school boy named Kaito who fights battles via puzzles with a mysterious intelligence group known as POG. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Sato Junichi
Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima
The Positives: You can say a lot about NHK, but here’s the thing with them: they refuse to air moe, they aren’t afraid to experiment with strange broadcast schedules (Hyouge Mono, Moshidora), they don’t care at all about recent trends and often offer educational material. Enter Phi Brain, which most likely seems to become everything that Spiral should have been. The thing with Sato Junichi is that when he does slice of life, he is really good, but when he does anything other than that, he becomes even better! This has the potential to become a very interesting series. Oh, and Mayori Sekijima: under a terrible director she produces Rio Rainbow Gate. Under a great director she writes Zegapain, Soultaker, Orphen and adapts Skip Beat.
The Negatives: So of course, there still is the possibility of Mayori Sekijima’s bad influences to show up.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Fate/Zero

Summary: “The Holy Grail War – A death-match between 7 magi (Masters) and their summoned heroic spirits (Servants) in which the prize is the legendary Holy Grail, said to have to power to grant miracles. This is now the 4th Holy Grail War. The 3 preceding Wars had ended without a victor. In pursuit of their individual goals and ambitions, the magi congregate at a place called Fuyuki. All the magi will do anything, rationalize away any atrocity, in pursuit of the Holy Grail. All of them, but one… Kotomine Kirei is a mage, but one without a reason to fight. Unable to release himself from the threads of fate, he is drawn reluctantly into this War. However, as fate would have it, one of his rival Masters turns out to be an old enemy, Emiya Kiritsugu, a man more severe and merciless than anyone else. A man who desires the miracles offered by the Holy Grail… “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Ei Aoki
Series Composition: Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (Music), Tomonori Sudo (Character Designs), Kouji Etou (Art Direction), Koujirou Shishido
The Positives: I watched the original Fate/Stay Night when it came out for just five episodes. After that, the characters and storytelling were just too uninteresting, to really continue with it. Fortunately though, it seems that Fate/Zero will be a prequel, you don’t need to have watched Fate/Stay Night to understand it and the staff behind it will be completely different. Ufo Table once were a mediocre studio, but they certainly have grown since they started with the Kara no Kyoukai movies, assembling an array of really interesting people to work with: Gen Urobuchi is a definite plus, and he’s bound to provide an interesting storyline. Yuki Kajiura also is awesome, and the CG direction will be done by a former independent film maker. This all sounds very interesting.
The Negatives: The only negative I can find at this moment is that Ei Aoki once directed Girls Bravo. But yeah: he too has changed a lot since then, and his work on the first Kara no Kyoukai movie and especially Hourou Musuko was very good.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Un-Go

Summary: “The main characters, Yuuki Shinjuurou and Inga, work together to solve mysteries in a near future timeline. The story is based on the works of Sakaguchi Ango (Aoi Bungaku Series’ “In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom”), a post-World War II Japanese novel and essayist. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Series Composition: Aikawa Shou
Other Notable Staff: Yun Kouga (Character Designs), Narasaki (Music)
The Positives: Now this is the Noitamina series to anticipate this season. Seiji Mizushima is a versatile director who didn’t just direct Full Metal Alchemist and Gundam OO, but also Ooedo Rocket, and Aikawa Shou is a terrific writer who also wrote Ooedo Rocket, Nadesico and Ayakashi Ayashi. The original writer being the guy who wrote In the Woods, Under Cherries in Full Bloom makes this even better. As a mystery fan, this is a must-watch for me. Oh, and the composer of the soundtrack of Paradise Kiss and Deadman Wonderland is also really good.
The Negatives: The only negative part I can see right now is that the character designer of Gundam OO might not have been the best choice for this series.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Towa no Quon – 01 Review – 75/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews



So, Towa no Quon has finally been released. I’m not sure whether I got the full version of the first of six movies, but I watched something of about forty minutes in length. And I will be honest here: a lot of hype went into Towa no Quon, and it has not lived up to that yet. I want to emphasis the word “yet”, because it does have potential, but this first movie cold have been better.

The promo art for this movie looked really good, and I’ll get to the actual production values below, but behind that lies a surprisingly mundane premise: we live in a world where people have superpowers. The good guys (who are mostly teenagers who have powers themselves) want to protect those people, while the bad guys want to… I guess either kill them or exploit their powers through force. It’s all deceptively cliched. The scenarios also did not bring any depth to this concept to this movie yet nor were there any hints, beyond a bunch of sad pasts.

On top of that, it also has fairly bland characters: most are one-dimensional, and even though there are a few adults amongst the good guys, they all stand in the shadows of the teenagers who go out and save the day. The acting is either unimpressive or rather annoying, and none of the characters stands out so far, aside from an obnoxiously nice main character. The villains are also not very intimidating and pretty incompetent at their jobs, not to mention the amount of techno-babble that pops up once in a while.

The storytelling, pacing and animation are very good though. This show may not have gotten a real movie budget, but it does have a number of really talented animators working on the action scenes, and they make the action scenes a feast for the eyes, with detailed movements, bold actions and excellent choreography. The soundtrack is also pretty good, and the movie was well paced, with few points that dragged on. Even shows with cliches can be great, and these are the ingredients that can actually make this work for Towa no Quon in the long run.

It’s also not that all of the characters have bland actors. There are a few characters here and there that look like they can become very interesting to watch over time. At the moment though, they’re a bit overshadowed by the bland ones. This movie series needs time. Can the upcoming five movies make use of that?

Storytelling: 8/10 – A well balanced movie with good build-up, though there’s too much techno babble.
Characters: 7/10 – It’s fine for the creators to hold back and all, but at the moment the characters are too bland and one-dimensional for a standalone movie.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Nothing special during the quiet scenes, awesome during the action scenes.
Setting: 7/10 – Potential is lurking, but for now it still is a bit too cliched.

Suggestions:
– Toward the Terra
– Crystal Blaze
– They Were 11

Rose of Versailles Review – 90/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




I obviously haven’t seen all of the anime that are out there, and this especially goes for the series that were made in the sixties and seventies, so the following statement should be taken with a grain of salt. But I’d actually wager that at the time that it aired (1979/1980), the Rose of Versailles was better than any other anime that had aired so far. Heck, it would probably take until the premiere of the Legend of Galactic Heroes for this series to leave the top 3 of best anime ever made. This statement is just based on my opinion and the stories that I’ve heard about LoGH, so this obviously shouldn’t be taken as a fact. But damn: this series really blew my mind.

The Rose of Versailles is another product from Osamu Dezaki. It’s perhaps not the series where his direction is the strongest. Instead, what sets this series apart is its plot, characters and setting as it chronicles the events leading up to the French Revolution. There are a ton of things to praise about this series.

Imagine this: most series only take place during a few years, at most. The Rose of Versailles takes place over twenty four years, starting at the point where Marie Antoinette arrives in France to become the future queen. There’s so much character development in this series because of this: you can really see the entire cast grow up and gradually change over time; the amount of character development in this series is really unbelievable. On top of that, the creators actually succeeded in making a great character out of Marie Antoinette: she’s one of the most important characters in the series and the creators did really well in making her sympathetic, yet still retaining her as the wildly irresponsible queen that she was. On top of that, we also have the main protagonist of this series, Oscar. Oscar was… amazing. Charismatic, ridiculously strong, independent and charismatic, and yet with plenty of flaws most notably her pride and with pretty much the best development out of the entire series. I’m not sure what it is with anime, France and cross-dressers, but this series explores every inch of her character.

The characters aren’t the only ones with top notch development. Just about the entire series is the same. It actually starts of like your typical shoujo series, full of sparkles, court politics, nobles, frills and pretty character designs, and only subtly gets darker and darker as the series goes on and the French Revolution draws nearer, up to the point where you really can’t call it shoujo anymore and it transcends genres.

The one criticism is that it has dated a bit, and it does tend to get a bit overdramatic at times: it’s a very theatrical series that has the characters overacting on purpose to get an as big emotional response, sometimes accompanied by those cheesy shoujo sound effects. Still, it’s not like the acting is bad here: the voice actors have an amazing range here, from wonderfully restraint to powerful and over the top. It works for the most parts really well, but there are times where it goes a bit too far in this.

Overall, if you’ve never seen any series from before 1985, the series that I’d recommend the most are the Rose of Versailles for a dark shoujo, Ie Naki Ko for its drama, The Mysterious Cities of Gold for a more innocent adventure. Most of the top series of those days are tests to your patience: Gundam is an endless string of battles and fights, Perrine Monogatari takes a really long time to set up its characters, and Votoms also takes a while to really get going and develop. The series of those days just didn’t have to worry about time constraints and there was much less competition, allowing to spend a lot more time to careful build-up. The three series above however are amazing, right from the start, and they continue to be so through their entire run. Even during the shoujo-esque start of the Rose of Versailles, there’s plenty to like and it only gets better as time goes on.

Storytelling: 9/10 – Amazing plot progression, excellent direction, excellent pacing, wonderful told.
Characters: 10/10 – 24 years worth of development. Just about every character develops significantly and memorably.
Production-Values: 8/10 – Obviously dated, but comparing it to other anime of it time and it starts to look really good and refined.
Setting: 9/10 – An amazing look at the events leading up to the french revolution. It’s not 100% accurate, but it definitely does try to be true to history.

Suggestions:
– Revolutionary Girl Utena
– Onii-Sama e
– Simoun

Showa Monogatari Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Showa Monogatari




Anime is dying? Hah. As long as series like Showa Monogatari keep getting released, I refuse to believe something like that. Showa Monogatary may have a few production issues, but I just have to praise the guts that the producers had to actually dare and release it. Here we have a series wit no moe, no bishies, zero fanservice, no pandering and no overblown action. Instead of aiming at teenagers, kids or otaku, Showa Monogatari is aimed at a 50+ audience, portraying the life of an ordinary family in 1964.

Now, this is a slice of life series, so it obviously isn’t for everyone, but I do have to warn people that it’s not what it seems at first sight, because this show has something very misleading about its premise: Kouhei, the rather annoying 9-year-old lead character. Because of him, this show will at first seem like a kids’ series where we see yet another coming of age story of a young boy growing up somewhere. This is not what this series is about, though.

Kouhei is just a member of the cast here. There are a number of episodes that revolve around him, but there are also plenty of episodes that don’t, and instead develop the rest of the cast: his older brother, sister, parents and grandmother. All of them together end up as a charming and down to earth family with real problems, challenges and characteristics. Every character in this series is flawed and this show actually does quite a good job to develop everyone.

This series does have its production issues, though. The animation is quite poor and the direction feels rather mellow throughout the entire series. The worst is Kouhei’s voice actor, though: this guy can’t act for the life of him, and will ruin any dramatic scene he’s involved in. It overall is a series that feels like the production was rushed, and that the creators didn’t get time to make everything click and mesh together, and present things well, because it’s very rough around the edges.

The problems that the cast face are very realistic, but at the same time the creators do force their drama. It’s again one of those cases that has a lot of flaws, yet does a number of other things right, because the cast here remains well developed. In the end though, it does lack a bit of staying power.

Storytelling: 8/10 – The direction could have been stronger, but this one is well balanced and very realistic.
Characters: 8/10 – Well developed cast, but sometimes very badly acted.
Production-Values: 8/10 – The animation is really jerky, but the background art is very accurate. It really feels like 50 years ago.
Setting: 8/10 – Very interesting premise, historically accurate and realistic. Very authentic.

Suggestions:
– Furusato Japan
– Rail of the Star
– Ushiro no Shoumen Dare

July Summary

by psgels, posted in Monthly Summaries

How good do I consider this season to be? Well, to put it like this: I’ve got eighteen series this season that I’d rate at 8,25/10 or higher. In other words, there are eighteen series that I really, really like airing at the same time. The last time such a thing happened was back in September of 2009, and this season we’ve only just started yet!

The main flaw of this season pretty much what has been the main flaw of every season for the past years: length. There are quite a few series that aren’t going t fit their stories in their allotted time, and there again are too few series that dare to go beyond 13 episodes. With the way that the anime sales have bloomed over the past years though, I really hope tat soon we’ll be able to say goodbye to this very annoying trend.

#33 (new) – Mayo Chiki – (2,75/10) – Now this was just horrible. Just one big excuse for cute girls and fanservice and nothing more. The premise is based around the entire cast being complete and utter morons, and it’s just another one of those really bad fanservice comedies that pop up every season. Ignore this one at all costs! Dropped.
#32 (new) – Manyuu Hiken-Chou – (3/10) – Look. I often tell fanservice shows to be a bit more creative. I have said before that I have nothing against creative fanservice that fits within the setting of the series. And yeah, I guess that Manyuu Hiken-Chou does get creative… but I DID NOT MEAN CREATING OUTRIGHT PORN!
#31 (new) – Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – (3,75/10) – What the hell happened here? I mean, the original OVA was decent: it was nothing special, but it had some nice morals and showed that being a mahou shoujo really isn’t as easy as it seems. Then this show comes along and it pretty much turns into a really stupid kaitou-busting show full of the most annoying moe antics and stereotypical characters. There’s nothing enjoyable about this: the characters just try to be as energetic as possible but completely forget to be entertaining or even remotely interesting! Dropped.
#30 (new) – Nyanpire – (4/10) – Unfortunately Gonzo’s first series in two years turned out to be Bad Gonzo. I mean, making a kids’ show is one thing, but this was just one huge commercial for a crappy J-Pop band who does the ED. The jokes are also completely unfunny: when I watch a comedy, I want to watch something that makes me laugh, not cringe! Dropped.
#29 (new) – Uta no Prince-Sama Maji Love 1000% – (4/10) – I prepared myself that this would be a campy series. But I never could have imagined the amount of stupidity and cheese that this show ended up delivering. Just about every character is hamming it up, and not to mention how ridiculously stupid the entire premise of this show is. I gave up at the point where the teachers actually forbade the characters to have any romances with each other. What the hell? Isn’t that why you’d want to watch this show in the first place? Dropped
#28 (19) – Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu – (4,25/10) – I’ve seen this one recommended quite a few times, but based on the first episode of the second season, I really don’t get the appeal. It’s just a show about a bunch of idiots and cute girls. I did not find anything even remotely funny about that one episode I watched, and it was a complete chore to sit through. Was that just me, or was it really a bad episode for this series to start with? Dropped.
#27 (new) – Rou Kyuu Bu! – (4,5/10) – This is bad. I mean, for starters we have a show about grade schoolers with a ton of fanservice, but the creators also succeeded in putting together the most obnoxious cast imaginable. The five lead girls all try to act as annoyingly moe as possible. On top of that though, it tries to have a serious story. Those parts don’t mesh! Dropped
#26 (new) – R-15 – (5/10) – Now, there are shows about idiots. Those idiots however completely pale in comparison to the characters in this series: this is the epitome of stupidity. It’s just a bunch of morons pretending to be geniuses filled with random fanservice. It’s nice to see how creative it can get with that for just one episode, but after that it just gets repetitive and actually tries to take itself seriously. There’s no way in which that’s going to work. Dropped.
#25 (new) – Morita-San wa Mukuchi – (6/10) – So, this is nothing but various sketches around a shy girl, nothing more. While I can understand where the creators are coming from, you can’t just base your entire series around this; it’s way too one-sided and forced. Not to mention the utterly poor direction of this thing.
#24 (new) – Yuruyuri – (6,5/10) – At first it looked to be different, but in the end Yuruyuri unfortunately turned out to be exactly what it says on the title: very unsubtle lesbian jokes. It started off pretty decent, but after only three episodes they ran out of inspiration and just kept going with dull lesbian and boob jokes. Dropped.
#23 (new) – The Idolm@ster – (7,25/10) – The Idolm@ster is tolerable, but after three episodes I have to wonder: what makes this show worth watching? The interesting direction of the first episode was immediately dropped, and instead every episode so far has focused on one of the different girls. The first two being the Kugimiya Rie Tsundere and the really shy girl who is afraid of men. The drama around them was weak (especially the one around the tsundere) and the rest of the side characters only used their airtime to just further establish the fact that they’re a bunch of walking cliches. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Nekogami Yaoyorozu – (7,25/10) – So, this show is tolerable. Aaand… that’s a bit of the problem here: yes, it’s better than most of the moe antics shows out there, but still it only gets a chuckle out of me every few minutes. There really are very few reasons to keep watching this series. Only go for this one if you’re really bored. Dropped.
#21 (new) – Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Uragi – (7,5/10) – Okay, so right before I went on my holiday, I wrote up a quick first impression for this series, and published it. At least, that’s what I thought happened, but that post got lost somehow, so that’s why there is no first impression of it. In any case, beyond being the series with the villain with the silliest name, Itsuten is a very cheesy romance show with a lot of angst and moe. Its story does have some potential, but the annoying moe antics, overacting and fanservice certainly aren’t helping its case at the moment.
#20 (new) – Sacred Seven – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Sacred Seven is that it could have been so much more: it’s an original story, it’s got an excellent director, an excellent scriptwriter, and what do they come with? A school emo mecha series. So far in the past four episodes, the emo part is what hurts this series the most: the characters just aren’t well fleshed out and because of that they feel rather unengaging. There are moments where it really shows to be exciting (most notably the second episode), but so at this rate it’s not going to be amongst the highlights of this season. It does have a very good OP, though
#19 (13) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10) – Oooohh…. what the hell happened to that thirteenth episode? I’ve been waiting for ages now and still nothing. This show has had by far the weirdest airing schedule I have ever seen. As for this month, only one episode aired, and in terms of script it was very good. Overall the cast has received quite a bit of depth by now. The bad part is that Kouhei’s voice actor really can’t act, which really hurt during the dramatic bits.
#18 (10) – Sket Dance – (8,25/10) – The music arc was a bit of a disappointment and it lacked the whimsy of the rest of the series, though the other episodes were as fun to watch as ever. This series is really at its best when it manages to stuff in its high amount of energy.
#17 (new) – Dantalian no Shoka – (8,25/10) – After watching Gosick, it is refreshing to see that the main character here actually has a retort to all of his female companion’s insults. Dalian still is smarter than he is, but at least he can have a normal conversation with her without sounding like an idiot. Overall the mysteries in this series need a bit of work, but the atmosphere is really good, and the animation is also quite impressive. Will this work with only 12 episodes, though?
#16 (new) – Blade – (8,25/10) – You know, after the way in which the X-Men turned into a disappointment, I kind-of wrote this series off. Especially when it showed that it had Madhouse’s acting problem again. It’s indeed a bit of a cheesy action series and all, but I don’t know. This series has something, I just can’t put my finger to exactly what. In either case it still has the potential to become the best Marvel series so far if it pulls through: it wisely spends a lot of time on both its main character and villain, and on top of that the side-characters all wisely avoid some of their biggest pitfalls: the female side-kick is useful without hogging over the screen, the enemy vampires pose a threat by killing people actually very often, the main character is bad-ass yet not overpowered. Oh, and this show follows a black vampire slayer in the middle of the Philippines. Thank you, Madhouse for really trying to go around the world instead of just keeping with the same base setting over and over again.
#15 (20) – Nurarihyon no Mago – (8,25/10)

A major improvement. The direction is snappier, the story is more interesting, the pacing moves along faster and the atmosphere is more varied. You can really see that a different staff is adapting this series this time, and alongside all the other flops of Studio Deen this year, it’s good to see that at least here they’re showing that they can still put out a good series.

#14 (new) – Ikoku Meiro no Croisée – (8,25/10)

This one turned out to be a series about cultural differences. It’s quite an interesting variation to the usual slice of life set-up, and I really have to praise Satelight for putting down a very authentic portrayal of France of a century ago. the background art in particular is just great. There are some problems in the character department (mostly because of one particularly annoying character), but overall it’s a heart-warming series so far,

#13 (6) – Hana-Saku Iroha – (8,25/10)

During the past month, Hana-Saku Iroha has been really good, but not as good as during June. This mostly is because the main cast didn’t receive that much attention and instead the side-cast was really well developed. What the next month needs to do is give the same treatment to the main cast.

#12 (new) – Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou – (8,25/10)

This series stands out because it had the best opening episode of the season amongst Penguin Drum. After that it dulled in a bit in order to focus on character building, but there still is a lot of potential here. It’s especially the dialogue that’s well written and the mysteries are well built up, but there are weaknesses. Some bad guys are just plain stupid, and it also has JC Staff-esque fanservice that is completely overused and often out of place.

#11 (new) – Blood-C – (8,25/10)

This show is definitely not for everyone, in top of being completely different in tone compared to the other parts of the blood franchise. It’s a simple series that really just planned to use its first four episodes to build up its atmosphere, but I really like it so far. The atmosphere works, the fight scenes are just completely amazing, and I’m really eager to get to the point where this show starts off for real. The big potential pitfall is that there will be too much build-up, but so far it’s heading into the right direction.

#10 (new) – Usagi Drop – (8,5/10)

This one’s by far the most realistic show of the season. It chronicles how hard it is to take care of a young child, without exaggerating this. There’s a good backstory due to the strange family construction that this series takes place in and the dialogue is all wonderfully down to earth.

#9 (12) – Ao no Exorcist – (8,5/10)

At this point, I’m really watching Ao no Exorcist for the characters: they’ve grown into a lovable bunch with excellent chemistry and the relationships between them are all really well done. So yeah it’s a shounen series, with its share of cliches, but that’s not important here at all.

#8 (11) – Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji – (8,5/10)

The past month has been a lot of build-up, but the tension was still very high and it was very entertaining to watch. There were times at which it took a bit long to get to its point, like with the old guy episode, but it’s not like we’re back to the really slow pacing of the first season. Now all that’s left is to wait whether or not it’s actually going to pay off.

#7 (new) – Kamisama Dolls – (8,5/10)

This turned out to be a very enjoyable and action-packed thriller. It’s all well directed and balanced, alternating between action, drama, comedy and horror quite nicely and while it does have some fanservice cliches, it’s got an intriguing and nicely fleshed out cast of characters and the exciting parts of this series are really delivering so far.

#6 (new) – No.6 – (8,5/10)

Excellent music, excellent animation, excellent characters and an excellent setting. No.6 is a very solid adventure series with strong, constantly evolving characters in an interesting setting. There’s only one problem with this show, but it is a really big one: the length! There’s no way in which 11 episodes is going to be the right number for this one.

#5 (12) – Natsume Yuujinchou – (8,75/10)

The third season of Natsume Yuujinchou has had a wonderful start. Somehow, the creators actually managed to make it increasingly better with every single episode. The atmosphere is still really soothing, yet the stories it tells are strong and well thought out. It’s still a heart-warming story and what’s more: Natsume’s development is really kicking in now. It’s been a major theme of this third season and every episode seems to contribute to it in one way or another.

#4 (2) – Hyouge Mono – (8,75/10)

This was a month for the plot to progress for Hyouge Mono: a lot of changes have been made, a lot of characters have developed, and risen up in ranks, giving a completely different feel to the series. On top of that, Sasuke is just as eccentric as he’s ever been, and this series is giving him more and more incentives to show that eccentricity. It’s still a rock-solid series with amazing acting and characterization that obviously isn’t for everyone.

#3 (new) – Mawaru Penguin Drum – (8,75/10)

This is good. It’s by var the best series of the new season. The direction is wild, vivid and detailed with all kinds of references of which you’ll never know whether they’re symbolism or foreshadowing. The characters are great, the chemistry between them is awesome, the story is imaginative. Just about everything works here.

#2 (4) – Steins;Gate – (9/10)

What a plot! This month Steins;Gate really revealed how much thought went into its plot and narrative structure, and it was glorious. There are so many questions that it’s asking and the time travel plot is now really hitting some high notes with all of the interconnected twists and turns it takes.

#1 (9) – Tiger & Bunny – (9/10)

At this point, Tiger & Bunny has become bloody brilliant. Every episode has delivered an amazing story that gave a ton of development to the main cast, the main storyline has gotten better and better, and just about every character ended up more enjoyable to watch.

Mahoujin Guruguru Review – 80/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Ah, the nineties: a time where you still could make huge series based on a simple premise that aren’t kiddie shows. Mahoujin Guruguru couldn’t possibly have been made in today’s age: it’s a non-stop series of 45 episodes, devoted to nothing but RPG-parodies. And this review doesn’t even include the 38-episode sequel that aired six years later.

Let me tel you one thing about this series though: the jokes in Mahoujin Guruguru are quite brilliant. It may be that I’m a big fan of parodies and all, but even taking that into account I have to praise at how creative this series can get with its gags. This series is sharp, witty and has a great time poking fun at all kinds of RPG cliches. It goes far further than just having characters act silly or have them engage in quirky banter: this show is always looking for situations to make actual good and well thought out jokes and clever situations. This is definitely the biggest selling-point for this series.

The length also allows the creators to tell an engaging storyline that brings the characters to all kinds of places and worlds. The storyline here is pretty simple (bad guy evil. kill him), but the various subplots and side characters keep this series moving. There’s even a bit of character development, albeit nothing special, although it remains a nice twist to see that the creators actually used the RPG leveling-system for the two lead characters.

With the length also come a number of problems, though. The jokes of Mahoujin Guruguru are really good, but it does not have enough material for 45 episodes. The result? Running jokes and repetition, while refusing to repeat jokes that had the potential to be even funnier with more fleshing out. It’s not like this series suddenly features a dip in quality along the way: it’s pretty consistent with alternating its good jokes with its overused jokes and its jokes that just don’t work. That doesn’t prevent that from really weighing down on this series.

the mostt notable of the overused running jokes is the old man. This guy. This guy is beyond obnoxious: he will do everything in his power to annoy both the viewer and the characters. And he just. refuses. to. freaking. quit. In the same way there are a few more jokes that are used way too much, and on top of that there are a number of episodes that just aren’t interesting. I’d say: cut this thing down to about 30 to 35 episodes and you’d have a classic.

Right now, this series is fun, but long-winded. On one hand you don’t want to watch this if you’re looking for something exciting, because the good jokes are just a tad too far in between compared to today’s standards. If you want to watch a laid-back series and don’t care about time though, then this is a great recommendation for light-hearted fun. Most shows that claim to be just light-hearted fun hardly have anything that makes them worth watching. Guruguru however has plenty of them.

Storytelling: 9/10 – This show has aged: its pacing is a tad too slow for today’s standards. In terms of the joke department though, this is really, really good.
Characters: 8/10 – There is character development, but again: this is small for the standards of a 45-episode series. Then again though, it does have quite a likable cast that are fun to watch throughout the entire series. WITH a number of exceptions, though.
Production-Values: 7/10 – Again: dated. Very simple graphics and animation that doesn’t make use of this. Good Monster designs, though.
Setting: 8/10 – Has a ton of fun poking, subverting, averting and analyzing the RPG-genre.

Suggestions:
– Kero Kero Chime (This is what I’m talking about with more compact: the characters are a tad more annoying, but it is shorter and its good jokes to unfunny jokes ratio is a lot higher)
– Mysterious Cities of Gold

Yona Yona Penguin Review – 82,5/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews




Rintarou. He’s one of my favourite movie directors, only surpassed by Satoshi Kon (and perhaps Hayao Miyazaki, but that’s more because Hayao Miyazaki is incredibly consistent, while Rintarou most definitely isn’t). Yona Yona Penguin was his latest work, so I’ve been wanting to check it out for a long time, but it just didn’t show up anywhere. After watching it, I can sort of understand why: it’s a kids’ movie that’s completely different from any other series he has directed or worked on, and entirely in 3D CG. I really liked it, though.

Now, Yona Yona Penguin is neither nowhere near Rintarou’s best nor his worst work. It is merely a whimsical really young kids adventure: the main character is around six or seven years old, and the entire movie has this mentality. It doesn’t try to be anything other than that (a mistake that actually a number of other movies of this genre did make, like Haruka and the magic mirror for example), and just focuses on delivering a heartfelt and adorable adventure. And succeeds.

Let me get this out of the way here: Yona Yona Penguin is absolutely adorable. The main character runs, jumps and dances around the entire movie in a penguin coat. The soundtrack is as whimsical as the premise of this movie and only makes her even more fun to watch. She’s really just an innocent child who likes to play around, yet also is serious enough to know when not to goof off and continue on with the plot of the movie. A plot that seems simple at first, but becomes surprisingly heartfelt after a while due to a number of simple but interesting twists.

Rintarou’s experience also really helps during the finale of this movie. I mean, you shouldn’t expect anything as amazing as Metropolis or anything, but nevertheless the climax of this movie is beautiful wonderfully atmospheric. This is something where a lot of other movies don’t know how to deliver, but here it’s the highlight of the entire movie.

It’s a kids’ movie, but if you’re looking for something really innocent, then this fits the bill. Just know that it’s entirely based on kids’ logic: it’s not supposed to be logical…

Storytelling: 9/10 – Ah, why not? This has a childish innocence that a lot of other kids’ movies and series lack, and even during the dramatic parts, it never lets go of this innocence.
Characters: 8/10 – They’re kids, and the characters feel like kids. At first they’re simple, but the movie gives main cast some surprising depth.
Production-Values: 8/10 – 3D CG entirely, which doesn’t look as good as regular 2D animation, but it still has a number of gorgeous scenes. The soundtrack is also really excellent.
Setting: 8/10 – Actually a ton of creativity went into this, from the backgrounds to the world it’s set in. It’s imaginative, yet retains its simplicity.

Suggestions:
– Andersen Monogatari
– Swan Lake
– Metropolis

Precure All-Stars DX3 – Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai o Tsunagu Niji-Iro no Hana Review – 65/100

by psgels, posted in Anime Reviews, Heartcatch Precure




So, because of Heartcatch Precure I’m doomed to watch every All Stars Precure from now on until eternity, just to see more of Tsubomi, Erika, Itsuki and Yuri, even though they’re all pretty bad movies. Imagine this: a movie with 21 main characters. To give an indication of how incredibly crowded this is: it took this movie three minutes and twenty seconds to get through the transformation scenes of everyone. There was like… no end in sight to them!

What’s more is that the Precure Franchise has always been very clingy to its own formula. What this means for this movie is that it’s pretty much the same as the previous All Stars movie. The general plot outline in any case is like an exact copy. Heartcatch Precure solved this with really good characters, animation and storytelling. This movie however… yeah.

With 21 main characters plus a truckload of mascot characters that gets a bit hard if you refuse to stay with the same formulaic premise. Usually stories just pick four or five characters and give those some depth, but even that doesn’t happen here: the main characters from Suite Precure just get a few more lines, that’s all. Apart from that, everyone is equal. And equally bland if you haven’t seen the series they belong to.

I will say this, though: this third movie IS better than the first. The animation is more creative for one, but it actually does attempt some serious drama other than “bad guys evil. Kill them again”. It doesn’t pick out any characters to focus on, but instead it goes with a theme that everyone can relate to: partnerships. These themes are explored without any subtleties at all (even going as far as to make Heartcatch’s Erika act out of character just for the sake of getting its message through), and its messages are really obviously shallow, but at least it gives the movie more of a structure than what happened with the second movie. Oh, and the ending is a Deus ex Machina ending. That doesn’t help either.

Aside from that, this is a very bright, flashy and colourful movie. Flashes, beams and sparkles are incredibly abound, and this all happens with a huge amount of fluidity. The interesting thing however is that this movie really leaves things to be desired in terms of hand to hand combat: it looks gorgeous during the long-distance fights, but when characters actually need to touch each other the animation resorts to shortcuts, still frames and awkward cuts. This leads me to think that Toei put a ton of money and talented animators on this thing, but left things to be desired on the animation direction and production.

Now, I do wonder about the point of these movies. Of course it’s fun to watch your favourite characters all together in a movie. I get that. But the first precure series is already seven years old by now. That’s older than actually some of its fans and the franchise’s target audience. I mean, there’s a reason why Disney re-releases its movies every seven years: there are going to be so many kids who wonder who the heck the older characters are. And this movie is purely fanservice. It’s not like it’s doing a good job introducing the characters to people unfamiliar to them or anything. This movie was entertaining. I give it that. But not much more, unfortunately.

Storytelling: 7/10 – At least it’s mildly fun and the action is good to watch, but it depends way too much on its own formula.
Characters: 6/10 – You’re going to have to put in effort to make a story with 21 main characters work. The characters who ended up stand out the most to me are actually the exposition mascots!
Production-Values: 8/10 – Really, really flashy, sparkly and beamy with often fluid animation, but leaves things to be desired on the hand-to-hand combat.
Setting: 5/10 – Forgets some of the things it introduces, brings characters out of characters, completely contrived set-up.

Suggestions:
– Heartcatch Precure Movie – Hana no Miyako de Fashion Show… desu ka?
– Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva
– Digimon Movie 2 – Bokura no War Game

Some Quick First Impressions: Dantalian no Shoka

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Dantalian no Shoka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious detective girl.
Aaand the last series to debut this season… also is really good. Holy crap, I can’t believe the amount of awesome seasons this season. Dantalian no Shoka is the third of the Gosick series this year, where a guy and a genius detective girl work together. The thing is, that it’s surprisingly well executed. Gosick, Kami-Sama no Memo-Chou and Dantalian no Shoka are all based on the same premise, but their execution is completely different. The most notable parts of Dantalian are its visuals, and the main couple. With Gosick, one of the big problems was that Kujou was an idiot, while Victorique was a genius: they were no match for each other when they were just solving a case. In Dantalian no Shoka, the two leads feel equal. Sure, the girl is smarter than the guy, but the guy certainly is no idiot, and actually a very likable airplane pilot, who simply isn’t a genius. He’s not overwhelmed by the girl, and neither is the girl a complete Hikkikomori who lets others do the work of gathering clues for her. It’s much more balanced this way. Now, as for the visuals: Gainax definitely did some interesting stuff with them, in the veins of “screw conventions”. The action scenes look gorgeous and very imaginative for once, but they also weren’t afraid to hide the fact that they used life-action images. Both for backgrounds, and for slideshows. It actually fits well, it’s used well, and it gives this series a unique look.
ED: Whoa, surprisingly good. Entirely life-action film and images, but a great mysterious atmosphere that works really well.
Potential: 85%

Some Quick First Impressions: Manyuu Hiken-Chou, R-15 and Nekogami Yaoyorozu

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Manyuu Hiken-Chou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs away from her village which cuts the breasts out of women.
Okay. Wtf did I just watch? I knew that Manyuu Hiken-Chou’s premise would be ridiculous and all, but this was just completely stupid in every single way. A world in which everything is dictated by breasts? Okay, you have to give this show credit for actually going for such a premise and all, but these are the kinds of shows where you wonder: why aren’t the creators just going for straight-out porn? Why is it still pretending to be anything other than that? The parts where it tries to be serious were also completely ridiculous due to the context in which it all played. This one was worth a laugh for how ridiculous it gets, but it’s not like it’s well written or anything: the action is dull (the creators put more effort into breast movement than actual animated action scenes), the characters are all complete and uninteresting stereotypes. It’s just porn: it’s got boobs (or at least, the uncensored version will. This was also an onslaught of white stripes), watch it if you’re horny or something. Apart from that, don’t bother with it.
OP: At least it’s a bit upbeat, but it’s still very uninspired.
ED: Again a dull ballad.
Potential: 0%

R-15

Short Synopsis: Our lead character writes porn novels.
So… this actually wasn’t the worst show this season. It’s not as vapidly uninspired as Mayo Chiki or Rou Kyuu Bu. It was, however, by far the dumbest show I have seen this season so far. It’s like, the entire cast of this series comprises of morons trying to be geniuses, not to mention the huge amounts of things that are just wrong with the setting here (if you didn’t know this yet: this show is about a school full of geniuses, where the main characters’ talent is writing porn novels). The series realizes that it’s got this completely nonsensical premise, and just roles with it. The result is a ton of bad fanservice, bad acting, uninspired animation and character designs, a dull soundtrack and completely one-dimensional characters, but at least it’s trying to be creative. It’s still among the top 5 worst series this season, but I did expect this to be a lot worse, actually.
OP: Dull and generic J-Pop.
ED: Again, dull and generic J-Pop.
Potential: 15%

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a youkai who lives together with people.
This turned out to be a laid-back comedy in an overcrowded genre: cute girls doing cute stuff while talking to each other a lot. Having said that though, this probably was among the better versions to come out. For once, the dialogue doesn’t just feel like random banter, but actually tries to go somewhere. There also are a lot of flashbacks, and this episode did try to establish its characters a bit versatile and especially the main character is a likable snarker. These aren’t the type of characters who you get sick of after a few minutes. They’ve got good chemistry and this might actually work with a good combination between random adventures, slice of life and comedy. The key is not having this show repeat itself.
OP: The copy paste OP again.
ED: Nothing special either.
Potential: 70%