Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Masou Gakuen HxH

Short Synopsis: The world is on the brink of collapse and the only thing that can save it is tits and ass.

It really is something when upon starting an episode, I needed to stop watching and check whether I accidentally downloaded a hentai. Well the premise is that the girls of this show have super powerful mecha weapons which are needed to save the world from giant flying skeletons. However the only way to recharge these weapons is for them to go into a room with the MC and have some foreplay till the girl climaxes. Believe me I am not embellishing that point in the slightest. It is quite literally what they are doing and there’s hints that if the main has sex with them they will gain some sort of superweapon. You stay classy anime. Well we could call this sexist but at least the sexism goes both ways. The main is literally objectified here as he’s passed around like a battery charge pack. Either way this is a special kind of trashy which can only be enjoyed if you have the lowest expectations and find enjoyment in the lowest demographic aiming shows. I suppose animators need work and have to start somewhere, even if that somewhere is a place which you primary job is figuring out how much boob jiggle should be in a shot. I would give this show a break if it looked like it was somewhat self aware of it’s own trashiness, much like High school DxD. However here doesn’t seem to be the case and is more a calculated meshing of tired tropes to get the most sales possible. The sad fact is that if anyone is to blame, it’s the masses of people who still buy this tripe.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I know it’s a matter of time before I encounter one of this in my review life: a truly fan-service garbage show. Let’s talk a bit about my relationship with ecchi anime – the main reason why I tend to stay away from ecchi shows isn’t because it’s rubbish (though most of them are) or because it’s perverted, but I don’t really get the appeal of big boobs and panties, which ecchi shows so obsessed about. Here in this episode, fortunately there is no panty, but again a lot of boobs – big boobs. Well, for this kind of shows, I guess we need to just shut our minds off and be entertained, and even in that regards the show failed too. The plot was more of a set up for the characters to hook up, and when they do, it’s just a series of groping, touching, opening parts… and there seem to be literally a line of big boob archetypical girls, each has their own body-builds (with big boobs), waiting in line to be “charged up”. Ecchi shows could be intriguing (most notably First Time’s Yamada or Mysterious Girlfriend X), mainly because they have something to say about their subjects. This show as far as I can see was just there to please the eyes by showing off boobs as much as possible.

Potential: minus 69% (it has to be 69, right? RIGHT?)

 

Tsukiuta. The Animation

Short Synopsis: A girl sends her brother to an idol event to pick up merchandise.

Alright Idol shows, rule number one. Do not just have the idols introduce themselves one after another as a means of letting the audience know who they are. We forget all their names by the time the scene ends. And this isn’t helped by the fact that you just have far too many of them. All these idols and it feels like the character traits are spread so thin than you could swap two characters personalities and I am not sure anyone would notice. Anyway the story here is a simple one, a boy is sent to an idol event by his sister and ends up unknowingly hanging out with his sisters favorite idol. He returns home and his sister is shocked to find out and starts bugging him for details. My guess is we will be getting episodic stories like this for each idol member but I just see no reason to continue watching. If you want a male idol show I say B-project is a better alternative. Or if they don’t have to be idols, Cheer boys is a much better show.

Potential: 10%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Ouch, another male idol show. While watching this, my mind keeps wandering on Mr. Osomatsu first airing episode about its humorous take on male idol show. You know, updating their plain characters to become beautiful sexy male dolls and you will win fan all over. As I can see in this episode I can feel that joke stays true. As far as this first episode, the production and the characters are passable but there is no personality in any of it, be it the two groups or any of the character (and there are 12 of the, in total); even the plot and the art designs playing too safe into its niche audience that the whole thing is just plain. This episode focuses on one specific member of the group and he’s nice, too nice, that his personality comes off as thin as paper. In other note, the 3D dancing that bookended this episode doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of the show. Seriously, while all around this is a standard show, it plays too safe to be nice and inoffensive that as a result offers no personality at all. All that makes me wonder why they trying to adapt it in a first place.

Potential: 10%

 

Fate Kaleid Liner PRISMA ILLYA 3rei!!

Short Synopsis: Illya gets thrown into a parallel world after her friend is captured by mysterious villains.

Well we have a fourth season of this show and I like that it seems things are going to be taken more seriously by Silver link this time. For one we have new character designs which remove the more deformed look of the first three seasons in favor of a style closer to the manga which I greatly appreciate. Shirou is the one who is most improved with this change as his old design looked far too off. Animation looks to have gotten a boost too as that snowy landscape looks quite stunning. I would like to bring up Sapphires original japanese voice actress who sadly died last year due to a viral infection. Rest in peace. I hope her new voice actress can honor her memory. For the most part half of this episode was basically retconning the original ending Sliver Link gave the last season and putting it back into manga adaption territory. The transition could have been better but all things considered it’s not a bad way to get back on track. Could have done without the extra scenes with Illyas classmates though. On that note I look forward to the fact that this will likely be the last I see of these school friend characters and thank god for that. Goodbye you representatives of all the worst parts of Zwei! So far I say this looks quite promising and it looks like Silver link are giving their all to this. So I am game.

 

Potential: Unbiased rating: 60%, Biased rating: 9001%
Mario’s thoughts: I will not review this one as this is a sequel.

Servamp

Short Synopsis:  A guy who finds out that the kitten he brought home is a shut-in servant vampire (hence servamp)

Ugh, the comedy is even worse in animated form. We have a shout till it’s funny comedy mixed with a rather run of the mill shounen style setup. One of the characters even mocks the main for acting like a “Shounen hero”. But as I said before, referencing that you are using old tired concepts does not excuse using old tired concepts. Other than that I don’t really have much to say, this is mediocre and that’s it. Animation isn’t noteworthy and the characters I find are just a bit too reliant on their comedy to carry them. It’s all just rather meh. Well to give it some props, the opening is refreshingly different.

Potential: 10%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

As we get to halfway of this season’s first week, Servamp appropriately sits somewhere in the middle of the crowd too. The story about the boy and the vampire form a contract to bond with each other in a master/servant relationship (in a way like Koyomi and Shinobu’s bond in Monogatari series) is an okay premise, but nothing stands out either (thanks god though it’s not a FEMALE vampire). The contrast between the two leads makes for nice exchanges between them, but we have seen that kind of pair before. The main bad guy this week sadly behaves way too loud and plain. In addition, the way our main guy taking all the works by himself because “someone has to do it, it will be troublesome to fight over it” to be implausible as well, because it just makes him more like an anime character than a real person. The fighting sequence is short and stylish but still doesn’t offer enough catch. At the end of the day I don’t see any element in this episode that would make me wanting to return to.

Potential: 20%

 

Scared Raider Xechs

Short Synopsis: A group of boys must turn into power rangers to fight off an alien threat.

This started on a rather sophisticated note before falling into a pit with that opening scene. Let me say first that this show takes its premise far too seriously. We opened up with a group taking out some sort of superweapon much to a man’s dismay. The man claimed the woman in charge would get more than fired over it and is then promptly shot by the woman herself. Barely five minutes in and we have a plothole. So taking out a superweapon is unacceptable but taking out a superweapon and shooting the man who objected is completely alright? But hey, that’s not important, what is important is that acoustic guitar guy can’t transform into hero mode for some reason. Let me say this Show, don’t rip off Gurren Lagann’s design esthetic and use it for a throwaway comic relief character. That is wrong on all levels. Anyway whatever serious atmosphere this story was trying to build is broken upon the reveal of what this is. Basically this boy group transform into power rangers with outfits so utterly silly looking that I laughed out loud at first sight of them. I can’t really see this being all that worthwhile as no one in the male cast really stands out and the story follows a predictable path. It’s just fairly unremarkable.

Potential: 5%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I’ll have to give this one my praise for having balls to start the show with the main character playing acoustic song, as the song dominates the first few minutes of the episode, which personally I find it a brilliant idea. The rest of the show, unfortunately, comes down to a very generic mecha show and not even a good one at that. The pacing is all over the place as we had the first 3 scenes (the main guy character playing guitar, the antagonist who takes control of the “thing”, the new girl in town) with 3 different settings and 3 different tones. When the show in high school kids mode, the comedy don’t land and the characters fall flat. When they switch into mecha/sci-fi settings they talk about “important stuffs” that I don’t even understand a thing they’re saying. And a main guy suddenly gains his ability, in a process saving an important girl is a kind of story that has been used many times before.

Potential: 10%

 

Cheer Boys!!

Short Synopsis: Two former Judo club members try to from a men’s cheerleading club.

Colour me surprised. After all seeing so many episodes this season with an all male cast which look to be aiming for the female demographic which just fall so short, this turned out to have quite a bit of merit. The chemistry between the male leads is excellent and they play off each other well. I particularly like the glasses guy as he really isn’t what I expected at first glance and he’s pretty perfect comic relief. I can’t say I have much interest in cheerleading as the only real interaction I had with it is Elite Beat Agents for Nintendo DS. To be perfectly honest I don’t really see the point of it as to me it looks like really strenuous gymnastics for just a breather in the middle of a match. But naturally this anime will make it look like the most amazing thing in existence, though I appreciate that they didn’t go too over the top in showcasing it. I am also so glad that it’s a college setting instead of a school setting. It’s just so refreshing after nearly every episode this season is in a school setting. It really wears on you. Though regardless of how well executed it is there is still the problem of it just not being my kind of show. Though I must admit that I am somewhat curious to continue watching as this show does have merit even for those not of the target demographic.

Potential: 60%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Well, talking about perception! At first glance, the show has many factors that I normally try to avoid: the all-male cast, the group-forming storyline, and the cheerleading itself on top of all that. I admit I was hesitant to watch it, but this one turns out to be one of the most solid first episode I saw so far this season. For those of you who don’t know, cheerleading is officially a gymnastic section in some countries (I know Australia does), so it is indeed a sport. But what makes cheerleading so different than other kind of sport is that it is also about performing arts (in that sense, cheerleading is also in the same categories with acting or singing), all that’s makes cheerleading a very tricky but interesting sport to talk about. Now to the actual show, the great part of this first episode is not about how the boys selling us that cheerleading is magic (a usual pitfall for any sports series), but by focus on how they want to experience something new, and it happens to be cheerleading. They also handle many things right, like how the show understands the pressure of being in the sports family and the feeling that you are not born for the sports. But most notably it is how the show portrays the close friendship between the main leads. It always seems like they understand each other’s way of thinking without saying out loud and they are pretty fond of each other. This closeness is showed by many little details like the roof sequences or their small exchanges about the house. Cheerleading Boy might likely to put people off because it seems to target a specific demographic, but try watch it because there’s a lot of potential in this show.

Potential: 50%

Taboo Tattoo

Short Synopsis: A boy is given a magical tattoo by a man who clearly doesn’t care about his well being.

I can certainly tell this got the short straw when it comes to the animation budget as this is very cheap animation even by JC staff standards. You may be looking at this statement with a puzzled look as on the surface this anime looks like it’s fine. In fact the fight animation in the middle of the episode was quite dynamic. But I ask you to take a closer look, they try to cover it up with digital effects but the amount of movement in this show is utterly barren. Keep an eye on how often a character moves their body and you will find that a majority of the scenes in this episode were just still pictures with moving lips. With some camera zooms and digital movement of still images to try and fool you otherwise. Well that aside what’s here isn’t all that noteworthy. That one fight scene was good but this is pretty by the book shounen in all other regards. I said the same thing about Hero Academia last season but this is to a much higher degree. There’s very little in this episode that you haven’t already seen before in dozens of other shounen. The story feels lazy in that regard, particularly in how it handles it’s exposition so clunky. I say this isn’t worth your time.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Already in this first episode, there are so much “coincidences” that it becomes jarring. The main character happens to help a guy who has a secret weapon. The next morning, he happens to meet a girl who knows about that tattoo. In the climax they happen to encounter the randomly guy who happens to be their target as well. This is just weak storytelling, and judging from the main character’s name “Justice”, I don’t think this show attempt to take their characters seriously. Even worse is the comedy, most notably the sequence where the main girl drinks milk like a cat: the whole sequence is awkward and the pacing is just plain out of place. We even have the side character who has big boobs and totally has a feeling for the guy to the point wants to cook for him. Such character tropes are so overdone that they immediately turn me off. The main storyline about the nature of the tattoo is the only plus point from this episode, oh and Justice’s natural fighting style (which is not some random fight but a for me look like a real martial art); but even in that respect I don’t think it will be anything worth remembering.

Potential: 10%

 

Puzzle and Dragons Cross

Short Synopsis: A boy finds a dragon egg and is pulled into a fight alongside someone who controls dragons.

Well this is an anime based on a Phone app with is essentially Bejeweled mixed with Pokemon. In that regard it’s pretty much expected that the end result of an anime base on it feels so reminiscent of the start of the likes of Pokemon, digimon, monster rancher, take your pick. One particular aspect that annoys me is that it holds the same annoyance of the monster doing all the hard work while the owner plays Pokemon trainer and steals all the glory despite doing practically nothing. Well he does stand back and play bejeweled to power up his dragon so maybe he does a little more than nothing. I also think it’s cheap to reuse the animation at the start of the episode again before the end. Either way, our main character hold the tradition of having ridiculous hair(The show is called cross and the main has a visible cross in his hair. Just in case you forgot the title.) and likely a pedigree ancestry seeing as he’s already special despite having done nothing to earn it. Lets face it, we are all a bit too old to be watching this. Maybe back in the old days when I watched Pokemon,(Ugh…my terrible embarrassing memories with that series.) if this was airing alongside it I would give it a watch. However now, frankly there are better shows worth my time.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Well, don’t have really much to say about this one really. While I don’t say I wasted those 20 minutes there’s nothing to stand out either. The main character is destined to be “the One” so much that he already well-liked by almost everyone and seems almost like a superhuman, even before his dragon comes out of its egg. The fight scene is so-so and more of Yugioh card fight (which is understandable since this one based on card games as well). I’ll say if you a fan of this game, or if you like Yugioh, this one is for you. Other people won’t see any reason to spend time with it.

Potential: 0%

 

New Game

Short Synopsis: Cute girls doing cute things show, this time they are in game company and start to make a new game.

Meh. Too much cute girl antics, too little industry insight. Call me ignorant if you wish but I highly doubt there’s a game company with an all female workforce like this. These people act less like human beings and more like exaggerated anime characters. True they are anime characters but I am not supposed to see them as anime characters. These are the kind of people you see in a sitcom whom seem almost aware of the existence of a watching party and act as quirky as possible to entertain. The comedy is a miss for me as it’s more the 4 koma style of various one note jokes. Their isn’t really much meat in regards to game production and I suspect that’s going to remain the case for the rest of the series. I hope they don’t drag out things by relying too heavily on the characters quirks for the comedy as that often gets repetitive. It’s fairly watchable but not noticeable, if you want to add another show to your schedule you can certainly do worse.

Potential: 25%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I’m kinda curious to see how the team makes their game, and it seems to be the series main plot (I get some of Shirobako’s vibe here), but for this first episode, not a lot has happened beside the new girl get to know everyone working in the company (is it just this company or Japanese game companies just employ female hey?). The cast is variation of cute, cuter, cutest with each of them has their cute quirk (shy to the point of prefer messaging instead of talking; a girl who loves Star Wars) and they act just like how anime characters would act, meaning that they never feel like real people.On the other hand, I’ll say that I have an enjoyable time, the show is safe and light on character’s development and occasionally fun but I don’t think this will be a great show. I will give it more watch just to see how they get on with the game.

Potential: 35%

Amaama to Inazuma

Short Synopsis: A father wants to learn how to cook to make his daughter happy.

This is one of those shows, the ones you watch on a rainy day after being stressed out at work/school and too tired to stomach something that requires more attention. This is fluff but it’s good fluff. If you can get past the rather ridiculous hair for the little girl you have a show about a single father and his adventures in cooking for his daughter. While watching I found myself relaxing and smiling as I watched the father and daughter interact. The two have some excellent chemistry and their dialogue never comes off as forced or unnatural. Luckily the food tasting isn’t over exaggerated like that of other shows about food and the characters are good. The biggest negative I can say is that it’s not the kind of show you will rave over or put you on the edge of your seat. Rather more of a soft pillow to take a break in between shows. In regards to that I say this could be a good watch for tired minds.

Potential: 80%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

By formula, the show is Bunny Drop in ways more of eating and cooking together. The two shows have the same plotline of single father (or father’s figure) learn how to raise a child on his own, but if I put it that way I’d sell this one short. Yes, this show’s about a father tries his best to raise his daughter, and determines to spend more time cooking to make his daughter happy; but the central theme here, as clearly shown in this first episode, is about their relationship. And their relationship is one of the most natural and real in anime. They’re a bunch of likeable people, and Tsumugi charms her way through very natural and spot on behaviors. This first episode also succeeds on showing subtle emotions from each cast (like the way Tsumugi sings her favorite song, and asks her father to sing it with her), making them lively and true to life. This is such a pleasant watch and I believe it would be a solid low-key show to follow.

Potential: 80%

 

Fukigen na Mononokean

Short Synopsis: A boy hires a student exorcist to get rid of a Youkai that’s clinging to him.

Welcome to Natsume’s book of friends School life edition. Not sure how else I can put it other than that. This series carries a lot of similarities with it in being about helping Youkai and having a somewhat episodic structure. Is it better than Natsume? Truly I don’t know as i didn’t really find Natsume all that interesting. I think I just don’t like the concept of Youkai as I find them more silly than intimidating. I think this episode manages to be a great adaption of the manga and animation seems suited to it. I can see others taking quite a liking to this show if you are fond of shows such as Mushishi or stories dealing with sympathising with supernatural beings. If it feel on one front I say I am not too fond of the comedy which seems too slapstick for the nature of the series. If it’s your thing I think you will enjoy it quite a lot so I guess just try it out and see for yourself.

Potential: 60%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I’m surprised to say I enjoy watching its first episode, but at the same time I have my doubt on it. It’s simply because most of elements that I enjoy in this episode is going to be one-off. The yokai this week is the real star of course and I like the gag where Ashiya passes out at school and wakes up in nurse’s office. The comedy is spot on so far and I mildly interested in the main concept: about Ashiya and Abeno and how they exorcise the yokai monsters. But the elements that going to be prominent are sadly just not as interesting and predicable. The chemistry between the two leads is just average. They’re still nothing more than their archetypical role and putting them on the same class is as cliché as hell (pun intended). Moreover, the way this week’s yokai even has more emotional complex than our two leads is not a good sign. The show has my curiosity so far, but it needs to do more than this to get my full attention.

Potential: 50%

 

Tales of Zestiria the X

Short Synopsis: A queen deals with the world’s destruction as she waits for the arrival of the hero called the Shepard.

Interesting. This episode is actually completely anime original as the game doesn’t actually show what happened to the queen before she met the main protagonist. Though I think this was a wise way to start the story as the game starts with a much slower less interesting tutorial. It’s Ufotable so naturally it looks pretty beautiful but I really hope they pick something better next time to bestow excellent fight animation and lush backdrops. Maybe an Adaption of “The empty box and Zero Maria” perhaps?(They certainly could get some experimental animation with that and the series does share some similarities with their previous work Kara no Kyoukai) Or better yet an original anime. None the less I think this better presents the state of the world than the game did but I fear this may have given viewers the wrong idea about the tone of the series. You should expect things to get more lighthearted and typical JRPG in the next few episodes. From the tales games I played the story doesn’t stray too far from JRPG archetypes. For one that King Arthur symbolism is so obvious that it hurts. My original estimate still stands for this, it will look quite pretty but considering that the game failed to engage me even with gameplay, i doubt stripping out gameplay will make it more engaging.

Potential: 20%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Man, talking about heavy-handed! Many of factors of this series scream “important” to your face: from the story itself about the young queen lose almost everything at the end of episode, to the many big talks, to the intense fight sequences to the dark and loud score to even darker art designs. As you can likely guess I’m not a fan of heavy-handed material and even fantasy genre in general but I’m quite impressed with the production values of this one and the destructive storms sequence is for me a glaring example on how CGI done right. I’m not familiar to any of “Tales” franchise so I can’t say how this one reminisces others. The visual and character designs remind me a bit of From the New World, which is a great sign. Story-wise everything is all over the place now but it’s no mean inconsistent, as I think we will understand more as the series continue. With the production is as great as this one, I really hope the coming episodes tone down a bit on its seriousness, but I highly doubt it.

Potential: 35%

B-Project

Short Synopsis: An idol show about a group of male idols.

I guess they are still trying to create the male equivalent of love live aren’t they. Well I say you should take pointers on what made it work. For one you should never introduce all your characters in one fell swoop, especially if you have a lot of them. Out of the ten characters introduced I can remember four at best but I can recall that pretty much all of them are utterly one dimensional stereotypes. This may be just me, but it feels like reverse harems tend to rely heavier on stereotypes than regular harems. I mean of course harems make use of stereotypes to a massive degree but at least they somewhat try to differentiate them(Obviously not always successfully but still.). Whereas here, I am fairly certain I have seen all these characters before under different names. So a completely amateur is thrown into a manager role despite having no previous experience or any idea of what the job entails. Luckily she has the power of plot convenience as she is able to spot small details and is able to vaguely explain them though ridiculously silly metaphors. The music is terrible but the series is certainly trying to distract you from noticing it by having the singers sparkle and shine which just looks very silly. I may be judging this a bit harshly as while my expectations of what this would be were not wrong, it’s still at least watchable. If you are a fan of this sort of show I think it might do the trick but I will pass on this.

Potentail: 20%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

A typical Idol show, and story-wise the story about rookie manager learning her job is nothing new as well. This episode starts the rookie manager up with a group of 2 guys, so next few episodes we could see her taking more challenging job with the other teams of 3 and 5 people, respectively. While the music is nice I’ll say that I’m not in its target demographic because I can’t stand 10 male characters that all manage to have different hair colors here. At least one thing I learnt was that in recording sessions, singers had to be separated, because I always assume they had to sing together in order to have a chemistry together. We do learn new things every day hey?

Potential: 20%

Love Live! Sunshine!!

Short Synopsis: An idol show about a group of female idols.

Well at least they captured the essence of what made the first show so watchable and it certainly does have that bubbly optimism that is contagious. We have a brand new cast but I must admit that some of them don’t feel all that new. Our main heroine feels like another Honoka in that she’s a happy go lucky person that doesn’t think things through. There’s a girl who plays piano who’s likely to become the music composer for the group. There’s a student council president who is deeply opposed but will likely join the group later. but there are some new faces giving a different dynamic though one is pulling a rather stereotypical Chunni act. One big worry on watching this series is that it may be just a retread of the first show with slightly different characters. Ultimately if you liked the first season this is bound to give you the same things you liked about it. What will be a challenge of the rest of the series is providing something beyond that.

Potential: 55%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Here is another idol show, but this is the one that I can actually can get behind. Love Live has been one of the most successful idol show, and this new installment promises to be on a right track. This episode makes so many things right: a colorful set of characters, all the characters get introduced here and within its short time they all make an impression. But the biggest success is in its thrills: the sense of fun and exciting to form a group, to start something they passionate about. In that sense this is not unlike a sport show. While Idol show again is not my cup of tea, this first episode so far sold me on giving it another watch.

Potential: 50%

Orange

Short Synopsis: A 16-year-old high school girl received a letter from her future-self telling her to keep an eye on the new transfer student.

Theres still a possibility of me blogging this as the summer preview poll is open till the airing of the second episodes but if that’s the case then I am not looking forward to it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this episode, in fact the animation is quite expressive minus some still frame montages. But this really isn’t my kind of show. I have no love for my mundane memories of school so I can’t relate to stories that romanticize it. For if I wrote a letter to my previous self, I would tell myself not to be a dumbass and make good use of my time knowing full well that my over egotistical previous self wouldn’t take it into account in the slightest. When I watch this all I can think of is how utterly bland this main character is and seeing the telltale signs of a love triangle. We already have confirmed that Naho loves transfer student and that her friend is her husband in the future so we all know that’s coming to a head. Plus it looks like Naho’s female friend has a thing for Transfer student as well so it looks like it’s a love square with likely more incoming. It’s been too soon since Kiznaiver and I am too old for this shit. Plus that soundtrack is so melodramatic that it makes me retch, that piano is so sappy that it makes me embarrassed just to hear it. If this can control itself and keep the drama down to earth I say this could have some worth. However if this goes full Okada then well…watch Relife instead.

Potential: 50%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

This show really sets itself up for a melodrama here, but I do really hope it doesn’t get too overboard. Other than that, I happy with the entire episode. The cast is well defined and the dynamic between them is all natural. I actually care a lot about the main girl, more than any other main character this season so far, simply because I know exactly what she thinks. Timid, a bit shy and don’t want to be a bother to others, while only allow herself to get hurt. I understand that feeling all too well and I know this train of feeling could bound for many regrets later, on what things she could do better. All that to say this resonates to me on the personal level. The realistic settings and more mature character designs also help to make it look like a live-action series (indeed, Orange has adapted to live-action film last year). I’m afraid later on this show will get into tear-jerking territory, but at least for now, it has my full support.

Potential: 90%

Momokuri

Short Synopsis:  Girl has a crush on boy, girl begins to stalk boy, girl decides to confess to boy. Naturally the boy accepts it. The show chronicles their love story.

They really need to make clear what is a Tv short and a full series before they start airing. Well today’s lesson dear readers is simple, stalking isn’t cute. It’s creepy. A girl becomes obsessed with a boy and proceeds to do all the things a stalker would. Takes pictures of him when he’s not aware, spies on him, knows way too much about him and even holds items used by him in certain reverence. Despite her confessing to him and it being accepted she still can’t quite get rid of her old stalking habits which pretty much makes that the main joke. It’s not really funny and I am not fond of the idea of somewhat romanticising obsession. The characters aren’t really all that interesting and it’s focus seems to be on being cute more than being funny. I say give this a pass as there are better school romances this season.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

This is actually an ONA and its episodes are just 13 minutes long. With that said, throughout the two episodes there’s only one hook from the show: that the two main characters decided to date together, the rest stretches out to how the girl becomes obsessed of the boy, and their shyness when being together. For me 20 minutes of doing just that is simply not enough, and I don’t find the lead endearing or anything. The only thing that I give a plus for this show is we get to know how each other feel, even the supporting ones, through their voice-over and it somewhat balances out the seemingly one-note first love story. But then again I don’t have any high hopes for this one.

Potential: 10%

 

First Love Monster

Short Synopsis: Girl was saved from a car accident by a boy and she immediately has a crush on him. After she asks to date him, she finds out he’s a primary school student.

There’s nothing quite as tragic as a unfunny comedy. The manga gave me the impression this would be a more straightforward shoujo show but the anime looks to be pushing for a more slapstick comedy approach. In regards to that it’s lacking a sense of dignity as the second half of the episode delves into humor so juvenile that it’s downright embarrassing. I get that the joke is that these children in teenager bodies are acting immature and childish but I suggest maybe not resorting to kids toilet humor. What’s more the actually maturity of these “kids” is questionable as one hand you have them talking about their wieners and then on the other you have them commenting about how the main guy could be cuckold which is certainly not something a kid would know. The first half had me yawning  and the second half had me shaking my head. This isn’t worth your time.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

And talking about first love, we have this one in its extreme spectrum that speaks so much about “crush”. The premise alone is stupid enough, and yes the show goes for full comedy so it means that they don’t take themselves seriously; but to see the kid starts to do all kiddie things, and worst of all they design them to look like a teen who wear kid’s clothes and doing kiddie things, it just sends me chills down my spines. All other characters tick all the box of archetype and anime tropes here so I don’t see any reason that I would spend more time with it.

Potential: 0%

 

Days

Short Synopsis: A boy who clueless about football decides to join a football club.

This is all pretty standard for this kind of sports anime. A clueless newbie joins a sport where he must be shown the ropes. Gains a deep passion and camaraderie with fellow players. And to the world of that show the only thing worth giving a damn is the sport it’s representing. In this case, football. I find it somewhat endearing as it makes the sport look as dynamic and lively as a football match somehow resembles a superhuman showdown with overblown sound effects and overdramatic reactions. Still there is a certain draw to this kinds of shows and I would be lying if I said I didn’t get drawn in partly. It’s simple but effective though the motto of try very hard and you will succeed is one I see as quite foolish. As a certain sportsman once said, “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” It’s no Giant Killing but if you are looking for something watchable in between shows this is not a bad choice to go with.

Potential: 50%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

I have to say I have a soft spot for sports anime, mainly because a) I have a sport background and b) I had read many sports manga during my childhood. Days sadly appears to be typically underdog football show, where the main character is weak, don’t even know much about football so he has to try harder to be on the team, and his “pushing himself to the limit” attitude gonna inspire the whole team. There seems to be at least inspirational story but I had seen this many times before and for this episode the show doesn’t offer anything different. I’d say I like the character’s designs and I like how they include futsal here (they don’t often portray futsal in anime) but that’s all there is to it.

Potential: 20%

Berserk

Short Synopsis: After being betrayed by a dear friend, the black swordsman ventures out for revenge while surviving the demons chasing after him.

Let’s get this out of the way first, yes indeed. This show is ugly. It keeps switching between 2d stills and janky 3d animated models that look like a Playstation 2’s throwup. It never truly allowed me to adjust because the quality of the show was all over the place and thus I was left being nagged that after nearly twenty years without a continuation, Berserk is graced with this visual abomination. But to be fair it was expected considering the studio. Music felt equally off in some places as instead of medieval themed pieces we are graced with heavy guitar and what seems to be some electronic rock? The tune played when Guts swung his sword at the tree demon was especially jarring.  Let’s move on to what matters, the story. This episode didn’t fair well in that category either as the pacing was fast and wonky. This wasn’t a faithful adaption as the studio wishes to skip some story arcs to jump right into the conviction arc, so it’s hastily trying to gather the pieces together instead of letting it flow naturally. I am a good bit disappointed as one of my favorite arcs, Lost children is going to be skipped but we are short in time when it comes to this. But there are parts of this that held some potential, Guts dream sequence was done very well and I rather liked the end with Guts making a declaration and silencing the demons whispering to him. The original Berserk anime in 1997 also had a shaky first episode and I am hoping that once this settles into the arc proper, it will begin to shine.

Potential: 40%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

The long awaited Berserk has finally arrived with new material. I am a bit worry about the amount of CGI when I first heard about it but now after watching it I’d say the CGI is pretty serviceable. In term of actual story, this is more like a self-contained story to show us more about Guts and his curses, about the way he unfortunately has to walk on, paved with skulls and dead bodies of the weak and innocents. I’ll say we will get into the actual arc when the next episode kicks in. The biggest drawback for me in this episode is the overall tone, which they mix between gritty, harsh, dark material with the light-heart comedy, and frankly it feels very awkward. All the out-of- place comedy involves Puck so I’m a bit worry since he will be prominent from now on. The fighting sequence, like I mentioned earlier, still holds much tension and at least the CGI don’t distract the atmosphere. That aside I think we pretty have a solid new episode of Berserk and I’m hungry for more.

Potential: 70%

 

Relife

Short Synopsis: A 27 year old man is given a chance to relive his high school life.

Well despite this being only an impression of the first episode, I am surprised to say that you can view the entirely of the Relife anime right now.  All 13 episodes are available now to view on crunchyroll, making this the very first anime to begin and finish airing on the same day. Whether this is a blessing or a curse is up in the air for me as it’s great to have the full series at hand now but in that case how am I supposed to blog it? If this becomes the norm for anime I may be out of the job. Anyway what we have here is a pretty much perfect adaption of the Relife comic. It’s looks great and has captured the comedy of the series perfectly. As a man in my twenties I can certainly relate to Kaizaki’s troubles with finding work as it really wasn’t that long ago where I was a NEET myself. Can’t say I ever lied about having a job to friends though but man, that was rough. My own personal feelings may be heightening my enjoyment of the show as I can sympathise with the main character so much. However I truly feel like this is quite a good school life show and from ratings of the series as a whole, it looks to stay that way. An enjoyable little show and I give it a higher rating because you can binge right through it all now.

Potential: 90%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

Although the concept about a failed adult has a chance to return to his high school life has been done to death at this point, most glaringly we just had ERASED few seasons back, there’s still meat behind this show so I’m eager to see more from this. The first thing that this series done right is to make Arata the main protagonist as relatable as possible, and his failure from his current life is something that most of us has been through. 28-year-old without a proper job, still relies on parent’s allowance and see all his friends has been settled down is not a pretty picture. The second thing the show is really good at, despise just this first episode, is the power of the cast. Just in about 10 minutes I feel like I’ve learnt about most of the cast, all their traits and the chemistry so far is rock solid. With that said, the gags about Arata being under-prepared, his sometimes silly reactions don’t do well to me, and judging from the first episode here I can see that comedy is not this show’s strong suits.

Potential: 75%

 

Rewrite

Short Synopsis: Something something, murderous little girl with ribbons, something something, high school, something something, fairies and giant squid monster.

If it’s something I say this adaption isn’t botched like I was expecting though the animation could certainly be better. But I suspect that any viewer watching this is bound to be very confused. I will say I am not fond of the choice to just use the soundtrack of the visual novel for the anime, even if I do admit that Maeda is a fine composer if nothing else. The visual novel tracks were meant more for a reading experience and hearing them in the anime felt too intrusive and sudden. There is nothing wrong with the tracks themselves but it’s clear they are being shoehorned into the anime scenes.While the show isn’t making any effort to explain itself I admit that the supernatural elements lend a certain mystique to the anime and act as a good hook. As a forty minute first episode, it did it’s job. However I give this a low rating namely because I know what’s to come and the end of the episode is perfect indicator of that. First we go into the old typical Key comedy and school life first half and then things are gonna get weird. Sorry I mean weirder. Still annoys me how Key heroines tend to act more like kindergarteners than high school girls and the hints of mystery bug me because I know the answers and those answers are pretty dumb. You may get some enjoyment out of this if you happen to be a Key fan but I recommend that you keep your expectations low.

Potential: 30%

 

Mario’s thoughts:

We have a double-length first episode and they use these 50 minutes just to set everything up. I guess this is an essential part of time-loop series, just like Re:Zero last season where the first few episodes just to set things up, get us to know all the main characters and then wait for the plot kicks in. In that respect, there are still ways too many characters get introduced in this first episode, while the main hook still hasn’t presented. There are some underlying bits that will be relevance in future episodes: like the very nature of our main character, Kotarou; or the setting place itself, it seems like there is something going on behind those factories; and I especially like the first opening of displaying the ruined city and it’s interested to see how that part connected to the main storyline. On other notes, the character designs of making every one “cute” annoys the hell out of me, and I can’t even get behind these uniforms: it’s more like a maid uniform for all I care. In all, I’m not quite convinced with this first episode but I’ll give it a 3-episode test to see if it can still hold up.

Potential: 40%

Sansha Sanyou

Short Synopsis:  A awkward former rich girl makes friends for the first time.

For the love of god someone turn down the brightness! Either my computers screen settings malfunctioned for a moment or this anime is so bright it could burn a hole through my retina’s. That literally glaring issue aside this is a decent show for those who are fans of the cute girls genre thing. I mainly details how a rich girl whose family become poor managed to make friends with two odd girls after a strange encounter during lunch. So the first episode was mainly of her attempting to keep a haughty attitude while being extra self conscious to try and not scare off her newfound friends. Even I with a heart of stone and a dark mind found her efforts to be friendly rather endearing. So in the grounds of giving you that feeling of needing to protect something it gets a passing grade. The comedy on the other hand doesn’t do anything for me. I would look more to flying witch if you were looking for something to make you feel fluffy inside but if you need another show to fill the gap then this should suffice.

Potential: 40%

 

Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge

Short Synopsis: There’s a guy called Tanaka and he’s really lazy.

There are two comedy animes this season which are centered around a single joke. The first is Sakamoto desu ga and the second is this. Sakamoto’s joke is that Sakamoto is perfection incarnate. Tanaka-kuns joke is that Tanaka is very lazy. However Sakamoto is quite entertaining when Tanaka is just dull and boring. Why is that? Well the first aspect is that if you are building a series around a joke that you should make sure the joke is funny. In this case the joke is in the title and that joke is really more of a statement than a joke. Tanaka is very lazy, so what of it? Sakamoto made it’s joke work because of it’s ridiclous nature and the fact that the series is not corely about Sakamoto, but rather who Sakamoto effects though his actions. Tanaka is about Tanaka and there is nothing to him other than being lazy. Tanaka needs to be carryed everywhere…because he’s lazy. Tanaka is concerned with his position when he’s falling asleep…because he’s lazy. Tanaka wants to build up muscle so his legs and arms don’t fall asleep…because he’s lazy. This entire episode was refriming Tanaka was indeed lazy and that’s not a joke. KyoAni’s Chuunibyou show had a character just like this called Kumin and even she had more to her than Tanaka. This is a half hour of a comedian standing on stage talking about the weather. You sit waiting for the joke that never comes.

Potential: 0%

 

Kuromukuro

Short Synopsis:   Giant Robot aliens invade. So it’s up to a naked guy and some bland teenage girl to save the day.

You know, I am tired of animes that start the series with a random battle between two unknown factions. I mean truly what is the point of that? Without context on who is fighting, why they are fighting or whats at stake this fights tension can be replicated by me watching Rock em, Sock em robots. Of course I don’t want an exposition dump layered on top as other anime usually do but truly I don’t see the need of jumping to this moment in time to watch two robots duke it out. Perhaps this was to ensure the mecha fans that this series does indeed have mecha before launching into a tremendously boring school life segment were a girl attempts to return a phone her mother left behind at a parent teacher conference. I will say that this isn’t a bad show but a rather uninspired one. As one of the first anime to be exclusively simulcast on Netfllix, you could have made a better choice. Honestly, Crunchyroll, Funimation and the rest of you anime companies, hows about hiring someone who knows anime to decide what gets licenced or not. Maybe then you could have nabbed the obvious goldmine that is One Punch Man before Viz got it.(Heard you were dubbing OPM last month so you better do a great job on that) Back on topic, Kuromukuro has trouble so far balancing out it’s mecha and slice of life segments. The mecha CGI is also fairly underwhelming and the plot so far is straightforward of the genre. I am getting reminded of Rinne no Lagrange which held many of the same problems. Though in this case our main female character is lacking any real defining points besides mother issues and I fear that the male protagonist’s character arc will mainly be a fish out of water story. As I said in my preview, what will make this worthwhile or not is the ratio of mecha and school life. If the school life is going to be at the forefront here this this should make for an excellent sleeping pill from sheer boredom.

Potential: 30%

Sakamoto desu ga

Short Synopsis: Some boys attempt to bully a Student called Sakamoto, who is the perfect superhuman.

In essence, perfection is boring. Saitama from One Punch Man truly showed how unfulfilling it is to achieve perfection. However what if someone’s perfection is to such a ridiculous degree that they can do literally anything? Enter Sakamoto, the man who can sit on air, fly mary poppins style in tornados to save a bird and have a fight with a bee using a compass while working on math problems. Sakamoto is a man who can out Jojo the Jojo and has earned the nickname Swagamoto by the end of the first episode. I do think that this anime has lost some of the impact of the manga though the main reasons for that could be due to the music or that I am seeing these jokes for a second time. Still this can be an immensely entertaining show if it’s the kind of slapstick humor you like. This episode was more or less skits that involved guys trying to bully Sakamoto out of jealousy and getting frustrated as he turned each of their pranks into a way to make him look good. Each skit was separated with this odd interlude with three guys playing with a volleyball with the same repeating animation. It was rather odd addition to the series but somewhat amusing. On that last skit, you may think those kids were being silly overreacting to that bee in the classroom but people that was a Japanese hornet bee. Those things are about the size of your thumb, kill 40 people a year and are absolutely goddamn terrifying. Which makes Sakamoto’s battle with it all the more impressive. Godspeed, you magnificent bastard.

Potential: 80%

 

Haifuri

Short Synopsis: Cute girls playing battleship.

Well we have had cute girls being soldiers, cute girls in tanks, cute girls being battleships and now we have cute girls on battleships. Now all we need is cute girls in the luftwaffe and we got all the parts for a full military Moe army. I spent the majority of this episode dutifully bored out of my skull as I see two children bring out a trope as old as pokemon and declare themselves to become blue mermaids. Those being this world’s equivalent to the navy. For you see this world takes place when the earth has been flooded by rising seas and this has somehow inexplicably lead to it suddenly becoming every little girl’s dream to sail the seas on a battleship. Meanwhile I assume all the men decided to become doctors and farmers and whatnot offscreen because the Navy is suddenly female only. The moment you question the premise is the moment it falls apart so let’s just as the cheap excuse to ride the tailwinds of Kantai collection and move on. Now I would be writing this off pretty fast and intended to up until the second half where the plot has come into play. And yes, there is a plot. I was surprised too. For you see it seems the instructor of their class didn’t put an idiot as captian because she believed in her but rather so she could lead them out to a secluded area of sea and push them into attacking her boat so she can declare them traitors. So now we have a bunch of cute girls on a battleship called the Hasekaze who need to fight off their own navy and hopefully clear their name. I admit that upon watching this I wasn’t expecting a less gritty rendition of Battleship Potemkin featuring cute girls being cute. I am curious on just how they plan to approach this as I doubt we will be getting death and murder in the counterattack. A nice little underdog story about these girls trumping over a full navy with dwindling supplies and ingenuity would make for an interesting tale. However based on what I seen in the first half I doubt they can make it work.(I concede that the rice cooker joke was pretty funny) It’s got more substance than other cute girl shows airing this season so I suppose this would be the best option if you are looking to see it.

Potential: 40%

 

Flying Witch

Short Synopsis:  A young witch moves to a quiet town to live with her cousins.

This is the kind of show where you make a cup of tea, sit down and just watch as all your worries melt away. Flying witch really benefits from being animated because now it just feels fluffy and warm. It’s very much like the Aria series which was a slice of life coming of age story that was so relaxing that it could put you to sleep if you try to marathon it. Not joke on that, it’s a great show but the atmosphere can have you drifting off if you try watching too many episodes in a row. This has that exact same feel. It’s harmless, light and puts a silly grin on your face. There’s no big plot developments and it’s more or less in tune with the less eventful episodes of Natsume Yuujinchou or Kiki’s delivery service. There are some nice moments of comedy with the mains lack of direction and the characters are so far pretty likeable. Sometimes you just need a show like this which can fill you with that soft serenity that’s slowly whittled away by the daily humdrum. Or you know…you can play a videogame where you blow zombies heads off with a shotgun. Whatever floats your boat.

Potential: 70%

Kiznaiver

Short Synopsis: A mysterious girl Kidnaps six strange characters and makes it that they share pain between all of them in an experiment to find a solution to world conflict.

My first thought when watching this was that this was fairly mellow for a trigger series. The likely explanation behind that is because the director who gives it’s shows it quickfire humor and energy is busy animating a ten minute anime series called Space Patrol Luluco in this season. Not to say there isn’t any distinct “trigger” in this show as a moment where the mascots wheel a character through a hospital with disco balls would heartly disagree. I am really liking the opening as with watching a lot of standard opening animations season after season it’s nice to see someone try something difference. Kiznaivers Opening is mesmerising though could make people potentially dizzy. My potential rating would be higher if only I was aware of just where this story was going with this concept. My closest guess would be a kind of story like Kokoro Connect which involved a group of kids linked together by a supernatural affliction and the drama that came with it. If that’s the case then I am fully on board as I felt that Kokoro never truly did the excellent concept justice. I am also happy to see that Trigger looks to have gathered funds from it’s previous projects because there is very little penny pinching with this animes animation. In fact I will even say this, Kabaneri may have the best art of the season but I think Kiznaiver has the best animation. There is a definite feel of passion in the movement and the characters feel truly alive. Not only that, while they are not truly original(In fact a number of them may remind you of previous Trigger works) they are all pretty likeable and distinct. I am interested to see where this goes and seeing as Kiznaiver won the straw poll in my season preview it looks like I will be letting you know just how this turns out.

Potential: 85%

 

Bungou Stray Dogs

Short Synopsis: A group of supernatural detectives named after famous authors try to track down a tiger chasing after an abandoned Orphan.   

Even animated my impression of this story still remains the same. Perhaps it’s the resemblance to Blood Blockade battlefront that causes me to not get engaged in this or it could be just a lack of interest. I give this a middling mark as I think there could be those who could find this interesting but it just doesn’t appeal to me. There was a significantly large amount of comedy involved than I remember and one or two jokes got a smile but the rest didn’t really hit me. The twist at the end of the episode does open up possibilities for the rest of the show but the characters feel like they are trying too hard to be comedic. Especially Dasai with his jokey obsession with suicide which I find is rather disrespectful to the author. How much actual detective work in this show looks to be minimal as it’s seems to be more along the lines of meaningless term for a supernatural task force. We only know of three characters so far and I mainly just know their comedic quirks rather than personalities. This is a show I have difficulty making a judgement call on so I think the best way to see if this is for you is to just check it out yourself. It has it’s interesting aspects but it just doesn’t do anything for me.

Potential: 50%

 

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Short Synopsis: Our MC tries to build a new weapon in a world where people build huge walls to hide from the Titans…um I mean Kabaneri.

It’s rather redundant to say just where the inspiration for this show came from and it screams it with it’s every phore. Now by all means I am not against making use of a similar idea; if you can take a concept and turn it’s themes to present a new perspective then there is no shame in making use of a popular property as a base for your own story. However if you are going to do that then you should make use that the changes you make to the idea to differentiate it are there to make it more interesting and not more derivative. Sadly I think that Kabaneri has taken the latter route in it’s execution. The switch from Western to eastern culture for the setting is quite interesting but switching titans for zombies is just a bad move. Titans were interesting because they presented a new challenge to taking them down that made it more dynamic and exciting. Now they are just zombies which are essentially so overdone to an massive degree. Zombies are the standard now. Couldn’t we have gone for something more interesting like say ghosts or centaurs or something? So there is a heavy amount of borrowing from another source and what it has added in to replace it is significantly more cliche. However there is merit to this one. For one the artwork is very pretty with character designs invoking the style of 80s to 90s OVAs. Not the bland style of Endride but the more Ninja scrollish approach. Also like Ninja scroll we have plenty of gore. Uncensored for your viewing pleasure. Sawano is doing the OST though so far it’s far too reminiscent of his previous work. The biggest problem here is the writer who hasn’t written anything good after Code Geass. The story already has logical plotholes. For example, why did they get the first train to stop before pulling down the drawbridge yet lower the drawbridge for the second straight away? Why does the main character have a device that looks to be for the primary use of choking someone? What’s the point of building walls to keep out creatures that look like they can climb things without trouble? As well as a lot of people acting really dumb just to make the protagonist look better. I don’t have much faith in this writer and I think the plot holes are only going to get worse from this point on. However perhaps we can look past that and just enjoy the pretty visuals.

Potential: 60%