Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Log Horizon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is stuck in an MMORPG.
After .Hack and Sword Art Online, here comes the next series about people stuck in an MMORPG. What sets it aside from these two is that it by far takes itself the least serious. Of course there is a solid storyline behind it and all, but a lot of time in this episode was spent on wise-cracking jokes and characters acting quirky, or looking cool while trying to fight monsters. It is much lighter than Sword Art Online by not making an as big of a deal of what happens when you die, and it’s much less deep in its themes than .Hack//Sign was for example. There are still some issues of charcters taking certain things surprisingly serious, like an assassin who talks and acts like an honorable ninja that makes you wonder how she behaved in normal life…), but yeah if you like the banter between the characters then this can be quite fun. Unfortunately for me, that banter often annoyed me and the only good jokes were the ones it made about its setting, how it deconstructed some overused MMORPG cliches with its tongue in its cheek. Most of the jokes though are characters repeating their quirks over and over, and they’re not even funny quirks.
OP: Hilariously cheesy engrish. I did not expect an OP with this intensity, though.
ED: Aagh, and they still come with an ED that has been copied and pasted from every other generic ED out there.
Potential: 65%

Diabolik Lovers

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is stuck in a house full of vampires.
Ah, nearly forgot to check this one out because it aired a few weeks earlier than the rest of the series. Its episodes are only fifteen minutes long, so why not? Diabolik Lovers turned out to be… a really weird horror series. I’m not kidding, the entire premise of this show is that a girl enters a house full of six vampires who start assaulting her, all while looking incredibly creepy. This goes back to the strange amount of occurrences of rapey fantasies that you see all over anime and manga, which I still don’t quite get. But yeah, the bishies are hot and mysterious. The big problem here is that every character so far is a one-dimensional stereotype without any hints of more, so this one definitely isn’t going to win any awards. Good soundtrack, though.
ED: Actually not a bad ED for a horror series.
Potential: 0%

Yuusha Blahblah

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a hero.
Oh my god. What the hell was that? I originally wasn’t really looking out for this one or anything, but I was not prepared for how phenominally BAD the direction of this series would be. I mean holy crap, the director of htis show did just about everything wrong. You really have to try to be this awful. From the outside it doesn’t look that way, because the series does seem to have quite a big budget, but here is the thing: you do not simply assign all of your inbetweeners to your boob shots. Seriously, the animation in this series is crap, aside from the close up fanservice shots, and it’s so incredibly thickly laid on that it’s not even funny. Either way this is an incredibly sexist series with some of the dumbest female characters out there, but beyond that the acting is incredibly wooden. This show fails to introduce anything, it fails to set any kind of standards for its world, it randomly jumps from one scene to the other without any lead-in and it doesn’t make any attempt at comedic delivery. Add that to the uncanny ability to focus on a girl’s boobs or ass and you’ve got one of the worst directed episodes of the year, especially considering how much budget went into this and was just wasted. The bad thing is that this director is directing TWO series at the same time this season. Who the hell found that a good idea?!
ED: The only way to get any lazier than this ED is to just not record a song for it.
Potential: 0%

Kill La Kill

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is on a quest for revenge.
This is awesome. In the past half year, it was obvious which was the series with the best animation: Shingeki no Kyojin just beat everything. This time though, there are tons of studios who are competing with each other with their best, all in their own ways. We’ve already had Kyoani, Gohands and Toei, here we have Trigger, and we’re most likely going to see awesome stuff from Tatsunoko, Manglobe, A-1, Mappa and Studio Deen. So much eye candy! Kill La Kill also has awesome graphics: the action is just terrific and it just keeps on coming, and on top of that we have the just bizarre sense of humour that the creators have, featuring tons of senseless violence and nudity (both male and female). The story is simple, but it can still grow over 26 episodes to become more than just a “lots of style, no substance”-series. You need to like lots of action though, otherwise this isn’t a series for you. You can also see that Kill La Kill is a throwback to the eighties and nineties, with the absurdly powerful student council that was very often used, combined with the much more cartoonish character designs.
ED: Just some characters, but I expected some more of the song.
Potential: 85%

Golden Time

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters his first day at college.
Golden Time! Please: keep up the level of this first episode! Don’t be one of those comedies that blow their entire load on their first episode, but keep your wit. Keep your characters at this combination between down to earth and absolutely bonkers! Keep that balance! Keep playing with your mood, the way you did in this episode. Because seriously, if you manage that for your entire run, then we’ve got a comedy classic. If not… then this is just Hataraku Maou-sama with worse animation. This first episode though: really surprised me with how funny it was. The humour was actually quite clever and it *gasp* built up its jokes. It was exceptionally good at delaying its jokes: you knew they were coming, but just delaying it made things even funnier than what they already were. It’s a show with a small budget and not many great animators, but they actually did a pretty good job to make things work. Plus some effective use of the simple soundtrack made the above mentioned mood swings work really well. But yeah: it’s all going to depend on whether they can keep this up or not. There have been plenty and plenty of series that just went downhill after hilarious first episodes. I’d give this show a 50/50 chance of that happening.
OP: Very thickly laid on cheese on the J-Pop.
ED: A bit weird considering the context of the series.
Potential: 80%

Outbreak Company

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary otaku savior who has to cultivate the simple-minded who know nothing about moe.
In all of the years I’ve been watching these first episodes, I can’t recall any other series that was as blatantly kissing the asses of its own audience as this one. They really went out of their way to make this dream as wet as possible without resulting to porn for any otaku watching this series (or at least, what the creators think are otaku…). Escapism at its worst, creating a fantasy world in which the main character’s otaku self is celebrated, all because he once got rejected for being one (though granted, having watched this guy for an episode, that probably wasn’t the only reason she rejected him). The acting may not be the worst or anything, but here is the thing with this series: to someone who isn’t an otaku like myself, all this series does is reafferm, if not worsen, the stereotypes that I have of otakus. The male lead is a really unlikable guy, and if they just keep going on about how he’s living inside his own world, rejecting reality, then this show really is not helping to lessen the biases people have here.
OP: Bland J-pop, nothing outstanding.
ED: Again bland J-pop.
Potential: 0%

Nagi no Asakura

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives in a house under the sea.
Whoooaaaaaa: the setting for this series is awesome! It’s like this child’s dream come true, in which these people live in the middle of the sea with houses and everything, inbetween all of the fish and other sea creatures, and the creators made this whole culture based on that life, including a whole folklore and magic that’s quite creative and fits in perfectly. At the same time you can really see that this is a Mari Okada series, with already a good focus on drama. It’s not perfect though. I still can’t get over the character designs: the main character looks like a girl! There’s way too much sparkle in his eyes, and PA Works went a little too far in adding the polish to the characters here. Uchoten Kazoku showed that taking away the shine results in much better character designs. Shading is fine, but too much lighting leads to a plastic effect. Also, did you have to make the female lead so incredibly weak and useless? And this is coming from people who previously worked on the Armed Librarians which spawned some of the strongest female characters out there, so I’m not sure where the hell that came from?
OP: A bland pop song, but the backgrounds are great looking.
ED: Bland pop, but it does fit the undersea motive very well.
Potential: 80%

Kyousogiga

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights with a giant hammer
Wednesday is the day of excellent graphics! Kyousogiga will only have 10 episodes. Aside that we seem to have an episode 0, 5,5 and 10,5. I’m not sure what the latter two are, but episode 0 is basically the first ova. I guess it makes sense from a future perspective: this way you have the entire Kyosogiga in just one series, rather than a confusing bunch of OVAs. If you haven’t seen it yet, then this is the perfect chance: it’s great! And I’ll be waiting for it next week to start for real.
Potential: 90%

Coppelion

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are the only ones who can survive in a post apocalyptic Tokyo
Coppelion… actually turned out to be really good! Beyond just looking amazing, the characters are also really well acted. The whole episode played out in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, and it really brought forth the cold and empty atmosphere amidst the beauty of the ravaged scenery. The characters are teenaged girls, but the creators gave a good reason for them to stand in the spotlight, rather than adults, and more importantly: they were well acted. They had teenaged quirks, but they also had much more sides than that and knew how to balance them around. The narrative also rocks, and it built up to this really good climax there at the end. This could very easily become GoHands’ best work at this rate.
ED: Holy crap! This ED rocks! Angela is really in her element here as a singer.
Potential: 90%

Kyoukai no Kanata

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a girl with superpowers.
The trailer hinted at gorgeous graphics, and this show delivered: the animation here is really good and the fights look wonderful. It however failed to show another aspect of this series: the comedy. Oh boy, it’s mostly bad. A lot of this episode was a ditzy stupid girl bantering with a snarky mellow male lead. Gee, Kyoani, I wonder where you got the inspiration for that one! These characters are like near carbon copies of the stereotypes that they usually go for in their series, only this time it’s heavily inspired by Bakemonogatari. And unlike Hyouka, the chemistry isn’t really good here. On the other hand, there were lots of hints to a more serious future (but then again, Tamako Market did that too…). So yeah, the question is whether the animation, plot and the rest of the characters will be good enough to excuse this banter.
OP: The song is nothing special. The animation is really good though.
ED: Great visual direction for an ED here. Lovely use of colors and shots.
Potential: 75%

Super Seisyun Brothers

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of twins and best friends who hang out together.
You know what? For a 4-minute episoded series, this wasn’t half bad. Sure, it wasn’t anything amazing, but unlike Miss Monochrome, it actually had characters worth watching. It’s basically about these four characters who all look similar, yet are different when you get to know them. This series seems to be about the differences between these four. And you know, that’s not a bad premise to base your series on if you’re just doing a short one. Sure, they talk in stereotypes and nothing really stood out, but considering the usual quality of these kinds of series:, it’s actually watchable.
ED: Simple, but it works: my eyes aren’t figuratively bleeding for once.
Potential: 40%

Miss Monochrome

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an android who wants to be an idol.
Yeah, moving on. This is another one of those crappy 5-minute series that serve no point. There’s no context, just about this girl with a tragic past who wants to be an idol. Way to cash in on things, eh? It tries to make jokes, but the delivery of them is some of the worst I’ve seen in quite a while.
Potential: 0%

Kimi no Iru Machi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student
Yup, Shigeyasu Yamauchi. No mistake possible, this is a director whose style is immediately obvious. And it’s a shame that his next series is such a standard-looking love triangle, because really: he breathes life into these characters. The camera angles, movements, gestures, facial expressions: they’re all creative and make the characters feel much more dynamic than with conventional direction. The few weird camera angles I just take for granted. The voice acting is also good (the show also plays very well with its different accents), and he again managed to take a few amazing background artists with him. It’s also obvious that Gonzo put their best animators here, rather than on that dog series, because this really is polished. It’s a shame this is Kimi no Iru Machi of all things, a manga that I’ve hear so many bad things about, whose OVA was really, really bad, and so it really can go either way. So I’m really torn on the potential for this thing, because at the very least: this was a very solid set-up. For the standards of a high school romance that is.
OP: Don’t like the song, but the visuals are gorgeous.
ED: This guy can actually sing pretty well. It’s got this retro-feel, which I like.
Potential: 75%

Futari wa Milky Holmes

Short Synopsis: Our lead character are magical girl detectives.
No. No. No no. Milky Holmes is a parody: it is supposed to make fun of the mahou shoujo genre with its ridiculous premise. What on earth made the cretors think that they could take the setting of a school for mahou shoujo detectives seriously? What happened to the oversexed teacher with his own hug pillow? What happened to the god of lard? What happened to the characters who took “being an idiot” to an artform? What happened to the IQ of the blond policewoman? What happened to the awesome animation (seriously, this looked like crap). Why did they stuff incredibly wimpy and generic male characters among the cast? What producer found it a good idea to get money from this? It was so good. Now it’s just a boring detective show where cute girls solve a bunch of superficial crimes with magical powers.
OP: Ugh, what a generic opening!
ED: Seriously, what happened to the main cast!?
Potential: 0%

Hyperdimension Neptunia

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a goddess who needs to govern over the people who worship her and has to contend with other goddesses who try to do the same.
Well, it had to happen at some point: the first genuinely bad series from David Production. I mean, look at the premise: that sounds like it has potential, right? A number of characters are references to the current generation consoles, but it doesn’t beat you over the head with it, so in theory, this could have been good. Alas, in practice the creators royally screwed this up by making every single character insanely stupid, incredibly annoying and one-dimensional, throw pointless fanservice and heaps of superficial drama in way too fast and the the tasks of the goddesses ended up including getting rid of sexually assaulting tanuki slimes. I mean, you can see that at least the animation was good, and the backgrounds are of David Production’s usually high quality and all…. but this was bad. Really bad…
OP: Good visuals, terrible song.
ED: Terrible song as well.
Potential: 0%

Gatchaman Crowds

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets a notebook and catches aliens.
So, now that we’ve gotten nearly all of the series this season, I feel confident to say that Gatchaman Crowds has the best action, soundtrack and eye candy of the bunch. It’s something that Kenji Nakamura is really good at, so this was to be expected, but this all combined made for a really fun episode. But let me get to the main factor that will either make or break this series: the female lead. She is annoyikng, but that doesn’t even begin to describe her character. You know these types of characters who are so outrageously over the top in their actions? That’s her. She brings ditziness to a new level, and seems to live in to her entire own world. She made me laugh in this episode with how far she went, but the creators need to keep that up, otherwise she’ll make this series unbearable to watch on her own. I mean, the premise is very solid, the action is amazing, it’s fun, fresh and kept my attention from beginning to end, and I also trust the creators enough to know that they know how to write a 12-episode series and make it conclude properly. It’s definitely one of the most interesting shows on the series, so female lead: you’ve got your task set out for you.
OP: Pretty much the best OP of the season. Great visuals.
ED: One of the exceptions that makes me appreciate good J-Pop.
Potential: 90%

Silver Spoon

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters a farming school
There are lots of really good slice of life series this series! Tamayura, Uchoten Kazoku, Servant X Service and Watamote were already there, and now we also have Silver Spoon to join their ranks. Perhaps it’s not the best of the season, but the creators brought a lot of life to a bunch of agricultural students. Within the first episode they already showed lots of different sides to what life is like as such a student, from following classes to having dinner, and the cast of characters is also very diverse and likable (not to mention big). The main character for once also isn’t bland: the only thing bland about him is that he doesn’t have any goals, but he has an actual back-story and personality, and works well as this posh cityboy in the middle of a bunch of farmers. This is a series that also toys a bit with your expectations, and I also like how well it managed to portray the lead character’s fear of germs. Also you can see that this comes from Hiromu Arakawa, with a cameo from Armstrong’s long lost brother.
OP: This opening is actually very bad because it reduces some of the characters to annoying stereotypes
ED: Nice use of instruments. Really fits the setting.
Potential: 85%

Watamote

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is not popular.
Here is a pleasant surprise: this show is exaggerated, but it actually nailed what it’s like to be socially awkward in this first episode. I could actually relate to quite a few things that the female lead went through in some way. The way she keeps forming theories in her head, pointlessly avoiding people she knows, and being unable to utter words: that was really well done. Now, I do have one big fear with these kinds of series: the solution is always portrayed to be so simple and easy. Social anxiety is far from easy to get out of, and it takes years of dedicated work to improve, if you can even do it in the first place. I hope that this series also acknowledges this, rather than going the “she’s actually a perfect girlfriend once she puts on some makeup”-route.
OP: The OP here is a surprise: didn’t expect metal to pop its head here.
ED: The trailer for this show was actually terrible. As it turns out they used the ED for this. Really, that was a wrong choice.
Potential: 75%

Kiniro Mosaic

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves to England which has in the past been conquered by subsequently the Vikings and the Japanese.
If the synopsis didn’t give it away already: Kiniro Mosaic commits the two big faux pas when it comes to depicting the English: they’re all blond and speak with heavy Japanese accents! (Oh wait, there are some random people in the background who aren’t blond!) What also was quite hilarious was that the two lead heroines sometimes started with these long monologues to each other despite being unable to understand each other’s language. In any case, Kiniro Mosaic aims to be cute. And yeah, I guess it succeeds at that with its portrayal of a bunch of random kids. As for the question whether it has enough to make it worth watching though… I guess only if you like cute stuff. If not, then this was just pretty much outclassed by Tamayura. The characters had less life to them, and it tries way too hard to be cute and consequently forsakes some other important characterization.
ED: They tried to hide it, but the song is actually pretty bad.
Potential: 40%

Gen’Ei wo Kakeru Taiyou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to command a bunch of dolls who fight for her.
Gen’Ei wo Kakeru Taiyo and Fantasista Doll are actually two very similar series: bot series feature this high school girl who suddenly has the command of five mahou shoujo who show up from out of nowhere. The big difference is that one show is good at what the other is bad at, and vice versa. Gen’Ei has the production values: it looks great, and it’s also much darker than I expected (really, if you were expecting a frilyl mahou shoujo, then don’t bother). It feels consistent, which is something you can’t say for Fantasista Doll. On the other hand though, the characters are just shallow. The acting feels wooden in comparison, and it also probably abused its own shock value a bit too much (oh my god such a cute girl! let’s throw as much bad stuff at her in one episode without really focusing on the consequences!) So yeah: the gist: Fantasista Doll is clunky, Gen’Ei wo Kakeru Taiyou is shallow. Take your pick!
OP: Nice art, but a copy-paste song
ED: Tarot cards fail to make this one impressive.
Potential: 70%

Uchoten Kazoku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a tanuki.
Without a doubt the best non-sequel of the new season so far. The characters here just blew all of the competition out of the water. Unlike all the others, the characters here have actual lives when they’re not on the screen. The anime here just follows mere glimpes in their eventful daily lives. You’d be surprised at how many characters just do absolutely nothing when the camera doesn’t focus on them. And even beyond that, the characterization here is just really good. Characters feel real, dialogue is natural and really manages to flesh out the characters. Every character is really well acted as well, no exceptions. And to top things off: this episode had the right combination between slice of life and drama: we got to follow the daily lives of the main characters, and especially near the end of the episoe it became apparent what kind of tension there is between the characters. The characters behaving like adults also really helps. Great to see lots of shows like that this season.
OP: Love the visuals, and the song as well.
ED: I love how this ED fills in some of the parts that were left open to interpretation by the episode
Potential: 95%

Makai OUji – Devils and Realist

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has demons fighting over him.
There’s a really strange trend this season: it has Seiji Kishi’s second adaptation with a bear. Now this series has Chiaki Kon’s second adaptation with a guy with the head of a goat. I hope that this is just a coincidence. Anyway, Devils and Realist had decent action and all, but it makes one really big mistake: throughout the entire episode it tries to make its male lead look like this super elite student. And yet from his actions in this episode, he seems like an idiot. Okay, idiot is a bit too much, but he hardly asks any questions beyond the most obvious ones. It’s because of this that the characters also try to stay too much to their own caricatures, which really limits them here and the atmosphere is also pretty dull. Basically, this show has already been done but better: Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru.
OP: Bad J-Rock
ED: Again bad J-Rock
Potential: 40%

Blood Lad

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a vampire who doesn’t sparkle.
The colour design for this series is really good. It actually looks unique, yet consistent with its use of bright colours that just contrast with each other realyl well in every shot. You have series that look really saturated, and you have this: the complete opposite. Blood Lad is a shounen with lots of meta-humour. I wouldn’t say that it’s a parody, but its entire premise is based on breaking the fourth wall. What stands out the most is a cast of quirky characters: the male lead is not your typical underdog, and the show uses creative plot devices to get some good interaction out of them. As for the series’ flaws… yeah. Let’s just say that in general, I prefer strong female characters. The lead female here is a walking fanservice trophy for the male lead. I’m not sure what the creators wanted to do with her, really: if she’s meant to be a parody of the female lead than she failed completely because she really didn’t do anything in this episode aside from make a few comments that any idiot could have made.
OP: Again great use of colours, but a rather generic shounen opening.
ED: Great looking, but I’m not really feeling the song.
Potential: 75%

Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-Bu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character joins a club in high school.
So… remember the awesome promo-art that this series had? Yeah, they really don’t do anything with that in this episode. Having said that though, this episode did have heart. The set-up may be a bit generic, but you can see that the people from Gainax were inspired to work on this (in comparison, I got the total opposite impression from Medaka Box). Their previous works have shown more than enough times that these guys really like guns, and they wanted to do them justice here, and that passion was something that managed to win me over as well. As for the characters, they still need a bit of work, but they’re definitely not bad, actually. I actually empathized with the shy girl: some of her scenes were done quite nicely. Yeah, the series is obviously a sell-out (let’s have some cute girls with guns fight each other!), and my biggest worry here is keeping things interesting. Gainax ain’t going to have the budget of this episode for the rest of the series, and they’re also not going to suffice by just having a random battle every episode: that’s fun once, but not an entire season, so they really need to focus on that characterization.
OP: Generic opening bleh.
ED: What’s up with those random drawings? Really bad ED otherwise by the way.
Potential: 75%

Fantasista Doll

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets a bunch of dolls to fight for her.
Call me crazy, but I’m going to try and keep up with this series. This show is weird. With that, I don’t mean that strange stuff happens on it, but it’s more like there might be potential hidden behind this one. It’s flawed oh boy, it’s flawed, but not in the ways that I expected it to be. I mean the acting for one is really weird and the lead character behaves in a very strange way to stress, and yet: she isn’t a generic lead. She has a personality, and a backstory. She uses dolls to fight for her, but she also “softof” participates in the battles, albeit in a really stupid way. The dolls themselves as well: their acting is weird, but they don’t try to force their stereotypes down the viewers’ throats. Oh and the music is awesome. It’s this weird project that is in one way or the other supervised by Goro Taniguchi, who is actually really talented, but it’s directed by someone completely different. Something will happen here. The question is what, and whether it’ll be good.
OP: A great musician was at work here, unfortunately the same can’t be said for the vocalists and animators…
ED: Nice art
Potential: 70%

Teekyuu Season 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays tennis
I’ve said this many times before: Mappa get your stuff back together and make an actually serious series here instead of this stuff! I mean this made me laugh hysterically and question my sanity and all, but this is Mappa: they can animate series that most other studios can’t! Leave the Teekyuu stuff to the lesser studios! Anyway, Teekyu. It’s completely random and stupid, yet I laughed a lot yet again, and this one stood out as even one of the best of the series. The general trend of comedy sequels is to either repeat yourself, or take the material of the first season even more to the extreme. Teekyuu seems to have picked option number two, but with this type of series that thrives on complete random humour, adding a bit of insanity actually helped here. The characters branch out into a kindergarten that is lead by one of the most awesome principals. This will be good for my two minutes of insanity each week.
OP: This looks like it was made in an hour… I’m not sure whether it’s a compliment or not…
Potential: 70%

Symphokyushinken Prismonogatari DXD

Short Synopsis: Our lead character goes to school and does stuff.
You know? I’m just lumping all sequels that I don’t care about together for the sake of efficiency. Because really: I tried watching them, but just didn’t have the patience for any of them. Yes, this entry is shallow, but the main factor here is my own patience! My impressions: that Fate Spin-off was chock full of really boring banter and annoying characters. Symphogear wasn’t as stupid as I remember the first season to be, but that left something that just didn’t stand out in any single way, which is still bad. Monogatari started off good by how it described Hanekawa, but then that Mayoi turned up and they started talking about how Araragi molested her and I tuned out. Ro Kyu Bu highlighted progress and was much better than the first episode, but it still was too boring in the end and not my type of series. High School DXD was the worst of the bunch with its boobs and Genshinken was probably the best of the bunch, but I only really liked two characters (Oguie and one of those new girls), while finding the rest (especially that one male) to be too annoying. That’s not enough to make me continue watching something that I haven’t seen the prequel of.
OP: They’re all bad! Even Monogatari’s isn’t up to Shaft’s usual standards with just a collection of random memes.
ED: With none of them I actually got to this point…
Potential: 0%

Dagan Ronpa The Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are imprisoned by a bear.
Persona 4 made a big impression on me. Thanks to it, I now hate Seiji Kishi with passion, even though he does have some good series behind his name (though a fair amount of those are the types of series that are very hard to really screw up). I say this, because Dagan Ronpa has a bear in it. Now, instead of Persona 4 where this was just supposed to be this random side-character, here he is the main villain. And he just doesn’t work in the slightest! Every point at which he appeared and tried to look scary, it just ended up silly and my entire attention was gone again. About the rest of the episode… the thing is that Dagan Ronpa has a really good premise. The way they introduced it here though, could have been much better. For one thing, it just makes no sense whatsoever. Seriously, turn off your suspense of disbelief completely. Deadman Wonderland sounds like the most reasonable thing in the world next to this thing. Second of all: it relies very heavily on stereotypes in this first episode. Now I understand that with a cast of fifteen people, you need to start with caricatures in order to be able to get everyone in and all, but this episode took it too far: the vast majority of the characters just repeat their quirks over and over (fat guy (har har, he likes to eat), scared girl, sceptic guy, muscle guy, aggressive guy, bossy girl, spoiled girl, it’s just too much!). Also, Dagan Ronpa. Are you serious to say that you aim to create this cast of colourful and widely different characters… and yet you pick the main character to be Average McNormalpants? And you aim the female lead to be an idol? Oh come on.
OP: A slide-show that really says nothing about the characters beyond the stereotypes that we’ve seen already.
ED: Just a song with credits, and it’s decent I guess.
Potential: 60%

Love Lab

Short Synopsis: Our lead character joins a club in high school.
Really, don’t be fooled by the seemingly misleading title: this is just another “bunch of girl sit in a club and do nothing”-series, only this time it does sortof have a theme: love. The characters talk about it a lot, despite the fact that there are no males or lesbians in the entire series. And the random club happens to be the student council (not like we haven’t had enough of THOSE series…). Most of the series really is the banter between the two main characters, so yeah; its success depends entirely on whether that is good or not. And it isn’t. It’s too often random, and they just try too hard to be funny. It plays with tropes, but it’s the kind of series that just adheres to the things it parodies, rather than just making fun of them. The animation is good. Much better than this show has any business being. Skip this one, unless you like the genre.
OP: Hey look, it’s the 2518th series that grabbed a copy of Generic Openings 101
ED: “Hey, you know what’s a good idea? Let’s make that one really lame joke even more!”
Potential: 10%