Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some Quick First Impressions: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Yumekui Merry and IS – Infinite Stratos

by psgels, posted in Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Some Quick First Impressions, Yumekui Merry

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an average schoolgirl who becomes a mahou shoujo.
Ah, this one passed the first episode test as well. I was a bit afraid since this is Shaft and all, but this episode was fresh, solid and had none of the things that usually annoy me about them. The soundtrack by Yuki Kajiura is excellent as expected, and the visuals are actually used well here: this show has a good balance between simple, regular character designs on one side, and twisted images and background once the magical world in this show pops up. The creators really tried to make another one of those dark mahou shoujo and they really succeeded in contrasting two extremes with each other. Now, there still is the danger of Madoka becoming too pure and her co lead becoming too perfect and serious, but there’s still plenty of time to flesh out their characters. Overall, I’m impressed. Now I really want to ask Shaft to keep this up, because I don’t want to be disappointed by them for the umpth time.
OP: Yuki Kajiura composed this? Hmm, this is some of her weaker work. Visuals have both neat and cliched ideas?
Potential: 80%

Yumekui Merry

Short Synopsis: Our lead character runs into a dream eating girl.
Now this is more like it! I mean, it’s not like Yumekui merry doesn’t have its cliches: it revolves around teenagers, the male lead has multiple romantic interests including a childhood friend whom he lives with, but unlike Infinite Stratos which offered nothing beyond that, this show makes sure to not glorify these cliches, and put in as much interesting stuff as possible. Seriously, this was an excellent episode with some terrific direction and camera work. The way in which it brought the lead characters’ dream world to life is really well done, and it’s especially good at using these tiny details in its environment, like a random can lying around. The entire episode was chock full of creativity, and the action scenes themselves were stunning. The characterization manages to both create charming characters during the light hearted moments, but also hit hard with the subtle yet powerful emotional scenes. Bring on more giant fish-bones!
OP: No cheesy j-pop! Instead it’s got great background art and a pretty decent tune.
ED: Unfortunately cheesy J-pop, but the visuals are interesting here…
Potential: 90%

IS – Infinite Stratos

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the only guy of his class.
Ah, this is one for the production values. The battle scenes are well directed and exciting and the soundtrack is really solid, courtesy of Hikaru Nanase. … so why was it wasted on this kind of crappy story? I had hoped that this episode would give a more interesting story behind this whole series rather than just the “guy who is surrounded by girls” (mind you, with the right execution it could have become a great series despite these cliches), but this episode was just… unbelievable. It’s entirely about harem hijinks. The antics between the lead characters are all horribly dull and typical, with the same spoiled brats, fangirls, childhood friends, tsunderes and “walk into shower”-scenes that we’ve seen a thousand times before. Beyond that: nothing. Throughout the entire episode, there were no hints whatsoever at anything deeper and the only thing that wasn’t utterly boring was the action scene at the beginning. Even the OP just kept hinting at nothing but silly fights and harem hijinks. This episode seemed to go on for bloody ages because of this. The final nail in this one’s coffin was the very bland characterization: nearly the entire cast is just a walking stereotype and acts incredibly predictable.
OP: Bland J-pop. They got Hikaru Nanase here and they don’t even use her properly…
ED: Even blander.
Potential: 15%

Some Quick First Impressions: Showa Monogatari, Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season and Rio – Rainbow Gate

by psgels, posted in Kimi ni Todoke, Showa Monogatari, Some Quick First Impressions

Showa Monogatari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a regular kid who grew up before WWII.
Whoa, where did this come from? Wasn’t this supposed to not air for three months or something? Anyway, this was a pleasant surprise: it’s basically a slice of life series of a young boy in what I presume to be the part of the Showa Era somewhere before WWII. I’m especially impressed with how much the creators did in just one episode: they showed about him, his friends, his family and even a friend of his sister. It gave all of them a bit of attention and personality, and it even included some good drama that centred around the typical problems that a guy of his age had. By far the worst of this episode was voice acting of the different children that appeared. I have to applaud the creators for making them sound like kids, and the rest of the voice cast is also pretty decent. But the voice actors for the kids just can’t act. This especially hurts when they’re just unable to raise their voice when they’re angry. In any case though, this thing has potential. Whether the second episode airs next week or next year, it’s something to watch our for if you like historic slice of life series.
OP: Minimalistic, but effective.
ED: Neat idea to use a radio tune from those days.
Potential: 80%

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hardly ever appear in the start of this new season.
Okay. So it’s been more than nine months since Kimi ni Todoke first ended. The staff has had plenty of time to prepare for the second season, so naturally they start off with a recap. Yeah, this episode pretty much retells Kurumi’s side of the story. But then again, like with a lot of other series that take FOREVER to get from A to B, it wasn’t really bad for a recap: it neatly compacted Kurumi’s story into a digestible 20 minutes, rather than the seemingly endless 17 episodes that it took up in the first season. And also, this episode wasn’t bad at all in the technical terms. My problems with this series really lie when you look at the big picture: it’s pretty much angst, angst and more angst; Sawako is too pure, Kazehaya is too perfect and the angst itself is decent, but it lacks fleshing out and therefore it has no chance of remaining fresh for a whopping 25 episodes. Let alone this second season!
OP: Granted, by far the best theme song this series has shown. Neat visuals.
ED: Bland song, neat visuals.
Potential: 50%

Rio – Rainbow Gate

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a really famous dealer at a casino city.
My biggest concern about Rio Rainbow Gate was whether or not it had its mind in the gutter. As it turns out, it did: the camera just refuses to focus on anything other than Rio’s ass or boobs and the entire premise of the show is meant to get her into as many sexy outfits as possible. Beyond that, the direction for the most part is also pretty bland and the acting also leaves a lot to be desired. As for the entertainment value this show has some potential, though: the climax of this episode was ridiculously stupid, but surprisingly enjoyable in a “so bad it’s good”-way, including a pretty creative depiction of Poker. At this point, the only way that this show can make it is as a guilty pleasure, but for that it needs to pack variety: think of many crazy anime variants of casino games and vastly different premises other than “let’s stuff Rio in the umpth sexy outfit here”. At the very least, this show really knows that it’s a silly fanservice show and there are no signs whatsoever of teenaged romance or an annoying male lead or shallow drama.
ED: Another one of those boring fanservice EDs.
Potential: 25%

Some Quick First Impressions: Starry Sky

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Starry Sky

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student who is in love with a cute girl.
Oh lord. You remember this thing that harem series really like to pull? The flashback to when the lead couple still were children, they met each other once and this left such a strong impression on the girl that she can’t stop thinking about anything besides the male lead for the rest of her life? Well, this episode was the reverse harem version of this. And while the episode was only 10 minutes long, it was ENTIRELY DEVOTED to that bloody overused trope. This is the ultimate fantasy for these insecure teenaged girls: a guy you met years ago still loves you and can’t think about anything but you. That’s also his only trait, by the way. Considering how all of the other episodes are going to focus on the other bishies of this show (there are a whopping TWELVE of them, meaning ten minutes per bishie), this episode pretty much spent its entire time glorifying an overused cliche. The episode also tried to play this as straight as possible: it really believed that this was actually a plausible scenario. I guess I don’t have to say that the result was ridiculously cheesy. The voice acting also was typical bishie schlock, so stay away from this one. Gah, even Neo Angelique was better than this.
ED: This one pretty much summarized the entire series, with really cheesy Engrish quotes that didn’t go through a spell check (“Distiny – I don’t want to be bound by anything!” “How can I COME to BELIEVE in YOU?”).
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Haiyoru: Nyaruani

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Haiyoru! Nyaruani

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a lovecraftian alien. Or at least that’s what she supposed to be.
This was just terrible, in every single way. This episode was pretty much three minutes of random talking with the characters trying to make jokes, with a huge emphasis on “trying”. The jokes were lame as hell, and to make matters worse the voice cast was completely hamming it up, making the jokes even worse. The animation is terrible. What happened to the times in which flash anime like Hanoka had some actual ambitions. Just skip this. What kind of TV station is crazy enough to air this kind of crap anyway? Even though this is the first new series of the Winter Season, I have no doubt that this will be the worst out of all of them.
ED: Why is this so long? Why the heck does this have conventional animation? It’s still crap, though.
Potential: -50%

Some Quick First Impressions: Fortune Arterial, To Aru Majutsu no Index II and Togainu no Chi

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Fortune Arterial

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a transfer student.
The thing with this season is that the worst series are far better than usual. There were indeed some series without any potential, but at least there are no series that are outright insults, like KissXSis, Ladies Versus Butlers, Shukufuku no Campanella or Chu Bra. Fortune Arterial, the last series left that could turn out to be a complete disaster, also turned out to be better than expected. Sure, it’s by far the most generic looking series of the season (blame that to ZECXS; I have no idea why they’re still stuck in 2003), and it has quite its share of harem cliches: there’s the transfer student, there are vampires, the student council, walking into each other naked and of course the childhood friends. This episode was more concerned with introducing its characters than parading all over their cliches like it didn’t know anything better to do. The naked scene was a prank, rather than completely forced and random, and the dialogue felt quite natural. The biggest problem is that the lead female is a very typical tsundere, along with a bunch of other voice actresses who can and will get on your nerves. Still, I have to be fair here: the final thirty seconds grabbed me by surprise.
OP: An OP for a harem show in which the singer doesn’t try to be as squeaky as possible?
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 35%

To Aru Majutsu no Index II

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with a girl who is easily kidnapped.
Overall, this was quite a solid first episode: it had a nice combination between action, comedy and character-building. The new bad guy who appeared had quite an interesting story, and while Index was as annoying as ever, I do have to admit that Touma knows how to make a good joke. I mean, it’s been 24 episodes and his “misfortune”-shtick still hasn’t gotten old. The animation has been better in this series (but then again, when the first season aired, it aired in a season in which JC Staff had three other shows, all of which still have really solid graphics). In terms of potential, I really want to see some more depth in the rest of this series, especially in the character-department. The first season also had a interesting setting, but it only scratched the surface. I expect this season to delve deeper in its potential.
OP: Disappointing in terms of graphics, but the song itself is nice.
ED: The CG could have been more subtle
Potential: 75%

Togainu no Chi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is arrested for a murder he didn’t commit.
Here is one series that can go anywhere, all depending on its plot. The animation unfortunately isn’t too pretty, the characters still are pretty static and the plot also could go anywhere, from bad to good. This really was a first impression that didn’t really try to start off with a bang, and so we get a bit of a dull introduction and set-up in which the lead character only gets to fight a bunch of stereotypical punks who have nothing to do with the story, and we only get one glance of what looks to be the major villain. My biggest fear for this series at the moment is a lack of detail: this episode didn’t really put much attention in anything, really: it just told its story, but hardly did anything extra. The characters are standard, the setting is standard apocalyptic, but we hardly get any details on how people are living their lives other than random street fights. What keeps me interested in this episode was that it did create a lot of potential: there’s a ton of room for a grand and interesting storyline being built up behind the shadows, and I’m interested what it’s going to be about. The direction needs to try harder the next episodes, though.
OP: Started off well, until the vocalist opened his mouth.
ED: This one works well. Nice song, simple but interesting visuals.
Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge and Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is working as a waitress.
I’d wish that I could rant about Shaft once more here, but no. Instead, my biggest issue with this episode was that it just went on and on about how waitresses in a maid cafe should behave. It’s another one of those topics aimed solely at otaku and for which I have no interest in whatsoever. Apart from that, though, this was probably the most down to earth Shaft series I’ve seen in a long while now. It still has some of the staples that make their shows so annoying, like the yelling and overacting and the chapter title screens, but again: you can really see that they’ve finally gotten themselves a good budget here, and the animation was much better than what you’d usually expect from them. If you ignore the hordes of maid cafe references and the overacting though, this was a pretty decent episode that simply showed a bunch of people talk to each other and have fun. There is a good chance that this will get boring within a few episodes, but for now this episode was enjoyable enough.
OP: Really good animation. Even for Shaft’s usual standards, this was great.
ED: Obviously inspired by a certain show, but the song is surprisingly good.
Potential: 35%

Arakawa Under the Bridge X Bridge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character hangs around with a bunch of weird people around a bridge.
I did not preview Arakawa’s second season because I’m really biased here: I have yet to encounter a Shaft sequel that did not disappoint me. In fact, the Shaft Sequels are the biggest reason for my huge dislike towards them. But okay, if you really want me to preview its first episode, then I’ll give it a whirl. First of all, I do want to say that Shaft did put the earnings of Bakemonogatari’s DVD sales to good use: this episode was much better animated than expected, and overall it looked pretty good, combining actual animation with Shaft’s visual style works well. But here is something I really want to ask the people who did finish the first season (I never watched past episode 1): is this show supposed to be not funny? I mean, all I saw in this episode was a bunch of characters screaming, yelling and overacting. I could see that they tried to make jokes at times, but I don’t recall even chuckling throughout this episode: everything just felt so forced and humourless. This episode did try to reveal some new things about its characters, but half of those things make me wonder why they weren’t revealed in the first season. I think the worst sketch here was that marathon, especially considering how ridiculously predictable the humour was. I guess that the part I liked best was the very last scene, in which we see what Nino’s dream was about. So is Arakawa Under the Bridge more about the former, or the latter?
OP: Amazing visuals. But then again, it was directed by Ryousuke Nakamura, a guy I can’t hype enough.
Potential: 10%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective who has magical powers. Oh wait, No, she isn’t! Oh wait, I guess she is!
This show is strange. No, really. I expected some generic moe detective series, but this series blew all my expectations by being so ridiculously stupid and nonsensical. I mean, what mahou shoujo randomly strips all of the powers of the lead characters, right at the first episode? This show makes no sense whatsoever, and listing everything that’s wrong with this episode would take an entire essay. At the same time, that also is the charm of this series: it simply had a bit of fun with its characters, it was trying out quite a few interesting ideas, ad it didn’t care in the slightest about making sense or not. This episode was fast-paced and kind of fun, and I enjoyed it. But yeah, there is no way for the creators to keep up with this. The characters are as flat as a pancake, and the reason this episode was fun to watch was because the creators just kept throwing new and surprising stuff at us. Although it will be quite an interesting series if the creators manage to keep the surprises coming throughout the entire series, I see no way for them to be able to do that. It is directed by the director of Lilpri, after all. That one too had a very charming first episode, only to immediately degenerate into nothing but boring fillers afterwards.
OP: I don’t think that the creators couldn’t have been more generic, even if they tried.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 35%

Some Quick First Impressions: The World God Only Knows, Motto To Love-Ru and You Are Umasou

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

The World God Only Knows

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is really good at hentai games…
The reason why I was not looking forward to this series is because it’s got a bit of a “dime a dozen”-premise. Last year we saw the cat version of this with Nyan Koi, and that turned out to be really uninspired, so I really wanted to see with my own eyes what this show would end up as. Overall, while I can’t say that I immediately understand why so many people are looking forward to it, I can say that I’m very intrigued, and this episode was much better than I expected. It had quite a bit of creativity in its scenario, and to be honest, the creators did a decent job of getting a girl to fall in love with the male lead. In any case it’s far more plausible than most other harems. What I’m especially interested in is what the heck the rest of this series is going to look like? My main problem is that ghost girl, who feels rather one-sided, but overall, I’m impressed.
OP: I like the visuals here.
Potential: 65%

Motto To Love-Ru

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a typical loser who is loved by about six different girls.
The good news: Motto To Love-Ru is not as bad as Ladies versus Butlers. It at least has something that resembles a narrative and at least the combined intelligence of the cast can be able to outwit a baboon’s backside. The visuals look fairly decent, and especially the far away shots are nicely animated, so at least we don’t get a repeat of that complete disaster here. That’s pretty much where my praises end, though. To Love-Ru still remains a bad harem that is in no way worth watching. Rather than being a show with fanservice in it, it’s a show that is completely built around showing its female cast in awkward romantic situations. It doesn’t make the slightest effort to blend things in naturally, it just throws the cast into a bath house from out of nowhere, and makes the cast bump into each other in the most ridiculous places (a children’s play house? Really?). We’re 26 episodes further, and yet the characters act exactly the same from what I remember from the first season, absolutely no progression seems to have been booked, other than the introduction of a bunch of new characters, who all are simple stereotypical paper bags. What also really bothers me is that Xebec is pretty much outputting the same show twice here this season: both MM and To Love-Ru are harems, both are centred around a high school and both involve beating up the lead character. The biggest difference is that MM focuses more on the beating up and To Love-Ru focuses more on the harem. Really, Xebec: what happened?
OP: A decent J-Pop song. I’ve heard worse.
ED: Again, as bad as the characters are, this one does try to portray them all-right, I guess.
Potential: 0%

You are Umasou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a dinosaur.
Umasou is a series with five-minute episodes, aimed at 3-year old kids and animated in what looks like flash. It’s a bit of a weird story about a tyrannosaurus rex who ends up adopting a baby ankylosaurus, and it’s pretty much told in the style of a picture book. It definitely has its charms, and I can see how little kids will love it. For the older audiences, though… yeah. It’s very much like series as Chebrashka Arere and Table Cat: fun to watch for a few minutes, but not really worth it in the long run due to the incredibly simple and childish storylines and characters.
Potential: 10%

Some Quick First Impressions: Shinryaku! Ika-Musume, Otome Youkai Zakuro and Yosuga no Sora

by psgels, posted in Shinryaku! Ika Musume, Some Quick First Impressions

Shinryaku! Ika-Musume

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to take over the world.
It’s awesome to see what a good comedy this turned into. It did just about everything right here with its first episode: it introduced the characters, played around with their characteristics, made sure that they’re not just based around one gimmick but have multiple sides, and it comes with a lot of different and clever little jokes. From watching this episode, I’ve gotten very positive about this series having enough inspiration for at least thirteen episodes: none of the jokes here felt really repetitive, and instead they were all building further upon each other, rather than this series bombarding us with as many random jokes as possible. The characters all have this thing that sets them apart, but they’re at the same time down to earth: essentially this is just a story about a squid girl who starts working with a bunch of siblings who run a bar at the seaside, and they actually have some pretty normal conversations in between the jokes, who both serve as building up the jokes and building their characters. I’m very positive about this, and this could very well be the best comedy of the season.
OP: Mostly foreshadowing a bunch of the jokes of the series, but again: it looks very diverse here.
ED: A decent ballad.
Potential: 80%

Otome Youkai Zakuro

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights evil youkai.
With these first impressions: I don’t just look at the first episodes themselves, but also their potential, and that’s where my biggest issue with Otome Youkai Zakuro lies. I mean, this episode really was excellent, it had a great chemistry between the characters and gave an interesting spin to the youkai genre by just throwing all pretense out and just giving everyone the ability to see them, rather than trying to make one or two main characters feel special. Suddenly, we have a clash of different cultures that was definitely interesting to watch. However, I feel no potential from this one: the chemistry was based on a bunch of gimmicks that will become boring if they get abused too much. This episode gave no indication whether or not this series will use these characters optimally, or just dabble on with them. See, with series like Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, you could really see that the creators make use of every moment of their limited time to add more details to the story and characters. Otome Youkai Zakuro meanwhile dabbles often in useless comedy that, while funny, also can become a problem as soon as it starts getting boring. Still, my biggest fear for this was Chiaki Kon, but she really pulled off a great first episode here. This show can be a hit if it manages to use its episodes right.
OP: A decent OP with quite some solid visuals.
ED: Uninspired, both in the music and the visuals, which seem to be just copied from the manga.
Potential: 70%

Yosuga no Sora

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves back into the town he grew up in with his twin sister.
God, not even more incest? As if we didn’t have enough of that already. Still, I have to grant this series this: they really seem to want to be doing something with the brother-sister love, instead of either parading around with how it’s supposed to be “daring”, or just inserting stuff for the heck of it: the incest is far from the biggest problem with this series, and works well enough because the brother and sister in question are well portrayed. the main problem with this series is that just about every other character isn’t. They’re all random harem stereotypes, all of them try way too hard and therefore are very badly acted, which only makes them more annoying. This series tries to force an entire harem around the lead male that has no business doing there, and it uses just about every cliche and superfluous plot twist to get girls to fall in love with him: there are a bunch of childhood friends, plus more “loves at first sight” than you can shake a stick at. Overall, this could have been a decent incest story, but it loses a lot of points for trying way too hard.
OP: A decent ballad to start the series with.
ED: I like EDs that show a bit of the past of the characters.
Potential: 35%

Some Quick First Impressions: Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo and Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake Nai

by psgels, posted in Hakuouki, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Some Quick First Impressions

Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is surrounded by the Shinsengumi.
I watch these first episodes of second seasons of series that I originally dropped, in order to check whether or not I missed something: did they actually improve through their course? How have things progressed so far? In the past, I have revisited a few series that I originally dismissed this way. So, what does Hakuouki do? A recap; perfect. I dropped Hakuouki after episode five, and after watching this recap, I have to admit that I probably dropped it at its weakest episode. This episode just kept the twists coming here, which were actually quite interesting. They were a bit cheesy, and I saw little change in the villains, but the story turned out better than I expected: this is not like Vampire Knight which devolved into nothing more than angst and bishies. This second season also promises to be a lot more varied here. I still have two problems, though. The first is that this recap episode nearly worked a little too well. It perfectly summarized twelve freaking episodes in just twenty minutes. These pacing issues also were part of my issues with the first episode: it was just so damn slow at times, with little to make up for it. The second problem is the female lead. I like her premise, but the creators forced her too much into the harem role: she has to be everywhere, she has to be involved with everyone, and her whining holds back scenes that she has no business in whatsoever. For me to actually finish the second season of this series, I demand two things: make every moment count, and develop Chizuru significantly.
ED: Decent.
Potential: 40%

Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a detective who can see spirits.
Yeah, you don’t want to watch this series as a murder mystery. At that area, it’s nowhere near as good as series as Ayatsuri Sakon: the introduction moves too fast, the culprit is revealed way too soon and at no point does it try to make the viewer wondering what’s going on, or unravel clues. Instead, this show is more of a thriller and character study. When looking at it that way, the fast pacing is going to be interesting for the future of this series, it will be more able to concentrating on “why is everything happening”, rather than “what’s going on”, and with the right execution it will be a good way to spend its limited time of 13 episodes on its characters. Koichi Mashimo’s absence on this Bee-Train series hurts, though: I’m really missing his characterization here, and that’s what worries me the most about this series. Still, even though the characters could have been better portrayed, I’m not denying here that this wasn’t a good episode: it started off slow, but it steadily got better and better, resulting in a great climax for a first episode that really made me intrigued, especially when it got all artsy with the buildings and the random people. The soundtrack is not as good as usual Bee-Train series, but nevertheless it’s among the best of the season when it finally shows its real colours.
OP: Quite intense, and surprisingly varied in tone and atmosphere for an OP. Works well.
ED: Beautifully sung. I like the concept of combining pictures from the pasts of the characters.
Potential: 80%

Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake Nai

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has a weird sister.
There is a new male lead cliche that has been emerging during the past number of years to join the ranks of “your typical loser”. I’d like to call him the “Kyon-clone”: neither a loser nor too popular, he snarks himself through the series and tries to be the voice of reason amongst a cast of weird people with his voice acting having nowhere near the charms that Kyon had. It’s a cliche I see quite a while used in harems, and it’s starting to get annoying. Ore no Imouto has another one, and he does little to set himself apart. In any case, I was really fearing this series, though THANK GOD it’s not as abysmal as KissXSis was; there was little fanservice and the two siblings didn’t seem to be in love. Instead, it’s more like Nyan Koi: occasionally able to raise a chuckle, but most of all boring. For now, at least, because I have one HUGE problem with the way this episode portrayed the lead characters’ little sister: she’s a freaking tsundere! I appreciate this series for including a bit of wit in its dialogue and all, but they really weren’t subtle with those hints!
ED: It’s more like some insert song than an ED, but it’s generic J-pop anyway.
Potential: 10%

Some Quick First Impressions: Star Driver, Yumeiro Patissiere Professional and Letter Bee Reverse

by psgels, posted in Letter Bee, Some Quick First Impressions, Star Driver

Star Driver

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary pretty boy.
Hell yeah! This is the series I’ve been looking forward to the most this season, and it does not disappoint. It’s a bit silly and nonsensical, but it really turned those would-be flaws into a really charming series, full of neat ideas, homages and a diverse cast of characters. You can really see the influences of the guy who wrote Utena, and at the same time this series packs enough new stuff with a delightfully refreshing and upbeat mecha series. The direction is also excellent, and makes optimal use of its time, the characters and really manages to make their charms stand out as much as possible. And the animation! Without a doubt the best of the season so far. Characters move very smoothly, and the show is chock full of interesting poses, and especially the mecha fight in this episode looked absolutely gorgeous. This episode was stylish, adorable and while the story may not make the most amount of sense, that really doesn’t matter in the big picture here.
OP: Great to see an OP with some actual visual inspiration, rather than doing what every other OP is already doing.
ED: Neat animation, though that pop song is rather generic.
Potential: 90%

Yumeiro Patissiere

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a high school student of a pastry school.
I watched about five episodes of the first season of Yumeiro Patissiere, but ended up dropping it because it was getting repetitive and I saw no real future in it. I did not expect this second season. At all. I’m not sure whether I’ll end up watching the first season (50 episodes is really long), but this episode nevertheless was really good, showing just about every character significantly grown up, heading into the direction of their dreams. The cast surely looks a lot more diverse, interesting and colourful than what I watched of the first season. I’m really surprised here. There are some downsides, though. the most notable is the portrayal of Americans: what the heck was that?! I guess I’ve been spoiled a bit too much by Giant Killing and all, but the American in this episode had just about every stereotype you can get with the portrayal of Americans in anime. And he’s supposed to be a major love interest? On top of that, I also don’t quite get the premise of this new season. Despite what the title of the title may suggest, the lead character is only in high school, but she and three other students are asked to run a street full of pastry shops. Now, this has some interesting potential as you never see series about managing a large amount of shops and all, but I really wonder how the creators are going to solve this without introducing a a huge amount of shop employees (we saw absolutely no hints in the OP about it), and why they would leave such an important task to a bunch of high school students, despite their talents.
OP: Probably the biggest surprise in terms of OPs this year. It’s rather weird, yet surprisingly good and lively.
ED: Again, I expected something really generic and instead got a bunch of bicycles flying around in the air. Definitely better than your average ED.
Potential: 65%

Letter Bee Reverse

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is still an incredible crybaby.
I know that this series is cheating a bit and all, but I see no way in which Letter Bee Reverse is not going to have my favourite opening episode of this season. I mean, after such an incredible cliff-hanger, the creators made this episode into an aftermath that worked better than I could have expected. I seriously teared up at seeing Lag Seeing and Nichi, after what happened at the end of the first season, and this episode really gave both of them the time to really develop their feelings. I mean seriously, Letter Bee is a unique little shounen series that’s mostly plagued by the fact that the fillers are a bit annoying to get through. The plot, the setting, the characters: they’re all much more interesting than your average shounen series, and this episode could have been no better proof to that. I mean, I can only imagine how amazing this second season will be if the creators end up toning down the fillers here.
OP: I can only imagine what kind of spoilers this OP is trying to refer to.
ED: Screw Naruto, screw Bleach, I’m really glad to see that Studio Pierrot have finally found themselves another series to show off their creativity in art. This ED looks absolutely gorgeous.
Potential: 100%