Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some Quick First Impressions: KissXSis, Koihime Musou – Otome Tairan and Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

KissXSis

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live inside a house with two cute girls who pretend to be his sister.
Well… it’s porn. It’s as simple as that. Are people really going to check this show out for a reason other than the teenaged nudity? At the least, I do appreciate that the worst stuff in this season comes first. And yeah, this episode was pretty much even worse than the other shows in this post, and that has to say something. It’s full of the most ridiculous stereotypes that just about every fanservice show has. It’s been one episode and the lead character already has a harem of four girls who adore him for no reason whatsoever. These characters seriously have no lives. It did try to out-gross other fanservice shows with the pants sniffing and all, but seriously. With Chu Bra and Seikon no Qwaser last season, who’s it going to fool?
ED: Godawful J-pop and abysmal CG.
Potential: -20%

Koihime Musou Otome Tairan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character goes on an adventure to search for a bunch of random items to save some random woman.
Again: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Again: find some other bloody novel to parody! In any case, the third season of Koihime Musou is exactly what this series has always been: realyl stupid slice of life. And seriously, these morons really take the cake when it comes to a lack of brainpower as they believe that someone with stomach cramps as pregnant. Well, i guess that stupid girls are really popular with otaku, which is why these kinds of shows keep getting made, and if this is your kind of humour, then good for you. but this episode felt so unbelievably boring to me. Slice of life series are great when the characters themselves are. With these stereotypical idiots however… ugh.
OP: Cheesy J-Rock
ED: Godawful J-pop.
Potential: 0%

Ikkitousen Xtreme Xecutor

Short Synopsis: Our lead character thankfully is completely absent in this episode.
Well, I’m at least glad that the worst shows of this season get released first, so let’s just get this over with. The only thing I’ve seen of Ikkitousen are the first episodes of the second and third season (both were godawful), so most of my comments here are about the execution, rather than the story that I know nothing about. Still, I do want to say that the thing I hate most about this season isn’t the fanservice or moe, but the truckload of Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Seriously, pick some other franchise to parody. In any case, for Ikkitousen this was actually a decent episode. I expected the same kind of crap that the previous seasons became infamous for, and while the acting still is pretty bad, this actually was an episode in which you can at least shut your brains off and enjoy it as a random action show. The build-up was nice enough, and the lead characters this time thankfully were much less obnoxious as some of the other paper bags that this show has to work with. Nevertheless, the standards to which I’m comparing this are really low. This episode wasn’t abysmal, but one third of it was recap, the jokes were corny at best and the non-action scenes were pretty cheesy. Also, are these men really supposed to be high school students? I mean, how many grades did these punks repeat anyway?
ED: Boring J-Rock
Potential: 5%

Some Quick First Impressions: Hipira-Kun and Working!!

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Hipira-Kun

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the prince of vampires!
This is another one for the people who like the kids’ stuff, but it’s surprisingly well made. I originally didn’t give it a chance because… yeah. It’s a kids’ show about vampires. Prior to the past season, kids shows were nearly all somewhat mediocre. The art direction for Hipira-kun kicks ass, though. It may be entirely in 3D, but the creators did really well in making it look cool. The direction is also very dynamic, where you’ll often see lots of things happen at the same time. Episodes are only five minutes long, so it’s not really a big commitment to watch this either. Interestingly, it’s created by the same guy who did Deathtic 4 of Genius Party. To be honest, I enjoyed this episode more, although the story is still rather silly.
Potential: 50%

Working!!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character starts working at a restaurant with strange people in it.
To be honest, the first show to debut this spring season is a disappointment. I was looking forward to this series because it promised to be another mature slice of life series that focuses on actual adults… and yet the main characters turn out to be teenagers. The lead female was too much of a complete moron in this episode, and the main character can’t seem to decide whether he wants to play the straight man or not. The biggest problem with this first episode however was that most of the characters rely too much on their quirks for their characterizations. Especially that incredibly shy girl who hits men was way too exaggerated.
ED: Meh, another one of those obnoxious J-pop songs.
Potential: 30%

Some Quick First Impressions: Heart Catch Precure

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Heart Catch Precure

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the umpth incarnation of the legendary mahou shoujo.
Holy crap! Pretty Cure has always been a franchise of cheap mahou shoujo series; that’s why I initially dismissed this series. But oh my god. This episode was just awesome: it was everything a mahou shoujo should be! Just one look at that opening scene should tell enough: the utterly gorgeous character-designs, the animation, the music and the tension. Everything was just wonderfully done in this episode. The humour was really funny and adorable. But the best part were the facial expressions: just look at how many different and expressive emotions they managed to convey in just one episode! Seriously, this episode took me by an utter surprise. The question now is: does it also have a good plan for the next 49 episodes. Precure has been… notorious for its repetition, however if it’s really the intention of the creators to finally come up with a good series, then I’m in!
OP: Fun and catchy.
ED: The ugliest part of this show.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick First Impressions: Nodame Cantabile – Finale

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Nodame Cantabile – Finale

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is studying hard.
Well, the big question with this series is of course: is it going to recapture the magic of the stellar first season, or is it simply going to turn into a nice though uneventful romantic comedy of the second season. The big problem here is Chiaki Kon, as she’s well on her way to become Shinbo II in the way that she’s been directing way too many series for the past two years. This episode started off pretty nice, setting up the premise for this season: Nodame getting her own concert. It’s about time for her to really develop, though, because I’m starting to get annoyed with her antics.
OP: Decent, but not very impressive.
ED: A quiet ballad, but again nothing special.
Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Hanamaru Yochien, Seikon no Qwaser and Kaito Reinya

by psgels, posted in Hanamaru Youchien, Some Quick First Impressions

Haramaru Yochien

Short Synopsis: Our lead character starts his new job at a kindergarten for moeblobs.
First, let me say this: this show rocks for having absolutely no teenagers in them! It only focuses on young adults and 4-year-old kids, while teenagers only appear in a few flashbacks. Aside from that, it was a bit of a strange series; the best way to describe it would be a cross between Potemayo and Kodomo no Jikan. It has the moeblobs from Potemayo if they were to 3 years older, and it has a similar teacher to Kodomo no Jikan, even including a similar love-interest of his. The biggest problem with this sereis is obviously that most of the characters are too one-sided or stereotypical, but it does work. This episode was enjoyable slice of life. I especially enjoyed those small scenes after school. What this series needs to do is to somehow remain as light-hearted and enjoyable as it was here, not repeat itself too much, and flesh out the cast beyond the stereotypes that we’ve seen so far. If it’s going to focus on the romance, then I hope for something similar to Yume de Aetara (the OVA, not the TV-series. By GOD, not the TV-series).
ED: This is why voice actresses that pretend to be little kids should never sing.
Potential: 50%

Seikon no Qwaser

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to protect her seemingly retarded sister as much as possible.
Ugh… that sister. What a horrible voice actress she received. Just about everything about her is annoying. Apart from that, this episode was decent. There’s potential for a decent action-series, although the direction was flawed at times (one moment the camera pans across a classroom, and the next shot from out of nowhere a girl with a ridiculous pink hairstyle just appears). About half the cast is interesting, while the rest of the cast are just dull stereotypes with a one-sided personality. The lead character herself is decent, but has a nasty tendency to overact. For this series to work, it’s really going to have to put in effort to correctly pace its storyline, and not waste time on pointless beach, hot spring and pool episodes.
OP:
ED: What was the mindset the creators were in when they came up with these visuals?
Potential: 30%

Kaito Reinya

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a phantom thief in the city with the most incompetent police.
There’s an art to making a good comedy: actually making it FUNNY. That’s something that Kaito Reinya completely fails at. It’s full of corny and overused jokes, the slapstick with the mouse is so bad that it becomes horrible, and the constant references to phantom thieves are uninspired at best. I guess that this series’ selling poing is that it’s fully animated in flash, but even that looks lazy: Hanoka, which was produced three years earlier, looked much better than this uninspired… thing.
OP: Obnoxious explanation of the premise of the show.
ED: Not really an ED, more like just a credit role.
Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ookami Kakushi, Dance in the Vampire Bund and Omamori Himari

by psgels, posted in Ookami Kakushi, Some Quick First Impressions

Ookami Kakushi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves into a new town and immediately gets himself a new girlfriend.
Yeah, the thing with this season is that just about every show has some sort of overused anime cliche, even the good ones. In any case, the best way to describe this episode was: intriguing. It was basically mostly introductory with a lot of slice of life and a few hints here and there that the town that the main character moved into is screwed up. It’s very promising, the characters are very moeified, but it’s not like they’re stereotypes and they’ve got potential to grow and develop. It also has the best soundtrack I’ve heard so far this season. Now, the question is mostly going to be: is it the creators’ intention to fully animate this story, or are they just going to stop in the middle?
OP: Yuki Kajiura delivers one of the best OPs of the new season.
ED: Pretty decent ballad.
Potential: 70%%

Dance in the Vampire Bund

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the leader of the Vampires. And a little girl.
The biggest problem with this series is of course going to be Shinbo: is he going to be able to adapt this story properly, or is he just going to repeat himself and focus on the complete wrong parts of the story? I remember the last time he tried to do a series with a little girl who was a vampire (Tsukuyomi Moonphase), which turned out to be a pain to sit through. Though granted, this episode gave a much better first impression. There’s no way to measure it up to the rest of the series, because it was clearly an introductory episode, but let me say the following: if the rest of the episodes are going to be as interesting as this episode, then we’ve got ourselves a success. The TV-program about the existence of vampires was a nice touch, but none of the main characters really got a lot of screentime.
ED: Boring J-rock.
Potential: 50%

Omamori Himari

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to be protected by a hot chick.
Now this is really is one of those shows that I’d label as terrible. A few cliches here and there doesn’t usually hurt, but when a series packs a ton of cliches EVERY… SINGLE… MINUTE… then it becomes a huge problem. This series rips off just about everything in this episode from other harem shows. The cat allergy? Hello, Nyan Koi. The hot chick with mysterious powers that suddenly protects the lead characters? How often haven’t we seen that one before? The childhood friend who is in love with the lead character and wakes him up in the morning? Come on, please. Probably the most blatant part is the set of character-designs that it shamelessly ripped off 11Eyes: did it seriously think to get away with the lead character, who looks like a more energetic Yuka with only a different hair and eye colour? And how about that teacher, who also looks EXACTLY the same aside from her hair and eye colours? For the most part of this season, I’m being more lenient than usual because how week it’d otherwise become, but this is just nothing. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen before taken to the extreme, the build-up is abysmal. Only go for this one if you’re a hardcore romantic comedy fan or just like to see boobs or panty-shots.
ED: Obnoxious J-pop. Blegh.
Potential: 0%%

Some quick First Impressions: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu, Durarara!!, Gag Manga Biyori +

by psgels, posted in Durarara, Some Quick First Impressions

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an idiot and the smartest girl in school is in love with him.
I have to admit: when this episode started with the lead female who kept having what sounded like orgasms until she fainted, I didn’t have much faith. But what do you know, it turned out to be a parody. Seriously, despite the high school cliches this episode was fun to watch, not just because it kept poking fun at them, but also because of the high production values and its concept that’s completely ridiculous, but a war between classrooms is a somewhat creative way of spending your time in high school. The cliches are definitely there (I’m mostly annoyed by the two lead characters), but I’m glad enough to see that we finally have a high school series that tries something different.
OP: Great animation and a decent song to boot.
ED: Catchy and actually nice art.
Potential: 50%

Durarara!!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a socially awkward teenager and has just moved to a new city.
And here we probably have the most-hyped series of the season, and with the staff behind it I too have been looking forward to it. The result is very promising; while this episode in itself wasn’t exactly awesome, it was great at building up: the dialogue was inspired, the action was short but sweet, the music was really good and the whole city that this episode took place in was detailed and gave off the feeling that it was alive and an actual modern city. I know the director (I’ve seen tons of series from him, and there hasn’t been any series that I didn’t like among them); this guy is terrific at building-up, so I have no doubt that this is going to be a great series, and the question is more going to be like “how good will this end up?”, rather than “will it be good at all?”. Right now, the things that could get in its way are its stereotypical portrayal of punks and foreigners (something that tons of anime suffer from), and how the lead character is surprisingly cliched (see synopsis).
OP: Great music, but the vocal seems a bit of a miscast.
ED: Solid ED, even though it’s a bit too poppy for my tastes.
Potential: 100%

Gag Manga Biyori +

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a famous French painter and has issues.
Okay, so this is actually the first thing I’ve seen from the Gag Manga Biyori franchise. Now that I watched it… I can only describe it as madness. This episode was just crazy in every single way, but I actually liked it a lot. The jokes were… creative to say the least and the dialogue is surprisingly complex for a supposed comedy. It also really helps that it’s got what’s probably the most consistent comedy-director behind it: Akitaro Daichi.
OP: Nice enough opening for a comedy anime. And completely random as well.
ED: Those lyrics… I’m speechless.
Potential: 80%

Some Quick first Impressions: Sora no Oto, Cobra the Animation, Reform Withuot Wasted Draws – The Legend of Koizumi

by psgels, posted in Cobra The Animation, Some Quick First Impressions, Sora no Oto

Sora no Oto

Short Synopsis: Our lead character wants to learn to play the trumpet.
Haha! Finally a good show this season! I like how this series created its own city with its own culture and customs, which will prove to be very interesting if explored correctly by the rest of this series. The lead character is obviously moe, but likable, and definitely not among the stereotypes that give moe a bad name: she has a potentially interesting background, she’s got a goal that’s she’s willing to work hard for. If the creators write the rest of the series right then we could have a potential gem here. I also love the soundtrack (French lyrics! With an actual French guy singing them!). It’s not without its problems, though. It’s a bit cheesy at times, and that legend that tells about the five girls… it’s a shame that shows are still relying on such an overused plot device. Still, this should be relatively minor if the rest of the series gets developed properly, and doesn’t get stuck inside pool, beach and hot spring episodes.
OP: Great! Gentle and upbeat, a contender for the best OP of the season.
ED: This one’s obnoxious J-rock, though.
Potential: 70%

Cobra the Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead character kicks ass and gets lots of women.
So after two OVAs, Cobra finally got his own remake TV-show. I didn’t really like the OVAs, but thankfully the story in this episode was much better built up than that of the OVAs. Here you can really see that it made use of its extra time now. I also admit that the soundtrack is very nice and great for building up tensions. This episode was far from perfect, though. It’s pretty silly, but for a show that seems to be geared at entertainment, the animation is pretty bad, and the villains are just nonsensical (Haha! I have a hostage! Now let me release her and flee like a coward!). The action-scenes don’t make any sense and are poorly built up, and if the rest of the series is like this then I feel like it’s not going to work.
Edit: I just noticed that Osamu Dezaki is doing the screenplay and storyboard. What happened to him,? He could have made the visuals far more interesting to watch with this limited budget.
OP: Terrible lyrics, but pretty good sound.
ED: Decent enough ballad.
Potential: 30%

Reform Withuot Wasted Draws – The Legend of Koizumi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the former president of Japan.
Ah, yeah. The only thing I had read about The Legend of Koizumi was that it was supposed to be a political Mahjong series. I had no idea how the creators would plan to do that, but it sounded interesting at least. Well, so it turns out to b ea parody: the show grabs various world leaders and makes them play Mahjong in an over the top fashion (with Koizumi obviously playing the Schwarzenegger-inspired lead character). It was funny, and I laughed, but the direction is outright terrible. It establishes nothing, it pulls all sorts of random plot twists out of its ass, the Japanese are portrayed as regular anime action heroes, while the rest of the Asians are a bunch of stereotypical fascist pigs. It overplays the incredibly overreacting facial expressions. I can’t see this one remaining funny for long.
Potential: 20%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ladies Versus Butlers, Yanyan Machiko and Chu Bra

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Ladies Versus Butlers

Short Synopsis: Our lead character assaults every cute girl in his school. By accident. On his first day of transfer.
Look. Here’s why I at least gave Chu Bra 20% of potential: it was creative. While it disturbed me, I admit that it made me laugh. It was wrong on so many levels, but at least the creators went with such a crazy idea. Ladies versus Butlers however, has nothing. In fact, it just broke a record of how many cliches and stereotypes you can stuff into one single episode! There is the tsundere princess who immediately falls in love with the lead character as soon as he gropes her, the evil childhood friend, the clumsy maid, walking into someone changing her clothes… blegh, forget it. If I were to summon all of the overused cliches in this episode I’d end up with ten paragraphs, Never once does this show use anything of its own. Everything is just ripped off from a ton of other and often better harem shows. The characters were never able to be something original because the creators kept hanging to these one-sided stereotypes. I love how the creators are trying to make the lead character look smart, simply by making the rest of the cast incredibly stupid. And believe me, the other characters have to be incredibly dumbed down in order to make this guy look good.
Potential: 0%

Yanyan Machiko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a sheep with kansai-ben accent.
From the creators of Usavich… what happened? Usavich was a fun and brainless action comedy, but this episode was nothing but a girly sheep who kept talking about shaving. And of course I can understand that the creators wanted some variety and that they wanted to try something different… but this episode just wasn’t funny. I didn’t understand any of the jokes, and they all felt way too random and nonsensical to me. In a bad way. The episode was only two and a half minutes long, and I still had to force myself through it.
Potential: 0%

Chu Bra

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is obsessed with underwear – no, that’s not me making fun of this series, that’s really the premise.
I’m really at a loss for words here… This anime is the product of deranged minds, there’s no other way. I knew that there were going to be lots of fanservice series this season, but a show about a panty-obsessed middle schooler was just beyond what I could have feared. The fanservice genre lately has had this trend where they seem to overtrump each other in terms of awkwardness. As much as I’m disturbed by this episode however, I do admit that it was creative, and much better than just another one of those cheesy harems. It’s an incredibly silly show, but I guess that that’s where its charms come from. The direction is weak, though. There are lots of cliches like tripping and falling and the symbolism was just stupid and uninspired in a bad way. And really, how long are the creators going to keep up this premise without repeating themselves?
OP: Very annoying and obnoxious J-pop.
ED: Decent enough J-rock.
Potential: 20%

Some Quick First Impressions: Winter Sonata, Kuchuu Buranko and Kiddy Girl-And

by psgels, posted in Kuchuu Buranko, Some Quick First Impressions

Winter Sonata

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is angsty.
Thank you Meep for pointing towards the first episode of this new series. This time, you should really consider this entry as a “first impression”, because I ended up watching this series in raw Korean despite knowing not a single word of the language (hey, at least in Spanish I know the words for one, two and three). There were subtitles in both Chinese and Japanese, but that too didn’t help me either since my Kanji is terrible. Anyway, my first impression of this episode: really pretty graphics, but the drama was sappy. It’s of course great to see a romance that focuses on actual ADULTS, rather than teenagers, but I would have preferred a bit more slice of life. Perhaps that’s yet to come in future episodes, but the characters were a bit too often staring into nothingness, rather than interacting with each other. However, I do support this series: it’s the very first attempt at a full-fledged Korean TV-series. If this can be the doorway to more and interesting premises that set themselves apart from both anime and western animation, then it’s definitely a good thing.
Also: Irony. There are a few English-speaking characters in this series. The good news: the creators actually hired properly English speaking people to voice them. The bad news: the creators still screwed up by miscasting a 30-year-old woman as a 10-year-old girl. She sounds like a strange witch now!
OP: Sappy love ballad. Not my style.
ED: Decent ballad. A nice way to end every episode.
Potential: 50%

Kuchuu Buranko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is stressed out.
What is up with the raw providers this season? First Aoi Bungaku and now this. Are they allergic to shows that don’t focus on cute teen-aged girls or something? Anyway, Kuchuu Buranko… yeah. What is there really to say? It’s really an experience, and an awesome one at that. It’s full of the weirdest animation techniques, surreal art styles, and the direction keeps changing from one mood to the other. It’s really just a game of “let’s play psychologist”, with a different case looked upon during every week. With the best sense of humour of the entire season, I’m loving this series already. 🙂
OP: Heck, this is actually a really good song. Simple, but not annoying, and the strings int he background really work.
ED: Yeah, the best ED of the season. Funky, catchy and a great way to close off this series.
Potential: 100%

Kiddy Girl-And

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teen-aged maid who kicks bad guy ass.
Wow, Satelight sure is busy this season. With four shows, they’re definitely the most represented in this season. While last season, they produced some of the best-looking shows of their seasons, this time… not so much, and all of their shows look pretty generic on the outside. The epitome of this… is Kiddy Girl-And: yet another moe action comedy in which teen-aged girls have kick the ass of various bad guys. But what about the execution? Unfortunately, this also is pretty generic. The female lead is incredibly annoying to listen to; her voice actress keeps yelling and yelling, hoping to make an impact. The scenario also keeps hanging too long around panty-jokes. The gimmick of this show seems to be quirky and over the top action-scenes, but even they fail to stand out. While they’re nicely animated (especially for Satelight: for once the animation wasn’t rushed at all), but the direction lacks any sort of creativity.
OP: Obnoxious J-Pop. Do not like.
ED: A bit better, but still with that obnoxiously cute J-Pop voice.
Potential: 0%