Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some quick first impressions: To Aru Majutsu no Index, Kemeko Deluxe and Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season

by psgels, posted in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Some Quick First Impressions

To Aru Majutsu no Index

Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds a cute girl on his balcony.
Highlights: Generic, but solid.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Okay, I have to admit: for a series that’s about cute female teenaged mages, it’s above average. The characters were still pretty annoying, but the script is solid and it can actually make this series work. The series also has a great soundtrack, and the graphics are decent enough. For this series tow ork, the lead female does need to get much more down-to-earth, though, and she’s going to have to stop trying to be overly cute. The same goes with that ten-year-old teacher, she also felt really out of place.

Kemeko Deluxe!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to marry a cute girl.
Highlights: This season’s comedies are… weird!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Joining Sunred in the category “so bad it’s good” is Kemeko Deluxe. It’s another parody, this time of the Harem-genre, and yet again it had a hilarious though disastrous first episode. It’s a bit disturbing, but these two shows have been funnier than anything else this season has offered so far. It may just be me and my very strange sense of humour, but some of the parodies in this episode really worked. Still, the premise where the lead character gets married to a cute girl who has to live inside a hideously ugly robot and the huge fanservice only can remain funny for a limited period of time, and I wonder whether it’s going to be Kemeko or Sunred that’s going to run out of jokes first.

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Second Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character turns out to be alive.
Highlights: Action-packed and character-centric start of the new season.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,25/10
How Awesome! Finally a series that centres around adults. Sure, they’re relatively young adults, but it’s definitely better than nothing with this season. Seriously, too many series are about bloody teenagers this season. This is only the second or third season that doesn’t. Have some variation! In any case, the worst thing about this episode is that every single main character that supposedly died at the end of the first season turns out to be still alive. It’s a bit of a disappointment, but nonetheless this does allow for some great character-development later on. This episode already started very nicely by finally trying to get Saji out of his angst by letting him meet Setsuna right off the bat. The action-scenes were also very nice, and the new soundtrack is also as good as the previous one. Overall, one of the best first episodes of the season. What this series now needs to do is keep track of its own characters, and make every single one of them count. Really, Sunrise has some good potential to redeem themselves this season after their countless train-wrecks, with the solid series of Tales of the Abyss, Gundam 00’s second season and of course Gintama, so let’s hope that they grab this chance.

Some quick first impressions: Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae, Shugo Chara Doki and Kannagi

by psgels, posted in Jigoku Shoujo, Shugo Chara, Some Quick First Impressions

Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae

Short Synopsis: Our lead character returns for a third season.
Highlights: You can count on Jigoku Shoujo to make a bunch of angsty teenagers work
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,75/10
Time for some very biased fanboyism! I am SO glad to see more of this, and Mitsuganae promises to be the best season of Jigoku Shoujo yet. This episode wasn’t just an episode that would fit into Futakomori: it would have felt so out of place at that time. The creators are really planning to evolve the show with this season, most importantly in its style of direction. While Futakomori was very solid, the direction of this episode was all over the place. The visual effects were awesome (especially Ai in a Bee-suit immediately beat the teethed toilet). The only sacrifice that had to be made was that the stellar character-designer seems to have left the series, but if the creators were going for a chaotic third season, then I can understand how such a solid character-designer wouldn’t fit the mood. I honestly feel that this episode was just an awesome first episode, and it ranks after Hakaba Kitarou as the best first episode of 2008. Ack, I want more!!!

Shugo Chara Doki

Short Synopsis: Our lead character… doesn’t do anything.
Highlights: Bloody recaps.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
After this episode, I just have to wonder yet again: is there really no way to transfer some of Shugo Chara’s episodes over to Zombie-Loan? Really, it’s a win-win situation: Zombie Loan gets continued just as its plot and characters really get interesting, and Shugo Chara is relieved from its enormous amounts of fillers. Overall, I think that blogging Shugo Chara was one of the biggest mistakes I made with this blog after blogging Bleach, and this episode, instead of trying to win back my interest ends up recapping the things that MADE ME DROP THIS SERIES IN THE FIRST PLACE. And really, from the few original scenes that were in this episode, it seemed that the only thing the past fifty-two episodes have been doing is introducing new characters. The characters that I knew were exactly the same as when I dropped this series (at about episode 15). Okay, apart from that Nadeshiko finally decided to give in to his real gender. And I do admit, it was nice to see a bit of a kaleidoscope of what I missed in that final quarter, but none of that really impressed me.

Kannagi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is supposed to be a crazy shrine maiden.
Highlights: Sometimes funny, sometimes dull.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
Here’s my dilemma: based on my own experiences, 90% of the comedies abide by the following rule: all mediocre comedies start with hilarious first episodes (example: Potemayo), all good comedies start with dull first episodes (example: Gintama) and all bad comedies start with dull first episodes (example: too many to list). Kannagi’s first episode was dull, so it’s going to be either good or bad. I just have no idea which one it’s going to be. This episode showed a few small hints of potential and chemistry, and some jokes were quite funny, although it pretty much went south as soon as it tried to make fanservice-jokes. Based on the OP, this will also turn into a cute idol-show, which also doesn’t seem like the most interesting and original premise. And really, I don’t feel like sitting through a 26-episode bore-fest.

Some quick first impressions: Tales of the Abyss, Tentai Senshi Sunred and Kurogane no Linebarrels

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Tales of the Abyss

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a prince and has special.
Highlights: Bad first half, second half with promise.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
I’m pretty much a fan of the Tales of-franchise, but I’ve never played Tales of the Abyss or Vesperia, so this was all new to me. At first, this promised to violently ruin my love for this series. The main character is incredibly annoying; he’s a prince with generic servants and a generic master, and worst of all: he’s got special powers. The setting also screamed “epic”, so there was no doubt that our little prince and his female friend will end up saving this world in the end. Then, however, he was removed from his cosy little palace, and the creators actually showed that they knew how to develop the guy: he acts like a total idiot when he’s not amongst his servants. Now that can prove to be some great character-development. Still, the reason why I became a fan of the Tales-series is that they all were thought-provoking somehow, and knew how to tell a story. Let’s hope that the creators can stuff that in. For now, I’ll remain sceptical, as I don’t want to see yet another World Destruction. And most importantly, I really think that the creators should have done a bit more effort in trying to hide their spoilers from the OP. Really, if that’s what this series will boil down to, I’m quickly going to drop this thing. I also really have to say that out of all the Tales-stories, this really has the worst character-designs of the bunch. Who the heck fired those awesome character-designers?

Tentai Senshi Sunred

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is super sentai who fights for justice.
Highlights: Horrible! Terrible! Not an ounce of potential!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
For this season, I managed to avoid all the previews, so I had no idea what the selection of new series would be. Still, even if I did end up preparing myself for the upcoming season, I don’t think I would have ever suspected that my favourite first episode so far would come from such a god-awful series. Sarcasm aside, the parodies in this episode were absolutely brilliant, and it’s quite possibly been one of the funniest first episodes of this year. The way this series took the premise of a super sentai series and made the main characters a yakuza characters and the villains a bunch of incompetent fools was hilarious, but the best part about this episode was the awesome sense of timing that the creators have. They knew EXACTLY when to deliver their jokes. Really, the rest of this series had better really good, because I don’t want this series to go down as the one that made the best impression of the entire season! There’s also the issue of potential with this series: how long can it remain funny? Still, whether it’ll turn dull or remain brilliant, I’m happy enough that I’ve watched just this episode.

Kurogane no Linebarrels

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a cute girl who can summon a giant mecha.
Highlights: Typical bad Gonzo.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Oh, Gonzo; what have you done? You had Blassreiter, and you go back to Dragonaut. You had a number of adults who fought each other with passion and lighting-fast action scenes, and you go back to an angsty teenaged couple who can summon an overpowered mecha with horrible CG-sequences and action-scenes. Seriously, even when talking about first episode, I can’t think of even one thing that Kurogane no Linebarrels did better than Blassreiter. The thing that stood out the most was the following: the main character stands right where the main female is supposed to crash. We see a huge blow, and he’s fine. So far, I guess it’s excusable, BUT the guy has huge blood-stains, all over his clothes AND HE DOESN”T EVEN NOTICE THEM. In fact, nobody pays attention to them. I don’t know about you, but if I saw an explosion, and later someone with blood all over his shirt, I’d freak out, or at least find it strange that someone drenched in blood walks around. Okay, so this has a bit of potential left, but this time, I just don’t feel like giving this series another chance. Goodbye Gonzo.

Some quick first impressions: Yozakura Quartet, Noramimi 2 and Hokuto no Ken Raoh Gaiden Ten no Haoh

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Yozakura Quartet

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a human with superpowers that fights against youkai.
Highlights: Excellent soundtrack.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
The thing that immediately catches your attention for this series: it’s awesome soundtrack. This series also has a nice sense of style, but I’m not sold on its premise yet. My big problem with this episode was that the powers of these main characters are a bit too uber: in order to give them a challenge, you need to give their opponents even stronger powers, and I’m a bit afraid that it’ll just lose itself in its own superpowers. The bad guys in this episode were decent, but nothing really special. What I did like was these huge wooden pillars that are all over the town. That’s original and has some nice potential.

Noramimi 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a mascot who works at a mascot agency, if that makes any sense.
Highlights: Very childish, but charming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
If I recall correctly, I dropped the original series not because it was bad, but because I had to drop something. Nevertheless, it’s good to see this series back again, because there definitely are a few things to like about it. The creators know how to write children surprisingly well, and a lot of this series is a nostalgic trip back to the time when we were still children, and the world seemed so simple. But yeah, this series will never become popular. The big problem with it is the following: if it works, it really works: it’s hilarious, charming and fun, much like the first half of this episode: that radish was just SO adorable. However, when it doesn’t work, it really becomes embarrassing to watch. This series has the nasty tendency to be a bit too sentimental and soppy for its own good, and at those times, you really want to turn this thing off as soon as possible.

Hokuto no Ken Raoh Gaiden Ten no Haoh

Short Synopsis: Is a big manly man who takes control over a country.
Highlights: A very manly series.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
After Noramimi, it’s good to watch such a manly series as this one. Still, I do have to wonder, since this series is based on such a huge franchise, then why didn’t the creators get a hold of a bigger budget? I mean, I’m not asking for much, but when the blood starts to look like ketchup, then you have to wonder what the creators were thinking. In any case, this probably is the first thing I’ve seen of the Hokuto no Ken franchise, and I can understand where its reputation came from. If it wasn’t for that bad animation, then Raoh really would be able to kill his opponents in the most violent ways imaginable. The rest of the episode was decent: nothing bad, but nothing special either. It merely served to set up the story for this series, but at the same time, it didn’t really show me anything that made me want to keep watching. It’s just a bunch of oversized men killing each other. Still, it’s in any case good to finally see a series that’s NOT ABOUT TEENAGERS (or children, in Noramimi’s case).

Some quick first impressions: Clannad ~After Story~, Kuroshitsuji and Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Clannad ~After Story~

Short Synopsis: Our lead character and his friends enter a baseball match.
Highlights: Fun episode to start the second season.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
And so the second season of Clannad has begun. This episode basically shows the lead characters as they play a baseball-match against a professional team, which is a fun way to start the series and get familiar with the characters again. This episode definitely beats Haruhi’s baseball-episode. Overall, the new OP is better than the first one, while the ED has become much worse. The graphics still look solid, although the few instances of CG looked horribly out of place. Ah well, the thing I liked about Clannad were its climaxes, so we may have to wait a bit for this series to get really good. I loved Air, I hated Kanon and I liked Clannad, so let’s see what the after story can do once it catches steam.

Kuroshitsuji

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the butler of a mysterious kid.
Highlights: Ah, the cheese!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Okay, you know that anime creators are getting desperate when they start to rip off Hiroshi Watanabe’s works! Seriously, anyone who’s even remotely seen Suteki Tantei Labyrinth will recognize the obvious resemblances: both Mayuki and this series’ kid live in a huge mansion and lost their parents. Sebastian is Seiran, Hatsumi is the clumsy maid, Sanae is the gardener, the kid has powers, the butler too, and let’s not forget THE TEA. I mean, this just begs the question: if you’re going to pick a series to rip off, for god’s sake: Why Suteki Tantei Labyrinth?! But I digress: this series will be plenty enough to satisfy my inner-cheese-fanboy. The over-exaggerated glamour of Sebastian the butler was hilarious, and the three servants were just awesome. The background music was just awesome and over the top, fitting the cheesy mood exactly. Seriously, don’t watch this series unless you want to laugh at it. Not with it. This series does have to live up to its expectations, though. I’d better see something that surpasses a pet alligator in a closet and unfortunately placed dog poo (you’ll understand these references if you’ve seen Suteki Tantei Labyrinth). But what probably baffles me the most about this series: people were actually looking forward to it!?

Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live with a cute girl (no, really).
Highlights: Horrible character-designs, but at least the dialogue is nice enough.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
I keep wondering why the creators of these harem-anime spend so much time to make their female character-designs as extravagant and ridiculous as possible, while it’s most often the simple designs that look best. I mean, Real Drive showed this perfectly: even though you don’t have main characters with the perfect bodies, they still can look great. Really, in this series, it just seems like the creators took one body, copied it about twenty times and gave them different ridiculous hairstyles and eye-colours in an attempt to make them cute. Still, I have to admit that this series isn’t all bad. I enjoyed it more than Toradora, and the director seems to be good at the slice-of-life moments. The problem, however, is that he’s pretty much terrible at everything else, including setting up his story. Having cute girls swarm over you is one thing, but letting all of them be the most popular girls in school is a whole different story. The comedy is funny, but not for the reasons it’s supposed to be; the action downright sucks and the drama makes no bloody sense at all and feels forced. Overall, this episode was enjoyable enough, but it just doesn’t have any potential at all, and I suspect it to go downhill very soon.

Some quick first impressions: Casshern Sins, Rosario to Vampire Capu 2 and Shikabane Hime Aka

by psgels, posted in Casshern Sins, Shikabane Hime, Some Quick First Impressions

Casshern Sins

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has upset a lot of (or robots in this case) by killing someone.
Highlights: That Casshern-guy is rather dull.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
As much as I’d like to fanboy over the unusual art style and setting, I just can’t. There were too many parts of this episode that just didn’t sit right with me. The tune that the creators picked for the OP doesn’t seem to fit the dark mood of the rest of the series, and most importantly Casshern striked me as a very dull main character. All he does in this episode is fight and angst. Come on, flesh the guy out a bit! Right now he just is another one of those angsty teens with an unknown past, even though he’s a robot. What I also don’t like about this series is its “good guys pretty bad guys ugly”-mentality. Even though they seem to have reasons for their anger at this Casshern, every bad guy ultimately becomes just target practice for this Casshern, none of them have any depth so far. The only thing I did like was that little robot girl and her caretaker. They were nice.

Rosario to Vampire Capu 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters his second year at the “youkai school”.
Highlights: WHY?! WHY did this thing get a second season!?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 2/10
Christ. Here I thought that this series couldn’t possibly get any worse, and here this episode proved me wrong. This episode was downright terrible, with non-sensical characters, stereotypes all over the place and a downright ridiculous plot, not to mention the horrible setting that it inherited from the first season. It’s one thing to bore me, but a series has to be really bad if I end up face-palming through the majority of the episodes, just to get distracted from the pain that is going on on the screen. The only thing that was even remotely interesting was the “Moka-Tsukune-Moka-Tsukune”, but even that felt forced. I mean, I really want to give these bishoujo-series a chance and all, but it’s series like this one that really make it difficult for me to take them seriously.

Shikabane Hime Aka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has yet to get involved with a group of “Shikabane”-hunters.
Highlights: A few flaws here and there, but nonetheless very solid.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
Ooh, I’m impressed. There’s a lot to like about this series: excellent soundtrack, very nice fights, a great air of mystery. I also really like the voices of the male and female leads: their voice-actors aren’t trying to be overly cute, but instead believable, which really works. The rest of the cast is a bit less, but that can be forgiven. I also like how this episode closed off with the two of them NOT staying together, and they’re still relative strangers to each other; it’s always good not to rush these things. There were a few coincidences here and there, like when the lead female fell right where the lead male happened to be, but it can be forgiven if they merely served to set up the story and characters. The two classmates were probably the most annoying about this series, but even they got a bit of development at the end of the episode. Overall, good series so far; nice potential, just don’t let this turn into a cheesy love triangle.

Some quick first impressions: Hakushaku to Yousei, Toradora and Hyakko

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Hakushaku to Yousei

Short Synopsis: Our lead character can see fairies and gets kidnapped by a bunch of bishies.
Highlights: Is too busy trying to make its characters look “cool”.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
It’s a shame that this series started right after a bunch of awesome cat-shows as Chi’s Sweet Home and Natsume Yuujin-chou: the talking cat in this episode is nowhere near as awesome as Chi or Nyanko-sensei. In any case, this is your typical shoujo-series: female lead goes on an adventure and meets lots of bishies. There’s hardly anything that stands out, though. This series is way too busy with hairstyles that gently wave in the wind, and trying to look cool and charming. Terms as “Fairy Doctor” are needlessly translated to Engrish in an attempt to sound cool. The bishies all look way too much like each other, and none of the character-designs was really that appealing. What can save this series is that in the next couple of episodes is the way that it’s going to explore the European Folkore. If it can explore that in an interesting way, it might still stand a chance, but something tells me that our female lead is going to be too busy being saved by whatever bishie that comes near her.

Toradora

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live next to a cute tsundere girl who tries to beat him up (sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).
Highlights: Parrots are awesome. This one isn’t.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Oooooh… Kugimiya Rie… please stop doing these annoying tsundere roles that all look and sound the bloody same. They don’t get less annoying if you do more of them. I love your work at Gintama, but stop working yourself into a corner with these Shana-clones. In any case, I think it’s pretty clear that I didn’t like this series. It’s nicely animated, but that’s just about the only positive thing I can say about it. Nothing else stood out, the humour felt flat, and just about every female character annoyed the hell out of me. Considering that we’re still missing one of the lead females (I don’t even want to guess what her role in this series will be…), this promises to be one of your typical high-school romances/harems. I’ve seen enough series with overly cute females for the past summer-season, so I really doubt whether I’m going to continue watching this thing.

Hyakko

Short Synopsis: Our lead character… is lost.
Highlights: Cute.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
My first thought on seeing this series, with yet again a bunch of high-school-girl was “oh god, here we go again”. And then the episode actually started, and it actually proved me wrong. Hyakko is really a breath of fresh air after Toradora and Hakushaku to Yousei and their stereotypes, with genuinely interesting characters, with good chemistry between them. Nothing feels forced, and instead it’s just a lot of fun to just watch them interact. The characters may seem like stereotypes at first, but already within this episode, they managed to turn into something beyond the clichés. I first imagined how this would turn into some sort of Bamboo-Blade-Lucky-Star clone, but this episode proved to be really enjoyable. Let’s hope that it can keep it that way!

Some quick first impressions: Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel, Cobra The Animation and Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of crime-fighting mahou shoujo.
Highlights: It’s actually not bad.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Mahou Shoujo OVAs have a questionable reputation of being incredibly dull, after the likes of Dokuro-chan and Ryoufuku-chan were just big excuses for fanservice. Kaitou Tenshi also has a very questionable start. It’s just a bunch of moe girls who beat up stereotypical bad guys, there was no way for this to work. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that this first episode actually did have a clear goal: take the overconfidence that usually comes with the god-moded mahou shoujo, and smash this into the ground. There are a lot of references to Sailor Moon (the first season anyway). The problem, though, that apart from that, there’s hardly anything that really stands out. Characters are standard, the villains are standard. There’s also that matter that the second episode of this series can only go through predictable paths (although it would be awesome if the creators realized this and went with something totally different).

Cobra the Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters meets a cute woman who is involved with an intergalactic space-complot.
Highlights: Is too busy overglorifying its own protagonist.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Cobra the Animation seems to be another attempt to revive an old anime franchise, but unfortunately this one didn’t go so well. Overall, it feels very much like a half-assed attempt. The plot so far is rather unimpressive, but the biggest turn-off is that Cobra is just too perfect of a person. He’s an excellent marksman, he’s popular with the ladies, he possesses the latest physics-defying gadgets to steal anything that’s loose. He’s just too awesome, without any weaknesses whatsoever. Add that to the tendency of the creators to just make Cobra appear at the exact places where the story needs him to be without any explanation, and the massive amounts of useless fanservice and you just lost my interest.

Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is obsessed with a children’s card game.
Highlights: Full of stereotypes, but what else did you expect?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4,5/10
Well, so this is the latest addition to shows that are only aimed at kids. It’s one of those genres that lives off seeing who can rip each other off the most, so it’s not surprising that this is the umpth one about playing card games. To make matters worse, either its rules are very incomprehensible, or they’re inconsistent with each other, which is not really a good start. All the stereotypes are also present: spiky haired bratty lead, female love interest, talented tsundere rival, father who’s either dead or gone, et cetera. Still, it’s not all bad. It’s got a decent OP and ED (which were most likely animated by the same animators as Power Puff Z, giving them a stylish look), and my favourite part: all the cool main characters have cute and fluffy pets that accompany them. The writing is also solid enough when the characters aren’t playing cards, but overall it’s nowhere near Net Ghost Pipopa, the series that I consider the best kiddie-show of 2008 (based on the first episode I watched anyway).

Some quick first impressions: Koihime Musou, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and Blade of the Immortal

by psgels, posted in Blade of the Immortal, Some Quick First Impressions

Koihime Musou

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters finds a twelve-year old orphan who is a genius at fighting.
Highlights: Overglorifies its own setting
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
This sort-of reminds me of Prism Ark, and although I admit that the writing is more solid, it does have the same weaknesses. At least there’s no country named “The Untied Kingdom” or “Poleland”, but as things look now, it seems that all the major army commanders are a bunch of little girls in frilly dresses. First of all, who in his right mind would take such a thing seriously? And second: what happened to the males or older females? Did some kind of disease wipe them all out or something? Still, this could have been ignored if it wasn’t for the little girl, mentioned above. She’s living in a regular village, her parents died, and she’s been living by herself for a while now. Then why the heck is she wearing the fanciest clothes in the entire village? How did she become so good at fighting? Who taught her? Why the heck is her house all nice and clean, why does she have a futon that’s not worn out in any single way? I mean, I know that this series isn’t supposed to take itself seriously, but in my opinion, being a comedy is no excuse to be lazy or historically inaccurate. Besides, this episode wasn’t that funny anyway.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character discovers that the most popular girl at school is a closet otaku.
Highlights: Oh boy…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10
I must say that I’m surprised at how the series this season featured a very low amount of stereotypes, even series as Seikirei, Koihime Musou and Antique Bakery had at least an enjoyable cast, with perhaps a typical loser male here and there. I was happy with this, but then Nogizaka Haruka came and ruined everything. Seriously, so many stereotypes come together in this series: horny teachers, a clumsy girl, a male lead who isn’t bothered by his hormones, the entire male school population who is, the perfect girl, and I could go on and on for a while. To make matters worse, these stereotypes don’t make any sense either. The above-mentioned horny teachers have the amazing ability to drink as much as they want and never get a hangover. If Haruka is so incredibly clumsy and a cry-baby, why did it take this long for her secret to be discovered? It’s not like this episode described her as a master of keeping secrets. How did such a shy girl become the most popular girl anyway? I could rant on an on about this series. The animation may have a considerable budget, but the characters end up looking dull and uninspired. The OP and ED are incredibly annoying. In other words, I don’t like one bit of this series. Every season has its worst show, and the worst show of Summer 2008 is for me without a doubt Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu.

Blade of the Immortal

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters has a curse on him that makes him immortal.
Highlights: Awesome soundtrack, excellent atmosphere, terrific OP.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
I’m an absolute sucker for samurai-stories and Bee-train, so when the two are combined, there was no way for me not to love this series. The summer-season has already brought a lot of good stuff, but Blade of the Immortal has without a doubt delivered the best first episode of all the new series. It’s great to see that Bee-train is willing to experiment with new styles, because this series is absolutely nothing like their previous works, and the only similarity it shares is the same attention to the awesome soundtrack that this series has. The animation itself was quite decent, but especially the OP features some beautifully choreographed swordfights. Still, everything looks really nice. Great to see Bee-Train back!

Some quick first impressions: World Destruction, Natsume Yuujin-Chou and Mission-E

by psgels, posted in Mission-E, Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Some Quick First Impressions

World Destruction

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters form an organization to destroy the world.
Highlights: Nice ideas, but flawed (see below)
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
This series has a lot to like, and at the same time a lot to hate. It’s probably the first time where humans are actually the oppressed race in a fantasy-series, especially if they’re oppressed by a bunch of cats. The different races that walk around the world are full of imagination, and the idea of a bunch of humans (and a bear, okay), joining together to destroy the world has some definite potential for the second half of this short series. The animation is really messy at times, but it looks excellent. Yoshihiro Ike, one of my favourite composers is behind the background music, and he delivers as usual, though perhaps it’s not his best work. Agh, if only the messages of this series weren’t so blatantly obvious! The lead characters themselves are fine, but it’s the way how they’re presented that gets me. This is one of those nationalistic anime that tries to shoves the message “humans rock, the rest sucks” down your throat, and the rest of the episode really need to work to develop the other races in this series. It would be interesting if through this series, the lead characters will actually be portrayed as the bad guys who will in fact destroy the world, but for that to happen, the cats need to stay away from stereotypes. Right now they’re funny, but I can already see this series go south in a couple of episodes if it doesn’t try to develop them.

Natsume Yuujin-chou

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters can see spirits and has a book of names of these spirits.
Highlights: Low budget, but very solid scriptwriting.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
The first thing that came to my mind when I started watching this is: is this really Brains Base? This really has to be their series with the lowest production-values to date, and things actually look pretty normal, and really different from their usual vivid animation style. Still, their sense of storytelling didn’t degrade one bit, and the director of Baccano and Jigoku Shoujo shows that he still knows how to tell a great story. This episode was nothing sensational or spectacular, but it was a very solid introduction for a series about spirits and ayakashi. This first episode already shows what the ayakashi in this series are made off, and like most of them, they act because of their grudge that was caused by something, and aren’t purely evil for the sake of being evil. I guess that that’s why I like stories about ayakashi so much.

Mission-E

Short Synopsis: Our lead character… has changed a lot since the first season.
Highlights: The huge character-development….; same fun climaxes as in the first season.
Overall Enjoyment Value:8/10
Holy crap! This actually takes place years after the first season! The lead characters have set up an organization to deal with the Type-E users, in order to protect them from the guys we saw in episode 11 and 12. Now here’s a twist you don’t usually see, and I’m really enthusiastic about how it was carried out. The interesting thing is that there seemed to have been no adult to guide them when they set up that organization, and it seems that they had to figure out everything by themselves. They also found a new girl to work with them in the meantime. In any case, before I start rambling, it was awesome to see how every character has changed during the absence of this series. The action-scenes were exaggerated, but they were fun and I can’t wait to see the rest of this series!