Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some quick first Impressions: Touhou – A Summer’s Day Dream, Shikabane Hime Kuro and Maria-Sama ga Mitaru Fourth Season

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

Touhou – A Summer Day’s Dream

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets targeted by a mysterious thief.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Very slim)
First of all, since this is a series that’s purely created by amateurs, I must praise the creators for doing an actually pretty good job at it. The character art is a bit crude here and there, but nevertheless the music is excellent and the background look pretty nice, and there’s actual CG in here. You can really see that a lot of time was put into this to make it look good, and it definitely beats the to be honest rather half-assed Animax Grand Prix series. I’m also glad that they went for a slice-of-life setting, rather than going to try and recreate the game’s virtually non-existent plot. But yeah, the entire story is about a mysterious thief who keeps stealing stuff. It’s just one big excuse to show as many of the game’s characters as possible and giving them some reason to fight, but nevertheless it’s an interesting way to spend 20 minutes.

Shikabane Hime Kuro

Short Synopsis: Our lead character trains hard to accept his mission.
Chance of me Blogging: 90% (I blogged the first season, so why not?)
Overall a decent start to the second season, but I have my worries here and there. The episode felt a bit dry with Makina being chained up for the largest part, but let’s hope that she snaps out of angsting over what happened at the first season soon. The side-characters also were mostly in the spotlights, and they did a good job of driving the episode forward… but what was up with those boob-jokes? Seriously, this episode had more fanservice than the entire first season together, and that has me slightly worried. Especially that new character… talk about out of place-looking characters. This is a horror-series, not a magical girl show.

Maria-sama ga Miteru Fourth Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character participates in a school play.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Have yet to watch the first seasons)
well, so this is the fourth season of the much-loved Maria-sama ga Miteru franchise, but I’m not yet convinced. Based on the title and promo-art, I expected this to be some sort of combination between big brother and yuri, but in the end this is just another slice of life series on an elite school. Ultimately, this episode was simply dull; there was nothing that really made me watch the rest of this series, nor the first two seasons. What it did well was the bit of development for that one classmate, but nothing else even caught my attention. The lead character is annoying, in the way that she keeps poking her nose into everything. What made the previous seasons so good anyway?

Some quick first impressions: Akikan, Maria Holic and Kurokami The Animation

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Akikan

Short Synopsis: Our lead character turns a can in a cute girl (no, really).
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No way in Hell)
So, this is an early start to the upcoming Winter-season, and I hope that this isn’t some sort of premonition, because oh my god. The creators of harem anime are getting desperate here. To what kinds of depths do you have to sink to create an anime about cans that turn into girls, for goodness’ sake?! Out of all the uninspired premises I have seen this year, this has got to be one of the worst ones. On top of that, the dialogues are very poorly pasted together. Still, I admit that it made me chuckle one or twice. Still, the comedy is one thing, but the drama in this episode was downright abysmal. It was forced, non-sensical and way too cheesy for its own good. I can really see that lesbian in love with the lead character by the end of the series…

Maria Holic

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters a prestigious high school.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Very slim)
If you’re wondering about the “Chance of Blogging”-bits, it was requested, and I personally think it as appropriate as well, rather than those ambiguous episode ratings that were quite inaccurate the last time I used them. In any case, Maria Holic started out incredibly dull: the character-designs are bland and uninspired, the maid feels out of place, and the concept of a girl entering a prestigious high school has been done many times before. Then, however a nice twist in the second half made the show a bit more interesting, and at least the second half enjoyable. My fear is just that I’m not sure whether the premise is large enough to fill 12 episodes. The cast still feels most like stereotypes. Also, even though this seems to be a Shinbo-series, it feels like the blandest thing that he’s managed to produce since Tsukuyomi Moon Phase. What this series needs to do is develop the characters beyond their stereotypes, but we already know that Shinbo is simply not good at that.

Kurokami The Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives in a city where trucks like to hit people.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Only if the rest of the season is baaad)
With a title as “Kurokami”, I pretty much guessed that it would involve somehow around a female character with black hair, and indeed: that was spot-on. What we have here is again a seemingly random guy who meets a mysterious girl and gets involved with a huge plot. What’s interesting about it is the concepts of doppelgangers. I’m not sure about everyone with a doppelganger being hit by a truck, but there’s nevertheless a lot of potential with such a concept. The show also featured a number of pretty and varied background arts, so that’s all good. What wasn’t so interesting was that female lead… The male lead is actually pretty decent: he has a lot on his mind with the death of his mother, but he doesn’t seem like an idiot and instead is curious. The female lead was very annoying, however. The main villain also seemed too much like a “Muahaha, look at me: I’m evil because I’m evil!”-villain, which also could cause lots of problems for this series in the future.

Some quick first impressions: Junjo Romantica 2, Michiko e Hatchin and Goku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei

by psgels, posted in Michiko e Hatchin, Some Quick First Impressions

(note that I’m still experimenting with rating scale, so the numbers are meant to be low, though GSZS deserves it somewhat)
Junjo Romantica 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets Usagi’s brother.
Highlights: Nice banter.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
This season really is the season of sequels for Studio Deen (APART FROM AMATSUKI!), where their only new series are continuations of some of their past franchises. Junjo Romantica pretty much continues where the first season leaves off, and introduces Usagi’s brother, who was mentioned a few times in the first season. I’m looking forward to more of this, because it’s one of the few series that takes a realistic view at being in a relationship with someone as it explores the give-and-take aspect of dating someone. Okay, so what if the characters are gay. It might make for a few disturbing scenes, but nonetheless there’s some nice chemistry between the characters, just like in the first series.

Michiko e Hatchin

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets picked up by someone who claims to be her mother.
Highlights: Rather one-sided.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5,5/10
Well, so far it really looks like we’re dealing with the spiritual successor of El Cazador here. Both feature a strong woman, travelling with a weaker girl, they’re both about gunfights, they both have a strong emphasis on music and they both play in Mexico. The big difference is that the music is rather jazzy with Michiko e Hatchin, and it’s much more dramatic. And that’s my problem a bit here: the whole abuse of Hana is just too one-sided. It’s already established that Hana’s family abuses her after one minute. We don’t need 20 more minutes of this same abuse if that’s all that these characters do. Flesh them out a little more than that! Les Miserables did this the right way: even though Cosette was abused, there was a lot more going on inside the family than just that, while with Michiko e Hatchin, the whole life purpose of that family seems to be to abuse Hana as much as possible.

Goku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is in despair.
Highlights: Much of the same, but with this series that’s a BAD THING.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
Well, so for this OVA, I decided to not wait for the subs and just watch it raw. The disadvantage of that obviously is that it becomes much more difficult to understand (especially with a series as focused on dialogue as this one), but the advantage is that the visual direction stands out more, since you don’t have to frantically try to keep up with the huge lines of dialogue. In any case, this pretty much was a standalone episode of the series, and that’s my big problem with it: this series has already gone way past its expiration-date, and it still tries to squeeze some cash out of the viewer. The jokes that once were hilarious have become stale because this series simply refused to develop its characters. And am I the only one who feels that the Otaku-jokes have passed their freshness by now? I mean, it was nice and all when they appeared the first time, but what the heck do the Lucky Star and Haruhi-references in this episode really add? Why show a bunch of stereotypical otaku when a truckload of other series have already done the same? I appreciate how Chaos;Head is trying to make an original story out of them, but this OVA was just nothing. It contributed in no way, and was overall just pointless.

Some quick first impressions: Nodame Cantabile – Paris Chapter, Chaos;Head and Tytania

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions, Tytania

Nodame Cantabile – Paris Chapter

Short Synopsis: Our lead character moves into his new apartment in Paris.
Highlights: Just as awesome as the first season!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Well, there you have it, just like expected from Noitamina and Nodame Cantabile: this season aired a LOT of romantic comedies, and this one definitely stood above all the others as the one with the best first episode. And okay, it benefits from being a sequel, unlike the others, but even then this episode brought a lot of new stuff to the table now that Chiaki and Nodame moved to Paris. Their quirks were just as awesome as they were in the first season, and even the new characters already show promise after only three quarters of an episode. The OP is a bit less than the original one, but it’s nonetheless a very good one, and exactly what you’d expect from the Noitamina-timeslot (which is really infamous for its strange, unconventional and incidentally awesome OPs). My French is just as good as my Japanese, but with the added Japanese accents, I may need to wait for the subs, as long as they’re not too slow. In either way, Nodame at the restaurant was probably the funniest thing about this episode.

Chaos;Head

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a figure-collecting otaku who manages to score a date with a pretty girl.
Highlights: A LOT to like, a LOT to dislike, but in such a different way from Kurozuka.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Really, after this episode, I’ve got absolutely no idea what to think of this series. It’s like what happens if you cross a generic harem with a gory horror-mystery. Some parts of this series screamed potential, while others were incredibly clichéd. The mysterious internet-guy was awesome. The corpse in this episode was also awesome. the inner-monologues also were nicely written, and the homeless guy also has nice potential for the future. So, why the heck centre this series around a bunch of pubescent males? Why make this into a potential harem? Why make all the females transform into cute battle outfits as the OP suggests? Why these uber-generic character-designs? The romance in this episode also felt a bit forced, but the most annoying character was definitely the guy’s sister. Really, this is one series that can go anywhere.

Tytania

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters… who were they again?
Highlights: Starts dull, but gets progressively better.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Really, when this episode started, I kept wondering what all the buzz was about. The OP is underwhelming to say the least, the characters all looked like each other, it was too caught up in its own gloriousness, much in the way of Glass no Kantai. But as the episode went on, more and more hints of potential kept showing up. Of course, a series like this one needs some time to really catch some steam. So far, I really like that this is a show about adults, and not a bunch of teenagers who somehow have high positions. The battles are also going to focus on strategy and politics, and these things promise to be very refreshing after Macross Frontier and Code Geass. This episode wasn’t as good as some of the other new shows this season, but it did show that the creators know exactly how to build up tension. It’s going to be interesting to blog this.

Some quick first Impressions: Kurozuka, Bihada Ichizoku and Stitch!

by psgels, posted in Kurozuka, Some Quick First Impressions

Kurozuka

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious woman who lives in the forest, while fleeing for people who are out to kill him.
Highlights: A LOT to like, a LOT to dislike
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I must say that I watched this right after being pumped up with adrenaline from Mouryou no Hako, so this series may have had a bit of an unfair advantage. Still, with that bit of adrenaline, I really loved this episode: the production-values are just awesome, the OP is the best of the season, the mysterious post-apocalyptic-samurai-setting sounded very interesting, and the horror-styled storytelling was excellent, and it keeps you on your toes. Still, there were a few things that might hurt this series in the future, so despite these excellent bits, I’m not going to label this series as among the best of the season yet. The thing that needed the most work was the cast of characters. They’re not fleshed out well enough, and the development was a bit too soon. The kiss came from nowhere, and especially the way that the lead character just “forgave” the woman that she brutally killed his partner. There’s also the superhuman powers that are a bit on the weak side, especially the way that the main character seemed to be virtually fine after being stabbed multiple times, among which in the stomach. What this series needs to do is the following: flesh out the characters; show different sides of them; show what they’re doing when they’re not on a mission. This premise is too good to be ruined by a faulty cast!

Bihada Ichizoku

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the prettiest girl in the world.
Highlights: Mary Sue! Mary Sue! Mary Sue!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 1,5/10
Ooh… the pain. The horrible, horrible pain! Who the hell writes this rubbish? I was pretty sure that Rosario to Vampire would take up the title of “worst first episode of the season”, and I’m so NOT pleased to see this series beat it. Really, it feels like this episode was directed by someone without any experience at all, someone who’d probably never even seen a proper anime or movie. That and a schedule that was way too tight are probably the only thing that could possibly explain the crap that’s supposed to be storytelling. Those glowy-eyes were probably the worst about this episode. For God’s sake, did nobody ever point out to the creators that that absolutely doesn’t work?

Stitch!

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mischievous alien.
Highlights: Obviously aimed at children, but strangely charming.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Let me make use of this chance by saying that I absolutely HATE Disney’s western TV-series, based on their famous franchises. They’re nearly always just cheap rip-offs of their original franchises, that use just the names and characters to get people to watch them, they’ve got a mediocre and often stupid plot and there’s no room for character-development because then they’d fall out of the line with their original character. So no, I wasn’t looking forward to this one at all, especially after having seen its western counterpart. Though I have to admit: the set-up that the eastern creators chose for does allow for character-development. This episode very much established the bond between Yuuna (yes: Yuuna; not Lilo) and Stitch, and this bond between them has all the potential to grow. There’s an interesting sense of innocence between the two, and they feel like children. Unfortunately, this series downright sucks when it attempts action-scenes. They’re way too energetic and unrealistic to be taken seriously, and the bad guys are just way too stereotypical.

Some quick first impressions: ef – a tale of melodies, One Outs and Mouryou no Hako

by psgels, posted in Mouryou no Hako, Some Quick First Impressions

ef – a tale of melodies

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are the side-characters from ef.
Highlights: Perhaps the foreshadowing was a bit too shallow, but gorgeous visuals and solid storytelling.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
I liked ef, but I agree with the big criticism against it: its “I love you-now let’s have sex”-mentality. It’s a bit unrealistic, considering how well-written the rest of the series was. This episode too had such a moment, where a girl drew herself in the nude, in the middle of an empty classroom. I mean, perhaps she could do that because ef’s world is totally empty apart from its important characters, but it does take away a bit of the believability. Nevertheless, this episode was very solid, and a good contender for the best teenaged romance this season, along with Clannad. It’s very good to see that the creators spent a lot of time on their dialogue and visuals, and it’s good to see another Shaft-series without Shinbo behind the director’s seat. No offence, but I’m beginning to get a bit tired of his style.

One Outs

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters lives on the bad side of humanity.
Highlights: Whoa, intense.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I haven’t looked at the staff list for this show or anything, but something really tells me that the staff of Akagi and Kaiji is behind this one, or at least it’s a bunch of people who are trying to go for the same style: the character-designs are kept ugly for a reason, a lot of emphasis is put on gambling, (this is not, I repeat NOT a regular baseball-series), there are mind games a plenty, there are a few guys who stand miles above the others in terms of skills, and the pacing is sloooooooooooooooow. This series could go down the same path as Kaiji, so there’s no way I’m going to blog this, but nevertheless this episode was very intense. And: it’s a story about adults. Always good in this season of teenagers.
Edit: well, what do you know, I was right. The entire staff of Akagi and Kaiji seems to be behind this. Prepare for lots of adrenaline and dragged on dialogues!

Mouryou no Hako

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters gets befriended with a mysterious girl.
Highlights: Shoujo ai and Horror. What could possibly get better than that?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,75/10
Omg! Omg! What an awesome first episode! After Jigoku Shoujo, this ranks as the best of the past season, and I’m really glad to see some more good horror back this season. This episode was in itself a standalone story, and it really showed that the people behind this series know what it takes to come with a good short story: the characters are fleshed out first, there’s a bit of very tense drama here and there, and the end ends with hitting character-development. There also were a number of artistic moments here and there, for example when the girls danced around in the field of flowers, but I found that it contributed really well to the overall atmosphere. Obviously, this is not a series for everyone: if you need overly cute girls, fanservice or comedy in your anime, you’ll be disappointed here. But personally, I LOVE this series so far!

Some quick first impressions: Macademi Wasshoi, Skip Beat and Vampire Knight Guilty

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Macademi Wasshoi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets loved by two cute girls.
Highlights: As if this season hadn’t already enough annoying and overly cute girls…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
Really, I was sure that Kemeko Deluxe would have won the title for most unrealistic series of the season, but this series sure proved me wrong on that one. There are a LOT of annoying things about this series: overly cute girls fall for him for shallow or no reasons, the OP and ED are… terrible to say the least, the lead character does nothing to move away from the stereotypes, and of course, School in this series doesn’t mean studying, but instead destroying things. Still, I have to give this series some slack. Sure, it’s badly written, but at the same time, the creators also made an effort to be original. Macademy Wasshoi doesn’t exactly feel like your standard harem, simply because of the huge amounts of ideas (good and bad) that the creators tried to stuff into this episode. That does have potential.

Skip Beat

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the girlfriend of a famous idol.
Highlights: Excellent script-writers
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
So, from the few things I’ve heard about this series, it was the most anticipated shoujo-series of this Autumn-Season. After Vampire Knight, though, I obviously didn’t believe in that hype, since that series pretty much destroyed my faith in shoujo-series. However, I now see that Skip Beat had all the reasons to be anticipated. In terms of writing, this had the best first episode of the season. It’s only been the first episode of the series, and the lead character already has multiple facets of her past explained, she has developed significantly, she is fleshed out, I’m pretty amazed at the stuff that the creators managed to put in just one episode. No scene feels wasted, and this episode definitely left an impression on me. What I also love about this series is the character-designs: at first sight, you wouldn’t suspect that they’re from 2008, and they’ve got this old look. Very nice effect.

Vampire Knight Guilty

Short Synopsis: Our lead character tries to find out what happened at the end of the previous season.
Highlights: Much of the same: angst and bishies.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Speaking of the devil, I don’t think I’m going to continue Vampire Knight’s second season. Thirteen episodes were fine and all, but I don’t feel like sitting through the same yet again, especially after Skip Beat just surpassed it in every single aspect in just one episode and Nodame Cantabile’s second season is also about to start. One look at Zero reminded me of why I had so many problems with watching this in the first place. If, for some strange reason, the second season does turn out to be awesome I might marathon it later, but for now I just don’t feel like wasting my time on more angst and bishies. Although I do have to admit: that new ED rocks!

Some quick first impressions: Kyou no Go Ni, Ga-Rei Zero and Inazuma 11

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kyou no Go Ni

Short Synopsis: Our lead character does pretty much the same as in the OVA…
Highlights: …and actually does a better job at it.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
There really are too many teenage-antics series this season, but the best ones so far for me came from Hyakko and this series. It surprised me a lot, because the original OVA bored me so much that I dropped it after only two episodes. It’s probably because the main cast is significantly younger than in nearly all other shows this season, and still have a sense of innocence, combined that someone hired some sort of uber-director who managed to get the best out of them. The first half consisted exactly out of two stories that also appeared in the OVA, and yet they were hilarious here, while boring at the OVA. I think it’s because the creators are willing to take more risks, and also add their own style a bit, without copying blindly from the manga. It’s got a nice sense of pacing, and although it’s still there, the emphasis on fanservice is definitely less. Overall, a pleasant surprise.

Ga-Rei Zero

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights against invading zombies
Highlights: Nice ending!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Wow! That was actually much better than I expected when I first learned that this would be an action-series. This episode would have been fine as an excellent standalone story, and to think that it’s still continuing afterwards. The episode starts with some solid action, with an unremarkable plot (where the experienced adults get mercilessly slaughtered and the young ones somehow manage to survive – that’s a plot-hole they need to take care off in the rest of this series) and an excellent soundtrack. Just when the action was over, and I thought that the rest of the episode would just consist out of an epilogue, it pulls a friggin’ Shigofumi, and actually exceeds Shigofumi’s first episode in this. Now if this series manages to avoid going the Kiss Dum-route, we’re in for a very solid action-series!

Inazuma 11

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a 10-year-old brat why plays soccer (yup, it’s that kind of series)
Highlights: Lack of originality, clichés, blah blah.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
So… yeah. Alongside Battle Spirits, this is another one of those shounen-sports series that are meant to only appeal at boys of the age of 10 and below. This single episode was decent enough to watch, but there’s no attempt at originality at all: we have the spunky male lead, the rival who doesn’t want to play but is actually kind hearted and a transfer student, the lead character’s best girl friend, a bunch of incompetent side-characters, the evil punks, the father who is gone and is a major soccer-player, et cetera et cetera. That bit of character-development at the end was also way too soon. I mean, why bother make a new series if you can just air something of ten years ago. I mean, there’s no way that these kids are going to notice and it’s a lot cheaper to produce this way.

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.