Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Some quick first Impressions: Birdy The Mighty Decode 2, Major 5th Season and Kemono no Souja Erin

by psgels, posted in Birdy the Mighty Decode, Some Quick First Impressions

Birdy the Mighty Decode 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets assigned to track down a bunch of escaped convicts.
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
Whoa, a bit theme of the sequels this season seems to be angsting over what happened at the end of its previous season: first Shikabane Hime, then Druaga no Tou, and now this one. Still, Birdy the Mighty did this the best of the three, simply because it had so many other things to do in this episode so that Senkawa didn’t have too much time to remember Nakasugi. And unlike the previous two, this series has yet to show what it can really do with its potential. This episode promised a grand story, lots of new characters were introduced and some characters who seemed as mere fillers in the first season show up again as well. The new OP and ED are also much better, there’s a brand new OST, so overall all signs point in the direction that the second season is going to be much better than the first. Just, what was up with that strange insert song at the end?

Major 5th Season

Short Synopsis: Our lead character spent the fourth season in a foreign country and finally arrived back home, it seems.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Yet to see the first four seasons…)
Seriously, is there no end to the sequels this Winter-season? In any case, I watched this episode in an attempt to get motivated to watch the first season. So, it’s a bit unfortunate that there was hardly any baseball whatsoever in this episode, but nevertheless I enjoyed the quiet mood of the episode. The characters were nostalgic about things that I obviously never saw, but it nevertheless was an enjoyable episode. I might try to follow this fifth season, depending on how long it remains interesting to me and whether it can prove to be significantly different from One Outs (since two baseball shows airing at the same time may be a bit too much).

Kemono no Souja Erin

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets is the daughter of a famous dragon caller
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (It would be 100% if it wasn’t for the producers)
Now this is what I’m talking about! This series is definitely the most creative and original out of the new shows that aired this season. I love the stylized look of the main character, or the very stylish animation when the dragons attacked. The slice of life moments in this series were also wonderful, though there’s one big problem with this series: its creators. I took a small look at the different staff members that are working on this series and it looks like we’ve got the worst people on the Production IG-arsenal working on it: Trans Arts. While I liked Wellber when it aired, I now see that it was way too cheesy, Toshokan Sensou was unbalanced and Chocolate Underground was just plain bad, and they still get to produce series? Why hasn’t Production IG simply fired them, and more importantly: what happened to their good people? Did they all quit at the same time to join Madhouse, or something? I loved this episode, but I can already see it going downhill: the series composition was done by the guy who did the series composition of Real Drive and Blood, and the production coordination was done by the guy who did the production coordination of Saiunkoku Monogatari and The Twelve Kingdoms: all excellent stories on themselves, but the former two were really unbalanced, and the latter two had no conclusion, and I have enough reasons to believe that these people were directly responsible for their series’ respective flaws. Just think what might happen once you combine them all into one series!

Some quick first Impressions: Abunai Sisters, Druaga no Tou – The Sword of Uruk and Asu no Yoichi!

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Abunai Sisters

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a couple of “sexy spies”.
Chance of me Blogging: -50% (…)
Here’s an interesting one: I’ve actually been contacted by the company that produced this series, asking for me to review the first episode of this 3-minute 10-episoded OVA, animated by Production IG. While I’m excited to actually have been contacted by professional companies like this, it doesn’t stop me from being perfectly honest with this series: Abunai Sisters is bad. In fact, it’s the worst series I’ve seen in years; even Musashi Gun Doh features better writing than this thing. These three minutes were full of the most obvious sex jokes you can imagine. It’s nothing more than a bunch of air-headed celebrities (the Kano Sisters, in this case) who want to insert themselves into an animated adventure. Still, at least it’s got a bit of entertainment value: it really is one of these series that’s so bad so that it becomes somewhat strangely enjoyable again. Something tells me that the writers also had no intention whatsoever to take this series seriously, and they did everything they could to make the Kano Sisters look as stupid as possible.

Druaga no Tou – The Sword of Uruk

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters has been angsting about the ending of the first season for… six months?!
Chance of me Blogging: 30% (I didn’t blog the first season, but who knows with such a lacklustre season so far?)
Aaand yet another sequel. It’s a good thing that most of these sequels are from good shows, but the lack of new series really bugs me. In any case, I was a bit surprised that Jill has been doing nothing but angsting for six months after what happened at the ending of the first season, but it’s a pretty nice twist to see him suddenly hooked up to Fatina, who went through pretty much the same as him. The series also hasn’t lost its sense of humour, so there is a lot of potential for this series to be just as good, if not better than the first season. I’m just worried about one thing: please let Jill and Fatina be a real couple, and don’t turn this series into a sort of indecisive harem once Kaaya gets back.

Asu no Yoichi!

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters gets to live in a house with cute girls.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No)
AIC sure is lazy this season: first they try to rip off Gonzo, and now they continue to rip off every harem imaginable. This really is the wrong season to look for originality. In any case, the only thing I can be positive about is this series is the characters: they were likable enough for me not to get bored, and I guess that the main character who has lived in a forest for his entire life, getting accustomed to the modern world had a number of amusing moments, but the rest of the series was either mediocre or simply bad. The character-designs are unimaginative, what kind of pickpocket flees away upstairs, characters are stereotypes, and it’s never afraid to use the biggest clichés in the book. Still, the fanservice jokes were so incredibly bad that they became strangely amusing again, so it’s not entirely a dull series.

Some quick first Impressions: Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, Hajime no Ippo New Challenger and Viper’s Creed

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is best friends with a flying potato with a train fetish…
Chance of me Blogging: 30% (Nice ideas, but…. what?!)
In my previous entry, I remember noting how this season lacked originality. I never thought that this series would listen to me, although it definitely has its own share of problems. Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo is weird. In fact, nothing of this series made any bloody sense whatsoever… the lead character moves from an innocent schoolgirl with an annoying sister to the henchmen of a weird mechanical space eye-ball… The character-designs are also way too moe. Still, I do have to appreciate the huge mount of ideas that was stuffed into this series, even though most of the times this is for the wrong reasons. This series is so incredibly stupid that it actually becomes enjoyable. The bad thing about this series is that it’s Sunrise again: the title is meant to cash in on Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo’s popularity, and the Lelouch-eyeball at the same time tries to squeeze more money out of the Code Geass-franchise.

Hajime no Ippo New Challenge

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a very good boxer.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (Have yet to see the first season)
In this season, I’m looking for new and fresh content. I’m not sure where I got that idea, but this clearly was the worst possible season for it: yet another sequel! The only original and imaginative premises I’ve seen so far are from Akikan and Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo, which… definitely were in the complete opposite direction of what I was looking for… Nevertheless, laying this aside I pretty much liked this episode. The characters were immediately likable, even though I missed around seventy episodes of the first season. My biggest concern with this series is: what’s its point? The lead character has worked very hard through the first season to become world champion (or similar), so: what’s next? There are so many Madhouse series that are in dire need of a sequel, so why did they pick this one?

Viper’s Creed

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights berserked robots on a motorbike.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Only if the rest of the season is baaaaad)
Well, so it’s yet again a series that isn’t strong on the originality-department, but nevertheless it does have some good and exciting action-scenes. I didn’t notice anything familiar on the opening credits, but could this perhaps be the next Gonzo-series? It fits their style perfectly anyway: motorbikes, an all-female back-up team, lots of CG and camera-work, rock soundtrack. Still, this doesn’t look like Bad Gonzo; there was a delightful absence of stupidity that plagues these series oh so often. And this series has one big advantage: it doesn’t revolve around teenagers! The lead characters are trained professional adults who have been specifically prepared to fight crime. There were no angsty teenagers whatsoever. If only because of that, I’m going to keep watching this series. This is no Blassreiter, but still pretty entertaining.
Edit: ah, so it’s not Gonzo after all, but AIC Spirits that tries to look like Gonzo. Let’s see how long these guys can keep this series interesting (hint: plot!).

Some quick first impressions: White Album, Minami-ke Okaeri and Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou, Some Quick First Impressions, White Album

White Album

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has an idol as girlfriend.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (It’s actually good… wut?)
Saying that shounen romance isn’t my favourite genre is an understatement, so when I learned that this series would revolve around a guy whose girlfriend was an idol, I definitely didn’t expect much from it. And yet at the end of the episode, I was convinced that this show has easily the best first episode of the new season so far. This show isn’t as much a romantic comedy, but rather as how you deal with being away from your girlfriend. What I especially liked was, however, the male lead: he has a personality, he works part time at a local cafe: the guy actually has a life! That’s something that’s really rare in this genre, and this show reminds me a lot of True Tears. Despite the whole idol-bit, this series feels refreshingly down to earth and true to life.

Minami-ke Okaeri

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters… do various things.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (What is there to write about this series for every consecutive episode… seriously?)
Okay, so this is my third attempt at following a Minami-ke series, after having failed both previous ones. It’s not like this is a bad series, but more like other series were more interesting at the time (but then again, if I dropped Dragonaut back then I could have easily kept watching this series…). In any case, this season actually looks like I might last until the end. It felt quick and fresh, and the fast pacing never gave me the chance of getting bored. For once Haruka also felt like more than just a clone of your typical elder sister that you see IN 100 OTHER SERIES ALREADY. The good thing about this series is that you can just join in at any episode you’d like without missing much, and this episode proofs that.

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets one of Nyanko’s old friends
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
This season lacks originality! More than half of the new shows so far have been sequels… what happened to original content? Nevertheless, I’m really glad to see this series back, and it already starts off with a very strong episode. Nyanko-sensei especially was a delight to watch, and the chemistry between him and Natsume gets better and better. Now all that’s left is to see whether the second season can surpass the hotaru-episode of the first season, and perhaps bring a bit of continuity to the entire story.

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!