Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Hero Tales Oh god… so much wasted potential. I actually liked some parts of the episode: the setting is developed well enough, there’s a fair amount of interesting characters, the tone of the series is quite dark and the storytelling was quite decent. And then it had to ruin everything at the end when the main character powered up in order to protect his love one. All the testostherone-filled pubescent males will love this, it could even be the next Bleach if it goes on for long enough, though I really don’t like how the main character is the “legendary strong guy who is destined to wield the supersword of awesomeness”. It’s a shame, though: the potential’s there, but the main character looks like he’s going to ruin everything in this series. Maple Story Okay, so this turned into a show, aimed at children. Still, it’s not that bad. The character-designs are simple and even the different monsters are drawn rather cute, instead of scary. I like the style of things so far, and it’s fun enough to keep watching. The male main character is also enjoyable to watch, even though his ideals are a bit cheesy. Still, it’s obvious that not many people are going to give this series a chance. I’ve already seen people label this one as the worst show of the series, though I’ve really seen much worse shows this season. I think it’s the lack of any sexy females in skimpy clothing, if this series had female fanservice people would probably check it out… ironically enough. Moyashimon I mean, was there any way for this series not to turn out worthwhile? ^^; There’s a very good chance we’ve got ourselves the funniest series of the season here. For Moyashimon, I actually have some faith that it’ll have enough material to remain funny for a full series, not to mention that the premise of a university-student who can see bacteria has so much potential. I also love how we sometimes get to see the reactions of random bystanders to the things that happen. There are a few flaws here and there (the outfit of the only female member of the cast is one of the biggest examples of this), but I have no idea why nobody in the blogging-community has said anything about this series so far. Is the concept of talking bacteria that outrageous?]]>

Rental Magica Okay, so this one turned into the shounen-version of Ghost Hunt, with slightly less-impressive production-values. Unfortunately, this one screwed up in a lot of areas, and the characters are nowhere as interesting as with Ghost Hunt. For starters, the director likes action way too much, and the action-scenes themselves aren’t impressive at all: it’s just the characters who launch their powers at the enemy until it goes down. Second of all, this series takes up too little time to build up. It’s like, five minutes of backstory until the action starts again, and the case for this episode was resolved a tad too easy for my tastes. To continue, this may not be a harem, but it’s got way too many harem-elements, and the main character does get surrounded by a bunch of cute and strong girls, among which are a few stereotypes like the energetic sister and the blonde American (seriously, since when are all Americans blond?). He himself takes up all the glory during the fights, and ends up fainting afterwards like the hero he is. I mean, I like the premise, but the execution feels rather meh to me. I doubt whether I’ll continue watching this one. Minami-ke After Mokke, this is the second slice-of-life series that focuses on sisters living together this season. So far, I’m more impressed at the former, but that doesn’t mean that Minami-ke is bad. This episode started out with a nice enough first episode, with some interesting banter between the different characters, even though you can probably guess their personalities by just looking at them on the promo-art. The animation is quite good for this series, and there are some interesting camera-angles used in this episode. I think that the success of this series will depend on whether it can remain fresh for thirteen episodes (I assume that that’s going to be the length, don’t take my word on it), and the characters will grow a bit instead of repeating their quirks infinitely. Prism Arc I’m a fan of fantasy-series, and Seirei no Moribito showed me that the more one of these series makes its setting believable, the better of a chance it has to become really good. While this is rather subjective for everyone, I do have to say that magic SHOULD NOT BE used to give a bunch of teenagers a cheap excuse to become stronger than any other adult with years more of experience. Seriously, this flaw can’t become more apparent in Prism Ark: the entire cast of strongest fighters in the country consists out of sexy females with a few males here and there, all around the ages of twelve to fifteen. Also, when the map of the world this show is set in is show: pay attention: it’s basically a very screwed up map of Europe, with the names of a few countries altered. This leads to hilarious names as the “Untied Kingdom”, “Russiasn”, “Speen” and “Poleland”. I have no idea whether this was intentional or not, but the fact remains that it’s not looking good for this series. ^^;]]>

Mokke Mokke was one of the two series I’ve been looking forward to the most for this season, and it doesn’t disappoint. What we have here is two sisters who live at a local shrine. One of them can see spirits, the other is easily possessed by them. There’s a very nice combination of slice-of-life and drama, and unlike the similar series Binbou Shimai Monogatari, this series never feels annoying, apart from a few animation-issues here and there, perhaps. It’s going to be interesting whether this series will remain fresh or not by developing its characters. Oh, and the music is pretty good as well. Especially the OP has the chance of being among the best OPs for this season. This is definitely the best show of the season so far, but then again, I’ve only seen four of them until now. ^^; Night Wizard the Animation So far, this one turned out interesting enough to continue, but it needs a lot to improve on. I like how the main characters go beyond their clichés, and the male lead actually has a sense of humour. This also isn’t a show where all main characters suddenly discover their powers: that’s only the case for one of them. The male lead and the others were already involved in the parallel fantasy-world that exists alongside the normal one. The graphics and music are nice to watch as well,, and small degree of humour is a welcome addition. Still, on the other side, there’s only one male character in the entire show so far, all female characters, the thing lacks realism (why does nobody find it strange when suddenly a car lifts off into the air?), the male and female lead look destined to end up together, and let’s hope that the rest of the series will spend enough time to flesh out the characters and go for something original. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, because this could turn into something interesting if handled well. Myself; Yourself So, a guy returns to his birthplace after having been away for 5 years? Where have I seen this before? Ah well, it did at least some things right: the characters go a bit beyond stereotypes unlike with Da Capo II, and the character-designs of the teenagers aren’t as outrageous as I feared. That doesn’t mean that the plot isn’t incredibly shallow, though. His childhood love turned into the worst tsundere possible, another became his landlady who agrees to make his lunch for no possible reason, the third girl turned into the obligatory unimportant female classmate and his only male friend looks way too much like the obligatory male best friend you see in every harem. I’m not sure, but why can’t these creators come up with something original? It’s really not that hard, you know? One thing I have to say though, is that this is probably the first harem without a cheesy J-pop-tune for its OP: instead we get treated to a catchy J-rock one.]]>

Bamboo Blade This one turned out into a pretty decent high-school anime. I like the male and female lead, who for once aren’t destined to love each other. The male lead also is an adult teacher, and there are more important male characters than him, including a geek who actually has his own girlfriend. Nice one. The banter between the different characters is fun to watch, and there’s good chemistry between them. It’s just a pity that the black-haired girl had to ruin everything. She somehow manages to beat heaps of adults at one time without breaking a sweat, she’s silent and never goes beyond her stereotype. This series is about a guy who has to assemble a team of five girls for kendo. If he does that successfully, his colleague will give him a year’s worth of sushi, or something similar. So far, we’ve seen three of the girls, one clichéd and two with promise. Let’s hope the other two will be worthwhile. The animation was definitely rushed for this episode: those were some crazy camera-angles, were often you wouldn’t see a character’s mouth when he or she was talking. Ah well, the thing this series needs to watch out for the most is not falling into a moe-fest. Da Capo II I haven’t seen the original series, but I decided to check this one out, just in case I missed something really good. Well, it turns out I didn’t. The major problem lies with the characters. The cast comes with a lot of females (who can be conveniently recognized amongst generics due to their near-outrageous hairstyles), who’ll probably all end up getting close with our main character, who looks suspiciously much like the main character of any other harem-series. Basically, every member of the cast is a stereotype. There’s the younger sister who helps the local nurse, the elder sister who acts motherly towards her brother (yes, the main character), there is the childhood friend, the little girl that makes us doubt how she got in a high school in the first place, the big-breasted blonde girl, the obligatory male best friends who keep acting annoying and let’s not forget the most popular girl in school. I think the only harem-cliché that misses here is the android, though I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned up somewhere along the way. Sketchbook ~Full Color’s~ Oh my, this one actually turned out funny. It’s thankfully not as moe-centric as I thought, and the different characters have interesting personalities, which work together quite well. I’m not going to call this a success yet, as I remember how a previous 4-Koma adaptation (Lucky Star) turned dull quite fast, but if this series can manage to remain fresh, it’s going to be an interesting watch. Basically, it’s about the art-club in a local school. The funniest parts of the episode were the crow and the members of the club, trying to come up with inspiration for their next drawings. The only downside is the main character, though. It’s not the way you think: she’s fun to watch, but she makes Mugi from Hitohira look like a talking machine: I’ve only heard three actual words come out of her mouth throughout the entire episode. While it’s nice to hear her voice-actress having fun to explore the different meanings of huffing and puffing, I’d prefer to hear some actual dialogue out of her, besides her inner monologues. ^^;]]>

Saishu Shiken Kujira Ugh… I was interested in this series because I read somewhere that it had mystery-elements, despite being only five minutes long for each episode. And fair enough, the first scene opens with the main character, staring at a huge whale that floats in the sky; an interesting start. But then, everything went down the drains when a cheesy pop-tune started playing and, indeed, a cute, pink-haired, well-endowed girl showed up from nowhere. And indeed, the guy is a sudden transfer-student. Seriously, what’s so exciting about transfer students?! Sure enough, the better series can make something good out of this, but Saishu Shiken Kujira spends the rest of its five minutes in pointless blabber, where the girl keeps spooning up to the main character. I’ve got bad feelings about this one. (Edit: I wrote this blurb a couple of weeks ago, and since then I managed to see three more episodes. Let’s just say that it gets worse with every successive episode. Don’t even touch this with a ten-foot pole!) Kodomo no Jikan OVA Well well, the storytelling actually turned out cute. There were quite a few adorable moments and it didn’t turn out in the failure I originally thought it would be. Still, the excessive and blatantly obvious fanservice needs to stop. Like with nearly ever other-fanservice anime, it only hurts the production. Still, it’s not only the fanservice that’s the problem. The main character’s behaviour and obsession doesn’t match her age. I mean, how many 11-year old girls are already ready to spoon up to their loved ones? Overall, this could have become good if it wasn’t so keen on feeding the paedophiles out there… GR -Giant Robo- Yes, I know that I already id a first impression half a year ago, but I wanted to wrap up the quick first impressions before the start of the new season. It also gives me a good chance to raise some awareness that this series has finally gotten subbed. It could have been one of the big names of the winter-season, if it didn’t air on some kind of paid channel, and of course it was nice to finally see this with some quality sound and graphics. Anyway, I’ve been looking forward to more news of this series ever since watching the OVA, which aired ten years earlier. Daisaku seems to have turned eighteen, though it’s not yet certain whether it is THE Daisaku. We have yet to see his past, and there was no single mention of the Shizuma-drives. There are also no recurring characters except for him, and even Giant Robo has a different name now, this really was an introduction-episode. Daisaku runs into Elysion (the new Giant Robo, it seems) and the two of them make a contract, and that’s basically all this episode was about. I like the emphasis on diving, though. It’s nice and fresh, and the music really sounds excellent if you’re a fan of metal.]]>

Moetan It took a bit of time to get used to the fact that the main character had the same voice as Akazukin from Otogi Juusi Akazukin. However, while Akazukin was awesomeness, Moetan remains an utter failure. I was hoping for it to be at least a good comedy, but nearly all of the jokes are blatant and unfunny fanservice ones. The “story” revolves around a highly skilled magician, who flees his world, turns into a duck, and forces our female main character to become a mahou shoujo, without any particular reason. The duck also turned into an annoying pervert, the transformation-sequence is blatantly obvious and the additional romance where a ten-year old girl has fallen in love with a fourteen year-old boy tell me that this is just otaku-bait. Even the very few engrish-jokes don’t work. Zero no Tsukaima Second Season Sometimes, I give second seasons of series that I originally dismissed a second chance, just in case I misjudged them. I discovered Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club this way, so why not? And I do admit it’s not as bad as I remember it, there were a few cute moments here and there. It seems that the characters definitely made more progress than Shakugan no Shana in its entire series. Still, I’m not going to continue watching this series, simply because the main character remains an idiot. After watching this episode, I admit that this series could have been good, if it didn’t throw us a fanservice-joke whenever it had the chance. Seriously, about half of the episode is spent on this main character, drooling over the bosoms of the different female characters. I also wonder why the queen of a country would come to him, simply because Louise’s powers are useful for the war. Can’t she just leave that to one of her military officers? Mononoke Excuse me while I fanboy for a moment, but THAT WAS AWESOME!!!! It’s exactly what I hoped it to be, even though this was just an introducing episode. It takes its time to introduce the case and the demon that has to be slain, but it already provided lots of good scares. The summer-season is proving to be an excellent season for the horror-fans, when it comes with two excellent horror-shows. Shigurui will be focusing at gore, while Mononoke’s scares are all psychological (do not miss seeing the guy get killed, that most probably was one of the most intense moments I’ve seen in quite a while). I am currently SO excited about this anime, and it had delivered without question the best first episode out of the entire summer-season. In fact, it’s got the best first episode of the entire 2007! If the same level of Bake Neko will be achieved in the future episodes, we’ll be looking at one of the definite highlights of the year! Oh, and don’t worry about not having seen Ayakashi ~Japanese Horror, there is enough background given to just watch it without having any background knowledge. I can’t wait for the second episode!!!!]]>