Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Sky Girls Wow, this one could have turned out a lot worse. The blatant fanservice that plagued the OVA is almost entirely gone now, and some actual time has been dedicated to fleshing out the characters properly. To be honest, I didn’t see this coming, and expected the same moe-bait that was the OVA. Still, I don’t trust this series yet. The first episode was all about the characters, and there were only a few shots of action. I fear that once the battles really get started, this series will degrade back to the level of the OVA. I’m also still not sure why it must be necessary to have the ultimate weapons equipped by young girls. I mean, can’t people just make adult-versions? The weight won’t change anything about the firepower of these things. Also, the black-haired girl was just too tsundere for her own good. The only scene that featured her (which also was the only action-scene, hence my worries) was the only really bad part of this episode. Potemayo This show turned out to be quite funny. It’s a matter of taste, but I personally love the sadistic yet subtle humour of Potemayo. It’s basically a school comedy, with two mute… chibi… “thingies” (called Potemayo) added, and it basically revolves around random things, happening around these “thingies”. There’s the standard cast of characters, with the male main character, his classmate who’s in love with him, other random classmates, and the two loser-males that always fail, but with the addition of Potemayo, they become hilarious at times. Now all that’s left to hope is that it won’t milk out its jokes too soon. Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei I really love the art in this anime, and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei probably has the best graphics of the entire summer-season for me. Especially with the direction of Shinbo (who did series as Pani Poni Dash and Soultaker before). The OP already starts the anime in a very… “peculiar” way, and there is definitely chemistry between the different characters. What I like about this series, above Pani Poni Dash is that on the outside, the class that this anime focuses on looks pretty much like a normal class, only it’s the inside that’s rather strange. The series also is quite funny, and I believe that it will compete with Potemayo for the best comedy of the season. Okay, it may not have been the best idea to watch a series that is focused at word puns without subtitles, but then again, it’ll probably take ages for this series to come out fansubbed. Anyway, this one’s definitely recommended.]]>

Buzzer Beater Okay, you know when an anime is bad when it uses recycled Pandemos-designs from Master of Epic with varying skin-colours for its alien-designs. Yes, it’s that bad, and it immediately shows the image that the creators have of them: all aliens have horns, so they’re evil, while humans are good and they have to win. And believe it or not, but things are even worse on the earth-side. Somehow, the creators found themselves the most annoying brat, and gave him a star-spot on the basketball-team that’s supposed to finally defeat the aliens. How the heck did that happen!? Buzzer Beater enforces my opinion that most sports-anime are garbage, simply because they almost always include the near-impossible scenario of a 14-year-old brat that somehow becomes the best in the field. Buzzer Beater features one that has no team-spirit whatsoever, happens to be of the same level as grown-up players who trained their entire lives and continues to think that he’s king of the world. Don’t even bother to give this one a chance. Code-E With the director of Simoun, I just had to look forward to this. Unfortunately, it’s not anything special yet, apart from the OP and the climax. This episode was really meant to introduce the main character, who has the strange power to disrupt electrical equipment when startled or scared. She already was very shy, which may not have been the best personality-trait for this power. I liked how she’s cheerful in surroundings that she and is trusted with, but becomes incredibly scared when new things are introduced to her. So far, the first episode dabbled along nicely without getting boring, and there were smudges of hints that the future episodes will become intriguing (most notably, the climax), but I do have to say that the male lead must really improve over the next few episodes, as he’s rather horrible, both his character-design and his personality. Mushiuta After having watched the episode, I know for sure: this is going to be a very dark story. Even the light elements in this episode had a gloomy atmosphere. The story is based around the general premise of “bunch of people with powers fighting monsters”, and the main character seems to be the strongest of the team, a fourteen-year-old kid, and he acts like a timid person when he’s not involved in a mission. Still, despite this, he managed to distance himself from the other teenaged brats that we see so often. He’s not cocky, arrogant or whiny at all, due to the things that have already happened to him. Okay, he’s still inexperienced (he let a very easy target slip away at the beginning of the episode), but as far as characters like his go, I like him. If you’re looking for a dark story with high-school elements, this will be a fine pick. If it manages to stay away from fillers, that is.]]>

School Days I must praise this anime for being the first harem-anime that actually “gets on with it” so fast. Just watch the episode, and you’ll understand. I’ve seen quite a few first episodes of harem-shows during the overcrowded fall-season, but none went as far as the first episode of School Days. Unfortunately, that’s the only good and actually average point about this anime. Everything else is either sub-par or horrible. The dialogue was boring, and the male main character looks even worse than your average harem-lead. The animation was again nothing special, and the music was almost non-existent. And why must every school-based bishoujo harem, with no exception, have an energetic best friend who is a pervert and will never have a girl of his own and merely exists to be annoying and “comic” relief? So, basically what will happen is that we’ll be following a standard dating-sim, until the end where everyone kills each other? There’d better be enough serious scenes to keep me interested. Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho Okay… I think we’ve found our fanservice-series of the season. For an anime about swimming, there was bound to be some nudity, but this series carries this to a very next level. Basically, the story is about a mermaid who attacks a young boy while he’s swimming in the ocean, giving a fear of water for the rest of his life and visits his town a bunch of years later to make his life even more “miserable”. Oh, did I mention that this girl likes to swim around naked? Still, it does have a few good point, most importantly: the male lead actually looks different from all other male leads of series of the same genre. In comparison to, say School Days, this anime actually has some nice production-values, and it just looks good. The characters also were interesting enough, when fanservice wasn’t involved. Still, I’m worried about the excessive amount of fanservice, and I hope it’s not a bad sign of things to come. Zombie Loan Whoa, this one turned out good! I was a bit scared due to the cheesy title, the concept of zombies and the mediocre promo-art, but these worries were not needed at all. Zombie Loan actually is a freaky shoujo-anime, and it’s one of the few cases where the promo-art looks worse than the art of the actual anime. The art, background sounds, music and dialogue manage to create a really captivating atmosphere, and the characters have already managed to set themselves apart from the stereotypes in only the first episode. Let’s hope now that the series won’t degenerate into fillers at some point, but this episode already showed that it can deliver some great drama. I’d definitely recommend this one.]]>

Shigurui The first series I checked out for the summer-season, and I think I’ve already found my favourite OP of the season. I love artsy OPs like this one, that do something else than just “oh, let’s display the different characters in a cool or sad way and add some random music to it”, not to mention that the melody rocks. Anyway, about Shigurui: let me first start with a warning. If you’ve got a weak heart, are rather young or just can’t stand gore: DO NOT WATCH THIS. This is a horror-show, focused at a select audience, and it tries to captivate it by combining an eerie mood and some of the most disturbing gore I’ve seen in anime. If I had to guess, than the entire anime is about the fight between two samurai, one missing an arm and one without eyesight, where most of the airtime is spent on fleshing out their backgrounds. It’s only been one episode, and already we’ve seen bloody broken fingers, a guy pulling out his own guts and another guy stabbing his own toe, in all graphic details. Personally, I like the show so far, but the scene where the guy broke his fingers was too much for me, and I just couldn’t bear to watch the screen anymore. Nanatsuiro Drops Oohh.. someone… PLEASE make Sumomo stop whining! Seriously, how more annoying can she get? Her character-designs suck, her voice-acting is way too drawn out and her personality is, just like the rest of the cast by the way, a cookie-cutter at best. I can’t believe the character-designer is famous, because what he shows here was just horrible. Anyway, about the story, it’s not much interesting either. A guy gets turned into a fluffy animal and needs Sumomo to catch sparkly thingies in order to change back. These sparkly thingies can draw the energy of the flowers, and if they do, Sumomo will cry because it’s so sad for the flowers… god, she needs to grow a spine. Oh, have I already mentioned the obligatory dark mysterious character who watches from afar and will probably get drawn into the main character’s harem at episode three? This is one to avoid. Doujin Work And here we have the anime about a group of doujin-artists. In this episode, a girl attends a doujin-convention, realizes how much money people can make in it and decides to become a doujin-artist herself… and that’s about it. There’s not much to say about this series anyway. The art is sub-par; the animation is not very good. The jokes manage to make sure that it doesn’t get boring too soon, but they’re not exactly funny. The characters are rather flat and one-dimensional, and I honestly can’t think of something that stands out. Let’s hope that this is one of these anime that needs a bit of time to warm up, as this episode didn’t impress me much. I liked the yuri-joke, though.]]>

Maria, who asked me to blog about this series and it was a nice opportunity to wrap up the quick first impressions before the start of the Summer-season, since I needed one more series for that. ICE This is probably the first anime of the past few years to actually look like it’s made in the nineties, based on the characters at least. If you’d look just at them, you wouldn’t suspect that we’ve got ourselves a 2007-OVA here. This anime really gives the unique experience of mixing old character-designs with new CG, but unfortunately the fact also remains that the characters just look ugly. The animators also really screw things up with the random nonsensical Engrish that passes the screen, so the visuals shouldn’t be a reason for you to check out this anime. The characters themselves could have been more interesting. Still, that doesn’t mean that I didn’t enjoy this episode. The story and voice-acting really made up for the flaws. Especially the story, this OVA carries the concept of a world where all men have died out way beyond its basics, and it provides a nice number of plot twists and imaginative concepts you don’t quite easily think of. I also loved how the characters who died or got injured where remembered and taken care of. The voice-acting is unique, most characters have some kind of unique voice, which really works well if you get used to it. EDIT: I wrote this blurb about a week ago, and now that I think back at it, my opinion of this show has become even better, and I’ve kind-of forgotten all the bad parts. This definitely is an OVA that needs a bit of time to sink in, which always is a good thing. Dash Kappei Dash Kappei is quite an old anime, it’s about a small boy named Kappei with extreme sports skills. In this episode, we see him get recruited for the local basketball team at school. Unfortunately, I’m not really enthusiastic about this show. It’s got nothing to do with the age, but rather the main character. In fact, I found myself liking every scene in which he wasn’t featured, and hating every scene in which we did see him. The dog was brilliant, and the team captain was adorable, but Kappei was horrible. He likes looking at the panties of girls and dedicates himself to the girls with white ones. He’s arrogant and he’s skilled in basketball with no signs of training whatsoever. He’s arrogant, his goofy facial-expression looks horrible, he never takes things seriously at all and his chemistry with the other characters is awful. I know that this is supposed to be a comedy, but with a character like Kappei it’ll just be impossible for me to enjoy this series. If you like panty-jokes and don’t mind old graphics you may give it a chance, otherwise: avoid it. Tetsuko no Tabi Tetsuko no Tabi definitely had the most peculiar premise of the spring-season: we follow a mangaka who records her travels along with a train otaku and her assigner (Ishikawa), and the entire anime is completely non-fiction. So, after having seen the first episode, how does it turn out? Well, awesome! The entire anime just sparkles with energy, perhaps even more than with Manabi Straight. It’s a perfect example of a feel-good anime, and the chemistry between the three main characters is excellent. Basically, they travel down one trainway, and make a stop at every train-station. The mangaka, who expected something entirely different when she first took on the job (aka, lots of delicious food), just keeps getting freaked out by the otaku’s antics, and Ishikawa’s fascination at them. Lucky Star had better watch out, as it’s not the only series focusing on modern Japanese culture and otaku anymore, and as things are looking right now, Tetsuko no Tabi will beat it in every department apart from parodies. Unless you need battles or cute girls with obscene hair-colours in your anime, you should definitely check this one out.]]>

The Skull Man You know, this one started out well. Okay, it wasn’t as interesting as some of the other series that have appeared in the spring-season, but it was definitely a solid start, in which a journalist is investigating the murders by a guy, calling himself “the skeleton man” and runs into a girl who has ran away from home or something similar. The concept definitely had potential. That is, until the creators decided that it was a good moment for a friggin’ naked shower-scene. That really took a lot of credibility away from this series. Anyway, apart from this, the series is off to a good start, and it’s different from what I expected it to be. I imagined this being a dark and gritty show, but for the most part, most of its scenes were light-hearted. The characters introduced so far have potential, especially the side-characters. We’ll see where this one will bring us. Devil May Cry Now this one turned out interesting! Finally another actually good action-series appears that contains a great balance between action and dialogue. The action-scenes look terrific, and I absolutely loved the fight in the theatre. Another remarkable feature was that about 50% of the dialogue happens off-screen. While I can imagine some people getting turned off by this, it actually felt very refreshing and interesting to me. Anyway, Devil May Cry features Dante, a half-demon/half-human or something similar who acts as a bodyguard to protect people from ferocious demons… with his favourite food being a Strawberry Sundae. Nice touch. Overall, the animation is excellent, and the soundtrack features some interesting tunes. Okay, it will never match itself to the great names with its format, but for its genre, it’s doing a very fine job. Wangan Midnight Wangan Midnight, an anime about a guy who likes to speed-race on the highway. I can appreciate how he didn’t just find out about his passion for cars in this episode, like so many other anime of its kind do. What we’ve got here is just a guy who likes being reckless, gets defeated and runs into a really fast but dangerous blue car on the scrapheap. After watching this first episode, I realized that the action-scenes are mostly for the car-lovers out there, as they didn’t do anything to me. There were too many close-ups and too little real action. What did interest me, though, were the human aspects in the episode, most notably the main character’s recklessness. A lot of people are worrying about him, and I do hope that this anime will be realistic enough to show what happens if this continues. Another notable aspect is the really diverse soundtrack. It’s got anything: hip-hop, rock, j-pop. All it misses is some German folklore.]]>

Kaze no Stigma Short Synopsis: Kazuma has been kicked out of the fire-clan because he sucked at throwing fireballs at people. Now, three years later, he’s back with wind-powers to prove the meanies from the fire-clan wrong. Good: Interesting, this anime already starts off by killing its major characters Bad: Someone please teach the writer the basics of human nature. Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10 Ever since I saw the plain and ordinary character-art, I sortof feared that this anime would never become good, and this episode indeed proved my fears. The bad points also don’t limit themselves to the bad character-designs, either. Most notably is the hugely unbelievable behavior of the characters. The girl’s comrades have just been killed by the main male lead, and what does the girl do? She acts as if he just insulted her. She never even looks back at her former friends who just died, and instead she shows the behaviour of a standard tsundere. Sorry, but with a start like that, I don’t feel like checking out more of this series… Oh, and grown-up guys throwing fireballs at each other definitely isn’t cool. Heck, the entire episode made it look like there was not thought whatsoever put behind the concept. Ookiku Furikabutte Short Synopsis: A not-so-typical loser gets assigned as the pitcher of a local baseball team. Good: Surprisingly down-to-earth. Bad: The main character does remain a looser, and I’m fearing for the girl we kept seeing flashes of. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 Like Kaze no Stigma, I never had big expectations of this, especially after the horribly boring Overdrive. But what do you know, this sports anime actually turned out interesting. First of all, we finally have a loser who doesn’t suddenly get introduced to Baseball, so that he can become the best baseball player ever. This episode also hinted at tactics, rather than raw power like most sports anime tend to dabble into (or so I’ve heard). We’ve also got quite an interesting cast, like the orange-squishing trainer, the very shy main character (probably one of the shyest characters I’ve seen thus far), and the other new guy. Even the girl who watched from the side-lines was quite funny, though I fear her becoming a main character. Kaibutsu Oujo Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to live together with a bunch of supernatural beings, who quite conveniently all end up being cute girls. Good: Thankfully, the ALI project didn’t turn this into a complete failure after all. Bad: So…many….stereotypes… Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10 I couldn’t help but compare this series to Murder Princess, both feature a blonde princess who likes to kill others. I do have to say, though, that Murder Princess is infinitely better than the rubbish that this series tried to present. First of all, ignoring the clichés for a moment, the main character’s sister has invited her brother to come live with her. Why the heck doesn’t se get worried when he doesn’t show up? Why doesn’t she call the guy’s cell-phone to ask what happened to him. Sure, okay, she’s just a completely stupid and irresponsible girl, okay. I can forgive that. What I can’t forgive, though, is the hospital-people who don’t even notify the guy’s family-members after he died, for goodness’ sake! Now, if you add the clichés to that (big-breasted sister in maid-clothes, cold princess, small uberpowerful girl who keeps beating up the main character, a typical loser male who has been pasted right from another random harem-anime, the metal bar who chose just the right timing to fall down on the princess, and of course the fact that this princess just can’t let the guy die and I can ramble on forever like this) the result becomes nothing other than garbage.]]>

Lovely Complex Short Synopsis: This anime follows two extremely energetic high-schoolkids: one very tall girl and one very short boy. Good: Surprisingly funny. Bad: Seems to be trying a bit too hard at times. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 You know, I expected Lovely Complex to be another slice-of-life anime that would get boring soon. Still, it’s surprisingly funny. It’s probably one of the anime with the most different kinds of facial expressions I’ve seen in a while, and I have to say that most of the time, it works quite funny. It isn’t the funniest anime of the spring-season, though (that title goes to Ooedo Rocket), and some facial expressions may be trying too hard, but especially the female lead is quite charming when she is in normal-mode. The shy boy and girl also were quite cute. I’m somehow reminded of Ouran High School Host Club, which aired during the previous season. Now let’s hope it won’t keep milking on the same jokes like Ouran did. Lucky Star Short Synopsis: Lucky star follows the high-school life of four rather eccentric girls. Good: KyoAni without a cheesy romance? This can become actually interesting. Bad: It’s ironic that out of all companies KyoAni blew all its animation-budget on the OP. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 You know, I think that KyoAni finally managed to come with an actually good show, after the disappointments of Haruhi and Kanon. It’s also quite interesting that most of the budget didn’t go in the animation, like you’d expect, but in the dialogue. This probably is the most dialogue-heavy anime of the new season, heck the only moment in which people didn’t seem to be talking with each other was the beginning of the episode, in which the main character ran for a short while. While the dialogues are about nothing at all (the ENTIRE first half is about what kinds of food the characters like), there’s some nice chemistry between the characters. The lack of a male character also makes sure that there won’t be any cheesy romance, which also is a nice plus. I’m glad to see that Kyoani finally hit the nail. Also, you have to love the ED. ^^; Bokura no Short Synopsis: a group of children are invited to play a game: piloting a mecha in real life. Good: Probably too much to just list here. Bad: None. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 oh god, the expression “save the best for last” really applies to this Spring-Season. I just love this, and to think that Dennou Coil hasn’t even aired yet. I just love how the character-designs are so generic. They really try to show you that this involves normal, everyday children, and not just the hottest girl in school, or the typical loser male. To top that, the cast is huge, and each child has a different personality and feels unique. I bet that they’ll all react to the horrible things that are about to happen in a different way, and I can’t wait to see the second episode to find out! The background music also gave a small taste of the same guy who did the music for Hi no Tori, I’m expecting it to really show up once the major climaxes start coming, as this episode was sortof one general introduction. One detail I absolutely loved is inside the control chamber of the mecha, there are a number of seats, and each of these seats is different.]]>

Kaze no Shoujo Emily Short Synopsis: Emily has a very strong bond with her father, but then he suddenly dies. She then moves in with her aunt: Elizabeth. Good: It’s only the first episode, and Emily already is a very interesting character. Bad: A few predictable moments, character-designs that take time getting used to. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 This has been one of the series I was looking forward to the most, and it doesn’t disappoint. Like expected, the first episode focuses solely on Emily, and she already is an interesting character, losing her parents early on. I loved her crying-scenes. The predictable moments were regarding Emily, living together with her aunt. A large part of the episode is about who Emily should live with, though the OP already reveals that it’s going to be Elizabeth. Still, this is just a minor detail, I can’t wait to see the other characters in the spotlight. Each of them sounds really interesting. Just take note, the art may take a while to get used to, as it’s not your usual style. I’ve already seen Danny comment on how ugly he found it, though once you get used to it, it’s not so bad. Blue Dragon Short Synopsis: A typical brat appears to have a huge power, called the “Blue Dragon”. Good: Potentially interesting characters. Bad: Akira Toriyama Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10 The second of three RPG-adaptations to come this season. I secretly hoped for this to turn out well, like other shows of its kind proved, though the Akira Toriyama-influences are just way too big. We first of all have that annoying male lead, the people powering up, the stereotypical characters, but most annoyingly a main character who wants to protect his friends and so gets to have an excuse to possess the strongest power ever. I’m going to go with Shining Tears instead, and in June Tales of Symphonia. Stay away from this one, in any case. Towards The Terra Short Synopsis: Long ago, humankind went to travel to distant planets, while the earth was left in ruins. Johnnie, our main character gets involved with some strange people. Good: I don’t know why, but I loved it! Bad: I want more dammit!! Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Towards The Terra, another one of my major series to look forward to, and with a very good reason. I mentioned before that I’m an absolute sucker for mystery, and a show like this couldn’t be more mysterious. Where does the main character live now? What happened to the earth? What did these people do to him when he was brainwashed? Who are these people who he keeps seeing in his dreams? Add a great mother-son relationship, an excellent soundtrack, and I’m hooked. According to the OP, the cast of this anime seems really big, and I can’t wait to meet all of these people. This episode was definitely a highlight of the beginning of the Spring-season.]]>

Kamichama Karin Short Synopsis: Karin is a young girl, with no friends and whose pet just died, when she meets a few strange people, one of them refers to her as “Kami-sama”. Good: Kawai! Really charming, The ALI-Project shines. Bad: I’ve seen quite a few mahou shoujo up till now, but I still haven’t found the merit of those extremely long transformation-scenes. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 Ah, the Mahou Shoujo of the season. I’ve been waiting for this, and it doesn’t disappoint. The first episode already was incredibly charming and heart-warming. Karin and … somehow really remind me of Sakura and Tomoyo, which of course is a good thing. I already love this. The only thing I’m worried about is the beginning of the show, which gives a small taste about what’s going to happen in the future of this anime. I’m not sure, but it looked rather formulaic. Let’s hope that the future episodes will be able to introduce lots of new stuff, as the first episode definitely showed that Kamichama Karin has the potential to become great. 🙂 Shining Tears x Wind Short Synopsis: Two teenagers get transported to a different world. Twist: the main character actually isn’t a typical loser. Good: Excellent mystery, so many potentially interesting characters. Bad: Quite a few minor flaws (see below). Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 As this was another RPG-adaptation, I’ve been looking forward to it. Let me first say that I’m a total sucker for mystery, and so it’s great to see that there’s been a huge amount of mystery thrown into this anime. I really like the potential in this one. Also, even though the concept may be generic, the main characters actually do know how to fight before the story starts. The way the main character also obtains his power also has much more detail than your average other anime who uses this plot elements. And surprisingly, the romance between the two main characters of this episode could have been done way worse. Overall, I’ve been quite pleased, but the fact remains that there are lots of minor flaws in this anime which could potentially ruin it, just like Star Ocean Ex did once. Most of all, the females. Their character-designs are a bit too fanservice-based, and I do hope that they’ll be more than just damsels in distress. Apart from that, the fights themselves are rather generic, with no outstanding animation whatsoever. The characters also could have been a bit more surprised at the sudden catgirl who appeared in front of them. sola Short Synopsis: The sky is beautiful, taking pictures of it is fun, no sky is the same… oh god, this guy needs to find himself a hobby. Good: The action-scene at the end surprised me. Bad: Harem clichés ho! Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10 The writers of Kanon and Da Capo collaborating for this project. Obviously, it wasn’t going to be exciting. Sure, it’s got a bit of a quiet mood, but the characters are nearly painful. There’s this main character who has another strange hobby, and obviously is a total loser, he runs coincidentally into a girl, and the two fall in love. Remember also that scene in NHK ni Youkoso, where Satou suggested to combine all sorts of character-traits into one character? Well, after watching this anime, I can’t help to think that the creators used that scene as the base of one of the other characters: the bed-ridden sister who acts cold and doesn’t talk much. I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned out to be an android as well. Apart from that, we’ve also got the tomboy-childhood friend and the little girl who sleeps in a box. Okay, that last one may not be a cliché, but she doesn’t exactly have an exciting personality either. In terms of graphics, don’t expect too much. The art on the main website already wasn’t really appealing, but this art got toned down even more for the anime-version.]]>