Category: Some Quick First Impressions

Keitai Shoujo Short Synopsis: Ordinary schoolboy has a childhood-friend who’s in love with him, he’s in love with her as well. Good: Finally, a harem that’s short! Only 4 minutes per episode. Bad: Harem; Childhood friend; Annoying classmate; The usual. Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10 Well, the spring-season started out quite horribly with Ketai Shoujo. But then again, it’s not like I expected something different. And at least it’s an OVA-harem. Those usually have a bit more creativity than the usual TV-Series-harems. _summer, for example, was horrible, but it did feature some interesting direction. Keitai Shoujo on its turn only has 4 minutes per episode, excluding OP and ED, so at least it won’t be able to bore you to tears. But then again, four minutes per episode, with only five episodes in total. There’s no way the creators are going to get some good development out of this. And heck, Keitai Shoujo, the phone who turns into a girl has yet to even appear. Anyway, It’s not like I’m going to continue this one. Dropped. Idolmaster Xenoglossia Short Synopsis: Girl auditions to be an idol, gets selected, but doesn’t know that she’s actually going to pilot mechas Good: Some funny characters, solid animation. Bad: Cast of stereotypes, useless fanservice-jokes, why are these girls the only ones who can pilot mechas? Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10 Idolmaster Xenoglossia got aired on its website for its first lucky 1000 visitors. Obviously, this had to leak out somewhere, resulting in raws getting posted for everyone to view. After watching this episode, it’s clear that we’ve got ourselves a sunrise-anime here, as it just screams “Mai Otome”. Not that that’s a good thing, though. The main character is your usual clueless girl who will end up piloting a mecha without any prior experience, she’s joined by a rather shy girl and a loudmouthed one. So far, these characters didn’t really catch my interest, though I do admit that the loudmouthed one was funny. I wish I could say the same of the small fanservice-jokes which slip in occasionally. Those who are into solid animation could check this one out, but don’t expect the character-designs to be memorable. Dropped. Hitohira Short Synopsis: Extremely shy girl gets recruited for the drama-club Good: Charming main character, some very interesting side-characters. Bad: Other side-characters, though, were rather clichéd. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10 I’m glad to see that Hitohira actually turned out good. The first episode definitely showed that Mugi is more than just the standard shy girl of a harem whose only goal is to get into the harem lead’s pants. She’s got a really cute personality, especially if she doesn’t know what to say. She’s more versatile than I imagined, which is always a good thing. This series comes accompanied with quite a few interesting side-characters as well. My main problem lies with two characters: the head of the drama-club and the Mugi’s love interest. The first is a bit too nice to her, while the second just screams “harem lead”. While it’s good to see the latter being abused and chased around, and his sense of humour is nice, I just can’t help but fear that his relationship with Mugi will be too forced.]]>

Juusou Kikou Dancouga Nova Okay, the good news, this isn’t as bad as I expected. The characters so far do look interesting somehow. The bad news, however, is that this seems to have every single shounen-mecha cliché in the book. Children who are being recruited to pilot a giant mecha? Check. One standard incompetent lazy impulsive idiotic guy, combined with three other highly skilled teenagers? Check. Characters aimed at fanservice? Check. Mecha controls which can be understood with just looking at them? Check. No preparation at all in the military? Check. An enemy who just “happens” to appear? Check. Racing cars of the good guys never break while others do? Check. Like I said, this series hasn’t been painful yet, but how can the creators ever hope to create an interesting story with these kinds of elements? The battle at the end of the episode was just ridiculous, while the two girls are just way too perfect for their own good. Naruto Shippuuden I decided to check this out once more, before finally deciding whether to drop it or not. Still, it pleasantly surprised me. For now, it’s actually good enough to continue. Okay, it’s nothing special, but I really like the improvements the creators made on the music. Especially the tracks featuring choirs sounded great, and the OP was amazing. 🙂 The question still remains whether the second season will be an improvement on the first one. The first season had three major disadvantages: it dragged, the fights were way too dramatic, and Naruto was the most annoying main character ever. Now that he’s grown up, that last part should have disappeared a little, but I wonder whether this series can catch my interest. This episode also showed signs of the beginning of a Naruto-Sakura couple. I certainly do not hope the two of them end up together. Let him get together with Hinata or something. Anyway, I dropped the first season around episode 200, since I stopped caring about the fillers. Is there anything that happened in the last 30 that I need to know if I want to watch this? Rocket Girls When I first read the concept about a girl who had been asked to become an astronaut, due to her weight, I seriously wondered how the creators would make the rocket-company desperate enough to pluck a random girl off the street. Well, it seems that they found three reasons for this. The first: the manager is crazy, short-minded and impulsive. The second reason really became clear when the rocket exploded in mid-air. The third reason? Pure coincidence. The girl ends up involved with a small fight between the employees, gets dragged along by someone fleeing from the rocket-base, and then she gets noticed by the manager because she has the perfect weight. Overall, not very convincing. Especially when you add that to the fact that a girl from the local tribe and a girl from the main character’s school will be accompanying her. If you’re looking for a story that makes sense, then stay far away from this one. Still, I have to say that this was a pretty interesting watch. I like the sarcasm in Yukari (the main character) and the others. The story may make no sense, the CG may look fake, there may be a bit of useless fanservice, but somehow, the first episode was strangely enjoyable. (Oh, and the manager has the funniest cigarette-lighter. XD)]]>

Reideen Oh my. This is interesting. Very interesting, actually. I originally dismissed this because I watched the first episode of Chouja Reideen, probably another remake of the 1980s classic, which was horrible in every single way. Thank goodness, Reideen managed to fix a lot of this, and comes with a believable, touching and big-budgetted mecha anime. I originally never expected anything from this, but if the other episodes are as excellent as this one, It’s going to be quite the series. The character animation is wonderful, and for one of the first times, we have mechas who actually fight slow, instead of the incredibly fast and unrealistic ones we usually see (after all, how the heck to those huge giant robots move their limbs so fast?). The male main character actually is interesting, and he’s actually unique, compared to other shounen-series with their copy-and-paste male main character. I’m pretty enthusiastic about this one. Perhaps, if both this series and Giant Robo turn out really good, I’m going to blog the two of them. 🙂 Yes! PreCure 5 There’s one thing that this series did: it made me appreciate the greatness of other Mahou Shoujo. Not because this show is so incredibly good, it’s actually pretty bad. Whereas most Mahou Shoujo have learned to be a bit original, this one is just full of clichés. First of all, the heroine doesn’t even know why she’s fighting. She’s the legendary PreCure who is destined to save the world. Come on, please, at least give her a goal or something. Sakura got her powers because she actually let all the Clow-cards escape. Sasami was born with her powers. Rain and Fine got their powers in order to save the sun’s blessing which was deteriorating. And to make matters worse, our main characters are the only people in the entire friggin school with obscure hair colours, and they fit all the stereotypes. Ignorant, talkative impulsive main heroine? Check. Best sports athlete of the entire school? Check. Pop-idol? Check. Main librarian? Check. Student president? Freakin Check. Seriously, couldn’t they really think of something more original? Please, if you’re looking for a mahou shoujo, go and check out a show like Card Captor Sakura, Futago Hime or Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, and stay far away from this one. Moonlight Mile This actually turned out pretty good! Okay, i didn’t understand 50% of the dialogue, but I really like what I saw of this. It’s a science-fiction show, which somehow manages to combine mountain-climbing with astronauts. The character designs may be a bit awkward, but the CG is gorgeous. It’s got a great atmosphere so far, and the music definitely sounds interesting. I wish I could say something about the story, but I’m going to watch the subs first before I’ll actually get a good picture out of it.]]>

Strike Witches You know, I expected this to be the same mess that is Sky Girls, but the use of classical music and the extra-short episode-length actually made up for the bad concept. Even though this didn’t make any sense, I actually enjoyed it, it definitely was better than Sky Girls in every single way. It’ll never be great, but it’s definitely perfect for a light watch if you need to burn ten minutes at one time. Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou There’s one thing I really like about this show: its sense of humour. Most of the time it’s serious, but when it’s funny, it really cracks me up. This show’s a real surprise for me, since I didn’t really expect anything from this. The fights were of some amazing quality, and the character designs are quite interesting. All in all, this has been an excellent first episode. But I’m wondering. Can this anime keep up this quality? Even though this episode looks refreshing, it’s awfully close to a number of major clichés for this genre. We’ve got a potential female love interest, an uberpowerful male main character and some unexplained powers (at least they were either unexplained, or I didn’t catch their explanation). This show also killed off a bit too many interesting characters with just its first episode. Giant Robo What’s up with the raws for this show? You’d expect them to arrive soon, since people were looking forward to this. Yet now, I’ve had to do with a crappy quality-video from the website. When I already had trouble following the Japanese, this problem also made me have trouble recognizing the characters, and making out what the heck they were doing. Anyway, Giant Robo turned out surprisingly good. Okay, we have a random boy who meets up with a Giant Robo for no apparent reason, but from the looks of it, this Giant Robo is going to go against humanity, turning our main character into an anti-hero. At least, if I picked up things correctly. Another major plus is the background music. Not only does it feature rocky themes, they’re of some great quality.]]>

Nodame Cantabile This is another one of those anime that was highly anticipated. It didn’t really impress me, though. Okay, it’s a nice series, though it didn’t really grab my attention like shows as Deltora Quest and Master of Epic did. It’s basically a love story between two polar opposites. At certain points, it had some nice comedy, though most of this first episode felt annoying to me. Still, I’m going to watch at least a few more episodes before I dismiss this, seeing as it does have potential. Venus Versus Virus Ooh, this one turned out quite interesting. I was expecting another one of these standard shounen-fighting anime, though this anime added quite a few bunch of interesting elements. I really like the main character, especially her alter ego. I’m also glad to see that the fights actually revolve around strategy, and not just on who is the strongest. It could have been better indeed, though for now I’m happy. I’m also quite interested when the yuri-elements in will show up. The two main characters make a good couple. I also loved how Shimire tried to lure out the virus by poking a random tree with a small stick. ^^ Getsumen to Heiki Mina It’s indeed as I though, this show is full of fanservice. Still, I’m glad that this show has a good sense of humour. That really managed to save it. This show has absolutely nothing new, but it’s fairly well executed. Still, it’s far too early to call this one amazing, and I think this will always remain “just an enjoyable show”. It’s basically a mahou shoujo, featuring a high-school girl who can transform into a bunny-girl with a bunch of carrots sticking out of her ***. I’m also not too happy about how her powers are introduced. While most mahou shoujo have learned from the older ones and give their main character at least a good reason to start working as a mahou shoujo, what Getsumen to Heiki Mina basically does is: Random cute pet: “Yeah, hello, we’ve got a giant monster here, destroying a bunch of things. Here’s a bit of power and a cute suit, now go whack it up.” Mina: “Okay!”]]>

Shuffle! Memories For all the Shuffle-fans who were looking forward to this episode, don’t get your hopes up too high. This first episode was basically a recap episode, in which Rin introduced the different characters yet again. We see fragments of everything which didn’t have anything to do with the main story from the first season, with your occasional fanservice. Seriously, I almost fell asleep while watching this. To this day, I still wonder why I managed to watch Shuffle! till the end. Okay, the latter half was decent, though the first half was just pure garbage. Really, if the next episode doesn’t have anything decent, I’m never going to touch it, no matter how good the rest of the series might end up being. Manabi Straight Whoa, this anime definitely has energy. It takes place in an all-girl-school, and it focuses on five girls who probably are going to bring some kind of revolution with the almost limitless amount of energy they have. Especially the main character. So far, it’s been quite fun, though it has its flaws. I’m especially getting a bit worried when the first episode already starts off with a pool-episode. Also, this anime is supposed to play in 2035, but apart from the flying skateboard, I didn’t see any differences with 2007. Still, those are just minor details. I think I’m going to keep watching this, as long as it doesn’t degrade into a pure slice-of-life series (I want to see some challenges for Manabi). The graphics are also quite interesting. It seems that this show has been granted with a considerable budget in this department, and it fully utilizes that. The animation looks great, and the creators also decided to try out some new things in the graphical department. So far, these really work, apart from one detail. The cat-like mouth of one of the characters just doesn’t work. Also, one final point, the insert song was more annoying than it was interesting. Unlike a show as Red Garden, it hurt the show more than it contributed. Hidamari Sketch Ah, a slice-of-life series. Not exactly my favourite genre, and indeed, the first episode wasn’t bad or anything, but it really bored me to tears. If this were a comedy, it would have been a great one, though instead of that, the show keeps a slow pacing and at times it inserts a small joke, which in the end, isn’t that funny. Miyo could have been an interesting character, but this show is just too slow to bring out the full potential of the character. It tries being cute and funny at a very small pacing, which just doesn’t work for me. It’s ironic that the OP was the best thing of the entire anime. Unless you’re a slice-of-life fan, I wouldn’t recommend this one.]]>

Himawari!! Second Season Haha! It’s just as I hoped. The second season is going to be even better than the first one. While the first season focused on the development of the main characters, the second season introduces some actual antagonists, and thank god it didn’t lose its comical note. Heck, this episode was probably the funniest one of the entire anime. I mean, how many other anime can make something worthwhile out of someone who uses gum as a weapon? That surely was a great fight, and I’m glad to see that the quirks of the different character are getting funnier and funnier. I’m not sure how the rest of this anime will go, but if it’s going to be the same as this episode, I was right to give this anime a second chance. 🙂 Master of Epic What a fun show! This definitely is my favourite show of the winter-season so far, and that with series like Deltora Quest and Himawari!!. Still, I can imagine that everyone else will rant about how they hate this anime, how it’s bad and all, but I don’t care! I love the way this show is directed. It’s basically a collection of clips, which don’t take themselves too seriously. In each of these, something incredibly strange happens. So, what if they’re cheesy, I loved it! This definitely is on my list of blogged shows. ^_^ *fanboys* Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette Ah, the infamous adaptation of Les Miserables. The question, of course, remains: is 52 episodes the right format for such a story? So far, this anime is heading into the right direction, with an excellent first episode. It really took its time to start the story, and tell how Cosette got separated from her mother. She’s quite touching, I like her as a character. Jean Valean, or the major and the boy he gave some bread (Aran, I think his name was) also are a couple of interesting characters to start this first episode with. There’s a very good chance that I’m going to watch this right through to the end of this. I’m not sure whether I’m going to blog this yet, considering the huge spring-season coming up. Ah well, I’ll decide after the second episode.]]>

Deltora Quest While I wrote my Winter Season Preview, I told myself that I’d continue watching Deltora Quest, no matter how bad the first episode turned out to be, seeing as the premise I read about did spark my interest. Still, after watching it, I can easily say that I have absolutely no reason to drop it. From the outside, this looks like another one of these teenage-boy-who-has-to-collect-number-of-crystals-stories. Well, that’s exactly where the stereotypes end. What we have here is finally a pure fantasy story, taking place in the country of Deltora where it features our main character, who travels along with his caretaker and some girl we’ll probably meet in the next episode. This anime already separated itself from all those other shounen-adventures by giving an outline of the history of the country of Deltora, and making the main character more than an ignorant brat. I definitely want to see more of this. It’s been a while since such a good pure fantasy story with no other focuses appeared. Koi Suru Tenshi Angelique 2007 I gave on this show up after reading Azure Flame’s review of it, though I decided to give it one final chance. I’m not sure whether that was a good idea. I was shocked when I found out the truth about this anime. This show just kicks the nine bishounen from the first season out like it’s nothing, and introduces a WHOLE NEW SET OF NINE BISHOUNEN! Or at least, eight bishounen and yet another guy who just looks too much like a female. This isn’t monster of the week, this is bishie of the week! Not only that, the creators tried to give a bit of variation by making the main character go to each of these bishounen’s worlds and retrieve them. NINE FRIGGIN’ EPISODES OF ARRIVAL IN WORLD, BIT OF TALK, RELUCTANCE TO GO, MORE TALK, EMOTIONAL SCENE, AGREEMENT TO GO. Actually, this can be done right, though I highly doubt that this anime will succeed. Especially after seeing next week’s preview. This is just too cheesy. Dropped. Major 3rd Season I’ve never seen anything of Major, and this seemed like a good moment to check whether or not that was a good choice. Still, I don’t think that I’m going to watch any more of this series. It’s not necessarily bad, or anything, but this episode didn’t motivate me to go download the first two seasons, unlike shows as Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and Futago Hime. It had some interesting points, like when the main character watched the two baseball teams play against each other, but the guys, especially the main character, were just a bit too annoying. Dropped.]]>

Afro Samurai Ah, so this is the long-awaited arrival of Afro-Samurai. It’s quickly become famous for being produced and starred by no other than Samuel Jackson. And as expected, this one’s got a great style. It takes place in a dark and gritty world, focusing on a person who lived his entire life for revenge against his father’s killer. So far, I’m impressed. I expected this to be all style and zero substance, though the story and characters definitely were interesting to see. From the barmaid, and the various challengers to Afro Samurai himself. All that’s left now is to hope that the story will progress into something interesting over the next episodes. There are just two complaints I have with this. At times, the gore becomes a bit too much, and at my version of the episode came enclosed by a trailer of a new Hollywood movie called Norbit. Seriously, even though it’s just a trailer, one could torture, just by showing that piece. Saint October Cool! A mahou shoujo. And a pretty good one as well. The art may look rather low-budget, though what I love is how this anime mixed cliché’s along with totally original and fresh ideas. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it seems like each element in this anime has an original point and an overused point. It gives this anime a cheesy, yet fresh feeling. The setting and mood also were very interesting. What we have here is a semi-futuristic setting with magic elements, which seem to be related to certain cards. The mystery-element also seems to become very interesting. Why does this girl have the ability to transform? What are the bad guys after? Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora Right from the first moment in the first scene, this anime just screams Kannazuki no Miko. If this isn’t the sister-anime of Kannazuki no Miko, then I don’t know anymore. I knew that there were going to be resemblances, though I never thought that there would be this much. Especially the soundtrack is almost exactly alike, with its classical instruments. For Kyoushiro to Towa no Sora, the creators also turned up the elegance two gears, which looked quite interesting. Still, the fact remains that it’s a cheesy love-story. Complete with action, a love rival and a prince on a white horse in a flower-field (seriously, I’m not kidding, and the anime isn’t either). The new main character is just as annoying as Himeko, though a bit less helpless perhaps (so far, at least. The ending of the episode suggested that the next few episodes will reduce her to a romantic damsel in distress). I’m really thinking that this anime will even surpass Kannazuki no Miko in terms of cheesiness, seeing as the drama already went into the boundaries of laughable after only its first episode. Will this anime be able to get out of the depths of cheesiness and melodrama? Well, there’s only one way to find out.]]>

Yeah, I know Futago Hime isn’t exactly a 2006 anime, but I wanted to wrap up the quick first impressions before the end of the year and the start of the winter-season, and I needed one more show. Besides, I just had to say something about it. ^^;

Baldr Force Exe

Watching the OP didn’t really make me enthusiastic about this show. It looked like this anime was going to stand in the footsteps of Ar Tonelico and Demon Bane, with a cute girl who somehow keeps clinging to some loser-like guy. Still, I was pleasantly surprised by this. Okay, it does feature a bunch of harem-stereotypes, who are all probably going to surround our main character, but the main character actually has an interesting personality. His best friend has just been killed, so he joins the organization responsible for this, hoping to find the killer. When he sees one of his former friends who did the same, though just seems to think that all of this is a game, we see some interesting scenes. Still, the concept is a bit vague. People get plugged into some kind of virtual world, and when you die in this world, you’ll die for real as well. But wouldn’t the designers of this would try to find some security-system in order to solve this problem? Like, block the amount of brainwaves when it becomes too high? Also, I’m not too happy with the cliff-hanger of this episode, seeing as the main characters suddenly runs into a sleeping beautiful girl, who wakes up and calls him onii-chan. That is not a good sign.

Winter Garden

Ow… I’ve been fearing this for a bit. Winter Garden indeed turned out into a slice-of-life romance. Not exactly my preferred genre. Of course, when certain elements are added, even slice of life shows can become interesting, though this show doesn’t even bother. It’s relying way too much on random collisions between our main character and her love interest. Pachiko (that was her name, right?) didn’t help much either. Even though she has a quirky personality, this show was just way too boring for me. Still, if you’re fan of Digi-Charat and like slice-of-life series, you might want to check this one out.

Fushigiboshi no Futago Hime

It’s strange how tastes change. I remember that I watched the first episode of this, back in the mid-2005, and it was really boring to me. However, after watching it right now, 1,5 years later, I totally loved it. This is another proof of how great Mahou Shoujo can be, and at the same time, how unloved. I actually had to use Youtube in order to track down the first episode, seeing as most of the torrents have stopped working. In any case, I really liked the quirky character and the seemingly inexhaustible amounts of energy of the two main characters, and not to mention that the characters were extremely CUTE! That only leaves the problem that this anime consists out of two series, with both 52 episodes. God knows how long it’ll take to catch up with that. there may be a chance I’ll blog every 13 episodes, if the remaining episodes turn out to be really good. Still, from the sample that Moetron posted on his site and which got me interested in this show again, things indeed look like they’ll be of the same quality for the rest of the episodes.