Category: Some Quick First Impressions

I am SO jealous of the people who already saw Good Witch of the West: Astraea Testament. I just can’t wait for a fansub group to release the first episode. I’m dying to know about the first episode. The same goes for xxxHolic, which also just came out in japanese. Anyway here’s the next bunch of previews, this time featuring the yaoi-shows of this season. This has to say something about the immense amount of shows that’s featuring, as this is probably the first time that one season features three yaoi-series. Anyway, after watching these episodes, I began to notice a pattern: transfer students are amazingly popular main characters in anime. Two of these three anime has such a main character, which means that this entire season already features four shows of this nature. And I haven’t even seen the first half of them.

Princess Princess

Main character gets transferred to a new school in the middle of semester. Suddenly, all of the boys in the school start falling for this main character, including the most popular ones. The twist: this time the main character is a boy. Yes, I can’t believe how incredibly similar this story is to the opposite of Strawberry Panic. Though, it does have more elements than what I just described. Strawberry Panic decided to focus on drama and conflicts, Princess Princess decided to focus on comedy. And the comedy part just freaked me out. The fact is: out main character is a bishounen, the school is an all-boys school. One of the rules in these schools is that the bishounen get to dress up as girls, in order to make life for the other students a bit more exciting. I just loved the reaction of the main character when he found this out. There were so many horribly wrong scenes featured, it almost scared me.

Ouran High School Host Club

Here, we have a school for insanely rich people. Only the classiest of the classiest are able to study here. The Ouran High School Host Club is a club full of Bishounen in all different kinds of sizes, who try to win as many ladies as possible by playing “Host”. I know it sounds a bit vague. I haven’t exactly discovered how to precizely describe what it is that they’re doing. Just remember that it comes down to winning as much ladies as possible. Anyway, there’s one poor person who managed to get in the school. This person, of course, has no money for an expensive school-outfit, and only managed to get in the school because of the fact that she’s incredibly good in studying. Then she walks into the High School Host Club, and breaks one of their 8-million-yen vases. The chairman of the club makes her work for the club in order to pay it. The two nice things about these events are: 1. The members of the club are a totally weird bunch. One time, they act as the overdramatic version stereotypical bishounen, the other time they act as themselves, which isn’t really a step in the right direction either. I just loved the randomness of that. 2. Our main character may be a girl. She looks like a boy, resulting in the fact that the members of HSHC mistake her for a male. Of course, the fun begins when they discover that she has the cutest male-face ever. I’ll be watching this for sure.

Gakuen Heaven

We have this ultra-rich school (which of course, doesn’t impress me at all after seeing Ouran High School Host Club, but whatever), and out main character will be transferred to it. That’s weird, because he has absolutely no talents at all. He’s just mediocre. Apparently, the chairman of the school wants him for some reason. There weren’t any yaoi-scenes yet, but I’m suspecting that these will follow soon. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll continue watching this. There weren’t any things that stood out.

And another bunch has come in. This round is a bit meh, though. But ah well, I’d have a problem if every single series had some awesome points. Especially in this season. Anyway, here are some previews:

School Rumble, Second Season

What we have here is the second season of the popular series school rumble. I’ve seen up to episode 13 of the first series. Anyway, the main theme of this anime certainly involves misunderstandings in relationships. Person A likes Person B, but Person B likes Person C and believes Person A loves Person D while Person E loves Person D as well, meanwhile Person F also loves Person A. If this goes on, I’ll be running out of letters… Anyway, I don’t think I’ll continue watching this. There were some funny scenes, but it’s certainly not the best of its kind. I think I’ll stay with the utter randomness of Pani Poni Dash and Haruhi Suzumiya for my school-series.

Strawberry Panic

Main character gets transferred to a new school in the middle of semester. Suddenly, all of the girls in the school start falling for this main character without a reason, including the most popular ones. The twist: this time the main character is a girl. There’ll probably some heavy shoujo-ai in this. I don’t really like this, though. Everyone acts without a reason. Nothing really is explained. I’m not too big of a fan of the huge amounts of hair from the characters either.

Digimon Savers

Okay, this is just plain stupid. We have a fourteen year-old boy, who runs into Agumon. After a small fight, this boy happens to be the first person ever to acknowledge him. So Agumon decides to make the boy his master. Then a cute girl arrives, of course of the same age as the boy to stop the both of them, which doesn’t really work. The girl appears to work for some kind of organization, and she isn’t really doing the best of a job. You’d wonder why she was even hired. Anyway, a big digimon arrives, and because the boy is so awesome, he manages to knock it down with a single punch. Agumon evolves for a bit and sends the digimon back, happy ending. Blegh. I’m going to stay away from this.

The next bunch of first episodes of the new series got fansubbed. Both of these three induced some kind of hate/love-relationship in me. Anyway, here are some previews:

ARIA The Natural
This just is the most peaceful series ever. I felt totally relaxed afterwards. The art and music also are beautifully done. I’m just a bit scared that this was a bit too peaceful. The plot looks like it’ll be nothing really big, and I really can’t imagine tension in this show. I don’t think that I’ll keep watching this show. It’s not like it isn’t good or anything, but otherwise, I’ll end up watching too many series at once.

Soul Link
This could have become a good series. I feel a deep plot behind this. The only problem is that the creators somehow found it a good idea to throw in huge amounts of fanservice. In one episode, we manage to see our main character bump into cute girls for at least two times, we have a bishounen as rival, the women get more shots of their chests than their face, our main characters get to be featured in the famous shower-encounter, and let’s not forget the little kid that pulls up skirt. Sigh, what a pity. I’ll try watching this one more episode, in the hope of it getting a bit better. After all, in one episode, they used almost all of the fanservice cliché’s available, so next time should have a bit less of them. Shouldn’t it?

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya
What kind of horrible series is this? The overuse of fanservice is horrible, the plot is horrible, how can this possibly be called anime? I found myself thinking these words during the first couple of minutes of this anime. Why did the creators even think about creating such a monstrosity?! At the end of the episode, I understood. I totally understood. I’m a bit scared to continue to watch this. The main character scares me. I mean, she must be totally evil if she manages to make her friends to these kinds of things. I’m really getting scared of her. *shivers*

I managed to get my hands on the first bunch of the upcoming spring season. So far, I’m not disappointed. Among these three, there isn’t anything awesome, but I did see all three of them using some very creative ideas. Apart from that, I also managed to get my hands on a promo for Good Witch Of The West – Astrea Testament. From what I’ve seen, I totally loved it. I’m going to have a great time with this series. I can’t wait till it comes out. Anyway, onto the previews:

Dai Mahou Touge
When I first saw this, I had a very cute mahou-shoujo-series in my mind. In which everyone was happy and the main characters were all having fun. Well… it IS cute. And it is a mahou-shoujo-series. But apart from that, my expectations were so totally wrong. For starters: the main focus of this anime is comedy and parody. And when I say comedy, I mean morbid comedy. This anime is so full of the most demisingly jokes ever. For example, our main character is extremely evil when she enters in a battle. Add that to the fact that she’s extremely strong, and you can start praying for the antagonists. These are, by the way, absolutely hilarious: a group of punk girls. And yes, they look horribly funny, almost literally. Oh, and did I already mention that the main character’s main weapon involves talking vegetables? Overall, I think I’ll watch this. I kindof like this morbid humor. There aren’t any boys in the OP so it can’t be ruined by some kind of romance, so I’m positive about the next episodes.

Kiba
I’m into fantasy series, so I kindof was looking forward to this. So far, it has some interesting concepts. I so love the main character’s mother, and the fantasy world looks very interesting to be in. The side characters also show potential, from the three seconds of airtime that they managed to get. I think I’ll keep watching this. However, I’m a bit scared. The fact remains that the main character is a pubescent male. The fact remains that he’s violent and impulsive. The fact remains that he just ended up in a fantasy world. The fact remains that there was a woman near him when he did. I hope this will turn out right.

I also managed to stumble upon an anime called Denshin Mamotte Shugogetten. The anime aired five years ago (thanks to Scott for this information ^^;). At first glance, this is a harem-show with two main characters destined to be together. What’s more, one character is a moon princess who just happened to pass by on our main character. The character art also looks a bit weird at times. I’m glad that this managed to turn into something kindof right. The episode ended with me feeling that this wasn’t a total failure after all. This was probably because, even though we have to distinctive main characters, the focus didn’t totally land on them for this episode. There are several side-characters who get explained and featured. The setting for this episode is a play in which our main characters play a part. It was so surprising that they were just a couple of side-parts, and the main roles were played by side-characters. The comedy also really worked. Especially when the play is actually going, and our characters are just having fun performing.

So, right now I managed to see the first episodes from a couple of shows the shows that will be starting to air this season. If I have anything to say about it, it will be this: my expectations were totally wrong. The dull-looking series turned out to have a lot of potential, while the cool looking series kindof messed up.

Fate/Stay Night:
This was the most anticipated anime for this season, although it didn’t really impress me. The main character is nothing special. Just a guy, who is very kind, has special powers, and somehow ends up with a couple of girls. The magic system may have some potential, but that part hasn’t been shown yet. That’s why I think I’ll follow this for a couple more episodes.

Kagihime:
This was one of the series I was anticipating the most for. It really reminded me somehow of the story of Alice in wonderland, and lots of fairytales. So I was expecting a wonderful world full with lots of different stories and tales, all coming together to one writer. I’m a huge fan of those kinds of stories, so it could have been amazing. Alas. It turned out to be horrible. The show revolves around stories called "Alices". That may be a good premisse, but the awful thing is, that the fact that they exist is mentioned lots of times. But what’s in those stories (the most important thing) is never mentioned. Furthermore, this show ended up dedicated to fanservice, instead of storytelling. The characters all have ridiculously huge haircuts. Well, only the characters that play a part in the anime, of course. The main character also, of course, ends up liked by all the girls without having to do anything for it. Sigh, what a disappointment.

Anyway, now the good stuff. 🙂

Wings of Rean:
Yes, this is an action series. Yes, this revolves around heavy machinery. But still, it does work somehow. The biggest thing I like about this anime is the pacing. It’s only been the first episode, but it’s already been a roller coaster ride from begin to end. The main characters are also very interesting, you could almost say that they’re unique. Let’s hope they stay interesting like that. It’s also interesting to see that the creators managed to combine the technologies of today with some futuristic air/watership designs. This can be pretty interesting.

Magikano:
I started this series with the image of another dull harem show in my mind. It is indeed a harem show, but that’s not the most important thing. This show is one of those select shows that has you laughing from begin to end. I seriously reccommend this to people who are looking for a few good laughs. The characters are each very interesting. They’re not unique, but they do have a certain feeling that makes them very enjoyable to watch. My only concern is that the show may not be able to keep up with the same comedy level as this episode.

So, that’s it. I may be blogging some of them, but I’ll decide that after watching some more episodes.