Category: OVA Impressions

I really don’t want to waste too many words on this: this OVA really was horrible. It’s another one of those terrible reverse harems that are just there to show off cute guys being cute and angsty.

It’s basically a project to promote a random group of upcoming idols. Now, they are completely talentless: they can’t sing and their acting is also terrible, but even the best voice actors in the world would not have been able to make such an abysmal script work. The dialogue is terrible, the writers also put no effort whatsoever in making this work and the entire premise of this one episode OVA was just laughable. And the character-designs…. oh god, the horrible character designs!

Probably the part that I liked most about this episode was the way in which the end of the episode continued to suggest how one of the characters looked like a girl, and yet they never even mentioned the girliest (and by far most annoying) character with the most ridiculous hair style I’ve seen in a long while. Yes, even the Hair Guy from Gosick looks normal compared to that white-haired kid. I mean, I’m really far from the target audience of this show…. but really?
OVA Episode Rating: 3,5/10

Well, I had hoped that Mazinkaiser SKL would be a great and hot blooded start of 2011. Unfortunately, it leaved a lot to be desired. For the record: it has absolutely nothing to do with Mazinger: none of the characters return and the only thing that it has in common with the Mazinger franchise is that there is the titular robot called Mazinkaiser and there is a fighter plane called Pailder (which doesn’t even get to function as a cockpit in this version).

Now, I am a fan of a well done mecha series, even the cheesy ones. Mazinkaiser SKL however strikes me as a show where a bunch of people looked at Mazinkaiser (or any other cheesy giant robot series), and went “we can do this too!” I mean, this entire first episode screamed incompetence. The creators really seem to believe that they can entertain, just by showing a bunch of random fight scenes with random heavy metal in the background and a lot of characters yelling and sprouting one liners. To me, it feels like they spent no thought whatsoever in what makes these series work.

My biggest indication for this is the complete lack of build-up. Seriously, who are these people? Why should I care for them? There are tons of holes in the story, and the things that it does bother to explain have no context whatsoever inside the setting. This series really looks like it has no idea what it is trying to do and instead is just rushing through all of the boring build-up scenes, just to get to the action scenes as fast as possible. Action itself that just makes no sense whatsoever.

The biggest problem here is that the characters are a complete joke. I never really watched anything of Mazinger at the time when I checked out the New Mazinger, but there the creators really tried and succeeded in making a colourful cast of diverse and interesting characters. The two lead characters here just try to be as evil as possible and only sprout crappy one liners about how evil they are. The female lead is the voice of reason between these two, but again: n personality. The bad guy is just a randomly yelling punk who rapes women.

It’s true that Mazinkaiser SKL was out of the Anime Fes trilogy the show I was looking forward to the least: Koi Sento and the new .Hack OVA seemed much more interesting. But this was a huge disappointment. I mean, the creators couldn’t even get the cheap entertainment part right.
OVA Episode Rating: 6/10

So, apparently the Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu manga is crap. I would seriously not have guessed that. I mean, I do not see any way in which the anime version is inferior to the anime adaptations of Kimi ni Todoke, SA, Kaichou wa Maid Sama, Vampire Knight, Itazura na Kiss or Shugo Chara aside from its production values.

I mean:
– It’s short and to the point.
– It doesn’t drag on endlessly.
– It’s not another one of those “will they won’t they” stories: the lead characters are an actual couple.
– Instead of not knowing whether they want to make their lead female strong or weak (leading to bizarrely unbalanced characters), the creators made the lead female just average, having both her strong and weak points without trying to make her seem anyone she isn’t.

It’s definitely refreshing in the shoujo romance genre, not to mention that the acting also was pretty good; I especially liked the lead female in it. The lead male too: at first sight he seems like another one of those cold assholes, but the rest of this episode then proves that he can do other things than be always cold to the lead character.

Of course, this episode was a tad cheesy at times, but I liked how it was pretty much a down to earth romance here. It’s just their time together at christmas and them getting to know each other better. The budget was obviously low here, but I still really like what the animators did with the visuals, giving the lead couple some interesting character designs. The main issue with the animation here is that the lip-synching is totally off.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10

So… the Mirai Nikki OVA is only 8 minutes long. Yup, it’s definitely a pilot. Rather than a standalone story, I feel more like I watched a long introduction trailer here: it lightly touches upon the main premise, the important characters and the male lead, along with building the intrigue. A lot of the reasons why everything is happening are glossed over, though.

I like the looks of this, apart from the CG abuse perhaps. My guess is that all of these kids have this power to foresee the future, but I’m not yet sure how exact this is. I mean that in the way that if the reads that he’s going to die in 27 days, it’s really unavoidable for him to do so, or whether this knowledge allows him to avoid it. It’ll be interesting to see this series’ interpretation of foresight.

The lead character is decent: at first glance he’s not this generic lead, but at the same time there’s not anything special about him. His romantic interest being the school idol is ridiculously predictable, though. Can’t these people just be… normal students or something? In any case, this episode kept my attention, but it’s just an appetizer: it will leave you hungry if the main course isn’t served.

My guess is that the creators are really trying to use this pilot in order to gather sponsors. It’s much like the first Strike Witches OVA (in which characters actually wore pants and skirts when they weren’t flying), so the style of this OVA may not be its definitive style, depending on the wishes of these sponsors and/or the eventual staff that will be handling, if it gets made at all. In my opinion though, this is a pretty neat advertisement. It’s got some decent chances to actually make it as a series.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10

And this brings us to the end of Tamayura, and the creators chose a fitting end. It contains pretty much as much slice of life as the other episodes, but at the same time it does provide a nice conclusion to Potte’s character. Divided in two halves, the first is about her picture taking hobby, showing off all of the different pictures she made during the previous episode and getting her to meet her idol again.

The second half had a nice conclusion of her memories of her dead father when she realizes the story behind one of the pictures that her brother drew after being with him. I never really was a fan of the way in which the creators killed off Potte’s father (this is a slice of life series, twists like that don’t really belong here), but it’s used well here.

In any case, this episode was nice and relaxing, exactly what the iyashi-kei genre is supposed to be. The big pitfall for slice of life series is that they just show a bunch of boring and random scenes between the characters without any connection or creativity. That is one pitfall that Tamayura avoided. It’s not the best; I mean, most of the side-characters are pretty forgettable, but it is a pretty charming and yet short OVA.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10

Megane na Kanojo consists of four separate stories of about 12 minutes long each. They don’t have anything to do with each other, and pretty much tell the stories of random couples, all in which a girl with glasses pays a big role. Hence the title, Megane na Kanojo. Right… so where to star?

The first two episodes are just plain boring. They’re based on two completely stupid premises that really don’t go anywhere and are just padded out with stupid and boring romantic antics. Only go for these if you’re a big fan of teenaged antics, otherwise don’t even bother with them.

The third part is slightly better, and at least tries to get something genuine off the ground (it’s also the only episode of the four that doesn’t feature teenagers), but in the end it shoots itself in the foot with its own cliches and stupidity. The fourth episode is the only one of the four which isn’t ruined by its own stupidity, but instead we’re treated to a cheesy romantic flick with a ton of teenaged angst.

So overall, it’s a big resounding “meh”. Megane na Kanojo isn’t exactly bad, it’s just unbelievably boring. It’s based on very unremarkable short romantic stories, but most of the airtime is just filled with boring and cheesy teenaged dialogue, and whenever it wants to get to some genuine drama it immediately ruins its own build up with its own stupidity. The only episode I’d even remotely recommend is the third one, but even there the lead character is a complete airhead, but at least her inner monologues were a bit charming. Otherwise, this is nothing more than AIC with its moe again.
OVA Episode Rating: 6.5/10

Licca-chan was a franchise back in the nineties. I’m not sure how popular it was back then, but over the course of ten years, it got four OVAs (two of two episodes and two of one episodes), a 52-Episode TV-series and a movie, so it must have done something right. Don’t expect me to check all of them out, but the very first installment, a two-episode OVA called the Wondrous Yunia Story, piqued my interest because of Tomomi Mochizuki’s involvement with it. It also had a really famous character-designer of its time: Akemi Takada, who also designed the characters of iconic series as Maison Ikkoku, Kimagure Orange Road, Urusai Yatsura and Patlabor.

In the end, this turned out to be quite a charming Alice in Wonderland-esque story. It is about this regular girl who suddenly ends up in a fantasy world, but it’s surprisingly creative and well produced: the animation is smooth, and the different designs of the places she ends up in are really creative. There are fish and whales swimming in the air, a talking dodo plushie, stacked boxes of trees and floating castles. It makes no sense whatsoever, but all of the ideas that were put into just these 50 minutes make this one worth watching.

The parts at which Licca is still in her own world at home are also surprisingly realistic: Licca’s family just feels like a real family, perhaps with more children than usual (she has a twins and triplets as younger sisters), which really gives it an advantage over the usual shows that feature a kid transported to another world.

Now, as for the disadvantages… you really want to watch this one for its creativity, because the plot is just a vehicle for that. It’s childish, the main villain is stupid and it just makes no sense. In the end, this feels more like a field trip than that something serious is going on, because of how easy the creators make it for the heroine. The heroine also has her charms as a lead character, and it’s not like there are any annoying characters in this series, but that’s also all that can be said about the characters.

I liked it a lot, though. The whole fantasy atmosphere of the story worked well with me. This is an OVA that really set out to create a dream-like world that just runs on your imagination and did so quite well without dragging on (which is why I’m not going to check out the TV-series for Licca Chan) This is an OVA that mostly has been forgotten, but it did not deserve so. It’s especially great to show your kids if you have them.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10