January Summary

Before I start with this summary, I have an announcement to make. I already told this in the shoutbox, but tomorrow I’m finally going to say goodbye to my sutdent life and start my new job. What this means for this blog is that I’ll still be able to cover twelve series a week, but I won’t be as fast as I used to be. Especially expect entries on busy days to be released, because I can only make posts in the evening now. I’m also going to stop trying to give a post to every obscure OVA out there (along with DVD specials that I don’t have much to say about), so I’m just going to keep with the major ones that get released, like Black Lagoon and Gundam Unicorn. I will try to follow all of the major movie releases though, but again: expect delays there.

This season is a very interesting example of quality over quantity. It’s small, there are hardly any series that carried over from the previous season and there are six series that I really don’t want to waste my time on. What remains though, is pretty darn good. Especially the best of the season really surprised me here with a solid execution for just about every good series. There is a ton of potential in this season, only held back by the fact that there are way too many series about teenagers.

#23 (new) – Rio – Rainbow Gate – (4,5/10) – Rio is terrible, but it’s so bad that it’s good. The best was episode three, but after that the fun quickly died and got monotonous. Dropped.
#22 (new) – Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne – (5/10) – They’re brother and sister, but they’re not actually blood related. Ooh, we’re edgy now. At least the execution isn’t as ludicrously poor as KissXSis, but do we really need more series like it?
#21 (new) – IS ~Infinite Stratos~ – (6,25/10) – If there is anything I don’t like, then it’s a series that’s devoted to nothing but dull harem hi-jinks. I tried to keep watching for a bit longer, but I gave up at the point where the spoiled brat suddenly completely changed character and went from tsundere to just badly overplayed dere. Dropped.
#20 (new) – Beelzebub – (6,5/10) – Beelzebub is being adapted by someone who is notorious for his poor adaptations. I really don’t want to waste any time on this, and when it became clear that the second episode was just spamming the same jokes over and over again with poor acting and jokes that fell flat and weren’t built up properly, I tuned out. Dropped.
#19 (new) – Freezing – (6,75/10) – A pretty good start, but it couldn’t keep this up for me. A big part in this obviously is due to that male lead who is beyond clingy, but it’s pretty much the entire cast that doesn’t really seem to know where it wants to go. Dropped.
#18 (new) – Cardfight Vanguard – (6,75/10) – Granted, for a series that’s solely made to sell cards to kids, it’s not that bad. It’s incredibly cheesy, though. You can feed an orphanage for a week with the corn that it produces. Still, the monster designs are pretty decent. They could have done worse. Dropped.
#17 (new) – Dragon Crisis – (7,75/10) – The big problem with Dragon Crisis is that it’s ridiculously cliched. I’m willing to overlook this for now though, because the execution is pretty good. The characters are well portrayed and acted (albeit rather annoying at times), and the dialogue is nicely written. And the good soundtrack and animation of course also help.
#16 (new) – Gosick – (7,75/10) – With Gosick, I dislike the small picture, but I like what’s going on in the big picture. The different mysteries all feel like they are solved way too easily with pretty poor build-up, but when you connect them they seem to be hinting to something deeper. Another problem is that none of the characters really caught my attention so far yet, but we’ve still got 20 episodes left, so anything can happen at this point.
#15 (new) – Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? – (7,75/10)

Hmm, the tricky thing with Zombie was that it had a very good first episode, and then episodes 2 and 3 failed to live up to that. There is still plenty of potential on this one left, though. Especially if it’s indeed true that the drama will be as good as the cliff-hanger of episode three suggested.

#14 (17) – To Aru Majutsu no Index – (7,75/10)

Unfortunately, I did find the Croche di Pietro arc to be the worst Index arc so far. Especially the way in which it ended with that anti-climactic deus ex machina sealed the deal that the entire story had potential, but was just a complete mess in terms of execution. I liked the Venice arc, though. It was very short (why are all of the good arcs in Index II so short?), but it was well built up and a lot more solid than its predecessor.

#13 (17) – Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season – (7,75/10)

Ack! It’s frustrating to see that there actually is potential for a good romance here, but the characters just refuse to develop themselves! Every time you think that they finally are going to get some progress in their relationship, they come with some sort of anti-climax. I really hope that that new character is going to be able to finally get things moving between the lead couple.

#12 (new) – Wolverine – (8/10)

It’s much, much better than Iron Man. Wolverine knows what it is, and delivers on that: simple but effective action. It’s got a good atmosphere and the action moves around enough to prevent this from getting boring. I’m enjoying the results right now, even though the acting is stiff and a bit hammy at times.

#11 (15) – Mitsudomoe – (8/10)

Something very rare happened here: a comedy sequel is actually turning out to be better than the original. There still are the bad parts, but they are really outweighed by the hilarious parts that are even funnier than the first season. Plus, the amount of misunderstandings has been toned down significantly.

#10 (new) – Showa Monogatari – (8/10)

The way in which it aired its first two episodes three months in advance is a bit strange, but Showa Monogatari is a good series with a down to earth portrayal of a normal family around the 1960s. It’s certainly good to see that the creators are attempting series like this again.

#9 (new) – Fractale – (8/10)

Fractale made the decision to flesh its characters out with rather annoying and moe antics. That makes some parts of it a bit hard to sit through, but it is worth it in the end. The story is definitely intriguing and I like how this show isn’t afraid to get really dark at times. Three episodes so far, and this show has to screw up pretty badly if I’m going to end up liking Kannagi more.

#8 (15) – Bakuman – (8/10)

Bakuman still is slow but solid, but things are definitely starting to happen right now. The characters have gotten more enjoyable to watch, we’ve gotten more in-depth with the manga writing business now that Moritaka and Nizzuma Eiji actually got to meet each other, and it finally looks like things are getting interesting.

#7 (new) – Yumekui Merry – (8,25/10)

Gorgeous artwork and direction, and I’m also enjoying the characters a lot. The main flaw of this series is that the main characters don’t have the most amounts of background or other thing that sets them apart, but it’s well built up and executed.

#6 (3) – Letter Bee – (8,5/10)

This month didn’t show the best side of Letter Bee, but it still was really good here, especially Gauche versus Lag was wonderful to watch.

#5 (new) – Hourou Musuko – (8,5/10)

A very solid character study. Hourou Musuko is the kind of slice of life series where the pacing is slow, yet a lot of stuff happens thanks to its huge cast. I especially like how the creators put life in the entire school and backgrounds, and the main characters themselves are also well portrayed and interesting.

#4 (8) – Star Driver – (8,5/10)

This is really getting solid here. The past episodes have continued to shift the themes and purposes of this series back and forth and gave a totally new spin to the cast of characters. We’ve nearly gotten to the parts I’ve been looking forward to the most.

#3 (new) – Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – (8,75/10)

Well, you can definitely see that Shaft is working with a different writer this time. Madoka Magica turned out to be a great deconstruction of the mahou shoujo genre with a good script, a great style that at the same time doesn’t overtake the entire series, and some excellent twists along the way. Four episodes in, and this already is my favourite Shaft series since ef – a tale of memories.

#2 (2) – Heartcatch Precure – (9/10)

Heartcatch Precure had an excellent finale, and as usual it followed some tropes, wile averting others. It really worked out wonderfully in the end though, and it really is a shame to see this one go.

#1 (new) – Level E – (9,25/10)

I love this show. It’s looking out to be the best comedy I have seen in years. The comedic timing is top-notch, and the characters are all just lovable in their quirks, and at the same time they’re all away from the usual cliches that you see with alien stories. It’s absolutely hilarious and contains twists that turns around entire characters, time and time again.