As for the series I’m not going to blog:
– Beelzebub is just crap. Why does this director keep getting work?
– Zombie is being overshadowed by the other comedies this season. It’s funny, but not the funniest of the season.
– I’m probably going to pick up Dragon Crisis after Showa Monogatari’s four preview episodes end. It’s enjoyable, but I don’t have any room for it right now.
Meanwhile, Level E is just unbelievable: this second episode was even better than the first. This show is absolutely amazing, and just about every scene in this episode was just awesome. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a good comedy as this one, and this is coming after the Autumn Season of 2010, which had more excellent comedies than you could shake a stick at. The comedic timing, the build-up and voice acting in this show are all just perfect.
I also loved how this show subverted various alien cliches. Usually when aliens come to earth, they try to blend in by putting on some kind of people suit, right? This episode premiered some new aliens as just human-like, but they travel around in these bizarre cheesy alien costumes. Or take those scenes in which the aliens are surprised by some of humanity’s inventions, which this episode parodied by having that blond-haired alien enjoy the heck out of the snow on a broken television set.
I also love the main characters. Yukitaka and Miho in particular, as they turned out to be nothing like the first episode made them out to be. Yukitaka already had an interesting background with his history as a bench-warmer at Japan’s top baseball school. This episode also revealed that he was a former punk (and used that extremely well, by the way). Miho meanwhile threw all stereotypes away in this episode with her own unique backstory, being raised in an extremely paranoid way. I especially like how sharp she is: she immediately notices everything around her, including Yukitaka’s backstory. Seriously, a lot more female leads should follow her example.
In fact, there are a ton of characters who are completely different from what they appear: it was for a long while a mystery what these men in suit were, and the cat turned out to be… a walking alien camera. This is just full of these awesome details and nice ideas.
Oh and on a side-note: don’t try to look up the long-haired alien’s name on sites as Myanimelist and AniDB. I did, and unfortunately just spoiled myself to an awesome joke that the creators have in store for us for the next number of episodes and that only amazed me even more of how extremely well this show is planned out.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)
Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve seen a fantastic episode so early in a season. Glad to see that all my fears about Miho being one dimensional turned out wrong. I cannot wait to go watch this episode now!
I was stoked about Miho as well – I really thought she’d end up just being the girl next door – a naive and oblivious object of affection. This episode built on the first episode and threw all those preconceived notions out the door.
The white noise and the costumes were funny but my favorite scene was the conclusion of Prince’s story about saving the woman when all the characters come face to face with the garbage can. I was rolling.
I like the alien vs. alien dynamic here as well, another departure from the scifi genre in general where it’s more “us vs. them”. The Disckonians are creepy as hell… I’d say I’m looking forward to what happens with them in future episodes but given the way the “true form” cliffhanger turned out, episode 3 might just turn that upside down and laugh in my face instead.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a fantastic rating on this blog for the time I’ve been visiting it, but this one is definitely well-deserved. This and Madoka are fighting for my top spot this season.
Looking forward to this episode but it’s not subbed yet and yeah, if you’re curious about any other episodes psgels has given the Fantastic treatment: http://psgels.net/?s=****
“and unfortunately just spoiled myself to an awesome joke that the creators have in store for us for the next number of episodes and that only amazed me even more of how extremely well this show is planned out.”
What are you talking abou…AGGGGH, I JUST GOT IT!
I think Zombie is pretty awesome, IMO the comedy is second only to Level E… although the 2nd half felt really awkward because I wasnt expecting “drama” out of it, still the biggest surprise of the season
Anyway, yeah, Level E continues to deliver, and I love how there are no cliches in sight, nothing feels forced or predictable, its just great
This episode was AWESOME!
I couldn’t stop laughing throughout almost the whole episode it is just such a pleasure to watch a show where the creators are for once knowing what they’re doing!
And I love how unpredictable the whole thing is while at the same time it does make kinda sense when looking back afterwards.
Awesome.
Can’t wait to see the next episode!
Oh dear, I asked the translator a question about the subs and I think it has to do with your warning at the end. I was kinda expecting that actually but still, dangit!
You should really use anime-planet if you’re trying to avoid spoilers. Yeah, info takes a bit longer to get put up (except for basic character info, that’s pretty fast), but there are NEVER spoilers.
http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/level-e
I’m really impressed with Level E so far. It’s managing to be clever, original & funny. Let’s hope they can keep it up all season.
Brilliant dialogue. Characters that actually have personalities. Excellent direction. Intelligent storyline. Consistently solid animation. Overall a 10/10. This is why I watched anime. XD
I saw at the opening that it has three sponsors, so I assume that the quality of this show won’t decrease anytime soon.
Togashi really needs to go back to work and create more awesome mangas. TT
The humor doesn’t get to me as much as Zombie but that’s probably because I’ve already read the manga and am well aware of what happens in the series, poor me.
Somehow, I thought the 1st half of this episode wasn’t as funny as the 2nd half. And I just knew that the image that he showed at the start of the episode wasn’t an image of himself, so that joke fell flat for me.
As for zombie, the episode was just so underwhelming compared to the 1st episode. I didn’t laugh even once. Sigh, I guess I’m setting my standard too high after the hilarious 1st episode.
I’m surprised you haven’t spotted that the alien concept is more or less from Men in black, i.e. aliens just disguised as regular humans who like human things.
With Level E and Zomie, this season is looking interesting. i also enjoy Dragon Crisis. i like lvl E for its comedy, animation and its spin on aliens. Zomie looks like a decent comedy with action and maybe adventure for later. he’s forming a strange party lol. i look forward to futuer eps of Zombie and lvl E.
I second the opinion of leading ladies following Miho’s example. The “girl next door” can be interesting in the hands of a good writer~
I had also spoiled myself when I tried to look up the blonde’s name… but it was awesome. The twist still surprised me xD
Zombie’s first episode made me laugh more than Level E though… but haven’t seen episode 2 of Zombie so…. hhhmm… I’ll do that first.
@Machi
but level E came out before MIB 🙂
I agree with everything you just said.. it’s been a while since I’ve seen an amazing anime…the 2nd ep just proved it! I can’t stop laughing..hehehe…It’s aboslutely fantastic!!!
I watched it during my lunch @ work… TWICE !
I was laughing like an idiot all through, especially during the restaurant scene !
When the security/bodyguard guy was starting to talk with Yukitaka while holding the “Prince”, the “Prince” was talking or doing something I didn’t understand.
Level E is definitly very unique. Right from the start of this episode with ‘clive’ to the end it really likes to play tricks on you in a good way.
I was quite dissapointed with the 2nd episode of Zobmie. Huge boobed ninja? O yeah just what we need 🙁 The second episode of Dragon Crisis suprised me though. What I like about that show is that it just presents it’s world as fact and the explination comes when necessary in the action. Much better than annoying ‘lets explain the world’ dialog like you got on Magica.
Thanks for the warning about the spoiler. This is one series that I definitely do not want to know what happens next. I think it works better with the jokes.
Level E is awesome. I just love the blondie “Urasawa-like” character. And an excellent episode. Loved how they teased us about showing him his true form only to reveal it’s his pet and he’s just messing with us! Damn him!
What makes this so good is that they mix comedy and drama so well. Very few comedies can manage to pull up a serious vibe while making it hilarious. Yet, Level E just does it anyway!
And thanks for the spoiler warning pgels. That sounds like the kind of stuff I would do too.
As for other series you’ll pick up later, I’d advise you to wait until you judge them. Dragon Crisis had a much worse 2nd episode and now I just don’t know if it’ll turn out so well. Still enjoyable but still…
Also, can we assume you’ll blog Wandering Son?