Star Crossed Anime

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Short Synopsis: A former criminal wishes to take up the art of comedic storytelling.

This has to be the strangest show of the season and for that I really like it. We have a first episode that’s around 45 minutes long and a large majority of that time was spent listening to a man on a stage tell a story. The art of Rakugo is a fascinating one, being similar to how a comedian tells a long joke but not quite the same. In some ways it’s like a man trying to put one a one man play with no props, stages or costumes. Just conveying a story through gestures and his voice.  When thinking about it you could brush it aside and say that’s nothing hard to do to which you would be correct. Anyone can get on a stage and tell a story but it’s something else entirely to entertain a crowd with nothing but yourself and a story. The oddest thing of all is that it actually works, in particular when listening to our main character tell a tale involving a comedy skit of a man getting burgled. Not once did the anime show a visual representation of what the man was talking about and yet just from him telling the story I found myself playing it out in my mind and even smiling. It’s a very bewitching and engrossing craft, one I am quite interested in. Visually the anime does work well with showing the subtles of the tellers moments and the character roster is most interesting. And what may be a godsend, there’s not a single stereotype in sight. No tsunderes, kuuderes, danderes, lolis, genkis, bland everyboys, emo boys, yanderes, yangiris….just people. It’s just so refreshing to see something that doesn’t contain characters lifted off the database of anime caricatures. Of course this is a very niche title, one that may not suit everyone’s fancy. It’s a very slow paced tale that’s very much focused on character more than anything else. Still I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this.

Potential: 90%

 

Hai to Gensou no Grimgar

Short Synopsis: A group of people struggle to survive in a RPG world.

I truly love the visual direction of this series. It’s a kind of storybook/watercolour feel to it and I just think it’s beautiful. In terms of story I feel it was done a lot better than the light novel but a major gripe of mine remains. A lot of these characters just rub me the wrong way, especially that red haired Dread Knight. Every line of dialogue that comes out of this guys mouth is just irritating to the core and makes me want to punch him in the face. The other characters bug me for other reasons like them being rather generic tropes but if I was to point a finger at something it would be the dialogue. There’s just something obnoxious about these lines that bugs me to no end. That aside I do like the gentle atmosphere of this episode and the general premise is a good one. A group of normal people trying to make their way in a world in RPG game fashion. Nobody seems overpowered and it truly is a beautiful anime to look at. While the characters annoy me I might watch this on visual merits alone.

Potential: 55%

 

Saijaku Muhai no Bahamut

Short Synopsis: A clearly mentally unstable girl challenges a boy to a fight after seeing her na….oh come on! Really?! Again?!

You know, when you take up the position of watching every first episode of every season it really does become apparent when something is designed to be popular. A formula like the heroes journey, but more strictly kept to. It’s not only apparent in how these shows always tend to have the same lineup of girls but also in presentation. For example, how many of these shows start with exposition taking place over an epic battle? Answer, a lot. How many of these shows have the girl screaming with a shaking shot of the location? Answer, a hell of a lot. How many of these shows start which have the protagonist happen upon a girl naked and have her challenge him to a duel to settle it? Answer, 2…which happened last season. Before that god only knows. Look guys, I know you need your paychecks and until Japan realizes there a whole untapped market outside of Japan, this is the only real way to get your money back. But please, for all that is good in this world, can you at least try? I mean Tenchi Muyo had more creativity than this and that is an anime from over twenty years ago! Well what can I say about this? It’s Infinite Stratos with a medievil theme. It’s every standard light novel story you can think of. Nothing new to see here.

Potential: 0%

Dimension W

Short Synopsis: A man is hired to reclaim illegal power sources and runs into a female Android.

I guess this proves that style and animation can breath life into manga. I previously wasn’t all that enthralled with the manga but seeing it in motion really gives it a better feel and the anime is adding to the source material. There’s a lot of style here and if there are those of you getting reminded of darker than black that would be because the mangaka of this work provided the character designs for that very show. We have some really impressive animation here, especially with that opening. Shortcuts were taken in the episode but the series still looked very good. Through there are some off putting block colour effects sometimes. The story holds quite a lot of potential and the nature of the power source known as Coils reminds me a lot of Giant Robo’s Shizuma Drive. Our main protagonist is a lot like Mugen from Samurai Champloo and his new robot sidekick has her own quirks. If they keep up with this presentation we could be looking at a very memorable title.

Potential: 75%

 

Dagashi Kashi

Short Synopsis: A girl must convince a boy to take over for a sweets shop owner.

In terms of enjoyability I would put this near ServentXService or your normal comedy. It’s unique enough to not be predictable and the characters are fun. Being a comedy show it really is something that relies on the jokes, I can say while it didn’t make me laugh, it was at least still a pleasant watch that I didn’t find myself bored. I won’t be singing it any high praises but it’s a lot better than most comedies I have come across. There are still elements that find all too often in comedies like a romance that is doomed to go nowhere and in general the series will just be this and nothing more. But while they did do the old cliché of the lucky Pervert, it’s at least fresh that they had the girl react differently from “KYA!” Another character did fill in for the unjustified beating but it’s nice to see a girl so openly unashamed of her body. Or just too caught up in her own dramatics to notice. It’s a fun watch.

Potential: 60%

 

Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation

Short Synopsis: A student council President wants a boy to start playing an MMO.

This was a little better than I expected but I must ask one thing. If you were given the task of adapting a sci-fi space epic MMO into an anime, why would you set it in a school setting in modern day? That’s like making an anime out of the Fallout series and making it about people playing the game Fallout. Also school is terrible, I don’t know why anime is so infatuated with it. I was truly glad to leave it and move all memories associated with it to the recycle bin of my brain. Not because of any hard time or anything(My school life was utterly mundane) but because it was dreadfully boring and a period of my life when I was a complete imbecile. Ah, sorry, the impression, yes. Well leaving aside the complete madness of ditching an opportunity to make a Sci-fi adventure anime, this is decently done. It’s sort of interesting from the front of someone first getting into MMOs though his reasons for doing so are strange. The student council, naturally a important governing body instead of there real life counterpart, gives this kid a mission to start playing this MMO to…research his experiences? Personally it looks more like the council President wanted a raiding buddy and came up with some excuse to recruit someone. The creators certainly are taking creative liberties with the games as the level of player interaction is beyond a normal MMO. I am not sure if combat is representative of the product either as I don’t see health bars or attack numbers anywhere. For what it is, it certainly could have been a lot worse but it still remains a potential idea squandered to appeal to a mass audience…and college was a lot better than school.

Potential: 30%

Schwarzesmarken

Short Synopsis: A dystopian society Germany fights a desperate struggle against an alien threat.

To get the obvious question out of the way first. No, you do not need to watch Muv Luv Total eclipse to get this anime and you don’t need to play the original Visual novel trilogy. This is basically a stand alone spin off story separate from both mentioned. The only connection being that they take place in the same universe. As a start I say this was good though nothing truly impressive. My previous worries that this might leave people who are not familiar with the Muv Luv universe seem to so far be unfounded as we are given a quick intro into the state of things and immediately thrown into the action. Of course people may still have complaints such as “Why did they send out a soldier suffering from PTSD?” but we can’t really address things like that without giving too much exposition. The setting does indeed have barrells of potential though the CGI is particularly lacking. On the mecha it’s fine but on the organic monstrosities such as BETA it really sticks out like a sore thumb. A big thing in how this adaption turns out will really depend on how they handle the darker elements. This episode tip toed on overplaying them but I like how they cut down the main character’s backstory and it really is beneficial to not view his internal monologue. They need to be careful and downplay the drama on these grim dark elements as if they overdramatise them it could end up too overblown to take seriously. If you felt the main character was particularly annoying for being irritable all the time then be thankful that you didn’t have to read his thoughts too. Because they certainly don’t make him any more likable. If anything this adaption has made me aware of just how unbearably positive Katia is. Admittedly her role is mainly to highlight just how harsh this country is but it can be rather painful to see her being utterly naive. For lack of a better way to put it, she seems like an overly moe anime character in a setting clearly not suited for it. So with that said, the action is good, the characters look to have potential for growth and the setting is brimming with grim consequences.

Potential: 65%

 

Koukaku no Pandora

Short Synopsis: A cyborg girl helps fight out of control robots with the power of yuri

From the Mangaka behind Ghost in the Shell we have an anime about lesbian robot girls. Now your eyes might have lit up with excitement upon hearing this is from the maker of Ghost in the shell but let me put things into perspective. This the Mangaka who brought us the Ghost in the shell manga, not the famous anime movie or Stand alone complex series. For you see the manga of Ghost in the shell and the anime of Ghost in the shell are as different as night and day. The anime had a focus on the political and psychological aspects of the story were as the manga was more an action manga with some comedy and fanservice thrown in. For this show it looks like we got less action and far more comedy and fanservice. I have long said that I am not a fan of comedy but I think even those that go for anime comedies will find the slapstick of this episode humorless. Seeing as comedy is at the forefront that means this episode didn’t quite do anything for me and I find the fanservice to be a bit extreme. Basically in order to activate her powers for battle she must stick her fingers in the crotch area of another female robot. Classy. Action seemed decent for what little of it there is. I will give it a tiny bit of potential as the robotics side of things is interesting and chances are this would be enjoyable to a certain audience.

Potential: 5%

 

Luck & Logic

Short Synopsis: A boy once again decides to fight off world invaders with a mysterious girl

There must be a better way of giving the viewer information without resorting to exposition. In other cases it’s the source material that’s at fault for this but by being an original anime you should have no reason to resort to the laziest method of conveying information. We have a visual medium to work with here, make use of it. On that note if you call this system Logic then how would you separate the term from linguistic logic? Wouldn’t the similar terms get confused? Also do we really have to refer to the attacking monster as a “Foreigner”? Enemy, invader, Kaiju, threat…there are plenty of words for this already. There’s no need to invent a dictionary of terms when there are words suitable already. Not much to say on this one. I feel there’s effort behind this and while it is cheesy, it is watchably average.There’s CGI in the battle scenes which is of varying degrees of quality, from passable to terrible. Protagonist is fairly bland but seems to be the most experienced fighter of the cast which is a change. Though his sister is a rather irritating creature with her insistence for him to remain “Villager A” If you want some mindless entertainment this could do the trick.

Potential: 20%

Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu

Short Synopsis: A girl wants a guy to make a visual novel with her.

From the writer of the Majikoi visual novel we have a story about making visual novels. That may cause some of you to shy away due to Majikoi’s anime adaption but as someone who has read the VN, the anime and visual novel are completely different. Still Majikoi is no masterpiece. One thing this show has going for it is its cast of characters. It’s nice that the main protagonist actually has character and he’s offset by pretty interesting supporting cast. I particularly liked the misappropriately titled “Bitch queen” who acted as a wise love guru though a phone call. There are those making comparisons to SNAFU but I feel that this anime will be a lot less serious due to the majikoi author being behind the writing. It’s certainly watchable and the cast makes it rather enjoyable so far. Also the anime referenced Sharin no Kuni which happens to be one of my favourite visual novels of all time. So for that I bumped up the potential score. I know that’s not professional but I don’t care. Props for the G-senjou no Maou reference too.

Potential: 65%

 

Bubuki Buranki

Short Synopsis: A kid attempts to find something connected to his past while being hunted.

Well that was certainly a surprise. The first ten minutes of this show were not what I expected in a good way. It acted as a good setup for the series and leaves me wanting to know more. The CGI is liked the best integration of 2D and 3D elements I have seen in awhile. While still not perfect this could be a step in integrating CGI into anime without it being jarring. On bad points, characterisation is a bit on the weak side. Especially with our main character who is the kind of whiny wuss we often see in these positions. The second half of the episode isn’t as strong as the first but I see potential in this. There are definite hints of hidden agenda’s and the villain looks quite interesting. A very strong start to what could be quite an interesting series.

Potential: 75%

 

Divine Gate

Short Synopsis: A teenager is all mopey because he has superpowers and a school wishes to scout him.

“Pitter, patter, the rain starts to drop. While the water may fill up the hole on the road, it will never fill up the hole of one’s heart.” Oh god, when your episode opens with poetic nonsense such as this it truly gets you ready for the events to come. It’s pretty clear this was written by someone who never quite outgrew the chuunibyou stage of his life and decided to use this anime to spread his complete genius. The result is just insipid when clunky exposition given by a psychopath randomly out of nowhere, a protagonist that thinks acting completely emo is an interesting character trait and bringing along an utterly ridiculous tragic backstory to boot, and of course that despite this attempting to wax philosophical metaphors it’s still knee deep in many of the tropes plaguing the genre. There’s a school setting because of course there is and the characters powers are boring to boot. Red guy uses fire, blue guy uses water and I am firmly willing to bet that the green girl has powers relating to plants. My interest ebbed away with every minute and I can be fairly certain on this. This will not be anything worthwhile.

Potential: 0%

Active Raid: Kidou Kyoushuushitsu Dai Hakkei

Short Synopsis: A police force uses robot suits to catch criminals.

It really is quite funny how little I care about this show. We have the director of Code Geass as chief director and yet all this show inspires from me is apathy. For you see Active raid belongs to one of the categories us critics hate. It’s not good enough to warrant praise and not bad enough to warrant hate. In other words, it’s mediocre. The humor of the series is pretty terrible and the main character has a completely predictable character arc. She starting off as this cocky, uptight, by the book policewoman who gradually going to learn that working in the field isn’t as simple as she thinks and how important it is to take it easy on the job. Chances are she will be given a choice to effectively betray the team and sides with them either after or before making the choice. The characters are all eccentric besides our straight laced protagonist and yet not really interesting. The concept is hardly new, with police making use of high tech technology to catch criminals. All and all it just lacks something to truly to catch the viewer’s attention. The action isn’t noteworthy, the comedy isn’t funny and the plot doesn’t hold any surprises. It’s just forgettable.

Potential: 0%

 

Boku Dake ga Inai Machi

Short Synopsis: A mangaka with the power to travel back in time finds himself facing an evil from his past.

Well we have the first contender for anime of the season. That was certainly a great first episode but I do have concerns. The pacing went fast by the second half and in terms of the manga this covered the entire first volume. The director has also stated that he intends to portray the original manga ending. There are currently 7 volumes to this manga and we have 11 episodes left. This is not good. The pacing didn’t kill this episode but if they continue like this I believe we may experience a adaption train wreck of the likes of Tokyo Ghoul. Due to the slow paced nature of the series this move might actually turn out beneficial but this director has his hands full fitting in that much content into such a small time frame without it feeling rushed. Still the first episode shows great promise. A good protagonist, a strong supporting cast and a fascinating plotline. Execution has so far been marvellous and the quicker pace did give a great cliffhanger to the episode.

Potential: 85%

 

Norn9 – Norn+Nonet

Short Synopsis: A girl boards a ship full of pretty boys

Why oh why does the protagonist of these things always have to be a bland dull nobody? I know the purpose of it is so you can transplant your face on to them but in practice I have found that never actually works. So we have a girl with a personality so bland that she could be replaced with a marionette and I am not sure if anyone would notice. As usual, companying the plank we call a girl is the pretty boy whose clinginess is on a very worrisome level. For one on first time meeting he saved her from falling into water by tying her up in vines. That fair enough but he didn’t untie her until someone saw him about to carry her into the ship. Less romantic and more like forced kidnapping. After that the guy practically stalks her at every turn. But my usual problems aside, why is this not engaging me? Well the story itself isn’t really all the interesting with the setting being on a ship that picks up people randomly to deliver to some place. The story is trying its damnedest to be atmospheric and surreal but I find myself disenchanted. We had some rather clunky exposition and it’s not exactly clear on the time frame. For the ship looks fairly futuristic but based on the flashes of memory from our protagonist, she’s from a Showa era setting. There isn’t much to our characters either as the few that made an impression seem rather one dimensional. One moment near the end that I found killed my suspension of disbelief was when our protagonist fell off a tree and fell hard into stone. She then rolled off and fell another 15 stories into water. Yet despite that she was perfectly fine, completely unscathed. So even if there is a threat on this ship based on that last scene, I doubt this terminator of a girl will have any trouble.

Potential: 0%

Musaigen no Phantom World

Short Synopsis: Our protagonist hunts phantoms as part of a school club.

This show started off with some examples to point out how unreliable the human brain is with optical illusions and made to point that our view of the world would be drastically altered if our brains were messed with in some way. And points out that if such a change to the brain occurs maybe we might see and feel…annoying tiny flying pixie girls. You know something is wrong when a show’s first lines are ultimately flawed logic. Yes, our vision of the world could be altered if our perception is messed with, but outside stimulus is still required to perceive something. Unless of course it was something intangible like ghosts but this series already breaks that rule by having one of these illusions pull open someone’s eyes. Of course you could make an argument for delusion or madness but I digress. So a lab is attacked which unleashes a virus on the world that allows people to perceive youkai and fictional beings. It also gives teenagers superpowers because…science. And naturally this virus has no negative side effects in the slightest despite messing with the most delicate organ in the human body. This may in fact be KyoAni’s lowest point and yes, I am taking into account the moe drivel and Free. At least those had some shrivel of creativity. One particular moment that really put the nail in the coffin was a point where the protagonist was about to do the cliched accidental pervert but realised that he was about to do the cliche. He very nearly subverted it but then then ended up doing the cliche anyway. Pointing out the cliche does not excuse the cliche. We have plenty of fanservice, particularly with the big breasted ponytail girl who apparently has the power to harness elements by feeling herself up. That isn’t the only dislikable factor as we have Ruru, a flying little mascot character who’s only purpose is poor comedy and to display the power to annoy. Everything else is just so run of the mill that it’s painful. It has very good animation and with the phantoms they seems to be trying to add in hijinks but the end result is just so cookie cutter.

Potential: 0%

 

Prince of Stride – Alternative

Short Synopsis: A girl helps restart a school club for free-running.

I refuse to call it Stride. To stride is to walk with big steps, in that regard it would make more sense to call it sprint. Let’s not beat around the bush and call it what it is, free running. Free running with a relay race aspect  With that out of the way I got to applaud the Madhouse animators. One of the hardest things in animation is a run cycle and here we have an entire animation dedicated primarily to just that. In that regards the running animation in this is marvellous. Though sadly that may be its only shining point. This show goes through the checklist of sports anime tropes. People who have an interest in a sport find club about to be disbanded and interest dying out. Revitalises the club by showing everyone how awesome it is and gathers a team of weirdos who each have their own approach to the sport. It’s pretty standard stuff. It’s not bad by any means but you do have to take into account that besides the running, you aren’t getting anything new here. The comedy is also pretty terrible. There’s also that thing where they try to make the sport as visually impressive as possible by exaggerating it to make it more interesting. But that’s more of a personal gripe, and not a Solid one considering an anime I really love, Hajime no Ippo, does the exact same thing. Lastly there’s the ever annoying trope of Otome games, the really bland female protagonist who gets all the boys. Pretty much a male harem protagonist gender swapped. So it’s fairly watchable and could make for a good in between watch anime.

Potential: 60%

 

Haruchika: Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru

Short Synopsis: A tomboy joins the brass band club and encounters a strange mystery.

Well my first impression of this turned out to be different to what I thought. But I like it when a show I didn’t expect much from presents something I could be interested in. What we have here seems to be a mix of Hyouka and a music anime. Now I can’t say I liked Hyouka because I find that the mundane mysteries it presented wasn’t interesting when nothing was at stake. Haruchika has a similar problem in that the mystery when solved doesn’t make much logical sense when you think of it from a human standpoint. It pretty much boils down to someone sending an innocent message by breaking into a school in the middle of the night and presenting it in the most cryptic and ominous way possible. That said the connection it had to music was interesting and it gave us a look into Haruta’s deductive capabilities. Our two leads seem interesting enough and the band aspect is done in a way that isn’t tiresome. Ultimately an enjoyable first episode but the thing I really liked was the development of the last scene. I will be vague so as to not spoil but it’s nice to see this particular thing shown in a way that isn’t overblown or in your face.

Potential: 70%