Star Crossed Anime

Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru

Short Synopsis: A boy and a girl who loves bones come across a skeleton on the beach.

One thing I think anime should take note of is that if you plan to have intrinsic photorealistic environments then you should try to blend the character art styles to match said environments. The anime characters of this episode present a disconnect similar to that of the cartoon characters of Who framed Roger Rabbit. While the characters are present, it doesn’t feel like they belong. More like they are standing in front of an overly decorative set. The soundtrack is very bombastic, presenting a score more suitable for a high fantasy adventure rather than a mundane mystery show. It’s far too intrusive, with high pitched violins while the detective is explaining her theory. The story of the episode itself is decent but suffers from over-presentation with heavy visuals to show the explanations of the main detective. My previous assumption about a Sherlock and watson relationship turned out correct and sadly the main character is as bland as his design suggests. Our main girl is mildly interesting but possess far too few likeable traits, and her gimmick of loving bones is already wearing thin. This is a mystery show when essentially solves itself without any viewer speculation which is disappointing. One particular annoying aspect is the show portraying the police as deeply incompetent in order for our main detective to seem more brilliant and I find her deductions to be far too based on assumption. I admit to being overly harsh on this show and there is still some potential as the cast branches out and more interesting mysteries appear, but the first episode is lacking a hook to catch me.

Potential: 40%

 

Dance with Devils

Short Synopsis: A girl gets targeted by a student council of boys and cloaked burglers

Well that’s one way to start an anime. I must admit I rather liked the chanting and the gothic atmosphere of those first two minutes. But then I realized….it’s a musical. A musical reverse harem with supernatural elements. A fascinating combination but I am certainly not the target audience of such a show. Musicals are something I find a little too cheesy for my tastes, I remember having a firm hatred of the songs in disney movies. The second half shows there might be more effort put into this than a regular reverse harem but it still suffers from many of the tropes that plague the genre. Our protagonist is still a blank slate who has a bunch of hunky boys going after her who fall into the usual lineup.This is bound to be better than Diabolik Lovers for those looking for this kind of show but well being the man I am, this doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest.

Potential: 10%

 

Osomatsu-san

Short Synopsis: Old Showa anime characters try to make themselves relevant again.

Our show starts with a black and white cartoon talking about how this show is a return of a anime made over a decade ago and even has one of the characters pointing out that it may be too old for the current generation to enjoy. Certainly hit the nail on the head with that one. So they…turn it into a generic boy band idol anime. So I sat there, clearly seeing that this was a joke and waited for the joke to end. And it didn’t. The joke went on and on to start referencing everything from attack on titan to shounen anime. I got the joke by the first minute and even then I didn’t find it all that funny. I have said many times that anime comedies are something I can’t really appreciate but I feel that there is just far too much “Shout till it’s funny” and “Look at the anime we are referencing” going on for my to consider this good comedy. Admittedly I find the idea of old showa anime characters trying to be relevant by copying popular threads to be somewhat amusing but from what I can tell this isn’t going to be the actual show. Instead the next episode looks to be the genuine first episode. I find the black and white segments of the show to be a prime example of just how far anime has come along and thank god for that because the old Osomatsu show looks to be pretty terrible. I think this is one you have to make up your own mind about, if this first episode gets you laughing then maybe the humor of the rest of the series might be your thing but for me what’s presented hasn’t sold me on this show.

Potential: 20%

One Punch Man

Short Synopsis: A superhero is bored because all his fights end with one punch

This one truly is set to be shoe in for one of the hits of the season. The only major concern I had regarding it was whether Madhouse could live up to the art of the manga and they certainly did not disappoint. The animation in this episode was perfect, that last scene with Saitama fighting the subterraneans was a marvel to look at. The art on the other hand may have people torn, I personally have no problem with it but I do think it looks rough at times. But other times it looks beautiful, channeling the style of american comic books more so than anime. The story itself is a dilemma that likely faces every shounen protagonist once they reach the pinnacle of power. Namely the absolute boredom of being so overpowered that no one presents a challenge any more. Saitama’s transformation from salaryman to powerhouse is sudden but it really gets across just how empty he feels with his status of being the strongest. Humor in the episode managed to make me smile, in particular the giant man’s accident and Saitama’s smirk nearly got a chuckle. If you are watching anything this season, chances are this should be on your list.

Potential: 95%

 

Shingeki! Kyojin Chuugakkou

Short Synopsis: Attack on titan without titan’s getting attacked

When the only joke you have is referencing a much better show you could be watching instead of this then maybe you should rethink making an anime out of it. This is pretty terrible and they are milking the Attack on titan name for all it’s worth. Even parodying the famous Opening with there own version but the joke essentially is just referencing Attack on titan scenes. Even the most diehard of fans would find this lacking. If there are any other jokes in this show, it’s of the juvenile kind that a four year old wouldn’t even laugh at.

Potential: 0%

 

Utawarerumono – Itsuwari no Kamen

Short Synopsis: A man finds himself in a land of animal people with no memory

This certainly is taking its time but I appreciate that at least it’s letting the viewer in on the story without being too expository. The humor is hit or miss, it has it’s charm sometimes but can fall flat hard. The amnesia trope is overused but at least with this character he’s not dwelling on it too much. Amnesia characters tend to get caught up in getting their memory back but our main here is shaking it off pretty well which is good because this trope is too common. Animation has some still frames though for the most part it’s a decently animated anime. The setup here is pretty solid and our two mains are fairly likable but the story hasn’t really started yet so it’s still a question on how good this anime will be. From what is presented so far I say this is looking to be a satisfactory watch that should at least keep people entertained in between other shows.

Potential: 55%

Comet Lucifer

Short Synopsis: Our main and a girl fall into a chasm and recover a girl born from a gem.

Well now, it seems like 8 bit are channelling the spirit of old style Bones animation. Which isn’t a bad thing. This episode felt a lot like Xamed or Eureka Seven in tone. It’s not doing anything new but there’s signs of real effort and the episode was pretty engaging throughout. One thing I loved was the design of what looks to be the main Mecha which is reptilian in nature. It just looks great, I loved seeing it fight at the end of the episode. Though there is a pretty big plot with two main characters falling into a giant chasm and yet end up perfectly fine. The setting looks good and characters are decent so far though the main is a little bland. That ending does give me a bad feeling that things may get worse later but from what I have seen so far I am interested to see how this goes.

Potential: 70%

 

Concrete Revolutio: Choujin Gensou

Short Synopsis: A agent and a magical girl try to prevent the theft of scientific research.

I think it’s becoming a pet peeve of mine when an anime makes no effort to include the audience in the story. Shoveling exposition isn’t the best way to start an anime but at the very least ensure that the audience knows the setting, timeframe and what’s at stake. In other words do not jump between two different time frames without informing the viewer that they are two different times, do not toss out random terms that mean absolutely nothing to those uninformed and do not jump into an action scene without making sure the viewer knows why it’s happening. I am not asking to be spoon fed, but some clarification would be nice. It’s difficult what to make if this show, I am not sure if it’s trying to parody magical girls and old school Mecha anime or if it’s playing it straight. The backgrounds use a minimalist comic book style which takes some getting used to. The animation is pretty good but again my main problem here is that it’s confusing presentation. One minute a waitress is talking to a man in a cafe in daylight, the next minute she’s chasing him down at night in a train for some reason. We can’t even be certain if this place is earth. But most importantly of all, am I supposed to take this seriously or is it tongue in cheek? We have a magical girl and transforming robots fighting between the folds of reality levels of absurd but the episodes end tried to push for a more serious tone. This is going to need another episode to get a better evaluation but so far it’s passable.

Potential: 40%

 

Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans

Short Synopsis: A ragtag group of boy soldiers try to fend off an attack with inferior equipment.

Take it from me when I say I am not much of a Gundam fan, there is just something about it that never quite caught my attention. So for this Gundam to catch my attention it’s doing something right. From the Gundam series I have seen the first episode often goes the same formulac way. But Gundam Orphans starts off very different. Sure there’s a Gundam reveal but the setup is very unlike any other Gundam. So far I am loving the cast being oppressed underdogs against a superior force as well as the naive princess attempting to understand the state of Mars by integrating with the boy soldiers. My eyes may glaze over when they start talking space politics but this setting has huge potential. A Mars like a third world country, protests calling for it to be an independent state, a ragtag group of abused teen soldiers in possession of a great weapon while guarding a princess possibly subject to a political assassination attempt? Sign me up. I must say as well that it’s so nice to see genuine animated mecha instead of CGI robot. Nobody can animate bipedal robots quite like Sunrise. Though two things are off. One is that the designs of some characters are more cartoony than others making them look odd when placed beside one another. The second is that there quite a lot of male fanservice going on with the cast showing off six packs and seem to require being topless to operate a Mecha. Truthfully that isn’t all that bothersome but I would prefer if it remains minor and doesn’t get too intrusive. If Okada can keep this up then this may be a Gundam series I could hold highly and certainly one I can say is leagues above Reconguista. One last thing, that soundtrack is glorious.

Potential: 85%

K Return of Kings

Short Synopsis: Gangs are fighting each other and something, something, video game, something.

The best word to describe this is obnoxious. The story is pretty incomprehensible and the anime isn’t making any effort to explain itself. I watched the previous season of K but maybe that movie had some vital information that would help me understand just what everyone is talking about. From what I can gather this green king is hiring lackeys through some video game and making them annoy the blue and red kings so the silver king would get drawn out. And believe me it was hard to get that from the amount of utterly useless dialogue that seems to be not saying very much. What also doesn’t help is the giant fight scene at the start that lasted 8 minutes was in fact a flashback which is never addressed as such. GoHands here’s a tip, a fight scene without context is nothing more than white noise. No matter how much good animation is in it, or at least there might have been good animation underneath the lens flares, horrible Photorealistic CGI backgrounds and that blue hue overlay that you place over everything that makes all the colours washed out and annoys the hell out of me. Forgive me if I sound angry but that blue hue truly ruined the episode for me, nearly in every single shot, sometimes so overpowering that it’s like watching anime through a blue stained window. It’s just horrible. There’s the Highschool of the Dead level of fanservice with that big breasted blond girl that is just downright insulting. I make no joke when I say that this womans breasts and ass had more screen time than her face. So to summarize, story is impenetrable as well as insufferably smug about itself, visuals are horrible and fanservice is just too blatant. Not recommended.

Potential: 0%

 

Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry

Short Synopsis. A clearly mentally unstable girl challenges a boy to a fight after he sees her naked.

Attention female anime characters, I wish to let you know of a truly powerful and useful device that we of the modern world make use of everyday. Now it’s function may surprise you but with the right training even you can be a master of it. And this glorious and revolutionary tool is…a door lock. Trying using it before you start changing. Mind blowing, I know. Though if your choice of underwear is that risqué I would wonder if you actually want to be seen. There’s not much to say here. Boy meets girl, boy sees girl naked, girl attempts to kill boy, is beat, falls in love with him and in a hypocritical turn of events molests him in his sleep. It’s at least pretty watchable though the animation isn’t anything noteworthy. Seeing as its Silver link who made some rather impressive fight animation for the Prisma Illya series, I was expecting something a little more exciting. If you are looking for a pretty standard show that wont require much brain cells then this is the one for you.

Potential: 20%

 

Gakusen Toshi Asterisk

Short Synopsis: A clearly mentally unstable girl challenges a boy to a fight after he sees…whoa. Déjà vu.

Rakudai and this do start off exactly the same but to give Rakudai some credit, at least it’s trying. Asterisk just feels lazy in all regards, so much so that almost every line of dialogue is a variation of a line from a similar show. The setting just seems ridiculous. For what possible benefit would there be to build six schools right beside each other? I mean it it was branch’s of the same school that would make more sense but the anime points out that they are indeed six separate schools. This is as by the numbers as it gets, generic to a T. If it was the only standard light novel show this season I would say it would scratch someone’s itch but there’s the better alternative Rakudai for that. This anime just seems pointless.

Potential: 0%

Lance N’ Masques

Short Synopsis: A boy has a huge lance and a tendency for acting like tuxedo mask.

I will admit that this episode wasn’t as terrible as I was expecting but it has all the ingredients to become terrible by episode 2. The biggest problem however is not in the story but in the art. Whoever is doing the character art for this show, either step up or step down because the character art is downright ugly. Proportions are off, shading is blocky with no regard to light source and it’s just not pleasant to look at. What makes this most evident is the heavily detailed backgrounds which cause a huge disconnect with the far too simplistic character designs. The soundtrack has some interesting pieces of music Celtic vibes that I rather like. The main problem I have with the story is the very young age of the heroine. Its very creepy to see the show push for a romantic mood between the two. The setup has mildly intriguing aspects like the order of knights but there’s a harem, there’s most certainly a school coming and a large number of common cliches. The animation is quite limited and from the looks of things they blew most of their budget on the first fight scene. There’s not any hope for this one.

Potential: 0%

 

Heavy Object

Short Synopsis. The world now conducts wars by pitting Metal Gears against one another.

When watching the first few minutes of this episode I found myself wondering, why was it that I wasn’t all that impressed with this story when I read the Light novel? I mean the setting is great with huge potential and while the science is spotty, the Metal Gears are pretty awesome. So why was it I wasn’t sold on this? Then the main characters are introduced with two male leads talking exposition and the third female lead taking a shower because…because. On seeing that I suddenly thought “Ah yes. Now I remember.” This is Kazuma Kamachi after all. The man prone to creating settings with unlimited potential and squandering it by using it for the lowest common denominator of storytelling. The man potentially responsible for every overused Light novel trope under the sun. The parts regarding objects in this episode were decently engaging but was inter cut with some bad comedy and even more awful cringe inducing fanservice. The scene with the girls belts acting as bondage ropes and the main agonizing over undoing the belts while she was getting choked to death by them because to do so he would touch her breasts was quite painful to say the least. If these parts of the show don’t bother you as much as they did me then chances are you will enjoy this show. Me however, I will just lament  the death of an idea that could have been great in someone elses hands.

Potential: 30%

 

Young Blackjack

Short Synopsis: An intern doctor performs a risky operation on a young boy.

So far very promising though it’s old school sensibilities are a bit intrusive. It’s very on the nose about its story with not much subtlety and highly dramatized but the story itself is quite good. The main mature cast has potential with a drug addict doctor who can’t stand the sight of blood and the enigmatic blackjack. Though it wasn’t quite as dark as I was expecting and reminded me a lot of the Trauma center video game series. Very nice touch at the end of the episode which goes to prove that even if you do someone a huge favor, their are types who will weasel their way out of a deal. The next episode preview looks to be putting forth more moral dilemmas which is a massive plus in my book. I think this will be a show to keep an eye on.

Potential: 85%