Some Quick First Impressions: Jormungand – Perfect Order and Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

by psgels, posted in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Some Quick First Impressions

Medaka Box Abnnormal

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights a bunch of strong characters.
Hmm, I just realized a very big danger for Medaka Box with this episode. I mean, the reason why I liked the first season was that it went from a perfectly normal school series to over 9000. In this season, though, I fear that it’s just going to be nothing but these over the top fight with nothing to contrast it with. Especially because this episode introduced your typical cliched gang of rivals that Medaka probably all has to fight at some point, and they all probably have some kind of gimmick. The problem with that is that it grows old after a while. Will the creators be able to keep all these fights interesting? How will this show avoid that formulaic path that it’s dangerously close to now? Will there be more to this than just fighting? Take for example the girl that was shown in this episode: the way in which she talked in numbers was nice and all… but that also was her entire gimmick. Beyond that the fight wasn’t really that interesting.
OP: Generic opening with the upcoming characters.
Potential: 70%

Jormungand Perfect Order

Short Synopsis: Our lead character sells weapons.
Jormungand’s biggest challenge will be managing its characters. The plot is bound to be interesting: this episode showed that with the central focus being weapon dealing. However, that will be a big waste if the characters just all look the same. This episode made a good start by finally showing Koko as an interesting character, but there still is a lot to do for this show, because the side-characters nearly all have the same personalities. On top of that this episode finally introduced a major villain (or at least it looked that way), and her personality is like all the other female characters, only more extreme. This lack of variety really bugged me in the first season, and I really hope that it will be handled better in the sequel. The best thing would be to just have a select bunch of snarky characters, while making the rest set themselves apart in completely different ways.
OP: I don’t really like the vocalist in this song, but it does serve as a rather strong opening for each episode.
ED: Bit of a random use of a piano, but the effect is nice.
Potential: 75%

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to take care of a cute girl.
Well, there you have it. There is a lot of bad stuff in this premise. The show is riddled with fanservice. There are lots of cliched characters. The characters are not ashamed to be annoying, especially when it comes to fanservice… and it is really well delivered. I mean, it really shows that there are talented people working behind this. The direction was far from what you’d expect with these kinds of romance series: the characters were really well portrayed: they were full of energy and the direction is full of these small details that bring the characters to life. Think of the subtle movements of the various cats in this series. All the characters in this show have presence, and even though the nudity gets incredibly forced at times (I mean, this is a premise about a guy who lives together in a mansion with two girls who have no sense of shame), but the way it’s delivered is something else, and makesimpact. Also, I feel that JC Staff are currently quite underrated. Sure, they make some crap, but there are some very good animators among them. They really showed that with this episode where with the right director, they can really breathe life to characters in ways that most other shounen romance fail with their too restricted movement. In a way, this reminds me of Denpa-Onna to Seishun Otoko, but better and actually much less annoying.
ED: Very nice artistic direction. Shame for the dull song.
Potential: 80%

Kamisama Hajimemashita – 02

by psgels, posted in Kamisama Hajimemashita

This is something I could only dream of: two Akitaro Daichi series airing at the same time. For those of you who don’t know: he’s pretty much my favorite comedy director. For the past years he has only worked on short series with 5-minute episodes (or 2 minutes, in Poyopoyo’s case), but finally it’s time again for him to handle a full fledged show.

And yeah, this season has a lot of comedy and a lot of romance. And in those areas, it just stands out as the best. It’s a simple show, but what it does it does really well. Akitaro Daichi’s style also is more than obvious: the way he uses his cameras to simulate movement when people are running, and the way he creates energy by having characters talk really fast and get right to the point are just awesome, and here it’s no different. The voice acting is also excellent and the voice actors manage to deliver in quite a few different ranges.

By far the best part of this show is the chemistry between the different characters. This is utterly hilarious in the way they just keep teasing each other. But also, this series knows when it goes too far. What I really liked about this episode for example was that when Tomoe went too far with his pranks, they talked with each other to sort things out.

Now, this episode was not as good as the first episode, which really did go all out. What I did like is how it subverted the “bad boy” cliche: you know, the bishie who is abusive and yet somehow the lead female starts falling for him. In this case, she didn’t and very clearly dumped him because of that behavior. And of course, this guy also meant to poke fun at a lot of other stereotypes, which worked quite well. It’s really good to finally see a show that makes idols look completely ridiculous.

And well, first there were Lupin and Zetman, now Kamisama Hajimemashita. TMS are really busy reinventing themselves in this year. I mean, they were behind some of the series with the most unique direction this year, which is especially impressive considering they clearly don’t have a big budget, or cleanly polished animators. Kamisama Hajimemashita is helped with Akitaro Daichi’s direction, but even taking that into account the poses of the different characters are full of creativity, rather than having the characters move the same over and over again. It may not be the best looking series of the series by a loooong shot, but on the other hand, this show tends to ignore a lot of conventions when it comes to animation, which is nevertheless quite refreshing.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Uchuu Kyoudai – 27

by psgels, posted in Uchuu Kyoudai

So… after last week’s big climax… we get here an anti-climax. Mutta never really made a foolout of himself, and instead this series goes on to introduce a very important question: are the astronauts prepared to die? The annoying thing is that it’s still impossible to figure out what Azuma is thinking, and this episode then proceeded to skillfully ignore the entire third exam in favor of building up for Hibito’s take off.

So with the build-up, this wasn’t one of the standout episodes of Space Brothers, but still had plenty of great moments, most notably Mutta asking Hibito to take the disc he made as a kid with him, which contained the footage he shot of that UFO (the first time since the first episode that that thing has been mentioned by the way). Also, Apo turned out to be an interesting way to get Mutta and Serika closer together again.

Also, this episode showed the new OP and ED for this season. The first quarter of this series had an awesome OP and an unremarkable ED, the second quarter had an unremarkable OP and a wonderful ED instead. Here, they’re both really good. Not as good as the best ones, but it’s still great to watch them, and they’re based on great ideas.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Hunter X Hunter – 50

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

This episode was another one that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now: the episode about Nobunaga, and the point where Gon and Killua really manage to stand out. This really was their big moment in the Yorkshin arc, and after so much bloody build-up, it was worth it: the creators also got Nobunaga right!

I’m more and more reminded again of why the Spider Troupe is my favorite evil organization in a shounen series ever. They’re just so diverse, and yet they work incredibly well as a team. And they’re also very professional. They don’t just depend on their powers, but also on their experience, knowledge and each other. The only reason why Gon and Killua managed to escape at the end of this episode was because they weren’t guarded by the troupe itself, but rather by one guy who got ideas out of his own. It’s the same way in which Gon was able to steal Hisoka’s tag: if any other member was with him, that plan would have never worked.

Also, this episode gave depth to a dead guy. Uvogin’s best friend was Nobunaga, and this episode handled Nobunaga’s sentiments really well, and I like how well he explained who Uvogin was to him.

On top of that, in this episode we saw some more of my favorite character of the Spider Troupe, and things really are looking awesome here. I’m not going to say who it is for spoilers’ sake though.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Girls und Panzer, Teekyuu and Ixion Saga DT

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Girls und Panzer

Short Synopsis: Our lead character rides a tank.
Girls und Panzer: why? Just why? Why did you make all these decisions for your direction? I mean, you’re a series about a bunch of girls that ride a tank. Shouldn’t it be obvious what to focus on? Your director is Tsutomu Mizushima, a guy who excels at being over the top. This could easily have been this really over the top series with a lot of brainless fun and action. So why on earth are you taking yourself seriously? No really, there was no comedic moment in this episode whatsoever. They rode tanks for like three minutes, after which they switched over to some school. Add a lot of different characters to that… and yeah. This is Strike Witches without the fanservice!
ED: Montage ED with boring song.
Potential: 20%

Teekyuu

Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays tennis.
What the HELL was that?! I mean, you know Studio Mappa, right? The studio that was just founded from former Madhouse employees and did Sakamichi no Apollon past spring. Well, their next act is a 2-minute series with a complete lack of any kind of inbetween animation about two girls playing tennis. I mean, this was just bizarre: the characters talked incredibly fast and hyperactively. The jokes were like a shotgun: some kindof worked, and some didn’t work at all. It’s very hit or miss. The animation was… interesting. The episode was full of different drawings thatlooked dynamic, but lacked movement. Yes, the effect is really weird with the incredibly hyperactive pacing of this show. I’m not really sure what Mappa was going for here..
OP: Super-deformed and crazy.
Potential: 30%

Ixion Saga

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets transported into a game.
You know, there is one thing that I did not know about Ixion Saga in advance: it’s a parody. I was fully expecting this to be this really cheesy fantasy show that should be passed up immediately, and this really looked to be the case at the start of this episode. And then… it just stopped taking itself seriously. Now, that alone is not immediately a good thing. Anime has so many terrible comedies out there, so this could have made this show even worse. But this brings me to the director, who previously worked on the first 100 episodes of Gintama. And yes, this was funny. This episode definitely had some parts that were bad, but for all of those moment it also had parts that were so bad that they turned good, and it had quite a few well delivered and actually hilarious jokes in its arsenal. The question now is to see whether or not they can keep this up. Shows like this generally can manage first opening episodes, but to keep up this quality for an entire series is quite difficult. Let me get beck on this one next week.
OP: DT! DT! DT! DT! DT! <- who the hell found that a good idea?
Potential: 75%

Sword Art Online – 14

by psgels, posted in Sword Art Online

I must say, I had been spoiled by that thing with Asuna, but I did not expect this show to go so far already. For a midway climax, this felt more like it was the end of the actual series with all the things that happened here.

I actually like the twist of the creator also being a player of the game. It makes perfect sense, because if I made a game like this, I sure as heck wouldn’t want to sit around for two years doing nothing. His whole proposition of ending the game definitely lead to some interesting developments, giving Kirito the responsibility of 6000 people over just one fight.

After that followed a bit of an anti-climax. First with Asuna sacrificing herself, just like the build-up previously hinted at: every time there is a happy couple, someone will die to break it up. What? Is it that uninteresting to watch a healthy couple here? Well, this show apparently thought the same and pulled some deus ex machina so that Asuna didn’t die after all, and Kirito somehow was able to override game rules with his angst.

The whole talk he had with Asuna and the game creator at the end of the episode was very good again, and Kirito waking up was entirely awesome. That was the moment we’ve all been looking forward to, and it really paid off. The episode ended at right the exact moment: there was no cheesy runion, just Kirito limping through a hospital.

But really… how on earth are they going to follow this up? I mean after this, nobody is stupid enough to start playing these games again. Sword Art Online is dead now. What’s next?

Although, a killer idea would be to indeed drop the entire series, and instead focus on tracking down the creator of the game. I mean, it’s been two years and his servers still haven’t been found. His body still isn’t recovered. That really would be awesome. But knowing the nature of this game, it probably won’t go so far.
Rating: 5/8 (Great)

Eureka Seven Ao OVA

by psgels, posted in Eureka Seven Ao

The bet OVAs are the ones that take an important side story and expand on it. The best example of that in the past seasons was Another with its prequel. Eureka Seven however, has no such intention. Instead, it’s a fanservice OVA. Having said that though, it is a very special fanservice OVA.

I’d recommend watching this one around the middle point of the series, which is where this OVA takes place. The reason I recommend watching it as soon as possible is because it’s an OVA that fleshes out the cast: its value is lost a bit when you watch it after the conclusion, when there is no point to flesh out any characters anymore, and I’m therefore glad to have watched this before the final two episodes, because this definitely showed different sides of the cast, something they actually needed a lot.

Also, by fanservice I don’t mean the kind of fanservice that involves lots of nudity. Instead, Ao dresses up like a girl. This goes to the point where he starts cosplaying as Eureka. Yeah. As weird as this sounds, the direction of this episode was actually quite good. I have to admit, as a fan of both this series and the original Eureka Seven, I enjoyed this quite a bit, especially with the way they used the music, and paid homage to a few obscure series along the way (yay Ranma, Osamu Dezaki and Soul Eater!) It’s just a holiday and everone conveniently forgets what happened at the end, but it was worth it.
Rating: 4.5/8 (Good)

From the New World – 02

by psgels, posted in From the New World

Oh boy, From the New World sure set a standard as the first show of the new season. This show really is good, and it still stands out, even though there have been many other every promising first episodes since. There still are points at which it is just the best of the bunch.

What really makes this show stand out above all the others is its setting. Better than any other show this season, it managed to create its own world with its own rules, cultures, education and customs. Within 2 episodes it already managed to make us feel a part of it by using 12-year old kids who were familiar with it, but still needed to get a grasp on the fine details. The whole Cantis is also a very intersting version of Telekinesis, and I love how rooted it is with the rest of the setting, to the point where humans are seen as gods by other species because of it.

Also, there is a lot of eye candy this season, but even then, I feel that this series has the best artistic direction. Perhaps not the best animation (that award goes to K), but with K you can see that the animators are abusing lens flares a bit much. Here however, everything feels artistic, and the use of colours is just perfect, especially during the trippier scenes, making this series really look gorgeous.

The characters in this series are interesting because as one of the few series, this show decided not to put them on its promo image. They feel different than usual in that they don’t try to stand out from the rest: they feel right in place with the rest of the children there, apart perhaps from that purple haired girl. It makes them feel down to earth, and yet this series is very good at portraying their emotions. This one’s definitely one to keep your eyes out for.

This episode also did a good job of fleshing them out, using that little contest of theirs: it added to their characters, but also it showed some of the more serious sides of the whole Cantis, how it is a taboo to interfere with the Canti of others. They also introduced a guy who probablyis going to become a major villain in quite an interesting way with this.
Rating: 5.5/8 (Excellent)

Some Quick First Impressions: Magi, Code: Breaker and Bakuman 3

by psgels, posted in Magi, Some Quick First Impressions

Magi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character likes boobs.
So this is going to be the new series to occupy the prime time slot of anime: Sunday at 17:00. It’s a tricky time-slot: you can get access to a lot of viewers, but this also resulted in Ayakashi Ayashi being cancelled halfway through due to disappointing rates. For that, Magi has come up with a solution to make people talk about it: boobs. It’s a shame, because people will now remember this show as that show with the really bad boob jokes, rather than remember this for what it is: a Japanese take on Arabic folklore. The animation near the end also was pretty damn good and this episode had a pretty exciting conclusion, but the comic relief on the other hand was just BAD and felt really out of place. It still works somehow though and this episode had a lot of interesting stuff amidst the stuff that makes you facepalm, to the point where I’m willing to see where this one is going.
OP: Couldn’t you really have come up with a better song? I mean, you’re in Arabia for god’s sake. Make use of that opportunity to show some influences there!
ED: Same here: why go for J-pop if using classic Arabian instruments will make it stand out much more?
Potential: 75%

Code: Breaker

Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a mysterious transfer student.
This opening episode was slightly different from usual. The standard for these kinds of episodes is to be all ove the top and throw in a lot of action. Not here: this episode was more dedicated to show that this series knows its build-up. Most of this episode was quiet, right until the end, where it delivered a number of very solid and intense scenes. That pay-off rocked. The rest though… needs work. The problem with this series is that it tries to be funny by using overused and forced romantic cliches. The entire school aside from the lead couple was very annoying to watch in the way they deitified that main couple, and how they just kept going with it. Still, this feels like a problem that with time will become less significant. This show at least had solid acting for the lead couple, and as long as the school setting will play a very minor role in the rest of the episode, it should be fine.
OP: A bit cheesy, but works as the opening for an action series like this.
ED: This one had a lot of overused j-rock cliches, plus the visuals were mostly just a boring slide-show.
Potential: 80%

Bakuman 3

Short Synopsis: Our lead character writes manga.
Well, I can be very short about this: I’m not going to continue watching Bakuman. Of course it’s interesting to watch a bunch of manga authors work together, but with three seasons, it’s just way too long. This episode reaffirms that I’m just going to waste my time if I want to keep up with this, because it wasn’t about creating mangas, but again focused on these soap opera plot twists that have really gotten old at this point. I guess it was a nice idea for the lead couple to have such an idealistic view on becoming a manga artist and voice actress respectively, but I feel like I’m getting beaten ove the head by all this. That’s why I just couldn’t continue with this show, even though I managed to finish Phi Brain: at least that one knew where its strengths lied and delivered upon that. Bakuman really would have made an amazing anime if they went with a story that fits in 26 episodes. This just goes on for waaaay too long.
OP: Granted, this was the best OP for Bakuman so far.
ED: This is just cheesy J-pop
Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Sukitte Ii na Yo, Little Busters and Kintama

by psgels, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Sukitte Ii na Yo

Short Synopsis: Our lead character falls in love with a bishie.
This was really good! I mean really: this is a very good season for shoujo here. Perhaps Tonari no Kaibatsu-kun was a mysoginistic cliche-fest, but both Kamisama Hajimemashita and Sukitte Ii na Yo finally responded to some of the issues I have been having with the genre for years. This series finally has a main couple that is different. It takes its characters seriously, and the characters are not the same characters you see everywhere. The lead female here is socially awkward like Sunako, but the whole theme behind this is for once not purity. Instead, it’s distrust, and living in a state being constantly afraid of harassment. Heck, for once the creators actually found a use for the “annoying perverted best friend”-cliche. The lead female also dares to show some of her weak sides, rather than just being bland and not do anything. Sure, she gets protected in the end, but she reaches out for the guy out of her own accord, rather than being swept away by some random bad boy. That male lead also very clearly sets himself away from that: he neither falls in the cliches you see of bishies that the lead girl has to choose from. Instead he is this outgoing guy with a strange taste in girls.
ED: I dislike J-Rock. But for this ballad I make an exception due to the vocalist who is pretty good there. Although he clearly has trouble hitting the high notes.
Potential: 80%

Little Busters

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a high school boy.
Hmm, I’d say that in terms of Key opening episodes, this one ranks above Kanon and Clannad, and below Air and Angel Beats. I mean, all those shows had their problems (Air probably the least), but what impressed me about this episode was the characterization of the five lead characters: their chemistry was quite enjoyable to watch, making this my top pick this season for school-based series this season. Their chemistry was both fun and engaging: their characters worked quite well together. This episode did have its problems though. There were a couple of very badly portrayed females. That laughing girl for example is the carbon copy of a stereotype that I have never seen done right. At the end of the episode another girl also appeared who was trying way too hard to be naturally charming, and of course this show has school idols. This show needs to work a bit on making more believable characters, but that was a problem with Air, Kanon and Clannad as well: the females looked incredibly superficial at first sight, only with their development that came much later in the series did they stand out.
OP: Some very overused OP cliches saved by a good vocalist.
ED: Same good vocalist, but this song just doesn’t work with me.
Potential: 80%

Kintama

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has straight golden hair and is loved by everyone.
Something I did not expect happened here. I mean, my relationship with Gintama is a bit of a shaky one: I absolutely loved the first 100 episodes. After it changed director, it stopped being as funny to me, and I ended up dropping it because it was too long, and I’d rather remember the best parts than to keep going with it while comparing it to the first. The same happened with the second season: it had some nice episodes, but I just didn’t find it as funny anymore. I expected the same thing to happen here. Instead, this was my favorite episode since the change of directors. Tomokaze Sugita, the voice actor for Gintoki, really was on fire in this episode, and his rants throughout the episode really reminded me why I fell in love with this series. Not due to the excessive violance or toilet humour, but rather because of its incredible sense of dialogue. That returned here. I remember how early on in the first series, Gintoki noted that everyone should be glad that he wasn’t named Kintoki, because they wouldn’t be able to air the show like that. A lot of stuff changed in the meantime, up to the point where the creators pretty much managed to get away with naming their show Testicles. This really was hilarious.
OP: Very nice, one of the few OPs that are actually funny.
ED: Eccentric but interesting vocalist.
Potential: 80%