Hey everyone, there are just four blogs left in the Aniblog Tourney. This match is going to be special, because for the first time in all of the matches that Star Crossed has participated in, things actually might become a close call. Metanorn has been sweeping away all of its opponents, and it’s definitely a force to be reckoned with. Be sure to check it out, before voting, here:
http://aniblogtourney.wordpress.com/2012/07/02/semi-finals-2/
Around ten years ago, beach episodes and hot spring bath episodes were already a staple. Somewhere along the way though, creators got clever. Why not combine them into one? Granted, this is more bearable, but it still is a really dead horse that gets used way too much. Mari Okada, you should know this.
Still, underneath all of the boob jokes was the same kind of cynicism of the other episodes, with the extreme focus on looking “sexy”, being forced upon teenaged girls like that. This did give the beach part of the episode a point. As for the bath scene though… that was pointless like a broken pencil.
Also, while it was previously hinted that “graduation” could possibly mean death, that rumour turned out to be false. It seems like you simply get kicked out because you’ve gotten too old. Instead the big fear is never being able to achieve your dream of making it into the spotlights, which I guess does fit quite nicely into this series’ themes. Instead, there were members who lost their lives, and that mostly had to do with that mysterious front line position.
I’m a bit puzzled right now about the structure of this series. I mean, from my experience, one of the earliest ways to determine how many episodes a series will b is to search for DVD releases on the Japanese Amazon. If six or seven are scheduled, the you can bet your hat that there will only be 13 episodes. AKB however is a bit of an oddball in this, because I can only see 5 dvds listed. That fifth DVD will carry up to episode 13, but it seems a bit of a weird number for a series that just is scheduled for 1 cour, especially since this is a type of series that people want to cash in on: there is no reason to have less merchandise than usual.
Rating: * (Good)
Before when Oreki made up a theory that was wrong, he’d simply have missed a few details. This was really well used in this episode, in which it turns out that the solution he provided was wrong in every way and instead the theory by the props guy seems to have been the closest. Instead, his story completely failed to take into account the mindset of the scriptwriter.
I really like how this episode actually filled in some of plotholes that were introduced in the previous episode. I remember noting why nobody just directly asked Hongou what kind of ending she intended, and I really thought that that would be just glossed over. Instead that turned out to be the key to this mystery: the ending she intended was inconsistent with what everyone filmed and the movie club was just in need of a new ending. It completely falls in line with how Hongou was unfamiliar with writing mystery is: she’s not going to think of elaborate schemes.
The arc did withhold one vital piece of information though: the story poll that showed how the class thought about the murder. That really was the big clue about this mystery, and I am a bit dissatisfied with how it was glossed over how Oreki got his hands on it.
Also, it’s ironic how there are series with episodes that aired on the same day (I’m late, I know) that feature Tarot cards. The interesting part is that Hyouka did do its research and actually looked into the symbolism behind each card. Arcana Famiglia? Let’s have the guy with Strength become really strong, and make “The Fool” an idiot. I can already see them surround the guy with the “Death”-card with lots of death symbolism. The background on Hyouka overall is really solid. I first thought than the creators would disprove Oreki’s theory of the audience trick with the 20 commandments and the 10 rules for mystery, but instead they went even further and analyzed the works of Arthur Conan Doyle for all this.
Finally: who was the person that Irisu was chatting with? At first I thought that this was Hongou, but that didn’t turn out to be true when she suddenly revealed that she was on the other side of the world and started insulting Hongou. Irisu overall was a great character here: she just appeared in one arc, but there are a ton of details about her character that set her apart, and how she manipulated everyone in order to get the movie project done right.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
Yuruyuri 2
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of high school girls.
My biggest beef with the first season of Yuruyuri was its bad lesbian jokes, so my biggest concern for this episode was seeing whether those had improved. Having said that, I was not prepared for what this episode threw at me; at all. Here it came out of nowhere and took the lesbian jokes to the absolute absurd by creating a giant harem in which every single is in love with the lead female. It was so obviously a dream, but it did this with such energy that it was consistently funny and enjoyable. In the second half, this episode dropped that whole bit, and showed the cast going to a hot spring resort. Yeah, it suddenly got a lot less funny. My impression of this series is that it wants to be a slice of life series, but just isn’t good at slice of life. The hot spring resort was full of the usual cliches and not interesting at all, and rather than just going full comedy, the pacing just fell apart and the comedy also became completely random unrelated gags that were… nice I guess, but not exactly funny. I chuckled perhaps once or twice during that part, which is way too little for a comedy.
OP: Nice animation, obnoxious J-pop
ED: Bad animation, obnoxious J-pop
Potential: 40%
Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teacher.
It’s like I feared: Seiji Kishi is a bit of a mis-cast for the director of this series. For a premise like this, you need subtlety. He doesn’t have that. The comedy in this episode just didn’t work because of that: there only was one very funny scene, apart from that it all tried too hard and missed the mark. Having said that though, Jinrui is still very likely going to be the most creative series of the season. This episode was hock full of neat ideas and interesting concepts that went way further than its initial concept of having fairies roam around the world. The lead female also works well as a narrator, ad she’s well written. I just feel like the delivery of all of the voice actors could have been a bit more restrained. Again, learn some subtlety Seiji Kishi, darnit.
OP: That dance…
ED: Best ED of the season so far; nice song plus neat visuals.
Potential: 80%
Chitose Get You!
Short Synopsis: Our lead character likes her big brother.
Urgh, this was bad. These episodes are only 3 minutes long, but here that was enough for this series to get completely on my nerves. The incest jokes are of course one thing, but on top of that this episode was horribly dull, and the female lead has an incredibly annoying voice actress. This perhaps wasn’t as bad as the crappy flash series (of which there actually are none this season!), but this still was completely obnoxious.
ED: Annoying squeaky j-pop.
Potential: 0%
Total Eclipse
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the student of a mecha piloting girls’ school.
This one was surprisingly better than what I expected. I’m still not quite fond of the premise of having a school that teaches teenaged girls to pilot mecha that deploys them in a war as if there’s nobody better around, but at least the build-up i this episode was solid. This episode took its time to set things up, which is rare for a first episode where the norm is to start with an action-packed opening. On top of that, it treated the war that was going on seriously, but I’m not yet sold on the characters. They’re all so.. bland. A lot of the characters either have no personality or are stereotypes. That definitely needs to improve for this series to become successful.
ED: This vocalist sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Here she doesn’t.
Potential: 70%
Rinne no Lagrange 2
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to pilot a mecha.
And so, the second season of Rinne no Lagrange starts off with a recap of the first season. Very nice. Granted though, it did fresh up my memory of what the series was about and what made it great. Plus, the side-characters narrating it were fun. So yeah, bring on the real new content next week. There is a ton of potential left for this series, although this season it will have to compete with Eureka Seven.
OP: The same OP as the first season?
ED: The same ED as the first season? Or will the real new OP and ED come next week?
Potential: 85%
La Storia della Arcana Famiglia
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has many bishies to fight for her.
The problem with a lot of the bishie shows is that the characters always try way too hard to look cool. Arcana Famiglia has that too, but I have to give the creators this: out of all the bad bishie series to come out during the past years, this one does hold a candle over them. For once, it does try to be fun and over the top; the chase scene in this episode was stupid and over the top, but had some fun moments, rather than being completely boring like in most of these kinds of series. Having said that though, it’s going to be very hard t make anything out of this series. I mean, these characters are the kind that will get annoying really fast with the way they keep relying on their stereotypes. Plus, whatever happened to making shouo heroines strong and likable? This is yet another show where the entire premise is focused around having all sorts of bishies fight for her.
OP: A dull song with an uninspired direction.
ED: Terrible vocals. Terrible image slide-show. Couldn’t you really find more or better pictures?
Potential: 25%
Tari Tari
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an average high school student.
Okay, since this undoubtedly is going to be compared to Hana-Saku Iroha, let me list the biggest difference between these two series right away: Tari Tari has no Ohana; the kind of character who foces herself on everyone’s problems and who keeps pushing everyone forward. Instead, this episode brought a bunch of characters with all their unrelated issues together. There is a guy who is the sole member of a badminton club, there is a girl who isn’t allowed to sing in her choir club, those kinds of issues. There also is a lot of emphasis on random scenes that don’t really amount to anything, but te animation and dialogue outside of the drama are definitely believable. As for the drama itself… I’m not yet sold. There is potential, but the creators still eed towork a bit on the cast by creating more interesting problems and making the characters slightly less annoying. Right now there also was no remakable chemistry between most of them, and I mostly blame the rather annoying blond girl for that. She tried a bit too hard in this episode. Thebits around the pregnant teacher were interesting though.
OP: A rather cheesy opening.
ED: Also very unremarkable.
Potential: 70%
Campione!
Short Synopsis: Our lead character possesses the magical artifact of DOOM
This episode started with one of the most cliched ways out there for an adventure series like this: there is this seemingly average guy who gets bumped into by a spunky female who starts looking down on him. I was waiting for everything to fall apart, and it sortof did when they brought in alcohol from out of nowhere and the guy ended up stripping her. Yes, the fanservice in this show is really bad and forced. Surprisingly though, after that this episode did pick itself back up and delivered an action-packed finale that balanced the action quite well with the exposition. The male lead reveals that he can ctually do things on his own as weell and while the character-designs in this series are pretty bad, but the monster designs are actually quite well done. The romance came from absolutely bloody nowhere, though. One moment they were just talking to each other, the next goes “oh hey, we’re a couple now!”
Potential: 50%
Kokoro Connect
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of high schoolers.
So, there was a pre-air of the first half of the first Kokoro Connect episode. I have no idea what happened to the second half, but I might as well check this out. And unfortunately, this has Silver Link written all over it: the set-ups have potential, but any potential is ruined by incredibly annoying and badly acted characters. They’re still in their shaft-wannabe phase, in a bit of a different way than usual. The visuals are more reminiscent of Kyoani-series, while the dialogue is typical Shaft. The character sin this episode just wouldn’t shut up, and even though the series started well in its prequel, once the series actually started they wasted no time in making really bad fanservice jokes. The biggest insult was that this half-episode wasn’t really about anything, other than a REALLY BAD FANSERVICE JOKE. I see no potential whatsoever in this one.
Potential: 0%
OP change! And it’s a shame, because this one is far from as memorable as the first op. In fact, the vocalist is pretty cheesy. The only thing that makes this worthwhile is the weird danging. That was pretty funny, but in terms of music it completely failed to grab my attention. I really like the new ED though. he song is excellent, but the idea behind it is also just wonderful.
In any case, this episode turned Fukuda awesome. It’s unusual for this series to devote an entire episode to a character other than Mutta, but Fukuda turned out to be a brilliant choice for this. His back-story could have been cliched with the wrong developments: workaholic parents are definitely nothing new and I’m still hoping for series as Zone of the Enders and Supernatural in which both parent and kid are adults.
Here the creators used this cliche in order to give Fukuda an exceptional amount of will-power. His trait isn’t that he’s a workaholic, but rather that as a workaholic, he failed to accomplish anything he dreamt of in his life. Using that as a background, becoming an astronaut is something like his last chance, and he’s willing to go for it even for the sake of his daughter, or perhaps he’s trying to do this in order to be able to face his daughter, after lying to her so many times. this show loves not showing crucial bits, and I’m very curious indeed how his daughter thinks of him right now.
His glasses breaking were brilliant for this, because the drama that this created was excellent, seeing him push himself way too hard.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)
If there is one Studio that I consider to be the absolute worst out there, it’s ARMS. They only made one good series once, with Elfen Lied in 2004, and after that they have been churning out one crappy and poorly fanservice series after the other. A few years ago, a Studio named Hoods came along, formed by former Gonzo employees, and it was actually heading to surpass these guys by completely dropping all pretense and producing outright porn, disguised as television-series. Thank god for Nazo no Kanojo, which shows that they’re also willing to go for actually good premises, and treat them seriously.
Okay, the essence of this series is about the relationship between a couple of horny teenagers. This could have been done so badly, but instead this turned out to be a very refreshing and charming take on teenaged relationships. The characters aren’t dabbling in a constant “will they won’t they” loop, and instead start dating right from the first episode, and this series explores their relationship. It’ also helps that the lead girl is rather… weird.
Yeah the tag-line of this series is its drool exchanging, or a metaphor for kissing. Beyond that though, the female led Urabe has a bunch of mysterious powers that really give a fresh dynamic to the teenaged relationships. Her dialogue is often very sharp and unexpected, and she makes for a very interesting character. The male lead is a bit less interesting, but eventually he grows into more than just your average teenaged main character.
Amidst all of the romances in anime that are focused on characters not being able to say anything, the chemistry between these two characters is also really refreshing, as they very often talk out their problems and issues they have with each other. In fact, it’s the chemistry between the two of them that is the most worthwhile of this series, and how subtle the creators managed to portray the sexual tension between them with all sorts of metaphors. The use of fanservice in this series also tends to be very good and fits in the story quite well, rather than being forced to watch the “oops I fell and my panties are showing!”-routine over and over.
So yeah, charming, subtle and sometimes clever romance involving a couple of horny teenagers. This is pretty much one of the best and most believable renditions you can get of that even though the characters have rather weird ways of exchanging their own saliva.
| Storytelling: | 8/10 – Mostly subtle romance, although there are times when this series loses it a bit. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – Very good chemistry for a teenaged romance. This series knows exactly what it is. |
| Production-Values: | 8.5/10 – The creators got themselves a particularly good soundtrack for this series. You’ll understand when you hear it, but it really contributes a ton to this series. |
| Setting: | 7.5/10 – Standard high school setting. Not the main cfocus of this series, but still. |
Suggestions:
– Bokura ga Ita
– Seikai no Monshou
A series about pirates in space. The creators could have easily put a ship in space and have the characters go “RRRR!” a lot. Not Mouretsu Pirates though. This show is ambitious.
Instead of going with the tried and true formula, Mouretsu Pirates managed to completely create its own setting. It asks the question of what pirates would look like in a futuristic setting in which mankind has ventured off to space. The result is a setting in which Pirates are bound by insurance companies, and are kept afloat as this cultural heritage who raid people as a form of entertainment, and it manages to create all sorts of interesting stories and concepts based on this.
Now, Mouretsu Pirates has a series structure that has some very interesting parts, but also a few downsides. Now, the series consists out of about five major arcs. All these arcs are completely different from each other, they all focus on different characters, they all have different moods and themes, and most importantly: they all get increasingly better. what this pretty much entails to is a series that is a bit hard to get into at first, because the first arcs put a lot of emphasis on world building and setting things up just right, but once it takes off, this series really takes off into a really entertaining roller-coaster ride that just keeps changing.
And also on the character-department this series stands out. The cast of this series is HUGE; every arc introduces a ton of new ones, and I’m glad to say that this is one of those series that handles a huge case really well: it’s diverse and full of all sorts of colourful characters. It’s of course impossible to develop all of them in 26 episodes, but this series chooses very wisely who it wants to develop, while for the rest of the cast it always finds something interesting for them to do or base some interesting revelation around them.
Going back to the early episodes that put a lot of focus on build-up, that has another advantage: The creators re also really good in letting the characters just play out their actions. The result is a series that while being hard science fiction, has a cast of characters that feels real and relatable. I mean, this series may be about pirates, but there are also a surprising amount of arcs dedicated to a high school gir’s yacht club (yeah…), but these characters are portrayed so down to earth and likable that it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
A few weeks ago I’ve seen someone describe this show as “Shoujo in Space”, and that pretty much is the best tagline I could find for it: if this term appeals to you, then by all means give this show a chance, because there is a lot to like in it for shoujo fans as myself. This definitely was a very clever series that went from very careful set-up to a really entertaining ride with a ton of colourful characters. If it wasn’t for Natsume Yuujinchou this would have been the best series to debut in Winter 2012.
| Storytelling: | 8.5/10 – Excellent sense of build-up and variety through its run, but it does take a while to get going. |
| Characters: | 9/10 – Has a huge cast and knows how to use it. |
| Production-Values: | 8/10 – This is a Satelight series, but a low-budget one: it has nice CG at times, but they’re not spamming eye candy like in their usual series. |
| Setting: | 9/10 – This setting here is very creative and well fleshed out. The creators defiitely put thought into how to give a new spin to “pirates in space”. |
Suggestions:
– Infinite Ryvius
– Gankuen Seni Muryou
– Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra
Awesome! A movie has been announced! And what more, this doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a movie for the sake of having a movie like with Full Metal Alchemist, Ao no Exorcist or Star Driver, but this really continues with the story that this episode left off with. This episode wrapped up the past arc, but it left plenty of villains still alive, plus the issue of the pirates deciding their course still hasn’t been solved yet. My guess is that that will be the main focus of the movie.
Now, as for this episode, the creators went for the action-packed ending: this entire episode was dedicated to an over the top battle against the strange woman who has been shooting down pirate ships. They used a bunch of clever decoys and the pirates that Marika invited played a good role in it. This episode didn’t have the crazy revelations that showed completely new sides of the characters and it did remain a pretty standard ending and I wouldn’t label it as the best ending of the season, but still, the episodes leading up to it were the best of the entire season.
The aftermath with Iron Beard was excellent by the way. Like many people suspected, he is Marika’s father. In the end it turned out that he wanted to hand over the reins of the Bentenmaru over to Marika, so he came up with the story of food poisoning in order to give her the chance to be a pirate. Ririka very likely was in on the joke, and she very likely figured that now that Marika has gone her own way, it’s time for her to go back to pirating with her husband.
Rating: ** (Excellent)