Haiyoru! Nyaruani
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a lovecraftian alien. Or at least that’s what she supposed to be.
This was just terrible, in every single way. This episode was pretty much three minutes of random talking with the characters trying to make jokes, with a huge emphasis on “trying”. The jokes were lame as hell, and to make matters worse the voice cast was completely hamming it up, making the jokes even worse. The animation is terrible. What happened to the times in which flash anime like Hanoka had some actual ambitions. Just skip this. What kind of TV station is crazy enough to air this kind of crap anyway? Even though this is the first new series of the Winter Season, I have no doubt that this will be the worst out of all of them.
ED: Why is this so long? Why the heck does this have conventional animation? It’s still crap, though.
Potential: -50%
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt – 11
Of course it’s great to see Garterbelt’s past here, but what really made this episode for me was its brilliant second half. It pretty much was about nothing: Panty and Stocking sitting in front of the television being really bored. But the entire half was shot on the same camera on the same position. It only panned twice, it only cut three times. Apart from that, it was all about Panty and Stocking randomly talking, along with Chuck, Brief and Garterbelt who appeared along the way. I love these kinds of episodes that really take this unconventional way of storytelling.
And still there were plenty of things going on with that half being everything but boring. Panty and Stocking being bored was surprisingly interesting, especially when you learn about the bizarre context at the end of the episode: Garterbelt spending ten hours inside the kitchen in order to cook a lunch party to celebrate that his afro was announced as the best afro in the world. The voice acting was especially fun and excellent here, and I like how the animation brought the characters here to life without a camera that usually keeps changing positions. I also really liked the final punchline. That was some great comedic timing there.
A lot of the anime today are just too safe and hardly ever bother with episodes like this and that’s quite a shame, really. There’s a ton of potential here if you’d just wish to abandon conventions and that’s what I really appreciate this series for doing.
Oh, and it’s not like Garterbelt’s backstory was uninteresting either. I mean, with the entire history tour that this guy made, parodying everything from Adam and Eve to the vikings.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu – 23
What the hell was that?!
I mean, words can’t describe this episode. Just… watch it. These past twenty minutes were at the same time brilliant and stupid. We’ve only got one episode left, and here this show comes and decides to completely ignore any kind of plot and focus most of its time on silly character antics. No really, 90% of this episode is just random banter between the different lead characters. No Tiaa, no Gastark, no Ryner’s father. We were in the middle of such a dramatic arc: that atmosphere is completely gone for 90% of this episode.
Yet, I have to admit the guts of the creators to go with such an episode. It’s brilliant to come with such a change of mood when just about every normal urge of common sense would say otherwise. I’ve seen a ton of series by now that had to deal with ending way before their source material does that would leave a ton of unresolved plotholes behind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a ballsy way to do it: this episode completely ignored the politics that it knew had no way of wrapping up and instead focused on the characters.
A lot of the dialogue of this episode was just plain silly, yet make no mistake: this episode was really trying to develop its characters. I think that the revelation at the end of this episode was actually quite powerful: this entire episode was simply meant as a farewell party for either Ryner or Shion. Shion made his decision in the previous episodes: he’d kill Ryner. This entire episode was simply trying to give the both of them the time to relax and just be themselves. Oh, and I also loved that scene in which Ferris revealed that she wanted to start a dango shop.
But yeah: the plot. there is no way in which the final episode is going to be able to close off this show properly. Still, this episode showed that the creators are going to try something here. And I admit: if I had to chose between a simple adaptation of the next bunch of chapters, or coming with a twist like this, I’d prefer the latter. Let’s see whether the creators can actually make something out of this.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
OVA Impressions: Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu – 02
So, apparently the Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu manga is crap. I would seriously not have guessed that. I mean, I do not see any way in which the anime version is inferior to the anime adaptations of Kimi ni Todoke, SA, Kaichou wa Maid Sama, Vampire Knight, Itazura na Kiss or Shugo Chara aside from its production values.
I mean:
– It’s short and to the point.
– It doesn’t drag on endlessly.
– It’s not another one of those “will they won’t they” stories: the lead characters are an actual couple.
– Instead of not knowing whether they want to make their lead female strong or weak (leading to bizarrely unbalanced characters), the creators made the lead female just average, having both her strong and weak points without trying to make her seem anyone she isn’t.
It’s definitely refreshing in the shoujo romance genre, not to mention that the acting also was pretty good; I especially liked the lead female in it. The lead male too: at first sight he seems like another one of those cold assholes, but the rest of this episode then proves that he can do other things than be always cold to the lead character.
Of course, this episode was a tad cheesy at times, but I liked how it was pretty much a down to earth romance here. It’s just their time together at christmas and them getting to know each other better. The budget was obviously low here, but I still really like what the animators did with the visuals, giving the lead couple some interesting character designs. The main issue with the animation here is that the lip-synching is totally off.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10
Shiki – 19
Just… wow. The counterattack really was the final part that was missing from this series. After the huge amount of build-up, we finally see it used and this show is actually well on its way to surpass itself. Just about everything in this episode was just amazing. The past episodes entirely turned everything around for this series: everything changed. This is exactly what I’m hoping for when a series spends a huge amount of its time on building up.
The hunters have now immediately become the hunted. The interesting thing is that the regular Shiki don’t seem to have superpowers. The only reason why they were so successful during the majority of this series was because of that excellent stealth game that they played. The only ones who seem like they can make the difference are the werewolves, along with Seishirou and Seishin. Especially the latter intrigued me like no other in this episode: what kind of difference here can he make with Sunako next to him?
Three episodes also feels perfect for closing off this series and I really ope that the creators take this chance to give this series the closure it deserves. The DVD sales have unfortunately been pretty bad (the first volume only sold at 606 copies, putting it only slightly below the Armed Librarians and Senkou no Night Raid), so there is no way that this can get a second season, so it really needs to end well within these three final episodes.
It’s interesting how we finally see that red haired woman again that was in the first episode. I’ve been wondering for a while what happened to her, and I thought that Tatsumi got her, though instead the Shiki got her mother. Interesting twist. Meanwhile this episode built up for both Kaori and Ritsuko are building up to something really interesting as well, I’m really looking forward to this finale.
Rating: *** (Awesome)
OVA Impressions: Mirai Nikki
So… the Mirai Nikki OVA is only 8 minutes long. Yup, it’s definitely a pilot. Rather than a standalone story, I feel more like I watched a long introduction trailer here: it lightly touches upon the main premise, the important characters and the male lead, along with building the intrigue. A lot of the reasons why everything is happening are glossed over, though.
I like the looks of this, apart from the CG abuse perhaps. My guess is that all of these kids have this power to foresee the future, but I’m not yet sure how exact this is. I mean that in the way that if the reads that he’s going to die in 27 days, it’s really unavoidable for him to do so, or whether this knowledge allows him to avoid it. It’ll be interesting to see this series’ interpretation of foresight.
The lead character is decent: at first glance he’s not this generic lead, but at the same time there’s not anything special about him. His romantic interest being the school idol is ridiculously predictable, though. Can’t these people just be… normal students or something? In any case, this episode kept my attention, but it’s just an appetizer: it will leave you hungry if the main course isn’t served.
My guess is that the creators are really trying to use this pilot in order to gather sponsors. It’s much like the first Strike Witches OVA (in which characters actually wore pants and skirts when they weren’t flying), so the style of this OVA may not be its definitive style, depending on the wishes of these sponsors and/or the eventual staff that will be handling, if it gets made at all. In my opinion though, this is a pretty neat advertisement. It’s got some decent chances to actually make it as a series.
OVA Episode Rating: 7,75/10
Kuragehime – 08
Awesome: this episode again keeps the balls in the air instead of waiting and dragging out for too long. The developments were fairly simple at first sight, but it’s here where the characters get themselves a bit of depth.
First and foremost, Tsukimi and Kuranosuke. At first I thought that these two were completely different in every single way, but they do have something that ties them together: they both have mother complexes. Tsukimi was wonderful in this episode, amidst the chaos that was Kuranosuke trying to get the Sisterhood to cooperate, when she lost herself in her memories of her mother with the Jellyfish dolls. It’s also interesting how Kuranosuke is always dressing up Tsukimi, only to fall for her afterwards. It’s his love for fancy dresses here that probably plays a huge part in this, along with Tsukimi’s charms that are completely different from all of the girls that he had known so far.
Yet: why are people so dense in anime? All members of the sisterhood saw Kuranosuke’s boob pads, and yet they turned it into a silly misunderstanding. Density is a way too overused plot device in anime, and unfortunately even this series didn’t escape it.
Shuu meanwhile was mostly hilarious with that private investigator that was sent after him. Especially the scene in which that driver accidentally called Shuu about the matter was hilarious.
The final three episodes can still end this show wonderfully if they want to. It’s now up to the creators to have the guts to actually do this, instead of just continuing the manga blindly until it runs out of episodes. Especially for Noitamina series a good ending is very important, since they’re so short.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
OVA Impressions: Tamayura – 04
And this brings us to the end of Tamayura, and the creators chose a fitting end. It contains pretty much as much slice of life as the other episodes, but at the same time it does provide a nice conclusion to Potte’s character. Divided in two halves, the first is about her picture taking hobby, showing off all of the different pictures she made during the previous episode and getting her to meet her idol again.
The second half had a nice conclusion of her memories of her dead father when she realizes the story behind one of the pictures that her brother drew after being with him. I never really was a fan of the way in which the creators killed off Potte’s father (this is a slice of life series, twists like that don’t really belong here), but it’s used well here.
In any case, this episode was nice and relaxing, exactly what the iyashi-kei genre is supposed to be. The big pitfall for slice of life series is that they just show a bunch of boring and random scenes between the characters without any connection or creativity. That is one pitfall that Tamayura avoided. It’s not the best; I mean, most of the side-characters are pretty forgettable, but it is a pretty charming and yet short OVA.
OVA Episode Rating: 8/10
OVA Impressions: Kurenai – 02
Why was this made? I mean, apart from completely raping the Kurenai TV-Series, perhaps? If I were someone who reads manga, this would totally take away any motivation I would have had to buy and check out the manga. Please, someone. Tell me that the manga is more than just this endless string of silly and pointless side-stories!
The past two episodes have just been strings of random stories, without everything tying them together aside from a bunch of badly written characters. In the first segment there is this violent blond girl who is really depressed and somehow ends up making friends with Murasaki and hugs Shinkuro out of nowhere. The second segment sees all of the main females discovering a porn stash of the tenant that lived in Shinkuro’s apartment before he started living there, and the third was just a bunch of girls randomly talking about Shinkuro.
The worst thing about these OVAs is the terrible acting, though. What once was a mature series has now been reduced to a silly harem with stock characters who can only think about silly romantic misunderstandings. Murasaki ends up climbing a tree in order to search for Shinkurou at school, everyone obsesses endlessly over that porn stash of Shinkurou; it’s all just pointless.
And the weird thing is that Kou Matsuou is still responsible for this OVA. Why didn’t he give it the same treatment as he gave the Kurenai TV-series? He could have could have made some great filler like with the musical episode. Heck, he could even have created the start of an interesting story, that doesn’t fit into two episodes. EVERYTHING but this.
OVA Episode Rating: 5/10
Irresponsible Captain Tylor Review – 85/100
As a reviewer, I often try to create parts of my reviews for anime in my head as I’m watching them. After 20 episodes of Irresponsible Captain Tylor, I had a fairly good idea of what I was going to say about it: it’s a pretty decent parody of the space genre, poking fun at the incredible luck that protagonists are blessed with, taking that to the absurd while still retaining a serious science fiction story, though it dragged too much at certain parts, had too many generic episodes and cliched characters.
Then I watched the final four episodes, and pretty much had to throw all of my impressions and assumptions overboard and start from scratch.
And I mean, it’s not like Irresponsible Captain Tylor doesn’t have its boring moments. It’s a parody, but sometimes fails in that, for example when it tries to parody the harem genre by having every single female fall in love with Tylor despite an overabundance of other hot guys. That’s not witty; everybody does that. Some of the premises for some of the episodes are also a bit uninspired, where the cliches overshadow the wit of the scenario, not to mention that Tylor himself is annoying beyond belief. And then this show comes and delivers an absolutely fantastic finale that is nothing like the rest of the series, yet ties everything together perfectly, delivers an epic climax and is completely unpredictable in every way.
I mean, it’s Koichi Mashimo here. Especially at the beginning and end of this show, he really shows that before starting Bee-Train, he already was an amazing director. The characters of this series have plenty of annoyances and flaws, and yet they’re far from one dimensional, and grow on you as the series progresses. The best scenes of this series are also amazingly well directed and this show contains some of the best animation I’ve seen from him. To make matters even more interesting, Kenji Kawai did the soundtrack for this one, and yet the music in this series is unlike anything from either him or anything else I’ve heard from Bee-Train. It’s very low-budget and especially excels in how well it’s used with the storytelling.
Whether or not I recommend it to you depends on your patience. I mean, Tylor is specifically designed to annoy both you and the other characters of this series. The middle part is also riddled with cliches that really could have used the parody nature of this series better, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to be annoyed and bored at some part of the series. I too had these points where I just wanted to get over with this series, and yet: most of these flaws are just annoying.
I could hardly spot any bad acting, directing or melodrama in this series and even the generic parts had one or two details that made them fresh and new. The finale of this series however made up for a whole lot for me, leaving behind an excellent aftertaste, compared to all of those series that keep building and building up, without actually knowing what they’re building up for. I would have rated this show much, much lower if it wasn’t for its guts that I wish a lot more of the mainstream series today had. And this isn’t entirely because I’m just a Bee-Train fanboy. I was fully aware that Koichi Mashimo made a really uninspired Sorceror Hunters two years after finishing this series.
| Storytelling: | 9/10 – Doesn’t aim to be consistently entertaining, is very annoying and cliched at times, yet comes together wonderfully in the end. |
| Characters: | 8/10 – They can and will annoy you. Yet, they’re flawed, dynamic and lovable. |
| Production-Values: | 9/10 – Some of the best episodes have truly excellent animation. The middle episodes are a lot more static, but also stilllook very good for its time. |
| Setting: | 8/10 – 60% of the time it doesn’t make use of its parody status, resulting in a bunch of cliches lumped together. When it does though, it’s awesome. |
Suggestions:
– Mobile Police Patlabor
– Kemonozume
– Argento Soma