Kaze no Stigma
Short Synopsis: Kazuma has been kicked out of the fire-clan because he sucked at throwing fireballs at people. Now, three years later, he’s back with wind-powers to prove the meanies from the fire-clan wrong.
Good: Interesting, this anime already starts off by killing its major characters
Bad: Someone please teach the writer the basics of human nature.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
Ever since I saw the plain and ordinary character-art, I sortof feared that this anime would never become good, and this episode indeed proved my fears. The bad points also don’t limit themselves to the bad character-designs, either. Most notably is the hugely unbelievable behavior of the characters. The girl’s comrades have just been killed by the main male lead, and what does the girl do? She acts as if he just insulted her. She never even looks back at her former friends who just died, and instead she shows the behaviour of a standard tsundere. Sorry, but with a start like that, I don’t feel like checking out more of this series… Oh, and grown-up guys throwing fireballs at each other definitely isn’t cool. Heck, the entire episode made it look like there was not thought whatsoever put behind the concept.
Ookiku Furikabutte
Short Synopsis: A not-so-typical loser gets assigned as the pitcher of a local baseball team.
Good: Surprisingly down-to-earth.
Bad: The main character does remain a looser, and I’m fearing for the girl we kept seeing flashes of.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
Like Kaze no Stigma, I never had big expectations of this, especially after the horribly boring Overdrive. But what do you know, this sports anime actually turned out interesting. First of all, we finally have a loser who doesn’t suddenly get introduced to Baseball, so that he can become the best baseball player ever. This episode also hinted at tactics, rather than raw power like most sports anime tend to dabble into (or so I’ve heard). We’ve also got quite an interesting cast, like the orange-squishing trainer, the very shy main character (probably one of the shyest characters I’ve seen thus far), and the other new guy. Even the girl who watched from the side-lines was quite funny, though I fear her becoming a main character.
Kaibutsu Oujo
Short Synopsis: A typical loser gets to live together with a bunch of supernatural beings, who quite conveniently all end up being cute girls.
Good: Thankfully, the ALI project didn’t turn this into a complete failure after all.
Bad: So…many….stereotypes…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 3/10
I couldn’t help but compare this series to Murder Princess, both feature a blonde princess who likes to kill others. I do have to say, though, that Murder Princess is infinitely better than the rubbish that this series tried to present. First of all, ignoring the clichés for a moment, the main character’s sister has invited her brother to come live with her. Why the heck doesn’t se get worried when he doesn’t show up? Why doesn’t she call the guy’s cell-phone to ask what happened to him. Sure, okay, she’s just a completely stupid and irresponsible girl, okay. I can forgive that. What I can’t forgive, though, is the hospital-people who don’t even notify the guy’s family-members after he died, for goodness’ sake! Now, if you add the clichés to that (big-breasted sister in maid-clothes, cold princess, small uberpowerful girl who keeps beating up the main character, a typical loser male who has been pasted right from another random harem-anime, the metal bar who chose just the right timing to fall down on the princess, and of course the fact that this princess just can’t let the guy die and I can ramble on forever like this) the result becomes nothing other than garbage.]]>
Deltora Quest – 08
Short Synopsis: Thaegan’s thirteen children come to take revenge for their mother; afterwards, Lief, Barda and Jasmine run into Tom’s shop.
Good: What the heck were the shopkeeper’s intentions?
Bad: Lief and Barda may have been a bit too gullible, but still: what the heck were the shopkeeper’s intentions?!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I was secretly hoping for Shining Tears X Wind to be a bit like Deltora Quest, but unfortunately it decided to prefer fanservice and unexplained events above cleverly thought-out stories. I guess that Deltora Quest wll remain my main fantasy-adventure-fix for this season. It’s such a pity that I’m probably the only blogger who’s still watching this, as the series is quite good, and not at all like an all-fighting shounen anime.
Lots of things also happen in this episode. The scene of Thaegan’s children, beating each other up was quite intense, and good as well. For the first few episodes in this, I had my doubts, but this series has proved to feature some great climaxes. The second part of the episode also first seemed to be another trap Lief and Barda just walked in unsuspectingly, but I just can’t help but wondering what those intentions of the shopkeeper were. At first sight, he’s out to make a quick buck, but he does provide a couple of useful supplies, including horse-like creatures. And he does warn them of dangerous roads. But then again, he probably knew they wouldn’t listen to his advice. But on the other side, a serious-looking guy did buy the strange-looking rope without ever questioning him. Hrmm….
It’s also quite interesting that Thaegan’s children still don’t know that their mother has been brought back to life. I also wonder if they’re really dead now. I suspect not, due to one of the general rules of anime (which says, unless you actually see a character die, and it’s confirmed he’s really dead, he lives). Oh, and I’m glad to see that the music still is as awesome as ever]]>
Towards the Terra – 02
Short Synopsis: Myu are those, gifted with special powers. They’re shunned by society, and Jomi happens to be one of them.
Good: Despite his brattiness, I like Jomi.
Bad: He does have annoying points, though.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
For Saturdays, I also planned to blog Shining Tears X Wind, but the second episode just lapsed painfully into clichés and fanservice. I’m not sure if another show is going to take its place, I’ll decide after watching the third episode of the shows with potential. Towards the Terra, on the other hand, is proving to be quite interesting. This was another one of those episodes which served as explaining the current situation.
So, with the help of Wrex’s summaries (he doesn’t seem to like the show that much, though), I managed to find out the following. The Myu are a special kind of human being. I’m not yet sure if it just appears on random humans, but the fact remains that Jomi is one of them. His parents looked like perfectly normal people, so I guess this is true. In the current society, the Myu are shunned. Probably out of fear for their powers, and they hide in a large space-ship in the clouds. If I had to guess, then they’re planning to return to earth.
The powers of the Myu are quite diverse. Most involve telepathy, though. Leo, for example, can’t talk, and has to use his thoughts to speak to others. Blue can travel through machines and virtual reality at will (or so it seems), and I suspect that Jomi has a power that will greatly work in the advantage of the Myu, we just haven’t seen it yet. The Myu also have really weak bodies, as a fight between Jomi and one of them showed. The guy was out-cold after just one punch.
Speaking of Jomi, he spends the entire episode rather causing havoc and yelling at every Myu he meets. While it was annoying, I do admit that it’s better than him agreeing with their plans immediately, after having been taken against his will, with his whole future he had in mind ruined. It’s probably a very natural reaction for him. I did like how Blue attempted to solve the problem of Jomi’s behaviour, as it’ll be very interesting to see Jomi see his parents again. After all, he’s probably got no future whatsoever, and I think that everyone in his former surroundings now knows that the guy is one of the Myu.]]>
Kaze no Shoujo Emily – 02
Short Synopsis: Ah, it seems that Emily will be living together with both Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle (?).
Good: Clashing personalities for the win.
Bad: The music seemed to be a bit too dramatic at times
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
Now that I started comparing Seirei no Moribito with Wellber no Monogatari anyway, I also began to notice that Kaze no Shoujo bears some similarities to Les Miserables. Both feature a young girl, losing her parents, they’re both taken in with people whose personality clash hugely, and they’re both HUGELY underrated. Seriously, I can’t believe how little attention this anime is getting. It’s quite good.
I’m not sure though whether Emily can ever equal the brilliance of Les Miserables, bit it’ll be interesting to find out. In any case, Kaze no Shoujo is lighter in terms of storyline than Les Miserables. Still, that doesn’t mean that there were some dark parts in this storyline. I especially loved when Emily and Elisabeth had a conflict with one another, like when Elisabeth planned to cut Emily’s hair, or when she locked her in the room with all the scary paintings. She’s also not a totally evil bitch like Thenardier either, her personality and views just clash hugely with those of Emily.
So far, we’ve yet to see a lot of the cases of the other characters. Perry was present in this episode, though nothing was revealed about his background, other than that he’s often involved in dirty work. The end of the episode also introduced the third character, and so far, I love her. I’m looking forward to the cases of these different characters a lot, as according to Wikipedia, they seemed very interesting. :)]]>
Seirei no Moribito – 02
Short Synopsis: Barsa asks her friends to get her some supplies, while the king sends a number of assasins after her and Chaggumu.
Good: Yet again, this episode shows how much thought has been put in this anime.
Bad: Incredibly long dialogue by the king and his servant x.x
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
I just realized something. Seirei no Moribito is very similar to Sisters of Wellber. Both feature a normal person who takes care of someone of royalty. Seirei no Moribito definitely is the more realistic of the two, though Wellber no Monogatari is allowed to take more risks because of its light-hearted nature. It’ll be interesting to see which of the two ends up better. So far? Seirei no Moribito. This’ll be one of the shows I’ll be blogging for Saturday (Saturday is going to be busy!). Ooedo Rocket, meanwhile, remains hilarious, but I don’t see what’ll be worth blogging it. Kamichama Karin is cute, but it lacks the degree of mystery that mahou shoujo as Otogi Juushi Akazukin and Futago Hime did have. Koutetsu Sangokushi’s second episode was worse than its first, and I’ll be dropping Touka Gettan. Not that it’s bad, or anything, but I’ll watch it when my schedule isn’t as busy as it is now. Same with Hitohira.
Anyway, I liked this episode of Seirei no Moribito a lot. The only thing is that the dialogue between the king and his servant was really hard to follow. If I had to guess, then the king knows that a water spirit has laid an egg inside of his son’s body, which seems to be very bad for his reputation. Because of that, he sends some of his men after him. Barsa, meanwhile, spends the episode hiding, while her friends get some necessary supplies for her. Wellber no Monogatari skipped this, and went straight on with showing how Rita acted now that she doesn’t live in the castle anymore.
Chaggumu was much more silent than Rita was. While Rita chose her path herself, he probably has no choice whatsoever, and is being attacked all against his will. Because of that, he tries to be as independent as possible. It’s interesting to see, considering he’s a child (also notice that he’s carrying the majority of the supplies when they leave the city?). Next episode will start quite interesting as well, as we’ll see Barsa fight again. Another department where lots of thoughts went into, as we see Barsa actually take care of her weapon. I’ll be looking forward to it.]]>
Death Note – 26
Short Synopsis: Now that L is gone, the second half of Death Note starts. But first: recap!
Good: Hmm…I guess the punishment-scene.
Bad: Obviously, the recap-part.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6.5/10
Ah, of course. The recap-episode. Thankfully the final part of the episode did show plot progression, the majority of the episode was just boring. I also noticed an inconsistency with the fansubbers, who suddenly shortened the fifty days that Light spent in confinement to a much more bearable fifteen. If you still haven’t seen this episode: skip to the second part, as there’s nothing new in the first one.
The second part of the episode closes L’s story, while it lightly introduces the second half of Death Note, considered by manga-fans as much weaker than we’ve seen up till now. If I had to guess, then the grown-up Light will have no personality at all, making him boring. And yes, I do hope that the five years that have been skipped did develop Light more than just making him more insane.
The next two “antagonists” also are introduced in this episode. Eleven episodes remain after this, which means that they’ll have less opportunity for fleshing out than in L’s case. They look interesting, though their voices are annoying, from what I’ve heard. I also have no idea why it took this long for them to get alerted about L’s death, and why Light never noticed that timer.
I’m also disappointed in one thing: that for five years, nobody ever got the idea of going after Kira. Someone who watched the tv-programs regarding Kira could easily have obtained quite a few clues about what went on. I mean, I was surprised that nobody tried to send him messages after this and to try and manipulate him. It’s also a wonder of heaven that Misa never once screwed up in all these five years. I dislike how the new antagonists just have to be L’s acquaintances. But we’ll see if these new guys can actually become interesting.]]>
Claymore – 02
Short Synopsis: Raki experiences Claymore killing each other for the first time.
Good: Interesting climax.
Bad: Raki does have his annoying moments.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
While El Cazador and Wellber no Monogatari advanced their plot in the second episode, Claymore used this to provide more explanation of the concept. It’s quite logical, as you can’t just explain everything about the Claymores in just one episode. It’s clear now why … was added in the story, because the viewer will be able to learn the same about the Claymores as he does. He also couldn’t have had another personality, otherwise he wouldn’t just have followed Clare, but the fact does remain that he’s annoying.
Okay, let’s sum things up a bit:
– Claymores have been infused with Youma flesh.
– They can go without eating for more than a week, though they do need to eat occasionally.
– Claymores get their powers by awakening their Youma blood.
– Eventually, Claymores turn into Youmas themselves. They will then be killed by other Claymores.
– When a Claymore has to kill another Claymore, she gets a black card, probably specifying the identity of that Claymore.
We also see the introduction of one new major character: Clare’s boss. He comes to her to deliver some new clothes for her, which got themselves a nasty hole in the previous episode. He uses that opportunity to give Clare a black card. The Claymore that has to be killed seems to be an old friend of Clare, which is why she’s shocked when she sees it. I’m not sure why the guy told Raki about all of this, though. What is he hoping to achieve by letting him see Clare killing a friend of hers? Sure, he’ll cry and stuff, though it won’t make him leave Clare or anything.
I quite liked the Climax, though. The clash between Raki’s and Clare’s morals was quite interesting, and still they both mourn afterwards.]]>
Wellber no Monogatari ~ Sisters of Wellber – 02
Short Synopsis: A princess who has lived inside a castle for her entire life obviously has to get used to not living in luxury anymore.
Good: Rita’s got a surprisingly versatile character, the OP still is brilliant.
Bad: Rather unrealistic horse movement.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7.5/10
For Wednesday and Thursday, my shows to blog will be Wellber no Monogatari and Claymore. Even though they’re both Wednesday-shows, there just isn’t anything blogworthy on Thursday, while Wednesday has an excellent line-up. This will probably one of the more laid-back shows, when compared to a series like Claymore. One thing I liked in this episode was Rita. We’ve often seen people of high stature embarrass themselves when they try to live as normal people, though not often does this happen with the main characters of a series. At the beginning of the episode, Rita is obviously clueless, she keeps standing out too much, she has to act on her own morals, no matter what and she doesn’t quite care about anything other than herself.
Obviously, this had to be annoying to some extend, but I like how her cluelessness is just one part of her personality. She knows quite well what she has to do, and at the end of the episode, we also see her take appropriate methods of altering her appearance. Still, I wonder what she’s going to do once people realize that she’s travelling with a talking tank. ^^;
Tina has shown her different sides a bit more subtle, though. Right now, she’s still a rather one-sided character, though she never really had a moment to shine yet, unlike Rita. Regarding the talking tank, he reminds me of Bogie, though a bit more clueless, energetic and random. I like how he actually has a part in this story. And I’d love to see how Sherry and Tina met each other. I’ve yet to see another thing like Sherry, which means that it’s got to be quite a special story.
There’s one thing awkward about this anime, though. The animation is good, the background art is terrific, but some of the CG is rather bad. Especially the horses. They look like a one-minute job with random galloping sounds added which don’t match their movements at all.]]>
El Cazador de la Bruja – 02
Short Synopsis: The car breaks down, while Nadie and Ellis stop by a quiet restaurant.
Good: Every character seems to have different intentions and goals.
Bad: The daughter chose an awfully convenient time to return to her mother.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
And the second week of the spring-season has started, which means that I’m going to have to decide which shows to blog, and which ones to just watch or drop. It’s quite interesting now that I started to watch this entire season raw, as opposite to the previous fall-season (in which I watched about 50% of the shows subbed), as I’m now noticing that I can make an actual viewing schedule. Sunday will remain the day to blog Les Miserables, while Tuesday will feature El Cazador. Saturday is going to be very difficult, as it’s got no less than four shows worth blogging. ^^;
Anyway, the second instalment of El Cazador pleasantly surprised me. It starts out as a mere filler, but throughout the episode, so much new information is given. First of all, Ellis seems to have killed someone she referred to as “the professor”. Nadie, meanwhile, has a dark past of her own, as we see in a flashback. Not only that, she seems to be working for the secretary (Ms Heiward, code-named Blue-Eyes) of the rather evil guy we saw in the previous episode (called Rozenberg, apparently). Blue-Eyes, meanwhile, seems to have different ideas than this evil guy, so I’m not sure whether Nadie also works for him. Meanwhile, we’ve got ourselves a guy who keeps following Ellis undercover. He seems to be in love with her, though I think this is turning into an obsession. What was also up with that strange orgasm the two of them had? And let’s not forget the shady man and his daughter (Lilio). I still don’t quite get what they’re after, but the man definitely has something against Ellis.
It seems that this will be another one of these anime to feature random cases the protagonists run into. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen anime with this concept for a long while, especially now Jigoku Shoujo finished. It’s quite strange, as I tend to love these kinds of random stories. This one is about a former bounty-hunter, who stopped her business and opened a restaurant after she killed a person. Her daughter, however, hasn’t wanted to see her for over ten years because of this. At the beginning of the episode, I wondered why Ellis was treated so nicely by this woman, but it seems that she bears close resemblances to her daughter. It’s only natural for a mother, I guess. A biker who frequently visits her shop told Nadie about all this. Quite interesting, if I say so myself, though I dislike how the daughter chose out of all moments this one to come back to her mother. Still, I’ll forgive it, as the results were quite interesting.
Oh, and I’m glad to see that the music still rocks as always. :)]]>
Some quick first impressions: Lovely Complex, Lucky Star and Bokura no
Lovely Complex
Short Synopsis: This anime follows two extremely energetic high-schoolkids: one very tall girl and one very short boy.
Good: Surprisingly funny.
Bad: Seems to be trying a bit too hard at times.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
You know, I expected Lovely Complex to be another slice-of-life anime that would get boring soon. Still, it’s surprisingly funny. It’s probably one of the anime with the most different kinds of facial expressions I’ve seen in a while, and I have to say that most of the time, it works quite funny. It isn’t the funniest anime of the spring-season, though (that title goes to Ooedo Rocket), and some facial expressions may be trying too hard, but especially the female lead is quite charming when she is in normal-mode. The shy boy and girl also were quite cute. I’m somehow reminded of Ouran High School Host Club, which aired during the previous season. Now let’s hope it won’t keep milking on the same jokes like Ouran did.
Lucky Star
Short Synopsis: Lucky star follows the high-school life of four rather eccentric girls.
Good: KyoAni without a cheesy romance? This can become actually interesting.
Bad: It’s ironic that out of all companies KyoAni blew all its animation-budget on the OP.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7/10
You know, I think that KyoAni finally managed to come with an actually good show, after the disappointments of Haruhi and Kanon. It’s also quite interesting that most of the budget didn’t go in the animation, like you’d expect, but in the dialogue. This probably is the most dialogue-heavy anime of the new season, heck the only moment in which people didn’t seem to be talking with each other was the beginning of the episode, in which the main character ran for a short while. While the dialogues are about nothing at all (the ENTIRE first half is about what kinds of food the characters like), there’s some nice chemistry between the characters. The lack of a male character also makes sure that there won’t be any cheesy romance, which also is a nice plus. I’m glad to see that Kyoani finally hit the nail. Also, you have to love the ED. ^^;
Bokura no
Short Synopsis: a group of children are invited to play a game: piloting a mecha in real life.
Good: Probably too much to just list here.
Bad: None.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10
oh god, the expression “save the best for last” really applies to this Spring-Season. I just love this, and to think that Dennou Coil hasn’t even aired yet. I just love how the character-designs are so generic. They really try to show you that this involves normal, everyday children, and not just the hottest girl in school, or the typical loser male. To top that, the cast is huge, and each child has a different personality and feels unique. I bet that they’ll all react to the horrible things that are about to happen in a different way, and I can’t wait to see the second episode to find out! The background music also gave a small taste of the same guy who did the music for Hi no Tori, I’m expecting it to really show up once the major climaxes start coming, as this episode was sortof one general introduction. One detail I absolutely loved is inside the control chamber of the mecha, there are a number of seats, and each of these seats is different.]]>