Shingeki no Bahamut – Virgin Soul
Short Synopsis: A girl hunts a man in rags currently freeing demi-human slaves in the kingdom.
I thought the previous season of Bahamut was fairly mediocre so I didn’t really have much expectations for it’s sequel. I still feel this show has that air of mediocrity despite it having a strong first episode. Nonetheless it’s hard to deny that this show has a dynamic likeable cast of characters and the setup of gods and demons being dominated by humans is one I am most invested in. I considered this episode pretty watchable and the animation is quite excellent. I approve the animated dragon at the end of the episode. I swear animated dragons may be the most badass things in animation. So far it’s fun and it’s ties to it’s predecessor seem few that one could start from hear. If it can manage to not get too caught up in the god and demon realms this could be an interesting watch. But again I do think this could easily fall into medicority.
Potential: 65%
Mario: Welcome back to the world of Mistarcia, it has been awhile hasn’t it? (Not in my case though, as I just finished the first season 2 weeks ago). Although based on trading card game, the first season of Bahamut became a success with its high production values, fun characters and exciting battles. This sequel maintains the spirits the first season known of, with one of the strongest production values this season has to offer, with solid animation and detailed background design. The CG battles still a bit of up and down but this is pretty much expected based from the first season. Our new main girl Nina fits right in with the former cast. I have a bit of worry there but seeing my favorite girl Rita back bring me absolute joy. The actions are thrilling, although there’s probably too much action sequences for its own good. This show continues the fun and thrills of the first season, while hints on the intrigued world where human pretty much oppress the angel and devil kind, with some super fun characters to boost. Your safe bet of this season.
Potential: 75%
ID-0
Short Synopsis: A girl gets abducted by space pirates after being abandoned by her instructors.
I think it was rather clever to mask the stiff animation of CGI by having the majority of the screentime be of the characters in robot forms. Robots are one of the few things that CGI works well with in animation so it was a good idea. As for the episode itself I found it alright. I think most people would have difficulty in finding this show to watch as it isn’t on crunchyroll or the like. Actually seems like a lot of anime this season has become somewhat hindered thanks in part to Amazon Anime Strike. Having both a funimation and a crunchyroll account I am not keen on signing up for another service with a smaller lines and a double paywall. But alas, what of ID-O? Well it’s alright. Not winning any oscars but watchable enough to spend some time with. Might be that the premise hasn’t quite grabbed me but I don’t feel much drive to continue watching it. Partly because I am watching so much this season already. I expect the fanservice to level up next episode not that the girl is out of the mech and perhaps then the main plot could prove interesting enough to stick with it. As for me though I plan to sit this one out.
Potential:55%
Mario: This show is so much FUN. I know it’s a show about a bunch of mecha pirates in space; I know the stiff CG movements in most of those scenes, and I know the dialogues are stupid at best; but it’s fun. There’s a campy quality in the plot, the character’s interactions that makes this show charming. See how superficial the plot and the characters behave so far? The plot is about a group of adults manipulating a child to join them steal stuffs, the teacher and the other guy in the beginning act so campy it feels rather refreshing to see. And the fanservice, thank god because majority of time the characters are in mecha-mode so we don’t see that much, but the scene after the end credits really tries to level up its fanservice. For now, I like the space settings. Although it’s not that well-detailed, the concept is intrigued enough to make me want to know more about it. The girl is a bit starry-eyed at the moments so I hope they can develop her quickly. Out of everything come out so far this season, ID-0 is the one that I don’t really know what will come next (well, que sera, sera) and that is part of the fun why you should check out this show.
Potential: 60%
Quan Zhi Gao Shou
Short Synopsis: A pro MMO player is forced to quit and decides to start again from scratch.
For a Chinese animation effort I do think this is rather promising. Animation wise I didn’t really have much problems besides the usual CGI animation. Honestly this gives me hope that one day Chinese anime shows could match Japanese anime shows. But in order for that to happen they need to get some better source material. So a pro player is fired because he isn’t doing as well anymore and the company goes out of it’s way to be utterly insidious about doing so. What makes this rather ridiculous is that this is all about a MMO so it’s just rather silly that people are getting so serious about it. Frankly I still am puzzled about the whole paying someone to play an MMO thing. Not sure how you are supposed to get a return on that. Our protagonist is a super pro MMO player who takes on bosses singlehanded and is a saint who gives up his paycheck to fund players who couldn’t make it in the game.(Guess the orphan children and cancer patients were not important enough to get a donation because they don’t play MMO’s) Look I know that this guy is sort of the ideal that every MMO player starts out with. However one of the M’s in MMO stands for multiplayer and when you consider that the whole idea of playing solo hero becomes not only unrealistic but rather dumb. The issue here is that so far this story is about a veteran MMO player starting from scratch to show all them newbies how it’s done. Our protagonist is done with his development so what remains is just one big ego stroking in the form of a anime series.
Potential: 20%
Mario: A show about online RPG game huh, this show hits right at the Chinese market I tell ya. But can it translate its success to anime market? I highly doubt so as like many Chinese shows before it, this one moves forward too slow. The mix between the real world and the game world don’t really flesh out any of those worlds. The CG animation is a bit mixed bag, while the actions are alright, the CG people walking and playing games are jarring and again the dialogue drags too much. This seem to be a plot of him starting to play from scratch but with the 10-year knowledge I think he pretty much already had an advantage. The production value is decent, actually one of the best-looking out of all the Chinese anime I’ve checked out but this is still not enough. This offering sadly still not worth recommending.
Potential: 10%
For the record, I thought that the second episode of ID-0 did a better job than the first in terms of introducing a little intrigue and mystery into the mix, by giving us more data about the mind transfer technology and I-machines as well as showing us brief scenes about the past of certain characters. The real villain, not the professor, also showed up for a short sequence too. If you’re interested in that but didn’t feel the first episode was convincing enough, you could check the second episode out. At least for me, I thought it helped.
Now, I didn’t feel the show was really focusing on the fanservice angle though. If anything, ID-0 treated the fact that a character was in her underwear with a more casual and, dare I say, normal manner than how a typical anime series would approach the subject.
I am sure the show’s staff does realize that anime girls can be cute for the audience, but it’s more of a passive thing rather than actively trying to rely on tired tropes like boob grabs or screaming about perverts, like a typical harem story would do. That didn’t happen here, at least not during the first two episodes.