Some Quick First Impressions: Zetman, Kimi to Boku 2 and Accel World

Zetman

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has superpowers.
Whoa, I really love the visuals in this series. The animation during the fight scenes in particular was just amazing. Most first episodes are very crisply produced with a lot of inbetween frames. The animation here however put in something extra. The animation was wild and vivid, and sometimes quite messy, which lead to some awesome camera angles. The character designs also work much better than what I first expected based on the promo art. The faces of these characters have depth, so to speak. My big fear for this series was that the script would move too fast, but that too turned out surprisingly well. The first parts of this episode moved very fast, but the points where it mattered, this episode really took its time to tell its story. This is pacing that’s actually well balanced, rather than all over the place.
ED: Catchy, but a bit too much synth. Why the hell are you spoiling a twists that’s coming up, though?
Potential: 90%

Kimi to Boku 2

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of teenaged boys.
AS much as Chizuru gets on my nerves… I yet again have to admit that this episode was excellent slice of life. In fact, this was one of the better episodes of Kimit o Boku due to how incredibly natural the dialogue was. In particular the second half was really well written, even though it was just characters talking to each other. It’s the kind of slice of life where nothing happens, yet things happen. Instead of a forced moral at the end, the episode just ended with the cast doing something random they felt like. Again, Chizuru still is really annoying, and the random cats still are pretty pointless, but this was a typical episode of Kimi to Boku, which somehow at the end of every episode uses its annoyances to do something interesting with the characters. If you can stand the obnoxious characters, you’ll like it. Otherwise: don’t bother.
OP: Either my laptop couldn’t follow the frame-rate, or the visual effects were rather cheesy this time.
ED: Why that cat?
Potential: 80%

Accel World

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a creepy stalker.
I had no time to also watch the second episode that came out, but based on just the first episode, I really fear that this show will be… annoying to watch. It’s a shame though, because there is some definite potential in the setting for some good science fiction. I actually liked the way in which this series combined the real world with its fictional virtual world on top of it. So why on earth did they have to settle for a harem around such a wimpy protagonist. I like how for once the main character is overweight (although he literally is the only character in this show who is like that), but he was really annoying to watch with his annoying whining throughout the entire episode. This episode already introduced two potential love interests who take interest in him for very flimsy reasons, which really isn’t a good sign for the romance in this show. The rest of the cast also was pretty bland, with the worst being the worst portrayal of bullies I’ve seen in a while with three guys who are constantly bothered by constipation or something and just randomly assault their victims, even in the midst of dozens of people. I’m at this point really doubting whether or not to continue watching this: there definitely are a few good things here; the animation is also very good, but I just know that the cast will get on my nerves a lot.
Potential: 50%

31 thoughts on “Some Quick First Impressions: Zetman, Kimi to Boku 2 and Accel World

  1. unless they deviate heavily from the novels, there’s not gonna be much romance, much less harems in this show. If anything, I’d say there’s far more bromance incoming than anything else >_>;;

    Still, between Accel World and Sword Art Online, I’ve always liked SAO more, (that that does have a harem, even if the main character himself is unwaveringly dedicated).

    1. There’s definitely romance in the novels from what I’ve read. The two leads clearly have a love relationship plus there’s the 3 friends in some form of odd triangle. But I guess you wouldn’t call it a main feature of the series.

      1. Yup, the romance aspect of the story hasn’t really been a major focus thus far, it’s there, but mostly in the background.

        The vast majority of the story focuses on the world/battle systems/training, and the main character’s inferiority complex and his relation to his friends.

  2. Doesn’t seem like Mike has even read the source material. Psgels if they follow the source material there won’t be a harem it will be more similar to Shakugan no Shana where the main is pretty much devoted to 1 girl. And there is no bromance either.

    1. Um, Shakugan no Shana had a very annoying love triangle, though (or at least the first season that I watched), which made me hate the characters with passion. I’m beginning to fear here.

      1. I think the worst part about Accel World is that there’s probably a harem with a short fat kid in the center of it surrounded by two supposedly “hot” girls so it’s not even remotely realistic

  3. Nah it’s not like Shana in that way. And the secondary girl in Shana never had a chance anyway. What i meant is that the main character here is devoted to the female lead in a similar way to how Yuji was devoted to Shana. And i’m not sure you will like accel, or am i trying to convince you to watch, i just wanted to clear up the false statement mike made.

    1. Oh and my comments are assuming the source material aka the light novel, and not the manga that came like a year later. I have no clue what the anime is based off of, so if it is the manga i have no clue since i haven’t read any of it.

  4. Psgels, you seem quite determined to hate Accel world. I sort of expected that.

    Anyway of what I remember of the novel he only whines at the beginning and a part during the middle of the first arc. I hope the anime shows that he is in fact quite a good bit more intelligent than your average lead. Your guess of a harem is off as I am pretty sure that one of the potential love interests you are referring to is already taken. However I did fear at certain points that this story would devolve into a harem but from the two books I read it managed to dodge that pit hole.

    I will wait to see the episode for myself before I say anything further.

  5. Yup listen to Aidan. It isn’t a harem for sure, and like Aidan said one of the girls you are most likely referring to is dating his best friend.

    I don’t expect you to like it though psgels. This is the type of series Aidan and myself usually enjoy :_)

  6. Oh, sems you added more stuff here, PSgels.

    I’m probably gonna watch Zetman, but with so many volumes of the manga out (17 volumes and still ongoing) I wonder how they’re gonna pull it off.

  7. So tired of Romi Paku’s voice. She’s always cast as a young boy, and it’s getting tired by now. It doesn’t help that her voice always sounds so over-the-top, making what should be a dark and gritty series seem like just another shonen. Deadman Wonderland sufferered from this as well.

    The good thing is that, judging by the next episode preview, the MC is much older.

  8. Accel World certainly has interesting scifi premises, but its blatant riding of shounen tropes turned me off.
    The MC character design is too ridiculous to take seriously, and the women are the spitting images of Inouri from Guilty Crown. Don’t fail me now Zetman!

  9. Accel was so disappointing…I’m coming to hate Kaji Yuuki’s voice =|

    I don’t see why you’d find Chizuru so annoying in this episode. I thought that the interaction between him and Shun was really cute in this episode.

  10. This season is turning out awesome so far… First that Saint Seiya with Casshern designs, then Zetman was also great and even Accel World surprised me, I really enjoyed both episodes

    I hope they all manage to keep it up

  11. Zetman. The manga is unfinished. They have already changed the script. It may still be awesome. I see the same elements I loved about it. But to be honest, I have hvy doubt about any anime that is not actually following the script. I was wondering if this will go the same direction that kurokami did and I see hints that it will. Ill still watch it tho.

  12. ugh zetman. . . .they skipped WAY too many things for the “sad scenes” to have the impact they should have -.- and its supposed to be 13 episodes(when there’s like 17 volumes/177 chapters of material out already)? ffs WHY make an anime that’s going to be unfinished/not true to the original material. Pretty dumb considering the Author of the source material was the head character designer of Tiger and bunny, hell the bunny suit thing is based off of the zetman design ffs. The Anime industry is really . . . .crap.

  13. I suppose in the case of zetman I’m glad I had never heard of it until now, so I won’t know what they changed from the manga.

    With Zetman, I gotta say, I agree with Psgel abt their faces having “depth”. The usual character designs these days have been reduced to some simple lines and cartoonish impressions. But in zetman, even the faces of everyday characters each tell a story.

    My my, with this and Saing Seiya, my anime weekends are back!

  14. oh my the director of accel world is the director of mai hime and the aouthor is the aouthot of codgeass vempire knight and more animes like that

  15. I watched the first two episodes of Accel World as if they were a single, 42-minute premiere (like Aquarion Evol). I wouldn’t have been able to form that much of an opinion about the first half except that there was a lot of exposition and technobabble explanation, which is kind of par for the course as far as sci-fi series are concerned.

    I’m not super-enamored of the main character, who is almost impossibly weak and whiny (and afflicted with dwarfism, which is neither here nor there), but without getting into too many details, he does become more tolerable in the second episode.

    There’s a generous helping of [C] in the story of two seperate worlds, though while that series didn’t really bother with relationships, it looks like there will be more than one girl interested in this kid, which could get old real fast. But the whole battle, points, and “liking” system looks interesting. And it is refreshing that the kid doesn’t just look like Amata Sora or Ouma Shu – that is, generic.

  16. I actually thought Accel World was really good based on the first episode; although I do agree that some of the characters may irk me at some point, I get that feeling too.

  17. i’m afraid of the next episode of kimi to boku, when ‘merry’ will appear. she is much more annoying than chizuru.

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