Minami-Ke Tadaima
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are three sisters living together.
I watch Minami-ke really if I have nothing better to do: it’s not bad or anything, but the pacing is a bit too slow for me to actively watch it if I have other stuff to do. Having said that though, this episode did make me laugh. It’s got the type of humour that tries to be funny by being annoying: the entire episode was basically Kana (one of the three sister) being an ass towards everyone. And that did lead to some funny moments. There were other parts that were formulaic, though. For example, for some reason the creators found it a good idea to have these chibi-shorts in between the different sketches here that are just unfunny and just serve to turn the characters into caricatures of themselves. We’ll see. It’s not like there’s much competition this season.
OP: Dull and generic.
ED: Again dull and generic
Potential: 60%
Haitai Nanafa
Short Synopsis: Our lead character finds a magical girl from a tree.
Three minute moe shows again! Alert! This is even a remnant of past seasons that took forever to get released. I have no idea why. Out of all the 3-minute moe shows though, this one is the best, because it actually impressed me with something: it’s got eye candy! I really did not expect that, but this show’s art design looks really good actually, something that I really did not expect. The rest though…. it’s about a bunch of magical girls. This was just the introduction but its comedic timing felt flawed (bad build-up). It was nothing special, but heck: people actually spent some effort into this one so I guess it’s at least something and I guess it was charming… enough.
ED: Way too long, but again quite pretty.
Potential: 60%
AKB0048 Next Stage
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are idols who fight in guerrilla concert against an evil government.
Hell yeah, one of the two bright lights of this season has finally aired. The gorgeous visuals along with the well produced songs are as addictive as ever, making this a really enjoyable animated musical. The characters themselves set themselves apart by being so energetic and expressive, so that even the pointless fanservice felt charming, rather than annoying. This episode served as the set-up for the second season, really: it gave a face to some parties that were previously just mentioned and it changed the way in which the idols are selected from some random force to viewer-based voting. I wonder how far it will go with this, actually: there are so many dodgy sides about this, and I hope that the creators get the freedom again to address this. This episode already started by hinting at how competitive it can be, but it needs to do more. But there are plenty of episodes left to do this. The villains, the people from DES, remain a bunch of idiots, though.
ED: Visually boring (recap), but a good song, and well used with the climax of the episode.
Potential: 85%
Notice at the end of the episode, that creepy guy in the DES building had some sort of glowing ring. And of course, that strange cube. This WILL be interesting.
M-maybe I’ll watch this. I would have to start with S1, though.
Holy shit!! 85% for this??
Yes, 85%. Jeez, what will it take to get people to understand that this show is really good?
no sir it really isn’t 🙂 though some people might think it is ^_^
Can you give some reasons as to why it isn’t good? Because I can give lots of reasons why it is.
It’s about idols, which makes it crap by default. Would probably be passable if it was about av-idols, but it isn’t. Might be good to people who like corn and cheese, but my opinion is the only thing that matters to me, so it sucks. End.
My fault for feeding a troll.
I hear Haitai Nanafa is broadcasted in QAB channel, which is broadcasted in Okinawa.
Right now, it sucks to be living there.
Haitai Nanafa was actually pretty cute, and got a few laughs out of me. More then I can say for the rest of the 3 minute shorts. Of course, this one isn’t subbed. Why bury the diamond and dig up the turds?
Reasons why AKb48 isn’t ‘good’:
-Retarded setting, story concept and action scenes(zero ‘believeability’ on all these accounts whatsoever)
-As a consequence of this, none of the action and non of the drama has any emotional impact (i.e. it’s impossible to take anything serious, even when the show is not trying to be funny).
-Full of clichés
-Terrible music/ songs (last point is subjective of course)
Reasons why I still enjoy watching it:
-Looks pretty
-Makes you smile
-Quite entertaining character dialogue with good voice acting
-Cute girls
1. Setting is based on real life events in feudal Japan, where entertainment was outlawed for anyone expect nobles and royalty. The working class only had the right to work, not to be entertained. Also, shows about books being banned are realistic, since that also happened before. Why is taking it to the next level not believable?
2. Read above.
3. Mostly true, but at this point, what isn’t? Actually, AKB0048 is much more original then any other idol-based anime that aired so far.
4. Subjective. I like the music. Some don’t.
PS: The action scenes are identical to Macross and Aquarion. Only without the mecha. We’re OK with people dodging bullets, but if they’re singing while doing it? What the hell?
oh please dude Idolm@ster was way better then this
1.better character designs[ this one has some terrible one’s]
2.somewhat believable story not like this where idols fight guerrilla wars :|, an anime which got a s2 probably because it panders to akb48 fans who blindly buy anything that has akb48 in it *Hint* [check the oricon charts]
but anyway hate or like is subjective you like it good 😀 but it annoys the hell out of me
WRONG. The anime sold decently, but AKB48 fans did NOT like it. AKB48 fans despise anime fans.
This anime might have made some anime fans into AKB48 fans, but not so much the other way around. If what you said was true, then the anime would have sold way more then it did.
Thank came as a surprise to me dmon, I would have thought that interest in the band itself would have given the show significant or high sales, guess I was wrong.
I can’t speak for Japanese AKB fans, but all of the foreign fans of AKB I know enjoyed the anime very much. And also enjoy quite a lot of other anime.
Of course, foreign fans tend to like AKB for different reasons than Japanese fans.
“Setting is based on real life events in feudal Japan, where entertainment was outlawed for anyone expect nobles and royalty. The working class only had the right to work, not to be entertained. Also, shows about books being banned are realistic, since that also happened before. Why is taking it to the next level not believable?”
A military orginasation/ idol group consisting of 10-15 year old girls (that fly around, singing, on skateboards) fights against a regime (in space, ofc). This regime is apparently filled with sociopaths that have no quelms with firing deadly weapons at 11 year old girls. When the girls sing they gain superpowers by generating the ‘power of radiance’.
Rather than retarded.. am I allowed to call it, uh, far-fetched?
You say that as if it’s a bad thing. Series with ridiculous premise are one of the best things about anime.
Well yeah… it is far-fetched.
I didn’t really mean to. I quite enjoy light-hearted stuff like this time to time ;). While I do feel that a silly premise tends to make a story unambitious from the get-go, it can still satisfy a need for mindless entertainment.
Agreed. AKB0048 has so much depth, and in many aspects it is way over the top compared to other series this season.
Sadly, it’s still underrated and not selling well, mostly due to the conflict between the idol and anime scene, as DmonHiro already pointed out.
But, it might get better soon. Psgels to the rescue 🙂
Well, I’m trying to do my part, by posting reviews where I can.
You seem to be the knight of good taste then x)
Not really. There are some REALLY good shows, that I know are really good, that I just don’t like. And there are some really BAD shows that I know are bad, but I still love. My tastes are weird.
Also Haitai Nanafa doesn’t have BDs/DVDs listed anywhere, Amazon Japan doesn’t even have information it. Odd for an anime that’s already been broadcasted once, everything else at least hints on BDs but the official site for this anime has nothing about a potential BD/DVD release.