Allison to Lillia
Ah, the first good series of the season. This episode was pretty solid; it started out as not anything special, but as it went on, it became more interesting by the minute, and this is just the first episode. You can really see the influences of both Mokke and Kino no Tabi, and yet this series goes into its own direction. It turns out that this series will be about two couples: Allison and Will, and Lillia and Treize, who have yet to be introduced. My only point of critique would be that Will’s voice-actor sounds a bit too young for his age, but that should be easy enough to get used to. Another interesting thing is that the female lead likes to ignore rules if necessary. It never really came to me, but you don’t often see people that break rules as easy as she does in anime. One thing I’m hoping for the future episodes is to explain a bit more about the politics of the country that the two main characters live in, but with 26 episodes there should be plenty of time for that.
Kurenai
Whoa! Here’s a contender for the best first episode of the season. You can really see that Brains Base (who did the animation for Baccano!) worked on this series, and the result looks absolutely gorgeous. There are hardly any still frames, characters make subtle gestures, the 7-year old girl really sounds like a young girl instead of a squeaky 30-year old voice actress and the OP has been done entirely in flash. The art style is a strange combination between that of Red Garden and Baccano, which only makes things better. The scriptwriting also is quick and witty. Here’s a potential classic, if the creators can keep up this level of quality, at least.
xxxHolic Kei
What an awesome episode to start off the second season! This episode was exactly the reason why I fell in love with the first season. Watanuki is downright hilarious, and stands miles away from your “typical high school boy”. On top of that, this series has always featured thought-provoking cases, and this episode was no exception. I won’t spoil anything, but if you liked the first season, you just have to watch this episode. Really, this series makes coming up with an entertaining storyline look so incredibly easy.
Omg, I had no idea that Kure-nai was animated by the animator of Baccano! Now I’m definitely going to watch this series
Haven’t watched Kurenai or A+L because of lack of time x(.
But, Woo! Someone else who didn’t hate the first season of xxxHolic! Kei is going to have some of the most interesting arcs show up from what the OP suggests.
and finally xxxholic is here but i am not that patient so i started reading the manga 😀
btw the OP of the second season is great
Although I didn’t find anything interesting at all about Allison to Lillia, the ending really made me want to see the next episode, I’ll probably give it a shot and see how it goes.
I don’t know if its my fanboyism for Red Garden’s art but Kurenai is awesome, the soundtrack is great, the style is realistic, and although the little girl is bratty, I get the feeling she’ll warm up. This is probably one of the 1-3 series I’ll be watching this season.
Oh I totally forgot to mention the OP and Ending for Kurenai, they definitely have a huge Red Garden flare with their unique style, especially the ending (the drawings are amazing, wish the artist would release an artbook or something I think hes the same guy who does Asian Kungfu Generation’s CD covers)) and the OP is extremely cute but the song did turn me off at 1st (sounded to much like that song from Haruhi Suzumiya), warming up to it though.
sooo, what was with kurenai’s arm when he was dealing with the stalker at the beginning? is this a normal human show or super powers/demons show?
Kurenai looks like its going to be a great series.
Allison to lilia. I’ve seen the first three episodes and man, this is an unconventional rare pearl shining in a pond of massified stories!! It’s really worth it watching. A story with an old flavoured adventurous scent. I really missed such stuff since kino no tabi.
And Kurenai. It could have been the nth anonymous harem show, but it destroys any cliche of the foretold genre. I really love it…