Some Quick First Impressions – Asobi Asobase, Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria and Planet With

Asobi Asobase

Short Synopsis: A group of deranged high school girls form a pastime club.

Mario’s review:
I found Asobi Asobase the most hilarious premiere of this season so far. Granted, Chio-chan is more grounded but as far as a show that can make me chuckle along the way, this one does an admirable job. Their core strength lies in how these girls betraying their own typecast traits, with a straight face. As such, they have such solid chemistry and bounce off each other well. The character designs are cute, until they display their meanie sides, which I found amusing. There remains an issue, however, how long it can hold up before it gets pale with a thin premise like this. With already four short segments, it doesn’t feel like it has enough fuel for an entire series. I hope they can find a way to get away with it, although as far as this first episode goes, I’m sold with its humor and the three cute-but-not-cute girls.

Potential: 50%

Wooper’s review:

This didn’t need to be a full-length series. The main appeal here is the ridiculous faces that the girls make as they play hand games, discuss school subjects, and set up inflatable pools in club rooms. The characters and their banter aren’t much to write home about, but the contorted expressions that the animators give them? They’re worth a chuckle from time to time. The ending of this premiere was the strongest part, featuring a gag wherein the school principal channels Detective Conan (with wildly inappropriate results), and an eyebrow-raising hand puppet scene. Everything that came before these segments, though, was hit or miss. I’d probably be on board if they condensed each airing to five minutes and threw the rest away, but the sheer amount of unamusing filler here is overwhelming.

Potential: 10%

 

Hyakuren no Haou to Seiyaku no Valkyria

Short Synopsis: You have seen this story and it’s just as terrible.

Aidan’s review:

As utterly tiresome this genre is, it is a fact that the most interesting aspect of an isekai is it’s beginning where the protagonist is slowly gaining up his power and resources. So jumping straight to the point where he has four girls in his harem already with one more by episodes end is like tearing out all the most interesting parts of a book. What’s this you say? Alexander the great and Oda Nobunaga invented the phalanx formation? Let me just do a quick wikipedia search here…dum dum…ah “The earliest known depiction of a phalanx-like formation occurs in a Sumerian stele from the 25th century BC. Here the troops seem to have been equipped with spears, helmets, and large shields covering the whole body. Ancient Egyptian infantry were known to have employed similar formations.”  So in other words Alexander the Great and ESPECIALLY Oda Nobunaga had nothing to do with it’s creation. Ladies and Gentlemen, that took me exactly one minute to find out. Which goes to show that this author couldn’t be bothered to do one minute of fact checking on his bullshit. And hoo boy this is something when the characters are so stock that I know their entire personally at the very first line of dialogue. Sometimes even before that as two men go up to our main character to talk and my immediate thought was “Oh these two are assholes whose sole purpose is to make the protagonist look good.” and low and behold that is exactly what they were. I felt like gagging at some of this dialogue whose intent is so goddamn obvious and sickening. Look if you are wanting for some dumb bargain bin Isekai show with fanservice then just go watch either of the demon lord ones airing this season. Even in that category you deserve better than this low effort trash.

Potential: 0%

Mario’s review:

Another generic isekai garbage? Dude, how can we end this nightmare? If you want to see all the snapshots of cliche, lazy written isekai story, you can’t go wrong with this one and Demon Lord earlier. It’s educational, after all, to see those that embrace all the tired tropes of the genre. Again, this boy transported into another world with knowledge (and a smartphone) that immediately makes him overpowered in this new world. Girls with different hair color and boob sizes following his every step, even blatantly hit on him. But of course the guy’s a Saint so he never thinks of them that way… you know… all the usual crap. This one doesn’t even attempt to make anything different, and shows with no identity like this are the most forgettable ones.

Potential: 0%

 

Planet With

Short Synopsis: A boy with amnesia is pulled into a fight between superheroes and alien beings.

Aidan’s review:

Satoshi, don’t tease the audience by having Lucifer and the biscuit hammer figures in it which don’t exist.(Yet) So it’s no secret that I love this authors works and from what I hear this project is 3 or 4 years in the making. Satoshi is the kind of author who writes on the fly but rather plans out his stories from beginning to end before he starts. So far it’s difficult to destern how this one will turn out as beginnings tend to be where he’s weakest as Satoshi generally uses a generic foundation and then builds upon it with character development and twisting the cliche. He’s already started what with the alien menace only seeming to give people flashbacks showing their hearts desires and the heroes seem to have some agenda. The main protagonist is already in the position where he is tasked with fighting not the aliens but rather the heroes. My main feelings of this episode reflect my first impressions of the manga as there is certainly potential here but it hasn’t quite captured me yet like his previous works. The main comparison people are making for this one is FLCL which it does somewhat resemble in how nothing is quite explained and the surreal character and mecha designs. Not to mention the quirkiness of the characters themselves.While I am not blown away by this episode, I am quite interested to see where exactly this is going and hoping Satoshi can knock this one out of the park.

Potential: 80%

Mario’s review:

Planet With is one of my most anticipated anime of this season based on staffs involved alone, but the fact that it’s an original show means that we don’t have much detail to form a concrete opinion until the first episode airs. So, how does it perform? Well, I have mixed feeling regarding this episode. Main lead with amnesia? AGAIN? The plot sure raises many red flags here, chief amongst them the main character himself. He’s so bland and uninteresting, and so far he does stuffs because others tell him what to do – a boring trait that I’m not sure if I can follow him for the whole season.Other characters don’t fare well, either. We have classic “Class Rep” type, an imouto-like character who basically takes care of him, and that Cat-like sensei… I’m alright with shows mixing unrealistic part to their world (after all Doraemon is anything but realistic but he fits into the world), but how the hell no one notices anything strange about him, whereas make a big deal out of UFO? The CG fights were alright, although I’m not a fan with flashback sections in the middle of the fight. Although not flat-out terrible, I have the same vibe between this and Darling in the FranXX, an original production with good animation but botched down by weak and forced writing and uninteresting characters. Hopefully this show can prove me wrong on these.

Potential: 50%