Some quick first impressions: Buzzer Beater, Code-E and Mushiuta

Buzzer Beater Okay, you know when an anime is bad when it uses recycled Pandemos-designs from Master of Epic with varying skin-colours for its alien-designs. Yes, it’s that bad, and it immediately shows the image that the creators have of them: all aliens have horns, so they’re evil, while humans are good and they have to win. And believe it or not, but things are even worse on the earth-side. Somehow, the creators found themselves the most annoying brat, and gave him a star-spot on the basketball-team that’s supposed to finally defeat the aliens. How the heck did that happen!? Buzzer Beater enforces my opinion that most sports-anime are garbage, simply because they almost always include the near-impossible scenario of a 14-year-old brat that somehow becomes the best in the field. Buzzer Beater features one that has no team-spirit whatsoever, happens to be of the same level as grown-up players who trained their entire lives and continues to think that he’s king of the world. Don’t even bother to give this one a chance. Code-E With the director of Simoun, I just had to look forward to this. Unfortunately, it’s not anything special yet, apart from the OP and the climax. This episode was really meant to introduce the main character, who has the strange power to disrupt electrical equipment when startled or scared. She already was very shy, which may not have been the best personality-trait for this power. I liked how she’s cheerful in surroundings that she and is trusted with, but becomes incredibly scared when new things are introduced to her. So far, the first episode dabbled along nicely without getting boring, and there were smudges of hints that the future episodes will become intriguing (most notably, the climax), but I do have to say that the male lead must really improve over the next few episodes, as he’s rather horrible, both his character-design and his personality. Mushiuta After having watched the episode, I know for sure: this is going to be a very dark story. Even the light elements in this episode had a gloomy atmosphere. The story is based around the general premise of “bunch of people with powers fighting monsters”, and the main character seems to be the strongest of the team, a fourteen-year-old kid, and he acts like a timid person when he’s not involved in a mission. Still, despite this, he managed to distance himself from the other teenaged brats that we see so often. He’s not cocky, arrogant or whiny at all, due to the things that have already happened to him. Okay, he’s still inexperienced (he let a very easy target slip away at the beginning of the episode), but as far as characters like his go, I like him. If you’re looking for a dark story with high-school elements, this will be a fine pick. If it manages to stay away from fillers, that is.]]>