Thermae Romae
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a roman bath architect.
Yeah, so this was without a doubt the single most unique series of the entire season. Thankfully DLE’s hack-job still didn’t prevent this one from shining. what we have here is a show about roman baths, and on top of that it’s centered on deadpan humour. That really isn’t something that a lot of anime tend to do, even though I really like that kind of humour. Most deadpan humour in anime either misses the point, or isn’t trying to be funny in the firts place. This show is based on such a strange and unusual premise, and thankfully the script can back it up. I can really see how much fun the original manga that this was based on must have been. But yeah, DLE. The thing about animation is that things need to be… animated. The one advantage that this medium has is that things actually move. Not hop around the screen in bad flash transitions. The animation in this show is just plain bad. With this hack-job you could just as well have shown a slide-show of the coloured manga and call it a deal. The one thing I have to give them: they did pick some great music to go with this show. At the very least I can say that this was by far the best thing they ever did. And half a year ago, I never expected to see a show even slightly similar to Hyouge Mono. And yet, while that series is still airing we get another show that’s entirely about a bunch of old guys talking.
ED: Bizarrely enough: the best ED of the entire season.
Potential: 75%
Listen Girls, I am your Father!
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to live together with a bunch of cute girls.
Urgh. I keep stressing that I like series to focus on a more older cast, just than only teenagers. I know I say that a lot. But when the oldest main character of the entire season is in a show like this, I really make exceptions. This show already stood out as the worst pandering premise of the entire season. Now that I watched this episode, I unfortunately have to say that this show is exactly what it seems at first sight. Only not in the way you first expect it. The weird thing about this episode was that it took an incredibly long time to get anywhere. Most of this episode actually was build up between the lead characters and his friends from college. It really stood out in how dull it was, but with those parts it would have just been a dull average romance. Only near the end of the episode do the lead character’s little nieces start living with him, and it immediately turns into a fanservice fest full of some of the most overdone cliches. That’s where this show really descended from forgettably mediocre to just plain bad. Really, at the very least the largest part of the episode explored who the characters were. But with its true colors really being the way they are… yeah.
ED: Really bland J-pop
Potential: 1%
Dansei Koukousei no Nichijou
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a hyperactive middle schooler.
Now here is a surprise: this show turned out to be quite funny, and I laughed a lot with this episode. The characters all have a good chemistry together, and this episode was a lot of fun. The big question is for how long the creators can make it that way. To me, the characters were often not sure what kind of personality they had, and yet they still remain pretty one-sided and some of the jokes were pretty forced. There also is one very interesting thing about this series: Tomokazu Sugita. This show comes from the director of Gintama, and I have a lot of reasons to believe that he really tried to get Sugita Tomokazu (Gintoki’s voice actor) into this series. The result is that finally we can listen to the wonderful rants of this guy. His over the top rants are just hilarious to listen to. But how the heck did he think that he would get away with playing a middle schooler with that kind of a performance? I mean, I know that there are kids who grow up earlier than others and all, but seriously, something really went wrong when his balls dropped when his voice is this masculine already…
OP: Generic J-Rock
ED: Now this is a very witty way to end a comedy with.
Potential: 75%
I’d think that they’re high school students, rather than middle school – I mean, the direct translation of the title is ‘Daily lives of male high school students’, so it’d be surprising if they weren’t actually in high school.
yea, they’re high school students at an all boys school.
Oh wow, I will definitely be following this one. XDD They had me when they started mocking rom-com/harem stereotypes~
中学生じゃなくて高校生だ。
Nitpick: It’s -Danshi- Koukousei etc.
Wow, the director of shit such as Gintama can actually make something funny. Who knew ?!
Your mileage may vary. Psgels and me, as well as many people consider the first 100 episodes of Gintama (directed by the same guy) to be one of the best comedy ever aired.
I also found ‘Daily lives of male high school students’ pretty funny, especially the last segment. the inner monologue with Gintoki’s VA was just hilarious.
As for his voice, I had a similiarly grave voice in high school, something i was sometime teased about. I know it’s rare (that’s why I was teased in the first place after all) but it can happen. It actually brought a smile to me, even though other people could relate to that I guess…
Well… Tomokazu Sugita already has experience performing High School boys with deep voices and snark-filled-thoughts (Kyon of Haruhi Suzumiya for example)
I love this show: it is more unpolitical correct than Gintama. Fantastic!!!!
I think I’ve never seen a 1%…
Why not 0%? What does 1% mean?
Anyhoo, Danshi was funny, even with the expectations of it being funny after reading the comments and psgels review.
*Spoiler alert*
I just liked how the ending twists it a little, I mean the sister comes in and sees, and it doesn’t end in a ballistic beat em up seen.
The ‘scary’ story with the nipple hair, like ouch!
And the final internal monologue reminded me of Kyon and Gintama a lot. But I thought it was great how they all played along, I think that makes it a bit smarter than your average skit, where I think they would have played it as a misread of cues.
It reminds me a bit of Mossore! but not as out there.
I actually thought it was cool when the mobile suits crash landed on the village, even though it was obvious how that would end.
I also think that the ‘how to get a gf’ had a pretty good punchline, although the set up could have been a bit better, I think like psgels says, the characters feel unsettled.
Father was tough to get through. There was literally nothing to maintain my interest here, which was a surprise since I try my best to find SOMETHING to enjoy. Halfway through I was already wishing it was over. Obviously not the show for me.
Lagrange was pretty much the best I could hope for knowing that it was a “tropefest”. Other than the excessive “ehh?!”s and fanservice, though, it wasn’t that bad. It seemed deliberate, like it knows what it wants to do. And it’s not manic like a chimp on speed.
But I really like this new Nichijou. It seems to take cues from Cromartie and Sunred, both favorites of mine. I miss genuinely laughing at anime comedies and not finding myself thinking or more amused by the spectacle than the actual comedy.
I loooove Cromartie and Sunred, but I don’t think Nichijou is on that level. It would have been if they did have the random mobile suits attacking the world as a real subplot.
Nichijou doesn’t go far enough, though you’d have to go pretty far to beat Freddy, the Gorilla, and Mechazawa-kun. Sunred had the cutest evil killers ever! Hell wolf’s “kuro-chu” *dies*
All true, but Nichijou is still good enough (so far) to compare to the greats.. hopefully it keeps it up.
And yeah, my kingdom for a Hellwolf plushie. Make it happen, Penguin Parade. My wife’s got her Usacots, and it would be so therapeutic to have squeezable Hellwolf that alternates between “chuki” and “korochu”..
WANT.
Those plushies would sell themselves.
Wow, Thermae Romae’s surprisingly non-crappy for a show that’s barely animated. I didn’t find it intrinsically hilarious, but I love how straight they’re playing the comedy so far. That, and half-length episodes are just the right length for this silly premise.
Yup, Thermae Romae manga was sooo much fun than the anime>.< Too bad, that it didn't get the treatment it deserved, (DLE) boo. Well i just hope that next spring noitamina (Sakamichi no Apollon&Tsuritama) at least get a good studio&staff.
Thermae Romae = best series of winter season
Second best. I’m off to watch the second episode!
THERMAE ROMAE = I just Laughed My Ass Off…
and there’s a live-action movie coming this year…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0eqHjKlNYY
About Thermae Romae, I believe it’s an artistic choice of the director to use power point slide. Maybe it’s to save money too, but it looks interesting for me.
Definitely hope that it would get sub faster than Hyouge Mono
Holy cow Thermae Romae’s first episode was the funniest I’ve ever seen! This might just be me since I’ve been studying Latin and Ancient Greek for 5 years now and have recently visited Rome… It was hilarious beyond words. SO excited for the rest!
1% for Listen Girls? That was quite harsh. For some reason, I have a bizarre hope, based on what I heard about the plot of the source material, that it turns out to follow the same vein as Usagi drop…
Maybe I’m optimistic, and perhaps some say, delusional.
Thermae Romae on the other hand is a real treasure, and a very pleasant surprise.
And Nichijou was an outrageous, self-conscious, genre savvy and fourth wall breaking blast.
Your hope really isn’t that bizarre anyways. This series actually focus a lot on family even though the first episode does that seem that way. Episode 2 got on the serious side halfway through so it’s a good representation of what to expect later on. So it’s pretty much in the same category as Usagi Drops.
However I’m rather pessimistic that most people will even give episode 2 a try since they usually just toss the show aside as generic after only the 1st episode.
I don’t care for the lack of animation, Thermae Romae is a riot!
Moreover, I always found that Chinese and Japanese cultures had an ancient feeling to them, so the mixing with the roman world is just perfect.
Thermae Romae ending visuals remind me of The Money of Soul and Possibility Control opening a little bit+)
pimp
pimpin