Kuroko no Basuke
Short Synopsis: Our lead character plays basketball.
Well, they did it again. After the disappointing Prince of Tennis, Knight in the Area and Ginga he Kickoff, there again comes a sports series that really caught my interest, even though I don’t care about sports shows. This episode was fun, and the soundtrack also was great (I like how the guys from RON kept a bit of their influence from when they were working with Bee-Train). The cast of characters is nicely balanced together, and there are a lot of interesting characters in this first episode. It’s not the best, though. The fact that it’s a shounen jump series did come through, in the way that it gives everyone gimmicky powers rather than playing with a more realistic depiction of skills, but at the least they kept these powers subtle instead of over the top. And yeah, by far the big problem with this series will be length. Ideally this should just take 26 episodes. If the creators start dragging on the different matches, it’ll probably lose its appeal quite fast.
OP: Nice inbetween animation.
ED: Guys. If you can’t sing very fast… then don’t try it.
Potential: 80%
Upotte
Short Synopsis: Our lead character teaches cute girls.
I tend to like bizarre stuff. Upotte is bizarre: rather than with Strike Witches, the girls here really act like guns and go to school to learn how to be guns. It had the potential to be this surreal comedy, but instead most of this episode used its premise… for innuendo. Yes guys! Whenever you can’t remember the name of a girl you met, just refer to her by her underwear. You’ll be beaten up, but the girl will take the blame for it! Apart from that, a lot of this episode was about comparing underwear to the handle of a gun, and firing it to an orgasm. Yes, like all other Xebec shows this has its mind in the gutter. The girls also all have one defining personality trait, and it’s pretty much exactly like their other dull, uninspired and completely stupid comedies. The only positive thing I have to say about this series is that at least one of the writers did some research on guns. Also, I get that the main character is offensively dull and all, but why did you censor his face?
OP: Copy&Paste OP with the same dull J-rock you hear everywhere else.
ED: FANSERVICE
Potential: 5%
Fate/Zero 2
Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights giant monsters.
Most series that consist out of two seasons have a clear separation between the two. Not this one: it continues immediately where the first season left off, in the middle of a huge climactic battle. So no, this is not a good point to enter for those who haven’t seen the first season. My impression of this episode was that it was pretty interesting. There also was this particularly interesting dogfight, and especially Archer caught my eye. There were some moments that were a bit silly, like when two random fighter jets randomly popped up. Also, Ufo-Table need to work on how they animate monsters. The whole caster thing didn’t really feel threatening, more like very annoying and hard to get rid off. The CG for this thing just wasn’t used well.
OP: A Yuki Kajiura OP! Not her best work, but still very nice to listen to.
ED: A bit cheesy, but it’s an ED that actually tells a story rather than showing a bunch of random pictures.
Potential: 85%
Just me, or it was pretty weird that Kiritsugu got in a boat and sailed right in the river, next to the monster, just for sniping? Where is all that talk about hiding from others servants?
he’s too cool for logic
Coolness level: 9001
Considering this is Fate/zero episode 14 and not episode 1, it was obvious this wasn’t for those who haven’t watched the first 13 episodes. Besides, iirc they aired two F/Z remixes to sum up the events that happened before.
I thought F/Z delivered exactly what I had been waiting for during the break.
This show is so well done that it’s making the already weak line-up this season seem even weaker.
The only other show I am really impressed with this week is Mouretsu.
I was going to correct you and say that the Fate/zero opening was made by Kalafina and not Yuki but after looking it up I found out that she is their composer and formed the band. I guess you learn something new every day.
I played a Visual novel lately that gave me the same impression as upotte does. Listen to this. Aliens crash into parliament and accidently kill all members of the government. So to fix things they place a girl in charge if everything and brainwash everyone into believe she’s the leader while they resurrect the dead Politicians. However Aliens don’t know earth well and made the new government the same as an american government. Now this setting is absolutely prefect for comedy. It’s rife with potential. But the writers take this, treat it seriously and just make sex jokes. One truly has to ask…WHY?!
@Kuroko no Basuke – Its really funny how the Basketball themed animes I’ve watched always make a tall red-haired guy wearing jersey number 10.
“There were some moments that were a bit silly, like when two random fighter jets randomly popped up. Also, Ufo-Table need to work on how they animate monsters. The whole caster thing didn’t really feel threatening, more like very annoying and hard to get rid off. The CG for this thing just wasn’t used well.”
What. Did we watch the same episode? There’s a giant monster in the middle of a river and it’s in plain sight. Of course there would be people attempting to find out what it is and trying to destroy it.
The CG was incredible for everything (especially the monster), and if you didn’t feel absolute horror when Caster’s Cthulu dragged the pilot down with its tentacles and ate him, then we have a major difference of opinion. Not sure what your standards of CG are, but I believe that the work ufotable has shown in this single episode is the absolute pinnacle of animation. I’m rewatching it and trying to understand how you have problems with any of the CG or animation of the monster, and if you could give me an example of an anime that has done a better job of it than ufotable has.
Rant aside, HELL YES I WAS WAITING FOR THIS! I knew the fight between Gilgamesh’s Vimana and Berserker’s F-15 would be glorious, and ufotable did not disappoint. I felt that this was an excellent episode and Kiritsugu gave us an excellent cliffhanger line as a conclusion. I like the opening a lot. The ending is not as good as the first one, but it’s still pretty good. Definitely going to watch this all the way to the end.
Agreed. The F-15s weren’t random. There were reports of a monster attacking the city and these two jets were sent to verify the report.
One thing odd. I thought all witnesses to a Grail War battle had to be killed to protect the anonymity of Magecraft. Or something along those lines. It’s why the 5th War’s Lancer broke off his battle with Archer to chase down and kill Shirou for being a witness. I wonder how this mess will be handled.
The whole caster thing didn’t really feel threatening, more like very annoying and hard to get rid off.
I wanted to ask people who bought the blue-rays whether there were any extended scenes during Caster’s summoning of this river monster of his. I think in the novels, during Caster’s summoning, the children Caster and Ryuunosuke had been kidnapping were all there at the river and were consumed by the monster as it’s source of mana. Did they show this in the bluerays? I, for one, am glad I didn’t get to see that. Anyway, you saw what the monster did to that silly low-flying F-15. Expect it to do that to all the people hanging around the river to watch once it’s mana starts to get low. I think Caster was just making a spectacle of itself while toying with the gathered servants in order to lure more sacrifices to within easy reach at the river edge.
Just a quick note. This Fate/Zero is NOT a second season. It is all one season, and the episode is labeled as “episode 14” of “Fate/Zero” rather than “episode 1” of “Fate/Zero 2.”
It is, however, called “Season 2” over in the announced release in NA, but that has to do with the box set release they have planned.
Anyway, I haven’t seen it yet because I want to catch up in the novels (I’ve got about 30 pages left of volume 2) and I’m waiting to get my Sound Drama 3 & 4 in the mail, but my guess for why the talking scenes drag on is because it was meant to be a novel–the action scenes are fine for anime, but Urobuchi’s specialty within his writing is, surprisingly, in his exposition scenes. You can’t expect the anime to completely cover everything that isn’t actually stated outright in the novels, even though I think Ufo-table are capturing the atmosphere just necessary to feel Urobuchi-esk, not only in his creepy darkness, but in his description of characters. It still lacks in full completeness, though. I highly recommend people read the novels if they ever reach Western shores (or if you understand Japanese).
LOL. I agree so hardcore for the Upotte!! Series.
I was expecting their to be fan service, but I didn’t expect there to be so frickin’ much of it. Literally, besides introducing the cast, all this episode did was stall the plot in order to talk about thongs.
(And the face censor thing -was- really weird) >.>
there*
-“the girls here really act like guns and go to school to learn how to be guns.”
Not to make fun…but guns? did you mean guys? I’m just asking cause I’m not sure what you meant.
Yes, this actually is a series where girls are guns. With an n.
I watched Kuroko, a lil bit heavy handed in emphasizing the comedy moments.. but it made me laugh a bit, and well, it’s basketball.
The red haired guy is a bit annoying in his arrogance, hopefully he’ll settle down. I like the blue haired guy, very moe. Need more good characters, so hopefully that will happen in the next few episodes.
Calling all Bleach fans, Kurosaki Ichigo is still on TV ! Loving Kuroko no Baskue’s soundtrack so far.
@Kuroko No Basket – At least they’re not trying to be another “Slam Dunk” in terms of story. But I can see that they still manage to put the new Sakuragi in the show. I definitely agree that it’s hard for this type of anime to maintain it’s hype but I just hope that the intensity and the thrill of the anime will be the same all trough out of the show- if not better.
nice post.
I hope the KUROKO’S BASKETBALL movie won’t be disappointing. I really looking forward to it.