Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is an idiot and the smartest girl in school is in love with him.
I have to admit: when this episode started with the lead female who kept having what sounded like orgasms until she fainted, I didn’t have much faith. But what do you know, it turned out to be a parody. Seriously, despite the high school cliches this episode was fun to watch, not just because it kept poking fun at them, but also because of the high production values and its concept that’s completely ridiculous, but a war between classrooms is a somewhat creative way of spending your time in high school. The cliches are definitely there (I’m mostly annoyed by the two lead characters), but I’m glad enough to see that we finally have a high school series that tries something different.
OP: Great animation and a decent song to boot.
ED: Catchy and actually nice art.
Potential: 50%
Durarara!!
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a socially awkward teenager and has just moved to a new city.
And here we probably have the most-hyped series of the season, and with the staff behind it I too have been looking forward to it. The result is very promising; while this episode in itself wasn’t exactly awesome, it was great at building up: the dialogue was inspired, the action was short but sweet, the music was really good and the whole city that this episode took place in was detailed and gave off the feeling that it was alive and an actual modern city. I know the director (I’ve seen tons of series from him, and there hasn’t been any series that I didn’t like among them); this guy is terrific at building-up, so I have no doubt that this is going to be a great series, and the question is more going to be like “how good will this end up?”, rather than “will it be good at all?”. Right now, the things that could get in its way are its stereotypical portrayal of punks and foreigners (something that tons of anime suffer from), and how the lead character is surprisingly cliched (see synopsis).
OP: Great music, but the vocal seems a bit of a miscast.
ED: Solid ED, even though it’s a bit too poppy for my tastes.
Potential: 100%
Gag Manga Biyori +
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a famous French painter and has issues.
Okay, so this is actually the first thing I’ve seen from the Gag Manga Biyori franchise. Now that I watched it… I can only describe it as madness. This episode was just crazy in every single way, but I actually liked it a lot. The jokes were… creative to say the least and the dialogue is surprisingly complex for a supposed comedy. It also really helps that it’s got what’s probably the most consistent comedy-director behind it: Akitaro Daichi.
OP: Nice enough opening for a comedy anime. And completely random as well.
ED: Those lyrics… I’m speechless.
Potential: 80%
Gag Manga is absolutely hilarious – this coming from someone who dislikes Japanese humour.
Seriously, watch the first season, it’s consistently brilliant.
“Okay, so this is actually the first thing I’ve seen from the Gag Manga Biyori franchise.”
where were you in the past a few season?
It is hilarious, but very hard to write anything except laughing. I would recommend you just sit back and enjoy the fun & madness.
“the whole city that this episode took place in was detailed and gave off the feeling that it was alive and an actual modern city.”
I think this could as well point out the fact that the scenes depicted never feel empty or staged like in other series, therefore I don’t know if I have to point it out, but just because I found this sentence off, I do.
You do know that this is actually Ikkebukuro, within Tokyo, do you? The place is almost realistically recreated in the first episode, I even recognized some streets I walked along.
In that manner, it IS an actual modern city.
Sorry for sounding so picky.
(Durarara!!)
Potential: 100%
Ohohohoho! I’m not surprised xD
Ah, the main character seems stereotypical but from spoilers I get to learn that he doesn’t seem to be an ordinary main character ;D
RYOHGO NARITA-SAMA DOESN’T DISAPPOINT!!!!!!
Oh I’m damn excited to see this already *counts the hours before she gets home*
Durarara…can’t wait to watch it. I enjoyed Baccano! because it was a fast paced anime with a great story line. I hope it runs longer than 12 episodes.
chounokoe: I indeed picked up that it was in Ikkebukuro. I only have no idea where that is, what it looks like or what the culture in it is.
Durarara looks really promising. Finally a show that makes ppl look twice in this new season.
@psgels: Well what we saw was the mainly the streets around the main station of Ikkebukuro, which is the main north-west station of the famous Yamanote-line in Tokyo…if that’s what you meant.
I found it funny that even the African(American) foreigners who wave fliers at you in broken Japanese found their way into this story in form of a character.
What I liked especially about the first episode was that it actually depicted main Tokyo as it is, which is a welcome change from either those animes which only depict suburbs and at best show a picture of Shibuya once or those anime which totally change the feeling (mostly in favour of atmosphere).
I found it interesting how it felt so…alive, really just as you said ^^
hey for baka to test why are all males in class F except for the two girls. One who couldn’t read the lang and one who missed the test what they trying to say. :/
Ahh all the characters may seem stereotypical at first, but they’ve all got other sides to them. Foreigners included…
Hahaha, did anyone else notice the clip from baccano playing on the big screen in the background, 6 minutes & 35 seconds into the episode?
lol, @loz ,i missed that the 1st time
Loved Durarara’s 1st episode. Albeit somewhat slow paced, the preview made me wanting for more. Loved the depiction of Tokyo.
The ending theme, OTOH is a bit creepy. Didn’t knew R&B/Autotune-Raps had reached animes…