Some Quick First Impressions – Gurazeni, Hinamatsuri and Mahou Shoujo Site

Gurazeni

Short Synopsis: A relief pitcher is unexpectedly called on to be a starter in a money-obsessed baseball league.

Lenlo’s Review:

Gurazeni’s word of the season is, budget. A budget One Outs for the modern day. The first episode of Gurazeni is an info-dump and fails to establish anything about the main character or the series conflict. It goes to lengths to try and show how everything revolves around money, how desperate the main character is for it and the cutthroat world of baseball. Yet the bright colors, the music and general style takes away from that completely. Compare that to One Outs from ~10 years ago, where you knew the value of every pitch. Where the lead had an established personality, motivation and relationships in the first episode. Where even the lead’s design informs you to his personality. Really, what I am trying to say is this. Skip Gurazeni, watch One Outs instead. Go find it on YouTube. To this day, it is one of my favorite sports anime and without a doubt my favorite Baseball one.

Potential: 0%

 

Wooper’s review

The going is still early, but this will probably finish as the most disappointing of all the shows I watch this spring. Gurazeni is a well-respected baseball manga, but Studio DEEN clearly lost some kind of reverse bidding war and were forced to animate this show at gunpoint. The OP takes the time to portray merchandisers, groundskeepers, commentators, and fans, hinting that the series will be about the culture of baseball, rather than just the sport. DEEN accomplished something similar with Giant Killing at the start of this decade, but their approach for this series is too narrow in scope. More than half the premiere is eaten up by the main character’s narration, most of which revolves around how his salary compares to those of other players. We hardly see him pitch, or even talk to other human beings. He does go out for drinks with an ex-teammate, but that guy’s career woes dominate the show from that point on. And when we’re actually treated to some baseball, it’s with CG players and sweeping helicopter shots of PS2-era stadiums. The show’s lousy appearance and botched first episode might be tolerable if I could tell you anything about the main character’s personality, which I can’t (other than the fact that he likes money). Just read the manga.

Potential: 0%

 

Hinamatsuri

Short Synopsis: A young girl with supernatural powers and a porcelain-collecting yakuza learn to live together.

Aidan’s review

Not quite as funny as I would have though but still a really enjoyable start for the series. Hina certainly seems like a more likeable character here, whereas in the manga she was a lot brattier. Animation is actually quite impressive and comedic timing is on point so later events and characters should work well. I somewhat miss the jokes that the scantilators of the manga would put in like “Norway!” but well there was absolutely norway they would put those in the anime. Got to wonder why they bothered to put that action scene at the beginning as it really isn’t going to become relevant for quite a while but maybe the joke is just how inconsequential it will be. Really loving the dynamic between Nitta and Hina here and the emotional scenes actually work well despite them being misleading buildups to the absurdity that happens afterwards. My big concerns for this one is that there may not be enough time to get to the really great moments of the manga though the pacing of this episode burned through three chapters. Looks great, sounds great and I had a smile on my face the whole time watching. Most definitely one to check out this season.

Potential: 80%

 

Wooper’s review

Unlike Aidan, I haven’t read the Hinamatsuri manga, so my impressions of the show’s comedy will be based not on whether it’s as funny as its source, but whether I found it funny at all. Happily enough, I did! Studio Feel did a fine job of making the show seem vibrant and kooky, though it’s clear that much of their effort was concentrated in the opening fight scene. As for the story, it centers on an Odd Couple relationship between a gentle yakuza (Nitta) and a young girl (Hina) who manipulates him with her special abilities. I’d have liked their “getting to know you” phase to have been extended a bit, but with 12 episode orders being the industry standard at this point, narrative shortcuts are expected. The show’s biggest comedic strength thus far is the injection of strange gags and visual moments into a familiar story template (adult and kid are thrust together, butt heads at first, then learn to appreciate each other). Hina’s arrival in a giant metallic egg is so strange that you can’t help but laugh at it, especially after Nitta’s attempt at ignoring it fails so horribly. The show also underscores its most heartwarming scene with a comically violent one in which Hina uses her powers to help her new friend – it’s a ridiculous set piece moment, but it comes from an earned sense of understanding between the two leads. Despite feeling a bit hurried, this is one of the better premieres of the spring thus far, and it’s certainly the funniest (intentionally, anyway).

Potential: 60%

 

Mahou Shoujo Site

Short Synopsis: A girl who is horribly bullied is given magical powers

Aidan’s review

When I sat down to watch this show I prepared myself for a rough ride. Yet despite knowing what was coming it was still a hard watch. Take note that does not mean that it was a hard watch because of some skilled writing of troublesome subject matter but instead imagine an author of poor skill trying to write a Madoka clone and shoving pure visceral contempt into his story. The characters in this show are unbelievable or at least I wouldn’t want to believe people so utterly unsalvageable would exist in reality. I mean we have bullies here who literally shoved so many razor blades and pins into this girls shoes that it defeats the purpose of the act. Geniuses! The point is to put a sharp thing she wouldn’t notice into her shoe so that she hurts herself putting it on! So filling the shoe full of razor blades defeats the goddamn purpose! Not to mention you actually wasted money getting all those. Considering the number of blades you literally wasted a significant amount of money for shock value. Also, beating her up, drowning her, killing her cat and even calling a guy to literally rape her wasn’t going over the line, but putting a knife to her throat, woah suddenly too far! God it’s just so stupid and stupid it needs to be if it must push the authors agenda for more darkness. Believe me when I say this only gets stupider. Unless you really love watching this kind of trash, avoid it like the plague.

Potential: 0%

 

Mario’s review

Boy, this is one of the most painful 20 minutes I’ve ever experienced for this first impression. Forget what I said about 3D Kanojo Real Girl being forced, this one pushes all the buttons of misery and bully bullshits to the lead girl that, for once, I wish the person who write it could experience the same. It’s no fun whatsoever to see a girl gets repeatedly beaten, nearly raped, has her one source of happiness taken away because “life is cruel” message. Even if all this was just a set-up for her becoming a dark magical girl who kill people, I just wonder why they need to overplay her circumstance to this extent. It might help if those bullies say something about the show own’s nature, which it doesn’t. It might help that the show has some love to its characters, but so far I don’t think that’s the case. This show’s message seems to be cruelty happens everywhere and the weak will receive a miserable life. I actually like the visual style when the girls are in these freeze-time zones, but other than that I will avoid this one like a plague. I do enjoy bleak shows but I won’t take ones that insult our emotions plus intelligence like this.

Potential: 0% or PURE CRAP