Hatenkou Yuugi
Haha! I knew that the winter-season was going to be awesome. Hatenkou Yuugi had an excellent episode with an excellent combination of comedy and drama, and it would be great if it could continue this for the rest of the series. Both the storytelling and dialogue are excellent and I really like the main female lead: she basically sees a guy holding a gun, and instead of running away she decides to travel along with him. I like strong female leads that don’t need to hide behind their boyfriends. There are few things that weren’t explained in this episode (like, how did the lead girl get magical powers, and how did she get acquainted with the third main character?), but that shouldn’t be a problem for the future episodes to answer. I’m definitely going to keep watching this!
Persona -Trinity Soul-
Well, the first episode was decent enough. It basically played out like your average superpower-series: a bit of introduction, after which our main character comes into contact with the strange power at the end of the episode. The strange power for this series is very much alike Mushiuta and Ayakashi: you control some kind of monster that ordinary people can’t see. Based on the title for this series, I’d guess that these are called “souls”. For men, they look like random mecha, while for women they take on the shape of random goddesses. So far, the main character is nothing to write home about, though he’s not bad either. He actually has two brothers, instead of the clichéd sisters that you usually see around these kinds of persons. There have been a few hints of a female love interest for the guy, but she didn’t appear in this episode yet. Let’s hope that she won’t ruin this series.
True Tears
Oh, a romance-show with a male lead that I actually enjoyed? Finally. True Tears has a nice sense of building-up, and so far none of the scenes have felt forced, unlike so many other shows of its kind. There is also not as much fanservice as I expected, which seems to show that the creators are going for the drama, instead of the moe, which is always good to see, though unfortunately the bathing-scene did found its way into the series (seriously… don’t these people ever lock their doors?) The male lead also isn’t annoying as many of his counterparts, and for once the stereotypical best friend didn’t feel annoying to me. Overall, there are a few clichés here and there, but some nice storytelling makes up for it.
omg,completely forgot about Hatenkou Yuugi,thank god you’re here psgels,i won’t forget to check it out.
Unlike with H2O i was expecting something out of true tears so it’s reassuring to see that you think it’s better.
Actually, @ Persona -Trinity Soul-
The names of the monster that is controlled by the main characters are called ‘Persona’, atleast it was so in the games. I think most of them were based on mythology.
Thank you for the summaries. The first one seems interesting.
Oh dear, the girl on the first screen shot of True Tears looks like she’s about to fall.
Anyway, these quick impressions are quite positive compared to average. Maybe the production staffs will manage not to screw up these ones 😀
I dunno how familiar you are with Persona 3 (the game), but Trinity Soul is something of a sequel to it… supposed to take place 10 years after the end of the game, if I recall correctly. I didn’t finish the game, though, so I’m hoping it can stand on its own two feet decently enough. (:
This is the first time in a while that you’ve posted three first impressions, all of which are shows I’m actually interested in, and all of which you seemed to like! Very cool. (:
-Tom
I felt the pace of Hatenkou Yuugi is way too fast though…..
“seriously… don’t these people ever lock their doors?”
I guess not – it might be part of the “familiarness” that the Japanese all want to share with one another… (Remember the lock-less sliding doors from NG Evangelion that Asuka complained about?)
The whole first volume of the manga was adapted into the first episode of the anime : even Claymore didn’t do it, and basically, it was just random and generic battles, imagine what it is with Hatenkou Yuugi, which is a shojo-series… Of course it will feel rushed and stuff. And this is why I will not watch this.
I’m quite interested in True Tears, though, especially because it is not trying to be exceptionnal or astonishingly moving, but the last anime like this one, who wasn’t pretentious and very promising, was Kimikiss, and seeing what it has become.. >_>
Windspirit: I disagree. Claymore had its own problems. It may have been faitful to the manga in the beginning, but it was ruined when the creators diverted from it around episode 20. There’s no telling whether Hatenkou Yuugi will do the same. I first need to see the second episode to get a good picture of what they’re trying to do with this series.
The bath scene is ironic, didn’t you catch it!? It’s a commentary about the “usual bath scene”. The girl didn’t say “Ecchi!”. That’s very fun, indeed. The last ironic scene that i remember about this theme was Kanon (with Makoto…). I sincerily hope that people that didn’t draw or paint could see that it’s the best production of the season. The care with details, textures, colours, plans, everything, is touching…