Zetsuen no Tempest
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has this terrible sense of hairstyles.
Holy crap! I didn’t think it was possible, but something actually matched From the New World’s first episode! Seriously, that’s three amazing episodes this season already. Zetsuen no Tempest has a great premise, great characters, a very sharp and interesting dialogue, terrific action and really good animation. That’s the base for a very solid show, but it goes further. There were a few things that really amazed me. First of all: the soundtrack. Oh my god, that was haunting! I mean seriously, this is a very strong contender for the best soundtrack of the year. It’s not just really complex and keeps changing, but there is so much emotion put into it. Beyond that though, this episode had something. I’m not sure whether it is actually true or not and I need more episodes to really confirm this, but this show might have the X-Factor. That really hard to describe feeling that happens when everything just comes together. Yeah, this is another one to keep your eyes out for.
ED: Typical Bones Engrish J-Rock song.
Potential: 95%
Busou Shinki
Short Synopsis: Our lead character lives together with four cute girls.
Oh boy, this one turned out shameless. Remember the young boy that appeared in the OVA one year ago? Well, he grew up into the same high school lead you see in every harem. The small figurine he met? Well, she turns out to be a complete moron. This entire episode was just fantasy wish fulfillment: “Oh master”, “Let me serve you master”, “Let me wake you up master”, “Let me trip and fall over and get covered in this sperm-like substance master”, “Let me put on a maid costume master”, “Let me keep this precious love letter of yours save master”, “Let me clean the house like a good servant should master”. I mean, this isn’t even the first time in which we saw a first episode about a girl cleaning the house while the male is away, only to make an even bigger mess. How oddly specific is that? And this show has four of those girls, all as mind-numbingly stupid as the other. Yeah, this pretty much was the worst episode of the season so far.
OP: Generic J-Pop.
ED: Random CG walking ED with a bad song.
Potential: 0%
Hayate the Combat Butler – I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the butler of a cute girl.
Well, time to check if I missed something with Hayate the Combat Butler. And I have to be honest here: I just didn’t find this episode funny. I chuckled maybe once… during the juice joke. Apart from that the comedic attempts were… inoffensive. It’s not like there were many bad or forced jokes, but nothing to make me want to keep watching. Unlike the other episodes I watched (the first episodes of the first and second season respectively), there actually seems to be some sort of plot line to keep everything together beyond the premise of Hayate being a combat butler. The thing with going to Vegas, and Nagi’s father… has some slight potential I guess. But still it moves slow and the creators feel the need to pad things out with this really stupid kidnapping that even the characters are getting tired of. Kigimiya Rie also doesn’t really help, and on top of that: this episode seemed to indicate that this was the first time in which Nagi told about her father. Keep in mind that this is after like, 75 episodes. What have they been doing in that time?
ED: Some random side character with what I have to admit is a nice artistic direction.
Potential: 60%
Well, Nagi said her father died in an accident before, both in the anime and manga. But nothing else is really know, even in the manga.
It wasn’t something important until it was mentioned in this episode.
I don’t see why reboot this series when the S2 ended right before the only manga arc with an actual plot. I like the whole franchise but I’ll wait to see if I watch this.
This isn’t a reboot. I think it is going to be made canon to the manga, since the series assumes viewers are CURRENT with the manga in Japan. It is set 2-months after the current events transpiring right now in the manga. Episode 2 made my feeling about this even stronger, since folks not current with the manga are going to wonder why certain characters are living in an older, apartment-house that Nagi owns.
Well, this is more like an original serie, seems interesting.
Wait, so this isn’t following the manga? I might just catch it then, since it won’t be a repeat of what I’ve already read.
Btw, does that awesome narrator (voiced by the equally awesome VA) with the deep voice make a return?
“this episode seemed to indicate that this was the first time in which Nagi told about her father. Keep in mind that this is after like, 75 episodes. What have they been doing in that time?”
Why, wacky hijinks and stale tsundere jokes, of course! Ah, and references to games and anime. A lot. Like, enough to drown in. Twice.
PSGels its a original story written by the author it wont follow the manga
Is it safe to say, you just dont like J-Rock and J-pop in general?
Pretty much yeah. There are exceptions, but I find most of the genre boring and all sounding the same.
Isnt that the very definition of pop and rock nowadays?
J or not
Pretty much yeah. There are exceptions, but I find most of the genre boring and all sounding the same.
I kinda suspected this but I’m surprised that you’re self-aware. Not to knock on your opinion, but coming from someone who has a taste for anisong, sometimes your song impressions read like an anime review written by someone who doesn’t like anime. Not sure why you include it in your review if it’s not particularly outstanding in one way or another. No offense.
I realize that as well: most of the OPs and EDs I watch I find boring, or rather unable to stand on their own. I include these small blurbs in order to highlight the ones that do impress me. Because of that, I’m a huge fan.
it is kind of weird, since most of them are going to be j-pop or j-rock anyways, why bother
It depends. This season just doesn’t have many outstanding ones, but there have been plenty of seasons with diverse and creative openings and I want to be able to highlight that.
I have this even with the music genres that I like. I mean, my favorite genre is Metal, but there are so many crappy bands there that all sound the same as well. I’m constantly looking for something that hits the right note with me.
Mari Okada is doing it again! She’s so awesome.
I like Yoshino’s hairstyle! But I don’t think I’ll like it in real life.
There’s a very good reason why he had that hair style… 😉
OH really? I’m looking forward to it! 😛
The only think I found with Zetsuen no Tempest was that I thought the soundtrack, while awesome, tended to dominate too much. Apart from that it was an awesome episode. I’ve read the manga up to chapter 18 and we’re in for a treat with this show. Great characters and great story. Any ideas how many cour’s this will be?
I agree – I thought that the episode was a little bit too melodramatic to be honest.
yup .. agree there as well. The story is good enough IMHO without overacting. Still I liked it.
But for a first episode? This one felt like a long trailer to me, so i wasn’t thrown off by either the… for lack of a better word, intense music or high emotion. I actually thought that the subtle comedy effectively toned down some of the more melodramatic parts. Also, jesus christ monkeyballs clever dialog. Fuwa and Yoshino’s discussion as well as his short monologue was extremely well written and well placed. I was coming to almost the same conclusions as him except, obviously, as a watcher; that the setting didn’t make sense, but seemed real (something Psgels noted as well). Couldn’t be happier with a first episode for me. I hope you guys can work around / forget about these negative traits as I’m sure they’ll be appearing in intense scenes.
Lol, Zetsuen no Tempest was so fucking shitty I can’t even describe it. Good animation for the fights though.
Perhaps you should describe why you think its shitty so we can have an objective conversation about it .. rather than saying its shit. My complaints would be that it’s a little over-dramatic, but I still liked it.
While not totally “shitty”, much of the plot from the manga is pretty dishwater, imho. Seems to have it’s priorities all wrong. I’ll still give this first ep a try, but I’m not expecting anything more than typical shounen stuff.
forget about the manga; this episode was nothing shonen.
you and i have a very different idea of shounen if This is typical shounen to you. Also Shounen, not really enough of a genre to really describe anything.
“Shounen” is a demographic, not genre. Either way, I’ll check this out.
exactly, so typical shounen just means appeal to young man, could be any number of things
Haven’t read the manga but this is a very impressive debut. Bones is involved too so I have high expectations.
So you particularly didn’t like it.
So what you’re saying is you’re not very good at formulate thoughts into words?
Most impressive episode of the new season for me. Of course, that’s comparing only this and Future New World.. whatever. And psgels, the X-Factor is only in the eye of the beholder. Of course, it may be that it is a popular … x… factor… to have. ANYWAYS, I agree with you completely on this post.
On Busou Shinki, the TV anime is a completely different story from the OVA. Asides from having Shinkis, they’re not related at all, so not sure why you portray it as such.
Zetsuen no Tempest is the series that had the best first episode. Others are meh, K didn’t live to expectations either…
K felt more like a long ass trailer than a solid opening episode. It holds tremendous upside potential – either as a Fate/Zero epic or a Code/Geass trainwreck.
Though Code Geass’s setting came together in the end, but yeah, I see what you mean…
Out of everything that has started for now – Zestuen got me the most tempted [lame pun is lame] But seriously, the shape of its plot seems to be the one I like the most, the designs are wonderful [I’d like them more Madhouse-ish, but that’s just me] and the animation is just flawless. Really hope it goes on well.
PSgels, first off, this season of Hayate is a what-if project in that it follows the mangaka’s original concept for the story.
And to be honest, the story isn’t exactly a laugh out loud kind of comedy, but just a cutesy light comedy. I love the series and all, but it is a niche, acquired taste. I kinda wonder why you keep taking swipes at it, haha
If your taste and the story style clash, oh well.
@scruffy
His girlfriend is Aika right?
So at one point when Mahiro asks him where his girlfriend is, and what’s name says ‘she’s not here’
it doesn’t make sense, because they both know she’s dead? so why ask that question?
I then he kept on using the present tense to talk about having a girlfriend, and not the past tense.
Well, in the 2nd episode, it’s revealed that Mahiru wasn’t keen at all about his sister getting involved with anyone. It’s possible even after her death, Yoshino might not have wanted Mahiru to know that they were dating. Mahiru was already in a bad way, so he may not have taken it well.