Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is gay.
The Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi tells a cheesy story between two guys in high school. I pretty much already got bored with it after that episode. So, here the TV-series comes and actually skips 10 years into the future, and actually becomes quite good. What the hell? This isn’t even my bias for Studio Deen talking: I really dislike how lazy they were during the past Winter Season. This however… this just turned into a romance about two guys of 25 and 27 who work as shoujo manga editors. In fact, this episode was not about gay sex at all, and instead about the characters themselves, especially the lead characters and the choices he made in his life after the events of the OVA. On top of that, the comedy still works quite well. The lead character’s inner monologues are quite funny, but also the new department in which he starts working has a lot of charms to it. This perhaps doesn’t have the charms of something like Antique Bakery, but it still was surprisingly enjoyable here, and this is coming from a straight male.
OP: Unfortunately not as good as Junjo Romantica’s OPs.
ED: This is some cheesy boy band embarrassing themselves…
Potential: 75%
Yondemasuyo, Azazel-San
Short Synopsis: Our lead character works for a professional summoner.
After seeing so many disappointing comedies this season, especially with Hen Zemi being tamed down, I was expecting something similar for Yondemasuyo Azazel-san. But holy crap, this went even further than the OVA! This was just completely hilarious, and I actually laughed the hardest at this OVA out of any show this season, even including Gintama. I should have known that in the rare cases where Production IG does a comedy, the result would be something unique. For Azazel-san, there meaning of “restraint” is just completely absent from the dictionary. It’s so completely over the top in just about anything it does, but at the same time it’s well acted. There’s a great combination between morbid deadpan humour and some of the most varied but ridiculously drawn facial distortions I’ve seen. If you thought that Azazel was a bum in the OVA, you really haven’t seen anything yet. Some of the things he does here are completely outrageous, but just hilariously funny. It’s all done with a wonderful sense of timing, and the way in which every episode is very short (again just 12 minutes) keeps everything fresh. This is just weird in every single way.
OP: Actually pretty decent.
Potential: 80%
Hen Zemi
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is surrounded by perverts.
Today is the day of series that already had an OVA before airing. First up is Hen Zemi, interestingly in an episode that only takes up twelve minutes. This is something I really like here: series that realize that you don’t necessarily need 20 minute episodes if this doesn’t fit. In any case, Hen Zemi pretty much was the best fanservice comedy of the new season, but that has mostly to do with the fact that all of the other fanservice shows were so poor. I enjoyed it, but at the same time I unfortunately noticed that it has been tamed down compared to the OVA. The dialogue is still there, it’s still interesting and it’s still perverted as hell, but it’s also less fast and less well delivered. the chaos and disturbance of the OVA don’t return at all here. The OVA knew exactly how to just keep going on and on and get more and more under your skin. This was just a bunch of perverts talking to each other. It misses the dynamic delivery of its lines, effectively turning it into just another fanservice comedy. An above average one, indeed. But it’s a shame that the director of the OVA was shipped over to Sofuteni in favour of the director of To Love-Ru and Rio Rainbow Gate.
OP: Actually a very nice OP for this series. Only 30 seconds long, but with enough energy for the usual minute and a half.
ED: Fanservice!
Potential: 55%
…wow, never would’ve guessed you’re a straight male…
I have never watched a yaoi series in my entire life (I’m a straight girl who never quite understood why a lot of girls are crazy yaoi fans), but I’m curious and Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi looks like a good enough opportunity.
Since the OVA apparently sucks, do I really need to watch it before starting the TV-series?
@Sapphire
You don’t need to watch the ova, it’s basically about what happened 10 years ago to them. I’ll give you a summary if you want, its not much:
Male lead falls in love, confessed to the other guy, they have sex, other guy ditches male lead. Male lead wakes up to find it is a dream.
And the male lead acts like a school girl in love which is annoying. And that’s it.
Only watch it if you have free time and care to, otherwise nothing much is relevant to this anime.
And I think the story in the OVA will more or less be retold in the series through flashbacks, so yeah you can just skip it.
I just watched the TV-series 1st episode and it was actually pretty enjoyable! Onodera’s inner monologues were incredibly fun to watch. The fact that they don’t recognize each other 10 years later is a bit ridiculous, though.
Since my first impression was this good, I’ve decided to watch the OVA and… all the kissing and touching were weird to watch between two guys, but I guess I’ll get used to it.
@Flipper, thanks for letting me know that senpai ditched the male lead, that isn’t shown in the OVA (or at least it was subtle and I didn’t notice it).
Anyway, thank you both for your answers regarding the OVA, it didn’t seem necessary and it’s way less interesting than the TV-series.
Yeah, I agree with you Puran (chatbox and your post here :P). I wish the mangaka spiced it up a bit too. Though, one great thing is that the Ritsu in this timeline is much better than the OVA one. I might have not watched this if we had the over reacting heart beating lead. Another thing I like is that it will have a nice balance between the slice of life and the romance by developing the characters more. To me, I felt this first episode in contrast to Junjo’s was better since it wasn’t rushed into “we’re a couple, so lets have sex/be awkward (hated that scene in episode 1 of Junjo with the sexual advances, too fast for me). I hope it gives the romance some time to develop, then go into a much deeper relationship.
@Sapphire
You’re welcome.
Regarding the 10 year thing, Takano changed his name, so that might be a reason. Also their hook up is hinted to be sort of like a one night stand/it didn’t last long. So it is possible they have both have blurry memories as it has been 10 years. Though I do agree with you, (I never forget a face) but Takano pieced it together I’m pretty sure at the end.
I was pleasantly surprised by Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi too. Much better than I thought it would be, but then, being a BL show, I can’t say my expectations were set all that high.
Psgels, if you ever get brave enough to try out another BL series, Gravitation’s pretty good. For one thing, it actually has a plot outside of romance.
(Also, it’s only called “yaoi” if it’s porn. No sex means it’s called “shounen-ai” as “yaoi” means “no climax, no point, no meaning.”)
Arrgh, they’ve improved on the OVA? Now I’m on the fence watching-wise XD.
#1: why are you surprised? People are a less cookie-cutter than you’d think… and psgels is probably the blogger interest in the widest range of anime shows on the net.
Also… good storytelling can appeal to any gender audience and sexual orientation, really. Trust me on this ;> .
#9: good point…I apologize. I actually regretted the comment after posting it. I’m actually glad that it can appeal to anyone^^
I never really liked Yaoi or Shounen-Ai manga/animes. I just felt they were too unrealistic and I never managed to relate to any character (and I’m gay). After the first episode, I decided to give Sekai-Ichi a chance. It was enjoyable enough and everytime it went too much on the cheesy-side, something funny happened to make me forget about it (how hilarious was it when the main character was critiquing the cliches in shojo-mangas XD).
Azazel-san is soooo funny XD I don’t watch many anime comedies, I find most of them boring. But Azazel-san has a perfect comedic timing and it’s real crude humor but in a good way 😛 Also, 12 minutes is so much easier to put in a schedule 🙂 I didn’t watch Hen Zemi and I don’t intend to either.
Ebod, just a note: in Japan the term “shounen ai” has totally fallen out of usage. They call it BL; yaoi is a subset of BL that has stories with graphic sex scenes.
The OP to Sekai-ichi was weird… it’s a story about two adult males but they opened it like a little girl’s anime.
i have always enjoyed all anime, including yaoi. I have never heard of most of the series you posted about so now I have quite a bit of watching to do! I really like your blog and how straight forward you are! I’m definitely going to follow you, hope you do the same ^-^
Azazel-San has managed quite the feat. Managing to make me drop an anime from the very first episode. Barely 5 minutes in, I couldn’t help remembering the horrible comedy genre that is best described as “Ugly Japanese characters yelling all the time and thinking it’s funny”.
Most definitely not for me and a big disappointment since I expected something good from this. I’m way past the poop/sex jokes too.