Engaged to the Unidentified
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has to marry against her will.
I’ve found my surprise of the season with this show. Now don’t get me wrong, the premise is horrible and something that we’ve seen many times before. This series would have been incredibly boring, if it wasn’t for one character: the little girl. You’ll know who I mean when you see her. She made me laugh quite a few more times than what I’d like to admit. I mean, on one hand she uses moe like no other. But on the other she’s like this really weird combination between a child and an adult. Her eloquence is one moment really polite, and the other incredibly childish. The rest of the cast… well they try what they can with a premise of suddenly learning that your grandfather has arranged your marriage behind your back, but the drama is forced and cheesy. That little girl though… she made this worth the watch. The danger with these characters is of course that it’s really difficult for them to carry the show on their own. I mean, this series needs to stay fresh for an entire season. I did not see hints that it will, but who knows?
ED: Generic J-Pop
Potential: 60%
Pupa
Short Synopsis: Our lead character eats stuff.
I really am puzzled for this one. I’d really like to know the story behind this series. How did it get made? Who are responsible for it? Why was it made? I mean, clocking in at only four minutes (three if you ignore the OP and ED) this was obviously made on a shoestring budget. The animation shows the same: there was hardly any inbetween work done here, and the animation that is there looks incredibly jerky. And yet the art itself is very good, and the soundtrack also rocks. Tomomi Mochizuki is a brilliant director who really knows his stuff, so he has to have some kind of idea or vision behind such a series that obviously is going to be short with only twelve episodes. Was this like a project to train some new people at Studio Deen or something? Does that explain why it was delayed one season? I mean, the episode had a good atmosphere, although it was a bit weird and really really short so there was no time to let things sink in. What’s going on here?
OP: Love the art, although it is a bit lazy.
ED: It’s like… the creators made a long version only to hear that it had to be cut incredibly short
Potential: #$@?%
Hozuki no Reitstsu
Short Synopsis: Our lead character works as an executive in hell.
Thank god, finally. Houzuki no Reitetsu was the first episode for which I can really say that yes, it was well written. It already was amongst the top series to look out for, and it did not disappoint. It blows the entire season out of the water in terms of creativity, but it sets itself apart with its script. The way in which the characters talk to each other is delightful. A lot of this series is simple smalltalk, but thankfully the creators did not listen to the Shaft-school of writing dialogue, but they kept things meaningful and to the point, while at the same time throwing in tons of references to Japanese mythology, but also weirdly talked about things like wildlife and Ayer’s Rock. It also weaved in its comedy very nicely: it only makes a joke when it’s got something funny to tell. Some of the jokes were quite clever, something you wouldn’t expect of anime lately where most of the jokes are simply quite crass.
OP: The best OP of the season, introduces the characters with a weird song and trying something different for a change.
ED: This was weird, but still better than the other EDs we got to listen to this season.
Potential: 95%
Engaged to the Unidentified really surprised me. It was well animated and apart from the annoying older sister I liked all the characters. The older sister may ruin it though 🙁
But as for Hozuki no Reitstsu, Maybe it’s just me I’m sorry but I did’t find it funny at all.
Overall this season is pretty bad. The only show that really got my attention was ‘Nobunaga the Fool’. I might start watching some of the series I put on hold last season such as White Album II and Nagi no Asukara.
I think Hozuki no Reitstsu just taught me I can’t get Japanese humour.
Hozuki was interesting to look at, and I did laugh at one or two points, but I tried comparing it to other comedies that I’ve found funny
Sunred
Cromartie
Danshi koukousei Nichijou
Azumanga
Gintoki
etc
And it just isn’t there, so for me it was disappointing. I was hoping for some proper laughs.
Pupa wasn’t delayed because of that, it was delayed because DEEN wanted to air it uncensored but none of the tv stations agreed on that so it kept getting pushed back since DEEN couldn’t find anybody. Apparently it’s censored anyway though, since I have no interest in confirming that myself.
I was looking forward to Pupa but after finding out it was only 3 minutes, I figure that I can just wait till it finishes and marathon it in the end (not like theres any real rush to watch it now).
Engaged to the Unidentified was one of my favourite episodes this past week. I actually found the characters to be pretty likeable even if they’re pretty generic.
I was watching Hoozuki no Reitetsu, and dropped it halfway through, because it is too slow for me.
I found Hozuki no Reitetsu boring to see after seeing the 1st chapter (and I’m not too hard to please). I couldn’t understand too why Momotarou would cause wreck in current age when he had died centuries ago and the thing about satellite coverage in hell… It’s just that everything seems too convenient. I couldn’t understand the fun in the jokes even when undertansding them 😡