Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a teenaged future demon lord.
Again: better than expected. On one hand we have horrid character-designs, some of the most pointless fanservice I’ve seen this season (seriously… why?) and an entire cast of teenaged mages. On the other hand, it’s quite well animated actually plays around with the tropes of its genre. Generic male leads often get confused into pointless misunderstandings. This show takes these to the ridiculous, and plays around with their irony. It actually made me laugh a few times. But yeah: this has the consequence that everyone in this series is a complete moron and just acts how the plot demands it. The jokes also often just fall flat, and are trying too hard. The classroom scene was hilarious. The peeping scene was horribly dull and predictable.
ED: Boring J-Rock
Potential: 40%
Ookiku Furikabutte – Natsu no Taikai-hen
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters continue to participate in the regional baseball tournament.
When comparing to Cross Game, it’s perhaps a bit hard to see, but Ookiku Furikabutte also has truly excellent slice of life, though in a completely different way. This episode showed that more than ever. The creators really managed to show all of the characters as they are, with inspired dialogue as they analyze and talk about the previous and next matches that they’re involved into. On top of that, it turns out that it had no intention to just forget past characters: the opposing team whose match filled the majority of the first season returns in this episode as well, in which we see two of its members (the captain and that first year that never got to participate in the match) deal with what happened at the climax of the first season. A-1 show that they can very much animate three series at the same time with some excellent animation that may not be the smoothest, but is really well directed and inspired, bringing the characters to life. This second season is looking very promising at this point.
OP: Decent enough J-Rock
ED: A bit of a boring song.
Potential: 90%
Kaichou wa Maid Sama
Short Synopsis: Our lead character
works at a maid cafe.
Romantic comedies are one of my least favourite genres in anime. But in this season, they’re either really bad or really good. My favourite opening episodes so far are from those romantic comedies. Again, Kaichou wa Maid Sama has elements that have been beaten to death in attempts to pander to otaku. And yet it gives a fresh look at the genre with well written dialogue and characters. Like B Gata H Kei, the creators really know their characters, and this episode did a great job of not just establishing the characters, but also exploring who they are, what drives them and a bit about their pasts, already slightly developing them. The lead character suddenly feeling ill was a bit forced I guess, but the rest of this episode was a delight to watch.
OP: Nice animation, decent song.
ED: Boring J-rock.
Potential: 80%
Along with B Gata, I probably wouldn’t have given Kaicho wa Maid Sama a chance if you hadn’t blogged it.
Heads up on this series. It may be fresh for a while but lets just say it degenerates or gets tiring after a while, kinda like Kimi no Todoke. Which is a shame since I liked Misaki appearing as a strong female lead, like Kyoko from Skip Beat, but alas its only appearances.
i watched Kaicho wa MaidSama with nostalgia. lead character of boy is the silent type and makes fun of lead character of girl, but is sometimes very gentle. he is just prince type. this is the royal road of shoujo-manga. but i like it.
i am a big fan of the maid sama manga and i hope the next episodes will be good as the one ,but your review was very fast in my country mexico are yet raw versions,do you understand japanese ? really ? or in netherlands the subs are faster ? i have curiosity
“Along with B Gata, I probably wouldn’t have given Kaicho wa Maid Sama a chance if you hadn’t blogged it. ”
Same… I was blown away by how good both were, they really set a new bar for the romantic comedy genre, I SO hope they keep it up
The thing I liked the most about both, is how despite all the randomness, the serious moments actually feel genuine, its just awesome to watch
Maid Sama was annoyingly similar to Kare Kano, except that they went through even more extreme contortions to make the unlikable leads sympathetic. I’ll still give it a chance, of course, but there wasn’t really much here to hold my interest.
Kaichou wa Maid Sama looks pretty cool, need to watch it. I also love romantic comedies :P.
Oh, cool! New season of Ookiku Furikabutte! The only problem is, I’m not really sure if this series will work when watched weekly. I have this impression that it’s one of those series that you have to marathon to enjoy. Well I guess we’ll find out.
Nah wouldn’t worry about that considering how densely packed the episodes would be. Given just how much A-1 has to stuff into an episode from the source I do praise them for just how good they are at doing that (which is why I was hoping they were going to do Break Blade). Marathoning perhaps is only good for the games, there should be 2 (not sure if they plan to animate the Musashino arc, but then again that is freakishly long) major games this season, but its still better to appreciate it as a weekly series the way it was intended. (off to Bantora for me)
Careful with “Maid-sama is getting stale after a while”. While I agree that it had 1-2 lackluster eps in the middle, it definitely catches its step again, and the latest chapters are the best of the entire show. For fans of character/romance development, the manga gets my highest mark, and so far, the conversion was quite good. So I’m hopeful.
Gonna be opinionated here: But honestly, I have better hopes for B gata H kei than Kaichou wa Maid Sama. I had a hard time making it through Maidsama’s opening episode. I feel like I’ve seen this premise/these characters -a lot- in shojou, so unless you like the novelty, it could be hard to enjoy. Or at least it was in my case. :/ I think Kimi no Todoke was a lot more true to its characters despite the melodrama. And even BH works better since its got a few elements that make it a little different from something we’ve seen again and again.
Another thing, Kimi no Todoke made room for other characters. This really seems like its just going to focus on the two main characters, the typical gutsy girl becoming more feminine and the even tempered cool guy who’ll be her romantic interest. Just… just too many cliches…
Still, what I will look forward to is if psgels decides to blog this. I’d be interested to see if it gets better or at least in a fresh perspective of how this could be a good series.
….On an unrelated note, excited for Ookiku Furikabutte xD, Glad to hear/see its looking promising.
the Maid one was pretty fun to watch, and kinda “cute” if you go along with it…the way things happenned remembered me a lot of Karekano, just like BH gata
the Daimao one instead, is kinda funny at some moments, but incredibly stupid on another…
PS:. the “function bird” reminded me a lot of the HAT in Harry Potter LoL
Just watched Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou. I thought that the fanservice was excessive and just pointless. The art and character models are great though, and while the characters are a bunch of morons, the plot has a great concept, if a generic execution. Hopefully it will improve.
Kaichou wa Maid Sama has a chance to more better than Kimi ni todoke. OK I can say Kimi ni todoke first ep is more satisfied than this.But This show has potential.Unlike Kimi ni todoke that look like everything end in ep1(for me after I watch first ep. I didn’t want to watch it anymore. and at last I drop it around ep3).
Look like the lead character’s habit has much effected to the shoujo anime that I will watch too.Usually I like the couple that make fun with each other.(But I can watch another style too..Hmm..At last I will like or won’t like it. It still due form character development.)
And this show.. with ep1 only.It can delivered!!
With some of the interesing hint of past. that can make this show has some deep. With some comedy that I like. This show is the very interesting one. I looking forward to the next ep more and more!
ps.I want to watch Oofuri too. But I didn’t watch ss1. I want my freetime back for marathon it too much!!
I watched so many romcom dramas and read so many shoujos before and I think Kaichou wa Maid Sama don’t really bring anything new to the table.personally,I like the manga but I don’t think it would be up to psgels standards ^^
Can’t wait for the subbed Ookiku Furikabutte season 2! I’m really excited with the progress of Oofuri.
re: Maid-sama, it’s the same typical shojo anime, i’ve seen the plot time and time again in different animes. I think it’s stll a good watch though
Ookiki first season sucked weekly, once they got to that last game. That last game dragged on for SO long! I think its better marathoned, at least you knew when it would end.
judging psgel’s taste, i am sure he will choose to blog B gata instead kaicho if he forced to choose one of them 😛
By the way, I thought that Daimaou was absolutely hilarious. Not sure what supposedly fell flat, but this has “harem of the best kind” written all over it. My pleasant surprise of the season so far 🙂
Mentar: well, for me the parts at which that blue-haired girl kept chasing and attacking the lead character got old really fast and this episode just had way too much of it.
Yea, I really dont see why you found Kaichoi wa Maid Sama so unique or better then any other romantic comedy. Seems to be the same premise that has been done before in many manga/animes. B Gata on the other hand was a pleasant surprise.
I admit that the basic idea behind B Gata is original, but – sorry – the female lead is just too stupid for me to enjoy. It’s not the kind of humor I can bear for more than 10 minutes. It took me 5 attempts to finish merely episode 1. That won’t go anywhere with me.
KWMS and Daimaou have strong characters which in themselves are enjoyable to me already. And now that I found out that Shizu-sama is playing the perfect role for her in this show, I’m sure to watch everything of it.
Honestly, I was very sceptical about Maid-sama. At first, it was a little boring and crappy and I hated the female lead bcuz she reminded me of my skool prefects.
After a while, I have to say it got better and characters were funny to watch.
Well, I guess we’ll watch if it gets better or worse.
Hopefully, it’ll be good.
Oh god. No more Shojo plzzzz TT_TT Kaichou wa Maid Sama. I don’t like seeing any more drama between the tsundere and the pretty boy cause it’s pretty obvius who ends up with who.