Some quick first impressions: Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel, Cobra The Animation and Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters are a bunch of crime-fighting mahou shoujo.
Highlights: It’s actually not bad.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Mahou Shoujo OVAs have a questionable reputation of being incredibly dull, after the likes of Dokuro-chan and Ryoufuku-chan were just big excuses for fanservice. Kaitou Tenshi also has a very questionable start. It’s just a bunch of moe girls who beat up stereotypical bad guys, there was no way for this to work. Imagine my surprise when it turns out that this first episode actually did have a clear goal: take the overconfidence that usually comes with the god-moded mahou shoujo, and smash this into the ground. There are a lot of references to Sailor Moon (the first season anyway). The problem, though, that apart from that, there’s hardly anything that really stands out. Characters are standard, the villains are standard. There’s also that matter that the second episode of this series can only go through predictable paths (although it would be awesome if the creators realized this and went with something totally different).

Cobra the Animation

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters meets a cute woman who is involved with an intergalactic space-complot.
Highlights: Is too busy overglorifying its own protagonist.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10
Cobra the Animation seems to be another attempt to revive an old anime franchise, but unfortunately this one didn’t go so well. Overall, it feels very much like a half-assed attempt. The plot so far is rather unimpressive, but the biggest turn-off is that Cobra is just too perfect of a person. He’s an excellent marksman, he’s popular with the ladies, he possesses the latest physics-defying gadgets to steal anything that’s loose. He’s just too awesome, without any weaknesses whatsoever. Add that to the tendency of the creators to just make Cobra appear at the exact places where the story needs him to be without any explanation, and the massive amounts of useless fanservice and you just lost my interest.

Battle Spirits Shounen Toppa

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is obsessed with a children’s card game.
Highlights: Full of stereotypes, but what else did you expect?
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4,5/10
Well, so this is the latest addition to shows that are only aimed at kids. It’s one of those genres that lives off seeing who can rip each other off the most, so it’s not surprising that this is the umpth one about playing card games. To make matters worse, either its rules are very incomprehensible, or they’re inconsistent with each other, which is not really a good start. All the stereotypes are also present: spiky haired bratty lead, female love interest, talented tsundere rival, father who’s either dead or gone, et cetera. Still, it’s not all bad. It’s got a decent OP and ED (which were most likely animated by the same animators as Power Puff Z, giving them a stylish look), and my favourite part: all the cool main characters have cute and fluffy pets that accompany them. The writing is also solid enough when the characters aren’t playing cards, but overall it’s nowhere near Net Ghost Pipopa, the series that I consider the best kiddie-show of 2008 (based on the first episode I watched anyway).