Kimi ni Todoke
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is that scary girl from Hyakko. No seriously, the two are introduced with exactly the same examples!
Ah, finally we have a series that goes with its own art style, instead of one that has been copied from a thousand other series already. That’s definitely a plus. Kimi ni Todoke is a shoujo-series, which you forced me to blog back here. Overall, compared to the first episodes of other shoujo-series, it doesn’t really stand out: the humour hardly got any chuckles out of me and the set-up is pretty basic. However in this season it really has been the best teenaged romance so far. with those standards it’s of course not that hard to achieve this, but the female lead is nice to watch, and doesn’t feel like a stereotype at all. There’s a nice bit of drama that doesn’t try too hard and has a sense of subtlety, and overall it was pretty nice. Although the creators really need to work on making that male love interest less perfect, because right now it’s nothing more than your average shy girl’s fantasies of dating the hottest and most popular guy in school.
OP: Nice art, but the song is standard J-pop that doesn’t interest me.
ED: Nice albeit a bit dull, ballad.
Potential: 50%
11Eyes
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets woken up every morning by his childhood friend.
I swear, I’m getting dejá vus from all of these moe shows this season. This feels like the umpth time I’ve seen fanservice, childhood friends becoming lovers, obnoxious classmates and generic moe character-designs. Nevertheless, for these first impressions I mostly look at the execution, and for this series it actually rocked. The slice of life scenes were still pretty dull and cliché, but whenever this series gets serious it gets dark and brutal, and the creators are immediately able to switch from a light and boring atmosphere to a very tense and dangerous atmosphere with a small touch of horror and mystery, and I really have to praise this series for that. Now all that remains is to wonder whether the creators can keep this up, and whether this show has a premise that can really get the best out of this direction. Agh, I have no bloody clue!
OP: Actually one of the best OPs this seasons. Energetic, varied and fast-paced, fitting the dark mood of this series.
ED: Again, a very nice track that nicely ties in with the cliff-hanger.
Potential: 50%
Kobato
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has to help other people.
After watching X, this was about the last thing I expected from the next Madhouse Clamp series: a cute shoujo series. And granted, the lead character Kobato is sickeningly cute. There’s a nice dynamic between her and her stuffed animal side-kick what made this episode worth watching. However, the side-characters felt rather flat and one-dimensional. Seeing as this is going to be a series that’s going to focus on Kobato helping out other persons, it’s going to be a bit pointless if the creators can’t create engaging characters for Kobato to help. In this aspect, Miracle Train did it much better. Kobato also was portrayed a bit too angelic during this episode: she can somehow take the worst ingredients and make a delicious dish out of it, she can sing perfectly, etc. Nevertheless, it’s an enjoyable episode and knowing Clamp, at least you can be sure that the characters are going to be developed as the story goes on but based on first impressions both Clamp and Madhouse have done better in terms of cuteness.
OP: Standard J-pop song that didn’t catch my interest.
ED: Quiet song that again didn’t catch my interest.
Potential: 50%
So you’ve never seen Cardcaptor Sakura and Chobits? Both are CLAMP/Madhouse fluffy shoujo XD
I have, but that was more than four years ago. After watching X a few weeks ago, it totally slipped my mind that these people can also do cute stuff. ^^;
“Kobato also was portrayed a bit too angelic during this episode”
keyword: angelic
ohohohohohohooooo~
Cardcaptor Sakura is a fluffy shoujo. Chobbits is a seinen (like Kobato), sort of fluffy but fanservice-y as well. But yeah, CLAMP overall do two kinds of work : sugary sweet fluff and sugary sweet bloody tragedy. They can be hard to tell apart on first aboard. 🙂
50% for all of them? Harsh! But yes, I also see a trend of cliches for a while now.
Seinime: that’s the problem with this season: there are so many series that have the potential to be great, but can just as well turn out to be huge flops or bore-fests.
it’s nothing more than your average shy girl’s fantasies of dating the hottest and most popular guy in school. – I don’t think kimi ni todoke should be likened to those, since, first of all, she doesn’t exactly aim to date him at this moment. Heck, she doesn’t see her feelings as romantic love. She was just happy of being acknowledged. Very happy.
And she’s not exactly shy. She’s just not very good in expressing her feelings. If she was indeed the shy type, she wouldn’t interact much at all! But Sawako does! People jsut stay away from her. Haha!
As for 11eyes, I hope I can watch it soon~
As for Kobato . . . eeew. *hates the girl*
Sapphire: I’m shy in real life as well. It’s not like shy people don’t talk at all. We can pretty much hold conversations, it’s just that trying to start a conversation and expressing feelings is extremely troublesome. The lead character of this series indeed isn’t stereotypically shy, but shy nonetheless.
@psgels
Ah, the “shy girl” stereotype was what I had in mind ^^;
Keep in mind Kobato anime is a crossover of WISH and Kobato, two mangas by CLAMP set in the same world (and possibly time). This means WISH’s plot will eventually appear in Kobato. So there should be a plot (WISH is about angels)
Other than that, reminds me of Aria….which is a good thing.
wakka9ca: hmm, do you think that you need to have read those two manga in order to fully understand the story, like with the latest Tsubasa and xxxHolic OVAs, or is this a standalone adaptation?
I’ve heard good things about the Kimi ni Todoke manga and I liked the preview so it’s definitely going on my to watch list.
Kobato was very enjoyable… i love the animation style and the little stuffed animal thing is hilarious… Can’t wait for more from CLAMP..
@psgels
With the way Madhouse is doing Kobato. I don’t think you’ll need to read either to understand it. It’s not like with Tsubasa and xxxHolic where to the two stories operate in conjunction with each other, Wish was completed years ago and Kobato is currently running.
They’ve already changed the granny who was originally a xxxHolic crossover to just a regular granny, so I think they’ll take care of crossover confusion.
I know exactly how you feel when you watched the first episode of Kimi ni Todoke. The female lead is pretty interesting–not often does one find someone like that–but everything else just felt so typical and mundane. Perfect male? Check. Innocent relationship? Check. Attempt to be overly cute? Check. Dunno if it’s just me who feels this way, though.
In all, it seems that this fall season isn’t nearly as good as the summer season. The only ones that interest me so far are Kobato and Sasameki Koto. I’m also hoping that Winter Sonata and Kuuchuu Buranko turn out to be good.
Despite how I voted for Kimi ni Todoke I don’t think it’s going to be a amazing show. I like the manga and curious to see how they adapt it to an anime, but I don’t think it’ll translate well. so I forced u to watch instead of me =]
Kobato was a fun and enjoyable watch.
Kimi ni Todoke is my favorite series this season thus far. Production I.G. doesn’t disappoint. Looking forward to seeing more of it!
Remember that Kimi ni Todoke is geared towards teenage girls. But there isn’t a complete emphasis on the romance. There’s a lot on friendship and putting yourself out there, which I find to be nice. Sawako is a nice change, because most female leads tend to be social but supposedly average looking. The show isn’t perfect, there’s a lot of cliches, but the characters are so endearing and lovable that I just don’t care. And I’m loving the art style (so artistic!).
You know, I started reading kimi ni todoke after noticing that it had many good reviews but I couldn’t even finish the first volume, I don’t know what the hype is about, the humor wasn’t that funny, it was cheesy and cliched and the “beautiful girl with the ugly complex” premise just sickened me, it’s nothing new and is just unreal, it’s sort of fangirl/fanboy pandering…
Hmmm… to my knowledge actually both Chobits and Kobato were first published on *seinen* manga magazines, not shoujo ones (target demographics, don’t you love them? 😉 Even Emma Victorian Romance is a seinen manga – and a wonderful and romantic tale, at that – ). That said, the aforementioned CLAMP do embody the ‘fluffy&cute’ side of manga.
I’m not a fan of either titles , unfortunately:pAbout KimiTodo, I agree with Sapphire Pyro’s comment. Sadako is more thirsty for friendship and self-discovery than romance and I believe will stay like this for a while, so… don’t lump her and the overall story together with more sterotypical shoujo lead character (yet :D) and romance fulfillment, psgels ^_^.
About Kazehaya… IMO he seems typycal bishie because we are shown him as seen through Sadako’s naive eyes , because he is kind to her , plus he’s popular at school. But even in the story context he’s not uber-handsome or uber-anything per se, just cute-ish and very friendly/gentle. I find his look&personality combo average-yet-not, in this sense is refreshing and relatively realistic.
I don’t know how anyone can confuse Chobits for a shoujo-series o__O
“because right now it’s nothing more than your average shy girl’s fantasies of dating the hottest and most popular guy in school.”
It’s unfortunate that that is the impression KnT made on you. I like KnT because their love story is the complete opposite of that.
A little bit of useless trivia: The opening song for 11Eyes is done by Tatsh (vocals Ayane) from the Dance Dance Revolution fame… Cool song.
I find it amusing that you’ve actually managed to unknowingly pick up on something in Kobato. from the get-go 😉
Kobato seems only about the countless clumsy and moe little girl. I’m getting tired of these, and i thought Clamp would do it much better than this. I really regret old time’s Clamp when they made awesome shows like Angelic Layer, Rayearth or Chobits.
I praise 11 Eyes as long they don’t mess up the good premises they showed us in this first episode.
I’m a sucker for GOOD romance and I’m loving Kimi no Todoke already. THANK GOD the main girl character isn’t annoying and cute…I like her voice too. I hope this series run longer than 12 episodes…12 episodes is hardly enough to develop the characters. Can’t wait for next week!!!
I’m a sucker for GOOD romance and I’m loving Kimi no Todoke already. THANK GOD the main girl character isn’t annoying and cute…I like her voice too. I hope this series run longer than 12 episodes…12 episodes is hardly enough to develop the characters. Can’t wait for next week!!!
Kimi ni Todoke seems interesting.. hmmm maybe I’ll watch it 🙂
i think that KNT was a good anime overall. i’d give it an 80-95% if i was rating it and im not even all that into the relationship animes that much. well its good enough for me to want to watch it again some time.