Digimon Xros Wars
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the legendary hero who can save the world from an invasion of Digimon.
Well, so this was going to be the biggest question-mark of the season. It’s digimon… but focused on an even younger audience. Would that really be able to work? Well… after watching this episode… it seems that the creators intend this to be one of those cheesy mecha series from the seventies and eighties, and I don’t mean that in a good way! Battles descend in flashy transformations in which the good guys are able to wipe out hordes of evil digimon at once, everything is unnecessarily spunky. The direction unfortunately also sucks. Things just… happen. There is no build up, no attempts to create suspension of disbelief, it’s just an adventure of a bunch of kids who happen to have superpowers. I will say this though: it is better than most other kiddie shows. There’s a hint of drama, and one or two scenes actually didn’t have cheese. But yeah, let’s face it: this one’s never going to be as good as Digimon’s first season. I know it’s a kids’ series and all, but that’s no excuse to look down on them and treat them like idiots.
OP: Decent enough.
Potential: 10%
Tono to Issho
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a famous person in the Sengoku era.
So… if you were wondering whether the tv-series improved on the OVA… don’t bother. IT’S EXACTLY THE BLOODY SAME! Seriously, as it turns out, the tv-series is just going to consist out of the OVA, chopped up into episodes of ninety seconds. I mean… eh?
ED: The only thing new, but still crappy.
Potential: -70%
Nuyarihyon no Mago
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the grandson of some lead of some large youkai family.
Some shows go all out with their first episode. This one didn’t, but there still is enough to like left. This episode was wonderfully subtle for a shounen series. There’s no overacting, there is no fanservice, the lead character isn’t some cocky idiot who charges into fights, and yet the drama that’s there is handled really well. The characters get to say what they want to say without going over the top, and this episode already established the lead character beyond a mere caricature by showing how he chose to grow up as a normal human, despite the house full of youkai he’s raised in. I especially want to praise that soundtrack, which turned out to be really atmospheric and added an extra layer of emotional depth to the dramatic scenes. The series still is a bit childish, as we see a lot of scenes of middle schoolers, hanging out with each other, but there was nothing bad about them. There were no obvious stereotypes or characters who abuse their own gimmicks, it pulled no cheap tricks, nor were the characters acting way too stupid for their own good. The youkai designs range from cute to simple to actually quite beautiful and well drawn. Overall, a solid start to a series that surely is still holding back a lot of its cards.
OP: Decent at first sight, but it has this innocent charm to it.
ED: Um… yeah. Why does this work so well?
Potential: 85%
NnM is definatly a good series, dont let the fact that there is an apparant middle school theme, the main char just happens to be a middle schooler. the range of characters is huge, and there is constant character development for all parties that play a “main” role… at least if the manga is anything to go by.
I’ve read the Nura manga and thought that this was a pretty awkward first episode but I’m glad it’s not scaring some people away. And, while the human cast is mainly middle schoolers (in the beginning anyway, probably won’t get beyond them in the adaptation) the yokai outnumber them two or three to one and they’re all quite a bit older.
Instead of a generic cocky kid Nurarihyon has a generic wimpy kid with glasses. Such an improvement.
I love shit with yokai in, but this first episode gave me absolutely not reason to return. None of the characters are remotely interesting, and the plot contained no hooks worth mentioning.
http://blog.seiha.org/2010/07/nurarihyons-grandson-01-do-not-operate-heavy-machinery/
I read both of your blogs to hear different opinions. Someone made a comment about you in one of Aroduc’s posts. Just thought that you should know.
It’s interesting that Aroduc always seems to have a completely different opinion than Psgels. Unfortunately, he rarely offers any sort of criticism apart from calling something boring or complaining about production values.
This episode actually rekindles my interest in the manga. The animation was pretty neat. I’ll be following this series for sure.
^By manga I meant Nurarihyon no Mago. ^^
So, does anyone know how long this series will be yet? I’m already watching too many endless shows. :\
-70%? How large is your scale? It started out pretty serious, but now it just goes all over the place.
@Bruce
Psgels and Aroduc don’t always have contradicting opinions, but that may be hard to accept as they usually do. Anyway, different people look at different things, so what Aroduc is doing isn’t really wrong. Both of them are good writers, so it gives us more to read about. I may not agree with what they say, with around 40% for Psgels, and about half for Aroduc, but I have to say that I still enjoy reading their entries. You’ll like what you like, and hate what you hate. No one can dictate that for you, but it won’t hurt to hear other opinions. Sorry for straying. Was just something that I wanted to say.
Well, I like the Nurarihyon manga, but it’ll be a shame if this anime doesn’t go beyond 26 episodes.
On a side note, I enjoy reading both Psgels and Aroduc opinions, most of the times I agree with Psgels, but still Aroduc has this bitter yet funny irony that for some reason makes me smile when I read his blog.
Nuyarihyon does feel like it was intended for a younger audience, but it’s a solid shounen series.
There’s so many series this season that I didn’t think I would find interesting, but I keep getting surprised.
I absolutely love NHM as a manga, and am delighted that it’s FINALLY turned into an anime after all this long. It’s nothing like Inuyasha, despite what people think, and I’m glad you rated it a high percentage! Can’t wait to see your reviews on it in the future.
Naru is the classical shounen kid anime. I agree there’s nothing over the top now and it’s fairly decent by now, but such kind of production may implode easily, expecially if they gain popularity. So i’m being cautious there.
@Psgels vs Aroduc. Their style absolutely doesn’t compare thus being both enjoyable to read. Each for different reasons tough 😉 If i want a well pondered opinion about contenents i read Psgels. On the other hand if i want a bitter satyrical opinion never to take seriously i read Aroduc. He usually points out anime’s antics pretty well.
the first episode was quite a letdown. the story just jumped around, the main cast lacked life and acted very out of character (Aotabu bowing even to Narurihyon is hard to imagine let alone to Gyuki!!!) and the nura youkai looked more like elementary kids rather than the rowdy rulers of the night. its as if the studio just concentrated on making that amazing sakura tree and neglected everything else.
I found Digimon Xross Wars (what a truly idiotic name) to be way more enjoyable than I thought possible. I loved the rampant tongue-in-cheekiness, the promise of an epic war in the future, and the overall gurren laganness the show displayed. A dumb, light-hearted action-packed shounen infused with tons of nostalgia? MORE, PLEASE!
The whole somewhat dramatic tone, tons of character development sort of thing was already done by Digimon Tamers… I actually like seeming then do different things with the series.
Watched the first ep of Mago .. pretty good i have to say … it kinda reminds me of “kekkaishi” (which is a very good shonen show) and it is indeed slated for 24 episodes which means it won’t fall into the infinite power growth syndrome many shonen shows fall in … actually the fact the main character commands an army of spirits in both his human and spirit forms (love the variety of designs based on Jap folklore and myths) completely removes any need for artificial leveling up stuff .. he has an entire army to fight for him and protect him .. that brings us to his 2nd form which he seemingly detests and doesn’t have full control of .. it will be interesting seeing how he will cope with that 2nd persona that lives in his spirit.
Also loved the part when the main character was running around pushing spirits into the wall and flushing them into the toilet to hide them from his friends .. it was hilarious .. that place was really an infested spirit colony .. can’t imagine how it’s like when the spirits he commands go there too (he actually ordered them to not got there that night) .. a hunted party i suppose XD
Overall it’s better than i expected and i’ll be keeping an eye on it.