Some quick first impressions: Ooedo Rocket, Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica and Engage Planet ~ Kiss Dum

Ooedo Rocket Short Synopsis: In a fictional Edo, we’ve got ourselves a young kid who’s able to make some of the greatest fireworks. Unfortunately, what he’s doing is illegal. Good: Hilariously awesome, great parodies. Bad: Obviously, most people will never give this wonderful concept a chance. Overall Enjoyment Value: 8/10 I never thought I’d say this, but boy, that was awesome. Obviously, this isn’t going to be the most serious story, but I just loved the parodies in this one. It’ll be a great replacement for Master of epic. Ooedo Rocket is one of the few obscure series this season, but obviously it’s just as promising as the other obscure anime of the previous seasons. The series comes with a huge cast of characters, each with their own different and unique quirk. Characters appear in all kinds of different sizes. We’ve got some small townsfolk with some of the most hilarious faces, there’s a bunch of teenagers, a couple of “normal” men and women, some strange monsters, and let’s not forget the guy who is so tall that his head almost always doesn’t fit in the screen. ^^ I also loved how the officer had a cleaning-obsession. If you like an anime which is different from usual, hilarious, and doesn’t take itself too serious, then this is a definite recommendation! Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica Short Synopsis: A typical loser can turn his tsundere friend into some kind of superhuman when he plays piano on his motorbike. Good: Good points? We don’t need no stinkin’ good points! Bad: Lack of thoughts behind the concept, too much fanservice, the fact that there just aren’t any good points. Overall Enjoyment Value: 5/10 In a season with so many potentially good series, it’s good to know that some series are just never going to be something worthwhile. Shinkyouku Soukai Polyphonica is one of these series. The demolition showed me that this is just an excuse to show cute girls. Real demolition teams would never allow people to enter their construction-site, and they would make sure that all items and properties are removed from the building before they detonate. The addition of semi-classical music for the climaxes also just doesn’t work, and the main guy doesn’t look cool AT ALL when he’s playing his motorbike. Add a female tsundere with an unnaturally large amount of hair, and whose only purpose is to supply fanservice to the viewer, and you’ve got yourself a failure of a series. Engage Planet ~ Kiss Dum Short Synopsis: The current year: 2031. The greatest enemy of mankind: bugs. And lots of ’em. Good: Great climaxes. Bad: A bit too heavy on the techno-babble, teenagers, able to pilot complex machinery. Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 With certain series, I just know that watching the raws with my limited Japanese is going to be near-impossible. Kiss Dum is one of these series. Not really because if has more difficult dialogue than other series, but the pacing is just insane at times. I think that you’ll need to be able to understand this perfectly in order to enjoy it to its fullest. And it’s got quite some potential to become good, I especially liked the climaxes at the beginning and the ending of the episode. Still, the main force of the protagonist somehow consists out of either teenagers or young adults. I tried, but I never managed to find any veteran amongst the characters. I’m not really enthusiastic about these kinds of concepts (due to the lack of realism), but I do admit that I’m impressed so far.]]>