Saki
Short Synopsis: Our lead character is very good at Mah Jong.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Really not sure about this one)
At this point, I don’t know what to think about this series, and whether it’s going to be Good Gonzo or Bad Gonzo. There is some definite potential, but at the same time there are so many things that got on my nerves. The lead character is charming, but some of the other members of the cast were beyond obnoxious (especially that overly squeaky little girl). The fanservice-parts felt really weird and forced (Gonzo is a bit too fond of its fanservice at times, and it really shows in this show). The ED is a very annoying J-Pop song which SO doesn’t fit my tastes and the small bit of drama between “boob”-san and Saki in the middle bit felt forced and not really that genuine. Having said that, though, the Mah-jong parts do feel interesting, the student council president was nice to watch, and overall there is potential, both for the show to become something nice or fall apart completely.
Tayutama ~Kiss on my Deity~
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to marry a cute fox girl.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No)
Hehe… oh boy. Well, what we have here is another one of those romantic comedies that try to find the most ridiculous ways to get a male and female to live together with each other. This time, it’s an ancient fox deity who gets transported to modern days, turns into a little girl, and then turns back into a teenager again when the male lead promises her that he’s going to marry her when she’s grown up. Yeah, you have to love the depth of this show, but what stands out the most in this episode were the utterly, utterly horrible character-designs. THAT HAIR! Aren’t these girls ashamed or something? The editing also feels unprofessional at times, and there are certain transitions from one scene to another that are so obviously flawed that I suspect that this episode was produced in a very big hurry. In any case, this definitely is another one of those series for the people who are into cheesy romantic comedies. If you’re not, then stay faaaaaaaaaaar away from this one.
Shangri-La
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has been in youth prison for two years, it seems.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (I’m intrigued)
Ooh, nice. Shangri-la has great ambitions, and I really liked all of the different kinds of ideas that were put into the setting; definitely creative. I liked all the potentially interesting characters, the detailed character-designs, the culture that these people live in; all in all it’s good stuff. But then again, with huge ambitions also come huge potential pitfalls: is this show going to be able to put everything it wants to show in its limited time frame, or are things just going to fall apart in a rushed and incomplete conclusion? This show especially has to deal with explaining how a teenaged girl seems to be so incredibly good at fighting with such a strange weapon, and the strange instances of fanservice were typical Gonzo. Still, the potential’s definitely there.
I agree with you, they hooked me and I’m hopeful that it won’t be rushed. It wasn’t mentioned so I’ll add that I absolutely love the soundtrack so far, it’s very Last Exile (same composer, Hitomi Kuroishi of Dolce Triade), in inspiration especially the various orchestral pieces like that sweet action music, with some very good different stuff as well.
Do we know how long this is going to be? Despite ANN listing only 12 question marks I don’t really expect this to be that short given it’s premise, world setup and size of the cast.
To me it feels like Gonzo’s 24-26 episode pieces (like Last Exile or Samurai 7) in size/scale whether spread over two 12/13 ep seasons or one straight one.
But I suppose it could be shorter, personally I hope not since it has the potential to be one of those ambitious science fiction shows that Gonzo pours their hearts into once every few years.
That’s student _congress_ president.
Shangri-La had “strange instances of fanservice”? The only thing I noticed that could constitute as fanservice in the first episode was the evil woman’s loose clothing (not entirely sure she’s a woman, though…).
“This show especially has to deal with explaining how”
Why would an anime fan care about something as pointless as things like this? Almost every anime has a lead character that has some super power, whether it ranges from fighting (or various sports/music/mecha piloting) skills surpassing the rest of the world to guys and girls with super-pheremones that makes everyone else fall in love with them. Spending too much time thinking like that is going to leave you with few anime to enjoy… just assume they’ve spent their entire lives training and have genius natural ability unless you receive another explanation.
Mark: actually, for me it’s the opposite: if I don’t spend this much time thinking like that, I’m going to end up with too much anime to enjoy. Of course I have no problem with talent, as long as a show makes it believable, which Shangri-La hasn’t done so far, and I’ve seen many other series that pulled that off.
Disliking an anime just because of that doesn’t make much sense to me… it’s in no way an indicator of quality, so you’re going to miss out on many of the best anime ever created that you should have enjoyed if not because of that.
‘Talent’ is the most common excuse for a character’s abilities anyway and it’s pretty rare for that talent to be explained properly. You liked Phantom despite Zwei randomly having great assassin skills with no experience, didn’t you?
Oh, don’t get me wrong. Simply because I see one possible downside to a series doesn’t mean that I immediately hate the series. In fact, I really liked the first episode of Shangri-La so far, but what my entry about Phantom showed me was that I also need to highlight some of the flaws of a series.
Not just that, but every great anime ever made has had some sort of “flaw”, no matter how good it was. To make a good story, you have to sacrifice some sort of consistency for a new plotpoint.
Actually, I’d prefer if you blog the way you normally do, than to blog what everyone wants. xD But, yeah, keep up these reviews. They’re written pretty well, even if I don’t agree with some of them. =D
Well, the Saki manga has a lot of fan service itself so it really isn’t Gonzo’s fault. It’s just natural.
Hope to see more Shangri-la getting better though it seems to count with a restricted budget by the animation.
Short comment this time, the visuals were simply breathtaking. That alone is driving my interest. The story itself also has plenty of potential. Can’t it live up to it’s expectations? I’m hoping.