Okay, so I have decided to change the format of these quick first impressions a bit. Instead of waiting for three episodes to air before posting them, I’m just going to post what I have, and edit in the remaining ones when they air.
Taishou Yakyuu Musume
Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets invited to play baseball by one of her friends.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (With such a strong season it’s unlikely)
I really have to say that this has to be one of the best starts of a season in a long while. Of the seven shows I’ve seen so far, only two of them weren’t interesting and fun to watch. There hardly have been any annoyances so far. Anyway, Taishou Yakyuu Musume is the winner of this season’s WTF-moment when the lead character starts singing and dancing rather badly from out of nowhere (those poor typesetters, by the way). It’s a really nice series, though. It’s a slice of life shows about a bunch of girls, living around eighty years ago who plan to start up a baseball club. It’s an interesting premise, and while the slice of life hasn’t been as good as in Aoi Hana, it’s still enjoyable and relaxing. The lead characters are naturally charming without being forced or overly moe, so overall I’m quite pleased with this show so far.
Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters know magic.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (There are too many good shows this season)
The only thing that sucks in this season is the character-designs: all so far are bland, don’t try anything new and lack a visual identity. Apart from that, nearly every series has been enjoyable for me (and besides, the character-design problem will probably go away once I watch Bakemonogatari). I think that that’s a prime for me. Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou granted is the second-worst TV-show this season, and yet I enjoyed this episode. It’s strange: it’s a premise that I usually hate with passion. Here we have a bunch of teenagers who happen to know magic and do… stuff. But strangely this episode really amused me. At first sight we do have a bunch of stereotypes, but they work well together and I liked the chemistry between them a lot. What made this series better than the average moe comedy for me is that it never felt forced: it was the characters who wrote this series, not the scriptwriters. It’s a series that doesn’t pretend to be anything more than it already is: it’s just a bunch of girls having fun with magic, nothing more. Granted, the hot spring part at the end was a bit too much, but heck; I liked the rest of this episode. What’s happening to me!?
Bakemonogatari
Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets a girl who has no weight.
Chance of me Blogging: 70% (I’m impressed)
Whoa, people weren’t kidding that Bakemonogatari was going to rock this season. This episode only gave a small taste of what is to come, and yet I’m very intrigued already. It has pretty much the best OP of the season. Horror series have always had downright excellent first episodes, and this episode really proved the same, as this episode was my second to only Aoi Hana this season so far. It’s great to see that Shinbo still has enough inspiration to try out new kinds of animation and visuals, so this series doesn’t feel like a rehash of one of his previous shows. It’s also great to see that he has planned out this series very well, and is even willing to extend the amount of episodes beyond the amount that can be broadcast, simply to avoid this show getting rushed. Seriously, more series should do that.
Taishou Yakyuu Musume has got a potential of eing a GREAT anime if they would jus stop the moeness….I mean the story’s premise is really great.
Good to hear you’ll be blogging Bakemonogatari. I’ve only seen a few minutes – I don’t want to have too much spoiled before I watch it subbed – but I could tell it has more style than all of last season’s anime combined. Good voice acting, too.
PSGELS, YOU’RE BECOMING OLDER XD STOP BEING SENILE!! HAHAHAHHA
i’m quite happy with Taishou Yakyuu Musume so far,like psgels it’s not overly moe,and i like the absence of fanservice.
Please scratch My first comment for it was not I who posted that one but my younger brother. I’m just going to comment about Taishou Yakyuu Musume.
First of all, the story’s premise and setting are really quite interesting, and not just the era itself, but the school and the people inside it. The creators really searched throughly about how it was for women during that era (Minimizing spoilers)and how they’re supposed to act in a given situation. This anime has this kind of feminism running over it. There are certain scenes which clearly shows the lack of freedom of speech during that era, for instance during the scene where the eyeglasses-girl won’t stop bugging the main char,you can clearly sense that she wants to shout, to be angry, but she simply can’t because it shows rudeness and lack of good upbringing. Oh, and the song is for a lil japanese history lesson LOL.
I think my earlier comments about the season looking slim were based on my preferences, which pretty much exclude the slice-of-life stuff, although I really love slice-of-life worked into other series with other, deeper mysteries or s/f elements involved because I think the slice-of-life does the most to develop the characters…but as far as watching an entire show about high school kids in japan, or running a restaraunt, etc…especially the over the top romance stuff, just doesn’t sit with me unless its done supremely well…like, clannad. Clannad was awesome, and it only had minor touches of magical realism to complement the slice-of-life, young romance stuff. But clannad is one of those genre-transcending stories which goes above what it is to become something even more powerful…so anyways, a lot of the highlights of the season are those kind of shows, and they probably are good, but I’ll wait until they’ve all aired to decide if I want to dedicate that much time to watching them. For me, it looks like there will be three or four I’ll watch as they go. umineko because it comes from the creators of higurashi, bakemonogatari because it looks awesome, maybe needless, maybe umi monogatari, and probably one more which name I can’t really remember…but I’m gonna wait until 2 or 3 eps are out for any of this before I jump in. It takes time for me to decide if I’m into a story, and I’d rather sit and dig in to each all at once. But we’ll see, we’ve got quite a few to come and my mind could change
yay, you listened to me^^.
i like this way better.
Bakemonogatari is my most anticipated show in the season, and you liked and are going to blog it as well.
Oh it has been the same with other season *_* that’s so awesome.
Wow, Bakemonogatari surpised me! Amazing visuals and the ED was sugoi. Unfortunately, I have very limited nihon skills so I did not get half of the dialogue but at least I got what it needs to tell. Paint me impressed.
Bakemonogatari has finally been released subbed. So let’s see what we have here:
– Probably the best developed and most interesting characters of the season so far.
– Gorgeous experimental visual style and excellent animation.
– A fast-paced mix between thriller, horror and… comedy, I suppose I should call it. It definitely feels fresh.
– A soundtrack that feels similar to Cowboy Bebop so far.
– Excellent voice acting.
This show isn’t as good as I hoped it would be – it’s 10 times better. I know it sounds like I’m overhyping it but for me personally this is pressing all the right buttons. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out to be a serious contender for anime of the year 2009.
tealovertouma: I’m waiting for a certain group’s release myself, but I assume the comedy is composed of dark humor and puns?
If so, FUCK YEAH, everything I wanted and more~
I just finished watching this and I have to say that I was suprised how good it was. I enjoyed the character development and animation the most. The ending song was great too!
uhm these three series are already finished. If you are referring to bakemonogatari, well the blogger, luckily, didn’t end blogging it Maybe cause it wasn’t that masterpiece it looked to be. (in fact it wasn’t even good at the end). But that’s my guess.
If you’re referring to one the other two, which i really hope to, you can post comments in their own reviews at the first page.
before psgels review bakemonogatari, I should say something first
Bakemonogatari animation suck ass
the character barely moving, all we have some random camera shot. that not animation. it may have some value in art, bake art suck too
even queen blade are better animate than bakemonogatari. this is not exaggeration feel free to count frame by frame in queen blade vs bakemonogatari, and don’t count repeated frame
since their skip the animation, well the art must be awesome right………… WRONG bake art suck too
just look at the background, all we have some white/black color background, well sometime bake have some background but it nothing more than copy and paste from the same thing.
well at less the bake has multiple OP, so it not complete failure in animation. sadly those OP are worthless
here my troll Bakemonogatari review 75/100
Storytelling: 6/10
let face it no matter how much people claim the dialog is good, it just not. frankly it suck to be honest, most of the dialog are worthless
Characters:8/10
nothing more than those stereotype character you could find in harem anime.
Production-Values: 6/10
I hate this show animation
Setting: 10/10
ahh this what reel those fan, the whole concept saving damsel in distress got multiply. to make it even better, all the girl a the very type otaku dream girl, adding fanservice not gonna hurt either
how could you not blog Bakemonogatari…
;o
the show’s amazing. >.