You know, wasn’t this summer season supposed to suck? I mean, from the things I caught here and there this seemed to be a rather small and underwhelming season. And yet, I have only seen five new series so far (four if you don’t count the umpth Saint Seiya), of which three of them are already interesting enough to blog, and have a lot of potential to become great series. Is the rest of the season going to be filled with dumb harems and Code Geass clones or something?
In any case, with series airing a week before the rest of the season, it’s always hard for me to decide whether or not to blog them, because I have no idea whether or not there are going to be any better series turning up later. For Umi Monogatari it’s the same, as the majority of the new season has yet to air. Still, this episode definitely showed me that this series has a lot going for it, and I can always drop it if even more better shows pop up.
I’m obviously not blogging this series for the aestetics. While the animation is great, I first want to see it remain great for the next couple of episodes, and the art style itself is rather plain, with your average collection of moe stereotypes (one of the lead characters has yellow hair, one has red hair and one blue hair. Gee, those are the three primary colours, where have I seen that one before?). There’s lots of fanservice and all, but thankfully it’s handled tastefully: you don’t see any close-ups to jiggling boobs or strange crotch shots. That’s enough to keep it from getting annoying.
What caught my interest with this series was its characterization. The spring season already had a lot of series with an excellent cast of characters, and Umi Monogatari sounds like a nice addition to them. The three main characters feel realistic and very sympathetic. There are a lot of emotions in this series, but none of it feels like cheese, and it’s surprisingly genuine. It’s the charms of the main cast that really makes me want to watch more, and it makes for a pretty relaxing series with still a lot of drama.
The storyline is obviously going to need a bit more work (evil demons have been unsealed and need to be stopped by a certain sea priestess and air priestess), but I like how this series toys with your expectations. Along with unsealing those evil powers, the little mermaid also unsealed a rather strange turtle. That one I didn’t see coming.
Rating: * (Good)
Successfully carries the atmosphere further with some great animation and characters, even though the plot is a bit clichéd.
I take it you’re refering to Umineko and Aoi Hana? I’ve only seen the latter but really enjoyed it, will probably be watching it.
As for Umi Monogatari, I doubt it, aestetics alone is not enough reason to watch a series (unless it does atmosphere really well as well).
Every season has a lot of trash. But I can’t remember one, when there was absolutely nothing good to watch. Umi Monogatari is underrated already, though it’s not that bad. But I think Umi’s staff should take there creation more seiously. They are making a medicore thing and it seems they are good with it.
And, you know, another “Umi-” thing is out there already…)
It’s no Princess Tutu yet, but if Umi can develop the plot and characters a little with each of the next few episodes, I’ll keep hope for it to turn out well. Besides, for a mahou shoujo, the music is very quiet and peaceful, which adds something of a unique touch-the restrained OP, the simple but adorable ED, and the placid BGM are all wonderful so far.
As for the second “umi” this season, I’ll make a post about it as soon as the next series airs. It unfortunately wasn’t as good as I hoped it to be, though. Aoi Hana on the other hand was one of this season’s highlights thus far.
“It unfortunately wasn’t as good as I hoped it to be, though.” I have to agree. But Higurashi’s 2nd season started not very good either and became awesome later. So let’s hope, let’s hope…
No psgels!!! It’s a trap! Next thing you know, you’ll find yourself watching Tayutama and the like! Don’t fall for it!
Uhm, wait a minute, ehrm… what’s wrong with those mermaids? Since when had they got … legs? o.O”
@Perrin:
Aww, Tayutama. I watched to it and i must say its fault is not in the story itself, but in an over semplification of the plot and characters and cheap graphics.
@psgels:
I was pretty underwhelmed with the Umineko game’s introduction as well. I feel the anime did decently well with what they had to work with. If the pace of the anime keeps up, it starts to get interesting next episode.
@Solaris:Not mermaids, just ‘sea people.’ They never had tails or fins or anything.
Cool!
I never really got why you have to have 3 animes in your quick impressions.
I’d like to see your thoughts immediatly, not wanting to wait for the rest.
can’t you just update the post?
then i could already see your thoughts exactly about aoi hana and umineko.
“It unfortunately wasn’t as good as I hoped it to be, though.”
I rather doubt you’ve done any research on the series then. Almost anyone that’s read the VN will tell you that the first half of the first ‘Episode’ (cycle, arc, etc.) is the slowest part of the game and pretty much the only part that simply lacks any drawing factors. In adapting it Studio Deen clearly decided to skip a lot of what can be seen as important (but not required) character introduction.
I assure you it will get better and better even if Deen screw it up somehow (the oversized breasts on the women was annoying). Also, the Battler breast gags really have nothing to do with the style of Umineko so don’t let it influence your opinion. In the VN there was like two in Episode 1 and maybe one in Episode 2 and no more.
You liked Higurashi and overall Umineko is ten times better so you can choose to blog it or not.
psgels, I think you’ll love Aria.
Everything you criticized in UmiMono is fixed in Aria, although it doesn’t feature “evil powers” or anything of the sort, just slice-of-life with an even greater atmosphere.
The first two eps of this show have been decent, but nothing really stands out apart from the above-average animation and maybe Kanon’s evil aura. So why is she one of the good guys again?
I can see you dropping this already. Canaan, Bakemonogatari, Needless and Aoi Hana are my favorites now. Umineko was bleh and I’m still looking forward to Tokyo Magnitude and Sora no Manimani.
AKI: no kiddin’. When the season started I thought that this was going to be another rather mediocre season with only a few good titles, but I really was proven wrong. And to think that there’s still going to be more! >.<
I know! I also commented about how luckluster this season is until several series proved me wrong. Heck, I was even drawn to watch Yoku Wakaru and was surprisingly entertained. I was planning to watch six new shows for this season due to the fact that six (Eden, Natsu, K-On!, RisPara, Sora Kake and Regios) has already ended. I think I’ll put two series on hiatus from the previous season (Slap Up and Guin most likely) and go for another two. And oh yes, I havent seen Pandora yet. Ouch!
psgels, is it perhaps an idea to make a different rating system for new shows in the quick impression features? I realise a lot of people probably want to know if you’re going to blog it, but rather than giving the chances of going to blog it, why not give a % of how much you liked the show? You end up giving a lot of 0% to shows that are quite decent, simply because we have such a strong season. I don’t think the strongness of a season should affect the % score it gets =] You could always mention if you’re going to blog it or not anyway, and that might even change depending on how good the other shows are.