The Student Room Group

Caraniel's Sublime Spring Anime Preview 2012

Winter is over and Spring is upon us, so in my typically untimely manner it’s time to check out what the new season has in store for us.

For previous Season Summaries click here



As always all opinions are my own personal thoughts and I’m often wrong so take things with a pinch (or shovel) of salt.

On we go~!
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Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)



Hiiro no Kakera (Scarlet Fragment)



Yurumates 3D



Zetman



Queen’s Blade: Rebellion



Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden



Ginga e Kickoff! (Kickoff to the Galaxy!)



Gakkatsu!



Kuromajyo-san ga Touru!



Kore wa Zombie Desu-ka? Of the Dead



Lupin III: Mine Fujiko to Iu Onna (The Woman Called Mine)



Medaka Box



Shirokuma Café (Polar Bear Café)



Sengoku Collection



Natsuiro Kiseki



Accel World



Upotte!!



Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo X)



Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball)



Fate/Zero S2



Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle 2nd Season

(edited 12 years ago)

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)



Saki: Achiga-hen episode of side-A



Jormungand



Sakamichi no Apollon



[expand="Tsuritama"]



Website: http://www.tsuritama.com/
Animation Studio: A-1 Productions
Japanese Airdate: 12th April 2012
Seiyuu: Kouki Uchiyama, Miyu Irino, Ryota Ohsaka, Tomokazu Sugita
Director: Kenji Nakamura (Mononoke, Trapeze)
PV: http://youtu.be/uTV_ct6Rwsw


Summary:
Original production airing in the Noitamina timeslot.
In Enoshima, Yuki is a high school student who's never been good at making real friends thanks to his abnormally poor communication skills. Haru is the self-styled alien who decides to teach Yuki to fish. Natsuki is an irritable born-and-raised local. Akira is the mysterious Indian who watches them all from a distance. These four meet, fish, and find big adventures on their little island.


Tsuritama is a Kenji Nakamura original project, something I wouldn’t have guessed from the artwork given the quirky art in Mononoke and Trapeze, although [C] was a bit more mainstream looking I suppose. However reading the synopsis you can see his fingerprints all over it. The show puts me in mind of Arakawa Under the Bridge given the waterside theme and quirky characters if its as fun as Arakawa I’ll love Tsuritama, and I have high hopes given the excellent staff on board. Looks like Noitamina is going to be back on form this season.
[/C]

Eureka Seven Ao (Astral Ocean)



Hyou-ka: You Can’t Escape



AKB0048



Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan (Bread of Happiness)



Acchi Kocchi (Place to Place)



Sankarea



Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Another Crawling Chaos



Kimi to Boku S2



Ozuma



OVA’s


Holy Knight



Ai Mi! Moe Can Change



UN-GO Episode 0: Inga Chapter



Kimi no Iru Machi (A Town Where You Live)



History’s Strongest Disciple Kenichi



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~


And there we go, I’ve left off the majority of the kiddie shows because no one really watches those and the list was frighteningly long before I took them out you have no idea how long it has taken me to write this post.
As usual all the information here has been taken from a mixture of ANN, The Fansub Wiki, MAL, the official sites, and Neregate’s Chart (plus a few other random places).
First impressions posts will be going ahead as normal at the start of April regardless of how sore I am. Looking forward to this season, do think there are a few gems in there.
As ever the first post will be updated with a list of what’s available through legal streaming on Crunchyroll & Anime on Demand.

‘Til then~!

~*Caraniel*~

Simulcasts!

(edited 11 years ago)
I was just wondering when this thread would come up :tongue:

After last season suprises I'm trying to look at as many series as I can but the main ones that I really want to watch are:

Fate/Zero - funny thing about this is that while it was on hiatus I tried watching Fate/stay night and stalled after a few episodes as I got a bit bored. It just was so inferior compared to Fate/Zero. I'll probably start again...someday

Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)- Looks good, but that's all I have to say.

Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden- So I'm a narutard. Bite me.

Kuroko no Basuke (Kuroko’s Basketball)- Basketball? Shonnen Jump? I'm there!

Jormungand- Again the plot looks interesting.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)- Just because it has paranormal.... stuff.
Reply 3
Original post by The Cornerstone

Fate/Zero - funny thing about this is that while it was on hiatus I tried watching Fate/stay night and stalled after a few episodes as I got a bit bored. It just was so inferior compared to Fate/Zero. I'll probably start again...someday

One of the biggest problems with Fate/Stay is that they tried to take stuff from all three main routes of the VN, mish-mashed them together, leaving a lot of stuff specific to each route uncovered and then finished off with the most boring route of the three, although understandable as Saber is pretty much the poster girl for the Fate series.

Ufotable, being pretty damned good at what they do anyway, only have one set story to stick to for Fate/Zero. No branching, no composite mashing or anything like that. Just the one straight track that Urobochi penned out.

Things really do get taken up a notch for the rest of the story too. There are some great moments that should hopefully look fantastic when animated. I can't really say much without giving away massive spoilers, but it should be well worth the wait.

Anyway, the more I look into this coming season, the less interested I become. On initial looks, I had a good 7 or so shows that I was keen to watch. Now I can only really pin it down to Fate, Hyouka and Apollon. Possibly E7AO too.
Picked up:

Uchuu Kyoudai - Great first episode. :biggrin:

Zetman - Benefited from being the only new ep downloaded during a time when I had no internet access. :p:

Fate/Zero S2 - As if there was ever any doubt.

Upotte!! - Better than I expected!

Acchi Kocchi -
...those aren't nendoroids, Cara...

Saki: Achiga-hen episode of side-A - Still a ridiculous name, but meh. :p:

Phi Brain S2 - Is it just me, or was that better than any episode from the first series?

Kore wa Zombie Desu-ka? Of the Dead - I'd forgotten just how fun this series was. :giggle:

Sankarea - Miles better than Bakemonogatari!

Jormungand - *imagines crossover with Upotte!!*

Eureka Seven Ao - This could definitely compete with Fate/Zero for best of season.

Queen’s Blade: Rebellion - :teeth:

Tsuritama - WOW. That was AMAZING.

Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan - It's like Shukufuku no CamPanella all over again!

Nazo no Kanojo X - It's different, I like it. :drool:

Sakamichi no Apollon - VERY SIMILAR first ep to Tsuritama. :zomg: But presented in a very different way. I'll give both a shot. :smile:

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - Couldn't be bothered waiting another week for Hyou-ka, so picked up the other mystery show!
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 5
Thanks for doing the thread again cara. :smile:

Stuff I want to watch:
Space Bros something seinen about space :beard: looks nice too, zetman, it looks cool :teeth:, Lupin III have never watched any lupin before but wanted to :redface:, Fate zero of bloody course :teeth:, Jormungand sounds intriguing :smile:, Apollon, it was a done deal as soon as that drumming started.:shock: Ozuma, already watched the first ep which I liked.:smile:

Maybes: kore wa zombie... I dunno it ended in a dull way before.:s-smilie: medaka box, sounds like a laugh but "meandering plot lines" and the rest isnt encouraging. :erm: Mysterious Girlfriend X seems amusing though I dont usually watch this sort of thing :pierre:. Was thinking that amnesia girl series.. but the song in the pv reminded me too much of ali project.:afraid: Naruto rock lee thing, Ive read some of the rock lee spin off manga ..which was ok but I didnt think much of it beyond that.:s-smilie:


"Clearly the show of the season right here! I do actually want to watch this great cast, solid staff and fecking bears & penguins! Bring on NichiBears!"
Not sure if sarcastic.:erm:
Reply 6
Original post by vin
Thanks for doing the thread again cara. :smile:


Summer is probably the last one of these I can do since I'm heading traveling mid September so won't have time to do the Autumn one. Someone will have to take over for me for a year!

"Clearly the show of the season right here! I do actually want to watch this great cast, solid staff and fecking bears & penguins! Bring on NichiBears!"
Not sure if sarcastic.:erm:

I'm half serious - Takahiro Sakurai, Hiroshi Kamiya & Jun Fukuyama voicing a random collection of bears & penguins who run a cafe? It can only be genius!
Reply 7
So boys doing cute boring things is also a one or two a show season thing too eh?

Jormungand, the penguin thing and maybe that odd thing with the drool (character design) are the only things that seem to interest me at the moment...
Reply 8
I feel obliged to say that on the subject of the Fate/ series, that the anime adaption was terrible compared to the VN source material.

Anyway planning to watch
Fate/Zero
Accel World
That silly Lovecraft adaption thingy
Hyou-ka cause Kyoani
Zombie cause saw first season

I'm also liable to pick other stuff up based on recommendations.
Reply 9
Original post by Carecup
I feel obliged to say that on the subject of the Fate/ series, that the anime adaption was terrible compared to the VN source material.

I weep knowing that HF will never be animated and UBW will never be done justice. If it (HF) did get animated, DEEN would undoubtedly hash it up.
Reply 10
Original post by Tabris
I weep knowing that HF will never be animated and UBW will never be done justice. If it (HF) did get animated, DEEN would undoubtedly hash it up.


If Type moon threw the rights to their VNs at ufotable t'would be pretty amazing.

Or shaft- although I'm trying to imagine F/S N with wide heads (Ala Hidamari) or being animated with powerpoint (Ala Bake).
Reply 11
Original post by Carecup
If Type moon threw the rights to their VNs at ufotable t'would be pretty amazing.

Or shaft- although I'm trying to imagine F/S N with wide heads (Ala Hidamari) or being animated with powerpoint (Ala Bake).

You don't have to imagine it, courtesy of pixiv.

great work once again cara :top:

theres quite a few shows im interested in this season :beard: will give the following a go:

space bros - sounds pretty cool and original :yep:

naruto sd - rock lee baby :sexface: just seen the first ep, a bit dumb but quite amusing :mmm: them 3 playing house :rofl: :h:

zombie desu 2 - :woo:

medaka box - sounds kinda interesting :beard:

accel world - the short fat kid did it for me :awesome:

mysterious girlfriend x - interesting :lolwut:

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia - :iiam:

Sakamichi no Apollon - :cool:

Hyou-ka: You Can’t Escape - cant go wrong with KyoAni, usually :p:

Sankarea - yay zombies :woo:

Kimi no Iru Machi - short and sweet :yes:

Kenichi - yesss :dice: even though i havent read the manga gona watch this anyways :yep: they should make a 2nd season :puppyeyes:

hmm i seem to have taken up more than i wanted to but will probs end up dropping half of them anyways :p: need to finish last seasons stuff before starting new stuff, i always seem to struggle to do this at the end of every season :pinch:

also looking through the list, i need to get round to watching the first seasons of eureka, fate/zero, saki and maybe phi brain one day :yep:

and fecking LOL at the ai mi moe thing :rofl:
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 13
Original post by Tabris
You don't have to imagine it, courtesy of pixiv.

http://i.imgur.com/zk2v8.jpg


O god Kyubey Gil

"Make a contract with me and become my master you wretched dog"
Reply 14
Okay folks, I'm running a bit behind schedule, but should get caught up soon! It's First Impressions time! As usual I'm cross-posting from my blog.

Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai)

This was an outstanding opening episode. SpaceBros did everything you could possibly want an opening episode to do established the main character, gave him a believable and relatable personality and a goal to strive for. It’s wonderful to have another series with adults as its focus, you can really tell that these characters have a wealth of experience behind them, and having our main character decide to embrace his childhood dreams once again was wonderful. SpaceBros has got 50+ episodes to develop its story with, if all the episodes are as tightly paced and well written as this one, we are in for an absolute treat with this show.

In terms of production everything is positive too the animation is nice and crisp with plenty of attention payed to the detailing in the backgrounds. Music is superb, already I think we have a contender for the best OP & OST of the season! I loved the use of imagery in the OP too, the ED wasn’t just as impressive, but by no means bad. Voice acting is brilliant, Hiroaki Hirata really shines in this kind of role.

SpaceBros is an immediate keeper from the first episode, I am so glad this turned out as well as it did!

Kimi to Boku S2

It’s more of the same with this first episode of the second season of Kimi to Boku absolutely nothing happens, the boys just sit around chatting and the camera is constantly drawn to some random cats that have nothing to do with the actual show. Despite that I’m still going to watch this show made it all the way through the first season on the merits of my needing a ‘moe boys’ show to watch every season Kimi to Boku fills that gap nicely. For some reason I can tolerate this s’life series where similar shows with girls as the main characters have me clawing my eyes out in boredom. No idea why that is, I’m just biased I guess. Also this episode was actually pretty well written the conversation flowed naturally (even though Chizuru is still irritating) and there was even some genuinely funny moments with Kaname’s mother.

Minimal effort is put into the production since it’s just the five boys sitting about chatting about nothing in particular, inter-cut with some shots of random cats. Music is pretty bland and the new OP & ED aren’t anything special. Voice acting saves the show as the characters sound natural & I was amused by their impersonations of Shun.

I’m watching this, but it is something you could easily skip.

Ozuma

Cheating slightly as we are already three episodes into Ozuma midway through it’s run really since it’s only 6 episodes. I’m a bit disappointed by the show if I’m honest, it’s been much more about ‘real time sand submarine operation’ than anything else so far, and the characters have received minimal development so I don’t actually care about any of them (barely remember anyones name!). The world hasn’t really been explored much either and I’m generally just left a bit cold by the entire show really by this stage I should care a bit more.

Production isn’t wonderful either the Matsumoto character designs don’t really work with the clean modern animation resulting in them looking stiff and unnatural when compared to the backgrounds. There is a good cast here, but the script is quite dry and boring which bleeds into their performances. Overall Ozuma just hasn’t impressed me much.

I’m watching it to the end because it’s short, but I did expect more from Ozuma so I am disappointed it’s been so average. Maybe it will redeem itself in the 2nd half, but I’m not optimistic.
Reply 15
Zetman

Oh dear. If I tell you that I spent the majority of this first episode giggling like a madwoman you’ll get an idea of what I thought of Zetman. This show desperately wants to be taken seriously, and it does have a potentially interesting premise and lots of style, but unfortunately it just goes too far and ends up becoming cheesy and OTT. I’m hoping that this is just a case of being overly enthusiastic about its opening episode and that everyone calms down in the next few episodes, because I am still pretty interested in Zetman.

The worst offender in this episode was whoever did the action choreography, because it was just a mess. It was impossible to tell what was going on, the animation degraded into blurs and lulzy camera angles were thrown in randomly it’s like the director got way too caught up in making the fights look dynamic and stylish, and forgot to make them easy to follow as well! The music, just like Another from last season, is also very overblown some of the musical cues in the “touching scenes” set me off into giggles from how blatant they were. Voice acting is actually pretty decent, if somewhat cheesy (mostly the scripts fault), and I quite liked how overdone the OP was.

Overall I enjoyed this episode of Zetman, but not for any of the reasons I was expecting. If it continues like this it will be worth watching for the entertainment value, but I am still hoping it gets itself together and starts presenting the story in a more restrained manner.

Kuromajyo-san ga Touru!

This is pure kiddie fluff it’s only 7 minutes long and not a whole lot happens, so pretty harmless. There isn’t much explanation or exposition about why the main character is suddenly in training as a witch, nor is there a whole lot of actual animation going on (any less and it would be a powerpoint slide show). Still for what it is the show is watchable and not overly irritating which is more than I really expected.

Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden

Well this pretty unfunny. Aside from reusing jokes (that poop joke got recycled three times in 20minutes!) the show doesn’t really seem to know what it want to do and completely fails at being a comedy. Rock Lee is already a pretty goofy character in the main series but at least he does have some cool moments, however in this spin-off they just strip him right back to being an incompetent idiot. I think the only skit I laughed at was the “playing house” one, and that was mainly done to Neji acting like an elementary schoolgirl!

The OP is unremarkable in its cheesiness, but the ED…….my god the dancing. Scarred for life.

So yeah, I am a fan of the Naruto franchise, but not even that could make me watch more of this awfulness…….makes me want Bleach back even it’s all filler!
Reply 16
Kore wa Zombie desu ka? Of the Dead

I don’t know if it was because I was drinking while watching this or if it was actually entertaining, but I liked this first episode of the 2nd season. It does absolutely nothing new the entire package from S1 is present here right down to the recycled animation in the ED (without the awesome song). However I am actually okay with this. I had zero expectations from this show, so I had a good giggle at Ayumu’s embarrassing Mahou-shounen transformation sequence (we even got the 1000% frillier version too). Zombie Desk Car is as shallow as they come, but it’s not like it aims to be anything other than fluff which is why I find myself enjoying it.

DEEN appear to have spent their budget entirely on the OP, which is pretty stylish looking (even if the song is a bit meh) as the episode animation is nothing to get excited about and they resorted to reusing animation for the ED (very meh song there unfortunately).

So I’m keeping this on regardless of how uninspired it is even if it isn’t going to do anything new I enjoy the old stuff enough to sit through the series.

Lupin III: The Woman Called Mine Fujiko

I was expecting this new series of Lupin III to be sexed up, but I wasn’t prepared for just how filthy this show turned out to be! It just oozes sex appeal, from the jazz inspired soundtrack, to the nudity, to the gorgeous stylised background art Lupin II is a very attractive show. As the title would imply this new series of Lupin III is mostly told from the perspective of Mine Fujiko, so that’s something new I don’t really have any experience of the previous Lupin III series, but I’d assume that they mostly focus on Lupin himself. Here Fujiko (and her breasts) takes centre stage and Lupin just drops into her adventure. It’s pretty interesting viewing quite looking forward to more.

The real star of this show though (aside from Fujiko’s nipples) is the animation. Very heavily stylised with lots of heavy black stenciling and plenty of interesting direction choices; the animation style is one of the first things you notice about this show I love it. The OP is very unusual, certainly one of the more unique OPs I’ve seen with all the naked Fujiko it feels like a Bond OP (which I imagine is the whole point) but the accompanying track with this dialogue makes it feel quite different. The ED isn’t just as memorable, but the song is quite good.

So I’m quite impressed with this first episode of Lupin III looking forward to following this weekly, even if it is much more NSFW than I initially imagined!

Gakkatsu!

I really wasn’t all that impressed with this, mainly because Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei uses a similar premise and does it infinitely better. Still it’s a short wee thing and does its thing fairly well so I’d imagine some people will enjoy it.

As flash animations go, this is one of the better examples there is actual animation at times! Voice acting is also pretty good sounds like they are actually putting some effort in, which is nice. The OP is also surprisingly good if forgettable.

I’m not keeping this on simply because I can’t be bothered, but it’s a fairly decent little flash show.
Reply 17
Polar Bear Café (Shirokuma Café)

I was originally looking forward to this simply due to the cast and the novelty factor of having a café run by a polar bear, but I am actually surprised by how good Polar Bear Café turned out to be! As a slice of life show it managed to entertain for the entire episode even though not a whole lot actually happened for a s’life show to hold my attention for that long is quite an achievement, I have a very limited amount of patience for them. The whole setting was hilarious random exotic animals living & working side by side with humans, yet there is still a busy zoo! The Polar Bear enjoys his lame puns, the Penguin likes coffee & playing the straight man and the Panda is obsessed with bamboo and every bit as lazy as you would expect a panda to be.

The OP was pure brilliance I seriously did not expect this show to have much effort put into it, but I was quickly proven wrong when that OP started playing. Similarly the ED is creatively animated with stop-motion Go pieces with FukuJun providing the vocals in character as Panda adorable. The voice acting in general is fantastic, allowing me to indulge my inner seiyuu fan.

So a very positive start to NichiBears definitely looking forward to watching more of this ridiculously cute show.

Sankarea

This first episode was much better than I was expecting, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d seen this before because there were just too many clichés on display. You have your male lead with his one quirk and his inexplicable instant harem (moe imouto, genki cousin, bishoujo ojou), the annoying best friend and the fateful meeting with the bishoujo ojou when she’s having an emotion moment you’ve seen it all before and Sankarea does the set-up remarkably well. Yes, even though this is retreading well worn ground there is no denying that Sankarea takes a lot of care in presenting it’s material in a very solid way this is a good first episode for this kind of show. That being said I couldn’t shake the feeling that the team on Sankarea desperately wanted this show to be Bakemonogatari there were certain shorts that just screamed SHAFT wannabe to me, which wouldn’t be a bad thing except the characters just don’t have the same presence & there isn’t the same quality of writing in Sankarea.

On the production front wow, DEEN certainly pulled out the A-team for this. Sankarea is very pretty to look at (although the male leads random cat-ear hair-style makes him look like he should be in Shiki), with lots of attention lavished on the backgrounds & directing. The OP was really nicely presented and I liked the ED song a lot voice acting is also excellent.

So not the borefest I was anticipating but nothing amazingly original either. Rather Sankarea is a well presented example of its genre worth checking out if you’re bored.

Yurumates 3D

Well it was only three minutes long (half of which was the OP) so I don’t have an awful lot to say about this. In fact the OP was probably the best thing since it had inexplicable mecha action! Basically this is one of those ‘main character moves to Tokyo & comedy ensues when she meets her new housemates’ kinda shows you’ve seen it all before.

Voice acting is obnoxious the main girl sound like she’s been huffing helium and everyone else just yells their handful of lines. Character designs are those disturbing loli things (and then they tell us these characters are all over 18!! LMFAO) that I really don’t like.

So I am definitely not sticking around for any more of Yurumates really is not my kind of show.

Medaka Box

I had concerns about this before I went into it, but it actually wasn’t as terrible as I was expecting……although that’s not to say Medaka Box is any good, because it’s not. It’s saving grace is that the episode was so fast paced that we were not allowed any time to dwell on how shallow and dull this premise is. Dialogue is motor-mouthed, but lacks the usual flair we’ve come to expect from NisiOisin and the characters have the depth of a teaspoon, but everything moves quickly with lots of energy so it’s easy to get swept along with things. Medaka herself is like a sociable version of Haruhi irritatingly perfect at everything but with this desire to only do good for other people instead of Haruhi’s determination to make the world revolve around her. This makes Medaka less interesting because she has no discernible flaws meaning she’s very bland. Her childhood friend side-kick is a touch more interesting due to his inferiority complex, but I’m being generous there. I’d agree with other people’s impression that the premise of Medaka Box is very similar to Sket Dance, but without the comedy element.

The animation is bright with constant movement (hello gainaxing boobs) which was great for distracting your attention away from how bland the rest of the show is, however I am not fond of the character designs at all (why is Kamina in this show??). Voice acting is reasonable, as is the music.

I can’t be bothered with Medaka Box, even though it was nowhere near as awful as I was expecting, it still isn’t good enough to warrant trying another few episodes. Not even my legendary tolerance for shounen rubbish can compel me to stick this out.

Acchi Kocchi

This. This is the kind of thing my nightmares are made of. I can not stand these s’life shows were absolutely bugger all happens. I don’t mind if the characters or writing is charming enough (Kimi to Boku is just about getting by on that), but Acchi Kocchi has neither. The characters are literal moe blobs shapeless brightly coloured creatures with zero discernible personality and huge soulless eyes……..terrifying. The writing is as bland as cardboard, we have the characters go to school, attend class, have lunch & go to the arcade. Amazing. I just don’t see the appeal here what am I supposed to be interested in, because it sure as hell can’t be the strange purple haired thing that can’t seem to form coherent sentences and sprouts cat ears randomly!

As I’ve said, the character designs terrify me, and the actual animation is nothing spectacular either. The OP is a prime example of why some voice actors should not be allowed to sing and the ED is basically an advertisement for nendoroids. I WILL NOT BUY YOUR CREEPTASTIC MERCHANDISE!

So yeah…….not liking Acchi Kocchi much.

Natsuiro Kiseki

And to complete this triumvirate of meh, Natsuiro Kiseki. What was the point of this show? I have absolutely no idea what it is meant to be about. About six minutes in when sporty orange haired girl, and snobby blonde haired girl started bitching at each other I about gave up any hope of this show being worth watching. At that point I didn’t even know the girls names, why the feck should I care if they are fighting? Why were they fighting anyway? There was something about tennis, a flashback to a giant rock and vague mentions of idols……I have so idea why anything was relevant or why I was meant to care. And then there was the ending were there was suddenly magic. Heck fire in some alternate dimensions where the girls beat the ****e out of each other and we’ve basically got Black Rock Shooter all over again! Urgh!!!

On the up side the animation was pretty nice to look at. However the voice acting was kind of irritating given the four girls have like one personality trait each and they play those up to 11. The OP & ED were quite nice though, but we already knew Sphere could sing.

Another one for the dropped pile I have no patience for watching any more.

Accel World

Another show filled to bursting with wasted potential. It really is unfortunate that these characters are so obnoxious because I really quite like the setting for Accel World. The characters just ruin any potential enjoyment though, particularly the sad sack main lead his “oh woe is me” routine got old within 10minutes. Also those bullies had to be the most laughable stereotypes I’ve seen outside a parody show. It seems like the characterisation is entirely dependent upon the character design in this show a glance at a character is more than enough to gauge what their personality is going to be and very little effort is put into going beyond that. I am utterly bemused as to why the main character has been modeled after a beach ball though. Not a single other character has quite such a stylised OTT design and it makes him feel completely out-of-place. I get that they want to emphasize his inferiority complex and dissatisfaction with his appearance, but it could have been done in a much more subtle way he could have been made short and chubby without being turned into some sort of SD marshmallow man!

This is quite irritating because the world setting is very interesting I like the way the virtual world is layered over the real world; it’s been done before, but it’s still an interesting premise and Accel World has really nice looking animation so it all looks pretty impressive. Clearly we’ve got a show with a decent budget here. In terms of voice acting I can no longer take Kaji Yuki seriously; the poor fella is one and the same as OH MA SHOE in my head now, otherwise the cast is grand.

So Accel World is off to a pretty meh start. It’s unfortunate that a show which wants to explore how it is the inside that really counts can be so superficial in itself. I’ll give it another chance, but I’m not expecting anything from it.

Upotte!

I didn’t get this it just did not appeal to me in the slightest. Upotte has it’s mind firmly in the gutter, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s just that all the jokes fell completely flat with me. All the innuendo should have amused me, but I was still sitting there going “meh” for the duration. It’s unfortunate because Upotte is fecking weird and I usually like weird. Maybe it’s because I have absolutely no interest or knowledge about guns or any interest in underage girls who are actually guns??

Production is reasonable seems they’ve done plenty of research on the guns in question anyway. Slightly mystified about why they chose to shadow Mr Protag’s face for the majority felt like a bad eroge for a lot of the time.

Not my thing dropped.

Sengoku Collection

Watching this was physically painful I could feel my braincells crying in anguish as they died. Genderbending Sengoku figures is nothing new, it’s been done many times before, but this is one of the worst examples I’ve had the misfortune to sit through. So we’ve got Oda Nobunaga genderbent into a moe girl and launched into the crotch of Mr Bland Every-lead within the first 5 minutes……..and then it got worse. This version of moe Nobunaga was a horrid tsundere ditz with no redeeming features whatsoever, and the whole episode was just her ordering Mr Bland about and giggling in a manner I suppose was meant to be cute……..AURGH! And then we had a trio of Touho rejects send moe Nobunaga on a fetch quest to meet other moe Sengoku generals to collect power orbs to get sent back to their world……..I am completely serious!

The production was woeful it’s like they aren’t even trying. The colours are garish, character designs blobby and the backgrounds are completely flat and featureless. The OP & ED were the epitome of generic (I swear the OP is a female cover of the Brave 10 OP!) and voice acting was horrid too.

I wanted to quit this within 6 minutes not a hope in hell of me watching more!
Reply 18
I can't believe I'm so far into these first impressions and we're still on the first page of this thread..........

Fate/Zero S2

Since Fate/Zero was a massive troll and hit pause right before it started what should have been it’s mid-season climatic battle, season two presses the play button again and we’re right back into the action. And it was glorious. Sure Caster’s giant squid monster could have been a bit more threatening, as it is it seems more like a behemoth that is difficult to kill rather than a terrifying threat, but Caster was never really the draw of this series. Rather it’s watching the other servants & masters fighting around the chaos Caster causes that is what really made me excited about this episode. Highlight had to be Gil’s fabulous gold UFO Vs Berserker’s hijacked fighter jet awesome!

Production quality is still as good as it ever was and I really liked the new Kalafina OP. The new ED is also great, although the animation suggests that the focus of this half of the story is going to switch more to Kiritsugu……which I suppose I should have expected since Saber is meant to be the main character. I do hope that Rider, Waver & Gil get more screen time though they are easily the best characters.

Excited to have Fate/Zero back lets hope the Grail War continues to thrill.

Mysterious Girlfriend X (Nazo no Kanojo X)

I’m pretty impressed with how well this show has turned out rather than the generic romcom it could have been, they’ve stuck close to the manga material and given us the kooky story I was hoping for. All the usual elements are here, but there is just enough of a spin put on things to make this a very entertaining watch. The whole drool element is presented in a fascinatingly squicky manner so much attention is paid to making that drool as gloopy as possible it’s slightly nauseating, but at the same time you can’t help but watch. The characters are also interesting the male lead is pretty bland, but he’s very earnest in his blandness, and he was never going to be able to match up to the quirkiness of Urabe she is a wonderful character, refreshingly different from most female leads, yet still somewhat believable. The whole episode just has this great atmosphere to it I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.

The direction and animation are a large part of why I enjoyed this episode so much. The director is also doing Space Bros this season, but he doesn’t seem to be favouring one show over the other. Things are presented in a visually interesting manner in this show I particularly liked the dream sequences and the dated feel to the character designs. The voice acting is natural sounding no helium fueled performances or excessive shouting, just natural flowing conversations in a normal tone. The music is nicely done although I’m not overly fussed on the ED.

Mysterious Girlfriend X just feels like something a bit different, and I really like that will be keeping on.

Kuroko’s Basketball (Kuroko no Basuke)

Okay shounen sports anime time! I actually really enjoyed this which is kind of unsurprising given my innate weakness for shounen shows (and their tendency to be filled with BL shipping opportunities). It was a fairly run of the mill opening episode, but introduced the characters and set up the aim of the show well nice to have the characters be fairly grounded and their abilities aren’t too exaggerated, which is always a potential issue with sports anime (looking at you Prince of Tennis). The set up here is simple, our main character is pretty remarkable in his unremarkableness, and he’s brilliant at getting the ball to where it needs to be to make his team shine - the story will emphasis the importance of working as a team and not judging a book by it’s cover……and also there will be tons of BL undertones. And I shall enjoy it!

There isn’t much directorial flair on display in this episode, it’s very simply but competently animated and presented. Voice acting is fine, and I liked the music choices and the OP (not fussed on the ED).

Keeping this on, but I do hope that it doesn’t drag on and on about 26 episodes would be perfect for this show.

Saki: Achiga-hen episode of side-A

This episode just further confirmed to me that this just isn’t my type of show. I completely zoned out within 10minutes so I don’t think I’d even be able to tell you what this was all about! I do know that this Saki spin-off was much more grounded than the main Saki show (the whole 1 episode that I watched of it anyway) and the characters are nowhere near as annoying, but that’s about it. Cute girls playing mahjong is not my idea of fun, especially since I know absolutely bugger all about mahjong so I don’t even have that to latch on to.

Production quality is grand, however I still do not get the fascination with underage girls legs & boobs. Can’t really say anything about the voice acting or music because I wasn’t listening for the majority of the episode.

So not my thing but I am sure fans of the series will be glad to have more Saki to watch.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Another Crawling Chaos

Now this surprised me. Having seen a handful of the flash shorts back when they were airing, my expectations for this show were pretty much on the ground, however this first episode was actually a lot of fun! The show is full of manic energy, hyper self-aware and simultaneously attempts to parody its genre while also reveling in its tropes. It is exceptionally difficult not to get swept up in the pace, and I found myself laughing by the end. I am properly surprised by how much I liked this episode! Saying that though, I do not expect the show to maintain this level of fun and energy for very long it will probably burn out and become what it wants to parody within a few episodes; but it will be a fun watch while it lasts.

The star of this show is Kana Asumi’s motor-mouthed performance as Nyarko she must have been absolutely exhausted after recording this show, because Nyarko rarely stops to draw breath and the entire show revolves around her. The production is certainly better than I was expecting, not that that’s really saying much, but still. the OP & ED are pretty fun if generic and in keeping with the rest of the show.

So I enjoyed this despite myself will give it another few episodes to see if they can actually keep the series fresh, even if I have my doubts.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)

I liked the way this episode showed the same scene from two different perspectives that was quite clever, but that’s about the most praise I can give the show because otherwise it was rather uninspired. I was hoping for more from the premise, but it seems that this is just going to be yet another harem show except this time one of the harmettes is a ghost. I did get some Natsu no Arashi vibes from the show for a while, but there isn’t really the same charm here, and the clever direction can’t really cover up for the dull writing or obnoxious characters.

And the production really is well done! There are some very creative shots, nice music and interesting direction choices here, but in the absence of appealing characters or witty dialogue, the nice looking art & animation seems rather wasted. Voice acting is bland, the male lead has zero presence and that girl who can’t see the ghost just rambled on and on until I wanted to strangle her.

So not the best start to the show I am willing to give it another episode or two though, because there is some potential here they just need to make their characters more appealing and sharpen up the writing.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 19
Sakamichi no Apollon: Kids on the Slope

Loved this episode thank god it turned out to be just as good as I hoped, I really would have been crushed if Apollon turned out to be mediocre! Apollon is a very grounded kind of story, but it is exceptionally well told, paced and directed I really could not ask for anything more from this opening episode. The character introductions and interactions feel natural and there is a wonderful flow to the pacing nothing is too forced or unrealistic, you can really tell that it is the steady hand of a seasoned pro directing this show. The characters themselves are pretty standard archetypes, but they’re well written and superbly acted.

On the production front, this is a gloriously well animated show. You just have to look at that drum solo scene to appreciate the quality the timing perfectly matches the soundtrack & the motion is just fabulous! I really can’t believe how good the character animation is in the this show so much attention to detail! The music is also great, however there wasn’t as much BGM as I was initially expecting but it is early days, the characters are only discovering music at the moment.

Very impressed with Apollon, definitely keeping on!

Jormungand

Well looks like our pre-season impression that Jormungand would have lots of Black Lagoon vibes, was spot on! I enjoyed this episode quite a lot we are dumped right into the action and left to soak up snippets of information from the characters conversations & actions; it’s an exciting and interesting way to start a show, although not unusual. I am quite sure I didn’t really grasp all of what was going on in the plot of this episode, but that’s not really important as all we really needed to get was what the characters were like, and it accomplished that with ease this show has two cours to tell its story, we’ve got lots of time to get to grips with the finer details of the arms dealers world.

I wasn’t all that sure about the character designs bemused as to why Koko is practically albino, does anyone actually have hair the same shade of white as their skin, but it all works pretty well in the show. Guns are rendered in loving detail and action is well choreographed with some nice direction choices. Voice acting is great, but the music is a touch underwhelming.

So a positive start to Jormungand, looking forward to more.

Tsuritama

The other noitaminA show now, and strangely this has basically the same plotline as Sakamichi no Apollon! It was quite interesting to see how much a shows tone can change just by changing the artstyle and keeping things much more on the whimsical side. Where Apollon feels like a serious, highly polished show, Tsuritama is much more lighthearted and absurdist, employing a more energetic, if not quite so refined, directing style. I like both shows for different reasons. I enjoyed Tsuritama’s weird side it’s got an indian fella having dinner with a duck, it has a weird attention grabbing character proclaiming to be an alien and wielding a water gun that appears to fire memory erasing water, and it has a really funky granny.

The quirks continue in the art style. Originally I thought Tsuritama looked rather normal compared to some of Kenji Nakamura’s other shows, but it does have some very interesting stylisation going on, particularly with the way the backgrounds are rendered in gloriously bright colours. The character designs are fairly standard, but there are lots of interesting facial expressions and movement going on it’s quite an attractive looking show! The voice acting is ok - not overly fussed on Haru’s hyperactive squawking, although Yuki’s neurotic monologues are well done.

Overall I wasn’t completely bowled over by Tsuritama, but it was a pretty good opening episode. Will be keeping on and hoping for more randomness to come.

Eureka Seven Ao

This was pretty much a textbook start to a mecha series it ticked every box and the execution was nearly flawless; it is a joy to have Bones & Eureka 7 back! Bones are old hand at this by now, and with E7 Ao they’ve gone back to what they know best and it really shows. The pacing was great, they’ve managed to make the male lead nowhere near as irritating as Renton first was, the setting is glorious and the explosions just as dazzling rainbow-hued as I wanted. I had a lot of fun watching this episode even though the Nirvash hasn’t made an appearance yet it’s still the same world of E7 that I fell in love with. Those neon-green sky surfing trails, the abundance of bright colours and the character designs the aesthetic is there and looks even more polished now!

Yes the production on this series is excellent, from the smooth, technicoloured animation and snappy direction to the awesome soundtrack and competent voice acting, it’s all looking very good for E7 Ao from this opening episode. Of course it’s difficult to judge just from the 1st episode (Xam’d had an even better first episode and look how that show panned out) but I remain optimistic about the show.

There was never any doubt that I’d be watching Eureka Seven Ao, so I’m very glad that this episode was legitimately entertaining!

Ginga e Kickoff! (Kickoff to the Galaxy!)

You know as first episodes of kiddie sports shows go, this wasn’t all that bad I didn’t feel any of the usual eye-rolling boredom that usually accompanies trying these kinds of shows. Granted that’s not to say it’s a good show, but it is nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. The main wee boy is pretty annoying in that is seems that the child is constantly on a sugar rush, but he’s well-tempered by the rest of the cast. The football element seems to be well handled from what I can tell (I know next to nothing about football) and the show does seem to have plenty of sincere energy.

The character designs childish and brightly coloured, but the animation is nicely handled with good attention paid to movement there is certainly more so than there was in Knight in the Area! Kobayashi Yu is playing the male lead, and she’s gone a wee bit too far in conveying his excitable personality, so it’s bordering on irritating. Otherwise the voice acting is pretty good.

I’m obviously not keeping this on, but it seems like a pretty decent kiddie show.

Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan (The Bread of Happiness)

Oh holy god, this was such a chore to sit though! What the hell was the point to this?? I know it was based on an RPG, but the way the characters just wander about from place to place, flogging bread and engaging people in banal conversation, was just beyond tedious!! The only way to tolerate this show is to play the “replace BREAD with PENIS” game proposed by Scamp I know that was the only way I made it out of this episode without causing myself permanent injury. The characters are just so bland it’s actually offensive; what the hell is Rick putting in his bread that turns the population of the island into brainless fangirls?? Also for a show about bread there wasn’t a whole lot of time spent on how bread is made, or just what special way of baking Rick employs to make his bread taste so damn addictive. A lot more time was spent on the three vapid females cackling with glee over the amount of cash they were raking in thanks to Rick’s delicious bread. Rawrgh! Why does this show exist?

The animation isn’t even all that good. The characters are really plastic and don’t really move in a convincing manner (this is amplified a hundred times over in that freakish ED sweet Christ that was nightmare fuel). I was also fascinated by how the girls skirts appeared to be either starched beyond all reason, or just moulded from cardboard, because those things do not so much as flutter when they move. On the voice acting front, all the girls in this sound brain damaged to some degree, and for some incomprehensible reason Hiroshi Kamiya is voicing two characters he actually has a conversation with himself at one point!

So no, not watching more of this I think some of my brain cells committed suicide in protest when watching this drivel.

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