Tag: from RPG.net

Dragon Crisis!

What’s it about ?

Our protagonist is talked by his crazy cousin into stealing a powerful artefact from the mob. Except it turns out to be a pyrokinetic young girl ; in other words, a dragon. And she’s taken a liking into him.

Characters

Ryuuji, our spineless protagonist. Ordinary high school student. No personality whatsoever.

Eriko, his cousin. Fancies herself as an artefact hunter, although she’s not got the official license to do it (apparently there’s a governmental organisation in charge of such things). So enthusiastic about it that she comes off as more than a bit crazy (and quite greedy).

Rose, the dragon-girl. Starts with a one-word vocabulary (“Ryuuji !”), although she learns a few more words by the episode’s end. Very possessive of him. She reminded me of Index, to tell the truth.

Misaki, his painfully shy classmate who is completely unable to find the nerve to make a move. Mostly there for a bit of exposition.

Production Values

This is actually in the upper range of Studio DEEN productions, with enough budget to make the action sequences work and a good handle of atmosphere. I’m also inordinately fond of the background music, despite its complete lack of subtlety.

The OP feels appropriately epic, while the ED is a fun little joke.

Overall Impression

I was pleasantly surprised by this. The first half is a lot of fun thanks to Eriko driving the action, as she’s gloriously insane. Unfortunately, it slows down a bit in the second half, as she progressively loses control of the plot. I’m really hoping for more insanity and not too much rom-com in the next few episodes, but I fear I’m going to be disappointed…

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 13.

Level E

What’s it about ?

An average high school student’s routine is suddenly disturbed when a self-proclaimed alien crashes into his pad.

Characters

Yukitaka Tutsui, our protagonist. Fresh coming to this country town because he’s been scouted by the baseball team of the local high school, and it’s as good an excuse as any to start living on his own. Very annoyed by this freeloader who just. won’t. go. away.

The alien doesn’t actually get a name in this episode, but I’m told he’s called “Prince”. Which is appropriate, considering he looks like a blonde long-haired bishonen. He’s partly amnesiac and a bit in a bind since the local scientists are investigating his crashed spaceship. Seems like a master of offscreen teleportation (you know, the kind where you lock him outside and the next moment he’s just behind you). Despite his deadpan annoyingness, he’s showed to have a heart near the end of the episode – he gets injured rescueing a kitten from car traffic !

Miho Edogawa, the pretty girl next door, who just happens to be the daughter of the chief scientist investigating the alien spacecraft, of course.

Production Values

This looks really good, with some slick animation and pretty scenery porn backgrounds. The OP is awesome, with a fun little rock number, a very nice use of colors, and some good comedic timing. On the other hand, the ED’s crap.

Overall Impression

Hum.

On the one hand, there’s a lot to like – some good jokes with impeccable comedic timing, nice production values. But it feels like it should be more, if you see what I mean ? Some of the jokes feel repetitive, and it feels a bit slow as a result. It needs more meat.

I feel like I should like it more, somehow.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 12.

Wolverine

What’s it about ?

A year ago, Logan met a Japanese woman called Mariko who disappeared soon after. Now, he learns that she comes from a crime family and is to get into an arranged marriage for their sakes. Logan of course rushes in to prevent it…

Characters

Logan, the Wolverine. You may remember those awful previews from a year or so ago ; thankfully his character design looks much better now (although it’s more Hugh Jackman than the comic version). Anyway, the same character as usual : metal claws, healing factor and prone to berserker rage. In plain clothes for the whole episode, and I doubt that’ll change.

Mariko Yoshida, his (former) sweetheart. Archetypical Damsel In Distress ™. To be crude, she’s just a macguffin here.

Shingen Yoshida, Mariko’s father. Crime lord, with impressive fencing skills. You know the time.

Hideki Kurohagi, Mariko’s new fiancé. The current ruler of the lawless city of Madripoor. Interrupts Logan’s duel with Shingen by shooting the former in the back with some anti-healing-factor gun. No class whatsoever, then.

Asano, a Tokyo police detective who became friends with Logan 10 years ago. Just now rescued from AIM goons by the same in New York, he’s our chief provider of exposition. He and his unit have set up a full-scale surveillance operation around the Yoshida mansion, but they lack the legal authority to just bust in.

Production Values

This actually looks pretty good, although this may just be my getting used to this artstyle from Iron Man. On the other hand, the women still look weird – especially Mariko. Also, I’m quite liking the soundtrack, it reminds me of Death Note‘s in a good way.

The OP is average. The ED, on the other hand, annoyed me by switching musical styles twice. Urgh.

Overall Impression

This is actually better than I expected. While we’re deep into the usual clichés of the “Wolverine in Japan” subgenre (believe me, it’s well-trodden territory in the comics), it tackles them with gusto and energy. It also looks fully plot-driven, instead of the “Zodiac mecha of the week” structure of Iron Man ; I’m not sure there’s enough plot in there for 12 episodes, but I’m interested in seeing how it’ll play out. This episode certainly crams quite a lot in (the plotline is nominally adapted from an 80s miniseries, but we’re way more than 1/12th through it).

Anyway, a fun popcorn action show.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 12.

Beelzebub

What’s it about ?

The Demon Lord is too busy playing videogames and attending random parties to eradicate mankind, so he sends his infant son to do it in his place. The baby attaches himself to a brash high school delinquent. Hijinks ensue.

Characters

Oga, our protagonist. A top dog in his high school filled with delinquents, despite being only a freshman. The classic Jerk With A Heart Of Gold (c). Prone to semi-delusional epic narration. Having the same voice actor as TTGL‘s Kamina does wonders for his personality.

Beelzebub, the baby demon. You don’t want to make him cry, considering he zaps whoever’s around when that happens.

Furuichi, Oga’s sidekick. The poor dude’s chief role is to complain about the ludicrousness of the plot and get screwed over repeatedly by Oga.

Hildegarde, Beelzebub’s demon caretaker. After some over-the-top fighting to try and take Beelzebub back, she acknowledges that he’s attached himself to Oga and sticks around to supervise his upbringing as the scourge of mankind. Will not take “no” for an answer. Wonderfully deadpan. (… most of the time…)

Production Values

This looks perfectly alright for a gag series. Oga’s constant stream of scary faces has great comedic timing, and I like the occasional thicker lines around the characters. On the other hand, the soundtrack is terrible canned cheese.

The OP’s a joke that could get on my nerves after a while, and the ED’s just forgettable.

Overall Impression

This… is actually pretty funny. I was worried a bit at the beginning, as Beelzebub zapping punks was getting old after ten minutes, but it starts clicking after Hildegarde shows up. The banter between the three leads is delightful.

Now, with that said, do I see myself following this for 50+ episodes ? I fear the joke might stale after a while, and there’s a risk it’d devolve into generic fighting shonen crap. I’ll give it some more episodes, though.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 11.

Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!

(Approximative translation : “I’m totally not in love with my brother, okay ?!“)

What’s it about ?

Incest bait. Lots of it.

Characters

Nao, our protagonist. She’s head over heels her brother, but she plays hard to get : she teases him a lot with “innocent” innuendo, then pulls out at the last moment while calling him a pervert for even thinking about it. Two thirds of the way through the episode, she learns she was adopted ; while this kills her fantasies of “forbidden love”, it does open some possibilities…

Shuusuke, the brother. Let’s just say that his hormones are in perfect working order, and leave it as that. He’s got an impressive porn collection, by the way.

The parents are very generic : Mom is concerned, while Dad is trying to snatch Shuusuke’s BDSM magazines for future perusal.

Nao has a couple of bland friends that are mostly rolling their eyes at her transparent behaviour.

The OP/ED and next episode preview suggest that two more girls are going to compete for Shuusuke’s attention. First off is his long-lost twin-tailed childhood friend…

Production Values

Wow, this looks horrible. I’m usually fairly tolerant of non-standard artstyles, but those elongated limbs are deep into uncanny valley and make everyone look like they’re anorexic. The animation is quite limited, too.

OP & ED are chirpy crap. Urgh.

Overall Impression

Well, I think we reached the nadir of the season. I reached my “please gods, let it stop already !” threshold before the opening credits, but I endured until the end of the episode for your sake. This is terrible on every level, and it sickens me that there’s an audience for this crap.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 10.

Freezing

What’s it about ?

The future. The world is at war with alien creatures called “Novas”, whose powerful “Freezing” fields prevent conventional warfare. The only thing that can get close enough to them is a “Pandora”, a magically empowered girl sensorily paired with a “Limiter” younger guy. The series starts in the middle of a “Carnivale”, a battle-royale training exercise/exam at the Pandora/Limiter academy.

Also, boobies and panty shots. Lots of them.

Characters

Bridgette L. Satellizer, the current top Pandora at the academy. Very, very badass (she dispatches #3, #4 & #5 while barely breaking a sweat, and before that wins a 1-against-11 fight). Not exuding much personality, and voiced by Mamiko Noto, of all people.

Kazuya Aoi, a new male freshman at the academy. Spends much of his screentime angsting about his dead sister, an elite Pandora who died heroically 4 years ago. Or did she ? When he stumbles onto Bridgette, he’s convinced she’s his sister. And thus dives head first into her chest, because that’s what brothers do. While the Carnivale’s still going, which obviously distracts her and causes her defeat at the hands of #2. (Well, it’s slightly ambiguous in the cliffhanger, but the next-episode-preview suggests that’s the result.)

Lana Linchen, a ditzy female freshman, whose chief role is to get exposition delivered to by her teacher (who fought alongside Kazuya’s sister way back when).

Production Values

For some reason the version I watched is at a 4:3 ratio, which is presumably a mistake (there are various shots that are clearly truncated).

Overall, it looks okay, although the action scenes don’t flow that well. And the character designs are very generic.

While the OP has a decent moody song, it looks very cheap, with tons of static shots and scenes recycled from the actual series (including Bridgette’s transformation sequence, which we saw in detail two minutes ago in the pre-credits sequence). The ED song is pretty bad, and playing to candid shots of the various girls. Urgh.

And wait, this is a daytime show ? (Seriously, the information I can find says it airs at 9:30am on Saturdays.) But… we actually see naked tits at one point ! WTF ?

Overall Impression

Well, the good news is that it’s better than Infinite Stratos. It managed to make me give a toss about the plot and the world-building, there’s an urgency and stakes to the fights (there’s some technobabble about how Pandoras can regenerate from near-fatal injuries and amputated limbs, but the hospital manager “would really like to have this Carnivale with zero casualties”, so it ain’t a sure thing), and if you like some fanservice and gore there’s plenty of it. And it obviously does have some ambition.

On the other hand… Well, it’s still a fanservice-fuelled “panty fighter” series, and you can really hear the plot gears grinding as the premise is forced into a harem setup towards the end. Also, the non-linear storytelling is sometimes a bit disorientating, between the Carnivale, the lesson scene, Kazuya’s subplot and the flashback to his sister’s last stand.

I’m really not sure about this one. There’s a somewhat decent story that compels me to watch another episode to check whether it’s going anywhere, but I fear it’s going to be smothered by the fanservice and the harem hijinks. I’m fearing a new Daimao, here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 9.

Cardfight!! Vanguard

What’s it about ?

An informercial about a new cardgame.

No, seriously. There’s barely any plot to it, and it takes pains to explain in detail of this cardgame works and why it’s awesome.

Characters

Aichi, our wimpy protagonist. He never played the game before, but he’s still walking around with a full deck, including a super-rare Vanguard DoublePlusSuper card.

Morikawa, a stereotypical bully who steals the aforementioned card. Comes with two lackeys in tow (although one of them disappears halfway through the episode – continuity isn’t this series’ strong point). He immediately proceeds to lose it to…

Kai, the ace player from the local cardshop. He too comes with a lackey in tow, a blond dude whose main role is to talk smack. Anyway, he’s straight enough to allow Aichi a rematch to try and get his precious card back, even nicely explains the rules in minute detail for the newbie. It eventually comes out that they both know each other for some reason, although we don’t learn the details yet.

Production Values

Well, there’s only so many ways to make two dudes playing an effing card game exciting, so this series goes for the route of having Kai tell Aichi every other minute to “IMAGINE !” they’re having an epic fantasy battle and not just sitting around a table. But even those fantasy fights are cliché and boring, matching the triteness of everything else.

Overall Impression

During the whole “climactic” card fight sequence, there are regular side shots of the shop clerk barely looking up from her book to watch over those excited idiots. They stop short of having her actually roll her eyes, but just barely. This is the only character in this show I have any empathy for. (The ED suggests she’s joining the core cast travelling around the country or something, which makes my mind boggle.)

So yeah, this is despicable garbage trying to sell this crap collectible game to kids. It has no redeeming features whatsoever, it’s boring, it’s a transparent commercial, and everything there has been done better before. Oh, and it doesn’t even have a proper ending – it stops when Aichi draws his Blue-eyed White Dragon SuperDuperAwesome card (which Kai had helpfully lended to him as a handicap) ; that’s not a cliffhanger, it’s just running out of screentime…

Avoid at all costs. If you have any interest in this, go watch Yu-Gi-Oh instead, which at least has the novelty of cardgames on motorcycles (or something).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 9.

GOSICK

What’s it about ?

1924, in the fictional European country of “Saubure” (sic, couldn’t they call it Savoie ?), there’s a prestigious academy gathering elites from the whole world. In a botanical garden above the library lives a mysterious girl who helps the police solve crimes with her intellect.

Characters

Kazuya Kujo, nicknamed “the black reaper” for reasons I can’t fathom. Our point of view character, a student fresh coming from Japan. Our Watson.

Victorique, our heroine. It’s heavily implied she’s never seen the world outside her green prison before the events of this series. There’s probably a convoluted reason why, but she’s not talking, despite Kazuya’s active prodding. It’s obvious she’s bored out of her mind there, and the mysteries she’s asked to solve are a welcome distraction.

Inspector Grevil de Blois, “the owner of the oddest hair in all of Saubure”. In the second half of the episode, Kazuya calls him on exploiting Victorique’s intellect for his own fame, and he’s got a point. Although he does not seem that bad of a guy, really, just not very bright and full of himself.

Production Values

There’s nice backgrounds and it looks quite slick (it’s heavy on costume porn), but there’s nothing particularly impressive (it’s not a premise lending itself to action scenes, after all). It’s mostly bright colours, which is appropriate for a show which stays mostly upbeat so far.

The OP is gorgeous, with a nice “animated picture book” look. The ED’s okay, I guess.

Overall Impression

Well, this one takes a lot of time to get started. Let’s be honest, I was prepared to write it off as empty fluff…

And then, halfway through, we get an impressive sequence in which Victorique solves a closed room murder in less than five minutes, without even going on the scene, purely from Grevil’s description of the case (and those five minutes include his exposition). This scene is just delightful, with a solution that’s both clever and simple enough to feel natural, and it does help that the banter between the three leads fires on all cylinders during it. If there’s one such sequence in each episode, it’d justify by itself watching the boring bits.

The end of the episode suggests that we’re getting a very tight wider mystery plotline instead of just a “case of the week” structure, which is probably for the better.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 8.

Dream Eater Merry (Yumekui Merry)

What’s it about ?

Our protagonist has been plagued by bizarre nightmares where he’s assaulted by cats for years… until today, when a bizarre girl fall on his lap and he finds himself transported in a dream world where the cats’ leader tries to take his body over. The girl rescues him.

Characters

Yumeji, our protagonist, has the weird ability of guessing what the person he looks at will dream about the next night. It’s neither very precise or accurate, though. It does work on himself if he looks in the mirror, though (“Sigh, I’m going to have this nightmare again…”).

John Doe, the bad guy. He hails from the dream world and wants to move into the real world, but that can only happen if he takes someone’s body over. Yumeji will do, thanks.

Merry Nightmare, the not-really-human girl, is in the opposite position : she’s amnesiac and wants to go back to the dream world (John Doe implies she must have taken someone over…). Will Yumeji help her, please ?

The supporting cast is rounded up by a few friends of Yumeji’s, including a childhood friend he lives with… for some yet-to-be-disclosed reason…

Production Values

I quite like some of the background work in the dreamworld, and they’re obviously trying for atmosphere. The problem is that it pales in comparison with Madoka, and never manages to reach the same level of creepy. (I blame the colours, too flat and naturalistic.) It’s truly unfortunate that both shows compete in the same season.

The OP is okay stuff, and certainly sets the tone of the show. ED is decent too.

Overall Impression

This, on the other hand, is much better than it sounded at first (a girl falling into a guy’s arm ? seriously ?). Again, it’s all the atmosphere, and it works out pretty well. It’s also nice to have a bad guy whose goals are crystal clear and make complete sense. And it succeeds in suggesting there’s a lot more going on than on face value.

Sure, it’s not as good as Madoka, but I’m sure this can be said about most of this season’s shows. It’s quite enjoyable so far, and I’m interested in seeing where it goes from here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 6.

IS – Infinite Stratos

What’s it about ?

In the future, the top technological advance is the IS, mecha that can only be piloted by women (although, since they’ve been banned from war use by international treaties, they seem to be mostly used for sports). Well, except for this one dude, who now finds himself enrolled in an IS-centered academy. Cue the standard harem hijinks.

Characters

Ichika Orimura, our protagonist. I lost any respect I had for the guy when he complained about not understanding the technobabble and then admitted he had thrown away the mandatory introductory doorstopper everyone is supposed to read before entering the academy. Seriously, could he be doing any less effort ?

Chifuyu Orimura, his abrasive older sister, a former IS pioneer who retired a while ago. So of course she’s his homeroom teacher and hall monitor ! She’s got a cheerful moeblob assistant whose main role is to delay the reveal and provide tons of clumsy “As You Know” exposition.

Houko Sinonono, the tsundere childhood friend he hasn’t seen in 6 years, and a kendo champion. So of course she’s his roommate ! The mind boggles : I can understand authorities not bothering with devoting a whole dorm aisle for him, but who thought giving him a roommate was a good idea ?

Cecilia Alcott, the stuck-up foreigner who takes issue with this slob doing as well as her (defeating a teacher in the pre-entry tests) without even putting any effort.

Production Values

There’s a somewhat impressive mid-air mecha fight scene before the opening credits… But its impact is kinda negated by the complete lack of stakes in it (it’s 4-against-one, for gods’ sake !). Apart from that, the general impression I get is “generic and uninspired”. Even the fanservice is tame and not worth bothering for (there’s even a “I just got out of the shower” scene !).

The OP is horrible, and the ED barely any better.

Overall Impression

Wow, that was quite dreadful. The premise didn’t sound very promising, but this is actually worse than I expected. We are in full-blown cliché harem territory, the world-building looks horribly half-assed (they don’t even bother with explaining why only women can pilot IS, let alone why Ichika can), all the characters are unlikeable and trite, and there’s nothing vaguely original here that’d make me give a shit about it.

Avoid like this show the plague.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 6.