Tag: so boring it nearly put me to sleep

Glasslip

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Well, it’s a PA Works original production, so it’s set in a small country town and features a group of high school students. Here, the hook is… glasswork ? Some kind of future sight ? Frankly, I’ve got no clue.

Characters

So, there’s this tight-knit group of friends :
– Touko, our ingenue protagonist, whose family works into making glass objects
– Yuki, the boy who seems to have a jealous crush on her, but does a decent job of hiding it until the episode’s end
– Hiro, the goofball
– Yanagi, the slightly “wilder” girl of the group
– Sachi, who seems to have a medical condition that prevents her from going out as much as she’d want, and sometimes takes her frustrations out on her friends

Most of the episode is spent on establishing the group’s dynamics, through a festival and then an epic quest to try raising chicken. Thrilling stuff.

And then there’s Kakeru, the new guy, who seems to have some sort of psychic link with Touko. They hit it off quickly ; her friends (especially Yuki and Sachi) are way less welcoming.

Production Values

This studio is known for their scenery porn and lavish animation, and this is no exception. There are some weird freeze-frame instants (with non-naturalistic colouring) to indicate that there’s something more going on, which is a nice effect.

Overall Impression

I went into this hoping to learn how you make an anime about glasswork. I come out none the wiser, baffled as to what this show’s premise actually is. This makes the choice of focusing on its characters first, which is a shame because none of them besides Sachi are particularly interesting ; you’ve seen all this before, and better done, including in other PA Works series.

I nearly fell asleep watching this. And what woke me up… was a cringeworthy surge of melodrama towards the end, including laughably overwhelming music. That’s not a good sign.

I’m giving it one more episode to convince me otherwise, but this looks like a dud.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 2.

Dai-Shogun: Great Revolution (Fuuun Ishin Dai☆Shogun)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

This is set in Japan in the middle of the 19th century, except there are tons of steampunk mecha around. Of course there are.

Characters

Keiichirou, our protagonist. A rowdy delinquant, he’s somehow managed to beat up every street gang in Nagasaki. Which annoys him, as everyone now admires the boss and there’s nobody left to fight. Also, he suddenly gets the news that the Tokugawa shogunate has fallen, and he’s a heir to it. Which means new many people trying to kill him. Joy !

Kiriko, a badass assassin in a skintight sexy outfit who has NOT come to kill him. Instead, she’s come to warn him, prevent some attempts to assassinate him, and tell him to use the super-mecha hidden in the basement. (“Wait, what ?”) Grandma (who’s also switched into a skintight ninja outfit, one of the few jokes that work) vouches for her, so she must be legit, eh ?

Houkouin, played by a Miyuki Sawashiro chewing acres of scenery, is our baddie for the week. She has her own mecha that she pilots to quasi-orgasmic delight. /facepalm

Production Values

Not very good ; there are many early scenes where it’s barely animated at all. Still, nice designs for the steampunk mecha.

Lots of fanservice, of course.

Overall Impression

Something I should make clear : the near entirety of the plot outlayed above happens in the last five minutes. Before that, the show is very, very boring indeed. The tediousness almost made me fell asleep, really. The quick successing of twists at the end is welcome and definitely not boring, but that doesn’t make the show actually any good. It’s still a nonsensical mess with annoying characters.

No thanks.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2014 – Page 7.

Sakura Trick

(12ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

High-school romantic comedy about lesbians. (Adapted from a 4-panel gag manga.)

Characters

Haruka, our main point-of-view character. She would be the straight man in half the jokes if she wasn’t a lesbian girl. A bit airheaded and clumsy.

Yuu, her longtime girlfriend. They were already friends each other in middle school, and are now pushing it to the next level. More brash and fiery-tempered.

There are quite many other lesbian girls in their class… oh, fuck it, this is so boring I fell asleep and can’t remember anything about them.

Production Values

Studio Deen recruited a SHAFT alumnus to direct this, and it shows ; he’s trying his darnedest to spruce up those talking heads with every visual trick in his bag : unusual shots, some good use of colour, and of course many close shots of young girls’ thighs.

Overall Impression

How can this show be so DULL ? Admittedly I often run hot and cold on 4-panel gag manga adaptations, but the jokes here just aren’t very funny, and the characters are instantly forgettable. It feels like the show’s only selling point is “Lesbians!”, and that just won’t cut it.

Don’t bother with this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 5.

Super Sonico The Animation

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

A whole anime series about Nitroplus’s mascot virtual character, because YOU demanded it !

(I certainly didn’t.)

Characters

Super Sonico is our focus character, so this is all about her. Sonico being late in the morning ! Sonico being nice to kids ! Sonico at college, where she’s brilliant but as terrible attendance ! Sonico at her job as a gravure idol, where pervert clients try to take advantage of her ! Sonico helping out at her Grandma’s restaurant ! Sonico with her underground band !

It’s hard for any side characters to make an impression when the camera remains laser-targeted at the main character, so the one who does steal the show is her manager at the idol company, mostly because he wears a scary mask for no fathomable reason.

Production Values

You might expect this to feature the 3DCG animation that’s all the rage these days (and was a feature of past Super Sonico clips), but only the ED sequence is like that ; the rest of the series is traditional animation. With quite a bit of fanservice, obviously.

Overall Impression

This is the epitome of vacuity. There’s no escaping it : Super Sonico is a very boring character who leads a very boring life. She’s generically cute, and that’s it. A full episode was already tedious ; I just can’t fathom how anyone could withstand a full series of it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

Glasses Club ! (Meganebu!)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

High-school boys doing cute things. While wearing glasses.

Characters

There’s the goofball leader (who wants to build X-ray glasses), the cute short guy, the aloof slightly antagonistic one… oh, fuck it, they all meld together after a while.

Production Values

There are many attempts to spruce this up with dynamic, Silver Link-ish abstract effects. Frankly, it doesn’t look half bad.

Overall Impression

Forget about baseball : this is what puts me to sleep. It’s not just about not being part of the intended audience (how many shows are adapted from a female-targeted drama CD ?), I have about the same reaction to half the similar shows with girls instead. There’s just something about this genre that sometimes makes it hard for me to concentrate on it.

There may be some decent jokes in there ; I don’t know, I missed half of it, and I have no intention of trying to watch it again.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 10.

Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Yet another adaptation of the classic 19th-century Japanese epic novel. Supposedly about 8 half-brother werewolves, although only one shows up yet and there’s plenty of other fantasy lifeforms around.

Characters

Shino, one of three siblings who survived a dire accident years ago by contracting with supernatural beings. The younger boy, his body has absorbed a mythical sword that transforms into a talking bird… er, yeah. Anyway, he’s the impulsive brat of the lot.

Sousuke is the elder brother, and contracted with a wolf he can transform into. He’s the reasonable one, consulting with elders about the plot.

Hamaji, the girl, has two roles in this episode : she’s a terrible cook, and she gets captured by the evil Church.

Production Values

Perfectly okay, with some decent designs for the creatures, but very boring human character designs.

What did I think of it ?

As I said before, I fell asleep while watching this the first time around. After a rewatch, I can’t say there’s anything wrong with it per se, aside from very pedestrian execution (and old-fashioned gender politics). It’s just utterly unexciting.

I’ll pass.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 5.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman

What’s it about ?

Robin Hood in the end of the Edo period.

Characters

Roman, our protagonist. By day, he’s a lazy bum barely making a living as a helping hand around town. By night, he’s a Robin Hood figure, robbing the guilty rich and distributing it to everyone else, through crazy schemes, “high-tech” devices, and raw nerve.

Koharu, his little sister. By day, she’s the one actually paying the rent with as a bizarrely-specialized craftswoman ; by night, she helps him out on his adventures.

They also seem to have a dog, who helps them out on their cons. It’s that kind of show.

Production Values

Character designs come courtesy of Monkey Punch, aka the Lupin III guy. It really shows. This looks quite good, but decidedly old-fashioned.

Overall Impression

Yawn. This doesn’t seem to be a bad show by any objective criteria, but there’s something about it that just made me tune out. I can barely remember anything about it, and I really don’t care to try watching it again. It’s not really my kind of thing, anyway : way to old-fashioned to hook me.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 4.

Busou Shinki

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Cute sentient dolls action figures doing cute things.

Characters

There’s a token generic dude who owns the show’s starring dolls, but he’s so superfluous and lacking any personality that he disappears offscreen for most of the episode.

Not the three main dolls have much personality either. There’s the generic main one, the jerk and the pushover who likes maid outfits. They spend most of the episodes “comically” unpacking the guy’s stuff after they just moved back into Tokyo. They meet a fourth one in a park. A fifth one shows up at the end of the episode.

Frankly, it’s a pain to describe such bland characters, especially as they do virtually nothing for 24 minutes.

Checking out the cast list on ANN is utterly depressing, as it promises appearances by dozens of other dolls, in what looks like a catalog of nearly every currently at least mildly popular voice actress. I’d hope they at least get a decent paycheck for this, but considering how the numbers are in favour of those merely being glorified cameos…

Production Values

Mostly okay, although be advised that the dolls are in leotards (and thus don’t wear pants). Fanservice isn’t too obnoxious, though.

What did I think of it ?

Oh gods please shoot me. This isn’t awful, but it’s terminally boring if you’re not an action figure fetishist. This was really a chore to watch to the end, and I’m not wasting any more of my time on another episode.

Which is disappointing, considering how the short ONA was actually decent and had semi-interesting ideas (although Angelic Layer did it better a decade ago). None of which are on display here, leaving just a empty pile of nothing. Avoid.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2012 – Page 3.

Tamayura ~hitotose~

What’s it about ?

Slice of life adventures about a group of high school girls in a backwater little country town. One of them’s really into photography.

We already got a short series of OVAs about this last December ; this is a full-scale series that starts way back at the beginning.

Characters

Yuu, our protagonist. She spent her childhood in the little town until her parents moved to the big city ; now they’re coming back just as Yuu enters high school. Mom has just quit her former job to go and assister Grandma at her bakery ; Dad is dead, but manages to convey his love for photography to Yuu. There’s also a younger brother who doesn’t do much yet.

Chihiro, Yuu’s BFF in the big city, who has a thing for plush toys.

Yuu barely gets to the little town by the episode’s end, so the only other member of the main cast we really see yet is the hyper, twin-tailed one.

(If you’re wondering, “tamayura” is the name for some sort of snow-like artifacts that show up on photographs in that place. At, least, that’s what I gathered from the OAVs, the word is used without explanation here.)

Production Values

Of course the premise is an excuse for scenery porn… except we don’t get to see much of the little town and the country around it yet. Oops.

What did I think of it ?

I watched the OAVs last December (it’s only 1 hour), and was bored silly by them. So imagine my trepidation when I realized that this would be exactly the same… except much, much slower. And don’t think any depth was added : the characters remain as depressingly flat as ever, and there’s nary a joke in sight.

To be honest, I started doing other stuff 5 minutes before the end. It’s that boring. Avoid, unless you really need something to put you to sleep.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 3.

You & Me (Kimi to Boku)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Four (soon five) high school boys’ slice of life adventures.

Characters

Kaname, the straight man of the group. Serious, and a bit annoyed by the others’ laid-back attitude.

Shun, the emotive, slightly childish dude.

Yuki, the younger of the two twins. Sullen and utterly apathetic. Feels the need to distinguish himself by not wearing the school blazer.

Yuta, the older of the two twins. mostly non-descript.

Production Values

Pastels. Also, lots of budget-mandated shortcuts, such as the characters often annoyingly facing away from the camera when they’re talking.

What did I think of it ?

This episode’s whole plot : Kaname tries to get Yuki to join a club, any club (+ a few flashbacks to elementary school). This complete absence of anything happening could work if the characters were fun to watch or had interesting chemistry, but they spend the whole episode bitching at each other or sulking. There’s no charm whatsoever, and the character don’t show any depth that’d make me care about them.

I just don’t care about these guys. Next show, please.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 3.