Government-sponsored shorts to showcase new talent.
Grampa’s Lamp (Ojisan no Lamp) has the titular grandfather tell the story of how he rose from pauper orphan kid to successful lamp seller… and what happened next. It’s a nice little country tale, perfectly making its point in the 24 minutes it’s got. It doesn’t have groundbreaking animation or art, and you can probably see where it’s going from a mile off, but it works.
Kizuna Ichigeki is a very energetic tale of a prodigy kung-fu girl and her family… and that’s pretty much it. The artstyle is very rough, although it works out well in the (numerous) fight sequences. Still, there’s not much substance there, and the comedic tone can only carry it so far.
Wardrobe Dwellers (Tansu Warashi) is a very charming little tale where a young Office Lady receives from her mother a magic wardrobe housing little servants that teach her adult skills she’d never got the hang of before (cooking, make-up, sewing, basic security…). It’s, er, not exactly the most progressive story, but it’s got enough charm to get away with it.
The one I found most enjoyable, though, was Super Veggie Torracman (Bannou Yasai Ninninman). Technically it’s an “Eat your veggies” morality tale, but it’s so full of delirious imagery and bizarre symbolism that I couldn’t help but loving it. It’s got superb voice acting, too (Mami Koyama makes for the scariest mom ever).
An ordinary junior high school student tries using her divination powers to improve her love life.
Characters
Meirin, our protagonist. She comes from a family that makes a living from Feng-Shui divination. Her brother has set her up the “Dr. Rin” webpage, where she gives Feng-Shui advice to whoever writes in (it’s quite popular among girls, to the point that his father is starting to lose business). She’s more than a bit clumsy, and madly in love with…
Asuka, her (male) love interest. Captain of the soccer club, good-looking, the works. He’s more than a bit annoyed by Meirin’s aggressive stalking, although he does soften up a bit after she saves him from a nearly-fatal accident.
Said accident was provoked by a mysterious blonde boy who stalks Meirin/Dr Rin very creepily, and isn’t above getting rid of the competition (read: Asuka) by possessing a crane and dropping a ton of junk on top of him.
There’s also a few other classmate of Meirin and Asuka’s, but they don’t make much of an impression yet, with the exception of Meirin’s best friend Yue, whom I hope is only kidding when she offers herself as an alternate target for Meirin’s affection.
Production Values
Not very good, but it does the job. I quite like the catchy OP tune.
I wondered for a bit whether Meirin’s divination stock footage was a parody of Sailor Moon-style transformations (colored ribbons of light wrap around her… for no reason, as she doesn’t change clothes at all !), but it seems most of the similarities comes from having the same music composer.
Overall Impression
Hey, this is actually quite fun ! Despite Meirin being an obnoxious and unrepentant stalker, she’s slowly grown on me. Even the bullshit Feng-Shui divination (which looks nothing like any Feng-Shui I’ve ever heard of, but does come with a marvellously toyetic divination station) fails to annoy me.
Now, I have no clue how you sustain 51 episodes on this premise, and it’s stuck into fansub-limbo-land anyway, so I can’t really recommend it. Still, I like it.
Giant combining mechas fight for the survival of mankind against one of the most generic evil armies I’ve ever seen.
Characters
The three pilots : Hitomi, the hot-blooded girl ; Mishiou, the cold, analytical other girl ; and Kuya, the stoic silent guy (he only gets one line that’s not a mecha command). Not much beyond the archetypes at this stage.
The evil army is led by an old bearded dude, seconded by a toady mad scientist and four clichés generals (who all appear to be robots or cyborgs of some sort). In a semi-interesting twist, they’re all dead by the end of the first episode, and their floating fortress destroyed.
The good guys seem to be some paramilitary group whose leader has history with the big bad evil guy. There’s another notable female officer who seems to have foreboding visions (the opening scene has her as a teenager, ten years ago, at ground zero of some city-obliterating disaster which turned into a contact event for her).
Production Values
Decent. The art style for female characters is a bit weird and took me some time getting used to.
Overall Impression
Bo-ring. I nearly fell asleep while watching this one. Most of the characters are one-dimensional, the mecha fight scenes are beyond cliché, and the show takes itself so seriously that it’s rather baffling.
I’m told this is a sequel to a late-80s OVA, but I fail to see any obvious link from the latter’s synopsis.
Avoid.
Yes, the bottom mech has just split into two feet so all three could combine.
An ordinary high school girl is transported to a female version of feudal Japan.
Characters
Hideyoshi, our protagonist. Late for school, not very bright and utterly superficial. She goes to pray at a local shrine not to mess up with her exams, stumbles on a magic ritual, and that’s how she ends up in feudal Japan. Of course, her first reaction is to mistake everyone for cosplayers and complain about the poor cellphone reception.
Nobunaga Oda, at this stage a local feudal lord in a quest to gather the pieces of a mystical set of armor and conquer Japan. I have no clue why she tolerates Hideyoshi’s antics or has any reason to think she’ll be useful, besides plot convenience. (I mean, Hideyoshi’s Japan History textbook will probably come handy, but it’s introduced too late for that to work as an explanation for Oda’s tolerance.)
Mutsuhide, Oda’s aide, who for some reason looks exactly like one of Hideyoshi’s classmates (are they going for the “it was all a dream” ending ?). Utterly irritated by Hideyoshi, but suffers through it because Oda said so. I can sympathize.
The OP & ED show half a dozen more girls that shall presumably be introduced in later episodes.
Production Values
Well, it could be worse : sure, the outfits (especially Oda’s) are ridiculously stripperific, but we don’t get too many panty shots and the like. Still, to make clear what kind of series we’re watching, the ED shows all the girls naked, with thin strips of fabric overlaid at random to hide the naughty bits.
Overall Impression
It seems like nearly every season there’s one of these (See also : Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls, Koihime†Musou…). It’s not outright terrible, but it’s very generic indeed and offers nothing of note to make it worth watching.
Nana, the female lead. Over-achieving high-school student, extremely popular, nearly top of the class… especially since she’s recently found a new way to relieve her stress.
Kaoru, the male lead. He’s an ugly runt with a face that perpetually looks creepy. Very impopular, with a reputation of perversion. In contrast, his voice sounds perfectly normal and reassuring, which is essential when guiding Nana through her new experiences… i.e. bondage and S&M play.
Production Values
Very cheap. There’s no OP or ED animation, and the animation doesn’t hesitate to cut corners. It tries a bit too much to ape the original manga’s artstyle, which sometimes looks a bit awkward when animated (especially when cross-hatching shading is involved). Still, it does the job.
The soundtrack is firmly stuck into porno synth mode, although not to the point of being distracting.
Overall Impression
Well, it’s a very faithful adaptation of a borderline-hentai manga. You know the drill.
Still, I like the choice of focusing entirely on Nana’s viewpoint. This episode is entirely about her and how she discovers she actually likes this perverted stuff. Kaoru is just a catalyst, someone who gives her access to this new world and challenges her when she’s not being honest with herself. If you pay attention to the flashback early on about their first session, you’ll notice that it’s Nana herself who initiated it all by stumbling on a fetish outfit of his and trying it on. (You might wonder why he happened to possess expensive leather clothes that fit her perfectly. Good question.)
Now, the corresponding manga chapters had a much deeper look into Kaoru’s thoughts and motivations during all this, but this first episode isn’t interested in that angle at all, keeping it firmly in the background (you might get hints from how his reaction shots contrast with his perfectly calm and in-control voice, though).
Overall, it’s an interesting adaptation that gets to the emotional core of Nana’s character. On that plan, it’s a success.
The future, where everybody is genetically engineered to be AWESOME. A special team of elite agents has been assembled to get rid of a mysterious gigantic ring object that appeared near the moon years ago (it’s kinda in the way), but the mission quickly goes south when (1) terrorists blow up most of the recon team and (2) the ring itself fires a giant beam at our heroes’ space station.
Characters
Mika, our protagonist. She’s got something of an inferiority complex (everyone else on the mission is much more AWESOME than her, why was she chosen to participate ?). Although everything’s relative, given the kick-ass fight/greeting she has with her old friend (and straight-woman) Sofia.
Mir is the leader of the recon mission, and she’ll never let you forget she’s the most AWESOME person on the mission. She’s already got a groupie. Her reputation’s not undeserved, though, as she manages to survive both an assassination attempt by half of her recon team (infiltrated by terrorists) and the ensuing point-blank explosion.
It has to be mentioned that most of the cast (and Earth’s population, apparently) are female. Males are viewed as “dangerous”, and under constant surveillance by dedicated monitors. The mission has three of them : the Captain, who’s smarmy enough to warrant the monitoring ; Amagiwa, who apparently has some history with Mika (his role on the mission’s not clear yet) ; and…
Mario, the backup Captain, who hangs around with his sister Tiki. Which is puzzling, given that it’s specifically pointed out that siblings are not supposed to happen in this brave new world. (Points off to the show for claiming they have the same DNA. Urgh.)
Production Values
Well, it’s certainly got some budget. Good use of CG graphics for the space station and the ring. Overall, this looks quite sharp. The cheesecake factor is quite high, but very tolerable (it’s mercifully sparse on ass shots).
The score is very heavy on guitar solos, which quickly becomes quite annoying.
Overall impression
Disclaimer : I watched half of this first episode 6 years ago, before giving up at the inane figh/greeting scene. Let’s just say that I approached this again with some apprehension.
But actually, it’s much better than I remembered. A lot less fanservicey than I recall, and there seems to be an actually decent plot. It’s certainly a well-put-together show.
Do I want to watch more of it ? Let’s not get carried away. The characters range from inoffensive to bloody annoying, the gender politics look more like an excuse to have women kicking ass instead of a genuine exploration of the issues, and the exposition is beyond clunky. The next-episode-preview makes it sound like it’s heading into giant-robot territory, not a direction I care for. And finally, I don’t think I can bear those frigging guitar solos any longer.
Handshakes will be a little more complicated in The Future.
Fuck if I know ; I can’t make head nor tails of the plot. I’ll say “fanservice-heavy harem comedy with a dash of heroic fantasy” to err on the safe side, but even that fails to accurately describe it.
Characters
Takashi Haneda is the protagonist of a ridiculously cliché harem, with various girls (his little sister cousin, the aggressive one, the athletic one who lets her mind wander, and a fourth one I can’t quite get a hold of yet) fighting over him before he’s even stepped five feet towards school. Also, we get numerous panty shots and even naked shots of their breasts when they push themselves onto him. And he’s got whiny narration by Hiro Shimono (when did his career devolve into “cliché harem lead” ?). But the lot of them only get 5 minutes of screentime.
The rest of the episode is dedicated to a trio of loser dudes unlucky in love, and desperately trying to set up a drinking party with whatever girls they find. One of them is 35 and owns the bar they hang around at ; the other two look high-school/college-aged. Anyway, the only girls who accept the invite are the part-time waitresses. Overall, it’s a very pathetic scene that makes me loathe everyone involved.
But wait ! Just before and during the ending credits, we see all of them in a heroic-fantasy setting, fighting monsters and the like ! Is this a MMORPG or an actual parallel world they’re escaping into ? I have no clue ! (And why would Haneda need escaping anyway ?)
There’s also a bizarre framing device with radio/TV shows (including an outrageous American-accented DJ) shown in a rapid succession… and I’ve got no clue why they’re doing this.
Production Values
Decent, I suppose. The very heavy fanservice whenever a girl’s on screen is quite annoying, though.
Overall Impression
What the heck is this shit ?
Now, I can understand trying to be a bit creative when adapting yet another harem dating sim. But this is just incoherent crap, with three different narratives that completely fail to coalesce into any coherent whole. It’s probably trying for the “self-parody” angle, but that just makes it more obnoxious.
I hate every single character and it makes no sense whatsoever : avoid like the plague.
In a far-flung future, war rages between humans and robots… and the robot princess has nonsensical conversations with her butler.
Characters
Drossel von Flügel, the robot princess. Prone to random flights of fancies, and completely out of touch with the real world.
Gedächtnis, her construction-mecha-looking butler. Desperately trying to put his mistress back on track, although he’s not above deadpan snarking. Her father left him books of notes for her education… but it doesn’t really help.
Production Values
Full CG graphics, and it’s very gorgeous indeed.
Produced by Disney Channel Japan. No, really.
Overall Impression
I normally don’t cover sequels in depth, but this one deserves the exposure. A previous season of this (simply called Fireball) was broadcast in 2008, and this is basically more of the same. You don’t need to watch the first series to get this, though (although you should, it’s only 26 minutes of your time).
The setup is only an excuse to have quick-going barely coherent conversations between the two leads, combining puns and dry wit at a frenetic pace. It’s just plain hilarious, hitting punchlines one after the other like clockwork.
This first episode of the second series looks like it’s actually going to advance the plot a bit, but that doesn’t really matter (the first season had no continuity whatsoever, with the two leads changing looks for each episode just because).
A very bizarre harem (?) series where the protagonist is sent to a high school on a remote island… and meets a series of girls who all claim to be his long-lost little sisters.
Characters
Wataru, our hapless main character. The poor boy seems to be the universe’s chew toy – despite being a top student, he fails to enter his dream high school because of a computer error. Tons of other humiliating stuff happens to him in this first episode alone. His background is somewhat intriguing : there are no parents in sight, he seems to be living alone with an elderly butler (who quits five minutes in)… and there’s immediately a backup plan from nowhere for him to get enrolled into another high school after his initial failure (this involves him getting manhandled by two Men In Black).
So far we only see four of the “sisters” (although the OP promises more). They all adhere to the usual harem clichés : there’s the mistress of the mixed message, the trendy one, the shy one and the kid one.
Taro is your usual annoying “perverted sidekick”, whose main purpose seems to be eating up precious screentime with his antics.
Mami is a bizarre girl who comes to the island at the same time as Wataru and Taro. She monologues that she’s there to observe Wataru… and indeed, she can often be seen in the background stalking him.
There’s a running joke that all the island’s adult staff (so far, the boat driver and the realtor) look like Jeeves, Wataru’s old butler. Whether it’s always the same guy in disguise, a group of relatives, or just a coincidence is up in the air at this stage.
Production Values
Quite low, to be honest. On the other hand, there are lots of little directing tricks and sight gags to keep the whole thing visually interesting and very surreal ; not quite SHAFT-ish, but more in the vein of Utena. Me likey.
Overall Impression
What the… ?
This is a very surreal series indeed. At first glance, it’s your typical collection of harem clichés (see above). But there’s a very nasty undercurrent that the whole thing may well be a joke at the protagonist’s expense, as absolutely nothing here makes any kind of sense. The plot is full of holes, which is fully acknowledged by the series (and the protagonist is appropriately bemused by it all).
But I’m really not sure I want to commit to 26 episodes of it ; there’s a very distinct risk of it turning into a just quirky cliché harem series, something I have no interest in. Maybe it’s better if I stick with the memory of this intriguing first episode ? I doubt the actual series can match my expectations…
Our protagonist’s mother’s just been killed, but not before stabbing him herself. He’s barely been rescued from the grave by his sister (or is she ?) that she’s kidnapped. He goes to the rescue, but another faction’s interference allows the kidnappers to escape.
Characters
Kyosuke, our protagonist, seems to be an unkillable mutant capable of transforming into a giant monster. He has no clue why all this bizarre stuff is happening to him or who all these weirdoes are, but he’d really like to find out.
Maya claims to be his little sister (that he’s never heard of), although she looks older than him. She’s identified as a Flicker, whatever that means (from what I understand, she got transplanted memories). There’s a possibility she’s got multiple personalities, although she gets too little screentime to judge (she becomes a macguffin everyone fights over barely six minutes in).
Shiro is an enigmatic world-weary badass who helps Kyosuke for unexplained reasons (he seems to be allied with Maya). He delivers most of the exposition, although he’s no slouch in the action sequences either.
Maya was kidnapped by the Kirihara corporation, who are apparently a big deal in this world. They’ve got a huge military-scientific facility nearby, patrolled by tons of heavily-armed faceless goons. A no-nonsense, level-headed scientist seems to be in charge, and she certainly knows to shoot before monologuing (not that it’s any use against Kyosuke) and to bolt with the booty when the odds are against her.
The Hospital, represented by a raving mad doctor (also a powerful mutant) and his nurse (who wields giant syringes as a weapon) are wild cards also looking for Maya. They seem to belong to a completely different show (the art style in their scenes reminds me of Soul Eater).
Production Values
Constant chiaroscuro ? Frequent close-ups to feet and eyes ? Odd camera angles ? The frame sometimes gets reduced to a small portion of the screen ? Frantic quick shots that look like the editor is overdosing ? A superb use of color to keep the action clear despite the overall chaos ?
“Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo.” Well, that explains it. This is a feast for the eyes indeed, with every single shot having something interesting happen.
The only false note is the score, which doesn’t always feel up to snuff. I must question the sentai-like theme tune when Kyosuke powers up, as until then this series felt deadly serious despite the insanity, and it kinda ruins the mood.
Overall Impression
Okay, now we’re talking. This is very impressive indeed, with awesome visuals and a very tight script that packs a convoluted plot and three different fight scenes under 23 minutes. And this highly artificial style isn’t gratuitous : it helps merge together the somewhat grounded conspiracy plot and the weirdness of the Hospital characters, and the frantic editing keeps the pace going (the sequences between the action set pieces often feel like montages, but it works).
Now, there are lots of way this could go bad. It goes so fast that it could become repetitive. There’s a risk of losing the precarious balancing of the tone. The actual plot could go either way. The style could get so overpowering that the emotional resonance gets lost. But this is a really promising first episode, and I’m very curious how it goes from there.
Shiro’s so badass that his cigar burns through his newspaper.
