Month: July 2011

Yuruyuri

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life comedy about middle-school girls in the “Amusement Club”, who loiter around doing nothing in the Tea Club’s room (which they’ve hijacked after it got dissolved). Surprisingly light on yuri-related content, despite the title and the theme of the magazine publishing the original manga.

Characters

Akari, the butt of most of the jokes. It at first looks like she’d be the main character (including the “late-for-school, slice of bread in mouth” cliché scene), but she quickly fades into the background… to the point that the last half of the episode devoting itself to the girls trying to make her a more striking character.

Kyouko, the hyperactive idiot. She’s also the only of the main girls who’s actively a lesbian (although all her come-ons get brushed off quickly).

Yui, the straight man (er, girl) of the group. Not much to say about her.

Chinatsu, the newcomer who joined the Club by mistake (she wanted to join the Tea Club) and that Kyouko never let go (Chinatsu looks exactly like the Magical Girl character she’s a rabid fan of).

We get a glimpse of the (of course obstructive-looking) Student Council, as well as a disturbing glance inside Akari’s elder sister’s room (which includes a body pillow of Akari as well as a stalker-level number of pictures of her).

Production Values

The bare minimum of quality acceptable these days. It doesn’t help that we sometimes get random bumps of animation quality (and weird camera effects) in a way that feels inappropriate and distracting.

Overall Impression

Welcome to False Advertising Central ! The yuri content here is minimal, this is really a slice-of-life comedy with heavy meta overtones. And I’ve quite lost patience with the genre : this type of “we’re joking about how cliché we are” humour, especially brought awkwardly in halfway through the first episode, feels like creative bankruptcy. Hanging a lampshade over your flaws doesn’t excuse them, show.

Frankly, there’s nothing to recommend to this cross between A-Channel and Seitokai no Ichizon that manages to be worse than either. Avoid.

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

God’s Memo Pad (Kamisama no Memochou)

What’s it about ?

NEET detectives (and a couple of high-schoolers) fight crime.

Characters

Narumi, our point-of-view character. A high-schooler whose family moved around a lot, he stumbles on the NEET detectives by chance and never really manages to get away. He’s something of a loner, joining the Computer club because there’s nobody else there. Also, he’s got very little presence (people forget he’s even there at least twice in the episode). I quite like him : his sarcastic narration is quite fun, and his straightforward approach to problem-solving is a nice contrast to the bozos surrounding him.

“Alice” (not her real name, MAL tells me) is the brains of the NEET detectives ; she’s the “always stays in her room and can barely function socially” kind of NEET. An elite hacker, she alternates between “very smart monotone” and “sickeningly cute” in a way that doesn’t really convince me (Yui Ogara can’t pull it off as well as Aoi Yuuki did in GOSICK).

The NEET field agents mostly act as a group : there’s the big guy with an attitude, the survival-gamer who plants cameras everywhere, and the smooth dude who’s totally not an escort. Oh, and they’re in friendly terms with a group who are totally not local yakuza.

Ayaka, a potential love interest for Narumi, is one of his classmates who approaches him because she’s the only member of her club too (the Gardening Club), and they can help each other’s club survive. Or something. Anyway, she’s the one who brings Narumi and the NEET detectives together (they’re regulars at the restaurant she works part-time at), although he’d already stumbled on them in one of their cases before.

Our case for the week revolves around the mysterious disappearance of a high-school girl practicing “compensated dating”. It’s noticeably darker than the zany hijinks of the NEET detectives, although the writers manage not to make it too jarring.

Production Values

This reminds me somewhat of Durarara!! : it’s not particularly outstanding quality, but there’s a real attention to detail and body language, and the backgrounds give a real sense of place to the proceedings.

The soundtrack is particularly good, and… wait. Random rapping ? Big sweeping violins on moving scenes ? Hello, Taku Iwasaki ! It’s always a pleasure. (OP & ED are nothing to write home about, though.)

For some reason, the first episode that aired as a preview is double-length (45 minutes). I have no clue whether this is just for the pilot or it is supposed to be the regular format for the show.

Overall Impression

Well, now we’re talking. This is the first show this season that impressed me. It’s got a fun premise and a good handling of characterization for most of the characters (which is important, considering the heart of the case resides in subtly conveying the self-destructive feeling of the main three characters involved). My only concern so far is Alice herself, who feels a bit too artificial a character to really work.

Still, this is a promising show. Let’s see how future episodes shake up.

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

Blood-C

What’s it about ?

High school girl fights monsters in bloody sword-battles. And there end any similarities with the rest of the Blood franchise.

Characters

Saya, our protagonist. Randomly clumsy (she trips over her feet twice in a few minutes, but that doesn’t prevent her from having an impressive fight scene), can’t cook, loving her father, late in class… the clichés pile on.

Speaking of clichés, we get a quick glimpse of her classmates : the serious girl, the insufferable whimsical twins, the nice-guy class representative, the brooding loner dude in the corner, the wacky teacher… You couldn’t make them any more generic (and when their “witty” banter is already making boke-tsukkomi references, it just becomes pathetic).

Saya’s father, a stoic who trained her to fight supernatural beasties, would have been dead by the end of the episode in any other series (hello, Blade !), but it looks like he may survive for a while.

Our Monster Of The Week is a bizarre walking statue that still manages to bleed profusely.

Production Values

I got the eye-cancer-inducing “preview airing” (the series is supposed to start airing for real on Thursday), so it’s a bit hard to judge. The fight scene in the second half of the episode is pretty good, at least.

Overall Impression

Oh, dear. When I watched the short Blood – The Last Vampire movie a couple of weeks ago, I got the impression that the franchise was about a stoic vampire-hunter fighting an endless battle who scared the heck out of any hapless bystander. This show couldn’t be any less like that, though, as this Saya has the completely opposite personality and the swordfight has the good grace of happening in a remote field, far from any witnesses. Now, this could just be lulling us into a false sense of security, as Saya’s two worlds are bound to eventually collide with each other… but that doesn’t make the high school scenes any less irritating, unfortunately.

Damn, I really wanted to like this. I’ll give it another episode or two to see whether it improves, but it looks like a miss.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011 – Page 2.

La croisée dans un labyrinthe étranger (Ikoku Meiro no Croisée)

What’s it about ?

A young Japanese girl is brought to late-19th-century Paris to serve as a housemaid. Cue culture clash.

Characters

Yune, the Japanese girl, whose kimono are a complete style clash with the rest of the setting (not to mention somewhat unwieldy to walk around, as the show quickly proves). Apparently going abroad for months as a house servant is a traditional thing in her family (she’s moved to Paris entirely willingly). She’s initially presented as barely understanding any French, but we eventually learn she’s somewhat fluent in the language (which makes her presence somewhat less ludicrous).

Claude, a young blacksmith/sign-maker. He’s not hot on having Yune around, although his objections are perfectly reasonable and he’s shown to be a decent sort of guy. Very good at his job.

Oscar, Claude’s grandfather, retired founder of the sign shop (we learn in passing that Daddy is dead). He’s somehow affluent enough to go on trips to Japan and bring back Yune on a whim.

Production Values

Gorgeous backgrounds, which is actually a problem (see below). The animators also have a decent grasp of body language, which is essential in a series like this.

Overall Impression

Oh, dear. This is everything I feared it would be.

When I think “late-19th-century France”, my mind immediately jumps to the works of Émile Zola, which may be somewhat accurately described as “grim and gritty”. In contrast, this series showcases an immaculate Paris, where even the (barely shown) street urchins look way too clean to be real. As a result, this version of Paris looks fake, like the theme park version of the real thing. It doesn’t help that my mind is in constant nitpicking mode while watching it (shops named after the King ? There’d have been three regime changes since France had a king ; although it’s slightly less outlandish when we later learn that the shop was founded two generations ago – when there just barely was still a King – and that its business is struggling somewhat – but then, how can Grampa afford a trip to Japan ?).

Anyway, this show looks far too artificial to my liking, much akin to the way Paris is depicted in most foreign media. More damningly, there is very little depth to it : the characters are blandly nice and no real conflict looks in the offing. I’ll give it one more episode to change my mind, but I’m not optimistic.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.

Sacred Seven

What’s it about ?

Fuck if I know. Super-powered teens and mechas fighting against Greek mythology figures in a contemporary high school setting ?

Characters

Alma, our high school student protagonist. He goes berserk with his uncontrollable superpowers when under too much stress, which gives him a terrible reputation (the time one of his outburst put 18 classmates in the hospital a few years ago doesn’t help).

Ruri, a very rich girl who seems to know what the frack is going on and his deploying all her resources (including an army of maids and a mechatank-riding butler) into fighting off the baddies. She somehow helps Alma with getting his powers under control, although it does take some time for him to even agree to hear her out. She does flamboyant stuff like buy the whole high-school and instituting herself chairman just to keep an eye on him.

Wakana, Alma’s too-dumb-to-live classmate who can’t quite understand why all her friends are avoiding the glowering brooding guy. Presumably she’s being set up as his love interest.

Our macguffins here are GEMS, which coincidentally enough is exactly what Wakana’s club is studying (and of course Ruri and her butler join it as soon as Alma makes a move towards it). Our Monster Of The Week is a big walking statue with Medusa powers, and it seems to be after those gems. Given that this looks nothing like a team story, I presume the “Sacred Seven” are the rainbow-coloured gems (Alma has Red somehow embedded into him, Ruri possesses Purple, and Yellow is in the museum targeted this episode).

Oh, and Ruri carries around a sentient mask-statue-thing who spends his time making sarcastic comments. It’s that kind of show.

Production Values

Decent, I guess ? You can’t really go wrong with Sunrise animating mechas, but I’m not too fond of the character designs, which feel generic as heck.

The OP has got some pretty good visuals marred by a terrible song. No ED yet.

Overall Impression

Well, this is certainly a thing. You can’t fault this show for lacking enthusiasm, as it tries throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the viewer in an effort to catch attention. There’s something of a tone clash between Alma’s angst and, er, nearly everything else (from Ruri’s maid army to the slapstick between Wakana and her friends), but I think that’s part of the point.

I’m intrigued. It looks very stupid indeed, but it’s got enough energy and charm to look like it could pull it off. I’m cautiously optimistic about this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.

Ro-Kyu-Bu

What’s it about ?

Standard sports series about an elementary school’s female basketball club. Also, lolicon.

Characters

Subaru, our protagonist. He’s a high school student roped by his elder sister (who’s an elementary teacher) into coaching the club for three days. He was part of the high-school basketball club until it got dissolved a month or so ago due to a “lolicon incident” (I’m not sure about the details, and I can’t bring myself to rewatch this), and his middle school club got quite high in tournaments, so at least he’s competent, but he’s not particularly enthusiastic (his sister being a complete troll doesn’t help).

The five members of the club are the usual stereotypes : the talented and competent one, the loud idiot, the brainy one, the tall and way-too-well-endowed-for-an-elementary-student moeblob, and the kid.

We also get a glimpse of Subaru’s potential love interest, as well as the male elementary basketball club walking angrily towards Subaru as a weak cliffhanger.

Production Values

There’s absolutely no way to mistake what kind of audience this is pandering to : way too many ass shots, an emphasis on the glistening hotpants the girls wear, a gratuitous shower scene where they actually start fondling each other…

Well, at least they spent part of the animation budget into making the basketball look somewhat good. But that’s what, 4 minutes of screentime in total ?

Overall Impression

I knew what kind of show I was in for when I saw that the first post-OP action of the girls was to dress as maids in an effort to “make a good impression” on their new coach (and their dialogue gets more explicit after that). I braced myself for quite a painful watch.

It’s… actually not that bad : the lolicon stuff gets more subdued as the episode goes, and it’s hard to mess with the standard sports show formula. Still, that doesn’t actually make the show any good : the not-brain-bleach-inducing parts are merely mediocre instead of plain awful. There’s nothing at all to recommend to this show.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.

Blade

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

It’s a straightforward vampire-hunter show.

Characters

Eric “Blade” Brooks, our protagonist. His mother got bitten (and killed) while pregnant, and thus he’s a half-vampire “Daywalker”. Obviously he’s got something of a grudge, and goes around killing vampires by the dozen with his silver-bladed weapons.

Makoto, a young vampire-hunter who makes a team with her veteran father (so of course he’s doomed to die before the first episode ends). She gets three minutes of badassitude before getting way over her head and spending most of her screentime in distress. Hopefully she’ll snap out of it before she gets on my nerves too much.

Deacon Frost, the Big Bad Vampire, who’s recognizable as the one who bit Blade’s mother because of his characteristic 4 fangs. Obviously he makes short work of Blade at this point, although he leaves him alive for some reason (maybe because the “Daywalker” blood samples he extracts may not be enough ?).

Production Values

Decent. For once, the rough artstyle of the Marvel/Madhouse coproductions fits the tone of the series instead of working against it. The music score is better than average (this may be the first OP among those projects where the instrumental tune works perfectly with the visuals), and there’s some decent use of colour to set the mood here and there. On the other hand, I’m not fond of the frequent use of freeze frames in the action sequences (it always looks cheap to me), and the dissolving effect when vampires get dispatched looks quite weird.

Overall Impression

Well, I didn’t fall asleep, which is better than I expected (despite being a Marvel fanboy, I have absolutely zero interest in Blade as a character). It works quite well as a action piece (apart from some stylistic mistakes detailed above), and Makoto shows some potential as an action girl if she gets a clue quickly (Maaya Sakamoto’s charisma strikes again !).

Can it sustain itself over 12 episodes without becoming repetitive ? I have my doubts. But it’s earned itself a second episode, which is more than I’d thought beforehand.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.

Double J

(4-minute episodes)

What’s it about ?

A high school club where everyone is a representative of an inane, this-should-really-have-been-automated-by-now kind of manual labor (such as engraving toothpicks or gluing enveloppes).

Characters

Four minutes is a bit short for anyone to develop beyond stereotypes. We’ve got the newcomer girl, her brash friend, the solemn toothpick girl, the club secretary… and the club chief, a dude who gets drawn in a much rougher artstyle for some reason.

Production Values

By the makers of Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love(craft-sensei) ! Which tells you everything about what to expect, really : barely animated sets of talking heads.

Overall impression

Well, on a writing level it’s somewhat better than Nyaruani : the jokes are funnier and the pacing has much more punch to it. On the other hand, it doesn’t have a killer hook like its predecessor… and it’s not good enough for me to care.

Avoid.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2011.