Jhiday – Page 23 – Blog@Jhiday.net

Momo Kyun Sword

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series very loosely based on the tale of Momotarou.

Characters

Momoko, our teenage female lead. Born from a peach, and also blessed with huge peaches in the front. (This terrible pun isn’t mine, the show did it first.) Also, dumb as a hammer.

She has three sidekick gods : a monkey, a dog and a pheasant, who get the straight man role by default. She can fuse with any of them to get superpowers.

The plot, such as it is, involves demons looking for “peach fragments”, and the Heavens sending a team of four warriors to stop them. They’re completely useless, and Momoko ends up saving the day. She’s enlisted to keep up the good fight.

Production Values

So much fanservice ! Everyone, and especially Momoko, shows so much skin it’s a wonder their clothes don’t fall off. Momoko still gets her clothes shredded at the end, because of course.

Overall Impression

I knew we were missing something this season : the vacuous fanservice-fest with barely an excuse plot. It’s terrible on every level, really. It’s not even worth my time deriding it.

Really don’t bother with this one.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

La Bonne Vie (Jinsei)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a comedy light novel series.

Characters

Yuuki, our generic highschool student male lead. He’s been tasked by his cousin (who’s the president of the Second Newspaper Club) to shepherd the life advice columnists. Which mostly means he has to play the straight man to those bozos.

Rino, the science specialist, is an arrogant and socially awkward nerd whose idea of casual conversation involves advanced scientific topics that leave everyone else baffled. Also, she’s obviously being pushed by the other characters to become Yuuki’s love interest ; she’s not entirely uninterested, but it’s going to be a long road.

Fumi, the humanities specialist, is a nice girl who tries desperately to accommodate everyone, however absurd that may be. Also, big jugs.

Ikumi, the sports specialist, is athletically superhuman, but rarely bothers to consult her brain before acting.

The format involves Yuuki reading aloud letters from other students (3 this episode), and the four of them brainstorming an answer to publish ; since the three specialists have wildly different opinions and agendas and keep going on completely unrelated tangents, the final result is usually utterly chaotic.

Production Values

Decent, although the shine in Yuuki’s hair is really distracting.

Also, there’s a completely gratuitous wet T-shirt scene, and some breast fondling.

Overall Impression

Oh, dear. This is a gag show that just isn’t funny. Most of the jokes are too laborious or over-extended to work, when they’re not completely impenetrable. It doesn’t help that a lot of them rely on walls of text that probably worked better in the source medium. Moreover, the format is already starting to get repetitive.

Well, they can’t all be winners. Having two good comedy shows this season (three if you count Barakamon) is already pretty good.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

Terror in Resonance (Zankyou no Terror)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

It’s the grand reunion of director Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) and composer Yoko Kanno ! Okay, it’s the third time in two years, but he’s barely directing any of Space Dandy himself, and let’s just politely forget about Kids on the Slope. This is much more like it : a more personal original anime series that he’s apparently been trying to produce for years. Given the subject matter, I believe him.

This is a show about terrorism. And it’s not pulling any punches.

Characters

The story focuses on a team of two teenage terrorists, Nine & Twelve. (They’ve got proper names they use at school, but those are most probably aliases.) Nine is the tall guy with glasses and scary eyes ; Twelve is a cheerful ball of energy whose playful attitude and smile are no less scary. Together, they commit acts of terror. Stealing plutonium from a secure recycling facility, setting off bombs that destroy most of a skyscraper, posting cryptic videos on YouTube, the works.

Their motives remain nebulous. Their very codenames suggest there’s somebody else pulling the strings. They feel righteous in their attacks against modern civilization, but the short flashbacks/dreams about their childhood only raise more questions over how they got there. What’s clear is that they are ready to kill.

Lisa is another student attending their new high school. Withdrawn and a frequent target of bullies until Twelve rescued her, mostly for the lulz. Later on, she randomly bumps into him in the middle of placing bombs, and Nine offers her a choice : dying or becoming their accomplice.

Before the skyscraper attack, the police aren’t really paying attention to some random videos on the web (the uranium theft six months ago is top secret, of course) ; that’s obviously going to change. The script gives plenty of screentime to a bored police inspector who spends his time solving crosswords while his partner surfs around the Net ; presumably he’s going to be important in the investigation.

Production Values

Very good. The direction makes the terrorism sequences look like clockwork : while it’s not immediately obvious what the end objective is, the various steps are perfectly clear to follow.

Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack is ace, of course. Maybe one of her best scores in a while.

Overall Impression

Well, this was impressive. This is basically filmed like a heist movie, except we have no clue whatsoever about what drives the protagonists, to say nothing of their endgame. What helps considerably is how plausible most of their attacks are ; whoever designed them did their research well. (The second episode opens with a scene of the police piecing out what they did exactly, and it turns out to have needed very little resources, merely impeccable planning and timing. Also, tons of refuge in audacity.)

I’m slightly less confident on how Lisa is going to fit into all this ; I presume it’s going to be more interesting than introducing some tepid romantic tension. Still, I’m willing to give the show the benefit of the doubt on this, as everything else is very intriguing indeed.

A good thriller by masters of the form. Definitely one of the highlights of the season.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

Hanayamata

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a “cute girls doing cute things” manga. It features Yosakoi dancing.

Characters

Naru, our generic protagonist. She’s very ordinary, aside from her frequent chuunibyou-ish quest looking for fairies.

Hana, the new transfer student from America, does look a bit like a fairy, especially as she jumps around town at night. She loves Yosakoi, and wants Naru to join her.

The regular cast also includes Naru’s best friend (who had a bad first meeting with Hana), and a rich girl living nearby.

Production Values

Reasonably pretty.

Overall Impression

… zzzZZZzzz… There’s nothing objectively wrong with this : it’s cute, the characters are well-defined, some of the jokes are funny… But it just can’t quite catch my attention. It’s too inoffensive to really ping my radar on such a busy season.

I have more interesting shows to watch than this. Too bad.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

Blue Spring Ride (Ao Haru Ride)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a romance shoujo manga.

Characters

Futaba, our heroine. She used to be quite cute and shy ; unfortunately, that brought on her the scorn and jealousy of the other girls in her class, who made her life miserable. So she reinvented herself as she entered high school : she’s now a frumpy mess who goes out of her way not to attract boys’ attention. But hey, she’s got friends now !

Said friends turn out to be shallow bullies who merely found somebody else to target in their class. It’s thus not too surprising for them to be absent of the “main cast of friends” shown in the ED sequence ; a breakup between Futaba and them seems imminent.

Tanaka was a small and a bit feminine boy that Futaba liked in middle school. He disappeared just as they were starting to go out ; suddenly moving out of town without warning. It’s all but said his parents had a nasty divorce ; he’s now a tall and sullen guy who’s going by the surname of Mabuchi. Also, he feels slightly insulted that Futaba took months to notice he was back. Sure, he’s changed quite a lot, but so has she, and he recognized her immediately.

What’s interesting is that Mabuchi keeps saying that they can’t go back to their old romance ; they’ve both changed too much, and can’t turn back the clock. What he doesn’t say is that he doesn’t like her anymore ; that’s how she interprets it, but he clearly still cares. Presumably he just doesn’t want to live in the past, and any relationship between them should take into account how they’ve both evolved. But Futaba isn’t getting the hint. Yet.

Production Values

Watercolours and shoujo character designs, of course. Perfectly okay, as it conveys emotions well.

Overall Impression

This starts a bit slow, but it gets much more interesting after the timeskip. Futaba’s reinvention is fascinating, and the interplay with her toxic friends makes me cringe (in a good way). And the central conflict is certainly more interesting than your standard romance plot.

Okay, show, you’ve got my attention. Let’s see where you’re going with this.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 4.

Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun (Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a shoujo 4-panel web-manga lampooning the romantic shoujo clichés.

Characters

Chiyo, our point-of-view character. She’s madly in love with this tall, good-looking dude in her class. And she’s about to make her confession. Except she bungles it, and ends up as his assistant.

You see, Nozaki-kun, under the nom-de-plume “Sakiko Yumeno” (which sounds like a young woman, and certainly not a dude being voiced by Yuuichi Nakamura in full deadpan mode), is a popular shoujo manga artist published in the “Monthly Girls” magazine. It’s not like he’s particularly passionate about it (the man seems to have no romance whatsoever in his life), it’s just that he’s very good at it. Cue cynical examination of various tropes of the shoujo romance genre ; the “let’s ride together on a bicycle” staple gets a particularly thorough beating this episode.

The OP sequence hints that there will be more supporting cast added up shortly ; one of them shows up just after the ED credits.

Production Values

Bouncy and colourful ; it’s got good comedic timing, and that’s what matters.

Overall Impression

This is mostly quite funny indeed. I say “mostly”, because Chiyo’s romantic moments don’t quite work until the show starts undercutting them swiftly. And, well, not all jokes land ; that’s par for the course for this kind of series. But it’s rapid-fire enough that you never get bored of it.

If you think shoujo romance is a genre that can get stale, then this is the perfect antidote. (It may make you incapable of ever reading any other such show with a straight face, but that’s the sign of a job well done.)

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.

DRAMAtical Murder

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of visual novel which seems to have some explicit boys’ love content. I’d kinda guessed from all the pretty boys in the main cast.

Characters

Aoba, our protagonist, works in a junk store called “Mediocrity”, which immediately sets the tone. Er, let me rephrase that, as this just sounds too mean in retrospect. It sets a relatively playful tone, really. Aobo’s relatively well-adjusted right now, although he does have tragic flashbacks of being called a girl because he had (and still has) long blue hair. Er, yeah.

A big thing in this setting is the AI helpers everyone has with them ; Aoba’s is called Ren, and takes the form of a black cat. (It’s a popular new model ; some other people have them as different kinds of animals.) Those are really nifty, and the world as a whole has tons of augmented reality.

Aoba’s got many handsome friends (or “friends”). The hairstyler who’s a bit too touch-happy is instantly memorable. The gang leader who stops some hoodlums from attacking him is okay. After that, they grow progressively more forgettable.

Nobody gets murdered here, nor is there any sign of such a thing being about to happen. The worse that happens is a racketting attempt, and the cops shutting down a rave party.

Production Values

Actually quite nice ; there are tons of interesting visual ideas that contribute to the world-building and make this very fun to look at. The techno beat permeating the whole soundtrack’s quite fun too. The character designs are ridiculous, but they kinda fit in this highly-modded world.

Overall Impression

I feel a bit cheated. For some reason, I expected the start of a murder mystery ; but nothing of the sort seems in the offing, and instead the main character ends up challenged into some crappy AR fighting game at the end. This might work as a visual novel ; here, it feels like all the world building is being swept off down the drain.

By the end of the episode, I had lost all interest. Nice try, though.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.

Akame ga KILL !

(24 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Generic videogame-style heroic-fantasy that takes a sudden turn into wholesale slaughter. (Adapted from a shonen manga series.)

Seriously, TRIGGER WARNING : there are some utterly brutal deaths in here that will take you completely by surprise. It’s a very bloody show that loves its shock tactics.

Characters

Tatsumi, our generic sword-wielding hero, fresh from the countryside. (Wearing a modern high-school sweater, for some reason.) He’s come to the Imperial Capital to raise his profile and find a way to save his village from poverty. He had a couple of pals with him originally, but he lost track on them on his way after some bandits attacked. He’s been warned the City has more dangerous monsters than the Dragons he’s been offing by the dozen until now… and they’re human beings.

~~Boobs~~ Leone, a nice girl who just happens to have the right connections to make him rise quickly in the Imperial Army’s ranks ; the rube just has to give her all her money and she’ll make it happen. /ZOINKS/ It takes him the whole day to notice he’s been swindled.

Fortunately, there are some good souls in this city after all. He’s invited off the streets by Aria, a cute rich girl who lives in a mansion with her equally nice family. Sure, he has to help her shopping, but but they do have actual connections, and they provide him with a nice exposition dump.

Enter “Night Raid”, a band of assassins led by the titular Akame. They target the wealthy, and are borderline impossible to stop. They strike quickly, violently, and without remorse, leaving a trail of bodies behind. Tatsumi immediately realize they are a whole other level above him. He’s fortunately not on their list, but his new benefactors are. That just won’t do, eh ?

Production Values

Those are some seriously awful character designs. Ugly, generic, and making no sense whatsoever with the setting. The action sequences are decently animated, but hardly worth your time on their own. Also, copious fanservice, and people being sliced in half are regular thing. (And why the heck is that one freakout completely devoid of animation ? Doesn’t it just cripple the scene’s raw emotion ?)

… And then the music starts kicking in, and I realize it’s by Taku Iwasaki. Darn it, I never drop anything he scores.

Overall Impression

This series is mean and nasty and it just stole my lunch money. Not only is the writing quite awful (“You’re the boobs from earlier !” is actual dialogue), but it’s downright deceitful and sadistic. It revels in its excessive violence. Sympathetic characters are thrown away for shock value. It’s exploitative trash, and it knows it.

It’s a rare series where I feel insulted after watching the first episode.

I’m giving it one more episode to convince me there’s some substance beyond the shock value, but I’m not hopeful. Otherwise, I’ll just stick to the soundtrack.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.

Barakamon

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a heartwarming manga about a gruffy big-city adult rediscovering himself when put in contact with country kids.

Characters

Handa used to be an up-and-coming talented calligraphist, being featured in galleries and the like, until he committed career-suicide by blowing up when a respected veteran called his art comformist and trite. Like, he up and punched the old dude. His dad ships him off to a small island in the boonies so that he can cool down a bit.

His new place is seriously in the middle of nowhere. A bus comes around once a day. (A helpful farmer gives him a ride for most of the way from the airport.) It’s got a “village chief”, who rents him this house. Modern comforts aren’t really an option. And everyone knows everyone else, of course ; it’s a small community. I get the impression many Japanese people would need subtitles to understand their local dialect, as it’s thick as heck. (Handa’s certainly baffled a lot of the time.)

Naru is the local scamp, and she’s been using the house as her “base”. (So have a few older girls, from the look of it.) How she keeps finding her way in after Handa locks her out is a mystery, but it’s certainly very funny. Have I mentioned she’s cute as a button ? Because she is. And I like that they got an actual kid to voice her.

Later on, Handa’s introduced to more kids. You can tell he’s delighted.

Production Values

Aside from some decent scenery porn, there’s one thing this show does very well : perfectly-timed slapstick. It starts with the Punch, and it continues through everything Naru does. Heck, even Handa joins the fun after a while (that sidepunch-to-sea move is marvellous).

Overall Impression

Ah, yes. The old staple story where the city dude comes to the country and discovers folk wisdom. Well, it’s more that he starts getting his head out from the ass where it was firmly entranched, really. It’s not so much that the villagers are particularly wise, but more that they give Handa a lot more opportunities to realize what a conceited ass he’s being. He’s out of his comfort zone, and he can’t just isolate himself in a bubble anymore.

Also, this show is very funny indeed. 95% of good comedy is timing, and this series has that down perfectly. Seriously, it’s making calligraphy not boring, out of all things.

This looks to be one of the highlights of the season. It’s a lock for me.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.

Shounen Hollywood: Holly Stage for 49

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

This series is the sequel to a 2012 light novel about a male idol group.

Characters

“Shounen Hollywood” was an idol group… 15 years ago. This isn’t their story. This is about their successors, a group of five teenage wannabes who’ve be scouted by the original group’s producer.

Frankly, even while watching the episode I couldn’t bother keeping track of each of the five’s actual personalities. It doesn’t help that the producer is intent on having them adopt ridiculously fake stage personas, all equally punchable.

Aside from the insane producer, the one character who sticks out is the hideous gay caricature who trains the kids. Urgh.

Production Values

Well, if it’s good-looking teenage dudes you want, you’ll get them. They all kinda have the same face, though.

And of course all the songs are crappy J-pop.

Overall Impression

There are actually some decent jokes in this. But that’s not enough to save this shapeless, plotless mess which seems bent on making me dislike all its characters. (Not hate, as that would imply some actual impact.)

You can sell me on idol shows if you’ve got the right kind of energy. This doesn’t have what it takes. It looks like an exercise in tediousness I have no wish to see any more of.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2014 – Page 3.