Jhiday – Page 31 – Blog@Jhiday.net

Unbreakable Machine Doll (Kikou Shoujo wa Kizutsukanai)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Steampunk light novel trash.

Characters

Raishin, our generic grim-faced protagonist, who joins the Machine-Doll Academy for REVENGE! (It’s not quite explained yet revenge against whom, or why.) He hopes that winning the Machine-Doll Fighting Tournament will be the first step towards this ; unfortunately, he scores second-last among the thousands of test-takers, and only the Top 100 can enter the Tournament. Fortunately, his teacher/guidance advisor informs him of a loophole : if you beat one of the 100, you can take his place.

Yaya, his Machine-Doll, is very annoying indeed. She’s ultra-clingy and keeps trying to get into his pants, despite him showing no such interest (I presume she’s mechanical, after all). On the other hand, she’s very powerful, if the opening action setpiece (stopping a runaway train) is any indication.

Shouko, Yaya’s creator, stayed back home : she’s mentionned, but not seen.

Charlotte is the kind of Alpha Bitch you always see in stories like this. Her doll is a dragon voiced by Jouji Nakata, of all things. Our “hero” targets her to take her place… until she’s ambushed by a bunch of other guys who had the same idea first.

Production Values

Well, at least it does look quite good.

Overall Impression

Sigh. I don’t want to use the “light novel trash” label too lightly, but this really deserves it. Contrived setup that gives the protagonist a devoted girl without any effort of his own ? Check. Angsty male lead with Nice Guy tendancies ? Check. Generic technomagic setting that barely hides the standard tournament arc ? Check.

A less jaded viewer might find something of interest here ; after all, it does look quite pretty. But I won’t bother.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 12.

Non Non Biyori

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life series about girls living in the countryside.

Characters

Hotaru, the newcomer from Tokyo. She’s a bit overwhelmed by all the country things she’s not used to : the decrepit school with only 5 students (all in different levels) ; the buses that come every two hours ; the dearth of stores ; the animals…

Renge, the young first-grader, still a bit naive and random. Loves playing the flute. The heart of the group.

Natsumi & Komari, the two sisters. The former is wilder, the latter more serious (and shorter, despite being the oldest of the group).

There’s some guy in their class, but he barely has any dialogue, and they mostly acts as though he didn’t exist. Poor guy.
(Also, their teacher is lazy.)

Production Values

Scenery porn ! Perfectly pleasant to watch.

Overall Impression

Are you healing yet ?

This is a very slow-paced series that’s all about feeling nice and agreeable. Some jokes here and there betray its 4-panel gag manga origins, but the main focus is on how nice the countryside is… or not, as some of the drawbacks are played for laughs.

Let’s see whether I don’t grow bored of it by the second episode.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 11.

Arpeggio of Blue Steel : Ars Nova (Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio: Ars Nova)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Sentient warships !

Characters

Gunzou Chihaya, our protagonist. Two years ago, he was a moody naval officer in training : the seas have been conquered by the mysterious “Fleet of Fog”, which showed out of nowhere and completely broke communications between nations ; so his future career is looking kinda pointless (it’s not like humanity looks like it has any hope of turning the tide). Also, his dad was a famous captain who got KIA (although there are some nasty rumours of him defecting), which earned him a fast track to the elite naval officer class. Which is how he got to see…

Iona, aka I-401, a Fog submarine “captured” by Japan 7 years ago ; they were kinda hoping to study it, but they haven’t made much progress since. When Gunzou touches her, she reacts and manifests her girl-shaped avatar ; she explains that her only purpose is to find him, and obey his orders. So, off they go, now labeled traitors by both sides.

Some of Gunzou’s oddball classmates (the masked dude, the guy who behaves like a delinquant, and so on) have somehow joined his crew at some point after the flashback. They’re acting as mercenaries for various human factions.

The current-day plot involves our heroes protecting a Japanese base while it launches a secret weapon towards America. This isn’t a hostile manoeuvre : Japan doesn’t have the resources to mass-replicate it, and sends it that way to America in the hope the Fleet of Fog can’t intercept it. The plan fails : the rocket is destroyed halway through its trip. So it’s time for plan B : give another copy to our heroes, and have them deliver it to America. If anyone can cross the seas and survive to tell the tale, it’s them.

The episode ends with a preview of some of the major Fog ships (and their avatars) our heroes are going to face. I note that we haven’t seen yet any clue as to who actually controls the Fleet of Fog. (Aliens ? A secret human conspiracy ? Who knows ?)

Production Values

Lots of CG animation ; actually, it looks a lot like even the characters are heavily cell-shaded CG models. It actually looks quite good… most of the time. (There are a few ugly shots indeed.)

Overall Impression

Well, this is certainly an intriguing premise. I’m not quite sold, though : the main cast are clichés without much personality so far, and I’m not sure yet whether the girl-ship thing is too stupid even for me. There are some definite pacing problems, too.

But hey, I’ve given a second episode to worse shows than this. Let’s give it a bit of a chance.

Gundam Build Fighters

(50ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Why bother with a space opera plot ? Let’s just have some kids play around with Gundam models.

Characters

Sei, our protagonist. He’s very good at building Gundam models, including custom ones ; on the other hand, he’s complete crap at this “Gunpla Battle” VR fighting game that’s all the rage.

Sazaki, his rival. This kid oozes smugness ; he’s good enough at Gunpla Battes to beat Sei without breaking a sweat, despite having way worse models to play with. He’d love to partner up with our hero : between his skills and Sei’s top-class models, they’d be a force to be reckoned with. Sei refuses, on the ground that Sazaki is a jerk who treats models badly.

Reiji is a foreign-looking dude that Sei randomly bumps into in town. He’s the kind of alien who’s never heard of Gundam Battles (despite a street ad playing right in front of him), and has trouble with complex customs such as paying for the food he takes. After Sei saves him from an angry foodseller, he promises to always be there for his rescuer, giving him a magical pebble to summon him. That promise comes handy when Sazaki is laying yet another virtual beatdown on Sei : Reiji comes out of nowhere, and wins the match within minutes despite never having played it before.

Supporting characters include Sei’s mom (hello, Kotono Mitsuishi), who’s bravely tending to their modeling store despite not being too well-versed into those things (it’s his currently-not-around dad who used to be into it, even competing nationally). Also, Mr Ral shows up as a guest referee for the climactic match. No, seriously, this is a thing that happens.
[For those who haven’t been following my Gundam marathon : Ramba Ral was a minor but memorably badass villain in the original Mobile Suit Gundam series.]

Production Values

You can bet Sunrise is making the mecha battles look as good as ever : this is a glorified toy commercial, after all.

Overall Impression

This must be the stupidest thing ever associated to the Gundam name I’ve ever watched. And I’ve been through Mobile Fighter G Gundam.

But hey, it’s gloriously fun to watch. I’m not exactly the target audience (I watch Gundam for the plot, not the mecha ; I have trouble telling apart the various Gundam models, let alone recognize what the heck Sazaki is using – that’s a doll model from Wing, maybe ?) ; but it is a pleasant-looking show that goes through all the usual toy commercial tropes with gusto.

A niche product as far as most of you are probably concerned, but I’m in.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 11.

Yowamushi Pedal

(39 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Bike racing !

Characters

Sakamichi, our protagonist, is a complete nerd. He hoped to finally find some soulmates in high school, but it turns out the anime club has already been dissolved, and it’s going to be an uphill struggle to reopen it. His other notable quality : he enjoys riding his bike to school (including the 20+ % slope leading to it), and making casual trips to Akihabara. That’s 45km. On a bicycle.

Imaizumi, his “rival” of sorts. Well, not exactly. For him, biking is Serious Business : he has an intense daily training routine, a top-class bike, and is a major contender in nationwide competitions (he lost last year’s major race to That Guy). He hasn’t even bothered joining his new high school’s biking club yet, but that’s just a formality. Anyway, he’s baffled by this reckless kid who’s cheerfully climbing dangerous slopes without any care for his own safety (Sakamichi falls over A LOT during this first episode).

Kanzaki, a girl from the next class over. She’s obsessed with biking (which might be related to her family owning a bike parts shop, and her brother being the former biking club president), and imposes herself as the biking club’s new “manager” (you know, the traditional “girl” position in sports clubs that involves no managing whatsoever). Sakamichi has caught her eye ; cue misunderstandings about her interest in his biking trips to Akihabara. (She comes in tow with a sarcastic best friend who’s dismissive of the geek.)

We see a few of the senior members of the biking club, who all have their own quirks. Do note that our hero has yet to set foot anywhere near their clubhouse, let alone join them.

Production Values

As you’d expect, most of the budget is spent on lovingly animating the bikes. Actually, it does look quite good, and there’s some nice attention to body language.

Overall Impression

Well, it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but it is quite fun. There’s some good comic timing, and I kinda like all the characters. Also, the bizarrely limited planned length makes me hope it’ll be paced to tell a proper story within it (which is always a hazard with shounen sports series).

I’d be an hypocrite to give a second chance to a –ing baseball series, and not to this. Gods know I enjoyed watching it more.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 11.

Silver Fox (Gingitsune)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life story about a young shrine-maiden-to-be, and the fox spirit living in the shrine.

Characters

Makoto, our high-school heroine. She’s been the heir to the shrine since she was 4, when her mother met an untimely death. She’s nice, but a bit awkward ; her willingness to help anyone she’s just met also means she has a hard time not being always late.

Gintarou, the fox spirit, has lived in the shrine for generations ; but while the 14 previous shrine maidens worshipped and feared him, Makoto has grown up to view him as a friend. There are often tensions, especially when she abuses his divination powers for the littlest cause, but they always make up in the end.
For the record, he’s not the shrine’s god ; he works as an intermediary with them. Also, this is a role that’s usually performed by pairs of spirits ; his partner left a while ago, which is bound to be a plot point later on.

Makoto’s father married into the family, so while he’s the current priest, he can’t see Gintarou. But he loves and trusts his daughter, even if he’s often powerless to help her handle her gift and responsibilities.

Ikegami is a classmate of Makoto’s who latches on her divination “powers” to fix her relationship with her boyfriend. While she’s not quite happy with the initial results, in the end it all works out.

Production Values

Quite nice ; Gintarou’s body language is animated with lots of care. It’s a very pleasant-looking show.

Overall Impression

A nice, relaxed fantasy slice-of-life show that’s very pleasant to watch. It’s not doing much of interest yet (the core plot for this episode involves finding a lost cat), but we’re obviously still in the setup stage, and there are many threads introduced here that sound intriguing.

This one definitely deserves some more attention.

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

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.

I Wanna Be The Strongest In The World ! (Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku Naritai!)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Female Pro-Wrestling !

Characters

Sakura, our heroine, is the incontested MVP of her… idol group ? As a publicity stunt, her agency sends her to participate in a pro-wrestling class. (She was basically the only one willing to do it.)

Erena, her self-proclaimed rival, tags along to participate too, as she doesn’t want to be left behind. She has a tendency to get in way over her head, biting way more than she can chew. In this case, this means challenging…

Rio, an actual pro-wrestler, who doesn’t hide her contempt towards those idol bimbos. A natural heel, she makes a point of thoroughly humiliating Erena. Which provokes Sakura into defending her pal’s honour, challenging Rio in an actual wrestling match. Rio finds it all very interesting… as does the audience : ticket sales for the match go through the roof.

To drive home how IMPORTANT all of this is, there’s an actual news reporter following this event, with enough pull to have the front page changed when Sakura, thoroughly beaten by Rio (as if there was any suspense about that, training montage notwithstanding), proclaims that not only does she want a rematch, but she’s going to become an actual pro-wrestler, for real.

Production Values

Warning : all the fights are filmed like porn. Insistant shots focusing on the wrestlers’ lovingly-rendered crotches (or their boobs, if the camera has no other choice), ample moaning… I’m not kidding, this is NSFW. (But then, what are you doing watching anime at work ?)

Overall Impression

You know, the silly premise is kinda fun : ridiculous, sure, but sold by over-the-top performances. Unfortunately, the fights are completely unwatcheable, which puts a complete crimp on me enjoying this.

I’m not going to bother with this one.

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

Ace of Diamond

What’s it about ?

High-school baseball.

Characters

Eijun, our protagonist, is still technically in his last year of middle school, but he’s already being scouted Seidou High School, a Tokyo school that’s been recruiting the most promising baseball players all over the country. Since he sucks at exams and his violent outburst during his team’s final match is bound to get him blacklisted from most high schools, it’s not like he has many other options ; his family can’t believe his luck. But since he’s an arrogant little fuck who really needs to be taken a peg or two down, he’s still looking this gift horse in the mouth.

Miss Takashima, the Seidou recruiter, is plenty weird herself. Under her outward appearance of professionalism, she has a core determination to recruit someone she sees as a prodigy, and won’t take no for an answer. Since this is a shounen sports series, she’s most probably right.

Azuma, Seidou’s star batter, rubs Eijun the wrong way when our hero (?) comes visiting a training session (at Miss Takashima’s insistance). You can see his point, as the guy is a massive asshole who bullies his younger pitchers. Cue showdown after Eijun calls him on his bullshit (and throws in some fat jokes, for good measure).

Miyuki, one of the younger catchers, volunteers to catch Eijun’s balls against Azuma, because he finds the new loudmouth interesting (and he’s not afraid of challenging the bully). You can clearly see the cool-rebel-who’s-not-actually-a-rebel checkboxes being ticked.

Eijun’s pals at his middle school (including his not-girlfriend) get quite some screentime, but if the OP sequence is any indication, both he and the show will quickly forget about them, however much he may be protesting he wants to stay with them and not move to Tokyo. Yeah, right.

Production Values

It’s a shounen sports series that’s probably going to run forever : of course it doesn’t look to great, even in this showcase first episode.

Overall Impression

Darn, baseball. Must not fall asleep watching the most boring sports ever… Oh, wait, they hardly play any baseball in this, instead focusing on the melodrama. Fine by me.

This show must be doing something right. I originally had no interest in watching any of it beyond the token preview, but it hooked me enough to make me want to check out next episode’s resolution to the showdown. Admittedly, most of the suspense resides on whether Eijun is worth the hype (something even he doesn’t really believe) ; while crushing Azuma would certainly be satisfying in the short term, I don’t think this is where the series is really going. At least, I hope so, as Eijun is such an irritating little git that I wouldn’t be able to stand everything going his way just because he’s that good. (Also, it’s going to be quite hard to properly justify him moving to Tokyo and leaving all his friends behind.)

You get one more episode. Don’t waste it.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 9.

White Album 2

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a dating sim, because there must be at least one each season.

Don’t let the title fool you : this is a free-standing series, nearly completely unrelated to the 2009 White Album anime or the game it spawned from (aside from a few token elements making it clear they’re set in the same universe).

Characters

Kitahara, our high-school protagonist. Last remaining member of the Light Music Club, after the diva vocalist quit in a huff and the other members just stopped coming. Being the backup guitarist, he was content with just practicing separate from everyone else, but he’s ready to call it a day. While he does have a bit more personality than his ilk, that’s mostly because he’s a sanctimonous git. His “friends” keep him around because he does help around and gets stuff done, but I don’t get the impression anyone’s really close to him.

Ogiso has been the winner of the School Idol Contest for the last two years, but frankly she never wanted to participate, and this time around she finally finds the nerve to tell the SIC Committee about it. Having no clue how to deal with her (losing her would put a crimp on the Contest’s appeal), they call on Kitahara, who’s not even a member anymore this year, but has enough presence that you can understand why she mistakes him for the Committee Chairman. Anyway, to everyone’s consternation, he lets her go.

Our third main character is the mysterious piano player who’s playing together with Kitahara despite being in the next room. It’s perfectly obvious to the viewer that she’s the dark-haired girl who’s always sleeping in his class, but he doesn’t know that. Anyway, one day someone on the roof joins in, singing the song they’re playing… and of course it’s Ogiso.

There’d be a lot more suspense about where this is going if the first episode didn’t open with a flash-forward showing the three of them performing at the School Fair (with dark-hair playing the bass, for some reason), and having an awkward love triangle.

Production Values

Well, they’re certainly not trying to disguise this story’s origins, what with the numerous shots in classic VN perspective. Perfectly alright, though, and it does have some decent music. No OP/ED sequences at all.

Overall Impression

This certainly won’t rock your world. Everything about it is generic and instantly forgettable. It’s mildly pleasant to watch, but that’s it.

I’m not sure I’ll bother with another episode.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2013 – Page 7.