Jhiday – Page 50 – Blog@Jhiday.net

UN-GO

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Mystery series set in the near future.

Characters

Shinjuuro Yuuki, “the Defeated Detective”. He’s very good at his job, but gets involved in cases so politically sensitive that they tend to get covered up by the authorities (hence his nickname, as his successes never get publicized to the wider public).

Inga, his intense pint-sized sidekick. Or is it Inga, the tall and sexy woman he claims to be his “boss” and who can hypnotize anyone in giving one (and only one) truthful answer ? Obviously there’s something bizarre at work here…

Rinroku Kaishou, elite consultant in Justice affairs (among other stuff). Apparently in the future justice will be privatized and corrupted so that this dude can order the whole system around. Sure, he’s a talented sleuth, solving the whole case despite not even being on the scene (he’s a recluse), but he’s also the one announcing the cover-up in the same breath.

Rie Kaishou, our point of view character so far, daughter of the former, sent to a political gala in his stead because he can’t be bothered. She fancies herself as a good sleuth too (and invokes his authority until he barges in through video-conference), but she gets carried away by the first red herring…

Izumi Koyama, a prosecutor. She’s mostly superfluous in the proceedings (which she obviously seems to resent quite a bit), and is often reduced to helping some exposition along.

The case of the week involves a businessman who allegedly embezzled money from reconstruction efforts (“as you know, our country was recently at war with terrorists…”), and gets killed halfway through the costume gala he set up to try and clear his name.

Production Values

It’s Studio BONES, of course it looks good. I note that they somehow managed to dress half the cast in period 19th-century garb, eh. The character designs have a bit more style than their usual offerings (especially Inga, in both forms).

What did I think of it ?

Well, this is certainly a fast episode : it burns through a complete mystery plot (including two full-blown red herrings) and some extensive setting exposition at breakneck speed. While you do need to pay attention (in particular, the “description of character” overlays are a bit too fast), it never loses sight of clarity. While it’s hard to try and deduce the solution before it’s given (especially are some crucial data is shown too late because of screentime constraints), it’s still a decent mystery in itself, with some nice pieces of foreshadowing.

I’m a sucker for the mystery genre : of course I’m going to keep watching this. But the quality is quite good, and I’m intrigued by the setting and Inga’s weirdness. It also seems to be fully aware there are only 11 episodes available, and is paced appropriately, which is a good sign.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 10.

Future Diary (Mirai Nikki)

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Twelve people receive on their cellphone an electronic diary of future events affecting them. (They can of course change events, causing everyone to get updates.) The goal of the game is to kill all the others (destroying their phone also works). Good luck !

Adapted from a manga ; there was a short OVA several months back that was basically a trailer testing the waters.

Characters

Yukiteru Amano, our loner misanthropic protagonist. Quite baffled and creeped out by the whole thing, obviously. He’s got a random talent for throwing darts (and always carries some), which of course comes handy before the episode even ends. He’s player “First”.

Deus Ex Machina, the Norio Wakamoto-voiced game-master. Yukiteru used to think of his as a figment of his imagination, an imaginary friend to talk with when he’s lonely, but there’s clearly something else at work here. He’s accompanied by a tiny sidekick, Murumuru, who does the hands-on stuff such as delivering the phone diaries. Whether either of them are “real” remains a mystery so far.

Yuno Gasai, the “Second” player, who happens to be an honor student in Yukiteru’s class. On the one hand, he’s lucky to have her to watch his back. On the other hand, her attachment to him is quite creeping indeed (he’s not far from the truth when he calls her a stalker). Either the diaries don’t all work the same, or she’s been able to hack hers a bit, because it shows events of Yukiteru’s life instead of hers.

“Third” (I’m not sure we’re given a name), a serial-killer who’s been on a rampage in a neighborhood. Him getting a diary is mostly unrelated to his killings (aside from the players all being sociopaths to some degree). He targets Yukiteru, who manages to destroy his phone (and thus kill him) with Yuno’s help.

Deus Ex Machina assembles a call conference between all the players at the end of the episode to explain the rules (er, shouldn’t he have done that a bit earlier), and so we get a quick glimpse at the 9 other players… although their appearances are scrambled and he takes care to only address them by codenames. (Yukiteru clearly recognizes Yuno, though ; the scrambling doesn’t look very efficient if you already know the player.) DEM names “First” as the lead competitor (what with having already killed Third), which is a nasty way of painting a target on his back.

Production Values

Perfectly okay. I quite like the CG design for Deus Ex Machina and the “imaginary world”, which both look properly otherworldly.

What did I think of it ?

Um. The storytelling is a bit choppy, but there’s a decent plot hook here. The premise obviously makes no sense whatsoever, but the series is self-aware enough to overcome this. (I especially like the post-ED scene that shows how Murumuru gave Third his diary ; it’s hilarious and has impeccable comedic timing.) It’s certainly got atmosphere, and I’m intrigued by how much of a sociopath Yuno is. If the show manages not to fall into a routine of each player attacking our protagonists in a row, and finds clever ways to abuse the diaries, it could be quite fun.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 7.

Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

(50 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Gundam for kids. The world is under attack from Unknown Enemies (sic), the good guys’ only hope are their awesome mecha.

Characters

Flit, our generic teenage protagonist. His mother conceived the mecha and gave him the key when she died in an attack several years ago ; which is very helpful when the official pilot gets injured during today’s attack and he can jump into the cockpit.

Emily, his generic love interest. If she has a personality, or an actual purpose in the plot, she hides it well so far.

There are other characters, but to be honest I can’t be bothered listing them. They’re the usual stereotypes : the officer in charge, the old wacky mechanist, the heroic actual pilot…

Production Values

The character designs obviously hark back to some sort of cross between Tezuka and Matsumoto, but I can’t say I’m convinced it works. It certainly doesn’t help assuaging the blandness of the whole thing.

The mecha fights do look nice, though. It’s Sunrise, after all.

What did I think of it ?

Yawn. The plot is boring, the characters are bland, the enemies are purposefully faceless, and the artstyle does nothing for me.

Don’t bother with this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 7.

Ben-To

(12ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

In this high school, the dorm only provides breakfast ; students have to fend for themselves for their two other meals. There’s apparently only the one supermarket around. As a result, the sales for bento are SERIOUS BUSINESS there.

Characters

You Sato, our loser male protagonist (of course voiced by Hiro Shimono). He gets beaten to a pulp before the OP, and several other times before the end of the episode. Fortunately, his parents believed in tough love, so he’s quite resilient. Anyway, he’s quite baffled by the whole thing (especially as lying in a pool of his blood isn’t good for his memory).

Hana Oshiroi, a weird girl who befriends Sato because… well, she’s about as terrible as him as far as managing to grab the cheap bento goes, and she’s a bizarre fetishist who’s disturbingly impressed by his ability to recover from injuries (the more critical his state, the more ecstatic she goes). I have some trouble reading her (is her attraction to him genuinely innocent or is she deceptively manipulative), which ain’t helped by her relationship with…

Ume Shiraume, the class rep. She’s very aggressive against Sato. Okay, he’s more than a bit rude to her, but the main point is that she doesn’t want him anywhere Oshiroi (to the point of kidnapping her when he isn’t looking) because… well, she doesn’t really explain herself.

Sen Yarizui, aka “the Ice Queen”, the Rei-clone. Completely unbeatable on the bento battlefield (her wire-fu acrobatics are quite impressive indeed). A second-year, she’s the head of the “loves of half-price bento” club, although so far she’s the only member (given the amount of garbage leftover from the previous year she carries around, presumably all the others graduated). She invites Sato to the club, maybe out of pity.

Production Values

Let’s not kid ourselves, the fanservice level is rather high… but refreshingly, there’s nary a panty shot in sight, the camera preferring to focus on the girls’ legs. Which is slightly different from the usual routine, I’ll admit.

The soundtrack comes courtesy of Taku Iwasaki, who indulges in his wilder tendencies (I’m reminded of some of his Soul Eater score). That’s always a plus for me, obviously.

What did I think of it ?

Hum. There’s definitely the risk of this degenerating into a generic harem comedy, but I quite liked how this first episode went. There’s some deliberately obtuse storytelling at work here, which could have been annoying but managed to give some depth and mystery to the characters. Granted, this could be because they’re random collections of diverging traits, but maybe they’ll actually emerge as complex personalities.

I’m trying not to keep my hopes up too much, but there’s some definite potential here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 6.

Maken-ki!

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Fanservice harem series, combined with a panty-fighter plot.

Characters

Takeru, our perverted male lead. The big girls’ high school in his hometown has just turned co-ed (wait, again with that plot ?), so he enrolls thinking this is the perfect opportunity to score. The problem is that nobody told him this was actually an academy for magic fighters (cue impenetrable magibabble about “Maken” and “Elements”, whatever they are), and that things go a bit pear-shaped when he’s asked to participate in a demonstration during the entrance ceremony.

Haruko, Takeru’s childhood friend, vice-president of the student council and his dorm’s supervisor. Typical tsundere material, trying to maintain her composure and showing definite signs of jalousy when any other girl approaches Takeru.

Kodama, a girl who recognizes Takeru as her sworn enemy because he bears a weird tatoo (and not because she knows him or anything).

Inaho, another girl who rushes to save Takeru (before Haruko can intervene) and claims he’s her perfect partner. She then immediately moves into his room. Not to be left off, the other two immediately do the same. (It’s a big room.)

Production Values

Between the camera angles and the character designs, it’s physically impossible for the camera not to show any panties when it doesn’t focus on faces. Seriously, at least one shot in two features prominent panties. To say it’s gratuitous and distracting… would be completely missing the point of this series, really.

What did I think of it ?

Every season needs its terrible fanservice-fest, right ? Well this is Fall’s. The plot is stupid, the fight scenes don’t flow well because of the camera’s fixation on panties, and the characters range from the flat to the utterly loathsome (urgh, the main lead…). There’s nothing of interest whatsoever here, and the result is so contemptible it’s not even entertaining in its awfulness.

A strong contender for worst show of the season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 5.

I Don’t Have Many Friends (Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Harem comedy, although the accent’s clearly more on the “comedy” side of the scale. Adaptation of a series of light novels (which are also known under the bizarre acronym of “Haganai“).

The premise : a group of loners decide to form a high school club together, because it’s the only way for them to get friends. Basically, think Haruhi Suzumiya without the paranormal aspect.

Characters

Kodaka, our male lead, and a transfer student since one month. Made the worst first impression EVER by arriving so late on his first day that it looked liked he was assaulting the teacher when he rushed into the classroom. It doesn’t help that he has natural halfbreed blonde hair ; everyone thinks he’s a delinquent. As a consequence, he has no friends.

Yozora, a taciturn girl with no friends. Kodaka surprises her alone in a classroom talking with her “air friend”, which is works about the same way as an air guitar (yes, it’s as pathetic as it sounds, although Kodaka doesn’t have much ground for criticism given that I’m pretty sure he did the same thing in one of his flashbacks). When she and Kodaka discuss their situation, and note that joining a club this late in the schoolyear won’t work to make friends. So she decides to create her own (with a coded message in the poster that explains exactly what the club is about), and forcefully enrolls Kodaka in it.

Sena, the first applicant, who also has no friends. This might seem surprising, considering she’s beautiful, has great grades, is super-awesomely athletic, and the daughter of the school’s owner ; the problem is that all the boys become complete sycophants around her, and all the girls hate her for exactly the reasons stated above. This includes Yozora, who does her best to try and deny her entrance into the clubroom.

Presumably, more characters are going to join shortly, if the credits sequences and the OVA are any indication.

Production Values

Wait, does this share a character designer with Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko ? *Checks* Indeed it does ; I knew I’d recognized this way of depicting girls’ arousal/sexyness/blushing/whatever-it-is. Anyway, this looks perfectly okay, but visuals aren’t really the point.

What did I think of it ?

I didn’t came into this expecting much (especially after the ultra-confusing, in-media-res OVA with inexplicable Index cameo), but this surprised me by how genuinely funny it was. The characters display actual wit, and have great chemistry together. The comedic timing is impeccable. It’s also surprisingly light on romance so far ; the focus is clearly on the characters’ psychology and their interplay. This pleases me.

A very pleasant surprise.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 4.

Persona 4 – The Animation

(25 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The anime adaptation of a cult videogame… which I’ve never played (I don’t own a PS2).

The plot, as much as I can discern so far : a few high-schoolers living in a little town in the middle of nowhere discover they can enter TVs into a parallel world where they fight monsters (the game’s a RPG with heavy visual-novel/dating-sim overtones, from what I’ve understood).

Characters

Narukami, the player character. As such, he has no personality whatsoever and speaks as little as possible. He’s going to live in Littletown for a year with his uncle (conveniently a senior detective, thank you conservation of cast !) because his parents are busy abroad. He gets weird dreams and voices talking to him, eventually leading him to walk into a giant-screen TV in the local mall. There, a passing friendly monster helpfully gives him glasses that allow him to summon a giant avatar to fight nasty beasties. It has to be said that the glasses make him look 200% more badass.

Hanamura, the token perverted best friend. Son of the mall’s owner, and only here for six months. Part of the initial party, although all he’s done so far is freak out and piss himself.

Chie, the tomboy. You can tell she’s important because she wears a bright green sweater instead of the dull grey school uniforms of nearly everyone else in the class. Also part of the initial party.

Konishi, a quiet girl who seems as the center of things : she discovered the corpse of a gory murder, and the “girl in the haunted TV channel” urban legend looks a lot like her.

Production Values

This series has one of the best opening sequences of the year… despite having spent no budget on it whatsoever (it’s just geometrical shapes intercut with snippets of the prologue -our protagonist coming to Littletown in train). But the tune is very catchy indeed. (Same deal with the ED.)

I’d love to say that the same sense of style permeates the episode… but alas, no. The soundtrack alternates between the quite good and the ill-timed ; and there’s something slightly off with the rhythm of most scenes. It feels… very visual-novelly, for lack of better term ; characters exchange dialogue in a slightly disjointed fashion that makes it look like a direct adaptation of the original game’s VN scenes (although I have no clue whether the game was actually like that).

I love a lot of the stylistic quirks here (such as the calendar shots to mark the passage of time), but it doesn’t quite click.

What did I think of it ?

Well, it’s more than a bit rough, but I can’t quite fault a show for trying to be a bit stylish and falling slightly short of the mark. It’s certainly got atmosphere, and I’m interested in where the dating-sim-meets-dungeon-crawl story is going.

We’ll see how it goes from here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 4.

Pure White Symphony ~ the color of lovers ~ (Mashiro-iro Symphony)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Yet another date-sim adaptation. The hook here, if you can call it that, is that a previously all-girls high school is starting to let boys enroll.

Characters

Shingo, our generic male lead. As blandly nice as you’d expect.

Sakuno, his sister. She’s more than a bit mentally-challenged, and easily gets lost. Or distracted. I hope she doesn’t have a route, but considering how she’s unaware that they may be a bit too old to bathe together…

Airi, daughter of the principal, and vehemently against boys enrolling. We also get to see her nice side when she helps Sakuno get unlost.

We don’t get to see much of the rest of the cast. The obligatory pervert best friend isn’t actually that perverted, there’s a girl that spends her whole screentime sitting in the grass cuddling a bizarre cat-thing, and somehow the high-school’s got a maid.

Production Values

Perfectly okay, but the character designs are typical date-sim fare : colorful and immediately forgettable.

What did I think of it ?

A pretentious opening prologue about the color of love. Half the episode spent on Sakuno being lost. A dramatic cliffhanger where Airi announces she’s against dudes in the school. This is a joke, right ? A parody of how bland and devoid of stakes the genre has become ? But alas, no, this is played entirely straight throughout, and the show really expects us to care about its hackneyed premise.

I don’t care, and neither should you.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 4.

Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere (Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Er… Let’s be honest, the show itself relegates the exposition about the setting to a super-speed summary over the ending credits, so I feel confident in thinking it’s a lot of clutter that doesn’t matter too much. (Some stuff about god-kingdoms re-enacting history with terrible accuracy, with the current period being an techno-fantasy version of the Warring Kingdoms ? Whatever…)

What matters for the purposes of this first episode : this is a floating city (the surface isn’t habitable anymore) with fantasy inhabitants (from normal humans to incubus & blobs). We’re following a class of elite fighter and/or mage students, most of whom are heirs to bigwigs in their respective countries/ethnic groups.

Characters

The titular Horizon is a girl who died 10 years ago in an unfathomable pre-opening-credits sequence. The local ruler built her a tombstone in the middle of the floating city, so she must have been important.

Ms. Oriotorai, the class’s teacher, decided that the best way to spice PE up was to have all 30-ish of her students try and tag her while they cross the city. (The inhabitants on the way wisely decide to barricade themselves to avoid most of the crossfire.) Oh, and she’s also using it as a way to beat up some thugs that recently annoyed her. I like her style.

Tora, the student council president and son of the local bigwig, arrives fashionably late after the whole thing’s over (he was standing in line to buy an ero-game). He’s, of course, the only one who even manages to touch their teacher (groping her by surprise, sigh). It takes all of Jun Fukuyama’s charisma not to make me want to throttle him (he has enough charm for a punch in the face to be sufficient).

Most of the other students don’t get enough screentime to get more than one-note characterizations, although they do manage to pull some stunts that look impressive even with the teacher no-selling them. There’s a wide range of talents in the class, from fighters to mages and including some outlandish fantasy races (there’s a blob, an incubus, etc.). They also do show some team spirit, with effective combinations and several of them taking the time to collect the wounded and apologize to the neighbours.

There’s a girl in a bakery who does nothing whatsoever, but is presumably some sort of reincarnation of Horizon to get this much screentime in so busy an episode.

Production Values

Impressive action sequences that flow quite well despite the general chaos. There’s also a good sense of worldbuilding, with nice panoramas and a world that feels completely alien.

What did I think of it ?

This is another episode-long fight scene that leaves me clueless about the general direction the series is going to take, but unlike Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai! this feels way more coherent. It’s a thoroughly dense setting, but the writers have the good sense of barely bothering to explain it and to focus on how fun it is to adventure there. It’s an enthralling watch, with enough charm to get over the more cliché aspects or the overwhelming expospeak.

I could live without the more ecchi aspects of Tora’s personality, but so far it works.

via [In which I review] New anime, Fall 2011 – Page 4.

Chihayafuru

(25 episodes)

What’s it about ?

High-school romance, with a side helping of card games.

Characters

Chihaya, our tomboy-ish protagonist. Used to be on the track team, and her former teammates would love to keep her around. But now that she’s in high school, she wants to indulge in her passion, and set a club up for the “karuta” card game (which, from what I understand, involves a referee reciting poems in a random order, and the players rushing to pick the matching cards up). Nobody seems to be interested so far. Her older sister is a model.

Taichi, her childhood friend. He obviously still holds a candle for her (why else would he join the same high school despite having access to better ?), but the poor guy gets pitifully friendzoned when they finally meet again.

Arata, an outcast transfer student they both met in elementary school, who obviously impressed Chihaya enough to communicate her his love for karuta. Chihaya’s the only child in the class who befriends him ; all the others (including Taichi) bully him because he’s poor, speaks in a dialect, and keeps to himself.

To be clear, none of them went to the same middle schools ; and neither Taichi nor Chihaya have had any contact with Arata for at least a year (but it’s obvious Chihaya still cares for him).

Production Values

Quite good. I loved how Chihaya preempted any fanservice potential when she pins a poster to the board, by wearing her tracksuit pants under her skirt.

Some of the dramatic effects for the flashback karuta game are a bit overblown (Arata throwing the cards into the wall forcefully enough for them to stick ? I know the walls are crap because his family is poor, but still…), although we’re nowhere near Saki territory.

What did I think of it ?

I quite liked this. Chihaya is a fun protagonist, with way more personality than most romance female leads (you can tell this is josei and not shoujo). The card game itself seems to have very little potential (unless there are other rules I missed), but it’s mostly just an excuse to have the characters meet and interact. If this balance of focus is kept, this could be perfectly entertaining.

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