2013 Q1 – Winter – Blog@Jhiday.net

Doki Doki! Precure

(50ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

The latest iteration of the now decade-old magical girl franchise. As usual, it’s a complete reboot, introducing new characters and a new conflict but fitting the now traditional formula.

Characters

Cure Sword, last line of defense of the Trump Kingdom… and, er, it’s clear from the action prologue that she failed. She went into hiding on Earth under the cover identity of idol Makoto Kenzaki, because obviously that’s the best choice of occupation to lie low.

Mana, our actual protagonist, is the kind of person who goes out of her way to help anyone who looks vaguely in trouble within her line of sight. She’s also her middle school’s Student Council President, as she clearly sees that as the best position for her to help everyone. Anyway, she randomly gets a power jewel from a kinda creepy dude (seriously, calling a middle school student “my sweetheart” isn’t appropriate…), and eventually use it to transform into “Cure Heart” and jump in so as to help Cure Sword.

Rikka, Mana’s best friend, who tries her best to keep her on track somewhat. It’s obvious from the paratext that she’s gonna become a Precure soon.

Alice is a super-rich girl who owns (among other things) the gigantic “Clover Tower” this episode takes place around. She doesn’t let it get to her head, though, and seems to be good friends with Mana. Again, she’s clearly our 4th Precure-to-be.

The plot here is that a couple of mid-boss-level villains are wreaking havoc on the Tower in an effort to draw Cure Sword out and get some macguffin from her. This actually sounds like quite a decent plan, and they may have gotten away with it if (1) wild card Cure Heart hadn’t shown up and (2) Cure Sword actually has the macguffin… and I suspect she doesn’t.

Production Values

Contrasted. There’s a gap between the “normal” designs, which are a bit on the busier side of the Precure scale of character designs, and someone like Cure Sword, who looks like she’s on loan from Heartcatch Precure given the fluidity and gracefulness of the way she is animated. It’s especially jarring when next to the Monster of the Week, whose shoddy animation is just appaling.

What did I think of it ?

I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was all ready to drop it like a stone, as I’m kinda tapped out on the Precure franchise at the moment and I need to recharge my magical girl batteries in preparation for the Sailor Moon revival (this Summer, maybe ?). Especially as the advance promotion made it look somewhat like Suite Precure.

But this is actually quite a good first episode. It packs in quite a lot of plot, introduces all the main characters with remarkable economy, and sets up mysteries for further down the way. Moreover, it manages to instill a sense of history, like we’re picking the story in the middle of a long conflict and this is just the latest stage of it. That’s not particularly a new thing for the Precure franchise (Heartcatch did it quite well too), but it’s always welcome. And the character dynamics and artstyle are different enough for this not to feel like a retread of Heartcatch.

Damn it, I think I’m going to keep an eye on this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 10.

Winter 2013 capsules

First, let’s get a couple of shorts out of the way…

My Little Sister talks like an Osakan Mom (Boku no Imouto wa “Oosaka Okan”) surprisingly isn’t incest-bait, unlike the immense majority of series with “Imouto” in the (long-winded) title. Instead, it’s terrible in a completely different way : it features horrible cheap Flash animation and revolves around a “wow, the Kansai dialect as spoken by this girl is weird and kinda nonsensical” joke that’s mostly impenetrable to Western ears and doesn’t sound that funny to start with. Apparently it’s adapted from a language guidebook, which really shows (with “helpful” translation recaps explaining the jokes slowly all the time).

Inferno Cop is a weird little short series coming from Studio Trigger, aka the people behind Gurren Lagann, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt and Redline. Alas, despite the pedigree this is objectively mindless garbage, with no budget whatsoever. Obviously this is part of the joke, but it’s not that funny. (Even P&Sw/G at its most poop-joke-obsessed lows had more depth and looked way better than this crap.)

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013.

Anime shorts are hard to review. In some lucky cases, they’re so terrible it’s easy to dismiss them immediately (see above ; although Inferno Cop‘s second episode had such gonzo charm that I’m starting to reconsider it). But in some case, there’s so little content it’s hard to judge how they’ll end up going.

Case in point : Encouragement of Climb (Yama no Susume). It’s about a high school girl who used to love mountain climbing but has been traumatized by a bad fall ; one of her elementary school friends tries to take her back to her old hobby… and won’t take no for an answer. It’s actually quite a promising start : it’s got some decent animation (including a slightly jarring CG-background shot at the beginning that isn’t half-bad), the plot progresses at a good clip, and it’s got more than one joke. Nothing earth-shattering, but good enough to be worth watching.

I’m more wary about Mangirl. It’s a comedy about young women setting up a new manga magazine. The problem is that it’s not really funny ; the basic joke is that they’re terrible at it, but the show features random bursts of offscreen competence so that they can be in business for more than one episode. And if you’re interested in the behind-the-scenes of manga publishing, this looks much more superficial than, say, Bakuman (which is, you know, still airing).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013.

Ai Mai Mi is yet another series of shorts adapting some comedy 4-panel manga. It’s notionally about a high school manga club, but really the three title characters spend most of their time or acting out terrible jokes. At least Mangirl had a plot ; this is just unfunny, horrible-looking crap. Avoid.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Nekomogatari (Black) somewhere, now that I’ve watched the whole of it (the four episodes aired just before the New Year, but took a bit to get translated).

For those who aren’t aware of it, this is a prequel to 2009’s Bakemonogatari, a very peculiar mix of harem romance, supernatural horror, self-indulgent dialogue and Akiyuki Shinbo being weird for the hell of it. That was a very good show indeed (if only for being a visual masterpiece), but it’s not for everybody. Nisemonogatari, its sequel last year, was basically more of the same, with even better technical quality but also even more self-indulgent.

The question with Nekomonogatari (Black), like any prequel, is whether there’s any point to watching it, considering how the events of “the Cat incident in Golden Week” have already amply been described in the main series in its “Tsubasa cat” arc. I’ve actually rewatched those four episodes to make sure, and yes indeed Nekomonogatari (Black) does cover a lot of (until now) relatively unexplored territory. It helps that this is a lean narrative (by -monogatari standards), making its point very efficiently at a pace that never feels idle. And the visuals are as striking as they’ve ever been.

This obviously whets my appetite for Kizumonogatari (the prequel people are actually looking for, describing “the Vampire incident on Spring Break” we’ve only very briefly flashbacked to until now), whenever that comes out ; and the “second season”, apparently slated for later this year.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 2.

Chihayafuru 2 was off to a good start, with the start of a new school year and the introduction of new club members feeling like a strong enough move forward to avoid repetition of what the first season did, and update the formula somewhat. (To say nothing of complicating the love dodecahedron a bit more.)

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 8.

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Senyuu, a series of shorts parodying heroic-fantasy RPG games. Hilariously mean-spirited, and served by some impressive voice work from Yuuichi Nakamura. It’s got a shoe-string budget, but that doesn’t prevent it from being lots of fun.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 9.

I won’t bother with a full review for Straight Title Robot Anime (Chokkyuu Hyoudai Robot Anime). Notionally it’s supposed to be the first anime series fully animated with Vocaloid-type software, but that just makes it look cheap and generic. As for the story, it’s basically three “girl” androids failing to grasp the concept of humour for 12 minutes. I don’t just mean it’s tedious and unfunny (although it certainly is) : that’s really the plot. (They’re trying to recreate human humour long after humanity has vanished.)

I wouldn’t recommand watching this crap to anyone.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 11.

Problem Children Are Coming From Another World, Aren’t They? (Mondaiji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?)

(10 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Super-powered teens are whisked away to a parallel world devoted to gambling.

Adapted from light novels, as you can guess from the ridiculously plain and long title.

Characters

All three main characters share the same personality : full of themselves and sarcastic. They are quite clever, but they never stop letting us now it. Anyway, there’s Izayoi, generic loner antihero with telekinetic powers, who does stuff like begrudgingly “saving” guys being bullied by stereotypical delinquants ; Asuka, authoritarian upper-class snob with hypnosis powers ; and You, a “friend to all animals” who can talk with them.

They’re suddenly transported to another world by the Black Rabbit (actually a busty human-rabbit hybrid), who claims to have done that because they’re elite and deserve to participate in those high-stakes, high-reward gambles. Obviously she’s got ulterior motives, and as they’re smarter than her they’re quick to call her on it. (They do agree to participate, as they’re hopelessly bored by their regular life and this sounds slightly more interesting.)

The gambling world is populated by tons of hybrid races, some of them with superpowers.

Production Values

This looks very cheap, with generic character designs and even more generic fanservice. The OP playing at the end is quite well put together, though.

Overall Impression

This actually ain’t as bad as I originally feared after the uninspired “real world” initial scenes and the introduction of the Black Rabbit (who’s a face-palm-inducing character on every regard), mostly because of the strength of the three leads’ personality. Admittedly they all share the same one, but I liked how they take no shit from the Black Rabbit and cheat like crazy at her game after carefully listening to the rules.

I’m mildly curious on where this is going, and willing to give it one more episode.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 8.

Vividred Operation

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The war on pants is back.

Characters

Akane, grand-daughter of the mad genius who invented the free, clean energy generator located nearby. As perks, she also got a flying bike, as well as the means to fight the bad guys.

Grampa, though, seems to have had a falling out with his former associates, as they don’t seem to be getting much money from the generator’s operations. And he buries nearly everything he’s got into more random mad science projects, leaving his family barely pennies for the food.

(Said family seems to be limited at this point to those two and a little sister, who’s the one who hunts bargain bins and has to resort to creative cooking.)

Aoi, Akane’s best friend, is returning to the island the series takes place in after a long absence. Just in time for her plane to get caught in the crossfire between the authority and a giant mechanized war machine suddenly attacking ! Akane saves her just in time.

Production Values

From the director of Strike Witches ! As you’d expect, the show uses the tiniest excuses to have characters in bloomers, and the camera loves ass shots. It’s more than a bit distracting, especially as the show is quite good-looking aside from that.

What did I think of it ?

Urgh. The plot and the characters aren’t interesting enough to make up for the tediousness of the constant ass shots. Even ignoring that, it’s fairly generic anyway.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 6.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

What is this I don’t even…

Characters

The titular Sasami, a recluse who never leaves home. She’s extensively cared for by her elder brother. When he’s off to work, she uses her computer network to spy on him possessively.

Said brother remains unnamed throughout the episode, and indeed goes to impressively bizarre lengths not to show his face to the camera at any point. Anyway, he’s a high school teacher, and probably well into his thirties.

Then there are the three sisters pursuing him to various degrees. Tsurugi is one of his colleagues, who does stuff like watching porn in the teachers’ office. The other two are students in the same high school : Kagami is the deadpan sarcastic one, Tama the loony one.

And then the plot goes completely insane : chocolate starts overtaking the world until the three sisters put a stop to it and save the world. (Oh, and and Kagami is apparently a cyborg.) It’s implied that this kind of stuff happens regularly.

It’s a SHAFT show, so there are absolutely no other characters around, with a cityscape entirely devoid of even a single extra.

Production Values

Typical Shinbo direction : artfully composed wide shots, random weird body language bits (such as the brother’s insistant avoidance of the camera), non-naturalistic backgrounds and colours. The animation for the action sequence is very impressive, which makes me wonder about the budget of this series.

What did I think of it ?

Hum. I had no worry that if anyone could make a brocon series watchable, it’d be SHAFT. Especially as the source material is said to be quirkily bizarre on its own right. And this is certainly an enthralling watch, even as alarms bell ring to warn that all of those characters are very creepy indeed.

But the big question is : where do you go from there ? A “bizarre menace of the week” structure could quickly become tediously repetitive, but I doubt this is really what the series is going for. On the other hand, there’s not that much room for character growth either : the characters’ quirks are overpowering and allow for little depth.

There’s definitely a lot of potential here, and on a technical level it’s definitely on SHAFT’s upper range, but I’m not convinced yet this is a show with legs beyond the shock-value façade.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 6.

Kotoura-san

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Being a young telepath with soul-crushing angst is apparently no obstacle to starring in a high school comedy show.

Characters

Haruka Kotoura, the title character. She’s been able to read the thoughts of people around her ever since her early childhood. As a result, she’s considered a creepy monster. (The show makes a convincing case about how her innocently blurting out secret thoughts would make the lives of everyone around her a living hell.) By the time she transfers to yet another high school, she lives alone and purposely aleniates herself from anyone else (as it’s less painful than people she’s grown to care for eventually leaving her). That’s until she meets…

Manabe, the guy sitting next to her in class. He’s not creeped out at all by Haruka’s mindreading, barely taking notice to try and have a bit less erotic daydreams around her. While he’s a bit of a weirdo, he legitimely wants to be her friend (or more), and promises never to leave her.

The OP/ED indicates that she’s going to make more friends. That’s going to be a tall order indeed. Also, her mother is apparently going to stay as part of the supporting cast, which is a bit surprising given the way she abandoned her daughter.

Production Values

This doesn’t have a high budget, but it knows how to make do with it. In particular, there’s a nice effect with the colours progressively becoming greyer and more monochrome as Haruka’s life spirals into hell, until bright colours smash back in when she meets Manabe.

There’s also quite some creativity with Manabe’s mindscape.

What did I think of it ?

This really should be a hideous style clash, abruptly switching from borderline-manipulative melodrama to “traditional” high-school hijinks. But it’s fiendishly effective, setting up the show’s gimmick and the main couple’s relationship with a poignancy that a pure gag show couldn’t hope for. It helps that the narrative doesn’t cheat : other people’s reactions to Haruka are often unkind, but feel entirely human.

I’m not quite sure how the series can maintain this balance in the long run, but I’m hooked.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 6.

GJ-Club (GJ-bu)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Comedy show set in one of those ubiquitous high school clubs with no purpose aside from goofing off.

Adapted from what calls itself a “4-panel light novel”.

Characters

Mio, the club president. She’s small and annoying.

Kyouya, the token guy and straight man to all the jokes.

Shion, the more-than-slightly creepy genius.

There’s also a girl who dresses like a maid, and a borderline-feral girl.

Production Values

Adequate, I guess. Most of the budget seems to have been spent on the elaborate school uniforms.

What did I think of it ?

The characters are the usual one-note archetypes. I have no clue what “GJ” even means here. And most of all, there are barely a few jokes that raise a smile ; most of them are just dreadfully unfunny.

This is a show with no selling point whatsoever, and is instantly forgettable. Avoid.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 6.

Tamako Market

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The local shopping district is awesome ! Also, a talking chicken.

Characters

Tamako, high school girl and heir to the mochi bakery. Energetic, a bit clumsy and well-liked in the neighbourhood.

Mochizou, her childhood friend and heir to the rival store next door. Very self-conscious about being friend-zoned.

Dera, an obnoxious talking bird who shows out of nowhere and sticks around at Tamako’s household. Supposedly he’s looking for a princess or something, but the mochi are so good he quickly forgets about that mission. Not that he can even fly anymore at this point, anyway.

The cast is rounded up by Tamako’s friends (the carpenter’s daughter, etc.) and the colourful other shop owners. (Wait, is the florist supposed to be trans ?)

Production Values

Very nice, although KyoAni went for the cuteness overload even more than usual.

What did I think of it ?

Well, I wasn’t quite expecting this. Obviously the talking chicken sticks out like a sore thumb, although most characters take this supernatural element in stride after a brief moment of WTF. This is a very cheerful series indeed, with even the neighbour squabbling being in good fun.

I’m not sure the joke really works, though. Sure, it brings a smile, but some of the early transitions are jarring and I’m not sure how this premise can support 11 more episodes. Still, I’m willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and time for it to find its legs.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 5.

Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Yet another adaptation of the classic 19th-century Japanese epic novel. Supposedly about 8 half-brother werewolves, although only one shows up yet and there’s plenty of other fantasy lifeforms around.

Characters

Shino, one of three siblings who survived a dire accident years ago by contracting with supernatural beings. The younger boy, his body has absorbed a mythical sword that transforms into a talking bird… er, yeah. Anyway, he’s the impulsive brat of the lot.

Sousuke is the elder brother, and contracted with a wolf he can transform into. He’s the reasonable one, consulting with elders about the plot.

Hamaji, the girl, has two roles in this episode : she’s a terrible cook, and she gets captured by the evil Church.

Production Values

Perfectly okay, with some decent designs for the creatures, but very boring human character designs.

What did I think of it ?

As I said before, I fell asleep while watching this the first time around. After a rewatch, I can’t say there’s anything wrong with it per se, aside from very pedestrian execution (and old-fashioned gender politics). It’s just utterly unexciting.

I’ll pass.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 5.

Love Live! School Idol Project

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

This girls’ high school is about to be closed down, as it’s boring and unable to attract any new students. Clearly the solution is to set up an Idol Club that’ll bring in the new recruits in mass !

Characters

Honoka, our protagonist. She alternates between (short) bouts of depression at the idea of her school closing down, and fits of hyperness as she jumps into her new project. Amazingly, the idol thing isn’t entirely her idea : she copied it on the super-hi-tech fancy new school just next door. (Also, it seems a lot of other schools in the country are doing it too.)

Umi & Kotori, her two best friends, who seem much more well-off and having much better grades than her (one’s in the archery club ; the other’s the daughter of the school board chairwoman). Anyway, one’s sceptical, the other more easy-going, and by the end of the episode they’re both on board.

Because of the current crisis, even the student council seems to only have two members. They’re sorry to say they can’t approve of such a stupid idea (they don’t even have the minimum 5 members !). Beyond the façade, they’re really sorry : they too are fishing for any idea to save the school. Yeah, I give them two episodes before they join in too.

In the music room there’s a girl who randomly goes into elaborate idol-like numbers on the piano. She’s so drafted.

I think there’s a character with an Y chromosome that shows up in the background for two seconds.

Production Values

Bright and shiny, as you’d expect. The idol segments (including the OP/ED) are a mixture of traditional animation (for closer shots) and the now mandatory elaborate CG dancing segments, which looks slightly more natural than the all-CG trend that’s been all the rage lately.

The musical number themselves are perfectly fine, and the remainder of the soundtrack goes out of its way to be as melodramatic and over-the-top as possible.

Overall Impression

There’s no getting around it : this is a very stupid premise indeed. The good news is that the creative team have committed to it with gusto, making it as fun and hyper as it could be. Yes, it’s silly, but it’s got so much energy and enthusiasm that you can’t help rooting for our heroines.

Special mention to the ending of the episode : after a setback, our three leads start making gestures and proclamations that get more and more dramatic (almost operatic), until they smoothly launch into the ED’s musical number. It’s a transition that has to be seen to be believed, and it works perfectly.

This isn’t high art, but the execution is so impressive that I’m sold on it. This is going to be this season’s hilariously fun show.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2013 – Page 5.