2014 Q1 – Winter – Page 2

Winter 2014 Capsules

Double Circle is quite a bizarre project. It spends most of its short screentime introducing its cast of quirky oddballs (that aren’t too interesting yet), until the reveal that they’re actually a sentai hero team. This is quite a gear change, to put it mildly. Apparently this series was produced by Toshiba to promote its clean-energy and environment-friendly projects ; that it’s barely visible in the final product might speak of a core problem. Anyway, it’s fairly generic and the irregular release schedule makes it pretty sure to fall off my radar by the time the next episode is out.

Pupipo! is more conventional stuff. This manga adaptation tells the story of a gloomy girl who’s the only one who can see the many ghosts surrounding her. Presumably they stick around her because she’s the only one who can interact with them ; unfortunately, they’re quite jealously demanding her attention, and she has to fend off any attempts from kids her age trying to be friends with her, lest they get attacked. This understandably puts a crimp onto her social life. This all changes one day when (1) she meets a girl too stupid and stubborn to back off like everyone else, and (2) she finds “Po”, a mysterious creature that looks like a fuzzy pink ball and is scary enough to make the ghosts start behaving a bit.

It’s a standard coming-of-age story, clearly aimed at young girls ; but it’s decently done, and quite good at developing its atmosphere. The gloomy protagonist has a striking design, as well. And it’s short enough not to overstay its welcome ; I could quite see myself sticking with it for the whole season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014.

Okay, I tried watching Future Card Buddyfight, but there’s only so much I can stand from a blatant cardgame advertisement. Everyone gushing about how awesome Buddyfight is ? Check. The whole world revolving around it, to the point that this cop offers a criminal a choice between surrender, and duelling him at a cardgame ? Check. School classes that include unpacking new cards at the start of the lesson ? Okay, that’s a new one for me, but whatever. Blatant token introductions for a dozen of bit characters that are obviously going to be featured later on ? Par for the course.

Sigh, I’m just not in the market for this. It actually looks quite fine, and there are some decent jokes, but I just can’t get any enthusiasm into watching this. The two annoying protagonists (good samaritan kid and his new dragon-buddypet that just can’t stop complaining about everything) just get on my nerves way too much.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 2.

I tried, but I just can’t gather the will to write at length about Robot Girls Z. It’s a very gimmicky show (mecha-girls patterned after mecha from vintage shows such as Mazinger Z) that falls completely flat for me. I have no nostalgia for those old series (they were before my time), and the actual machines are what I find the least interesting in that genre anyway ; crossing them with moe girls doesn’t help. And it’s not like these shorts really do anything with the premise aside from pure fanservice.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 4.

Strange+ is yet another of those shorts adapting a gag manga. (Not a 4-panel one, though.) It follows the wacky hijinks of a team of “detectives”, and while it’s far from subtle, it did get a few laughs out of me. It looks terrible, but that’s par for the course for this kind of thing.

I know some of you were waiting for my take on pupa, but what is there to say ? I already had an inkling of what I was in for, and anyway the first episode barely gets anywhere, what with clocking at barely four minutes long. For what it’s worth, it’s a straightforward horror series about a girl who gets transformed into a cannibalistic monster ; we don’t even get to the part where she starts eating her brother. Still, it’s good at building atmosphere, and that’s what really matters. I’ll probably keep watching to see where it goes.

Z/X Ignition is a full-length show, but it was so boring I literally fell asleep halfway through ; and I have no wish whatsoever to try rewatching it to get a better sense of the plot. From what I can gather, a bunch of dark portals appeared all over the world, spawned monsters and “destroyed civilization” ; somehow civilization seems mostly fine a few years later, with some people having somehow domesticated monsters. There’s a lot of impenetrable exposition about monster classification and so on, because of course this is adapted from a card game.

To be honest, I have no clue whatsoever which of the characters I’m supposed to be rooting for. They’re all very generic, I seem to have missed out the part where their motivations get explained. Not even a lead role for Miyuki Sawashiro (whom I’ve surprisingly heard nowhere else this season) can make me pay attention to this crap.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 5.

Hamatora the Animation

What’s it about ?

A back-alley team of Private Investigators. Who happen to have super-powers, and occasionally fight super-powered crime.

(There’s a manga version being published concurrently.)

Characters

Nice is nominally the PI agency’s leader, but it’s like herding cats, and his occasional stubborness doesn’t help. A running joke is that he’s terrible at managing his finances. His case this episode : investigating the disappearance of several college girls. (He also effortlessly foils a bank robbery while making a withdrawal.) His power : listening to music makes him super-fast, I think.

Murasaki is his purple-themed partner. He’s much more suave and sophisticated, but just as stubborn. He takes the case that will actually provide them some decent money : protecting the safe of a rich family, whose patriarch has died without explaining how to open it. His power : either super-strength or super-resiliency, I can’t quite tell.

Also working with them : laid-back Birthday (electrical powers) and Dr Ratio (x-ray vision that lets him see weak points in enemies), who both take a bodyguarding job.

Rounding up the agency’s cast : Koneko, who acts as their secretary, and Hajime, a gluttonous girl that even the opening titles have no clue what she brings to the table. Also : the owner of the restaurant they operate out of.

Art is a police detective who’s old friends with Nice. He seems delighted to have the team’s help for what the police don’t have time to deal with. (He’s the one footing the bill for the first case.) There are hints he’s got a hidden agenda, though.

As it happens, all three jobs are actually different angles on the same case ; they solve it together by the episode’s end.

Production Values

Very stylish indeed. The wild colour shift for the slo-mo power activation sequences are especially pretty.

Overall Impression

Hey, that’s actually quite good ! The mystery story is well-constructed, the characters produce some lively banter, there are some decent jokes, and the fight scenes are fun to watch. That it’s not actually an adaptation of anything even gives me hope that it’ll be able to properly pace its story out (an issue that has plagued many recent shows also directed by Seiji Kishi).

So far, so good. Let’s see how it develops.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 4.

D-Fragments!

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a comedy manga about one of those high school clubs that don’t do much of anything.

Characters

Kazama, our male lead, is a Delinquent. He’s even got a posse named after him (with an ugly short fat dude, and a tanned hunk who may be partially foreign). On the other hand, they’re way more talk than actual action, and it’s even joked later on that there are far more prominent delinquent group in this school anyway. Really, Kazama is more the straight man than anything here.

Roka is a small girl who’s the head of the Game-Making-Club. Who don’t actually create any games (they just play around), and don’t even have the required number of members for the club to survive. So obviously she’s desperate to find new members, by any means necessary. The joke here is that each of the members patterns themselves after an element ; Roka wields “fire” (read : moe) as a weapon. And when that doesn’t work, she can fall back on her alternate type : Darkness.

Other members : Sakura, who’s Water (read : waterboarding) ; Minami, who uses Thunder (with a taser) ; and Chitose, who’s Earth mostly by virtue of having her hands dirty when she punches people. They’ve actually got a bit more depth beyond that ; I won’t spoil the joke with Minami, but Chitose managed to get elected Student Council President, apparently by beating up everyone else to submission. Why this devious mastermind is slumming it with such a club remains to be elaborated.

Ataru used to be part of Kazama’s group of friends, except he stayed a straight arrow and is now the Student Council Vice-President. Er, the “straight arrow” part shouldn’t be taken at face value : he looks to be as much of a pervert as the lot of them, if not bigger. At the very least, he’s very attracted to Chitose, and it’s obvious what their rivalry is really about.

Production Values

Quite good ; the action sequences are animated fluidly, and the director knows how to set up atmosphere for a throwaway gag.

Overall Impression

Well, crap : I found this hilarious. It’s got some impressive comedic timing indeed, and more than one joke. It helps that it’s got characters with actual personalities, served by some great voice-acting. (In particular, Hana Kanazawa as Roka is a riot.) And it’s just very funny. I have no clue whether it can sustain itself for three months, but I’m game for it.

This is the very reason why I try out everything : it’s a kind of unassuming gem I could have let pass by otherwise.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 4.

Super Sonico The Animation

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

A whole anime series about Nitroplus’s mascot virtual character, because YOU demanded it !

(I certainly didn’t.)

Characters

Super Sonico is our focus character, so this is all about her. Sonico being late in the morning ! Sonico being nice to kids ! Sonico at college, where she’s brilliant but as terrible attendance ! Sonico at her job as a gravure idol, where pervert clients try to take advantage of her ! Sonico helping out at her Grandma’s restaurant ! Sonico with her underground band !

It’s hard for any side characters to make an impression when the camera remains laser-targeted at the main character, so the one who does steal the show is her manager at the idol company, mostly because he wears a scary mask for no fathomable reason.

Production Values

You might expect this to feature the 3DCG animation that’s all the rage these days (and was a feature of past Super Sonico clips), but only the ED sequence is like that ; the rest of the series is traditional animation. With quite a bit of fanservice, obviously.

Overall Impression

This is the epitome of vacuity. There’s no escaping it : Super Sonico is a very boring character who leads a very boring life. She’s generically cute, and that’s it. A full episode was already tedious ; I just can’t fathom how anyone could withstand a full series of it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

The Pilot’s Love Song (Toaru Hikuushi e no Koiuta)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a very successful light novel series. Before you start running away, I should mention it’s the “ambitious steampunk” type of light novels, not the generic incest/harem/etc. ones that have plagued recent years.

Characters

Kal-el, our teenage male lead. (Who the heck though this was an appropriate name for a character in a pseudo-European steampunk setting ?) He’s a new recruit for an airship piloting school that is set on a flying island. I can’t quite get a bead on him, personality-wise : most of the time he’s your generic protagonist, but at times he’ll have fits of unexplained anger, or impenetrable flashbacks involving some sort of priestress.

Ariel, his “sister”. (I get the nagging feeling he’s been adopted, and some spoilers I’ve encountered pretty much confirm it.) They have typical siblings relationships : often quarrelling over insignificant nonsense, but still there for each other. They’ve actually got two other sisters, but Ariel is the one who also enlisted and is the copilot for his plane.

There’s some mysterious new student whose main distinguishing feature is that he scowls angrily at people. (I don’t think he even utters a single word this episode.) Everyone else wonders what’s the deal with this angry loner bozo.

Claire, a cute shy girl Kal-el meets in the countryside. Ten minutes later, they’re already touching intimately. Well, that was quick. They reluctantly part ways late in the evening : she lives in the “noble” section of the island, which he can’t access because he’s a commoner.

The narration is all doom and gloom. This can’t bode well.

Production Values

Scenery porn !

Overall Impression

Hmm. There’s nothing particularly wrong with this : it does some good (if not particularly innovative) world-building, establishes the characters quite well, looks quite good overall…

But the core problem here is Kal-el : it’s obvious there’s some sort of twist about him incoming soon, but in the meantime the character is left in an awkward place where he keeps shifting personalities randomly. And let’s be blunt : his default “nice ordinary guy” personality is quite boring indeed. (Not that the “angry” one is any better, especially given the lack of context for his outbursts.) Which removes a lot of charm his romance with Claire might have.

Frankly, I just don’t have the patience to wait for the twist ; the story is just too bland so far. I won’t be bothering with this one.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

Nobunagun

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of an action manga series that defies any kind of one-line summary.

Characters

Shio, our protagonist, is a quirky high-school girl with hints of chuunibyou. At the very least, she’s a military nerd, and has no friends whatsoever. Also, she gets weird dreams where she’s Oda Nobunaga (as a middle-aged dude with a mustache), which she’s completely nonplussed about.

Kaoru is the one girl in her class that makes repeated attempts at befriending the weird loner during the class trip to Taiwan. (Why do I get the nagging feeling there’s more to her than can be taken at face value ?)

A giant monster invader from space, who suddenly interrupts all this riveting high school drama by landing close by and killing tons of people.

“Jack the Ripper”, or at least one of his distant descendants who’s part of Earth’s first response team, and somehow can channel the bloodline of his ancestor to summon a super-weapon. Unfortunately, he’s underestimated the Invader (what do you mean there were hundreds of smaller ones inside ?), and his backup are still on their way. Oops.

Fortunately, it turns out that Shio is a descendant of Nobunaga, and can use Jack’s macguffin to summon her own weapon : the Nobuna-Gun. Witness her glee as she coins that so-terrible-it’s-awesome pun ! She’s going to enjoy this.

Production Values

Very fun to look at ; the first half has scores of random annotations that quickly set the scene and are funny on their own right, and the second half makes some great use of colour to enhance the atmosphere and underline the action.

Overall Impression

Well, this is definitely a series that knows how to build up its rampant insanity. It knows what it’s doing, and how to make it as impactful as possible.

… On the other hand, I have a hard time caring ; I can’t connect with anyone but Shio, and even then that’s not enough for me to stick with the series. I’m sorry, it’s not you, it’s me.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

My Neighbour Seki (Tonari no Seki-kun)

(12ish 8-minute episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a gag manga.

Characters

Seki is a high-school boy who does anything but pay attention in class ; this episode, he builds an impressive chain of dominoes with dozens of erasers, and other various stationery.

Yokoi, our point-of-view character, sits right next to him ; she’s both bemused and fascinated by her neighbour’s antics. And of course it’s always her who gets chastised for not paying attention.

Production Values

Not very good, but it’s well-directed enough to sell the jokes.

Overall Impression

From what I understand, the manga features endless variations of the same basic joke. But it’s a good joke, and 8 minutes is the right duration to give each iteration the room to breathe, without outliving its welcome.

It made me laugh, and I’m up for more of the same.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

Nobunaga the Fool

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Arghlsidfssqe.

Wait, let me try this again. This is a bizarre multimedia project ; the other media being stage plays. (With animated sequences.)
The setting involves two twin planets ; the “East world” is vaguely modelled on the Warring Kingdoms, while the “West world” features random European historical figures from centuries apart.

Also, mecha. And tarot.

Characters

Nobunaga “the Fool” is obviously our protagonist. He’s the cocky teenage son of the Oda family who has adventures with his sidekicks Mitsuhide and Hideyoshi. He’s supposedly a cunning strategist, but so far his only display of that is “tell everyone to run like hell from the bigass army that’s vastly superior”, so yeah. Not that he’s taken seriously, given his reputation for mischief. Thus plenty of people die, and he vows to “change the world”.

Jeanne Kaguya d’Arc (/facepalm) is a teenage girl from the West world whose propensity to hear voices has labelled her a witch. The mysterious dreams she’s been having of being burned at the stake (in “Paris”, /double-facepalm) aren’t helping. Since those dreams also prominently feature Nobunaga, she vows to head for the East world.

Leonardo da Vinci agrees. Wait, were you stalking her to appear just right at this moment ? And what’s with the megaphone ? Anyway, he works for King Arthur, and together they board Magellan’s spaceship. From which they drop onto the East world, with a mecha in tow. And they crash-land right next to Nobunaga, who immediately hijacks the mecha to fight the incoming enemy armies.

Production Values

Perfectly alright. The character designs have the same clean genericness as most other Satelight productions, but they’re the least of the show’s problem.

Overall Impression

Where do I even start with this ? It’s pointless to deride the laughably inept use of historical figures, although they sure are distracting. I presume it’s supposed to be a fun romp, but the result is just a terrible mess that fails to bring its disparate elements into a coherent whole. It just feels completely creatively bankrupt, and desperate in its attempt to coopt everything into itself. That none of the characters are interesting (aside from maybe da Vinci, who’s just weird) doesn’t help.

No way I’m watching one more episode of this.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

Space Dandy

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) makes his grand directing return (let’s all politely ignore Kids on the Slope) with a comedy S-F series he’s described as “26 episodes of Mushroom Samba”.

This isn’t false advertising.

Characters

Space Dandy, our protagonist, makes a living exploring the universe to catalogue exotic alien species. (From what I understand, he’s a freelancer working for some governmental office.) If these travels coincidentally happen to make him visit every single space restaurant of the aptly-name “Boobies” franchise, well that can’t be helped, can it ? If you haven’t twigged by now, he’s a lecherous lout, and not exactly the sharpest bulb in the mixed metaphor ; but he’s got the charisma to kinda get away with it. Well, just barely.

QT is his long-suffering robot assistant. The poor thing is so obsolete it has to read books to keep up to date. Still, by default it has the highest IQ in the spaceship, and so it’s stuck being the straight ~~man~~ robot to Space Dandy. And complaining about the crappy unhelpful narration.

“Meow” (real name unpronounceable) is a cat-alien that Space Dandy initially mistakes as a rare species. He’s not ; he’s a completely ordinary Betelgeusean. But he vaguely remembers a place with exotic aliens, so our heroes take him for a ride. After a trippy journey that involved accidentally unravelling the fabric of spacetime, it turns out that this is a very dangerous place indeed.

Dr Gel is an agent of the Gogol Empire (*snicker*) who’s tracking our hero because he’s the Key to the Universe or somesuch nonsense. Now, I hope he survives being summarily executed by his boss for losing track of his target (during the spacetime havoc previously mentioned), as the design for his ship is so amazing (the Statue of Liberty’s head in bondage !) that I want to see more of it.

Production Values

Very impressive indeed ; it’s bursting at the seams with creativity and style, and the wild action sequences have to be seen to be believed.

It helps that Yoko Kanno turns out one of her best scores in ages.

Overall Impression

Warning : this is a very dumb show that starts with Space Dandy monologuing about how butts are better than boobies. It sets the mood : every character in this is a moron, and haphazardly bumbles from mishap to disaster. You’ve been forewarned ; the stupid is deep in this one.

This being said, it’s every bit as good as you’d expect from its pedigree : there’s nothing wrong with plain dumb fun, and Watanabe is a master of the form who knows how to produce a damn entertaining show. He somehow manages the tour de force of making Space Dandy somewhat bearable as a character, despite all the boneheaded actions he does during the course of this episode. (QT and even Meow savagely mocking him helps.)

Everything it’s been hyped up to be, and then some. Definitely one of the best shows of the season already.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.

Noragami

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Urban fantasy action-comedy, adapted from a manga series.

Characters

Yato, our protagonist, is a god. Admittedly, not one of the big leagues : he’s a vagrant god with no dedicated shrine and barely any followers. But he’s ambitious, so he’s eager to answer the prayers of the rare people calling to him to try and build his fanbase. His “missions” include anything from purging the nefarious ghosts haunting various place, to finding a lost cat.

Tomone, his partner, is a magical blade who’s very efficient at dispatching ghosts. Unfortunately, she’s about had it with her master’s hobo lifestyle, and leaves him without even a month’s notice. How rude.

Hiyori used to be an ordinary high school girl before crossing Yato’s path… no, wait, scratch that, she was already a bit weird even before that. Still, her life completely changes when she’s hit by a truck while trying to push Yato out of the way (not that he even needed the help), and she’s now half-dead. Basically, her soul randomly leaves her body from time to time. Obviously she doesn’t enjoy the situation, but it’s not like Hato has any clue whether she can even be made “normal” again. Still, if she makes the token 5-yen offering, he’ll be happy to look into it…

Production Values

Pretty good, as you’d expect from Studio Bones. The ghosts are creepy as heck, and the action sequences are well-directed.

Overall Impression

This was perfectly okay. It’s got a decent premise, with some fun world-building, and some very good comedic timing. A lot depends on how much you can bear with Yato, who’s a bit of a cocky brat ; but Hiyori is a good foil for him, and they play well together.

I’m probably going to give it a couple more episodes to see where it goes ; but I’m not sure I’ll stick with it, as this is a busy season for me… Oh, wait, Taku Iwasaki is doing the score. Well, that settles it : I’m in.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2014 – Page 3.