New Anime Series – Page 32

Silver Spoon (Gin no Saji)

(11 episodes ; 2nd season already scheduled for next Winter)

What’s it about ?

Slice of life comedy set in an agricultural High School, in Hokkaido.

Characters

Hachiken, our protagonist. As a city boy coming from an elite junior high school, he sticks out like a sore thumb here. (There are some mutterings about family issues that got him to join a boarding school as far from home as possible, but it’s not elaborated upon yet.) Good at academics, but does it really matter when the curriculum involves lots of very specialized science and physical activity ? It doesn’t help that he’s not good with animals and is grossed out when learning where eggs come from.

Mikage, his obvious future love interest. Loves horses, and has already joined the equitation club. Not really much personality beyond that.

The new students are divided into groups of five for practical courses ; in Hachiken’s group there’s the faint-of-heart guy who wants to become a vet, the short guy, the jock who somehow still has enough energy to be very enthusiastic about the baseball club, and the very big girl.

Production Values

This is clearly a low-budget production, with just enough animation to sell the jokes.

Overall Impression

Uh oh. This doesn’t quite work. There are some decent jokes here, but a bit too many of them rely on poop humour. The characters don’t have much depth, and Hachiken is more than a bit annoying with all his complaining. And as a whole, it feels very bland, without much of a hook. It has a semi-interesting setting, but that’s it.

It may just be a slow start ; I’m willing to give it a bit of rope. But there’s nothing particularly enthralling here yet.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 7.

No Matter How I Look At It, It’s You Guys’ Fault I’m Unpopular! (Watashi ga Motenai no wa Dou Kangaetemo Omaera ga Warui!)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life comedy about the daily struggles of an asocial girl.

(Unlike what the absurdly long title would lead you to expect, it’s adapted from a manga, not a light novel series.)

Characters

Kuroki, our protagonist. An introverted nerd who hasn’t managed to hold a proper conversation with anyone outside her family since entering high school a couple of months ago. (Not that it went much better in middle school.) Even saying goodbye to the teacher manning the schoolgate or ordering food at the local WcDonald’s is an ordeal. She doesn’t understand why making friends or getting a boyfriend is so HARD in real-life, when she’s so good at it in games.

By the way, I hope you can withstand her pathetic, self-deluding and aggressive inner monologue, because it drones on and on throughout the whole episode.

Our only other major character introduced in this episode is Tomoki, her younger brother, who’s completely normal and a bit annoyed by his sister randomly barging into his room to passive-aggressively demand some help.

There’s a group of four of her classmates that she keeps bumping into (not that they ever notice her), with her abusive narration reeking of jealousy at their easy socializing.

Production Values

Not very high, but studio Silver Link know how to spruce up a pedestrian narrative with lots of nifty effects (sometimes veering on the downright abstract) to keep it visually interesting.

Overall Impression

Hello, cringe comedy ! It’s basically an entire show based on mocking how socially inept its protagonist is, without pulling any punches. Kuroki is clearly responsible for a good part of her own misery, and her misguided efforts to better herself are obviously doomed to fail. She’s a walking trainwreck and this is painful to watch.

It’s also hilarious, fortunately. It helps that a lot of this feels authentic and barely exagerated from actual nerd behaviour : it hurts to watch because it’s true, and a good chunk of the audience has been in similar places. And while she’s not shown in a good light, to put it mildly, Kuroki still manages to be an endearing character to watch. We want to see her get a bit better, although she’ll probably fall flat on her face repeatedly on the way.

This strikes a difficult balance between its uncompromising depiction of its protagonist, and avoiding to be too annoying ; while there’s room for this to go horribly awry later on, so far so good.

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

Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Demon summoning is totally real. Even in Victorian England.

Characters

William Twining, our protagonist. He’s one of the most promising youth of his generation, bright and coming from a rich family… wait, scratch that, his uncle (and legal guardian) has just gone bankrupt and disappeared, leaving our hero unable to pay for his tuition. Farewell to his dream of being part of the elite… But maybe he could search the family house (the only thing not repossessed yet) for something worth money. And in a hidden basement, he stumbles on a magic circle, with which he accidentally summons…

Dantalion, one of the leading contenders to Hell’s throne during the interim period where Lucifer is busy sleeping. It turns out that William is the descendant of the guy who can decide such things (mostly by beating everyone else up back in the day), so Dantalion tries his best convince him to do so. The problem is that Willian is a staunch rationalist and won’t believe in demons whatever happens. Could you annoying cosplayer get off his lawn already ?

Obviously, everyone in Hell is bound to want a piece of William once they learn how much he matters.

The supporting cast is rounded up by William’s butler (who’s sticked around because he still believes Willian will get rich and powerful eventually), and the very annoying young Isaac Newton, who believes in tons of supernatural stuff.

Also, Dantalion transfers into William’s school (and it looks a lot like he’s the one who paid for his tuition somehow), which can only lead to crazy hijinks.

Production Values

Perfectly alright.

Overall Impression

I was kinda on board with this until William’s repeated denial of the occult (despite everything that happens around him) got very annoying. After a while, his rationalism just stops making any sense and becomes bloody aggravating. Which is a shame, since there are some decent jokes in this… But if it gets tiring now already, I doubt I can withstand 12 episodes of it. Especially as I get the nagging suspicion there’s going to be a tournament of some sort.

Nice try, but no thanks.

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

Fantasista Doll

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

It can’t be a real anime season without a card game show.

Characters

Uzume, our middle-school protagonist. She used to be good at card games in elementary school, even winning a tournament, but that’s pretty much behind her now. Well, at least until someone slips in her bag a special card-reading-device and a few cards during train rush-hour. She’s then tricked into activating her account (with way too much personal data), which summons…

Sasara, a card-generated warrior who can materialize to defend her from attackers… well, provided Uzume combines her card with some actual equipment cards, otherwise she just shows up nearly naked. Oops. Once that’s dealt with, she’s quite powerful.

Uzume’s opponent in this battle, obviously wanting to get those super-special cards, uses a ninja warrior and has lines like “I won’t forget this ! Next time I won’t hold back !” Urgh.

There are four other card-beings in the lot Uzume got, all with different one-note personalities (the motherly one, the barely-speaks one, etc.). They’re outraged when Uzume asks them to do her chores, declaring her the worst master ever. Oh, come on.

I’m pretty sure the scientist-dude stalking Uzume in one scene is the same guy who shows up later wearing a fancy uniform and a cape, standing ontop a lamppost outside her room at night, to declare her worthy of the Dolls.

There are tons of other members of the supporting cast that don’t really get much depth, such as Uzume’s bossy little sister, her “big sister” figure who seems to be in high school, and her various school friends.

Production Values

Decent. There’s one cute design idea : having the Dolls appear as flat ghosts on transparent surfaces. It’s barely used at all in the show proper, though.

Overall Impression

Sigh. There are a few okay jokes here, but there’s no escaping that this is an obvious toy commercial (at least, I hope that’s the idea) with a generic plot and flat characters.

I’m very tempted to give it a bit more of a chance, as it’s sometimes funny, but it’s too lackluster to make the cut in such a busy season.

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

Blood Lad

(10 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Comedy about vampires that don’t bite anyone.

Characters

Staz, the vampire ruler of a section of Hell. Except he has no interest in sucking the blood of humans, as he’s very grateful for them creating all this delightful pop-culture. Basically a gaijin otaku stereotype.

Deku, his beleaguered second-in-command, who’s baffled by this boss who barely ever gets out of his room and shows no interest in vampiring or conquering more territory. But still beats any other boss wannabe, especially this asshole who’s just showed up with his stupid people-eating plants.

Yanagi, an ordinary Japanese high school girl who’s stumbled into Hell (without any clue how) and should consider herself very lucky to be in Staz’s territory, all things considered. Well, except she gets eaten by one of those darn plants halfway through the episode, so she’s a ghost now. But Staz is totally going to restore her to life ! (Given how he takes his inspiration in Dra-Gunbol manga, I wouldn’t keep my hopes up…)

Other members of the supporting cast include a mysterious traveller whose dimensional door is probably responsible for this mess ; a three-eyed bar owner (and her humanoid symbiote or whatever) who’s not much help with figuring what can be done ; and a meek shapeshifter who joins Staz just at the time he needs a decoy while going off in the human world to ~~buy more popculture stuff~~ escort Yanagi back.

Production Values

This looks quite cheap indeed ; there’s some nice effects where the camera shakes around a bit to make the storytelling feel more hip, but that’s not enough to hide the lackluster budget.

Also, the camera never lets you forget that Yanagi has big boobs.

Overall Impression

It’s decent, I guess ? There are some good jokes (and a good deal that fall flat), I like some of the deadpan snark being thrown around, and the various hell creatures are fun.

But let’s be honest : the only reason I haven’t dropped it yet is that it’s only 10 episodes, and thus there’s a reduced risk of it running out of ideas and stopping being mildly funny in such a short runtime. I don’t trust it to go anywhere anyway (especially with a still-ongoing manga), but hopefully the joke won’t get stale too quickly.

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

The Eccentric Family (Uchouten Kazoku)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Did you know that in modern-day Kyoto, there’s a three-way deadlock in power under the surface between the humans, the tanuki & the tengu ? Nope, me neither.

(Adapted from a novel.)

Characters

Yasaburo, our protagonist, is a tanuki. As a trickster and talented shapeshifter, he laughs at your narrow conception of gender and spends the whole episode looking like a high school girl. I like him : he’s fun and has a nice, snarky sense of humour. And he’s a protagonist that actually does stuff ! How novel !

Pr Akadama is an old tengu and used to be Yasaburo’s mentor ; he’s but a shadow of his older self ever since he broke his back in an ill-fated prank. Nowadays, Yasaburo still looks after him because he feels guilty about said prank, but he’s just about the only one who still cares about the old geezer. Except maybe for…

“Benten”, aka Satomi Suzuki, was Pr Akadama’s other pupil. She’s a normal human, but that hasn’t stopped her from learning how to walk on air from the old master. It’s more than heavily hinted that there was something romantic between the two of them, but he clearly hasn’t worked out. The crowd she freys with right now sound like bad news, but she’s still the scariest person in the room at any time. She’s entirely unapologetic about having suggested the prank to Yasaburo at the time, but it’s clear she regrets it. Not that she’ll ever admit it.

It looks like further episodes in the series may explore a bit more Yasaburo’s siblings and family, but so far they’ve just been cameos. (Younger brother is cute ; older brother doesn’t approve of Yasaburo’s antics.)

Production Values

Very nice : this Kyoto is bursting with life. There’s a lot of care to adjust the body language of each character to their true nature, and that without taking into account Benten, who owns every shot she’s in. I also love the initial camera trick of zooming in and out on the city to comically make a point about what’s happening in it.

Overall Impression

I expected this to be semi-inpenetrable to someone who doesn’t know much about Japanese folklore (wait, tengu are crow spirits ? Why didn’t I notice that before ?), but this turns out to be perfectly accessible to the uninitiated. It’s basically a love triangle that ended very poorly for everyone involved, but the episode succeeds in making clear that there’s a lot left unsaid and to be explored. Kyoto feels like City of Adventure where anything can happen and factions secretly and discreetly feud against each other. (Surely there’s an interesting reason why Akadama was having both a tanuki and a human as students, given how the three groups don’t usually mingle ? What the heck was he up to ?)

This is reminding me of Durarara!!, minus any apparently boring character around. This can’t be a bad thing, right ? Definitely following this one.

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

Yellow Mosaic (Kiniro Mosaic)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a 4-panel gag manga about an English girl transfering to Japan. (Except the first 15 minutes in this episode are a flashback that explains why she’d do that.)

Characters

Shinobu, our initial point-of-view character. A few years ago, she spent a week of vacation in England at some friends of her parents’ country house. (Good thing they were fluent in Japanese, because she can’t speak English to save her life.) By all appearances, everyone had a great time.

Alice, the daughter of said family, was very shy and reluctant to approach Shinobu at first, but by the end of the week they were BFF. And this was such an important encounter for her that a few years later, she transfered to Shinobu’s high school after learning the language. And she’s staying at her home, too.

There are a couple of Shinobu’s school friends (the nice one and the sarcastic one, respectively, in contrast with Shinobu’s ditzy ways) that look like they’re going to be part of the main cast. The OP sequence (shown near the end here) also makes it look like Alice’s best friend in England is also going to be prominently featured, which is a bit problematic, as it’d kinda dilute the uniqueness of this blonde foreigner in Japan (which is what the series takes its name from, after all).

Production Values

Gorgeous backgrounds, although the CG landscape during the train ride is a bit of a misfire. Still, this is quite nice to look at.

I’m really not sure about the score, which makes damn sure to underscore that Shinobu’s original trip was an Epic Adventure and plays up the sense of wonder up to eleven. It works, but it’s a bit heavy-handed when the events are so mundane.

Overall Impression

Il was all ready to dismiss this one quickly, but you know what ? This is actually quite pleasant to watch. We’re all used to foreigners randomly attending anime schools (often rationalized as half-Japanese or whatever), but this commits all the way into re-establishing the novelty factor of it and having fun with the cultural differences. Having all the English characters talking English (with subtitles) when they should helps quite a lot, too (although the voice actors seem to struggle more than a bit with the accent.) I’m less thrilled with how quaint England looks, but it’s not too distracting.

I also quite like the relationship between Alice & Shinobu, especially how once in a while Shinobu will absent-mindedly do something ditzy that’s very scary for Alice. Comedy gold, there.

It’s more than a bit rough around the edges, and I’m not sure the joke can sustain 12 episodes. But I’m willing to give it a bit of rope, which I didn’t expect coming in.

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

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma☆Illya

(10 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A comedy spin-off of Fate/stay night with Illya as a magical girl.

Characters

Illya, our prepubescent heroine, who lives in a weird parallel universe where the von Einzberg family is all happy, and especially her mother is stated not to be dead (although she’s on a business trip or something). She’s also got a random older sister, as well as Taiga acting as housekeeper and “cousin” Shirou living with them. Er, sure.

It turns out it was Rin who was originally given the magical girl powers, but since she kept using them to feud with her new rival Luvia (a haughty noble cliché) instead of their nominal goal of hunting “Class cards”, bother their power artifacts got fed up with them and left. (While they were battling in the sky. Ouch.)

Magical Ruby, Rin’s wand, has a LOT of personality (the same for Magical Sapphire, Luvia’s, but it gets less screentime). Unfortunately, when it stumbles onto Illya while looking for a replacement for Rin, that makes it sounds fishier than Kyubey having just binged on salmon. Ruby is a very nasty bugger who isn’t above tricking Illya if that suits its purposes.

The OP sequence makes it look like there’s going to be an age-appropriate rival for Illya (presumably powered by Sapphire), but that’s for future episodes.

Production Values

Well, it’s a bit hard to tell since the streamed pre-air had a lot of nasty blocking whenever there’s a little action, but this looks quite good indeed.

Overall Impression

Well, I’ll give it that : it’s funny, and you really don’t need to know anything about the Fate/ series to understand it. Let’s be honest : those are very shallow versions of the characters, put into new roles for comedic effect. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Well, except that I don’t see the joke carrying 10 episodes ; and the genre-parody at work here is a bit too bad-natured for me to tolerate too long. It’s nasty for the sake of being nasty, and I can only laugh at that for so long.

If you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise, you’ll probably get more out of this than I do ; there are tons of easter eggs and it’s as good as such a comedy spin-off can be. But I already have a lot on my plate this season, and I can do without this one.

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

Il Sole Penetra le Illusioni – Day Break Illusion (Genei wo Kakeru Taiyou)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

We’ve all been waiting for a Madoka clone that completely misses the point, haven’t we ?
(Okay, that’s probably a very unfair comparison.)

Characters

Akari, our protagonist. This young girl is an apprentice tarot card reader, and quite good at it ; she works at the local fortunetelling house run by three eccentrics. By all appearances, this makes her very popular. On the other hand, she’s an orphan (her dead mother also had the talent) and lives in a foster family.

Fuyuna, the daughter of that foster family (I think ; this series’ not good with exposition), at first looks like she’s taking her eccentric “sister” in stride (such as the plant overrunning Akari’s room) ; but it’s clear her resentment at her popularity (despite Fuyuna being the class’s top student) is slowly growing and eating away at her.

And then Fuyuna gets possessed by something ; Akari manifests magical girl powers (which comes at a surprise to her) and kills the thing attacking her… including Fuyuna. And then things get really weird, as time rewinds back a day and everything resumes as normal… except Akari’s foster family never had any daughter.

WTF ?

There are three other magical girls hovering on the edge of the plot and cryptically monitoring what’s happening (without the courtesy of giving any explanation to the audience). They rescue Akari after the fortunetelling house gets burned down by a random zombie fire demon (I don’t know what the heck either).

Production Values

I really dislike the character designs and colour palette, as they make everyone look flat (and they really don’t need that). Other than that, I guess it’s decent (if very pedestrian), and it’s got the one good special effect idea to indicate that something weird has happened.

Overall Impression

Warning : the above summary may have given you the impression that interesting stuff happened in this episode. That couldn’t be farther from the truth, as a parade of flat and boring characters are put through the wringer of horrible things happening to them for no discernible reason, without any sign of a proper antagonist. I have no clue how you can make this so dull, but somehow this show has succeeded.

Who knows, maybe it’ll start making sense next episode, when we hopefully finally get some exposition in. But I have no confidence in this mess of a series, and I don’t plan on sticking with it to find out.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 4.

Love Lab (Renai Lab)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Comedy about students at an all-girls middle school practicing romance.

Characters

Riko, aka “The Wild One”, because she does delinquent-ish things like hiking her skirt up and tying her hair up. (This is the kind of elite middle school that frowns down on such trivial matters). Also, she’s athletic and more than a bit of a tomboy, which has netted her many female admirers. To tell the truth, she’s a bit bored, until she stumbles upon…

Maki, aka “The Princess”, the student council president. To everyone else, she’s perfect : diligent at her work, good grades, pretty. In reality, though, she’s a complete goofball that Riko finds practicing kissing on a bodypillow. Maki is absolutely obsessed with preparing herself for romance, and forcefully enlists Riko as a coach, because surely she must have tons of experience ? (Riko has too much pride to admit her love life has been pretty crap so far.)

There were originally three other members to the student council, but…
– The actual president (Maki was only vice-president originally) got annoyed by Maki doing all the work and leaving nothing for her to do ;
– The treasurer got thrown out for acting way too creepily while counting the money ;
– And the secretary still comes in occasionally, but she’s got so little presence you’d barely notice she was there.

Production Values

Perfectly okay for this kind of thing.

Overall Impression

I’m shocked : I was in stitches for the whole episode once we got to the reveal about Maki. This is very funny stuff, mostly because Maki never stops being hilarious. This combination of earnestness and cluelessness works perfectly, especially as she’s still able to be menacing to Riko when she feels the need to. Riko herself has some good jokes, too ; the flashbacks to her failed love life have perfect comedic pacing.

This is why I’m glad I’m doing those season reviews and watching the first episode of everything : once in a while, one of these shows that were completely under my radar and would never have tried out otherwise (how can you make a title more unpromising than “Love Lab” ?) turns out to be a very pleasant surprise.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 4.