New Anime Series – Page 58

Oniichan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!

(Approximative translation : “I’m totally not in love with my brother, okay ?!“)

What’s it about ?

Incest bait. Lots of it.

Characters

Nao, our protagonist. She’s head over heels her brother, but she plays hard to get : she teases him a lot with “innocent” innuendo, then pulls out at the last moment while calling him a pervert for even thinking about it. Two thirds of the way through the episode, she learns she was adopted ; while this kills her fantasies of “forbidden love”, it does open some possibilities…

Shuusuke, the brother. Let’s just say that his hormones are in perfect working order, and leave it as that. He’s got an impressive porn collection, by the way.

The parents are very generic : Mom is concerned, while Dad is trying to snatch Shuusuke’s BDSM magazines for future perusal.

Nao has a couple of bland friends that are mostly rolling their eyes at her transparent behaviour.

The OP/ED and next episode preview suggest that two more girls are going to compete for Shuusuke’s attention. First off is his long-lost twin-tailed childhood friend…

Production Values

Wow, this looks horrible. I’m usually fairly tolerant of non-standard artstyles, but those elongated limbs are deep into uncanny valley and make everyone look like they’re anorexic. The animation is quite limited, too.

OP & ED are chirpy crap. Urgh.

Overall Impression

Well, I think we reached the nadir of the season. I reached my “please gods, let it stop already !” threshold before the opening credits, but I endured until the end of the episode for your sake. This is terrible on every level, and it sickens me that there’s an audience for this crap.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 10.

Freezing

What’s it about ?

The future. The world is at war with alien creatures called “Novas”, whose powerful “Freezing” fields prevent conventional warfare. The only thing that can get close enough to them is a “Pandora”, a magically empowered girl sensorily paired with a “Limiter” younger guy. The series starts in the middle of a “Carnivale”, a battle-royale training exercise/exam at the Pandora/Limiter academy.

Also, boobies and panty shots. Lots of them.

Characters

Bridgette L. Satellizer, the current top Pandora at the academy. Very, very badass (she dispatches #3, #4 & #5 while barely breaking a sweat, and before that wins a 1-against-11 fight). Not exuding much personality, and voiced by Mamiko Noto, of all people.

Kazuya Aoi, a new male freshman at the academy. Spends much of his screentime angsting about his dead sister, an elite Pandora who died heroically 4 years ago. Or did she ? When he stumbles onto Bridgette, he’s convinced she’s his sister. And thus dives head first into her chest, because that’s what brothers do. While the Carnivale’s still going, which obviously distracts her and causes her defeat at the hands of #2. (Well, it’s slightly ambiguous in the cliffhanger, but the next-episode-preview suggests that’s the result.)

Lana Linchen, a ditzy female freshman, whose chief role is to get exposition delivered to by her teacher (who fought alongside Kazuya’s sister way back when).

Production Values

For some reason the version I watched is at a 4:3 ratio, which is presumably a mistake (there are various shots that are clearly truncated).

Overall, it looks okay, although the action scenes don’t flow that well. And the character designs are very generic.

While the OP has a decent moody song, it looks very cheap, with tons of static shots and scenes recycled from the actual series (including Bridgette’s transformation sequence, which we saw in detail two minutes ago in the pre-credits sequence). The ED song is pretty bad, and playing to candid shots of the various girls. Urgh.

And wait, this is a daytime show ? (Seriously, the information I can find says it airs at 9:30am on Saturdays.) But… we actually see naked tits at one point ! WTF ?

Overall Impression

Well, the good news is that it’s better than Infinite Stratos. It managed to make me give a toss about the plot and the world-building, there’s an urgency and stakes to the fights (there’s some technobabble about how Pandoras can regenerate from near-fatal injuries and amputated limbs, but the hospital manager “would really like to have this Carnivale with zero casualties”, so it ain’t a sure thing), and if you like some fanservice and gore there’s plenty of it. And it obviously does have some ambition.

On the other hand… Well, it’s still a fanservice-fuelled “panty fighter” series, and you can really hear the plot gears grinding as the premise is forced into a harem setup towards the end. Also, the non-linear storytelling is sometimes a bit disorientating, between the Carnivale, the lesson scene, Kazuya’s subplot and the flashback to his sister’s last stand.

I’m really not sure about this one. There’s a somewhat decent story that compels me to watch another episode to check whether it’s going anywhere, but I fear it’s going to be smothered by the fanservice and the harem hijinks. I’m fearing a new Daimao, here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 9.

Cardfight!! Vanguard

What’s it about ?

An informercial about a new cardgame.

No, seriously. There’s barely any plot to it, and it takes pains to explain in detail of this cardgame works and why it’s awesome.

Characters

Aichi, our wimpy protagonist. He never played the game before, but he’s still walking around with a full deck, including a super-rare Vanguard DoublePlusSuper card.

Morikawa, a stereotypical bully who steals the aforementioned card. Comes with two lackeys in tow (although one of them disappears halfway through the episode – continuity isn’t this series’ strong point). He immediately proceeds to lose it to…

Kai, the ace player from the local cardshop. He too comes with a lackey in tow, a blond dude whose main role is to talk smack. Anyway, he’s straight enough to allow Aichi a rematch to try and get his precious card back, even nicely explains the rules in minute detail for the newbie. It eventually comes out that they both know each other for some reason, although we don’t learn the details yet.

Production Values

Well, there’s only so many ways to make two dudes playing an effing card game exciting, so this series goes for the route of having Kai tell Aichi every other minute to “IMAGINE !” they’re having an epic fantasy battle and not just sitting around a table. But even those fantasy fights are cliché and boring, matching the triteness of everything else.

Overall Impression

During the whole “climactic” card fight sequence, there are regular side shots of the shop clerk barely looking up from her book to watch over those excited idiots. They stop short of having her actually roll her eyes, but just barely. This is the only character in this show I have any empathy for. (The ED suggests she’s joining the core cast travelling around the country or something, which makes my mind boggle.)

So yeah, this is despicable garbage trying to sell this crap collectible game to kids. It has no redeeming features whatsoever, it’s boring, it’s a transparent commercial, and everything there has been done better before. Oh, and it doesn’t even have a proper ending – it stops when Aichi draws his Blue-eyed White Dragon SuperDuperAwesome card (which Kai had helpfully lended to him as a handicap) ; that’s not a cliffhanger, it’s just running out of screentime…

Avoid at all costs. If you have any interest in this, go watch Yu-Gi-Oh instead, which at least has the novelty of cardgames on motorcycles (or something).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 9.

GOSICK

What’s it about ?

1924, in the fictional European country of “Saubure” (sic, couldn’t they call it Savoie ?), there’s a prestigious academy gathering elites from the whole world. In a botanical garden above the library lives a mysterious girl who helps the police solve crimes with her intellect.

Characters

Kazuya Kujo, nicknamed “the black reaper” for reasons I can’t fathom. Our point of view character, a student fresh coming from Japan. Our Watson.

Victorique, our heroine. It’s heavily implied she’s never seen the world outside her green prison before the events of this series. There’s probably a convoluted reason why, but she’s not talking, despite Kazuya’s active prodding. It’s obvious she’s bored out of her mind there, and the mysteries she’s asked to solve are a welcome distraction.

Inspector Grevil de Blois, “the owner of the oddest hair in all of Saubure”. In the second half of the episode, Kazuya calls him on exploiting Victorique’s intellect for his own fame, and he’s got a point. Although he does not seem that bad of a guy, really, just not very bright and full of himself.

Production Values

There’s nice backgrounds and it looks quite slick (it’s heavy on costume porn), but there’s nothing particularly impressive (it’s not a premise lending itself to action scenes, after all). It’s mostly bright colours, which is appropriate for a show which stays mostly upbeat so far.

The OP is gorgeous, with a nice “animated picture book” look. The ED’s okay, I guess.

Overall Impression

Well, this one takes a lot of time to get started. Let’s be honest, I was prepared to write it off as empty fluff…

And then, halfway through, we get an impressive sequence in which Victorique solves a closed room murder in less than five minutes, without even going on the scene, purely from Grevil’s description of the case (and those five minutes include his exposition). This scene is just delightful, with a solution that’s both clever and simple enough to feel natural, and it does help that the banter between the three leads fires on all cylinders during it. If there’s one such sequence in each episode, it’d justify by itself watching the boring bits.

The end of the episode suggests that we’re getting a very tight wider mystery plotline instead of just a “case of the week” structure, which is probably for the better.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 8.

Dream Eater Merry (Yumekui Merry)

What’s it about ?

Our protagonist has been plagued by bizarre nightmares where he’s assaulted by cats for years… until today, when a bizarre girl fall on his lap and he finds himself transported in a dream world where the cats’ leader tries to take his body over. The girl rescues him.

Characters

Yumeji, our protagonist, has the weird ability of guessing what the person he looks at will dream about the next night. It’s neither very precise or accurate, though. It does work on himself if he looks in the mirror, though (“Sigh, I’m going to have this nightmare again…”).

John Doe, the bad guy. He hails from the dream world and wants to move into the real world, but that can only happen if he takes someone’s body over. Yumeji will do, thanks.

Merry Nightmare, the not-really-human girl, is in the opposite position : she’s amnesiac and wants to go back to the dream world (John Doe implies she must have taken someone over…). Will Yumeji help her, please ?

The supporting cast is rounded up by a few friends of Yumeji’s, including a childhood friend he lives with… for some yet-to-be-disclosed reason…

Production Values

I quite like some of the background work in the dreamworld, and they’re obviously trying for atmosphere. The problem is that it pales in comparison with Madoka, and never manages to reach the same level of creepy. (I blame the colours, too flat and naturalistic.) It’s truly unfortunate that both shows compete in the same season.

The OP is okay stuff, and certainly sets the tone of the show. ED is decent too.

Overall Impression

This, on the other hand, is much better than it sounded at first (a girl falling into a guy’s arm ? seriously ?). Again, it’s all the atmosphere, and it works out pretty well. It’s also nice to have a bad guy whose goals are crystal clear and make complete sense. And it succeeds in suggesting there’s a lot more going on than on face value.

Sure, it’s not as good as Madoka, but I’m sure this can be said about most of this season’s shows. It’s quite enjoyable so far, and I’m interested in seeing where it goes from here.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 6.

IS – Infinite Stratos

What’s it about ?

In the future, the top technological advance is the IS, mecha that can only be piloted by women (although, since they’ve been banned from war use by international treaties, they seem to be mostly used for sports). Well, except for this one dude, who now finds himself enrolled in an IS-centered academy. Cue the standard harem hijinks.

Characters

Ichika Orimura, our protagonist. I lost any respect I had for the guy when he complained about not understanding the technobabble and then admitted he had thrown away the mandatory introductory doorstopper everyone is supposed to read before entering the academy. Seriously, could he be doing any less effort ?

Chifuyu Orimura, his abrasive older sister, a former IS pioneer who retired a while ago. So of course she’s his homeroom teacher and hall monitor ! She’s got a cheerful moeblob assistant whose main role is to delay the reveal and provide tons of clumsy “As You Know” exposition.

Houko Sinonono, the tsundere childhood friend he hasn’t seen in 6 years, and a kendo champion. So of course she’s his roommate ! The mind boggles : I can understand authorities not bothering with devoting a whole dorm aisle for him, but who thought giving him a roommate was a good idea ?

Cecilia Alcott, the stuck-up foreigner who takes issue with this slob doing as well as her (defeating a teacher in the pre-entry tests) without even putting any effort.

Production Values

There’s a somewhat impressive mid-air mecha fight scene before the opening credits… But its impact is kinda negated by the complete lack of stakes in it (it’s 4-against-one, for gods’ sake !). Apart from that, the general impression I get is “generic and uninspired”. Even the fanservice is tame and not worth bothering for (there’s even a “I just got out of the shower” scene !).

The OP is horrible, and the ED barely any better.

Overall Impression

Wow, that was quite dreadful. The premise didn’t sound very promising, but this is actually worse than I expected. We are in full-blown cliché harem territory, the world-building looks horribly half-assed (they don’t even bother with explaining why only women can pilot IS, let alone why Ichika can), all the characters are unlikeable and trite, and there’s nothing vaguely original here that’d make me give a shit about it.

Avoid like this show the plague.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 6.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

What’s it about ?

Technically a magical girl series, but it’s all about the atmosphere. Madoka is an ordinary middle school student, up until she starts having weird dreams of magical battles. Then the girl she saw fighting in her dream suddenly transfers in, she finds a wounded critter offering her powers, and she soon finds herself sliding into bizarre side planes where it’s not exactly clear who’s fighting whom.

Characters

Madoka, our protagonist. Tends to be pushed around a bit by her friends and family. I find it notable that her mother wears the pants and is the bread-winner of the family, while Daddy stays at home. This pretty much sets the tone of how much guys are going to matter in this series.

Homura, the mysterious transfer student, of course establishing she’s awesome at everything from maths to sports in a montage just after she’s introduced. Also : very –ing creepy. Her first interaction with Madoka is to lead her to an isolated place and warn her off from doing anything. After that, she acts threateningly towards a wounded critter, and it’s ambiguous whether she’s the one who provokes the slide into a dangerous side plane.

Sayaka, one of Madoka’s two best friends. The cheerful one. (There’s also a Yamato-Nadeshiko-in-training one.) Earns my love by distracting a powered up Homura with a fire extinguisher. (Also, wondering what this girl is thinking of being in full cosplay gear at school.)

Mami, an experienced magical girl who rescues Madoka and Sayaka, and obviously has a much better clue than us viewers about what’s happening. While always smiling and cheerful, she barely conceals her hostility towards Homura, making it clear that there’s much going on under the surface here.

Kyubey, the mascot rescued by Madoka. Enthusiastically offers Madoka and Sayaka to become magical girls at the end of the episode, which given everything else in the episode ends up sounding far more sinister than he probably intends.

Production Values

Wow. This looks gorgeous ; Studio SHAFT obviously pulled all the stops here. In particular, the backgrounds are very pretty, and the dream/side world sequences are a weird combination of CG and collage that work perfectly. I’m a bit less enthusiastic about the character designs, although they do work as a nice contrast to the grim settings. Also, props to Yuki Kajiura’s soundtrack, which is as atmospheric as ever.

No ED ; the OP’s song is average stuff, although there’s a lot going on in the animation.

Overall Impression

Given its pedigree, this was always going to either be a mess or a fantastic mesh of styles ; thankfully, it’s the latter. The contrast between the “childish” (the magical girl premise, the middle school setting, the character designs) and “grittier” elements (the dream and side world sequences, the music) works well to generate a “not all is as it seems” atmosphere, and the plot is obviously going somewhere. I also liked the restraint of not rushing Madoka into becoming a magical girl in the first episode, too, as everything else they included here has some purpose (I particularly like the characterization of Madoka’s mother and of her homeroom teacher, who both exude tons of personality despite their minimal screen time).

This is a strong contender towards the best show of the season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 5.

Rio – Rainbow Gate !

What’s it about ?

Follows the adventures of the star dealer of a high-class Casino, which seems to involve high stakes duels against nasty customers. “Adapted” from a series of pachinko gambling machines.

Characters

Rio, the *BOOBIES* title character. From what little personality *PANTIES* she displays, she’s a bit dim, and easygoing enough to let *BOUNCE* her pervy manager trick her into dodgy *KNOCKERS* costumes and situations. She has the superpower of *UPSKIRT SHOT* magically calming down a crowd around her, as well as *RANDOM WEDDING DRESS* making the odds favour whichever casino customers *CLOTHING DAMAGE* she wishes (to the point that clients crowd around her to benefit from her mojo).

Mint, the young granddaughter of a VIP client visiting the casino ; as the naive newcomer viewpoint character, she wanders around the setting while everyone else delivers exposition. After a while Rio is specially assigned to escort her around. Slightly brattish, but at tolerable levels.

Orlin Dunhill, our asshole villain of the week. After various unsuccessful assault attempts with his goons, he eventually challenges Rio to a poker duel… for reasons that, in a storytelling masterstroke, aren’t properly explained until its end (he’s after Mint’s teddy bear). He’s your usual charisma-deficient lech, and a moron to boot.

Rosa Canyon, a Hollywood actress and regular patron of the casino. Cue the “obaa-san” jokes. For some reason, she’s the one dealing the duel, instead of the dozens of random dealers running around.

There are various other side characters, such as a couple of bunny waitresses that have so little personality they even complete each other’s lines. Their main purpose is exposition and duel commentary.

Production values

This actually looks quite decent, with some nice animation for action scenes, and above all a wonderfully psychedelic sequence during the duel. But don’t even try watching it if you’re allergic to fanservice.

There’s no OP. The ED is an annoyingly peppy JPop number that has even more fanservice than the actual show.

Overall Impression

This… is actually a bit better than I imagined (but then I had very low expectations). The fanservice is less obnoxious than I expected, and mainly concentrated on Rio herself (it steers mercifully free of Mint). The plot is obviously just an excuse, but it’s all in good fun. There’s even a couple of good jokes.

Is it any good ? Well, no. But if you turn your brain off, it’s a semi-decent fanservice series that steers clear of harem clichés (at least so far). I could see myself trying out another episode or two.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 4.

Tamayura OVA

(4 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Basically, this is a slice-of-life series about a girl obsessed with photography and her friends, in a rural village.

Characters

Fu, our main character, is a quiet clumsy airhead. She got her love for photography from her father, who died 5 years ago.

Kaoru, her best friend. Like nearly every character voiced by Kana Asumi, she’s cheerful and slightly snarky.

Norie, our setting’s Tomo. Energetic, annoying, and unhealthy fond of Fu’s younger brother.

Maon, who spends more time whistling than talking.

Plus various other supporting characters (Fu’s family, Kaoru’s embarrassing older sister, etc.)

Production Values

It’s an OVA that revolves around scenery porn. Of course it looks good.

Overall Impression

Dull. While I was half-joking about falling asleep while watching Starry Sky, here it was a real struggle to stay awake. Which really shouldn’t happen for 4 15-minute episodes.

Understand, I actually enjoy the slice of life genre. I liked K-On!, Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh… I’m currently watching and enjoying Potemayo, for –‘s sake ! But there seems to be a subset of the genre that immediately puts me to sleep, and this is such an instance. (Other example : Hidamari Sketch.)

It’s not even that nothing happens : there’s a neat throughline around Fu’s obsession and how it allows her to connect with her late father. But… the pacing is glacial, the characters are barely developed at all, and the jokes aren’t that funny. When the series goes for emotion, it does feel genuine, but those moments are few and far between.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011 – Page 3.

Starry Sky

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Reverse harem setup : formerly exclusively male academy is now co-ed, although there’s only one female student right now. Each episode focuses on a different male student, with a parallel to the zodiac constellations (although they’ve introduced a 13rd one for some reason). Apparently this school only teaches astronomy- or astrology-related fields.

Characters :

Tsukiko Yahisa, our female lead. Nearly no screentime so far.

Yoh Tomoe, Capricorn. This is a pseudonym : his actual name’s Henri Samuel Jean Aimee (sic). Half-French, choosing to go back to Japan in order to find a girl he fell in love with a decade ago. His parents approve (it’s implied his father did something similar way back when).

There are other various classmates, including a very enthusiastic Mr Exposition, but none of them got any names yet.

Production Values :

Low. It’s a net anime, and the animation is quite minimal (not to the degree of Nyaruani, though). It doesn’t look particularly good, but this could be my personal distaste for standard shojo character designs. Also, the episodes are only 11-minute-long.

Overall Impression :

Dull, dull, dull. There’s no real conflict yet, and the plot barely gets started at all. I can’t sympathize with Capricorn-guy, and the girl is a non-entity so far. Frankly, I doubt I’d manage to watch another episode without falling asleep.

But then, I clearly don’t care for the genre ; if you’re more into it than me, you could find some value to this show (it’s got a pretty impressive voice cast, for example).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2010-2011.