Himouto! Umaru-chan

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a comedy manga series.

Characters

The title has a pun between “little sister” and a slur against women who offer a perfect image in their public/work life, but are slobs back home. Which is awful when it’s women doing it, right ? [/sarcasm]

Anyway, that’s an apt description for Umaru, aside from her being a high school student. Perfect grades, great at sports, loved from her schoolmates and the neighbours… but as soon as she comes home, she turns into a super-deformed caricature of herself who only looks up from her manga and games to munch on snacks.

Our actual point of view character is Taihei, her older brother, with whom she’s come to live. He’s quite annoyed by her antics, but succumbs way too often to her puppy-dog eyes. When he’s not just caving from social pressure not to look like he’s bullying this “innocent-looking” girl.

And that’s basically it ; some classmates of Umaru’s look like they may become regular supporting cast, but none of them are more than one-note so far.

Production Values

Okay enough for a gag show, I guess.

Overall Impression

Well, aside from the whole premise making me feel a bit uncomfortable, the core point here is that the joke isn’t that funny, and quickly becomes repetitive over the course of an episode ; I can’t imagine how you can string along a whole series from it.

I’m pretty much done with this one.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5

Sky Wizards Academy (Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a series of fantasy light novels in my kryptonite subgenre : the wish-fulfilment fantasy where super-powered teens are enrolled into a vaguely military magic high-school, and somehow the male lead gets a harem of girls around him. At least we’ve only got one of those this season.

Characters

Kanata is our protagonist. The opening action sequence sees him holding off hundreds of insect-like enemies to allow his teammates to escape, so it’s very confusing that for the rest of the episode nearly everyone in his floating city labels him a traitor. This is probably supposed to be an intriguing mystery, but it just comes off as annoying. Anyway, he’s an overachiever nice guy.

The student council appoints him as the new teacher for the Loser Class, because of course it would be silly to involve actual faculty in this decision. And of course he’s just run into all three members of this class before, and they all believe he’s a pervert because of these terrible first impressions.

They are :
– Misora, the very angry girl who will make it your fault if she bumps into you. Doesn’t seem to work well for her, as she’s lost every single training fight so far. And dear gods, she arrives late to school with a piece of bread in her mouth ? Seriously ?
– Lecty, the wallflower who can barely get a word out.
– Rico, the egomaniac who’s in love with herself and spends most of her time admiring her reflection. She’s the only one whose gimmick is actually mildly funny, as her self-absorbed rants are at least awful by design, instead of accident like the rest of the show.

Production Values

Ouch. The CG insect enemies looks awful, mostly due to bad compositing and effects. This also affects the flying combat scenes, although there’s not much of them beyond the prologue.

Overall Impression

Cards on the table : I don’t like this genre of shows, and they face an uphill struggle with me at the best of times. It’s often an excuse for the writers to be lazy, avoiding having to write an actual plot when they can instead fall back on cliché highschool and harem hijinks to fill up pages and screentime. The rushed and truncated anime adaptations don’t do what little depth the novels may have had any favours.

This one still manages to be way worse than average, somehow. All the characters are annoying and one-dimensional. It looks awful. The plotting is a mess. The world-building makes no sense. And there’s an hilariously nonsensical bit where Kanata broods and monologues about his fallen comrades in arms being forgotten by the Normals, as only Wizards don’t suddenly get there memories erased or something (for whatever reason)… only for a further scene to reveal that there’s like 10% Normals and 90% Wizards in the flying city, so why the heck was he getting all worked up for ?

Even if this show didn’t take itself so seriously at times, it still wouldn’t be funny. It’s a trainwreck in motion, and I have no wish to stick around.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5

OverLord

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a light novel series with the novel premise of “player stuck into a MMORPG that became real”. Never seen that one before.
From what I can gather, it has nothing to do with the various videogames of the same name.

Characters

So, Yggdrasil. One of the big full-immersion MMORPG of its time. But it’s been 12 years, the player base had been dwindling down considerably for a while, so its editor has decided to call it a day and shut the servers down tonight.

Momonga, our protagonist, was the leader of one the biggest and strongest “monster” guilds of the game. Max level, tons of stuff and unique items (including his super-wand that can wish nearly anything and even bypass some programming), their own giant demon castle lair, dozens of custom NPC servants, the works. By now, of course, most of the guild members have left, with barely a few of them making an appearance on this last day. But Momonga has decided he’s going to stick around until the end, reminisce, and let the system log him out when the servers shut down.

When he wakes up after midnight, he notices with shock that he’s still in the throne room. The HUD and menus are gone, and he can’t raise anyone (be them other players or GMs) through voice chats. On the other hand, the NPCs now act a lot more real than their previous AI-constrained selves, and obey to all his casually-phrased orders (instead of needing specific commands).

And well, there’s Albedo, his NPC demon secretary, whom he had just rescripted to be in love with him, on a whim. This might have been a poor decision…

What’s going on here ? Has he slided into another world that’s identical to Yggdrasil somehow ? Can he get back to the real world ? Does he even want to ? Will the NPCs keep obeying their very confused master ?

Production Values

Quite good ; there’s some obvious CG work on some undead battle sequences, but it looks okay. And the animators have really managed to make Momonga expressive, with a body language belying clearly a benign middle manager disguised as an over-the-top overlord.

Overall Impression

Well, there’s a reason the cliché premises are still being recycled : they caught on our imagination and offer numerous variants. And hey, I don’t think I’ve seen any of these stories take the point of view of “the bad guys” (who are actually punch-clock villains more than anything else), so that’s something new for this show to explore. And it does so quite well ; Momonga truly feels like a MMORPG guild leader, and a very sympathetic protagonist. The NPC supporting cast also feel like they could grow into interesting characters (or at least entertaining ones).

If there’s one thing that’s lacking here, it’s a clear notion of where the story is going ; we don’t even know whether there’s anyone outside the lair at this point. But hey, that’s something for future episodes to explore ; this one has accomplished its job of selling me on the premise, at least for now.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5

Seiyu’s Life! (Sore ga Seiyuu!)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a semi-autobiographical 4-panel gag manga about voice-acting. (The writer, Masumi Asano, has been in the business for more than a decade and is currently voicing Cure Mermaid in the latest Precure series.) And wait, it was illustrated by Hayate the Combat Butler‘s author ?

Characters

Futaba, our heroine, is a newbie voice-actress who gets a minor role as a mascot character in a mecha show. And of course she makes minor blunders one after the other, as this is a gag show. She got into this career because, well, the economy’s tough and jobs are hard to get anyway, so why not go for the dream job ?

Ringo Ichigo, another newbie who got the “Classmate A” role. I have no clue how Futaba can keep messing up her name, as she’s clearly putting on a strawberry-themed persona. She totally didn’t get into this field because she was an anime fangirl, honest !

Rin, a junior high school student, isn’t lost in the building. She’s actually three years their senior, and indeed quite good at it ; it’s impressive how she doesn’t mess up any of the technobabble her bridge bunny character spouts out.

Masako Nozawa is guest-starring as herself, i.e. the respected and admired veteran who turns out to be kind to the newbies despite how intimidated they are. They still expect her to break out a Kamehameha during recording sessions, though.

Production Values

Wait, studio Gonzo are still alive ? That would explain why they got a series where they can get away with leaving all the action shots unfinished.

Overall Impression

Exactly what I expected : a pleasant and modestly entertaining, if a bit slight, look how voice-acting actually works in practice. It’s full of little details that are clearly drawn from experience.

Sure, it’s nowhere as good as SHIROBAKO, but that would be a high bar to clear. But hey, it’s entertaining and instructive enough about the behind-the-scenes of the industry that I’m sure to keep watching.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5

Castle Town Dandelion (Joukamachi no Dandelion)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a 4-panel gag manga. Wait, the author’s named “Ayumu Kasuga” ? Osaka is drawing manga now ? Well, that might explain the weird premise.

Characters

The series focuses on the Sakurada family, whom beyond Mom and Dad are composed of 9 siblings of various ages. All of them have different superpowers.

Also, Dad is the king of the country. But he insisted on having his family live a “normal” life, so they all live in the suburbs, and attend normal schools in the neighbourhood. Sure, there are tons of bodyguards trying to stay inconspicuous, but it seems to work out.

Aoi, the quiet eldest daughter, is about to graduate high school, so Dad has decided it’s time to settle on a heir to the Crown. Through a televised popularity contest in the whole kingdom, of course ! And so each of the kids will be assigned points in a series of trials.

Akane, our teenage protagonist, could do without that. She already didn’t like the attention of the thousands of security cameras observing the neighbourhood, and the attention is only going to get worse. It doesn’t help that her own power, weight control (which she mostly uses as a form of telekinesis and flight) means she must be very cautious to avoid underskirt shots.

As for the other siblings, they don’t get to be much more than one-note so far.

Production Values

Decent, and the camera refrains from doing any actual panty shots of Akane. You have my thanks, show.

Overall Impression

Well, it’s a quirky comedy with a bizarre premise that somehow completely fails to catch my attention. Maybe it’s the haphazard pacing ? Or maybe it’s just me getting a bit tired ?

Anyway, I won’t be watching any more of this, despite there being nothing really wrong about it. I just have to draw the line somewhere.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 5

The Truth Is I Am… (Jitsu wa Watashi wa…)

(12ish episodes ?)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a romantic comedy manga.

Characters

Asahi, our high-school protagonist, has a recurring problem : he’s a terrible liar and can’t keep a secret. Can’t bluff for his life. So hey, since it’s obvious he’s got a crush on one of his classmates, his “friends” tell him to go and confess to ; at least he’ll have gotten it out of his system and be less awkward when ogling her. (And hey, one of them caught her glancing back at Asahi too, so maybe he’s got a chance ?)

Youko, though, is one of the most unapproachable students on campus : never talks much (and always very formally), stays out of outdoors activities, first come and last left at the school… Frankly, he just wanted to leave a love letter on her desk when he caught her stretching.

… her wings. For you see, the truth is that she is a vampire. Hence why she avoids the sun. (Er, wait, no, that’s just because she tans easily.) She doesn’t speak much in public (especially not in her natural Kansai dialect) because otherwise her fangs would be showing. And so on. Oh, well, now that the gig is up, she’ll just have to stop going to school.

Not so, objects Asahi ! He’ll be her friend, and keep her secret ! (Good luck on that, kiddo.) And then he notices he forgot to confess ; that’d just be too awkward now.

The OP & ED sequences make it clear that Youko is not the only weirdo around ; not only is the class rep obviously a robot, but there are also at least a succubus and a demon-girl with horns who should show up later on. But most terrifying is Mikan from the Journalist Club, who’s already smelling something going on.

Production Values

The manga is reputed for its quirky artstyle that makes for some great funny faces from most of the cast. Here, the character designs are much blander, but we still get a decent amount of funny faces.

Overall Impression

This is a mildly funny harem romance setup. It has some decent jokes, but a worrying tendency to stretch them for a bit too long. And the first episode hasn’t really got past the point that was in all the advertising material, so it feels a bit empty.

I’m giving it a second episode, but it’d better shape up a bit and find its groove now that the premise has been established.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 4

Snow-White with the Red Hair (Akagami no Shirayukihime)

(12 episodes, with another season already planned for 2016)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a shojo manga series with a medieval setting.

Characters

Shirayuki, our protagonist. Why her parents named her “Snow-White” when she’s got the reddest hair ever is a mystery for the ages. They’re not around anymore, though. She makes a living with her herbalist’s shop, although you easily get the impression that she cares more about helping people out than really making money. But then she catches the attention of…

Raji, the local prince, and a complete twat. He sends out soldiers to inform our heroine that she’ll be his concubine, starting tomorrow. Her reaction is of course “fuck no” ; she prepares some last bits of medicine for her regular customers, cuts her hair out in a grand gesture, and quickly leaves the city (and the country just to be sure) before the day is up. She ends up sleeping next to a half-deserted isolated mansion in a forest when she’s woken up by…

Zen, a brash young man who regularly hangs out their with his two companions. He somehow manages to hurt himself when he notices her, and she nurses him back to health after she gets him to trust her. They quickly hit it off, although she’s anxious to leave once he starts probing her a bit too much about what she’s running from exactly.

Someone left out a bunch of red apples by the door, and it’s very obviously coming from Raji. Zen, being a moron, bites into one of them. And promptly gets poisoned for his trouble. Shirayuki feels she has not choice but follow the soldiers back to Raji. While she clearly tells him how little she thinks of him, she feels obligated to obey the asshole in order to get an antidote for Zen. Who promptly shows up looking none for the worse (claiming he’s been building poison immunity) and announces that this won’t be necessary. After all, Raji doesn’t want it to be known that he just poisoned a prince from the much more powerful neighbouring kingdom, right ? So he’d better forget about Shirayuki. Capishe ?

Production Values

Quite good ; studio Bones can always provide with a baseline of quality animation and scenery porn.

Overall Impression

Well, this is a perfectly entertaining shojo romance show. It’s got the benefit of a heroine with an actual backbone and agency, and a male lead who’s quite likeable and offers no rape overtones, which is always welcome. It’s got decent comedic timing, and some fun dialogue when Jun Fukuyama has a hoot playing the villain. (“Mirror, mirror, tell me who is the fairest in the land ?” “Sir, there is no mirror, this is one of your informants.”)

If there’s one flaw here, it’s that it’s a bit bland, even as it plays around with the Snow-White tale. And there’s the question of what happens next once Shirayuki starts leaving at Zen’s castle ; how will the story proceed ? Presumably something more dramatic than mere slice-of-life romance ?

But hey, this is likeable enough for me to give it at least a second episode to gauge its direction, if not more.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 4

Chaos Dragon: Red Dragon War (Chaos Dragon: Sekiryuu Seneki)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Remember how Records of Lodoss War got its start as transcripts of RPG sessions ? Well, similar deal here, but with some rather prestigious players : Kinoko “Fate” Nasu, Gen “Madoka/Psycho-Pass” Urobochi, and Ryohgo “Baccano/Durarara” Narita, among others.

Too bad none of their characters make more than cameos in this episode.

Characters

This introductory episode is all about Ibuki, last Prince of Nil Kamui. (Played IRL by some doujinshi artist/light novel author I’ve never heard of.) His country has the unenviable position of being stuck between the evil demon kingdom of Kouran and the standoffish “good guys” of Donatia, so basically it’s a battlefield for the other two to duke it out. He’s the last survivor of the royal family, and has been laying low helping out in orphanage.

So of course the evil soldiers of Kouran show up one day and start conquering the place and killing at random. It’s time for Ibuki to step up and inherit his legacy ! With his legendary family sword getting empowered by the blood of one of his orphan friends that just sacrificed herself in front of him, of course.

We get short glimpses of the other main party members, including most prominently a bouncy catgirl. We don’t get much of an impression out of them, though.

Production Values

Hey, studio Silver Link are playing around with colour again ! And it does end up looking quite good.

Overall Impression

Wow, this is incredibly cliché-ridden and unengaging. The melodrama is rote and unimpactful, nobody has any depth, and the plot is generic as all heck. Even its prettiness can’t save it.

The only reason I’m giving it a second episode is that I’m curious what the other characters are like, given the pedigrees of their creators. But there’s only so long my patience will last.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 4

Rokka – Braves of the Six Flowers (Rokka no Yuusha)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a heroic-fantasy (with slightly Atzec flavour) light novel series.

Characters

The titular Braves of the Six Flowers are the chosen heroes of the world to fight the Demon Lord resurfacing every few hundred years. Since its agents have been resurfacing as of late and assassinating potential Braves, it’s high time to gather a new set. So the most major kingdom has organized a big ceremonial tournament to select some of them. The semi-finals are what really matters, since whoever wins is bound to lose against…

Nashetania, First Princess of the Kingdom, who’s so badass she got seeded directly to the finals. She’s an obvious lock for being one of the new Braves ; her powers involve something not too dissimilar to Unlimited Blade Works. And for some reason she’s wearing bunny ears.

Adlet, “Strongest Man in the World” (or so he claims) crashes the semifinals from nowhere and easily takes out dozens of guards, as well as both semifinalists. While he is strong, he mostly wins because he cheats like a mad bastard, using neat little gadgets to take out his opponents by surprise. Eh, whatever works, really.

While he’s immediately thrown in jail afterwards (and then into an oubliette), he’s convinced he’ll be selected as a Brave down the line. So he’s just bidding his time and keeping in shape. He also gets a visit from a “maid” (with the cunning disguise of not wearing bunny ears), which is the occasion to provide much background about the setting and the origins of the Braves. Frankly, I’m amazed he’s got no clue who he’s talking to.

Eventually the Demon Lord starts manifesting openly, and both Nashetania & Adlet mystically get their Brave tattoos. She immediately frees him from his oubliette (ignoring the objections from her entourage), and they both head to the legendary rendezvous point to meet the 4 other Braves. Whom I’m presume we’ll meet in the next few episodes ; we’re shown glimpses of them from the OP & ED.

Production Values

Quite good, although there’s some obvious CG graphics for the landscape long shots. I quite like the different artstyle for the mythical flashbacks.

On the other hand, there’s no escaping that Nashetania’s outfit is bizarrely fanservicey and looks completely out of place, even considering the very PC-esque designs for the other Braves. Oh, well ; at least the camera isn’t stuck in pervert mode.

Overall Impression

This was actually quite entertaining ; it’s a generic heroic-fantasy premise, but executed well-enough (especially the Atzec-like stylings) to feel somewhat fresh. Adlet & Nashetania are quite charismatic, although I’m slightly worried by the way she lets him take the lead at the end. (Surely she has more experience and knowledge about all this ?)

It depends a bit on whether the other Braves are entertaining or annoying, but I’m at least giving it a second episode.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 3

Ushio & Tora

(26 episodes, + another season already scheduled for Spring 2016 after a break)

What’s it about ?

Calvin & Hobbes, shonen style ! Well, kinda.

Adaptation of a manga series from the early 90s that already got a few OVAs at the time. I have no clue why the franchise is seeing new life now, nearly 20 years after it ceased publication.

Characters

Ushio, our protagonist, is the young heir of a temple that supposedly hosts an enchanted lance that can drive out demons and other mystical nasties. Not that he cares ; he’s mostly concerned with playing around and leading a normal life. Your typical jock kid, really : good at sports and athletics, terrible in other school subjects.

Daddy, the current priest, isn’t the best role model anyway. He keeps droning on and on about the temple’s legacy, but never actually explained it properly to Ushio. Also, his sudden island vacation this morning (“the third time this month, Dad ?”) means that he’s not around to provide any exposition when the plot actually kicks in.

Today Ushio discovers that Sacred Spear is indeed hidden in one of the temple buildings’ basement ; it’s trapping there an ancient, powerful demon who would really like him to remove the spear and free him. He would me more convincing without the mwahahah-ing and his promises to kill the kid afterwards. So Ushio just leaves him there and goes to school.

Asako (standard issue tsundere, and maybe as strong as Ushio himself) and Mayuko (more open about liking him) are the two of his classmates we get to know a bit. And they happen to be visiting just as a number of small-fry demons, attracted by Ushio unearthing the trapped monster, start roaming around. Well, crap.

So Ushio frees him to get his help… and promptly gets backstabbed for his trouble. Fortunately, he’s still got the lance, which makes it clear who’s in charge here. He nicknames his new familiar “Tora” (because it vaguely looks like a tiger) and has it dispatch most of the small demons, finishing them off with the lance. (Which somehow gives him super-long hair while wielding it. I have no clue why.)

Ushio forces Tora to stick around, as more minor demons are bound to show up for a while ; they’re both obviously planning to backstab each other. (Ushio sealing Tora back for good, and Tora killing Ushio somehow for the humiliation.) And of course, since only Ushio can see Tora, it looks to the likes of Asako & Mayuko that their friend is talking to his imaginary pet. Eh.

Production Values

Wow, early ’90s character designs ! But hey, they’re decently animated, so no complaints from me.

Overall Impression

Well, this is kinda fun, in a very dumb way. The retro style works. And it’s amusing how everyone is terrible as hiding how little they think of others.

But I think I’m done. It’s a rather generic shonen show all told, and I’m not in the market for those, really. Especially as it’s going to be running for a while.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Summer 2015 – Page 3