Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Absurdist comedy starring high school boys trolling each other. (Basically, imagine a gentler Cromartie High School.)

Characters

Tadakuni, the “normal” guy who gets trolled by his friends. (Although he does gives half as much as he receives.) The butt of many jokes, when he’s not just protesting how stupid his pals are.

Hidenori, the troll in glasses. He loves taking the piss with a completely straight face. Some parts also have him in rambling monologues obsessing about ridiculously trivial stuff ; which is obviously why they hired Tomokazu Sugita. (And hey, he can do funny voices too !)

Yoshitake, the other troll. His trolling is slightly more outlandish, but really there’s little to distinguish him from Hidenori.

Supporting characters showing up so far include Tadakuni’s sister (sic), who’s way less disturbed by those dudes trying on her underwear than you’d guess ; the Literature Girl (sic, again), whose joke I won’t spoil ; and Motoharu, the badass delinquant of the class who’s more talk than walk.

Production Values

Well, the mechas are quite well done…

Wait, what ?

Oh, that was just a joke about how this is a Sunrise-Squaresoft collaboration (also included : random RPG sequence, with Tadakuni as the Healer Girl). Anyway, this looks a bit better than most comedy shows where the graphics aren’t the selling point anyway.

This episode is made of 5 sketches (plus a pre-OP prologue), 3 of which were aired on the web over the past few weeks as a preview ; it’s nice to see them in non-eyebleed-o-vision.

The OP song sounds completely wrong for the show, like some epic shounen show it absolutely isn’t. Given that the OP is filled with shots cribed from the shounen-opening cliché list, I assume that’s the joke. (The ED song is clearly taking the piss of the conclusion of the 5th sketch.)

Overall Impression

At last, a comedy show that’s actually laugh-out-loud funny ! This belongs to the “dialogue grows more and more ridiculous as the sketch goes, until the final punchline” school of comedy, and it’s got good enough voice-actors to pull it off. Heck, even the sketches I’ve already seen were still funny.

The previews had wetted my appetite, and this definitely looks to be as good as I hoped. Definitely a keeper for me.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 7.

Listen to me, Girls, I’m your father ! (Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!)

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

A guy in college has to watch after his elder sister’s daughters while she’s away.

Characters

Yuuta, our male lead. Doesn’t show much personality beyond being baffled by how about everyone he knows seems to be trolling him.

Yuki, his sister. She married a man way older, who came with two daughters in tow ; they’ve had another daughter together who’s 3 now. (The dude has no authority whatsoever, as exemplified by the series’ title.) She dumps all three of them onto Yuuta for an undisclosed period of time, without even warning him beforehand. Let’s just say I don’t like her much.

The three nieces are Sora (middle school), who’s got a crush on Yuuta ; Miu (elementary school), who’s a bit of a smartass ; and Hina, the aforementioned 3-year-old.

Yuuta shares his college flat with Nimura, the mandatory perverted best “friend”… Wait, he’s just crashing there on a permanent basis because he wants to keep his actual flat pristine for when he brings back girls ?

Raika, a weird classmate of Yuuta, and his apparent love interest. Even Nimura knows better than trying to approach her. I like her sense of humour, though.

Production Values

About okay.

Overall Impression

This is an anime of two halves. There’s the college parts with Nimura & Raika that are quite fun, if not ground-breaking. And then there’s the scenes with the daughters, which I don’t trust to be handled in a any tasteful way (this is the half with the most panty-shots and fanservice, somehow). The two halves don’t really intersect much until the end of the episode, so I have no clue how this is supposed to work out on a regular basis (the college is in a completely different city from Yuki’s home !).

I’ll give it one more episode to check whether the college parts are as marginalized as I fear, but I’m not hopeful.

(How the heck did this get greenlit for 26 episodes ?)

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 7.

Waiting in the Summer (Ano Natsu de Matteru)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Basically a remake of Please Teacher without the squicky bits, reuniting the same creative team. For those who don’t know it : this is a romantic comedy set in a little Japanese town in the summer. A human-looking alien lands there in secret and tries to blend in.

Characters

Kaito, our bland male lead. He’s got a camera and has let his high school friends talk him into directing an actual movie. While he was filming random landscapes, he got caught into the crash/landing hand got heavily injured. (From the look of it, she mostly cured his injuries while he was unconscious.) His parents are dead, he lives alone with his older sister (who’s about to go abroad for the summer).

Ichika, the alien. She’s trying to pass herself as a transfering high school student, but it’s quite obvious from her lack of understanding of social cues (not to mention her bright red hair) that she’s not from around here. Also, she’s homeless, and somehow manipulates Kaito into housing her (in a well-executed and quite creepy scene).

Kanna, the tomboy tsundere who’s gonna have to step her game up if she doesn’t want the alien to push her into Kaito’s friend zone. (NOBODY is fooled by Kanna’s behaviour, and various people try and push her towards making an actual move.)

Tetsurou is Kaito’s token perverted best friend… although, as a nice departure from the norm, he’s actually handsome and quite the charmer.

Remon is basically Yukari Tamura reprising her role from Please Teacher with the number filed off : the sarcastic and perceptive sempai who’s quite older than she looks.

Production Values

Perfectly okay. So there’s where the budget saved from Kill Me Baby and Bakuman 2 went !

Overall Impression

My main objection to Please Teacher was from the squicky bits (where the alien became a teacher and they used a bizarre loophole to make the male lead legal), so I’m quite pleased to see a nearly-remake without those elements. As a result, this is a fun little romantic comedy that’s pleasant enough, while never coming off as “essential watching”.

Perfectly fine for what it is.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 6.

Another

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Horror series set in a little town. 26 years ago, a middle school student from class 9-3 called Misaki died. Her class acted as though she was still attending up to the graduation. And the urban legend would be only mildly creepy if it had stopped there…

Characters

Kouichi, our protagonist. He came to live with his grandparents in the town because his father is busy teaching in India (Mommy is dead). He’s of weak health ; a lung collapse makes him miss his first few months of school. And of course he’s now attending class 9-3. There’s a lot his classmates aren’t telling him yet, although the implication seems to be that his name is somehow associated to tragic circumstances (despite him only having been around for a few months long ago and not remembering much of it).

Mei Misaki, a mysterious 9-3 student with an eyepatch. Kouichi crosses her path in the hospital as she goes to the morgue to “offer a gift to the other her”… Er, yeah. Given how she later claims not to recognize him at school, I’m guessing twins or something.

I’m not getting much of a handle yet on the other classmates. Sure, they’re obviously hiding something, but I’m not sure who’s actually important there. (And what’s a “Countermeasures officer”, anyway ?)

Production Values

This is a PA Works production, so of course there’s lots of scenery porn and cautious attention to body language (the latter of which is key to such a series). This is their first attempt at horror that I know of, and boy does it show : there are lots of random shots creepy dolls or awkward closeups that feel a bit clumsy ; unlike, say, SHAFT, they’re obviously not used to doing this. Similarly, the soundtrack may be laying the atmosphere a bit too thick.

It’s also a pity that the careful buildup in the prologue is marred by a terrible OP song by ALI Project.

Overall Impression

I really wanted to like this : sure, horror shows in little towns with a dark secret are a cliché, but this looks like a decent attempt to go back to basics. Unfortunately, it’s trying a bit too much, and the atmosphere doesn’t fully gel.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot I like here ; I’m probably going to watch it through. But it could be better executed.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 5.

Aquarion Evol

(1st episode is a 42-minute special)

What’s it about ?

In the future, Earth (?) is under assault from interdimensional kidnappers in giant mecha. In response, the authorities have set up their own mecha response forces, segregated by gender. Also, a good number of people seem to possess random superpowers.

Characters

Amata, our protagonist, projectionist at the local theater. (Business isn’t great, what with people staying at home to avoid the random mass kidnappings.) He’s a fanboy of a very cheesy 10-year-old movie he keeps projecting… and he sounds like he knows the main actress personnally. His superpower is that he starts flying whenever he gets excited (he weighs his shoes down with lead to avoid the embarrassment).

Mikono, our female lead. Amata finds her crying during his favourite movie’s projection, and it’s tepid romance at first sight. She spends most of her screentime either panicked or crying.

Cayenne (prophetic visions of DOOM) and Zessica (some sort of force attacks ?) are regular pilot of the mecha defense forces trying to fend off yet another attack… until Amata suddenly flies himself and Mikono into another mecha, and forces all of them to unite into a giant flying combining mecha ; despite the confusion they all manage to stall the attackers enough to send them retreating.

Nobody seems to have much of a clue why this happened, aside from the top general of the defense forces (who repeatedly refuses to provide any exposition for the benefit of his colleagues), and a dude with an eyepatch who gets to spout vague nonsense in random locations without any indication of who the heck he is.

Production Values

This episode screams “we have BUDGET !”, and may be slightly too much in love with its CG animation. Still, it’s impressive stuff.

The soundtrack comes courtesy of Yoko Kanno, although I’m not sure whether this is one of her lesser efforts or the bizarre editing just does it a disservice.

Overall Impression

This is a complete mess. It completely lost me 7 minutes in, when it became clear that piloting mecha was a blatant metaphor for sex (“it feels so good !” “Us pure maidens uniting with a man ? Ew !”). The incessant tone shifts, haphazard pacing and bland characters don’t help one bit. And once you get past the shock and awe of the production values, you’re left with a very pedestrian story that piles on the clichés without bringing anything new to the table.

Also, the protagonist is yet again played by Yuki Kaji, whose whiny voice is a sure means to make any action lead sound like an annoying loser. Yeah, no thanks.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 5.

Brave 10

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Yet another Sengoku-era anime…

Characters

Isanami, the only surviving priestess of a temple that got burned down by ninja mooks. She’s really, really annoying ; the kind of useless, needy, rude and emotionally manipulative damsel-in-distress I hate on sight. To the show’s credit, this does seem to be intentional. Also, she’s got a magical jewel on her head that starts killing everything in a ten-feet radius when she’s under too much duress (but she doesn’t seem to be aware of it).

Saizou, our protagonist, a ronin that Isanami stumbles onto while fleeing more ninja mooks. He tries (and fails) to get rid of her for the whole episode, but those pesky mooks keep attacking and dooming themselves by announcing they don’t want witnesses. Since he’s a badass with magical attacks, that’s obviously a terrible idea. Anyway, he’s painfully aware that Isanami is trying to take advantage of him.

Yukimura, the local lord. Isanami was advised to run to him, but he doesn’t think she’s worth the trouble and throws her away. He changes his mind after seeing the effects of the life-sucking jewel : this looks like something worth controlling, although he’ll need more muscle to keep hold of it. Hence his decision to assemble 10 warriors for that task. (Yeah, I don’t really trust this dude either.)

It looks like the show is going to spend some time gathering the 10 ; so far, we only have Yukimura’s right hand man and a reluctant Saizou. I’m pleasantly surprised to see there’ll be some women amongst the others.

Production Values

Perfectly okay.

Overall Impression

Hey, this was a lot more entertaining than I expected. A good deal of the show’s charm resides on Daisuke Ono’s charisma, who’s perfect for world-weary badassitude and injects tons of personality into our protagonist. You can hear the facepalming at getting dragged into this nonsense.

… Because, let’s be honest, there’s not a shred of originality in the plot itself or the way it unfolds. This is rife with clichés, and only the tongue-in-cheek sense of fun makes it watchable. It’s a show that knows it’s stupid and invites us to join the ride anyway. I think they had me at “Daisuke Ono” anyway ; I’m a sucker for mediocre shows starring him.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 4.

Bodacious Space Pirates (Moretsu Uchuu Kaizoku)

(26 episodes)

What’s it about ?

In the far future, after mankind spread into outer space, there was a big war between the central power and the most far-flung colonies. The separatists were so out-matched they had to commission space pirates to undermine their enemy. It’s now been about a hundred years since the war ended (and the show is pointedly not telling us how it ended, besides implying it was somewhat ludicrous), but some of those space pirates are still around somehow. Although given that their license is currently under review, this may be about to change…

Characters

Marika, the teenage daughter of the captain of the main pirate ship still around, although she didn’t know that. Daddy died a couple of days ago, and the law says the ship goes to his next of kin, so suddenly the crew is stalking her and innocently asking her whether she’d like to visit outer space. Marika’s nonplussed by the whole thing (“Wait, there are legal pirates ?”), but outer space does sound cool.

Ririka, Marika’s mother, used to be part of the crew, but the implication being that she settled down after having her daughter. (But given that we later get a short look at her working in a military uniform, she’s hardly the stay-at-home kind.) She enjoys seeing the old crew again, and doesn’t have any qualms about Marika leaving with them… provided that’s what she wants, of course.

Kane McDougall, the navigator, somehow managed to become the replacement teacher for Marika’s class. Half to keep an eye on her, and half to discretely scout new recruits for the crew. Refreshingly, he immediately tells the class he’s married, and later notes he’d never had guessed dealing with high school girls could be so tiring, so that’s at least one bullet dodged.

Chiaki, a conveniently new transfer student who immediately starts stalking Marika. She does save our protagonist from a kidnapping attempt by a fake law officer (as well as a roomful of MIBs who were suspiciously lounging in the maid café Marika works part time at), but there’s still no hint of who she’s working for. (She’s voiced by Kana Hanazawa in “Everyone I’m talking to is an idiot” mode, which is always pleasant to listen to.)

There’s a token normal friend of Marika running around, and she’s prominently featured in the ED, but she’s yet to do much.

Production Values

Quite nice indeed. There’s something slightly retro to the character designs, which works well with the general atmosphere. Despite what you’d expect from the title, the fanservice level is quite mild (well, aside from that thing Kane’s colleague was wearing in the café).

The OP & ED sound like someone liked the autotune effects a bit too much, but I don’t have a problem with that.

Overall Impression

Perfectly pleasant, and with enough sense of fun for me to keep watching. I quite like that the show is immediately addressing the concept of “family-friendly pirates”, and I’m intrigued at what reason there is for them to still exist.

I didn’t want to place hopes to high on this, but so far it’s fulfilling them.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 3.

Symphogear – The Swan Songs of the Valkyries (Senhime Zesshou Symphogear)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

In the future, Earth is randomly assaulted by swarms of “Noises”, (basically : eldritch abominations). Our only effective means of defense are the Twei Wings, a pair of song-powered superheroines (supported by a whole secret agency) who have secret identities as idol singers.

Characters

Kanade, the red Twei Wing, who jumps into action without waiting for support when a swarm of Noise attacks one of their concerts. The big twist is that she sacrifices herself halfway through the episode to save some innocent bystanders by singing an actual swan song (i.e., the cost of its power is her own life).

Tsubasa, the blue Twei Wing, has obviously turned somewhat bitter as a way of coping with her partner’s death. She’s thrown herself into the job even more, in an emotionally detached way.

Out actual protagonist, at least for this episode, is Hibiki, a girl who was attending the concert and got caught into the attack ; Kanade was trying to save her, and she gets such an injury that it’s a wonder she survived (the scar does look quite suspect). Kanade’s sacrifice has obviously left a big impression on Hibiki, and when she later stumbles onto yet more Noises, she gathers all her strength and will to try and save a kid who happened to be there. When eventually surrounded by Noises, she even tries to sing her own swan song… except what it transforms her into looks rather more like a monster than a superheroine. Oops.

And just to make this more hopeless, the episode opens with a flashforward of Hibiki’s best friend visiting her grave. Oh, dear.

Production Values

This looks quite impressive indeed : the future looks wonderful, the Noises are creepy as heck (they don’t look too frightening until they actually attack, and urgh), the animation for the fights is crisp, and if you’re going to feature battle songs prominently, you can’t go wrong with Nana Mizuki (who’s on top form here).

Overall Impression

Wow, this took me completely by surprise. This is a show that lulls you into a false sense of security with its bright colours and cheerful atmosphere… until the Noises attack and innocent bystanders go down like flies. I’m glad they didn’t go for a darker palette, because the show is already brutal as it is.

It also helps that I have absolutely no clue where this is going, what with killing off one of the four main characters and promising to do the same to another one (and there’s no OP or ED yet to give any hints). This could turn into Tsubasa begrudgingly mentoring Hibiki as a replacement for Kanade… but if there’s something this first episode has proven, it’s that anything can happen.

Me likey.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 3.

High School DxD

What’s it about ?

Harem show featuring succubi in yet another of those high schools that recently went co-ed and have far more girls than boys.

Characters

Issei, our protagonist. He’s part of a clique of three perverted guys who joined the school to get some. His catchphrase ? “I want to touch boobs !” Obviously most of the girls view them with disgust and stay well away. Just to make him even more repellent, he’s voiced by Yuki Kaji, whose voice I’ve grown to hate over the last few seasons.

Yuuma, a girl who asks him out and proceeds to have the most cliché date possible with him. Everyone (including himself) wonders what she sees in that bozo. It turns out that she’s actually a succubus, and she stabs him halfway through the episode because of some nonsense about how he’s supposed to be important in some war between devil clans or something (she doesn’t seem quite clear herself on why he would be important, but better safe than sorry). Unfortunately, he’s then resurrected by…

Rias Gremory (sic), leader of another succubi clan dwelling at the school. Actually, she can only make Issei into a half-demon creature, with enhanced strength and senses at night… which really doesn’t sound too bad for him, especially as he gets to hang with a bunch of hot girls.

Production Values

Fanservice out the wazoo : gratuitous panty shots, naked breasts in abundance, lucious transformation sequences that make the protagonist admire them instead of running away…

There seems to be quite a bit of budget behind this : the animation is quite good (although it mostly focuses on body parts).

Overall Impression

This is slightly better than I expected. It’s got a good grasp of atmosphere, it’s well-paced, and some of the jokes are actually funny. On the other hand, there’s absolutely no way to save the plot, and I loathe the protagonist. I have no qualms with skipping this one.

But hey, points for trying a bit harder than most fanservice-y harem shows.

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 3.

The Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi)

What’s it about ?

High-school soccer melodrama.

Characters

Kakeru, our protagonist. He used to be quite a good soccer player until he injured his left leg (the flashbacks are quick and vague), although since he’s running around without trouble most of the damage must be in his head. He’s switched to being the “manager” of his high-school soccer club (in the Japanese sense that he has no authority whatsoever and is a glorified go-fer). While he’s enthusiastic about it, he’s obviously in denial.

Suguru, his older brother, and the captain/star player of the club ; there’s a pre-credits scene of him marking for Japan against Brazil in the under-15 Cup, just to hammer the point. To say that Kakeru has an inferiority complex over him is an understatement. Suguru is getting annoyed at Kakeru’s denial and passive-aggressiveness, and frankly I’m with him. He pulls strings to get Kakeru back onto the team, which hopefully is going to get him out of his funk.

Nana (“Seven”), Kakeru’s tomboyish childhood friend. Her family had moved to the US for the last few years, but now she’s back. She claims to be making a move for the manager position, but I hope she gets to be on the team somehow, because she’s got spunk and she’s shown to have been quite good at it back in the day.

There’s a mysterious person (disguised as a grey, of all things) who surprises Kakeru as he was playing soccer alone in a park at night, and plays around with him for a bit. Kakeru thinks this may be either Suguru or one of the few other named players we’ve seen so far, but I’m not fooled for a second : this is obviously Nana.

We see a few of the other members of the soccer clubs, but because Kakeru seems to prefer associating with the underdogs, that means they’re the perpetual loser and the mandatory horny dude. Sigh.

Production Values

Quite low. It overuses still frames, and the animation’s nothing to write home about. I don’t really like the way how Suguru looks so much older than Kakeru despite them being stated to only be one year apart. Also, the score is laying the melodrama a bit thick.

Overall Impression

This is quite better than I expected at first. Kakeru is very annoying indeed, but I was pleasantly surprised that the series seems to agree that his attitude needs to change. I quite like the other characters (well, aside from the horndog), and I’m intrigued by the hints that Suguru may not survive the next couple of episodes.

I’m somewhat optimistic about this one, although I’m not sure how long I’ll keep with it (especially as I’m not sure for how long it’s going to run).

via [In which I review] New anime, Winter 2012 – Page 3.