Tag: from RPG.net

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.

Danganronpa – the Animation

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

15 of the most promising (and eccentric) of this generation’s high school students, each with their own speciality, have been scouted by this new super-shiny academy… but they learn just after stepping inside that it’s all a trap and they can’t leave unless they kill one of the others.

Adapted from a visual novel that I’ve seen described as “Battle Royale meets Phoenix Wright”, and that sounds about accurate.

Characters

THE GAMEMASTER is “Monobear”, an impressively obnoxious bear puppet. You can’t even strangle it for stress relief, as it can self-destruct and it’s got spare bodies.

Makoto, our protagonist, is THE LUCKY GUY. (Or maybe THE UNLUCKY GUY, given the circumstances.) He’s utterly ordinary on every respect and got his place via random lottery. Really, he’s just there for audience projection, and has no personality whatsoever.

Sayaka, THE IDOL, is the one familiar face among the crowd : they attended the same middle school, and for some reason she remembers this complete nobody.

Also of note : Celestia, THE GAMBLER, who’s already trying to game the system ; Mondo, THE THUG BIKER, who easily goes into other people’s faces ; and Kyouko, who’s only describes as THE ??? and is thus immediately mightily suspect.

(Other participants include THE HALL MONITOR, a guy whose chief talent seems to be obeying rules ; THE FIGHTER, a 8-feet-tall mountain of muscles ; THE SWIMMER, who’s very cheerful ; THE BOOKWORM, always anxious and paranoid ; THE MODEL, a gyaru stereotype ; THE HACKER, who’s adorably cute ; THE FORTUNE TELLER, who, er, yeah ; THE BASEBALL PLAYER ; THE SCION, whose talent seems to lord over everyone ; and the FANZINE PUBLISHER, your token overweight otaku.)

Production Values

The least you can say is that it’s got a very distinctive style : cooler-than-thou character designs, surrealist colorful backgrounds, and weird shot transitions. On the other hand, it wears its status as a visual novel adaptation on its sleeve, down to the exact camera angles and the characters having stock idle animations. Most of the time, the aesthetic succeeds ; but there are times when it gets a bit awkward.

Overall Impression

Look, it’s another “let’s play” of a popular visual novel by the director of Persona 4 ! Not that there’s anything wrong with that ; indeed, this one seems better suited to his strengths, as the jerky pacing suits the darkly comedic tone. And this story sounds like a fun ride : the characters aside from the PC are the right sort of quirky, and I’m intrigued to see where it goes.

Okay, I’m game. Bring it on.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 3.

Rozen Maiden (2013)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Magical dolls fighting each other.

(In case you’re wondering, this is a complete reboot of the franchise ; not having watched any other version, I’m treating this as a new show.)

Characters

Jun, our male lead. He may be a recluse, but the breakneck pace doesn’t have room for much elaboration. He receives a box with a living winding-doll out of nowhere one day, and stays in perpetual bewilderment of all the craziness that ensues.

Shinku, said winding-doll. She’s part of a lot of seven that are part of the “Alice” competition, where they all battle against each other. I gather that the idea is that each one has a portion of the soul of someone important, and the goal is for the winner to collect all seven bits, by absorbing their opponents’.

Suigintou is clearly the baddie amongst the seven : she’s got black wings, which is never a good sign, engineers confrontations between the other, and kill-steals on at least one occasion.

Suiseiseki is at least on friendly terms with Shinku, and doesn’t look like much of a threat anyway -desu. She’s come to ask some help against her twin Souseiseki -desu.

We actually see all of the dolls this episode, including the one who doesn’t have a proper body anymore.

Production Values

This looks much nicer than I’m used to from Studio DEEN, with tons of CG elements that sometimes look a bit like overkill (the ballpoint-pen, really ?). There’s no denying this has got tons of budget, at least for the first episode.

The OP is the ALI project doing the same song they always do. The ED is a much more atmospheric piece.

Overall Impression

Hey, who’s got their finger stuck on the fast-forward button ? There’s just so much stuff happening in this episode that it becomes a bit overwhelming, and doesn’t allow much depth for any of the characters. As a result, there’s very little incentive to care about anything that happens. There doesn’t seem to be much substance beyond the battle royale plot involving dolls with pretty clothes.

The main problem seems to be that it needs to slow the hell down and give the characters room to breathe ; as I don’t expect it to do that with such a short running time, I won’t be bothering with it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 3.

Stella Women’s Academy, High School Division Class C3 (Stella Jogakuin Koutou-ka C³-bu)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Slice-of-life comedy about an (all-female) airsoft high school club.

Characters

Yura, our point-of-view character. She’s a very shy and introverted freshman who’s just entered the Stella Academy, which seems to have more budget than small African nations. She’s trying to change herself and get some friends, but it’s an uphill struggle.

Sonora, her roommate, barely appears onscreen at all ; as a senior, she’s still off visiting her family before school starts. Yura finds tons of guns and military attire in the room & starts getting a bit suspicious…

Besides Sonora, there are four members to the “C3” club : the strategic-minded one, the tea-and-cake-providing one, the hyperactive small one, and the way-too-much-into-this one. They’re definitely looking for more members, and would be delighted to add the weirdo they found play-acting Rambo with Sonora’s gear to their group.

Production Values

Hey, since when does Gainax have budget again ? This looks quite nice indeed, with beautiful backgrounds and a very well-designed mock-battle scene at the end. (I especially love the jazzy soundtrack that starts playing there, making it very intense indeed.)

Overall Impression

Hey, this was surprisingly fun ! It’s not a particularly innovative concept (“cute girls doing cute things… with guns !”), but the characters are charming and the jokes work. It’s just very-well executed overall.

This looks like a keeper to me.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 3.

Servant x Service

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Work-com about civil servants at the welfare office.

(Adapted from a manga by the creator of Working!!.)

Characters

Yamagami, our protagonist. She has just joined the welfare office for one purpose only : finding and exacting revenge on the person who authorized her parents to name her

Lucy Kimiko Akie Airi Shiori Rinne Yoshiho Ayano Tomika Chitose Sanae Mikiko Ichika […]

. For very understandable reasons, this is a bit of a berserk button for her, and she’s got a general grudge against public servants.

Hasebe, another new hire, is the epitome of everything she hates public servants : he’s lazy, takes every opportunity to slack off, and uses his job to try and pick up girls. He’s also surprisingly competent and reliable on the very rare occasions he takes his job seriously and helps the other newbies out.

Miyoshi, the third newbie, is very awkward, but absolutely loved by the customers. Maybe it’s because she looks like the ideal daughter.

Ichimiya, their supervisor, has eight years of experience… and absolutely no clue how to handle them. He seems to spend half his time running ragged trying to prevent Hasebe from slacking off.

Chihaya, Yamagami’s senior at her desk, is very efficient at her job but sounds terminally world-weary. Yeah, this job can do this to you after a while.

Production Values

Quite nice ; a lot of the jokes are sold by the attention given to body language in this. Also, I quite enjoyed the gimmick for the OP sequence (which is only slightly less catchy than “Someone! one! one!”).

Overall Impression

Even better than I expected. This is a very funny series, made all the more hilarious because all of it sounds so true. It strikes exactly the right balance between mocking and empathizing with its characters. It’s also quite well-paced, letting the mystery of why the heck Yamagami is always hesitating before omitting to say her given name when introducing herself build up nicely. And it’s got more than one joke, which is always welcome in a gag show.

Definitely a must-see for me this season.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.

Chronicles of the Going-Home Club (Kitakubu Katsudou Kiroku)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

The “Going-Home Club” is an euphemism for the students who don’t join any club and just go home after class. (In the Japanese school system, there’s a lot of pressure to join a club, any club for social purposes ; the students who don’t are usually a minority.) Here, the joke is that there’s an actual official Going-Home Club, with clubroom and everything.

Adapted from a 4-panel gag manga, obviously.

Characters

Natsuki, our point-of-view character ; as a high school freshman, she joins the Going-Home Club on a Wacky Misunderstanding and spends the whole episode (and probably the whole series) complaining on how this club makes no sense.

Karin, the other new recruit of the club. The naive one, who pushed Natsuki into joining despite having herself no clue what the club’s about.

Before that, the club had three members : the very enthusiastic president Sakura, and two high-class girls whose social standing demands that they belong to a club but presumably didn’t want the hassle of join a real club.

Production Values

Not much good. There are some decent backgrounds, but the animation is very limited and the character designs leave something to be desired.

Overall Impression

Not very good. It’s got some decent jokes (I loved the “premature cliffhangers” where the ED music starts playing despite the show not being over), but they get fewer and farther between as the episode goes, and the premise is already wearing thin by the end of it. I just can’t see the joke supporting a full series.

Just not funny enough for me to bother with.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.

FREE! – Iwatobi Swim Club

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Sports show about FREESTYLE SWIMMING ! Well, whenever they actually get around to restarting the swimming club, presumably.

Characters

Haruka, our lead character. Utterly obsessed with swimming, to the point of wearing a swimsuit (and often not much else) at all times. Unfortunately, his current high school doesn’t have a functional pool, let alone a swimming club. And it’s too cold to dive into the ocean yet. Not that he’s got much competition drive at this point, anyway. If only he got some spark…

Makoto, his best friend from way back. The kind of childhood friend that’s totally comfortable with entering his house, finding him in his bath, and gently scolding him for being late. It’s pretty obvious that Haruka is mostly ignoring him, but Makoto can’t take the hint. He’s the guy who acts as a straight man in all conversations.

Nagisa, who used to be in the same swimming club back in elementary school, and only just came back in town, joining the same high school. He’s kinda miffed that his old friends aren’t doing any competition swimming anymore, but as the enthusiastic one he doesn’t let that stop him from convincing the two others to break into their old (abandoned) elementary school at night so that they can retrieve the trophy they had left in a time capsule.

Rin, formerly the fourth member of their relay team and Haruka’s rival ; he’s just come back from Australia, but has enrolled into the super-elite school nearby with the top-class swimming club. His mere reappearance (checking in on the buried trophy too) is enough to start reigniting Haruka’s competitive drive.

Gou, Rin’s sister, is in the three others’ high school too. She doesn’t seem to be very close to her brother, and I highly suspect she’s going to be their inevitable swimming club’s manager or something. (Also, in keeping with the running joke that all the boys have girl-ish names, she has a boy-ish one.)

Their new homeroom teacher is presumably going to be important too (club advisor, most probably), as a point is made to mention that teaching was her second-choice career. Three guesses what she tried to do before that, and the first two don’t count.

Production Values

This features KyoAni’s usual attention to detail regarding backgrounds and animation of body language… which in this case means much focus on those young muscled, supple half-naked bodies. But hey, it’s not that much different from your usual testosterone-ladden sports show.

Speaking of testosterone, I love the ridiculously gung-ho rap tunes that start playing whenever Haruka & Rin are in the same room.

Overall Impression

The question was on everyone’s mind after those trailers : is this just trolling, or is there a proper show in there beyond the homoerotic subtext ? Well, the good news is that this does have a perfectly serviceable premise… but it doesn’t rise much above the sea of clichés inherent to the genre. It also has no subtlety whatsoever. (The naming joke mentioned above is spelt out explicitly, for example.)

But hey, I have a weakness for sports shows, and I have no problem watching one that’s in about the same league as, say, Kuroko’s Basketball. (Well, a bit prettier, maybe.) I’m probably going to keep with it, although I really don’t expect it to be great.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.

Brothers Conflict

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Look, the official abbreviation for this series is “BroCon”. Do I really need to spell it out ?
(Adapted from a series of shojo novels, which of course got otome game adaptations.)

Characters

“Chi”, our female main character… wait, her real name’s never actually uttered at any point in the whole episode ? Wow. Way to make her even more generic. Anyway, her father has just remarried, and so she moves in with her new family, i.e. 13 brothers. (Daddy and new-Mommy actually live elsewhere because work.)

Juli, her pet squirrel. For some reason she can talk with it. It’s very overprotective of her, what with her now living with 13 men. Very annoying indeed.

The various brothers don’t really get to show off more than one personality trait each, and they’re all generically handsome.

Production Values

Perfectly okay for this sort of thing.

Overall Impression

Let’s be frank : this is an incest-bait show. I’m not sure how seriously the more proactive brothers are supposed to pursue things, but at the very least there’s some insistant teasing. (And just to round things up, the two twin actors also act out a gay scene, because “fun” misunderstandings.) It doesn’t help that the –ing squirrel keeps issuing warnings to the MC even when everyone’s acting perfectly innocent.

There might be a very narrow audience that finds this kind of show riveting. I’m not part of it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.

Sunday Without God (Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Remember the parable about God creating the world in six days, and resting on Sunday ? Well, here he finished the job in five days, rested on Saturday, and just left on Sunday. As a result, people don’t really die anymore, unless those special people called Gravediggers bury them and give them eternal rest.

Characters

Ai, our protagonist, is the cutest little Gravedigger ever : loved by her whole village and her adoptive parents. Sure, she had to bury her own mother and her father is a mystery, but she’s happy, right ? And nobody’d ever lie to her about being a Gravedigger, right ?

“Humpnie Humbert”, who readily admits this is a bullshit pseudonym (taken from some fairy tale). Unfortunately, this is also the name Ai’s mother gave as the father’s (which should ring alarm bells to anyone with a lick of sense), which causes a lot of confusion. But not among the villagers, as he’s already killed them all. Well, shot them until they became zombies, given how the world is now. Why ? He doesn’t say. He much prefers deriding the cruel joke the townfolk inflicted on Ai : Gravediggers don’t have parents, they come from nowhere when they’re needed. Ai’s mother must just have been deluded.

The sad thing is that I can’t tell whether this asshole is right ; there are some hints that Ai does have Gravedigger powers… or maybe not.

Production Values

I watched a preview streamed from NicoNico (the show is set to have proper airings starting Saturday), so this means no OP/ED sequences, and eyebleed-o-vision quality. It’s still very distinctive artistically, with oversaturated colours all the time (making it seem like all the scenes are shot at dawn or dusk) and a love for Dutch angles. It certainly contributes to the surreality of the whole piece.

Overall Impression

Well, the least I can say is that this is a show that makes an impression. There’s a contrast between the bleak premise and Ai’s cheerfulness (Aki Toyosaki in full squeaky mode) that makes it way more depressing than if it was just played straight. It’s not just yet another zombie show, as it quickly builds up a very distinctive atmosphere.

It doesn’t entirely work, though. There are bits where the banter between Ai and the mysterious stranger goes a bit too much comedic to really mesh with the oppressive mood, making the tone of the episode vary quite a bit more than it needs to be really effective. It’s a bit too much all over the place.

There are some bits that do work, though. The progressive reveal of that one villager’s head wound, that’s somehow always out of sight from the camera until he pulls on his hood and you can plainly see that his skull’s shape is just horribly wrong, is a very nicely paced sequence. As is the scene where Ai has cheerfully dug up graves for the whole village in advance, and wonders out loud what she’s going to do now. Great moments, but the show doesn’t quite find its groove yet.

But I’m intrigued enough to give it at least another episode to see where this is going.

via [In which I review] New anime, Summer 2013 – Page 2.