Tag: novel adaptation

Joker Game

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a novel series about spies in ’30s Japan.

Characters

The show is built around “D Agency”, a spy training organization created in 1937 by one Lt Col Yuuki. After some intense selection and training, they now have weeded down to eight trainees, who certainly at least talk a good game.

Interestingly, our actual point-of-view character for now is Lt Sakuma, who comes from the regular Japanese army and is clearly the odd man out here. From what I can gather, he’s been sent as a liaison from high command… with the explicit mission to find any single issue that could be an excuse for shutting down this dodgy agency that has yet to produce any results. Now, Sakuma himself is way to straightforward to act shadily ; that’s exactly why he despises the liars, cheaters and cowards trained by the agency he’s overseeing.

The case of the fortnight involves a “totally not a spy” US resident that D Agency is tasked to find evidence against. Which is of course utterly pointless from a counter-intelligence point of view, but hey, that’s the orders from on high.

Production Values

Perfectly good ; the depiction of the period feels authentic enough to work. And you can never go wrong with a Kenji Kawai score to build an oppressive and claustrophobic mood.

What did I think of it ?

First, the elephant in the room : given its subject matter, the show is doomed to confront the fact that the Japanese military did some really dodgy shit in that time period, and by “dodgy” I mean “huge war crimes”. The good news is that for now, the show is sidestepping the issue by portraying D Agency as a group with no patriotic links, and just doing the same shit that every other modern country is already doing (with the precise example of the 1922 Washington Conference). Also, they seem to spend just as much time and energy in feuds with other branches of the military as doing any actual spying/counter-spying (the US spy in this first story is as much a pretext as anything).

With that out of the way, this is a peculiar first episode. Most of it is devoted to characters telling Sakuma he’s an idiot who understands nothing about spying. Which is true, of course, but he feels more like someone to be exposited to for narrative convenience than an organic component of the story, at least until the final twist. Even then, I feel like the show may have been better served without him being around. Show, I already think that spying is inherently cool despite the dodgy ethics ; I don’t need a “but spying is EE-VIIL !!” mouthpiece to be proven wrong every couple of minutes.

Now, you might think I didn’t like the show. That’s not true ; there’s a lot to enjoy here, and I definitely plan on watching it throughout. It’s just that I hope that the clumsy writing quickly gets out of the way once the series’ found its narrative feet.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2016 – Page 3

Winter 2016 Capsules

Sushi Police has exactly one joke : an elite police task force regulating the quality and authenticity of sushi. Unfortunately, the execution is rather dismal : few of the gags land, and the animation style is an acquired taste at best. You probably shouldn’t bother seeking it out.

 

Old Man & Marshmallow is an office romantic-comedy about a middle manager who loves marshmallow. One of his underlings keeps teasing him about him in a way that makes it clear she’s flirting with him ; he’s oblivious. Nothing great here, but it’s paced decently, mildly funny, and rather okay overall. I may stick with it.

 

Oh, and I’m giving up on Assassination Classroom. The first season had huge pacing and consistency issues ; mostly, it wasn’t that funny. So this new season really had to hit it out of the park to keep my interest… It didn’t. It’s a below average episode with nothing particularly interesting happening ; it might have worked partway through the season as a breather, but something much more punchy was needed at this stage.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 2

 

I’ve given up on writing a full review for Divine Gate. This is an adaptation of a smartphone game where characters aligned with six different elements fight against each other. The show makes it darnedest to try and build up my interest into the token plot and make it look visually interesting, but I just don’t care. I just can’t summon the energy to take interest into whatever is going on here, and the characters certainly aren’t appealing enough to carry the show.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 3

Sequel watch !

Durarara!!x2 had a very good start for its last third. Most of it is taking stock of the story so far, as Celty desperately tries to get an explanation of what the heck is going on and WHAT ARE ALL THOSE PEOPLE DOING IN HER HOME, but superbly executed. Izaya & Shizuo also get good scenes, so I’m perfectly content with this.

Koyomimonogatari are the latest instalment of the -monogatari franchise, this time around as shorts only available on a mobile-app. (So ready your eyepatch if you want to watch it.) It adapts a bunch of short side stories, so it’s not that great a loss if you miss it. “Koyomi Stone”, the first one, is set before Bakemonogatari and fun enough, as an insight into Ararararagi’s early character development.

By the way, Snow White with the Red Hair is still as fun and engaging as before the break, it’s the one bright spot on Mondays.

I’ve Had Enough of Being a Magical Girl is basically a similar premise to Nurse Witch Komugi R, i.e. a magical girl parody, except as 3-minute shorts and actually half-way engaging. Nothing to write much home about, though.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016 – Page 4

Haruta & Chika Blossom (Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru)

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a (proper) novel series about the low-key mysteries faced by a high-school brass band club. Kind of a cross between Hyouka & Sound! Euphonium, basically.

Characters

Chika, our protagonist, used to be quite the tomboy volleyball star, but she kinda burned out ; she felt that she was wasting her youth training all the time, and go for a less time-consuming afterschool club activity that leave her time for, you know, meeting boys and stuff. Like, maybe the brass band ; that flutist looked cute and feminine on TV. If her high-school debut is the occasion to reinvent herself into a much more demure girl, then perfect. Unfortunately for her, she’s terrible at keeping that front, especially after she’s reunited with…

Haruta, with whom she used to be friends when they were young kids. Well, he remembers it more as her bullying him all the time, but same difference ; I think he’s enjoying a bit turning the tables by making her true tomboy nature whenever she interacts with him. Anyway, he’s already a member of the brass band. As a mystery buff, he’s on the forefront of investigating the weird case of the weird graffiti painted in red on the blackboard, eventually laying out the cipher for everyone else’s benefit.

Mr Kusakabe, the supervising music teacher, is a bit of an enigma himself ; he recently abandoned a promising conducting career to teach in this random school. And he’s plainly the target for the mysterious message. Haruta’s interest is tickled, obviously. And Chika has a bit of a crush on him…

Contrary to Chika’s expectations, there’s now barely five members in the brass band. Aside from the club president, there’s just a pair of twins that everyone keeps mixing up whenever they’re not playing their (different) instruments. (And props on the casting department for finding someone who sounds very much like but slightly different than Chiaki Omigawa for the other one.)

There’s a flashforward showing the band performing with several times more members (including one who’s obviously going to be the focus of the next episode), so presumably some heavy recruiting is in the offing.

Production Values

I’m really not fond of the character designs, but studio PA Works do show off their usual skill at animating body language ; Chika’s shifting personas wouldn’t work as well without their care for her facial expressions. And they can draw actual play of instruments, which is very welcome.

Overall Impression

You had me at “low-key mysteries” (and this first one has a nice twist), but Chika turns out to be a fascinating and endearing lead, with Haruta as a fun foil. It’s a nice and well-executed setup that leaves ample room for future stories.

It’s also refreshing to watch an anime series with a gay person in the main cast who’s not a caricature, but a fully-fleshed out character who’s not defined by their sexuality or pandering to the audience. How rare is that ?

This is a must-watch for me now.

Source: [In Which I Review] New anime, Winter 2016

Everything Becomes F : The Perfect Insider (Subete ga F ni Naru)

(11 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a 1996 mystery novel. It has already been adapted in manga, visual novel and live-action drama formats ; so next is the prestige noitaminA anime series.

Characters

Moe, our protagonist, looks at first like an ordinary college student ; somewhat brattish and superficial. But over the course of the episode, it becomes clear that she’s got more depth than that ; she’s quite clever, inquisitive, and is quick to catch on. Also, her family is connected enough to help the plot along.

Saikawa, the teacher overseeing her circle and thesis, tries to remain as stonefaced as possible while shutting down her attempts to be too friendly. (The question whether she means any of it remains open at this point.) Most of the episode happens in his office. Anyway, he’s investigating for research purposes a bizarre murder case…

Shiki, a teenage genius, was accused of having killed her parents a few years ago. Because of her claims a doll did it, she was declared non compos mentis, after which she vanished. It seems that all this time she’s been holed up in a lab on a remote island ; Moe managed to snag an interview with her (on Saikawa’s behalf) that we see in flashback.

Hey, let’s hold the circle’s vacation on that island ! It’ll be fun, they may learn more, and nothing wrong can happen !

Production Values

Hum. This is the kind of serious show that is intent on spending many minutes with Moe doing very mundane stuff before anything of significance happens, as proof that it’s adapting Serious Literature. Which feels like a mistake, as the attention to detail regarding Moe’s body language shines much more when she gets to interact with other people.

Also, awesome visuals for the OP sequence.

Overall Impression

A mystery show on noitaminA ? It’d have to be a complete trainwreck for me to skip it.

And, well, it starts off very pretentious indeed ; but it all comes into focus when the flashback interview with Shiki comes into play. She’s an eerie presence, and Moe’s uncanny cheerfulness in contrast raises many questions (especially as we learn more about the backstory).

I’m quite interested in seeing where this is going.

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

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

(11ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

Surely you’re aware of Edogawa Ranpo, the godfather of Japanese mystery fiction ? The guy Detective Conan took half of his pseudonym from ? The creator of characters such as Akechi and the Fiend with Twenty Faces, who often get referenced or namechecked in mystery anime & manga ?

Well, later this month is the 50th anniversary of his death, so here comes this tribute project. It’s notionally adapting some of his stories (starting with The Human Chair), but with the original mysteries reframed completely in a contemporary setting and different characters involved. In many ways, it’s not entirely different from UN-GO, a similar project from a few years ago.

Characters

Kobayashi, our 13-year-old protagonist. Despite appearances, totally a boy. He wakes up one day in his classroom with a saw in his hand, and the mutilated corpse of his teacher at the other end of the room. Normal people would see this as the start of a very bad day ; Kobayashi is actually thrilled to the gills at something interesting finally happening to him.

Hashiba, the class rep and student council president, does his best to defend his friend in front of the police… and gets progressively more and more weirded out by the way Kobayashi is lighting up instead of showing any hint of panic. The really obvious solution would be for him to be the culprit, but I hope there’s more to the mystery than that. And it’d be kind of a waste to lose the one normal dude in the series whom everyone can explain the plot to.

Akechi, a 17-year old detective on the case. Notionally he’s in high school, but he’s got a special license to avoid going there in exchange of helping the cops out on weird cases like that. He’s exactly the kind of excentric genius you’d expect to find in this type of story. Kobayashi makes a beeline to become his apprentice (and is certainly clever enough to track his home address down). Akechi’s answer is that if the kid solves the case, it doesn’t matter whether he accepts ; Kobayashi will get dragged down into this world anyway. Of course, it wouldn’t be fun if Akechi didn’t stack the deck against him, such as calling the cops on him.

Kobayashi is totally game for this.

Production Values

The show makes the weird decision to keep all the characters in silhouette until Kobayashi bothers to truly pay attention to them. (You’d expect the cat-eared new teacher to warrant his attention sooner than she did, but apparently not.) Together with several other staging decisions, it contributes to make the proceedings eerily artificial… and hey, it’s not like classical mysteries aren’t artificial constructs anyway.

I think it’s great at setting the mood ; the jazzy music also helps.

Overall Impression

You had me at “mystery”, but this has turned out to be actually quite good. Very well paced, an intriguing and fun protagonist with incredible cheerfulness and communicative enthusiasm… Clearly the staff had a blast creating this. It oozes fun and love for the genre from all pores.

This has the potential to be very good, and in any case it’ll certainly be fun. I’m all in.

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

Sound! Euphonium (Hibike! Euphonium)

(12ish episodes)

What’s it about ?

No, this isn’t KyoAni revisiting their past glory of K-On!. After all, instead of a slapstick 4-panel manga, it adapts a novel featuring what looks like a “save our club” dramatic storyline.

Characters

Kumiko, our heroine, used to play the euphonium (a sort of smaller tuba) in her middle-school’s brass band club, but she’s more ambivalent about it right now. For one, she’s clearly trying a bit too hard to reinvent herself for her high-school debut. For two, this school’s band club sucks. And for three, she kinda wants to avoid the likes of…

Reina (trumpet), one of the most serious members of her middle school’s brass band club, and the one most broken up by the club narrowly failing to qualify for the national gold prize. Things got a bit awkward between her and Kumiko after the latter blurted out the wrong thing while trying to console the former. Anyway, for some reason she’s in this mediocre high school too (despite Kumiko thinking she could have aimed for better), and she joined the band club in a heartbeat.

That Shuuichi (trombone), Kumiko’s childhood friend with whom she just had a nasty break-up (despite him trying to play it like nothing happened), also joined the club doesn’t help. She really doesn’t want to revisit that drama.

What changes her mind are her new friends : Sapphire Midori (contrabass), who hates her embarrassing name, and Hazuki (an enthusiastic newbie who’s apparently going to take up playing the tuba). Both of them manage to remind her enough of her initial enthusiasm at playing an instrument to convince her to give the band club a try.

There’s a dude wandering awkwardly while listening to music in a few scenes that have no connection with anything else (aside from him having the same taste in music as Kumiko) ; I presume he’s going to be the club’s new advisor or something.

Production Values

It’s KyoAni ; of course it looks gorgeous, with impressive attention to detail. No shortcuts while showing people playing music here. And hey, brass band music is awesome.

Overall Impression

Well, it’s the tried and true “Save Our Club” formula, mixed with a strong narrative focus on Kumiko herself. There’s nothing wrong with that, and she does come off as having some hidden depths, but it’s not exactly earth-shaking either. It’s perfectly okay and watchable, but that’s it.

On the other hand, I like this kind of music, and it’s not like there’s anything else to watch on Tuesdays, so I’m probably going to stick with it.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2015 – Page 3.

The Heroic Legend of Arslan (Arslan Senki)

What’s it about ?

Adaptation of a series of fantasy novels by the author of Legend of the Galactic Heroes. They already got adapted into a couple of anime movies and a short OVA series in the early 90s ; this revival is inspired by the recent new manga adaptation illustrated by no less than Hiromu Arakawa (of Fullmetal Alchemist & Silver Spoon fame).

Characters

Arslan, our title character, enters the series as the 11-year-old Crown Prince of the kingdom of Pars. As such, he’s lived a very sheltered life. He’s a bit of a wimp, but comes of as a kind person who actively wants to get out of the warm cocoon sewn by the many people trying to protect him so that he can learn new perspectives. that’s quite admirable, and the people seem to love him all the more for it.

King Andragoras, his father, is beloved for a completely different reason : he seems to always be off to another battle to protect the kingdom and its allies, and he manages to win some impressive victories with very few casualties on his side. Thanks to him, Pars is very prosperous, and its capital quite safe.

Queen Tahamine, despite living in the palace full-time, seems to have even less time than her husband for Arslan. Mind you, she’s also very cold towards Andragoras himself ; something tells me he’s been sleeping on the (jewelry-incrusted) couch for a while.

What clearly becomes apparent is that Pars’s prosperity wasn’t built merely on its king’s pure awesomeness ; it’s also because they enslave whoever they beat on the battlefield. Arslan doesn’t see much of a problem with this : submitting to slavery still gets you a better meal everyday than in whatever hellhole country the slaves came from. But his viewpoint his challenged by the attitude of the latest captives, Lusitanians, whose faith in a staunch anti-slavery religion brings them in direct opposition to the Pars system. They’d rather die than submit.

Half the episode is spent on a massive chase scene, as an unnamed Lusitanian kid escapes captivity by taking Arslan hostage. Who doesn’t actually mind that much, and saves his captor a couple of times (and even goes out of his way to allow him to escape). Again, it’s all an opportunity to learn different viewpoints, however dangerous that may be.

The episode closes on Arslan musing that he still has a lot of time to learn and grow into the role of the future king, what with his father probably keeping on being an awesome king for a few more decades… Hahahaha, no way. Cut to a mere few years later…

Production Values

This is an epic production, and it almost looks like so. Certainly it’s got a good attention to detail in the world-building. It’s just a shame that the CG armies look so lifeless and awkward…

It does have the cool LoGH gimmick of putting up an introductory caption whenever a major character first shows up in a given episode, which is well-appreciated given the size of the cast and the number of so far interchangeable captains in the Pars army.

Overall Impression

This episode had one job : selling me on Arslan as a protagonist I want to follow, as epic stuff happens around him (and it takes him some time to really shape up enough to actively participate). That’s a success : he’s just such a nice guy that you can’t help cheer for him. He’s not perfect, and he’s certainly got his cultural blinders on, but he’s willing to improve, and that makes up for a lot.

This is far from my favourite genre, but I’m willing to give it a go. Let’s see what it’s got in store.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Spring 2015 – Page 2.

Fall 2014 capsules

Hmm. For some reason Karen Senki wasn’t even on my checklist. I can’t even find any hint it’s actually airing in Japan. But hey, it’s at the very least a Japanese co-production by the creators of Sakura Wars, and Crunchyroll is streaming it, so close enough for a token mention in this thread.

This is quite an odd series. For one, it’s 12 half-length episodes. For two, it’s full-CG. And for three, I can’t tell whether the plot being so disjointed and making no sense whatsoever is intentional.

It follows the adventures of Karen, who wages an essentially single-woman war against robots, who have taken over society and killed her cute young sister. (Or so she claims ; the flashbacks show nothing of the sort.) But the robots’ rule doesn’t seem that drastic, as everyone else seems to be carrying on normally, aside from whenever they have to deal with the collateral damage of Karen’s battles. Her being randomly attacked by killer-bots seems to be the exception, not the rule. One of her associates seems perfectly fine having a robot lover. And frankly, Karen just doesn’t sound entirely sane.

Or this may just be because the series as a whole is an excuse to string along elaborate action sequences. Now, they’re quite well-directed ; the problem isn’t so much that they’re hard to follow, but that they don’t fit with their context. But the real issue here is that the actual character animation is goddarn awful. People don’t move that way ! They can emote decently, but just about anything else about them is awkward. This is massively distracting, and doesn’t help the series’ case.

I’m giving it the benefit of the doubt, and a second episode. But I dread it’s going to test my patience quickly.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014.

 

Anyway, let’s say a few words on I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying (Danna ga Nani wo Itteiru ka Wakaranai Ken). It’s a series of shorts adapting a 4-panel gag manga series. Basically, it’s about a wife being flummoxed by her husband’s ultra-otaku ways. It’s mildly funny, but most of these jokes have already been done to death, and you often wonder why those two even got married in the first place. (That’s actually addressed immediately, but her reasoning is more than a little evasive.) This is a perfectly inoffensive show, but I doubt it’ll hold my attention for long unless it gets significantly better soon.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014 – Page 2.

 

As it turns out, I just can’t make a proper review of Fate/stay Night – Unlimited Blade Works. Too much of my viewing experience was influenced by my foreknowledge from the DEEN series & movie, as well as Fate/Zero. It’s not like I can remember exactly who’s a Master (and of which Servant), especially as we’re in a different route and things might change around a bit, but I still know more than a few incoming twists that make it impossible to offer a “virgin” preview. (And I do have doubts on whether the series is aimed at anyone but people who’ve already seen either or both of these previous shows.)

Still, this is a good start. Way less infodumpy than Fate/Zero, and with some actual impressive battles right off the bat in this opening double-length episode. It helps a lot that it features Rin as a protagonist ; as someone who actually has a clue what’s going on, but not the details of who she’s fighting, she offers a more interesting and proactive perspective than Shirou did the first time around.

So far, so good. I was wondering whether I had lost interest in the franchise, but this looks fun enough to be worth watching.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014 – Page 2.

 

Mysterious Joker (Kaitou Joker) might be at least partially to blame for my sleepiness. It’s a kids’ show about a quirky Gentleman Thief… and if you’re wondering what’s the difference with Magic Kaitou, it’s the targeted age group : this show aims much lower. All the characters are highly annoying and SHOUTING all the time, the jokes fall flat, and I literally couldn’t follow the plot because I was falling asleep every couple of minutes. Something about the protagonist recruiting a “ninja” fanboy kid ? I don’t care at all, and it really doesn’t help that another show with similar themes which is superior in every way is airing concurrently. Pass.

Also falling flat : The Circumstances in My Home’s Bathtub (Orenchi no Furo Jijo). Now, this type of series of shorts based on 4-panel gag manga often have the problem of only delivering the same joke over and over, never really amounting to anything. Here, the issue is that I can’t even see the joke. Dude brings a merman to his bathtub by mistake, and that’s pretty much it. They don’t even have much banter. I just don’t get it.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014 – Page 4.

 

Sometimes I’m baffled by weird gimmicky series of shorts. Such as Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls, where anthropomorphic personalizations of Sega’s consoles enter a bizarre dedicated school ; it’s mostly an excuse to string along “nostalgic” allusions that most often fly completely other my head (as I was more of a Nintendo fan). It’s a better use of full CG animation than we usually get for these, but it’s still a niche gag series where I’m not part of the audience.

Oh, and since I’m pressed for time, I’m going to quickly skip over Gundam Build Fighters TRY : long story short, it’s very promising, doesn’t require any knowledge of the first season thanks to a time jump and a different cast (although Mr Ral still makes a cameo), and I’m pleased to see it has the girl as a true fighter and the leader of the team.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014 – Page 5.

 

No full review for Ronja the the Robber’s Daughter, as as I fell asleep watching the first episode and don’t care to give it another try. This Ghibli adaptation of a Swedish fantasy book is just very, very dull, and the uninspiring full-CG animation doesn’t help. (Those characters emote way too exaggeratedly for my tastes.) Don’t care, won’t watch any more.

Bonjour Sweet Love Pâtisserie has a completely different problem : it’s a generic shoujo “male harem” romance show that barely gets to breathe in the 5 minutes or so of screentime per week it gets. As a result, all the characters are walking clichés, and the “glamourous baking academy” setup feels completely artificial. Not really worth your time, this one.

via [In Which I Review] New anime, Fall 2014 – Page 6.

The Eccentric Family (Uchouten Kazoku)

(13 episodes)

What’s it about ?

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

(Adapted from a novel.)

Characters

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

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

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

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

Production Values

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

Overall Impression

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

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

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

RDG: Red Data Girl

(12 episodes)

What’s it about ?

Supernatural romance ? Even with three episodes released, it’s a bit hard to tell where this is going.

Characters

Izumiko, our female lead in her last year of middle school. She’s a shy introvert who can barely do anything without relying on others. She’s also terrible with electronics, somehow always breaking them. She lives in a remote shrine deep in the forest. The twist is that she’s the host of the local goddess, and thus all kind of nasties are out to get her. Fortunately she’s got many bodyguard “monks” looking out for her.

Miyuki, our male lead, really doesn’t want to be there, but Daddy has forced him to take up the family business and become her new bodyguard. It’s disgust at first sight, and we all know where this is leading.

Izumiko’s parents are conspicuously away. (She’s hosted by her relatives.) Dad is on another continent, and Mom’s yet to be seen.

The OP sequence lists tons of other male characters in a manner suspiciously reminiscent of dating sim adaptations. Hmm…

Production Values

Quite good. It’s a notable improvement over studio PA Works’s last supernatural project, Another ; here the creepy atmosphere actually works.

Overall Impression

I’m not quite sure about this one. There’s nothing particularly wrong about it, and there’s several little sequences that are well done (Izumiko’s drowning in anxiety in front of a computer, or Miyuki “changing his mind” about staying at the shrine). But I can’t quite shake the impression that Izumiko is a very annoying protagonist ; I’m not fond of those wet blankets that have to be saved by awesome but antagonistic dudes.

I’m still watching it, but I don’t expect wonders out of it.

via [In which I review] New anime, Spring 2013.