Welcome to Part II of our fall anime impressions. In this edition we cover Chaos;Head, ef – a tale of melodies, Hyakko and Kurozuka. So pull up your easy chair and let’s get down to business.

Chaos;Head:

If you can beat this boss in one try, I’ll give you some **** later!

Brocon alert!

It’s not as painful as it looks.

He got a Nice Boat ending. ^_^

Max megane moe power.

Can you spot the Blanc Neige figure?

A girl that likes figures? That’s unpossible!

After I kill you, I’m going to kill your family. ^_^

A delusional otaku named Takumi unwittingly get dragged into a string of gruesome murders known as ‘New Generation Madness’. When I say Takumi is delusional I mean he is bat shit crazy with paranoid delusions. The pilot episode was confusing but the mystery hooked me. Since this is also based on an H-game, Takumi is also surrounded by mysterious girls that are linked to the murders. The story is supposed to be dark but the harem aspects make it goofy too. As always from Madhouse, the animation is top notch.

If you’re looking for a dark, psychological mystery with cute girls then Chaos Head is for you.

ef – a tale of melodies:

The funky art stylings of ef are back.

Yuko: Just so you know, I’ll always hate you. kthxbye.

Art or distraction? You be the judge.

I’m feeling bubbly today.

Going somewhere?

More trippy visual effects.

Mizuki’s gonna getcha.

I’m not a lolicon. I just like girls that happen to be lolis.

This looks an awful lot like ‘Bouken Desho Desho’…

Kuze ponders which choices to make to trigger the flag for the Mizuki route.

The much anticipated ef – a tale of melodies is here. This time the story shifts to the unexplored characters from the first season, Himura, Kuze, Mizuki and Yuko. I have mixed feelings towards the ef franchise. The overall story isn’t bad but I don’t care for most of the characters. The show is also intensely focused on visuals and music. The animation is less animation and more like a portrait in motion. At times the intense visuals become too distracting since every scene is supposed to be art. Shaft’s visual centric style is more suited to comedy than serious drama. I’m watching this more out of obligation than anything else.

Lots of crazy visuals and melodrama. I only recommend this if you liked the first season.

Hyakko:

Ayumi is about as boring as female leads get.

Ayumi: How could he say I’m boring? That’s mean!

Jumping out of windows is all fun and games until…

Something like this happens.

The core group of girls.

Don’t blame me. Blame yourself or Ranka Lee. \m/

Four lost girls wander around the school campus looking for their class and become instant friends. This is shaping up to be one of those school comedies. You know, the kind that focuses on a core group of girls and the zany antics they do together. As far as this genre goes, this first episode was mediocre and bored me to tears. It’ll probably get better but my first impression isn’t too high. The animation quality also left a lot to be desired.

Really blah as far as its genre goes. Not recommended.

Kurozuka:

Swords’re cool.

Creepy immortal ladies are cool too.

You know I’m right.

Tripping on acid…

Some really bad acid.

Don’t be a drama queen. It’s just a flesh wound!

The story confused the hell out of me, so I’m not going to bother with a summary. I will say that it’s very spooky and dark, the visuals are crisp and action is bloody smashing. Now this is what last season’s Blade of the Immortal should have been. Kurozuka is cool but I’ll pass.

Stylish and confusing. Then again you don’t exactly watch this kind of show for the story.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 at 3:09 pm and is filed under Anime, Articles, First Impressions.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.