Two episode impression

When the words ‘cat’ and ‘anime’ usually cross paths, the result is more often than not a cat girl of some sort. I’m the odd man out when I say they’ve always weirded me out, even before furry awareness hit our stream of consciousness. Ugh… Creepy… Disgusting… Cat girls. At any rate, anime do feature cats in some way or another with regularity, but very few have actually put them in a starring role. There’s Chi’s Sweet Home and Nyan Koi… And that’s it. Before I get distracted even more, let’s move on to the Nyan Koi impressions.

The premise of Nyan Koi is that a guy named Junpei that is allergic to cats. He breaks a statue of a local Cat God and subsequently falls under a curse that will turn him into a cat, and he must now grant the wishes of 100 cats to undo the curse. Do I smell an episodic series as Junpei gets into all sorts of hijinks and meets new friends, with early rumblings of a love triangle, while helping all those cats? I think I do! Not like that’s bad or anything. It’s a pretty safe (if transparent) set up, and it works well enough.

The characters are pretty interesting, human and feline alike. The humans and cats share the spotlight equally, and neither dominate all the screen time. Junpei is a sufficient stock male lead, and the supporting cast around him do their jobs. The runaway favorite character will no doubt be the bubbly airhead and main love interest, Kaede. She’s far too moe for her own good.

All in all, Nyan Koi looks to be an average to above-average show. Nothing about it is bad, but on that same note nothing about it is great either. Yeah, it’s predictable. Yeah, you can name the tropes as they come along. It’s pretty good regardless because it’s done well, with some really funny comedy acting as the initial draw. I guess I’ll go ahead and recommend this to everyone that likes romcoms with cats thrown into the equation. You don’t have to love cats to enjoy this, but it sure wouldn’t hurt.

Two episode impression

I’ve been craving a good reference-laden comedy for a while. Hayate S2 and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei are still fresh in my memory, but neither really satisfied the craving. Hayate S2 had small flashes of reference-comedy but was otherwise a shadow of the first season with regards to referential humor. Zetsubou Sensei has been slipping since the second season and just doesn’t have the same impact it used to. Seitokai no Ichizon (The Student Council’s Judgment) bills itself as a reference-comedy series, but is it a contender or a pretender?

Reference jokes are certainly plentiful with jabs and parodies of popular shows like Haruhi, Higurashi, Lucky Star, Dragon Ball, Death Note and general eroge, but the jokes lack an intangible thing called punch. I’m not talking about punch lines here, but the jokes haven’t had much impact. They’ve been akin to flat soda — While it’s still soda, it’s flatter than a loli. Putting shameful loli jokes aside, Seitokai was really flat.

I’m willing to forgive comedic shortcomings if the slice-of-life can carry the slack, ala Hidamari Sketch, but none of the characters have much impact or presence. I could attribute this to the fact that the voices of all four female leads are rookies in their first roles. Actually that is a pretty big factor. I won’t fault the seiyuu for being rookies, but you can tell the main girls are rookies. The only girl I can remember is Mafuyu, and that’s only because she’s the token moe character with an oversized ribbon on her head. The rest of the characters don’t strike me as particularly interesting or memorable save for Sugisaki, if only because he’s the otaku character the (otaku) audience is supposed to love.

To be fair, a reference show by the name of Lucky Star also got off to a slow start. As almost everyone will attest, the first four episodes were sub-par before getting awesome. However, LS had the luxury of 24 episodes and could afford a slow start. On top of that all the characters were interesting (yes, even Miyuki too). As a 13 episode show, Seitokai doesn’t have the luxury of time and needed a strong start. It might get better if the jokes get punchier and as the inexperienced seiyuu adjust to their roles. Or it might not. Either way, it’s not like Seitokai is a bad show as is — It’s just not that funny. Seitokai, I am disappoint.

Two episode impression

I’ve never liked anything CLAMP, and it doesn’t look like Kobato is going to change that opinion.

So basically it’s about a naively annoying girl that has to heal the wounded hearts of others, so that her wish to go to an as-yet-unspecified place can be granted. You know what that means! Formulaic episodic setup where she helps a different person in each episode, ultimately leading up to healing the heart of the CLAMP “bad boy” with a dark past! Along the way she’ll learn things about the world, meet new people and change their lives. Yeah… That sounds about right. It would be more enjoyable if the titular Kobato wasn’t so annoying though.

I gave Kobato a chance, I really did. It’s not a bad show by any stretch, but it’s just not for me. It’s got above average production values all-around, and the voice acting is pretty good with an all-star supporting cast… Though most of the supporting cast have yet to make their appearance. The characters are all right and do what they’re supposed to do, but this all comes back to Kobato, and I frankly can’t stand the way she’s written. Kobato’s not as annoying as Fruits Baskets’ Tohru Honda (who is on a tier of her own), but she comes pretty damn close. Some people like those kinds of characters. I don’t, and seeing that Kobato is the focal point of this show and my apparent disdain for her, this is a resounding drop for me.

Don’t let my disdain for Kobato and all things CLAMP turn you away though. For some reason I’ve always been biased against their works, so my opinion of Kobato isn’t very fair. If it interests you, and if you liked prior CLAMP titles, it wouldn’t hurt to check this out. It’ll probably be an average-ish show in the long run.

Two episode impression

School-life romance shoujo aren’t my thing. I don’t know what compelled me to pick up Kimi ni Todoke, seeing as it falls precisely into that genre, but I’m glad I did because this is a bloody brilliant show. Wow, just wow.

Kimi ni Todoke is a genuinely heartwarming show with a *gasp* likable female lead. The thing that usually turns me off about shoujo is that female leads tend to be overly annoying and fickle, which makes them unlikable to me. I suppose they’re made that way because so real girls can more easily identify with them, but I’m not a girl. That possibility should never be completely ruled out though. I may fall into a cursed spring or become a Kampfer some day, which would actually be really cool. My subconscious desire to become a woman nonwithstanding, Sawako is the first shoujo female lead I’ve liked since… Ever. Well I did like Haruhi from Ouran, but she was always more male than female in my mind, but I’m going off on another tangent now.

KnT is brilliantly written and transitions effortlessly between being genuinely heartwarming to raucously funny without feeling forced. Like I said earlier, Sawako is a very likable and genuine character, and is excellently characterized by the writing and Mamiko Noto. Sure Noto is in typecast hell, but she does excel in these roles. Sawako’s many expressions (usually of gloom and despair) will elicit laughs but also make you feel bad for her plights at the same time. The rest of the cast thus far is pretty memorable as well, and I even like the male lead and main love interest, Kazehaya just as much as I like Sawako. Imagine me, liking characters in a shoujo romance. Huh.

Sawako is adorable… Just not in this picture.

Overall this is a quality show in every respect. Stellar animation from Production I.G., great writing, great characters (especially Sawako), good music, and a very nice mix of romance and comedy. This is my tentative pick for best show of fall next to Darker than Black 2, which I will assume is the number one pick of the huddled otaku masses.

Two episode impression

Umm, I wanted to write something about Seiken no Blacksmith (The Sacred Blacksmith), but Cecily’s boob armor distracted me and made me lose my train of thought. Boob armor. Boob armor. Boob armor…

SnB is actually a pretty decent fantasy show and has impressed me with sharp visuals, crisp action and a memorable cast of core characters. From what I’ve seen so far, the two leads are somewhat stock with Cecily, the heroine that blindly charges into danger to protect others while Luke plays the aloof, levelheaded, infinitely more talented foil. He also uses a katana, and this being an anime, that automatically makes him better than her in every way. They actually provide an explanation why katanas are better, but it still does little to cover up the rampant katana fanboyism (lol katana trolls). Hm, did I mention his Limited Blade Works where he can summon a kickass katana on the spot? He’s got that too. Moving on, my favorite character so far has to be Luke’s assistant and live-in loli, Lisa (voiced by none other than Aki Toyosaki), who is appropriately nicknamed Mugi Elf. The cute little thing even has the ED all to herself, just so she can be moe. Ugh. So moe I’m gonna die five times in a row. brb dying.

Mugi Elf! Boob armor! Nosebleeds!

Fantasy shows in pure fantasy settings are something anime seldom gets right. Fantasy anime usually end up being trite and riddled with cliches, so it’s nice when good fantasy shows crop up every so often. I can’t really say what it is about SnB that makes it different — It just feels like a more quality offering based on my first impression. Boob armor and Mugi Elf helped too. Seriously though, SnB looks to be a solid fantasy show. It’s hardly a must-watch, but you should have a lot of fun if you do pick it up.

Two episode impression

Oh Japan, you’re so silly with your various fascinations and strange fetishes, though the blatant obsession with all things German still mystifies me. I’m convinced everyone in Japan is a closet Germanophile at heart. In their defense, Germany is a pretty cool country though. Any country that can give us apple strudel and the most dangerous racetrack known to man gets a thumbs up in my book. This brings us to Kampfer, one of the latest anime to throw around German words like no one’s business without having anything else remotely German in it.

The premise is something like… Boy named Natsuru likes girl, girl is uninterested in boy, boy becomes Kampfer and turns into hot girl, girl likes genderbended boy, and boy now has to fight other Kampfers for reasons yet unexplained. Oh yeah, there are also talking, disemboweled stuffed animals. Any questions? In a nutshell Kampfer is pretty much this generation’s version of Ranma 1/2 except with heavy emphasis on shoujo-ai, girl-on-girl action (the non-sexual kind… maybe the sexual kind later), and plenty of fanservice. My sexuality hasn’t been this confused since I first saw Bridget… And I couldn’t be happier. Wut?

As a whole, Kampfer is wholly unremarkable. The voice acting and comedy are good, including some shamelessly self-aware seiyuu jokes concerning Yui Horie and Yukari Tamura, while everything else borders on average. The action sequences so far didn’t blow me out of my seat or anything, but they were satisfactory. I’m guessing this is going to be more of an action show than a comedy in the long run, so that’s just something to keep in mind. Kampfer falls somewhere into the average range but is enjoyable enough and short at 12 episodes. If genderbending and watching girls beat the crap out of each other turns you on, you may want to give this a go. I’m a sucker for both, so Kampfer gets to stay on my watchlist until it finishes or no longer amuses me, whichever comes first.

Two Episode Impression

So… Toaru Kagaku no Railgun is a spin-off of Toaru Majutsu no Index focusing on the less interesting members of the cast er… The scientific side of Academy City. As much as I loved Biribiri-chan in Index, an entire spin-off revolving around her and the super annoying Kuroko is suspect. Index itself was a snooze fest at times, which doesn’t bode well for the spin-off. I want to like it. There’s plenty of silliness, shoujo-ai elements and Large Hadron Collider Tsundere Rail Gun action, but the show’s been fairly blah in the first two episodes. Newcomers Saten and Uihara don’t help matters much as they don’t have much personality so far either.

Touma and the eponymous Index are what made the first show interesting. They were interesting on their own, but they had a special chemistry when they were together. Mikoto and Kuroko… Not so much. Though it seems Touma will be featured every now and then, his involvement will probably be minimal to give more screen time to the all-girl cast and the many moe-moe/fanservice moments.

The budget has been decent enough, about on par with Index in every area. Animation’s smooth, the music fits, and voices are spot on with Rina Satou and Satomi Arai reprising their respective roles as Mikoto and Kuroko. Kanae Itou and Aki Toyosaki (who is quickly becoming one of my fav female seiyuu) admirably play second fiddle as Saten and Uihara. The action sequwences as expected are spot-on and don’t disappoint. Watching Mikoto wreak havoc by shooting a coin out of her hand never gets old. The comedy elements have been abundant, though it does fall heavily into the fanservice side of things. Maybe that’s just me getting tired of boob groping and panty jokes. Now there’s something I never thought I’d say…

I know I’m being unduly harsh on Railgun. I’m not really disappointed in it per se, but it hasn’t really entertained me as much as I thought it would, but I probably will end up liking the series more as it goes on. Maybe the brunt of my disdain stems from Kuroko, whose voice makes dogs howl in pain. Her voice literally makes my soul weep. I’ve built up a tolerance to Japanese voices that ordinary people would find annoying over the years, but even I will wave the white flag once in a while. In the interest of fairness, it’s still a must watch for Index fans, especially those that lust after ye olde tsundere railgun and can stand Kuroko’s voice for more than five minutes.

Summer, the worst season of the year, is officially underway. The enormous ball of gas known as the sun is shining down on us in all its glory, melting the skin off of those brave enough to endure its scorching heat and harsh ultraviolet rays. The cicadas are doing their cicada thing outside and generally being annoying. All signs point to summer. You could hit up the pool if you’re crazy, but it’s much smarter to stay comfortable indoors and watch the new season of anime. Going outdoors is overrated anyway.

This season I’ll cover first impressions for Bakemonogatari, CANAAN, Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!, Princess Lover, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, and Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. In addition, this impressions post will follow… A different format than usual to mix things up a bit.

Bakemonogatari (2 episode impression)

This is the show that intrigued me the most heading into the summer season, and so far it has not disappointed. Based on the first two episodes, the title (Ghostory in English) seems to be a bit of a misnomer as its focus is more on general supernatural phenomena rather than what we traditionally define as “ghosts”. That’s just nitpicking though, and it’s only an impression based on the first two episodes.

The animation is downright gorgeous and sucks you into the supernatural world surrounding the protagonist, Koyomi Araragi. The animation nails the supernatural setting down perfect. The only thing that hampers Bakemonogatari is that the animators still feel they need to give it the “SHAFT experience” chock full of crazy camera angles and frequent shifts to screens full of text to remind the viewer that this is a SHAFT anime. You know, because we wouldn’t remember otherwise. SHAFT art direction is a heavily acquired taste, and it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth when they have to artsy up their dramas like this. Despite that setback, Bakemonogatari was a mostly positive experience.

Base Score: 5
+1 for unique OP
+2 for interesting premise and story
+1 for gorgeous animation
-1 for pretentious SHAFT art direction

Score: 8

Recommendation: A very unique ghost story of sorts that vaguely reminds me of Natsume Yuujinchou with much darker overtones. Bakemonogatari is a serious contender for best show of the season. If you haven’t already seen it, I implore you to at least try the first episode.

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CANAAN (2 episode impression)

Canaan sort of slid under my radar until Meu mentioned “Type-Moon” to me. Being more than a casual fan and less than a hardcore fan of all things T-M, I had to hop onto to Canaan train to see what it was about at the very least. I was a bit skeptical about this because T-M has a shaky track record with the mediocre Tsukihime and F/SN adaptations, though on the flip side the Kara no Kyoukai movies were brilliant.

Canaan as a whole hasn’t blow me away or anything, but it’s been an above average experience so far. The animation is smooth, the characters are defined, the action plentiful, and the music while not outstanding fits the setting. The story in the first episode was… how should I say… Schizophrenic. It was all over the place without really explaining anything, and then frentic gunfights were tossed at us without time to catch our breath and piece the story together. The second episode remedied this dilemma somewhat with some insight into the backstory, but it’s still a lot of information overload for this early in the show.

Maybe I missed the point though, and the show intends to toss all the information at the beginning to gradually piece together as the show chugs along each week. Another point is that Canaan is only 13 episodes, which isn’t exactly a lot of time to worth with, and my complaints about the story are probably overblown. It was fun to watch at the least, which is about all you can ask for from a summer show.

Base Score: 5
+1 for Type-Moon influence
+2 for assassin girls
-1 for information overload in first episode

Score: 7

Recommendation: Recommended for adrenaline junkies and fans of all things Type-Moon. It remains to be seen if the titular character will be anything more than a silver-haired Shiki Ryogi, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing since I do like Shiki. Canaan’s big saving grace is the fact that it has the T-M logo backing it, otherwise it would be just another girls with guns show.

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Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! (2 episode impression)

Going into this I knew Juuden-chan would be heavily fanservice oriented since it’s from the mind of Bow Ditama, the manga-ka behind KissxSis and Mahoromatic. I’ll admit being partial to his cute girl art style too. Ditama has a penchance for ecchi but his stories also have some depth to them too, and Juuden-chan is no different. Upon getting past the initial thick layer of fanservice, this show actually delves into issues of depression as the main character, Plug, struggles to help people overcome the problems in their lives — By plugging a giant socket into their bodies to “recharge” them.

The stark contrasts in seriousness make the show kind of weird. As an example, Plug will learn about about the problem that’s afflicting someone in one scene, then in the next scenes there are gratuitous camel toe shots, Plug will be hit with a baseball bat and wet herself, an ecchi stock footage magical girl transformation, and then Plug will finally help her client overcome their depression — By plugging them with a giant socket.

All things considered, nothing about the show’s individual parts is really worth talking about. Animation is borderline average. Music is forgettable. You know what I’m getting at. Juuden-chan fits the definition of bad, but it’s something of a guilty pleasure.

Base Score: 5
+1 for Ditama’s cute girls
+1 for decent fanservice
-3 for weird peeing fetish

Score: 4

Recommendation: Not recommended unless you’re on the same wavelength as me. If you liked any of Ditama’s previous works, namely KissxSis and Mahoromatic, you’ll probably like Juuden-chan despite how mediocre it is. You’re better off watching something else otherwise.

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Princess Lover (1 episode impression)

What can I say about a show called Princess Lover? It’s an eroge adaptation about loving princesses, right? The title is unoriginal, but I’ll give it credit for not beating the meat around the bush and getting straight to the point. Let’s be frank. If you’ve seen one eroge adaptation, you’ve seen them all, and Princess Lover is probably no exception. To its credit, Princess Lover does seem to have a dark subplot involving the protagonist, Teppei, trying to avenge the untimely death of his parents. All that is thrown out the window since it’s hard to take any show that reeks this much of harem seriously unless a nice boat is thrown into the mix. The generic protagonist first meets the equally generic heroine when he… Ahem… Rescues her from her horse drawn carriage that’s being chased by hoodlums with guns. Ugh…

The girls are pretty generic from the cast introduced so far. Spunky ojou-sama, check. Maid, check. Sword girl that looks suspiciously like Saber, check. Nothing about the show as a whole stands out. The animation wasn’t bad, but nothing else was remotely noteworthy. Hell, it’s even selectively censored too. The bouncing boobs are free, but you have to buy the DVDs for panty shots. Add everything up and it looks like your run of the mill ero adaptation… That is until Norio Wakamoto speaks his first line. At that point all of Princess Lover’s shortcomings are instantly forgiven. Wakamoto, much like yuri, makes everything better.

Base Score: 5
-2 for cliche and generic harem cast
-1 for censoring shots of a panticular nature
+1 for ass kicking butler
+9000 for Wakamoto

Inflated Score: > 9000

Real Score: 4

Recommendation: Fully mediocre ero anime adaptation, but Wakamoto saves the show. The man’s voice has a quality that always brings a smile to my face. I don’t recommend Princess Lover except for the Wakamoto factor.

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni (2 episode impression)

The much anticipated Umineko didn’t disappoint and is every bit the successor to its predecessor, Higurashi. The show initially draws you in nice and slowly with the false pretense of a relaxed setting, the calm before the storm. Then as was customary with Higurashi, bad stuff happens and everyone goes batshit crazy. Sucks to be in this world.

Umineko as a whole impressed me with its gripping murder mystery plot revolving around the mysterious witch, Beatrice, and above average animation… Though like its predecessor, Umineko creeps me the hell out, and the gore is a major turn off. I’ll try to stomach the gore and stick with it this time. There’s a 50/50 chance I’ll continue to watch it past the first arc.

Base Score: 5
+3 for intriguing murder mystery story
+1 for crazy Higurashi eyes
-1 for gore
-1 for “Uu Uu Uuuuu!”

Score: 7

Recommendation: Murder, mystery, boob jokes and annoying catchphrases! Just what you always wanted, because gruesome murders and annoying catchphrases go together like peanut butter and mustard. Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

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Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (1 episode impression)

The third season of Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei has left me in despair! Itoshiki and his class of deranged students are back to deliver more despair to us. ZSZS doesn’t skip a beat and is more or less the same as the first two seasons. If you know what to expect, you’ll get it. As a formality the first episode reintroduced us to the cast and started with a simple plot to get us attuned with Itoshiki’s world of despair once again. If you liked Zetsubou Sensei before, you know what to expect. More crazy art, more crazy scenarios, more despair.

Base Score: 5
+1 for Itoshiki-sensei’s utter despair towards life
+1 for pretentious SHAFT art direction
+1 because I can

Score: 8

Recommendation: It’s already the third season, so you know the drill. This is for the existing fanbase that craves more of SZS’s crazy antics and rapid fire referential humor.

PS: You may find contradiction in the “Pretentious SHAFT art direction” points. That’s because SHAFT’s crazy arthouse stylings complement comedy much better than drama. The crazy SZS action-reaction scene changes are almost a punchline in themselves.

The grand finale of our spring impressions, because I don’t feel like covering anything else and have ran out of witty introductions. For this installment I feature impressions on the second season of Hayate no Gotoku, Natsu no Arashi and Pandora Hearts as well as a wrapup.

Hayate no Gotoku!!:
The renewal of HnG more or less has JC Staff pick up where SynergySP left off in the first season. Apparently adding an extra exclamation point constitutes a sequel. I think it just looks ridiculous!! So anyway, we kick off the brand new season with a vaguely familiar episode that involves most of the major and minor characters from the titular Hayate to the people that no one cares about like Nonohara and that one PE teacher guy. Yeah… Not a bad episode but not a great episode either. It did what it was supposed to though by reintroducing us to the fairly large cast of characters.

The new shift in the animation style is a tad jarring, but it’s nothing we won’t get used to in ten episodes or so. The new designs look notably softer compared to the first series and are closer to Kenjiro’s designs from the manga. Just as well, I think what little there is to the story will also be more faithful to the manga, because it looks like HnG!! will include characters and plot lines that the original anime omitted. The new OP, Wonder Wind by Elisa is also weird and just doesn’t have the same Hayate feel to it that all of Kotoko’s songs did. And the new ED… Hinagiku fanboy pandering much? Nevertheless, HnG!! looks to be more of the same for better or worse. The plot will continue to move at a snail’s pace and not go anywhere for episodes on end while referential jokes get shot out of a baseball pitching machine at 100 mph. So basically if you liked the first season, you’ll like the second season.

Hayata Ayasaki and friends return for another outing in Hayate no Gotoku!! Hinagiku fanboys rejoice.

Natsu no Arashi:
My first impression upon watching Natsu no Arashi was, “Damn this art sucks all sorts of raptor balls”. My second impression was, “This is actually kind of fun to watch”. I like the whole magic premise, and while the plot of the first episode was actually quite charming and well written, the atrociously ugly animation hurts it a great deal. Yeah, yeah it’s what’s on the inside that counts, but you can’t discount ugly animation when it makes the show difficult to watch. Such a pity too because Kobayashi’s original art was so nice to look at.

Due to the show’s setting, Natsu no Arashi would have been more at home airing in the summer instead of spring. It’s kind of a second tier, niche show that would have benefitted from airing in the season correspondent to its setting rather than try to compete with the typical spring powerhouses. I’ll probably sit through Natsu no Arashi because I liked the plot so far, and I want to see what kinds of nonsensical references SHAFT can throw at us such as the following.

Natsu no Arashi: Good premise hampered by bad animation.

Pandora Hearts:
It’s been a while since I’ve watched a first episode this painfully dull. This was duller than an aeronautics lecture and slower than waiting for grass to grow. I normally don’t mind slow shows but damn, Pandora Hearts took the whole freakin’ cake. One episode is not enough to make an adequate judgment about a show, so I’ll extend my trial before rendering my final decision… It’s just that the sour first impression doesn’t help the show’s cause. You’re supposed to gallop out of the starting gate, not fall flat on your face.

Everything about the show was just wholly unremarkable, especially the subpar animation. In all fairness it did get kind of interesting in the last minute or two with the appearance of this weird crazy girl, though chances are slim I’ll continue past the trial period, especially with BL undertones lurking in the dark.

Insomniac? Put the Ambien away and try Pandora Hearts today!

My ranking for shows I liked most to least based on impressions:
1. Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~
2. K-ON
3. Valkyria Chronicles
4. Sengoku Basara
5. Fullmetal Alchmest: Brotherhood
6. Natsu no Arashi
7. Shangri-La
8. Hayate no Gotoku!!
9. Dragonball Kai
10. Tears to Tiara
11. Pandora Hearts

My prediction for this season’s most popular shows:
(from most to least based on what I’ve covered)
1. K-ON
2. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
3. Valkyria Chronicles
4. Hayate no Gotoku!!
5. Sengoku Basara
6. Shangri-La
7. Dragonball Kai
8. Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~
9. Tears to Tiara
10. Natsu no Arashi
11. Pandora Hearts

It’s time to get naked and commence part 2 of WH’s spring impressions with a batch of action oriented shows. Huzzah! For this installment I cover first impressions on the Fullmetal Alchemist reboot, hotblooded Sengoku Basara, the less than subtle environmental Shangri-La, and visual novel-to-anime Tears to Tiara.

Fullmetal Alchemist – Brotherhood:
So apparently BONES, not content with having one FMA run, decided to reboot the entire series and make an adaptation that would more closely follow the manga. I had no problem with the direction the original anime took halfway through its run, which some loved and some hated. Having never touched the FMA manga, I can’t really say much besides the fact that I enjoyed the series anyway.

I presume this reboot will briskly cover the beginning of the story, as we were thrust straight into story in medias res with abridged introductions to fan favorites such as Armstrong, Hughes and Mustang as Edward and Al chase down a rogue alchemist trying to destroy the military’s central headquarters. We’ll presumably go back to the beginning in the next episode to cover what was admittedly a slow beginning to the original series and the narrative will go from there, this time following the manga more closely.

The animation was very crisp and clean as expected from BONES with some nice action sequences. Music as in the first series was mostly forgettable but did manage set the mood appropriately. The comedy was here in spades with Ed being the butt of the joke on every occasion, even going so far as to be insulted by the villain of the week. All in all, a very engaging first episode that left a favorable impression. BONES has managed to draw me back into the world of FMA. Though I still question why FMA needed a reboot, I won’t complain too much because it’ll be something fun to watch.

FMA returns for a slightly unnecessary but nevertheless fun second round.

Sengoku Basara:
Sengoku Basara in two words is “Hotblooded manliness”. Sengoku Basara in more words is a slightly camp game to anime adaptation with a story loosely based on Japan’s warring states era, mostly focusing on Sanada Yukimura and Date Masamune. I don’t know if the story is supposed to be serious or not. It tries to be serious when valid tactics are being discussed and then we see weird crap like soldiers doing a choreographed dance, Masamune yelling catchy Engrish phrases, and Yukimura lightheartedly exchanging wall shattering haymakers with his lord among other things.

Despite the abundant goofiness, it was quite fun to watch if only for the nonsensicalness of the fights. To say the fighting was simply over-the-top would be an understatement. The first duel between Masamune and Yukimura, I kid not, caused a small natural disaster around a five mile radius as the two turned into blue and red energy spirals and exchanged blows at DBZ speed… I must also mention the overly ornate costumes too. Near the beginning of the episode we were introduced to a series of people, each with a get-up more ridiculous than the last, eventually resulting in Norio Wakamoto (as Nobunaga) ordering us to worship him.

Animation was downright gorgeous, and the fights were very well done. I wasn’t planning to watch this, but somehow Sengoku Basara snuck its way onto my list with its campy yet hotblooded fights. Also, Norio ****ing Wakamoto as Nobunaga. Enough said. I’ll include a couple screenshots to show what I’ve been talking about.

Get wild! Let’s party! Put ya guns on! Sengoku Basara has enough testosterone for over 9,000 men! Yay exclamation points!

Shangri-La:
Not a very strong start for Shangri-La, as the first episode left me a bit bored and checking the clock every couple minutes. Apparently global warming has occurred, and the new hot commodity is the carbon trade or something. Not much could be gathered from the first episode, and most likely the story will get going as the show continues. It wouldn’t be fair to say the first episode was bad as it had a decent amount of exposition culminating into a fight with the (world?) military at the end.

The designs for the most part have been stylized away from the original Range Murata illustrations, and the animation was decent with a big focus on the picturesque scenery showcasing how global warming has affected the world. The water level has risen and most of the infrastructure of the “old world” has been overtaken with abundant amounts of vegetation. This is on the fence to keep watching. Everything about the show was fair enough, so I’ll give Shangri-La the benefit of the doubt and continue watching to see where the story goes when it finally gets going. I also really want to see Kuniko’s giant boomerang thing kick some ass. Finally, it seems the show’s three principal characters are lolis, so if that’s your thing then you know… Go for it. Gozo’s last loli show involving magical pantsu girls was a roaring success, and although Shangri-La is decidedly different in tone, let’s see if Shangri-La follows suit. A couple more screens have been included for good measure.

Environmentalism and lolis. A winning combination?

Tears to Tiara:
Decent enough for a first episode, but I was left lost with little exposition and no explanation for anything. The story was less a plot and more a sequence of events happening for some reason or another concerning the awakening of a devil king. Everything about the show from the fantasy setting (complete with unpronounceable names), plot and action was decent. Not great, not bad. Just decent.

This is based on a VN, and I sure hope the VN made more sense than this episode because this didn’t make much sense to me. The real draw of the show is the girls if I’m not mistaken, and judging from the opening sequence there are a lot of them. I’ll give Tears to Tiara a couple more episodes to change my mostly impartial impression.

Tears to Tiara left me more confused than a five year old at a strip club.