Anime Season {January 2013} Two Week Summary
January 15, 2013 by eharper256
And here’s my thoughts of what’s going on with the current anime season, compiled into a handy table once more: 
As I noted in the initial preview, there’s a lot of shows I wasn’t even going to attempt to bother watching with more than a cursory glance to see if I’d underestimated them. Fortunately, for the most part, I didn’t. From the frankly spastic tonal changes of Koutoura-san to the moe equivalent of cheap sausage-meat that is Love Live, I’m not going to even give these shows a space on the table. I somehow managed to get through GJ-Bu’s first episode though, so that’s on there, though I’m not going to follow it.
The only one truly underestimated was OsaShura; primarily because our main hero seems stronger spined than most, and Masuzu seems pretty awesome, though it’s setting many flags that I often recognise as death-flags for a show already, so I’m suspicious of it, but its got enough to keep my attention for now.
The surprisingly good dark horse was Mondaiji. I’m glad I didn’t instantly dismiss it; highly competent (even overpowered) leads who immediately come to an understanding with one another is a rare and beautiful sight. There’s hints of a bigger story being seeded too, and subtle touches, like the suggestion that our heroes are from different era’s/times.
Yama no Suzume kinda sabotages itself with its own shortness. Three minutes is really too short. But I suppose if you want a saccharine shot, go for it.
Tamako Market does indeed look like its generic KyoAni. Shame, as Hyouka was good; but all this really has going for it is the talking bird, which is relatively bemusing.
Season II of Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai continues without missing a beat, as if it was never off-air at all, which is commendable. It’s still got a good sense of the absurd; though I have to say the first episode wasn’t one of its funnier ones.
Hair Detective Inaba has absolutely no sense of comedic timing, sadly. It seems to think a joke minute == a laugh a minute, which is not really the case. It is impressively derp-worthy that you can fast-scan to any point in the episode and have a good chance of going “Wut?” though; and it doesn’t take itself seriously at least.
Be Mine Hero… well it’s solid adaptation; and the director was at least conscious when they made it; since some good choices were made in explaining the material with various shots, rather than keeping the hardcore exposition. But the character art has indeed ended up as suspicious as I originally feared; and Maou’s ‘useless meat’ was given centre stage, whereas it was a side note in the original. That’s not unexpected, I guess, but its still a little dissapointing.
Finally, Sasami-san. Shinbo’s still on form, though he’s actually restrained himself for this one, I think (perhaps I wasn’t paying attention, but no over shoulder head-tilts were spotted!). Its also completely different to what was advertised, which is pretty surprising. After all, I completely didn’t expect the entire world to turn to chocolate and the sister trio having to fight off a hydra made of fudge in the first episode. Sasami herself is a bit odd too. Clearly a wielder of the ‘Significant Brother Lover’ and yet tsundere about it. Go figure.
And a reminder: this summary is just my opinion so far. A +0 tends to mean “you’ve got one more episode to prove yourself”, whereas a +1 means I’m interested, and +2 means I’m already bemused. -1 or worse tends to mean dropped. They rarely show up if I’m doing my initial impressions correctly though, since I tend to have a decent sense of what is going to instantly be a bad idea, and what has some vague potential.
That’s about all for now. Hope you find this handy if you haven’t yet decided on a schedule for the new season.
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Anime Season {January 2013} Two Week Summary
January 15, 2013 by eharper256
And here’s my thoughts of what’s going on with the current anime season, compiled into a handy table once more:
As I noted in the initial preview, there’s a lot of shows I wasn’t even going to attempt to bother watching with more than a cursory glance to see if I’d underestimated them. Fortunately, for the most part, I didn’t. From the frankly spastic tonal changes of Koutoura-san to the moe equivalent of cheap sausage-meat that is Love Live, I’m not going to even give these shows a space on the table. I somehow managed to get through GJ-Bu’s first episode though, so that’s on there, though I’m not going to follow it.
The only one truly underestimated was OsaShura; primarily because our main hero seems stronger spined than most, and Masuzu seems pretty awesome, though it’s setting many flags that I often recognise as death-flags for a show already, so I’m suspicious of it, but its got enough to keep my attention for now.
The surprisingly good dark horse was Mondaiji. I’m glad I didn’t instantly dismiss it; highly competent (even overpowered) leads who immediately come to an understanding with one another is a rare and beautiful sight. There’s hints of a bigger story being seeded too, and subtle touches, like the suggestion that our heroes are from different era’s/times.
Yama no Suzume kinda sabotages itself with its own shortness. Three minutes is really too short. But I suppose if you want a saccharine shot, go for it.
Tamako Market does indeed look like its generic KyoAni. Shame, as Hyouka was good; but all this really has going for it is the talking bird, which is relatively bemusing.
Season II of Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai continues without missing a beat, as if it was never off-air at all, which is commendable. It’s still got a good sense of the absurd; though I have to say the first episode wasn’t one of its funnier ones.
Hair Detective Inaba has absolutely no sense of comedic timing, sadly. It seems to think a joke minute == a laugh a minute, which is not really the case. It is impressively derp-worthy that you can fast-scan to any point in the episode and have a good chance of going “Wut?” though; and it doesn’t take itself seriously at least.
Be Mine Hero… well it’s solid adaptation; and the director was at least conscious when they made it; since some good choices were made in explaining the material with various shots, rather than keeping the hardcore exposition. But the character art has indeed ended up as suspicious as I originally feared; and Maou’s ‘useless meat’ was given centre stage, whereas it was a side note in the original. That’s not unexpected, I guess, but its still a little dissapointing.
Finally, Sasami-san. Shinbo’s still on form, though he’s actually restrained himself for this one, I think (perhaps I wasn’t paying attention, but no over shoulder head-tilts were spotted!). Its also completely different to what was advertised, which is pretty surprising. After all, I completely didn’t expect the entire world to turn to chocolate and the sister trio having to fight off a hydra made of fudge in the first episode. Sasami herself is a bit odd too. Clearly a wielder of the ‘Significant Brother Lover’ and yet tsundere about it. Go figure.
And a reminder: this summary is just my opinion so far. A +0 tends to mean “you’ve got one more episode to prove yourself”, whereas a +1 means I’m interested, and +2 means I’m already bemused. -1 or worse tends to mean dropped. They rarely show up if I’m doing my initial impressions correctly though, since I tend to have a decent sense of what is going to instantly be a bad idea, and what has some vague potential.
That’s about all for now. Hope you find this handy if you haven’t yet decided on a schedule for the new season.
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Posted in Anime, First Impressions | Tagged Anime, Boku wa Tomadachi ga Sukunai, Commentary, Cuticle Tantei Inaba, Gj-Bu, Koutoura-san, Love Live (anime), Maoyuu Maou Yuusha, Meat, Mondai ji-tachi, Ore no Kanojo, Rant, Sasani-san at Ganbaranai, Senran Kaguya, Tamao Market, Thoughts, Yama no Suzume | Leave a Comment
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