Summer 2010 Mid Season Romp

Though I do intend to keep with the Haruhi trend I know most of you are probably dying to know some of my impressions of what’s premiering currently!

Sarcasm aside you probably had the same thoughts I did when looking at the poster of what was coming out after such a decent spring: All out rejection. However, every anime season generally yields a few surprises. In my EXTREMELY long history of watching anime as they come out (a little over a year and half) I have yet to not find something I enjoy. The following is simply a list of things I’m watching with comments: (No points awarded as I thought the things that I liked about the shows individually was beyond a simple numbering system. They all have certain aspects that don’t necessarily make them solid or fluid: They’re just interesting aspects).

K-ON!!

I’m not really going to say anything about this show, but I have continued to watch it. It didn’t premier this season, but since I was initially incredibly negative about the entire experience I thought I should mention that it’s not bad. It’s probably in the top 3 for things I’m watching this season and every once in a long while I’ll even laugh ampicillin online out loud. Would I now say it’s the most heartwarming anime ever created? Nope, I sure would not say that. The animation for K-ON!! is good and Kyoto certainly has made the anime better than the manga which is something I rarely get to say. Would I take another season of Pani Poni Dash , Lucky Star, School Rumble, or Seitokai no Ichizon above this? Absolutely! Would I take another season of Arakawa Under the Bridge…? That could go either way. Would I take this above Kiss X Sis, Munto, or He Is My Master? Definitely yes. All in all, I wish KyoAni was doing something else, but I’m glad KyoAni is still doing something AND it could be worse.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

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I’m glad that I’m not writing about this until after watching episode 6. It’s been one of those series that’s rollercoastered for me. I initially was extremely happy with Kuroko’s slobbering narrations, but after another couple of episodes it became pretty apparent that her narration alone wouldn’t be enough to make this show enjoyable. I was making pre-judgments about JC Staff having recently come off despising a few of the things they did to Railgun and was not in the mood to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In other words I thought we were going to get a formula (which we kind of did, but not like I expected) where kid comes to bank with problem, bank makes deal, Ookami and her bum of a stalker have Tsundere moments, Ringo sadistically helps the bum of a stalker, they solve the kids problem with a zany invention, and that’s a wrap. However, even though Ookami isn’t the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen it definitely has some aspects that JC Staff hasn’t really done before and despite myself I’m ending up enjoying it.

I think what’s important to note about this series that others have done unsuccessfully is the transition to the middle of the story. My main complaint with Arakawa Under the Bridge was their inability to really make that middle stage interesting after they introduced the zany characters. How did they get past that? They introduced more zany characters even in the last episode. I just wasn’t really all that interested in the development of the characters, though there were a couple of fun metaphors at the beginning of the show. Ookami on the other hand had a decent first episode with the “LAWL” Kuroko narration and then it didn’t stick around too long. They set up all the relationships they needed to and then focused in on the characters and relationships that matter. That’s right, they went straight for Ookami-san’s past and her relationship with Ringo, her developing relationship with Ryoushi, her mysteriously messed up relationship with the president of that other school, and the banks unconditional support for her. They use an overused formula well. What’s more I’m really impressed with the rate of reveal for the story. Every event ends up being just a little bit bigger and reveals just a little bit more about Ookami-san. Truthfully, this is by the book writing wise, but by the book doesn’t really explain how it’s accomplished. Writers sometimes hit those plot points but they hardly ever do it naturally, or well for that matter. I don’t know how many of you watch American T.V. but I’m going to pick on Burn Notice as a counter example. They start the episode saying what part of the big mystery they’re going to work on and then a client comes in with a small mystery to solve. They solve the small buy acomplia online mystery and then the end of the episode is a new reveal about the big mystery. The problem with Burn Notice is it feels formulaic while Ookami-san doesn’t: The flow of the story feels natural and if it wasn’t for me analyzing everything I probably wouldn’t even care to notice.

The story has also done a great job with some humorous moments and most recently in episode six with character development. It was a little stereotypical, but not stereotypical enough that I was thinking of other animes when I was watching it. Ookami-san keeps me watching the show as Ookami-san which isn’t something I am normally able to do with JC Staff. I think a lot of the credit I’ve dished out here belongs to the original author, but nonetheless I feel this show is worthy of praise and it surprised me that I feel it does. zithromax buy online I’m hoping it doesn’t get worse (as you can’t do the Ringo/Ookami-san development a second time), but from what I’ve seen the writer is solid enough to keep this interesting. Who knows, this might be one of those rare shows that actually gets better.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

It took me less than three minutes to figure out this show had been adapted from a 4koma. It probably took some of you even less. You get three lines of set up and then a punchline. At first I found this distracting, it made me appreciate KyoAni with K-ON!! even more. I’m a big fan of Lucky Star, but I should probably mention that every once in a while (especially with the first  ep) they had that 4koma feel too. I guess I’ve always felt a little like it’s hard to animate a 4koma well and it probably shouldn’t be done. You lose a lot of elements like character development since every panel is either set up for a joke, or a joke. There’s no foreshadowing, there are just recurring jokes. In other words there isn’t really a story until the animators add one. Perhaps the slice of life genre has never had much of a story, but I’ve always enjoyed slice of life like Aria, or Seitokai no Ichizon where you can be humorous inside the context of what you’re trying to do.

Then again I like watching Seitokai Yakuindomo so I’ll have to retract what I said about 4komas. I guess I like the feeling of “no pressure” when I’m watching it. I don’t feel like I have to be drawn in or have anything but mild affection for the characters.  I’ll remember the show, but it will never wow me. I guess in sum I would have to say that Seitokai Yakuindomo is the perfect picture of pointless T.V. watching. You don’t expect anything great and you will never get anything great, but it also isn’t going to fall on its face. What you see is what you get and today a half hour of that sounds nice :).

Mitsudomoe

I like this show. I’m pretty sure the writers were going for something completely different in the first episode with the set up. They ended up with something similar to minami-ke—that is they ended up with what they knew—but they started off with something that promised to be more extreme (but it was a lie).

Will I get lynched for saying I think this show has moments that are way more heartwarming than K-ON!!? Although everything revolves around both ridiculous and situational humor you have moments mixed in (such as Futaba and her father preparing for sports day in the recent episode) that just reek of pure goodness. When you juxtapose those sweet moments with all the other perverted and selfish things going on it makes them stand out more. Maybe my heart is never warmed by K-ON!! because everyone is so happy and sweet all the time it just feels like a given in that world. In Mitsudomoe being nice or affection is not something you can just expect of everyone you meet. I guess doing anything that we aren’t normally predisposed to do is sort of meaningful. I guess that’s where the saying “Nothing worth doing is ever easy.” The K-ON!! girls live out their (unnatural?) dispositions while the entire Mitsudomoe cast overcomes theirs on an episodic basis.

Oh and did I also mention the show is pretty hilarious :)?

Occult Academy

I thought this show was going to be a lot better than it ended up being. The first episode was really good with the introduction of interesting characters and a fairly unique setting. Then they introduced Fumiaki Uchida and it just kind of floundered. I guess I should just get it off my chest early that I just don’t like Fumiaki. He’s the typical cowardly anime hero coward that is supposed to make him funny, but just makes him someone I don’t want to empathize with at all. I think they were going for a character that was closer to reality, but even though people might be cowards I have a hard time believing they would act like him. I’ve never known a coward to want to be viewed like one… Not to mention he wines almost incessantly.

I was quickly losing interest in the characters, setting, plot, and relationships when episode 5 came out. It started out as your typical girl trying too hard to find something supernatural (a less powerful Haruhi Suzumiya if you will) and ended up with that WTF ending. Yes, that’s right; this show won me over with the ending of episode 5 alone. Despite everything that’s happened (which they might ruin in episode 6) the feeling of slight horror that enveloped me was too much to deny. In some ways it brought back the nostalgic feeling of watching a good episode of “The Twilight Zone” or reading a “Goosebumps” novel. I don’t think I’ve ever watched an anime that’s successfully done an intellectual horror (fear of the unknown) plot development. Higurashi just liked to surprise you with nails and hammers.

I really hope we get more episodes like this one. I want to be slightly terrified of the occult, not constantly annoyed by Fumiaki.

Asobi ni Iku yo

This show isn’t great: It’s definitely at the bottom of the list; however, it still made the list of stuff I’m watching. I think the premise is dumb, and I hate feeling like characters are created purely for fanservice and not for story. At the end of the day I guess I would probabaly surmise that someone liked To Love-Ru quite a bit and decided to do the same thing. This show doesn’t beat the To Love-Ru manga, but I do like it better than the horrid anime adaptation. I don’t know what it is yet, but there’s a hint of actual characters lurking beneath some of those fanservice objects. Aoi isn’t just the glasses wearing character, and Manami isn’t just the childhood friend (Oh, but Elis is definitely still the large breasted neko alien). Maybe my gut is completely wrong, but I’m getting the feeling that we’re going to see some of these characters develop in meaningful and interesting ways. I’m looking forward to that more than the plot or world. Hopefully my gut isn’t wrong or I’m going to be very disappointed I bothered watching this.

Oh and for the person who posted a picture saying Elis was way better than an “old used up Horo”: PSHT!! Horo is attractive as a character while Elis is only attractive as a…

Everything Else

I’m not watching High School of the Dead, Amagami SS, or Strike Witches Season 2. I’ll start with Strike Witches Season 2 since it’s easiest to explain: I didn’t watch season 1. I started too and I still intend too, but I kind of stopped around episode 2 and haven’t had the motivation to go back yet. Hence, I do intend to watch both seasons of Strike Witches someday, but today is not that day.

I suffered through the High School of the Dead manga about a year ago and after watching two episodes I realized I wasn’t enough of a masochist to suffer through it a second time. I don’t really know what to say about the show. There are parts of the story that were interesting, but the rest of it is just so annoying. As Jason at Blogsuki said the characters are all so stupid… It’s like the writer came up with the rules of his world and then just didn’t follow any of them for the sake of being dramatic. Drama Queens as people are fine as long as they are dramatic outside my immediate vicinity.

Amagami SS I didn’t really give a chance. I know a few people are enjoying it which is why I would mention that it just felt like watching the same old harem anime. I like harem anime ok, but the imouto started out the first episode by saying nii-nii a million-and-one times. Plainly put, I didn’t care about the harem lead and I didn’t care about any of the haremettes that they introduced. Nothing about the show captured my attention (which is really rare for a first episode to not do something that interests me). Maybe if people insist that this show is really worth watching I’ll get through it, but I think I would rather take another shot at Season 1 of Strike Witches first.

With that this post is finished! I hope you pick up a show here that you wouldn’t have otherwise given a chance and more than that I hope you don’t regret it :).