Well I have to say, there were a few surprises in what I watched for the first week of the season, and also a few disappointments. Either way we still have what looks to be an exciting line up for this season, here are the impressions I got.
K-On!: Indeed it seems to be a cutesy anime, like kittens in a vat of cotton candy moe. First episode: Yui the main character has entered her first day of what would be the 1st year of high school (in US terms). She’s looking for a club to join and decides to join the light music club… the only problem is she doesn’t know how to play any instruments. The club desperate for members decides to take her anyway, saying they’ll teach her to play the guitar.
As expected of KyoAni the animation in this series is very nice. It sort of reminds me of the “actiony” scenes in Toradora, or all of Kamichu (if you’ve seen that) where everything was animated with a certain flow. This gives a very lifelike feeling to the series. As for the characters, Yui (Guitarist) is referred to as “carefree” because she’s a complete airhead, but in a lovable way, like Osaka (Azumanga). Ritsu (Drums) is sort of the tom boy of the group in a way. Tsumugi (Keyboard) comes from a wealthy family but she seems to be a very kind person (Also adorable, maybe I just have a thing for blonde girls) In a way she reminds me of a composed more mature Anna (Ichigo Mashimaro). Then finally there is Mio (Bass) which it seems most of the anime community has a hard-on for. That’s understandable though, she’s shy and cute, but also seems to almost have this mystery about her. From the OP/ED I get the impression that they might have some really nice concert scenes, and that maybe the series might pick up some seriousness.
Eden of East: As expected, this series blew me out of the water. The animation and background work was beautiful, not only that, but the dialog and story were easy to follow yet it still held my attention quite well. Episode 1:
Saki Morimi is on vacation in Washington DC, and standing in front of the White House when she has the brilliant idea to throw some change into the fountain, but well… it was a “little” too far and aside from that throwing anything toward the White House would be frowned upon. So of course she gets in trouble with security, but before they even get any answers out of her, a naked man with only a cell phone and gun shows up. Security gets distracted trying to chase him down and he appears in front of Saki. She offers him her coat, hat, and scarf in return for the favor, but doesn’t realize until later that she left her passport and wallet in the coat. This leads her to tracking him down all the way to his apartment. By the end of the episode, she’s at the airport to head home when she sees that Tokyo has been targeted by a terrorist attack.
It’s going to be interesting to see how this story develops, It seems like it’s going to have action, but also a lot of comedy, maybe a little romance.
Shangri-La: While this was the top of my list on things to watch, I think I have to say its fallen a few slots. It was pretty, but it didn’t have amazing character animation in my opinion, at least compared to the other titles of the season. General idea of episode 1 is that Kuniko has been in prison for 2 years, and upon her release finds out she is to be the leader of an anti-government group called Metal-Age. Then it showed world leaders arguing about the condition of their countries because of the emissions ban, and how the ones relying on a lot of coal have been thrown into poverty. Etc… lots of jargon and talking. The only thing that really held my attention most of the episode was the personalities of the characters and arguing with my boyfriend that yes indeed Kuniko’s friends were transvestites and not just very manly women.
Now I’ll stop bashing it and say that they’ve done a decent job with their CG blending, and the first episode seems to be leading us along various plot lines that could be developed later in the series. We’ll see how that goes however, as Gonzo is known to put out a few good first eps then fail the rest of the execution, leaving the series to die in the hole they dug for it.
Sengoku BASARA: Now heres an anime that was already dying in a hole when they aired it. The only way it could have been worse is if a 5yr old drew it, but even then the animation might be better if you compare it to the ED of FMA S2 which does look like a 5yr old drew it except actually looks good. The dialog was so dry, I found myself wondering what I should make for dinner, or counting how many tiles are on the ceiling (We don’t even have tiles on our ceiling). Not only that but the fight scenes were so disappointing! I could just play the game and see more action animated than I did in the anime.
Basquash: Okay… okay. What. The only reason I watched this was because my friend wouldn’t stop talking about how well they did on the CG blending and how well it was animated so I said “what the hell” and tried it out. To my great surprise, it was actually very entertaining. The backgrounds reminded me of something of Tekkon Kinkreet at times, the colors were bright, the characters were detailed, in fact the entire series was detailed.
The first episode opens with Dan JD on a mission to break all the TVs airing Bigfoot Basketball. Which is… robot mechs playing basketball. His personal vendetta against the sport seems to come from his (friend or sister? I’m not sure yet) Coco who seems to have been injured while playing basketball and had some great ability at the game, while the robots are slow and boring.. Now she’s been put in a wheelchair and sits in front of a computer all day. After he runs into a childhood friend who seems to have grown huge breasts, he goes for a jaunt in her bigfoot mech which to his enjoyment is a lot faster than the regular ones and he pushes its abilities a little too far. The next day he forces his way into a Bigfoot match with her mech, and proceeds to crush the competition. However all of the property damage and crimes he had already committed landed him in jail. At the end of the episode he is released and finds out that during his time, he has become a legend.
While I actually really liked this set up, it confuses me. The character designs are almost like something you’d see on the WB when you came home from school, yet at the same time it has some very VERY innuendo dialog, and the 10-15 second scene of Miyuki’s giant knockers as she was running didn’t help. Aside from that, it’s animated so well and everything comes together beautifully, but underneath all that it’s still an anime about giant robots playing basketball. I mean what kind of audience are they trying to target here? I’m pretty sure the fan base for giant basketball playing mechs is rather small, but maybe they will make it bigger now. I wouldn’t be shocked if they did.
Full Metal Alchemist: The Brotherhood (S2): I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw this, but it seems they’ve done a good job. The animation still has the same feel as the original series but they managed to make it look updated, even Edward looks a little older. It seems to take place after Ishbal but before Ed and Al found out about the homunculus. The first episode featured Ed and his mission to kill a state alchemist by the name of Issac (The ice alchemist). To Issac, the State is just a group of power hungry corrupt people and so he has returned to go after Bradley. Most the episode focuses on battles between him and various other characters from the series.
Even though that’s a pretty simple plot for the first episode, you can tell they’re setting it up for something bigger, and if you’ve read the manga then you’ll already know what that is. In any case, if you’re an FMA fan then you should follow this season, because I don’t think it’s going to end up like the train wreck that the movie brought the 1st season.
That concludes it for now! You can still expect to see more reviews as the series progress.
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