I wasn't able to
write a quick first impression post on the other series I am currently watching
this season because of time constraints and such so I wanted to take this
opportunity to write them :D We're about to reach half of the season and most
series which I initially didn't find that
interesting are starting to get better. It really does pay off to give
everything a chance(:
As of today, I'm
watching 20 currently airing TV series but of course, I won't be talking about
all of them. I'll just go through the series that started this fall season
which is around 17 series. LOL. So much for the difference. It seems that the
only series that I'm watching which didn't start this season are Uchuu Kyoudai, HUNTER x HUNTER 2011 and Sword Art Online.
Anyway, I'll split
this post into two since writing everything
in here would make this post really long
and I don't want that. Also, for those who haven't watched certain series that
I have and would like to know if they are good or not without getting any
spoilers, I've decided to make this impression spoiler
free(: I'm mostly discussing the flow of the story, how good the
characters were, how the art and animation are, the music and so on. It's up to
you whether you'll read them or not(:
On
a side note: I'll probably post parts 2 and 3 (if there'll be a 3) next week.
Also, I'll double post Sukitte Ii na yo.
soon as well as post a 3-episode coverage of Sword
Art Online shortening it to the ALO-arc introduction or such (I haven't
actually seen ep16. I'll watch it soon. HAHA.)… As for BTOOOM! and Bakuman. 3, I'll
post them probably tomorrow(: I was just having some writing mood issues last
week and I didn't feel like writing anything other than this post. HAHA. ~I
haven't seen new episodes since Thursday x_x I've been watching too much back
series -- Kaichou wa Maid-sama!, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's and Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou...
Now, let me start
with the first 8 series :D
Magi
(episodes seen: 4)
Personally, Magi seem more like a typical shounen series
for me. The number one thing that convinced me to watched this series is how it
seems to show some Middle Eastern literature/stories such as Aladdin, Ali Baba, Morgiana
and Sinbad through
the character names. I'm not entirely sure regarding the story relation but at
some point, it's pretty nice to see some references(: Also Aladdin actually has
a good sound to it. You know, Disney's Alladin~ Childhood's acting up on me
again.
The story revolves
around Saluja Alibaba (Kaji
Yuki) and Aladdin (Ishihara Kaori)
as they try and complete the dungeons that started appearing years ago. The OP
episode is pretty nice and it gives the basic knowledge regarding the setting
and characters of the series. The art and animation definitely gives off a
typical shounen feel to it. It looks pretty nice and easy to like. The art
style is very easy to adjust from drama to action to comedy and such which is
very typical for probably all shounen series out there.
Ixion
Saga DT (episodes seen: 4)
Watching this series
seems a little random but I'm glad I decided to watch it anyway. The best thing
about this series is the comedy. This is more of an adventure-comedy type of
shounen series and it is based on an OL game by CAPCOM. The story goes around
the adventure of Hokaze Kon (Eguchi Takuya) as
he got trapped into this adventure game-like world. He was entrusted as a
knight and bring Princess Ecarlate Juptris St. Piria (Mikami Shiori)
together with two more colleagues to their destination so that the princess can
get married and avoid war (or such). Of course the story isn't all appealing
and the art seems pretty generic (too generic perhaps) but the comedy is
definitely a good reminiscent of the series director, Takamatsu Shinji's
Gintama. It's also a nice touch for the series to not only
focus on Kon's adventure but also show what's going on with their pursuer's
part of the story which is headed by Elekpyle Dukakis (Kamiya Hiroshi)
which seems to be a nice counterpart for Gintama's
shinsengumi. With how this series is going, I doubt there'll be an interesting
story and deep character development. So I'm really counting on the comedy side
of this series :D
 |
| you better watch this series to know what didn't work and why it didn't work :)) |
Girls
und Panzer (episodes seen: 4)
What I admire in
this series is how much it kind of looks like a typical moé series when it
actually focuses on the objective of their story. The series revolves around
the Panzer class of Oarai High School particularly on Team A. Nishizumi Miho (Fuchigami Mai)
initially hated operating tanks but eventually enjoyed it as well through her
friends and teammates as they operate their team's tank. This series isn't
really that enjoyable to watch. It's
more of an 'okay' series for me - meaning not really bad, not entirely boring
but not really great as well. The art is pretty generic moé series with tanks
(colorful ones).
Tonari
no Kaibutsu-kun (episodes seen: 5)
This season, I'm
watching two currently airing shoujo series and
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is currently being the better shoujo series for
me. I think that shoujo romance is generally divided into 2: the rom-com and
the drama-romance. Tonari is basically
this season's rom-com (romantic comedy) series while Sukinayo is the drama shoujo. Tonari
started off pretty nicely and I like how consistent the comedy and the romance
has been. Also, I like how their confessions were swiftly done. So Tonari isn't really one of those typical shoujo
series wherein the two main characters secretly likes the other or such. Main
heroine, Mizutani Shizuku (Tomatsu Haruka) is
probably one of my fave characters this season - I like how straight forward
she is and how honest she is with her feelings. She's not the stuttering shy
girl but she's actually the type who makes advances on her male lead, Yoshida
Haru (Suzuki
Tatsuhisa).The art is pretty nice. The drawings reminds me of Brains Base's
other series DURARARA!! (one character actually looks a
lot like Sonohara
Anri. LOL. Even more surprising is that they have the same voice actor - HanaKana) while the
coloring style is similar to their other series, Mawaru Penguindrum.
Chuunibyou
Demo Koi ga Shitai! (episodes seen: 5)
As I have said in my
Fall
2012 Watch List post, I'm not a fan of KyoAni who was responsible for the
very famous series Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu which I didn't
really liked, K-ON! which turned out more annoying than I
expected and the recent Hyouka which was unexpectedly great (on a
side note, don't hate me for disliking Haruhi
and K-ON!). This time around, KyoAni's
series, Chuu 2-byo turned out a lot
better than I expected. It's no secret than KyoAni excels in those beautiful
visuals and moé character designs but what's really great in Chuu 2-byo is the idea of 'Chuunibyou' itself
or what they refer to as 'eight grader syndrome'. It's a syndrome in which they
pretend to be someone from another dimension or such which is really fun to
watch. You know seeing some battle scenes with two point-of-views while they
chant words which you'll only hear from anime is pretty entertaining. LOL.
Aside from that, I
really like Togashi Yuuta (Fukuyama Jun) as the
main character. Actually, I like how he's the main character and how he tells
the story and speaks his mind on things. It reminds me of how much I like Kyon
from Haruhi and Houtarou from Hyouka. Fukuyama has done a really amazing job
voicing him. His acts as Dark Flame Master
seems quite similar to Lelouch acting as Zero from Code Geass which was pretty entertaining to
watch. Also, Takanashi Rika (Uchida Maaya) is a
pretty fancy character. She's really cute whenever she's playing around and
making out-of-this-world terms :3
BTOOOM!
(episodes seen: 4)
This series could be
one of my fave this season. Probably one of my top 5 right from the very
beginning. Although my outlook on this could most likely because of my interest
on the psychological genre. The story is basically a fight for survival - kill
or be killed. As of the current episode, I'm saying that the best thing I like
about this series are their death matches and all those psychological
backgrounds and talk about whether killing each other or not. Of course
'normal' people won't kill off the bat. It takes more convincing and getting
used to the situation as well as getting more reasons for fighting. Main
character, Sakamoto Ryouta (Hongo Kanata) is
your typical NEET who plays this online game called BTOOOM! whose objective is annihilating the opposing team
through the use of different bombs or BIMs. Sakamoto and around 30 more people
were forcibly sent to an island and their objective is to kill each other and
take the acting radar-crystal attached in their left hand which only comes off
when they're dead.
The pacing of the
story is pretty good. It's one of the things I admire of this series. The first
2 episodes were dedicated to introduced the main characters Sakamoto and Himiko
(Mimori Suzuko)Although
the 12-episode limit kind of making me feel uneasy because things might get
rushed at the end. Either way, I'm definitely tuning in to this series and see
how it will go along throughout the run. And for some reasons, this is the
series I look forward to the most every week. I also get excited about writing
this :3
PSYCHO-PASS
(episodes seen: 4)
It's
no secret that this was one of the series I was looking forward to this season.
I was really caught by the interesting premise with a synopsis that made me
think of Bakuman.'s Money and Intelligence. A number of anime enthusiast seem to gain
interest in this series after seeing Urobuchi Gen as the one
handling the script. But as someone who doesn't really know much of his works
other than the very famous Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica series (which I didn't really liked as much as
other people have), I have my reasons.
Honestly speaking, PSYCHO-PASS wasn't able to catch my full
interest through the first episode but as the story goes, I get interested
little by little. As of the current episode, I haven't really seen anything out
of the ordinary or at the very least something that will make me tune in more
and get impatient for the next episode. It's a 22-episode long series so I
guess the series is taking its time and
is still building up the sybil system as well as the problems/mystery
surrounding it OR Akane's questions regarding this system. But I have to admit
that I'm very much caught up in its sci-fi element. It's overview of the future
is quite interesting, calculating the minds and psychological state of people,
the use of holograms and easy change of wardrobe :3 The art style isn't my
favorite but it does go well with the atmosphere of the series(: Characters
aren't really the interesting type most especially the main characters
Tsunemori Akane (Hanazawa
Kana) and Kougami Shinya (Seki Tomokazu) which
is a real letdown. Their designs look pretty shounen which isn't so surprising
due to the one responsible for their designs.
ROBITICS;NOTES
(episodes seen: 3)
This has got to be
one of the few series that's probably getting so much attention. And it's
because of the fact that it's from the same creators as the very famous series
from 2011 - Steins;Gate. As I have mentioned in my Fall
2012 Watch List post, I'm not expecting anything big from this series based
on the PV I saw. I was initially disappointed at how generic this series looks
like. Yes, the art seems pretty generic but undeniably beautiful. The OP
episode didn't really made an impact to me. But I do have to admit that I kind
of got a little curious of it because of the Chaos;Head line that was mentioned at the
end of the episode. Going through the following episodes, I ended up liking
this eventually. SO what is this series all about? I think that the objective
of this series is for Senomiya Akiho (Nanjo Yoshino) to
bring Gunvarrel to life, the one that they play on video games or in the
so-called PokeCom (or whatever it was supposed to be called). To give a clear
idea, she's trying to create a GUNDAM-like robot (or at least at the size of
it). What I actually enjoy in here is the ep3, ROBO ONE Competition. Seeing
Yashio Kaito (Kimura
Ryohei) control the robot was one of the reasons why I enjoyed this series.
Actually, I liked Kaito's character, he reminds me of Houtarou but Kaito sure
is more lazy that Houtarou.
As what others have
told me, let's not judge the series based on the first episode or so (although
the first episodes is a pretty good basis). AND I'm actually trying to do that.
Based on the current episode, I'm betting that this series won't be as dark as Steins;Gate and Chaos;Head
which is a letdown for me. Although I'm also betting that there will be an
interesting turn of events somewhere along the run based on the girl, Airi (Kugimiya Rie), that
mentioned the famous Chaos;Head line - sono me, dare no me.
My next post will
have the following series: Jormungand: Perfect
Order, Zetsuen no Tempest ~Civilization
Blaster~, K, Shinsekai Yori, Bakuman.
3, Aoi Sekai no Chuushin de, Little Busters!, Sukitte
Ii na yo. and CODE:BREAKER. More
series may be added if I decided to watch the 5 more series I wanted to watch
this season: Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal II, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Gintama Enchousen and Onii-chan
Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne. So the next post may still be
divided into 2 posts :D Feel free to give me good points on those 5 series if
you think I'll like them (rather I was saying that convince me to watch them.
LOL.).
