Sat Jun 27 2009, 03:28 PM
Thus begins the first impressions...
June 25th Charge Up! and Mermaids with legs, dooms world.
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-Chan!!: The story revolves around a Juuden-chan known as Plug who inserts a power plug into folks and literally charges up their luck back to full to increase motivation and determination; Sento, who is a university student who manages the household (and his nose just bugs me); Hakone, the younger sister and junior high school student; Iono, friend of Hakone and seems to have a crush on Sento; and a soon to be revealed second Juuden-chan named Aresta. Sento is the only human who is able to see her and is always violently assaulting Plug (baseball bat, check; electric guitar, check; cup rack, check...) and is likely to be involved in Plug's adventures to recharge people's luck. There's certainly fan service, but perhaps not to the extent of, say, Queen's Blade but a few ticks below, say, Kanokon. By the way, expect a lot of accidental urination and perhaps the occasional tentacle rape (yes, there is one in the first episode) throughout this series. I'll give it another shot next week, but I'll likely drop it in favor for another show.
EDIT: After the second episode, it's definitely a few ticks below Queen's Blade and a few ticks above Kanokon, thus it's between these two series.
Umi Monogatari: Marin and Urin (worst name for her) are mermaids, and sisters, the latter of which is the younger one, who one day receive a ring from the sky people, otherwise known as us humans. They then set forth to visit the land of the sky people and try to find the ring's rightful owner and soon find Kanon and return it to her only to have the ring thrown away once more. The remainder of the episode is spent Kanon venting over seeing her ex-boyfriend with a new girlfriend and Marin and Urin searching for Kanon's ring. Urin eventually finds the ring near a sealed tomb and accidentally breaks the seal and unleashes a fury of evil; probably the shrine folks used cellophane tape of the cheap variety - you can't skimp on this stuff when sealing evil folks! And, thus begins Sea Story, although the first episode pretty much didn't have any story to begin with the second episode will most likely go in depth with the plot. If nothing else, I think the series will be: mermaids save the ring, save the world. There's also something about an elderly turtle, alrighty then.
The series has a similar feel to Sketchbook ~full color'S~ where both have a wonderful BGM soundtrack and incorporates similar ways of introducing humor and slow-pace results in a very relaxing watch. The ED sequence is nice to watch, it's both Marin and Urin watching the story of The Little Mermaid. There is a small bit of fan service which is not only witnessed by the viewer but by the background characters as well, especially with Marin's behind poking up everywhere searching for that ring. I'll stick around for a few more episodes to see how this goes, by the time I figure that out, I might as well complete the series.
July 2nd Yuri, Fighting, Where are the seagulls...oh butterfly! and Baseball girls.
Aoi Hana: Fumi and Akira (or Aa-chan) are childhood friends who are reacquainted long before they even realize they have been reacquainted on their first day of high school until both their mothers reacquaint themselves later that evening. How's that for the first episode summary in one sentence? Anyways, Fumi's family moved out of their old town 10 years before and 10 years later they move back. Despite them not seeing each other for 10 years, the one thing that remains unchanged is how Akira says the same phrase she says back then whenever Fumi cries as a first resort when she's troubled or something happens to her. Pretty much the OP and the way that Fumi thinks to herself confirms that this is a yuri romance show.
NEEDLESS: Before this episode aired, I took a quick peak at the first four chapters of the manga. Pretty much the first episode follows these first four chapters. The animation felt reminiscent to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, however the plot itself seems pretty generic. You have an older sister and younger brother running away from a large mecha, then the older sister (possibly) sacrificing herself to hold up said large mecha while younger brother escapes through the sewer system. Cue in large mecha a little while later and the hero comes in and saves the day, fights another enemy again, and saves the day once more. Now, this is an action-comedy gag, so yes there was some comedy but not enough to make me rolling on the floor laughing. Of the few moments that were supposed to be hilarious I either smiled a bit or had no change in my emotion. Needless to say, I'll keep it up for a few episodes and see how it goes on from there.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Since you can already find probably billions of sites blogging/posting about this show, I'll pass on the first impressions and leave it at that. Other than that, it has begun. Uu~uu~!
Taishou Yakyuu Musume.: This show replaces the same timeslot that was once K-ON!, thus what was once girls in a school band is now girls in a baseball team. It's going to be about 12 (or 13) episodes long and the baseball team's enrollment is nearly halfway complete. Unlike K-ON! where one member had to learn how to play their instrument, the majority of the girls in Taishou must learn the rules of the (baseball) game. Koume and Akiko get a couple of potential members and go to a baseball game played by boys. After witnessing the brutal play for a few moments, said potential members run away in fright, but toward the end of the episode both Koume and Akiko get two members to total four out of the nine members they need. The musical at the very beginning was kind of random, but lighthearted comedy and a brief look at history until 1925 (with scrolling background info) to start the show off. I'll see how this shakes out, but I'm beginning to wonder who they're going to play against if they start baseball competitions. So far, it looks like a nice replacement to K-ON!, despite Taishou having mainly A-list voice actors and animated by J.C. Staff rather than KyoAni; plus this is like one of the very few baseball-oriented shows with girls.
July 3rd The supernatural.
Bakemonogatari: Typical SHAFT animation, if you're wondering, but it had very impressive visuals. OK, so you have Senjougahara Hitagi who is nearly weightless due to an event before her first day of high school where she encountered a crab (omoshikani / weightless crab) which left her weighing a total of 5kg (~11lbs) who is saved after slipping on a banana and falling from a long spiral staircase by Araragi Koyomi, who was once a vampire and now mostly human. After being threatened by Hitagi and putting a staple inside his mouth, Koyomi offers to help Hitagi regain her weight by visiting the person who made him successfully transform from vampire to human known as Oshino.
Julu 4th Guys with assault rifles going down.
CANAAN: This is a TYPE-MOON production, the only other one that I've watched was Fate/stay night (my first anime, other than the kiddy shows). So, the first episode takes place in Shanghai, China and somehow the evil organization DAEDALA Corp is involved with the terrorism that occured in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo. Canaan, the titular character, is up against said organization. Now, most of the events that take place in during a Chinese festival and there's several weird events that take place.
One, guys with animal heads over their heads who, once these heads are taken off, seizure up and cough up blood and promptly die then nearby kids/adults who don't notice this oddity begin to dance with them (while they're seizuring) thinking they're dancing and kids playing around near (and one time, with) the blood.
Second, the guys with animal masks are after these guys with animal heads and are armed with guns and/or assault rifles.
Third, while Canaan is shooting down said guys with animal masks, they're exploding blood everywhere. Keep in mind, this is taking place during a public event where there's tons of people out in the open. I don't know about these folks, but if you see a guy armed with an assault rifle and blood gushing out of their body you'd use common sense by screaming and running as fast as you can. However, for these folks, they hardly notice at least 4 guys in the crowds dying.
Lastly, but related to the previous point, there are a few gun fights in broad daylight and near evening that folks get a bit surprised when the bullets are ricocheting everywhere but then continue on with their day like nothing happened. Maybe they're too focused on that enormous festival dragon to even notice that there's folks dying around them.
Well, since it is 13 episodes long, I'll most likely see it to the end since I want to know what the heck is up with these people not noticing public gunfights. Pretty much, the most impressive first episode of the season so far--we'll see how Tokyo Magnitude stacks up in a few days...
EDIT: A quick second look through the last few moments of the gun fight scene shows that a few in the public notice that these guys with animal masks are getting shot. However, it's just that, they look but don't run away or use any of that common sense any sane person would do. Curious...
July 7th Yeah, gonna be a bit late with these. Starting off with another moeblob show with 1000% yuri and Art Design class.
Kanamemo: Kana's a 2nd year junior high school student who recently lost her last living relative, her grandmother, and is forced to leave the house. She then proceeds to find a job and eventually ends up with the Fuhshin Shinbun after getting into a bicycle accident with one of its carriers, even though she already past that place already when witnessing weird events going on there. So, what's the show about? It's about a couple of girls who run a newspaper delivery service who deliver their newspapers (extremely late, like late afternoon/early evening) to their patrons. Said girls live on the second floor of building and come downstairs to do their work.
OK, so let's introduce the characters. Kana is voiced by Toyosaki Aki who's best known as the voice of Yui from K-ON! (and I should note: the only K-ON! voice actor to be in this show). For further comparison sake between Kanamemo and K-ON!, Kana's more like a mix of Yui and Ui. For one she can cook, but on the other hand she can misunderstand a setting; e.g. when the movers came into her house to take away her grandmother's possessions, she assumed that the movers would take her too and she grabs whatever she can to survive for a few days and runs far, far away. Next, you have Saki, possibly the youngest assistant chief and worker I've ever seen. You see, she's still in grade school and yet she orders around folks her who are (nearly) double her age. You have the two college students: the overly energetic Ritsu Yume who likes to add sugar to everything (hey, she is a patisserie student after all) and the cool yet beautiful Mio Yuki who has a thing for Yume. You see, Yume and Mio, how do I say this, are in that certain relationship where two girls love each other...so, yes, they do kiss a few times in this first episode. Last, but not least, you have the *ahem* alcoholic pedophile molester Haruka.
Quite a mix of characters, if I may say so. I didn't read too much into this series so I didn't know what to expect other than that the main character is homeless and will work/live at a newspaper delivery service building. So, I was actually kinda surprised when I saw Yume and Yuki kissing. So, pretty much the first episode went back and forth between the "aww" moments and humorous moments.
GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class: The glasses Yamaguchi Kisaragi wears bothers me...alot. Being a glasses wearer myself, those lenses sure are far down on her face. You can certainly tell that each scene is executed quickly that feels almost as if one is watching the manga in animated form (oh, wait a tick, we are!) so you have setup, consequence, and humor executed one after another quickly. The first episode moves from making food out of paint that turned into jelly, then making various drawings out of road/warning/info signs and finally with GA Power Rangers (GO!) among with other small shorts. It certainly isn't like Sketchbook or Hidmari Sketch, but seeing as it's 12 episodes long...I guess I won't lose much be finishing this series up...eventually.
July 8th Astronomy Club looking for members. Anyone?
Sora no Manimani: From the director who brought you Gintama and the School Rumble series (along many other series), Takamatsu Shinji brings you his latest work, Sora no Manimani or At the Mercy of the Sky. If you've watched a bit of School Rumble or Gintama (or both) then you'll definitely fit in nicely with this series as there is a good deal of humor which hit of a good note for me. So, what's this series all about? Well, it's all about Ooyagi Saku, a book-lover, who, seven years prior to moving back to his old town, recalls the memory of saving Akeno Mihoshi, a star-lover and the "hoshi" (lit. star) in her name really fits this description (if you're even remotely wondering: her name literally means beauty/beautiful star), who fell off a tree when taking a closer look at the stars on the very day that he starts his first day as a high school student. The saving of Mihoshi resulted in his right arm being injured and this dream only reminds him of that fact. After reluctantly allowing his mom's request that she even more take pictures of him (she took many during the entrance ceremony), Saku arrives at his school only to see golden stars confetti falling from the sky and a girl on the rooftop is advertising that the astronomy club is looking for new members. This girl turns out to be Mihoshi and Saku accidentally says her name, and because of this slip Mihoshi realizes, to Saku's worst fears, that it's him. Throughout the day Saku would continuously chase Saku or visit his classroom after every single class break and most of the time he would escape just in time just to get him to join the astronomy club. Eventually Mihoshi gets her wish and Saku agrees to join her club, after settling his past behavior after the tree incident seven years ago. It was actually quite fun to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, regardless of the fact that it is pretty short being 12 episodes long I'll definitely watch this through.
July 9th O, ye, hime-sama.
Princess Lover: The first episode introduces us to Arima Teppei and his parents, but soon he loses his parents to an "accident". So after this "accident", Teppei is on his way to his grandfather's residence via motorbike when he spots a girl in a horse-drawn carriage being chased by a gang of hooligans in a Jeep. To sum it up: dedicated butler and Teppei defeat hooligans and Teppei saves the girl along with that sort of situation where one accidentally gropes her when getting up (hey, it happens...when you fall 30 some feet off a cliff and the trees cushion your fall). The two introduce each other, the girl's name is Charlotte Hazellink - and one of the four potential love interests for Teppei. Right after meeting up with his grandfather, Arima Isshin, he's at a party and he's introduced as his grandfather's successor for the Arima business conglomerate and furthermore the girl he saved is of a princess of the Hazellink kingdom. We also meet potential love interest girl #2: Fujikura Yuu a.k.a one of the maids. While having a short conversation with Yuu, he notices a flash of light in the distance, and Teppei being the swordsman that he is (thanks to his father), he runs out and begins to duel with none other than potential love interest girl #3, Sylvia van Hossen. Both are exceptionally talented and it is at the moment the duel is broken up by Isshin that Teppei learns that Sylvia is his fiancee. Wakamoto Norio, who voices Arima Isshin, had quite a few lines here and it made the watching experience much better. Not to say that it was boring without him, it was just an added treat since there was quite a bit of action in this first episode. Now, it's too early to tell if that's the end of the action and it goes all into lovey-dovey mode with Teppei and whoever is his current love interest. Now, I've watched some so-so romance harem shows, the most recent being Tayutama which, for the most part, had a predictable ending due in part to a certain someone's angst. Anyways, it's still too early to tell how Princess Lover will play out, but again I'm a fan of short anime series that are around 12 episodes, so I guess I won't lose too much by picking this one up as well.
July 10th Earthquake
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: The events that unfold take place a day before the actual earthquake occurs. Onozawa Mirai, a first year middle school student, has just wrapped up school for summer vacation and dislikes her life, her parents, everything - she's going through a rebellious period. So, the parents and younger brother are introduced; the parents don't get along well and Yuuki is a sort of a happy-go-lucky kind of younger brother. It just so happens that the day before the earthquake, it is their mother's birthday and although their mom bought cake...she doesn't eat it because she's on a diet. Even so, hearing the word "cake" makes Mirai jolt up in happiness, but then despair sinks in when she sees it is a few slices of individually wrapped cake rather than a whole cake. The following morning, Yuuki suggests that he go to a robot convention at Odaiba Island, an artificial island located in Tokyo, but both parents have to work on that day so it shifts over to Mirai to take her younger brother to Odaiba. To sum it up their experience at Odaiba: they take the train there, get off a stop early, meet someone we'll see in the not so distant future, eventually reach the convention center, play around with robots a bit, buy a present for their mom, and then they were just about to go home when, in the last 30 or so seconds of the episode, the earthquake occurs...
A nice choice to replace Higashi no Eden's timeslot from the previous season. I find that the characters are realistic, you have parents who have issues getting along, a bratty older sister and a little angel of a younger brother. Although I was somewhat disappointed that they ended the episode with a cliffhanger of the earthquake just kicking off, most of the episode was building up to the point before the incident to provide us, the viewer, some background information. It reminds me of Barefoot Gen, an animated film I watched a few months ago where it slowly builds up to the incident then shows the events proceeding the aftermath. Hopefully, Mirai will develop her character as the series unfolds, as tragic incidents always tend to change people's vision about themselves and life. On the music side, you have abingdon school boys performing the opening music with various transitioning images of a destroyed Tokyo; and Tsuji Shion performing a catchy ending music featuring the three main characters with real pictures of various locations throughout Tokyo as the backdrop. This series, like Higashi no Eden, is also 11 episodes long so you can guarantee I'm picking this one up as well.
June 25th Charge Up! and Mermaids with legs, dooms world.
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-Chan!!: The story revolves around a Juuden-chan known as Plug who inserts a power plug into folks and literally charges up their luck back to full to increase motivation and determination; Sento, who is a university student who manages the household (and his nose just bugs me); Hakone, the younger sister and junior high school student; Iono, friend of Hakone and seems to have a crush on Sento; and a soon to be revealed second Juuden-chan named Aresta. Sento is the only human who is able to see her and is always violently assaulting Plug (baseball bat, check; electric guitar, check; cup rack, check...) and is likely to be involved in Plug's adventures to recharge people's luck. There's certainly fan service, but perhaps not to the extent of, say, Queen's Blade but a few ticks below, say, Kanokon. By the way, expect a lot of accidental urination and perhaps the occasional tentacle rape (yes, there is one in the first episode) throughout this series. I'll give it another shot next week, but I'll likely drop it in favor for another show.
EDIT: After the second episode, it's definitely a few ticks below Queen's Blade and a few ticks above Kanokon, thus it's between these two series.
Umi Monogatari: Marin and Urin (worst name for her) are mermaids, and sisters, the latter of which is the younger one, who one day receive a ring from the sky people, otherwise known as us humans. They then set forth to visit the land of the sky people and try to find the ring's rightful owner and soon find Kanon and return it to her only to have the ring thrown away once more. The remainder of the episode is spent Kanon venting over seeing her ex-boyfriend with a new girlfriend and Marin and Urin searching for Kanon's ring. Urin eventually finds the ring near a sealed tomb and accidentally breaks the seal and unleashes a fury of evil; probably the shrine folks used cellophane tape of the cheap variety - you can't skimp on this stuff when sealing evil folks! And, thus begins Sea Story, although the first episode pretty much didn't have any story to begin with the second episode will most likely go in depth with the plot. If nothing else, I think the series will be: mermaids save the ring, save the world. There's also something about an elderly turtle, alrighty then.
The series has a similar feel to Sketchbook ~full color'S~ where both have a wonderful BGM soundtrack and incorporates similar ways of introducing humor and slow-pace results in a very relaxing watch. The ED sequence is nice to watch, it's both Marin and Urin watching the story of The Little Mermaid. There is a small bit of fan service which is not only witnessed by the viewer but by the background characters as well, especially with Marin's behind poking up everywhere searching for that ring. I'll stick around for a few more episodes to see how this goes, by the time I figure that out, I might as well complete the series.
July 2nd Yuri, Fighting, Where are the seagulls...oh butterfly! and Baseball girls.
Aoi Hana: Fumi and Akira (or Aa-chan) are childhood friends who are reacquainted long before they even realize they have been reacquainted on their first day of high school until both their mothers reacquaint themselves later that evening. How's that for the first episode summary in one sentence? Anyways, Fumi's family moved out of their old town 10 years before and 10 years later they move back. Despite them not seeing each other for 10 years, the one thing that remains unchanged is how Akira says the same phrase she says back then whenever Fumi cries as a first resort when she's troubled or something happens to her. Pretty much the OP and the way that Fumi thinks to herself confirms that this is a yuri romance show.
NEEDLESS: Before this episode aired, I took a quick peak at the first four chapters of the manga. Pretty much the first episode follows these first four chapters. The animation felt reminiscent to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, however the plot itself seems pretty generic. You have an older sister and younger brother running away from a large mecha, then the older sister (possibly) sacrificing herself to hold up said large mecha while younger brother escapes through the sewer system. Cue in large mecha a little while later and the hero comes in and saves the day, fights another enemy again, and saves the day once more. Now, this is an action-comedy gag, so yes there was some comedy but not enough to make me rolling on the floor laughing. Of the few moments that were supposed to be hilarious I either smiled a bit or had no change in my emotion. Needless to say, I'll keep it up for a few episodes and see how it goes on from there.
Umineko no Naku Koro ni: Since you can already find probably billions of sites blogging/posting about this show, I'll pass on the first impressions and leave it at that. Other than that, it has begun. Uu~uu~!
Taishou Yakyuu Musume.: This show replaces the same timeslot that was once K-ON!, thus what was once girls in a school band is now girls in a baseball team. It's going to be about 12 (or 13) episodes long and the baseball team's enrollment is nearly halfway complete. Unlike K-ON! where one member had to learn how to play their instrument, the majority of the girls in Taishou must learn the rules of the (baseball) game. Koume and Akiko get a couple of potential members and go to a baseball game played by boys. After witnessing the brutal play for a few moments, said potential members run away in fright, but toward the end of the episode both Koume and Akiko get two members to total four out of the nine members they need. The musical at the very beginning was kind of random, but lighthearted comedy and a brief look at history until 1925 (with scrolling background info) to start the show off. I'll see how this shakes out, but I'm beginning to wonder who they're going to play against if they start baseball competitions. So far, it looks like a nice replacement to K-ON!, despite Taishou having mainly A-list voice actors and animated by J.C. Staff rather than KyoAni; plus this is like one of the very few baseball-oriented shows with girls.
July 3rd The supernatural.
Bakemonogatari: Typical SHAFT animation, if you're wondering, but it had very impressive visuals. OK, so you have Senjougahara Hitagi who is nearly weightless due to an event before her first day of high school where she encountered a crab (omoshikani / weightless crab) which left her weighing a total of 5kg (~11lbs) who is saved after slipping on a banana and falling from a long spiral staircase by Araragi Koyomi, who was once a vampire and now mostly human. After being threatened by Hitagi and putting a staple inside his mouth, Koyomi offers to help Hitagi regain her weight by visiting the person who made him successfully transform from vampire to human known as Oshino.
Julu 4th Guys with assault rifles going down.
CANAAN: This is a TYPE-MOON production, the only other one that I've watched was Fate/stay night (my first anime, other than the kiddy shows). So, the first episode takes place in Shanghai, China and somehow the evil organization DAEDALA Corp is involved with the terrorism that occured in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo. Canaan, the titular character, is up against said organization. Now, most of the events that take place in during a Chinese festival and there's several weird events that take place.
One, guys with animal heads over their heads who, once these heads are taken off, seizure up and cough up blood and promptly die then nearby kids/adults who don't notice this oddity begin to dance with them (while they're seizuring) thinking they're dancing and kids playing around near (and one time, with) the blood.
Second, the guys with animal masks are after these guys with animal heads and are armed with guns and/or assault rifles.
Third, while Canaan is shooting down said guys with animal masks, they're exploding blood everywhere. Keep in mind, this is taking place during a public event where there's tons of people out in the open. I don't know about these folks, but if you see a guy armed with an assault rifle and blood gushing out of their body you'd use common sense by screaming and running as fast as you can. However, for these folks, they hardly notice at least 4 guys in the crowds dying.
Lastly, but related to the previous point, there are a few gun fights in broad daylight and near evening that folks get a bit surprised when the bullets are ricocheting everywhere but then continue on with their day like nothing happened. Maybe they're too focused on that enormous festival dragon to even notice that there's folks dying around them.
Well, since it is 13 episodes long, I'll most likely see it to the end since I want to know what the heck is up with these people not noticing public gunfights. Pretty much, the most impressive first episode of the season so far--we'll see how Tokyo Magnitude stacks up in a few days...
EDIT: A quick second look through the last few moments of the gun fight scene shows that a few in the public notice that these guys with animal masks are getting shot. However, it's just that, they look but don't run away or use any of that common sense any sane person would do. Curious...
July 7th Yeah, gonna be a bit late with these. Starting off with another moeblob show with 1000% yuri and Art Design class.
Kanamemo: Kana's a 2nd year junior high school student who recently lost her last living relative, her grandmother, and is forced to leave the house. She then proceeds to find a job and eventually ends up with the Fuhshin Shinbun after getting into a bicycle accident with one of its carriers, even though she already past that place already when witnessing weird events going on there. So, what's the show about? It's about a couple of girls who run a newspaper delivery service who deliver their newspapers (extremely late, like late afternoon/early evening) to their patrons. Said girls live on the second floor of building and come downstairs to do their work.
OK, so let's introduce the characters. Kana is voiced by Toyosaki Aki who's best known as the voice of Yui from K-ON! (and I should note: the only K-ON! voice actor to be in this show). For further comparison sake between Kanamemo and K-ON!, Kana's more like a mix of Yui and Ui. For one she can cook, but on the other hand she can misunderstand a setting; e.g. when the movers came into her house to take away her grandmother's possessions, she assumed that the movers would take her too and she grabs whatever she can to survive for a few days and runs far, far away. Next, you have Saki, possibly the youngest assistant chief and worker I've ever seen. You see, she's still in grade school and yet she orders around folks her who are (nearly) double her age. You have the two college students: the overly energetic Ritsu Yume who likes to add sugar to everything (hey, she is a patisserie student after all) and the cool yet beautiful Mio Yuki who has a thing for Yume. You see, Yume and Mio, how do I say this, are in that certain relationship where two girls love each other...so, yes, they do kiss a few times in this first episode. Last, but not least, you have the *ahem* alcoholic pedophile molester Haruka.
Quite a mix of characters, if I may say so. I didn't read too much into this series so I didn't know what to expect other than that the main character is homeless and will work/live at a newspaper delivery service building. So, I was actually kinda surprised when I saw Yume and Yuki kissing. So, pretty much the first episode went back and forth between the "aww" moments and humorous moments.
GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class: The glasses Yamaguchi Kisaragi wears bothers me...alot. Being a glasses wearer myself, those lenses sure are far down on her face. You can certainly tell that each scene is executed quickly that feels almost as if one is watching the manga in animated form (oh, wait a tick, we are!) so you have setup, consequence, and humor executed one after another quickly. The first episode moves from making food out of paint that turned into jelly, then making various drawings out of road/warning/info signs and finally with GA Power Rangers (GO!) among with other small shorts. It certainly isn't like Sketchbook or Hidmari Sketch, but seeing as it's 12 episodes long...I guess I won't lose much be finishing this series up...eventually.
July 8th Astronomy Club looking for members. Anyone?
Sora no Manimani: From the director who brought you Gintama and the School Rumble series (along many other series), Takamatsu Shinji brings you his latest work, Sora no Manimani or At the Mercy of the Sky. If you've watched a bit of School Rumble or Gintama (or both) then you'll definitely fit in nicely with this series as there is a good deal of humor which hit of a good note for me. So, what's this series all about? Well, it's all about Ooyagi Saku, a book-lover, who, seven years prior to moving back to his old town, recalls the memory of saving Akeno Mihoshi, a star-lover and the "hoshi" (lit. star) in her name really fits this description (if you're even remotely wondering: her name literally means beauty/beautiful star), who fell off a tree when taking a closer look at the stars on the very day that he starts his first day as a high school student. The saving of Mihoshi resulted in his right arm being injured and this dream only reminds him of that fact. After reluctantly allowing his mom's request that she even more take pictures of him (she took many during the entrance ceremony), Saku arrives at his school only to see golden stars confetti falling from the sky and a girl on the rooftop is advertising that the astronomy club is looking for new members. This girl turns out to be Mihoshi and Saku accidentally says her name, and because of this slip Mihoshi realizes, to Saku's worst fears, that it's him. Throughout the day Saku would continuously chase Saku or visit his classroom after every single class break and most of the time he would escape just in time just to get him to join the astronomy club. Eventually Mihoshi gets her wish and Saku agrees to join her club, after settling his past behavior after the tree incident seven years ago. It was actually quite fun to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed the first episode, regardless of the fact that it is pretty short being 12 episodes long I'll definitely watch this through.
July 9th O, ye, hime-sama.
Princess Lover: The first episode introduces us to Arima Teppei and his parents, but soon he loses his parents to an "accident". So after this "accident", Teppei is on his way to his grandfather's residence via motorbike when he spots a girl in a horse-drawn carriage being chased by a gang of hooligans in a Jeep. To sum it up: dedicated butler and Teppei defeat hooligans and Teppei saves the girl along with that sort of situation where one accidentally gropes her when getting up (hey, it happens...when you fall 30 some feet off a cliff and the trees cushion your fall). The two introduce each other, the girl's name is Charlotte Hazellink - and one of the four potential love interests for Teppei. Right after meeting up with his grandfather, Arima Isshin, he's at a party and he's introduced as his grandfather's successor for the Arima business conglomerate and furthermore the girl he saved is of a princess of the Hazellink kingdom. We also meet potential love interest girl #2: Fujikura Yuu a.k.a one of the maids. While having a short conversation with Yuu, he notices a flash of light in the distance, and Teppei being the swordsman that he is (thanks to his father), he runs out and begins to duel with none other than potential love interest girl #3, Sylvia van Hossen. Both are exceptionally talented and it is at the moment the duel is broken up by Isshin that Teppei learns that Sylvia is his fiancee. Wakamoto Norio, who voices Arima Isshin, had quite a few lines here and it made the watching experience much better. Not to say that it was boring without him, it was just an added treat since there was quite a bit of action in this first episode. Now, it's too early to tell if that's the end of the action and it goes all into lovey-dovey mode with Teppei and whoever is his current love interest. Now, I've watched some so-so romance harem shows, the most recent being Tayutama which, for the most part, had a predictable ending due in part to a certain someone's angst. Anyways, it's still too early to tell how Princess Lover will play out, but again I'm a fan of short anime series that are around 12 episodes, so I guess I won't lose too much by picking this one up as well.
July 10th Earthquake
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: The events that unfold take place a day before the actual earthquake occurs. Onozawa Mirai, a first year middle school student, has just wrapped up school for summer vacation and dislikes her life, her parents, everything - she's going through a rebellious period. So, the parents and younger brother are introduced; the parents don't get along well and Yuuki is a sort of a happy-go-lucky kind of younger brother. It just so happens that the day before the earthquake, it is their mother's birthday and although their mom bought cake...she doesn't eat it because she's on a diet. Even so, hearing the word "cake" makes Mirai jolt up in happiness, but then despair sinks in when she sees it is a few slices of individually wrapped cake rather than a whole cake. The following morning, Yuuki suggests that he go to a robot convention at Odaiba Island, an artificial island located in Tokyo, but both parents have to work on that day so it shifts over to Mirai to take her younger brother to Odaiba. To sum it up their experience at Odaiba: they take the train there, get off a stop early, meet someone we'll see in the not so distant future, eventually reach the convention center, play around with robots a bit, buy a present for their mom, and then they were just about to go home when, in the last 30 or so seconds of the episode, the earthquake occurs...
A nice choice to replace Higashi no Eden's timeslot from the previous season. I find that the characters are realistic, you have parents who have issues getting along, a bratty older sister and a little angel of a younger brother. Although I was somewhat disappointed that they ended the episode with a cliffhanger of the earthquake just kicking off, most of the episode was building up to the point before the incident to provide us, the viewer, some background information. It reminds me of Barefoot Gen, an animated film I watched a few months ago where it slowly builds up to the incident then shows the events proceeding the aftermath. Hopefully, Mirai will develop her character as the series unfolds, as tragic incidents always tend to change people's vision about themselves and life. On the music side, you have abingdon school boys performing the opening music with various transitioning images of a destroyed Tokyo; and Tsuji Shion performing a catchy ending music featuring the three main characters with real pictures of various locations throughout Tokyo as the backdrop. This series, like Higashi no Eden, is also 11 episodes long so you can guarantee I'm picking this one up as well.
SimsHsia
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"I've reached field capacity!"
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"I've reached field capacity!"
