Spring Season: INSTANT REVIEWS 3
I promise, I’ll only do one more of these!
There are now four Really Good Shows in my list, possibly the first time this has ever happened.
I almost wish some of them fail, so I can keep up my laziness…
- Darker than Black (The Black Contractors)
“sort of a Witch Hunter Robin that does not suck ass.”
BONES’ new high-profile show. Unlike their last new show, Ayakashi Ayashi, it’s really good.
It somewhat downplays itself in the first episode; there’s some minor adult situations (a man breaking his own fingers), and what looks like a regular “man saves woman and they run off” plot.However, since this show doesn’t suck, everything you think about it is totally wrong. There are two excellent scenes with real cinematic devices (unlike anime devices) that change it all around.
I’m finding Shinsen subs hard to watch, since they’re full of egotism (After Effects karaoke, hardsub mkv), but it’s a minor complaint.Production quality: excellent
Audience: normal people
Score: A, for the second episode - Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha started off as an uninspired ripoff of Card Captor Sakura, but by knowing exactly who its audience was (nerds) and what they wanted (huge explosions) it ended well and grew into a monster franchise of moé.Now they’ve gone and aged all of the characters several years, bringing them safely out of pedo territory, and they’ve joined, um, the military.
This first episode follows the two new recruits, the girl with the magical rollerblades and the girl with the magical gun (!?), as they blow a lot of stuff up and fail their magic qualification exam in style.Luckily, the government of time-space never punishes anyone, ever, so they’re specially granted a pass.
The promise of more magical devices shouting “PANZER GEIST!” means this series can’t possibly fail.
Production quality: Excellent animation, same old music, furthers the already-present magical girl deconstructivism.
Audience: still hardcore fans only
Score: A-, not quite reaching out as far as Darker than Black - Touka Gettan
What the hell is going on in Touka Gettan? Seriously.
Not only are all the scenes out-of-order, but I’m told this is actually being broadcast backwards.
The individual scenes are all pretty good, I suppose; there’s a girl with mind bullets, and lots of cherry blossoms, and Carnelian designs.Production quality: Pretty and totally ridiculous.
Audience: Limited
Score: B+, but only if you’re me
Unfortunately that’s the end of the good shows.
There’s a few inconclusive ones where I’ll give a full 3-episode test, but it’s time for failure:
- Shining Tears x Wind: All video game anime suck, including this one. Fight scenes where sharp objects touch clothes don’t cut them?
- Koutetsu Sangokushi: ancient Chinese man-love. Unwatched.
- Seto no Hanayome: Momoi Haruko star vehicle/”traditional” anime comedy, which means all the jokes involve screaming and aren’t funny.
- Nagasarete Airantou: an aggressively unoriginal harem show.
- Blue Dragon: For some reason, I kind of like Akira Toriyama art, but it can’t escape that this show is written for five-year-olds, and they have DBZ auras, and the little kid actually shouts “I WANT TO PROTECT EVERYONE!” before powering up.
- Sisters of Wellber: Starts off with an incompetent thief and little fairy breaking into a castle, where they eventually pick up a kung-fu princess and an Avatar The Last Airbender character and a talking tank, resulting in an RPG party entirely made of people I hate.
- Kono Aozora ni Yakusuku wo: Fast forwarded through it; a boring harem show with abysmal art.
- Emily of New Moon: another fast forward, another lame NHK book adaption with all the focus changed to the little girl.
I think that’s all for now.