First
Impressions is a series where I'll be writing about myfirst impressions of
the anime airing in the new season.
My Week 1: From the New World,
My Little Monster, Kami-sama Hajimemashita, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!,
Blast of Tempest, Busou Shinki, BTOOOM! Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, K
I'm going to at least try the first
episode of every show of the season, except sequels (I haven't watched the
original series for anything that's getting a sequel this season), unsubbed
shows (I don't know Japanese), and that one show about incest (because ewwwwww). I’m setting the cut-off point for each "week" of
anime I cover as when I get back from work on a Saturday, so if I haven’t written about
something that interested you and aired or was subbed over the weekend that’s why.
From
the New World
aka
Shin Sekai Yori. Available
streaming from Crunchyroll.
Crunchyroll’s blurb describes From the New World like so: “Five
children living in the future are the protagonists. The story begins when they
are 12 years old and starting their lives at an advanced school to learn the
‘cursed power’ of telekinesis.” From this and other blurbs I’d read online, I
expected it to be another pleasant-but-predictable slice of life, with a sci-fi
setting as its little gimmick. When the first episode opened with a scene of a
kid in modern-day Japan blowing up crowds of people with his mind, I knew I was
in for something else altogether.
From
the New World’s main character is Saki, a girl who was the last from her
class to develop psychic powers and receive a Blessing Spirit (whatever that
is). The setting is 1,000 years in the future, in a Japan that blends modern
and archaic styles very effectively both in the attitudes of the characters and
in the visual designs of the clothing, buildings, and so on.
The series sets up a strong
atmosphere of mystery and conspiracy from the start – the setting is full of superstition,
but it’s clear that there’s much more going on behind it all, such as the “Trickster
Cat” that steals away children who don’t develop psychic power…
The art and animation is nice to
look at, and the writing is good so far for the first episode. The supporting
cast have yet to move beyond the common archetypes, but the show has enough
promise that I’m sure they’ll develop, and Saki’s worries about her situation
are both written convincingly and portrayed well by her voice actress, relative
newcomer Risa
Taneda. The first episode does a very good job of establishing the setting
and creating a mysterious air, and with 25 episodes confirmed it should have
plenty of chance to show us how it all plays out and reach a satisfying
conclusion.
My Verdict? From the New
World is definitely going on my watch list for the whole season. It’s presented
a situation with a lot of room for great stories to come out, and if the first
episode’s anything to go by it certainly seems that it’s going to deliver.
My
Little Monster
aka
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. Available
streaming from Crunchyroll.
My
Little Monster is the story of Mizutani Shizuru, a high school girl who only
cares about studying, and Yoshida Haru, the rough delinquent who sits next to her
in class. Haru’s not been seen at school since the first day of term, when he
beat a bunch of upperclassmen bloody. Shizuru ends up having to deliver
homework to his home, and Haru takes this as a sign that she’s his friend. He
ends up falling for her and returning to school, and things go from there as
romantic comedy ensues...
The first episode of My Little Monster certainly succeeds at setting
up the main couple as characters – Haru’s very much a diamond in the rough, and
Shizuru’s likeable despite not being very friendly. They come a long way in the
course of the first episode but still feel like there’s a lot of development to
be made in their relationship, which is a nice contrast to so many series
putting off any actual development in romantic relationships until the very
end. The comedy is amusing too - they may seem kind of cliché, but I enjoyed Haru's antics resulting from his misunderstandings of school and life in general (there is one joke that's rather... off-tone, but I think that's a translation mistake rather than anything in the original script?). You'll know it when you reach it. The main duo’s voice actors fit their characters well - I was surprised to realise that I’d heard Haruka
Tomatsu in other shows since all the other roles I’ve heard her in have
been far more cutesy voices, and it was great to hear Tatsuhisa
Suzuki as Haru after enjoying his role in the aggressively mediocre series Dancouga Nova.
My Verdict? My Little Monster’s
first episode has really made me care about the characters already, so I’m
definitely going to keep watching it, and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s
looking for a sweeter show to watch this season.
It’s Medabots with plastic fanservice. Okay, I should probably give
an actual summary. Busou Shinki is
based on the
toyline of the same name, aimed at otaku. The titular “Shinki” are
15cm-tall servant robots that look like moe girls who call their owner “Master”,
which isn’t creepy at all, nope (though to be fair, that was never creepy in Fate/Stay Night or Fate/Zero so maybe that's just me). This being anime, they are of course used to
fight each other with weapons and armour and stuff, and these fighting Shinki
are called “Busou Shinki”. The show focuses on a group of Shinki belonging to a
currently-unnamed Master (which shows how important he is to the show). The
first episode focuses on them moving back into their Master’s old house in
Japan (apparently he was abroad before) and the hi-larious antics they get up to while unpacking, but it does seem
that the fighting side of things is probably going to be more prominent in
future episodes.
Kami-Sama
Hajimemashita
aka
God, It Has Begun. Subbed by
Anime-Koi. Make sure to read their blog post for info on a codec update you’ll
need to watch their release.
Adapted from a manga by Julietta
Suzuki (entitled Kamisama Kiss for
its English release), Kami-Sama
Hajimemashita is about a girl called Nanami who gets evicted from her home
after her father loses all their money gambling and runs away from home. She
meets a man who offers to give her his home, only for it turn out that he was a
Land Deity, and now that his shrine’s been turned over to her she has to take
over as the new Land Deity. This puts her in conflict – or perhaps romantic
tension? – with the surly bishonen fox-demon familiar of the shrine, Tomoe.
I didn’t expect to enjoy this show
at all, but between this and My Little Monster
it seems that shoujo romantic comedies might actually be up my alley? Surprising,
but who am I to complain about finding more anime that I like?
The thing that made Kami-Sama Hajimemashita stand out for me
was all the personality and style in the animation and visuals. It has a lot of
flair, and doesn’t shy away from making heavy use of manga elements like speech
bubbles and reaction flashes, which makes it really fun to watch. It feels very
much like a standard shoujo story – at least by my perception of them – but the
first episode, at least, is written and acted pretty well by all parties, and
the animation and direction gives it a lot of personality that really endeared
the show to me quickly. I like the characters (well, not Tomoe because he’s a
huge jerk, but that’s his whole character and I presume he’ll warm up to Nanami
over the course of the series) and it generally feels like a pretty solid show.
My Verdict? Maybe Kami-Sama Hajimemashita isn’t going to light the world on fire, but
I’ll be damned if I didn’t enjoy it. If you like the genre, or are kind of
interested but haven’t really watched any of the stuff before (like me) then
I’d recommend giving it a shot.
Chuunibyou
demo Koi ni Shitai!
aka
Regardless of My Adolescent Delusions of Grandeur, I Want a Date!. Subbed
by gg.
The idea at the heart of this
series is the Japanese concept of “chuunibyou”, which could be translated as
“adolescent delusion”. More or less, it’s when kids in their formative years
get this deluded feeling of importance or grandeur and start acting like
there’s something special or better about them. The main character of Chuunibyou demo Koi ni Shitai! (or Chuunibyou for short, because nobody
wants to type out that long title repeatedly) is Yuuta, a kid just entering
high school who’s desperate to be normal put his days of delusion behind him –
in middle school, he claimed to be the “Dark Flame Master”, claiming to have
magical powers and a dark history, buying stuff like those cheap swords you see
all the time at conventions, and constantly acting all dramatic. Unfortunately,
he runs into Rikka, a girl in his class (and his new neighbour) who’s deep in
the grasp of adolescent delusions of magical powers of her own and discovers
Yuuta’s embarrassing past, forcing him to try and deal with this crazy girl and
her wild delusions.
Chuunibyou
is this season’s new show by Kyoto
Animation, made famous by shows such as The
Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Lucky
Star, and K-ON!, and it’s another
light novel adaptation with the same high production values KyoAni typically
brings. The first episode of Chuunibyou
was enjoyable, but on the other hand it didn’t leave me feeling as enthused for
the series as it might have.
It’s not because it was bad. The premise is funny, and there
were plenty of good jokes, and I enjoyed how Yuuta’s desire to be normal and
Rikka’s delusions bounced off each other. The animation’s good, the voice
acting is good… But throughout the episode, there was a voice in the back of my
head whispering “It’s just another KyoAni show about cute girls doing things”,
and right now I find it hard to really shake off that. Stuff like the OP (which feels more like a
Youtube video to me with the way it cuts) and advertising art leaves me worried
that the rest of the cast are basically just going to be your standard moe
archetypes (Rikka being “the weird/otaku girl” archetype that’s so popular these
days). The first episode was fun, but the series seems dangerously close to being
dragged down into yet another cliché moe show… Then again, I thought the same
thing about Nichijou when I first
heard about it (“KyoAni’s new show is a comedy about the daily lives of high
school girls!”) but that ended up being hilarious and brilliant by virtue of
being utterly mental, and if Chuunibyou can build on all the
potential the first episode’s shown and
have more substance than just moe, it’ll be a great show in my eyes. Either
way, I’m sure it’ll be a huge hit.
My Verdict? The first episode of Chuunibyou was a lot of fun, and I’d certainly recommend trying it
out. I’m going to keep watching for at least a couple more weeks, and as long
as it doesn’t just become a pile of clichés with Rikka’s antics as
window-dressing I’ll probably enjoy the series plenty and watch the whole thing.
Blast
of Tempest
aka
Zetsuen no Tempest: The Civilisation Blaster. Available streaming from Crunchyroll.
My attempt to sum up the premise of
Blast of Tempest from its first
episode is going to be rough, because it frankly didn’t do a good job of
introducing things. As far as I can tell, there’s an evil family of mages who
are performing some ritual involving a “Tree of Exodus” to turn living things
into metal for some evil reason. The main character’s best friend (Best Friend
might be the actual main character, it’s hard to tell at this point)
disappeared a month ago or so, and then returns in a cloud of magic butterflies
when a mysterious woman threatens Main Character with a gun because he won’t
tell her where Best Friend is (because he doesn’t know). It turns out that Best
Friend has been working with the heiress to the magic family, who isn’t evil
but is stranded on a desert island
and reliant on Best Friend to do her dirty work. And then a monster appears and
it’s all dramatic and the episode’s over. Also Best Friend’s sister is dead
(this is his motivation) and Main Character and Best Friend’s Sister may have
been an item or something? It’s hard to tell at this point. Apparently this
series is supposed to be inspired by the works of Shakespeare somehow, but as
an uncultured swine who’s hardly read any Shakespeare I can’t say how that’s
being handled.
So yeah, I can’t really judge Blast of Tempest yet because the first
episode really felt much more like the first half of an episode except for
taking half an hour. The animation is nice, though. Maybe I’m just being dumb,
but this felt like something that would work much better if I was watching it
after it had aired and I could move straight into the next episode rather than
just thinking “Oh, okay” and waiting a week.
My Verdict? Hell if I know! Blast
of Tempest’s first episode basically left me feeling a little confused as
it built up to something slowly without really doing much, and I don’t think
the first episode did enough to present the show as a whole for me to have a
real opinion on it. I’m going to watch the next episode or two to see what the
show’s like when it gets into doing stuff, and I’d personally recommend waiting
until next week to watch the first two episodes. On the other hand, if there
isn’t much else this season that’s caught your eye, you might as well give this
episode a look.
Busou Shinki
There are elements of Busou Shinki with potential, but
watching it just made me feel skeevy. The designs hit that point where they
feel very much like they were designed by committee for fanservice, to the
point that I felt like the show was being less pandering when one of the Shinki
put on a maid outfit of all things. Now, some shows can have major characters
in fanservicey outfits and not feel like it’s totally demeaning, like Birdy the Mighty: Decode, but Busou Shinki definitely doesn’t do that.
Basically everything the Shinkis say or do is about their Master, and the
constant “Master this” and “Master that” on top of the fact that they’re his
tiny half-naked servants pushes it right past the “this is cute” line and into
creepy territory.
It’s a shame, because if the
fanservice wasn’t everywhere and the characters had more personality than just “master
master master, he's so important and great”, this could be a cute little series about tiny domestic robots
that might be quite enjoyable – think Chibi-Robo! as an
anime. Likewise, the fights are pretty good despite being heavily CGI, and I’d
really like the mechanical designs if they had robots at the core instead of
fanservicey girls – in the pattern of Medabots
or Danball Senki, it could have been
another fun merchandise-selling toy robot fightin’ show. Even if it was the
same concept as was produced but with more dignified designs and characters who
have personalities of their own rather than being defined entirely by Generic
Male Side-Character, Busou Shinki
could have been good. What we got, though? Ugh.
My Verdict? I had hoped that Busou
Shinki could have been a good show if it had a strong plot, impressive
fights, and/or just managed to come across as cute rather than fanservicey, but
it all just came together in a perfect storm of otaku pandering. I’m sure it’ll
sell a lot of toys to its target audience, but it’s really not for me. I’m not
touching this with a bargepole and wouldn't recommend it, but maybe you'll find it to be cute rather than creepy?
BTOOOM!
Twenty-two-year-old unemployed man
Sakamoto Ryouta is nobody in the real world, but Japan’s best player (and world
#10) at the massively popular online combat game BTOOOM!, where players fight
to kill each other not with guns, but with bombs. His crappy-but-satisfying way
of life comes to an abrupt end when he’s kidnapped and taken to a deserted
island, where he’s forced to compete in a deadly real life game of BTOOOM!.
BTOOOM!’s
first episode is heavy on setup more than anything, but it still provides a good
idea of how the show will be – a bloody, violent, and brutal example of the “people
have to kill each other” genre. Sakamoto’s understandably still pretty much in
shock about everything that’s going on, so I can’t say too much about him as a
character yet really, but BTOOOM! certainly
seems to know what it’s doing. It’s well-animated, the voices seem good… To be
honest I can’t find much to say about it, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just
that it hasn’t done much to give me talking points despite being a decent start.
I am a little concerned that the female main character seems like she’s going
to be mainly around for fanservice, but hopefully the rest of the show will be
strong enough for me to look past that and/or she’ll actually be a strong character
in her own right.
My Verdict? The first episode didn't give the strongest impression, but BTOOOM! seems
like it’ll be pretty solid if it can build well on what it’s started. If you
like stuff about people forced into games of violent murder like Mirai Nikki or Battle Royale,
this is the show of the season to catch your eye.
JoJo’s
Bizarre Adventure
There’s every chance you’ve heard
of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – the manga
is the 8th longest running in history with 108 volumes and counting
at the time of writing, but it’s never been adapted into a TV anime until now. JJBA‘s popularity in the west has been
damaged by all the musical references in the show, since any English
translation has to change them all for legal reasons, but it’s still
world-famous, and now that I’ve seen the first episode of this anime, I can see why.
This anime starts with the first of
many arcs of the manga, Phantom Blood, which is set in 1880s England - A
pleasantly different setting for an anime, especially with so many shows I’ve
watched this season being in the same old anime high school. The story is about
two young men – Jonathan
Joestar (JoJo), heir to
the Joestar estate, and Dio
Brando, son of a common thief who tried to steal from JoJo’s near-dead
father and was mistaken as his saviour. When Dio’s father dies, he is taken in
by the Joestars and proceeds to utterly ruin JoJo’s life in the cruellest way
possible to ensure that he will be
the one to inherit the estate and all its wealth. The first episode covers the
youth of the two, where we get to see what a horrible bastard Dio is, and skips
forward seven years at the very end, so I can’t say what the overall plot is
yet since I’m avoiding spoilers from the manga, but whatever it is I’m sure it’s
going to be good.
There had been worries that the
cost of the JJBA license would mean the
studio adapting it would be pushing out a cheap, poorly-made series, but they've done a good job with it. It’s a lovingly-made adaption, with all of the
dramatic poses that the manga is famous for and plenty of manga “sound” effects for emphasis (as seen in my second link above), both of which help make up for the okay-but-not-stellar animation.
It’s very well-written - I’ve heard the
content from the first episode takes up a few chapters of the manga but it didn’t
feel rushed or compressed at all, and they did a really good job of making the
viewer loathe Dio. The voice acting is great too, especially Takehito
Koyasu’s perfectly smug voice for Dio. The music’s all great too, and it
was a surprise to find that they’d chosen an appropriate English-language song
for the ED - "Runabout"
by Yes. On the whole I can’t really think of anything to complain about –
it’s great.
My Verdict? I’m definitely going to keep watching this – if nothing
else, I need to see Dio get his
comeuppance. I’ve been curious about JoJo’s
Bizarre Adventure for years, and now that such a great anime is being made
I can’t not watch it. I’d definitely recommend that everyone tries this out,
because it looks like it’ll be excellent.
K
K’s
first episode starts out with a gang with red fire powers and a girl in a goth
loli outfit with magical powers beating up a guy to try and find where someone
is, but he doesn’t know anything and then a government force (or something?)
with blue energy powers fights them while two massive sword-things float in the
sky. The amount of sense this makes sets a good example for the rest of the
episode, and we cut to the OP. Afterwards we meet the main character, a
silver-haired bishonen in high school, and a girl follows after him to try and
get him to eat her healthy food instead of meat all the time or something? And
then after school the red gang comes after him to try and kill him, and he’s
saved by the leader of the blue guys who shows the main character a video of
himself killing someone and being all evil, which confuses him, and apparently
Blue Leader Guy’s going to kill the main character?
Yeah, I didn’t find K very enjoyable at all. The animation’s
okay and all that, but the writing just seems confusing. It’s pretty much a
pile of clichés mashed together in a way that doesn’t let any of them stand
alone enough to make any sense, and we haven’t seen any motivation for any of
the characters to do anything. Apparently K’s
being written by a team of 6 light novel authors, and I can definitely see
that. It does a lot of light novel-style things, and the whole episode seemed
to have that meandering style that you find in the prose of light novels. I’m
not saying light novels are bad or anything, and lots of great anime have been
adapted from them, but K seems like
it’s trying to do a lot of things without really focusing anywhere and it just…
doesn’t work. While Blast of Tempest
seemed slow and vague but was clearly trying to do something, K just hurtles
full-speed into a mess that doesn’t do anything to draw me in at all.
My Verdict? I feel vaguely curious about what’s going to happen
next, but I can’t be bothered spending the time to keep up with K when its first episode was so painfully
underwhelming. I wouldn’t suggest watching it, but if you do want to then I’d
say you should leave it for a few more weeks so you can see multiple episodes
in a row and maybe get more of an idea of what it’s doing.
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