It’s that time of the year again, the beginning of the Winter anime season, and once again I’ve put way too much on my plate. Welcome to my usual first impressions review of the new season, the first one I’m getting out on time for IXI Studios. Anyways, disregarding second seasons and OVAs that won’t air for another month or two, I’ve got fifteen series to go through, so let’s get right down to it.
Gosick
This series is essentially styled like a British detective novel. Somewhat clueless yet physically capable teenage boy, teams up with a brilliant young girl to solve mysteries in a made up European country. The girl, Victorica, gives off a bit of a moe vibe more often than not, but when she pulls off the classic detective part rather well when the time comes. The male lead is a little too clueless for my tastes, but I’m sure they’ll break him in as the time goes on. It certainly seems that way at least. Anyways, this show seems to have promise, so it seems worth a look at least.
Beelzebub
The plot of this series follows a juvenile delinquent, who goes to a school for juvenile delinquents, who somehow ends up the adopted father of the infant son of the Great Demon King. Yeah, apparently the Demon King was too busy playing Mahjong with his buddies to bother with the whole destroying humanity thing, and decided to send his newborn son to do it instead. This series is more comedy than anything else if you didn’t figure it out already, and it’s mostly slapstick, but still the series manages to be entertaining. Honestly, this is probably my favourite series of the season, though that may have more to do with the lead voice actor than anything else.
Wandering Son
This series seems to be a slice of life series, dealing with middle school life, and gender issues therein. Yeah, weird stuff, but the characters seem very well flushed out, and interesting. Largely, this series reminds me of Sasameki Koto, just the feel of it in general. Not to mention the main character seems to have almost exactly the same story as the guy from Sasameki Koto. You know which one, the only guy in that series. This one’s probably just a matter of taste, so watch it at your own risk, you may love it, or you may absolutely hate it.
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica
This series seems to draw heavily from older magical girl series for its content, but has managed to do it without seeming too unoriginal. That may have something to do with the somewhat strange, and at times creepy art style. The characters don’t seem too special on their own yet, but the story and powers at least seem to make up for that. I can only say one thing to describe one of the characters, and that’s Unlimited Musket Works. I recommend that people pick this up, I’ve got a good feeling about this series, it could be a really good one.
Wolverine
Why do I get the feeling that the only excuse for this show was to have a famous American superhero get his ass kicked by a normal Japanese samurai? In fact, the Ironman anime had the same sort of thing going until the last few episodes… Anyways, after the Ironman anime flopped, I went into this not quite sure what to expect. Sure enough, everyone in Japan know Wolverine by his real name, and the first time we see him in a real fight, he gets his ass handed to him by a normal human with a wooden sword. When did Wolverine become such a pansy? Also, two episodes in and they’re introducing a guy who can extent an Adamantium katana from his hand as an enemy. You know, to have someone who can compete properly, after he got his ass handed to him by a bunch of humans who tried to kill him by laying him down on the railroad tracks while unconscious. Yeah, this is going to be such a stellar series… not…
Dragon Crisis
A show about a group of people who work to hunt down and collect special magical artefacts, who happened upon a dragon. A dragon in the form of a loli. The first episode was pretty quick to get into things, and there wasn’t too much introduction to the logic behind anything they did. Usually that’s good for building some mystery, but in this case it just managed to make things seem random and silly. My first reaction to this series went something like this… “It’s not even a minute into this anime, and I’ve heard Kugimiya Rie, found out the main character’s name is Ryuji, and seen Melon Bread on the table… this will be incredibly unoriginal.”. Anyways, aside from that, it looks like it might be at least decent, but we’ll see as time goes on.
Infinite Stratos
This show’s about as unoriginal as you can get. One boy going to what has traditionally been an all girls school, instant harem. Guy not only pilots a mech, he shows an amazing talent for using it right from the start. Childhood friend with a crush on him, you get the idea. At very least it seems to have pieced these things together well enough that it’s not a horrible series. It seems at least like it will be entertaining at the least, so give it a shot if you have some free time, but its nothing to get too excited over.
Kore wa Zombie desu ka?
The title of this show translates to “Is This a Zombie?”, you know, like the author wasn’t quite sure. The series is about a murder victim who was revived by a Necromancer and tries to solve the mystery of his own death. Or at least that’s what it’s supposed to be about, it seems to focus more on randomness and comedy more than the serious sounding plotline. I mean, all seriousness kind of went out the window the minute the main character turned into a magical girl. He’s a guy by the way. I wouldn’t quite classify him as a zombie either, undead yes, but he’s still intelligent and not rotting. Anyways, random show, and it’s already ruined any attempt at seriousness it had within the first episode. Main character is entertaining, if no one else, but that’s pretty much all it has going for it.
Haiyoru! Nyaruani ~ Remember My Love (Craft-sensei)
Okay, now, over the years in anime, I’ve seen a lot of things turned into young women. Badass old Chinese guys, Soda Cans, Sanada Yukimura… but the Old Gods from the Cthulu mythos? That’s a new one. This series is a set of short webcast flash episodes about just that, and they’re pretty random. The only reason I see to watch this is just because you’re interested in the premise, and then drop it after a few episodes. Also, the joke in the title of this show kind of went over my head until about an hour after I watched the first episode.
Yumekui Merry
This series is about a young girl who comes from the land of dreams who finds herself stuck in the real world trying to get back, and a high school boy with some weird ability who wants to help her. Now, although the animation looks like your standard moe series, this one actually seems to have some substance to it. The plot has promise, and is interesting enough that I’m kind of hooked. I’m a little cautious just because of the animation style, but it doesn’t look like this is going to be just another moe series. I’d give it a watch, even if you usually aren’t drawn to that kind of animation, it seems like it may be worth it.
I Don’t Like You at All Big Brother
What do you know, another brother and sister incest anime. We’re never going to see the end of this trend, are we? Anyways, standard setup, boy harbours some sort of feelings for his sister, but would never act on them. Sister knows all about that fact and tries to make it impossible for him to not act on it. Drama ensues. Fortunately for some people, this series uses the “not related by blood” excuse, something I don’t think we’ve seen all of 2010. Anyways, I can give it credit for a few things at least. It has so far managed to not do what I’ve expected it to. The characters reactions have been the exact opposite of what I was expecting. Girl finds out she’s adopted, and you’d expect her to be ecstatic, considering the situation, but she wasn’t, she was absolutely mortified. At very least, it seems like they’re taking a more original approach to this material, so it seems worth a watch.
Freezing
Okay, I’m going to get this off my chest now… This show is a weird cross between Mai Otome, Strike Witches, and Queen’s Blade. It’s about a school where people go to be implanted with nanomachines that give them special powers and be trained to use those powers in order to fight strange otherworldly monsters that appear to attack humanity. As well as each other by the look of it… Anyways, this show is fanservicey as hell, full of action, and has the usual idiotic retard of a male lead. In other words, nothing special, but the story seems to be hinting at something interesting at least. The show has a bit of promise to it, but whether it follows through on it or not is still yet to be seen.
Level E
Based on an old 90’s manga, Level E is a nostalgic little series if nothing else. The art style alone just takes you back to a time where character designs were original, and not all random moe, and the animation team really went all out with that. The plot is about an alien prince who crash lands on earth, losing his memories, and how his very presence there is probably going to lead the universe to war. Seems entertaining enough, definitely has plenty of promise to it.
Starry Sky
Four episodes into this series and I have no idea what’s going on. I don’t mean there’s a mystery and this is being suspenseful, I mean this series can’t seem to stay on one thing long enough for you to figure it out. The series itself is about a high school that teaches a lot of courses like astronomy, astrology, and so on and so forth. Stuff to do with the stars, as the title might suggest. It used to be an all boys school, but now it’s co-ed, even though there’s only one girl attending. Anyways, aside from that, I have no idea what’s going on. There was some French kid who showed up to look for and confess to the only girl in the school, but never did as far as I know and disappeared again. Then there was some kid who invents things, we’ll see how long he lasts. Anyways, this series airs as ten minute episodes streamed over the internet every week. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be too much wrong with the show, I just don’t like the way they’re pacing it.
Mazinkaiser SKL
This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time now, a sequel to the Mazinkaiser OVA. Riding in on the success of the 2009 remake of the original Mazinger Z television series, Mazinkaiser SKL is everything I was expecting and more. I had originally been expecting a complete re-imagining of the original, but I was happy to see that wasn’t the case. I seems that this is set several hundred years after the events of the original, with a new cast, and two new pilots using Mazinkaiser. Real Robot fans may wonder how the hell a mech made several hundred years before could still be useful in any way, but honestly, this is Mazinkaiser we’re talking about, its power is limitless, meaning if you add some upgrades here and there to the body, it can still overpower pretty much anything. Anyways, Super Robot fanboy-ness aside, the action is solid, and the story is about as good as you can expect from a Super Robot series not copying Evangelion. The series seems to be lacking the Jam Project background music that the original had, but it’s been replaced with some really awesome heavy metal instrumentals, so we can forgive that. If you’re a fan of super robot anime, Go Nagai, or just looking for something big on action, then take a look at this OVA, you’ll enjoy it.
