Hello again, and welcome to the usual segment. 2012 has begun, and with it comes the usual Winter Anime season, just waiting to be reviewed. I must say though, it’s hard to find anything bad to say about this season so far. There are a lot of great shows, and not a lot of bad ones. That said, let’s get down to the details, shall we? Here are my first impressions of the new Winter 2012 season.
Mouretsu Space Pirates
This show takes place far in the future, when humans have colonized other planets. The main character is a normal high school girl, who makes a hobby of learning to pilot space craft. She discovers that her father, who she has never met, was a space pirate, and now that he has died, she is the only possible successor as captain of his ship. Did I mention that these space pirates are completely licensed by the government? Yeah, apparently someone, at some point decided it was a good idea to license pirates and make it completely legal for them to do their thing. I bet they’re kicking themselves for that one now. Anyways, this revelation gets her some serious attention from the wrong kind of people, and many little issues ensue. The show itself seems to be taking a much more serious tone than I had assumed from the premise… and the English title for that matter. For those not aware, the English title for this show is Bodacious Space Pirates, so I initially assumed it was just some new moe/fanservice series that just happened to be about pirates. While that still isn’t completely out of the question, I’m glad to see there’s at least a decent amount of plot and character depth going into this so far. It seems like this will be a good series, so I recommend you take a look at it.
Kill Me Baby
This is yet another series based on a set of 4-koma comics about a normal high school girl who befriends a classmate who just happens to be a Russian assassin. Each segment is filled with stupid jokes, and violence leveled at the normal one, who also happens to be a complete idiot that’s usually asking for it. I swear, she has no personality of her own, she just occasionally channels three other characters. Yui from K-On, Kuroko from Railgun, and on occasion, Hata from Seitokai Yakuindomo. This is definitely one of those “So stupid, it’s funny” kind of shows, which I realize isn’t for everyone, so approach with caution. I kind of like the ending theme though, mainly for the most unenthusiastic, weird, dance number ever.
Another
This season’s supernatural thriller/horror anime, something I personally think we were lacking in in 2011. Another tells the story of a cursed class at a small town high school, and the transfer student that has no idea about the truth surrounding it. The rest of his class, while trying to act normal, seem to refuse to tell him the truth surrounding his current situation, which includes a female classmate that no one else seems to be able to see. The atmosphere in this show is setup very nicely, and the story has been nicely paced so far, waiting until episode 3 before anything really gruesome actually happened. The writing is good, and the animation just adds to the creepy feeling of the series, so I would recommend this to anyone who can stand horror movies, or at very least creepy, supernatural anime.
Daily Lives of High School Boys
This show is a gag anime, plain and simple. It follows a group of boys who attend an all boys high school, and the stuff they get up to. Frankly, the jokes in this series fall kind of flat. There are entire segments that just leave you asking why they actually bothered putting this in. The highlight of the series is just the fact that it’s a series made by Sunrise, and sponsored by Square Enix. They make a few jokes about what that kind of crossover would entail, but aside from that, there’s a lot of less than funny jokes, and the few funny gags it has are killed off pretty quickly by being repeated over and over again. So, give it a try if you’d like, but there’s not much to this one.
Ano Natsu de Mawateru
This is a series about a high school boy who lives out in the country. He is an aspiring movie director, and one night, while in search of a location to film in, he encounters an alien. The alien, though, looks human enough to pass as a beautiful high school girl, and after erasing his memory of the event, somehow ends up living with him. Now, this series is by the same creator as Onegai Sensei, and you can really tell. The fact that the female leads look almost identical aside, it has the same sort of feel to it as well. It feels like it’s going to be a good series, so I would definitely give it a look if you like high school romance anime.
Rinne no Lagrange
A mecha anime about a group of female pilots, some human, some not, who pilot a set of machines that are part of some sort of apocalyptic prophecy. They work under some secret government organization tied with a group of alien refugees and fight off other aliens who arrive to put a stop to this prophecy. The main heroine of this series is… an interesting character to say the least. She’s a bit energetic, but definitely a fun character to watch. The mechs look cool, and the action scenes are pretty intense at times. I have a good feeling about this one, though a part of me wonders just how much success a mech series with a full female cast of pilots, but no over the top fanservice will do in Japan. Definitely a welcome change, but still, it’ll be interesting the see the Bluray sales at the end of this. Anyways, if you like mech anime, this is definitely the one for you this season.
Brave 10
This series is a historical fiction anime about the ten warriors that served under Sanada Yukimura towards the end of the Sengoku era in Japan. The main character is a masterless ninja who finds himself wrapped up in a conflict he wants no part of after saving a random woman he meets in the woods. This has been a really fun series so far, the action is good, and there’s a good amount of humour to it as well. The relationship between the two main characters is pretty fun to watch as well, giving it the mark of a good series. I’d recommend giving this one a shot if you like action, and especially if you liked shows like Sengoku Basara or Hakuoki.
Highschool DxD
A show about a high school boy with a special item hidden in his body that finds himself caught up in a fight between angels and demons. Killed for seemingly no reason he understands by a fallen angel, he is revived as a demon, and fights alongside the faction that seems caught in the middle of a major war. Now, this series is fanservice heavy, with nudity everywhere and very little censorship, but at the same time it isn’t all about that like some other anime. The plot of this series actually seems pretty deep and interesting, and I genuinely like a lot of the characters. Not to mention it features what I think may be one of the most realistic male leads in an anime like this, ever. I’d give this a look if you’re not turned off by large quantities of fanservice, it seems like it might be a good one.
InuxBoku SS
This show centres around an apartment complex for people who are half-yokai, to hide themselves from the rest of humanity, and to protect each other from evil creatures that would hunt them because of their blood. Each resident also gets a Secret Service agent to protect them, who is also half-yokai. The main character of the series is a rather socially inept girl, and her agent dotes on her as if he owes her his life. This one kind of surprised me. I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I started the show, but it quickly revealed itself to be quite entertaining. There’s a sort of romantic comedy going back and forth between the main character and her bodyguard that actually seems to fit. Aside from that, the atmosphere it sets up allows for some comedy as well. A nice show if you like interpersonal drama, and light-hearted fun.
Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai
I’d put this show in the same sort of category as Usagi Drop, which I absolutely loved, except this one aims a bit more for the moe audience. The main character of this anime is a university student who winds up taking in his older sister’s three kids after her and her husband’s plane disappears. This one completely went above and beyond my expectations of it. After hearing the premise, I assumed the girls were just going to show up on his front door in episode one and things would go moeblob/fanservice from there. However, they actually gave it two episodes with the older sister alive to setup the plot and allow us to get to know and like the characters before tragedy befell them. The plot is unsuspectingly serious, and the characters are likable, and it makes for an all around good series. If you enjoyed Usagi Drop like I did, then I would definitely take a look at this anime.
Recorder to Randoseru
This series is about a pair of very different siblings. A high school girl who looks like she’s about 8 (not weird in an anime), and an elementary school boy who looks old enough to pass for a university student. Each episode of the series is only three minutes long, so it doesn’t really leave much time for any development, so it takes more of a comedic look at the issues this cause. You know, like how the little brother keeps getting arrested by police for walking home with his female childhood friend. It’s an okay series I suppose, and it’s only three minutes a piece so its not exactly taking up a good chunk of your day if you hate it, so give it a shot if you’d like.
Senki Zesshou Symphogear
This series is about a duo of girls with the ability to use special power suits that make them the only people on earth who can effectively fight a strange species of creature referred to as Noise. Now, the transformations and the suits remind me a lot of Mai Otome, and the monsters seem pretty cheesy for things we’re supposed to be seeing as terrifying threats, but the series in itself doesn’t seem bad. The writing gets a little cliché at time though, and the suits are powered by the users’ singing. On the other hand, they hired voice actresses that can actually sing to portray them, including Nana Mizuki, who has a rather big name singing career on top of being a voice actress. This series has its good points and bad, but overall it isn’t a bad one. If you’re a Nana Mizuki fan, this is a must for you, otherwise, if you liked Mai Otome, and shows like it, you’ll probably enjoy this as well.
Zero no Tsukaima F
This is the fourth and final installment of the Zero no Tsukaima series, and after the disaster that was season 3, I’m amazed it happened at all. For those who don’t recall, season 3 ditched the actual plot in favour of pointless, incidental, fanservice arcs, and then when they did decide to get back to the plot, the last episode was cancelled so they had to rush it out all in one episode. As someone who enjoyed the first two seasons though, I have hope that this will be better, but I’m not holding my breath. This is supposed to be the finale after all. So far they haven’t screwed up, so here’s hoping.
Thermae Romae
Quite possibly one of the weirdest concepts I’ve ever seen, this anime is about a Roman architect who travels forward in time on random occasions to study Japanese baths and take ideas back to his own time. Now, this series is a bit ridiculous, but still very entertaining for what it is. His little bouts of time travel are usually attributed to him almost drowning for instance. It’s funny, but at the same time slightly educational in a weird way, especially looking at it from a non-Japanese perspective. As a series that’s only going to be 3-4 episodes long, I would definitely recommend you give this a shot.
Anyways, that’s it for this season. As always, I’m only writing about what I’m watching, so there are still a few other shows to check out if you want. Anyways, see you again in April with my impressions of the Spring 2012 season.
