Picked up on: Epis­ode 7

Why I picked it up again: The main reason behind picking up Air again was because picking up Clannad After Story again turned out to be a good decision. Why not try recreate that feeling again by picking up yet another Key/Kyo Ani series? Not only that, but I’ve been mightily impressed entertained by Angel Beats. Jun Maeda seemed to be on a bit of a roll with me recently. The other reason was because I only had a few episodes left to watch anyway. Nobody was exactly falling over to recommend it to me when it showed up in the first of these styled posts, although maybe that was because they were too busy talking about this new post format of mine…

Review: …or maybe it was because they knew I wouldn’t like it.

The problem with critiquing Air is that the many reasons I have for not liking it are also reasons why others do like it. A small example of this would be the extent this show went to show how immature Misuzu was. It went to quite ridiculous extremes. The summer diary, the teddy dinosaurs, the ‘will you play with me’, right up to the point when she cut her hair, she could have just as easily been 6 years old and I wouldn’t have batted an eyelid. But that’s not really criticism, is it. It’s just something I didn’t like. It’s like criticizing Hanamaru Kindergarden because no real child has the depth of  knowledge Hiiragi has. It’s like “so? that’s what makes her awesome!”.

The entire second half of the show was basically one huge sob drama story. Everything was tossed in to make this story even more sob-inducing than before. I’ll keep away from spoiling anything but making the lead female character sicker with every passing episode and making the mother feel even more attached to her with each episode felt way too manipulative. Not that there’s exactly anything wrong with being manipulative. Often it’s the sign of a good story teller. But never once did I give a fuck what happened to anyone in that show. Some people get sucked in incredibly easily into sob stories and for them, Air constantly throws them moments to feast upon. I suppose you could say that Air needed more episodes to make me care about these characters but I don’t buy that. Double the episode count and all I can see happening is doubling the amount heartbreaking situations involving Misuzu.

I don’t care. I just don’t care and fail to ever care about these manipulative sob stories. I liked Clannad for the double blow of excellent storytelling and the character of Tomoya, but rarely cared that much about the sob stories beyond how they fitted into the story. Air never felt like it was composing a coherent, well structured story. It was just flinging these bloody baawwww situations at the screen over and over and never once did I care. In fact, I can only think of one time I did care. That was when that winged girl was trying to juggle for her mother. As someone who’s quite good at juggling myself, I know the pain of having to constantly pick up those blasted things, although I get the feeling that wasn’t what I was meant to be sad about.

I suppose it didn’t help that there was a year break between watching the first half of the series to the second, followed by a mini-break of watching Berserk where I was incapable of thinking about anything else afterwards. The first half of the series wasn’t exactly that bad either. At least it created the atmosphere of summer well and I quite liked the lead male character. If the second half of the story had continued the formula of ‘guy spending two episodes chatting, two episodes solving magical problems for these girls’ I might have made some unenthusiastic review where I said it was a rather average anime. But the second half wasn’t that at all (they turned my favourite character into a fucking crow!). The baawww heaping is what made me severely dislike the series, which is also why others love the series. Hence it’s not really criticism of what it did wrong. Just what I didn’t like about it.

Was it worth picking up again: No, my opinion of it plummeted upon completing it. Jun Maeda is better when getting chance and maybe some luck as well.

::Note:: I won’t be including anime that I only watched one episode of. I’ve said everything I have to say about them in my first impressions posts.

A Grade: One of the tops of the year. Get ready for some fan­boy­ing here

A Dur­arara!!

I love this show. Absolutely bloody love the thing. Izaya, Shizuo, Celty, Shingen, Kida, Shinra ah, they’re such a crazy and diverse set of characters that I feel like I’d never tire of watching them getting intertwined in this plot. It will, unfortunately, never be a great as Baccano but I’ve never held that against it. It’s like complaining that every Brazilian footballer is not as good as Pele. It may be true, but by saying that you’ve proven yourself to be a total idiot.

A– Full Metal Alchem­ist: Brotherhood

I’m loving these fights! This is how you do action anime. None of your punchup power-ups that is nothing more than a contest of sheer strength. These fights have tactics and the characters have brains. Little things like Kimblee throwing pebbles into the air so can find where Al is is what makes these fights so entertaining. My problem with the series now though is that it’s starting to drag out this final day. The last episode in particular started to grate a little.

B Grade: Hugely enter­tain­ing stuff. Not amaz­ing but def­in­itely worth watching

B+ Arakawa Under the Bridge

My frustration with Shaft over the years has been mainly due to the fact that I know they are capable of making series like this and Bakemonogatari but are such a hit or miss studio that anticipating their latest anime is often a painful experience (f*cking Bund). This time it’s worked though. The feel-good hit of the season, Arakawa has been an absolute joy to watch. Shinbo is a bit of a one-trick pony but that’s one fine trick he’s able to pull.

B+ Angel Beats

A beautifully constructed masterpiece it is not, but that hasn’t stopped Angel Beats from being ridiculously entertaining. It’s just so much fun to watch and guess what the story behind this world is. The characters are such a nonsensical bunch, they feel like they could quite easily be a bunch of School Rumble minor characters. You can easilly imagine the girl balancing the broom to fit right into one of the nonsensical situations the School Rumble cast get into.

B– House of Five Leaves

I know there’s some people who might dry foul if I say this, but House of Five Leaves is best enjoyed with your brain turned off and letting yourself sink into the atmosphere. I’m not a fan of this mangaka by any stretch and I think she writes some of the most banal dialogue around, but Manglobe have done such a fantastic job of this that I’m actually not bothered by it in the slightest de gozaru~

C Grade: It’s good enough to keep watch­ing but it’s not that memorable

C+ Big Windup Season 2

I think my problem here is that this anime is better to marathon than watch weekly but I’ve become so entrenched in my weekly watching ways that I find it hard to actually marathon any anime anymore. It’s even worse now that I’ve started the series. The week break has the unfortunate ability to completely wipe my mind of what happened in the previous episode to the point that I’m incapable of properly following the game. Maybe I just need time to get used to this weekly format.

C+ Giant Killing

I think my problem here was my pre-season impressions for this show didn’t turn out as planned. The tactics aren’t as pronounced as I thought they would be, Tatsumi isn’t as badass as I hoped he would be and the football isn’t as realistic as I think it could be. A lowered expectations has helped though and I’ve certainly enjoyed the last episode more than the first few, although I think that may be more down to the Prince. I just have a thing for fabulous characters.

C+ Rainbow

Started very poorly but I think I’m finally beginning to warm up to Rainbow. There are some parts to it that are way too overdone but I’m actually starting to really enjoy this series, although I feel uncomfortable using standard phrases like ‘enjoy’ and ‘warm up’. The nature of Rainbow is that you don’t strictly enjoy the series the same way you do Arakawa or Angel Beats. Still, it has the manly An-chan and he alone makes this series worth watching.

C Hetalia World Series

Yup, it’s finally gotten to the point that Hetalia has lost its main charm and any laughs that come from this series are more of an episode by episode basis. If this was any other series I might have dropped it by now but at 5 minutes per episode I can’t see myself doing that anytime soon. Besides, when it does produce a good episode it really does light up my day just that little bit extra.

C Senko no Night Raid

I don’t know why I’m failing to warm up to this series. From an objective standpoint I’m able to look at plot twists, little revelations and so on and think ‘that was a clever twist’. But I just can’t get into the show. Episode 3 is a great example of this. It had a lot of the things that make me like an episode but never once did I feel that entertained except, typically, when the girl gave the little moe yelp when the other bomb went off in the distance rather than the one she was disarming herself.

D Grade: I’ve lost interest in this anime. If it’s a D then I’ve prob­ably dropped it

D B Gata H Kei

Just not a well made series. As amusing as the premise is, they’re so lazy with the premise that there’s little to no actual quality jokes coming through. It just felt like the creators phoned in on this one. If the people working on the show didn’t have the enthusiasm to work on this anime, how am I supposed to have the enthusiasm to watch the thing? Give me some Angel Beats where Mr.Maeda is convinced he’s working on the greatest anime ever over this anyday.

E Grade: Unlike D grades where I drop out of dis­in­terest, E grades are dropped in Disgust.

F Grade: Any F stand­ard anime I would only watch 1 or 2 epis­odes of so god only know how an anime could last to the end of the month and still get an F but I’m sure it will hap­pen some day

The pacing of Angel Beats is lightning but at the same time never feels rushed. Dialogue is snappy and witty but not overdone. It draws you in naturally to it’s world, keeping both it’s sense of humour intact while giving you a glance at the characters. Probably one of the most notable things was the exposition. Too many times one finds themselves sitting through some of the laziest exposition around in the first episode, desperate to give the viewer some reason to continue watching. Angel Beats should honestly be a lesson how to do it. It wasn’t some stupid ‘repeat the rules. But I already know the rules. No repeat them for the viewer’ type things. The newbie wasn’t explained everything at painstaking length. It flowed, felt natural and was just so fantastically well done that I’m trying and failing not to delve into endless superlatives.

Probably the most remarkable thing about Angel Beats was there wasn’t a single moeblob. Characters are nods towards character archetypes while being noticeably difficult to place into any category perfectly. Unlike Sora no Woto, who took basic archetypes and showed you their past (which is, btw, a very lazy way of creating characters), Angel Beats starts from the beginning to make them different from other archetypes (apart from the designs. Did she have to look exactly like Haruhi?). It’s something anime should really do more often. If you make your characters unique at the very base level you’ve already gained one-up on the rest of your competition. Did I mention no moeblobs? That’s very important. Moe character designs yes, but the characters are certainly not in the same vein as those from previous Key Works. They don’t even fall into the moe category of anime like Toradora.

It’s got the wit on Clannad with the pacing of Seto no Hanayome and the animation of Canaan. It’s Kara no Kyokai with a sense of humour. It has a clear intention to entertain the viewer while also having a brain. It’s…probably jerking off a bit too much with that music concert scene and some of the other BGM tracks were a bit overdone, but considering that’s the same complaint I have about Cowboy Bebop, that’s not saying an awful lot. It’s got a story I’ve gotten hooked and drawn into already. It’s fucking fantastic that’s what it is. Maybe I’m going slightly overboard here but this far exceeded my expectations. Angel Beats is living up to the hype and it’s doing so without being fucking moe.

Fantasy Anime League (FAL). Predict what will be the biggest hits of the season and earn points based on their popularity. Out of 186 competitors I came in second place. So yeah, I like to think I’m pretty good at this prediction thing.

I com­pletely encour­age any­one to link this pre­view on a forum or wherever but for gods sake do NOT copy and paste the entire thing onto a forum or your own web­site. I swear, this hap­pens more often than you might think.

Senko no Night Raid

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: A-1 Pictures

Addi­tional Info: Second anime to air in the Anime no Chikara timslot, a timeslot devoted to anime original projects

Syn­op­sis: The story is set in Shanghai in 1931, when the Imperial Japanese Army has been dispatched to mainland China due to the relatively recent First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. In this cosmopolitan city of intrigue, there is a special military spy organization called “Sakurai Kikan” that has since been buried in history.

Thoughts: Really looking forward to this myself. A-1 and Aniplex have had a slow but relatively successful start with this Anime ne Chikara project of theirs with Sora no Woto but this show looks to be much more up my alley. It’s going to be interesting to see how well they sidestep the potential dangers of positive portrayal of this period of history seeing as how the Japanese did some pretty horrible stuff. Now the staff behind this don’t exactly fill me with joy but anime original projects are always worth keeping an eye on.

Ironman

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Studio: Madhouse

Additional Info: Based off Marvel Comic Book. 12 episodes long

Synopsis: Guy builds suit and whoops some badguys ass. Pretty cool stuff eh~

Thoughts: Probably the best part of this project is that Madhouse have been given total freedom to adapt this story as they wish. Now I wasn’t that big of a fan of the movie but the story was indeed an interesting one. Plus just watch that trailer. After a miserable 2009, this is Madhouse back on form with some slick animation. There’s not a whole lot of info on this out there but the name Madhouse combined with the promise of action always gets my interest up.

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei

Stu­dio: Madhouse

Addi­tional Info: Airing in the Noitamina timeslot. Based off novel and directed by Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Mind Game)

Syn­op­sis: The 2005 novel follows a nameless protagonist who is a third-year college student. The protagnoist looks back at the earlier years of his college life and his adventures with a particular circle

Thoughts: Yuasa is a nutter. Watch his anime and you will see a crazed mind at work. But with each project he makes he gradually gains control of that clearly brilliant mind of his. I personally thought we’ve seen the best out of him with Kaiba and that was his own creation. What makes me interested in this project though is that he is restricted by both the fact he’s been given source material and the fact it’s a slice-of-life series. This is normally a negative strike but restrictions is exactly what the guy needs. Give him restrictions and he’ll crate a masterpiece. I’ve also heard that this novel is a damn fine book as well. Plus it’s Noitamina! In fact, this is my most anticipated anime of the season, although I’m certain that the wacky art style will turn off most people so I’m sure you’ll see plenty of elitist blogs complaining that nobody is watching this. And you should watch this because there is nothing greater than obscure Madhouse anime. Ah, isn’t it great to see Madhouse back on form~

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Stu­dio: Shaft

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga by the same author of Saint Young Men

Syn­op­sis: The story is about the strange courtship of a successful executive in life called Kou and a mysterious woman called Nino who lives under a bridge. It all begins when Kou almost drowns in a river but is saved by Nino. For saving his life, Kou fulfills Nino’s desire to have a boyfriend. Thus, Kou becomes her boyfriend, but has to live with her under the bridge…

Thoughts: On one hand, I’m getting kinda sick of Shaft. Bakemonogatari is looking more and more like a one-hit wonder. On the other hand, fuck that, this is going to rock! I’ve read a few chapters and this is one of the most bizarrely hilarious pieces in existence and one of the few pieces out there that could probably improve with Shinbo and Shaft at the helm. I hesitate to say this because Shaft have let me down in the past, but this could just be the next great anime comedy.

Rainbow

Stu­dio:

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: The story of are seven teenagers in 1955, who have to learn to live together in the same hold in the reformatory of Shio. Confined in a hall where suffering and humiliation are daily, they are waiting for a ray of hope in a dark, incarcerating world. It follows their life together and how they move on afterwards.

Scamp: I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance of this airing this season and even if it does then there’s a 50/50 chance of it getting fansubbed. So I’m not getting my hopes up too high for now. The manga is one of the all-time best selling mangas worldwide and I assume there’s a reason for that. If it does air I’m going to assume the elitists of the anime world are going to sing its praises and whine that it’s not more popular. Meh, I have rather strong elitist tendencies so I’m moderately excited.

House of Five Leaves

Studio: Manglobe

Additional Info: Airing in Noitamina timeslot. Based off manga

Synopsis: The manga follows the lives of the House of FiveLeaves gang members in Edo-era Japan during the height of the shoguns rule. In particular, the masterless samurai Akitsu Masanosuke finds himself desperate for work after being let go by one lord after another for his naïvety. He becomes the bodyguard of the House of FiveLeaves gang’s charismatic leader Yaichi and discovers there is more to the gang leader than his criminal activities would suggest.

Scamp: First of all, it’s Noitamina. Anything in Noitamina deserves to be looked at after its track record. Secondly, it’s Manglobe animating Samurai’s. Hmmm, where have we seen that before? This isn’t going to be as action packed as Champloo though and the animation looks far from conventional. After their blip in the road of Sacred Blacksmith, it’s good to see Manglobe doing something proper for a change. I hesitate to get my hopes up too much for this because the author also wrote Ristorante Paradiso, one of the most yawn-inducing anime of recent times. Still, this is Manglobe X Noitamina. Must always remember the Noitamina tag.

Heroman

Stu­dio: Bones

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga by Stan Lee (Spiderman and x-men creator)

Syn­op­sis: The story will center on a boy named Joey who discovers a toy robot near the west coast of the United States. Then, the toy becomes Hero Man, a giant robot that Joey pilots against evil threats.

Thoughts: I can’t be the only one out there that can’t take this seriously, can I? I mean look at that robot. It has the star spangled banner tattooed on everywhere and a plot description that sounds like the most generic piece of crap ever made. Why the hell are you working on this Bones? Are they trying to appeal to an American audience here? Please don’t tell me Americans are gullible enough to buy into this shite.

Angel Beats

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: P.A Works

Addi­tional Info: Original Anime Production by Jun Maeda, writer of Key Visual Novels (Air, Clannad)

Syn­op­sis: In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the otherhand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.

Thoughts: In a season where I’ve found myself laughing in the face of moe fans because of the relative lack of moe shows this season, this is the one that moefags are placing their hopes on. To be honest, I don’t blame them. Even I’m kinda excited about this after reading the synopsis. Most importantly is that this anime isn’t trapped by having to stick to a VN (I’m not fully sure about this but from what I could gather, Angel Beats is being released on several different mediums at once) and anime original productions always spike my interest. OK, Key Dorama isn’t really my type of anime, but this has a pretty epic sounding plot synopsis and has a Haruhi cosplayer with a gun. I can’t help but feel a little bit excited about this.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

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Stu­dio: Artland

Addi­tional Info: Based off light-novel series

Syn­op­sis: The story of “love, magic, and battles” revolves around Akuto Sai, a boy who aims to become part of his country’s highest order of magicians and contribute to society as one of its clergy. On the day he is admitted into the Constan Magical Academy, his aptitude test predicts the following: “Future Occupation … Devil King.” Thus begins his severe school life in which he is resented by his studious female class head, desired by a girl with mysterious powers, and guarded by a beautiful female android.

Thoughts: So, have you watched the trailer yet? Did you see the amount of tits ‘n ass? Yup, this is one of those fanservice action harems with as much T&A as possible. They are actually a dying breed in the anime world with only the occasional Ikkitousen or Queens Blade per season and you’ll rarely get more than 2. There used to be way more but it was overtaken by the moe boom around 06/07. Which is a good thing. The lack of these types of anime that is. Not the fact that moe took over.

Working!!

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Stu­dio: A-1 Pictures

Addi­tional Info: Based off 4-koma

Syn­op­sis: Set in a family restaurant in Hokkaido, the northern prefecture of Japan, 16 year old high school student Takanashi Souta works part-time along with his strange co-workers: Taneshima Popura, a high school girl who’s a year older than Souta who’s easily mistaken for a elementary/middle schooler, and Shirafuji Kyoko, the 28-year old store manager who doesn’t bother to do any work at all.

Thoughts: It’s utterly impossible to tell how well a 4-koma will adapt into anime form. I flicked through a few chapters and I was totally incapable of summoning any enthusiasm for it (maybe that’s just compared to the fantastic Arakawa manga) but, like every single thing in existence, will work better in anime form (mwahahaha, go my biased views, go!). How well it will adapt I have no idea and the staff are a mixed bunch. It’s worth giving a shot I suppose but it won’t be a world beater or anything.

Giant Killing

Stu­dio: Studio Deen

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: In Giants Killing a ragtag bunch from East Tokyo are struggling in Japan’s top football league. The team is going through an abysmal spell right now where they are nearing the bottom of the table and have lost 5 matches in a row. The loses haven’t done much to team moral, because it was already low. Fan support, on the other hand, is looking bleak. In the world of football, once the fans turn on a team the end is near. Teams don’t recover. Coaches are fired, players are sold, and teams drop to smaller divisions where profits often prevent them from ever being successful against even mediocre top division programs. East Tokyo United, ETU, can only blame their coach right now. And Coach is ready to give up this next game to prove to his team and fans, that against the biggest club in the nation he can make this team win

Thoughts: A football anime (to any Americans out there, this means rest-of-the-world football kthxbye) where the focus is actually on the coach, something that’s gotten me pretty damn interested in this. I love football and this is all about tactics, which is even more awesome. I’ve heard some very good things about the manga it’s based off  but best of all, I’ve heard the main character being described as similar to Jose Mourinho, which is a guaranteed way to ramp up my interest in anything. OK, Deen are hardly as good as Madhouse but I’m still looking forward to this

B Gata H Kei

Stu­dio: HAL Film Maker

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: Yamada is a virgin high school student who dreams of having 100 casual sex partners. However, she ends up targeting and pursuing only one boy

Thoughts: I thought the synopsis was actually kinda funny myself. I mean, if you were to swap the gender around and it’s a guy aiming for that would people still be as put-off by it? On the other hand, the staff are crap and the manga is meant to be crap so I don’t have any real hopes for this anyway.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

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Stu­dio: JC Staff

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: A romantic comedy that centers on the student council head named Misaki Ayuzawa who despises the mostly male, slovenly population at her school, which was once an all-boys school. However, Misaki’s most handsome schoolmate just discovered her secret — that she works afterschool at a maid café.

Thoughts: A very popular shojo manga being adapted, rather oddly, by JC Staff. Now I don’t know about you but I can already sense that there’s some pretty annoyed fangirls out there by how JC are adapting this. Judging by the promo art and trailer, they seem to be trying to spread the popularity of this show by highlighting the hawt maids as well as the bishies, drawing in both a mail and female audience. This could backfire and appeal to neither audience so it’s going to be interesting to see fan reactions to this. Now I couldn’t care less about shoujo so I’m not really bothered about this but most other people do so keep an eye on it.

Hakuouki

Stu­dio: Studio Deen

Addi­tional Info: Based off PS2 game

Syn­op­sis: The protagonist, Yukimura Chizuru is the daughter of a doctor who works in Edo. The father leaves Edo to work as a volunteer doctor and moves to Kyoto without his daughter. As time passes by, Chizuru starts worrying about losing contact with her father, so she decides to go to Kyoto in search of him. On the way, Chizuru is attacked by few criminals and witnesses a fight between an oni and the Shinsengumi. Taking her into custody and saving her, the Shinsengumi debate on what to do with Chizuru when they discover that she is the daughter of the doctor they are also looking for. So they decide to become Chizuru’s protectors and help her look for her father(the doctor). Lots of events happen while she stays with the Shingensumi, as they discover mysterious secrets and also fight against the Bakumatsu group. The story is overall romantic with a historical and political background.

Thoughts: Based off a game. Interest in anime practically non-existant. Game based anime have a 98.5% chance of being rubbish and they are odds I’m willing to bet on.

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru

Stu­dio: JC Staff

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: Sakurai Yuki is a mysterious boy with a mysterious ability. He was found in the bushes as a baby and adopted by his current family. Because of this, Yuki strives for independence. The last thing he wants is to be a burden to anybody. Furthermore, when he touches others, he can feel their emotions. Unable to control his ability, he often made insensitive blunders in the past. With death threats and his abilities increasing, what will happen when a man claiming to be his older brother appears?

Thoughts: Just because I love Hetalia doens’t mean I have now developed an interest in gay anime. Plenty of angsty bishies in this one with lots of yaoi to masturbate to (I guess you don’t call it fap when it’s women). Knock yourself out fangirls.

Mayoi Neko Overrun!

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Stu­dio: AIC

Addi­tional Info: Based off light novels

Syn­op­sis: The story revolves around Takumi Tsuzuki, a boy who lives with his older “sister” Otome, although the two have no blood ties between them. Otome manages a run-down confectionery store called Stray Cats. One day, Otome picks up a mysterious beautiful girl off the streets.

Thoughts: The order of these anime is how they appear on Chartfags Amazing Chart. He has a habit of ordering them in the order he is interested in them. Chartfag has fairly similar taste to me. Neither of us are that interested in this anime. Try watch the trailer with all those bleeding nyaa~ sounds going off the whole time.

Kiss x Sis

Stu­dio: Feel

Addi­tional Info: Had OVA series before anime. Was made specifically to attract incestious pedophiles

Syn­op­sis: Keita has two older step-sisters, Ako and Riko, but since they aren’t related by blood, they love him in a lustful way. After a mishap at school, Ako and Riko finally confess their love to him. Keita dislikes the thought of seeing them other then brother and sister, but as he tries to enter the same school as his sisters, he slowly becomes attracted to them.

Thoughts: Apparently not a hentai, even though I’m pretty sure thats a wet camel toe I can see. Actually I take that back. Two wet camel toes.

Sequels

Ookiku Furikabutte 2

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Thoughts: I still haven’t gotten around to watching this yet although I certainly plan on doing so sometime soon.

K-ON! 2

Studio: TrollAni

Thoughts: *decides to keep quiet this time around*

Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow

Stu­dio: Toei Animaton

Thoughts: .…has anyone ever heard of this?

Movies and OVA’s

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The Gundam Unicorn OVA is out already but the next one isn’t out until Autumn so a bit of a long wait there. Black Rock Shooter is something many people were excited about, including me, until I found out it was only an OVA. Hence, I’m not expecting much more than a glorified music video. For movies, it generally takes 3–5 months from screening in cinema’s to dvd so anticipating any movies coming out in theatres now is pointless. I’m the most excited about Eden of the East: The King of Eden myself, which is coming out on BD on 24th March. But that’s the only date I know. The Macross Frontier movie should be out soon. There’s also upcoming Fate Stay/Night Movie and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie, neither of which I have any interest in but I’m sure have their fans. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see The Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya until the summer though.

Sources

ANN, MAL, Moetron, Chartfag’s amaz­ing chart, Manga­fox, Mangaupdates, Animesuki for­ums and a whole load of other places I can’t remember. For other worthwhile season previews, there’s Metanorn (fangirly but with plenty of info and I got most of my trailers from them), Star Crossed (who has finally returned to doing season previews again), Bokutachi no Blog ( I miss doing those joint season previews…), THAT (the guys who I originally moddled my season previews off), Rabbitpoets (2 people chipping in this year) and Caraniel (there’s always a newbie each season that surprises me). I’ll update this every now and then whenever a worthwhile season preview comes along.

Overall Thoughts

Unusual lack of moe anyone? Something I’ve been seeing quite often when people are talking about this upcoming season is the moefag response of ‘K-ON 2, Angel Beats, Black Rock Shooter and nothing else’. Frankly, I’m delighted at that. There’s a limited amount of moe but the very few that are being produced are of the highest moe quality. K-ON is the absolute highest in terms of light ‘n fluffy moeblob while Angel Beats is serious moe that even I’m quite excited about. Toss out an experimental OVA or two like BRS and you have moe the way it should be: A niche genre rather than the market flooding we’ve seen in recent years. That doesn’t mean I’m enthralled by this season either. There’s no obvious big wide-audience hit like Durarara even if the spread of titles is even. There’s easilly enough to keep one interested no matter what genre of anime you like but nothing for all of anime fandom to go wild over.

Anyway, some final rankings:

Highly Anticipated: Senko no Night Raid, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, Arakawa Under the Bridge

Anticipated: Ironman, House of Five Leaves, Angel Beats, Giant Killing

Possible: Rainbow, Working, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Uninterested: Heroman, B Gata H Kai, Hakuouki,

Crap: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, Kiss X Sis

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Picked up on: Episode 8

Why I picked it up again: Because those first 8 episodes are apparently a load of crap. There’s also the fact that I kinda wanted to see what happened to Tomoya in the future, seeing as he’s one of my all-time favourite characters. Then there’s that elephant in the room that the After Story is rated number 1 on MAL. Mainly though it’s because I liked the first season and figured that somewhere along the line it should recapture the magic of the previous season.

Review: Starting on episode 8 reminded me why I dropped this show. It was some stupid continuation of the gangland war I had conveniently forgotten about and was yet another episode that had nothing to do with Tomoya and therefore was utter crap. It felt nothing like the rest of Clannad and felt like it was there to please fans of the side characters. Seeing as the side-characters are just a bunch of moeblobs (aka: not Tomoya) these episodes were boring. Not hopelessly boring mind you. It did have Tomoya in a punch up, but that was its only saving grace.

Then the After Story actually started and it hit me again: How scarily similar Tomoya was to me. It was just Tomoya going about his daily life, trying to get a job and everything, but it hit me in such a scary way I got chills down my spine. But this feeling was different from the one I got watching the first season. It was the effect of the break I had from watching season 1 and this season, which must be about a 2 year gap. Watching the first season was seeing someone who was similar to me as I was right at that moment in time. After Story Tomoya was me if I had taken a different path in life.

Rather fitting considering this is based off a choose-your-own-path style game. It was eerie seeing what was effectively me if I had taken a different direction in life (I’d prefer to keep how my personal life panned out but considering how I’m sitting here in university writing a blog about foreign cartoons I’m sure you can do some educational guesswork of your own). For the first time in my life I honestly felt the urge to play an eroge, simply to see whatever other path my/Tomoya’s life could have taken, although I doubt they have a version where Tomoya becomes an otaku.

It did lose it’s appeal as the newlywed life began but mainly from a personal perspective. As expected, it never mirrored how the first season felt and it went down the path of human drama. Now generally I despise human drama (it ruined the second season of Honey and Clover for me) but Clannad was, for the most part anyway, quite a bit better and more subtly powerful than its counterparts. I though the B~I~G~S~P~O~I~L~E~R of episode 16 would be the most eye-rolling scene in existence but it was actually done very well. It never made me cry or anything, seeing as I’m incapable of doing that to anything other than Grave of the Fireflies, but it was excellently done. Episode 18 though, which was meant to be even more powerful an episode, was Clannad sticking two fat middle fingers in the face of subtlety and ploughing on with as much tears and lipservice as possible. I’d always thought the relationship with Tomoya’s father was one of the best played parts of Clannad and to deconstruct that in such a painfully blatant way was awfully disappointing but it did offer a well-rounded end to the entire series.

Apparently there were more episodes after that. I must have forgotten about them because of how awful they were. Then I have vague memories of some sort of fudged mystical ending, but not before pointlessly killing a little child. Yup, the After Story started at episode 9 and finished on episode 18. So over half of this series was utter crap? Why aren’t people taking that into account when they all go ga-ga over this series? Then again, this is coming from someone who rates Death Note as the greatest anime of all time so take that statement with a pinch of salt.

Was it worth picking up again: Yes, I suppose. I really could’ve done without those first 8 episodes though.