Since my winter anime impressions were spread out over the past few weeks I thought it would be a good idea to combine the scores all in on place (and sort by their score) and link back to the individual entries so in case you missed one you could find it easier. Plus give any final thoughts on the beginning of the winter season.

Rideback, episode 1 – 12/12
Munto TV, episode 1 – 12/12
Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 1 – 12/12
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 1 – 12/12

Birdy the Mighty Decode 2, episode 1 – 11/12 A+

A Tale of Genji, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Maria+Holic, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Hetalia Axis Powers, episode 1 – 10/12 A

Kemono no Souja Erin, episode 1 – 9/12 A-

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 1 – 8/12 B+

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 1 – 7/12 B
Shikabane Hime: Kuro, episode 1 – 7/12 B

Asu no Yoichi, episode 1 – 6/12 B-

Akikan, episode 1 – 4/12 C

Birdy Season 2 doesn't reset the world like other sequels would

This is a pretty strong season of anime if you include the sequels and even if you don’t, there is still a few shows that could turn out to be real winners.

Of the sequels, Birdy the Mighty Decode 2 is showing the most improvement over it’s predecessor. I thought the first season was pretty good (gave it an 11/12 A+) but the first three episodes of this season are a great improvement on that. I’d even go so far to say that Birdy Season 2 is the most impressive show that started this season. I recommend this to anyone looking for a good show from this season to watch, even if that means going back to watch the first season.

Maria+Holic has been really hit-n-miss so far. My favorite parts have been when Maria and his maid have been onscreen but when they aren’t, the show loses much of it’s humor and interest. Also, the visual style of the show seems almost timid when compared to Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. So far I’ve been giving the show a bit of slack because it’s been the beginning but my patience is starting to wane as the show continues to underperform.

Two shows that I’m kinda surprised that I’m still liking are Asu no Yoichi and Sora o Kakeru Shoujo. Asu no Yoichi has continued to be enjoyable even though it’s rather generic and clichéd. Now that I’m 5 episodes in, I find that I haven’t gotten tired of it yet so I’ll probably watch the whole thing. As for Sora o Kakeru Shoujo aka Sorakake Girl, I like the characters a lot as well as the show’s somewhat odd sense of humor. I still don’t know where the story is going but at this point, I don’t care.

The last thing I wanted to mention is that I know there are many anime fans out there that love hearing the Japanese butcher English. Chrome Shelled Regios has had whole scenes done in English (end of episode 3 and the beginning of episodes 4 & 5) by voice actors that obviously don’t know English. I hope they continue with these scenes because I get a good laugh from them. The show, as a whole, has only been decent so far - showing a bit of promise but not much.

One more screenshot from Maria+holic

Posted in anime, first impressions      

Now that I finished up with my look back at 2008, it’s time to get back to the current season with a few more anime first impressions. The first is from one of the shows I was looking forward to, Genji. This is based off of the world’s first novel, it’s a thousand years old and considered a classic.

Rating: 10/12 A

Wow. If this first episode is representative of the rest of the show then I’m surprised that this show isn’t being talked about more.

The combination of good looks, smooth personality, and being second-in-line to the throne means Genji can have pretty much any woman he wants as the opening scene shows us. He literally has this one woman on a schedule – every 3 months or so he comes by for a night of romance. The majority of the first episode reveals, however, that he doesn’t always get the girl. When he was nine he meets a beautiful young woman (age 14) in passing within the halls of the palace and instantly falls in love. He tries to find her again but can’t find her anywhere when he is summoned by his father. He goes to see the father and the father introduces the young woman as his new mom. This really messes with Genji’s head, as you may guess and probably contributes to his later playboy mentality.

Genji as a child

Watching this first episode felt weird. On one hand, the historical setting is cool and different and would lead me to expect some sort of period drama. On the other hand, Genji’s back-story sounds like something you’d see in a modern harem or ecchi comedy anime series. It’s like a mashup of two totally different types of anime that don’t belong together but I know the show is based on the actual 1,000 year old novel.

I did like this first episode, though. The animation was very good and the style had a slight antique feel to it and fit the setting well. The voice acting was good and I already said I liked the setting. That’s about it for now, hopefully more of the series will get subbed so I can continue watching.

Imagine if manga came like that today.