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      

The second season of Shikabane Hime started the week after the first season ended with a different set of animators, much like the second season of Minami-ke. I’m hoping desperately with this recipe for a better result then what we got with Minami-ke.

Rating: 7/12 B

I’ll keep the story recap light so I won’t spoil the end of the first season. The second season starts six months after the end of the first season and in that time Oori’s been training to be a Contracted Priest and his friends from school are wondering where he’s been. Even after six months Oori hasn’t been too successful in his training and at least one of his masters is starting to doubt that Oori will ever get better.

I definitely wasn’t reassured after this episode and I can actually see myself dropping this in a few episodes if it doesn’t improve. My problem was the “bright idea” of the second season animators to fill a large amount of this episode with stupid fan-service. It gave me the impression that they had maybe 10 minutes of actual content and didn’t know what to do with the rest of the time. I’m not an expert here but wouldn’t advancing the story in the first episode make more sense? Especially when the fans of the first season are most likely fans because of the story and characters and not because of the very small amount of fan-service found in it.

And the more I think about it, the more angry I’m getting at that new Shikabane Hime that they introduced. On one hand we have Makina, her whole family was killed around her and her attachment to this world is killing the monsters that did it. Then we have this new Shikabane Hime, who, since I’m feeling charitable, I’ll characterize just as a bimbo and one who lacks the mental capacity to form a deep enough attachment to become a Shikabane Hime. It really seems to belittle what has happened to Makina.

I hope in future episodes, the animators remember why the first season was good and stick to that. If I want blatant fan-service, I’ll watch a show that’s funny, entertaining, and has it’s fan-service better integrated into the story so it helps the plot, instead of hindering it.