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      

If last week had been a light week of anime, this week was the opposite – as you can see below. And I didn’t include my marathoning of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and the first two episodes of OVA over a two day period. I decided it was the last of the 2008 shows that I wanted to get to before getting to my awards for the whole year. In hindsight, watching that much Despair at one time probably wasn’t the best idea since my brain almost turned to mush. Which is actually a complement, it reminded me of watching FLCL in one sitting.

The scores:

Toradora!, episode 15 – 12/12

Soul Eater, episode 38 – 10/12 A
Soul Eater, episode 39 – 12/12

Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 22 – 12/12
Xam’D: Lost Memories, episode 23 – 12+/12

Michiko to Hatchin, episode 11 – 12+/12

To Aru Majutsu no Index, episode 14 – 10/12 A

Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 11 – 12/12
Somedays Dreamer’s S.2, episode 12 – 12+/12 (end)

Shikabane Hime: Aka, episode 13 – 11/12 A+ (end)

Minami-Ke: Okaeri, episode 2 – 12++/12

Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, episode 2 – 12/12

Asu no Yoichi, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

Sora o Kakeru Shoujo, episode 2 – 9/12 A-

(previously reviewed)

Asu no Yoichi, episode 1 – 6/12 B-

Akikan, episode 1 – 4/12 C
Akikan, episode 2 – 3/12 D

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

Rideback, episode 1 – 12/12

Maria+Holic, episode 1 – 10/12 A
Maria+Holic, episode 2 – 11/12 A+

Chrome Shelled Regios, episode 1 – 7/12 B

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

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

Munto TV, episode 1 – 12/12

Which shows have momentum this week

Up – Minami-Ke: Okaeri – This episode showed that the first episode wasn’t a fluke

Down – Shikabane Hime: Kuro – For specifics as to why this show belongs here, check my impressions post but I’m already wishing that Gainax was still doing this show

Thoughts and Highlights

Hosaka's looking to be friendly with someone.

I already posted a video from Minami-Ke: Okaeri showing one of the awesome clips from episode 2 but the episode was full of really great parts. As a result it was this week’s best episode that I watched. It’s also this week’s momentum gainer since it’s helping to make me quickly forget about the second season and confirm that I can expect the comedy of this season to be on a similar level to the first. One thing that I thought most interesting about the Curry Fairy part was that Hosaka didn’t set off Chiaki’s stupid-idiot radar. I don’t think Hosaka is an idiot but I’m surprised that Chiaki thinks the same way. I also can’t wait for the eventual second meeting between the two when Chiaki realizes Hosaka is not the Curry Fairy.

Xam’D: Lost Memories has now moved to the final arc and, of course, tons of stuff start happening. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed both episodes, it’s starting to feel like Bones was a little too ambitious with this show. In episode 23, it was like the show suddenly developed ADD and couldn’t stop changing the channel between the numerous different stories. Some scenes, like the Haru scene, didn’t leave a deep impression because before we even had the chance to digest what she was saying we were off somewhere else. And some scenes like the Nakiami one still resonated well because her character has had plenty of development over the course of the show and we understood almost immediately the importance of what was happening. I hope the final few episodes are paced a little better because it’ll be a shame to see such a quality show falter at the end. And since this isn’t actually running on television, I don’t understand why it has to be 26 episodes when it could be a few more episodes longer and have enough time for the ending.

Soul Eater episode 39 finally got back to my favorite character, Crona. I’m inclined to think that Crona is a boy because that would mean that Medusa has been messing with his mind from the beginning. In this episode, Crona finally admits to Maka his role in pushing Stein towards insanity. Of course Maka realizes that Crona would only do something like that under duress but it looks like Crona will be kicked out of Soul Society until someone very unexpected appears at Shibusen.

I’ll discuss the shows that ended this week when I write my series review in the future. I have a few more comments I wanted to make but nothing that deserves a full paragraph so I’ll bulletize them.

• I enjoyed the second episode of Asu no Yoichi why more then I should have. Maybe it’s because they constructed a scenario where the male main character is actually a capable human being and has a plausible reason for his problems around people, especially girls. Let’s hope it continues.
• Sora o Kakeru Shoujo or The Girl who Leapt Through Space continues to be odd but I think I might like this series. The comedy has been funny and offbeat so far; for example, in episode 2, an Iron Maiden was used as the means for the characters to change into their battle suits.
• Great episode of Michiko to Hatchin. What Michiko had to do to get Hatchin to forgive her was epic and touched my heart. It would be easy to think Michiko looked at Hatchin as a means to an end but this episode really showed that Michiko cares for Hatchin’s welfare.
• I was wondering if Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou could top the fox spirit from the first season in terms of cuteness and I got my answer this episode – yes. The little snow bunny (like the ones seen in Kanon) that gets possessed by a spirit is quite possibly the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

I decided to watch the first episode of this solely based on the fact that the title translates to ‘The Girl who Leapt Through Space’. I had to know if there was some reason to use a title that appears to be an obvious reference to the movie ‘The Girl who Leapt Through Time’.

Rating: 8/12 B+

There was definitely a girl and she lives in space and she did do some leaping in a spaceship but as for why it got named the way it did, I’m still unsure. Then again, the show pretty much left me totally clueless as to what I had just watched.

It opens with the oldest sister of a family accepting an offer to marry one of the younger sisters to some unknown gentleman because it’ll help the family’s fortunes. The younger sister, obviously, doesn’t like this and quickly escapes. She ends up on an unknown colony ship that’s run by an unhinged AI with suicidal tendencies and has to stop him before he incinerates the ship by falling into Earth’s atmosphere.

The crazed AI was the highlight of the episode and probably the strongest reason people will find to watch more of this show. The animation looked nice, the voice actors did a good job with their roles, and I even laughed a few times. I had a hard time, though, evaluating if I actually liked this episode or not. I like when a show is different but being really different can make it hard to get a handle on if the show will be any good or not. So in the end, I used the fact that it intrigued me enough to watch another episode to give it a relatively good score.

Posted in anime, first impressions