The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Posted in zero thoughts by moyism on April 2nd, 2007

New anime season is upon us and with a good half a dozen shows already aired, I figured it was high time I put in my 2 cents into the pot of anime blogging know-it-alls. Or as I like to call it, “the good, the bad, the ugly, and the WTF”.

El Cazador de la Bruja

Is it Noir? Madlax? Who knows, but BluWacky has a nice review of the episode. Personally the animation was smooth, music (Yuki Kajiura) great, and the seiyuu cast some of my favorites (Shizuka Itou) but the plot didn’t interest me much. I honestly can feel another Madlax (or god-forbid Avenger) coming, which if the case I’ll be dropping this faster than you can say “guru guru~”. If it’s something like Noir, on the other hand, I’ll hang around for a few episodes but I doubt it considering I fell asleep multiple times trying to watch El Cazador de la Bruja as is.

Conclusion: Watch only if you need to fill your guns + girls quota.

Hayate the Combat Butler

Should be my favorite new series considering how much I love the manga but I’m a little disappointed after watching the first episode. Guess after hearing the series was getting an anime conversion, my expectations were too high as I had foresaw the anime in a certain way. Anyway, once I get over the fact it’s not going to be exactly how I imagined, the anime is actually pretty good. Strong seiyuu talent, good OP and ED songs, and consistent animation should make it one of my top five series for the season… but then again depending on how “crazy” they get, at least based on the promo clips, Hayate may come on too strong for my taste. Omni and Cardcaptor’s blog give some nice views on the series as well.

Conclusion: follow the manga, it’s gold.

Heroic Age

Some of the techno and history babble was beyond my pitiful japanese, but thanks to folks like wrex and BluWacky for filling in the gaps, I can say without a doubt Heroic Age will be a series I’ll be watching. I can’t say exactly what about the show appeals to me, but the interesting plot and so far likable characters definitely left a good feeling after a few views Also helped the fight, however short it was, was rockin’! Couldn’t help but think of the Marines versus Zergs from Starcraft fame when the Iron Race (humans) fought against the Bronze Race (bugs). Good stuff. Really, the only question still on my mind… why are four out of the five races named after types of metal-ish materials (Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron) but the last is called Heroic? Couldn’t the writers think of another metal to use?

Conclusion: As long as no Shinn-like character in the series, it’ll be good to go… even if they go down a Kazuki X Soushi (Fafner) type (OH GEASS NO) route.

Hitohira

Honestly don’t know what to think of this series. Really the only surprise I had was the main heroine actually talking as I had thought based on early summaries of the series, that she was mute-ish. I guess it was just extremely shy. Novastorm and hashihime have the good word on the series for those interested if my crappy one-liner comment wasn’t enough. Odds are I’ll give the series a few more episodes to pan out before I decide to watch or drop.

Conclusion: shy meek girls the moe for the season?

Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA

Based on the awesome game Idolmaster you train under-aged girls to be the Next Big Thing(TM) Actually, DigiKerot has a great review of the series all should read if they haven’t already (if you need an actual review, check out good old Omni). Mecha and girls are always a dicey combination so only time will tell how well the series will do but unless it goes totally south like -drawing-a-blank-here-, I’ll be watching Idolmaster until the end. Plus hey, how can you not watch it with the incredible seiyuu talent casted?!

Conclusion: money-making-machine GLORY!

Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS

PURE WIN. Plain and simple. Subaru <3 (See Demian, drmchsr0, kurogane, Adun, and of course Omni for reviews that contain sentences over two words)

Conclusion: NEED GOOD QUALITY FRICKIN’ RAWS GOSH DARN IT!!!

Seto no Hanayome

Another manga to anime adaptation where I fell in love with the manga first. For some reason, I enjoyed this a bit more than Hayate although I love Hayate 10x more (the manga at least). Most likely because my expectation for the anime wasn’t set as high as Hayate, I was able to just sit back and enjoy the series. Seems a little more random than the manga at times, but all the key scenes are left in tack (aka anything with Masa-san is awesome). Novastorm and wrex both give good reviews of the series for those unfamiliar with the manga, while Omni gives his usual solid take.

Conclusion: More Masa-san?

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

Yet another series involving mecha that has my interest. Wrex, BluWacky, and old reliable Omni have the actual reviews of the show as one can tell I’m too lazy to do so myself. There does seems to be a lot going for it, plot wise, if the first few minutes are any indication however. And if anything else, there will be GETTAI ACTION down the line!

Conclusion: If I see the FLCL robot down the line, I would not be surprised in the least.

Touka Gettan

To be blunt: NO ONE FRICKIN’ KNOWS WHAT THIS SERIES IS ABOUT. It does, however, have excellent visuals, a good soundtrack, and some decent seiyuu talent.

Conclusion: MAKE YOURSELF DAMN UNDERSTANDABLE TO YOUR AUDIENCE!!!

Comments, suggestions, and flames are always welcomed. If everyone wants me to do another review of the rest of the new season as they come out, let me know. I seriously need to get back to blogging anyways.