Early Looks: Summer 2011

Here are some opinions that I (NotMoe) have of the new season:

No. 6 - So, here we have this sci-fi series that's part of our favorite Noitamina block, orchestrated by Bones of all studios. The story covers the usual post-apocalyptic utopia that has some bad stuff hidden within (I've definitely not seen this concept before). Now, with Bones, I'm not sure where this is going to go; generally, they've focused on mecha and shonen, and this definitely falls under neither. This anime may turn out to be good, but with 11 episodes I feel like potential is likely to be wasted (pretty much every Noitamina sci-fi anime ends up that way).

Usagi Drop - And here is our other Noitamina series, this time presenting us with our slice of life drama. At this point, this is likely to be one of the best (if not the best) anime this season. The story covers the difficulties faced by our 30 year old bachelor Daikichi as he raises the illegitimate daughter of his dead 79 year old grandfather. The mood of the anime is what strikes me the most. It's calm, relaxing, and determined to move slowly through the series. The first episode was brilliantly executed, so I'm just waiting for more.

ExtraCareful: I highly recommend the manga series for those piqued by the anime adaptation. It hasn't finished yet, but the series from beginning to end gives a unique perspective in a hella strange setting.

Mawaru Penguindrum - So, what just went on here? Here we have the most peculiar of anime this season, with an odd combination of drama, romance, action, comedy, and penguins in the same first episode. Now if you're not already excited about this anime, you should be: this is the first anime directed by Kunihiko Ikuhara in over 10 years, since his critically acclaimed Revolutionary Girl Utena. We still have 23 episodes to go, but already we've had plenty coming from the first episode. This could easily turn out to be one of the best anime I've seen in a long time, but we'll have to see how it turns out.

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As for the more rom-com mushy brain melters, ExtraCareful will take the scene.

Blood-C - Ok so maybe this one isn't a mushy rom-com. Uh...I just have no clue. I thought this would be exciting, but it pretty much stops short between dull and dull with a side of creepy. I skipped through it once at 2 AM in the morning and I assumed that it was just my sleepiness and irritation that contributed to its complete lack of point.

I was wrong.

Random girl is secretly a monster hunter. Does random stuff. Chants. More random stuff. Bears. Blood. Beets. Beating down Japanese demons. Battlestar Galactica. Nothing more to say, although if you don't believe me you can always waste 24 glooooorious (haha....ha...ha) minutes by yourself.

A typical household brawl

Kami-sama no Memo-chou - I've heard that it's ok. It seems to follow (suitably) a Sherlock Holmes style 'plot', with the 2 main characters developing as they go through a series of short stories. That's a fine mechanism, except I see nothing genius about the mysteries that the NEET girl is trying to solve. Because not everyone is Arthur Conan Doyle, many authors seem to try to handwave shit in the short stories and force the Holmes counterpart to just say OK I SOLVED IT THIS IS HOW IT GOES DOWN without the whole explanation of how they solved it in the first place to their mediocre (read: Watson) lackey. Bad idea. The genius of Doyle came from how Holmes managed to piece together shit like a 3D puzzle junkie in the first place. A 'normal' mystery-detective series, so to say, that just puts blinders on the viewers by handwaving the explanation has essentially cut off the detective part of the 'mystery-detective' series. The only thing really remaining then for Kami-sama no Memo-chou is the obviously obvious romance between the female (read: not a dumb blonde) Holmes and the black-haired Watson representative from
outer space
Japan.

In essence, Kami-sama no Memo-chou better shape up or it's gonna get dropped, easy. C'mon, J.C. Staff, don't mess around...bring out some good series. When's another Index gonna pop out?

Can I phone a friend to answer this question?

R-15 - Dropped. I thought maybe it would be what Koe de Oshigoto could not accomplish or could go public where Mangaka-san to Assistant-san to could (very unfortunately) not. I hoped that it could be creative, or twist this kind of setting a bit for lulz.

I was wrong. Fuck this series. It's even worse than Koe de Oshigoto. And that's saying something. In fact it is so bad that it does not deserve an image since you would waste your time by looking at it.

Then again, should I have expected more from AIC, a studio that throws 20 rom-com series into viewers' faces and hopes that at least 1 or 2 sticks? Perhaps. But seriously, why would you license this series...?

Mayo Chiki! - Exactly what I predicted - a brain-melting, eye-candy stupidfest. I'm still watching it though...call it a guilty pleasure. Nothing really more to say. It's very...how should I say...nondescript. It's a unique setting, in a finer sense of the term. It's unique in the sense that it's not identical to the 100 other stories out there. But it's still not sticking out. At all. Boy finds girl in mess, girl overreacts, they
COMBINE INTO WINGBLADE OPTIMUS PRIME SUPREME SUPER FIGHT UNDERTAKER MODE
make a binding contract, do embarrassing stuff because they're forced to, run through 10 episodes of exposition, and then in the 12th episode SURPRISE
sex
confession and get-together. Been there, done that, wham bam thank you ma'am. You know how the rest goes.

3 globs of fanservice will be handed to you for breakfast, lunch, and dinner - and desserts too if you're lucky

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee - A mix of Gosick and (more vaguely) Hanasaku Iroha - and perhaps my favorite series of the season so far next to Baka to Test 2. I will definitely write a First Impresions on this, but suffice it to say that it is the most refreshing series of the batch (other than maybe Usagi Drop, but that's just because I've seen the manga already so I'm used to it). It's a very free-form series with an obvious lack of direction. But unlike other series, I cannot rage at it because it is clear from the onset that it's not supposed to have a direction - ANY direction - at all, other than perhaps 'getting comfortable'. The song that always comes to mind when I think about this series is this:

The characters are realistic and fulfill their roles nicely, the setting is also realistic enough, the studio takes pains to make the setting seem like Europe instead of what Japanese people think is Europe in the flipping 1600s, and overall it gives a very distinct, Western feeling that I've never really gotten from any other series before.

The graphics are also very nice - the transition and mixture between 'serious' style graphics and the 'comic relief' style graphics are magnificently done. Oh, did I mention that the studio takes pains to make it realistic? They have an actual French guy speaking the French titles. THANK YOU. The only real thing that I could bash on is the word usage, since I'm pretty sure that mushrooms are not called 'mushrooms' in France (I can say that much after my Foreign Language education...) but other than that, it's fantastic and fantastically relaxing. It doesn't need to have a drive because that's not the point. The point is to just sit back and let the waves wash over your feet. The music in the background really helps too, although the overusage of brass makes the scene more American if anything.

Oh and Yune is ridiculously cute.

Note to self: bread makes Yune shine

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2! - More than I hoped for - it gets off with a bang at the start. This series never gets old. I love how they're smoothly including a larger and larger main cast in order to create a diversity of interactions while also pandering to fans at the same time. The humor is there, the music is still good (although the OP is relatively worse than that of Season 1), and the graphics are always very cute (Yui Haga, thank the Lord...) and interesting (the van scene from the bird's eye view in episode 1 was very refreshing to look at). Doesn't fix what didn't break. Hopefully the main love triangle will advance some more so I can give it more points for being awesome. Oh and Hazuki is awesome too. Keep rolling, Baka to Test!

NSFW

In short, it's still quantity over quality, although the new batch of stuff is better on average than the spring and winter seasons were. It's still debatable as to how many will last and how many will peter out halfway. Only thing we can do is to keep watching!