I wrote a short preview guide for the spring season, but never bothered with the summer one as that season didn’t seem very interesting. Well, again I’m going to write a little bit about what I’ve watched just like what I did last time. I will not write about the shows we’re doing, and sequels of past series: ef – a tales of melodies, Gundam 00, Nodame Cantabile, Clannad, etc.
The ratings I use are based on the first episode and the first episode only. It’s meant to give you a small idea about the story, and also to tell you my impressions of the first episode as a whole.
These are the ratings I will use:
Excellent – the show truly impressed me.
Good – I liked it.
Fair – Neutral, didn’t hate it, didn’t love it.
Poor – Not for me, but maybe you might like it.
The following are the random shows that I’ve watched:
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Name: Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka
Genre: High School
Subs: Eclipse
Score: Fair
High school romance based on a visual novel between the wealthy transfer student Katagari Yuuhi and her fiance the Genokiller, Nagase Jun’ichi.
Akasaka kinda disappointed me a little as I had higher hopes for it. The cast of voice talents is incredible in this show, but the story feels very stereotypical and unoriginal. Even though nothing is original nowadays, a good storyteller can tell the same story over and over again a thousand times and you won’t get sick of it. It definitely doesn’t have the x-factor that would make it truly shine. Well, that’s only the first episode, so I hope it’ll get better.
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Name: Kyou no 5-2
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Subs: Chihiro
Score: Excellent
Slice of life comedy about a bunch of naughty ten-year olds. Now, this one exceeded my expectations as I’ve never liked little kids much. The kids are very strangely drawn, but just ignore that. The comedy in it is very good. I guess you could compare this to Minami-ke, ‘cept this is more down to earth, and perhaps a bit funnier.
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Name: One Outs
Genre: Baseball, Gambling
Subs: none
Score: Excellent
Baseball + gambling anime. Superstar batsman, Kojima, who has failed to win any trophies despite his incredible skill, begins a final training camp at Okinawa. There, he meets pitcher, Tokuchi Toua,who specialises in a gambling form of baseball known as one outs.
This one is another which exceeded my expectations. If you enjoyed Akagi, the one with mahjong, you’d probably like this one too. Much of the cast and crew are the same(at least the main voice actor is the same). It focuses a lot on the mind games and how pitcher Toua outwits the batter using fear and such. Hopefully, some good group will pick this one up (instead of having 9 groups doing Tales of the Abyss).
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Name: Yozakura Quartet
Genre: Action
Subs: Sonzai
Score:
Will watch in full later. Doesn’t seem very interesting though.
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Name: Toradora
Genre: Romance (I think)
Subs: gg and others
Score: Good
High school romance about the tsundere palmtop tiger, Aisaka Taiga, and the snake eyed, Takasu Ryuuji.
This fell a bit below my expectations. I found the story to be a little confusing, as there were barely any introductions, and it felt like it jumped straight into the middle part of the story. Taiga’s behaviour was even more confusing. I guess she’s the ultimate tsun tsun girl? Very difficult to judge from the first episode.
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Name: Hyakko
Genre: Comedy
Subs: Ayako (sorta)
Score: Fair
About four girls who attend a super huge school. I guess it’s supposed to be a bit like Minami-ke or Azumanga Daioh? The girls are very nicely drawn and the voice talent line-up is also very impressive. Unfortunately, it’s just not very funny. Perhaps it’ll get better in the coming episodes. It’s hard to dismiss it after just one episode.
I’ve read the earlier chapters of the Hyakko manga beforehand. This may have had a negative impact on the rating.
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Name: Shikabane Hime
Genre: Action
Subs: Lunar-Anime
Score: Fair
Makina, the undead princess, specialises in asskicking other undead abominations. Witnessing her asskicking session is orphan, Kagami Ouri.
One thing that really stood out about this show is the rather bland voice acting. That’s little surprise, as this is Akiyama Nana’s debut role. She’s pretty hot in real life though, but that’s beside the point.
Either way, I’d give this a fair, as nothing really stood out in this show for me. The action was all right, but there were no intense moments like you’d get watching Hajime no Ippo or such. The enemy was easily dispatched, before he could even introduce himself, really. It might get better in episode two if they focused more on the day-to-day life of being an undead.
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Name: Skip Beat!
Genre: Shoujo
Subs: none
Score: Fair
Now, this is a rather famous manga (I think) about country girl, Kyouko, and two bishies, Tsuruga Ren and Fuwa Shoutaro (Sho). Ren is the most popular bishie (Ren is the actor from what I gather) in all of Japan and Sho (the singer) plans to take him down. Kyouko then joins the entertainment industry to have her revenge on Sho for breaking her heart.
The art in the Skip Beat! anime seems unusually old-school. Don’t know if it was intentional though, but I do remember Kyouko looking better in the manga. If you’re looking for another classic shoujo hit like Itazura na Kiss or Hana Yori Dango, I don’t think this one will deliver. I was rather looking forward to it too.