Everyone slacks off sometimes, and for me it was last month. Between being busy and being out of town, I totally fell behind on Shikabane Hime and Michiko to Hatchin. I was strongly considering blogging FMA: Brotherhood, but Kungfucius has volunteered to take that series on now that he’s done becoming Dr. Kungfucius and has more time. This frees up a lot of slots for me, and I think I’m going to drop SoraKake. It’s not that it’s bad; I just don’t see that series getting much better, and I am growing tired of the Leopard and boiled-potato jokes. All in all I found March to be a rather lackluster month, so I’ll go ahead and list some of the new series from Spring as well.
I’m going to be picking up Valkyria Chronicles and possibly Hatsukoi Limited and Eden of the East. I had one slot reserved for Shangri-La, but now I am not so sure I want to commit 2-cour to the show, especially since I figure the animation quality will slide even more as the show goes on. I’ll probably just try to catch up on Michiko to Hatchin and Shikabane Hime until about mid-season and then play catch-up on any Spring show that generates good buzz.
Top Five This Month:
- ToraDora: Considering all the loose ends, I guess the ending was decent. I didn’t feel like the final few episodes had that same oomph, but I am happy that this show exposed strangely-genki people as really sad weirdos who don’t get what they want in life.
- White Album: I was surprised that there was no cliffhanger to finish the season, but even bad animation couldn’t stop this show from delivering barrels of unintentional comedy. When I think about how easy it is to mock these characters, I feel like smiling brightly.
- Maria†Holic: It’s not revolutionary, but Maria Holic has been very consistent.
- The Tower of Druaga: the Sword of Uruk: The show was moderately entertaining, but the ending of season 2 was just not that great. The Ishtar-Tower of Neeba battle felt like something out of an old space anime starship battle with all the beam-spam and shounen-ai.
- Gundam 00 Second Season: This ending was terrible, but I didn’t watch that much anime this month, so Gundam sneaks onto the list one last time. I applaud Sunrise for finding a way to shock even the most cynical viewers with unbelievably loose writing, but as long as there are exciting flash-forwards no one complains.
Rising:
- Valkyria Chronicles: First episode had nice art with likable characters. I have a feeling, however, that the military tactics will be rather silly.
- FMA: Brotherhood: This was the best-looking first episode I watched. Everything felt right and looked great. There were also enough changes that I didn’t feel like I was watching a rehash of the first season.
- Queens Blade: I think you deserve credit when everyone expects you to be horrible and yet you are even worse than expected. The acidic breast milk cannons really made this first episode memorable. I’ve seen shirts explode before, but it’s not often that you see breasts explode.
- Saki: I didn’t understand any of the mahjong explanations, and the fanservice was weird and out of place. Still, something about the CG and the strong tile choreography made the experience somewhat exciting.
Falling:
- Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~: This was very standard Bee Train stuff, and yet I was completely bored by the episode. The puppet poses totally turned me off, and I was kinda mad that Zwei could go in with a silenced pistol and take out all the SMG-toting bodyguards.
- Shangri-La: I was really disappointed by the animation quality of the first episode. The colors were so dull and a lot of the art just seemed off. I had this show pegged for a sure-fire hit, but now I am not so sure. I do give props for all the drag queens and the guard who tried to tap before getting kissed into unconsciousness, though.
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1937 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
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Other than Nodoka standing around in the rain, was there much other fanservice? I mean, there was absolutely no pantsu at all, unless I completely missed it. There were some shots that could’ve come close to giving pantsu, but none of them actually delivered.
Yeah, the first episode of Shangri-La was disappointing. Art was okay, but the plot was a confusing mess. And Queen’s Blade met everyone’s expectations and more lol. FMA was as good as expected, and we are not even on to the really good parts yet.
As for the stuff that finished, I agree the ending to Gundam was pretty bad. I didn’t like what happened to ToraDora! in episode 24 either, but the finale was decent and wrapped everything up. Maria Holic was consistent in March I suppose, although it was a little hit and miss in the middle.
You know last season was shit when White Album and Gundam 00 season finales make your top 5 of the month. I’m so glad it’s finally over.
I saw Valkyria Chronicles last night and felt kind of ‘meh’ about it. Not terrible, but not outstanding either. I haven’t played the game, but certainly seems like a by-the-book, color-by-numbers approach. I could literally smell it’s RPG roots.
Shangri-la hangs on a precarious edge: it has all the promise and potential of a great sci-fi story, but there are also elements that demonstrate it’s fully capable of flying off the handle at any moment. I don’t like having to trust Gonzo to deliver Quality Control on an original production.
I’m really pumped for FMA though. A legitimately acceptable cause for excitement. One kick-ass show this season would be enough to lift my spirits.
And now that I got around to Valkyria, I have to say the whole thing felt really stupid. The humor felt completely out of place and misused. The action felt pretty lame and was entirely predictable without really being at least mildly entertaining. The only thing I liked was when Isara snatched Alicia’s gun and shot the random cannon fodder. If only because for a moment it gave me hope that something moderately interesting was going to happen.
Given it was SHAFT x Trap x Lesbian, I was hoping for something revolutionary to break the shell of the world. But I was consistently disappointed in that respect. Well, at least the main charas were fun.
EXPLODIN’ BOOBS.
I agree, Saki made mahjong seem very exciting. If they can keep up the animation quality with a decent story, I think I’ll probably stick with the show.
Don’t drop Phantom too quickly, Kabitzin. Episode 2 was excellent, since it managed to capture the atmosphere of the game without the misleading antics from ep1. If they manage to keep up the atmosphere from 2, I’m absolutely looking forward to this.
This is my expected outcome in the end
1. Eden of the East (Epic Win + Movie after the TV Series) Finally a Morita and Hagu Ending.. if ever.
2. Full Metal Alchemist : Brotherhood (98% Manga Plot)
3. K-On (90% of anime bloggers blog this)
4. Phantom ~ Requiem of the Phantom ~ (Noir, Madlax, El Cazador De La Bruja and this..)
5. (Hinagiku) no Gotoku S2 (Redemption of S1, they finally know who is the true heroine of the story)