After finally getting some episode counts, I think I have my lineup set for the fall. I will be continuing (slowly) with Real Drive from before. The new series I’ll most likely be covering are Kannagi (13 episodes), Michiko To Hatchin (not sure how many episodes, probably between 24 and 26), Shikabane Hime: Aka (13 episodes), and Yozakura Quartet (12 episodes). Usually I only keep up with 4 series, but you never know about slow subbage, and 3 of the series are one-cour series. Hopefully this will be a nice balance of action and love. I’ve caught the first episode of several series, so here are some initial thoughts:
Toradora!
Taiga reminds me way too much of Louise (who I pretty much hate at this point) from Zero no Tsukaima, but from reading the manga I know that this series should not be quite as bad as ZnT’s later sequels. I liked Ryuji and there are some heartwarming moments in the manga, so I’m prepared to deal with annoying initial episodes. In spite of Taiga and her horrible inu comments in the Kugimiya Rie tsundere voice, at least the tsuntsun isn’t completely pointed at her crush (well… sorta). If anime Taiga doesn’t annoy me too much, I might keep watching this series.
Kannagi
I was drawn to the character designs, and now I find that Nagi loves puns and the series is only one cour. This was just made for blogging! I think the series is off to a good start, though the OP caused me some concern about the production values. I like what I have seen in the manga so far, and the first episode did not disappoint.
Gundam 00 Second Season
Hells yeah! It’s like Sunrise never left, and I really really enjoyed the first episode. It is just so easy to make fun of this series that I find myself laughing at so many of the serious parts. At this point it is just hilarious whenever something bad happens to Saji, and now his maybe-GF is a druggie? The scene with strung-out Sumeragi listening to the news was just fantastic as well. Damn I love Sunrise sometimes.
To Aru Majutsu no Index
This was actually much better than I expected, and the main characters were quite likable. There were some interesting ideas and powers brought up, but I am worried about Kamijou’s tendency towards long, boring shounen speeches. Still, the humor greatly exceeded my expectations and I really liked watching Kamijou feed Index spoiled food. I wonder if Mikoto will be playing a bigger role as well, since Mikoto and her friends are amusing. I’ve read the first few manga chapters, as well as the sidestory manga, so I have an idea of what to expect now.
Ga-rei-zero
I get the feeling this is one of those start-at-the-end type series, which doesn’t bode well. I was so cheesed out by the crappy Blassreiter-esque motorcycle action at the beginning, and I was really just bored up until the last few minutes when all the annoying members of the 4th division got massacred. Considering I don’t really care about their angsty earlier lives, I don’t think I’ll be continuing with this one. The girl with the nodachi was kinda cool, though.
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13 Comments
YOU DIDN’T LIKE Ga-rei-zero?!
And I loved it ….
;______;
I thought the motorcycle action was a cool different.
I’m curious: Aren’t you also of the opinion that the Railgun sub-manga for Toaru Majutsu no Index is actually more enjoyable than the main manga? The stories around “shocker” Mikoto are sooooo adorable. That’s a _true_ tsundere done right ^_^
The anime however WAY exceeds my expectations. Great, clean animation, and I like how they flesh out the characters so far. Even Index was easy to connect with for me (I didn’t like her in the manga as much). I hope they can keep it up!
blissmo: I guess it was amusing watching her drive on Category C’s with her rune-treads, but it was still a bit too silly for me.
Mentar: I liked them both about equally when I was reading. I agree that the first episode did the manga justice, and definitely exceeded my expectations.
I haven’t tried Ga-Rei Zero yet, but Blassreiter turned out to be pretty good, so I can take or leave motorcycles.
I’m worried if I watched both Kannagi and To Aru Majutsu no Index I would get the “strange girls in the house” confused.
I liked Blassreiter, but not because of the motorcycles. It was funny to hear that the 666 is just a GARM with some spare parts slapped on (ok I am paraphrasing liberaly).
Of your 5 I’ve only seen 00 and Toradora so far. As a mecha junkie I can’t but not follow 00 (that and my line of 00 figurines on my shelf from Japan!).
As for Toradora, it could go either way I think… Ryuji reminds me of Kenta from Karin what with the scary eyes and all, and the girl is like every single Rie Kugimiya stereotype mixed into one (she even says urusai! urusai!). We’ll see if it’ll be worth following or like Seikirei last season I’ll just lose interest after 4 episodes.
Also saw the first ep of Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka. With it’s all-star cast it may be worth following, and the character designs remind me a bit of Strawberry Panic too (whose cute girls I loved!). The plot seems a bit thin though, so we’ll see.
Overall with the exception of 00 and me continuing to watch my favorite kid’s show Telepathy Shoujo Ran, this season looks pretty crappy compared to last.
Huh?? Can’t take Sunrise seriously??? But those masks are soooo cool…..
Have you tried another other series not mentioned on the blog yet? :3
Epi: I actually ended up liking a lot about ToraDora. I’m just concerned about how annoying Taiga is, but the difference between Toradora and ZnT is that ToraDora is heartwarming and funny, while ZnT is stupid and frustrating (but sometimes funny).
Totali: The more I see Graham’s samurai mask, the more I like it actually!
TheBigN: I saw Casshern SINS which was not my cup of tea but looked surprisingly good and held my interest through the whole episode. I also saw Kemeko DX which was ok, but pretty stupid. I don’t think I’ll follow the Kemeko anime, since it is much easier/faster to just read the manga.
Yes. Louise and Taiga (and Shana) are very much a like. Tsundere much? ><
I have to say, after the 2nd episode Toradora looks to be a winner… we’ll see how it progresses! I’m still patiently waiting for an anime love drama (even if it’s a comedy) to approach the goodness that was Suzuka. True Tears came somewhat close for a while, but it was too short in the end and too weird.
With every new season I’m going further back in time. So far I’ve heard too little about the current season to get my interested in any of them and most of them seem to be old wine in new bottles anyway – or two old wines in one bottle for that matter. That doesn’t mean I expect it too be all bad but I’m not eager in getting excited over one or two initial episodes. Virtually all series of the few past seasons were the least covered/blogged/hyped shows. If the oh-so-great shows are really that great, they’ll still be great in a couple of months.
Judging from looks and comments “Kurozuka” appears to be interesting and MADHOUSE tends to be a good sign in terms of production values with very consistent animation and a steady level of quality. Nonetheless, I’ll wait some time and see what other people say about it before watching it myself.
Updated thoughts:
Toradora: Pacing was kinda off in the second episode, and I didn’t enjoy it as much. Odd to think that I am only watching this series for Ryuuji…
Kannagi: Keeps getting better thanks to Nagi’s amazing VA. I am worried I will quickly run out of tree jokes though. Even so, I will continue to root for Nagi!
Gundam 00: This is everything I wanted it to be and more. Saji spending some alone time with Red Haro makes me happy.
Ga-rei-zero: Second episode was much better. I understand why everyone was so annoying; they were just fodder for Yomi! If there is no more bike-fu I might actually keep watching this series.
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[...] totali but have decided to adopt a Wait and See policy after the Kabitzin Strategic Warning System sounded an ‘inu’ alert. Nagi’s bark is, indeed, worse than her bite! « [...]
[...] happiness with the first episode but Kabitzin’s warning about ‘Taiga and her horrible inu comments in the Kugimiya Rie tsundere voice’ stopped me in my tracks. It didn’t help that Mr [...]