Winter STUFF 2013

Amnesia

I still have a bunch of posts to write, but I thought I’d go ahead and put together a post for the start of winter to try to be pertinent. AKA here are the shows I tried the first episode of, and my opinion of each.

My Sister is an Osaka Momma

Stuff that’s three minutes long:

• Mangirl – dropped.
• Encouragement of Climb – dropped.
• Ishida to Asakura – dropped.
• Ai Mai Mi – dropped.
• Senyuu – dropped. I wanted it to be good, but it was just meh…
• My Sister is an Osaka Momma – isn’t that good, but I still find it kind of interesting to watch. I guess I’m curious to learn how different parts of Japan (jokingly?) view one another.

The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke

Normal-length series:

• Cuticle Detective Inaba – dropped. Comedy is subjective and all, but this was nothing but yelling, randomness, and childish stuff constantly happening and being obnoxious every second. Randomness *can* be funny, but I think it’s like Kriz told me on Twitter: “It’s because of timing. Timing doesn’t exist when you do it nonstop, lol.” And ultimately the jokes just didn’t work for me.
• The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke – was surprisingly a lot of fun to watch, particularly thanks to the title character. It wasn’t a mind-blowing premiere, but the action was decent and there were some legitimately funny bits that spiced things up. I’ve never seen the parent series Zettai Karen Children, but I had no problem following the story here. Hyoubu is supposedly a villainous protagonist here, which is unique in and of itself, but there’s a great setup that’s established at the end of the episode, where both he and the other main character appear to be fooling each other and using each other for their plans. I hope things don’t get taken too seriously though; I quite liked the bits such as Hyoubu presenting the little chibi keychain of himself as a gift for joining his organization. XD
• GJ-bu – was tolerable, but not particularly funny. It’s generic high school slice-of-life fluff, and that’s kind of all there is to say. I was kind of amused one of the side characters was solely devoted to eating fried chicken the whole episode, though. Not enough to keep watching though.
• Tamako Market – dropped. I’m sorry KyoAni fans, but there was nothing I liked in this first episode. Was the show good at comedy? In my opinion… no, not at all. That bird especially was incredibly annoying. Was the show good at slice-of-life? No, not really. None of the characters seemed to act human at all, strangely. It was all about the moe moe moe, and it did nothing for me.
• Amnesia – was not too engaging, but I think there’s still potential there. There’s just something really different about Amnesia, at least for the otome adaptation sub-genre it’s working within. It’s got a rather dark, ominous tone to it all, and I’m really not sure where the series is even planning to go in general. The protagonist presents some problems since she’s such a blank slate, which makes it difficult to care a whole lot about her at this point. And yet I find her approach to amnesia unique, in how she simply goes along with everything and doesn’t bring up her situation with anyone. It’s unusual, at least, and it makes me want to at least try one or two more episodes to see where this series goes.
• Kotoura-san – completely took me by surprise, and was actually really, really good. Definitely the biggest surprise of the season for me, and a pleasant one at that. You’ll see more of my thoughts on this in a first impressions post on Sea Slugs soon, but suffice to say I really loved the main characters in this episode. The back-story for Kotoura was handled well, and the setup between her and Manabe was handled wonderfully. My heartstrings were pulled in the first half, but in the second half I laughed and I hnnnngggg’ed. It was a very well-executed start for what I hope will be a cute and amusing dramcom/romcom.
• Sasami-san @ Ganbaranai – dropped. I’m sorry Shaft fans, but this was just… I don’t know what it was. I didn’t get any of it, let’s say. It was a bunch of basic anime characters having random discussions and random fanservice, and completely bizarre things happening, and the whole thing just felt incredibly… hollow. I wanted to ask “…why?” for basically every single thing that happened. I’m not against bizarre stuff–I mean, my favorite anime of last year was Humanity Has Declined. But there was nothing to like about any of these characters, and I found nothing to glean from all the randomness in this episode. The incest-themed subject material is nothing new for the anime world, and while the art style is unique and all, I just can’t connect with the storyline(?). And any jokes it might have had didn’t work for me, though I’m still not actually sure if it was trying to be funny.
• Hakkenden – was quite boring, which is too bad since there’s some interesting concepts there. I’m interested in yokai and whatnot, but the premise of the (presumably) Catholic church wanting to control the powers of traditional Japanese gods is a very intriguing one. The characters just seemed really bland though, and the execution of the episode in general felt too straightforward and ordinary. I might be interested in one day learning more about the traditional story this is based on, though.

Kotoura-san

So that’s the scoop for winter. I’m going to be pretty busy, so it’s probably good that so few anime piqued my interest this season. I’ll be continuing to watch From the New World and Zetsuen no Tempest (both of which you’ll find me posting about on Seas Slugs) from last season. But then there’s Kotoura-san and The Unlimited which I’ll also watch, and perhaps post about from time to time here if I get the chance. Of course, if I lose interest or get too busy, I may drop one. And if Amnesia improves in the next episode or two, I’ll try to keep watching that as well. Otherwise, that’s it for the season.

Well, that and My Sister is an Osaka Momma. It’s already in the running for anime of the year, am I right?