Oh wow, is this the end of this season of First Impressions?
Plot Synopsis: Based on the XBOX 360 game The iDOLM@STER 2, The iDOLM@STER follows 13 aspiring idols aiming to reach their goals.
Before viewing: This looks like the gender-reversed version of Uta no Prince-sama, another harem series about people trying to make it into show biz. The character designs vaguely remind me of K-ON, which makes me suspect that this'll be a moe-rific series. It sounds a bit dull and flat. Also, I can tell that this series is going to suffer from character overload. It's probably not a good idea to have more main characters than there are episodes. Much like any other series with lots of of "important" characters introduced from the beginning, I suspect that none of them will get enough screen time for us to actually learn anything about them or grow to love them.
After viewing: Playing this game is exactly like watching someone else play a dating game. Everything about it screams it; from the set-up of the plot, to the way the characters are introduced, to how they interact with each other. The "main character" that the girls all talk to is a cameraman interviewing them, whose voice is never heard, but his dialogue appears on-screen, exactly like in a dating game. The way they talk, everything about them is like a girl in a dating game. All the different types of girls that always show up are there too, naturally. And just like watching someone else play a dating game, it's boring. It's even more boring than watching a dating game because there's not even the underlying sexual tension or the possibility of a relationship, it's just an interview with all the girls. It's mind-numbingly dull. Hopefully the rest of the episodes aren't done in this same format, or because you can't possibly create an entire series through interviews with the cast.
And with that, the First Impressions of the Summer 2011 season are over! I'll be posting a summary of the season later, since I only did a first impression of half the series. The other series I'm going to do a review of.
Friday, July 22, 2011
First Impressions: Appleseed XIII
Plot Synopsis: (from MAL)It is the 22nd Century, the Third World War (2099-2126) has decimated a large part of Earth even though nuclear weapons have not been employed during the conflict. Old nations such as England, France and China have survived but have difficulty restoring their power. On the other hand, new nations and organizations such as the Sacred Republique of Mumna and the Poseidon Organization have been born on the ashes of the world resulting from the Third World War.
In this bleak future, we are introduced to ex-L.A. SWAT members Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires. Having survived the world conflict and living in a desolated city, they are found by a young woman called Hitomi who proposes them to follow her to the utopian city of Olympus which has become the world's most powerful organization and which registers the new relations in terms of politics, economics and military between new and old nations/organizations. In Olympus, they are integrated in the prestigious ESWAT (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics) organization, whose main mission is to protect Olympus from terrorist attacks and Olympus's interests in the world.
From here on, the two main protagonists encounter a great number of other characters and organizations who will be implicated in international plots that target Olympus.
Before viewing: Masamune Shirow is very renowned in the world of anime. Most well known for Ghost in the Shell, he is a prolific cyberpunk science fiction writer with an impressive record of work behind him. This particular series is an adaptation of his 1985 manga which has been adapted to anime several times. This series is CG animated, which is a bit of a turnoff. Japanese CG animation is usually pretty bad. The only time I've been happy with it was in the Final Fantasy VII film, which was a film I would prefer to watch mute; the animation is so lovely, while everything else is so convoluted and makes no sense. From what I've seen, this animation isn't nearly as up to par.
After viewing: The animation is pretty bad. It feels like watching cutscenes from an older video game, and a pretty badly made one at that. The scenery is nice enough, but the people sit on that line between anime and CG, and it just doesn't look good. Also, the way they move can be really awkward. It's not so bad in the fight scenes, but when they're standing around talking, the way they gesture, stand, blink, or how their lips move are all so fake looking, like marionettes. It's pretty distracting and makes it difficult to get yourself sucked into the series, because its distracting and doesn't flow together very well. Its constantly reminding you that you're watching something created in a computer, something lifeless.
Story-wise, there doesn't seem to be much at this point. It mostly seems to be about Deunan and Briareos and their missions in the ESWAT team. Deunan isn't a team player, and it astounds me that she managed to become a member when she consistently refuses to pay much mind to orders, trust any of her team members or work as a team. Don't they do team building exercises as a part of training? She is constantly being scolded for it by her partner, Briareos, but she shrugs it off or makes excuses, like how it was how she was raised, or it doesn't matter because everything turned out all right anyways. She never gets punished for her insubordination, so she just keeps doing it. She's a pretty Mary Sue-ish character, and it's pretty annoying.
A personal pet peeve of mine is when a character is half-"insert race/species/other" here and it's some throwaway fact about them, something that doesn't affect their character designs, abilities or character at all. Deunan is supposedly half-black, and she's as white as they come. Can they at least give her darker skin or hair, rather than be blond and pale? They use racism as a way to establish some angst in her life, (her mom was killed because she's black apparently), and it feels so forced.
There's something interesting the series does, which is kinda cool but seems pointless. It is full of references to Greek mythology, and it's not very subtle about it. There's a terrorist group known as the Argonauts and some political entity known as Poseidon. The opening theme is basically just the constellations outlined in the stars, while statues of the figures in the constellations, like Orion and others appear on the screen. And most bizarre, Greek murals constantly pop up in the middle of dialogue, which is admittingly pretty interesting, and nicer looking than the characters talking awkwardly at one another. Deunan even has a dream sequence all done in mural, and it's pretty cool. But I'm not sure what the point is, or if there even is a point to it. It might simply be from the Evangelion "we did it because it looked cool" mindset behind their biblical references. I hope that later episodes will give the allusions a point because at this point it feels like they're trying to make the series look smarter than it actually is, and it comes off as super pretentious.
This is a seriously flawed series, with more bad points than good ones. There is much better science fiction of this ilk out there, with more likeable characters, better animation, and more interesting futuristic settings than this series. I could only recommend this for Shirow completists.
In this bleak future, we are introduced to ex-L.A. SWAT members Deunan Knute and Briareos Hecatonchires. Having survived the world conflict and living in a desolated city, they are found by a young woman called Hitomi who proposes them to follow her to the utopian city of Olympus which has become the world's most powerful organization and which registers the new relations in terms of politics, economics and military between new and old nations/organizations. In Olympus, they are integrated in the prestigious ESWAT (Extra Special Weapons And Tactics) organization, whose main mission is to protect Olympus from terrorist attacks and Olympus's interests in the world.
From here on, the two main protagonists encounter a great number of other characters and organizations who will be implicated in international plots that target Olympus.
Before viewing: Masamune Shirow is very renowned in the world of anime. Most well known for Ghost in the Shell, he is a prolific cyberpunk science fiction writer with an impressive record of work behind him. This particular series is an adaptation of his 1985 manga which has been adapted to anime several times. This series is CG animated, which is a bit of a turnoff. Japanese CG animation is usually pretty bad. The only time I've been happy with it was in the Final Fantasy VII film, which was a film I would prefer to watch mute; the animation is so lovely, while everything else is so convoluted and makes no sense. From what I've seen, this animation isn't nearly as up to par.
After viewing: The animation is pretty bad. It feels like watching cutscenes from an older video game, and a pretty badly made one at that. The scenery is nice enough, but the people sit on that line between anime and CG, and it just doesn't look good. Also, the way they move can be really awkward. It's not so bad in the fight scenes, but when they're standing around talking, the way they gesture, stand, blink, or how their lips move are all so fake looking, like marionettes. It's pretty distracting and makes it difficult to get yourself sucked into the series, because its distracting and doesn't flow together very well. Its constantly reminding you that you're watching something created in a computer, something lifeless.
Story-wise, there doesn't seem to be much at this point. It mostly seems to be about Deunan and Briareos and their missions in the ESWAT team. Deunan isn't a team player, and it astounds me that she managed to become a member when she consistently refuses to pay much mind to orders, trust any of her team members or work as a team. Don't they do team building exercises as a part of training? She is constantly being scolded for it by her partner, Briareos, but she shrugs it off or makes excuses, like how it was how she was raised, or it doesn't matter because everything turned out all right anyways. She never gets punished for her insubordination, so she just keeps doing it. She's a pretty Mary Sue-ish character, and it's pretty annoying.
A personal pet peeve of mine is when a character is half-"insert race/species/other" here and it's some throwaway fact about them, something that doesn't affect their character designs, abilities or character at all. Deunan is supposedly half-black, and she's as white as they come. Can they at least give her darker skin or hair, rather than be blond and pale? They use racism as a way to establish some angst in her life, (her mom was killed because she's black apparently), and it feels so forced.
There's something interesting the series does, which is kinda cool but seems pointless. It is full of references to Greek mythology, and it's not very subtle about it. There's a terrorist group known as the Argonauts and some political entity known as Poseidon. The opening theme is basically just the constellations outlined in the stars, while statues of the figures in the constellations, like Orion and others appear on the screen. And most bizarre, Greek murals constantly pop up in the middle of dialogue, which is admittingly pretty interesting, and nicer looking than the characters talking awkwardly at one another. Deunan even has a dream sequence all done in mural, and it's pretty cool. But I'm not sure what the point is, or if there even is a point to it. It might simply be from the Evangelion "we did it because it looked cool" mindset behind their biblical references. I hope that later episodes will give the allusions a point because at this point it feels like they're trying to make the series look smarter than it actually is, and it comes off as super pretentious.
This is a seriously flawed series, with more bad points than good ones. There is much better science fiction of this ilk out there, with more likeable characters, better animation, and more interesting futuristic settings than this series. I could only recommend this for Shirow completists.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
First Impressions: Cat God
Plot synopsis:Koyama Yuzu is running an antique shop. Mayu, a cat god (nekogami), is living off Yuzu and leads an idle life playing games. Lots of other gods visit Mayu and enjoy merrymaking.
Before Viewing: Do you remember those older harem series, like Oh My Goddess! and Tenchi Muyo, or even going back even further Urusei Yatsura? This sort of feels like one of those supernatural harem series that were crazy popular back then. Most harem series these days aren't like that, so a series like this is actually a little nostalgic. Remember when Tenchi Muyo was on Toonami? You couldn't do something like that nowadays! That being said, I was never crazy for those kinds of series, and it's rare that I find a harem series I like.
After viewing: So obviously I was wrong about this being a harem series. That's a pleasant surprise. The one male character is definitely not at the center of a love pentagon or anything. It's a fairly typical supernatural comedy, about gods living on Earth and the shenanigans they get up to. It's a cute, light and fluffy series, where not much happens, just some somewhat entertaining characters goofing off and being cute. It's pretty cute, and makes for a entertaining half hour. It's nothing special, but it certainly won't hurt to watch if there's nothing else to watch.
Before Viewing: Do you remember those older harem series, like Oh My Goddess! and Tenchi Muyo, or even going back even further Urusei Yatsura? This sort of feels like one of those supernatural harem series that were crazy popular back then. Most harem series these days aren't like that, so a series like this is actually a little nostalgic. Remember when Tenchi Muyo was on Toonami? You couldn't do something like that nowadays! That being said, I was never crazy for those kinds of series, and it's rare that I find a harem series I like.
After viewing: So obviously I was wrong about this being a harem series. That's a pleasant surprise. The one male character is definitely not at the center of a love pentagon or anything. It's a fairly typical supernatural comedy, about gods living on Earth and the shenanigans they get up to. It's a cute, light and fluffy series, where not much happens, just some somewhat entertaining characters goofing off and being cute. It's pretty cute, and makes for a entertaining half hour. It's nothing special, but it certainly won't hurt to watch if there's nothing else to watch.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
First Impressions: Mawaru Penguindrum
Plot Synopsis:Three siblings, twins Kanba and Shouma, and the in-and-out-of-the-hospital Himari who's in poor health, live together at the Takakura home. One day, when the siblings are out on a trip to the aquarium, Himari collapses. The doctors state that nothing can be done for her anymore, but then, a miracle occurs...
Before Viewing: Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of the more highly acclaimed series out there. As a result, I have some pretty high expectations for this series, as it's by the same people behind Utena. Admittingly, I don't know much about this series, other than that it's a slice of life series and that it has a really weird title. What's a penguindrum anyways? I'm hoping this will be a great series.
After Viewing: What. The. Fuck. Did I just watch? How is this remotely a slice of life series? Posession, Revival from death, magical penguins all over the fucking place! The hat is magical, what? Robot bear, ripped out heart, WHAT'S A PENGUN DRUM, aleajwoifjalrihtaowirtjaoijnsaofiuwaer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can probably guess, this is not your ordinary show. It's rather...strange if you will. I mean, I know that Utena is a bizarre show, and I probably should have seen it coming, but the beginning trolls you hard. For the first half, it's gentle, peaceful even, with a tragedy just around the corner. I assumed it was about the last days of a dying girl and her brothers. But from the moment her corpse sat up and screamed "Survival Strategy!" any form of sense slowly begins to fade, culminating in a complete explosion of insanity in the last five minutes, with absolutely no explanation, just the order to find the Penguin Drum and insane visuals being thrown at you constantly. Nobody has any clue what it going on. It's awesome!
I really don't know what to say about this episode. The ending is so incoherent that I can barely pull my thoughts together. I'm sure that later episodes will explain things in time, or maybe it'll just keeping throwing weird shit at us and expect us to understand what just happened. I do enjoy the surreality of it, and the confusion makes me want to see more so I can comprehend what I just saw.
I want to punch the person who labeled this as a slice of life and confused the ever living hell out of me. It's like they stopped watching the episode at the ten minute mark and decided that was good enough, but they were dead wrong.
By far the weirdest thing I've seen this season, and after Twin Angel, I never thought I'd say that.
Before Viewing: Revolutionary Girl Utena is one of the more highly acclaimed series out there. As a result, I have some pretty high expectations for this series, as it's by the same people behind Utena. Admittingly, I don't know much about this series, other than that it's a slice of life series and that it has a really weird title. What's a penguindrum anyways? I'm hoping this will be a great series.
After Viewing: What. The. Fuck. Did I just watch? How is this remotely a slice of life series? Posession, Revival from death, magical penguins all over the fucking place! The hat is magical, what? Robot bear, ripped out heart, WHAT'S A PENGUN DRUM, aleajwoifjalrihtaowirtjaoijnsaofiuwaer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As you can probably guess, this is not your ordinary show. It's rather...strange if you will. I mean, I know that Utena is a bizarre show, and I probably should have seen it coming, but the beginning trolls you hard. For the first half, it's gentle, peaceful even, with a tragedy just around the corner. I assumed it was about the last days of a dying girl and her brothers. But from the moment her corpse sat up and screamed "Survival Strategy!" any form of sense slowly begins to fade, culminating in a complete explosion of insanity in the last five minutes, with absolutely no explanation, just the order to find the Penguin Drum and insane visuals being thrown at you constantly. Nobody has any clue what it going on. It's awesome!
I really don't know what to say about this episode. The ending is so incoherent that I can barely pull my thoughts together. I'm sure that later episodes will explain things in time, or maybe it'll just keeping throwing weird shit at us and expect us to understand what just happened. I do enjoy the surreality of it, and the confusion makes me want to see more so I can comprehend what I just saw.
I want to punch the person who labeled this as a slice of life and confused the ever living hell out of me. It's like they stopped watching the episode at the ten minute mark and decided that was good enough, but they were dead wrong.
By far the weirdest thing I've seen this season, and after Twin Angel, I never thought I'd say that.
First Impressions: YuruYuri
Plot Synopsis:Four fun-loving schoolgirls take over the former room of a tea ceremony club for their own "Gorakubu" (amusement club).
Before viewing: Sigh. I am tired of these K-ON clone series. I dunno, maybe K-ON is an amazing show, or maybe it's just complete and utter otaku bait that really hit the mark. I never actually saw the series myself. But these adorable girls sitting around being adorable series are getting old. I loved Soranowoto AKA Sound of the Sky, despite being described as being a military K-ON. However, the difference between a series like Soranowoto and a series like YuruYuri, is that Soranowoto took place in a beautiful enchanting world that drew me in, making it unique and stand out from other moe series. This takes place in a school, so there's nothing that makes it stand out from other moe series. This just looks like it'll be a retired formula being rehashed yet again.
After viewing: Well, it's cute. And...it's cute. It has about as much personality as the lead character Akari, which the episode is about trying to make her stand out more because she doesn't have enough presence. So don't expect anything unique about this series.
This was serialized in a yuri magazine, and after seeing it, I can definitely see why. I think everyone in this school might be gay, except for the main character, who can't tell the difference between friendship and romance yet. The other three main characters are already in love triangle with one another, and Akari's sister has a creepy obsession with her, covering her room with pictures of her, a body pillow with her picture on it, and even stealing her panties. Akari is of course clueless to all of this, and mostly just sits on the sidelines while everything happens around her. She can hardly be considered the main character.
This episode gets dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall. The other girls realize that Akari doesn't have much "presence" and tries to brainstorm ways to make her stand out more. It's mostly just them making fun of her, and nothing comes out of it in the end, although there is some funny parody of anime tropes, such as when they make a list of things that HAVE to happen to the main character, such as a girl falling out of the sky, waking up late on the first day, finding a legendary sword, and having powers that work at the most convenient time. It's actually a pretty funny sequence, but it's the only moment in the episode like it. The episode is mostly just dull.
It's a standard moe series, so if you enjoy sugary sweet stuff like this, it might be a nice way to kill time. Otherwise, it doesn't have enough to make it stand out from any other series of its ilk.
Before viewing: Sigh. I am tired of these K-ON clone series. I dunno, maybe K-ON is an amazing show, or maybe it's just complete and utter otaku bait that really hit the mark. I never actually saw the series myself. But these adorable girls sitting around being adorable series are getting old. I loved Soranowoto AKA Sound of the Sky, despite being described as being a military K-ON. However, the difference between a series like Soranowoto and a series like YuruYuri, is that Soranowoto took place in a beautiful enchanting world that drew me in, making it unique and stand out from other moe series. This takes place in a school, so there's nothing that makes it stand out from other moe series. This just looks like it'll be a retired formula being rehashed yet again.
After viewing: Well, it's cute. And...it's cute. It has about as much personality as the lead character Akari, which the episode is about trying to make her stand out more because she doesn't have enough presence. So don't expect anything unique about this series.
This was serialized in a yuri magazine, and after seeing it, I can definitely see why. I think everyone in this school might be gay, except for the main character, who can't tell the difference between friendship and romance yet. The other three main characters are already in love triangle with one another, and Akari's sister has a creepy obsession with her, covering her room with pictures of her, a body pillow with her picture on it, and even stealing her panties. Akari is of course clueless to all of this, and mostly just sits on the sidelines while everything happens around her. She can hardly be considered the main character.
This episode gets dangerously close to breaking the fourth wall. The other girls realize that Akari doesn't have much "presence" and tries to brainstorm ways to make her stand out more. It's mostly just them making fun of her, and nothing comes out of it in the end, although there is some funny parody of anime tropes, such as when they make a list of things that HAVE to happen to the main character, such as a girl falling out of the sky, waking up late on the first day, finding a legendary sword, and having powers that work at the most convenient time. It's actually a pretty funny sequence, but it's the only moment in the episode like it. The episode is mostly just dull.
It's a standard moe series, so if you enjoy sugary sweet stuff like this, it might be a nice way to kill time. Otherwise, it doesn't have enough to make it stand out from any other series of its ilk.
First Impressions: No. 6
Plot Synopsis: (from MAL)The story takes place in the ideal city "NO.6" in 2013. Shion was judged as having "highest-ranked intelligence" when he was two years old and was allowed to live in the luxurious area "Cronos".
On his twelfth birthday, he met a beautiful boy called "Nezumi," who had escaped from a reformatory. Shion protected him, but the Public Security Bureau deprived Shion of all his privileges and expelled him from Cronos to "Lost Town".
Four years after the banishment, a mysterious accident leads Shion to the secret of the city NO.6.
Before Viewing: Oh heck yeah. noitaminA is my favorite animation block.Every series I've seen from it has been a great one. The programming block was started because Fuji TV wanted to expand the target audience beyond the typical anime audience, and the series they show indicate that. NoitaminA series are usually more mature, better written, and more unique than most anime. The most typical anime they've released was Shiki, which I still enjoyed as a pretty typical horror series. So I expect great things from this series as well.
Judging by the plot synopsis, it appears to be a dystopian series, which is a genre I'm rather fond of, so I'm pretty psyched.
After Viewing: This episode wasn't long enough. It ends before the Public Security Bureau finds out that Sion has helped Nezumi, so the plot synopsis has given away stuff that doesn't happen in the first episode. Which is annoying, but not the series fault. The series does however focus on a lot of things unrelated to the central plot, but it does help drive home how peaceful Sion's life was, which will make the big change even more impactful, so I guess it's alright.
In terms of settings, it's a fairly typical dystopia. The world seems very peaceful at first glance, a place where no one needs to worry about anything, because everything is taken care of for them. Everyone is given a house, enough food to live comfortably, can go to school, etc. But there is an undercurrent of darkness in the world, that not all is right in the world. There are certain details that are treated casually in the series, but often tend to be placed in a negative light in many science fiction novels, like the bracelets everyone wears that works as keys, credit cards, ID and trackers. The character Nezumi demonstrates this undercurrent in a less subtle way; despite being a child, he is being "hunted" by "those who hunt humans". The reasons why he was locked up are unknown, but he seems to have suffered a lot in his life, unlike Sion, who never seems to have experienced suffering in his life. It reminds me of the story about the village that has never suffered, except for one member who must bear the burden of every possible kind of suffering imaginable. The idea that for many to be happy, someone must suffer, and whether or not it's right, seems to be present in this series, and it usually makes a pretty good theme.In fact, it feels less like typical anime science fiction, and more like a Western science fiction novel. It seems pretty calm at this point, but the series is rated R, so it may become very dark and disturbed later, like many dystopian novels do.
Nezumi and Sion have great chemistry, and the way their personalities work off one another is excellently written. They haven't known each other very well at this point, but you can see that they will become very close, and there is a somewhat romantic feel to their interactions. Whether or not this will come to anything or not is unknown at this point, as it's not uncommon for close friends in anime to give off the feeling of being a couple, but both the opening and the ending still give off that feel. It makes it obvious that it's a shoujo series though.
This is a series that I'm definitely interested in. With its interesting dystopian world, sweet interaction between the two main characters and the possibility of being a very dark series, it's one of the more unique series this season. It's definitely something I would recommend.
On his twelfth birthday, he met a beautiful boy called "Nezumi," who had escaped from a reformatory. Shion protected him, but the Public Security Bureau deprived Shion of all his privileges and expelled him from Cronos to "Lost Town".
Four years after the banishment, a mysterious accident leads Shion to the secret of the city NO.6.
Before Viewing: Oh heck yeah. noitaminA is my favorite animation block.Every series I've seen from it has been a great one. The programming block was started because Fuji TV wanted to expand the target audience beyond the typical anime audience, and the series they show indicate that. NoitaminA series are usually more mature, better written, and more unique than most anime. The most typical anime they've released was Shiki, which I still enjoyed as a pretty typical horror series. So I expect great things from this series as well.
Judging by the plot synopsis, it appears to be a dystopian series, which is a genre I'm rather fond of, so I'm pretty psyched.
After Viewing: This episode wasn't long enough. It ends before the Public Security Bureau finds out that Sion has helped Nezumi, so the plot synopsis has given away stuff that doesn't happen in the first episode. Which is annoying, but not the series fault. The series does however focus on a lot of things unrelated to the central plot, but it does help drive home how peaceful Sion's life was, which will make the big change even more impactful, so I guess it's alright.
In terms of settings, it's a fairly typical dystopia. The world seems very peaceful at first glance, a place where no one needs to worry about anything, because everything is taken care of for them. Everyone is given a house, enough food to live comfortably, can go to school, etc. But there is an undercurrent of darkness in the world, that not all is right in the world. There are certain details that are treated casually in the series, but often tend to be placed in a negative light in many science fiction novels, like the bracelets everyone wears that works as keys, credit cards, ID and trackers. The character Nezumi demonstrates this undercurrent in a less subtle way; despite being a child, he is being "hunted" by "those who hunt humans". The reasons why he was locked up are unknown, but he seems to have suffered a lot in his life, unlike Sion, who never seems to have experienced suffering in his life. It reminds me of the story about the village that has never suffered, except for one member who must bear the burden of every possible kind of suffering imaginable. The idea that for many to be happy, someone must suffer, and whether or not it's right, seems to be present in this series, and it usually makes a pretty good theme.In fact, it feels less like typical anime science fiction, and more like a Western science fiction novel. It seems pretty calm at this point, but the series is rated R, so it may become very dark and disturbed later, like many dystopian novels do.
Nezumi and Sion have great chemistry, and the way their personalities work off one another is excellently written. They haven't known each other very well at this point, but you can see that they will become very close, and there is a somewhat romantic feel to their interactions. Whether or not this will come to anything or not is unknown at this point, as it's not uncommon for close friends in anime to give off the feeling of being a couple, but both the opening and the ending still give off that feel. It makes it obvious that it's a shoujo series though.
This is a series that I'm definitely interested in. With its interesting dystopian world, sweet interaction between the two main characters and the possibility of being a very dark series, it's one of the more unique series this season. It's definitely something I would recommend.
Sunday, July 10, 2011
First Impressions: Mayo Chiki
Plot Synopsis: Konoe Subaru, 17, has been serving as the butler of Suzutsuki Kanade in school, a classmate of Sakamachi Kinjirou. Due to an accident, Sakamachi discovers Subaru's secret... that he's actually a girl!? Apparently she will be removed from her position if anyone at school finds out. What will unfold from this chain of events?
Before viewing: I think everyone has that one genre that's a guilty pleasure for them, one that they always enjoy even when they know it's stupid. For me, it's gender bender. I've always been a fan of gender bender, even when I can't defend the series as being good. They always entertain me, so it's very likely I'll enjoy this series.
After viewing: This is such a standard gender bender series that you can almost see every moment happen before it does. Pretty much the only difference between this and other gender benders is that unlike most shonen gender benders, it's a girl rather than a boy who's gender-bending. It's a cliche ridden series, and the logic is so ridiculous it's laughable. But if you enjoy these cliches as much as I do, it's just as entertaining as any other gender bender series, but it's certainly not the best, and definitely can't be considered good. It's just average.
Before viewing: I think everyone has that one genre that's a guilty pleasure for them, one that they always enjoy even when they know it's stupid. For me, it's gender bender. I've always been a fan of gender bender, even when I can't defend the series as being good. They always entertain me, so it's very likely I'll enjoy this series.
After viewing: This is such a standard gender bender series that you can almost see every moment happen before it does. Pretty much the only difference between this and other gender benders is that unlike most shonen gender benders, it's a girl rather than a boy who's gender-bending. It's a cliche ridden series, and the logic is so ridiculous it's laughable. But if you enjoy these cliches as much as I do, it's just as entertaining as any other gender bender series, but it's certainly not the best, and definitely can't be considered good. It's just average.
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