 | "Summer's First Impressions" by Konstantin
(2006-07-11) |
The new season has begun, and the subs are starting to come in at a decent rate. So far nothing I've seen has managed to sweep me off my feet (with the exception of H&C2, to which I came pre-floored), but there definitely are some shows worth watching. Here are some of my first impressions.
Honey and Clover II - The second season continues right off from where the first one ended, and looks, feels, and sounds exactly the same as the original series. This definitely looks like a case of them making more episodes as they get more manga, as opposed to any kind of attempt to reinterpret the original. Which is just fine with me, since the first series has entered the ranks of my all-time favorite anime. If you loved the first show, you'll like the second season, if not, there's nothing new here to change your opinion. If you've never seen any Honey and Clover before, though, or read any of the manga, I would strongly recommend watching the first season before starting on any of the new episodes. Even though the first episode is devoted entirely to recap, I still don't think it really presents a deep enough picture of the characters and their relationships, and dishes out huge amounts of spoilers in the process. The second ep, though, is pure HachiKuro gold. This is going to be the one I look forward to the most each week, too bad there are only 13 episodes planned.
Zero no Tsukaima - Girl summons boy, wacky hijinks ensue. Looks very nice so far, and has a good mix of plot, comedy, and fanservice. The animation is by JC Staff, and looks very solid if not especially flashy. The character designs are particularly good, and Louise has the whole Hermione moe going for her (with a little bit of Lina Inverse thrown in for kicks). The major relationship in the show looks like it's heading for Shana territory (the fact that the voice actors are the same for the two leads doesn't help things), but with only 13 episodes scheduled, it doesn't look like it will get much of a chance to go stale. The show looks like a keeper, though people who are allergic to tsundere may want to steer clear.
Tsuyokiss CoolxSweet - And speaking of tsundere, the main gimmick for Tsuyokiss seems to be the fact that it has a full female cast of tsundere characters. The setup seems to be that of a standard erogame-based harem show with the aforementioned twist, but the direction seems to be a bit unorthodox, at least for the first ep. Specifically, the male protagonist barely makes a cameo appearance, and the episode instead focuses on one of the girls, keeping things from getting too stale and too generic. The animation quality is decent though not stellar and the character designs are easy on the eyes, though no one really stands out. I'll leave game comparisons to Akira (and from what I've heard there are major deviations from the game) but what I've seen so far looks decent, if not particularly groundbreaking. The first episode was silly but watchable, and I think the show could go either way in the long run.
Powerpuff Girls Z - Yes, after all the jokes and hoaxes, they actually made a Powerpuff Girls anime. The first episode is worth watching for the sheer WTF factor alone, though I don't think the show has much going for it beyond that. It's still a parody, and now pokes fun at anime and sentai tropes, but it doesn't really have the energy or the cleverness of the original, and at times plays things a bit too straight. Once the novelty wears off, there's nothing to keep it off the plonk pile. Also, what's with those transformation sequences? Is this a dancing animu? *ducks*
In completely unrelated news, it looks like another 4chan meme has managed to escape its depths and spark an international fad. This time it's the Loituma Girl flash, featuring a loop of Orihime from Bleach twirling a leek set to an amusing and horribly catchy bit of Finnish music. There have since been numerous imitations of the flash and remixes of the song, similar to what happened to Dragostea Din Tei when that hit the net.
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