Anime of Fall 2012 (Week 2)

Sorry for this late post! Blogger's photo upload and Chrome doesn't play well... Anyway, I'll be dropping some shows and avoiding some new shows because, well, they just don't interest me. This week is absolutely PACKED. Last week was bad enough, and I had a few shows that I didn't manage to catch, but this week adds more new shows into the mix! I'll have to start culling them soon, but its such a pity... quite a lot of good stuff this season!

14/10 Update: Catching up with a whole bunch of shows, but I still have 6 more in the buffer. I'm enjoying it, but the stress from all my project deadlines is making this a horrible time to be indulging...

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 02

Ahhh new characters to spice things up! I liked how they showed Shizuku getting jealous but stopped short of really showing any easily misunderstood situations between Asako and Haru. In fact, Asako quietly supports Haru X Shizuku! Shizuku also finally admits to her feelings and confesses to Haru, but how much that actually changes things remains to be seen. Haru didn't seem too fazed by the confession, which could complicate things if he isn't able to understand and reciprocate Shizuku's feelings later on in the series. Sasahara Shouhei was also introduced this episode and I can see this cheerful person being a source of comfort for Shizuku, and potentially a love rival for Haru...

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 01

My initial impressions of the trailer was that this might turn out to be another Toradora; starts in comedy and ends in drama. So far, it kind of seems to be leaning in that direction, though with some hints of Hachimitsu to Clover mixed in. But its hard to laugh at the comedy when you don't know how serious the writers are. Is Shiina just a dimwitted moe character? Or is this a heartwarming tale of a girl with autism who finds friends and love? I would love for it to be the latter. A more serious spin on things, something out of the ordinary, would make for a very interesting story. But what the heck, this is anime, this is Japan, this is JC Staff, and this is an adaptation from a light novel.

Ixion Saga DT 01

Yet another guy-jumps-into-a-game premise, but this one doesn't take itself seriously. Since most of it is just a rehash of other shows in this genre, you just need to know 2 things:

• That green-haired girl in the maid outfit? That's voiced by Fukuyama Jun.
• There is a character named Erecpyle Dukakis. In other words, ED.

If that's your kind of humour, I'd say watch this, because it looks promising.

CODE : BREAKER 01

Lame name and seemingly lame premise so far. It reminds me of last season's Zetman, but with a less annoying protagonist. While his powers look cool, there isn't much explanation about how things work in this fictional world. Seems like a normal modern world but with some special people with magical powers? I know I know, I shouldn't question the logic behind shows like this, but even science fiction and fantasy stories have their own internal logic that makes sense within its universe. They need to at least hint to viewers about this, or else we will just feel lost. Not a strong start to the series at all, but I'm willing to give this another chance... unless I end up with 20+ shows to watch next week.

Magi 01

A-1 Pictures, I can't nail down a specific style from your animation studio, but Magi shows a Toei-level of masterful animation you rarely find in modern anime. I just wonder, WHY THE BOOB JOKES? This is an alternate retelling of Arabian Nights, starring Aladdin and Alibaba. Its almost stripped bare of any Arabian atmosphere though. The boob jokes, the chibi cute Aladdin, none of that really makes sense, but the rest of the show more than makes up for it. Strong characters, great voice acting, and (mostly) superb animation carries it through. Ishihara Kaori does a phenomenal job voicing lead character Aladdin (the blue-haired boy on the right) while Kaji Yuuki does some of his best work here too as Alibaba. Looks like it'll be more action-oriented from here on too!

Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai! 02

Can this show get any cuter? Yes, yes it can. KyoAni proves yet again that they are the masters of moe. Even Ui-look-a-like Tsuyuri-senpai isn't spared the moe treatment. It's interesting to see the Nibutani-Yuuta-Rikka dynamic right now, especially considering the title of this show. It's not going to be a surprise, nor anything overly dramatic, but it'll be heartwarming to see the "romance" part of this show develop. Also, I'll be remiss if I didn't mention how downright awesome the action scenes were. Sometimes I wish KyoAni would do a full-on high-budget action series... wait, is Full Metal Panic? what I'm looking for? I better check that out...

Gintama 254

Yup, definitely one of the episodes of Gintama I've ever seen (I've only seen the first 70+ episodes). The creation of Kin-chan, the karaoke machine, the ULTRA SOUL song, Gin-san's fake suicide attempt, and the heartwarming moment when all of Yorozuya jumped to save Sa-chan. They had very laughing, and then added some heartwarming moments at the yet. This is the typical Gintama story structure, but it does it realy well.

Psycho-Pass 01

That... wasn't exactly what I expected from Urobuchi Gen, but perhaps I was expecting too much. Much like Madoka and Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, Tsunemori Akane is a somewhat weak character that borders on whinny and irritating. In fact, the other characters seem to be a little irritated by her actions already. However, there were reasons behind how Madoka acted, so perhaps Gen is designing her this way so that he can utterly destroy her psychologically later. Oh god... I've become as demented as Gen...

Robotics;Notes 01

I like how this show takes it own sweet time to establish the basic premise of the plot. It has 22 episodes after all! OK, so it wasn't as good as Steins;Gate, but I think the director here understand's pacing. Why else would they let him make such a slow introductory episode right? At least, that's what I hope... Production I.G. is doing both this and Psycho Pass during the Noitamina timeslot, so I hope they understand the kind of audience they have here. This could be their next big break, after the failure of their Marvel collaborations and the recently reported loss from one of the clients defaulting their payment.