Review: Food Wars 1.2 - God Tongue

Enter the next big theme of this series: Soma is a peasant in the eyes of his peers and thus an outcast and underdog at the elite Totsuki Institute. Now, this episode worried me a little more than the other one in terms of the disrobing effect, but not because of my usual complaints about fan service: I just thought the sequence of Erina tasting his food started to drag and took about twice as long as it should have.  But, once you get to the end of the episode, I think there might have been a good reason for this, since it ends with Soma being rejected from the institute.  It's a really hilarious cliffhanger for the viewer because obviously he gets into Totsuki, and yet we have to wait a week to actually see it happen.

I am already really impressed by the people putting this anime together.  The number one problem facing anime adaptations of successful manga is, after all, pacing.  And it's not just a problem in terms of making the shows have successful cliffhangers without indulging in twenty million flashbacks (something that makes early Naruto unwatchable for many people); rather, it's a problem simply in terms of catching up to the damn anime.  If this anime continues to successfully explore the same themes as the manga while taking its time in doing so by indulging in the anime form, it can only help the success of the Food Wars brand as a whole.

And how great is the “God Tongue” stuff?  Erina is the polar opposite of Soma and so her abilities serve as a great dramatic foil for Soma's more visceral approach to the culinary world.  To milk some extra comedy out of that ability with her incredibly specific, yet incredibly awkward analogies is just the cherry on top.

I might just start scoring these episodes based on how fucking hungry they make me, because I can't imagine there will be a bad episode for a long time.

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Score: 5/5

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Food Wars 1.2 - God Tongue Official Website

Review: Punchline 1.1

Punchline will, at first, seem like FLCL meets Bleach: and then you realize it's really just FLCL but with its own take on an absolutely ridiculous pubescent allegory. A bus gets hijacked.  A random and very goofy juice-themed hero shows up to save the day.  Some dork on the bus sees some panties and goes pervy Super Saiyan.  And here's the punch line of Punchline: while in his powered up mode, if the main character Yuta sees another pair of panties, a massive asteroid will collide with Earth, ending life as we know it.

Yeah.

To make matters worse, Punchline kicks off with Yuta having his body possessed, but with all of the rules of panty-viewing being transferred to his newly disembodied soul.  Thus the plot of the first episode largely revolves around the fact that it is really easy for an incorporeal being living in a house with four women to accidentally see some panties.

In contrast to other helpings of fan service which I have decried this week, the excessive panty-viewings in this episode are to forward the plot.  You might be thinking, "well isn't that convenient?" but let's be serious: acting like sexuality--especially budding, immature sexuality--cannot be the topic of a show is the wrong way to go about understanding, appreciating, or even criticizing particular shows for awkward sexual situations.

With that said, it's not as if you'll be able to get past the fan service in this show if gratuitous ecchi just isn't your thing.  In that respect, this show has a limited demographic.  I myself have mixed feelings about it, even though it's integral to this plot in a way that only felt gratuitous insofar as it was really central to the show: the show is about a guy who's superpowers revolve around seeing panties.  It’s sort of hard not to get carried away with an idea with that much potential for humorous situations.  And, ultimately, because this show is about someone who will destroy the world if they peep too much, this show is not about a young perv, but a young man who has to learn to keep it in his pants, lest he end human society.

The production values are fantastic, and the animations style lends itself to the humor of situations really well.  My particular favorite character was the shinigami cat, half because it was animated to really humorous effect, and half because the cat is just a straight-up asshole and incredibly unhelpful to Yuta.

The shinigami dimension of this series, mixed with the weird superhero team situation that's going on in the house, made for an episode that makes the viewer ask a lot of questions without answers.  Once the bomb gets dropped about Yuta's pervy superpower, the rest of the elements of the show sort of take a back seat; for instance, I actually forgot that Yuta was a ghost halfway through the episode.  It's not something that lacks execution, but it's something that will warrant attention as the series progresses: either multiple strands of this show will be executed effectively, or it will just become a show about panties, and thus no longer worth anyone's time.

It's likely that Punchline is worth your time.  But we will find out in very short order whether or not this series can explore the meaningful themes that I've given it credit for, or if it just turns out to be another ecchi-filled panty raid.

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Score: 4/5

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Punchline 1.1 Official Site

Review: My Love Story!! 1.1

After the opening of My Love Story!! or if you prefer OreMonogatari, I was pretty sure this show wasn’t going to be for me. I was pretty damn sure. Then I remembered that I had the manga to review as well and I was dreading it because again, I was pretty sure this wasn’t for me. Somewhere before the end… it became for me. I was watching with a friend and by the end of the episode she said she wanted to watch more as well. It hooked us.

And the brilliant thing is, it’s just a love story. Now I’m not saying that there’s not a lot more going on and that there aren’t complex relationships at work, but it’s just a love story. It’s not a fantasy romance, it’s not a supernatural romance, and it’s not a horror romance. It’s not even a satirical romance. For the first time in a long ass time I found a show that’s only goal was romance and not harem style… and it ended up being really good.

In terms of how much time passes in the main story we’re not talking very long. It gives the impression that not much happens because of this, but really a lot does. We learn all about our main character Takeo Gouda, a towering giant of a teenager. We see him as he graduates 8^th grade, we see how he becomes friends with his next door neighbor Makoto Sunakawa, the boy that every girls wants to be with. We see the delusions Takeo has about his own value and worth because of Makoto. Every girl that Takeo has ever liked has always gone for Makoto and Makoto has turned them all down. So that when Takeo saves a girl from being groped on the train, he can’t imagine that she likes him.

The girl, Rinko brings him cake and “leaves” her cellphone so she can bring him more deserts. Deserts that she makes herself for Takeo. But he can’t see it. He thinks that she’s using him to get to Makoto like every girl before. Hopefully I’m right on this because it appears that she’s using Makoto to get to Takeo, but that’s the charming thing about this story… I don’t know. It could be the opposite and we’re being taken on a clever ruse. Takeo could actually be right and not delusional at all. I don’t know, but that’s a good story for you because I want to know. I desperately want to know how this story will turn out.

Will friendships be ruined, will a love triangle be built because for once Makoto can see what makes Rinko great and Takeo’s pushing will only serve to bring them to the point that they’re in love with the same woman? I mean none of this is really “new”, but the presentation and Takeo’s personality make it so damn interesting to find out.

Now there is some comedy because you couldn’t deal with gushy love stuff the entire time otherwise you’d tune out. PDA is annoying for a reason after all. Takeo is hilarious. His narration is the driving force and for a big dude he moves like a hyperactive small character. But there’s this balance of him being hyperactive, but then still big. I relate because it’s honestly how I feel most days.

The art plays a huge part in making this anime work. Aside from having some over the top physical comedy, there’s the facial expressions which take the traditional things every viewer is familiar with… and cranks it to eleven. Then there’s Rinko who I shit you not is made to look like a doll. It has to be intentional and it makes her the most adorable thing on the planet. Especially when she bumbles about and attempts to show interest in Takeo.

The last thing I was expecting this week with anime premieres was to fall for one that’s a straight up romantic comedy. I thought I would be one and done with this show, but instead… I can’t wait for more. I can’t wait to read the manga which I will likely do before the next episode. I don’t know if you’ll be as smitten with this series as I am, but I think if you go in with no expectations you might just fall in love with My Love Story!!

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Score: 4/5

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My Love Story!! Official Website

Review: The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan 1.1

People are probably pretty annoyed by my anime reviews. I know why too… I don’t research them. That’s fine, you can be annoyed, but I review it as I’ve come to watch it. Since I didn’t know anything about it prior to watching the episode, I write the review that way. That’s going to be the case here with The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. I might say something or guess at something that others already know because they’ve researched it or have a past experience with it in another art form. And that’s fine. That’s great, but instead of being annoyed that I didn’t spoil the show for myself, let’s pretend for a moment that we’re friends. I’d like to think we are anyway since we have no reason not to be. But let’s say we’re really good friends and you want me to watch the show.

If you can do that, then this review will work in two different ways depending on your exposure to The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan. In one way you’re a friend seeing my reaction to something you’ve already enjoyed and you’re watching my ups and downs with it. You’re reading my thoughts on something that you’ve had thoughts on as well. We’re sharing an experience and that’s one of the few great things about the internet. On the other hand if you haven’t watched the show and have no exposure to it much in the way I didn’t before watching the episode, then I’m the friend telling you about it. You should be able to gleam from that if you’d like to watch it and hey, that’s how friendships go. Sometimes you like the same things, other times you wonder why someone dislikes the very things that made you like it.

This is still a review though; I’m going to talk about what’s in the episode, what worked, what didn’t and everything else that comes with it. But now you have context and maybe then you won’t hate the fact that I didn’t research this property before writing this review. Instead I talked about it the way I experienced and hopefully that’s a bit more pure than ruining it for myself just to get some facts tacked on and checked.

Now as for the episode, it’s interesting. The thing that stood out to me the most about The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, was the tone. While it comes across as a cute high school drama/comedy, there’s this sense that it could become serious and almost dark at any given moment. Maybe that vibe just comes from the artwork or the title which doesn’t make any sense based on what I witnessed in this episode. But I liked that. I liked not knowing if it was going to turn on me. I think it will because with just one episode they managed to make me care about and like every character introduced. I already feel like I know them even if I know little about them.

The story follows Haruhi Suzumiya (just looking up the name spoiled something for me so I’m disappointed in myself by the way). She’s a purple haired girl and the leader of the literature club. A club that basically reads books. She’s in the club with her friend and her love interest. The episode is basically spent with her appreciating the club and showing some interest in the boy and her friend encouraging the both of them to get together.

There’s comedy. There’s angsty teen moments and there’s this overwhelming sense of heart throughout out it all. Haruhi is kind of clumsy and hard on herself, but she’s wonderful at the same time. She’s a very interesting character and really if this was any other anime, she wouldn’t be the lead. Perhaps that’s why I found her interesting.

The art work is amazing. At times I really thought I was watching an OVA or even a theatrical movie. The line work, the way the animation flowed was all top-notch. I was very impressed. The coloring though, that’s what takes the cake. I don’t know if there’s another anime released this week that can compare to the coloring here, but I can think of a few close contenders. The coloring makes everything look very realistic, even Haruhi’s light purple hair.

I’m honestly pretty sad that I spoiled some of this for myself just by looking up a name. I was already looking forward to more, but I’ll definitely be sticking around if only to find out what exactly the title is referring to. Because it kind of defies genres it’s difficult to recommend it based on something else, that is to say, “if you like blank, you’ll like this.” I would say that if you like great stories, detailed and relatable characters with fantastic artwork… then you should absolutely check out The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan.

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Score: 5/5

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The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan 1.1 Official Website

Review: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! 2.2

This show. Gah, fuck, ah! This show is just too good. I don’t even think people get how good it is. How many layers it’s functioning on. How much isn’t said, but actually happens. This show is really fucking good. If you watched the first season, which really I’m going to have to assume you have, but if you didn’t then do that. If you watched the first season then think of just how heavy the last three or four episodes were. That pain in your gut as you watched Hachiman play the heel, play the bad guy and basically not do anything for himself. Take that feeling that you felt for those combined four episodes and you’ll get a fraction of what happens in this episode.

As we saw in the first episode of the season (review here), the service club has been asked two things: The first is to help Tobe ask out Hina. The second is from Hina and it’s to maintain the status quo of the classroom and the social standings. Now it may not have been very apparent, but in making this request she was expecting Hachiman to do what he does best and be the worst possible person.

I’m going to spoil something for you so if you want to watch the episode just bail out here.

Now then, Hachiman delivers. He figures out what’s wrong with Hayato, the popular kid that hates the way he does things and it’s that he’s conflicted. He wants to help both friends and he’s afraid to lose that. Even though Tobe says he won’t stop trying, he’s too dumb to see what his rejection would do to the group and so Hachiman plays the heel. He plays it really well too. He rushes in and asks Hina before Tobe can and gets rejected in his place. Tobe hears her answer and even though he doesn’t get that it’s “his” answer, it doesn’t change the group because appearances have been maintained. Hachiman has been rejected rather than Tobe.

The truly sad part is that everyone else is smart enough to figure out what has happened. Everyone but Tobe… but they all just let it go down. And that’s the truly sad part of Hachiman’s existence, everyone has the power to change his standing in the classroom, his lack of romantic encounters and his lack of friends, but they don’t. Because they’re too afraid to loose what they have, but also because Hachiman proves time and time again that he’ll fall on his sword for everyone else because it’s all he knows how to do anymore.

This pisses off Yukino who says something that echoes what Hayato tells Hachiman in the eleventh episode of the first season and that’s, “I hate the way you do things.” Even Yui echoes this telling him not to do something like that again and that he should consider other people’s feelings.

But again… they could all change that for him. I don’t know if its fear or just that they don’t know what he’ll do if they try, but it’s the saddest part of his existence. Playing the heel for the entire class and sometimes… the school.

There’s more to spoil because something happens in this episode that is so fucking good and breaks the mold of the other episodes. Hina thanks Hachiman. Because he knew what her actual request was and she put him in a position to act on it. But then something incredible happens, after publicly rejecting him… in her own way she asks him out.

You can argue that with me, but let me point out that when he gives his response you can see her heart be crushed. Because with Hachiman she could be the person she is outside of the group. She could be honest like he is and it’s honestly a freedom she clearly wants, but sees firsthand what it does to you. And so he saves her again as he tells her “no” in his way and leaves him standing on the roof waiting for the train by himself.

Watch this scene twice. If you don’t pick up on how subtle this is, then you’re missing what’s truly great about this show.

And then the episode ends on his narration in which he admits that he’s the biggest liar of them all. Basically admitting that he’s been lying this entire time and especially to himself. What a lonely fucking existence to live like that. And yet I’m sure more people can relate then they’d actually like to admit.

This fucking show… it’s too damn good and more than likely you’re missing it… or not seeing just how deep it truly is. It’s going to be a long wait until next week.

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Score: 5/5

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My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! 2.2 “His and Her Confessions Will Reach No One” Official Website

Review: Blood Blockade Battlefront 1.1 - Demon City Association

Blood Blockade Battlefront is one of the rare properties that I’ve actually read in manga form prior to the anime. Thanks to Dark Horse who has now brought over seven volumes of the series, you could say that I’m well versed on the franchise. In fact this is the series I’ve been looking forward to the most. Especially after seeing the artwork. Drool much? There was a problem though… I really didn’t want to see a straight adaptation of the first volume in animated form like last season’s Assassination Classroom. Because let me tell you, that Sin City style of adaptation makes you want to read the manga or watch the anime, but not both.

Thankfully the first episode of B3 wasn’t an exact copy. It had all of the major story points, but it presented them in a different way and trimmed the fat at the same time.

Since I’ve already written what feels like a lot of recaps about this series, the basic plot is that New York City was invaded by another realm and overnight the two worlds combined to form Jerusalem's Lot. Now it’s the city that never sleeps and the home of the fucking weird. We’re talking super weird. Creator Yasuhiro Nightow spares nothing on the weirdness.

Our main character Leo is given the eyes of the Gods during his visit to the city and now he’s trying to make it as a reporter. After a mistaken identity moment he ends up joining a secret organization called Libra. They’re protectors of the balance in the city, but really they’re good guys that have to kill in order for the bad guys not to take over. It’s funny that they always say balance, but really there’s so much evil, that their good is the only thing that resembles balance.

In the first episode we’re introduced to a character that in the manga’s ends up playing a very small role. His name is Femto and frankly he’s a great character. He’s very Joker inspired and he sets up a game of sorts for our heroes to play, but thanks to Leo they don’t fall for his trap.

The action for this episode is fucking gorgeous. The comic is great, but to see it in motion is so much better. It’s surpasses the manga and that’s saying something. Even if you’re not big on the story or the characters, stick around for the action. The later volumes provide some fantastic stuff and I can’t wait to see them animated.

The coloring for the animation is some of the best I’ve seen this season. This thing is clearly a heavy hitter and has the budget to prove it. That’s good to because with the comic Nightow spends a lot of time on the backgrounds and random characters, but it all serves the purpose of making the city feel big and more importantly alive. Since the city and protecting the city, is the focus of the story, you want it feeling alive. It’s like Gotham in that sense, if it’s not breathing we don’t really care if Batman tries to save it.

If the manga has shown me anything it’s that Blood Blockade Battlefront has a ton of potential. It’s a series to watch and should have something for everyone. Even if you’re not a fan of Nightow’s previous work (I wasn’t) still give this a shot. You may just surprise yourself.

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Score: 5/5

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Blood Blockade Battlefront 1.1 - "Demon City Association" Official Website

Review: Kyōkai no Rinne 1.1

Normally I don’t watch the opening music number of animes. Well maybe once, but then it gets old. I don’t like it on American TV and I don’t like it on animes though I’d rather hear a song than Stephen Amell explain why he’s the “Arrow” any day of the week. The thing is… I was curious about Kyōkai no Rinne after the cold opening. It didn’t make sense to me, but I was curious. Then the song hit and I spotted it… the creepiest fucking thing I’ve seen in a long ass time.

A cat…

With a human face…

I nearly turned it off. The TV. The electricity in my apartment. Everything. I was watching with my wife and a friend and I said that it was making me physically ill to look at it. They thought I was joking, but I seriously had to look away the entire opening. That human faced cat is fucking disturbing to look at and I hope to never see it again. Sadly, I kind of liked the episode, but I can see everything it’s going to do and eventually that fucking human faced cat is going to show up and provide comic relief and I don’t think I can deal with that. Goddamn creepy and yes it was hard for me to post the picture.

The story is easy to explain and it’s pretty clearly either for a younger audience or anime purest that dig the old school style of art and stories. We meet Sakura Mamiya, due to an event of her youth she can see ghosts and spirits (the second anime this week to do that). On her way to school we see one such ghost that’s stuck in one spot and thankfully can’t follow her. At school the desk next to her is empty and everyone comments on how the boy who sits there is always absent. Sakura looks over to see the boy sit down, but she’s the only one that can see him. The next day he shows up and is seen by everyone.

One of Sakura’s friends has a problem with her phone number being haunted and the boy (Rinne Rokudō) tells her that if she makes a donation to the spirit box in the back of the school that someone will help her. That someone turns out to be him, but when he wears a special robe he can’t be seen by mortals… except Sakura who can see him for some reason. Hijinks ensue and they bring about three different spirits to the wheel of reincarnation.

Now… I said it was simple and it is. Girl can see ghosts and boy is a grim reaper… wait for the cast of characters to inflate the show.

It’s not bad. It was funny even if they laid on the “I’m poor” jokes a bit too much. Once is funny, four times and you have something against people struggling to get by. The problem is the story is predictable already. It’ll be procedural for a few episodes while it introduces characters, but then it will focus on some big bad and only the combination of our two main characters will stop it… and more poor jokes since that’s all we know about Rinne’s character. It could turn out okay, but we’ll see. Oh and there will be something hidden in the past… there always is.

The art clearly has a budget. This thing looks beautiful from beginning to end. It also looks dated. Which should instantly bring the hate since it’s created by the same man behind Ranma ½ and InuYasha. And it looks like it. It feels like it. It’s like InuYasha had a love child with Bleach and bam… Rin-ne. I’m not a big fan of the style, but I could tell that it was animated quite well. The coloring in particular was given a lot of attention. You can tell by the hair because there’s at least three shades to provide a natural look for Sakura rather than using the lazy ass white stripe.

I know I’m probably going to be in the minority on this one and hey that happens. With as much anime as I’m watching this season (seriously is it just me or is there a ton of stuff to watch?) I don’t need to stick with everything and I know this isn’t for me. It’s humorous, but I can see the jokes wearing thin already and they’re the only thing I really like about it.

Or I could just be making excuses so I don’t have to see that fucking human faced cat…

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Score: 3/5

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Kyōkai no Rinne 1.1 Official Website

Review: Triage X 1.1

Let's call this the week of two fan services.  In this corner, you have Triage X: Shoji Sato's latest experiment of trying to fuse cartoon tits and explosions with the eyes of otakus across the globe.  In the other corner, you have PUNCH LINE, a charming... well, I don't know what the fuck was up with PUNCH LINE, but you can check out that review to find out.  Back to the point: PUNCH LINE was a series in which the ecchi played a prominent plot role, and Triage X is a series in which there are a lot of boobs for absolutely no fucking reason. Granted, boobs for no reason is not automatically a bad thing.  Look at One Piece.  Boobs only figure into the plot insofar as they cause Sanji to act like a moron.  That's about as much as they figure into the plot of real life, I would say.  The more important difference?  One Piece is actually interesting.  Simply put, when fan service is all up in my face with major boobage every ten seconds and there is nothing interesting going on in your series, you are insulting my intelligence and my penis at the same time.

I mean, this episode was boring as shit.  I mean really boring.  I have never been so bored by boobs in my life, and as something with a Y chromosome, that causes me existential angst.  If I am bored by boobs, you have really gone out of your way to make an episode of your show a vapid mess.

The plot of Triage X is simple, but suffers from being too simple: some people in society are bad, and society is sort of like a living organism, so those people are, you know, like, tumors, bro, you know?  Ugh.  It's like a stoner at my undergrad got to pitch a manga idea abroad.  Again, though, a simple plot, even a stupidly simple plot, is not a death knell for any given series: the plot of One Piece is "... PIRATES!"

The difference is the need for a character that makes things dramatic; we're talking some kind of bare minimum for writing fiction here.  Where Sato's Highschool of the Dead succeeds is cheap, but effective: zombies invading a high school and coming up against a team mainly composed of some kick-ass chicks is interesting enough to get me to sit through a season.  The assault of boobage in that series is completely fucking ridiculous, but because the main plot has the aid of constant zombie-fueled conflict, the whole thing comes off as charmingly kitsch.

But there's nothing charming about the world of Triage X.  The villain is a bad stereotype and the hero has a completely unbelievable story which is based on events so far removed from the plot itself that there's no reason for me to care.  The kickass chicks in this series are presented as part of a team of assassins, meaning that when they're not killing stuff, they're all boring.

And god damnit I just don't care about their chesticles.  Stop it.  Put them away.  It's 2015: an infinity of cartoon boobs is readily available on the interwebnets.  If you're making an anime that's supposed to have a story then give me a story worth sticking around for.  It's one thing to make me not want to stick around for the partial nudity, but to have a series be so boring that the partial nudity actually feels like it's patronizing me?  Awful.

Also disappointing was the production value: Xebec really mailed it in on this one.  Lines are sloppy and details are less than impressive.  On top of that, the direction is just... empty.  The main fight scene barely feels like a fight, and this series has to censor itself so much that even one of the long dialog scenes feels like it's missing details-- ironically, the details missing are nipples.

I did get a laugh out of the episode, since one of the characters was comically absurd.  But it was too little too late.  I'll stick with the series a little while to see if this was just a shaky first episode, but I'm not counting on it and you shouldn't either; unless you're some kind of major creep, in which case I would ask that you please keep both hands where I can see them when scrolling through my reviews.

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Score: 1/5

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Triage X 1.1 Official Website

Review: Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Alternative Architecture 1.1

Ghost in the Shell: Arise was originally animated for the screen as a set of four OVA's.  Alternative Architecture is simply the release of those OVA's (originally released from 2013-2014) with the addition of two more episodes which will tie into the third movie in the Ghost in the Shell franchise, which comes out in Japan this June.  This review is a review of the first OVA of the original Arise series of episodes, called "Ghost Pain." Prequels are a bitch: just ask anybody involved with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.  Ghost in the Shell is a similarly iconic series, although certainly of smaller scale than either of the aforementioned nerd behemoths.  But what GitS might lack in the overwhelming mainstream appeal of other series, it makes up for in consistent quality; one episode in, and Arise is no exception.  Though it will take all of the episodes of the series to really bear this out, Arise might be the most successfully executed prequel of a well-known series I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

"Ghost Pain" introduces us to a re-designed (or I guess, "pre-desgined") Kusanagi, prior to her time as a Major with Public Security Section 9.  I had very few worries, since I went in with high expectations, but I was skeptical of the show possibly revealing too much about Kusanagi's past.  A constant theme of this series, after all, is the uncertainty of human memory, especially when that memory is tied to a mind anchored to this world through prosthetics.  Beyond the philosophical intrigue that this series manages to frequently cash in on, it's just a fact that a lot of successful Japanese anime and manga rely on story gaps to give a certain degree of weight and mystery to the world which is being presented (Cowboy Bebop is the paramount example of this).

Not only did "Ghost Pain" not disappoint by revealing too much about Kusanagi, it actually leveraged the very same themes as more familiar iterations of the series in order to present its plot effectively.  Memory and its relationship to our friends, our families, and our duties is front and center in this episode.  Sure, it sometimes makes the plot get extremely cerebral, forcing the viewer to do a teensy bit of hair-pulling to figure out what's going on; but, I would rather have my plot be smart than vacuous.

Aramaki is his wonderfully stoic self (albeit with no gray hair), Batou bursts on the scene in true Batou fashion, we get to see a proto-tachikoma with all of the charm of the later models, and Kusanagi is sharp as ever.  The success of this prequel, other than the bare minimum of not being a failure, lies mostly in two things: the fact that it nails familiar characters while still weaving a palpable thread of immaturity through all of them, and the fact that it introduces new characters who do not feel forced or alien to the world of Ghost in the Shell.

Production I.G can be a hit or a miss for me in terms of putting together a tight anime.  It always nails Ghost in the Shell, though, and Arise was no exception.  Voice work was obviously top notch as well: even the English dubs of Ghost in the Shell feature phenomenal voice acting, although good dubs are increasingly becoming the norm, which is super exciting for people who don't like reading subtitles (I personally don't mind it).

I think this is a must-watch if you're a Ghost in the Shell fan (especially if you're a fan of Stand Alone Complex), and an obvious must-re-watch for others, in order to get back in the swing of things for the additional episodes.  Of course, the curse of a successful prequel is that it fits into a particular niche of the overarching narrative of the series, and thus owes a great deal of its charm to its interpretation of characters which have already been established.  But "Ghost Pain" kicked ass, and I can't say it was anything less than awesome if it's only fault is being later in the viewing order.

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Score: 5/5

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Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Alternative Architecture 1.1 Official Website

Review: The Heroic Legend of Arslan 1.1 - The Glory of Ekbataana

The Heroic Legend of Arslan will come out of the gate seeming formulaic to some, but benefits from incredible production value and humanizing character work. Arslan has a long history in the form of novels, manga, and anime.  The newest iteration of Tanaka's fantasy epic is being rendered in manga form by the incomparable Hiromu Arakawa, of Fullmetal Alchemist fame.  Arakawa's manga version of this over twenty-year-old tale is now being rendered as an anime, and it looks good: really good.

First off, some will recognize a lot of the character designs from Arakawa's work on Fullmetal.  Just off the top of my head, the titular character's got an Edward Elric thing going on, the main antagonist of this episode has an Alphonse thing going on, and Daryun has a Kimblee/Greed mash-up thing going on.  But focusing on this is a small quibble, particularly when Arakawa's specialty is designing characters that look human and react in a human way.

Which brings me to my next point: this series has already proven to me that it is going to get things right that Attack on Titan constantly screws up.  (I will try to set aside too much bashing of AoT: buy me a beer sometime and I will rant about this for hours.)  Both of these series have timid lead characters.  Both of these series are going to feature the tumultuous times of an empire and what the young generation can manage to do about it.  But where certain protagonists (*cough* useless Eren Yeager *cough*) swap back and forth from timid to angry then back to timid and back to angry, Arslan is just a little rich spoiled piece of shit who thinks he understands the world.

And that's fantastic.

Why?  Because, as this episode did a great job of showing, Arslan is a young, spoiled prince who has a budding concern for justice; but, he has absolutely no concept of what justice really is.  Other series that follow this formula of "oh no crisis and only kids can save the day and we need to time-skip and the main character is being a little bitch about everything!" constantly fail to plant this seed.  If the main character is hard to like, a great way to develop that character is to flip what is shitty about him on its head.  Arslan's Siddhartha-like encounter with the dead slaves at the end of this episode is prodding the viewer and letting them know that his naive sense of justice is about to get blown to pieces.

And the production value of this show is top-notch.  Other than one awkward shot of some soldiers marching where the digital effects made it seem a tad robotic, the music, colors, movement, and-- well, everything about this anime gorgeous.

I thought that this episode was so good that it made me want to go read the manga.  If that doesn't warrant a perfect score, I'm not sure what does: I honestly think the series could only go downhill from here, so let's set our expectations high.

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Score: 5/5

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The Heroic Legend of Arslan 1.1 - The Glory of Ekbataana Official Website

Review: Re-Kan! 1.1 - I Can See Them

While I enjoyed Re-Kan! I was confused by it at the same time. The opening was great as it showed a young high school girl, Hibiki, getting ready for her first day at a new school. I was instantly tired of that trope, but whatever. On her way she comes across Narumi who goes to the same school. They cross the street together, but for some reason Hibiki begins freaking out and dancing around as she crosses the road. Narumi helps her across since she’s just sitting in the road. When they get across she begins to scold her, but Hibiki explains that it’s not “his” fault. Suddenly Narumi looks up in a mirror and sees a fucking Juon little boy attached to Hibiki’s leg!! Fuck me it was scary and caught me off guard.

From there we flash forward a few weeks and meet Hibiki’s friends and learn that she’s still weird as shit, but everyone is used to it. Basically she can talk to the dead and they’re sometimes assholes because she can talk/interact with them. Meanwhile Narumi avoids Hibiki like the plague because she doesn’t believe or like anything occult. Hibiki asks for Narumi’s help one day and they kind of become friends.

Hibiki can also talk to cats. It’s random and it’s only purpose is to introduce a cat character that’s a total pervert. It was probably my second favorite part of the show. Picture an adorable little kitten with a deep voice and totally perverted.

My thing with this show is I’m not sure if it wants to be a comedy, dark comedy or just a horror. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to laugh at those other parts… no I definitely was supposed to, but it really does come across as genre identity confusion because of it. When it’s going for comedy that’s all it’s going for. When it’s going for horror that’s all it’s going for. The two don’t overlap and so it makes for sharp shifts in the style which isn’t the best thing for the audience.

It also comes across a little like the “Monogatari” series… which if there’s one thing is shouldn’t try to be or go for it’s the Monogatari series because it simply won’t compare. The animation isn’t as good, the characters are nowhere as original or interesting and the supernatural element is at best a poor man’s version. It might not be what they were going for, but there’s a setting that looks extremely similar.

I’ll be back for the next episode. I don’t know if I’ll like it, but I want to see what happens. I don’t know if there’s more character depth coming, but I hope so. I think that would help the story a lot. Otherwise the horror element might be enough to make it tolerable, but I don’t know for how long. Hopefully the identity becomes clearer as well because otherwise it could really sink what could be an interesting series.

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Score: 3/5

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Re-Kan! 1.1 - "I Can See Them" Official Website

Review: Gunslinger Stratos 1.1

Gunslinger Stratos starts off interesting, but then quickly becomes generic until delving into something completely different and strange. Strange in the best of ways. The opening is a dream sequence, but it’s trippy and confusing in the right ways. It makes you curious as to what exactly is going on as our main character Tohru Kazasumi dreams of a little girl drawing on a sidewalk with chalk. Soon enough though she’s chased away by crows and Tohru is left looking at the intense formulas that she drew on the ground.

After that we follow Tohru to school. He’s all alone in the world and tries to keep his head down and avoid conflict… which of course makes him the love interest of one of the most popular and wealthy girls in the school Kyoka Katagiri. Her brother Kyoma doesn’t like Tohru and so he avoids conflict by ditching Kyoka and heading to class.

Soon enough we’re in gym class and it’s more of a battle training situation than gym. The boys are facing off against each other and so are the girls. Tohru for the most part avoids contact with others, but it comes down to just him and Kyoma. They battle and we see a little of what to expect from this world. We also learn just how good Tohru is at fighting as he could have beaten Kyoma, but didn’t want to be noticed so he throws the fight.

After school though Tohru sees the little girl from his dream, but she’s a hologram… a hologram that can run. Tohru cases after it and Kyoka chases after him and that’s when the show gets interesting.

I’m not going to spoil what happens. I’ve seen spoilers already online in reviews and it’s really makes it pointless to watch this episode because you’ll go in feeling negative towards it. Personally I thought the pacing was perfect for the episode. It set up the world quite well, but left a huge mystery to figure out next time. Hell I don’t think we’ll solve it next time, but we’ll begin collecting pieces.

It’s the third act or so of this series that pushes it out of mediocrity and into a damn good show. Sure Tohru and Kyoka are a little too perfect, but I’m curious to see what happens to them and how they’ll develop as characters.

The art is really good. I know the video game is by Square, so I’m sure the graphics are really good which probably pushed the animators into doing their best as well. It really is one of the best looking shows that I’ve seen in a while.

I’m interested in the story, but I like parallel earth sci-fi stuff and that’s the best way I can sum this episode up without spoiling anything else about it. If you’re not down with gunplay, sci-fi and a thinly veiled love story then you’ll probably dislike this series. If that does sound good then you’re in for a treat.

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Score: 4/5

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Gunslinger Stratos 1.1 Official Website

Review: Ultimate Otaku Teacher 1.1

Finally an anime with a name that has a translation that is halfway decent am I right? Ultimate Otaku Teacher continues the newish trend in anime/manga in which otaku culture is worked into the story which in my opinion is very meta since people are likely becoming otakus for a series talking about otakus. It’s kind of like when MTV was in its prime and Youtube hadn’t been invented yet and MTV was giving out awards for music videos… something only they were playing. I don’t hate the concept because clearly here it’s executed far better than MTV prime, but it’s something that continues to grow as a trend. To put it another way, it’s like reading a comic book and the characters talk about reading comic books…

At any rate the opening to this episode is terrible. There’s forced exposition and the character introduction is weak. We’re introduced to Jun’ichiro and his sister Suzune. She comes in with a bat that she can barely swing and basically threatens his life if he doesn’t get a job. Meanwhile his room is filled with manga, anime, figures, and posters and basically what’s become the normal “otaku room” shown in stories like this.

Why he needs a job is unknown to us. Clearly it’s not for the money because he can afford his expensive hobby to the fullest. The gist I got was that the sister wanted him out of the house and we needed a story to happen. Also it’s loosely covered that he’s a genius and that he’s given up on his field of study because he never liked it to begin with. That and he developed teleportation in theory, but realized it would take centuries for mankind to make it so… bummer.

On his first day of teaching he hears a girl singing an anime song on the roof and runs up to hear it. He’s impressed and of course goes all Otaku on the girl when she mentions she wants to be a voice actress. Of course they end up in the same class as student and teacher. The only interesting part was when Jun tells the class to play a game so he can get to know them and informs them that if any of them can beat his score he’ll give them a free pass for the year. Here he discovers that the voice actress girl that he calls Face Punch (because she punched him in the face) is being bullied and that the rest of the class has Black Plagued her to avoid being involved.

The story is okay after the opening. The opening is so bad that I nearly stopped watching because it was clearly pulled from the manga and was desperately trying to catch your attention. It did, but in the worst possible way. It just goes to show that you shouldn’t always copy the source material that closely.

Everything about the story is unbelievable in the sense that a genius is teaching high school and basically everything in this world is unbelievable and ridiculous because of that, but I’m pretty sure that’s the point. It’s really just GTO with an otaku teacher and it works. I don’t know where the story can go that will be all that interesting or if I’ll actually stick with it, but I’ll see what the second episode has to offer at least.

I disliked the sister and her character motivation was extremely shallow and I mean that as the depth of her reasoning… as in there is none. “Oh hey brother that never leaves his room because he’s a NEET… get a job you’re bothering me somehow…” It made me want her to leave more than him to get a job. Sadly I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her and if that’s the case then… sign me out.

The animation is okay. It’s not the best overall, but they put a lot of effort into little details which is good. If it manages to get a second season I could see them putting more money into the animation budget, but for now it’s tolerable even if it’s not the prettiest thing on TV.

I’m looking forward to the next episode, but probably for the wrong reasons. I think that episode will really determine if I stick with this show. While it wasn’t terrible, it was pretty generic and wears its influences on its sleeve for all to see and that’s not necessarily a good thing.

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Score: 3/5

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Ultimate Otaku Teacher 1.1 Official Website

Review: Plastic Memories 1.1 - The First Partner

Plastic Memories takes the cake for the weirdest and yet most interesting anime I’ve seen this season thus far. There’s really only a handful of shows left to premiere that I’m aware of so I think it’s probably safe to give them the belt. The opening serves only one purpose and it’s to have our main characters meet each other, before they officially meet each other. It’s rather pointless in terms of story, but they flash back to it several times. After that we follow Tsukasa Mizugaki as he starts his new job for SAI Corp in the “Terminal Service Department.” It takes a while for his co-workers to explain what exactly it is he’ll be doing especially when they mostly say things like, “nothing” or “watching.”

He and subsequently the audience learns about Giftia’s which are androids that have a nine year, four month shelf life. After that they start to break down and their memories corrupt. The Terminal Service’s job is to collect the androids before they get to this point, but of course there’s paperwork and rules to follow. Each human is also paired with a Giftia so half of the characters we meet are androids.

This was actually the only part of the story I had a problem with. Why the fuck would anyone buy an android that they couldn’t keep, knowing they could only keep it for less than a decade? I mean they instantly show us the type of situations; one is a couple that obviously didn’t have kids and had an android son, another is an old lady with a “granddaughter” that is her only family.

If you haven’t figured it out yet, the collecting of these soon to be defunct androids is a painful process and Tsukasa learns that first hand. I get that part, it’s just the catalyst to put the characters in this state that is kind of weak. I mean I guess when you pick out the android you don’t think about the ending, but still it’s a weird business model and an even stranger purchase.

What our main character doesn’t get that we as the audience instantly figure out (or at least you should) is that his Giftia partner who was previously taken off of field work (and who Tsukasa bumps into during the opening), Isla, is approaching her nine years. It’s pretty damn obvious to everyone except the main character, but I won’t spoil it for you in case you’d like to piece it together yourself.

The supporting characters are archetype characters that you’d find in any anime so no real surprise there. I mean, absolutely none. What makes them interesting is just how they’re used in this scenario and I have to admit that I became choked up by the end of the episode… until they ruined it with comedy.

This show lays on the drama pretty thick, but it also presents humor and there was only one time that it didn’t work and that was the ending. I get that they probably wanted to bring the audience back up and not leave you sad and depressed, but the attempt here really damaged everything that we had just seen.

The animation has a nice style. The coloring is warm and matches the near future world that the story takes place in. Studio Doga Kobo doesn’t break the model with the character designs and really the designs are as archetype as the personalities, but it works. The focus isn’t the designs, but rather dealing with loss.

And that’s really what this show is about, dealing with the loss of someone close to you. It’s a strange way to approach the subject, but then that’s also why I liked it. And there’s the question of what happens when they don’t get to the android soon enough? I don’t know, but I’ll be following it.

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Score: 4/5

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Plastic Memories 1.1 - "The First Partner" Official Website

Review: Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign 1.1

Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign has one of the best openings of an anime I’ve seen in a long while. It begins with everyone on the planet dying and me telling you that isn’t a spoiler because you really need to see it for yourself. From there we see these cloaked dudes taking to the streets and you’re like “what the fuck is happening here?” After the opening we meet a group of kids and they’re running from something. An announcement goes out overhead and the gist is that humans fucked up the world with a super virus, but it doesn’t affect anyone under the age of 13. Meaning these kids are some of the last bastions of hope for humanity.

And then they’re captured by Vampires.

If you can’t tell already this is one of those shows that’s going to flash forward in time or at least this first episode does. It has that Attack on Titan vibe to it. With that said we flash forward four years and our two main characters Yuichiro and Mikaela, aka Yu and Mika, are on their way to get their blood drawn because they’re cattle for vampires. Afterwards they’re giving a Capri Sun looking thing and Yu doesn’t want it because it tastes bad and of course he hates the way things are. Some Vampires approach and two random kids don’t move out of the way and get their hands stepped on which was fucking awesome. Yu jumps in their face and attempts to beat their assess, but is suddenly hung over the ledge and about to be dropped when a Vampire noble shows up. This noble likes to personally suck Mika’s blood so of course Yu is saved.

Through this scene and a few others we learn how Yu and Mika are different in personalities. Yu will never give up or give in while Mika will do whatever to protect their family of orphans, but only as long as he has Yu’s spirit beside him. Mika’s found a map and gun in the Noble’s home and now they’re going to try and leave the Vampire underground city… too bad the vampire Noble is waiting for them because this is all a game to him. Cool shit ensues.

You may notice I’m talking very causally about this show and there’s a reason for it. It’s an entertaining show and while the formula is very transparent, it’s still fun. It has enough happening to make it new and fresh that I actually really enjoyed it. No surprise, the story flashes forward another four years because that’s all this first episode was meant to do… age our main characters while establishing their backstory and motivation.

And I really enjoyed it. I liked that the vampires didn’t mess around and that when everyone died there were no clichés just death. It was a super virus that did exactly what a super virus would do.

The character types are obvious and maybe a bit too much of the archetypes, but they work for a reason. It’s fairly obvious that Yu and Mika are going to grow up on opposite sides of the war of Humans vs Vampires and that’s okay because it should prove to be interesting. That childhood bond skews the line between black and white, good and bad and likely our two main characters will make decisions that hurt themselves and their cause for the other.

The animation is very detailed, especially for the action. The world looks like its ending and when we see it again towards the end… it’s clearly a different world now. With the Vampire world being underground it wasn’t too interesting to look at. Basically it was a lot of grey rocks and everyone is either wearing white or grey so nothing stands out.

The action is enough to bring me back, but I am a little curious about the story and the mystery that lead to these events. The characters might be too heavy rooted in archetypes to enjoy, but we’ll see. Overall it’s an interesting series that’s caught my attention, but we’ll see what happens with the second episode which will be the true first episode in some ways.

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Score: 3/5

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Seraph of the End: Vampire Reign 1.1 Official Website

Review: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 1.1 - Adventurer

I apparently have an affliction for anime’s with really long titles (see here). Is It Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? is one of those properties that’s known by many names. Commonly referred to as just Dungeon or DanMachi or just Familia Myth. Its roots go back to a light novel series which seems to be the norm nowadays and then of course a manga and now an anime. I’m not familiar with the light novel or manga; let’s be honest, not everyone that will watch this is going to be either. If I miss something or criticize something that’s later explained in the manga, well that’s the nature of reviews. I’m here to enjoy the anime and not absorb the entire franchise. I feel like I have to throw that out there sometimes when I see that a properties roots stem past the anime, because then mega fans tend to throw out inadvertent spoilers to defend criticisms and really it’s not needed. Every adaptation needs to stand on its own.

Which I think Is It Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon? 1.1 does quite well. We’re given a quick set up of the world which is common, especially when the world looks different from our own. It’s a story device that when used properly doesn’t annoy and when it’s used wrong ends up looking like a modern Hollywood Sci-Fi film.

The gist is pretty simple, but don’t get me wrong simple to explain is not simple in execution. The gods have descended to our world and given up their powers and promised not to interfere with our world. But they bless adventurers in protecting the world and also going through the dungeon maze.

We meet our main character Bell as he’s running away from a Minotaur, only to be saved and covered in blood by another adventurer Aiz Wallenstein the Sword Princess. For Bell its love at first site and he goes running off to find out more info about Aiz… while covered in blood. He runs to the Adventurer agency and his friend/handler person Eina helps him get cleaned up, but then scolds him for going to a level of the dungeon he shouldn’t have been in with his level of skills (though we later learn that the Minotaur shouldn’t have been there in the first place).

Through their interaction we get an idea of how the dungeon and world works. Blessed “Family Members” go into the dungeon and kill monsters and collect the gems they drop and then adventurers turn those gems in for money.

After Bell turns in his few gems collected he runs back home to his Goddess Hestia. As it turns out Bell is the only member of the Hestia family and since he’s a newbie and weak… well so is the family. Hestia is clearly into Bell. She brings him food and they have a fun night. They do act like a family even if there’s a brewing love interest in Bell. We also see another part of how the world and adventuring works when Hestia checks Bell’s “Levels.”

This is when the idea became quite awesome to me because it’s a role-playing video game turned into a real world. Bell has levels and everything is stored on a tattoo on his back. Hestia checks his levels and puts it on a piece of paper for him to look at. He gets excited when his agility goes up. He also learns a skill, but Hestia being jealous of Bell’s interest in Aiz keeps it from him. Also I think she’s trying to protect him because clearly she’s lost family members before and doesn’t want him leveling up to quickly and getting killed.

There’s more to the first episode, but really nothing worth going into detail about. There’s a really awkward scene in a pub that serves as some weird motivation for Bell and his puppy love for Aiz. It’s very much forced upon the story and frankly felt too formulaic compared to the rest of the story. As it was the very definition of convenient writing. I get that Bell is in love with Aiz and there will be other love interests for Bell and they’ll never get together. I get it. It’s the formula and it’s not going away anytime soon in anime, manga or light novels. But it really wasn’t needed here. The world was interesting enough that Bell didn’t need to become emotional attached to the first woman he sees in the dungeon.

The world though, is really interesting. I don’t know what the larger story is at play, but for now Bell trying to get stronger and show the cat man that talked shit about him that he is somehow worthy of Aiz is good enough. I just hope they keep it fresh and make the monsters in the dungeon more of a threat. The Minotaur was cool, but the other monsters that Bell faces later were pretty whatever. The worst part of dungeon crawling is facing lightweight bullshit monsters and so hopefully we don’t have to see a bunch of that on the show.

The animation is very good. Since it’s a fantasy world there’s a lot of details to the city and backgrounds are full and rich with the exception of the dungeon itself. It’s a dungeon so rocks and dirt are all you see which isn’t visually catchy in the least bit. It doesn’t have to be beautiful, but it’s a really hard shift from the rest of the show.

The character designs are interesting. The woman all have fan service in mind and Hestia has a string that goes around her arms and under her boobs to give them more… definition… or bounce… it serves no purpose other than to draw attention to them. Bell has softer features to give him that innocent boy look and it works. Overall the design captured a fantasy world, but not in a Knights and Dragons kind of way which was a nice change of pace. In fact it has this hint of Final Fantasy VIII to it in my opinion.

I liked this episode. I can see all the tropes and story formulas at play, but the world is interesting enough for me to stick with it. The comedy is pretty light so hopefully it gets better, but the serious parts were decent making a good balance for the series. If you’re not into fantasy worlds, video games or anime tropes then you’ll probably want to pass on this one, but anyone that enjoys those three things should give it a shot.

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Score: 3/5

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Is It Wrong to Try To Pick UP Girls in a Dungeon? 1.1 - Adventurer (Bell Cranel) Official Website

Review: High School DxD BorN 3.1 - It's Summer break, To the Underworld Let's GO!

The third season of High School DxD has begun and my goodness they didn’t waste any time getting to the fan service. It was almost a little too much even for this series, but hey… it’s fan service so I’m not going to complain. After a very long opening of F.S. we see that Issei’s house has been completely remodeled so that basically everyone can live there. It’s ridiculously large and it happened overnight and his parents don’t seem to care because it’s ridiculously large. We learn that school is almost out for the summer and that the “club” will be going to Hell to train for the break. Issei continues to have thoughts about the woman that killed him and put him on the course of becoming a demon and other bad moments in the story like when he almost lost Asia. The Rias’ hang up this season is the fact that Issei won’t call her by her first name like he does everyone else and Akeno is poaching Rias’ turf aka Issei a lot more already this season (which personally I really liked).

There is some action (not like that), but it’s the first episode so it doesn’t mean anything really. The set up for it is predictable as well. Also it seems that our forgotten character Koneko (she was more of a background character last season) is being put in the spotlight this time around and it’s very forced. Very.

As much as I like the fan service of this show I really don’t care if it’s there or not. I get that that’s where it gets a lot of its popularity, but for me I’m more interested in the story of heaven and hell and fallen angels. Something I don’t like that they’ve done each season now is make Issei weak. He’s built up to be this wrecking ball of force and power by the end of the season in which he’ll overcome some huge obstacle and while I understand the formula at play… they just make him too damn weak. Instead of maintaining any strength he comes across as pitiful. With them training at least there’s the hope that we’ll see him level up sooner this season, but they really need to stop dropping him so hard because it makes it makes it less believable each time he overcomes someone more powerful.

As for the storyline I have little doubt that it will improve, but I can’t say that I’m interested in what they’re doing or setting up for Koneko. Frankly she’s been the weakest character since the beginning so unless they’re going to finally give her some form of personality, I can’t say I really care. I don’t particularly care for the “why won’t he say my first name” storyline, but hey it’s a trope. Frankly since the first season they’ve really nerffed Rias’ power as well, but unlike Issei, they don’t level her back up each season. I can’t tell you one new thing she’s learned or that’s been revealed about her powers and the only other character that’s like that is unfortunately Koneko.

The animation is great. I’ll admit that I found an uncensored version (much to my surprise) and it definitely caught me off guard. Though I found it to be a purer version because of it. With as much fan service as this show has, having giant censor “stickers” pop up tends to just make it pointless to watch anything since most of the screen is covered. But even the non-fan service parts were animated incredibly well. I’ve enjoyed the look of this series from the beginning and it only gets better with time.

There’s some hiccups in this first episode for sure and if you haven’t watched the other two seasons/series then you’re going to be lost. There’s no recap and really at this point there shouldn’t be. Fan service or not, I’ll be here for this story and can’t wait to see how Issei transforms this season and when we’ll see him in full on Dragon mode… or doorbell a booby because that’s probably going to happen first.

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Score: 3/5

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High School DxD BorN 3.1 "It's Summer break, To the Underworld Let's GO!" Official Website

Review: Show By Rock! 1.1 - Have A Nice Music!

With this newest season of anime I decided to just try out anything and basically everything that was new. As long as it wasn’t the second season or a spinoff that I hadn’t already been following that is, I mean no sense in being lost the entire time. Show By Rock! Is not the type of show I would usually watch. In fact I’m not sure why people would watch it outside of the humor and over the top cuteness. Though the humor would be the only thing to bring me back for the second episode. We open by meeting a high school girl that’s waiting outside of a club room. Her name is Cyan and she’s really nervous about handing in her application for the club which is a rock band. Not nervous enough to stop singing outside of the club room for all to hear… all but the band, but nervous none the less. After being embarrassed we jump to later in the evening in her room. She’s strumming her guitar and has actual skills with the instrument. At this point I was thinking “so this is just K’On” and I was wrong to think that.

She plays a Guitar Hero style of game on her cell phone in order to boost her courage and ends up with a high score and unlocking a Strawberry Heart guitar… and then is warped into the game… or somewhere… they haven’t decided to tell us yet.

And here’s where it gets confusing and crazy and slightly better.

Cyan is sent flying into this digital looking world and is changed into a cat girl (the costume is quite awesome) and we see a band performing and they’re all animal hybrids as well. Oh and they’re all in “Super Cute” mode or as we call it here in the States “Super Deformed” due to a translation error we’re stuck with that terminology. What’s weird is the show jumps between the CGI super cute and the regular 2-D animation and the switch is really, really random at times. At one point we’re introduced to new characters in 2-D and then back to CGI and then back to 2-D and then CGI, CGI. It was a mess and the CGI/super cute mode was pretty generic and shitty. When the characters look cuter in 2-D mode then you’ve failed at your mission.

Cyan saves a boy band from a dark creature trying to take their music stuff away from them. Honestly the terminology didn’t matter to me as it was super cheesy. Afterwards Cyan is approached by an Egg, no joke a fucking egg, about joining his label and band the Plasmagica which is a terrible name. It’s not even fun to say. We meet the band members and they’re all animal or food gimmicks as well and it becomes clear that everyone in this world will have an animal or food gimmick.

We meet the villain at some point and Cyan joins the band to fulfill her dream and in a very meta way she acknowledges the fact that she doesn’t know where she is, why’s she there and what’s up with the world… but that she also doesn’t care because she’s in a band. It was like, “hey viewer, we know you’re wondering about this stuff and why we didn’t address it… but it doesn’t matter because everyone’s playing music and has an animal or food gimmick and that’s cool right?”

And I was okay with that… maybe not cool, but okay.

Because the story is a mess. It leaps ahead, it doesn’t jump. It’s pacing is frantic when in 2-D mode and hangs out way too much when in 3-D/CGI mode. If it hadn’t been for the humor in the last third of the episode I would have turned it off by then, though I can see the Egg dude wearing on my nerves with his gimmick already. He basically freaks out over everything and goes on a tangent.

I dug the classic anime tropes like the teardrop, the red anger mark and the super detailed face when angry. My favorite was when Cyan would “Meow” and the character Retoree would blush and fall madly in love with her for a second due to the cute factor.

The CGI designs are a real put off. They were so smashed together that it looks like a head with legs and arms coming from somewhere. It wasn’t cute, it looked like Reboot and I mean that. It looked like dated ass CGI from Reboot. You may have liked Reboot back in the day, but I guarantee that you still looked at it and were like, “this looks shitty.”

The 2-D animation was fantastic and if it wasn’t for the CGI I would have loved the look of the show. Unfortunately the 2-D is interrupted so much in the beginning that I didn’t even pay attention to the art until, again, the third act. The character designs are great and they’re appropriate for their age and for younger audiences. It’s cute, not sexy and I was glad to see that given the age of the character and the world.

Man oh man, that story. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to ignore its flaws and obvious appeal to a younger crowd, but I’ll give it a shot. If the story was tighter and actually tried to explain what was going on rather than making a joke about how they’re not doing that, it would be pretty cool… well if it dropped the CGI it would be even cooler. For now it’s just okay and it’s a shame because elements of the story and art really are great, but they’re held down by the parts that aren’t. Unfortunately the parts that aren’t dominate the episode.

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Score: 2/5

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Show By Rock! 1.1 - "Have A Nice Music" Official Website

Review: Food Wars 1.1 - An Endless Wasteland

Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma was made to be an anime, but folks new to the series will probably have to hang around for a few episodes. When it was announced that the Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma manga was going to join Weekly Shonen Jump (which I cover every week), I was excited.  It was not a series I had ever read, but I knew that it would appeal to me immediately.  I like manga (a lot), I like cooking (a lot), and, in particular, I really like trying new recipes, especially Japanese ones.  If I recall correctly, the first chapter serialized in Jump featured a detailed scientific explanation of the qualities that make a fish fresh.

And I've been hooked ever since.

The manga is not just informative and fun.  It features a really strong cast of characters, all with their own stories and ambitions.  And the lead character, Soma Yukihara, will probably go down as an archetypal Shonen character.  When the anime got announced, oh my good golly goodness was I pumped.  Because this series has so much potential to succeed in the anime form that it's stupid.

Think about it.  We're talking about one of the most internationally successful manga right now, the main theme of which is based on our senses.  That a manga based on food in the real world has been able to deliver its topic so successfully in a medium that plays off of only one sense (sight) in a static, often colorless form, is a testament to the depth of the characters and ideas contained within.  Surely, as well, the series has received some help from fairly frequent ecchi that gets peppered in for dramatic and comedic effect.  Whenever a dish is particularly amazing, a thing called "disrobing" happens to both women and men alike, and it's exactly what it sounds like.  It's often incredibly over-dramatic and employs splash pages that take the newly naked characters to some surreal setting.

Take both of those things--the serious, central subject matter of delicious, innovative cuisine, and the contrasting surrealistic, mostly-nude, dramatic reactions of customers and judges--and add 1. color 2. sound 3. and the motion of animation, and holy sweet shit I promise you there is a winning formula.  And I'm talking in abstract here: it is very obvious from jump (pun intended) street that this anime has an inherently successful formula that it will have to go out of its way to screw up.

The first episode did not disappoint.  Having since read the entire manga, I can tell you that the high points of the first manga chapter are establishing Soma's ambitions, his relationship with his dad, his knack for learning from his mistakes, and the way the groundwork gets set for that disrobing ecchi effect.  All of these things were front and center in the anime: it kept true to the spirit of the manga, and then some.  The food was a pleasure to look at in full color with steam pouring off of it, and it is completely unfair how hungry the show made me.  And, as expected, the disrobing effect, with the power of made-for-television animation on its side, was completely fucking ridiculous.

Rather than being confined to a two-page spread, the anime gets to indulge in its fan service in a way that both increases the fan service but, more importantly for a twenty-something like me who is not really into that shit, increases the hell out of the comedic effect.  The thing that I like so much about this series is that it earns its little fan service moments with a plot that has a brisk pace and a lot of meaningful character payoffs.

All that said, I could see how people who haven't read the manga and had the chance to see the balance between the plot and the ecchi probably felt like they were being assaulted by the amount of nudity in the first episode of this show--a show that's supposed to be about cooking.  I think that's a fair criticism.  The main reason I don't think that it was heavy-handed is because I already have the context of the manga.  It remains to be seen whether the potential to indulge in the fan service becomes a hindrance to this anime's success; but, the manga has struck a good balance, and I think the show will be fine if it tries to stick to that same ratio.

I know some people will stay just for the fan service.  My concern is that this series needs to embrace its ability to appeal to a lot of demographics.  If it can do that, I guarantee you are looking at an anime series that is going to be talked about for a long time.

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Score: 4/5

Food Wars 1.1 - And Endless Wasteland Official Website

Review: My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! 2.1

Whether you call it Oregairu, My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected or my preferred choice of My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU… either way it’s a long ass name. But one that you don’t forget. At its heart it’s a little bit of a harem comedy. In fact it really has the structure of one, but unlike others that have previously broken or changed the mold, no one is in love with our main character. Well that’s not true. No one’s honest in the slightest about their feelings for our main character Hachiman Hikigaya (say that however you want everyone else does). And here’s why… he’s terrible. He’s rude, he’s unkind, and he’s intentionally mean, a loner with a superiority complex and everyone in the school either doesn’t acknowledge his existence or hates him.

And I absolutely love his character for it. Because it’s all a front. Socially he’s the smartest guy in the room. He’s figured out how the world works and has a negative view of it and how can you blame him. Do you hate work, school or social interactions that feel forced? Well that’s society and we all deal with it. We get to that age where we know how to play the game and acknowledge that we are in fact playing it.

Hikigaya doesn’t play the game, at least not like everyone else. He sacrifices himself constantly to make others feel better, but he does it in the worst possible way. He makes people face reality and when that happens the other people around them go into overdrive to protect the societal boundaries we’ve all been duped into agreeing to. To put it another way, he plays the heel (wrestling term for a person playing the “bad guy” when in actuality they aren’t).

Again… I absolutely love his character for it.

The second season started up and I didn’t realize how much I missed this show, though I did instantly remember the thing I didn’t like about it. I needed more. One episode isn’t enough, a fact I can prove by pointing out that I’ve watched it twice and started going back through the first season. I feel like a little kid in an At&t commercial screaming for more, “We just want more!”

The first episode begins in an interesting way. It actually recaps some of the twelfth episode of the first season. Not the last episode, but the second to last episode. This was the episode that really changed the dynamic of the season and so it’s interesting that they start with it here. Almost as a reminder that things will never be smooth for Hikigaya.

The rest of the episode is spent on a service request. Tobe wants to ask Hina out finally. What’s interesting here is that when Tobe and Hayato approach the service club, they’re disrespectful to Hikigaya which isn’t unusual. But both Yukino and Yui tell Tobe to come back when he has more respect which is a shocker to Hikigaya. It’s a strong scene and opened the show well. Then its school trip time and all the tropes that go along with that storyline.

I liked the story for the episode. It brought back every character from the first season in a way that didn’t feel forced and re-established the status quo. The other interesting part is that Hina goes to the service club to get their help maintaining the status quo which seems to imply that the way things are now… will not remain.

The art has genuinely improved, but there’s some things have changed and not for the better. It’s clear that the budget is bigger and don’t get me wrong I love seeing better animation. The coloring is better and looks more natural rather than having a lot of solid colors. It looks more like a movie than a tv show which is becoming the norm for popular shows. What isn’t improved is the changes to Hikigaya’s design. His hair is far more stylish and the coloring doesn’t have that green hue to it. I personally liked that because in a way it reflected his personality on the exterior. Again you want to see improvements, but here you lose some of the charm and visual personality of the characters and that’s a shame.

Talking about this show doesn’t help. I hoped it would, but it only makes me want to see the next episode. If you enjoyed the first season then you’ll welcome this series back with open arms. If you missed the first season then you’ll likely be lost on the main plot line, but still able to follow what’s happening and the gist of the characters. I would just recommend watching the first season though. Now let the countdown to next week begin.

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Score: 4/5

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My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! 2.1 "Nobody Knows Why They Came to the Service Club" Official Website