Nopy's Blog

Well, we’re past the second week of the new season and I’ve tried to take a look at most of the new anime series that have aired so far. Some were good, some were bad, and some just made me go “WTF?” I thought I’d go into a little detail on what I thought of each one here.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju
High school, a stupid (baka) main character, cute girls, and fighting; this series has all the points of a generic anime. What makes it different though is that instead of giving the students some sort of special powers like most anime, they have to write tests to level up their summoned beasts, which are actually adorable chibi versions of themselves. These chibi characters then fight head-to-head RPG style until one side loses their HP, which results in detention. When one class defeats another class in a battle, they get to change classrooms (each classroom has different facilities, some more desirable than others). You can already tell what kind of story is going to develop here (i.e. promoting teamwork, self-sacrifice, maybe some romance), but I think the chibi characters make this anime worth watching. If the story in each episode is the same though (anyone seen Angelic Layer?), then I might drop the series.

Chu-Bra
Ok, this is an anime about a schoolgirl that’s obsessed with lingerie, need I say more? Aimed towards guys (maybe girls) with an underwear fetish, I just can’t see myself wasting my time watching this.

Dance in the Vampire Bund
I’ve never understood why the Japanese give English titles to their works when their target audience is Japanese, and it looks like they’re starting to use German too. From Wikipedia:

Bund is the German language and Yiddish word for Federation or Union, in which context it is pronounced “boont“.

Well, at least they were able to make a title mixing two languages that made sense, unlike some other titles. I thought the first episode itself was like the title in that it made no sense at first, but became clear in the end. It starts off with some kind of gameshow debating the existence of vampires, which doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the story until later when it was revealed that the show was all set up to capture a rebel vampire. I’m still not exactly sure what the anime is about except that it involves vampires, so I’ll have to watch a couple more episodes before I decide to drop it or watch it.

Durarara
There’s a lot of stuff happening in the first episode of this anime, but it mainly focuses on a kid named Mikado Ryugamine and his first night in Ikebukuro. Like with anyone moving to a place they’re not familiar with, he sees a lot of new and strange things and people. I thought the combination of the animation, music, and strange characters gives viewers the same feeling that you get when you move to or visit someplace new. Very few anime are able to pull off something like that. The whole thing about this phantom motorcycle rider was pretty cool too. Instead of just following around some normal people, they’ve managed to include quite a bit of action with this character. I think out of all the new anime this season, Durarara has the most potential and I’ll be looking forward to the next episode.

Hanamaru Kindergarten
This anime was just plain weird. First off, the kindergarteners in this show are way too short. The average 4 year old is about 3ft tall, but the kids in the anime barely reach the knees of the adults. Secondly, the kids are way too mature for their age. When I was in kindergarten my friends and I were only able to tell apart girls and boys by the length of their hair, but the kids in the anime seem to already know about stuff like relationships. That leads me to my third point: this seemed way too much like a harem anime mashed together with Kodomo no Jikan (an anime about a grade school teacher getting intimate with one of his students). Although this wasn’t as suggestive as Kodomo no Jikan, it still felt like it had the same underlining themes which was enough to make me stop watching the first episode halfway through.  It’s no wonder the Japanese are so perverted, they start brainwashing their kids with this kind of stuff early on.

Omamori Himari
I thought Omamori Himari looked like a generic anime based on the first episode. An average guy gets attacked by some kind of monster but is saved by a beautiful schoolgirl wielding a katana. A love triangle later ensues between the guy, his saviour, and his girlfriend. Did I mention that the sword-wielding schoolgirl also happens to be a catgirl? Everything about the first episode just screams “normal anime,” which isn’t a bad thing, but it’d be nice to see some new ideas every now and then. If you like regular anime, then you’d probably like this, but I don’t think I will be watching it unless I end up with a lot of free time on my hands.

Ookami Kakushi
The first episode made no sense to me, but I liked the animation. From what I can tell, it involves wolves and maybe some supernatural powers. Looks like I’ll have to watch a few more episodes to see if it’s worth my time.

Seikon no Qwaser
“WTF!?” That’s the best phrase to describe this anime. Seriously, how can you watch an anime about a guy that gets special powers by drinking breast milk. The plot itself sounds like it’s more suited for a hentai, not an anime. Needless to say, I won’t be following this series.

Sora no Woto
Cute, but you should ask yourself: is this really worth watching? Sure, the likes of Lucky Star and K-ON have been huge successes, but eventually the formula gets old. A few years of anime about a group of girls doing random, somewhat humorous things without any real plot, and I’m beginning to get tired of it. If Sora no Woto had come out two years ago, I probably would have liked it, but since it’s coming out now, I’m not planning on watching any more episodes.

Although this isn’t all of the new series that are airing this season, they’re most of the ones that I planned on checking out. I still have to watch Katanagatari, but the rest are either sequels of anime I haven’t seen, have a younger audience in mind, or just sound even weirder than Seikon no Qwaser (i.e. Unko-san Junjou-ha, an anime about poop). So to sum up, the anime I think are worth watching are Baka to Test to Shoukanju, and Durarara. The “maybes” include: Dance in the Vampire Bund, and Ookami Kakushi.

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