Final Thoughts: Fall 2011

Final thoughts: Fall 2011

Most of the anime from this season that I decided to watch are still going on, so this final thoughts list is going to be a little short. Most of the shows that are still going on into the winter 2012 season though are pretty good. Hunter X Hunter is very good, Chihayafuru is good fun if a bit shoujo-esc, Phi Brain is interesting, but might not last if I am being completely honest, and Mirai Nikki is insane, but in the best way possible. But enough of those, on to the stuff that actually had an ending.

Un-Go: I didn’t talk about this show in my original First Thoughts list, but at a fiends request I gave the show a shot, and it was pretty good. The show takes place in a post war Japan, not post WWII though, a future war with the internet and Idol girls playing important parts. But that can’t be the focus of the show, that would be way too interesting. Instead we follow Yuuki Shinjuurou, a detective who always looks for the truth. Along him is the demon Inga, who both lives in the body of a small boy and a busty women. I believe there is something Freudian there, but who am I to say. The show is a series of one episode, almost all unrelated mysteries, until we get closer to the end, where we actually start to see more and more connections. This show is interesting, it is fun to see how all the mysteries unfold and how the new futuristic world works. I really think they did a great job of showing how a past war Japan would be with how modern day Japan is like, with all the otakus and crazed fans, and insane internet subcultures. Overall I think this show was ok, but I can honestly see it annoying people. There were times I wanted to know about the war, the world outside of Japan, or anything else really, and we get almost nothing. Still, it is a good show.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai: “I Don’t Have Many Friends”  is one of the two shows this season I really want to see continued for a second season. On the surface, this is just your normal harem comedy, one male with a plethora of women who he can be paired with. And it has every fetish you could want, there is the little sister, the loli nun, the busty probably-a-bit-of-a-lesbian-and-budding-otaku-tsundere, the dominating childhood friend who is also kind of tsundere, the trap in a maid outfit, and my personal favorite, the completely perverted scientist girl. This should have been a stupid show, but it has this heart with it, where all the characters are more then the little description I put above, though in all honesty not much deeper for some. I really wanted to keep watching the interactions between the characters, which was just perfect. I liked the messed up sex jokes from my favorite scientist girl, Rika Shiguma, I liked the banter between the characters, and just how shy they all are in actual social interactions, like when they are saving each others numbers on their phones for the first time. The look on Kodaka’s and Yozora’s faces when they first save each others numbers is priceless. I really love this show, it was great fun.

Kimi to Boku: Male moe at its core but like all good moe, it has great character interactions and fun, if simple stories. I really liked the calming art style, and this little gag they did, where they would cut to a group of cats to represent the characters, and show the cats interaction to mirror what the characters themselves were doing. But there isn’t much to this show. I’ve already started to forget this show. It didn’t leave any great impact on me, but for what it was, it was enjoyably, simple, short, and not bad.

Ben-To: I mentioned earlier that this season there were two shows I wanted to have a second season. This is the second one. Actually no, this is the first show I wanted to have a second season. I love this show. It is bombastic, over the top, and just plain fun. It is just that type of show that you watch and just want to punch the air because of how insanely awesome it is. This show did what I want it to do, just stay a show about people fighting for cheap food. We did get more complicated characters and a surprisingly deep subculture though, but that is just working on building off of its core of, well, people beating the crap out of each other for half-priced food. Actually the subculture they create is something I want to touch on. It is a deep, complicated, but actually realistic subculture, one that I compare to street racing. While nothing is said explicitly, it is not impossible to see how this subculture has come about, how the intricate bits work, and you can make explanations about just about everything that fits into this world. I really like this show. The characters are vibrant and fun, the stories are over the top, the music fits beyond perfectly, and the fight animation is top notch in my opinion. This is one of those shows I really want to see more of, and I hope it gets a second season. This was probably one of my favorite shows this year, and really was just a fun ride from beginning to end.

So those were my thoughts on the 2011 fall anime season. It wasn’t a bad season, but the amount of shows continuing onto 24 episodes or even more makes this list very small. I’ll give a more in depth, or in the very least, longer, look at the shows I mentioned above. Next season we have a whole bunch of new stuff to look forward to, and I’ll be giving my first looks at all of all the first episodes I see, once I get to them all. But until next time, have fun watching.