Spring 2014 Anime Season: First Impressions

2014 Spring Anime Season

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The spring anime season is now upon us, and we have some great shows to look forward to. Let’s not waist anytime and get right to it. These are my first impressions of the spring 2014 anime season.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders- Starting with one of the strongest shows this season, we return to the Jojo universe with the third part, Stardust Crusaders. The third part follows Jotaro Kujo, the 16 year old grandson of Joseph Joestar, and his quest to fight the revived vampire, Dio, from the first part Phantom Blood. Part three is considered by many to be the best part of the manga, and introduces one of the mainstays of the franchise, the power of Stands. Stands are kind of psychic energies made manifest and there are a lot of rules to them, but in those rules we have some of the most creative battles and ability’s coming up. I’ve already read the manga to this part, so I already know what is coming up, but that doesn’t stop me from being incredibly excited. Also, this is a great jumping on point for people new to the series. Seriously, everyone should go watch this show, it is going to be a really fun ride.

 Baby Steps- The first of three sports anime I’ve watched this season, Baby Steps is about tennis. The series follows a dude who is the best in his class, and has impeccable notes and note taking ability. He decides that with all the work he has to do, as class representative and the smartest kid in class and all the homework and notes he has to take, that he doesn’t get enough exercise, and decides to try out tennis, finding out it is much more physically taxing then he first thought. But a girl at both the tennis court and his school catches his eye. The show seems to be about a character who, while excelling at school, doesn’t really have any passion in his life, and finds that passion though tennis. It is a story that has been seen before, but I liked the main character, he didn’t have any ulterior motives to going to play tennis he just literally wanted to work out and he is just a nice, smart character. Though his hair is ridiculous. But I think I will like this show. It seems smart, fun, I really like the main character, and it just looks like a good show from the first episode.

Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo Returns- This is actually a show from a long time ago, mid 90’s to the early 2000’s if I am correct, that is being revived. But because of the episodic nature of the show, I am just going to consider like any other anime. This series is about a high school detective and the girl who he is in love with/ she is in love with him/ beats him up all the time. While he is lazy and just doesn’t care, he is also a super genius, and puts his genius to solving crime. The show is basically Detective Conan/Cased Closed minus the main character being turned into a 10 year old. Literally, it is basically Conan. The art styles are similar, they ran for a while during the same time, if I looked hard enough I might even find a cross over, who knows. From the first episode this show seems like a decent detective or mystery type show. They set up the facts of the scenario pretty well, it is easy enough to follow, and the audience only knows a little bit more than the main characters do. Speaking of the main characters, our lead isn’t anything special to write home about, he is your average genius who is also lazy. I plan on keeping up with this show, but I have the feeling it might get boring after a while. Watch it if you are a mystery or detective junky, you’ve seen the original run of the anime, or if you even kind of liked Detective Conan.

I really, really like this franchise.

Abarenbou Rikishi!! Matsutarou- Our second sports anime, this time about the life of a sumo wrestler. Taking place in very early 20^th century japan, I believe the Mejii Era, we follow a jerkass. Literally, our main character is a huge jackass who does and takes what he wants, still goes to school even though he looks 10 years older than the rest of his class only because he wants to hit on one of the teachers, he steals food, literally from his baby sister, and is just a terrible person. I assume that he is going through a redemption arc, focusing his energies into something productive, being a sumo wrestler. As of right now, I can’t stand the main character. He is just too cruel and uncaring for me to route for. I do like the art style, it feels very old and classic, like it fits with the times the show takes place in very well. If the lead character starts to become more likeable, I will probably keep up with it, and I will give it a few more episodes for that to pan out.

Haikyuu!!- Our third sports anime, this time about volleyball. We follow a short kid who is infatuated with volleyball. While he doesn’t have the height to play, he is fast and can jump pretty high. After losing the only match he was able to play during his time in middle school, he decides that the only person on the opposing team that had the same amount of passion as he had was to be his rival, and after training and fighting tooth and nail, he gets to the high school of his dreams…only to find out his rival is actually also there and a part of the volleyball team. This seems to be the most straight forward sports anime this season, just being about high school sports and pushing the boundary between what is possible and just plain insane in a sports anime. The animation in the first episode was also really good, it was just crisp. I really liked the main character, but he and his rival were basically all we got. But I look forward to this show, I really want to see how it develops and makes volleyball interesting. It might even become the best sports anime this season.

Bokura wa Minna Kawaisou- Do you remember The Pet Girl of Sankuraso, or whatever it was called? Basically the same thing. Dude moves into an apartment complex/living quarters with a bunch of weirdo’s, including a masochist roommate, a drunk girl with terrible luck in men, and a quite girl who read a lot who the main character has a hella huge crush on. He is the only “normal” one in the bunch, and has to deal with his normal everyday high school life being turned upside down. The visuals for this show is amazing, and really make up for the lack luster main character. He just feels way too bland. I have a feeling that this show is going to become very boring, very quickly. The Pet Girl of Sankuraso was able to make a compelling story of people working hard for their dreams, but this show feels like none of its characters have dreams, they are just living. And maybe that will be a good show. I plan on giving it a few episodes, to see if it pans out, but for now, it is just bland, and not very funny. 

Spoiler Alert! They become a team.

Majin Bone- This is a bit of a strange show, as the audience is really thrown into the series head first, with little to go on. From what I can tell, possibly aliens in animal based suits of armor are attacking, and some human warriors who use similar animal theme suits fight against them. The newest member is a Japanese high school dude who has stumbled across the dragon armor, accidently donning it and being thrown in with little explanation to the world that this show takes place in. This isn’t very helpful, but I think that is because the show doesn’t tell its audience anything that is going on. To the shows credit, the show is interesting. I like the main character most of the time, and the other three heroes are all interesting and even kind of funny. I want to see how this show pans out, because I think it has potential, but it might fall apart at the seams, who really knows. Also, the ending theme is great. At least watch it for that.

Inugami-san to Nekoyama-san- I think this is our only real micro-series this season, and to its credit it is adorable and cute. The show is about a girl who kind of looks and acts like a cat, but loves dogs and a girl who kind of looks and acts like a dog, but loves cats. They are falling in love. The show seems to be about these two girls acting cute and acting like their respectful animals and being in love possibly. It is a cute little show that I will probably keep up with because I like cute shows like this.

Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei- In the future, either after or during World War Three, mankind has invented or discovered or something, magic, and has mixed it with technology to create powerful weapons. There is a school made for training young magicians in their technological magical arts, and it is split into two courses, the first course which is reserved for the best of the best, and the second course made for everyone else. Our hero is in the latter, even though, as his sister, who is in the first course, constantly reminds us he scored highest in the written application tests. But there is more to the main character than meets the eye. Mostly that he is a perfect human being that literally attracts all of the women. Dude has a harem that doubles every episode, including his sister who so desperately wants to jump his bone. My sixth sense for these kinds of things tells me that this show is going to be bad, like, really bad. Like how I felt during Sword Art Online and realized how right I was during its second half. But the main character is so impossibly perfect and the show is just so ridiculous that I kind of like it, in a weird, twisted way. I feel like this should is trying to be dramatic and action packed, and I just sit back and laugh at its technobabble and perfect main character and I kind of want to watch all of this show. Go watch it, it is a great comedy.

One of these guys is African. Guess which one.

Kenzen Robo Daimidaler- When I first heard about this show, I thought it was going to be a comical sendup to the classic giant mecha shows. Everything about the show had a feel of very classic, older giant robot anime. And the design of the giant robot seemed so primitive and raw that I couldn’t help but think this show was going to be awesome. And then I watched the first episode. The show is about a dude who gets power from perversion. Like, he needs to feel up a girl in order to use his powers and pilot the giant robot. He is not funny, he is not clever, and it is something I have seen a million times and it is usually not clever. I will give the show this, the giant robot is awesome. It is a great robot design. And the villains are pretty funny. They are also huge perverts, but as villains it makes sense for them to be like that. Like, if the main joke for the hero is that he is a pervert, and nothing else, that is not a good character. But the villains have some great characterization, and they are faceless suits with giant “front tails” and they are hilarious and kind of respectful and I really like them. But the main character was so boring and I didn’t care about his so much, part of me wants to drop the show. I think I will give it a second episode, to see if the parody starts to pan out or if the main character starts to become likable, I will keep with it. But if not, I will probably drop it.

Love Live! School Idol Project Second Season- IT’S THE SECOND SEASON OF LOVE LIVE! If you don’t remember, Love Live is a series about amateur, high school idol group Muse, who in the first season saved their school from premature closing. In the second season they are going to be participating in the Love Live, a huge idol competition that will put the girls up against other idols in a huge idol battle to the death! Well probably not to the death, but I don’t care, I am excited. I love this series, I love musical and idol shows and I am overly hyped for this show. If you liked the first season go watch this one. I know I will be.

Soredemo Sekai wa Utsukushii- In a fantasy world, one king has conquered the world, except for one poor little nation. In exchange for allowing the nation to keep its autonomy, he wants to marry one of the four princess of the nation. After a near death game of rock paper scissors, the youngest daughter is chosen to marry the king. But she, like her sisters, have the ability to control the weather, like the wind and the rain, with the power of her music. She must now live with a selfish child of a king, who she is supposed to marry, and hopefully open his closed heart. I want to say right off the bat this show is gorgeous. The animation and the art is just really great. Also the show is really nice. It is kind of a comedy, with a lot of really funny jokes, but it also doesn’t hold back with the drama and intrigue that would happen in the world of a medieval style nation. I also love the main heroin. She is just a really fun character. She is strong in her convictions but she is also just really funny. I really can’t wait to see where this show goes. It is defiantly one I want to keep up with.

If they don't win the Love Live in might cry. I am heavily invested.

Gochuumon wa Usagi Desu ka?- This is the super cute moe show of the season. A new girl in town is going to school there, but in order to go she has to work for her homestay. She works at a café with the people who she is living with. The café has a rabbit… thing that also talks a bit. The girls are cute and harmless and we actually have a parent figure. A male parent figure at that. I never thought about it before, but a lot of the cute moe shows don’t really have male parental figures, like at all. But yeah, the show is harmless and cute and possibly really strange depending on what they do with the talking rabbit thing that might be one of the girls grandfather. It is a show about nice girls acting nice to each other and I will watch it all. I like it, it is cute and harmless.

Captain Earth- In space, on the dark side of the moon, aliens (maybe?) every so often attack the earth in some way, and a secret international defense agency try to stop these attacks. The son of a man who headed these defensive measures, and even died in defense of the earth though no one knew that, discovers this secret organization, the possible alien (again, maybe??) children who are tasked with the defense of the earth, and gets given a gun. He uses that gun to pilot a rocket with a mecha in it to space to fight against one of those aliens (maybe???) attacks. To be fair, we are given very little solid facts in the first episode. We only really know the main character, some stuff from his childhood, and his angsty overdramatic teens in which he is in. The character seems to be two different characters in one actually. In the first episode he is angsty except in flashbacks, and then in the second episode, and a few brief moments in the first episode, he acts overly happy and energetic. Now I like him as the energetic and kind of stupid lead, but they set him up as this brooding, dark hero, someone who has to rekindle the lost childhood that was destroyed when his father died. They should have made him go from dark and brooding to happy over time, but hey, we have what we have. Also, the best part of the show is this incredibly long, overly complicated sequence they have for the mecha. It is literally shot into space via an actual rocket, and then goes through three different halo styled satellites where it gets its legs, arms, body and finally the head. It is such an awesome scene that it makes up for the inconsistency in the main character. I want to give the show some time to really find its footing. I might drop it if the main character stays inconsistent or if they purposely make everything obtuse and unexplainable, but so far, it isn’t bad.

Hitsugi no Chaika- In a fantasy world, a young girl with a coffin which holds a sniper rifle of sorts. She is a wizard, who can shoot spells via a sniper rifle. She meets a brother sister duo who are warriors of sorts, called Saboteurs, or something like that. They can do an enchantment on themselves to make them stronger, faster, better fighters.  She hires them to steal a magical artifact, a hand in a jar, which potentially has the power to end the current time of peace, bringing war back to the world. So it is an adventure show, where the trio of the siblings and the coffin girl go searching for more of those artifacts, having to fight against the owners of those artifacts and another group who are after the same artifacts in order to protect the world. It is a surprisingly good show. The three main characters are really interesting. The main male is really representative of the social commentary type bored Japanese character, wishing for war return just for something to do. The coffin girl is interesting, mostly because we only know a little bit about her. That, and she has a really specific speech pattern, that I can see getting annoying but I actually find endearing. The sister is the weakest of the three so far, but I feel like she will get some good development over time. I really like show, it seems well put together and has a nice subversion of the usual plot for this type show. How many shows have a main character wishing for war? And I don’t mean in a naive way, he wants something to do in life, and he is trained for war, it makes sense for him to wish for it. But yeah, I will be keeping up with this show.

This show is going to be super pretentious, I just feel it.

No Game, No Life- Remember that show a few seasons ago called Problem Children are Coming from another World? Yeah, basically the same thing.  A NEET brother and sister duo, who have been apparently rejected by the world around them, are some of the greatest gamers in the world, though completely anonymous. One day they receive a strange email asking them if they liked the world around them, a world with confusing rules and terrible players. They decide they hate this world, and end up falling into another world, where games rule. With ten rules that the world abides by, everyone plays games and gambles for what they want and need. So taking advantage of this world and its rules, the brother and sister have to make it for themselves and live a life that they can agree with, a life where their skills are actually put to use properly. Aside from some anime clichés with lolis, incest, and fan service, I really liked this show. Visually it was dynamic and the colors and art direction where really interesting. The brother/sister duo in this show is a bit weird. They are obviously damaged by the real world somehow, and cling to each other for support, but this makes it seem like there is a romantic attachment between then, the sister is 11 mind you, but they assure us there is none, the brother just really cares for his sister. It’s like, if they wanted to cross that boundary they could do that at any time, and both of them know that, but they just only see each other as really close siblings. I know it is just the show justifying showing problematic stuff, but I still like it as a twist on already problematic anime tropes. All in all I really like what this show is about so far. It really depends on where it goes from here. IF it goes the heavy fan service, little character route, it will just be annoying, but so far I think it has a decent amount of character. Also, Jojo reference in the second episode. I am sold.

Mushishi: Zoku-Shou- The second season of the classic anime Mushishi. The show is about the episodic adventures of a Mushi-shi. Mushi are creatures and beings that are usually unseeable by normal eyes. They effect the world around us, and are usually unnaturally shaped. Some can be as big as a rainbow, but most are as small as bugs. A Mushi-shi helps people that are effected by mushi. The show is a really low energy story about people and their lives, and sometimes how the mushi affect those lives. I loved the first season of this show, it is really calming and relaxing. Every episode was like a good book or little movie about people and their lives. The episodic nature of the show really lends itself for new people to start watching in this second season. You can really come in at any time. I can praise this show until the sun comes down, it is beautifully animated, the stories are smartly written, and the characters are really great. I love this show, go watch it.

Cardfight!! Vanguard: Legion Mate- The new season of Cardfight. If you like Cardifght, watch this one. In all seriousness, this is maybe the most interesting season so far. The original main character for the first three seasons is now missing and no one but Kai remembers him. He and the people whose minds he can unlock must try to find out what happened to the dude who saved the world. All the seasons of Cardfight before this has been pretty formulaic. In the first half of the show there is an entirely legitimate tournament, before an introduction of unnatural powers of some sort and then the show is all about those powers, usually in a tournament formula. But this season starts with the unnatural stuff, it is completely flipping the story around. And Kai is the main character! This is like Yugi being the main character for the whole time, and all of a sudden Seto Kaiba has to go fight and save the day. It is a complete change in dynamic and I am really digging it. I plan on enjoying this season to the fullest.

I know I already did a Jojo pic, but I am just super excited for it!

And that is the 2014 spring anime season. There is a lot of interesting shows this season. I am really looking forward to Mushishi and Jojo, of course, but all the sports shows this season are also looking really fun. That and IDOL BATTLES this season. I am really excited. So until next time, have fun watching

Fin indeed.