First Impressions:
Summer 2015
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| For a better look at the chart, look here |
Gangsta- In a European style city, crime and trouble runs
rampant. There are gangsters and dirty cops, prostitutes and drug sellers, and
in the middle of it all are two guys who do odd jobs for whoever is paying
them. From beating up young punks who are harassing a nice old lady to wiping
out an upstart gang and leaving no survivors, if the money is good they will do
it. This is an action packed crime series, something like Baccano or Black
Lagoon. It’s very heavy on the action and the characterization of the three
main characters, who are all very interesting. We have a deaf ex-mercenary who
fights with a samurai sword, a gun totting, eye patch wearing smooth criminal,
and an ex-prostitute who is now their secretary. The ex-prostitute is the shows
audience insert character, she is new to the city and that means she needs all
the bits of the microcosm of the city explained to her over time. There is an
aspect of the show I am a bit worried about. In the second episode they made
mention of what I assume to be the larger story of the series to be. The deaf
sword fighter has these dog tags with some significance, they represent
someone’s strength level apparently. But when explaining it the show made it
sound more mystical or supernatural in nature, like those with the tags have
powers far beyond that we know. It’s possible that Gangsta will go that route,
mixing the mystical or the supernatural with the heavy realistic life of organized
crime and that might be really good. It is just something that gives me
reservations. But it doesn’t mean the show is anywhere close to bad. This is an
action packed show and a fun ride so far. Definitely something I will keep up
with.
Chaos Dragon: Sekiryuu Sen’eki- In a fantasy kingdom, a
dragon deity goes berserk and attacks the kingdom it protects. The young prince
of the kingdom survives and decides he will live a life a peace with some other
orphans, despite still carrying the traditional sword of his family. This lasts
until they are attacked by a small traveling army who are part of the people
who have taken control of the country in its time of chaos, who are
transporting a thing of the Red Dragon, the dragon deity. Being the prince and
the main character, the bobble is attracted to the main character, and he is
allowed to make a contract with the Red Dragon of great power, but at the cost
of the life of his one friend. He must know use this power, and the power of
others who will gather by his side, to take back the kingdom and fight evil.
The show is, at is core, very generic. The back-story of this shows creation is
actually more interesting than the show itself. The show actually came to
fruition when a bunch of impressive names in the anime industry came together
and decide to play a table top rpg, Dungeons & Dragons or the like. The
players are all big time writers, ones a writer of popular light novels, ones
been writing anime for years, one wrote Madoka Magica. And the show itself it
about the story they created in the game. So the show is just one big table top
rpg. I usually say a show is like D&D but this is ridiculous. But, the
awesome adventure you and your friends have while playing the game doesn’t
always translate well into a different medium. And this is one of those times.
The show is just boring. Nothing about it felt exciting or interesting. They fridged the main characters female friend so he will have angst, it feels that
cliché. And cliché isn’t bad in a role playing game, it just doesn’t translate
well into an anime. While I would love to watch those writers play a table top
rpg, I don’t think I want to watch it like this. I’m gonna probably drop this
show.
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| Look how cool these guys are. there the best! |
Aoharu X Kikanjuu- The student council president of a school
has a strong sense of justice, and wishes to be a hero and beat up villains and
bullies and protect students. She also dresses in male clothing and is easily
mistaken as a male. One day, her friend is asking for money and implies that
she was ripped off at a host club, and in a rage of justice she goes to that
club to get her friends money back. It turns out the host who ripped off her
friend is the main characters new neighbor, and to resolve the problem they
decide to have an air soft match. Our hero loses, and causes a ton of damage to
the club, and in order to pay off their debt she has to join the host’s
survival game team. But he mistakes the main character for male, and doesn’t
allow women on his team. So now our hero must hid her gender and play survival
games. While the scenario leading to the main plot of the show is convoluted as
all hell, the actual show is really fun. It’s a good comedy with some survival
game action. While the main character is the girl hiding her gender, the real
draw of the show is the host and his other teammate, a bdsm manga author who
has no friends except for the host, and eventually the main. They’re both
bishonen types who are deeply attached to each other, so obviously the main
draw is their relationship. But it’s more than just shipping bait, which is why
I’m going to keep up with this show. The action is pretty great, the comedy is
very good, and the characters are strangely likable. The bdsm manga author for
instance should be very unlikable, he is possessive of his only friend and is
willing to drive away anyone who gets between them. But when he finds that she
is actually a decent human being who wants to be friends with him, he repents
and apologizes and is surprisingly cute. This show is adorable and funny, and I
think I really like it.
Wakaba Girl- A micro series about a rich girl who has never
had many friends and has always wanted to live the life of an average
highschool girl enters highschool, makes friends, and starts doing all the
stuff average highschool girls do. This is a completely average and forgettable
series about cute girls being nice to each other. I might keep up with it, I
might drop it, it depends on how interesting or funny it actually becomes, but
from the first episode it is average and harmless.
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| Don't worry, it's just air soft. |
Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai- In
the future Japan has become the most morally correct nation in the world. It
has implemented a system that whenever you do something lewd, perverted, or say
a ‘bad’ word, the cops come for you and you get arrested. Even perverted jokes
can get a child sent to hard labor in prison. All internet porn in japan is
banned, and even drawing something is monitored and can get you in trouble. But
in this place of moral fascism there is a glimmer of hope. A terrorist by the
name of Blue Snow, who gives away dirty pictures, says dirty word loudly, and
runs around with panties on her face as a mask, fights the good fight to change
the world. We follow a young man whose father was once a similar terrorist, but
after meeting a girl who he found morally upstanding and pure, decided to never
follow in his father’s footsteps and go to the school with the highest moral
standings in the country. But when he gets there, he comes in contact with the
terrorist Blue Snow, and is forced and blackmailed a bit into helping her plans
to educate the listless masses about sex, though really she just wants to make
dirty jokes. This show mixes a low brow humor with a surprisingly upscale
sci-fi totalitarian setting. While all the humor is just dumb perverted jokes,
it has this amazingly subversive sense. Its fighting the power of government is
a way that is hilarious and good. I’m rooting for these terrorists who just
want to be free to say dirty jokes. This is a good show so far, and I hope it
keeps up the quality.
Durarara!!x2 Ten- The next part of the three part second
season of Durarara. So far it has been almost better than the previous cour of
the series. There doing something similar to what they did in the first series
of the show, where there are a bunch of stories going on all at once and we are
seeing the bits and pieces of those stories in every episode, only focusing on
a few of the characters per episode. To be fair, it is just more of the same of
Durarara, but hopefully it is more of the same of the good parts of Durarara,
and less of the boring bits that made up a decent amount of the last cour. Either
way I will probably end up watching it.
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| "She's been doing this for hours. She just won't stop." |
Rokka no Yuusha- In a fantasy world there is demon lord type
who creates more demons and monsters. He raises up every so often and a Goddess
of this world picks 6 warriors to fight against these demons. This has happened
a few times before, and not it is starting again. We follow two of the chosen ‘Braves’
as they’re called. One of them is a princess sword mage who conjures swords
with wand and is a mix of the two big princess archetypes. She is both innocent
of the outside world and everything that goes with that, and a battle hardened
princess type who has seen death and her kingdom fall and people want to assassinate
her. The other main character is a guy who claims to be the strongest man in
the world. He is the type who fights with many cool little weapons and tricks,
even having flint in his teeth to spark the oil he pours on his opponents. Together
they must find the other Braves and fight the demons. It looks like a straight up
fantasy anime, with some good action and a group of people who slowly become
friends to fight a large evil. It seems like a neat little show. Nothing too
exciting about it yet, there is a subplot about someone killing people who had
the potential to be chosen to be Braves and now that the six have been chosen I
assume that story will become a more important subplot, but other than that
nothing too much other than the main plot. It’s not a bad show, I feel it has a
lot of potential to be something really fun, but for now it’s just not bad. I plan
on keeping up with it this season.
Dragon Ball Super- There is a new Dragon Ball anime. That
alone should sell you on the show. Taking place after the events of the Boo
saga and in affect getting rid of the Dragon Ball GT continuity, for now the
show is more or less following the plot of the Battle of the Gods movie. An ancient
God cat man thing is coming to earth looking for the greatest warrior and will
find Goku. What’s interesting is all that is happening before the fight. So far
we’ve had some slice of life style shows about the characters. The first
episode is about Goten and Trunks trying to find a good marriage present for
Videl, Goku’s soon to be wife. After that we have an episode where Vegeta and
his family take a vacation to a resort island, which is a direct sequel to the
famous scene where Vegeta challenges Trunks to land a single hit on him, and if
he does hell take him to an amusement part. It’s really fun so far. One of the
strange bits of the show so far is when they show clips from the old anime.
They are actually using real archival footage, and the style is just different
enough to be completely obvious. It’s nice to see. I’ve been a fan of Dragon
Ball since I was a kid, it’s one of the first anime I’ve ever seen and it’s an
important part of my childhood. I’m excited for this show, and so far it looks
good. It’s classic Dragon Ball and sometimes that’s all you need.
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| I was in an adventuring party that looked like this once. |
Wakako-Zake- This is a micro series about an office woman
who goes out drinking after work and eating bar food. It’s a surprisingly cute
little series. I love shows about food and alcohol and that actually try to
teach the audience about the shows in some way, and that’s this show in a nutshell.
It’s honestly very simple but enjoyable. I’ll definitely be keeping up with
this one.
Jitsu wa Watashi wa- This is a highschool comedy anime about
a guy who can’t keep secrets. It’s easy to tell when he has one and he’ll
accidently let them slip very easily. He falls for the cool beauty of his
school and his friends convince him to confess to her. When he goes to tell her
his feelings he finds out her deepest secret, that she’s a vampire. Now he must
keep her secret, or else she will be forced to leave the school. Now together
they try to live a good highschool life while keeping her secret. This show is
a harem anime were almost all the woman are supernatural in some way, but it’s definitely
one of the good harem shows. It has the ability to ignore the romance angle and
actually just have good comedy once in a while. I read the manga for this show,
so I’ve been really excited for its release. It’s actually a really good manga series,
and so far the adaptation has been really good as well.
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| Don't worry, she's not part of the harem. |
Non Non Biyori Repeat- The second season of Non Non Biyori,
the cute little show about a group of girls who live in the country side. They all
go the same school, and even are all in the same school room, despite being all
in different grades. This is a very relaxing and nice little slice of life
show. It really brings the countryside to life, making it a realistic setting. What’s
interesting so far is that the first two episodes have taken place either
before or right at the start of the last season. It will be interesting to see
if this season will run parallel to the first one. If you’ve seen the first
season, you’ll like this one. It’s a cute little show, go watch it.
Monster Musume no Iru Nichijou- Everyone has a few shows that
are a little bit of a guilty pleasure. This is one of mine. Monster Musume is
about a world were monster people exist, mostly female for the purposes of fan
service. We follow a guy whose home is the host home for a snake girl, a lamia,
who is obviously in love with him, but he won’t lay a finger at her because of
the law prohibiting humans and monsters from hurting each other, and sex can be
seen as an extension of that. He eventually is joined by a harpy who is ditzy,
and a centaur who wishes to find her knight or master. And as the show goes on
more girls join his harem. This is a harem, fan service type show that is all
about monster girls. Snake tits and bird tits and horse tits and so many more. On
the bare service this is a terrible show that by all rights I should condemn. Or
at least drop. It’s got a Blandy McNiceguy type main character who refuses to
sully the girls, way too much fan service of all types, from tits to crotch
shots to loli types, and every girl in the show will end up in love with him.
But, I love this manga. It is terrible, it is trash, but I love it so much. This
is my guilty pleasure series. It is terrible, I know it’s terrible, but I know I
will be watching the entire thing. If you like monster girls watch this. Just understand
it is not that great of a show by any metric.
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| This joke is what got me to read the manga. God damn this one joke. |
And those were my first impressions of the 2015 summer anime
season. There are so many good shows this season. Gangsta has some great bloody
action, Shimoneta has perverted terrorism, and Monster Musume has snake tits.
It is a good season all around! So until next time, keep on watching.
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| SHE JUST WONT STOP. |
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