The spring season shows are now well on their way. Here’s our thoughts on some of them.
Uchuu Kyoudai (Space Brothers)
As kids, two brothers make a pact to become astronauts. As adults, one actually is an astronaut, while the older has found himself fired from his automobile engineer job. It becomes a chance for him to revist those aspirations and he finds himself going through the JAXA selection process. Streaming on CrunchyRoll.
root – the art and animation is simple. Story is straightforward, some amusing humor. Anyone who has siblings can probably relate to the feelings of inadquacy and comparisons portrayed. A decent JAXA recruitment show, heh. While nothing outstanding, I find it a pleasant enough watch to spend some time on it. Just makes a 3 out 4 cropped afro monkeys.
Ozama
Earth of the future where the oceans have completely evaporated leading to a desert world. The young man protaganist rescues a mysterious woman from the clutches of the ruling empire. Thus begins the adventure with ships that ply the seas of sand. On CR.
root – um, when all the material proudly proclaims Leiji Matsumoto’s Ozama, you have to wonder. It’s like the actual show is secondary in importance. Art is decent enough, animation is serviceable. The concept of the world is a bit silly, if the oceans of earth dried up, its not like all the water would be replaced by sand. Ignoring that, the plot is predictable and pretty shallow. Is this actually aimed at kids? I can’t believe I watched this all the way to the end, thankfully its only 6 episodes. I think the only enjoyment I got was that pirate captain eyepatch lady was in love with Dick. Oh wait, she wasn’t a pirate and didn’t have an eyepatch. WTF. 1 out of 4 mantle wearing monkeys.
risu – Ozuma, dude (オズマ). You said, “in love with dick”! Isn’t that more like Mine Fujiko? Anyway, I knew from the first episode that I was going to have issues with the “science” of the show, like how when the oceans dried up, what was left were seas of sand. I hate to break it to the writers and conceptual artists, but the bottom of the ocean isn’t sand. It’s more like a world where the water was replaced with sand. I personally don’t like Matsumoto’s character design, so that didn’t help either. I’m sure Cade will enjoy this though. I think the final nail in the coffin for me with this property was being beat over the head with the Miyazaki Hayao stick at the end. It’s worth a watch-through if you don’t have anything beter to do. The animation quality is fairly good. Probably best for Matsumoto fans. Some of the mechanical design was interesting, so I give it a C-
Yurumates 3Dei
Yurume is a ronin that moves to Tokyo into the run down apartment complex “Maizon de Wish” full of ronin. Hijinkx ensue. On CR.
root – Art is nice, animation is pretty well done, it is only 3 minutes long. It’s a typical gag show, amusing but nothing as wacked as Nichijou. As long as college aged characters that look like kindergardeners doesn’t bother you, this is a decent enough show to waste 3 minutes on. Just barely 3 out 4 ronin monkeys.
risu – Whee. I really wish this one was more edgy and maybe even a little naughty. Isn’t that what ronin life is all about? The lead character’s seiyuu is Momoi Haruka – visualize her gigantic knees! C+
Hiiro no Kakera
Base on a otome game, protaganist is a high school girl who returns to family village to find herself caught up in the family’s involvement with the spirit world. Assigned as her protectors is a bevy of boys. On CR.
root – BG art is nice enough, animation is servicable. Don’t care for the character designs, although they aren’t strongly shoujo at all. Thankfully there isn’t a BL kind of things going on, that’s not what this genre is about I guess. But honestly there isn’t anything I find compeling in this show. Characters, story, I don’t really care about any of it. 1 out of 4 reverse harem monkeys.
risu – Sorry. Can’t do it.
Kimi to Boku 2
Season 2 of five high school boys living the life of high school boys. 4 are childhood friends and the 5th a transfer who inserts himself into their group. On CR.
root – K-On for girls, cute boys doing cute boy things. It’s actually pretty well done. Clean art and designs. Animation while not making you stand up, notice, and say wow, is more than serviceable. Never got the feeling of, oh hey, they’re saving frames here. There’s actually even less of a story going on than K-On since there is no club or activity that they are in, but its still entertaining. 3 out of 4 cat loving monkeys.
risu – Really, why are you watching ALL the shoujo shows?!?!
Nazo no Kanojou X (Mysterious Girlfriend X)
High school boy encounters odd new girl transfer student. While not outwardly hostile, her behaviour hardly endears herself to others. She makes no effort to interact with others. Until the fateful moment that he finds the girl after school and on impulse tastes her drool. He becomes “addicted” to it, and thus an odd love story unfolds. On CR.
root – Nice art & animation, the designs and style are straight out of 80’s anime ala Ranma. The lead voice actress is atypical and I think was a great choice. The fetishness of the drool plot point seems to put off a lot of people, I find it interesting. Hey c’mon, she’s doesn’t wear glasses, is in a wheelchair, is deaf and blind and have an eyepatch and glass eye. This is probably one of my favorite shows for the current season. 4 out of 4 salivating monkeys. Am I really giving it this high a rating? Has it really been that weak of a run of shows lately that I go this high?
risu – I figured root would like this one since the original manga is from the same guy who did the original Yume Tsukai manga, the anime version of which he enjoyed also. The artwork and animation quality are very good, but the story is slowww. I personally find the heroine creepy and disturbing, maybe because she’s a little too “real”. Her CV actress is very good. Google her – she comes from a L/A acting background… she was in the Gantz L/A movie. The whole saliva thing is total exploitative, like how Elfin Lied was candy for amputee fetishists. Personally, the saliva thing turns me off: That “sneeze smell” instantly fills my olfactory memory. A-
Saki: Achiga-hen episode of Side-A
Spinoff of previous Saki mahjong anime from a few seasons back. A school “sports” genre where a group of girls come together to revive and rebuild the mahjong club at their school. On CR.
root – I admit to watching the first show, even though it wasn’t that great, that succumbed to that must explain technical points of the “sport”, and then also had devices of players who had superhuman almost magical abilities. This one hasn’t had much of that, in fact in three episodes they’ve formed the club, gotten the former pro player & ex-club member as advisor & coach, and made it to the Nationals. While other shows spend inordinate time on the characters developing into the sport, this one pretty much lacks it. BG art is not bad, animation is ok, designs are alright, but this show just doesn’t come together. I suppose things are going to happen from the tournament, but I don’t care. I think the thing I find most interesting in this show is the automated mahjong tables, I want to see a real one to see how it works. 1 out of 4 brick building monkeys.
Upotte!!
How else can you describe this show than to say its about a girl’s school where the girls are guns. No, not girls with guns, the girls ARE guns. Hi jinks insue.
root – art is nice, designs are from the Kanokon/Ladies vs Butlers camp, animation is decently good, although there is more than a couple moments of animation saving. It’s fairly amusing if inuendos don’t put you off. There was actually less fanservice than I expected. I suppose this is one of those guilty pleasures shows. 2.5 out of 4 gun otaku monkeys.
risu – From the outset, I set my technical expectations very low for this show, considering the original manga was done by the dude who did Eden’s Bowy and other fantasy genre properties. If you ignore the premise that the girls are anthropomorphized rifles, it is a fairly ordinary school comedy. The nationality-based characterizations aren’t as stereotypical like Hetalia or Strike Witches. The technical information presented about the rifles is mostly correct and is somewhat educational, but the foley is way off, especially for 7.62x51mm NATO. Trust me. I know. Some of the causality is bassackwards, and a lot of the historical and timeline stuff is overlooked, but for the novice gun otaku, it has enough familiar references ot keep it interesting. The animation is not bad, but the backgrounds are a little below average. C
Sengoku Collection
Yet another historical figures from the Sengoku period as girls thrown into current Japan. On CR.
root – I was fairly entertained with the first episode entrance of Oda Nobunaga and her intereactions with male character. I like the watercolory BG, the animation and designs are perfectly serviceable. It was off to a promising start, but the later eps switch completely to different figures and lose that interaction. 2 out of 4 moe warrior monkeys.
risu – I really like the character designs for this one. It’s like the moe version of last season’s Sengoku Otome: Momoiro Paradox. Other than the overlying story of Oda Nobunaga trying to “collect” the treasures from each of the characters in every episode, there is no real story continuity – each episode is a standalone story. There isn’t anything outstanding or original going on in the stories – it’s like watching something like Kita he – Diamond Dust Drops or Sentimental Journey but with different character design. B+
More to come
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