Some quick first impressions: Sky Girls, Potemayo and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei
Sky Girls
Wow, this one could have turned out a lot worse. The blatant fanservice that plagued the OVA is almost entirely gone now, and some actual time has been dedicated to fleshing out the characters properly. To be honest, I didn’t see this coming, and expected the same moe-bait that was the OVA. Still, I don’t trust this series yet. The first episode was all about the characters, and there were only a few shots of action. I fear that once the battles really get started, this series will degrade back to the level of the OVA. I’m also still not sure why it must be necessary to have the ultimate weapons equipped by young girls. I mean, can’t people just make adult-versions? The weight won’t change anything about the firepower of these things. Also, the black-haired girl was just too tsundere for her own good. The only scene that featured her (which also was the only action-scene, hence my worries) was the only really bad part of this episode.
Potemayo
This show turned out to be quite funny. It’s a matter of taste, but I personally love the sadistic yet subtle humour of Potemayo. It’s basically a school comedy, with two mute… chibi… “thingies” (called Potemayo) added, and it basically revolves around random things, happening around these “thingies”. There’s the standard cast of characters, with the male main character, his classmate who’s in love with him, other random classmates, and the two loser-males that always fail, but with the addition of Potemayo, they become hilarious at times. Now all that’s left to hope is that it won’t milk out its jokes too soon.
Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei
I really love the art in this anime, and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei probably has the best graphics of the entire summer-season for me. Especially with the direction of Shinbo (who did series as Pani Poni Dash and Soultaker before). The OP already starts the anime in a very… “peculiar” way, and there is definitely chemistry between the different characters. What I like about this series, above Pani Poni Dash is that on the outside, the class that this anime focuses on looks pretty much like a normal class, only it’s the inside that’s rather strange. The series also is quite funny, and I believe that it will compete with Potemayo for the best comedy of the season. Okay, it may not have been the best idea to watch a series that is focused at word puns without subtitles, but then again, it’ll probably take ages for this series to come out fansubbed. Anyway, this one’s definitely recommended.
I am so glad that Sayonara Sad Sensei looks so good! Maybe it’ll help you to read the scanlations of the manga?
But then again, Ayu and Yoroshiku want to sub the anime. If they do, it will take awhile, but at least we are rather likely to get good subs ^^
Sky Girls turned into a slice of life thing was a surprise for me too. I also didn’t expect it to be slated for 26 episodes - I fear the filler episodes already.
Comment by Sasa — July 7, 2007 @ 23:50
Sayonara Sensei looked good. I hope it’s next PPD, but I need subs to say it for certain.
Comment by Anga — July 8, 2007 @ 18:18
Sasa: Whoa, 26 episodes. The problem indeed is that Sky Girls just doesn’t really have much material to work on. I have the same fears as you right now.
It indeed seems that Zetsubou’s releases will come at Pani-Poni Dash-speed, but at least they’ll be worth the wait. :)
Comment by psgels — July 9, 2007 @ 13:11
“I’m also still not sure why it must be necessary to have the ultimate weapons equipped by young girls.”
Lol. funny. ^_^. Then I moved on to think on other shows that have; kids manning robots, kids being masters of superpowered monsters, but then again, the kids weren’t loli characters :).
Comment by Hinode — July 10, 2007 @ 14:44
Actually, a.f.k just turned loose a subbed copy this morning =)
Comment by Fuyumi — July 14, 2007 @ 3:45
Oops, I meant of Sayonara Zetsubou-sensei. Pardon me ^^;
Comment by Fuyumi — July 14, 2007 @ 3:46
And a.f.k actually translated pretty much all of the text.. although i suspect a number of the jokes are lost if you can’t read Kanji :(
Comment by Yenkaz — July 14, 2007 @ 13:23
I’ve seen their version, and they indeed translated all of the text, but they never even bothered to explain all the references. Zetubou-ss name was the best example of it. Oh, and I rather disliked how they tried to mess with the OP.
Comment by psgels — July 14, 2007 @ 13:46
O_O i just ran into this manga, but never once entertained the thought that it would already be an anime… >.
Comment by mki — July 18, 2007 @ 8:04
mki: try not to use these smilies. Blogsome has the nasty habit of cutting entire posts off because of them.
Comment by psgels — July 18, 2007 @ 9:08
It seems as if I’m the only one that doesn’t like Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. I guess I just have different taste…
Comment by kiseki gurl — July 20, 2007 @ 0:51