Bamboo Blade

This one turned out into a pretty decent high-school anime. I like the male and female lead, who for once aren’t destined to love each other. The male lead also is an adult teacher, and there are more important male characters than him, including a geek who actually has his own girlfriend. Nice one. The banter between the different characters is fun to watch, and there’s good chemistry between them. It’s just a pity that the black-haired girl had to ruin everything. She somehow manages to beat heaps of adults at one time without breaking a sweat, she’s silent and never goes beyond her stereotype. This series is about a guy who has to assemble a team of five girls for kendo. If he does that successfully, his colleague will give him a year’s worth of sushi, or something similar. So far, we’ve seen three of the girls, one clichéd and two with promise. Let’s hope the other two will be worthwhile. The animation was definitely rushed for this episode: those were some crazy camera-angles, were often you wouldn’t see a character’s mouth when he or she was talking. Ah well, the thing this series needs to watch out for the most is not falling into a moe-fest.

Da Capo II

I haven’t seen the original series, but I decided to check this one out, just in case I missed something really good. Well, it turns out I didn’t. The major problem lies with the characters. The cast comes with a lot of females (who can be conveniently recognized amongst generics due to their near-outrageous hairstyles), who’ll probably all end up getting close with our main character, who looks suspiciously much like the main character of any other harem-series. Basically, every member of the cast is a stereotype. There’s the younger sister who helps the local nurse, the elder sister who acts motherly towards her brother (yes, the main character), there is the childhood friend, the little girl that makes us doubt how she got in a high school in the first place, the big-breasted blonde girl, the obligatory male best friends who keep acting annoying and let’s not forget the most popular girl in school. I think the only harem-cliché that misses here is the android, though I wouldn’t be surprised if she turned up somewhere along the way.

Sketchbook ~Full Color’s~

Oh my, this one actually turned out funny. It’s thankfully not as moe-centric as I thought, and the different characters have interesting personalities, which work together quite well. I’m not going to call this a success yet, as I remember how a previous 4-Koma adaptation (Lucky Star) turned dull quite fast, but if this series can manage to remain fresh, it’s going to be an interesting watch. Basically, it’s about the art-club in a local school. The funniest parts of the episode were the crow and the members of the club, trying to come up with inspiration for their next drawings. The only downside is the main character, though. It’s not the way you think: she’s fun to watch, but she makes Mugi from Hitohira look like a talking machine: I’ve only heard three actual words come out of her mouth throughout the entire episode. While it’s nice to hear her voice-actress having fun to explore the different meanings of huffing and puffing, I’d prefer to hear some actual dialogue out of her, besides her inner monologues. ^^;

If you came to this entry, expecting another rave about how Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann should deserve to be the best anime ever, then you’ve come to the wrong address. This series is a nice watch, but for me, it wasn’t the instant classic that others make it out to be. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagan is homage to the GAR mecha-series of the seventies and eighties; it’s a brainless over-the-top action-series, nothing less, but barely anything more.

This series suffers from a huge degree of predictability. The good guys are basically like a bunch of energetic monkeys who’ve drank too many cups of coffee, and they often like to think with their hormones, instead of their minds. Nearly the entire series has them basically running forward, taking out enemy after enemy. When one enemy is defeated, another, more powerful one appears. He or she is cocky, but he keeps getting surprised at the ever-increasing power of our protagonist. Of course, the anime does this in style, but the lack of much variation does become jarring after a while.

There’s one point in the anime where it actually promises to be more than just this, though. At episode 17, there’s a time-skip, and both the setting and the characters themselves develop quite interestingly. Unfortunately, the creators chicken out after three episodes, and go back to the overblown action of the first part of the series, and increase this ten-fold. If there’s also a point in this series where every chance has turned against our heroes, then don’t worry. A previously unmentioned plot-device will appear and turn the tides. After this happens for the fifth time, it does take away some of the tension.

The characters are fortunately a bit more interesting than this. They’re basically the definition of passionate manliness. I especially liked Kittan and Rossiu, two side-characters who do what they can to help out, and can actually think for themselves. The other characters are enjoyable enough, though the two lead females have a few problems here and there. Nia’s actions in the beginning feel a bit forced, and while Yoko is a great side-character, she becomes really annoying when she becomes the centre of attention. This is a Gainax-anime after all, and of course they had to stuff in the obligatory fanservice.

If you’re looking for something realistic, then stay far and far away from this series. While I can’t say it for sure, but especially the final episodes deserve a good chance of being among the most scientifically inaccurate episodes ever. If you’re looking for epic GAR and manliness though, you should give this one a chance. The over-the-top action nearly thunders out of your screen with the bright and energetic production-values, and among the general fandom, this has become a favourite series. While I can’t share this opinion (Gurren Lagann is nowhere near the best of the previous season), it remains a nice watch.