Suteki Tantei Labyrinth

Interesting, this turned out to be a shoujo-series where a girl and two twin-companions run into a mysterious young boy-detective, and yet there are shounen-elements as well when scantily clad females fight each other (we actually get to see that very sequence four times throughout the entire episode…) and a clumsy maid appears. I have no idea what to think of this series at the moment, though. The characters aren’t as stereotypical as other series of this season I’ve seen so far, there’s a nice air of mystery, but it seems to be missing something. Still, I see no reason why this can’t be fixed in the next few episodes. It could have gotten much worse, all it needs to do now is to build up well.

Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro

This is the second of the three murder-mystery series for this Season. While Labyrinth focused on a more shoujo-style in its approach, Neuro is all shounen. And with that come its problems: this series just isn’t subtle in any way, something which isn’t good for a mystery-series. The first episode already sees our heroes solve one case, but I’m not impressed by how things turned out. The chemistry between the main characters feels artificial at best: all the guy does is look evil and physically abuse the girl, while the girl has a food-obsession and a sad past somehow. I’m not sure why, but Suteki Tantei Labyrinth somehow looks so much better after seeing this series. The style of comedy also isn’t my taste: even Night Wizard was funnier, and yet it had far fewer jokes. But the real reason that convinced me that this isn’t my series is the ending: they just had to throw in a shallow villain who turns into a huge bulked-up monster. I was hoping for cases with the same depth as Ayatsuri Sakon, though now that this series needs to have a fight for every episode, I think I’ll pass.

Blue Drop: Tenshitachi no Gikyoku

Yes! This definitely is one of the most solid titles of the season, both in terms of writing and production-values. The characters are well-written and not based on stereotypes, the scenes build up well for the climaxes with a small air of mystery, and the production values look gorgeous. While I don’t expect the latter to last for more than a few episodes, I think we can expect some great things from this series. There’s going to be yuri in this series as well, which also is a nice addition, and the side-characters so far all have their own potential. The only thing I didn’t like is how the two major characters coincidentally ended up sleeping in the same room of all possible combinations, though that’s nothing major yet.

Mokke

Mokke was one of the two series I’ve been looking forward to the most for this season, and it doesn’t disappoint. What we have here is two sisters who live at a local shrine. One of them can see spirits, the other is easily possessed by them. There’s a very nice combination of slice-of-life and drama, and unlike the similar series Binbou Shimai Monogatari, this series never feels annoying, apart from a few animation-issues here and there, perhaps. It’s going to be interesting whether this series will remain fresh or not by developing its characters. Oh, and the music is pretty good as well. Especially the OP has the chance of being among the best OPs for this season. This is definitely the best show of the season so far, but then again, I’ve only seen four of them until now. ^^;

Night Wizard the Animation

So far, this one turned out interesting enough to continue, but it needs a lot to improve on. I like how the main characters go beyond their clichés, and the male lead actually has a sense of humour. This also isn’t a show where all main characters suddenly discover their powers: that’s only the case for one of them. The male lead and the others were already involved in the parallel fantasy-world that exists alongside the normal one. The graphics and music are nice to watch as well,, and small degree of humour is a welcome addition. Still, on the other side, there’s only one male character in the entire show so far, all female characters, the thing lacks realism (why does nobody find it strange when suddenly a car lifts off into the air?), the male and female lead look destined to end up together, and let’s hope that the rest of the series will spend enough time to flesh out the characters and go for something original. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, because this could turn into something interesting if handled well.

Myself; Yourself

So, a guy returns to his birthplace after having been away for 5 years? Where have I seen this before? Ah well, it did at least some things right: the characters go a bit beyond stereotypes unlike with Da Capo II, and the character-designs of the teenagers aren’t as outrageous as I feared. That doesn’t mean that the plot isn’t incredibly shallow, though. His childhood love turned into the worst tsundere possible, another became his landlady who agrees to make his lunch for no possible reason, the third girl turned into the obligatory unimportant female classmate and his only male friend looks way too much like the obligatory male best friend you see in every harem. I’m not sure, but why can’t these creators come up with something original? It’s really not that hard, you know? One thing I have to say though, is that this is probably the first harem without a cheesy J-pop-tune for its OP: instead we get treated to a catchy J-rock one.