Macademi Wasshoi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets loved by two cute girls.
Highlights: As if this season hadn’t already enough annoying and overly cute girls…
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6/10
Really, I was sure that Kemeko Deluxe would have won the title for most unrealistic series of the season, but this series sure proved me wrong on that one. There are a LOT of annoying things about this series: overly cute girls fall for him for shallow or no reasons, the OP and ED are… terrible to say the least, the lead character does nothing to move away from the stereotypes, and of course, School in this series doesn’t mean studying, but instead destroying things. Still, I have to give this series some slack. Sure, it’s badly written, but at the same time, the creators also made an effort to be original. Macademy Wasshoi doesn’t exactly feel like your standard harem, simply because of the huge amounts of ideas (good and bad) that the creators tried to stuff into this episode. That does have potential.

Skip Beat

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is the girlfriend of a famous idol.
Highlights: Excellent script-writers
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
So, from the few things I’ve heard about this series, it was the most anticipated shoujo-series of this Autumn-Season. After Vampire Knight, though, I obviously didn’t believe in that hype, since that series pretty much destroyed my faith in shoujo-series. However, I now see that Skip Beat had all the reasons to be anticipated. In terms of writing, this had the best first episode of the season. It’s only been the first episode of the series, and the lead character already has multiple facets of her past explained, she has developed significantly, she is fleshed out, I’m pretty amazed at the stuff that the creators managed to put in just one episode. No scene feels wasted, and this episode definitely left an impression on me. What I also love about this series is the character-designs: at first sight, you wouldn’t suspect that they’re from 2008, and they’ve got this old look. Very nice effect.

Vampire Knight Guilty

Short Synopsis: Our lead character tries to find out what happened at the end of the previous season.
Highlights: Much of the same: angst and bishies.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 6,5/10
Speaking of the devil, I don’t think I’m going to continue Vampire Knight’s second season. Thirteen episodes were fine and all, but I don’t feel like sitting through the same yet again, especially after Skip Beat just surpassed it in every single aspect in just one episode and Nodame Cantabile’s second season is also about to start. One look at Zero reminded me of why I had so many problems with watching this in the first place. If, for some strange reason, the second season does turn out to be awesome I might marathon it later, but for now I just don’t feel like wasting my time on more angst and bishies. Although I do have to admit: that new ED rocks!

Short Synopsis: Shizuma asks the help of a familiar character to get rid of Manji.
Highlights: Rin.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Ah, I’m really beginning to see where Bee-Train plans to go with the first 13 episodes of this series (who knows how long it will be in the end?). Its general rule of thumb is “don’t introduce any complex or complicated plot-twists or character-development unless the characters are developed”. And indeed, this series so far has been mostly action-scenes, and fleshing out Rin and Manji. At the same time, we also already get a bit of a taste of the major characters of the later arcs. I don’t know exactly how much of the manga Bee-Train changed, but this does explain why the plot has felt relatively simple so far.

And albeit slowly, the plot is definitely moving. Shizuma doesn’t turn out to be a major character at all, because in this episode he dies. Same as the old grandmother who delivered Manji and Shizuma their worms. That by the way was about as untypical as a major death in anime as you can get. There was no blown-up drama. Shizuma just stepped outside of his cottage, and when he stepped back in, he already killed her with his poison. I was surprised to find out about her grandchild, by the way. At the end of the episode, it still lives, so I’m curious whether it’s going to appear again.

In any case, I keep getting more impressed by Rin, who’s turning into much more than just a damsel in distress. Even though she’s nowhere as strong as the other guys in this series, she does what she can in order to help Manji. And even when she does get captured, these raw emotions of fear are very nicely portrayed. And at the end, she’s able to set herself past these traumatic experiences. You can really see her mature.

Kyou no Go Ni

Short Synopsis: Our lead character does pretty much the same as in the OVA…
Highlights: …and actually does a better job at it.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10
There really are too many teenage-antics series this season, but the best ones so far for me came from Hyakko and this series. It surprised me a lot, because the original OVA bored me so much that I dropped it after only two episodes. It’s probably because the main cast is significantly younger than in nearly all other shows this season, and still have a sense of innocence, combined that someone hired some sort of uber-director who managed to get the best out of them. The first half consisted exactly out of two stories that also appeared in the OVA, and yet they were hilarious here, while boring at the OVA. I think it’s because the creators are willing to take more risks, and also add their own style a bit, without copying blindly from the manga. It’s got a nice sense of pacing, and although it’s still there, the emphasis on fanservice is definitely less. Overall, a pleasant surprise.

Ga-Rei Zero

Short Synopsis: Our lead character fights against invading zombies
Highlights: Nice ending!
Overall Enjoyment Value: 8,5/10
Wow! That was actually much better than I expected when I first learned that this would be an action-series. This episode would have been fine as an excellent standalone story, and to think that it’s still continuing afterwards. The episode starts with some solid action, with an unremarkable plot (where the experienced adults get mercilessly slaughtered and the young ones somehow manage to survive - that’s a plot-hole they need to take care off in the rest of this series) and an excellent soundtrack. Just when the action was over, and I thought that the rest of the episode would just consist out of an epilogue, it pulls a friggin’ Shigofumi, and actually exceeds Shigofumi’s first episode in this. Now if this series manages to avoid going the Kiss Dum-route, we’re in for a very solid action-series!

Inazuma 11

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a 10-year-old brat why plays soccer (yup, it’s that kind of series)
Highlights: Lack of originality, clichés, blah blah.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 4/10
So… yeah. Alongside Battle Spirits, this is another one of those shounen-sports series that are meant to only appeal at boys of the age of 10 and below. This single episode was decent enough to watch, but there’s no attempt at originality at all: we have the spunky male lead, the rival who doesn’t want to play but is actually kind hearted and a transfer student, the lead character’s best girl friend, a bunch of incompetent side-characters, the evil punks, the father who is gone and is a major soccer-player, et cetera et cetera. That bit of character-development at the end was also way too soon. I mean, why bother make a new series if you can just air something of ten years ago. I mean, there’s no way that these kids are going to notice and it’s a lot cheaper to produce this way.