Some quick first impressions: White Album, Minami-ke Okaeri and Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou
White Album
Short Synopsis: Our lead character has an idol as girlfriend.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (It’s actually good… wut?)
Saying that shounen romance isn’t my favourite genre is an understatement, so when I learned that this series would revolve around a guy whose girlfriend was an idol, I definitely didn’t expect much from it. And yet at the end of the episode, I was convinced that this show has easily the best first episode of the new season so far. This show isn’t as much a romantic comedy, but rather as how you deal with being away from your girlfriend. What I especially liked was, however, the male lead: he has a personality, he works part time at a local cafe: the guy actually has a life! That’s something that’s really rare in this genre, and this show reminds me a lot of True Tears. Despite the whole idol-bit, this series feels refreshingly down to earth and true to life.
Minami-ke Okaeri
Short Synopsis: Our lead characters… do various things.
Chance of me Blogging: 10% (What is there to write about this series for every consecutive episode… seriously?)
Okay, so this is my third attempt at following a Minami-ke series, after having failed both previous ones. It’s not like this is a bad series, but more like other series were more interesting at the time (but then again, if I dropped Dragonaut back then I could have easily kept watching this series…). In any case, this season actually looks like I might last until the end. It felt quick and fresh, and the fast pacing never gave me the chance of getting bored. For once Haruka also felt like more than just a clone of your typical elder sister that you see IN 100 OTHER SERIES ALREADY. The good thing about this series is that you can just join in at any episode you’d like without missing much, and this episode proofs that.
Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou
Short Synopsis: Our lead character meets one of Nyanko’s old friends
Chance of me Blogging: 100% (Hell yeah!)
This season lacks originality! More than half of the new shows so far have been sequels… what happened to original content? Nevertheless, I’m really glad to see this series back, and it already starts off with a very strong episode. Nyanko-sensei especially was a delight to watch, and the chemistry between him and Natsume gets better and better. Now all that’s left is to see whether the second season can surpass the hotaru-episode of the first season, and perhaps bring a bit of continuity to the entire story.