January Summary
It’s definitely been an interesting Winter-season so far. I know that I’ve ranted pretty often about the lack of new concepts this series, but when you look at the big picture, then this is promising to become an excellent season. There are many quality sequels airing right now, and especially a lot of great shows that are entering their second halves. I’m looking forward to see what the rest of this season is going to offer.
#33 (new) - Hetalia Axis Powers - (1,5/10) - A full first impression will follow as soon as I find another bunch of new Series and OVAs, but the gist of it is pretty much that this series is discrimination and it deserves to have been cancelled from TV-broadcasts. Every single country is being made fun of… apart from the Netherlands!? What have we ever done to Japan to deserve this!?
#32 (new) - Akikan - (2,5/10) - No. Just… No.
#31 (new) - Asu no Yoichi - (5,75/10) - If I had to summarize this show with one word, it’d be “generic”. It’s not utter crap, but at this point I’ve totally forgotten what happened in that first episode, other than a totally out-of-place boob-joke. There are so many better series this season, so why would you go for this one?
#30 (new) - Maria Holic - (6,75/10) - I’m going to need a looong break from Shinbo. Especially after watching Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei and Tsukuyomi Moonphase.
#29 (new) - Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo - (7/10) - I know that this is a parody and all, but right now I’ve had enough of the Sunrise Trainwrecks.
#28 (25) - Slayers Evolution-R - (7/10) - The first season was lucky that it aired in a season where I had lots of free time and there weren’t that many good shows. The second season is less lucky, so I’ve dropped this one in favour of more interesting premises.
#27 (new) - Viper’s Creed - (7,5/10) - Even though there’s hardly any originality here whatsoever, I like this series. Its mature look at busting up bad guys is a refreshing change from all those action heroes and teenagers who are fighting for the powers of love, or something similar.
#26 (new) - Major 5th Season - (7,75/10) - One day. One day, I’m going to watch this series. Just… Not now.
#25 (new) - Maria-Sama ga Miteru - (7,75/10) - One day. One day, I’m going to watch this series. Just… Not now.
#24 (new) - Kurokami The Animation - (7,75/10) - Despite the interesting premise, the characters are dull and annoying, and yet I somehow end up caring about the two lead characters when they get their ass kicked for the umpth time.
#23 (new) - Koukaku no Regios - (7,75/10) - I keep getting surprised at how good this is. On the outside it’s a mindless shonen-series about people fighting each other, and yet there seems to be much more behind it. If it can only make its characters a bit more likable through the course of its 24 episodes, then I’m in.
#22 (new) - Ride Back - (8/10) - My problem with this show is that it keeps tugging on my suspense of disbelief. For example, one episode, a character violently crashes and ends up in a hospital. The next episode she’s just fine. Sure, a few months must have passed since then, but it breaks flow nonetheless. The characters are excellent, but this series desperately misses something.
#21 (11) - Skip Beat - (8,25/10) - The thing with Skip Beat is that it gets way too soppy when it turns on the drama-switch, and the soppiness only increases as the series goes on. The comedy still is hilarious, but there’s too little of it, and the bitchfights that originally made me like this series have been painfully absent this month.
#20 (14) - Mobile Suit Gundam 00 - (8,25/10) - This series isn’t as good as some of the other shows I’m watching this series, but nevertheless the plot is heading in the right direction, and especially the coup d’etat of the past episodes is promising a lot of great stuff for this series’ finale.
#19 (27) - Minami-Ke - (8,25/10) - Okay, so it’s taken me more than a year, but I’m finally sold on this series. The second and third episode were quite hilarious.
#18 (new) - Kemono no Souja Erin - (8,25/10) - Despite the fact that this thing is being produced by Trans Arts, the creators are actually doing a pretty good job on it so far. The only bad part is the use of CG, but apart from that the art looks really stylish. However, I first want to see what this series is going to do once the drama starts building up.
#17 (9) - Druaga no Tou - (8,25/10) - The royal guards have become pretty pathetic in the second season, but apart from that I like the balance between humour and seriousness in the second season so far.
#16 (new) - Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai - (8,25/10) - Okay, so technically this show is cheating a bit, by using its animation from theOVAs, but that doesn’t prevent this series from looking totally sweet. Yumemi is a likable heroine with interesting friends. Right now, the creators need to spend time into developing the setting.
#15 (7) - Jigoku Shoujo - (8,25/10) - This month of Jigoku Shoujo has been charming, but there weren’t any highlights. Still, the series is getting more solid and consistent, and Yuzuki is also getting better and better, so there’s lots of potential left for this series in the future.
#14 (10) - Tytania - (8,5/10) - The characters are surprisingly fun to watch as they all try to outsmart each other. What I also really like about this series is how seemingly small actions continue to spiral out of control throughout the series.
#13 (16) - One Outs - (8,5/10) - The decline of this series was wonderfully prevented by the Coach’s big scene. It’s good to see that this series is focusing on character-development after all, but it’s going to have to put in some effort to prevent the final arc of this series from getting dull.
#12 (new) - White Album - (8,5/10) - Sure, we’ve seen it before: guy is surrounded by lots of girls. Still, I’m still surprised at how good the writing of White Album is. The creators really manage to nail the different feelings of the different characters. It’s going to be awesome if they can keep this up.
#11 (5) - Shikabane Hime - (8,5/10) - I’m not sure who exactly found it a good idea to increase the fanservice ten-fold in this series, but nonetheless, the characters really managed to save this series from its shounen roots. I feared that the character-development would come to a grinding halt with the arrival of the second season, but it’s still going strong.
#10 (15) - Gintama - (8,5/10)
This month’s best episode was without a doubt episode 99. Those were some of the best game parodies I’ve seen. Right now, the subs have reached the point where the show changed directors. Let’s see what the new director can do with this series, although it’s a shame to see the old director go. The guy was absolutely brilliant in the past 100 episodes.
#9 (new) - Genji Monogatari Sennenki - (8,5/10)
The visuals are downright gorgeous, and the creators are wasting no time to get on with the story. The romance in this show is pretty good, despite being a harem.
#8 (12) - Natsume Yuujinchou - (8,5/10)
The stories from Natsume Yuujinchou this month ranged from simply okay to downright adorable. It hasn’t been the best month for this series, but it’s good to see this series back again.
#7 (17) - Tales of the Abyss - (8,5/10)
This series really managed to capture the essence of a group of people growing closer and closer together which is really prevalent in all of the Tales-games. I’m still really liking where this show is going.
#6 (new) - Hajime no Ippo - (8,5/10)
It took me only three episodes to get hooked on this show, and realize how bloody addictive it is. The plot is most likely not going to go anywhere, but the sheer intensity of the boxing matches really kept me on the edge of my seat.
#5 (3) - Bonen no Xamdou - (8,75/10)
Overall, it’s a shame that this series didn’t get the proper amount of episodes that would have been necessary to get the best out of its story. The finale has been rushed a bit, yet nevertheless it’s been an awesome ride between climaxes, with some of the sweetest animation imaginable.
#4 (13) - Clannad - (8,75/10)
This definitely has been the best month for Clannad yet, and especially the birth-scene was for me the highlight of both the first and second season. Okay, sure Nagisa is pretty much an older rip-off of Air’s lead female, but nevertheless it was a wonderful scene.
#3 (4) - Michiko e Hatchin - (9/10)
I’ve become a huge fan of this show’s characters, from the downright lovable Hatchin to the excellent villain of Satoshi. This show has really proven to know what it’s doing in both the serious and fun scenes.
#2 (6) - Casshern Sins - (9/10)
We’re about to get to the real meat of the story, and I must say that it’s awesome to see the characters growing and the plot making more and more sense, while there still are plenty of questions left to be answered.
#1 (13) - Birdy the Mighty Decode - (9,5/10)
Talk about improvement! The second season is doing just about everything right, and has in four episodes already surpassed the entire first season in every single area. The new plot has become so much more interesting, and Natoru is such an awesome new character.
