Saki

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is very good at Mah Jong.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (Really not sure about this one)
At this point, I don’t know what to think about this series, and whether it’s going to be Good Gonzo or Bad Gonzo. There is some definite potential, but at the same time there are so many things that got on my nerves. The lead character is charming, but some of the other members of the cast were beyond obnoxious (especially that overly squeaky little girl). The fanservice-parts felt really weird and forced (Gonzo is a bit too fond of its fanservice at times, and it really shows in this show). The ED is a very annoying J-Pop song which SO doesn’t fit my tastes and the small bit of drama between “boob”-san and Saki in the middle bit felt forced and not really that genuine. Having said that, though, the Mah-jong parts do feel interesting, the student council president was nice to watch, and overall there is potential, both for the show to become something nice or fall apart completely.

Tayutama ~Kiss on my Deity~

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets to marry a cute fox girl.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (No)
Hehe… oh boy. Well, what we have here is another one of those romantic comedies that try to find the most ridiculous ways to get a male and female to live together with each other. This time, it’s an ancient fox deity who gets transported to modern days, turns into a little girl, and then turns back into a teenager again when the male lead promises her that he’s going to marry her when she’s grown up. Yeah, you have to love the depth of this show, but what stands out the most in this episode were the utterly, utterly horrible character-designs. THAT HAIR! Aren’t these girls ashamed or something? The editing also feels unprofessional at times, and there are certain transitions from one scene to another that are so obviously flawed that I suspect that this episode was produced in a very big hurry. In any case, this definitely is another one of those series for the people who are into cheesy romantic comedies. If you’re not, then stay faaaaaaaaaaar away from this one.

Shangri-La

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has been in youth prison for two years, it seems.
Chance of me Blogging: 60% (I’m intrigued)
Ooh, nice. Shangri-la has great ambitions, and I really liked all of the different kinds of ideas that were put into the setting; definitely creative. I liked all the potentially interesting characters, the detailed character-designs, the culture that these people live in; all in all it’s good stuff. But then again, with huge ambitions also come huge potential pitfalls: is this show going to be able to put everything it wants to show in its limited time frame, or are things just going to fall apart in a rushed and incomplete conclusion? This show especially has to deal with explaining how a teenaged girl seems to be so incredibly good at fighting with such a strange weapon, and the strange instances of fanservice were typical Gonzo. Still, the potential’s definitely there.

Metal Fight Beyblade

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has uber l33t hax0rz skills with spinning tops
Chance of me Blogging: -30% (No)
Next up in the line of stupid shounen franchises that refuse to bloody die: Beyblade’s new installment, in which a bunch of kids battle it out with… spinning tops. No, seriously, those spinning tops are most likely going to decide the fate of the world at the end of this series; they’re serious business. In any case, it’s one thing to see little kids play such games, but when even tough street-punks squeal like little girls when they’ve been defeated in such a game, you know that something is wrong. Dull, generic, boring, shallow. Is there anyone uberhaupt planning to watch this series?

Jewel Pets

Short Synopsis: Our lead character gets visited by a magical creature from a fantasy world.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Obviously not)
Okay, so there’s obviously no way that I’m going to continue following those cheesy kiddie shows, but they are nice for a good laugh once in a while. Especially Jewel Pets isn’t half that bad for a kiddie show. Sure, it’s just another rehash of the same formula that has been repeated over and over again, but at least it has a sense of humour. I laughed quite a bit during this episode, though for once I laughed because the characters were funny, rather than because of the overuse of cheese or clichés like I usually do with these sorts of series. Still, that doesn’t mean that the setting isn’t utterly ridiculous: you’ll have a hard job to find a series that’s as pink and fluffy as this show, ranging from heart-shaped cherry blossoms to all sorts of overly cute pets, ranging from cats to bunnies to dogs.

Natsu no Arashi

Short Synopsis: Our lead character knows people who can travel through time
Chance of me Blogging: 30% (Depends on the budget for the rest of the series)
While there have been quite a few nice shows this season so far, I do have one complaint about the shows that aired up till now: the lack of originality. Up till now, there haven’t really been any series that wanted to try out new things, or push the boundaries of their genres, up to the point where my favourite show so far is a blatant Noir rip-off. But then again, this can also be attributed to the strange lack of series from Studio Deen, Madhouse and Production IG so far, which are usually responsible for those kinds of shows. Natsu no Arashi is Shaft’s latest series, and what do you know, it actually answered my complaints, although in a much different way than I would have expected. First of all, the camera direction rocks beyond belief, even for Shaft’s standards (which to be honest was starting to get a bit stale). There are lots of nice and creative camera angles and pans. The setting is also… quirky… to say the least. We here have some sort of cafe, run by the lead characters, but the whole things is spiced up by a number of characters who can travel through time or do other ethereal stuff. And what’s better to use those powers for than to find the culprits of stolen strawberry cakes?

Cross Game

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is talented at baseball
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (Surprisingly good)
Oh boy, I’m impressed. After this episode, I can fully understand why people were looking forward to this series, even though from the outside it just looks like yet another show in which a bunch of talented kids play baseball. Cross Game may have your usual stereotypes, but it also has a quiet slice-of-life pacing, already very fleshed out and charming characters, a male lead who already doesn’t feel like a carbon copy of your average male protagonist in such a series, and a very nice surprise at the end of the episode there. There’s lots of subtlety in this episode, which is something I’m a really big fan of. This series could get really good if it keeps this up.

Tears to Tiara

Short Synopsis: Our lead character has the power to summon an almighty demon king.
Chance of me Blogging: 20% (If the second episode is good)
And here we have yet another fantasy-series. My big problem with those shows these season is that they all seem to look like each other. A random fantasy show like Tears to Tiara really needs to find something in this fantasy-packed season to stand out, and I didn’t find that yet. Nevertheless, though: this episode did the job. It wasn’t anything good, but nothing bad either. In fact, this episode mostly served as a very dark introduction to the series, especially considering the contrast with the rather happy OP and the continuous dark atmosphere of the actual episode. I do hope that the show is going to be about more than simply “kill that demon king” in the end.

Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a famous State Alchemist (as in, someone who draws circles on floors).
Chance of me Blogging: 70% (Unless lots of other great series air in the rest of the season)
I have never read the manga, so I don’t know where this episode exactly fits into the continuity of the series, but I’m glad that the creators skipped the first thirteen episodes of the original series (which really were a pain to get through for me). This episode seriously was good stuff, though. What I’ve seen of the characterization is much better than that of the original series. My only complaint was that characters seemed to run into each other a bit too conveniently, but overall this was a very good opening. At the moment, I’m a bit wary of Bones since nearly all of their endings have a finale in which at leastsomething goes wrong, but for now I’ll remain positive about the Full Metal Alchemist remake.

Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica Crimson S

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a wimp and gets his own magical girl.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Haven’t seen the first season…)
I remember how I quickly dropped the first season after the first episode because of the large amount of clichés and annoying characters. I was rather reluctant to check out the second season, but I do have to admit: this episode was better than expected. But yeah, my expectations were pretty damn low from the first place. Even though this show seems to deal with a completely different storyline than the first season, the only character that really felt annoying was that lead female who appeared in the final minute (not that that’s a good thing, but at least this episode was enjoyable enough in her absence). There still are lots of cut corners, but at least the plot is decent enough for a first episode. There were some nice quiet slice of life moments that prevented this from turning into your regular harem-fest. But yeah, at the end of the episode your typical annoying tsundere bonded herself to the male lead, so I really doubt whether the rest of this series will be as quiet as this episode was.

Senjou no Valkyria

Short Synopsis: Our lead character accidentally mistakes a hero for an evil spy.
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (Could be interesting)
This is a big season for fantasy-anime, apparently. And so far, Valkyria Chronicles feels like the best so far: it actually tries to portray a convincing setting, characters are slightly different from your average stereotypes, girls wear clothes that actually make sense for those kinds of people to wear, rather than those ridiculously coloured outfits, the use of guns is believable so far and there’s quite a bit of time spent on slow slice of life moments to flesh out the characters. The only problem is that the main characters remain a bunch of teenagers. Still, if the creators continue to flesh out the characters like this, we could have ourselves a very interesting series here.

Dragonball Kai

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is very strong and turns out to be an alien.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Obviously not)
Ah, the nostalgia. While I hate to admit it, Dragonball Z played a big role in making me an anime fan. And I guess that if the show simply ended after the first arc, it would at least have been a pretty decent fighting series. Instead, it just had to develop into one of those shows that goes on and on and on, in which characters take bloody ages to see who is the best at making constipated faces. While it would have been interesting to see a modern-day remake of this that just condenses the series in 26 episodes, this attempt feels half-assed at best: the entire episode was just the exact first episode of the original series. Although it was kindof weird hearing the different characters suddenly with extremely high-pitched voices and I was also surprised to suddenly see blood in this series, so far this show is nothing more than a glorified recap.