Short Synopsis: This episode shows how Arashi and Hajime met each other.
Episode Rating: 7,5/10 (Enjoyable)
I had trouble choosing between this series and Saki to blog. In the end, I chose not to blog Saki, for two reasons:
- It’s being directed by the director of freakin’ Dragonaut.
- With a concept like that, it’s always going to remain in the shadows of the incredible Shion no Ou.

Natsu no Arashi has wit. It’s cast is a nice mix of children and adults and it’s really something different this time. It’s the first time I’m going to blog one of Shinbo’s series, and I’m glad to see that the guy is finally trying out something new and interesting again, since his past works just failed to impress me. Especially Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei was just Pani Poni Dash II, no matter how much I liked how it started.

I’m also surprised at how underrated this show has become. I’m finding it pretty enjoyable: it has characters with an identity, albeit some of them can become a bit annoying, I admit. But what I like about this series is how it combines slice of life and comedy with mystery. That’s not a combination you see often, and it works pretty well: on one hand this can create very interesting situations, like how in this episode Sayaka’s talents as a con artist got rid of the muscular guy who kept bugging them. And on the other way, I’m getting really curious right now what’s up with Arashi: why is she a ghost? why are people after her? who is she anyway? Who is this Sogoru-guy? Characterization is usually one of Shinbo’s weakest points, and yet here he proves the complete opposite.

I think that the reason for that is the addition of the director of ef and the guy behind ef’s series composition, who manage to balance out Shinbo’s crazy style. It’s an interesting combination without a doubt. There are no signs that this is going to turn into something overambitious like a tale of melodies, so I’m pretty interested in this series.

And of course, the art direction really rocks.

Short Synopsis: Guin, Rinda and Remus get captured by the enemies.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Epic)
Oh, Guin Saga is promising to be another one of the gems of the current spring season. Perhaps not the best, but I just can’t ignore such an epic series that at the same time favours a very slow pacing and solid storytelling. This really is the kind of series that draws you in so far, and the choice of Satelight as the animation company really fits this sort of story.

Obviously, with the original novels currently at a staggering 124 volumes (?!), there is no way in hell that the creators are going to be able to stuff this into only 26 episodes (or however long this series might end up to be), so I wonder how the creators are going to plan to end this thing, but that shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

The problems with this show of course are of course that when you start objectively looking past the haunting dialogue, great atmosphere, terrific music and solid graphics, there isn’t that much new: the creators specifically chose this slow pacing and simple setting as a base, and from this they’ll probably slowly develop the rest of the setting. I’m interested in what kind of character-development this series seems to be going for as well: here we have Guin and Rinda, who are already very stable characters without much flaws in their personality that they need to overcome. Instead, Guin’s flaw is his amnesia and the fact that nearly everyone sees him as a monster, while Rinda’s problem is that she’s a grown up stuck into a child’s body that nobody’s going to listen to, now that she lost her status as a princess.

And then there is of course the evil overlord that makes his presence in this episode, who probably is my least favourite character of the show. The guy really needs to be fleshed out, get some development, or have something happen to him to make him more than your average sadistic bad guy. But then again, it’s only been two episodes. There’s plenty of time left for that.

Short Synopsis: Aoba thinks back to a game that she played against Kou.
Episode Rating: 8/10 (Excellent)
As for the shows I”m not going to blog:
- Shin Mazinger Z is manly, GAR, fun, epic and a whole lot more things, but you want to watch that series for the entertainment value, not its depth.

There are many reasons for me to blog Cross Game, but the most important one is the cast of characters. It’s only been two episodes, and they’re already very charming and relaxing to watch. This is promising to be an awesome slice of life show if this keeps up. The baseball is just second place for what’s really important here: the character-development and interaction.

And I must say, that it was a very nice idea to rush the first episode through the first volume so that it’d include the big twist of Aoba’s sister dying. this way, the melodrama is gone, and the important stuff that was missed can just be pasted in through flashbacks (which is exactly what this episode did). This really spices up things compared to when the creators would just have chosen the linear storyline, because this way you can really see the subtle character-development and how the big death influenced all of them.

I really like the wit of this series, but what stands out even more is that every single character, even the tiny ones with a few or no lines, have their charms and are interesting to watch, already within two episodes! The soundtrack also excellent, so if you’d ask me we have ourselves a winner here. :)

Short Synopsis: Alicia tries to use the tank to bring everyone to safety.
Episode Rating: 7/10 (Enjoyable)
I must admit that blogging this show is going to be a huge gamble. At this point, I myself am not yet convinced of this show, but first: about the series I’m not going to blog:
- Slap Up Party, granted, is an interesting collaboration between Japan and Korea to produce an anime. Some of the jokes worked, but others however just fell flat. Not to mention that the drama sucks and is full of cliches.
- Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood. Why? Because everyone and his DOG is already going to blog it.

I like the new FMA, don’t get me wrong, but I’d much rather devote my attention to a show that actually needs the popularity. Seriously, what is it really that I can add to the already sixty other bloggers? I’ll continue to follow it obviously, and judging from the first episode, it is very likely that it’s going to surpass the original series.

As for Valkyria Chronicles: I see potential for potential, but this really is a series that’s decided to use its first 13 episodes for building up. That really can go anywhere, from incredibly bad to incredibly good. I’m intrigued, though: this is one of those series that didn’t start off ~showing all of its trumps in the beginning. While that didn’t make for the most exciting first episode, I do admit that it’s paying attention to fleshing out the characters very slowly. This attention to detail might prove to be interesting in the future.

But yeah, the show does need to get rid of the overall stupidity of some of the side-characters. People mistaking others for spies, or taking out a tank that isn’t fully charged. I guess that it meant to serve to show that mistakes in such a time of war can have grave consequences, but the creators shouldn’t end up building the plot around this stupidity.

Having said that, though: I admit that this is the first time that I’ve seen an anime focusing on tank combat. It surprises me, because in nearly every other show, tanks merely serve for cannon fodder for whatever giant robot or monster gets in their way, so it’s good to see an actual series that shows how handy these machines can be in warfare.

I’m also interested in the staff behind this series. A-1 Pictures is an interesting production-company and every single of their shows is trying to do something interesting with its animation (most notably Birdy the Mighty, of course ^^;), and you can see that here in the shading. Overall the colours in Valkyria Chronicles look very nice and they match really well with each other, while at the same time keeping a down-to-earth feeling.

The director is a new guy, it seems. He was the episode director of Ookiku Furikabutte (which as I heard was really good), and also directed a bunch of episodes for xxxHolic Kei, most notably the one with the ghost woman (which was very well executed and built up). The series composition is done by someone with lots of experience on all kinds of different series, including Princess Tutu, Strange Dawn, xxxHolic and Hare Nochi Guu (but unfortunately also Kujibiki Unbalance and Nabari no Ou), and with a bit of luck she’ll make sure that the series stays on track.

In this episode, Alicia ends up joining some sort of military academy or institution, it seems, and Welchim also seems to live there. I’m not sure what’s going to happen from here on, but I’m willing to give it the benefit of doubt.