Okay, this episode convinced me to start blogging this series. It had a bit of an uneventful first episode, but you can see that it was holding back. This episode showed a bit more of this series’ potential, and showed that it can very well write a nice dramatic scene. Lag is a bit too much of a crybaby in this episode, but thankfully: he grows up. Nevertheless, it still remains a question whether or not the creators are going to be able to pace the story properly, get the best out of the setting… and somehow solve the problem that they’re dealing with a still on-going manga…

The director is a new guy, as in he’s never directed an entire series before. This really can go anywhere, and at this point he seems decent enough. You can see that he’s not trying out or adding a lot of extra things, but the adaptation so far seems faithful from the perspective of someone who hasn’t read the manga like myself. He however was the technical director of Kaze no Youjinbo, which does show a lot of promise. Especially since Kaze no Youjinbo started off really slow and uneventful as well, and only became memorable as it went on. Perhaps this is the guy who can bring Studio Pierrot back to their standards before the Naruto and Bleach-era.

In any case, while a bit cheesy, that scene where Lag carried Gauche on his own was quite endearing. I like how the creators chose to start this series off with a young version of the protagonist: this way we can really get to know him. I just hope that he became less of a crybaby, but five years can change a lot of things. And apart from the crying, I liked how this episode really took its time to show the conversation between Lag and Gauche.

Apparently, there are going to be 7 DVDs. Since the first is going to contain the first two episodes, my guess is that the final six will each contain three, making for a total of 20 episodes for this series. Seems enough to get a nice story out of it.
Rating: * (Good)

As for the shows I’m not going to blog:
- Out of the onslaught of moe comedies this season, Seitokai no Ichizon definitely stands out as the best and funniest. Nevertheless, I see no potential in blogging it weekly.
- Kuroko’s lesbian siscon fantasies in Railgun were just painful to watch. Even Index was better than this!
- For a while I thought that it would be fun to blog Blacksmith, with Manglobe behind the animation and an excellent soundtrack and all. But in the end, it’s just too much generic fantasy in which a band of teenagers has to go face an evil army of demons and evil adults. I want series that take risks instead of playing it as safe as possible.

Which brings us to White Album: love it or hate it, but you can’t deny that it was one of the most unique romance and eroge adaptations of the past years. While it has moe, it never tries to present the characters as such. Instead, it wants the viewer to hate its characters. Not through crappy scriptwriting as in School Days, but instead because of the characters’ actions, while still keeping a very solid script.

I mean, when you ignore the melodrama, the writing and direction is incredibly solid. The dialogue is meaningful and deep, the drama is often incredibly subtle and the creators really have an eye for detail. Just take a look at how Touya played with the condensation on the windows, or how incredibly well animated Mana was when she met Haruka on her bike. Choosing a generic fantasy like Blacksmith, in which the characters all act like caricatures and wounds magically disappear, over this one would just not sit right.

I really expect that this is going to be my hate/love series of this season, but I’d much rather have this series to rage over, rather than some badly written and lazy show that just feels stereotypical. I think the biggest problem with the first season was that it left an incredibly bad taste: it solved absolutely nothing, even for a show that’s supposed to be continued. Is it bad? No. Did it cause me to hate this series for six months? Yes.

As I watched this episode though, I was reminded more and more of why I started blogging this series in the first place. FINALLY Touya and Yuki get the chance to talk to each other for a good while, and it’s completely the opposite of the stereotypical way that I expected. They just hang out, albeit a bit uncomfortably with Yayoi being near, and then they say goodbye again.

2009 has been an excellent year for romance, so I might as well see and check out how this unique series is going to play out.
Rating: * (Good)

Cheburashka Arere

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a monkey that starts living with a crocodile.
Hmm, the kiddie-shows this season are surprisingly good. I wouldn’t exactly recommend Chebrashka to any adult, but for once we have a series that tries to be different from all the other kiddie shows out there. It’s actually a bit nostalgic, as it seems similar to the kiddie shows that I watched when I was only five years old (most notably, Barbapapa). One thing that especially strikes me is how good the animation is. The character-designs are simple, but they move really fluidly with hardly any corners cut. Interesting.
OP: Just a title screen, but original music.
ED: Very obnixious to anyone older than five.
Potential: 20%

Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini

Short Synopsis: Our lead character stopped getting haircuts.
It was quite a surprise to see that this first episode focused on mostly completely new characters, but yeah: this was the best first episode of the new season. It’s got the intriguing setting of the Book of Bantorra with a solid and intelligent execution that can’t be matched by any other series this season. The characters are well written, the attention to detail to the origami was a very nice touch, and the battles still rely much more on wits and intelligence than raw power. This episode really showed that Bones didn’t make a sequel just to milk out this franchise, but they’re really intending to give it some more depth. It’s a shame that there are only going to be 12 episode, but on the other hand that’s going to make this series short and sweet. 2009 really looks like it’s going to be Bones’ best year ever.
ED: Solid albeit uninteresting ballad with a slide-show of random landscapes.
Potential: 90%

Sasameki Koto

Short Synopsis: Our lead character is a lesbian.
Sasameki Koto: a tad shallow, but definitely charming. This episode was one of the most emotional first episodes of the new season for me, because it was the best at combining subtlety and straight to-the-point drama. The soundtrack fits this romance series very well, and the atmosphere was pretty nice for this story. But yeah, that shallowness is going to become a problem for this series in the future. The dialogue felt not really very inspired, and the characters were a little too quick to cry. Nevertheless, after Aoi Hana with its mountains of subtlety, it might be worth watching a more direct lesbian series.
OP: A nice and calm song, although definitely not the best of its kind.
ED: A bit too annoying and poppy song.
Potential: 50%