Hah, I don’t care about the general opinion: this show rocks! It may be the most neglected series of the season, but for me it definitely belongs in the top-10 of the series that aired this season.

In this age of big budgets, it’s good to see that a relatively unknown company as Studio Fantasia is also trying its best to put down a classic. One of the things I don’t like about this season is that nearly every good series is done by the big animation studios, as Madhouse, Gonzo, Deen, etc. The studios that are relatively unpopular don’t seem to be even trying (for example A.C.G.T with its questionable Monochrome Factor).

I’m really glad to see that Studio Fantasia is trying to improve itself. Just take a look at their previous work. Before 2006, they only worked on silly shows which only seemed to focus on fanservice, though they pretty much surprised me with their solid work on Souko no Strain, and now they again managed to create a very enjoyable series that goes right where many other series have gone wrong. So yeah, there are a few low-budget parts in this series, mostly the art, but the rest really shines. This should send out a good message to the other lesser-known studios: you can create a good anime, even on a small budget.

Really, this is what a 12-episode series should be: no scene is wasted, quick development and good characterization. A 26-episode can afford to slowly build up for 10 episodes, but series like this one need to deliver quickly. Seeing a series that builds up for eleven episodes, with a climax of only two episodes is nice and all, but it remains mostly boring.

What’s more: the villains actually have some background to them. This episode actually gave the two of them some depth, beyond their stereotypes. It seems that the guy is obsessed with his own work, and is fascinated when he sees how HW-09 has managed to not turn into glass. The woman meanwhile reveals that she knew HW-09 before she became a glass maiden, and as it turns out: she loathed her.

Also, is it me or do the more low-budget series have a bigger tendency to feature good fights than high-budget series? Seriously, I can confidently say that the fight in this episode was better than what I’ve seen from Soul Eater and Macross Frontier so far, even though these series overflow with budget. It’s the same with Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino: the animation was bad, and yet the fights were amazingly directed. Somehow, it feels to me that the creators try to make up for the lack of budget by detailed direction, and it really works!

Why I’m not bothered by Manami’s brattiness:
- She’s not THE main character of this story.
- She’s an interesting combination with the rest of the cast.
- She’s fleshed out pretty nicely. She’s an idiot, she’s naive, and yet she’s easily afraid.

The thing I have against most annoying and stupid teenagers isn’t the fact that they’re annoying, but that they’re badly written. Take Lala from To Love-Ru for example. Sure, she’s an extreme case, but the reason why she’s annoying is because the creators spent no effort whatsoever in making her believable. She instantly falls in love with the male lead with no subtlety whatsoever and I couldn’t spot anything that made her really seem like a living being, an being an alien is no excuse.

I think the biggest reason for this is the creator’s desires to make teenagers important at places where they shouldn’t belong. A teenager who occupies a high rank in a military organization doesn’t usually make sense, so writers make these characters a bit too perfect for their own good, in order to help them survive and remain at their position.

The thing is with Manami, that even though she’s an idiot, the creators never portray her as some kind of hero. The only thing that she’s good at is providing emotional support for others, but this episode showed yet again that she often gets way too ahead of herself and tries to get involved in places she shouldn’t belong.

I still wonder why this series has become so neglected, though. Is Manami such a turn-off? Or does this have to do with Poririn? I admit that he was rather disturbing in this episode, wearing the gala-dress and all, and trying to pee while wearing it… Still the reason why I like this series so much is the chemistry between the different characters. The cast of Crystal Blaze is varied and interesting, and one character’s weaknesses are complemented by another.

Heh, this episode finally featured an actually funny fanservice joke. When the horny doctor first appeared, I feared the worst, but his nurse’s BSDM have turned out to be quite hilarious. Especially the dog’s outfit was brilliant. Really, if series as Kanokon realized this, they would have been quite fun, though instead they just can’t think beyond the tried-and-true formula of groping, blood-noses and panty-shots.

Fanservice aside, I’m still surprised at how much I’m enjoying this show, seeing as it’s turned into one of the dark horses of this season in the rest of the anime-community. The budget is indeed quite low. Studio Fantasia is no Satelight or Madhouse, so the drawings and animation are quite simple. And yet this has never had a weak episode so far, in my opinion at least. This episode again was a great one, and it finally pushes the plot forward again.

We learn that the one who changed all the women to glass was indeed that little girl. This time, she kills Yuumi, who indeed went on her solo-debut, dropping Seiji without him even knowing it. The glass women like her and Sara were meant as humanoid weapons. Hence why the bad guys are so interested in retrieving her. They’re currently in the process of testing out their work, which has finally shown its fruits.

One thing I also like is how this series has managed to make characters likable who would have been really cliché otherwise. Especially Shu and Manami would have been incredibly annoying if they didn’t receive any development. Manami, however, turned into a really sympathetic character, who’s just finding out how naive she’s been in the past episodes. She’s a girl with real fears, instead of contractor-like behaviour (a la Darker than Black) of knowing what to do in any dangerous situation. Shu meanwhile turned into quite a refreshing main character, who neither is a stereotypical ambitious guy nor a carefree “cool dude”. This guy doesn’t care about being the best; he just cares about the people around him. For some strange reason, both of them have really turned into my favourite characters in this series.

I’m still surprised at how solid this series has turned out. It keeps interesting things on the table, while not forgetting to provide background on its different characters. No character feels useless. This episode continues to create a good base for the second half of this series to work with. It’s the least eventful episode so far, but instead the characters get some extra attention. Even the bad guys get a surprisingly large amount of screen time. They’re still flat at this point, but there’s good potential for them to actually develop at the end.

My favourite character of this series so far surprisingly turned out to be Shu. He’s a strong character, he’s no idiot, and yet he doesn’t feel like an overpowered all-knowing action-hero. All the things he’s done up till now make sense. In this episode, he realizes he’s being observed by high-tech cameras at the scene where everything began. Due to the transvestite, he’s used to being observed, which sortof explains why he was able to notice them. Afterwards, he ends up being followed, and instead of going home and leading the enemy to Sara, he just fools around with as many women as possible.

Meanwhile, Manami and Ayaka are looking for an old classmate of Manami who now has turned into some kind of idol who happens to visit the town. They go past one of her other friends who became a guitarist who just made his debut. In the end, they find nothing about her. In the end, Akira finds her address because of how Ayaka wanted Manami to find her classmate. However, Manami refused the help of others earlier, saying how she wanted to find Yuuko (the classmate) on her own. She then gets angry at Ayaka, and then it turns out that Ayaka is indeed a person who gets hurt quite easily. Shu also rescued her from a bunch of punks once, which is probably why he took her in.

The doctor meanwhile gives Sara a strange potion that causes her arm to turn into glass at the end of the episode. Shows a lot of promise for the next episode! I’m also glad to see that Manami’s voice-actress is getting less and less annoying. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s something different and it does fit her naive and ambitious character quite well. She’s especially good in her quiet moments, when she isn’t screaming.

I’m really surprised with this series. At first look, it sounds more like a rather childish series with adult themes, but if you take a closer look, you’ll realize that this series is much more than that. I’m really surprised at how genuine this series has turned out, and I especially love the subtle chemistry between the characters. To be honest, I had my doubts about this series when I first saw the character-designs on the website, but this yet another example where you shouldn’t judge a series by its character-designs.

As a mystery-fan, I’m really glad at the large selection of mystery-series that 2008 has offered so far. I’ve said before that 2007 was rather disappointing in terms of mystery (the only series with really good mystery in my opinion were Dennou Coil and Bokura no, but these two turned out great because of other reasons than their mystery, especially compared to 2006, with Ergo Proxy, the first season of Higurashi and Night Head Genesis). That’s why I’ve got high hopes for Himitsu, Crystal Blaze and Kaiba, and Persona is getting better and better as well.

This episode of Crystal Blaze showed me how well it’s developing its mystery at the moment. This episode was an aftermath, and we hardly get any new information apart from a second glass girl, but this episode was mostly meant for the characters to catch up to all the questions that were raised in the previous episode, like how dangerous the enemies of this series are, and what kind of a strange woman Sara is, due to a constantly high body temperature of 42 degrees.

One thing I also like about this series is how the characters have a plausible reason to be involved in this story. We basically have a private investigation service that gets its jobs from a transvestite, and one of these jobs turns out to be a dangerous one. At the investigation-service, there’s one ambitious but naive intern, so obviously when she realizes that there’s an exciting job, she doesn’t want to abandon it and causes a huge scene (although I feel that nobody of the foursome is really willing to abandon Sara). It’s much better than all of those series that focus on teenagers who just happen to be on the wrong place at the wrong time by coincidence of have certain hidden powers that are just meant to get them involved in the series.

On a side-note: I feel pity for that voice-actor doing the dog’s voice, but he must be having the time of his life. :P

Crystal Blaze

Tuesday evening was really my most anticipated day of the new season, so I’m really glad it’s finally arrived, and with such a start I had enough reasons to look forward to it. Crystal Blaze may be a bit rough around the edges, but it’s got definite potential. It’s already the first episode, and not once did I have any reason to look away from the screen. This episode kept me interested throughout its entire run. It’s been a long while since I’ve seen a good mystery-series, and this one might very well be it. It still needs to work a bit on its romanji, but so far, the characters have been interesting and the first episode has been among xxxHolic the best in terms of storyline this season.

RD Sennou Chousashitsu

Like expected, this episode was really solid, although there was some strangely placed fanservice here and there. In any case, the male main character probably has to be the oldest main character in an anime I’ve seen. He even spends some significant amount of screen-time in this episode as an old guy in a retirement home. It’s not the best way to attract the viewers who only like cute girls and hot buys, but I really like this idea, and this series is without a doubt the most imaginative series of the new season. In addition to that, it’s also the hardest to understand, though. Still, I’m expecting some great things from this series once it really gets on fire. One point of critique is that the main female lead feels rather out of place when you first meet her, though she quickly got less annoying as the episode progressed.

Himitsu - Top Secret ~ The Revelation

If you’re one of the people who gets sick of all the anime with teenage protagonists, then this series is a must-watch for this season. Not only is it all about adults and away from annoying teenagers, but it’s also got one of the best first episodes of this season, along with Kurenai and xxxHolic. I seriously couldn’t have expected a better start for this. The cast is so different from usual anime, and yet each member has an already engaging personality, not to mention that the main premise of this story provides so much potential. In addition, the soundtrack is among the best this season as well. Madhouse has really picked out some excellent series this season!