Fall 2012 First Impressions ~ Week one
October 7, 2012
Time to celebrate – A new season for anime has begun!
The first week of the new season saw the premiere of several shows I had been interested in checking out. The shows I watched:
- Kamisama Hajimemashita
- Shin Sekai Yori
- Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
- K
- Chuu-ni-byou demo Koi ga shitai!
- Jojo’s bizarre adventure
Kamisama Hajimemashita
I love this art style! Very elegant and stylized.
The first episode of Kamisama Hajimemashita (the English version of the manga is being published as Kamisama Kiss) turned out to be very good. It was funny; it looked great; it also has great OP and ED by Hanae. Here’s the ED, towards the end, you can hear the narrator, whose voice I found particularly funny:
Shin Sekai Yori
Intriguing and artwork and a creepy atmosphere in Shin Sekai Yori.
This was a very interesting first episode. It had an effective use of music, including Dvorak’s New World Symphony. The artwork was quite impressive at times. It certainly was the series that seemed to hook me the most on the plot, although, frankly, I felt a bit lost as to what was happening on more than one occasion. Still, a very good start.
Another interesting use of silhouettes, but a different style of execution.
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun
That awkward moment …
The second of three shoujo anime that we’ll have the pleasure of watching this season. Instead of the fantasy/supernatural elements, this one (which is being shown on Crunchyroll as “My Little Monster”) has a more realistic school-based setting. The first episode did a good job of setting up the main couple. Of course it also upset a number of people.
K
There’s no denying this was a great animation sequence.
This show would have had more impact if we hadn’t already seen all of the best stuff in the preview. Nevertheless it looked as great as it did the first time, especially that skateboarding scene. There was also a very interesting sequence in which someone grabbed reality and used it to to swing around. At this point, I think this show is mostly an action show, but if it turns out to consistently deliver action on the order of this first episode it will be worth keeping.
Chuu-ni-byou demo Koi ga shitai!
The girl next door suffers from fantastical delusions, but he’ll fall in love with her anyway.
I think Guardian Enzo nailed this one:
While the premise of Chuunibyou sounds very edgy, in the end the first episode amounted to the antics of some enormously kawaii tenth-graders as they did cute things. That’s hardly a revolution for KyoAni…
Leave it to Kyoto Animation to include the most amazing cherry tree I’ve ever seen in an anime.
DROPPED
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
Nice guys finish last.
I was curious about this title, because I had heard people praise the manga and earlier partial adaptations. David Productions has a good idea with making anime from older source material, but the actual content really didn’t work for me. It turned out to be a lot of intense bullying. I don’t enjoy seeing that sort of thing, so I stopped watching before the episode even ended.
Extra
I also checked out some other shows that I hadn’t been quite as eager to see. Of those, only Btooom seemed to have any merit, and at this point it wasn’t really enough to properly review.
Abandoned Factory Anime Review 
October 7, 2012 at 2:55 am
You probably missed out Jojo beating the crap outta Dio. Oh well.
October 7, 2012 at 3:07 am
Yeah. I figured it would have to go there at some point, but I just couldn’t stand it any more. Watching somebody get bullied for that long gets me angry in a physical way, then I can’t sit there and watch — I need to move to release the emotion that has pent up inside. JoJo is obviously not the show for me.
October 7, 2012 at 3:11 am
I beleive the narrator’s voice in Kamisama is the same one from My Wife is a Mermaid (?), and I, too, find it enjoyable. One other anime had me scratching my head about the voice (“Mei”, in Suki-tte Ii Na Yo) until I realized it was Ai Kayano from Hyouka (Mayaka), then I could pay attention. Might be interesting. Anyway, it looks like KyoAni is taking a breather with Chuu-ni Byou Demo Koi ga Shitai! after taking the risk on Hyouka, but I’m looking forward to the rest of Chuu-ni. Like many others, I was brought up a bit short by the ‘moment’ in My Little Monster, but took it as someone who just throws out lines without really knowing what they mean. I guess we’ll see. Anyway, keep up the good work.
October 7, 2012 at 8:55 am
Thanks for the encouragement.
I’ll have to pay attention during Suki-tte Ii Na Yo to see if I can recognize her voice.
I’m definitely still watching both Chuu-ni and Little Monster. It is tough to judge a show based on one episode, unless it is absolutely terrible. I think the rape comment wasn’t the only troublesome thing about Little Monster — the underlying concept seems to be that he is almost a stalker. I can understand why some people would be uncomfortable with their relationship. We’ll have to see how these shows develop.
October 7, 2012 at 5:15 am
Seems we have pretty similar thoughts on most of these shows, though a few slight variations among the selected anime.
Sounds like you’ll be watching a lot this season, correct?
October 7, 2012 at 8:57 am
It certainly seems like a lot at the moment. Several shows I am looking forward to hadn’t aired yet, and I already have a pile of new episodes to go through. But then, I like going through as much of each new season as possible. That doesn’t mean I’ll continue watching every title.
October 7, 2012 at 6:39 am
You should come back and revisit Jojo when they get into its second arc. I’ll admit even as a diehard fan, the first arc isn’t that good. However, the series dramatically shifts into a totally different genre in Part 2 – from horror to an Indiana Jones-style comedy adventure. There’s a new and livelier Jojo (Joseph Joestar) in the lead, and Dio Brando’s depressing bullying is nowhere to be found.
Instead, the second arc is about a group of almost-naked Aztec vampire supermen who Joseph and pals must team up to fight against, using bubbles, clacker toys, and silk scarves as their weapons. Cyborg Nazis lend a hand.
I would definitely say that Part 2 is where Jojo really becomes the series that people love and cherish so much. The humor, the goofiness, and the wonderfully dynamic characters are like a night-and-day transformation from the gloomy and mean-spiritied first arc.
October 7, 2012 at 9:00 am
Thanks. I’m glad to hear the series moves past this bullying arc. Probably the best thing is for me to keep up with blogged responses to the show until I see mention of an arc change. I can dip back in at that time, for another look.
October 15, 2012 at 9:11 pm
The “bully arc” is, more or less, episode 1
November 4, 2012 at 2:23 pm
Yeah, actually it appears that the bullying basically disappears by episode 3… Then it becomes a shonen fighting manga with hilarious soap opera antics.
The hammy acting in this show has seriously gone to “so bad it’s amazing” levels very quickly. xDDD
November 4, 2012 at 3:49 pm
Cool, thx for the update. I did check out episode 2 or 3 (where the mask was used). I haven’t gotten around to seeing the rest, though.
October 8, 2012 at 5:48 pm
I got to agree with the article from Gar Gar with regards to Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. I give fiction a looser rope then reality but the premise blows and good on him for saying so.
October 9, 2012 at 12:25 am
I’m not quite sure where the series is going, so I am a little hesitant to assume the rape comment was unnecessary, but if it was unnecessary to the plot, I think it was a stupid comment to include. The relationship already has problems and throwing around terms like rape just pushes the show in the direction of those problems.
Now it is still possible that the issue of rape is going to be raised again. At least that guy with blonde hair seems pretty sketchy. If it is legitimate foreshadowing, I guess it belongs. I still hope that isn’t the direction in which the story goes, though.
October 9, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Actually “unnecessary” may end up being the best way to describe that particular presentation. But you are probably right I am likely being premature to make harsh judgments. I may be surprised yet.
October 9, 2012 at 6:39 pm
We’ll just have to see what happens.