[New April 2012] Zetman

Japanese title: ゼットマン
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11837/Zetman
Watch Online: http://www.hulu.com/zetman
Genres: Scifi / Action
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: When artificially created superhuman called "Player" escaped, mysterious murders in the city started to occur.


First impression score: 87 - Violent

Personal comments: This is an anime adaptation of manga written by Masakazu Katsura, who is well know for authoring acclaimed series such as D・N・A², Video Girl Ai, and my personal favorite, I''s. It's sometime hard to believe how versatile he could be--not only he can draw and write a long and emotional love drama like I''s and Video Girl Ai, but also capable of doing shounen action series like Zetman and D・N・A². He is a truely amazing artist. Back to the anime itself, the respect to original author alone would probably be enough for me to stay with this series because knowing the quality of his work, this series should be at least semi-decent, given the animators did not totally mess up in the adaptation. 

[New April 2012] Ozuma

Japanese title: オズマ
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12677/Ozuma
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/ozma
Genres: Scifi / Post Apocalyps
I've watched: 3 episode

Summary: In the future where the surface of the earth become mostly sand. People are trying to survive in the harsh environment while fighting battles underneath the sand.


First impression score: 84 - Somewhat exciting

Personal comments: I mark it as April season new anime, but this started air way early in March and it is only 6 episodes long. So it soon will be ending. The first thing you'll notice about this series is its unique style, since it's based on manga written by the legendary Leiji Matsumoto (松本零士), the author of Galaxy Express 999. It's a little odd at first, but it'll grow on you. The first two episode felt very much like one of those classic WWII submarine battle movies, except the battle is done in liquid sand, not sea.

[New April 2012] Hiiro no Kakera

Japanese title: 緋色の欠片
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12461/Hiiro_no_Kakera
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/hiiro-no-kakera
Genres: Fantasy / Supernatural / Reverse Harem
I've watched: 2 episode

Summary: Because of her father's job change, Tamaki came to live with her grandma, only to find out that she is the descendent of a sacred blood line and is being asked to be the shrine maiden to protect the world from daemons.

First impression score: 87 - Reverse Harem

Personal comments: Since reverse harem are so few and far between, you can always smell it from far away. However, because it's so rare, the average quality of reverse harems tend to be much higher than its counterparts. So far this is no exception.

[New April 2012] Saint Seiya Omega

Japanese title: 聖闘士星矢Ω
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12929/Saint_Seiya_Omega
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/saint-seiya-omega
Genres: Action / Fantasy
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Seiya is now gone, the duty of protecting Athena is now upon the next generation.

First impression score: 83 - Revived Classic

Personal comments: It's been more than 25 years since Saint Seiya was aired originally. After a series of finale OVAs, Seiya finally passed on. While the title still bear the word Seiya, the story of Omega is all about the next generation, given Seiya, the one unkillable person in the entire Saint Seiya series gets finished off within the first 5 minutes of episode 1.

[New April 2012] Accel World

Japanese title: アクセル・ワールド
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11759/Accel_World
Watch Online: http://www.hulu.com/accel-world
Genres: Scifi / Action / VR
I've watched: 2 episode

Summary: In the future, when everybody is linked through "Neural Link", there exists a secret program called "Brain Burst" where people who are capable can accelerate 1000 times beyond normal perception of time.

First impression score: 88 - Intriguing

Personal comments: Interestingly enough, this is a series that is based on an environment very similar to the world described by Dennou Coil, where I just mentioned a couple of days ago about google's Project Glass. I always find this kind of story intriguing, so long it doesn't focus too much in the drama that exists purely because of the technicalities of VR environment, like the later .hack series (not .hack//sign or .hack//Quantum though). I'm much interested in seeing what this series has to offer.

[New April 2012] Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead

Japanese title: これはゾンビですか? OF THE DEAD
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10790/Kore_wa_Zombie_Desu_ka_of_the_Dead
Download: available through http://www.nyaa.eu/
Genres: Magical Girl (lol) / Zombie / Vampire / Supernatural / Comedy
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Our beloved zombie magical girl man is making an return.

First impression score: 90 - Kick it up a notch
 

Personal comments: One of the most outrageous anime of 2011 is making a return. If you haven't seen the original yet, you should. Most notable property of the original series is the wild mood swing. From the feel of this new series so far, I think they're going to be just as wild.

[New April 2012] Uchuu Kyoudai

Japanese title: 宇宙兄弟
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12431/Uchuu_Kyoudai
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/space-brothers
Genres: Drama
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Year 2025, two Japanese brothers, one is about to go to the moon on a NASA mission, the other one has just gotten fired from his work as an automobile designer. They both had a dream once upon the time to go the the space. Now they both set off the achieve them.

First impression score: 82 - More interesting than I thought

Personal comments: It's series like this, where I had pretty much no expectation what so ever, would once a while surprise me. Whatever it is, it somehow grabbed me, despite it isn't in any art style that I'm fond of, nor do I have any interest in the topic. For now, I'd say I'll at least give it to mid season to decide whether this is a keeper for good.

[New April 2012] Queen's Blade: Rebellion

Usually, I try to wrap up the previous season before I put out new season posts. But since I've accumulated so much backlog and the new season has already been trickling in since last week, I figure I'll just go ahead start on this season while slowly finish up my reviews for previous season. And what's better than kicking of the new Spring season of animes with the biggest and bounciest boobs in anime history--Queen's Blade
 
Japanese title: クイーンズブレイド リベリオン
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11859/Queens_Blade:_Rebellion
Download: available through http://www.nyaa.eu/
Genres: Action / Drama / Ecchi / Boobs
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Queen Claudette now is in charge, and she repealed Queen's Blade law. Now new civil unrest start to appear.

First impression score: 78 - ... It's still Queen's Blade

Personal comments: It's still Queen's Blade, though the boobs aren't appearing nearly as often as the original series. While I was rather fond of the original series' plot, I'm not sure whether this series will be at par. For one, take that screen cap for example, while dressed like that, some how people still manage to think she is a "he", until a couple of seconds later her breast plate blew off and her boobs are shown. I don't remember the original series had any stupid ignorance like this. This is not a good sign.

[News Flash] Dennou Coil Technology Becomes Reality

For those who have seen Dennou Coil, you'd probably be interested in looking up the term "Project Glass" on Google--the technology of Dennou Coil has just become reality.

For those who haven't seen Dennou Coil, you really should watch it, as it is one of the only three animes on this blog that I've ever given a perfect overall score to.

[Ended] Ano Natsu de Matteru: Revamp of Modern Classic

If you have seen Onegai Teacher, you'd probably would have cried foul at some point along the way because it's unarguably clear that Ano Natsu de Matteru is literally an episode by episode (if not scene by scene) revamp of Onegai Teacher. Of course, there are some new contents added to it. But if Onegai Teacher wants to take Ano Natsu to court for a plagiarism case, 10 out of 10 times it would have won it.

Having said that however, I would not say you should dismiss Ano Natsu as a "copycat" product. In fact, I would recommend this series if you ever liked Onegai Teacher. For one, Ano Natsu would actually reminded you about everything we liked about Onegai Teacher and how it became one of the modern romance anime classic. On top of that, director Tatsuyuki Nagai, who is also responsible for all the tears we shed over Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, had done an almost equally amazing job here to set up an environment that is warm yet melancholic which resulted in a feel that is light and relaxing yet powerfully moody.

Having said that however, to some, the fact the creation process of this series is literally taking all the art work out of Ano Hana and plugged them right into Onegai Teacher could be somewhat bothersome to many. Personally, I think that's fine, so long the end result is good series. But some of you may not be so kind in overlooking these "plagiarism" factors. 

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Dramatic)

Comedy: 90 (Romance humor)

Action: 80 (For what it had)

Art/Animation: 88 (Ano Hana)

Sound/Music: 86 (So so)

Character: 88 (Interesting)

Plot: 80 (Not original)

Ending: 81 (Implied)

Re-watch value: 60 (Unlikely)

Overall: 88 - Retelling the Onegai Teacher Story in Different Form

Recommendation: Personally, because I'm very fond of both Onegai Teacher and Ano Hana, I really don't have a problem for someone try to do a makeover of those series, especially when they did a fairly good job. For people have seen neither of the referenced series, this is no substitute. But, as a stand along series by itself, I would recommend it.

[Ended] Black Rock Shooter: Masochist Manifesto

If reading the title of the post makes you think I don't like this series, well, you're totally wrong. In fact, I'm rather fond of this series. The title, is actually how I felt when the post final climax explanation went down: they fight to be hurt, they fight to carry the pain, and above all, they fight because love. Even within the context of Black Rock Shooter realm, this sounds like a masochist manifesto. But I think that's the point it's trying to get across.

Come to think of it, since I finished Persona 4 right before I watched the final episode of BRS, I see lots of similarities in the morals they are both trying to carry out--treasure life and what you have in life, even when you can't see, sometimes you may hit a bump in the road, but sometimes, there are those who are carrying even more pain for you than you aware. So you should consider yourself fortunate, and enjoy life when you still can.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Drama heavy)

Comedy: N/A

Action: 94 (3DCG battles)

Art/Animation: 86 (Mostly CG)

Sound/Music: 90 (Miku)

Character: 88 (Good development)

Plot: 83 (Makes more sense than OVA)

Ending: 86 (Happily)

Re-watch value: 60 (See the fights)

Overall: 88 - Interesting concept

Recommendation: This TV series makes a lot, I mean a lot more sense than the OVA. It actually has a pretty decent plot and an interesting moral. As one of my friends put it, this series has quite some table flipping moment (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ when key part of the story is being developed. If you have some anger issues, I would recommend you not to have anything you can throw nor any tables you can flip when watching episode 4--, it'll literally make you want throw them to the TV. ^_^

[Ended] Persona 4: Wild Ride

For the most part, the early episodes of Persona 4 feels like a wild goose chase. According to people that has played the game, the series actually feel very much like how the game went down. But since I've never played game, I have no way of knowing. One thing I could tell you for sure, is the fact Persona 4 is in a completely different league than Persona: Trinity Soul, which was one of the slowest and most boring plot I've seen in animes. It's a bit hard to understand early on, in turn, the mystery just didn't seem that impressive. However, as the story progresses, more and more persona revealed, they literally stack the mystery up one block at a time and constructed a rather complex plot that in my opinion matches the reputation of the Persona series.

The story of Persona 4, reflects upon a problem that exists in today's society, where instead of accepting realities everybody is facing, we'd rather hide behind the shadow and cheat ourselves out of seeing the truth. As a result, we only  see what we want to see and hear what we want to hear. At some point, we start to live in our shadows, and eventually, we become our shadows.

Final scoreboard:

Drama: 89 (There are some rather dramatic moments)

Comedy: 85 (Ok to certain extend)

Action: 88 (Nod bad)

Art/Animation: 81 (Acceptable)

Sound/Music: 83 (Interesting)

Character: 90 (Well developted)

Plot: 90 (Twists and turns)

Ending: 90 (Grand, but slightly anticlimactic in my opinion)

Re-watch value: 60 (May still be interesting)

Overall: 88 - Nicely done

Recommendation: It may not look that impressive early on, but as they're stacking the pieces higher and higher, it becomes more and more interesting. I wouldn't say this is a must watch, but if you have some extra time, this would be a good series to pick up.