[New Summer 2012] Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai

Japanese title: だから僕は, Hができない
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12549/Dakara_Boku_wa_H_ga_Dekinai.
Download: Available through http://nyaa.eu/
Genres: Fantasy / Ecchi
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: This pervert guy meets a girl claims to be from the underworld, who needs energy from his soul. Then this seemingly useless pervert guy somehow possesses some super power that is activated by his pervert though blah blah blah


First impression score: 60 - Boobs and Nipples

Personal comments: Um, this is like a clone of High School DxD, except this is even worse than High School DxD was. I see no value in this anime what so ever. I'd say low teen boys or mentally equivalents are probably their target audiences. I can't image anybody outside that age group would be interested in this...

[New Summer 2012] Tari Tari

Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/13333/Tari_Tari
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/tari-tari
Genres: School Life / Musical?
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Konatsu wants to create a new chorus club, partly out of grudge, partly out of passion. She is now gather the required five members to start the club.   

First impression score: 80 - Normal school life so far

Personal comments: This looks a bit too...plain. The reason I still haven't completely given up on slice of life anime as of the moment, is that sometimes something good like Natsuiro Kiseki or Ano Hana does show up. Hopefully, something good too would come out of this.

[New Summer 2012] Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (Humanity has Declined)

Japanese title: 人類は衰退しました
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/10357/Jinrui_wa_Suitai_Shimashita
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/humanity-has-declined
Genres: Drama / Comedy / SciFi?
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: In the future, when human society declined to a highly primitive one, a small fairy like creature is the only intelligent creature that guides human being.   

First impression score: 88 - Poking fun at today's society, brilliant!!

Personal comments: The title of the anime, literally translates to "Humanity has Declined". At first I thought this is one of the dumbest anime ever. But then, as the episode progresses, I realized this is not an anime about the fallen human society, instead, it's a story using a fallen human society to poke fun at today's society, from politicians' dirty tactics on how to keep a society in order, to mass production where people work in lower level is so far remove from chain of command that they have no idea what they're actually doing, to how food we eat nowadays is almost never what they seem to be. It's just a string of quick-witted ideas mean to show the problem in a potential "declined human society". The irony here is that today's society is in a state that isn't really far from this so called "declined society" state. This is pure brilliance, though you need to be a bit aware of today's state of society. If you're as ignorant as the people this story is trying to poke fun at, you'd probably wouldn't have a clue where the brilliance of this story lies. (No, I'm not trying to say I'm smarter than you, really, that's not the point here.)

[New Summer 2012] La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia

Japanese title: アルカナ・ファミリア
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/12967/Arcana_Famiglia
Watch Online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/la-storia-della-arcana-famiglia
Genres: Action / Comedy
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: Arcana Famiglia is the organization that protects the island. People in the organization has powers linked to Taro cards. Now the head of family is retiring and he wants to use a duel to decide who will take over to become the new head of family.   

First impression score: 83 - Interesting concept

Personal comments: Is it just me or this somehow feels like a mixed blend of Soul Eater with Baccano? With all that over the top action, it's hard to notice this is actually a reverse harem anime. The work has some distinct similarities to Pandora Hearts, which I really like.

[New Summer 2012] Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

Japanese title: マブラヴオルタネイティヴ トータル・イクリプス
Info: http://myanimelist.net/anime/11021/Muv-Luv_Alternative:_Total_Eclipse
Watch online: http://www.crunchyroll.com/total-eclipse
Genres: Mecha Girl
I've watched: 1 episode

Summary: In an alternative world, a being named BETA from mars started attacking human and eventually invading earth since 1976. The story is about some pilot training school for the mechas that is used to defend earth against BETAs.    

First impression score: 78 - Mechas + Boobs, the formula where there's always somebody willing to watch

Personal comments: Um...it feels somehow just like IS: Infinite Stratos, except there's a reason for these girls to pilot these mecha. But unlike IS, Muv-Luv here doesn't really bother to explain why there're only girls in this school. As for mecha battle goes, it has the exact same pitfall I consider all mecha animes have: during mecha battle, it is as if the strength of the pilot actually matters--somehow screaming louder and pushing harder on the levers could make the mecha push harder. It's such a stupid concept that I can't believe all the mecha fans out there just completely ignoring. Can any mecha fans out there how you find this logical?

[Ended] Tsuritama: Excitement from Simplicity

The level of nonsense in this series is almost comparable to those in Star Driver, which is more or less the defining anime of recent years as far as out of whack nonsense goes.

The concept underneath is amazingly simple and amazingly straightforward, yet, they somehow managed to make it amazingly exciting. Seriously, I never would have thought fishing can be so exciting. There's no drawn out complicated plot, they're simply fishing, from the beginning all the way to the end; There's no unexpected twists and turns, everybody had a simple goal of their own: the aliens wants to fish, the duck wants to catch the alien, Yuki wants to have friends, and Natsuki wants to be a pro. But roll them all together, it somehow become a weird ball of cluster f**k that was extremely entertaining to watch.

The pacing of the series is also great. Early on when people still aren't familiar everybody's intent, it paced moderately while intentional let loose some WTFs to keep people iinterested. Once all foundations are laid out, it wasted no time and immediately shifted into high gear and unfolded in an explosive manner. The excitements just keeps on piling up until the very last moment, while they still not forgetting throw in some WTFs once a while. Overall, it is just very well paced plot development.

If Mawaru Penguindrum is something that uses its craftiness and complexity for an dazzling display of storytelling, then Tsuritama is something made best use of simplicity and what simplicity could achieve in terms of explosive excitements.

In my opinion, Tsuritama has done everything right. If Space Brothers (Uchuu Kyoudai) is the most underrated long series of spring 2012 season, this would be the most underrated short season series of spring 2012 season.

A quick word about the ending. I can see they're trying to throw some more fun WTFs around. But by doing so it left a bit WTF with a huge question mark in the end where I think did more damage then good--it just doesn't make sense, period. Well, the rest of the anime doesn't really make too much sense either, but it does in its own realm. This ending, however, doesn't even make sense in their realm. That makes me wonder what's the purpose of putting that 2 minutes in the end of last episode there...

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 94 (Simple and with WTFs)

Comedy: 97 (Lots of WTFs)

Action: 93 (Made excitement out of fishing)

Art/Animation: 90 (Simple yet effective)

Sound/Music: 83 (Interesting)

Character: 92 (Simple but interesting)

Plot: 93 (Well paced)

Ending: 90 (WTF?)

Re-watch value: 50 - Still fun WTFs to watch

Overall: 92 - Excitingly simple

Recommendation: If you haven't gotten the point after reading everything I wrote above, let me spell it out for you. This is an amazingly interesting anime that belongs to the "must-watch" list so long you don't mind some out of whack WTFs. And it would no doubt get the award

WTF of the Season for Spring 2012 Season

and even though it's a little stretch, I'd also hand it

SciFi Anime of the Season for Spring 2012 Season

[Ended] Sankarea: The...End?

Was it just me or did everybody else feel the story ended a bit too abruptly? I was fully expecting another episode or at least another scene after the final scene of the final episode. But no, there isn't such a thing. It just ended there. That was just extremely unsatisfying.

Back to the story itself, it's about someone who's obsessed with zombies, in a strange way: he wanted to have a romantic experience with a zombie. How he find zombies attractive, I'm yet to understand. While the story is rather compact, it feels a bit disorganized. It shifts focal point from zombie to Rea then back to zombie. In the end, they managed only have a partial closure to one of the thread and left rest of them terminated in a very cryptic manner. With no announcement of follow-up season, this is a highly undesirable ending. This, in my opinion, is another otherwise good series that is ruined by a bad ending.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 82 (Zombie romance)

Comedy: 85 (Somewhat)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 90 (Quite good)

Sound/Music: 85 (Eh...)

Character: 92 (Definitely character centric)

Plot: 86 (Weird)

Ending: 70 (Weak!)

Re-watch value: 30 - Not really worth it

Overall: 80 - Very Weak Ending

Recommendation: While the ending is rather weak, the rest of the story is rather interesting. I would either wait to see whether there's a second season or just read the manga.

[Ended] Nazo no Kanojo X: Srange Fetishes

This story has a very strange concept, very very strange concept--people can feel each others inner thoughts by simply tasting their spits. The interesting implication about this concept is that people could learn each others true intent by exchanging spits (yuck!). That alone creates a very strange dynamic where lies between the couple could be simply exposed by merely tasting the other person's spit (yuck! yuck!). The story, which is about how two people get close and fall in love with each other (in a very strange way more or less) fully exploit this idea where misunderstandings are solved through this method and in turn brings two closer to each other.

While I more or less got used to (or numb about) the whole spit exchange thing, every time it comes up, I still can help but to think how bizarre it is for anybody to perform such act.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 87 (Weird)

Comedy: 83 (Strangely funny)

Action: 84 (Scissor actions)

Art/Animation: 80 (Somewhat weird)

Sound/Music: 85 (So so)

Character: 88 (Slow and steady depth development)

Plot: 86 (Weird)

Ending: 90 (Decleared)

Re-watch value: 50 - If you happen to like spit exchange...

Overall: 84 - People with Strange Fetish

Recommendation: As far as recommendation goes, it's an interesting story, but definitely on the weird end of the spectrum. If you like weird stuff like this, go ahead give it a try, maybe you'll like it.

[Ended] Natsuiro Kiseki: Lightheartedly Charming

Animes about cute girls' life are drop a dozen, hardly any of them are worth mentioning or even watching. But once a while something pops up, that is special not in terms of being extraordinary, rather, being ordinary.

The story is about four BFF girls due to a certain circumstance that their friendship is on the brink of destruction. By an odd chance, a rock with mysterious powers that grants wishes made some interesting wishes of the girls came true in a very strange way. With those wishes, not only they have reaffirmed their BFF status, some of them also learned to accept changes of life as it is and make best of it. The story may not sound that interesting, but the distinct personalities of the four girls just made it so much entertaining to watch. And since the rock grants wishes in a very peculiar and unpredictable way, there's no lack of fun mishaps these girls suffer through.

As I mentioned in the previous post, Natsuiro Kiseki is a comedy that does not rely on exaggeration to make its point. While animes like K-ON! emphasizes on moe plus over the top bounciness to attract audience, Natsuiro Kiseki on the other hand is far calmer than those in the same category. It showed that subtlety can be equally funny if done right, and it adds an extra dimension of mellowness where it would be somewhat difficult to insert into a bouncy comedy anime.

 Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (BFF drama)

Comedy: 90 (Subtly)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 86 (Cute)

Sound/Music: 85 (So so)

Character: 91 (Very interesting)

Plot: 83 (Slice of life)

Ending: 90 (Ended well)

Re-watch value: 50 - For fun, maybe

Overall: 89 - Lightheartedly Charming

Recommendation: I don't think I'd put this on a "must watch" list, but I'd definitely put it on "if you have extra time to burn" watch list.

[Ended] Sakamichi no Apollon: Jazz of Life

The animation style is simple, the settings is the era when people still have simple lives, but the story and the characters involved are anything but simple.

The story started with a rather simple concept, the love of Jazz music and how it connected a rather unusual group of people together. Slowly, as each character's back stories being revealed (to each other rather than to audiences), situations grew complex. What's so intriguing about this story is how it portrayed the relationships between different people in a very delicate manner.

The ending, in my opinion, managed to escape the pitfall of similar series where they end with either an unreasonable happy ending or an overly blunt shutoff. Most plot threads met with either a full closure, or a partial closure where the result is implied. Technically, the story ended on a somewhat tragic note (it actually depends on which thread you consider the primary one), but it isn't anything need to be upset about because characters in the story have simply accepted the fact and moved on. Since it's a story about how kids mature emotionally and eventually become an adult, I think that's a very fitting ending to the story.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 92 (Love and Jazz)

Comedy: 82 (For what it had)

Action: N/A

Art/Animation: 88 (Simple and interesting)

Sound/Music: 92 (All the Jazz)

Character: 98 (Very well developed)

Plot: 96 (Life's twists)

Ending: 90 (Casual yet effective)

Re-watch value: 60 - May catch certain details you missed

Overall: 93 - Jazz of Life

Recommendation: While it isn't anything ground breaking, this is an example of a solid good anime. If you are looking for something to watch that won't disappoint you, this is it. And I'm handing it

Best Short Season Drama for Spring 2012 Season

[Ended] Fate/Zero: Sophisticated and Explosive

Fate/Zero is probably one of the most highly anticipated series in both 2011 and 2012. People say bigger expectation brings bigger disappointment, but I can assure you that is not going to be the case here. In my opinion the production team of Fate/Zero did everything right to meet the expectation.

As the prequel to Fate/Stay Night, it's quite a bit more sophisticated than its predecessor, both in plot and character design, probably due to the fact it was trying to tie the back story of every major character from Fate/Stay Night into a single plot. It presented few interesting philosophical dilemma, especially the discussion between the different historic figures about what it really means to be king.

Alongside with the complex plot and interpersonal relationships, one of the selling point of the story is the explosive battles among the summoned warriors. Although from the get-go it was pretty clear who is the ultimately dominating servant (even when you haven't seen Fate/Stay Night, you could tell), the battles along the way (both between servants and the masters) are rather exciting.

I can go on for quite a while about Fate/Zero, but the bottom line is that it is definitely worth your time, whether you have previously seen Fate/Stay Night or not.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 97 (Exciting)

Comedy: 85 (For the little it had)

Action: 98 (Explosive)

Art/Animation: 95 (Same style, more sophisticated)

Sound/Music: 97 (Great theme songs)

Character: 96 (Very interesting)

Plot: 98 (Well crafted and sophisticated)

Ending: 99 (Great)

Re-watch value: 80 - May be good for catching some missed plot point

Overall: 97 - Sophisticated and Explosive

Recommendation: Fate/Zero is probably one of the "must watch" anime of 2011/2012. Regardless what your background in anime is, I think you'll enjoy it. Anime studios lately have gotten a habit to taking a season break between two parts of long series, probably to ease the financial strain on producing large projects like this (this way they can use the profit from the first part to fund the second part). It makes it difficult to decide which season this series actually belong. But for now, I'd just shove it under October 2011 season and give it

Best Long Season Action-Drama for Fall 2011 Season

[Ended] Tasogare Otome x Amnesia: Good Story, Terrible Ending

First thing first, WHY do they have to destroy a perfect ending of such a good series?!! Aside from potential future profit, I really can't see a real reason why they would do this. I mean it's so terrible that it's comparable to the level of disappointment I was met while watching Clannad After Story's finale. It's like they are up to toy with your emotion all series long, and after they finished performing the final act and had all of our hearts twisted and turned out of shape, only to see them taking a backstroke to invalidate them all. That's just completely maddening . 

As far as the story goes, the first half looked like a horror and comedy mix that plays off various urban legend where the latter half thread them together to be part of Yuuko's past that the characters trying to resolve. It's rather cleverly written how all unrelated haunts all comes to play part of Yuuko's background. If it weren't for the ending, this may be award worthy. But as it is right, borrowing my friend and fellow blog contributor danchou's words, the ending just kill it for me. 

As art style and directing goes, I can't help but notice it has borrowed certain techniques on directing and art direction from studio SHAFT, whose style is just so vastly different than conventional anime and is rather easily identifiable. While many who tried to imitate SHAFT's style have failed in the past, MediaFactory (the studio behind Tasogare Otome x Amnesia) did rather well here.

Final Scoreboard:

Drama: 90 (Dramatized)

Comedy: 90 (Very good)

Action: 89 (Haunting)

Art/Animation: 89 (Little SHAFT influence)

Sound/Music: 90 (Good music)

Character: 92 (Very interesting)

Plot: 90 (Nicely crafted)

Ending: 50 (Terrible)

Re-watch value: 60 - Maybe

Overall: 87 - Good Story, Terrible Ending
 
Recommendation: Generally it's a good story, but I'd say you probably want to skip the last 5 minutes of the last episode, if you don't want to just feel being played emotionally. If I'm to hand it an award, it'd probably be the most disappointing ending of the season.