Winter Season Goes Bye-Bye

Author: nova

The best thing that came out of the past season.

I apologize for the recent lack of activity here, especially considering last week’s surge of posts. I simply ran out of juice due to long evening shifts at work followed by a 4-day LAN-party. Also for the future record in case any more people from IRC run into me IRL: No, I am not female. Now let’s get on with the post which is already so late that it’s almost pathetic – my take on the past season and its shows.

I saw fit to once again utilize the good ol’ Excel to bring out the main points I had in mind for the series of the past season. Out of these Chrome Shelled Regios, Kurokami and White Album have only reached their mid point so keep in mind that in their case the verdict isn’t final.

All in all I’d say the most memorable experiences of the season were Gundam 00 2nd and Clannad AF, of which I have already said my piece on the latter. Gundam 00 2nd was pretty much guaranteed stuff as it copied the same well-received recipe of its predecessor – quickly developing story, fast overall pace and constant exciting battles. The ending could have been more climatic in my opinion and it gave out a clear message that Sunrise is definitely not going to kill a milking cow just yet. But as a whole the antics of Celestial Being have been top-class entertainment for anyone digging science fiction and mecha action.

In the class below these two big names Toradora!, RideBack and Regios managed to distinguish themselves rather well from the rest. Toradora! was pretty much as good as a high school romance anime ever gets and for that I raise my hat to JC Staff. However, as I am not really a fan of high school romance anime I didn’t find the show as involving as many others. Nevertheless the trip was nice while it lasted and the sceneries were beautiful.

RideBack had a great animation and overall graphical style, and a boatload of potential. Unfortunately Madhouse somewhat missed its chance by cramming it all into measly 12 episodes, thus leaving the complex plot without sufficient time to completely unfold. Along with Starship Operators, RideBack is a show I definitely would’ve wanted to see running for two whole seasons instead of just one.

Chrome Shelled Regios started out quite lame and uninteresting, with incomprehensible plot and mainly unlikeable characters, but managed to glue me and a whole bunch of other viewers onto their seats with the sheer charm of Felli until the plot itself started kicking in good. Checking out a few chapters of the two Regios manga-series helps out quite a bit in understanding what’s going on in the show. The overall graphical execution of Regios is mediocre at best but once the story starts making sense, things kinda work themselves out and the show becomes quite enjoyable. Check it out if you have the patience. Or if you dig silent tsundere girls.

The remaining bunch managed to get only as far as somewhere between mediocre and sub-par. If I had to mention the one that was the best out of the lot, I’d say White Album takes the pot in this wall of shame. While initially beautiful, mature and looking different from the usual harem-format, it turned out to be pretty much just that. White Album is a harem series – what makes it different is that it’s a rather mature harem series. But in this format one trick up the sleeve won’t get you far and White Album seems to be already being bogged down by overly complicated and occasionally incomprehensible character relations. The graphical execution also looks like it’s losing steam by every episode. The show attempts to build up a lot of drama but personally I couldn’t really relate to the characters and their problems – all their antics seem just distant and uninvolving. Maybe it’s my cultural background and its strong focus on staying out of other people’s business, who knows, but I didn’t find myself being very interested in whatever happens to the characters and between them.

For a runner-up position I’d pick Kurokami for the fact that at least it’s trying to be cool. But Kurokami isn’t actually very cool at all. It’s like a generic middle school kid who hangs out with the cool kids and hopes to be as cool as them – but everyone knows he’s not. Or maybe I was just expecting something too much. In any case, Kurokami has a lot of ambition and spirit but little to back it up with. Essentially it’s a sort of mix of Fate/stay night and Shakugan no Shana with little of the good sides from either. F/sn wasn’t all that fight-centered but relied on its captivating storyline and characters to do its trick. Shakugan no Shana had quite a bit of fighting with much simpler and conventional story and character design. Kurokami attempts to mix a lot of fighting with an epic-scale story but somewhere along the way just loses its grip. The fights are sorta nice but there is little to no tension at all – it’s simply Kuro getting beat up every time until a deus ex machina kicks in. Kuro herself is funny and adorable but the rest of the cast is a bunch of forgettable personalities – especially the Shirou-clone male lead. There isn’t much in Kurokami that serves to keep one’s interest in it, although it sure is trying.

Asu no Yoichi is pretty much the very definition of generic. The existence of Akikan! was its saving grace, otherwise nothing to write home about. Funny sometimes and tsuntsun-Ayame is pretty adorable.

Now let us dive into the murky depths of fail as I have the questionable honor to introduce the bottom-feeders of the past season.

First off, To Aru Majutsu no Index. Honestly I’m sick and tired of writing about it – so I will not. It’s a show that never goes anywhere and never does anything except looking good. It’s cocktease. A porn movie with 90 minutes of foreplay and then end credits. Nuff said.

The mere existence of Tytania is a solid proof of devil’s existence. Bad animation compared with protagonists who the viewer hopes to die as painfully as possible yet knowing that it will never happen. Y’know, they’re the good guys. While the bad guys, Tytanians, are a likeable bunch of colorful personalities whose power struggle is interesting and exciting to watch. The last few episodes are good for laughs though – and then the PRICELESS moment when you understand that yes: There will be moar. I guess Shana and Zero no Tsukaima have already taught us a lesson about how something you wish to disappear forever will persist no matter how much it fails. Like roaches.

And then there’s Akikan!. There’s only one thing to say about it: If you can afford to get majorly drunk every time you watch an episode, it’s bearable. But please kids, think of your liver. To further prove the point I made in the previous paragraph, there is an OVA follow-up.

Whoo, all done here. More posts to follow ASAP, work is killing me as always but we’re halfway there to the weekend! I apologize for the lack of pictures, I’m sort of on the clock here.