Spring Anime: First Impressions Addendum
Well, since I said episode 2 would be the test of some of them and had one more to watch (plus a little extra I picked up after), an addendum...
So, the ones where I said ep. 2 was the test, none of them totally fell off a cliff, but results were mixed...
I'm dropping Severing Crime Edge; for me it slid off a bit too far into its own twistedness, plus it's credibly threatening to be a fighting-tournament-in-all-but-name show. It does have a kind of crazy charm, but after ep. 2 that's not enough to keep me signed on.
Devil Survivor 2 slid off somewhat into its own averageness, but I still plan to stick with it if only to see whether the twist I see coming in the distance is a mirage, or if it's not, how it'll play out. (Also, purely personal issue: it is at once endearing and distracting that the hero here has Natsume Takashi's seiyuu giving a very similar delivery; I'm just not properly jaded to that voice. Especially in ep. 2 where he's going "supernatural stuff is real, WTF!?")
However, I am glad to report that Hataraku Maou-sama! maintained its touch and treated its newly-introduced heroine with enough respect to pass muster. I think this one's a keeper.
Since writing I heard about and tried Ketsuekigata-kun (roughly: Blood-Type Buddies), to which good or bad hardly even seems to apply. It's a manically humorous short-short about avatars of the blood types and the personalities they're thought in Japan to represent; pretty funny, and too short for the manic-ness to wear out its welcome. The included PSA about "don't be a jerk to people based on the stereotypes presented here" makes me wonder if the whole thing was ill-conceived, but I plan to stay with it --- not because it's particularly good but in hopes that if I see it through I'll never forget what the blood-type personality stereotypes are.
And finally, the last actual show I planned to sample, Valvrave the Liberator, and maybe the best thing about this ep is also the saddest commentary: it really gets going after the closing credits. For most of the episode, you have a light high school drama overtaken by a space mecha war-story. The characters have a kind of canned charm, but the whole thing is laboriously by-the-numbers, excepting a note of brutality and splatter that, while not extreme, is enough above expectation to be unpleasant and perhaps a bit engaging. There's also a not-violent but ever-present air of contrivance to it; what soldier in the midst of an undercover commando raid stops to give harsh life-advice to enemy high schoolers? Who builds an experimental mech under a high school swimming pool anyway? Must we really watch our hero re-hash his established Issues rather than hit the large and obvious "yes proceed" on the control panel? (And why the pretty lady avatar on the OS of our military hardware??) The social media angle doesn't rise to the level of humor (for me) and does nothing for the show so far except suck believability out of the classroom scene. Between one thing and another, most of the episode felt about twice as long as it really was, but in the end, we get our mecha fight, it is pretty awesome looking (the whole episode does look good, well-drawn and colorful), and then, after the closing credits, it really gets going. One last brutal stroke is sufficiently surprising and well-aimed to make an impact, and then --- only then --- do we find out what we're apparently dealing with here: a mech that requires its pilot to become a vampire. I actually find this interesting and oddly believable (I at least vaguely remember the nanite business from Martian Successor Nadesico) and will probably watch at least one more ep to see where they go with it, but the tiresome storytelling that got us up to the twist does not bode well.
PS: the Attack on Titan OP + Miffy the Rabbit mashup is a beautiful thing. ‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡
So, the ones where I said ep. 2 was the test, none of them totally fell off a cliff, but results were mixed...
I'm dropping Severing Crime Edge; for me it slid off a bit too far into its own twistedness, plus it's credibly threatening to be a fighting-tournament-in-all-but-name show. It does have a kind of crazy charm, but after ep. 2 that's not enough to keep me signed on.
Devil Survivor 2 slid off somewhat into its own averageness, but I still plan to stick with it if only to see whether the twist I see coming in the distance is a mirage, or if it's not, how it'll play out. (Also, purely personal issue: it is at once endearing and distracting that the hero here has Natsume Takashi's seiyuu giving a very similar delivery; I'm just not properly jaded to that voice. Especially in ep. 2 where he's going "supernatural stuff is real, WTF!?")
However, I am glad to report that Hataraku Maou-sama! maintained its touch and treated its newly-introduced heroine with enough respect to pass muster. I think this one's a keeper.
Since writing I heard about and tried Ketsuekigata-kun (roughly: Blood-Type Buddies), to which good or bad hardly even seems to apply. It's a manically humorous short-short about avatars of the blood types and the personalities they're thought in Japan to represent; pretty funny, and too short for the manic-ness to wear out its welcome. The included PSA about "don't be a jerk to people based on the stereotypes presented here" makes me wonder if the whole thing was ill-conceived, but I plan to stay with it --- not because it's particularly good but in hopes that if I see it through I'll never forget what the blood-type personality stereotypes are.
And finally, the last actual show I planned to sample, Valvrave the Liberator, and maybe the best thing about this ep is also the saddest commentary: it really gets going after the closing credits. For most of the episode, you have a light high school drama overtaken by a space mecha war-story. The characters have a kind of canned charm, but the whole thing is laboriously by-the-numbers, excepting a note of brutality and splatter that, while not extreme, is enough above expectation to be unpleasant and perhaps a bit engaging. There's also a not-violent but ever-present air of contrivance to it; what soldier in the midst of an undercover commando raid stops to give harsh life-advice to enemy high schoolers? Who builds an experimental mech under a high school swimming pool anyway? Must we really watch our hero re-hash his established Issues rather than hit the large and obvious "yes proceed" on the control panel? (And why the pretty lady avatar on the OS of our military hardware??) The social media angle doesn't rise to the level of humor (for me) and does nothing for the show so far except suck believability out of the classroom scene. Between one thing and another, most of the episode felt about twice as long as it really was, but in the end, we get our mecha fight, it is pretty awesome looking (the whole episode does look good, well-drawn and colorful), and then, after the closing credits, it really gets going. One last brutal stroke is sufficiently surprising and well-aimed to make an impact, and then --- only then --- do we find out what we're apparently dealing with here: a mech that requires its pilot to become a vampire. I actually find this interesting and oddly believable (I at least vaguely remember the nanite business from Martian Successor Nadesico) and will probably watch at least one more ep to see where they go with it, but the tiresome storytelling that got us up to the twist does not bode well.
PS: the Attack on Titan OP + Miffy the Rabbit mashup is a beautiful thing. ‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡