Reflections
Reflections on the first episodes of a few of the Spring 2007 anime season shows:
Hayate no Gotoku:
Storyline:***
Animation:****
C. Design:****
Character:**
This first episode did a really good job of following the manga closely. It's a really silly series (combat butler?) that I found to be too silly to read. However, the first episode was done well. The show had narration throughout the whole thing which sort of took the edge off the slapstick. It was an amusing first episode. And I like Hayate. My only qualms with this is it has the recipe for a harem show. Especially after watching the opening and ending credits.
But it looks like a really funny show with a mild romance storyline and a mild action storyline.
I'll keep watching this until it gets too harem-show-y for me, which it may or may not do. Oh, and sorry Air, but the opening song was not very good.
Also, i'd like to give character rating a * because of how Tsundere nagi is. the Maid is really dere dere. Very very cliche these girls are. But again, i like Hayate.
CLAYMORE:
Storyline:**
Animation:*
C. Design:**
Character:**
It's about monsters called 'Yoma' which terrorize human villages. They are able to take the form of a human they eat and live amongst them. At that point the only way to get rid of them is to hire a 'Claymore' -- half human half yoma. The claymore arrives in town and everyone's scared of her cept for this one boy... who's brother just happens to be the host body for the Yoma. The claymore girl shows up in the nick of time and kills the brother. The people of the town kick the kid out, afraid that he's become a Yoma too. Anyway, kid ends up going on a journey with the Claymore as her cook.
In short this anime is: Slow paced. First episode had craptacular animation. Mediocre storyline. (i'm reminded of Bakuhatsu Tenshi/Burst Angels with the whole cook thing. So bad. So so so bad. I kept waiting for the cook kid to have some kind of role in fighting, but no. He just cooked. And got in peoples way.)
I'll give it one more episode to redeem itself. I only downloaded this because people were clamoring about it... But it's just another hollow show that has a girl with a big sword.
Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha:
Storyline:*****
Animation:*****
C. Design:*****
Character:***
GOOD. This was the only one of the three that had me waiting for the next episode. Probably because of how much the story is shrouded in mystery. I like the character designs, as well as the fact that the main character is Chinese. Rare.
Anywho, Tokyo is surrounded by a HUGE wall preventing a view of the sky or anything else. There are people called 'Contractors' with special powers as well as people called 'Dolls'. Not much is known about either of them except that Contractors have to do something in exchange for their powers and their personalities change. Source of powers still unknown. Dolls we know much less about as of the first episode, but they fight the contractors and they're powers are somehow related to shooting stars.
The mystery of the series makes me eager for more episodes. We known very little about the main character, but we know SOMETHING's up. And we know how much Fumika LOVES special powers animes! Character development got a *** because there wasn't much character development...
Ooh! and the ending song is Rie Fu. Squee! Love her. Opening song is adbington boys school.
Anime still left to try:
RomeoXJuliet. A little skeptical on this one, because although they changed some things, the credits still read that the story is based off William Shakespeare's. Spoilers: They both die. lololololoololololol
Lucky Star. a.f.k.s got this one. Blah. they totally called it with Suzumiya Haruhi. I don't give a crap what people say, i'll download any series they sub.
Lovely complex. I may end up just reverting to the Manga. shoujo manga is always better than shoujo anime.
Hayate no Gotoku:
Storyline:***
Animation:****
C. Design:****
Character:**
This first episode did a really good job of following the manga closely. It's a really silly series (combat butler?) that I found to be too silly to read. However, the first episode was done well. The show had narration throughout the whole thing which sort of took the edge off the slapstick. It was an amusing first episode. And I like Hayate. My only qualms with this is it has the recipe for a harem show. Especially after watching the opening and ending credits.
But it looks like a really funny show with a mild romance storyline and a mild action storyline.
I'll keep watching this until it gets too harem-show-y for me, which it may or may not do. Oh, and sorry Air, but the opening song was not very good.
Also, i'd like to give character rating a * because of how Tsundere nagi is. the Maid is really dere dere. Very very cliche these girls are. But again, i like Hayate.
CLAYMORE:
Storyline:**
Animation:*
C. Design:**
Character:**
It's about monsters called 'Yoma' which terrorize human villages. They are able to take the form of a human they eat and live amongst them. At that point the only way to get rid of them is to hire a 'Claymore' -- half human half yoma. The claymore arrives in town and everyone's scared of her cept for this one boy... who's brother just happens to be the host body for the Yoma. The claymore girl shows up in the nick of time and kills the brother. The people of the town kick the kid out, afraid that he's become a Yoma too. Anyway, kid ends up going on a journey with the Claymore as her cook.
In short this anime is: Slow paced. First episode had craptacular animation. Mediocre storyline. (i'm reminded of Bakuhatsu Tenshi/Burst Angels with the whole cook thing. So bad. So so so bad. I kept waiting for the cook kid to have some kind of role in fighting, but no. He just cooked. And got in peoples way.)
I'll give it one more episode to redeem itself. I only downloaded this because people were clamoring about it... But it's just another hollow show that has a girl with a big sword.
Darker than Black: Kuro no Keiyakusha:
Storyline:*****
Animation:*****
C. Design:*****
Character:***
GOOD. This was the only one of the three that had me waiting for the next episode. Probably because of how much the story is shrouded in mystery. I like the character designs, as well as the fact that the main character is Chinese. Rare.
Anywho, Tokyo is surrounded by a HUGE wall preventing a view of the sky or anything else. There are people called 'Contractors' with special powers as well as people called 'Dolls'. Not much is known about either of them except that Contractors have to do something in exchange for their powers and their personalities change. Source of powers still unknown. Dolls we know much less about as of the first episode, but they fight the contractors and they're powers are somehow related to shooting stars.
The mystery of the series makes me eager for more episodes. We known very little about the main character, but we know SOMETHING's up. And we know how much Fumika LOVES special powers animes! Character development got a *** because there wasn't much character development...
Ooh! and the ending song is Rie Fu. Squee! Love her. Opening song is adbington boys school.
Anime still left to try:
RomeoXJuliet. A little skeptical on this one, because although they changed some things, the credits still read that the story is based off William Shakespeare's. Spoilers: They both die. lololololoololololol
Lucky Star. a.f.k.s got this one. Blah. they totally called it with Suzumiya Haruhi. I don't give a crap what people say, i'll download any series they sub.
Lovely complex. I may end up just reverting to the Manga. shoujo manga is always better than shoujo anime.