Review : SPRING ANIME 2016 First Impressions
I probably won't have time to watch all of them, but I guess watching all the first episodes won't be so bad after all! In order of what I somehow watched first - IKIMASU KA?
Pan de Peace
Judging entirely on the first episode - because I've never read the manga - Pan de Peace is a story of our main heroine, Minami who loves bread more than anything, and had just started her first day at high school. In a sense, it's pretty cliched for a main character, but I learned from someone that cliches may not be too bad after all.
Nervous Minami made friends with two of her classmates, Yu and Fuyumi who she referred to as PanTomo (lit. Bread Friends) due to one having a bunch of bread keychains, and the ability of the latter to bake pastry. With a slight shoujo ai remark the story ends and BAM that's all what we got for you today~
Personally, I would continue watching this. It's short and less complicated and it won't really take too much of my time. Then again, I am probably just a himajin (someone with way too much time on their hands) .
Kuma Miko
I surprisingly
enjoyed that. //laughs
At first Kumamiko
started off its show with one obvious appeal, a story of a girl and a bear who
lives together. It reminds me a lot on how Usagi Drop appeals to its audience
though I guess this one is definitely not going for that kind of appeal.
Eight minutes into the show and
we get a beautiful flashback of Machi remembering her days spent with Natsu
(the bear) and follows right after is Natsu’s flashback that turned out
slightly inappropriate. It implies a lot of the possibility – and gdi I was
trying not to relate it, but this one is making it obvious – that Natsu might
be a pedo-bear after all.
Also, the part where Yoshio tells the legend of the Kumai family to the
children is something I can understand. Some legends are usually sanitized
after all in order for them to be told to children, and their original version
usually has a lot more inappropriate tones to them. This works for a lot of
Grimm’s stories as well. (Google should do the trick if you want to know more
of this.) However, I have a lot of questions on whether those stories are even
appropriate for nine-year-old children.
The part when the
little girl starts speaking English was hilarious though.
In conclusion, there’s way too
much suggestive tones in Kuma Miko I don’t think it’s family-friendly anymore.
//sweatdrops Then again, it's Seinen alright. I might continue watching, but god I don’t really want anyone see
me watching this series.
Joker Game
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| //fangirls |
Alright, before I
start off with this one, it’s best for you to know that I am extremely
inexperienced in terms of watching this kind of anime. Therefore, I can only
give a first impression from an extremely inexperienced perspective.
Alright, moving on!
When Joker Game started, I did
expect that the anime is going to be heavy, yet little did I expect that it’s
going to be THAT heavy. Halfway through the show we had to go through a clash
of self-beliefs which purpose remains unclear and the complicated explanation
of the Joker Game. The concept of eight monsters created from normal, everyday
people is brilliant, but the reason why they are able to withstand all the
close to impossible training are not clarified. Of course, this is possibly
going to be explained in later episodes but somehow the half-hearted
explanation in the first episode somehow made it less exciting.
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| Basically ikemens everywhere //laughs |
Visually, the animation was
AMAZING. It’s like seeing effort written over every single scene with the
consistent fluid animation and breathtaking background music control. In fact
even the OP and ED are commendable. Mixing all these, every scene shines
through properly keeping the viewers completely focused with the story. Though,
the character designs similarity with Haikyuu!! troubles me a little. I can’t
stop seeing Sakuma as Captain Sawamura for some reason.
Personally, I like the characters
in Joker Game. Just between you and me, I actually fangirled because almost all
the characters are my type. At first they were attractive, halfway through I
came to dislike them because of their messed-up self-beliefs and by the end of
the story, they become undeniably awesome again. Now I am completely attached
with the story and I can’t wait for the next episode!
Bakuon!!
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| The commercial cut card is pretty though. Look at that elegant Honda design~! |
So Bakuon!! in simple words this is basically.. a commercial,
right?
At the first, Bakuon started hilariously, with silly characters
and idiotic life quotes this series might actually go far to being an enjoyable
comedy anime. Halfway through the series though, it slowly just downgrades to
your average minor anime. //sigh
The sudden appearance of a definitely weird character, the
obsessed, the dense and ojou-sama – everything is going back to downright clichés
and I would be sitting there thinking where could I have possibly seen these
characters.
Also, I was slightly disappointed with the unnecessary
inappropriate content in the series. The conversations of chest sizes,
chest-grabbing etc. are not really going to work out for viewers like me. The
talk about motorbikes are actually pretty cool – because people with the right
amount of passion are awesome! – but those things really threw me out of
groove.
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| Trust me, it was plain hilarious. |
On the bright side, Bakuon is
probably going to be really nostalgic for people with even the smallest biking
experience. It gives a lot of really good (and true!) tips about biking, and it
reminds me a lot of the time where I actually did give biking a try and fail
miserably at it so it was pretty nostalgic for me too haha.
Personally, I might not
continue watching this after all. I love the silly characters and their conversations
with each other, but I don’t think I’d be able to have the excitement for the
next episode. I might watch it if it’s completed though, which would probably
be a better idea. Bakuon is probably not going to shine much this season, but
eh, who knows? It might just do a comeback which will make people put it BAKUON
their watching list//
Super Lovers
OMG can I cry now what is with that as episode one.//cries
Basically, these are my first reactions to this series :
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| Eh no// I'm not watching BL |
1.
MAENO!!
2.
HAKKENDENN!!
You can probably trust me when I say I don’t watch any
shounen ai anime whatsoever. So, as always, I have no experience in this kind
of series but I can say this with confidence – that was adorable af.
The
relationship between the kind guy, Haru and the wild kid, Ren is probably
something pretty common in anime, but the point is, it never gets old. Fixing a
wild child to better ways with the power of kindness is plain adorable no
matter how you look at it. This theme is clearly one of real favourites.
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| So adorable <3 |
The main reason why I wanted to
try watching Super Lovers is because Maeno Tomoaki – my favorite seiyuu so far –
is voicing in it. Then again it’s probably because I got attracted to it’s
pretty visuals, which I later figure out being the same ones as in the
Hakkenden series which I finished watching season one a few months back. Then
again, when I really get to watching it, it was beyond what I expected.
The beautiful (Kadokawa!)
animation and the BGM makes the story really alive, and I love the fact
that they
used a lot of soft focus in the anime. I remember how I got so anxious when Ren
did not return home, with the combination of the visual of a dreadful storm,
and the usage of a spot-on soundtrack. Also, the slightly simple versions of
the characters during hilarious scenes are so adorable it made me feel like
wanting for more.
And that plot twist after the ending
was so heartbreaking I can’t even make the decision on whether to continue
watching or not because the obvious answer is yes. Plus it's a shounen ai and not yaoi so yayy I can watch this one!
Bungou Stray Dogs
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| //aren't you just plain attractive |
Well, that was pretty enjoyable.
Bungou Stray Dogs starts off with
tragic-comedy, a story of an orphanage boy named Nakajima Atsushi who got
thrown out, and is now living penniless because he does not have the courage to
steal. When he did make up his mind to stay alive no matter what, whatever he
does just does not go his way, and he ended up saving someone’s life instead.
This ‘someone’ turned out to be a
private investigator called Osamu Dazai (voiced by Miyano-san!) and in a turn
of events, he was asked to help them catch a certain tiger. By the end of the
episode, we knew that the tiger was
actually Atsushi himself, changing forms under the moonlight.
Plot-wise, the storyline is
pretty common. I’ve seen this episode one pattern more than a few times.
However, I can’t deny that I still like them because they are much easier to
understand. I can somehow guess that Bungou Stray Dogs are inspired by
literature works, considering the characters names are Japanese authore. Osamu Dazai, Nakajima Atsushi - Miyazawa Kenji surprised
me though.
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| I am mesmerized by you |
Most of the supernatural powers
are named after their literature works as well. And of course
the book-styled on-screen phrases that reminds me a lot of Divine Gate.
One more thing I would love to
point out is the usage of character voice. In this anime, there’s a lot more
veteran voice actors than the others from this season. There’s basically Kamiya Hiroshi, Yoshimasa Hosoya and Miyano Mamoru for example, and the fact that they
voiced character who are named after legendary writers makes it better. The
last time I saw a series with this kind of line-up is Starmyu, and it really
gives off a different vibe when the line-up is done experience-wise.
I probably would continue Bungou Stray Dogs if I have the time for it. Deciding from episode one, I’m deciding that it’s in my A level of importance, but I did hear from a lot of people that the series is really good, so I’m just going to see how far this series can possibly go.
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| Creating the ship |
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| And destroying the ship. |
Alright, moving on!
KIZNAIVER
Well, as expected from one of the
most-expected series of this season – KIZNAIVER really doesn’t disappoint.
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| These two is officially my OTP for this series |
Up from its beautiful background setting
to the character design, the improvised concept of the Seven Deadly Sins and
the entire plotline, Kiznaiver is probably a series I definitely will look
forward to this entire season.
I already have a gist of story starting from Episode
0 which explains a lot of things concerning on how the anime will turn out, yet
watching Episode 1 reminds me once more on how great this series looks like for
now. With this level of quality for Episode 1, I hope they won’t let down their
guard in maintaining the consistency for the entire series.
With personalities taken from
the improvised version of the Seven Deadly Sins, the characters in Kiznaiver
have extremely solid attributes, one that differentiate from one another, and
greatly at that. On the other hand, the concept of ‘sharing pain’ seemed really
promising at this point, considering that is they are supposed to work together
they have to avoid any pain at all costs. Considering their obvious
individualistic personalities, this might be my most anticipated part of the
story as they try to think about others for once instead of just themselves.
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| Welcome to the team |
I am surprised on the lack of words I have for
this series. It’s just plain great that it probably rendered me speechless. In
fact, the entire episode passed me by without taking a single screenshot, I had
to replay it back to take screenshots for this review.
I was engrossed with the
story – the characters’ interactions are real and interesting, and this series
might have been the first time I watch a scene where a character falls from the
stairs with a grin plastered on my face.
Also that disco-themed
transition where Katsuhiro is taken to the ward was weirdly enjoyable.
Also Sonozaki is really cool.
God I need to stop.
Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge
Here comes my personal most anticipated anime
series from this season, Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge. //throws confetti
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| //precious |
Tanaka-kun is definitely my
type of anime. Soft pastel colours, simple and adorable artstyle and a calming,
enjoyable setting. A lot of the series that I prefer has these points to them
too, for example Natsume Yuujinchou, One Week Friends and Honey and Clover. I
mean, extremely bright animes have their own charms too, but I have to admit I
like the calming feel these kind of animes give me.
Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge
tells the story of Tanaka-kun, a constantly listless boy who enjoys lazing
around and doing nothing. His listlessness has come to the point where it is
basically his way of life, and he would do his best in order to protect it. Respecting
this, his best friend Ohta just couldn’t leave him, continuously taking care of
him when the time calls for it.
More than anything, it was
enjoyable.
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| His emotions are conveyed very slightly, which made them even more adorable asdfghjkl |
The simple character and
background gives of a laidback effect towards the series, fitting Tanaka-kun’s
entire personality. The comedy in the story simply centers around how listless
Tanaka-kun is and how it effects the people around him.
Even so, the story
leaves off a real charm – even questioning the difference between main and side
characters and using obvious spin-offs of Detective Conan, Dragon Ball and One
Piece – in delivering this comedy to the viewers.
And even though I said that
the character setting was simple, what makes them really attractive is the
specialization that they made to each character.
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| //Even his irritated face is adorable haha |
For example, Tanaka is
listless, but he does not mind P.E. because it will help him to laze around
better. He knows how to play the piano, and he is afraid of the dentist. Ohta’s
care towards Tanaka is not due to pity but due to respect, he likes sweet things despite his outer
appearance and we all came to know that everyone is so done with Katou’s puns.
I mean, it’s nice to watch
these kinds of simpler shows among all the more serious shows this season has in
store. Laughing endlessly throughout episode 1, I am definitely looking forward
to next week’s Tanaka-kun!
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