Fall '10 Anime Commentary

Fall ’10 Anime Commentary

Hi guys!  Koko wa Yuzuru desu~!  This is my first post, I’m so excited! >.<  So, as my first, I decided to do a season review of Fall ’10.  This is the perfect time, seeing as the season has started a few weeks ago and every series has had a few episodes out already.  Oh but by the way I won’t be commenting on ALL of them… some of them are just, let’s say, not my cup of tea =P  Also, I’ll clearly say, but everything written here is my personal opinion.

Star Driver

One of those that I won’t comment on.  I hate mechas.  Period.

Ore no Imouto wa Konna ni Kawaii wake ga Nai

Background music: 7/10

        Pretty good.  Like, the music usually starts when you’re not aware of it, but it’s always well-matched with the pace of the animation.  *Shrugs* Not much to say about it.  Nothing in particular stands out.

Animation:              9/10

        Nine!  Cus the girls are kawaii~~~~!!!  >.<  No pantsu and no ecchi scenes, since Kirino’s not that type and Kyosuke is not the accidentally-get-into-ecchi-situations kinda character =P  The animation is quite fluid, and the characters are well-designed.  But then again, as with a lot of animes nowadays, this series is based off of a manga, so credits for character design doesn’t really belong to the anime director =P

Plotline:                   8/10

        Very interesting social commentary on modern otaku culture.  Plus, we rarely get series about fujoshi (girl otaku), so this one’s quite novel.  The main character being cute and smart and athletic makes it more interesting (actually, IMO, that’s the only way it should be =.=  a main fujoshi chara who looks lame and otaku-ish like in Kuragehime would just spoil every thing).

Comments:

Love love~!  All the girls are cute hehe.  I love comedy series, but I think that I’m gonna create a new genre: otaku commentary.  There’re a lot of those nowadays.  Like, series about otaku or gamers or mangaka (like, on second thought, there are a LOT lot of them this season).  It better change soon.  Before it becomes another cliché genre.  But anyways, love this series.

Panty & Stocking

Damn American-crap.  There’s a reason why I like anime, and it’s cus I love Japanese culture.  I hate cartoons.  I hate comics.  And I get pissed at heck when anyone calls anime ‘cartoons’ or manga ‘comics.’  This American crap isn’t even worth my time typing the name.

Ironman

Was almost gonna copy-and-paste what I wrote for Panty & Stocking.  Then I remembered how retarded the Ironman animation was, and how ridiculous I felt at seeing American crap actually being displayed using Japanese animation.  American retards should just stay OUT OF Japanese animation.  They’re way inferior, don’t belong here, and IMO, should stay losers for eternity.

Otome Youkai Zakuro

Background music: 8/10

        Hmm I’m getting tired of discussing every single series lol.  I’ve never actually learned about animation or background music so the stuff I say are all quite similar, and I only know to think about “Does it go well with the animation” and “Is it interesting” =.=”  So, well, there’s nothing too special about this series’ background music, and nothing seems wrong IMO.  So, yea.

Animation:              8/10

        This is the first time I’m doing this, and I just realized, every single series has a distinct animation style.  I never knew that lol.  Well, if I had to say, I’d say that this series’ style is dream-y.  The lines are well-drawn, of course, but there’s a certain blurriness to the animation that augments the fantasy feel.  It’s not bad at all.  The fighting scenes are also kinda, dreamy.  Like, with sakura petal streams and wind blowing and stuff haha, seems very Japanese-like XD  (actually, it does resemble Byakuya’s bankai somewhat haha)

Plotline:                   10/10

        I’m giving this full points because of its creativeness and seriousness.  There are a lot of otaku culture commentaries this season, but something like this, a creative series not based on anything else, is getting harder and harder to find.  This one’s quality is quite high too.  And there is a lot of room for improvement (like, that evil society that we’ve so far seen a little bit of, and the Black Widow’s hints about Zakuro’s mother), so I look forward to each episode.  And the girls are quite cute XD  In my limited experience, I’ve never seen anime girls with Bonbori/Hozuki’s character ever before O_O  I like them, they’re so cute~!!!  But then again, that’s cus Ganryu himself is also quite cute~ XDDD

Comments:

All in all, a quite interesting series.  Making the main character have youkai-phobia is a very well done part of the setting hahahahahaha.  A higher-than-average romance/youkai/military series.  Me like ^^  Especially also because of the whole Japanese aura of the series haha.

Togainu no Chi

I heard that there are no female characters at all in this series.  Therefore, there’s nothing left but BL fest with tons of gore and violence.  Way out of my alley.  Kimoi.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

No comments.  Characters are ugly.  Comedy is not funny.  The romance doesn’t improve the quality of this series.  One of those fail slice-of-life.  Might be something inside for maid-maniacs, though.  Dropped after 2 eps lol.

Yakumo

Background music: 9/10.

        It is extremely similar to Death Note bgm.  I’ve tried to look up companies or performers or whatever and apparently they’re not the same.  However, expect a lot of orchestral (ex. violins) music, digitally altered (ex. to enhance a mysterious atmosphere) music, and Latin-sounding singing.  Me likee.  =D

Animation:              8/10

        Seems kinda dark.  Like, it’s usually showing a black or dark sky.  Or inside a room without lights.  That’s a personal dislike.  But otherwise, the animation is very good.  I don’t know the exact terms for describing animation, so I’ll just say this: again, quite similar to Death Note style.

Plotline:                   7/10

        The main character, Yakumo, is able to see and converse with spirits of the dead.  The female main character, Haruka, for some reason keeps running into such cases and brings them to him.  Yakumo then talks with the spirits and catches the responsible criminals.  But because the victims are dead, the cases usually involve murder, so it’s all a bit too dark for me.  And not too far in, the viewer sees hints of a secret organization or a group of people who will be harassing or opposing Yakumo sometime in the future.  There is definitely room to expand the plot.

Comments:

So, I watched this up to episode 5, then decided to drop it.  This is way too close to being classified as “horror” and again, that’s something I hate.  And everything’s all too dark for my liking (except the music, which I absolutely love).  But for people who like mystery series with a mysterious atmosphere (as opposed to something like Tantei Opera Milky Holmes), this series could become quite a favorite.

Kuragehime

Another one of those series that I don’t wanna spend time talking about.  The animation is like, really weird.  The main character is this pathetic ugly girl who lives with several other fujoshi (female otaku) who can’t say a single thing in the presence of so-called “fashionable people” and guys.  A series about pathetic people living their pathetic lives without trying to contribute to society.  No comedy, no action, no clear plotline, one of those slice-of-life series that isn’t going anywhere.  A far cry from something like Yotsuba.

Bakuman

Background music: 7/10

        I’m used to noticing stuff like this, but when I checked again, I realized that there was no bgm a lot of the time.  And even when there was, there’s nothing particularly interesting to say about it.  But then again, this series isn’t an action series, and there is a lot of dialogue.  So I guess this is good enough.  But then again, the bgm itself definitely doesn’t wow me, so I’m marking it down.

Animation:              8/10

        This series always maintains a well-lit atmosphere, which I think is appropriate to the content, seeing as this is a series about “aiming for your dreams.”  I’ve never seen this style before, and I actually think the design for Miho can’t convey her passion for her dreams and I think the design for Shujin makes him look like a slob, but I’m getting used to it and it’s quite viewer-friendly.  Although the story isn’t fantasy, the mangaka and director has made this quite interesting to watch.

Plotline:                   9/10

        Brilliant is all I can say.  I love this series!  I even stayed up all night to catch up on the manga haha, and from the way things are going, it looks like the anime will be following the manga quite strictly, so I’m looking forward to future episodes very much.  I read manga all the time, but never knew about the process of making it.  Aside from merely being informative, this series gets the viewer interested into the making of their favorite things.  The mangaka who thought this up, Tsugumi Oba, is a genius ^^

Comments:

        I love the manga, and I love the anime as well.  I think the romance is a very nice addition to the plot; adds flavor hehe.  But a friend of mine mentioned that the girls in this series seem to be maintained as clearly secondary characters, sort of like the female characters in Death Note.  After going home and checking again, this seemed quite right.  But then again, I don’t care about that XDD  The main characters here are the mangakas, so there’s no need to forcefully add depth to the secondary characters.  I like this series quite a lot.  But a heads up, this series can turn quite tiresome, because there is a lot of dialogue and a lot of information (about being a mangaka), so some people can get bored of this.

Fortune Arterial

Background music: 9/10

        I like it!  The setting for this series is in a high-class academy, so there’s some quite elegant background music hahahaha.  In the scene when Kohei finds out about vampires, the background music back then was nicely suspenseful~  This is a step above average bgm.

Animation:              9/10

        Rate it high!  Cus both guys and girls look good in here.  The girls are very cute, but using the same animation style, the guys also look very cool and elegant ^^  The art is very well-lit and clear-cut, but the director has shown that this series is also capable of darker and more mysterious scenes (ex. when Kohei first sees Iori in the chapel sucking blood).

Plotline:                   7/10

        Don’t see where it’s going.  It doesn’t exactly seem like a slice-of-life kind; a plot is implied, what with vampires and stuff.  However, the plot doesn’t capitalize on that too much, trying to show that vampires also live normally with humans.  But then that takes away the uniqueness of introducing vampires in the first place, unless if something’s going to happen because of them being there.  And if so, then I’ve yet to seen traces of it.

Comments:

Slightly interesting.  Will keep watching because I love Japanese anime vampires~ they’re all so cute! XDDD  (ex. Karin, Moka)  Otherwise, not much reason to watch this lols, it’s not particularly interesting or something hahaha.

Kami no Mizo Shiru Sekai (The World God Only Knows)

Background music: 8/10

        Nothing too special, but very good accompaniment with the animation.  Good variation in the soundtracks.  The director didn’t just leave the dialogue unaccompanied, but put in good bgm that blends in very well.  The high score is also cus I super duper love the OP. ^^

Animation:              9/10

        Awesome animation!  Sometimes there are very, um, “philosophical-looking” poses for Keima, which are hilarious because at those times he’s usually saying very God-like things (about games, of course HAHAHAHA).  There is no need for comic relief, because very often Keima himself is comic-ized (new word yay!) to contrast the difference between how El views him (a god) and the common view of otaku gamers (lame and pathetic).  However, it was a little different from how I expected it after reading the manga.  I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is that I feel is lacking.  Oh well, I love this anime very much as is =D

Plotline:                   10/10

        Now this is what I consider creative.  It’s super funny how the mangaka made a plot out of the ani/manga/game industry itself =D  Seeing as every single girl Keima conquers is one of the famous character types, this series can go quite far (seeing as there are tons of chara types haha).  And every single time he takes a unique approach, so it never gets boring.  Well, but if you read the manga, you know about the new plot twist and new goal that Keima gets later on XDD  This series definitely can go far.

Comments:

EVERY ANIME FAN SHOULD WATCH AND LOVE THIS!  This is super funny.  And every time there’s a new girl I go like “OH RIGHT THERE’S THAT TYPE!!!!!” and examples pop up like crazy in my mind.  What’s important for entertainment is to connect with people, right?  Well, this series connects directly with the viewers by drawing connections directly to what they know best – anime.  I love this series ^^

Letter Bee: Reverse

Sorry, never even watch season 1.  Some people said that it’s really interesting, but I don’t see what’s so cool about delivering letters.  And needing to install fragments of your soul into a gun to shoot oversized insects doesn’t sound that awesome either.  *shrugs* To each his own.  This one I don’t particularly hate.  I just don’t get it =P

Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

I watched season 1 and couldn’t keep up at all lmao.  This series is just, like, complete randomness.  Can’t follow at all =.=”  Thus, won’t follow.  Dropped after ep1.

To Aru Majutsu no Index II

Background music: 9/10

        Those of you who’ve watched the first season should know what kinda bgm this series uses XD  There’s a lot of digital alteration, and also a lot of old church/opera-sounding music.  It’s quite brilliant, really, seeing as the series is about the “meeting of science and magic,” so they combine the two different kinds of music.  It’s mixed quite well, and goes along with the action very well.

Animation:              9/10

        Action scenes very well directed; by this I mean very cool-looking presentation of all the superpowers in the series and well-paced plot progression.  Very good use of both well-lit and dark lighting to complement the ongoing animation (ex. hospital room is cheerful and full of sunlight, as opposed to a dark red background inside a magical alternate dimension).

Plotline:                   8/10

The first arc of this season is about grouping up with a Protestant (Amakusa) church to fight against the Roman Catholic church.  There was a nice surprise twist in the middle of the plot.  However, seeing as the Catholic sisters were also in the OP, it looks like they might appear again.  If they do, then I’d be disappointed; sudden introduction of too many characters makes it annoying and hard to follow and takes away time in which to create further depth to the already present characters.

Comments:

YAY MORE INDEX~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I loved the first series, loved the spin-off Kagaku, and now am loving Index S2~~!!  IMO this is one of the better action series XD  Awesome action, cute girls, funny tsukkomi protagonist, and well-defined reasons for fighting (not some stupid stuff like “be a man!!!”).  Definitely among my list of favorites hehe.

MM!

Background music: 7/10

        The low score is because of the law of diminishing returns =P  I’ve just watched clips of too many series today lawls.  Since there’s nothing special about this series’ background music either, there’s nothing to raise my appreciation level haha.

Animation:              8/10

        Very clear and well-lit animation.  The girls are also very well drawn.  This goes along very well with the plotline ^^  And it’s hilarious when Tarou gets excited HAHAHAHA.  Well, all in all, the animation is quite high level.

Plotline:                   8/10

        Very interesting plotline.  Putting a whole bunch of people with personality disorders together into one club, hilarity and sheer baka-ness (another new word yay!) is just bound to occur hahahahaha.  Very creative setting.  Will look forward to how the plot develops with great interest and excitement.  Will be disappointed if it turns out retarded like Mayoi Neko Overrun.

Comments:

I quite like this series ^^  Well, I don’t like that Mio calls herself ‘god.’  The title of ‘god’ isn’t to be bandied around as nonchalantly as that.  Otherwise, I like the setting and the characters, now all that’s left is to see some clearly defined plot =D

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Background music: 9/10

        There is a lot of traditional Japanese music, using Japanese instruments.  Very appropriate, seeing as the setting of this series is Edo Japan.  More like, a very nice large range of music; soft music for touching scenes (or the girls’ erotic illusions hahaha), Japanese music for setting the setting, and hard fast music with impact (drums!!!) for the battle scenes, to name just a few.  I especially love the transformation music, so cool!!!

Animation:              9/10

        Very strange animation style lol.  Everything looks so … drawn.  Like, with a brush and ink.  Some of the scenes look just like a painting, it’s very unique and creative.  The battle scenes are extremely fluid though, very well done.  The transformation scenes are so cool!!

Plotline:                   7/10

        Not very creative.  This is basically Sekirei, but in traditional Japan.  Harem battle series, and the girls have to kiss the main male chara to get superpowers for a short period of time.  But no mad scientist overseer.  Still have to see where this story is going.  It appears that the President who’s currently in France might be a bad guy, but you never know *shrugs*

Comments:

This is … kinda interesting.  Not all that mindblowing.  Lol but for some reason this is the series that got to air the Fall ’10 teaser ep two weeks before the season actually began.  I’ll just keep watching for the weird/cool/unique art and the battle scenes.

Motto To Love-ru

Background music: 8/10

        Very cheerful background soundtrack, and a lot of background sounds.  This series is a very cheerful series (no duh there’s no dark and suicidal ecchi harem series), so the background music is good accompaniment.  The light music goes well with the light atmosphere and the laughs.

Animation:              8/10

        What can I say?  Pantsu galore XD  A ton of pantsu, ecchi, blushing, and female retribution scenes.  The animation is crisp and clear-cut, all the characters are super cute, and well, this is one of the best ecchi-harem-comedy series out there.

Plotline:                   5/10

        Don’t be turned away by the low score.  I gave it a lot score only because there is no plotline.  There’s no big villain, no evil organization, no diabolical plot to go head-to-head against.  Just Rito and his normal, ecchi everyday life.

Comments:

As I’ve said above, this is one of the best ecchi-harem-comedy series ever XD  Definite must-watch for all boys hehe~  There really is no plot.  But there really are a LOT of cute girls.  Hasemi Saki even brought in Eve from Black Cat (earlier series done by same mangaka) and turned her into cute alien Yami-chan.  =D  This series is funny!!!

Sora no Otoshimono: Forte

Background music: 9/10

        I like the music for this series.  Firstly, I love the OP ^^  A very sweet and cute song about love.  The effort that the animation team puts into the EDs all the time is also very commendable.  I mean like, they change it so often!  Think of all the effort in making animation for a new ED every other week~~  As for the series’ bgm itself, it complements the comedy very well.

Animation:              8/10

        The animation for this is actually quite high.  The characters have very fine design, and the angels have very unique outfits.  But then when chibi mode get flipped on the main character looks so stupid =.=”  That makes me quite annoyed sometimes.

Plotline:                   6/10

This series looks like it might be going somewhere; there are hints of a Synapse-related battle very soon.  However, for now, it’s just one ecchi event after another.  This isn’t going anywhere lols.  The ecchi stuff goes overboard quite often, and sometimes it’s just ridiculous.  Illustration of a boy’s perverted fantasies, I’d say?  Way too ridiculous.

Comments:

I’m still watching this only because of the good animation, due to which I get cute girls XDDD  Plus, I’m now interested about Synapse, after ep6 and finally seeing Daedalus.  But this is one of those series that I’m ready to drop at any given time haha.

Hakuouki Hekketsuroku

An obviously girl-directed reverse-harem series.  Just a parade of cool-looking guys and dark atmosphere and sword-waving.  It’s the third season, so there must be something in there that makes it popular, but I can’t stand reverse harems.  Period.

Yosuga no Sora

From what I’ve seen, appears to be another one of those go-back-home-and-retreive-forgotten-memories kinda series.  This one, however, appears to hint at quite a bit of incest.  The line art is beautiful too, so this could become quite popular.  But then again, not my cup of tea *shrugs*

SO there is all of them!  And lol would you believe it, that’s 10 whole pages of Microsoft Word, Times New Roman, font 12, single space.  HAHAHAHA.  Definitely not gonna do another one of these in a hurry lolololol.  I still haven’t decided what I’m gonna write about on here … weekly episode reviews, or just series reviews unrelated to current airing schedules.  Well, for now, this is all.  If you’ve actually read the entire thing, you have my complete and total thanks and respect O_O  If you’ve just skimmed through, or just CTRL+F your fav series, then I’ll still thank you for popping in and taking a look =D  Dewa, matta ne, minna~!