Quick First Impressions – Steins;Gate 0

Welcome to the Darkest Timeline! How did we get here?

Well, as per usual for the Science Adventure series, that’s really difficult to explain, but I’ll try and do so without spoilers. Basically, the original Steins;Gate had a plot that relied on characters creating contrivances on purpose, jumping back and forth between alternate realities and timelines. The game this adaptation is based on came out in 2015, and prior to the release, the original show was re-aired, but ended an episode early as a major element of Episode 23 was removed and the ending of the story changed dramatically, with this new version being referred to as “Episode 23 Beta”. Unfortunately, the new version was never licensed (meaning Crunchyroll at the very least has dropped a major ball here) but basically it created this new scenario wherein our hero has renounced his chuuni ways and given up to become an ordinary person.

His life isn’t quite as boring as it sounds, however, as he’s still surrounded by strange people, there’s a time traveller involved, and WWIII might be looming on the horizon.

The only thing I can really fault this premiere for is that it is just nowhere near as cool as the first episode of the original, though considering that rather than three directors this project has been left with only one (and it’s the guy that made Qualidea Code) it’s not hard to guess what happened. Still, with White Fox handling production again, once things really get trucking here they’ll be just fine, I just can’t see this project achieving the same level of artistic ambition.

Basically, if you like Science Adventure, this looks like it’s gonna be a major upswing after the letdown of Occultic;Nine, but if you haven’t seen the original Steins;Gate yet, that is a must-watch before you even read the description of this one on Crunchyroll.

Quick Final Thoughts – Butlers X Battlers

What a waste of an OLDCODEX opening.

So, I want to talk for a second about Another. Another pretty famously has an opening song that doesn’t suit the show in the slightest, being really intense and dramatic for a show that is quiet and atmospheric about 90% of the time.

But where Another was quiet, this was just boring.

Seriously, an emo rock opening followed by almost twenty minutes before basically anything happens, featuring a cast of bland and instantly forgettable pretty boys with no personalities, and the whole thing looks completely awful (and strangely out-of-focus) while it all takes itself as seriously as a heart attack.

Also, if I can nitpick, the transition into the last scene (where the first even slightly interesting thing happens) is an incredibly abrupt, jarring fade to black that feels like it happens before the preceding scene is even over and skips ahead a totally indeterminate amount of time.

And I mentioned all this before even getting to the story. It’s just totally unintelligible, particularly near the end, and sets up entirely too many characters who look exactly the same apart from their haircuts.

Yeah, no thanks. 3/10.

Quick First Impressions – Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

It’s like going back in time.

This is probably the most graceful return for a sequel that I’ve seen this season, as even though context is totally missing if you aren’t already familiar with the previous seasons, we pick up at a very natural new chapter in Kaname and Sousuke’s lives. They’re getting ready to graduate high school, they’re more mature and level headed thanks to all their previous growth, and they’re even comfortable enough with their feelings for each other to hold hands, and for these two, that feels earned.

The production is also impressive, given the studio change from Gonzo to Xebec, neither of whom hold a very good reputation nowadays. The more down-to-earth look of the show works a lot better than the total redesign of Digimon Adventure Tri, but the CG machinery leaves something to be desired (Aldnoah Zero has been frustratingly influential in the mech genre, though I’ll concede that this studio also made Zoids way back in the day).

I have every reason to believe this will be good, even without the nostalgia googles on, so if you haven’t seen FMP or Second Raid yet, now’s a great time to catch up, and the full series is available sub or dub on VRV. Personally, I’ll be waiting on the dub for this one, assuming Funimation can round up their returning cast.

Quick First Impressions – Last Period: the journey to the end of the despair

Oh hey, Konosuba’s back, maybe it’ll be enjoyable-

Wait, is this not Konosuba? It’s certainly nicer, I suppose, and much more aware of itself, which is different…I like it. I really didn’t enjoy the second season of Konosuba because it had very little to offer that we hadn’t already seen in season one, but this looks promising, if a little more childish. Glad to see we can do parody without making everyone an idiot.

Basically, it’s a Kono-style parody for the F:GO and Unison League set, so familiarity with at least one mobile game is required to get the humor, and it would be nice if the deadpan character’s job could not just be explaining the jokes, but overall this is a solid start for a comedy. Let’s see where it goes from here.

Quick Final (?) Thoughts – IDOLiSH7

From the studio that brought you Re:Creators comes a male idol show with almost nothing going for it.

The characters are likeable enough, but the dance numbers are all rendered in godawful sub-10 FPS with dreadfully boring costume design, and in a world where we have iMAS Side M and Love Live Sunshine demonstrating how phenomenal animated dance and spectacle can look, both with better design and more interesting characters to boot, there’s just no room – and, given TROYCA’s previous work, no excuse – for how awful this looks.

The only thing even slightly interesting is the character drama, but it’s just nothing compared to what we got with LLS!, and I have no idea if I’ll finish it when I have so much other catching up to do.

Dropped after 4 episodes.

Quick First Impressions – Cute High Earth Defense Club HAPPY KISS!

If you weren’t a fan before, it won’t win you over, but it’s still pretty fun.

We continue the concept of “Magical girls, except gay” but with a reboot and an all-new (yet fairly familiar) cast. It makes for a pretty good place to start if you’re not familiar with the franchise, but there are plenty of references to the previous seasons for returning fans, even though we’re essentially starting today fresh.

The problem is just how same-y things are. Our new leader is pretty interesting and unique as far as these shows go (he’s a lazy thousand-year-stare sort of guy) but the rest of our main cast are basically expies of the originals. If you weren’t into it before, you won’t be into it now, but if you enjoyed the previous seasons like I did, you’ll still have fun.

Quick First Impressions – Megalobox

Everything about this show is cool as shit.

From the throwback-with-modern-flair aesthetic to the classic underdog protagonist, it’s like the best parts of 90’s anime brought into 2018, and the intense animation and action shots make it a pretty instant must-watch for fans of old-school action shows.

I do wonder though if they can keep up the production values the entire way through, because this seems like it would have worked really well as a Rocky-meets-Kill la Kill style movie. Either way though, I’m pretty much down for this.

Quick First Impressions – Persona 5 the Animation

If you’ve already played the game, you probably don’t need to watch this.

Based on this first episode, it looks like what we’re gonna get here is pretty much what we got from P4tA, a utilitarian, condensed version of a story meant to be told over a lot more than 9 hours, made more boring by the change from Production I.G. (who made the cutscenes from the game) to A-1 Pictures, where the most complimentary thing I have to say is that they didn’t homogenize the game’s art style.

The characters are still great, the story will probably still work, but if you’ve played the game already, you pretty much have no need for this adaptation.

Quick First Impressions – Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

One of my most anticipated shows of the season, and boy was this a great way to start things off.

The episode actually skips over the prologue (which I assume we’ll see next week) and jumps right into the PUBG-style Squad Jam, introducing us to LLENN, who immediately demonstrates more personality than Kirito did in two full seasons, and demonstrating how much more interesting this setting is without the involvement of its creator. The rules of the game make more sense now, the characters actually use guns in an FPS, and as an added bonus if you made the mistake of sitting through Phantom Bullet, you already know where LLENN gets her insane speed from (she’s an Agility-build character).

The prologue was a lot more character-focused, which is great because that’s the thing this episode was lacking, so we should get more of that next week.

I’ll be covering this series week-to-week, and this premiere has me really excited for what’s to come.

Score so far: 7/10

Quick First Impressions – My Hero Academia Season 3

I’m not the first person to say that this is a really weak season premiere, but it’s definitely true.

Honestly, with the episode split between 40% plot cul-de-sac filler and 60% recap, this is really not a good way to start your season, nearly as bad as Food Wars: The Second Plate trying to pretend that there was no seasonal break at all. It’s cringey and forced and nothing much happens aside from a poolside power demonstration and what almost seems like an inside joke about how much Class B doesn’t matter.

Considering that this is one of the shows I’ll be covering weekly… We’re not off to a great start.

Score so far: 5/10