Quick Final Thoughts – Urahara

I understand that this show can be appealing and fascinating, but I can’t deal with the minimal animation; one episode in and the art is driving me up the wall. It would be one thing for a short (I loved Inferno Cop) but this is a full-length series and I’m just not going to be able to sit through it.

The plot is also intentionally terrible, with the three leads becoming magical girls (with no transformation scene at all, they’re just suddenly in costume) to save the world from aliens trying to steal our culture, and while I can certainly stomach a deliberately stupid plot, it’s only bearable if the show is a comedy, like The Lost Village.

Basically, while I get what makes it interesting, I can’t see myself enjoying this one. I’ll leave it unrated, though.

Quick Final Thoughts – Code:Realize

Eh, this was bland. I gave it the three episode try and it didn’t improve things, so I’m dropping it here unless anyone strongly objects.

This show is just painfully boring to look at, and I suspect it’s got something to do with the fact that it’s a visual novel adaptation, because the characters look like sprite rips. They aren’t without detail, in fact they’re not bad looking at all, but only on their own. They skew brown, the environment skews brown, and it just makes it all look dull as hell, and the characters look very flat and expressionless in all situations.

Combine this with a really played-out plot (Oh, my heart didn’t work, so my cruel father replaced it with the Macguffin!) and an incredibly bland female lead, and there’s just not much here to hold anyone’s attention.

5/10, a boring score for a boring show. At least it wasn’t as much of a snoozefest as Konbini Kareshi.

Quick Final Thoughts – Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi Chapter

I’m gonna try and be really vague here to avoid late arrival spoilers, but this could have been a lot better.

The issues I had with the uninspired slice of life scenes continued through the first half, and my problem with this is that this isn’t what the show should have been doing with its short six episodes. I feel like it just kept repeating “we’re such good friends” over and over to try and make us believe it, when we already know what happens here. This is a big ol’ Square Enix prequel where everyone involved is doomed, and this is why Birth By Sleep didn’t have two hours of the main characters hanging out before the plot starts.

But once it gets going, it carries Yuki Yuna back to its beloved gut punching, and even though we know exactly what’s going to happen in the finale, it’s still heartbreaking to watch, and the final episode hits every beat I wanted it to.

7/10.

Quick First Impressions – Konohana Kitan

Cute. This was cute. And I still love Lerche, even if Classroom of the Elite wasn’t what I was hoping for.

My only real issue here is that I can’t see this going anywhere particularly interesting, but this one I’ll give the three episode try. From the first episode, the vibe I’m getting is a slice-of-life Spirited Away, and I’m very down for that, but I want it to go somewhere beyond generic adorable moe. If it doesn’t, it won’t necessarily be a bad show for it, but it wouldn’t exactly be inspired.

Quick First Impressions – THE IDOLM@STER SIDE M

Oh boy, did I ever miss IM@S. 

A-1 tends to pull out some of their best work on this franchise, production-wise, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting their take on male idols since I’ve lost interest in pretty much every other show in this genre (Starmyu was dumb, UtaPri totally shatters my suspension of disbelief, B-Project was boring). I’m basing this QFI on the OVA episode before the main show, titled Episode of Jupiter, but that alone got an 8/10 from me. We have a pretty well-established trio of characters right out of the gate here, and the hand-drawn dance scenes are prime sakuga. Add in a little gratuitous nostalgia (complete with a soft piano rendition of READY? from the first season), and you have me pretty damn well hooked for another season.

I’m excited for idol shows this season, considering I also loved the first seasons of Love Live! Sunshine and Wake Up Girls!. 

Quick First Impressions – Inuyashiki Last Hero

Mappa continues to impress me with its presentation. While I would say that the CG displayed here isn’t as good as that found in Land of the Lustrous, it isn’t awful for the most part, and the cinematic camera angles take full advantage of the 3-D.

The story is an adaptation, but the source material is a pretty interesting choice. I mean, this is shaping up to be an action show where the main character is not attractive or young in any sense of either word, which is bold in and of itself. What I would like to see is a connection between our hero’s new identity and the feeling of crippling uselessness he’d felt before, and we’re set for something really cool.

As long as it sticks to its guns, that is. I’m still a little bitter over KADO.

Quick First Impressions – Just Because!

Holy hell, those backgrounds look like Shinkai himself blessed them.

Honestly though, I totally understand all the hype this show has gotten since the season began. I’m always down for high school drama, with down to earth relatable characters and interesting but non-gimmicky hooks. Stuff like My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU or the second season of Saekano. And based on just the first episode, this looks like it’ll pretty easily make its way there.

I just wish the character designs were a little more consistent, though. Their faces tend to look a little janky, but I can tell that the studio is going for something here, and I wanna know what it is.

Quick First Impressions – Yuki Yuna is a Hero: Washio Sumi Chapter

This was kind of all over the place and that’s a little disappointing.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting this second season for a while and while I was a little confused at the prospect of half of it being a prequel, normally I’m totally fine with prequels. But this one relies really heavily on you knowing the lore and the story of the first season, because it’s entirely unconcerned with explaining itself.

It’s also tonally everywhere, because we get a short battle scene surrounded by slice of life antics that take up most of the episode and a trio of very archetypal characters.

I’m still going to watch it, but you’re not going to be able to watch this without having seen the first season. Hopefully it gets better from here?