Quick Final Thoughts – UQ Holder!

I was so excited for this, too…

For a while it actually seemed like this might work. The first two thirds managed to be a tightly plotted, brutally violent shonen spectacle with a few fun references to its predecessor, but a little too much of Negima’s more forced elements. For those who don’t know, Ken Akamatsu really wanted Negima to be a shonen action series, and it eventually got there, but his publisher wouldn’t serialize it unless he added elements from his previous work, Love Hina. So, we got a fanservice-filled harem comedy that slowly morphed into an action story… If you read the manga, that is, as even though the first part of the story received two anime adaptations, neither of them were particularly faithful to the story or tone of the original work, and at only two cours apiece, they don’t even cover a quarter of the story.

So in the first few episodes, we start to see some of those unnecessary elements brought back, but thankfully for the most part it remains in the background.

Until the last third of the show, where they try desperately to rush to a finale that wasn’t in the manga at this point in the story and as a result the plot jumps directly off a cliff in favor of very desperate references to Negima, which would all be totally incomprehensible to anyone who didn’t read the original series and the manga of this one. While I found it enjoyable as a long term fan of the franchise, I can’t help but feel bad for newcomers.

So, if you still love Negima and read the whole thing, this gets a 7/10… But if you didn’t, then it crashes down to a 4.

Quick Final Thoughts – Land of the Lustrous

Dang, that cinematography!

Let’s start with the obvious – this is the best-looking all-CG TV production in Japanese history, and it’s gorgeous from start to finish. They take full advantage of the medium for really, really good action shots, with lots of dynamic camera movement, and it just looks so damn good.

The story is no slouch, either, as we learn more and more about the rocks and how they came to be, and the secrets that some of them are hiding. It’s a pretty good coming of age story when you consider that the protagonist is over 200 years old. And I really appreciated some of the finer details, like the rocks being genderless, since applying sex to them would distract from the point and be really confusing.

That being said… It’s definitely not over yet. We have at best half of a story here, and I ended up taking away a point due to the fact that the finale is spent setting up for a sequel that might not come, a la Log Horizon.

So, for now, 7/10. I’d like to have learned a little more about things like where the school came from, and what Cinnabar’s deal is, but in the event of a second season, I’ll bump it up to an 8.

Quick Final Thoughts – Recovery of an MMO Junkie

Oh my gosh, what a breath of fresh air this was.

We’ve gotten plenty of good romantic comedies this year, from Masamune-kun’s Revenge in winter, Saekano Flat in spring, Gamers last season and now Recovery. I was really happy with so many elements of this show that I don’t really mind that they don’t come together all the time. I genuinely can’t remember a show that took MMO playing and played it totally normally, where it wasn’t dramatic and boring (like in .Hack), part of a downward spiral (like in Welcome to the NHK), or some kind of stupid death game (like in SAO).

This is a simple story about two normal-ass people that meet while playing an MMORPG, so all of the drama has to come right from the characters. The cast have great chemistry together, and seeing how they’re all connected offline is pretty neat, even if a little implausible.

But ultimately, our main destined couple sells the show really well. They’re played very realistically, right down to the fact that even once they know who the other person really is, the show illustrates that it’s way easier for them to interact through the game than it is AFK, because that’s how a lot of MMO players are.

Basically, it’s a NEET love story played more or less the way it would actually happen, and that’s something to be appreciated.

8/10!

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.