First Impression: The Legend of Korra

Technically Avatar the Last Airbender and its successor The Legend of Korra are not strictly speaking animes since neither are Japanese, but what is transparently clear is the inspiration behind both is. No surprise Avatar has been dubbed the American Anime.

 Set several unspecified years after the events of the original series with the primary cast presumably dead, so far the only member of the first series we know for sure is alive is Katara, as she quite literally passes the torch to the new avatar, a water tribe girl called Korra. Existing in a time of alleged peace, Korra has a completely different task ahead of her, finding her place in the world as the Avatar. It’s really interesting that whereas Aang had a destiny that he was trying to avoid, Korra is without a destiny despite really wanting one. This leads her character to make impulsive and often ill-thought out plans. Despite Korra’s ever so slight arrogance in her abilities and her title, the writers have done a brilliant job of not making her an annoying teenager trope. It could have so easily gone horribly wrong. However the greatest aspect of this new series is without a doubt the bad guy and his anti-bending movement. In this modern era the warfare of Avatar the Last Airbender is not just seemingly outdated, it is also a hindrance, resulting in the scapegoating of benders as the problems of the society. The Legend of Korra has the potential to be a more in depth, more historical commentary than its predecessor but at the moment I’ve not given into Korra fever. In its defence The Last Airbender had three terrific seasons. It’s too soon to decide whether Korra is on par yet.
 
Initial rating: 8/10

First Impression: Ao No Exorcist

The entire format of Blue Exorcist might be tried and tested, demon-teenager raised by good guys uses his demonic powers to fight the forces of evil, nevertheless the first episode held together pretty well. Our main protagonist Rin, the son of Lord Satan (could have tried to pick a better name) has your standard tough guy with a good heart complex, which inevitably means failure no matter how hard he tries. While it might be early days, I’m not altogether impressed with the initial portrayal of Rin as whiter than white. Take the Rin/Yukio relationship for example, there was ample opportunity for a complex sibling rivalry instead this was left blank. In all, it was good, nicely entertaining but I do fear it will take the angst ridden tween at special high school route and play it safe. However there is plenty of room and time for development.

Initial rating: 7/10

First Impressions: Deadman Wonderland

Deadman Wonderland does have one initial plot fault, do the police normally suspect the lone survivor of a mass murder without so much as asking for his account first? It seems far fetched that the instance Ganta Igarashi awakes in the hospital he is immediately arrested despite no evidence or eyewitnesses. Let’s also bear in mind that the true assailant blow in the windows of a third floor classroom, how can the police attribute that to one of the people inside the room? I guess we’re suppose to assume inside frame job, however what would have made this premise stronger is if the ‘unprecedented evidence’ against Ganta were in fact feasible. However with that aside, Deadman Wonderland marks a pretty solid horror-slaughter fest, in the similar veins of Battle Royale. I’m pretty much sold on this one, let the violence commence!

Initial Rating: 9/10

First Impression: Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai

Anohana begins with introducing our main protagonist, Yadomi “Jintan” Jinta as a typical teenage slacker aggravated by a pint-size, silver haired girl known as Menma. However this characteristically anime setting is not at all what it seems to be. It becomes apparent that Jintan is the only person capable of seeing or hearing Menma, through she can be felt as demonstrated during the Anaru hug scene. Furthermore it transpires that Menma is actually Jintan’s childhood friend Honma Meiko who passed away suddenly a long time ago. This tragedy leads to Jintan and his friends drifting apart. Anohana leaves no room for ambiguity in regards to Menma’s position. She is a ghost, plain and simple. Through Jintan, the only person able to interact with her clearly believes she is little more than a hallucination brought on by the stress and trauma of the incident as well as personal guilt. The show made an impressive debut, one with a clear purpose and striking possibilities as well as guaranteed tearjerker moments. Simply wonderful.

Initial Rating: 8.5

First Impression: [C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control

Japan is in economical turmoil, perfect timing for business savvy supernatural creatures to set up their own bank, appropriately named Midas, offering unlimited funds to unsuspecting clients/victims, asking only for futures as collateral. Essentially this is a deal-with-the-devil premise, quite imaginatively moulded to fit in with the current global financial climate. So when clients yield to temptation and use their demonic ATM card, they are immediately whisked off the financial district, an alternative demon dimension, in order to do battle with some guy – apparently always read the fine print. The protagonist, Kimimaro Yoga is your typical poor but hardworking teenage, holding down two jobs while attending university. Fortunately C doesn’t focus too much on Kimimaro tedious life and unrequited love before being lured into accepting a deal. This is a little weird but there is plenty of room for growth. My main concern is that it has inklings of pretentiousness. I can see the money-isn’t-everything/money-can’t-buy-love platform a mile off, and while it might be making a good, relevant point, there is a risk of whitewashing with gaudy action sequences.

Initial rating: 7.5/10

First Impressions: Hen Zemi & Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

Hen Zemi

Wait a second, this is fanservice, this is definitely fanservice, how am I enjoying fanservice? How indeed, well in actuality Hen Zemi isn’t your typical show for perverts, it’s a show about perverts. The difference is subtle, it could easily be overlooked. Rather then outrageous, in your face and for no apparent reason, perversions and fetishes are the very core subject matter of Hen Zemi, thus neither pointless nor out of place. Nor is there unprecedented focus on panties and boobs. Needless the content doesn’t need to be sexual to be pretty weird as our heroine demonstrates when she attempts to fit in with the bunch of perverts by making embarrassing claims. In all more thought seems to have gone into Hen Zemi, more so then your average fanservice anime, however at the same time there does seems to be a degree of restraint. At the end of its 12 minute run – yes 12 minutes, I’m left wondering, hey is that all?

Initial Rating: 6/10

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

Total fucking crap.

Initial Rating: 0/10. Dropped.

First Impressions: Sekai Ichi Hatsuko & Astarotte no Omocha

Sekai Ichi Hatsuko

From the creators of Junjo Romantica, unsurprisingly Sekai Ichi Hatsuko shares similar visuals, namely a smaller, younger guy hooking up with an older, larger, grouchier guy and thus PG13 gay smex occurs. Except Sekai Ichi Hatsuko is no Junjo Romantica substitute in the writing department, aside from having characters who look as if they’ve stepped right out of their predecessor, the two shows are completely different. The initial interaction does not spell overt romantic feelings for either party, through the audience are aware of an amorous history which neither character seems able to recall. Another plus for the Sekai Ichi Hatsuko is that the primary cast does not involve a teenager, an underage character, or one in a vulnerable position as many yaoi’s seem to cater for. No, this is simply a romance between two men in their mid to late twenties, which is excellent and about damn time.

Initial Rating: 7.5

Astarotte no Omocha

Oh my freaking god, are you fucking kidding me? Astarotte no Omocha pretty much sums up everything distasteful about anime – porn for children. Not only is it content to flash the panties of its lead character – a ten year old girl, every five seconds, it decided the said ten year old girl should be convinced to suck life seed from males. Their words not mine. I really wish the writers had paused for thought and contemplated who they were supposed to be marking this anime for. The aesthetic seems so childish yet the content is clearly inappropriate for minors and surely the mere age of the main character rules out ecchi. No, seriously who is this paedophilic wet dream aimed at?

Initial Rating: 2/10

First Impressions: Sket Dance, Maria Holic Alive & A Channel

Sket Dance

A show featuring an odd jobs trio comprising one layabout leader, one cute but aggressive female and one serious nerd with glasses, hmm, where have I come across this before? Perhaps sharing voice actors, Sugita Tomokazu (Gintoki Sakata/Kazuyoshi Usui “Switch”) probably not the smartest move either. However Sket Dance is more then just a Gintama rip-off, the Sket cast are not teenage carbon copies of Gintoki, Kagura & Shinpachi, through there are obvious similarities and it has more to do with them being archetypes. Through light-hearted and fairly entertaining, the first episode is pretty much a dud. There is room for potential growth, but odds are the first few episodes will be equally pandering as the introduction process is needlessly dragged out. Sket Dance could go either way.

Initial Rating: 5/10

Maria Holic Alive

Having never watched the first season I went in expecting the worse, but was actually pleasantly surprised. I’m not saying that it was good, just not as bad as I had anticipated. Still there are areas which make my hairs stand on end. The first is the hideous exploitation of gender roles. After recently finishing an emotionally sensitive anime on the issues of transgender and homosexuality (Hourou Musuko), Maria Holic Alive just seems like a massive step backwards and straight into the gutter. Of course I wasn’t naïve enough to think the rules would change overnight, but I now have to question how healthy it is to constantly portray homosexuals as perverts and women as victims of the male gaze (even through in this case the pervert is a female). Regardless, I am going to take a step back with this one and give it the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully it will surprise me in the end. Or at least give me something to rant about later.

Initial Rating: 4/10

A-Channel

A-Channel has a very attractive opening with a solid direction. This is not your typical slice of life, school girls growing up comedy-drama. Sure there’s plenty of kawaii-chan from our four female leads, but there is also a glimpse of the darker side of changing. The story deals with the friendship of Tooru and Run, separated by age, Tooru acts as the overprotective little sister to the dim-witted Run, for good reason as Run demonstrates when she very nearly falls to her death after waving at Tooru from her classroom window. The first episode moved swiftly, exploring Tooru’s feelings of isolation from Run and her new friends Nagi and Yuuko, and becoming in particularly jealous of Yuuko, to a cheerful round of hugging and head patting ending. Overall the drama was flawless, subtle and rich, brimming with potential for further lively developments. Good job.

Initial Rating: 6.5/10

First Impressions: Steins; Gate & Gintama

Steins;Gate

Quite possibly the most anticipated anime this season, Steins; Gate opened dramatically with tantalising sci-fi sophistication. The show pitches time travelling phones and secret organisations and doesn’t hesitate to get the ball rolling with glimpses of paranoia, time leaps and alternative realities/events despite being relatively quiet and slow paced. The preliminary cast seem to fit quite nicely against the shows bleak aesthetic. Each one casts a shadow of intrigue without being overly out of context considering the mad scientist, childhood friend and mysterious new girl stereotypes the anime is playing with. It’s especially nice to see these characters act with a degree of sincerity and not falling flat into archetype behavioural patterns. There is some seriously strong writing going on here, overall its not to shabby.

Initial Rating: 8.5/10

Gintama

After a year in hiatus, Gintama finally returns with its fifth season, as always throwing caution to the wind and executing a true uproar of comic genius. Non-stop laugh out loud, Gintama really know its stuff! What’s great about a show like Gintama is that it can pretty much do whatever it wants and very often does, in this case opening with quite a grand development or more specially several. Gintoki impersonating Yamcha (Dragonball), Kagura having aged several years, Otae and Kondo getting married, Kyubei becoming a man on the outside, Katsura becoming a woman on the outside, seriously I’m right there with you Shinpachi, what the hell?! I can’t wait for the next episode to see how things have changed for the Shinsengumi.

Initial Rating: 8.5/10

First Impressions: Tiger and Bunny

Tiger and Bunny practically screams American superhero spoof, only notably less serious. The premise is certainly intriguing, as a bunch of mutated superheroes are the corporate puppets of a reality TV show – Hero TV, nicely completed with commercial sponsors including Pepsi, Banzai and SoftBank. Enter our main character, Kaburagi T. Kotetsu, aka Wild Tiger, a 10 year veteran now struggling to compete with the younger, dynamic next generation as reflected in the shows rankings. Worse news is to follow as Kotetsu looses his sponsorship and winds up with a new partner, the first partnership on the show. Unfortunately his partner has identical powers to Kotetsu and one big advantage, he’s younger. At this point Kotetsu is the only character properly introduced and he seems to be a fairly nice guy, not so much interested in the fame element, but simply being a good old fashioned hero. This attitude brings him into conflict with the TV shows producer early on as he disregards her instructions to wait for a commercial in order to fight crime immediately. Obviously not the attitude you want your corporate puppet to have. I’m starting to wonder if there might be a collective push to force Kotetsu out and have him replaced, which just begs the question, why not just fire him? In short this is very nifty new take on the superhero genre and it will be very interested to see where it goes.

Initial Rating: 7/10

First Impressions: Hana Saku Iroha & Sengoku Otome

Hana Saku Iroha

Hana Saku Iroha stood up and delivered. The story introduces our heroine, Matsumae Ohana, an overly good-natured and optimistic girl, in the bud of her life. Just as Ohana starts to think about her future, her world is suddenly turned upside down, when her flaky mother decides to move away with her boyfriend while sending her daughter to live with her Grandmother, a woman Ohana has never met. Of course when I say live, I meant to say work for in her Grandmothers Inn. And when I say Grandmother I meant to say battleaxe who doesn’t think twice about smacking her granddaughter around (literally). In essence this is what happens, yet Hanasaku Iroha has such a cheerful demeanour that you could almost be forgiven for overlooking Ohana’s mothers irresponsible behaviour. For such a limited amount of time, we already know a lot about Ohana, her personality, her life prior to moving, her wiliness to adapt to her new situation, this really is a strong and very beautiful beginning for any character. Obviously there are family dynamics at play that go beyond Ohana that it’s certainly going to be interesting to see if her presence will unravel them.

Initial Rating: 8/10

Sengoku Otome ~ Momoiro Paradox~ / Battle Girls ~Time Paradox~

Sometimes an anime is bad but there is a glimmer of potential, other times an anime is so bad that it’s like watching a car crash, no matter how hard you try you just can’t look away. Unfortunately Sengoku Otome or Battle Girls (your first clue is in the name) is neither. It’s just plain bad. The premise revolves around a teenage girl, Hide Yoshino, inexpiably being transported to 16^th Century Japan. Not exactly a new or original concept, so it falls to Sengoku Otome to pull something quite interesting out of the bag in order to be worth the watch. Or they could go with boobs, one or the other. Of course they went with boobs. Sengoku Otome decides to do a gender-bender on historical Japanese figures, an excuse to have the primary female cast strutting around in impractical warrior underwear. Its second mistake is to make its heroine into a shallow, clumsy, blithering airhead, who is such a retard that she still hasn’t worked out where she is. And here I was concerned there would be too many animes to watch this season!

Initial Rating: 3/10