Hey guys. Long time no rant. I’ve been putting this off more and more, as you can probably see. I don’t have a convenient pocket in my schedule to make these posts like I did last year, so I’ve mostly just been doing homework and trying to figure out what my new desktop can do, which isn’t much.
But it can make these posts, so I guess I should. This time I’ll be going over both weeks. As a reminder, the shows we watched were: Hidan no Aria, Ano Hana, Legend of the Legendary Heroes, No. 6, Kami-sama Dolls, and Kami-sama no Memo-cho. I’ll probably make each ‘review’ a bit shorter than normal because I should be doing maths instead.
Since I’m obviously getting reluctant to do these posts, does someone maybe want to take over? It’s not a hard job, I promise, though it doesn’t pay nearly enough. Alternatively, maybe I’ll just switch to commenting on Steve’s previews, and we can just do that.
Anyway, here goes.
Hidan no Aria
Hidan no Aria was silly and also not very good. I can’t really say that it was an awful show, but I can easily say that I won’t be watching any more of it. If it had a bit more charm and tried to take itself a little bit less seriously it might be a good show to sit down and laugh at, but as it is now, it gets stale pretty quickly.
It’s basically a fanservice show that doesn’t have enough fanservice. When your main character’s “true abilities” only show when he gets turned on, you’re probably doing something wrong or horribly right. Though I’m reluctant to say it’s an idea that could be executed well, it was definitely done pretty badly in this show.
Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai
Ano Hana, known as ‘Dat Flower’ to many in the club, was actually pretty good. The jump in quality from Aria to Ano Hana was clear from the get-go, and the show possesses a likeability that a lot of other shows just don’t have. The quickly jumps back and forth from being serious, to funny, to sad, but it does it well enough that it’s not getting in the way of the story.
I’ve already seen all but the last two episodes of this show, so I’ll be finishing it very soon. It’s a simple show, but it’s entertaining, charming, and seems like it’ll have a satisfying ending, for better or worse. I’d recommend this easily.
Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Yeah, OK.
Legend of the Legendary Heroes was also interesting… but not in a good way. It started out pretty standard, with a cheesy fantasy setting, mostly boring characters (including the bored shounen hero with all the abilities in the world he doesn’t like to show off), and a pretty bland military story. Country versus country, etc. No one cares.
Then episode 3 shows up and everything goes to shit. This is a formula that sounds kind of familiar and has piqued the club’s interest before (Madoka, obviously), but the way it was done in this show was more than just shocking–it drew out of my more of a ‘Why?’ response than anything else. Suddenly perky girl is cradling her head in her lap, and everyone but the love interest(s) are dead. What? Why, show? It just didn’t seem handled well, and I don’t feel compelled to watch more.
No. 6
No. 6 definitely wasn’t a horrible show. Despite its cheesy soundtrack, most of the presentation came together pretty well. It was definitely BL, and it made that pretty clear early on, but the characters weren’t overtly detestable, and despite the stale dystopian premise the show didn’t suck.
I won’t watch more of it because it didn’t really catch my interest, but I wouldn’t grimace if someone said they enjoyed it. If someone watches it and cool stuff happens later on, let me know.
Kami-sama Dolls
Kami-sama Dolls wasn’t nearly as bad a show as I was expecting from the name. The animation is rather lackluster and the designs are mostly nothing special (“Hey, guys! Let’s spice up Love-Interest-san’s design with some bigger boobs! That’s a good idea, right guys?”), but it was never boring and somehow the cheesiness it had didn’t damage it.
I know some people were drawing similarities to Narutaru, and I would say I got a similar vibe from this show. I’m not expecting much like it (we already saw some graphic deaths, but only nameless guys…), but I’m considering watching more of this show. We’ll see.
Kami-sama no Memo-cho
I actually liked this show quite a bit. The prevalence of NEETS reminded me a bit of Eden of the East, even though they’re pretty different shows. It was probably the best-animated show we watched that night, too. I found all the characters pretty interesting; even though none of them were really seen in any depth (as far as we watched), they were all personable and likeable from the beginning. Unfortunately, the mystery was sometimes a little predictable, but it’s something I can live with.
I am pretty sure I will watch more of this.
…And that’s it for the post. Cool. Alright, good night everybody. I’ll see you in a few days!
Eh, I’ll take over if you can’t do this anymore, Grant. I know good, meh, and awful when I see them. I’ll probably have them up by the end of Wednesday, too.
I’ll probably look into Dat Flower and Kami-sama no Memo-cho, since they seem to have consistently good writing and style. However, I’ll hold off on Kami-sama Dolls until the jury’s in. I don’t want to waste my time like I did on No. 6.
As for No. 6. When you say it wasn’t awful, let me be the first to point out that the first 3 episodes is about as good as this show gets (aside from episode 10 of 11). Too much gets introduced, nothing is explained, the characters are beyond forgettable/ annoying, the symbolism is etched into your retinas, and the ending is garbage. Overall, I can easily mark No. 6 as Studio BONES’ worst series to date, as well as the worst series to ever to broadcast in the Noitamina block. All I can say is that I’m glad they are switching to a 24 episode format.
Grant Walker · September 18, 2011 at 2:00 pm
Okay. Why not. We all know you can hate better than I can, Matt. I gracefully step down, haha.
And I guess that’s a good reason not to watch any more of No. 6. I’ll take it to mean nothing cool happens later on.
Grant Walker · September 18, 2011 at 2:00 pm
@dante
Okay. Why not. We all know you can hate better than I can, Matt. I gracefully step down, haha.
And I guess that’s a good reason not to watch any more of No. 6. I’ll take it to mean nothing cool happens later on.
Chris · September 20, 2011 at 1:34 am
I’m finally commenting on this!
Hidan no Aria is simply doing it wrong. I haven’t watched it all, so I can’t make absolute statements about it, but from what I saw (4 episodes), it was trying to build bridges with a tractor. Everything about the show is set up for a light fanservice show with some action on the side, maybe some drama here and there. Something basic, but not unenjoyable, like Raildex. Then it ended up going the “srs bzns” route, and flopped. To be honest, my favorite part of the show was when Kinji slipped into Hysteria Mode in the first episode, and it never happened again. A show needs to know what to capitalize on to be successful, even if it’s something as stupid as fanservice, and Hidan No Aria didn’t do that.
Legend of the Legendary Heroes, as you pointed out, relied too much on shock value. The shift in tone was too abrupt, and instead of being jarring, it was just confusing. Like purple noodles bursting out of your wall, or something. I think stuff like this needs to have some buildup – not too obvious, or you give away the punchline, but not so random, or it feels gimmicky. Which LotLH felt like. Granted, it was kind of amusing watching Ryner (was that his name?) lolraep the goons, but that doesn’t last.
No. 6 was just…boring. I don’t know. The not-so-subtle BL overtones were sketchy, but they’re not why I didn’t care for the show. Everything about it just feels uninspired. Like it’s filler material whose sole purpose is to bring in some profit. It didn’t help that the soundtrack was spectacularly bad. A show’s gotta hook the audience in the first 2-3 episodes, and No. 6 didn’t really do that.
Now that I’ve finished complaining about the stuff I didn’t like:
Ano Hana was one of my favorite shows from the spring. But unlike Grant, I don’t know I’d be so quick to recommend it to people. It was one of the possibilities for the featured show this semester, and despite how much I liked it, I was the one who shot it down. Simply put, I think this is a bit of a love-it-or-hate-it show. It had one very strong point, and a lot of smaller flaws. If you can buy the strong point, it can be an amazing show, but if not, it can quickly degenerate into a mess. There was a lot of discussion about this show on the webz as it aired, and the dissenters had a few good points – some of the drama is forced, and there are a few plot holes that can’t be well explained. And they’re points I can’t refute. But the character cast was Ano Hana’s shining point, and they were so vivid and…realistic, that I could forgive the show for all of its mistakes. I don’t want to say too much here, partly because of spoilers, and partly because I’m pretty sure Ano Hana will be on my Top 10 of 2011, and I’ll talk more about it then.
Kamisama Dolls is something I’m (trying) to follow this season, and at this point, I’m still not sure if it’s just because I really love the OP and ED. As I’m sure many of you are painfully aware of, Ishikawa Chiaki is my favorite Japanese vocalist, and anything she’s involved in instantly gets biased brownie points. Also, I think Utao is adorable, and I don’t say that about many characters (I think it’s her facial expressions). And…that’s about it. The plot and character cast isn’t particularly amazing, just decent.
Kamisama no Memochou is the only other show I’m following this season (besides Baka Test 2, and Usagi Drop which I’m planning to watch eventually). It’s pretty interesting – kind of like an urban version of Gosick. The first episode gives off “Denpa Teki” vibes based on the rather dark nature of the theme, but it sheds that skin and becomes more light-hearted (as far as I know, which is 6 episodes). Also, the soundtrack is good. Derp.
