THAT Animeblog

I was forced to make a choice of desserts the other night at a restaurant, and that inspired the theme of this post. Since it is winter season, and winter for me and my family has always meant lots and lots of desserts I decided this would be an appropriate theme. By the way, in case you were wondering I picked the cheesecake. The shows in this list, even the ones I dropped, all represent viewing of at least three episodes. I try to watch the first episode of everything I can, but I really can’t say much about the show if after the first episode I wasn’t even motivated to watch a second. And yes, I watch a lot of anime so this list may seem long. There, I admitted it.

Hearty Apple Pies

Shows continued from the fall season- solid, long-lasting goodness

1) Clannad- For no other show have I written such essays in comments on the blogs of everyone else. The winter portion of Clannad has seen the conclusion of the Kotomi arc, and if you follow that link you can read my really long post on the amazing emotional ride that it was. Needless to say it has an amazing blend of high quality animation, voice acting, storytelling and music with characters that everyone is talking about. I mean look what happened after episode 17, the infamous Kyou locker scene episode. This resulted in a flurry of blog posts solely about Kyou and had little to do with the actual episode. Also, I think /a/ had a new Kyou picture dump thread titled “OH GOD KYOU IS HOT” every hour for about a week.

2) Hayate no Gotoku!- This is one of those shows that not only have I watched most of the episodes in this series twice already, but I’ve read through the English-released manga a couple of times as well. The harem Hayate has assembled covers multiple fetishes and personality types and is right up there with the greatest harems of all time. I’m personally fond of Hinagiku and Saku myself, but Maria, Ayumu and Nagi are all strong in their own right. Oh, did I mention the show is freaking hilarious? Yeah it has a lot of reference jokes that even I don’t get, but that really doesn’t take away from the overall enjoyment. My only beef is I’m afraid of a lame ending because the manga is still ongoing and has yet to resolve anything obviously.

3) Gundam 00- Despite all of the comments I’ve made making fun of 00, I still enjoy watching it. It has massive problems with political and military accuracy, but to be honest it’s hard to assume their writing staff has a war-obsessed political science major like myself on it. I think make an admirable attempt at the topic area that most shows tend to avoid. Aside from that the characters are much better than many shows of its type (looking at you SEED), and there are plenty of plot twists to keep you guessing each episode. And don’t forget the ridiculously large budget they have which translates into excellent animation quality for the most part.

4) Bamboo Blade- My previous comments on Bamboo Blade still hold for the most part. What started out as a sleeper hit had really come into it’s own. Most of the main characters have seen significant development, and everyone gets a good amount of screentime. The addition of Satori has been a welcome one, she provides the necessary clumsy character type and another skilled kendo athlete. Another thing I’ve noticed is how it’s different from what you would expect. These days when you see a bunch of moe girls and a couple guys you expect lots of harem hijinks and love comedy, but you don’t see that here (there was a hot springs/onsen episode where there was no fanservice, the travesty!). They actually focus a lot on kendo itself and actual character development, which is pretty welcome and I enjoy it.

5) Shakugan no Shana II- I had previously said only a major change would get me to watch it again, and well that sort of has happened. This had been relegated to one of those shows where I just read Aroduc’s summaries so I didn’t have to actually suffer through the really poor episodes, but it has recovered it’s action roots to a degree. The last couple of episodes have digressed into senseless exposition and angst for a large part of it, but I have at least some hope from the previews. Holding my breath though, this season is nowhere near as good as the first one was.

Strawberry Topped Cheesecake

The best of the winter field- tasty, rich and sweet

1) Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de- The only show I’m currently blogging this season, and it’s a good one. For me it marks the return of truly enjoyable ecchi anime that’s not stupid and either overly serious or overly non-serious. It strikes a good balance between the two while maintaining a lot of quality fanservice, providing just about every fetish you can think of. It’s also one of those rarities in eroge adaptations since although there are multiple chicks there it’s not like they are all in love with the main character and trying to win him over. Mihato is the only one who is really in love with him, and that’s treated as comical incest. So far Shinra and Miyu really only see him as something fun to tease, a new and interesting toy. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to sit back and watch a show that’s truly funny and doesn’t require a lot of brainpower to understand.

2) Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei Zoku- In contrast to Kimiaru, Zetsubou Sensei requires some brain power to understand fully. It makes a lot of referential humor in a very fast way, some of which is I’m sure in reference to current events in Japan which go way over my head. Aside from that though it’s definitely something to watch. Not something to watch if you haven’t seen the first season however, but I think most of us have so feel free to dive right in. I’d say that this show has one of the most unique harems ever conceived, made up of massively dysfunctional school girls and a male lead who constantly wants to kill himself. Lastly, be forewarned that SHAFT has gone out of their way to make this season even more eccentric and balls tripping than the first, believe it or not, and it has lived up to my predictions from before the season started.

3) Minami-ke ~Okawari~- Another season two anime, but this time it is done by a completely different studio, something I was initially hesitant about. However, it continues the same storyline from the previous studio, meaning all the characters introduced there are in this one, including the epic Hosaka and Mako-cakes. Both productions generally carry the same comedic style, and if you enjoyed the first season you will no doubt enjoy the second. Kana carries the show once again, providing the punch line for probably at least half of the humorous moments in each episode. I will say that something intangible seems to be missing in comparison to the first season. There were obvious changes like art style, and while I liked the old style better, I can’t say that the designs from this studio are bad per se (except for a blond Fujiyoki). I just can’t put my finger on it, but something is missing. Regardless it’s still one of the best for the season, another great comedy to recommend (there seems to be a lot of those recently, and that’s a good thing).

Tiramisu

Winter shows on the borderline- sometimes good, but you have to be in the mood for it

1) Persona ~Trinity Soul~- My impression of Persona stands in about the same place as it did in the start, cautiously optimistic. Video game adaptations tend to do poorly (see Devil May Cry), but I liked the premise of this show from what people told me of the games. It seems to have deviated from game material, but not in a way that I think is bad, it definitely has some enticing suspense, mystery and action for the most part. It hasn’t totally come into it’s own yet, but with the three brothers I think there is potential for some good drama and a few surprises. Not giving it blind trust though, if they handle the dead sister in a retarded fashion this show’s stock could quickly drop. It stands on a tantalizing edge of exploring some really interesting themes of family, death and friendship through adversity, and if they handle them well Persona stands to be one of the best of the season.

2) Rosario + Vampire- I was really excited about R+V before it aired, and actually I was mildly satisfied with the first episode or two. I’ve read the manga ahead of time, and I think that really spoils my enjoyment of the show because they’ve made significant deviations from it in style and material. The animation quality is really good (when compared to the so-so art of the manga), but I can’t help but be disappointed overall. I’m basically watching this for the lulz right now, and to see just how far a studio can massacre a good manga story. I encourage people who had an interest in the show to read that as well, it will make you feel much better.

3) True Tears- I flip-flop on True Tears weekly and generally I swing like this: yay if Shin swings toward Noe and boo if Shin swings toward Hiromi. The problem is the way the series is progressing it looks like in the end it will probably be Hiromi’s show. In addition to my distaste for serious incest, I find her character pretty lacking in redeeming qualities when compared to the shining light of the goddess Noe (once more showing my bias for genki characters). Most of the characters hide what they really feel and act falsely, creating this melodramatic circle of drama that seems too forced at times (and it looks like the honest characters, Noe and Nobuse, are going to get stepped on in the end). Additionally, the male lead is pretty pathetic wet noodle and does little to separate himself from every other cliche, indecisive male lead out there. Once again it’s one of those stories where you really don’t know why all of these girls like him, I mean he’s a total dick to Noe for the first 6 episodes and she still is raburabu for him. Either way I’ll probably end up sticking through with it because I want to see how it ends and a lot of people are blogging and discussing the show (including Crusader) whose opinions I respect.

Fruitcake

Dropped winter shows- you know you don’t like it, but you have to try it, and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth

1) Gunslinger Girl ~IL TEATRINO~- This is the show that’s fallen furthest for me from our winter preview post a couple of months ago. I think everyone was excited that there was going to be a second GSG season after the excellent first season. However, as has been documented, the series first suffers from some of the most horrid animation I’ve ever seen. Aside from the general bland and weak animation of standard scenes, the action is plagued by high levels of speedlines, slow-motion, and still shots that you usually only see in visual novels. Furthermore, the voice acting is significantly weaker than the team used in the first season, Henrietta is barely tolerable. The combination of the new animation style and voice acting creates an overall mood that completely departs from the more subtle and darker tones of the first season that gave the show emotion and moved me to tears on a couple of occasions during the first season, both of joy and of sadness, depending on the mood. The second season has failed to live up to that in a miserable fashion.

2) Spice and Wolf- Spice and Wolf is one of those shows that in the beginning you think well this is new and interesting, economics and a surly wolf girl. The problem is that when I actually started watching it I was bored to tears most of the time, this economic dealmaking was just uninteresting. The suspense was pretty minimal, and I prefer my shows about nothing to at least be funny, which this wasn’t, and the animation quality is pretty poor. Horo’s character is interesting, but I’ve watched enough American television shows and movies that drag sexual tension between main characters for the entire run of the series. Spice and Wolf is another adaptation in which the novels are ongoing, and so it’s unlikely anything will be resolved by the end of the season. When you start skipping through chunks of each episode you know it’s time to stop trying for the sake of the recommendations of others.

3) H20 ~Footprints in the Sand~- From the start I had little hope for H20, and most of my fears from before the show started turned out to be right. The animation quality has been pretty poor (yes this is a theme of most of the shows I dislike, it takes something high quality like Kimiaru to overcome poor animation), and the characters have mostly just been either complete doormats or exceedingly despicable. Furthermore, as has been mentioned by others the whole advertised premise for the show is that the guy is supposed to be blind, and all of a sudden he can see again and everyone says nothing. Some have justified it with time skips or whatever, but when the gimmick that is supposed to make this not just another eroge harem adaptation suddenly disappears I have little hope for the show.