It’s pointless to talk about Little Witch Academia too much because it’s awesome as expected and everybody reading this will watch it anyway, so let me rant about the horrible way the academy treats its non-witch new students. Leaving aside the fact that Akko has clearly not been prepared for what the school is like, making the school reachable only by broom seems a bit hard on new students not coming from a witching background. You’d expect a slightly more accommodating attitude at Luna Nova if it’s really serious about attracting new students from non-traditional backgrounds, especially if it really is hard up for cash. Of course it may just be an impopular policy that the people actually running the school are actively sabotaging, that’s not uncommon in real life either. in any case, it makes Hogwards seem positively progressive.
First impression: Akiba’s Trip
A NEET goes to Akihabara with his little sister for a little shopping, gets involved with a strange girl and learns he has to strip people to free them from demonic possession.
It’s about as idiotic a premise as last season’s Kejio!!!!!!!! with its butt and breast based wrestling and this is very likely to end up as just a fanservice show, but the first two episodes had a touch of humour to it that promised a little bit more than just that. Your milage may vary, but I don’t mind this sort of fanservice too much if it stays on the level of what’s been shown so far, especially if it’s equal opportunity stripping as seen in episode two.
This girl here turns out to be the latest in a long line of people protecting Akihabara from the Bugged Ones, people possessed by low level demons in service of the real enemy, the Hazoku, of which she is one, there apparantly having been a split in th Hazoku about whether to invade or protect Akiba. Our NEET was turned into one as well as a consequence of getting involved and now cannot leave the town. Not too bad a fate for somebody like him.
If there is a problem with fanservice in this show, it’s less things like the above, but more one particular character: the blonde, Finnish weeaboo who’s just a little bit too quick to strip herself. She was interesting in the first episode, with unexplained superhero strength that got her suspected as a Bugged One, but in the second seemed to be reduced to fanservice girl.
Nevertheless, this looks interesting enough to continue with. Light entertainment, perhaps not as zany as Keijo!!!!!!!!, but decent enough to keep following for now in a so far not very good season.
First impression: KonoSuba 2
Four idiots continue to adventure together.
They’re back: Aqua, Kazuma, Megamin and Darkness and just as horrible. Everything is alright in the world. At the end of the last series they had finally hit the big time: saved the town from its greatest menace, scored themselves a nice mansion, finally gotten money and recognition. More importantly, over the course of the series the challenges and dangers they had to struggle through had brought the four together, the occasional succubus incident notwithstanding, deepening their friendship.
And of course it all goes to shit. Kazuma is accused of subverting state power and it takes his friends no more than seconds to denounce them. He’s imprisoned, the other three try to rescue him, he almost is set free but ultimately has to undergo a big, Ace Attorney show trial and the outcome is that they have to set out on a new quest to prove his innocence, as well as pay off the lord whose mansion he destroyed in the climax of the last series.
KonoSuba hasn’t quite reached the comedic heights of the first series in this opening episode, seeing as this is mostly a setup for the rest of the series, but it’s looking good. Not so much for the animation however. It was always deliberately crude and ugly and it seems this season is bumping that ugliness up a notch. All in all slightly disappointing, but still worth following. I missed those idiots.
And hey, at least one of the burning mysteries of the first season has been resolved.
First impression: Handshakers
Don’t.
Please experience this 3D Panning shot and be upset with me. #animesuri pic.twitter.com/JrvBz0Cf8m
— Suribot | WMC (@Suribot) January 10, 2017
Just … Don’t.
First impression: Urara Meirochou
A belly button exhibitionist girl raised in the wild by animals goes to the big city to become a fortune teller and meets other eccentric girls wanting to do the same.
Gee, I wonder what the appeal of this series could be. Now obviously, this being a Manga Time Kirara adaptation this was always going to be a slice of moe/cute girls doing cute things with a bit of implied lesbianism/yuri thrown in, but still this gimmick got tired quickly. Oh, she’s raised by animals so she strips to show her belly as a sign of submission/apology. As Anime Feminist points out, it’s a bit dodgy especially since she’s supposed to be fifteen and especially when she does that to her friends.
Apart from that, this is a standard slice of moe series, with each girl having her own character type: Chiya is the wild one, then there’s the shy one, the somewhat tsundere-esque one and the quietly component big sister type one. There’s a bit of sexual tension between that last one and Chiya, which may or may not go anywhere. The setting looks interesting if anything is done with it and I don’t mind this sort of series at all, if the blatant fanservice could be reigned in a bit.