First Impressions – Page 4

1 in 3 ain’t bad — First Impressions

Published on October 12, 20192 Comments

We got three new anime police procedurals this season and one of them is even watchable. Hey, one out of three isn’t bad, though as Terry Pratchett would point out, that’s only 331/3 percent. Of the two not worth bothering with, Stand My Heroes: Piece of Truth is just another pretty boys game adaptation only this time they’re cops instead of cake bakers or whatever. It lost my interest about five minutes in, when we only had distinguishable only by hair colour talking heads and nothing interesting happening. The other, Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisakushitsu Dainanaka – Tokunana is some “fantasy races are still around in modern times” urban fantasy nonsense, with no impact whatsoever on the plot of the first episode. Instead we get a gung ho rookie cop getting involved with a bank robbery and taken hostage and again I lost interest about 2/3rds through the show. Too dull to continue.

Babylon: a pharmaceutical police raid

Which leaves the third series, Babylon which released not just one, but three episodes already and which managed to keep my attention throughout. It does share some of the flaws of the other two, in that the animation quality, character designs and backgrounds are servicable at best. It makes up for it with an actually interesting plot, characters I want to follow and a judicious use of music, especially towards the end of the first episode. What’s more, the second episode went for some neat visual trickery in how it told its story, making what was otherwise a lot of people talking to each other again a lot less boring. As any Shaft series can show you, even the most mundane conversations can be livened up by making the animation more interesting. So while most of the episode consisted of Zen interviewing a witness intercut with him talking with co-workers about the case, stylised flashbacks as well as shots like the above helped keep the viewer’s interest up.

Babylon: interesting stylistic shots

Babylon starts with public prosecutor Seizaki Zen leading a bust of a pharmaceutical company suspected of having bribed some universities to provide overinflated claims for its medicines. This mostly entails sitting around reading dreary company documents for the first part of the episode. As often in this sort of story, an accidental discovery by his assistant alerts him to a bigger case, a more political case, involving an upcoming election. Things escalate quickly from there as Zen and his assistant use old fashioned police work to get to the bottom of the case, which unfortunately leads to tragedy. You can’t say Bsbylon doesn’t move quickly: by the end of episode three the villains are revealed, the stakes are made clear and Zen is well in over his head. All in all, it’s eminently bingeable.

Hoshiai no Sora — First Impressions

Published on October 11, 20191 Comment

After a season start full of the usual series with bad to adequate animation, ditto characters and stories, it was a relief to finally watch something actually good.

Hoshiai no Sora: Maki does his chores

Good fluid animation is important in any anime series, but especially in a sports anime as this is. Hoshiai no Sora (Stars Align) is about Maki, a transfer student coming back to his old home town and old friend Shinjo Toma, the current captain of the boys’ soft tennis club. With the club not doing well, lacking members and those remaining not all that motivated, Shinjo jumps at the chance to recruit him for it. Though Maki is at first reluctant, eventually he is convinced, which is more or less where the episode ends. Not perhaps a very original plot, but it’s all in the execution. The episode takes its time to reach its inevitable conclusion and gives the characters room to breathe. There are lots of things happening that do not directly contribute to the plot and care and attention is taken to set up just why the soft tennis club needs Maki so badly. What’s more, it’s clear from the start that Toma’s desire to save his club is not entirely healthy. There’s an anger to Toma that is visible from the first scene we see him in.

Hoishiai no Sora: that guy is looking at her arse

I really like the attention to detail and the strong characterisation shown in this episode. It’s so nice to see proper background characters rather than bland, anonymous CGI mobs. Look at the people watching that scene between Maki, Toma and Mitsue Kanako, Maki’s downstairs neighbour & classmate. They’re all looking at it but none of them are quite looking at the same thing, with the fuzzy haired guy blatantly staring at Mitsue’s ass. Mitsue herself is fun as well. She has nothing to do with the main plot, but she’s a slightly sarcasting observer to what’s going on, quickly befriending Maki on his first day at school. Like the rest of the cast, she doesn’t fall neatly in any of anime’s usual high school character types. She could be a love interest, but she doesn’t have to be.

There’s a realism to Hoshiai no Sora that reminds me of Tsuki ga Kirei and Just Because of a few years back. There’s a depth to its world you don’t see often in high school anime series. It’s all a bit more grounded in the real world. There’s more to Maki or Toma or even Mitsue’s lives than we are shown. This is not a typical sports anime even if the plot superficially looks like one. It’s been a while since a new series surprised me as much at this one did.

Houkago Saikoro Club — First Impressions

Published on October 9, 2019Leave a comment

High school girls get very excited at winning a not very exciting board game:

Houkago Saikoro Club: winning is fun

This first episode spent a fair bit faffing about before it finally got around to any actual board gaming. We only get to see the actual game store halfway through the episode. First we have to deal with blue haired girl (shy, bit of a loner) bonding with the twin tailed transfer student new to Kyoto (energetic, dumb but enthusiastic) for the first half as they have adventures in and around the town. When they spy the glasses wearing class rep out after curfew (six PM and is this really a thing in Japan?) they get suspicious and follow her. All of which ends with the three of them playing a game of Marrakech with the store’s owner.

Houkago Saikoro Club: real board games

And yes, that is a real board game, as are the other games shown in the store. Which is unusual, as normally manga and anime series are very very scared of anything that could be seen as a trademark infringement. It helps ground the series to have real games being played. Just as long as we don’t get any Catan. Or worse, Monopoly. This was a fun first episode. The girls are all a bit cliched but let’s see how’ll they develop over the series.

Shinchou Yuusha — First Impressions

Published on October 8, 2019Leave a comment

Ristarte has only two facial expressions when looking at Seiya. Horny:

Ooh, six-pack

and disgusted when having to deal with his personality:

Ristarte responding to something outrageous Seiya said

Both are understandable, because while Seiya is fine, his personality is warped, overtly cautious and paranoid, convinced everybody is out to get him. The kind of man who’d buy three suits of armour: one to use, one for back up, one as back up for the back up. Yet his stats looked so good when Ristarte — a Healing Goddess who had gotten the responsibility of freeing a super hard mode world from the forces of darkness — chose him as her hero. That turned out to be a mistake, as the first thing Seira did when summoned was to spent weeks and most of the episode doing push ups to level up. Nevertheless she’s stuck with him and together they have to rid their new world of the demon lord.

As you may have guessed Shinchou Yuusha – Kono Yuusha ga Ore Tueee Kuse ni Shinchou Sugiru (Cautious Hero: The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious) is yet another isekai/trapped in fantasyland anime, with a bit of a Konosuba flavour as both our protagonists are idiots, though Seira moreso than Ristarte. I like having her as the point of view character rather than Seira. Her expressions are great too, both horny and disgusted. This was a solid first episode, I hope it keeps up.

Best anime of the season — First Impressions

Published on July 14, 2019Leave a comment

If you haven’t done so yet, go watch the first episode of Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo so you can appreciate the clip below in its full glory:

Sex in anime usually is done on the same level as a raunchy eighties comedy, utterly incapable of any thought beyond “boobs are awesome”. Cheap tittelation and fan service is everywhere but it’s frustratingly rare for anime to move beyond that. I didn’t have high hopes for Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo because its MAL description made it sound like just another ecchi comedy. Which it is, but what I didn’t realise it was one written by Okada Mari. She always delivers something interestingly and it’s the same here. This series has the most honest depiction of puberty, sex and the attraction to it and fear of it I’ve ever seen in anime.

and drank every last drop of the sweet juices pouring forth from her

Not series start by having one of the main characters narrate a description of eating out a girl, to the mixed reception of her fellow Literature club members. While Sonezaki the club president is revulsed by it, the narrating girl herself, beautiful and melancholy Sugawara wants to experience sex for herself. Of the other three members, the stoic Hongō is writing eroica herself and sees all this as reserve, while the main protagonist Onodera and her shy friend Sudō are both fascinated and embarassed by it. Onodera may or may not have a crush on her childhood friend, who has grown up to be a popular football player at their high school, with his fan girls giving Onodera a hard time for even talking to him.

Samurai hair

She herself though keeps seeing the dorky boy she grew up with, still fascinated by trains and thinks he’s just grown bigger, hasn’t changed. She just cannot see him in a sexual light. That is, until one night she goes over to bring some leftovers her mother had made for him and runs into him, well not watching videos of trains anymore… Childhood friend discovers her crush’s hidden porn stash is an anime cliche of long standing, but I can’t think of any series in which she walked in on him having a wank. And he’s actually watching online porn, meaning anime finally caught up with the late nineties. His response, her response, the music playing through it and her final denial on the railroad bridge with the train going underneath between her legs: it’s all perfect.

This is my anime of the season.