Hiiro no Kakera S2 01 – Impressions

Continuing with today’s earlier showing of traditional Japanese fantasy, we have the continuing tale of the Tamayori Princess and her bishounen collection. The series reintroduces the familiar cast without a hitch; we our treated again to a very well-performed opening song for the anime. Disappointingly, most of the remainder of the episode is a recap of last season using previous animation.  It’s a bit expected from Studio Deen; I’ve seen far worse cases in which an anime feels like their viewer forgets the story from week-to-week, so I’m glad we can move on after this. The story picks up where it left off incompletely; we’re treated to the next upcoming problem for the Tamayori Princess with rumors of spiriting away cropping up again within the village. Ending song is decent; the end of the episode fan service segments with bishounen of the week are still hilarious in their own right. It’s nice to see the cast again; I’ll be enjoying it week-to-week with the few other returning shows from last season and the other sequel series to come.

Shinsekai Yori 01 - Impressions

Cantus, Mantra, Harmony School, Sage Academy, Water Manipulation, and Force Exchange. These are just a few of the many terms thrown at the viewer within the first nine minutes of the show. A mixture of spiritualism and violence tempered by flashes of youth and school life. Not the first series I’ve seen where cute kids soften the dark edge, but I’m pleased the off-time from the horror and mystery isn’t overblown and presented at ridiculous levels like with Higurashi. Tension is very important in shows like these; it has been managed well thus far with the main character Saki’s growing unease with every passing moment. Still, other problems cropped up whenever the narrative pulled away from Saki directly.

As a first episode, it’s the kind that builds up all the starting blocks of an overarching mystery to the village; it shows with a very, very slow pace throughout. The episode introduces the rest of Saki’s friends; they are given bare bone attributes while serving to respond to the magical elements of the school and deliver further rumors about violence and the supernatural prior to attending Sage Academy. The background context is welcome; the rushed secondary character, school, and setting drop-in left me while other less important information to me took center stage. Still, from the anime community, I’ve noticed there are a fair amount of early-on defending and fan protests to give Shinsekai Yori a chance because its supposed to ramp up midway and prove amazing by its end. There tends to be at least one show per season that garners this protective niche voice; I’ve found it usually turns out to be truth when the comments are as widespread on the net. As such, I’m hoping my patience will pay off; I can easily see how it might fly under the radar of many viewers since the episode falls into the information dump trap of a lot of recent anime from the get go. From a blogging standpoint, it has a lot more potential then I got from the previews that I saw. It’ll be interesting to see if it can draw in my emotions enough and not lose sight of its way while managing the large cast.

Hidan no Aria 01

Princess carrying dominance

I had originally planned to post a rather lengthy entry, but I decided to keep it simpler. I’m so glad to see Junji Majima (Ryuji’s VA) and Rie Kugimiya (Taiga’s VA) of Toradora fame together again. The chemistry is all still there, and it doesn’t disappoint. The same first episode formula remains largely there. Flustered girl, girl attacks our male lead, and they end up in a partnership by the end (i.e. slavery though she says it right out here unlike in Toradora).

The World God Only Knows 2 - 01

Battle of the Devoted Auras

The World God Only Knows is one of the few mangas that I keep up with on a regular basis, so it’s exciting to see the adaptation continue.  For those unaware, the basic plotline serves as a parody of dating sims combined with the popular shounen battle concept.

Our poor lead otaku (nicknamed the Capturing God for being able to beat any dating sim) becomes entangled with a demon to find loose souls that have escaped from Hell and encased themselves in those with an empty heart. The loose souls are replaced by the contenting feeling of love except they forget what healed them in the first place. 

The formula makes for taking away the strongest, most emotionally powerful parts of romances and frequenting it via a journey towards salvation and freedom from the death penalty if he fails to collect souls with his demon compatriot.  Sadly, however, it is painful to be forgotten
and Keima must deal with that as he does ultimately put his real feelings into the relationship (despite what he’d say).  It’s no wonder the series has such a strong female fanbase as well despite appearances.

This particular arc focuses on the girl that must be strong because she has to cast aside her gender to fulfill the family connection to martial arts, but she really has a strong girlish side. As a result, her soul begins to split into two selves due to her repressing. How our Kami-sami will
heal this certainly makes for a fun watch. 

Since I’ve done so much already…

Yeah, I just realized how long it took to post those “impressions.”

So I’m going to really just quickly post three more.

Gosick 12:  Character development episode rather than mystery arc.  One of the best of the show.

Nichijou 01:  Odd, very odd, but it still manages to delight. Flying wieners, goat riding to school, Buddha statues to teachers, and toe missiles. That is all.

Hanasaku Iroha 02:  A very gorgeous slice-of-life show. The realism aspect accompanying is its biggest plus. Life can suck, and your family
can too.

The show about the loli that hates men, but needs male semen or will die that reminds me of Zero no Tsuikama, Go Nagai’s Enma remake
(little kid demons fighting a no face demon that fights with a penis spear episode), adult game with a random as hell episode that I mostly recall for loli saying in English about the guy wanting to stick his monster in her kitty did not make the cut this week.  Oh, and the show about soft tennis, cows, and a middle school girl with an odd amount of sexual fantasies (Xebec, hah) were not included on the being written about list.

Steins;Gate 01 Impressions

Collectible cute creatures.  It is Japan!

A somewhat confusing episode that draws you into the mystery. The show is all about the technobabble, and the immersion factor works pretty well. The first episode introduces, and it mildly plays with what you think is real and what isn’t. Is “Okarin” all there, and you’re seeing what he’s seeing? Or isn’t he…

For a show about time travel, it’s turning out to be very similar to chaos;head (also by Nitro+) thus far. The cast is interesting, and it’s going to get a lot deeper than present. Plus, it already had a murder
and using a microwave on bananas for the sake of time travel.  I’m sold.


Oddball rants are typical here

Dramatic poses are always necessary when delivering

Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san Impressions

Lust Demon + New Master = ???

I wasn’t sure what to think originally. A show involving rather famous Hebrew demons: Moloch, Beelzebub, Azazel, etc., and they’re in cute chibi form when in the human world. This is where the show starts getting interesting…it’s all about contrasts.

The episode centers around a woman whose pissed about her husband cheating. So, she goes to a detective agency where a man named Akutabe-san decides to help her. He just happens to be a devil summoner as well.

Evil Faces.  There are plenty.

Indeed.

As the woman comes for a relatively evil wish (to punish her husband), we see her being depicted in a rather ugly, awkward animation style.  Whereas, the demons are left in a relatively powerless cute chibi form due to a barrier. Whether it’s an intentional commentary on what form evil can come in or not it still stood out to me.

The show is sadly another short twelve-minute per episode type, however. There’s a lot of interesting, expressiveness going on, so it’s going to be a blast to keep tabs on.


Sexually harass her eternity, eh? It makes for a scary rape face.

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