Winter Season Checkpoint
February 22nd, 2008 by Shirukii
We’re well past to midpoint of the Winter 07-08 anime season and since it’s Friday and there’s no Clannad to post about, I figured I might as well try out one of these mid-season impression things, a brief on my impressions on some of this season’s offerings and carry overs from fall 07.
Bamboo Blade
I suppose Bamboo Blade would fall under the category of sleeper hit, despite being fairly well known, it doesn’t get nearly as much attention as it deserves. It started out as a generic sports shounen-ish anime, with girls instead of guys, but grew into a respectable series with great character development and an interesting, albeit simplistic and repetitive plot foundation. The ending of this series is one I’m curious to see, specifically whether it will have a slice of life-ish ending where it sort of just cuts off, or if it will build to a climactic finale. Also, Lion-tan Kirino > Tama-chan. =3
Kaiji
ZAWA ZAWA
One of my most looked forward to releases during any given week (partially because with Triad you never know when that might be). Kaiji is based on a manga by Fukumoto Nobuyuki, the same author that did the Akagi manga. While I liked Akagi a lot more, Kaiji is awesome in its own way. In Akagi you had Akagi owning it up wherever he went, a master gambler with top notch mind games and insight that allows him to win pretty much uncontested. Whereas Kaiji is a bum who is down on his luck, nothing going his way, but by some miracle always manages to just scrape by in his gambles of life or death. Filled with insightful reverse metaphors and some unique games, Kaiji comes at a high personal recommendation, but moe lovers beware, the character designs in Kaiji are at polar opposites with what you may have come to expect in anime.
Kimikiss ~pure rouge~
Another series that leaves me wanting more at the end of every episode, Kimikiss is analogous to True Tears in its ability to leave the viewers hanging at the end of every episode, if only a cut below. However, it differs from True Tears and many other romance series out there in that it’s not really a harem, rather two separate love triangles that sort of weave together through circumstance. But despite not being a harem in its truest sense, there sure is a lot of fan division on this one, particularly with respect to Kouichi and Mao, there’s a lot of Mao-neechan hate going around, which I find unwarranted. But I digress, Kimikiss is a great series, one which nearly beat out Ef -a tale of memories- for my award for 2007’s best romance series.
Minami-ke Okawari
The fanbase division for Minami-ke Okawari is incredible and quite perplexing, with just as many people saying it’s inferior to the first season as those who think it’s superior. Personally, I’m of the latter group of thought, and I really don’t see why anyone would think otherwise. The animation change did take a second to get used to, especially Chiaki’s out of place gradient hair, but everything else remained essentially the same. Actually, scratch that, with an already developed cast and the dynamics of its jokes sorted out, Minami-ke Okawari wasted no time getting to the hilarity, and with more trap Mako-chan, more reverse trap Touma and more Hosaka, it got much funnier. Plus the ED consists of roughly 3 minutes of Kana shaking her ass, what’s not to love?
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei Zoku
SUBS WHERE?!
The continuation to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei continues to get the SHAFT treatment, meaning subtle references plastered everywhere that take an observant eye, cultural knowledge and probably two watches to fully digest. While I enjoy this series, it’s far too random, as are most of SHAFT’s productions, and when all is said and done I walk away with very little in terms of memorable footage. I do love the characters though, each representing a number of exaggerated negative personality traits.
Shigofumi
Absolutely amazing first couple of episodes, but Shigofumi has gone down hill from there. What started out as a satirical play on human emotions, opting to highlight the bitter emotions that sometimes accompany death lost much of its initial impact as the episodes passed by. The yuri tennis episode, despite containing yuri, was uninspiring, as was the cat episode (although, bonus points given for naming it Schrödinger). The bullying episode was along the lines of what I had expected from the series, but it was so cliche that it didn’t live up to its opener. So ultimately, while I wouldn’t call Shigofumi a bad series, in the end it fell victim to my suspicions that it would be unable to match the awesomeness of its two opening eps.
Shion No Ou
Nooooo! Not the trap ;_; Why would you do that!
I went into Shion No Ou thinking it would be another board game animu like Hikaru no Go or Akagi, but instead got a surprisingly deep plot about murder and the hardships of a cute elementary school girl with a traumatic past. The shougi is far from the central element in this series, it’s just sort of…there. While they do show shougi matches, very little concerning rules is explained and the actual matches themselves aren’t presented in much detail, far more important is the mind games that go on between the two players and the subtle growths in their personalities that arise from the game at hand. Great series that doesn’t get talked about much, though I’m slightly bitter about their decision to get rid of the trap.
Shugo Chara
Shugo Chara in a nutshell:
Episode 1: FUCK NO I’M WATCHING A GIRLY SHOW
Episode 2: Fuck…I’m watching a girly show
Episode 3-current: FUCK YES I’M WATCHING A GIRLY SHOW!
I have no idea why I continue to watch Shugo Chara, nor any clue as to why I enjoy it. It falls under mahou shoujo, which aside from MSLN, I usually abhor, the characters often come across as annoying and bratty, and the overlying plot is mindlessly generic. I guess I’m in it for the Amu, I really have no other explanation to offer.
Spice and Wolf
Economics animu! Except…not really. The further we go into Wolf and Spice, the more I realize that there’s not much about economics to be learned from this series, it’s just a loose base on which to build the Lawrence-Horo dynamic, which proves to be the show’s main selling point. Horo is awesome in all her 10% glory, and Lawrence is admirable for not having let his crotch area override his brain…admirable, or stupid? In either case, Spice and Wolf is a series that is being carried by Horo, without her lovable personality it would have nothing to offer, whether that makes the series worth watching or an utter waste of time will vary person to person.
They Are My Noble Masters
Damn lens flare
My guilty pleasure of the season, I have no idea why I’m watching it. It reeks of generic harem yet lacks many of the essentials of a harem. The characters are uninteresting for the most part, except for maybe Shinra. Also, the technical aspects of this series are sub par, the animation is inconsistent, crappy for the most part, the music is bland and forgettable, and the voice acting is terribly uninspired. Watch this only if you’re looking to kill some time, it’s saving graces are few and far between.
Dropped Series:
- H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~
- Rosario+Vampire
- Gunslinger Girl II – Teatrino
- Persona: Trinity Soul
And of course there are the series that are currently being blogged: ARIA the ORIGINATION, Clannad, True Tears and Shakugan no Shana II (…except, not).
And that’s how things stand for this season, admittedly a lot better than I thought it was going to be when it started, but considering that I didn’t put much effort into researching what was coming, I suppose that’s a given.
~ Shirukii ~
23 Responses to “Winter Season Checkpoint”
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Apparently episode 7 of Spice and Wolf is a filler or a fanservice episode because it’s only being viewed via the DVD when it’s released.
Spice and Wolf is great fun although like you I couldn’t care less about the economics when the Horo/Lawrence dynamic is so entertaining. The second season of SZS is every bit as random as I’d hoped and Kaiji continues to rock hard. Zawa zawa!
Shigofumi didn’t really click with me so I’ll give it another couple of eps before dropping it entirely. Perhaps surprisingly, True Tears is my favourite of the season right now.
>>(…except, not)
And damn good for your health too, because I WILL hunt you down and kill you if that “(…except, not)” goes away.
Arg, forgot about Zoku, time to catch up. >_>
And it seems like I have a lot of series to check out as well…
KimiAru is better than that…if you appreciate completely outrageous sexual humor and great voice-acting from Seki Tomokazu, Itou Shizuka, and Tanaka Rie. It is not a harem or a reverse harem or anything like Hayate. It is a show full of irony and outrageousness. But true tears is the best show of this season and ef the best show of last year.
I’m sorry, but if we have to dig back to quite a few shows that premiered in the fall in order to judge the winter’s anime season, then the season in question is a failure by default. And Gunslinger Girl II only seals the deal.
lol, I’ve been checking this site to see if you would do something
else since there was no Clannad this week and I was not
disappointed. I’ve been watching all but three series on that list
and I might start watching those 3 now. Also, it would
have been great if you blogged Kaiji.
Personally, the complete randomness of Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei is its draw. The continuous non sequitur humor the show presents keeps me on edge, because I never really know what the hell is going to happen.
I kinda stopped with Shugo Chara though, ever since some jerk from IRC sent a link with these horrible stories with Amu masturbating with the eggs. Good God, I could not stop thinking about that afterwards.
Oh, and I totally agree with the stuff you dropped. H2O kinda got on my nerves, Rosario is stupid (but Nana Mizuki is awesome), and Il Teatrino’s animation was so iffy and full of speedlines.
I tried to save at the checkpoint, but then realized I was viewing your blog. My mind is melding with games.
Speaking of games and your point about Kaiji, ive been playing “Wish” on Audiosurf. It was made for that game let me tell you, and Audiosurf is something to not be missed if you have a lot of music. Its the only time for me when Metal and Anime music collide. Unless of course, you own Guitar Hero’s *ahem* PC version…
Here is some dude playing Wish on Audiosurf but he isnt pro like me because he is using mono color: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYVTCr73Exo
and here is some DRAGONFORCE!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-z6YK92otg
watch from 4:20 on… WHOA OHH OHH OHHHHH… WHOA OHH OHH OHHHH.. WHOA OH OH OHHHHHHHHhhhhh!!!1!
You can find more anime music on audiosurf in youtube along with more other music or this…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQKdNtf9GHs
@ Pyrrhusonline: So I heard, I don’t mind as long as the events in it don’t detract too much from the transition between 6 and 8.
@ Martin: True Tears seems to be received well everywhere despite it being another romance drama, but its praise is well deserved in my opinion. Shigofumi is becoming tiresome very quickly, but having come this far, I think I’ll see it out to the end.
@ lolikit: No love for Shana? In any case, it’s not my duty to blog it anyways =D
@ Vadigor: Oh? which ones aren’t you following yet?
@ hashihime: The sexual humor is great, I love the tension between Shinra and Ren, or Shinra and anyone else for that matter. I’m still not really loving the voice acting though, something feels off to me.
@ ItAintEazy: Aw, don’t say that lol. We’re not doing that bad, out of the winter offerings I’ve kept watching Minami-ke Okawari, SZS:Z, Shigofumi, Spice and Wolf, They Are My Noble Masters, ARIA and True Tears. Not too shabby.
Though…about GsGII…yea.
@ EE: Haha, wow, it was really a random idea, not much of a planned post. I just figured I should write something, since my last post was Monday. Kaiji is an awesome show, but would have been weird to blog since it’s so unpredictable, too bad I wasn’t blogging when Akagi ran, that would have been fun to cover.
@ Zeroblade: Thanks for making me look up ’sequitur’ when youcould have just used ‘linear’ D= lol
Ah yes, Amu egg doujins and fanfics. Sometimes I’m thankful that 4chan has desensitized to to…well…everything.
Speedlines you say?
————- —————- ———————
——— ————– ——– ——— —————
—————— YEEAAAA ——- ———— —- ————
————– —– —– AAAAA—— ———- ———– —–
————— —– —– AAAA———— ———- ———– —
———— —— ———– AAAAAH——— ———– ———-
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@ Servbot: Haha, I had to save your comment from Akismet because of all the links.
and uh…wow, as random as ever. This Audiosurf game looks pretty fun, I don’t dare try it though, I get sucked in by rhythm games and it ends up eating all my time.
Also, I refuse to watch anything Dragonforce, as Herman Li (guitarist) pisses me off to no end, him and his ridiculous wankage solos that not even he can play cleanly and at speed.
…damnit, rickroll’d.
WARNING… INCOMING…
Shirukii vs –[*BOSS*]– Akismet –[*BOSS*]–
————- —————- ———————
——— ————– ——– ——— —————
—————— HYAAAA ——- ———— —- ————
————– —– —– AAAAA—— ———- ———– —–
————— —– —– AAAA———— ———- ———– —
———— —— ———– AAAAAH——— ———– ———-
—— ——————– ———— —————- — —————
Winner: Shirukii
My hero =D
Am I really wildcarding my comments? I dont think its too random =(
You know you watched and maybe danced to that last link in its entirety ;)
Oh btw, I think things are picking up in Shigofumi =\
I like the ED which I also played on Audiosurf.
I sort of stopped watching Shugo Chara, as I got tired of the “filler” episodes comprising the series… I want to see the yummy manga scenes! ;___;
that, and KimiKiss is great, but really heart-wrenching, especially for people rooting for poor Asuka =( The Mao x Kouichi x Yuumi triangle is bound to have its share of bittersweetness, given their now entangled triangle.
oh, and as a girl, I’m glad Ayumi is now… bishie Ayumi and not trap Ayumi 8D
>Oh? which ones aren’t you following yet?
Actually, the only one I’ve been following is Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, and I need to catch up with that.
I’m currently going through a backlog of older series though, Ai Yori Aoshi, Clannad, Azumanga Daioh, Girls Bravo, GITS, etc. etc.
And I still have 3 or 4 series from last season to check out… >_>
Also, lol Ricksurf.
Maybe I’m just being a whiner, but anime this season needs moar funny.
No, I haven’t forgotten about Magical Girl Kyou, Dan the Man or the entirety of “Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.” But here’s the thing: I grew up with Looney Tunes, some of Disney’s greater cartoons (i.e. “Darkwing Duck,” “The Schnookums And Meat Funny Cartoon Show”), and “Animaniacs.” I like my comedy hard and fast. So for one who loves series like “Cromartie High School,” “Excel Saga,” “The Wallflower,” “Gyagu Manga Biyori” and “Ninin Shinobuden,” this season has been a bit dry. I’ve often found myself with the urge to shout, “Stop angsting and start dropping anvils (or wash basins) on each other’s heads!”
Here’s what I’d like to see between now and the end of the season:
* Futami (K:PR) gets the hiccups, and they won’t go away.
* “Zoku Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei” needs moar subs. No exceptions.
* An entire episode of “Shugo Chara” where Tadase is stuck in “Prince” mode. (Alternately, an entire episode of “Shugo Chara” where Amu is stuck in a chara change mode.)
* “Wolf and Ball! Ball! Ball! Ball!”
* At the risk of losing my “human male” status… “They Are My Noble Masters” needs less fanservice and more gags.
* 100x more so for “Rosario x Vampire.”
* “Bamboo Blade” is a strong contender for the season’s funniest anime. If either Kirino, Saya, Tama or Satorin were to develop a crush on Dan the Man, that would probably cinch it. >8D
@usagijen
Thank goodness; I thought I was the only one rooting for Asuka-chan. ;_;
Bamboo Blade: If Dun-kun #3 then i have to be 1000 times better than the #1
Kaiji: the best logic i have ever seen was in ep 15 “When i fiddle with his broken leg, he’s in pain. But it does not hurt me at all. Nor it does hurt you, Kaiji.” Can someone say this is not true? LOL omoshiroi!!!
Kimikiss ~pure rouge~: At least, we are on pair with this one. how do u like ep 19? I think Yumi did an amazing job there.
Minami-ke Okawari: haven’t touch it yet.
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei Zoku: haven’t finished season 1 yet.
Shigofumi: LOL, let see what are we going to see next.
Shion No Ou: Oh ya, i was right about Satoru wasn’t the murderer. Now Ayumi is a male but you don’t need a hair-cut :(
Shugo Chara: a reason? spice and cool, enough?
Spice and Wolf: yeah there is a spice and a wolf, and whats next?
They Are My Noble Masters: Did you just talk about Hentai?
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No Hatenkou Yuugi and Persona?
Dropped Gundam 00 since ep 1? I think you need to see episode 18 of gundam 00 and to see Neena(voiced by Rie Kugimiya, Shana’s voice) gone berserker.
Care to give a reason for dropping Persona:TS? Along with Spicy Wolf, this it the highlight of the season for me. Largely because of the insanely wonderful animation, but also the awesome music. And for having drama that doesn’t make me want to puke. It also shows how you can make a game adaptation that isn’t mindlessly repetitive. (Plus, bears kick ass.)
KimiAru is actually a reference anime, but they’re so hardcore not many people are catching even a fraction of them. (Or so I’ve been told.)
I was looking at the Spring lineup and it doesn’t look like there’s many shows to improve on the current fare. All the good stuff seems to be set for summer & fall. Looks like it’ll be a year for catching up on old shows you haven’t seen yet.
I need to watch Shion no Ou. I really love the manga and the first episode of the anime was fine.
I also need to watch Okawari. I’m slow on downloading though.
I’ve been keeping up with Kaiji since episode 13-14. And I’m loving the current game. I really love the emotional aspects of Kaiji, and how Kaiji despite being confused is able to find ways to cope with the gambles. and I love the music (the OP is the best 50 seconds to begin an anime). So yeah I find Kaiji great.
I also decided to watch a bit of Akagi now that I’m into Fukomoto’s work. But Akagi is alot harder for me to understand (I have no Mahjong experience). I think both are awesome in perspective ways (as you said). I guess I prefer Kaiji because of it’s more insane games (though Akagi himself …is quite insane).
Been keeping up with Spice and Wolf (though I like calling it by it’s traditional title Okami to Koushinryou). I wonder what episode 7 has…if it’s DVD only. The econmic part is not “yay! exciting” to me. But I don’t hate it. Spice and Wolf is really fun.
Keeping up with Shigofumi. I love the music of this aswell.
Can’t find subs. So I just watch the raw and read summaries. And yeah episodes 5 and 6 could have been done wayyyy better.
Definitely keeping up Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei. Though only with subs (you can’t really enjoy this series without understanding whats going on). and episode 4 gives me another reason to say: “GO SHAFT”
Sort of Keeping up with Kimiaru. Mainly just watching the raw.
Episode 7 was alright (Shinra+pandas=
@ Servbot: I think it was just because of the links, Akismet seems to axe anything with more than one link in it nowadays.
…never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down! And etc.
@ usagijen: No love for Futami? I prefer her over soccer girl, if only because her IQ is multiple orders higher.
Wouldn’t bishie Ayumi still have his long flowing hair though? He looks weird with short hair.
@ Vadigor: Wow, you certainly have a lot of backlog to grind through. Good luck with that!
@ W4: Oh man I lol’d so hard at your scenario of Futami getting the hiccups, I can almost imagine it.
Can’t say I’m with you on the Bamboo Blade point though, I think the show itself could do without males entirely, thereby upping the yuri undertones.
@ Greggo: A rare species you Asuka supporters are.
@ Siva: COOL AND-O SPICEY! Yea…I still have no idea why I follow it though.
I’m not watching Hatenkou Yugi, and I dropped Persona, thanks for reminding me about that one.
@ Telliamed: I don’t know what happened with me and Persona, I liked the first couple episodes but then I just sorta…stopped watching. No real reason, I just stopped, I might go back to it one day and marathon through the whole thing though, possibly next season since you’re calling for it to be pretty tame.
@ Avisch: I love the Kaiji OST, I can listen to some of those ZAWA ZAWA tracks for hours on end.
Akagi is awesome even without knowing mahjong, as I was through my first watch, it then inspired me to learn mahjong, I came back with an understanding of the game and the awesomeness was amplified tenfold.
Ep 7 was apparently too fanservicey, which interests me since they had no qualms about showing Horo naked for essentially the entirety of the first two episodes.
SZSZ needs moar subs, a.f.k. where are you?!
We’re all lower than pandas ;_;
Well, AFK’ve been slacking of a little too much recently. The only time I remeber seeing a release from them this season in like…clannad 13?
Anyway, I think Shigofumi is a pretty good watch, especially since after the “Out of body expierence/Scared of cats” thing starts showing up, altough yes, the blood is still black…..BLACK BLOOD!!!!
In my opinion, Kaiji is a pretty good physological show, but the main flaw is that it takes a very long time for the audience to be fully into the show, resulting in a situation where it really draws you in, and then cuts of just at the point where you are really engrossed in it…yeah.
Nope, there was red blood in this week’s episode of Shigofumi. Somebody is slipping.
AH!! omg.. i’ve been missing out on SO much this season, been hibernating and forcing myself to revise!! Just thought id come back and have a read (yes procrastinating) and i see all this wonderful anime! damn i need to catch up!
kool amuleto corazon =)