New Season, New shows

Well, it seems that a new season has come upon us and new anime shows are premiering in Japan now. Does anyone here even keep up with the new subbed releases anymore? I do, and with my trusty day off today, and Version FiOS connection, I went on a spree and got everything with an episode number 1 next to it that I could find, so here my take on some of the new shows:

High School Girls - I went into this with low expectations, sure I've watched plenty of good anime about high school girls, or with high school girls in them, pani poni dash, azumanga diaoh, and school rumble all come to mind. But this show... not even a creative title, just blatant "High School Girls." Well, as it turns out, the show was far below my already low expectations for it, shoddy artwork, horrible characters, stereotype after stereotype and the most artistic detail put into anything were the girls panties. Which were shown on average 3 times a minute. 2/10

Disgaea - I'm a HUGE fan of the game and was very psyched about this, the promos all made it look to be godly, with great artwork, and superior amounts of frame-by-frame animation. The anime itself was a bastard child of a good game and bad directing. The story was compeltely rewritten and the artwork looked like shit. I don't know about this.. I wanna like it as I'm a disgaea fanboy, but it's just so bad... 5/10

xxxHOLIC - Simply put, it makes a few changes from the manga, but the artwork and character design has improved significantly from the movie, looks like it's gonna be really good. 8/10

Air Gear - Can you say, Jet Set Radio anime? I can, and it's called Air Gear. Overall the artworks lookin' real good, which is to be expected as this is adapted the manga by Oh! Great (Think Tenjou Tenge), characters are somewhat interesting, and the plot seems a bit farfetched but fun at the same time. If you ever played Jet Set Radio or Jet Grind Radio, you're gonna like this. 7/10

NANA - I've heard quite a bit of hype around this, but was a bit dissapointed, seems like some show aimed at college women, while it's suited for someone like narrator, I couldn't really see myself watching it again. 5/10

Strawberry Panic - Shit. 0/10. Lets move on.

Kiba - I'm a bit vexed by this, the first ep really leaves things open in the second with a lot to explain, however I think it shows a bit of potential. The art for the first ep was good, very dark and grimy settings so you could never see the characters true tones and colors, but the setup for the second is looking more natural and bright. as I said, potential 7/10

Soul Link - Generic boring bullshit, it's high school girls in space. 1/10.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - The first ep was nothing but a student filmed movie they were preparing for a school festival, no indication of that utnil the end. They just had bad camera and artwork with horrible acting till then. Some people loved it, I didn't, I guess I can't make any judgements since it's not the "real" show, but I didn't like what I saw 3/10

School Rumble: 2nd Semester - I made a thread about it and raved about the first season, I'm a total fanboy. 10/10

Utawarerumo - This one looks interesting to say the least, I like how the style of it is playing out and the plot seems like it could get good, has a very RPGish feel to it, and I'm a big RPG gamer. With that said, 9/10

That's all for now,

Raven Omega: Watching bad anime so you don't have to.

Fuck You.


That Kiba sure sounds good though.

Hmm, i'll have to look over some of those recommendations and see for myself.

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - Intially I gave this a 3/10 based on the first ep, well, now i've seen eps two and three and I would like to bump this score up to a 9/10 as it's provided me a very nice amount of off beat humor. This might just be the best comedy of the season next to School Rumble.

Black Lagoon - The first ep showed a normal 'ryman get mixed up with a group mercenaries. There was guns, booze, and death, lots and lots of death, and a couple explosions. Shows like this tend to wow you on the first ep and go downhill from there, but we'll see, based on the first ep alone, I'm giving it a 8/10

Ouran High School Host Club - I... I don't know what to say about this. I'm gonna provide a picture here.



The one highlighted in pink? Girl. The rest? GAY.
And as much as I HATE to admit it, the goddamn episode had its fair share of funny moments with the outrageously homosexual cast and the one girl-that-looks-like-a-guy who really fucking hates them all. 6/10

Still to watch (whenever I get time): Himawari, Zegapain, and Reinken

That's really all you needed to say. I'm sold.

Surprised Ergo Proxy wasn't mentioned. Danny boy and myself have been salivating over the eye candy type of aesthetics it has.

Good point. Ergo Proxy is the hottest anime out at the moment.

Well I guess I didn't count Emo Proxy since it's been out for a month already. It's a nice looking show, but it's plot is trudging along slow and the most of the characters, aside from Pino and that old doctor, are pretty boring. 4/10

And there's Legend Killer's favorite series, Ah! My Goddess that has just started it's second season.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first read that Black Lagoon had become an anime.
I've known the manga from the release but could you tell me some more about the anime? I know there's not muc of it as of now but still...

That first season sucked so hard I couldn't finish it. Not even bothering with the second.

As for Black Lagoon, uhh What can I say? I never read the manga for it before... The animaton was good, lots of fast paced action. uhh... I don't know what more to say.

By the way, I could still use a WORKING cd with those Jigoku episodes on them, Raven.

That CD and the episodes work fine, it's not MY fault you fail so hard you can't even download a damn codec.

Which fucking codec?!!?

ALL OF THEM!

Look up Ace Mega Codec Download for christs sake! I told you to do that MONTHS AGO!

Forgive my ignorance Master Raven!!!!

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - I was impressed by this. Very, very Impressed. It starts right off at night with a guy beating his two female classmates to death with a baseball bat. After that thing's slow down and turn into almost a generic harem show. But bit by bit the stage is set for at least one of the girls, Rena, to be a true psychotic murderer. I think... I'm going to enjoy this. The next Elfen Lied? Might just be damn close. 9.5/10

This post has been edited by Raven Omega on Apr 22 2006, 08:49 AM

You mean to tell me that the Japanese still make anime and people actually watch it? I need to get back in the game... maybe not (no time or patience)

Good to hear, I had actually downloaded this right when Ayu released but haven't had the time to watch the first ep. Plus it's 26 eps, none of this 12-13 ep business.

And just in case people are wondering about the series here's synopsis taken from anidb.net on it.