neko’s thinkbox

I believe summer should be all about about blue skies, sunflowers, and random pictures of girls.

I believe summer should be all about about blue skies, sunflowers, and random pictures of girls.

One large week into this seemingly meek anime season, and a minor TF2 hiatus. Perfect conditions to do my usual season first impressions sweep across all newcomers.

Well, if I say all, that means not all.

There are a couple of series that I would like to watch, but have not watched the prequels yet, such as Spice and Wolf II ^[1] and Zan Zetsubou Sayonara Sensei ^[2]
Other anime I am not going to watch are either airing on exotic channels like BeeTV ^[3] or NicoNico Channel.

List of series in part one:

Aoi Hana
CANAAN
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!
NEEDLESS

Aoi Hana

And I start right off the bat with a boring series. …is what I would have written, had I stopped after the opening. But at the end of these 23 minutes, I must correct myself.

And I start right off the bat with a boring series. Don’t get me wrong though. Boring, yes, but I mean boring as in… uneventful. And you know… I don’t give a damn about that. This episode was awfully sweet and touching.

The most interesting character here is Fumi. She is a beautiful person and is taller than most girls her age, but it seems she still has not grown up in her mind yet. Ever since her childhood, she has been a crybaby, always clinging to her one and only friend. In the past, it was Akira, and now it is Chizu, who I believe was the perfect replacement for Akira. Fumi wanted to be together with Chizu forever, but she is now leaving because of her marriage, which implies a much deeper rupture with Fumi than a mere parting. But now that coincidence or fate, like a poet would say, has brought Akira and Fumi back together, I am sure they will rebuild a great friendship.

As I said, it is overly boring, but that applies to most Slice of (School) Life series. And for some reason, it is exactly that which makes me like Aoi Hana. That and the girls love element which runs strong in this series, it looks really promising. Then again, I don’t have much experience with the Shoujo Ai/Yuri genre ^[4], because I know I will end up pitying the boys who have a crush on the concerned girls. ;_; Nevertheless, I will watch on for the well-drawn backgrounds, the gentle music, the sweet characters, and the touching story. Will I cry this season? We’ll see.

CANAAN

That is some nice reloading technique she has.

That is some nice reloading technique she has.

Yes, this is a show with clear Type-Moon influences. Yes, I think I am a Type-Moon fan (although I am absolutely not well versed in the Nasuverse and I have yet to watch/read Kara no Kyoukai). So yes, I must like CANAAN. Or must I? While I let you spot the fallacies, I will try to convey my feelings about this show in a few words, see if it helps.

This show is… obscure. Not so much in the choice of colors (Canaan sports a flashy red top in contrast with her white/bleached hair), but in its theme. Obscure may be the wrong word, may I say… mysterious? Macabre? Original?

Since she is named after the show, Canaan must by definition be the central figure here. But we barely know anything about her. Only that she is badass at gunfight and acrobatics. And that she is a synaer… syn… synestehersisterasd. Synsesthesist. So this perfectly shaped woman has Psi-Gamma abilities, sweet. And there is this other organization who wants to use synesthesia onto IFF technology - smart idea, no need for RFID technology or other reconnaissance tools then. And so this organization, is doing everything to catch Canaan, with the help of her eccentric ^[5] “sister” Liang Qi? Meantime, she is taking out infected people in Shanghai during a festival, like a hitman?

I think that my major grief is that I barely don’t know anything after having watched the first episode. Whether Canaan’s organization is good or bad, why those random people die in agony after removal of their mask (which leads me to think that they are infected by some kind of virus or so), what the roles of that mute woman Hakko and her boyfriend are, who the Snakes are, and how Canaan is related to Maria (a single red string does not really narrow down the possibilities…).

However, I will say that I simply adored the quality of the production here. Takeuchi’s designs are great as always, animation was flawless. I liked how Maria’s simple and widely naive concept of how people choose to ignore what lies in front of their eyes was extrapolated to the macabre fest that took place during the festival. People would not react to the gunfire because they were distracted and thought it was part of the celebration. Though on the other hand, they were a little too oblivious toHey mum, blood just gushed out of this oniichan’s chest! - Special effects, my dear. Almost looks real, doesn’t it? the killed people… I wonder if there isn’t something more behind it.

Shit, I talked a lot. So, I am not that impressed by CANAAN, and I still don’t know if I will keep watching this or not. I think I will put this decision on hold until episode two. (By the way, Canaan claiming her plush at the shooting gallery hours after she shot it was awesomely cute. Perhaps I may just watch on for her, heh.)

Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!

I'd hit it. Like a motherfucking baseball.

I’d hit it. Like a motherfucking baseball.

I always knew the A in otaku had a meaning of its own. Or F in What the Fuck is this shit??

Turning depressed people into Mr 100000 Volt to cheer them up. While the plot itself might sound plausible, the excessive fanserviceNo comment. Fuck you. definitely does not. It is just FUCKING STUPIDFUCKING STUPID. Too bad. Had they kept it in a Keroro Gunsou-like prudeness, it probably would have earned itself a better name.

But what in Jabba’s name is up with all this peeing businessFucking sick people. in anime nowadays? Is there really a demand for animated golden showersFucking sick people. now? This is just obscene. Not even a Kooh-like DFCLeft: WANT; Right: DO NOT FUCKING WANT. can save this ridiculous travesty of an anime any longer. Write it off as a shitty parody, for all I care.

Well, at least it lasted longer than Queen’s Blade did. Guess this perfectly designedEven M.J. would have wanted such a nose. nose did the trick. But hell, I ain’t going to watch this ever again.

NEEDLESS

(Insert yet another I'd hit/kick/x her like a y joke here.)

(Insert yet another “I’d hit/kick/x her like a y” joke here.)

The first time I heard about this anime, I thought it was a hissing corruption of the word needles. Like a snake craving for NEEDLESSSSSSSSSSS. Guess it wasn’t so.

*22 minutes have passed*

Though I would have liked this anime being about needles. That would have been a lot more interesting than the boring shit that went on in this episode.

Post-apocalypse. Calling attacks. Raw drama. GAR Priest Poser. Large breasts. Ridiculous effects. Pointless slapstick, pointless fanservice. No need to use a blender, watch NEEDLESS. OH MY FUCKING GOSH, WHAT THE HELL AM I FORCING MYSELF TO WATCH AT 5:30 AM??

Putting the raeg aside, I was 12 minutes into the episode and I kept facepalming. Those awful slapstick jokes/parodies ^[6] and this whole “unfitting childish behavior for a big-breasted cunt” act were horrendously boring. And were it not for the hilariously generic and superficial plot, preposterously (un)cool priest, even more eccentric enemies, and this absolutely over-the-top mental action, perhaps nothing would remain, but that would be already better than this. Just when I thought nothing could top Basquash! in terms of epic action, NEEDLESS beats it hands down; but mind you, this show is epicly BAD. USELESS would have been a more fitting title.

Just what was it trying to be? A Gurren Lagann clone? I couldn’t even bear watching the ED. Heck, I even enjoyed Juuden-chan more than this. Something must be definitely wrong with me. — oh but I liked the OP. The song, yes, of course! Only the song.

Four series cleared. I’m really not impressed so far. Only Aoi Hana and CANAAN made the cut, and I’m not sure about CANAAN yet. We’ll see how the rest of the summer pack turns out.

1. still stalling on S1, hoping to find some motivation to clear it [↩]
2. I never made it past the first ep of SZS, donut know why. May resume sometime, maybe. [↩]
3. Some kind of Mobile Phone TV, because your batteries shouldn’t last longer than half a day. [↩]
4. I did watch the incestual Candy Boy though [↩]
5. I mean, who the fuck would want to get a leg massage on a fucking helicopter?? [↩]
6. Yamada? And other misspellings. [↩]