Towards the end of September, many animes I was watching wrapped up. Starting October, a ton of new series aired. It’s a promising new seasons with over 30 new animes to choose from. A little overwhelming. I briefly went through the synopsis of a majority of them as well as watched the promotional material on some. However, the videos weren’t subbed so I was kind of clueless as to what they were saying. Nonetheless, I got a feel for the animation style and the voice actors / actresses. The upcoming season felt a lot different from the ones I has been watching over the summer. There’s a number of romance, slice of life, drama type series. It seems to lack comedies but I guess I can only tell when I actually watch them. I’ve decided to give each series a try first, watching at least 2-3 episodes.
So, this week I got my hands on the following series premiers:
Blue Drop [Genjo]
I first downloaded a DMP sub of Blue Drop which turned out to be a parody sub. -.- A total waste of my limited bandwidth. The first episode of Blue Drop is kind of slow. It introduces the main characters. Mari Wakatake is transferring to this ‘noble’ boarding school. However, she felt that she’s being put there because her grandma just wants to get rid of her. Hagino Senkoji is Mari’s new roommate. Mari saw her during her ride to the new school where Hagino was surrounded by a flock of seagulls. As they shook hands after meeting in the dorm room, Hagino’s eyes turned blue as if she’s possessed and began choking Mari. In Mari’s mind, a flashback of a little girl crying in a sea of fire briefly appeared. Meanwhile at the school office, Mari’s homeroom teacher along with the headmaster are discussing an incident that occurred five years involving Mari. The details of the incident was not disclosed. Later on at dinner, Mari was introduced to the rest of the girls living in her dorm. Later that night, Mari noticed Hagino leaving the dorms and decided to follow her. She ends up at a shipyard, port-like area. She found Hagino standing in front of the waters. All of a sudden, a large purple machine / robot emerged from the waters. Hagino turns around with the aforementioned blue eyes while Mari watches with fear.
As I said earlier, episode 1 is slow. Characters are introduced and two mysteries are presented – the incident 5 years ago and Hagino with the weird robot. These was only briefly touched upon in this episode. I was hoping for a bit more action when I read the anime description. I will keep watching to see how things go. It still has potential to be good.
Clannad [SS-Eclipse]
Clannad seemed to be a much anticipated anime of the season from what I gathered in various anime forums and blogs. I have no idea what it is about or what the hype is for. From the description, it felt like a romantic series which is one type of anime I tend to avoid but I decided to give it a try to see if it’s worth all the hype. It turns out to be more interesting than I expected (though I was really expecting nothing from it). The animation style reminds me of AIR which may be why I was kind of against watching this. (I was absolutely confused in AIR.) Clannad is set in a (I think) post secondary school where main characters Tomoya Okazaki and Nagisa Furukawa attends. Tomoya is fairly indifferent towards going to school and is often late to classes. Contrarily, Nagisa really loves the school. She was away for a year and is now friendless. Tomoya met her on his way to school one day. He saw her eating lunch alone in the school yard and decided to chat with her for a bit. Nagisa wanted to join the Drama club but thinks that she lack physical strength to handle the activities. Tomoya encourages her to give it a try. But they found out that the club had been discontinued already. Tomoya went to Nagisa’s family bakery for a visit and met her kind of goofy parents. When he returned home, he was disgusted with his own half-drunken father, who had been drinking and gambling since Tomoya’s mother passed away when he was little.
The above description may sound like another romance story but there are some element of comedy in Clannad which really liven up the episode. It doesn’t fit the stereotype romance anime in my mind where a million girls falls for this one single guy or a bunch of love triangles occur. Several other girls were introduced but they don’t seem to be interested in Tomoya although that can’t be said for future episodes. This first episode really did introduce the story in a nice way. I’ll keep watching this until it changes into that annoying love stories (which I hope it doesn’t!).
Da Capo II [ASF] (not to be confused with Da Capo Second Season)
I’ve never watched the previous Da Capo series but from the story synopsis, there’s a 53 year gap between the last series and this. So, I figure I can’t be too lost without seeing them. This is another anime set in a school setting. The first episode introduced a lot of characters (and I’m pretty confused with all the names). Majority of the episode is spent in a school festival where the main purpose seems to be finding someone you like and accompanying them during the festival. It focused on three girls and three guys, where one of the girls (Koko) has a crushed on one of the guys (Yoshiyuki). She ended up confessing to him at the end but Yoshiyuki seem to already know about this from a premonition. He accepted to go out with her.
At first I thought this was yet another romance story but there was magic in this series as well! It was really unexpected since everything looked so normal. In the beginning of the episode, Yoshiyuki made breakfast for his sister and just ‘popped’ a sweet bun from his hand. I was literally shocked for a second since I was expecting a totally normal setting, nothing with magic. It seems that in addition to that, Yoshiyuki can also see dreams which is the reason why he was familiar with the confessing scene. Anyway, the series looks kind of interesting. Romance + magic, I guess can handle.
Dragonaut ~ The Resonances ~ [Infinite-Zero]
This had the best series premier so far. There were so many elements and concepts introduced that I’m really looking forward to watching this series. Main character Jin Kamishina was going to the moon with his family. His dad was the pilot of the spaceship. However, not long after launch, the spaceship was hit with asteroids and Jin was the sole survivor on the incident. Fast forward time a bit, Jin is now living with some of his relatives where he doesn’t seem to be very welcomed. In a TV report, it is revealed that the International Solarsystem Development Agency is working on a D-Project which is a mission to avoid destruction from an asteroid. As Jin heads to school, he was approached by a reporter inquiring about the incident and placing blame of his father, the pilot. Jin asked to be left alone and rushed onto a bus for school. As the reporter turns around, he caught a glimpse of a girl across the street. When he grabbed his camera, he was only able to take a blurry picture of her. On the bus, the other students were badmouthing Jin while he sits at the end of the bus. He intentionally didn’t get off when it arrived at the school. In a cafe, the reporter met with a scientist from the ISDA but she was unable to tell whether the girl in the picture is an Alwaurm Communicator (a wah?!). At the ISDA, Jin’s old friend Kazuki had a successful resonance and is now an official member of the Dragonaut. He now has his own dragon. Going back to Jin, he was walking along the streets when he heard a screaming sound. He went to check it out only to find a blue monster with glowing red marks on his body. The monster began to attack Jin as Jin attempts to escape. But he fails and was thrown off a building. However, a mysterious girl jumps over a rescues him. It was the same girl the reporter saw earlier and coincidentally, the reporter was around and confirms that the girl is indeed a communicator. The monster caught up with the building-leaping girl and engages in a battle. It was overpowered by the girl and got crashed into by a truck which then exploded. But that didn’t kill it and it ran away. A sedan quickly approaches the crash site where an old man reports to a young girl that ‘it has escaped’. Meanwhile, Jin had woken up and found himself on a grass field. He sees the girl who introduced herself as Toa. He does not feel alone anymore.
That is quite an action-packed first episode! ISDA, Dragonauts, Dragons, Communicator, monters… There are a ton of things introduced that needs further explanation. It really seem to be a great series to look forward to. I’ll most definitely keep watching it!
Kaiji [Triad]
Kaiji is by the same creator as Akaji so the animation is strikingly similar. It’s a definitely unique style. Kaiji is about gambling which has some resemblance to Akagi. Kaiji is the main character of the story whose life only revolves around gambling and liquor. When he loses, he vent out his anger by vandalizing import cars. One day, he was approached by a man who from a ‘financial firm’. Apparently, he cosigned a loan for an old coworker who had now disappeared. Kaiji is now left to pay the debt which total up to 3.85million yen which will take up to 11 years! Kaiji refuses to pay and argued that the interest rates are illegal. But the man threatened to bother his family. The man then present him with another option which is a gambling ship. Participants are given money to gamble with each other on the ship. If he wins, he can clear his debt and possibly take more money with him. If he loses, he’s taken away to work for a few years and still have to pay back the debt. Kaiji falls for the trap and joins. At the ship, they are allowed to borrow from 1million to 10million yen. If they repay 40% more than borrowed, they can leave free of debt. However the interests compound every 10 minutes at 40%! Without knowing what the gambling event is, Kaiji takes 10 million. At the next room, the first round of gambling is about to start. And the event is Restricted Rock Papaer Scissors!
I enjoyed the tactics and twists in Akagi so I’m looking forward to this series. However, there are notable difference between Akagi and Kaiji. Akagi was a genious. Kaiji is a bum. It’ll be interesting to see how Kaiji get himself out of the hell hole!
Myself; Yourself [m.3.3.w]
This is the least interesting series I’ve encounter so far for the new season. The first episode begins with a group of friends, elementary school aged, gathering to bid farewell to one of them, Sana. After 5 years, Sana returns to the town. Not a lot has changed except a store here and there. He first headed to the shrine and notices this girl there sweeping the floor. He thought she was pretty. Sana then headed to his apartment. It turns out that the landlord was the family of one of his childhood friend. Next day, Sana went to school and found two other childhood friends in his class! At lunch time, he saw the girl from the shrine and was introducing himself. However, it turns out that the girl was also one of his childhood friend. She was still wearing a bracelet which Sana gave her back then. The girl was angry and slapped his face.
Hm.. I don’t see anything from this series. Other than characters, nothing else were introduce to make a story. Something for sure will happen between Sana and shrine girl, Nanaka but I’m not here to watch a pure romance. So unless the next episode adds more interesting elements, this is off my to-watch list. Btw, the shrine girl so looked like the childhood friend. How can he not notice!?! IDIOT!
You’re Under Arrest Full Throttle [Naked]
Again, this is a sequel series but I haven’t watch any of the previous series. I hope I won’t be too lost in this. The first episode had quite a bit of action in it. I like!!!!! Miyuki and Natsumi are police officers (traffic? I haven’t quite figure it out yet.) who had gone away for training. Today is their return date. Miyuki is flying back from America. She met with a boy Randy at the airport who turns out to be seated next to her on her flight. They played video games together. Randy told Miyuki that her mother and grandfather are from Japan. He wanted to go see the castles and samuri so he can ask them how to be strong. After landing, Miyuki found the boy sitting alone terminal. Randy told her his grandpa isn’t coming. At the time, a man in a dark suit came and took Randy and forced Randy to go with him. Randy asked Miyuki to save him. Miyuki quickly kicked a nearby suitcase to knock out the man. She grabbed Randy and took off with a car outside the arrival terminal. A dark sedan pulled up and the man went in. A car chase ensues. Miyuki found out that Randy is the son of a rich man who had recently died. Natsumi was eating lunch at a restaurant when she saw the car chase news report on TV. She recognizes the driving style of Miyuki and quickly took off in a motorcycle. Police quickly followed the chase but were shot at by the man. Miyuki headed for her ‘castle’ (police station). As the man tried to shoot at Miyuki’s car, Natsumi caught up and kicked him in the face. She then leaped into Miyuki’s car. They finally arrived at the station where Natsumi used her foot (boot) to force a 90 degree turn just before the row of police car. The dark sedan end up crashed into them and the man were faced with a bunch of police with guns. However, Miyuki wasn’t a whole lot better off with the ‘borrowed’ car crashed at the side.
I enjoyed the episode which was pretty exciting and funny at the same time. If the series continues to be like this, I will like this anime a lot. I think it has the potential and will definitely follow up on it. Maybe I’ll even watch the prequels to this.
Wow that was a long post! There are still a number of series that I’m interested in watching. Most notably are:
Sketchbook~full color’s~
Mobile Suit Gundam 00
ef – a tale of memories
Jyuushi Enbu – HERO TALES-
GENSHIKEN 2 !!! A MUST!
Ghost Hound
Another note, the game I was once quite attached to, Maple Story, had came out with an anime. It looked pretty childish and doesn’t really resemble the game that much. I will watch the first episode just for the heck of it and likely say goodbye to it.
I’ve been watching alot of TVB instead.
).
