Impressions - Animefangirl!

Dropped: Giant Killing, Joukamachi no Dandelion, Non non Biyori

Regular readers of the AnimeFangirl blog should be used to the system where I try one episode of a series and then drop it like a hot potato. Being an avid anime watcher for almost 20 years ensures you develop a nose for shows that won’t work out and can quit without wasting too much time. As a bonus this also frees you up to cope with your ever-growing backlog -_-;; The latest shows on the chopping block:

Giant Killing: I like sports shows/manga about the sport at the professional level, but something about this lazy rogue ‘unconventional’ coach rubbed me the wrong way. The art and the voices were low-tier as well, but I am vaguely interested in this rags-to-riches story so I might read the manga sometime. Things take so long to develop in the anime and so much time is spent just talking and arguing that I’m bailing out now.

Non non Biyori: Cute show. Lovely environments. Really makes you want to up and move to a village in the Japanese countryside, it’s so beautiful. So much so in fact that it actually feels like pro-countryside propaganda, to be honest. But the bigger problem is that there are tons of “cute girls doing cute stuff” slice of life shows out there and Non non Biyori doesn’t have anything special going for it besides the gorgeous scenery gimmick. It’s also really, really slow even by slice of life show standards. It was a nice watch, but one episode is enough.

Joukamachi no Dandelion: Too many characters. Too much going on. Too many ‘wacky’ incidents. The main character is annoying. The premise is all kinds of messed up and yet not very interesting at the same time. The royal family lives in a normal neighborhood? There’s nothing normal about their lives with all those cameras and magical powers and flying! So why not just let them live in a palace already? And the whole ‘game to decide the next king’ gimmick is stupid. In fact it’s just a dumb show all around. I don’t think I even finished the first episode. Next!

More quick drops: Aoharu x Kikanjuu, Classroom Crisis, Etotama

Regular readers should be used to me failing to make it through even the first 10 minutes of most anime shows by now. At least it helps me get through my massive backlog faster, right? The most recent victims:

Aoharu x Kikanjuu: I tried it when it started airing and didn’t even make it past the point where Tachibana’s friend Hotaru starts groping her. I liked the whole fiery school council president schtick, but the vulgarity ruined the moment. This time I tried again and made it to the point where Tachibana confronts the guy who won’t shut up about breasts. More vulgarity and more talking than I was hoping for from this kind of show. If I have to struggle this hard to make it to the 10-minute mark then the show doesn’t have a future with me. Dropped.

Classroom Crisis: I wanted to like this, since it was trying to do something different with the sci-fi and the high schoolers also being employees tackling a hostage crisis while flying into space etc etc, but in the end there was just too much going on. Even worse, the transfer student they saved ended up being a huge jerk – but a jerk with a point i.e. they wasted too much money on the rescue + butted their noses in where it didn’t belong. Nevertheless the dumb, money-wasting “passionate” kids and their teachers are going to be portrayed as the good guys while the sensible jerk Nagisa is slowly going to be won over to their side and so on. And there’s going to be all this business intrigue and drama and stuff going on. Not interested, pass.

Etotama: Etotama was a cute and silly show and not nearly as fanservicey as I’d expected (in fact, hardly fanservicey at all). I liked Takeru’s stoic reactions to Nya-tan’s silliness, though it probably won’t last once he gets to know her better. It’s just that this is one of those shows where one episode is really enough. Nya-tan’s antics are cute enough for one episode, but I can see them getting real old real quick, so I’d rather leave Etotama with good memories. Maybe one day when I’m really bored I’ll watch another episode. Until then!

More quick drops – Nanatsu no Taizai, Houkago no Pleiaiides and Akagami no Shirayukihime

No need to waste time on stuff I know I won’t like. I gave Nanatsu no Taizai two whole episodes to redeem itself because I’d heard so much about it. The other two shows I just flipped through quite quickly. Not my thing, not my thing, *delete* and we’re done.

Nanatsu no Taizai – It seems to be one of the top shounen anime out right now, and I was all set to like it because of the fantasy setting, but ultimately it was undone by the main character’s sheer vulgarity. Perhaps it’s supposed to be funny, having a baby-faced protagonist constantly sexually harassing the hapless female under his protection, but I just found it creepy and disgusting to watch. Also granted I only gave it to two episodes, but the story didn’t really draw me in. Of course the Seven Deadly Sins are going to be found innocent and there’s some plotting afoot and in the end the princess will be on the throne, but it looked like something that would take a hundred episodes or more to happen, and I’m not ready for another Naruto. Done and dusted.

Houkago no Pleiades – Silly, childish schoolgirl romance kind of series. I have yet to encounter a magical girl show I enjoyed and this didn’t look set to be the one. And instead of embracing their magical girl-ness they tried to go all philosophical with gazing on the stars tonight, mingling with this or that *yaaaawn* Next.

Akagami no Shirayukihime – Lazy animation, lazy writing, infuriating show. I don’t like those shoujos where everything works out for the heroine despite her stupidity and her poor decision-making. If your red hair is attracting the wrong kind of attention, DYE IT YOU FOOL. And if you’re fleeing the prince of a kingdom, don’t get to the border and stop, LEAVE THE COUNTRY. And don’t randomly trust strange guys you meet in a forest. And don’t injure yourself trying to get random strangers to trust you. AAARGH. The first episode alone had me tearing my hair out, so I thought I’d quit while my blood pressure was still at normal levels.

Yowamushi Pedal episodes 1-4 (dropped)

Happy New Year! Now the Christmas season is well and truly over, I can get back to posting about anime and manga. I didn’t try as many new series as I thought I would over the holiday season, but a few is better than none. First up, Yowamushi Pedal, a series I liked a lot after episode 1 then liked less and less with each subsequent episode until I dropped it after episode 4.

What I liked about the first episode is the slight twist on the staple “naive character doesn’t know he’s talented in a sport” trope many sports anime have. Sure Sakamichi is naive and doesn’t know he’s a cycling prodigy, but he’s wholly devoted to another interest (anime) and is determined to pursue it in high school. I wanted to find out how he would reconcile the two interests or whether he would end up dropping anime together because 3D friends and physical exercise are so much better.

I also rather liked the snobby rival character who was shown up so easily (sort of) by an oblivious Sakamachi. That interest stayed with me in episode 2 during the race, but then the technical terms started flowing. Cadence. The height of the seat blah blah. Rotations. Pedaling this, pedaling that. It was too much technicality too soon for me. Plus the gallery and their commentary were seriously annoying, especially the stalker manager girl with the huge eyes. Ick.

Then episodes 3 and 4 just lost me completely with the introduction of the Osakan character with the bad voice-acting. I can’t even remember his name now, but the whole episode was just so boring. Some guy threw a cigarette butt at a bike so they pedal and pedal and pedal and pedal (repeat for 15 minutes) and that’s supposed to be interesting? That’s when I realized a show about cycling just wasn’t for me. The better kind of sports show at least makes an effort to show you what’s so exciting about that sport in particular, but Yowamushi Pedal just takes it for granted that everybody likes cycling already. If you don’t, well, it’s got nothing to offer you.

So having realized I wouldn’t be able to sit through any of the other races/matches the show had to offer because cycling is just too boring, I decided to call it a day and quit while I was ahead. I still like sports anime (I think?) and Yowamushi Pedal probably isn’t bad if you like cycling or racing shows. It’s just too boring for me so I’m out.

Million Doll and Jitsu wa Watashi wa – Decent but still dropped

The last post featured anime I didn’t like enough to even finish an episode of. This post features two shows I fairly enjoyed the first episode of but didn’t see the need to watch the rest of. Once you watch enough anime, you’re able to get a general sense for what a show is going to like just from the introductory episode. Million Doll and Jitsu wa Watashi wa are both shows I would probably enjoy moderately if I’d continued, but they weren’t gripping enough to justify the time and effort so I’m saying goodbye to them on a positive note.

Million Doll – Each episode is short, which is always a good thing. The music is extremely forgettable, which is only natural for idol music. Although it’s a show about cute young girls, they did show some of the darker elements of idol life, including the fickle fandom and the poor amenities (playing to small crowds, having to walk home from the airport) as well as some of the rewards, mainly having people support and cheer you on.

Good for them, but they’d either have to make the music a lot better or the show a lot more realistic or at least introduce some direct competition before they could interest me enough to watch the whole show.

Jitsu wa Watashi wa – I don’t mind romances where you already know who’s going to end up with who from the start – if anything, that’s my preference. So I thought I would like Jitsu wa, but the main guy is just too awkward with too many weird expressions to enjoy. I know it’s his gimmick, but it’s uncomfortable to watch.

The show is also extremely slow because half the ‘action’ takes place in the mind of the main character. He spends too much time thinking and thinking about things before saying or doing anything, it’s annoying.

Since his relationship with the vampire girl is all but established in episode 1 and since I’ve seen enough of this kind of show to know how things are going to go (slowly growing closer, opposition from girl’s family, reporter girl trying to expose her secret, etc) and since the lengths he’ll have to go to to keep her secret will lead to all kinds of embarrassing situations, which I really hate, so I’m gonna bail out now. It was a cute show, but one episode was enough.

Neeext!