MAYBES
Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches (Crunchyroll on Sundays)
BCT: – KEEP/MAYBE – Having no experience with the manga, and coming in cold with this premise, I would not have expected to finish this first episode with such a positive impression. Especially not believing it one of the more charming (even, despite its Weekly Shounen pedigree, cute) shows of the new season. But the way it plays a little with gender stereotypes at the same time it takes advantage of gender differences makes this click. Yamada, the boy, being the one too shy to kiss, and subject to shoujo-rific delusions about Shiraishi’s opinion of him; while Shiraishi’s cool, detached, and analytical—but still subject to some amusing inferences, like a very quick approval for purely scientific yaoi. As the cast fills out in the coming episodes, however, there is a question of how well it can keep this curious charm going.
BM: – MAYBE – Gender-swap comedy, where lead male Yamada can swap bodies with whoever he kisses. His first, accidental, victim is a girl, but it’s established fairly quickly that the trick works with guys, too. Yaoi, APPROVED, in a twisted kind of way. I wasn’t expecting too much from this, but it made me smile in several places, which was enough to catch my attention. Whether it’s worth keeping or not depends on where it goes with its big idea from here.
GBS: – MAYBE – When I read that this was going to be about body switching, I had a nagging thought that this would have the rather tired joke of the guy in a girl’s body…doing some exploring. Of course they did that, but I have to give them points for doing it fairly quickly, not lingering over it and making it annoying. Other than that, Yamada and Shiraishi are fairly common stereotypes, though there has to be something more to Shiraishi than we’ve been shown so far. While Yamada properly freaks out over the whole body swap, Shiraishi just took it far too much in stride. This isn’t complex comedy or deeply plotted, but it was not annoying either. I’ll have another but it hasn’t proven itself yet.
Re-Kan! (Crunchyroll on Saturdays)
BCT: – KEEP/MAYBE – This I have to judge a few episodes in, at least, being a 4-koma based show adapted by writer Takashi Aoshima (Yuru Yuri, Survival Game Club). A girl who sees and interacts with spirits, while leading a normal, happy high school life could work, even as a series of gags. The animation composition and direction was a little rough at the beginning but it begins to find its unique, episodic, footing by the second episode behind an expanding cast of comfortable archetypes.
BM: – MAYBE – The tale of a charming girl who can see spirits, and who sees it as her duty to befriend them. She also tries to make friends with the class tsundere, who despite all the evidence doesn’t believe in such things. The show has a distinct slice-of-life / healing feel to it – or, if you’re being uncharitable, it’s terminally dull. I seem to recall the same division in opinions on ARIA. I like the feel of this, though, and it has anime’s perviest cat, so it’s not a total loss. It’s another entry in the ‘cute girls, cute things’ category, but there’s enough here to make me interested in seeing how it develops.
GBS: – MAYBE/PASS – Ghosts, silly jokes and yuri flavoring. The jokes are scatter-shot: some work, some don’t. Hasn’t really hooked me, though. It does indeed have the most perverted cat in anime, but I think the joke could wear thin over time. That applies to most of the humor in this one. (Episode 2 was better, but I remain unchanged in my opinion).
Wish Upon the Pleiades (Crunchyroll on Wednesdays)
BCT: – KEEP/MAYBE – A kind of classic magical girl show, from GAINAX? In that it’s stylized to perhaps also appeal to an all-ages, if not young girl, audience? (No sexual imagery in the transformation scene—is that allowed anymore?) Sure, why not. The question of whether, with GAINAX, it’ll execute well is irrelevant for me just because it’s audaciously not pandering, at the moment, to the older otaku crowd, who seem at the moment ambivalent to it at best. (No deconstruction—is that still allowed, too!?) But I’m kind of a sucker for Mai Otsuka’s character design (love the closeups), even as I have less of an entertaining history with its main director, Shouji Saeki. Could be just cheap thrills and fluffy entertainment, but worth following through its first arc.
BM: – MAYBE – I’m a sucker for magical girls, and this appears to be a fairly straight take on the theme – albeit in the form of a surprisingly well-disguised pitch for Subaru cars. Always wanted an Impreza WRX… This episode sets the scene well enough, but doesn’t have enough time to develop past that, which is something I want to see and am prepared to sit through a few more episodes for. We’ll see how it plays out.
GBS: – PASS – Subaru is a clumsy, slow girl who becomes a magical girl with four others, including her former schoolmate Aoi, who work together to gather fragments of a spaceship for their water droplet alien thingy, but a mysterious magical boy tries to steal the fragments. Sorry, Gainax, not interested.
Blood Blockade Battlefront (FUNimation on Saturdays)
BCT: – KEEP/MAYBE – So this is a little more “my thing”, in the sense of its very stylized animation and music design, and frenetic just-over-the-top action. But not entirely without concern. Very Nightow, indeed, with the always kinetic directorial style of Rie Matsumoto: go in for the bloody, sometimes wry, always crazy fight scenes and the strange atmosphere of this idealized but bizarrely re-imagined New York, or not. Shinji Kimura on the art direction and Toshihiro Kawamoto in charge of animation means it’s always going to be a feast to watch, at least. The issue, though, is that my experience with shows so dependent on their style don’t always know how to end gracefully. Matsumoto’s Kyousogiga was a success in that department, but taking on a Nightow story, no matter how cool it seems at first, doesn’t guarantee a gold star.
BM: – MAYBE – Action-adventure series set in a New York that’s been overrun by creatures from an alternate dimension, and where our lead guy has the superpower necessary to help bring some sort of order to the place. First episode didn’t grab me, but there’s the kernel of an idea there that shows promise and a little of the feel of Baccano in there (a show I did like), so I’m not ready to drop it just yet – although I’ll admit upfront that this isn’t quite ‘my thing’.
GBS: – PASS – Supernatural action thriller seasoned with light comedy. New York City is engulfed by a mysterious fog that turns it into a place that bridges our world and another dimension, so the city is now teeming with strange creatures as well as humans. In this city, a secret organization called Libra attempts to keep the balance between humans and others. Leonardo Watch is a young apprentice reporter, but is possessed of a special power that makes him useful to Libra, especially now that one of the non-human kingpins of the city intends to cause havoc…largely for his own amusement. Quite stylish, but filled with generic action show elements, it will appeal to those who like such works. Not for me.
