The Heroic Legend of Arslan (FUNimation on Sundays)
GBS: – MAYBE – Well, in a pseudo-medieval kingdom, there is adventure aplenty for young prince Arslan. The characters take their appearances from Hiromu Arakawa, who made a manga version of the original novels by Yoshiki Tanaka. It’s the story of a too-benevolent prince who must learn the harsh realities of a very nasty world. It could provide interesting action and intrigue…or it could become an overwrought piece of gunk. Too early to tell from one episode.
BM: – MAYBE – Aww, isn’t the little prince a cutie. Wait, this isn’t meant to be a moe show – rather, we’re into epic fantasy territory here, and from what I’ve read in advance this one gets rather bloody and tactical when it gets to the meat of the story. Such things tend to take a while to get going, though – this ep really just about showing the current king to be a real arsehole and how nice Arslan himself is. Meh. But on the basis of a good reputation for the source material (and for the original anime adaptation – this is a remake, on the back of a recent manga adaptation by Full Metal Alchemist’s Hiromu Arakawa), I’m willing to give it a pass on proving itself right out of the starting block.
Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Crunchyroll on Fridays)
GBS: – MAYBE – It’s pretty silly with lots of cliched elements, but the tone was light and fluffy. If it doesn’t overdo it, it could be a perfectly acceptable B-level show that’s mildly entertaining, but likely forgettable once it’s over.
BM: – MAYBE – A fantasy harem show, featuring plenty of female character designs of the sort that will no doubt end up as dakimakura or padded mouse mats in the not too distant future. Goddess Hestia and her unusual method of breast restraint already seems to have entirely taken over Pixiv. The show isn’t entirely without charm, and in its portrayal of a world that plays by MMPORG rules but is otherwise ‘real’ it reminds me a lot of The Tower of Druaga. With added fanservice. I can’t see it being anything memorable, but I can see it fulfilling the ‘dumb but enjoyable’ slot this season, so the 3-ep-rule applies.
BCT: – MAYBE – With the sudden explosion in interest for Spring’s newest and hottest fashion accessory, the blue ribbon, there may not be much that can dissuade viewers from this. Hestia’s stylish and low-cost support system distracts from a so far average concept and execution and the usual, tired female objectification that fantasy anime uses to support its own excesses. It doesn’t make much bones about that, however. And some clever writing could make it interesting.
Urawa no Usagi-chan (Crunchyroll on Thursdays)
BM: – MAYBE – I say that, but this is one of those shows where it’s barely worth dropping. It’s not like it’s a huge time commitment. Another promo show, this time for the Urawa district of Saitama prefecture, set to follow the daily lives of a group of high-school girls there – and if this episode is anything to go by, it’ll be optimistic in tone but pretty much devoid of anything else. There’s just not enough time in 3½ minutes for anything to happen (unless you’re Teekyu and speaking at 3x normal speed). A little ray of sunshine, but that’s it.
BCT: – MAYBE – Okay, it’s not Is the Order A Rabbit?, but it’s still cute girls…doing…nothing much. It is about as slice-of-life as you can get without just having a still shot of a street and random strangers walking by. I have high tolerance for completely inoffensive, even meaningless, shorts. So I guess it works, for the moment, as a palate cleanser between Thursday shows.
GBS: – PASS – I know it’s meant to be a tourism informercial for Urawa City in Saitama, but couldn’t they, you know, have created some kind of story to go along with it? All I saw was what looked like watercolor renditions of what I assume are real places in the city used as backgrounds for the world’s most plain character to walk to school.
Etotama (Crunchyroll on Thursdays)
GBS: – MEH-BE – Takeru is a normal anime boy–meaning that he’s living on the margin in a slightly dodgy rental house which has an odd feature: a hole in the living room floor that apparently connects to the Realm of Gods. Out the hole comes Nya-tan, a catgirl divine messenger whose wish is to elevate herself into the ranks of the Chinese zodiac. Yes, you know this story already from Fruits Basket and such, though this time all the animals are girls and they require human feelings (specifically moe) to power themselves up for battles to determine their place in the divine hierarchy. Nya-tan, though, is an idiot. There are cute moments and quite a bit of meta-commentary humor, but…it’s all quite stupid. One more episode at most.
BCT: – MAYBE/PASS – In what is turning into a season rich with over-the-top absurdity, fanservice, and utter nonsense, a show that does all that without quite the same commitment to slapping its audience in the face, or relies just a little too much on broad formula, may not have as much staying power. (If you’re looking for that kind of stuff in the first place.) The fairly slick chibi CG battle was interesting to watch, as contrast to the show proper. The cat girl literally trying to find her character, however, was more tedious. The number of characters in this pseudo-harem—all the Zodiac girls—seemed to add to that feeling as well, no matter how fun they could be making trouble around town.
BM: – PASS – Signs of the Chinese zodiac, anthropomorphised as cute girls and descending harem-style on a hapless boys whose life they’ll now brighten / make hell, depending on your interpretation. It seems to be taking the ‘slapstick comedy’ approach, but it’s painfully unfunny in execution, and I couldn’t make it past the half-way point. Really couldn’t recommend.
