animu catch-up pt1

So, as mentioned yesterday, I did quite a lot of scanning over the weekend and while I was ill, so I've sampled quite a lot of stuff via fansub, and that means mini-reviews!

So-Ra-No-Wo-To

Apparently, this show is a part of a drive by TV Tokyo to produce more original anime. A lot of anime have always been adapted from manga, but nowadays a lot of anime are also adapted from light novels and games. I guess the idea was therefore to move away from this sort of thing and do something a bit different.

Now to be totally truthful, So Ra doesn't quite hit total originality in the couple of episodes I sampled. The problem is that the characters are dangerously close to those moe stereotypes that everyone bemoans. It also doesn't help that it appears to have the same character designer who was used for K-ON, which is a really rather moe show.

However, I've heard the series gets surprisingly dark and engaging later on, although that wasn't much in evidence in what I watched. However, truth be told I don't have too many problems with moe and this was sufficiently engaging in its first couple of eps (and beautifully animated) that I enjoyed it anyway.


Yurumates

This is a slice of life job, and like many a slice of life it seems to follow the fortunes of students who are re-taking their university entrance exams. However, saying that, this has so little in it about studying and taking exams that it's not actually really about anything.

I dunno, this just felt too much like lots of other shows to really grab my attention. Also, like a lot of those shows, there's a hell of a lot of cultural stuff that isn't obvious and there were no "translation notes" to explain.


Baka and Test - Summon the Beasts

Baka is the first of two shows that Funimation have picked up from this season.

The premise of it is rather bizarre. Basically, the school our hero attends operates a system where you take an initial entrance exam and your grade on that test then defines what grade of classroom you get. So students getting A grades get the best facilities, whereas our hero, who's not clever, ends up in class F where they get rubbish facilities.

As if this wasn't odd enough, the students can then battle each other, using avatars whose strength is governed by their test scores, in order to try to switch classrooms with those above them.

As I say, it's really rather bizarre, but it also kinda works. I guess the best way to think about it is that it's only nominally set in school, and really it's an action/comedy series (with a hint of pokemon).


Dance in the Vampire Bund

This is the second show Funimation has picked up.

I wasn't expecting to like this. I've been suffering a bit of Vampire overload, and the title isn't some clever play or anything - the show is genuinely about Vampires. Also, the images I'd seen suggested the main vampire was a loli and loli does nothing for me at all.

However, watching the first couple of eps, I actually quite enjoyed them. I have to say, though, that (and I know this is quite the thing for me to say), the fan service seems both unnecessary and inappropriate. And that's not just the loli-centric stuff. There's one bit with a busty Vampire who basically stands up, and we get a shot of her boobs bouncing about with wild abandon.

Which is all fine and good, except it's during a really dramatic action moment, so it's distracting, and it's animated in a very unrealistic way, when the feel the show generally seems to be trying to give is more a realistic one.


Ookami-kakushi

I didn't really like this show, though.

I dunno - I think the problem was it was a bit ham-fisted. It's one of those mystery/occult/horror shows and it kinda laid things on thick. You could almost see great big question marks hanging in the air when something 'mysterious' happened.

Also, there's a bit where one of the girls latches onto the hero, and there's absolutely no explanation for this. They literally meet for the first time and she throws herself at him and proceeds to basically confess her undying love for him.

I mean, okay in a harem, but in a dark, mystery horror type job? It just comes across as weird.


And I think I'll cut it off there - more tomorrow!