Roving Thoughts archives

Brief impressions of the anime of the Spring 2013 season

As before this is my early impressions of the spring's crop of new shows, or at least the small number of them that I've bothered to watch. This time around I've been unusually selective about the shows that I've tried out, so I've rejected any number of things sight unseen based purely on premise descriptions and so on. This may have caused me to miss gems but I haven't really seen any sign of that so far.

(In particular there's a number of action and adventure series that I might normally have auditioned but that I'm actively skipping due to bad reports.)

Hits (so far):

• Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (2012): A well produced incarnation of one of the classic stories of the genre. It's high time I watched some version of this classic and this is by all accounts a good one. I'm quite enjoying it after two episodes and I expect to keep on going.

  (Yes, I know, episodes have been out on Blu-ray for some time. I'm counting it as part of this season because it starting to air now is a large part of what's prompted me to start watching it. I was hoping that one of the regular subtitling groups would take the airing as their cue to give it a go-over, but apparently not.)

• Suisei no Gargantia: The adventures of a castaway soldier and his very powerful, nicely deadpan mecha in a somewhat silly world. I don't have much to say about this besides that it's interesting and amusing. The male protagonist is no Sagara Sousuke but he'll do.

• Ginga Kikoutai Majestic Prince: This is managing to be both goofy and serious at the same time without fumbling things. The goofiness predominates, which is one reason I find it fun to watch; the show is frequently painting with a relatively broad brush. As takes on the 'war is hell and so is what people do in it' genre go, I think this approach is much more interesting than the grim Gundam one.

• To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S: My mixed feelings about the first season of Railgun came roaring back when I saw the first episode of this, but I remain determinedly optimistic. It'll probably be worthwhile on the whole once the dust settles. Apart from that I don't really have anything to say; it's Railgun. I did rather enjoy the second episode and I kind of wish they'd started the show with it rather than spend almost all of the first one reintroducing us to the important characters (as if we could have forgotten them).

  (See NovaJinx on the Railgun cycle, because he's right about it.)

• Valvrave the Liberator: After two episodes this is a glorious, epic trainwreck that's utterly impossible to take seriously. Of course it could be serious about itself and become boring, but hope springs eternal.

  (Now I kind of understand people's feelings for Code Geass, which was apparently also this kind of epic crazy trainwreck.)

On the edge:

• Hataraku Maou-sama!: The comedy doesn't work for me but the plot that's developed at the end of the second episode is just holding my interest for now. With that said this may not last long.

  (I know, I'm an episode behind right now. This may be a bad sign.)

Miss:

• Devil Survivor 2 The Animation: My first draft of these impressions contained what was in retrospect a bunch of excuses for this show to explain why I was still watching it. If I have to make excuses for a show, it's not good and I should admit it to myself (even if I did watch three episodes sort of in hope).

  One of the several strikes against it is that it is trying too hard to have a steampunk Evangelion feel. The result is more bemusing than the creators probably intended.

Sadly a miss:

• Namiuchigiwa no Muromi-san: This is probably a fine comedy but sadly and as usual I didn't find it really funny. It makes me smile every so often and it's watchable, but without laughs it's not really compelling. For what it's worth it strikes me as well executed and well paced; if its humour clicks with you, I suspect that you'll enjoy it a fair bit.

  (I actually feel a bit frustrated that I'm not laughing at Muromi's rapid-fire humour. I'd like to be enjoying it.)

Not for me:

• Aku no Hana: I am completely and utterly uninterested in the story, no matter how impressive or well executed it is.

• Shingeki no Kyojin: Everything I've heard says that it's bleak, bloody, grim, and so on. I've decided that I'm simply not interested in that sort of thing right now, regardless of how good it is or how much it might be my kind of thing with less blood and bleakness.

Just no:

• Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W: I eventually found the first season to be (boringly) ordinary so I'm not getting sucked into the second season.

• Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Bride: Just no, because sometimes I'm smart enough to not get caught in the same trap twice.

Other shows probably fall into the 'I read bad things about them' category mentioned above.

(This specifically includes Karneval, Mushibugyou, Crime Edge, Red Data Girl, and Arata Kangatari. As always, I may wind up checking out some or all of them out later due to future good reports, boredom with the shows I'm watching, or both.)