Spring 2009 Revisited: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ignore the Haruhi
By Moogy | May 21, 2009
So I guess there’s a popular new episode of something out? Well, whatever.
Really, I just wanted an excuse to use the Dr. Strangelove title thing. Even though it fucks up my blog layout quite badly, it would appear.
Last night I stayed up until like 7 am watching LP videos of SO2 voiced by a cute Japanese girl (or, rather, a Japanese girl with a cute voice) on Nico. Woo.
Anyway, I’m gonna talk a bit about the shows I’m following at the moment. This includes two shows that are still running from Winter 2009; forgive me for the incredibly misleading title of this post.
Really, I think Spring 2009 is the best season in quite a while. It can’t quite stack up to Fall 2007, because that featured both CLANNAD (s1, admittedly) and ef memo, but I think it takes the cake for sheer prevalence of good shit.
And I guess you could consider this post my picks of the good shit?
So, without further ado, I present my full thoughts on everything I am following at the moment, in no particular order at all:
Hayate no Gotoku!!
So, the first season of Hayate was a consistently above average comedy with an excellent cast of characters and some decent romantic overtones. Unfortunately, it never really did anything with its characters or said overtones – mostly because the producers weren’t particularly concerned with appealing to the fans of the manga, it would seem. Well, probably a combination of that and the fact that it aired at 10 am, which isn’t exactly a good timeslot for those of us who enjoy moe and romance.
Anyway, JC Staff has addressed the above concerns quite admirably, by deciding to just give us a straight adaptation of the manga; no filler here, folks. Though you can’t exactly call the Hayate a soap opera, it does have a decent amount of romantic focus, an element which I feel is done particularly well. I have no particular preference for either Hinagiku or Ayumu, so the fact that their relationship drama regarding Hayate manages to draw me in nonetheless is a testament to the great writing, characterization, and directing of the show.
Also, season two is really much funnier than season one ever was. Whereas season one relied mostly on “wacky” references and the like (which I admittedly enjoyed), season two manages the “comedy” part of “romantic comedy” by relying on its characters. Hayate (at least initially) unwittingly sharing an elevator ride with Maria provides amusement on a depth that simply parodying the ending of Ashita no Joe cannot.
On the production front, JC Staff is turning in a far more consistent effort than Synergy SP, with better character designs, more detailed art, and cleaner animation. And I might be the only person who does, but I vastly prefer JC Staff’s color palette to Synergy SP’s.
So, all in all, I’m not at all hesitant to state that Hayate is my favorite show in a season full of very, very good offerings. Well, really, though, I’m just glad that my Isumin will finally get to do something. She’s so great ;_;. omg, did you see her in the ep 8 preview? I can’t fucking wait. Like oh dear god I can’t believe how moe she is and (ry
Asura Cryin’
There was absolutely no way this show could be good. It was based on a light novel. It was animated by Seven Arcs. The main heroine was Haruka Tomatsu (whose roles I universally reviled). The first episode was a weird mess of cliches with no explanation.
But, then, suddenly – Asura Cryin’ became an extremely interesting romp. In other words, it managed to be replete with amounts of bullshit so inordinate that the response they prompted was not “This is bullshit,” but “This is fucking awesome!” I mean, seriously. Rie Tanaka with a body made out of guns. Giant CG mecha made out of demons that are powered by moe ghosts. Reverse trap Yukari. Student councils populated entirely by demon hunters/demon hunter hunters/I don’t even know what the fuck is going on with the school really.
Put simply, it’s a huge mess of random shit that somehow manages to cohere into something both entertaining and interesting. This is certainly helped along by the cast of characters. Tomoharu, though a bit generic, is quite possibly the only protagonist to summon his giant robot at basically any provocation, even when specifically told not to; I’ve gotta respect that. Misao, despite being Tomatsu, is actually quite cute and funny. Being a ghost girl who powers a robot isn’t half bad, either. Kanade is a demon girl with heterochromia voiced by Ai Nonaka. Enough said there. Shuri is Rie Tanaka made out of guns. The rest of the characters are pretty cool, too!
The animation and directing are also rather good, though the art is kinda off at times. Nowhere near as bad as Seven Arcs’s other shit, though, so I can forgive it. And, come on, episode 3 is definitely the most stylish thing to air this season.
Asura Cryin’ is a surprisingly enjoyable show that manages to utilize light novel cliches in an original way (namely, by throwing as many of them as possible at the audience at once) and features a well-rounded cast of characters. If you were turned off by the randomness of the first episode, try giving it another shot – episode three is when I was really hooked.
Fullmetal Alchemist
Well, I know what’s going to happen for the next 40 episodes or so.
Really, I’m just watching this because I want to see the fights from later in the manga animated. The adaptation is generally decent so far, at least!
So yeah, not much to say here. It’s FMA. Everybody likes FMA.
Tayutama
I figured this would be a standard kemonomimi eroge adaptation featuring good designs and lots of fluff. Well, I got the good designs part right, but I must admit that the meatiness of Tayutama has caught me a bit off guard. I wasn’t expecting much of a plot at all, so Tayutama’s good old fashioned Shinto showdown (featuring 100% more fox ears, osananajimis, and imoutos than other Shinto showdowns) came out of nowhere.
Well, of course, given the source material, the plot is secondary anyway. So let’s take a look at the characters, shall we?
Mashiro is some crazy ancient Shinto fox goddess thing who immediately declares herself Yuuri’s wife and fights monsters with a giant hammer. She also has a loli form who calls everyone -shan. Her ears also have a propensity for twitching cutely regardless of the situation. In other words, she definitely gets a pass from me!
Ameri is an amusingly overbearing osananajimi who bitches out Yuuri constantly and gets jealous when he spends time with Mashiro. Then, because of the latter bit, she turns into a demoness and blows up the school. Holy shit. How can I say no?
Mifuyu is Shizuka Itou blah blah whatever. She’s actually a very well-written representation of her archetype, though, so I can’t complain too much.
Yumina is an incredibly cute imouto who refers to herself in the third person and is voiced by Mizuhashi and has angel bird wings and is really really cute and has birds live on her head and is really cute. And she’s the best and she’s awesome and she’s cute and moe and she wins.
Oh yeah, Nue is cool too. Yep.
So, as we can see, great cast of characters (with excellent designs) and a decently engaging plot that facilitates their development. I really can’t ask for more in an eroge adaptation.
Oh, speaking of which, SILVER LINK is doing a pretty decent job. We have the same director as School Days and Akasaka, and nearly the same production staff as the latter, albeit with a much larger budget. The scene composition and overall directing isn’t quite on par with School Days’s, but it blows Akasaka out of the water. There is, unfortunately, a somewhat noticeable amount of visual hiccups, but I’m inclined to give them a pass on this given the extreme complexity of the original designs. And, hell, it looks a lot better than Akasaka did, so whatever. The BGM is a very strong point, by the way – the best this season, I’d say.
This is the best ren’ai show since H2O aired in Winter 2008 (I’m not counting After Story as a separate show, here), so you owe it to yourself to watch it if you’re a fan of the genre at all.
By the way, we at Ayako are a bit behind on the subs, I know. We’ll get 06 and 07 out soon.
Basquash!
Well, well, well. The show that I said I would never watch before the season began. Fortunately, a friend convinced me to do so, so here I am now.
The premise of Basquash! is basically completely retarded. Basketball playing mecha that wear giant Nikes. I seriously want to know what the thought process behind this was. I mean, really now.
But that doesn’t really matter, because the show is so much fun and doesn’t take itself seriously enough for the idiotic premise to detract from one’s overall enjoyment of the ridiculous events transpiring before him or her.
Really, it’s pretty obvious that the producers don’t want the audience to approach the show from a(n overly) serious standpoint. Beyond the simple fact of what the premise is, the show has many other elements that would fall flat on their face in a heavier show. You know, like giant boobs from the moon. And basketball orgasms. As it is, though, the crazy cast, crazier production values, and even crazier plot combine to create a show that is simply crazily fun.
(Yeah, I know how lame that last sentence was. Sue me. And no, I don’t have a terrible amount to say about Basquash, either. It’s just fun as hell, so go watch it if you’re bored.)
Saki
Yet another show I was initially apprehensive about. I mean, Gonzo and CG mahjong? That’s a recipe for disaster, right there.
Fortunately, it seems that Gonzo has learned from their venture into Strike Witches territory. Or are at least pretending to have learned (they do have two other shows this season). Either way, they’ve applied the principles behind Strike Witches in order to create some sort of strange moejong ripoff of Angelic Layer, featuring 100% more ridiculous Prince of Tennis shit.
Now, don’t take the word “ripoff” as derision. Angelic Layer is a very admirable show to take a few cues from, and thus I respect Gonzo for trying to put their own spin on a formula which I feel is a bit under-explored. Of course, Saki is nowhere near as grounded in reality as Angelic Layer was, but that’s all part of the fun.
In fact, I’d say Saki probably represents the purest fun of the season. Of course, this means that it relies on the audience not getting too caught up in the details to an even greater extent than Basquash – especially if said audience is familiar with the game being played! Well, I can’t really comment on that aspect myself, though, seeing as I have no interest in or knowledge of mahjong. Of course, therein lies one of Saki’s strengths – the mahjong play is presented in a manner that is both comprehensible to people who do not play mahjong and at least somewhat followable by people who do. So everybody wins, I guess.
Also, really great character designs. They’re the reason I started watching the show in the first place, to be honest. Speaking of which, Touka is the best character. No arguments desu wa.
By the way, we really need some Initial D-esque eurobeat during the mahjong parts of Saki. Seriously, wouldn’t that be awesome?
Natsu no Arashi!
The show that everyone is watching, but nobody is talking about.
No, really. When’s the last time someone actually discussed this show? Exactly. But if you ask someone if they’re watching, they probably are!
I’m a bit biased here, but I think that Natsu no Arashi has the best directing of anything this season. You can’t really beat a team of Oonuma and Shinbo.
Hmm. I find it strangely hard to actually talk about the show on more than a superficial level, though. Every aspect of it is enjoyable, but I guess nothing really stands out except for Shinbo. Perhaps that is its terrible curse?
You could really do a lot worse, though. Though I will say that the retro character designs are quite ugly.
K-ON
You know what, fuck this show. I enjoyed it quite a bit at first, but, you know what, just fuck it.
The past few episodes have all been really lame, especially compared to Lucky Star. Kyo-Ani managed to hit upon a pretty good formula for that show, but K-ON is simply mindless pandering (a term I am quite averse to using) at this point.
I mean it’s like it’s not even really bad, per se. It’s just that Kyo-Ani doesn’t know when to quit. They run everything amusing about the show into the ground in the first four or so episodes, and now it’s just more of the same. Forever.
So I guess I fucking lied about this being my picks of the season huh. Only watch K-ON if you fucking hate yourself. At this point I basically have to finish the series so I didn’t waste my time with it entirely.
Fuck you, Kyo-Ani. You are no longer allowed to make anything except adaptations of Key games.
Higashi no Eden
I’m not actually caught up on this yet, but eh.
Pretty straightforward mindfuck-y mystery stuff here. Saki is pretty cute.
Reminds me a lot of Paranoia Agent.
To be honest, I was expecting this to be hilariously pretentious crap, given the fact that it’s Production I.G. with the GITS director. Fortunately, it’s pretty down to Earth for what it is. Still, though, not really my favorite thing this season – the best element is Akira and Saki’s great chemistry, I think. Certainly decent enough to watch.
Sora o Kakeru Shoujo (Winter 09)
I’ve made my thoughts on this series well-known already, so I don’t really need to restate them. I will say that it has simply continued to get better, though.
Better plot progression than HiME, but I liked HiME’s characterization more.
Regios (Winter 09)
I don’t even know what the fuck to say after episodes 18 and 19.
Like, I really don’t. Regios was a somewhat uninspired, but very solid series featuring ample characterization and cool fight scenes. It also had Felli.
But episodes 18 and 19 appear to start actually doing something with the ludicrous amounts of dangling plot threads everywhere – and I’m not really sure what it is. It could be random garbage, a futurepast mindfuck, something straight out of a PSX RPG, or a buildup to the world’s most concentrated mass of Engrish.
Episode 20 looks like it will settle down some, but still, what the fuck.
Not that it isn’t enjoyable, of course. It’s actually rather more entertaining than usual at the moment! I’m just hoping that whatever the plot ends up being is actually cool and somewhat sensible. Oh, and this has the same director as Canvas2, so please give us a Canvas2 ending as well.
Polyphonica s2
FUCK ALL THAT SHIT I SAID ABOUT HAYATE, THIS IS THE SHOW OF THE SEASON RIGHT HERE!!!
I CAN’T FUCKING WAIT TO WATCH MORE OF THIS FUCKING SHIT! HOLY SHIT!!!!
In other words, I am clearly a deranged individual. For example, I watched Cosprayers for the second time last night. Yes.
Also I’ve been writing this 2500+ word blog post for entirely too long, so I think I’ll take this time to…
Summary
I went into this season apprehensive about a great deal of shows, but somehow most of them managed to actually surprise me. In fact, I think I will brand this season the Season of Pleasant Surprises. Or something along those lines. Man, I dunno.
Of course, I predicted that Hayate would be my favorite, and it is, so I suppose that’s saying something as well.
Now that I’ve written this horrible thing, maybe I can finally get back to actually posting inane bullshit. Actually, I need to write up a post about Prunus Girl or something.
Oh, and one more thing. Kefit has requested that I include a postscript refuting several of my “points,” so here you go. Enjoy his usage of the word “panoply.”
後書き by Kefit
On Hayate no Gotoku:
There are so many people who are dead fucking wrong about everything related to Hayate. So many people entranced by the utter treachery of Hinagiku and Isumi that they fail to see the truth: that Ayumu is the greatest, most bestest girl in the series. Seriously. She’s the cutest, the most earnest, and the most most moe-est. And in a refreshing change of pace, she has actually had the guts to confess to Hayate multiple times! All the other girls in this series are losers and cowards compared to her. And later on she will be in a cute waitress outfit pretty often and it will be awesome and then Hayate will walk in on her changing and it will be like <3<3<3 and then there is also going to be bike riding and dreams and god dammit Hayate anime get past Hinamatsuri already so we can get to the good stuff ffffffffffffffffffOn Tayutama:
The last few years have seen a dearth of good osananajimi. What was once a common and loveable romance and renai mainstay has gradually been replaced with an endless series of obnoxious tsunderes. But Tayutama seeks to change that. Ameri is the osananajimi I have been waiting years for. She’s bratty, has fangs, is a demongirl, and has the best design in a series that contains a panoply of glorious character designs. Mashiro’s ears and Yumina’s imoutoism are both great things, but they have nothing on the wonderment of Ameri. She’s the greatest thing in a show full of great things and anyone who disagrees with me is dead wrong and should go back to moe appreciation school for remedial cospraying courses.On Everything Else:
Moogy has probably talked about everything else important but I should briefly mention that Asura Cryin’ has a really awesome ghost girl and that Saki has a really awesome Yuuki who is so much better than Nodoka and her sacks of blubber.
Okay, later.
Topics: Anime | 12 Comments »
May 21st, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Where’s the Haruhi review?
May 21st, 2009 at 10:08 pm
what’s haruhi
May 21st, 2009 at 10:08 pm
a pile of swedish fish that’s what it is.
May 21st, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Taco power!
May 21st, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Also it’s really hard to know what to say about Natsu no Arashi.
May 23rd, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hi, nice posts there :-) thank’s for the interesting information
May 25th, 2009 at 9:55 pm
I demand a tetsumusu post.
May 27th, 2009 at 5:31 am
The Mio moe parade has gone on far too long. I liked it for one episode but it just didn’t stop. Speaking of Sora Kake, I still don’t know whether to hate Nami or pity her.
June 30th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
lol Haruhi just went Higurashi. Sorta.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Actually no, now it’s just stupid.
September 9th, 2009 at 10:09 am
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September 10th, 2009 at 11:09 am
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