Magikano ep 01 raw:
Psychotic girl is sent against her will to the human world as a magical maid in the house of a nerdy guy with his 3 jealous sisters, hilarity to supposedly ensue.
Pros: fast paced, unexpected gags, art is okay.
Cons: crappy intro and outro songs, weak voice acting (but gets better in the later part of the ep), art is plain, garish colors for the titles (but maybe intentional as a rib on magical shows), the alledged "cute" girl is not cute.
Overall: not a thoroughbred but may turn out okay as a midly entertaining title.
Ohran_High_School_Host_Club_-_01 raw
"Ohran Academy is a high school where only rich people go to, but Haruhi is there because of a scholarship. One day, Haruhi happens to enter the Host Club(*) room, and breaks a 8-million yen vase. Because Haruhi is not rich, Haruhi cannot afford to pay for the vase. The leader of the club orders Haruhi to gather 100 guests as setoff against the debts.
(*) Nightclub for ladies where male staff serve guests while sitting next to them." [edited from animenfo]
Ugly-duckling-becomes-swan shoujo anime.
Ep01 was much fun. High production values.
Love Get-Chu ~Miracle Seiyuu Hakusho~ ep 01 raw
"Five girls came to a training school to become voice actresses.
Based on a cellular phone game by ARIKO." [animenfo]
Girls coming to the big city to study/work/get married.
Way too predictable story. It reminds me of Mahoraba: pretty, colorful, lively... and utterly boring.
Magipoka_01 raw
aka Renkin San-kyuu Magical Pokaan
"The four princesses, Uma the witch, Pachira the vampire, Liru the werewolf, and Aiko the android, came to the human world from the magical land. One week has passed since they began to live in a house on a big tree. Because they are not accustomed to the human life, daily life causes problems." [edited from animenfo]
Children anime.
The chara designs are sexy, but things happen a bit too slow for me. It feels like "Mahou Yuugi" played in slow motion.
Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni - 01 (RAW)
"Every year in this small village, on a fixed day, one person dies and one person disappears. It is a death chain from the fight related to a big dam construction plan. The hidden tragedy revives." [edited from animenfo]
Part 0: gruesome murder. Part 1: guy and his girl friends at school. Part 2: finding clues.
Murder-solving anime.
Art is cheap, animation as well. Low budget? Tho sometimes it's animated/drawn better when things become serious.
Most of ep01 was mainly about making fun of the hero in front of the girls, I didn't like it too much and I ended skipping most of it. The number 1 girlfriend comes across as a happy-go-lucky retard. I'm not a big fan of murder-solving stories either.
Witchblade ep 01 raw
"Six years after the big earthquake, Amaha Masane and her daughter Naoko are coming to Tokyo. They ran away from the asylum to live together. But what are those dark powers waiting for them in the shadows?" [loosely copied from animenfo]
Violent thriller using bio-weapons.
Good animation, good art.
AIR GEAR 01 raw
"The Air Trek is a roller-skate with an engine. This is the story about a boy, Baby Face Itsuki. When he is invited into the world of Air Gear, his legend to become the Air King began." [edited from animenfo]
Turbo roller-skates anime with babes.
The transition from the manga to the anime isn't as bad as I feared, except maybe for the music, I would have expected something with more tempo. Still fine tho.
Bakegyamon_-_01 raw
School is over, boy goes on holidays, fights with people on the boat, falls in the water, goes to Monster World, gets a "gameboy" with a sliding slot to summon monsters, fights monsters.
Pokemon anime.
Nice animation of the characters, nice backgrounds in the real world at the beginning, crappy backgrounds in the Monster's World, crappy monster's designs. Kids' show.
Strawberry Panic ep 01 raw
"On Astraea Hill, there are three girl schools: St. Miatre Academy, St. Spica Academy, and St. Le Rim Academy.
Aoi Nagisa is transferred to St. Miatre Academy. On the very first day, she met Etoile, Hanazono Shizuma. Etoile is the leader of the Students of the Tree, overlooking all schools. Nagisa is mesmerized by Sizuma's beauty and faints." [adapted from animenfo]
Lesbian school anime.
I thought it was boring, and skipped most of it. ^^;
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya ep 1
This must be the gutsiest opening episode of any series in years. As >>90 noted, it is very, very difficult to watch. It is, however, worth it just to experience the super plot twist that will scare your pants off.
Episode 2 will be The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 1, according to the preview. The preview also promises some nice-looking art.
This show has the best title of the season.
RAY 01 raw
"A beautiful surgeon Ray was transplanted eyes that could see through objects by a genius surgeon named B.J. With her eyes and genius technique, she has succeeded in difficult operations.
However, she has a terrible past that she wants to forget but can’t." [animenfo]
Ninja surgeons anime.
Medical stuff bores me, but (X-)Ray is pretty, and the kung-fu flying nurses are funny, so I was entertained by this episode. Not sure if this will continue tho.
Spider Riders ~ Oracle no Yusha Tachi ~ 01 raw
"In the Inner World, there are braves who fight with large spiders, and they are called “Spider Riders”.
Following his grandfather’s diary notes, a boy, Hunter Steel, is traveling around. He happens to enter the Inner World thru a pyramid. Oracle, the fairy of the Inner World, has summoned Hunter because she thinks Hunter will be the messiah of the inner world." [ed. from animenfo]
Fighting robots anime.
Cool music, girl is cute, animation is decent. Ep01 was entertaining enough but I doubt I'll follow this children show.
Dot Hack Roots 01 raw
"Haseo arrives in The World. He doesn’t have any real desire to play, and ends up cornered by player killers. However, his encounter with Ovan, a top player who saves his life, may change him. Ovan says to him, "You have a talent". What kind of talent does Haseo have?" [loosely based on animenfo]
Virtual reality anime.
As usual, lots of talking, little fighting.
About everything is rehashed, even dumbed down: the music, the designs, the scenery... Art is so-so. I get the feeling that .hack//roots is gonna be inferior to the original .hack//. ^^;
Inukami! 01 RAW
"Lecherous Kawahira Keita is a descendant of a famous Inugami (powerful half-dog half-human beings) tamer family. However, because he lacked in ability, he was forsaken by his family. One day, an Inugami named Yoko came. She looked graceful, obedient, and above all, beautiful. Soon he contracted with her. But, she was a problematic Inugami that no one had been able to control before." [edited from animenfo]
Urusei Yatsura clone.
Good animation, good art, humor... didn't work on me. Let's see ep02.
ZEGAPAIN 01 raw
Boy meets girl, boy gets sent to a parallel world, goes into mecha, battles robots, defeats them all, goes back to his world.
Adaption of a generic giant robots game?
High quality art+animation, ugly robot's colors (I see XBOX360 in the sponsors, must be an MS creation. ^^;) I don't have much hope for this anime but hopefully it'll be better than IGXP...
Nishi no Yoki Majo / The Good Witch Of The West - Astrea Testament - 01 raw
"When Filiel received her mother’s necklace as a memento from an obstinate astronomer Dee, her common and tedious life was turned into a life of conspiracies. Soon she realized it was herself that could save important things." [verbatim from animenfo]
Fairy tale. The Cinderella tale told without any magic sugarcoating but with real betrayals, tortures and murders.
Pretty!
it's not an adaptation, technically, but a 360 game is indeed coming.
>>116 Ah yeah, the game is being done by the Japanese studio Cavia, who did "Drakengard".
BLACK_LAGOON_-_01 raw
"When salaryman Okajima Rokuro visits Southeast Asia carrying a top secret disk, he is kidnapped by pirates riding in the torpedo boat, “Black Lagoon”. He thought he would be rescued soon, but his company sends killers to retrieve the disk instead." [edited from animenfo]
Killer babe with guns action anime.
Looking good so far!
NANA 01 raw
"Komatsu Naka happens to sit next to Osaki Nana in the train for Tokyo. Komatsu Nana is going to meet her boyfriend, while Osaki Nana is going to Tokyo to become a musician. Because they happened to have same names, soon they become friends. Furthermore, when they’re looking for apartments, they meet again. Then, they began to live in the same room."
Shoujo.
Much yapping about boys, men are behaving stupid, one of the Nana's has a known male VA voice, chara design is noodles-style bodies and whores' faces, shading is neon-colored... I'll pass.
KIBA 02 RAW
OK, ep02 was a bit more interesting, but not overly much. Zedd is getting used to the new world, so we don't get much info yet on the who's is who and the what's what.
I -think- that Roia is a girl, because her name ends with an -a. ^^; And because her spirit is female-looking. And her face look female. And her voice is female. But, I'm still -very- suspicious for some reason...
Himawari 01 raw
"The Village of Mist is a town located somewhere in rural Japan. In this town, there is a kunoichi (female ninja) training school. It gathers students from all over Japan to train them to become kunoichi. A new assigned teacher, Marikoji Hayato, arrives there." [edited from animenfo]
Ninja school life gag anime.
Is the main girl a new VA? Her voice isn't very good (yet?).
Otherwise, the animation/art is cute.
Yume Tsukai 01 raw
For those familiar with the manga, this might be a disappointment, or relief - at least in the first episode, they're not using the wonderfully weird, disturbing and massive three-volume manga story arc at all. The first episode just has a short, stand-alone plot that is significantly toned down.
Judged on its own, it's a fun enough little show about toy-store mikos who fight dream monsters. A little bit weird, a little bit fun, and a very yuririffic first episode.
Whether they'll get back to the mind-bending oddness of the manga later on is unclear at this point, but they might not. If they don't, it might still be a fun show, but not all that memorable.
Yume Tsukai 01 raw:
"Behind strange events that suddenly occur in daily life, there must be someone’s dream. A dream (Yume) sometimes goes beyond one’s mind, and comes into existence in real life. The Yume Tsukai (User/Tamer), Mishima Toko and Renko, use their miko powers to calm nightmares. Then, they find the owner of the dream, and change it into what it should have been." [edited from animenfo]
Fantasy/Magical girls anime.
I'm glad ep01 got rid of most the extreme creepy stuff from the manga, and made it much less suffocating. But I suspect it's going to splurge deep into insanity at some point of time, probably after a few monster-of-the-week, lighter episodes.
GUN_MUSASHI_-_01 raw
Goodbye sword! Musashi has now a superbullet to defeat villains!
Based on Monkey Punch's work.
Smirking samurai with guns.
Incredibly low production values: real pictures as backgrounds or no backgrounds at all, missing sound effects at times, missing voices at times, cheap animation, very bad OP music, lame script, 2D art so-so... May be good for cheap laughs.
The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode 2: The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya 1
The first real episode. It's looking very promising, setting itself up to be a fairly high-brow character-driven comedy, with very solid writing, great art, and impressive direction. A definite winner.
a.f.k. also gets a shout-out for the very competent and lively translation, something that's getting sadly rare in the fansub scene lately.
>>125 ditto!
Simoun 02 raw
Quality went down a couple of notches compared to the first episode, altho that was probably expected. Then it went up again for the Spring story at the end. DVD fixes expected in the future?
Somehow I get the feeling the animators are struggling to integrate it all, the music, the 2D, the 3D, the complex terminology.
Saiunkoku_Monogatari-01[RAW]
"Ko Shuri is a daughter of a highborn family, but they’re badly off. To earn money, she applies for the job of tutor of the king, who has just succeeded to the throne, and she has to live in his harem house as his wife." [animenfo ed.]
Pseudo-historical story of one busy, "modern" girl surrounded by lots of relaxed pretty boys with long hair.
'Looks relatively well animated, but I didn't care for the greedy main heroine, nor any of the characters, nor the plot.
The Third ~Aoi Hitomi no Shojo~ 01 raw
"In the distant future, because of an interplanetary war that has continued for centuries, civilization was destroyed. Mankind lost everything, and the population decreased to 1/5. Pseudo-humans, “The Third”, appeared just after the war. They have a third eye called the “Space Eye”. Using them, they can control computer systems and the like, and rule the world.
In this world, there is a human girl, Honoka, and her sentient tank. She is a jack-of-all-trades, and accepts any job except murder. One day, she meets a strange young blond man in the desert..." [animenfo ed.]
Adventures in the future.
My kind of anime! ^^
xxxHOLiC ep 1
Review for the manga fans: A pretty succesful adaptation of the manga's style and pacing into anime. The story is does not follow the manga exactly, changing just enough to be interested although you're familiar with the manga, yet avoiding ruining the whole thing. The super-lank character designs work better in the TV anime than in the movie, for some reason. Well worth watching.
Review for those unfamiliar with the manga: Lank boy Watanuki Yukihiro, who is troubled by seeing spirits, meets up with even lanker witch Ichihara Yuuko (assumed name), who runs a shop where she grants people's wishes. Creepy supernatural excitement ensues, while Watanuki absolutely refuses to take anything in his stride. Creepiness, mystery and tsukkomi in a stylish package.
Jyu Oh Sei ep 01 raw
"AD 2436. Thor and Rai are male twins who have been raised in the space colony Yuno, 150 light-years away from Earth. Their parents are killed and the two are sent to “Ju Oh Sei”, the Planet of the Beasts. Ju Oh Sei is a prison planet for criminals where only the most ferocious 'beasts' can survive." [animenfo edit]
Male-bounding, survival game on a creepy planet.
There are 2-3 girls in the OP/ED, but they look more like accessories or females-turned-males rather than love interests.
Also, wrong depiction of twins: a very weak twin and a very strong twin is pretty unreal. Twins have a tendency to be interchangeable, and to have similar abilities. The twins here behave like seme/uke of yaoi fantasy.
this looks like a VERY promising series. the fact that it's based on a book is evident as it's wonderfully written. and the attention to detail in the anime is awesome.
REC episodes 1-5 of 9
Aka, the voice actress, has second thoughts about what happened in the first episode. Romance takes a backseat to comedy and following the carreers of the couple. Tons of references to Audrey Hepburn and her films. Funny and sweet show, with interesting characters.
REC episodes 1-9
Short and sweet. Very much worth watching, but don't expect a huge resolution after just nine episodes.
The bad side, however, are the translations. I started out with Lunar's translation, which was pretty uninspired. However, I had to switch because I couldn't stand the cutesy partially-revealing subtitles. They add nothing to ones comprehension of the dialog, and they distract severely from reading it. Next, I tried Ayu's, which was also dull and uninspired, and actually managed to get the line The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain wrong.
Did anyone do a decent job of translating this?
>>133
i want to second this guy. over on 4chan /a/ was flipping out about it, so i thought "man, those guys only watch shows they hate. this probably won't be any good". i was totally unprepared for it to be brilliant on all fronts. i also noticed how good a.f.k's work was. really professional-quality stuff, and it's always nice to see a fansubber actually credit the people who made the anime as opposed to the typical glory-hog route that fansubbers typically take.
xxxHOLiC 01 TV (sub)
"Kimihiro Watanuki is a young boy with a cursed gift. He has the ability to see evil spirits, and somehow they seem attracted to himself. One day he meets a misterious woman who names herself Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment, but she never works for free, and she wouldn't help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services." [verbatim from animenewsnetwork]
CLAMP anime.
I couldn't watch more than a few minutes of this. Ugly giant noodle bodies that move like spiders, black lifeless eyes with no sparkle, unnatural and insipid dialogs, uncharismatic "hero", it made me physically sick in my stomach after a while. Good for those interested in the life of spiders and their preys posturing as humans.
Hime-Sama Goyoujin 01[RAW]
"Himeko is supposed to be a common high school student... until she happens to obtain a crown and she becomes a princess. Since then, Nana, the true princess, follows her around to take the crown back. In addition, Leslie and Karen, the thieves, keep trying to rob her of the crown, and her peaceful life turns into turmoil." [animenfo edit]
Comedy anime for young girls.
The premises are so stupid it's entertaining. ^^
The animation is good; the design, music and songs are pleasing.
Not on my must-watch list, but I may follow this for a little while more.
>Comedy anime for young girls.
Young girls get to stay up till midnight these days?
>>140 Duh. It's called a VCR and/or a DVD purchase.
TOKKO 01 raw
"Because of the Grand Sinking, a big hole in the ground there appeared near an apartment complex in Machida. There, 185 families, almost all the inhabitants there, got killed. The police couldn't find any clue. 5 years have passed since then. Tokyo has now two faces: one is a prospered megalopolis, the other one is a criminal underground city. Shindo Ranmaru, one of the survivors of the tragedy occurred in Machida, has become a policeman to solve the case which killed his parents." [animenfo edit]
Killing-zombies anime.
The animation studio didn't bother improving the manga in any way, it seems. It looks worse than the manga... :(
>>141
young girls buy anime on dvd nowadays?
Makai Senki Disgaea 01 TV (sub)
Dumb apprentice angel comes to kill evil demon king, wakes up evil demon kid instead, mayhem ensues.
RPG/action game adaption.
Okay, this is for kids, right? The plot is simplistic to the extreme. Humor was okay in the first five minutes when the angel was trying to open the casket, then it became so low level I didn't find it funny any more.
No, I think it's just not any good.
Inukami! ep 03 raw:
I skipped ep02 raw because I saw on screencaps it was more of "ugly naked men running around". Ep03 is the pool episode so it should have been good... I didn't like it. The hero is obnoxious, the main girl is annoying, the fanservice didn't service me... Heck, the cursed water was burning out clothes, and none of the large cast of girls at the pool showed any skin???
Himesama_Goyoujin_02 raw
The magic veneer present in ep01 is gone, and we are left with a bunch of very stupid girls misinterpreting everything that is said. I'm dropping this anime.
GUN_MUSASHI_-_02 raw
Hasn't improved. Dropped.
Spider Riders 02 RAW
Still entertaining at its own level, but I was hoping for a more mature plot development, which didn't appear. Dropping this.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ep 02 raw
It gets creepier and creepier. For those who like horror stories, me I'm dropping out.
Garasu no Kantai ep 02 raw
Still confusing and confused, but at least it has calmed down a little. Looks like it will be court intrigues stuff with battles now and then. I'll check out the next episode.
Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle 02 RAW
Gargoyles battling it out amonst themselves. Well, better than the emo ep01, I thought.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ep 01
A mixture of creepiness and moe, based on a series of doujin visual novels. I'm watching this mostly for the doujin angle, because I'm such an otaku but also because any doujin work that actually gets the anime treatment is bound to be pretty good.
So far, it has pretty simplistic art, which is probably true to the original, some mildly amusing moe, and hints of darkness that could maybe be a little more subtle. Hard to say which way it will go from here, but if Sling is right about it getting creepier, so much for the better.
The opening theme is totally awesome. It reminds me of the good version of the Fate/Stay night theme used in the game (as opposed to the horribly bland theme used in the anime).
Magical Poka~n ep 01
A silly, silly moe show about a werewolf, a witch, an android and a vampire. All things considered, it turns out to be much better than expected. The first half puts on a good pace by dropping all pretense of having to make sense or having a traditional story structure, and is much better off for it. The second half drags on a bit. Has a bit of a Galaxy Angel-meets-Bottle-Fairies vibe over it. Could end up being good.
>Short and sweet.
I'm 134, and was about to write the same phrase when I saw your post! It must be a universally apt description for this show. It's definitely worth a look, even with the mediocre subtitles. How the heck does someone get such a famous phrase wrong?
Now eagerly awaiting download of first Haruhi ep.
Update: Triad has released subs of this. I tried [wind]'s, but it was pretty horrible. Get Triad's version.
Juuousei/Jyu Oh Sei 02 raw:
Was good. I think I may change my mind about this series, it could be good after all.
Joshikousei GIRL'S HIGH 01 & 02
Epsiode 1, average at best. First half is pretty funny, but fanservice is a bit overdone. Second half is terrible, falls completely flat.
Episode 2, much much improved. Several great gags. Fanservice is still there but not as distracting. At its best when the girls are just being their stupid selves.
Next ep is a group date. If they can keep it up the series might be worth watching.
You say "fan service" as if it's a bad thing.
>>153
It's not a bad thing, but it's boring if that's all there is.
xxxHOLiC ep 2
Well, the series isn't off to a very good start. The story from the manga was both toned down and simplified, much to its detriment. The tragic ending was changed to an open one, and some of the more interesting character interactions were cut.
I really hope that was just a fluke, and I will keep watching it, but it really was a disappointment to see the producers wimp out like that.
>>155
I'm glad someone shared my view of xxxholic #2!! The manga's version was SO MUCH BETTER. I prefer the tragic ending to this open ended on... I mean xxxholic is not a "happy moe manga" anyway so if they still want to animate it, keep the mood of the story!!
The Third ~Blue Eyed Girl~
A girl wearing a heroically red headscarf drives around in a desert with her friend the AI tank killing giant spiders with a sword. Also, she rescues Love Interest, who is a character design from Fruits Basket, and there is a mysterious government congress thing filled with Abh.
The scriptwriting is full of totally lame lines, and the only available sub is Ayu's which isn't any good. The fighting bits were pretty good, though.
Kamisama_Kazoku-01[RAW]
"Kamiyama Samataro, a second grader of high school, is the eldest son of God family. He is living with his father who is God, the mother who is a goddess, his sisters who are candidates for goddesses, and a helper, Tenko, who is his childhood friend and an angel. The reason why they live in the human world is because they make Samataro study human world in order to become God. However, his parents make miracles without intention and everything goes as he wants. Therefore, he becomes languid and dull, and he is always scolded by Tenko.
One day, a mysterious transfer student arrives..." [edited from animenfo]
Romance and comedy.
It's tough to be the son of God...
Pretty and well-animated. Ep01 merely introduced the characters.
Kishin Houkou Demonbane ep 01 raw
"The story takes place in a world where both science and magic have advanced. Arkham City is a metropolis powered by highly advanced magic. However, it is threatened by a criminal syndicate, the Black Lodge. The Hado Family Group, guardian of the city, made a robot to beat Black Lodge. It is Demonbane." [edited from animenfo]
Good vs evil, giant robot.
Ep01 played like a comedy, with a lot of weak jokes and cliches. The hero is a loser who happens to stumble upon a powerful magician, who enrolls him into her fight. Exposition was carried out at super speed to manage to include the giant robot into the first episode, scrapping both intro and outro in the process. 'Need to see the next episode to see how the actual pace is.
>>159
I hope we will meet his sister Kamiyama Mangetsu in future episodes.
Has anyone tried the gg sub of REC? They're the only other group with a full set and I don't want to spend hours to download the whole series again.
So, looking back:
Now that some of the season's offerings are over, anyone want to do some overall show reviews?
> Nerima Daikon Brothers went by unsubbed and forgotten but out of nowhere got licensed.
I liked the first episode, but it was completely impossible to translate. And I'm sure the fansubbers would have tried fucking karaoke or something.
>>164
If it's that hard to translate, it boggles me how ADV is going to produce a dub that stays true to the original. An optional "heavy" localization a la Super Milk-chan?
It's not that it's untranslatable like Super Milk-chan, it's just that over half the lines are songs. And it's really amazingly hard to do an aesthetically pleasing song translation.
Still, they're professionals and I just have a guy who speaks native sixth-grade Japanese. Probably they won't have as much trouble.