Early Season Moves
It's still early in the summer anime season. However, it is time enough that some shows receive a higher priority than others. Good, bad, time... these are the shows that I've given up following this season for now.
I should make mention first that these shows, as a result of my abandoning them for now, will not be part of my review at the end of the season, but I will offer some review of what I've seen.
First I will mention Symphogear G. I had been interested in seeing this one if only because I watched the original series and wanted to see how they would manage a second one. Unfortunately so far no one has picked it up for streaming. I was a little surprised, since Viz streamed the orig. and I figured that it was an easy pickup for them. They don't exactly have a very stacked streaming lineup, what with delay-casting One Piece and Naruto, and the only pickup they had this season was Blood Lad, with no streaming of any new stuff the last couple seasons. But, nevertheless, no stream means I'm not watching it and not reviewing it.
The same could be said for Milky Holmes. I haven't seen that streaming anywhere, and I believe it started up a week ago? Not entirely sure, but having not seen any announcements about it being streamed, at this point it seems like a no on that one too. I've heard it's supposed to feature a more serious Milky Holmes, as opposed to the comically terrible at their jobs Milky Holmes of the prior series. It should have been fun, but what can you do?
I started Makai Ouji thinking I had the right frame of mind. I expected going in that the main character would be much like Battler from the Umineko series, and that the general scenario of the story would be similar - someone who doesn't believe in magic, angels, demons, etc., but is confronted by someone alleging to have such powers, and the confrontation between those views. Here is the problem that I had with Umineko, and that was being repeated here in Makai Ouji; when you have a story like this, the alternative must be believable. In other words, if the M.C is going to refute the existence of magic in the story, the story itself must be presented with viable explanations for the argument that there is magic. If not, the M.C only appears to be an abrasive idiot who has no ability to accept the world around them.
The overall story was not terrible. There was halfway decent mystery to the question of how the story would turn out. The comedy elements weren't fantastic, but did hold some entertainment value. That being said, with a few too many shows to follow and this show ultimately being too boring in all to keep my attention, I dropped it after three episodes.
Uchoten Kazoku (The Eccentric Family) was another one that seemed to have compelling concept, but that I ultimately didn't clasp onto. It was a fairly clever series, depicting the modern lives of a couple of the often mentioned but less covered mythological creatures of Japanese lore. I was even willing to go with the animation style (I actually liked it as something a little different from the norm). The tanuki's mother was endearing, and Yasaburo was on that fringe between the annoying teen that acts out for the sake of it, and the reluctant good guy.
In general, however, it proved to be somewhat dull. I didn't find much interest in the series, and not much reason to keep up with it for now. I'm more apt to go back at it at the end of the season than I am with Maki Ouji. I just don't seem Makai Ouji eventually paying off for me, so I'll skip it until at least I'm done with Uchoten Kazoku.
Well, those were the drops. These are the pops; the series that have proven so far to be the leaders for best of the season.
Sunday Without God is a very good one. I didn't know what to expect from this one at all really. Again, the concept sounded interesting despite my not knowing much else about the series. And so far it's delivered very nicely. *spoiler alert: The end of episode 3 is intriguing and memorable, though I'm not sure what to make of it yet. It's an amazing plot twist to kill Hampanie, but I can't quite overcome the idea that this guy who they spent the first two episodes proclaiming up and down the fact that he is immortal, just dies. I'm really hoping they clear that up better before this series is over; end spoiler*.
Servant x Service turned out to be funnier than I expected. I really like the job they did there with that one, it's really entertaining so far. Shows likes this live and die on the ability to create a variety of characters who are fun to watch and to script their interactions near pitch-perfect. They've done that here so far.
Finally is Il Sole Penetra Le Illusioni (Daybreak Illusion). I was expecting a magical girl show more in line with something like this season's Fantasia Doll but with a little more grit. This show has a good deal more grit. A lot of people have been comparing it to Magica Madoka but I'm not quite there yet. Only three episodes in the overall "darkness" to the story is similar, but I don't quite have the feeling things are going to go the way of Madoka. That's neither good nor bad. A new telling of a story similar to Madoka would be fine with me, and a new turn would also be fine with me. It's interesting, so let's see where this goes.
That's it for now. I won't be commenting on anime again until this season comes to an end in around October.
Something I may start to do is add a note to the end of my posts, indicating what music I've been listening to. I'll try to link to a sample somewhere on the web. Don't know if I'll make it a constant thing or not. At any rate, today was mostly Pandora - Jamiroquai. This is one of his other songs I like.
I should make mention first that these shows, as a result of my abandoning them for now, will not be part of my review at the end of the season, but I will offer some review of what I've seen.
First I will mention Symphogear G. I had been interested in seeing this one if only because I watched the original series and wanted to see how they would manage a second one. Unfortunately so far no one has picked it up for streaming. I was a little surprised, since Viz streamed the orig. and I figured that it was an easy pickup for them. They don't exactly have a very stacked streaming lineup, what with delay-casting One Piece and Naruto, and the only pickup they had this season was Blood Lad, with no streaming of any new stuff the last couple seasons. But, nevertheless, no stream means I'm not watching it and not reviewing it.
The same could be said for Milky Holmes. I haven't seen that streaming anywhere, and I believe it started up a week ago? Not entirely sure, but having not seen any announcements about it being streamed, at this point it seems like a no on that one too. I've heard it's supposed to feature a more serious Milky Holmes, as opposed to the comically terrible at their jobs Milky Holmes of the prior series. It should have been fun, but what can you do?
I started Makai Ouji thinking I had the right frame of mind. I expected going in that the main character would be much like Battler from the Umineko series, and that the general scenario of the story would be similar - someone who doesn't believe in magic, angels, demons, etc., but is confronted by someone alleging to have such powers, and the confrontation between those views. Here is the problem that I had with Umineko, and that was being repeated here in Makai Ouji; when you have a story like this, the alternative must be believable. In other words, if the M.C is going to refute the existence of magic in the story, the story itself must be presented with viable explanations for the argument that there is magic. If not, the M.C only appears to be an abrasive idiot who has no ability to accept the world around them.
The overall story was not terrible. There was halfway decent mystery to the question of how the story would turn out. The comedy elements weren't fantastic, but did hold some entertainment value. That being said, with a few too many shows to follow and this show ultimately being too boring in all to keep my attention, I dropped it after three episodes.
Uchoten Kazoku (The Eccentric Family) was another one that seemed to have compelling concept, but that I ultimately didn't clasp onto. It was a fairly clever series, depicting the modern lives of a couple of the often mentioned but less covered mythological creatures of Japanese lore. I was even willing to go with the animation style (I actually liked it as something a little different from the norm). The tanuki's mother was endearing, and Yasaburo was on that fringe between the annoying teen that acts out for the sake of it, and the reluctant good guy.
In general, however, it proved to be somewhat dull. I didn't find much interest in the series, and not much reason to keep up with it for now. I'm more apt to go back at it at the end of the season than I am with Maki Ouji. I just don't seem Makai Ouji eventually paying off for me, so I'll skip it until at least I'm done with Uchoten Kazoku.
Well, those were the drops. These are the pops; the series that have proven so far to be the leaders for best of the season.
Sunday Without God is a very good one. I didn't know what to expect from this one at all really. Again, the concept sounded interesting despite my not knowing much else about the series. And so far it's delivered very nicely. *spoiler alert: The end of episode 3 is intriguing and memorable, though I'm not sure what to make of it yet. It's an amazing plot twist to kill Hampanie, but I can't quite overcome the idea that this guy who they spent the first two episodes proclaiming up and down the fact that he is immortal, just dies. I'm really hoping they clear that up better before this series is over; end spoiler*.
Servant x Service turned out to be funnier than I expected. I really like the job they did there with that one, it's really entertaining so far. Shows likes this live and die on the ability to create a variety of characters who are fun to watch and to script their interactions near pitch-perfect. They've done that here so far.
Finally is Il Sole Penetra Le Illusioni (Daybreak Illusion). I was expecting a magical girl show more in line with something like this season's Fantasia Doll but with a little more grit. This show has a good deal more grit. A lot of people have been comparing it to Magica Madoka but I'm not quite there yet. Only three episodes in the overall "darkness" to the story is similar, but I don't quite have the feeling things are going to go the way of Madoka. That's neither good nor bad. A new telling of a story similar to Madoka would be fine with me, and a new turn would also be fine with me. It's interesting, so let's see where this goes.
That's it for now. I won't be commenting on anime again until this season comes to an end in around October.
Something I may start to do is add a note to the end of my posts, indicating what music I've been listening to. I'll try to link to a sample somewhere on the web. Don't know if I'll make it a constant thing or not. At any rate, today was mostly Pandora - Jamiroquai. This is one of his other songs I like.
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