Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Amatsuki Meguru is a rural island girl who’s moved to Tokyo. She dreams of becoming a super hero. Kisaragi Sumire is a tsundere who’s secretly already a hero fighting power ranger style villains, and she doesn’t seem to like it. There’s a magic hedgehog too, and magic coins, and a transformation sequence, and a boss-bady to defeat right out of the gate.

You can skip KTTA because nothing of remote cleverness happens in it. The plot is completely by the numbers introduction of a magic world and a wide eyed novice quickly stumbling into a place of importance, and a partner who doesn’t want to be a partner. It’s wrapped in a blanket of safe, optimistic characters, acceptable but unremarkable animation and design, and a complete lack of humor.

Wacky friends from left to right — A girl dressed like a lamb who ends every sentence with “bah,” a fortune teller, the ‘normal’ girl… and a Trap.

The Verdict: like many shows this season, Twin Angels isn’t terrible. Rather, it’s built with the minimum necessary effort to make a functional story. It relies heavily on convention but, even though the villain’s minions almost look like they are wearing costumes and explode into sparkles when defeated, there’s no sense of irony or fun here.

Oddly, this is the third show I’ve seen this season about a girl from the country side trying to make it in Tokyo. While that doesn’t have any meaningful impact on the story so far, it’s a weird thread to see repeated. Regardless, I have no desire to watch, let alone review, this show.

Hinako Note – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Hinako is a very shy girl moving to Tokyo to attend her dream high school. She’s so terrified of everything, she regularly devolves into a scarecrow. Also, she’s about to live in a used book store with a bunch of other weirdos. (A maid-otaku, a girl who eats books, etc.)

The Verdict: while not exactly like a colonoscopy through the eyeballs, Hinako Note isn’t more than the sum of its parts, and the sum of its parts aren’t trying very hard to begin with. It’s emptily cute, with conventional safe humor and an acceptable art style. If you typically pour extra sugar on the ice cream that you use instead of milk when eating a bowl of deep fried lucky charms, then maybe this is a show for you. Otherwise? You’ve seen a million shows like it before.

Renai Boukun – 01 (First IMpressions)

The Gist: A mysterious girl appears on Aino Seiji’s doorstep with warnings of his impending doom…unless he kisses someone in the next 24 hours. Magic is involved, as are the heavens, but the only girl Aino has an interest in is Hiyama Akane, the most popular girl in school, who probably doesn’t know he even exists…

Stop reading this review right now and go watch Renai Boukun because it’s fast, clever and expertly timed comedy. It pokes fun at conventions left and right and it’s utterly hilarious. But you have to watch it right now because the humor relies on unexpected twists and complications and almost any forewarning will ruin it.

The Verdict: While RB is a subpar looking show, from the terrifying human-faced house cat, to the fate of Aino’s parents, to the recurring gag about cosplay, the sheer joy of its antics quickly won my heart. Go watch it now—and I promise to talk about it in greater detail next week!

Tsuki ga Kirei – 01 (First Impressions)

Tsuku ga Kirei, or As the Moon, So Beautiful, is a quiet, wholesome little tale of tender love blooming with the cherry blossoms. It’s the story of a guy and a girl who like each other but have no clue how to initiate contact. The girl, Mizuno Akane, steels herself by kneading her ever-present “squeezie” and attempts said contact; the guy, Azumi Kotarou, is mostly passive, hiding either among his mates or in his books, but observing nonetheless.

In a stroke of dumb luck (or a meet-cute, if you will), both Akane and Kotarou’s families decide to eat out at the same restaurant (sadly, not Wagnaria). From the moment they notice each other’s presence to their closer encounter at the beverage counter, the dinner scene is suffused with tension.

It’s a tension that reminds Kotarou of one of his favorite writers, Dazai, who said “how excruciatingly arduous and unbearable it is to live,” mostly because he just hasn’t mustered the guts to talk to the girl he likes. Not that Akane is having any more success.

Their mutual concession to the acknowledgement of each others’ existence is for Akane to kindly ask Kotarou not to tell anyone at school about their encounter, and her gratitude that he’s in agreement. They continue to exist in close proximity, unable to make a connection right away; waiting for the other person to make a move, or return a glance.

In another stroke of luck, Akane and Kotarou are assigned to the same sports festival task group. Akane is in charge of coordinating communications through LINE (the real-life ‘LIME’ of ReLIFE), but neglects to contact Kotarou, landing him in trouble with the group leader. She makes up for it by helping him with his gruntwork, giving him her LINE ID and even making a bit of physical contact by patting the dust off his back.

That night, she receives a message from Kotarou, who starts batting his light switch cord in celebration of the progress he’s made. When Akane gets the message, she beams like she’s never beamed before in the episode, equally glad that finally she’s made a connection with the guy she likes. Even teasing from her big sister can’t knock her off this high.

The seiyuu of Tsuki ga Kirei’s lead couple put on a clinic of wordless sounds. Sounds of reluctance, tentativeness, disappointment, and frustration. But all the tension pays off with the genesis of a relationship, and one can’t help but root for both of them, as their joy at the end is palpable; the proverbial speck of gold, glimmering faintly at the bottom of a river of grief.

The message from Dazai is clear: anything worth having is something that’s hard to get.

Clockwork Planet – 01 (First Impressions)

One of the downsides of choosing what anime to watch, in part, by their promotional art, is that just as a mechanical clock will one day fail, sometimes a piece of art will let you down. Clockwork Planet is evidence of this. The promo art didn’t look that bad at all, but the show’s a dud.

Just to give a quick recap: In a post-apocalyptic world built almost entirely of gears (?) Miura Naoto is a fairly wimpy tinkerer who dreams of becoming a proper clocksmith. Just when he wishes out loud that automata would rain down upon him, one does, a state-of-the-art model named RyuZU. Naoto shows what he’s got by repairing her.

Then RyuZU becomes Naoto’s trusty servant, in a very silly ceremony in which she sucks on his finger (though it’s an efficient way to collect genetic material with which to imprint).

Later, they check into a love motel because his house was destroyed when she dropped in. Naoto can’t help but see RyuZU as a pretty girl and not a mere automaton, because, well, she looks like a pretty girl.

Meanwhile, Marie Breguet, who is some kind of scientific-commercial big shot despite being (or at least appearing to be) very young, laments the loss of an automaton (RyuZU), clashes with the military, and finds out that said military is going to purge the Kyoto Grid, sending 20 million people to their deaths. She also sleeps in the buff…because…

I needn’t go on. World made of gears? Casual military mass murder? Characters who look like little kids? A very low-budge and unattractive production? I believe I’ll pass.

Seikaisuru Kado – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Kojirou Shindou Cabinet Office Director-General for Policy Planning, is at Haneda Airport for a business trip… then his airplane gets absorbed by a giant glowy cube, 2 kilometers from edge to edge.

A lot of bland meetings amongst politicians ensue, featuring a so wacky it hurts female mad scientist and various attempts to ‘save’ the passengers. Despite emitting visible light, the cube emits no radiation and absorbs pretty much everything aimed at it. (RADAR and AP Tank rounds alike)

Then an alien pops out. Or a god. He says hello to humanity, Shindou standing by his side…

You should give Kado a look because it hints at an interesting core idea — that we all spend our lives never knowing what is right or the right thing to say (during a negotiation) because we aren’t gods — and then throws a god into the mix. (probably requiring a degree of negotiation of the protagonist)

Despite being fully rendered CG, it doesn’t look horrible either. Don’t get me wrong! I loved Knights of Sidonia but the color pallet was very limited and the environments were only functional because of the scifi setting. Kado manages a much broader range of color, real world environments, and items. (It just doesn’t do a great job in the animation department, I’m afraid)

You can probably skip Kado because, despite interesting potential, the first episode was very dull. Characters aren’t so much introduced as thrown in front of the viewer with a wall of text describing their role in government. Everything is stiff due to the CGI rendering. And god damn that scientist is just annoying as hell — and cliché.

Verdict: There’s no denying I’m curious who “Yaha-Kui zaShunina” is and I do enjoy the distortion effects of his technology. But that’s about it. Oddly, the music was the biggest stand out for me. Is that enough to review the show going forward?

Maybe? At least for one more episode…

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Aichi Coexistence Private Academy was once an all girls school but, for reasons not entirely clear, it was made co-ed. However, this resulted in the girls bringing weapons to school and, eventually, the rise of the Supreme Five Swords—the baddest warrioresses on campus who ultimately run the school.

Now, Aichi is the destination for male students too tough for the regular school system and Nomura Fudou, our unwitting protagonist, fits that bill to a T…

You may get a kick out of Armed Girls’ if you can roll with how silly it all is. The art is decent enough, with short-cut but acceptable action animation and good enough character designs. Everyone in the cast speaks with a slight accent. All the boys are in drag. The first of the five swords wears a literal devil mask, which breaks cheekily after she and Nomura accidentally kiss. Silly stuff like that.

You may groan and roll your eyes at Armed Girls’ because everyone in the cast is basically a pretentious a-hole, a cliché, or both. (The french girl’s haughty fake laugh is especially cringe inducing)

The pace is also a bit slow, with an over reliance on characters standing still to yell at each other and/or introduce special techniques that don’t stand out visually from each other. The result feels very formulaic and, combined with the characters all being unlikable, Armed Girls’ doesn’t feel like much love was put into its production.

The Verdict: Nomura Fudou seems like the intended protagonist, obviously, but in many ways Rin Onigawara is set up to experience more emotional change along the way. Regardless, I’m not sure Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism actually has a protagonist, as Rin and Nomura  get about the same screen time and neither has an especially compelling backstory, mystery, or quest.

I didn’t find Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism especially funny or exciting. It’s just good enough to review, but not so much so that I actually want to review it. For goodness sakes, the only eventful element of the first episode is Nomura x Rin’s accidental first kiss, which is itself a total cliché…

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations – 01 (First Impressions)

This spin-off of and semi-sequel to Naruto starts at the end, and in a pretty dark place with Naruto’s grown-up son Boruto fighting some baddie among the ruins of Konohagakure. Looks pretty serious and hardcore, but it is only a small taste of what will supposedly come to pass many years hence.

Rewind to when Boruto is just a little punk kid, on the eve of the Academy entrance ceremony. He spots a boy being bullied and later learns his name is Denki and he’ll also be attending the academy, but only because his father is making him as part of his duty as heir to the family business empire. Boruto can probably relate to dad’s casting long shadows, as his own is none other than the Seventh Hokage.

Back home we check in on Boruto’s little sister Himawari and his mom and Naruto’s wife Hinata. Seems like a nice enough house but if I recall correctly Hyuuga Hinata was and is a pretty large badass kunoichi, and frankly looks rather bored looking after the ol’ homestead while Naruto is buried under paperwork at Hokage HQ. But this show ain’t about the parents; they had their time in the limelight…fifteen years and 720 episodes’ worth, to be precise.

Naturally Boruto and Denki don’t simply arrive at the opening ceremony on time and get on with classes, because that wouldn’t be that exciting. Instead, Denki’s bitterness at being rejected by his dad causes him to be possessed by an evil aura, which Boruto is able to see with his trick right eye.

Denki sets it up so the bullies will get killed in a head-on collision of two trains (built and run by his dad’s company). Boruto gets him to snap out of it and cast off the evil aura, and with Boruto uses his clones’ combined reach to pull the switch that avoids the collision. Everybody’s safe and sound, and both Denki and the bullies learn a lesson and bond a little through their shared ordeal.

With that, all that’s left is to get to the ceremony on time, and Boruto and Denki just make it, by making one hell of a ridiculous entrance, aboard the derailed train car, which crashes into the side of Naruto’s face. Not his real face, but the colossal stone face carved into the mountain with the other Hokage. Symbolism, much?

This week is the Boruto & Denki show, sprinkled with a bit of Nara Shikadai, with naught but a cameo by Sakura and Sasuke’s daughter Sarada. The episode gets the job done: introducing the title character, demonstrating his considerable but still very-raw abilities and very familiar personality, and giving him a mission-of-the-week to carry out with Denki.

I’ll admit to dropping Naruto: Shippuden about two years in after completing Naruto, but there’s a nice fresh-start feel about Boruto, a newly-revamped take on an old, familiar world. The production values are higher than I remember (granted, back when Naruto started there was no widescreen or HD). It’s nothing fancy, and is by definition unoriginal, but there’s a inscrutable easy watchability to it nonetheless. Whether you’re a big fan of the franchise, a complete noob, or somewhere in between like me seeking ‘shounen comfort food’, it’s worth a quick glance.

Sakura Quest – 01 (First Impressions)

Koharu Yoshino has a memory of being crowned Queen when she was very little, and ever since, has felt like she was meant for greater things; that she wasn’t just a normal girl who escaped the sticks to attend college in Tokyo. Now 20, reality seems to mock Yoshino’s pretensions of royalty, and her phone’s inbox amasses “good luck” in the form of polite rejections from job interviews.

The last thing Yoshino wants is to move back in with her folks in her sleepy, aging speck hometown, and as a city boy myself, I can relate to never wanting to stray too far from the gleaming skyscrapers and sheer dense humanity of a big city.

But she’s down to 980 yen in her bank account, and when she graduates from college, her parents will either welcome her back with open arms, or cut her off. Gal needs cash, fast. So when she gets a phone call from a promotional agency she once modeled for (and by once I mean one time), offering work in the sleepy town of Manoyama, she’s in no position to decline. 980 yen will not get you far in Tokyo, after all.

So when the convertred City Girl takes the train out to Manoyama and catches the picturesque sight of mountains, gently rolling hills, farmland, and sky, she declares “there’s nothing here” and wonders if she got on the wrong train.

She didn’t, but it would seem she is the wrong Koharu. The town board chief Ushimatsu fumes about her not being the beloved (by him) idol Koharu Tsubaki, whom he meant to crown as Queen of the “Kingdom of Chupakabura”, part of a common practice of small towns raising “independent countries” for tourism purposes during the boom years.

Though the boom went bust, Ushimatsu is committed to restoring the “monarchy” and, hopefully, his rapidly aging and emptying town. Since Tsubaki died eight years ago, he settles for Yoshino, and her coronation is witnessed by a modest crowd of 150 (Note the similarity to Yoshino’s hazy memory of being a Queen).

After the coronation, Yoshino is honored with a feast—albeit just another night of eating and beer-drinking with the old town board members. It’s a warm and welcoming sight, but one gets the feeling she’s not planning on staying more than a day, and may even head back to the station and Tokyo before too long.

These are the dreaded sticks, after all. She sees the shuttered shops and wrinkled faces and remembers the hometown she left and to where she vowed never to return.

But when Shiori (who is her age) drops her off at an absolutely awesome log cabin, she meets another beautiful young woman who gives her a rude awakening: the Queen position is for a year, not a day. It was right there, black-and-white, clear as crystal, in her contract, which she clearly just skimmed.

Unable to accept her fate, Yoshino dashes out into the night, but there’s a weird ukulele player on the bus (her announcement she’s getting off and slow backing out of the bus is the best gag of the ep) and even though it’s barely 10pm, the station is closed.

She even encounters the town’s famed “Chupakabura”, the monster of legend ‘her’ kingdom is named after, and “saves” Shiori by smacking it good, revealing it’s Ushimatsu she smacked. On the ride back to the cabin, Shiori offers her heartfelt hope that Yoshino will stay, if for no other reason than so she can have someone her own age around, working together to make the town a livelier place.

Yoshino is grateful for the kind words, and the positive vibes she starts to get from the town only multiply when she returns to her ‘castle’ (the cabin was locked). A display of photos shows that she was here before. Not only that, as a little girl she was the kingdom’s 100,000th visitor, and crowned as Queen back then.

The realization that her memory was indeed real, and imbued in her a sense of privilege, was a really nice moment, but it doesn’t transform Yoshino; she’s still reluctant to stay and be Queen of Chupakabura, but with her last job prospect back in Tokyo fizzling out, she doesn’t have much choice.

Sakura Quest was a fun ride. Yoshino is an interesting character: she’s not a high schooler for once, but an adult, albeit a young one, and perhaps because of that her jadedness is much more susceptible to neutralization than she thinks. The rest of the cast seems strong too, and the show itself looks great. This has the makings of another P.A. Works winner so far.

Sagrada Reset – 01 (First Impressions)

Asai Kei is introduced by class rep Souma Sumire to Haruki Misora, a stoic and seemingly emotionless girl who has no friends. Because Haruki has the ability to “reset” the world up to 3 days into the past, and Kei has a supernatural five-sense memory, Souma believes they’re perfectly suited to joining forces for good.

Sagrada (or Sakurada) Reset is a bit of an odd duck, like its two leads. On the one hand, it subtly, delicately paints the picture of a small town that is totally normal except for the fact that half of its residents possess supernatural powers. It also delves, if not too deeply, into some interesting philosophical ideas about what constitutes “goodness”—Sumire’s story of Zen and Gizen to Asai being one of the episode’s high points.

But there are a few issues. First of all, this episode felt like it took forever to run, and although it accomplished a lot, it just didn’t feel that eventful. That may be okay in a 24-episode show, but the earlier a show can impress me and draw me in, the more likely I am to commit to such a show.

I also don’t mind a matter-of-fact, stoic duo, but that comes with the caveat that sometimes scenes are going to feel slow and listless. It didn’t help that this was a very talky episode, and neither Hanazawa Hana nor Ishikawa Kaito ever raise and barely modulate their voices throughout all this talking. Yuuki Aoi breathes some energy into Souma, but I wager she’d be the quiet character on any other show.

The episode also seemed reluctant to demonstrate the characters’ special abilities (and didn’t even name one for Souma, who may well not have one); indeed, if one were to blink when Haruki whispers “Reset” in the wind, you’d miss her ability altogether. Yet on another level, it’s intriguing that such powerful abilities are presented so plainly and elegantly, rather than, for example, a CGI light and effects show, or even worse, floating TV screens.

Two things at which Reset excels is its ambient sound design, and it’s awareness of its leisurely pace, which it uses to drop a sudden twist at the end: that the little girl Haruki has been sitting with recently has actually been dead for seven years. I definitely want to learn what’s up with that and how such a predicament will be resolved (presumably by our duo), and so there’s a hook for continuing to watch.

The “cold close” apparently showing Souma (same hair and eyes) falling off a bridge to her death compounds that desire to see what happens next. Like Akashic Records, there’s potential, but I’m banking on the fact that neither show’s strongest episode was its first. Unlike Akashic Records, there’s a stiltedness to the cast that exposes the fine line between ‘subtle, deliberate’ and just plain dull and tedious. So we’ll see.

Frame Arms Girl – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Ao, a high school girl living alone, receives an 8 inch tall fighting girl robot with the artificial intelligence equivalent of a 10 year old. The robot instructs her on the ways of cutting out plastic model kits and then two more robot girls show up and then there’s a VR fight, which the first robot wins with Ao’s help. Then Ao is convinced she should let them stay in her apartment and fight… for pay! (but first, she’s late for school)

You may be into Frame Arms Girl if you collect models or enjoy scantly clad girls wearing armor and weapons. It looks nice enough, if a little silly, even in motion and the voice work is acceptable. (I especially enjoyed the idiotic shout out to the brand of clippers Ao uses to trim her robot’s parts of the spru and that, because she doesn’t trim them correctly, her robot does worse in battle)

You may want to skip Frame Arms Girl because there is no way this is going to work for most people for an entire season. The absurd nature of basically watching a commercial for collectibles, wrapped in a fantasy where they are life like and interact with you, seen through the lens of a girl who doesn’t really care and doesn’t seem to leave her apartment much, has nothing to work with.

Sprinkle on the paper thin ‘the robot may learn emotions over time’ cliche and you’ll probably want to gouge your own eyes out by the 4th episode. (with premium clippers no less)

The verdict: I can not stress how impressed I am that Frame Arms Girl isn’t completely terrible. I found it very watchable despite not finding any of the content compelling. Despite having worked in the toy industry — in collectibles no less — I’m not familiar with this particular brand and my wife swears she will kill me if I put any more stacks of plastic sprus in our basement. (So I have no reason to want to look into it more)

The only obvious visual flaw is Ao herself, who doesn’t seem to be rendered ‘looking’ at the robots. This really undermines the believability of the space but I’m not sure that matters, since Ao doesn’t directly interact with the robots in the first place…

Ultimately, I will not be reviewing it this season but you can probably do worse than giving the first episode a shot.

Oushitsu Kyoushi Haine – 01 (First Impressions)

The Gist: Heine Wittgenstein, a child-sized man, is hired by the king to be royal tutor to 4 royal pains in the ass. Each Prince sits 2nd through 5th in line of succession and each has a moderate emotional short coming, and each immediately refuses to accept a tutor. Heine is up for the challenge, though, and with an unwavering facial expression and some serious dry whit, works his way into their hearts. (At least, he does with the first prince this week.)

You may enjoy OKH because it features solidly timed dry humor backed with simple but effective sound cues. Also, the princes are probably charming in their own messed up little boy way.

“I’ve suddenly been added to the vegetable food group.”

You may feel comfortable skipping OKH because it’s a fairly silly idea, set in an over the top imperial palace that manages to be epic and bland in equal measures. Heine goes super deformed on a regular basis as well, which works this week but may wear on your nerves over time.

Honestly, this is a decent enough show but I have not decided if I will stick with this one yet. If you’ve seen it, drop a comment below!

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records – 01 (First Impressions)

Rudderless bastard Glenn Radars is appointed substitute professor at the illustrious Alzano Imperial Magic Academy, much to the chagrin of elite family heiress and top student Sistine Fibel. Sistine, her friend Rumia Tingel, and the rest of his class quickly learn Glenn’s a lazy bastard who refuses to teach anything, leading to a fed-up Sistine challenging him to a duel, which he promptly and definitively loses.

The title is certainly a mouthful, so I’ll shorten it to Akashic Records. And it’s pretty much the quintessential “7.33” anime. It’s definitely watchable, and I see potential in Glenn as either a redemption project or a paragon of stubborn bastardry. But man, the female students are moe-d out, with midriff-bearing uniforms reminiscent of Cross Ange and one or two too many accessories. There’s also a walking-in-on-girls-changing scene.

But the titular Bastard Magic Instructor Glenn is just such an unrepentant bastard, and there’s something oddly satisfying about just how immensely he’s wrecking this super-elite magic academy with his abject contempt for any kind of magic instructing. So too is Sistine’s seething outrage towards this cad who represents everything she isn’t.

Hints of his past indicate he was meant for great things, but either never got there or crashed and burned, and now he’s seemingly given up. But his friend professor Celica Arfonia won’t let him freeload, forcing him to substitute teach or face the wrath of her elemental magic.

But “fearing getting zapped by high-level magic” is not as powerful a motivator as one would think; after all, Celica just said he had to show up, not that he had to actually do anything but write “Self-Study” on the chalkboard in handwriting that gets worse as the day drags on.

Akashic Records’ and Glenn’s comedy is couched in the fact that despite being average on paper and having no public accomplishments (or even a teaching license) Glenn still struts around as if he was the Empire’s Chief Mage, or at least hot shit, and talks a ridiculously big game relative to his actual skill. It’s pretty fun to watch him revel in his bastard-ness.

Like Glenn himself, there’s potential in this show, whether Sistine’s somewhat repetitive (if completely justified) adversarial approach shifts into something more productive, or if the joke is that no matter how hard she or anyone else tries, he’ll happily remain being scum.

So I’ll give this a 7 for now and harbor cautious optimism. After all, it’s a pleasant-looking show with decent comic timing and doesn’t take itself deathly seriously. There’s also a laputa hanging up in the sky, and I’m hoping Sistine/Rumia/Glenn make their way up there before all’s said and done.