Tags
Active Raid, akagami no shirayuki-hime, Boku Dake Ga Inai Machi, Dimension W, Divine Gate, ERASED, GATE, Girls Beyond The Wasteland, Grimgar, Haruchika, Haruta to Chika wa Seishun Suru, Luck & Logic, Myriad Colors Phantom World, Norn9, Ojisan and Marshmallow, Ooya-san wa Shishunki!, Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn, Patlabor, Please Tell Me! Galko Chan, Sekko Boys, Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju, Snow White with the Red Hair
Since I’m sick at home with a summer cold[1] here’s a roundup of the anime premieres that I’ve been looking at. If I watch other new stuff I’ll come back to this and edit it. So, in no particular order:
Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju
WATCH THIS. Trust me.
Boku Dake ga Inai Machi (aka ERASED)
Strongly recommended, if not quite up to the level of Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju.
Active Raid
I liked it better when it was Patlabor. Avoid.
Myriad Colors Phantom World
Nice world building, pity about the exploitative fan service and clumsy infodumps.
Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn.
No, no, a world of no. The ecchi excesses[2] of Masumune Shirow meets Moe-Blobs, with the minimal amount of Bleached Underpants required to get it on television. NB: Rated MA+ on AnimeLab for Australian viewers.
Luck & Logic
Borderline magical harem show lifted to intriguing by the setup, and occasionally amusing by the main character’s little sister Shiori.
Shiori is openly Genre Savvy and is constantly comparing her brother to characters in anime. Her preference is for Villager A, but she accepts Shounen Protagonist once her brother Leaps At The Call.
Norn9
This is really pretty to look at, albeit with mostly generic characters. The setup is interesting enough that I’ll probably keep watching for a bit.
Haruchika – Haruto & Chika
Haruchika starts with two strikes against it, adds a third, but still manages to be borderline watchable.
Strike 1: It’s a band anime that isn’t Sound! Euphonium
Strike 2: It’s a P.A. Works series that isn’t a sequel to Shirobako.
Strike 3: It’s a P.A. Works series that reminds me of the quality drop from Nagi no Asukara to GLASSLIP. OOPS.
Despite that the addition of the mystery elements made for a show that, whilst a bit “meh”, is at least watchable. I’ll give it another episode or two to see if it improves.
GATE: Thus the JSDF Fought There
Looks to be doubling down on some of the problematic elements from the first cour, whilst possibly setting up to add Fantastic Racism to the topics it will be tackling. Oh, and the new OP sucks like a black hole.
Ojisan and Mashmallow
An oddly sweet[3] office romance short. Well worth the couple of minutes at this stage.
Sekko Boys
What is this[4]? I don’t even…
Please Tell Me! Galko Chan
I want my 7 minutes back
Ooya-san wa Shishunki!
A short featuring a middle schooler who is the landlord/manager of an apartment building like the ones seen in Maison Ikkoku or From Up on Poppy Hill. Pass. Even in the two minutes there were signs that it was heading towards excessive, and creepy fanservice.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime / Snow White with the Red Hair
Episode 13 hasn’t broadcast yet. Watch this space and/or wait for the squeeing to begin on twitter. But I’m not impatient for it to get started. Honest.
Edit 12/01/2015: SQUEEEE! The first episode jumps right into two major plotlines and the new OP somehow manages to emphasise Shirayuki’s independence more than the original OP did. If the rest of the season is like this, Akagami no Shirayuki-Hime is easily going to be my favourite of the season.
Girls Beyond the Wasteland
Girls Beyond the Wasteland is set in high school with male lead Buntaro dragged into being the writer of a Bishoujo game by a classmate Kuroda on the strength of a skit he wrote for the drama club. At the moment it’s so-so, but relatively light on for tropes that I try to avoid, and I think it might have potential to improve.
Divine Gate
As per Artemis’ advice (see the comments) I took a look at Divine Gate. Bwahahahahha.
This show is trying so hard to be deep, and only manages to be visibly pretentious. Then it tries to match the grimdark past of the main character with the bright and fluffy side characters. What you get is a complete mess.
I honestly can’t see this ever becoming worthwhile.
Dimension W
A late appearance on AnimeLab, Dimension W delivers a solid opening episode. Hard(ish) science fiction with some adroitly managed infodumps (background radio whilst the lead character is fixing his car), interesting concepts, and fairly well realised characters. There are shades of Cowboy Bebop in Dimension W but that’s no bad thing sometimes.
Grimgar, Ashes and Illusions
Another late addition to AnimeLab. I’m only guessing but I think Grimgar is a hybrid of sorts of Haibane Renmei and Log Horizon. Which is a combination that I never expected to see in the world. Also note that the primary group of characters are definitely low powered, so they’re going to be struggling for a while.
The first episode is quite well done, albeit with some body image tropes that I could do without. Then again this may be because the characters were physically changed when they arrived in the world of Grimgar but haven’t realised it yet.
Lupin the 3rd Part 4
Despite the part 4 this is, as far as I know, essentially a reboot. That said it feels like Lupin III should. Based on the one episode I’ve seen so far, this feels like The Castle of Cagliostro, or more to the point it feels like The Plot of the Fuma Clan.
The opening theme music has been updated, but it’s still recognisably the same music. I’m cool with that, it fits this show perfectly. I’ll definitely be watching more of this at some point.
Still to Watch (Maybe)
I haven’t seen any of these yet, but may try one or two today:
Divine Gate(AnimeLab)EDIT 11/01/2015 – See aboveGirls Beyond the Wasteland (AnimeLab)EDIT 11/01/2015 – See above- Prince of Stride: Alternative (AnimeLab)
- Nurse Witch KOMUGI R (CrunchyRoll)[5]
- Phantasy Star Online 2 The Animation (CrunchyRoll)[6]
Lupin The 3rd Part 4 (CrunchyRoll)EDIT 12/01/2015 – See above
I’m happy to take recommendations (or warnings…) on any of these.
Dropped Without Further Comment
- Aokana: Four Rhythm Across the Sky
- Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara
- Dagashi Kashi
Comment, questions, anyone…. Bueller?
[1] Summer colds are just wrong, but at least it’s easier to keep warm whilst recovering. Also insert appropriate snarky comment about the anime seasons not matching Australian seasons in general, or Canberra seasons (both of them: Winter and Not) in specific.
[2] I’ve seen some of the original Ghost in the Shell manga, and the first two volumes of Intron Depot. I know whereof I speak.
[3] Yes, I just went there. I do that.
[4] Classical statues as idol singers. They don’t even transform but can apparently speak and sing.
[5] This one I’m just looking at and saying no to. Unless I hear are really solid recommendation in the credits I’ll give this one a miss.
[6] Apparently not a sequel although definitely based on an online RPG. Probably not at this stage.
Pirates of the Burley Griffin 
If you want to watch something for the purpose of unintentional comedy, then I thoroughly recommend the first episode of Divine Gate. Otherwise, I recommend that you absolutely do not watch Divine Gate. I was pleasantly surprised by Prince of Stride though – I’m not saying it blew me away or anything, but it seemed decent enough.
Not trying out Grimgar or Dimension W?
Thanks for that. I might take a look at Divine Gate then for the LOLs, amd maybe also at Prince of Stride.
Neither Grimgar nor Dimension W have appeared on CrunchyRoll or AnimeLab so the Australian licensing may be a bit cloudy.
Ah, fair enough. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about that.
Don’t worry about it. 🙂
Licensing in Oz (and NZ for that matter) has always been a bit… dodgy.
There’s a reason I own a fully multiregion Blu-Ray player.
Dimension W and Grimgar have just appeared on AnimeLab. I liked Dimension W (see above), and Grimgar is up next (since I’m sick I might as well).
Grimgar up now. Definitely interested in seeing more of that one.
Ditto. Granted my expectations were extremely low, but I thought it was a very solid first episode nonetheless.
I went into it cold and was quite impressed.
Divine Gate’s start has had a very poor viewing from many critics. Most switched off their hopes after the first few poetic lines; but anyone who’s judgemental of how Crunchyroll /translated/ poetry doesn’t know what poetry is or how it works, and shouldn’t be trying to judge it even if it is indeed terrible. Translation can only retain the power and prosody of the original if a poet is in charge. I was indifferent to the line because I know not to be silly enough to think that Japanese poetry would sound good in English coming from a subbing group.
Divine Gate is definitely getting worse, but I never saw its early moments as ‘grimdark’ (bleugh, that term is just… /bleugh/), and didn’t jump on the badwagon of criticising it for ‘trying so hard’ (which occurred because popular bloggers said it and everyone else watched it with that in mind, as per your convo with Artemis). I loved its first episode, loved its second even more, felt its third was decent, and it’s only just starting to get on my nerves now.
Really, things only feel like they’re ‘trying so hard’ because you perceive expectations of reaction that clash with your reaction, and you only perceive those expectations if you’re not hooked; thus, anything artistically loud but unengaging will feel like its ‘trying so hard’ to do something or other. But if the reason you’re not hooked is because of poor judgement and viewership on your part, the criticism on the show falls away, at least in the context of the comment made.
Be careful how much you let other viewers, and your own quick judgements, affect your viewing. Even if Divine Gate is ‘bad’, it’s definitely not as bad as people are making it out to be, because their first bout of criticism was a terrible example of how to cloud your appreciation of a show.
I’m glad you enjoyed the early episodes, and a bit sad that it’s now going the other way.
Personally Divine Gate didn’t work for me from the start, and there’s too much else on this season to try something that doesn’t grab me immediately.
About the only shows with “credit” this season are Akagami no Shirayuki-hime (which is doing fine) and GATE (which came this close to being dropped until the most recent episode.
Thanks for the comment.