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I’m thinking of starting a new feature. And here it is. My quick(ish) reviews of all the new animes this season. What should you watch? What should you run from screaming? Keep reading to find out.

Just to preface things a little bit, I tried to watch two episodes of each series so that I’d be able to get a feel for the series. There are some exceptions to this, but it mostly holds true. For a small summary of all of these you can go here.

Durarara!!

I have no idea what this show is about. Really, I don’t. And I’ve seen three episodes of it. It starts off being about a kid who moved to a section of Tokyo from the country in order to go to a new school. But that’s a really bad description, even though it did happen. There’s a story looming here, and you can tell that when it emerges it’ll be pretty interesting, but right now it’s a very interesting look at some very interesting characters. We’ve got a headless motorcyclist, some people with superhuman strength/powers, and some perfectly normal seeming kids who just want some excitement. It’s dark, it’s intriguing, and I really want to see more.

Beyond the characters though, it’s really all about the atmosphere. The city itself is really the main character, and it’s an amazing one. It’s made by the same people who made Baccano, so that should give you a good idea of what it’s like. I wish I could describe this in more detail but I really can’t. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything that so escaped description. I will tell you though, if you don’t like the first one you probably won’t like the next two episodes.

You should definitely watch it.

Dance in the Vampire Bund

I’m going to introduce a common theme for this anime season here. This seems pretty good, but there’s just really awkward fanservice that makes you feel weird watching it. It starts out tame enough. There’s some weird Japanese panel show where people are discussing the existence of vampires, brought on by a string of murders that have been seemingly perpetrated by a vampire. And of course, vampires show up and start fighting. Skip forward, the queen of vampires paid Japan a shit ton of money for a piece of land so that they can have their own little vampire kingdom. And what’s with this mysterious boy who had two seconds of screen time in the first episode, but the vampire queen has a interest in?

Long story short, vampires fight and shit.

At least their not pretty boys right? And at least it’s dark and violent like a vampire story should be. And the action is pretty cool with vampires and other mythical beasts in a battle royale. And the art is cool, and the story is interesting enough to carry the show until the next scene. And then the little girl takes her clothes off.

. . .

What. The. Fuck.

It’s completely not necessary and it makes you feel like a pervert watching the damn show. Admittedly, she’s a vampire and probably hundreds of years old or something but that’s just a cop-out. And true, it was only for a few minutes in the second episode but still, it was there. Why? It wasn’t necessary. The show would have been better without it.

Meh, it wasn’t bad enough that I’m not going to watch it anymore. More than likely I’ll stop watching it because the plot seems pretty bland, but I’ll give it a few episodes to win me over. Again, the action is good enough so far.

Give it a try

So Ra No Wo To

This show is so very pretty. And so very boring.

Seriously, nothing happens.

A bunch of girls that are copy-pasted from K-on, minus the parts that make them engaging characters mind you, and put into a future army after the world has regressed to the 1800’s. Replace a guitar with a trumpet and change school to a army base that the army doesn’t give a fuck about and you’ve got your anime. Thats it. But it can’t even claim that it’s a slice of life show because it isn’t. It has a plot, it’s just not fleshed out at all and at this point I don’t care. It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t really even cute.

But it was so pretty.

Watch it for 2 minutes to enjoy the pretty, and then turn it off.

Hanamaru Kindergarten

The definition of cute. That’s really about it. Just look at those kids and tell me they aren’t adorable. If that isn’t your thing then stay away. You won’t find anything to like here. The best description I can give you here is, what if Keitaro from Love Hina were a new kindergarten teacher instead of a dorm manager? Thats about it really, and what can I say? I liked it. It’s not going to wow you but it was cute and funny and pretty great.

Look at that picture, you know if you’re going to like it or not.

Seikon no Quasar

There’s two versions of this going around. Censored and Uncensored. Uncensored is almost porn and censored it cut so much that you can’t tell what’s going on. It’s about “alchemists” who each have power over a certain element (iron, aluminum, etc). And the fights are really cool. The only problem these alchemists have is that they have to recharge their powers. How do they do that you ask? By drinking breast milk.

yeah. . .

consequently the girls are running around pretty much naked through the entire battle. And in the censored version, and shot like this gets replaced by the sky or something. So the entire epic fight is reduced to a static picture of the sky where you hear cool things going on. Intermingled with girls sounding like they’re being raped. So, censored or not, it’s unwatchable. And it’s a shame to, because it would have been pretty cool.

If you’re in to that kind of thing then watch the uncensored version, otherwise don’t bother.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu

I love this show. Probably too much. It takes place in a school where students are ranked completely by their test grades. From A to F. The A rank students have class in luxury, each with their own couches and a private library in the room. Not to mention a snack bar. F ranked students have wooden desks that are broken and sit on cushions with no stuffing. Guess what group the show stars. Yup. The crux of the show is that different classes can battle other classes for their rooms (or whatever other purpose they have) by summoning creatures that have states proportional to their last test grade.

The show follows Yoshii who is an idiot but a nice guy and his friends who consist of the following. The class rep who seems far more competent then he is. Voyeur, who is a voyeur and will literally dive with his camera to get an upskirt shot. Despite his perversion he is generally accepted, and no one really seems to mind him. A bishōnen who is always mistaken for a girl. And in fact gets treated and dressed like one more often then not. The violent girl who likes Yoshii, and is willing to beat him until he takes her out. And finally the smart girl who got into the F class after getting sick in the placement test. Who of course also likes Yoshii, but she’s not as willing to admit it.

I love how zany this show is, and how it likes to switch moods at the drop of the hat. And of course it’s always fun to watch them all fail. I’m not kidding, I love this show.

It you’re going to watch one show, make it this one.

Okami Kakushi

This has a really cool plot lurking. I can feel it. Too bad the first two episodes were boring as hell.

In short, boy moves with his family to new town. Town is weird. People disappear but no one cares. There’s a myth about some wolves. It randomly cuts to masked girls with scythes kicking ass. That’s about all I’ve been able to gleen really.

The result is that I’m interested to learn more about this town and what’s going on, but if it takes too much longer to find out I’m going to stop caring and drop it. They really could have come up with a better way to string the viewer along while they got through the setup. It’s odd. This show really reminds me of another show. But I can’t place which one.

Give it a try, hopefully it will get better.

Omamori Himari

This show is pretty bad. It’s the most generic anime you can possibly think of. Boy has some sort of powers in him, but can’t use them yet so he has some magical protector cat girl.

I really don’t want to say much about it since I care so little for it. Suffice to say, you’ve seen everything here before, only better.

Bland and uninspired, so don’t bother.

Ladies Vs. Butlers

I really like this show even though it gets awkwardly fanservicey at times. The main character is at butler/maid school. Where he has to kiss the asses of the rich kids in the same school who instead get taught how to be rich snobs. To bad everyone thinks he’s a pervert because of some improbable accidents when he first transfers in.

I really can’t tell you why I like this one. It’s just really funny, and I like the main character a lot. It’s fun to watch, and I guess in the end that’s all that matters.

Try it, you’ll like it (probably).

Chu-Bra!!

Worst show of the season methinks. The main girl starts an underwear club because she loves underwear so much. She even test wears new underwear so some older guy she lives with can get data and desgin underwear. Obviously a lot of people think she’s wierd. And I agree with them. But she’s also uninspiring. She has the worst cause ever and she’s annoying as hell. It’s trying to hard to be funny, and it fails so totally. I couldn’t even get through the second episode. It was that bad.

I’d think less of you if you liked this.

-Tony