That Stupid Club

A new sea­son of anime has come upon us. As a dis­cern­ing adult viewer with no time (and even less patience) it will be impos­si­ble to fol­low every series, so what to do?

Easy. I know what I like, so that elim­i­nates most of what I con­sider to be dreck (harem anime are def­i­nitely out, for exam­ple). Then, ded­i­cate about half a day (on a week­end of course), watch and judge the first episodes of the series that look like some­thing I might like, and then decide which to fol­low and which to drop. Three episodes to decide for the bor­der­line cases. Usually reli­able, but of course some anime really gets going halfway through (take a bow, Trigun) and oth­ers have promis­ing starts and then dis­solve into dull affairs (yes, I’m look­ing at you, Baku­matsu Kikansetsu Iro­hani­ho­heto). I may miss a few gems this way, or waste my time with lousy stuff, but… ah, curse my adult responsibilities.

So… this sea­son seems promis­ing. First thing to notice, the Super Robot genre has made a come­back, with not one, but two series that look good. I pre­fer the Real Robot genre (more Macross? Please? Even more FMP! would be wel­come), but I take what I can get.

First up, we have the remake Rei­deen. Superb pro­duc­tion val­ues, hot and mys­te­ri­ous girl, sub­tle humour, a mon­ster of the week for­mat and a lead char­ac­ter who is not annoy­ing? A sure winner.

Next up, Boku­rano (Ours). It fea­tures a whole bunch of kids, and has a very dif­fer­ent feel from Rei­deen, very dark, very sin­is­ter. Lord of the Flies-esque, even. Plus that theme “Unin­stall” by Ishikawa Chi­aki is great. I did not think it was pos­si­ble to make the word “unin­stall” sound so poignant. The author of the Boku­rano manga also wrote the excel­lent Naru­taru, so I have high hopes for this one. Could be the best of the season.

The com­edy of the sea­son should be Hay­ate no Gotoku! (Hay­ate the Com­bat But­ler). I have seen two episodes, and I can­not get enough of it. Sim­ply bril­liant. Could be this season’s Gin­tama. Or… is this season’s Gin­tama still Gin­tama? Hmm…

The last series I am enthu­si­as­tic about is Moon­light Mile. Looks to be hard sci-fi, and reminds me of Plan­etes. Excel­lent, and enough said, really.

In addi­tion, there are a few series I may take a closer look at if I hap­pen to have some spare time.

First up, Gainax’s own entry into the Super Robot wars Gur­ren Lagann. I am not con­vinced with both the char­ac­ter design and mecha design, and thus not keen on it. Know­ing Gainax though, pro­duc­tion val­ues will be high.

Darker Than Black has good char­ac­ter designs, an inter­est­ing set­ting and good pro­duc­tion val­ues, but some­how the first episode left me a lit­tle cold. I prob­a­bly will have to catch a few more episodes before I can make up my mind about this one. The bespec­ta­cled police­woman looks great though, so I want to like it. And then there is the almost oblig­a­tory per­son­al­ity defi­cient loli-goth girl for that cer­tain seg­ment of view­ers (you know who you are, perverts).

Last, we have Clay­more. The moment a mon­ster uttered “So… So this is… a Clay­more?” right at the begin­ning of the 2nd episode, I knew it was… typ­i­cal shounen wank mate­r­ial. Parts of the premise is inter­est­ing, so it falls solidly into the three episode category.

That about sums this sea­son up. Any other series this sea­son I should check out? Think I wouldn’t know a good anime if it bit me on the ass? Comment.