天下制覇

Another exhausting premier week finished…

Well, everything that’s going to air has aired except for Beyond the Heavens (Tuesday… still waiting on the raw), Ristorante (Wednesday), Eden (Thursday), First Love (Saturday), and Juuden some time in May. I’m not really enamored of anything I’ve seen on Thursdays thus far, but I’d be lying if I said I was eagerly anticipating Eden either.

There’s a limited amount of time in the day, and since I’m one of the few, the proud, the semi-competent with Japanese, my schedule for watching stuff syncs up more or less with the actual broadcast schedule. Therefore, there’s only so much that I can deal with in a day, so here’s the quick list of all the shows over the past week (plus the ongoing ones I’m already following) along with a short blurb representing whatever the first thing that comes to mind when I think about the first episode with the side goal of hopefully infuriating as many people as possible. It’s almost sporting for me at this point. Comprehensive… it is not, but if you want more information, each one is linked to my post on it.

Anything that I am 100% certain I’m going to cover gets a little crown, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stick with it past the next episode or two. Likewise, just because I’m not psyched about something doesn’t mean that I won’t pick it up after checking out a second episode. If you’ve got any input, flames, or desperate begging, go wild.

MONDAY

07-Ghost

 Generic Final Fantasy, but competently done and more importantly… zero competition.

TUESDAY

Beyond the Heavens

 God damn it, Cao Cao.

WEDNESDAY

 

 Confusing and not terribly well put together… yet. I give it an even chance of getting better and getting far worse.

Queen’s Blade

 

 I expected it to be bad, but watchable. Oops.

Warring Era BASARA

 

 Amazingly, I think this was the best comedy I watched all of last week. I don’t even know if this is a comedy.

THURSDAY

Basquash!

 

 Certainly pretty, but basketball terrorism, shoe advertisements, and a horrible lead? Nah.

K-ON!

 

 Every time somebody praises this show’s horrible art, I die a little more inside.

Pandora Hearts

 

 Poor production, glacial pacing, low interest.

Phantom -Requiem for the Phantom-

 

 Meh… I dunno. It seems alright for a show about a bunch of performance art assassings, but you know… Bee Train.

FRIDAY

Hayate the Combat Butler 2

 

 Couldn’t last the first run, but then again, Fridays are empty. Maybe out of sheer boredom.

Slap Up Party

 

 Oh Gonzo… what were you thinking?

The Best!! Super Cool Class President

 

 Throw it into a box, set fire to the box, set fire to the fire, throw it into the sun, throw the sun into another sun.

SATURDAY

Battlefield Valkyria

  

 Not too bad, aside from the military tactics being even worse than your average elementary school game of dodge ball.

Chrome Shelled Regios

 

 There’s been entirely too little Felli in recent episodes.

Cross Game

 

 I still can’t believe that ZKC was booted for this. Bleh.

Full Metal Alchemist 2

 

 It looks good, but I don’t feel like being the 87th person (well, technically probably the first of 87) covering this. Go bother someone else.

Polyphonica crimson S

 

 Definitely an improvement over the original. It remains to be seen how much of an improvement.

Shin Mazinger Impact!

 

 I don’t think anybody really understood what happened this episode. I’m not sure I even want to know.

SUNDAY

Before Green Gables

 

Why is Britain’s Masterpiece Theater so good but Japan’s World Masterpiece Theater so bad?

Guin Saga

 

 Seems like good enough high fantasy, except… I don’t really like high fantasy. Or panting leopardmen for that matter.

Saki

  

 The rudest titties most amusing thing Gonzo’s made in years. It’s being subbed as it airs, so I doubt I’ll post even if I watch.

Shangri-La

 

 Apparently when Gonzo was laying off people, the editing department was the first to go.

Summer Storm!

 

 It had potential, but Hajime blows, and for Shaft, this seemed like their B effort.

Tayutama -Kiss on My Deity-

 

 Well, it’s cute and charming enough, but that’s really about all it is. I’ve certainly enjoyed worse.

Tears to Tiara

 

I have no idea, I couldn’t see a bloody thing.

Youth in Bloom

 

 Nobody cares about your pale pussy.

Wrapup:

I’m not committing yet, but right now my schedule is tentatively looking like:

Monday: 07-Ghost
Tuesday: Meh
JCStaffday: Basara and maybe Asura Cryin’ (which airs late and may get regularly bumped to Thursdays anyway)
Thursday: I have no bloody idea
Friday: Hayate maybe
Saturday: Regios and either Polyphonica or Valkyria
Sunday: Tayutama and Tiara

Honestly though, for all the shows swarming around Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, none of them really excited me all that much. Hopefully some of the shakier ones will pick up a bit in their next few episodes. We’ll see though. It might be nice to have a kind of quiet season without any particularly busy days. After the ‘fun’ of the occasional four show Sunday for the last few months, 1-2 shows a day max sounds positively peaceful.