2011 Summer Premiere Wrapup and Kwanzaa in July

July 13th, 2011

 

Such is life.

There’s a limited amount of time in the day, and since I tend to watch things within an hour or two of airing instead of waiting half the day for such pleasantries as subtitles or things in resolutions larger than my laptop’s screen, I vastly prefer to watch things more or less with the broadcast schedule. Here’s the quick list of all the shows that premiered along with a single sentence summation of my thoughts on the first episode. It’s not comprehensive, and unlike other blogs, I do not believe myself to have prophetic gifts about being able to tell the entire course of a show from a single episode. 

Each one is linked to my initial post on it should you want more information. The only show left to air is Dantalian on Friday which has no real competition yet so… whatever. And a friendly reminder, most shows are going to be bad, make no mistake about it, but even bad shows can be worth watching… or even more fun to write about than boringly average to decent shows, and I do this. Do try to keep that in mind before you decide to start declaring a show the GREATEST THING EVER and then spend the next three months promoting every episode as bettter than the last. Actual overall show quality varies from episode to episode, but the population of obsessed fans does not.

Anything that I am 100% certain I’m going to cover for at least another week 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 looking forward to something just yet doesn’t mean that I won’t pick it up.  I almost always check out at least part of the second episode of most things, even if I then lack the will to actually say anything about it because I tuned out after five minutes to build a pillow fort around my dog and then throw beanbags at it. If you’ve got any input, flames, or desperate begging, go wild.

MONDAY

Natsume’s Book of Friends

   

An epic marvel of compelling charazzzzzzz….

Twin Thief Angels

 

Well, they’re making a magical girl show, but I don’t think they know why… or how.

Yuruyuri

 

 Where’d all that creativity and energy from the first episode go? Please come back. Please?

TUESDAY

God’s Dolls

 

Who cares about murder and intrigue when you can focus on a milquetoast lead and breasts the size of dobermen?

WEDNESDAY

Nada

THURSDAY

Blood-C

 

17 minutes clumsy girl and annoying friends, 4 minutes well-done action. Let’s reverse that.

Bunny Drop

 

 Just because the lead isn’t sexualized, doesn’t mean that a flawless idealized female is any less shamelessly cloying.

Idiots, Tests, and Summoned Beasts

 

A good comedy, but only shines when the summoned beasts are running around, which is sadly rare.

Mayo Chiki!

   

A shameless mess of cliches. Rather well put together, but still cliched as all hell.

No. 6

 

25% wet boys in wind + 40% nursing wet boys + 35% padding + 10% other = 0% interest.

Spinning Penguindrum

 

Intriguing, but very heavy handed and not clear yet that it doesn’t just have its head shoved up its own penguindrum.

THE IDOLM@STER

 

All the excitement of watching a recording of someone play the game. Slowly. With less music.

FRIDAY

Blade

 

 Our year long Marvel x Madhouse nightmare is finally coming to an end.

The Black Rabbit of Whatever

 

Sixty seconds of content stretched out to fill an entire 24 minute episode. Really not how to start a show.

God’s Notebook

 

Boring Whiney Guy Complains, And Here’s A Random Cute Girl That Suddenly Relies Him: The Show 2.

Ro-Kyu-Bu!

 

Maybe if you want to be a comedy or drama, you should move the camera away from the crotches of 10-year olds.

Countless Cat Gods

 

 It has the pieces to be a decent comedy, but needs to actually discover flow and comedic timing.

SATURDAY

Bishies Inc.

 

Far too fabulous for any man to watch without feeling lighter in the loafers.

R-15

 

Amazingly, not the most obtrusively censored thing this season. And that’s its only defining quality.

Sacred Seven

 

Everything about this show screams silly parody… except the two leads who think they’re in a Greek tragedy. 

Tiger & Bunny

 

After a poor conclusion to the Ouroboros/Bunny arc, it’s back to (fan/man)service episodes to pad out the show. Great.

SUNDAY

Nurarihyon’s Grandson

   

Speedlines make everything better!

Crossings of a Labyrinth From a Foreign Land

 

Experience of the two episodes can be duplicated by looking at postcards and listening to elevator music for twenty minutes.

That Show About Eating Breasts

 

It could be worse, although with obtrusive censoring, poor production, and zero self-awareness, it’s hard to imagine how.

Wrapup:

Monday: One or both of Yuruyuri and Twin Angels
Tuesday: Bleh
Wednesday: Double bleh
Thursday: BakaTest, one or more of Penguindrum, Mayo Chiki, and/or maybe Blood-C
Friday: Dantalian or Black Rabbit, likely Cat Gods in the evenings
Saturday: TaigaBun and Sacred Seven I guess
Sunday: Bleeeeeeeh

After last season, it’s back to three days of yuck and I don’t even know if it’s worth it to mock the Breast show even just for something to occupy a day. Yeah, it doesn’t even rate as high as Aria or Rio, being just simply unpleasant all around. Maybe a meteor will his a broadcaster in a couple weeks and push a couple Thursday primary broadcasts to another day. It’s more time to work on… other… projects I suppose, but eh. Maybe I’ll just start rambling aimlessly and posting random cheesecake shots once a week this season.

Posted in Premiere Wrapup | 18 Comments »

18 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Nightshadow2239 says:

    I do hope many of these shows stay good or even improve off from the first episode. Of course the latter is rare to none and actually goes in the reverse direction quite too often.

  • Yyi says:

    Putting my hopes on Bunny Drop and Spinning Penguindrum…though a little reluctant about God’s Notebook after JC Staff’s track record of tearing apart both Merry and Aria.

    Shall try out Mayo Chiki too as a gamble.

  • GF202020 says:

    I say follow Breasts on Sunday ala Rio.

    …maybe Rio will even make an appearance there with her TARDIS powers.

  • Chen says:

    I have a niggling feeling part of that post was directed towards me. :P

  • Hinano says:

    I am confused as to why you are watching Tiger & Bunny but not Uta no Prince Sama. At least in UtaPri there’s heterosexual relationships.

  • jingoi says:

    going to continue Kamisama Dolls, Penguindrum and Ro-Kyu-Bu, get back to Hikenchou and R-15 when uncensored appears, might drop Mayo and YuruYuri if I don’t see any improvement, only check out 60% fanservice eps of Itsuka and Twin Angels, drop Memochou if Alice develops anything beyond only friends status with invisible male lead, want to watch dub/sub of first BakaTest first, I prefer a dub of Blood-C, I rather watch Cardfight Vanguard over Sacred Seven, still giving Cat Gods a chance, I don’t do BL/Yaoi.

  • Anise_Punter says:

    High On: Baka Test 2, Cat Gods

    Could Go Either Way: Twin Angels Voice Actress Abomination-Fest: How Does Rie Kugimiya Keep Getting Work?

    Not So Much, But Watching Anyway: Sacred Seven, Yuru Yuri, Black Rabbit

  • Yue says:

    You, good sir, have 3 open days a week to fulfill your role as the Galactic Savior! ^_^

  • Anonymous says:

    agree with almost everything, except for black rabbit, i feel like that has some potential to become really good

  • firecow says:

    I hope the Fall season is better than this crap.

  • Anonymous says:

    Why do summers always feel so yuck? Do studios purposly push all their “good”(hah) shows to fall/spring seasons?

  • sage says:

    Please come back. I miss you.

  • KLAC_AWESOME says:

    well i say of it for me it manyuu season to watch!!!

  • Geo says:

    25% wet boys in wind + 40% nursing wet boys + 35% padding + 10% other = 0% interest.

    ^ That adds up to 110. :D

  • Random Guest says:

    While I’m not a fan of all of the shows listed here. I would have to say the comments given for each one make me think the person writing them just doesn’t like anime in general.