天下制覇

 

A much more peaceful time than usual.

Well, everything that’s going to air has aired except for Fairy Tail (early Mondays), Thriller Restaurant (Tuesday), Kiddy Girl and Trapeze (Thursday), and Winter Sonata (Friday). Since Thriller’s a kid’s show, Trapeze is one of Toei’s crazy psychadelic shows, and Winter Sonata is being billed as the angstiest drama ever, there’s just the other two that fall in my usual interest sphere, but I’m still going to check them all out to give them a chance to surprise me.

So anyway, standard boilerplate here. 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.

Since this season has a particularly large number of sequels, just be aware that I skipped those that I didn’t make it to the end of the first season of, so didn’t bother checking out the second.

Anything that I am 100% certain I’m going to cover for at least one more 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 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

  The day of sequels to shows I have little but distaste for.

TUESDAY

11eyes

 

 For being the bastard child of Rental Magica and Persona, this needs more action, badly.

 

Kobato.

 

 Very cute, and well made, but with possibly the dumbest bint in anime history.

 

Reaching You

 

Excessive angst, hamfisted writing, and ugly to boot. And that’s before my ears start to twitch listening to Noto monologue. 

WEDNESDAY

Asura Cryin’

 

 Looks like the story’s finally settling down a lot more, although the two new episodes have been a bit unstable in execution.

When the Seagulls Cry

 

 The cake is a lie.

Whispered Words

 

 All sorts of clumsily handled lesbian romance cliches wrapped up in a really boring package.

THURSDAY

30 Rock

 

 Best fall show and you know it.

Darker Than Black 2

 

 I’m not sure who exactly would be excited about the cast getting bumped aside for a plucky young photographer, but it ain’t me.

Kämpfer

 

A pretty solid, if somewhat uninspired, production, dragged down a bit by the plot often aimlessly wandering around.

Nyankoi!

 

 The saltine cracker of comedies, and about as funny as one too.

FRIDAY

A Certain Scientific Railgun

 

 While it was better than the absolute worst parts of Index, it didn’t even come close to measuring up to the better parts, so I’m not sold on it yet.

Hekiyoh’s Student Council

 

 Doubt me for praising this show, will you!? Aroduc’s word is law!

The Book of Bantorra

 

 Three parts terrible CG, one part angst, one part exposition. Not a recipe for greatness.

The Sacred Blacksmith

 

 And thus we remember that even good production can be broken by terrible direction.

SATURDAY

Dream Colored Pâtissière

  

 It seems harmless enough… if you are, or want to be, a 9 year old girl.

InuYasha

 

 Maaaaaaan. How is this the most watchable Saturday show? Honestly.

Letter Bee

 

 Three parts terrible exposition. One part angst. One part CG. Not a recipe for… hold on a minute here.

SUNDAY

Heaven’s Lost Property

 

 Shrieking unlikeable protagonist, and one of the more inane excuses for a plot around, but it does look rather pretty.

Miracle☆Train

 

 The real danger comes when a young boy finds his way onto the Miracle Train.

Wrapup:

I’m not totally committed yet, especially on Thursdays but right now my schedule is tentatively looking like:

Monday: PFFT. Maybe Fairy Tail, more likely a dedicated GA translation day
Tuesday: 11eyes or Kobato.
Wednesday: Umineko and Asura Cryin’
Thursday: Kampfer, and maybe DtB2 or Kiddy Girl-and
Friday: Hekiyoh and maybe one of Blacksmith or Railgun
Saturday: Ughhhhhh. Maybe InuYasha I GUESS
Sunday: Ugh again. Maybe Heaven if episode 2 sucks less

And that’s a wrap. It’s kind of a strange season in that there are so few shows airing on Saturdays and Sundays, which are traditionally pretty busy days. There are lots of OVAs this season too, so expect those to probably throw my schedule out of whack sometimes a little bit. Otherwise, I’m pretty happy with how balanced everything is throughout the rest of the week.