天下制覇

 

Still raining here! …It’s always raining here…

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 short blurb designed to reduce a 24 minute episode to a quarter second bullet point designed to infuriate the weak-minded along with my current tentative schedule for the season at the end of it. Each one is linked to my initial post on it should you want more information. The only shows left to air are Deadman Wonderland on Saturday, but it’s Manglobe who has yet to successfully adapt anything, and Blue Exorcist at around 2am Sundays my time… which is A-1, who has made a business out of starting shows strong then fiddling as they burn to ashes by episode 4.

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 not every good show is to everybody’s taste. I do find it highly amusing during the start/end of seasons that people are able to seamlessly transition from condemning a majority of shows for not following the source while getting excited about other shows for the same reason. And that’s not even getting into the pseudo-battered wife syndrome when it comes to certain studios always making strong first episodes before pitching the entire thing into a pit.

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 tend to watch at least part of the second episode of most things, I just don’t write anything if I’ve lost all interest and turned it off after 5 minutes. If you’ve got any input, flames, or desperate begging, go wild.

MONDAY

Gintama

 

I’M NOT GOING TO PICK YOU UP 200 EPISODES IN. PLEASE STOP SHOUTING AT ME NOW.

The Qwaser of Stigmata II

 

Hasn’t gotten any less shameless with age… or better made for that matter either.

Sengoku Maidens

 

 50% saltine, 50% Nilla wafer. Neither is much to get excited about.

The World God Only Knows II

 

 Hasn’t improved in its time off either, and it was aggressively average with awful pacing to begin with.

TUESDAY

Steins;Gate

 

A potentially interesting plot doesn’t make up for emotionless direction and poor production.

Ultimate Survivor Kaiji II

 

Needs more holographic space robot laser sharks to be a real gambling show.

WEDNESDAY

Sex Ed For 30 Year Olds

 

 More amusing than it has any right to be, there’s also no competition so standards for the day are a tad low.

THURSDAY

Sket Dance

 

Just plain average to weak all around due to trying to do it all but not actually trying hard at any of it.

A-Channel

 

 Desperate attempt to emulate K-On/Lucky Star… but with an extra insert song/montage every episode!

Aria The Scarlet Ammo

 

 Yet Another Kugimiya Rie JC Staff ‘Action’ Show^tm

[C]

 

 Tries to avoid being cliche by adding finances and clowns to the standard otherworld fighting formula. Doesn’t quite succeed.

A Delusional Girl and a Young Man

 

 Cheapness on this scale would not be forgiven from any other studio. And the writer/characters aren’t interesting either.

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera

 

Complete 80s chaos, but that cuts both for and against it and its already losing a lot of the chaos in favor of dull T&A.

Maria†Holic Alive

 

Hasn’t gotten any funnier since its break either, even setting aside Shinbo’s indiscriminate direction OCD.

Softenni

 

Solid slapstick comedy, although needs to stick to the comedy and drop all these unpleasant romance and drama angles.

Tea For Universe, Tea For Life

 

How does Bee Train even stay in business?

We Still Don’t Know the Name of That Flower We Saw That Day

 

95% melodrama, 5% emotionally stunted whining, simmer in A-1’s studio for a week or two, et voila!

FRIDAY

Abnormal Physiology Seminar

 

 Lost everything that made the OVAs stomach turning… and even notable at all.

GOSICK

 

Tossing in the towel. After 12 episodes, I hate most of the cast and the writing is a complete joke.

World’s Greatest First Love

   

Guinea pigs are very cute pets that make a lot of strange noises.

X-Men

 

Madhouse still hasn’t figured out the super part of superhero shows.

You’ve Been Summoned, Azazel

 

 Juvenile to the extreme plus the usual shouting and overreaction to the slightest attempt at humor.

SATURDAY

Dog Days

 

Still not quite sure what to make of it or where it’s going, but 7Arcs knows how to do action and knows how to have fun.

Everyday Life

 

Very dull characters ruin what could have been interesting style and presentation. Some decent moments, but mostly not.

Tiger & Bunny

   

Extremely commercialized CG show about the evils of commercialism plus the usual Sunrise homoerotic undertones overtones.

Toriko

 

Nothing quite says Jump action like bad stills and more time spent posing that actually moving.

SUNDAY

Asatalotte’s Toy

 

Spending half of the first episode giving a lecture is a very very bad start.

Hanasaku Iroha

 

Winner of the seasonal "I Don’t Care For It, But I Won’t Think Less of You For Watching It" award.

Under the Innocent Sky

 

Less spastic than it would seem, but the split format between characters is hurting the comedy more than helping it so far.

A Bridge to the Starry Sky

 

The landlady is the only part of this that doesn’t scream "generic half-assed porn game adaptation #428."

Wrapup:

As you can see, Thursdays are entirely too full of stuff. There are multiple shows there that I wouldn’t mind covering on slower days just to fill the time, but with everything all on one day… ugh. I guess we’ll see how things go. My schedule is tentatively looking like:

Monday: Probably Sengoku Maidens, maybe TWGOK
Tuesday: Maybe Steins;Gate for lack of anything else to do
Wednesday: Sex Ed
Thursday: Softenni, and one or more of [C], Enma, and/or Aria
Friday: Bleh
Saturday: Dog Days, maybe TaigaBun
Sunday: Innocent Sky, maybe Starry to make fun of since it airs in the evenings

Well, it’s looking better than last season with its two days of total zilch and one day of… Rio… so that’s already more promising than last season. Maybe everything won’t self-destruct into garbage like last season too, although with Seven Arcs in the mix, you know that at least it will always have one (and only one!) awesome episode a month. So that’s that. Have at you!