天下制覇

 

My car is literally coated in petals and pollen right now.

Well, everything that’s going to air has aired except for Hyouka (22nd) and AKB (29th), so let’s wrap things up.

Since I take it as a matter of pride to be quick about this stuff (which I’m also pretty sure is the point of the newfangled online bloggery), my schedule for watching stuff syncs up more or less with the actual broadcast schedule. As such, the main competition shows have is with other shows on their days, not with the season as a whole. Here’s the quick list of all the shows over the past week… plus some… that I had considered even a slight possibility of picking up (sorry Rock Lee, Pretty Rhythm, etc) along with a short blurb designed to reduce a 24 minute episode… or two… to a quarter second bullet point. The primary goal is to finish the list in under 5 minutes, not to provide comprehensive all-encompassing thoughts.

I also feel the need to note that try to remember that the in actualy very few shows will be Super Epic Awesome Amazing Have Big Penis Winner Is You. Despite my disdain for the rabid fandom, I do keep an eye on them and this season seems to have been devoured by the blogging harem cliches of the Eternally Shocked Prophet ("I thought this would be awesome, but I was completely wrong. It was a masterpiece!") and the Newly Awakened Drama Queen ("This made me FEEL so much and touched me so deeply that I need to see a proctologist."). Good god. It’s television. Take it down a notch. I can only imagine they spend these people spend their birthdays huddled in a catatonic state, too overcome by emotions to do anything but twitch and drool. A show can be objectively terrible and still fun to watch or write about. Although my favorite comment went something along the lines of "I almost liked Shining Hearts, but they didn’t explain how the bread was baked." Yes… breadxposition was the issue.

Anything that I am 100% certain I’m going to cover for at least another week gets a parfait, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stick with it past the next episode or two. Likewise, just because I’m not excited about something right now doesn’t mean that I won’t pick it up. I generally do glance at the second or third episodes to at least verify that they are indeed proceeding as I expected. If you’ve got any input, flames, or desperate begging, go wild.

MONDAY

 Crawl! Nyarlko! 

 

Energy, wit, charm. Hopefully it won’t drive the same jokes into the ground.

You and Me.

 

 A show with a lot of pussies.

ZETMAN

 

Exceedingly cliched and barely standable cast interfering with what could’ve been a decent super hero show.

Queen’s Blade: Rebellion

 

Episode 2 obliterated whatever little good will episode 1 had created.

TUESDAY

Kickoff to the Galaxy!!

 

 Surprisingly competent kid’s soccer show… but still very much a kid’s soccer show.

Jormungand

 

 Maybe if it spent half the energy on production as it does on trying to pretend like it’s edgy.

WEDNESDAY

Medaka Box

 

Weak characters and weaker production, but still might be the most watchable Jump show in a long while.

 The Woman Named Fujiko Mine 

 

Nailing the noir style, but Fujiko’s still a terrible protagonist without Lupin around. Also, nipples.

 Zombie’ssu 

 

 At least now I know to expect litte, because that’s what this season is giving so far.

THURSDAY

Eureka 7 AO

 

 Packed together the twin powers of cliches and expositions without even the money shot of a giant robot.

Fishing Ball

 

 Artistic and whimsical, but needs to drop the main character’s gimmick and fast.

Kids on the Slope

 

 noitaminA show #10 about loner X meets wacky Y and teaches them to make friends. It didn’t even have almost any jazz.

 Place to Place 

 

Utterly harmless and while certainly not a great comedy, gets a lot of leeway for cuteness, style, and pacing.

 Sanka Rea 

 

Competently directed, although still has a number of kinks that it needs to work out in presentation and characters.

Sengoku Collection

 

 The episodic reinvention each week could’ve worked if the characters and stories weren’t so bland and cliche, but they are.

Shining Hearts

 

 Surprisingly cheap and devoid of any excitement, especially for the recently spastic Production IG.

A Summer Tinged Miracle

 

 Ansgt-riddled teenagers and a rock that conveniently grants random wishes to resolve/create more angst? Ugh.

FRIDAY

Accel World

 

 Sad Sack Protagonist of the season plus a second episode that was 90% pointless infodumping doesn’t give me a lot of hope.

SATURDAY

Fate/Zero

 

Blah blah blah blah blah hit CG thing with sword blah blah blah blah CG planes blah blah blah blah blah blah…

Kuroko’s Basketball

 

Didn’t go 10 minutes without numerical power levels. Plus all the usual Jump cheapness and gimmicky nonsense.

Mysterious Girlfriend X

 

Made of the 90s and all the terrible overly dramatic thing long since abandoned, plus CG and spit fetishism.

 Upotte! 

 

 Hopefully when focus shifts to a new character, they can give the sex = gun joke a rest.

Saint Seiya Ω

 

 The antagonist is made of space and the protagonist wears a horse. What more needs be said?

Space Brothers

 

 "Before we continue, I need to flashback and think about what I’m doing… again." Thrilling.

SUNDAY

 Aquarion EVOL 

 

I can’t wait for Okada’s signature flaming disaster of an end, but at least being over the top still fits the show quite well.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

 

Eating up a third of the first episode by recycling it, even if it was a clever gimmick, was a very poor idea.

Saki: Achiga Chapter

 

 I’m not sure how long my interest will last without being able to make jokes about 11 year olds with C cups.

Scarlet Fragments

 

 The same generic poorly made Deen pretty boys show of the season with all the usual suspects and wallflower protagonist.

Wrapup:

Thursdays and to a lesser extent Wednesdays and Sundays are still a little bit of a mess that I’ll weed a show or two out a week to get to a comfortable spot, but things are otherwise nicely spread. My schedule for the season is tentatively looking like this:

Monday: Nyarlko, maybe Zetman
Tuesday: Bleh
Wednesday: Fujiko, probably Zombie, maybe Medaka
Thursday: Place, Sanka, probably at least one or two others
Friday: Maybe Accel
Saturday: Probably Uppotte
Sunday: EVOL, likely one of Saki/Dusk and/or one of the unaired shows

So not a great season for action shows despite a couple ostensibly being called that. Thankfully, the western world’s picking up the slack there this season with Marvel and DC having a silly little super hero war on the weekends. DC (Young Justice and Green Lantern) is pretty much kicking Marvel’s tail though (Avengers and Ultimate Spiderman), certainly not helped by this iteration of Spidey being as much Family Guy as super hero. Ow. Why, Dini? Why? Young Justice has actually gotten a lot better (although still not great) since coming back from its break, mostly thanks to Dick being all but written out of it. There’s Korra too, of course, which I did finally get around to watching and was alternatingly pleasantly surprised by and annoyed by. Par for the course really.

ANYWAY, that’s that. Complain, cajole, wheedle, extoll, whatever. Go wild. I’ve got a date with a tasty baked sandwich.