天下制覇

Damn east coast gave me the plague.

In a somewhat unusual turn of events, everything actually aired in a one week span except for Ebiten (next Saturday). I feel almost betrayed not having a second episode to judge half of the things.

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 a list of all the new seasons long with a short blurb designed to reduce a 24 minute episode to a single bullet point. The goal is not to be thorough, but to finish the entire list in under ten minutes. Preferably much less. Each one is (probably) linked to a more in-depth post, although let’s all remember that these are just initial thoughts and plenty of shows can (and some already have) go incredibly wrong or get much better in subsequent episodes. Besides, a show can be objectively terribly and still be great fun to watch and/or write about. If a show can’t be good, I’d rather it be an utter trainwreck than just a forgettable pile of muck.

Anything that I am 100% certain that I’m going to cover for at least another week gets an omelette, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stick with it past the next episode or two. It’s just as often indicative of something airing in a relative void of little else, or airing in the evening where I’m fed and generally much more willing to space out in front of some manner of nonsense. 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 shows are indeed proceeding as I expected. Like I said, sometimes they do get better… or far far worse. If you’ve got any input, flames, or desperate begging, go wild.

MONDAY

Hakuouki: Dawn Chapter

 

 Same boring pretty boy show as the last two Hakuoukis, but now with one less vagina.

Love Songs

 

Short story format works for and against it, but the stories are only 1/3 so far on being even just decent.

 Yuruyuri 

 

Needs more aggressive lesbian sexual harassment. A lot more.

TUESDAY

NADA

WEDNESDAY

God of Misfortune!

 

 Comes from the school of "Louder = Funnier" so all jokes must be screamed. Wear earplugs.

THURSDAY

 Joshiraku 

 

 Good flow and timing, but a lot of the jokes fall flat and the best ones are the groaners.

 Love, An Election, and Chocolate 

 

 Trying WAY too hard to be Wacky Porn Game #319, but very good chemistry between the leads.

Moyashimon

 

 Too much focus on education, not enough on making it interesting.

Summer Snow Rendezvous

 

A show of nothing but melancholic brooders? It’s like they don’t want the show to exist either.

Who is "Imouto"?

 

The ridiculous title was the best part of a very dull episode. The girl getting up unharmed after being run over was the worst.

 The Aesthetics of an Antihero 

 

 Needs far more budget to actually sell itself as an action show, but good lead characters.

 That’s Why I Can’t Have Sex 

 

 Loud and annoying leads, but does have the budget to sell itself as a fluff action piece.

FRIDAY

 Campione 

 

 Needs more of the girl being drunk and about 15 minutes less of the 15 minutes of pure exposition.

SATURDAY

 Dog Days 

 

Remains purely fluff. With expectations very, very low, at least I can’t be disappointed again.

Driland

 

A kid’s show through and through that airs at midnight. Genius idea.

Hearts Connect

 

Excessive exposition, internal monologuing, repetition, and a fat lot of nothing. Plus the ‘Undertaker.’

 Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere 

 

Easily one of the strongest first episodes for the season. Still needs to cut back on the needless prattling though.

Sword Art Online

 

An entire goddamned episode of exposition, scenery porn, and "Attack when you want to attack so the game calculates your attack."

SUNDAY

 The Ambition of Oda Nobuna 

 

Exceedingly wonky direction and some grating characters, but blasted through its first episode almost disturbingly quickly.

 Humanity Has Declined 

 

 Needs to use its visuals more effectively. Deadpan expressions and the occasional pun can only work so well in this setting.

La Storia Della Arcana Famiglia

 

 Surprisingly decent first episode, surprisingly horrid second episode. They don’t average well.

Lagrange

 

 Cutesy lesbians doing recap eating things and still trying to be nauseatingly cutesy.

 Muv Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse 

 

First episode made me root for the BETA. The second made me laugh. That means there are… issues with the direction.

TARI TARI

 

 Has a disturbing fascination with naked boys. Otherwise, very standard and dull teen melodrama about nothing.

Wrapup:

Well, at least Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday all have more than enough stuff to pick from. Thursday evenings also turned out surprisingly better than I was expected, but for AT-X softcore shows by porn directors, what I was expecting was not exactly Shakespeare. I do wish there wasn’t a big void on the Tuesday-Wednesday span. Maybe I’ll jump back into Galaxy Balls since I didn’t hate that back in the day, I just got into my routine. My schedule for the season is tentatively looking like this:

Monday: Yuruyuri
Tuesday: Bleh
Wednesday: Bleeeeeh
Thursday: Joshiraku, LoveChoco, Aesthetics (evening), No Sex (evening)
Friday: Campione
Saturday: Horizon, Dog Days
Sunday: Two, maybe three of Nobuna, Deathbread, and/or Total Eclipse

So an okay season for action and comedy shows, my bread and butter, but I don’t think there are really too many surprises there. Not a whole ton otherwise going on either gamewise or in western animation. Project Snowballing Work continues to snowball work, although I think I’m over halfway done. I could be wrong though. A Touhou Valkyrie Profile clone apparently got made and released a month ago without me realizing it but it is very disappointing (although there are two more sequels/expansions already planned). Ultimate Spidey has, amazingly enough, gotten significantly better, but still suffers from really bad direction and poor humor through jarring cutaways, and I’m enjoying Tron Uprising more than I should. I suspect it’s because it takes the same gleeful delight in killing off side-characters that Blood-C did. It’s averaging two murders per episode, I believe. Disney these days, man. Disney.

ANYWAY, that’s that. Complain, cajole, wheedle, extoll, whatever. Go wild. Now I’ve got to go spread the plague I picked up on the east coast to some unsuspecting Oregonians.