Winter Premiere Wrapup and Folger’s Choice Awards

January 13th, 2014

I wish we had snow. All there is here is rain.

All the shows but three have put out at least one episode and two of those are on a bleak-looking Wednesday, so let’s do this. As always, all of my opinions have been reduced to a one-line blurb, the first thought(s) that come to mind when I think about a show. The main goal is to finish it in less time than it took to find a header image, not to be an extensive and all-defining judgement of the show. They’re all linked to my posts on them (or something at any rate) if you want more info.

And a friendly reminder, most shows are going to be mediocre and forgettable at best, make no mistake about it, so saying that isn’t exactly going out on a limb. My own tastes and preferences are not the last word in everything. Feel free to ramble or do whatever you want in the comments.

Anything that I am 100% certain I’m going to cover for at least another week gets Akumas, but that doesn’t mean I’ll stick with it, nor does a lack of them mean I won’t give it another week. Thursday and Saturday in particular are still shaking out and I don’t have a great idea what I’m going to do with them. I tend to glance over the second episode of most things anyway, even if I don’t post and do it while doing other Aroduc Thingstm.

MONDAY

Super Sonico

Completely vapid vehicle for pushing Sonico merch too afraid of alienating anybody to actually try anything.

A Love Song for a Certain Pilot

Could have earned at least a few romance points if it paid it off with a kiss, but pussied out of even that.

D-Frag!

Not enough variety in its joke delivery nor enough of a budget to make it work.

TUESDAY

 Tokyo Ravens 

Still failing to do anything particularly right or horrible wrong besides spaying Japanese Twisted Nerve.

Hamatora

Writing was a complete disaster and visuals a bit over-inspired by LSD. At least the action was okay though.

WEDNESDAY

Ghost Watch

I’ve seen way too many Pokemon clones that were far worse than this.

Fourteen Sick

The only thing new is the hair. Same jokes, less crazy action, and I’m sure the melodrama is soon to come.

 Unconfirmed and In-Progress 

Better centered on the characters than most this season, but not using them very well for the comedy.  

Inari Goes Bark Bark

Not actually out yet, so let’s just say that the ED is terrible and that makes me mad!

Maken-ki

Also not out, but I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure that I could write the summary already.

THURSDAY

Silver Spoon

Less annoying than I remembered, but a lot more focused on awful melodrama, insecurity, and misunderstandings.

Magical Warfare

Another complete writing disaster, but at least in a kind of fascinatingly horrible way. Not too badly put together otherwise.

Houzuki’s Cool Head

Very dry, very unanimated, very Japanese humor, but it’s hard to even call a lot of what it does jokes.

Z/X Ignition

Tried its best to be as obtuse as possible. Succeeded. And yet, just another Persona clone of dozens.

 Sakura Trick 

Extremely lesbians, but I suspect it’s trying to hide the lack of a lot of jokes with them.

 Killa Kill 

Not thrilled with how poor the action’s been lately nor the promise of an angst arc with yet more feelings and hugs.

FRIDAY

 Nourin 

Directing is above most of the comedies, but too yelly in both characters and humor.

Wake Up, Girls!

Twenty minutes of just blank space and then some panty shots.

Buddyfight

These lizardmen show an unsettling amount of interest in little boys.

SATURDAY

Student Council Officers

Hasn’t really changed at all, which considering that its main problem is formulaic repetition, isn’t a good thing.

My Sister’s Been a Little Weird Lately

Essentially just very censored softcore masturbation.

False Love

Shinbo trying to hide generica beneath a battery of his usual tricks, but seems to have slightly more of a budget than usual.

 World Conquest 

The bland male lead drags things down, but the show really needs to figure out what it wants to be.

Space Dandy

The dialogue is nowhere near as funny as the show thinks and too much of it is just pissing around.

Sunday

 NobunaGun 

Badly lacking the budget and the action to really sell the cool. Poses can only go so far.

 Wizard Barristers 

One of the few shows with a real hook and some flair. A bit scattered though, but better too fast than too slow.

 Noragami 

Fairly generic action, although competent and leads are better than most. Needs to find a sense of purpose.

Witchcraft Works

Truly horrible leads, but oddly okay with the action and animation for JC Staff lately.

Buddy Complex

If this is a ‘return’ to classic Sunrise mecha, then why is it like every single other Sunrise mecha of the last decade?

Nobunaga the Fool

Trying to be high fantasy through exposition dumps and the occasional disco explosion out of nowhere.

Saki

An entire episode just spent listing out every single character in the show. Good god.

Wrapup:

Pretty underwhelming set of premieres, and I’m ever the beacon of optimism. Hopefully some of the stuff that was a bit overladen with expositional dumps in lieu of anything interesting will find its legs instead of continuing in that direction. Or maybe I’ll just have more time than last season to work on side projects. I did glance through Love Song and Sonico this morning, but the former’s first half covered student orientation, shopping, and making pasta while the latter… well… I didn’t really even make it through the not-subliminal-at-all OP. Neither were worth giving up my sleep for to cover before work.

Go ahead and beg, plead, wheedle, cajole, whatever.

Posted in Premiere Wrapup | 11 Comments »

11 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Fate says:

    This season looks really poor so far. DFrag and World Conquest are the only shows I am remotely interested in. Sad panda is me.

  • Mesousa2877 says:

    So, you’re following Nobunagun, a show you’ve been criticizing to due lack of animation, yet not follow Space Dandy because it has GOOD animation?

    World Conquest still felt like it cheated on me.

  • Afrosquirrel says:

    That was a pretty disappointing opening week, but Wizard Barristers was a pleasant surprise. That might be because I first thought the title was Wizard Barristas and was expecting something different…

  • jingoi says:

    ahhh!
    I hate maken ki so much
    one second haruko is being yuri with insert girl the next she’s attacking mc for doing misunderstandings with insert girl.

  • GF202020 says:

    Any chance for a serious Galaxy Angel anime retrospective?

  • Goldi says:

    You should still eye D-frag a bit, manga gets more better later on so there’s a chance anime will too.

  • anise_punter says:

    Not following any of the shows you’ve picked this time around, so there won’t be much to comment on from me this season :( Don’t worry, I’ll still be here in spirit.

  • Fate says:

    A lot of these picks are unusual for this site.

  • NoraNora says:

    About Noragami: the manga itself has yet to find a sense of purpose. The artist can draw juicy legs though.

  • algorithm says:

    Boring reviews incoming I guess.

  • anon999 says:

    Ugh, this season is a complete letdown. I do see some shows showing some promise, but I might not even bring myself to see them.