Anime Year (2012): Winter Season First Look

[saltprince]

Season's Impressions
On the whole, while this season has nothing overly special, it does have a lot of charming looking things which I think will be promising into the future. I hope that it'll work out, and I actually have high hopes for once, which is more than I can say for some of the seasons last year, if you look at my previous post I linked on plurk. Not a lot was going on at the time... But yeah, here, I think it looks promising! In particular, I think that Inu x Boku and that Ano Natsu show will be good. That and the fat that Amagami SS has a second season has me very pleased. Couple that with the series continuing into this season... It's too early to say, but I think I'm more pleased than displeased so far. That said, as noted, nothing here really stood out as being special. You'll notice there's no 5/5s for example. I'm a very generous rater (my previous post showed that, think) but I don't give 5/5 unless it's something particularly excellent or I really, really like it. And there was nothing in this season like this as of the episode 1s. And if nothing gripped me immediately like that, I doubt anything will grip me like that further on.

And now, the proper reviews.

Discontinued as of Episode 1

Another
Rating: 3/5
About: Okay, me dropping this surprises even me. What must be understood is that it is not bad. it has quality animation, good casting, what looks like a decent plot, decent enough characters, and for being a creepy and/or horror series, it does seem like it'll be good for people who like these things, but I do not like this things, and while it does look promising, there is nothing that gripped me about the first episode. So while I expected it to be one of the best things this season (and hell, it still might be!) I'm not going to be watching it because as of episode one I just didn't care, and between school and all these other shows, I'm not going to bother to try.

High School DxD
Rating: 2/5
About: To preface, if it weren't for there being so many vaguely promising series this season, I wouldn't have dropped this series so quickly, but I suspect I would have eventually dropped it either way. the series is about some dude who gets killed by and angel(?) on his first date only be adopted into some coven of devils as a result. The thing is, the show is filled with blatant exploitative nudity, a lot of perversion and just... lameness. Like really, the male lead's first line is "I want to squish some boobs." It's ridiculous and that sort of low quality series.

Recorder to Randsell (MICRO SERIES)
Rating: 1/5 [personal bias]
About: "Micro series" here means, for the record, that these series are with three minute long episode. There's been a trend in things like this lately, I think... anyway. This is a show about a fifth(?) grader who could pass for being twenty-five and his sister who is in high school (but could pass for like nine) who takes care of him. I found it hideously skeevy, hence my rating - but I can see where other people might have found it funny.

Sengoku Paradise Kiwami (MICRO SERIES)
Rating: Didn't Finish
About: I didn't finish it mostly because it was (surprise, surprise) a Sengoku series about all sorts of Sengoku heroes lurking around a festival or something. I didn't like the premise, so I just dropped it quickly.

The Daily Lives of High School Boys
Rating: Didn't Finish
About: The premise is basically Kimi to Boku + Nichijou. I didn't particularly like either of those series, so I only barely got past the OP before I decided I was just going to call this one quits here and not give it a shot. Unfair, I know, but there's a lot of other things I'm going to be potentially watching this season and I didn't feel a need to be bogged down.

The Knight in the Area
Rating: 3/5
About: Much like High School DxD if there were more shitty things this season I think I would have kept watching this. (are you sensing a trend?) However, unlike High School DxD it's not shitty, just a sports anime. The series is about, well... Soccer. Most misleading title ever, I know. but the fact it is a sports anime will either break or make it for other people I expect, so let me just say that it wasn't bad, all things considered. I expect I would have liked it.

Thermae Romae (MICRO SERIES)
Rating: 3/5
About: Unlike the other micro series in this season I mgiht have given it a shot if it weren't for the fact that it is, well, a micro series. The fact it is subpar (flash?) animation made me decide that I would not have kept up with it anyway so there was no point trying it even if the premise was charming. The premise is that some Roman architect gets sent into the future where he encounters a Japanese public bathhouse, and tries to adapt the stuff he finds there to the public bathhouses in Rome. It was charming, all things considered just... a three minute largely ugly show, I probably wouldn't have kept up well.

Continuing Past Episode 1

Amagami SS Plus
Rating: 4/5 [Second Season]
About: The Second Season of Amagami SS, which is a series based on a dating sim that, in order to avoid the dreaded route-smushing, it has six internal AUs (plus a a bonus 7th one in the 25th episode of season 1 and a bonus episode about the dude and his sister which could reasonably fit a few of the AUs in an OVA). As such, I won't try to sell the series to you unless you want to go watch the first season because, after all, season 2.

Ano Natsu de Matteru
Rating: 4/5
About: Uh. A small town group of friends unite with two people they've never met to make a movie, and one of them is an alien. The main character may or may not have been infected and/or killed by the alien the night before they decide to do this. The series had a lot going on, but the premise is cute and I think I'm going to like it continuing into the future. We'll see. I definitely like it so far though.

Brave 10
Rating: 3/5
About: Another weird Sengoku series. This one includes magic and magic-like techniques from warriors/swordsmen all at once plus a very cute female protagonist. Honestly, I think I'd keep watching it (for a while anyway) just for her. Somewhat unique in that the Main Lord of this one seems to be Yukimura (who is portrayed as being gizzled and old so I guess this is pretty late Sengoku and/or immediately post-Sengoku). Promising, but nothing overly unique/special.

Inu x Boku SS
Rating: 4/5
About: Tsundere loli and her disgusting selfless manservant that she doesn't really want. Plus everyone in the series of importance, including them, is part monster/youkai/whatever. Plus, it seems to be more shoujo than shounen (based on how it is written). It's not unique describing it like that, but it does feel different and tbh is probably the most promising thing this season in terms of new shows based on my at a glance look.

Kill Me Baby
Rating: 3/5
About: A gag comedy series about a high school girl who befriends a high school girl assassin who is in her class and the misadventures they have as a result of this friendship. Irreverent but it had some minor emotional pull even in episode 1, so it's clearly not 100% all gag all the time unless it's just screwing with me. Much better than I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting very much. Also, obviously, it's funny.

Mouretsu Pirates
Rating: 4/5
About: ...I feel like this series has a complex backstory I was supposed to watch/read elsewhere because given beyond the backstory of the invidual characters and plot-important stuff there was apparently some major war of independence 100 years ago, a big galactic empire which is/was a Thing, and all sorts of other stuff. Future girl in high school gets told she's the heir to captaincy of a crew of space pirates and thus needs to go inherit the ship. the girl is cute, the OP is funny, and the animation/art/sound is good. Not sure where it is going yet, but I want to find out at least.

Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!
Rating: 3/5
About: The premise that I saw described everywhere is that some college student inherits his sister's three daughters and is forced to serve as their "father" figure. However, as of the first episode, his sister isn't dead/missing/etc and he is only barely interacting with the girls. The girls themselves, the guy, his sister, and his crush are all entertaining, but I can't help but think it isn't fair to judge the series yet until the premise actually comes to pass, which by the looks of it won't be until episode 2. there's a few other little subplots lurking around too (such as the girls apparently being all from different mothers, adopted in through the protag's sister's husband aside from the youngest one).

Rinne no Lagrange
Rating: 3/5
About: Like a few other things in the first episode, I didn't know what was going on. Some girl is recruited out of the "Jersey Club" to pilot a giant robot against some sort of random enemy. It looked pretty, and while it wasn't super engaging, the characters seemed cute. I'll continue it (and possibly rewatch a few parts of ep1 to see what's going on) for now and see what happens.

Senki Zesshou Symphonogear
Rating: 4/5
About: ...idek. Something about monsters called Noise, fighting idols who use song powers, some girl who looks a lot like Madoka Kaname being dead even though she's not and all sorts of other weird stuff. I don't know what's going on, but it was pretty and entertaining, so I'll keep going with it.

Also out in this series is a ToraDora! OVA and Fate/Prototype - in being slow and lazy I have no finished them. I probably will do them soon enough. Really though, with all the stuff out this season - (not to mention falling behind on the ongoing stuff I'm watching like HunterXHunter, Toriko, Persona 4, and SKET Dance) I think I might be delaying a bit until I can at least catch up on some of these and weed out the ones I look least favorably on. There are a few series out I did not watch (yet) - I don't intend to watch the new season of ZnT, but I might watch the new Aquarion EVOL despite not having watched the previous one(s). I just... haven't yet. Mostly because the first episode was super long, I assumed it was an OVA, all that sort of stuff. So we'll see where that goes.