Glance Through:2011 Summer Season

So now that I've watched two episodes of all of these, here are my first impressions.

This anime follows Saya, a sweet girl who loves her father and is so clumsy she spends more time flat on her face than standing up. Nevertheless, it is her family duty to tackle the menacing demons that threaten the small town in which she lives.


Also, high school.

I don't buy these uniforms for a second, btw.

This last bit is kind of a sticking point, so far. I'm all for blending the every day life of a character into the  adventure, but the word blending is very important to that. So far those two parts of her life do not seem to touch each other. And the high school life is that kind of hyper-idealized high school where the teachers are hot and no one does any school work. This does strange things to Saya's character because she goes from walking down the street singing about how great it is that she got her laundry done and that it won't rain because Daddy says so, and then we get a light change and a music shift and she's off to slashing up mutated water lilies with a samurai sword like she does it all day long. It's like two different girls.


This shift is either going to make her an interesting, complex character, or just confuse me.


The production is thoroughly solid here. The fights are exciting, the scenery is lush, the music fits both kinds of situation, and the food makes me HUNGRY.

owie

The opening is nicely put together, even if I'm not yet much of a fan of the song. The ending has a really great song, but the art is mostly still images.


Also, both the episodes so far have started with these weird barometers filled with what I can only assume is blood, while some guy philosophizes about what makes someone who they are. Nothing definitive on this yet. I like the image and hope it has something to do with the rest of the series.

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Nyanpire follows the adventures of a cat who was once a dying stray.A vampire takes pity on it, saving it's life by turning it into one of the children of the night before evaporating into thin air and, presumably, never being seen again. Now the cat is owned by a normal human (of whom we have only seen the shins) and has no real worries other than hunger.


It's cute. It made me giggle. And that's all it seems to be trying for.


Everything is bright and colorful. The drawings are simple. There was this weird plinky-plonk sound that the nyanpire made when it walked that sort of annoyed me, but I got over it. This is not a bad show, it's just not trying for much. It really is cute.

How a nyanpire sees the world

There isn't an opening to speak of (except a backstory re-cap). The ending is live-action and it is an earworm. The only thing that has saved me from humming it all day long is that I just haven't heard it enough times to understand it.

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Subaru Hasegawa has been charged with a basketball team of elementary school girls. He had previously decided never to get involved in basketball again, but when the club's advisor blackmails him, he agrees to help the girls for only three days. He discovers that none of the girls knows a darned thing about basketball, none except Tomoka who may well be a prodigy. We learn that if the girls can't beat the ambitious boy's club, they will no longer be able to practice. Subaru, realizing that Tomoka would quit forever if the club were dissolved, decides that he'll do his best to get the girls up to snuff. 

Aren't you a cute little power-house?

So far, I'm really liking Tomoka and Subaru is okay. I'm really beginning to hate Maho(one of the other girls), though. She's a really obnoxious Tsundere, who decided it makes sense to get Subaru to stick around by using fan service. groan. (thank god, she's not the one who finally convinces him)


You see this is definitely a lolicon anime. For chrissake the eye-catches tell you the chest sizes of the girls (they say the grades, too, so okay). Yet in the midst of all this uncomfortable stuff, there is something here that's very endearing. Not to mention that lolicon is directly mentioned in other scenes and not in an approving light. So does lampshading make it better? Is it common for anime with a tendency toward lolicon to diss that part of its fan base? Comment if you know more about this...

Have I mentioned this show makes me uncomfortable?

The art is very pretty and the girls' heads and eyes are totally Giant. What's more, everyone has this look, so the advisor that recruits Subaru looks like she's in middle school. The basketball sequences are suprisingly well-done (remember I almost never watch sports...)


The opening feels really epic at points. The ending is active, art-wise, but the music tastes like diabetes.


I'm sticking with it, because it hasn't thoroughly grossed me out yet.

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When Shion was 12 years old, everything was perfect. He was smart, and lived in a great neighborhood because of it. The girls liked him. He was the highest class there was in No. 6, one of six nations to spring up after the rest of the world went to pot. But one day, in the middle of a typhoon, and boy his age comes to him with a wound on his arm. Shion and Nezumi (aka Rat) get on famously, and Shion patches him up even after it becomes clear that the police are on his tail.


Time skip four years: Shion lost his station in life, but is still reasonably happy with his new job working at a park. Things begin to turn south when he discovers some suspicious happenings in said park. It's not the sort of thing he's supposed to notice, apparently, because he is promptly arrested when he wonders aloud why it wasn't in the news. Luckily for him, Nezumi isn't out of his life just yet...


This series is so far performing up to my expectations. Unlike Blood- C, it does a very good job of managing the contrast between the every day and the extraordinary. Part of this is the fact that every day life is different, anyway, and the context is important for our understanding. The plot is very fast paced, and the tension is huge.

That's one hell of a punch-clock

I am already loving the characters. Nezumi is a BAMF, even as a 12 year old, but he cuts that seriousness with a flair of showmanship which rounds him out well. By comparison, Shion is much more innocent, but his curiosity gives him drive and makes him interesting. Their differences make their interactions tons of fun... if occasionally strange. I suppose directly after saving someone is as good a time as any to say that you've seen them nude. o_0

Daw, look! They wuv each other!

This is Studio Bones. So the production is absolutely gorgeous.


The opening is fantastic. The song is at times whiny sounding, but omg the art! The ending has a much more mellow character, but it holds the interest almost as much.

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These are my opinions so far. I may come back to them mid-season, or maybe just at the end. If you're watching any of these, feel free to leave a comment about what you've been thinking.

See you then!