New season roundup Pt1
It’s spring, the sakura have blossomed and fallen, the sun occasionally gives way to rain, people long for love and romance but remain stuck in the office for the final push before Golden Week…
And of course, we have a brand spanking new anime season. Trouble is, the lineup just didn’t look very interesting to me – the only ones I really wanted to check out were Speed Grapher and Tsubasa Chronicle, anyway. Anyway, a quick review of the 4 shows I have seen the premiers for.
Speed Grapher
The reason I was interested was because the character designs look great. No idea about plot, and certainly more than a little wary because it was a Gonzo anime. Also, the premise has the main lead as a male war photographer relegated to taking paparazzi shots after his tour-of-duty; he discovers a highly exclusive club that hides some sort of supernatural secret. It’s hard to say if this story will sink or swim.
Well, after ep 1, I have to say this gets my thumbs up, in a major way. Gritty, dark, adult-themed, washed out color scheme and stylized spartan delivery… I think it hits all the right buttons for me. The main guy narrates the story and we see most of the episode from his point of view, which is more than a little twisted. Cynical, disillusioned, and also perverted in the real sense of the word – the guy gets off of photographing violent deaths. The voice acting is excellent and totally carries the show. There is a girl who appears in promos as another main character (I like her design a lot), but so far she’s not even in the show yet. We’ll see how this one unfolds.
Gokujyou Seitokai
Erm, and then on the other side of the spectrum, we have this show about a girl who is transfering to a new school, and I don’t really know what’s going on except it’s an all-girls school with a student council made up of some rather maladjusted personalities, and everyone has some sort of fighting technique (yo-yos? martial arts?), and the main girl talks to her hand puppet… who really packs a real whallop of a punch…
Yeah, this one is like cotton candy to Speed Grapher’s triple-brewed black coffee sludge. I’m not sure how I even sat through it, but it’s just so whacked it’s entertaining. This one’s on my list of things to watch when I need to turn off my brain for a bit.
Tsubasa Chronicle
It’s the ultimate CLAMP crossover. Never read the original manga, since I’ve given up on CLAMP after vol 1xxx of X. Personally, I love CLAMP art and I think they design great characters and interesting scenarios… but everything after Tokyo Babylon and RG Veda was just an executional mess. With the exception of Clover, perhaps. CLAMP is best if you limit their manga to like 6 volumes and force them to actually wrap up, otherwise make it into an anime but give the director full reign to readapt, ala Rayearth.
So anyway, went into this on pretty much a clean slate. I have no hangups about manga-to-anime faithfulness… actually, the reverse might be true – I love BeeTrain and Kajiura Yuki, and I despair that creating a CLAMP anime for NHK strips the studio of their trademark style and execution.
After ep 1, I think the jury is still out on this show. I found the voices a little strange, not because I’d seen the original Card Captor Sakura, but because I think the voice acting is just damn awkward. Sakura has a nice voice, but I don’t think the actress is very good. Hope she settles into the role, or perhaps ep 1 is all the screen time she gets! Shaoran, I never liked in CCS, but he’s okay here. Typical CLAMP lead. More interested in the other female characters, who unfortunately don’t have much screen time yet. Cool that Souma shows up (not my favourite of the RG Veda cast, but not my most hated, either), Tomoyo seems to have some bit part, need to brush up on XXXholic, still want to smear Mokona across a thousand alternate worlds.
Art’s okay, music is frickin’ absolutely amazing (but seems to jar with the animation style), animation when Yukito first starts his magic is cool.
I’ll buy the soundtrack the very second it’s out, but unless Arashi or Umi or some really cool female character shows up or Souma fulfills that role, I don’t think I would have the patience for this.
Futakoi Alternative
Spastic anime. I don’t feel like spending too much time on this write-up. Not bad, really. But male lead has my warning flags up. Again, awaits cool female character to show up.
