Fall 2013: Kill la Kill

Kill la Kill is meant to entice, it's meant to excite, and it's meant to entertain. It does both better than any show thus far this season (and probably will be better than any show this season). Backed by new studio Trigger (Little Witch Academia) and veteran key animator and director Hiroyuki Imaishi (Gurren Lagann, Panty and Stocking), Kill la Kill had a lot of expectations going in and it's lived up to just about every single one. Let me put it this way: In its opening scenes, a student is brutally, viciously killed at the hands of the disciplinary committee head. It is beautifully animated and visually striking; more importantly, it perfectly sets up the world in just three minutes or so.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/kill-la-kill

I could mention that Kill la Kill fails to fully flesh out any one character beyond their basic archetype. I could mention that Kill la Kill fails to set up the villain as anything more than "the villain." Or I could mention how Kill la Kill is beautifully, stunningly animated. How the main character, Ryuko Matoi, is one of the more interesting characters thus far. See, she's on a mission of revenge, searching for the man (or woman, as it were) who killed her father and took the other half of the scissors she wields. As it is the first episode, the characterization is light, but the execution is fantastic. She is at the same time charging into her vengeance and stepping lightly around it (exemplified with her reticence and then embrace of the new uniform she wears).

Speaking of those uniforms, they are a brilliant plot device. It sets up a very visible hierarchy that cannot, under and circumstance, be challenged. Even the school principal says that Satsuki Kiryuin, the student council president and main antagonist, controls the school by way of her mother. The uniforms are stacked what seems like five tiered: Satsuki's unform at the top, three star, two star, one star, and zero stars. Matoi's new threads are at least better than the two star Goku uniform, but we have yet to see whether it eclipses three.

Kill la Kill is most certainly (one of) the show to watch this season. I'll likely be jumping up and down in joy during the final, epic climax.

Rating: 5/5

Fall 2013: Nagi no Asukara

PA Works' latest outing, Nagi no Asukara, is immediately visually stunning. It looks like a normal place, but their home is actually underwater. Fish swim around the people and Hikari swims around to get where he's going faster.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/nagi-no-asukara

The mythology they're building in the show is really interesting. It's built upon everyone once living in the sea and then shedding a sort of skin to only live on land. The two factions, of course, warred after the split (and will likely war at some point in the show). The war is exemplified quite perfectly by a simple fishing boat picking up Manaka, one of the girls who live underwater and one of  the main characters.

The underwater people even have a god - rather a scale of a god - that watches over the folks underwater to make sure they don't get into any trouble. The god, of course, curses Manaka for being a little cheeky. Though the god was being much more cheeky.

The same complaints I had for those stupid fanservice shows still holds true here; characterization was relatively weak, but definitely more there than in the bait shows. What's got me hooked (pardon the pun) is the setting. An underwater setting where humans live is extremely intriguing and the animation is absolutely gorgeous. PA Works is still among the best when it comes to backgrounds. I'm excited to see where this goes and hopefully where the characters go.

Rating: 3.5/5

Fall 2013: Strike the Blood

I don't know why, with a title like Strike the Blood, that I didn't think that this show would be about vampires. At first glance, the world seems like it's completely normal. But once you get about seven minutes in, you realize that magic and demons are  a natural part of the world, as a PA system announces that an abnormal magical surge has been detected. To top that all off, something called the Fourth Progenitor is coming.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/strike-the-blood

The interesting part is that all these mythical and magical beings live on this island, seemingly isolated from the rest of the world, to be protected and researched. But they mention this halfway through the episode. This is the kind of thing that your typical shonen tournament fight show would mention at the beginning of the first episode. In fact, Hunter x Hunter DID explain all that at the beginning of the first episode. Instead, Strike the Blood opts to talk about the mysterious Fourth Progenitor with some weird filters to make it seem cool, or something.

The mystery of who the Fourth Progenitor is solved relatively quickly, only to have the question of WHY is HE the Fourth Progenitor raised, as well as who was the Fourth Progenitor who gave him the Fourth Progenitor-ness. The first episode is raising more questions than it's answering and it isn't doing the most important part: setting up the characters What I currently know about the main character, Akatsuki, is that mystery surrounds him and that he's a vampire. What I currently know about his protector, Himeragi, is that she gets way too worked up over people seeing her panties.

Strike the Blood hopes to grab with intrigue, but it isn't doing it. It's TOO mysterious and doesn't answer enough questions, nor gives enough just general information about the world or the characters.

Rating: 2/5

Is it really the primogenitor? Or is Crunchyroll's description spelled wrong and I just kept reading progenitor? Because they also say "sward shaman" and that's gotta be wrong.

Fall 2013: I Couldn't Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job.

If you've seen The Devil is a Part-Timer from a few seasons ago, and thought, "I want a more fanservice-y version of that that's also worse," then have I got the show for you. The difference is that the Demon Lord and the Hero are real life figures and not just sent to another world. Also, it's adapted from one of those novels that has a really long title.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/i-couldnt-become-a-hero-so-i-reluctantly-decided-to-get-a-job

First off, the animation is pretty butt in I Couldn't Become a Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided to Get a Job. From what I can tell, it makes use of as many stills as it can and seemingly used all of its budget on the first segment, which wasn't even animated that well. I'm not a master of animation, nor can I typically tell whether something is anything other than really good or really bad animation, but this falls in the latter category. It's using a lot of the style I typically see in the Pokemon episodes I still watch (for the nostalgia). The basic premise is don't move your characters as much as possible and save all the money for the action shots, which I'm sure there will be many. Like when the old man flips the girl's skirt up.

The story itself is much less interesting than The Devil is a Part Timer as well, by sheer virtue of starting the story well enough after the Demon Lord is defeated/killed/written out. The interesting story is likely in the immediate aftermath, but that's not where the comedy is!

They play the show off to be like a game, and it might as well be. Everything is so unrealistic, it's comical and I might be more inclined to believe it if it was a video game story inside of an anime. But whatever.

Rating: 0/5

If this doesn't deserve a zero, I don't know what does.

Fall 2013: Golden Time

What a coincidence that these two idiots, both going to law school, can't read a map and meet each other stalking two girls who "seem to know the way" to the college. That slight lapse in logic aside, Tada seems stuck between new friend Mitsuo and new friend's supposed fiance Kaga. What comes from here can most easily be described as "hijinks ensue." After said hijinks, Tada, now alone, gets mobbed by literally every club at the school. A scene described in the show as a war zone.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/golden-time

The premise as outlined by Crunchyroll was not even touched on until 20 minutes into the first episode, which raises huge questions. Like, "Why would you hold off on bringing up the premise of your show until 20 minutes into the first episode?" That's easily something that could be teased in the first scene or brought up earlier or done anything with at all.

Golden Time's very premise interests me, but only slightly and not if it's going to be like this. One thing happened in the episode in regards to the plot, and it took a long time to get to that point. The characters, however, were set up pretty well. At least Kaga and Mitsuo were, disregarding their current stereotypes. Kaga is the haughty woman who wants it her way or the highway, but will likely turn to pudding if the right guy comes along. And Mitsuo is the hapless guy trapped in the relationship with the haughty girl, trying desperately to get out. I imagine the rest of the series won't be so slow, but we'll see. I'm tentative about the next episode.

Rating: 2/5

Fall 2013: Infinite Stratos 2

It was at the moment Ichika said, "What? What is she mad about?" after Laura invited him to go to a festival with her that I realized I was done with this.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/infinite-stratos

I watched Infinite Stratos 1 during either dead week or finals week, which for me was a time where I didn't really want my entertainment to make me think. And think I did not during Infinite Stratos, because it's full of bubbly moe girls that clamber over themselves to get the attention of Ichika.

But I guess explaining the premise in brief is that there are these robots that only girls can pilot...Except Ichika! For reasons I can't remember, he can pilot one. I think it was because his sister (of course, a prodigy in every way and an attractive mid-30-something) invented the robot technology.

The show is complete fanservice fluff. While I was into that during finals and maybe two years ago, not as much now. Stuff like Kiniro Mosaic and Love Lab are a bit different, since it's girls hanging out, and I guess I haven't grown tired of that yet. But these harem shows are just too much for me now.

My own feelings aside, almost nothing happened during the episode. The whole thing was Ichika trying to tell everyone about a festival he wants to go to with them. The parts that weren't that were showcasing Laura and Charlette's skills as fighters, which was actually pretty cool. But not enough to carry an entire episode. The one glimpse of plot, of which I remember almost zero from the first season, amounted to about two and a half minutes of air time.

Rating: 1/5
Rating for me two years ago: 3.5?

Fall 2013: Coppelion

Coppelion skirts around a disaster that happened in a Japanese metropolis, but it's not yet addressed directly. Sources say that it was a nuclear meltdown in Odaiba, which is what Wikipedia is telling me about the manga plot. The show was originally due to air in 2011, but the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster held it up. Nonetheless, the show's disaster setting is absolutely gorgeous in its bleakness.

Image source: http://www.vizanime.com/coppelion

The best parts of Coppelion lie in its setting, which is rich in promise and will be undoubtedly built upon , adding layer upon layer of social complexity to an already hot topic in contemporary media. The three main characters, Ibara, Aoi, and Taeko, are set up pretty well throughout this first episode. Thankfully, the show only focuses on these three in its first episode. A wise decision, since you don't want to introduce a glut of characters only for none of them to be memorable.

Ibara is kind of your typical shonen action hero, who will save everyone. But as a stereotype, she works well and her subtle leadership skills throughout the episode are great. Little things like injecting herself with nutrition supplements, seeing that Aoi is (very visibly) bothered by Ibara not eating, and then later eating one of her rice balls was a cool little thing. Aoi is the timid girl who serves as a sort of audience surrogate because she (as she should be) is horrified by this landscape and all it encompasses. She's definitely the most outwardly compassionate, and emotive, of the three and will likely provide good emotion later on.

What I loved about the series was how they referred to the girls as puppets (the technical term being Coppelion, the manga and the show's namesake), because they really are puppets. Since birth, they were literally genetically engineered to live through a nuclear wasteland (they just say "these conditions" in the show) and to be other types of special. Taeko was engineered to have heightened senses, like an animal. While the other two's abilites (if any - though Ibara seems to have some sort of super human strength) have yet to be revealed, they're likely the same kind of subtle enhancement rather than electricity bursting out of their hands or something.

There have only been four shows thus far in the season, and Samurai Flamenco and Kill la Kill have yet to be released, but Coppelion is undoubtedly the standout of the four. Its first episode showed nothing but promise and that could go one of two ways: 1. Amazing show or 2. Disappointing show. I'm leaning, tentatively, to the former.

Rating: 4/5

Fall 2013: Beyond the Boundary

Akihito is an immortal and a half-youmu. And if that isn't generic enough, there's a (cute!) girl that's trying to kill him because he's half-youmu. Kuriyama, the girl is rather interesting, though. She fights with a sword made out of her own blood, which is kind of creative. The plot of everything else (of course) is that youmu inhabit the world and there are spirit warriors that fight against them.

Image source: http://www.crunchyroll.com/beyond-the-boundary

The setup, the description, and the promotional art that I've seen all seem really generic and I was not looking forward to watching Beyond the Boundary. But, after watching it, the execution of a good portion of things is actually pretty good. It's Kyoto Animation and, while I haven't seen them do action shows, their "action" animation in Free! was great and it continues to be pretty good here. But I think the best part about the show is the cues, which are pretty much spot on. Everything happens just as it should and the show doesn't feel rushed or like a drag.

That said, the dialogue in the show is super spot on. In the first narration, Akihito is trying to convince Kuriyama to not commit suicide (which, by the way, made me groan internally pretty loudly). The execution here was really poor and definitely the weak part of the show. And in a television show, your dialogue cannot be as bad as Beyond the Boundary has been thus far. There's lots of on-the-nose lines and, while the acting itself is alright, the scripts need work.

For now, I'll chalk it up to being a first episode and trying to get as much information out as possible. It doesn't make it any less poor, but I'll give it a pass for now and watch the next episode soon enough.

Rating: 2.5/5