First Impressions: Summer 2010 Anime I've Tried

This seemed to be a pretty promising season from the start (I would've done a pre-season impressions post but I was busy XP). The titles I was looking foreward to were Shiki, The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Sengoku Basara Ni, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi, Nurarihyon no Mago and Shukufuku no Campanella on a whim. Safe to say I was actually very surprised with what I found and I've noticed that apart from Shiki this is a pretty light season.

Shukufuku no Campanella:

Annoyingly I couldn't find a picture with all the characters including the main character Leicester, but I'd say that picture about does it justice.

This anime is very lighthearted and it's a fun refreshing watch so far. It basically follows the fantasy adventures of the guild Oasis with the advanced Puppeteer Agnes, the ditzy warrior Chelsea, the sweet, male-lead-obsessed mage from nobillity Carina, the cute, innocent child Minette and the awesome yet nice-guy male lead Leicester (pronounces Lester). All of these characters are very likeable...except maybe Chelsea, her stupidity annoys me.

The only real beginnings of a major plot there is, is that Carina is in love with Leicester (I personally think he loves her too, they're sooo adorable together), their guild goes on quests together, and that Minette is actually a living doll who awoke from a comet or something, saw Leicester first and calls him her 'papa'. It has the potential to go many different ways, it can turn into a harem, a romance, it can continue the awesome, fun fantasy path it's on right now, it can develop a deep plot around Minette or it can turn into horrible ecchi trash...which I really hope to God it doesn't do.

Personally I hope it continues down the fantasy path it's on right now and I really hope Leicester and Carina get together at some point because they just make an adorable couple. Funny, because I tried this one on a whim, but I actually like it the best so far, it theroughly surprised me for the better.

The only particular slightly bothersome thing is Chelsea's stupidity, but even that's not really too too bad. Minnette I really have no oppinion of, Leicester is actually a better male lead than I thought he'd be, I figured he'd be a pansy but he's not and Agnes is slightly spunky but not so much where she doesn't fit in the series. All the characters are likeable, the animation and character designs are great...actually scratch that, I love the character designs. Can't wait to see more of this one.

Shiki:

To be honest I had really high hopes for this one, a murder mystery usually always sounds good to me since I'm the thinking, analyitical type. The premise is a bunch of people in a small town mysteriously dying from an unknown cause, presumably an illness and as the bodies pile up the town's one doctor vows to uncover and fix the problem even at the expense of his own life.

Sounded interesting so I tried it, turns out the animation was blah, the colors were washed out (contrary to that picture) and what little characters there were, were pretty dull. The first two episodes overall were just very boring and the main character Megumi was really annoying. I had some skepticism from the beginning that it was going to be too horror for my tastes (I find horror to be lame and boring).

This was one I really wanted to like though so I looked up a summary of what happens later, and what I found completely turned me off from watching it, it apparently involves vampires later on (I personally hate vampires, damn Twilight *grumbles*) somehow and it does in fact get more horror-ish so I decided it's not worth my time. Even the attempted one-sided romance from Megumi which I can usually sympathize with didn't phase me, it was just boring.

The only thing it gets major props for is killing off the main character in the first episode...or is it the beginning of the second? I think it's the beginning of the second. But that's original, that takes some balls on the creators part, how often do you see the main character being killed off at all? Nevermind in the first 2 episodes. Overall I'm not going to waste my time on this one, I thought it would be really good, however I was theroughly dissapointed. Question though...is that a bra on the floor in the front of the picture? O.o

Nurarihyon no Mago:

Awesome white haired demon kid with a katana anyone? Hell Yes! I was hooked on wanting to watch this one from the image alone and the thought of seeing that awesome character fight samurai style with someone and be super bad-ass. Well ok in the first 3 episodes that hasn't quite happened yet, but it's still pretty awesome.

Basically Rikuo (shorty kid in the pic) is 1/4 demon and 3/4 human and he's chosen to succeed his grandfather as lord of all demons...however he'd rather be human! Except in his "Night Rikuo" form (bad-ass whit haired guy) agreed to be the successor, so it changes based on wether he's transformed or not.

Not a whole ton to say about this one, it's really good and I enjoy watching it a lot, however I'm anxiously awaiting some episodes where you see more of Night Rikuo and less of Rikuo's school friends and him wanting to be human. Don't get me wrong though, it's still a really great watch so far. C'mon Night Rikuo! Kick some ass already! That would take the show from great to awesome! And actually, dispite having demons, this too is a relitively light anime considering.

Sengoku Basara Ni:

After theroughly loving the first series I was ecstatic to start the second, more of the awesomeness that is Date Masamune and the awesome fight scenes. There really isn't much NOT to like about the first one, or the second one so far other than Kenshin's creepyness and the seemingly seme/uke relationship of Yukimura and the Tiger of Kai.

There's not a whole ton to say about this other than that it's more of the awesomeness brought by the first series. I personally think that so far Oda Nobunaga made a far better villian than this giant guy and the fact that his white-haired henchmen seems to be wearing lipstick is kinda creepin me out. I was actually fairly surprised to find out that Elfen Man (Kenshin, he looks like he should be an elf in a fantasy anime w/ that outfit though) and the Tiger of Kai aren't dead, though thankfully Akechi Mitsuhide (or Sephiroth's Bastard Son as I liked to call him) is in fact dead.

I'm really glad they kept the same voice actors too, Date simply wouldn't be Date without that epic voice actor and without his signature Engrish battle cries. Can't wait to see more of this one, because the first series was simply too short.

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes:

I was expecting something much more from this, I was expecting a lighthearted fantasy, RPG-style search the land for artifacts in kind of an InuYasha-esque fashion but with fantasy elements instead of feudal Japan.

However what I got was a political, millitary-based chunk of magical weird dissapointment. It's like it's trying to be a fantasy version of Code Geass and Chrome Shelled Regios smushed together with magic mixed in and only slight undertones of what I originally expected.

This, along with Shiki, was one I really thought I was going to enjoy, however, again like Shiki, I was mistaken. The first episode was decent enough and sort of like what I was expecting, but I was completely turned off when the second episode turned it into a military/magic army academy to train orphans to become "dogs of the military" to quote Ed of FullMetal Alchemist and not being much of a military fan (FullMetal Alchemist and Code Geass being the exceptions) I was completely put-off by this major theme in the anime and decided not to watch any further.

The annoying thing is, the trailer fit my assumption, making it seem pretty cool and something I could really be into, but the actuallity of the show, not so much.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi:

The first episode of this didn't really impress me all too much, the narrorator is annoying, almost as annoying as she was as Kuroko Shirai in A Certain Scientific Railgun but come the 3rd episode, I'm extremely into this. Its fun, its light but not too light, the story is nice but not deep and the characters are all diverse, likeable and very believable. They're easy to empathize with and they seem real, which is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR plus for me.

It revolves around a school club known as Otogi Ginko, and basically they do favors for students who seek their help, the payment being that the favor must be returned. The male lead Morino-san was completely annoying the first episode, however he's since gotten better. Ryouko Ookami's character I like except for her Tsundere moments. Though my favorite characters of all are Otohime and Taro (the two on the bottom of the picture) they're romance is sooooooo adorable and I love it, especially in episode 3.

The character designs are very well done, I'm especially fond of Ryouko-chans and Otohime-chan's designs. And I give the creators serious credit for breaking the mold of the 'flirt' type guy with Taro, he may be a flirt, but he's not a lecher by any means, he respects girls and he openly cares about Otohime for her personallity rather than her looks. Overall I'd have to say dispite my episode one skepticism, it's a fun and entertaining watch thus far. TaroxOtohime forever!