2010 Fall New Anime 3

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt is insane, outrageous, sick yet brilliant, creative and unique. There's nothing like this before and will be nothing like this after. Gainax makes fun out of subjects like nudity, shit, semen, sex, SM, virgin, etc... and none of these appears so regularly on normal anime so it'll be 18x anyway whether it looks like american cartoon or not (though I wonder what it would like if everything was depicted realistically especially for characters like Garterbelt, Brief and Chuck instead of just Panty and Stocking ...). Besides the regular monster of the week, I'm shocked to find out there's actually a dramatic ending: Panty becomes a virgin again after fucking with 999 guys, Brief's penis is the key to Hell's Gate, and Garterbelt dies and revives numerous times!? And then during the crazy final battle, somebody appeared in white panty, stockings and heels is summoned from heaven to step on and destroy the giant penis, and saves the world (nice pair of legs... wonder who she was...). However, just when the audience think everything's over, Stocking chops Panty into 666 pieces after being revealed working as a undercover demon in the last minute!!! Alright, so the madness doesn't end here and stay tuned for the second season sidekick : Brief & Chuck with Garterbelt...

Kuragehime

"Okaasan, instead of being an illustrator, I came to Tokyo to become a fashion designer..." Oh yeah, Amamizukan is saved because of Bae Yong Joon... well doesn't it sound better than Kuranosuke's naive plan of saving the apartment by creating and selling jellyfish costumes fashion. Though the protagonist's love interests are once again coming from some rich powerful families like most shojo animes, the anime has a solid story full of funny moments and very likable characters including all the otaku residents and a chauffeur who will do anything for/because of Mercedes... There's a weird love triangle developing among Tsukimi, Kuranosuke the cross-dresser and Shu the virgin in which Kuranosuke, who is popular with pretty girls, eventually starts to like the ugly duckling Tsukimi and Shu falls in love with Tsukimi after make-over but can't recognize her when she's in normal clothes. And does that land developer bitch actually falls for the virgin in the end? Still can't believe the residents don't realize Kuranosuke's a cross-dresser when they've found out he's has no breasts... This is yet another outstanding anime by noitaminA and great performance by all the CVs especially, Kana Hanazawa.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Hotori dies in the last episode!? So sad no wait... she's back to life! A surprising serious and touching finale and interesting interpretation of Japanese heaven. This looks like an anime about ordinary lives of some high school girls but somehow involves supernatural and futuristic plots (well there aren't too many interesting things to say in such a small town...). The producer mixes the order of chapters from manga but the audience won't notice anyway since it's a slice of life anime. It's very entertaining most of the time but the occasional Poko and Binbou-kun cut-scenes similar to Arakawa under the Bridge are pretty boring and disruptive. The coffee shop opened by Takahiro Sakurai has neither moe nor sexy maids so maybe that's why there're only like four customers all the time... so how the coffee shop supports itself? The maid band in the end is absurd and the girls manage to play two instruments that have nothing to do with rock music but delivers probably the funniest ED this season...

Arakawa under the Bridge 2

The second season really ends in 200s... not too many new residents moving in the mental institution characters are introduced this season besides the Captain, Amazon Warrior and Tengu so the audience see more P-ko, Last Samurai, Billy and Jacqueline (you know those new characters introduced last minute in previous season). The second season continues to make no sense but has less depth comparing to the first season because Riku's troubled relationship with his father just never appears again in the plot... There's a slight effort to explain Nino's past and a love triangle going on but I really learn nothing from any of the characters this season.... and I've got it... Riku and Hoshi are the chicks so please stop feminizing their faces that often... Another funny season but don't know if there'll be more of that in the future.

Sora no Otoshimono: Forte

 

Don't like Sora no Otoshimono as much as I'm used to... the story lacks a flow and doesn't balance the comedy and drama as well as last second season. Every episode seems to be cut, copied and pasted together after ep 4 besides the climax in ep 7 and 8. One manga's chapter is always too short for one episode so two or more plus those Exes are put together to cover an episode. The producer did the same trick flawlessly last year but not so perfectly this time. This season starts with a bang but finishes quite weakly by showing a rather lighthearted shotgun wedding ending instead of the final battle against Chaos... (not to mention how easily Chaos' defeated...) Despite of being a little disappointed, I do look forward to watching the movie... (Tomoki may not do any hentai exciting things with Ikaros but he'd some of them with Tomoko...)

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Kirino's going to America for track and field training, and her brother, Kosaka, is the last one to know the news on the day she's leaving the country!? I guess Kirino will stay anyway no matter what Kosaka says since there's no oniichan in America. Dunno why Kirino has this kind of interest in the first place and just wonder how she has the time to balance her academic, athletic, modeling and her otaku interests... maybe she has more than 24 hours a day. The plot seems OK at first but all the light novel and anime adaption stuff just sound ridiculous to me. And Kirino's very dislikable! It's too bad for Kosaka that the life counseling isn't over yet and there'll be more OVAs for Kosaka to make miracles and save his sister's ass next year. Just hope the quality could be maintained since there's no doubt in my mind that Oreimo has the best quality this season.

Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu

The legend of the legendary BL lovers heroes... so Ferris finally makes Ryner straight rescues the imprisoned Ryner from his gay lover, Sion's hands... (Sorry no kiss yet because just regaining my manhood recently...) This epic really focuses a lot on the long romantic relationship friendship between Ryner and Sion, occasionally disrupted by Ferris, Miran and Suzaku Tiir...While Ryner eventually gains some confidence and motivation, and becomes happier of his own existence despite of two awakenings and all the prejudice of his Alpha Stigma, Sion continuously makes tough choices between the lesser of two evils, loses his mind, develops split personality, and just slowly joins the dark side and turns into a tyrant who begins human experience and invading other countries. And the anime ends right before the first battle between Roland and Gastark so I guess the audience have to wait for the OVA or second season if any to see how Ryner and Ferris stop Sion from destructing the world... (so the whole two seasons are just introduction of the characters?) By the way, the whole Alpha Stigma thing just looks like geass and Ryner sounds like Lelouch during awakening...


Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

OK, Yakumo has geass in both eyes in the end... I've thought Shinrei Tantei Yakumo is a mystery but it just turns out to be about Yakumo searching for and solving his own trouble past. There's really no reasoning but plenty of coincidence/luck? and sometimes Yakumo's special ability of being able to see ghosts isn't needed at all in most of the mysteries in the one-case-per-episode pace. Although Yakumo's father doesn't disappear and the bad guy get away in the so-called ending, Yakumo does change from a cool and unhappy guy to a cool and slightly happier guy because he finally has a girlfriend thanks to the heroine's influence... Wondering if not the cop/Watson but the heroine got shot, then maybe Yakumo'd really turn into a monster like his father... Just another anime that is neither exciting nor disappointing...

Shiki

Rule #1: First, make sure your enemies are dead before giving long speeches... The pace of the anime is so frustrating slow in the beginning and so ridiculously fast in the end. It takes so long for villagers to fight back and start the bloody Shiki hunting to save the village. The final war takes a ugly turn when some villagers lose their mind and don't just kill Shiki but anyone including people who are controlled by and help Shiki. At that point, it isn't about Mankind vs Shiki anymore but preserving the village. However, it is the same dullness and pressure of the village makes characters dislike themselves, hope for some changes and want to escape, and this whole Shiki thing is just an immediate cause for them to release their hidden urges. In the end, Sunako (my most hated character) , leader of Shiki, escapes with Muroi the traitor (my second most hated character) and the village is burnt down by fire despite of Dr. Ozaki's and Natsuno the jinrou's effort. It's ironic for a doctor who represents the most advance science in modern world to convince villagers that there're supernatural things like Shiki/vampires nowadays... Anyway, because of the setting, story, character design, etc, all kind of other stuff, I'm not particularly interested by this anime and sometimes don't really care if the village's destroyed by Shiki, fire, pandemic, urbanization, aging population, causes that you can name of... whatever...

Shinryaku! Ika Musume

Couldn't Ika Musume and Eiko just get along for one second and have a proper "handshake"? I've been sensing this kind of sudden-loss-of-ability thing will surface up eventually and creates some drama in the finale which kind of corresponds to the beginning as this comedy starts off when nobody sees Ika Musume's invasion as a threat except for Nagisa... Then in the end, this little drama begins when nobody takes her departure to the sea seriously. The subsequent loneliness and emptiness during her absence make everybody miss Ika Musume and her free labor... which become a very important part of their lives! Well, Ika Musume may not have invaded a single inch of land on the Earth but surely makes a lot of friends and conquers the hearts of many people and otaku. Ika Musume's short hair look is very cute but I'm still glad that her tentacles grow back since there's really nothing to talk about if Ika Musume is just a normal girl next door. This anime is a good adaption from its manga and each part is short yet funny. It's a surprise hit this fall and of course Ika Musume deserves another season to invade the universe.

Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai

OMG, Keima's actually the legendary Thousand-Hand Guan Yin... finally knows why he can play that many games in such a short period time... BTW, he must have a rich father/mother since he pretty much owns every game console ever released @@ It isn't a typical harem anime since each girl pretty much forgets all of her memories with Keima after she kisses him so Keima really doesn't need to pick and choose which girl he really likes. However, the story does feel repetitive after a while and if one doesn't have any interest to the girl in that particular episode, it'd be very boring. Anyway, the last episode isn't really an ending at all since there're plenty of material for a sequel next year for Keima to capture more girls both in game and real world but wondering if this is still the case after it only had 0.1 rating at some point this season...

Motto To Love-Ru -Trouble-

So having multiple wives is OK in outer space... what an appropriate harem ending for an anime that has no plot and great news for Rito since he doesn't have to choose anymore and marries everyone in the anime (Hoping sibling marriage is also allowed so Rito can also marries Mikan...). Trying to have some sort of dramatic ending in the last episode and I'm surprised that Lala isn't jealous at all after learning Haruna's feelings... This anime satisfies all the audience's needs for fan services so it's a success in that category. If this season is censored like Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls on ATX, I'd have dropped it without any hesitation...

Amagami SS

Even the protagonist fails to confess his feelings to any of the six girls, he'd still end up with a bonus secret character, who is responsible to sabotage all his potential love relationships, anyway @@... the protagonist has only four episodes to kiss a girl so the pace is forced to be very fast and sometimes I just don't know why the girls fall for the protagonist in latter arcs. The anime starts OK in the first arc, makes some progresses in the second and third arcs but falls apart in the forth and fifth arcs before saving its best final arc in the end. Even though this anime is a roller coaster ride, it's still a pretty good mix of drama, comedy and fan services... (do think those hentai plots somehow decrease as the series progresses...) Overall, No more controversial twist like its predecessor, KimiKiss, since every girl gets her kiss (besides Rihoko...) and I do think Amagami SS is a slight improvement over KimiKiss...

Yosuga no Sora

So sex is love? The incestuous siblings pretty much have the same kind of relationship before and after they came to the village, and they aren't brave enough to face the pressure and decides to leave in the end... sigh... I'll will tell you what the best way to escape: why don't you just kill yourselves so the audience don't have to watch this kind of crap. To maximize the number of H scenes, the studio that produces garbage like Kissxsis somehow manages to have the scum heart-breaker fucking with four characters in twelve episodes. So the protagonist's in for the sex in this so-called romantic drama right!? If this anime's focusing on Sora anyway, why doesn't the anime just has one storyline and eliminate all the unpopular characters. Plus, the stupid second ED and the omake are a total waste of time, and this kind of shift should have been saved for the DVDs/Blu-rays whatever...