First Impressions / Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou – 08

「あの子にご執心？」 (Ano Ko ni Goshuushin?)
“Infatuated With That Girl?”

After a showing that I can only classify as random last week, my curiosity was naturally piqued on where things would go from there (har har). While Hiroshi does return as Brave, the story for the most part has gone back to the usual ways that I’ve grown accustomed to.

Angel Beats! / PV

Girls Dead Monster – Little Braver PV (Angel Beats!)

[flv:Girls_Dead_Monster_Little_Braver_PV.mp4 550 310]

Oh how nice it is to finally have a face to go with the singing voice we’ve been hearing in Angel Beats. Posted on the official site yesterday was a PV of the real life Girls Dead Monster performing “Little Braver” from their third single, slated to be released on June 9th. The song features Yui‘s singing counterpart LiSA on vocals, whom we’ve already heard in the show with her version of “My Soul, Your Beats!” back in episode four and “Thousand Enemies” in episode five. I haven’t talked about the music releases in my weekly coverage of the series, but the first one was titled “Crow Song” and featured marina, Iwasawa’s singing counterpart, whereas the second one was the aforementioned “Thousand Enemies”. Each single features three completely different songs by Garudemo, which is pretty impressive considering how they’re unlikely to all be used in the actual show.

Instead, it’s just P.A. Works and Maeda Jun‘s way of showing up another Yui in some other production by a bunch of guys hailing from Kyoto, who haven’t been putting out much in the music department. An obvious exaggeration, considering how Houkago Tea Time’s OP/ED themes topped out at #1 and #2 on the weekly Oricon charts respectively, but Angel Beats has animated many more performances so far — and really good ones to boot. In any case, “Little Braver” is a surprisingly good song from the very first listen, so I’m hoping we’ll see a performance of it at some point in an episode. If you haven’t already, I recommend checking out the other two singles as well. The OP/ED single featuring Lia and Tada Aoi on the other hand is scheduled to be released in only four more days (May 26th), so it’s definitely worth keeping an eye out for that too.

Note: All Girls Dead Monster songs and both the OP/ED themes are written, composed, and produced by Maeda Jun specifically for Angel Beats.

* Thanks to Silverwolf X for the heads-up on the PV.

Durarara!! / First Impressions

Durarara!! – 19

「蒼天已死」 (Souten Sude ni Shisu)
“The Azure Sky Will Soon Fall”

In classic Durarara fashion, we delve into Masaomi’s involvement with the Yellow Scarves from a slightly different perspective this episode. Anri’s view on things leading up to her discovery of him as the gang’s leader showed just how powerless she, Masaomi, and Mikado are at trying to stop an all-out gang war even if they wanted to.

First Impressions / Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! – 08

「美咲、雅ヶ丘学園へ」 (Misaki, Miyabigaoka Gakuen he)
“Misaki, Heading to Miyabigaoka Academy”

Hints of Special A, Skip Beat, and now Hana Yori Dango. What’s there not to love about this series? If I were only judging it on Fujimura Ayumi‘s portrayal of one of the best tsunderes I’ve seen in a while, Kaichou no Maid-sama would already be a shoo-in.

B Gata H Kei / First Impressions

B Gata H Kei – 08

「わーーい、修学旅行だ！二人っきりになれなくて…」 (Waai, Shuugaku Ryokou da! Futarikkiri ni Narenakute…)
“Yay, Field Trip! But We’re Not Alone Together…”

Kyoto seems to be the school field trip spot of choice (when it comes to anime at least), and B Gata H Kei isn’t veering off that tried and tested path with their take on it this week.