Random Musings / Series Introduction

Random Musings – Tuesday Shows Over Drive

You remember that show called Over Drive that I briefly mentioned in my Spring 2007 Preview? I wasn’t very attracted to the cycling premise and didn’t think it would be any good. Well, I watched the first episode on a whim and was completely surprised at how un-sports-anime this show was. It was, for all intents and purposes, a show that seemed to be about a boy falling in love with a girl. The animation had its ups and downs, but there was a very quaint atmosphere with light music that I usually attribute to h-game adaptations or romance comedies. The cycling part of the anime didn’t play nearly as big a role as I would have thought. Now granted, I’m sure those sports parts will come out heavily later (note: I don’t plan on watching any more), but for this first episode, Over Drive gave off a completely different feeling.

As for the rest of what aired today, I got some time in during study breaks to watch some of the episodes that aired today. I say study breaks because I’m in the middle of my midterms right now (last one tomorrow), and I used up all my free time today to write up D.Gray-man and DEATH NOTE.
Sisters of Wellber: I had high hopes for this, but the episode turned out merely okay. Nothing really stood out for me, especially not the talking tank.
Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo: Surprisingly enough, I managed to get through the entire episode of Over Drive, but I couldn’t make it through 10 minutes of this. Jaalin’s writing up an entry about it though.
Claymore: This had plenty of blood and monsters, but like Wellber, the first episode was just okay. Mentar assures me that the story will get better fairly soon, and I trust him enough to keep watching a few more episodes.

Everything else I didn’t get a chance to see, but at the current moment, I’m leaning heavily towards just keeping D.Gray-man and DEATH NOTE as my two scheduled Tuesday shows.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Random Musings – Touka Gettan…

I wasn’t planning on blogging anything today because I have an exam to study for, but Touka Gettan deserves a mention. It’s a well-animated show that had some great music, but the plot made little to no sense. My friend wrote up some thoughts on his own site that close closely reflect how I feel about the show, so give it a look if you’re remotely interested.

El Cazador also aired today, and while the first episode wasn’t bad (Kajiura Yuki music and the FictionJunction Yuuka ED were great), I don’t think it’s something that I’d continue watching.

Tomorrow, however, is going to be a very busy day.

Random Musings / Shakugan no Shana / Zero no Tsukaima

Random Musings – Shakugan no Shana II

Despite this horrible, horrible timing (I hate April Fool’s Day), it was announced today that Shakugan no Shana will be receiving a second series coming in the fall. The official site’s front page and the most recent diary entry both have this announcement, and it was backed up by the picture you see at right that someone uploaded on popular bbs 2ch. I think many of us had assumed that it would only be a matter of time until a second Shana series, and thankfully that turned out to be true. Now there are two Kugimiya Rie/Hino Satoshi series to look forward to (the other being the next Zero no Tsukaima series coming in July). And this was just when I had been thinking that Fall Season 2007 couldn’t get any better too…
FreezeFrame / Miscellaneous

FreezeForward: Spring 2007 Preview?

So Euphie finally proved to everyone she’s no Lacus clone, Light-o got his evil eye back, Chiaki got every woman in the audience fantasizing about his baton, and psychokaede hit her limit break and came one “USO DA” short of psychorena status. Not to mention Mayumi went full-blown Haruhi on a school…of fish. Sure, a lot of stuff happened these past two weeks, but it’s not doing it for me anymore. You know when you’re at a theme park on one of the less popular rollercoaster rides with no line, after the ride is over you ask the operator if you can just sit there and go again, rather than getting off, walking all the way around through the banisters, just to get back in the same seat? It’s kinda like that with the current season…it had its high points and low points, but now that it’s coming to an end, I don’t want to get back out and wait for it to start again – the next ride needs to start already!

So, thanks to Omni once again, we have an extensive list of the wannabes, the gonnabes, and the otherwise uninspired anime of the new season. So, which one is which? In yet another pointless and drunkenly conceived FreezeFrame, here’s my extremely biased and borderline prejudiced preview of the Spring shows that will surely dominate my life for the next several months.

Hitohira
http://www.hitohira.tv/
Premieres March 28th, 2007

A girl with self-confidence issues and chronic stage fright…in the drama club. Fans of the perpetual blush need look no further. At first glance, this show looks like crap, but that’s what I thought La Corda would be, and that actually turned out to be quite effective at igniting the shoujo flames that burn strong within me. She even looks like she could be Hino’s younger sister…moeee
Odds I’ll never tell anybody I enjoyed this: Good
sola
http://www.sola-project.com/
Premieres April 6th, 2007
Well, it definitely looks promising, but so did a certain other show that seemed mainly focused on animating the wind blowing through long wavy blonde hair. Lucky that the characters in sola have rather small chins. As long as this doesn’t turn into some girl showcasing shampoo commercial and sticks to a solid storyline with good pacing, I think this show may turn out to be a dark horse for one of the best anime of the season.
Odds of me flaming this (multiple times): Good