Wrapping up Spring 2009

Posted: July 7, 2009 | Author: flomu | Filed under: Uncategorized |16 Comments »

And so another season ends.

In my opinion, this season was, without a doubt, much, much better than the shit that was Winter 2008.  That season sucked beyond what I thought “suck” could mean.  It practically had only three anime that I would consider at least decent: Maria+Holic, Zoku Natsume Yuujinchou, and Sora Kake Girl.

On the other hand, Spring 2009 has shown to us such incredible anime as Hatsukoi Limited, Basquash, Hayate no Gotoku!!, FMA: Brotherhood, Cross Game, etc.

Finished anime

Hatsukoi Limited

Now this was one hell of a show.  I loved each and every episode of this thing.  The relationships were believable, though exaggerated at times (it’s hard to believe that the Zaitsu brothers are related, y’know?).  But in the end, the last episode showed me exactly what had kept me so captivated week after week.  The subtle mix of romance and comedy transcends your normal romantic comedy.

If there were to be a perfect balance of romance and comedy that would make the perfect romantic comedy, then this would be it.  The comedy is funny, the romance is touching, and the romance-comedy combo is flawless.  I never felt that Hatsukoi Limited had leaned over too far in one way or another.  Reminiscent of ToraDora?  No way.  I think J.C.Staff outdid its ToraDora performance tenfold in this one.

10/10

Eden of the East

Basically, I’m going to preach what everybody else has been saying: Eden went downhill.  In the end, nothing happened.  Hell, in the middle, nothing happened either.  I don’t understand anything from this stupid show, and I don’t ever want to hear another “Johnny.”  It’s not even dirty humor.  It’s stupid humor.

I started out loving this anime.  It had awesome art (usually), great animation (usually), and seemed like it would evolve into something really epic.  In other words, everybody said it was good and I agreed.

Too bad Eden of the East picked the wrong path to walk down.  Bah.

Nothing in the end resembled a real ending.  20,000 NEETs are shipped back from some place and thus it is proven that Akira Takizawa does not have the brains to figure out a plan to defend Japan from missiles by himself.  Yay, ending!

Wait, what was Saki doing here again?  Stupid piece of fanservice.  Oh wait, there was no female fanservice.  Conclusion: Saki was useless, and Eden pretty much fell from “awesome” to “that’s pretty stupid.”

6/10

All six of those points go to the episodes before the “oh hey, I think that this anime would be better off if we made it just like Code Geass R2, except without the awesome cliffhangers and plot twists” decision.

Sora Kake Girl

What was I really expecting with the last episode of this?  Something awesome.
What should I have been expecting?  Nothing.

The last episode pretty much followed the preceding episodes.  Comedic Leopard, some action, and shitloads of parody (Akiha and Imo reunite?  Hello?) strewn all over the place.  Being essentially a parody, Sora Kake Girl couldn’t possibly have had an epic ending.  Though I was prepared for, and even wanted, one, a dramatic ending like Lelouch dying would probably have made this portion of this post into one long piece of raging rage about how shitty the ending was.  Nevertheless, this anime’s ending made my score drop one point.

But that’s not to say that this series wasn’t good.  Hell, it was awesome.  It was the best airing anime I watched in the Winter 2008 season and among the top three of this past season.  Each and every episode amazed me with the extreme CG, the incredible settings, and the vast imagination of the person/people who thought this whole thing up.  Sure, Gurren Lagann impressed me with its epicness, but this is on a whole different scale.  Every single scene made me think “Jesus, I want an imagination like this.”  In fact, I was going to type up a post entitled “imagination that trumps mine” showing anime that utilized incredible amounts of imagination, but I couldn’t think of any that could even match, much less beat, Sora Kake Girl.  The storyline, the setting, the characters, everything.  Everything just “wow”ed me to a degree that I thought I could never be “wow”ed to.

8/10

Lelouchbot is one awesome piece of machinery, by the way.

Still airing anime

Basquash! has had some of the worst art this season.  The CG is fine, but whenever you get into the hand-drawn realm of terrors, there’s bound to be terrors.  Lots of them.  It’s kind of like Kurokami.

But story-wise, this anime is really shaping up.  I love this series for its simplicity, its characters, and its ability to ignore reality.  There really is no need to explain why people love watching random people play basketball in robots on the streets when you’ve got just that – a plot where random people play basketball in robots on the streets.  I’m not sure what role Rouge is supposed to play in this all (kind of like Saki in Eden, but at least Rouge does stuff), but I hope to see her again.

Hayate no Gotoku!! is generating some buzz.  More than a few people have said that it beats season one by a large margin.  I guess I’m a maverick.

Episode 12’s Cruel Angel’s Thesis by Hina definitely made my views on this season change (6/10 –> 8/10), and episodes 13 and 14 have been a blast (–> 9/10).  I’m not sure where this same doors lead to different places anime will go and I’m definitely not sure that it can match the sheer awesome of season one, but I’m in for the ride.

Though recently, I think I’ve been watching this because I loved the first season.

FMA: Brotherhood is an anime that I’m watching purely because FMA is too damn popular to ignore/not watch.  FMA might’ve been one interesting anime when it first aired, but this new series seems to be just… okay.  Not too good, not bad.  Just your normal above-average anime.

The running gags are running too much, and Al/Ed’s motivation seems to be pretty weak.  You can’t just shove everything onto “WE WANT OUR BODIES BACK,” you know.  I’m pretty sure that one of these episodes is going to make me want to stop watching.  Sure, it’s better than POWER OF FRIENDK-ONSHIP, but you’d think that there would be something else…

Haruhi S2 is the same.  Is “Endless Eight” literally going to be “eight” episodes or “endless”??  This stuff is boring me more than Rozen Maiden S1!

The first Endless Eight episode was pretty shitty.  The second one was awesome.  I love time loops and things like that in a plot.  The third one is overkill.  I can’t believe I managed to sit through Endless Eight episode 3/8.

I’m still waiting on a real Haruhi S2. 😐

Everything else… has been dropped to make room for Summer 2009.  That includes Cross Game – honestly, I don’t think I can keep up with a 51-episode anime, so I’m going to drop it/put it on hold until it gets into the 40s, when I can marathon it.

Shangri-la was pretty damn good, but I feel that Umineko, Zan SZS, etc. are going to be a LOT better.

All the other anime suck.

On a side note, this post practically takes over for what would’ve been my report on anime in the month of June.  It’d be stupid to have me summing up Hatsukoi twice in a row.

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