Gunparade March wasn't a great show, but it seems like a masterpiece compared to the first episode of
Gunparade Orchestra. If GPO was intended to be a comedy, I could forgive some of it, but I get the impression that the show is actually a military drama gone horribly wrong. The gross ignorance and incompetence displayed by the cast and the circumstances of the first episode defy believability. And the details of the setting seem so disconnected from the overt setting that the show is hard to take seriously. What is supposed to be a military academy seems more like Cromartie High School with attempts at humor that just aren't funny at all. If the show made any attempt at logical realism, the entire cast would have been killed during the first episode's action sequence. At least GPM had a little bit of tension. GPO feels like keystone cops. Furthermore, the animation quality is okay but not unusually impressive. I don't like the character design because it looks like a poor attempt at copying Hisashi Hirai's Gundam Seed chara design. The first episode of GPO was just so painful for me to watch that I don't foresee inflicting any more of the series upon myself.
The comparison of
Aria the Animation to Yokohama Shopping Log is very apt. The first episode of Aria is slow, some would say dull. But I enjoyed it because this is a very calming, soothing anime. It's the anime equivilant of new age music. I can appreciate some Enya or Mike Oldfield every once in a while just as a change from the ordinary. The Aria animation has attractive character designs and an interesting concept. You have to call an anime about gondolla rowers unique.
With Angel Heart episodes 2 & 3, I'm still having a hard time getting used to the idea that Glass Heart has inherited not just Kaori's heart, but also Kaori's entire spirit. And I'm also still having a hard time getting used to the thinner, older looking Ryo character design. I'm concerned about the pace of the show because three episodes in the story is moving at the speed of frozen mollasses. But so far the art design and tone of the show are enough to keep me coming back.
Capeta is Monkey Turn on asphalt. Monkey Turn was a CG enhanced racing show with funky character designs, and unusual, squat, squashed vehicles (mini-speedboats). Capeta is a CG enhanced racing show with funky character designs and unusual, squat, squashed vehicles (go-karts). More accurately, I find the character designs in Capeta fugly (a combination of "funky" and "ugly"). Yet I still seem to like the show. I appreciate the fugly chara designs because they're different. And the show has a surprising depth of character development, even in just the first three episodes. I really appreciate the fact that Capeta is, contrary to usual, willing to stand up for himself and defend himself from bullies. This is a children's show, but it has enough personality and heart to make it interesting for adults. I can't remotely envision this becoming popular in America, but it may do well in Japan considering how successful Monkey Turn was.
On the other hand,
Idaten Jump definitely feels like a children's anime. My first impression was that the creative team was unconfident in their ability to make an interesting show about mountain bike racing, so they felt a need to spice it up. But as the show continued to pile on the absurdity, from post-apocalyptic time travel to magical girl style transformations, I began to realize that this show is a unique, hybrid beast. It's a bizarre, really, really strange creature. I'm honestly somewhat at a loss for how to describe this show because it's just so weird. Rather than good or bad, it's just a shock to see so many seemingly mutually exclusive genres and anime conventions somehow mashed together. If this anime was a food, it would be one of Hagu-chan's original creations like mashed potatoes with banana sauce and ham. If that doesn't sound appetizing, that's about how good this anime seems to be. The second episode wasn't quite as interesting as the first, but even though this isn't very good, I'm half-way inclined to keep watching it just to see how absurd it can get. And I must say, villains on bicycles just don't feel very threatening.
The first episode of
Mushishi is almost entirely talking heads, so without translated dialogue it was hard for me to get much out of it besides a nice, soothing and nostalgic atmosphere. But there are a few things about the episode that I did appreciate. Small nuances are animated very well, such as the movement of hands and fingers, eyes, the tilt of heads, and the movement of water and sake. And I love the character desgin of the young granny. It will be a shame if she's not a recurring character.
I finished reading the second and third Yotsuba &! grapic novels from AD Vision. Chapter 13, with Miura disguised as Hanako the Eye was the highlight of the second book. Although I can imagine all the screaming and crying grating on the ears of some viewers, I'd dearly love to see that chapter animated because it would be so hysterically funny. The final chapter of the third book is great, although I think there's a typo in the ADV edition because the final page refers to Asagi when I think it's supposed to rerer to Ena.
Regrettably, I'm only partially satisfied with the first episode of
Jigoku Shoujo. It looks nice, and it seems interesting, but it doesn't seem to be nearly as ruthless and relentless as typical live action J-horror, nor previous horror anime like Kousetsu Hyakku Monogatari or Devilman Lady. It really feels like it's J-horror that pulls its punches and softens the horror a bit, especially by allowing the person requesting the curse to continue living. If I motivate, I think I may compose an editorial comparing this and Shakugan no Shana to more typical Asian horror.
Probably as long as I've been interested in anime, I've been fascinated by girls with swords- especially katana. So I was eagerly looking forward to
Shakugan no Shana. Regrettably, after watching the first two episodes, I think I'm through with the show. First, I don't like the character designs. Shana herself is unconvincing. I think that anime girls with swords should either look believable or cute. Shana is neither, so she ends up looking un-natural and unbelievable. The chara design feels artificial to me. It's distracting and doesn't let me feel like the story is taking place in a believable world. That leads me to my second and bigger complaint. The entire concept the show is built upon doesn't make sense. It literally makes no sense to create replacements for people who've had the entire evidence of their existance eliminated. In that case, the replacements themselves would destabilize the balance of the world. Shakugan no Shana seems like it wants to be an apocalyptic anime, but unlike Iczer-One, Devilman Lady, and Maju Sensen, which actually depicted a horrifying break down of order and civilization, Shakugan no Shana seems to want to present a kinder and gentler apocalypse. But doing so creates a cataclysmic conflict in the logic of the story. Oh, and the action choreography in the first episode is terrible. I found the show very disappointing. The show is also licensed for American release by Geneon, so now that I know what it's like, I'll probably stop watching it because there are other shows I'm more interested in, and I don't want to annoy readers who take offense at which anime I choose to sometimes watch.
I'm very torn over how to react to Full Metal Panic 2nd Raid after watching episodes 8-13 and finishing off the show. The art design and animation quality were consistently outstanding throughout. This series did a better job of illustrating and developing the character personalities than either of the previous two series. This series is a better combination of tense military action and slapstick comedy than the first two series. This series is finally a conclusive and satisfying climax to the anime story. But Second Raid introduces a whole lot of unresolved plots and unexplained characters. As purely a story about Chidori and Sousuke, this is the best of the three FMP series. But there's more to the series than just its two main characters. I really want to call this a brilliant anime, but I just can't get over small reservations about the series' highly abbreviated story development.