There seems to be a growing interest lately in anime about adults (otaku or not) who go to work in the days and deepen their interpersonal relationships at night, which is a fairly mundane genre when you think about it. But it’s a very interesting one compared to the more usual genres of school romance and fantasy.
I love the characters already.
So this is apparently based on a children’s book, which I knew when I picked the show up but forgot before I actually started watching it. This is an understandable explanation for why the show was unfortunately not licensed. Which might also be explained by the fact that the episodes are only 12 minutes long (though it’s not like that’s stopped a bunch of other shows in the past from being licensed).
The environments were pretty cool-looking at times.
This actually started airing a week and a half ago, but unfortunately it hasn’t been licensed yet, so I had to rely on the work of a dedicated fan for the subtitles (thank you, whoever you are). And that’s why I watched the show so late, and why I’m only writing about it now. Normally I might have skipped it entirely due to the lack of licensing, but I was too curious about finally getting to see what the legendary Captain Tsubasa is about, so here we are.
This is the point at which I remembered this is a David Production show.
This is going to be a rapid-fire edition of a first impressions post, because I fell behind and now I have to write about more than two shows. Or maybe I end up writing more about some shows, and less about others. I haven’t decided yet. But anyway, here we go.
I picked this up because I saw that it was a mecha show originally created by Shoji Kawamori, and because it was animated by Satelight. Unfortunately, though, not all shows can be winners, even if they’re created by people with prestigious portfolios. That’s what happened here. I had problems concentrating on the entire episode, but it felt like one of those dime-a-dozen mecha shows that pop up every now and then (almost every season actually). It felt uninspired, and uninspiring. I didn’t really care about anything that happened. So I don’t see any reason to continue it either.
Cool robot lizard.
The first episode of Cutie Honey Universe succeeded at making me feel like I was watching a series with a lot of history behind it. It didn’t directly reference any past anime, but it also made no effort to introduce Honey or any of the other characters. Well, part of this is probably because this is a series by Go Nagai, meaning its storytelling style has some oddities and unique flavours to it (a very in media res opening, for instance).
Yup, it’s a Go Nagai show.
I tried watching this show so I could write about it, but I couldn’t really focus on it, and I barely remember anything that happened in the first episode. Granted, I didn’t try very hard, but still, I think this is enough to tell me that this is not my kind of show, and that I should probably not bother watching it.
They look cool, at least.
The premise of the first episode of Hinamatsuri had plenty of potential as a precursor for problematic content: A presumed alien (with telekinetic powers) who looks like a very young girl crashes into the apartment of an adult male gangster. And he basically ends up becoming her guardian, buying her clothes and toys and food that she likes. Even though the first episode didn’t go anywhere super creepy with it, I’m still sort of wary about possible developments in future episodes.
Relatable
[CW: Bullying, domestic abuse, torture, suicide]
I’m not automatically opposed to dark or even edgy magical girl shows. I say let creators write that stuff if they want to, because sometimes the results can be interesting and cool, but I also think that in a genre like this where the themes are usually about the struggles of young girls to find their place in life, there should be an essence of humanity in the writing as well.
This is probably the least discomforting screenshot I took from the episode.
I really wanted to like this show, and not just for one reason. Firstly, the main character is apparently an amateur photographer like me (he even has the exact same camera as me), so because of that I was immediately hooked in. Secondly, Alexandra is just a lovely – albeit archetypal – character, and I very much considered continuing the show just for her.
She looks very much like Maki from Love Live and that’s a good thing.
This is an ecchi harem show where all the characters are girls. The ecchi harem aspect of it is extremely similar to most other shows of the same genre, but the fact that the main character is not a boy is such a welcome breath of fresh air to me. And not just in that it’s semi-erotic content aimed at women (because it definitely feels like it’s aimed at women), but it’s also just cute and comforting.
TL Note: The cherries symbolise nipples.
Falconhaxx 