Second week of new premieres and second episodes to last week’s premieres. Some good stuff and some so-so stuff, let’s kick this off with what most people (and by most I mean me, suckers) anticipate.
A Certain Magical Index II takes us back to Academy City and the story that followed the first season. In short, Touma is a Level 0 who possesses an ability to nullify any sort of magic, psychic ability, curse, and so on with his right hand. Index is a girl whose mind is full of thousands of prohibited magical texts and scrolls by the Church, and the first season focused on Touma protecting Index from those who wanted the books, as well as other plots involving Mikoto and The Sisters, Accelerator, and everything else in Academy City. A Certain Scientific Railgun was a side story that focused on events surrounding Mikoto Misaka, a Level 5 esper whose power is electricity and the ability to fire projectiles with it at fast speeds. Much of Railgun focused on events that occured during the first season of Index but before The Sisters and Accelerator came into play.
The first episode was pretty good, they did not waste any time trying to reacquaint you with the cast, only a brief flashback and then it was into the first piece of action. From the OP, a lot of characters look to be returning, including Uiharu from Railgun, along with a lot of new ones. With a full 24 episode lineup, we will probably see them get into more of the manga/novel material and then some. Looking forward to this series the most out of this season, hopefully it will delver a little more than Railgun did.
Sub Group: gg-UTW
First Rating: 8
Super Robot Taisen OG: The Inspector is the second in the SRT:OG anime series. Admitingly, I have not seen the first, so I don’t know what the basic plot is. I have also not played any of the SRT:OG games except for the RPG one released recently which I stopped because my Edge card wiped my data and I didn’t have it backed up.
It’s a Super Robot series modeled after the greats before it, and in true OG fashion it will take what made the SRT game great and apply it without licensed robot series. Personally, I would love to see an anime that takes one of the games or similar plot and play it out, with all your favorites, but that would be a stretch. The Inspector opens with a battle scene between two suits in someplace before the OP. Afterwards, it cuts to the President of the World speaking about conflicts and the need for militarization despite the fact he is hesitant to do it. The rest focuses on a battle that seems to be taking place between three sides.
I plan to catch up on the first so I can write a better synopsis of this shit in the end, but it’s giant robots and I haven’t had any giant robot goodness since Gundam 00 ended.
Sub Group: Horrible
First Rating: 7
Ore no Imouto may be the third /a/ worthy series of this season, as it focuses a girl who appears to be normal on the outside, plays in sports, popular at school, but holds a secret obsession and interest in hentai and non-hentai games that focus on “the little sister”. When her brother discovers one of her DVDs on the floor he questions it but returns it to her. Later she shows him the secret closet full of stuff and asks him to help her understand her hobby by playing some of the games she plays since no one else she knows has an interest in them.
Aside from obvious wincest tones, this series may prove to be interesting for the same reason MM! will be, awkward situations met with trolling hilarity. Besides, how many girls do you know that are this obsessed with anime and games?
Sub Group: Mazui
First Rating: 7
Shinryaku! Ika Musume is about a Squid Girl who is… well, a squid girl. Her hair tentacles can move and she spits up ink. She sees the waste pouring into the oceans and destroying the sea life and vows to take over humanity… starting with a sea-side cafe staffed by two girls and a kid brother. The series is divided into three short titled episodes each highlighting something Squid Girl is trying to do as she is pressed into service as both a waitress and food item after her ink seems to be popular on pasta.
It’s cute, and it’s… well… random. It’s no doubt a light-hearted series aimed to diffuse everything else out there this season. I dunno how long I’ll stick with it, but it’s worth a couple laughs.
Sub Group: FFFpeeps
First Rating: 6
MM! 02: This is the series that Working! would be if you turned it to 11 and took out the family restaurant. Here we have another girl who is afraid of men, a guy who enjoys being beaten to shit (and loves it) and another guy who not only likes to cross-dress, but being told he is cute by other girls turns his personality into a rich-girl persona who thinks she is beautiful and looks down on everyone else. Add the tsundere-type-3 and the indifferent teacher and this is going to be a series that hits Troll Factor Ten in no time flat.
Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt 02: My guess is that at this point, there is going to be at least one short scene of the girls being rendered in better animation than the style used throughout the show. I am okay with this. PSG 02 didn’t hit as high as the second half of episode one, but it’s still pretty damn amusing and if anything, you know you’re watching this show for vulgar language, crude humor, sex jokes, and everything else edgy Japanese people enjoy that Americans have been enjoying for years. AMERICA. FUCK YEAH.
But seriously, WHAT THE FUCK is almost commonplace now.
Sora no Otoshimono: Forte 02: The real second season OP appeared this week after last week’s troll of first season OP: Tomoki Version. This week’s episode introduced another angel, who according to Nymph, is capable of battle beyond Ikaros, but is entirely too stupid to function, even going as far as to demonstrate in triangle graph form. Meanwhile Tomo tries Zen meditation to rid himself of erections towards female bodies. The new angel of course tries to attack him, but fails and falls, and gets the surprise end in the end. Towards the end though, new information is revealed about just who Synapse is, how the angels play, and what role Tomoki has in all of this.
So lots of new stuff to watch and such. Saimoe tournament will draw to a close in just four more matches next week. After that, probably going to hunt down the Index novels and give those a read as well as rewatch the first season to remember how everything went.
TOODLES!
