Three more premieres this week for you this week, Mayo Chiki, Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!, and Usagi Drop. I’ll be honest, this season’s cream of the crop is looking pretty good, much better than I initially expected. So let’s get right to it:
Usagi Drop opens with 30 year old bachelor Daikichi Kawachi, who received word that his maternal grandfather had passed away. Upon arriving at the funeral preparations he encounters a little girl nearby. Mistaking it for one of his relatives’ children, his mother tells him that she is in fact Rin Kaga, his grandfather’s illegitimate child with a woman who took off shortly after. During the funeral he sees her in the corner away from everyone else and no one makes any mention of her or asks for her participation. He asks her to come place a flower inside and she instead picks Rindou flowers from the garden and places them in the box. Daikichi realizes that her name likely was derived from the flower, which was a favorite of his grandfather. After the funeral the family holds a meeting to decide what to do with the child. When no one is willing to help take her in or care for her, preferring to turn her over to an agency, Daikichi becomes angry at the fact no one is willing to step up and help, and asks her to come home with him. From that day on, Daikichi and Rin would live together in his home.
Production I.G and noitaminA have a knack for this sort of thing and I’m pleased as punch for it. Honestly in the same situation I would probably react the same way, and it’s sad that there are situations like this in the real world every day. What’s more impressive is that Rin’s VA, is 10 year old Matsuura Ayu in her first show. Nothing like fostering the next generation of anime VAs early. I expect this show to remain quality throughout its run hopefully, and though there are various rumors on /a/ about its source material, I’m gonna keep my head out of those threads. Or try to anyway.
TLDR Watch This: you can do cat’s cradle too, little girl actually voiced by a little girl
TLDR Don’t Watch This: bad experience with being in a foster home because a bachelor didn’t spring you out sooner
Sub Group: Horrible
First Rating: 7
Akihisa Yoshii and the gang are back in Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!, the sequel to the first series originally aired in Winter 2010. The first episode gets right into the beach episode, as everyone except Hideyoshi shows off their suits and each other a bit before the episode shifts to Aki and Yuuji trying to hit on women to prove that they are still popular guys. Extras include Aki’s sister being crazy and flirtatious, Himeji being cute, and Voyeur doing what he does best, with six cameras and a blood transfusion.
Baka Test is a show that it just fun to watch. It doesn’t attempt to go too far, or take itself seriously sometimes, but it’s got some funny moments with some funny characters, and to kick off with a beach episode is a bit odd, but I’m sure we’ll be back to crazy shit and summoned avatars soon enough.
TLDR Watch This: Hideyoshi, Voyeur, and Himeji
TLDR Don’t Watch This: Aki’s sister, seriously, she gets a little annoying
Sub Group: FFFpeeps
First Rating: 7
Mayo Chiki doesn’t waste time getting right into action, as main guy Kinjirou Sakamachi gets roughed up every morning by his sister Kureha before going to school. Upon arriving, he notices the beautiful and fair Kanade Suzutsuki, with her butler Subaru Konoe. Possessing a strange condition where he is sensitive to female touch, he avoids most female contact, leading others to believe that he is gay for Subaru. Unfortunately for him, as he is about to use the restroom, he stumbles upon Subaru wearing printed women’s underwear. He is thrust into a man-to-man fight, accusing Subaru of cross-dressing, when in saving him from a falling object, his clothes come apart to reveal that he is in fact a she. Waking up later in the infirmary, Kanade reveals that the family who has been serving hers for generations produced only a girl in the current generation, but she wishes to still serve as a butler. Under her father, the principals orders, she can as long as she completes school with no one learning of her secret. Kanade shows she is in fact very dominant and evil, and exposes Kin’s secret, forcing him to agree not to tell in exchange for her help in curing his condition.
It’s Ladies x Butlers and MM! combined with hillarious results, and if Kitamura Eri as Kanade doesn’t get you hot and bothered, the other characters briefly introduced, like Nakuru Narumi, might make this series very interesting. I’m holding my expectations at bay, but I’m hoping this series does real well with it’s opening shot.
TLDR Watch This: crossdressing butlers, Kanade, DEM GLASSES
TLDR Don’t Watch This: you’re not a fan of that u-shape rim glasses look, what’s with that anyway?
Sub Group: Ayako
First Rating: 8
Steins;Gate 14 continues to explore how Okabe tries to rescue Mayushii, and fails each time. After spilling the details to Kurisu, she convinces him to go back farther and convince her past self of the events that are about to unfold and stop the machine from being finished. Unfortunately the machine is still completed, but he manages to convince her that he is from the future, and together they figure that no matter what, Mayushi will die in any scenario because that is how time works. Suzuha Amane steps in and takes them to the building where the satellite crashed. Along the way she explains how within the world line, is smaller lines which Okabe has been jumping to and from in all of the D-Mail experiments. While each line is a different world to him, they all trend towards the same end, meaning no matter what, Mayushi will die. But a different world line exists, and a future Okabe invents a device that can detect the % to the divergence. She then reveals the satellite is in fact a time machine from 2036, and she is John Titor.
I’ve kept away from /a/ and anywhere else, and I’m glad because there is a lot of good shit coming down here, especially on Suzuha. I knew she was from the future, you could tell with her knowledge of what was going to happen, but I didn’t expect her to be the John Titor that was communicating with him. I’m very interested to see what happens now, and I hope they’re about to save Mayushi somehow. Tutturu must rise again.
Ro-Kyu-Bu! 2 turns up the DAWWWW factor when it’s found that the Boys’ Basketball Club has a match with the Girls’ Basketball Club, to which if they win, they win the rights to practice everyday, where if the girls win, they have to share the gym. Subaru tries to stay out and finish his last day, but in running into Tomoka outside and inviting her to play at his home, he found her determination and willingness to play as strong or stronger than his own, and he promised to continue coaching the team to the match with the boys. We got another maid shot at the end of the episode, and basketballan. Good for now.
No show yet for Nekogami Yaoyorozu, though sources on my Twitter say FFFpeeps may be doing it. I downloaded and skimmed the raw earlier, it looks interesting, but very sporadic and of-the-moment comedy and action. I have a couple other shows in backup that I may swap in depending on the outcome, such as Yuru Yuri, Kamisama Dolls, and R-15.
I also still owe out reviews on Seikon no Qwaser I and II, forthcoming sometime soon, as well as Star Driver, whenever I finish it. Steam Summer Sale has not made that easy.
