Your Song is the Song That Saves the World

First week of new season premieres, and I can already tell this is going to be a hell of a season. Four new shows including the preair of Rinne no Lagrange, awaiting the release of the first episode of Zero no Tsukaima F and two more shows airing next week, along with the four carried over from last year. Let’s begin.

The plot is fairly simple, monsters that turn you into dead rocks, and two girls who use weapons and words, some kind of sound wave, to beat them up. Senki Zesshou Symphogear stars popular VAs Yuuki Aoi and Mizuki Nana as Hibiki Tachibana and Tsubasa Kazanari, the former a girl who attended a Zwei Wing concert two years prior to the events in the show and was nearly killed when “The Noise” attacked. She was saved by Tsubasa’s partner Kanade Amou who sacrificed herself to protect Hibiki and Tsubasa. Two years later they end up in the same school, where Hibiki is desperately trying to get Tsubasa to notice her so she can ask about that day. She never forgets Kanade’s last words of “Never accept death” and wants to ask Tsubasa about her. Unfortunately on her way home from school she encounters “The Noise” and in an attempt to rescue herself and a little girl, traps themselves on a roof. Cornered, she tries to recall the song Kanade sang that day, which triggers a transformation in her, causing her to gain Symphogear powers.

There is a lot of music, so if you didn’t like Disney movies breaking out every twenty minutes into a routine, it might not be your thing, but think of it as battle music, and it does not disappoint, it really goes well with the action going on screen, and I am liking the premise, even if it’s going to probably end up being a monster-of-the-week for the first half. I’m a bit disappointed that Kanade won’t go beyond the first episode, but if there is anything anime has ever taught me, is that death isn’t permanent, even if they say it is.

TLDR Watch This: girls wielding powered suits and weapons
TLDR Don’t Watch This: music
Sub Group: Commie
First Rating: 9

Every season, there is at least one show, or many shows, that offer you fanservice with little plot. Last season was Maken-ki, which did a shitty job at both. This season, is High School DxD or more aptly named, Harem King. Issei Hyoudou (Kaji Yuki) is a lecherous high school boy who with his friends, complains about not having girlfriends despite not bothering to possess any sort of suave or charm, instead peeping into locker rooms and idolizing from afar. Little does he know there is are forces beyond his comprehension lurking around the school, and he finds out first hand when is killed by a demon in disguise as a girl interested in him. He is saved by Rias Gremory (Hikasa Youko), the girl he saw up in the window before, who is actually one of the strongest devils on campus. She makes him her servant in a war against fallen angels and warriors of the light.

The first thing you need to know is there are tits, and not just round balls with skin color, we’re talking nipples and everything. The lower bits remain censored, but who the hell cares. But, that’s not the sinker, the sinker is we have a potentially interesting plot, a boy, folded into a girl’s servant harem. Also magical bullshit and devils. This to me has at least two other series elements combined, Demon King, and Freezing. As long as it maintains the latter over the former, this will be a show I can watch, and love.

TLDR Watch This: girls, tits, devils, and tits
TLDR Don’t Watch This: If you don’t like this show, you aren’t American. If you aren’t American, “Keep Calm and Carry On.”
Sub Group: SubDESU
First Rating: 8

If you’ve been following me for any inordinate amount of time, you know I always enjoy a good robot show, especially if it involves girls. Rinne no Lagrange takes place in a fairly normal world where Madoka Kyouno (Ishihara Kaori) is the president and sole member of the “Sweat Club” who dedicates herself to helping others whenever they need it. One day she rescues a girl from the ocean, but returns to find her clothes missing. She goes to class anyway and wears her PE uniform instead. She lives with her father at a beachside cafe where her sister visits occasionally, presumably from some kind of work. She cryptically always checks to make sure she isn’t in any sort of trouble. The next day a girl named Ran (Seto Asami) shows up to return Madoka her clothes, and invites her to a off-shore base to assist her organization who are fighting aliens from space, using a giant robot. Before Madoka’s sister could intercept her, presuming she knows about it, Madoka boards the robot anyway and proceeds to fight against an invading alien robot.

The first thing that came to mind as I watched this was that it reminded me too much of Starship Girl Yamamoto Yohiko. The whole recruitment process and how she just accepted her situation, got in, and proceeded to style it on her own, was just too familiar. There are a lot of crypts to the show, the aliens seem to be people, and the meaning behind her sister’s awareness of the robots, but I imagine this will get spelled out in due time.

TLDR Watch This: girls, robots, and Ran
TLDR Don’t Watch This: uh…
Sub Group: Commie
First Rating: 8

The first installment was something of a treat, it wasn’t awesome but it wasn’t terrible. The second season of Tantei Opera Milky Holmes doesn’t plan to deviate far off that course. You still have the lovely Sher, Elly, Cordelia, and Nero, along with Henrietta and the gang, doing Milky Holmes things. If you haven’t seen the first season, you might want to, as they don’t spend any time recapping in this episode, but if you don’t care to, you can probably just watch, I have a feeling it won’t matter. The basic premise is the girls attend a school to be great detectives, founded by the greatest detectives of history. However they utilize “Toys” which are magical powers unique to each person that assist in their endeavors. In the beginning of the first season the team lost theirs without any idea why, and the rest of the show focused on them trying to get it back, while dealing with being cast into the lowest caste of social status in the school after having occupied the top. They do all this while trying to foil “The Gentlemans Thief Empire” lead by Arsène, a descendant of the great thief Lupin. Unfortunately the girls are rather naive and gullible and worry more about feeding themselves in their new conditions than fighting crime or even getting their toys back, which infuriates Arsène as she has no one to challenge her and her gang. Alongside them is the “Genius 4” led by police officer Kokoro Akechi who has college degrees and a high IQ, but cannot catch Arsène and her gang either, and is constantly being fumbled around by Sher and the girls. It’s an anything goes kind of series, and trust me, anything goes. Including Twenty’s erect nipples.

TLDR Watch This: CAR-A-ZEE FUN
TLDR Don’t Watch This: CAR-A-ZEE FUN
Sub Group: kiteseekers-wasurenai
First Rating: 7

That’s all I have for now, look for Zero and Nisemonogatari soon along with the final two premieres later this week. It’s going to be a fun season, I hope.