Fall season is here, and with it comes a new smorgasbord of strange and exotic content. Oh hell, who am I kidding, it’s just some Kyoani shit and DRIFTO TURNO… thaaaaaaat has not aired yet. God fucking dammit. Well, here is a preview of what has started so far, check out Quick Bites on the sidebar infrequently, or Twitter, for more.
Oh dear, when I first profiled this show, I figured “Oh, it’s KyoAni, well, it’s either going to be GITAH like K-ON! or Hyouka and put me to sleep randomly.” It’s closer to the former while borrowing parts of the latter, and just about every other KyoAni title made.
Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai! stars Yuuta Togashi who starts his freshman year of high school at a different school than he would have gone to, in order to “erase” his troublesome past, troublesome being that he was socially delusional and still played with toys and props and believed himself to be “The Dark Flame Master”. His efforts to become a normal teenager are disrupted by Rikka Takanashi, who like him also has social delusions, but she hasn’t let go of hers going into high school, and knows him and his past, and tries to bond with him on that level. The result is a crazy school comedy between her crazy delusions and his trying to repeal them and seem normal to his classmates, especially class rep Shinka Nibutani.
It’s very much GITAH face, so fans of K-ON! have probably already came all over their screen to this. I admit it is cheeky fun, and this youtube video certainly doesn’t help, but at it’s basic core of a story, it’s not going to stimulate anything important. I’m sure, however, we’ll get some well-thought out and written biographies unwarranted self-important Livejournal posts from weeaboos about how they can “identify” with the main characters and what their delusions were as awkward teenagers. We all went through this, and we all survived it. It’s not that interesting, so you’ll get none of that for me. Enjoy this show for what it is, senseless KyoAni comedy.
TLDR Watch This: Yui-face, DAT ASS Rikka, various tomfoolery
TLDR Don’t Watch This: if you like serious business anime, can’t deal with autism jokes
Sub Group: gg
First Rating: 7
It’s a real shame Nagi lost to Louise in Saimoe because she is losing this season so far. Perhaps it is too early for me to speculate, this could wind up being awesome, but so far this isn’t pushing any buttons that haven’t already been pushed by KugiRie-powered shows previously.
Hayate no Gotoku: I Can’t Take My Eyes Off You is the third and story-independent season of the Hayate franchise that started in 2004 as a manga and is still being published, and as an anime in 2007. As it stands, none of the anime adaptations have a real story, or a very loose story, they’ve been mostly episodes about random events happening to Nagi Sanzenin, a rich affluent girl who picks up the poor street rat Hayate Ayasaki and makes him her personal butler. Together with Maria and other mansion staff they embark on various adventures alongside a large cast of characters ranging from student council president Hinagiku Katsura and her sister the teacher Yukiji, Ayumu “Hamster” Nishizawa from Hayate’s old school, and Isumi Saginomiya, the eternal lost child. The primary focus of this season is the entrance of Ruri Tsugumi, who claims to be Nagi’s little sister, but has no proof. Hilarity ensues.
I haven’t had a chance to read a lot of the manga, and there is a loooooooooooot of manga to cover, so that’ll be awhile. I did see the first two seasons not too long after they aired respectively though, so I reasonably know what I am in for. I just felt a little disappointed that this didn’t grab me by the balls and swing the fuck around, being that it has been three years since the last anime and a year since the movie, perhaps it just needs time to ramp up? Eh, I am probably expecting too much. It’s Hayate, enjoy it. Also, why does Hayate look goofy with his hair? He is a guy, fix that.
TLDR Watch This: KugiRie voiced Nagi, THIS IS MY YEAR HINA, Hamster, and crazy Hayate bullshit on bikes
TLDR Don’t Watch This: KugiRie voiced URSAI URSAI URSAI, the fact this has been off for three years
Sub Group: Commie, Horrible
First Rating: 8
I wasn’t sure what to think about this show at first, it sounded too much like AnoHana without the dead girl, but after watching it, it looks exactly like AnoHana, without the dead girl, and with a touch of Medaka Box. Savvy viewers of this blog will note I dropped that like the motherfucking plague.
Little Busters is the story of five kids, Kyousuke and Rin Natsume, the brains and the girl, Masato Inohara, the brawn, Kengo Miyazawa, the sword, and Riki Naoe, the extra. Together they played and “fought evil” as children, but fast-forward into high school they are still friends with each other and hang out, when they are not doing their own tasks or work.
As I was looking up character names I inevitably clicked on SPOILERS. Yeah, silly me, but they revealed a different side to this story that may change how this show progresses. I won’t detail it for those who don’t like spoilers, but it will make watching this interesting to see what they do in it, if it will be different than what I am predicting.
TLDR Watch This: Rin, cats, Rin, cats again, Rin again, and really just Rin.
TLDR Don’t Watch This: If you remembered the flower we saw that day.
Sub Group: UTW-Mazui
First Rating: 6
CODE:BREAKER stars the pointed and direct Sakura Sakurakouji, a regular high-school student and master martial artist who witnesses a boy setting people ablaze with a blue fire. That same boy, Rei Oogami, shows up as the transfer student the next day. She proceeds to stalk him and try to uncover his true intentions, and ends up discovering his power when she is attacked by gang members responsible for killing a homeless man she knew before. He vows to burn her to conceal his secret.
It’s interesting, it’s kinda gritty (not GRIMDARK, there is a difference) and the eyes have a very Gotou Keiji look to them without it actually being him, which always reminds me of classic animes. Unlike the LOL SO RANDOM titles I have on docket, this one might have a plausible story and be worth watching, provided it doesn’t do a Code Geass and spend too much time in the classroom hijinks.
TLDR Watch This: you like pretty boys muttering phrases and setting people on fire, if you have a Netflix category for “Strong Female Leads” you routinely watch things from
TLDR Don’t Watch This: If you love dogs. Skip the first episode.
Sub Group: sage (FUCK YES YOU ARE THE BEST SUBS EVER, also plz be releasing more SEED HD kthx)
First Rating: 7
Oh Commie, ever the cheeky fucks you are, if you grabbed the v1 release of this, you’ll have noticed they replaced most of the common dialogue with German translations, making it super annoying to watch because unless you know common Japanese phrases (Hello, Goodbye, Sorry, etc.) you weren’t making the connections since they mixed English and German. It was funny, but thankfully they released a v2 correcting this, and hopefully episodes out will not suffer from this. A few words in German are fine, not everywhere though.
Girls und Panzer stars the reluctant and shy Miho Nishizumi who enters a new school hoping to avoid Girls Panzerfahren (Sensha-do), the art of driving and competing in military-style tanks designed to teach femininity. (lolwut?) She chose this school because they did not offer it, but as it turns out they were seeking to bring it back, and knowing of her family’s past with the sport, tries to draft her in as part of the first group to participate.
Two shows come to mind, Upotte! and Strike Witches, the former being about girls-as-guns doing cute things and the latter being about magical furries with guns who shoot aliens. This show seems to remove the “being the weapon” and the furry part out and gives you girls with tanks… doing… cute things? I honestly don’t know where this will end up, you’re just going to have to ride the goddamn ride with me. Sit down, strap in, and shut up.
TLDR Watch This: girls driving tanks, you know you like girls driving tanks, you’re from the past and drove a WWII tank
TLDR Don’t Watch This: you don’t like tanks, or didn’t like being in a tank
Sub Group: Commie (you fantastic bastards)
First Rating: 7
That’s all I have for now, Robotics;Notes has still not aired, so that is the only other show we’re missing that is new here. I will include it in the next update. Space Brothers also continued from last season, so there is plenty more SPAAAAAAAAAAACE to watch, especially with SpaceX launching Dragon up to the ISS. Forward-progress.. HO!
