Summer 2008 First Impressions Part One

Slayers Revolution
Watched the original Slayers dubbed so I didn’t know Hayashibara could sound so goofy. Lol-ed at Goury’s sword. Not too bad for a first episode, I guess. Lina reminds me of all the crazy egocentric anime heroines out there like Haruhi and Kyouka. Or maybe it’s the other way around.

Ultraviolet Code 044
Park Romi’s character seems to be stripping the whole show. I was wondering when she would run out of clothes to step out of. And they stole her nipples. Maybe they’ll give the nipples back in the DVD. Chizuru got hers back. Koyama Rikiya ditches his GAR voice to play a creepy bastard. Yucks.

The character designs were very un-moe, meaning they didn’t have hydromegacephaly like Kagamin. That’s not a bad thing in itself, it’s just not cute. Didn’t find the action very appealing either. 2 more episodes and I might drop this.

Mahou Something I Can’t Remember The Very Long Title: Natsu no Sora
Gorgeous backgrounds. I suspect they have cunningly snuck real-life photos into my 2-dimensional entertainment. And I loved the potato harvester. The idyllic rural scenery made me feel like running off to some peaceful little farm to live out the rest of my short life. Sigh.

Feels like snail-paced slice-of-life fare so far, but the girl’s going to Tokyo next episode. And we all know Tokyo is where the loser guys get lucky, so I wouldn’t dismiss the odds of some action.

For some reason the name that caught my eye in the credits was Takano Urara. “Who’s that?”, you ask. She’s Raichu. Actually the only show with her in it that I’ve watched is Diamond Dust Drops and the name got stuck in my head somehow.

Sekirei
Musubi really sounded like Inoue Marina. I would have thought she was the seiyuu if I didn’t know better. (It’s Hayami Saori, i.e. Kou-chan in Oinarisama) As for the rest of the show, I have one word: Boobs. It looks bloody stupid so I’m dumping this in the same bin as Vampire+Rosario and Kanokon. That means I’m watching every single episode.

Hidamari X365
First episode was chronologically before the 1st season. I’ve always wondered what the point of mixing up the episode order for Hidamari Sketch was. This episode was almost exactly a rehash of the first dozen or so pages of the manga, so I felt the gags kind of lacked punch, though it’s my own fault for having read the manga. Still, it’s nice to see the gang again in animated form. Watched the raw yet managed to catch 95% of the dialogue, which shows how closely this episode stuck to the manga. It’s mostly a Yuno episode, with a bit of Miya. The rest of the characters were not prominently featured, though almost everyone made an appearance. Weird thing is the Landlady sounds like Shinkuro to me now.

X365 used all the first season’s BGM, which made me jump in delight. OP by the seiyuu foursome needs getting used to, I liked Sketch Switch better. The ED, Ryusei Record, sounds like standard marble stuff, which I kind of like.

Strike Witches
Pantsu, pantsu everywhere. Loli Major’s underwear. Seriously, EVERY SINGLE FEMALE CHARACTER walks around in their pantsu / swimsuit / bloomers, maybe except the grandmother. It’s like their uniform or something. And the camera keeps reminding you they’re wearing nothing but pantsu below the waist (except the propeller thigh-high boots) with all the crotch and ass shots. If Sekirei has got the boob aspect of fanservice (un)covered, this show fulfils the pantsu obligation. See, there’s something for everyone.

Really ugly cg. It’s one thing for a half-motorbike-half-mecha-thing to look and move like that. It’s another thing altogether when a half-plane-half-nekomimi loli looks and moves like that.

Plot looks like it was lifted straight out of Skygirls, it’s got the same loli gets scouted by the army and signs on to go look for missing brother/father thing going on. Enemies look just as generic as in Skygirls, so I’m guessing the fighting isn’t really the main point here, as in Skygirls. Anyway, when they do fight, it’s the katana wielding loli that delivers the finishing blow. Just like in Skygirls. You seeing a trend? Oh, and lol at Britania.

I liked Rierie’s Lt. Col, she’s giving me Claudia vibes. She walks around in pantsu as well. (Yay!) Miyukichi’s flat (as in the lack of boobs) character sounds like Reika from Ninomiya-kun, seems to have the same personality as well. Koshimizu Ami was somewhere I think, must have missed her appearance. Saeko Chiba’s “HAHAHAHAHA” was interesting. She played the loli major. I’m not familiar with the lead girl’s voice though (Fukuen Misato). The only roles I can remember are probably Patty (Devil May Cry) and Mayu (Hataraki Man). She sounds passibly cute, though not much of an impression.