The preview guide continues! I’m happy to say this season has completely surpassed my expectations so far, with all the shows I was looking forward to and more besides coming out swinging with strong first episodes. First episodes can certainly be deceiving, but given my preseason expectations were “well, at least some great shows are continuing from the fall,” I’m very pleased to see such an initially strong crop of episodes.
Here’s the link to the preview guide, where you can once again check out all my posts as they arrive. Today’s recommendations are Death Parade, The Idolmaster – Cinderella Girls, and especially The Rolling Girls. Death Parade pretty much fulfills all the macabre promise of Death Billiards with a trashy, beautifully articulated first episode, Cinderella Girls offers understated drama and humor in the KyoAni school, and The Rolling Girls feels like a breathless combination of Kyousogiga and Yozakura Quartet. You’ll find links to all my new reviews with scores below. Hope you find something you enjoy!
The Rolling Girls – 5/5
Death Parade – 4.5/5
The Idolmaster – Cinderella Girls – 3.5/5 (though in retrospect it should really be a 4)
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders Battle in Egypt – 3/5
Shonen Hollywood – Set Stage for 50 – 3/5
Assassination Classroom – 3/5
Aldnoah.Zero Season 2 – 2/5
Say what you will about Aldnoah’s writing and storytelling, but GOD DAMN, the soundtrack is great. That’s legitimately my only reason for following the show at this point (well, aside from watching Slaine suffer more).
Nice reviews so far!
The sound is shit.
I’m very excited for the return of Jojo. The fights in the second half of part 3 pretty much all better than the first half; hell, in the very fight that started in this episode, we get to see, gasp, Jotaro forced to use strategy in order to win!