The hits and misses continue this week, as another handful of shows are tossed right dang into our laps. As usual, the accumulation of shows worth sticking around for is a slow process marked by a whole lot of suffering – but I’m the only one here who actually has to watch all this crap, so please, enjoy my wailing and gnashing of teeth. Outside of Mayoiga being significantly more ridiculous than anticipated, the season’s performing about as well as I’d expected so far, meaning we’ll likely end up with a pretty solid line of hopefuls. The future is always bright!
You can check out the full list of reviews over at ANN, or check below the cut for individual scores and links for everything added since the last post. Time to get back to it!
Twin Star Exorcists – 4.5/5
Joker Game – 4/5
BAKUON!! – 4/5
Cerberus – 2.5/5
Re:ZERO – 1.5/5
Hundred – 1/5
I didn’t enjoy Joker Game, the premise seems interesting but otherwise I felt the episode was lacking. The only thing I got out of the episode was the guy thinks spies are coward for some reason (guessing it’s because he went to military school) and baffled that the spies would do spy stuff like cheating, which makes me wonder what he’s doing there in the first place. The army don’t want spies also for some reason? The spies are supposed to be “animals” because of their training but the training in itself isn’t shown (don’t they swim in cold water at the military?). Maybe I wasn’t paying attention but I got the impression that I was just being told things instead of shown. Who knows, I seem to be in the minority on it and it might get better afterwards .
Nah, I pretty much agree with you. The premise has potential, but the first episode was not gracefully written.
Holy shit you just rated twin star exorcists 4.5
Like… christ this is one of those times I gotta REALLY question that rating. I mean, okay…
The art is sufficient, and with a hint of aestheticism every now and then. At best its proper production value, but beyond some flashes of monochromatic palettes here and there, it doesn’t try anything real. Character designs are straightforward, monster design is generic, and atmosphere is sufficient. A score of B or B+, maybe A- if you stretch it.
The story was generic fodder that did not have a single unique line. No seriously, try to think of any memorable line or a truly unique scene in there. It executes sufficiently enough to keep you watching, not failing any narratological faux pas,but it’s not a particularly new or engaging plot. (Almost) generic tragic background plot, monsters and an underworld kidnapping people, the way the MCs are introduced, it’s only redeeming quality is that it doesn’t do anything worse than its competitors. B at best, C at worst.
Animation: Stronger suit. Well animated, few bad scenes, doesn’t cheap out. First episode, so to be honest, twas expected. I guess that’s a solid B, maybe B+ if you consider B+ to be the ‘did nothing new but worked category’.
Music: Fits the mood, particularly noticeable at times of creepiness or suspense, but nothing new. B+, Similar to the animation score.
Like, the score you give is more of a hype meter than a real rating, but what about the show HYPES it as anything but standard shonen fare beyond production value? Are you excited about the plot? The character development/interactions? The music? The… ?
It’s something I’d consider a 4 at best for ‘solid intro, now let’s see if it can do anything with its premise’ or a 2 for ‘I don’t have time to spend on a 4 cour generic shonen that may or may not be interesting’.
Oh btw it’s a 4 cour show, more episodes announced than chapters out, fyi, with a new character added (I believe?) and done by Studio Peirrot so… idk, it’s one of those moments where I basically expect filler.
Then again, I might be a tad pessimistic and expecting too much of ‘this show does xyz different than other shows’ and less ‘this show does xyz well holistically speaking’.
Speaking on Re:Zero as a secondary source, having heard about the premise from a friend…
Essentially, my friend is a fan of horror and thrillers. He tells me that this show is not what it appears on the outside; thus, I approached Re:Zero from the perspective that the gore, which has been promising in the second half, would evolve into something more sinister later on.
According to sources on reddit, this author is reputed as “sadistic” in Japan for his treatment of his characters, and that the PV/Cover are as sugar coated as the beginning of School Live! (I have not watched this show, so I am only relaying word of mouth here).
I have been working on writing a three-to-four volume series for some time, which contain dark scenes; considering what I have read about the show, I am rather interested in how Re:Zero will evolve and, if the author lives up to his reputation, whether I can learn anything from it. I will personally be following this show in hopes it will live up to these expectations.
Oh god, “sadistic” sounds like “edgy as fuck” to my cynical ears. =[
I am paraphrasing the quote to avoid spoilers, but essentially I am told this will play out like the first season of Higurashi, or at least that’s the impression I got.
As long as sadistic doesn’t mean he’s going endless 8 with the show.
All told as long as the protagonist reverses his course on getting progressively stupider at a very fast rate I think it still has potential to be decent. At the very least the char design is good if not at all unique, so I plan to give it another episode or two. At worst I will consider it an hour wasted looking at pretty pictures.
I went ahead and checked all the shows you gave a first impression for on ANN, and I wholeheartedly agree with your Flying Witch writeup. It’s been a while since Non Non Biyori Repeat finished up, so I’m glad this show came along to fill in that void!