A bit late but better late than never this Spring season has been full of good stuff. Usually I only watch about 50% of the shows in a season, sometimes less. What happens most of the time is I start watching something and I don’t necessarily drop it but I forgot to watch it after 4 episodes or so because I get so busy. Not this time around, this time around the animes are making me HAVE to watch the next episode or else the world would end.
Without further ado here’s the first part of my impressions:
Some of the cute girls of Hatsukoi.
Hatsukoi Limited is anime adaptation based on the manga of the same name. If you think the characters look really familiar to you it’s because it’s by the same creator of Ichigo 100% Kawashita Mizuki. Having read the manga I already knew how the story would play out but hearing the voices of the seiyuus on top of the super cute character designs was enough to K.O. me and make me want more. I liked the style of Kawashita Mizuki as she focus on “koi” which is passionate love and her works have made me feel the energy she is pouring into the characters and story. It is enough to make you wish you had a passionate youthful love life or wish. I will tell you this though: the first couple of episodes will deal with each girl (sorta) and their sepreate first loves however their stories will all merge together in the end.
One thing I liked about episode 1 is how our first heroine Arihara Ayumi said she would go out with anyone who confessed to her because it is romantic and she wouldn’t care how he looked (unlike Enomoto Kei) and then BAM someone confesses to her and it turns out to be none other than Gigantor Delinquent Zaitsu!!! Of course being the shallow girl that she is she does say yes (despite saying so a few minutes ago) because he’s big, mean looking, and not pleasing to the eyes. Even though he is SUCH a nice guy! How shallow and how true. There are a lot of people like that (not just females) and this just goes to show how much we care about looks.
Next:
Natsu no Arashi
What happens when you put the work of the same creator of School Rumble with SHAFT studios? You get…..Natsu no Arashi. However unlike SR I really like the character designs in this series (Arashiyama is super cute) and there’s no super fucking annoying character like Tenma (god how I hate her!).
Natsu no Arashi contains many awesome things: 80’s spy/mystery theme opening, old style Japanese waitresses, Sugita Tomokazu in many rewashed and funny roles, and the abuse of the space time continuum.
Natsu no Arashi is really fun to watch as they abuse time traveling powers for sometimes shenanigans and sometimes quests. The character designs really stand out as the same creator yet are more pleasing to the eyes and the males even vary in design. All in all a jolly good time fun watch show. Oh and the references to different shows/animes in the end are hilarious are you keep on trying to guess which one it is.
Next:
K-ON!
K-ON. Yes yes everyone and their grandmother is watch this show but I like it, it’s entertaining and well done. Another school slice of life series by KyoAni who seemed to have learned a lesson from Kannagi about “teeth moe~”. As of late the series follows the adventures of a group of girls as they try to establish the K-ON club or rather “Light Music Club” and propel the club into the stratosphere and become a band.
It’s kinda funny because in one of the more recent episodes where they found a tape of the old club it sounded more like a epic speed metal club than a light music club. The tape had double bass pedals, shredding and scales, and a metal voice. Yup, definitely light music. Well the 4 characters Ritsu, Mio, Yui, and Tsugumi (Mugi-chan) are all lively and present a lot of comedy material. The OP is happy fast paced song while the ED is hmmm I wouldn’t say darker but just different. All the seiyuus are new and will be propelled to stardom just like most of the KyoAni seiyuus. So that’s my Kyo-Ani show for the season.
Lastly:
Moe Mahjong!
Moe~ + Mahjong = Saki.
It seems like this season is overflowing with moe~ which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Saki follows the exploits of our heroine Saki who just so happens to be a Mahjong Prodigy without knowing it (le gasp!)!. She is forced to play a game of Mahjong and is eventually sucked into the Mahjong world.
I just want to saw I don’t really get Mahjong (yet, I’m working on it) but DAMN!!!! I want me one of the $2000 Mahjong tables! Those things are BOSS. -Ahem-. the characters are all lively and well animated, especially Nodoka…I think those things defy physics. My favorite character has to the president of the club Takei Hisa voiced by the same seiyuu as Hayate’s Hinagiku. She fits that role perfectly and the long skirt just adds to her charm along with her ahoge that pops up. Saki is your typical game/sports genius in that she has latent abilities that must be nurtured but she can kick everyone’s ass! With lighting flashing in the backgrounds and over the top inner monologues and facial expressions. Also lol @ Fukuyama Jun being stuck as one of the only guys in the show. The 1st episode had so much terminology you bad to pause read, think, and re-read if you aren’t familiar with the game.
Will be interesting to see where the show goes.
That’s it for part one, stay tuned for part 2.
