• Title: Skip Beat!
• Studio: HAL Filmmaker
• Genre: Shoujo Rom-Com

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥½
• Animation: ♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥
• Overall: ♥♥♥

Thoughts:
This is one of my most anticipated series this season because I’m a big fan of the manga: Skip Beat!, the tale of an average girl (Kyouko Mogami) dating a newbie superstar (Sho Fuwa) until she overhears him talking about how he only keeps her around for convenience (she covers his rent, cooks, and cleans for him). At that point she flings the food that she brought for Sho at his head, dumps him, and swears she’ll get revenge. And her first step is? A makeover! She cuts her long black hair short and dyes it blonde, and apparently gets some new clothes as well.

You see, when she assaulted Sho, he had her dragged off by security, and he said that if she wanted revenge on him she’d have to enter the entertainment industry. So Kyouko is going to do her best to become as big a celeb as Sho– who ranks at #7 on the top male celebs list (to his anguish).

Let’s see…the voice acting is great, with Marina Inoue (Gurren Lagann’s Yoko, Toshokan Sensou’s Iku Kasahara) playing Kyouko and Mamoru Miyano (Death Note’s Light, Gundam 00’s Setsuna F. Seiei) voicing Shou. Not to mention that Ren Tsurugu– #1 on the top male celebs list and clearly someone we’ll see again since he appears a few times in this first episode –is voiced by Katsuyuki Konishi (Gurren Lagann’s Kamina, Blood+’s Hagi).

The animation is pretty meh in quality. While on the one hand it could be nicer, on the other it gives me hope that this will be a longer anime. There are about 129 chapters of Yoshiki Nakamura’s Skip Beat! manga to date, and it’s still ongoing, so there’s plenty TO animate…and ideally I hope to see a good solid 52 episodes or so, with a break afterwards if necessary for Nakamura to produce more of the story. Though I’ll be reasonably content as long as it doesn’t just try to cram as much of the story into 26 episodes and make up its own ending. Judging by the first episode pacing, I don’t think that’s what they’re going for…only time will tell, since the website offers no information on how long the show will be.

The OP is so-so, the ED is pretty cool. (Why do I always seem to like ED themes better than OPs?) The ED is by 2BACKKA, which kinda reminds me of something by Home Made Kazoku, maybe that Naruto Shippuuden ED?

All in all, a solid shoujo series with a strong main character (yay!). I hope some of you guys won’t be too female-phobic to check it out, because at least in terms of the manga, it’s really a great series in its own right regardless of demographic, IMO.

• Title: Kyou no Go no N
• Studio: XEBEC
• Genre: Slice of Life/Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥
• Animation: ♥♥½
• Characters: ♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥½
• Overall: ♥♥¾

Thoughts:
Okay, the Kyou no Go no Ni (Today in Class 5-2) TV anime is in the unenviable position of arriving some years after a really excellent OVA adaptation of the same manga (by Minamike’s Koharu Sakuraba). The OVA clearly had a higher budget (per episode, anyway), and also had more flexibility to showcase the occasionally ecchi lives of middle schoolers. (It’s not so much ecchi in a fanservice-y way as it is ecchi in that middle schoolers are curious about and generally pretty ignorant of all things sex-related, and therefore it’s a topic that comes up a lot.)

Anyway! As with the OVA, the anime episodes are broken up into chapters. It opens with the same one the OVA opened with, featuring Aihara (a calm and collected-type of girl) with a wiggly tooth, which she likes to bite things with for the time being…and her new favorite thing to bite is Ryouta, our mostly-protagonist. Following that is the “Super Balls” story, in which Ryouta and his friend Kouji compete over which one has a rubber ball that will fly the highest, to the dismay of their female classmates who are inadvertantly hit by the balls– Yuki and Natsumi.

The third story is one that I believe doesn’t exist in the manga, in which Ryouta and Kouji play broom-guitar and are hassled by Yuki and eventually joined by another character, Chika. And finally, we end with the “Rain” story, featuring Ryouta wedged between Chika and Natsumi, sharing their umbrella.

In and of itself, the show is decent…but it doesn’t come off looking very good compared to the OVA, figuratively or literally. The visuals are less distinct (see above), and oddly enough, so are the voices…the TV series features an entirely different cast from the OVA, and I find that Chika, Natsumi, and Yuki have relatively indecipherable voices.

Also, the designs have changed so thoroughly…they’re both more like Sakuraba’s original look (in terms of the characters looking younger) and less like it (in terms of the style just being less detailed in general). It feels like the colors are sort of washed out, and some of the characters have changed in appearance as well. Ryouta’s friend Kouji has blonde hair in the OVA, and their other friend Tsubasa is black-haired…in the TV series the two have swapped hair colors. (I’m not sure which way it is in the original manga.)

It’s hard to say this early on how much the ecchi will be lightened up, especially since it depends in some part on which stories they animated. From the look of the next episode they’re keeping in the one with Ryouta and Natsumi locked in the PE storage closet together, which has its unintended (by the participants) dirty moments…but will they keep, for example, the “Collar Bones” story, in which Ryouta insists that a true connoisseur of women is more interested in their collar bone than in their breasts? Or the “Flip” story, in which the kids discuss their various theories on skirt-flipping-up (which, of course, contains some shots of said act)?

Hard to say. All in all…it’s more Kyou no Go no Ni, which is yay! But on the other hand, so far it isn’t as…I guess the best way to put it is that it simply isn’t as strong as the OVA; everything feels somewhat watered down. It just remains to be seen if it’s been watered to the point of not being interesting enough.

But I guess the important thing to tell you folks who haven’t seen it is: if the idea of middle schoolers talking about anything sex-related or perverse creeps you out, you shouldn’t watch it (or have kids). For the rest of you, it’s still pretty funny, even if it’s not as good as the OVA (so far).

• Title: Kuroshitsuji
• Studio: A-1 Pictures
• Genre: Horror/Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥
• Animation: ♥♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥½
• Overall: ♥♥♥½

Thoughts:
Kuroshitsuji is the tale of a boy named Ciel Phantomhive living in Victorian England. His parents are dead, leaving him alone…except for his house staff. That staff includes the klutzy maid Meirin, accident-prone gardener Finian, pyromaniac chef Bard, tea-drinking steward Tanaka, and of course, the attractive and talented butler, Sebastian Michaelis– the “demon butler” (literally).

I expected the show to be little more than fluff with elegant gothic visuals, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it’s a nice dark comedy with a touch of supernatural/horror incorporated in. (One particular moment is much more gruesome than I would have expected, actually.)

That said, defeating low expectations doesn’t an amazing show make: it’s attractive and some of the moments are amusing, but thus far there’s been nothing to set it apart from other comedies this season, except perhaps the unusual juxtaposition of (occasional) slapstick comedy and elegant gothic sensibilities.

Maaya Sakamoto as the young Ciel Phantomhive is a lot of fun– Sakamoto has played boyish women before (Ouran High School Host Club’s Haruhi Fujioka; Hellsing’s Rip Van Winkle), but she hasn’t played many boys. (The only obvious one I can find she’s performed is Kyle in Rune Factory 2.) She comes across excellently.

That said…these are characters you’ve seen before. The clumsy, bespectacled, none-too-bright maid with a crush on Sebastian (voiced by Kagamin, a.k.a. Emiri Katou)? You’ve seen it. The chef kinda reminds me of a sillier Final Fantasy VII’s Cid. And Finian is, well, every maladroit secondary character you’ve ever seen.

They’re reasonably amusing, but I find myself more interested in seeing Ciel and particularly Sebastian get comedically shaken up– but given that they’ve both been established as the intelligent characters, I don’t know if we’ll actually see that. I can hope.

Let’s see…solid visuals, good acting, decent story and characters…oh yes! Also, while I found the OP rather meh, the ED was pretty cool.

All in all? Better than expected, even good…but I don’t know if I’ll follow it for long.

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥½
• Animation: ♥♥♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥½
• OP/ED Themes: N/A (my copy had no op or ed, though it looks like they might have just cut off the ed?)
• Overall: ♥♥♥½

Thoughts:
Casshern awakens to a dank, dark world run by robots that are all falling apart. They also have gotten it into their heads that if they devour Casshern, they will become immortal. Casshern kicks some ass and takes no names, and only learns his own name from their battle cries: “Kill Casshern! Devour Casshern!” After that he comes upon a childlike robot named Ringo who asks Casshern if he’s human, because he’s so pretty. Casshern isn’t sure himself. He protects Ringo from another robot, but the viciousness of his attack scares Ringo away– giving Casshern one of his first memories: a human girl, crying. And thus begins his quest to find his memories, etc.

Right-o, then! For those of you who enjoy that feel of old-school design mixed with new-school animation, Madhouse presents: Casshern Sins! Based loosely on the 1970s anime Casshern, the series focuses on the titular Casshern, a cyborg– not quite human, not quite robot, and…well, so far we’ve got two other presumably main characters who’ve appeared: Luna, in Casshern’s memories, and an unnamed presumably robotic guy in a cloak.

This is the kind of show that I’m more interested in for the story than for the characters so far. Casshern is sort of a blank slate and we know barely anything about the other two. I don’t think Ringo will be a recurring character, either.

I don’t want to explain more about why I’m interested in the series, because a lot of the information that I have from researching the show isn’t yet offered up in the episode, and I’m trying to stick to an “if-it’s-not-in-the-first-ep-don’t-mention-it” stance. (Sidenote: it worries me when that happens. Doesn’t it mean they’re giving away more than they should in promo materials? And no, this isn’t stuff taken from the original; the story’s really quite different from the 1970s anime.)

Excellent visuals, wish my copy’d had the OP and ED so I could talk more about the audio…it’s rather stark throughout the episode, with no or very quiet music during the dialogue– presumably that’s intended to match the desolation of the landscape.

All in all, I’d say this is a must-watch for fans who like a sci-fi setting (but not necessarily a heavy sci-fi show, i.e. scientific detail is thus far minimal).

• Title: Hyakko
• Studio: Nippon Animation
• Genre: Slice of Life / Comedy

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥♥½
• Animation: ♥♥♥♥
• Characters: ♥♥♥½
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥♥½
• Overall: ♥♥♥½

Thoughts:
Ayumi starts her first day at a swanky private school, but gets separated from her classmates and then lost on the enormous campus. She manages to find another one of her classmates, Tatsuki– who may be a liiittle stuck-up –but it turns out that she, too, is lost, even though she’s been going to the same school for ten years (it’s a middle school as well as a high school). Then the two are jumped, literally, by the feisty Torako and the silent but strong Suzume. They search high and low for their classroom, and are barely able to find it by the end of the school day, let alone before the next class begins.

So, yes, the entire first episode is a search for the classroom. Don’t worry, though: getting to know these characters is more than enough to keep you amused. There’s nothing particularly new about any of them, but the interactions are strong. I don’t think this is going to be the next Azumanga Daioh though, even setting aside that it isn’t a gag series like AzuDai. The humor is healthy but not unpredictable or impressively-timed.

But I’d like to note that it’s nice to see Aya Hirano constantly earning roles that are different– in this case, she plays the shy, cute Ayumi, who sounds completely different from the fierce Haruhi, or the quietly confident Chiko (in Nijuu Mensou no Musume). That said, I had to remind myself when the show was over that she was in the show: Hirano doesn’t make her stand out. But her character isn’t really supposed to stand out, so no worries there. The other seiyuu are solid, including Fumiko Orikasa (Bleach’s Rukia) as the ferocious Torako– you’ll barely recognize her.

The visuals are solid, and the OP and ED are catchy (though neither really grabbed my attention). All in all it’s a pretty enjoyable slice-of-life comedy and I’d definitely be interested in watching the rest.