• Title: D.C.II ~Da Capo II~
• Studio: feel
• Genre: Romance

Ratings (out of 5):

• Story: ♥♥

• Animation: ♥♥♥
• Character Design: ♥♥♥
• OP/ED Themes: ♥♥
• Overall: ♥♥ (Once was enough for me.)
  

Thoughts:
Blah blah, don’t like shounen romance blah, blah blah blah blah.

Da Capo II is pretty cute. I have way more interest in the “mysterious hidden stairs” than the female lead (or at least, the girl who the male lead agrees to date in the first episode). I also have way more interest in the dude’s hot sisters than in the female lead. The younger one in particular is pretty yummy.

Other than that, it’s pretty standard fare. Normal guy, cute shy girl, bit of magic, bit of mystery, and a lot of classic romantic character archetypes. I think I’ll just move along…

No, not the Drew Barrymore flick. And not really 50, either, but I’ve got a nice pile of first episodes to watch, and I’m going to try to get through them all today. And ideally, I’ll write up all of my first date posts for them today too. I have Blue Drop, Myself;Yourself, Clannad, Da Capo II, Gundam 00, Night Wizard, and Kaiji. And I’m all in marathon mode too, thanks to a Heroes marathon yesterday.

So, time to get crackin’!

So the absolute first October to be subbed was Da Capo II, followed by Myself;Yourself and Clannad, all of which I’m putting off. (I’m sure I’ve mentioned that the dating sim/eroge-to-anime is not my favorite genre.)

So, that makes MY first show of the fall Dragonaut: The Resonance.

Title: Dragonaut -The Resonance-
Studio: Gonzo
Genre: SciFi/Mech

Ratings (out of 5):
Story: ♥♥
Animation: ♥♥♥♥
Character Design: ♥♥♥
OP/ED Themes: ♥♥
Overall: ♥♥♥ (No kiss this date, Dragonaut, but maybe next time…)

Thoughts:
My absolute first impression of the show is that Gonzo wanted to make their own Code Geass. The main character is a disgruntled teenage boy with a slight sister fixation who’s lost his family. He meets a strange girl with weird powers who saves his life. And judging from the OP and next episode preview, they’re setting up for a bit of a rivalry between him and his childhood friend. The show also has a bunch of sci-fi going on in the background, and is clearly going to be a large-cast kind of deal.

But this first episode feels a bit clumsily put together. I mean, first off, in one episode we are introduced to twelve characters, many of whom don’t even get names, let alone motivations in the first episode. (And there are still a few in the opening sequence we’ve yet to meet, too.) On top of that the audience is still trying to put a finger on what exactly is happening, which leaves the whole thing a bit muddled. If the show gets enough time I think it can work out this problem, but woe betide if this is some 12-14 episode series that rushes through everything in a panic (which was, I think, the key issue with Jyu Oh Sei).

The character designs also feel a bit off. They all clearly are attempts to make the characters stand out and look distinct, but many of them just feel a little weird– like the scientist who can’t be bothered to take her lab coat off but when a flirty reporter asks her to but who wears a super-crazy low cut blouse, or the “ojou-sama” character who has bangs that are half purple (the bottom half). In fact, the only design that really feels solid to me is heroine Toa’s. And may I also say that it’ll be nice to hear Minori Chihara play a role that doesn’t sound exactly like Yuki from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (even if she only gets like, what, one line in the whole episode?).

I think the show has a lot of promise in its story and characters, so if Gonzo can relax a bit with the pacing and let us get to know the world they’ve created and the people who live in it, this might be a pretty fine show.