The 'gem' of the fall season?
18 October 2007
It’s been a while, not a very long while, just a while. First marking period ends this Friday and it’s getting a bit harry, tests, grades, projects, parent teacher conferences and all that jazz. And, my forensics’s season started and the novices are doing better than me. That’s a problem right there.
Anyways, I finally found time to catch up on the new fall season shows, I’m pleasantly unimpressed by a lot of things. Impz, over at T.H.A.T. Animeblog, has crowned Ghost Hound as the gem of the fall season . Am I willing to be to differ? I sure hope so.
Gundam 00, the surefire blockbuster hit of the fall season, hit the ground running early, leaving praise and hatred in its wake. I’m not too sure what to make of Dragonaut yet, but the sheer amount of breasts in the first episode alone left with me a totally “Wtf?” impression.
I was so looking forward to the first episode of Juushin Enbu, only to be bitterly disappointed. The animation was solid, but the story and the characters were so bland. Taitou, the protagonist, is seriously just Edward Elric with black hair and the same headstrong, arrogant, foolish personality. Laila is looking like a dark haired version (well, Chinese people aren’t exactly blond) of Winry, with a squeakier voice and even more melodrama.
In all honesty, Hero Tales is just lacking that element of presentation. The story is actually pretty good: seven stars reincarnated as humans, some mystical King Arthur-esque sword thing going on with some military oppression in the backdrop, with a cast of indecently good looking Arakwa characters. Remember Claymore? How terribly cliche Claymore actually was, but also how terribly amazing the presentation was, the way the story flowed and carried itself so that somewhere along the way you were fooled into thinking otherwise? Yeah, that’s exactly what Hero Tales is missing. I’m still going to see the entire series through, I’m still waiting to be impressed.
Surprisingly, I’m really enjoying Night Wizard. It’s blatantly obvious that it’s game based, they had a party to celebrate the formation of the party. I loved it, though. The whole affair just has a good natured feel to it. Hiiragi, the main character, just really wants to go to school, but his attempts are constantly foiled by his boss, Anzelotte. And, he’s pretty cute for what it’s worth, that’s always a plus. I’m not expecting anything big from Night Wizard except for some random, monster slaying, world saving action.
Looking at the shows so far and how I haven’t seen Ghost Hound yet, I’m willing to pin the title on Rental Magica. I wasn’t knocked off my feet by the first episode, in fact, it felt like lukewarm water. The premise was good, the character designs were good, the animation was good, but it wasn’t anything striking (I have a thing for things that are striking, heh). I watched the second episode today and well, what can I say? It was a step up, a big step up, such a big step that I’m willing to call it the gem of the fall season.
Cmon! It was cute! Icc-chan is so helpless and so scared, and so adorable with that eye patch and so terrified of everything. He reminds me of Jacuzzi from Baccano! So scared, yet so noble and righteous and self-sacrificing. The second episode really dove into the relationship between Honami and Itsuki and it played out beautifully. I’m not expecting big, big things from Rental Magica, I’m just hoping for a good, solid series.
Well, the fall season has some big shoes to fill, replacing shows like Darker Than Black and Gurren Lagann. Regardless, it’s not even past the third episode yet and Gurren Lagann didn’t really have me tied up in knots until episode eight. Darker Than Black had me at hello, but that was only because Hei was gorgeous. In any case, I wait, I wait, if digging up gems were so easy, they wouldn’t be that valuable anymore…
i loved rental magica too. not sure y but rental magica reminds me of chrno crusade. i can only hope that rental magica attempts to be as good as chrno crusade, and remember how chrno crusade got very very very dark towards the end? that would be awesome for rental magica. aah… and i have fallen inlove with honami… plus how cool is that awesome broom?
I’d also pegged Rental Magica as one of the better series this season, but wasn’t sure if I liked it enough to watch the 2nd episode. Thanks to your recommendation I will give it a shot. So far I like Bamboo Blade (I like sports anime, though). I was excited for Shion no Ou, but the first ep was uneven.
So far Spring 07 blows Autumn out of the water. There’s no comparison.
“Cmon! It was cute! Icc-chan is so helpless and so scared, and so adorable with that eye patch and so terrified of everything. ”
Seriously? I didn’t really like that, because you can see potential in him to do some great things, but he’s not really trying. It annoys me.
I can’t really call series “gems” after just 1/2 episodes in (it feels shortsighted to me), but I really like Sketchbook and Minami-ke in terms of new series.
@kauldron – XD The broom is pretty wicked. I find it funny that she draws her powers from mistletoe, but that just shows how hardcore Rental Magica is about actually getting the magical things right. A lot of research went into that show, from what I can tell.
@reslez – I’m not really big on sports anime, I tried Prince of Tennis and stuff, but it never really gets me. There was that baseball manga that I really like, I forgot what it was called. But I checked out Bamboo Blade and it really wasn’t my thing. For me, Rental Magica looks best right now, relative to all the other shows. And, yeah, Spring 07 blows everything out of the water. Gurren Lagann > Life.
@TheBigN – Really? Well, I guess that’s the eventual character development, Icc-chan actually doing something. The thing that made me peg Rental Magica as the ‘gem’ of this season was probably Itsuki. I know what you mean about how he’s not trying, but he does, he doesn’t look it, but he does try, a lot and very hard.
I don’t even really look for ‘gems’, but the season felt incredibly disappointing, I almost needed justification to keep watching some of these shows. It’ll be interesting, though, to see if I still agree when the shows are over. XD
Well, this may be a bit late, but I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one thoroughly enjoying for Rental Magica. Icc-chan might not be the strongest of characters right now, but he positively screams ‘potential character development.’ As you said, it’s probably not going to be anything stellar–just very solid. And with how few new shows have really grabbed me this season, I’m happy to have something like Rental Magica.
@Erin – =D! I know, when you start with a meek and mild character like Icc-chan you know that some serious character development is going to happen. Especially since he’s already given us a glimpse of his power, back in episode one when he takes off the eye patch. He almost reminds of Simon from Gurren Lagann (alright, fine, everything reminds me of Simon), but Simon, way back when, use to be just as meek and just as mild and look how he turned out!
And I know what you mean, it’s always good to have a show like Rental Magica to fall back on when things like Night Wizard or Dragonaut take a turn for the worst.