The Beginning – Strike Witches, Natsume Yunjinchou, Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo first impressions…
13 July 2008
Strike Witches: Little girls without pants are terrifying…
Alright, I didn’t want to watch Strike Witches. The trailer made me cringe and poke my eyes out with toothpicks. I can’t handle the little girls without pants! I can’t! I can’t! Give me blood, death, gore, anything but the cute, prepubescent lolis without pants! I mean, the idea, the concept is insanely kickass. In the years preceding WWII (1939, the year it starts actually) aliens attack the Earth! That’s not so cool, but wait! They have magical witches with the power to transform into aircraft! They use magic! They kill the aliens! It’s all very trippy, but I did catch a glimpse, of the five or so minutes that I spent watching the first episode before I closed it to save myself from brain injury, of a girl with an MG-42! I did enjoy the sound of fighter engines and the macabre sound of bullets and antique 1940’s weaponry. But, but, when the cute little girls without pants showed up, I couldn’t, I just couldn’t watch anymore. If they had pants, if they had breasts, if they weren’t just moe, then, well, I’d stick around. But, the pants, the pants, and pantie shots, the cat ears?
Natusme Yunjinchou: Cute…ayakashi?
I like this show, what can I say? I’m a sucker for semi-cute, semi-ordinary protagonists, semi-shunned by society because he has semi-cliche abilities to see Ayakashi. Did I mention that there’s a talking Fortune Cat demon? And that Brains Base (Baccano! love right here!) is doing the animation? When Natsume trips over Nyanko-san’s barriers and the doors burst open in the shrine to release…a fortune cat? I couldn’t help but laugh.
Natsume Yunjinchou looked like a cross between Death Note and Fullmetal Alchemist with a supernatural twist and a slight hint of Mushishi (though I can’t really say because I haven’t finished Mushishi), but it’s pretty different. Natsume inherited his grandmother’s book of ayakashi friends. The first episode (like Jacuzzi) broke that paper-thin barrier between fun and sadness. The one-eyed ayakashi that I thought was just out to kill Reiko, and in turn Natsume, was just lonely, just like Reiko. I thought it was cutest thing in the world, the ayakashi waiting in the rain with a leaf as an umbrella. The show just screams sentimental friendship drama, and y’know, I fell hook, line and sinker for it. God, I hate it when I do that…
And, nyanko-san, oh, nyanko-san…He’s so cute! I want a plushie just like him! Plus, he turns into a giant cat-like ayakashi.
Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo: Bitchy lady in heels solves supernatural mysteries and boss people around…
Yes, that was in fact my first impression. I sort of hated the show for the first fifteen minutes before the plot kicked in. I like the male lead, Izumida, he reminds me of Rock from Black Lagoon and in a way, Ryoko reminds me of a more refined (and infinitely more bitchy) version of Revy, without the badass pistols and the coolness (subverted completely for red nail polish, heals, shopping and bitchiness). The supernatural aspect of the show seems almost superfluous, it can do without it. Are people worried that without supernatural twists, show will be boring? No! I look forward to drab, ordinary, everyday homicide crime thrillers. Supernatural is almost easy, too. Oh, who did this? A ghost. Aha. Coming up with a decent crime thriller might actually involve thinking, I’m not surprised.
That aside, the series seems to run in arcs (reminiscent of Darker Than Black and Mnemosyne) but the first episode left me on a cliffhanger and I want to see how this Ryoko lady survives poison. She also names all of her cases and they sound ridiculous. I like the rivalry between her and the other detective and how there are two, tall, good looking female superintendents in the Metropolitan Police.
The one other thing that I’m wondering about is Izumida’s dream in the beginning of the episode of Ryoko shooting herself in a field of flowers and a white sundress with a Colt .45. Its only the first episode, so, I’ll wait to figure this one out.
Well, that’s about it for now, I’m still waiting on World Destruction, Ultraviolet and Blade of the Immortal. Looking back at it, I’m not so sure why I wanted to watch Birdy again.
>Give me blood, death, gore, anything but the cute, prepubescent lolis without pants!
You sick, psychotic bastard.
You know, if they got rid of the supernatural/sci-fi elements in Ryouko’s Case File’s I’d actually be more keen to follow it. Youire right, whatever happened to good old-fashioned crime stories, goddamnit!