Today we have four more series for consideration:
Zettai Leviathan: This story has a classic fantasy feel. I like the deep use of blue and green colors that really gives you a feeling this is set in the past, in the primeval world of perfect purity. The plot is a little iffy right now. Apparently, the Gods make worlds and then see if they are good or bad before deciding whether to destroy them or not, and this world has been slated for destruction and thus an alien menace has been sent down to finish it off. Our heroines must somehow overturn this world's destiny and defy the aliens and the Gods themselves with the power of their magic. I predict a lot of fighting ahead, huh? In any case, the plot and the setting are fine, which leaves only the characters. As for the fairy who speaks devastating lines with an innocent smile, Syrop, you can't help but like her. But the full grown and 'serious' characters of the series are really lacking. I can't get any feel for them at all, they seem more like fictional abstractions than people. Because the characters lack any presence, the series is probably slated for mediocrity. Worth watching for now.
As a side note, the voice acting in Zettai Leviathan is the best in the business -- Syrop is voiced by Kana Hanazawa, Jormungander by Ayane Taketatsu, and Bahamut by Eri Kitamura. When 3/4 of your protagonists come from my 'best anime voices' list the series is worth watching even with your eyes closed.
Namiuchigiwa: Yukari Tamura plays the lead Mermaid, and Mai Nakahara plays an assistant mermaid, so the series really can't go wrong. The humor is a little weird but funny enough. The art is a little weird but the mermaids are attractive so I'll let it go. In truth, the whole series is quite bizarre, but having watched the entirety of Seto no Hanayome, I've gotten used to mermaids being weird and funny. The first episode was only half as long as normal, which is also weird. It's neither a short, five minute series nor a normal length series. I guess that could be a good thing? Another watchable mediocrity.
Shingeki no Kyojin: This series is rather interesting. The art and animation are top class, but it looks like it was made that way just to show off, and for no useful purpose. This reminds me a lot of K, another flashy but terrible series. Still, Shingeki no Kyojin is far superior to K. The characters don't stand around bragging about what utter badasses they are all day. Instead, they complain about how Titans are stronger than humans and how inferior this makes them feel. Various solutions are proffered throughout the episode -- you can get drunk so as to forget about this fact, fight suicidal battles as a hopeless gesture of defiance, try to research an answer that might actually achieve something in the long run, ignore the issue entirely while caring about the here and now, beat up people even weaker than you to make you feel better about being weaker than a Titan, and so on. I can't say the answers these humans have come to about their sad fate are very psychologically healthy. I would try diplomacy and trade. If humans were to make themselves useful to Titans, maybe they would stop bashing down our cities and eating us? Well, it's hard to say how intelligent Titans are, but one thing is for sure they're drawn to look extremely freaky. Titans are horrifying. The artist who drew them is a genius, because I've never seen anything like them before in my life. Most giants look jovial or dumb and menacing, but none of them look eerie and wrong to the eye like these Titans do. Just looking at one is enough to abandon all hope of fighting and just run, no matter what your previous determination was.
It is vital for a main character to have agency, if he can't make any decisions himself because he's powerless to affect the situation, he's not a character but just part of the setting. If he can only make extremely obvious decisions because the situation is totally clear cut, then again he has no character because he can't be differentiated from anyone else on Earth. This was the vital problem in Devil Survivor 2, the characters spent the entire episode just trying to live without having a single debatable decision in the entire thirty minutes of action packed nonsense. Shingeki no Kyojin is the same so far. There are no useful decisions because the Titans are just too strong. Everyone is equally wrong and it doesn't even matter what you think, say, or do, you'll all just end up food on some Titan's platter regardless.
I want Shingeki no Kyojin to get better in the future, because it has potential. Hopefully humans will start finding something useful they can do by, say, episode 2? Otherwise this is going to get very frustrating very quickly.
Gargantia: This is the first anime I've seen this spring that's left me in awe. This is the real deal. This is why anime is so good. This is why new seasons of anime are so exciting. Shows like this or Girls und Panzer always appear out of nowhere and captivate their audiences with fantastic starts, sweeping away the entire rest of the season as a useless afterthought. There isn't anything wrong with this first episode. The art is beautiful, the animation fluid and detailed. The setting is amazing -- a sci fi universe you could actually believe developing in the future that isn't just the present with ray guns but in fact an entirely differently structured society, with the added twist that the 'man from the future' is stranded on a backwards planet from the past. How exciting! It was a great enough story just fighting aliens in outer space, but now you add in culture shock and being stranded away from home and the start of a romance? Wow! Wow!
There's always the possibility that a good beginning will lead nowhere and peter off -- just like Kotoura-san did. Even so, I don't believe this will happen to Gargantia. Gargantia is going to join my top anime rankings, I can feel it already. Everyone should be watching Gargantia.
All four series this time were watchable, 4/4, a perfect 100%. Let's hope the remaining series which haven't aired yet are this good:
Still to come: Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko, Valvrave, Yuyushiki, Aiura, Arata Kangatari, and Joujuu Senjin.
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