12-Sai: If this is the beginning of the 6th year of elementary school, the characters should all be 11 year olds, not 12. That's really annoying when the story otherwise is trying to stick to realism. Nevertheless, it's a cute story full of cute girls, sparkles, bubbles, blushes, flowers, etc. I do think the boys are unrealistically mean but whatever. Pass.
Sakamoto desu-ga: The idea that if you were just cool enough bullying wouldn't be an issue is a blame the victim mentality. It does nothing to solve the major problem that is school bullying, statistically shown to be a more traumatic and damaging event towards a child's later adult life than even child abuse. In fact, it's probably far more damaging than rape, or gang rape, or anything you could throw at a child. The bullying trumps all of it because it is continuous and comes from everywhere, so there's no escape and no release from the ever-present-danger. School bullying is not a laughing matter. This just isn't funny. The only story that needs to be written about school bullying is a story that says it needs to stop, right now. Fail.
Tanaka-kun wa Itsumo Kedaruge: Laziness is okay. Laziness to the point of inconveniencing others is not okay. Nor would anyone in the real world be willing to accommodate it like they do in this anime. Fail.
Kuromukuro: P.A. Works could be making Shirobako Season 2 right now instead of this dumb mecha action series. Still, the art and animation are top class, and there's been enough humor to act as a good hook to get us interested in the characters and the setting. It could be worse. Pass.
Kiznaiver: Another story about tolerating intolerable school bullying. What is with Japan? Those people should be prosecuted for 1,000 counts of assault and put in jail for life. Actually they should be executed. But instead the teachers look the other way and nothing is done at all? Absolute bullshit. Oh, and the art style sucks too. Fail.
Hai Furi: It had a slow start but an exciting finish. The girls are very cute, and the military setting is fun. I have no idea what's going on but I'm sold on it for now. Pass.
Flying Witch: Beautiful, heart-warming and funny. This would be the perfect anime, except that I feel like Netoge Yome that it's already played out all its cards and subsequent episodes couldn't possibly live up to this one. There's really nothing more to the story than what's been shown. Slice of life is great and all, but I fear it will get downright dull by the twelfth episode. We'll just have to see if they can keep this interesting. Pass.
Sansha Sanyou: This series has way too high an animation budget for a show about three girls talking in a circle together. However, the girls are cute and nice and the situation is somewhat funny so it'll do for now. Pass.
Still to come -- Wagamama High Spec and Big Order. But 12-sai's second episode is coming out before either of those shows' first, so we'll have to cover the remaining two in a part 3 or else this will no longer be a 'first' impressions post. A pretty good pass/fail rate of 5:3. So far we have 21 airing shows to watch for the season. This would be a great achievement if it were at the end of the spring season, but it'll probably winnow down a lot before then. For now it's just average. The winter season produced three new great anime, so let's hope spring can do the same and at least maintain par.
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