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Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Fall 2023 Anime First Impressions: Part 1

S-rank Musume:  When you're all-powerful, the least you could do is get yourself good working conditions, whether as a freelancer or with an understanding boss.  The fact that she hasn't managed that makes her an idiot or a sucker.  Fail.

Ojou to Banken-kun:  This guy has no right to prevent his ward from finding romance in high school.  He also has no right to beat up, threaten, doodle on people, smoke, or feel the girl up regularly.  Everything about him is annoying.  It's a Stockholm Syndrome tragedy that she likes him.  Fail.

Sousou no Frieren:  Like Cross Game, it only took one episode to make me cry, even though I'd read the manga and knew what was coming already.  Himmel reflecting on his tragic life in such a contented and grateful manner is impossible to reconcile.  The love of his life didn't even think of him for fifty years (when she did it was only because she needed a shadow dragon horn for a spell and remembered he happened to have one), and only missed him after he died, when it was all too late.  Frieren repenting that decision is what the rest of this series is about.  The first episode is so beautiful, epic, pure and perfect you can already tell this will be a great anime.  The Celtic music matches the fantasy Medieval Europe.  The art style is detailed and gorgeous.  This adaption is worthy of its source.  Once all 24 episodes have aired the sky's the limit for how high it will actually rank in my pantheon, but for now it proudly starts at #199.  Pass.

Ragna Crimson:  It was an excellent and emotional first episode, but where can it go from here?  Either the hero is too strong and all the dragons are wiped out easily, or he's too weak and the dragons destroy the world.  There's no leeway in the story where anything interesting can occur.  Where are the decisions that can be traced in this story?  Everything is already decided.  Let's see what the second episode does.  Pass.

Megumi no Daigo - Kyuukoku no Orange: This was a good and realistic take on the strenuous physical and mental preparation it takes to be an effective firefighter.  It's certainly a dangerous and demanding job, but most of the time you sit around doing nothing, and lives are rarely actually in peril.  Since the first episode already showed a cataclysmic scenario with half the city burnt down, where can the show go from here?  It can't realistically have a new disaster every episode, humanity would perish in such a world.  Yet again I see a show that would make for a good single episode but very difficult to extend further.  Yet again we'll just have to see how they manage things from here.  Pass.

Shangrila Frontier:  A series that's intentionally ugly for the sake of 'humor,' though I don't think ugly things are intrinsically funny and I'm not sure who these other people are who think it is.  Also it's about a boring guy who plays bad games for fun who is, for no good reason, liked by a cute girl but as usual is too dense to notice.  This is about as trash as it gets.  Fail.

Boushoko no Berserk:  In a dumb world where evildoers can openly do evil all day and never get punished for it, a weak person awakens to a grand new power that can let him sweep all before him, but because it's a power looked down upon by society he has to hide it from them or maybe destroy the world to preserve himself or something.  Basically power fantasy crap.  Fail.

Shy:  I tried reading this manga and I got bored and quit, but anime has higher production value than manga, so maybe it will work as an anime.  I don't like these cripplingly incapable shy people, I don't think they exist in real life, and I don't like exaggerating characteristics for comic effect either.  I just want real stories about real people in fictional worlds.  Pass.

I'm in love with the villainess:  Another series where people's characters are exaggerated for comic effect.  I guess this time it's forgivable since the story really is a comedy.  It feels like the running gag will get old pretty quickly, but it'll do as a first episode.  Pass.

Toaru Ossan VRMMORPG Katsudou:  Another boring series about someone else playing a generic and not even good game.  Why would I watch someone else play a game when I could just play a game myself?  Fail.

Seiken Gakuen no Makentsukai:  The girls are good looking and the magical combat is exciting, so it will serve.  I'm not very fond of the overpowered child protagonist, honestly I feel like the whole story is chuunibyou and meant for chuunibyous, ie 14 year old boys in Japan, but not all shows have to be high art.  Pass.

Kamierabi:  The series itself said it was bad so I quit immediately.  CG crap anyway.  Fail.

Konyaku Haki blah blah Ikenai blah blah:  It's never acceptable to threaten suicide in order to get someone else to do something you want.  Fail.

16bit Sensation:  A beautiful girl who refers to herself in the third person named Konoha is full of dreams working in her dream industry of bishoujo games.  She recites with passion the wonders of Kanon and Ayu's 'uguu' catchphrase.  She tries her best to post her art to the internet and works at a small company but none of it gets her closer to what she really wants, to make a game like the old greats.  It turns out the only way to truly fulfill her dream is to time slip back to 1992 where people were still willing to work on great games and buy great games, so a deity of some sort compassionately sends her there.  I hope Konoha enjoys herself, she's earned it, and I'm looking forward to the game she makes.  Pass.

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