| >> | No.45215
File: [FFF] Love Live! - 10 [6FE4919C].mkv-2013-03-18-23h44m44s17.png -(749.1 KB, 1280x720) Thumbnail displayed, click image for full size.
 Amnesia
It was a decent show with a weak ending. Milquetoast protagonist girl has lost her memory and gets thrown through parallel dimensions where she keeps reliving the beginning of August. The world around her is mostly the same, but her relationships with people are always a little different. In each new world, one of the characters becomes her fabulously handsome boyfriend who wants nothing more than to make her happy (it's almost like this was based on an otome game or something), and then she dies some horrible death and gets sent to the next world. In the end there's some weird deus ex machina scene where the fairy king congratulates her on being a good girl and lets her go back to her original world, and there's the implication that she gets to choose which ever guy she wants. They totally cop out and end the series before she picks one, even though it's obvious she's going back to the abusive guy (but he's a really nice guy on the inside!)
The outfits that the characters wear are a bit ridiculous, but they're very distinct and one of the more notable points of the show. The other thing this series does well is silence. The protagonist isn't a real talkative person, and there's lots of awkward moments where she's just standing there with no idea what to say.
Kotoura-san
Great start, gets a bit weak in the second-to-last arc, but recovers for a good ending. Overall, I'd call it a well done retake on the "girl with supernatural power" story. Our psychic protagonist has destroyed her family and alienated everyone around her with her ability to read minds and lack of tact in doing so. However, after transferring schools, she meets Manabe, the hopeless lecher who doesn't care if she can read his mind, and gets drawn into the ESP club, the leader of which is trying to use her to prove the existence of supernatural abilities. Can she maintain her new friends, or will she end up destroying their lives too?
The series as a whole was good, but the arc where they go all Scooby Doo and try to catch the perpetrator who is attacking high school girls didn't even make sense. How was the president going to prove the existence of psychic powers if they were luring the assailant into attacking anyways? Wouldn't catching them in the act eliminate any need of psychic powers to determine their identity?
Love Live!
A very solid idol/school girls trying their best show. The Otonokizaka Academy is going to be phased out of operation unless they are able to attract a high enrollment next year. In order to save their school, three girls get together to form a school idol group with ambitions of entering Love Live!, the national school idol championship. They face various challenges in their attempts to get more members and form an official student organization so they can get a club room, but they eventually get things going and draw a total of 9 girls.
The series is full of singing and dancing and ambitions and high school life. The characters themselves are actually kind of bland, with the sole exception of Nico, the pissy 3rd year who really wanted to be a school idol but got abandoned by everyone else in her club and has spent the last year stewing inside the clubroom, only to see a bunch of upstarts without the first idea of what it takes to be an idol trying to get together their own group. Nico's mild narcissism and insistence of remaining the official leader of the club, despite not really having the personality for it, make the show truly enjoyable to watch.
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai
Overall, I'd call it a decent series. Sasami wants to live the easy life and not be bothered by people, but she also wants to have friends. She begins the series with the power of Amaterasu and gets in wacky adventures either brought about by the power she holds or caused by other gods. There isn't a whole lot of plot continuity between the arcs, some of which are enjoyable, others of which are kind of dumb. In general, the series tends to spend too much time pandering to the otaku/NEET crowd at the expense of content. They built up Sasami's brother as being a character of some importance, but in the end they never actually explained who he was. We did finally get to see his face at least. Based on that, I'm going with him being King Munto until someone comes up with something better. There's also not much resolution on what happened with Sasami's mom.
That being said, the artwork is nice and the opening theme is catchy. The arcs centering around Sasami's conflict with her family are all well done, and the Kagami arc was pretty enjoyable too. It's not what I'd call an amazing series, but it's not terrible either.
Vividred Operation
Magical girl butts: the animation. Following the Nanoha formula to the letter, this series delivers everything it promises. Obviously not for everyone, but personally, I enjoyed it. |