Breaking the Boundary

Title: Kiddy Girl-and
Genre: Science Fiction

Summary: Twenty-five years after Éclair and Lumière, (from the flagship Kiddy Grade series), rescued the galaxy from destruction’s doorstep, the GTO (Galactic Trade Organization), created after the defeat of the GOTT (Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs), act on behalf of universal peace by combating criminal activity. Their special ES division mirrored after the GOTT’s ES (Encounter of Shadow-work) force, now includes publicly acknowledged ES member candidates. The series follows three such trainees, Ascoeur, Q-feuille, and Di-air as they work their way to ES membership. (Wiki)

First Look: Kiddy Girl-and isn’t what most people have tagged it as. Yes, the first 7 or so episodes are simply fan service and to help “get to know the characters”. After watching a few episodes in (on episode 12) there is actually a story-line, a rather good one actually. The series is a sequel to the famous Kiddy Grade, and they do a pretty good job keeping the two related. Kiddy Girl-and takes place in the future, and as the summary says GOTT has now turned into GTO. They did go back into the old GOTT building in the earlier episodes which brought a pretty cool flash-back for anyone who has seen Kiddy Grade. I was happy that the characters didn’t happen to stumble upon the information about Eclair and Lumiere by coincidence, but instead you see them in one of the background. This shows that the anime has some realistic sense to it, and that the new characters are bringing a fresh scene to the organization. The main characters of Kiddy Girl-and Ascoeur and Q-feuille are in a world of their own it seems. They aren’t top rank ES members, and actually just recently graduated from trainee due to complications. I like how the anime is taking you through a growing-up phase like Kiddy Grade, helping the viewer feel more attached to the main characters. As I said before, the first few episodes are purely fan service and comedy, but if you get past the beginning I think it will be worth the watch. There are fillers after the main story line takes shape so be prepared! I don’t see this anime being longer than 24-episodes, so I do hope that they don’t rush the ending because they had too many fillers in between.

Final statements: Kiddy Girl-and is a more comedic version of Kiddy Grade but still shows potential to match its prequel which I enjoyed quite a bit. One can only hope they cut back on fillers and focus more on the main storyline/characters.  On watch.

Title: Ookami Kakushi
Genre: Action, Mystery, Horror, Psychological, Thriller

First Look: When I first heard about this anime I was really looking forward to it. However, after watching it I’m not really sure what to think. I do like the mystery behind the anime, and the fact that they didn’t just give it away in the first 4 episodes. The problem is the character models really. The characters don’t really seem all that great, and most of them are just creepy. I understand the creepiness factor needed for a supernatural, horror, mystery anime but sometimes it just goes to a level of weird that I just don’t want to watch. The other less creepy characters seem normal and are nothing special. I don’t dislike or like any of them, which isn’t such a good thing. I rather I hate a character than feel indifferent if they play a main role in an anime. The art style isn’t that great either, attention to detail seems to be lost in this anime. The backgrounds also seem low budget compared to many I have seen this season. The anime can still take a lot of turns which is great because a mystery shouldn’t be solved so quickly. After watching four episodes of this anime I’m still wondering if I should keep up with it or let this one drop.

Final statements: For a horror, supernatural, mystery I can see this one turning out pretty well. The characters for me aren’t that interesting so it is hard to get attached to the anime. I’m not really sure what to think of this anime, the genre leaves it hard to have a solid opinion in only four episodes. On the fence.

Title: Hanamaru Youchien (Kindergarten)
Genre: Comedy, School Life

Summary: The story follows the life of a young kindergarten teacher Naozumi Tsuchida. He is inexperienced and the only guy kindergarten teacher in the school.  Naozumi struggles to keep his students happy, and get closer to one of his colleagues Nanako Yamamoto. When starting his first day of teaching he runs into a young girl named Anzu, who ends up being his student. Due to a series of events Anzu develops a crush for Naozumi. With the help of Anzu’s classmates Hiragi and Koume quite a few adventures stir up in this little school.

First Look: Hanamaru Youchien is actually one of the funniest animes I have seen this season. Though unexpected, I found myself laughing quite hard Anzu’s attempts to impress Naozumi, and Naozumi’s attempts to impress Nanako. The series is very “cutesy” and not the type I tend to watch, but I have had a change of heart. The little fights or drama that occur really puts a smile on your face. Jokes can range from Anzu trying to be more grown up and “acting like a women” to little things like Anzu struggling to climb up on a table. The support characters always play a role to help Anzu get together with Naozumi. For all of you out there judging the setting of a kindergarten give this anime a chance. I was skeptical at first but I’m actually looking forward to where they take this anime. The series is short and told to be only 12 episodes long, but we’ll see. I can’t really say much about this anime other than it puts a smile on my face. The artwork is average, the soundtrack too.

Final statements: Seems like a pretty solid comedy, and suggest people to at least check it out. It might be for everyone, but it doesn’t hurt to watch an episode or two. On watch.

Name: Sora no Woto
Genre: Slice of Life, Comedy, Sci-Fi

First Look: You can probably tell from the picture, but this anime has a very similar art style as some other famous animes *cough* K-ON *cough*. The art is actually what stood out to me first. The characters themselves are very simply drawn, nothing special. However, the backgrounds and lighting effects were done beautifully. I found myself looking at the mountains, buildings, and sky multiple times throughout the anime, and assume that is what the illustrator was going for. Many of the scenes don’t seem to actually focus on the characters but rather their surroundings (but maybe that’s just me). As I mentioned before the art style of the characters is similar to that of K-ON, but that isn’t the only connection it seems to have. Five members of this squad (all girls), five members of After School Tea Time (all girls). Music plays a large part in Sora no Woto (or should I say Sounds of the Sky), music is K-ON. Even the characters have quite a few resemblances to K-ON. After doing some research, however, there seems to be no staff connections between the two animes.
This being said I am not saying that Sora no Woto is some K-ON knock-off, far from it in fact. With K-ON I tended to have this feeling of only happy-go-lucky times with such minor drama I would consider the anime to have no conflict; Sora no Woto on the other hand seems to have a bigger picture, and the characters each have their own special past. The plot of this anime is very basic: following around a girl named Kanata Sorami who was left alone at a young age due to the raging war. She was inspired by a trumpeter that she met and decided to join the army to learn to play the  bugle. After enlisting into the army she is assigned to a platoon located in Seize (a very peaceful town with no real threat) consisting of Rio Kazumiya, Kureha Suminoya, Noel Kannagi, and Felicia Heideman. I am hoping that each of the character’s pasts are revealed (i.e. why did they join the army?) and where their future leads. The personalities of the squad members are all different, but they fit very well together.

Final statements: The anime has potential to have a pretty solid storyline mixed with a series of comedy and drama. Relationship development has already started between the platoon members, and it’s looking good. I can’t wait to see how everything unfolds. On watch.

Title: Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu
Genre: Comedy, Romance, School Life

First Look: Just got done watching the first subbed episode of Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (man that is a long title to type all the time, from now it is BTS). BTS started off with quite a bang, getting right to the point of the story and a great sense of comedy. The only thing that hasn’t been introduced yet is romance, or at least very little of it. The main character is Akihisa Yoshii who happens to be … a complete idiot. When taking the placement exam that determines what class the student is put into, he received one of the lowest scores. After being enrolled in such a horrific, broken, frankly disgusting class he wanted to take action! Not exactly to study for better grades or to change his future, but to help a cute girl that happened to get enrolled in the same class because she was sick. Hey motivation is motivation right? I don’t want to give away too much, but the title says it all, Idiot to test to summoned creature. Like I said, taking a first look at this anime I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

Final statements: I am going to keep a track on this anime, already have it bookmarked and everything. Please expect a full review once the season is over. On watch.