PinkuBentoBox

I said last week that I’d post my impressions of some of the stuff that’s started this season which I didn’t originally say I intended to watch. It’s almost inevitable that every season there are one or two series that slip under the radar. In this case there are several, and several of them are very good. Overall when these are added into the mix this is an absolutely excellent season. Covered in this update: Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni, Black Lagoon, High School Girls, Ouran High School Host Club, Inkukami, Magical Pokaan and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni is quite possibly the best series of the season in terms of the quality of the writing. So far only Nana has looked like it could be a contender, but Nana’s strength lies more in dialogue writing than plot writing. Higurashi is probably best described as a psychological thriller, with a little horror in the mix. Fans of Monster and Boogiepop Phantom will be all over this one. At first I wasn’t very interested in it, primarily because the art style isn’t incredibly appealing - the characters have large eyes, small heads and big hair. That aside, once you get a few minutes into it I guarantee you’ll be hooked. The large eyes are actually a useful device as it makes certain changes in the characters’ personality very obvious. The first episode starts out with two girls being beaten to death by someone with a baseball bat (and they look like the main character and the two female leads, unconfirmed at this point). The rest of the episode after that is light and happy, which actually serves to add a very sinister undercurrent to things. Apparently there was a murder in the town many years before, but no one will talk about it - in fact, some of the characters deny anything happens at all. If this all sounds vague and mysterious it’s partially because I don’t really know what’s going on yet myself, and mainly because I’m trying to avoid spoiling things as I suspect that the mystery of the first two episodes will be ruined and that would be a shame.

If all these plot-heavy series are not your thing, and all you want is Guns, Girls with Guns, Explosions, and more Guns, then you’ll want to check out Black Lagoon. This series has ‘License Me’ written all over it so I wouldn’t be surprised to see someone pick it up pretty quickly, as it’s almost guaranteed to do well in the US market. It’s also really good if you like pure action anime. It’s pretty simple really - Rock, a Japanese businessman, is sent to the East China Sea to deliver a disk. However he’s captured by a bunch of mercenary pirates (unfortunately not the YARR MATEY variety ) and ends up falling in with them. The series is loaded with gunfights and explosions, as well as a reasonably hot chick attached to said guns and causing said explosions. She also likes to swear and drink and is thoroughly trigger-happy insane. The first two episodes also feature a helicopter gunship and torpedos. If you like action anime at all, you will definitely want to pick this one up.

High School Girls (or Joshikousei if you prefer) draws a lot of comparisons to Azumanga, and they’re pretty well-founded I guess. The difference here is that this is a much less amusing and more raunchy series, with a heck of a lot of fanservice. And way too much information about just how dirty girls can get. To be honest, it’s not that good, but it’s not that bad either. Decidedly average. Apparently episode 3 may or may not contain rape. If this is true, then I’m probably going to have to slide into the ‘not worth your time’ side of things. Overall it’s pretty stupid and you can get your comedy from other, better series this season.

Inukami is pretty much crap. It has really only got one thing going for it: Yui Horie talking slutty. Other than that it’s a pretty stock, slightly fanservicey anime that probably should never have been produced. It’s also kind of gay, with a lot of male nudity censored by elephant heads. Amusing at first, but eventually it gets really stupid. Art-wise, it’s nothing special. I’m going to go on a little tangent here: what has happened to ecchi anime anyway? A few years ago there were series like Mahoromatic and Konomini and the like which busted out the nipples every two or three minutes. I seriously cannot recall seeing this sort of explicit fanservice since Konomini, Girls Bravo aside (since that was only on the DVDs. Where has it gone? I hate to sound like a gigantic perv, but I’m getting really sick of all these shots where they seem to be trying to hide them in anime from the last few years. Bring back the fanservice, Japan! (and while you’re at it, I want another ecchi series with Poyoyon Rock/Akio Watanabe character designs, like Popotan).

If Inukami is slightly gay, Ouran High School Host Club is very gay. At the same time, it’s also very good. Absolutely hillarious, it’s clearly a series aimed at girls, and is in many respects the spiritual successor to Fruits Basket. Well-written, light comedy with bishounen stereotypes. But where Fruits Basket merely uses those stereotypes, Ouran Host Club takes them to extremes and pokes fun at them while it’s at it. The setup is kind of odd - basically it’s an extremely wealthy school and the main character, Haruhi, is a bit of a bookworm who happens to accidentally destroy an 8 million yen vase. Haruhi is forced to become a member of the Host Club, a bunch of rich guys who entertain rich girls. This setup leads to a huge amount of hillarity.

Magical Pokaan is kind of wierd. I don’t think I’d have even bothered to watch it normally, but the first sub out of ep 1 was done by some of the sADTRW goons that I hang out with on IRC a lot, and they usually don’t sub things that are crap. This is no exception, chronicling the cute, wacky hijinks of a group of unlikely housemates: A werewolf, a vampire, an android and a witch. Pachira the Vampire is easily the highlight here, and I’ll definitely be watching more of it. There’s really not a huge amount to say about this other than that it’s a cute, enjoyable diversion.

I left talking about The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya to the end because my opinion is somewhat controversial and I actually wanted people to read the whole entry rather than write me off as some kind of hater, since this show seems to have picked up an almost religious following. I’m going to be blunt: the first episode is absolutely fucking awful. I don’t care that it was deliberately awful, the fact remains that it was like watching a bad home video, and if I wanted crap cinematography by amateur wannabes then I’d watch Uwe Boll films. I wrote the series off because of this first episode, but was eventually persuaded to give it another go after seeing some images from the second episode, specifically Haruhi Suzumiya herself who I find indescribably attractive. Unfortunately I find I absolutely hate the other characters, especially Mikuru. I loathe whiney voices, and she has to have one of the whiniest out there. Horrible nasal tone. Anyway, despite my initial misgivings, this is a very solid show with extremly good character animation and an interesting set of characters, though I only actually like Haruhi. It is not, however, the Second Coming of Christ like a lot of bloggers and message boards have been making out. While one of the better series of the season for sure, in my opinion it is eclipsed by Higurashi, Nana and Utawarerumono. Eventually people will wake up and realise that it’s not as good as they think. I hope. I think it’s sort of in the right place at the right time for a lot of people. Side note: the above images are from episode 2. Episode 1 is most definitely not a good measuring stick.

One thing is certain: this is the best single season we’ve had in years, I think possibly since 2003, when Last Exile, Stellvia, Scrapped Princess and Gundam Seed were all running simultaneously, along with quite a few other good shows.