April Anime

Watching: Darker Than Black, Hayate no Goroku, Heroic Age, Rocket Girls, Romeo x Juliet, Toward the Terra
Considering: Claymore, Nodame Cantabile

April is the start of the new anime season in Japan, and thus is the time of year when I scrutinize the first episode of any new series that catches my eye. Last year, the most noteworthy newcomer was Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. There's no such frontrunner this season from what I've seen thus far . . . but that could change in a hurry.

Darker Than Black (Sci-Fi / Action). The usual catalysmic-event-changes-the-world-and-creates-superpowered-people storyline with the characteristically obtuse milieu explication and introduction that I've come to learn is intrinsic to most Japanese entertainment (or at least, the animated kind). In a more heated April lineup, I'd see myself forgetting about this one rather quickly. C-.

Hayate no Goroku (Comedy). Utter nonsense plot. Crazy characters. The epitome of the anime equivalent of a nasty trainwreck - nothing really good comes of watching it, but you can't help but look anyway. D-.

Heroic Age (Sci-Fi /Action). Is it just me, but has the character designer who I first noticed in Infinite Ryvius--and who has left his strong mark on the anime world through the Gundam SEED series--largely run out of new ideas? Virtually every character in this series gives me flashbacks to SEED/Fafner/Ryvius/etc. This sci-fi series has some interest concepts, but they too are plagued by the "haven't I seen you somewhere before?" problem. (Arching laser weapons from Vandread and modular gun pods from Gundam top my list.) A weak series, but in its current company, above average. C+.

Rocket Girls (drama/comedy/slice of life). A slice-of-life plus a small dose of utter nonsensical justification for putting teenage girls into space via light-weight rockets comprises the storyline for what is at the moment my favorite of the season. It's lighthearted, and not very deep, but has the requisite simplistic charm for its genre. A solid B.


Toward the Terra (Sci-Fi / Action). In some ways, this adapted series (originally a series of novels) could be seen as the plotspawn of Darker and Heroic: persecuted superpowered humans + ultra-futuristic milieu. Might amount to something in the end, but at this point its future is uncertain. B-.

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I looked into Claymore after reading a blurb about it on dannychoo.com. It leans a bit too much toward the horror genre than my usual liking, but it has a compelling main. B-.

I've heard good things about Nodame Cantabile, but I haven't been able to bring myself to watch it just yet (as usually happens when I have an issue with the character designs). Nothing like anime to bring out the most superficial qualities in yours truly. NYR.

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More substantial updates on life and career after I massacre my last two final exams. Until then, jaa.

~TJN