Several of the fansub groups have released their share of picks and I’ve been able to watch a few of them. I might be able to do a couple of posts or so regarding series overviews, but I won’t be blogging episode summaries of any of the Winter 2007/2008 anime series since I’ll most probably only be able to watch them at a much later time. If you’d like to read the episode summaries, kindly check out my blogroll for a few links out to the other anime blogs I frequently visit (they watch the raws and they’re amazingly quick on doing the episode recaps!).
Anyway, getting back on track, here’s a quick first impression on some of the Winter 2007/2008 anime series that I’ve seen. I know I’m way late on the first impressions, but here it is anyway. ;P
In this post: (1) Rosario + Vampire, (2) H2O ~Footprints in the Sand, (3) Ookami to Kishenryou [Spice and Wolf], (4) Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de [They are my Noble Masters], (5) Persona -trinity soul-, (6) Hatenkou Yuugi, (7) True Tears, (8) Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei, (9) Minami-Ke: Okawari, (10) Shigofumi.
Okies… off to the impressions!
Rosario + Vampire
More info – Official Site: Anime, Manga
The main guy character ends up attending a Yokai school due to a chance circumstance his father encountered on his way home one late night. The lead guy character (whose name escapes me) thinks he’s so lucky meeting a cute girl on his 1st day at school. She introduces herself as Moka, a vampire. I was wondering why the heck a vampire wears a cross pendant, it turns out that it’s her amulet which when removed from her necklace, allows her to turn into the scary badass vampire she really is (which was pretty cool to see). I was quite amused with the canned juice drink with the little can opener… I’ve never seen one before, haha.There are awfully loads of fanservice on this one. Moka had pantsu shots throughout the entire episode. In any case, when a vampire bites a person, you either die or turn into one, right? I wonder how much bites that guy can take ~chu. 😛
- Watch it? – Nope. As much as I liked watching TV series like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, this one just isn’t my cup of tea.
H2O~Footprints in the Sand~
More info – Official Site: Anime, Visual Novel
The story seemed a bit unique where the lead male character, Takuma, is blind due to certain circumstances. I think he has his own harem here, one girl is all tsun-tsun, another is nice but kind of a pushover, the other says she is a spirit. I read a few reviews and first impressions before I got to watch the subbed version. In the words of Totali: “You’ve got a blind protagonist that totally violates chicks with his walking stick, and he gets away with it because of his disability.” [ Lol @ walking stick to violate chicks. xD ] It was even funnier when I saw it (though I think it’s not supposed to be funny, but I did laugh. Sorry). The animation was ordinary. The story was not too engaging for me.
- Watch it? – No.
Ookami to Kishenryou
More info – Official Site
Also known as Spice and Wolf.
The OP lyrics seems appropriate, but the music sounded a bit dramatic. I liked the ED quite a bit. It was cute along with the sequence. The animation was quite plain and the story was so-so. Craft Lawrence meets Horo (the wolf-girl goddess of harvest) who asks him to let her travel with him. Definitely nothing epic about it, but it seems quite interesting story-wise.
- Watch it? – Probably. I’ll watch a couple more episodes to determine watchability.
Kimi ga Aruji de Shitsuji ga Ore de
More info – Official Site
Also known as They are my Noble Masters or KimiAru.
Another fanservice-y series. The intro (what’s a butler? Blah, blah) totally gave me Hayate no Gotoku vibes with the similarity of the sequence. I think I’d rather keep watching HnG than this, though. The only thing I liked here was the panda puncher thingy. It was cute! I want one!
- Watch it? – No.
Persona – trinity soul-
More info – Official Site
It was kinda gross, kinda weird and kinda cool. I haven’t touched any of the Persona games though, so I was confused and left with a big “huh?” with the stuff that’s happening, especially the ghost-like thingy that seems to be some sort of other “identity” that they possess (it’s called a “persona,” right? Apologies for my ignorance). Reading some background on the games on wikipedia doesn’t help me that much either (it seems so complicated by simply reading it without the visuals). Watching the first episode left me more confused and with more questions than when I watched Darker than Black back in spring 2007 (don’t get me wrong, I got confused at first but I liked DtB a lot). It seems interesting, though, and I’m curious with how those personas came about, and how/why Shin and his brother have one, so I think I’ll be watching on.
- Watch it? – Yes. I’m curious. I need some answers.
Hatenkou Yuugi
More info – Official Site
Also known as Dazzle.
Initially, the synopsis sounded nice. I thought it was quite interesting, but after seeing episode 1, I changed my mind. The storytelling is not that good. It seems a bit rushed and feels like it lacks continuity. Maybe they assume that we know the background story? Rahzel was kicked out of the house just like that, lacks explanation and emotion. The encounter with the silver-haired bishounen lacked impact, I don’t know why he was convinced to join her travels anyway when she didn’t sound convincing at all. As for the other guy, he just appeared in one scene and it seems they all know each other? I’m lost. Neither the characters nor the story dazzled me at all.
- Watch it? – No, thank you.
True Tears
More info – Official Site
I liked the OP (“Reflectia” by eufonius). It had a nice upbeat melody. This series has really nice colors and a pretty good animation. The tree scene with the short-haired girl was pretty cool, with the sun’s rays shining through the leaves and a nicely colored sky. The story was alright, it made sense. The ED (“Sekai no Namida” by Aira Yuki) was okay, I especially liked the ED sequence with the cast in chibi mode seemingly chasing the chickens.
- Watch it? – So far, yes. I assume there’ll be drama, but I’m curious about what the “tears” would mean for each of the characters and how they’d deal with it.
Zoku Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei
More info – Official Site: Anime, Manga
HAMASHO… gross! ~Lol. The masks reminded me so much of Darker Than Black (Oh, how I miss Hei). I was laughing and second-guessing, silly me thinking “Eh, seriously? That was how he became a teacher?!” Haha. It had a pretty long intro before the OP was played. I love the new OP song (“Kūsō Rumba” by Kenji Otsuki featuring featuring Ai Nonaka, Marina Inoue, Yū Kobayashi, Miyuki Sawashiro and Ryōko Shintani). The first episode (after the long intro) is basically a recap of who’s who among the main student characters with a couple of new girls introduced. The ED for the first ep is “Koiji Romanesque” by Asuka Tanii, Asami Sanada, Miyuki Sawashiro, Yuko Goto and Miyu Matsuki. The ED sequence had a goth/noir feel to it. Since it’s a Shaft production, expect quite a few ED song and sequence changes to follow.
- Watch it? –Yep. I enjoyed watching the 1st season, so bring on more despair!
Minami-Ke: Okawari
More info – Official site: Anime, Manga
It picks up from where Minami-Ke from the Fall 2007 lineup left off. All the seiyuus are back, reprising their respective roles so the characters sound the same. However, they look a bit different – like Chiaki is more blonde (and her “paintbrush” hair seems to have a life of its own?), Fujioka is also more blonde. The changes are minimal though, and it might not bother you that much since the amount of LOL moments are definitely still there, a bit more fanservice than the previous series too (Yay! for you, if you like that sort of thing). I still need a bit more time adjusting to Chiaki and Fujioka’s hair color though, but otherwise, I’m sure to follow this one! I’m looking forward to more Mako-chan, Hosaka and the other Minami family. 😉
- Watch it? –Yes. I do like Minami-Ke more, but that won’t stop me from watching and enjoying Okawari! Let’s say it with Chiaki… Bakayarou! xD
Shigofumi
More info – Official Site
Also known as Shigofumi ~Stories of Last Letter~.
The synopsis was quite interesting, stating that “shigofumi is a posthumous letter, the last resort of relaying a deceased person’s last message to his/her loved ones: family, friends, and significant other.” It also helped that it’s a JC Staff production. The first episode had its lighthearted moments, but it’s a drama/fantasy that mainly has quite a dark storyline. It had an unexpected ending. The animation was pretty good and the music was nice. It gave me Ghost Hunt vibes, with much less humor of course. It’s a 2-episode arc to kick off the series, so make sure to watch the 2nd episode to know why ep 1 ended that way.
- Watch it? – Yes and no. I might stop if it becomes too depressing for me to watch.
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I’m still following several anime that carried over from Fall 2007, so the only sure series that I’ll be watching from this Winter lineup is Minami-Ke: Okawari and Zoku Sayonara Zetsebou Sensei (along with the Honey and Clover drama, of course). The others, I’ll probably watch it in bulk at a much later time. ^_^
there’s a lot of harem animes out… Spice and Wolf has an unique story, i’m interested enough to watch more, persona is directly related to persona 3 game, so look that up instead of the whole series, sayonara sensei has the same ol madness; love it lol, Minami-ke lost some of it’s goofiness (mainly the graphics) in okawari, i’m really liking True tears, it’s shaping up to be a good love/drama series, I haven’t tried Shigofumi yet, but based on your impressions I will give it a shot 😀
Yaomang: Heya, good to hear from you again! Persona looks quite promising, thanks for the heads up on Persona 3 game! I might need to read on that first before I continue on with episode 3 so I can keep up with the vocabulary. True Tears’ story is gaining momentum consistently. I think they have a good idea where they’re going with the story. 🙂
The guy in Rosario Vampire’s name is Tsukune Aono.