Subs are out. Here are my quick first impressions on some of the Fall 2008 anime series. As usual, these will be divided into a series of posts. This is batch 1.
In this batch: (1) Toradora; (2) CLANNAD: After Story ; (3) Hyakko; (4) Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka; (5) Kurogane no Linebarrel.
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(1) Toradora!
More info – Official Site
– Like almost everyone who had seen Minami-Ke, I also thought Taiga looked like Chiaki – Taiga had the same hair color and *almost* even had the paintbrush-looking clump of hair on Chiaki’s head xD. Anyway, the lead guy, Ryuuji has this mean look in his eyes which frightens others, but he’s actually a nice guy (he somewhat reminded me of Seiji from Midori Days). He likes this girl in class, Minori, who notes that she’s glad she’s in the same class as Ryuuji and his friend Yusaku again. This makes him blush. As he excuses himself a bit later, he accidentally bumps into Taiga while he’s walking absentmindedly (due to blushing and giddiness), bumping into Taiga earns him a punch from her. He learns that Taiga’s a friend of Minori and also his classmate. A confusion arises between Taiga and Ryuuji after class when she mistakes Ryuuji’s bag for Yusaku’s (I think) and places a love letter there. When she sees Ryuuji taking the bag, she realizes her blunder and tries to pry it away from him, to no success (why didn’t she simply tell him that she mistook it for someone else’s bag instead of initiating a tug of war? xD). She then later sneaks into Ryuuji’s house and attacks him with a wooden sword (lolwut? Overboard much?). Blah, blah, blah… They settle the misunderstanding about the love letter and they learn that Taiga likes Yusaku while Ryuuji likes Minori. They get into some sort of agreement to keep this secret and help each other with their respective crushes (which kinda reminded me of Koizumi and Otani in Lovely Complex) Lol @ Ryuuji’s written and recorded collection of imaginary dates… weird but sweet. The ED was fun [“Vanilla Salt” by Horie Yui]. No OP for episode 1.
I only saw season 1 of Zero no Tsukaima (note that I shall never watch the sequels ever) and I’ve only seen Shakugan no Shana the Movie, so I guess Kugimiya Rie as Taiga didn’t remind me much of those characters. I saw Hayate no Gotoku! though, so it reminded me more of Nagi (except for the Urusai! Urusai! Urusai! moments which totally reminded me of Shana). I haven’t read the Toradora manga, but I thought this episode was nice and funny. Had quite a few laughs. I liked it.
- Watch it? A story that looks pretty decent and makes me LOL? Yep!
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(2) Clannad: After Story
More info – Official Site: Anime, Visual Novel
Season 2 of Clannad. It is adapted from the After Story arc from the visual novel which is a continuation of Okazaki’s and Nagisa’s story.
– The OP was nice and fitting for this series [“A Song to Pass the Time” by Lia]. It was great to see the characters again. Sunohara and Akio are still funny as always. Still find Tomoya’s sarcasm enjoyable (Lol @ Tomoya’s lies for Yoshino to join Akio’s baseball team). Still love Tomoya’s voice (Yuichi Nakamura) too. Akio using Sanae’s bread as a threat? ~Lol. Almost the entire first episode was about a baseball game and a reintroduction of the characters. Despite that, I still found it funny and touching, just as I remember season 1 to be. I’m sure there are lots of laughs to come in this series, along with a hefty serving of dorama.
A preview of the next episode about Sunohara? Since he thought Sanae was Nagisa’s older sister in ep 1, could the preview be a glimpse of the mistake that was in the VN? Haha. (I’ve never actually played the VN, though. I merely read it and spoiled myself about it xD)
If you’re gonna watch this, stock up on your Kleenex. Me? I’ve been spoiled about this story already way back in season 1 because of my spying curiosity.
- Watch it? I liked season 1, but I have a precondition for watching the After Story… I think I might just marathon this later if and only if the anime ending is the alternate ending that I favor in the game. Otherwise, I’ll just leave it to my imagination. Although, I’ll be following the story by reading Totali‘s summaries (it won’t make me cry as opposed to watching it, right?).
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(3) Hyakko
More info – Official Site
– The OP was alright [“Suppin Rock” by Mana Ogawa]. I like the beat. In this episode, Ayumi gets lost around campus. She finds another lost student and they wander around together (seriously, for a while it looked to me like they’re just circling the garden, aren’t they?xD). They later stumble upon a couple of other lost students. They all get lost together. (Lol, the more the merrier? :P) The Suzu character seems cool. Unlike Torako, I’ll never jump from the 2nd floor even if I’m lost (or any other floor for that matter… unless it was about life or death… probably). I thought Ayumi was a little annoying. Apparently, information about the school grounds was explained on the first day of school. I guess it just so happened that they just weren’t listening. Haha. Among the lot, Ayumi was the one who remembered the GPS thingy.
- Watch it? Getting lost and then attacking teachers… I know, I know; it’s just the first episode, but I’d have to say no.
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(4) Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka
More info – Official Site
– Typical cutesy upbeat OP [“Renai Parachute” by Hashimoto Miyuki]. It begins with two jerks picking on an innocent cute girl. A cute guy comes to her rescue. The jerks run away in distress after realizing that the cute guy is the fabled tough guy “Genokiller” (which totally reminded me of Tomoyo in Clannad and her infamous tough girl reputation xD). So anyway, the cute (and rich) girl thanks him and they go their separate ways. The cute guy’s name is Jun and he lives with his sister, Minato. Next day, there’s a transfer student at their school and it turns out to be the cute rich girl whose name is Yuuhi. She asks him out and gets acquainted with his friends who tease both of them for getting along together well. The next day, Yuuhi gets teased in class for her seemingly close relationship with Jun, but she tells tells them they’re just friends. Jun arrives in class and Yuuhi asks for his help to ack up her claim that they’re just friends. However, he seems to get the wrong idea (blame the odd voices in his head) and kisses Yuuhi right then and there, in front of the class. This earns him a beating from Yuuhi. Later at home, Minato tells off her brother for acting like an idiot. Someone rings their doorbell… it’s Yuuhi telling them that she is going to stay at their house from now on since she is Jun’s fiancee. (Lol, what?!)
- Watch it? As much as Jun and his homeroom teacher’s banters made me laugh, no thanks. I’ll pass.
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(5) Kurogane no Linebarrel
More info – Official Site
Also known as Linebarrels of Iron.
– A thingy called “Linebarrel” is off course due to some unsolicited intervention from some suspicious guy, and as fate would have it, Kouichi had been at the exact spot at the exact moment where it crashed. Miraculously, he seems to have survived but has a huge bloodstain on his shirt. There’s a mysterious naked girl beside him (I suppose from the mecha thing that crashed). He carries the girl away from ground zero and when she wakes up, she can’t remember her own name (gasp!). Oddly enough, neither of them notices or says anything about the huge bloodstain on his shirt (Why?! It’s so big and and red!). Evil CG mechas appear and wreck havoc in the city, and their boss seems to be the guy who caused the crash. Upon seeing the evil mechas, the mysterious no-longer-naked girl then realizes that she is supposed to do something against the evil mechas. His guy friend (who seems to use a lot of gel on his hair) finds the 2 of them and assists them, making Kouichi jealous of his guy friend’s apparent chivalry (he also does not notice the big red bloodstain on Kouichi’s shirt. Orz.). A wall crumbles onto them but his guy friend (he caught a wall; he must be strong) prevents it from crushing them. Kouichi gets jealous again and gets all emo and punches the wall in rage. Suprisingly, it shatters into pieces. With this, the girl suddenly remembers her name, Emi, and asks Kouichi to fight alongside her against the evil mechas, to which he agrees, and summons the Linebarrel (which apparently is a mecha). Kouichi gets quite cocky and quite gung-ho about fighting the evil mechas. He succeeds and then laughs semi-maniacally reveling that he will no longer be bullied again. Emi bursts his bubble and breaks the news to him that he’s already dead (Oh, so that explains the huge red bloodstain, which seems they purposefully didn’t notice because it was a dead giveaway that he’s, well, dead). Wait, Emi was nekkid when he found her, so does that mean she drives mecha while nekkid? Anyway, the ED was a pretty nice ballad [“Ame ga Furu” by Sakamoto Maaya].
- Watch it? – Um, no.
Taiga is missing the Chiaki ahoge radar.
Depends on how good your imagination is. 😛
Lawl. The choice made by the wise.
Count me as another impatient soul who spoiled himself about Clannad AS’s ending. I’m still planning to watch it though, since I’d be remiss in my duties as a KyoAni junkie if I did otherwise.
The consensus on Clannad AS (your blog included) really does seem to be “reach for the Kleenex”, and I suppose it makes sense given what we know about the game. Let’s hope that element of tragedy spices things up a little (Episode 1 wasn’t bad, but some parts of it bored the heck out of me).
@ totali: Oh yeah, I forgot about the radar! xD
@ Diego: I guess I’m excused because Clannad is the first and only KyoAni work I’ve ever seen. I’m really hoping that it’ll be the happier ending. *begs*
Of all you’ve watched, I didn’t decided to try out the galge one. The Kurogane is somewhat so old school and the protagonist is so obnoxious so I don’t think I’ll continue watching it. The three remaining are still on my list. I’ll guess the first two would be a sure pick but Hyakko still needs to prove me if it deserves to be watched.
@ jitensha: Yeah, the lead guy in Linebarrel seemed like such a pompous jerk in the first episode. Can’t wait to check out the other series for the season.