All right, a new year and a new anime season. I honestly don’t think there’s much to shout about this season, but that might change by the time it has ended. Regardless, here’s my first impressions of the shows I’ve chosen to watch.
Assassination Classroom Second Season
Yep, Koro-sensei is back, as well as class 3-E. The first episode of the second season wrapped up the class’s summer vacation with some failed attempts at matchmaking, before the second half had a summer festival, of course.
The humour is great, once again, and it’s fun watching the characters interact. As far as the start of a season of anime goes, this was pretty good.
Please Tell Me! Galko Chan
A series of shorts that focus on three girls; Galko, Otako and Ojou – if you’re familiar with Japanese, you can probably guess the types of characters the girls are. If not, Galko is a ‘trendy girl’, as described on Crunchyroll, Otako is an otaku and Ojou is a proper lady. Pretty much a standard school girl series.
Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn
As I watched this, I couldn’t help but think it was basically moe Ghost in the Shell. I also really enjoyed it, and want to see more from Nene and Clarion. Both Nene and Clarion are cyborgs, with a rather interesting method for acquiring apps that give them skills required for whatever situation. This is potentially my favourite anime of the season based on first impressions alone.
GATE
The second half, which introduces a few new characters, whilst the the people of the fantasy land continue talking with the Japanese in order to secure peace. The previous part ended with someone wanting help to take down a fire drake, but that was barely even mentioned in this first episode – though I think the event at the end of the episode will be a more pressing concern for the time being.
Fairy Tail Series 2
Since this is starting a new arc, I figured I’d share my first impressions of it here – the arc is an adaptation of the Fairy Tail Zero prequel manga, which focuses on Mavis Vermilion and how she came to form the Fairy Tail guild. Much like every other member of the eponymous guild, Mavis’ childhood was not easy – still, she managed to cope somehow. Since Mavis is amongst my favourite characters, I’m looking forward to more.
Nurse Witch KOMUGI R
This looks like it’s going for a standard magical girl monster of the week formula, which is fine. From what I can tell so far, this is going to be silly – which is perfectly fine; not every magical girl show needs to be dark. This show seems to be very self-aware; it might turn out to be a parody. Another one that I’m looking forward to seeing more of.
Mahou Shoujo Nante Mouiidesukara
So apparently Crunchyroll isn’t even going to bother translating the title of this series of shorts, so I won’t either. Regardless, it’s about a lass who becomes a magical girl and her transformed state puts her in a swimsuit – she’s not too happy about that. Looks like each episode is only going to be around 4 minutes long, but I’m always up for more magical girl stuff.
All right, that’s the new stuff, but what about the shows that are continuing? Well, I guess I could talk about those briefly.
Dragon Ball Super
At least one more episode to go of the ‘Resurrection F’ arc, and then we’ll get to see some new stuff that hasn’t been in film form before. It seems that the main fight of the arc will play out extremely similar to the film, though there have been some differences in terms of plot.
One Piece
It’s only taken forever, but One Piece has finally hit the main attraction of the Dressrosa arc; Luffy vs. Doflamingo. The next episode at the time of writing is one that is very hotly anticipated, with Luffy taking things up a gear.
JK-MESHI!
So I thought this would finish after one season – turns out I was wrong. Still, the review I posted for it still stands, as I don’t really see it breaking the formula it has established.
Go! Princess PreCure
The finale is approaching, and I have high hopes for it. Regardless of the iteration, Pretty Cure always manages to end spectacularly – Go! Princess PreCure just happens to be a case of being spectacular all the way through. I’m looking forward to the following series, Maho Girls PreCure! as well.
So there we have it; first and continued impressions of the anime I’ve chosen to watch. All in all a quiet season, with my top pick being Pandora in the Crimson Shell: Ghost Urn. Also looking forward to watching Garakowa -Restore the World- on Crunchyroll on Saturday 16th January.
Rory Muses 