Spring 2016 Anime: First Impressions Part 1

The spring season of anime has begun for this year, which means I’ll be sharing what I thought of the first episode of each series I’m watching. Also turns out I’m actually up for watching a lot more shows than I mentioned in my ‘Spring 2016: What I Will Be Watching’ post, hence the fact that there will be a second post full of first impressions later on. With nothing else to add, let’s just dive straight in.

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable
Kicking things off in style is the fourth part of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. The gratuitous use of shadows to censor major wounds returns, and some Stands have been renamed. Most egregious is main character Josuke Higashikata’s Stand: what should be Crazy Diamond is referred to as Shining Diamond.
Aside from those minor gripes, I really enjoyed this first episode. Jotaro returned and there was a brief scuffle between him and Josuke where Crazy Diamond- sorry, Shining Diamond’s power was revealed. We also had the introduction of an enemy Stand, who has his sights set on Josuke’s mother. A pretty great start to the season.

Ace Attorney
A fairly enjoyable first episode, that is quite faithful to the game. It did rush through the first case, but it looks like future cases will be spread over multiple episodes. If you intend to play the games, then I suggest doing that before watching the anime so you don’t spoil things for yourself.

Pan de Peace!
This first episode was pretty good, I’m just gutted that each episode will be less than five minutes long. I’m looking forward to seeing more interactions between Yuu, Minami & Fuyumi, as well as the pink-haired lass who made a brief appearance at the end of the episode.

My Hero Academia
This is an adaptation of the manga of the same name, where 80% of the world has developed superpowers called ‘Quirks’. The protagonist, Izuku Midoriya is a character without a Quirk, but aspirations of being a hero. We had some pretty standard shonen stuff on display here, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It definitely had some self-aware moments as well.

Kumamiko -Girl Meets Bear
Potentially the silliest show of the season, and that’s fine by me. Machi is a miko (shrine maiden) who lives with a bear called Natsu that is capable of human speech. Natsu seems like a father figure towards Machi. Whilst it definitely has some decent humour, I’m not really sure what to make of the village’s lore… hopefully that was just a one-time thing that doesn’t get mentioned again.

Sailor Moon Crystal Season III
I marathoned the first two seasons, and thought that they were not too bad. Of course, that was all just preparation for the debut of a certain pair of characters in the third season, and we didn’t have to wait long for them to make an appearance. I quite the like the transformation and ending themes they’re using in this season – the latter because of the two aforementioned characters. Also, I’ve heard that the arc this season is covering, ‘Death Busters’, is really quite good, so I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more.

BAKUON!!
I loved this one. With Hane Sakura imitating motorbike noises as she rode her bicycle to school, a soundtrack that I can’t wait to hear more of and Japanese motorbike riding school girl Stig, there’s a lot here for me to enjoy. I think the humour was great as well, and I suspect I’m going to be gaining a whole lot of knowledge about motorbikes as well.

Cerberus
Here’s another anime I just decided to pick up on a whim. We’ve got some straight up swords and sorcery stuff going on in this one; I do enjoy the fantasy genre very much. Naturally, the first episode introduced the hero, Hiiro. Whilst he’s skilled at free running, that huge sword he carries with him… well, appearances can be deceiving. I enjoyed this first episode, and it looks like a catgirl will be making an appearance later on – how can I say no to that?

There are still a few other shows I will be picking up this season, but I figure the eight new ones I’ve got here are more than sufficient for a post of first impressions. I’ve quite enjoyed the first episodes of each of the series listed here. I have to say, I’m impressed with this season thus far, and there’s at least another four shows I will be picking up. Stay tuned for my first impressions on those in a few days’ time.