First impressions

[heavenly_pearl]

As promised, my first thoughts on the series I'm watching this seaon:

Karen Senki (Ep. 1 & 2) - B- - I'm not usually one to care about fight scenes, but, wow, there have been some awesome ones in this series so far! The characters are pretty fun as well, especially Karen and Jack. The episodes are only ten minutes long, but they use those ten minutes really well.

DENKI-GAI (Ep. 1 & 2) - D - I'd probably enjoy this a little more if the girls actually looked their ages. The fact that one girl in particular (Fu Girl) is supposedly sixteen but looks like an elementary student even to the other characters (so not just an artistic animation choice) makes the fact that Sommelier (who is super tall and appears to be at least in his mid-twenties) possibly has a crush on her really creepy. Ignoring that part, though, there are some cute moments, and a few of the jokes are funny, but nothing really LOL hilarious so far. If I do decide to drop anything during the season, this will probably be it, but I haven't decided yet. Might give it one more episode to win me over.

I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (Ep. 1 & 2) - B - I seem to have a knack for finding the shorts! I didn't realize that this was based on a 4-koma series, thus the episodes were only going to be three minutes long. That disappointed me, because I do love the premise of the show (about the marriage between an otaku and his non-otaku wife) and would have liked to see the jokes (which are quite funny for the most part) incorporated into longer, more cohesive episodes, a la Azumanga Daioh. Still enjoying it, though!

Fate/stay night (Ep. 0 & 1) - A- - Going from a series with three minute episodes to one that starts with  almost fifty minute long episodes... I have to thank lunaludus for recommending this. I wasn't really sure about it going in, but I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it. Even with the extended episodes, I was a bit sad for them to end, because I wanted to see more! Rin is also pretty much tied with Karen and Yona for my favorite heroines this season.

Wolf Girl and Black Wolf (Ep. 1) - B- - I liked this more than I thought I would, actually. It still gives me a little bit of a Hot Gimmick vibe, but at least so far, the male lead is nowhere near as awful as Ryoki was, and the lead heroine makes me want to laugh at her (because, really, she's the one getting herself into all these messes for no good reason), rather than pity her like I did poor Hatsumi.

Celestial Method (Ep. 1) - B - Slice-of-life with a sci-fi twist is how I'd describe this series so far, which is exactly how I tend to like my sci-fi. Looking forward to finding out more about Noel and the translucent space ship that is stationed above the town.

When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace (Ep. 1) - B+ - This series kinda gives me a Haruhi Suzumiya-type vibe, which is a good thing in my book. I'm particularly amused by the male lead, who at the beginning loves to pretend he has awesome superpowers, yet ends up with the suckiest power when the members of the Literature Club actually are given supernatural abilities in some random, unexplained event. It's really endearing how he loves his power anyway, despite everybody making fun of it. (And I suspect he'll be able to do awesome things with it later in the series.) The females characters could stand to be a little more interesting -- I honestly don't remember much about them -- but it's only the first episode. Hopefully their personalities will become stronger in later episodes.

Akatsuki no Yona (Ep. 1) - A - Love, love, love, love it! Definitely my top show at the moment. Yona is a great lead heroine, and I really like the chemistry between her and Hak. Might have been nice if the big plot twist at the end of the episode hadn't been spoiled by the summary I saw -- well, I don't really mind the revelation that somebody is killed, since that is the major catalyst of the plot; I just don't see the point in revealing who did it -- but it was still well done and probably would come as a major shock to somebody coming in completely blind.

Parasyte - the maxim - (Ep. 1) - B - I think I forgot how gory this was, based on the few chapters of the manga I read before. That, or it just seems way gorier in color. (Most likely.) Definitely some squeamish parts here and there, but I still rather enjoyed it. A good choice to watch this Halloween month!

Your Lie in April (Ep. 1) - A- - This was my preliminary favorite. I actually ended up liking Akatsuki no Yona a little more, but I still really loved this episode. The animation is absolutely  gorgeous! (But what was with Kousei saying he has brown eyes when he very obviously has blue ones?) I wasn't expecting the violinist to be such a tsundere -- based on the summary, I envisioned her more as someone who was very kind and loving, spreading happiness wherever she goes (which she does has aspects of, too) -- but I'm usually a fan of tsunderes, so that's just fine with me. It was just a little unexpected.