I thought this one was appropriate due to the brilliant announcement by Bandai just prior to Otakon last weekend.
Also, posting this early since apparently no one wants to post raws of Aoi Hana to allow me to take screencaps.
Sora no Manimani was a show that I has pretty high expectations for this season, but I’m still not sure if it’s going to be as good as I was hoping, though it’s certainly not bad. I think the 2nd episode helped boost the series a bit in my eyes above the first episode.
I guess my main thought is that it’s a bit more random and crazy than I was expecting, though I do laugh at parts of it, so I guess that’s a sign that it’s still doing a reasonable job being funny. However, the part where they started talking about stars and constellations in the 2nd episode really got me going, so I hope we see more of than and hope it wasn’t just a one time thing. We also have a start of this romantic rivalry thing which I hope won’t be too overbearing in the series either.
July 21, 2009
Eureka Seven – Box Set 2
Hayate the Combat Butler – Part 1 (sub)
Kyo Kara Maoh! – Season 2 Box Set
Mobile Suit Gundam 00 – Season 1 Part 1
Naruto – Box 15 Uncut
Paradise Kiss – Box Set
Rozen Maiden Träumend – Box Set
Strawberry Panic! – Box Set (sub)
Suzuka – Box Set
World of Narue – Box Set
July 21, 2009
Black Jack – Volume 6
Case Closed – Volume 30
Children of the Sea – Volume 1
Dragon Ball: BIG Edition – Volume 5
Fullmetal Alchemist – Volume 19
Inubaka – Volume 13
March on Earth – Volume 2
Pluto – Volume 4
REAL – Volume 5
Vagabond: BIG Edition – Volume 4
July 22, 2009
Akihabara@Deep – Volume 5
Angelic Runes – Volume 1
Millennium Prime Minister – Volume 1
Name: K-ON!
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 13
Aired: April 2, 2009 – June 25, 2009
Based On: K-ON! manga by kakifly
Director: Hisako Yamada
Produced By: Kyoto Animation, TBS
US Distribution By: Not Licensed
| Character | Japanese Cast | English Cast (N/A) |
|---|---|---|
| Yui Hirasawa: | Aki Toyosaki | |
| Mio Akiyama: | Yoko Hikasa | |
| Ritsu Tainaka: | Satomi Satou | |
| Tsumugi Kotobuki: | Minako Kotobuki | |
| Azusa Nakano: | Ayana Taketatsu | |
| Ui Hirasawa: | Madoka Yonezawa | |
| Nodoka Manabe: | Chika Fujito | |
| Sawako Yamanaka: | Asami Sanada |
K-ON! is about a quartet of high school girls – Yui, Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi – who have banded together in order to save the school’s light music club. However, while Mio, Ritsu, and Tsumugi already know how to play instruments (bass, drums, and keyboard respectively), Yui joins the club not knowing any instruments and not even really sure what to expect from the club.
What follows is a relatively humorous comedy. The four girls (and later five) mix and match stereotypical moe pieces together to create a somewhat new set of characters. However, K-ON! suffers from something which many series seem to: a show that has a good sounding premise and starts out strong, but then collapses near the end as the creators apparently couldn’t think of how to work the show after they set it up.
Perhaps if this show was a tad more on the serious side and was less focused on moe and outright goofyness, it would have been more successful. I’m not saying it needed to be a drama in stead of a comedy, but a show about a light music club should probably either be a) about light music or b) use the club as a device to explore, well, something. The problem is that we got neither of those in this series. When you start virtually repeating episodes to the extent that K-ON! does (see: “band camp” episodes and concert episodes) in a 12 episode series, then there seems to be a problem. Repeating episode ideas, i.e. going away for a training camp, isn’t necessarily bad in itself if things get mixed up when you do repeat it. However, I never really felt that happened here.
That means that this series is driven entirely on humor. Again, that in of itself isn’t necessarily bad as long as the humor can sustain the series. However, after we get about halfway through, most of the humor is just a rehash of what we’ve already seen. Yui somehow manages to play the guitar despite knowing nothing. Mio is a shy scardeycat. Ritsu likes harassing Mio. Tsumugi is rich and likes bringing sweets. The great bulk of the jokes in the entire show can probably be broken down into one of those 4 categories.
As is usual with Kyoto Animation, the animation is great, and the music, what there is of it, is pretty good too. This show isn’t necessarily “bad” per se, and it may not be too bad of a watch for a 13 episode series, especially if you’re looking for a mindless comedy, but there are certainly more worthy series out there, especially given what this series could have been.
Story: 3/5
Animation: 5/5
Music: 4/5
English Dubs: N/A
Overall: 3/5
First Watched: April – June 2009
Do I Own: No
Do I Recommend: Yes (though barely)
After the first two episodes of Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, this series is so far really shaping up to be an interesting series. We’ll have to see how the rest of the series goes now that we’ve had the big quake and the rest of the series will, presumably, be about Mari trying to help Mirai and Yuki trying to get back home. Hopefully the show will also use this time to explore all the problems that Tokyo would face post-earthquake as well, though.
The character designs in this series are pretty simple, but I think still effective, and the storytelling has been pretty good, with the portrayal of the earthquake and the aftershocks being well done so far (and done at a personal level, so we have yet to see the true extent of the devastation). I think it’s too early to tell exactly how good this series is going to be, but it certainly looks like it’s going to be one of the more promising ones of the season.