The Summer 2010 Anime Preview Guide

Theron Martin

High School of the Dead

Rating: 4.75 (of 5)

Review: Classic zombie flick gore and mayhem meet otakucentric anime fan service sensibilities in this charged-up adaptation of the manga by Daisuke and Shoji Sato. It has been one of the most anticipated new series of the new season since it was first announced, and the first episode doesn't disappoint.

The first episode wastes no time in getting down to business. High school student Takashi is drearily contemplating the loss of his childhood friend Rei to a classmate when the havoc breaks out: a zombiefied man stumbles to the school gate and bites a PE teacher who tries to push him away. Said PE teacher gets infected, dies, and sooner than anyone can figure out what's going on he starts chomping on his former colleagues, which initiates a chain reaction of death and zombiefication which quickly spreads across the school. Takashi has the jump on the incident because he saw it happen, but even so he, Rei and Rei's current boyfriend must battle though zombie students to get to relatively safety, only to learn that their school is far from an isolated incident. A bleak future awaits Takashi and Rei (the boyfriend, predictably, doesn't make it), although they are not the only survivors.

What caused all of this? That's beyond the purview of this episode, but does that really matter? It's zombies, it's people getting chewed to death, it's bloody action, and it's plenty of undergarment-flashing and breast-jiggling, all wrapped into one fast-paced package laden with energy and atmosphere. And it kicks as much butt as you were possibly hoping for and maybe more. Sure, it has some minor flaws; it is predictable, and the bit with the BFFs was heavy-handed, but the overall execution is too good to deny and the technical merits are fairly sharp, too.

This one is likely to be one of the biggest winners of the new season.

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Mitsudomoe

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Review:  Brand-new teacher Satoshi Yabe is eagerly looking forward to his first primary school teaching assignment, but unfortunately for him he has been saddled with class 6-3, home to the Marui triplets, a set of hellions that could make any teacher wither. Mitsuba, the eldest, is a precocious sadist; Futaba, the second daughter, is a muscle-headed pervert; and Hitoha, the youngest, is quiet, bookish, and gloomy, but can muster such a horrifying expression that she has an aura of mystery about her. In the first of three vignettes a chair-exchanging game goes terribly awry, while in the second the Marui sisters get the idea in their heads that the best way to hook Yabe up with the sexy new nurse is to give him a groin injury that she will have to treat. In the third clip, a class hamster gets a very improper name which leads to some gross misunderstandings.

Anime has churned out a lot of edgy titles of late, but few have been as thoroughly and deliciously wrong as this cleverly-written, wonderfully-scored, and nicely-animated first effort from animation producer Bridge. Most of the cast may be 6th graders but the humor and entertainment value is decidedly aimed at adults, in a manner somewhat resembling South Park or the English dubs for Ghost Stories and Shin-chan. Regard this series in the same light as those and the seriously twisted action and dialog can become a lot of fun, including a handful of sputter-worthy moments; be sure to watch the visuals in the closer closely for another extra-juicy shot, too. The dispositions of the three “heroines” offer such a wealth of possibilities that this one shouldn't run dry on ideas anytime soon, either. For those concerned about it being too edgy, nothing shown so far even hints at moe or lolicon content, so the dirty-minded side of it can be enjoyed guilt-free.

If you like twisted, raunchy humor then this is one series you do not want to miss. With great writing and production values so far, it has the potential to be one of the best of recent gag series. If 6th graders innocently firing off a stream of nipple-related references is not your cup of tea, though, then stay well away.

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Seitokai Yakuindomo

Rating: 3 (of 5)

Review: Takatoshi Tsuda chose to attend a newly gender-integrated girl's school not because he wanted to gawk at a vastly superior number of girls each day but because it's close to home for him and he is, frankly, lazy. A stop by Student Council President Shino Amakusa for his sloppy dress leads him to being nominated to fill the Vice-President vacancy on the otherwise all-girl Student Council, in order to bring in a male perspective on the changes to the campus's social environment brought about by the integration. As Takatoshi soon discovers, though, all three of his fellow Council - Shino, bishojo secretary Aria Shichijou, and the “I'm really 16 in a 10-year-old's body” treasurer Suzu Hagimura - are flakes of one kind or another.

At first blush this manga-based series from GoHands (a studio whose only previous lead production effort is Princess Lover) looks every bit like it's going to be just another typical gag-oriented school romantic comedy, complete with a stereotypical primary female cast (the ditz, the too-young-looking short one, the tsundere one) and an amusing but unoriginal set-up gimmick. That impression of normality takes its first hit when Shino matter-of-factly responds to Takatoshi's complaint about how draining the Student Council experience will be by saying, “I get drained once a month” (and yes, that means what you think it does) and then continues to nonchalantly toss off lines like that throughout the rest of the episode, in the process mostly refusing to conform to any expectations of tsundere behavior. The episode switching fully to short gags for the second half of the episode delivers a second hit. If romance is to figure into this eventually then the first episode gives no solid indication of it, as so far Takatoshi has merely served as the straight man that his fellow Student Council bounce off of

GoHands’ artistry excels in the backgrounds, though its character animation, while active for this kind of series, stands out a bit too much against the background art. Some viewers might find the frequency of menstruation-related jokes to be a little uncomfortable, but those are plenty well balanced out by more conventionally saucy references and the closer is the best one yet this season. There is no visual fan service here, but those seeking prurient content should find enough to like in the dialog alone and the comedy works well enough so far to make this one worth a look for those seeking lighter-hearted fare.

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Amagami SS

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Review: Two years ago on Christmas Eve, Junichi Tachibana got stood up for a date, an event which wrecked his confidence with girls. As Christmas approaches in his junior year of high school, he resolves to change his fortunes. His featured attempt in this episode involved Haruka Morishima, a pretty, idolized classmate who has labeled him a “nice guy” and seems cheerily friendly in his interactions with her. Could this be his chance to score big-time?

And yes, that's all that really happens in the first episode of this series based on a popular 2009 PS2 dating sim. Rather than being an ongoing story, the series will supposedly approach the same scenario anew each episode with a focus on a different prospective love interest for Junichi; indeed, several other potential candidates are introduced in the first episode, including a hard-working class rep type, a shy freshman Junichi helps out at lunch, a girl with a big appetite, and a female childhood friend. One of the series’ gimmicks even involves the closer being sung by the seiyuu for the featured girl in each episode.

While this is an interesting format, it does raise questions about what the series will do once it has taken its first full through the half-dozen featured candidates. The first episode also suffers from being very, very bland. A concept like this might work fine in a dating sim, but in anime form it must have something additional going for it - comedy, fan service, an atypical complication, depth, and unusual setting, and/or superior execution - to succeed. This one does not have any of those things. AIC has done a nice job with the artistry, as Haruka is a knock-out and the other girls have sufficiently varied looks (not all of them gorgeous, either), but that isn't enough. So far, Amagami SS looks like a yawner.

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Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Review:  Otogibana City is home to Otogi Academy, and d with that school is the organization Otogi Bank, which specializes in dealing with student-related problems such as stalkers in exchange for favors to be named  later. The organization's “big gun” is Taiga Ryoko Ookami, a tough female boxer with a penchant for showing a lot of leg and wearing cat head-shaped boxing gloves when on the job. The organization's male hip is on the light side, so a recruiting effort turns up Ryouchi Morino, a timid fellow who suffers from scopophobia (an irrational fear of being stared at) but has serious talents at hiding and precision rock-throwing and did work up the nerve to confess to the intimidating Ryoko - a fact which impresses and amuses everyone at Otogi Bank except Ryoko. Though Ryoko is reluctant to accept Ryouchi at first, he shows his mettle when it really counts.

Even if you think you know what to expect, there are moments in this odd little romantic comedy/odd jobs organization series which can stupefy most any viewer. The first is the first appearance of those ridiculous cat gloves shown in the screenshot, the second is the bizarre “genius” of the team's resident techno-geek, and the third is the first episode's one truly great joke, an incident involving a flying kick which is actually vastly funnier when it gets repeated at the end of the episode - and you probably won't see the full impact of the repeat coming. The series’ penchant for using blatant European fairy tale references (Red Riding Hood and Cinderella most notably in this episode)is an interesting gimmick, it does actually justify why its heroine can fight so well, it does have a male lead not hesitating on confessing, and it does have an amusing sensibility on narration and fan service, but those are, unfortunately, balanced out by how quickly Ryouchi's defect gets severely irritating.

Any claim that Ryoko's design is not heavily influenced by the heroine of Toradora! is hard to substantiate, as she is distinctly taller than Taiga but otherwise has the same build, same facial structure, and the same demeanor and attitude. She does have a more mature and appealing style of dress, though. JC Staff's artistic effort here is not one of their sharper or cleaner ones, though the animation in the action scenes is both good and surprisingly well-detailed.

The success of this series should hinge on whether or not Ryouchi's phobia gets overplayed and how much Ryoko can distinguish herself from her predecessors. If  both of these factors come down positively then this could be a highly entertaining series.

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Shukufuku no Camla

Rating: 1.5 (of 5)

Review: Numerous cute girls in elaborate costumes? Many of them are fawning over a singular, good-natured male lead? A vaguely-defined fantasy setting?

Yep, must be another ero game adaptation.

Or, to be more precise, this is the anime adaptation of a 2009 “adult visual novel” release for PC and PSP platforms. This first episode is almost entirely an exercise in cast-gathering and introductions, so little actually happens that could constitute a plot. Events take place in Ert'Aria, a trade-focused city located on the northern fringe of the country of Nostrum which is also known as a prime viewing spot for an every-seven-years meteor shower. Amongst the most prominent groups in the city is Clan Oasis, whose mistres, Carina Verritti, seems to be one of the primary female leads. The male lead, Leceister, is either a worker for, or a member of, Clan Oasis and dear to Carina's heart. Leceister's sexy, young-looking mother and a maid also figure into the picture, as does a puppeteer Carina and Leceister encounter, a female Holy Knight who is a friend of Leceister's mother, and neighboring twin sisters named Risto and Salsa Tortilla (no, really). During the meteor shower a special girl who's been sleeping but awakens to fulfill some special purpose also makes a grand entrance.

Only those already familiar with the visual novel in question will likely have any clue where this is all going, as the first episode gives no clear indication of direction beyond normal antics for this kind of show. Nothing shown so far suggest that this one has much promise or even a spark of life, though. Carina is a doll in that dainty get-up but none of the other characters stand out visually and the music and art quality are both bland. The personality distribution so far is equally dull and the setting offers nothing special, either. This one will have to get much better in ensuing episodes if it wants to keep its viewers..

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