Theron Martin

Theron looks forward to autumn each year for the Pumpkin Pie-flavored Blizzards at Dairy Queen, the Deep Dish Apple Pie-flavored ice cream as his favorite ice cream place, the eventual death/hibernation of the cricket population, and immersing himself in fantasy (American) football nearly as completely as he does into anime. In what little truly free time he has, he contemplates the great mathematical mysteries of the world, such as why three-sided shapes are called “triangles” instead of “trigons.”

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Btoom!

Rating: 3 (of 5)

Review: Ryouta Sakamoto is the ace of the #10 worldwide-ranked team in Btoom!, a popular online Doom variant where participants battle each other with bombs instead of guns. He's also a 22-year-old NEET who lives with a worried mother, aspires for a job in a video game company, and is unwilling to settle for anything less; only in the game does he feel like he gets any respect. His world gets turned upside down when he awakens one day to find himself suspended in a parachute in trees on what turns out to be a tropical island. He soon discovers that he seems to be caught in some live-action version of Btoom!, complete with bombs and a real, living foe seeking to kill him. He and the man he must fight to the death are not the only ones there, either; he soon comes across a sexy girl, too.

The concept of this manga-based series is hardly an original one, although the notion of a survival combat game based entirely on bomb use is an interesting angle. The way things play out is not spectacular, either, although producer Madhouse Studios and female director Kotono Watanabe (in her lead directorial debut) do make sure it looks thrilling (and very graphic at one point) and takes full advantage of some skillful shot selections, good animation, and distinctive styling. This episode and the Next Episode preview also suggest that exploring the troubled backgrounds of the core cast is going to be a major story element, and what they already show about Ryouta isn't pleasant. That dark edge, which seems likely to continue in the next episode, could save this one from being forgettable.

Btooom! is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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Kamisama Hajimemashita

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Review: Nanami Momozono is down on her luck. Not only is her father a deadbeat gambler, but he also took off, leaving behind a big debt and an evicted daughter. With no place to go, she runs across a curious man in a park who is being cowed by a dog. When Nanami helps him out and explains her situation to him, he suggest that she go stay at his place, which he hasn't been back to in ages and which needs an occupant. Nanami soon discovered that it's a run-down temple inhabited by the contrary, pretty-boy fox spirit Tomoe and two smaller spirits and that the stranger has proclaimed Nanami as the new local Earth Deity, who is in charge of maintaining the temple and hearing the prayers of the believers that still come by (and going through a big back log of recorded prayers, too). Tomoe absolutely refuses to accept Nanami, though, while Nanami has doubts about her own ability, as a high school girl, to be a deity, so she pursues Tomoe when he takes off. While in the process of getting into trouble, Tomoe learns of one certain – but undesirable – way to get Tomoe under her authority: make a contract with him that must be sealed by a kiss. And desperate circumstances definitely call for desperate measures when all sorts of otherworldly denizens start trying to turn her into a meal.

The concept here may not be terribly original; a human becoming a local god is territory covered in Kamichu and a young woman making a pact with a sexy, otherworldly being is a staple on both the shojo and shonen fronts. The premise also sounds like a melding of elements from Hayate the Combat Butler and Ah! My Goddess. What the concept lacks in originality, though, the first episode more than makes up for in raw enthusiasm. Everything about it brims with energy as the storytelling sets off on a madcap pace to establish the essential elements of the story and situation, with even the artistry and animation contributing to the fun. While Tomoe is more the typically snotty bad boy, Nanami is likable as a girl who not taken to extremes of earnestness and pluckiness (as one might normally expect here), instead coming off more as a normal, reasonable, and occasionally clever girl who struggles to deal with a situation which has left her completely over her head and unwillingly dependent on a capricious entity to help her out.

While this kind of shojo-styled fare may never challenge for consideration as one of the season's best shows, it nonetheless gets off to an entertaining start.

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Hayate no Gotoku! Can't Take My Eyes Off You

Rating: 2.5 (of 5)

Review: It's been three years since the  last TV series, and two years since the movie (as Hayate tells us himself in the prologue), but the franchise known in English as Hayate the Combat Butler is back for another round of crazy antics involving the 13-year-old uber-wealthy hikkikomori Nagi Sanezin, her maid Maria, and her trust butler Hayate. This time, though, there is both a new director and a new production company (Manglobe, which also did the movie), and that brings a bold new look and feel to the series.

And the look in particular is what will undoubtedly catch the attention of established fans. The earlier series, while hardly ugly, were never paragons of artistic or technical achievement, instead placing their emphasis most heavily on sight gags hidden in the details. This first episode, though, aims much more for production quality, and the jump in that is almost jaw-dropping. In Manglobe's hands the Sanezin mansion has become an eye-popping wonder of interior design and characters have a more rounded, three-dimensional feel; this can be seen most clearly in the use of camera angles.  Colors are richer and more vivid, too, animation quality has improved markedly, and a point is made to emphasize new technologies; we get a focused, fully-animated shot of Nagi manipulating a smart phone, for instance. An apparent idol singer is used as a recurring gimmick, too, including a closer which plays like a music video for that singer.

One has to wonder if the emphasis on comedy hasn't been lost a bit amidst the technical achievements, however; either that, or perhaps this season is intending to take a more serious storyline, because the jokes do not come at the rapid-fire pace seen in earlier material. The plot threads established here are odd ones, too: Nagi is trying to dodge going back to school for the fall term by going to Nevada ostensibly to investigate some belongings that may or may not have been left behind by her long-dead father, though her real motive is to check out Area 51. A new girl shows up who tries to get Nagi kidnaped again (and Nagi's blasé attitude about the experience is one of the episode's funniest aspects), only to make a shocking revelation at the episode's end. The humorous shorts are still around, though, such as the mid-episode break where a mother resorts to social media to get her daughter's goat.

The downslide in effective comedy here is worrisome, but the technical merits are such a marvel they are temporarily keeping the series afloat. More comedy and/or a more substantial plot will be needed going forward, however.

Hayate the Combat Butler Season 3 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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From the New World

Rating: 4.5 (of 5)

Review: The best suspense stories explain just enough to get the viewer hopelessly intrigued. They drop tantalizing hints about dark deeds, hidden details, and truths couched in subjective and/or figurative stories, all of which are contained within the framework of greater mysteries. This new effort from A-1 Pictures goes one step further still: it sticks all of it in an apparently post-apocalyptic setting with some fascinating trappings and depicts it all with artistic flair backed by an inventive musical score. The result is an especially strong start to what could be one of the season's most compelling series.

At the beginning we are shown scenes from modern day which appear to depict a trio of boys apparently exercising bursts of immense telekinetic power in a gruesome fashion. (The graphic level here is not for the faint at heart.) What is happening – and why – isn't explained or even hinted at further before the scene flashes forward a millennium to a rural setting apparently devoid of advanced technology but awash in mysticism and the exercise of telekinetic powers, which are apparently commonplace for children who have graduated to a secondary level. Students are fed moralistic stories about the danger of going unescorted beyond the village's sacred boundary (lest one attracts fiends!) and around amongst themselves rumors of the dreaded Trickster Cats, apparently Boogeyman-like cat-based creatures whose existence is discounted by adults. Saki, who recently went through a ceremony to graduate up to the secondary level, thinks she's actually seen a Trickster Cat in the past, however, and is vaguely disturbed by rumors ed amongst her school group about the nature of her new school and some odd comments she's surreptitiously overheard from her parents and others. Something much darker and possibly even sinister seems to be afoot in Saki's world, a suspicion only confirmed when Saki's weakest-performing classmate suddenly goes missing.

Masashi Ishihama has never been a lead director prior to this project, but if this first episode shows what he's consistently capable of then he could be a name to going forward. The pacing of the carefully-crafted revelations of various tidbits about the setting, and the way they are thrown out naturally while still leaving their relevance to viewer interpretation, is nearly perfect, and the artistry and music the mood-building very well. The mysteries at work here – how did the events in the prologue lead to the present, why are things the way they are now, is the process of inculcating young telekinetics really as merciless as certain details imply – are boldly attention-grabbing ones which should be a lot of fun to sort out.

From the New World is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

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My Little Monster

Rating: 3.5 (of 5)

Review: Shizuku Mizutani has had a firm goal in mind (i.e., to earn a high-income job) since her early elementary school years, so she has eschewed any effort to develop friendships in favor of the studying she feels is necessary to pursue that goal. That starts to change her first year of high school when she's asked to deliver handouts to Hara Yoshida, the student who's supposed to sit beside her but who has been suspended for fighting. Though Hara does, indeed, turn out to be rough-edged and intimidating, he also proves to be naïve, flaky, more sensitive than initial impressions would suggest, and gallant in a clumsy way. Despite a troubled start, Hara begins to regard Shizuku as both a friend and a potential lover, a prospect which shakes Shizuku's solitary, carefully-controlled world to the core.

In many respects this first episode shows all of the signs of being a stereotypical shojo romantic comedy: the design aesthetic is practically by-the-numbers shojo style, the male lead has the ridiculously improbable mix of aggressive and endearing traits that could only exist in Shojo Land, the male lead gets away with being physically aggressive with the female lead on more than one occasion (really, why are such scenes virtually obligatory in shojo titles?), and the female lead has to be rescued on more than one occasion. For all of those stale trappings, though, this one still somehow finds a way to be remarkably appealing, and a lot of that credit goes to Shizuku's very focused personality and running internal dialogue. She is not a girl looking too moon over guys; in fact, she doesn't give a damn about anyone or anything that doesn't assist with her goals. That's a little refreshing, and the way she rolls her eyes and Hara's antics and refuses to back down shows a stronger backbone than shojo romantic heroines normally have. The prologue and last couple of minutes of the first episode strongly suggest that Shizuku learning to let people into her life is going to be a major and potentially rewarding plot thread, even if it must involve a flake like Hara. Certain scenes that are funny and/or endearing offer promise, too.
Certainly, this one could still end up getting mired in shojo romance clichés, but it at least shows some potential.

My Little Monster is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.