Winter 2013 Anime: First Impressions Omnibus

There is a reason for me writing a post on a bunch of anime airing this season; giving them individual posts seems too nice. Winter 2013 anime have been mostly average for me after just their first episodes, and so I couldn't bear to write about each of them in detail. Not included on this list are any which I've written separate first impressions posts for.

Here's what's what.

Ore no Kanojo Osananajimi ga Shurabu Su (OreShura)

Perhaps the least surprising anime of the season is OreShura or as some prefer to refer to it in English as "Caught in the carnage between my girlfriend and my best friend."

Going into this series, I knew what I was getting; a romantic comedy harem starring some kind of dorky male lead and a few clich girls. The first episode was just that, and I was completely fine with this. An anime such as this one is what I consider my guilty pleasure and OreShura ticked all the right boxes for me to enjoy this series.

A-1 Pictures really pulled out the stops with the animation on this one. It's colourful, fun and adds a lot enjoyment to this story. A story that's quite frankly the oldest one known to anime and manga really benefited from the beautiful animation.

Verdict: Good - Guilty Pleasure Harem

Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun

Hakkenden is best described as a throwback to the recent old school. We're not talking about the 1990's and earlier but rather the 2000's. Series like CLAMP's X or 07-Ghost have a very similar feel to it, and that in itself sets this series apart from the others.

Whilst the first episode wasn't anything out of the ordinary, it was solid. A story of youkai's, organisations and bishonens gives this series a bit of a otome game adaptation feel for now and if I were to guess, this will change later on in the series.

A series like this is right up Studio DEEN's alley. They've done countless anime with bishonen casts, including 07-Ghost, so if you're a fan of this type of genre you should find some enjoyment with this series. For me, it's a series to watch for now and see what happens later.

Verdict: Okay - Not bad but nothing extraordinary.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman

There's almost nothing to this series. Not bad, not good, almost bland.

When I saw the source material, my expectations fell a little for this series but I didn't rule it out. I still maintain that TMS Entertainment is a studio with potential, but after the first episode I don't see them delivering something 100% worthwhile with this one.

The premise is simple, so the characters have to pick up the slack which they do not. Even one of my favourite VA's (Kazuya Nakai), can't seem to give the main character any charm and swagger that he needs. A little disappointing and very average at best.

Verdict: Average (Boring) - One or two more episodes to decide.

GJ-bu

Initially I had this pegged as another short for this season, but I guess Dogakobo just couldn't have two running in the same season. Still, I did enjoy this series a little bit which in itself left me surprised.

GJ-bu is another anime with a familiar premise that lends itself to watching without too much effort. Think Seitokai Ichizon or Yakuindomo for premise and then add some girls which romcom and normal comedy fans are used to seeing and that's what you get. Just for the record, I haven't seen either Seitokai anime so I don't know if they already do this.

I can't really say much else about this series. It's better than I expected, but at the same time it's not doing anything worth close attention. The comedy is fine the characters are also fine - there's a poor man's Taiga in the cast - so it's watchable at least.

Verdict: Okay - Familar jokes and setting, but not terrible to watch.

Anime Shorts

This season has an extraordinary amount of shorts. With so many short series airing, I've decided to conduct an experiment and watch as many I could for the time being. I'm only loosing out on 3 minutes for each one, each week.

Here's what they are:

Ai Mai Mi - K-ON! meets Bakuman meets poor animation quality and over-the-top jokes.

Inferno Cop - Poor man's JoJo meets Ghost Rider. Probably the best one on this list.

Mangirl! - Bakuman from the editorial point of view with moe girls.

Yama no Susume - Moe girls and mountain climbing. The most serious one on the list.

Ishida to Asukara - Afro guy whom everyone loves.

Senyuu - Gag hero series.

Dropped In Progress

These are the series I couldn't even sit through for an entire 20 minutes:

AMNESIA - Otome game adaptation....need I say more

Senran Kagura - Boobs, boobs and more boobs.