Spring 2010 – First Impressions (K-ON!!, Kiss X Sis and Senkou no Night Raid)

This evening I gave K-ON!!, Kiss X Sis and Senkou no Night Raid a go – impressions to follow!

K-ON!! (2nd series)

Clearly my tolerance levels have taken a nosedive, as this episode was an absolute chore to sit through – surprising since I knew exactly what I was in for! Basically this 2nd season of K-ON delivers exactly what the previous season did – teenage girls hanging out, acting cute and drinking tea……..don’t expect any performances or actual band stuff, because this episode once again skips over that Only thing lacking was the cosplay (although Sawa-chan did try to get them into meido costumes). I just have no patience for this – the characters are as shallow as ever and havent really developed since the 1st episode of season 1……I’m finding it extremely hard to accept that they’re now 17! Gah! I don’t know why it irritates me so much, last season I put it down to disappointment – I no longer have that excuse yet I’m still annoyed by K-ON

The animation is still as good as ever – tragic waste of talent really. The new OP and ED are not as good as the previous season…….the OP is actually godawful. Seriously Aki Toyosaki should never be allowed to sing. She should particularly be kept well away from fast paced songs……..the OP made me want to rip my ears off such was the inarticulate screeching that came blaring down my headphones! The ED is much better, mainly because Youko Hikasa is much better singer – it’s still not a patch on ‘Don’t Say Lazy’ though

Generally you’ll like this if you liked the 1st season……however if you hated/disliked/were bored by the 1st season, you’d be better off staying well away from this 2nd series. It hasn’t improved, absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder and you’ll only irritate yourself

Kiss X Sis (TV)

Look!! I survived! Although can’t say the same for some of my brain cells – they sadly passed away from repeated head-desking and facepalming RIP my brain cells. This was just bad – not overly offensive really, just bad. The ‘humour’ is decidedly adult – we have the two girls flashing their boobs, sniffing their little brother’s pants and (in a dream sequence) grabbing his erection However for all the perversion, the fanservice is quite restrained – no nipples and not as many panty-shots as I was bracing myself for. The only thing that sets this show apart from every other borderline hentai harem, is the fact they’re playing the incest card…….but not even doing it properly since the sisters aren’t blood related to Keita and their parents fully support the idea of them becoming romantically involved (their father provided the only giggle for me this entire episode with his hot-blooded theatrics ).

The animation is sub par – flat and boring, the character designs aren’t overly appealing either. Music is just there – nothing noteworthy. OP is fecking awful (and had more fanservice in it than the rest of the episode put together). ED is a creepy dance thing…….which was just creepy with bad music.

Yeah this was painful to watch – it probably wouldn’t have been too bad if there had of been a bit of effort on display, but it’s just lazy – completely relying on the ‘ooh taboo!’ gimmick to carry the show. Doesnt work in the slightest…..definitely dropping.

Senkou no Night Raid

Despite my misgivings about the setting, this turned out to be quite an interesting first episode. The whole spy thriller feel of the show was a welcome change from the usual series – even though these spy characters have superhuman powers, somehow the action avoids becoming too far beyond the realms of reality. The powers on display seem to be telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation and one fella seems to have an unlimited byakugan (only without the white eyes and veins ). I couldn’t help but draw parallels to Darker than BLACK when watching this, mainly due to the superpowered spy theme – but that’s kind of where the similarities end; Night Raid is much more grounded in politics than Darker than BLACK, there’s quite a lot of political intrigue and dialogue going on. This episode lacked the wow factor – it’s not going to blow you away with amazing action and shiny animation, but definitely a promising start.

The animation is solid, but lacks any kind of extra glitz that would have made this a stunning opening. The colour palate is quite dull – lots of browns, and most of the action takes place at night so the screen can seem very dark at times. However the action was well choreographed and I liked the background detailing. Voice acting is also solid – it’s a good cast. I can’t comment on the historical accuracy of the setting as I’m not familiar with the details – but its clear that quite a lot of research went into the making of this show. They’ve definitely gone to quite a bit of trouble to make sure the setting is as accurate as possible – right down to the language barrier; there is a surprising amount of chinese dialogue. Music is unremarkable – can’t say I really noticed it.

Seems like Senkou no Night Raid may be quite episodic with an underlying plot-thread – I’m definitely sticking around for more (again with the being a sucker for mystery thrillers )