Spring 2012: First Impressions (Saki Episode of Side A, Haiyore! Nyarko-san and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia

The deluge of new shows is slowing somewhat now, but there are still quite a few to air this week.  First off we have moe mahjong, Cthulhu gods and ghosts………...Saki Episode of Side A, Haiyore! Nyarko-san and Tasogare Otome x Amnesia.

Saki: Achiga-hen episode of side-A

This episode just further confirmed to me that this just isn’t my type of show.  I completely zoned out within 10minutes so I don’t think I’d even be able to tell you what this was all about!  I do know that this Saki spin-off was much more grounded than the main Saki show (the whole 1 episode that I watched of it anyway) and the characters are nowhere near as annoying, but that’s about it.  Cute girls playing mahjong is not my idea of fun, especially since I know absolutely bugger all about mahjong so I don’t even have that to latch on to.

Production quality is grand, however I still do not get the fascination with underage girls legs & boobs.  Can’t really say anything about the voice acting or music because I wasn’t listening for the majority of the episode.

So not my thing – but I am sure fans of the series will be glad to have more Saki to watch.

Haiyore! Nyaruko-san: Another Crawling Chaos

Now this surprised me.  Having seen a handful of the flash shorts back when they were airing, my expectations for this show were pretty much on the ground, however this first episode was actually a lot of fun!  The show is full of manic energy, hyper self-aware and simultaneously attempts to parody its genre while also reveling in its tropes.  It is exceptionally difficult not to get swept up in the pace, and I found myself laughing by the end.  I am properly surprised by how much I liked this episode!  Saying that though, I do not expect the show to maintain this level of fun and energy for very long – it will probably burn out and become what it wants to parody within a few episodes; but it will be a fun watch while it lasts.

The star of this show is Kana Asumi’s motor-mouthed performance as Nyarko – she must have been absolutely exhausted after recording this show, because Nyarko rarely stops to draw breath and the entire show revolves around her.  The production is certainly better than I was expecting, not that that’s really saying much, but still.  the OP & ED are pretty fun if generic and in keeping with the rest of the show.

So I enjoyed this despite myself – will give it another few episodes to see if they can actually keep the series fresh, even if I have my doubts.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia (Dusk Maiden of Amnesia)

I liked the way this episode showed the same scene from two different perspectives – that was quite clever, but that’s about the most praise I can give the show because otherwise it was rather uninspired.  I was hoping for more from the premise, but it seems that this is just going to be yet another harem show – except this time one of the harmettes is a ghost.  I did get some Natsu no Arashi vibes from the show for a while, but there isn’t really the same charm here, and the clever direction can’t really cover up for the dull writing or obnoxious characters.

And the production really is well done!  There are some very creative shots, nice music and interesting direction choices here, but in the absence of appealing characters or witty dialogue, the nice looking art & animation seems rather wasted.  Voice acting is bland, the male lead has zero presence and that girl who can’t see the ghost just rambled on and on until I wanted to strangle her.

So not the best start to the show – I am willing to give it another episode or two though, because there is some potential here – they just need to make their characters more appealing and sharpen up the writing.