Autumn 2011: First Impressions (Working’!! S2, C³ & Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!)

More new shows – going to be a busy week~!  Next up is Working’!! S2, C³ & Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

Working’!! S2

Pretty lacklustre start to the new season of Working really.  Pretty much all it accomplished was refreshing everyone’s memory about the characters and their main quirk, and rehashing some of the same old running jokes – absolutely nothing new to see here, it felt more like a filler episode than the start of a new season.  I hope the show gets an injection of energy soon, because if the rest of the series is as uninspired as this episode its going to be a real chore to get through!

Production quality looks to be the same as the previous season, ie: decent.  New OP isn’t as infectiously brilliant as ‘Some WAN WAN!’ but its pretty cute and in similar vein………..and I don’t actually have anything else to say about the show.

C³ (C Cube / Cube x Cursed x Curious)

My god this was dull. And annoying. And DULL!  Seriously, I struggled to make it through the episode and I usually have a fairly decent tolerance for this kind of meh magical girlfriend show.  However C3 not only inflicts a mentally retarded tsundere female lead on us, it also gives us one of the blandest male leads ever – he literally has no presence in the show beyond being ‘nice’.  Mentally retarded tsundere female lead succeeded in making me want to drop kick her off a pier (am I meant to find her cute?? Seriously!??) in record time (usually I last at least 2-3 episodes before developing that urge), and even though I watched the whole episode, I’m really not sure what the fecking point of the show is!  Urgh, getting annoyed just thinking of the wasted time I spent watching this show.

At least things are bit better on the animation front – Silver Link at least made things look interesting with their use of colour, pattern, light and camera angles.  The studio only really have BakaTest to their name, but they really deserve a better show to work on .  I don’t like the character designs at all though – too much weird hair/eyes and miniscule belt-like skirts (so many bloody pantyshots!).  Voice acting was also very meh, and in the case of Fear, really fecking irritating – ED was generic (and suggests that there will be a third girl in the harem).  Basically I wasn’t impressed by anything but the animation – definitely not watching any more of this rubbish.

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!

Well this didn’t turn out quite like I expected…….rather I really enjoyed this first episode, it was really entertaining!  I was braced for utterly generic harem antics with a slight Ikkitousen slant, but instead got something closer to BakaTest mixed with Sengoku Basara!  The whole episode was a mental sengoku style inter-class battle with mad explosive fighting styles, transforming robots, spear-wielding maids & helicopter commentary from the school principal (because this is a PE class!) – it made absolutely no sense, but damn was it fun!  I’m also pretty relieved that the main male lead doesn’t seem to be the type to faff about – he’s already confessed to his love interest twice (and been gently rejected both times) but doesn’t seem too deterred or interested in pursuing a harem.  Also there are other fellas in the show – with a decent amount of lines and personality; such a rarity in shows of this ilk!

Animation is nothing to write home about – it does the job, but is nothing amazing.  The voice acting is great though, sounds like the seiyuu had fun with the show & there is an impressive cast on board, plenty of recognisable voices.  No OP or ED this week & the BGM does the job without being amazingly good/bad.

Basically I was pleasantly surprised by this first episode – I’ll give the show another two episodes to see if it can keep the fun factor going.