First Impressions: Spring 2016 – Part 2

Well here’s the next part of the past few days new releases!

• Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE 0096
• My Hero Academia
• Pan de Peace!
• Kumomiko: Girl Meets Bear
• Re: Zero -Starting Life in a New World-
• Macross Delta
• Bakuon!
• Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE 0096

I’ve already watched the Gundam Unicorn OVA’s, but it has been 6 years since the first episode aired, so my memory is a touch hazy at this stage.  I don’t think this episode was markedly different though – they moved a few scenes about but that’s about it.  The pacing was a bit off, but that is to be expected when you start chopping up hour long OVA episodes into 25 minute episodes.

Unicorn is set in the Universal Century Gundam timeline – the main timeline in the franchise – so there are loads of references to older shows peppered throughout and you’ll only really have a full understanding of the political climate if you’ve watched some of the earlier UC series.  Still, even if you haven’t seen much Gundam there is plenty to appreciate in Unicorn since it looks & sounds great…..although I’m not really fussed on that OP.

I’m not sure if I’ll keep this on since I’ve already watched Unicorn – may just catch the odd episode to rewatch some of the better action set-pieces.

 

My Hero Academia

As predicted I loved this – it was a lot of fun to watch.  It’s not the most original of series, but it has a lot of heart, some great characters (Midoriya is absolutely adorable, All Might is cheesy as hell and Bakugou is an utter dick) and BONES managed to turn out a pretty decent looking adaptation.

My Hero Academia is a fairly straightforward superhero series which clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Western comics.  That influence is clear in the stylised backgrounds and some of the character designs, but even though superhero shows have flooded the scene recently, My Hero Academia still feels fresh and entertaining.  I’m definitely looking forward to watching more of this!

 

Pan de Peace!

Okay so Pan de Peace is 3 minutes of lesbians obsessed with baked goods.

— Caraniel (@Caraniel) April 3, 2016

There isn’t much harm in the show, but it is really too stupid for me to bother with.  Also I can’t trust a character who thinks putting strawberry jam on an egg sandwich is okay – that’s just wrong on so many levels.

 

Kumomiko: Girl Meets Bear

There are only two things that make Kumomiko’s opening episode stand out from similar shows like Gugure! Kokkuri-san – the insanely catchy ED and the weird bestiality segment in the middle that came out of nowhere.  Other than that it was a pretty standard comedy about a young girl wanting to escape a backwoods village and her guardian (who happens to be a bear).  I was quite amused over all, so I’m giving Kumomiko another episode out of curiosity.

 

Re: Zero -Starting Life in a New World-

So the premiere episode of Re:Zero ended up being double length for some mystifying reason.  To be honest I very nearly bailed midway though because this is just another Shitty LN Adaptation.  I found the characters really irritating, particularly the lead male, who is not only completely unphased by his suddenly being transported to another world populated by CGI beast-men, but starts harping on about all the usual “transported to another world” tropes.  Having a self-aware protagonist can be amusing, but Subaru is just obnoxious and grating to listen to….I quickly developed the urge to punch him in the face.

Now the later half of the episode was marginally better since that’s when the time-travel plot kicked in, but again the main character kind of ruined any potential interest I may have had.  Subaru spends the first half of the episode being super self-aware, but fails to cop-on to what’s happening to him even after running through the same day twice.  You can’t have a protagonist be trope savvy one minute and genre-blind the next!  Meh, you’d think I’d know not to expect anything from this kind of LN adaptation by now.

 

Macross Delta

I had already seen the majority of this episode in January when the special pre-air came out, but it was still fun to watch it again.  I have to say I’m still not entirely sold on the idol unit idea – it feels more like AKB0048 than Macross – but if they keep this level of dumb fun going I’m sure I’ll get over my aversion to idol groups.  I mean it’s hard not to love a show where a mecha battle turns into a full on concert scene with mahou-shoujo-esq idols healing people with pop-music!  This is the kind of crazy I watch anime for.

 

Bakuon!

Cute girls geek out over motorbikes – that about sums up Bakuon, and it ended up being pretty fun!  It’s refreshing that the show is allowed to use real brand names and bikes – it actually ended up being pretty educational, which I didn’t really expect.  I’m not sure how many episodes I’ll last since I have no real interest in motorbikes, but I’m definitely willing to give Bakuon another chance – I enjoyed the energy of the first episode.

 

Sailor Moon Crystal Season 3

So I took the plunge and tried the latest season of Sailor Moon Crystal, and thank all that is good in the world, this is actually looking to be good!  Toei finally looks like they’re putting effort into the reboot – the character designs have been overhauled and move much better, the horrible CG transformation sequences are gone, replaced by traditional 2D versions reminiscent of the original anime’s, and the whole feel of the show is just more like what I remember and loved about Sailor Moon in the first place.

I really hope that the show continues to maintain this level of quality – it would kill me all over again to endure the crushing disappointment of the first two Crystal seasons, and I think it would be worse this time since I love the Death Busters arc and it’s characters so much.

Please don’t fuck this up Toei!

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