Spring Season Midterms

Once again, I've been on near-total hiatus for the last couple months - I blame real life and a distinct lack of free time at work to write blog posts.  But still, I thought I'd surface to throw out some thoughts on the winter season, and how I'd grade it if I were giving out grades today:

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Grade: A) Awesome - this is what Onegai Teacher should have been.  Kaito isn't a loser like Kei, he freaking dives through the air and confesses at the same time.  The whole confession scene at the end of ep 9 was awesome too, probably one of the best-done of its type I've seen.  Yeah, Kaito has the Bieber Fever haircut, but still, episode 9 impressed me that he can get it done when he needs to.

Mouretsu Pirates (Grade: B+) - I really liked the first couple episodes - I'm a sucker for scifi in general, usually, but hate "serious" scifi like Guilty Crown so this looked like it could be right up my alley.  The pacing is a little on the slow side - sometimes it feels like this was meant to be a one cour series and they're just padding it to two.  The extended intro at the start of every episode gets more than a little repetitive too.  But having said that, it has a good cast of characters, and I think that's what's sucked me in and keeps me looking forward to this every week almost as much as Ano Natsu.  Marika's almost too perfect in that she seems to have an absurdly natural grasp of decision-making as a captain, but Chiaki's like watching Kuroneko in space, and Misa and her teacher/helmsman are always fun for me to watch too.  It's odd for me to say this but I'd actually like it if they went a *little* more serious - seeing space combat where no one gets hurt just seems a little unrealistic, and putting her crew in danger enough times means someone would get hurt eventually and Marika would have to deal with the consequences.  But still, overall, this is fun to watch each week and I'm looking forward to where they end up going with it.

Amagami SS+ (Grade: B) - The Morishima-senpai arc is still coming, so this may get graded up, but so far it's been fun to watch - it's rare to ever see what happens to a couple in anime after they actually become a couple, so an entire season about that is kind of refreshing.  Although it's not very realistic that Junichi isn't, for just one example, all over Sae after they've been going out for a year.

Rinne no Lagrange (Grade: B) - My final grade for this could be an F depending where they go with it, but it's fun to watch so far, and while I'm sure Madoka's personality could grate on some, it doesn't really bother me.  It feels like 99% of what's going on is hidden from the viewer, and that gets a little annoying after a while - I'm hoping they parcel out more information as we go and don't just dump an explanation for everything in the very last episode in a rush.  Given there's a second season in summer but a three-month break before that, I'm dreading a cliffhanger at the end of the month...

To Heart 2 Dungeon Travelers (Grade: B) - This is an OVA, first episode was out last month, with the second episode to follow this month - I think most people would grade this a D or so, but I've watched all the other To Heart 2 anime and OVAs, and seeing the cast in action again after a long layoff was enough to make this well worth watching for me.  Takaaki has to have the biggest harem in all of anime though - seriously, how many girls are after him, 15?  20?  I thought Junichi in Da Capo SS was a player, but Takaaki I'm pretty sure has him beat in numbers at this point.

Toradora OVA: Thank You, Santa

Somewhere in my late 20s I reached the age where there really wasn't anything I wanted for Christmas.  Even for my birthday I asked for something for my two-year old daughter, because I couldn't think of anything for myself.  It's not that there's nothing I want - but asking for a pension, or for my daughter's 529 plan to fully fund itself, or to pay off the mortgage isn't something even Santa can pull the hell off on his best day.

But, having said that, seeing the Toradora OVA out there when I had somehow completely missed the news and/or forgotten it was getting one, is one of the best Christmas surprise presents I can remember getting.  It's not the greatest episode of Toradora, but just seeing the cast in action again in new material was well worth the almost two-year wait.  To summarize it in a few words, the OVA is about Takasu's bento battle with Kitamura's grandmother, and if you liked Toradora at all, it's definitely well worth checking out.  Toradora is one of my favorite anime series of all time, and while this is a side story during the main plot and not a "ten years later" epilogue or anything, it's still well worth watching.

Idolmaster Finale

The final episode of Idolmaster is over - not much to say about this one, it was pretty much the ending I expected, with the big concert for everyone at 765Pro, Producer-san sneaking out of the hospital to go, and then finally an epligoue of sorts when spring comes and the Producer's back at work.  It was nice to see Haruka was finally able to give Producer-san the present she wanted to give him at Christmas, the concert scenes weren't bad, there was even the hint of a Haruka-Miki-Producer triangle down the road at the end.  Not the impact of the end of episode 23, sure, but then this episode was pretty clearly going to be a by-the-numbers feel-good finale, and I'm fine with that.

In the end, Idolmaster's been a fun ride - while I can't say every episode was epic, and some were very forgettable, when it was good, it was very, very good.  If I had to pack just 10 anime series to take to a desert island with me, would it make the cut?  Probably it'd only be on the bubble, but it's been an entertaining anime series, and I'd be happy if we end up getting more down the road (probably unlikely, but hey, I can hope for an OVA for something).  I think if they'd gone the Miki-Haruka smackdown for the Producer route and made better use of the drama from Producer-san's accident, it'd be at an even higher level - but as is it was still fun to watch and I'm sure I'll be rewatching Chihaya and Haruka's arcs, at least, pretty soon.

Hayate Movie: Heaven is a Place on Earth

I loved both Hayate no Gotoku anime series - although like a lot of long-running series, some episodes I'd say were worth a re-watch and some were better off forgotten.  When I heard there was a Hayate movie coming out, I was really looking forward to it since there's certainly potential for it to be epic - the relationship chart is like an explosion in a spaghetti factory, which means lots of potential for drama, and while the story can be mediocre at times, when it's funny Hayate can be really funny.  Unfortunately...the movie, for me at least, wasn't all that great.

The good parts first - I'm a Nagi fan and Nagi definitely hogs the spotlight in this one.  If you're rooting for any of the other girls, this might be a good reason not to like it, but for me it's not a minus. 

It was also genuinely good to see the cast in action again, although in hindsight I'd have been more entertained re-watching some of the other Hayate anime instead.  Hinagiku getting to kick ass with a sword, even if just for a few seconds, was pretty badass also.  If you're keeping up with the manga, Kayura shows up throughout (I'm not, so I had no clue who she was - although it's not hard to figure out she's a friend of Nagi and a fellow otaku).

Now for the bad...the animation just seems a notch down from JC Staff's rendition, which is disappointing.  A little too much SD, which makes me think they're saving budget more than trying to be cute.  I should have known this wasn't going to be Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi-level, but it's still disappointing. 

That and the story...kind of sucks.  Nagi, while the heroine, is basically useless throughout, first whining and then becoming the damsel in distress.  There's no development here, no character growth at all.  There's also really nothing that made me laugh the whole 58 minutes - I had just watched Working and that was about 9,000 times more entertaining.  For a little while, I was getting a Beautiful Dreamer vibe, which is a good thing in my book, but...not nearly as well done.  The whole world of illusion cracks way too easily, and the climax gets resolved so fast I don't know why they even bothered trying to play it up as a situation of mortal peril.

In the end I'm more disappointed than anything else - Hayate no Gotoku has its weaknesses overall, but it also can be hilarious and moving at times, and I couldn't help feeling the cast was really under-utilized here.  Kayura busting out the SOS-dan uniform in "closed space" was funny, I'll give them that, but otherwise this just didn't put a smile on my face the way most of the Hayate anime did.  Your mileage my vary, of course, and there's far worse anime out there to spend 58 minutes on, but for me at least I think this ends up in the discard pile.  It's entirely possible I just had my hopes too high for this one.

Idolmaster 24: Family

Overall, this was a good conclusion to Haruka's arc - they went with the theme of friendship among the 765Pro idol family, and that's fine.  As much as I wish they would have delved into a Haruka-Miki-Producer-san love triangle, that would have been a little out of place with the rest of the series anyway.  Instead we get Haruka having a breakdown as she feels all her friends at 765Pro are slipping away, Ritsuko giving her some time off, and finally after a chat with Producer-san Chihaya asks Ritsuko to help get everyone together, Haruka remembers why she wanted to be an idol to begin with, and we're all set for a happy finale.

The real blame for Haruka's predicament rests squarely on Producer-san's shoulders, though - you don't put on a concert with all your idols without scheduling time for them to practice together, at least a few times.  All the stress Haruka put on herself trying to schedule time for everyone to meet was basically her trying to do the Producer's job.  To cut Producer-san a little slack, it's a very common mistake of rookie producers and project managers alike - over-committing, and as a consequence overbooking their idols (or "resources" in corporate-speak).  If everyone's overbooked, the end result is things don't get done and/or get done poorly.  If there aren't enough hours in the day for 765Pro's idols to get all their jobs done and practice, it's the Producer's job to step in and start saying no to people to free up time - otherwise, as Haruka foresaw, the end product's not going to be very good.  It's a fine line - you want to do as much as you can, but you don't want your idols/team to be overworked and start sacrificing quality either.  Bottom line, if like Producer-san you're on the phone telling people you're going to put on a great show, you need to line up the practice time to make the show great.

Uh...thank you...I mean, thank me...

The visuals were very well-done this episode though, and while Haruka giving herself candy was a little surreal (reminded me of that scene with the two Kyons in Disappearance of Suzumiya Haruhi a little), everything still clicked well overall.  The Producer was out of commission most of the episode but did at least give Chihaya some good advice, which partly makes up for his sucking at scheduling.  Miki impressed me because she didn't throw Haruka under the blame bus for what happened to the Producer, probably helped by the fact it was clear in the first couple minutes of the episode that he'd have a smooth recovery.  If his prognosis had been in doubt, it would have upped the drama some, but again, Producer-san wasn't the focus here, it was on friendship/family and that's fine too.

 

Finally, the good kind of tears

In the end, part of me still thinks they could have done a lot more with this if they'd thrown the romance angle in, but I can accept this story arc for what it is - we did get some very well-done, emotionally powerful moments that you never would have guessed were coming if you'd only watched, say, the episode about Hibiki and her dog.  Haruka's acting audition was conveniently close to how she really felt at the time, but it showed us a side of Haruka we hadn't really seen before.  At a glance you might think Haruka's one of those eternally cheerful people that would find the bright side even if the sun was about to explode, but this shows she's a more complex character than that, and how much she depends on her friends for support.

 

This was a nice touch, going full circle with the OP

Early on, Haruka seemed to disappear for episodes at a stretch and I was wondering if she was going to end up like Akari in Yuruyuri - but fortunately, in the second cour she had a lot of time in the limelight, and she's easily my favorite character of the cast.  It's going to be sad when the curtain goes down on the concert and the series comes to an end - but Idolmaster is something (at least for arcs like this one, Hibiki's dog not so much) I can see hitting my re-watch list.