Spring 2012 anime mini-reviews

Besides the second installment of Fate/Zero, which I wrote a full review of last week, five of the other seasonal anime I was watching ended during the days I was away at Anime Expo. Since the summer season of anime is already upon us, I decided to wrap up my thoughts on these five remaining spring anime all in one post here. Not to make the post terribly long, each of the five will have a “mini-review,” focusing only on specific things I feel like saying about them…


Acchi Kocchi

Acchi Kocchi can easily be described as a cute school comedy with emphasis on character-based gags and the adorable little romance going on between the two main characters. In a similar way as Azumanga Daioh, each episode consists of different vignettes (usually just two per episode in Acchi Kocchi’s case) and the humor is derived from the comical personality traits of the characters. But Acchi Kocchi has a couple of things that make it stand out amongst other episodic slice-of-life anime; one thing is that the main cast consists of both male and female characters rather than just the latter, with a lot of the humor coming from the unrequited love of the mildly tsundere Tsumiki towards the sweet but totally oblivious Io. Throw in the quirkiness of Mayoi and Sakaki, as well as the hapless Hime, and there’s some good gags, as well as insufferably cute moments, to be had. The other unique thing about Acchi Kocchi is the animation style of inserting appropriately fonted text and adorably animated background transitions to give the show a noticeable flare of cuteness – most of which keeps with the theme of “acchi kocchi” (meaning “here and there”) by utilizing cartoonish arrows to place well-timed gags.

While the humor in Acchi Kocchi wasn’t consistently funny to me, I got a decent amount of good laughs from the series, more than I usually do. And even when it wasn’t making me laugh, I enjoyed the animation style and the comically emphasized cuteness of Tsumiki and Io’s interactions. If you’re not into this kind of show, chances are you’re not gonna like it. But if you are a fan of cute, slice-of-life anime comedies like AzuDai and Hidamari Sketch, I recommend Acchi Kocchi.

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Natsuiro Kiseki

It seems like not many viewers liked Natsuiro Kiseki, but I personally liked it more than I thought I would. I particularly liked how the “miracles” that the rock granted weren’t flashy or redundant – the girls didn’t get super powers or anything like that, but rather, the miracles granted were rather unexpected and actually inconvenient to the girls, making for both funny and touching moments. I thought it was hilarious when Natsumi and Saki were stuck together and when Natsumi had to hide her doppelganger from her family. All the other things that happened – body switching, seeing their younger selves, Saki vanishing, going into an “Endless Eight” scenario in the final episode – were all fun, unpredictable situations great for comedy and drama. The supernatural origins of the rock were never explained, but it didn’t matter because the series never came off as one that needs any fantasy exposition. The supernatural phenomena of the rock wasn’t as important as the girls coming to grips with the fact that their summer vacation will end and Saki will be moving. As long as one is a little familiar with Shinto beliefs in Japan, having a rock that does stuff like that isn’t anything that needs explanation.

As for the girls themselves, I thought their personalities meshed together well and they really felt like middle schoolers on summer break – as Akira pointed out, they bickered and often acted selfishly rather than being insufferably nice to each other like most other “moe” shows. But amongst that, we see sighs of their strong friendship and how the personality of each one complements the others. While I wouldn’t call it a masterpiece, I think Natsuiro Kiseki is a very enjoyable show if you like ones that are more about characters than story (I adore the opening song too!)

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Mouretsu Pirates

I liked the first two episodes of Mouretsu Pirates when we saw a lot of the fascinating high-tech world it takes place in and focus was on Marika and her relationship with her mother, friends, etc,. But 20+ episodes later, as much as I wanted to keep the enthusiasm I had at the beginning of the series going, it grew continually boring for me. All I got from the majority of the show was dialogue full of techno-babble, flashy spaceships and computer screens, and a large cast of characters that I barely got to know. I thought at least one of the crew members of the Bentenmaru would have a starring episode where we got to know them better and see Marika and others interact with them, but by episode 26, I don’t feel anymore attached to them than I did at the beginning, which is a shame since a lot of them seem potentially interesting, like the full-on cyborg Schitzer (who bears a striking resemblance to the Yu-Gi-Oh! monster Summoned Skull) and the eccentric but secretly beautiful Coorie…I would have loved to see their stories over all the strings of technology and political exposition.

Another issue I had with the series is that, when you have a show about pirates and spaceships, you’d expect some action and drama. I can’t recall one scene in the series that was really emotional or really exciting to me – no one even got hurt until episode 23, and even then it wasn’t any characters we’re supposed to care about. Now this would be fine if we’re talking about a slice-of-life series, but for a premise like that of Mouretsu Pirates, the lack of drama really makes me lose interest. Even when the series foreshadows that something may go wrong, that lack of a dramatic tone makes me unable to get excited about it.

Unfortunately the only thing I can compliment Mouretsu Pirates on is the interesting futuristic world it takes place in and the cool looking CG animation of the spaceships scenes. The attention to the setting atmosphere and design was really the only thing that kept me slightly interested in each episode. Maybe the show’s appeal is supposed to come from the fascination of fictional spaceship technologies and digital war/political tactics, with emotional investment in story and characters not considered. Sadly that’s not enough to hold my interest in an anime.

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Sakamichi no Apollon

The most acclaimed series of the spring ’12 lineup and I believe it’s rightly so. English-speaking fans always love it when there’s no moe or other blatant anime tropes to be found in a series, and Sakamichi no Apollon is certainly lacking in those. With directing by respected Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe, music by the also respected composer Yoko Kanno, and the unique premise of a coming of age story with music and jazz in 1960s Japan, all come together to create a quality anime that stands out from the typical. Mostly everything about the series is well done – the animation is lovely, the music is fantastic, the characters are easy to sympathize with, and the touching story brings forth great drama and beauty. Scenes like the concert at the end of episode 7, Junichi pulling Yurika into the train in episode 9, Kaoru comforting Sentaro on the roof in episode 11 – brilliantly emotional scenes like these are what make an anime great to me, and Sakamichi had quite a lot.

Nothing’s perfect though, and the pacing in the latter half of the series was a bit rushed, especially the season jump in episode 10 and Sentaro suddenly being gone in the last episode before an eight year time skip. I also had trouble stomaching Kaoru’s immature emotional outbursts, especially the ones toward Sentaro in episodes 4 and 6, which were downright mean and uncalled for. And I wish we were told more about why Sentaro ran away at the end of episode 11 – I thought Kaoru had convinced him to stay despite his dad coming home? And if he left because he felt bad about Sachiko, wouldn’t he come back if he knew she was okay? How did his disappearance affect his family? So yeah, not everything about the show was perfect, but certainly it had more good than not. I highly recommend this show if you like quality anime that isn’t geared towards the usual otaku crowd.

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Sankarea

I actually haven’t watched any zombie anime before Sankarea, but from what I’ve seen, I really like what Sankarea did with the premise. While it has a lot of typical anime tropes like “hapless guy gets abnormal girlfriend,” “creepy overprotective dad,” and “love triangle with childhood friend,” it executes them well, and that’s enough to keep me watching. The first four or so episodes were especially brilliant – great backstory for Rea, and again, the series makes the zombie premise very interesting (and Babu is adorable too =^.^=) Some later episodes were great too, such as Aria’s backstory and the backstory of how Wanko and Chihiro met – I guess showing the background of characters is something I feel Sankarea does very well.

Unfortunately I would give Sankarea a higher rating if it didn’t have bouts of forced fan service scenes, especially with Wanko. The first few episode were more or less fan service-free, and the series did fine that way, so to suddenly have her boobs and panties shoved in our face was really jarring and detrimental to the serious tone the show had going for it. Besides Wanko, there were other pointless, disruptive scenes such as the maids dressing up Rea in episode 11 and pretty much any scene with Mogi and Yatsutaka. But despite a handful of annoying scenes, the rest of Sankarea was great. Episode 12 ended on a surprising cliffhanger so there better be a second season!

No Comments… read them or add your own.

  1. Myna says:

    I like these mini reviews.

    Anyway, completely agree with Mouretsu Pirates, but you probably knew that already. I legitimately did like the last arc, though.

    Acchi Kocchi was alright. I didn’t hate it (shockingly enough), but I didn’t get too many laughs out of it either.

    PS. For summer, I predict that you will watch: Sword Art Online, and Natsuyuki Rendezvous. Possibly Humanity Has Declined, and I knew you were going to watch Tari Tari.

    • Yumeka says:

      Heh, I’m surprised you didn’t hate Acchi Kocchi. Like YuriYuri, there seem to be some slice-of-life/comedy anime you can at least tolerate =P

      For summer, your predictions are pretty much on the mark XD You left out Kokoro Connect though.

  2. Kal says:

    I agree with those reviews. I did like Acchi Kocchi, and I liked it a lot. No fan service, plenty of cuteness, but does not feel forced, and pretty much a fun series all around. Characters clicked well with each other, and no one felt out of place (even minor characters). This is an anime that I could show my mom, or my cousin without any problems :)

    Natsuiro Kiseki is another one I liked a lot. The 4 girls are very likeable, very different, but fit well with one another. Not much else I can add, it’s pretty good overall.

    Moretsu pirates was ok. I would have preferred if Marika was simply not so perfect. She always figured everything out, and everything worked out flawlessly. I blame the lack of drama to that. After a few episodes you already know that nothing bad will happen, and things will always go Marika’s way, that there is no tension, drama, nothing. So it was okish, but having “too-perfect” characters kind of takes it down a notch.

    Sakamichi no Apollon was great. No Moe, no fan service, normal acting characters. I loved the first episodes when all the love interests were all over the place, and none of them were working out properly. I thought it had great pacing, and the story was very good. I agree that the last episode did a time jump that was a bit too big, but also understandable. It’s an era with no internet, no facebook, it’s not easy to keep in touch with people or even find them. Very nice overall.

    Sankarea… I saw it all, but can’t say I liked it too much. The premise is interesting the “overprotective” father plot was a bit different, it had a lot going for it. The character for Rea did not show much initiative, neither did Chihiro. Ranko was only there for fan service, so after a while, it kind of wore off for me I guess.

    I did see a few more. Dusk maiden of amnesia was actually quite interesting. The ghost premise is not new, but the situation that created the ghost was very complex, and the first episodic content episodes were connected to that. The artwork was also different, but not sure how to explain it. I did dislike the ending in the last 5 minutes, and preferred the ending before that, but it was interesting over all.

    Zetman… ugh… first 2-3 episodes where interesting, then it went downhill pretty quick. Not sure I can recommend that at all…

    Medaka box. Another anime with a too perfect protagonist, but at least in this one, it shows that being too perfect is an imperfection in itself. It had a few interesting moments, but the whole school, and class Medaka is from is just too unreal, and too hard to relate to it. Shiranui is probably one of the more interesting characters, but we do not get to see much from her.

    Kore wa zombie desu ka. Well, it had a few funny moments, but nothing really redeeming, It was also a bit short, and did not end all arcs very well.

    Mysterious girlfriend X. I have to say this was quite an interesting anime. The premise is pretty hard to tolerate. But if you can get past that (and it’s not so bad later on), it’s a pretty interesting show that delves into the complications of sexuality and boy/girl relations in a pretty decent way. I think it was pretty different, but pretty good overall.

    Hiiro no Kakera… It has a nice opening song… I’ll leave it at that :S Weak characters, really weak plot that is not fleshed out, weak villains, no direction. At least it had a good intro song…

    I think that season was good overall! quite a number of good shows :) Let’s see how the next one is.

    • Yumeka says:

      For the anime I’ve seen, I agree with most of what you said ;) For Pirates, you make another good point that Marika was too perfect and didn’t have to overcome or face any personal challenges – she just had to figure out a few pirating techniques, which unfortunately didn’t make her a more sympathetic character. Besides her, the only other characters that had a reasonable amount of screentime were Chiaki and the Serenity sisters. But even with that, I felt like I hardly got to know them, so you can imagine how underdeveloped the other characters are.

      I actually dropped Medaka Box at episode 6. The school antics, like the pool event, were just too over-the-top, and the characters weren’t doing anything for me either.

      I heard good things about Mysterious Girlfriend X and not so nice things about Zetman and Hiiro no Kakera =P

  3. Cytrus says:

    Now that you’re done with last season’s anime, you can finally watch Chihayafuru.

    …xD.

  4. Nopy says:

    Mouretsu Pirates had a lot of potential, but in the end it didn’t turn out as great as I was hoping it would. I think the biggest problem was that it had far too many characters. There were more characters than there were episodes so it was impossible for them to cover everyone in the first place.

    • Yumeka says:

      Yeah, even if the cast is large, if you can just make a few characters stand-out, that’s still pretty good. But even being two-cour, Pirates didn’t give any characters depth or backstory. It’s too bad since a lot of them looked potentially interesting on the surface =/

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