FALL 2011 ANIME GUIDE: TRY TO LOVE

I know what you're thinking. "Anime? Ha ha, oh man, is this guy serious? Loser!" "Nice one, Chett, let's go pick up chicks and be successful at life." "Rock on." And minus everything except "anime" and "loser," I am thinking the exact same thing. But we're supposed to write about things we care about, right? Nothing is exciting me so much right now as the new anime season -- potentially the best I've ever seen -- so damn am I going to write about it. I apologize if you chose this week to comment on my post, but I'll try to make it entertaining. And educational. But I don't want to torture you that much, so I'll keep things semi-brief. Without further ado, welcome to Patrick "Hulk Hogan II: The Sequel" Cassidy's Fall 2011 Anime Guide!

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume



This is the second season to a comedy about a squid girl who has come to invade humanity because of its polluting of the ocean, but ends up putting a hole in the wall of a beach shack and has to work there to pay it off. It's a goofy premise, and definitely a fun-for-all-ages show. The humor comes from mocking Squid Girl (that's all they call her) for her ineptitude at everything, not the least of which is invading. Characters are introduced who love her, fear her, and are fascinated by her, but no matter what, it keeps the same light tone at a followable pace. This season starts off with no recap, so we're dunked right into another sketch. It feels like we never left.

Rating: 8/10

Working'!!



This second season, on the other hand, has began with pretty much just recap, with little new to offer to veterans of the series. It still follows cuteness-obsessed Souta Takanashi and his unusual coworkers at the restaurant Wagnaria, including androphobe Inami, perpetually short Popura, and lazy manager Kyouko. In the series proper we get to see fun interactions and relationship developments (though Inami is still, as ever, punching the daylights out of Takanashi), but that wasn't present this episode. The episode 2 preview looks like it will be interesting, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Rating: 8/10

Special note: The opening, having to live up to the embarrassingly addicting "Someone Else" from season 1, did a reasonable job of catching the spirit of the original while not being completely derivative. I'll be mouthing "fun fun fun" while no one is looking for the next few months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKxaeSVj2IE

Hunter x Hunter



A remake of an adaptation of a somewhat generic teen boys' comic, HxH doesn't start off with the same excitement as the author's previous work, Yu Yu Hakusho. But an idealistic, naive young boy who wants to be a "hunter" in a world where such an occupation is lauded but dangerous is just the kind of protagonist that attracted many to Dragon Ball all those years ago. It's a fast-paced episode -- the hero Gon has already set out on his journey and befriended childish, money-hungry Leorio and sole survivor/cool kid Kurapika -- and though it's not all that special yet, for the comic to still be running for over 10 years it must get great at some point. I'll keep my eye on it.

Rating: 6/10

Phi-Brain



Sunrise's show this season that isn't Horizon (and thank god for that) is improbable, has terrible character designs, and everyday characters to go along with it, yet it still manages to be fun. In a world that is otherwise exactly like ours (this is key in its unbelievability), puzzle-solving is an invaluable skill, and teenager Kaito Daimon is one of the best. He gets an invitation from the mysterious "Minotaur" to solve a puzzle even Einstein couldn't. When Daimon finishes it with the help of plucky girl/accessory Nonoha, he gets the Phi-Brain, a bracelet that accelerates his puzzle-solving abilities tenfold. It's completely ridiculous, and despite some forced "make the main character look cool" moments (apparently the next best puzzle solver took a whole day to beat a sudoku puzzle), this works in its favor.

Rating: 7/10

Fate/Zero



If you aren't utterly familiar with the trappings of Fate/Stay Night, the visual novel of which this is a prequel, then you might not have as good a time as I did, but thanks to smart pacing you should still get a kick out of it. It does a pretty good job of explaining the universe: every 10 years, seven mages across the world are selected by the Holy Grail to vie for its contents, and they travel to Fuyuki City to summon heroic spirits of the past and of fiction (for example, King Arthur or Medusa) to fight each other in the Holy Grail War. Production values are startling, and there's a lot of dense dialogue peppered throughout with more actiony scenes in such a way that it's still easy to follow. If you take one thing away from this post, it's that you should at least give this show a try, especially if you are open to shows like Game of Thrones. Just try not to laugh at the scene where two characters pace around another for lack of things to do.

Rating: 9/10

Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere (aka amalgamation of every anime cliche ever)



That's all that needs to be said, really.

Rating: /10

Tamayura



Fu Sawatari's father recently passed away, and she's taken up his hobby of photography. After moving to a new town, she tries her best to make new friends and come to terms with her loss. If that sounds sparse to you, that's because almost nothing happens this episode. Slow to the point of boredom, the one thing that kept me watching the show was the captivating, somehow nostalgic scenery and background art. Even a good setting isn't enough to sustain a show, however, and while its theme of coping with loss give it a uniquely bitter taste, the pacing simply isn't up to snuff.

Rating: 6/10

Chihayafuru



A delicately paced drama/romance built around a Japanese card game that's obscure even in Japan -- what better way to spend a midweek afternoon? Chihaya is the gorgeous daughter of a gorgeous model, but her only interest is in karuta, a game that involves slapping cards with the second verses of poems on them when you hear the first verses on a tape recording. She's in high school now, but the bulk of the episode is about her in elementary school, where she met Arata, a quiet kid with no friends. Though Chihaya's blunt personality causes him some problems, it also brings the two closer, and he introduces her to karuta. She is amazed by his passion for something when no one else has any, and takes up an interest in the game herself. It may sound like a quaint premise, but it's wonderfully done, with a sweet atmosphere, revealing dialogue and likeable characters. The other show of the season so far.

Rating: 9/10




Still to come are the adaptation of the video game Persona 4, a Last Exile sequel years after the fact, a full Future Diary season from the same studio that brought us the awful straight-to-video oneshot, the Code Geass clone (and therefore exciting) Guilty Crown, hilariously named I Don't Have Many Friends, and detective show Un-Go. If I'm lucky, Lupin III Part 4 will show up too, but it seems MIA at the moment.

But I won't write about those. Can't be redundant with these blog posts, and I don't want to be that cruel to you guys. I've already written several times the limit. For those who made it through, ask me and I'll make you a medal.