Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

Any show that prominently features a Dyson Air Multiplier bladeless fan in the background immediately deserves a second look. Not because it's necessarily good, nor interesting, but because it inherently has a love of the weird and eclectic. In the case of Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, that penchant for the nutty might be a case of Trying Too Damned Hard, but at times it does succeed.

Stop me if you've heard this premise. There's a high school boy who lives in a house with two cute gir—oh, wait. Okay, try this one. There's a zombie who lives in a house with a “necromancer of the underworld” and a snaggle-toothed magical girl who slays giant animal monsters with a chainsaw. It's a riff off a zillion other shows, and it borders on desperate fan pandering, but eventually the absurdity wins over. By the time our hero ends up donning a frilly dress to battle a giant blubbering crayfish, it's over the top enough to be funny. It's not clever and it's not wholly original, but it's quirky, and sometimes that's all you need.

For anyone who's asking, the zombie in question isn't your typical brain-eating, foot-shuffling Hollywood zombie. He's a high schooler like any other, only he was brought back to life by a necromancer so that he can track down who murdered him. Conveniently, because she lives with him, he doesn't have to worry about trivialities like getting his bones shattered or being torn in half or being impaled by a giant bear. All in the first episode. However, there should be a boo and a hiss to the necromancer's name, Eucliwood Hellscythe—apparently it's now the anime norm to name all gothic lolita characters a jumble of English Halloween words.

Watching Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? is somewhat like watching a bad comedian with no comic timing deliver a poorly written joke with no punchline. At first, the only response is silence. Then there's some uncomfortable fidgeting, and maybe some coughing. Then, because the awkward silence has nowhere else to go, the tension erupts into laughter. The audience sits back and realizes, “Man, this is really terrible. I can't stop laughing.” And for some reason, there's a Dyson Air Multiplier.

Originally posted by Bamboo Dong of animenewsnetwork.com

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Dragon Crisis!

Whether fleshing out familiar tales (Toradora!, Asobi ni Iku yo!), inventing something new (Spice and Wolf), or simply going batsh*t insane (Kyōran Kazoku Nikki), in recent times light novels have given us some of our finest romantic comedies. They've also given us plenty of mediocrity. One day at school, regular guy Ryuji Kisaragi is abducted by his long-absent cousin Eriko. He isn't terribly flustered; Eriko, a hunter of supernatural artifacts, is basically a D-cup Indiana Jones, so an abduction or two is nothing unusual. She drags him to a dock where a black market exchange of supernatural goods is planned, and quite naturally proceeds to rob the robbers. In the ensuing shootout the artifact's case is opened and, also quite naturally, a girl pops out. All she can say is "Ryuji," and she can incinerate a fleet of cars with the flick of wrist, so Eriko and Ryuji figure she isn't normal, but they don't figure on her being a real-live dragon. Or being pathologically over-attached to Ryuji.

Between its tried-and-true premise and dispiriting dearth of male characters, Dragon Crisis! doesn't exactly bleed promise. Ryuji is nice, but bland; the girls are pretty, but prefabricated; the plot is fast, fun, and refreshingly action-minded, but clichéd as all hell. The series is pleasant, but also completely undistinguished. It's a good-looking show, with nice rounded character designs and some surprisingly slick animation, particularly during the car-incinerating and magical-butterfly-swarming parts of the action scenes. There's plenty of harmless fan-service and even a bit of cute puppy-love thrown in for good measure. But you'll be hard put to remember any of it when the episode has run its course, except possibly for the irresistible way that Rie Kugiyama, as the dragon girl, says "Ryuji." And all that does is make you want to watch Toradora! again. Give it another episode to separate itself from the crowd, then dump it.

There might be a story here worth watching, and this is certainly a different take on the classic image of dragons, but the preposterous business about the treasure-hunting organization and the seeming compulsion to force fan service in wherever possible stand against a first episode that was already pretty weak on the writing front. It does have an unusually catchy soundtrack, but its technical merits are mediocre and these characters and situations are just tiny variations (if that) on content that we have seen innumerable times before. In other words, the biggest blow against the series so far is that it's as stale a two-week-old bread. Even Rose's cutesiness - arguably the series’ biggest draw at this point - cannot compensate for that.

Originally posted by Carl Kimlinger & Theron Martin at animenewsnetwork.com

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Freezing

If the idea of plentiful fan service freely intermixed with plentiful graphic violence, all perpetrated by gorgeous gals, appeals you then Freezing is probably the series for you this season. It makes its intent to focus on the former absolutely clear from its very first scene, which features the central full-figured blond stripping in preparation for activating her battle uniform. Later scenes provide all manner of panty flashes, jiggling breasts, shredded clothing, and even outright defined nudity - only in this case we also see the girls getting torn up as much as their clothing. Throats get slashed, limbs get severed (or just plain fall off) on a couple of occasions, and loads of blood gets splattered. As combat-schools-training-to-fend-off-hostile-aliens series go, this is one of the most brutal.

The premise is that, at some point late in the 21st century, mankind starts having problems with invading giant aliens called Novas, so they set up training for cybernetically-enhanced girls called Pandoras (why they have to be girls hasn't been explained yet), who can manifest Volt Textures and Volt Weapons to fight the Novas. After a certain point the girls are paired up with Limiters, who must always be boys younger than the girls, who can use their own “Freezing” powers to help protect their paired girls and allow them to move freely in the Nova's aura. One boy destined to be a Limiter is Kazuya Kazuha (who is incorrectly listed as “Aoi Kazuha” in multiple sources, but that's his sister's name), whose older sister was a Pandora who sacrificed herself to fend off a Nova assault four years earlier. And he seems destined to hook up with the absurdly-named Satellizer L. Bridgette, the training academy's top student and a seemingly coldly brutal killer who keeps everyone at a distance until, of course, Kazuya comes on the scene.

The look and set-up of the story are a mishmash of elements borrowed from numerous other anime, including RahXephon and My-Otome, the concept is pretty standard otaku-focused fare, and the play-out of events so far is fairly predictable. Some have complained about Satellizer reacting inconsistently at the end, but other yet-to-be-revealed factors could be in play there. The artwork and animation is very good at times but inconsistent, although the series hits big-time on the female character designs. Any of the series’ other potential weaknesses aren't going to matter if you have a sweet spot for the fan service/violence combo, though, as on that front it scores big-time.

some word from IS :

Nova:Big evil robots trying to kill humanity.
Pandora: Schoolgirls (when is it ever not schoolgirls?) with special powers capable of destroying Nova.
Freezing: A pompous word for releasing some fancy-looking forcefield ... I guess?
Ereinbar: Another ridiculous made-up word used to describe when a young boy (when is it ever not a young boy?) is enlisted by a Pandora to further boost her powers.
Kazuya: The young boy at the heart of this story.
Satellizer L. Bridget: The hilariously-named, top-ranked Pandora whose reputation as the "Untouchable Queen" is about to take a dramatic turn when Kazuya enters her life.

Originally posted by Theron Martin of animenewsnetwork.com

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IS : Infinite Stratos

So it's the future, you see. There's these powerful robotic suits, you see. And only girls can wear them, you see. Except for one guy, you see. And he wants to go to a school for robotic-suit pilots, you see. Yes, we see. We see a cheap attempt to justify yet another story about a lone schmuck surrounded by an infinite bounty of female flesh. The guy is Ichika Orimura, and as you'd expect at a school essentially reserved for the fairer sex, he stands out like a sore thumb. Not only is he the only guy, and thus the center of undue amorous attention, but he's also the only person in his class who hasn't read the robotic-suit (called Infinite Stratos, or IS for short) manual and is the kid brother of famous IS pilot and school instructor Chifuyu. Within days he's gotten the student body's hormones a-roiling, pissed off his roommate (and childhood friend) Houki, and gotten roped into a duel with a spoiled English princess. So much for blending in.


The surprise here is that it isn't Infinite Stratos's transparent premise that sinks it. Rather it's the thinly-veiled world-building info-dumps and reams of unnatural explanatory dialogue. For all its promises of juicy school drama (or comedy), the episode feels dry, and more than a bit clunky. That doesn't bode well for the future quality of the script. As for the potentially prurient premise, it's actually pretty decently handled. While the girls are definitely interested in Ichika, they don't throw themselves on him, preferring to gawk and stalk. Fan-service is surprisingly light—limited to a bit of cleavage here and an "eek! I just got out of the shower!" moment there—and, so far at least, the moe stereotypes aren't oozing out of the woodwork. That Ichika has a personality and a spine certainly helps, as does his obvious displeasure with being the center of feminine attention. As such things go you could do worse, and certainly uglier; 8-Bit's animation is quite nice.

And to think, this was adapted from a light novel? This is barely good enough to qualify for a shovelware dating sim.

Originally posted by Carl Kimlinger of animenewsnetwork.com

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Rio : Rainbow Gate

Is it possible to have an anime riddled with clichés and stereotypes, yet have a premise that's so ridiculous that it results in a viewing experience so unique that it can't even be categorized? Perhaps that was the question posed to a Xebec during a brainstorming session. There is no other possible explanation for the inception of Rio – Rainbow Gate!, a show that bewilders with its inane premise, and its unabashed love of light-reflecting breasts. The latter is a puzzle—with the exception of saunas and female bodybuilding competitions, I've never seen breasts that actually shine in real life, but in anime, they are a dime a dozen. This series, especially, loves this concept, and for every pair of heaving bosoms, there are two glints of radiant sunshine.

Rio, the titular character, is the most popular dealer at Howard Resor
t, a gorgeous beachside community with towering architectural styles borrowed from all over the world. Known as the Goddess of Victory, she exudes luck, and anyone who touches her hand or merely basks in her presence cleans up at the card tables and slot machines. How the casino manages to stay in business is anyone's guess. Aside from dealing, though, she also does various odd jobs for the owner, like dress up and entertain wealthy clients. Although, it does beg one very big question. It's obvious that Rio hates dressing in skimpy outfits and doing whatever perverted thing the owner asks of her, but—why stay at that job? Why not just use her talent for gambling, use that to earn a living, and stop working for some pervert? But maybe at Howard Resort, logic is a rare commodity only sold in the High Rollers room.

See, Rio doesn't just have a knack for luck. She can actually become “one” with whatever game she's playing and pick the cards she wants. In the first episode, she goes head to head with some bad guy who's after a little girl's teddy bear in a hand of five card draw. After the cards are dealt, both players suddenly enter some sort of fantasy dream state, where they actually start walking around a world of life-size cards and reach out to the ones they want. What? Can they actually manipulate the order of the already shuffled cards? Or is it a simple matter of ESP in terms of predicting what card is next? And even though the fantasy sequence is some five minutes long, how long does it appear to the bystanders watching this game?

Once again, logic is not one of the chips at stake here.

To the show's credit, there are two things that I was unprepared for. One, the show looks really nice. The animators put a lot of time and effort into making sure every person in a crowd looks different, and all of the architectural effects in Howard Resort are stunning. All of the cards are drawn with great detail, and every groove in the roulette wheel is carefully brushed in. I even had to admire the effort that the animators expended making sure every single set of breasts in the entire casino had a nice, freshly waxed sheen to it.

Secondly, I was completely unprepared for the motive of the bad guy. When he was trying to steal the little girl's bear, I naturally assumed her wealthy grandfather had hidden corporate secrets inside, or perhaps some kind of key to a safe. No. The actual motive was so ridiculous I audibly cried out in disbelief. As if the Gambling Goddess premise of the show wasn't enough. As if the money shot of the token ermine mascot pulling at a half-naked girl's bed sheets weren't enough. This show is simply too much, and not really in a good way.

Originally posted by bamboo dong animenewsnetwork.com

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