Mashiro-Iro Symphony : The Color of Lovers

Catchy opening theme, gaggle of girls with the same half-dozen designs seen in every other contemporary shounen romance anime, bland male protagonist? Check, check, and check. Welcome to Mashiro-Iro Symphony, an adaptation of a slice-of-life romance visual novel that is more or less like every other such adaptation you've ever seen.

The show opens with our protagonist, Shingo Uryuu, running out into the night to help his little sister find her way home. She, meanwhile, appears to be wearing a bra and a dress on top of a turtleneck and skirt, or something...it's odd looking. Anyway, the sister, Sakuno, chases after an adorable fluffy creature while her brother searches for her and gets even more lost. While Sakuno waits in the rain, a girl named Airi Sena spots her and shares her umbrella. She's also lost, so together they call the brother and arrange to meet up in a nearby park. They succeed, and Shingo gets all wide-eyed upon meeting Airi in person.

So! Shingo, Sakuno, and guy-pal Hayata, as it turns out, are also serving as representatives from their school, which is merging with another (formerly all-girls) school. The trio will attend the new school, which is naturally chock-full of female characters: a teacher who's nervous around boys, a be-ponytailed , and of course, Airi Sena, who turns out to be opposed to the merger. OBSTACLE!

The main thing to enjoy in Mashiro-Iro Symphony thus far is its soundtrack, which is full of enjoyable orchestral arrangements (although the charming, heartwarming music that went with the opening scene felt kind of out of place for a rainy night). Other points: Sakuno, while largely the standard little-sister-with-a-brother-complex, offers a wry response about girls feeling clumped together when she and her brother are confronted with a mass cluster of their new classmates. There's also a thus far unintroduced character randomly playing with the generically adorable mascot character outside of the school building who suddenly stops to stare at the camera again. These are pretty much the only surprises in the episode.

While the art itself is detailed and crisp, the character designs are a bit overdone, and the characters themselves generic (though points should be awarded to Sakuno for her wry response about how girls feel in clusters upon witnessing their new school). As for pacing: kudos to the show for not being excessively blatant in its introductions to Shingo's new classmates, but the overall pacing is still a bit off. In particular, the opening scene feels oddly leisurely, with bits where more snap to the dialogue and action might have given the protagonist's intro a little more energy.

Thanks to ANN

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

A month ago, transfer student Kodaka made a really, really bad first impression on his first day and is now widely regarded as a delinquent because of it. One day he overhears the normally standoffish Yozora uncharacteristically carrying on a conversation with someone who turns out to be an imaginary friend. Both soon admit that they have no friends and have trouble finding them, and both also admit that joining an existing club at this point would be an ineffective way to get them, so Yozora does the only logical thing: she starts a new club, one which will essentially be a place where friendless students can connect and make real friends. Surprisingly, the first person to respond to their advertisements for the Neighbors Club is Sena Kashawizaka, the seemingly perfect daughter of the school's Chancellor, who always has a gaggle of boys in tow but claims that she has had difficulty actually making friends because of that. Yozora and Sena instantly get on each other's nerves despite Kodaka's efforts to mediate.

This light novel-based series really, really wants to be the next Oreimo, and is even made by the same branch of AIC as Oreimo. While this one's concept has nothing to do with otaku, its more conventional concept is an interesting one which has even more potential: the notion of creating a club for the specific purpose of allowing friendless people to make friends, something which could easily be inserted into just about any high school anywhere in the world. The discussions that Kodaka and Yozora have about forming friendships are also remarkably insightful.

The first episode shows two fundamental problems that limit this one's potential, however. The first is the presence of Sena as the club's third member. She was doubtless deemed necessary from a marketing point of view, as stories about the kind of true social rejects who would genuinely want/benefit from this kind of club simply wouldn't sell as anime (those type of stories seem to work much better in live action anyway), and she does seem to have a legitimate reason for wanting to join, but her perfection harms the integrity of the concept and the credibility of the story. That and opener scenes which suggest that Kodaka may end up being the only guy certainly raise the specter that the series will hedge in a harem direction.

The other and bigger problem is that the caliber of writing simply is not there, especially not compared to Oreimo. Insight is a plus but isn't enough. The writing makes the mistake of letting Kodoka become more a hanger-on than an active participant, does not make Yozora an interesting enough character, and does not even come close to getting the same kind of combative chemistry out of Sena and Yozora as Oreimo did out of Kirino and Kuroneko. This could improve over time, and the artistic merits are reasonable and the series does have a pretty cool closer, but already it is starting out a couple of steps behind.

Thanks to ANN

Guilty Crown

If there's anything Tetsuro Araki, director of Production I.G's newest sci-fi spectacular, is good at, it's action. Even if you were so tired of zombies that watching it made you feel like one yourself, the one thing you couldn't deny about Highschool of the Dead is that it kicked monstrous ass. Ditto the confused Kurozuka and even Death Note, whose fights were mental but dynamic and exciting nonetheless. Guilty Crown allows Araki to unleash that action beast, without giving him a chance to indulge in the self-conscious edginess that so often accompanies it. In so doing, it becomes one of his more enjoyable works to date.

The story takes place in the future, after a plague has ripped through Japan and forced it to live under the control of a multinational "relief" force known as the GHQ. Shu Ouma is a high school student in this future. He's pretty normal, if reserved and maybe harder on himself than he should be. That is set to change, beginning with the theft of a top-secret...something from GHQ. Injured, the girl who stole it takes refuge in a run-down room that Shu uses to edit videos. When GHQ thugs come for her, Shu knuckles under like a good sheep. Disgusted with himself, he takes the...something to its intended destination.

Whereupon he hooks up with some anti-GHQ guerillas and all hell breaks loose. Swords are pulled suggestively from nubile youngsters and bloody fragments of repressed memory come into it, as do genocidal mecha and one badass, flowing-haired prince. It's pretty conventional (wake up and smell the wish fulfillment!), more than a tad predictable, and pretty much awesome from start to finish. That has something to do with screenwriter Hiroyuki Yoshino, who has long experience with turning tired premises awesome (My-HiME anyone?), and everything to do with Araki. The episode's final minutes are a lesson in cinematic excess, filled with odd angles, dizzying camerawork, and slicker-than-greased-lawyers animation of glowing energies, slashing swords, burning cities, flying fists and exploding mecha. Before you watch, get a stick; you'll need it to prop your jaw back up.

Thanks to ANN

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Kawakami Academy is an unusual school, one which resolves internal disputes through large-scale, medieval-style pitched battles between students. For unspecified reasons, Class C and Class F are having just such a conflict out on a mountainside. Though the higher-ability Class C has the advantage of numbers and a tougher commander, Class F has the advantage in strategy and can equal or outdo Class C's elites with their own. Even when Class C calls in a ringer, Class F can still counter and hold her off long enough to successfully go after the enemy commander directly.

The entire first episode is just a big strategic battle scenario punctuated by intense individual fights, so what this series will actually be about is unclear at this point. A broad cast of characters also gets introduced, so who the series will even focus on is also unclear. What is clear is that super-powered martial arts battles involving sexy girls will definitely be a major component, as numerous characters (many but not all female) toss around all sorts of named power attacks. That is enough to carry the series for now, as the battles offer plenty of flash and pop, the girls look good, and relative newcomer Lerche turns in some appealing artistry and technical merits. Figuring out what the series is about can wait for later, because what's here is fun enough.

Mirai Niki

Okay, so let's say you're hankering for some thrills and action, but don't feel like getting into Fate/Zero due to intolerable levels of pompousness and back-story. In that case, Mirai Nikki might be the answer, with its violent collision of ordinary life and some extraordinary twists.

The story centers on apathetic high-schooler Yukiteru, who spends all day blogging pointless observations on his cell phone while having a godlike imaginary friend called Deus Ex Machina (is this name trying to be cheesy or trying to be clever? Who knows). Yukiteru's life takes an bizarre turn when one day he wakes up and finds that the diary entries in his phone are predicting the events that will happen that day. Even weirder is that Deus himself claims to have created the "future diary," despite being an imaginary entity. As expected, the episode involves a little fun at first—Yukiteru uses the future diary for cheating on tests and avoiding bullies—but the real excitement begins when the phone predicts Yukiteru's death at the hands of a serial killer. Using the phone to stay one step ahead, and with the assistance of classmate Yuno (who has a mysterious phone of her own), Yukiteru outwits the killer ... all before the episode ends. Premise, conflict, resolution. It tells a sharp, suspenseful story to get viewers hooked, while also opening the door for future plot developments. Why can't more first episodes be as effective as this one?

The stylish visuals also help this series to stand out, with a rich color palette (check out the moody sunset lighting when Yukiteru and the killer meet) and striking character designs (being faithful to the style of the manga helps). The ominous appearance of Deus and his imaginary realm, as well as the tense, eclectic soundtrack, also add to the series' distinctive, edgy vibe. The only gripe? The animation is a bit on the choppy side, with the characters stuttering from one dramatic pose to the next. However, the production as a whole is a winner.

thanks to ANN

Shakugan no Shana III (Final)

If you're not already an established and fully-caught-up fan of the franchise then this series is not for you. Full familiarity with the entirety of the first two series is assumed; newcomers will likely be thoroughly lost.

One of anime's defining and most enduring tsundere characters is back for yet another go-around in what is supposed to be the franchise's concluding installment. The regular episode content picks up exactly where the last shot of the second TV season left off, this time clarifying the mysterious scene with the footprints that trail off: Yuji suddenly disappeared on Christmas Eve night as he went to meet Shana, as if he had flickered out of existence like all normal Torches do. Those involved in Flame Haze affairs remember him but no one else does, and the only hint to his continued existence is that the love letters that Shana and Kazumi simultaneously sent him still exist and have specifically been returned to them. Unsurprisingly, Bel Masque seems to be directly involved, as a very different-looking version of Yuji appears amongst them as their new leader.

The new version of Yuji is, by far, the most startling and exciting element in an episode that otherwise doesn't do much beyond laying the groundwork for where this new season will go, though seeing various supporting characters continue to move on down the paths that they chose during the course of the first two TV series is a welcome sight. Other fresh elements include Shana developing an entirely new application for her flame power (which will doubtless play a big role later on) and indications in the opener that a few new faces will eventually pop up, while the Next Episode preview suggests that at least one prominent old face will return. The absence of Shuji in the normal world also (thankfully!) suggests that this series will not get bogged down in the run-of-the-mill school life antics which dominated the second series. The various Shana series have usually been at their best when immersing themselves fully in their supernatural elements, and this continuation has little choice but to concentrate on that.

The minor disappointment is that J.C. Staff's artistic and technical efforts have not improved in the 3½ years since the last TV installment; in fact, the first episode looks rougher in some places than what fans are used to seeing. Still, that shouldn't be enough to discourage franchise fans, who finally get their long-awaited continuation.

Fate / Zero

This prequel to the Fate/stay night anime series is based on the light novel written as a prequel to the original series’ source visual novel. Like most prequels, its main purpose is to show what happened to set up the original story and one of its main draws is seeing characters who were referenced and/or appear in the original story in earlier forms; fans of the franchise will doubtlessly delight in seeing youthful versions of Rin, Sakura, and Illyasviel and seeing Kiritsugu Emiya and Kirei Kotomine at the heights of their powers. Being familiar with the franchise is not necessary for understanding the proceedings here, however, for this double-length premier entirely eschews action in favor of spending its full time carefully setting up its main players and explaining the franchise's premise. Few beginnings to follow-up series in anime franchises are as accessible to newcomers as this one is.

The first episode covers a time frame from eighteen to ten years prior to the events of F/SN, beginning with the birth of Illyasviel, child of a descendant of one of the most prominent bloodlines of mages and Kiristugu Emiya, a former mage-killer who married into the family. It concludes with the prelims for the fourth Grail War, a battle between seven mages held every sixty years for the right to make a wish upon the Holy Grail. Kiritsugu and Kirei are not only two participants but the ones who worry each other the most due to thier unknown motives. Another mage bloodline scion, Kiriya, struggles to fulfill his family's part in the Grail War in an effort to protect young Sakura from getting drawn into the mess, while a fledgling mage absconds with his teacher's relic in order to participate himself. Each mage chosen to participate gets to summon a Servant, a representation of heroic spirits from across history who hail from one of seven types, and those Servants - including, yes, Saber - finally appear in dramatic fashion as the episode ends.

Even from a newcomer's viewpoint, this beginning shows a lot of promise. The technical merits and artistry, courtesy of ufotable, are superb and, for a change, the basic premise is quite clear. Despite the lack of action, it finds just the right amount of drama and pathos to keep viewers involved and has enough hooks to keep the attention of established fans who might find the lengthy set-up boring. It provides plenty of plotlines for story development, too. Overall, it marks a great start for the new season.