Spring 2011 is a Bad Time for Anime

Remember those anime I said I'd review? I tried. I really did. But there's no way I can force myself to watch more than one episode of these things.

Let's start with Battle Girls – Time Paradox.

Boobs. Boobs and lots of them. Normally I can overlook a boob explosion, assuming there's anything else of substance in the show. But in this case, the boobs are really too overwhelming. The show is nothing but fanservice, with no substance at all. The main character, a girl who accidentally fell through time, is dumber than a sack of dead rocks. The time-travel idea isn't terribly original, and the gender-bending is poorly done...I can't watch another episode. Oh, and there's a talking dog with a samuri helmet at the end of the first episode. I'm saying that as an after thought, because that's apparently how the show's creators felt about it. It's like one of them said "Hey..you guys...does this seem kinda...awful?" And the others said "Oh, it is...lets add a talking dog, that should help!"

Speaking of dogs, I tried to watch Dog Days as well.
The issue with Dog Days is that it's basically a bad version of The Familiar of Zero, which was only good because Louise was so tsundere. It's another cookie cutter plot with no original thoughts aside from the fact that everyone has dog ears and a tail. Some crappy nobody from the present day is pulled back in time to become a medieval hero. What's up with the time travel shows lately? It's a popular idea, but every seems to be doing it so badly. The one thing this show has going for it is that it's cute. Well..it's cute if you think everyone having the exact same face and confused look is cute.

As for Suite Precure...
I'm gonna admit, I'm not especially enjoying it. Magical girl plots tend to be pretty predictable, but the first show in the series offered some nice takes on the standard 'friendship-love-purity' triumvirate. I didn't watch any of the other Pretty Cure shows, though...and I have the feeling that by Suite Precure the franchise is running thin.

In regard to animation...I had no issue with the style during Pretty Cure, but somehow it seems too stretched out and plastic-y in this incarnation. There's a happy medium to be found in animation-too dark and realistic is boring, but too bright and exaggerated makes it hard for me to think of the characters as anything but a bunch of lines on a screen.

Character development is predictable, but at least it's there. It's clear that, although the Precure series has been around for a few years, it's nto meant to grow with it's audience. Rather, it's staying on the same level and bringing in new viewers with each incarnation. That's alright, I guess. -.-

Mostly, it's Hummy that's making it hard for me to watch the show. It's too cute, too over the top, too...intolerable. Look at this thing, then look at QB.

Doesn't it seem kinda lacking? With a frozen face like that, I expect it to be more sinister.

Issues aside, it's a pretty good series. The musical theme is unique, and it's making good use of the standard magical girl themes and stock characters. I'm only up to episode 4, so there's still time for it to get awesome.

I'm reserving judgment on Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, and Lotte no Omocha until I've seen more of them.

Magical Angel Creamy Mami First Impression

I've decided to start watching some older mahou shoujo series, starting with Magical Angel Creamy Mami because, well....because that's what was available. As much as the title sugguests the series is some kind of porn, it's extremely innocent. The series seems to take place in a world of perfect peace (as evidenced by the fact that the police have nothing better to do than chase Yuu, the main character, around when she borrows her Dad's scooter), so I'm not expecting any kind of action or magic battles.

The main themes seem to be prepbescent ideas of sexuality and adulthood. Yuu is tomboyish and adventurous. Her best friend is Toshio, who is surprisingly interesting for a boy in a mahou shoujo show. Yuu clearly isn't concerned with being pretty, sexy, or cute. She just wants to have fun and enjoy her life. She's impulsive and rash-a prototypical genki girl.

The show has a very surreal feel to it. Yuu encounters some aliens that look like Snarf from The Thundercats, makes friends, and has a bizarrely symbolic psychedelic ride aboard their spaceship. As you do. Even outside the spaceship things seem a little too bright and pleasant to be real, much like the inside of a Hello Kitty coloring book. Since Yuu is able to see the spaceship when no one else can, she is given magical powers (just accept that, it's probably all the explanation we'll get) that allow her to transform into Creamy Mami, a 16 year-old version of herself. Creamy Mami will almost certainly be my drag queen stage name. In a lot of ways Mami is a parody of puberty-she's pretty and elegant, where Yuu is awkward and bulky. It's very idealized; right away I'm thinking that Mami won't need to deal with any of the troubling issues like eating disorders (or for that matter, zits) that real-life teenagers would struggle with.

Like I said, I'm not expecting much other than cute fluff and wish fulfillment from this show. It's a classic and one that helped established the genre so it seems worth the attention. I'll also be reviewing Suite Precure by the episode as soon as I get caught up. I'll be doing Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream, Dog Days, Astallote no Omocha!, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, and Sengoku Otome-Momoiro Paradox. Shooot, that's a lotta anime. ;-; I might not stick with all of these...But, I wanna keep the blog relevant. There aren't many magical girl shows this season, but these seem like they might be related.