Spring Finales: Eden of the East

When it came out, I billed this show as the clear cut winner of the spring anime season.  11 episodes later, where does it stand?  Well, Eden of the East was definitely the most unique anime of the season, heck, it had probably the most unique story of any anime in recent history.  The story is supported by a great main character and very well crafted setting.  However, about half way in, the narration gets complicated… almost too complicated.  Certain side characters and relationships ended up being left underdeveloped.  

K-ON! – Episode 03

1 Sentence Summary: “Yui Fails School… almost”.  Episode 3 was less about music, more about the Yui’s study habits and how it’s a disaster waiting to happen.  Once again, it’s scary how I’m able to pinpoint an aspect of my personality in one of these 4 girls (except that I’m a guy).  This time it’s procrastination aspect.

Basquash! – Episode 02

I’ve really gotta stop expecting the second episodes to be as good as the first ones.  The first episode is designed to be flashy in order to draw potential viewers in, while the second episode kicks the story off.  No difference here.  This episode was a lot slower, and a bit more standard for a shounen series.

Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom – Episode 02

[Again, I haven't confirmed that I'm gonna blog this series... this episode review is just in case I choose to, so that I don't fall behind.] So Phantom was one of the biggest surprises to me last week, probably because my expectations were low.  Nonetheless, it grabbed my attention as potential winner.  Episode 2 wasn’t quite as intriguing but that’s not its job.  With the hooker (episode 1) done, it’s time for the story to start building up.

Spring Pilots: Basquash!

… Why oh WHY didn’t watch this earlier, like when it came out.  This makes two shows in a row that had absolutely amazing first episodes.  Eden catered towards my appreciation for good characters and directing, like ef-memories and Higurashi. For Basquash, it caters towards my interest in shows that put a lot of emphasis on the setting, like Eureka Seven and Last Exile.  In fact, I almost consider Basquash to be the fusion of Gurren Lagann and Eureka Seven.

Spring Pilots: Eden of the East

I honestly had to stop myself from doing a full episode review for this.  I never said this was a guaranteed show to blog, and I didn’t feel like breaking my own personal rules… but that won’t stop me from giving the first episode endless praise.

Eden of the East really was on a level of its own from everything else this season.  Even the next best show I saw this season, Phantom, really couldn’t compare.  The first episode did almost everything right.  It was engaging, interesting, and most critically, it made me want more… a whole lot more.

K-ON! – Episode 02

Again this post does not confirm that I’m gonna blog this series.  It just means that it’s a possiblity, and I don’t want to fall behind while I wait for the rest of the pilot episodes to premiere. 

This is episode was more standard K-ON! fare.  Yui being very airheaded, Ritsu being hotheaded, Mio being a fan favorite, and Tsumugi being, well, the rich ojou-sama type.  Talking about the plot would be kinda pointless since there isn’t any plot to begin with.  So instead, this post contains some thoughts that crossed my mind as I watched this episode.

Spring Pilots: Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom

I’ll say this right now.  Besides El Cazador de la Bruja, I have never seen Bee Train series, as such I don’t have any major predisposition against the production company.  With no prejudice, I’d like to think that this review is unbiased.  

Spring Pilots: K-ON!

And with this, the spring season begins. K-ON! (Pronounced “kay on”) is Kyoto Animation’s latest moe slice-of-life comedy.  The show has got big shoes to fill, following the likes of Lucky Star and Haruhi, and in my opinion, KyoAni managed to do it again.  There were a lot of things that really clicked for this show, I’ll just list a few of the many.

Chrome-Shelled Regios – Episode 07

So that ends that little story thread. It wasn’t anything too important, but it did contain some critical character development. Most importantly, it establishes major weakness in the team. We already figured out Nina’s weakness in the previous episode, this episode simply confirms her inferiority complex. Layfon is too independent for his own good. Due to his past, he can’t seem to rely on anyone for help, and in this episode it nearly killed him. In a way, I’m starting to find Layfon fitting the mold of the “tragic hero”, since he tends to shoulder everything on his own.

All in all, this arc was rather “theme-y”, and the theme was “teamwork” (say that 5 times fast =_=;;;). Basically, the idea was “teamwork can overcome any weakness”, a rather kiddy moral for a show like this. Anyway, I’m kinda hoping that they’ll start revealing Layfon’s past soon, cause I’m getting antsy and they’ve been putting it off for too long.

Only other complaint I’ve got is that the the time frame of this episode felt off. I mean one moment they show Layfon fighting the Filth Bug at night, then cut back to a scene on Zuellni, that takes place at presumably the same time, before cutting back to Layfon, still at night. But then we hear that the fight has been going on for a day. Either the translation was bad, or the pacing of the fight was WAY off.

RATING: 7.5/10

_tekky99

I’m gonna be doing Episodes 8,9, and 10 in one post