Sekai Seifuku
Kuuki: Swear loyalty to me and I’ll share my food with you!
From what I gathered from this first episode, we are going to follow Kate and her secret organization (I’m sorry I’ll never be able to write that name correctly) as they make their way toward world domination.
This summary sounded like something right up my alley, since world conquest is always entertaining. In the end, it didn’t only sound right up my alley, it was exactly that, and more.
I am not exactly sure the series will develop to be something absolutely amazing, and I am sure they will face many hardships toward the conquest of the world…but in the end, we already know they will make it. The surprise is how they are going to make it. Considering the very interesting and weird cast of character and the tone of the first episode, I think this is going to be entertaining. The plot probably will not be anything new though.
The atmosphere of the first episode managed to jump from dark, heavy and menacing to adorable, cool and fun, I think I liked that. It did a lot to avoid boredom as we go through character introductions.
Talking about characters, the mandatory introductions were pretty well done. I still don’t remember all of their names but as I think I am currently watching a lot of anime, that probably is my fault. I am not saying that all characters were well-developed, it is after all only the first episode, it is normal to focus only on a selected few. We mostly discovered Asuta and Kate, they seem to be the main characters so it’s all good.
Asuta is your typical main character, he seems to have an interesting background but as far as personality is concerned he doesn’t seem at all special.
On the other hand, for someone who wants to conquer the world, Kate was surprising. It was like having a loli Koko-chan suddenly popping up and, as much as I usually dislike loli characters who’re just loli for the sake of being loli, well, I didn’t mind all that much. She was cute and she seems evil and weird. I am definitely interested.
The mandatory sidekicks barely appeared but they seem to be quite the interesting bunch.
And thus, I don’t think it will come as a surprise when I say I’m eagerly waiting for the next episodes, if only to see Kate again. I think Sekai Seifuku made a loli into my favorite character, that’s special enough to deserve to be watched!
Wake Up, Girls!
AnimeEmily: Well, color me surprised; this was actually a pretty good episode. Though I didn’t watch the movie prior to starting the episode, I was able to follow what was going on relatively easily and still found myself enjoying the story a lot. I may not be completely sold yet, but Wake Up, Girls! has a promising start and I will definitely try to keep up with it for a least a couple more episodes.
The episode’s story centers around a group of idols whose future as idols is already questionable. The production company they belong to, Green Leaves Entertainment, is on it’s last legs with the president up and leaving, leaving their manager, Matsuda, unsure of how to keep Green Leaves going. Throughout the episode, we see each girl affirm her desire to keep being an idol, however tentative, and to try her hardest to keep that dream alive. At the end of the episode, their problems seem to be on their way to being fixed when a mysterious Sud0-san offers to take the girls on.
I think what I liked the most about this episode is how genuine it felt. Each of the girls was kind of…normal. I really liked how much they genuinely wanted to try and be idols even if they won’t necessarily succeed. I also liked that after hearing about Sudo-san’s offer, they actually went out and talked about it somewhat realistically. Though we didn’t get a great feel for each of the girls, we do get a general sense for their personalities and they’re quite endearing in their own ways. Though I’m sure it’s explained in the prequel movie, I thought it was interesting how Mayu actually used to be a member of a relatively well known group but quit (I’m guessing) to join Wake Up, Girls! and experience significantly less success. She’s definitely one of the characters that caught my eye the most and made me more interested in checking out the movie. The only part of the episode I probably wasn’t too crazy about was the fan service that popped up. The panty flashes shown during their concert felt out of place and a bit awkward.
The animation was generally alright. I’m not a personal fan of the character designs, but I can see them growing on me over time. I will say,though, that I appreciate their relative simplicity since it fits with what I think the episode is aiming more. I did like the overcast colors though throughout the episode because of how well they highlighted the girl’s pensive feelings. Sound-wise, I liked all the songs, the ED especially.
All in all, I’m pretty excited to see where Wake Up, Girls! will go. Hopefully it will keep with telling a sort of underdog idol story that has a mildly more grounded touch to it. That said, in a season where the pickings are slim, I’d recommend at least give the show an episode (or the movie…or both!); you might be surprised.
Nisekoi
Justin: Welp, Nisekoi turned out to be almost what I thought it’d be: an overdirected, SHAFT styled mess of a rom-com story. In this case, that’s a good thing, though I start to worry whether it’s reliance on tricks will diminish the comedy…
A long time ago Raku Ichijo made a promise to a girl. Who that girl is, he doesn’t remember as they haven’t seen each other since. That was 10 years ago. With only a pendant to remember his promise, Raku lives his normal high school days as normally as possible, though being part of a gang family makes that task slightly difficult. It manages to get worse when transfer student Chitoge Kirisaki shows up and manages to cause him grief, and also manages to help him lose his pendant. After a good week and some days together, where getting beat up and yelled at was the norm, they find the pendant, and that’s it. They don’t have to see each other anymore. That’s what Raku thinks…until he learns she’s a part of a gang family too. With both those two families on the verge of war, the main head of each decide to have Raku and Chitoge enter a “fake love”, or fake relationship, and they have to do so for three years.
All in all, I didn’t think SHAFT and the fabled staff working on Nisekoi would screw it up too much. But I also didn’t think I’d be very impressed at what was going on. I blame this on the fact that I probably just haven’t watched a lot of SHAFT anime series (Only Moonphase and Madoka). But just the style and visual flair was way more impressive than it has any right to be, and beats the tired look of anime every season with this type of premise any day of the week. So it felt pretty refreshing.
That said, there were moments where it was going for the humor angle that didn’t work all too well. Like certain situations just didn’t make laugh as much as I remember it did in the manga. Well, the part where Chitoge threw stuff at Raku while calling her a monkey in gym class was pretty funny, so maybe I’m being too harsh. Well, whatever the case, if you’re looking for a solid weekly watch this season, Nisekoi should be the title to go for.
