Ahoy, everybody!  I know it may be a little late in the season to be starting things off, but Initial Impressions is back in action once again, with a gigantic compendium of a good portion of shows that are airing right now!  Please note that I am merely judging the first three episodes of each show, and that I am a bit behind in terms of airing order while writing this.  Then again, my previous Initial Impressions were usually pretty late compared to this, so, there’s always that.  With all of that being said, let’s get cracking!

New Prince of Tennis

The boys of Prince of Tennis are back!  The Seigaku tennis team has been invited, along with several other middle schools, to participate in an elite U-17 training camp usually reserved for high schoolers.  What they find out when there is that the training is intensive and the players are tougher than ever.

That’s legitimately the best plot summary I could come up with that does not spoil anything after three episodes.  The plot itself is rather standard shonen fare so far, but that’s a given, thanks to the show being your standard shonen.  One thing I have to say about this beforehand, though: I am not familiar with the Prince of Tennis franchise.  It never really appealed to me, like most long-running shonen series.  With that being said, this new entry into the franchise is definitely a fans-only affair from the looks of it.

The first episode alone introduces about thirty characters, and shoves them right away into tennis matches that the viewer is supposed to get really invested in.  My problem with this type of story is that it not only is impossible for any new viewers such as myself to get invested in the characters, but it’s near-impossible for me to even determine what in the world is going on.  From what I could see, everyone who plays tennis is suddenly a super-powered athlete, complete with signature moves.  I know it is fiction and removed from reality, but so much of this is silly, especially considering the sport at hand.  With all of that being said, though, I keep coming back to this one every week just to see what sort of silliness the show throws at me in the name of tennis.  It’s a lame reason, I know, but it’s entertaining for that reason alone.

Similarly, the technical elements of this show are not good at all but are partially why I keep coming back to it.  The animation is laughable, with copious amounts of unnecessary CG in the first five minutes of episode one alone, one of the first major action scenes being held frames and speedlines, and stiff character movement during non-tennis scenes.  The music is cheesy, and the ending is to note for being exceptionally awful (or hilarious, your mileage may vary).  The technical merits propel it from ‘terrible’ to either ‘so bad, it’s good’ or ‘unwatchable’.  Again, your mileage may vary.

Overall, will New Prince of Tennis be worth your time?  I cannot give this one an honest recommendation unless you are a fan of the franchise.  It is practically impenetrable to those who are unfamiliar with Prince of Tennis, and based off of the technical merits alone, I think it should stay that way.

Initial impression: Watch (fan of the franchise), Skip (all others)

Kill Me Baby!/Baby, Please Kill Me

Yasuna is a ditzy high school girl.  She has befriended a classmate of hers, Sonya, an assassin with little patience for Yasuna’s childish antics.  Antics ensue.

Hey, look, it’s an anime based off of a 4-koma comic, we haven’t seen anything like this before!  Oh wait, yes we have.  We see one of these almost every damn season.  I make a point usually to not watch them, as they get old and same-y really quickly.  There are exceptions to the rule, but this is usually the case.  No show that I have seen, however, is more guilty of this than Kill Me Baby!.  It just goes to show that you simply cannot just make a show with character concepts and no real other background.  Within its first episode, we see unfunny joke after unfunny joke, usually involving Yasuna doing something dumb and being hit by Sonya for it.  It’s stupid slapstick that does not take even the slightest of chances.  Agiri, who is introduced in that first episode, was the only saving grace, and even then, her singsong-y/airhead voice was the only reason I smiled at all.  That smile did not last long, as she becomes a single running gag in the next episode.  The main characters themselves are also not interesting to watch, as Yasuna is a high-school student who could mentally pass for a goddamn five-year-old and Sonya is angrier than a pissed-off lion.

As I have mentioned in a past review on Anime Spotlight, critiquing comedy is difficult to do, as it could potentially involve spoiling jokes or stepping on toes because of differing senses of humor.  I really do not have to worry about that with Kill Me Baby!, as the show drops the ball entirely when it comes to comedy writing.  There are several joke formulas that are repeated and exclusively used, and even then, the writers felt it would be necessary to explain the punchline a majority of the time.  You see, joke variety is necessary in good comedy because you can only laugh at a good joke for so long before it becomes old.  One could try to justify these decisions by calling them running gags, but when the show tries to use running gags for everything instead of actual jokes, not only does it feel artificial, it just is not funny.  Even the scenes they use in episode two to attempt to add variety fall flat, as that scene encapsulates every single running gag the show has.  The writers for this show simply cannot write comedy.

The art and animation in this show are also rather slipshod.  The background art is hideous to look at, attempting to go for cheap and efficient while coming off as cheap and unappealing.  The character designs are your standard gag show designs, basically being entirely super-deformed.  Theoretically, this should be easier to animate, but J.C. Staff manages to take as many animation shortcuts as possible outside the opening and ending, making this not good on the eyes (then again, 4-koma gag shows tend to get the short end of the stick budget-wise anyway).  The music is equally cheap-sounding, being your standard slice-of-life synth junk for the OST, a failed attempt at being funny for the opening, and something simply catchy for the ending.  Speaking of which, the ending has a dance.  It’s silly to watch and legitimately the only thing I find endearing about the show.

Just in case you didn’t actually read the above few paragraphs, here’s a tl;dr for you: skip Kill Me Baby!.  There are much better 4-koma shows out there, along with better comedies in general.  After the overdose of unfunny three episodes of this show gave me, I need an emergency dose of anything that can make me laugh.

Initial impression: Skip

Thermae Romae

Lucius Modestus is an architect of public bathhouses down on his luck.  His designs are signed off as being out-of-date, and this makes him depressed.  When in the bath one day, he gets sucked down a hole and time-travels to a bathhouse in modern-day Japan.  He then adapts the bathhouse culture from there into his baths in Rome with great success.

That plot summary is a spoiler of the first episode of Thermae Romae, but believe me when I say that the other episodes are worth watching on their own.  Thermae Romae aired for three weeks on the noitaminA block, with a total of five episodes.  The first two weeks aired four twelve-minute episodes, and the last week aired a twenty-four-minute two-part episode.  Naturally, Thermae Romae is a show that is not about being particularly deep or based around major amounts of character development, but a comedy show that tries its best to entertain every step of the way.

Yes, this is one of those widget series: a show that goes to show just how strange Japan can be with concepts.  This is a rare instance of a weird concept being very well-executed.  The comedy writing is based around culture shock and overreactions, sure (the latter of which is common in Japanese comedy), but Thermae Romae manages to pull this off very well by being varied in the actual jokes themselves and by being genuinely charming.

The technical merits of Thermae Romae are much less impressive than the story and writing, with this being a DLE production.  DLE, for those not in the know, do their productions in Flash.  Needless to say, Flash creations are not automatically horrid-looking by merit of being in Flash, but DLE tends to make horrible-looking Flash productions.  Thermae Romae is their best-looking work but it still manages to look horrid when actually moving.  The character designs are a matter of taste, but also have the tendency to look horrible on some of the background characters.  The other designs are good, at least.  The music in this show is a mixture of famous classical pieces that are used with varying degrees of success, but the real success is the ending song, performed by Chatmonchy.  The ending song is catchy and fitting of the show: quirky in nature, with trippy and amusing animation to go along with it.

Overall, Thermae Romae is one of the best shows I have experienced this season.  It does not look good, certainly, and the very quirky nature of the show might turn some people off.  Despite these elements, Thermae Romae is a bunch of silly fun and worth the 72-minute investment.

Final impression: Watch, Try (those wary of the weird)

Recorder and Randsell

Miyagawa Atsushi is an eleven-year-old boy who is 180 centimeters tall.  In addition to that, he looks like an adult.  This grade school student’s looks tend to get him into trouble thanks to him acting his age.  His 17-year-old older sister Atsumi, on the other hand, looks like she is a grade schooler.  Antics ensue!

Every season has at least one show that is only about three minutes long.  This is one of them!  Obviously, this show is a comedy, usually revolving around the misunderstanding of the looks of each of these characters.  The jokes are rather obvious and nothing special, but the series is slightly charming.  I still feel bad for Atsushi and Atsumi, since these afflictions seem like they’d be much harder in real life than these comedic moments would let a viewer assume.  Then again, it’s a simple comedy to watch for three minutes every week with your brain turned off, so it’s not something to worry about.  It is very similar to Morita-san wa Mukichi in that regard.  I am personally not surprised by this, as both are made by studio Seven, who have only one non-three-minute show to their name.  The art is generic and does not really stand out among its peers.  The animation is simple.  The score is standard slice-of-life fare.

In the end, it’s hard to really say anything about Recorder and Randsell.  It truly is a mindless show to put on when waiting for coffee to brew or when doing a short menial task.  It’s nothing worth noting, but is amusing if you give it the time of day every week.

Initial impression: Try (if interested in three-minute shows), Skip (all others)

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

Satou Moe, when on her way back from drinking one night, finds a mysterious, round cat.  She decides to take it home and name it Poyo.  Antics ensue.

This is yet another one of those three-minute shows that you put on in the background once a week while doing something else.  What it has above quite a few of these types of shows is charm.  Poyopoyo is a cute show, and exceptionally relatable if the viewer is a cat person or has owned a cat in their life (somewhat related note: as I was typing this segment, my flatmate’s cat decided it would be a fun idea to walk across my lap and basically demand cuddles.  I complied).  It’s adorable and occasionally pretty funny, but truly most-relatable to cat people.

The art and animation in Poyopoyo are a different topic altogether, as the animation itself is not bad, but the art looks distinctly old-school.  It definitely looks like an older cutesy shoujo title with modern low-end animation.  The colour palette is a bit faded yet still pretty pastel in nature, and the character designs are simple, memorable, and cute.

Overall, if you absolutely must watch a three-minute show this season, make it Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki.  It’s cute and a good time-waster.

Initial impression: Watch (if a cat lover), Try (if interested in this type of show), Skip (all others)

High Score

Fujiwara Megumi is a supposedly beautiful high school student who is promiscuous as all get-out.  She does have a boyfriend by the name of Matsumoto Masamune, but she frequently goes around with other guys, who end up as victims of her selfish behavior.  Antics ensue.

I am definitely cheating on this one, as I am looking at the first six episodes instead of the first three.  That is because High Score has been airing in Japan since the end of November, and it’s supposedly over as of January 30^th (the sub releases are weird, for reasons I do not know, so the last two episodes have not been subbed).  However, I will admit that I watched this simply because it was a three-minute show I could watch when doing other things.  High Score is background noise, as trying to watch it is a chore.

The point of the show is that its main heroine is unlikable and that the idea of domestic abuse and being really weird about it is hilarious.  Beating up your boyfriend, sleeping around, and being turned on by your wife’s lack of love for you are not my idea of comedy.  This makes High Score very difficult to actually watch for the three minutes it’s on without wanting to bash my head against a pile of spikes.

Oh, and this comes to us from DLE.  High Score is ugly as sin, with horrendous animation, unappealing character art, and genuinely horrid music.  I usually try to look for reasons why a show can be good to people, even if I do not personally like it, but that is an impossible task with High Score.  This show truly has no redeeming qualities and is best left forgotten.  I am surprised that people like Kitamura Eri decided to act in this tripe.  I’m done with this show, let it rot.

Initial impression: Skip

Bodacious Space Pirates (Moretsu Pirates)

Katou Marika is a spirited first-year high school student who divides her time between her school’s Space Yacht Club and working at a maid café.  One day, two strange people appear in front of her, claiming to be subordinates of her late father.  They demand that she takes command of their ship, the Bentenmaru, as she is the direct heir of the last captain.  Marika suddenly finds herself contemplating space travel and possibly stepping out into a new life as a space pirate.

That premise sounds cheesy and hokey, doesn’t it?  That title, too.  It must not be a very good title, then!  Well…sorry, but it is one of the best titles this season.

Bodacious Space Pirates, after three episodes, still has not had Marika take over the captain position on the Bentenmaru.  These first few episodes are being spent on more down-to-earth character development and flushing out the background information behind being a legal privateer.  Some may complain about that, but I am a sucker for developing characters and having such a huge decision actually be something a protagonist hesitates on simply because of lack of information and personal preparedness.  Not rushing head-on into things is how the story of Bodacious Space Pirates is progressing, and I could not be happier with how it’s turning out.

The art in Bodacious Space Pirates is definitely polished.  The character models can be a bit too moe for some people, but I personally adore the character designs.  The background art is gorgeous, and the CG ships are a feast for the eyes.  I am certainly glad that Satelight is putting so much effort into this title.  The animation is good, but not great, but that is perfectly fine.  I am sure that the budget is being heavily saved for the inevitable awesome space battle scenes.  The opening is well-animated yet slightly generic, and the ED is pretty cool to look at but definitely one that did not cost them a lot of money to make.

The music, on the other hand, is not as noticeable.  The score supports the scenes but not much else.  The opening is a nifty mix of your standard cast-delivered vocals, pirate-sounding music that devolves into guitar insanity, and dramatic choir vocals.  I am not a huge fan of the song, but it sets the mood of the show well.  The more generic-sounding ending, on the other hand, is still an enjoyable listen through all of the digital-sounding vocals.

Overall, if sci-fi is your thing, watch Bodacious Space Pirates.  If you like good characters and character development, watch Bodacious Space Pirates.  If you are impatient, you might want to pass this one up.  This is definitely one of the standout hits of the season.

Initial impression: Watch

Lagrange – The Flower of Rin-ne (Rinne no Lagrange)

Kyouno Madoka is a lively, energetic high school student.  As the only member of the Sweats Club, she goes around helping people in need, usually by filling in for a sports club.  One day, though, her life is turned upside down by a mysterious girl named Lan, who asks her to pilot a robot.   Madoka accepts this offer due to her wishes to protect the people and city of Kadogawa, and begins to pilot the resurrected Vox Aura against a group of alien invaders.

Oh look, it’s another mech show.  We already have three shows with giant robots airing right now, so let’s add another one to the pile.  The story of Lagrange is rather generic, featuring a plucky girl who does not think twice about piloting a robot, a mysterious alien girl, a secret organization, and alien invaders that are there for an unexplained reason.  Sometimes, a show can get away with being generic if it had the writing to back it up, and it is here that Lagrange falls flat on its face.  The writing in Lagrange can range from okay at best to atrocious at worst, sporting much awkward and forced dialogue, feeding exposition, and feeble attempts at being subtle.  I will admit that the writing problems are not that big of a deal if you turn your brain off, but much of the foreshadowing occurring acts as though it’s trying to provoke thought.  Instead, it comes off as half-baked and predictable.

What truly sells this show is the gorgeous animation.  The character models all move fluidly, the mech designs look good and move well, and it’s really a good bunch of eyecandy.  The character designs are definitely moe to the max, so whether or not you like that is up to you (no comment here on my part).  The sound is also okay, with pretty generic opening and ending themes that do not sound as good as they look.  The OST is actually pretty damn nice, and one string piece that stands out after an important fight or something of that nature is both gorgeous yet tense.

I really cannot recommend Lagrange to everybody.  Its writing is rather dumb and does not help support a premise so overdone that I can list shows off the top of my head that have done it better.  It is pretty, though, and as I have seen in communities, this can be a good transitional show for those used to moe and wanting to get into mech shows.  In the end, it’s gorgeous, but beauty really is skin-deep.

Initial impression: Try (those who want eyecandy/can forgive writing problems), Skip (all others)

Listen to Me, Girls, I Am Your Father! (Papa no Iukoto wo Kikinasai!)

Segawa Yuta is a college freshman, finally starting his life as an adult.  As a child, he was raised by his sister Yuri, who got married to a middle-aged man when Yuta was in junior high.  One day, Yuri asks Yuta to look after her three kids while she and her husband are off on a business trip.  One child is in middle school, one is ten, and one is three.  Antics then ensue.

I am so very tempted to spoil episode two, but no, I will not.  Just know that this show only starts becoming interesting in those last few minutes.  The rest of the first two episodes are pretty terrible, however.  A first episode should introduce our cast and at least give them more than one definable characteristic.  That is exactly what Listen… does, however, and it suffers because of it.  The first episode is horrendously-paced, featuring moments of fanservice that are more uncomfortable than anything else and proving that Yuta has no personality.  I dislike fanservice but I do not mind it when it is used, as a show can still be good and well-written despite the fact that it contains cheesecake shots every now and then.  However, when fanservice directly interrupts a show and makes me feel uncomfortable, that’s when I dislike it.  Listen… does that with a ten-year-old.  Pantyshots of a ten-year-old in the first episode of a show when it’s thrown in the middle of what should be character development is distractive and the epitome of not-sexy.

Then episode 2 ends and episode 3 begins.  This is the point where I seriously consider the idea that this show might not end up as a lolicon-incest show.  It handles its ideas overtly and without any hint of subtlety, but it at least hints at being something more.

The art is a major complaint for me.  The noses are kinda gross to look at on the character designs, and all of the characters have this fake sheen to them.  The show is also not very well-animated, not being anything to write home about.  The music itself is rather generic, although I like the much-better animated and majorly autotuned Yui Horie track for the ending (despite the fact that it makes a human being sound more like a Vocaloid).

Overall, I would recommend this to those who can stomach the underage fanservice of the first episode and change.  This does show promise, but the art and first episode are real turn-offs.  Here’s hoping it does not peter out.

Initial impression: Try (if you can stand the fanservice), Skip (if you can’t get over the hurdle)

Ano Natsu de Matteru

Kirishima Kaito and his group of friends are finally in high school, and decide to make the most of their first summer break: making a movie!  One night when testing out his video camera, though, Kaito is destroyed by a beam from space…or so he thinks.  The next day, a mysterious third-year transfer student by the name of Takatsuki Ichika arrives at their school, with a cloud of mystery surrounding her.  She and her upperclassman friend are then asked by Kaito and his friends to be in said movie.  What ensues are sci-fi moments and brief glimpses of romance, as Ichika then spends the night at Kaito’s place…

Does this sound somewhat similar to Onegai Teacher to you after that last sentence?  It should, as the scriptwriter did that show.  A lot of Ano Natsu de Matteru feels like an HD remake of Onegai Teacher, so it really does feel like a less juvenile look at the magical girlfriend genre.  The story is charming so far, but after three episodes, admittedly not much has gotten done.  They really need to kick it into high gear to get the story going.  The characters, on the other hand, already feel like individuals I would encounter in high school (crazy hair colours not included).  It’s a charming cast, and with the addition of good, mid-tempo pacing, the show becomes a nice watch, despite the fact that it has barely gone anywhere so far.

The art and animation are definitely not what I would expect from 2012, but that does not make it bad.  It is actually very pleasant to look at, if not somewhat standard on all fronts.  This is easily the best-looking new series from J.C. Staff this season.  The opening and ending are both a blast to watch, easily ones that I will never skip.  The obligatory CG is even well-integrated!  The music is pretty standard, but I can see the potential for more poignant pieces as the series goes on.  The opening and ending are both unskippable, personally, as they are nice songs that fit the tone of the show perfectly (for extra bonus: the vocalist for the ending track also did the ending track for Bakemonogatari with Supercell).

Overall, Ano Natsu de Matteru is definitely a show that is surviving more on potential than actual delivery.  Despite this fact, it’s an enjoyable, charming watch, and a potentially classier entry into the magical girlfriend genre.

Initial impression: Watch (fans of the genre), Try (all others)

Daily Lives of High School Boys (Danshi Kokousei no Nichijou)

This one is a bit tricky in terms of plot summary.  It’s (usually) three high school boys doing wacky things.  Antics, very obviously, ensue.

Another season, another 4-koma show.  Unlike the other one, though, this one is actually funny!  Daily Lives of High School Boys has very few recurring jokes, and resorts to good comedy writing instead of overusing a joke in the hopes that it will be funny.  No, I’m totally not bitter about Kill Me Baby! or anything!  Okay, really, the show stands up well on its own, with its humor being the right blend of silly, perverted, and off-the-wall.  It truly is humor for high-school boys, and it knows it.  It is a lighthearted romp that will at least make you smile, if all else fails.

The art and animation definitely hold up in this show.  The character designs are simple, but they are definitely memorable.  These simple designs make them easier to animate, but Sunrise definitely put a lot of effort and love into making this show look hyperactive and humorous.  It reminds me of Nichijou without quite the level of surrealism or white space.  The score in this show relies more heavily on rock music than standard slice-of-life, which is fitting for the show.  The opening and ending themes are silly and well-animated, and fit the tone of the show perfectly.

I mentioned earlier that the animation reminded me of Nichijou.  In fact, the ridiculous humor and overreactions remind me more of Nichijou than Kimi to Boku. in this title.  It’s certainly welcome to have a legitimately funny comedy this season.  Go watch it.

Initial impression: Watch

Brave 10

A ninja by the name of Kirigakure Saizo is wandering around the forest (angsting and stuff) when he suddenly runs across a girl named Izanami, who is being chased by a bunch of ninjas.  He saves her life and begrudgingly accepts her offer to be her bodyguard until in the safe territory of Sanada.  Sanada, as it turns out, is gathering ten brave warriors from across the land in order to bring an end to Japan’s era of war.  As it turns out, people are after Izanami due to her mysterious power, which is brought to light…

…and the level of which I care about the story in this title is minimal.  This is the Sanada Ten Braves, for those familiar with Japanese history.  However, in this telling of it, it’s practically a reverse harem with the most annoying plucky girl protagonist this season (well…second if you count Yasuna from Kill Me Baby!).  The story is dull at the best of times and predictable at the worst, not being anything worth noting.  The characters are pretty much one-sided and uninteresting.

The art is actually rather off-putting.  Most of the character designs feel like hyperactive concepts of manly combined with the artists not wanting to stop drawing the initial designs, making some characters feel too detailed while still not looking all that nice.  At least they’re all distinctive.  The animation is rather rough when not in an action scene, as this is where the fight choreography makes best usage of animation cheats.  Anybody who appreciates good fight scenes will like the fight scenes in this show.  The music, on the other hand, is rather horrid, being a mixture of period pieces and modern techniques that sounds more schizophrenic than anything else.  The openings and endings are a horrendous example of this, being heavily autotuned to the point of being unappealing.

Overall, Brave 10 has its fight scenes going for it, along with potential yaoi shipbait.  That’s it.  It is a disposable piece of animation, and after going back and editing this article, it seems even worse in hindsight than when I was watching it.  You can spend your time doing much better things.

Initial impression: Skip

Inu x Boku Secret Service

Shirakiin Ririchiyo is a girl with several complexes.  One of which makes her unable to be anything more than off-putting to people around her, when in reality she truly wishes to be nicer to people.  The other is her desire to live alone, feeling as though this will actually make her ready to thrive without her parents’ service.  She moves out, under the condition that she moves into a mansion called Ayakashi Kan.  Every resident of Ayakashi Kan is assigned a Secret Service agent, and despite not agreeing to it initially, Ririchiyo is assigned Miketsukami Soushi, a glittering, loyal agent who is willing to do anything for her.  Now, once again, let the antics ensue.

Okay, okay, this show is definitely not a slice-of-life comedy.  The story of Inu x Boku SS actually is something I cannot quite put my hand on after three episodes, as it reveals a bunch of supernatural background information, along with some pretty well-done main character development in these first three episodes, but is not doing so well in the consistent-plot department.   Luckily, every standalone cast member in this show is charming and definitely make these first few episodes worth watching.  Also, as mentioned at the top of the review, Soushi glitters.  He’s a very shiny guy.  It’s hilarious, trust me on this one.

The art is pretty standard, but every character still looks good and recognizable.  The background art, on the other hand, is actually pretty nice to look at, given the rich extravagance of the setting.  The animation is similarly pretty standard, often going to super-deformed expressions for the comedy bits, but it still manages to be charming to look at.  What truly impressed me was the opening, with Inu x Boku SS sporting the best opening of the entire season.  The ending does not fare as well, but the opening and delicate and effective score more than make up for this.

Overall, like Ano Natsu, this show is surviving mostly due to potential so far.  It has yet to set a cohesive plot like it certainly feels like it should have.  It is still charming enough to warrant a recommendation.

Initial impression: Try

Senki Zesshou Symphogear

Humans are under attack by an alien race known as Noise.  Despite their best efforts, standard human technology cannot damage the Noise.  Only certain fighters may wield weapons known as Symphogear, which are active by singing, to combat these menaces.  Tsubasa and Kanade, members of a pop music duo Zwei Wing, are two of these fighters.  One day, at a concert, a young girl by the name of Hibiki gets caught in the fray, and things start to change for the worse.

Boy, has this show got me confused on how I feel about it.  On one hand, the plot is all over the place in the first episode, dealing with multiple time skips and tonal shifts that left a rather sour taste in my mouth.  On the other hand, the plot, despite being a tad generic when truly getting into it and a lot of background detail being told by Ms. Creepy-Exposition-Lady, is actually rather gripping.  The characters of the show are in the same boat, as I truly should not like them.  Tsubasa is a cold-hearted, distant bitch and Hibiki is an idiot.  However, I truly started to feel for these characters once the third episode kicked in, and I feel myself getting invested in the plot.  It has the potential to morph into something different, but it is taking its sweet ol’ time.

The art is heavily moe, but I enjoy the character and background designs.  The Valkyries are definitely cool to look at, and the Noise that they fight are equally awesome and potentially terrifying.  The animation is something I have major gripes with, though, as it feels very lazy and cheap.  This is the show that got the short end of the stick for Satelight’s budget this season, and it shows (especially in episode 3).  Also awkwardly implemented is the singing that occurs during each and every fight, with some lip flaps being present and some not.  It is a detail that I find annoying for a concept that feels very forced in the first place.  The insert songs are cool and the soundtrack is also nice, but seriously, the sing-fighting thing could have been implemented better.

Overall, I am on the fence about Senki Zesshou Symphogear.  It is interesting, don’t get me wrong, but it is not very well-done so far.  The plot gets gripping a few episodes in, but feels tedious before that.  The sing-fighting is an awkward concept that is rather haphazardly implemented.  If you can stomach this kind of thing and hold out for potential awesome, go right ahead.  For all others, though, you have every right to pass this one up.

Initial impression: Skip

Another

Twenty-six years ago, a student attending middle school at Yomiyami by the name of Misaki suddenly died.  Being adored by the entire student body, in addition to being a top student and athlete, people were reluctant to accept that she was gone.  One person points out that she was at her desk still, and everyone started to play along, with the principal even letting the desk be in the class’ graduation photo.  In the spring of 1998, a sickly boy by the name of Sakakibara Kouichi transfers to Yomiyami, and stumbles upon a large conspiracy involving a girl whose presence is as ethereal as it is mysterious.

Another is one thing: creepy.  It is methodically slow-paced and genuinely creepy most of the time, progressing at a snail’s pace and keeping its cards close to its chest.  This is definitely a horror title, being downright unsettling without heavy reliance on gore.  Not many of the characters really stand out at this point in time, but are not really annoying, so they get a pass.  The story is not subtle, not in the slightest, but it presents itself at a slow, creepy pace, and it’s this reliance on the eerie atmosphere that gets to you.

If Another sells itself best on anything besides its creepy pacing, it’s in its presentation.  The show is gorgeously animated by P.A. Works, and every action seems deliberate and the character art feels polished and recognizable.  Similarly, the soundtrack is delicate and haunting, but the show opts for silence whenever it can to raise tension.  The main problem with the sound of this show, however, are the opening and ending.  Ali Project breaks any sort of tension the scenes before the opening may have had, despite the fact that it’s a pretty fun song to listen to.  The ending is a peaceful ballad, but the implications of it after the third episode are more interesting than the song itself.

Overall, Another is just what horror fans needed.  It is a spooky, slow-paced creepfest that has a feeling of conspiracy that keeps you watching.  If you are a non-horror fan, I would still suggest trying this one out, as the presentation alone makes it eerie eyecandy.

Initial impression: Watch (horror fans), Try (all others)

Well, there you go, folks!  Those are my impressions of the Winter 2012 season!  There are certainly some interesting shows out there, so try your best to find them.  Now, I’m going to do my best to catch up.  See you on the other side of the season!