Winter 2018 First Impressions (Part II)

A small batch, but I want to get them out of they way so I can get back to work on the Fall season review.  Even if it’s late or it kills me, I will get that out.  Though basically taking Saturday to chill after getting two posts out on Fri didn’t help much…

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Anyhow, let’s hit the jump and take a look at Citrus, Katana Maidens, and Slow Start shall we?

The shows that I am watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics.  Question marks denote shows not watched yet (during the premiere weeks), and strike through marks dropped shows.

Citrus

Screenshot (303).pngHonestly, I am hugely ambivalent here.  I find Yuzuko somewhat charming, she puts up a tough gyaru front – but inside she’s pretty vulnerable.  (And aware that she’s faking it.)   After seeing what she’s being forced into and learning Mei’s backstory, I felt pity for her and the hope that a better family situation would be good for her.  She certainly needs a good dose of happiness and companionship.

Then…  that final scene.  That was rough.  I understand what she did and why she did it, but that doesn’t change the nature of the act.  And that leaves me conflicted.  Where are they going here?  I thought this was going tobe  romance, but what we got was Scum’s Wish.

I’m not comfortable, but it’s a keeper for now.

Katana Maidens / Toji no Miko

Another show I saw on Crunchy’s lineup page and went “sure, what the hll“.  After watching it, my reaction was “what the HLL?“.

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It started off simply enough, an organization of cute girls with swords giving a beatdown to some kind of huge monster.  Though some shows of this type have been better than others, nothing any of us haven’t seen before. <wham> Unheralded scene shift – now it’s cute schoolgirls, seemingly a training academy for the organization.  The focus is on our MC, her sidekick, and getting ready for a national competition.  After all that build up <wham> the competition is over in just a few minutes of screentime and <wham> the MC is on lam from the sword-wielding-girl Law.  (With a girl that doesn’t like her much to boot.) Which wouldn’t be so bad if we’d been given any kind of clue as to what was going on…

So, basically, first ep – already looking out over the precipice and primed for an early drop.

Slow Start

Slow Start got off to a…. slow start.  OK, everyone in the blogosphere made that joke, and I couldn’t resist it.

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Seriously, this wasn’t so much CGDCT as cute girls hanging out and chatting.  Though, to be fair, it was well written, well animated, and well-directed hanging out.   And I enjoyed the heck out of it.  Somehow I was reminded of Three Leaves, Three Colors, which distilled CGDCT down it’s very essence.  No cafe to run, no theatre troupe to organize, just cute girls doing whatever in their daily lives.

I like it, and it looks like I’m keeping it.  (My lovely bride didn’t care for it, she’ll probably drop it soon.)

So what do you think?  What premiers have you seen so far?  Let us know down in the comments!

4 thoughts on “Winter 2018 First Impressions (Part II)”

  2. I don’t know what to make of Citrus either, and my reaction is very similar to yours. One difference, though: Mei forcing herself on Yuzuko and making her terribly uncomfortable is a staple in same-gender romances. That’s very often how the hapless newbie realises that they’re into their own gender (exclusively/too). And it’s distasteful. I’m more used to it in yaoi than yuri, but it’s sadly familiar. I very rarely finish shows with that element (for example, I finished Love Stage), so things aren’t looking good, but it’s still a possible watch.

    Toji no Miko, well, yeah, what you said. I’m not so much bothered by the inconsistency; I’d like to give the show a chance on that. The bigger problem is that none of the elements are exectued especially well (not badly, mind you, but not too well, either), and that in consequence there’s no draw. I really want to like the show, since it’s this seasons Gokumi, so I might finish it on hope alone. (Might work our fine, since it’s actually not bad in any way.)

    Slow Start frontloads the groan-inducing elements, and the girls are bit too limited by their type at that point (especially the little one who likes to eat). But the show’s got a good sense for body language, and I like the show best when their all together and hang out. Basically, the show’s draw is that the girls have good chemistry. It’s the weakest CGDCT show so far, easily. I might finish it; I might not.

    Sanrio Danshi is surprisingly good. And so is Gakuen Babysitters, though in that case I’m not surprised.

    Pop Team Epic was even more random than the Ai Mai Mii line of shows, which I thought was impossible. Plus, it was a half-length show, which was repeated, but with different voice actors for the main characters. And they had a live interview with a French animator, which I didn’t understand since they didn’t subtitle it until they repeated it in the second half of the show. This is very likely the most baffling thing I’ve watched in anime, ever. I can’t even tell if I liked it or not. At least one more week.

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    1. @Citrus I guess I haven’t watched enough in that genre to know that… But it’s an interesting setup. I guess it depends on how they handle things the next couple of episodes.

      @Toji no Miko I’m with you actually, the show’s biggest problem is that at the end there’s nothing there. It’s just horribly average.

      @Pop Team Yeah, a lot of folks are scratching their collective heads and trying to figure out what’s going. Some are proclaiming it genius, but I’m not sure they’re not seeing the Emperor’s New Clothes.

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