guilty crown : early impression

GUILTY CROWN
studio : Production I.G
director : Tetsuro Araki
serial run : October 14, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : 22
hime's priority rank : 01
zange's priority rank : 01

INB4 ANOTHER MACROSS IN THE MAKING

okay so last summer we at +ophanium had very dismal reaction towards production i.g's latest effort on reviving the blood franchise in the form of blood c, despite the latter being the series to which we've been looking forward to the most prior to its airing last season. this season however, the studio seems adamant enough to once again dominate the air [ and presumably the market with its dvd / blu-ray releases / exports afterwards ] with another seemingly well polished [ +critically acclaimed, according to our team's standard ] series; suitably befitting of a noitamina production indeed.

among the things to take note of is the participation of ryo and redjuice [ both of supercell fame ] each on their respective role within the guilty crown production team; marking another positive appearance by the supercell team into the anime industry that once saw huke's ambitious breakout into the mainstream with his black rock shooter franchise [ of which we really, really liked regardless of the extreme backlash by those who resented it for its over-hype-ness and suggested 'lack of originality and yet-another-moe-pandering content' ]. +best not to forget the director himself of whom once directed black lagoon, death note and highschool of the dead; thus plenty of action is highly guaranteed, definitely.

anyway, the first episode took off with a highly impressive start absolutely thanks to the magnificent insert song [ of highly epic value ] 'euterpe' [ by the fictional band egoist, fronted by the female lead yuzuriha inori ] which excellently sets forth the [ grim and nihilistic ] mood, atmosphere and overall outlook at the plot and story with its finely crafted lyrics - coupled with 'bangs' that slightly reminded us of ga-rei zero years then. also, aside from being closely related with code geass in plot / story, we as well noticed a closer parallel between this series with both shining hearts x wind and dantalian no shaka in concept.

[ MAI WAIFU™ ]

another thing we love best when it comes to guilty crown is the streamlined + upbeat character designs by katou hiromi-sensei which of course were based on the initially outstanding original designs and concepts by redjuice - with inori's primary costume, although extremely revealing, being one of the best and highly fashionable from those we've come to see for this year yet. character designs aside, guilty crown stands altogether with fate/zero this autumn as two of the most handsomely produced / executed series; and perhaps one of those extremely well-polished this year, yet again.

p/s : assuming that the female lead is an utahime herself, we were kind of wondering if this series will eventually grow to become another macross ? well we'll see to that, in time |3

fate/zero : early impression

FATE/ZERO
studio : ufotable
director : Ei Aoki
serial run : October 2, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : 25
hime's priority rank : 02
zange's priority rank : 02

ISKANDAR IS THE BRO, AND [ SPOILER; ] LANCELOT IS INSANELY BADASS

an overly hyped series that actually lives [ greatly ] to its hype and promise; fate/zero is one of those juggernaut series that we would greatly recommend and highly guarantees will get your bottom nailed to your couch while both your eyes firmly glued to the screen before you in full, extreme excitement. that, and this one definitely is one of the greatest action series ever produced for 2011; one that actually delivers its load week by week instead of keeping things up until the very last moment.

in contrast to many who find the pilot episode unappealing for its extremely wordy introduction, we at +ophanium however welcomed the lengthy exposition as it helps us to further understand everything that we need to in regard to the ever-growing, ever-expanding fate/ mythos. that, and we were always so intrigued over all the details pertaining to everything concerning on the holy grail war itself, especially how it was established, and how everything work out for the participants themselves.

as far as the fifth episode goes by the time we had this entry posted, fate/zero has yet to fail our expectation when it comes to storytelling and plot / mystery buildup. and it surely is a good thing that we haven't touched any of its source material [ light novel, most especially ] yet [ despite having slightly spoiled via reading the type-moon wikia though ] as that very much helps in keeping our enthusiasm growing more and more through the end of each cliffhanging episodes; eagerly awaiting for the next week to hit us sooner for the next piece[s] of the story / action / drama x3

[ my poor tragic sakura-chan ;____; ]

presentation wise, fate/zero is one of the two excellently produced anime this fall [ the other series being guilty crown, of course ]. and as expected, is highly outstanding in every single aspect of its well-detailed art, impressively fluid animation and suitably epic music [ kajiura yuki-sensei ftw ! ]. also not to mention that fate/zero again won our greatest praise this fall for its absolutely outstanding character design, which is highly faithful to the sleek + stylish art and design of takeuchi takashi-sensei.

working'!! : early impression

WORKING'!!
studio : A-1 Pictures
director : Atsushi Ootsuki
serial run : October 1, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 03
zange's priority rank : 03

one word; yamada. and it is thanks to her very presence that this series keeps on getting more and more interesting to watch week after week, and for us ourselves to be looking forward upon greatly this season. but of course she may not be the primary reason for others to enjoy this series, still we gotta say it here that to us, she's one of the core and the foundation of this series following her initial onscreen debut in the first anime season.

anyway, wagnaria family restaurant's back with another series of exciting workplace sitcom and -surprisingly- more [ matsumoto ] maya on air. there seems to be very little [ or perhaps, none ? ] change made to the series overall mood and presentation-wise, and so for fans of the first season prior; you may very well feel somewhat secured now. still, one thing that we greatly miss however is the addictive-ly catchy, ska-tinged opening theme from the first season as the current op doesn't really hit the mark for us, sadly.

[ instead of yamada, here's our favorite member of the katanashi takanashi household for a change ]

another aspect that is to be highly noted of working !! is the dynamic interaction between its characters [ including supporting ones, most especially the takanashi sisters ], to which we gave our greatest praise on, as well as among the reason which made this series so darn good in the first place. that said, there seems to be a prominent character growth observed [ the most ] from inami this season, and we're all intrigued to see how far her character will progress and grow by the end of this season |3

boku wa tomodachi ga sukunai : early impression

BOKU WA TOMODACHI GA SUKUNAI
studio : AIC Build
director : Hisashi Saito
serial run : October 7, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 06
zange's priority rank : 06

SUPER SO-NIKU

i've to admit that the primary two reason which helped in building my interest into this series were; 01. her majesty itou kanae and 02. this particular cosplay by toujou ai-san, the latter which had greatly set forth my interest over the glorious meat kashiwazaki sena [ aka everyone's waifu ]. otherwise than that, i find the series to be extremely easy for me to relate with, given that i myself is just as ronery as those characters were in the series; in my case however i am more closer to yozora's than the rest of her merry party.

to me, the plot / story feels quite like a merger of suzumiya haruhi no yuutsu, genshiken, ookami-san to shichinin no nakamatachi and ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai; again, the more reason for me to be checking this one out. there's also the parody fiesta a-la genshiken which so far involves existing titles such as fullmetal alchemist, seiken no blacksmith [ the sacred blacksmith ], monster hunter, neon genesis evangelion and gundam among many others [ and there's a plethora more in both the source material and the drama cd, so i was told ].

some of its characters are very amusing, to me at least, especially niku sena and yozora; the primary two female lead of the series - as i really do enjoy their constant intolerance with each other week after week. as for the rest, well i gotta say that i have yet to grow my fondness for them, though kobato seems to be somewhat promising in getting herself into my list of favorites from the series.



since haganai's sharing the same character designer with denpa onna to seishun otoko, you can expect to see a parallel design between both series to no surprise [ exact same case with c3 and baka to test to shoukanjuu as mentioned in the former's impression post ]. the series is being well presented, with decent art / design and animation at best - be noted however that consistency has always been the standing issue with most of aic's productions; and do cross your fingers on each coming weeks for them not to mess this one up from episode 06 onwards |3

tamayura ~hitotose~ : early impression

TAMAYURA ~HITOTOSE~
studio : Hal Film Maker
director : Junichi Sato
serial run : October 3, 2011 - ongoing
total episode : 12
hime's priority rank : 07
zange's priority rank : 07

for those who are still missing the fuwafuwa slice of life goodness of aria, well miss no more. brought to us all this fall by the same studio [ and director ] which produced all four anime adaptations of aria back then, we at +ophanium highly guarantee that tamayura will bring forth a closer [ if not exactly the same ] mood and feel that some of us has already been in love with when it comes to amano kozue-sensei's most highly celebrated masterpiece, aria, indeed. also interesting to note that president aria's role has also been reprised in tamayura by momoneko-sama.

so if i am to use music as a metaphor for the series, watching tamayura ~hitotose~ is kind of listening to artists in the likes of george winston, kevin kern, jim brickman and yiruma; just to name a few. there's this gentle, warm and fuzzy feeling that is native to both the music of the aforementioned artists, as well as the previously mentioned series, aria, in general; the exact kind of feeling which can be traced in previous 2011 entries such as ano hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai, usagi drop and hourou musuko in particular.

overall, tamayura ~hitotose~ is a calm and pleasingly soothing watch this fall, in stark contrast to the action-drama series that represent the major bulk of autumn 2011 entries. and despite being greatly underrated [ the same kind of fate which befell its ova predecessor very much earlier ], this series manages to carry itself remarkably well week after week much thanks to its outstanding cast of characters - the primary source of interest and awesomeness of the series, definitely.



presentation wise, tamayura ~hitotose~ went for a very similar approach once seen and experienced in the aria series; although its visual and animation aspects aren't as bombastic as guilty crown nor fate/zero were this fall, still there's plenty enough life in itself which set this series apart from its contemporaries this autumn, namely shinryaku !? ika musume. the character design is very likable for us, but what we love the most is the background / setting art which won our greatest approval yet again since the ova then.

shakugan no shana -final- : first impression

SHAKUGAN NO SHANA : FINAL
studio : J.C. Staff
director : Takashi Watanabe
serial run : October 8, 2011 - ongoing
episode count :
hime's priority rank : 12
zange's priority rank : 09

URUCEI URUCEI URUCEI

i couldn't help but feel that j.c. staff [ or perhaps the assigned director - watanabe takashi-sensei ] have been constantly wasting the franchise's potential ever since the lackluster second season, only to be mildly redeemed by the feature movie and the four episode 'S' ova which succeeded the movie a couple of months back. that said, this third and final season however were seemingly not that much different from the second season itself anyway, thus is why our enthusiasm [ over the series ] nearly fade out right at the start of the final sequel.

what made the second season fell short to the otherwise good first season was that it [ shakugan no shana II ] was overly rushed with many crucial story material getting omitted from the dough in place of fillers - the same exact fate which befell j.c. staff's kugyuu-driven hit zero no tsukaima. many questions were raised and yet left unanswered much to our greatest dismay - leading to shakugan no shana II becoming a melting pot of plotholes and void. and despite garnering the same mixed reaction from us as the shana franchise was [ and currently is ], at least the first season of to aru majutsu no index managed to hold itself well with its following second season decently saved the series from being outright chaotic and meh.

moving back to the final season, it seems to us that j.c. staff nearly revisited the same failing recipe it once had for the second season, as apparent from the highly questionable first two episodes that left us endlessly wandering right after our watch of them. once again, many of the past mysteries [ and questions ] were left unresolved / unanswered while at the same time the plot / story took an extreme warp jump - leading to yet another clueless-ness + incomprehension on our side. nevertheless, the finale season has grown to be quite intriguing as it proceeds forth however, and it'll be highly unlikely for us to be dropping it anytime soon.



one thing that mildly disappoints us in regard to the series is the inconsistent art and visual presentation which has since plagued the series from the very start. well this shouldn't be happening at all to be frank, and j.c. staff should have paid more attention and extra care of details as shakugan no shana is well known to be among its most highly prized well of profit with large enough following from fans worldwide. hell, even the lesser hyped one-off titles ookami-san to shichinin no nakamatachi and yumekui merry were both more consistent and better looking than shakugan no shana.

mashiro-iro symphony : early impression

MASHIRO-IRO SYMPHONY
studio : Manglobe
director : Eiji Suganuma
serial run : October 5, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : 12
hime's priority rank : 11
zange's priority rank : n/a

FORTUNE ARTERIAL + HOSHIZORA E KAKARU HASHI

another visual novel to anime adaptation to which i am pleasantly fond of this fall / year - and most importantly, i am well intrigued to see manglobe's plan and direction for this particular series since this is the studio which gave us samurai champloo and ergo proxy previously; both being in stark contrast to mashiro-iro symphony, in every single aspect. also interesting to note is that suganuma eiji - the director - was a member of the production team for the psychologically intriguing cult series 'serial experiments lain'.

as with most fall 2011 series that i fancy best, mashiro-iro symphony unfolds its story at such a pleasant pace, hooking me up all the way as the series steadily build and firm itself with each of its episodes aired so far. the drama portion of the story is very suitable to my taste and liking - if not to some others out there; being lightweight and simple enough for easy digestion unlike the more complex approach made by series such as the ef duology [ mistake me not, this one is one of my favorite ever, to date ] so to name.

as with hoshizora e kakaru hashi [ and some other visual novel to anime adaptations ], mashiro-iro symphony is a very colorful series down to every aspect of it - its art and its characters in particular - the latter aspect to which i highly favor the best since i'm usually in love with series that is crowded with characters imbued with colorful character and personality to them, even if they're just re-hashed archetypes every single time. anyway, i for one find the leading female protagonist sena airi to be extremely adorable and likable for both her look and character / personality [ her character design slightly reminds me of fumino serizawa of mayoi neko overrun ! btw ].

[ MAI WAIFU™ ]

presentation wise, i simply love how the series look and animated - probably thanks to the fact that it is being handled by the aforementioned studio manglobe. but still most important of all, i greatly love how the characters were designed for the anime-get, which to me is much, much more cuter and slightly more appealing than the original design seen in the source media [ visual novel ]. to sum it up, mashiro-iro symphony is so overwhelmingly moe and cute that it might blind those who are totally opposed to this kind of stuff ;D

maji de watashi ni koi shinasai !! : early impression

MAJI DE WATASHI NI KOI SHINASAI !!
studio : Lerche
director : Keitaro Motonaga
serial run : October 2, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 09
zange's priority rank : n/a

BAKATEST ? NOT

another surprise hit for me this fall; and to be honest, i nearly dropped the series back then - but thankfully it quickly proved itself to be quite entertaining before long - much to my surprise indeed. also best of all is that i see a plenty of waifu material within this one, as well as being one of the series where i fell extremely hard for all of its leading female characters without sparing any one of them [ other recent titles of same feat being mayo chiki ! and infinite stratos ].

majikoi [ for short ] also went on to become one of those visual novel / eroge adaptations that i really really like, as well as greatly inspiring me to one day pick the game [ from where the anime was based from ] up should i have the free time to spare. so anyway, you get offered with a plenty of action for the start of the series before it cools itself down with a couple of introductory episodes for its 5 primary heroines; nicely done series composition there, or at least for me it was. and before i totally neglect the following point, the story is kind of fun and entertaining at best - in par with those of ben-to's, for me that is :3

i personally find the entirety of its leading heroines to be extremely likable for me; definitely for each their respective character / personality. and as mentioned way above, i find it hard for myself to choose which of them to end up as my ultimate favorite - though i could see that either yukie [ goto yuko ftw ] or christiane [ the tsundere + ito shizuka ] are both possible candidate for the highest throne.



one thing i specifically love the most about majikoi is the character design - which sticks really well to the original design and feel of those of the game. the animation + overall art / visual presentation however are decent at most as with other budget series out there - yet slightly much consistent than those of shakugan no shana final, so to say v.v

ben-to : first impression

BEN-TO
studio : David Production
director : Shin Itagaki
serial run : October 9, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 09
zange's priority rank : n/a

HALF PRICED BENTO IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

one of the few unsuspected hit for us [ or perhaps just me, since this series couldn't land itself a spot on zange's watchlist |3 ] this fall. as a matter of fact, ben-to initially started out very low on my fall 2011 checklist [ even lower than c3 ] but managed to climb a couple of ranks to its current position now - which is quite a feat if i must say myself. now with that said, ben-to definitely is one of the funniest, and most entertaining comedy this season - and hopefully this momentum would last until the very end of it much later.

anyway, should you were seeking for some hotblooded action this fall, then ben-to definitely is one of the best place to be this season; it may seem rather ridiculous just from the synopsis, but this series pack quite the kind of action that would get you go 'oooh !' while waving your fists in the air - or it may be so, to some folks, if not all. not to mention that the whole idea / concept / theme behind the series is very much interesting to boot - especially when such a simple subject as fighting over half priced packed meal being over-dramatized to super-exaggerated proportion.

another forte of the series went on to its merry party of characters - from the clueless but later born again heroic protagonist satou yo, the ayanami rei-look alike fighter supreme yarizui sen [ aka the ice witch ] to the ever recurring sadist shiraume ume - almost all of them amuses me lot specifically for their respective personality / trait and constant interaction between themselves which helps in building my interest into the series.

[ ayanami rei wuz 'ere ]

presentation wise, ben-to in all due respect is very neat and decently produced / executed in overall. and despite being one of the underdog of the season, ben-to for one had twice more better production compared to juggernaut titles such as shakugan no shana final [ which is borderline meh in regard to its visual aspect ] while its character design fares extremely well to my liking.

[ figure of interest ] miku hatsune ~hsp ver.~

character : Miku Hatsune
series : Vocaloid2
producer : Max Factory
official page : [ click ]

of all designs made by several remarkable illustration artists we've seen so far, the miku-get by kanzaki hiro-sensei [ of ore no imouto ga konna ni kawaii wake ga nai fame | aka hanasoumen p - an established vocaloid-based otokei dojin composer ] went on to become our most ultimate favorite to date; simply due to its overflowing cuteness + moeness - which technically is his main landmark / forte in the illustration field.

slated for release on march 2012, hsp miku stands at approximately 200mm in height and comes with her shoulder keyboard [ so 80's thar ] and that little green blob thingy often seen in oreimo. she is currently open for pre-orders at the price of yen 7800 - inclusive of tax.

c3 ~cube x cursed x curious~ : first impression

C3 ~CUBE X CURSED X CURIOUS~
studio : Silver Link
director : Shin Oonuma
serial run : October 1, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 15
zange's priority rank : n/a

★ Y U K A R I N ★

first thing first, don't ever let that highly saccharine outer look fool you; for beneath that 'moe' exterior lies a darker, twisted side of the series [ and that very character in above image herself ] which would hit back at some of its detractors hard; especially those who are quick to dismiss its [ the series ] potential from just a couple of minutes into the series. but of course, being a series that is mainly driven by the sheer force of 'moe' doesn't necessarily mean that a particular 'moe' series would be lacking so greatly behind its cerebral counterparts, as long as the series has strong production team to help give substantial support at its very foundation.

anyway, being directed by the same exact director who previously worked on baka to test to shoukanjuu [ speaking of which, the second tv anime season ended just recently ] and the ef duology to their fullest glory prior, i won't be lowering my expectation for the series yet, given that oonuma-sensei sticks very firmly to the excellent formula he has used on both baka to test to shoukanjuu and ef then; and portions of said formula seems to be at work here, albeit not at its fullest bloom yet. also not to mention that you can't simply ignore the key strength of the series which comes in the form of its principal seiyuu, tamura yukari - of whom is a really suitable fit for the titular character, fear.

at this point of time, the basic premise of the story took its form really neat and well eventhough great chunks of the details were still left in vague - this however deepens the sense of mystery in a much more proper way compared to how kyoukai senjou no horizon steers its own storytelling / composition, leading to me myself becoming more and more confused and uninspired as the latter [ horizon ] goes on. i am also greatly interested in the super-genki fear kubrick [ the primary character ] for having such an explosive character to herself; as there is so much life and fun inside of her that i couldn't simply overlook her existence this fall.

visual wise, c3 is not so surprisingly high on the bakatest taste, due to its utilization of both the director and the character designer [ oshima miwa-sensei ] of the latter - which means that you'll be getting the exact same art direction / style which oonuma-sensei seems to be very fond of. its a wholesome package if i were to say so, and frankly speaking i am more than pleasantly delighted over the handsome overall execution / presentation for this series :3

shinryaku ?! ika musume : early impression

SHINRYAKU ?! IKA MUSUME
studio : Diomedea
director : Yasutaka Yamamoto
serial run : September 27, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : 12
hime's priority rank : 13
zange's priority rank : 10

CALAMARI MUSUME STRIKES BACK

ika musume returns, and this time she's just as mischievous as she was then - but seemingly has grown to be much more adapted at living on land, as well as being more attentive of her surroundings - although her [ signature ] lack of common sense remains intact for things she has yet to explore. the comedy for the best part of it were just as fun and enjoying as the first season was - and we safely assume it here that much of her usual antics doesn't seem to have grown old yet - yet, for now.

what amuses us greatly in regard to this series is ika musume's optimistically carefree attitude and her personal outlook at life and the world around her. not to mention her ongoing interaction[s], ever growing experience[s] and constant learning[s] of everything she could lay her eyes and interest on. almost every bits of her quirky personality and look at the world has taught us well on how to savor this life to its fullest - the way she does with hers.



presentation wise, there has not been much apparent changes [ aside from the op / ed, obviously ] from how this series was presented back then - nor was there any drastic improvement we could pin on at the moment - and thus, not much is left to be said and commented by us here.

mirai nikki : first impression

MIRAI NIKKI
studio : Asread
director : Naoto Hosoda
serial run : October 10, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : 04
zange's priority rank : 04

NOBLESSE OBLIGE

it seems to us that our initial expectation set for this series was reciprocated very, very well - from the first two episodes that has been aired so far that is. that said, mirai nikki currently is one of the strongest entry this fall; and together with chihayafuru and guilty crown, had one of the most impactful first episode this season to date [ fate/zero however truly shines on with its outstanding second episode - continued forth with the equally outstanding third episode ], from our perspective that is of course. with all that has been written in this paragraph alone, we here at +ophanium greatly recommends mirai nikki to be included into your fall 2011 watchlist - and we greatly assure you people that this series is very fun and interesting to watch, and will surely satisfy those who were craving for intense murderous action on their monitor screens.

prior to the airing of the anime adaptation [ as well as the short ona that precedes it then ], i used to be reading the manga ever since i got introduced to it by a brother of mine. and like most other fans of the series, i quickly established my love for the murderous female protagonist gasai yuno - more precisely due to my standing preference for them yanderes - as well as her highly unstable, psychotic personality which really, really turns me on. and clearly if it wasn't for her, i might've stopped paying any further attention to the series since. not to mention her presence in the series is so great that she has already secured for herself a highly devoted cult following within the manga / anime fandom even way before the pilot episode / ona made its way through.

to those who weren't yet familiar with the overall premise of mirai nikki, the general plot and concept of the series bears an almost striking resemblance to those of higashi no eden [ eden of the east ]; in that a bunch of strangers [ 12, in the case of this series ] were dragged into a survival game of life and death for the prize of becoming something more omnipotent by the end of the game. moving on, each players were then tasked with outwitting each others via their very own 'future diaries' [ for most characters these diaries comes in the form of a regular cellphone ] - programmed with specific attributes correlating with respective aspects of each their very owners.

[ MAI WAIFU™ ]

presentation wise, this tv adaptation of the manga is currently being handled out with very good care by the production team; each focus characters were imbued with solid / near-realistic life and personality of their own - yukiteru [ he seems to mirror shinji of evangelion fame really well ] and yuno [ once again, best female character this season. nope, this year :3 ] most remarkably. their overall emotions [ especially of fear, rage and distress ] were strongly conveyed forth and were very, very well felt especially in the second episode - . furthermore, the animation were pleasantly fluid [ especially during action-laden moments ] and the character design for the best part of it gave the series proper justice in its execution.

kyoukai senjou no horizon : first impression

KYOUKAI SENJOU NO HORIZON
studio : Sunrise
director : Manabu Ono
serial run : October 2, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : ?
hime's priority rank : dropped, might re-consider on resuming it somewhen later
zange's priority rank : N/A

YOU_LOST_ME.jpg

i find it hard to believe that this is a sunrise's production; i really and still do. anyway, here's one of the first two drop candidates on my watchlist [ zange doesn't seem to bother on watching it at all, how harsh :D ] - i was reluctant to drop it at first, considering that it might grow on to become so much more interesting in the future. but considering that my watchlist is already bloated, coupled with my overly tight schedule as of late [ reality bites ] - the sacrifice was somewhat inevitable |3

frankly speaking, the first episode went on well with me, albeit it hurt my head a lot trying to digest all those information thrown at me en-masse - which however weren't helping at all in assisting my understanding of the plot - and more importantly, the setting of the story. at times i find the story to be ridiculously hard to comprehend, and i stopped watching halfway [ esp. the second episode ], spamming away at twitter and looking for scans at the boorus before resuming my watch about 30 to 60 minutes later.

despite all that however, i find most of the characters [ with the only exception being the leading male lead who sucks very, very greatly - not even being voiced by fukuyama jun can save him from my hatred anyway ] to be somewhat interesting and amusing to my attention. some of them even seem to have quite a promising future ahead [ should i re-consider on resuming the series somewhen later ] while some other just flat out 'meh' [ the aoi siblings, for example ]. and before i completely forget it, the visual elements of the series are very pleasing to look at - especially them character designs.

[ i feel great sorry for her, since i really liked her above the rest in the series - hime ]

as always, our first impression entries are solely based on our personal taste and preferences - and thus, please do not take our words of discouragement seriously. and who knows that this series might be the kind of series you were looking for all this time - though it wasn't meant for us, sadly.

chihayafuru : first impression

CHIHAYAFURU
studio : Madhouse
director : Morio Asaka
serial run : October 5, 2011 - ongoing
episode count : 25
hime's priority rank : 05
zange's priority rank : 05

KARUTA IS SERIOUS BUSINESS

i initially underestimated / overlooked this series for two reasons; 01. it is being produced by madhouse [ in case you haven't noticed yet, i'm having quite a love-hate relationship with said studio ] and 02. i wasn't a fan of the sports / games-genre to begin with. however, i was intrigued by the overwhelming positive reaction from those who has seen it before me, and went on to give the series a try. 5 minutes into the first episode, and i got totally sucked into the story much to my greatest surprise :3

the first two episodes, - as i would like to say - are both very inviting and welcoming. the visuals definitely are very soothing and eye pleasing to look at [ not as captivating as hourou musuko was though, but are still good by general standards ], and the background music even helps in getting me more and more immersed into the story which unfolds at such a neat pace / fashion. not to mention chihaya's character herself is very much endearing to us here, so to say - and let us not forget the [ young karuta prodigy ] arata-kun as well^^

storywise, the subject of karuta [ a series of cards with excerpts of japanese poems written on them ] games may not hit well with some; especially to those who were initially unimpressed much thanks to the synopsis [ much like myself ] circulated around the anime fandom earlier. we at +ophanium however assure you that karuta aside [ which doesn't seem to be that boring at all, esp. with some dramatic plays a-la saki being injected into it ], the underlying theme / story of friendship is more than enough to hook us in, and more likely fans of such series as honey and clover and ano hi mita hana no namae o bokutachi wa mada shiranai - just to name a few.



presentation wise, the visual aspect of the series went on to become one of its founding key strength alongside its pleasantly interesting story. and being a series of the josei category, the character design are so obviously shoujo-ish - not that we're having any issues with that since both of us here happened to be fans of shoujo-art ourselves. overall, our team greatly recommends this series - especially to those who were torn between trying and ignoring it out due to the slightly uninspiring synopsis [ as mentioned earlier ] :333

+ophanium's fall 2011 watchlist : prelude to first impressions

before i went on with our usual first impression commentaries i would first like to post in a quick compendium list of the fall / autumn 2011 series of which me and zange will be keeping close track on based on summaries / those that we have seen so far. as usual, these lists are subjected to future changes.

HIGHEST PRIORITY
description : these are the series of which we'll be following very dearly week after week without fail; a slight miss on one episode will possibly result in multiple head-desks on our behalf.
- guilty crown ♪♥
- fate/zero ♪♥
- working'!! ♪♥
- mirai nikki ♪♥
- chihayafuru ♪♥
- boku wa tomodachi ga sukunai ♪♥
- tamayura ~hitotose~ ♪♥
- ben-to ♪
- maji de watashi ni koi shinasai !! ♪
- bakuman 2 ♪♥
- mashiro-iro symphony ♪
- shakugan no shana III ♪♥
- shinryaku !? ika musume ♪♥
- persona 4 ♪♥
- c3 -cube x cursed x curious- ♪

MEDIUM PRIORITY

description : these are the series of which we'll be following week after week without fail just like the priority set above, however we won't be giving ourselves multiple head-desks should we forgot to get ourselves updated on the new episodes of those listed here; in fact we'd rather marathon a number of episodes in a go- :3
- kimi to boku ♥
- kyoukai senjou no horizon ♪
- busou shinki moon angel ♪ [ on hold ]

LOWEST PRIORITY
description : being the lowest priority set, these series risks themselves of being deported to the on hold / dropped list based on their respective performance[s]. however, we'll still be giving them minor justice by forcing ourselves to keep on watching them just to fill in the void left in-between the release of new episodes of the two priority set above.
- maken-ki ! [ dropped ]

OVA / OAD / ONA / THEATRICAL RELEASE
description : this list mostly encompasses those retail / simulcast-exclusive series of our highest priority.
- kaibutsu oujo / princess resurrection [ 3rd episode ] ♪♥
- yozakura quartet : hoshi no umi [ 3rd episode ] ♪♥
- is : infinite stratos encore : koi ni kogareru sextet ♪♥
- astarotte no omocha ! ex ♪
- baka to test to shoukanjuu : sora ga bokura no nichijou ♪♥
- carnival phantasm [ 2nd season ] ♪♥
- kimi ni todoke ♪♥
- higurashi no naku koro ni kira [ 2nd and 3rd episode respectively ] ♪♥
- seitokai yakuindomo ♪♥
- boku wa tomodochi ga sukunai ♪♥

WAITLIST / WISHLIST
description : those listed here were either sequels which i have yet to watch over the previous season they were continued from or just those poor underdog titles which has yet to be picked and subbed upon.
- N/A

+ LEGEND +
♪ = hime's watchlist
♥ = zange's watchlist

...

FAQ

Q : do you really watch all those listed on your watchlist above ? A : yes. well usually i would break down my aniwatch session into two; the weekly episodic watch and the complete full season marathon by the end of a series' run. at the start of a season block, i would often took my time and give each of these series' first / pilot episodes a try before i decide whether to put them on my weekly watch or the full marathon watch session, depending on their performance as well as the state of balance between the genres offered within a season.

[ figure of interest ] millhiore f. biscotti

character : Millhiore F. Biscotti
series : Dog Days
producer : Griffon Enterprises Inc.
official page : [ click ]

first thing first, our dearest boss rayneholde died [ and later resurrected ] many times of extreme moeverload over the news of this milhi-get by griffon enterprises. if prior to this there's the nendoroid version by good smile company of which cuteness is a crime itself, then this recent pre-painted 1/7 scaled pvc-get should become another serious crime to our [ or more precisely, folks like rayneholde ] wallets - the latter of whom has already went and pre-ordered one of this milhi figya without wait, so to say |3

visually adorable just as much as the original character from the anime itself, we find her overall design and sculpt to be highly neat and impressive from every single perspective, with much applaud goes to her highly detailed + beautifully executed skirt. and what's more important is that her design itself doesn't deviate much from the original design found on both the anime and other related official printed media. not to mention, milhi's one of the three sexiest character in dog days [ together with yukikaze and leon-hime ] thus there's not a single reason for us not to obtain her.

slated for release this december 2011, milhi is currently open for pre-orders at the price of yen 7980 - inclusive of tax.

dog days : second anime season confirmed !

[ source : moetron ]

initially announced at the flonya festival 2011 live event in tokyo, and further confirmed through a tweet made by hmv anime - another anime season of dog days will be coming our way anytime later - the only anime-related news of recent to which our team [ or just rayneholde, to be precise ] overly rejoiced at the moment [ slightly more so than the announcement of an index movie ]