I watched a few first episodes from the newly current season of anime, thanks to the modern miracle of legitimate for-pay streaming services. I have some thoughts, or perhaps I should say I have some dire warnings. Let’s get this out there while the memory is fresh and I have the inclination to hold forth on the topic, shall we?
Girly Air Force – Hapless dude who wants to be a pilot gets involved with the cute-girl-looking AI avatars of super-airplanes that fight some kind of enemy super-airplane force and oh boy, it’s Arpeggio of Blue Steel only in the air instead of on the ocean. And cheaper. And terrible. The only thing I really enjoyed about the first episode was the required Childhood Best Friend character, and she couldn’t save this mess. Transplant her into something better and we’ll talk.
Domestic Girlfriend – Is it okay to be done, very much done, with the “incest by marriage” trope going on lately? Because I’m very done. What’s worse, this show seems to be trying to do some interesting and serious drama… except that every few minutes they throw in some kind of brief wacky hi-jinks to unbalance the tone of the thing. No, nothing in here makes me want to stick with it. I kind of dislike everybody except the parents, and the show’s not about them, so.
Magical Girl Spec-Ops Asuka – This one’s a mixed bag for me. On the one hand, it’s occasionally very violent on a level I don’t really enjoy. On the other, there’s an interesting thread to it about a girl who’s had one save-the-world battle too many against absolutely fiendish enemies, and she’s trying to learn to be less broken. If they could lean on that aspect I might be tempted, but I’m willing to bet that there’s enough of “the old ultraviolence” to keep me turned away. Friend Wonderduck indicated he might be tackling this as a review subject. I hope he does, because I’m very curious to see his take on it and find out how the show pans out.
The Price of Smiles – Well it’s nice to see Hestia from Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon is getting more work. Seriously, the character design for the princess character here is nearly identical. This seems like a somewhat fluffy sci-fi giant-robot romp at the outset. I’ve no idea where it goes from here, though. I think I’ll stick around for a bit on this one to find out. Expectations are set at a medium-ish level.
That’s all so far. Hopefully this season will give me something to look forward to with actual enthusiasm… eventually.
