First of all, I’ve got to say, for the sheer volume of anime being released this season, the selection has been a bit lackluster. The good thing is that most of the series with a rocky but good start have had solid second episodes. Some of the standouts this season have been moving along with a great intensity. With that, this wave was actually pretty good for what I watched. I wasn’t terribly disappointed in anything, and was extremely excited for one of the shows premieres. Among the Fall 2011 anime 4th wave, I watched Un-Go and Guilty Crown and rounded off Persona 4 episode 2 and Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai episode 2.
Un-Go
Given any other circumstance, I’d be willing to call Un-Go pretty original. The fact of the matter is that Un-Go is just another link in the long chain of recent detective shows that bring along an intelligent little girl with some type of supernatural vibe. Even still, Un-Go is not uninteresting. The unique premise being explored here is that, despite the main character’s astute capability to solve crimes, he is always foiled by a man who twists cases such that they are more favorable to the public eye, such that the main character earns the nickname “The Defeated Detective.” It’s no surprise that the show follows the same general methodology that all of the detective shows as of recently have been following, but it’s not a bad one. I could really do with a different animation style, but it’s not too painful on the eyes. It’ll take a bit more work on the show’s part to keep me watching, but I’ll stick with it for a while at least.
Rating:
7/10 – Given the volume of detective anime over the past year, this is going to have to bring something unique to the picture quick to not be considered average.
Guilty Crown
After having seen the majority of this season’s anime, I’ve got to say that Guilty Crown absolutely takes the reins for best start to a series this season. It does wonders for the series having such a great musical composer, Supercell, doing the musical scores here, but the series itself is already showing its own true colors. The series does a great job setting up a post-pandemic Japan setting where Japan is entirely dependent on other nations for its support. We kick right into a pretty fancy opening sequence with synced singing and a unique “counter-terrorism” effort being staged. What the show does great to start out is that it clearly defines contrast between the nation as a whole and the terrorist organization that obviously is fighting for the promotion of something that would be better for Japan. In a way, this is pretty Code Geass-esque, but that doesn’t mean that the show itself draws too heavily from the series. A yet unexplained ability to wield a girl as a weapon (very much Elemental Gelade style) creates a pretty awesome moment surely soon to be explained. All in all, the show exudes badassery on merely the first episode. If it keeps up this pace and tension, it will be the best series this season.
Rating:
9.5/10 – Some recycled elements, but overall unique, a great musical score, splendid animation and just badass, in general.
Persona 4 : The Animation Episode 2
The second episode of Persona 4, in my opinion, did a lot for the series. Enough that I’m not ready to drop it, yet. What was done better here was that the “day swap” sequence was minimized and actually used as an advantage for flashbacks. As a whole, the episode was a lot more contiguous, which was my main problem with the first episode. The first episode felt like ripped game dialogue without any smoothing over to transition between scenes. There was an obvious effort in this episode to correct a bit of this. That being said, there were still a few parts of the episode that were a bit rough around the edges as if ripped from game dialogue and not smoothed out to transition between events (in particular, the transition after leaving the television), but I’m being a bit nitpicky. In the end, Persona 4 needs to deliver a bit more to keep it from being for more than just the fans.
Rating:
7/10 – Mostly a well-transitioned story at this point, but still needs plot buffering to smooth over rough transitions that didn’t exist in the game.
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
While I’m, by no means, a fan of the genre, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai has kept me reasonably entertained. It might just be that the series is a relief after the remainder of the series I am pursuing this season that are a bit more dense plot-wise, but the series seems to be a decent relief at the end of the day. The concepts in the series have already been explored millions of times over, but the execution is decent, and as far as what amounts to moe goes, it falls somewhere in the Oreimo field where I don’t really dislike it. I still find the mis-perceived image of the main character pretty hilarious, but I’m sure that joke will eventually get pretty old after it gets beaten into the ground. I’m actually pretty sure that anything that is really entertaining in this show will beat itself into the ground, as well, but…well that’s to be seen I guess.
Rating:
7/10 – You’ll find what you expect here, but it’s going to appeal to some. It’s not a bad interpretation of an extremely overused genre.
Nix, Nao! 