We're a week or two into the new Spring season, and I'm back to do my usual first impressions of the stuff I've watched. The list has changed a bit since I first put up my anticipated list, with a couple falling off the list, and another sneaking it's way on.
So far, it's been pretty good. Sakamoto's first episode was fabulous and good fun, but how it does in the long run is still up in the air. flying witch is pretty much everything I hoped it would be while Twin Star Exorcists fills my shounen needs.
I couldn't get through the first episode of Bakuon!!. I just hate Sakura's character so much that the moment she starts talking I hit the back button. Nope! Not this! See ya! Onsa could very well be the lead, on a quest to convince others that motorbikes are really cool, but nope. We get shit-for-brains Sakura Hane, who's as if someone took a look at K-ON's Yui and somehow managed to make her even more unbearable. She's even got the reliable younger sister (and she has to be because her older sister is a mess in every possible way) who looks a whole lot like Ui. I can tolerate goofy characters - I love absurd comedy. But numbskull characters like Sakura and Yui (I actually feel kind of bad putting Yui on the same level as Sakura) make me question who exactly is vouching for these kind of characters? WHAT IS THE APPEAL OF A CHARACTER WHO'S DUMB AS A GOD DAMN DOOR KNOB?
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri looks really, really good. Like I really like the art and the character designs. The character designs are really striking, mainly reminding me of the old Macross characters. It had what can only be called a 'propulsive' first episode that played out incredibly similarly to Attack on Titan. There's something poetic about a series directed by Tetsuro Araki featuring a train and steam gauges, because the gauges are always at 100% tension and always going full speed ahead. These series could really use some downtime to just cool down, but nope. Everything has to be terrible, people have to be shouting all the time and no one can relax.
Also, for an armoured train, the Koutetsujou seems to have a whole lot of weak points. Between vulnerable windows, giblets getting caught in gears and steam valves always breaking, you'd think that they might consider refurbishing that thing to be a little more reliable?
Anyways, enough rambling and onto the actual impressions.
