WHAT.

Oh Horo, this scene made me laugh out loud.  Unfortunately I don’t have the time to do individual posts on these shows since I’ll be away till next Wednesday, so let’s go over these rough draft style:

Let’s hope I never have a satanic-acting child, cause I’d have already thrown Maria in the ocean if I was Rosa.  I mean, does Maria only look like a creeper to the viewers?  Everyone keeps dealing with her crazy expressions like they’re nothing.  Well that might just be Studio Deen’s laziness at work since the characters react a lot more seriously to Beatrice’s letter in the manga (which I’ll talk about later).

Well this is cute.  This show is pretty much going to be Sailor Moon, except you only have Sailor Mercury (Marin) and Sailor Mars (Kanon).  Although at this point I can’t tell if Kanon’s power is fire or wind, since the turtle gave her a helping hand.  You’d think it’d be wind or flight since she’s the Priestess of the Sky.  I was surprised that Urin told the truth since I thought she’d hide her secret until close to the end of the series.  Anyhow, here’s to hoping Umi Monogatari doesn’t use the monster-of-the-week technique for 90% of the episodes.

The opening animation of Needless lead me to believe that the show would be purely action-based, but that’s only half of it.  There’s a lot comedy in the form of corny word jokes and SD faces.  The costumes and bad guys are pretty out there also, so this series is basically Excel Saga meets Cutey Honey.  At times it felt more like I was watching a video game, especially when Blade yells out “Judgment! DEATH PENALTY!”.  I thought Sengoku Basara was high-octane action, but this show goes even further.  Needless is certainly a visual feast since Madhouse is at the helm, and I just hope they can keep the gag jokes unique or things will get boring quick.

My only WTF reaction is at the ending animation.  I mean, shit, Chris Hansen will be knocking on Madhouse’s door if he ever sees this.  Either Madhouse are loli lovers or they’re making fun of how anime credits always use the overzealous girls who act out the wet dreams of guys.  Except this is a bit of a backfire if it’s a parody, cause lolipedos and neckbeards will just eat this shit up.

Well holy hell, there was more action and drama in this episode than the past half of the series.  It would have been nice if they spaced out the plot better, but they only had eleven episodes to fit all the character backgrounds in.  Plus, it set up a nice emotional explosion for this episode.  I feel like Nicoletta is so hard to please.  She got so pissed this time when Claudio was about to take of his ring, yet she didn’t in previous episodes when it was obviously missing from his finger.

I didn’t expect much coming into this new series, but it’s a pretty enjoyable slice-of-life show.  In that mindset, don’t expect a lot of action or cartoonish antics.  A lot of people will probably be bored with this show, but I like realistic shows once in a while.  Of course things are played up with the shoujo-ai undertones, which may lean closer to yuri if the OP is any hint.  The plot revolves around the reunion of two childhood friends, Fumi and Akira.  They were best buds when they were little, but Fumi had to move away and they lost touch with each other.  Fumi is already pretty much an outright lesbian, although she doesn’t completely acknowledge it since she uses the fact that her cousin is a girl as an excuse for being “rejected”.  Maybe it’s just my limited base, but I wish that they would do more lesbian-based plots in co-ed schools.    It always seems like it’s supposed to be this magical phenomenon that only happens in girls-only schools.  Anyhow, the first episode could be a nice setup for the rest of the series as long as they don’t slow things down any further.  Plus, I think the supporting characters will add more liveliness to the show.

Although I’m disappointed that it’s set before the end of the series, I guess that’s the only way (Highlight for spoiler) Wolfwood could be in the film.  The animation looks really well done, and I’m glad that they brought Meryl & Milly back, because I thought that it would be totally focused on Vash & Wolfwood.  The new chick and her interaction with Wolfwood is a little sketchy, but again, if you’ve seen the series this addition won’t make a difference.  I hope this gets a US release someday, cause I’ll totally take my Kuroneko plushie with me.

I’ve been looking forward to this series since it was announced, and I’m hoping that Studio Deen doesn’t make it into a total hot mess like Higurashi (although I suppose the wonky animation was part of Higurashi’s charm).  The show centers around the Ushiromiya family and their pact with a witch named Beatrice.  She brought wealth to the family in exchange for the family head’s soul, but now the pact is nearing its end and Beatrice will only be satisfied by bloodshed.  The island setting gives a And Then There Were None feeling, but with additional supernatural elements in the same way Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni was portrayed.  The OP isn’t as eerie as Higurashi’s, but it certainly sets up a dramatic effect.  The hardest aspect of this show is the sheer amount of characters that are introduced right away.  It’s probably going to take me a couple of episodes to memorize all of them.  There’s definitely a core group that are the “main” characters, by which I feel that they’ll last the longest through this mystery.  I haven’t played the game, so this is all speculation: