Fall Season 2009 Recap:
-A Certain Scientific Railgun: Could have been much better than it is, but the direction is really bland and lifeless. Any attempts by the writers to inject tension into the show is wasted by an over-reliance on have characters explain every single thing or quickly resolving any issues as quickly as possible. It gets interesting leading up to the halfway point, but that arc is quickly finished up and then it goes on to a standard issue beach episode. 7 out of 10.
-Trapeze: One of this season's bright shining stars. It's weird, it's crazy, and it's absolutely hilarious. But it also offers a glimpse into the lives of people coping with psychological issues and how they overcome them. At times poignant and at others so very funny. It's well worth watching. 8 out of 10.
-Armed Librarians: Another show that could have been much better than it is. Has some very strong individual episodes that are absolutely wasted by a story that jumps from one character and situation to the next with reckless abandon. The overarching story is fairly interesting and sets up a unique world, but too often new characters are introduced, developed, and then killed off after an episode or two. This process has been repeated three or four times throughout the first half. Some of the backgrounds are amazingly detailed, but the CG work [which is thankfully limited] is atrocious. 7 out of 10.
-Letter Bee: This season's fantasy standout. The world in the series is amazingly to look at and delve into, though the story is a bit lacking. Most of the episodes are just standalones that center on developing aspects of the main characters are showing off some part of the world. Nevertheless, it's fun to watch and doesn't take itself too seriously. The main character does have a somewhat annoying trait of crying at some point in every single episode. 7.5 out of 10.
-Tentai Senshi Sunred: A parody of sentai shows that absolutely excels at what it sets out to do. The characters and situations are all just so amazingly funny. Might not be for everyone, but those that appreciate this sort of humor will find nothing to complain about. 8 out of 10.
-Blue Literature: A series of stories from Japanese literature. The first story was really good and the second story started really well, but I just lost interest in it after five episodes. Of all the shows that I've dropped this season, this is the one that I'd be most likely to come back and finish. 8 out of 10.
-Kimi ni Todoke: I really like this show even though there's no reason at all why I should. It's female mind candy and has way too many episodes that end with pointless cliffhangers, but...man, it's just so good. But I still dropped it after 9 episodes because I knew in my heart that it was the right thing to do. 7.5 out of 10.
Everything else from the Fall season can go die in a fire.
Winter Season 2010 Preview:
-Legend of Koizumi: A show about former Japanese Prime Minsters playing mahjong against other world leaders with the peace of the world at stake. It's like a combination between Gurren Lagann and...I don't know...Top Gun or something. Maybe Hot Shots. Anyway, the preview of the first episode [7 minutes out of 30] was absolutely amazing. And absolutely hilarious. This is going to be one to watch.
-Hellsing OVA: Episode 7 came out less than a week ago. It was really good stuff and a cure for the all the moe/animu junk that too many shows have these days. There's also a preview for episode 8 floating around as well.
-Ladies vs. Butlers: Pure, unadulterated garbage. Pulls out every possible cliche and genre trope and crams them into the most vapid excuse for animation I've ever seen. There's tons of fanservice [both censored and not], which clearly demonstrates that the sole purpose of this show is to induce mouth-breathing losers into forking over $30-$40 for two episodes on DVD. Or $40-$50 for two episodes on Bluray. Don't watch this. Don't even watch it ironically. All I did was skip through it and just that little bit of exposure was enough to make me want to puke all over the people who made this.
