Fall Anime First Impressions

Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoku ni Naritai! (I Want To Be The Strongest In The World):  It's been two weeks since I saw episode one of this, and I'm STILL not sure what the hell I was expecting when I decided to watch this.  I guess I thought the world of puroresu (Pro Wrestling) would be more interesting if it involved a ton of attractive women.  What I got (and should've expected) was so much fanservice it was damn near a hentai, and moaning fit for the very best porn vids.



The series is about a top level idol singer who, while on a routine publicity assignment, gets mixed up in the role of pro wrestling, and in fact tries to fight a female professional wrestler.  The good part is that she gets her ass kicked and doesn't magically pull off a win like I expected her to in a series like this.  The bad part...is that the wrestler the main character faced was a submission wrestler so the entire thing watched like a beginner course in BDSM, and those moans (and even some of those moves) came directly out of some hentai I'm almost certain I've seen before (don't judge me).     

Outlook: It's got like, two more episodes to at least try to be something more than just a 22 minute spank bank add-on with sexy moans and submission moves before I drop it.  I'm not asking for plot, I'm just asking for a decent show that involves wrestling.  

Log Horizon: I assumed this series would just be a rip-off of Sword Art Online.  But as one of the few people that actually enjoyed Sword Art from start to finish, I was pleasantly surprised that Log Horizon made enough changes to remain interesting despite having the same basic story idea.   

The first episode juxtaposes what the MMO game world (entitled Elder Tale) was like against what the new, updated version is like, often to hilarious effect.  (Like a female playing a male character needing a potion to alter her body to her true self, and the main character constantly tripping over himself because he's taller in game than he is in real life.)  Still, Log Horizon never pushes itself into the realm of parody, managing to keep a semblance of serious action under the veneer of comedy.  The end result is a series that manages to strike a balance Sword Art Online never could: something with the potential for a fun adventure without taking itself too seriously.  That's good enough for me, at least right now.

 Outlook: Pretty good.  Nobody pissed me off, I actually LIKE some of the characters.  Whether or not the story is good remains to be seen but as long as the world remains interesting to explore and the characters keep being likable, I'll finish this.

Samurai Flamenco: Well.  This came totally out of left-field.  I had assumed Samurai Flamenco was going to be about an actual superhero and a cop, attempting to define justice for themselves.  Not an idiot model who pretty much sucks at life attempting to be a superhero with no powers and no gadgets, and a cop who's probably going to have to save him from certain death at least twice before this (presumably) one-cour series is over with. 
 

Expecting an action-oriented series only to find something that was much more cerebral in nature, I was honestly tempted to drop it mid-episode.  But if you've follow JiH at all, you already know that heroes, what makes a hero, and the purpose of one in everyday society are all things that I've discussed before.   For that reason alone I'll stick with this series, but if the main character ("Samurai Flamenco") remains a cornball and doesn't actually grow into something more, I'll have to ditch it.

Outlook: It's got 3 more episodes to do something interesting or I'll Rider Kick it into the land of lost and forgotten anime.   (Same place things like Blue Gender and Wolf's Reign go.)

Gundam Build Fighters: Build Fighters is one of those series that lets you know just how detached some fans can be from reality.  Everywhere I've looked there are ton of people claiming that "Bandai just made this to sell Gunpla models!".   No shit, idiot.  That's the purpose of literally every Gundam series that's ever been created. That's why Jerid Massa continued to be a fuck up in Zeta and yet seemed to get a new mobile suit every four weeks.   It's not that bad, and if you hadn't noticed it before now just pretend this is just a Gundam Shonen series and move on.

To me Gundam Build Fighters has a lot of potential, if they really embrace the Gundam lore unabashedly.  Things like stopping to give us the backstory on older Gundam series, and having old Gundam characters make covert guest appearances (mothafucking Ramba Ral in the first episode!) are things that I can't really get mad at, and overall the characters and the basic idea are inoffensive enough.  The main character is a little beta for a non-UC main character, but so long as they don't have him have a panic attack over battling 1/100 Master Grades, I think we're good.  

Outlook: I'm most likely going to finish this series since it started out good and I have what I think is a reasonable belief that it'll improve.

Tokyo Ravens: I gave this series 50-50 odds that it might be decent after seeing the PV, but damn did it fail:

1. Typical "I'm lazy" main protagonist - 20 points
2. Evil lolita-type character - 100 points
3. Beating me over the head with oral sex references with said lolita -500 points
4. "Shy" osananajime character - 200 points
5. Pathetically juvenile romantic interactions - 1,000 points
6. "Quiet, school life" - 100 points
7. Having a tsundere character - Fucking Infinity 

It was guilty of all these sins (and probably more I'm not thinking of), ending in a final score of Fuck This Show.  

Outlook: Dropped before the opening of the second episode, then picked up when I heard someone that was annoying me died, then dropped again when I realized it wasn't going to improve even with that.

This is getting kind of long, so I'll be back next week with part 2.