Pretty much everything I tackled yesterday was trash; today we’ve got four keepers, more or less. These are all on my Current list, at least—your mileage may vary. After all, not everyone enjoys chaff as much as the good Dr. Elkay!

Yosuga no Sora (2010-10-04) Fall Series

Description

Having lost both parents, the Kazugano twins, Haruka and Sora, decided to move in and live with their grandfather of whom they are fond of. Other motives, however, contributed to their decision to reside at their grandfather. Kasugano Haruka and his sister Sora have lost both their parents in an accident, and with them all their support. They decide to move out of the city to the rural town where they once spent summers with their late grandfather. At first everything seems familiar and peaceful, but changes come as Haruka starts to remember things from his youth.

Genre: romance
Status: airing
Time: Mon 23:30+JST
Episodes: 12
Specials: 5
Duration: 24m

Links: Official ANN

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This pilot episode resists panty-shots for 20 minutes… only to shower us with tits and sex in the last six minutes. Uncensored nipples, a decently hot masturbation scene—and I’m like, I’m sooooooooooo confused!! But this is not a bad thing. Keep us guessing, Yosuga no Sora! Stay classy, and keep us guessing.

One thing I have to say I’m really digging here is the shamelessness of it all. It doesn’t pull punches. Male lead Haruka is unabashedly the sexiest thing ever to the point where people so much as lay their eyes on him and their panties dissolve in overflowing juices. Must have been a grizzled old man driving the rich bitch’s car, else we’d have seen one hell of a car crash.

I look forward to more of this, and will almost certainly go the distance. Awwww yeah.

(More substantive things will be said as I blog further episodes, beyond these survey posts.)

Psychic Detective Yakumo (2010-10-03) Series

Description

In order to help a friend possessed by a spirit, Ozawa Haruka knocks on the door of her university's movie research association. There she meets Saitou Yakumo, a rude, unkempt young man with a red left eye, who is said to have spiritual powers. At first Haruka is skeptical, but she comes to believe him when he conveys messages from her older sister, who died when she was a child. Together, they work to shed light on the terrifying events happening at their university. But this is only the prologue of what's to come...

Genre: mystery, supernatural
Length: 13
Status: airing
Time: Sun 23:00+JST
Duration: 25m

Links: Official ANN

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Let’s get another long pan on those eyes… no, that wasn’t long enough, let’s do it again!

(This really feels like Spiral and Avenger’s illegitimate child two decades down the line, when it is more mature than either of its parents were when they had it. Whether this unholy union will produce an angel or a devil remains to be seen. I’m holding out for the “just a 16 year old girl” option.)

Shinryaku! Ika Musume (2010-10-04) Fall Series

Description

Squid Girl has come to the land from the depths of the sea to conquer humanity for its pollution of the ocean. Unfortunately she ruins the first house she uses as an invasion base and has to work to pay for repairs. Of course, she can't overcome the Aizawa sisters who manage the house, so who knows whether she can subjugate humankind.

Genre: comedy, slice of life
Theme: Beach, Invaders
Status: airing
Time: Mon 26:00+JST
Length: 12
Duration: 24m

Links: Official Official Official ANN

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Refreshing sea-side comedy! Tentacles aplenty! Dumb verbal quirks! And somehow I am not turned off. We’ll see if the second episode wears out the series’ welcome and turns it into something that is annoying and nothing else, but for now I am entertained. Keep squirting that ink, Squid Girl!

Hyakka Ryouran (2010-10-03) Series

Description

The story takes place in Japan in the early 21st century, in an alternate reality where the Tokugawa Shogunate has remained in power. In this reality, student councils are tasked with oppressing schools. Yagyuu Muneakira is a high school student who rebels against his student council with the help of girls who've had the names of famous samurai heroes passed on to them.

Genre: action, romance
Theme: ecchi, samurai
Episodes: 12
Status: airing
Time: Sun 24:30+JST
Duration: 24m

Links: Official Official ANN

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The answer is epic win. If nothing else, this show is rocking the season (the year?!?!) with its distinctive art style. Mad props for that—it seriously puts Katanagatari to shame, and looks like it’ll be what Queen’s Blade always wanted to be in terms of how visually appealing its fanservice is. “T&A isn’t everything; it must be aesthetically satisfying,” quoth the #AnimeHipster.

(I actually watched this pilot a long time ago—when the pre-air version came out—but didn’t think to mention it here until now. But there it is! Fall 2010, epic samurai schoolgirl fanservice! Enjoy!)

Ciao.

That’s it for your third glance at the new season, notdotq’s Fall 2010 Grope Test. Tune in next time for… a Listen Test? A Watch Test?

Anyway. Back to the season at hand.

I am now going to prove that nothing currently airing is good. Don’t expect screenshots, I’m too lazy even to steal pics from RandomC.

1. Queen’s Blade Season 2: Hirano Aya’s character has been marginalized. I haven’t heard nearly enough of her voice this season. Every time I finish an episode of this trash, I go back and marathon the entirety of Kiddy Grade for want of her voice.

2. Seiken no Blacksmith: Ignoring that knights must be chivalrous and not moe, the message of Blackshit thus far seems to have been that girls are sad if you don’t buy them useless kit. Buy a candle and stick it on their heads, though, and you’re golden. You’re even a good guy, who cares about the girl! But if you don’t buy shitty accessories, you’re a bad guy. Thrifty? No, you’re evil, and you need to be corrected.

3. Fairy Tail: This show is louder than Seto no Hanayome, and it doesn’t make up for it with mermaid gangsters. Loud is bad.

4. Sasameki Koto: Should be “Stammered Things” instead of “Whispered Things.” This manga didn’t translate well into anime form; Sumi is a humongous pansy who’s more painful to watch than the typical weak male harem lead, and her crush has no redeeming values whatsoever. Take something great and destroy it.

5. Book of Bantorra: Xam’d ripoff. Inferior Xam’d ripoff.

6. Winter Sonata: the main guy looks exactly like my gf’s ex, and that pisses me off. If an anime pisses me off, it’s bad, unless it’s Bokurano, in which case it’s somehow good even if it’s angering (thanks, Owen!).

7. Sora no Otoshimono: Chobits was hotter. If Tomoki doesn’t start fingering Ikaros soon I’m going to throw my shoe at my monitor. This show also suffers from Kanokon/To-Love-ru Syndrome: too much sexual tension, not enough sex.

8. Kanokon OVA: see above.

9. To-love-ru OVA: see above.

10. Kampfer: see above.

11. Nyan-koi: Not enough catfish. Pass.

12. Darker than Black 2: I have a skit for this piece of shit.

Suou: FATE-CHAN! TANYA!
Tanya: … *scowl*
Suou: Fate-chan Tanya, stop this!
Tanya: … why?
Suou: It’s me, Nanoha Suou! Remember me?
Tanya: Die.
Suou: Listen to me! I just want to be friends…
Tanya: BARDICHE! BUGS!
Suou: *transformation sequence* STARLIGHT BREAKER! HUGE FUCKING GUN! *humongous explosions*

Hopefully this has been illuminating and informative for all.

13. Kiddy girlAND: Not enough Hirano Aya. ;(

14. Aoi Bungaku: that piece of shit ghostlightning enjoys this show. He also like Bakemonogatari. You can see a trend, here.

Anything else airing? I’ll take it down a few rungs. C’mon. Bring it.

15. A Certain Scientific Railgun: not enough Railgun, way too much loud, annoying lolis (Uihara, the teleporting bitch, etc.). Also, promotes bad things, in particular, blanket video surveillance. Earns the “most evil” mark of the season, second being Seiken no Blacksmith with its consumerist messages.

16. Kimi ni Todoke: traumatizing memories of the KimiKiss opening.

Here’s what I watched today:

1. Queen’s Blade 12.

I wondered why this was so bad until I realized I was watching it at 1x instead of 2 or 3x as I usually do bad shows like these. Damn this was painful. Gotta love Nowa, though. Anyhoo, I’d celebrate the conclusion of another terrible series, but there’s gonna be another season! I’m a glutton for punishment, as one of my older brother’s coworkers said the other day.

2. Queen’s Blade Special 1.

I jizzed in my pants… for values of “jizz” equal to “vomit” and values of “in my pants” equal to “all over.”

3. Clannad: Another World, Kyou Chapter

Once again, Tomoya is made shallower such that he can hook up with a girl in the space of two minutes’ worth of montage. Once again, teenagers are melodramatic. Once again, there is a happy ending. Though this episode focused on Kyou, I’m sure Captain Miao is seething—her thighs didn’t feature much. All in all, a bit of a waste of time, though you gotta love Kyoto Animation’s signature stumbling rainy tears.

Apologies for the lack of screencaps. I deleted all three of the above abominations from my computer before I decided to blog them.

Briefly, on the topic of what I’ve been watching recently…

- I started both Touka Gettan and Haibane Renmei. I expect to enjoy both, in different ways. I’ll keep you all updated on how that goes.

- Eden of the East I’m at 5/11 on, and will finish once the opportunity arises (I’m waiting for SAKI to get some free time so we can watch it together).

- Sengoku Brosara is proving to be total shit, but it’s been fun to laugh at the ridiculousness. Unfortunately, starting with Azai’s death the fun factor all but disappeared. Kinda lame. I’ll finish this sometime but it’s not a huge priority…

- Haruhi Hog Summer is repulsive beyond belief. I already could barely stand episode two, stating that it was a worse waste of time than watching Queen’s Blade, and then lolikappa gave me the inside scoop on episode three. Seriously, Kyoto Animation? Go die. Now. Whores.

Eventually I’ll make some progress on the shows I’ve had on hold for a long time: Skip Beat, Mouryou no Hako, Michiko to Hatchin, Zettai Shounen, Kurozuka, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto: Natsu no Sora, and A Certain Magical Index. I’m also going to rewatch more Aria soon; you can expect some feedback on all of the above at some point, even if it’s not in much depth.

Things I’m not looking forward to: A Certain Scientific Railgun, Darker than Black 2. Both are abominations of the mind. Aberrations as it were. Do. Not. Want.

Finally, I’ve got my netbook, a sexy Dell Mini 10 that had some issues running Jaunty initially but is now puttering along just great with stellar battery life and an amazingly usable keyboard. If I get Ren’py onto the thing, I might be able to work on my VN on the go, which would greatly increase the chances of a v0.05 sometime this summer!

What is this bullshit?!

Kyoto Animation has almost as many posts as the rest of the top 10 list combined. (It’s six short, to be exact.) It’s not a majority, but it’s a disgustingly large plurality, and it. is. not. right.

Comrades, I urge you to fight the power by blogging about good shows for the next week.