With the spring season now coming along, it’s time to find some new anime to watch. While writing on four shows is much easier to handle, I did try my best to involve a variety of shows that are directed at different tastes; except for mech fans. Sorry, I’ve just never been that into them. With a good balance between light hearted comedy and dark depressing drama, it seems that this season is going to be an eventful one. As always, these shows, these shows can be streamed for free by Crunchy Roll.
First up is one of the most anticipated shows of the season Attack on Titan, the first episode titled To You Two Thousand Years Later (Fall of Shiganshina part 1). When I first heard that Attack on Titan was supposed to be something epic, I went in a bit skeptical, but it seems that the show has drastically changed my views.
The story appears takes place sometime during the middle ages, where a giant wall which protects a small city from beings called Titans. They have been protected from these giants for over a hundred years, but have yet to find a way to defeat them or even understand what the Titans are. At the center of the story are a young boy and girl, Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman, who live within the city walls. Although he is young and weak, Eren has a desire to protect the people from these monstrous beings.
With the dark tone it seems the show is taking, Attack on Titan seems like a promising series. The chemistry between Eren and Mikasa work very well with each other and are portrayed as actual kids who would have to live under those conditions. The action and animation are also really well done, which is really shown off during the third act of the episode when all hell breaks loss.
The story as well is one of the show’s stronger points. It feels very original and plays with the fear of humans not being the top of the food chain. With how things are placed at the end of the episode, it looks very promising into becoming a great series.
Attack on Titan - To You Two Thousand Years Later (Fall of Shiganshina part 1) gets seven stars out of ten.
Up next is something a bit lighter; My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU appears to be a show that is poking fun at the idea of romantic comedies. In the first episode, Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected, we are introduced to Hachiman Hikigaya, a young high school student who seems to care very little for school or friends. After turning in an essay on his high school experience, which was less than flattery, he is punished by joining a volunteer club that only has one other member, Yukino Yukinoshita.
At first glance, it seems like the show is just another rom-com, having the standard tropes, such as Yukino being a typical kuudere and even introducing a tsundere character half way through. However, it seems that the show is playing around with these roles and actually trying something different. While it sticks to plot points that anime fans are familiar with, they seem to add their own twist onto things to add a bit more fun to the show. Needless to say, it works.
The animation style is very similar to other shows in the genre, which is what to expect from animation studios these days. While it would be interesting to have a show that chooses a different texture pallet, it works good for what the show is. It seems that there are plenty of hijinks that are bound to happen as the season continues.
My Teenage Romantic Comedy SNAFU - Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected gets six star out of ten.
Flowers of Evil is one of those shows that seem to be taking many risks this season. From the first episode, it seems that they are breaking many molds, not wanting to do what’s popular, but wanting to tell a great story. In the first episode, 1 of 13, we are introduced to Takao Kasuga, an average high school boy. In just about every way he’s average; he studies in school, he has plenty of friends, and he even has a crush on a girl. While the description of the show is much more detailed, this is all that really came up during the first episode.
Right from the get go, the animation is something that will throw a lot of people off. It appears that it is all hand draw animation and the textures seemed to be water colored. The characters are also not that attractive to look at, but all of this seems intentional. Flowers of Evil feels very mature, which is helped by the uneasy feeling that the audience will have throughout the second part of the episode. While not much happened during this first episode, the description of the entire season is enough to have me hooked to see how everything eventually plays out.
Flowers of Evil - 1 of 13 gets five stars out of ten.
Our final anime for this season is Photo Kano, which translates to Photo Girlfriend. In this first episode, Encounter, we follow Kazuya Maeda on his first day of his second year of high school. He is a prospering photographer who hopes to expand his hobby. Throughout the day, he is encountered by many young females who seem to want them to take his picture. It peaks when two respective photography clubs wish to have him join, each one having their own view on the word “art”.
Photo Kano felt very much like an anime based off a visual novel, which is why it wasn’t so surprising to find out that it was. A visual novel is a popular style of gaming in Japan where a player goes through an interactive story where they can sometimes make choices that may affect the outcome of the game.
Visual novels that are usually translated into anime are dating sims, where the player has a number of girls wanting his affections and they have multiple endings depending on which girl you choose. Since anime doesn’t wish to go through that route most of the time (School Days decided to break that mold), they tend to choose one girl from the game (usually the most popular girls in the fan base) and make her the central love interest while having the other girls resort to being friend zoned.
The opening of the show showcases the various girls that the main character could pursue and a lot of the background music sounds as if it came straight from a video game. The animation is great though; of course, that’s needless to say when something is being animated by Madhouse. Also, the premise of the story is a bit original and it seems like the main character is caught in the middle of things instead of simply being a flat out pervert. While it feels a lot like other things I’ve seen, no doubt it will be a good comedic relief for this particular season.
Photo Kano - Encounter gets six stars out of ten.