Beccano's 2010 Summer Anime Preview:
I always read the Anime Preview on AnimeNewsNetwork for every new season, and find myself wanting to share my own opinions on the anime I've watched, or at least first impressions. Then I remembered, Durr, I have a blog. So yeah, if your at all interested here's my opinions on the first episode of every anime I've watched on the first season.



Baka to Test to Shokanjuu Ni!-> The second season of Baka to Test, one of my favorites from last year. Its pure fluff, but doesn't seem to suffer from any of the faults that other fluffy comedy anime have. The characters are still as lovable as ever, with one of the few moron protagonists that are so common in shounen that I actually like. The show uses alot of those tropes common in shounen comedy anime (Take a drink everytime I say the phrase Common in Shounen, thats twice now), and parodies them in hilarious way. The characters are your standard pick and mix, the idiot but well intentioned protagonist, the pervert, the straight-laced best friend, the ditzy love interest, the tsundere love interest, but they all subvert their typical roles in some silly way. Except for the tsundere and yandere who are played to such extremes that it ends up being hilarious. The plot centers around a highschool, because EVERYTHING in anime has to do with some highschool. But manages to make itself into some sort of Battle/Highschool/Comedy anime with a dash of Romance, with a unique plot. Also this show gets an A++ for being one of the few light novel anime that doesn't just end with the first season even though there's tons more to adapt in the light novel.

If you want a score on it, it rounds out to about an A-. The animation and music are colorful and well-done, but if your not into fluffy shounen comedies then this anime probably won't change your opinion on it.




Mayo Chiki-> This is another Shounen Echi comedy that follows the recipe to the T. (If your wondering what that recipe is, its four parts boobs, two parts relatable and spineless male protagonist, and throw in a cast of characters that are defined more by their quirks then actual personality). Despite that, there were a few moments in Mayo Chiki! that I found genuinely funny. Make no mistake most of the jokes were groan worthy. "What, the extremely bishounen butler to the school's token extremely rich and sought after girl is a girl?" was about as shocking a revelation as finding out that the transformers movies sucked. While we're on the subject, I feel like sharing one of the many things I love slice of life anime. That being, without the grand scale mystery, adventure or sci-fi plots, slice of life rely on character driven stories to get by. I love character driven stories. Unforntately Mayo Chiki is not. Its characters aren't really people as they are quirks. The main character has a girl phobia, other than that he's white bread toast without any butter. His sister likes to beat him up, thats her character thing. The only interesting character was the butler, and thats mostly because she's the center of the only good jokes. Also, this being Ecchi!, we have to talk about the fan service. Which wasn't THAT bad for the first episode, but there were a few moments where it got ridiculous, (The ball gag for one, and the other where Subaru's gender is confirmed after she gets knocked down and her clothes fly off-What is this Ikki Tousen?-). Despite all this I kind of liked the first episode. It hit my soft-spot for cheesey rom-coms, and it shows a bit of potential. That is, it would if it took the camera off of the butler's breasts for like five seconds to actually round off its cast.

It gets a disappointing C+, and a reccomendation only to those who like trashy rom-coms as their guilty pleasures.



[From right to left the super star, the nerd, the funny short guy, the pretty rich guy, the angsty pretty rich guy and the friendly and laid back ginger]

Uta No Prince-Sama Maiji 1000? Love
This show is like a paradox for me, because for everything thats good about it there's another bland element in it that should really hold it back for me but it doesn't. I LIKE this show. Alot more than I should really, considering quality-wise its just average. It shares most of the character and story problems I mentioned in Mayo-Chiki, just flipped to appeal to the opposite gender. ((IE. Character Traits favored over actual characters, the protagonist being a bit bland, and the plot just being an excuse for the show to throw pretty boys in your face)), but none of those factors made the show outwardly bad. There were plenty of positive traits (From my perspective at least, consider that I am female), namely the animation and the overall quirkiness and likability of the cast. The main character really didn't leave an impression on me, but the sequence where she explained her dream of writing a song for her favorite popstar to a newfound friend and roommate was both touching and beautiful. On the whole, the plot is nothing special, an average girl makes it into an elite academy (This one centered around music), and meets a bunch of cute boys who start fawning on her, but it was executed well. All the boys are introduced in unique ways, and they all have personalites that are likable and clear to distinguish from one another. Its your typical pretty-boy pick and mix, the nerdy one, the angsty one, the rich and beautiful one, the best-friend fun-loving one, so its not actually unique on that front. It does however, manage to throw in a few curveballs. The most surprising being the principal's introduction, which was so campy I couldn't help but find it completely awesome.

Recommended to girls, music fans, or girly music fans who can put up with the standard cliches of the reverse harem genre to find an interesting series at heart. A solid B-