The Impression Series: Winter 2011 [Part 1]

Since I mostly stay at home this month before continuing my post-degree stuff, I got the chance to try most, if not all, subbed winter 11 series. From my initial watch, it looks like this will be another lengthy season for me with quite a number of series in my watchlist.

IS Inifnity Stratos
MAL/Official
Genre: action, science fiction, mecha, comedy, harem
Studio production: 18bit
Number of episodes: 12?

Comments: Based on a light novel series with the same title. Due to his special ability to operate armored exoskeleton machinery "Infinite Stratos" which was supposedly only accessible to woman, a 15 years old boy Orimura Ichika somehow find himself in a special school to train his ability, which naturally consists of only girl students. An obvious harem premise which I usually am not quite fond watching, but somehow IS:Infinite Stratos gives something different that made me want to continue watching as some things in this series wasn't quite typical to the generic harem - added with interesting characters, funny scenes and lovely mecha (IS) design/battles. +1 for Hikasa Youko casting the main character Shinonono Houki. More points for having Mai Kadowaki+Yukana :3
p/s: for some reason I feel some vibes of VC2 from watching this series.

Verdict: 4/5



Yumekui Merry
MAL/Official
Genre: Action, supernatural
Studio production: J.C Staff
Number of episodes: 12?

Comments: Having watched 2 episodes, I personally find the story progressing rather slow for me to fully grasp the deal behind the connection between Dream and Reality, as well as the involvement of the dream demons, and that kinda made held me a little from praising this series more. But one thing for sure, although I personally thought the OP song didn't synchronize quite well with the visual (messy, if you will), it was absolutely awesome, easily one of my favorite song for this year's series. And the epic background music during battles and other tense scenes further added my enjoyment. The characters also caught my attention, especially Merry - a mysterious resident of the Dream World, seemingly strong and weak at the same time. I just wish the antagonist - whoever the dream demons are, have more "intimidating and evil" aura. Nevertheless, I'll reserve my judgement about the story until I've watched more episode. This is a JC Staff work after all.

Verdict: 3.5/5




Gosick
MAL/Official
Genre: mystery
Studio production: Bones
Number of episodes: 24

Comments: Based on light novel by Kazuki Sakuraba, basically this is a semi-mysterious detective series with a cute, adorable little girl, Victorique de Blois as the detective solving the cases with the aid with her important companion, Kazuya Kujou who happen to transfer into her school at a bad time. Seems like a great series to replace Shinrei Tantei Yakumo which coincidentally just ended. Having watched 2 episodes so far, the mysterious cases involved weren't complex (not as mind blowing as Umineko or Kindaichi so far) and probably something you can find in other detective novels, but it is still interesting to see how Victorique, with her unique personality and sharp vision, confidently dissect each puzzles without being affected by the tense atmosphere around the crime scenes. Oh did I mention how adorable she is? Coming from Bones, the animation was also splendidly done, often using the right visual to depict the mystery at the scene.

Verdict: 5/5



Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!
MAL/Official
Genre: Comedy, Slice of Life
Studio production: Bridge
Number of episodes: 8

Comments: My favorite comedy show of 2010 returned with the second season. Started with the ever popular super sentai Gachiranger parody almost for the whole episode 1., the series still retained the same formula and still caused me to laugh to no end in each episode. The Triplets didn't have much screentime in the first episode, but overall the episode itself was extremely hilarious. Quoting Mitsuba; "It's so stupid that it's pretty funny" XD

p/s: wtf 8 episodes total щ(ﾟДﾟщ)
Verdict: 4.5/5



Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!
MAL/Official
Genre: Comedy, Ecchi, Romance
Studio production: Zexcs
Number of episodes: 12

Comments: Right after OreImo ended, immediately another series with similar (but more extreme) theme, similar long ass title was animated (coincidentally both began serialization in 2008). I randomly found the manga last year and quite enjoy the [sometimes] perverted comedies, so I might as well watched the anime adaptation. The animation was ok at best, and although some people might feel awkward with the disproportionated character figure (big head and hand), I personally don't have much problem with that since that's pretty much how the original characters were designed.

Verdict: 3/5



Beelzebub
MAL/Official
Genre: Action, Comedy, Supernatural
Studio production: Studio Pierrot
Number of episodes: 12

Comments: The story of a high school juvenile delinquent Oga Tatsumi who through some circumstances, find himself raising the child of the Demon King. It's been a long time since I follow a mainstream action/battle shounen series, mainly because I'm not fond with the (often) messy action, and having read a few chapters of the manga, I'd say the same for Beelzebub. But the comedy still cracks me a good laugh, so I'd probably give this series a few more episodes to watch.

Verdict: 3/5