First Impressions of Spring 2017 | Part Two

Last time I posted my first impressions of a few series from Spring 2017 – but that wasn’t all of them! 

I’ve been a little busy with work and everything as of yet, hence the slow posting of these, but this is the last eight shows I’ve decided to delve into this season. At the end of the post I’ll be sharing my opinions on a couple of minor shows as well as giving my final list of shows that I’ll be watching week in, week out this season. (There’s no way I can keep up with all of these after all!)

So – part two! Let’s go!

In this post, I’ll be covering the following series:

• Sagarada Reset
• Clockwork Planet
• Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka?
• Kabukibu!
• Hinako Note
• Busou Shoujou Machiavellianism
• Fukumenkei Noise
• Seikaisuru Kado

Sagarada Reset

I have to admit, this was one of the first shows I watched this season, but… I don’t have any notes for it. Why? I wouldn’t like to say. Perhaps it was because I found the show so boring that I saw no point in writing any. Perhaps it’s down to a different reason. However, this first episode dragged. It’s full of dialogue and events that I questioned were actually needed or not. Quite frankly, it bored me. I can see how people would enjoy this. It’s a complicated plot, it’s a drama and it’s probably going to improve somewhat. However, first impressions for me are incredibly important and, sadly, I’m not one of those people who did enjoy it.

 

Clockwork Planet

Clockwork Planet wasn’t one of my original picks. I was told to watch it by my friend Johnny and, considering I was watching a lot of anime anyway, I decided to give it a go. The first thing I noticed about this series was the poor animation. It reminded me of a children’s show, a feeling that didn’t seem to fit in with the show’s synopsis properly. It was styled in a way that reminded me of D-Frag! if D-Frag! had been made using CGI. Secondly, all of the characters are just generic. There was nothing new about the characters; I couldn’t pick one to immediately empathise with, thus losing interesting in them pretty quickly. The plot was also unbelievably boring. Nothing seemed to make me want to watch it, but I forced myself to not click ‘stop’, to not turn it off, to endure it… The most interesting thing to happen was the master/servant contract, which honestly has to be the most bizarre thing I’ve had to witness this season. Apart from that, as well as various other sexual references, this episode had nothing going for it. Again, first impressions mean a lot and I cannot see myself continuing to watch it.

 

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka?

And the award for the most intriguing series name this season goes to… Well, it’s certainly an interrogative name. What are you doing at the end? Are you busy? Can you save me?  Thankfully, we can also call this show SukaSuka, which rolls off the tongue a lot better, right? This show is definitely going to be the emotional one of the season and it’s easy to see why. The emotion hit me straight away as the scene, previously known to me as being ‘just the PV’ was the first scene. All I could do was sigh to myself, for it was then when I realised that I had allowed myself to hop onto a roller coaster full of emotions. The voice over in particular hit me hard, the words being incredibly beautiful and well-written, as well as being delivered superbly. The OP of this episode at least was a cover of ‘Scarborough Fair’, something that I didn’t expect. The song tells the story of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former lover to perform impossible tasks for him, indicating that we could be witnessing some pretty dramatic, if not tragic, events in the series and “the impossible”? Well, we can all imagine what that means… What I like about SukaSuka is that it is not the fanciest animation of this season by far. In fact, it’s the complete opposite. Saying that, however, it just looks so nice. It simply has a little charm to it that I’ve not seen anywhere else this season. This can be seen within the chemistry between the two main characters as well, although that’s probably that way for a reason that we all know too well… (Especially with the after-credit scene, huh?) I’m intrigued by what happens to everyone we’ve met so far in this show, so I’ll be continuing this one for sure.

 

Kabukibu!

Kabukibu! was one of the shows I was more excited for this season and I wasted a lot of energy being excited to start this. Admittedly, I didn’t have that much insight into what kabuki was, but, luckily for me, that was fine. The first episode gives a lovely introduction to the art of kabuki and, well, what an insight it is. Considering the premise of this show, I thought it could have been a little underrated gem. I was wrong. The characters are fairly generic, minus their love for kabuki, following the typical character tropes that you find in school-based anime. The protagonist is too cheerful for his own good and of course his best friend is the serious, glasses-wearing kid that hardly says a word. The first episode simply focuses on them recruiting for a new kabuki club, with the protagonist simply asking ‘random’ people (I’m sure they’ll become more relevant as the show goes on) whether they want to join or not. Again, full of tropes. Unless I hear something good of this show, I won’t be touching it again. Yawn.

 

Hinako Note

There is only one word to describe Hinako Note. CUTE. I honestly don’t know what else I can say about it. It’s another “cute girls doing cute things” show, but it’s one of the few shows from this season that I watched with a smile on my face throughout the entire episode. Not only is the show itself cute, but the animation is adorable. It somehow switches from the usual character design to showing chibi versions of them all, but it happens so smoothly, it just goes. The OP is one of the better ones from this season as well, which is always a bonus. Definitely a show to consider if you want something easy to watch and to smile about.

 

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism

Ahh, where to start with this one? The concept certainly seems interesting, a group of female students being more or less like a vigilante group against the male students of a school, reforming – no, sorry, correcting – them to how the female students want them to be… At times, it seemed like it was feminism gone mad, but the show was actually quite funny in places. Despite this, I do have a bad feeling that this sort of comedy will get quite tiresome quite quickly, which is a shame considering how promising the first episode was. I also think the character designs are also quite questionable, something else that’s putting me off slightly. I can’t really pinpoint whether Machivellianism is going to be a good show or not, but either way, it’s not a priority for me this season. Decent OP, though.

 

Fukumenkei Noise

Yesyesyesyesyes. This show is going to be good, I can tell. I can definitely recommend this if you’re into your shoujo or romance genres already. Personally, I find the animation to be really nice – just check out the screen caps that I’ve provided below! Fukumenkei Noise is such a nostalgic anime for me. Sure, it takes me back to when I first embarked on my anime journey, when I was obsessed over shoujo shows such as Ouran Highschool Host Club, Fruits Basket and Vampire Knight, but the idea of having a close childhood friend move away, then finding them again in high school – yes. Perhaps I’m praising this so much based on past experiences, but I do recommend it if you’re looking for a nice romance anime this season. Along with Tsuki ga Kirei, I can see this being the thing for you, and I can definitely see this being a heartbreaking series.

 

Seikaisuru Kado
Now, I know that I mentioned that Sakura Quest was the show that surprised me the most this season, but that was before I sat down and watched Seikaisuru Kado and honestly? I was speechless with Kado. The concept itself is interesting and somewhat puzzling, but not puzzling enough for me to drop it. The character development is incredible – the prologue episode is a definite must watch for this reason alone. The chemistry between the characters just makes it seem so realistic, something that is often hard to achieve in the Sci-Fi genre, but what made it even more realistic was the animation. Oh. My. Days. Usually, I’m not one for CG animation (although, you wouldn’t think that what with me praising this and Alice to Zouroku this season alone) but the way they can use 3D and 2D animation in the same shot, making it more realistic in doing so, I just find incredible. The CG is incredibly smooth and not that off putting, although I am aware that this is somewhat a debate. Honestly, I can’t say it’s perfect animation – the unfolding staircase in Ep1 was poor in my opinion. The show is confusing at times, don’t get me wrong, but each episode has so far ended on a cliff-hanger and I’m hooked already.

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So, that ends my spiel on the shows I’ve watched so far this season. A quick mention to Room Mate – the male version of One Room. It definitely seems to be better than its female predecessor, but I can’t see it being too popular overall, what with self-insertion and it being a short. Also, despite not directly watching it, Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai has managed to scar me somewhat. Although, no doubt it’s better than Nanatsu no Taizai itself. :^)

With both parts done, then, what am I going to be continuing and keeping up with? I expect to be keeping up with Attack on Titan, SukaSuka, Seikaisuru Kado, Fukumenkei Noise, Love Kome, Sakura Quest and Tsukgi ga Kirei this season. What have I dropped? Kabukibu!, Sagarada Reset and Clockwork Planet predominantly. The others I should be watching, just not week-in-week-out. But who knows? Things can change. I suppose we’ll find out more when I do my mid-season summary in a few weeks~

What are you watching this season? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time!

– Amelia xo