Blue Blue Wave

Now that the fall 2009 anime season is well under way, thought to take a brief look at which series I ended up watching, as well as those that I like so far. Although as the season progresses, personal preference for a series may increase or decrease, depending on how those shows evolve.

From the episode reviews on this blog it’s obvious I’m watching “Kämpfer”, “Shin Koihime†Musou” and “Queen’s Blade ~Gyokuza No Tsugumono~”. Out of those three “Kämpfer” is definitely the best, a truly excellent series.

A series I hadn’t planned to watch but sampled upon recommendation of many fellow otaku and which is my favourite series so far this season is the really awesome “To Aru Kagaku No Railgun”.

A terrific action comedy, not unlike “Kämpfer” in terms of genre and elements for it has plenty of action, humor and yuri tinted scenes and is filled with great characters. Adore the lead character Misaka Mikoto, quite the tsundere that does her nickname biribiri justice, though do have a slight preference for Saten Ruiko, she’s irresistibly cute.

A spin-off from “To Aru Majutsu No Index”, was reluctant at first to give this show a go since I thought it required you to have watched “To Aru Majutsu No Index” which I haven’t watched.
Luckily this is not the case, am perfectly able to follow everything in “To Aru Kagaku No Railgun” which while it takes place in the same universe and shares characters, doesn’t really require any prior knowledge of “To Aru Majutsu No Index”.

“Sasameki Koto” has been quite intriguing as it gave me the wrong impression during the first episode which was rather dark, gloomy and near downright depressing. Diving straight into the core of the story about Sumika Murasame’s unrequited love for her best friend Ushio Kazama, it showed the emotional pain and psychological impact of being stuck on such a hopeless love.

The following episodes veer straight off into comedy, even featuring chibi character renderings. Last week’s episode was more balanced between comedy and drama, but this series really swings from one end of the spectrum to the other in an instant, which can be disconcerting.

Where “Sasameki Koto” quite enjoyably side-swiped me is with Akemi Yamasaki , the very cute and lovely model Ushio spots in a magazine and later meets.
Akemi is such a cutie, more moe than Ushio… but soon turned out to be a trap! Laughs guaranteed with such a trap on board and I hope there’s more scenes coming up for Masaki’s traptastic alter ego Akemi in future episodes too.

Quite pleased so far with “The Sacred Blacksmith” too, a nice medieval magic action series with a cute trio of girls, namely Cecily, Aria and Lisa.
Especially Cecily’s shapely bosom has been the object of much otaku fascination across the Internet already, one can understand why Aria finds such a comfortable pillow in them. Though Aria is quite well endowed herself, which leaves Lisa to cater to the tastes of fans not much into oppai.

Ah, there’s also plenty of action involving clashing swords with ghouls created from evil magic,l yet somehow was rather focused on the girls when watching the episodes.

Do like the verbal banter between Cecily and Luke, though this season doesn’t have much pairings with great chemistry like say Senjougahara and Araragi from “Bakemonogatari”.

Still a bit unsure what to think of “Kiddy Girl-and”, there have been only a few episodes but it hasn’t captured me like its predecessor “Kiddy Grade” had.
Then again, gather that “Kiddy Girl-and” is no doubt much like the original “Kiddy Girl” or like “Sora O Kakeru Shoujo”, all about pure crazy fun in a sci-fi space age setting but it does lack an overarching plot.

Everything has been episodic so far, showing us the silly antics of Ascoeur and Q-feuille as ES trainees. It has already provided ample laughs and the colorful animation and character styling of Ascoeur and Q-feuille is excellent.

Of course am watching “Darker Than Black: Ryuusei No Gemini” which has me on the edge of my seat every single episode.
Was wondering how they would be able to have a compelling and original sequel after the ending of the first season but so far they’ve succeeded, the series still has that raw, lethal edge and is filled with mysteries and intrigues, the most brain wrecking question being what happened between Hei and Yin?

As far as opening and ending sequences go, my favourite out of those this season is definitely “Only my Railgun” by fripSide, the opening song to “To Aru Kagaku No Railgun”, an energetic track with a terrific beat.

Quite do like the “Dear my friend -Mada Minu Mirai he-” ending song by Elisa and animation sequence used for the series too.

“The Sacred Blacksmith”, “Darker Than Black: Ryuusei No Gemini” and “Kämpfer” have solid opening and ending themes too, while “Sasameki Koto” enjoys an uncommonly mellow, soft opening track.

What have you been watching so far this fall and which series do you like?