Finally a half decent first episode. It wasn’t amazing or anything, but it did make me chuckle a few times and managed to keep my attention. It was much much MUCH better than the OVA.

This episode also alleviated my fears regarding Mikazuki’s voice actor. She bothered me less than in the OVA, although I’m not entirely sure why. Mikazuki managed to come across as sufficiently bitchy and not overly feminine this time.

I’m still not a fan of the Denpa Onna face style. The mouths are too small, the lips are too thin and the pink is too bright. All these girls wear too much makeup.

My biggest worry with this show is that there won’t be enough content— the manga is fairly short, and it seems to be running out of ideas already. Furthermore, the adaptation is not as consistently funny as the manga. We had the same number of jokes here in 25 minutes as we had in one chapter of the manga, so the humor to fluff ratio is much lower.

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If you’re going to adapt a video game as an animated series, you should actually adapt it. No, taking each event from the game and making the faces twitch doesn’t cut it. This is not an animated series, it’s a non-interactive video game.

The transitions are abrupt, and we don’t have any time to get used to the characters. The creators seemed to believe that a moment spent without someone talking is a moment wasted. The entire thing is rushed. Why? It’s not like there’s much of a story to tell. At this rate they’ll be done in half the time they have.

This show also had about the worst comedic timing imaginable. “This poster…” “AAAAAH! MY BLADDER’S HAD IT!” “Whathat’sall?You’repeeingrighthere?Gimmeabreak!Pleasestophimnarukami!” “Eh? Why?” HAHAHAHA “Ican’tgowithyouwatching!””‘Scuse me?!” “Oh,crud.It’syourfaultifIgetcystis.” “You’reunbelievable.It’snotlikeIwantedtowatchanyway.” “Thengooutside!” “Ok!” “AAAAHAMONSTERS!!!” This is pretty much what the episode sounded like to me. Slow down guys! It’s ok to breathe! There was no sense of mystery or tension from being in the world of the TV, since we barely had time to see it. The monsters weren’t frightening, just odd.  There was not any time to take in what was happening.

And the “tributes” to the game are downright obnoxious. Showing the calendar every time the date changes? The status window as the commercial break screen? Using the exact same lame critical hit animation as the game? This is an anime. If he got a critical hit, SHOW US THE #$^*#$%@ CRITICAL HIT.

I feel like I’m becoming an angry blogger lately. But come on. This was ridiculous. Tamayura was boring, but ok, some people like cute girls, I can see that. Mashiroiro is crap, but it’s easy to make and it sells. But this episode? I can’t think of a single justification for airing it. It was as if I were playing the game but fast forwarded to the point where you can’t read the dialogue, without any choices to make and on auto battle.

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If Kimi to Boku and Tamayura were boring, Mashiroiro was downright pain-inducing. Let’s just make a list of what we had in this episode:

• Siscon / brocon
• Girl that always gets lost (and is not Izumi: then it wouldn’t be an issue)
• “Dependable” male lead who finds said lost girl by running around randomly
• Scratch that: TWO girls who always get lost (and are not Izumi)
• Sparkle sounds and breezy hair when girls smiles
• Walking in naked on a bath
• Bath with cute imouto
• Parents who are never home
• Girl who makes male lead breakfast and lunch
• Pervert male friend
• Male going to all girls school
• Meidos
• Meidos who instantly fall in love with male lead for no apparent reason
• Weird mascot animal
• Dere-dere —> tsun tsun
• Daughter of the principal

Gah. But really, this is all beside the point. The reason Mashiroiro fails so miserably is that I couldn’t care less about the characters. The male lead is a soulless stand-in for the viewer, and the females are defined by a single trait and hair color. This first episode may have been even worse than Hoshizora’s. Dropped with prejudice.

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~zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz~

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This was not what I expected to say, but Chihayafuru had the best first episode yet. It’s been slim pickings so far this season, but still. Pretty good.

We have the theme of destined lovers who were childhood friends, but for once, they actually have an interesting backstory. There’s no childhood promise to marry each other. Instead, they actually became friends over a card game, of all things. This is a childhood friendship that I can take seriously.

Our lead characters are quite likable as well. They both have their quirks, and couldn’t be accused of lacking a personality.

I enjoyed the card game scene. Reminds me of when I used to play Egyptian Rat Screw all the time. Those games were pretty intense.

I doubt I’ll blog this, but we’ll see how the rest of the new shows turn out. Right now I’m leaning towards Guilty Crown, Un-Go, Mirai Nikki, and Fate / Zero. I’ll probably aim for one or two more, possibly including Last Exile.

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