First Impressions: Kampfer, Sacred Blacksmith, Nyan Koi, Seitokai no Ichizon

Ah the good old first impressions posts. So often they turn out hopelessly wrong. In fact, I’ve found that my predictions during the season preview is actually a better indicator of the quality of the anime than the first episode. With that in mind, if you would like to make an argument for an anime I’ve given a D then by all means do so. Tell me how it got better and I’ll give it another shot. However please do not try to make me watch an anime that I’ve rated an E or an F. They were rated that lowly for a reason.

My Rating System Explained!

A = If you watch anything this season, watch this

B = Very good, sometimes surprisingly so.

C = If you have the time, you should check this out

D = Not my kind of thing, I won’t be watching this

E = Bad. Very bad, ignore this show

F = Frustratingly awful

Kampfer

Even if you leave aside the fact that it’s a horrible attempt at Otaku pandering, what with its unfunny seiyuu references and magical girl transformation sequences, Kampfer could still have tried to make its story work. It does not though. In fact, I don’t think there is a single aspect of Kampfer that I can praise. It was all rubbish.

Kampfer reminded me slightly why Kannagi was such a success. Both of them took rather cliche’d ideas but Kannagi put an entire new sheen on them. Compare the reaction of Kannagi’s main character when his tree sculpture randomly turned into a teenage girl to the reaction of the main Kampfer guy’s reaction to waking up as a girl. One is realistic and priceless, the other just isn’t.

Kampfer isn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen, far from it. But it just fails at everything it does. The voice acting is horrible, the plot has no imagination and the scripting has no brain and no life. It feels like the entire thing was made by a committee that thought that if it threw these random plot devices together, everything would work. It doesn’t.

Rating: F+

 

 

Sacred Blacksmith

One of the reviewers on ANN described Sacred Blacksmith as ‘hey, this is a totally generic fantasy series, but we might as well throw out heart and soul into it’, which tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Apart from the rather cool sword-forging scene, Sacred Blacksmith has yet to show us anything that sets its fantasy realm apart from any other.

And that is exactly what this series needs, and very damn quickly. The first episode was actually a highly enjoyable affair. The animation is top notch and the action scenes are quite snazzy. Plus I kinda like the characters already. Their personalities are totally different from what I envisioned them as when I saw their character art.

All this anime needs now is a setting. No real plot has appeared thus far but that’s not something that worries me too much (Eden of the East took 4 episodes to introduce its plot) so for now it’s a quite enjoyable series. Plus, the hot girl in the green dress has yet to appear and there’s no way I’m dropping this before she comes in.

Rating: B-

 

Nyan Koi

A lot of rom-coms start off at exactly this level of quality. They’re funny, relatively engaging and with what appears to be a fine set of characters that seem like they will grow on you. Nyan Koi is certainly giggle-worthy, especially the lead characters automatic cat-detection. Plus, fat cats are awesome, no matter what anime they’re in.

The thing is, you won’t be able to tell for another few episodes whether this will be any good. The first episode of this wa about the same level of quality as the first episodes of Kannagi, Ah My Goddess, Seto no Hanayome and Sora no Manimani. It was only in the next few episodes did you find out if the anime was genuinely any good (just in case you’re nosy, Seto no Hanayome > Kannagi > Sora no Manimani > Ah My Goddess)

If you are strapped for time on what to watch this season, my advice would be to wait a few episodes to see what ratings this anime gets. The ratings never lie folks. BTW, our newbie blogger, Kaza, will be blogging this anime so you can keep up with his posts if you so wish (Link for episode 1).

Rating: C+

 

 

Seitokai no Ichizon

There’s this uncanny feeling while watching Seitokai no Ichizon that you are watching a bunch of anime bloggers chatting. These are people who are fairly amusing to listen to when they are discussing anime but it’s only when they start to discuss other matters do you realise how hopelessly dull lives these bloggers lead. Plus, chatting about anime gets old after a while.

Admittedly I did laugh a few times over the course of the episode. In particular, I liked the main guys ambition to obtain a harem end and ranking all the girls by difficulty, which was made even funnier when the girls started arguing over their respective places, mainly because I’ve seen that conversation in real life. It’s the type of conversation you would see in Genshiken.

However this is not Genshiken. This isn’t trying to be Genshiken. It’s trying to be Lucky Star. And I hate Lucky bleeding Star. So dropping this is a pre-emptive strike. It’s not boring yet but if they really plan to keep this up for 12/13 episodes, there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to watch it without ripping my eyeballs out by the end.

Rating: D+