Bi-Weekly Review – A Quick Review of the Past Two Weeks of Anime (9/12 – 9/26)

In the past few weeks, a good portion of the anime series I was ended aired their last episode, marking the end of the Summer 2010 season of anime. Right now, we’re pretty much in “the week before Fall season where nothing airs”, where I’m covering a grand total of three or so continuing shows.

That being said, the Fall season looks like it has quite a few potentially good shows like Bakuman, The World God only Knows, To Aru Majutsu no Index II. If you want to check out our Fall season preview, feel free to click here.

With all the final episodes that aired in the last two weeks, much of the series concluded their character relationships and such. In retrospect, was Summer 2010 a great season of anime? Not by any means, but there were a few surprises here and there which kept me occupied during the summer. Because of the large amount of final episodes, it was actually really tough for me to rate these, considering how they’re all pretty much the climax/resolution to their respective shows.

If you would like to see my preferences from earlier, click here for my previous posting.

Continue reading ahead for my ratings/preferences for the shows so far.

13 – Nurarihyon no Mago – (3.5/5)

We finally get introduced to the new antagonists in this arc. Unfortunately, they don’t strike me as particularly unique, just stereotypical evil bad guys out to kill the good guys. There seems to be a youkai power struggle in the works, with the invading youkai intent on taking over the lands of the “weakening” Nura clan. The past two weeks have been more exposition and background info, which in other words, means not much happens. From the looks of it, the next week’s episode will be a recap episode, which doesn’t have me exactly thrilled.

12 – Heroman (Final) – (3.6/5)

And so, Heroman finally airs it’s last episode. It was surprisingly better than I thought it would turn out, although at the same time, I practically 100% guessed the outcome to this arc before. Seriously, this particular superhero anime was just soo simple that it’s pretty obvious what will happen, even with the blatent cliffhangers at the end of each episode. The characters maintained their stereotypical stances all the way until the end, making for a very uninteresting cast. I am surprised that there was an episode preview at the end of this, strongly hinting at the idea that there will be a season two.

11 – Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi (Final) – (3.7/5)

With episode 11 pretty much concluding the series’ main conflicts, I was wondering what the final 12th episode would do in terms of closure of this series. Quite frankly, all it did was introduce a very shallow love triangle, which fell apart later on. The final episode did bring some more closure to the Ryoushi x Ryouko relationship, but besides that, this episode was virtually the same as filler. The comedy this episode was ok, with some funny gags mixed in with facepalm moments. I guess this episode would be akin to “returning to the roots” of this anime, which in that sense, episode 12 did do rather well.

11 – Rainbow Nisha Rokubou no Shichinin (3.8/5)

I’ll admit that I’ve actually been kind of surprised by the last two weeks of Rainbow. Knowing how, in some way or form, the main cast is introduced to a hopelessly dangerous situation, it’s a real surprise where there’s two weeks of very little such situations. Not that I really mind; after everything Mario and his friends have been through, they do deserve a rather peaceful end. I did like how the past two episodes ended Suppon’s arc, but I’m still kind of disappointed that it looks like there will be no arc for Heitai. The last episode, to air in a few days, looks like it’ll focus on Mario again, and will probably bring closure to both our main cast, and the legacy of An-chan.

9 – Seitokai Yakuindomo (Final) – (3.9/5)

Surprisingly, the last two episodes of SYD actually changed up their gags quite a bit. There were still the same type of perverted jokes found throughout the series, but surprisingly enough, the creators for this show actually decided to vary up on the humor a bit. Because of that, I got a few good laughs out of the final two episodes that I hadn’t expected at all whatsoever. The ending scene felt rather open ended, implying that the series will go on. Knowing the manga is ongoing, I’m glad that the animators decided to not go for their own original ending. For a show like this, leaving it off this way works out rather fine.

8 – Legend of the Legendary Heroes – (3.9/5)

The past two weeks of this show have been filled with some more background development and info. Not that it isn’t interesting, of course, but I would like it if we got some more of the main conflict included in the plot. This time around, we got more info on the warrior king from the north, who is set on a quest to prevent war. Ironically, he uses an extremely powerful blade that could destroy an entire army (for a cost), which contradicts his notions of hating war. His appearance, along with the return of Kiefer and the now set clash between Ryner, Ferris, and the sibling legendary item wielders, the next episodes should prove to kick up everything a notch.

7 – Shiki- (4.0/5)

This episode didn’t really reveal much as to what happens to Natsuno after being bitten by Tohru, but it does give us much more info about the main family living up in the mysterious mansion. Not to mention, the fact that there is an abnormal amount of deaths is finally making more of an impact on the townspeople, with the exorcist lady this episode spearheading what would become a failed campaign to eliminate the residents in the mansion. Tensions are building, which really gets me disappointed considering how there’s a three week hiatus for this show; I won’t be able to see the continuance of the show for quite a bit, from the looks of it.

6 – K-ON!! – (4.2/5)

I knew that the K-ON!! main story was coming to an end, especially with the end of the manga not too long ago. Nevertheless, I still almost shed a few tears when I saw Azusa break down crying. The animation in episode 24 was so detailed and well done, I thought I was watching movie level quality animation. The animation was freaking amazing, but the story for episode 24 was nice too. It really did give off a final episode feeling, with the senpais of the HTT graduating on to college. Azusa’s tear-jerking realization that they’ll be gone really hits you hard, and really shows how attached the cast has become to each other. It was quite a heartwarming episode, which I personally thought was executed very very well. Kudos to KyoAni.

5 – Highschool of the Dead (Final) – (4.2/5)

Surprisingly, there was very little fanservice in the final two episodes of Highschool of the Dead. I was expecting some more blatent fanservice to finish off this series, and although there indeed was a bit of fanservice in the episodes, the story was surprisingly well portrayed, and gave us a little bit of proper closure to some characters. With the end of the show, Takagi’s conflicts with regards to her parents are all concluded, and our main cast finally sets out on searching out their own families. The final scene to this anime definitely felt open ended, with a picture of them near a mall (the next setting in the manga) implying there might be a season two for this show. Highschool of the Dead, although controversial in a sense, at least knew exactly what it was aiming for. HOTD wanted fanservice and mindless zombie bashing, and that’s exactly what we got.

4 – Amagami SS – (4.3/5)

Seeing the end to Sae’s arc was rather heartwarming, though it didn’t really have as much of an impact on me as I thought it would. I did like how we saw the fruition of Sae’s character development in the final episode of her arc, but that still doesn’t account for how her development was rushed. What really got me back into this show completely was the arrival of our new heroine Nanasaki Ai. Knowing she was voiced by Yukana, I wasn’t quite sure of what to expect. Ai’s playful and teasing demeanor has definitely won me over so far, though. She’s different from the rest on the main heroines introduced in that she’s much more calm and composed, while at the same time being cheerful and fun to watch. In a way, Ai’s arc so far reminds me of Haruka’s arc, but we’ll have to see how things go.

3 – Kaichou wa Maid-sama (Final) – (4.5/5)

Kaichou wa Maid-sama’s final episode actually managed to bring quite a bit of closure to the main relationship between Usui and Misaki, which is rather unexpected. I expected JC staff to just end the show without any special final episode occurrences, but that was off, with Usui and Misaki enjoying their company at the school festival. The jokes and gags in this episode were cute, and some were amusing, but the main draw to this episode has to be the scene under the fireworks, where Usui finally confesses to Misaki. Seeing the culmination of their relationship development was quite nice, where they kissed under the fireworks. I felt that the kiss was a good way to bring a sense of closure to the series, even if the original source material manga is still ongoing.

2 – Kuroshitsuji II (Final) – (4.6/5)

The final episode to Kuroshitsuji II was, I thought, pretty intelligently put together. I knew that Alois and Hanna were probably going to die, but I had NOT expected the creators of this show to keep Ciel Phantomhive alive in such an odd way. By converting Ciel to a demon, he by default gains immortality, and since Sebastian can no longer eat Ciel’s soul, Sebastian is technically a slave to Ciel. Talk about surprising; I hadn’t dared think the creators would kill off Ciel, let along convert him to a demon. Subsequently, his human persona technically “died” after turning into a demon, so the ending has a rather melancholy feel to it.

1– Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin – (4.6/5)

Oh boy, the show that changed up the most in the past two weeks has to be Occult Gakuin. The show converted from a stereotypical filler arc to an arc filled with magic, evil witches, white mages, mind control, and magical-girl-esque battles in the sky. Quite honestly, the new change is quite welcome for it changing up the pacing to this show. The plot became much more interesting with this arc, and seeing the effects of destroying the Nostradamus Key was quite intriguing as well. What really got me into this arc was Mikaze’s betrayal, which although it didn’t surprise me, spiced up this show quite a bit.