Another anticipated series for this season and sadly, another one that didn’t quite meet up to my expectations.

It wasn’t bad, though.

First and foremost, I love the ending song. What is it about me and anime songs today? Anyway, the opening song isn’t too shabby and ZOMG, like, there’s English in the lyrics and it’s actually pronounced properly. Now, back to the ending song, I really dig it. It has a poppy R&B sound… two different worlds yet that’s what I get out of it.

On to the actual series… it’s definitely darker and more serious than I thought. I wasn’t expecting another Hikaru no Go since Shion’s shogi playing origin is much darker than Hikaru but I still presumed a lil more light-hearted mood alongside the dark stuff. There was like, zero light-heartedness in this first episode. Saori provided that initially then did a 180 to keep up with the rest of the mood.

Also, Shion is younger than I assumed as. My assumption was purely based on the pictures I saw prior to watching and I totally didn’t peg her to be in elementary school. Hell, she might be as young as 10 years old and I put her at least around 14-15. She’s still a child… is she really doing all this to find her parents killer? She seems too young to really have the drive to play shogi for that reason.

Did I mention how dark this series is?

I think part (if not all) of my minor disappointment is due to what I expected. I suppose I can’t blame the series for that.

If anything, I must keep watching to hear more of Kawasumi Ayako’s kiddie voice.

Oh snap, I caught an episode 2 of something this season.

Of course, I already had it… wahaha.

Let’s start off on what’s most important. The ending song continues to be fantabulous. Additionally, now that I’ve heard the opening song in a clean format, it is also fantabulous. That makes it doubly fantabulous!

No wait!

The ending song was already doubly fantabulous! This means this is thrice the fantabulousness!

No, wait yet again!

The opening song is at least doubly fantabulous! That is quadruple-ice the fantabulousness! …shit, I should have stopped at “thrice.” I don’t know the right conjugation for “quadruple” in this silly ass thing I’ve been doing.

But seriously, the opening and ending songs are both great.

The episode itself was mellow. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the first episode since it featured more characters. Sora and Hazuki (what little of her that was shown) continue to remain fun characters while the others have yet to shine. I suppose it couldn’t be helped since the show has to involve the rest of the named characters somehow.

I want more Hazuki moments. Her quirkiness… nay, her downright silly thoughts have the potential for some utter hilarious moments. I want more scenes like that udon scene in episode one.

This show is extra interesting since I can relate to some of Sora’s thoughts. It’s unusual to watch anime and go “Oh hey, I do that too!”

I hope this show will last.

Slice-of-life’s pwn me.

They can contain any subject matter and I’ll still be drawn to them.

It’s quite the mystery… and one I won’t complain about.

Cuz this one was fantastic.

I need to watch more to really figure out what’s so great about it. Sora is cute and likable and my interest for her will probably continue to increase. Hazuki is quirky so I like her, too. The rest of the characters are so-so for now.

But enough about the non-important stuff.

That ending song is doubly fantastic. I listened to it 6 times. It reminds me of some of the Korean ballads that were rampant during the 90’s. It’s also a wonderful ending song for such a peaceful anime series.

DOO WANT!

I had moderate expectations going into this one. Prior to this fall season, it was barely on my radar but since it was mentioned (and liked) by a few anime bloggers that have similiar tastes as I do, it went up a few notches.

Hell, I could’ve severely anticipated this one and I still would’ve enjoyed it.

This was one of two (or three or something) shows for this season that I was anticipating. I enjoyed (what little I could get of) the manga and expected more of the same from the anime.

Sadly, it was significantly less than the same.

“…less than the same.” Does that even make sense? I swear, the shit I’ll spew out in hopes of being creative.

Anyway…

This show is all about the humor. The material is slice-of-life comedy and the delivery is random, almost slapstick-esque. This episode failed in the delivery. The “punchlines” weren’t “set up” properly. Meaning, instead of teh funnay happening randomly, there was awkward pauses and pseudo-dramatic lead-ins that totally ruined the delivery.

I expected too much, I suppose. I hope things pick up since this episode focused mostly on Kana who is an OK character. From the manga, I liked Chiaki the best so the next episode looks somewhat promising.

Ehh, if this show fails, there’s always the alternate version next season. I still don’t get why there will be two versions of this show but whatever.

One of them has gotta luck out, right?

I have absolutely no idea why I was compelled to start this up again.

I’m glad I did (for now). If the friggin’ second season started off with an episode like this, I would have finished the series already. Stupid ass first episode.

No retardedness just plenty of legit comedy and good faces.

I can’t suppress my praise for this episode. The comedy was silly w/o any perviness. Everyone, especially Saito, had some real nice faces. The drama felt real. Henrietta’s grief felt extremely real. Props to Kawasumi Ayako!

Basically, this episode was like last season except a bit more serious. How can that not be made of win? I hope to ALL THAT IS GOOD AND RIGHT that the first episode was a ploy and I won’t be seeing that nonsense EVER THE FUCK AGAIN.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all superbness. Given some of the information in the early part of this episode, I thought this story was gonna be longer. More specifically, I thought it was the start of a bigger story. Instead, it was more a remnant of the last season and a bit of a cheap way of pulling at the heart strings.

Story aside though, everything else was awesome. There’s still plenty of this season left for silliness and what-not and I surely hope the seriousness shown in this episode doesn’t get lost. There was no faltering. The gang had to act and they did so w/o a hitch.

Of course, that probably won’t happen right away.

I’m torn. I’m afraid things will slip back like the first episode but I want to see more things like this episode plus the fun times that was the first season.

Friggin’ anime toying with my emotions!