Sacred Seven – First Impressions

Again, the first two episodes of Sacred Seven in a single post, so yeah. What got me interested with the series at first place is that it’s a Sunrise title, second the artwork is similar to Code Geass and third, it has mecha. But what did I get? A character that looks like some expy of some hero from a Heisei Kamen Rider TV show who fights monsters every week with a loli, Sebastian Michaelis and an army of maids for their logistics, security and weapons support… and I am fine with it.

I’ll go straight to the point, the show has really good concepts but it felt they rushed within two episodes. The alien rock concept was good and that they can cause mutations, those who can control it are called Lightstones, and if I get the idea straight, the opposite is called the Darkstones and they should be eliminated since they are rampaging. Now to the rushed part, Arma’s character development from an introvert who likes to collect rocks into a cool guy who was forced to skydive just to fight a Darkstone was definitely rushed. Oh, and him gaining his new found power and easily accepting it even if he had a bad experience regarding using superpowers was definitely rushed. There should be a short period in which he can’t accept his powers before readily accepting it!

As for his superpowers, it felt like some gimmick from an upcoming Kamen Rider show, except that he doesn’t have a literal Rocket Punch, a drill for a leg and rocket launchers attached on his legs. Also, it seems that he has Birth’s HUD shot, except that he is not wearing a helmet. Oh, did I mention that his opponent in the first episode reminded me of Orpenochs from Kamen Rider 555? Also, the fights are good. Nuff said.

As for how he activates his powers, it felt like they should waste a couple of jewels and had Ruri Aiba (the loli) just for him to activate his Sacred Seven powers. For me, it felt like it was just a waste of time in terms of action. Wouldn’t it be nice if he has a watch changer and a utility belt that can contain a couple of crystals and a watch with Ruri’s voice recorded in it?

As for the side characters, KaGAmi, I mean, Kagami is a fun character and as for the maids, they really made my day. For the members of the Rock Club (it exist in their school), they are not interesting. The only thing interesting about the Rock Club is that because of one of their activities, it lead us to Arma’s flashback which he first used his Darkstone abilities.

Overall, the first two episodes of Sacred Seven are good in terms of fight scenes, has some rushed character developments and it felt like you should watch it for the second time just in case you miss something. As for what the critics say that this is Star Driver done right, I admit, the show feels like Star Driver done right since they were able to balance out between “saving the world while they are still in school concept… with mecha” quite well.

Usagi Drop – First Impressions

Again, the first two episodes of Usagi Drop in a single post, so yeah. The series kicks off with Daikichi, a standard salaryman visited the wake of his grandfather and during the wake, he learned that the little girl who is picking flowers named Rin is his grandfather’s illegitimate child, making her his aunt! What’s more, she is still in nursery school!

To those who don’t know, I love watching stories that has this sort of “warm” feeling in it and this show has this warm feeling in it. Also, I am a sucker of slice of life stories and Bunny Drop (the English name of the series) is one of those good slice of life stories that will work well once adapted into live-action… that will air later this year. The show introduced two elements, namely, Rin is an illegitimate child of Daikichi’s grandfather and she was just abandoned by her mother and second, she is still in nursery school and no one is willing to take care of her after the death of his father, till Daikichi came into picture. Thus, our story begins.

The first episode was more like an introduction episode on the characters and less on the proper plot of the series, the plot starts kicking in on the second episode. I just love how Daikichi is dedicated towards taking care of Rin since for starters, Daikichi is in his 30’s and not yet married and second, Rin is having a hard time of her life after her father died and her mother abandoning her. Their scenes together have a feeling that they were close for a long time now and that it is natural for them to act that way, kinda like how a father treats her daughter sort of way.

The second episode also dives more into their personalities, Daikichi is quite a father figure for Rin in my opinion that I might not be surprise that at the end of the series, he will adopt Rin as his own child at the end. As for Rin, she is a fun character, I love that in most scenes, she can be childish and in some scenes, she can be mature. As for the side characters, you can ignore them, especially the other kid, Reina. God, she is annoying. Another thing that I liked about the show is its art style. The opening scenes of each episode looked like watercolor art that adds up to the softness of the series, that this show is a show that can be enjoyed by parents and their children before shifting to the proper art style of the series.

Asides from the animation, the series also introduced some real issues in our society, namely, acceptance of an illegitimate child and how should we treat them. I just love that some of the relatives don’t openly accept Rin as their own especially Daikichi’s mom since it’s embarrassing they learned that their father has an illegitimate child during his 70’s. What’s more is that she is not at the same age or close to their age, but she is at the same age of one of daughters of one of her kids! And if I were in Daikichi’s mom’s position, I would not readily accept the kid and doubt that she is actually the daughter of my father. That is why I praise Daikichi with his courage to take care of his aunt!

Overall, the first two episodes are fun to watch. The show has this fuzzy warm feeling that I can’t resist, what’s more is the art style of the earlier minutes per episode which reminded me a lot of watercolor art and artwork from children’s story books. The series also has this good timing on when they will throw in the drama and when they will throw in the light comedy.

Blood-C – First Impressions

Again, the first two episodes of Blood-C in a single post, so yeah. To those who will try to connect it with Blood +, don’t do it. The series is just one of the spin-offs of Production IG’s Blood: The Last Vampire movie and the only thing common with these three is that they have a girl named Saya who is fighting monsters. Each Blood series stand on its own so watch the series as its own. Anyways, we have an extremely cute high school girl named Saya in who guess what, fights monsters.

The first two episodes never properly establish on why Saya must fight the monsters. The only clear connection on why she must fight them is that her mom fought them once before they killed her and that’s about it. Another thing that bugs me is that why isn’t Saya’s father fighting the monsters instead of her since well, all he needs to do is slash them with the sacred sword? They never properly establish that point in the story! Hopefully, they would properly explain on why Saya is the only one who can fight the monsters during the course of the series. But hey, at least I have my bloody monster fights.

As for the characters, Saya is so cute! To those who don’t know, I have a fetish for girls wearing glasses, plus points if they are cute and clumsy… and Saya fits well with those descriptions! Also, I love her cheery personality, same goes with her personality while fighting monsters. Its like her face morphed as she fight monsters that in one angle, she looked like Watanuki of xxx/Holic! Another thing that I noticed is that Fumito, the café owner kinda looks like Sakura’s father, the two boys from school looked like Yukito, and Touya respectively, the three characters that I mentioned by the way are from Cardcaptor Sakura. So the dog who is guarding the temple might be Keroberos?

Overall, the use of the school setup made Saya quite a believable character. Her having two cute twins as friends is also a bonus. Lastly, the animation was quite good, and that’s about it. For the plot, the only thing that is properly established is that Saya fights monsters and that there is something weird with the dog guarding in the temple and that Saya has dreams of seeing a “light.” Hopefully, they were able to clear things up as the series progressed.

Marvel Anime: Blade – First Impressions

To put it simply, the first two episodes in one post so yeah. Anyways, Blade is on Japan because he is hunting for an organization named, Existence and its leader who is said to be responsible for the death of his mother. Meanwhile, a Japanese Vampire Hunter named Makoto was introduced and a competent police officer who was later revealed to be working with the entire police force who is working with Existence!

For starters, I have medium expectations about this series since first; Blade is one of the lesser known Marvel Comics series. Second, most people don’t care about Blade since well, he is not an X-Men or any of those well-known Marvel Heroes so the producers can just pull some random story they can pull on since only two or three people will watch it. So, how the first two episodes turned out? It was really good, really good. Based on what’s happening around, I guess it followed the same route that Iron Man had in which they created an original story based on Blade. Compared to Iron Man’s first two episodes, the first two episodes of Blade are quite good.

Sure, there are some minor nitpickings such as of not seeing much blood and vampires will just burst into flames once Blade’s silver blade cuts through their flesh. Guess the reason why they went with those because you know, for the kids! For the plot of the first two episodes, first episode is about Blade crashing into some bar, which turned out to be a vampires’ hangout place, and on the second episode, cases of disappearance and he teams up with a police officer.

First episode was good, they were able to introduce Blade properly to those who don’t know him and introduced the series’ original character, Makoto, a Japanese vampire hunter. Things I liked about the episode are that their vampires looked more menacing and somewhat more believable as monsters as their faces morph once they go on full vampire mode. Speaking of vampires and vampire hunters, that fights are really good. Like I said, it is not bloody due to them bursting into flames but even with that minor “problem” (I find it a problem in my case), it never loses the enjoyment of the fights.

For the original character, Makoto, she is a badass. She wore a disguise to infiltrate the inner areas of the club, kick a werewolf’s ass and her weapon of choice? Silver knuckles. Yep, she punches vampires and see them burst into flames. As for Blade’s fights, they were good, same goes with his special finisher that reminded me of Rurouni Kenshin a bit due to some kanji appearing at the end once he did his special finisher. Deacon Frost was also introduced in the first episode and I love that he clearly owned Blade in their first encounter! As for how it ended, it was mediocre. I mean seriously, Blade just leave Makoto without explaining why he killed her father even if it is obvious that his father is now a vampire?!

The second episode was fine; they were able to establish that the organization is quite big in Japan that even the police, the yakuza, and even the government are part of the organization! Why are they part of the organization? Because they knew that vampires will win someday and they did it to suck up with the vampire’s influence. And there is only one officer who is still sides with the good guys and he is helping Blade in the course of the episode. The fights in this episode were also fine, not as jaw dropping with the ones in the previous episode, but fine. As for the police officer, he is quite a competent character and hopefully, he will appear in more episodes after it. Oh, and Deacon Frost went to the Philippines.

Overall, Blade’s first two episodes were good, not at the same level of that of X-Men, but better than Iron Man and surprisingly, slight better than Wolverine, which I think, is the second best show from the Marvel Anime Series. Animation wise, it’s not as good as X-Men but better than Iron Man or Wolverine. Character designs looked good, but my only complain is Blade’s lips, they are too thick in my opinion.

As for those who haven’t watched any of the Marvel Anime shows, it is not at the same quality of other MADHOUSE titles, but the show is enjoyable in its own since it doesn’t do references on the previous Marvel Anime shows and I am fine with it.

Gekisou Sentai Carranger 01 – Fighting For Traffic Safety

To be honest, seriously want to write “Carranger” into “Caaaaaaarranger” but for formality sake since this is the first episode, I will right it properly. Anyways, the biker gang, Bowzock has just destroyed the planet Hazard and turn it into fireworks and so, their next target is Earf, err, Earth!

To prevent it, the only survivor from the said planet Dappu saw the five car constellations shine towards Earth in which the five legendary warriors from their legend called, Carrangers are born! Turns out that our “warriors” are a bunch of kids working on an auto garage whose dream is to build their own dream car; what’s more is that their dream cars are the exact shape of the five car constellations! And so, the alien Dappu using his Kurumagic (trans. Car Magic) forced these kids to become the Carrangers! What a great way to open the series!

Anyways, there are two guys and a group who stood out in this episode namely, Dappu, Kyosuke and the Bowzock. First Dappu, for starters he is not your average Sentai mentor since based on what happened to him, he is younger than the Carrangers in terms of human age. What’s more is that he was able to force these guys to become Carrangers by FORCING the Accel Changer in their wrist using Kurumagic, tied them and DRAGGED them in the battlefield and to top it all off, he played dead just for these guys to feel the sense of justice of becoming heroes! That is why Dappu instantly became my favorite character in the series.

Kyosuke, because of him being honest on what is happening around him, I mean he expressed that they only build models of their dream cars and the first one who stood up after Dappu was “killed” with his duel from one member of the Bowzock. Also, he has that face that you love to screencap and use it in 4chan or in any message board if you want to express something.

Now for the Bowzock, they are the most colorful and fun bunch of villains that I saw. The foot soldiers are too colorful; the heads include a serious guy, a hot chick (who happens to be a porn actress) and a guy who wants to lick her fine ass. See what I mean? In addition, to add up the theme of the series of fighting for traffic safety, they also have the ability to cause non-living cars to come alive and wreck havoc.

Overall, it was a great first episode. Sure, the episode started quite dark and as the episode progressed, the mood of the series slowly became lighter which includes the humor and the events that happened with the Carrangers and finely establishing in the end that this is not your average Super Sentai series… and indeed it was.