There are some series that do have a very start, piled up with various amazing PVs and attempting to reach out to a wide audience, and in the end turn out to be an aboslute disappointment. Yes, i'm still talking about Guilty Crown...
For this season however, I'm not so confident to say that any of the series is going to follow GC, but there are signs that do show that the series kinda doesn't exactly know where it is heading towards. Or perhaps it is just too early of a start where the real plot has yet to reveal to us just like how amazing Majestic Prince turned out to be.
One of such series (yes, there's more than 1) that I'm using as a reference in this season.
Noragami.
This series initially took my attention back in AFA last year as there was a sneak preview of this amazing series just by looking at it's PV alone. The story does seem simple yet slightly complicated at the same time, involving a guy who looks like a plain teen who turns out to be a god. This plot totally hooked me up and it was, I would say, the main series that everyone was looking forward to watch in this season. It's 1st 2 episodes did seem fine, with god, Yato meeting our female protagonist Hiyori and then his new regalia, Yukine. It was then at the 3rd episode when it suddenly hit me. What else has Noragami left in store for the viewers after this? I do know that this is an adaptation, but coming from a viewer who sees this series as a standalone, like me, you start to feel that Noragami is somehow feeling lost.
I do have to admit that their animation is absolutely gorgeous to watch too :P
Of course I would hope that this was truly the beginning and something major could happen in the next 9 episodes or so. If they are still focusing solely on helping Hiyori becoming normal again, then I don't actually see that getting worked on. All we got to see so far was Yato continuously trying to find jobs together with his new regalia Yukine and getting 5 yen per job that he completes, which makes me think that if he really wanted a shrine on his own, wouldn't he have to change his style or fee? Collecting 5 yens just wouldn't be enough no matter what. There seems to be more story to be told on Yukine's part, since he says he has lost his memory of being alive so I guess there would possibly be a Yukine development sometime soon? Which also means that Hiyori's problem would possibly never get solved as the series continues since if her splitting her spirit out from her body can be solved perhaps through a very simple method and does not mean anything more than just a spirit out of the body, then that ending would suck, honestly.
The series does seem to have a slight resemblance to Sasami-san, since the divine beings or gods are depicted as a more 'normal' kind of people. Similar to Haruhi as well. The series however, is lacking in terms of how serious it can be. It can definitely venture into the more darker or serious plot development rather than just hovering around a semi-slice-of-life series filled with short humour scenes that do get bored out in the end. It was good enough for me to start following this series so I honestly wouldn't want it to go on a downhill fall from here on...
Another of such would be Buddy Complex. I have no idea this original series was shipping yaoi so much until their 2nd episode was released. With phrases like "Proposal", "Coupling" and "Connect with..." honestly with those lines being exchanged between 2 male teens, Sunrise seems to have started shipping the yaoi genre after their male biting male in Valvrave. Perhaps they are thinking that this would help them boost their sales? Who knows? But this time round, the male protagonist is just too bland...
The story too, of Buddy Complex, is simple but confusing right at the same time. It almost seems too forced to have a main character being forced to leave his "world" right at the very 1st episode. Well, this is similar to Mahou Sensou in terms of their plot development: Directly ripping the main character away from his origin and forces him to be in another world where the real story begins. So what exactly was the first place required? It would be better off just starting the series with Aoba already in the future or just a mere minutes of flashback before transiting into the main plot rather than spend only a episode on the prelude of the series. If they really wanted to do it, they should at least spread it out longer? 1 episode just seems to rushed for the information to settle down.
Furthermore, it definitely seems hilarious seeing Dio shouting over at Aoba to ask him to say "Connect with Dio". Isn't that plain awkward. I don't know what exactly this "Coupling" does but naming that process of linking their minds together as a "Proposal", if this isn't a yaoi ship, what it? D:
The linking of minds concept used here through Coupling just seems too familiar, cmon, Pacific Rim once again? But this time with Knightmare frames? Their mechas just have too much similarity with Code Geass that I thought of Lancelot almost immediately after seeing their "energy wings".
Not so sure how Sunrise is going to apply the theory of time travel over here. We did see a perfect match of time travel and romance over in Steins;Gate which turns out to be a masterpiece but for time travel and mecha? I'm just not as sure... They sure did apply the theory of time paradox since Hina couldn't exist over in the future, so I guess they are still on the right track. Was intending to drop this series possibly soon after all the yaoi shipping, but with the last cliffhanger showing the very same girl who helped Aoba into the future appearing as their enemy? Dang now I want to know more... Good tactics Sunrise, but I just don't know how long I can stand their multiple proposals...
And of course, not forgetting how disappointing Hamatora was in their 2nd episode. Everything was strong, plot was so-so, animation was a little too flashy but their setting was great, all only for their very first episode. Roughly about a minute after seeing how Nice was thinking how weird the photos were being taken by looking at the angle, the thought of "oh, it was the teacher", immediately played in my mind and boy was I not surprised that I was correct. The latest "case" was a little too easy to predict, it didn't actually have that much of an impact as it did in episode 1.
I mean like, hiring a group of people with super powers to try and find a teacher who has helped a student when he was bullied? That just isn't the kind of Hamatora I wanted to see. Additionally, the 2nd part of the episode was way too forced. Judging from episode 1, they did a great job linking 2 cases that seemed to be totally different cases which turns out to be the same. But when they tried to re-enact the same in episode 2, everything fell apart. I totally did not see much connection of why, a bully of the student, would suddenly become a serial bomber and start to destroy places in the city just because photos of him bullying was leaked online?! That just doesn't quite link up. Forcing it to link would be horrible, but that was just what they did...
Just so disappointing... I would want Hamatora to have more action, more serious cases and something that would actually require their superpowers to achieve, rather than using a superpower to be first in line to buy a bread in the school canteen. Come on Hamatora, there's clearly a lot of potential in this series!
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needless to say from the moment Noragami's ED played, it was just plain obvious that it was by supercell, so here it is:
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