A quick round-up of the spring and summer anime: I’m continuing to watch Itazura na Kiss and Kaiba, but dropped xxxHOLOC Kei as the plot wasn’t interesting.
Nogizawa Haruka no Himitsu The hero wastes little time in extablishing a relationship with the school “princess” after discovering her secret – she’s an anime and manga otaku. It’s fun but by about episode 5 I’m starting to feel that some of the elements are over-familiar.
Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto is a sort of sequel to “Someday’s Dreamers”. in which a witch girl leaves home in Hokkaido to start her apprenticeship in Tokyo. This is animated with very detailed and realistic backgrounds that rather out-shine the character designs. Modern setting with mobile phones etc. Not sure yet how good the story is going to be, and so far the heroine seems a little blandly “nice”.
Very realistic background art, but otherwise weak.
Yakushiji Ryouko no Kaiki Jikenbo – adult police drama which contains some supernatural elements (that’s apart from the lead female character being very rich, super-competent and gorgeous). The other main character is her put-upon male subordinate. Watchable.
Bounen no Xamdou has great production values and a very busy first episode introducing lots of interesting characters. There is also lots of action in the second episode. Not sure if I can take it seriously as it’s hard to suspend one’s disbelief at times, and there’s too much fun to be had playing “spot the influence”.
Eve no Jikan is set in a near-future world where many families have an android servant. The androids look and act exactly like humans but can be distinguished by the illuminated halo above their heads. They get treated much like the whites used to treat their black servants. The androids seem to be developing their own sub-culture, and there are some people who feel they should be treated more like humans… Though those who spend too much time with their androids are reviled as geeks. Fascinating stuff, and probably the best of the bunch so far, but there seems to be only 1 episode of this 6-episode ONA available at time of writing.