The 2014 Fall Season I

               Fall has always meant for me the beginning of the new school or college year. School has always striped me of many pleasures, like watching the new fall shows, watching horror movies on Halloween night, celebrating my birthday that comes with the mid-terms, celebrating the New Year and watching the Christmas specials on Christmas! Since, I've been freed, I decided I shall reap all the benefits of an unemployed graduate's life. I started my plan with watching the new fall anime and TV series. I've never been one to watch running anime, I'd rather wait till they are finished, but why not try since I can now!
               I started watching the anime: Magic Kaito 1412, Donten ni warau, Gugure! Kokkori-san, Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji and Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso. As for the TV series I decided to watch Gotham, Forever, the Flash and Constantine, which I didn't watch after all. That's of course beside all the anime and series I've been already watching. In this post, I'll be, well, not reviewing, I'll just be saying what I, personally, thought of these anime and series. I suppose this will be a bit long so, I'll just talk about the anime in this post. In a following post within this week I'll talk about the TV Series. So, let's get this started!

Anime: Magic Kaito 1412

Episodes: 24

Genre: Crime, Comedy,  Romance, Shounen
      

                 Magic Kaito 1412 is a spin-off from the famous manga/anime "Detective Conan". Magic Kaito or Kaito Kid is a phantom thief who specializes in stealing valuable Gems. How Kaito Kuroba, a normal high school student and our main antagonist, came to be Kaito Kid is a longer story. It's his mean to solve the murder of his father, the magician and the former Kaito Kid. We don’t know why Kaito's father was the phantom thief or why he was murdered. That's why Kaito follows in his footsteps. He tries to find out the truth about his father, his murderers and the Pandora Gem. There was a former Kaito Kid Spin-off, a 12-episode special, known as Magic Kaito, and it was highly rated. I haven't watched that one though so I can't compare both versions. Anyway, I like this one. I know so because I am still watching it, and I've already dropped two anime from the five I've mentioned; more precisely, I dropped one and put one on hold. My first impression of Magic Kaito 1412 was not good though. After watching two episodes, I thought it was boring I'd eventually drop it; however, I enjoyed the 3^rd and 4^th episode very well, so I think it's safe for now. In Magic Kaito, every episode has a different topic, a different Gem, and a different, as they say, illusion. So far, there hasn't been a multiple-episode arc. It has just been 4 episodes, only though. Why I disliked the first two episodes is because they followed a kind of similar routine. In episodes 3 and 4, things spiced up a little bit and deviated from the routine so I liked them. Hopefully, it gets better as we proceed.

Bonus! Magic Kaito 1412 is airing, this fall, in celebration of the 20^th manga anniversary of "Detective Conan". Way to go Aoyama-sensei!

Anime: Gugure! Kokkori-san

Episodes: 12

Genre: Comedy, Romance, Shounen
   

             The perfect way to start this is a confession: this anime is one of the creepiest, if not the creepiest I've ever watched. Also, it might be my favorite among the anime I selected to watch this fall. Watching Gugure! Kokkori-san was not something I planned. I just found the first episode among the rest of the new episodes and I was curious. I haven't liked the first episode of a show as much as I liked this one's. It was a very weird experience watching something so creepy and laughing so hard and continuously asking yourself what the hell you're watching. I ended up watching that episode 3 times. Gugure! Kokkori-san is about little Kohina who summons Kokkuri-san the fox spirit because she's lonely. Then, she decides he's too creepy and she doesn't want him anymore. Kokkori-san notices Kohina's peculiar behavior and bad eating habits and decides that he shall take care of her. That's how Kokkori-san starts to haunt Kohina. More spirits show up in the following episodes. Why I watch this anime is purely for laughs! Kohina is awesome! Her design, the way she talks, the way she behaves, everything about her is so weird , likable and funny. Kokkori-san's initially childish attitude that transforms into a parent like attitude is hilarious. Watching those two together is so enjoyable!  However, Gugure! Kokkori-san is one of those anime that started very well, and then went a little bit lower. I am not saying that the following 3 episodes were bad. They had their share of funny incidents and jokes, and I still find it very likeable. It's just that the first episode was too good. Nothing that comes after can compare to it. Gugure! Kokkor-san is a light gag anime that I'd definitely recommend to anyone who share my passion for comedy anime.

I couldn't find a better picture -_-

Anime: Donten ni Warau

Episodes: 12

Genre: Action, Historical, Shoujo

                      It seems I still have a problem with figuring out why some shoujo anime are shoujo. As for Shounen, I grasped it pretty well thanks to Bakuman, but Shoujo is still mysterious to me. However, I kind of concluded that shoujo anime don't necessarily have to be with a female protagonist, who is trying to find love or whatever it is she's looking for, since the majority is about. It seems in Donten ni Warau's case, it's a shoujo because the main protagonists are brothers and they care for each other ,and I don't really know if they are supposed to be good looking; however, girls like that stuff, so that's what makes it a shoujo.  Anyway, Donten ni warau is a historical anime. Its events take place in the Meiji era, when carrying swords was forbidden. That opposes the way the preceding Edo period known for the Samurai. That lead to the increase in crime rates, by those who refuse the new rules. The captured criminals are summoned to a giant prison in the middle of Biwa Lake. Our three protagonists, the three brothers of the Kumo family are responsible for transferring the captured criminals across the lake to the prison. Also, the local police usually seeks the help of Tenka the oldest and strongest brother, to capture the criminals they lose or they fail to capture. The Biwa lake prison has its mystery and Tenka himself is after something, so far, mysterious called the Orochi. So, what's the mystery of Biwa lake's prison and what's the Orochi, and are these two connected? This what to look forward to in Donten ni Warau. My thoughts on the anime, is that it's nothing special but not all that bad either. I keep watching to know the answer from my questions, and because I like historical anime from the Edo and Meiji periods. The characters are nothing special either, the three protagonists are kind of a cliché. There's only one character that caught my interest, and it seems  like I am going to regret it. -_-

Anime: Ookami Shoujo to Kuro Ouji

Episodes: 12

Genre: Romance, Comedy, School, Shoujo

                  And here comes the anime I dropped, completely dropped, not even put on hold. I've been looking forward to a good shoujo anime with decent art, and I found this one in the new anime list for this fall, so I decided to watch it. If I say I don't like cliché Shoujo Rom/Coms I'd be lying. I don't love them, but I like to watch them once in a while. I wouldn't mind introducing something new to the category though. Recently, I've been feeling like I am watching the same anime with different characters, when I watch Shoujo. However, I always keep watching, but that one was too much for me. Let's get to the story! Hinohara Erika is a new high school student who doesn't want to be left out with no friends. That makes her claim to a couple of girls that she has a boyfriend, so that they'd include her in their talks and be friends with her. However, later they suspect her and they ask for a photo of her boyfriend. Erika solves that by taking a photo of a good looking guy in the street, showing it to them claiming that he's her boyfriend. However, her lie puts her into more trouble, when she finds out that the boys is a student in her school. Erika goes to boy Sata Kyouya and explains to him the situation and apologize. That's when Kyouya offers to go along with her lie and pretend to be her boyfriend. However, Kyoya won't do that without a price. Erika would have to be his loyal pet dog, in exchange for not revealing her secret. That's pretty much it. Of course you can tell from the story that Erika is a total idiot and Kyouya is sadist with personal issues. Of course, like every single good looking love interest in a shoujo anime, Kyouya has some mysterious past, that shall most probably justify his sick personality. If thet's the case, then what can possibly justify Erika's stupidity? I don't know. She falls in love with a guy who asks her to be his dog, and I suppose the guy will eventually fall in love with the girl who accepted to be his dog; not something I'd be looking forward to, so I decided to drop the anime.

Anime: Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso

Episodes: 22

Genre: Music, Drama, Romance, School, Shounen

           Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is the anime I put on hold. That has nothing to do with how good or bad it is. It's just that I've recently watched La corda d'oro and Nodame cantabile not long before, so I thought that'd be too much Music for me in a short time and I might get bored so I shall leave it for another time. The anime is about the piano prodigy Arima Kosei, who stopped to play it for two years, after he suffered from a mental breakdown during one of his performances. The breakdown was after the death of his mother who happens to be his instructor. Kosei's mother forced him to play and excel in the piano to achieve the dream she couldn't achieve. She was his motive to play. Kosei lives like that until his friend Tsubaki introduces him and his other friend Watari, to a friend of hers, Miyazono Kaori, who happens to be a violinist. Kousei is impressed by Kaori's free spirited music that aims to express herself. She introduces him to a new horizon in the world of music that shall return him to it once again. I don't know much more about the anime since I've watched it the least. I can't build an image of the characters. It might interest you, though, to know that among the five anime I've, well, reviewed (can't find another word for it) Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso is the one so far with the highest rating in Myanimelist. It's also the only one with a rating above 8/10. However, it’s too early to judge.

               That was all for the 2014 Fall's anime that I decided to watch. I don't know if there's anything better out there, that's not Sci-fi or Mecha and with a decent art. Oh yes! I completely forgot about Shirobako! I've watched only one episode though, so I don't have much to say about it. I thought it was too boring for my taste and I was already content with five new anime on my list. There's also "The Seven deadly Sins" anime, I forgot what it's called in Japanese. It was not that bad, it felt like Fairy Tail, but it had Ecchi and I don't watch anime with Ecchi and too much fan service… may be except for One Piece, because it's One Piece and it wasn't always like that! T_T

              Next time, I'll be talking about the new TV series: Gotham, Forever and The Flash. So, wait for it and See you next post!