Witch Watch ep1: An overexcitable young witch moves in with her childhood friend (who is super-strong and descended from a clan of oni) in order to make him her familiar and reintegrate with the mundane world. She's a walking disaster with a lot of magical skill but very little common sense, so our hero has to patiently help her out of self-inflicted accidents while she single-mindedly tries to do the right thing and help others. It didn't really do anything for me but it was also not bad, so if you're less jaded by silly shounen romantic comedies there's a lot to like about Witch Watch. The jokes are often funny due to the timing and visual cues, even if you can see the punchlines coming as soon as the setup begins, and the pacing is lively. The ending sequence (which I believe is actually the opening) is also good fun.
#Compass 2.0 Animation Project ep1: I didn't 100% understand what was going on with this series but I really did try. Players join a massively popular combat game as stylised chibi avatars, which have to pair with cooler-looking established 'heroes' in the game to do battle in objective-based skirmishes as teams. Except that there aren't very many heroes available and presumably there are lots of players, given that it seems to be streamed in the streets and the lead is playing it on his phone during lectures. So what most people seem to do is mope around watching idol performances until they connect with a hero - which of course happens when a ReBoot-style incursion means that the boring lead ends up pairing with the edgiest, most unattainable hero in the game. The relentless tutorial narration from the floaty CG mascot, who looked like a rip-off of Drossel from Fireball, started grating very quickly. The other costume designs are loopy though (I liked the black-and-green guy) and the real draw is probably the voice cast. Definitely not the strongest esports-themed anime out there; it's a bit like Belle except without the music or characters, and with a strangely incoherent approach to explaining how everything works. There was apparently an earlier anime which I never noticed so perhaps I'd get more out of this if I'd seen that (or played the original game).
Maebashi Witches ep1: Why are there so many witches this season? A bubbly girl is recruited into a group of witches because they needed more magical power and their creepy Madoka Magica-style mascot/organiser correctly calculated that a friendly person might be more beneficial than another highly strung diva. That diva is annoyed when the newcomer actually turns out to be useful, and the group is whisked away to create a flower shop (why is it always a flower shop?) which doubles up as a location for them to help strangers solve problems in order to earn witch points and make all of their dreams come true. There are strong hints that a lot has been left unsaid, but the main conflict of the first episode is with the grumpiest of the other witches and she's a completely pain in the neck. Visually the episode was doing quite well at first with its lovely designs in pretty jewel tones, but then the dance number started and it became yet another soulless CG idol sequence where nobody moved like real people. All of the magic just vanished at that point. Argh.
Classic★Stars ep1: I have to give this series credit for making both my partner and I laugh out loud in the very first second of the first episode. Also, a musician insulting someone by calling their punches 'pianissimo' is the line of the season. Anyway, a down and out young boxer is gaslit and coerced into attending an ostentatious school where he's forced to join up with a bunch of crazy guys and their crazy teacher, who has named them all after famous composers and wants them to perform. Boxer guy is pressured to join the others even though all he actually wants is to go back to boxing, so a musical showdown takes place which reveals that he's actually surprisingly talented (and an earlier scene had showed him really enjoying a conspicuously similar kind of classical visual kei at a live house). However, he still just wants to leave. It's like Hypnosis Mic with a different theme and smaller cast; I like that it doesn't take itself seriously, but the combination of cheap-looking 2D animation and clunky 3D CG really doesn't make for a good visual experience. The music is quite good though, because classics are classics for a reason and they still stand up with modern beats, raps and rock elements thrown into the mix. I might just listen to the songs and skip the rest of the show.
R
) ep 1
