Getting close to the end of ep 1 watching for the season, only Guilty Crown and Last Exile to go and then I can make some sort of summary post in the Fall season thread:
Ben-to - Such silly originality behind this series, you can forgive some of the more obvious shounen-actiony elements. Very solid first ep.
Phi Brain - Possibly the worst character art ever. It makes it look like a bad Chinese knockoff version of some popular show, and is borderline scary in the same way that seeing Pinocchio turning into the donkey terrifies children. Other than that, fairly entertaining. Layton anime now, please.
Mirai Nikki - Mmm, the high concept aspect of this show is instantly appealing. Don't have to look much further for where one of Mawaru Penguindrum's plot threads comes from. ^^; First half of the ep was kind of meandering, but the more Gasai was in it the better it got.
Ika-musume!? - This episode retained some of the flat spots that blighted most of the first season, but also all of the Ika awesomeness that highlighted it.
Kimi to Boku - Some sort of weird faces/eyes thing going on, would probably be more off putting in a season without Phi Brain. First episode had a moderate level of gay, which seems natural for what seems to be the "for girls" equivalent of Tamayura.
Tamayura - Looks a lot nicer than Kimi to Boku, feels quite similar. Love the use it makes of the city backdrops.
Maken-ki - Himegami is a little slice of awesome, but this is one seriously 90s (2011 has felt a little bit like a 90s revival, in some ways) harem anime trying to hide behind an all-action mask. Also, sorry C-Cube, this is clearly the real pantsu anime of the season.
Chihayafuru - Competitive Karuta. The fact that this series exists is reason enough to watch it. But the first ep was very enjoyable too, possibly my biggest surprise of the season so far. Has that innate level of fidelity you expect from Madhouse.
HaGaNai - :biggrin.gif: I am incapable of unbiased comment on this show, so I will limit it to saying that I think they showed with the first ep that this will be a decent adaptation of the LNs. I also think Sena vs Yozora is a much closer run thing than, say, Kirino vs Kuroneko in terms of who will have more fans, so I'm interested to see how that all shakes out.
UN-GO - Very classy first episode. Some interesting characters, especially Inga, and the experimental method of the adaptation is nicely suited to noitaminA.