Mightyblue’s Corner

…or early spring, if you will, although I don’t quite understand the temptation to call things released in January/February “Spring” releases.

I’ll only be chatting about a few here, but I’ll cover the ones I have some experience with anyway. Onwards after the break!

Persona ~trinity soul~

Atlus fans rejoice! You’re getting a sequel to Persona 3, one of the gems of last year, and possibly one of the most entertaining RPGs in years. The show takes place 10 years after the events in 3, and it sounds like the characters in 3 won’t show up, at least no more than cameos. It’s too early in the season to say for sure however, and the first couple of episodes have opened up more questions then they’ve answered so far. It’s a solidly produced show, in both graphics and music although the show’s original score has a bit of an edge in production values, and the soundtrack from Persona 3 makes the occasional appearance as well. The show’s probably geared more towards Persona 3 fans than anything, but if you like a good supernatural mystery this one’s for you.

Spice and Wolf [Ookami to Kyoushinrou]

An odd sort of series that follows the adventures of a merchant and one wheat-dwelling wolf spirit as they go off and do whatever. An episodic series that’s probably going to be more in the vein of Mushi-shi or Kino’s Travels than anything else, but given the interplay between Horo and Lawrence there should be a fair amount of character development as well. Very pretty and very well animated, and the score is fairly unobtrusive as well. The show could also be described as a “moe pit,” due to Horo’s “attire” *cough* for most of the first episode, but it doesn’t seem to be the focus of the show, and so shouldn’t degenerate in a fanservice fest either.

H20 -footsteps in the sand-

One of the two romances I’ll be talking about in this post, and the one with the supernatural bent, if one can call spirits of time who appear as a moe high school girl “supernatural” in the usual sense. The show also features the usual tsundere (with vague hints of yandere) and princess (also with vague hints of yandere, joy!) archetypes to contest for the male lead’s affections. Who turns out to be blind from some mysterious cause not yet explained, yet manages to get his sight back from our moe spirit of time and walks around like any guy who’s had his eyesight for the entirety of his life. Of course, I lost that particular battle the moment I expected logic from anime (or just pop fantasy in general, really), but that strains even my generous suspension of disbelief. Not really worth your time or mine.

True Tears

Okay, the last one for this entry is True Tears, a stereotypical slice-of-life school drama/romance that manages to beat out H20 by sheer dint of reality and something resembling human personalities in the characters. Well, so long as you ignore the strange girl who dragoons the male lead into helping her search for her “tears.” I assume that’s where the title comes into play, but so far we’ve only been privy to the bare edges of some nasty jealousy and maneuvering on the part of the other female lead. Man, Japanese high school girls are evil, which is reminding me to finish watching School Days one of these, er, days. If you need a drama/romance fix, this’ll do you far better than H20, but there are better shows out there.