Fall 2011
So, I’ve written mostly about stuff I’ve seen before and have logged away in my memory, but now there’s a new season. So, I’ll post my ‘watching’ list and my initial thoughts on it.
Working’!! -
I loved the first season and by extension had to watch this show. Moe slice-of-life is supposedly a blight on the medium and the source of the evil objectification that causes otaku to treat women like playthings, but fuck it, this show is hilarious.
The primarily female cast is comprised of people with one personality trait and played heavily for laughs. I give this show extra points for Kyouko who as a violent ex-bancho, makes the best floor manager I can imagine.
Bakuman 2 -
Bromance at its best. Takagi and Mashiro drive each other to pour their all into making manga and a good time is had by all. There is a lot of interesting stuff here to talk about ranging from masculinism to relationships. I will probably write about this show as it goes on.
Despite the occasionally cringe-worthy high school romance moment, this show is just plain good television.
Squid Girl 2 -
See Working’!!.
Morita-san Wa Mukichi -
All girls. Simple gags, short episodes. Whether or not you have a problem with this series has to do with whether it bothers you that all these girls come from the standard bins of broadly-drawn stereotypes. It does earn bonus points for not passing judgement on Morita for being really quiet.
Gundam AGE -
All Gundam pilots are boys. More on the wimminz as the series goes on.
Fate/Zero -
That’s a lot of dudes (also: the series needs a TW for violence against little girls). But it’s supposedly about Saber, who is awesome? Having not seen Stay/Night I will withhold judgment until I’ve seen more.
Horizon to the Middle of Nowhere -
There are a lot of tits on display here. I have no idea what this show is on about and so might be dropping it. The girlies kicking ass here seem to lack personality, but then again, so does everyone in the show.
Shakugan no Shana III -
I want to write about the Chanter of Eliges because I find her interesting. True, the core of this series is one gigantic Bechdel Test failure, but besides Yoshida (who I really, really hate), most of the female characters in this show do well for themselves.
Ben-To -
Not sure how stupid this one is going to be. It’s pretty foolish at the start, has an unhealthy obsession with zettai ryouki, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll get a cardboard-cutout female cast (just makes it very likely).
Guilty Crown -
Intrigued, but will need to see more. I should probably write about girls-as-experimental-test-subjects because there’s a fun little dichotomy where the boys tend to get badass, where the girls tend to get tortured.
Sorry this is kind of cursory. I just wanted to give a short little update on what I’ve seen so far this season. Expect something on Last Exile, as well, once I’ve watched it.
