spring anime 2016 first impressions

I've had this sitting on my desktop for like a week or two or something so uhhhhh incomplete as it is here you go.



Shounen Maid:
I thought this might end up just being some crossdressing comedy, which I typically get somewhat angry at for reasons I'd rather not get into, but it ended up being a really heartfelt show which I think really depicts a realistic child character and a somewhat realistic, if odd, sort of solution to working through basically convincing the kid to open up and adapt to his new home with the person who now holds custody of him.  It's also not really a crossdressing show, and somehow ends up being even cuter for it.  Rather than being a show about a boy being forced to dress as a girl and be a maid, it's actually about being a single parent when you're not really quite mature yourself.  At least, that's the impression I get from the first episode.

Space Patrol Luluco:
Basically a spiritual successor to Panty and Stocking with Garterbelt, without the sex jokes (which sounds like it wouldn't be anything at all, but it actually is).  It's wonderfully cartoony and ridiculous and I can tell the staff over at Trigger is really having fun with it.  Midori is best girl.

Bakuon:
There's a sort of pseudo-genre of anime these days consisting of cute girls doing nerd hobbies.  Typically, they're amusing if you really like the thing that the show is about, but they end up not really being worth watching more than a few episodes of.  Bakuon is not like this.  The character interactions, first of all, aren't your typical cute girls bonding over a shared interest--that's there, sure, but there's also conflict because of it and their interest in motorcycles ends up seeming so much more real and less like a way for otaku to pretend cute girls are into the things they like because of it.  Watching them interact is like stepping into a thread on /o/ or something.  You can see the trash-talk, the snide comments, the hot banter, etc.  This is the sort of show where it wouldn't even seem like inappropriate insertion of memes for a character to say something like ">implying your motocycle isn't shit" or "SUZUKIFAGS ON SUICIDE WATCH".  Add in the crazy humor which just keeps escalating in goofiness and Onsa's top-tier character design and you have a show which far exceeded any expectations I had for it.

Ace Attorney:
Well, it's a Phoenix Wright anime, alright.  I won't be watching any more than the first episode.

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Not Crash:
ABAJ!

Sakamoto Desu Ga?:
Funny at some points, but at its core it's complete garbage.  It's a TV half-hour of nothing but the same joke over and over.  The only reason it isn't a 7-minute show is because they inflate its runtime with obnoxious amounts of setup for a gag where there is no payoff because you know exactly what is going to happen and you've seen the exact same joke over and over already.  Any vaguely amusing or cool part is almost immediately destroyed by the appearance of one of the many punchable faces of this show or by the shrieking of schoolgirls.  The only reason to watch this show is if you're amumsed by the sight gags (which take far too long to set up) or if, for some reason, you're a fujoshi who has completely fallen for this particular unnaturally perfect boy.
To put my opinion on this show another way: have you ever had a movie described to you as basically the funniest thing ever, and then you watch it with some fans of it and they spend the whole time sitting there basically vibrating in their seats trying to cointain their excitement, until finally one of the parts they think is really great shows up and they just go absolutely fucking apeshit, leaving you wondering what they think was actually so funny in the first place?  Like, sure, maybe it was goofy, but not enough to elicit more than a smirk or a light chuckle at best.  Yet everyone in the theater is basically pissing their pants laughing at it, and it's taking all your willpower to not just get up and walk out?  Even though I watched this alone, that was my experience with this show.  I heard the voices of thousands of anonymous strangers pissing their pants laughing in my head, as the mild amusement I got from the show was vastly overtaken by the proportional disappointment I had at it until I could feel nothing but hate for it.
Even further thoughts: I get that he's a shoujo love interest dropped into a different setting.  I even think that, under different circumstances, I might be able to enjoy this show.  But, the fact that not only does this show only have one joke but also that it feels the need to treat me like a total fucking retard who won't understand the joke unless it is directly explained to me every five fucking seconds is obnoxious and insulting.  I despise this show, I despise every character in this show, I despise all the things that happen in this show, and I despise anyone who likes this festering pile of garbage.

Tonkatsu DJ:
Somehow more amusing than it has any business being.

Flying Witch:
A cute, comfy show that's just plain fun and relaxing to watch.

Kiznaiver:
I don't know where Trigger will go with this, but I love the character designs and music so far.  Not quite sold on the premise yet, but shaky premises have worked before.  The whole concept of kidnapping people and performing surgery on them without their consent and then them just not really getting that that's what happened and seeming not to care until the pain started was weird, though.
Some more thoughts: it's quite clear that the weakest part of Kiznaiver is the writing.  The plot makes practically no sense, first of all.  A group of teenagers are kidnapped by some stoic teenage girl and/or the organization she represents, given devices which make them share their pain and injuries.  The reason for this is, apparently, something about world peace.  Never mind that these people have no beef with each other and thus no need to understand each others' pain.  Never mind that the pain most people inflict on each other is emotional rather than physical.  Never mind that people inflict pain not because they don't know what it feels like but rather because they do know and they just honestly want to hurt another, or because they don't realize that what they're doing will hurt people and thus it won't do any good to share the pain after it has already been inflicted.  Never mind even that most of the physical pain a person experiences will probably be due to stubbing their toes or due to accidents or the like.  No, let's not focus on that because there's an even bigger issue than that.  That issue is the logical end to the experiment that the cast is part of.  It seems as if the plan here is to kidnap every single person on Earth and forcibly inject them with the pain-sharing devices.  If the goal is world peace, as in all across the entire world, that is the only logical conclusion one can come to about what the plan must be.  This is pure fucking insanity of the nth degree.  As for the writing itself, consider this--a group of people are kidnapped and awaken in some kind of hospital.  They are told that they were kidnapped and that some kind of surgery was performed on them (with imagery showing it and where on the body it was performed, despite there not seeming to be scars or stitches there).  They are told that the protagonist character jumped off the top of the stairs and they either just believe it or don't say anything to the contrary despite it being obvious from the photograph shown that he was actually pushed.  And yet, somehow, their unianimous reaction is "naw nigga you jus whack" and just simply walking the fuck away with no interest in what has actually happened or why or even in giving their kidnapper a piece of their minds.  It just doesn't make sense.  What is wrong with these people?  There's still a chance that this could recover and I will give it at least 3 episodes as usual, but holy shit the writing is fucking BAD.