Another season, another flood of first episodes, some of which I'veseen and some of which I currently have no interest in. Because I feellike it (and because I want to keep track and make sure I don't missanything), here's a snapshot in an extremely abbreviated form.

Short summary of this season: I haven't seen anything yet that'slikely to make Author happy .

Shows I have seen (more or less in the order seen):

• Hyakka Ryouran

The genesis of this was reading the following by Splitter of Chocolate Syrup Waffles (via Author, who quoted it in his roundup ):

[...] After getting everything off her chest, [Kirino] gives the bestmoment of the series where she chastises her brother for thinking thethings she enjoys in 2D is something she wants to experience in 3D.This works on so many levels.

For me, one of the interesting things about Kirino is what I'll callher otaku blindness. This

(Okay, time to write something more serious about this show.)

I feel conflicted about Zakuro .

On the one hand, I'm enjoying it and this counts for a lot. Zakuroherself is the main draw for me ( as seen ), partly becauseI always like seeing competent and strong female protagonists in anime(given that they're so rare). The rest of the ingredients are not bad;the setting is novel, the rest of the characters are at least amusing,what's

One thing I've noticed over time is that shows where the setting isjust ordinary life generally don't grab me, regardless of their genreor premise. This isn't an absolute rule and there are some exceptions( Toradora is one recent example), but the exceptions generally have tobe very good. Add something out of the ordinary to the setting and theshow has a much higher chance of getting my interest. The usual spicethat anime uses is some supernatural elements, but a lot of things

Sold!

(Disclaimer: screenshot not representative of actual episodecontents. See also .)

I watched Oh! Edo Rocket several years ago (before I started writing Roving Thoughts )and enjoyed it quite a lot; ever since then I've felt that it was anunderappreciated gem, and I am glad to see people like Author discoverit .

(Yes, yes, technically Author 'discovered' it ages ago, back when itoriginally aired, and merely watched it recently. You all know what Imean. Ironically I think one of Author's old side comments about a bitin the first

It is mostly a coincidence that I wrote my previousentry on Panty & Stocking right after Author posted his roll call of the sleeping and dead .I watched the episode last night (after reading Aroduc's summary ,which pushed it up the 'I want to see this for myself' list) andimmediately wound up thinking about how to write up my reaction to it,since it's one of the few anime lately that I have had a distinctreaction to.

However, I can't deny that

It is not often that the first episode of an anime series leaves meboggled as my major reaction.

The best way I can think of to describe P&S is that it feelslike Gainax decided that they wanted to make a modern Americancartoon and then turn the age limit up (without turning up thematurity level, which appears to be set firmly at the Ren & Stimpyor Beavis & Butthead level). The result is extremely unlike almostall of the other anime I've seen, including Gainax'

(For some context, see the previous entry , inwhich this was originally a sidebar before it got too long.)

To put it one way, anime almost always gives you an external view ofcharacters and events, not an internal one (one where the character'sinternal feelings and motivations are clear to the reader). Manga andgames let you give the reader a somewhat more internal view, and writtentext lets you give them a fully internal view if you want to.

(You don't