Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls
Too much lounging around and also too much ink.
Picked this one up because I seem to like these "hot girls fighting (while clothes disintegrate)" shows. Samurai Girls didn't turn out to be too bad of a show; better than Queen's Blade for the most part anyways. The art style is appealing, some of the comedy on the show is pretty funny, and the action is quite decent. However, the story has been stalling of late and hasn't gone anywhere for 2 or 3 episodes, and the male protagonist Muneakira doesn't really do anything despite supposedly being a proficient fighter. I guess story and character development aren't the highest priority for a show like this, but it'd be nice to see regardless.
Motto To Love-Ru
Yami agrees that show has improved from "shitty" to "watchable".
With the three segments per episode format and sticking to the manga material, the second season of To Love-Ru has been a big improvement over the first season. It's by no means great or even good, but at least there hasn't been any really terrible episodes. On the other hand, because there aren't any really terrible episodes, I now don't have much to say about the series other than to complain about the strange censoring practices. The three segments per episode format is efficient for chugging through the material, but there is no sense of continuity... which is what the manga was like, but hopefully this season will cover some of the longer, multi-chapter stories from the manga for a change of pace.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
An average scene from the show.
If I had to pick which show stood out the most this season, I'd pick this show. The animation style aside, it's not often you see an anime that prides itself with being crass and vulgar. Just because it's lowbrow doesn't mean the show isn't fun to watch though, and Panty & Stocking has delivered some chaotically entertaining segments such as the first battle between the angels and Scanty and Kneesocks and also the Transformers parody. On the other hand, the show has also delivered its share of bizarreness, such as the segments with the sperm and the one about the old salaryman. I prefer the segments that are more battle-focused, although action-heavy segments aren't always better (the recent zombie-parody was only so-so, while the casino segment was pretty good). With the introduction of Scanty and Kneesocks as chief antagonists, Panty & Stockings might actually have an overall plot, but we haven't seen it yet. Overall the series has been entertaining, and hopefully the remainder of the show will feature more funny and action-heavy segments rather than bizarre stories.
Star Driver
Sort of the same, but not quite the same.
I don't really know what to say about this show. From what we've seen so far, Star Driver is structured like one of those "villain of the week" robot shows, but the excellent Bones animation and the quirky undertones/overtones prevent the show from feeling repetitive. My main concern with the show is that we still don't know where the story is really headed. In particular, what happened with the purple hair guy and Fish Girl? We know what the villains are up to, but they aren't really accomplishing much other than being defeated one by one. I'm sure the villains will have a sudden breakthrough sooner or later that will actually give Takuto a run for his money... or at least that's what I'm hoping. The show can't ride on the funnily dressed villains, the "Galactic Pretty Boy" business, and all the other quirkiness forever, or can it?
To Aru Majutsu no Index II
I don't want to admit this, but seeing guys punch out girls is one of the best parts of this show.
The second season of Index is going fairly well so far. There hasn't been a really good episode and there is still quite a bit of chatter, but there hasn't been any really slow episodes either and the three stories shown so far have been decent. The Orsola and Kuroko arcs didn't make a lot of sense (partially due to J.C. Staff omitting certain details from the novels), but they both had good action for their finales, and it's amusing how both times the male hero punched out the female "villain". There aren't that many shows out there where a guy (one of whom killed 10000 girls) can punch out a girl (one of whom was a three foot tall loli) and still be called heroic. Index would be excellent if it could deliver a compelling story-arc a lot of high quality action or amusing comedy and without a lot of hero speeches/expositions, but I don't know if that'll ever happen. If the rest of the story arcs can remain decent than this season would be an improvement over the first season.
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