This weekend is turning out to be pretty rough, I’m exhausted, and I’m getting behind on articles. Not like I’m on a schedule, but I’d like to review one show every day for a week or so.
Since I obviously won’t, despite CG #3, and Daughter of Twenty Faces #1 being out, here, have a few more pics from Kanonkon. I mean Kaokanon. I mean Kanakon! Ah hell, I blame Wonderduck.
(And I’ve only had a chance to watch the first ten minutes of DoTF anyway, but I’ve got problems already. The “I can’t respect this show” kind.)
Ok, a couple of non-cheesecake shots above the fold. First off, I made a mistake.
This is not the bad guy. He’s authoritarian, and scary looking, but it’s not a given that he’s a bad guy, let alone the bad guy.
This is the bad guy. Dammit, Souské, haven’t you killed Gauron YET? Sorry bout the mix-up–it was the obvious family resemblance.
(/whistles innocently )
And here’s his two hench-students, shy Mio (left) and hothead Kiriyama (on right). Kiriyama is also a spirit, exhibiting super-speed at one point.
Kawaiii!
Unnamed twins who quietly eat and watch the hijinks, until their drinks get spilled
Um, and my time abruptly ran out. Maybye more later, after i watch ep #3. If I get to.
Update: Ok, I’m in the middle of the 3rd episode. This show is winning, so far. The self-parody has me cracking up — Chizuru is reading up on sure-fire ways to win her guy, so her younger brother Tayura mentions her selection of reading material to Nozomu… and hilarity results as they start trying to one-up each other with a deliberate selection of animé clichés, such as the Badly Cooked Breakfast, the Accidental Collision (on purpose), and dialog taken out of bizarro land: ‘”Smile” (Yes, she says that)’ {actual subtitle. The rest of the class gets into it with hilarious commentary: “Oh look, now she’s activated the ‘mistaken lovers’ flag!” which segues into a game-show spoof, when the inevitable bentos come out.
The fork-o-phone added the a completely surreal counterpoint to the backdrop that appeared from nowhere.
We get a name for the bad guy: Kumada. He’s a student, which I should have expected. Inevitably, he’ll turn out to be the student government president, which would mean he’s violating their rule about not getting involved with humans. The same rule that he’s using to excuse his interfering, of course.
And now I’m off to watch more. If the plot turns out to be reasonably decent, it really might win.
Update 2: The second girl is a frog spirit. And about how she produces the oil in that scene, I don’t want to know! The whole thing was a setup for both girls to get oily and rub all over Kouta. The humor just gave way to total pandering. Not an improvement.
Update 3:This one goes below the fold Not safe for work! (Or if the Texas CPS is looking over your shoulder.) I just thought the oily scene was pandering…
Kouta starts to get a spine, with pushing from Akane (got her name wrong earlier); Minamoto uses it to trick him into spanking games — not that he didn’t play a part in it either. And this pic is going behind the spoiler tag as well as under the fold:
We’re getting awfully close to hentai … if one of the spirits turns out to be an octopus guy, I am outta here!
Update 4:Ok, I think I have this show’s measure after that scene: suggestive fanservice to the limit of what they can get away with, with a bare minimum of plot. It makes me want to watch it all right, in a Code Geass sort of way. I’m almost afraid to find out what they’re going to throw in next. Oh wait, the previews say it’s cosplay time: Chizuru in a bunny girl outfit, Nozomu in a maid outfit. And the teacher in a cheerleader outfit.
I didn’t need to see that last item.
Exactly. I laughed so hard at the epic spoof at the beginning, and even if it descended into porn in the latter half, I’m still hooked on this rare blend of superior entertainment and… tail.
That’s just it… I get the feeling that the authors have a rare sense of humor and the ability to be genuinely funny — but not for twenty-two minutes. So they get as far as they can and throw in slutty foxes and horny wolves to carry it the rest of the way. Although I’m fairly certain that it’s a design feature, not a kludge.
Judging from the few boards I’ve been to, this may be a winning combination.
The random shot of the twins eating and watching/ignoring the goings on tends to crack me up — the fact that they ate Chizuru’s cooking — and liked it — terrifies me. I wonder if they’re spirits too?
Another thing I like about this is how it disdains the usual “Let’s try to have some plot” approach that shows in this vein usually are prone to, for the first three episodes have been nothing but servings of fun, with hardly any emphasis given to the overarching story. I hope they keep it this way; the infinitesimal Kouta-Chizuru relationship development is way more natural than anything I’ve seen in this genre for ages, and it should stay that way.
It’s probably a design feature — I can see them wanting to cater to both sides of the fence; one side wanting conventional entertainment, and the other female anatomy. The twins are adorable in a nondescript way, and are superior to any “silent girl” archetypes; ditto Nozomu, who escapes that by virtue of her cutting barbs.
I’m dead curious as to what the guy responsible for Series Composition does, for it looks like we’ve got someone of decent pedigree in the driver’s seat here.
Has the wolfgirl’s tail and ears shown up yet?
Strangely, no. In fact, the only person to manifest anything is Chizuru… well, and Kouta, when possessed. Most shows there’d have been five or six horribly contrived shapeshifts by now. with other folks just barely missing catching them.
Nozomu is a riot with her insults. Imagine a sexy, evil Yuki Nagato insulting Mikuru while chasing Kyon. Except Kyon’s not a milquetoast like Kouta.
NSFW:
Holy cow. I wonder if the steam will be removed from that scene for the DVD release? I wouldn’t want to bet on that either way.
The Miname-ke sisters broke Mako-cakes (and the viewers) last season; this show’s got it’s own way of doing the same thing. At least it doesn’t leave one questioning one’s own heterosexuality after the breakage.