I stumble through some more early episodes.

Idolm@ster 2, just like 1, isn’t as bad as I feared. It’s not good, either. It’s not a show I’d recommend to someone I’d actually like to have a conversation with. It’s often inane and it gives an overly-nice view of the idol business, but they do just enough to keep the episode from wallowing in its expected mistakes. What worries me after seeing ep2 is that they’re going to make each episode a little lesson instead of the mindless fun it should aim for. This time it was “individuality.”

Onward, up the great pyramid of ... I forget.

The younger, stupider members, in spite of being professional idols in training, try to be individualistic by and wind up looking like 8 year-olds who who trying out their mothers’ makeup (and bras). And so the lecture begins, with examples. This is actually just fine as we see characters posing for a shoot in ways that show their strengths and keeps them from talking too much. And since we constantly hop from one girl to another there’s no time to get sick of any of them—yet. And in spite of my quibbling, the episode was more mindless fun than moral lesson.

Baka to Test Ni has the same quick, inane gags and setups as before. But it seems different. Was the show this sparkly last time?

Hideyoshi is sparkling!

Three episodes into Morita-san and my reactions are pretty much the same. “Huh?” or “That’s it?” or What was the point of THAT bit?” And why are they so scared of Morita and not treating her like an unfortunate speaking-disable case?

I said before that I thought Nekogami Yaoyorozu 1 was cute. So’s episode 2, but the story was so lackluster that I may drop it anyway. They get a big pot sent to them, Mayu throws it away, but naturally it’s something very important. Everything takes too long, from the discovery of what the pot is all about, to finding it. New characters show up and hang around until they are used briefly, then pretty much forgotten again. Things got a little better when the cherry blossoms bloomed, but then THAT went on too long. But I still find the damn thing cute. I like Mayu’s voice acting. The poverty god isn’t bad, either.

Kamisama Dolls 3 gives us a little background, brief action, and some good plot twists, but the way it accomplishes this does us no favors. First we learn of a rivalry between the Huga and Kyuga families from two extras just before they get skewered by the annoying Aki, and then it’s one new annoying character after another.

New annoying character #1 (on the right).

First there’s Suou who makes a fuss over Utao for too long, and then Aki shows up again to act like a jerk and bug Kyohei. I really get tired of insane murderers smirking about how the hero is the same as he is. The only similarity between Kyohei and Aki is that they’re bores.

New annoying characters #2 and #3.

Then more annoying people show up. We got the posturing Koushiro and some brat who’s name I didn’t get who launches a truck at Utao. Happily, Koushiro is more interested in trying to kill Aki, part of the village family feud, I’m assuming. No wonder Kyohei decided to leave.

Inconsequential new shows: Morita-San wa Mukuchi, Nyanpire, Twin Angel

It almost takes longer to say the title Morita-San wa Mukuchi than it does to watch episode 1. Reading about the story probably takes longer. Mayu, our heroine has learned to keep eye contact with the person speaking, and over-thinks her answers, so she winds up saying nothing at all. This can be both good and bad for her.

The good.

The bad.

It’s not a premise to milk half-hour episodes out of unless Mayu has an interesting internal monologue (so far she doesn’t) or her friends are entertaining enough to carry the load (so far they aren’t). But for three minutes worth of gags every week this might be all right.

Nyanpire 1 is 4 ½ minutes, but only three if you cut out the ED. A starving kitten is given drops of vampire blood as nourishment (I didn’t know vampires liked kitties) and becomes a vampire himself. Then he gets adopted, so the vampire blood stuff was pointless.

Apart from the introduction and the overly-long ED, all we get is Nyanpire searching for blood to drink. It’s not much, but the cat is somewhat cute. Let’s bring in more characters and see how it pans out. Oh, and cut the ED, please.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel: Kyun Kyun Tokimeki Paradise!!, henceforth called Twin Angel on this blog, is proof that Madoka did not change the magical girl genre forever.

I’m at a loss about what to say. Just about everything about it is a cliché, so let’s look at the things this show does differently from other magical girl shows: Apparently the girls must power up using each other’s device (showing the value of friendship, I suppose), and during the power-up, they giggle a little. Um, I can’t think of anything else. Okay, that’s unfair. Twin Angels knows what it is, and because of that it can send itself up in occasionally entertaining ways, like the kitty-cat mecha device, but especially this:

Yup, he shows up when the girls are in serious trouble (they’ve been turned into cats), he flings flowers as weapons, and he’s secretly a school classmate, obvious to everyone but the two girls. This made me grin. I doubt I’ll be watching for long, but I’ll stick around to see what else they might have fun with … until I get bored.