First impression – Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

The truth is not out here!

Fosh: Welcome! This week we jump into another crazy SHAFT produced anime! This sounded so damn strange to me; however that might be the main reason I wanted to tackle this show. I loved both seasons of Arakawa so that sparked my interest in trying this. Besides aliens? Who doesn’t like aliens, I dare you to say otherwise! Also the main girl reminded me of Nymph from Sora no Otoshimono.

Overcooled: I don’t know what this is about aside from that it’s SHAFT and it’s crazy – a combination that has always worked wonders in the past and has never failed to entertain. Let’s see what SHAFT is up to aside from Madoka~

Ness: So busy this coming week, so don’t expect too much from me. Other than that, uwah so many anime out already and I’m already behind! But I’ll manage to catch up soon. I’m kind of bummed that the anime I’m supposed to be covering this season was moved to October. So, you will be seeing me tag teaming with Fosh throughout this season for Nichijou and Denpa Onna.

Hato: Contrary to my final thoughts on this show, I was actually looking forward to it. Sure, me and Shaft have had our differences in the past, but considering Madoka was really bloody good, I was thinking “Y’know, maybe Denpa could actually be enjoyable?”.

Fosh:Plot revolves around Makoto Niwa, a high school student who moves in with his aunt, Meme Towa. She has a very strange daughter who believes that she’s an alien. One night he goes to the local supermarket with her, eventually discovering what she looks like without the futon mattress wrapped around her.

Why does his aunt look so young?!  Maybe she is the alien!

Makoto- “She’s your aunt remember.”                                                  “Kiraaaaaaaaaaa~”

After meeting his strange aunt and arriving at the house, he can’t help but notice something on the ground, a mattress wrapped around a body! Yes, that doesn’t stand out or anything like that. But Meme ignores the girl and continues to act cute with Makoto, which was really strange! But I won’t deny she was cute and funny.

Makoto-“Maybe this is for dinner?”

DAT FACE SO FREAKY

Makoto-“I think she has a few fried brain cells, must be a combination of all the Moe anime.”

Now here comes the strange factor! Makoto and Meme attempt to eat dinner, but for Makoto he can’t take his mind off the facts that there is a mattress thing sitting at the table to join them. I probably would just walk away from that but she does talk in an odd muffled voice and some techno chatter. Makoto gets annoyed and knocks the girl over by mistake and she springs back up knocking her chair into the air and it lands on the food. Meme gets angry and throws the mattress girl! This was insane and amazing at the same time.

Mattress-“I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL IF YOU STARE!”

Makoto-“Yep, I think I just arrived in crazy land.”

Stop trying to be Misato from Evangelion! Well, she does need the purple hair.

I thought things were going to go all Higarashi on us!

Meme- “This…..Is……Not…..SPARTAAAAAAAAA!”

Next morning Makoto begins his new life going to his new school. We didn’t get to see much of his school though but he returns home to find mattress girl in a room watching static on the screen. Yeah, that alone is freaky enough! She claims to be listening in on aliens talking to her. Makoto tries to play along and even joins her for some pizza and she eats a half so fast; also without removing the mattress. That in itself is either impressive or freakish.

Anyone else get some FLCL feel from this girl? Aka Haruka.

I think that mattress is ALIVE!

Makoto-“WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU–”

After seeing the pizza get devoured in a matter of minutes, Makoto takes the girl with him to the store where she sort of explains her real goal to him. Until he helps her out of his basket and unties the mattress and discovers her true form! A short girl with long blue hair, really cute character designs on her too. She then explains to Makoto that she is an alien! And the earth is now being targeted for an attack. Of course, Makoto is now very interested in learning more about his oddball cousin, the episode ends with the girl staring back at him.

Mattress-“Make a contract with me.”                    Makoto-“No, talking feet, I will not.”

Okay, now you are taking the head tilt way too far!

Makoto-“Whoa…you are like…so damn….cute!”

Lots and lots of hair!

Extra Aliens

UFO censor?! Sorry, fan service seekers.

Makoto-“Yes, I would like to request a few strait jackets please.”

Tests sure are weird in this series.

More shots of Erio doing her best Shaft pose.

End thoughts

Fosh: Well, this was really strange and crazy, perfect spring show for me! Being a fan of a few Shaft shows myself I really wanted to watch/cover this. Was it worth the wait you might ask? Not sure after only seeing one episode, though I would really love to see how things go from here. Makoto does seem to be an alright character, doesn’t have much of a personality right now; however, I guess he is technically the audience being thrown into this odd situation with Erio and his aunt Meme.

Now to Meme! She is just as crazy as her mattress wearing daughter, so she fits the theme of the show quite well. She does seem to be more childlike than an actual adult but I don’t think she will play too big of a role in the plot. Unless we find out she’s an alien too? Then again, we don’t know much about Erio at this point. Now to wait for Erio to join Makoto in school? I really hope she doesn’t wear the mattress after this episode; however, I think she probably will just because that’s her gimmick.

There were a few comical moments in this episode, mostly with how Erio talked in her strange language. Not even sure what the hell she was talking about anyway. That did get annoying after the first few moments, but slowly grew on me. Erio’s character design is very nice! Yes, she is very Loli-ish especially with that flat chest; I hope she isn’t another hungry blue haired girl like Index. Last thing to mention… damn head tilts! There had to be at least ten to fifteen tilts in this whole episode, I guess that’s just Shaft being shaft, eh? Stay tuned for more! I think this will get blogged here on Metanorn!

Overcooled: In one word, Denpa Onna is weird. It is well-animated and weird, and that is just about all there is to it. The only problem is that this oddness feels incredibly forced, as if they thought focusing the whole show around one zany, slightly irritating girl was enough to make up for having no plot. It’s just starting, so maybe there will be one main thread of a story, but for now it’s just empty. I am not content to watch stupid conversations, no matter how well-animated they are!

It’s like an Arakawa with only Nino and Ric and no other characters. It’s a bad set-up. I can only hope this isn’t the only thing they’re going to work with or else it’s going to be a lot of frustrating conversations with some crazyass alien chick. It would help if Erio wasn’t annoying, then it might be a sort of slice of life genre. But nope, she’s just a lunatic. Or an alien. At this point I don’t care, just stop spouting nonsense, woman.

As pointless as I feel watching this, there is still a slight charm to it. An intangible gravity that pulls at your curiosity and makes you want to watch more. Erio seems to be crazy for the sake of being crazy (like moe characters who are just moe for the sake of being moe), but at least it has an unpredictable side to it. I want to see where SHAFT is taking this so I’ll probably keep checking it out for my daily dose of lunacy.

Ness: I felt somewhat confused while watching this anime. Well, more like that this episode is fast paced in conversation. But from what I have watched, I can see how interesting this series will be. Just watching the first episode is not enough for me to tell how I really feel for this anime but I’m sure in time it will all develop well.

First off, the opening caught my attention with the mysterious mattress wearing girl stumbling in late at night. The opening song was catchy and feels like it matches this anime well. As well, the opening scenes in the song really gave a good impression on what this anime would be about. An eccentric girl in her own world with others from the outside trying to get in. As well, the ending song and theme gives a innocent childlike feel but it seems sad at first as it moves to something happy.

The main character, Makoto is really interesting with his personality. He’s just a country boy moving to the big city with his fantasies of how a typical city boy’s life should be like and his thoughts are all thrown out when he meet’s his aunt and ‘cousin’. The thought of this anime having an alien theme to it is quite entertaining, it almost reminds me of the Occult Academy but with a more moe feel to it. As for the Denpa Onna, Erio, while she is the center of our attention the curiosity of what she really looks like was ruined in the opening theme song. But the revealing of her without the mattress was still well done. The total beauty of her character and awe feeling was present, or maybe because of the WTF glowing sparks flowing from her hair. Makoto’s responses and thoughts are just so amusing. So yeah, will be following this show with Fosh. Until next time, lataz~

Hato: BUT MADOKA WAS SO GOOD. WHY WAS THIS SO BAD. Yeah, I didn’t really like this. So what? I will agree, the two shows I’ve added my thoughts too, I haven’t really enjoyed, C and this. The character reactions in this are what really annoyed me. In a way, the characters were so disjointed from their own reality that it just annoyed me. And because we watch it from another reality entirely, it just makes no sense. That and I just can’t take aliens seriously anymore because of Level E. The main kid just looks like Mikado from DRRR anyway.

I will commend Shaft for not doing the balls-ass creepy terra-bad zooms they always used too do. Maybe they finally realized THEY WERE REALLY ANNOYING? As per usual, the animation was great and there’s always a strange feel from Shaft shows. There’s just something not quite right about them. I really can’t put my finger on it. Though now that I’ve brought it up, you will never stop thinking it. It’s a curse!And finally, dat OP. It rings in my ears to this day. Actually, Just her voice in general. It’s so annoying! mean, why is she wrapped up? Did they actually explain that? And the whole alien thing really did just come out of nowhere. It’s like, hey, here’s your aunt, and yeah, aliens are everywhere. I dunno, I’m still skeptical. I’ll watch a few more episodes in hope that it’ll redeem itself, but I really don’t have hope. Get it together, Shaft!

Preview

Makoto learns about girls?!

Next week, not even sure! Stay tuned for more epic head tilts and Erio speaking more alien! Also expect Meme’s continued failed attempts at being the next moe character.

Thanks!!