First impression – Busou Shiki

Ann-“Hurry up and wake up stupid master! We can’t fool around all day…”

Welcome to the odd world of Busou Shiki, now I am not too familiar with this anime series because I only saw like one ten minute episode of Busou Shiki Moon Angel, but with a bigger budget this time how will things change for this strange little anime series? I guess you will find out today on this first impressions post.

Japan does Toy Story

Aines-“Take that you evil cardboard box!”             Cardboard box-“OH GOD THE PAIN!!”

Moe moe fighting doll~

I hope their master knows they used his toothbrush to clean the toilet…

Sure this is not your childhood classic Disney movie, but this series shares a bit of “toys coming to life” only the humans are fully aware of this because these dolls are designed to move around and talk to their “masters” after all or you could just call this a second coming of something like Angelic Layer or Strike Witches if you rather stick to just anime titles? I know Bosou Shiki and Angelic Layer share a lot common from fighting in random tournaments set to various CGI worlds and dressing up your battle dolls of course, but I loved how the art department played around with scale and how the Shiki dolls interacted with the world around them especially when they were cleaning the house? That was very cool and kind of hilarious at the same time. I just have one real question, how the hell did Ann move all those boxes into the house? I assume the delivery guy moved them into the house for her or Ann has some crazy strength? The best scene of the episode had to be the character intros for Aines and Lene because they simply punch and bust their way out of their boxes! I mean can you just imagine ordering a figure and when it finally arrives it comes to life and breaks out of the package to greet you as master? You would probably laugh your ass off or run away screaming in terror.

Fighting dolls up in here

Quick someone break out the super glue and fix her up!

Aines-“I am going to break all of your joints!”                  Pink doll-“You are a truly evil doll…”

Animation wise the fighting scenes are very impressive to watch; however it wasn’t mind blowing or anything because you can see similar scenes in Infinite Stratos, Strike Witches or maybe a tiny bit of Black Rock Shooter? Aka high speed CGI scenes with lots of epic gun play and of course random laser beam spamming because it is super effective. Since we are dealing with dolls it appears that Busou Shiki can play around and throw in some violent stuff such as the first part of this episode showcasing an amazing fight between two dolls resulting in one of them getting crushed by a building followed by getting blown up afterwards…I am quite surprised they didn’t show pieces of the defeated doll flying all over the place! So what did you think of the overall action stuff? I wish there was more because I really don’t care too much for the slice of life stuff…I really don’t want this to turn into a massive harem where the main guy collects all these random dolls for his “collection” either way I am tuning in every week to watch the fighting, but how much fighting will we actually see from this series?

Moe moe voice actors

It sure is tough for the acting team of Kana Asumi, Megumi Nakajima and Kaori Mizuhashi~

Right off the bat I noticed one thing about this first episode and that comes down to the voice talents for the three main Shiki dolls starting off with Kana Asumi which most of us know as the adorable and mentally insane Nyaruko-san or Miya Tachibana from Amagami SS? So who else do we have to look forward to hearing? Next up Megumi Nakajima or Ranka Lee for the Macross Frontier or Elena Himekawa from Phi Brain and rounding off the final main character with Kaori Mizuhashi, sadly I have no idea who she voiced besides Emi from Daily lives of high school boys and some random Strike Witch named Martina Crespi. Aside from these three this series has plenty of top tier actors like Aya Hirano, Eri Kitamura, Marina Inoue, Miyuki Sawashiro, Rie Kugimiya, Romi Park, Yu Kobayshi, Yui Horie and finally Yuka Iguchi! Most of these rolls I assume are random Shiki dolls that our main cast ends up fighting? I know I probably missed a few new actors but the list is quite huge and a few of the names are shocking! My mind went pure WTF seeing Rie Kugimiya, Yu Kobayshi, Kana Asumi, Yuka Iguchi and Aya Hirano together in the same series? That might make everything more fun!

Extra combat dolls

I guess Waldo was hiding in Japan this entire time huh?!

Remember children always let sleeping dolls lie.

Plastic backstory and plots for everyone to enjoy!

Tsundere doll unlocked?

End thoughts

Well that was certainly an interesting trip into the doll fighting world of Bousou Shiki! Like I said before I don’t have much experience with this universe, but the overall idea isn’t really that difficult to understand I mean dolls fighting sounds absolutely crazy right? However I loved that part about Angelic Layer so I could easily watch some more of this. What did you think about this first episode? It had a few cute moments with the girls but the main master guy was kind of weird looking! Animation wise he looks really terrible, but I can tell the animation team isn’t really putting much effort into his design because the main focus is spent on the design of the dolls! Also what was with BLANK? She had a bit of a boob jiggle going on? I guess we need random fan service to keep us watching? The opening fighting scene and the middle fight for the love letter was amazing; however I just felt like I was watching the first and final episodes of Infinite Stratos again but in mini figure mode? I almost forgot the final Shiki doll she looks really cool! So at least the designs are interesting to look at right? I can’t really say much for the actual story right now because this has HAREM written all over it especially when all the dolls want the attention of the main character? One last thing to mention this feels like a free to play third person shooter game I played called Microvolts!

Preview

Who will win the ultimate cooking battle?!

About

Is huge anime fan from Florida! who loves to watch anime and also enjoys drawing and collecting pictures, my favorite genre of anime has to be Mecha, there is just something awesome about giant robots beating the crap out of each other! Other than that type of show, I love a good comedy or action series :D
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23 Responses to “First impression – Busou Shiki”

  1. D-LaN says:

    Lol Japanese Toy Story XD

    Too bad I’m not watching this cuz I have a ton of thing on my list ady…

    • Foshizzel says:

      Well I didn’t have much to compare this to outside of anime of course hahaha

      Yeah this one will probably fly under the radar for everyone not just because they have a lot to watch, but compared to the other shows it fails in the animation department…

  2. Highway says:

    I was wondering about this show, it looks kooky enough to try. I think I’ll put this in the slot that K was in. 🙂

    • Foshizzel says:

      It wasn’t sooooooooo bad and it had a few kick ass action scenes, but I don’t think it will do much with the likes of the other “action” shows this falls to the bottom of the list…

      Well I hope you find it fun ;D

  3. AllenAndArth says:

    somehow i remember angelic layer
    and
    strike witches
    and
    toy story
    let’s make the sentence
    toy story x angelic layer+strike witches+gundam+moe voices= busou shiki

  4. Highway says:

    Well, that was definitely a bit silly. It started to feel like “ISbits“, and then seeing that it was done by 8-Bit Studios really stuck the Infinite Stratos connection there (probably why the flying fighting scenes looked almost identical).

    I thought it cute that the dolls had doll joints, rather than just being miniature people, but I wonder why Arn was so much stronger than the one who picked a fight with them, especially if she’s a 10-year old model. Seems kind of weird.

    The only turnoff was that there was quite a bit too much “masta”-ing going on. We get it already, you don’t need to work Master into every sentence. The Maid Battle Armor was a cute touch tho.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Yeah this series definately has a IS feel to it during all the fighting xD

      I noticed that as well! I guess it makes them look more doll like and yeah…that is strange shes a 10-year model? LOL

      I KNOW RIGHT?! That was freaking annoying…master this master that aaaahhh make it stop!

      • Highway says:

        Well, I’m guessing that it’s about 10 years, because she talks about how she was there first, and then how she grew up in that apartment with whatsisname, and then we see flashback of young whatsisname making that house for her when he got her. And they’ve been away from Japan for 5 years. So apparently the Busou Shinki don’t get more powerful with newer models, nor do they really wear out (8-10 years seems like an awfully long time for that kind of technology to be current).

        It was kind of amusing when she went all Princess-Vespa-versus-Spaceballs: “You singed my hair, er, Master’s Letter!” *commence beatdown*

        • Foshizzel says:

          Yeah that works! I don’t really have an all time favorite girl character yet, but I am going to give it two or three more episodes to pull me in if nothing then dropppeeed 4 ever.

          LOLOOLOLO Spaceballs ftw

  5. akagami says:

    I went into this thinking it was a girls in battlesuits fighting against ZA WARUDO (soft of like Infinite Stratos), and instead I got toys that battle on behalf of their masters (am I watching pokemon for otaku)?

    I was led to believe that it was one per person (sort of, hm, a companion that is with you for your life), but then this guy busts out 3. Why stop at 3? Why not 100?

    Overall it was cute (haha, shinki taken out by a letter, lol), but oh man, that master is butt ugly and horribly animated. They spent all their budget on the shinki and the battle scenes.

    • Foshizzel says:

      Hahahah yeah I thought the same thing originally…I was hoping for non stop action, but you are right this could get very pokemon-ish very quickly especially with all the dolls in the series? Good god…

      Yeah main dude will have to collect them all ;D

      It did have a few cute moments but overall it felt generic and I got soooo tired of hearing the dolls say master this and master that! OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP!

  6. skylion says:

    Fosh. WTH? What did I just watch?

    LOL> Yeah, I recognized Popura-chan right of the bat, she is hard to miss. If nothing, the moe voices and action scenes should sell this.

    I think Girls und Panzer will eclipse it, however.

    • Highway says:

      I definitely liked Girls und Panzer more than Busou Shinki. Even if my new motto for Girls und Panzer is “Just go with it…” No critical thinking allowed for that show.

      • skylion says:

        I looooooved Girls und Panzer. It has tons of great stuff just boiling under the surface of the first episode. Plus, Loli Student Council President. It’s 2012. The Year of the Loli.

      • Foshizzel says:

        Panzer girls for the win!

    • Foshizzel says:

      You watched something magical or something terrifyingly awesome!?

      Hnnnggg Popura-chan!! Even though I prefer Miya or Nyaruko <3

      I saw Girls und Panzer and YES! I like it even though some of the CGI scenes were like uhhh semi cool and semi derpish to me, but overall I can't wait for more of that!

      • Highway says:

        The moving tank parts, especially the opening part with the tank turning around, actually hurt my eyes with their bad framerate, jumpiness, and overly detailed ground texture. I don’t know if it was something special to the raw that ended up being used, but I watched releases from two groups and they were both the same. The girl sticking up out of the other tank was severed in half multiple times, just a horrible start to the show visually.

  7. BlackBriar says:

    This looks interesting but too bad I won’t have time to check it out. There is about 10 other animes on my list right now this season. Maybe I’ll look at it another time (providing that next season isn’t as crowded as this one).

    • Foshizzel says:

      No worries there I think this series will fall to the side because it wasn’t really AMAZING or new…I don’t mind the concept but I think it is missing something? Maybe if the dolls did not say master every ten minutes? LOL

      • Highway says:

        You meant “ten seconds” not “ten minutes”.

        Yeah, I don’t know if this was interesting enough to keep watching. If it was a choice between this and other shows, this would have a hard time beating out anything else (like especially Girls und Panzer). Busou Shinki seems like a ‘nice’ series, but doesn’t really have a hook. It doesn’t do anything farcically enough to make you watch cause you’re going “Whuuuuu????!?!” It almost seems like a “grown up Barbies” series.

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