First Impression – Gakusen Toshi Asterisk
Look, it’s a Crimson Flame-Haired Princess…
My first FI for this season is Rakudai Kishi… no… wait… It’s Gakusen Toshi Asterisk! And while it’s having a little fun to pretend like they’re the same (and some people think they are), I hope that with the two FI’s that I’m doing, I’ll be able to talk about some differences. That’s right, I’m doing both. So let’s talk about Asterisk first.
Failure in the Past
Haruka: is she dead or what?
I’ll say this right off the bat: I think the best looking character so far is the one that died in the first 90 seconds. That poofy twin-tails with glasses look is one that I like, and to have that on someone doing fancy fights was interesting. So I was disappointed right at the start when she died, invoking the name of our main character with her (apparent) last breath. But we’ll get back to Onee-san later. Unfortunately, the show didn’t follow up her death with anything that was particularly memorable, with perhaps the most generic ‘explanation’ of why this world is different from our world. There was something called “The Invertia” and powerful countries got less powerful, and something something Imperial Conglomerate yadda yadda. You know, the stupid crap that a writer will try to stir up to give some cheap explanation, but this exposition was a bit worse than the usual. It wasn’t Heavy Object level of yakity-yak (a show which I liked, by the way, but not five minutes of constant talking), but it was a lot less meaningful.
Good timing, MC-kun, but it’s never a good idea to jump in someone’s 4th floor window
Anyway, what we end up with is 6 factions, and they’re arrayed around this special town that’s some sort of school like a 6-pointed star… hmmm, like an asterisk (or more like the symbol for something that could have been shown in Shimoneta…). And the point is that nobody really cares, because the show is really about this school stuff. I know they’re going to drag some of this politics stuff in, but honestly, it’s not going to matter because it’s going to be about “good guys” and “bad guys”. So on to the good guys!
Julis can smile, she just usually doesn’t
Not A Good Idea
Some good looking fire effects
Just because you can jump to the fourth-floor window where you think that a girl’s handkerchief dropped from doesn’t mean that you should jump to said fourth-floor window. This rash act gets our main guy, Ayato Amagiri, immediately on the bad side of the exceedingly stereotypical fiery redhead, Julis-Alexia von Riessfelt, who he saw in a state of undress. And by the way, she’s #5 at the school, your typical number high enough to mean that she’s not supposed to be beatable, but not right at the top to leave no possibility of future better opponents. At least she was gracious about his returning the handkerchief, enough so that she duels him, giving the show a chance to show off the magical combat stuffs. I don’t think that anyone can argue with the idea that A-1 is able to bring the goods when it comes to magical combat, it’s more a question of if they want to. And this is one that they apparently wanted to, with very good fire effects and explosions. The visual effects on all of this show were in the realm of very good to excellent, although the energy sword sound effects were too much Star Wars.
Don’t argue with Claudia
And a good fight ends with him grabbing her boob. Because of course it does. Oh well. Let’s just forget that someone else fired a weapon at Julis. But the fight being stalled gives us a chance for a better character to appear in Claudia Enfield, the student council president even though she’s just a first year student. And while she speaks in very polite keigo, she stubbornly insists that Ayato address her without honorifics since they’re the same year, although later events might prove that there are other reasons she doesn’t want the formality. But she even admits that she’s a dark, scheming character, so she’s quite fun throughout her bit of exposition, talking about the schools and the big tournament. Through their conversation, Ayato also brings up his older sister, who we saw at the beginning, but the mystery of her disappearance, or rather her apparent non-appearance, is what it really starts with. But the weapon she used remembers her, even if the school does not.
Claudia collects a toll…
There are some other typical school tropes to fill out, like Ayato having to sit next to Julis in class and meeting his new roommate Eishiro who just happens to sit behind him and is a walking reference for all the stuff in the school. Also the introduction of the patsy, supposedly strong dude who is the early heavy, only to get taken down quick. They even named him “Lester MacFail” (what’s that, you say “ph”? I say FAIL), and made him #9 in the rankings. He wants to beat Julis, but she’s beaten him 3 times, and won’t fight him again, so he’s being a jerk about it. But something they don’t mention, even when talking about how Julis “soared” up to #5 in the rankings, is that Claudia is #2 (you just catch a glimpse of this, but not the #1 name, when they show Julis on the page).
Hey Brosuke, how’s it going?
Hey, It’s Loser MacFail
We’ll see how far they get through any of this fighting. It’s the kind of show where you want them to get through it plot-wise, but I don’t really want them to just make it a tournament show, because those are dull as a ditch. I’m sure there will also be a lot of “cooling the Princess’s (Julis) flaming heart and igniting her passions” but unfortunately, Julis is a little bit too much of the red-haired fire-weilding tsundere. She’s better than, say, Claire Rouge from Blade Dance, if I’m damning with faint praise, but at this point she’s locked into those tropes a little too much. I was also surprised to learn that this was a LN adaptation, because I was sure from the way they introduced things it was an eroge. I know they can be similar, but you usually don’t get the New Best Friend Encyclopedia in a LN, that’s something that’s much more related to VNs. And the CG preview Claudia sure looks like it was in a VN. Either way, this show’s probably going to be good enough to watch because it’s being done by A-1 who seem to want to make it a good show, but might be a little too formulaic.
About Highway
Proving that you don't have to be young to love anime, I enjoy all genres and styles of shows. If it's not hurting anyone else, you should never be ashamed of what you like!
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
That is exactly how I’d fire projectiles. Be it fire, ice, earth or lightning. Nothing beats a Photon Lancer: Genocide Shift.
And going for the Panchira shot already? 😛
Speaking of Seirei Tsukai, I need to catch up with Volume 14. This from the person that marathoned 13 volumes in under 72 hours…
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
Ah, yes, playing as close to the book as possible. Do not deviate from the LN formula! It’s dangerous!
So, I don’t think I found this as terrible as many did, just remarkably average. That’s not really the same thing. Bad, would be to make the magic background convoluted and overly-complex for the sake of originality. Just don’t call it magic, call it something else. Don’t say guild, call it something else. Toss tech into it to blur the line. Repeat until it isn’t Calvary any more!
Claudia is the standout character, without a doubt. She so blatantly gives up her game, you have to swear she’s playing another one underneath. It’s like owning up to a crime, just to cover for the bigger sin you really want to keep hidden. I like her.
Julis is interesting in that it seems she’s been given the heavy lifting of both the female and male protagonist. I hope they don’t take her down the damsel in distress route. Ayato, is laid back like any barely there MC, and Julis can save herself just fine, thank you.
All in all, the show did what it was supposed to do. I want to know what happens next. I mean, it’s not a burning need, but the desire is there.
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I too didn’t find it terrible. And I think the animation quality pushed it slightly above average, even. And I kind of wonder if this won’t end up significantly better than that other famous A-1 production, SAO. We’ll see how they do avoiding the pitfalls, but if a show like Wizard Buggisters can avoid them, so can one like this.
POWUH: Meta Resident and LN Informant with 1529 comments
So far, Asterisk has an advantage over Rakudai because of its big budget (courtesy of Aniplex), good production values, 2 split seasons (to cover 7-8 volumes), and a Rasmus Faber soundtrack.
Storywise, it depends what you want. Show ▼
POWUH: and Athenaeum Châtelaine with 2212 comments
While there are about three series this season that have this exact same premise, I think this was the best done out of each of them. While at first the start was only okay for me, it has grown on me a bit, especially in comparison to the other shows like it this fall.
I liked Ayato for the most part, he’s a nice guy who is stronger than he looks. Julis rubbed me the wrong way upon introduction, but I liked her more as the series went along.
The series seems to have an interesting plot in the background, so I’ll keep watching, though it’ll be more of a casual plot than anything else.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1692 comments
A very rote episode that hit as many genre tropes as it could in one episode. However, it is good-looking and Claudia promises to be a very interesting character. Hope we get lots of her!
For now the three episode rule is in effect, although it’ll probably beat out the other similar show this season.
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
This was fun and I love the fighting! This did give off a tiny bit of Infinite Stratos feel for me, but overall this was interesting and id love to see more.
Did you know the original character designs were from Plastic Memories and Infinite Stratos? I didn’t recognize that but I know it has anime designs from SAO, Oriemo but not Classroom Crisis? Maybe MAL is not up to date..
POWUH: Meta Team and Spammy Tamer with 7115 comments
I did see that the character designer also did IS and PlaMemo. I can see some similarities, and I can also see some similarities to SAO, not surprising given that it’s A-1.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Passable start. Like I said on the Rakudai First Impression, it and Asterisk have a great deal of similarities. Both openings kick dirt in World Break’s face. Though personally, I’m backing Asterisk more as it gives a more structured feel and since it’s confirmed split cour, a lot is likely to be told so it wouldn’t be a problem if the series takes a steady pacing. And of course, there’s the mention of an “Academy City”. Call it a bias if you will but I can’t ignore that.
Can’t say much about the leads because what I’d say here would pretty much be the same as the two in the other show. Both girls are Crimson haired, fire wielding nobles and you get the impression they share the same personality.
I’ll watch both series but they won’t be on the “Must Watch” list this season. They get my attention in average measure.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
Blaaaaaand. So bland it tastes like watery mush. I wasn’t really impressed with the character designs, and none of the scenes felt like anyone had put in any real effort… just going through the motions with some artistic tricks to add some flash (like when people decide to toss in lens flare in a picture to make it look more fancy).
I’m hoping Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry gets a better adaption (although to be honest, I haven’t seen this show’s source material so that’s not really fair). I’ve enjoyed the Rakudai manga (it’s enjoyable, not amazing), so we shall see.
I must say that the light saber sound effects were a little annoying.
After all that exposition, I still don’t have any idea why this world is as it is. Why does the catastrophe Invertia (whatever it was) have anything to do with these new powers called Genestella (random names for the hell of it). And how does a catastrophe lead to a battle entertainment tournaments called Festas? Why 6 school doing a battle royale, and what are these pages??? So redundant, if you’re already ranked what extra benefit does adding a page number do? WTF. So much random ideas tossed together into a pot and the author must be hoping some of it sticks. The whole thing is so nonsensical.
And the MC’s ignorance… “let’s see, let’s go into a girl’s room to return a flower handkerchief and pretend it’s ok to peek on a girl and pretend to be innocent”? I call BS for not knowing it was a girl’s room. Because that handkerchief screams “girl” all over it. Stupid characters, bland designs, poor story.
Because I like magical school settings, I’m willing to try at least another episode to see… if it wasn’t for the setting this would have earned the 1st-dropped-show-of-the-season award.
POWUH: Meta Resident with 1557 comments
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