Note: This post contains spoilers for the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you haven't seen the series and care about being spoiled, it's probably better to skip this.

This post is dedicated to my friend LT, a passionate Mami-supporter.

In my previous entry, I talked about some reactions to Puella Magi Madoka Magica that described the characterization of the cast as, to put it politely, lacking in depth. I've seen the term "moeblob" bandied-about, which is at its heart a description of characters who lack personalities beyond what's required to provoke a reaction of "moe" in their audience. While this is a term I'd usually reserve for series that have no other purpose than to present cute characters to an otaku audience (unlike Madoka which actually has a fairly rich story to tell), I don't completely disagree with the term's use in this case - the characters in this series really aren't what I would call fully fleshed-out. That, however, doesn't mean that they lack stories worth telling.

Tomoe Mami is a character known primarily for having been killed three episodes into the anime's broadcast. While her death marked a startling turning point in the series, as a character she wasn't around long enough for the event to have the same kind of emotional weight as some of the events which occur in later episodes. She's become the target of a lot of posthumous speculation, and there have been theories that speculate that she was somehow working in conjunction with Kyubey to help entice innocent girls into becoming contract labor for his energy machine. Her death became a meme and her character remained a mystery. She's easy to overlook in lieu of characters who had more screen time and yet, like the other girls in Madoka, her existence serves as a strong symbol of something much bigger than the struggles of one character in one anime.

Mouretsu Pirates (Bodacious Space Pirates)

Number of Episodes: 26

Production Company: Satelight

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: High school student Kato Marika lives in a future where space travel is commonplace. One day she's informed that her father was once a space pirate, and that because of laws set down during a conflict a century ago his ship, the Bentenmaru, has now been passed to her.

Inu x Boku Secret Service

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: David Production

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: The high-security living quarters of Maison de Ayakashi are rumored to be haunted, when in fact the home is a specialized place for human beings with non-human ancestors to live. Shirakiin Ririchiyo decides to live in the house for the purpose of self-improvement, and at her beck-and-call is Soushi, who asks only to be her "dog."

Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi)

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: Shin-Ei Animation

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Aizawa Kakeru doesn't believe that he has the skills to make it as a soccer player, so he keeps to the sidelines and manages his school's team. His brother Suguru who's skilled at the game thinks that Kakeru might have some hidden abilities that he's not accepting, which causes arguments between them.

I wanted to post a short update just to mention that the Shorts, Sequels and Kids Stuff post for Winter 2012 has been updated with a review of the first episode of Busou Chuugakusei Basketarmy under the "Shorts" header. I'd also like to mention that my lack of "Women in Anime" posting this week is due mostly to being unexpectedly busy, then deciding to wait until the following Wednesday to continue onward (for the sake of consistency). I did mention that the column's posting might be spotty until the season has calmed down a bit, so consider that my excuse.

Carry on.

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: J.C. Staff

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Summer vacation becomes the beginning of a film project when Kaito gets caught in an explosion that he can't remember. His friends decide to join him in a Summer of movie-making where they learn about each other and their relationships to one-another.

Winter 2012 is noteworthy for being jam-packed with short-episode series and boasting quite a few sequels (some to series which haven't been on the air for a while, like Prince of Tennis). Here I'll preview the majority of them to determine which shorts are worth following and which sequels might inspire one to go back and pick up previous seasons. Just a few notes:

-The most recent Pretty Cure series doesn't start until February. If I see anything noteworthy about it at that time I will most likely just edit this post.

- Danball Senki is an ongoing kids series that I can't really find current subs for, so it may not get any coverage because of it.

- Daily Lives of High School Boys is actually a full-length series, rather than a series of shorts as I had first been led to believe, so it will be covered separately.

- Basketarmy doesn't appear to exist anywhere obtainable on the internet, so coverage may be forthcoming. Update: barely a day after this entry was posted, a video showed up, so a first episode review has been added.

- Gokujyo, which I'd previously dropped due to lack of any news, apparently is being broadcast this season, and it's a series of shorts; the first episode was reportedly not broadcast for reasons of self-restraint (which I assume means that it was too risqué).

With all those qualifiers out of the way, let's get to the shows!

Shorts

Recorder to Randsell (Recorder and Backpack)

Number of Episodes: 13 3-minute episodes

Production Company: Seven

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: (Based on episodes one and two) Atsushi is a fifth-grader who has the appearance of being in his late teens, while his older sister (who's in high school) looks like she's in elementary school. This, of course, causes all sorts of problems that lead to comedic situations.

The premise for this show is silly and its execution ends up being a little bit light on the laughs. The iffiest bits for me to deal with were the jokes that poked fun at Atsushi's physical maturity; one of Atsumi's classmates seems to have a crush on him, and Atsushi gets mistaken for a pervert at one point. While I'd say overall the show seems fairly innocent and, despite some misgivings I had about the premise at first, I think that it'll probably stay that way, something about these kinds of jokes rubs me the wrong way. (Also, doesn't it seem odd that Atsumi's friend has no idea that the large boy talking to her is her friend's younger brother? It seems like it'd be something worth mentioning to others).

I do have to give a shout-out to Kugimiya Rie, who turns in a subdued (and therefore more convincing and less annoying than normal) portrayal of Atsumi. I can only hope that this is a trend that continues into the future.

All-in-all, the first couple of episodes are pretty cute and inoffensive, but I'm not sure that I'd really call this a straight-up comedy. At best, the chuckles it provides are subtle, and it short run-time doesn't give the show enough leeway to set-up many extended jokes or running gags (aside from the main one, that is).

I got several comments on my Rinne no Lagrange first episode review, not so much pertaining to the show itself but in relation to a paragraph I posted about my thoughts on the term "Mary Sue" and how it did/didn't apply to the main character of that series. Those thoughts were based on a blog post that I linked to in the review. There was some discussion about the accuracy of the blog post and the use of "Mary Sue," as well as the choice that the author made to use the character Batman as a male comparison. I thought it was an interesting discussion that might better be addressed and clarified out in the open rather than multiple times in the comment section of that review, so here I am.

The primary point that I took away from Comic Book Girl's examination of Mary Sues is that we generally have different ways of examining and critiquing female characters than we do male characters. I wouldn't say that everyone is so-inclined - I'd argue that a good critic is someone who's equally critical of a poorly-written male or female character - but as far as casual criticism goes, what I have personally witnessed is that it seems much easier for people to jump on a dopey, poorly-written female character and criticize her freely, while ignoring or deliberately avoiding Johnny-goody-two-shoes in the other corner. It doesn't help that there really aren't a lot of lead roles for women, period, but that's a whole other post.

As at least one commenter mentioned, the term itself comes from a particular character from a particular Star Trek fanfiction from way back in the day. It came to refer to a very specific type of self-insert, one who is mysterious, unrealistically-talented and/or unnaturally beautiful, and beloved by all of the canon characters. I don't necessarily have a problem with the term as it describes these kinds of characters (since they are pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting), but what I do have a problem with is what I see as its widespread use to describe any sort of female character who's any measure above the norm. This isn't a crime committed by most critics that I'm familiar with, but poke around forums for a while and you're sure to see the term flung around in this way (and it's even listed as one of several relevant definitions of the term on the TV Tropes page for Mary Sue. Apologies in advance for the link, which will trap you within a TV Tropes time warp that may last for several hours). I don't mind being corrected about the definition and technical use of the term, but I do believe in semantic shift, especially in such a quickly-changing environment like online fandom. As a fan who doesn't passionately follow fanfiction but who pokes her head in once-in-a-while, this is my experience; we have different standards for judging original characters from fanfiction, and those standards often extend to "official" canon characters. And no, the existence of a male version,"Marty Stu" or "Gary Stu" (depending on your preference), does not imply that the male use of the term is nearly as common, or that the extensive use of the female version is somehow free from criticism.

This was the reason I applied this line of thinking to my review of Rinne no Lagrange's first episode; my immediate urge was to call Madoka a Mary Sue character mostly because of the time the episode spent showcasing her extraordinary skills and the devotion towards her as demonstrated by the girls in her class. I caught myself, though, because that's not fair; Madoka is an idealized hero character with skills to match. She might not be the type of character I care for (I prefer more regular, everyday people), and the series in which she stars doesn't appear to be anything special, but to knock some characters for being improbably brainy, physically strong, or talented means to criticize several lead characters from stories that span all media (which often doesn't happen). And that is where the term's semantic shift has proven to be the most detrimental to the expression of women's power fantasies an heroic ideals. One step out-of-line and she's a Mary Sue as judged by the layperson fanbase, whereas her male counterpart may not undergo the same scrutiny. Likewise, despite Batman/Bruce Wayne's adherence to many of the profile quirks of a traditional Mary Sue, it can be argued that he's not one, so it's a label that should be applied just as carefully and thoughtfully to women who are attractive, powerful and/or mega-rich. Being a fantasy doesn't make her a Mary Sue. Being unrealistic in certain ways doesn't make her meritless as a character.

In closing, I'm no Mary Sue apologist and I am aware of where the term comes from and what it means, but the point I'm trying to make is that its use is out of control. Even someone like me, who prides herself on trying to be conscious of race, gender and sexuality, can internalize this kind of fandom baggage, and that makes me feel a little ashamed of myself. My only regret in this specific case is that I made a big deal out of the use of this terminology as it relates to a series that doesn't seem as though it'll be worth talking about any further, but them's the breaks.

Rinne no Lagrange (Lagrange: The Flower of Rinne)

Number of Episodes: 24

Production Company: Xebec

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia VIZ Anime

Brief Overview: Madoka is the lone member of the "Sweat Suit Club," though her extraordinary abilities in almost every sport allow her to help out with the other school clubs whenever she can. One day she's recruited by a mysterious stranger named Lan to pilot a robot called "Vox" and to defend her fair city from invasion by hostile robots.

Welcome, everyone, to this season's compilation of some of the most noteworthy (for being garbage) opening episodes. Just as a reminder, I'm doing this as a service to myself to make sure that I manage to complete these episode reviews with my sanity intact. I'll be giving these series as much coverage as I deem necessary - if that means  a couple of paragraphs outlining how the show is just like every other show within its genre, then so be it, but if it turns out to deserve a thorough thrashing, that's what it will get. My hope is that this will get most of the junk out of the way so I won't have to sit and dread it for weeks.

As a note, Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai! a.k.a. Listen to me Girls, I'm Your Father! is being bumped to this section due to some early reports of it being just as trashy as I had hoped it wouldn't be. Also, I can't seem to find any info on Gokujyo so I assume that it's not being released this season as the chart states. If I update this post with any additional series, I'll be sure to post a note on the front page.

Well then, shall we?

High School D x D

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: TNK

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia PV (May be NSFW)

Thoughts: While the whole thing was bad, perhaps the worst thing about this episode is that the protagonist came close to death twice but didn't actually snuff it, saving us from having to hear about his preoccupation with women's breasts.

This series has your typical ecchi harem setup, wherein one guy ends up surrounded by women. This time around that guy is Issei, a second-year student at a recently sex-desegregated former girls school. His one goal over the past year has been to get a girlfriend and grab some breasts (as he states often), but he's thus far been unsuccessful. The tides seem to turn when a cute girl from another school asks him out, and Issei boasts about it to his friends. The situation turns negative quickly when Issei's new flame turns out to be a female devil, who promptly kills him for reasons so far unexplained. Luckily for him (and unluckily for those of us who are sick and tired of this stuff), a beautiful upperclassman named Rias saves his life, turning Issei into her loyal servant in the process. An encounter with a fallen angel demonstrates that Issei has been blessed with some unexpected bonus powers as a result of his revival.