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).
Edit: The first episode of Gokujyo is finally available. Check out the review below.
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).
