Gokujou Seitokai Impressions
So I think I’m just going to have a little section devoted to initial impressions of the newest fansubs out there. Shows that I don’t particularly want to commit to reviewing on a regular schedule. So today I finally got to see another title on my “to watch this season” list, and I actually enjoyed it. If you want screens and what not, check out my man Jeff’s coverage of the series. As for me, here are my impressions of Gokujou Seitokai.
There was one word that kept on racing through my mind as I was watching this- “Azumanga… Azumanga… Azumanga…” There’s just so much. The animation, the style, the humor, it all screams “AZUMANGA!!!” However, it falls short of being as good as that series. Why?
The puppet.
The puppet is the most butt-ugly thing I’ve ever seen in anime, and I’ve seen a lot of ugly things. Jim Henson must of waked up one morning with a nasty hang-over, looked at his design sketches from the night before, and go, “What the hell was I thinking?” as he threw it away. Then somehow these Japanese guys found it and said, “Wouldn’t this be a great character in an anime?” And it wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that the series revolves about the damn thing. Eww…
But now that I’ve vented about my disgust for the puppet, let me get to the positive things about this show, cause it really is good. The humor is just wacky enough to translate well with the American audience. It was very weird at first, but I found myself laughing hysterically at the antics of the main girl and her puppet counterpart. All the voices and character designs (of the human characters, at least) are extremely cute and really stand out. I found myself very happy while watching this because of that.
But it’s not something for everyone, as noted by the fact that my girlfriend turned it off after the first 10 minutes. I guess you really have to be in the right mood for something as wacky as this. But it was still a good series that I plan to continue watching.
