Brief Reviews of a Few of the Season's New Anime

May contain mild spoilers, only addresses the first episode though

Haiyoru!  Nyaruko-san.

 This anime did not wow me at all.  I found the plot somewhat unoriginal (violent women protecting weak guys who they love is in at the moment).  The background music was annoying, the lead guy's voice actor was solid, the animation looks nice.  Okay, this was supposed to be a comedy, but the humor just isn't doing it for me and I'm bored with it, obviously.

Grade: C- Though, to be fair, I didn't find it funny.  It is possible that its humor may suit others better. 

Saki Achiga-Hen

 I'll admit to starting out with a favorable bias on this one.  I really enjoyed the first season.  So, I think I am prone to give this show a lot more leeway to pick up than I might others.  Like the first series, this is a female centered story, with close female friends and teammates interacting in very positive ways.  You really feel for these girls and their friendships.  That said, it could use a bit more of the fast paced majong tournament scenes that were so expertly directed in the first series and kept it with a more upbeat pace.  I generally prefer a faster pace to the slower "slice of life" type of anime.  Still, I think that this episode managed to hold attention well enough, and established relationships and basic background.  I'm optimistic on this one, especially as the first series had so much to recommend it (including a positively depicted female side character who was fat, which is a rare thing in anime).

Grade B.  As I said, I want some more of the faster paced scenes that spiced up the first series, which was a solid Grade A.

Hiiro no Kakera

Your standard reverse harem with a fantasy backdrop.  On the negative side, the better reverse harems generally depend a lot on the strength of their characters, especially the heroines, and this one's didn't stand out. On the other hand...bishies and cute magic fox pets.  I strongly approve of those things. 

Grade B.  Because bishies and cute magic fox pets, that's why.  I make no apologies for my (bad) tastes.

Nazo no Kanojo X

I must admit, the opening scenes of this one turned me off.  I have a policy to not watch echi.  It pisses me off far too much.  I was worried that the mention of sex from the get go might be a sign of echi style.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out otherwise.  Unlike the fairly obvious and cheap objectification that is so common in echi, this anime depicted attraction in a sort of awkward somewhat kinky at times way that I found sort of adorable in general.  I thought was actually a teen love story that I found I could relate to.  It's not oh, huge water balloon boobs sexy attraction, it's you are so gorgeous it takes my breath away even when you have drool on your chin intense teen crush attraction.  And the heroine is weird.  Not just "cutely quirky", actually weird.  Burst out laughing randomly in class and roll around on the floor weird.  I am liking this relationship enough that I find it carries what otherwise might seem like a very contrived background plot with the sci-fi spit addiction stuff.  It also had me laughing at times.  The spit addiction even sort of works as a metaphor for those intense confusing adolescent desires.  My biggest criticism of this anime would be that the lead guy engaged in borderline creepy behavior, not rapey type creepy by any means, so it's a smaller concern at the moment.  I really enjoyed this episode and I look forward to the rest of the series, though I hope it keeps up the good work and doesn't let me down.

Grade A.  Really, of all of the new anime I have watched so far for this season (which isn't all of them, to be fair), this one stood out the most and was the most genuinely entertaining.  I really like that this anime can address sexuality and attraction without falling into those old suckass echi pitfalls.