One this is apparent through the first two weeks of winter, and that it's going to be a bleak season for comedies. I'm not really excited for episodes of anything outside the top two.
1. Robotics;Notes: An episode focusing on blob Junna with a lot of crying, yeah, that's a strong way to come back from break. I suppose the lack of general Kona grossness is a point in its favor, and Akiho still seems to have that knack for being autistic, but I'm hoping for stronger episodes this season. Things are gonna get serious, but that doesn't mean things have to get terrible.
Score: 8.9, first place on the line next week
2. Minami-ke 4: I had forgotten some of the nuances of this show, mostly that every single person in it is an idiot. I had forgotten Fujioka thinks Touma is a boy. I did not forget that Uchida is a buffoon. Feel seems to have forgotten Hosaka exists, but that will change. It had better change. We're off to a really good start even without him, so Minami-ke 4 is in good shape.
Score: 8.8 - the only show ever that gets better when a dude takes his clothes off.
3. Little Busters: Okay, so the Nishizono arc can end at any time, it's really been abysmal. She's not interesting, and I fail to see how she's actually moving the story along other than making the bland main character depressed. Next week looks like a lot more fun before even more attempts at being sad begin (and fail)
Score: 7.9, Kud and Yuiko can only keep a show afloat for so long before it has to fight for its score again.
4. Toriko: The peacock who sheds its tail feathers that turn into playing cards that then turn into chocolate. God dammit I would just watch a compilation of these opening segments and give it an 8. Oh, did I mention we exist in a world with edible money? How is that possibly a good idea? Ten minutes into this insane episode, we reach the slot machine with 300 wheels with 300 choices on each wheel. The crowd does not show enough amazement when Coco completes it, considering the odds of doing so are 1 in 299^299 (something like 1 in 10^700, a comically absurd large number). If that's not enough, Livebearer and his weird head have finally joined the fray.
Score: 7.6
5. Tomodachi Sukunai 2: This series goes down in quality after Yozora cuts her hair in all its other iterations, I'm not sure how this will be any different but who knows, maybe it'll succeed. Yozora in a Sena wig was a pretty solid start, that much is certain (I'd say it's preferable to regular Sena, in all honesty). As for that ending... o...kay then.
Score: 7.3
6. Magi: Morgiana is really high on the unintentional comedy scale. *Beats up a metric assload of apes* "I'm sorry, I can't do anything else". That's all she had in this episode though. The meat of the episode was on Alibaba turning Balbadd into a democracy (not a constitutional republic, mind you) and what it means for the previous treaties set up by his brother Abhmad dealing with the Kou empire (represented by the very fun princess Kougyoku in all of her Kanahanaicity). It's rough when your dullest character is also your titular character.
Score: 7.2
7. Rock Lee: Tell us about our future Kabuemon! On second thought, maybe Neji doesn't want to hear about it. Did they do that on purpose? Probably not.
Score: 6.8
8. Unlimited Hyoubu: ZKC would have been a much different series had they been fighting this demigod Kyousuke instead of being pestered by dubious lolicon Kyousuke. I have no idea if it would have been better or worse. It would have been different.
Score: 6.8
9. Tamako Market: Weird. That's the best descriptor I could give here. It wasn't a cute-girls-doing-cute-things show, but it wasn't a rapid fire gag comedy either. It just had a dubious highly intelligent bird sitting on people's heads.
Starting Score: mid to high 6s, I certainly want to find out what happens next week, if this bird is a recurring character or what. I'm hoping this turns into a straight-up gag comedy but who knows?
10. Mondaiji-tachi: This probably could have been a lot sillier than it was, for starters. It helps that the one guy is an asshole, but it probably would be better off if all three of those kids transported to Hakoniwa were out-and-out troublemakers instead of just malcontents. Maybe they'll become that. I'm not counting on it though.
Starting score: mid 6's.
11. Shinsekai Yori: The hunt for Maria and Mamoru continues (why? Mamoru is lame), and we end up back at the bipedal rat colony, where they've turned their queen into a vegetable that can still pop out babies. This is a strange place. Saki and Satoru end up following the friendly rat colony to an unfriendly rat colony carved into a cliff face that Satoru wrecks, because Satoru does not give a crap about your rat colonies. We don't really learn anything new in this episode, though I guess we still have ten more after this one to find things out.
Score: 6.4
12. Psycho-pass: Perhaps I should give the first half of this series a rewatch with the conceit that the MWPSBfhwqhgads are really some bad guys themselves - not that their opponents are some great shakes, but the options seem to be Fascist police state vs guerrilla terrorists. Terrific.
Score: 6.0
13. Vividred Operation: ...It's a magical girl show. Okay. Not my cup of tea, but, okay that's a lie. Anyways, Akane (the 14-year old girl that the camera likes to pan over the butt of, seriously guys?) lives with her younger financially-responsible sister and her wacky old mad scientist grandfather, who knew of this upcoming alien invasion - but nobody listens to him, because he lives in a basement and has his granddaughter wear super tight shorts. Anyways, he ends up blowing up his lab and being transmogrified into a squirrel (god dammit Japan, no other country could make me type that) and eventually said aliens/things attack. Akane brings her squirrel-grandfather on her hoverbike to the site of the world's foremost power plant to rescue a friend of hers and, well, this is getting retarded even for my descriptors. Turns out mad scientist grandpa built a magical girl device and now Akane is one, and only she can stop the neuroi Alone, sorry.
Starting Score: Around 6, it took a whole episode to explain the premise, and needs less pans over 14-year-old butts.
14. Maoyuu: Sure, it's got some lessons a lot of people sorely need, but that doesn't make it entertaining. The head maid certainly does her job (as a maid totally should, none of that frilly french maid failure) but she's not really the height of excitement. Hero really didn't do anything this week either.
Score: 5.8
15. Good Job Club: Sometimes you're in the mood for nothing shows, sometimes they deliver, sometimes they are Acchi Kocchi. This was nothing spectacular, but it'll do in a pinch. Having the guy who voiced Akihisa as the male lead automatically makes him seem three times as dumb as he otherwise would be, and I'm not sure it's the best choice here, since the guy seems like he's supposed to be the straight man.
Starting Score: Mid-to-high 5s; not really a comedy but not entirely trying to depend on cuteness.
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