Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitte Iru
Produced by: JC Staff
Premiered: April 12, 2010

Synopsis:
Yuki is a troubled orphan youth who can see the thoughts of other people when he touches them.  He's also the reincarnation of a woman also named Yuki, and has inherited her protector.  With dark forces converging around him, will Yuki be able to find answers?

Snap Judgement:
In Uraboku, the viewer is introduced to the main character via a dream sequence that explained nothing except that in a past life, Yuki was a suicidal girl. That's the one of the better parts of this episode.  The rest is pretty boring.

I'm wondering if maybe UraBoku is being too ambitious.  I'm spotting a lot of character similarities with other anime.  For instance, a bodyguard has pointy teeth, which could mean he's a vampire or demon, or it could just be that he has pointy teeth.  Yuki's best friend carries a weird book of prophecy, and wants to "reset the world," which carries a strong Death Note vibe.  Not to mention the organization that looks to be gathering around Yuki.  For some reason, that brings Weiss Kreuz to mind. It isn't really a good thing since that one put me to asleep in attempting to watch it.

The designs are what you'd expect from an anime that's aimed at girls: lots of tall, thin guys with hardly any muscle definition and faces like ladies.  There is one girl in the cast, at least, and she seems like she might just be the most interesting character. From the opening, it looks like she carries a large sword, which can only be good. Hopefully the supporting cast gets more screen time in the next episode.  The two supporting characters introduced in this episode were pretty intriguing, and their interaction with Yuki was the best part of the first episode.

I haven't watched much boys love anime, but I think there's a definite BL vibe to UraBoku. However, it's really too soon to say how much that's going to affect this series.  It looks like it may actually be pretty light on the romance in favor of angst and urban fantasy.
 

Angel Beats
Produced by: PA Works
Premiered: April 3, 2010

Synopsis:
Otonashi wakes up on the ground outside, wondering where he is and why.  He sees Yurippe, a girl who explains that he is in the afterlife and asks him to join her fight against "the Angel."  He declines, but after "dying" twice he finds himself on a sofa in the Headquarters of the "Anti-Angel Operation,” which Yurippe is a part of. Rattled by his deaths and the loss of his memory, Otonashi agrees to join the group.

Snap judgment:
I'm not sure what I think of Angel Beats.  I was initially intrigued by one of the promo videos, mostly because it went from looking like a pretty typical moe type show to being very bloody.  This first episode has held true to that, confusing all the while.

It's pretty easy to sympathize with Otonashi, cause let's face it, you're as confused as he is.  He's dropped into this strange world with no memory, immediately told to just deal with what's happening and join the Anti-Angel Operation.  He declines the first "invitation" to talk to the Angel only to be killed by it.  He did ask for it, by demanding proof that he was already dead.

Yurippe is akin to the leader of a cult.  She explains what's going on and her intentions, but peppers her explanations liberally with pleas for Otonashi to not think too much about what's going on and just join in.  The rest of her group seems to take her word as gospel, and one member even kills Otonashi for declining her first invitation to join them.

The setting of the afterlife is a school campus, and Otonashi's done the equivalent of joining the delinquents.  This is where the confusion really gets started.  The "angel" tries to keep new residents of this afterlife world on the path of model students, and if a human acts like a model student, they disappear.  The purpose of the Anti-Angel Operation is to defeat the angel and take over this world.  The first mission?  Steal lunch tickets from the student populace.

What?

This is apparently a perfectly good reason to hold an impromptu concert, where the students will mindlessly gather in one place, so that their tickets may be blown away from them, and the Anti-Angel Operation can nab a free meal.  I really don't understand this at all.  Just when I thought I had some idea of what was going on, I go back to just being confused.  Some of the visual effects around the Angel when they're fighting her have me wondering if this is taking place in some kind of virtual world.

The animation is merely so-so.  It looks like a pretty typical moe show, with the big, pretty eyes, colorful hair, and school uniforms.  That said, I have to admit I'm intrigued.  I want to watch the next few episodes just to see if Angel Beats starts making any kind of sense rather than end up being an overambitious trainwreck.