Senkou no Night Raid, Working!

[pianocello]

I'd like to hear some opinions on these. Thanks.

[something]

Senkou no Night Raid - I'm only halfway through for reasons not related to the show itself (you can do the math), but it's pretty mediocre. The setting is interesting, it's a historical period and setting you just don't see much in anime, but the series spent the first five episodes doing very little of interest. It also has the worst "cat stole something! chase the cat" episode I can remember. There's no reason why this show should be bad, and it isn't, but it's not really good either.
However, episode 6 (the last I saw) started a real plot moving and I have some hope that, if I ever get to watch the rest, it might build into something pretty good. Maybe.

Working!! I have one episode left to watch of, but it's the best Spring show not called K-ON!!. I even ended up liking it slightly more than Angel Beats! thanks to it being so consistently enjoyable. Excluding the K-ON! girls, Popura is possibly the cutest character this season. If you can put up with Mahiru long enough to get to her interesting character development (I loved her all along but I'm betting you'll be more ambivalent), this show has essentially no flaws as a comedy. And Aoi... Aoi is amazing. She comes in later and does glorious things to the cast.
Working!! also has a maybe-not-"canon"-but-seriously-might-as-well-be yuri pairing, Yachiyo and Kyouko. the downside is that Kyouko is boring enough (as a love interest; she's alright as a character) that I wouldn't particularly mind Yachiyo getting with one of the guys.
Speaking of, the guys are great too, not least for Ono Daisuke/Kamiya Hiroshi totally reprising their Shizuo/Izaya relationship in Drrr. The lead guy Takanashi is also pretty awesome, and his sisters are amazing.
Also, ::insert standard bitching about how it's SD/DVD-only and I refuse to import it because of that even though I really really want it::

[lesterf1025]

Senkou no Night Raid
Senkou no night raid’s first half is what mission impossible would look like if the cast were Japanese Xmen operating in Chinese Manchuria on behalf of the Japanese government, only not as interesting. The second half is a lot of talking about what is the right thing to do and presents an alternate version of what might have happened in the run up to WWII if there were lots of people with super powers running around. The show presumes that you have quite a bit of knowledge of Japanese and Chinese history in that era. It is well animated and contains many action scenes but I didn’t find it engaging. However, many seinen fans loved it so your mileage may vary.

Working!
Working is a slice of life comedy about the staff at a Wagnaria restaurant. Everyone is abnormal and quirky except for one character who is obsessed with being normal and therefore as the only normal person she is technically abnormal. The show revolves around all the quirky personalities and their interactions with each other. Lots of absurdities take place but the show is more quirky and surreal than funny.

One character is polarizing though and that is Inami. Inami is androphobic to the point where she panics in the presence of men and reflexively punches them. One of the running jokes of the show is Inami running into some guy, usually Takanashi, and punching the living daylights out of them. Since the show establishes that she is abnormally strong it can look quite brutal. Many people find her offensive and dislike greatly the amount of screen time and the amount of abuse she dishes out. Inami didn’t bother me especially after Takanashi called her out on how her behavior is both unreasonable and unsustainable and besides I am a fan of Tsunderes. I found the characters mildly amusing and I didn’t see it as a bad way to pass the time.

[Johnny]

Senko no Night Raid is very dry, although it hinted at having a decent story when I dropped it at episode 6. I may revisit it later but it's very slow.

Working, on the other hand, is fantastic! Simple premise which sounds boring on paper - life for a group of characters in a restaurant setting - but the characters are so quirky and funny that it's a real joy to watch. I never usually watch this sort of series but I took a chance and ended up absolutely loving it. Worth watching for Aoi-sama alone! :catgirl: <3

[Glamrgrl104]

I have only seen Senkou no night raid.

It is fairly entertaining, but stopped about at the 8th episode. I may start it up again, but there are so many other ones I am more interested in. It is kind of confusing because they switch from Japanese to Chinese to English back and forth. There were a couple funny episodes and the action is okay, it is just most of the time the characters talking. So I guess its good but not great in my opinion.