Campione; Binbougami-ga!

There really isn't much of interest this anime season, so I'm going to post about the two shows which have caught my attention so far.  The first of these, Campione is an enjoyable magical-battle-romance set in Italy (a good start if ever, for some reason Japan does Euroland fantasy very well).  Everything shoots into place at high speed, perhaps a little too fast but not off-puttingly so.

Your money or your life

The story begins with a Japanese man (Godou Kusanagi) who is visiting Italy to return a magical tablet; he is quickly assailed by an Ojou-sama lady by the name of Erica Blandelli who seeks to take his tablet - however before she can steal it a god interrupts her attempted mugging and a fight ensues.  With the battle turning against Erica, Kusanigi rescues her and two pair up.  So far so Index.

For some reason Thor is here

As things progress it turns out Godou has divine powers that surpass those even of gods, and thus he defeats a Persian trickster God who has challenged a local Phoenician God for supremacy.  The result is that Godou acquires divine artifacts and steals the heart of the Ojou-sama (heavens!).

Erica argues with Bacchus

It's always hard to tell how a show is going to turn out after one episode, but so far this has been one of the most promising shows of the season.  As I said above, the pacing is a little rushed but it's great fun to watch; it also appeals to my love of Indo-European mythology which is seldom seen depicted in a respected manner.  I'll post about it again at a later date assuming it keeps me interested.

She later complains about chest pains
in the Manga. Oh Japan, you so crazy.

The other show to catch my attention has been Binbougami-ga (lit.: God of Poverty) which follows a girl who has excessive amounts of good fortune, attracting the interests of the gods of misfortune who send one such god to deal with her.  Unfortunately being gods of misfortune means they aren't too err... fortunate... themselves, and so their attempts to rob the MC of her "fortune levels" result in highly comic failure.  So yeah, I guess Gods are the topic of interest for this season.

Kahink

I had read and enjoyed some of the manga a while back, so it was pretty cool to find this actually surpasses the quality of the manga some degree.  The show is similar in some respects to Excel Saga and Gintama (the latter being notable due to the same director), so there's plenty of foul-mouthed slapstick going on with a surreal story, and occasional referential parodies.

The artstyle is pretty nice, opting for a semi-realistic character appearance with pleasantly vibrant colours; very reminiscent of Gintama's style, which has always been very nice.  Given the quality of the manga and the credentials of the director, I'm confident this show will continue to deliver so I heartily recommend this.