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A group of 15 kids (14 seventh-graders and one’s fourth-grade sister) are lumped together for some variety of summer camp/schooling/mandatory fun. A whole lot of nothing happens. Then nothing else happens. Then nothing happens again. Then one of the boys tortures a crab. Then they have a brief philosophical debate about the morality of killing the crab.

Then the kids get bored and decide to explore a cave, where they bump into a guy who tricks them into signing on as pilots for a mecha responsible for defending the planet against a series of impending alien invasions.

All in all, I think I might like it. It looks like the plot might go somewhere next episode, so I’m hopeful. However, their CG mecha integration with the normal artwork fails – always a losing point in my book. The music is good, the art is good.

The storytelling is slow and sort of laid back, as if the story is happening whether or not the camera is there. And sometimes the camera man runs out of tape.

Maybe it’s how she seems to be slightly obsessed with other “cute people”. Maybe it’s her inflexibility and willful ignorance. Maybe it’s the scary pink costume (nothing wrong with pink, esp on a magical girl, but this particular costume annoys me).

What I do know is that her transformation phrase sets my teeth on edge. She shouts out “I am God”. In English. No “Parallel Parallel” or “Moon Magic Make-Up” sort of spell. Straight up unfiltered blasphemous narcissism.

My wife seemed vaguely interested in this one. It feels almost eerily like a cross-over between Sakura and Pretear, with some sincerely interesting plot points… but unless episode number two is way better than episode one, Penny’ll have to download the rest of the subs herself

Shining Tears was not my favorite game in the series, but I liked it better than NEO (well, I liked almost everything better than NEO). Tears at least looks like it belongs in the series (even if it is an action RPG where all of the previous games were tactical RPG’s). NEO’s just annoying Anyways…

Shining Tears X Wind seems to be an interlude between the world/plot of Shining Tears with its upcoming spiritual sequel, Shining Wind (due in Japan this May). After watching episode one, I’m not entirely sure what to call the anime any more… because it is certainly not just a rehashing of the Tears story, and I don’t think it’s going to be the Wind story…

Oh, but what is the story? Well, start with two worlds, the Tears world and something a bit more modern. The two universes collide, high school kids go missing, cherry trees long thought barren go into bloom, something happens with mirrors, Mao throws fireballs, some guy who looks like Xion but is apparently really named Zero flies around with black & white wings, Souma is probably our main character because he does the Utena thing and pulls a sword out of a girl, and goblins pop out of silly little dimensional rifts. But not necessarily in that order.

So far, my knowledge of Tears makes the show quite interesting but is hardly necessary or even relevant to overall enjoyment (or ability to follow the rapid plot advancement in the episode). My only complaints so far are pretty minor – The story might be going just a bit too fast to enjoy, and Mao doesn’t look quite as crisp in the anime as she does in the Tears artwork (but that’s hardly surprising, and at least she looks better than how the Disgaea characters wound up in their recent anime adaptation).

I’m gonna be watching this one if it kills me. And I’m being pleasantly surprised. The music is mediocre and the art is average, but they’re also providing me with a new story that promises to involve characters I already like and am familiar with.