Sora no Woto music

I've been making this claim elsewhere, and it might just be me, but parts of the Sora no Woto soundtrack really reminded me of George Gershwin's An American in Paris. I'm no music expert, but compare the following:

Sora no Woto OST - Track 2 - Ciel bleu
{YOUTUBE:Nr_JoLgbnqw}
and
Sora no Woto OST - Track 3 - Flànerie
{YOUTUBE:ZF3MZfSe5bY}

with Gershwin: American in Paris (I) (Rattle, Berlin Phil)
{YOUTUBE:DZZbfrUAW8Y}

Maybe I'm crazy though. Then again, previewing the Sora no Woto soundtrack convinced me to import the OST from cdjapan1. But I wonder, are these tracks really original to the series? And which orchestra performed them?

First Episode Impressions

I had watched the first episodes of a few series. Here's some quick impressions of them:

Angel Beats!

I'm not fully sure what to make of Angel Beats!. So far I get that this is some afterlife where it seems people cannot die, though people can still feel pain and will be out for a spell if they do sustain a normally fatal injury. In fact, the whole setup feels like a video game, complete with terminology (NPCs?) and what is basically respawning. The episode starts with the main protagonist waking up with no memory of who or where he was to an energetic girl aiming a scoped rifle at another girl. His amnesia is quickly explained by others as from him dying from head trauma before coming to this afterlife (in-between life? It is suggested in the episode that this world is a holding-spot before people (souls?) are reincarnated into their next life).

I'll keep track of this one, but I have no opinion of it one way or another.

B Gata H Kei

B Gata H Kei seemed like it would be one of the dregs of the season, and so far, it really isn't showing to be much more than a romantic sex-comedy. But it has the distinction this season of making me laugh the most so far!

The lead girl is a socially-inept virgin who sets the goal of having "100 fuck buddies" in high school, but it's apparent that she knows nothing about sex or even her own bodies. She sets her sights on what looks to be the lead male character, who looks to be a fairly plain and unassuming guy2. What really brought out the laughs was just how different things were going on between what she's thinking and how others see her (I.E., the stats card scene!) or between what how she visualizes how she will say something and what she actually says. That said, I can see this series falling apart quickly, especially if the comedy gets stale or falls away. I'll probably watch episode 2 and see where it'll go from there.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

So far, the title "best potential series"3 goes to Kaichou wa Maid-sama. What could have been a bland ecchi comedy turned actually is turning into a rather sweet romantic series with some solid and endearing characters.

The premise is the lead girl is the student council president of a school which used to be a boy's school up to a few years ago. She basically holds the students to a strict discipline code. Yet unknown to the student body, her family is having financial issues and she works at a maid cafe to help make ends meet. One of the male students discover this, to her horror, yet he keeps it a secret at school with her asking him to. It seems he's going to use this knowledge in some way, but so far, he comes off not looking like a borderline abusive bastard. And there's already some good interactions between the two and a budding romance on the way.

So far, I'm pretty impressed and looking towards more.

• 1. Along with the Makoto Shinkai Image Album "Promise" CD and the Byosoku 5 Centimeter Bluray.
• 2. Who you can infer has a photography hobby
• 3. At least, the series I am able to see so far