Here is my ranking on first chapter impressions this year so far (note that I will not include Green Green Greens mainly due to it technically being a 2023 series).
1. Super Psychic Policeman Chojo: mainly due to the characters and the humor. Even though I can compare this to Kochikame and GinTama, it matches and feels natural. But even though it is a gag series, it helps to properly build on characters like Ippongi and add some mystery to Chojo.
2. Psych House: At first I was going to write this off as a failure. But I was really surprised on how it was executed. On why this is my number 2 is because it was new and I want to be safe cause you never know. But to the chapter, it really focused on the characters and build on them personally. Another aspect is the way it addresses the Psych phenomenon, as it hints it but gave enough exposition to add that there are more and further anticipated the more characters to introduce.
3. Kyokuto Necromance: Even though it may feel generic and there is hardly any personality from some of the characters, the saving grace is that there is some focus in the plot. Unfortunately the struggle is how it could have been structured. It is like the same issue I had with Kagurabachi’s first chapter as it didn’t give enough as the rest of the knowledge on our main character is brought in the following chapter.
4. Astro Royale: My only problem is the art and it is just a subjective matter. I would also say that it really copy and pastes a lot of character designs we have seen in Tokyo Revengers. But in all honesty it is a similar complaint we have seen with some artists but it shouldn’t be ranked down cause it will always matter on the execution. But for the story, one aspect that I have as well as some people I have heard from is how many characters it is introducing. Unlike most series that have introduced a ton of characters we get to properly know them as the chapters go along and have those small character arcs that fit within the time frame. As it is important to introduce them through doses. The main problem here is that it is going hard, even by slamming down those character introduction boxes to say “this character is important, remember them”. It is like the opposite of Dear Anemone where even if I try to remember them I still forget cause it isn’t natural. And another complaint is how the supernatural world came in. I don’t know what it is but I just didn’t care to much for that. Plus with the idea of a gang war to be number 1 in leading the family, it reminds me of the Hitman 10 pilot idea in Bakuman, where it would work as a concept due to the vast amount of characters, but would be hurt by longevity if not thinking about what more is there than just killing people. I think the biggest comparison I can make where it looks good on a concept level was Red Hood, but unfortunately it won’t be properly executed in a way that I would have wanted it to hit.
5. Shadow Eliminators: This and Dear Anemone are probably my weakest of the year (so SharkBait I apologize, you can still have the rest of my copium to recover
.) As for a chapter 1 introduction, the main problem here, was it being generic along with not having a good first impression torwards our characters and genuine premise when I have seen it better in Bleach and Jujutsu Kaisen. Also how it was cluttered in the paneling really didn’t do it any favors as I couldn’t tell what was happening do to those oversized text bubbles. Even though it is generic, I can remember the character designs as they stand out and there is some personality, it is just unfocused.
6. Dear Anemone: Unlike SE, this is the most forgettable because it does not have any personality that exudeds along with its characters or plot that doesn’t leave me anything to latch on to. I mean sure, the Darwinism and Evolution aspect was cool, but I would much have watched the Ivan Reitman movie Evolution as it had much more engaging characters that did make me care about science along with it having good comedy to still make me go back. Here even though the art is amazing, none of the character designs stick out except for maybe Anemone, but other than that, who is there that we can latch on to from a character standpoint.