Blogging under influence (either of drugs, or a freshly finished episode) is rarely a good idea, but let's see what cooler heads offer.
Beta-Waffle: No information. He's playing his games, I guess.
{Update: DiGiKerot e-mailed that his Internet was broken, so streaming was impossible. Added: "I do fully intend to actually watch the show once it becomes a less painful experience to do so."}
{Update 2009/04/19: He's seen two episodes. "I’m somewhat presuming [character designs is] part of a sustained effort to invoke some kind of nostalgia in the viewer []"}
Chizumatic: No information. Lack of DTO is probably a deal killer for Steven. Also, may not have enough titilation. Everyone is kinda normally sized... The time paradox was handled well in my opinion, but oh well. No help from there.
{Update: Steven says that there was no interesting hook in reviews. Which is true.}
Very little of the humor clicked with me and I continue to despise Hajime with a passion born of the firey depths of Styx. I did like that they used a pretty light touch with introducing their abilities and powers without beating us over the head with them or lots of shocked reactions and whatnot. Still though, I wasn’t really entertained, and I spent about a quarter of the episode really bothered by the 3-1=1 thing. Yes, they explained it eventually, but how could the characters not notice that?
So... meh from me thus far. The horse-faced women scare me, Hajime sucks, and while I think there is some potential for good time travel jokes, this episode really didn’t show that, so I’m really not sure I want to stick around just yet.
Aroduc is heavily damaged by the "poisoned by manga" syndrome (the ep.1 Hajime is not anywhere near as bad as he makes it sound), but makes some good points. Character behaviour is a little contrieved; they pretend not to see certain things.
Karmaburn: No information.
The Kawaii Menace: Retired, no information.
Kuro: Said on #animeblogger that he's not seen Arashi yet.
THAT: Nothing since the preview.
Calawain: Yakumo clone?! The problem with School Rumble was that they started out wonderfully but never got anywhere on the vast majority of the relationships after 22 volumes. So, while I enjoyed the character personalities and character designs, I fear for a “we’re still in Namek” vibe from this one. And I have no idea what SHAFT is going to do to this with Shinbo at the helm.
Haesslich: So we’ve got SHAFT involved, which is a plus. Then we’ve got Jin Kobayashi, an automatic -50 points despite the nice-looking character designs. Might be worth watching once, but I’m preparing to drop the series despite its visual appeal.
I'm very concerned too. Also, get on it and start blogging already. What good is to have a huge roster on a team blog when nobody is doing anything?
hontou ni sou omou?: No information. But perhaps the manga didn't have enough lesbians, which may be a good sign.
Hontou ni Taihen desu: No information for an unknown reason.
Nigorimasen: No information, except a brief mention as an example of simulcast into R1.
Omonomono: No information.
Like Hinano, I resent Kobayashi Jin for dragging out School Rumble for ever and ever and then giving us a lame ending. Combine the generally mediocre character art with Shaft’s propensity for weirdness, and I have no interest at all in this series. Never ever call this number again.
Man, what a tough crowd.
Only one person has actually seen it so far. Also, the ill-will is very strong and well founded. It reminds me about my anti-GONZO resolve. Was it a productive policy? Is this a productive policy? Maybe I should wait for the season to end. Or two seasons.
BTW, nobody expected Arashi to be a gender-swapped Kurau. I must've been the only one to make conclusions from a single publicity picture.