Alright, time to watch those first episodes!
Schoolgirl Strikers Animation Channel: My feelings on this show.
élDLIVE: The artstyle definitely makes this look like a kids show, just after 20 seconds of watching it. 6 minutes in and.... WTF? Okay, this seems like the worst kind of fanservice. 10 minutes in... and I'm out. This show is just stupid.
Chain Chronicle ~Hekuseitasu no Hikari~: 06:25 minutes in: Holy SHIT! Now
this is how you start an epic fantasy story! I really like being dropped in the middle of a story that way, where the first attack totally fails and the hero and his friends have to work up from their defeat. It breaks the typical storytelling structure quite a bit. Most promising start for the season, IMO. Not that there was any challenger.
The magic mechanics look a bit game-y, quite honestly, but it's okay. I come from roleplaying games, after all, so I can definitely live with that.
Tales of Zestiria S2: I'll happily admit that the entire concept of "malevolence" is really not explained too clearly in the show. Is it the dark side of the force? Is it just bad emotions? Is it an imbalance of the universe? Nonetheless, the show looks gorgeous and if they manage to get the story moving a bit and give the show a grander scale, the two seasons will be a thing to remember. Or they could not do that and it will be a very good looking mess. We'll have to see.