At first glance summer season looks to be a weak one. I thought the same as I glanced over it. However appearances can be deceiving and there are a number of titles here with potential. I put a little more effort into this preview than the last. I have checked out the source material of everything I could so I can at least give an impression of what the show might turn out to be.

First off, an apology. I am aware that I failed to cover the straw poll result winner for last season. A number of things happened. My laptop broke for one, the winner Digimon adventure tri decided not to air and become a movie instead and the runner up Arslan Senkai was already halfway through a cour before I found this out. And to be perfectly honest, procrastination was a big factor. It also doesn’t help that Arslan didn’t turn out to be quite as interesting as I hoped and I was putting off catching up with it.  I will try this one more time but this time I won’t make any guarantees. I will try to cover three anime this season. Two my own choice and one yours. Straw poll is below.

http://strawpoll.me/4615825

My two choices which I will cover is Chaos Dragon and Gate. Also a note that I noticed that my source for this preview can be a bit flimsy about figuring out what’s a full length show and what’s a five minute anime so some titles may turn out to be not full fledged shows.

I think I will add a category here for sequels I am not interested in. For these it’s really a matter of myself not knowing enough about the show. In pretty much all these cases my opinion is the same. If you liked the previous season then by all means continue. I don’t think there are many who would be interested in jumping into a later season anyway.

 

Non Non Biyori Repeat

THE iDOLM@STER: Cinderella Girls 2nd Season

Gatchaman Crowds insight

Junjou Romantica 3

 

And so on with the preview.

Series that I Don’t Look Forward To

Akagami no Shirayuki-hime

One thing I always found odd is that some of the most chauvinistic depictions of men are often from works aimed at girls or more bizarrely, written by them. I can say with certainty that with the number of times men invade the personal space of this girl would not earn adoration in life but rather gain a pair of handcuffs and a restraining order. But this has to be the most superficial reason for these guys to like a girl yet. From what I have seen these guys basically like this girl because she has red hair. In fact it may be her key defining characteristic. A prince decides to marry her because she has red hair. Another rapey guy decides to kidnap her because she has red hair. Other than red hair and some tossed in herb knowledge, the girl is basically a plank. There not a chance of that red hair being natural either as I don’t see a single freckle on this girl. Much like the harem is a desire of those who have no idea what it truly entails, this is the desire of girls who have no idea just how bad a relationship would be with these kinds of guys.  I didn’t give it much of my time but I certainly saw no reason to continue reading.

Makura no Danshi

The anime promises a “new and novel ‘sleeping side-by-side’ experience entirely in the first-person perspective” to “heal tired hearts.” It revolved around 12 “makura no danshi” (pillow boys), all full of distinctly individual personalities and each catering to viewers who like a certain “type.” The boys all live in the same town underneath a starry sky. Each of the “makura no danshi” will star his own weekly episode as they “sleep beside you and whisper.”

Wow…now that’s a…unique concept. Disturbing as hell but well points for originality…I guess…maybe. I believe there is a female version of this called Sleeping with Hinako. Granting you the experience of someone who broke into someone’s home and stood over them as they slept, watching…likely breathing heavily. Yes, no matter how much you attempt to dress it up as romantic I don’t think the concept will stop being creepy as all hell. Whatever demographic this anime is targeted for is a demographic that I believe shouldn’t exist.

Aoharu x Kikanjuu

The manga follows high school student Hotaru Tachibana, a girl disguised as a boy. Through strange circumstances she finds herself drawn into the world of survival games by a host, Masamune Matsuoka. The two form a team with ero-manga artist Tohru Yukimura and aim to be the be the best in Japan.

This started off somewhat interesting at first. The story of two working men getting into survival games was at least different. But as it turns out that wasn’t the true beginning to the story and these guys were not the main character. The main character as it turns out is a crossdressing school girl and with her introduction everything goes downhill from there. Insert “hilarious” misunderstandings as she tries to hide her gender but gets mistaken for a perverted guy.The two male leads have no idea that the main is a girl but even so the host guy is still doing things that would weird out a guy. This seems to be heading in the direction of a love triangle. The story tries its best to make survival games as dramatic as possible as most sports anime do. I can’t really comment on how accurate it is but it is rather predictable with over dramatic framing over events that would naturally be mundane. I say pass on this.

Dragon Ball Chou

The first new Dragon Ball TV series story since Dragonball GT. The story is set a few years after the defeat of Majin Buu, when the Earth has become peaceful once again.

Akira Toryami should quit while he’s ahead. I liked Battle of Gods as a loving nod to the series and I do look forward to the return of Frieza in the new movie. But this series has used up all its ideas. The characters have powered up to a level akin to gods so creating a threat higher that Majin Buu is nigh impossible. What’s more I feel Akira’s creativity has waned. The new transformations for Goku, Frieza and Vegeta are just palette swaps. I mean for Frieza it was far more disappointing, considering that Cooler already showed a Transformation form beyond his that looked awesome. I don’t care if the movies aren’t canon, that form was ten times better that Frieza’s purple gold form that looks like it was made by adjusting hue in Photoshop. Unless we turn up the power levels and make battles of Gurren Lagann finale scale this will likely end up another Dragonball GT.

Himouto! Umaru-chan

An anime adaptation of Himouto! Umaru-chan manga. The sibling gag comedy manga centers around Umaru, Taihei’s little sister who boasts beautiful looks as well as prowess in both school and sports. However, “Himouto” (beautiful little sister) has a certain secret.

What we have here is essentially a one note joke turned into a series. Umaru is the perfect superhuman at school but at home she’s a neet who acts like a Otaku spoiled brat to her brother. The big problem with this is that Umaru is a horrible person to her brother for the sake of comedy. She constantly does inexcusable things to him to push her own selfish agenda. Putting that aside it’s pretty by the books as far as this kind of comedy goes. It even has a romance that involves one person being oblivious yet accidentally raising the others affection through misunderstandings. As an experiment I jumped 90 chapters ahead in the manga to see if anything significant happened. The result was that there was some new characters but everything else was exactly the same. Seeing as that is the case I don’t see this show as anything but a waste of time.

Jitsu wa Watashi wa

The romantic comedy centers around Asahi Kuromine, who has a crush on a cute girl named Yōko Shiragami. Shiragami just happens to be a vampire. Asahi cannot keep a secret, but he is determined to keep Shiragami’s secret anyways.

This is some pretty typical harem. At first it starts with one chosen girl but then girls get added into the harem later. There’s a childhood friend and then they chuck in an alien and so forth. This is a rather pointless venture as the main has already chosen so why bother to add in more girls? They have no chance so its only giving people false hope. Well not that any of the girls will be chosen in the end. This is another one of those cases where once the cast has been assembled then the story will move into the purgatory that Nisekoi, To-Love Ru and eventually all harems reside. The place of school trips, festivals and holidays where the spotlight is swapped around each girl while never moving an inch away from the status quo.

Joukamachi no Dandelion

In the story, the everyday lives of the nine super-powered siblings of the royal family are monitored by more than 200 surveillance cameras and broadcast nationwide. The people of the nation who are watching the broadcast will have the ability to elect the next monarch. The story focuses on Akane, the third-oldest sister who can manipulate gravity. She is shy and desperately does not want to be caught on camera.

Based on manga raws I skimmed though this seems like a fairly underwhelming title. I was originally expecting a light novel-eqe supernatural battle story but it’s actually a four koma comedy manga instead. I was looking at this in Japanese and yet I could get the basic idea of what’s being said. Honestly its not an upgrade from supernatural generic battle story. Instead we have a standard comedy. Admittedly seeing as I do not know Japanese this judgement could be mistaken. But I highly doubt this anime will be noteworthy.

Kangoku Gakuen Prison School

Hachimitsu Private Academy was a revered and elite all-girls’ boarding school on the outskirts of Tokyo…once upon a time. But with the new school year comes a revision to school policy: Boys are to be admitted into the student body for the first time ever. But on his first day at Hachimitsu, Kiyoshi Fujino discovers that he’s one of only five boys enrolled at the school. Their numbers overwhelmed by the thousand girls in the student body, is it heaven or hell that awaits these five (un)fortunates?!.

I checked out prison schools manga a long time back and stopped mainly because it was not my thing. I always found that comedy in anime and manga tend to miss more for me than hit. I can see how some would like this. Its a raunchy comedy with sex jokes and fan service by the barrelfuls. My main problem with it was that all the characters were really unlikeable. All sex crazed and highly obnoxious. Whereas the female characters tend to go to the dominatrix side of things. There might be a few good jokes here but I find the story too aggravating to enjoy them.

Kuusen Madoushi Kouhosei no Kyoukan

The story is set in a world where humanity, driven off the land by the threat of magical armored insects, now live in aerial floating cities. Thus wizards — aerial combat mages who fight the insects with magical powers — came into being.
Kanata Age (Eiji) is a young man who lives on the floating wizard academy city of “Misutogan.” He was once celebrated as the “Black Master Swordsman,” the elite ace of the S128 special team. However, he is now despised as the “traitor of the special team.” One day, he is assigned as the instructor of E601, a team that has suffered 10 consecutive defeats. E601 has three girls — Misora Whitale, Lecty Eisenach, and Rico Flamel — with one or two peculiar quirks.

Charlie’s angels, the anime. Actually no, that would have more value. One, Take your average light novel plot. Two, Make the main character a teacher instead of a student. Three, ????. Four, Profit. This is pretty worthless. The three girls have one note personalities. The setting has been done to death. And we have a accidental fall followed by a boob grope. There’s no hope for this one.

 

Rokka no Yuusha

When the Majin awoke from the depths of darkness, the deity of fate chose six heroes and bequeathed them with the power to save the world. Adoretto, a boy who proclaims himself the strongest on Earth, was selected among the Rokka no Yuusha (Heroes of the Six Flowers), and he goes to the rendezvous point — but seven have gathered there. The heroes suspect that someone among the seven is the enemy, and the initial suspicion falls on Adoretto.

This title does have a premise with potential. Six heroes are chosen to save the world but seven show up at the gathering. Everyone is at each others throats trying to figure out who’s the imposter. However the writer doesn’t seem talented enough to pull it off. So what we have is a fairly mediocre story with some excellent artwork in the novel. The characters aren’t anything too notable and I fear that two will become aggravating in this anime as one constantly says “I’m the strongest!” and the other adds meow/nyah to his sentences. The characters personalities are quite one note but tend to change when the plot decides they need to act suspiciously. I read the first novel and a large amount of the plot revolves around them being caught in a trap. And examining the details to try and figure out who set them up. What follows is a series of misunderstandings as each of the cast gets into fights over who is the seventh for well over 200 pages. They try to put some logic into the mystery but the rules of this world are so vague that any speculation is meaningless. I thought I had a pretty good idea of who it was but then was proven wrong when one character practically pulls something out of their ass which reveals the culprit to be someone with little to no foreshadowing. With that I thought the story would move on to some new kind of arc but then a new hero of the six flowers shows up and it looks like this farce is ready to start again. This may prove to be more entertaining animated but overall my experience with it was apathetic. I predict this being decent at best, boring at worst.

 

Sore ga Seiyuu!

The original four-panel manga centers on Futaba Ichinose, Ichigo Moesaki, and Rin Kohana, three rookie voice actresses. The manga features small but humorous observations of the voice actor industry. Hajimemashite launched the manga at the winter Comiket event in 2011, and the duo have released new issues at Comiket events since then.

Cute girls being all cute and stuff…plus some insight into the voice acting industry…maybe…if there’s time. Here’s the thing, Shirobako already did it. And did it well. You are not going to top that. Certainly not by adding more moe girls.

 

Suzakinishi: The Animation

Voice actresses Aya Suzaki and Asuka Nishi announced at an event in Tokyo on Sunday that their SuzakiNishi radio program will get a television anime adaptation starting in July.

Absolutely nothing has been revealed on this. All I know is that it has something to do with a radio show.

 

Venus Project – Climax –

Venus Project tells the story of idols living in Japan in the near future. In this world, data devices and video technology have been progressing to new heights, and people are abuzz about a new form of entertainment — Formula Venus. In Formula Venus or “F-V,” the chosen top idols battle in live performances with their willpower, skills, and all their experience gained.

Its become the norm to have at least one idol anime each season, hasn’t it? Well I am at least glad that it’s not that other fad that looks like it’s died down. (My little season can’t have no incest anime! Let’s hope it stays without it. It’s hard enough getting people into anime without that ugly genre popping up.) Not really sure what to say here. Studio doesn’t have any notable works and this is about as basic an idol plot as it gets.

 

Working!!!

The third season of Working.

I haven’t watched Working myself but I have watched an anime adaption of another of this artists works called Servant X Service. And from what I hear that was essentially Working in a Office instead of restaurant. So with that I can have a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Decent comedy with a go nowhere romantic subplot. This is the third season of Working so chances are that if you plan on watching this then you have checked out the other two. For the rest of us I think we will pass.

 

Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz!

This will adapt the second half of the 2wei manga.

I bet some thought I would put this in one of the bottom two categories but at least this proves I am not biased towards my favourite franchise…well mostly…somewhat…alright definitely biased. For some reason the Prisma Illya manga is spilt up into three parts. The first, which season one covers, Zwei, which the second season covered half and the third season which will cover the second half, and Drei. Prisma Illya Drei is better than it has any right to be. Great epic battles, all annoying characters replaced with far more interesting ones, a great antagonist to go up against and nods to fate all around. Its really the time this series breaks out of Fates shadow and becomes its own thing. But that’s if there is a fourth season of this show. This third season will be terrible. Zwei in general just feels like padding and only really stands out with its finale. Even with the appearance of the under appreciated and awesome Bazett cannot save the story. My advice is to just watch the final two episodes or so. Trust me, nothing worthwhile will be missed.

 

Durarara!!x2 Ten

The second part of Durarara’s second season.

After the first cour of this second season has aired and provided no real push or change whatsoever, my excitement for this series has run out. The nostalgia factor is gone and while I will still watch it, I don’t think I will enjoy it unless the story gains some level of consequence. Or at least stops pretending that there will be consequence later down the line. I say stop introducing characters and just work with what you got before the cast goes into triple digits.

To love-ru Darkness 2nd

A second season of To LOVE-Ru Darkness announced at Jump Festa 2015.

Somewhere in my hard drive sits the first season of To love-Ru Darkness. I mostly figured I might get to it someday. I also happened to read the manga up to date. Am I a fan of To Love-Ru? God no! Hate a large majority of the characters, the story is nonexistent and is really just a series of really stupid contrived setups for ecchi. Honestly I don’t think anyone reads this for the plot. Its a fair point to say that the main reason this keeps getting anime adaptions and the manga keeps selling for pretty much one reason. Yabuki Kentarus art. Say what you will about him, the man can draw a damn fine female figure. And while I would prefer that he use his skills for good instead of evil, someone’s got to fill this quota and it might as well be someone who puts in some kind of effort. I might watch it for Momo. Might.

 

Senki Zesshou Symphogear GX

After the frontier incident, everyone who knew the circumstances believed the Noise were gone and the pain they caused was at an end. But a new conflict approached unseen. In the Yokohama Harbor Oosan-bashi Pier, a new pattern is detected that is similar to the Noise. A combat group wielding mysterious technology stands in the way of Hibiki and the others. When she hears of this enemy of unprecedented strength, Tsubasa hurries back home from England. But the Symphogear users see no opening to counterattack and are forced into a difficult fight. In this situation of extreme disparity, the battle for the song that will end the world begins.

Ah Symphogear. The show I point to and say “that’s how Madoka revolutionised the industry. By birthing terrible knockoffs” So I think we can all agree that Madoka reviving the dead genre of mahou shoujo has for the most part been a mistake. And while some can’t say Symphogear wasn’t inspired by Madoka I point to all those moments it tried to be grimdark but never had the actual guts to go through with it. And it was obviously made to capitalize on Madokas popularity. Previous Seasons of this show presented sub par story with clashing “please buy our records” jpop songs sung during battle. Both ended on a flat note, leaving only the knowledge that you just wasted hours on this show and you won’t be getting them back. The third looks to be no different.

Classroom☆Crisis

A romantic comedy set in a near-futuristic world about the troubles and tribulations of high schoolers on salary. With aims to one day reach out into the stars, humanity has colonized all the planets of the solar system. This story of young high school hopefuls is set in Fourth Tokyo in a Japanese Martian prefecture. Iris Shirasaki is a third year student/aspiring test pilot. Mizuki Sera is her peer/mechanic and Mizuki’s brother Kaito is their homeroom teacher and the young director of the program developing their talents.

Truth be told there isn’t a lot to say about this one. It’s an orignal work so no source materiel, studio has very little work, trailers show absolutely nothing and for most working on this it’s their first real project. Looking at it I am being reminded of a visual novel called “If my heart had wings” and I don’t consider that a good thing. This is guesswork but this looks to be a slice of life club anime. I bet it won’t present anything mind-blowing.

Series I am middling on

Charlotte

The story centers around the special abilities that occur among a small percentage of boys and girls in puberty. Yuu Otosaka uses his power without others knowing, and lives a fairly normal, average school life. Before him suddenly appears a girl, Nao Tomori. Due to his meeting with her, the fate of special power-users will be exposed.

I originally thought I wouldn’t have much to say about PA works new anime for this season. That is until I watched the preview and the first thing to show up was the name “Jun Maeda” You know Jun Maeda, even if you think you don’t. Fairly prominent in the visual novel industry who’s previous works include the likes of Air, Clannad, Little busters and Angel Beats. So already we have a pretty good idea of what we are in for if he’s writing the story. Likely a show with a first half focused on random comedy skits and slice of life with mild supernatural elements which is followed by a tragic second half that will try to make you cry by any means necessary. And topped off with a truly insulting deus ex machina to make things right as rain. You may have noticed with that last sentence that I am not too fond of Jun’s writing. While he can have moments where his writing can touch the heart its often full of several contrivances to ensure that things are made as sad and tragic as possible, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. Air is pretty much an example of this as to this day I can’t make sense of what actually happened at the end of that show. (But at least it avoided to cheap make everything right deus ex machina.)I wouldn’t mind this if he also didn’t want to avoid the actual consequences of tragedy as well. Happy endings are all well and good but if the render the events lead up to it as pointless then that just isn’t right. Never have I been burned harder that the ending of little busters, which presented a heartfelt and true message. Only to spit on it and render the message, which the entirely of the visual novel was working to convey, completely null and void. In this regard I have become immune to the attempts Jun makes to tug my heartstrings because in the end it won’t amount to anything but a fake out. However while his writing is something I have problems with, his music on the other hand is magnificent. He looks to be making the OST for Charlotte so that’s at least a huge incentive to watch. I may have to break my rule of never checking out a Key work again.

Gangsta

In the city of Ergastulum, a shady ville filled with made men and petty thieves, whores on the make and cops on the take, there are some deeds too dirty for even its jaded inhabitants to touch. Enter the “Handymen,” Nic and Worick, who take care of the jobs no one else will handle. Until the day when a cop they know on the force requests their help in taking down a new gang muscling in on the territory of a top Mafia family. It seems like business (and mayhem) as usual, but the Handymen are about to find that this job is a lot more than they bargained for.

What we have here is a Black lagoon/Jormungand kind of story. Our main characters include a prostitute, a gigolo and a deaf man. Gritty and dark is the name of the game. From the first few chapters of the manga it looks fairly solid. No real problems and while it is very similar to Black Lagoon that’s fine as anime could use another Black Lagoon. The big problem here is the animation studio. Manglobe hasn’t been very good with adaptations and their output lately has been pretty terrible. Samurai Flamenco pretty much destroyed any good graces I had for the company. This is a pretty good work to choose for adaption but if you can’t bring out its potential then it will all be for naught.

Aquarion Logos

A new anime in the Aquarion series.

My experience with Aquarion mainly has to do with Aquarion Evol. Overall it wasn’t bad or particularly great. I think there was overly sexualized robot combining and a love triangle. Also something about a guy being the reincarnation of a dog from the first season or something. This season looks to be more of the same. The director’s resume basically consists of Aquarion Evol and nothing else notable. The writer even less so, as this looks to be there first work that wasn’t an adaption. I say this will be a mediocre mecha anime. Maybe enjoyable to watch but not something you will remember.

Gakkou Gurashi!

The story revolves around four girls who decide to stay over at school: the energetic Yuki Takeya, the shovel-loving Rumi, the center of the group Rurii, who brings everyone together, and Megu, the spacey school adviser. However, through mysterious circumstances, the girls find themselves the final survivors in a zombie attack, and continue to live at the school.

When making a preview of that Haruhi Nagato spinoff, I made a joke about how if you are going to make a genre swap then at least make it amusing and sited K-ON zombie apocalypse edition as an example. Well someone in Japan must have listened cause welcome to K-ON zombie apocalypse edition. Oddly enough it kinda works. I don’t think this will be the new Madoka but at least its a kick to the teeth that the “cute girls doing cute things” genre has been needing for quite a while. Like for example, I like that the peppy energetic one is like that because she has essentially gone insane and now lives in her own dream world instead of facing reality. And it makes sense that the characters interactions would be so over the top and forced because they are trying to brush off their grim situation by being positive. When thinking about it the contrast between the two genres actually works in its favour to make the dark side more effective. It may end up being just a gimmick but from what I read so far I like.

Ranpo Kitan: Game of Laplace

An anime inspired by late author Edogawa Ranpo’s works.

Rampo is a famous mystery writer in Japan who was a fan of the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle. As this anime has the character Kogoro Akechi present I am guess this will be mainly inspired by Rampo’s series of mystery novels about Kogoro rather than his horror works. Kogoro Akechi is very much the equivalent of Japanese Sherlock Holmes. So I suspect this will be an episodic series of “Who done it” mysteries. I have read some of the works of Rampo and find that if adapted well this should be an interesting series. My main issue would be how they plan to modernise it and why have we included high school students?

Shimoneta to Iu Gainen ga Sonzai Shinai Taikutsu na Sekai

The novel’s story is set 16 years after the “Law for Public Order and Morals in Healthy Child-Raising” banned coarse language in the country. Tanukichi Okuma enrolls in the country’s leading elite public morals school and is soon invited into the Anti-Societal Organization (SOX) by its founder, Ayame Kajou. As a member blackmailed into joining by Ayame, Tanukichi ends up taking part in obscene acts of terrorism against the talented student council president Anna (for whom Tanukichi has a crush).

This is a strange one. So much so that I have no idea what to think of it. What we have here is a kind of “good guy master thief” scenario. The main character gets forced to become an accomplice to a girl who is a terrorist. Well her acts of terror are mainly saying dirty words, tossing around porn pictures and informing people about the birds and the bees. In this world nobody can say anything sex related due to special collars and insane measures are taken to keep knowledge of sex a secret. So our female protagonist is the Robin hood committing crimes for the greater good. Of course we have a school setting where the student council acts as the governing force, with the student council president playing the role of “determined police officer” antagonist. Comedy seems to be the main goal and there’s plenty of reference humour. I see danger signs of a harem as well. Along with the female council president and the terrorist we also have a girl who seems obsessed with discovering what sex actually is and a painter girl who looks to want to make the main her “pet”. I could only check out two chapters of the manga adaption and that didn’t give a impression of whether this could be bad or good. It really depends on whether the novelty can carry the show. However being a light novel adaption it’s best to reserve judgement till after the first arc as it is a general thread for many Light novels to go downhill after that point. In truth I say this will be amusing at first but then become terrible.

Overlord

The story takes place in the year 2138 when virtual reality gaming is booming. Yggdrasil, a popular online game is quietly shut down one day. However, the protagonist Momonga decides to not log out. Momonga is then transformed into the image of a skeleton as “the most powerful wizard.” The world continues to change, with non-player characters (NPCs) beginning to feel emotion. Having no parents, friends, or place in society, this ordinary young man Momonga then strives to take over the new world the game has become.

As I said before in my Damachi impression, I am not fond of power fantasy that basically hands the main character god mode from the start. Well here’s another series that starts by giving the main too much power. He he has a legion of followers, every useful rare item and likely the highest level possible. But to be fair unlike Damachi at least this seems to be making more of an effort in the story department. There are bad aspects such as it being still pretty obvious wish fulfilment and the fact that there are two girls(With more likely incoming) aiming for the main despite him being an undead Skeleton. Girls, I think before falling for him it might be wise to figure out if he’s even capable of intimacy. Out of the opening 6 chapters I read this looks like it will appeal to some people but I feel that unless it brings something unexpected it will just be an alright anime.

Monster musume

Three years ago, the world learned that harpies, centaurs, catgirls, and all manners of fabulous creatures are not merely fiction; they are flesh and blood – not to mention scale, feather, horn, and fang. Thanks to the “Cultural Exchange Between Species Act,” these once-mythical creatures have assimilated into society, or at least, they’re trying.
When a hapless human teenager named Kurusu Kimihito is inducted as a “volunteer” into the government exchange program, his world is turned upside down. A snake-like lamia named Miia comes to live with him, and it is Kurusu’s job to take care of her and make sure she integrates into his everyday life.

In a genre so utterly devoid of new ideas that its basically decided to repeat the same show over and over again, Monster musume may be the closest thing to creativity this genre could get. Well of course if you can see jumping into a new fetish as inventive of course. The characters are pretty much standard stereotypes of the genre but this series does have a rather interesting take on dealing with their various needs and quirks as monster girls. Such as the Lamia being cold blooded and therefore sensitive to drops in temperature. Or the harpy liking to collecting shiny objects and having a terrible memory. These aspects are actually surprisingly interesting. Though sadly you will also have to deal with harem hijinks which are now a little more disturbing when you consider that these girls are not technically human. Truthfully this vears a little too close to beastilty. I don’t think the manga is terrible and it does stand above other lazy efforts but if this becomes a hit then…the trend copycats may go into some truly disturbing territory.

Ushio to Tora

Ushio’s family maintains a Shinto temple in Japan, where ~500 years ago, his samurai ancestor battled that same tiger to a standstill, and eventually trapped him against a rock using a blessed spear called the “Beast Spear”, which in addition to its intrinsic formidability as a weapon, can also endow its wielder with the martial ability of the ancestor who originally wielded it. Ushio accidentally unsealed the cave Tora was trapped in.
Initially, Ushio refuses to remove the spear pinning Tora down (as Tora made the strategic blunder of mentioning that the first thing he would do upon being freed would be to devour Ushio), but Tora’s unsealed presence summons various monsters who wish to fight him, and by extension Ushio. Ushio is forced to free Tora, who would like to eat Ushio, but dares not since Ushio keeps the spear close by. The series focuses on their relationship, interspersed with battles against mythological foes, and with Tora’s attempts to grapple with modern life.

This is an adaption of a manga made in the 90s. The story of the manga is nothing truly standout. Actually the first chapter mirrors the start of Tenchi Muyo’s first episode right down to a t. There’s a spunky tomboy love interest who constantly complains and fights with the main character but in truth likes him. The first chapters are a series of episodic encounters with various demons around school and etc. I would say there isn’t anything you haven’t seen before except for one thing. The boy is accompanied by a demon named Tora and he’s what really makes this series. The two have a rather friendly/antagonistic rivalry that makes the highlights of the series. Its good to see Tora’s reaction to the modern world and his bickering with the main. But I feel that once his facade of being enemies drops this series won’t be anything too memorable.

God Eater

The Far East, 2071.
The domain of the mad gods.
In the early 2050s, unknown life forms called “Oracle cells” begin their uncontrolled consumption of all life on Earth.
Their ravenous appetite and remarkable adaptability earn them first dread, then awe, and finally the name “aragami”.
In the face of an enemy completely immune to conventional weapons, urban civilization collapses, and each day humanity is driven further and further toward extinction.
One single ray of hope remains for humanity.
Following the development of “God Arcs”—living weapons which incorporate Oracle cells—their wielders are organized into an elite force.
In a world ravaged by mad gods, these “God Eaters” fight a desperate war…

This is on the borderline between middling and not interested. The good news is that this is Ufotable so if this is getting the Fate treatment then it will be eye candy galore. There’s plenty of action and it is nice to see Ufotable make a move away from type moon works. But the bad news is this. I haven’t played the God Eater game but video game adaptations do not have a good record with anime.I have checked out the manga adaption of God Eater and if this is the story we are getting then we are in trouble. Highly generic, with cliche characters and plot. This does not deserve the Ufotable treatment. Ufotable, if you want to break away from being the type moon animator company then you better make wiser choices for adaption material. For example, Sharon no kuni. I would even settle for G-senjou no maou. Make that happen.

 

 

Series that I Do Look Forward To

Gate: Jieitai Kanochi nite, Kaku Tatakaerirslan Senki

The military fantasy series begins when a gate appears in Tokyo’s Ginza district sometime in the 21st century. From the gate pours out monsters, knights from middle-age Europe, and other fantasy-like beings, and they kill many of the citizens of Tokyo. This event is known as the Ginza Incident.
The government sends a small group of soldiers from the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (a replacement for Japan’s military) to the alternate world beyond the gate. Led by otaku soldier Youji, they find that the villages in the world are being attacked by a dragon. An elf girl who is a survivor from the dragon’s rampage joins the group in their travels across the dangerous new world.

A while back I watched an anime called Outbreak Company which mildly dealt with a modern society handling the sudden appearance of a medieval world. I remember thinking to myself “If only they focused on this aspect instead of relegating it to the background.” Well here’s the anime that fixes that. Often in fiction mankind is one with the inferior firepower while the enemy is more technological advanced. Here its the opposite. This medieval world attacks the modern world and are completely decimated. With these people slowly realizing that they just picked a fight with an enemy whose power is practically godly in their eyes. Its amusing as I don’t think many works acknowledge that mankind has become quite proficient in killing. Often while watching Harry Potter I kept thinking that these wizards were deeply underestimating humanity. You got a spell that can kill a person? Well we can nuke you all to hell from half the world away. Even put a bullet between your eyes before you think of a syllable. There are some issues such as the commander being an otaku and the presence of a Goth loli and elf plus some danger signs of a harem. But there aren’t many anime like this so this such be interesting.

 

Chaos Dragon: Sekiryuu Sen’eki

The story takes place in the sparkling era year 3015, where the great nations Donatia and Kōran divide the world in a cold war as they fight for supremacy. In the middle of this standoff is island country Nil Kamui, which has lost its independence.

I was ready to write off this title as standard generic light novel trash before I looked into it. Its understandable as one the surface it does give that impression. But then I remembered that there was coming an adaption of a certain thing called red dragon which was renamed to Chaos Dragon. It is true that this is a light novel adaption. However, that novel was in turn an adaption of a tabletop role playing game session between Iduki Kougyoku (Mimizuku to Yoru no Ou), Simadoriru (member of the Stripe Pattern doujin circle), Ryohgo Narita (Baccano, Durarara!!), Gen Urobochi (Madoka, Fate/Zero) and Kinoko Nasu (Fate/Stay Night, Kara no Kyoukai). Those last three names shot my interest in this anime through the roof. We are talking about some highly prolific writers getting together and doing essentially a improv night. As far as anime adaptations go this may be the first of its kind. True that just because these people are involved does not mean it’s guaranteed to be great or even good. But in any case it will be interesting. Sliver Link are a decent choice as an adaptor as lately they have been doing a good job.(The faults of Prisma Illya was the faults of the source material. Adaption wise it was done well.) The last time two of these writers got together we got Fate/Zero. So will this be another case of perfect combination or a matter of too many cooks in the kitchen?