Spring Season Preview

Ohoho, we’re in for a treat in the upcoming season. There are 47 series in total, and a ton of those are promising to be really interesting. Sure, there is a lot of crap, but there are also plenty of powerhouse directors and writers to make up for it. that’s the great thing of getting a large season again, and it’s great to see another season that has so many different series.

This season has a good balance of original stories, manga adaptations, game adaptations and surprisingly few light novel adaptations. There are many different production companies active with one or two new series. The studios with the most projects are Production IG and Tatsunoko Productions of all things. Surprisingly absent are Satelight, Bones, AIC and Studio Pierrot.

The two main genres of this season seem to be dark adventures and slice of life series. Unforunately there also are a bunch of uninspired moe shows, but these are far from the only bad ones. the biggest pitfall of this season is a trend of working on multiple series at the same time. There are quite a few people who do this this season, and I just hope that this will end up all right.

Also as usual, I haven’t seen anything of the source material of the adaptations aside from the X-Men, so I’ll mostly be commenting on the staff lists and premises.

30-sai no Hoken Taiku

Summary: A guide book teaching shy men around 30 how to date and have sex with women. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Mankyuu
Series Composition: Ryou Akiyama
The Positives: It’s aimed at adults.
The Negatives: What the hell?! Oh, and for the order: this one’s being directed by the director of Tono to Issho, so it’ll be incredibly cheap.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Tono to Issho Gantai no Yabou

Summary: Random Sketches in the Sengoku Era.
Director: Mankyuu
The Positives: I’m blank on this one.
The Negatives: Oh god no, there’s more? Tono to Issho was ridiculously cheap and poorly executed. Just about everything about it was terrible and boring. And now they’re planning to make more? Also, why is Mankyuu doing two series at once?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Metal Fight Beyblade 4D – (New)

Summary: A new cast of characters take on the continued battle between good and evil. Ginga, our hero, and his group of loyal friends take on a dangerous group called the Dark Nebula. Dark Nebula’s mission is to take over the world and unleash their evil upon it; but before they can do so, they must destroy Ginga as he is the only person that’s strong enough to stand in their way. The plot thickens as friends become enemies and enemies become allies. Everything starts and ends with Ginga as he struggles to find the strength to defend his world and the honor of Beyblade. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: Oh god, they’re making more of this?
The Negatives: This basically is the continuation of Metal Fight Beyblade. For those wo haven’t seen it: be glad. I have rarely seen an anime that was so poorly produced. Even for a kids’ show. I only watched its first episode, but it was utterly terrible in every single way: abysmal acting, stupid story, moronic premise and a scenario that felt like it was written by a ten year old.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Takai-hen

Summary: After defeating Black Shaft’s makeshift Team USA and proving their worth to the Shadow Clan, Team Golden Japan Jr. will finally enter the World Jr. Boxing Tournament. In order to fulfill their goal of a perfect victory they’ll have to take on teams from countries like Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and the mysterious and godlike Team Greece. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Series Composition: Yousuke Kuroda
Other Notable Staff: Masami Kurumada (Original Creator)
The Positives: Yosuke Kuroda is good! He adapted many great series, like Ookiku Furikabutte, Gungrave, Madlax, Trigun and many others. Hiroshi Ikehata also isn’t bad as a director: he worked on episodes that ranged from bad to good.
The Negatives: But I had the chance to watch the first two episodes of the third season (Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow). This premise is beyond salvage. It’s a ridiculously cheesy boxing series full of ridiculous moves and badly paced set-ups. The director is different this time, but I don’t see any way for this one to work. And this is already the fourth season of this thing!
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

Summary: The game this is based on follows the coming-of-age drama of young people in Yanagihara, a big city where countless people cross paths. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shinji Ushiro
Series Composition: Takamitsu Kouno
Other Notable Staff: Kumi Ishii (Character Designs)
The Positives: Um, in theory it could have gotten excellent character designs. Kumi Ishii designed the characters of Rozen Maiden, Red Garden and Kurenai. I get the feeling that she didn’t really care about this one, though…
The Negatives: Oh dear lord. How does Shinji Ushiro still get work? All of his series have been atrocious, especially Shukufuku no Campanella and Omamori Himari. Takamitsu Kouno’s only strong point is that he did adapt Hen Zemi quite effectively, but I doubt that we’ll get to see that here.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Jewel Pet Sunshine – (New)

Summary: In Jewel Land, Jewelpets, creatures who has the natural ability to use magic lived in harmony with the Witches, attending the Magic Academy to learn to use magic with their Jewel Eyes. However for Ruby, a white Japanese Hare whose magic sometimes fail, is appointed to go to the Human World to search for her partner. But when she used the card the magicians gave her, she was sent to the Human World by accident. In the Human World, A girl named Akari Sakura met her on the beach on her way to school. At first, Akari can’t understand her due to her Jewel Land Language until Ruby took a special candy so she could speak and understand human language. As the day passes, Ruby knew about her problems and later apologized. A Jewel Charm appeared on Akari’s hand and she realized it that she’s chosen by Ruby to be her partner. After that, she decided to become a student along with Ruby as they were accepted and entered the Jewel Star Grand Prix. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: The official staff isn’t known yet, but the series composition of the previous season was written by Michiru Shimada, who can be pretty good at times.
The Negatives: Oh, this series is really starting to get on my nerves now. The first episode of the first season was passable, but then the second season premiered with an utterly terrible episode. The acting was outright horrendous, and now they’re trying to make more? Please, give these kids some actual good series to look forward to…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Maria Holic Alive

Summary: The story centers on a sophomore named Kanako who enrolls in all-girls school because she has a phobia of men and wants to find her destined yuri partner. She meets a captivating freshman named Mariya who fits her criteria — except her seemingly ideal mate happens to be a cross-dressing sadistic boy. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani
The Positives: I’m blank.
The Negatives: It’s a shaft sequel. I have NEVER seen a Shaft sequel that was not significantly worse than the original. And I already didn’t like Maria Holic in the first place!
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Lotte no Omocha

Summary: The story of Lotte no Omocha! revolves around Naoya, a man who is brought to a magical world to be a candidate for the harem of the princess, Astarotte. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Mai Otsuka (Character Designs), Akiyuki Shinbo (Series Composition Cooperation), Yui Haga (Original Creator)
The Positives: The director at least has a lot of experience, even though I didn’t really like the series he directed before.
The Negatives: What the hell is Shinbo doing here? Does he need to keep holding Deko Akao’s hand, even though this isn’t for Shaft? I mean, she already is a pretty mediocre scriptwriter, you don’t need to make her more generic. Also, please tell me that we’re not getting the umpth Kugimiya Rie tsundere here…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Suzy’s Zoo Daisuki! Witzy

Summary: The anime adapts the American greeting card line Suzy’s Zoo from the San Diego-based artist Suzy Spafford. The story will center around a duckling named Witzy and his stuffed animal friends in a verdant backyard. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hidekazu Ohara
Series Composition: Kaori Kita
The Positives: It’s a bit bizarre to have a director who has experience with something like Cannon Fodder to also produce a ton of kids’ shows, but ah well.
The Negatives: That’s what this is, though: a kids’ show, nothing more, nothing less.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Seikon no Qwaser II

Summary: In St. Mikhailov Academy, Oribe Mafuyu meets a silver haired boy called Alexander. He is a Qwaser, a being who can manipulate iron and draws his power from breast milk. A mystery surrounding an Icon transforms the academy into the setting for conflict between the various different Qwaser. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiraku Kaneko
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
The Positives: Boobs.
The Negatives: The staff remained the same. Makoto Uezu is just one of those writers who writes mostly terrible series but once in a while does something good (Sunred, Katanagatari). I don’t think that this will be one of those exceptions.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Kämpfer für die Liebe

Summary: Senou Natsuru is your normal, everyday high school student. However he´s been chosen to be a Kampfer, who´s objective consists on fighting other Kampfer with either guns, swords or magic, however, there´s catch; first you can´t chose if you´re a Kampfer or not, and second, you must have the body of a girl to use your powers. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yasuhiro Kuroda
Series Composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
The Positives: It’s going to be really short! Only two episodes. And yeah, the staff worked on some decent and even great series here and there.
The Negatives: If it’s going to be anything like the first series though… oh dear. That was painful to sit through, it had nothing redeemable whatsoever apart from the fact that I couldn’t really complain about the fight animation.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sexal

Summary: ???
Director: Satoshi Kuwahara
Series Composition: Shin Yoshida
The Positives: You know what the irony is? Shin Yoshida is actually a very good writer when he’s not busy with Yugioh: he wrote Argento Soma, Karas, Zone of the Enders, and episodes of Bakumatsu, the Big O and Texhnolyze.
The Negatives: Whahahaha! That hair! I have to grant it to Toei: they outdid themselves yet again here.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Aria the Scarlet Ammo

Summary: The story takes place in Tokyo Butei High School, a special school where armed detectives — “Butei” — are trained to use weapons. Kinji Tooyama is a second-year-student who has a special ability, but he keeps it a secret to maintain an ordinary, peaceful life. However, when he gets caught in a bombing on the way to school, he encounters H. Aria Kanzaki, the most powerful S-Rank Butei student in Assault Studies. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Series Composition: Hideki Shirane
The Positives: Hideki Shirane is currently also adapting Yumekui Merry and I like the job he’s doing on it.
The Negatives: Takashi Watanabe… is doing the same show twice in two consecutive seasons… Seriously, this sounds exactly like a less bloody Freezing. Also, more Kugimiya Rie Tsundere? Oh please no!
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Sengoku Otome

Summary: Based on a bunch of pachinko games. The original 2008 game re-imagines Japan’s tumultuous sengoku jidai (Era of Warring States) with all of the warriors as female characters. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hideki Okamoto, Nobuto Sakamoto (Art Director)
Series Composition: Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Sekiya (Director of Photography)
The Positives: It has the art director of Porfy no Nagai Tabi (for those of you who didn’t watch it, that series had the most amazingly consistent and accurate background art), plus the director of photography of Baccano and Mushiuta. combine that with a period piece and we might just get a lot of eye candy in the backgrounds here.
The Negatives: But yeah: the creators still are beating a really dead horse here. Re-imagining classical stories while turning all characters into fanservice females already was old when Ikkitousen’s first season did it. We really didn’t need three more seasons, plus Koihime Musou, plus Samurai Girls. The series composition is also written by someone notorious for bad storylines: Touko Machida, who adapted Allison to Lillia, Ookami Kakushi and Idolmaster Xenoglossia, while it’s got the director of Da Capo II. I don’t see this becoming anything more than moe pandering.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Summary: The story revolves around Kazuma Hoshino, a boy whose family moves to a new town for the sake of his younger brother’s health. Kazuma gets lost on his way to his new school, but he unexpectedly encounters a girl named Ui Nakatsugawa. Ui guides him, but when Kazuma trips, he accidentally bumps into Ui and kisses her. Plus, Ui’s close friend Ibuki Hinata happens to see the accidental kiss. Kazuma eventually meets Madoka Koumoto (the daughter of a priest at the local shrine), a third-year girl named Tsumugi Toudou, and Tsumugi’s spirited younger sister Koyori. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takenori Mihara
Series Composition: Go Zappa
The Positives: The only thing that intrigues me here is the director: he never directed a full series before, but he has worked on episodes of a wide scala of different series, including Guin Saga, Yumeiro Patissiere and did some of the best episodes of Konnichiwa Anne.
The Negatives: Go Zappa is exactly what this show didn’t need, because considering his track record, he won’t to anything to get rid of the bad premise of this show. I mean, the premise of this show really is terrible and looks like any average harem. You really need to put in effort to make it anything worthwhile, but I’m not seeing that happen.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Sofuteni

Summary: The tennis comedy centers around the members of a female middle school soft tennis team and the twists and turns that their lives take as they aim for the nationals. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ryouki Kamitsubo
Script: Noboru Kimera, Takamitsu Kouno, Yousuke Kuroda
The Positives: There is some good stuff amongst the ones who are going to be adapting this story, Yosuke Kuroda is an excellent adapter, and Ryouki Kamitsubo is a pretty interesting director with experience on Hen Zemi and Hidamari Sketch 1.
The Negatives: This remains Xebec with another high school show, though. I’m especially saying this because the girls on the promo art for both the manga and anime look like a bunch of complete morons, and I’m really afraid that they’re going to be giving this show their usual treatment.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

A Channel

Summary: The story revolves around the everyday life of four high school girls: the flighty Run, the reckless Tōru, the timid Yūko, and the level-headed Nagi. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
The Positives: Tatsuhiko Urahata, among many others, wrote the series composition of Monster. That has to say something.
The Negatives: But yeah… we’ve got the director of Dragonaut and Saki here. They weren’t Gonzo’s worst series, but they were still pretty mediocre. And this guy is going to have to convince us that the lives of four random girls are worth watching. Seriously, if you don’t have anything besides that premise then it’s not going to be the most exciting series!
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Pretty Rythm Aurora Dream

Summary: Based on a shoujo game. In the game, a girl named Rizumu Amamiya aspires to compete in Prism Show, a new sport that combines skating and dancing. Players can collect heart-shaped Prism Stones by winning in the game. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masakazu Hishida
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Akio Watanabe (Character Designs)
The Positives: I’m finding a hard time finding anything positive about this one. It’s probably not going to be anything terrible, and the staff list is certainly not bad…
The Negatives: … they’re just underwhelming. I never enjoyed any of the series that Deko Akao adapted aside from the first season of Natsu no Arashi and Masakazu Hishida as a director has only worked on some kiddie shows before. This will probably be one of those “meh” shows.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi

Summary: The story follows the tension between a newly recruited manga editor and his tyrannical editor-in-chief — who happen to share a common past. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Chiaki Kon
Series Composition: Rika Nanase
The Positives: Junjo Romantica was really popular so let’s have the creators come together and create exactly the same thing once more. Fair enough from a business perspective…
The Negatives: Personally, my interest in Junjo Romantica faded somewhere in the second season, and I really don’t want to watch more of it. It was good for one season, but got dull fast, and it’s pretty much Studio Deen and its bisies again, a gimmick that they really need to abandon now.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Dog Days

Summary: In the story, Princess Millhiore of the Biscotti Republic decides to summon a brave warrior from an alternate world to defend her country from the neighboring fiefdom of Garrett. The “brave warrior” turns out to be a boy named Sink. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keizou Kuzakawa
Series Composition: Masaki Tsuzuki
Other Notable Staff: Osama Sakata (Character Designs)
The Positives: It’s a parody, right? I mean, no series can be this stupid and not be a parody, right? Especially with the creators of Nanoha, right? I mean, it’s an original story, for god’s sake.
The Negatives: How on earth did the chief animation director of White Album of all things design characters that look this bad? But yeah, this is one of those series where my main problem lies with the premise and the looks. The staff is pretty good here, I just don’t think they’ll be able to get anything good out of this premise unless they start to parody the heck out of it.
First-Glance Potential: 35%

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai

Summary: Keima Katsuragi is an avid galge gamer known at his school as “Otamega” (a derogatory term combining the words Otaku and Megane) and on the internet a “The Capturing God.” One day he receives an e-mail offering him a contract to “capture” girls. He accepts thinking it’s a challenge and a demon from Hell named Elsee appears. She asks for his help in capturing runaway spirits that are hiding in “real” girls. He refuses stating he only likes the girls from the game. She tells him that if he refuses then both of their heads will be cut off. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shigehito Takayanagi
Series Composition: Hideyuki Kurata
The Positives: Hideyuki Kurata… he remains the one who originally thought up Kamichu and Read or Die and wrote Now and Then, Here and There.
The Negatives: He seems to have really lost it during the past half year though, with all these cliched premises. The World God Knows especially was disappointing due its lackluster execution and pacing (which probably was his fault, though don’t take my word on that one). The worst thing is that even the director didn’t change: we still have to deal with that mediocre director of Galaxy Angel and Hime-Sama Goyoujin.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Fireball Charming

Summary: Random sketches during a war between robots and humans. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Wataru Arakawa
Series Composition: Wataru Arakawa
Other Notable Staff: Takayuki Yanase (Character Designs)
The Positives: Wow. I did not watch Fireball, but those designs are looking pretty cool.
The Negatives: Too bad that it’s entirely in 3D, though. And that its episodes are only two minutes long.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Toriko

Summary: In the world of Toriko, many extravagant and delicious ingredients exist in the most dangerous places, and it is up to the Bishoku-ya, or Gourmet Food Providers, to hunt down these animals and plants in the face of danger. Toriko is one such Bishoku-ya, taking his place as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Bishoku-ya with his immense strength and appetite. Together with Komatsu, a timid chef trianed in the art of preparing food; Coco, the poisonous Bishoku-ya who can see the future; Terry Cloth, the offspring of a clone of the long-extinct Battle Wolf; and many more, Toriko takes on job after job while searching for the foods great enough to make it into his dream full-course meal. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akifumi Zako
Series Composition: Isao Murayama
The Positives: Half a year ago I watched the Toriko OVA to get a bit of a taste what this was about. It was terrible, but more on that below. The TV-series will be made by completely different people, so perhaps Toei is able to deliver this show with the right execution, because it’s definitely creative. I’ve noticed that they are rapidly assigning new people to do major jobs such as directing and series composition, instead of sticking to the veterans. The result is a director with hardly any experience here aside from being the director of the second part of Fresh Precure and some Heartcatch Precure episodes (including three Heartcatch Precure ones that were quite good), and the script is being written by the guy who wrote half of Kuchuu Buranko and the Precure All Stars Movies.
The Negatives: That also is a negative, yeah: directors with hardly any experience can really go anywhere, especially considering this is a shounen jump adaptation, which often can go quite wrong. I also didn’t like the preview OVA at all, but that mostly lied with the delivery: jokes were badly times, characters were shallow and one dimensional, and the whole gimmick of this show got boring after five minutes. That’s what the TV series really is going to have to avoid here…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Sket Dance

Summary: The manga is about three highschoolers who start a club called “Sket-Dan” made for the purpose of helping people. The club consists of three members. Himeko Onizuka “yankee”-girl who has a weakness for cute things; Switch a smart, otaku who talks through a computer. And the leader Yuusuke Fujisaki aka Bossun who the creater of the club. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Series Composition: Shinichi Inotsume
The Positives: This is being produced by Tatsunoko Productions, who have quite an interesting history. They’re really old, and responsible for the excellent animation in Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and the Soultaker. For the past ten years though, they’ve been rather quiet and only really done kids shows, along with assistance to some other anime here and there, most notably proposing the original concept for Casshern Sins. So I’m excited to see them finally producing new shows again.
The Negatives: The people behind Nyan Koi aren’t the most solid ones to do it, though, so I really hope that the original manga story is solid (but then again, it is a shounen jump adaptation, so things can go anywhere even if that story is good). I don’t have much faith for the director of Moetan, though…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Happy Kappy

Summary: The story revolves around Suguri Kinoshita, a nine-year-old third-grade girl who loves animals and making fashion accessories. One day, while Suguri is out buying materials for accessories, she comes across an unusual rock. Thinking it would look cute on a bracelet, she goes to pick up the rock and discovers a creature named Kappy. Kappy happens to be the three-year-old prince of Kapimeshia. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takyua Minazawa
Series Composition: Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: Tomoko Komparu is an excellent scriptwriter for the series composition: if a script is awesome she’ll give it an excellent treatment. She adapted Les Miserables, Genji Monogatari Sennenki, Ashita no Nadja, Nodame Cantabile, Oniisama E, the Hi no Tori movies and the Snow Queen among many others.
The Negatives: We’re talking about an adaptation of a manga aimed at really young girls here, though. The director also is a complete newbie (his only experience before this was as the ASSISTANT director of Penguin no Mondai…).
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Danbooru Senki

Summary: Based on a PSP Game. In the game, you play a boy named Ban Sanya in a world where kids can customize their own mini-robot, called LBX. A mysterious woman gives Ban a super-high powered LBX, Achilles-V, and unsurprisingly, the boy starts winning battles. – (Taken from AnimeVice)
Director: Naohito Takahashi
Series Composition: Atshuhiro Tomioka
Other Notable Staff: Level 5 (Original Producer)
The Positives: From the outside, this looks like another one of those generic Game adaptations for kids. Then I discovered that it has the director of Berserk and Figure 17. Whoa! I’m very interested what this guy can do with a game adaptation by the producers of the Professor Layton games.
The Negatives: Granted though, Naohito Takahashi did work on a number of lesser shows, like Ray, To Heart and Steel Angel Kurumi. The real downside to this series is the one who’s going to write it, though: Atsuhiro Tomioka. This guy couldn’t even properly pace a story if his life depended on it; Zombie Loan, Nishi no Yoki Majo, Disgaea, Trinity Blood: all series that could have been awesome if it wasn’t for this guy.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summary: The story revolves around a highschool boy named Niwa Makoto. He lives with his aunt’s family since his parents are away on business. It is there where he meets his mysterious cousin of the same age Touwa Erio — who happens to tie a futon mattress around her upper body and is a self-proclaimed alien. Her staple food is pizza. Erio had been missing for half a year and was found floating in the sea. She doesn’t remember anything about what happened during that period of time, but she began to think that it was the act of an alien and wanders the neighbourhood wrapped in the futon. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Series Composition: Yuniko Ayana
Other Notable Staff: Asako Nishida (Character Designs)
The Positives: Well, Shaft did get the best character designer they could possibly get. I’m a big fan of Asako Nishida’s designs here. Also, for now it looks like Shinbo is going to direct this show on his own, which is good as well (although this also appeared to be the case with Madoka Magica at first, so the real director will probably be announced in about a month or so). Meanwhile, for Yuniko Ayana this will be her first job after writing episodes for series as Aoi Hana, Shangri-La and Occult Academy, so I’m very curious on how she’s going to adapt a full series.
The Negatives: Shinbo, obviously. The story could become good in the right hands so I hope that he doesn’t stick his nose too much in this. He’s setting another record here by the way: three series in one season.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Honto ni Atta! Reibai-Sensei

Summary: The story revolves around Kibayashi-sensei, a teacher whose hobby is speaking with the dead and whose special talent is exorcism. Kibayashi-sensei knows everything about the other world, but nothing about our own world. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ?
Series Composition: ?
The Positives: Nothing is known about this one yet aside from the fact that it’s a horror comedy 4-koma adaptation. Has potential, but it all depends on the sense of humour of the ones who will adapt these jokes.
The Negatives: It’s another school series, there are already too many of those.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Hana-Saku Iroha

Summary: The story centers around Ohana Matsumae, a 16-year-old Tokyo native who ended up working at a onsen ryokan (hot spring inn). Matsumae has yet to decide her future. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiro Ando
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Kanami Sekiguchi (Character Designs), Yoshimasa Yamazaki (3D Director)
The Positives: The director of Canaan and Sword of the Stranger is a pretty interesting choice for a slice of life series. Mari Okada also really helps. It’s interesting how PA works is considering this series an appropriate way to celebrate their tenth anniversary. This won’t stand out at all, but as a charming slice of life series, I can see it work.
The Negatives: But please, Mari Okada: go and take a holiday some time…
First-Glance Potential: 60%

X-Men

Summary: The basic concept of the X-Men is that under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier created a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, and to prove mutants can be heroes.[2] Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey, calling them “X-Men” because they possess special powers due to their possession of the “X-Gene,” a gene normal humans lack but which gives Mutants their abilities. Early on, however, the “X” in X-Men stood for “extra” power which normal humans lacked. It was alluded that the mutations were incurred as a result of radiation exposure. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Madhouse always tends to wait announcing the staff of its Marvel series until a few weeks before the airdate.
The Positives: When the four Marvel Series were first announced, the X-men was without a doubt the one I was looking forward to the most. Obviously when Iron Man aired my expectations lowered drastically, but wolverine showed that these four series have totally different people working behind it, and totally different visions. The fact remains after all that it’s a series about adults and Madhouse got permission to do what they wanted with these concepts.
The Negatives: Iron Man, obviously. That is going to be one flop of Madhouse that will take a long time to forget thanks to the fact that it was the first in a series of four. It’s clear that the Marvel series are not on Madhouse’s list of priorities.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Hen Zemi

Summary: Nanako Matsutaka is an innocent university student who is participating in a sexual perversion seminar led by the deviant professor Kenji Meshiya. She desperately tries to keep her morals as well as her sanity while amidst the strange group of students in the study group. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ryouki Kamitsubo
Series Composition: Takamitsu Kouno
The Positives: The staff is going to be the same as the OVA, so we can pretty much expect the same execution. For those who haven’t seen that one: this show is completely disgusting. Its dialogue really went under my skin when I watched it, in a good way.
The Negatives: There is a ton of sex in this show, so I hope that it won’t be dumbed down. I can really see Xebec force it into yet another moe comedy, which this most certainly isn’t.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Ao no Exorcist

Summary: Based on a supernatural manga. It focuses on Rin Okumura, a boy raised by a famous exorcist named Father Fujimoto. After an argument between the two, Rin discovers he is the son of Satan. Rin decides to fight his fate by joining the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist and defeat demons. However, when he draws his father’s sword, it releases a dark power within him. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tensai Okamura
Series Composition: Ryota Yamaguchi
Other Notable Staff: Keigo Sasaki (Character Designs)
The Positives: The aptly named Tensai Okamura, of course. You might recall him as the director of Darker than Black. He will at the very least make sure that this story is well and solidly told. Keigo Sasaki also is pretty solid for the script of this series, with more than a decade of experience on many different series.
The Negatives: My big beef with this show is the premise itself, which does sound rather dull, but dull in a way that can get better given enough time. If this show gets 26 episodes it can make some nice things out of that, but with 13 it’s probably doomed.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Gintama 2

Summary: Edo-period at Japan suffers a big cultural shock. First, the aliens invaded the earth, overpowered the nation’s government, disbanded carrying swords for the once proud samurais. moreover; these aliens took the people’s jobs and are currently running a sweatshop using them as laborers. going with the flow, Sakata Gintoki, an enigmatic vagrant samurai whose personal trademark is not only his naturally permed silver hair but also his love of anything sweet and addiction to Shonen Jump is making a life out of this chaotic era. He is self employed in a do-it-all shop named Yoruzuya Gin-chan who offers any job for any amount of money. Their jobs range from searching lost kittens and saving the world. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: Gintama one was one of the greatest comedies that ever aired. It wasn’t just hilarious, it kept this up for a hundred episodes. It’s great to see it back after a one year hiatus.
The Negatives: I made a conscious decision to drop it after 120 episodes, though. The reason for this is that at that point, while it still was pretty decent, Gintama had lost the brilliance that made me originally fall in love with it, and I didn’t want to ruin that great image even more. I probably think that this is due to the swap of directors, so I’m really curious who gets into the director’s seat this time. That’s really going to decide whether or not I’m going to follow this one or not, but that information has not been announced yet.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Moshidora

Summary: Based on a 2009 novel. Its title has been translated as ‘What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s “Management”?’, centers around a high school girl named Minami Kawashima who becomes the baseball team manager at Tokyo’s Hodokubo High School. Minami accidentally buys Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices — a classic productivity guide by the Austrian-American management guru Peter Drucker — and uses it to rally her dispirited team. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
The Positives: Well, that premise certainly is bizarre enough to work. With the right execution it could be an interesting combination between a slice of life, baseball and management consulting.
The Negatives: Uh oh, it’s Trans Arts again. They often go with really interesting premises, but they don’t know how to execute them properly. This series also has their flagship director, who only made one good series (Kemono no Souja Erin) and apart from that all disappointments.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Appleseed XIII

Summary: Appleseed takes place in the 22nd Century, after the non-nuclear Third World War decimates the Earth. While states like Great Britain, France and China have difficulty maintaining order and power, international organizations like the “Sacred Republique of Mumna” and “Poseidon” have been established in the aftermath. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
Other Notable Staff: Masamune Shirow (Original Creator), Takayuki Goto (Character Designs), Yoshiki Sakurai
The Positives: Ah, Appleseed. I never watched the movies, but I’m very interested in this kind of premise. It’s also got an excellent character designer in Takayuki Goto, who also designed the characters for Ghost in the Shell, Kemono no Souja Erin and Please Save My Earth, among many others.
The Negatives: Please, someone tell me. Why the heck are Takayuki Hamana and Junichi Fujisaku both working on two series at the same bloody time?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Nichijou

Summary: While the title suggests a story of simple, everyday school life, the contents are more the opposite. The setting is a strange school where you may see the principal wrestle a deer or a robot’s arm hide a rollcake. However there are still normal stories, like making a card castle or taking a test you didn’t study for. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tatsuya Ishihara
Series Composition: Jukki Hanada
The Positives: My favourite of Kyoani’s directors is back again. I personally loved Tatsuya Ishihara’s work on Air, Clannad and the Haruhi Movie, though this seems much more laid back. It’s probably going to be a very interesting slice of life series if they indeed do like what the synopsis predicted and have all kinds of bizarre situations take place, instead of making it as repetitive as Lucky Star was.
The Negatives: Why is Jukki Hanada doing two shows at once? She already is very busy. She’s quite a solid and interesting scriptwriter, but not the most stable one.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Yondemasuyo! Azazel-san – (New)

Summary: Akutabe, a detective, summons devils to solve the troubles of his clients. One day, a low class devil Azazel Atsushi is summoned by Akutabe and is used harshly by him and his assistant Rinko Sakuma. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Series Composition:
Other Notable Staff: Junichiro Taniguchi (Character Design)
The Positives: More Tsutomu Mizushima (Hare Nochi Guu, Squid Girl, xxxHolic, Ookiku Furikabutte and much more). This time, he’s going to be involved everywhere in this project: he’ll do the direction, the storyboards and the scripts all together. That sounds very ambitious, and the OVA already showed that this premise can get really funny.
The Negatives: Granted, Tsutomu Mizushima is not the perfect comedy director. He often can’t seem to do moe comedies right (Ichigo 100%, Kujibiki Unbalance, Kemeko Deluxe, Dokuro-chan, Dai Mahou Touge; Only Squid Girl was the exception to this rule). Thankfully though, Azazel-san is about summoning demons and the female lead is far from your stereotypical moe heroine. Though she can get quite stupid at times.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Kaiji Hakairoku-hen

Summary: Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 30000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji. Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercing kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear himself and make a bit of money as well… – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yuzo Sato
Series Composition: Hideo Takayashiki
Other Notable Staff: Hideki Taniuchi (Music)
The Positives: Well, this is going to be a definite contender for the most intense show of the season. Unlike Akagi where the atmosphere crept up from behind you, Kaiji lacked any kind of subtlety and was 24 episodes of straight in-your-face yelling and screaming while playing gambling games. The staff is back entirely as well, so it should prove to be a lot old-fashioned entertainment, albeit a bit slow.
The Negatives: Look at the promo picture. Anyone who watched the first season will probably notice something very wrong with that picture… Also, three months ago the director was still majorly screwing up Iron Man, so I hope that he at least got back on his feet before starting with this series again. I’m also not sure whether I’m going to blog this, because last time blogging turned out to be a major annoyance because the pacing was so damn slow.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai

Summary: Six childhood friends grew apart in high school. One of them is Jintan, now a shut-in. He gets a request to fulfill a wish for Menma, the only one of their friends to have stayed the same over the years. In order to grant her wish, he will have to find and reunite their old friends. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
Series Composition: Mari Okada
The Positives: This one’s going to be the next Noitamina. Mari Okada obviously is a solid choice as the scriptwriter, although I’d wish that instead of doing so many shows at the same time (this winter season she’s doing three at the same time), she’d just focus on one and make that stand out, like what she did in the past. The director meanwhile worked on Honey and Clover II and Toradora (which I haven’t seen, but is supposed to be really good). It’s also an anime original project, so that also deserves plus points. The premise also is an excellent one that is bound to have a ton of character development in it.
The Negatives: I’m not sure whether the director is the right person for this series, though: he seems more comfortable with adaptations than original stories (considering that he also directed Idomasster Xenoglossia.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Deadman Wonderland

Summary: Ganta Igarashi has been convicted of a crime that he hasn’t committed, and sent to a new, privately owned and operated prison, where the inmates are the main attraction in a modern day twist to the gladiatorial coliseums of ancient times. Throw in a healthy dose of weird little girl, some new-found super powers, and a little conspiracy theory, and you have Deadman Wonderland. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Koichi Hatsumi
Series Composition: Yasuyuki Muto
Other Notable Staff: Michie Watanabe (Art Director), Takayuki Yanase (Mechanical Design),
The Positives: Manglobe! Let’s hope that they can shine again after The World God Only Knows, and things are already looking good in the graphics department. Michie Watanabe also was the art director of Sarai-ya Goyou, plus Takayuki Yanase desinged for a ton of interesting series. For the director this will be his first full series, but he did handle some excellent episodes of Real Drive, Darker than Black Gemini, Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 and Seirei no Moribito. The series composition will be done by the chief writer of Chevalier, so that’s also promising a lot here.
The Negatives: It should be noted that Yasuyuki Muto also wrote Sengoku Basara and Persona Trinity Soul, which had some major pacing issues. Thank god this isn’t a game adaptation but a regular manga one.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Showa Monogatari

Summary: The series follows the story of Kouhei Yamazuki as he lives in Japan in the 1960s, together with his friends, parents, grandmother, brother and sister. The series follows his every day life, along with some of the major points in his childhood.
Director: Hiroshi Kugimiya
The Positives: Now, I’ve already seen the first four preview episodes of this series, so I can get into a bit more detail of why this series rocks. It’s pretty much a slice of life series about a family in Japan in the 1960s, with a great balance between slice of life and drama that arises out of typical problems of those days. What’s especially good about this series is that it doesn’t just focus on the young boy. The entire family so far has gotten fleshed out and some depth and that made these first four episodes great to watch. Wao World has been making movies that celebrate Japan’s cultural heritage for a few years now (Nitaboh, Furusato Japan and Symphony in August), and I’m really glad that they finally started doing television series.
The Negatives: The show has a low budget, so the animation isn’t anything special. The most annoying part is the voice actor for the lead character, though (the kid, Kouhei): he can’t act!
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Dororon Enma-Kun Meeramera

Summary: Remake of a 1973 TV-series. Emma-kun, Yukiko Hime, and Kapaeru are members of a Demon Patrol that are sent to the human world to arrest demons. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Series Composition: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Other Notable Staff: Hiroaki Kitajima (Script), Takahiro Kimura (Character Design, Chief Animation Director), Takashi Nakamura (Art Direction)
The Positives: Holy crap! Takashi Nakamura? The director of Fantastic Children? And he’s doing the art direction here? Awesome! I’m really not sure what to expect of the graphics here: we have the designs of Go Nagai, reworked by the character designer of Code Geass, drawn by Brains Base. It’s proving to be an interesting smörgåsbord in terms of visuals. To make things even better, this basically seems like the pet project of the director of Hoshi no Umi no Amuri and Brigadoon. Also, the soundtrack will be composed by the one who did the music for Tokyo Godfathers. Holy crap, remakes are awesome.
The Negatives: Granted though, that promo art looks silly.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Tiger & Bunny

Summary: ???
Director: Keiichi Sato
Series Composition: Masafumi Nishida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Ike (Music), MasaKuzu Katsura (Original Character Designs), Kenji Hayama (Character Designs), Masaki Yamada (Character Designs)
The Positives: Sunrise, and another original TV-series, by the Director of Karas with the character designers of DNA2, Karas and the Armed Librarians? Sign me in, this is what I’ve been waiting for for ages now! The actual story of this one isn’t known yet aside from being about superheroes, but the promo art looks just amazing. Not to mention that it also has one of my favourite composers, Yoshihiro Ike. This is one to keep my eye out for, because it looks ten times better than Heroman.
The Negatives: Masafumi Nishida either is a pseudonym, or has had no anime experience beforehand. Again, this can go anywhere.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Steins;Gate

Summary: Steins;Gate is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroshi Hamasaki, Takuya Sato
Series Composition: Jukki Hanada
Other Notable Staff: Kyuuta Sakai (Character Designs, Chief Animation Director), Nitroplus (Original Creator)
The Positives: The director of Texhnolyze and Shigurui is going to handle this one. It’s awesome to see another project of his, and the whole concept of people who time travel through microwaves holds a ton of potential here. Plus, he’ll be helped by the director of Niea Under 7 and Ichigo Mashimaro, which provides a very solid slice of life base.
The Negatives: Jukki Hanada is really quite solid, but I can’t forget the way in which she ended Kuragehime, so that could be a potential pitfall here. Plus, why is she doing two shows at once?
First-Glance Potential: 95%

[ C ] THE MONEY OF SOUL AND POSSIBILITY CONTROL

Summary: The Japanese government was rescued from the brink of financial collapse by the Sovereign Wealth Fund. For its citizens, however, life has not improved, and unemployment, crime, suicide, and despair are rampant. Kimimaro, raised by his maternal grandmother after the disappearance of his father and the death of his mother, is a scholarship student whose only dream is to avoid all this and live a stable life. One day, however, he meets a man who offers him a large sum of money if he’ll agree to pay it back. From then on his fate is radically altered as he’s drawn into a mysterious area known as “The Financial District.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kenji Nakamura
Series Composition: Noboru Takagi
Other Notable Staff: Akira Takata (Chief Animation Direction), Takashi Hashimoto,
The Positives: Okay, so how could this possibly get any better? We’ve got Kenji Nakamura of Mononoke and Bake Neko fame, doing an original story, written by the guy who also did the series composition of Durarara, Baccano and Koi Kaze. It’s got two animation directors: the first also directed the animation of Bake Neko, Mononoke and Kuchuu Buranko, the other directed the animation of Durarara, Karas, Natsume Yuujinchou, Ookiku Furikabutte’s Second Season and designed the characters of none other than Haibane Renmei. If that isn’t a dreamteam then I don’t know anymore.
The Negatives: It’s Noitamina, so it’s only going to have 11 episodes. It deserves more!
First-Glance Potential: 100%

Hyouge Mono

Summary: The story is set during Japan’s Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States) and centers on Sasuke Furuta, a vassal of the great warlord Nobunaga Oda and a man obsessed with tea ceremony and material desires in his pursuit of a fortuitous life. Having learned from Oda and the legendary tea master Sen no Soueki, Furuta walks the way of the “Hyouge Mono.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Koichi Mashimo
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Kawasaki
The Positives: Is anyone surprised that I’m looking forward to this? I mean, it’s not only Koichi Mashimo, we finally have another series that dares to go beyond 26 episodes without the need of an intermission. Thirty nine episodes sounds really intriguing, especially since most Bee-Train series are really slow paced, plus the premise of this show sounds awesome on so many levels.
The Negatives: Hiroyuki Kawasaki did adapt Blade of the Immortal, which really did stop in the middle of nowhere. Let’s hope that with 39 episodes, he can be more careful, because he definitely isn’t a bad adapter.
First-Glance Potential: 100%