The upcoming Spring Season will be a bit small: only 33 new series will premiere. Last year, in comparison, we had 40 of them. In any case, here is my preview for them. As usual, I can only comment on the anime themselves, and not on the source material they’re based on, since i don’t read any manga or light novels.
I’s unfortunate, but only four series of these shows aren’t about teenagers. We’ve now gotten to the point where this is really getting annoying and one-sided. And to be honest, this season is in one thing very mediocre: the actual premises. Very few of the premises really stand out as potential classics, and most of them really are the same usual teenaged stories or moe shows compared to previous spring series. I’m really talking about the taglines of a series that immediately catch your attention.
Looking beyond that and to the creators involved, and the potential for some of these series, and then we’ve got a very solid bunch. I’ve got about 11 series that I’m really looking forward to, along with quite a few others that could turn out very nice. Unfortunately, the fact remains that yet again, there will be a ton of moe and dull romantic comedies.
There are two major themes of this season aside from that: coming of age, and thrillers. The most series this season come from Studio Deen again. And really, by now you’d think that with the amount of series they release, they’d at least use one of those slots for something interesting or expermental. But no, we apparently only need moe and bishies. Sunrise also has three shows, which thankfully look more promising. The most impressive company this season will be A-1, with two shows with a lot of potential coming up.
Haiyoru! Nyaruko-Chan
Director: Tsuyoshi Nagasawa
Series Composition: Noboru Kimura
The Positives: I… um… what?
The Negatives: I’m just completely baffled here. For those of you who don’t know: Haiyoru Nyarani was released a few years ago as this utterly terrible flash OVA that was very poorly produced and had the most mind-numbing banter imaginable. It kicked off the very annoying trend of showing horrid flash shows that are barely animated and that just feature cute girls talk to each other and fail miserably in their attempts to be funny. Xebec saw this, and thought “hey, we can make an anime about this too!”, or so I can only imagine. Just… what the hell? These guys have completely given up. Thank god there still is Good Xebec.
Sengoku Collection
Director: Keiji Gotou
Series Composition: Shinjuurou Mitaka
The Positives: Keiji Gotou surely worked on a ton of different series here.
The Negatives: Brains Base, seriously? Are you seriously saying that you too have sold out and followed the horrible bandwagon of turning famous historical figures into moe stereotypes? Are you seriously trying to beat a horse that has been dead for half a decade now?
Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden
Director: Masahiko Murata
The Positives: I really like Masahiko Murata. He’s the director of some really good horror series: Shikabane Hime and Gilgamesh. His sense of action is raw and cold, just like his characterization.
The Negatives: Just… no. Are they really going to milk out the Naturo franshile like what Toei is currently doing with One Piece? Is there really a need for this? Is there really a need to use such a good director as Masahiko Murata?
Pretty Rythm Dear My Future
The Positives: Nothing.
The Negatives: Oh, I remember watching the first episode of the first season of this one. What really stood out was how abysmally poorly it was in every single aspect. The animatio was virtually nonexistant, and the writing in particular was incredibly stupid and convenient. I can’t believe they’re making a second season of this.
Jewel Pet Sunshine Second Season
The Positives: I remember when kids’ series were actually about something other than selling toys…
The Negatives: There’s going to be even more of this?
Queen’s Blade: Rebellion
The Positives: The positives should be obvious by now…
The Negatives: Will there ever come a point at which the guys at Arms will stop producing these bad fanservice shows? I mean, I remember the frst show they ever made: Elfen Lied. That was good. What happened afterwards? Did they just realize “hey, we can actually make a lot more money while putting in a lot less effort!” or something?
Acchi Kocchi
Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Series Composition: Nobuhiko Amagawa
The Positives: The best I can think of is that the series composition isn’t anything bad.
The Negatives: It’s got the director of Astarotte no Omocha. My big problem with this one is that I just can’t find anything about it that interests me whatsoever. It’s just another mediocre high school romance show, but this time based on a 4koma; the designs look generic and being produced by AIC seals the deal here.
Gakkatsu
The Positives: Information about this thing is very scarce. I managed to find out that it’s being produced by the same company who produced Hanoka. Now, that actually was an interesting experiment to animate a small action series in only flash vector graphics…
The Negatives: … so of course their next work will be yet another one of those horrid flash school series. Of course. Let’s at the very least hope that they won’t be as cheap as the crap that companies as DLE produce.
Nazo na Kanojo X
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Kenichi Konishi (Character Designs), Shigemi Ikeda
The Positives: The character designer of Bokura no and Tokyo Godfathers? Awesome. Ayumu Watanabe only directed a few doraemon movies before, so I’m interested in what he can do as a director of an actual tv-series.
The Negatives: Ugh, it’s Hoods again, or the guys who just produce porn over and over again. This really seems like a typical raunchy romance of theirs again, especially since Deko Akao isn’t really such a good writer (having adapted Astarotte no Omocha and Pretty Rythm before…). It’s a real shame to waste such a good character designer on this.
Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead
Director: Takaomi Kanasaki
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
The Positives: Well, it’s bound to have a few good episodes, like the first season.
The Negatives: This show pissed me off so much. It could have been a fun gory show, but instead it dabbled way too much into dull harem hijinks, along with a joke of a story to close itself off with. The staff is exactly the same, and it really looks like they’re going to pull the exact same here. In the meantime though, I’ve thankfully been exposed by a lot of comedies who weren’t so lazily adapted at this one, and who were genuinely fun despite having a lot of moe in it (Enma, Ben-To, Milky Holmes), so this one is going to have to be really impressive for me to also follow it all the way through.
Upotte
Director: Takao Kato
Series Composition: Naruhisa Arakawa
Other Notable Staff: Takaaki Suzuki (Military History Advisor)
The Positives: Takao Kato still puzzles me a bit. He’s a very mediocre director, who at the same time captured the Pandora Hearts Manga really well. I’ve given up with this guy though. Too many of his series were just unremarkable, but there is hope, at least. Naruhisa Arakawa also certainly isn’t a bad writer per se. He wrote Legend of Black Heaven for example, and adapted Spice and Wolf and Papakiki.
The Negatives: “Hey, you know Strike Witches? That’s really popular, right? Let’s do that too!”, said Xebec, five years after Gonzo originally aired it… just… no. Let’s also not forget that Naruhisa Arakawa also wrote Love Love, Yosuga no Sora and CosPrayers…
Medaka Box
Director: Shouji Saeki
Series Composition: Shouji Saeki
Other Notable Staff: Nisioisin (Original Creator)
The Positives: Nisioisin as the original writer will at least lead to some nice wordplay, I guess.
The Negatives: My interest was piqued a bit when I noticed that Gainax seemed to be behind this, not to mention that it has one guy overseeing both the direction and the series composition of this thing. Unfortunately, that guy turns out to be the “bad Gainax director”, who has been directing their worst series and stories with He is My Master, Houkago no Pleiades, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, or those Mahoromatic OVAs. On top of that the premise also seems very generic, as yet another school romantic comedy about a student council. I see nothing that stands out here.
Dusk Maiden of Amnesia
Director: Shin Oonuma
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Yukiko Ban (Character Designs, Animation Director)
The Positives: Yukiko Ban was a main character designer for Bee-Train (she designed the characters for Avenger, .Hack//Sign and Yakumo), and a good animation director for Studio Deen (07-Ghost, Amatsuki). The designs for this show will at least be good.
The Negatives: Just… go to the website of this series. Then you’ll immediately see where the mind of this series lies. I mean, could they really have been less subtle? I’d like to see the Silver Link guys as the Shaft Graduates without actual talent (in comparison: I consider Shinbo to be very talented, I’d just wish that he’d use it better). Ever since they left the company to form their own, all they pretty much worked on was mediocre and unimpressive. I’ve given them enough chances by now, but all they can hope for here is that the source material is good enough to pull them through.
Hiiro no Kakera
Director: Bob Shirohata
Series Composition: Yoshiko Nakamura
Other Notable Staff: Naoyuki Onda (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: The director of Hetalia’s next project. Also, the character designer is very good.
The Negatives: I used to be a big fan of shoujo, but now the genre has become just way too diluted by angsty bishies to still be as enthusiastic about it. Here we yet again have an interesting sounding premise, but every single one of these series just descends into a bishie fest full of bad acting and characters trying too hard to look cool that is too focused on wish fulfillment. Especially considering the direction that Studio Deen have gone into the latest years. The series also is supposed to have a very good character designer (Ergo Proxy, Detective Story, Blassreiter, Berserk Movie), but I’m really not seeing that here.
Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
The Positives: So, we had the Saki TV-series, which ended with a really obvious sequel hook, and so the next season will focus on some completely different characters instead. Okay. At the very least this won’t be a Manabu Ono series with his enormous boobs trademark…
The Negatives: Oh, I remember that it was a really big chore to sit through the first Saki series, as it turned itself into some magical girl series in which the matches were determined by how well the different characters could manipulate luck (no, seriously). At the very least I hope that the new cast will be more interesting than the old cast, because these girls got very bland very quickly.
Sankarea
Director: Mamoru Hatekayama
Series Composition: Noboru Tagaki
Other Notable Staff: Kyuuta Sakai (Character Designs), Mitsuru Hattori
The Positives: Noboru Takagi, the guy who adapted Baccano, Durarara and Koi Kaze. This premise is a major step down from those, though. It does seem slightly better than the usual romantic comedy. Emphasis on slightly, though. And I admit that I’m always interested in new directors: most of the time they’re nothing special, but things get interesting when they manage to already show off their own style.
The Negatives: There are going to be TWO zombie moe comedies in one season? And both are produced by Studio Deen? What the hell man, go back to your good premises again dammit.
Natsuiro Kiseki
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
Other Notable Staff: Shigemi Ikeda (Art Director), Sadayuki Murai (Script)
The Positives: Seriously, this series has a killer staff: the guys behind Hanamaru Youchien creating a new anime original series, aided by the scriptwriter of Mouryou no Hako, Natsume Yuujinchou San & Shi and Boogiepop Phantom, animated by Sunrise.
The Negatives: That really makes me wonder: what the hell will this series be about? This show seriously has some of the most generic promo art I’ve seen in a while. On top of the characters looking very generic, they’re just not doing anything at all. From the impression I get here, this seems to be one of those shows to promote four random idols. Those things usually turn out terrible, which is why it’s so sad to see so many great people work on this.
AKB0048
Chief Director: Shoji Kawamori
Director: Yoshimasa Hiraike
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Mikan Ehime (Character Designs)
The Positives: What the…? What are Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada doing here?
The Negatives: What the hell is this, man? There’s going to be another idol promotion show this season? Why two of them? And why of all people Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada, the people who are currently working on Aquarion Evol? Is this AKB48 really popular enough to warrant this?
Accel World
Director: Masakazuu Obara
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Other Notable Staff: Nobutaka Ike (Art Director)
The Positives: Oh good lord. This show reunites certain staff together: the people who made Mai Hime, which was a very good series…
The Negatives: … only to be followed up later by Mai Otome, which was one gigantic mess of a series. The director later went on to direct the Girl who Leapt through Space, a mediocre comedy, while Hiroyuki Yoshino… went on to write Seikon no Qwaser, Code Geass, Macross Frontier and Guilty Crown. Thankfully this is an adaptation, and granted, Yiroyuki Yoshino did show that he is good at that with Denpateki na Kanojo. But really, this is another trainwreck waiting to happen unless they go back to their roots with Mai Hime.
Arashi no Yoru ni
Director: Tetsurou Amino
The Positives: They’re going to remake Arashi no Yoru ni into a television series? This could get interesting, especially now that they have more time to tell the story (this will have 52 episodes of 11 minutes long, interestingly). Tetsurou Amino is also a very interesting choice for a director With Shiki, he did prove that he is a very good director.
The Negatives: It will be entirely in 3D CG, though. This just doesn’t seem like the right story for that.
Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan
Director: Itsuro Kawasaki
Series Composition: Itsuro Kawasaki
Other Notable Staff: Ike Nobutaka (Art Direction)
The Positives: Once in a while, you run into a series where the direction and series composition are done by the same guy. This season has Mouretsu Pirates, and last season had Tamayura. These are often very well done series, because there is one guy who is holding in the reigns quite well for his own vision…
The Negatives: … so I can’t believe that this season is the turn for Itsuro Kawasaki. His series are often quite mediocre, with a few series that admittedly did end up well. (Denyuuden, small parts of Sengoku Basara, Wild Arms (although that series was also helmed by Koichi Mashimo) and bizarrely enough Papakiki, although that series still has some very bad parts). Still, I’m positive here: what can he do when he’s involved much more than usual here? Does he have a vision to make this an interesting RPG adaptation?
Ginga e Kickoff!!
Director: Kounosuke Uda
Series Composition: Takashi Yamada
The Positives: This series airs on the NHK channel. The one advantage of series that air there is that they don’t necessarily have to be profitable. At first sight this may look like yet another sports show, but yet again this show has a very solid staff. In particular Takashi Yamada, who also wrote the series composition for Heartcatch Precure, Ojamajo Doremi, Marie&Gali and Shion no Ou. Kounosuke Uda? This guy is the director of One Piece. I assume not the entire series, but I couldn’t find how big that part was.
The Negatives: The big problem with this one remains the premise. It’s yet again the story of a young boy with passion for the sport he plays. The creators will have to put in some serious work to make this stand out, instead of making such a soap opera like what Knight in the Area is currently doing. The standards for this genre are very high, after all.
Kuroko no Basuke
Director: Shunsuke Tada
Series Composition: Noboru Takagi
The Positives: And yet again they put some really, really solid writers on the sports series. Noboru Takagi is the guy who adapted Baccano, Durarara, Koi Kaze and wrote C. Can he bring a dull story about basketball to life? Will the director of Bungaku Shoujo be able to bring life to this series.
The Negatives: I unfortunately keep looking at these high school sports series with a negative feeling. The thing is that I’ve already seen so much of them, and the only reason they stood out was due to their ridiculously good execution. These kinds of series miraculously keep pulling me in, even when their premises are nothing special. I expect Kuro no Basuke to do the same.
Kimi to Boku 2
The Positives: The staff for the second season hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s safe to assume that it will be the same as the first season. That means Manabu Kanbe as the director and Reiko Yoshida behind the series composition. A very solid combination, as they did breathe life to the manga and portrayed a unique way for the characters to interact with each other.
The Negatives: But yeah: that way does get on your nerves quite a bit. This show is hard to watch at times, but that was also what made it interesting to see how it would nearly always end its episode on an interesting note.
Zetman
Director: Osamu Nabeshima
Series Composition: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Other Notable Staff: Mazakazu Katsura (Original Creator), Shinichiro Yoshihara
The Positives: Finally! A show that doesn’t look completely generic and like the others. As for the director, he never really directed anything I watched (he’s the director of D.Gray Man, Saint Tail and Clamp School Detectives; and Hamtaro). In any case though, I’m very interested in the premise here.
The Negatives: Atsuhiro Tomioka, oh boy. This guy strikes me as someone who rushes in with his own vision, and it’s always the question whether the end result is good. This is the guy who adapted Samurai 7, Nishi no Yoki Majo, Trinity Blood, Disgaea, Zombie Loan, Inazuma Eleven, Danbooru Senki and Chrno Crusade. The quality between all these adaptations varies greatly, so this series can really go anywhere, although it’ll probably be rushed.
Saint Seiya New Omega
Director: Morio Hatano
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Character Designs, Chief Animation Director)
The Positives: The thing that immediately stands out: Yoshihiko Umakoshi, the character designer of Heartcatch Precure and Casshern Sins is on another series. And this time he’s going to also act as the animation director. That combined with Toei’s staff of excellent animators, and we’re in for a lot of eye candy here. The director will be another rookie (seriously, for the past years Toei has been putting the episode directors of Heartcatch Precure as the directors for all sorts of different projects), and the Heartcatch Precure episodes this guy worked on were some of the highlights of the series. To make things even better, Reiko Yoshida is a very experienced writers and has helmed a lot of classic series, including a few originals.
The Negatives: I have never followed Saint Seiya, and none of the OVAs that appeared particularly caught my interest, but if this can be watched without being familiar to the whole franchise I’ll certainly give it a shot. That’s going to be my big fear though: the Saint Seiya franchise at this point is huge. Will it be easy to get into?
Phi Brain Second Season
Director: Junichi Sato
Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima
Other Notable Staff: Youhei Sasaki (Character Design)
The Positives: Well, this was about the last series of the currently airing series that I’d expect to get a sequel, but here it is. And really: there is a lot of great stuff that they can do with this. Phi Brain is currently at the point where you can really see that Sato Junichi’s characterization is paying off, and the character development is getting very good now, not to mention that the puzzles can only get more interesting with the way things are set up.
The Negatives: My one big question is what the new season will be about. The current season is building up to a very easy to see climax, but this will also be a climax that will be very hard to beat, as it really looks into the characters and pasts of the main protagonists and antagonists.
Ozuma
Chief Director: Ryousuke Takahashi
Director: Takahiro Ikezoe
Series Composition: Junki Takegami
Other Notable Staff: Leiji Matsumoto (Original Creator), Nobuteru Yuki (Character Designs), Kousuke Yamashita
The Positives: I am a big fan of Ryousuke Takahashi, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out that he would be involved in this project. It’s only going to be six episodes long, and I don’t know whether it counts as an OVA or TV-series, but I’m thrilled to see a series that reunites him, with Leiji Matsumoto of all people. The music also will be excellent: it’s got the composer of Chihayafuru and Shion no Ou, and the style of this guy could pretty well fit in a space opera. Junki Takegami as a scriptwriter doesn’t really say anything to me to be honest, but this guy does have a lot of experience. He just didn’t really work on many series I saw, with the big exception of being the guy who adapted the first Gunslinger Girl season.
The Negatives: The big question mark here is the director: he’s the director of Slap Up Party, something that meant to be an RPG parody, but didn’t know what a parody was. I’m not very confident with him behind the reigns, although as a standalone episode director he does know his stuff and worked on some impressive episodes.
Hyou-ka: You can’t escape
Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto
Series Composition: Shouji Gatou
Other Notable Staff: Kouhei Tanaka (Music), Honobu Yonezawa (Original Story, Series Composition Cooperation)
The Positives: My big problem with Kyoani is that they keep making shows I’m not interested in. I know that they’re really well animated, but for me to watch a bunch of moe blobs in their daily lives, there has to be something that catches my attention, and neither K-On, Lucky Star nor Nichijou succeeded in that. But lo and behold, it’s like they heard me, because their next series will be an actual mystery-series. Awesome! The series composition guy will be the writer of the Full Metal Panic novels, and the guy who wrote the Druaga no Tou series, which also is quite interesting.
The Negatives: My one concern with this series: I don’t “get” Yasuhiro Takemoto’s sense of humour. Lucky Star, Fumoffu, those Haruhi ONAs… they all bored me to death, so I really hope that he will keep to his mystery in this series and just ignore the comedy altogether.
Uchuu Kyoudai
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
Other Notable Staff: Toshiyuki Watanabe (Music), Hiroshi Kato (Art Direction)
The Positives: Now here is one who really caught my eye. This premise is potentially gold, and A-1 Pictures behind the animation is showing a lot of potential here. The art will look amazing: Hiroshi Kato also did the art for many other gorgeous looking series. The director has only worked on Doraemon movies before, so he has experience in directing, and let’s see what he can do with an actual mature series like this.
The Negatives: Oh god, not Makoto Uezu. This guy sometimes gets lucky when he’s got good source material, but he also screwed up potentially interesting stories up often enough. I’m looking at you, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka. Since he also adapted “classics” such as School Days, Seikon no Qwaser and Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka, in which it felt like he wasn’t even trying, I’m really holding my heart out for this guy.
Fate/Zero Second Season
Director: Ei Aoki
Original Creator: Gen Urobuchi
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (Music)
The Positives: Well, it’s finally time for the second season of this series. The first season was entirely dedicated to building up, so there had better be some payoff now. In either way though, this was an incredibly solid series: well produced in all ways, so this series definitely has the potential to come well together.
The Negatives: The only slight downside I can think of now is that familiarity with Fate/Stay Night is slightly assumed, both for the in-universe concepts of magic and the personalities of some of the characters and I’m not going to watch that series again.
Tsuritama
Director: Kenji Nakamura
Series Composition: Toshiya Ono
Other Notable Staff: Atsuya Uki (Character Designs)
The Positives: More Kenji Nakamura! This guy is really an excellent director, and with A-1 Pictures backing him, he can really flex his creative muscles again, and again this is a series completely different from his other works. The premise very well could work here.
The Negatives: Just one question. The guy who wrote Suite Precure will be writing this? Why him? Also, the thing remains: Noitamina should not be about high school kids. There are enough other shows who do that.
Eureka Seven Ao
Director: Tomoki Kyouda
Other Notable Staff: Mitsuyasu Sakai (SF-Setting), Shiho Takeuchi (Design), Shoji Kawamori (Nirvash Design)
The Positives: Awesome to see Eureka Seven back. the original series took a while to get going, but when it went off, it really was amazing. And the director of the series has finally returned for some more. This will be his first full series again after directing that series, so I’m very curious what he can do with a re-imagining of this series. A lot of work has also gone into the designs of this series (including getting Shoji Kawamori to design the main mecha). This is definitely one to look out for.
The Negatives: I see none so far, but it would be a bit of a shame if Bones can’t also get this to 52 episodes.
Sakamichi no Apollon
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Other Notable Staff: Yoko Kanno (Music), Yuuko Kakihara (Script), Ayako Katou (Script), Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Character Designs)
The Positives: Well, this is it: the big one. The show in which Shinichiro Watanabe finally returns for another series. Aided by Studio Mappa, who are apparently the same division of Madhouse who were behind series as Dennou Coil and Casshern Sins. I really want to see more of these guys. The story being about Jazz fits him really well, and yet it’s very different from his usual series (and yet, his short film Baby Blue on Genius Party showed that he can also very well animate non-action series). Add that to an excellent character designer and animator (think the character designs for Hyouge Mono and the animation direction of Sarai-ya Goyou).
The Negatives: At the same time, it would have been even more awesome for Shinichiro Watanabe to just do a Noitamina series, but a full fledged rich and diverse series as Cowboy Bebop. He can really make it happen, especially with how ridiculously solid the trailer looked, showing that he had nowhere lost his touch. Also, one of the scriptwriters worries me a bit. Yuuko Karihara adapted Sora no Otoshimono, Persona, Stitch and Kamichama Karin. Can she keep up with this series?
If you’re expecting Medaka Box to be yet another school romantic comedy about a student council, man are you SO wrong…
Unless of course Gainax decids to turn it into yet another school romantic comedy about a student council.
Hey whaddya know. I started reading that Zetman manga on a whim last week and now its being adapted. I mean I don’t even usually read manga. I just decided, “hey, I think I’m gonna read a manga today”. It was really good though. I never got past the exposition, but it was really really good. The problem there is that it is SO good that they are probably going to give a lot of time to it, which will give less time to the actual story. It might end up pretty rushed :/
It is already time for another season huh? I still need to catch up with the winter stuff. Looking through the list I think I will be watching about the same stuff as you. I have been getting really bored of the moe’ stuff coming out as of late. It really seems to be getting worse.
This season looks preety good, but then again thats what i said about the winter season and most of the series suck.
Wait…no sword art online? Damn. Must be next season.
Sankarea and Accel world should prove to be quite surprising for you Psgels. Nazo na Kanojo X might as well. I really liked the beginning of the manga. I read Dusk Maiden of Amnesia for a while and found it got interesting after a good few chapters but before that it was quite tedious. Like you pointed out. Fanservice of a dead girl is only disturbing for me.
Sankarea has a very solid start. The lead isn’t a typical guy and the story can change from lighthearted to incredibly dark at times. I would describe the story as original. Barely a cliche to be found.(As far as I can remember) Biggest problem with it? Fanservice…
Accel world is the one I look forward to the most. The story is great from what I read in the novels. Has the potential to be the spiritual successor to gurren lagann. Best of all the main protagonist isn’t a typical bishounen or that average high school student. He’s an overweight but very sharp and intelligent guy. With the My hime team behind it…I can’t see this going wrong. Except for the ending as I am not sure if the novels are finished yet.
I really wish more bloggers read manga and thus not base their first impressions of anime adaptations solely on the staff, but also on the source material. So far almost every blogger’s season previews all reek of cries of unoriginal, cliche, generic and no potential based on solely the synopsis and staff.
It’s good to read some opinions from people who’ve actually read the source material, and I completely agree with your expectations of Nazo no Kanojo, Sankarea and Tasogare. And the fanservice isn’t THAT bad O.o
Spinarakk: I really wish that I also had the time to keep up with manga, but on top of all of the stuff I’m currently doing with anime, including the time it takes to write this blog, I just don’t have the time and energy for that. I’ve been told this more often, but I’m not going to bother to stress into reading these mangas, just for the sake of being able to write more accurate previews here.
I can understand that psgels. I write comments the same size as your posts to my friends and they take nearly an hour to complete. Just managing your blog must eat away at your time.
I read light novels, manga, and visual novels. I even played persona 1 & 2 in preparation for the persona 4 animation.(Currently near the end of persona 3)I can say for certain that there is absolutely no way someone can do this and manage a blog on top of that. I already find that there isn’t enough hours in a day.
However Psgels if you plan on maybe cutting down your post to check out a manga or anything I suggest this. Instead of bloging 11 shows episode by episode just choose about three or five to do that and with the others simply post about them when you feel something significant happens or every four episodes or so.
Of course if you need any pre-anime impressions I am always up to date with the latest manga so I can give you my impressions.
Yeah I fully understand that running a blog while watching lots of anime while having a life leaves not much time for reading source material.
I guess it just irked me that almost every single season preview I read on blogs mostly consists or mere judging books by their covers, as more often than not, if the studio actually decides to do a competent adaptation of a well-established manga, it will turn out great.
It’s not a guarantee though Spinarakk. For example I was ready to accept the world god only knows to be a great anime. It had a competent studio and the source material was solid.
Yet somehow they screwed it up. They focused on the wrong aspects of the manga and the comedy was just dead.
judging the staff is the best way to know if the anime ( or any media in existence )will be good or not, it depend on them to do it
staff > studio( because of the resource they had and people that are bound to them ) > source material
Well rever5e, explain guilty crown. That anime had a hell of a staff and was still terrible.
Aidan: well, the scriptwriter had it coming: the series was either going to be awesome, or a complete trainwreck (this was actually my prediction from before the series started). It turned out to be the latter, unfortunately.
@Psgels, I would love to defend the code geass writer…but after guilty crown I don’t think I can anymore.
But I know there must be other examples of a series having a great staff and still producing garbage.
Reverse, source materiel pretty much trumps everything. You can have the greatest staff in the world but it means nothing if they are adapting a third season of To love ru.
But good staff is needed. I admit that.
Eureka Seven Ao’s main plot seems a bit too close to Infinite Stratos according to recent information and even the writer has still not been announced, so I wouldn’t be too optimistic about that series.
My-Hime wasn’t as great as it is questionably being suggested here, to be honest, and it really doesn’t make much sense at all to call Hiroyuki Yoshino the “Code Geass writer” either, when he only ever wrote 3 episodes of that show. In contrast, he has clearly written the vast majority of Guilty Crown.
Then again, I know that doesn’t make much of a difference here. However, I also don’t see what psgels has against Macross Frontier, which Hiroyuki Yoshino did write. Even if the TV series had some issues, it was alright and he later did a good job with the movie version.
“source materiel pretty much trumps everything”
this just wrong, you see how many fail and good anime(or any media like i say before) come out from adaption,it more fail then good, and some just plain decent, not worth you time if you aren’t a fanboy
third season To love ru by Quentin Tarantino, i watch that
Sorry, I don’t understand moon speak. So if you have a point to make I suggest you don’t write like Yoda.
But if I manage to piece some of what you said together then you mean “Original animes normally turn out better than anime adaptations. Were as adaptations often fail”
And that’s not true. Case in point, Star driver, Occult academy, guilty crown, Blassreiter, Eden of the east. These were all original and turned out average or just plain bad.
Either way this is off topic. As the original question is what decides an animes quality. Staff or source material. And like I said, Staff doesn’t mean diddly squat if the source material they are adapting is terrible.
Note: Najo no Kanojo X is based on an absolutely EXCELLENT romance manga. So if they play their cards right, it could have the potential to be really, really good!
Unless they cop out and spoil exactly what made the manga so good. At which point I guess it could very well be terrible. But the source material is great! So I guess we’ll see what happens.
Medaka box is surprisingly action-focused. If Gainax does what I genuinely hope they do and decide to skip the first bit, you’re in for an interesting show about what happens when (almost) every protagonist and antagonist is as ridiculously overpowered as your standard overpowered shounen lead.
The Negative for the new E7 series is all the other info about it that’s come out so far, the character designs look kinda generic and somehow it’s set in Japan in 2025, even though the first series was who knows how many years into the future. I’m getting less and less optimistic about this one by the day.
liking the new format for the previews. and agreeing with spinarakk. its somewhat generic at the beginning, but medaka box is by nisioisin. it doesn’t stay that way for long.
The only one I’m looking forward to are Uchuu Kyoudai and Zetman. Both are very well written mangas. It was probably because of the popularity of Tiger and Bunny that Zetman got chosen to be animated. That’s another reason to like Tiger and Bunny. <3
Sakamichi no Apollon. I am really looking forward to this one. I don’t even care that it is about high schoolers because the setting is utterly non-generic. I know what you mean about the lack of stories about adults; this has been a problem for a while, and the anti-body to that was supposed to be Noitamina, but they seem to have largely given up.
Not gonna lie, this looks like a pretty damn solid season. There’s something for absolutely everyone, here.
Nazo na Kanojo X or Mysterious Girlfriend X is from a manga so you can’t really put too much credits on the character designer. It’s pretty good and doesn’t annoy so much. And (at least in the manga) the story is pretty pure, despite the raunchy setting.
Sankarea and Zetman’s manga is really pretty, so I think it’s gonna be hard for me to watch the anime if the quality is bad.
And yeah, I’m also interested in the New Saint Seiya due to the Heartcatch staff connections but have never seen/read any of the previous works.
Hmm… well, there’s more Fate/Zero and Kimi to Boku, so there’s two givens for me. (Really excited to see where Fate/Zero go from here.)
But none of these new shows really… grabs my attention. Maybe Hyouka? Maybe Tsuritama? And then weaker maybes for a few others… (Shining Hearts, Accel World, Hiiro no Kakera) Hopefully this means I’ll be in for some pleasant surprises, because nothing sounds terribly intriguing for spring.
The shows I’m looking forward to this season are:
Rock Lee’s Springtime of Youth: Psgels,you should seriously give it a try.The manga which serializes in Saikyo Jump is HILARIOUS! What makes it so damn funny is the art.It’ll be a nice dose for laughter.
Medaka Box: I’ve heard too many things about this from the Weekly Jump forums.I’ve been wanting to check out whether it really meets the hype.
Kuroko no Basket: Same as Medaka Box.Currently longest serializing sports manga in Jump.
Zetman: I have a feeling this show is gonna be a really brilliant one! I’ve become a fan of seinen series and this one,being serialized in Young Jump,is definitely on my to see list! Heard many praises for the manga.
Fate Zero: For those who followed season 1,it is completely obvious to watch this
Eureka 7 AO: I’ve liked the original Eureka 7 series.This one better be as good as that one!
Sakamichi no Apollon: Who wouldn’t watch this series! I’m expecting this to deliver like Bebop Champloo, so it’s in!
Also btw psgels,why do you have a dislike for manga? You’re seriously missing out some brilliant series by not reading them! Most notably 20th Century Boys, Liar Game, Shingeki no Kyojin. Don’t tell me you havent read ANY manga being an anime fan for so many years?
The reason for it is simple: time. It already takes a ton of time to keep this blog running for me to pick up manga on top of that. I’ve tried to read manga in the past (the Bokura no manga, by the way), and even though it’s got an amazing storyline, I just got stuck at it at chapter 30 or something.
Maybe you can, you know, watch less crappy anime (which is about 80% of the shows you blog) and try to read more manga? That way you’d also be able to adjust your standards for what constitutes good storytelling 🙂
@kiavik: as well intentioned as I suppose your reply is, its phrasing carries a condescending undertone that is borderline offending and rude XD.
That said, I agree sometimes sampling the source some anme are derived from can be both a time and disappointment saver. It worked for me most of the times. Then there are the rare cases when anime and source are on the same level or anime>>>>source… (YMMV of course. For me the best case is NisioIsn Monogatari series… I can enjoy it in anime form, but I find the novels unreadable.. the translated bits of them at least , as I don’t know Japanese ^^ ).
I’m sorry if I seemed rude. I definitely didn’t want to come across that way. It’s just that I find psgels very often praising some really crappy series and that makes me think he is not really that knowledgeable about what makes a good anime or manga. In the last few years the average quality of anime has definitely went down the shitter, while this didnt happen to manga. That’s why I suggest reading some classic or recent manga so that he can raise his standards 🙂
“The Negatives: The only slight downside I can think of now is that familiarity with Fate/Stay Night is slightly assumed, both for the in-universe concepts of magic and the personalities of some of the characters and I’m not going to watch that series again.”
I read the novels so I won’t spoil you, but I will say that you do not need to worry about this. It should just continue right where Season 1 ended.
I’m going to chime in here with the others psgels and tell you that some of these “generic” premises are rather misleading, particularly in regards to Medaka Box.
That being said, I love seasons with a variety of “dark horse” shows so to speak, and it seems like Spring 2012 is jam packed with ’em.
Wow … I thought this was going to be an absolute shit fest but then I realized you were ranking worst to best … then all was saved.
The beginning of the list is rather sad indeed, except for Kanojo X. And there’s some stuff later on that probably belongs up front. I don’t always see eye to eye with psgels but he mostly nails it as far as what’s worth checking out 🙂
Well… I have to point out that Jewel Pet series are a lot than just selling tools. Especially Sunshine. Every season of this series takes a different direction. And for this season, Sunshine is surprisingly well constructed & written for a kid show. And knows very well about balancing the comedy part and serious part. For the comedy part there is a lot punch line and parody that only those who were born in the 80s or earlier to get it. But since the show itself is quite balanced, young viewers can enjoy the comedy as well. The other two seasons are good in its own way. But Sunshine is more distinctly standing out on the for-elder-viewer part. It is more like an anime Gintama for kids, or Japanese My Little Pony.
But I guess the next season the series is going to take yet another direction.
By the way, I like Tsuyoshi Nagasawa a lot. He can always make an average moe series fun to watch. So I am definitely going to try Nyaruko-chan out.
Looking from this list, shows I can’t wait to see are:
-Sakamichi no Apollon (Shinichiro Watanabe? count me in)
-Tsuritama (Because I love Atsuya Uki, and this show really looks refreshing. Fishing is quite original for an anime I presume)
-Uchuu Kyoudai (I always intrigued by shows that have what looks like meaningful and significant flashbacks as part of the story, I hope that’s the case here)
-Zetman (Looks cool and badass. Nuff said)
I try to make the list as small as possible, although there are others that also piqued my interest. But adding/dropping shows in the middle of the season is the thing I do anyway.
I won’t expect too much from Shining Hearts though. Just because there isn’t much in the original game… Don’t get me wrong. Itsuro Kawasaki is a fine director. L/R: Licensed by Royalty is quite well made as an opusculum and the tone of that anime is not often found in Japanese animation. And the Shining game series is a masterpiece back in the MD ages. I have played through Shining Force II a lot of times when I was a kid.
Argh my first comment got deleted, so please forgive me if this one has several grammar issues.
I love how there seems to be a lot of ‘old-school’ anime this season.It’s nice to see how old titles get adapted in this day and age, and are often done surprisingly well ( some good examples would be my personal favourites Casshern Sins and Toward The Terra, as well as Gegege no Kitaro). I hope Saint Seiya, Ozuma, and Zetman are able to follow in their footsteps and make a successful transition between the 20th and 21st century. The other non-‘old-school’ sci-fi series’, Eureka 7 and Accel World, also hold a lot of promise.
Glad to see that the slice-of-life series are genuinely interesting for a change. Uchuu Kyoudai, Tsuritama, and Sakamichi no Apollon promise something beyond the usual ‘cute girls doing cute things’ and romantic comedy hijinks. Could be wrong about Tsuritama; might turn into this big fantasy adventure shounen with fishing, but what do I know?
Anyway, I’m really looking forward to this season. Hats off to Kuroko no Basuke. Despite not having read majority of the manga, I hope it does well.
As a side note: Is there a surplus of Jump titles this season, or is it just my imagination?
Psgels, im, going to explain you the thing of Mappa:
Usually, at Madhouse, before the 2011 there was two head leaders:
Masao Maruyama, he planned his proyects doing dinners at the emprese and called it Mappa(the ones who no are also in the NTV group):
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=936.
And for the NTV channel:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/company.php?id=834.
if you take the 2008 Kaiba and Casherns Sins were Mappa things (before it was oficial) and Himitsu and Mouryou for the NTV division.
you can say that Mappa is the subdivision that do things with other countrys (andalucia no natsu, supernatural, yona…) o things with others directors, external to Madhouse. Kaiba(yuasa)Denno Coil(iso), Cassern (yamauchi)… . For this series you usually expect that are interesting at least
The NTV division, the thing that can be call the actual Madhouse, more focused in things that fixed his style, and maybe more japanese, it,s not like they not have his own experimental proyects(the great aoi bungaku fo exemple), but usually focused more in normal people, and a good % of them are adult shows(P.E: Monster) was official since this autum(chihaya is a good exemple of this class of series),are usually pretty solid series. The bad thing about them is that they released infomation about their proyects too late.
It,s bad they are going to work separated(it,s not they had bad relations o anything, Maruyama it,s also working as creative on Chihaya and Hunter) now? For me at least no.
Another year like 2008 was very dificult to happen if they was joined,(there was 4 great series but with bad sales, too much for a single studio). With this decision, if each one release only 2 good series par year can be as good as this year.
Psgels, you’re not the only one calling for more stuff from KyoAni. Apparently Nichijou BOMBED in the DVD sales. Perhaps Kyo-Ani is finally realizing that moe slice of life can’t save them anymore.
Nichijou isn’t moe slice-of-life, though. It’s off-the-wall comedy. It bears about as much as common with K-On as Cromartie High School. If anything, KyoAni bombed because they didn’t stick with their guarantee money-makers.
That said, I’m curious about Hyouka, as I enjoy a good mystery. The characters look super-generic, but it’s hard to say much before the first episode has aired.
You do realize that they bombed because they DIDN’T do a moe slice of life?
I believe that most of the time, looking at the staff is really useless, or even counterproductive.
For example, it is true that Nazo na Kanojo X’s creators are mostly known for boob anime, but that tells absolutely nothing about their directing, or scriptwriting skills, just about the fact that their source material was boob manga.
Often, making guesses based what genre of works happened to be assigned to that staff before, is so misleading, that even only looking at the promo art style and the description, and ignoring the staff leads to a more accurate guess.
Oh, and from the description of AKB0048, you left out the part where they are fighting against an opressive government in the far future.
Shinichiro Watanabe! Even if every other show takes a turn for the dreadful, it will still be an awesome season.
Just for your info psgels: Yes, sadly AKB48 are that popular. The Top 5 of last year’s oricon charts constisted solely of their songs and that’s not even all of the songs featured in the Top 100 (plus all the other whatsoever48 spin-off groups). Even considering Kawamori and all that… I still just find the whole premise and plot known so far extremely hilarious and I don’t really know if in a bad or somewhat strangely good way.
As for source materials:
I do understand that anyone not just going to school simply does not have the time to keep up with everything (s)he is interested in. Once you go to university and actually want to finish and achieve something there, you pretty much have to focus on stuff. I feel like I haven’t really been reading manga for years now, which is sad, but it used to be RPGs and now it’s Japanese detective novels that devour most of my free time. For example, in the case of Another, I knew the source material because the author is one of my favorites. In the coming season there are adaptions where I knew of the source material before, but did not have any time to spare.
That said, I’ll definitely watch Fate/Zero and, knowing the author of the source material but never having read one of his novels, Hyouka. Apart from that I guess I’ll take a look at Zetman, Tasogare Otome, Eureka, maybe Accel World… and maybe AKB0048 for the lolz.
@ psgels
About Natsuiro Kiseki.
“[…]this seems to be one of those shows to promote four random idols”.
Well, 3 out of these 4 established voice-actresses from this “Sphere” music group are in the excellent Hanasaku Iroha (which is even praised in your reviews); Aki Toyosaki (as Nako Oshimizu), Haruka Tomatsu (as Yuina Wakura), Minako Kotobuki (who played a minor role in Hanasaku Iroha, as Eri Mizuno). Ayahi Takagaki is Ein in Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom, Feldt Grace in Mobile Suit Gundam 00. So they are not some random idols as you mentioned earlier.
Zetman looks pretty badass, sadly its the only that really catches my attention (besides the second half of Fate/Zero). Maybe there will be some surprises but I’m probably just gonna go back and watch older shows.
Nazo na Kanojo X should be surprising you. I read some chapters of the manga, and I quite liked it, as it’s really not like what you’d expect. It’s interesting, has great characters, AND there are actually couples right from the start! Please please give it a chance psgels, even if it’s making you think “ewww what the fugg?” at first. I’m kind of happy there’s going to be anime of it, it’s just so different from all the other seemlingly popular things right now.
Psgels, thank you for your insightful preview! Only few shows where I’m quite sure I’ll like them (Zetman, Hyou-ka, Skamichi no Apollon). Am I wrong or has the number of shows featuring mainly/ only male MC’s been rising recently? Btw, NyaruAni was so crappy that I actually found it funny. I’m looking forward to Nyaruko-chan!
AKB48 anime… I don’t want to live in this world anymore
I saw Tsuritama’s trailer and the kneejerk reaction was ‘CENCOROLL’! Sure enough, Atsuya Uki was behind it 😀
This, and Apollon are going to really stand out this season.
Nazo na Kanojo X – Intrigued by premise
Arashi no Yoru ni – I enjoyed some version of this at some point. I wonder how this will go.
Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan – this is Shining? Is it about bread? What?
Kuroko no Basuke – Every week in Jump I gloss over this, but I’ve always been curious.
Kimi to Boku 2 – Can’t wait
Ozuma – Looks like an epic blast from the past. I’m curious what it will actually be like.
Hyou-ka: You can’t escape – I have no idea
Uchuu Kyoudai – should be epic
Sakamichi no Apollon – looks like it will be awesome. Also, Kochi dialect!
Spring season 2012 is shaping up to have the best Noitamina block since Tatami Galaxy and House of Five Leaves. Unless Nakamura messes up again like he did with [C]. Other than those two, I’m looking forward to Zetman, the new Fate/Zero, the new Eureka Seven, Medaka box, the kyoani show, and Kuroko no Basuke(again, despite the guy’s work on [C]), and my ultimate guilty pleasure…Queen’s Blade.
Nazo na Kanojo X deserves a second look, it was a rather unusual manga in many ways… whether that means you like it or not, I think you ought to check out a few episodes. Sankarea is also fun but it’s rather generic so my money is on you not liking it at all. Zetman is obviously good, the manga is mature, complex, and simply satisfying.
Other than that, I’ll definitely end up watching Ozuma, Accel World, Eureka Seven Ao, and Fate//Zero S2, Uchuu Kyoudai, and Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead.
I still can’t believe that you managed to sit through Phi Brain, but even with that benefit of the doubt I think I’ll be skipping the second season.
All I can say is this there was probably never a time when certain kid shows weren’t about selling toys.
I haven’t read every comment so I apologize if you have already addressed this, but like others have said, don’t be fooled by the desciption of Medaka BoX. It’s quite misleading. It’s actually a pretty good series.
*****Minor, generic spoiler. Read at your own risk.*****
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My problem with Medaka Box is that it appears to have started our with modest intentions, but as it goes on, it seems to get bogged down by just more and more…stuff. I can’t even think of a way to describe it to be honest. It just feels like the keep adding more and more things to the story that don’t need as much attention as they get or that don’t need to be in the story at all.
Also, it doesn’t help that as the series progresses, Medaka becomes more and more unlikeable to the point you just want to pull your hair out. It doesn’t help that she’s the ‘main character’ (readers of the manga will know why that’s in quotes) either.
Like I said, I think it’s a much better series than the description makes it out to be, but as it goes on, it just doesn’t have that same twinkle in it’s eye that it used to. That’s just me though so meh w/e
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Hey, psgels. Jormungand is going to be shown this Spring too.
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2012-02-18/mami-sawada-to-sing-jormungand-anime-opening-theme
Better update the list! Wow, I guess Spring 2012 is getting better. I’ll definitely see Zetman, Uchuu Kyoudai, Sakamichi no Apollon, Tsuritama and the 2nd season of Phi Brain.
Yeah, it turns out there were two series that I missed: Jormundgand (Yosuke Kuroda FTW!) and the Yamato TV-series also seems to premiere in april.
Uchuu Kyodai is confirmed for 48+ episodes.
Awesome.
I think you’ll be surprised by some of the shows you gave low ratings to. For one, Medaka box is not at all what you’re expecting. Well, it starts out as a generic high school comedy, but it’s really more of a deconstruction of shonen fighting series. Sankarea is also a lot more interesting than it seems. The humour is generally somewhat dark, and it gets pretty serious. But then again, the anime might not reflect this. Dusk Maiden of Amnesia’s manga is actually decent, at least when it avoids generic romantic comedy cliches long enough to tell a story. But again, knowing the way anime adaptations often play out, generic romance aspects will be played out and the horror/mystery ones ignored, but if that doesn’t happen it could be a decent series.
also Nazo na Kanojo X isn’t raunchy, it’s just weird. There’s no sex in the manga, just a lot of saliva exchanging. and scissors.
A
A new Lupin III anime has been announced for this season, it has a quite godly staff, is being directed by the director of Michiko and Hatchin, the scrpt in charge of Dai Sato and Takeshi Koike in charge of the animation.
Uhmmm.. doesn’t Shining Hearts remind you of Harvest Moon?
“Will there ever come a point at which the guys at Arms will stop producing these bad fanservice shows?”
When otaku stop buying it sure. Otherwise, Queen’s Blade is just too popular. And for some, it’s not totally trashy like most of its ilk. Well…that’s what I hear.
I had to lol at your AKB0048 description. But the better question is why doesn’t it have a 0% attached to it!
Otherwise, the list is pretty good. I hope Tasogare does well. But with Shin Oonuma directing it (and my memory of him stems from C3 O.o) and it being only a 12 episode series, I can only worry…
This has probably been suggested but organizing the season preview by air date instead of “potential” makes a little more sense. The potential rating is definitely interesting but organizing it based on air date just makes it easier to keep track of everything.
conquerstrife: that indeed is a good idea, however there is one very big reason why I’m not going to do that:
I always write these previews very early, at a time when most of the airing dates aren’t even known yet.
Alphabetically would also be interesting, but when you organize it by potential, it makes for much easier reading, as there’s a clear progression of the quality of the series. Furthermore, when we’re reading the preview, the season’s not supposed to have started yet (unlike my previews, written three weeks after the season starts, e.g. write about now)!
P.S. Yes, that ‘write’ was a pun and was rightened writely.
P.P.S. Ok, I admit, the second one didn’t go down all too well.
Im really looking forward to Zetman. The manga takes the “hero” thing and does with it something I have never seen before.
Oh, How different did your first glance potential of AKB0048 turned out to be! LOL! Later, -someone- mentioned that it was actually good! Oh, who I wonder that was!