Autumn Season Preview – Movie & OVA Edition

Oh my god. Remember how I said in the preview for the movies for the current Summer Season that it has the potential to become the best season for movies in a decade? Well, upcoming fall season actually is looking even better. I did not think it was possible, but seriously: there are so many awesome movies coming out, it’s just incredible.

So yeah, brace yourselves for the point at which all these movies will finally be able to arrive on DVD, because 2012 is going to be a fantastic year for movies.

Franchise OVAs

Comments: This is a list of all the ovas and dvd specials that are going to come out. A rundown: Otome wa Boku ni Koshiteru, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Minami-ke, Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai, High School DXD, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka and Upotte. And to be honest, the only one I even remotely care about is Minami-Ke, but even that is a series that I can hardly remember when I watched its third season.

Ongoing OVA and Movie Series

Comments: These are continuing instalments of movies that are appearing, including the umpth Precure movie. And really: what’s not to love? Tales of Symphonia will conclude, Berserk will air its third instalment, concluding up to the point where the Television series left off (in other words, the BEST part), Mardock Scramble will conclude, and Evangelion is also back at a point at which it’s probably really going to take off, if the second movie was any indication. Interesting bit of trivia: for Evangelion they got their hands on a rather peculiar director to help along with the regular creators: Mahiro Maeda, the director of Gankutsuou. Yeah.

Katayoku no Khronos Gear

The Positives: The director originally came up with the concept for the Legend of Black Heaven and El Hazard, so he definitely has imagination.
The Negatives: You know, I find it very impressive that these guys managed to track down the descendants of Joan of Arc. Especially since she died as a virgin. I think this is one of those OVAs where you can pretty much get your impression from watching the trailer: it’s all really typical moe fantasy (with orgasmic power-up scenes included). Along with such a stupid premise, I’m not seeing much hope for this one.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Zenpen: Hajimari no Monogatari & Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Kouhen: Eien no Monogatari

The Positives: For those who haven’t watched Madoka Magica yet: this is for you. The chance to watch it on the silver screen.
The Negatives: You know, it really sounded great when three whole movies of Madoka Magica got announced, right? Well, two of those three are just recap movies: only the third will feature any new content, and really: that ending was very conclusive: how do they plan to add to that? In any case though, my real issue with these movies is that I cannot find an answer to the question of “What will these movies add to the Madoka Franchise?”

Kaiketsu Zorori Da-Da-Da-Daibouken!

The Positives: So, the producer of Legend of Legendary Heroes will direct the next movie for the Kaiketsu Zozori franchise, written by the director of Vandread, The Skull Man, Otaku no Video along with music composed by the same guy who also did the soundtrack for Hyouka, One Piece, Nurarihyon no Mago and A TON of other series. Kindof an impressive resume for a kids’ movie.
The Negatives: Kaiketsu Zozori is a bit of an overblown kids show that went on for way too long, can this movie really reel in new fans or is it just going to aim itself at kids?

Usogui

The Positives: This one screams pilot. It’s based on a shounen manga that is in no way going to fit inside an OVA, but this really looks like the producers are trying to see whether it works for animation, so we might as well see a proper Usogui series in about a year or something. And they got the character designer of Barefoot Gen to direct it… interesting.
The Negatives: So yeah, don’t expect anything from this OVA, it will only be an introduction, nothing more.

Macross FB7: Ginga Rukon Ore no Uta o Kike!

The Positives: So this is going to be a remake of the Macross 7 series, in which the characters of Macross Frontier are also going to make an appearance. Tetsurou Amino directed the original Macross 7 (which I didn’t see, by the way) and this guy really impressed me with his work on Shiki, so who knows? Satelight will also very likely brings its best animators to this project, so it’s definitely going to have a ton of eye candy again.
The Negatives: I hate to say it, but the Macross Franchise is really getting milked out right now. This is the third movie in what? three years? This one definitely sounds like it was thought up by producers with a lack of imagination.

Horimiya

The Positives: This story is definitely inspired by His and Her Circumstances, with the whole “pretending to be someone you’re not”-angle. The question will now be how well the creators make use of this shoujo story. And the guy to direct this and bring the characters to life is an interesting guy: this will be his first full series to direct, but before this he worked as the unit direction of the Full Metal Alchemist-movie, he directed episode 6 of the Tatami Galaxy and worked as an animator for anime as Welcome to the Space Show, Welcome to the NHK, Gurren Lagann, Read or Die and Panty and Stocking. He’s got an interesting resume for a starting director.
The Negatives: Yukino Ayana previously wrote the series composition for Denpa-Onna to Seishun Otoko, which didn’t know how to pace itself. But hey: this is a short OVA so the danger of it dragging on is much smaller.

Ippatsu Hicchuu!! Devander

The Positives: This is just one of those shows that made me do a double-take to check whether it was really true what I saw. I mean, we have this guy walking around on this robot horse who turns out to be named “Robony”. And to make matters even weirder, Robony was designed by who is probably THE classical mecha designer out there: he is the guy behind the designs of Gundam, Votoms, Reideen, and a ton of other classic mechas. Apparently this is to celebrate Tatsunoko Production’s 50th anniversary. The director is also a complete veteran: the director of Yatterman and all kinds of classic kids’ shows of 30 years ago (this guy was born in 1938!) The script also is written by a veteran, who has written and adapted a ton of series, ranging from Naruto to Yugioh and Yatterman. This definitely is an homage to Yatterman by the way.
The Negatives: The danger is aiming this too much at kids. This really should be something aimed at the older fans.

Kizumonogatari

The Positives: Do you remember that very misleading OP of Bakemonogatari? Now that was actually a teaser for the Kizumonogatari movie, the sequel to both Bakemonogatari and Kizumonogatari. The thing is that I read in an interview once that Nisioisin doesn’t like to repeat himself, which is something I really like, even though I’m definitely not a fan of his writing style that overemphasizes wordplay and takes ages to get anywhere. Still, this will very likely be full of really nice eye candy and animation, on top of that it seems much more action-packed than what Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari were.
The Negatives: That pacing still worries me though. Shaft does have an actual budget for this series now, and they’renot producing way too many series any more like when Bakemonogatari was aired, but I still need to run into a -monogatari adaptation that I really liked.

Arata Naru Sekai

The Positives: This is an ambitious project: it’s going to be both a manga, light novel and anime at the same time, penned by the guy who wrote the Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko novels, and I’m curious what his work is like without Shinbo dancing all over it. And really: this sounds very interesting with a story that deliberately spans different mediums. The director will also have his first full-on directing job, and he sounds like a solid Madhouse director here, having worked on an episode of Mouryou no Hako, Kurozuka and Steins;Gate in the past.
The Negatives: The problem is that I probably won’t be able to get 1/3 of the story, since I don’t read light novels.

Fuse Teppou Musume no Torimonochou

The Positives: Yes! The director of Xam’d is back with another work, this time an adaptation of the author of Gosick who based her story on the Hakkenden. Michiru Ooshima also is a really good choice for the soundtrack. This probably won’t be such an arthouse project as with the original Hakkenden OVA, but as a standalone story there is a ton of potential.
The Negatives: Ichirou Okuchi, the writer of Code Geass… yeah. Still, he did adapt the Berserk movies and Shigofumi, so he can definitely adapt something.

Sakasama no Patema

The Positives: So what was previously released were a bunch of preview OVAs. I didn’t watch them because I was just waiting for the full movie to arrive. In any case, Yasuhiro Yoshiura is the creators of Pale Cocoon, Eve no Jikan and Mizu no Kotoba. He definitely has a unique vision through his works, so this movie is definitely going to be interesting.
The Negatives: If I’d have to say one thing that he lacks, it’s making things come together. That also struck me with Eve no Jikan. Great individual stories, but it just seemed to miss something in the big picture, and I do hope that this gets fixed for this movie release because it definitely seems interesting.

Hana-Saku Iroha: Home Sweet Home

The Positives: Sweet, they stuck with the main staff members of the TV-Series, and on top of that this will probably be Mari Okada’s first written movie screenplay. There is enough inspiration left to fill a movie here, especially since we already know the characters and therefore don’t need the lengthy introduction arc that bogged the TV-series down a bit around its beginning.
The Negatives: So yeah, unfortunately this will likely be a movie for the fans, and not new audiences.

Rakuen Tsuihou: Expelled From Paradise

The Positives: Awesome: a new completely original movie, animated by Toei, directed by Seiji Mizushima (the director of Natsuiro Kiseki, Full Metal Alchemist, Un-Go) and written by Gen Urobuchi (Madoka Magica, Phantom, Fate Zero). It’s going to be a science fiction project, but apart from that nothing is known yet what it’ll be about. It’s also got a really cryptic official website that makes Psycho Pass look like the bible in comparison.
The Negatives: I can’t say anything negative yet. The people involve here are awesome, and Toei’s movies always have this charm to them when they’re done by the experimental part of Toei, of which this definitely belongs to.

Tiger and Bunny – The Beginning

The Positives: The Tiger & Bunny movies just got even better once I found out who the director is going to be: Yoshitomo Yonetani’s name is synonymous to crack: he was behind Dororon – Enma-kun, Hoshi no Umi no Amuri and Brigaddon. He has this unique style and is always really fun to watch, and his crazy touch is definitely going to be interesting and unconventional for Tiger & Bunny here, aided by the series’ original scriptwriter.
The Negatives: Now, the series did end pretty conclusive. I’m not going to spoil this here, but the creators are going to have to be very careful to avoid some deus ex machina in order to actually get a story here.

Asura

The Positives: Holy crap! Toei actually made a movie out of this!? Oh my god, this manga was actually labelled like an anti-Miyazaki story, and this seems unrelentingly dark here. On top of that, the director of Karas and Tiger and Bunny will direct this. The scriptwriter of some of Mononoke’s stories and Ojiisan no Lamp will adapt the story and the ever-lovely Yoshihiro Ike will delier the soundtrack If they can manage to make this work this will definitely be an incredible movie.
The Negatives: The big danger for this one is making it devolve into something that is shocking for the sake of shocking. Make it count and actually flesh these characters out.

009-Re:Cyborg

The Positives: Kenji Kamiyama is back! And how, with this remake of one of the classics in anime (it was written in 1964 and formed the prototype for all power rangers and super sentai series to follow). On top of that, the always awesome Kenji Kaway will do the soundtrack, and one of the people behind the storyboard is one of the main episode directors of Mahou Shoujotai. Remakes are usually awesome, but to have such a rock-solid staff behind one this time makes me even more excited than usual for one.
The Negatives: Like with all remakes, this will have to balance between the original vision of Cyborg, and the vision of the creators themselves. The key here is freedom while doing justice to the source material. That’s always a bit difficult.

Gothicmade

The Positives: Now this is it: a completely unique movie. It was already announced seven or eight years ago, and with this, it’s finally done. This is Mamoru Nagano’s magnum opus. He was involved everywhere. In fact, the reason for why this movie took so long to make was because he took up so much of this movie’s production to himself, from the key animation to the storyboards: everything needed to be done perfectly. After such a long wait and build-up, I just have to see what it eventually turned into because really: we’re likely never again going to see another movie like this.
The Negatives: But yeah, that’s also the danger of such a project: it will either be an amazing and really personal experience… or a complete train-wreck because Mamoru Nagano took way too much into his own hands. But even then though, it will most likely be something special.

Nerawareta Gakuen

The Positives: Holy crap, Ryousuke Nakamura is back! This guy really is my favourite director who started his career during the past ten years, and just about everything he touches becomes brilliant. I mean, just look at the trailer on the official website. It looks so completely gorgeous and expressive. On top of that, I cannot confirm this and I’ve only read this somewhere, but there are rumours that Tetsurou Araki (the director of Death Note and Kurozuka) also helped to work on this movie after his work on Guilty Crown was finished.
The Negatives: There is the premise, which at first sight doesn’t seem like much. Yet, the author did write the Order to Stop Construction, which was delightfully witty. It probably won’t be something as unique as Mouryou no Hako and Hashire Melos though.