Author: psgels

Durarara – 19

by psgels, posted in Durarara



The second half of this series turns out to be disjointed in a completely different way than the first half. The first half threw random scenes together and kept jumping back and forth to make a fun little story. The second half on the other hand is much more linear, but instead it likes to pull twists that it’ll only explain later, without any hint beforehand whether it’s going to do so or not. It was indeed a bit weird for Anri to suddenly show up at the end of the previous episode, this episode explains what she was doing there.

Now it’s time for this series to deliver. I’m not going to tolerate any more boring episodes after this, because overall my expectations for this series might have been a bit too high. I really tried not to compare this show to Baccano, but in the end the lack of energy of this series compared to Baccano unfortunately did bother me during the second half when the pacing suddenly turned down, instead of up.

Another thing is that Baccano just did have a huge cast of incredibly charismatic characters. Durarara on the other hand doesn’t: it’s about a bunch of angsty teenagers, a bunch of psychopaths, a headlesss rider and a bunch of characters whose quirks could have been great, but were underdeveloped. Sorry, Simon. I really liked him when this series started, but this guy never really got further than his episode in which he was the narrator. There are more of these minor characters who degenerated into caricatures due to lack of airtime in the second half, and I think that that’s something that I’ve been missing with this series.

Having said that though, I’m very interested in the plot here. It’s the kind of plot that I dislike, but in a good way. The way in which everything is based on misunderstandings and everything would be solved if people would just stop listening to Izaya and instead talk to each other. It’s been well built up however, and the creators can actually get an interesting climax out of it if they go out all the way with this, remain true to their characters and let everything spiral out of control.

The characters are acting with a kind of stupidity that is incredibly annoying with underdeveloped characters. However, now that Kida’s background has also been shown, they’re actually turning into rounded characters here, and that’s something that I appreciate a lot. However, character-development is one thing, now they also have to use it. I did cringe at the point in which Anri in this episode refused to show her face to Kida, however when the creators back it up well enough this can do interesting things for the plot.
Rating: * (Good)

Rainbow – 07

by psgels, posted in Rainbow



This episode featured the most extreme themes, but at the same time the cheese also was the most reserved. Thank god, really. The drama felt a lot more genuine in this episode, and it showed that this series knows how to put a bit of subtlety into its atmosphere.

What strikes me the most however is how fast this series is moving. At first, I thought that this series would be about how An-chan and the six others live together at the prison, and how they spend their daily lives. However, An-chan is about to be released. At first I believed that the creators would end up pulling some kind of twist that would lead to An-chan having his sentence increased, but this episode blew that theory out of the water: Psycho-guard is determined to kill the guy. Any longer there, and he would not have survived. The next few episodes are going to get this guy out of prison, I’m sure of it.

This is really going to lead to interesting character-development as soon as he’s gone, however: psycho guard won’t have his hate anymore. He’s either going to direct this at the six leads, or change completely. The six leads in the meantime will have to survive in prison on their own. The thing however is that even without An-chan, they’re a close-knit group now. Especially Heitai, this guy could become very much like the next An-chan: he’s mature, level headed.

But yeah, this show was already heavy, but heck. They actually killed someone here, with someone else about to die. Psycho guard is really getting more and more extreme with every episode, only fueled on by Pedo Doctor.
Rating: * (Good)

Senkou no Night Raid – 07 (the real one)

by psgels, posted in Senkou no Night Raid



Oh my god, the creators actually did it. I’d easily label this as the episode with the highest stakes against it of the entire year, perhaps of the past few years: just one inserted cliche; only one weakness could completely break this show and label it as a pretentious piece of garbage. It’s been ages since I’ve watched an episode that took such a huge risk. So seeing that the creators actually pulled this episode off, showing that they knew exactly what they were doing makes this a wonderful episode.

The main characters were completely gone. In fact, only one recurrent character makes her appearance, but she only appeared for like… one minute before this episode aired, and subsequently only had one minute of airtime in just this episode. This episode was all about the figures central to the Mukden Incident, and it avoided the things that I was afraid that this episode could do really well: it did not try to avoid the fact that the Japanese themselves caused the incident, it did not present the Japanese as nice guys, but at the same time it also did not present the Japanese as stereotypical war-hungering bastards.

In fact, this episode was all about making the decision to do this. The central characters involved actually carefully considered the options they had, and eventually decided to go with the plan to blow up the railway, which eventually escalated so terribly. This episode portrayed them as knowing full well that they were changing history, and causing a lot of people to suffer.

Then, the cameo of Aoi’s sister (she was his sister, right? Or his girlfriend?). She did arrive from out of nowhere in front of key figures, right when they made the decision, but she actually did not influence them: the characters again stressed that it was themselves who decided. The one joke that this episode pulled was strangely cute, and did lessen the atmosphere. The one thing that might have been a bit fishy about this episode was how they didn’t go after her when she ran away, but I think that that can be attributed to faith: these guys believed that they saw some kind of prophet, or something. The girl overall is pretty mysterious, and perhaps it was her intention to make them believe this. Perhaps it was some sort of test, who knows? It’s up to the next episodes to go more in-depth into that.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Senkou no Night Raid – 07 (the recap one)

by psgels, posted in Senkou no Night Raid



I originally meant to just ignore this episode and go for the streamed one, but in the end I do want to make this small post about it. Because seriously, for a recap it was pretty damn good.

This really is one of the more interesting trends that anime has followed over the past five years: creators are realizing that cheap recaps are very often annoyed, and they are used way less often when compared to ten years ago and before. And when they’re used, they’re actually pretty good in about 50 percent of the cases. A trend really has been to have them as more than a cut and paste job, but instead tell a story of their own.

That was this episode: it skillfully cut together a compilation of the past six episodes and created a flowing narrative out of it, combining it with a few minutes of new footage: a bit of the past of some of the cast members, as well as foreshadowing about whatever that girlfriend of Aoi may be up to. What especially striked me was how the mood of this episode was completely different from the series: the series is usually slow-paced, but here they chopped all of the key scenes together into a surprisingly action-packed one. Especially for this show I can understand the need for a recap, and it’s good to see that they’re actually putting effort into it.

This show has something. I have no idea what, but it’s got this X-factor that draws me into it, and it’s something that I actually did not experience with Sora no Oto. In any case, tomorrow morning I’m going to hunt the real episode seven down. The past week definitely made me hungry about what direction this show will go into.
Rating: * (Good) – Especially for a recap.

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru – 06

by psgels, posted in Uragiri wa Boku no Namae wo Shitteiru




Whoa, I admire the balls that the creators have with this series. This episode was really heavy, and pretty much showed that this isn’t going to be a happy adventure. They really went as far as actually having the bad guys possess little girls in order to deceive Yuki? I give my thumbs up for that.

There were a few things about this episode that were kind of cheesy, like the point in which Yuki claimed that Hotsuma saved him because he cared about him. Hello, you know him for what? Twenty minutes? Hotsuma’s motivation also is a bit weird. I mean, if I were to run into a guy who would be able to heal any wound, I’d be pretty happy with it. The only thing that I can think of here is that he had some kind of really big grudge against Yuki when he still was a girl. This episode actually hinted at how the current Yuki is completely different from how he used to be, which… does pique my interest seeing of how a goodness-loving flower-child he is right now. But yeah, I can imagine that the person that Zess fell in love with to be as socially inept as he is.

In any case I wasn’t sure about the orphanage to start this series off with, however the emphasis on little children in this series has been surprising, to say the least. Most shows of this kind usually have the protagonist wandering stupidly into dangerous situations to get some action going on, but these girls give this a completely different dimension here.

And as for the action… it again was surprisingly good. This show isn’t particularly well animated, but the art itself and the CG around it are really good. It’s also interesting that Zess doesn’t know the meaning of “overkill”, especially when summoning that enormous dragon (or… um… salamander…) of his. It looked awesome in any case.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood – 57

by psgels, posted in Full Metal Alchemist - Brotherhood



Okay. I understand why the mood of the final OP had to be completely different.

This episode had such a sharp contrast with the previous arcs of the series: the characters looked so set on victory: four homunculi are dead by now, Pride is missing, and it seemed like only Father and King Bradley still posed a problem. This episode was dark, and left little of the euphoria that was build up in the previous seasons.

But seriously, what an awesome episode it was. Bradley probably is the best fighter of the entire series, aside from perhaps Father and Hohenheim but we’ve seen too little from them to really determine that. We hardly saw him actually fight though, so when he finally gets into action the tables turn completely, like the previous episode showed. For some strange reason, the other homunculi hardly ever directly killed people in fights: Hughes was the only major good guy death that I can remember so far, aside from flashbacks. In two episodes since he’s actually started fighting, the number of casualties has suddenly risen with two major characters, and who knows how many soldiers? The way in which he was eventually hit also made a lot of impact to me, and it was very well portrayed and very subtle after how over the top the final moments of the old guy were.

This episode also pulled one of the trumps it had been hiding for quite a while now: the strange scientist who created King Bradley. Some of his actions didn’t make any sense, like how he had to wait for Ed to show up before he could write that magic circle of his, and I’d also have preferred to see a bit more about who he is beforehand, but this guy definitely pushed the story in a different direction. At the end of the episode, Ed, Al and Izumi were probably transported to the Truth, or somewhere similar. I also have to give thumbs up to the animators: those “eating”-scenes looked beautiful.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Giant Killing – 07

by psgels, posted in Giant Killing



In my experience, you can really divide sports series into three categories. The first is the typical shounen, and usually the most boring: a band of underdog kids trains hard and wins in an over the top fashion against all odds. Then there’s the realistic type, like what Ookiku Furikabutte is currently doing: really analyzing and pudding down an as believable representation as possible. Touch also belongs to this category. The third category doesn’t necessarily aim for realism, but tries to explore the borders of the sport it’s discussing, with wild and reckless tactics, tailoring games based on unique characters: it’s an exploration of the extremes in a sport. This is the category of Giant Killing, along with shows as One Outs.

I was really certain that this episode would feature some sort of come-back after last episode’s cliff-hanger. You know, an entire episode dedicated to them, making up for that nasty goal that was scored against them. And they lose. Miserably with 0-4. They then proceed to lose the next two matches again. The whole euphoria of the end of the previous episode, it wasn’t just meant to build up for one measly match, it was meant to build up for the entire series!

It’s still a mystery what Tatsumi has in mind, letting the players play football tennis matches during the training. It’s in any case obvious that he’s not a Deus ex Miracle coach, and this episode really stresses that even though he won in England, it doesn’t mean that he’s automatically going to win every match here.

Central to this episode was also the buzz-cut guy whose name I can’t seem to find: his patience was bound to run out sometime, but this episode made him more than a random hothead. He’s outspoken and often gets angry, but also a perfectionist and a passionate player. But I also love how each player reacts to Tatsumi’s practices in a different way: some of them also start wondering what the hell Tatsumi is up to, while others don’t really care, others think that Tatsumi might have something in mind, and others in turn are sure of it. The cast here is HUGE, but there are so many different nuances between them.

I’ve been thinking, but this show is actually quite refreshing to watch after watching a ton of different high-school baseball series. This isn’t because they’re inferior or something, because Cross Game, Ookiku Furikabutte and Touch definitely rock in their own ways. But the way that high school baseball is set up is very limited: lose once, and you’re out. Instead, the adult teams in contrast can afford to lose. You’re not immediately out if you lose once. It perhaps leads to less drama, but it allows the creators to play much more with their matches.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Heartcatch Precure – 15

by psgels, posted in Heartcatch Precure



Ah, I’ve been waiting for this: the student council president returns. To have another episode devoted to her, she really turned into an incredibly charming character, and it looks like she’s going to make many reappearances after this, now that she’s also in the fashion club.

The first episode dedicated to her was mostly used to introduce the fat that she also likes cute stuff, despite her male appearance. This episode then perfectly uses this, and forces her to come to terms with them. Not because the bad guys suddenly pop up, but rather because of the energy of Tsubomi and Erika, who keep pushing her to join the fashion club now that they know that the president also has her feminine side.

Crucial was here her sick brother, who pretty much lead her to grow up as a strong boy in his place. It wasn’t mentioned in the first episode, but I do think that that was for the better. Because of that, this episode was able to add an extra layer to how the president grew up. I also loved how, despite the fact that her grandfather allowed her to grow up as a boy because of her brother, the creators wisely avoided going down the one-dimensional route by claiming that the martial-arts weren’t part of the president’s true characters. Instead, clothing and martial arts are something that she both enjoys, and chose to do herself.

Also, finally we get to see the red-haired guy a bit more involved with the battles. Usually they just stand around and turn people to desatorians, but here he actually tried to have some fun (not to mention that GIGANTIC CLIFF he created there. Will this return in the future episodes?). And again, this episode made no attempt to god-mode its regular kids: the president showed that she has the skills to bring someone down, but just throwing someone to the ground and expecting to hold him there when he’s twice as heavy as you… that ain’t gonna stop him.

The weak spot of this episode was that red-haired guy, who just got too little time to really show anything more about him other than “graugh I want to be accepted so I’ll just challenge you”. It was interesting that he of all things got turned into a desatorian, though. At the beginning of the episode I thought that the creators would try to use the president for this again.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

The Aniblog Tourney

by psgels, posted in Special Articles

For the readers of this blog:
Okay, so it’s finally this blog’s turn at the Aniblog Tourney. You can vote here, and also be sure to check out the blog I’m up against: Just as Planned. 🙂

To the ones who came here from the Aniblog Tourney:
Welcome at Star Crossed Anime Blog, an episodic blog that I’ve been keeping for nearly four and a half years now. Aside from episodic posts (I try to blog around twelve series each season) I write a bunch of other features as well. Here’s a small list of them:

– Anime Reviews – (reviews of a wide variety of anime, OVAs and Movies. An alphabetical list can be found here: (#-G), (H-L), (M-Q), (R-Z)).

– Seasonal Previews – (previews of upcoming seasons, with a lot of focus on directors and scriptwriters. Since the past two seasons there also is a Movie and OVA edition).

– Monthly Summaries – (a list of my personal impressions of all airing series that I’ve been keeping up with for every month).

– Top 10 Anime – (A few Top-X lists, including my favourite anime, OPs and Horror series).

– Some quick first impressions – (Impressions of the first episodes of newly aired series).

If you start digging through the archives, you might notice a lot of missing screenshots. Apologies for that. I’ve had a lot of issues with image hosting in the past.

In any case, welcome on the site. 🙂

Summer Season Preview – Movie and OVA Edition

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

I’ve noticed that with most seasonal previews, movies and OVAs tend to be largely ignored. That’s why I decided to come with a preview, entirely dedicated to them. Sure, in the case of the movies it’s probably going to take nine months before we can actually get the chance to check them out, but this seems like a good point to look forward to them either way.

This post contains previews for the upcoming movies and OVAs that are scheduled in June, July and August as indicated on Moonphase. I’ve left out the porn and the continuing ones such as Negima and Break Blade. Aside from that, the order is mainly based on my preference: the ones I’m looking forward to the most are at the bottom, and the least interesting ones to me are at the top here.

The trend seems to be kids’ movies, but certainly not in a bad way. There are a ton of interesting looking family-movies scheduled with excellent staff behind them. There are also quite a few continuations of franchises, ranging from short to long and ambitious OVAs and CG movies. Anyway, I hope that this list is going to be useful for some people. I had a lot of fun making it in any case.

Shin Koihime Musou OVA

Summary: Kashin is afflicted with a disease that will turn her into a cat if an antidote is not found, and Kada is still seeking the Crucial Ways to the Key of Peace, so he entrusts Kanuu’s group to go seek the ingredients for an antidote. At the same time, Choujou is plotting something between the Kingdoms, and Kashin may have been only the first in a line of dominoes set to fall. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: One or a bunch of OVAs next to the TV-series.
Why you should look forward to it: I don’t get the director, Nobuaki Nakanishi: he actually did some pretty good stuff in the nineties: a few WMTs, Mahoujin Guruguru. What happened to this guy?
Why you should not look forward to it: Seriously though, how long do they still think that they can keep milking this thing out?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Metal Fight Beyblade VS Taiyō Shakunetsu no Shinryakusha

Type: Kids’ movie.
Why you should look forward to it: If you’re under the age of 11.
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s a beyblade movie.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Pocket Monster Diamond & Pearl: Genei no Hasha Zoroark

Summary: Celebi sees Raikou, Entei, and Suicune fighting in the future in an attempt to stop this from happening, Celebi then travels to the past. Ash encounters a shadowy figure that looks identical to how he looks, but the other appears to be evil. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie (The thirteenth one already)
Why you should look forward to it: More pokemon.
Why you should not look forward to it: More pokemon.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Zettai Karen Children

Summary: In a world where ESP is common, only three people have them at the highest possible level – Level 7. Those three are the special ESP team, The Children. The Children work for BABEL, a special ESPer organization committed to stopping crimes before they happen. Kouichi Minamoto is assigned to watch over them, and he’ll need to, because three superpowered ten year olds are a problem on their own. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: An OVA for the series, whether it’s a continuation, side-story or one-shot isn’t known yet.
Why you should look forward to it: To be honest, when I dropped it (it just wasn’t funny and the characters and premise were just stupid for my tastes), I did not expect this show to go on for 52 episodes. Zettai Karen Children is at least a franchise that gets enough time to show off, and for the characters to actually grow up.
Why you should not look forward to it: Obviously, I do assume that you need to have seen those 52 episodes in order to get this OVA, something which was very hard for me considering how boring the early episodes of the TV-series were.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Abnormal Physiology Seminar

Summary: In the story, Nanako Matsutaka has been assigned to the Abnormal Physiology Seminar, even though she herself is a rather ordinary person with no abnormalities in particular. On the other hand, her classmates, including the college upperclassman Komugi Musashi, have just about every abnormal condition to speak of. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: One-shot OVA bundled with a manga-volume.
Why you should look forward to it: The staff itself is decent. Nobody stands out, but it’s got the director of the first season of Hidamari Sketch (aside from Shinbo, I guess)
Why you should not look forward to it: Takamitsu Kouno is behind the script, and his work unfortunately only ranges from mediocre moe series. This is going to be yet another one of those slice of life comedies.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Hiyokoi

Summary: Hiyori, a small and timid girl, goes to school for the first time in a year since an accident left her hospitalized. Follow her as she struggles with her social skills, tries to make friends and maybe even a little bit more…? – (Taken from Myanimelist)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: This movie still is a big mystery at this point, but it’s quite rare for such a shoujo manga to be actually adapted into a movie of all things. It looks very cute in either case.
Why you should not look forward to it: But at the same time it’s also very typical: weak girl (probably weaker than ever here) who is being taken care of by a strong guy who is very popular. It’s standard shoujo fare. Can the movie-format really make this work?
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Kyou, Koi wo Hajimarimasu

Summary: Self-conscious Tsubaki Hibino enjoys hairstyling, but doesn’t think that style suits herself. When she arrives at her new high school, she is immediately teased by her delinquent-like classmates for maintaining such an old-fashioned look. That’s not the worst part — the top student of the grade, Kyouta Tsubaki, not only shares the same name as her, but is also an arrogant, promiscuous playboy. After Tsubaki cuts Kyouta’s hair in defiance, he ominously threatens to steal all of her first experiences. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Seems like a one-shot OVA that gets shipped along with a volume of the manga it’s based on.
Why you should look forward to it: It’s got an interesting director: Shigeyasu Yamauchi, whose other works include a bunch of Dragonball Z Movies… and Casshern Sins, and he also co-directored the first Digimon Movie. Enough hints that the manga will be portrayed accurately here.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, it’s just one episode of a much, much longer shoujo series. Still, the mangas seem to be selling quite well. Perhaps this hints at a full blown adaptation somewhere in the future. In that case, if the director remains the same things could get interesting.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Black Rock Shooter

Summary: Not sure, but it seems to be based on some moe karaoke character called Hatsune Miku.
Type: OVA, though the exact format doesn’t seem to be known yet.
Why you should look forward to it: Ordet is a newcomer as an animation-producing company, founded by Yutaka Yamamoto (among others) after Kyoani fired him. This is going to be their first full fledged production, and it’s always good to see new people here. The director also is usually just a storyboarder or a key animator, so there’s probably going to a lot of eye candy here.
Why you should not look forward to it: I never really understood what that “Vocaloid”-thing was all about though. Can you really make an OVA out of a karaoke program? Ah well, with enough imagination it’s possible I guess.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Gunpla Builders

Summary: The main character of the story is Haru Irei, a boy who becomes a “Gunpla Builder” after a fateful encounter with the Beginning Gundam plastic model. (In real life, Bandai is producing a Beginning Gundam model kit in 1/144 scale, but has not set a release date or price.) Rina Noyama is an always cheerful girl who, like her friend Haru, is a big fan of Gunpla. Haru’s pal Kenta Sakazaki is a boy who loves Gunpla and gives advice to Haru about building them. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: Just… no.
Why you should not look forward to it: Sunrise… just surpassed itself. Seriously for god’s sake, raping your own franchises over and over is one thing, but stop hogging all of those awesome directors for these pointless side-stories of yours, who you’re probably not even going to give the freedom they need to really make something awesome. First there was Kazuhiro Furuhashi, then my favourite director ever Kazuki Akane, and now also Kou Matsuou, the director of Red Garden, Rozen Maiden and Kurenai, along with the rest of an all-star cast. Sunrise is like that rich dorky kids who keeps paying all of the cool kids to stay around him. These people should be working on so many better shows, compared to the same Sunrise Mecha franchises that should have died by now. Apologies for this rant, but I’ve gotten even more tired of Sunrise than I already was after finding this out.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Ginmaku Hetalia: Axis Powers – Paint it, White

Summary: The movie will adapt Hidekaz Himaruya’s Hetalia – Axis Powers web manga, just as the two earlier television seasons did and the upcoming new television season will in March. The film will retain the same main staff and cast from the television version, including director Bob Shirohata and the animators at Studio DEEN. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: I have no idea what to expect of this, really. I mean, Hetalia consists out of short one-minute sketches. Are they going to keep this up for sixty entire minutes or something? In any case, the creators did an interesting job of epic-ifying the main cast in the promo image there.
Why you should not look forward to it: The reason why Hetalia works is because the episodes are just five minutes long. I’m too afraid that those sixy minutes will be more like a test of patience instead.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

.Hack//Link

Summary: The .hack//Link game is intended as the final chapter in the popular .hack franchise. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Seems to be a 3D CG Movie, though not certain.
Why you should look forward to it: Well, so the .Hack franchise is finally coming to a conclusion with this one. It’s an incredibly diverse genre with just about every visual medium used to tell its story in: games, anime, movies, CG, manga, OVAs. It’s a bit of a shame that the finale can’t get a TV-series, but nevertheless this should be watched for its ideas.
Why you should not look forward to it: Having said that though, I’ve given up on trying to follow the entire continuity of this franchise. Leaving alone the different anime that got produced, I have not watched any of the other canon. Will the movie also be worthwhile to the ones who aren’t fully known to the entire franchise?
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Honeybee Hutch The Movie

Summary: The original anime followed a honeybee named Hutch who survives the destruction of his beehive by wasps. Hutch embarks on a journey to find his mother. The film will have a new story that deals with interactions with humans, as well as a new girl character named Amy. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Remake Movie.
Why you should look forward to it: Aww, this brings back memories. I remember how the original anime was shown on Dutch TV when I still was a kid. I disliked it though: Hutch looked rather stupid. Still: the creators are actually giving a totally new story to this movie. Hell yeah, remakes like this rock.
Why you should not look forward to it: Tetsuro Amino… isn’t this guy a bit busy right now? I mean, he also has to direct Shiki at this point.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Kurenai OVA

Summary: Based on a series of light novels, Kure-nai is about the adventures and misadventures of 16-year-old Kurenai Shinkurou. Shinkurou is an authority in settling disputes between people, and finds his life turned upside down one day when he is assigned as a bodyguard for Kuhouin Murasaki, the daughter of a powerful plutocratic family. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: A One-shot OVA bundled with a manga-volume
Why you should look forward to it: Awesome to see more of this. It’s not known whether the original director is also going to come back to handle this series, but I really hope he does, because it’ll mean that we get more of the amazing voice-acting, in which the voices get to be recorded before they actually get animated.
Why you should not look forward to it: At the same time though I also hope that this isn’t one of those “screw the people who haven’t read the manga”-OVAs, but that it’s also going to be for the fans of the anime.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail

Summary: The story revolves around a typical Japanese businessman who gets caught up in the escapades of modern-day pirate mercenaries off the Asian shores. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 5-Episoded OVA
Why you should look forward to it: I just love how the director of this series, Sunau Katabuchi, has other than this series mostly been working on cute and innocent anime. He’s the director of Princess Arete, for Christ’s sake. 😛 In any case, I absolutely loved the first season of Black Lagoon. It’s going to be awesome if he can get back on track here.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, my big problem with the franchise is that the second season kind-of lost focus of what it was about, and it dropped the interesting theme of modern-day pirates to instead focus on random action arcs. Either that, or I just was overreacting back when I watching. That tended to happen a lot back then.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Loups Garous

Summary: Virtual reality. Murder. Werewolves. And teen girls! In a future where nothing is as it seems, can old legends come true? In the near future, humans will communicate almost exclusively through monitors, making real interaction a rarified and weak occurrence for those living in a near totalitarian society. In this new world of communication, children are only allowed to interact personally on school grounds. So when a serial killer starts slaughtering junior high children the communication routes go under further surveillance. And despite all the safeguards put in place to avoid physical interaction, the killer’s latest victim turns out to have been in contact with three young girls: Mio Tsuzki, a certified prodigy; Hatsuki Matsuno, a quiet but opinionated classmate; and Ayumi Kono, her best friend. And as the girls get caught up in trying to quell curiosity under such terrorist scrutiny, Hatsuki learns that there is much more than meets the eye of their monitored communications. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: It may be about teenagers, but it’s definitely an interesting premise for a horror movie that we’ve got here. It’s done by production IG. Junichi Fujisaku (Blood+) will direct it, but the best thing is the original creator: Natsuhiko Kyogoku, who also wrote Mouryou no Hako.
Why you should not look forward to it: Trans-Arts, responsible for a lot of the less impressive works of Production IG over the past few years. The director also has screwed up a few times when it comes to series composition, so let’s hope he can see the general picture with this movie.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Colorful

Summary: The “heart-warming comedy” follows a person who finds himself trapped outside the normal endless circle of life and death. Thanks to “winning” a lottery in the angel world, the protagonist is brought back to inhabit the body of a 14-year-old boy — who is planning to commit suicide. Thus, the protagonist begins a new life. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: At least I’m glad that at least a part of Sunrise is trying out interesting concepts. This movie is definitely based on an idea that kicks ass. Keiichi Hara is going to direct it, which seems like a solid choice after Kappa no Coo to Natsuyasumi. The scriptwriter of Nodame Cantabile is also going to help.
Why you should not look forward to it: Movies shouldn’t advertise themselves as a “heart-warming comedy”. Let the viewers determine instead. 😉
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Ai no Kusabi

Summary: On planet Amoi, a great society has developed, creating a computerized city called Tanagura, ruled by supercomputer Jupiter. The populace is almost entirely male and is based on hair color; silver and/or blonds are the elitist, ending with dark/black haired as the bottom of society, often known as “mongrels”. Blondies keep “pets”, young boys kept for a few years, especially made for performing sexual actions for the Blondie’s voyeurism entertainment. Blondies aren’t suppose to keep pets for long or interact sexually with pets, but one blondie named Iason Mink has kept a pet named Rikki, for years and is rumored to sleep with him. Iason refuses to let go of Rikki, even with Jupiter’s disapproval. Rikki fights with his emotions and society problems, unable to decide what to do about his old friend/lover Gai (Guy) and their gang. Iason is obsessed with keeping Rikki, and Rikki doesn’t know what to do; fight against him or surrender to him. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Really long OVA: 13 episodes.
Why you should look forward to it: This has been delayed quite a few times by now, which seems to indicate that the creators really want to take their time to make this one turn out well, rather than trying to rush things. They even got the director of the original Ai no Kusabi OVA (released in 1992) back, Katsuhiko Akiyama, even though he hasn’t been involved into any anime during the past ten years, and Rieko Yoshihara, who created the novel that this show is based on is also involved everywhere, from the series composition to the screenplay. Yaoi it may be, but this seems much better than the regular bishie shows we get to see. Oh, and have I already mentioned that the characters are designed by Naoyuki Onda, who also designed the characters of Ergo Proxy, Blassreiter and Gantz? He’ll also be doing the animation direction.
Why you should not look forward to it: AIC may not be the strongest animation company though, and that does show in the character-designs: they just don’t look as good as on the promo of the 1992 OVA of Ai no Kusabi.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Karigurashi no Arrietty

Summary: The Borrowers is a children’s fantasy novel by Mary Norton about tiny people who “borrow” things from humans and keep their existence unknown. The central characters are the Clock family: Pod, Homily and their spirited teenage daughter, Arrietty. First published in 1952, it won the Carnegie Medal for that year, and was selected in 2007 by judges of the CILIP Carnegie Medal for children’s literature as one of the ten most important children’s novels of the past 70 years. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Type: Movie (adaptation of this classic novel)
Why you should look forward to it: A novel adaptation by Ghibly. What’s not to look forward to here? Hayao Miyazaki will even be planning out the movie, but the direction is in the hands of Hiromasa Yonebayashi. I’m not sure who he is, but he worked on the animation of various movies such as the Yamadas, Gedo Senki, Howl’s Moving Castle, Jin Roh, Spirited Away and even series as Monster and Serial Experiments Lain. New talent is always interesting to watch.
Why you should not look forward to it: Well, I guess it’s a children’s novel, so those looking for a story about adults shouldn’t look here.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Welcome to THE SPACE SHOW

Summary: A tiny mountain village in a remote woodland region. Five primary school kids have come together in this idyllic spot in order to spend their summer holidays at a camp. At first the children enjoy carefree days amidst unspoiled nature far away from adult supervision. But their life changes dramatically when they come across what they believe to be a small dog, badly in need of help. The creature – known as Pochi – turns out not to be a dog at all but an alien on an important mission. It seems there is a mysterious substance on earth that is coveted throughout the universe. Pochi had almost found it but was so badly injured during a fight that he had to give up his search. Thanks to the children’s help, the alien survives – and decides to reward them generously. “Where would you most like to travel?” is the question Pochi puts to his rescuers. Their answer is prompt, if vague: “As far as possible!” Pochi suggests they try the moon first of all, and so, the alien whisks away the kids to the satellite next door. This marks the beginning of an absolutely amazing adventure. During the course of their travels they discover that the substance coveted throughout the universe is in fact also integral to Japanese cuisine – and it just so happens that one of the kids has some of this mysterious substance in his pocket.
 – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: Movie of two hours and 16 minutes.
Why you should look forward to it: The title really has something cheesy yet awesome here. And take a look at who’s producing it: Koji Masunari, the director of Read or Die and the incredibly charming series as Kamichu and Risky Safety. I’m predicting an incredibly charming family movie here with a ton of imagination. To make things even better, Yoshihiro Ike, one of my favourite composers, will be doing the soundtrack. The screenplay will be done by Hideyuki Kurata, who also wrote the Excel Saga, Now and Then, Here and There, Read or Die, Sasameki Koto and Brigadoon. It’s also going to be the first movie of A-1 Pictures to produce. If that isn’t the formula of an awesome family movie then I don’t know any more.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m blank on this one, though I guess it remains a movie about a bunch of kids.
First-Glance Potential: 100%