+ Not Really Looking Forward To +
Rosario to Vampire
Summary: Based on a shounen manga by Ikeda Akihisa, serialised in Monthly Shounen Jump. By a bizarre coincidence, Tsukune Aono has accidentally gotten himself admitted to a youkai academy, a school attended by monsters. Just when he thinks he’ll run away from there, he meets the beautiful girl Moka and his mood turns ultra happy. However, she transforms into her true form when the rosary on her chest is taken off, she’s a super vampire! – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Ugh… I don’t even want to imagine what would happen when Bad Gonzo gets combined with Shounen Jump. Dragonaut may have its issues, but at least it tries to come up with an interesting plot, something I can’t say from this… thing. A guy who meets a girl who happens to be a “Super Vampire”? Come on. And I’m not going to even bother ranting about the art on the official site.
Ayakashi
Summary: Adapted from the 2005 adults-only superhuman battle action visual novel game Ayakashi. Ayakashi is a parasite life force that gives superpowers to its host, taking in return the host’s entire life force. Kusaka Yuu is a student that lost his will to live after the death of a dear childhood friend, until the day a mysterious girl, named Yoake Eimu, appears. From that moment on, his life would never be the same again. Hunted by Ayakashi and their hosts, the power within Yuu awakens and a never ending battle begins. – (Taken from shomazta)
Thoughts: Well, first of all this is a hentai-game adaptation, which already works against it. Second of all, am I the only one who’s reading a synopsis that sounds awfully similar to that of Mushiuta? Just replace “Ayakashi” with “Mushi” and change a few names here and there and voila, there’s hardly a difference. Still, it might be interesting to see a different take on the same premise, with a little less angst than Mushiuta… but then we return to the first point in that this is a hentai-game adaptation, and the screen will probably be filled with generic character-designs, pantyshots and other kinds of fanservice.
H2O ~Footprints in the Sand~
Summary: ???
Thoughts: Nothing much can be said about this series, apart from the fact that it’s got cute girls and it’s a hentai-game adaptation. The staff behind it also is unimpressive, with the only one standing out being the guy behind the series composition: Jukki Hanada. He worked on all kinds of series, ranging mostly from bad to mediocre, but also Red Garden, Abenobashi and Ichigo Mashimaro are among them. I doubt that he’ll be able to save this series, though. The characters look generic, and it’ll probably end up being another cheesy love-story.
+ Shows With Small Potential +
They are my noble masters
Summary: Seems to be another hentai-game adaptation
Thoughts: Nothing is really known about this series, but judging by the title and the promo-art, it’ll probably involve some guy who gets to work under that boss-like looking girl. Ah well, at least it gets a few points for putting effort into the character-designs. No staff is known, other than the voice-actors, but I don’t really care for that.
Ookami to Koushinryou
Summary: Wikipedia JP says the series talks about a peddler named Craft Lawrence, a travelling merchant who’s wandering around the country-side selling and buying various things in villages he visits. His life changes one day when he finds a beautiful girl sleeping inside his coach full of the village’s finest sheaves. What’s more, she looks to be a cat girl. More like a wolf girl, to be exact, as she introduces herself as the village’s wolf sage who’s kept it blessed with good harvests for years and years. Her name is Horo and she wishes to return to her hometown in the North. The cocky girl bargains her way out of the village by making a deal with Craft to take her with him. The story is described as a fantasy novel with neither swords nor magic. – (Taken from Toua)
Thoughts: Well, it’s definitely got the shounen-premise, but it does sound more interesting than your usual story, and the travelling premise does hold potential. But then again, this is from the same staff that was behind three notorious series whose only purpose was to deliver as much ecchi as possible: Hit wo Nerae, Cosmopolitan Prayers and Love Love. That can’t be a good sign…
+ Interesting-Looking Series +
Persona -Trinity Soul-
Summary: Aniplex’s A-1 Pictures is adapting the Persona 3 PlayStation 2 role-playing game as a television anime series under the name Persona -trinity soul- for a January 2008 premiere. The anime is set a decade after the game, and will centre around three brothers in a future city where the dead have risen with their skins turned inside out. The Persona games themselves are spin-offs from the long-running Shin Megami Tensei series. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Ah, another RPG-adaptation, and yet again I have no idea what to expect from this one apart from zombies. The people who worked on it worked on both masterpieces (the guy behind the screenplay did the series composition of The Third and the script of Darker than Black, another one worked on the script of Chevalier), they also worked on a bunch of hentai-series and Innocent Venus. It also has the director behind Blood+, which was a great series but had a terrible finale. Ah well, at least the potential’s there. Let’s hope it doesn’t get screwed up.
Noramimi
Summary: A world where mascots aren’t just marketing tools. Families contact mascot agencies, to find a suitable one for their children. This story focuses on one such agency, which has its very own mascot: Noramimi, the syrup-stirring Kaminari Kozo (Lightning Kid). – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: This series comes from the IKKI magazine, which has seen three other adaptations so far: Tetsuko no Tabi, Bokura no and Narutaru, all of which I loved. That’s basically the biggest reason why I’m looking forward to this one, despite the rather strange style of the manga. I’m not sure about the director, who did a couple of random episodes here and there, including a few from xxxHolic. The guy behind the series composition also doesn’t say much, all the noteworthy things he did before was write the script for the Snow Queen and the screenplay for the movie Air, both of which I’ve seen almost nothing.
+ Definitely Looking Forward To +
True Tears
Summary: Dreams, hopes, and aspirations … are things that all people draw their visions of what the “future” may hold for them. Some are pastel-coloured; others are darker in hue; still others shine radiant and unblemished like the hands of the rain. What are my dreams? What are my hopes? What do I aspire to become? These are questions that the characters of this story ask themselves. But must all of them turn at last to weeping? Must they all harbour such darkness under the shadow of the wings of their hearts? Some of them carry the wounds of the past with them still, the burden causing them to lose sight of their dreams. Others see insurmountable walls between them and the things they dream of, causing them to walk away and give up. And still others — worst of all — have forgotten what it is to dream altogether. And so they smile, smile warmly and widely, in order to hide away the darkness and pain in their hearts … in order to shut out the future itself. But the moment a girl should step forth and say “no more” — that is the beginning and the end. – (Taken from Insani.org)
Thoughts: Finally! It may be me, but I believe that this series has been delayed for almost a year now. Still, it looks like it’s finally getting its adaptation in the upcoming winter-season. If I recall correctly, it’s based on a visual novel, though I’m not sure if it was adult or not. In any case, the premise sounds much better than a random hentai-game, so I’m going to assume it isn’t (correct me if I’m wrong), and for some strange reason, I’m quite interested in how this one will turn out. Especially considering that this series has the genius behind Simoun as its director! The series composition is also done by the woman who did the script for epics as Popolocrois, Red Garden, Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club and again Simoun. Okay, I know that Code-E could have been better, but seriously, it’s hard not to get excited when seeing these names.
+ Top-5 Looking Forward To +
Wellber no Monogatari Second Season
Summary: After the adventures of the first season, there’s still the matter of Tina’s back-story. In the meantime, I don’t expect the other countries in the world to sit around idly after what happened to Guernia
Thoughts: Ah, this is what I’ve been waiting for! I’m still not exactly sure why I enjoyed the first season so much, and while it wasn’t in any way epic or awesome, the storytelling was excellent and varied. Not to mention the cute shoujo-ai scenes. ^^;
Shigofumi
Summary: A story about a miracle, involving Fumika, a quiet but hard working girl who wears a uniform of a mail carrier, and her talkative staff and partner Mayama. The Shigofumi is a posthumous letter, the last resort of relaying a deceased person’s last message to his/her loved ones: family, friends, and significant other. – (Taken from AniDB)
Thoughts: Well, this series has been delayed a few times, but that only increased my curiosity in the premise, and it looks like it’s really going to arrive in the Winter-Season now. The guys who will be working on it are also some big names, who worked on many big titles (of which I admittedly only saw half or so): the director directed Cat Soup, Tokyo Tribe, Stellvia, Shingu and Nadesico and planned and produced other gems as Kino’s journey, Figure 17 and Azumanga Daioh and let’s not forget the hilarious script of Tsukikage Ran. The guy behind the series composition worked on famous series as RahXephon, Angelic Layer, Planetes and Eureka7 (seriously, this reminds me of how many good series I’ve still got left to see).
Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei Second Season
Summary: I think we all know this by now. A teacher with an extremely pessimistic outlook on life unleashes his frustrations on the class he teaches.
Thoughts: Well, with a bit of luck the subs for the first season will be finished right before the start of the second one. The first season really has been an excellent comedy-series that not only managed to crack me up over and over, but also was witty and smart, and tackled a lot of topics considered taboo. While others might hate the typical animation-style of Shinbo, I love it.
Hatenkou Yuugi
Summary: A young girl named Rahzel is booted out of her house one day by her father with the instructions to ’see the world.’ And so her journey begins, However, she won’t be doing it alone, for she befriends a stoic young man named Alzeido seeking revenge for his father’s murder. Alzeido and Rahzel are like oil and water, but even still, they feel strangely drawn to one another. This could be either the result of an underlying attraction — or their shared powers with magic. And so, the two reluctant allies travel from town to town, using their powers to help the helpless, while discovering their own respective places in the world. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: Strangely enough, the premise sounds a lot more interesting than when I first read it. This winter-season is definitely going to be a good season for travelling-series, and it’s going to be interesting to see the people that Rahzel and Alzeido run into. The father’s murder seems to suggest that there’s an underlying plot as well, so this could very well be a title to watch out for. To make things even better, it’s got the director of Sasami Mahou Shoujo-club and the series composition is done by the guy who directed Giant Robo and did the screenplay for Pet Shop of Horrors; these guys can really make something special out of this series.
Porfy’s Long Journey
Summary: Part of the World Masterpiece Theatre. In the original novel, Porphyras (Yuki Kaida) is a Greek boy who was orphaned with his sister Mina (Ayumi Fujimura) by an earthquake. The two siblings decide to embark on a journey across Europe instead of staying in their foster home in an unfamiliar country. – (Taken from Anime News Network)
Thoughts: I think it comes to no surprise that this is my most anticipated series of the season. Les Miserables has been a brilliant series, and I can’t wait what the next instalment of the World Masterpiece Theatre will be. To make things better, it’s going to be directed by Tomomi Mochizuki, who has been a director for decades. While I haven’t seen most of his most famous works (Kimagure Orange Road, Maison Ikkoku, Princess Nine), I have seen what he did with the first season of Ranma 1/2, Seraphim Call, Here is Greenwood and Ocean Waves, and I really can’t wait. This guy is excellent in combining light-hearted quirkiness with serious scenes.]]>
Author: psgels
Gundam 00 – 07
Oh god… the episode was quite good, but unfortunately one of my fears has been confirmed with this episode: the Gundam-suits become more powerful as their pilots become more emo. That’s why Veda chose teenagers to be the pilots, as their chance of losing it is much higher than with an adult. While I can settle with such an explanation, my fears that this series will gradually turn into a scream-fest as it goes on have been greatly increased.
Well then, in this episode Setsuna gets to be the next one to disobey the orders by stepping out of his suit when he realizes that the guy he’s fighting against is the one who used him as a child-soldier in a Kurdish war. It also seems that the name Setsuna is just a code-name, and he originally is called Soran, with a Kurdish nationality. You wouldn’t say that, based on their character-designs. Anyway, after that, both parties retreat and the Celestial Beings continue to slaughter the Morallian Army. That part was really meant to show how powerful the Gundams are. It may have sounded a bit one-sided, but it can turn out pretty interesting if the creators use it well, because this will prompt the different countries to actually think of more difficult strategies until one manages to defeat them. Sort-of like Simoun, actually. The enemies start out pretty stupid, though their tactics drastically improve with every attack.
Setsuna himself, by the way, continues to have as much personality as a potato. He won’t even say anything in defence for what he has done, and only keeps whining about how his existence is somehow linked with Exia. Okay, I know he’s a child-soldier and all, but didn’t the other Celestial Beings find his personality strange and worrisome when he was first recruited?
One thing I also appreciate is how this anime shows that there are a lot of civilian casualties, but the protagonists don’t keep preaching over and over how it’s bad to kill a person like in most other anime, and instead different sides and opinions are shown. Incidentally, Tiera is turning into my favourite character. He’s realistic, and actually knows what being a Celesital Being means. The terrorists also were a nice addition, and I’m interested to find out what they’d gain if the Celestial Beings stopped their actions.]]>
Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations – 01
Ah, finally! A year after the series ended, Tsubasa Chronicle gets continued. Let’s hope that the DVD-sales are high enough to give the creators enough motivation to animate the rest of the chapters of the manga.
Let me start with the bad points, though. First of all: the music. Let’s face it, it’s nothing when compared to the series. Yuki Kajiura made way for decent pop-tunes or recycled versions of the lesser tunes of the original series. The art style has also changed severely, and turned into a strange combination of the original one with xxxHolic, and its long limb. Mokona also has shrunk and Fye’s hair grew.
Another thing I didn’t like is how the creators just decided to ignore the fillers of the series, and just continued after the library-arc. It’s a shame, because while the fillers didn’t really progress the story, they did flesh out and develop the different characters a bit. The result is the most noticeable with Sakura: she turned from a growing heroine back into her useless old self who keeps sleeping.
One thing that’s more personal is how it took me a long time to get used to the fact that this series isn’t done by Bee-Train anymore. There’s no overabundance of still shots to build up atmosphere, the dialogue is kept short and to the point, there are no insert-songs and there’s a much larger attention to the different action-scenes.
And really… Shaoran must be some kind of machine or something. He basically stands for minutes at the same spot with an arrow in his leg without even flinching. I mean, doesn’t such a thing usually hurt? In this episode, the Shaoran-lookalike also awakes, though unfortunately I’ve already been spoiled about his true identity, which took away a bit of the surprise.
Okay, those were the flaws. Apart from that, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit. The world of Tokyo (wasn’t that were Kurogane grew up as well?) is totally opposite of what I expected it to be, and I like the idea of acidic rain, spoiling all of the water. I’m interested in how the people who live outside of the two towers get their water, if both sides refuse to give them any. Especially if the rain has been pouring down for fifteen years now. The character-animation may also be a bit buggy at times, but especially the background art is terrific, and they blend really well together.
The best part of the episode was the conversation between Kurogane and Fye, though, because finally Fye gets a bit of depth to his character. It really seems that he can’t just stop putting up his facade, even if he wanted to.
Of course, this was just the introductions, and something tells me that the best parts of this arc haven’t even started yet. I predict that my complaints for the next episode will only be 25% of the ones I had for this episode, because it’ll be easier to get used to the new art-style. In any case, I do like how the creators kept the long limbs into the character-designs, because that’s what I originally liked about them. Next episode will be up in January, and I’m looking forward to it!]]>
Les Miserables – Shoujo Cosette – 46
Okay, I don’t care about the cheesy parts. This episode was absolutely magnificent! Just when I thought that this series had passed its best part, it comes and delivers such an incredibly awesome episode. Obviously, spoilers are going to follow.
If this was a regular anime, this would be about the time where the adults step back and let the youngsters take over. In this episode, it’s the ENTIRE OPPOSITE, as it features the final epic conflict between Jean and Javert, and the younger members of the cast take a step back and only get a few small minutes of airtime. At the end of the previous episode, Jean had a badly wounded Marius with him, and indeed, Jean finally stops running away and agrees to go with Javert if he brings Marius to a hospital.
We then switch to Javert’s carriage, where I absolutely loved the conversation Jean and Javert had, and to make things even better, Jean explains what exactly made him change so much. It turns out that the words of the bishop brought him in a huge confusion, and he lived a miserable life of a drifter at that point. Then he got accidentally mistaken for a thief, and scared a child away because of it, and that’s what made him see the light.
Javert finally has this moment when he realizes that Jean still has Fantine’s last wishes in his mind, after all these nine years. Marius is dropped off at the hospital, and Javert leaves Jean behind when the latter wants to say his final goodbye to Cosette! Later, when Javert realizes what exactly he had done, he really sees the light. Literally and figuratively, and I adored the amount of depth that he got with his little monologue.
Immediate changes in personality are often hard to do, and they often feel forced, but for me, this episode was awesome, both for Jean and Javert and more than half of the scenes had me crying at the screen. I’m not sure whether it was done this way in the book, but one way or the other, this episode was outstanding.
And right now, I’m wondering what the creators have been planning for the final six episodes. Will it be one long aftermath, or will Thenardier return one final time? The latter would be awesome.]]>
Shion no Ou – 06
Now that the first half of the series is nearly over, it’s time for an intermezzo. Shion no Ou spends it giving Shion and the ones around her a bit more background in the form of a friend who died eight years ago, develop Ayumi’s case even more and introduce the final half of the series. Next episode, we’ll see the match between Shion and Saori.
The friend who died was basically a good comrade of both Shion’s foster-parents, Shion herself (who seems to be quite close with them, even before she lost her parents) and Hani-meji as well. His name seems to be Kyotarou, and he was the one who taught Shion shougi when she got interested when she saw a shougi-board. I also love how this little piece of background brought Shion and her foster-family even closer together. Kyotarou seems to have caught a deadly sickness afterwards, and his condition went worse quite quickly, and if I understood things correctly, he wanted to play Hani-meji (who already was a terrific shougi-player back then) one final time, and died before he could finish the match.
Meanwhile, we know what happened to Ayumi’s father: he’s an incredible idiot who just leaves his ex-wife to die, while stealing money from his son and beating him viciously. While it is a bit stereotypical, I guess it does feel in place in this series. It would be awesome if said father would receive a small bit of development himself in one of the final episodes, but I have no idea what to expect from the second half of this series.
Well, apart from one thing, perhaps. This is just one big hunch, but the yellow-haired guy, who finally gets a proper introduction in this episode as Hani-meji’s brother, is on the top of my list of “people most likely to have killed Shion’s parents”. Remember, we know that the silhouette of the guy must be one with short hair. In this episode, Shion also claims that the killer had clean and pretty hands, and the guy seems to fit these requirements as well. But most importantly, there has to be a reason why both he and Shion have a necklace with the exact same gem on it.]]>
Dennou Coil – A Circle of Children – 24
Yup, this really is a calm-before-the-storm-episode. The pieces are set in the right spot for the finale, and the characters mourn about the things that happened in the previous episode. Finally, the parents of the different children decide to take away their glasses, because it’s now really clear that these things are dangerous. With Kanna and 4423, the details were vague, and most people just assumed that they just died, but it seems that Isako’s case went all over the news, and it’s finally become clear that the cyber-world isn’t something for children to play with.
A lot of time is also spent on Yasako, mourning about the loss of Densuke, and I loved the details put into it. Like everyone else, Yasako is really starting to doubt whether the cyber-world is real, and blames the fact that she can’t cry for Densuke on the fact that he’s just a bunch of codes, while in fact she still can’t accept that he’s gone. I think that that’s because she was surrounded by Isako and Haraken, who both lost someone important to them. For the past few episodes, we’ve seen how Yasako tried to help both of them recover from their troubles, though I think that she never really imagined how it must feel to lose a loved one. That’s what she finds out in this episode.
And ZOMG, I totally forgot about Mayumi! This series is very sneaky in that, mentioning things early in the series that only turn out important near the end of the series. Densuke being kidnapped, Yasako’s grandfather’s room and others are examples of this too, and it really took me a while to realize that Yasako actually DID have some problems in her previous school. According to Wao, she got into a fight with Mayumi. Yasako believes that Mayumi was the one who started bullying her, while it was in fact Yasako who started the bullying.
Another thing I loved about this episode, despite how quiet it was when compared to the other episodes of this series, was how I could relate to so many things. Okay, I may never have seen the death of a loved one, but I can understand Yasako in trying to relate to people who did experience it, because I’ve been doing that very often with different anime-series. It also felt really nostalgic when the parents started confiscating the glasses of their children. The story about Mayumi and the bullying also brought back memories. I think everyone has done some thing in their pasts that they aren’t quite proud of…]]>
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni – 45
And with this episode, some of the final left in this series are answered: why did some survive, and what is Takano after? This episode explains about operation #34, where basically the entire village is killed before they have the time to become paranoid. The reason why Keiichi wasn’t killed in the third arc was because nobody knew where he went, and he was only discovered afterwards by some non-Yamainu. If I had to guess, then he was killed immediately afterwards by the same woman who killed Satoko in the first arc of the second season, because their symptoms would develop in time anyway, making them claw their own throats. The reason Rena was the only one who managed to survive was because she was the only one who managed to get cured by Keiichi, so there was no need to kill her. It’s a shame Rika doesn’t remember this, as it would have been a key to keep surviving.
Then, the reason Takano does everything is finally revealed: to put the blame on the bastards who turned down the work of her grandfather. There’s probably more to this, since she kept yelling about being t=a god-like person, but I’d like her to have such a simple goal. It makes much more sense than becoming the next Oyashiro-sama.
I really wonder how this series plans to end… I mean, with this, there are just five episodes left. Higurashi has been building up for quite a while now, but it has to make up for this with some pretty amazing climaxes. How can they turn this into something more than just “Takano dies and everyone lives happily ever after”? Will the creators really be able to trump the highlights of the first season in the end? Overall, I’d say the two seasons are about the same quality right now. The first season had a better feel, was more intriguing and had better climaxes, but the second season has been much more consistent and it managed to avoid the flaws in the script of the first one, but on the other hand, it’s just too slow at times…
Really, writing a review for this series is going to be incredibly tricky…]]>
Little Princess Sara – 02
Whoa… seriously…. I expected this series to take the same path as Les Miserables and Perrine, where the first season would be used to quietly introduce the different characters and settings, especially since Perrine has been a rather quiet series while Perrine and her mother have been travelling through Easter Europe.
And then Sara comes, and already delivers such a powerful episode, so early in the series, where Sara has to say goodbye to her father. She really is something different from your usual spoiled child, and the bond between her and her father is huge. This probably is due to the loss of her mother, which made a major impact on the two of them.
The majority of the episode is filled with Sara, trying to find Emily. It becomes even clearer that she’s got a lot of imagination, and sortof lives in her own world. And because she’s so innocent, she probably also gets her way. It’d be interesting to see in the future episodes when she doesn’t. The head of the school she’s in already suspects that she’ll cause huge amounts of troubles when that happens, though she looks more like someone who hides her sadness, like this episode showed how both Ralph and Sara refused to cry in front of each other. One thing’s for sure, though: the people in the school are going to have to get used to Sara’s strange personality.]]>
Saiunkoku Monogatari – 66
Ow bugger. Saiunkoku Monogatari kept getting more interesting with every single episode progressing, and now the creators have to tease us with a recap-episode. Basically, the important moments for Suou and Shuei of the past six episodes are recapped, suggesting what some of the commenters have indeed been hinting at, that the two of them will play a major role in the upcoming arc. There is a bit of new material here and there, but that’s mostly quirky dialogues between Seiran, Ryuuki and Kouyuu. I did appreciate the few serious scenes amongst them, though.]]>
Shugo Chara – 07
2007 has really been a bad year for the Mahou-Shoujo genre. I’m not really going to expect Shugo Chara to become better than Sasami Mahou Shoujo-club of last year. This episode also showed that the creators are going to settle for the story of the manga with fillers now and then to fill the time of a 26-episode-series, despite how I hoped for them to just go with their own version of the story.
Still, this episode wasn’t that bad. It had no bad egg of the week, and finally put someone other than Amu in the spotlights. The result is a silly adventure where Ami and the Shugo Charas go on a treasure-hunt. Quite fun and random. The other characters also go through a bit of development, and we meet three new bad guys: the one who’s behind everything and tries to look evil behind his “Easter”-desk, a red-haired woman and the yellow-haired girl we’ve been seeing in the OP.
It’s indeed like expected: Amu has Embryo. Otherwise, there’d be no way to explain why she has three Shugo Charas and can transform, while the others can’t. It’d be great if the creators showed why Amu of all possible people has it. I’m still not sure whether she’s going to be a good main character for this series, though. On one side, her case is interesting, about the facade she puts up in front of others, and she’s got a nice sense of humour. On the other hand, her whining against the Batsu-Charas for the past few episodes grew more obnoxious with every episode.
I may have chosen the wrong shows to blog this season with Shugo Chara and Suteki Tantei Labyrinth. It’s ironic, at the start of the season, I tried my best to predict which series would turn out the most interesting, and I somehow ended up choosing these two above Mokke, which is getting better and better with every episode. It’s going to be a nice experiment, though. I wonder whether both series will be able to turn out excellent in their second halves. It’s not like these two series aren’t fun; actually, they’re quite enjoyable, but I just can’t see them become among the best series of the season.]]>