Because of my exams this week, I’ve been a bit busy, which means that I had a very large queue of anime goodness waiting for me. I’ll probably be able to catch up to them tomorrow, so be expecting a huge christmas update. 😉
Oh, and P.S. If you have anything to say, feel free to use the comment option. I don’t care if I’ve never seen you or anything, everyone’s welcome to comment. It’s always nice to see some opinions of other people. ^_^
Animeblogger did a very nice job in collecting as much data as possible on the upcoming winter season. You can find it here.
Well then, here follows a preview of the upcoming anime:
Magikano
The description is a bit fuzzy for this one, so I have no idea what to think of it. I believe that we have here a typical harem anime, as all the characters mentioned are females (with the maid and the sempai who’s secretly in love, of course, included), except for the main one. I think I’ll watch the first episode of this before I make my conclusions.
Kagihime Monogatari Eikyuu Alice Rinbukyoku
"That tale from the heart, where wishes are granted, the endless tale of ‘Alice.’" This can be pretty interesting. I’m really into fantasy stories and tales. I’ll definately watch this. I’m just a bit worried about the rediculously huge amount of hair this person has.
Tonagura!
A dirty guy returns to his childhood friend after 10 years of absence and tries to hit on her. No doubt this series will have the two of them coming together and accepting each other… I don’t think I’ll like this one.
REC
Voice actress, that’s a new one (if you don’t include Puni Puni Poemy, of course). Again, I’m suspecting some kind of love story between the main characters. I may see this, I may not. Although I like the art of this one.
Kashimashi ~Girl meets Girl~
I really don’t know what to think about this one: A guy confesses to a girl, and gets turned down. Then he gets hit by a UFO and aliens turn him into a girl. I’m suspecting that this will be Shoujo Ai with a lot of life-lessons. I think I’ll watch this out of curiosity.
Shinigami no Ballad
This series consists of six episodes, with each of them a different story, all revolving around a girl in white robes with white hair, who wields a scythe and acts as death. I am SO wanting to see this. The premisse sounds awesome, and the art looks TOO cute.
Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora
While a guy was hospitalized, he kept getting bothered by a girl his age, who was acting extremely rude. After a while, he found out why. This sounds like it’ll be good for some interesting drama. I also like the art of this. I think I’ll watch this.
Yomigaeru Sora – Rescue Wings
A guy wanting to pilot a fighter gets assigned to a helicopter-rescue-department. I doubt I’ll watch this, I hate these kinds of concepts.
Kage Kara Mamoru!
A geeky-like boy is in reality a ninja that protectsone certain family. Judging from the fact that he’s surrounded by five girls on the image provided by the link above, I can really say that this will be a harem anime with lots of action thrown into it. I’m not really fond of these kinds of anime, but who knows, I may watch this.
Rakugo Tennyo
Six girls get summoned into the end of Edo period by the power of mystic stones. They become celestial nymphs to protect cities from evils. Each girl obtains her own power. The power one f those girls obtained was “word”. She fights against evils by her “words” that gave people hope. If this gets to be more then just a mahou shoujo series, then I’ll be satisfied. I especially like the fact that she got the power "word", instead of the cheesy fire.
Binchotan
"Binchou-tan doesn’t have parents. She lives alone in the mountain in her private residence, but someone called Ubamega-san gives her assistance." She also carries a lump of charcoal on her head. Judging from the art, it’ll probably be a kids’ show. But still, I may see one episode to see how it turns out.
Ginyuu Mokushiroku Meine Liebe Wieder
The second season of Meine Liebe. I still got to see the first one.
Sasami -Mahou Shoujo Club-
No further info is given, except for one picture of it. I’m predicting that it’ll involve some mahou shoujo. I may see this.
Fate/stay night
This is the big thing everyone’s waiting for. I’ll watch it to see if it is as good as people think.
Naikaku Kenryoku Hanzai Kyosei Torishimarikan Zaizen Jotaro
This anime’s got an incredibly long title… It’s based on a political intrigue detective manga. It has some potential in it. I’ll probably watch the first episode of it before jumping to conclusions.
The Third
OMG! I like this! The art looks amazing. I’ll really be looking forward to this one.
MAJOR 2nd season
The second season of a baseball anime. It doesn’t really catch my eye…
Wings of Rean
Judging by the art, this is going to be some sort of mecha/familiar anime… Maybe I’ll check it out…
Lemon Angel Project
Another singing anime, unlike beck more focused to pop music…. yuch. I have a bad feeling about this.
Furthermore, I’ve also found some interesting titles to appear from this site. I’ll be listing a few of them.
Ayakashi~ Japanese Classic Horror
Horror stories. I’ll keep an eye on this. The artwork also seems very impressive.
Zero no Tsukaima
I’m liking this. A girl summons a guy from another world so he can become her servant. The art also seems of decent quality.
XXXHolic TV
I am SO looking forward to this series. It’s supposed to be similar to Tsubasa Chronicle, and I loved that.
Yoshinaga-san Ie no Gargoyle
I have no idea what this is, but I like the art. 🙂
Arusu The Adventure
Sorry if I’m a bit scary now, but OMG!!!!!!! I can’t believe Mahou Shoujo Tai is having a second season. I’m currently still following Anime-Forever’s fansubs, but afterwards, the goodness will continue. I WILL definately be following this.
Hellsing Ultimate
Another series I’ll be looking forward to. The original Hellsing went on a totally different path from the manga (which I never read, by the way). This one is following a bit more. I’ll be following this one.
Utawarerumono
"The main character was helped when he was wounded lying on the ground in woods. When he woke up, he didn’t remember who he was. Furthermore, he had a mask that he couldn’t put off. By favor of the people in the village, who had animal ears and tails by the way, he began to live in the village." I don’t know what to think of this. I’ll probably watch the first episode of this.
Highlander: Vengeance
It’s got an interesting setting. It’s lots of years into the future, and there are lots of celtic influences. I’m really liking celtic aspects, so I’ll be following this when it comes out.
Ergo Proxy
This is supposed to be THE anime with the best graphics ever. I’ll probably watch it to see if it’s really what they say.
Demashitaa! Powerpuff Girls Z
I’m still having twitches from when I discovered what this anime is about. I have no idea what to do: to cheer, or to run away screaming…
Tsubasa Chronicle 2nd Season
Another anime I’ll be looking out for. I loved the first season, and I’m hungry for more.
Brave Story
Hmmm, a fantasy adventure story for what appears to be little kids. Still, I like the idea as well. I’ll probably watch this.
Afro Samurai
I have just one thing to say: ……..
Makai Senki Disgaea
I haven’t played the game, but I love the art. I’ll probably watch this.
So, that’s it. Lots of great is anime coming up in 2006. I can’t wait. 🙂
This episode was so cool. Finally we get to see an anime which isn’t afraid to kill off lots of their characters, and at the same time make every death count. Although it was a bit predictable that the girl stayed alive, and that the creators gave a too obvious hint away before Sakon solved it. Apart from that, I loved this. From the reason the bad guy/girl was doing this and the way the conflict was finally resolved, to Sakon, making his puppet act like one of the murdered characters. I’ll definately keep following this.
The story in this episode was a hopeless case: a man lost his wife on a boat trip through an unfortunate encounter with mushi, and he’s been waiting for her for over 2,5 years. Of course she’s dead afterwards, but the creators still manage to give the viewer some hope about it. And they also manage to turn this into a great story to tell. I once again loved the semi-sad ending of it. I had some doubts when the episode started, because nothing seemed to happen. It may have been because my computer wasn’t listening again, but it also may have been the intention of the creators to tell this story as calmly as possible. And well, they succeeded, because all those doubts were vanished once the ending theme came in. I really felt that this episode couldn’t have been more complete.
There’s one thing that irks me about mushishi though, and that is the fact that Jinko manages to turn up at exactly the right time to interfere. Okay, in fifty percent of the cases it is because of his intuition and research, but in the other fifty it’s just a good dose of luck that he runs into these people.
Yes, so what if most of the screenshots are of the 4th squad vice-chief? I like her, she has an awesome character. Apart from that, this episode has been awfully weak. We finally get to learn the reason why the big bad guy (I’m just calling him this to avoid spoilers) is doing this, but it would’ve been better if we weren’t told. So, in the end, it does revolve around Rukia. Everything that’s been happening this series was all well coordinated and directed by the big bad guy. I really liked the uber-powerful soul-slayer-story better. Furthermore, right at the moment when a character’s about to be slashed to death, who comes to save him at the last possible minute? Right. And, of all the people, why did Urahara choose Rukia? And why does the big bad guy find out about this only just a few moments after he left? And why did the almighty Ichigo even get involved in this? It seems that almost everything that’s been happening in this series was either directed by Urahara or the big bad guy, and for the things they didn’t have anything to do with, there the phenomena called "luck" was helping them to make everything go according to plan.
It also seems that the total death count has reached zero once more. Here I was with a sparkle of hope for a minute, but they were crushed as flies. Are the creators too scared to kill of their characters, or something?
Okay, enough about the bad things. Now the good things. The part in which the 4th squad vice-chief let everybody know about the plan of Aizen was perfect. Not only did it include the vice-chief, but it did also show the a lot of characters that haven’t been on the screen for a long while. This did good in making me anticipate to see more of them. This made me see that this show does have a lot of good character, which are awesome when they are not in the spotlights. The cliffhanger at the end of the episode also has potential to give a nice twist. At least, if the creators give it a chance.
Normally, I tend to dislike fighting anime. In this case, I’ll make a huge exception. This anime is so utterly creative, it scares me.
We have a very eccentric god, who organizes a tournament. 100 middle school students are given special powers, and have to battle each other. The winner gets the special talent he wants (and it can really be ANYTHING, including the power to destroy the world, which instantly takes care of the antagonists). There are just two catches: the first one is that the powers given to the persons are not ordinary powers you often see in these kinds of anime, no, the powers each are unique and beyond anything I’ve ever seen in anime (for example: the power to turn trash into trees, cotton into spikes, tomatoes into magma, beads into bombs, and those are just the least original of the bunch). The second catch is that each of the powers has a limit, or something that the power user has to do in order to use his powers. (think of: the power to turn water into fireballs if you put it in your mouth, the power to turn lightning into SUGAR when your eyes are open, the power to change your forehead into diamonds when your hands are in your pocked, and of course the power to turn towels into steel if you hold your breath).
This, of course offers for a tremendous amount of strategy in battles. The Law of Ueki executes this perfectly, and manages to put humour in it as well. I could keep on rambling about all the small things the creators thought of, but I’ll keep that for a next time.
This episode, is sort of the beginning of the second season. The break is over and the next round begins. The first half features a very humorous explanation of the next round, as well as an introduction of new characters (the ones seen above). It was nice to see some old characters returning. I was fairly surprised when I learned that after the whole explanation the creators still managed to include a fight, as well as finishing it. The fight was also one of the funniest. How many times do you see an enemy who’s main weapon is karaoke?
This episode, being the first that mostly took place in La’cryma, had a lot of explanations about this certain timespace. I have to say, I like it. There’s no wonder why the big guy talked about the peacefullness of the other dimension, as La’crima is a place with nothing but suffering. The creators also did a good job at balancing the suffering, so that it doesn’t become too overly done.
I only have to say, that this dimension is based a bit too much on coincidences. It seems that everyone of Haruka’s friends is going to play some big role of some sort. Of course, this offers some great story opportunities, but still. A little more randomness could have been okay. But still, the cliffhanger at the ending of this episode really made me hungry for more.
This episode had the same concept as the other episodes of Mushishi. While not as dark as the other ones, the story did again captivate me, even though it was lighter then in most of the episodes. This episode also ended wonderfully. It was nice to see a Mushishi episode like this for once.
The episode is simply about a man trying to catch a rainbow, who appears to be a mushi. I’ve found it amazing that the creators managed to put such a concept, which is mostly used in little children’s shows, into a serious storyline which actually makes sense, and even fill a whole episode with this without becoming boring. We also get some nice life lessons on the way. As someone who has followed phylosophy lessons, I’m appreciating those little things.
Aaaah, so this was the big thing everyone was waiting for. The big bad guy is finally revealed, and next episode we’ll learn what he’s planning. It’s interesting to see how every character will be reacting to this, but I do have some problems with this. The big bad guy just seems too ultrapowerful. It’s perfect in any way, and has found a perfect strategy. I so hope that at least a few persons will be able to make him scared, apart, of course, from Ichigo. It was also nice to see a whole episode without him. He’s by no means a bad character, but when he does get in the spotlight, especially at this point, you can take poison on that he’s going to end up fighting.
It was also nice to see that some people actually DIED this episode. Finally they are moving into the right direction a bit, although the creators have to make their deaths count for a bit, and not make it seem like they wanted to get rid of a few characters because of budgetting problems.
That said, I’m still a bit disappointed with how this turned out. The reason stated above. This episode did make me lose even more interest in the main plot, but ironically it did increase my interest for the subplots. Especially the conflict between the 1st, 8th and 13th captain (read: conflict, NOT fight).
Holy goodness… the story in this episode is so friggin’ sad. It’s still the usual concept that we know of Jigoku Shoujo though, but this one has been executed very well. We have a girl, whose mother accidentally saw the popular-wife-of-important-person cheating on her husband. Since then, her mother has been tormented by that woman. As her mother suffers, she suffers as well. The creators really succeeding in telling us that the mother was suffering. It was so sad when looking her husband hit her because his job is in danger because of her. I give two thumbs up for this one.
It’s also nice to see that the girl and Emna actually have a conversation, apart from the usual "Here is a doll with a red string bla bla, pull the string blabla, you’ll go to hell as well etc." I also liked the new preparation scene, and I noticed that the recycled cells took shorter than before. Also the annoying grandmother was no nuisance this time.