Autumn Season Preview

This season is interesting. It’s got some very notable strengths and weaknesses. First of all, this season has about as many series as the Autumn of 2010: 29, which was overall a tad disappointing, and it only has three more series than the current Summer Season, even though traditionally Autumn Seasons are always much larger than Summer Seasons. On the other hand though, I need to pick up 10 new series to blog next season, and I probably won’t have any trouble picking so many. There’s actually a lot to watch. Though, there are a few catches.

The first catch is that there isn’t something that seems like an instant classic, or something that immediately stands apart from all of the others, like Hyouge Mono or Penguin Drum last seasons. Things only start to get interesting as soon as you look a tier below.

The second catch is that this is going to be a very delicate season. With that, I mean that there are a ton of interesting premises, which could very easily fall pretty to very often made mistakes. A lot of care will be needed to get them all to avoid their big potential pitfalls. When they do though, it will be glorious. Half the shows this season have imaginative premises. And original stories. There are A TON of original stories this season.

The third catch is also pretty bad, though: there’s only one series that doesn’t have a teenaged cast. Unfortunately for three months, the only adult casts will be that show and Hyouge Mono. It’s especially aggravating after how well the past spring season balanced its ages. This really is going to be a juvenile season.

Working’!!

Summary: “The story is set in a family restaurant named Wagnaria in the northern Japanese prefecture of Hokkaido. Takanashi Souta works part-time among the restaurant’s high-spirited, mysterious, yet cool staffers. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Atsushi Ootsuki
Series Composition: Takao Yoshioka
Other Notable Staff: Monaca (Music)
The Positives: So, how do you call a sequel of a show that already has two exclamation marks in its title? Just pick any random character, of course! An apostrophe? Why not!
The Negatives: My heart sank when I found out who the director was. I mean, I dropped Working!! after only one episode mostly because of the reason that there were too many annoying characters, but it wasn’t the worst thing out there. However… Atsushi Ootsuki… why is this guy still getting work? He’s pretty much the worst currently active director out there, with works ranging from Kanokon, Ladies Versus Butlers and To Love-Ru. This guy will grab all of the potential that was left and turn it into a blatantly stupid fanservice fest.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Cross Fight Bedaman

Summary: It’s about kids who fight each other with robots that shoot marbles…
The Positives: None.
The Negatives: Out of all of the kiddie show franchises out there, the Bedaman franchise has got to be amongst the worst (perhaps only surpassed by
Summary: “The series centres around Ooyama Takeru, a young normal yet perverted minded guy, who enrolls into Tenbi Gakuen, which was once an all-girls school now turned into a co-ed school. Unbeknownst to him, the only students admitted are those who are able to control a source of energy found in all living things called Element, and furthermore can use magical artifacts called Maken, which give the users specific and varied abilities. On the first day, he meets again after three years, Amaya Haruko, his childhood friend, Kushiya Inaho, a weird big busted girl who declares she’s his fiance, and Himegami Kodama, a blonde oujo who wants to kill him. After a whim by the school principle Rokujou Minori, he and the three girls end up living in the same room. Furthermore, after being persuaded by Haruko, Takeru decides to join the Maken-ki, a special force unit under the school student council, whose responsibility is to mediate duels between students in the school. However, he later finds out that no Maken is acceptable for him. How will his life continue in this school, where the students get into duels that showcase their magic and combat power, which he seemingly does not have.” – (Taken from Maken-Ki)
Director: Kouichi Oohata
Series Composition: Yosuke Kuroda
Other Notable Staff: Nobuderu Yuuki (Character Designs)
The Positives: Yosuke Kuroda baffles me sometime. He’s a very talented writer and adapter (Ookiku Furikabutte, Phantom, Honey and Clover, Madlax, Trigun? This guy rocks!), but his resume also contains tons of really questionable shows…
The Negatives: .. I mean, Maken Ki is pretty much just a big walking cliche. Noting about it feels original, not to mention that having the director of the various Ikkitousen series and Bakuretsu Tenshi pretty much destroys all hope of Yosuke Kuroda’s presence.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Mashiro-iro Symphony: Love Is Pure White

Summary: “Shingo’s school is decided to be joined with a girls’ school. As a selected student, Shingo temporarily transfers to the girls’ school until they officially consolidate. He meets various unique girls there, but all girls dislike male students. To remove their misunderstanding, Shingo works hard and…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Eiji Suganuma
Other Notable Staff: Toshie Kawamura (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Eiji Suganuma can deliver on a great series if this gets handed to him.
The Negatives: Okay. That’s it. Manglobe has officially sold out. The Sacred Blacksmith and TWGOK were one thing, but with a hentai game adaptation, there’s no going back. It’s a shame, because they used to be one of my favourite production companies, but their direction of the past years has unfortunately turned a studio who once stood at the creative edge of anime to another one of those mediocre moe companies. Mashiro-Iro’s premise and title are so pretentiously stupid that there is no way for this to really work.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!

Summary: “The game this is based on follows Naoe Yamato and his childhood friends plus 3. The group is called the Kazama Family after their leader. The player has the choice to go through the 5 main heroine routes, 3 sub-heroine routes, 4 friendship routes and finally a sort of harem end route.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Keitarou Motonaga
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Mayumi Watanabe (Character Designs, Chief Animation Direction)
The Positives: I’m very iffy about Katsuhiko Takayama: he can write some very good series…
The Negatives: but also some very bad ones. The first season of Natsu no Arashi was very good, Ga-Rei Zero was excellent and ef also was top notch. He’s terrible with sequels though, and even when something isn’t a sequel, there are things with which he just can’t do anything, like Asobi ni Iku Yo, which is exactly what “Please love me seriously!!” feels like. It’s in some way related to They Are My Noble Masters, and that was just mediocre from top to bottom. What seems to seal the deal here though is the director of School Days, Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka and Onii-chan no koto blah blah. It’s the same romantic comedy we’ve seen a dozen times before.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Shakugan no Shana III

Summary: “Sakai Yuuji was a normal student, but one day his normal life was gone. He was assaulted by a monster, Guze no Tomogara.It was a monster which came from another world, and was able to turn humans into light for him to eat. It was a girl with burning hair and red eyes (shakugan = flaming eyes) that saved him, while he was too surprised to move. Then, that girl said to him You don’t exist anymore. What she meant was… “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Series Composition: Yasuko Kobayashi
Other Notable Staff: Ootani Kou (Music)
The Positives: Ootani Kou brings one final bulb of light to this show.
The Negatives: Ah, Shana. It’s one thing for her to just be annoying, but what really turned her into one of my most hated characters was because of how she just kept returning and returning in all kinds of other shows. She started one of the most obnoxious stereotypes out there, and with this there will be 70 episodes of the original. The director and series composition guy will be exactly the same, so I doubt that any of the problems will be resolved with this third season, even though both have worked on some very good series in the past.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai

Summary: “The story revolves around Hasegawa Kodaka, a half-Japanese/half-British transfer student whose delinquent-like blonde hair scares people, and a seemingly perpetually sullen girl named Mikazuki Yozora. The two decide to form Rinjinbu, a club for people with hardly any friends.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hisaishi Saitou
Series Composition: Tatsuhiro Urahata
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Watanabe (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Somewhere within this is a good premise about outcasts. I mean, if I just read the premise, without looking at the title, I wouldn’t mind it and it seems like a nice drama.
The Negatives: So why do these girls look like they’re about to have orgasms? Why does it have such a silly title? Why is it directed by the director of Sora no Otoshimono? With AIC, there really is no question possible: the creators are going for another silly fanservice show that just keeps repeating itself. Tatsuhiro Urahata also is the Mari Okada of this season: he’ll be working on a ton of different shows at the same time. Considering the fact that he adapted Monster and Master Keaton this is a good thing, but the promo art leaves little hope here.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Battle Spirits Heroes

Summary: I could list the premise of the first Battle Spirits series here, but they all seem to have completely different protagonists, so that defeats the purpose. It’s basically another show based on a trading card game.
The Positives: The bizarre thing about the Battle Spirits franchise is the big names who worked on previous seasons. The weirdest one being the writer of the first season: Dai Sato. You know, the guy who wrote Ergo Proxy. The past two seasons have been written by Atsuhiro Tomioka (a bad adapter with Disgaea, Nishi no Yoki Majo and Trinity Blood under his belt, all of which could have become classics with better balance, but he has done a pretty great job on Crystal Blaze, Samurai 7, and, from what I’ve heard, Yugioh 5D’s and the first Inazuma Eleven series) and directed by Akira Nishimori (Hitohira, Rumiko Takahashi’s Rumic Theater, two very underrated but very good series), which would have been a really solid staff if this weren’t a kiddie show.
The Negatives: Here is my problem with kid’s series nowadays, though: they don’t seem to take their audience seriously. They just tell the same random adventure over and over again with unmemorable acting and subpar animation. I mean, these will be the series that today’s kids will remember 20 years from now as nostalgic. Wouldn’t it rock if people would actually put a ton of effort into them? Come on and aspire to make something of the caliber of the Mysterious Cities of Gold, not the umpteenth Yugioh-clone.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi 2

Summary: “” – (Taken from )
Director: Chiaki Kon
Series Composition: Nakase Rika
The Positives: Chiaki Kon certainly isn’t a bad director, especially now that she stopped pulling a Shinbo and just works on one series at a time. The first season of Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi actually had some very good points and was actually quite an interesting look at being a manga publisher.
The Negatives: Here is the thing though: I remember that the creators pulled the exact same thing three years ago with Junjo Romantica. Junjo Romantica 2 got significantly derailed and unbalanced. On top of that, I already dropped the first season because of how it went from actual characters in the first arc, to the generic yaoi stereotypes in the sec ond arc that make it part of such a notorious sub genre. I like a good shounen ai series like Uragiri or Antique Bakery, but when things are nothing but “kiss kiss rape rape kiss”, I don’t have to watch that, just as how I don’t want to watch shows who insert way too much fanservice. If you want to make these guys kiss, do it at logical points in the storyline. Don’t just MAKE it the storyline.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon

Summary: “In the far future, humans abandon the devastated Earth and move to the upper world “Tenjo”. But Tenjo and the law of causation collapse in a war and humans return to the Earth, which has turned into an inhabitable planet except for Shinshu area. Shinshu is too small to accommodate all the humans, so they duplicate the area and create “Juso Sekai” in a parallel world. In order to rebuild Tenjo and the law of causation, the returned humans start reproduction of the history from B.C. 10,000. When the reproduction proceeds to A.D. 1413, a war breaks out in Shinshu and Juso Sekai falls onto the original world. The humans living in Juso Sekai lose their land and invade the original world. People in Shinshu surrender and the land is divided by the invaders from Juso Sekai. They try to resume the history reproduction from A.D.1457, but the update of the history terminates in A.D.1648. A rumor of apocalypse begins to spread the world. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Uruhata
The Positives: Tatsuhiko Uruhata is an excellent choice to adapt this series (this show is based on a series of novels), having previously adapted Monster, Hitsuji no Uta, Master Keaton, Hajime no Ippo and Cardcaptor Sakura….
The Negatives: … at least, that’s what I would have said four years ago. Ever since, he really took a nose-dive and worked on just mediocre projects. Oh, and yeah: this show has the director of Dragonaut. Dragonaut! This really could have been an interesting premise, but instead this guy will probably make a moe mockery out of any potential that was left. Especially the character designs here are abysmal. How can they actually walk around with that?
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Busou Shinki Moon Angel

Summary: “The story will follow the coming of age and Shinki battles of Tsubasa, a boy who dreams of becoming a Shinki Master, and his Shinki partner Arnval Mk. 2.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Masayuki Kojima
Series Composition: Megumi Shimizu
Other Notable Staff: Takayuki Yanase (Design Works), Fumikane Shimada (Design Works)
The Positives: It’s easy to dismiss this show. It’s to promote a bunch of action figures, its episodes are only five minutes long. It’s probably the same uninspired stuff as usual. But take a look at who’s going to direct and write it: they would have been an utter dream team if they were put on an actual series: the director of Monster, Master Keaton, Hanada Shounen Shi, A Spirit of the Sun and Piano no Mori, and the main writer of Bounen no Xamdou. What are they doing here?
The Negatives: What are they doing here indeed? I mean, this is a very risky series: if they get full creative freedom it will of course be awesome. However, the premise really seems to suggest that a lot of executive meddling will be involved. My biggest reason for believing this is that the two people behind the designs are the designer of Ergo Proxy, Bakumatsu and Terra e… and the character designer of Strike Witches and Sky Girls…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Kimi to Boku

Summary: “The story revolves around four teens — the good-looking twins Asaba Yuuta and Yuuki, the effeminate Matsuoka Shun, and the class head Tsukahara Kaname — who have known each other since early childhood. While they are not necessarily good or bad friends, they continue to hang out well into high school. The half-Japanese transfer student Tachibana Chizuru joins the circle of friends in this comedy about the everyday life of adolescence.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Mamoru Kanbe
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Masayuki Onji (Character Designs)
The Positives: I was surprised to learn that this isn’t a romance. The title just seems so similar to Kimi ni Todoke. I was also very surprised to learn that this has the director of Elfen Lied and Sora no Oto behind the direction. Reiko Yoshida however is going to be the real force behind this series: if the source material is good, then she can get it out.
The Negatives: But yeah, it’s all going to depend on the source material manga here, which to be honest I’m not feeling yet. It just seems like yet another high school show, only instead of having an all-female cast we now have an all-male cast. It’s indeed nice to have something different and all, but the problem with those shows lies a bit deeper than just that.
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Ben-To

Summary: “The story revolves around a poor high school student named Satou You. Satou goes to the supermarket one day and discovers a bento (boxed meal) on sale at half price. Just as he reaches to grab it, he ends up on the floor unconscious. Satou has just entered the fierce, no-holds-barred supermarket survival battle for half-price bento.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Shin Itagaki
Series Composition: Fudeyasu Kazuyuki, Shin Itagaki
Other Notable Staff: Taku Iwasaki (Music)
The Positives: The director is also looking over the series composition. That helps in making this show whole and consistent. Oh, and he also directed the awesome parts of Basquash, which could work to make such a premise work. I really hope that with this, David Production aren’t selling out like what Manglobe is currently doing, because beyond the busty character designs there is a recipe for a good comedy in here.
The Negatives: Seriously though, this show is one big question mark: both the director and series composition guy have worked on great and boring series, and it’s up to the novels to provide enough inspiration for a full season, and for them to correctly translate the jokes to animation. Fudeyasu Kazuyuki did write Milky Holmes, so he can definitely be funny. He also wrote Kampfer, though.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Hunter X Hunter

Summary: “Gon’s father, long believed to be dead, is still alive and was once one of the greatest Hunters in existence. Gon believes he will be able to meet his father once he himself becomes a Hunter. However, before he can become one, he has to pass the Hunter Exam first, an exam made of numerous tasks and dangerous trials. Persevering and refusing to give up, Gon manages to reach the Hunter Exam, all the while keeping his innocent attitude. Throughout many of the tasks and trials of the Hunter Exam, Gon manages to make many unique friends. Kurapica, a sole survivor of his clan seeking revenge, Leorio, who wants to become a doctor, and Killua, a member of an infamous assassin family, all eventually join up with Gon in hopes of passing the exam together. Each of them have their own reasons for taking the exam, but will they manage to pass it alive? It will be no easy task, as the tasks and trials in the exam are not easy. Aside from worrying about dying from the exam itself, Gon and his friends also have to watch out for killers participating in the exam…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Hiroshi Koujina
Series Composition: Atsushi Maekawa
Other Notable Staff: Takahiro Yoshimatsu (Animation Direction)
The Positives: Hunter X Hunter? One of the best shounen fighting series ever made returns? Awesome! The character designer is also a really good one, who delivered excellent work on both series as Trigun and Supernatural, but also Ooedo Rocket and Les Miserables.
The Negatives: There is a big problem with this one, though: why is this one even getting made? I mean, the creators are really planning to start from the beginning again. You know, trying to tell the story that we’ve already seen throughout 92 episodes of Nippon Animation doing an absolutely wonderful job adapting it (aside from perhaps the Greed Island finale). What do they hope to accomplish? Sure, it’s bound to be an awesome series and all, but what’s the point of creating a story that’s exactly the same as an already existing anime? What’s even worse, is the guy who’s going to adapt it: Maekawa Atsushi. The director is probably fine, although nowhere near as good as the directors that Nippon Animation got for it. However, who the hell finds it a good idea to let one of the smartest shounen fighting series get written by a guy who is known for his utterly stupid series? Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Jewel Pet, Dragonaut, Fresh Precure and the Prince of Tennis. Who looked at that resume and thought: “yup; he’s the one we need for this job”?
First-Glance Potential: 65%

C3

Summary: “The story begins when a high school student named Haruaki Yachi receives a mysterious, super-heavy black cube from his father overseas. That night, Haruaki wakes up to a suspicious noise in the kitchen, and he discovers a fully naked female thief of rice crackers. The girl, Fear, is the first of several surprises that Haruaki receives. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Shin Oonuma
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote
The Positives: Very solid staff. Michiko Yokote behind the series composition is awesome (she also adapted xxxHolic, Kobato, Squid Girl wrote Strange Dawn and Princess Tutu), and Shin Oonuma will be fine as long as this doesn’t get a second season.
The Negatives: There is such a thing as “functional nude”: if nude fits in the storyline, there’s no problem with it. Having said that though, when this nudity becomes part of the actual premise, you’ve just got straight up porn.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Shimanchu MiRiKa

Summary: “The anime revolves around three girls — Mai, Ruri, and Kei — who are into music and dance, Ryubu or Okinawan stage productions, and karate.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kyuma Oshita
Series Composition: Yasushi Hirano
Other Notable Staff: Hiroshi Katou (Art Supervision)
The Positives: This is quite the peculiar series. It’s meant to promote Okinawan culture and it’s actually sponsored by the Okinawa prefecture. The director will be the one who designed the characters for Rocket Girls and Hi no Tori, which both had quite unique characters, plus he directed the animation of Himitsu The Revelation, which really looked gorgeous, so I really wonder what he can do as an actual director.
The Negatives: The last thing that Yasushi Hirano wrote was a cheesy dinosaur fighting kiddie show, and before that he didn’t really work on anything notable. The trailer looks good, but has cheesy monster design. I also fear that it gets too restrained by its sponsorship to really give a good picture of Okinawa beyond the level of a tourist brochure.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Bakuman Second Season

Summary: “Bakuman follows the story of high school student Mashiro Moritaka, a talented artist who does not know what he wants to do with his future. One day he draws a picture of Azuki Miho, a girl he is secretly fond of, during class and forgets the notebook at school. He comes back to find that his classmate Takagi Akito is waiting for him with his notebook. Takagi tries to convince Mashiro to become a mangaka, a manga artist, with him, only leading to Mashiro’s disagreement. Mashiro goes home and thinks about his mangaka uncle, who had only one successful series before he died in obscurity. Mashiro is interrupted by a phone call from Takagi, who says that he is going to tell Azuki that Mashiro likes her. Mashiro runs down to Azuki’s house to find Takagi waiting for him. Once Azuki comes out to meet them, Takagi tells her that he and Mashiro are aiming to be mangaka. Mashiro then learns that she wants to be a seiyuu, a voice actor, and has shown promise in the field. Mashiro, once again thinking about his uncle, accidentally proposes to Azuki who accepts. However, she will only marry him after they achieve their dreams. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Kenichi Kasai, Noriaki Akitaya
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
The Positives: The staff behind this is going to be the same, which means that it’ll still be rock-solid: Kenichi Kasai of Aoi Hana, Nodame Cantabile and Honey and Clover fame and Reiko Yoshida of Maria-Sama ga Miteru, Saiunkoku Monogatari, Popolocrois and Kaleido Star fame.
The Negatives: Something didn’t go right with the first season, though. The pacing was really slow, and looking back on the series, it was quite repetitive. Trying to blog it also turned in a bit of a chore due to the slow pacing and I’m not sure whether I want to do that again.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Shinryaku!? Ika-Musume

Summary: “The comedy centers around a squid girl who vows to invade the beaches of mankind since humans have polluted the seas. However, her invasion is less than successful, and she ends up on dry ground. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima, Yasutaka Yamamoto
Series Composition: Michiko Yokote
Other Notable Staff: Masakazu Ishikawa (Character Designs, Animation Direction)
The Positives: Squid Girl’s Back! The first season was a really adorable and funny comedy full of really likable characters. Especially Tsutomu Mizushima surprised me: usually his pure comedy series try too hard, but this was completely different from his other comedies. Michiko Yokote is also back, which is quite nice to see, because she is excellent at adapting.
The Negatives: Who the hell drew that!? The promo art, I mean; it’s like Squid Girl just suffered from a stroke or something. Also, it is very difficult to make a comedy sequel good. Mitsodomoe did it because its first season was really flawed. Squid Girl however was a perfectly fine comedy with plenty of laugh out loud moments, with just a very disappointing ending. What can the creators add to it at this point?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Mobile Suit Gundam Age

Summary: “The new series will have three generations of father, child, and descendant as the lead characters. The main characters pilot the Gundam unit to fight against an unknown attacking enemy (UE) and save Earth in a One Hundred Year War – an apparent homage to the One Year War of the first Gundam series. The first main character is Furitto Asuno, who developed the Gundam AGE-1 mobile suit (humanoid mobile weapon) equipped with the AGE System (a self-adapting computer). The second main character is Asemu Asuno, Furitto’s child. The third main character is Kio Asuno, Furitto’s descendant who inherits the Gundam. The Gundam AGE-1 can be augmented as the Gundam AGE-1 Titus for more power, or as the Gundam AGE-1 Sparrow for more speed. Other characters include Emily, Furitto’s friend since he was 7. Guruudekku is a Commander in the Earth Federation Forces and the captain of the battleship Diva. Mireesu is a Lieutenant (junior grade) in the Federation Forces aboard the Diva.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Susumu Yamaguchi
Series Composition: Akihiro Hino
Other Notable Staff: Kanetake Ebikawa (Mechanical Designs), Junya Ishigaki (Mechanical Designs), Kenji Teraoka (Mechanical Designs)
The Positives: My big problem with the Gundam Franchise is that it’s not going anywhere. And with that I don’t mean that their premises all look alike, but instead the way the plot progresses is always the same and nearly always disappointing. I can however appreciate it a lot that Sunrise are finally trying to move into a different direction. The “three main characters”-concept in particular intrigues me. The director can go anywhere, having only directed a bunch of Keroro Gunsou movies that I’ve never watched, which is interesting to follow, at least.
The Negatives: The Father, Son, Descendant bit is interesting, yet it can also very easily degenerate into the standard Gundam formula, which first starts very interesting and diverse, yet by the time we get to the descendant it devolves into a string of random fights by completely ignoring all sorts of potential for interesting setting development. Also, I have a big problem with the main writer, Hino Akihiro, the founder of Level 5. I admit that he’s better than the usual kids’ series writer, but I especially noticed with Inazuma Eleven GO, that his characters are often just empty and uninteresting. They’re often overenthusiastic cliches that just weren’t interesting to watch at all, with the sole exception of Professor Layton himself. If he wants to make Gundam AGE work, he really needs to work on his characterization. On top of that, this series also has some very solid mechanical designers behind it. Now don’t waste them by oversimplifying things, like you do with your other series.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Guilty Crown

Summary: “The story takes place in Tokyo in 2039. After the outbreak of an unidentified virus Lost Christmas in 2029, Japan has been controlled by a multi-nation organization GHQ. Ouma Shuu is a 17 year old boy, who has a psychic power in his right hand. He can use the power Ability of King to extract tools or weapons from his friends. He has been avoiding making troubles for others but his life has changed when he met a girl Yuzuriha Inori, one of the members of a resistance guerrilla Undertaker.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Tetsurou Araki
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Other Notable Staff: Ichirou Ookouchi (Series composition)
The Positives: So, Production IG has pretty much created a huge ticking time-bomb with this. If only because of that it’ll be fun to watch, but beyond that: this is an original story, directed by Tetsurou Araki, of Death Note and Kurozuka fame. With him, you just gotta make sure that he’s not with his mind in the gutter and this can become really interesting and well directed. Meanwhile the series composition assistant is the writer behind Angelic Layer, Overman King Gainer, but also Code Geass and Shigofumi.
The Negatives: While the writer of Code Geass is already risky enough, the real concrete wall right on top of this series’ train tracks lies within the guy behind the series composition, who happens to have written the really good Mai Hime… only to afterwards write the really bad Mai Otome, Dance in the Vampire Bund and… Seikon no Qwaser. Oh, and he also assisted in writing Code Geass. He did write two good shows: Macross Frontier and Denpa-Teki na Kanojo… but yeah. Macross Frontier also had a ton of problems. Have I already mentioned that this despite being Noitamina focuses on a teenaged boy meets girl story?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Lupin III – Fourth Series

Summary: “Lupin III chronicles the adventures of Arsene Lupin III, the world’s greatest thief, and his partners in crime: master marksman Daisuke Jigen, beautiful and scheming Fujiko Mine and stoic samurai Goemon Ishikawa XIII. Lupin and his gang travel around the globe in search of the world’s greatest treasures and riches and always keeping one step ahead of the tireless Inspector Zenigata, who has vowed to bring Lupin to justice.” – (Taken from AniDB)
The Positives: Nothing is known about this series, but it really looks like we’ll have a fourth Lupin III TV-series, since the previous one ended in 1985. I have no idea who is going to make it other than the people of TMS Entertainment, but I’m still eager to check this one out due to its remake status: very often these series are made by big fans who try to do justice to the original source material, while also giving them a completely new spin. I hope that the same will happen here.
The Negatives: Just to make things clear though: I am NOT a fan of Lupin III. I only checked out Castle of Cagliostro once, but I never even wrote a review about it. After watching it, I just had one thought in my mind: “…that’s it?” It was nice and all, but I expected much more from a movie that’s consistently heralded as a classic.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Tamayura Hitotose

Summary: “For her first year of high school, family circumstances force Sawatari Fuu to move to Takehara, a scenic old town near Hiroshima on the Inland Sea and live with her relatives. Her father, who has passed away, grew up in Takehara and always spoke fondly of his childhood while living there. Sawatari learns to love taking photographs with his old film camera, a Rollei 35S while making friends and learning about the town.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Sato Junichi
Series Composition: Sato Junichi
Other Notable Staff: Haruko Iizuka (Character Designs),
Mamiko Ikeda (Script), Tatsuhiko Urahata (Script), Yuka Yamada (Script), Reiko Yoshida (Script)
The Positives: Sato Junichi sure is on fire these days. First there was Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, next up will be Tamayura as gentle slice of life. The OVAs weren’t anything special, however with an entire series dedicated to it they can grow out pretty nicely. Amongst the series that just focus on a bunch of random girls, it’s great to see a series at least not focusing on boob jokes or overly forced jokes.
The Negatives: By far the biggest potential pitfall for this series will be a lack of ambition. The staff behind this thing is really excellent with scriptwriters who really know what they’re doing, and it would be awesome to not just see one string of random slice of life, but also show the girls gradually grow up, like how these series used to be in the past before they got too small to actually do that. And in theory this series can really do that: it’s original, there is no source material that can constrain them. Make use of this! Screw conventions! If any series has the potential to break them, then it’s this series!
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Mirai Nikki

Summary: “Second year middle school student, Amano Yukiteru, finds it difficult to make friends. He only thinks of himself as a bystander, just someone who watches the world go by, writing down everything he sees in his cell phone diary. Tormented by solitude, Yukiteru begins to imagine things like a friend called Deus ex Machina, who is apparently the Lord of Time and Space. Seeing Yukiteru’s miserable state, Deus gives him a new ability. His diary now spells out events that will happen in the near future, updated daily, for the next 90 days. This gift inadvertently forces Yukiteru to participate in a game where the winner — the last one alive — will become Deus’ successor. Should Yukiteru lose the diary he will be dead, and there are quite a few other scrupulous players participating in this very deadly game.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Naoto Hosoda
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Hidetsugu Harayama (Character Designs)
The Positives: The pilot OVA was quite promising: the direction was snappy, the premise seemed very interesting and it made me hungry for a full series, which later indeed got announced. Katsuhiko Takayama is a very good writer when handed either complete freedom or a very good source material. As for the director… ah, it could be worse. The problem with this guy is that he has always been directing mediocre or outright bad premises. Based on the things he did in Shuffle though, he can pull this off. “All kinds of awesome reality altering diaries” sounds much more interesting than “bunch of princesses fall in love with dude”.
The Negatives: The main problem with this show will be its length, but in a different way than usual. You see, this is the rare kind of series where the creators were actually smart enough to wait until the manga gets finished, so that they could fully plan it in. No, the real problem with this show is going to be that Katsuhiko Takayama will turn it to crap as soon as it goes past episode 13. Seriously, to me it seems that this guy hates long series with such a passion that he’ll refuse to put in any effort once they go past a certain point.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Chihayafuru

Summary: “The story is about a high school girl, Ayase Chihaya, who after seeing her sister become a fashion model, is inspired by a new classmate to take up karuta, a Japanese card game, competitively.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Asaka Morio
Series Composition: Naoya Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Kunihiko Hamada (Character Designs)
The Positives: More Josei? Awesome! At first sight this really looks like a shoujo series, though. But at least we finally get something more than yet another high school series. The card battle seems really interesting, especially considering that it’s for once not a cheap way to sell more toys. It’s also got a truly excellent director: the director of No Longer Human, Nana, Gunslinger Girl, Chobits and Cardcaptor Sakura. Oh, and the series composition of Supernatural also really helps.
The Negatives: It’s a manga adaptation, and there are already 13 volumes published, and it hasn’t finished yet. This one’s gonna have ending problems again…
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Persona 4 The Animation

Summary: “Due to family circumstances, Narukami Yuu moves from the big city to his uncle’s place at rural Inaba. However, on his first morning there, a woman is found dead dangling from a television antenna.” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Seiji Kishi
Other Notable Staff: Shouji Meguro (Music)
The Positives: Seiji Kishi is quite an interesting director. He did a number of very funny comedies before, but now he seems to focus much more on action-packed stories, like with Angel Beats and Kamisama Dolls. He’s a very solid choice for this and will probably work with this premise. The first Persona series was the perfect example of “wasted potential”, so I really wonder whether this guy can do anything different. (Oh, and for those wondering whether you need to have seen Trinity Soul for this series: I do not recognize any of its characters in the promo art). The musician behind this has also never composed music for an anime before, which holds interesting possibilities.
The Negatives: AIC. But heck, they’ve made great shows. Let’s hope that this will be another one, but we don’t know yet who’s going to write this things, so let’s hope that I’ll be someone who can really deliver.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Last Exile – Ginkyou no Fam

Summary: “Four characters, three fifteen-year-old girls and one nineteen-year-old girl, have so far been revealed on the anime’s official website: Fam Fan Fan who pilots a small-sized vanship named Vespa, Jizel Collette who is Fam’s close friend, Milia il Velch Cutrettola Turan who is a princess of the Kingdom of Turan, and Liliana who is Milia’s older sister. The story will revolve around the conflict between the Commonwealth of Adess and the Kingdom of Turan. The MacGuffin will be Exile, but whether it is the same Exile from the original series is not known.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Kouichi Chigura
Series Composition: Kiyoko Yoshimura
Other Notable Staff: Range Murata (Character Designs), Osamu Horiuchi (Animation Character Designs), Hitomi Kuroishi (Music), Makoto Kobayashi (Production Design)
The Positives: Well, the long wait has certainly increased my appetite for this series. In the meantime I’ve managed to watch the first Last Exile, and there is still plenty of potential to expand upon its universe. Kouichi Chigura returning as the director holds a lot of potential. The designs of this series, especially the mechanical ones that you can find on the main website, look absolutely gorgeous and it’s awesome to finally see Gonzo back in the picture again with an actual series.
The Negatives: The only question mark here really is the one who’s gonna write it: Kiyoko Yoshimura. I’m mostly referring to Dogs and Kurogane no Linebarrels, which I felt were quite some disasters in terms of adaptations. But then again, she seems to have learned since Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu and this time she’s not held back by original material so who knows and she might be a very good original screenwriter.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Phi Brain

Summary: “The anime revolves around a high school boy named Kaito who fights battles via puzzles with a mysterious intelligence group known as POG. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Sato Junichi
Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima
The Positives: You can say a lot about NHK, but here’s the thing with them: they refuse to air moe, they aren’t afraid to experiment with strange broadcast schedules (Hyouge Mono, Moshidora), they don’t care at all about recent trends and often offer educational material. Enter Phi Brain, which most likely seems to become everything that Spiral should have been. The thing with Sato Junichi is that when he does slice of life, he is really good, but when he does anything other than that, he becomes even better! This has the potential to become a very interesting series. Oh, and Mayori Sekijima: under a terrible director she produces Rio Rainbow Gate. Under a great director she writes Zegapain, Soultaker, Orphen and adapts Skip Beat.
The Negatives: So of course, there still is the possibility of Mayori Sekijima’s bad influences to show up.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Fate/Zero

Summary: “The Holy Grail War – A death-match between 7 magi (Masters) and their summoned heroic spirits (Servants) in which the prize is the legendary Holy Grail, said to have to power to grant miracles. This is now the 4th Holy Grail War. The 3 preceding Wars had ended without a victor. In pursuit of their individual goals and ambitions, the magi congregate at a place called Fuyuki. All the magi will do anything, rationalize away any atrocity, in pursuit of the Holy Grail. All of them, but one… Kotomine Kirei is a mage, but one without a reason to fight. Unable to release himself from the threads of fate, he is drawn reluctantly into this War. However, as fate would have it, one of his rival Masters turns out to be an old enemy, Emiya Kiritsugu, a man more severe and merciless than anyone else. A man who desires the miracles offered by the Holy Grail… “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Ei Aoki
Series Composition: Gen Urobuchi, Type-Moon
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (Music), Tomonori Sudo (Character Designs), Kouji Etou (Art Direction), Koujirou Shishido
The Positives: I watched the original Fate/Stay Night when it came out for just five episodes. After that, the characters and storytelling were just too uninteresting, to really continue with it. Fortunately though, it seems that Fate/Zero will be a prequel, you don’t need to have watched Fate/Stay Night to understand it and the staff behind it will be completely different. Ufo Table once were a mediocre studio, but they certainly have grown since they started with the Kara no Kyoukai movies, assembling an array of really interesting people to work with: Gen Urobuchi is a definite plus, and he’s bound to provide an interesting storyline. Yuki Kajiura also is awesome, and the CG direction will be done by a former independent film maker. This all sounds very interesting.
The Negatives: The only negative I can find at this moment is that Ei Aoki once directed Girls Bravo. But yeah: he too has changed a lot since then, and his work on the first Kara no Kyoukai movie and especially Hourou Musuko was very good.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Un-Go

Summary: “The main characters, Yuuki Shinjuurou and Inga, work together to solve mysteries in a near future timeline. The story is based on the works of Sakaguchi Ango (Aoi Bungaku Series’ “In the Forest, Under Cherries in Full Bloom”), a post-World War II Japanese novel and essayist. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Series Composition: Aikawa Shou
Other Notable Staff: Yun Kouga (Character Designs), Narasaki (Music)
The Positives: Now this is the Noitamina series to anticipate this season. Seiji Mizushima is a versatile director who didn’t just direct Full Metal Alchemist and Gundam OO, but also Ooedo Rocket, and Aikawa Shou is a terrific writer who also wrote Ooedo Rocket, Nadesico and Ayakashi Ayashi. The original writer being the guy who wrote In the Woods, Under Cherries in Full Bloom makes this even better. As a mystery fan, this is a must-watch for me. Oh, and the composer of the soundtrack of Paradise Kiss and Deadman Wonderland is also really good.
The Negatives: The only negative part I can see right now is that the character designer of Gundam OO might not have been the best choice for this series.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

54 thoughts on “Autumn Season Preview

  1. Dance in the Vampire Bund was actually really good, one of the better Shaft series imho. You never finished it, did you? Eh, I just want to say that the series composition for Guilty Crown could go either way.

    Trinity Soul is barely even related to Persona 3 (one character makes a two minute appearance), aside from the concept which they’ll explain anyway. I’m fairly sure Trinity Soul doen’t even count as canon / having happened with respect to Persona 4.

    And about Un-Go – ZOMG, Seiji Mizushima is my favorite director and Kouga Yun my favorite character designer (though I do wish she’d focus more on finishing Loveless).

    I have high hopes for 12 of these series. Hopefully more than 6 will turn out fantastic 😀

  2. Glad to see someone looking forward to UN-GO. There’s fantastic potential in it.

    As for the HxH remake, I understand the need to reintroduce the series to a new audience and the Greed Island arc OVAs were good but didn’t quite match up the quality of the manga. I have to say though, that the director does worry me a bit.

  3. Shoji Meguro composed the music for the Persona 4 game (and most Megami Tensei games) and that game has an amazing soundtrack, so I’m really glad that they are keeping him along for the series. And it will have absolutely nothing to do with the Trinity Soul series.

  4. So I’ll be checking out Shana, Persona 4, Last Exile, Guilty Crown, Mirai Nikki, Fate/Zero, Un-Go, Phi Brain, and Tamayura Hitotose.

    There are subtle references to other Atlus works in the Persona 4 game, but they aren’t important to the plot. I’ve gotten no impression that they intend to go out of their way to tie it directly to the other anime, and since that was not very good I see no reason for them to. There are a lot of cliches so go in with your shield up.

    There aren’t any obvious standouts for amazingly-deep stories, but there are some shows that are guaranteed to be entertaining.

  5. Here’s my heads up.
    Better put C3 down a bit in potential. I read the first chapter of the novel ages ago and was thoroughly unimpressed. If you want to know what this novel was like think Hidan no aria or Shana. That was my overall impression. However it has been years since I read it….

    I have said this before but Mirai Nikki is full of plot holes. Most liked the manga for it’s entertainment value rather than it’s storyline. I for one liked it for making the greatest example of a yandere ever conceived.

    I have hyped Fate/zero too much already. I will say this though. In the opening paragraph you said that one one series doesn’t have a teenaged cast. The cast of fate/zero are not teenagers. Or does lupin the third have a cast of teenagers?

  6. I’m a big fan of the persona franchise (being 4 my fav) but I’m a bit worried about the anime because the game plot advanced very very slowly in the game and that would totally kill the anime (Where the awesomeness will come when the cliches start getting subverted. If it is well made It’ll be an interesting mystery/Character-study anime).
    Just will hope for no random battles (pun not intended)

  7. Shows I plan to watch for the autumn season…

    Tamayura
    Shinryaku?! Ika Musume
    Kimi to Boku
    Hunter X Hunter remake

  8. Many series in genres that interest me. I hope for a few really big hits for the higher profile series, instead of many “solid” series but no outstanding ones that we have (imho) seen the last couple of seasons.

  9. Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!! actually has a rather varied/quirky cast (not unlike the currently airing God’s Notebook). The romantic-comedy aspect may get overemphasized though, so who knows how that’ll go…

    Hunter X Hunter really needed the remake IMO: the original series was good, but it had too many continuity issues. Considering how far along the manga is now, we may actually get to see the Chimera Ant arc adapted!! 😀

  10. Oh, so that’s what I saw at AX2011!!! The director played a 30 sec clip of Un-Go, but at the time, we had *no* idea what it was and he couldn’t supply any details about the show at all. All I knew was that I loved the character designs and the director so I was already sold! LOL.

    ****30-SECOND VIDEO PREVIEW SPOILERS****
    Glad to know that’s it’s going to be a mystery series as that short clip kinda reminded me of the 999 DS game. A bunch of characters standing around in a fancy-looking place. If a notary game is involved then dang, the premise would be exactly like that DS game. LOL but I guess we’ll see! xD

  11. Well, three series I’m for sure watching. Ika Musume~ Yay! Most excited for that and Bakuman. And some of the others seem to have potential for me. Un go sounds kind of interesting, and that Josei one… I’m really just interested in how watching someone become a model inspires someone else to get into card games… Hoping it surprises me.

  12. Of course my most antipiated anime of this season for me is Persona 4 haha~ I’ve been talking about it none stop in the shoutout box. I’m a big fan of the Persona series so I hope the adpatation does it justice.

    The other series (which isn’t remakes or sequels) is Un-Go and Kimi to Boku.

    But I’m also excited for HXH and Lupin the Third! I’m a big fan of the Lupin series! I can’t believe it’s getting another season…after all these years too. I’ll try out Bakuman again but the anime isn’t really doing it for me…I’ve been just sticking to the manga.

  13. I am strangely excited for Mirika..I really hope this one turns good, maybe a bit like Umi Monogatari. And I’m hoping for lots of beautiful shots of Okinawa to make wallpapers of XD

    About Persona 4, the game was very good, but I think(for me at least), the game depends a lot on the quiet moments where you just walk around town and spend time with the NPCs. And I really hope they don’t turn this into an action-y show. Semi thriller sure, but I really hope they don’t lose the slice of life aspects!

  14. well, my picks are the following:

    Chihayafuru because she is one of a kind heroine and yes, i read the manga too; so that is why i am hype about it.

    Tamayura hitose: Because I really love how the production team did ikoku meiro no croisee. And I am a sucker for slice of life series because they are really heartwarming and fun to watch.

    Persona4: because I really love the game so i can’t wait to see an adaptation of it.

    Shana 3 because no matter how stereotypical she is and how bad the story is. . .I just like watching it because it has something that i can’t pinpoint.. .let’s say guilty pleasure? LOL

  15. I just noticed that you did not include Coppelion on your list. It seems to have a pretty interesting concept. Is it not for sure airing this fall?

  16. I was surprised you were so negative on Working!(!) I thought it actually developed really interesting and unique characters and played around and twisted tropes. It was quite the delightful series, so I am sad that you gave the sequel 0% potential.

    Seriously everyone, give this series a chance.

  17. CJay: it’s not on the list of series that are confirmed for the upcoming season, so I left it out, yeah.

    Taara: the big reason for including it as the series I’m looking forward to the least is because the new director is going to be absolutely abysmal. I consider him to be the worst currently active director out there. If it would have had the same staff I indeed would have rated it differently.

  18. My heart LEAPT! to see HunterXHunter being redone, but after the initial squee!gasm passed I shared your sentiments. I original was frikkin’ amazing so, apart from nicer visuals, why remake something that’s made of awesome sauce already?

  19. As of now I’m looking forward to Hunterxhunter, Working!!, Last Exile, and Bakuman. I’m sure some of the others will be good (ex:Tamayura Hitotose) but I’m not positive.

  20. Wow, there are a lot of interesting shows there.

    I’ll definitely check out all of the more mature sounding sci-fi shows like Guilty Crown and Mirai Nikki, plus Chihayafuru since as a huge Hikaru No Go fan I am compelled to watch anything based on competitive Japanese games. Phi Brain could be fun and I’m interested in Un Go based solely on the artwork.

    Plus, there’s the new Last Exile. The first series was interesting, even if I did always want to like it more than I did, so I’ll watch this one.

  21. I remember a month or so back thinking there wasn’t many interesting-looking shows for fall, but after reading more about a bunch of them, I think I might have a full plate on my hands again. Summer’s been great, and I have a feeling fall will be great too!
    I’m planning to give these ones a try: Kimi to Boku, Shimanchu Mirika, Squid Girl 2, Tamayura: Hitotose, Mirai Nikki, Chihayafuru, Persona 4, Last Exile 2, and Fate/Zero.

  22. I’m really surprised that you’re gave Working!! a 0%. Seriously the first series was side splitting funny.

  23. Here are some thoughts after reading what you said

    Kimi to Buku:Well i’ve only heard good things about the source material so I’m looking forward to it

    Ben-To:Same thing here,I keep hearing how this is surprisingly good,If it were produced a studio like xebec I’d be worried but I trust David productions and the animation in the trailer looked nice.

    Bakuman:To me the slow pacing of the first season was due to the fact that if you wanted to end it at a place that made it a good ending,then you had to end it at chapter 33/34,so that caused a slow pacing,however,while I’m not sure where they want to end this but if it’s the place I’m thinking of then they can speed things up a bit.Also while the main cast are teens they are surrounded by adults,I just wanted to mention that.

    Guilty Crown:LOL “ticking time bomb”,I definatly agree with that expression,it’s also why it’s the one I’m most excited about.
    I love director Tetsurou Araki,you didn’t mention Highschool of the dead and while I can see why you’d consider that inferior to the ones you mentioned I think it’s more due to the source material,I still loved the actual directing in the anime.
    Noitamina’s producer has said they’ve been targetting the Otaku market a bit more and this is definatly a product of that considering you’ve got redjuice and supercell (both well known from vocaloid) involved,however Ano Hana showed that noitamina using a bunch of teanagers for drama as well as trying to appeal more to otakus can still give a great show,I hope that will be the case here.

    Tamayura Hitotose : Disapointed in no Okada in the writing team since Sato Junichi has worked with her before but then again I guess Okada’s taking a well deserved break (first time since spring 2010 that there won’t be an Okada show airing),looking forward to it after seeing the OVAs

    Mirai Nikki:Now here’s the thing,I’ve read the manga and don’t consider it “very good source material”,it has it’s strengh and weaknesses,so I’m hoping the team here is given the freedom to try and make the plot more coherent than in the manga,hell I wouldn’t even mind an original ending.

    Chihayafuru:Hell yeah!Morio Asaka,one of my favorite directors,though it’s interesting how you listed gunslinger girl,I love it but I seem to remember you didn’t like the first season that much.My wories are the same as yours though,I bet this is 1 cour though I’d love to be wrong,I’ve even read another josei manga recently that just finished,why couldn’t they adapt that one 🙁

    Persona 4 : the AIC team that’s doing this is the team that’s been working on Sora no Otoshimono these past few years,and that’s why I’m really excited about it,not that I think SnO is a masterpiece or anything,even if I like it more than you do,but it always seemed to me great care and love was put into animating that show,the production values were great,you had different Eds at each episodes etc,now imagine giving all those very dedicated animators a more interesting source material,that’s got me really excited!

  24. Noitamina’s producer said that they’re looking into making more 2 cour shows so there’s a rumor going around that either Guilty Crown or Un-Go will be 2 cour.

  25. I’m really hyped up for P4, although I haven’t finished the game (only until Rise’s dungeon), I still love what I’ve played so far. I really need to finish it.

    And Hunter x Hunter is my must-watch since it’s practically my favorite anime back then, it’s my childhood.

    Other than those, I’ll probably pick up
    Kimi to Boku (I’ve read the manga before, so I’m mildly curious)
    Guilty Crown (awesome art is awesome, but I don’t like most of its female characters, might change thought, if they have promising characterization)
    Chihayafuru (maybe not the next Hikaru no Go, but still looks interesting)
    Phi Brain (Still not sure, it has the potential to be great anime but also meh anime)
    Un-Go (well, it’s NoitaminA, and it looks great)

    Oh, and btw, hi psgel, I’m your long time-stalker.

  26. Based on your preview it looks like the coming season is the first in a while where I will have some time to watch shows from the back catalogue.

    Usually I have about fifteen shows I plan to watch and they boil down to about ten shows I am actually following. Based on your preview my pre-watchlist just consists of ten shows now of which I am quite sure to follow five (SnS III, Guilty Crown, Tamayura, Last Exile II and Un-Go).

    I’m a bit disappointed, but then: This anime year imO has been excellent so far, and it’s not a bad thing to have some time left besides the current shows.

  27. Agree with most people on here, but am I the only one excited for Lupin III? Oh man, such love for the series.

  28. @psgels That’s really really depressing. I’ll give it a chance, but I’ll make sure to lower my expectations this time around!

  29. Holy CRAP! You scared me. I was reading down the list until I hit Bakuman 2, and thought, “the best this season is gonna be more Bakuman??” I didn’t realize you were doing them from worst to best. :WHEW:

    I’m most interested in Chihayafuru and Un-go. If those both turn it fine, I’ll be happy.

    Himayura’s OVA had a really nice atmosphere, but didn’t develop much. Hopefully Sato will do as you recommend and punch it up a bit.

  30. At the very least, fall won’t have your usual problem of series having onlu 13 episodes. There are plenty of series which are going to go beyond one cour.

  31. Hell yes, ive been going crazy since i’ve heard about fate zero. It’s almost perfect in my opinion. Universe by type moon, storyline by the tragic gen urobachi (the game was real dam tragic, madoka would be weeping) music by the magnificent yuki kajira, and animation from the artistic ufotable. And a storyline that would make a complete mockery of fate stay night! fuck im crying

  32. As much as I love your blog, your take, especially with previews is really cliche :p

    -100% hentai adaption
    -60% oppai
    -30% token loli
    -10% female homosexuals
    +10% bi-curious or metrosexuals
    -5% chicken brat surrounded by attractive chicks
    +5% emo brat that powers up to get surrounded by gays
    +30% male homosexuals
    *60% boring or incomprehensible concept
    +100% Noitamina

    Don’t get me wrong here, I really like your commentary, whether I agree with it or not; and I welcome the fact that recently you have widen your tastes to appreciate excellent woven plot, despite the fan-service, etc. At least you try to get rid of your childhood blindfolds, unlike bloggers on the opposite side of the spectrum 😉

  33. @Malkuth:
    “*60% boring or incomprehensible concept”
    Name me one anime with an incomprehensible concept in the last 15 years…

    “+5% emo brat that powers up to get surrounded by gays
    +30% male homosexuals”
    What the…

  34. Guys, don’t believe in a guy who talk bad in a show who just see too few episode, you enjou High School dead and this awfuld, the only diferent is your like nothing more

  35. I’m not very impressed with the next season :S I really hope I’m wrong and there will be tons of fantastic shows!! But for now…maybe 2 or 3 interests me…that isn’t a lot. I loved the Mirai Nikki manga but hated the ending. I don’t think I’ll watch Persona 4 because I want to play the game first XD But it looks good. And I will watch the noitamina shows (as usual). Let’s just hope that Guilty Crown is not the next Fractale.

  36. CANNOT wait on Fate / Zero. Seems much more darker and adult than its sequel. Also, I planned to rewatch hunterxhunter soon anyways. So this, assuming they dont fuck it up, is a pleasant surprise.

  37. I loved Shana. I avoid other animes with Shana-knockoffs because I want to stay loyal and true to the original. That way she doesn’t lose her charm, and the light, magical story can go on!

  38. I find it kinda strange how many people are complaining about how few good series there are supposed to be per season. I think 2 or 3 series per season is fantastic (I’m actually surprised about following 4 series’ right now). Only because we get over 200 series’ per year by now doesn’t mean that quality will improve with that development, does it?!

    I mean 2, 3 series are 8-12 series per year, which is about 1/4 of a year’s worth of anime in the 80’s.

  39. Again, people should respect psgels’ tastes. Please understand that this blog is about the author’s taste. So obviously, it’s gonna be biased. Just because psgels rates a series low doesn’t mean it’s bad (especially such as after dropping a series after one episode)

    Also, keep in mind that psgels is more than anything an anime viewer so is not in touch with the source material. Thus, for the manga, LN and VN people, their opinions might be completely different. Despite the weak 1st season ending and the weak 2nd season, Shana 3 definitely has potential, even after all these years of waiting.

    People saying that nothing good will come out have nothing better to do than speculate about stuffs they have never even tried before. Judging a book by its cover can have its flaws.

  40. Definitely watch: Fate/Zero (been waiting for this long before an anime adaptation was announced)

    Probably watch if I’m bored enough: Working!! (already watched the first), Guilty Crown (I’m in desperate need of action stories), Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukinai (I think I’ve read the manga before)

    Not gonna touch it with a ten-feet pole: Cross Fight Bedaman, Shakugan no Shana III, Battle Spirits Heroes, Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi 2

  41. I read your blogs a few years back, and recently started picking up anime again, and reading your blog as I seem to like most of the things that you like!

    When I watch anime, I never look at who’s the director, and who’s in charge of series composition etc. Although I know a bit about the companies making the anime. I was wondering if you’d consider doing more in depth posts, based on directors, production companies etc etc. I think it’d be really interesting to read your take! Because I see a lot of ‘we all know what Shaft is like’ etc, but it’d be cool to have a blog where the companies are compared, and to so what their pros and cons are!

    I’d definitely read it!

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