Category: Seasonal Previews

The upcoming season, there will be 25 series in total. A healthy number for a Summer Season. There will be interesting stuff to watch, however, it really looks like it will not live up to the currently excellent Spring season. The reason is the amount of series that have the potential to stand out. On a first look, I could only spot two series that had that, both Josei. The rest of the series all have their perks, but not enough to really set themselves apart in the way that the current season has done by looking different, unique or in any other kind of attempt to break a mold. I’m a bit pessimistic about this season, but that may also be because while I was compiling this list and gathering the right links on Anime News Network, I kept getting bombarded by ads for the Armed Librarians. I tried, but it’s hard to not subconsciously compare things to that after a couple of hours…

In any case though: this is a big season for Josei. I don’t think we ever got three josei series in just one single season. Beyond that, the science fiction and fantasy genres also have some interesting stuff coming out. The bad shows meanwhile are exactly the bloody same bad shows that we get every single season, unfortunately. AIC is the studio with the most series coming out, unfortunately. Sunrise, Studio Gokumi, Dogakobo and JC Staff also have multiple series coming out.

Again, this list is mostly about a quick look at premises, staff members and production companies. I have no idea how the original source material for these series are, because I haven’t read them.

Dakara Boku wa, H ga Dekinai

The Positives: Japan, why do you keep making these shows?
The Negatives: From the creators of the anime Yosuga no Sora… yeah you know the rest.

Kono Naka ni Hitori, Imouto ga Iru!

The Positives: There are other series out there…
The Negatives: These incest shows just keep getting more desperate.. Plus, the director of KissXSis pretty much tells where this one’s going.

Oda Nobuna no Yabou

The Positives: No.
The Negatives: No.

Hagure Yuusha no Estetica

The Positives: Interesting music choice with the soundtrack composers of Elfen Lied. Ryunosuke Kingetsu also is good… when he works for Ufo-Table. He adapted Manabi Straight, Tales of Symphonia and Futakoi Alternative.
The Negatives: It’s really a shame that this is one of the worst companies out there, Arms, which really won’t allow him to take the liberties necessary to make this premise work. That result lead to the horribly bad Samurai Girls. No, we want fanservice and stupidity here. That’s what sells. The director of the incredibly stupid Asu no Yoichi only reaffirms this.

Ebiten: Kouritsu Ebisugawa Koukou Tenmon-Bu

The Positives: The original creator is working on the script so you can’t whine that it won’t be faithful.
The Negatives: Otaku jokes by AIC and the director of Sengoku Otome and the adapter of Sora no Otoshimono. Blegh, absolutely nothing of interest here. Moving on.

La storia della Arcana Famiglia

The Positives: At least until you start looking more carefully, it doesn’t look that bad.
The Negatives: Chiaki Kon, get back from directing bad bishie fiction to actually direct proper series again. You are a good director when you actually try. Or were.

Yuruyuri ♪♪

The Positives: Well, this still is handled by right people: the director and scriptwriter of Minami-ke and Mitsudomoe. These guy know what it is to be funny. What’s more, Mitsudomoe’s second season was also pretty much better in every way compared to the first season. Hmm…
The Negatives: But really: the first season of Yuruyuri lost my interest within two episodes. I gave up on it when it turned out to be nothing… but bad lesbian jokes. Over and over. And they want to make a second season of that. Is there really enough material for that?

Hakuouki Reimeiroku

The Positives: Well, so with this, Hakuouki has three seasons, two OVAs and two movies coming up. Fans of the series: is it really worth so much airtime?
The Negatives: I’m getting tired to keep having to talk about Hakuouki in these previews. All that is to say about it has been said by now.

Koi to Senkyo to Chocolate

The Positives: Katsuhiko Takayama isn’t the best scriptwriter, but he can churn out good adaptations if he wants. The director is new. He did work as a unit or assistant director before (notably on the Big O and Argento Soma), so this will be his first chance to show what he can do on his own.
The Negatives: Unfortunately, this is AIC again. And unfortunately, some of the other works that the director worked on more recently… were Haganai and Ookami Kakushi. Combine that with that dull harem premise and we’ve got another show that very suspiciously looks like all those other uninspired school romance comedies that don’t try to stand out.

Muv Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

The Positives: Satelight is behind this series (seriously, these guys are really packing out for 2012), so it’s bound to be action-packed and very pretty to look at. The premise with the right execution has the potential to become a nice mecha epic.
The Negatives: Terrible director… agh. We’re talking about the guy behind some of the most blatantly bad and stupid fanservice series as Rosario to Vampire, Baby Princess, Koharu Biyori and Marginal Prince. The bad character designs also really hint that this will be very focused on pandering to its audience. Let there at least be a good scriptwriter behind this, because I don’t see how letting this guy take the reins will lead to anything successful here.

Kokoro Connect

The Positives: That’s interesting here… after collecting one of Shaft’s sub directors, Silver Link has now also recruited one of Bee-Train’s sub directors. Let’s hope that he can show himself off here more than what Oonuma Shin did. Fumihiko Shimo adapted Air and Clannad for Kyoani. This definitely is a stronger team that what we usually see from Silver Link.
The Negatives: Speaking of which, Oonuma Shin: you are not Shinbo. You never will be, and you are far from knowledgeable enough to act as a chief director at this point. Come back when you learn a thing or two about good acting.

Campione!

The Positives: Jukki Hanada: very solid, especially improved over the past year with his work on the script of Steins;Gate and Level E. Keizo Kusakawa meanwhile is an average director, but if the source material is good he can give it a pretty good portrayal.
The Negatives: Which leads me to the premise of that source material. It sounds really really corny, in a bad way.

Binbou-gami ga!

The Positives: Okay, so you have the director of Gintama, the guy who took over after episode 100 doing a new TV-series. Personally that was for me the point where Gintama started to decline, but with this concept it’ll be interesting to see whether he can bring another comedy to life.
The Negatives: Kento Shimoyama is currently doing a horrible job with Rock Lee’s script. And before he adapted Bleach. I’m not sure whether that will work well.

Dog Days’

The Positives: If there is any series this season where I have the most conflicted feelings for, then it’s this one. The first episode of the first season was terrible. The premise of this show is an insult to warfare. And yet, this is Seven Arcs: they have shown plenty of times that their second seasons are much better than their first seasons. On top of that, they changed directors here… into one of my favorites: Junji Nishimura. He doesn’t always hit the right mark, but when he hits, he hits HARD.
The Negatives: So yeah, I’m stumped here. This can either be great, or just plain mediocre and a waste of time. Agh! Fans of the first season: give me reasons to pick up this show!

Joshiraku

Other Notable Staff: Kouji Kumeta (Original Creator)

The Positives: Kouji Kumeta is the original creator of Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei. It’s going to be interesting to see this without having Shinbo all over it. Tsutomu Mizushima is a great director for this type of show, teamed up with Michiko Yokote like they did with Squid Girl. . Backed up by Squid Girl, this seems like it’ll be a solid comedy.
The Negatives: The genre of “gather a bunch of cute girls and have them talk’ is very over-saturated. The creators will really have to try to set themselves apart.

Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon 2

The Positives: Well, here we get Horizon’s second season. It’s a series with a huge amount of creativity. This was up to the point where it got lost in its own convolution at times, and the battles just make no sense whatsoever, but it’s still going to be interesting where this show plans to go. Everything about this series is huge, and even though the character designs still are pretty terrible, there also will be a lot of stuff to look out for.
The Negatives: The source material for this series is HUGE. Will 26 episodes even be enough to do justice to everything?

Moyashimon Returns

The Positives: Only four series in Noitamina have ever gotten sequels: Nodame Cantabile, Honey and Clover, Mononoke and Moyashimon. These really are the big ones who made the timeslot what it is today. Moyashimon out of those for is the least impressive, but it’s still a very solid and quirky comedy. Plus the characters are of college age, which is always a plus.
The Negatives: Now, a sequel in Noitamina is a very special privilege. What does this series hope to add to Moyashimon that hasn’t been said already?Just having “More of the same” will not be quite enough for Noitamina’s standards, you know?

Arve Rezzle

The Positives: Very little is known about this anime, and I do suspect that it’ll eventually end up getting delayed at this point, but still: I am intrigued by this premise. It’s simple, but if the creators develop it right it can become an interesting science fiction series.
The Negatives: At this point I can only say: Zexcs. They unfortuantely aren’t the most stable production company out there.

Kingdom

The Positives: I am keeping my eye on this for one reason: Jun Kamiya’s direction of the Third made a huge impression on me, and that series still is among my favorite anime ever. Of course, afterwards he went on to direct Penguin no Mondai, but on the other hand his direction on Hikaru no Go was also amazing. I’m looking out for what he can do though because he definitely knows how to handle a good story. Naruhisa Arakawa is the kind of scriptwriter who is mostly working on random moe shows (and very bad ones at that), but he does strike me as someone who can also deliver a good story when he sees one, as evidenced from his work on Spice and Wolf, Legend of Black Heaven,Seraphim Call and Sentimental Journey.
The Negatives: Now, I am a fan of historical series. Strangely enough, the series based on Chinese history are a large exception to that. It probably has to do with anime’s tendency to make a complete mockery of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but I’ve yet to see an anime about Chinese history that really caught my interest.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita

The Positives: Oh my god, an AIC promo that actually looks pretty? Seriously, I hate these guys with passion, but I have to admit here: this series actually looks very interesting and genuine. It’s got a potentially great pair of director and writer, and the ever awesome Kou Outani is perfect for this kind of series.
The Negatives: Seiji Kishi and Makoto Uezu. Both two people who can be incredibly good (Angel Beats, Seto no Hanayome, Sunred, Uchuu Kyoudai) or incredibly bad (Persona, School Days, Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka, Tayutama…), regardless of source material. This is either going to be great, or a complete disaster. And seriously.. why of all people, THESE two for a very cute and innocent looking series? Their styles are about the complete opposite.

Tari Tari

The Positives: So here we have PA Works’ new production, and the visuals immediately strike resemblance to Hana Saku Iroha. The character designer and animation director indeed is the same woman, and she really has been the visual ticket of many of PA Works’ series. This will also be completely original, and about what to expect of the plot: we’ve got the director of the Professor Layton movie behind this one, both behind the direction and the series composition. I have no idea what to expect of that, but if he has one vision then this could tun into a very interesting high school drama.
The Negatives: I have one issue with how the premise of this show is written: you’re describing the characters as stereotypes. Do not do that. Just create their characters, give them traits, but don’t immediately put them into one cube.

Rinne no Lagrange Second Season

The Positives: Well, with this we get to see the second half, and seeing as how Tatsuo Sato is on a roll with Mouretsu Pirates currently, it would be great to see how his work with Lagrange will turn out. The first season was definitely building up to something, and it’s up to the second one to really deliver.
The Negatives: Overall I do consider Rinne no Lagrange to be a bit below Mouretsu Pirates, mostly because of how the setting is really quite simple. This is something that the new season will need to improve on. Otherwise though, it was a very neat version of a mecha series with some good acting.

Sword Art Online

The Positives: I’m looking forward to Tomohiko Ito’s next work. Occult Academy was a flawed, but very fun and interesting series to watch, and this series seems to be in the same vein. A lot of interesting people seemed to be gathered around him, including several talented Bones animators, and of course Yuki Kajiura behind the soundtrack is also a very big plus here.
The Negatives: Now, this was created from light novels, the same from the creator of Accel World, which I didn’t really like. It was too forced, there were many uninteresting characters. My big fear is that she is only very good at creating an interesting setting, while ignoring everything else. Let’s hope that Sword Art Online will be different.

I’m really busy this weekend, so this preview will be a compact version, simply because I don’t have the time to look up and list the creators and synopsizes of all of the different DVD-specials, franchise movies or ongoing releases that are coming out next month.

When looking purely at the new releases, the next season will be small. There will hardly be any new OVAs beond the usual DVD specials and manga DVDs. In terms of movies, there are going to be three that I’m really going to keep my eye out… and beyond that everything looks dull.

DVD Specials

Comments: This season, we’ll get DVD episodes and specials from Maken-Ki, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka, Sankarea and Another. Ignoring Maken-Ki, which is just going to be porn, and Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka (the first dvd special was horrible…), there are two interesting ones coming. Apparently Sankarea is going to be more than just another zombie comedy (still: two Zombie series in one season, which both have a DVD-special. Get back to your variety, Studio Deen…). The big one will be Another, though: this is definitely a DVD special with a clear meaning, and it’s going to offer some vital background for the main female. I’m definitely looking out for that one.

Franchise Movies and OVAs

Comments: These are the kinds of movies and OVAs that just keep returning with new installments and of which I don’t feel like covering them over and over again with each preview. This time I also included series like A-Channel and Kenichi, which are coming out with random OVAs that honestly, I don’t care about, having never finished the TV-series they’re based on. I’ve heard good stuff on Kenichi, but the characters were just too annoying to continue with when I first watched it. A-Channel also wasn’t really interesting, and it was mostly unremarkable moe with insert songs that took up way too much time. Beyond that, To Heart is coming out with yet another spinoff OVA, again pretty uninteresting. Oh, and the new Conan movie will be about soccer, for the people interested in that. Honestly, the only thing that stands out here for me is that there seriously is going to be yet another Precure All-Stars movie. Yes, the count has actually reached a staggering 29 main characters. Who are all going to be stuffed into this one movie. And that does not even include all the various mascots that have been collected over the years. Good lord, I’m going to watch that only to witness the complete chaos that can only result from it.

Ongoing OVA and Movie Series

Comments: These are ongoing Movie and OVA series, including manga who just keep releasing an OVA with one of their volumes, like Fairy Tail, Seitokai Yakuindomo and Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san. Of those three, the latter is the only one I care about, having dropped the other two really quickly. Still, the OVAs of Azazel-san are actually better than the TV-series, so it’s good that they keep making more of them. Beyond that, the Eiyuu Densetsu OVA will be continued, which honestly disappointed me a bit: the story there assumed that you are familiar with the original source material, which I am not. And then there is the second Scryed movie coming out. I’m still debating whether or not to watch it, but damn: these guys sure look constipated. The fifth installment of Gundam Unicorn will also arrive, but at this point I’ve pretty much lost interest. It’s a real shame: it’s incredibly well made. But the main character drags the entire thing down. Just like more than 50% of all other Gundam shows.

Moe Can Change

The Positives: Moe can change? Hah, I’d like to see that!
The Negatives: Takeo Takahashi is pretty much another porn director, with series as Aki Sora and Yosuga no Sora behind his belt now. Yeah, there is no hope for this one.

Strike Witches The Movie

The Positives: Well, I guess they’re milking the Strike Witches cow here some more.
The Negatives: And here is the thing with this movie: when you look at the trailer, the animation didn’t really improve over what it was. It still looks quite generic, and apparently doesn’t make use of the fact that it’s a movie at all. This franchise really isn’t so complex that it warrants two whole series and a movie…

Kimi no Iru Machi

The Positives: Akira Takahata is an awesome animation director: he also directed the animation for Natsume Yuujinchou, Karas, Durarara and Ookiku Furikabutte. As if that wasn’t enugh already, we’ve got the director of Eve no Jikan acting as the chief director here.
The Negatives: This brings me to the premise: a guy and a cute girl are going to live together again. I really wonder: is this kind of OVA really right for the guy of a caliber of Hasihiro Yoshiura? This guy should delve into hard sci-fi with experimental stuff, not some random romance OVA that is most likely just a promo for the manga it’s based on.

Niji-Iro Hotaru ~Eien no Natsu Yasumi~

The Positives: Interestingly, Takaaki Yamashita has closely worked for a lot of the Mamoru Hosoda movies as a designer and animation director. The director will be the same One Piece director who’s going to direct the Ginga he Kickoff series. The really great part is the guy behind the series composition, though: it’s the guy who adapted Porfy no Nagai Tabi. This guy is perfect for bringing a coming of age drama to life.
The Negatives: The show does have a few cliches: this definitely isn’t the only show about a young boy, a remote village, and a dam that’s causing problems. The time travel thing however has some definite potential, so let’s see whether this show can set itself apart from these other series.

Space Battleship Yamato 2199

The Positives: Yes, the director of Rahxephon is actually doing the Space Battleship Yamato remake. This is going to be awesome. I love remakes as it always brings out the best in the people working with them. Most of these series were really made by fans, and more often than not they are excellent vehicles to experiment in all kinds of new styles. The Yamato series as a space exploration franchise with a very simple story is perfect for this. I’m also definitely looking forward to that TV-series, whenever it’s set to come out.
The Negatives: AIC and Xebec? That’s about the last combination I’d expect when animating this space epic. Especially AIC, but I’m glad that they FINALLY are going to do something that isn’t moe again.

A Letter to Momo

The Positives: And ths is the very obvious big hit of this season: the director of one of the best anime movies ever made (Jin Roh), finally returning with another movie for which he took no less than seven years to write, direct and storyboard. This just couldn’t be anymore different to Jin Roh, and Mamoru Oshii also is not involved this time, but this still is chock full of talent, and a number of fantastic animators will be involved as well.
The Negatives: The coming of age movie is very overcrowded in terms of movies. That’s all I have. These guys will have to set themselves apart, but with such names behind this thing, I have no doubt that they will.

The upcoming Spring Season will be a bit small: only 33 new series will premiere. Last year, in comparison, we had 40 of them. In any case, here is my preview for them. As usual, I can only comment on the anime themselves, and not on the source material they’re based on, since i don’t read any manga or light novels.

I’s unfortunate, but only four series of these shows aren’t about teenagers. We’ve now gotten to the point where this is really getting annoying and one-sided. And to be honest, this season is in one thing very mediocre: the actual premises. Very few of the premises really stand out as potential classics, and most of them really are the same usual teenaged stories or moe shows compared to previous spring series. I’m really talking about the taglines of a series that immediately catch your attention.

Looking beyond that and to the creators involved, and the potential for some of these series, and then we’ve got a very solid bunch. I’ve got about 11 series that I’m really looking forward to, along with quite a few others that could turn out very nice. Unfortunately, the fact remains that yet again, there will be a ton of moe and dull romantic comedies.

There are two major themes of this season aside from that: coming of age, and thrillers. The most series this season come from Studio Deen again. And really, by now you’d think that with the amount of series they release, they’d at least use one of those slots for something interesting or expermental. But no, we apparently only need moe and bishies. Sunrise also has three shows, which thankfully look more promising. The most impressive company this season will be A-1, with two shows with a lot of potential coming up.

Haiyoru! Nyaruko-Chan

The Positives: I… um… what?
The Negatives: I’m just completely baffled here. For those of you who don’t know: Haiyoru Nyarani was released a few years ago as this utterly terrible flash OVA that was very poorly produced and had the most mind-numbing banter imaginable. It kicked off the very annoying trend of showing horrid flash shows that are barely animated and that just feature cute girls talk to each other and fail miserably in their attempts to be funny. Xebec saw this, and thought “hey, we can make an anime about this too!”, or so I can only imagine. Just… what the hell? These guys have completely given up. Thank god there still is Good Xebec.

Sengoku Collection

The Positives: Keiji Gotou surely worked on a ton of different series here.
The Negatives: Brains Base, seriously? Are you seriously saying that you too have sold out and followed the horrible bandwagon of turning famous historical figures into moe stereotypes? Are you seriously trying to beat a horse that has been dead for half a decade now?

Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden

The Positives: I really like Masahiko Murata. He’s the director of some really good horror series: Shikabane Hime and Gilgamesh. His sense of action is raw and cold, just like his characterization.
The Negatives: Just… no. Are they really going to milk out the Naturo franshile like what Toei is currently doing with One Piece? Is there really a need for this? Is there really a need to use such a good director as Masahiko Murata?

Pretty Rythm Dear My Future

The Positives: Nothing.
The Negatives: Oh, I remember watching the first episode of the first season of this one. What really stood out was how abysmally poorly it was in every single aspect. The animatio was virtually nonexistant, and the writing in particular was incredibly stupid and convenient. I can’t believe they’re making a second season of this.

Jewel Pet Sunshine Second Season

The Positives: I remember when kids’ series were actually about something other than selling toys…
The Negatives: There’s going to be even more of this?

Queen’s Blade: Rebellion

The Positives: The positives should be obvious by now…
The Negatives: Will there ever come a point at which the guys at Arms will stop producing these bad fanservice shows? I mean, I remember the frst show they ever made: Elfen Lied. That was good. What happened afterwards? Did they just realize “hey, we can actually make a lot more money while putting in a lot less effort!” or something?

Acchi Kocchi

The Positives: The best I can think of is that the series composition isn’t anything bad.
The Negatives: It’s got the director of Astarotte no Omocha. My big problem with this one is that I just can’t find anything about it that interests me whatsoever. It’s just another mediocre high school romance show, but this time based on a 4koma; the designs look generic and being produced by AIC seals the deal here.

Gakkatsu

The Positives: Information about this thing is very scarce. I managed to find out that it’s being produced by the same company who produced Hanoka. Now, that actually was an interesting experiment to animate a small action series in only flash vector graphics…
The Negatives: … so of course their next work will be yet another one of those horrid flash school series. Of course. Let’s at the very least hope that they won’t be as cheap as the crap that companies as DLE produce.

Nazo na Kanojo X

The Positives: The character designer of Bokura no and Tokyo Godfathers? Awesome. Ayumu Watanabe only directed a few doraemon movies before, so I’m interested in what he can do as a director of an actual tv-series.
The Negatives: Ugh, it’s Hoods again, or the guys who just produce porn over and over again. This really seems like a typical raunchy romance of theirs again, especially since Deko Akao isn’t really such a good writer (having adapted Astarotte no Omocha and Pretty Rythm before…). It’s a real shame to waste such a good character designer on this.

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead

The Positives: Well, it’s bound to have a few good episodes, like the first season.
The Negatives: This show pissed me off so much. It could have been a fun gory show, but instead it dabbled way too much into dull harem hijinks, along with a joke of a story to close itself off with. The staff is exactly the same, and it really looks like they’re going to pull the exact same here. In the meantime though, I’ve thankfully been exposed by a lot of comedies who weren’t so lazily adapted at this one, and who were genuinely fun despite having a lot of moe in it (Enma, Ben-To, Milky Holmes), so this one is going to have to be really impressive for me to also follow it all the way through.

Upotte

The Positives: Takao Kato still puzzles me a bit. He’s a very mediocre director, who at the same time captured the Pandora Hearts Manga really well. I’ve given up with this guy though. Too many of his series were just unremarkable, but there is hope, at least. Naruhisa Arakawa also certainly isn’t a bad writer per se. He wrote Legend of Black Heaven for example, and adapted Spice and Wolf and Papakiki.
The Negatives: “Hey, you know Strike Witches? That’s really popular, right? Let’s do that too!”, said Xebec, five years after Gonzo originally aired it… just… no. Let’s also not forget that Naruhisa Arakawa also wrote Love Love, Yosuga no Sora and CosPrayers…

Medaka Box

The Positives: Nisioisin as the original writer will at least lead to some nice wordplay, I guess.
The Negatives: My interest was piqued a bit when I noticed that Gainax seemed to be behind this, not to mention that it has one guy overseeing both the direction and the series composition of this thing. Unfortunately, that guy turns out to be the “bad Gainax director”, who has been directing their worst series and stories with He is My Master, Houkago no Pleiades, This Ugly Yet Beautiful World, or those Mahoromatic OVAs. On top of that the premise also seems very generic, as yet another school romantic comedy about a student council. I see nothing that stands out here.

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

The Positives: Yukiko Ban was a main character designer for Bee-Train (she designed the characters for Avenger, .Hack//Sign and Yakumo), and a good animation director for Studio Deen (07-Ghost, Amatsuki). The designs for this show will at least be good.
The Negatives: Just… go to the website of this series. Then you’ll immediately see where the mind of this series lies. I mean, could they really have been less subtle? I’d like to see the Silver Link guys as the Shaft Graduates without actual talent (in comparison: I consider Shinbo to be very talented, I’d just wish that he’d use it better). Ever since they left the company to form their own, all they pretty much worked on was mediocre and unimpressive. I’ve given them enough chances by now, but all they can hope for here is that the source material is good enough to pull them through.

Hiiro no Kakera

The Positives: The director of Hetalia’s next project. Also, the character designer is very good.
The Negatives: I used to be a big fan of shoujo, but now the genre has become just way too diluted by angsty bishies to still be as enthusiastic about it. Here we yet again have an interesting sounding premise, but every single one of these series just descends into a bishie fest full of bad acting and characters trying too hard to look cool that is too focused on wish fulfillment. Especially considering the direction that Studio Deen have gone into the latest years. The series also is supposed to have a very good character designer (Ergo Proxy, Detective Story, Blassreiter, Berserk Movie), but I’m really not seeing that here.

Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A

The Positives: So, we had the Saki TV-series, which ended with a really obvious sequel hook, and so the next season will focus on some completely different characters instead. Okay. At the very least this won’t be a Manabu Ono series with his enormous boobs trademark…
The Negatives: Oh, I remember that it was a really big chore to sit through the first Saki series, as it turned itself into some magical girl series in which the matches were determined by how well the different characters could manipulate luck (no, seriously). At the very least I hope that the new cast will be more interesting than the old cast, because these girls got very bland very quickly.

Sankarea

The Positives: Noboru Takagi, the guy who adapted Baccano, Durarara and Koi Kaze. This premise is a major step down from those, though. It does seem slightly better than the usual romantic comedy. Emphasis on slightly, though. And I admit that I’m always interested in new directors: most of the time they’re nothing special, but things get interesting when they manage to already show off their own style.
The Negatives: There are going to be TWO zombie moe comedies in one season? And both are produced by Studio Deen? What the hell man, go back to your good premises again dammit.

Natsuiro Kiseki

The Positives: Seriously, this series has a killer staff: the guys behind Hanamaru Youchien creating a new anime original series, aided by the scriptwriter of Mouryou no Hako, Natsume Yuujinchou San & Shi and Boogiepop Phantom, animated by Sunrise.
The Negatives: That really makes me wonder: what the hell will this series be about? This show seriously has some of the most generic promo art I’ve seen in a while. On top of the characters looking very generic, they’re just not doing anything at all. From the impression I get here, this seems to be one of those shows to promote four random idols. Those things usually turn out terrible, which is why it’s so sad to see so many great people work on this.

AKB0048

The Positives: What the…? What are Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada doing here?
The Negatives: What the hell is this, man? There’s going to be another idol promotion show this season? Why two of them? And why of all people Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada, the people who are currently working on Aquarion Evol? Is this AKB48 really popular enough to warrant this?

Accel World

The Positives: Oh good lord. This show reunites certain staff together: the people who made Mai Hime, which was a very good series…
The Negatives: … only to be followed up later by Mai Otome, which was one gigantic mess of a series. The director later went on to direct the Girl who Leapt through Space, a mediocre comedy, while Hiroyuki Yoshino… went on to write Seikon no Qwaser, Code Geass, Macross Frontier and Guilty Crown. Thankfully this is an adaptation, and granted, Yiroyuki Yoshino did show that he is good at that with Denpateki na Kanojo. But really, this is another trainwreck waiting to happen unless they go back to their roots with Mai Hime.

Arashi no Yoru ni

The Positives: They’re going to remake Arashi no Yoru ni into a television series? This could get interesting, especially now that they have more time to tell the story (this will have 52 episodes of 11 minutes long, interestingly). Tetsurou Amino is also a very interesting choice for a director With Shiki, he did prove that he is a very good director.
The Negatives: It will be entirely in 3D CG, though. This just doesn’t seem like the right story for that.

Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan

The Positives: Once in a while, you run into a series where the direction and series composition are done by the same guy. This season has Mouretsu Pirates, and last season had Tamayura. These are often very well done series, because there is one guy who is holding in the reigns quite well for his own vision…
The Negatives: … so I can’t believe that this season is the turn for Itsuro Kawasaki. His series are often quite mediocre, with a few series that admittedly did end up well. (Denyuuden, small parts of Sengoku Basara, Wild Arms (although that series was also helmed by Koichi Mashimo) and bizarrely enough Papakiki, although that series still has some very bad parts). Still, I’m positive here: what can he do when he’s involved much more than usual here? Does he have a vision to make this an interesting RPG adaptation?

Ginga e Kickoff!!

The Positives: This series airs on the NHK channel. The one advantage of series that air there is that they don’t necessarily have to be profitable. At first sight this may look like yet another sports show, but yet again this show has a very solid staff. In particular Takashi Yamada, who also wrote the series composition for Heartcatch Precure, Ojamajo Doremi, Marie&Gali and Shion no Ou. Kounosuke Uda? This guy is the director of One Piece. I assume not the entire series, but I couldn’t find how big that part was.
The Negatives: The big problem with this one remains the premise. It’s yet again the story of a young boy with passion for the sport he plays. The creators will have to put in some serious work to make this stand out, instead of making such a soap opera like what Knight in the Area is currently doing. The standards for this genre are very high, after all.

Kuroko no Basuke

The Positives: And yet again they put some really, really solid writers on the sports series. Noboru Takagi is the guy who adapted Baccano, Durarara, Koi Kaze and wrote C. Can he bring a dull story about basketball to life? Will the director of Bungaku Shoujo be able to bring life to this series.
The Negatives: I unfortunately keep looking at these high school sports series with a negative feeling. The thing is that I’ve already seen so much of them, and the only reason they stood out was due to their ridiculously good execution. These kinds of series miraculously keep pulling me in, even when their premises are nothing special. I expect Kuro no Basuke to do the same.

Kimi to Boku 2

The Positives: The staff for the second season hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s safe to assume that it will be the same as the first season. That means Manabu Kanbe as the director and Reiko Yoshida behind the series composition. A very solid combination, as they did breathe life to the manga and portrayed a unique way for the characters to interact with each other.
The Negatives: But yeah: that way does get on your nerves quite a bit. This show is hard to watch at times, but that was also what made it interesting to see how it would nearly always end its episode on an interesting note.

Zetman

The Positives: Finally! A show that doesn’t look completely generic and like the others. As for the director, he never really directed anything I watched (he’s the director of D.Gray Man, Saint Tail and Clamp School Detectives; and Hamtaro). In any case though, I’m very interested in the premise here.
The Negatives: Atsuhiro Tomioka, oh boy. This guy strikes me as someone who rushes in with his own vision, and it’s always the question whether the end result is good. This is the guy who adapted Samurai 7, Nishi no Yoki Majo, Trinity Blood, Disgaea, Zombie Loan, Inazuma Eleven, Danbooru Senki and Chrno Crusade. The quality between all these adaptations varies greatly, so this series can really go anywhere, although it’ll probably be rushed.

Saint Seiya New Omega

The Positives: The thing that immediately stands out: Yoshihiko Umakoshi, the character designer of Heartcatch Precure and Casshern Sins is on another series. And this time he’s going to also act as the animation director. That combined with Toei’s staff of excellent animators, and we’re in for a lot of eye candy here. The director will be another rookie (seriously, for the past years Toei has been putting the episode directors of Heartcatch Precure as the directors for all sorts of different projects), and the Heartcatch Precure episodes this guy worked on were some of the highlights of the series. To make things even better, Reiko Yoshida is a very experienced writers and has helmed a lot of classic series, including a few originals.
The Negatives: I have never followed Saint Seiya, and none of the OVAs that appeared particularly caught my interest, but if this can be watched without being familiar to the whole franchise I’ll certainly give it a shot. That’s going to be my big fear though: the Saint Seiya franchise at this point is huge. Will it be easy to get into?

Phi Brain Second Season

The Positives: Well, this was about the last series of the currently airing series that I’d expect to get a sequel, but here it is. And really: there is a lot of great stuff that they can do with this. Phi Brain is currently at the point where you can really see that Sato Junichi’s characterization is paying off, and the character development is getting very good now, not to mention that the puzzles can only get more interesting with the way things are set up.
The Negatives: My one big question is what the new season will be about. The current season is building up to a very easy to see climax, but this will also be a climax that will be very hard to beat, as it really looks into the characters and pasts of the main protagonists and antagonists.

Ozuma

The Positives: I am a big fan of Ryousuke Takahashi, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out that he would be involved in this project. It’s only going to be six episodes long, and I don’t know whether it counts as an OVA or TV-series, but I’m thrilled to see a series that reunites him, with Leiji Matsumoto of all people. The music also will be excellent: it’s got the composer of Chihayafuru and Shion no Ou, and the style of this guy could pretty well fit in a space opera. Junki Takegami as a scriptwriter doesn’t really say anything to me to be honest, but this guy does have a lot of experience. He just didn’t really work on many series I saw, with the big exception of being the guy who adapted the first Gunslinger Girl season.
The Negatives: The big question mark here is the director: he’s the director of Slap Up Party, something that meant to be an RPG parody, but didn’t know what a parody was. I’m not very confident with him behind the reigns, although as a standalone episode director he does know his stuff and worked on some impressive episodes.

Hyou-ka: You can’t escape

The Positives: My big problem with Kyoani is that they keep making shows I’m not interested in. I know that they’re really well animated, but for me to watch a bunch of moe blobs in their daily lives, there has to be something that catches my attention, and neither K-On, Lucky Star nor Nichijou succeeded in that. But lo and behold, it’s like they heard me, because their next series will be an actual mystery-series. Awesome! The series composition guy will be the writer of the Full Metal Panic novels, and the guy who wrote the Druaga no Tou series, which also is quite interesting.
The Negatives: My one concern with this series: I don’t “get” Yasuhiro Takemoto’s sense of humour. Lucky Star, Fumoffu, those Haruhi ONAs… they all bored me to death, so I really hope that he will keep to his mystery in this series and just ignore the comedy altogether.

Uchuu Kyoudai

The Positives: Now here is one who really caught my eye. This premise is potentially gold, and A-1 Pictures behind the animation is showing a lot of potential here. The art will look amazing: Hiroshi Kato also did the art for many other gorgeous looking series. The director has only worked on Doraemon movies before, so he has experience in directing, and let’s see what he can do with an actual mature series like this.
The Negatives: Oh god, not Makoto Uezu. This guy sometimes gets lucky when he’s got good source material, but he also screwed up potentially interesting stories up often enough. I’m looking at you, Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka. Since he also adapted “classics” such as School Days, Seikon no Qwaser and Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka, in which it felt like he wasn’t even trying, I’m really holding my heart out for this guy.

Fate/Zero Second Season

The Positives: Well, it’s finally time for the second season of this series. The first season was entirely dedicated to building up, so there had better be some payoff now. In either way though, this was an incredibly solid series: well produced in all ways, so this series definitely has the potential to come well together.
The Negatives: The only slight downside I can think of now is that familiarity with Fate/Stay Night is slightly assumed, both for the in-universe concepts of magic and the personalities of some of the characters and I’m not going to watch that series again.

Tsuritama

The Positives: More Kenji Nakamura! This guy is really an excellent director, and with A-1 Pictures backing him, he can really flex his creative muscles again, and again this is a series completely different from his other works. The premise very well could work here.
The Negatives: Just one question. The guy who wrote Suite Precure will be writing this? Why him? Also, the thing remains: Noitamina should not be about high school kids. There are enough other shows who do that.

Eureka Seven Ao

The Positives: Awesome to see Eureka Seven back. the original series took a while to get going, but when it went off, it really was amazing. And the director of the series has finally returned for some more. This will be his first full series again after directing that series, so I’m very curious what he can do with a re-imagining of this series. A lot of work has also gone into the designs of this series (including getting Shoji Kawamori to design the main mecha). This is definitely one to look out for.
The Negatives: I see none so far, but it would be a bit of a shame if Bones can’t also get this to 52 episodes.

Sakamichi no Apollon

The Positives: Well, this is it: the big one. The show in which Shinichiro Watanabe finally returns for another series. Aided by Studio Mappa, who are apparently the same division of Madhouse who were behind series as Dennou Coil and Casshern Sins. I really want to see more of these guys. The story being about Jazz fits him really well, and yet it’s very different from his usual series (and yet, his short film Baby Blue on Genius Party showed that he can also very well animate non-action series). Add that to an excellent character designer and animator (think the character designs for Hyouge Mono and the animation direction of Sarai-ya Goyou).
The Negatives: At the same time, it would have been even more awesome for Shinichiro Watanabe to just do a Noitamina series, but a full fledged rich and diverse series as Cowboy Bebop. He can really make it happen, especially with how ridiculously solid the trailer looked, showing that he had nowhere lost his touch. Also, one of the scriptwriters worries me a bit. Yuuko Karihara adapted Sora no Otoshimono, Persona, Stitch and Kamichama Karin. Can she keep up with this series?

DVD Specials

Infinite Stratos Encore: A Sextet Yearning for Love

Comments: Watching the Infinite Stratos TV-series felt like watching one big middle finger. “You want to see an exciting mecha-series? Hah! Too bad. Here are some unfunny harem antics!” With a title like this, the creators really dropped all pretense.

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Comments: This was a show that was ridiculously badly acted, based on the first episode that I watched anyways. Apparently this OVA will host an OVA-original character who didn’t appear in the TV-series.

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Comments: This OVA will contain manga content that didn’t make it in the anime. Apparently, people could vote on twitter which story they would like to see animated. In any case, I dropped Itsuten quite early on. The thing that stood out to me the most was the name of one of the characters: “Kurenai Gekkou”.

R-15

Comments: This show just made no sense whatsoever. It was full of idiots pretending to be geniuses, and most of its attempts at being funny got old really fast for me.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

Comments: This show surely does have a lot of OVAs and DVD-specials, doesn’t it? Ah well, I stopped caring about this long ago.

Major

Comments: So this truly seems to be the final installment of Major, after god knows how many season and manga volumes. I actually attempted to watch the first season of Major, when Goro was still a kid, but I didn’t really like it. It was just way too shounen.

Franchise Movies and OVAs

Inazuma Eleven GO: Kyuukyoku no Kizuna Griffon

Comments: Well, this show also has started the tradition of having a new movie released every year, like a ton of other successful kids’ shows are doing. I tried to watch the GO Television series, but in the end I just got turned off by the dry and uninteresting characterization. Kids movies don’t have to be bad, as long as they put enough attention in the character department.

Lupin III: Chi no Kokuin Eien no Mermaid

Comments: Okay, I might have mislead people a bit with some of my previous statements. As it turns out, the new Lupin Television series will just be a standalone TV-special, just like the thirty previous ones. It appears that I’m not the only one who made this mistake, so let me warn all the other preview writers out there who make use of Moonphase: Moonphase also puts standalone TV-specials in the TV-series category. Pay attention to that in order to prevent misleading everyone. In any case, this seems to be yet another one of those Lupin Specials. If you liked those, you’ll probably like this one, but I’m not really interested in it.

Ongoing OVA and Movie Series

Kiss X Sis 06

Comments: Just end it already!

Queen’s Blade OVA

Comments: Nothing to see here. Moving on…

Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Kira – 03 & 04

Comments: Ugh.. there’ll be two more episodes before this will be over. At this point, I’ve given up all hope.Toshifumi Kawase is one of the best writers that Studio Deen currently has, but he definitely isn’t trying for this one. On top of that, they still haven’t gotten rid of the abysmal Hideki Tachibana as the director.

Morita-San wa Mukuchi – 05

Comments: Im getting a bit tired of these creators. Morita-San wa Mukuchi would have been an enjoyable slice of life series if the creators actually put some effort into making it enjoyable. Right now this just feels like reading a random 4-koma over an audio book.

Yuri-Seijin Naoko-san – 02

Comments: At least, I think that this will be some sort of continuation of the first 6-minute OVA. The Internet is being very vague on that. In any case, the first OVA was very random and also very wrong in its content material. It’s impressive that it was mostly created by just one guy, but it wasn’t exactly good entertainment.

Carnival Phantasm – Third Season

Comments: I just don’t get this series. Carnival Phantasm really is meant for hardcore fans of the Type Moon universe, and not for people who maybe saw a few series here and there of it. If you’re not a fan of every single series, this will just end up as a collection of very, very bad jokes.

Hakuouki Hekketsu-Roku – 05

Comments: Osamu Yamazaki is a bit of a mystery to me. I mean this in the way that the series he directs have no similarities whatsoever to each other. His adaptation of Toward the Terra was amazing, but after that he always just missed something.

Saiyuki Gaiden – 03

Comments: So, how has Saiyuuki Gaiden been doing? This will be the third and last installment of this OVA, and while I didn’t check it out due to time restraints, I guess that this one is interesting for Saiyuki fans.

New Releases

Sacred Seven: Shirogane no Tsubasa

Comments: Oh dear god why!? The TV-series already was mediocre, and now they want to make a recap movie to add even more insult to the injury? The new content is nice and all, but it will probably just amount to three minutes of new footage or something. I also love how silly the promo art for this show is. Like, the one who drew it couldn’t believe how silly it was what he had to draw.

Waza no Tabibito

Comments: Tenmon behind the music is very solid, considering he also did the music of ef, and most of the Makoto Shinkai movies. Matsuena Shun meanwhile wrote, directed, designed and produced this thing by himself. Unfortunately however, one look at the trailer should tell that the visuals in this thing will be… weird. It’s got the most abysmal character designs, the animation of the 3D models is really poor. And yet it looks like it’ll get some stunning background art.

K-On

Comments: Well, it had it coming: K-On has gotten itself a movie. Overall I don’t care about the TV-series at all, although I do admit that a movie could be interesting if there’s… something actually happening. This was the main reason I didn’t continue with any of the TV-series: it gave me no reason to.

Holy Knight

Comments: This seems to be the first part of the “cammot” animation project. I have no idea what the rest of the installments of this projects are going to be, but at least I hope that they’ll come with a bit of a more creative story. The trailer itself seems solidly put together. But seriously, couldn’t you have come up with a better premise?

Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker

Comments: If only because of the character designs, I’m going to watch this movie. It’s actually got the same character designer as Mahou Shoujotai! The soundtrack will also be awesome, coming from the same guy who composed all of the soundtracks for the Marvel-series. Only the director will be a bit lackluster: it’s the director of Vexxile and TO, which both had potential, but had rather weak storylines.

Minori Scramble

Comments: The trailer of this one actually looks fun and well directed. At first sight this one may seem like Yuri-Seijin Naoko-san (it’s actually being released together with this series),but Ufo-Table put some good people on this thing, including the director of the second Kara no Kyoukai movie.

Friends: Mononoke Shima no Naki

Comments: Here is another interesting one: at first sight this seems like a kiddie movie in 3D. However, it seems that this movie will be based upon a tear-jerker of a story, plus it will feature the main character at different ages. That alone has caught my interest.

Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki The Animation

Comments: Christ, this one just keeps getting delayed. But, it looks like it’ll finally get released on November 25th. Anyway, the story is still the same: the director of Tokyo Magnitude doing another OVA with Kinema Citrus. Looking forward to it.

Tales of Symphonia the Animation: The United World

Comments: It’s finally time for the final arc of this story to commence. And I must say, Ufo Table did a great job on trying to tell the whole story so far with these small series of OVAs. The previous episodes stood out because they nailed that balance between faitful and creative freedom, doing justice to the games, but also creating their own storyline. In the games, this is around the point where things get a bit less interesting, due to the increase in epicness. I wonder how the creators are planning to use that.

Rurouni Kenshin: Shin Kyoto-Hen – 01

Comments: I’m not going to watch the Rurouni Kenshin TV-Series due to the fact that it’s so damn long, but these OVA series? Count me in for that. Tsuioku-hen was brilliant, and this finally shows Kazuhiro Furuhashi doing something other than Gundam again (for the record: this was the guy who, beyond directing Tsuioku-hen, also directed Real Drive, Amatsuki, Hunter X Hunter, Chevalier, and Zipang). On top of that, this time he’s got Mari Okada and the director of Kimi ni Todoke helping him out.

.Hack//The Movie

Comments: Holy crap, Kazunori Ito will actually return for this movie. He was the one who originally wrote .Hack//Sign, but also shows as Zettai Shounen, Twillight Q’s first episode, wrote the screenplay for all sorts of parts of the Patlabor Franchise (including the second movie!), plus he also wrote the screenplay of the first Ghost in the Shell Movie. This also seems to be much more in the direction of .Hack//Liminality. I mean, it’s 3D and all, but as a fan of the .Hack franchise this is one movie that I’m really looking forward to.

Kyousogiga

Comments: Now this is a very obvious one to keep our eyes out for: Toei doing an anime original ONA, helmed by the director of the surprisingly good and well written Heartcatch Precure Movie. And that’s not everything: on top of that this thing will have the art directors of Ayakashi and Mononoke, and various animators of Heartcatch Precure seem to be returning for this project. This one can get very interesting here. Now ideally, things like this need to get a full fledged TV-series. Experiments like this need more time to really show what they want to do.

Gyo

Comments: For some reason this is being released alongside Yuri-Seijin Naoko-San and Minori Scramble. One of these things is not like the others. In any case, I’m very interested in this one-shot horror OVA from Ufo Table. What’s even more interesting is that they put the director of the fifth Kara no Kyoukai movie on it (like, the best movie of the entire series). Beyond that, this guy also directed Futakoi Alternative and even worked on Paranoia Agent. Here is one to look out for.

Un-Go Episode 0

Comments: I’m not sure under which section to put this thing, because this is definitely not your average DVD-special. It’s 45 minutes long, and actually gets released in theaters. And Un-Go already was my favorite show of the current Autumn Season. It’s really well written and uses every minute of its airtime. This movie also will show the past of the two main characters, which has been hinted at very heavily to be something special.

Berserk Ougon Jidai-Hen I: Haou no Tamago

Comments: Now this is it. I mean, Berserk having a movie reboot is already one thing. But with Studio 4C! Heck, they even got Susumu Hirasawa to write the theme song for this movie. For the director, they also got a great guy: the guy who directed the “Remaining Sense of Pain”-part of the Batman movie, which was really well directed. My only worry is that the writer of Code Geass will handle the script here, but as long as they follow the manga, there is very little that can go wrong here. Or is the manga’s story too big for three movies? ]]>

Amagami SS+ Plus

The Positives: Director Switch. This season will be directed by the director of Sola, Utawarerumono and Tears to Tiara, so let’s hope that this will be a bit less lackluster than the first season, as unlikely as it may sound with that track record. The Negatives: Just… why? I’m just baffled as to why this series got a continuation, other than AIC milking its moe shows again. The cover art shows the exact same characters as the first season again, even though the arcs I managed to sit through were pretty conclusive. What the hell are they really going to do? Add in even more forced romace? Rewrite the entire series? In any case, I did watch about 10 series of the first Amagami before giving up on it, but at this point I have no idea why I stuck with it so long. It was incredibly forgettable romance that failed to stand out in any way. Can the new series really bring a change in that?

Zero no Tsukaima Final

The Positives: The series composition will actually be handled by the writer of the Zero no Tsukaima manga. The director did work on a bunch of good series like Sky Girls and Wagaya no Oinarisama… The Negatives: But unfortunately the same guy worked on just as many lesser shows, like Ookamisan and Twin Angel. And really, the thought of two Kugimiya Rie shows at the same time… with the two characters who started off her infamy. Louise was the first Shana clone out there, and while I blame Shana for creating a really obnoxious stereotype, I blame Zero no Tsukaima even more for adhering to it and making it even more popular.

High School DXD

The Positives: Um, Takao Yoshioka usually isn’t that bad of a scriptwriter, with the series composition of Elfen Lied, Daimaou and Sky Girls under his name… usually… The Negatives: What do you want from me?! The url of this show’s website is called “Harem King”!

Papa no Iu Koto o Kikinasai!

The Positives: So here we have the generic moe romantic comedy of the season… only it’s directed by a guy who normally handles action series: Itsuro Kawasaki. The Negatives: Most of his series though miss something, and he only really nailed a series with Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu, which did have a very strong source material. I really cannot say the same for this show though. It feels like Rou Kyuu Bu II or something. The entire premise is dedicated to pandering to a certain type of audience. Naruhisa Arakawa is the same: she wrote a lot, but ultimately most of these works are rather generic. With the big exception of the Legend of Black Heaven, but that unfortunately seems completely different.

Baby, Please Kill Me

The Positives: The character designer of Utena, wut? The director isn’t anything special, but he’ll probably make this mildly fun. The Negatives: I still haven’t forgiven Hideki Shirane for ruining Yumekui Merry. And it’s good that this doesn’t have a serious story, because he seems to be really bad at that (Aria The Scarlet Ammo, anyone?). In any case, this seems like it’ll be typical JC Staff: typical but ultimately unfunny antics by moe young girls. We’ve got enough of those series already.

Recorder to Randoseru

The Positives: Next up in the category of series that can only happen in Japan: two siblings who look nothing like their ages. At first sight this seems like it might just be an interesting series. This will be the debut of director Hiroshi Kimura, and he has worked on episodes of series as Koi Kaze, Haibane Renmei and Gungrave, so he should know what it takes to tell a serious story. The Negatives: However, this is still produced by Seven, the same people who gave us Morita-San wa Mukuchi, the incredibly poorly produced show where it felt like nobody really cared what they were making. The series composition guy will be the same. I really have no idea what’s up with these really cheaply produced series lately.

The New Prince of Tennis

The Positives: This thing will be produced by MSC. They’re a small animation company, founded from Production IG, and while they did produce a bunch of OVAs (which mostly were Prince of Tennis OVAs), this will be their first full fledged Television series. As newbies on the market, I wish them good luck. The director they got for this one also is an interesting one: the director of Bungaku Shoujo and World Destruction. That does show that this guy needs good source material, but he’s got an interesting style. The Negatives: I’ve heard… some bad things about the Prince of Tennis franchise. I’ve never seen a single episode of it, but from what I’ve heard it’s got one of the most obnoxiously perfect main characters in the book. Beyond that, I also have a very unnerving question here: in total, the Prince of Tennis has gotten 209 episodes and one movie… and they still haven’t left middle school?! What have they been doing for these past 200 episodes? O.o

Nisemonogatari

The Positives: Oooh, you really make things hard, don’t you, Shaft? Here is the thing: with this, Shinbo has finally done what I’ve been hoping him to do for ages now: stop being involved in a truckload of different series at the same time and just focus on one series and make that one as good as possible. I really hated how he basically used his own style as an excuse to rush through all of his series, instead of just making one good one. With this, he has actually taken a half-year break and not released anything. The Negatives: However, will that be enough to finally put an end to some of the most obnoxious Shaft tropes? The big one is how there hasn’t been a single Shaft Sequel that was just as good or better than its original, and I already didn’t like Bakemonogatari. The thing is, that I really want to like this guy, but when he keeps telling these half-assed stories full of pointless symbolism that actually gets in the way of telling this story, then I’m not in.

Senhime Zesshou Symphogear

The Positives: Encourage Films did a random ONA in the past, but this is the first time they do a full series on their own. I wish them good luck. This is all in all a very weird production, because the original creator is one of the musical composer from the band Elements Garden. On top of that, Thomas Romain, the director of the japanese inspired Code Lyoko and co-production of Oban Star Races and the original creator of Basquash will handle the art direction. It’s clear that this studio emerged from Satelight, and it’s very interesting to see that someone like Thomas Romain went along with them. Fumiaki Kouta behind the action direction also brings a lot of promise considering his huge experience. Also: it’s a music battle tv anime. What the hell? The Negatives: And then bizarrely enough this also got the director of Shugo Chara Party (that huge cop-out) and a guy behind the series composition without any other experience (pseudonym?). Ah well, Tatsufumi Ito has shown that he can direct with his work on some episodes of Casshern and Croisee.

Ano Natsu de Matteru

The Positives: Here is an interesting project: most romantic comedies nowadays are adaptations of either mangas, light novels or hentai games. This time however, we have a series that is completely anime original. And not only that, it’s written by Yosuke Kuroda. Now, I have not seen Onegai Teacher, which seems to be the closest comparison to this series, but we’re talking about the guy who wrote Madlax, Infinite Ryvius, Gundam OO, and who adapted Trigun, High School of the Dead, Phantom, Gungrave, Honey and Clover and Ookiku Furikabutte. If anyone can make a romantic comedy work, then it’s this guy. The Negatives: Though granted, Yosuke Kuroda isn’t perfect. His list of bad shows is also quite long with Maken-Ki, Ring ni Kakero, Kokoro Library, Spider Riders and Yumeria. If this guy really wants to though, he can make something very interesting here.

The Knight in the Area

The Positives: Tadashi Agi seems to be a veteran in the manga business. I haven’t seen any of his works, but his experience might be interesting for this series. This is produced by Shin-Ei Animation, and it’s been a while since they released anything (they were behind a truckload of Doraemon movies, but also Kappa to Coo to Natsuyasumi. Hirofumi Ogura meanwhile was the director of Kuroshitsuji II, which proved to be an excellent tongue in the cheek sequel. The Negatives: You know… something tells me that the original creator is a really, really big fan of a guy named Adachi. My big problem with this show at the moment lies with the premise of this show, which feels like someone took an Adachi storyline, and turned it into a soap opera, removing all the subtlety from it. The reason Adachi’s works work is because of how well they’re told, not because how he tries to be as sad as possible.

Poyopoyo Kansatsu Nikki

The Positives: Do not get fooled here: this show is being directed by the guy who is pretty much the best and most consistent comedy director out there. Akitarou Daichi has a track record of working on a ton of different series, and being consistently hilarious no matter what he’s working on. The Negatives: At the same time though, I’d really wish that this guy would get back and work on a project with a bit more ambition. I mean, this is also the guy who brought us Now and Then, Here and There and the adaptation of Fruits Basket.

Brave10

The Positives: This will be produced by Studio Sakimakura, who are completely new on the market. Nice! Also nice is that another series at least tries to take the Sengoku Era seriously, without turning its characters into girls or something. Yukiko Ban meanwhile is a very solid choice behind the animation director, having previously done so with Amatsuki, .Hack//Sign and Shinrei Tantei Yakumo. It’s also great to see Kiyoko Sayawa back again, as she’s one of the few female directors out there, and her work on Pretear and Skip Beat definitely caught my eye. This show can become what Hakuouki failed to do. The Negatives: I’m a bit iffy on Mamiko Ikeda. She’s not entirely bad, she did a great job on adapting Victorian Romance Emma, Tsukikage Ran and Fruits Basket… only not so much on Regios, Maid Sama, Nagasarete Airantou and Hanasakeru Seishounen…

Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou

The Positives: Here we do have an interesting project: the first 100 episodes of Gintama (basically the best part of the show) were directed by Shinji Takamatsu. Even though his previous attempt at a series failed with Sora no Manimani, I’m still curious to see what he can do with a bit of a wilder premise that isn’t just any other romantic comedy. He brought some solid directors along with him it seems, and also the art direction seems to have potential here. The Negatives: My main complaint here is that the whole premise isn’t that interesting, but slice of life comedies really depend on their execution anyway.

Aquarion Evol

The Positives: Oh boy. Shoji Kawamori and Mari Okada working together on one series. I have no idea how well that’s going to go, but it definitely has me interested. I never bothered to watch Aquarion because its premise just didn’t seem interesting enough to marathon compared to all the other shows that I still need to check out (yeah, it was a very subjective reason), however when it airs weekly like this I think that I’ll have enough motivation to keep watching it. Especially now that Mari Okada is involved. Oh, and not to mention the director of NHK ni Youkoso and B Gata H Kei. These are some of the strongest names that Shoji Kawamori worked together with in a long time. The Negatives: If Kawamori TROLLS ME ONE MORE TIME….

Black Rock Shooter

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2

The Positives: The exact staff of this series hasn’t been announced yet, but it’s very likely that the same guys will be returning for this sequel of the series that really surprised me when it first came out. At first it seemed like this really dull moe show, but it actually turned out to be a very funny detective parody with very likable characters and surprisingly good animation at times (courtesy of Seiya Numata). The Negatives: The big question will be: will this be as good as the first season? The problem with comedy sequels is that they’re hardly ever as good as their predecessors. The second season is the point where the inspiration runs dry, the best jokes have been already told, the writers try too hard, all resulting in a lesser experience. Especially in the case of the good comedies like this one. Let’s hope that this can avoid this syndrome.

Inu x Boku SS

The Positives: There are very few studios nowadays that can immediately gain my interest upon a normally dull looking show as David Production. With Ben-To they showed that even with the moe shows, they try their best to make it entertaining. And indeed, the premise here does seem more interesting than your average moe show. On top of that we’ve got a talented animation director working here and it’s supervised by the director of Niea and Steins;Gate. The director will be a new guy, which is also interesting. He worked on a bunch of interesting episodes already. Saizo Nemoto also sounds quite interesting, as he adapted quite a few episodes for Bantorra, Steins;Gate, Shangri La and Toward the Terra. The Negatives: Saizo Nemoto is also currently writing Towa no Quon, which disappointed a little. That’s all I have.

Mouretsu Pirates

The Positives: Hell yeah! This sounds like a fun and exciting story from Satelight. They got some really good animators and designers behind it (including the animation director of The Big O of all things), and Tatsuo Sato will really be the man of this season, with two very ambitious mecha series under his helm. I’m expecting a lot here from the director of Nadesico, Stellvia, Tokyo Tribe, Shingu and Shigofumi, especially since he’s also writing the series composition on top of directing. It’s been a while since someone had the guts to do that. The Negatives: Moe and boobs. Please don’t let those get in the way of making this one fun.

Rinne no Lagrange: Flower declaration of your heart

The Positives: Could it be? Is Xebec finally getting a bit ambitious again? It’s been ages since we’ve seen a good mecha, so I really hope that this one will be it. The chief director behind it in any case will be amazing, and I’m expecting a lot from the same guy who brought us Shingu, Cat Soup, Nadesico, Tokyo Tribe and Shigofumi. The cast of this series seems huge, which seems to be working in his favor. The director of Heroic Age and the Fafner Movie also can make things quite interesting here and the team is complete with nobody other than the guy who wrote Darker than Black and various episodes of all kinds of awesome series as Chevalier, Blood+, Ghost in the Shell, Seirei no Moribito and Wild Arms. Oh, and to make matters even better: Hiroshi Ohnogi (you know, the guy behind the series composition of Birdy the Mighty, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, NOEIN, and Shangri-la, among many others will be among the scriptwriters. This has some HUGE potential. The Negatives: The obvious flaw of this is the fanservicy character designs, but also the collection of scriptwriters: it’s got some of the best, but also some of the worst ones. Most notably Machida Touko, who has ruined many great premises by her mediocre scriptwriting.

Another

The Positives: This one will be a show to keep your eye out to. PA Works assembled some great staff for it, including their usual background art artists (just look at Hana-Saku Iroha for the amazing things these people can do), Kou Otani is making the soundtrack, the series composition will e done by one of the scriptwriters of Seirei no Moribito, and to finish things off: Tsutomu Mizushima (who also directed Ookiku Furikabutte, Blood-C, xxxHolic and Squid Girl) will be directing it. The series is in an excellent genre as well, so I’m looking forward to this. The Negatives: A high school. The creators had better make good use of this cliche.

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

The Positives: Well, what can there be said about this series at this point? The third season that aired this summer was just exquisite and brought in a ton of character development for the titular character. And then to think that it was nowhere near finished. The staff for this series will be the same, so the incredibly strong direction and script of Takehiro Omori (who previously directed Baccano, Jigoku Shoujo, Fancy Lala and Koi Kaze) and Sadayuki Murai (who previously adapted Boogiepop Phantom and Mouryou no Hako, two utterly brilliant adaptations) should be able to work their magic again. The Negatives: So far, Natsume’s stories that just took part into one single episode have been the strongest. I really hope that the creators put in many of these kinds of episodes. The main storyline of Natsume Yuujinchou is very good, but not THAT good. ]]>

Ooh, this is a very dark season for OVAs. Probably the worst we’ve had in years. Do you want to know how many original OVAs are going to be released over the next three months, so the ones who aren’t based on a TV-series? One. And that one show got delayed half a year. Beyond that, out of all the OVA episodes that will be released, there will only be four that are really worth watching, with perhaps one getting the benefit of doubt. Apart from that, it’s all going to be moe and fanservice. And occasionally bishie harems.

As for the moies: again, really barren. There’s hardly anything new coming out, but the stuff that does come out will be great at least. Don’t expect a lot to come up, though. Like, the two movies… yeah. In the seasons that I’ve been doing these movie and OVA previews, I have never encountered a season that looks as empty as this one.

Unlike last season’s preview, I do have a bit more time to go into more detail for the DVD Specials, Ongoing OVAs, Ongoing Movie Series and Franchise Movies (you know, those shows that have a movie coming out each year). I still refuse to keep listing their staff list, especially since they’re either nothing to really write home about or exactly the same as their predecessors, so I’ll just group them together at the start of this preview.

DVD Specials/Single Franchise OVAs:
Infinite Stratos – Koi ni Kogareru Sextet

Description: “Koi ni Kogareru Sextet” means something like “A sextet in love”.
The Positives: Um.. it sold well?
The Negatives: The past winter season was full of disappointments. None was as big as finding out what Infinite Stratos turned into, though. They weren’t even trying! With this OVA, they completely stopped pretending to be about anything: it’s just another cheesy harem now.

The World God Only Knows – Four People and an Idol

Description: This will apparently adapt chapter 54 of the manga, which apparently focuses on some of the girls of the previous arcs making a light music club.
The Positives: This probably is good news for the fans of this series, because the creators are actually willing to animate more of the manga.
The Negatives: I really doubt that this is going to save this series for anyone who got tired of TWGOK, like myself. The one redeeming factor of this series was that it did spend a lot of attention to get some depth into its characters. This is just another silly side-story, which were by far the worst parts of the anime.

Boku wa Tomodachiga Sukinai

Description: It will be bundled with the seventh volume of the novels it’s based on, which chronicles a bunch of kids who start a club for people who don’t have many friends. I couldn’t find anywhere which chapters it’s going to be adapting, though.
The Positives: I still think that this premise has potential, if it just hadn’t blatantly written “moe” all over it.
The Negatives: With AIC though, I really don’t have any expectations for this one at all. Nearly all of their series are only interested in delivering pointless moe unless it’s explicitly clear from the beginning that they’re not, like with Hourou Musuko or Sunred. Persona might break that trend, but Bokuwa Tomodachi ga Sukinai has no chance.

Deadman Wonderland

Description: This is going to be an unaired DVD episode for Deadman Wonderland.
The Positives: Finally! This will be one of the very few OVA episodes that I’m looking forward for the upcoming season. Deadman Wonderland is in dire need of more episodes, so even an extra DVD episode that shows more of the story is good here.
The Negatives: Now, Manglobe: please continue with this series instead of continuing with bad and pretentious hentai game adaptations. This series deserves to be finished!

Ongoing OVAs :
VitaminX Addiction

Description: Based on a dating sim. This is the second of three episodes.
The Positives: None.
The Negatives: Oh god, there’s going to be more? The shoujo genre is already completely stale. We don’t need any more cheesy harems like Uta Prince.
Aah Megami-Sama

Description: It continues the story of Aah Magami-Sama, in which the lead character Keiichi gets his wish fulfilled and gets to live together with a bunch of goddesses. The tag line will be “Keiichi-san, do you wanna kiss me?”
The Positives: Well, it’s about bloody time, isn’t it?
The Negatives: I still don’t get Aah Megami-Sama. Sure, the premise is nice for a short series and all. But 96 TV-episodes, three OVAs and one movie? Is its character development so amazing that it warrants so many episodes? And for that matter, if it is indeed so amazing, why is their relationship still at the point where they haven’t even kissed yet? Is this really more than a really endless “will they won’t they”-show?

Queen’s Blade

Description: “The art collection books will include two DVDs with about 40 minutes each of all-new original anime . About 20 minutes will be a story about the Rebellion characters who have not appeared in Queen’s Blade anime until now. About 20 more minutes will be devoted to an anime in which the character Alleyne and Siggy give private lessons. “ – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Well, if you want to see boobs then this series surely is catering to you.
The Negatives: Ugh… why is this one still pretending that it isn’t porn?

Higurashi n Naku Koro ni Kira

Description: This one will adapt four random stories. This tie it’s the turn for the Ayakashisenshi-hen -Do- and later in November the Kichienshi-hen -Ai-, unlike the first episode completely original stories.
The Positives: Well, at the very least Toshifumi Kawase is still involved. This guy rocks…
The Negatives: But unfortunately he just can’t do miracles. Seriously, what a disappointment this first episode was. Who on Studio Deen found it a good idea to put one of their worst directors on this job? It was nothing but characters imagining pointless fanservice, without any connection whatsoever between all of the scenes. To make matters worse, the episode director of the second episode seems to be Fumihiko Shimo. When working on an adaptation, he can really make this adaptation shine: Clannad and Air really rocked. When he’s doing an original story though… yeah. Hello, Infinite Stratos, Bakuretsu Tenshi and Gravion. Studio Deen, seriously: get back to making awesome series again.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

Description: “It is the start of Takatoshi Tsuda’s second year as the put-upon vice president of the student council and his sister Kotomi is entering school as a first year. New friends and double entendres are made.” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Seitokai Yakuindomo is about one thing, and one thing only: dirty jokes. If you liked the first season, you’re bound to like this upcoming OVA.
The Negatives: Granted, it was much, much better than Princess Lover, but what turned me off of this series was its endless repetition. It just kept repeating jokes over and over to the point of annoyance, so I didn’t last long with this show.

Hakuouki Sekkaroku

Description: Third, Fourth and Fifth episode of this OVA will debut next season, continuing the story of Hakuouki and the Shinsengumi.
The Positives: Kou Outani behind the music is really good. and it’s not like Hakuouki is doomed: a story about the Shinsengumi could have been very good…
The Negatives: … if only the main character wasn’t such an idiot. Instead, this now just turned to be Deen and its bishies again. Did it get any better in the meantime?

Kaibutsu Ojou

Description: Third episode of an OVA of a show about a guy who gets brought back to life by a monster princess.
The Positives: I never checked it out because I really didn’t like the premise, but at the very least this OVA has a different staff from the TV-series. That’ got to be intentional, right?
The Negatives: I am glad that I didn’t check it out though, because just LOOK at that promo art. On the main website, I mean. here it reveals its colors as just another fanservice OVA.

Carnival Phantasm Second Season

Description: “The anime adapts an anthology of Type-Moon manga short stories by Kannagi creator Eri Takenashi to celebrate Type-Moon’s 10th anniversary” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: Yasuharu Takanashi behind the music and Seiji Kishi behind the direction should be fun.
The Negatives: The original writer of Kannagi is a very big problem, though. Especially with
Description: Not the DVDs, but the manga will bundle episode 12.5 of the series. Very subtle.
The Positives: Again, Sekai-Ichi hatsukoi wasn’t bad. It was a nice look at the life of a manga-publisher, and at least this OVA will be about the main couple, and not the side ones.
The Negatives: The longer this goes on though, the more I’m reminded of Junjo Romantica all over again. I really don’t think that this series has as much staying power as the creators would like you to believe. Oh, and the manga also still is on-going, so a good ending also won’t be possible.

Saiyuuki Gaiden – 02

Description: “500 years before Saiyuki, a heretic child with golden eyes is brought to Heaven and given into the reluctant care of a minor deity, Konzen, nephew of the Merciful Goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu. Konzen eventually names him “Goku”. Goku befriends two other minor gods, Marshal Tenpou and General Kenren of the Western Army of Heaven, and a boy who seems to be his age, the War Prince Nataku. Though Goku is happy in his new home, Heaven is not kind to heretics.”
The Positives: I haven’t seen the first OVA of this thing due to time constraints, but did it turn out worthwhile? It’s in any case at least not moe fanservice. That’s good.
The Negatives: I still have a bit of doubts about Naoyuki Kuzuya, the director of Bus Gamer, behind this thing.

Gundam Unicorn – 04

Description: “The year is U.C. 0096. Three years have passed since the end of the Second Neo Zeon War. It is said that the Vist Foundation manipulates the Earth Federation and Anaheim Electronics from behind the scenes. Hoping to create a new world, the Foundation attempts to hand over a certain secret to the Neo Zeon remnants known as the Sleeves. This will mean the opening of Laplace’s Box, which holds a great secret tied to the origins of the Universal Century. The exchange between the Vist Foundation and the Sleeves is to take place at the manufacturing colony Industrial 7. This is the home of the student Banagher Links, who rescues a girl he sees falling through the colony’s zero gravity area. The girl gives her name as Audrey Burne and says she wants to prevent a war, spurring Banagher to step into the conflict surrounding Laplace’s Box—almost as if he is drawn in by his own bloodline.” – (Taken from ANN)
The Positives: This is where this series is going to have to deliver. It’s past its halfway point, so now it’s all up to the creators and prevent this show from turning into yet another string of random battles, and instead make good use of the build-up of the first three episodes. Gundam Unicorn has the big benefit of having a ridiculously solid director. Make use of that!
The Negatives: By far my biggest problem with this series has been the male lead. Please, make him the next Amuro, not the next Kamille!

Yozakura Quartet

Description: Third episode of the OVA, which intends to follow the manga, rather than what the TV-series did.
The Positives: Hell yeah! More Yozakura Quartet with its beyond awesome action and fun and interesting characters! There aren’t many OVAs worth watching this season, but this one is an absolute must-watch.
The Negatives: The only criticism I have at the moment is that the dialogue sometimes feels a bit uninspired. But heck. This OVA has more than enough to make up for that.

Franchise Movies:
Suite PreCure: Take it back! The Miraculous Melody that Connects Hearts!

Description: The title seems to suggest that this movie will focus on taking back a miraculous melody that changes hearts.
The Positives: Now, the movies of the Precure series are always produced by different people, so there is hope. The Heartcatch Precure movie was really charming, despite not having the same director and scriptwriters.
The Negatives: That title still puzzles me, though. The Heartcatch Precure at least had an interesting premise: coming to Paris for a Fashion show, and around that it built its drama. This though… yeah, we’re gonna save the world again! Whoop-dee-doo.

Actual new Releases
Scryed Alteration

Summary: A strange environmental phenomenon 22 years ago in the Kanazawa prefecture caused the land to split and protrude upwards reaching unprecedented heights, creating the secluded area known as The Lost Ground. Kazuma is a young mercenary who lives in the Lost Ground, looking for any work he can find to sustain his livelihood within the harsh environment. He is one of the few people that are gifted with the Alter ability, which allows him to plaster his right arm and torso with a metallic alloy. When this mercenary encounters HOLY, an order whose purpose is to suppress and capture what they call Native Alter Users, and one of the elite members of HOLY, Ryuho, an epic rivalry begins. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Recap Movie with New Footage
The Positives: It will look more polished.
The Negatives: Don’t buy that “new footage”-thing. Nine times out of ten it’s just some subtle reworkings of scenes or like, two minutes of new scenes. I never really started Scryed, because… well… it looks silly. The promo art has two overly emo dudes yelling and trying to beat each other up. Sacred Seven had more subtlety than that. Also, why a recap movie? those things usually suck.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki

Summary: Blazers are gallant warriors that consider the well being of others and the safety of the land as their priority, and work hard to defeat monsters and criminals. Estel is an aspiring Blazer who lives near the city of Rolento in Rebel Kingdom. Together with her friend Yoshua, Estel continues to train herself in the arts of Blazers. The story begins when Estel’s father receives a strange letter, starting a chain of events. – (Taken from IGN)
Type: OVA adapted from an RPG
Director: Masaki Tachibana
Other Notable Staff: Atsuko Nozaki (Character Designs)
The Positives: This one got delayed for half a year, so I’ll just write down what I had on it during my previous preview. We have the character designer of Tokyo Magnitude here. Plus its director. That’s plenty of reasons to look forward to this one.
The Negatives: Eiyuu Densetsu seems a lot more generic than .Hack//Quantum though, but I’m still very curious what the creators can do with this.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

To Aru Hikuushi e no Tsuioku

Summary: To Aru Hikūshi e no Tsuioku’s story revolves around Charles Karino, a Revaamu Empire mercenary aerial pilot who mans the twin-seater reconnaissance seaplane Santa Cruz. One day, he receives a preposterous assignment: to fly solo over 12,000 kilometers of enemy waters to protect a girl named Fana del Moral. Fana happens to be the next in line to the empire’s throne and a girl possessing beauty “equal to 5,000 beams of light.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Jun Shishido
Script: Satoko Okudera
The Positives: Um, beyond the awesome premise: it’s written by the same woman who wrote The Girl Who Leapt through Time, Summer Wars and Miyori no Mori and directed by the director of Saiunkoku Monogatari and Hajime no Ippo New Challenger. The two of them really have the expertise to make this a wonderful movie. I’m a big fan of stories that focus on traveling, and this premise holds a ton of potential.
The Negatives: This is an adaptation of a light novel series. I didn’t manage to find the answers about this, but: how large is the story? Are the light novels already finished?
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Horutabi no Mori e

Summary: The story of Hotarubi no Mori e centers around Hotaru, a little girl who gets lost in an enchanted forest where apparitions reside. A young boy, Gin, appears before Hotaru, but she cannot touch him for fear of making him disappear. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: Movie
Director: Takehiro Omori
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Midorikawa (Original Story), Makoto Yoshimori (Music)
The Positives: As if Brains Base isn’t good enough already this year: here is a movie from the creators of Natsume Yuujin-Chou. It even has Takehiro Omori as the director, and this is going to be the first time where he actually gets to handle a movie. The premise for this movie is absolutely adorable and I see no way in which it isn’t going to turn heart-warming.
The Negatives: Negatives? We don’t need no stinkin’ negatives!
First-Glance Potential: 95%

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%

Interestingly, in terms of movies the upcoming season will be a season of experiments. There are a lot of movies that try out new ideas, or go into different directions than the series they’re based on. This both has a huge amount of potential, as a huge amount of risks, and I like it! Even if the movies and OVAs might disappoint, at least it’ll be interesting.

There is something new about this Season’s Movie and OVA preview: due to a lack of time I don’t have any room to be as thorough as I usually am, so I’m just going to lump all of the DVD specials and Franchise Movies together. I usually have the least to say about all of them, and most of the time their staff (especially with the DVD specials) are the same anyway. Only in special cases I’ll make exceptions and give them a full post. Oh, and this way I can also talk about ongoing OVAss

DVD Specials:


Titles: Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, Fairy Tail
Comments: This season has only two dvd specials, one for Milky Holmes and one for Fairy Tail. I couldn’t care less for the Fairy Tail one, especially after the promo for the previous OVA, but more Milky Holmes is always fun. It’ll allow the creators to deliver one more time, without potentially dragging themselves in another season.

Ongoing OVAs :




Titles: Air Gear – 03, KissxSis – 05, Black Lagoon – Roberta’s Blood Trail – 05, Yurumates – 02
Comments: Out of all these four, I’m only looking forward to Black Lagoon. The previous episodes have been excellent and the finale is looking out to be one where all of its build up comes together. It’s a raw and powerful OVA. Yurumates 1 was really forgettable, and really poorly produced from what my memory tells me. KissXSis was just crap, and Air Gear seems just for the fans of the manga (correct me if I’m wrong here, though).

Franchise Movies:



Titles: Gekijōban Pocket Monster Best Wishes! Victini to Kuroki Eiyū Zekrom, Naruto Shippūden: Blood Prison, The Prince of Tennis: Eikoku-shiki Teikyū-jō Kessen!
Comments: These are the kinds of franchises who either churn out a movie every single year, come out so often that I don’t want to talk about them anymore. Having said that though, that Naruto Movie does intrigue me. It finally has a good looking promo, and I just discovered that it’s being directed by the director of Gilgamesh and Shikabane Hime. As far away as I’d want to stay from a Naruto movie, it does have me curious. As for the prince of Tennis, though I stopped being interested in that one when I learned about the ridiculous tennis moves that were pulled off. And seriously, how long can you make a show that’s just about tennis?

Ongoing Movie Series:

Titles: Mardock Scramble – 02
Comments: Ah, mardock Scramble is a movie that I’m still looking forward to. The first one hasn’t appeared yet though, but it’s about time that it showed up. It looks completely gorgeous anyway, and it’s a premise I’m really intrigued at.

Baby Princess 3D Paradise 0 [Love]

Summary: It’s about a family of 19 sisters — from a newborn baby to a graduating high school senior. In the novel version, a high school senior named Youtarou thought he was an only child — until he met his real mother and discovered that she has 19 daughters. He ends up living with his “true family.” – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Takayuki Inagaki
Script: Yuuko Kakihara
The Positives: It gets points for actually thinking that people will buy such a stupid premise.
The Negatives: Good lord, there is so much wrong with this series. The fact that it tries to sell itself in 3D with no point or purpose, fact that there is a guy living together with 19 of his sisters, the incest, the fact that he was unaware of everything, and that poor mother of his. Don’t get me wrong though, the story about a really large family has potential, but not with the director of Rosario to Vampire and the series composition guy of Sora no Otoshimono behind the execution.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Vitamin X Addiction

Summary: The game is set at Seitei Gakuen, an elite private academy that teaches every level from kindergarten until college in Tokyo. A new female teacher named Yūri Minami is starting her second year of teaching here, and she is now moving up from teaching middle school students to the assignment she had sought after: grammar for high school students. Unfortunately, she gets assigned to “Class X,” an infamous group of seniors; it is said that all of their previous teachers have retired due to ulcers or neurosis. Minami must try to reach out to these students and get them into college. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Other Notable Staff: Satonobu Kikuchi (Character Design)
The Positives: … at least it has a story that goes beyond “let’s try to get in romantic situations with members of the opposite sex”. Also, Keiichiro Kawaguchi… you could do much worse with him. although he will be working on three things at the same time…
The Negatives: What is it with these utterly stupid titles for the bishie shows this season? Also, is this series seriously thinking that it can run through thirteen bishies in three episodes? They’re not even trying anymore…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Sora no Otoshimono: Tokei-jikake no Angeloid

Summary: Tomoki’s peaceful life is far away in the past, now he has to deal with 2 angeloids Ikaros and Nymph along with his friends from school, each one of them very special on their own ways. Tomoki’s dream about an angel warning him from the rage of heavens is getting very common at his sleep, then one day a new angel who has power up to the standard of Ikaros arrives Earth with the sole purpose of terminating Tomoki since his dream is starting to connect both realities, the Earth and the Synapses, a very powerful angel indeed. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Hisashi Sato, Tetsuya Yanagisawa
Script: Yuuko Kakihara
The Positives: Um, the fanservice?
The Negatives: I once praised Sora no Otoshimono for at least trying to be entertaining, but heck. I take that back. Sora no Otoshimono really is a lot of the same. the premise is once fun, and then it just keeps repeating itself over and over again. This movie too: the trailer looked exactly like the series has been. Not even the animation seemed improved. This turned out to be just another one of those generic moe shows, and I can’t believe they actually made a movie about it.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Gekijouban Mahou Sensei Negima

Summary: The story is centred around Negi Springfield, a ten-year-old wizard from Wales, who dreams of becoming a Magister Magi like his missing father, a special wizard who uses his powers to help normal people, using covers such as working for NGOs. Initially appointed as an English teacher at Mahora Academy in Japan he becomes a teacher to a middle school class of 31 older girls. However, the peaceful school life is quickly disturbed as people from his father’s past appear and Negi has to form contracts with various students to overcome the new dangers. Finally he embarks on a journey to the Magic World together with his partners to find his long-lost father. This film is the climax to their adventures depicted in the Shiroki Tsubasa Ala Alba and Mou Hitotsu no Sekai OVAs. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: Movie
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
The Positives: If you’re a fan of Negima, then there’s more. This is one franchise that either gets the proper time to get its story, or is getting milked out by Shinbo once more. I unfortunately never watched it beyond one episode (and have no intention to pick it back up by the way) so I can’t tell.
The Negatives: Blegh, Shinbo.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Hakuouki OVA

Summary: ??
Type: OVA, 5 Episodes
Director: Osamu Yamazaki
The Positives: Well, Hakuouki 2 was only 10 episodes long. I guess that this is where the remaining episodes went. This looks like it’ll focus on some of the bishies some more and I guess that there’s nothing wrong with that. And it still has the director of Toward the Terra, but it’s getting harder and harder to believe that he once actually directed that kind of epic.
The Negatives: But still, Hakuouki felt mediocre in every way to me. I mean, I could see where it was going and all, but the characters all just were so dull, and the female lead was so cheesy. I just couldn’t get through it. Twice.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Alice in the Country of Hearts

Summary: Alice Liddell was forcefully kidnapped,brought down a hole into Heartland/Wonderland. Due to a trick,she has no choice but to play a mysterious game in order to go home. She has to meet the residents in Heartland/Wonderland to fill up a potion bottle(to complete the game),only then can she go home. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
The Positives: So this movie is based on a game that re-imagines Alice in Wonderland with Bishies, and the movie itself will also contain a completely original take on the story. This can go either way, depending on who will be in charge of this thing (which unfortunately isn’t known yet). This reminds me the most of Kuroshitsuji, though.
The Negatives: It’s just that Kuroshitsuji’s Alice in Wonderland arc was terrible. There was way too much randomness for the sake of randomness. Plus, what can still be said about Alice in Wonderland right now? Just make your own story, instead of trying to stick to that famous name.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Hayate the Combat Butler

Summary: Abandoned by his parents and given a monumentally large debt as a Christmas present, 16-year old Ayasaki Hayate is at the lowest point of his life. Desperately trying alter his hapless fate, he decides to kidnap someone to hold for a ransom. Due to an ill choice of words, the girl he tries to kidnap misunderstands the action as a confession of love. His plan is totally crushed when he gives his real name out. Realizing his wrongdoing, Hayate proceeds to rescue the girl from the yakuza, who had instead kidnapped her. The girl, as a token of thanks, offers Hayate a job as her butler. Hayate, overwhelmed by her kindness, vows to protect her even at the cost of his life. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Hideto Komori
Script: Yasuko Kobayashi
The Positives: Hayate never caught my attention, but perhaps this is different, because the staff is different yet again. I mean, Manglobe, of all studios, is behind this one? The director in particular did a ton of animation and animation direction on Samurai Champloo and Ergo Proxy. Or take Yasuko Kobayashi, who wrote Casshern Sins. This could actually prove to be quite an interesting experiment here.
The Negatives: The big question though is whether or not you can watch this without having seen the series. I don’t feel like catching up to 75 episodes right now…
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Carnival Phantasm

Summary: ??
Type: OVA
Director: Seiji Kishi
Script: Makoto Uezu
Other Notable Staff: Yasuharu Takanashi (Music), Eri Takanagi (Original Creator)
The Positives: This… has the same director and writer as Kamisama Dolls. That’s quite interesting, especially considering how Seiji Kishi is a fun director with a great sense of comedic timing. Oh, and the soundtrack made by the same guy who did Heartcatch Precure, Jigoku Shoujo, Shiki and Toward the Terra? Count me in!
The Negatives: Makoto Uezu of course remains a bit of a bug here, and the same goes for Eri Takanagi: I’m not sure whether the original writer for Kannagi is the best for this project.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Gekijō-ban Anime Nintama Rantaro Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudō! no Dan

Summary: The anime is based on Soubee Amako’s Rakudai Ninja Rantarō ninja gag manga (Asahi Comics) about the adventures of Rantarō and other ninja apprentices at an elite ninjutsu academy. The story is set in Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States). As first-graders, Rantarō and his ninja-in-training friends are called “Nintama” — a contraction of the words “ninja” and “tamago” (“egg”). – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Masaya Fujimori
The Positives: Yeah. Um, so I was planning to just ignore this one and label it amongst the other franchise movies that it looked like. But then I discovered that it has the same director as You Are Delicious, the surprisingly amazing dinosaur movie that also looked like a kids’ show at first sight. And indeed, the promo looks nothing like the TV-series. This could very well be another brilliant movie of his.
The Negatives: it remains a kids’ show, though. And 3D.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Tekken: Blood Vengance

Type: Movie
Director: Yoichi Mori
Script: Dai Sato
The Positives: The trailer looks really cool and varied, this is promising to be an excellent action movie, especially with Dai Sato (Eureka 7, Ergo Proxy) as the main writer.
The Negatives: I couldn’t find anything about that director, though.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kira

Summary: It’s a collection of four mini-stories, one adaptation and three original, to celebrate the 10th anniversary fo the franchise.
Type: OVA, 4 Episodes
Director: Hideki Tachibana
Script: Toshifumi Kawase
The Positives: Being a big fan of Higurashi, I really got delighted to see more of it. When used well, they can really become awesome. Rei already showed that even comedy episodes can become great here. Toshifumi Kawase also is one of the best people that Studio Deen have: his characterization in particular is consistently incredible, so I’m very eager to see what he has in store here.
The Negatives: What the heck? What is the director of Dragon Crisis and H2O doing here? We don’t need Higurashi ruined by his mediocre direction.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Fullmetal Alchemist: Milos no Sei-Naru Hoshi

Summary: Two brothers lose their mother to an incurable disease. With the power of “alchemy”, they use taboo knowledge to resurrect her. The process fails, and as a toll for using this type of alchemy, the older brother, Edward Elric loses his left leg while the younger brother, Alphonse Elric loses his entire body. To save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm and is able to affix his brother’s soul to a suit of armor. With the help of a family friend, Edward receives metal limbs – “automail” – to replace his lost ones. With that, Edward vows to search for the Philosopher’s Stone to return the brothers to their original bodies, even if it means becoming a “State Alchemist”, one who uses his/her alchemy for the military. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Kazuya Murata
Script: Yuichi Shinbo
Other Notable Staff: Taro Iwashiro (Music), Kenichi Konishi
The Positives: The animation director? It will be the same guy who animated Tokyo Godfathers. That’s bound to look amazing.
The Negatives: To my surprise, the staff is entirely different compared to any other Full Metal Alchemist anime, and that worries me. The guy who is going to write this thing has only written Doraemon movies before. Kazuya Murata also doesn’t really stand out as a director. Sure, he has done great episodes, but none of the full series he directed stand out.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Kokuriko-Zaka Kara

Summary: The story is set in Showa 38 (1963, a year before the Tokyo Olympics) and follows the coming of age of an ordinary, pigtailed high school girl named Komatsuzaki in Yokohama, a harbor city near Tokyo. Her sailor father went missing after an accident, and her photographer mother is frequently going abroad for work. Her family now runs a lodging house. The manga recounts Komatsuzaki’s everyday life of “laughter and tears” with two boys — a school newspaper member and the student council president. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Goro Miyazaki
Script: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa
Other Notable Staff: Katsuya Kondo (Character Designs)
The Positives: Ghibli’s new film. This will be a collaboration between father Hayao Miyazaki and son Goro Miyazaki. It’s interesting how time, Hayao is actually actively collaborating with Goro after Tales of the Earthsea, and I’m intrigued to what the results will be. In any case this seems like a very good shoujo movie.
The Negatives: I thin kit’s safe to say that Goro Miyazaki is a bit spoiled. I’d love to see him go someplace other than under his father, and develop his own style, rather than forever trying to live in his fathers’ shadows.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Towa no Quon

Summary: The story follows a boy named Quon and others who suddenly wake up with supernatural powers. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie, Six Parts
Director: Umanosuke Iida
Script: Saizo Nemoto
Other Notable Staff: Kenji Kawai (Music), Toshihiro Kawamoto (Character Designs/Animation Direction), Takeshi Mori (Collaborative Director)
The Positives: Bones looks like it’ll be doing something really interesting here, celebrating a project conceived by the late Hellsing Director. Toshihiro Kawamoto is an amazingly experienced animator and Kenji Kawai is an amazing musician, so this will definitely be a feast for the senses.
The Negatives: The weakest here seems to be the main writer: Saizo Nemoto. He’s excellent on individual episodes, but I’m not sure about his works on the Tokyo Majin Gakuen Sequel…
First-Glance Potential: 85%

To give an impression of this season: it’s got 25 TV-series in total that are airing. In the history of anime, there was only one summer season that premiered as many TV-series as here, and that was 2007. On top of that though, I’ve marked a whopping six series with a potential of 85% or above (meaning that I’m really, really looking forward to it), and beyond that there also are a large number of shows that seem interesting to watch once you take a bit of a better look at their premise and who is going to create them. As usual, I don’t read any manga so I can’t say anything about original material (aside from that one show that’s written by the same guy who wrote Denyuuden).

it’s a huge season for sequels: a ton of interesting ones are coming out. It’s a big season for slice of life and mystery. Especially Production IG is on fire, JC Staff is doing what it usually does (unambitious but decent looking moe shows), A-1 Pictures is being totally weird, even for their standards and Noitamina is looking out for a very solid season. Oh, and Satelight and Gonzo are finally back.

R-15

Summary: “The story centers around Taketo Akutagawa, a student with a secret: he is a talented pornographic novelist with a newspaper-serialized work. He enrolls in a school that only accepts geniuses, and risque trouble ensues there. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Munenori Nawa
Series Composition: Sumio Uetake
The Positives: Boobs.
The Negatives: So yeah, this is the crappy fanservice show of the season, produced by AIC and none other than the director of KissxSis is directing it. I think that that says enough here…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Manyuu Hiken-chou

Summary: “The historical story is set in a parallel Taihei Edo period and follows Chifusa, an amply proportioned sword fighter in the Manyuu clan.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiraku Kaneko
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Jun Takagi (Character Design/Animation Director)
The Positives: Seishi Minakami. I like him a lot (more on that below, he’s doing three series this season; Mari Okada showed that that is possible)… but what the hell is he doing here? Much more bizarre though, is that a director of various children’s series and World Masterpiece Theaters… is doing the animation direction and character designs…. wtf…
The Negatives: Just look at the url of this thing’s website. With that, you don’t even need to know that this has the director of Seikon no Qwaser to know that this one’s going to suck.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Morita-san wa Mukuchi

Summary: “The quiet life of Mayu Morita, an extremely reticent high school girl.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Naotaka Hayashi
Other Notable Staff: Satou Yuu (Script)
The Positives: It’s not like Naotaka Hayashi doesn’t have any experience: he has been directing quite a number of episodes of great series before.
The Negatives: Here’s the thing though: the Morita-San wa Mukuchi OVA was really poorly produced. The animation was the bare minimum of what you could get. The scenarios were poorly told, without any kind of dynamics to them. The timing made every scene go on for way too long and it was completely bland in every single way, so much that I couldn’t even go further than 10 minutes in before dropping it. This TV-series has the same creators and I really don’t hope that they will go on with the same bad pacing as here.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Mayo Chiki

Summary: “17 year old Konoe Subaru is the butler of classmate Suzutsuki Kanade. One day, classmate Sakamoto Kinjirou discovers that Konoe is actually a girl.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
The Positives: Reiko Yoshida. I mean, the premise is stupid and all, but she’s a very solid writer with a lot of experience. If the manga actually turns out to be good, then she’ll be able to get that into the anime.
The Negatives: Keiichiro Kawaguchi is currently directing Sket Dance. While doing a good job on it, can he really do two shows at the same time? I mean, a premise this crappy really needs all the attention you can give it in order to become a bit worthwhile, and this guy has made a huge share of very generic moe shows as Nyan Koi and Moetan.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu 2

Summary: “Advanced placement into a school of higher grade proof-reading is determined by the results of the Promotion Test strictly for class type. Ranging from A class with the best facilities anyone can offer all the way down to F Class which is composed of low dining tables, rotten tatami mats and other worn out facilities. Students can change classes by competing using the Examination Summons Battle system or ESB. Students summon characters with their equivalent test mark scores and use them to compete with other classes.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: None of the staff is announced yet, though it’s probably going to be the same as the first season
The Positives: The director and series composition guy of the first season (Shin Oonuma and Katsuhiko Takayama) are quite solid, having worked on a number of good and very good Shaft shows.
The Negatives: The same can be said for their sequels, though: ef and Natsu no Arashi’s sequel were significantly less impressive and I fear that the same will carry over to this series. Plus, I always felt like this series was a bit of a one trick pony (which is why I never bothered to continue watching it). Yeah, it’s fun for one episode, but do I want to watch this for an entire season, let alone two? Nah. There are many better comedies out there.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Ro Kyu Bo

Summary: “The story centers around a high school freshman boy named Subaru Hasegawa who joined the basketball team, but the team stopped playing due to the captain being suspected of being a lolicon. Subaru somehow ends up as a coach of an elementary school’s basketball team with five girls. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keizo Kusakawa
Series Composition: Mikchiko Itou
Other Notable Staff: Taizo Yoshida (Assistant Director)
The Positives: The assistant director is the director of White Album’s second season!
The Negatives: Why couldn’t he have been the main director? That’s just what this premise would need. Keizo Kusakawa is a good director and all, but he really needs a good storyline for that. The same for Michiko Ito, the story has potential and all, but this premise doesn’t depend on how good the manga is, but rather how well the creators can make these characters come alive. I don’t see these guys pull that off so easily.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Uta no Prince-sama— Maji Love 1000%

Summary: “In the slapstick romantic comedy, a girl goes to a school for the performing arts with boys who are budding idols. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yuu Kou
Series Composition: Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: I’m a bit baffled here at what A-1 are trying to do this season… seriously… they make two separate shows about a group of budding idols, one shounen and one shoujo. And despite these crappy premises, they do put on talented writers who can make something good out of it. Tomoko Konparu is one of the best writers you can get here, having adapted and written just about everything: Les Miserables, Genji Monogatari, Chi’s Sweet Home, Ashita no Nadja, Glass Mask, Nodame Cantabile, Nana, Oniisama e and the Hi no Tori movies, while Yuu Kou completely baffled me last year with his amazingly accurate and sharp adaptation of Giant Killing. What the hell are these people planning with a show like this?
The Negatives: I also have to remember that Yuu Kou did direct a bunch of really bad moe and bishie shows. Plus, what the hell kind of a title is this?
First-Glance Potential: 50%

The IDOLM@STER

Summary: “In the original Xbox 360 game, the player manages the careers of 10 aspiring Japanese idol singers as a producer.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Atsushi Nishigori
Series Composition: Atsushi Nishigori, Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Touko Takao (Episode Director), Akira Takata (Chief Animation Direction), Haruko Iizuka
The Positives: Akira Takata is going to be really busy. He’s currently doing C, and the next season he’ll be supervising the animation for two shows. But he really is an excellent guy to do it, with a ton of experience on beautiful series. Haruko Iizuka makes this even better, especially considering how this is going to be a A-1 Pictures series, who have been really good with animation and eye candy for the past years. The director is also involved everywhere: from the direction to the writing to the animation. This will be the first time he directs a full series, but he’s really making sure to keep control of everything, that’s a great sign. Before this he designed the characters for Gurren Lagann, worked on episodes of Panty and Stocking, Storyboarded the second Evangelion Movie and animated on various Gainax shows. He can really make something awesome out of such a bad premise as managing a bunch of idols.
The Negatives: Touko Machida. A terrible writer. The only good thing to come out of her were GA and Muteki Kanbanmusume’s adaptations. Apart from that, all of her works bored me. Oh, and she also adapted Ookami Kakushi, Lucky Star, Seikon no Qwaser, Allison & Lillia and Sengoku Otome. I mean, the rest of the staff members here are awesome, so don’t let this woman ruin things. That’s very easy with the kind of premise that Idolm@ster is…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Nyanpire The Animation

Summary: “The story follows a black cat who was abandoned and left to starve. Just before the cat’s life was to be extinguished, a vampire emerged from the darkness and gave it blood. Now, “Nyanpire” (a combination of the Japanese pronunciations for a cat’s meow and “vampire”) lives as a seemingly ordinary house cat raised by a human girl. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takahiro Yoshimatsu
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi
The Positives: Gonzo! They’re finally back, with a doujinshi about a vampire cat, of all things. I really have no idea what to expect of this one. It’s a really famous doujinshi apparently, and the director is a famous character-designer (think everything from Les Miserables to Basquash, Oh Edo Rocket and Trigun), while Natsuko Takahashi is a prolific screenwriter. All in all the potential to become a funny series…
The Negatives: … and yet it looks like a really cheap flash show. Heck, the director only directed one series before, and that was the really, really bad Kaito Reinya…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Nurarihyon no Mago – Sennen Makyou

Summary: “Rikuo Nura, is 3 parts human and a quarter Demon, lives in a house of spirits with his grandfather, The current clan head of the Nura youkai. Rikou is set to be the next clan head, despit the fact he dilikes his demon side. He soon come to terms with his demon blood and decides to take his position as young master of the Nura house. However there are those who will certainly not allow it to be easy.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Junji Nishimura
Series Composition: Natsuko Takahashi
Other Notable Staff: Mariko Oka (Character Design)
The Positives: Look, I consider Junji Nishimura to be an amazing director. I still count Simoun my top 5 favourite anime I’ve ever seen, and True Tears and Windy Tales both were just brilliant…
The Negatives: But this just isn’t the kind of series where he can really show his talents. Instead he needs series that are either seinen or transcend genres. In the first season, he just got too much caught up in adding in his own stuff while adapting the manga faithfully as well, making both just mediocre. The second season is bound to be better after all that build-up and all, but if it suffers from the same pacing issues it won’t matter because it’ll be too boring. Natsuko Takahashi can write really well, but she also tends to be really sloppy with adaptations.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi

Summary: “The “reverse school fantasy” light novel series follow an ordinary high school boy named Taito Kurogane who is given a “poison” by a female vampire named Saitohimea, thus changing his life. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takashi Yamamoto
Series Composition: Shigeru Morita
Other Notable Staff: Kiyoko Yoshimura (Screenplay), Itsuro Kawasaki (Storyboard), Takaya Kagami, Masaaki Sakurai (Art Design)
The Positives: Here’s the thing: the premise sounds really unoriginal. And yet the original novels that this is based on are written by the guy who also wrote Densetsu no Yuusha no Denetsu. That has to say something here. Shigeru Morita also is a good designer, and an interesting choice to adapt this story.
The Negatives: First of all, it’s an ongoing series of light novels that they’ll never be able to fully finish. Second of all, they really got a crappy director to direct this thing. Nanatsuiro Drops was okay, I guess, but the other shows he directed (Final Approach and Jewelpet Tinkle) were utterly abysmal and completely unwatchable.
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Blade

Summary: “”Blade” Eric Brooks — known as Blade — seeks revenge on Deacon Frost, the vampire lord who killed his mother while she was still pregnant with Eric. With all the powers of a vampire and none of their weaknesses, Blade’s quest leads him throughout Southeast Asia in search of Frost, and, in Viet Nam, he discovers a vampire plot that threatens to take down the whole world. “ – (Taken from AniDB)
The Positives: It always takes a little longer than usual for the Marvel series to get their creators announced, but that’s going to be a key here in whether Blade will be a worthwhile closure to this experiment. It really deserves to, because in the right hands a modern day vampire story can turn into a great action series.
The Negatives: In the wrong hands though… urhg. Let’s not think about it…
First-Glance Potential: 55%

Kaitō Tenshi Twin Angel – Kyun Kyun☆Tokimeki Paradise!!

Summary: “Haruka Minazuki and Aoi Kannazuki are freshman high school students and best friends. During the day they help with school activities but at night they thwart enemies like Black Auction and other villains as Red Angel and Blue Angel, the Twin Angel team.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yoshiaki Iwasaki
Series Composition: Michiko Itou
The Positives: The original Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel OVA was… mediocre. It actually did take itself seriously though, and I guess that that’s the potential here if the creators can use it well; the OVA just had too much cheese due to its short length, with neither characters being interesting to make up for it. The director of Love Hina, Sky Girls and Ookami-san… it could have been much worse.
The Negatives: But then again: with the way where this is going, there is no way in which this series is going to be anything more than just a decent story. My prediction is that the creators will do well on creating decent and likable characters, but are totally going to mess up the story, both by making it uninspired and completely unbalanced.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Dantalian no Shoka

Summary: “Hugh Anthony Disward inherits an old mansion and a personal library from his grandfather. In the basement of the mansion, he meets a mysterious girl Dalian. She is a Dantalian and a gateway to “Dantalian’s bookshelf”, which stores the prohibited books of the demons.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yutaka Uemura
Other Notable Staff: Gakuto Mikumo (Original creator)
The Positives: Okay, so this is Gainax, coming with a project that’s being created by people who pretty much all are unremarkable. The director only directed two episodes before, there is nobody behind the series composition and everybody else hasn’t really done or worked on anything that caught my attention. The original creators is the same as Asura Cryin’, but that is a series that I quickly dropped because of bad acting and scriptwriting, not because the premise and story weren’t interesting.
The Negatives: This show will only have 13 episodes, so the creators can’t just sit back and calmly produce a series; it’s too short for that. Fresh blood has always been a big gamble: they have the potential to try something really great there; the premise is interesting enough for that, but at the same time it also can very easily become a bore-fest.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Yuruyuri

Summary: “Four fun-loving schoolgirls take over the former room of a tea ceremony club for their own “Gorakubu” (amusement club). “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiko Oota
Series Composition: Takashi Aoshima
The Positives: I’m not sure why, but something about this series is telling me that there are lesbians in this show. In any case though, this thing is being handled by the same people who adapted Mitsudomoe. In other words: this could just as well become a really funny series. If the source material has great jokes, then these are the people who have the timing and experience to make them work as an anime.
The Negatives: The people from Dogakobo have been known to half-ass things, though. That’s definitely a bad thing…
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Kamisama Dolls

Summary: “The story centers around Kyōhei, a college student who grew up in a village that deified figureheads named kukuri as gods. Kyouhei abandoned his hometown when he moved to Tokyo and immersed himself in college life. However, he comes across his younger sister Utao with her kukuri in Tokyo. He learns from his sister that a fugitive named Aki from his hometown has also arrived in Tokyo (with his kukuri in tow) and is responsible for a horrific crime that Kyouhei had just witnessed. Kyōhei realizes that he cannot escape what he tried to leave behind in the village. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Seiji Kishi
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
The Positives: The premise doesn’t seem to be anything ground breaking, but nevertheless it has the potential to become really interesting. Ah, Seiji Kishi, the director of comedies such as Tentai Senshi Sunred and Seto no Hanayome, but also of serious series as Angel Beats. He’s definitely an interesting director for this series, especially if the manga this is based on delivers as well.
The Negatives: That is especially important for Makoto Uezu, though: he tends to be a faithful adapter and all, but he really often adapts utter crap (Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka, School Days, Seikon no Qwaser, Tayutama…)
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Summary: “Koyama Yuzu is running an antique shop. Mayu, a cat god (nekogami), is living off Yuzu and leads an idle life playing games. Lots of other gods visit Mayu and enjoy merrymaking.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroaki Sakurai
Series Composition: Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Masahiro Yokotani (Screenplay), Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: Hiroaki Sakurai! Thankfully this series seems much more up his alley compared to last year’s failure that was Kaichou wa Maid-sama. He is a really great director (heck, he directed Les Miserables for god’s sake), but with Maid-sama he just made a bad premise even worse. This reunites him with the ones who wrote the adaptations of GA and Les Miserables (heck, Tomoko Konparu wrote and adapted a huge amount of awesome series), so this has a good chance of being a really fun series to watch.
The Negatives: Machida Touko is actually doing two shows this season. Oh god no. Ah well, at least she produced her best work (GA) while working with Hiroaki Sakurai, so there is hope. At the same time though, Masahiro Yokotani also is among the writers here. I did not like what he did on Maria Holic, World Destruction, and most importantly Beelzebub.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Appleseed XIII

Summary: In the wake of the destruction of a worldwide non-nuclear war, the city Olympus has become the control center of the world. Run by Bioroids (cloned humans made from only the best DNA), it is defended from terrorists by special military forces. Among these are former LAPD SWAT member Deunan Knotts and her multipurpose cyborg partner Brialeos. They face a challenge from the Human Liberation Front and its terrorist underbelly the Argonauts. The leader of this group, Al Ceides, supposedly died 20 years ago in an attack on Poseidon, but now his shadow emerges once again. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
Other Notable Staff: Masamune Shirow (Original Creator), Takayuki Goto (Character Designs), Yoshiki Sakurai (Screenplay)
The Positives: Originally slated for the Spring Season, Appleseed will finally arrive in the middle of June. The team of Takayuki Hamana and Takayuki Hamana already produced Moshidora this season, which was very good, and especially Junichi Fujisaku wrote some of the most amazing series, with pretty much his only flop being the Loups Garous movie. These people can do a great job on adapting the Appleseed manga and give it more depth than what the movies could give it. With the right balance, it really has the potential to become a great story. Takayuki Goto also is an excellent and original character designer, and the trailer looked quite interesting for a 3D tv-series.
The Negatives: I remain a bit iffy on Takayuki Hamana. He is the guy who always comes with some very imaginative ideas, and yet doesn’t know how to execute them properly. He did well on Moshidora, but even there his usual cheese was really apparent, and that kind of cheese will definitely get in the way for something like Appleseed.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Sacred Seven

Summary: ??
Director: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Series Composition: Shin Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (OP)
The Positives: Ahaha! A cheesy mecha series. This can go both ways, really, but with Yuki Kajiura doing the OP it’ll have at least one thing to look forward to. And really: Shin Yoshida behind the script here rocks: he also wrote Argento Soma, Karas and episodes of The Big O, Zone of the Enders and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto. This guy has the potential to write an awesome script here. Oh, and the director directed Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto alongside Ryousueke Takahashi. that definitely has potential here!
The Negatives: The big problem is that the trailer had a lot of cheese in it. That has me worried the most. Also, the director also was the one behind Aquarian Age and some of Galaxy Angel’s seasons… Oh, and Shin Oonuma is also currently writing Yugioh Zexal…
First-Glance Potential: 75%

No. 6

Summary: “The story is set in No. 6, a future model city in 2013. Raised as a top-ranking elite since the age of 2, a boy named Shion lives in an exclusive area in No. 6. On the night of his 12th birthday, he rescues a boy who calls himself Nezumi (Rat). Nezumi ran away from the city’s Special Security Area. From that moment on, Shion’s life is changed forever…” – (Taken from AniDB)
Director: Kenji Nagasaki
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Keiichi Suzuki (Music), Atsuko Asano
The Positives: Josei and adventure. Those are two genres that we really don’t often see combined, and I love it already. Seishi Minakami, who was behind the series composition of epics as Birdy the Mighty Decode 02, Occult Academy, Asatte no Houkou and Shigurui was an excellent choice for this one. The soundtrack is from the same guy who composed the music for Tokyo Godfathers and the new Enma-Kun series (which really had surprisingly good and creative music, by the way). Bones also selected a director with no prior experience in directing a full series, which also has the potential to go everywhere. He worked on some awesome episodes before though, and being the assistant director of Oh Edo Rocket also really helps. Oh, and this doesn’t have anything to do with a blue submarine, does it?
The Negatives: The key with this series is going to be balance. It’s good to see that the setting is intriguing and exciting, and yet doesn’t sound like it’ll be huge. But still, series length has always been the biggest problem for Noitamina. Let’s see whether No.6 can avoid this.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Kami-sama no Memo-chō

Summary: “The story centers around a “NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) detective” girl named Alice and her assistant, a high school freshman boy named Narumi Fujishima. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Katsushi Sakurabi
Series Composition: Seishi Minakami
Other Notable Staff: Taku Iwasaki (Music)
The Positives: Seishi Minakami! He also wrote the series compositions for Occult Academy and Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 and adapted Asatte no Houkou and Shigurui and I’m interested to see what he can do with this adaptation (which does sound quite interesting in theory despite its lack of originality). On top of that, he gets reunited with Katsushi Sakurabi with whom he adapted Asatte no Houkou. And heck, Katsushi Sakurabi is also an excellent director, having done Uragiri, Tsukihime and Rescue Wings. If the manga is good, then this is promising to be both an awesome drama and suspense series.
The Negatives: … another Gosick?
First-Glance Potential: 85%

La croisée dans un labyrinthe étranger

Summary: “The story takes place in the second half of the 19th century, as Japanese culture gains popularity in the West. A young Japanese girl, Yune, accompanies a French traveller, Oscar, on his journey back to France, and offers to help at the family’s ironwork shop in Paris. Oscar’s nephew and shopowner Claude reluctantly accepts to take care of Yune, and we learn how those two, who have so little in common, get to understand each other and live together in the Paris of the 1800s.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kenji Yasuda
Series Composition: Junichi Sato
Other Notable Staff: Mamiko Ikeda (Screenplay), Ko-Ko-Ya, Hnata Takeda, Thomas Romain, Yann Le Gall, Stanislas Brunet (All three are behind the Art Setting)
The Positives: Satelight is finally back, and how! With Sato Junichi they really promise to make a unique slice of life series that promises a ton of character development and historical background. Heck, they even got three French people to help them on the art setting, and these are the ones who also created Basquash and Oban Star Racers, so they definitely know what they’re talking about in terms of creating a unique setting. The creator of Gosick’s art as the original manga creator also really helps as well, along with Ristorante Paradiso’s soothing background music.
The Negatives: The director here is the only weak spot: it’s the director of Shugo Chara, which went on for bloody ages, never advancing whatsoever. Obviously Sato Junichi is bound to prevent this, but still.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Usagi Drop

Summary: “In the story of the original Usagi Drop manga, 30-year-old bachelor Daikichi comes home from his grandfather’s funeral to discover a little girl named Rin in his garden. Rin is the 6-year-old illegitimate daughter of Daikichi’s grandfather, and Daikichi decides to take her in when no one in the family accepts the responsibility. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director:
Series Composition: Suguru Kishimoto
Other Notable Staff: Tasuku Yamashita (Character Designs)
The Positives: That is just one heck of an adorable premise. Plus, it’s always awesome to see protagonists that aren’t in their tens or twenties; the current Spring Season also rocks partly because of that. On top of that, we have the director of Tales of Vesperia, a guy who managed to make an awesome game adaptation by being not afraid to take liberties. A real plus considering Noitamina’s limited time.
The Negatives: The guy behind the series composition is either a pseudonym, or a completely new writer. In both ways, this can be either good or bad, but I’m definitely intrigued as to why this guy was chosen to adapt this series.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Natsume Yuujinchou San

Summary: “Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takehiro Omori
Series Composition: Sadayuki Murai
Other Notable Staff: Akira Takata (Character Design)
The Positives: Of course, normally I’d already be very excited for a third Natsume Yuujinchou season. But heck, this time the creators got an absolutely amazing writer to adapt the source material: Sadayuki Murai wrote the adaptations for Mouryou no Hako and Boogiepop Phantom, two utterly brilliant adaptations in their own unique way. Having written many more excellent episodes for many other series, I’m really excited to see what he can do with Natsume Yuujinchou. Add that to Takehiro Omori who has already proven to be an excellent director for this series.
The Negatives: Now, I did find the second season to be less impressive than the first. It just lacked something in comparison. Will the material for the third season be back to the old level again? Seriously though, that’s about the only criticism I have at the moment: this series really has an all star cast.
First-Glance Potential: 95%

Blood-C

Summary: “Teropterids are evil beasts which pose as humans and live only to drink human blood. Fortunately for the human world there are groups dedicated to destroying them. A brooding and mysterious girl named Saya is the best teropterid slayer there is, and now, in 1960’s Japan, she is sent to a U. S. army base which may be infested…” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Series Composition: Nanase Ookawa
Other Notable Staff: Junichi Fujisaku (Screenplay), Naoki Sato, Hiromasa Ogura, Takayuki Goto (Chief Animation Director), Kazuchika Kise (Aniamtion Character Design), Tomoki Tsukamoto (3D Director), Kazuchige Kanehira (Art Setting)
The Positives: Holy crap! Production IG is on fire here. I mean, talk about an utter dream-team here, having Clamp write a completely original TV-series, including the director of xxxHolic who did an amazing job on their manga in the past was already enough to make me anticipate this wildly. And yet the rest of the staff here is just godly: the soundtrack guy also wrote the epic soundtracks of X, Eureka7 and Heroic Age, the director of the Blood+ series is behind the script so that he can write awesome episodes, and yet doesn’t have to worry about the ending (Blood+’s biggest weakness), we have the art director of Last Exile, Ghost in the Shell and FLCL, the animation director of Eden of the East’s second movie, Ghost in the Shell and Seirei no Moribito, the character designer of xxxHolic, a 3D director who worked on quite a few episodes of the beautiful RD Sennou Chousashitsu and Seitei no Moribito, plus as a dessert, the guy who did the freaking art setting and design of Birdy the Mighty, Noein, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood and Ayakashi Ayashi! How much talent can you put into a series anyway?
The Negatives: None. Well, if I had to say something, then it’s Junichi Fujisaku working on too many other series with Appleseed and Moshidora.
First-Glance Potential: 100%

I was pretty shocked when I went through the list of movies for the upcoming season. Seriously, while it’s going to be packed with TV-series, it will be incredibly dry in the movie department. I only saw two really good movies that will premiere, and that’s it. The rest all were cheap cash-ins and kiddie movies. You know, those franchises that release a new filler movie every year? They especially like the months March and April to do this. Seriously, I have not seen such a bad series for movies since I started compiling these Movie and OVA previews.

Thankfully, the OVAs did provide a lot of interesting stuff here. Even when leaving out the ones what will carry over from previous seasons, there are a few really interesting premises, and rock-solid staff members involved here that I’m really looking forward to. Especially the game adaptations will interesting. There’s not much to say about which major studio is the most active this time, though: a lot of stuff here is being made by independent studios that worked on hardly anything else. The only major studio that has a lot of stuff on this list is Toei, but that’s entirely in a bad way. Beyond that, Production IG and A-1 both have multiple smaller but interesting projects.

As for the series that are on this list:
– All the new OVAs and Movies that are scheduled in March, April and May, plus the spring season in general, on Moonphase
– Episodes of continuing OVAs (like Gundam Unicorn 03, .Hack//Quantum 02) are omitted because I don’t want to repeat myself too much. New series of OVAs and DVD Specials though are properly included, including DVD specials of series that I didn’t watch, for the sake of completion.
– Two movies are listed to debut on “2011G.W.”. I have no idea what that means, so I decided to not include those until I can figure out when they air.

Shukufuku no Campanella OVA

Summary: The story takes place in a trading city Ert’Aria. Leicester Maycraft is an item engineer belonging to an adventurer guild “Oasis”. One night, he is at a party with his friends to see a meteor stream on the rooftop of a chapel. One meteor grazes them and hits the steeple of the chapel. There he finds a secret room and a sleeping girl. The girl wakes up and says “You must be my father”. The encounter with the mysterious girl brings an unexpected adventure to Leicester. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: DVD OVA
Director: Shinji Ushiro
Script: Koujiro Nakamura, Saharu Amiyama
The Positives: None.
The Negatives: Shukufuku no Campanella was by far the worst series of the Summer Season of 2010. And now they’re planning to make more of it. Especially the OVAs of these terrible moe shows are notorious for being terrible.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Asobi ni Iku Yo OVA

Summary: The story will follow an Earth-style game with the Catia and Earth people, and a wonderful prize for the winner has the players playing their very best. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: DVD OVA
Director: Yooichi Ueda
Script: Katsuhiko Takayama
The Positives: Katsuhiko Takayama can be a pretty good scriptwriter. When he’s dealing with actually good source material in any case.
The Negatives: Apparently the OVA will air “unairable content”. Guess what this one will be about?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Nana to Kaoru

Summary: Nana and Kaoru are next door neighbours and schoolmates, but Nana is a model student and popular, while Kaoru is a poor student and social outcast. One night, however, their relationship changes forever, when Nana discovers that she enjoys being on the receiving end of perverted domination play with Kaoru. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Hideki Okamoto
Other Notable Staff: Atsuko Watanabe (Character Design, Animation Director)
The Positives: Atsuko behind the animation isn’t anything bad. She’s quite solid, though not the best, as a character designer as well.
The Negatives: Oh dear lord… they’re making anime about sadomasochism fetishes now? AIC, why don’t you just start making hentai series with these premises? Oh, and the director directed Nagasarete Airantou and Da Capo II before, so we shouldn’t really expect much from him either.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

One Piece 3D: Mugiwara Chase

Summary: Luffy and his crew must find his missing hat. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie, co-billed with the Toriko 3D Movie
Director: Hiroyuki Sato
Script: Yasuyui Tsutsumi
The Positives: It uses the One Piece name.
The Negatives: The award for the biggest cash-in… definitely goes to this movie. I mean, there is nothing inherently wrong with 3D and all, but to use it just as a gimmick here is just terrible. Not to mention that the plot is the most terrible premise of a movie I’ve ever seen, they really did not care in the slightest about this thing. Toei really needs to stop producing all this crap and focus on what they’re good at.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Toriko 3D: Kaimaku Gourmet Adventure!!

Summary: ???
Type: Movie, co-billed with the One Piece 3D Movie
Director: Junji Shimizu
Script: Isao Murayama
The Positives: In this case they got the actual guy who writes the series composition for the Toriko TV-series for this movie.
The Negatives: The director is the director of Fresh Precure, various One Piece Movies, the YUGIOH movie, and some other random Precure Movies. Plus, like I mentioned above: it uses 3D as a gimmick, rather than trying to tell a good story with it.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Doraemon: Shin Nobita to Tetsujin Heidan – Habatake Tenshi-tachi

Summary: Giant robot parts fell from the sky, so Nobita and Doraemon took it into the mirror world to build it and called it the Zandacross. It seems that Zandacross is a dangerous weapon so they kept it a secret. A mysterious girl named Lilulu appeared and asked for Zandacross for the invasion but she doesn’t agree to invade the Earth. Doraemon and the others join forces to stop the invasion of the robot army but it seems that Lilulu is the only one that can stop it. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Yukiyo Teramoto
Script: Higashi Shimizu
The Positives: Every march of every year since God knows when, Doraemon has gotten a movie. This is no ordinary movie though, it’s a remake of the 1986 Doraemon Movie, Nobita and the Platoon of Iron Men.
The Negatives: Doraemon is a character that many people loved while growing up, but I never knew the guy and never really got into him. It’s also got the director of Boku no Imouto wa Koi Suru, which is slightly worrying considering how that was slightly badly written. This seems like just another one of those boring filler movies.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Gekijō-ban Anime Nintama Rantaro Ninjutsu Gakuen Zenin Shutsudō! no Dan

Summary: The anime is based on Soubee Amako’s Rakudai Ninja Rantarō ninja gag manga (Asahi Comics) about the adventures of Rantarō and other ninja apprentices at an elite ninjutsu academy. The story is set in Japan during the tumultuous Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States). As first-graders, Rantarō and his ninja-in-training friends are called “Nintama” — a contraction of the words “ninja” and “tamago” (“egg”). – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Masaya Fujimori
Other Notable Staff: Tsutomu Shibayama (Supervisiom)
The Positives: It’s supervised by a guy who previously directed a whopping seventeen of the Doraemon movies.
The Negatives: The director of You Are Delicious is at the complete opposite of the spectrum. Again, it’s going to be just a kids’ movie.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Fairy Tail

Summary: Lucy is a 17-year-old girl, who wants to be a full-fledged mage. One day when visiting Harujion Town, she meets Natsu, a young man who gets sick easily by any type of transportation. But Natsu isn’t just any ordinary kid, he’s a member of one of the world’s most infamous mage guilds: Fairy Tail. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA Side Story
Director: Shinji Ishihara
Script: Masashi Sogo
The Positives: Masashi Sogo did write the script of a bunch of really good series: the Snow Queen, Yukikaze and Rurouni Kenshin – Tsuiokuhen.
The Negatives: But couldn’t they have chosen a better promo picture for this one? Seriously, what the hell? Wasn’t this supposed to be a simple shounen fighting series fighting series? I remember that there were a lot of reasons why I didn’t like Fairy Tail’s first anime episode, but excessive fanservice wasn’t one of them. The staff both worked on some good stuff and bad stuff, so it could have had potential.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Seitokai Yakuindomo OAD

Summary: Takatoshi is a new student in a recently gender-integrated high school, and is asked to join the student council as the vice president. Thus begins his days as the only normal boy among 3 female student council officers. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: DVD OVA
Director: Hiromitsu Kanasawa
Script: Makoto Nakamura
The Positives: If you liked Seitokai Yakuindomo’s sense of humour: there’s more!
The Negatives: I didn’t like it at all, though. I found it really repetitive, and often badly delivered and just not funny.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ghost in the Shell S.A.C. Solid State Society 3D

Summary: A.D. 2034. It has been two years since Motoko Kusanagi left Section 9. Togusa is now the new leader of the team, that has considerably increased its appointed personnel. The expanded new Section 9 confronts a rash of complicated incidents, and investigations reveal that an ultra-wizard hacker nicknamed the “Puppet Master” is behind the entire series of events. – (Taken from )
Type: Movie
Director: Kenji Kamiyama
Script: Kenji Kamiyama
Other Notable Staff: Masamune Shirow (Original Creator)
The Positives: It’s Kenji Kamiyama again.
The Negatives: Aaand also jumping on the 3D bandwagon is Production IG, converting the Solid State Society Movie into 3D. I haven’t seen the first movie (yet), but isn’t this just going to be another recap movie that will be exactly the same as the original save for updated graphics? Again: 3D should be used as a part of the storytelling. It’s NOT SOMETHING YOU MARKET YOUR MOVIES WITH!
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Precure All-Stars DX3 Mirai ni Todoke! Sekai o Tsunagu Niji-Iro no Hana

Summary: This movie aims to bring all lead characters of the eight Precure series together.
Type: Movie
Director: Takashi Otsuka
Script: Isao Murayama
Other Notable Staff: Daisuke Suzuki (CGI Director)
The Positives: If you thought the second All Stars movie had a lot of characters, you haven’t seen anything yet: this movie has 21 main characters: Cure Aqua, Cure Mint, Cure Pine, Cure Melody, Cure Egret, Cure Moonlight (yes, she’s in this movie, even though she didn’t appear in the previous one), Cure Berry, Milky Rose, Cure Marine, Cure Rhythm, Cure Sunshine, Cure Rouge, Cure Peach, Cure Lemonade, Cure Blossom, Cure Bloom, Shiny Luminous, Cure Black, Cure Passion, Cure White and Cure Dream: they all will make their appearance here!
The Negatives: … now this is just getting crowded. Not to mention that it also will have the same director as the previous All Stars movie, which… was rather bad and cheesy.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Detective Conan: Quarter of Silence

Summary: The story begins with a threat against the Tokyo governor, but Conan’s quick thinking prevents any fatalities when a subway tunnel is blown up. Conan learns there may be a connection to a village that was relocated for the construction of a dam, and he races to stop the criminal before the next attack. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Koibun Shizuno
Script: Kazunaru Koichi
The Positives: Kobun Shizuno is strange because he has worked on several different anime as the “co director”. I’m not sure what that exactly entails to, but at least he has the experience. This does sound like a decent thriller at the very least.
The Negatives: I still have yet to check out anything of the Conan franchise. The huge length is the culprit. I have no intention to try and what all of that when I can watch other, much more interesting sounding series.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi

Summary: Onodera Ritsu has just transferred from his father’s publishing company to Marukawa Shoten. Assigned to the shoujo manga division, he crosses path with the person he’d least expected to meet. Takano Masamune is the editor-in-chief of the division Ritsu’s been assigned to, and the two seem get off on the wrong foot right from the very start when Takano unexpectedly kisses him. However, there is more to than what meets the eye… Takano is actually Saga, Ritsu’s senpai and high school love– whom Ritsu had thought to have played him for a fool by taking his affections for granted when he confessed and summarily dumped him. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, Bundled with Manga Volume
Director: Chiaki Kon
Script: Rika Nanase
The Positives: So, prior to the TV-series, the creators are also whipping out a quick OVA.
The Negatives: I never really saw the point of these kinds of OVAs, though. What do they really hope to tell extra with these episodes?
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Eiga Crayon Shin-chan: Arashi o Yobu Ōgon no Spy Daisakusen

Summary: The bratty lead character Shin Chan becomes a secret agent.
Type: Movie
Director: Soichi Masui
Script: Kyoko Kogure
The Positives: Soichi Masui is really an excellent choice for the director of this one: he’s the director of Anyamaru Tantei Kiruminzoo. He can really make good kids’ movies with that experience, and he has done two Shin Chan movies before. Out of all the rip-off movies this season, this one is looking the best because it actually has some creativity in its premise.
The Negatives: I do have to admit that I don’t really like Shin Chan, though. I mean, his antics were fun for one episode. Not… 720 episodes and nineteen movies.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu OVA

Summary: Advanced placement into a school of higher grade proof-reading is determined by the results of the Promotion Test strictly for class type. Ranging from A class with the best facilities anyone can offer all the way down to F Class which is composed of low dining tables, rotten tatami mats and other worn out facilities. Students can change classes by competing using the Examination Summons Battle system or ESB. Students summon characters with their equivalent test mark scores and use them to compete with other classes. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 2 Episode OVA
Director: Shin Oonuma
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Kouji Azuma (Art Director)
The Positives: This seems to have been delayed a season, so I’ll just copy what I said about it during my last preview: “Katsuhiko Takayama’s work on Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Ga-Rei Zero, Hantsuki and the first seasons of ef and Natsu no Arashi was very solid. Same goes for Shin Oonuma on Pani Poni Dash and Natsu no Arashi and ef’s first seasons, and finally he can do something without Shinbo.”
The Negatives: “I didn’t like the TV-series of Baka to Test much, though. It felt like it wasted all of its best jokes in its first episode, and quickly got repetitive and annoying afterwards. ”
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Spelunker Sensei

Summary: The online four-panel manga itself is based on Irem Software Engineering’s Spelunker action game franchise. Tomokazu Sugita stars as the title character, the world’s most reckless explorer who becomes a high school teacher. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA adaptation of a 4-koma manga
Director: Minoru Ashina
The Positives: Just… take a look at the trailer. Just… watch it.
The Negatives: FYI, this is coming from the creators of Boku, Otariman, which aired about a year ago. Boku, Otariman stood out with its incredibly slow delivery and jokes that didn’t fall. It did however produce a good satire on otaku. This, however… what the hell is it supposed to be anyway?!
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Katteni Kaizo

Summary: Kaizo Katzu is a former student of the “Institute for Genius”, but his childhood friend Umi Nattori make an idiot out of him by hurting his head. His crazy ideas had put the “Institute for Genius” in jeopardy and then shut down. The Kaizo’s former co-students comes to him looking for revenge for their “half-cooked skills”. So, Kaizo, Umi, Suzu Saien (also know as “The doctor”) and Chitan Tsubouchi are shown in the most surreal situations. The humor is sometimes vulgar and some sex scenes are shown. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Series Composition: Fuyashi Tou, Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Kouji Kumeta (Original Creator), Akiyuki Shinbo
The Positives: Katsuhiko Takayama usually compiles quite some solid series for Shaft, as long as he doesn’t go for second season. This series definitely sounds interesting for an OVA, and it is done by the mangaka who wrote Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei as well.
The Negatives: Blegh, Shinbo. That’s four series at once that he’s working on this time. On top of that we have the series composition of Bakemonogatari, which also doesn’t promise that much.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Nichijou OVA

Summary: While the title suggests a story of simple, everyday school life, the contents are more the opposite. The setting is a strange school where you may see the principal wrestle a deer or a robot’s arm hide a rollcake. However there are still normal stories, like making a card castle or taking a test you didn’t study for. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA Bundled with Manga
Director: Tatsuya Ishihara
Script: Jukki Hanada
The Positives: Well, so Nichijou also gets a preview OVA (officially titled as “Episode 0”). At the very least it’s good to see Tatsuya Ishihara back again.
The Negatives: While episodes like these make a bit more sense for Nichijou than for Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi, I still wonder whether they’re the right point to get introduced to the series, because it’s bundled with the 6th volume of the manga…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Saiyuki Gaiden

Summary: 500 years before the story of Saiyuki, a heretic child with golden eyes is brought into Heaven. He is given into the reluctant care of a minor deity named Konzen, the nephew of the Merciful Goddess Kanzeon Bosatsu. Konzen eventually gives the child the name “Goku”. Goku becomes friends with two other minor gods, Marshal Tenpou and General Kenren of the Western Army of Heaven. He also meets a strange little boy who seems to be his own age, the War Prince Nataku. Although Goku is happy in his new home, Heaven is not kind to heretics. There are those who would use Nataku and Goku as tools in an attempt to seize the throne of Heaven, and Konzen, Tenpou, and Kenren may not be able to save them. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Naoyuki Kuzuya
Series Composition: Kazuya Minekura
Other Notable Staff: (Minefumi Harada)
The Positives: It’s a prequel of the Saiyuuki manga, so you probably don’t need to have seen Saiyuuki (I haven’t seen it in any case) in order to get it. The writer of the manga this is based on will also handle the series composition in order to prevent continuity issues.
The Negatives: We do have the director of Bus Gamer here, which may have been nice, but it wasn’t very solid…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Bannou Yasai Ninninman

Summary: Something about a strange blob with a big grin that harasses a bunch of school children.
Type: Third installment of the Young Animator Training Project
Director: Masayuki Yoshihara
The Positives: Okay, so the Young Animator Training Project is an initiative to fund four 30 minute anime in order to train young new animators. Because they’re all different stories by different creators, I decided to give all of them a separate entry on this list. PA Works is responsible for the third installment. The director seems to be fond of little projects like these: he’s also doing Mai to Mahou to Katei no Hi this month.
The Negatives: This does look the weakest of the Young Animator Training Project, though. If you look at the trailer, you’ll notice that the blob here is a bit too cartoonish. Plus the soundtrack they chose sounds really bad.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Kizuna Ichigeki

Summary: Some sort of fighting story.
Type: First installment of the Young Animator Training Project
Director: Mitsuru Hongo
The Positives: The first installment of the Young Animator Training Project is done by a completely new production company, Ascension, but it has a veteran director: the guy behind Igano Kabamaru, Outlaw Star, Reideen and the Spirit of Wonder OVA, which really sounds quite promising, especially if you look at the animation in the trailer.
The Negatives: The looks are a bit childish, though.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

High School of the Dead OVA

Summary: – (Taken from )
Type: OVA Bundled with 7th Manga Volume
Director: Tetsuro Araki
Script: Yousuke Kuroda
The Positives: Tetsuro Araki (the director of Death Note and Kurozuka) and Yosuke Kuroda (adapted a ton of different series, including Trigun, Phantom, Ookiku Furikabutte, Honey and Clover and Gungrave) both managed to make High School of the Dead much more than a generic fanservice series with their great sense of atmosphere. The anime ended right in the middle of the action, so extra episodes are always good here.
The Negatives: Obviously the large amounts of fanservice, which probably will only increase in the DVD only format…
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Morita-san wa Mukuchi

Summary: The story follows the everyday life of Mayu Morita, a girl who is exceedingly gentle and thoughtful, to the point that she does not say much of anything to anyone in high school. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 4-Koma manga Adaptation OVA
Director: Naotaka Hayashi
Script: Hiroshi Sato
The Positives: Produced by Studio Gram, who previously only worked on Lilpri. Great to see new companies emerge. Naotaka Hayashi also directed some awesome episodes of Birdy the Mighty Decode, Bokura no and Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Irohanihoheto, while Hiroshi Satou is someone who can do anything: he did a soundtrack once, he worked on the composites of Heat Guy J, the screenplay of Ghost In the Shell Standalone Complex, 3D CG, Photography, Production, Background art and I wonder what he did to get a special thanks for Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
The Negatives: So, that makes me wonder why they went with such a simple looking slice of life story about a shy girl. I would rather have seen them pick a more interesting premise beyond a 4-koma manga.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Ojii-san no Lamp

Summary: Something about a grandfather and a lamp.
Type: Second Installment of the Young Animator Training Project
Director: Teiichi Takiguchi
The Positives: The second installment will be done by Telecom Animation Film. They’ve only produced a few series themselves, most notably Mjuin Wakusei Survive and the Secret of Cerulean Sand. This installment will probably be quite down to earth, judging by the title and the promo art. The director was the director of the Fourth Kara no Kyoukai Movie, so he should be able to do this justice.
The Negatives: Again, it does look rather childish, but not as childish as Kizuna Ichigeki.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Tansuwarashi

Summary: Something about a girl who suddenly has to take care of six young kids.
Type: Fourth Installment of the Young Animator Training Project
Director: Kazuchika Kise
The Positives: The last installment of the Young Animator Training Project also looks to be the best. Kazuchika Kise is a very interesting choice here, as he directed the animation of the xxxHolic movie, the second Patlabor movie, the Tales of Vesperia movie and the Eden of the East movie, among many others.
The Negatives: I do hope that this will be more than what the trailer suggests it to be, though.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki

Summary: Blazers are gallant warriors that consider the well being of others and the safety of the land as their priority, and work hard to defeat monsters and criminals. Estel is an aspiring Blazer who lives near the city of Rolento in Rebel Kingdom. Together with her friend Yoshua, Estel continues to train herself in the arts of Blazers. The story begins when Estel’s father receives a strange letter, starting a chain of events. – (Taken from IGN)
Type: OVA adapted from an RPG
Director: Masaki Tachibana
Other Notable Staff: Atsuko Nozaki (Character Designs)
The Positives: We have the character designer of Tokyo Magnitude here. Plus its director. That’s plenty of reasons to look forward to this one.
The Negatives: Eiyuu Densetsu seems a lot more generic than .Hack//Quantum though, but I’m still very curious what the creators can do with this.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Senjou no Valkyria 3 “Dare ga Tame no Juuyu”

Summary: Taking place during the Second Europan War, Valkyria Chronicles III focuses on Gallian Army Squad 442, also known as “The Nameless”. The Nameless are a penal military unit composed of criminals, foreign deserters, and military offenders whose real names are erased from the records and thereon officially referred to by numbers. Ordered by the Gallian military to perform the most dangerous missions and dirty work that the Regular Army and Militia will not do, they are nevertheless up to the task, exemplified by their motto, Altaha Abilia (“Always Ready” in Latin.) – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Type: OVA
Director: Nobuhiro Kondo
Script: Hiroshi Ounogi
The Positives: It’ll have different people behind it compared to the TV-series. Which people? Well, for one it has the guy who wrote Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 and Noein, along with adapting Full Metal Alchemist – Brotherhood and Shangri-la. This guy is awesome! Oh, and none of the annoying characters of the television series also seem to be making their return.
The Negatives: The director did a bunch of really weird 90s OVAs in the past. Is he the right person for this?
First-Glance Potential: 85%

The Moon – Tsuki ga Hoshii to Oujo-sama ga Naita

Summary: A young princess wants to travel to the moon, which results in her disappearance, which in turn causes an uproar at the palace. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Original Creator: Eleanor Farjeon
The Positives: The Moon is based on a story by Eleanor Farjeon, a children’s novelist who lived more than sixty years ago. To get a real idea of what this movie will be about, you really need to look at the screen-shots provided on the main website. They’re all over the place with many different designs and visual ideas. This movie will look really unconventional, but it’ll probably have some unique graphics.
The Negatives: No word yet on who’s going to adapt it, though. It might be that the storytelling is really terrible here, though being based on a classic story does help.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Hoshi o Ou Kodomo

Summary: The story centers on Asuna, a girl who spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the crystal radio she received from her father as a memento. However, she embarks on a journey of adventure to meet a boy again, and thus comes to know the cruelty and beauty of the world, as well as loss. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Makoto Shinkai
Script: Makoto Shinkai
Other Notable Staff: Tenmon (Music)
The Positives: Makoto Shinkai, finally it’s time for him to release another of his works. The movie still is about teenaged romance, but the themes seem significantly different from his previous works. That could be very interesting, but in any case this will become a huge feast for the senses.
The Negatives: Makoto Shinkai’s movies have always been a tad too draggy and slow paced for my tastes to really consider them masterpieces. Let’s see how this movie will change that.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

xxxHolic Rou Adayume

Summary: Kimihiro Watanuki is a young boy with a cursed gift. He has the ability to see evil spirits, and somehow they seem attracted to himself. One day he meets a mysterious woman who names herself Yuuko. She claims to have the means to end his torment, but she never works for free, and she wouldn’t help him until he works for her enough to pay for her services. Thus he starts to work in her shop and discovers that in that place, nothing is what it seems. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA Shipped with 19th Manga Volume
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Script: Nanase Oukawa
The Positives: Finally! It will have been nearly a year since the original xxxHolic Rou left with that damn cliff-hanger, so I’ve been aching to see the conclusion. Tsutomu Mizushima and Nanase Oukawa are still handling this show, so there should be no problems in the production department.
The Negatives: Oh, how I wished that this could have been a full length TV-series. xxxHolic Rou was one of those exceptions that worked perfectly, even though it skipped ahead many chapters. The biggest challenge will be to make this work for both the fans of the anime and the manga.
First-Glance Potential: 95%

Norageki

Summary: The story is set in a certain isolated prison with four prisoners and a cat. One day, a sudden power outage opens the locks and everyone is mysteriously set free from their cells. However, all of the guards are missing, and the prisoners cannot find any exits. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Hiroaki Ando
Script: Dai Sato
Other Notable Staff: Yuusuke Takeda (Art Director), Kimitoshi Yamane (Mechanical Designs)
The Positives: Here is one that I’m really going to keep my eyes out for. Hiroaki Ando worked on Mahou Shoujotai and a ton of other projects of Studio 4C, like the bizarre Chicken Insurance, Tobira o Akete and Princess Arete, and he even was the CGI Director of Steamboy. It’s great to see him direct something again. Dai Sato meanwhile was the one who wrote Freedom Eureka 7, Ergo Proxy and Eternal Family. Combine that with an awesome premise and you really have one of the most interesting upcoming OVAs.
The Negatives: The usual complaints I have with OVAs like this: it’ll probably be too short.
First-Glance Potential: 100%