Category: Seasonal Previews

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%

Ohoho, we’re in for a treat in the upcoming season. There are 47 series in total, and a ton of those are promising to be really interesting. Sure, there is a lot of crap, but there are also plenty of powerhouse directors and writers to make up for it. that’s the great thing of getting a large season again, and it’s great to see another season that has so many different series.

This season has a good balance of original stories, manga adaptations, game adaptations and surprisingly few light novel adaptations. There are many different production companies active with one or two new series. The studios with the most projects are Production IG and Tatsunoko Productions of all things. Surprisingly absent are Satelight, Bones, AIC and Studio Pierrot.

The two main genres of this season seem to be dark adventures and slice of life series. Unforunately there also are a bunch of uninspired moe shows, but these are far from the only bad ones. the biggest pitfall of this season is a trend of working on multiple series at the same time. There are quite a few people who do this this season, and I just hope that this will end up all right.

Also as usual, I haven’t seen anything of the source material of the adaptations aside from the X-Men, so I’ll mostly be commenting on the staff lists and premises.

30-sai no Hoken Taiku

Summary: A guide book teaching shy men around 30 how to date and have sex with women. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Mankyuu
Series Composition: Ryou Akiyama
The Positives: It’s aimed at adults.
The Negatives: What the hell?! Oh, and for the order: this one’s being directed by the director of Tono to Issho, so it’ll be incredibly cheap.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Tono to Issho Gantai no Yabou

Summary: Random Sketches in the Sengoku Era.
Director: Mankyuu
The Positives: I’m blank on this one.
The Negatives: Oh god no, there’s more? Tono to Issho was ridiculously cheap and poorly executed. Just about everything about it was terrible and boring. And now they’re planning to make more? Also, why is Mankyuu doing two series at once?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Metal Fight Beyblade 4D – (New)

Summary: A new cast of characters take on the continued battle between good and evil. Ginga, our hero, and his group of loyal friends take on a dangerous group called the Dark Nebula. Dark Nebula’s mission is to take over the world and unleash their evil upon it; but before they can do so, they must destroy Ginga as he is the only person that’s strong enough to stand in their way. The plot thickens as friends become enemies and enemies become allies. Everything starts and ends with Ginga as he struggles to find the strength to defend his world and the honor of Beyblade. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: Oh god, they’re making more of this?
The Negatives: This basically is the continuation of Metal Fight Beyblade. For those wo haven’t seen it: be glad. I have rarely seen an anime that was so poorly produced. Even for a kids’ show. I only watched its first episode, but it was utterly terrible in every single way: abysmal acting, stupid story, moronic premise and a scenario that felt like it was written by a ten year old.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ring ni Kakero 1: Sekai Takai-hen

Summary: After defeating Black Shaft’s makeshift Team USA and proving their worth to the Shadow Clan, Team Golden Japan Jr. will finally enter the World Jr. Boxing Tournament. In order to fulfill their goal of a perfect victory they’ll have to take on teams from countries like Mexico, Italy, France, Germany, and the mysterious and godlike Team Greece. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroshi Ikehata
Series Composition: Yousuke Kuroda
Other Notable Staff: Masami Kurumada (Original Creator)
The Positives: Yosuke Kuroda is good! He adapted many great series, like Ookiku Furikabutte, Gungrave, Madlax, Trigun and many others. Hiroshi Ikehata also isn’t bad as a director: he worked on episodes that ranged from bad to good.
The Negatives: But I had the chance to watch the first two episodes of the third season (Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow). This premise is beyond salvage. It’s a ridiculously cheesy boxing series full of ridiculous moves and badly paced set-ups. The director is different this time, but I don’t see any way for this one to work. And this is already the fourth season of this thing!
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai

Summary: The game this is based on follows the coming-of-age drama of young people in Yanagihara, a big city where countless people cross paths. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shinji Ushiro
Series Composition: Takamitsu Kouno
Other Notable Staff: Kumi Ishii (Character Designs)
The Positives: Um, in theory it could have gotten excellent character designs. Kumi Ishii designed the characters of Rozen Maiden, Red Garden and Kurenai. I get the feeling that she didn’t really care about this one, though…
The Negatives: Oh dear lord. How does Shinji Ushiro still get work? All of his series have been atrocious, especially Shukufuku no Campanella and Omamori Himari. Takamitsu Kouno’s only strong point is that he did adapt Hen Zemi quite effectively, but I doubt that we’ll get to see that here.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Jewel Pet Sunshine – (New)

Summary: In Jewel Land, Jewelpets, creatures who has the natural ability to use magic lived in harmony with the Witches, attending the Magic Academy to learn to use magic with their Jewel Eyes. However for Ruby, a white Japanese Hare whose magic sometimes fail, is appointed to go to the Human World to search for her partner. But when she used the card the magicians gave her, she was sent to the Human World by accident. In the Human World, A girl named Akari Sakura met her on the beach on her way to school. At first, Akari can’t understand her due to her Jewel Land Language until Ruby took a special candy so she could speak and understand human language. As the day passes, Ruby knew about her problems and later apologized. A Jewel Charm appeared on Akari’s hand and she realized it that she’s chosen by Ruby to be her partner. After that, she decided to become a student along with Ruby as they were accepted and entered the Jewel Star Grand Prix. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: The official staff isn’t known yet, but the series composition of the previous season was written by Michiru Shimada, who can be pretty good at times.
The Negatives: Oh, this series is really starting to get on my nerves now. The first episode of the first season was passable, but then the second season premiered with an utterly terrible episode. The acting was outright horrendous, and now they’re trying to make more? Please, give these kids some actual good series to look forward to…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Maria Holic Alive

Summary: The story centers on a sophomore named Kanako who enrolls in all-girls school because she has a phobia of men and wants to find her destined yuri partner. She meets a captivating freshman named Mariya who fits her criteria — except her seemingly ideal mate happens to be a cross-dressing sadistic boy. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani
The Positives: I’m blank.
The Negatives: It’s a shaft sequel. I have NEVER seen a Shaft sequel that was not significantly worse than the original. And I already didn’t like Maria Holic in the first place!
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Lotte no Omocha

Summary: The story of Lotte no Omocha! revolves around Naoya, a man who is brought to a magical world to be a candidate for the harem of the princess, Astarotte. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Mai Otsuka (Character Designs), Akiyuki Shinbo (Series Composition Cooperation), Yui Haga (Original Creator)
The Positives: The director at least has a lot of experience, even though I didn’t really like the series he directed before.
The Negatives: What the hell is Shinbo doing here? Does he need to keep holding Deko Akao’s hand, even though this isn’t for Shaft? I mean, she already is a pretty mediocre scriptwriter, you don’t need to make her more generic. Also, please tell me that we’re not getting the umpth Kugimiya Rie tsundere here…
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Suzy’s Zoo Daisuki! Witzy

Summary: The anime adapts the American greeting card line Suzy’s Zoo from the San Diego-based artist Suzy Spafford. The story will center around a duckling named Witzy and his stuffed animal friends in a verdant backyard. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hidekazu Ohara
Series Composition: Kaori Kita
The Positives: It’s a bit bizarre to have a director who has experience with something like Cannon Fodder to also produce a ton of kids’ shows, but ah well.
The Negatives: That’s what this is, though: a kids’ show, nothing more, nothing less.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Seikon no Qwaser II

Summary: In St. Mikhailov Academy, Oribe Mafuyu meets a silver haired boy called Alexander. He is a Qwaser, a being who can manipulate iron and draws his power from breast milk. A mystery surrounding an Icon transforms the academy into the setting for conflict between the various different Qwaser. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiraku Kaneko
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
The Positives: Boobs.
The Negatives: The staff remained the same. Makoto Uezu is just one of those writers who writes mostly terrible series but once in a while does something good (Sunred, Katanagatari). I don’t think that this will be one of those exceptions.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Kämpfer für die Liebe

Summary: Senou Natsuru is your normal, everyday high school student. However he´s been chosen to be a Kampfer, who´s objective consists on fighting other Kampfer with either guns, swords or magic, however, there´s catch; first you can´t chose if you´re a Kampfer or not, and second, you must have the body of a girl to use your powers. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yasuhiro Kuroda
Series Composition: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
The Positives: It’s going to be really short! Only two episodes. And yeah, the staff worked on some decent and even great series here and there.
The Negatives: If it’s going to be anything like the first series though… oh dear. That was painful to sit through, it had nothing redeemable whatsoever apart from the fact that I couldn’t really complain about the fight animation.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sexal

Summary: ???
Director: Satoshi Kuwahara
Series Composition: Shin Yoshida
The Positives: You know what the irony is? Shin Yoshida is actually a very good writer when he’s not busy with Yugioh: he wrote Argento Soma, Karas, Zone of the Enders, and episodes of Bakumatsu, the Big O and Texhnolyze.
The Negatives: Whahahaha! That hair! I have to grant it to Toei: they outdid themselves yet again here.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Aria the Scarlet Ammo

Summary: The story takes place in Tokyo Butei High School, a special school where armed detectives — “Butei” — are trained to use weapons. Kinji Tooyama is a second-year-student who has a special ability, but he keeps it a secret to maintain an ordinary, peaceful life. However, when he gets caught in a bombing on the way to school, he encounters H. Aria Kanzaki, the most powerful S-Rank Butei student in Assault Studies. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Series Composition: Hideki Shirane
The Positives: Hideki Shirane is currently also adapting Yumekui Merry and I like the job he’s doing on it.
The Negatives: Takashi Watanabe… is doing the same show twice in two consecutive seasons… Seriously, this sounds exactly like a less bloody Freezing. Also, more Kugimiya Rie Tsundere? Oh please no!
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Sengoku Otome

Summary: Based on a bunch of pachinko games. The original 2008 game re-imagines Japan’s tumultuous sengoku jidai (Era of Warring States) with all of the warriors as female characters. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hideki Okamoto, Nobuto Sakamoto (Art Director)
Series Composition: Touko Machida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Sekiya (Director of Photography)
The Positives: It has the art director of Porfy no Nagai Tabi (for those of you who didn’t watch it, that series had the most amazingly consistent and accurate background art), plus the director of photography of Baccano and Mushiuta. combine that with a period piece and we might just get a lot of eye candy in the backgrounds here.
The Negatives: But yeah: the creators still are beating a really dead horse here. Re-imagining classical stories while turning all characters into fanservice females already was old when Ikkitousen’s first season did it. We really didn’t need three more seasons, plus Koihime Musou, plus Samurai Girls. The series composition is also written by someone notorious for bad storylines: Touko Machida, who adapted Allison to Lillia, Ookami Kakushi and Idolmaster Xenoglossia, while it’s got the director of Da Capo II. I don’t see this becoming anything more than moe pandering.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi

Summary: The story revolves around Kazuma Hoshino, a boy whose family moves to a new town for the sake of his younger brother’s health. Kazuma gets lost on his way to his new school, but he unexpectedly encounters a girl named Ui Nakatsugawa. Ui guides him, but when Kazuma trips, he accidentally bumps into Ui and kisses her. Plus, Ui’s close friend Ibuki Hinata happens to see the accidental kiss. Kazuma eventually meets Madoka Koumoto (the daughter of a priest at the local shrine), a third-year girl named Tsumugi Toudou, and Tsumugi’s spirited younger sister Koyori. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takenori Mihara
Series Composition: Go Zappa
The Positives: The only thing that intrigues me here is the director: he never directed a full series before, but he has worked on episodes of a wide scala of different series, including Guin Saga, Yumeiro Patissiere and did some of the best episodes of Konnichiwa Anne.
The Negatives: Go Zappa is exactly what this show didn’t need, because considering his track record, he won’t to anything to get rid of the bad premise of this show. I mean, the premise of this show really is terrible and looks like any average harem. You really need to put in effort to make it anything worthwhile, but I’m not seeing that happen.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Sofuteni

Summary: The tennis comedy centers around the members of a female middle school soft tennis team and the twists and turns that their lives take as they aim for the nationals. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ryouki Kamitsubo
Script: Noboru Kimera, Takamitsu Kouno, Yousuke Kuroda
The Positives: There is some good stuff amongst the ones who are going to be adapting this story, Yosuke Kuroda is an excellent adapter, and Ryouki Kamitsubo is a pretty interesting director with experience on Hen Zemi and Hidamari Sketch 1.
The Negatives: This remains Xebec with another high school show, though. I’m especially saying this because the girls on the promo art for both the manga and anime look like a bunch of complete morons, and I’m really afraid that they’re going to be giving this show their usual treatment.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

A Channel

Summary: The story revolves around the everyday life of four high school girls: the flighty Run, the reckless Tōru, the timid Yūko, and the level-headed Nagi. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
The Positives: Tatsuhiko Urahata, among many others, wrote the series composition of Monster. That has to say something.
The Negatives: But yeah… we’ve got the director of Dragonaut and Saki here. They weren’t Gonzo’s worst series, but they were still pretty mediocre. And this guy is going to have to convince us that the lives of four random girls are worth watching. Seriously, if you don’t have anything besides that premise then it’s not going to be the most exciting series!
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Pretty Rythm Aurora Dream

Summary: Based on a shoujo game. In the game, a girl named Rizumu Amamiya aspires to compete in Prism Show, a new sport that combines skating and dancing. Players can collect heart-shaped Prism Stones by winning in the game. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masakazu Hishida
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Akio Watanabe (Character Designs)
The Positives: I’m finding a hard time finding anything positive about this one. It’s probably not going to be anything terrible, and the staff list is certainly not bad…
The Negatives: … they’re just underwhelming. I never enjoyed any of the series that Deko Akao adapted aside from the first season of Natsu no Arashi and Masakazu Hishida as a director has only worked on some kiddie shows before. This will probably be one of those “meh” shows.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi

Summary: The story follows the tension between a newly recruited manga editor and his tyrannical editor-in-chief — who happen to share a common past. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Chiaki Kon
Series Composition: Rika Nanase
The Positives: Junjo Romantica was really popular so let’s have the creators come together and create exactly the same thing once more. Fair enough from a business perspective…
The Negatives: Personally, my interest in Junjo Romantica faded somewhere in the second season, and I really don’t want to watch more of it. It was good for one season, but got dull fast, and it’s pretty much Studio Deen and its bisies again, a gimmick that they really need to abandon now.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Dog Days

Summary: In the story, Princess Millhiore of the Biscotti Republic decides to summon a brave warrior from an alternate world to defend her country from the neighboring fiefdom of Garrett. The “brave warrior” turns out to be a boy named Sink. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keizou Kuzakawa
Series Composition: Masaki Tsuzuki
Other Notable Staff: Osama Sakata (Character Designs)
The Positives: It’s a parody, right? I mean, no series can be this stupid and not be a parody, right? Especially with the creators of Nanoha, right? I mean, it’s an original story, for god’s sake.
The Negatives: How on earth did the chief animation director of White Album of all things design characters that look this bad? But yeah, this is one of those series where my main problem lies with the premise and the looks. The staff is pretty good here, I just don’t think they’ll be able to get anything good out of this premise unless they start to parody the heck out of it.
First-Glance Potential: 35%

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai

Summary: Keima Katsuragi is an avid galge gamer known at his school as “Otamega” (a derogatory term combining the words Otaku and Megane) and on the internet a “The Capturing God.” One day he receives an e-mail offering him a contract to “capture” girls. He accepts thinking it’s a challenge and a demon from Hell named Elsee appears. She asks for his help in capturing runaway spirits that are hiding in “real” girls. He refuses stating he only likes the girls from the game. She tells him that if he refuses then both of their heads will be cut off. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shigehito Takayanagi
Series Composition: Hideyuki Kurata
The Positives: Hideyuki Kurata… he remains the one who originally thought up Kamichu and Read or Die and wrote Now and Then, Here and There.
The Negatives: He seems to have really lost it during the past half year though, with all these cliched premises. The World God Knows especially was disappointing due its lackluster execution and pacing (which probably was his fault, though don’t take my word on that one). The worst thing is that even the director didn’t change: we still have to deal with that mediocre director of Galaxy Angel and Hime-Sama Goyoujin.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Fireball Charming

Summary: Random sketches during a war between robots and humans. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Wataru Arakawa
Series Composition: Wataru Arakawa
Other Notable Staff: Takayuki Yanase (Character Designs)
The Positives: Wow. I did not watch Fireball, but those designs are looking pretty cool.
The Negatives: Too bad that it’s entirely in 3D, though. And that its episodes are only two minutes long.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Toriko

Summary: In the world of Toriko, many extravagant and delicious ingredients exist in the most dangerous places, and it is up to the Bishoku-ya, or Gourmet Food Providers, to hunt down these animals and plants in the face of danger. Toriko is one such Bishoku-ya, taking his place as one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Bishoku-ya with his immense strength and appetite. Together with Komatsu, a timid chef trianed in the art of preparing food; Coco, the poisonous Bishoku-ya who can see the future; Terry Cloth, the offspring of a clone of the long-extinct Battle Wolf; and many more, Toriko takes on job after job while searching for the foods great enough to make it into his dream full-course meal. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akifumi Zako
Series Composition: Isao Murayama
The Positives: Half a year ago I watched the Toriko OVA to get a bit of a taste what this was about. It was terrible, but more on that below. The TV-series will be made by completely different people, so perhaps Toei is able to deliver this show with the right execution, because it’s definitely creative. I’ve noticed that they are rapidly assigning new people to do major jobs such as directing and series composition, instead of sticking to the veterans. The result is a director with hardly any experience here aside from being the director of the second part of Fresh Precure and some Heartcatch Precure episodes (including three Heartcatch Precure ones that were quite good), and the script is being written by the guy who wrote half of Kuchuu Buranko and the Precure All Stars Movies.
The Negatives: That also is a negative, yeah: directors with hardly any experience can really go anywhere, especially considering this is a shounen jump adaptation, which often can go quite wrong. I also didn’t like the preview OVA at all, but that mostly lied with the delivery: jokes were badly times, characters were shallow and one dimensional, and the whole gimmick of this show got boring after five minutes. That’s what the TV series really is going to have to avoid here…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Sket Dance

Summary: The manga is about three highschoolers who start a club called “Sket-Dan” made for the purpose of helping people. The club consists of three members. Himeko Onizuka “yankee”-girl who has a weakness for cute things; Switch a smart, otaku who talks through a computer. And the leader Yuusuke Fujisaki aka Bossun who the creater of the club. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Series Composition: Shinichi Inotsume
The Positives: This is being produced by Tatsunoko Productions, who have quite an interesting history. They’re really old, and responsible for the excellent animation in Irresponsible Captain Tylor, and the Soultaker. For the past ten years though, they’ve been rather quiet and only really done kids shows, along with assistance to some other anime here and there, most notably proposing the original concept for Casshern Sins. So I’m excited to see them finally producing new shows again.
The Negatives: The people behind Nyan Koi aren’t the most solid ones to do it, though, so I really hope that the original manga story is solid (but then again, it is a shounen jump adaptation, so things can go anywhere even if that story is good). I don’t have much faith for the director of Moetan, though…
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Happy Kappy

Summary: The story revolves around Suguri Kinoshita, a nine-year-old third-grade girl who loves animals and making fashion accessories. One day, while Suguri is out buying materials for accessories, she comes across an unusual rock. Thinking it would look cute on a bracelet, she goes to pick up the rock and discovers a creature named Kappy. Kappy happens to be the three-year-old prince of Kapimeshia. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takyua Minazawa
Series Composition: Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: Tomoko Komparu is an excellent scriptwriter for the series composition: if a script is awesome she’ll give it an excellent treatment. She adapted Les Miserables, Genji Monogatari Sennenki, Ashita no Nadja, Nodame Cantabile, Oniisama E, the Hi no Tori movies and the Snow Queen among many others.
The Negatives: We’re talking about an adaptation of a manga aimed at really young girls here, though. The director also is a complete newbie (his only experience before this was as the ASSISTANT director of Penguin no Mondai…).
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Danbooru Senki

Summary: Based on a PSP Game. In the game, you play a boy named Ban Sanya in a world where kids can customize their own mini-robot, called LBX. A mysterious woman gives Ban a super-high powered LBX, Achilles-V, and unsurprisingly, the boy starts winning battles. – (Taken from AnimeVice)
Director: Naohito Takahashi
Series Composition: Atshuhiro Tomioka
Other Notable Staff: Level 5 (Original Producer)
The Positives: From the outside, this looks like another one of those generic Game adaptations for kids. Then I discovered that it has the director of Berserk and Figure 17. Whoa! I’m very interested what this guy can do with a game adaptation by the producers of the Professor Layton games.
The Negatives: Granted though, Naohito Takahashi did work on a number of lesser shows, like Ray, To Heart and Steel Angel Kurumi. The real downside to this series is the one who’s going to write it, though: Atsuhiro Tomioka. This guy couldn’t even properly pace a story if his life depended on it; Zombie Loan, Nishi no Yoki Majo, Disgaea, Trinity Blood: all series that could have been awesome if it wasn’t for this guy.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Summary: The story revolves around a highschool boy named Niwa Makoto. He lives with his aunt’s family since his parents are away on business. It is there where he meets his mysterious cousin of the same age Touwa Erio — who happens to tie a futon mattress around her upper body and is a self-proclaimed alien. Her staple food is pizza. Erio had been missing for half a year and was found floating in the sea. She doesn’t remember anything about what happened during that period of time, but she began to think that it was the act of an alien and wanders the neighbourhood wrapped in the futon. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Series Composition: Yuniko Ayana
Other Notable Staff: Asako Nishida (Character Designs)
The Positives: Well, Shaft did get the best character designer they could possibly get. I’m a big fan of Asako Nishida’s designs here. Also, for now it looks like Shinbo is going to direct this show on his own, which is good as well (although this also appeared to be the case with Madoka Magica at first, so the real director will probably be announced in about a month or so). Meanwhile, for Yuniko Ayana this will be her first job after writing episodes for series as Aoi Hana, Shangri-La and Occult Academy, so I’m very curious on how she’s going to adapt a full series.
The Negatives: Shinbo, obviously. The story could become good in the right hands so I hope that he doesn’t stick his nose too much in this. He’s setting another record here by the way: three series in one season.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Honto ni Atta! Reibai-Sensei

Summary: The story revolves around Kibayashi-sensei, a teacher whose hobby is speaking with the dead and whose special talent is exorcism. Kibayashi-sensei knows everything about the other world, but nothing about our own world. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ?
Series Composition: ?
The Positives: Nothing is known about this one yet aside from the fact that it’s a horror comedy 4-koma adaptation. Has potential, but it all depends on the sense of humour of the ones who will adapt these jokes.
The Negatives: It’s another school series, there are already too many of those.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Hana-Saku Iroha

Summary: The story centers around Ohana Matsumae, a 16-year-old Tokyo native who ended up working at a onsen ryokan (hot spring inn). Matsumae has yet to decide her future. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiro Ando
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Kanami Sekiguchi (Character Designs), Yoshimasa Yamazaki (3D Director)
The Positives: The director of Canaan and Sword of the Stranger is a pretty interesting choice for a slice of life series. Mari Okada also really helps. It’s interesting how PA works is considering this series an appropriate way to celebrate their tenth anniversary. This won’t stand out at all, but as a charming slice of life series, I can see it work.
The Negatives: But please, Mari Okada: go and take a holiday some time…
First-Glance Potential: 60%

X-Men

Summary: The basic concept of the X-Men is that under a cloud of increasing anti-mutant sentiment, Professor Xavier created a haven at his Westchester mansion to train young mutants to use their powers for the benefit of humanity, and to prove mutants can be heroes.[2] Xavier recruited Cyclops, Iceman, Angel, Beast and Jean Grey, calling them “X-Men” because they possess special powers due to their possession of the “X-Gene,” a gene normal humans lack but which gives Mutants their abilities. Early on, however, the “X” in X-Men stood for “extra” power which normal humans lacked. It was alluded that the mutations were incurred as a result of radiation exposure. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Madhouse always tends to wait announcing the staff of its Marvel series until a few weeks before the airdate.
The Positives: When the four Marvel Series were first announced, the X-men was without a doubt the one I was looking forward to the most. Obviously when Iron Man aired my expectations lowered drastically, but wolverine showed that these four series have totally different people working behind it, and totally different visions. The fact remains after all that it’s a series about adults and Madhouse got permission to do what they wanted with these concepts.
The Negatives: Iron Man, obviously. That is going to be one flop of Madhouse that will take a long time to forget thanks to the fact that it was the first in a series of four. It’s clear that the Marvel series are not on Madhouse’s list of priorities.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Hen Zemi

Summary: Nanako Matsutaka is an innocent university student who is participating in a sexual perversion seminar led by the deviant professor Kenji Meshiya. She desperately tries to keep her morals as well as her sanity while amidst the strange group of students in the study group. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ryouki Kamitsubo
Series Composition: Takamitsu Kouno
The Positives: The staff is going to be the same as the OVA, so we can pretty much expect the same execution. For those who haven’t seen that one: this show is completely disgusting. Its dialogue really went under my skin when I watched it, in a good way.
The Negatives: There is a ton of sex in this show, so I hope that it won’t be dumbed down. I can really see Xebec force it into yet another moe comedy, which this most certainly isn’t.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Ao no Exorcist

Summary: Based on a supernatural manga. It focuses on Rin Okumura, a boy raised by a famous exorcist named Father Fujimoto. After an argument between the two, Rin discovers he is the son of Satan. Rin decides to fight his fate by joining the True Cross Academy to become an exorcist and defeat demons. However, when he draws his father’s sword, it releases a dark power within him. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tensai Okamura
Series Composition: Ryota Yamaguchi
Other Notable Staff: Keigo Sasaki (Character Designs)
The Positives: The aptly named Tensai Okamura, of course. You might recall him as the director of Darker than Black. He will at the very least make sure that this story is well and solidly told. Keigo Sasaki also is pretty solid for the script of this series, with more than a decade of experience on many different series.
The Negatives: My big beef with this show is the premise itself, which does sound rather dull, but dull in a way that can get better given enough time. If this show gets 26 episodes it can make some nice things out of that, but with 13 it’s probably doomed.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Gintama 2

Summary: Edo-period at Japan suffers a big cultural shock. First, the aliens invaded the earth, overpowered the nation’s government, disbanded carrying swords for the once proud samurais. moreover; these aliens took the people’s jobs and are currently running a sweatshop using them as laborers. going with the flow, Sakata Gintoki, an enigmatic vagrant samurai whose personal trademark is not only his naturally permed silver hair but also his love of anything sweet and addiction to Shonen Jump is making a life out of this chaotic era. He is self employed in a do-it-all shop named Yoruzuya Gin-chan who offers any job for any amount of money. Their jobs range from searching lost kittens and saving the world. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: ???
Series Composition: ???
The Positives: Gintama one was one of the greatest comedies that ever aired. It wasn’t just hilarious, it kept this up for a hundred episodes. It’s great to see it back after a one year hiatus.
The Negatives: I made a conscious decision to drop it after 120 episodes, though. The reason for this is that at that point, while it still was pretty decent, Gintama had lost the brilliance that made me originally fall in love with it, and I didn’t want to ruin that great image even more. I probably think that this is due to the swap of directors, so I’m really curious who gets into the director’s seat this time. That’s really going to decide whether or not I’m going to follow this one or not, but that information has not been announced yet.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Moshidora

Summary: Based on a 2009 novel. Its title has been translated as ‘What If a Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Read Drucker’s “Management”?’, centers around a high school girl named Minami Kawashima who becomes the baseball team manager at Tokyo’s Hodokubo High School. Minami accidentally buys Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices — a classic productivity guide by the Austrian-American management guru Peter Drucker — and uses it to rally her dispirited team. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
The Positives: Well, that premise certainly is bizarre enough to work. With the right execution it could be an interesting combination between a slice of life, baseball and management consulting.
The Negatives: Uh oh, it’s Trans Arts again. They often go with really interesting premises, but they don’t know how to execute them properly. This series also has their flagship director, who only made one good series (Kemono no Souja Erin) and apart from that all disappointments.
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Appleseed XIII

Summary: Appleseed takes place in the 22nd Century, after the non-nuclear Third World War decimates the Earth. While states like Great Britain, France and China have difficulty maintaining order and power, international organizations like the “Sacred Republique of Mumna” and “Poseidon” have been established in the aftermath. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takayuki Hamana
Series Composition: Junichi Fujisaku
Other Notable Staff: Masamune Shirow (Original Creator), Takayuki Goto (Character Designs), Yoshiki Sakurai
The Positives: Ah, Appleseed. I never watched the movies, but I’m very interested in this kind of premise. It’s also got an excellent character designer in Takayuki Goto, who also designed the characters for Ghost in the Shell, Kemono no Souja Erin and Please Save My Earth, among many others.
The Negatives: Please, someone tell me. Why the heck are Takayuki Hamana and Junichi Fujisaku both working on two series at the same bloody time?
First-Glance Potential: 75%

Nichijou

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)
Director: Tatsuya Ishihara
Series Composition: Jukki Hanada
The Positives: My favourite of Kyoani’s directors is back again. I personally loved Tatsuya Ishihara’s work on Air, Clannad and the Haruhi Movie, though this seems much more laid back. It’s probably going to be a very interesting slice of life series if they indeed do like what the synopsis predicted and have all kinds of bizarre situations take place, instead of making it as repetitive as Lucky Star was.
The Negatives: Why is Jukki Hanada doing two shows at once? She already is very busy. She’s quite a solid and interesting scriptwriter, but not the most stable one.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Yondemasuyo! Azazel-san – (New)

Summary: Akutabe, a detective, summons devils to solve the troubles of his clients. One day, a low class devil Azazel Atsushi is summoned by Akutabe and is used harshly by him and his assistant Rinko Sakuma. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Series Composition:
Other Notable Staff: Junichiro Taniguchi (Character Design)
The Positives: More Tsutomu Mizushima (Hare Nochi Guu, Squid Girl, xxxHolic, Ookiku Furikabutte and much more). This time, he’s going to be involved everywhere in this project: he’ll do the direction, the storyboards and the scripts all together. That sounds very ambitious, and the OVA already showed that this premise can get really funny.
The Negatives: Granted, Tsutomu Mizushima is not the perfect comedy director. He often can’t seem to do moe comedies right (Ichigo 100%, Kujibiki Unbalance, Kemeko Deluxe, Dokuro-chan, Dai Mahou Touge; Only Squid Girl was the exception to this rule). Thankfully though, Azazel-san is about summoning demons and the female lead is far from your stereotypical moe heroine. Though she can get quite stupid at times.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Kaiji Hakairoku-hen

Summary: Itou Kaiji is a bum who steals car emblems and slashes tires on what seems to be a regular basis. This routine changes one day when he is paid a visit by a man in a trench-coat. Once the two get talking, it seems that the visitor (Calling himself Endou) is a debt collector. The reason for his visit is an unpaid loan which Kaiji had previously co-signed for a work-mate (Furuhata Takeshi). The original loan was 30000 yen and once Takeshi had disappeared, the loan then fell on Kaiji. Kaiji is then told of a way to clear the interest compounded debt (which stood at 3,850,000 yen), which involved getting on a boat with others in his position. Once on the boat the debtors would then have to gamble with loaned money, which would end with a few winning, and others getting into deeper debt and having to work to pay of their debts. After some coercing kaiji accepts a position on the boat, in order to clear himself and make a bit of money as well… – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yuzo Sato
Series Composition: Hideo Takayashiki
Other Notable Staff: Hideki Taniuchi (Music)
The Positives: Well, this is going to be a definite contender for the most intense show of the season. Unlike Akagi where the atmosphere crept up from behind you, Kaiji lacked any kind of subtlety and was 24 episodes of straight in-your-face yelling and screaming while playing gambling games. The staff is back entirely as well, so it should prove to be a lot old-fashioned entertainment, albeit a bit slow.
The Negatives: Look at the promo picture. Anyone who watched the first season will probably notice something very wrong with that picture… Also, three months ago the director was still majorly screwing up Iron Man, so I hope that he at least got back on his feet before starting with this series again. I’m also not sure whether I’m going to blog this, because last time blogging turned out to be a major annoyance because the pacing was so damn slow.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Boku-tachi wa Mada Shiranai

Summary: Six childhood friends grew apart in high school. One of them is Jintan, now a shut-in. He gets a request to fulfill a wish for Menma, the only one of their friends to have stayed the same over the years. In order to grant her wish, he will have to find and reunite their old friends. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
Series Composition: Mari Okada
The Positives: This one’s going to be the next Noitamina. Mari Okada obviously is a solid choice as the scriptwriter, although I’d wish that instead of doing so many shows at the same time (this winter season she’s doing three at the same time), she’d just focus on one and make that stand out, like what she did in the past. The director meanwhile worked on Honey and Clover II and Toradora (which I haven’t seen, but is supposed to be really good). It’s also an anime original project, so that also deserves plus points. The premise also is an excellent one that is bound to have a ton of character development in it.
The Negatives: I’m not sure whether the director is the right person for this series, though: he seems more comfortable with adaptations than original stories (considering that he also directed Idomasster Xenoglossia.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Deadman Wonderland

Summary: Ganta Igarashi has been convicted of a crime that he hasn’t committed, and sent to a new, privately owned and operated prison, where the inmates are the main attraction in a modern day twist to the gladiatorial coliseums of ancient times. Throw in a healthy dose of weird little girl, some new-found super powers, and a little conspiracy theory, and you have Deadman Wonderland. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Koichi Hatsumi
Series Composition: Yasuyuki Muto
Other Notable Staff: Michie Watanabe (Art Director), Takayuki Yanase (Mechanical Design),
The Positives: Manglobe! Let’s hope that they can shine again after The World God Only Knows, and things are already looking good in the graphics department. Michie Watanabe also was the art director of Sarai-ya Goyou, plus Takayuki Yanase desinged for a ton of interesting series. For the director this will be his first full series, but he did handle some excellent episodes of Real Drive, Darker than Black Gemini, Birdy the Mighty Decode 02 and Seirei no Moribito. The series composition will be done by the chief writer of Chevalier, so that’s also promising a lot here.
The Negatives: It should be noted that Yasuyuki Muto also wrote Sengoku Basara and Persona Trinity Soul, which had some major pacing issues. Thank god this isn’t a game adaptation but a regular manga one.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Showa Monogatari

Summary: The series follows the story of Kouhei Yamazuki as he lives in Japan in the 1960s, together with his friends, parents, grandmother, brother and sister. The series follows his every day life, along with some of the major points in his childhood.
Director: Hiroshi Kugimiya
The Positives: Now, I’ve already seen the first four preview episodes of this series, so I can get into a bit more detail of why this series rocks. It’s pretty much a slice of life series about a family in Japan in the 1960s, with a great balance between slice of life and drama that arises out of typical problems of those days. What’s especially good about this series is that it doesn’t just focus on the young boy. The entire family so far has gotten fleshed out and some depth and that made these first four episodes great to watch. Wao World has been making movies that celebrate Japan’s cultural heritage for a few years now (Nitaboh, Furusato Japan and Symphony in August), and I’m really glad that they finally started doing television series.
The Negatives: The show has a low budget, so the animation isn’t anything special. The most annoying part is the voice actor for the lead character, though (the kid, Kouhei): he can’t act!
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Dororon Enma-Kun Meeramera

Summary: Remake of a 1973 TV-series. Emma-kun, Yukiko Hime, and Kapaeru are members of a Demon Patrol that are sent to the human world to arrest demons. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Series Composition: Yoshitomo Yonetani
Other Notable Staff: Hiroaki Kitajima (Script), Takahiro Kimura (Character Design, Chief Animation Director), Takashi Nakamura (Art Direction)
The Positives: Holy crap! Takashi Nakamura? The director of Fantastic Children? And he’s doing the art direction here? Awesome! I’m really not sure what to expect of the graphics here: we have the designs of Go Nagai, reworked by the character designer of Code Geass, drawn by Brains Base. It’s proving to be an interesting smörgåsbord in terms of visuals. To make things even better, this basically seems like the pet project of the director of Hoshi no Umi no Amuri and Brigadoon. Also, the soundtrack will be composed by the one who did the music for Tokyo Godfathers. Holy crap, remakes are awesome.
The Negatives: Granted though, that promo art looks silly.
First-Glance Potential: 85%

Tiger & Bunny

Summary: ???
Director: Keiichi Sato
Series Composition: Masafumi Nishida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Ike (Music), MasaKuzu Katsura (Original Character Designs), Kenji Hayama (Character Designs), Masaki Yamada (Character Designs)
The Positives: Sunrise, and another original TV-series, by the Director of Karas with the character designers of DNA2, Karas and the Armed Librarians? Sign me in, this is what I’ve been waiting for for ages now! The actual story of this one isn’t known yet aside from being about superheroes, but the promo art looks just amazing. Not to mention that it also has one of my favourite composers, Yoshihiro Ike. This is one to keep my eye out for, because it looks ten times better than Heroman.
The Negatives: Masafumi Nishida either is a pseudonym, or has had no anime experience beforehand. Again, this can go anywhere.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Steins;Gate

Summary: Steins;Gate is about a group of friends who have customized their microwave into a device that can send text messages to the past. As they perform different experiments, an organization named SERN who has been doing their own research on time travel tracks them down and now the characters have to find a way to avoid being captured by them. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiroshi Hamasaki, Takuya Sato
Series Composition: Jukki Hanada
Other Notable Staff: Kyuuta Sakai (Character Designs, Chief Animation Director), Nitroplus (Original Creator)
The Positives: The director of Texhnolyze and Shigurui is going to handle this one. It’s awesome to see another project of his, and the whole concept of people who time travel through microwaves holds a ton of potential here. Plus, he’ll be helped by the director of Niea Under 7 and Ichigo Mashimaro, which provides a very solid slice of life base.
The Negatives: Jukki Hanada is really quite solid, but I can’t forget the way in which she ended Kuragehime, so that could be a potential pitfall here. Plus, why is she doing two shows at once?
First-Glance Potential: 95%

[ C ] THE MONEY OF SOUL AND POSSIBILITY CONTROL

Summary: The Japanese government was rescued from the brink of financial collapse by the Sovereign Wealth Fund. For its citizens, however, life has not improved, and unemployment, crime, suicide, and despair are rampant. Kimimaro, raised by his maternal grandmother after the disappearance of his father and the death of his mother, is a scholarship student whose only dream is to avoid all this and live a stable life. One day, however, he meets a man who offers him a large sum of money if he’ll agree to pay it back. From then on his fate is radically altered as he’s drawn into a mysterious area known as “The Financial District.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kenji Nakamura
Series Composition: Noboru Takagi
Other Notable Staff: Akira Takata (Chief Animation Direction), Takashi Hashimoto,
The Positives: Okay, so how could this possibly get any better? We’ve got Kenji Nakamura of Mononoke and Bake Neko fame, doing an original story, written by the guy who also did the series composition of Durarara, Baccano and Koi Kaze. It’s got two animation directors: the first also directed the animation of Bake Neko, Mononoke and Kuchuu Buranko, the other directed the animation of Durarara, Karas, Natsume Yuujinchou, Ookiku Furikabutte’s Second Season and designed the characters of none other than Haibane Renmei. If that isn’t a dreamteam then I don’t know anymore.
The Negatives: It’s Noitamina, so it’s only going to have 11 episodes. It deserves more!
First-Glance Potential: 100%

Hyouge Mono

Summary: The story is set during Japan’s Sengoku Jidai (Era of the Warring States) and centers on Sasuke Furuta, a vassal of the great warlord Nobunaga Oda and a man obsessed with tea ceremony and material desires in his pursuit of a fortuitous life. Having learned from Oda and the legendary tea master Sen no Soueki, Furuta walks the way of the “Hyouge Mono.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Koichi Mashimo
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Kawasaki
The Positives: Is anyone surprised that I’m looking forward to this? I mean, it’s not only Koichi Mashimo, we finally have another series that dares to go beyond 26 episodes without the need of an intermission. Thirty nine episodes sounds really intriguing, especially since most Bee-Train series are really slow paced, plus the premise of this show sounds awesome on so many levels.
The Negatives: Hiroyuki Kawasaki did adapt Blade of the Immortal, which really did stop in the middle of nowhere. Let’s hope that with 39 episodes, he can be more careful, because he definitely isn’t a bad adapter.
First-Glance Potential: 100%

As usual, with every seasonal preview I also realize a preview that discusses the upcoming movies and OVAs (the ones who are slated for December, January and February in this case). Note that it usually takes nine months for the movies to actually get released, but this seems like a good place to look forward to them. Most of the interesting stuff this season consists out of TV-based movies and OVAs, but in that department there really is a lot of neat stuff. Here is a list of everything you can find on this preview:

This list will NOT cover:
– Live-action (so no Gantz Movie)
– Simple episodes of series of OVAs or Movies that have already debuted (I do not want to repeat myself about Queen’s Blade’s OVAs over and over again). This also includes Tales of Symphonia and Break Blade. Exception to this is when the distance between the different instalments of these episodes is really big or significant (like with the Macross Frontier movies for example) or when they’re completely different from each other like the Votoms Trilogy.

Satelight, Xebec, Sunrise and Madhouse also have some great ambitions in terms of the movies and OVAs here. The season isn’t as full with movies as the current Autumn season, but there still are quite a number of interesting ones to check out.

Isshoni Training 026: Bathtime With Hinako and Hiyoko

Summary: Do you really want me to write this down?
Type: OVA
Director: Shinichiro Kimura
The Positives: The pain will stop once you turn your media player off.
The Negatives: I’ve just lost my faith in people ever stopping to release crap OVAs.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Dreams C Club Pure Songs Clips

Summary: It’s based on an XBox 360 Dating sim: The anime will recreate the heroines of the game with two-dimensional graphics for the Dream C Club Pure Songs Clips, a two-volume DVD/CD collection of character songs and music videos. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: A bunch of animated music videos.
Director: Sasa Fujisawa
Other Notable Staff: Mayumi Watanabe
The Positives: I’m blank.
The Negatives: The sample that they put on their main website looks and sounds utterly terrible. Is this entire project going to be full with that crap? What a cheap cash-in!
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Goulart Knights

Summary: The story begins after mysterious creatures named “Archons” suddenly appear in the world. Humanity faces the threat of annihilation from these creatures. Only the “Chalice,” the source of humanity, can defeat the powerful Archons. So, the humans assemble an Archon-slaying unit from fighters who have the ability to bring forth the Chalice to fight. The ones chosen to fight the Archons with the Chalice as their weapon are called Goulart Knghts. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA to promote a newly formed boy-band.
The Positives: It’s a completely original story, so it could possibly go anywhere with the right writers.
The Negatives: But ah, who am I kidding here: it’s just there to promote four random guys as a cheap cash-in. Their music sounds completely generic and the premise sounds as if it were written by a twelve-year old, there is no way that this is going to work.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ah Megami-Sama

Summary: Keiichi Morisato is looking forward to university life. But in reality, he has no luck in anything, and he has trouble with clubs, love, etc. The truth is that he has an unlucky star above his head. One day, Keiichi is stuck watching the dorm while his sempai are away, and has a mountain of chores to do to boot. But Keiichi is a good-natured person, and is set about doing his duties. As he is about to finish his final chore, he makes a phone call to his sempai. But the words that came through the receiver are, ‘Goddess Help Line.’ Shortly afterwards, a beautiful goddess named Belldandy appears in front of him from the mirror of his room. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, Shipped with a Manga Volume
Director: Hiroaki Gouda
The Positives: Is this one still going on?! Ah well, it’s got the same director and likely also the same staff behind it, so if you liked Ah Megami-sama’s previous anime instalments then you’ll like this one.
The Negatives: How much can you squeeze out of a premise like that anyway? At the moment, there are already 42 different volumes of Ah Megami-sama’s manga. Is it really that good of a story that it warrants such a long running time?
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Fortune Arterial OAD

Summary: – (Taken from )
Type: Original Anime DVD, bundled by manga volume
The Positives: Thankfully Fortune Arterial’s story turned out to be pretty good…
The Negatives: ..but what can they do with just one episode, meant to “commemorate the fact that it got made into an anime”? Most of the useless fluff of Fortune Arterial’s anime was hard to watch anyway, so are they really planning to make an entire episode with just nothing but that or something?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Bleach – Jigoku-hen

Summary: The Jigoku-Hen subtitle signifies that the story takes place in a place unvisited by Tite Kubo’s original manga, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary next year. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Noriyuki Abe
Other Notable Staff: Kubo Tite (original creator, supervision)
The Positives: It’s only a movie, so the battles can’t drag on for as long as they did in the series. Kubo Tite is actually supervising the production of the movie, so it’ll probably be adding something to the world of Bleach, rather than being a pointless random side-story.
The Negatives: There really is a good and a bad Pierrot. The bad Pierrot is what I consider to be Naruto and Bleach, and Naruto at least has some good character-development. Bleach started off as a hilarious series, but after thirty episodes it started to drag on its fights on and on. After ninety episodes, I finally gave up on it. Furthermore, just look at the promo art here: all of the characters look like they’re incredibly constipated!
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Yuri Seijin Naoko-san

Summary: The surreal gag manga follows a quiet, timid girl named Misuzu whose older sister Naoko is returning from studying aboard. However, when she hurries home to meet her sister, Misuzu instead encounters Naoko-san, the strange alien from Yuri-sei (Yuri Planet) who loves eroticism, yuri, and girls. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA Included with Manga Volume
Notable Staff: All we know is that Ufotable will be producing it.
The Positives: The manga has been running for five years, so that must mean that there’s at least enough material for such a premise, right?
The Negatives: But really: are people running out of ideas or something? The “Yuri planet”… there is so much wrong with that and I can only hope that the creators realize this as well…
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Princess Resurrection OAD

Summary: Hiro Hiyorimi is a boy who has just moved to the city to meet his sister. While walking down the sidewalk, he is suddenly hit by a car (crushed by construction beams in the anime). On the verge of death, he is seen by a young woman clad in gothic clothes. She then resurrects him, leaving him alive in the hospital morgue. He wakes up confused over what happened, only to encounter the woman again as she eliminates some wolf creatures. She addresses Hiro as “her servant” and introduces herself as “Hime” (Japanese for Princess). The story then follows Hiro as he assists Hime in killing creatures that have been sent by her siblings to attack her. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: An Original Anime DVD
Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Storyboard: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Other Notable Staff: Kukido Sadakata (Character-designs, Animation Director)
The Positives: The original TV series was completely generic (or at least the first two episodes were, before I gave up on it), but the staff behind the OVA is completely different here. The visuals seem a lot more interesting with the same character-designer from Shikabane Hime.
The Negatives: The director is really generic, with his only good work Zettai Karen Children (and perhaps also Hayate the Combat Butler, but I didn’t really like that one either). His other works include Yutori-chan, Moetan, Kowarekake no Orgol, Nyan Koi and Getsumen to Heiki Mina. I really don’t think that he can make this story any less generic than its anime counterpart.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

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: 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%

Inazuma Eleven: Saikyō Gundan Ogre Shūrai

Summary: The main character, Endou Mamoru, is a very talented goalkeeper and the grandson of one of the strongest goalkeepers in Japan, who died before he was born. Even though his skills are incredible his school lacks a real soccer club as the 6 other members don’t appear very interested even in training. But as soon as a mysterious forward called Gouenji moves to Endou’s town, the young goalkeeper sets out to find and recruit members for his soccer team. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Yoshikazu Miyao
Series Composition: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Other Notable Staff: Akihiro Hino (Original Creator)
The Positives: I didn’t watch Inazuma Eleven (heck, it’s been going on for two years now and there’s still no end in sight), but I can really see this work as a movie here: it’s basically just an incredible cheese-fest in which a bunch of kids use the most ridiculous powers while playing football: this can really work as an over the top brainless action movie.
The Negatives: Atsuhiro Tomioka has no sense of pacing! Just look at Good Witch of the West, Makai Senki Disgaia and Zombie Loan: all of them could have been so much better if they were actually paced properly.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

T.P. Sakura ~Time Paladin Sakura~ Jikuu Boueisen

Summary: The project is a spinoff from the developer’s D.C. ~Da Capo~ franchise and features the Sakura Yoshino character as a seemingly ordinary third grader with secret special powers. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA
Director: Takehiro Nakayama
Series Composition: Naoki Tozuka
Other Notable Staff: Makoto Koga (Character designs, Animation Director)
The Positives: They did get a pretty experienced guy as the animation director. His works include Aria the Animation, Sola and a bunch of Cardcaptor Sakura episodes. The director has also never directed an anime before, so this could be interesting, as he worked on quite a number of interesting projects. The scriptwriter meanwhile did write a bunch of episodes of Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou, so perhaps he’ll be able to put the same charms into this OVA.
The Negatives: I’m getting a bit tired of the milking of that Da Capo franchise, though. And if you’re going to start with a spin-off, please to an imaginative one instead of such an uninspired mahou shoujo knock-off.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Morita-san wa Mukuchi

Summary: The four-panel manga follows the everyday life of a high school girl named Mayu Morita who is exceedingly gentle and thoughtful, to the point that she does not say much of anything to anyone. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA (2 episodes have been confirmed), bundled with Manga Volume
The Positives: Nothing is really known about who is going to adapt this manga or anything, but the premise could turn into a gentle slice of life series.
The Negatives: I’m not exactly sure what’s up with the promo images, by the way. They just were there on the main website of this OVA, but I hope that they look a bit more… detailed than just that…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Mirai Nikki

Summary: High school 2nd year, Amano Yukiteru, is a boy who has problem making friends. He thinks of himself as a bystander and will always write down everything he sees in a cell phone diary. Tormented by solitude, Yukiteru began to imagine things like a friend called Deus X Makina who is apparently the Lord of Time & Space. Seeing Yukiteru’s miserable state, Deus gives him a new ability. His diary will now record events that will happen in the near future. Yukiteru is then forced to participate in a game which the winner will become Deus’s successor. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Pilot OVA bundled with Manga Volume
Director: Naoto Hosoda
Script: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Eiji Hirayama (Character-designs)
The Positives: Everything is pointing to the fact that this is a pilot, meant to test whether or not Mirai Nikki will work as an anime. The premise of a diary that predicts the future does have a lot of potential in the right hands. Katsuhiko Takayama is a pretty good adapter, considering his works on Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, Natsu no Arashi and ef.
The Negatives: The director and character-designer of Shuffle worry me a bit, though.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Mai no Mahou to Katei ni

Summary: In the story, eight-year-old second-grader Mai Tatsumi uses magic to understand her family’s feelings. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 30 Minute OVA
The Positives: This one isn’t listed on Moonphase yet, but I decided to include it anyway. An OVA either for kids or nostalgic adults, it seems promising anyway, especially since it’s from PA Works.
The Negatives: But then again, the exact adaptation staff is not known yet, so it could really be a flop as well.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Kara no kyoukai Final Chapter

Summary: Mikiya Kokuto finds himself intrigued by two things. The first is by Shiki Ryougi a beautiful, yet rather unsociable, girl and the other is the strange series of violent deaths that start occurring in his town. As he attempts to get closer to Shiki, he soon learns that the two are connected and that there are many supernatural forces at work which could very likely get him killed as well. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 30 Minute BD OVA
Director: ???
Script: ???
Other Notable Staff: Kinoko Nasu (Original Creator)
The Positives: More Kara no Kyoukai is of course always welcome, even though I have absolutely no idea what it’ll be about.
The Negatives: I mean, the movies were fairly conclusive, weren’t they? This Final Chapter isn’t even a movie, but an OVA, and it is shipped along with a 60-minute recap of the first seven Kara no Kyoukai movies.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Macross Frontier – Sayonara no Tsubasa

Summary: Macross Frontier marks the 25th anniversary of the Macross anime franchise. It is a direct sequel to the first Macross series and Macross 7 and follows the lives of Alto Saotome, Ranka Lee and a pop idol named Sheryl Nome on board the Macross Frontier colonization fleet. After the war against the Zentradi aliens, Humankind has spread across the universe in order to ensure its survival. The Macross Frontier fleet is part of a effort to spread and maintain the culture of humanity. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie (Part 2 of a Do You Remember Love-esque remake)
Director: Shoji Kawamori (Yes, he’s actually directing on his own this time)
Screenplay: Shoji Kawamori, Hiroyuki Yoshino
Other Notable Staff: Yoko Kanno (Music)
The Positives: The first Macross Frontier Movie was a really big surprise: it was much shorter than the TV-series, but actually much better: it was much more streamlined, the graphics were even better, the characters were nowhere as annoying. It’s now up to Sayonara no Tsubasa to continue this trend to make it really work and not give us the cop-out ending that the TV-series treated us with.
The Negatives: Hiroyuki Yoshino wrote the scripts and scenarios of Mai Hime and Mai Otome, Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny, Sora no Oto, Seikon no Qwaser, Denpa-Teki na Kanojo, Dance in the Vampire Bund and assisted in the series composition of Code Geass R1 and R2. Holy crap: when this guy is good, he really is great; when he’s bad, things become a trainwreck!
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Votoms Finder

Summary: Votoms Finder will center around Aki Tesuno, a guard for scrap salvagers and a pilot of a robotic mecha called an At or Altro (as opposed to VOTOMS’ trademark Armored Trooper mecha). – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie (second of a trilogy)
Director: Atsushi Shigeta
Script: Mayori Sekijima
Other Notable Staff: Junichi Hayama (Character designs, animation and art director)
The Positives: The fun part of the three Votoms movies of course is the fact that they’re going to be completely different. The Votoms Franchise has really gotten itself a unique conclusion when it already was a unique series, and this movie will detail more of a side story in the universe of Votoms. The director also has his first shot at directing something, and before this production he only worked as an animator and animation director before. I’m really interested what he’s able to do with this franchise. Mayori Sekijima meanwhile also wrote the Soultaker, Zegapain and Gad Guard and adopted Skip Beat, Pandora Hearts and le Portrait de Petit Cosette, so this should prove to be really interesting.
The Negatives: But yeah, the thing remains that Ryousuke Takahashi isn’t going to be involved with this one, while he was the big reason that Votoms became so good. Junichi Hayama behind the visuals doesn’t seem like the most solid choice, and you can see that in the rather cheesy promo art. Mayori Sekijima also did adapt a bunch of flops.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Fafner: Dead Agressor: Heaven and Earth

Summary: – (Taken from )
Type: Movie
Screenplay: Tow Ubukata
Other Notable Staff: Angela (Theme Song Performance)
The Positives: I have not watched the original Fafner in the Azure, but I’m really looking forward to watching it, as it sounds like an awesome action series. The same goes with this movie, and I’m very interested in what Xebec can do to it. Especially because Tow Ubakata also wrote the original stories of Mardock Scramble and Le Chevalier d’Eon.
The Negatives: Okay, so he also was the one who wrote the series composition of Heroic Age. That’s about the only reason why I’m a bit cautious about it, but as soon as I get the chance to watch the series of Fafner, I’m going to track this one down.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Tailenders

Summary: The destiny of Tomoe Shiro, a formidable racer with a very promising career, experiments an U-turn when a serious accident puts his life at stake. He recovers miraculously, though, when his heart is replaced with the engine of his own racing car. However, because of that very reason, race regulations demote him to the category of a mere mechanical part of the vehicle and is deprived from the right to participate as a pilot in regular races. Only in a far away colonial planet, along with a multitude of other charismatic pilots also vetoed from participating in regular competitions, he will be given the opportunity to race for his pride and the money of the prize. And so this exciting rally starts!! – (Taken from ANN)
Type: 28-Minute Movie
Director: Picograph
Producers: Anime Innovations Tokyo
The Positives: Oh god, I love Anime Innovatitons Tokyo already: this premise sounds even better than Cencoroll’s. Here’s hoping that they’ll be able to do many more projects after this.
The Negatives: They’re like Studio 4C, though: very creative and innovative, but their projects are often really short. This one is just going to be 28 minutes, and I’d love to see them sponsor some actual TV-series.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Supernatural the Animation

Summary: Two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester, team up to find their father, John, who went missing on a hunting trip. However, their father isn’t a typical hunter: he hunts supernatural creatures like ghosts, vampires, and various demons and he’s trained his sons to do the same. Along the way, Sam and Dean save innocent people, fight creatures and ghosts, and collect clues to their father’s whereabouts. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Type: 22 Episode OVA
Director: Atsuko Ishizuka, Shigeyuki Miya
Script: Sumino Kawashima, Akemi Moriyama
Other Notable Staff: Shusei Murai (music), Takahiro Yoshimatsu (character-designs, animation director),
The Positives: Holy crap! Where to start: Shusei Murai was the one who composed Mouryou no Hako’s haunting soundtrack, there are a ton of people who worked on Aoi Bungaku who are going to return for this one, including the directors of Kokoro and Hell Screen and the Spider’s Thread, Sumino Kawashima did some amazing work on the screenplay of Hashire Melos and a bunch of Himitsu the Revelation episodes and to top things off we have the character designer of Trigun and Ooedo Rocket in charge of the animation. On top of that, with 22 episodes this is promising to become the longest OVA since Legend of Galactic Heroes or something, and the creators will be animating the best episodes of the TV-series, along with some completely new ones. This really is one to look out for.
The Negatives: I have not watched anything of the Supernatural series. Would that be a disadvantage, or an advantage? Do the creators plan to create a standalone story here, or are they just going to end up animating a bunch of random episodes?
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Armored Trooper Votoms: Koei Futatabi

Summary: At an oasis, Chirico (the main character of the VOTOMS series) will reunite with his old friend Gotho and other characters after 32 years. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Director: Kazuyoshi Takeuchi, Ryousuke Takahashi
Script/Storyboard: Masashi Ikeda
Other Notable Staff: Masanobu Nomura (Art Direction)
The Positives: Hell yeah, I’m a big Votoms fan here, and based on the way that the Gen-ei hen is playing out, the creators are intending this to be the movie to conclude the entire franchise. Unlike the first two movies of the trilogy, this is one that Ryousuke Takahashi will be involved in as the director, which only makes things even better.
The Negatives: Why the heck is the director of Cluster Edge writing the script?
First-Glance Potential: 90%

The upcoming Winter Season will suck? Hell no! In fact, I see no way in which it isn’t going to be able to be better than the Winter of 2010. I’m actually very much looking forward to it.

I’d like to call it the season of mysteries: there are a ton of series that really can go anywhere, from bad to awesome. There are a lot of question marks in this season, but at the same time there are very few series that are completely hopeless at first sight. There are also 21 series, which is the highest of a small season since Winter 2009. What really intrigues me about this season how just about every series has the potential to become something really interesting.

It’s most of all a season for teenagers and romance, but there is a wide variety of different genres with action, science fiction, slice of life, mystery, historical, comedy and mahou shoujo. There also are a ton of different animation producers involved with just one series, ranging from the old veterans like JC Staff, Madhouse and Production IG to a lot of newcomers like David Production, Bridge and 8-Bit. Busiest will be Studio Deen (3 series) and Studio Pierrot (if you include shows carrying over from previous season, they’ll be working on a whopping six different series). The studios who impressed me the most while composing this preview were David Production, Pierrot, Shaft, 8-Bit and Xebec, the studios who impressed me the least were Zexcs, Studio Deen and Madhouse. Surprisingly absent are still Satelight and Sunrise.

The biggest problem with this season is that there are A TON of teenagers: only two series revolve around adults, and one of them is Wolverine. It’s also a season of rather generic character-designs, but instead there are a ton of interesting art directors, plus some of my favourite music composers are also involved here.

As usual, I tried to collect the information about each of the airing series, followed by a number of personal impressions. I don’t claim to be right with any of these impressions, especially considering how I have not read the source material of any of them. I can only comment on what I’m familiar with, which is the people who are going to adapt these stories, animate them and give life to their characters. If you want an impression of the source material of these series, I suggest you to find some sort of blog whose owner does read manga/games and light novels.

Oniichan no Koto Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara Ne—!!!

Summary: I refuse to write this down.
Director: Keitarou Motonage
Series Composition: Koyuri Ouba
The Positives: The director is mostly crap, but he is currently directing Katanagatari, which shows that he can really adapt a good story.
The Negatives: Just… no.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Cardfight!! Vanguard

Summary: It’s a series based on a children’s card game.
Other Notable Staff: Jam Project (OP)
The Positives: At least we’ll be getting an energetic and hot blooded OP.
The Negatives: Seriously, how long are they going produce these cheap Yugioh rip-offs?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Starry Sky

Summary: The heroine, Tsukiko, enrolled to a school that was recently changed from all-boys school to co-ed. Since the area where the school is conveniently rural and the rather exclusive curriculums the school has, up until now the heroine is the only one female who enrolled to the school. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Nobuhiro Takamoto
Series Composition: Makoto Nakamura
The Positives: Um, the series composition guy worked on at least a bunch of good series (the Air and Clannad movies, the Snow Queen)
The Negatives: OH GOD NO! Not Nobuhiro Takamoto! How many more series must he ruin after Hatenkou Yuugi, Ookami Kakushi and 07-Ghost? I liked his work on Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, but after that this guy completely lost it. How does he still get work? And in fact, why does Studio Deen still go with this stupid of a premise?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Mr. Lovecraft

Summary: The story centers around Nyarlathotep, a formless Cthulhu deity who can take on the shape of anyone it wishes, but particularly the shape of a seemingly ordinary silver-haired girl. Mahiro Yasaka is a normal high school student who is chased by aliens one night, until “Nyaruko” saves him. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Azuma Tan
The Positives: A couple of months ago, they made an OVA about this one. Apparently it was popular enough to warrant an actual TV-series. It’s also entirely done in flash.
The Negatives: I have not watched those OVAs, but with flash they do sound rather cheap. The producers also haven’t really worked on anything notable, and their only other experience is from a bunch of forgettably dull children’s comedies.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Wolverine

Summary: Born as James Howlett and commonly known as Logan, Wolverine is a mutant, possessing animal-keen senses, enhanced physical capabilities, three retracting bone claws on each hand and a healing factor that allows him to recover from virtually any wound, disease or toxin at an accelerated rate. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: All we know is that Rintaro directed the pilot.
The Positives: The trailer, indeed, looks amazing. Why can’t Rintaro direct the entire series?
The Negatives: Usually, I’d be really looking forward to this series. But yeah: Iron Man. Both Iron Man and Wolverine were made in a time in which Madhouse concentrated just about all of its talent on finishing the movie Redline. All I’m asking for now is for this show to at least not have the same sloppy script that Iron Man has. Is that too much to ask?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Beelzebub

Summary: The story follows the “strongest juvenile delinquent”, Oga Tatsumi, a first year in “Ishiyama High” the school for delinquents. One day while sleeping next to a river he sees a man floating down it, he pulls him to shore and the man splits in half revealing a baby boy. This boy is the son of the demon king and he has been chosen as the one to raise it with the baby’s demon maid Hilda. The story follows his life with the child and at the delinquent school. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Nobuhiro Takamoto
Series Composition: Masahiro Yokotani
The Positives: I really like that Studio Pierrot is finally doing a lot of other projects again aside from Naruto and Bleach. The manga is also supposed to be hilarious, so I’m intrigued.
The Negatives: But dear god, could they perhaps have chosen a bit of a better staff to do it? Nobuhiro Takamoto has no idea how to correctly adapt a source material (that was at least my impression from watching his adaptations) and why is he doing two shows this season? Masahiro Yokotani isn’t really much better with his work on World Destruction, Maria Holic and Reideen (though granted his smaller works are a bit more interesting).
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?

Summary: The story centers around a lazy high school boy named Ayumu Aikawa who gets killed during a spate of mysterious serial killings. However, Ayumu is resurrected as a zombie by a necromancer girl named “Yuu” (Eucliwood Hellscythe), who Ayumu had just met before dying. Ayumu reawakens in a world surrounded by “masou shoujo” (magically equipped girls) and vampire ninja. Ayumu is assigned the duties of a masou shoujo by a magical warrior girl named Haruna. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takaomi Kanesaki
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
Other Notable Staff: Shigeru Morita (script), Machida Touko
The Positives: This show has a pretty interesting scriptwriter: he did research on the settings of various mecha series (what the heck he’s doing at a mahou shounen/shoujo like this I don’t know, though).
The Negatives: The rest of the staff is a bit of a mess, though: the director only directed Macademi Wasshoi before, the series composition is written by a guy whose works range from Katanagatari and Tentai Senshi Sunred to Akane-Iro ni Somaru Saka, Amaenaideyo, School Days, Seikon no Qwaser and Tayutama, while Machida Touko worked on series ranging from GA Geijutsuka Art Design Class and Muteki Kanbanmusume to Allison to Lillia, Ookami Kakushi and Lucky Star. Sure, it’s not a complete recipe for disaster… but it’s quite close.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Suite Precure

Summary: The Eighth Precure Series.
The Positives: Nothing is really known yet, so all we can do is wait until they announce the staff. If it is as good as Heartcatch Precure though, then we’re in for something awesome.
The Negatives: Toei is getting notorious for its sequels, though: a good example of this is Marie & Gali 2.0 and Digimon Xros Wars: the fact that they made one great series says nothing about its sequel.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Houkago no Pleiades

Summary: By Gainax and Subaru – The Pleiades is the English name for the star cluster that the Japanese call “Subaru” — the origin of the car maker’s name and six-star logo. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shouji Saeki
Other Notable Staff: Hiroshi Kato (Art Director)
The Positives: I really am not sure why a famous car brand is targeting otaku of all people. Still, it holds potential. The director did direct some of the best parts of FLCL, plus the art director is an incredibly experienced guy. That also really helps.
The Negatives: I have not seen “This Ugly Yet Beautiful World” and “He is My Master”, but I’m a bit concerned here, as they’re considered the two worst things that Gainax produced.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Dragon Crisis

Summary: Kizaki’s story begins when a high school boy named Ryūji is dragged by his cousin Eriko to rescue a girl from black-market dealers. The blue-eyed “girl” turns out to be a dragon who is inexplicably fixated on Ryūji — following him even when he is bathing and sleeping. Ryūji has to protect the girl from the black-market dealers and others. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hideki Tachibana
Series Composition: Hideyuki Kurata
Other Notable Staff: Masashi Ishihama (character-designs, animation director)
The Positives: We’re getting a pretty interesting animation director here paired up with Studio Deen: Masashi Ishihama previously directed the animation of Read or Die and the Girl who Leapt Through Time, along with a ton of other interesting stuff. Hideyuki Kurata also still intrigues me, even though his works from the current season (Ore no Imouto and TWGOK) failed to live up to his standards. He did write Now and Then, Here and There, Brigadoon, Kamichu and Sasameki Koto, after all.
The Negatives: I do fear that Hideyuki Kurata is putting too much on his plate, though. And as with The World God Only Knows, he’s again stuck with a mediocre director, as Hideki Tachibana’s only other direction experience was H2O…
First-Glance Potential: 50%

GOSICK

Summary: The novels are set in 1924 in the small Alpine country of Sauville, where Kazuya Kujo studies abroad at the Saint Marguerite Academy. Kazuya joins forces with Victorique, a girl with deductive powers that rival Sherlock Holmes’, to solve mysteries. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hitoshi Nanba
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Kotaro Nakagawa (will do the music)
The Positives: Mari Okada is an excellent scriptwriter: she’s got guts, she’s solid and is overall pretty dynamic…
The Negatives: …but Holy Hell is she busy this season. I mean, if Otome Youkai Zakuro goes on for two seasons she’ll be working on four series at the same time. What the heck? I’m also not really fond of the whole premise and the punny title (Gosick, Gothic, har har). Plus, we’re getting the director of Heroman. Yeah.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Kimi ni Todoke Second Season

Summary: Kuronuma Sawako is nicknamed Sadako due to her resemblance to the girl from the Japanese horror movies “The Ring”. Shunned by her classmates, her life starts to change after she befriends Shōta Kazehaya, a very popular boy in her class. Kuronuma Sawako’s one wish in life is to make friends. That’s a difficult proposition when everyone who meets her cowers in terror. She admires her classmate, Kazehaya-kun, a popular, easygoing and 100% refreshing guy who is nice with everyone, even with her. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Hiro Kaburaki
Series Composition: Tomoko Konparu
The Positives: Granted, Kimi ni Todoke is a very pretty shoujo series: Production IG really put in effort to make the first season look as crisp as possible, and this trend will likely continue onto the second. The script itself will also be pretty good, becuase Tomoko Konparu has a ton of experience as a writer on series as Les Miserables, Kodocha, Nodame Cantabile, Genji Monogatari Sennenki and Ashita no Nadja.
The Negatives: The problem though is the whole set-up of this series: it’s just such a cheesy shoujo flick where hardly anything out of the ordinary happens. It could be much worse, though. I’m definitely looking forward to this series more than Starry Sky.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Freezing

Summary: The story revolves around Kazuya, a boy who lost his sister in humankind’s fight against beings from another dimension. He enrolls in Genetics, a military academy for combat training against the dimensional beings. There, a group of girls known as “Pandora” prepare to fight the unknown enemy. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takashi Watanabe
Series Composition: Masanao Akahoshi
Other Notable Staff: Satoru Kuwabara (Art Director), Seiichi Morishita (Director of Photography)
The Positives: I’m intrigued by that art director: his style is the complete opposite of what you’d expect for such a generic-sounding fanservice fighting series. Same goes for the director of photography. In fact, everything about the staff here is intriguing: the direction and the series composition guy have both made series that range from awesome to incredibly dull: Takashi Watanabe directed Boogiepop Phantom, Starship Operators and Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Masanao Akahoshi adapted Letter Bee, Soukou no Strain, and co-wrote Zone of the Enders.
The Negatives: But yeah, Takashi Watanabe also directed Shana, Lost Universe, Ikkitousen and Slayers Revolution, while Masanao Akahoshi also was behind the adaptations of Railgun, Viper’s Creed and Ikkitousen Great Guardians. Add to that that ACGT is just about the most generic you can get in terms of graphics, and you’ve got yourself a series that really can go anywhere.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Hourou Musuko

Summary: Shuichi Nitori appears to be a shy and quiet preteen boy, when he transfers to a new school he quickly makes friends with the tomboyish Yoshino Takatsuki who sits next to him. It soon becomes apparent that both Shucihi and Yoshino are more than simply a sensitive boy and masculine girl, they both are transgendered. Together they decide to take the first steps toward becoming the people they want to be. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ei Aoki
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Takako Shimura (original creator), Akira Ito (Art Director)
The Positives: The source material which was written by he author of Aoi Hana really makes such a dull sounding premise worth watching. The art director of Baccano and Durarara also promises a lot of interesting things here. Mari Okada as the scriptwriter should really be able to get the best out of that source material…
The Negatives: …if she wasn’t so goddam busy. I’m also not sure whether the director of Girls Bravo is good on a cross-dressing series, but his work on Ga-Rei Zero shows that he can do much more than blatant fanservice.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Mitsudomoe 2nd Season

Summary: Newly hired elementary school teacher Satoshi Yabe is assigned to class 6-3, room of the extremely problematic Marui triplets: Futaba, Mitsuba, and Hitoha. Newly hired teacher Satoshi Yabe is terrorized by his new students the Marui triplets. Satoshi Yabe alias Yabe-cchi is just starting his new life as an elementary school teacher. On his first day of work he falls in love immediately with the natural airhead School Nurse, little does he know that in his assigned class the law is made by the Marui triplets. Can Yabe-cchi survive this ordeal or will the three sisters get the best of him … – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiko Outa
Series Composition: Takashi Aoshima
The Positives: 8 episodes! That means that they have really put some thought into how much material they still have left. The whole staff of the first season will also be working on the second season. It had its flaws, but when it was funny, it really was hilarious.
The Negatives: Still, there are very few comedy sequels that actually manage to be as good as their predecessors. The first season was already getting repetitive, so how will the second season solve this?
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Infinite Stratos

Summary: Infinite Stratos (IS), a weaponized exoskeleton system, has become the dominant tool of warfare and conflict. Unfortunately for the men in society, only women are able to operate Infinite Stratos… with very few exceptions. One of those exceptions is ORIMURA Ichika, an orphan raised by his older sister who is herself a famous IS pilot. When his compatibility with IS is discovered after he accidentally touches an IS at the age of 15, he’s given a scholarship and enrolled in a school that specializes in training IS pilots. Which of course means an… interesting life surrounded by girls for this shy, unassuming boy. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
Series Composition: Fumihiko Shimo
Other Notable Staff: Hikaru Nanase (Music), Chinatsu Houjo (script/screenplay), Shunichiro Yoshihara
The Positives: Fresh blood: 8-Bit finally decided to adapt their own series, which is always nice. The character-designs are terrible, but the background art is going to be gorgeous, not to mention that Hikaru Nanase is one of my favourite composers. The director of Macross Frontier needs to pay attention to not dabble into romance too much, but I’m very interested in what he can do without Shoji Kawamori’s influence. Plus, we have the guy who wrote the adaptations of Air and Clannad.
The Negatives: Though granted, Fumihiko Shimo did write a bunch of stories I did not like, like Burst Angel and Gravion… Not to mention that the premise at first sight reeks of those two. I’m willing to give this one the benefit of doubt at this point, though. It seems ambitious enough for that.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Summary: Madoka is an kind, friendly, but ordinary second-year middle school girl. She wonders aloud what she should do if she can grant whatever you may wish through magic. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Series Composition: Gen Urobuchi
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kujiura (Music), Takashiro Kishida
The Positives: Shinbo again, but really: for the first time since bloody ages he’s actually directing again, instead of slapping his name on top of an already existing director again. Plus, the character-designer of Noein? Yuki Kajiura behind the music? I’m definitely intrigued here. On top of that, we’ve got the series that is written by the original creator of Phantom, who also wrote the series Blassreiter. This might just well be the series to really remove the bias I currently have about Shinbo.
The Negatives: So really, don’t screw this one up, Shinbo. It’s a mahou shoujo, but this feels like it’s going to be the most unique Shaft-series since ef (it’s certainly is the first Shaft series that I’m actually looking forward to since a LONG time). Don’t ruin this by making it a flimsy Tsukuyomi Moon Phase clone or something.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Fractale

Summary: The story is set on an island at the far reaches of a continent where the “Fractale System” is on the brink of collapse. A boy named Kurain embarks on a journey to search for Furyune — a girl who disappeared, leaving behind only a pendant. Kurain will eventually learn the secrets of the “System.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yutaka Mamamoto
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Isao Hayashi (Mechanical Designs), Yuusuke Tanaka
The Positives: Very interesting people behind the designs, and I must admit that this is one of the more interesting premises of the season. Mari Okada also really helps…
The Negatives: …but again, she’s so incredibly busy this season. The director of Kannagi has potential here, though he does have a tendency to focus too much on moe. But then again, the story here seems a lot more interesting than with Kannagi.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Yumekui Merry

Summary: It’s about a high school boy named Yumeji Fujiwara who has the mysterious power to see other people’s dreams or nightmares. One day, he meets Merry, a beautiful girl who came from the world of dreams. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shigeyasu Yamauchi
Series Composition: Hideki Shirane
Other Notable Staff: Masahiro Fujii (Character Designer)
The Positives: When I first read the premise, I didn’t think much behind it. But SHIGEYASU YAMAUCHI!? The director of Casshern Sins? This guy can even make crap like Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu be good.
The Negatives: The scriptwriter is… mediocre. He neither wrote really bad nor really good series. We’ve also got the character-designs of Zero no Tsukaima…
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Rio – Rainbow Gate!

Summary: It’s a Pachinko Game Adaptation from Xebec.
Director: Takao Kato
Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima
The Positives: Mayori Sekijima also wrote Zegapain, the Soultaker, Gad Guard, Petit Cosette and adapted Pandora Hearts, Skip Beat and the Samurai Pizza Cats. The director meanwhile also adapted Pandora Hearts. Who says that Pachinko adaptations can’t be awesome?!
The Negatives: Though granted, the director also did To Love-Ru, Megaman and Buso Renkin while Mayori Sekijima also wrote Hero Tales and Kaze no Stigma. Ah, but who cares, this really looks like another one of those rare Good Xebec series.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Level E

Summary: Tsutsui Yukitaka is a freshman who has finally convinced his parents that he is ready to live on his own. When he arrives at his new apartment, he is surprised to find that someone has arrived before him; A young man who claims that he is an alien and that he is suffering from amnesia. A series of short stories involving aliens on Earth. – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Toshiyuki Kato
Series Composition: Yukki Hanada
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiro Togashi (Original Creator), Kunihiko Ryo (Music), Itsuko Takeda, Yasufumi Soejima (3D Director, Visual Concept).
The Positives: This is BY FAR going to have the most interesting production values of the entire season. I mean, the creators composed an entire dream team here: we have Studio Pierrot and David Production animating a manga with art looking completely unlike what you’d expect from the mainstream, the character-designer designed for Blue Drop, Ristorante Paradiso, Mirage of Blaze and the Galaxy Railways, all of which are completely different. Not to mention that the guy behind the visual concept was also the guy behind the textures of Gankutsuou, along with the CG of Last Exile, the Book of Bantorra and the background art of Ritsorante Paradiso. If that isn’t going to be stylish then I don’t know anymore. Add to that, the director of Full Moon wo Sagashite and Maria-Sama ga Miteru’s fourth season (he also storyboarded a bunch of Simoun, Bantorra and Hunter x Hunter episodes which included some of the best episodes of those series), while Yukki Hanada wrote and adapted Kuragehime, Red Garden, Sola, Chobits and Rozen Maiden, and this becomes definitely the series I’m looking forward to the most this season.
The Negatives: Yukki Hanada, granted, did also write a bunch of mediocre series, like Idol Master Xenoglossia, H2O, the Girl who Leapt Through Space SA and Yozakura Quartet. Oh, and this is from a part of the creators of Mission E.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

So, since I noticed that at seasonal previews often omit movies and OVAs, I decided to make, alongside my usual seasonal previews, previews about all of the OVAs and Movies scheduled to come out in the upcoming Autumn Season. This list is based on Moonphase‘s data. Unfortunately, Moonphase has this habit of putting OVAs all over the place, also where they don’t belong, so it was a bit of a challenge to sort everything out.

Also, since I was a bit more thorough than usual, here’s a list of everything you can find on this preview:
– All animated movies scheduled to premiere between now and the end of November. Please note that it will usually take about nine months before most of these movies actually make it to the west.
– All standalone ovas that will premiere between now and November 15th (sorry about this indecisiveness. I changed my mind about this date halfway through compiling this list without realizing it).
– All DVD-specials and ovas based on television-series. Also of the ones that I didn’t finish. I won’t have much to say about them, but I decided to include them for completion’s sake.

This list will NOT cover:
– Live-action (so no Kaidan Restaurant Movie)
– Simple episodes of series that have already debuted (I do not want to repeat myself about Queen’s Blade’s OVAs over and over again). This also includes Gundam Unicorn and series of movies like Break Blade. The only exception to this is episodes that got announced after they were actually supposed to have been finished (Azazel-san for example)

With these previews, I’m not yet sure whether to set the dates between September 1st and November 30th or August 15th to November 14th, but next season I’ll be a bit clearer on the different dates.

Either way, my impressions of the upcoming Autumn season in terms of tv-series were a bit disappointed. There were quite a few interesting series (thank god it doesn’t have the quantity problem that the current Summer Season has), but there really wasn’t anything that really stood out as a potential classic and there were too many cute girls.

But holy crap, in terms of movies and OVAs it’s looking out to be an awesome season. There are a ton of interesting premises, ranging from slice of life to action, mecha and science fiction. A number of excellent sounding movies are set to premiere, and there also are a ton of spin-off OVAs and movies (meaning that they’re related in some way to a TV-series) with interesting concepts and great staff-lists. When you add to that the series of OVAs and movies that have been continuing from the previous summer season, we’re really in for something great here.

Nougyou Musume

Summary: Nougyou Musume is the whimsical story of Koshino Hikari and Hikaru, two sisters that farm the rice paddy left to them by their parents. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: A short 3-minute OVA created to promote its manga.
Why you should look forward to it: The only thing that I could find about this thing is that Toei is going to animate it, and the character-designs are done by Sunagawa Masakazu, who is a relatively new animator.
Why you should not look forward to it: Yeah, don’t expect this one to stand alone as anything. 3 minutes is way too short, and this pretty much is a glorified commercial that somehow ended up at Moonphase.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Metal Fight Beyblade VS Taiyō Shakunetsu no Shinryakusha

Summary: It’s summer vacation. In front of Ginga an Co, who are excited about a Beyblade tournament, Helios, a mysterious youth, stands in their way. In his hands, he possesses “Sol Blaze”, a Beyblade that has been passed down since ancient times. As intense battle between Ginga vs. Helios unfolds, extreme weather develops throughout the world. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie based on a kids’ franchise about spinning tops
Why you should look forward to it: The premise sounds so incredibly silly that it’s bound to provide a laugh or two.
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s another one of those kiddie movies. The TV-series it was based on was ridiculously poorly produced, so I really wonder whether this one even has what it takes to keeps a bunch of kids busy.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Love Live

Summary: It’s about a group of girls who become idols in order to get more kids to enroll in their school in order to prevent it from getting closed down.
Type: Seems to be some sort of one-shot OVA.
Why you should look forward to it: Um… it’s animated by Sunrise?
Why you should not look forward to it: Due to be pre-sold at one of the comikets, I don’t think it’s hard to imagine the primary target audience of this series. It’s yet another one of those cheesy idol series.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Sora no Otoshimono Unaired Episodes

Summary: Tomoki Sakurai often encounters a strange girl in his dreams asking for his help, but he can’t remember her face when he wakes up. When an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (U.M.A.) falls out of the sky, his life of pacifism suddenly becomes complicated. The animal turns out to be an angel, Ikaros. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: An unaired episode called “Project Pink”, which apparently was too dangerous for TV.
Why you should look forward to it: If you’re into fanservice obviously.
Why you should not look forward to it: To me, it seems no more than one of those pornish dvd extras, turned into an episode… so yeah, unless you’re really looking for that, stay away from this one.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Da Capo P.S.P

Summary: Junichi Asakura lives with his adoptive sister Nemu in the crescent-shaped island of Hatsune Jima, a place where cherry blossoms bloom throughout the year. In this island, people have mysterious powers and attributes. For example, Junichi has the power to see other people’s dreams, and he was also taught by his grandmother to magically create sweets. One day, Junichi’s cousin and childhood friend, Sakura Yoshino came back from America all of a sudden. To Junichi’s surprise, she looks exactly the same as the girl that moved away six years ago, and hasn’t aged one bit. And she came back to remind Junichi of their childhood promise… It is a bittersweet tale of magic, love, hidden desires, and unattainable dreams. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: An OVA that comes shipped with the PSP ports of the Da Capo games.
Why you should look forward to it: If you like harems then this is one for you! This is a series that doesn’t put three or four girls around our main character. No, here the lead character can date 27 of them. 27!
Why you should not look forward to it: Da Capo is one of those franchises that refuses to freaking die. I mean, we’re at more than eighty episodes in total right now. Isn’t that a bit overkill?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Seikon no Qwaser: Joou no Shouzou

Summary: In St. Mikhailov Academy, Oribe Mafuyu meets a silver haired boy called Alexander. He is a Qwaser, a being who can manipulate iron and draws his power from breast milk. A mystery surrounding an Icon transforms the academy into the setting for conflict between the various different Qwaser. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Seems like some sort of OVA or DVD side-story, but the actual format isn’t known yet.
Why you should look forward to it: 2010 really has seen anime progress further and further into pornography, with series like this one having a big part in the blame. Still, if you like that then this is for you. I also heard from a few people that the story itself has been quite decent, so who knows?
Why you should not look forward to it: Still, the thing remains: would the creators have chosen to turn this story into an anime if it didn’t feature breast feeding?
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Hidamari Sketch Hoshimittsu Special

Summary: It’s about a high school for the arts and the everyday life of four of its students. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Special based on TV-series. Two volumes seem to be scheduled.
Why you should look forward to it: All of the Hidamari Sketch series have gotten a special thus far, and this one is no different. I haven’t watched it, but if you liked the series you’ll probably like this.
Why you should not look forward to it: Blegh, Shinbo.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Koe de Oshigoto

Summary: The story follows a high school girl named Kanna Aoyagi who becomes a voice actress for adult games. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA, two episodes have been announced so far.
Why you should look forward to it: It’s being animated by a new company: Studio Gokumi. Apparently, it was formerly part of Gonzo, and it’s great to see that the parts it lost are starting over on their own.
Why you should not look forward to it: They really got someone terrible to write the script of this adaptation, though. Masashi Suzuki‘s previous experience in Kanokon, Seiken no Blacksmith and Shuffle suggests to me that he has no idea how to pace a story properly or make it interesting to the audience.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Rawr! You Are Delicious

Summary: It’s about a Tyrannosaurus who comes across an Ankylosaurus baby all by himself and says, “Gaō! Omae Umasou Dana” (“Rawr! You look delicious.”) However, the Tyrannosaurus ends up adopting the baby as his own. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: It could have its charms for a kiddie show.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m not really sure whether this is going to be the same as the television series or not. I mean, it’s going to suck if the movie is just a collection of the five-minute episodes of the tv-series.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Mayo Elle Otokonoko

Summary: All I managed to find was that it’s about a boy who dresses like a girl.
Type: A Promo Doujinshi OVA
Why you should look forward to it: I can somewhat support what Keiichiro Kawaguchi is trying to do: experimenting with a ton of different formats, ranging from long series to short doujin OVAs.
Why you should not look forward to it: … but couldn’t he really pick better premises?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Air Gear: Kuro no Hane to Nemuri no Mori -Break on the Sky-

Summary: A face-off between Ikki and Ringo on their rocket-powered roller-blades. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: A OVA to bundle with a manga volume (adapting one of the later chapters of the manga)
Why you should look forward to it: First, I want to say that the manga author has one of the most awesome names. Second of all, the staff for this OVA is completely different from the Air Gear TV-series: instead of Toei, we now have Satelight and it’s going to have the director of Fairy Tail, Ichi the Killer and Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou To.
Why you should not look forward to it: The script will be done by Jun Maekawa (he wrote the series composition for the Prince of Tennis, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Bomberman Jetters, the second Digimon series and Sisters of Wellber). Obviously not the right guy to try and stuff the manga’s story into this OVA.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA

Summary: Academy City is a highly developed place in terms of technology. It is said to be 20 to 30 years ahead of the rest of the world. 80% of it’s 2.3 million residents are students. The focus of studies here is directed towards esper powers. Misaka Mikoto, one of the top level espers in town, shares a room with Kuroko Shirai, another high level esper who is a member of Judgement, a law enforcing agency composed of students. Both attend to Tokiwadai, a private school reserved for the high-leveled and the rich. Kuroko’s partner at Judgement, Kazari Uiharu, is a low level esper who studies at Sakugawa middle school. Her best friend and classmate there is Ruiko Saten, a level zero (no esper powers). Together, the four encounter several adventures in the exciting scientific town. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: This one really seems like a normal OVA, rather than a DVD-special.
Why you should look forward to it: It’s probably going to be just a side-story, but if you liked the characters then this will be up your interests.
Why you should not look forward to it: I personally dropped railgun after a few episodes, mostly thanks to one particular character (the one with the twin-tails) who was really, really annoying. There also probably isn’t going to be a lot of plot in this OVA.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

ToHeart adnext

Summary: A collection of stories focusing on the girls of the ToHeart series
Type: Two-shot OVA
Why you should look forward to it: Its director has done a ton of stuff, along with a ton of storyboards, plus the direction of DNA2, which was pretty good.
Why you should not look forward to it: 3 television series. 4 ovas. Isn’t that a bit much for a harem?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Kuttsukiboshi

Summary: The anime centres around two girls’ “risky” summer vacation together. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Two-shot OVA
Why you should look forward to it: We’re talking about a one-man project here: Naoya Ishikawa, a freelance animator, entirely made this OVA by himself apart from the music and voice acting.
Why you should not look forward to it: I suspect that Primastea had little to do with the actual content this time, and seems more like a vehicle for animators to showcase their projects, but really? I mean, combined with the premise I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into some semi lesbian porn or something.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Kowarekake no Orgol

Summary: One rainy day, young musician Keiichiro takes shelter in a shrine, where he meets an abandoned android girl, whom he is told may never function well again. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie, 34 minutes long + 7 minute side-story. Not sure yet whether it’s going to be original or recap.
Why you should look forward to it: It all depends on whether this is going to be simple recap or original, really. If it’s the former, then it’ll be a nice addition to an OVA that just was too short.
Why you should not look forward to it: If it’s the latter, however…. yeah. Keiichiro Kawaguchi as the director is a huge question-mark because of his influence on both good series (Hayate the Combat Butler, Zettai Karen Children), bad series (Nyan Koi) and really really bad series (Moetan).
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai Flag 0

Summary: Katsuragi Keima is known on the net at the Capturing God, while in real life he is an otamegane who hates all real girls. However he is approached by Elsee, a devil from hell, to help her in catching runaway spirits that hide in people. Apparently the spirits only hide in the hearts of girls and the only way to get the souls out is by making the girl fall in love so the spirit gets forced out. Keima must capture all the spirits in the world so that his contract with hell ends. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: A DVD to bundle with the 10th volume of the manga. A prequel to the TV-series in a way.
Why you should look forward to it: I have been told that the manga is actually making fun of harem cliches. Of course, that’s no guarantee on how the creators of the anime are going to adapt it, but it definitely made me more interested in this series.
Why you should not look forward to it: The danger with these OVAs that are shipped alongside manga volumes is that they become either manga commercials or inaccessible to anyone who hasn’t read it. So, is this going to a Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu or a Kurenai? At this point it’s impossible to say, even though it’s a great chance for the producers to introduce people to this series.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Yondemasu, Azazel-san

Summary: The story revolves around the detective Akutabe, his assistant Rinko Sakuma, and the various magical demons that Akutaba uses for his cases. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: The second anime dvd, to be shipped alongside the manga.
Why you should look forward to it: Here is one that completely passed my radar (I’ll try to get a review up for it as soon as possible), but when Tsutomu Mizushima is directing it may very well be good for a quick laugh, because this guy is certainly going to know how to translate the jokes to animation. With so few episodes, he can really grab the best chapters of the manga. It’s also one of those very few comedies done by Production IG.
Why you should not look forward to it: The chief animation director of Ookiku Furikabutte’s second season is going to design the characters and the character-designer of Himawari is going to direct the animation. Why not reverse them?
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Mobile Suit Gundam 00 the Movie: A wakening of the Trailblazer

Summary: It is the year A.D. 2307. Fossil fuels on Earth have been depleted entirely, with mankind turning to the next available power source: solar energy. During this time, 3 orbital elevators with solar power generation systems are built, each under control by the Union of Solar Energy and Free Nations (formerly United States of America), the Human Reform League (Russia, China and India) and the Advanced European Union. However, not all countries are able to enjoy the benefits of this system, leading to widespread resentment and war. Arising out of the conflict, a mysterious military organization known as Celestial Being appears, dedicated to end all warfare using Mobile Suits called Gundam. This begins the stories of Gundam Meisters (pilots) Setsuna F. Seiei, Lockon Stratos, Allelujah Haptism and Tiera Erde as they are thrown into conflict between the 3 superpowers and the various other factions. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie sequel of a TV-series
Why you should look forward to it: Yes! Against my fears, it turns out that this isn’t going to be a recap movie, and instead this will come with its own story. Kenji Kawai still is doing the music, Seiji Mizushima (Ooedo Rocket, the first Full Metal Alchemist) is still doing the direction and the script is still written by Yosuke Kuroda (he also wrote Ookiku Furikabutte, Infinite Ryvius, Risky Safety and Phantom).
Why you should not look forward to it: Obviously those Sunrise executives. I think I’ve repeated often enough how I hate how in the past number of years, especially with their popular franchises, they restrict their staff way too much and have them descend everything into strings of mecha battles that all look the same. This happened to the second season of Gundam 00. Will the movie be able to avoid it?
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Mazinkaiser SKL

Summary: The new project is billed as the return of the MazinKaiser anime franchise, which is itself a spinoff from Go Nagai’s classic super robot manga and anime series, Mazinger Z. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: Ah, Mazinkaiser. More hot-blooded mecha based on the original Mazinger. The director Jun Kawagoe has a lot of experience with these giant robot remakes with Kotetsujin Jeeg, Shin Getter Robo and Transformers.
Why you should not look forward to it: The big problem with this series is Shin Mazinger: when that series did just about everything you can do with the Mazinger franchise, how does this movie plan to top that besides a better animation? The original Mazinkaiser OVA already fell into its shadow, so this movie is really going to have to be more than just a homage.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Heartcatch Precure! Hana no To de Fashion Show… desuka!?

Summary: Erika’s mother has been invited to Paris to hold a fashion show. The lead characters will be its models. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie, based on the TV-series.
Why you should look forward to it: I am seriously intrigued by that premise. I mean, it’s sounding a lot better than the premise of the All Stars movie, and if the creators can really get the slice of life right, and really portray the characters as they explore Paris, it’ll make for an awesome movie. As long as the creators don’t make it too epic, I have high expectations of this. The staff won’t be the same as with the TV-series, do take note of that. The director especially is intriguing: Rie Matsumoto. She is relatively young (only 30 years old), this really is going to be the first anime she works on. For Toei, this is a very risky move, but I’m really interested in her style here.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m not sure why, but I’m a bit biased against these kinds of movies based on long-running franchises. I’m not sure why, actually, because I’ve seen very few of them.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Tamayura

Summary: For her first year of high school, Fu Sawatari moves to Takehara, a scenic old town near Hiroshima, on the Inland Sea. Her father, who has passed away, grew up in Takehara. She loves taking photographs with his old film camera, a Rollei 35S. This “healing” slice-of-life anime from the director of ARIA follows her and the friends who gather around – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA with at least two volumes confirmed.
Why you should look forward to it: Reiko Yoshida behind the script is also a very solid choice with her experience behind Maria-Sama ga Miteru, Popolocrois, Saiunkoku Monogatari and Umi Monogatari. And the Chief Animation Director of Aoi Hana only makes this even better.
Why you should not look forward to it: This really could have been a standalone TV-series just as easily, right? I know that in this way the creators will really have the chance to pace the OVA correctly, but I’m mostly worried about its short length here.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Yozakura Quartet – Hoshi no Umi

Summary: The story revolves around a quartet of teenaged heroes: A super-strong girl named Hime, a mind reader named Ao, a conjurer named Kotoha and an ordinary, powerless boy named Akina. The three girls and Akina protect the city of Sakurashin from supernatural threats – (Taken from ANN)
Type: This OVA will be unlike the TV-series: it will reset its storyline and follow the manga instead.
Why you should look forward to it: Take a look at that artwork here. I don’t know about you, but that is by far the best artwork of any TV-series or OVA I saw when I compiled this Autumn Season Preview. The OVA will have a completely different staff compared to the TV-series (which was a really good staff by the way, which really makes me wonder why it turned out to be such a bland series). The director, Ryoochimo Sawa is a newcomer: he only directed the sixth ED of Hanamaru Youchien (which was cheesy (but what did you expect with the source material), but really well animated). If that wasn’t enough, the music will be done by Atsushi Suemitsu, who composed together Nodame Cantabile’s OP. Now if that isn’t going to be a feast for the senses then I don’t know any more.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m very intrigued by the intentions of the mangaka: how exactly did he imagine carrying on the story of the manga through just an OVA? Won’t that be too short?
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Umikara no Shisha

Summary: The only thing that I could make out is that this is about a “Messenger from the Sea”, who protects a city that is about to get destroyed.
Type: Independent movie. Pretty much a one-man project.
Why you should look forward to it: Why the heck is there hardly any English information about this movie? I searched, but neither ANN or AniDB has any entry about the Messenger of the Sea, even though it looks like a terrific piece of animation, especially considering that it was just one guy who wrote, directed and animated it. It’s entirely in black and white, but that gives it a really interesting sense of style.
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s supposed to be a short film, but I can’t find anywhere how long it’s supposed to be. 5 minutes? 60 minutes? Could be.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Onigamiden

Summary: The film’s story revolves around the war between oni (demons) and humans in the former Japanese capital of Kyoto, 1,200 years ago during the Heian period. The anime adapts a 2004 two-volume novel by the same name from author Takafumi Takada. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: Studio Pierrot, finally doing something that is not shounen again! This really caught my attention.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m really doubting whether I should get worried about the director, Hirotsugu Kawasaki. Yes, he did direct Spriggan and a Naruto movie, but those were completely different from what this is going to be. I mean, this guy’s visuals surely are going to rock here, especially in the combination with Studio Pierrot’s animators (especially when they can gather their best artists), so who knows whether this is a genre that he can deliver a great cast of characters in?
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Koisento

Summary: The story is set in 2710 in the city of Nara, where the national capital has been relocated. For historical preservation and tourism, the country’s cultural treasures — including entire buildings — have been moved en masse and assembled inside a humongous building. A second-year high school student named Shinichi is visiting Nara on a field trip. No matter where he looks, there are deer everywhere. Shinichi is getting bored when suddenly, a deer takes off with his bag, leading to a mad chase through the streets of Nara. In the middle of the chaos, Shinichi helps a mysterious, beautiful girl named Toto who is being chased by unknown followers. Because of these odd circumstances, the two ended up in on a sight-seeing date throughout the locales of Nara. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: OVA; not sure how long it’s going to be.
Why you should look forward to it: The director of FREEDOM and Kakurenbo? I must say, that this is one of the most interesting romantic comedies I have seen when making the Autumn Season Preview for this year. There are some cliches, I know, but I’m very interested in what kind of science fiction the creators are playing, 700 years into the future with talking deer running around everywhere (yes, the deer has a voice actor). I mean, I’m not really sure what’s up with Sunrise lately, but I’m really digging the way that they are experimenting with all sorts of interesting movie and OVA premises.
Why you should not look forward to it: I can’t think of anything, unless you’re really not a fan of romantic comedies. However, I’m not a fan of that genre either and I’m looking forward to this one.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Armored Trooper Votoms: Case;Irvine

Summary: ?
Type: If I understood correctly: there will be three movies released of Votoms to mark its end. The first is this Case;Irvine, set to premiere in November. All three movies are completely different, it seems, with different staff. Only the third one will have Ryousuke Takahashi.
Why you should look forward to it: It’s Votoms. I also like this idea very much in which three different kinds of staff are set to adapt and finish off this franchise. I was a bit unhappy to see that Ryousuke Takahashi (an amazing director IMO) wasn’t involved in the first two, but with the announcement of a third movie which DOES feature him, I suspect that he does have his influence on how they are meant to play out.
Why you should not look forward to it: I can’t find anything about the director and scriptwriter of this series, though. They’re complete newbies, and the only thing that I could find was that the director did a storyboard for an episode of Sora no Otoshimono. So unfortunately, we probably won’t get Ryousuke Takahashi’s tight direction. But really, who knows? Perhaps these guys were chosen because they really can become great writers in the future. Or it was just the influence of Sunrise’s executives rearing their heads around the corner. Please don’t let that be the case!
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Redline

Summary: Red Line is about the biggest racing game of the universe and it’s only held once every 5 years. And naturally everyone wants to take part. Follow the racings skills of men and women alike. – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Movie
Why you should look forward to it: There is Madhouse of course, but the director Takashi Koike is also very interesting. He did the opening animation of Samurai Champloo, directed the animation of World Record (Animatrix) and directed Trava – Fist Planet, which I still have to see. At the very least this is going to be great to look at. It gets really interesting for the script, though: Yoshiki Sakurai, who also wrote the script of the xxxHolic Movie, along with a number of episodes from Ghost in the Shell, Seirei no Moribito, xxxHolic and Otogizoshi. On top of that, Yuji Enokido will also be writing the script. Yeah, that’s also the guy who wrote Utena, and is also working on Star Driver.
Why you should not look forward to it: Um, the sound director, Youji Shizumu isn’t the best guy with most of his work ranging from Stitch to Hero Tales. This movie will be a feast for the eyes. But also for the ears?
First-Glance Potential: 100%

Mardock Scramble: The First Compression

Summary: Why me? It was to be the last thought a young prostitute, Rune Balot, would ever have…as a human anyway. Taken in by a devious gambler named Shell, she became a slave to his cruel desires and would have been killed by his hand if not for a private investigator and his self-aware Universal Tool, Œufcoque. Now a cyborg, Balot has not only physical powers, but the ability to disrupt social environments. She chases after Shell, his partner-in-crime Boiled, and faces down a variety of insane villains in this pulse-pounding cyberpunk noir adventure. – (Taken from AniDB)
Type: First Movie of a scheduled trilogy.
Why you should look forward to it: I’m intrigued: finally GoHands is going to do an actual interesting project. And I really love the use of colours on the promo art here. Especially the one who originally created this story is intriguing: Tow Ubakata, who also created the original stories for Fafner, Heroic Age and Chevalier. This guy’s awesome, and he’ll also be writing the script for the movies.
Why you should not look forward to it: The only one I’m a bit iffy about is the director, Susumu Kudo. I’m not really sure whether someone who has mostly directed cheesy romantic comedies will really be able to make this story come to life.
First-Glance Potential: 100%

.Hack//Quantum

Summary: In .hack//Quantum, the characters Tobias, Mary, and Sakuya form a party and embark on a high-difficulty-level quest in The World R:X. (The World R:X is the new version of The World – (Taken from ANN)
Type: Three-part OVA
Why you should look forward to it: Kinema Citrus is back. They really did an awesome job with Tokyo Magnitude, so I’m glad that they got a .Hack series next. The soundtrack will also again be fantastic with Kou Otani as the composer. But it gets even better: Masaki Tachibana, the director of Tokyo Magnitude is also going to direct this thing.
Why you should not look forward to it: The problem with this show is obviously the length. I mean, why can’t this be a full fledged series? It would be awesome to see another actual .hack television series and these people really know how to make such a thing work.
First-Glance Potential: 100%

The amount of series that will première in the upcoming Autumn season? 29. That’s about the same as the previous Spring Season. While I’d love to say that anime is getting better again, this season is looking pretty bleak, with only three series that do not focus on kids or teenagers and a lot of the more promising series only looking to be scheduled for 13 episodes. While this season at least has a number of interesting looking series, I’m afraid that I couldn’t really give any of them a potential higher than 80%.

I’d hate to say this, but if all these series play out according to my first impressions, then 2010 is going to be the worst year in anime for me since having started this blog, There just are too many fetish series, too many moe shows, and there are only about ten series that really piqued my interest. For a major season as in the autumn, that’s way too little. Yes, I really hope I’m wrong with this.

In any case, a few statistics: JC Staff is the most prolific studio this season with four series. Surprisingly absent are Sunrise, Satelight and Production IG again. There are a ton of romances in this season (a whopping 14 of them), and the teenaged adventure genre also seems to be doing well (12 of them). There are two detectives, six action series, two mechas, and a whopping NINE sequels.

Motto To Love-Ru

Summary: The story is about Yuuki Rito, a high-school boy who cannot confess to the girl of his dreams, Sairenji Haruna. One day when coming home and sulking in the bath-tub a mysterious, nude girl, appears out of nowhere. Her name is Lala and she comes from the planet Deviluke, where she is the heir to the throne. Her father wants her to return to her home planet so she can marry one of the husband candidates, but she decides that she wants to marry Rito in order to stay on Earth. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: It has some decent scriptwriters.
Why you should not look forward to it: Xebec did the impossible: it took To Love-Ru, and made it even worse than it already was by assigning Atsushi Ootsuki, one of the worst currently active directors out there, as its director. I mean, this series is just going to be another excuse for porn here.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Fortune Arterial

Summary: The story revolves around a transfer student named Kouhei Hasekura who discovers that his new remote island school, Shuuchikan Academy, has a female vampire named Erika Sendou within its student body. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: To this day, I still don’t quite get what a “Director of Photography” does. Whatever it is though, it’s going to be pretty decent here: Tadashi Kitaoka seems to have worked on a number of pretty good-looking series.
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s from the creators of KissxSis; what more do you want to know!?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Summary: Kousaka Kyousuke is an average high school student who doesn’t get along well with his younger sister, the cute and popular Kirino. Then one day he makes a startling discovery: Kirino’s secretly an Otaku. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: The director of Viper’s Creed? The series composition of Now and Then, Here and There?
Why you should not look forward to it: … they really made a series about this?
First-Glance Potential: 0%

MM!

Summary: The story follows Tarou Sado, a high school boy who discovered a side of himself that is into masochism. Even as he tries to hide this side from his high school crush, he tries to fix it through his school’s “2nd Volunteer Club.” – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: It’s a moe show by Xebec, but it’s actually full of relative new guys. The director will be Tsuyoshi Nagasawa, who only has done Kyou no Go ni, the series composition will be done by Rie Oga, who only did a few scripts and the animation director will be done by Taeko Hori. Perhaps these guys can give a new flavour to the Xebec moe series, which usually are utterly horrid, even for its genre’s standards.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, the entire premise of this series is built around a cliche: women beating up men. This will be fun for one episode. But after that? What the heck is this series going to do with such a flimsy gimmick? How do they expect to remain funny for an entire series?
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Summary: The era is Heisei 20+ in the reign of the 25th Tokugawa Shogun, Keikou. In the Christian calendar, it’s a bit past 2000 in the Empire of Japan. In the skirts of the Sacred Mount Fuji, there’s an enormous school built in a vast area. Its name is Buou Private Academy. All students are children of samurai and while encouraged to study, they spend their days preparing themselves in battles that sometimes put their life in risk. A peaceful school at first glance, but even there a shadow of turbulence draws near: the rebellious underground activities of discontents that oppose the Tokugawa clan that rules the school. Against the dissident students, the student council executive committee formed the Toyotomi Faction and began their suppression. Now with the Toyotomi Hunting as it became known, the tyranny of the student council escalated further. The high school student Yagyuu Muneakira who attends the Buou Private Academy and is also the assistant instructor of fencing at the Yagyuu Dojo, while a servant to the Tokunaga family, he was opposed to the excessive oppression of the Toyotomi Hunting. And before Muneakira appeared several girls carrying the names of the ancient swordsmen and generals. Is that the beginning of a commotion that will shake the History or is it—? – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: This one’s done by Arms, but Ufo-table have leant their series composition guy, Ryonosuke Kingetsu to this project. That’s awfully nice.
Why you should not look forward to it: The director of this series is working under a pseudonym. If that doesn’t say anything about how flimsy this premise is then I don’t know anymore. I mean, what can you really do with such a premise? It’ll be good for brainless entertainment I guess, but this premise doesn’t even try to make sense.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Yosuga no Sora

Summary: The story of the game is set in the distant mountain village of Okukozome-chō. Haruka Kazugano and his twin sister Sora have fond childhood memories of going to the village to visit their grandfather during their summer vacations. However, after losing their parents in an accident, the two must move in with their grandfather. The twins get reacquainted with their old childhood friend Nao Yorihime, their new classmate Ryōhei Nakazato, the miko (shrine maiden) Akira Amatsume, and Akira’s friend Kazuha Migawa. All seems peaceful and familiar. However, beneath the surface is a secret promise that the twins made with each other long ago, the whereabouts of an important lost item, and the real reason they chose to come back here. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Well, at least it attempts to tell a bit of a serious story. Right? Well, the thing is that this is by the creators of Spice and Wolf. Yeah, Takeo Takahashi and Naruhisa Arakawa. Now if that isn’t a double-edged sword then I don’t know anymore.
Why you should not look forward to it: For those who didn’t get my above hint: the anime is pretty much written and directed by a bunch of guys who had one amazing hit, with the very well written Spice and Wolf, and beyond that only produced crap like Love Love, Cosprayers and unashamed porn with Aki-Sora.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Battle Spirits: Brave

Summary: It’s the third season of an adaptation of a card game by Bandai
Why you should look forward to it: Believe it or not, but the director of Zombie Loan and the 90’s version of Ai no Kusabi is behind this. If you’ve got kids who like this sort of stuff they’ll probably be kept busy.
Why you should not look forward to it: Yeah, this seems to be part of the kiddie shows that appear every season. It actually does have a more experienced staff than usual with those kinds of series, but I watched the first episode of the first season a few years ago. It was full of stereotypes and the card games actually contradicted each other. It’s not the worst of the genre, but not enough to warrant any kind of attention.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

Summary: A young upper-class elite man, Ichinomiya “Riku” Kou, who has a policy of not being in debt to anyone, ends up owing his life to a strange girl who rescues him. Nino is a beautiful homeless girl who believes that she is from the planet Venus and lives under the bridge by the Arakawa river. So the young man ends up living there too. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: While the official staff isn’t known yet, I think it’s safe to assume that the same people are going to be working on it.
Why you should not look forward to it: Whether that means that you’ll like this series if you liked the prequel… I can’t say that. Shaft has this very nasty tendency to become much worse in its sequels. I mean, blegh, Shinbo. Just pick one series to work on, instead of slapping your name and style on every single Shaft series that gets released.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Hetalia: Axis Powers Fourth Season

Summary: Hetalia is a comedy about personified European countries, along with Japan, China, the US and Canada. Skits range from historical references to gay jokes and quirky characters.
Why you should look forward to it: It’s much of the same, so if you haven’t gotten bored of Hetalia at this point you’ll probably enjoy this.
Why you should not look forward to it: But seriously, Studio Deen is pushing its luck just too far with this series. I know it sells DVDs and all, but Hetalia has gotten stale a long while ago. It doesn’t need yet another season.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Pokemon Black and White

Summary: The new season for Pokemon
Why you should look forward to it: I had a pretty nostalgic moment when I found out that Ash (or Satoshi) did not appear on the promo art here. I mean, I started watching Pokemon ages ago, and really was a fan of it for a while. To think that after more than ten years, he has finally retired and passed on the baton to a new group of lead character. That alone deserves credit.
Why you should not look forward to it: That may be, but the starting Pokemon are also starting to look more stupid with every incarnation.
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Summary: The story takes place in an imaginary world in “the Age of Detectives”, where private detectives and phantom thieves overwhelm the cities. It is about four girls who aim to be great detectives. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: It’s got Kazuyuki Fudeyasu behind the series composition, who also did the series composition of Hajime no Ippo’s New Challenger. But he also wrote Penguin no Mondai and Kampfer so I’m not really sure what that means…
Why you should not look forward to it: Makoto Moriwaki really isn’t the best director here, considering his work on Lilpri, which quickly became really, really generic. Since this is another game adaptation, it really needs a good writing staff to make it work, and these guys just don’t seem up for it.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Rawr! You are Delicious

Summary: It’s adapted from a picture book about a Tyrannosaurus who comes across an Ankylosaurus baby all by himself and says, “Gaou! Omae Umasou Dana” (“Rawr! You look delicious.”) However, the Tyrannosaurus ends up adopting the baby as his own. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Just for the title this series deserves points, but apart from that there’s not much known. A movie also seems to be scheduled around the same time, which is being directed by Masaya Fujimori, who mostly has experience as an animation director. Could be interesting for its animation.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, it remains a kiddie show, adapted from a picture book. I don’t see the appeal of this concept outlasting a single episode.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai

Summary: The romantic comedy manga centers on Keima Katsuragi, a high school boy who is known as the “Capturing God” for his success at romance simulation games. However, thanks to a contract with a devil, he now has to capture the hearts of real girls to catch the runaway spirits hidden in those hearts. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Hideyuki Nurata? Manglobe?! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you working on more interesting premises?
Why you should not look forward to it: You know, I try to give every anime a chance. But shows like this really make it hard to keep this up. I mean, how many more of these series are they going to make? I mean, for this to work the creators are really going to have to put in all of their creativity to make up for this thing. While the series composition is excellent (Hello? Now and Then, Here and There, Read or Die, Brigadoon), the director seems mediocre: Shigehito Takayanagi is only good as an episode director: his main series only consist out of Hime Sama Goyoujin (seriously one of the stupidest series I have ever seen), Galaxy Angel and Kanamemo.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Summary: Clumsy Arashiyama is a girl with a love for mysteries and a knack for getting into trouble. She works for an old lady’s lackluster maid café in a small shopping district. The cafe is largely unsuccessful in attracting customers aside from Sanada, a regular and one of Arashiyama’s classmates (who has a secret crush on her). One day Arashiyama’s clever friend Tatsuno is invited to the café, and, upon seeing the miserable state of things (and Sanada, whom she has a secret crush on), decides to work there. Don’t miss the crazy antics of Arashiyama and friends, mismatched love stories, and all the hilarity that is created as a result, in Sore Machi. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: Well, it does have the series composition done by Katsuhiko Takayama, who knows how to make his series interesting (provided that they don’t go on for more than 13 episodes). The script behind Natsu no Arashi, Ga-Rei Zero, ef, Hantsuki and Asobi ni Iku Yo seems promising indeed and they could make something out of this incredibly cliched premise.
Why you should not look forward to it: Blegh, Shinbo. Just pick one series to work on, instead of slapping your name and style on every single Shaft series that gets released.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Hakuouki 2

Summary: Based on Idea Factory’s romance adventure game: Yukimura Chizuru has come to Kyoto looking for her father, a doctor who has gone missing. While there, she witnesses a fight between an Oni and the Shinsengumi. Taking her into custody, the Shinsengumi debates on what to do with Chizuru when they discover that she is the daughter of the doctor they are also looking for. The Shinsengumi then takes Chizuru along on their search after the missing doctor, from adventures to adventures. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Obviously the director of Toward the Terra, Osamu Yamasaki, but then again even he didn’t manage to make this any more interesting. The staff for this series is still unknown though, so it could be completely different.
Why you should not look forward to it: My big problem with Hakuouki was its characterization: it was just bland, and the lead character was very annoying in the way that she kept trying to do things, but never really wound up doing anything. Personally, I don’t want to find out whether it gets better.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Sora no Otoshimono Forte

Summary: Tomoki Sakurai often encounters a strange girl in his dreams asking for his help, but he can’t remember her face when he wakes up. When an Unidentified Mysterious Animal (U.M.A.) falls out of the sky, his life of pacifism suddenly becomes complicated. The animal turns out to be an angel, Ikaros. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: For what it was, Sora no Otoshimono at least knew what it was trying to be and made no attempt to be any thing more. Out of all of the moe shows that AIC churned out during the past year, that one looked the best, or at least in its first episodes. The director is solid here, and I guess that you could do a lot worse in this genre.
Why you should not look forward to it: Obviously if you hate fanservice you should stay away.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Super Robot Taisen OG: The Inspector

Summary: “It is two hundred years after the beginning of the Space Era, when human civilization on Earth began expanding into space. However, by the start of the 21st century, two meteors struck the planet, sending humanity into chaos. By the year 179 of the Space Era, secret technology, dubbed Extra-Over Technology, or EOT, was discovered by the Earth Federal Government within a third meteor that hit Earth in the Marquesas Islands of the South Pacific. Dr. Bian Zoldark, head of the EOTI Institute (Extra-Over Technological Investigative Institute), had evidence the creators of the EOT were heading to Earth, in order to reclaim it…or worse, invade the planet. In order to defend humanity from extraterrestrial threats, the government begins to research and develop humanoid mecha called Personal Troopers. Robot bugs suddenly attack Tokyo and robot gamer Ryusei is given a real, mechanical robot trooper to see whether he is a qualified fighter in a war which he has just now become a part of. Amazingly the controls to the personal trooper are just as in the game”> – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: This show is pulling a Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula: they got a bunch of famous designers to design the mechas for this series. Among them are Kazutaka Miyatake (Macross) and Mika Akitaka (Gundam War in Pocket and Stardust Memories).
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s going to need it, because the director really is terrible: Masami Obari, behind some of the more notoriously bad shows of the past two decades (Gravion, Battle Arena Toshiden, Prism Ark). The series composition guy is excellent – whenever he adapts the script of someone else (Banner of the Stars, Zipang, Infinite Ryvius). His own stories suck (Gin-iro no Olynssis, the first Super Robot Wars).
First-Glance Potential: 30%

To Aru Majutsu no Index II

Summary: In a world where science clarifies supernatural powers. In a huge college that has power development in its curriculum. To a resident high school student, Kamijou Touma, a pure white sister appears. She calls herself “Index” and says that sorcerers are chasing her. Thus, Kamijou Touma enters the world of the occult. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Same staff, it seems. Even though I haven’t seen the first season, Index intrigues me. I mean, the director worked on some pretty interesting stuff (Gad Guard, Azumanga Daioh, Angelic Layer, Ayakashi Ayashi).
Why you should not look forward to it: The huge streams of exposition though are a bit hard to get into, and I’ve heard that some of the arcs are pretty boring as well. This season, the series composition guy also seems to be doing two shows at once, which might be a bit too much on his plate…
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Rita et Machin

Summary: The books follow the happy daily lives of a precocious five-year-old girl named Rita and an easy-going yet somewhat lazy dog named Machin. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Nippon Animation doing a French picture book adaptation. That’s all that’s known here. But you know what? If the creators actually make this into more than just a kiddie show, and a full fledged slice of life series with the same art-style that they’re advertising with, then I can really imagine myself watching it.
Why you should not look forward to it: The problem is of course that these kinds of shows never really make it out of Japan.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Otome Youkai Zakuro

Summary: It’s the Meiji Era in a slightly alternate Japan, and the Gregorian calendar has just come into effect. The fox-eared girls living in the youkai part of town are about to be put to work together with a delegation of young human soldiers, to promote interracial understanding. So what will happen when Zakuro’s strong personality collides with human sensibilities…. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Well, it seems to have nice themes and an interesting setting. It’s got a couple of terrific art directors to back that up: Hiroshi Kato, whose work is too large to just list, and Izumi Hoki, who worked on the background art of Ghost in the Shell, Ayakashi and Boogiepop Phantom. Mari Okada, who has experience on writing the Sasami Mahou Shoujo Club, True Tears and the Armed Librarians, along with various episodes of Red Garden, Simoun and Rozen Maiden also offers a very solid base for this series.
Why you should not look forward to it: One look at the other works of the author who wrote the manga this is based on (Lily Hoshino) scared me away a bit. I mean, just look at some of the titles. They all look like really cheesy romantic comedies. And sure, I know that under the surface they could be very solid, but is Chiaki Kon really the right person to adapt it? It’s good that she took a bit of a break compared to last year, but I still don’t fully trust her. Her direction of Higurashi was great, but after that her series all lacked something, and felt like their direction was rushed.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Karl to Fushigi na Tou

Summary: The story centers around a mysterious tall tower built from an (unsteady) stack of building blocks. Every morning, noon, and evening, an old timekeeping man rings the bell in the tower to confirm the time for the local townspeople. However, one day at noon, the tower bell fails to ring — leaving the townspeople confused about when to eat lunch. The fantasy adventure begins when Karl, an inquisitive boy living in the town, decides to go to the tower’s plaza to see what is the matter. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: This doesn’t seem to be based on anything, and was created for television. And really, out of all of the kiddie shows this season, this one looks the most interesting. Especially the director here is interesting: Jun Takagi, who is also directing Chibi Maruko Chan, plus he directed one of the WMT-series (Nanatsu no Umi no Tiko) and the sequel of Mahou-jin Guru-Guru. The script is written by Miho Maruo, who also wrote the script of Saiunkoku Monogatari, the Dog of Flanders movie and a number of episodes from Kaidan Restaurant, Kodocha and Nodame Cantabile. I’m really glad to see Nippon Animation back again, because they do make the best kids’ shows.
Why you should not look forward to it: Still though, I doubt that this will be accessible to adults like Nippon Animation’s best works. It’s one of those kids’ series that really seems aimed at kids, though not as commercial as usual.
First-Glance Potential: 40%

Shinryaku! Ika Musume

Summary: The comedy centers arounds 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)
Why you should look forward to it: If you’re wondering who Diomedea is: it used to be Studio Barcelona who did a few mediocre series a few years ago, like Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and Polyphonica’s second season. I was about to write this one off, but take a look at the director here: Tsutomu Mizushima, the director of xxxHolic, Hale Nochi Guu and Ookiku Furikabutte. The series composition is even better: Michiko Yokote, who did the series composition of Strange Dawn, xxxHolic, Princess Tutu, Kobato, Hale Nochi Guu, plus worked on the scripts of .Hack//Sign, Kaze no Youjinbo, Ookiku Furikabutte, Cowboy Bebop and Gintama.
Why you should not look forward to it: Please. Someone tell me that the manga is more than just meets the eye. I’d love to see another serious series from these two, not a moe comedy. That’s usually the thing that Tsutomu Mizushima is worst at.
First-Glance Potential: 50%

Togainu no Chi

Summary: After being devastated in the third World War (known as The Third Division), Japan was divided in two. Several years after the end of the war, a crime organization called Vischio has taken control of the destroyed city of Toshima (formerly Tokyo, Japan’s capital city), where they are holding a battle game known as “Igura”. The game’s main character, a young man named Akira, is falsely accused of a crime. Once arrested, a mysterious woman appears before him, offering him freedom if he agrees to participate in Igura and defeat Igura’s strongest man: the king, or “Il-re”. The story follows Akira’s life in the harsh, lawless Toshima as he fights both to survive and to unravel the mysteries developing around him. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: A game adaptation. This is going to require a ton of input from the anime creators as well if it wants to work out. Natsuko Takahashi seems like a pretty solid choice due to her experience, though not the best because she’s currently also working on Nurarihyon no Mago. The director is an interesting guy, though: he’s usually an animator and character-designer, but once in a while he directs something. I don’t know much about those series since they’re rather obscure and very retro-y.
Why you should not look forward to it: The possible downsides to this series mostly have to do with the premise, really. I mean, it has the interesting post apocalyptic setting and all, but it remains a dating sim. This one really needs to be handled in the right way or it’ll flop.
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Kuragehime

Summary: he story centres around Kurashita Tsukimi, a huge fan of jellyfish (kurage, a wordplay on the “kura/mi” and “tsuki/ge” in her name) and a girl who moves to Tokyo to become an illustrator. She moves into “Amamizukan,” an apartment complex that is full of fujoshi (diehard female otaku) with a no-men-allowed rule. However, one day, Tsukimi invites a stylishly fashionable woman to stay at her room at Amamizukan — only to discover that the guest is not who “she” seems to be. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: One of the things I love about Noitamina is that any production company can get a shot at it, ranging from Madhouse to Daume. This time, it’s Brains Base’s turn, and with this we return to the Josei roots of the timeslot with a simple romantic comedy. With this, it’s all going to depend on the execution. And really, with Takehiro Omori behind the direction, I really think that that’s going to be fine. He might be getting a bit too prolific, but his characterization throughout nearly all of his works, from Baccano to Jigoku Shoujo, Fancy Lala, Natsume Yuujinchou and Durarara has been really excellent. The background art with Mio Isshiki is also going to be beautiful, if going by her previous experience on Aoi Bungaku’s second arc, Death Note and Kaze no Youjinbo.
Why you should not look forward to it: The series composition guy, Jukki Hanada, is a bit of a mixed bag. His adaptation of Rozen Maiden (especially its first season) was very good, but most of his adaptations have been pretty generic: H2O, SA, Idol Master and Yozakura Quartet didn’t really have the most exciting plots… Plus, there are only going to be 11 episodes. Will that be enough?
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Iron Man

Summary: Born Anthony Edward Stark, and usually called Tony, he is an industrialist playboy and ingenious engineer who suffers a severe heart injury during a kidnapping in which his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction. He instead creates a powered suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. He later uses the suit to protect the world as Iron Man. Through his multinational corporation, Stark Industries, Tony created military weapons and his own metal suit is laden with technological devices that enable him to fight crime. – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Why you should look forward to it: The reason I’m looking forward to this series is that Madhouse has been given full freedom on how to adapt this series. I’m really interested in what they ended up making of it. The staff still is unknown at this point; all we know is that some guy named Warren Ellis, a comic book writer, is going to write the script. Now, there is of course the danger that this will just turn into a cheesy crime fighting series, but with a good director and series composition this should be okay.
Why you should not look forward to it: At only 12 episodes, can the creators really do something interesting, or will they run out of time?
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Letter Bee Reverse

Summary: Gauche is a governmental employee, given the task to deliver any letter to it’s destination. Meeting a young boy who is the letter to be delivered, Gauche makes friends with Lag and inspires him to take up the job. Five years later, Lag Seeing finally becomes his dream, that of a Letter Bee. However, the one who inspired him has gone missing and only there does the mystery start. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: YES! YES! The first season ended with one hell of a cliff-hanger, right at the point where it had gotten better than ever. I’ve been hungry for its sequel ever since, especially because the story is only really beginning now. The director Akira Iwanaga is the same, so the atmosphere should be the same. There is someone new behind the series composition though: Masanao Akahoshi, whose works are all over the place: from the bad (Ikkitousen Great Guardians) to the decent (Index, Viper’s Creed) to the good (Souko no Strain) and the awesome (Zone of the Enders).
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, let’s not forget the main problem with Letter Bee: the fillers. They actually did a very good job of fleshing out the cast, but they will feel out of place now that the real story is about to start. So hereby: please don’t abuse them here, Studio Pierrot?
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Bakuman

Summary: Moritaka Mashiro and Akito Takagi are pretty much foils of each other. Mashiro, an average 9th grade student but talented artist, and Takagi, an overall advanced 9th grader and aspiring writer. After great convincing, Takagi convinces Mashiro to join him in becoming the greatest mangakas Japan has ever seen. Takagi, with his gift of writing, hopes to become a successful mangaka, and Mashiro, with his gift of art, hopes to marry the girl of his dreams, Azuki Miho. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Bakuman, written by the original manga author of Death Note. That’s at least something here, even though the genre is completely different. But Kenichi Kasai, the genius behind Nodame Cantbile, Aoi Hana and Honey and Clover can really make this one work. Directing along with him is a new guy, who has never directed a full series before. The script is also in good hands with Reiko Yoshida, who wrote a ton of different series before. To complete this dream team is another scriptwriter: Seishi Minakami of Asatte no Houkou, Birdy the Mighty Decode 02, Shigurui, Paranoia Agent and Rescue Wings fame.
Why you should not look forward to it: It remains a romantic comedy. A seemingly very solid one, but if you don’t like the genre then I’m not sure whether this premise will convert you.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Panty & Stocking With Garterbelt

Summary: The story centers around a teen-celebrity-like blonde-haired girl named Panty and a black-haired Goth Loli girl named Stocking. The two are angels sent from the heavens to battle the Ghosts on Earth. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: In a season chockful of moe and fanservice, the series with the most suggestive title actually is something completely different: Panty, Stocking and Garterbelt are actually the names of the lead characters. I admit that I laughed when I found that out. This show seems very intriguing, especially with the director of Gurren Lagann and Dead Leaves behind this thing. I’m really in the mood for some Gainax-esque action. What’s going to make this one different from the above two is the assistant director, though. Now, I’m not sure how much influence these guys can have, but FLCL’s director definitely has promise.
Why you should not look forward to it: Now, this show looks absolutely awesome, but I did have a beef with Gurren Lagann and Dead Leaves, and that was its characterization. I didn’t really care for the cast for some reason. So that’s my request for this series: have a bunch of enjoyable, yet well fleshed out characters in this series.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Psychic Detective Yakumo

Summary: The story is about a college student, Yakumo Saitou who was born with different eye colors. His red left eye gave him a special ability to see ghosts and spirits. He believes ghosts and spirits are bound to earth because of a certain ’cause’ and simply by eliminating that ’cause’ will those spirits rest in peace. Being asked for help by Haruka Ozawa, together they began the investigation – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Why you should look forward to it: Yes! Now this one looks to be right up my interests: mystery, a lead character beyond high school, lots of supernatural influences, Bee-Train. Although this seems to be Bee-Train without Koichi Mashimo (I really wonder what he’s up to right now). Instead, the director is going to be Tomoyuki Kurokawa (the director of Murder Princess), which admittedly isn’t the most solid choice. Still, the guy behind the series is Hiroyuki Kawasaki, who has a huge amount of experience on many different series.
Why you should not look forward to it: 13 episodes. Too little. And again, I have my doubts about Bee-Train without Koichi Mashimo. I mean, he’s the guy reason why I became a fan of them in the first place.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Star Driver Kagayaki no Takuto

Summary: On a cross-shaped island in the South, a mysterious and gigantic humanoid robot known as the “Cybuddy” is discovered sealed in the underground ruins for untold ages. A group known as the “Order of the Glittering Star Cross” attempts to remove the seal by abducting a girl named Wako Agemaki, who they dubbed the “shrine maiden” and is the key to activating the robot. A boy named Takuto Tsunashi arrives with his own Cybuddy named Tauburn to rescue Wako. Thus begins a struggle to unlock the secrets of the advanced technology and prevent disaster. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: First of all, it’s an original series: not based on anything. Furthermore, the series composition, done by Yoji Enokido, who also did the series composition for Revolutionary Girl Utena. How could I not look forward to that? On top of that, the director is Takuya Igarashi, who also directed Ashita no Nadja and it’s animated by Bones. These guys KNOW how to make such an adventure series work!
Why you should not look forward to it: Okay, okay, okay. I know that those aren’t the only works these people have done and I do realize that we’re talking about the creators of Melody of Oblivion and a bunch of Sailor Moon episodes here. These guys have worked on some series that I didn’t really like. But here’s the thing: this show can flop gigantically, but I feel that if it manages to work, it’s going to make for one hell of an epic.
First-Glance Potential: 80%