Now that the discussions about the autumn anime season have started, I might as well note that for those who are wondering: I’m not planning to make a preview of the upcoming season.
It just feels like everyone and his dog is already doing one, so I don’t see what my attempts can add, since they were never that good anyway. The only advantage I had was that I wrote my previews always relatively early, but this time the first previews for the autumn season already popped up around the half of July. There’s no way I’m going to compete with that. If you want to see an autumn season preview, just go to Animenano and search for “fall preview”. I personally recommend waiting until Hashihime publishes his/hers (I’m still not sure about his/her gender…), as his/her thoughts are always very interesting to read.
The second reason is that I wanted to try a little experiment. For the past few years, I’ve always tried to prepare myself as best as possible, by reading synopsises, staff lists, et cetera, so that I knew what to expect. That doesn’t make much sense, though. I mean, I can understand how someone who’s only planning to watch a handful of series needs to separate the cream from the crop, but I’m going to watch the first episode of every new series anyway. Then what’s the point about getting excited about a series that might disappoint, or dismissing a potential gem because it doesn’t look interesting enough at first glance. Quite a few of my favourite series actually didn’t make too good of a first impression when I first saw them (Simoun, Shion no Ou, Kaiba, Mahou Shoujotai), and I’ve often been disappointed by a series that looked good because of its staff list and promo-art, but turned out to be complete garbage.
Hence why for this season, I wondered what it’d be like to go into a season without knowing anything about the upcoming series, save from possible sequels of course. With that mindset, I obviously can’t write a fall preview at the same time. I personally love being surprised by a series, so who knows? All I know is that I’m going to be enjoying the second seasons of Gundam 00 and Jigoku Shoujo, and for now I’ll just assume that the rest of the season will consist out of dull and uninspired shounen-series.
Well, that’s a shame, since i’m sure most people looked at your Season Previews because you had interesting information regarding staff and related series, and of course your own opinion is always good to read.
But I suppose it makes more sense if personal experience shows that this usually doesn’t make anything better.
And in regards to information about new series, I consider this site the best place for new season lists.
http://www.moetron.com/2008/07/16/number-of-tv-premieres-this-fall-season-30
And here’s my chart which I started just as Summer season began (which may be a reason why everything is earlier than usual). For Winter I think I will wait much longer before starting that one.
http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u58/Denizen-N/Fall2008V7.jpg
And I think the ones I will be looking forward to the most is Shikabane Hime, Tytania and Casshern Sins.
Oh, this is quite an interesting experiment. I find it really difficult to assess the greatness of a series beforehand as well. Basically every season so far since I started watching anime intensely (Fall 2005) has had surprises for me, the last being 20 Mensou no Musume.
@Denizen: Oh, you are the person who did the Fall 2008 chart! It looks really good and has been very helpful for me when I did my own preview. Do you wish to be credited in the future?
@Sasa.
I don’t personally want to be credited, but I prefer it when people link directly to the image so others can see it, that way everyone can make use it. Thanks for asking, though.
And yeah, I should probably check out some other Fall Previews if psgels isn’t doing his.
In other words, you’re not going to pump yourself up for the fall season.
Hmmm, interesting technique. O_o
…
>__>
I’m not exactly looking forward to the third season of jigoku shoujo. it can either be done right or more easily done completely wrong. Considering how often people will do things wrong for he sake of fans I’m filled with trepidation.
Good point, this is how I roll as well, blindly into series without really digging into the premise. Though, I’ve basically generalized most of the titles this coming season; continuances of previous series or know for manga/light novel source.
Cheers
O_o
I have to say I’m a bit disappointed, you know I’m looking forward to your fall preview the most among many blogs out there since your taste is always to my liking. Many other bloggers ‘ comments usually bug me and you are the only one whose comments sound reasonable and not judge things first by looks of the characters or something. Well, it can’t be helped anyway…I will wait for your actual preview then.
i have seen a list of the anime that will be released this autumn some time ago and except for a few sequels and one or two new series i cannot i am looking forward to anything and am not even that exited about the few i might enjoy but still i hope when i will start watching them at least one will impress me
Although i do enjoy your previews I must admit I don’t really use them to judge whether I’ll watch something or not. I do find your first impressions a huge help so as long as they remain I’m happy.
aww. was looking forward to ur previews, oh wells. i cant wait for jigoku shoujo’s new series either ^^)/!
That’s very unfortunate. I actually think your previews are one of very few that are worth reading. Especially about the staffs and the works they did previously, I would never bother to do that much research myself. But I think your mindset right now is healthy as an anime viewer (arguably not as a blogger) and although I’m bit disappointed, I respect your decision.
Bummer. I tend to rely on your blog and one or two others to decide on what to watch anime-wise, since I rarely have time to waste to pick and choose through all the offerings per season. Reading up helps trim the pickings down immensely. But I’m all for going for what you feel most comfortable with. That said, I didn’t realize that Madhouse had a hand in so many of the new shows coming up this fall season. It really is a diverse animation studio.
I’ll be waiting till your next preview then !
“Many other bloggers ‘ comments usually bug me and you are the only one whose comments sound reasonable and not judge things first by looks of the characters or something.”
Oh please I like psgels opinions and all that most of the time but he’s not above this. Just look at his preview for Sekirei, that was so enlightening and hey what do you know he seems to actually be enjoying it going by his monthly rankings. He might even up the rating after August is done, Go figure!
And how many recent reviews for old series have started out with I should’ve watched more episodes or I shouldn’t have dismissed this so quickly when I heard about it.
Anyway with that out the way I’m also a bit disappointed with the lack of a preview but I cans ee why you’re not doing one for both the reasons you mentioned.