Spring Season Preview

by psgels, posted in Seasonal Previews

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

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

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

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

Haiyoru! Nyaruko-Chan

Summary: “The story centers around Nyaruko, a formless Cthulhu deity who can take on the shape of a seemingly ordinary silver-haired girl. Mahiro Yasaka is a normal high school who is chased by aliens one night, until Nyaruko saves him.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tsuyoshi Nagasawa
Series Composition: Noboru Kimura

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Sengoku Collection

Summary: “The story is set in the tumultuous Sengoku Era of historical Japan, when military masters circle the figurative throne of Japan’s first shogunate. In the game, “God of War Cards” have been sealed in six hidden treasures, and fighting breaks out among those who seek the treasures. As a new military master, the player embarks on a journey to obtain the treasures by clearing quests and fighting bosses. The anime’s main character is a female re-imagining of the great warlord Oda Nobunaga. Another major character is the female version of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first shogun of Japan. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Keiji Gotou
Series Composition: Shinjuurou Mitaka

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden

Summary: “The story centers around the secondary Naruto character Rock Lee. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masahiko Murata

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Pretty Rythm Dear My Future

Summary: “The Prism Show is an all-new kind of ice skating show that requires its participants to be figure skaters, models, and singers all at the same time. Aira and Rhythm are two girls who both dream of becoming the Prism Queen. They’ll have to train hard and overcome both their quarrels with each other and their blossoming interest in boys if they want to achieve their dream.” – (Taken from ANN)

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Jewel Pet Sunshine Second Season

Summary: “The Plum Section of the 3rd grade class at the Sunshine Academy in Jewel Land are also known as “the Leftovers.” Ruby and her classmates aim to graduate and follow their dreams.” – (Taken from ANN)

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Queen’s Blade: Rebellion

Summary: “” – (Taken from )
Director: Yousei Morino
Series Composition: Hideki Shirone

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Acchi Kocchi

Summary: “The four-panel manga follows a tsundere (initially aloof and abrasive, but later kind-hearted) girl named Tsumiki, the most unsociable eyeglasses-wearing boy named Io, and their classmates. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Series Composition: Nobuhiko Amagawa

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

First-Glance Potential: 0%

Gakkatsu

Summary: “???”

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

First-Glance Potential: 5%

Nazo na Kanojo X

Summary: “When a mysterious transfer girl happens to drool on her desk one day, Akira Tsubaki decides to taste it. Little did he know that soon he would be going out with Mitoko Urabe, a girl who he knows absolutely nothing about, yet seems to be destined for.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Series Composition: Deko Akao
Other Notable Staff: Kenichi Konishi (Character Designs), Shigemi Ikeda

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

First-Glance Potential: 10%

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? Of the Dead

Summary: “Ayumu Aikawa is a normal high school boy. One day he is killed by a serial killer and revived as a zombie by a necromancer named Eucliwood Hellscythe. He starts to serve Eu as her guard but he happens to deprive the mahō shōjo Haruna of her magic power. Haruna orders Ayumu to fight against the anti-mahō shōjo system “Megalo” in her place.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takaomi Kanasaki
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu

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

First-Glance Potential: 25%

Upotte

Summary: “At Seishou Academy, a newly transferred teacher discovers that girls like Funko always aim to do their best and shoot for their goals, often literally with live ammo. Because these girls aren’t just expert shooters, they are the guns, in human form.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Takao Kato
Series Composition: Naruhisa Arakawa
Other Notable Staff: Takaaki Suzuki (Military History Advisor)

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

First-Glance Potential: 30%

Medaka Box

Summary: “Medaka Kurokami is an exceptional first year student at Hanokiwa Academy who got elected as president of the student council with a smashing 98% of the votes. Extremely intelligent, strong, and rich; she wants to help anyone in need. To do that, she introduces a suggestion box that allows any student to contact her. Later known as the “Medaka Box”, it will bring forth incredible challenges to Kurokami and her friends of the student council.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shouji Saeki
Series Composition: Shouji Saeki
Other Notable Staff: Nisioisin (Original Creator)

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

First-Glance Potential: 30%

Dusk Maiden of Amnesia

Summary: “A young woman, by some strange occurrence, was left to die alone in the former building of the Academy for Sincere Teachings. Mysteriously, there is one person who can see her in ghost form: Niiya Teiichi, a freshman. Now they both seek to find out the reasoning behind her death, and what could have caused it.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shin Oonuma
Series Composition: Katsuhiko Takayama
Other Notable Staff: Yukiko Ban (Character Designs, Animation Director)

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

First-Glance Potential: 30%

Hiiro no Kakera

Summary: “The original game centered around Tamaki Kasuga, a 17-year-old high school girl. When her parents have to go overseas for work, Tamaki moves to her mother’s hometown in the mountains with her grandmother. On the day that Tamaki arrives at the village, she encounters strange creatures, only to be saved by a mysterious boy. The boy, Takuma Onizaki, is the first of five Guardians of the Tamayohime that Tamaki meets. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Bob Shirohata
Series Composition: Yoshiko Nakamura
Other Notable Staff: Naoyuki Onda (Character Designs, Animation Direction)

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

First-Glance Potential: 40%

Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A

Summary: “The anime adapts Aguri Igarashi’s Saki Achiga-hen episode of side-A manga, which is a spinoff of the original Saki high school mahjong manga. The story follows Shizuno Takakamo and the other mahjong players at the all-girls school Achiga. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Manabu Ono
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata

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

First-Glance Potential: 40%

Sankarea

Summary: “This is the story of Furuya, a 15 year old boy who is obsessed with zombies. From videos to manga, trinkets to video games, he will stop at nothing in his quest for anything zombie related. However, his interests turns from a simple hobby into an obsession when his cat dies in an accident. Using an old manuscript, Furuya embarks on a quest to revive his fallen pet. During his quest however, he is discovered by the idol Rea, a popular and elegant lady from a wealthy family. Though it may appear that her life is perfect, everything is not as it seems. And she turns to Furuya, for a chance to live her life, in this life or the next.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Mamoru Hatekayama
Series Composition: Noboru Tagaki
Other Notable Staff: Kyuuta Sakai (Character Designs), Mitsuru Hattori

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

First-Glance Potential: 45%

Natsuiro Kiseki

Summary: “I have no bloody idea. The anouncements for this series seem more focused that it’s meant to promote some group of four idols.”
Director: Seiji Mizushima
Series Composition: Tatsuhiko Urahata
Other Notable Staff: Shigemi Ikeda (Art Director), Sadayuki Murai (Script)

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

First-Glance Potential: 50%

AKB0048

Summary: “Inspired by the popular Japanese idol group AKB48.” – (Taken from ANN)
Chief Director: Shoji Kawamori
Director: Yoshimasa Hiraike
Series Composition: Mari Okada
Other Notable Staff: Mikan Ehime (Character Designs)

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

First-Glance Potential: ?!#%

Accel World

Summary: “The “future teen” story revolves around a bullied middle school boy named Haruyuki. One autumn day in 2046, he has an encounter with Kuroyukihime, the prettiest girl in his school, that changes his life. Through a mysterious piece of software from Kuroyukihime, Haruyuki learns of the existence of the virtual “Accel World.” In that moment, the lowest of the “school caste” becomes “Burst Linker,” a knight defending a princess. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Masakazuu Obara
Series Composition: Hiroyuki Yoshino
Other Notable Staff: Nobutaka Ike (Art Director)

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

First-Glance Potential: 60%

Arashi no Yoru ni

Summary: “Through an unlikely friendship between a goat and a wolf, One Stormy Night is a heartwarming children’s story that explores themes about acceptance, loyalty despite differences, and highlights the important message that those from different backgrounds or cultures can be accepting and develop into the very best of friends.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tetsurou Amino

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

First-Glance Potential: 70%

Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan

Summary: “One day, a mysterious girl named Kaguya was washed ashore the island of Wyndaria after a great storm. She encounters Rick, a swordsman who wound up working at the island’s bakery. Apparently, Kaguya is suffering from having lost her memories and emotions. In addition, the usually peaceful Wyndaria is now swarming with pirates who came seeking for the special spirit stone that is worn around Kaguya’s neck. Knowing the situation, Rick and his co-workers, Nellis, Amyl, and Aerie decided to bring back peace to island and help Kaguya regain her lost memories and emotions.” – (Taken from Wikipedia)
Director: Itsuro Kawasaki
Series Composition: Itsuro Kawasaki
Other Notable Staff: Ike Nobutaka (Art Direction)

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

First-Glance Potential: 70%

Ginga e Kickoff!!

Summary: “The story follows a boy who was in a soccer team, but it was disbanded due to not enough players. However, after the boy meets a female professional soccer player, he aims to bring his soccer team back. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kounosuke Uda
Series Composition: Takashi Yamada

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

First-Glance Potential: 75%

Kuroko no Basuke

Summary: “In the story, Taiga Kagami has just enrolled into Seirin High School when he meets Tetsuya Kuroko of the school’s basketball team. Kuroko happens to be the shadowy sixth member of the legendary “Generation of Miracles” basketball team. Together, Kagami and Kuroko aim to take their team to the inter-high school championship — against Kuroko’s former teammates. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shunsuke Tada
Series Composition: Noboru Takagi

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

First-Glance Potential: 75%

Kimi to Boku 2

Summary: “About 4 friends, twins Yuta and Yuki Asaba, the cute and girly Shun Matsuoka, and the class head Kaname Tsukahara, who have known each other since kindergarten. When a half-Japanese transfer student named Chizuru Tachibana joins their group, he brings a new dynamic to their friendship.” – (Taken from ANN)

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

First-Glance Potential: 80%

Zetman

Summary: “Jin, a mysterious kid with a halo carved in his hand, and extraordinary fighting skills, lives with his grandfather in a beggar’s community. In other place, the old scientist Amagi is searching for professor Kanzaki, to ask him for the whereabouts of the “player” -a kind of genetic altered humans- Zet, which they created some years ago. Soon, Jin and his grandfather are attacked by a mysterious man who turns into a monster. The connection between professor Amagi and professor Kanzaki, seems to connect also young Jin to the mystery of the “players”, and Zet.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Osamu Nabeshima
Series Composition: Atsuhiro Tomioka
Other Notable Staff: Mazakazu Katsura (Original Creator), Shinichiro Yoshihara

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

First-Glance Potential: 80%

Saint Seiya New Omega

Summary: “Kōga is a 13-year-old boy who assumed the role of the Saint of the Pegasus constellation. His undefeatable spirit and rebellious nature are strong, as is his single-minded determination. Saori Kido (the goddess Athena) also appears as the protector of peace and all living things — and the woman who raised Kōga like a parent. Mars kidnaps Athena to establish a new world order, and Kōga stands up against Mars.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Morio Hatano
Series Composition: Reiko Yoshida
Other Notable Staff: Yoshihiko Umakoshi (Character Designs, Chief Animation Director)

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

First-Glance Potential: 80%

Phi Brain Second Season

Summary: “Kaito Daimon is a brilliant 16-year-old teenager who loves to solve puzzles. He acquires an enigmatic item called the Armband of Orpheus that allows him to fully utilize his brain, but that consequentially drains him completely. Currently attending Root Academy as an honor student, he is invited by the school principal to confront a secret organization named POG. They create deadly Sage Puzzles to protect invaluable treasures and challenge the select few individuals capable of facing them. Given the title of Einstein, Kaito battles against the mysterious group in order to keep a promise he made as a kid while at the same time he heads towards the ultimate test: the Divine Puzzle.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Junichi Sato
Series Composition: Mayori Sekijima
Other Notable Staff: Youhei Sasaki (Character Design)

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

First-Glance Potential: 85%

Ozuma

Summary: “The title of the project is Ozuma, and it is set on a future Earth that has gone to ruins in a sea of sand. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Chief Director: Ryousuke Takahashi
Director: Takahiro Ikezoe
Series Composition: Junki Takegami
Other Notable Staff: Leiji Matsumoto (Original Creator), Nobuteru Yuki (Character Designs), Kousuke Yamashita

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

First-Glance Potential: 85%

Hyou-ka: You can’t escape

Summary: “The story follows a boy named houtarou who is not assertive about getting involved, but was ordered by his older sister to join the classic literature club. In the club, he gets close to the truth about an incident, involving a female member’s uncle, which happened 33 years ago. The “energy-saving” boy is joined by an inquisitive girl in this adolescent mystery.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Yasuhiro Takemoto
Series Composition: Shouji Gatou
Other Notable Staff: Kouhei Tanaka (Music), Honobu Yonezawa (Original Story, Series Composition Cooperation)

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

First-Glance Potential: 85%

Uchuu Kyoudai

Summary: “story follows two brothers, Mutta and Hibito, who made a vow as kids to travel to space. The younger Hibito became an astronaut. Mutta did not, but his life changes on one fateful day. “ – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ayumu Watanabe
Series Composition: Makoto Uezu
Other Notable Staff: Toshiyuki Watanabe (Music), Hiroshi Kato (Art Direction)

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

First-Glance Potential: 85%

Fate/Zero Second Season

Summary: “Taking place 10 years before the events of Fate/stay night, this series chronicles the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Ei Aoki
Original Creator: Gen Urobuchi
Other Notable Staff: Yuki Kajiura (Music)

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

First-Glance Potential: 90%

Tsuritama

Summary: “In Enoshima, Yuki is a high school student who’s never been good at making real friends thanks to his abnormally poor communication skills. Haru is the self-styled alien who decides to teach Yuki to fish. Natsuki is an irritable born-and-raised local. Akira is the mysterious Indian who watches them all from a distance. These four meet, fish, and find big adventures on their little island.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Kenji Nakamura
Series Composition: Toshiya Ono
Other Notable Staff: Atsuya Uki (Character Designs)

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

First-Glance Potential: 90%

Eureka Seven Ao

Summary: “The “real mecha epic” will center around a boy named Ao who “set ‘destiny’ in motion again when he held the ‘power.'” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Tomoki Kyouda
Other Notable Staff: Mitsuyasu Sakai (SF-Setting), Shiho Takeuchi (Design), Shoji Kawamori (Nirvash Design)

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

First-Glance Potential: 95%

Sakamichi no Apollon

Summary: “Summer, 1966. Kaoru Nishimi has moved to live with relatives in Kyushu. He’s been an aloof honor student his whole life, but that starts changing when he meets Sentarou Kawabuchi, the school’s notorious bad boy. Through him, he learns the appeal of jazz and forms his first real friendships.” – (Taken from ANN)
Director: Shinichiro Watanabe
Other Notable Staff: Yoko Kanno (Music), Yuuko Kakihara (Script), Ayako Katou (Script), Yoshimitsu Yamashita (Character Designs)

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

First-Glance Potential: 95%

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes – 18

by psgels, posted in Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

That was just amazing.

Seriously, what I just watched was without a doubt the best episode of Milky Holmes yet. I didn’t think it was possible, but this show surpassed itself yet again. It had such a simple premise, and Arsene&co weren’t involved at all here for a change. But good lord, this was a simple yet awesome idea really well executed. I really hope that other creators watch this series, because we need more episodes like this.

By far the most priceless part of the episode was the very beginning. That was just like waking up from a really bad acid trip, only to witness something even more bizarre. Kokoro waking up in that train, in the midst of everyone calmly sitting with some of the most bizarre outfits. It’s just comedic gold. The rest of the episode explaining how the heck everything happened was also just brilliant.

Also, I have no clue what Golgo of all people was doing there. But that also was just an awesome parody that the creators pulled here. The rest of this episode was also just full of the most bizarre twists, including people getting kicked off the train in some of the weirdest fashions (I also loved the reactions of the people waiting at the different stations with this). I mean, random humour is one thing, but this episode pulled so many wtf-twists that it took that to a whole different level. And yet everything was tied together due to the whole premise of this episode.

Seriously, we NEED more episodes like this. Always having these kinds of episodes would of course be too much, and would make them less special, but what I’m saying is that there should be more room for episodes to just go crazy or to play around with narrative. This just does not happen often enough. Part of the fun of storytelling is telling stories in an interesting way.
Rating: **** (Fantastic)

Chihayafuru – 18

by psgels, posted in Chihayafuru

So, this was meant to be about the introduction episodes, in order to build up for the big matches as we reach the end of the series. And even there this show found a very good scenario: Chihaya’s loss against an opponent unimportant to the plot, and having the finale be amongst the rest of the main cast.

Also, this show really has the tendency to not show Taichi play. This episode really was apparent in that: for Chihaya it fully details how the match progresses. This episode also took a good look at how Tsutomu and Kanade played, but with Taichi we just got the description of “it’s fierce”. The episode ended with a cliff-hanger, so I wonder whether they’re going to keep this up.

One thing that is also apparent here is that the matches are kindof predictable. I’m not yet sure whether that’s an actual flaw here, because this show does not have any miracle comebacks or anything. While it’s of course natural for those to happen, I’ve seen so many sports series by now that those twists start to stand out as a bit convenient. To make up for it, this show plays around with its interesting match set-ups. Like, having the most important match right at the beginning at times.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Ano Natsu de Matteru – 05

by psgels, posted in Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope

Okay, my entries on Inu X Boku have now been turned into a Winter 2012 Kaleidoscope. That means that I’m pretty much going to blog either this, Inu X Boku, Black Rock Shooter, and Smile Precure, depending on what interests me the most. This week’s episode of Ano Natsu raised the bar a lot for the bunch, though.

The reason I’m not just going to blog this fully is because of the annoying romance cliches. I can fully understand it if this series decided to take it slow for its first half and let the cast play out. It dropped enough hints that it knows what it’s doing. However, I’ve gotten really annoyed with the romantic misunderstandings, not to mention how the male lead was very annoying to watch.

This time though, things just worked.There were some lesser parts. I’ve gotten a bit tired of school film projects in anime that just have to mirror the plot exactly. That’s all way too obvious, and I’m still not sure why nobody finds it strange that Ichika has this weird pet mascot thing that keeps following her around. At the moment, this feels like Birdy the Mighty Light, without the action, variety or intrigue. Yes, Senkawa was actually more annoying than Kaitou at the beginning, but he had 26 episodes and he used that to develop really well. This show doesn’t have that luxury.

And so there came this episode, where it finally really moves away from theusual cliches. In particular the second half of this episode was great, when Kaitou started filming Ichika for natural scenes of her. It’s there where he set himself apart from his cliche. Tetsurou made it even better afterwards, when this show seemed to go down the road of being yet another “just confess already!”-series, to actually telling Kaitou about the love triangle he’s in. That was great.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Natsume Yuujin-Chou – 45

by psgels, posted in Natsume Yuujin-Chou

And so, this was the comedic episode of Natsume Yuujinchou. Nyanko-sensei was completely hilarious here, but it’s yet again a wonderful story about Natsume himself as well. This one really takes the themes of him not wanting to involve others, and builds further upon it, putting him in a situation where he’s just completely powerless and in the mercy of them.

It’s another two-episode arc here, and I am particularly curious to see how the aftermath will end up. Nyanko-sensei didn’t bother to stay in character at all, which was especially bad with Sasada this was particularly bad. You can really see that Natsume usually does his best to stay polite, and this was about the complete opposite of that.

The best part of this episode though, was how it combined the comedy so well with the drama. I mean, usually with these kinds of episodes characters start overacting a bit too much. Everyone here stayed in character, yet showed something new here. Especially the final parts of this episode, as Natsume watched Tanuma get involved into something that might seriously harm him.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Another – 05

by psgels, posted in Another

I didn’t expect the answers for everything to come up this early in the series. This episode was where this show said “okay, that’s enough building up, time to explain why everyone is acting so weird”. And I must say, I like the story that’s behind this a lot here.

This puts the first episodes in an interesting perspective: we were lead, along with the main character, to believe that Mei was some sort of ghost. Instead, she was only treated as a ghost by the students of class 3. On top of that, the real ghost is one of the other students of the class, just nobody knows who.

That also has a very interesting effect that I applauded this series for: there are no copy-paste students in that class. Everyone here feels like a proper classmate, there just are a bunch of them who don’t talk to the main character. This doesn’t have the usual anime syndrome where some characters have obviously better character designs or something. The only exception of this being Mei, who just looks too moe compared to the rest of them (I was quite surprised when I saw how much she changed compared to her designs of the original source material).

What’s also surprising is that my criticism of the first two episodes (it’s trying too hard!) are much less noticeable right now. I mean, during art class, episode 2 had people draw things like the scream, and the random doll shots that appeared for no reason whatsoever. In this episode, everyone was acting very naturally. It’s like the creators were afraid that these first two episodes weren’t interesting enough to hold people’s attention, so they threw those random things in there or something. Personally, I use completely different criteria to determine if something is worth my time. In particular I look at the execution and acting, which were perfectly fine and would have been even better with those obnoxious distractions.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Aquarion Evol – 06

by psgels, posted in Aquarion Evol

This episode returned to the action.And well… it was just over the top, like everything else in this series. In particular the focus on Shrade was just meant to kick ass and be as grand as possible. Now, I know Shoji Kawamori, so I’m not going to be trolled by one of those twists again, but his entire performance in this episode was just wonderful. The soundtrack in this series is great, but it’s at its best when he is involved.

In comparison, that dog bad guy still needs a bit of work. He has potential as Mikono’s future groom, but right now his characters still isn’t interesting enough, not to mention that he pulled a very cliched retreat at the end of this episode. Again though: this episode promised some interesting connections; now live up to those!

Going back to that soundtrack… how big is it anyway? I mean, there are series that have two or three good tracks and keep repeating them, but this episode came yet again with more tracks I hadn’t heard before, and they just all kick ass. 2012 is definitely going to be an interesting year, with two Yoko Kanno series. Although I did hear that a lot of this soundtrack was composed for the first season already. My guess is (considering Yoko Kanno’s inactivity for the past years) that the rest of the soundtrack was composed by the composer of Zegapain’s soundtrack. Seriously. She should do more.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Mirai Nikki – 17

by psgels, posted in Mirai Nikki

Overall, Seventh were by far the most interesting opponents that Yukiteru and Yuno faced so far. It’s probably because of this that this arc has been my favorite so far. This episode also delved a bit in their past and gave them a pretty nice closure. The creators made good use of how they as a couple are similar, yet completely different from Yukiteru and Yuno.

Oh yeah, and then there was that thing with Yukiteru’s parents. Now that was just done for the shock factor, I believe. Of course I went ‘wtf’ when he stabbed her, but that’s the kind of twist that Guilty Crown would pull if it had the chance, and it doesn’t really fit Mirai Nikki’s thriller atmosphere of putting crazy people in a death match. I’d understand it if he was under the influence of drugs or something, but to be completely sober and pull something so random…

As for the leaps in logic, this episode was fairly light on them. There was just one point where the Seventh guy yet again got hold of Yuno’s diary. And he yet again didn’t think about destroying it. Sure it was a fake and he could have used it to get more information and all, but by now he should have known that Yukiteru is completely useless, and Yuno the biggest threat, and that getting rid of her would make things so much easier.
Rating: ** (Excellent)

Rinne no Lagrange – 05

by psgels, posted in Rinne no Lagrange

Holy crap.

I mean it’s easy to just dismiss this show based on first looks. A bunch of girls piloting mechas to save aliens? That sounds completely generic. And yet the execution and direction are just so damn good here. I mean, this is the Fafner team of Xebec, working together with Tatsuo Sato, written by the guy who wrote the second half of Darker than Black. And it’s true that the biggest sin of this series is being so generic: with an execution and staff like this, just imagine what it could have been if it had an actually good premise here.

Nevertheless, the characters in this episode were awesome. The chemistry between these guys is really fun to watch. This episode introduced the main bad guy, and this completely sets Muginami apart from the stereotypical ditzy girl she was at first. This episode first starts with revealing that she indeed is a villain, making use of some great tension between her and Lan, only to reveal afterwards that she has just been acting on her own, and instead is being seen as a parasite by her comrades.

These kinds of episodes really allow the sharp direction here to shine. The main villain is also very interesting at this point (the coat thing was very funny), and the sharpness and timing of the dialogue here is subtle, yet witty. On top of that, this show has a second season confirmed in the summer season, so there will be enough time to really flesh these characters out.
Rating: *** (Awesome)

Hunter X Hunter – 18

by psgels, posted in Hunter X Hunter

Okay, I know what I’m going to do this season. The thing is that Ano Natsu, Black Rock Shooter, Inu Boku and Smile Precure are all series that are interesting, yet not interesting enough to be blogged weekly. So instead I’m going to do another Kaleidoscope and blog one of these four shows each week. Hunter X Hunter however has nothing to do with that. This show is great, period. And I’m going to bring it back from hiatus now that Hyouge Mono has finished.

I do want to say though, that it will probably be impossible for me to not blog this as a fan of the ’99 series. I will try to also write some impressions about actual episodes, but blogging this series for the past months, I really realized that I just have to draw comparisons between the two, so I really apologize for being a bit inaccessible to the people who are only now being introduced to the franchise. These comparisons will mostly be in the ’99 series’ favor for the current arc, while the next arc they will be very likely in the 2011-version. And after that, anything can happen.

Gon really impressed me in this episode. For me, the really big difference of the past few episodes between the two adaptations is that Gon immediately recovered from his poison in the new adaptation. Because of that, the moment where he stood out in this arc has shifted. This version doesn’t have the agonizing time that Gon spent, trying to recover from the poison. Instead, he had to wait all alone with his pride hurt and do nothing but wait for his friends. That gave this episode a slightly different meaning here, and instead made this episode really stand out for him. I really loved how he forced himself to help Leorio and the others.

Now, the next episode in the ’99 series was like, my absolute favorite Hunter X Hunter episode outside of the Yorkshin arc. That’s another reason why I really had to pick this show back up, because even though I’ve already seen it again, and the impact probably won’t be near what it was when I first watched it, I really want to see how the creators handle it this time. The ’99 series had a lot more time to devote on fleshing out the side characters. It even treated the characters who were just destined to die or drop off seriously here and this lead to a wonderful side-cast. This new series doesn’t have a lot of that, but I’m still impressed with how they made Ponzu in an interesting character despite only know learning what her personality was.

With this episode however, I can also see that the 2011 series put a lot of time into fleshing out the nine remaining contestants. The questionnaire from the chief was still really great to watch. I also really liked Hanzo here, even though he only appeared for like… 30 seconds; it took me a while to realize, but that guy actually had three tags worth of one point with him. That actually means that he couldn’t find the tag that Killua threw away, and I can only imagine how he desperately had to try and find two other tag holders in order to get the right points. I managed to track one down to being that one guy with long black hair, but I just can’t find out who the other was.
Rating: ** (Excellent)