Spring Season Preview – Movie and OVA Edition

So this is a bit of an experiment: with a lot of seasonal previews I’ve been noticing that OVAs and Movies often take the back seat (this also was the case with my own), up to the point that some gems like Furusato Japan completely passed the radar for years. So here it is: a seasonal preview that’s entirely focused on the upcoming OVAs and Movies. Do note that for the movies, you can expect them to only be available in six months or so.

In any case, the major players here are Sunrise and Production IG with four and three releases respectively. That explains why they felt rather absent with among the Television series. For the people who noted that the spring line-up didn’t look very impressive: a lot of the good stuff of the upcoming season also lies with its Movies and OVAs, with a number of awesome premises scheduled.

Doraemon: Nobita no Ningyo Daikaisen

Summary: It has something to do with Doraemon and his friends fining a mermaid princess and becoming mermaids themselves.
Why you should look forward to it: It will keep your kids busy.
Why you should not look forward to it: This movie wins the prize for having the most annoying website, including a movie that just won’t. stop. playing. Even when you attempt to shut it off, it comes back to bite you after a few seconds. In any case, it’s a harmless kids adventure, but I don’t see much depth or fun for anyone of an older demographic.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

To Love-Ru OVA 6

Summary: Following the adventures and trouble that surrounds Lala Satalin (princess of Deviluke stellar empire) and her unwilling fiance Rito Yuki (a mere human), and friends. The story from “ToLoveRU” continues with a lot of fun caused by Lala’s scientific research, her twin sisters, friends, and Rito’s sister. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Boobs?
Why you should not look forward to it: Xebec is a strange company. It’s definitely able to produce charming series with a lot of personality and depth. And then, their other side is this: cheap harem shows. If you like this sort of stuff, then good for you, but I’ve gotten tired of them looooong ago.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Mahou Sensei Negima!: Mou Hitotsu no Sekai #3

Summary: Negi Springfield and his gang of students, The White Wing (aka Ala Alba), continue their search for Negi’s father by planning a trip to the magic world. The series starts off with their arrival in London and their trip to Negi’s home town (Chapter 184). – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: This is how to correctly adapt a franchise: just animate whatever you can stuff into a bunch of tv-series, and continue the rest of the manga in a series of OVAs.
Why you should not look forward to it: Blegh, Shinbo. Plus, I haven’t watched the rest of Negima.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Sex Pistols

Summary: The 2003 sci-fi story deals with romantic relationships between human men that evolved from animals besides monkeys, such as leopards and bears. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: This is just… wrong on so many levels.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m… speechless. I mean, yaoi is one thing, but this premise is the product of deranged minds.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Eve no Jikan – The Movie

Summary: In the not too distant future androids have come into common usage. Taking the androids for granted, humans treat them as if they were common everyday tools, while on the other hand, some people empathize with androids due to their human-like appearance (save for a digital ring floating above their heads). This has become a social problem and these people are frowned upon as a result. Rikuo, one who has taken androids for granted for his entire life, one day discovers that Sammy, his home android, has been acting strangely and finds a strange phrase recorded in her activity log. He, along with his friend Masaki, traces Sammy’s footsteps and come upon an unusual cafe. This cafe’s main rule is to not discriminate between humans and androids. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: If you haven’t seen it yet, then this is your chance. While it could have been longer, Eve no Jikan was an interesting look at AI and science fiction. This is the movie release of it.
Why you should not look forward to it: It does seem like your average recap movie, though. It doesn’t have much to offer for those who already watched it like myself.
First-Glance Potential: 0%

Haiyoru! Nyaru-Ani

Summary: The full length 20 minute long Flash anime stars the cute silver-haired girl Nyaruko-san who is actually the ancient monster god Nyarlathotep (from author H.P. Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu mythos”). – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: You have to give the creators credit from coming up with such an obscure background character. The director, Azuma Tani is nearly completely new to the business, so it can go anywhere.
Why you should not look forward to it: DLE, the animation company, is only known for very, very, very cheap flash anime that anyone with a flash program could have made. The original character-designs are from the same guy who did them for Kanokon!
First-Glance Potential: 10%

Crayon Shin-chan: Chou Jikuu! Arashi o Yobu Ora no Hanayome

Summary: Shin-chan causes trouble at a wedding.
Why you should look forward to it: What made Shin-chan set himself apart from most other kids shows was simple: most leads are cheerful, nice and always perfect citizens. Shin-Chan is the complete opposite of that. The staff behind this movie also does not share its history: Akira Shiguno is the director, but he’s mostly directed other kinds of kids shows. The screenplay is even more interesting: Michiko Yokote, who worked on the series composition of gems as xxxHolic, Strange Dawn, Hale Nochi Guu and Princess Tutu, and wrote the script of Bake Neko, Cowboy Bebop and Kaze no Yojimbo.
Why you should not look forward to it: But here’s my experience with the Shin-chan franchise, or the TV-series at least, when it aired on Dutch television for a while: it’s fun at first, but after a while Shin-chan’s excessive whining REALLY gets on your nerves.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Tono to Issho

Summary: Adaptation of Tono to Issho 4-panel gag manga. The manga follows the humorous exploits of generals during Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku (Era of the Warring States) period. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: I have no idea. It could be a nice parody, though.
Why you should not look forward to it: But it’s most likely just another one of those gimmicky OVAs that’s not worth watching.
First-Glance Potential: 20%

Precure All Stars DX2: Kibou no Hikari— Rainbow Angel o Mamore!

Summary: Not sure, but it involves every single Pretty Cure lead character. All seventeen of them.
Why you should look forward to it: God, talk about overkill. When you take the characters of all seven Precure series thus far and stuff them into one movie, it’s going to be an interesting train-wreck to see how the creators plan to do all of them justice…
Why you should not look forward to it: It’s another one of these marketing ploys to sell toys. How can these creators, whoever they are, think that they can give everyone its own distinct role?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in The Sky

Summary: Kaitou Kid has his eyes set on the “Lady of the Sky” jewel aboard Bell 3, the largest airship in the world. However, a mysterious terrorist group called Red Shamu-neko has hijacked the airship itself, along with Conan, Kogoro and Ran. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: At this point it has become virtually impossible to try and catch up to the Conan TV-series, but a movie could be nice. With such a huge franchise, Gosho Aoyama, Yasuichiro Yamamoto and Kazunari Kouichi must have either gotten really good at the mystery genre…
Why you should not look forward to it: …or completely burned up. The thing I never understood about the Conan franchise is how you can keep with the exact same formula for more than a decade now, and still not run out.
First-Glance Potential: 30%

Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-Hen

Summary: This seems to be a recap movie of the Benizakura chapter, in which Gintoki’s past gets its first major exploration.
Why you should look forward to it: Ah, back when Gintama was at its best. The arc was a bit cheesy, but well written and gave a lot of depth to the characters involved.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, it sounds like a recap movie with some new things added and subtracted. Will it be enough of a difference for those who already watched that arc?
First-Glance Potential: 30%

King of Thorn

Summary: A mysterious virus, nicknamed Medusa, is spreading around Japan, turning its victims into stone. Given the impossibility of finding an immediate cure, the government opts for cryopreserving a select group of patients until they come up with a solution. Kasumi, one of the chosen ones, has been asleep for years and her awakening, more than a bed of roses, is a bed of thorns, and happens in the midst of total chaos where monstrous creatures lie in wait all around. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: Ah, the next big-budgetted blockbuster. This one promises a lot of eye candy, and it’s good to see that the Sunrise executives are trying more than just ripping off their own franchises. Hiroshi Yamaguchi may have been behind a few flops, but also has shown that he can handle writing a serious story such as Argento Soma, Peacemaker Kurogane, Gatekeepers 21 and Yukikaze. It overall sounds like a very interesting mystery action series
Why you should not look forward to it: This movie is like what? 100 minutes long? The manga it’s based on consists out of 6 volumes. That ain’t gonna fit!
First-Glance Potential: 60%

Bungaku Shoujo

Summary: The “mysterious school comedy” centres on the unusual members of a high school literary club. Touko Amano, a high school senior who calls herself the “literary girl” as the club president, is actually a supernatural creature (youkai) that devours stories — she tears pages from books to munch on them. Her club subordinate is Konoha Inoue, a second-year high school boy who writes stories every day for Amano to eat. He once wrote an award-winning novel, but he wrote it under the pen-name Miu Inoue so readers thought the author was a mysterious 14-year-old bishoujo novelist. The stress from the novel’s fame and its movie and television drama plans turned Inoue in an introverted recluse. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: So, this is what Production IG will be working on for the upcoming spring season. The OVA of Bungaku Shoujo did a nice job of introducing the main characters, but I do hope that the movie will show them in more depth. Yuka Yamada behind the screenplay sounds very promising, considering that she worked the script for Bokura ga Ita, Hataraki Man, Mushishi and Umi Monogatari.
Why you should not look forward to it: Shunsuke Tada, the director of World Destruction doesn’t seem like the best director you could get, though. His works have been among some of the series that impressed me the least over Production IG’s repertoire.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn

Summary: 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)
Why you should look forward to it: At first sight, this looks like yet another one of those Gundam series. For me the UC Gundam time-line derailed in the second half of Zeta Gundam, so what could this one hope to achieve. Now, take a look at the director: Kazuhiro Furuhashi, the director of epics as Rurouni Kenshin Tsuioukuhen, Real Drive, Zipang, Chevalier, Amatsuki and Hunter x Hunter: now I really have to look forward to it. The series will consist out of 6 episodes of about two hours in length, so that should be enough time.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, the big problem with Gundam series nowadays is very meddling Sunrise Executives who refuse any sort of creative freedom, just for the sake of a whole list of shallow marketing plot-devices, like a bunch of bishies or that masked guy. This whole OVA is going to be a tug of war between them and the staff of this series, so let’s hope that it’s not going to turn into another train-wreck because of it.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Break Blade 1

Summary: Rygart Arrow is the only one in his world who lacks the inherent ability to power up quartz, the energy source that makes all of the machines run. Nevertheless, he’s pretty well connected. The King and Queen of his country of Krisna happen to be old college friends. But so is Zess, the guy who is leading the army of a neighbouring kingdom in an attack on Krisna. How did it comes to this? There’s little time to ponder the implications as an army in giant, mechanized battle suits attacks. Arrow just feels like he’s in the way – until he comes across a powerful, ancient mech that no one has yet to be able to figure out how to run. But his natural affinity for the suit’s operating mechanism may just turn Arrow into the most important player of all. – (Taken from Mangaupdates)
Why you should look forward to it: It’s great to see that after Kara no Kyoukai’s success, there are more studios that release large series of movies in order to give their stories the time they need, rather than trying to stuff everything into just ninety minutes. Nobuyoshi Haraba, the director of Fafner and DNAngel is going to direct, which sounds like a solid selection.
Why you should not look forward to it: I’m a bit iffy about the chief director, though: Tetsuro Amino. while his experience is very broad, none of his series really seem that special.
First-Glance Potential: 70%

Trigun Badlands Rumble

Summary: The story is set in Makka, a town surrounded by quicksand. With rumours spreading that the legendary robber Gasback has his sights set on the town, the mayor Kepler has brought together bounty hunters to protect the town. These bounty hunters have been following Gasback from town to town in hopes of bagging the prize. Meryl and Milly have come to town to assess the situation as insurance agents, but are shocked by this turn of events. Moreover, Vash the Stampede is also in town, along with the female bounty hunter Ameria and Nicholas D. Wolfwood. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: The original director Satoshi Nishimura, who also directed the first season of Hajime no Ippo, is back with what apparently is a completely new story. Trigun had some great moments, so let’s hope that the movie can rekindle them.
Why you should not look forward to it: However, I had one problem with Trigun when I watched it: at some parts, it was a classic, but at others it tended to be a bit too dramatic than what was good for it, and it tended to drag this on for way too long, so that’s a potential pitfall. Yasuko Kobayashi, who is going to take care of the screenplay looks a bit iffy though. While she was the chief writer for Blassreiter and did the series composition for Casshern Sins, she also did the series composition for Claymore, Shakugan no Shana and Yume Tsukai…
First-Glance Potential: 80%

Eden of the East II – Paradise Lost

Summary: On November 22, 2010 ten missiles strike Japan. However, this unprecedented terrorist act, later to be called as “Careless Monday,” does not result in any apparent victims, and is soon forgotten by almost everyone. Then, 3 months later… Saki Morimi is a young woman currently in the United States of America on her graduation trip. But just when she is in front of the White House, Washington DC, she gets into trouble, and only the unexpected intervention of one of her fellow countrymen saves her. However, this man, who introduces himself as Akira Takizawa, is a complete mystery. He appears to have lost his memory. and he is stark naked, except for the gun he holds in one hand, and the mobile phone he’s holding with the other hand. A phone that is charged with 8,200,000,000 yen in digital cash. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: So this movie will form the conclusion to Kenji Kawayama‘s Eden of the East, as its second conclusion movie. The original series had a great premise, and a lot depends on this movie for the success of this franchise. With two movies of a combined 172 minutes length, it’s bound to be interesting.
Why you should not look forward to it: But yeah, let’s not forget that the TV-series felt rather incomplete and disappointed a little in its second half. It’s really up to the movies to make up for it.
First-Glance Potential: 80%

xxxHolic Rou

Summary: Bundled with limited edition copies of XXXHOLiC manga volume 17. The OVA was originally announced for release with the 16th manga volume. – (Taken from AniDB)
Why you should look forward to it: Its excellent cast of characters. Watanuki is downright lovable, and through the course of two series, one OVA, one movie and a bunch of cameos in a ton of different series he’s turned into a very engaging character.
Why you should not look forward to it: But I’m still torn. After Tsubasa Chronicles pretty much decided to screw everyone who hasn’t read the manga, I’m very afraid that xxxHolic is going to end up doing the same.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Tales of Symphonia – Tethealla-hen

Summary: This sequel will explore the world parallel to the one that the first OVA took place in, exploring themes as balance, racism and trust, in two worlds in which humans, elves and half-elves have many troubles coexisting.
Why you should look forward to it: Hell yeah, I’ve been looking forward to this! Finally it’s about time for my two favourite characters, Regal and Presea to arrive. The first OVA set itself apart by following the games faithfully, and yet taking its own route when necessary. The staff is the same, so it’s bound to be fun.
Why you should not look forward to it: But granted though, four episodes still feels a bit too short in order to give all of the nuances of the games ample attention. Let’s hope that Ufo Table can skilfully insert the most important parts.
First-Glance Potential: 90%

Armored Trooper Votoms – Phantom Arc

Summary: 26 years after the original Armored Trooper Votoms combat robotic mecha anime series aired, this new six-volume video series is slated to be the final chapter in the franchise. – (Taken from ANN)
Why you should look forward to it: Ryousuke Takahashi, an incredible director who has created a huge amount of unique and exceptionally well written series. Votoms is his pet project, and 26 years after the original air-date, we finally get the conclusion to this epic.
Why you should not look forward to it: Sunrise Executives, don’t you dare to touch this thing or make it more mainstream and marketable like how you ruined the Brilliant Heretic!
First-Glance Potential: 100%