Information for this is taken from ANN, Moonphase, Moetron, various official websites and random people on twitter, forums and blogs who I get most of this totally reliable info from (but not MAL. As user friendly as it may be compared to many other website, the information from there is notorious for being wrong an awful lot of the time. Don’t use MAL for season previews folks, trust me on this).

Bakuman.

Studio: JC Staff

The totally obvious hit of this season. The manga is by Tsugumi Ohba, the guy (girl? Ohba’s identity is a closely guarded secret) who wrote Death Note. I haven’t read the manga myself because of this imminent anime adaptation, but I gather it’s slightly more grounded than Death Note and spends most of its time making normal life look awesome. I am a little bit miffed Madhouse aren’t adapting Bakuman, but JC Staff have decided to make up for not being Madhouse by compiling their absolute best staff possible. This includes Kasai Kenichi directing, who is basically their ace in the hole having worked on most of their best works (Nodame, Honey and Clover). Oh, and he’s joined by some other director fellow who, according to ANN, directed Code Geass R2 episode 25. He created The Cart Driver!

Blogging Chances: Fuck yeah Death Note author!

The World God only Knows

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Studio:Manglobe

There are two anime the moefags are going nuts over this season. One, the siscon one, will have absolutely no crossover appeal to anyone else whatsoever. This though has a lot of potential. Been described if Lelouch was put into Amagami, while keeping his total disinterest in the opposite sex. It’s more of a subversion of crappy eroge harems than pandering. Manglobe may be a totally different studio from the one that made Samurai Champloo, but they’re still able to produce good stuff if given the right source material. My optimism took a huge dent when looking at the staff list (the only two other shows the director has done are Galaxy Angel 4 and Princess Beware) but hey, I’m always stupidly optimistic at the start of seasons!

Blogging Chances: Others are more excited than I am, but maybe I can use this as an alternate teaching lesson to Neil Strauss and The Game.

Star Driver

Studio: Bones

Bones making mecha anime again. This has the potential to be the greatest anime of the decade. Nicking the staff list from THAT’s season preview:

Director from Ouran, though he hasn’t directed anything since, and the script is from the who did FLCL, most of Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Nodame Cantabile: Paris. Music Director did the music for Bakemonogatari, Lucky Star, and Haruhi (Disappearance and Melancholy). Art Director is from CANAAN, Karas, LoGH, and Samurai Champloo. The Animation Director worked on Summer Wars, GitS, and Ouran. Bla bla bla something about seiyuu bla bla bla.

TL;DR – Best staff out of any show this season.

It also has massive potential for fail. The campiness of the character designs, along with the slightly generic sounding plot and the ridiculous looking mecha point to something that could end up on the wrong side of corny into outright stupid. It wouldn’t be the first time an awesome staff sheet produced unbelievable crap and this does have the whiff of something like that. Mind you, that’s just a gut feeling and, in the studio and staff list, I’m staring in the face of overwhelming odds that this will be unbelievably awesome. Besides, if it does fail, at least it should be fun to watch the ensuing train wreck.

Blogging Chances: Whether to fawn over or to laugh at, I’m all over this one.

Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

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Studio: Shaft

Shaft.…on one hand, you know exactly what you’re going to get. All the usual Shinbo-isms, unusual angles and highly inventive openings and endings. And yet they’re the most notoriously hit-or-miss studio around. The manga it’s based off has won awards, which is always a good sign, and the trailer showed a relative lack of Shinbo-isms (although I’m not entirely sure if I’m pleased about that. I might only realise when they’ve got rid of them that I liked Shaft’s close up shots of eyes and backgrounds full of school desks). I’m getting a generally good vibe off it and Shaft finally taking a break last season can only be a good thing.

Blogging Chances: I’ve already got my eyes set on another Shaft show, but if others fail to impress then a maid is fine too.

Psychic Detective Yakumo

Studio: Bee Train

Bee Train are famous for their girls with guns shows like Noir, Madlax, Requiem for the Phantom, El Cazador de la Bruja and so on. There may be a noticeable lack of girls or guns in this show but don’t expect them to be changing their sloooow moving plots, emphasizing atmosphere and development over excitement and fast-pacing. Can’t say a whole lot else for this show though, but I’m going to go out on a limb and and say, with a main character that bishie and being voiced by Daisuke Ono (Shizuo from DRRR, Sebastian from Kuroshitsuji), this show will have fangirls all over it.

Blogging Chances: Slow moving plots often give me little to work with, so no blogging plans unless it ends up less like previous Bee Train productions and more like Pushing Daisies.

Panty and Stocking

with Garterbelt

Studio: Gainax

Sounds like a porno, looks like Powerpuff Girls and with the staff behind Gurren Lagann working on it, this is far and away the strangest and most difficult to predict anime this season. First of all, it’s not a kids show. From what I’ve heard it sounds like a raunchy comedy kinda thing, lots of crude jokes about sex and stuff. Due to Japans often lack of intelligence when it comes to raunchy comedy beyond ‘haha boobs haha sex haha fallopian tubes’, it could be stupid and unfunny, but honestly I just don’t have a clue what to expect from this. Seriously Gainax? This is what you’re making?

Blogging Chances: Suger, spice and everything nice. These were the ingredients chosen to create the perfect little girls. But Professor Utonium accidentally added and extra ingredient to the concoction: Viagra.

Yosuga no Sora

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Feel

Eroge adaptation blergh. I actually had quite a bit of fun watching the trailer and picking out the stereotypes. The generic ‘nice’ male lead viewers can project themselves into. The tsundere sister who isn’t blood-related. The large breasted dojiko. The gainaxing maid. The soft spoken senpai. Ah you people who actually like these sorts of shows. I will never be able to understand you. Interestingly the director did Spice and Wolf, but that appears to be a total once off on his part.

Blogging Chances: (-_-) <— this is my eroge adaptation face

Togainu no Chi

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

When I heard this got green-lit for production, I took one look, saw the BL game title stuck to it and mentally shoved it in the bin. A few months later I saw a trailer for an upcoming anime full of action and psycho faces and intense aura and instantly placed it on my to-watch list, only to discover it was the very BL adaptation I dismissed earlier. This did lead to many interesting discoveries that I hadn’t noticed before, such as the person in the trailer in bondage gear was actually an extremely effeminate man. But, as watered down as the BL is rumoured to be in this adaptation, it doesn’t change the fact that BL game adaptations are often even worse than their genderswapped counterparts. I’m honestly less worried about overbearing BL vibes than I am it simply being terrible. A-1 are a bog-standard, middle of the road studio with middle of the road staff working on it. I doubt this will appeal to anyone other than the folks that are watching Uraboku, although at least these guys look like real men.

Blogging Chances: I’m going to need a longer break before I start blogging BL shows again

Kuragehime

Studio: Brains Base

First, it’s in the Noitamina timeslot (Eden of the East, Nodame Cantabile, Moyashimon, Tatami Galaxy). Second, it’s by Brains Base (Baccano, Durarara, Natsume Yuujinchou) and they’ve brought in the exact same crew who worked behind those shows, including the music guy. Kuragehime is an award winning Josei manga, which means it’s like shojo except with more maturity and less wish-fulfillment, and the story includes a cross-dresser, an apartment block full of fujioshi and a jellyfish otaku. In short, what’s not to like?

Blogging Chances: I don’t think I’ve ever blogged a Noitamina offering. Might be time to change that

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes

Studio: JC Staff

Yeah, this is for the same type of people who like Campanella. I’ve been following this guy’s twitter account, and he says Milky Holmes has got a talented animation team working on this and I’m inclined to believe what he says, so that’s something for you moefags to look forward to I guess. Still, JC Staff are kinda straying from their light novel ways of the past few years though, aren’t they. Oh well, at least they’re making Bakuman

Blogging Chances: (-_-) <– this is my eroge adaption face

Invasion! Squid Girl

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Studio: Diomedea

Moe moe squid girl. It focuses on cutesy slapstick humour as a girl unused to life on land goes around telling people to stop polluting the sea. Diomedea are hardly a stellar animation studio, or even an average one. I’m probably being too harsh on this though. I can actually see this being a rather endearing comedy. The director is a pretty talented guy too, having worked on Genshiken, Big Windup and XXXHolic. There’s another name on his resume: Hare + Guu, a series that also looks like a cutesy comedy from the outside. So we could be in for a pleasent surprise here, but I’m not holding out on much.

Blogging Chances: Would be a total wildcard choice if I did pick it up

Otome Yokai Zakuro

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Studio: JC Staff

I can so see this getting lost in the shuffle next season. From the outside it just seems like a jumble of whatever. Yokai and cat-eared girls and men in uniforms and pink everywhere, it’s hard to pin anything down with this series to get excited about. JC Staff have all their best staff working on Bakuman and their high school girl staff working on Index 2 so they’ve got a rather second rate staff working on this. Maybe in a solstice season I could see people actually watching this but not in a season so packed full of stuff like this one. Honestly, the most interesting part about this is the director’s, Chiaki Kon, resume. Higurashi, Umineko, Junjou Romantica, Nodame Paris and Nodame Final. There’s a controversial list if there ever was one.

Blogging Chances: I wonder if psgels will be the only person who blogs this show?

My Little Sister Can’t Be

This Cute

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Studio: AIC

You know what I’d be interested in seeing one day? An anime with a modern day setting about a normal older brother/younger sister relationship. The closest I can think to one off the top of my head is Genshiken, and that was done deliberatley to subvert that very incestious trope eroge’s often have. But this certainly isn’t it. While the reviews of the other moe comedy series, World God only Knows, mainly focus on the comedic side and the greatness of the male lead, all I ever hear about this series is from people wishing they had a cute little sister who was also an otaku.

Blogging Chances: I have a little sister. She is an otaku. Screw you only child otakus! I don’t have to watch this anime, I’m living it. I’m living your dream!

MM!

Studio: Xebec

Bleh Xebec. This is one of those light novel adaptions that I have difficulty wrapping my head around how it’s meant to work in written format, kinda like Ladies vs Butlers (unsurprisingly also by Xebec). How are you supposed to get your edgy raunchy comedy to work properly in written format? There’s only a picture every 10 pages or something. That’s 9 pages with no cute girls to look at. As insta-shock value a character who is into masochism might be, this has suck written all over it. The staff have worked on everything from To-Love-Ru to Kanokon to Sacred Blacksmith. I think you should all know by now what you’re getting into.

Blogging Chances: I’m not putting myself through this. Unlike the male lead, I’m not a masochist

Hyakka Ryoran Samurai Girls

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Studio: Arms

The people who brought us Queens Blade, Ikkitousen and Night Shift Nurses. Expect more of the same. Nothing more, nothing less. The trailer actually looks kinda cool, what with the ink splashes everywhere.

Blogging Chances: If I was a girl, I’d test doing the fighting moves these girls do to test if boobs really do move like that and then write about my findings as the blogging project. If I grow boobs before this starts, then I guarantee you I’ll blog this.

Ironman

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Studio: Madhouse

Lalala copypaste from the Spring Preview before it was delayed.

Prob­ably the best part of this pro­ject is that Mad­house have been given total free­dom to adapt this story as they wish. Now I wasn’t that big of a fan of the movie but the story was indeed an inter­est­ing one. Plus just watch that trailer. After a miser­able 2009, this is Mad­house back on form with some slick anim­a­tion. There’s not a whole lot of info on this out there but the name Mad­house combined with the prom­ise of action always gets my interest up.

And if it gets delayed yet again, I’ll copypaste that paragraph yet again. Sorry, but I’m never able to summon enthusiasm for delayed projects. I worked up my enthusiasm once before, it’s hard to work it up again.

Blogging Chances: I’ll leave this to comic book nerds to rave about

Fortune Arterial

Studio: Feel & ZEXCS

(-_-)

SEQUELS

A Certain Magical Index 2

Studio: JC Staff

In a way, it’s almost refreshing to see Index on this list. It’s JC Staff being JC Staff and not uber-popular shounen manga adaptors, obscure girly manga adaptors or VN adaptors. I’m not a fan myself but I don’t begrudge the show or anyone who is a fan. Here’s more flat-chested lolis for you lot.

Letter Bee 2

Studio: Pierrot

I blogged this show. I got bored of this show. I dropped this show. I have no intention of watching the second season. kthx

Sora no Otoshimono 2

Studio: AIC Asta

Flying panties.

Motte To-Love-Ru

Studio: Xebec

The manga was cancelled because it was repetitive, had crap humour, no plot and nothing interesting happening whatsoever. The only appeal and only saving grace of the manga and its respective anime is the girls are hot. Just so long as you guys know that.

Hakuouki 2

Studio: Deen

Moar samurai bishies

Arakawa Under the Bridge 2

Studio: Shaft

I loved the first season. Absolultey loved the thing, but I’m a bit wary of a second season. What made it great was how complete and well-rounded the whole thing was. It doesn’t need a second season. Plus Shaft have a miserable record with second seasons. But they made one, so I will watch it. And continue blogging it.

Super Robot Wars:

The Inspector

Studio: Asahi Production

Only the most hardcore of mechafags watch these. No really. Despite the presense of giant robots, absolutely nobody watches these shows. I have my doubts that it will even be subbed. But if the chibi Gundam version of Romance of the Three Kingdoms got subbed, then I suppose this can too.

OVA and Specials

Click here to view the embedded video.

Well the two biggest names (at least, ones I care about) in the OVA’s section are continuing ones. Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Trail episode 2 is shipping out 30th September while Gundam Unicorn 2 is out 30th October. Yozakura Quartet is getting an OVA release that’s supposed to follow the manga this time around. Now Yozakura Quartet was a bit of a dissapintment, but at least it had oodles of stlye and nice artwork. I draw a massive eeuurgh at the artwork in that trailer. There’s a few extra special episodes for random series sitting around, such as A Certain Scientific Railgun OVA and an Air Gear OVA. There’s even another To Heart OVA (for the series that is essentially the father of all crappy eroge adaptions, I sure as hell never see it mentioned anywhere). Speaking of crappy eroge adaptations, I believe there’s also yet another ~Da Crapo~ OVA, although they seem to come in as regular as a new season of Major. In the region of OVA’s to actual new content, there’s some sort of pilot episode of Mirai Nikki, which I know has quite a lot of people excited about.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Movies

The problem with putting movies in season previews is we won’t see the ones coming out in Japan until the dvd release, several months after they actually started screening. So while Gundam 00 movie, Loups-Garous and Mardock Scramble are all coming out next season, we won’t actually see any of them for a long time yet. So what can we expect soon? Well, the second Eden movie, Paradise Lost, is already out on DVD, just nobody has subbed it yet, apparenlty because it’s not very good. I’d normally cry foul at that but after the first movie it’s not that much of a stretch to believe that happening. Time of Eve movie is also out yet not subbed, although that’s just the same events that happened in the original series told slightly differently. Second Broken Blade movie is out 27th August, which I’m excited about but apparently very few others are. Fate/Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works is out 30 September and King of Thorn is out 27 October, and that is unfortunately it for dvd dates that have actually been released. No idea when Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya or Trigun: Badlands Rumble are coming out. Then there’s that Macross Frontier movie, which I’ve been writing about for the past 5 season previews. I’m starting to doubt that it ever existed in the first place…

Blogging Scheduele

I’m going to try out being on of those blog-em-all anime bloggers. I’m planning on picking up at least 4, possibly 5 series next season, so obviously non-episodic stuff is going to be on the downturn. Since I blogged and loved the first season of Arakawa Under the Bridge, I’m definitely blogging that this season. Bakuman and Star Driver are the other two I’m definitely blogging, unless there’s some sort of crazy world where all three air on the same day. Otherwise it depends on airing dates and what dates I have free to blog these shows. Kuragehime, World God Only Knows and Soredemo Machi are the other possibilites with maybe a wildcard choice like Squid Girl or Psychic Detective Yakumo if the others turn out really poor.

The reason I was going to start making these charts was because Chartfag was slowing down and there wasn’t another trustworthy creator of the charts. However Chartfag finally did bring out one of his amazing charts for the Fall Season (I feel like such a traitor calling it Fall, but I suppose Autumn is a bit of a stupid word anyway. What sort of word has the balls to put both an m and an n at the end of itself? Just make your mind up you stupid word).

I suppose Chartfag could start making charts at his regular speed once again but I doubt it. The two year death for anime blogs seems to stretch to chart makers as well. So while I’m not going to make any V2 for my Fall chart, that doesn’t mean I’m done for the next seasons yet. But don’t go searching for charts for new seasons several months beforehand. Dates simply have not been confirmed yet. Seriously, anyone who believes that they have a list this large confirmed for the Spring season already is pretty fucking stupid.

Chartfags Amazing Charts are coming out slower every season. Others have started making charts, but a lot of them are crap, wrong, in Japanese or just plain trolls. The problem is there isn’t a trustworthy one person making these charts anymore. So instead of complaining about it, I decided I’d try make them myself. Now this is my first time so it’s hardly like I’m going to be the trustworthy source yet, but I’ve got to start somewhere. If anyone could point out any problems or any suggestions for future charts then that would be much appreciated. I’ll get them fixed asap.

Right, about those not on the chart. All information on what’s coming up is taken from moonphase.cc and Anime News Network. There’s a whole bunch of anime that you might see on other charts that aren’t here. Deadman Wonderland isn’t airing this season. Goulart Knights and Starry Sky were meant to air 2010 but they haven’t been confirmed for the Autumn season yet. Seeing as this is the last season of the year, you’d think they’d have to air this season but eh, I decided to er on the side of caution. Same with Geass Gaiden. That hasn’t had a release date announced either, much to my displeasure

::Edit:: I bet some people will start throwing up winter season charts already. They will almost certainly be made up. The only anime confirmed for winter at the moment are Fractale, Gosick and Infinite Stratos. I think Wolverine and the second season of Baka to Test are also airing, but that genuinely is it at the moment.

So yeah, welcome to The Cart Driver’s Summer Season Preview. Or Summer Anime List. Or List of Anime airing this Summer. Or whatever other keywords I need to put in to make sure this post shows up on search engines~

All information is taken from a variety of places. Anime News Network, MyAnimeList, Chartfags Amazing Chart, Animesuki forums and the respective websites for each anime. For some other worthwhile season previews, there’s Star Crossed, Sea Slugs, THAT, Caraniel and others that I’ll link to once they release theirs.

Amagami SS

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: AIC

Additional Info: Based off romance simulation game

Synopsis: A second-year high school boy finds himself uneasy during Christmas time due to an experience in the past. However, this year at Christmas, he gets his last chance to ask out a graduating female senior named Haruka Morishima — or one of several other classmates. The story of the anime will be arranged in an omnibus format, with each heroine getting her own version of the story animated. Each heroine will sing her own version of the ending theme song.

Thoughts: Forgive me for being a grumpy guts, but AIC producing yet another romance anime doesn’t quite fill me with enthusiasm. They have a history of soft and fluffy anime that never really go anywhere and get forgotten about as soon as they started. The director has worked on similar such anime as well. Now many might say the story format is kinda interesting. The prospect of each arc being animated will lead to people pointing to other short romance stories like Hatsukoi Limited. Thing is, it takes me a long time to actually care about a romance, although at least this means we won’t get a nothing ending to this series like many previous AIC productions, so I’m willing to give it a shot. Otaku seem to be quite excited about this anime because one of the girls has ‘sex hair’. This is referring to the state a girls hair gets in after sex, something I thought otaku would lack the required experience to possess that knowledge.

Asobi ni Ikuyo!

Studio: AIC+

Additional Info: Based off Light Novels

Synopsis: The story revolves around Kakazu Kio, an ordinary high school freshman living in Okinawa. A girl with cat ears appears before him during a memorial service for one of his family ancestors. The girl calls herself Eris and claims she is an alien. Before long, fanatical alien worshipers and a mysterious government agency are in hot pursuit of Eris, but Kio’s childhood friend Manami — who wants to follow in her father’s footsteps in the CIA — captures Eris. Kio finds himself having to protect Eris from everyone.

Thoughts: A few things to clear up. First, this is not a copy of Spice and Wolf because these novels were written before Spice and Wolf was. However the reason this rather old novel series has only now been made into an anime is because cat-eared girls are hot stuff thanks to that previously mentioned title. Second point is AIC+ are basically AIC except with far more fanservice. Considering the lack of anything to get excited about in your typical AIC anime, this can probably be regarded as a good thing. Combine those two together and what do you get? Yup, a title that’s been green lit using nekomini fanservice as its only appeal. Whatev’, at least the girl is hot

The Legend of the Legendary Heroes

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: ZEXCS

Additional Info: Based off light novel series. The title is intentionally stupid (it’s called humour. Contrary to popular opinion, the Japanese can do it too)

Synopsis: Raina Lute is a lazy student of Roland Empire Royal Magician’s school. One day, Roland Empire goes to war against a neighboring country Estaboole, and he lost his classmates in the battle. After the war, Lute sets out for a journey to search the relics of a “Legendary Hero” at Emperor Zion Astar’s command. And he finds out a deadly curse spreading the continent.

Thoughts: Epic fantasy anime? A guy with magical eyes voiced by Jun Fukuyama? Land of Hope and Glory playing in the trailer? I’d be pretty damn excited abouit this anime if it wasn’t for ZEXCS. They have a horrible history of annoyingly poor anime. Want to take a look at this directors previous two anime? Chrome Shelled Regios and Rental Magica, two anime that break the world record for averageness. Never get your hopes up for a ZEXCS anime. Who knows, maybe they might suddenly surprise us all? Probably not though.

Mitsudomoe

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Bridge

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: Comedy slice of life anime about 11 year old triplets Marui Mitsuba, Futaba and Hitoha.

Thoughts: Studio Bridge are a totally newbie company but looking at the staff should tell you all you need to know. The crew for Minami-ke first season have gathered together to create their own company, screwing Asread and making Mitsudamoe (I don’t actually know why Minami-ke changed hands after season 1 but this makes me think there’s a bit of dorama behind the scenes). This actually doesn’t look too bad judging by the trailer and it’s in fairly safe hands with the Minami-ke crew. Seems strange for me to be recommending a show like this but the trailer made me grin so I say go for it. Also first person to call this pedo-bait gets a punch in the face.

Nurarihyon no Mago

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Studio: Deen

Additional Info: Based off Shounen Jump manga

Synopsis: 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.

Thoughts: Ah, the next anime adaptation to come out of Shounen Jump. Reading reviews, it sounds like a pretty standard shounen fare, so take from that what you will. The staff behind it are solid without being exceptional. Studio Deen, while get a bit more flak than they probably deserve, are not exactly the greatest studio around (although better than bloody Pierrot). You should know by now whether you like shounen or not, although please don’t assume that all shounen are Narubleach. Remember that it’s a genre ranging from Black Cat to Air Gear to Fullmetal Alchemist. Personally I’m looking forward to it without highly anticipating it either. I’ve learned to be wary of anything with the name Deen attached.

Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi

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Studio: JC Staff

Additional Info: Based off light novels

Synopsis: A love comedy parodying fairy tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Ant and the Grasshopper,” etc. Ookami Ryoko (Ookami-san) is a spunky high school girl. She is a member of a “fixer” club so called Otogi High School Bank. She fixes the school’s problems with her partner Akai Ringo (Akazukin-chan.)

Thoughts: There’s one every season eh? An anime that has something about it that’s so similar to a previous popular anime that it can’t be merely a coincidence. Yup, there’s a Taiga look-a-like. I’m not sure why anime do it because all it attracts is negative attention but eh. That aside, this looks to be a genre-savvy, self-aware, parody laden JC Staff production (director of Hayate anyone?). In fact, this appears to be one giant wink to the fans. A shower scene in the trailer? There’s even a maid. All with JC Staff’s usual polished sheen and general high quality animation they put into their shows. Yup, I can see this being an absolute hit in otaku circles. When I say otaku circles, that almost certainly includes you reading this season preview, so good for you~

Highschool of the Dead

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Studio: Madhouse

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: A mysterious, lethal disease is on the loose worldwide, resulting in a catastrophic death rate of humanity, and the increasing rise of attacks, caused by the living dead. In Japan, several high school students and a school nurse have banded together to escape Fujimi High School shortly after it was attacked by zombies. The group now attempts to figure who or what was responsible for this plague, and in the meantime, attempt to survive the present apocalypse. The story is initially narrated through the eyes of Takashi Komuro, one of the students who had survived in the initial outbreak.

Thoughts: Violence and women. Guns and boobs. Headshots and pantyshots. Welcome to the highest budgeted fanservice-fest to grace the anime world. Madhouse have really pulled out all the stops on this one, even going as far to get the director of Death Note on board. So turn your brain off and watch those brains fly and boobs bounce. No really, you do have to turn off your brain for this one. The guy who wrote the manga is a h-artist so he is quite lacking in the story-telling department. Not that I think the fans of this show will mind that much

Seikimatsu Occult Academy

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Studio: A-1 Pictures

Additional Info: Original anime project in the Anime no Chikara timeslot

Synopsis: The horror and school comedy story revolves around mystery and supernatural cases at Occult Academy, a fortress-like academy city.

Thoughts: I was quite excited about the prospect of a timeslot devoted to anime original projects when it was first announced. However what Anime no Chikara has produced so far hasn’t exactly been awe-inspiring. Sora no Woto was an attempt to fuse moe with plot, which resulted in a moderately entertaining anime. Then there was Senko no Night Raid, which promised to be controversial but ended up being pretty disappointing, skirting around anything that would’ve made it even mildly interesting. Both have ratings below 7.5 on MAL, which is pretty darn low. In short, Anime no Chikara hasn’t been a success and I don’t believe there’s any other anime planned after Occult Academy. It’s a shame but it’s hard to feel sorry for them when they haven’t been producing good anime. Anywho, Occult Academy is the usual guff. A cluster of pretty talented staff who have all worked for a variety of different studios show signs of promise, but every other Anime no Chikara anime had that as well so eh. Maybe the girl will do some epic re-crossing of her legs, Basic Instinct style.

Shiki

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Studio: Daume

Additional Info: Based off Novel series written by Fuyumi Ono, the author of 12 Kingdoms and Ghost Hunt. Airing in the Noitamina Timeslot. 22 episodes long

Synopsis: During a fiercely hot summer in Sotoba, a peaceful and quiet village with a population of 1300 people, a series of bizarre deaths begin to occur. At the same time, a strange family moves into a long abandoned mansion in the region. Hospital dean Toshio Ozaki cannot figure out the cause of death in the deceased, initially suspecting an epidemic. As investigations continue between the hospital staff and the residents, it turns out that the village is being attacked by vampires.

Thoughts: A Noitamina anime running for 22 episodes? Hurrah, they haven’t done that since the first season of Nodame. As usual, the Noitamina timeslot brings in big reputations, this time with that award winning novelist I mentioned in the Additional Info bit. However getting Daume to do a mystery horror show seems a bit odd since their previous works consist of light-hearted, all-girl comedies like Minami-ke and Ichigo Marshmallow. From what I could garner from reviews of the source material, this is a story that takes its time developing and revealing to a point of slight frustration, although that might have just been manga fans complaining about its slow releases. It’s a promising anime indeed, especially judging by the atmosphere they’ve developed in the trailer, but I wouldn’t bet my house on it being a success. Although do remember that being a success is not the same as being a good anime.

Shukufuku no Campanella

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: AIC

Additional Info: Based off adult game

Synopsis: 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.

Thoughts: Look at all that pink and sparkles and pom poms and fluffy little super deformed animals and little girls wearing pretty clothes. Why clearly this is an anime aimed at 20–40 year old men! *le sigh* This was made into an anime probably because of the Touhou fandom explosion. How long until someone makes an actual Touhou anime?

Tono to Issho

Studio: ?

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: The manga follows the humorous exploits of generals during Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku period

Thoughts: There is absolutely no info on this anime whatsoever. ANN doesn’t even list the animation studio or the director or anything. Going onto moonphase did me no good either because I don’t understand moonrunes. The only thing I do know is it’s a historical gag manga. I bet it won’t even be subbed, these things often aren’t.

Seitokai Yakuindomo

Studio: Go Hands

Additonal Info: Based off 4-koma

Synopsis: The story centers around Ōsai Academy, a former all-girls private high school which has recently been integrated for both genders. The student body is split between 524 girls and 28 boys. Takatoshi Tsuda is pushed into becoming the vice-president of the student council, where he is the lone male member surrounded by girls.

Thoughts: Student council + 4-koma + Go Hands = bleargh

Sequels

Strike Witches 2

Studio: AIC

Thoughts: Hey guiz, I heard this actually has plot and it’s not all just close up shots of 14-year old girls crotches, amirite?

Kuroshitsuji 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Thoughts: Really not sure what to make of this. A-1 decided for this new season of Kuroshitsuji to change to two entirely new main characters. On one hand, it’s great that they’re not messing with the excellent ending from the first season. However the trailer doens’t fill me with excitement at the prospect of watching these two characters. The only real draw of the first season was Sebastian and Ciel anyway, the story was pretty lame. All they’ve done is basically takes out the two strongest elements. This season will be all anime original material. However with A-1 in charge (see my notes on the Anime no Chikara timeslot) that’s not exactly something to be leaping in joy about. We’ll have to wait and see I suppose.

Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~

Studio: Seven Arcs

Thoughts: Ah, I can’t really hate on Sekirei. It was the subject of my very first post in my anime blogging career. Can’t say I was too impressed by it back then. I showed my dissatisfaction by using a really small font!

Sengoku Basara Ni

Studio: Production IG

Thoughts: GET YOUR GUNS ON!!!

Movies

It’s difficult to write season previews for movies because it’s hard to know what’s coming out on dvd and when and if it will ever be subbed. My rule of thumb is that I’ll mention it in here if it’s already had a theatrical release in Japan. I was convinced that the Macross Frontier Movie should’ve come out by now but it hasn’t. Then there’s anime that seem to only get theatrical releases at festivals and never see the inside of a dvd case, like Redline and King of Thorn. There are some I can guarantee you though. Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha and Fate/Stay Night movies are coming soon, and we’ll probably see a proper release of The Disappearence of Haruhi Suzumiya that’s not a crappy camrip, something I’m personally quite excited about seeing. Eden of the East: King of Eden is the only date I know for sure, coming 4th August, which should hopefully be a lot better than the first movie. Trigun: Badlands Rumble will be amusing to see that horrid 1998 animation in brand spanking lovely 2010 detail. Bungaku Shojo is a light novel series that people seem to be rather excited about and I’m surprised it was made into a movie instead of a tv series. Finally, there’s the epic 6 episode movie series mecha extravanganza of Break Blade.

OVA’s

Well the glorified music video Black Rock Shooter has been delayed until god only knows when so vocaloid fags will have to wait even longer than that (although I’m quite interested in seeing it myself because the animation style looks so weird). Far more importantly, and to finish off this season preview on a glorious high note, the third season OVA series of Black Lagoon has finally come! Coming out on the 17th of July, this summer season has a gem waiting right at the end.

Final Thoughts

I suppose I can’t complain about a good mix of anime. Intricate plotting and mystery of Shiki. Otaku comedy of Ookami-san. Fanservice-action fest of Highschool of the Dead. Shounen hit with Nurarihyon no Mago. Fangirl squees of Kuroshitsuji. Pedo-bait with Strike Witches. Seinen romance with Amagami. Occult academy could be bloody anything. Probably what’s bugging me with this season is the higher percentage of fanservice shows. Highschool of the Dead fills any fanservice cravings and Amagami should fill any romance sector. Seeing Sekirei, Strike Witches and Asobi ni Ikuyo in there as well just bugs me, especially since the number of these types of shows had really looked to be on the downturn. I guess the reason I’m feeling a little bit down about this season is that Highschool of the Dead is being touted as the next big thing, when it’s essentially just gun pr0n and softcore pr0n. With both Durarara and FMA:B ending this season, there just doesn’t look like anything even remotely close to that level. I dunno, maybe the Anime no Chikara timeslot could suddenly deliver on it’s promise. Maybe ZEXCS could suddenly stop sucking. Maybe I’ll totally underestimating the heart-wrenching storyline of Shufuku no Campella. Or maybe, just maybe, I have different tastes to you.

The game runs pretty similarly to that of the Fantasy Football games, except at a much simpler level. Pick 5 anime and one benched anime out of those just airing this season and watch as they rack up points by how many people are watching it (plus a bunch of other factors).

Meh, I’m bigging it up a bit too much here to the point that it almost sounds daunting. It’s pretty effortless task once you’ve picked your team. Beyond that, the tactics mostly consist of making sure your benched anime is not scoring more than one of your main ones and swapping them round when it does. I will give you one piece of advice though. When you pick your anime first, make sure that the anime on your bench is the one that airs last, usually a Noitamina timeslot anime. If you left that on your starting team, it would be 2–3 weeks before it actually got any points, a standard noob mistake. The airing dates are all on Chartfags Amazing Chart so that’s not too much of a bother. Oh, and you will need a MAL account to participate, but most people have one anyway and if you don’t, they’re pretty easy to set up.

Anywho, hope I can convince at least 3 others to join me this season. Especially you! Yes you, reading this text. You’ll know it’s you if you grin reading this line.

Fuck yeah Hetalia is back!

So this episode was based upon the fact that Americans love to watch scary movies even though they’re scared shitless and hate the actual viewing experience. It’s something of a test of manliness. What surprised me most of all was that I’d always assumed that this was a worldwide phenomenon but apparently it’s not the case in Asian countries, an even odder case when you remember how many creepy Asian horror movies that make their way across the East/West diving, more so than perhaps any other genre other than martial arts and animation. In fact, what made me laugh more than anything in this episode was how cringe-worthingly true to life it was. Why the hell do we sit through those horror movies anyway when we clearly don’t enjoy watching them?

But this made me cringe and snigger even more so. Why do we get so freaked out by creepy movies but love blowing crazy mutant monsters apart on video games? Anyone who’s played Halo knows how creepy the Flood are and yet you have huge fun blowing their heads off with energy swords. I’m with you on this one Japan. Why on earth do we think that way?

(Two possible captions for the above picture: 1: This is what happens when you watch too much anime, or, for Mushishi fans out there, America just learned how to close his second eyelids)

Not a whole lot else happened in the episode (you forget how short 5 minutes really is) but it really is great to see Hetalia back again.I admit, the announcement for a third season had me thinking ‘do they really need another season of this?’. In fact, that thought is still going through my mind because you have to have pretty exceptional creators to go for this long without getting stale, especially for such a gimmicky series like Hetalia. We shall have to wait and see but for now it’s great to see them back in action once again~

Fantasy Anime League (FAL). Predict what will be the biggest hits of the season and earn points based on their popularity. Out of 186 competitors I came in second place. So yeah, I like to think I’m pretty good at this prediction thing.

I com­pletely encour­age any­one to link this pre­view on a forum or wherever but for gods sake do NOT copy and paste the entire thing onto a forum or your own web­site. I swear, this hap­pens more often than you might think.

Senko no Night Raid

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: A-1 Pictures

Addi­tional Info: Second anime to air in the Anime no Chikara timslot, a timeslot devoted to anime original projects

Syn­op­sis: The story is set in Shanghai in 1931, when the Imperial Japanese Army has been dispatched to mainland China due to the relatively recent First Sino-Japanese War, Russo-Japanese War, and World War I. In this cosmopolitan city of intrigue, there is a special military spy organization called “Sakurai Kikan” that has since been buried in history.

Thoughts: Really looking forward to this myself. A-1 and Aniplex have had a slow but relatively successful start with this Anime ne Chikara project of theirs with Sora no Woto but this show looks to be much more up my alley. It’s going to be interesting to see how well they sidestep the potential dangers of positive portrayal of this period of history seeing as how the Japanese did some pretty horrible stuff. Now the staff behind this don’t exactly fill me with joy but anime original projects are always worth keeping an eye on.

Ironman

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Madhouse

Additional Info: Based off Marvel Comic Book. 12 episodes long

Synopsis: Guy builds suit and whoops some badguys ass. Pretty cool stuff eh~

Thoughts: Probably the best part of this project is that Madhouse have been given total freedom to adapt this story as they wish. Now I wasn’t that big of a fan of the movie but the story was indeed an interesting one. Plus just watch that trailer. After a miserable 2009, this is Madhouse back on form with some slick animation. There’s not a whole lot of info on this out there but the name Madhouse combined with the promise of action always gets my interest up.

Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei

Stu­dio: Madhouse

Addi­tional Info: Airing in the Noitamina timeslot. Based off novel and directed by Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Mind Game)

Syn­op­sis: The 2005 novel follows a nameless protagonist who is a third-year college student. The protagnoist looks back at the earlier years of his college life and his adventures with a particular circle

Thoughts: Yuasa is a nutter. Watch his anime and you will see a crazed mind at work. But with each project he makes he gradually gains control of that clearly brilliant mind of his. I personally thought we’ve seen the best out of him with Kaiba and that was his own creation. What makes me interested in this project though is that he is restricted by both the fact he’s been given source material and the fact it’s a slice-of-life series. This is normally a negative strike but restrictions is exactly what the guy needs. Give him restrictions and he’ll crate a masterpiece. I’ve also heard that this novel is a damn fine book as well. Plus it’s Noitamina! In fact, this is my most anticipated anime of the season, although I’m certain that the wacky art style will turn off most people so I’m sure you’ll see plenty of elitist blogs complaining that nobody is watching this. And you should watch this because there is nothing greater than obscure Madhouse anime. Ah, isn’t it great to see Madhouse back on form~

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Stu­dio: Shaft

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga by the same author of Saint Young Men

Syn­op­sis: The story is about the strange courtship of a successful executive in life called Kou and a mysterious woman called Nino who lives under a bridge. It all begins when Kou almost drowns in a river but is saved by Nino. For saving his life, Kou fulfills Nino’s desire to have a boyfriend. Thus, Kou becomes her boyfriend, but has to live with her under the bridge…

Thoughts: On one hand, I’m getting kinda sick of Shaft. Bakemonogatari is looking more and more like a one-hit wonder. On the other hand, fuck that, this is going to rock! I’ve read a few chapters and this is one of the most bizarrely hilarious pieces in existence and one of the few pieces out there that could probably improve with Shinbo and Shaft at the helm. I hesitate to say this because Shaft have let me down in the past, but this could just be the next great anime comedy.

Rainbow

Stu­dio:

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: The story of are seven teenagers in 1955, who have to learn to live together in the same hold in the reformatory of Shio. Confined in a hall where suffering and humiliation are daily, they are waiting for a ray of hope in a dark, incarcerating world. It follows their life together and how they move on afterwards.

Scamp: I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance of this airing this season and even if it does then there’s a 50/50 chance of it getting fansubbed. So I’m not getting my hopes up too high for now. The manga is one of the all-time best selling mangas worldwide and I assume there’s a reason for that. If it does air I’m going to assume the elitists of the anime world are going to sing its praises and whine that it’s not more popular. Meh, I have rather strong elitist tendencies so I’m moderately excited.

House of Five Leaves

Studio: Manglobe

Additional Info: Airing in Noitamina timeslot. Based off manga

Synopsis: The manga follows the lives of the House of FiveLeaves gang members in Edo-era Japan during the height of the shoguns rule. In particular, the masterless samurai Akitsu Masanosuke finds himself desperate for work after being let go by one lord after another for his naïvety. He becomes the bodyguard of the House of FiveLeaves gang’s charismatic leader Yaichi and discovers there is more to the gang leader than his criminal activities would suggest.

Scamp: First of all, it’s Noitamina. Anything in Noitamina deserves to be looked at after its track record. Secondly, it’s Manglobe animating Samurai’s. Hmmm, where have we seen that before? This isn’t going to be as action packed as Champloo though and the animation looks far from conventional. After their blip in the road of Sacred Blacksmith, it’s good to see Manglobe doing something proper for a change. I hesitate to get my hopes up too much for this because the author also wrote Ristorante Paradiso, one of the most yawn-inducing anime of recent times. Still, this is Manglobe X Noitamina. Must always remember the Noitamina tag.

Heroman

Stu­dio: Bones

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga by Stan Lee (Spiderman and x-men creator)

Syn­op­sis: The story will center on a boy named Joey who discovers a toy robot near the west coast of the United States. Then, the toy becomes Hero Man, a giant robot that Joey pilots against evil threats.

Thoughts: I can’t be the only one out there that can’t take this seriously, can I? I mean look at that robot. It has the star spangled banner tattooed on everywhere and a plot description that sounds like the most generic piece of crap ever made. Why the hell are you working on this Bones? Are they trying to appeal to an American audience here? Please don’t tell me Americans are gullible enough to buy into this shite.

Angel Beats

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: P.A Works

Addi­tional Info: Original Anime Production by Jun Maeda, writer of Key Visual Novels (Air, Clannad)

Syn­op­sis: In a world after death, angels fight for their fate and their future. Yuri, the leader of the Shinda Sekai Sensen, rebels against the god who destined her to have an unreasonable life. On the otherhand, Tenshi, the chairperson of the student council for the world after death, battles against the SSS members. SSS members utilize armed weaponry to battle it out against the angels harnessing supernatural powers.

Thoughts: In a season where I’ve found myself laughing in the face of moe fans because of the relative lack of moe shows this season, this is the one that moefags are placing their hopes on. To be honest, I don’t blame them. Even I’m kinda excited about this after reading the synopsis. Most importantly is that this anime isn’t trapped by having to stick to a VN (I’m not fully sure about this but from what I could gather, Angel Beats is being released on several different mediums at once) and anime original productions always spike my interest. OK, Key Dorama isn’t really my type of anime, but this has a pretty epic sounding plot synopsis and has a Haruhi cosplayer with a gun. I can’t help but feel a little bit excited about this.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: Artland

Addi­tional Info: Based off light-novel series

Syn­op­sis: The story of “love, magic, and battles” revolves around Akuto Sai, a boy who aims to become part of his country’s highest order of magicians and contribute to society as one of its clergy. On the day he is admitted into the Constan Magical Academy, his aptitude test predicts the following: “Future Occupation … Devil King.” Thus begins his severe school life in which he is resented by his studious female class head, desired by a girl with mysterious powers, and guarded by a beautiful female android.

Thoughts: So, have you watched the trailer yet? Did you see the amount of tits ‘n ass? Yup, this is one of those fanservice action harems with as much T&A as possible. They are actually a dying breed in the anime world with only the occasional Ikkitousen or Queens Blade per season and you’ll rarely get more than 2. There used to be way more but it was overtaken by the moe boom around 06/07. Which is a good thing. The lack of these types of anime that is. Not the fact that moe took over.

Working!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: A-1 Pictures

Addi­tional Info: Based off 4-koma

Syn­op­sis: Set in a family restaurant in Hokkaido, the northern prefecture of Japan, 16 year old high school student Takanashi Souta works part-time along with his strange co-workers: Taneshima Popura, a high school girl who’s a year older than Souta who’s easily mistaken for a elementary/middle schooler, and Shirafuji Kyoko, the 28-year old store manager who doesn’t bother to do any work at all.

Thoughts: It’s utterly impossible to tell how well a 4-koma will adapt into anime form. I flicked through a few chapters and I was totally incapable of summoning any enthusiasm for it (maybe that’s just compared to the fantastic Arakawa manga) but, like every single thing in existence, will work better in anime form (mwahahaha, go my biased views, go!). How well it will adapt I have no idea and the staff are a mixed bunch. It’s worth giving a shot I suppose but it won’t be a world beater or anything.

Giant Killing

Stu­dio: Studio Deen

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: In Giants Killing a ragtag bunch from East Tokyo are struggling in Japan’s top football league. The team is going through an abysmal spell right now where they are nearing the bottom of the table and have lost 5 matches in a row. The loses haven’t done much to team moral, because it was already low. Fan support, on the other hand, is looking bleak. In the world of football, once the fans turn on a team the end is near. Teams don’t recover. Coaches are fired, players are sold, and teams drop to smaller divisions where profits often prevent them from ever being successful against even mediocre top division programs. East Tokyo United, ETU, can only blame their coach right now. And Coach is ready to give up this next game to prove to his team and fans, that against the biggest club in the nation he can make this team win

Thoughts: A football anime (to any Americans out there, this means rest-of-the-world football kthxbye) where the focus is actually on the coach, something that’s gotten me pretty damn interested in this. I love football and this is all about tactics, which is even more awesome. I’ve heard some very good things about the manga it’s based off  but best of all, I’ve heard the main character being described as similar to Jose Mourinho, which is a guaranteed way to ramp up my interest in anything. OK, Deen are hardly as good as Madhouse but I’m still looking forward to this

B Gata H Kei

Stu­dio: HAL Film Maker

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: Yamada is a virgin high school student who dreams of having 100 casual sex partners. However, she ends up targeting and pursuing only one boy

Thoughts: I thought the synopsis was actually kinda funny myself. I mean, if you were to swap the gender around and it’s a guy aiming for that would people still be as put-off by it? On the other hand, the staff are crap and the manga is meant to be crap so I don’t have any real hopes for this anyway.

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: JC Staff

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: A romantic comedy that centers on the student council head named Misaki Ayuzawa who despises the mostly male, slovenly population at her school, which was once an all-boys school. However, Misaki’s most handsome schoolmate just discovered her secret — that she works afterschool at a maid café.

Thoughts: A very popular shojo manga being adapted, rather oddly, by JC Staff. Now I don’t know about you but I can already sense that there’s some pretty annoyed fangirls out there by how JC are adapting this. Judging by the promo art and trailer, they seem to be trying to spread the popularity of this show by highlighting the hawt maids as well as the bishies, drawing in both a mail and female audience. This could backfire and appeal to neither audience so it’s going to be interesting to see fan reactions to this. Now I couldn’t care less about shoujo so I’m not really bothered about this but most other people do so keep an eye on it.

Hakuouki

Stu­dio: Studio Deen

Addi­tional Info: Based off PS2 game

Syn­op­sis: The protagonist, Yukimura Chizuru is the daughter of a doctor who works in Edo. The father leaves Edo to work as a volunteer doctor and moves to Kyoto without his daughter. As time passes by, Chizuru starts worrying about losing contact with her father, so she decides to go to Kyoto in search of him. On the way, Chizuru is attacked by few criminals and witnesses a fight between an oni and the Shinsengumi. Taking her into custody and saving her, the Shinsengumi debate on what to do with Chizuru when they discover that she is the daughter of the doctor they are also looking for. So they decide to become Chizuru’s protectors and help her look for her father(the doctor). Lots of events happen while she stays with the Shingensumi, as they discover mysterious secrets and also fight against the Bakumatsu group. The story is overall romantic with a historical and political background.

Thoughts: Based off a game. Interest in anime practically non-existant. Game based anime have a 98.5% chance of being rubbish and they are odds I’m willing to bet on.

Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru

Stu­dio: JC Staff

Addi­tional Info: Based off manga

Syn­op­sis: Sakurai Yuki is a mysterious boy with a mysterious ability. He was found in the bushes as a baby and adopted by his current family. Because of this, Yuki strives for independence. The last thing he wants is to be a burden to anybody. Furthermore, when he touches others, he can feel their emotions. Unable to control his ability, he often made insensitive blunders in the past. With death threats and his abilities increasing, what will happen when a man claiming to be his older brother appears?

Thoughts: Just because I love Hetalia doens’t mean I have now developed an interest in gay anime. Plenty of angsty bishies in this one with lots of yaoi to masturbate to (I guess you don’t call it fap when it’s women). Knock yourself out fangirls.

Mayoi Neko Overrun!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Stu­dio: AIC

Addi­tional Info: Based off light novels

Syn­op­sis: The story revolves around Takumi Tsuzuki, a boy who lives with his older “sister” Otome, although the two have no blood ties between them. Otome manages a run-down confectionery store called Stray Cats. One day, Otome picks up a mysterious beautiful girl off the streets.

Thoughts: The order of these anime is how they appear on Chartfags Amazing Chart. He has a habit of ordering them in the order he is interested in them. Chartfag has fairly similar taste to me. Neither of us are that interested in this anime. Try watch the trailer with all those bleeding nyaa~ sounds going off the whole time.

Kiss x Sis

Stu­dio: Feel

Addi­tional Info: Had OVA series before anime. Was made specifically to attract incestious pedophiles

Syn­op­sis: Keita has two older step-sisters, Ako and Riko, but since they aren’t related by blood, they love him in a lustful way. After a mishap at school, Ako and Riko finally confess their love to him. Keita dislikes the thought of seeing them other then brother and sister, but as he tries to enter the same school as his sisters, he slowly becomes attracted to them.

Thoughts: Apparently not a hentai, even though I’m pretty sure thats a wet camel toe I can see. Actually I take that back. Two wet camel toes.

Sequels

Ookiku Furikabutte 2

Studio: A-1 Pictures

Thoughts: I still haven’t gotten around to watching this yet although I certainly plan on doing so sometime soon.

K-ON! 2

Studio: TrollAni

Thoughts: *decides to keep quiet this time around*

Ring ni Kakero 1: Shadow

Stu­dio: Toei Animaton

Thoughts: .…has anyone ever heard of this?

Movies and OVA’s

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Gundam Unicorn OVA is out already but the next one isn’t out until Autumn so a bit of a long wait there. Black Rock Shooter is something many people were excited about, including me, until I found out it was only an OVA. Hence, I’m not expecting much more than a glorified music video. For movies, it generally takes 3–5 months from screening in cinema’s to dvd so anticipating any movies coming out in theatres now is pointless. I’m the most excited about Eden of the East: The King of Eden myself, which is coming out on BD on 24th March. But that’s the only date I know. The Macross Frontier movie should be out soon. There’s also upcoming Fate Stay/Night Movie and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha movie, neither of which I have any interest in but I’m sure have their fans. Unfortunately, we probably won’t see The Dissapearence of Haruhi Suzumiya until the summer though.

Sources

ANN, MAL, Moetron, Chartfag’s amaz­ing chart, Manga­fox, Mangaupdates, Animesuki for­ums and a whole load of other places I can’t remember. For other worthwhile season previews, there’s Metanorn (fangirly but with plenty of info and I got most of my trailers from them), Star Crossed (who has finally returned to doing season previews again), Bokutachi no Blog ( I miss doing those joint season previews…), THAT (the guys who I originally moddled my season previews off), Rabbitpoets (2 people chipping in this year) and Caraniel (there’s always a newbie each season that surprises me). I’ll update this every now and then whenever a worthwhile season preview comes along.

Overall Thoughts

Unusual lack of moe anyone? Something I’ve been seeing quite often when people are talking about this upcoming season is the moefag response of ‘K-ON 2, Angel Beats, Black Rock Shooter and nothing else’. Frankly, I’m delighted at that. There’s a limited amount of moe but the very few that are being produced are of the highest moe quality. K-ON is the absolute highest in terms of light ‘n fluffy moeblob while Angel Beats is serious moe that even I’m quite excited about. Toss out an experimental OVA or two like BRS and you have moe the way it should be: A niche genre rather than the market flooding we’ve seen in recent years. That doesn’t mean I’m enthralled by this season either. There’s no obvious big wide-audience hit like Durarara even if the spread of titles is even. There’s easilly enough to keep one interested no matter what genre of anime you like but nothing for all of anime fandom to go wild over.

Anyway, some final rankings:

Highly Anticipated: Senko no Night Raid, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, Arakawa Under the Bridge

Anticipated: Ironman, House of Five Leaves, Angel Beats, Giant Killing

Possible: Rainbow, Working, Kaichou wa Maid-sama!

Uninterested: Heroman, B Gata H Kai, Hakuouki,

Crap: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou, Uragiri wa Boku no Namae o Shitteiru, Mayoi Neko Overrun!, Kiss X Sis

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.

I was invited by Executive Otaku over at THAT Anime Blog to join a bunch of other established bloggers in giving out advice to new bloggers, so pop on over for a read. Remember that we were also total newbies at one point, totally baffled by the workings of WordPress and in my case, not knowing the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.net, incapable of getting any sort of substantial comments from anyone other than my co-authors. It’s also interesting to have this post in conjunction with my two-year death meta post recently. Bloggers keep dying and those established bloggers gradually fade away, retreating into GRSI (aka: Shinigami realm for anime bloggers) so we always need new bloggers into the fold.

Totally unrelated note: Seeing Hetalia on Chartfags amazing chart made me realise how long it’s been since I’ve written a Hetalia episodic post. In case you were wondering, I fully intend to get straight back into that show when it airs again. It’s only two weeks away now.

To paraphrase what about half the people are saying (not that half is a true representation of anime fandom, it’s just the haters are always more vocal)

I’ll watch Angel Beats, (and K-ON S2 obviously) and that’s it. Oh, and Black Rock Shooter but it’s only a bloody OVA. This season sucks

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *gasp* HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

This is fucking glorious! We all thought we’d never see the end of this moefaggery when K-ON season 2 was announced up comes the season it airs in and it looks rather lonely as the only half-decent moe show out there. Plus, will these moefags really be pleased with seeing what will almost certainly be the exact same material all over again? Serious moe, all they have is Angel Beats. No 4–5 eroge adaptations per season. No crap like 11eyes and Ookami Kakushi, oh definitely not. And to make the whole thing even more glorious, Black Rock Shooter, the show vocaloidfags had gotten all hyped up over, is just an OVA. It’s going to be nothing more than a glorified music video.

As for me? Night Raid, Ironman, Yojohan, Arakawa, Rainbow, Five Leaves, Giant Killing, Hetalia, the list goes on. I don’t normally hate on moefags. On the 1–10 scale of moe-hating, where 1 is ‘moe? meh, uninterested’ and 10 is ‘moe is the cancer that is killing the industry rawr rawr rawr’, I’d rank about a 4, but this is just too hilarious a chance to pass up. The moefags are staring at the chart is disappointment while the rest of us are pretty pleased for a change. So sorry if you’re a moefag…in fact, I’m not sorry. You had your days in paradise. Now move on over and give the rest of us a turn at the wheel.

A new year, a new batch of shows, and plenty of opportunity to ignore all the good anime that air and spend the rest of the  time complaining about anime not being as good as it used to be.  But hey, maybe this year you’ll get lucky and develop taste!

It’s odd how big a name Chartfag has become on the internet. If you were to look way outside the annoyingly insular territory of the anime blogging community right into the far-flung corner of the internet, inside some obscure anime forum, people will know this mans’ charts. However take a more detailed look beyond the charts and those small print summaries you have to squint to read and you find why this man really created these charts.

However, the reason I even put them [the summaries] there in the first place wasn’t just because it was a thing to do, it was because without them, people used to put down a show based on image alone, and I thought that attitude could use changing (and this was all based off roughly edited Japanese compilation charts). I expect shows like Kuchu Buranko would not receive the attention they deserve if it weren’t for a small summary – after all, those few lines are abridgements, and people intrigued by short summaries do like to research the shows in more depth.

The idea was spawned from those old Japanese charts with a bunch of pictures and maybe some Japanese text that nobody in the english speaking world understood. Hence people were making judgements based off nothing other than pictures. So a random english 4channer, Denizen, decided to compile up a chart for the english speaking world in an attempt to create a bit more anticipation for upcoming anime. Give them more information and their interest will rise, or so the theory goes.

I don’t think anyone else on the internet can get me as excited as you can, only for me to be completely let down and depressed. There is no reactionface.jpg for when I saw there was going to be a Kurozuka anime. There are many reactionface.jpg’s for when I saw the first episode. You also let me see 2 months beforehand that fall 09 is going to be fucking terrible with nothing but moeshit harem fanservice bullshit so that when the fall gets here and I watch the first ep of everything I am not completely let down.

Of course you know what happened then. People looked at the charts with pretty much the same attitude as they use for every upcoming season, actually reversing the purpose of these charts and using them to prove that the latest season is shit. If the chart has a few pictures of bishojo then the entire season is full of moe crap (see summer 2009: Spice and Wolf and Bakemonogatari. Bishojo pictures, therefore they are crap). Even the summaries were used against the current season in order to prove their point.

I can’t exactly say you deserve to be excited about anime when your taste is evidently so narrow and poor. One of your main anticipations was just some gory action-flick manga? How dull, if that is all you expect from such a wide-ranging media form I can say you deserve to be dissapointed. I have to say shows of Kurozuka’s ilk are maybe in short supply – but that one genre does not, and cannot become the indicating factor in whether a season or an anime as a whole is good or not. You can only divide anime by “action” and “girls”? That’s ridiculous.…Perhaps if you explored more genres and demographics and experienced less of what you’re comfortable with mindlessly consuming you might actually find a REASON to continue watching anime.

Why do I make season previews? They take a phenomenal amount of time for what is only a single post. Because I want to build enthusiasm for the current season. Maybe it’s because the first time I visited anime blogs was to check out season previews but I consider them to be the most important thing anime blogs do. Using our informed and researched opinions, we tell the world what shows coming up next season are worth trying out.But nobody should come from your season preview with a lesser view of the upcoming season than they had before. A pet peeve of mine is when someone starts off their season preview saying ‘hur hur, shitty season’ or something along those lines. And you know why they proclaim the latest season to be shit? Because they’ve either done no proper research and they’re basing the season on those 3–4 token shitty moe harems that generally sink towards the bottom of Chartfags chart. Forget the obvious quality of the top 4–5 shows and forget those possible sleeper andniche hits that occupy the rest of the chart. Nope, the season is based of a few pictures of bishojos. This current winter season is not based upon the awesomeness of Durarara, Baka to Test, Nodame, Sora no Woto or Hanamaru. Nope, it’s based on Omamori Himari, Ladies vs Butlers, Seikon no Quasar and Chu-bra.

At the very least, take this comment as the reason I still continue to create these charts – I am genuinely interested in every new batch of anime and I know there is worth in every season (and there always is, no question), because anime is a form that covers many different subjects and styles of entertainment and storytelling, and I want to experience the best of those

So fuck you guys. Do a bit of research, go out of your comfort zone a bit and do not judge an entire season based upon a few moe-crap. When the new Spring 2010 chart comes out I’m going to give you guys a challenge. Try not to declare the entire season as crap because it has another Kohime Muso, Kiss x Sis and Mayoi Neko Overrun. Try not to instantly dismiss Angel Beats, Arakawa Under the Bridge and Black Rock Shooter because they have a bishojo main picture and to do a little bit of research into the production staff working on them.

Seeing all this “hurr shit sucks” BS is both tiring, and moreso it cries out for some objection.

~I <3 Chartfag~