Surely this would be a good start to the season, right?

Nope. It was dreadful.

You would think with a synopsis that included a vampire girl fighting other vampires would be a bit action packed, right? Actually most of this episode consisted of absolutely nothing happening. There was an extended sequence of about 2 minutes of Saya skipping through the streets, singing a song to herself. The anime swung frequently towards shots of landscape that served no purpose except to drag time out even further. An awful lot of the anime was Saya walking from place to place, either running home or walking with her ditzy friends. It’s not that there’s very little happening in these scenes. There is flat out nothing happening whatsoever.

The scenes with something actually happening aren’t a whole lot better. Saya has been upgraded from her previous personalities in the past Blood anime (that is, no personality whatsoever) to this time being  insufferably nice. She’s a Tohru Honda. A Hanato Kobato. A whatever the name of that twat from Bungaku Shoujo is called. The admirable, cute, ditzy and utterly uninteresting to watch in their daily lives. But Blood C seems to think that yes, we do want to watch Saya think about petting a puppy before almost tripping up and then deciding she has to hurry home. Oh, and now here’s a picture of the background scenery for a bit.

Lalala singing a song while skipping to school lalala

The single fight scene that does occur in the episode comes totally out of nowhere too. Dad gives Saya a sword, she walks to a water front, spends ages ‘building up tension’ (read ‘look at this shot of some hills and clouds’) before Saya starts having a long duel with a statue. The fight scene was sort of cool, but we were given no reason to care about what was happening. Apparently Saya is incapable of having her head chopped off, even if clamped between a pair of pincers and swung about like a rag doll, so it’s hard to care about whether she wins the fight or not. Not that I particularly cared about Saya in the first place. I hadn’t gotten emotionally attached to her while watching her skipping to school. The fight scene had no explanation, hence the scene was a series of gothic colours that was impossible to care about.

I get what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to set the scene before the mystery horror shows up. It’s trying to do a Higurashi/Madoka/Steins;Gate/Shiki thing. Set the scene before sending the entire thing spiralling down into chaos and madness. But Blood C does nothing right. The main character is dull and impossible to care about what happens to her. The jokes have canned laughter (well, it’s a classroom laughing, but it serves the same purpose) that you feel awkward hearing because of how utterly unfunny they are. The episode drags with drawn out sequences of nothing happening in an attempt to set the scene. The horror element is poorly directed. Most of all, it’s just boring.

To sound like a knowledgeable season previewer, there are a couple of things you must do.

1. Check out the source material. It doesn’t matter how much of the source material you check out. This is just to flaunt your superior knowledge over those who don’t know any better
2. Throw out the names of the animation studio. You don’t even need to know what having that studio on board entails. You can just say “this is done by Studio X and we all know what that means”. That way you can make readers feel inferior when they don’t know what it means.
3. Name drop staff members, mention what else they have made and say that you “expect something similar to that”. The great thing about this is that you don’t even need to have seen what else they’ve made. Simply saying their name will instantly make you appear like an expert.
4. List the voice acting cast, if you are an idiot who thinks who voices the characters has any say on the eventual quality of the anime.
5. Be aloof and mildly dismissive about everything, apart from something extremely obscure you know nobody else has heard of. Good targets for this is are kiddy shows, or sequels to incredibly obscure shorts.

To illustrate my points, here’s a season preview I prepared earlier.

Appleseed XIII

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Appleseed is a manga by Masamune Shirow, who you may know as the guy who wrote that little known manga Ghost in the Shell. This is the third attempt to animate his manga, if you discount the TV series from a few years back that got cancelled before it even got off the ground, and again they’ve gone for the full CGI route, in what appears from the trailer to be a similar style to that of the Koisento and Norageki OVAs that came out recently. This is Production IG combining with Shirow, the same combo that brought Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex. Thing is, Production IG have their A-Game, but no B-Game. They instead drop straight to Shit-Game, and this appears to be the latter. Director is the twat who made the wholly uninspiring Moshidora and that laughably bad Prince of Tennis movie. Also, in making Appleseed Ex Eye Eye Eye, the production company (as in, not the animation studio) went bankrupt, which leads me to believe that perhaps they couldn’t animate this as well as they might of liked.

Natsume Yuujinchou San

Natsume Yuujinchou San is the third season of  Brains Base’s manga adaptation, following the story of girly boy Natsume and his incredibly easy to animate cat, Nyanko. It’s generally a pretty well loved anime, and I’m rather fond of it myself, but I do have a problem with this third season. That is, it didn’t need to be made! Sure, there’s more material to adapt, but Brains Base are sitting on several other properties that need another season far more than Natsume does. Where’s that Durarara sequel Brains Base? Or Jellyfish Princess? Or Baccano? Or Spice and Wolf? But no, instead of making a Baccano sequel, you instead toss out another Natsume. I probably shouldn’t complain over the fact that a half-decent anime got a sequel for a change, but Brains Base are sitting on so many properties that could do with a sequel. Natsume didn’t need one!

The IdolM@ster

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From here on I’m not going to write out titles with stupid symbols or random punctuation in their names. So, Idol Em-At-Ster is an Xbox game where you manage the careers of a bunch of young aspiring female idols. The game is known for its rather scary otaku-fanbase. You know, the ones who rip up their Kannagi manga when they find out she may have possibly touched a man some time in the past 100 years. Those who send Aya Hirano death threats because she likes men, yet still keep their cum-encrusted face towel of her under their beds. Not that all Idol Em-At-Ster fans are like that, but when there’s a massive outcry because the latest game has men in it, it does skew your perspective some what. The franchise is basically a platform for voice actors to try propel their own idol careers, as evidenced by the fact they released the cast list before the studio animating it. Interestingly, on that note, while the studio is listed as A-1, a bunch of the staff worked on various Gainax products. That means there could be some eye-candy performances here to make up for the lack of other important things, like script, or plot. But hey, there might be dancing, and I approve of more dancing in anime no matter how I can get it.

Blood-C

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Blood hyphen See (or is that a minus sign?) is from the Blood franchise. It’s about a stoic Japanese school girl (stoic here meaning ‘has no personality whatsoever’) defeating evil monsters with the combination of a katana and a near panty flash. Despite what that description may sound like, previous installations of the franchise have bee aimed more at girls than guys. Saya, the aforementioned dull protagonist, is the character teenage girls can project themselves into as she kicks ass and is surrounded by beautiful sparkly bishies. Honestly though, the previous instalments of this franchise haven’t been that bad. The original movie, Blood: The Last Vampire, was a fun little piece with some neat animation. The TV show, Blood Plus, was slow in parts but had some great character development with some of the side characters. Blood hyphen See is being written by CLAMP, a device for holding items firmly in place, but also the pseudonym for talented bunch of manga authors who wrote the likes of Cardcaptor Sakura, Chobits and Tsubasa Chronicle, and the director is a decently talented bloke who worked with CLAMP before on XXXHolic and Kobato. Mind you, probably the best thing of all here is that you won’t have to have seen any of the previous instalments to get this version of the franchise. Blood Plus certainly didn’t seem too pushed about acknowledging the original movie either.

Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu Ni!

Baka to Test to Show-herpyderpy second season, is back! Same staff as last season, which means it’s still a bunch of Shaft rejects, and that rather showed in the animation. It was still more imaginative than most of the awful attempts at light novel adaptations about the perverted hijinks of a group of teenagers, featuring a trap, but the main problem is that it didn’t really have anything beyond its stock set of jokes. Hideyoshi is a man who looks like a women. Lets keep going with that joke the entire way through the series with no variations on the joke. Heck, that was one of the funnier jokes this show had! If another  season of the same batch of repetitive jokes is what you ordered, then knock yourself out.

Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

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Ikoku Meiro no Croisee is one of those Light Novel adaptations that follows the Gosick route of thinking that placing your young female protagonist in the 19th century is a great idea. Not because you find the social political status of the bourgeois in that era a fascinating area of study, but because that means you get to dress the girl in elaborate gothic dresses accompanied by men in top hats. And hey, who am I to take that joy away from them. Besides, the little girl in elaborate dresses being taken out of her natural environment is the plot description of Kurenai, which is pretty awesome. The trailer did little to impress and the director’s only previous work is the super fluffy duffy Shugo Chara. I did read the manga though, and…OK, it was cute. Manipulative, but even to me, with my heart of stone and veins flowing with malice, gave a little daww at the girl.

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi



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Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi is a great example of plot description that might have sounded interesting in the hands of, say, Madhouse or Brains Base, but you know will suck because of the studio involved. Well, not suck. The studio in this case is ZEXCS (all caps, so you’ve got to shout the name) who have this remarkable ability to turn anything they touch into utterly average. Awesome sounding sci-fi fighting series like Chrome Shelled Regios? ZEXCS bring it down to average. Horrible sounds pachinko game based story about loli mermaids? In come the ZEXCS and suddenly it’s a strangely heart-warming little series that yet still manages to only reach average. The trailer was rather proud of its totally unique attraction of underage girls camel-toes and fixed the camera on one for about 10 seconds, yet somehow I bet ZEXCS will still be able to drag this up to average. They’re a magical studio in that regards.

Mayo Chiki

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Mayo Chiki is a light novel adaptation about the perverted hijinks of teenagers, featuring a trap! Boy, we sure are rolling in originality here, aren’t we? I’ll keep this brief. The original Light Novels idea of a joke consists of the characters calling each other perverts (that is, if the manga chapter I checked out is similar to the LN), combined with an animation studio that only ever makes generic fanservice anime. Come here if you are devoid of taste and allergic to innovation!

R-15

Ruh hyphen fifteen is a light novel adaptation about the perverted hijinks of teenagers. No trap in sight as of yet, but he’s probably introduced in chapter 3 or something. This shows claim to fame is that the protagonist is a teenager who writes porn novels, therefore every single jokes in the show will revolve around characters calling each other perverted. Are you tired of quality titles with clever writing and original concepts? Then Ruh hyphen fifteen is just for you!

Dantalian’s Library

Dantalian’s Library is by the animation studio Gainax, who previously made Gurren Lagann, Eff Ell Sea Ell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and so on. “Hurrah” you say? “Wrong” I say! For this is crappy Gainax! The ones who make Corpse Princess, He is My Master and Gunbuste-ARRGHH– I mean This Ugly Yet Beautiful World. In fact, it’s not even those people. This is made by a bunch of utter newbies who’s only connection to Gainax is they once delivered takeaway pizza to their studio. The manga is about a generic male lead being put in charge of a little girl with some sort of importance, a synopsis that has become a genre unto itself lately. It’s written by the same guy who wrote Asura Cryin’, and the first chapter of the manga adaptation I read certainly followed a lot of the same cues as that one did. That is, it throws out a load of plot twists that make no sense whatsoever to try keep your attention in the lack of any actual well-written content.

Nurarihyon no Mago 2

Nuh…nura…Nuranom…fuck it, Nurarara second season. A shounen manga adaptation by the same guys who make Naruto and Bleach. In it, a generic male lead transforms into a unbeatable bishie with ridiculous hair. So kinda like Yu-Gi-Oh, except without marketability. I gave the first season a shot, but asides from the ice-girl with the cool character design, none of it really caught me and I dropped it after 4 episodes. But hey, if you like painfully generic shounen, then knock yourself out. In its defence, it did have a neat ending song, and there’s definitely worse stuff out there.

Kaitou Tenshi Twin Angel

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When it comes to new anime, you can often tell who the prospective audience is by what information they release first. Studio? People who care about the animation quality. Staff behind directing and script? People who care about plot and writing. Voices cast? People who care less about the writing and like to follow their favourite voice actors. In the case of Kaotou Tenshi Twin Angel, first information released alongside the announcement of its creation was that the first volume would be bundled with a dakimakura featuring the 12 year old protagonist. NEXT!

Blade

You know, I’m rather pleased Blade has arrived. With this, we can finally say goodbye to this dark era in Madhouses animation history. This is the last of the Madhouse Marvel collaborations, of which each and every one have been awful. Some people claim that they have been getting steadily better, but I sure as hell saw no difference in quality between the Ironman and X-Men anime. Thankfully, Blade is the last of this era. Good riddance, I want the old Madhouse back.

Kamisama Dolls

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I checked out the first chapter of the manga for Kamisama Dolls, and it is legitimately good stuff. Great artwork, engaging story, the main characters are college students and not 15 years old for a bloody change, and the Dolls in it are these big creepy fuckers who kill people. Combine this with the animation studio Brains Base, whose previous work includes Baccano, Durarara, Jellyfish Princess and so on, and you’d think you have a combination for success. That’s until you realise the actual talented staff from Brains Base are all working on that Natsume sequel. The staff working on Kamisama Dolls previous works include Akane Iro ni Somaru Saku and Seikon no Quasar. There are few lines in existence more depressing than “from the creators that brought you Akane Iro ni Somaru Saku”. The director previously worked on Seto no Hanayome and Angel Beats, two series that rather split opinions, but I believe we’d at least all agree that their strong points are the comedy, which Kamisama Dolls most definitely is not. The trailer linked certainly showed glimpses of that rather creepy chapter I read, but the other trailer is perhaps less inspiring. To be honest, I’m rather pissed off at this. Kamisama Dolls is a Good Manga and Brains Base are a Good Studio, but instead of putting their talented staff on either a prospective good new show, or a previous show that desperately needs a sequel, they decided to make yet another season of Natsume. Damnit Brains Base! Ah well, maybe the strength of the source material will bring out the best in these guys.

Sacred Seven

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Sacred Seven is Sunrises latest original animation production featuring rollerblading mechs and a bishie male lead gaining some sort of super power from a girl in rather tight clothing. Sound familiar hmmm? Mind you, it’s not like Sunrise need much pushing to copy their already previous popular franchises. Aren’t these the same guys who have rehashed the Gundam franchise so many times now that they’re even running out of silly names to give the villains (did they seriously call a character in Gundam Unicorn ‘Full Frontal’?). But who am I kidding. I loved Code Geass, and more of the same sounds cool to me. The director may not be quite at the same level as Goro Tanaguchi, but he’s worked on many good anime in the past, from Infinite Ryvius to Trigun. In fact, one thing I did notice was that he storyboarded 2 episodes in Xam’d, which was promising anime that rather fizzled out. However, the episodes he directed were 6 and 10, which just so happen to be two of my favourite episodes from Xam’d. Also I happen to spot Yuki Kajura’s name on the opening song, otherwise known as the Madoka Magica music lady. There’s some good talent behind this show, even if it appears just a touch derivative.

Nekogami Yaoyorozu

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Nekogami Yayaya-something-zoo is the one new anime from this season I’m having a hard time pinning down. It’s based off a comedy manga that I could find no translations of. The studio, AIC plus, are a spin off from AIC (this is the kind of investigative journalism you’ve come to expect from Scamp) who generally only do fanservice crap, but there’s no signs of fanservice in this one whatsoever. It’s about a bunch of cat gods chillin and drinking sake. You know, like cat gods do. The director did Cromartie High School in the past, which is a massive plus and about the only thing I can find to say about it. Looks a bit meh to be honest, but you never know.

Manyuu Hikenchou

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Manyuu Hikenchou is about the Powah of Breasts! No really, that’s the entire plot of the show. In a samurai era, where a women’s status is judged by their breast size (so not a whole lot different from today then ho ho obvious joke). It would be rather refreshing to see a show throw aside all pretensions of being anything other than a boob fest, if we didn’t already have Ikkitousen, Queens Blade, Seikon no Quasar and so on.

Uta no Prince-sama -

Maji Love 1000%

Uta no Prince sama hyphen Maji Love One Thoooouuusand per centah is the opposite end of the spectrum to Manyuu Hikenchou, and that’s not the quality spectrum we’re measuring here. One Thooouuussand per centah is based off a dating sim aimed a females in which you date anyone of these beautiful men who are all aspiring idols. Beautiful men, in this case, meaning men who are so effeminate they could enter the girls toilets without anyone batting an eyelid. It’s generic souless fangirl bait trash, the kind that releases a drama CD so you can listen to your characters soothing voices as you shlick yourself to sleep.

Ro Kyu Bu

Ro Kyu Bu is for pedophiles. Moving swiftly on

Kami-sama no Memo-chou

Kami-sama no Memo-chou is about a NEET detective girl. It’s based off a light novel, so I took a look at the manga version, and it was…all right I guess. That is, until I realised this was being adapted by JC Staff and it all finally clunked into place. Light Novel adaptation featuring generic male lead meeting a flat chested high school girl with super powers. OK, this time she’s a genius detective, but same difference. This is the same show JC Staff have been making for the past 6 years. Ho hum nothing to see here.

Bunny Drop

Bunny Drop is about a male lead taking care of a little girl. Again. Except this time it’s awesome! Seriously, the manga to this is brilliantly written. It’s like Yotsuba Ampersand Exclamation Mark if Yotsuba was po-faced instead of hyperactive, with a minor touch of Honey and Clover. It’s also airing in the Noitamina timeslot, a timeslot dedicated to hosting anime that don’t suck. It’s previous occupants include Eden of the East, Nodame Cantabile, Tatami Galaxy, Ano Hana, Jyu oh Sei, Shiki, Honey and Clover, Trapeze, Jellyfish Princess, Paradise Kiss exetura exetura. The staff are generally a bunch of nobodies, but hey, the source material is rather simple and hopefully shouldn’t be too hard to adapt.

No.6

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No Dot Six is the other Noitamina anime from this season, (Eden of the East, Nodame Cantabile, Tatami Galaxy, Ano Hana, Jyu oh Sei, Shiki, Honey and Clover, Trapeze, Jellyfish Princess, Paradise Kiss exetura exetura). This time it’s a high concept sci-fi series. The intelligent live in the best houses and get all the money while those who aren’t live in shitholes. The manga is well written and the concept competently executed, even if it’s got quite a bit of BL fodder. The male lead spends an awful lot of time commentating on how beautiful the other male characters eyes are. But hey, at least that means they’re actually trying to characterise them and build their relationship, which has often been my problem with sci-fi series. In particular my problem with the other Bones anime in the Noitamina timeslot, Jyu-Oh-Sei. Too much concentration on the scenario and too little on developing the characters. Not that Jyu-Oh-Sei is a bad show. It’s just I had a hard time caring about the characters and I have the strange feeling the main draw to watch each new episode was so I could hear the strangely catchy OP song again.

Yuruyuri

Bunch of girls being insufferably nice to each other while making suggestive lesbian advances to a background to tinkly piano music. In short, this is my cryptonite. Get it as far away from me as possible.

Morita-san wa Mukuchi

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I watched the OVA to this that came out a while back. The production values look to have been funded by a half eaten pack of hobnobs, and the plot was girls being insufferably nice to each other while making suggestive lesbian advances, but it approached the presentation in such a laid back manner that it wasn’t detestable. Not that I plan to watch it or anything. I’m just saying it’s not going to make me want to hurl my laptop out the window.

Nyanpire the Animation

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Gonzo make their glorious return! Quick crash course in Gonzo history. They were a big animation company in the early half of the 00’s. They made some pretty great anime, from Last Exile to Gankutsouo to Full Metal Panic. Yeah, FMP wasn’t originally Kyoto Animation. They made the the second season, while they were part of a joint production with Gonzo for Fumoffu. But then Gonzo started to make an awful lot of crap. From Dragonaut to Shangri-La to Rosario to Vampire, they poured their money into increasingly shitty projects that made them no money. They eventually bowed out, totally bankrupt, in 2009. The last anime they made was Strike Witches. I’m not sure which part depresses me more. That their last anime was about little girls flying around wearing no pants when 4 years before they made Gankutsou, or that Strike Witches actually sold pretty well. But anyway, they’re making a slow recovery with…eerrr, Nyanpire. Not quite what I was hoping for, but it’s probably better that they leave their little legacy alone from here on. Unless, by some miracle, their new Last Exile project somehow ends up being anywhere near as good as the original. I’m not holding out too much hope for that though

Mawaru PenguinDrum

The last one on the list has next to no information on it whatsoever. No character art, no studio, no trailer. We’ve got nothing apart from the name, that it’s 24 episodes long, and that above promo pic . Oh, and that the director is Kunihiko Ikuhara, the director of a little show called Revolutionary Girl Utena. After almost 15 years doing nothing but the odd OP storyboard, he’s back with his new project. Whatever it is. What’s bugging me is how little fanfare there is to this. If this really was such a big deal, why do we still not have even any character art? Where is the hype building? This is not just an impatient blogger looking for info. This also shows the studios own confidence in their project. Or maybe they’re just being coy and trying to build interest by not revealing information. Eh, we’ll see, but after 15 years I kinda hope this guy has something worth waiting for.

Movies

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Obligatory reminder that we won’t see upcoming anime movies for several months because theatrical releases can’t get subbed until they’re released on DVD and Blu-Ray. So, while there’s some fascinating movies coming out (in particular the Towa no Quon movie series by Bones), I’m instead going to look at those movies coming out on DVD in Japan over the next 3 months.

The Break Blade series finale is on its way! Episode 5 is out 27th May while episode 6 is out 22nd July. Hopefully they’ll be better than the rather lame 4th episode was and return to the quality of the first 3. The second Macross Frontier movie is out 21st May, so even more vaguely hoping they show Sheryl’s boobs. Yeah, sorry, but I wasn’t all that taken by the first film. There’s some Bleach movie on 24th August, because there’s always another shounen film coming out. More interestingly, that latest Ghibli film, Arriety, is finally making its way onto DVD. Thing is, it’s going to be making the rounds at movie festivals around where I live, so I’m probably going to wait to see it on the big screen. Still, for those who don’t live near any anime movie festival places, you finally get the chance to see it. Speaking of film festivals, the first of a planned 3 Mardock Scramble films is coming out 24th August. I saw the film a while ago at an anime movie festival and I wasn’t quite taken with it, but I’d be interested in hearing what everyone else thinks of it.

You know what else is finally coming out though? 2+ years after its first release in movie festivals? Finally making its way to the DVD and BD market for the entire world to see (even if most of them will see it illegally). Redline. 10th August. Remember that date.

OVAs

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OVA land is rather barren this season. The rising number of DVD specials is cool, but they’re a light snack rather than something worthwhile. For OVA’s with actual plot-worthy content, there’s the last episode of the Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Trail, which has been typical Black Lagoon so far. There’s another Higurashi OVA, although having only seen the first season, I couldn’t tell you what this is supposed to add to the story. Hellsing Ultimate is finally returning, for all those of you who liked Hellsing but wanted less style, character depth and interaction, and more mindless gore and endless repetitive speeches about how great war is. There’s Saiyuki Gaiden, which I know nothing about beyond the boys in the promo picture are incredibly beautiful.

For original OVA’s, Katte no Kaizou is a Shaft adaptation of a manga that Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei copied the style of. Hence it will just feel like a rip-off of SZS, because this is Shaft’s excuse to make more SZS without having to actually use any material from SZS. Finally, there’s Baby Princess, whose implications of the plot synopsis I didn’t realise until I visited the homepage. 19 girls, from ages 1 through to 19, all in swimsuits. One for every type of paedophile!

Both Chobits and Time of Eve deal with humans’ relationships with robots. In fact, they both go further than that. They focus, in some or another, on love. In both instances they say that a human can love a robot. Hideki is, completely and utterly, without any sign or hint of creepiness, in love with Chi. Time of Even prefers to focus on several short stories to highlight the relationship and love each duo shares. However there’s a difference in their messages.

Take the robots inside Time of Eve. The first episode makes a big deal out of the fact that the girl is bubbly and hyperactive inside the cafe, but when they see her in school she’s lifeless. In the cafe, the sign specifically says there is to be no discrimination between humans and robots. The robots all act like humans, getting rid of the halo above their head and in doing so removing their status as a robot. The final scene in episode 5 sees Sammy, the robot belonging to the main character, leaving the cafe and returning to her lifeless robot form, only to briefly smile, showing her ‘human’ side.

The robots in Chobits are always robots. There is never any doubt that Chi is anything more than a robot. A more advanced robot with the programme making her capable to fall in love yes, but still always a robot. They are never once humanised over the course of the series. If they were ever to say something that sounded remotely human, it was often followed up with a reminded that this was the way they were programmed. The robots never lose their ears, the sign that they aren’t humans, unlike the disappearance of the halos in Time of Eve (although in the Chobits manga they do start producing persecoms without the ears, but I’m talking about the anime so let’s leave that aside).

There’s only one instance in Time of Eve where it’s never a doubt that someone is a robot in the Eve Cafe (well, episode 6 was kinda like that but didn’t follow the same format of the other episodes so it’s hard to fit it into the pattern). Episode 4 with ‘nameless’, the clunky, near broken-down childminder intent on drinking that cup of tea. Never once were you left guessing as to whether this person was a robot or not, but the loving the robot as a robot was the main message of the episode. Incidentally, this was also by far the best episode of Time of Eve.

Both Time of Eve and Chobits say humans can love robots the same way they love other humans. Time of Eve says humans can love a robot as if they were a human. Chobits says a human can love a robot as a robot. I’m not saying that the message is correct or anything. It’s just a huge leap of faith to make you believe you can actually love a robot. But Chobits goes further than that. It says that a human can fall in love romantically with a robot. Whatever about a robot loving you. With the right programming that’s believable and I can easily make that leap of faith. But for a human to properly fall in love with a robot, without being under the delusion that it’s anything other than a robot, while also being in an entirely non-creepy way, is a huge mental boundary to cross.

That’s why I love Chobits. It made me believe. It made me believe in a love that, before I began the series, seemed so implausible. Because I’m a bit romantic sap at heart.

Picked up on: Episode 4

Why I picked it up again: As I said earlier, it ran away with the poll in the post in question and that would have been enough a reason to watch it anyway. There was also the fact that most of the commenters were doing their usual act of ‘it gets better, I swear!. Finally, there was that constant niggling desire to find something that replicated the feeling I had while watching Chobits.

Review: Somewhere around about episode 12 it hit me. No, not that the show had suddenly become watchable, that wasn’t to happen for several more episodes. No, what hit me was a perfect way to express what it was I didn’t like about this show. I had some vague review thoughts in my head (subconsciously reviewing the show as you watch it; the curse of being a critic) but most of them revolved around bitching about how stupid Kobato herself was and how the show relied on cuteness as its main appeal, something I’ve just never really liked. But then it hit me. Somebody had made a comment in an earlier post that the way they got through a series they didn’t like was because they spent their time also playing Pokemon. So I finally got around to playing Pokemon Platinum (why yes, I am a game behind everyone else) after sitting through the first few episodes of Kobato and realising I would probably smash my laptop if I had to sit through another ‘Kobato Ganbarrebleargh~’ without something else to occupy my mind. Now normally this shouldn’t work unless I was watching the dub. Multitasking while watching subs is next to impossible. However it did work because I actually understood pretty much everything that was being said.

Let me explain. I have never once made an attempt at learning Japanese. I know about as much as any weeaboo who watches subbed anime would know. Watching Kobato wasn’t a sudden grand realisation that I was now fluent in Japanese. It was the simplicity of the language the characters used. They all had just a few stock lines they would throw out in most situations which meant that after watching a few episodes paying attention to the subs you knew pretty much everything that they could say. This effects the anime in far more ways than you might realise. Of course you get the painfully dull and repetitive dialogue. Of course there’s the way every scene and every episode feels the exact bloody same with no inspiration, ingenuity or imagination, bar Kobato’s wardrobe. But alongside that you also have the actual tension in the series solved using the same uninspired methods in every episode. Kobato throws out a few stock phrases, Ioryogi mutters something in the background and all is right with the world once again. It limits the direction any episode can take.

But yes, it does get better. It may take until around episode 17 before I actually went through an episode without having beaten 3–4 pokemon trainers while it was playing, but it certainly did improve. Vastly improved. By episode 20 I had shut that Game Boy for good and was actually watching this show for real. The show took a much more dramatic and melancholic tone that suited the style of storytelling far more. After watching the previous 16 episodes of failed comedy (bar Ioryogi dodging cork bullets at the festival. That was quite funny) and bland stories that were supposed to be heartwarming, the effect this change to a plot-driven story had on the overall quality of the show was phenomenal. The MAL stats paint an interesting picture indeed.

Notice that there’s a very high percentage drop rate to completed rate. And yet the anime is rated 8.07, a very respectable score indeed. Because MAL doesn’t count the scores once you’ve seen beyond a certain number of episodes so those who actually sat through the entire thing were clearly rewarded for their efforts. It also shows the usual reaction of people to rate something highly because the later episodes were better, much like After Story. It’s something that bugs me a lot because I hate having to sit through several poor episodes just because ‘it gets better I swear!’. I don’t doubt it does. It’s just those earlier episodes are a right pain to sit through. Because Kobato is, for the most part, a poor anime. It just happens to end on a very high note. Plus you can’t skip those earlier episodes the same way you theoretically can for After Story. Without those earlier episodes the ending ones don’t work.

It did turn me into a romantic sap though. Good old Clamp did it again. They made me believe that, through anything, love will prevail. No matter what happens to you, what you go through, what form you’re in, love will get through all that. It did the very same thing Chobits did. It made me believe in the Power of Love. I came into this anime looking for something to replicate the feeling Chobits gave me and, in the end, I guess it did exactly that.

Was it worth picking up again: Not really. Not even for the Power of Love

I’ve stated several times before that there is nothing more boring than watching a bunch of girls being insufferably nice to each other. I have no discovered that this statement is lacking because watching a bunch of ladyboys being insufferably nice to each other is just as dull. That’s precisely what bugged me about this episode. These characters aren’t real men. OK, I know one of them is actually a women reincarnated or something, but even the other male characters act like characters out of a yuri anime. Their conversations are so lacking in life that it’s painfully dull to watch.

The emo-ing about isn’t quite so bad I’ll admit. It does feel lazy though, as though so little thought has gone into why these characters are acting all emo. It’s more interesting than watching them being insufferably nice to each other but neither is it particularly interesting to watch. The imagery is quite obviously inspired by that of a certain Clamp series that also happens to have the same name as the 24th letter of the alphabet, which in itself isn’t a bad thing. But really, if you quite liked this series I’d recommend watching that series instead. I’m not even particularly big fan of X but Uraboku does feel like a cheap knock-off. It’s not terrible, but honestly you should be watching yourself some Clamp. Or alternatively, watch an anime with slash pairings that involve real men and not a bunch of ladyboys. Like Durarara.

There is no such thing as drop­ping an anime forever. When I use the term ‘dropped’ that does not mean that’s the last I’ll see of that anime in my life. Drop­ping a show means that I don’t have the enthu­si­asm to watch this show cur­rently and at a later date I’ll return to that anime. This later date may be the time when I’m trapped in my house my extreme snowfall with noth­ing other than a port­able dvd player and a ‘Lucky Star’ box­set, but I will one day return and give the anime another shot. With this in mind, com­bined with the fact that I’m only 4 series away from ‘drop­ping’ 100 anime, accord­ing to my MAL account, I’ve decided that I’m going to take a look back at all those series I’ve dropped, recog­nise why I dropped them and eval­u­ate when I should give them another go.

K-ON!

Dropped After: 7 episodes

Why I dropped it: K-ON neither deserved the level of praise nor the level of criticism it deserved. It was a bunch of girls doing cute shit and spending far more time eating cake than playing music. In fact, it actually had a good few jokes in its repertoire. My problem with the series was two-fold. First was the cake-eating. There is nothing, and I repeat, nothing more boring than a bunch of girls sitting round being insufferably nice to each other over food-stuffs (Lucky Star is coming up soon…). Those scenes tending to happen bi-episodically which resulted in a one episode good, next episode bad syndrome. But what really killed it was the repetition. The usual 4-koma problem.

Rebirth Chances: Below average. I dropped just before Azu-nyan came into the story and from what I’ve heard it’s basically the first half of the series repeated all over again. Azu-nyan is a loli who puts on cat ears and is cute. This is not relevant to my interests. Mind you, the show wasn’t exactly terrible or anything before I dropped it. I more lost interest than consciously dropped it, but there’s just no real incentive to pick it up again.

Kamen no Maid Guy

Dropped After: 6 episodes

Why I dropped it: KoGARarshi was a buff man with 37 senses, one of which was to see through women’s clothing, who dressed as a maid. I don’t quite remember why he had to dress as a maid nor the reason the girl had a maid in the first place. In fact I’m having a lot of trouble remembering anything about this show. There was terrible animation, I remember that. But beyond that my mind has just gone blank.

Rebirth Chances: Average. Anyone want to tell me what I’m missing out on?

Kemeko DX

Dropped After: 5 episodes

Why I dropped it: It’s embarrassing to look back at this, but after the first episode of Kemeko I genuinely thought that I had found the spiritual successor to Hare+Guu. It had the same director and everything! 4 episodes later and I had dropped that blasted thing. Putting my finger on what went wrong is difficult though. I guess it’s because it became the exact thing it was parodying. It started off as a parody of crappy fanservice harems (remember I had seen a LOT of these with my bloody search for good seinen romance) but then turned right into one of them. Parodies only seem to work if you like the genre they’re based off.

Rebirth Chances: Low. The reviews of it are miserable and I’m pretty sure the plot goes nowhere and delves even deeper into crappy fanservice harem territory, totally forgetting to parody the very thing it started off parodying. Gah, why did I give this an A for it’s first episode. That was probably even worse than the A given to the first episode of 07 Ghost and comparing it to Code Geass.

Kemonozume

Dropped After: 5 episodes

Why I dropped it: I love Kaiba. It’s ranked 14th in my top 30 anime. So yeah, I was pretty darn excited about finally getting around to Kemenozume. But no, it wasn’t to be. Kemenozume was the perfect example of a pretentious anime. Artwork that tries to be unconventional but just looks ugly and stupid. A plot that tries to be ‘LOL MATURE AND DEEP’ but looks more and more like a mess with every episode. So Yuasa went on to make Kaiba? Someone must have hit the guy on the head and told him to stop being such a pretentious faggot. It didn’t entirely work. There’s still a level of pretentiousness in Kaiba but the rest of the show eclipses that problem.

Rebirth Chances: Average. I still have those episodes sitting downloaded, burnt onto CD’s, such was my conviction that I would love this show. Plus I mean come on, this is Yuasa. I’ll have to give Mind Game a shot and his upcoming Youjohan anime as well before I class Kaiba as a one-hit wonder by the guy. If they are good, maybe I’ll return to Kemonozume. But only then.

Kobato

Dropped After: 4 episodes

Why I dropped it: We always look at upcoming anime and try find connections with them to our personal favourites. Kobato connection was pretty obvious. Clamp + pretty Madhouse animation = Chobits? That part of me long since dead suddenly leapt into life and said hopefully “seinen romance?”. It wasn’t seinen romance but it still, it hinted at a certain level of charm I hadn’t seen in a series for a long time. Instead all it did was be insufferably cute and repetitive with lazy and poorly written dialogue. It was a meandering cute anime. Frustration kicked in and I dropped it, although I might have stuck with it longer if the opening was done by Round Table feat. Nino.

Rebirth Chances: Above average. I’ve heard it gets a lot better as it goes on and the real story starts to kick in. I’m not sure how much more I could handle of Kobato mucking about and watching those bunnies at the halfway point always made me feel like an absolute doofus, but the pull of something to mirror the feelings of Chobits is strong. Then again, if I didn’t get that feeling after 4 episodes, will I ever be able to be sucked in by the magic of Kobato?

X TV: the animated version of the apparently never-ending Clamp manga and infinitely superior to the movie version, Madhouse had that common problem of trying to adapt an unfinished manga. Most people would say ‘wait until the manga has ended’ or ‘wait for it to catch up and make a second season’ but when you consider this anime was made 10 years ago and the manga still hasn’t ended, that was out of the question simply from a financial point of view. So they could have either left an open ending that’s immensely frustrating, or an anime original ending that closed everything off. Thankfully they went with the second option and I’m really grateful they did that…except I didn’t understand it.

OK, I got the first part. Kamui mark 2, otherwise known as Fuuma, stabs Kamui mark 1, henceforth simply referred to as Kamui, but before he dies, Kamui enters into Fuuma’s heart and creates one of those kekkai things which covers the entire world. With Kamui  ‘dead’ but still sorta ‘alive’, the kekkai won’t disappear unless Fuuma dies.

So how exactly does this stop Fuuma continuing his Dragon of the Earth style apocalypse? If the entire world is cased in this kekkai then surely the entire world will still be affected by. If the entire world is transported into another dimension then surely he could carry on his apocalypse in the new dimension, right? But let me humour myself for a while. Lets say there’s some little known rule that you can’t bring about the apocalypse inside a kekkai. Fair enough, they can’t tell us every little detail about the kekkai. They probably didn’t know that little rule themselves. To be fair, it is a bit of an obscure rule you might forget. The Death Note only included a handful of it’s 50 bizzilion rules in its pages so maybe the rule was never written down.

My main problem though, is with the reaction of Fuuma. His grand plans to bring about the change to the world, Dragon of the Earth style, have been ruined. He can’t bring about the apocalypse with Kamui still alive and the only way he would be able to kill him is kill himself. Shouldn’t he be pretty damn pissed off about that? Shouldn’t he be standing on top of Tokyo Tower, yelling ‘NNOOOOOOOOOO!!!’? But no, he’s busy playing with freaking birds.

I don’t get it. It’s hardly like he changed back to his old personality. If that had happenned he’d still be pretty damn depressed because he’ll finally realised he killed his sister. He should be sitting in bed all uber depressed. Not playing with some fucking birds! Or is he still his evil self and is playing with those birds while thinking ‘ah, well-played Kamui’?

I dunno. Anyone want to explain the ending to me?

A note about my ratings: The rating that’s given is a reflection of how that anime has performed this month alone. For example, while Hetalia is a better anime than  Umineko overall, this month of Umineko has been better than Hetalia.

A Grade: One of the tops of the year. Get ready for some fanboying here

A– Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

This month hasn’t been quite as awesome as last month but who bloody well cares! FMA continues to produce the good week in, week out. It has finally reached the stage where I’ve had to finally admit that Brotherhood is now, in my eyes, equal to the original FMA series. Yes, it may have taken almost 30 episodes to reach that stage but I think Brotherhood has proven itself worthy. Now it’s a question of will it be able to keep this form up until the end.

A– Darker than Black: Comet of Gemini

Yet to watch episode 4 but leaving that aside for a second, what a start this season of Darker than Black has had, eh! Especially when you compared to the painfully confusing first few episodes last season had, this time it’s managed to combine confusion with awesomeness far more effectively. 12 episodes really isn’t enough for this series…unless a season 3?

B Grade: Hugely entertaining stuff. Not amazing but definitely worth watching

B+ Book of Bantorra

The most under-rated show of the season in my book. It’s difficult to say what exactly it is I love about this series. It proves that one can do fantastic fight scenes with a limited budget if you choreograph it well. It’s a shame what happened in episode 4 since I thought the ever-laughing witch storyline would continue for several episodes longer. Maybe we’ll see a return from her later on, Laughing Man style…hey, a man can hope can’t he?

B Cross Game

The best month Cross Game has had by far. Those baseball games were surprisingly tense, even though I pretty much knew exactly what was going to happen (Cross Game sucks at subtle foreshadowing). Even the recap episode, which I basically fast-forwarded through made me sniffle…Wakaba *sniff*. Plus, the twist that the next episode preview showed was something I did not expect. A Wakaba lookalike eh? This could get very interesting very quickly.

B Trapeze

I still can’t quite make up my mind in regards to this anime. Episode one was so wacky and wild that I roared with laughter the entire way through. However episode 2 lacked the shock tactics of the previous one and ended up being an uninspired lump of penis jokes and I started to wonder whether this anime was all art and no depth. Episode three proved that instantly wrong with a fantastically poignant point to prove. No idea what the rest of this series has in store though.

B– Letter Bee

In its own quiet way, Letter Bee has been one of the relatively few impressive anime to come out this season. In a world where unoriginal ideas, crappy sequels, even more fanservice and Hetalia rip-offs have dominated the scene, it’s a breath of fresh air to watch Letter Bee in all it’s simplicity. It’s not an amazing anime by any stretch, but you can’t help but love them anyway.

B– Umineko

I had written something here but then I decided I should watch episode 18 before I post this. Basically, everything that happened in the last game has been thrown completely out the window. It was by far the best arc of the series so far but.…I dunno, I can’t work this series out.

C Grade: It’s good enough to keep watching but it’s not that memorable

C+ Hetalia Axis Powers

It’s still making me laugh consistently, but this has still been a poor week for Hetalia by its usual  standards. But what’s really made it drop down to C territory is the return of Chibitalia. I know the have barely taken up a minute so far but they’re presence can be felt by the rest of the cast and it casts a shadow over the entire series. Damn you Chibitalia!

C– Sacred Blacksmith

It’s remarkable that I’m still watching this series. There doesn’t appear to be a shred of originality of imagination in the plot or the dialogue. But I can’t bring myself to drop it. I actually quite enjoy watching the series, especially Luke in all his grumpiness. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if this ended up in the D section next week though.

D Grade: I’ve lost interest in this anime. If it’s a D then I’ve probably dropped it

D Nyan Koi

Over the course of the past month I’ve been a pretty busy bloke. I’ve been trying to finish the second season of Honey and Clover and from there move onto watching Gintama again. The thing is, I don’t think there’s been a time this month where I haven’t had at least two unwatched, weekly airing episodes sitting on my computer. So I’ve had to cut down my list. Hence, Nyan Koi is dropped. It wasn’t that bad…but it wasn’t really any good either.

D– Kobato

Now really Clamp. Yes you’ve certainly dabbled in moe before and I can certainly stand a little bit of moe in my anime. Heck, I might even go so far as to say a little bit of moe can be a good thing. But this has been no more than K-ON. Actually, K-ON was better than this. If you say that you disliked K-ON but like Kobato then you are a raging hypocrite. Please pick up this anime Clamp. I don’t want to lose faith in you guys.

E Grade: Unlike D grades where I drop out of disinterest, E grades are dropped in Disgust.

E+ Natsu no Arashi

What a load of absolute bull this season has been. It’s basically repeated the exact same fucking thing for every episode so far. What the hell is the point in these episodes anyway and why on earth do they have to spread out this plot point over the course of 4 fanservice laden episodes? The only reason to watch this anime anymore is the salt guy. Screw you Shaft, you guys seriously suck at sequels. I’m not sure if I want a second season of Bakemonogatari anymore.

F Grade: Any F standard anime I would only watch 1 or 2 episodes of so god only know how an anime could last to the end of the month and still get an F but I’m sure it will happen some day

Since I don’t include anime I’ve only watched the first episode of in here, you won’t see any F grades today. In fact I only watched one F grade anime this season and that was Kampfer. Then again, I never watched the flying panties one. Oh wait, Miracle Train. That was pure F grade material, how did I forget about that one.

My Rating System Explained!

A = If you watch anything this season, watch this

B = Very good, sometimes surprisingly so.

C = If you have the time, you should check this out

D = Not my kind of thing, I won’t be watching this

E = Bad. Very bad, ignore this show

F = Frustratingly awful

Kobato

I’ve yet to make a ‘top 10/20 favorite anime’ post but if I did, you would see exactly how much I adored Chobits. Seeing Clamp and Madhouse return for a new anime that has a similar atmosphere has clouded my judgement a bit with this new series. For that reason, it’s kind of hard to take my review here at face value.

Of course I enjoyed the episode. The cheerful naivety of Kobato works so well when played off her violent stuffed dog. The animation is superb (it’s great to finally see Madhouse back on quality anime again instead of Needless) and the whole atmosphere of the episode was so easy to enjoy. That grin never left my face.

One large problem though. Considering it’s such an important part of her character, the producers really should have picked someone else to voice Kobato who could actually sing. Some people said that it would be impossible to sound as angelic as the anime portrays her as but you should at least get someone who can hit those high notes.

Rating: B

Kimi ni Todoke

I have a lot of problems with this episode, most of them being aspects that are standard to any shojo. The dialogue is horribly unrealistic and unimaginative. It’s basically like how a teenage girl would like her dialogue to go with the guy she liked. The guy’s personality was too annoyingly perfect and idealised.

Then there’s the fact that the romance is pretty much already there. The main two already like each other and are practically going out by this stage. The most fun part of a romance anime is watching the characters fall in love with each other. These two fell in love in that ‘the school is that way’ scene, killing the series right from the start.

Considering how much I heard about how intelligent the manga was, I’m pretty damn disappointed. I guess I just don’t like shojo. It’s not just the star-sparkles and so on, it’s the annoying level of wish-fulfillment that goes on. The only saving grace is that I actually quite liked the female lead but otherwise that episode really disappointed me.

Rating: C–

Darker than Black: Comet of Gemini

They come along every now and then don’t they. Those first episodes that just make a mockery of every other anime’s efforts and bowls them over effortlessly with their own level of quality. Darker than Black managed that. Nothing this season has even come remotely close to the quality of this episode.

It actually took me ages to get into the first season of Darker than Black. It wasn’t until around episode 8 did I start to enjoy the series. Thank god that I didn’t have to do that again for this series, considering it’s only 12/13 episodes long. The other plus from the last season is that this Yoko Kanno-less season actually has *gasp* better music!

Yes, Darker than Black has returned in all it’s glory. Brian is also going to make an emphatic return to blog this series so you can follow him if you so wish.

Rating: A

11eyes

Why oh why did this anime have to stick to such painful otaku-pandering. There’s clearly a good plot underneath all that stupid panty flashes and horrible moe and argh! No really, the scenes where the two characters swap over to that undeniably creepy other-world are excellent and very Noein-esque.

But oh dear god, what sort of nonsense did they put in before that! There must have been about 10 panty flashes but they were far from being the worst part. Far worse were the painfully generic character archetypes and conversations that we’ve seen a bizzilion times before. It’s as if the creators were trying to be as generic as possible and succeeded spectacularly.

And then there’s the moe. I don’t hate moe but by god…ok just stop me now before I keep bitching about all the things that pained me about this episode I’d go on all day and it would get tl;dr. The worst thing is that there is clearly a good story under all this utter generic crap that’s dominated most of the episode.

Rating: E+

You can probably see where I’m going with this picture. Not only does this season see the return of one dog-eared demon, but we also see the birth of a brand new hit. It’s a good time to be a shounen fanboy. Shame I’m not one…

Most of the synopsis are either taken fron ANN or MAL (even though MAL takes most of it’s synopsis’ from ANN but whatever). Other info is generally taken from Chartfag’s amazing chart, Moetron or Can you Moe. You can also go to Ganbatte’s preview as it’s the only other one I’ve seen that’s actually had effort put into it.

A quick note before I begin. Please for gods sake, do NOT copy and paste this entire preview onto a forum or your own blog. If you do I’m going after you with a machete

Sequels

Darker than Black: The Comet of Gemini

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Bones

Synopsis: Hei and Yin are now on the run after betraying the Syndicate in the previous season. After leaving Japan, Hei encounters Suou Pavlichenko, a 13 year old Eurasian girl who becomes embroiled in the war and politics of the various factions and Contractors vying for power. Meanwhile, Hell’s Gate remains standing in Tokyo, after Hei’s efforts to stop the Saturn Ring anti-Gate particle weapon from activating. Although Contractors are safe from the danger of having their existences erased, this does not prevent new and old Contractors from abusing their powers. As Misaki Kirihara and her team in the Public Security Bureau deal with the increasing Contractor cases, she also has to keep the Syndicate at bay, who has major positions in the Japanese police andintelligence bureaus around the world. The storyline setting primarily takes place in both Japan and Russia.

Scamp: Reading that synopsis highlighted a rather large problem: I can’t remember the plot from the original series in the slightest. I’m sure they revealed what the syndicate was up to but I just can’t remember anything. Judging from the trailer and synopsis, it looks like this season is told from a different standpoint aka: that Russian girl. Which hopefully means we will  be explained the plot again. Then again, I never really knew what was going on in DTB.  It’s  the only anime to have more confusing conspiracies than Eden of the East. BTW, no Yoko Kanno this season, which is a downer but the guy who’s taking over isn’t half bad. Oh, of course I’m watching this, the first season was awesome. It’s just I just have to prepare myself for utter confusion all over again.

Toaru Kagaku no Rail Gun

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: JC Staff

Synopsis: Academy City. 2.3 million inhabitants. 80% of the students are active in the ‘Brain Development Program’ and out of those only 7 are Level 5s. Meet the civilian protagonist Mikoto and her friend Kuroko, maintainers of peace and order in the University district. Kuroko is a member of ‘Judgement’

Scamp: Never got into Index so I don’t have any interest in watching this.

Since those two anime were effectively spin-offs, they needed a synopsis but the rest are all direct continuations so I’m not going to bother with one. If you’ve seen the first season then you know what they’re already about and if you haven’t, then you won’t be watching it.

Natsu no Arashi! 2

Studio: Shaft

Additional info: Air date Oct 4th

Scamp: I’m surprised this got a second season seeing as it wasn’t that popular. Personally, I’m delighted to see more of those bizarre milk-carton arguments. This show really grew on me as it progressed.

InuYasha: Kanketsu-hen

Studio: Sunrise

Scamp: You can’t deny Inuyasha was in dire need of this sequel, but I have no interest in it. Ah well, I’m sure there’s plenty of fangirls manly men delighted to see this.

Queen’s Blade 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: ARMS

Scamp: The greatest anime of the year, possibly the decade, has made its much desired re-appearance. Praised by critics worldwide, described by many as a cross between Cowboy Bebop, Mushishi and Ikkitousen, it’s engaging plot and deep emotional impact are on display for the world to see. Are you watching the sequel to Queens Blade? Do I even need to ask?

Asura Cryin’ 2

Studio: Seven Arcs

Scamp: Why do crappy anime get second seasons anyway? I thought the point of making 2 seasons was to cut costs if it was rubbish. Apparently not if this has a second season and neither Baccano nor Moyashimon have a sequel yet.

Tentai Senshi Sunred 2

Studio: AIC ASTA

Scamp: This wasn’t on Chartfags chart but ANN and MAL both list it as airing this season. Considering how much I love random comedy, I wonder why I never watched this when it came out originally. I don’t think anyone was subbing it.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu: Purezza

Studio: Diomedia

Scamp: Meh, it has its fans. I’m not one of them

White Album 2nd Season

Studio: Seven Arcs

Scamp: Pretty picture. Shame the show sucks

Shin Koihime†Musou

Studio: Dogakobo

Scamp:*Copy and paste random rant on ANN about how these anime are killing the industry*

Right, now they are out of the way, let’s get onto what we really want to see. Well, what I want to see anyway

New Series

Tatakau Shisho — The Book of Bantorra

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: David

Additional Info: Based off light novels. Air date Oct 2nd

Synopsis: In a world where dead people turn into books and are stored in the Bantorra Library where anyone who reads a book can learn their past. Bantorra Library is maintained by Armed Librarians who wield psychic powers and their enemy is a religious society known as Sindeki Kyoudan.

Scamp: Well the trailer has already managed to be 10 times more interesting than Ristorante Paradiso ever was, Studio David’s only other anime I’ve seen thus far. I do want this anime to be a hit because it’s always encouraging new studios to compete in the anime universe. The director has worked on some pretty decent stuff but what really has me is the trailer. The animation looks slick, the music is cool and the action looks like it will flow freely. Plus since light novels quite often turn into pretty good anime, it’s certainly worth a shot.

Kobato.

Studio: Madhouse

Additional Info: Based off manga written by CLAMP. Air date Oct 6th

Synopsis: Kobato is sweet and perky girl, but also extremely naive about the world around her. She has a “mission”, which is to fill a mysterious bottle of hers with the suffering from people’s hearts so her wish to go a certain place that she desires to go can be granted. However, she must not fall in love with a particular boy she works with and whose heart she must heal.

Scamp: ClampXMadhouse is one of the ultimate combo’s in anime. From Cardcaptors to X to Chobits (one of my personal favourites), Madhouse have proven they are the best when it comes to Clamp’s works. The thing is, Clamps work ranges from the girly to the extremely girly and this one looks like the latter. The homepage had an awful lot of pink. Still, I’ve been looking forward to this for a while now. It’ll be good to see Madhouse producing quality again. After three years of pure brilliance from 06 to 08, they’ve been pretty poor this year (Needless anyone?). You should know by now if you like Clamp or not so if you do, lucky us, we get some awesome Clamp. If you don’t, well…you have no taste. Mwahaha, go my biased views, go!

Sasameki Koto

Studio: AIC

Additional Info: Based off manga. Air date Oct 6th

Synopsis: Murasame Sumika is popular in the high school for her excellence in the marks and sports. However, she has a secret: she is in love with her classmate Kazama Ushio. Ushio also has a liking to the love between girls, but she hasn’t noticed Sumika’s feeling and always been refused by other girls.

Scamp: Yuri. This instantly translates into automatic no interest for me.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

Studio: Beijing Glorious/Future Planet

Additional Info: Joint Chinese/Japanese project. Based off famous book by the same name

Synopsis: The original famous novel depicts the tumultuous warring period of second-century China and the political intrigue between the different factions

Scamp: I have serious doubts that this will ever be fansubbed, much less licensed. In that sense, it’s pointless to work up any enthusiasm for this series.

Nyan Koi!

Studio: AIC

Additional Info: Based off manga. Air Date Oct 1st

Synopsis: JunpeiKōsaka is a second-year high school student who despises cats and has an allergy to them. It just so happens that his high school crush is Kaede Mizuno, a girl who adores cats. One day, while walking home from school, Junpei kicks an empty can and unfortunately beans the local neko-jizō-sama(guardian deity of cats). He finds he can now understand what cats are saying, including his family’s own ill-tempered cat, Nyamusasu. However, if he does not grant 100 wishes from cats, he will turn into a cat himself.

Scamp: So many things point to this being a crappy anime. AIC are not a good studio and I’ve found very little hype behind the manga itself, which is never a good sign. And yet I find myself looking forward to this. Why? Slightly because I like the character designs, slightly because there’s a notable absence of fanservice in any promo material, slightly because I love a good comedy. But mainly because the synopsis made me laugh.

Kuchu Buranko

Studio: Toei Animation

Additional Info: Based off Short stories. Airing in noitamA timeslot which (usually) means high ratings and 11 episodes

Synopsis: In modern Japan, people visit ‘doctors of nuerology’ rather than therapists. Dr.Ichiro is an eccentric neurologist with an injection fetish, an Oedipus complex and a green Porsche, known for making patients much worse before they get better.

Scamp: Now this has really gotten me interested. By the same group who worked on Mononoke, the best anime that nobodies watched, and airing in the now famous noitamA timeslot. Now I’ve never seen Mononoke but the reviews are fantastic and it’s been a while since I’ve watched a proper elitist anime that I’ve really enjoyed (the last was probably Casshern Sins). The short stories it’s based off has won awards, the synopsis is so wonderfully random and the promo picture is so bizarre. Maybe not for the more casual fan but if you are one of those ‘moe anime are killing the industry rawr rawr rawr’ type of people who flood ANN, then this looks like your sort of thing.

Fairy Tail

Studio: A-1 Pictures/Satelight

Additional Info: Based off ridicolusly popular Shounen Jump magazine manga (thanks viralu) manga. Air date Oct 12th

Synopsis: Lucy is a 17-year-old girl, who wants to be a full-fledged mage. One day when visiting Harujion Town, she meets Natsu, a young man who gets sick easily by any type of transportation. But Natsu isnt just any ordinary kid, he’s a member of one of the world’s most (in)famous mage guilds: Fairy Tail.

Scamp: To call this ‘the next big thing’ in shounen isn’t correct. It’s already big! To give you an idea, it’s the fourth most popular manga on onemanga.com, behind Naruto, Bleach and One Piece. So get ready to see lots of shady stream sites called ‘watchfairytailonline.com’. As for myself, I’ve never been a fan of these long-running shounen hits. I want to like them, they have kick-ass fights and cool looking characters, but everything is just dragged out so long it kills the fun. A-1 and Satelight are good studios, neither of whom have animated a true shounen series before so I’m guessing they’ll take a slightly different approach to animating this. I’m definitely going to watch it but I really hope this moves quicker than a herd of one-legged tortoise’s stampeding through maple syrup.

11eyes

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Dogakobo

Additional Info: Based off Visual Novel

Synopsis: Satsuki Kakeru lost his sister by suicide andhas been living a dull life ever since then. One day, he is transported into a bizarre world “Red Night” along with his friend Minase Yuka. In order to survive and escape from Red Night, he fights against Dark Spirits (Ralva) and Black Nights.

Scamp: Some people seem to be excited about this anime. WHY? It’s based off an eroge, which translates to shitty anime 90% of the time. It’s made by a nothing studio and the character designs are ulta-generic. I would quite like to be proved wrong. I’m hoping this to be as good as that other eroge-turned-anime that was excellent…can’t think of any right now but I’m sure one will come to me…eventually.

Sora no Otoshimono

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: AIC ASTA

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: Sakurai Tomoki has been having the same strange dream since he was a child and would wake up in tears. Sugita, an upperclassmen as his school, believe the dream to be of the new continent. Later that night while waiting under the cherry trees for his Sugita and Sohara, his childhood friend, an angel comes flying down.

Scamp: God this looks awful. The manga reviews are crap and then there’s those horrible droopy breasts, urgh. Why does this have to be one of the few anime to have a trailer out? I would much prefer to see Kobato or Fairy Tale trailer’s.

Sacred Blacksmith

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: Manglobe

Additional Info: Based off Light Novels

Synopsis: Once upon a time, there was a tragic war, in which the power of the devils was involved. After the war, the devils’ power was banned and the world was restored to peace. Cecily Campbell is a knight, who has been looking for a blacksmith to repair her old sword given by her father. One day, she saw a man fighting with a ruffian who used the tabooed devil’s power. The man defeated him with one blow of his weirdly shaped sword. The man turned out to be a blacksmith called Luke. The fateful encounter was the beginning of the adventure.

Scamp: My elitist side hates this anime. Manglobe gave up making original anime productions and decided to animate a fanservice-y fantasty novel. My non-elitist side points out that it’s not like Michiko to Hatchin was any good. Manglobe always produce high quality animation and the trailer proves that much. My elitist side responds by pointing out that the last anime this director worked on was Linebarrels of Iron, not a good sign. There was a worrying amount of boob shots in that trailer. My non-elitist side says who cares, the girl is hot! Besides, the last fantasy anime with a hot female lead was Spice and Wolf and look how awesome that is. My elitist side said, fine then, have your crappy moe shows. Anime has been going downhill for a long time and this is the last straw. My other side says fine then, you have your way you whiny little git…yeah, take what you will from the above conversation.

Seitokai no Ichizon

Studio: Deen

Additional Info: Based off Light novels

Synopsis: The members of the student council of Hekiyou Gakuen are chosen by a popularity vote. As a result, all the members are cute girls except for Sugizaki Ken, who studied hard to enter the council. This novel is about the endless chattering of the members with full of parodies of “The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya”, “Dragon Ball” etc.

Scamp: Ah Studio Deen, you are one weird studio. Everything from Hetalia to Higurashi to this. Some moe show about girls sitting round a table, talking about nothing and probably eating cake. Chances are watching this will recount all the most boring experiences in your life. Hey, this sounds almost as boring as Lucky Star doesn’t it? If you liked being bored out of your skull by that, chances are you’ll like this too. I made a reference to being bored 3 times in those few lines. Guess how I think this anime will turn out?

Winter Sonata

Click here to view the embedded video.

Studio: G&G/JM Animation

Additional Info: Based off K Drama, voiced by same actors as original live action. Air date Oct 17th

Synopsis: The story follows two childhood friends — a boy and a girl — and the tragedy and angst that befalls them and those around them in the years between high school and young adulthood.

Scamp: I didn’t really want to put this in since it keeps being delayed. Chances are it will be moved back yet again. It sounds, heck it is, an ultra cheesy soap show so the anime will be no different. Never liked cheesy soaps myself.

Letter Bee

Studio: Pierrot

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: Gauche is a governmental employee, given the task to deliver any letter to it’s destination. Meeting a young boy who is the letter to be delivered, Gauche makes friends with Lag and inspires him to take up the job. Five years later, Lag Seeing finally becomes his dream, that of a Letter Bee. However, the one who inspired him has gone missing and only there does the mystery start.

Scamp: Pierrot already made a pilot episode of this and I highly recommend watching it. I found it on youtube when searching for a promo vid. Here’s the link to the youtube video but if you are fussy enough to want to download it then find it yourself. But really, go watch it. I was expecting some generic shounen flick since it’s a Shounen Jump manga but that’s far from the truth. It’s much more melancholic than that. You forget that when Pierrot aren’t making generic shounen, they make some really excellent stuff. If the rest of the series is as good as the pilot then we have a potentially brilliant show on our hands.

Miracle Train

Studio:

Additional Info: Based off…err…trains?

Synopsis: 5 famous train lines in Japan turned into bishies…and that’s pretty much it.

Scamp: Call me if some Koreans get this banned

Kämpfer

Studio: Nomad

Additional Info: Based off Light Novels

Synopsis: Senou Natsuruis a normal high school boy. One day he wakes up to find himself turned into a girl. A stuffed tiger “Harakiri Tora” gains a life and tells him to fight as a female psychic fighter “Kämpfer”. Having no idea about what’s going on, Natsuru is involved in the battles against other Kämpfers.

Scamp: I know enough about this to know it won’t be any good. Done by a pretty crappy studio, the reviews of the novels told me that it was basically full of fanservice and little in the way of coherent plot. Can’t say I’m looking forward to this much.

Kimi ni Todoke

Studio: Production IG

Additional Info: Based off manga

Synopsis: This story is centered around a girl named Kuronuma Sawako who is nicknamed Sadako (ghost girl from “The Ring”) by her classmates because of her scary face and demeanor. She greatly admires Kazehaya-kun from afar, he is “100% refreshing” and is able to draw in people with his personality. Unlike her facial expressions she yearns to make friends andlive as a normal student. Gradually she starts affects those around her, including Kazehaya-kun…

Scamp: I’ve saved one of the better ones ’till last. The manga is one of the biggest shojo manga’s to come out in a long time. I remember seeing it was the top manga for girls 10–20 to read in Japan and plenty of the older generations read it as well. The manga is also rated in the top 100 on MAL, so it’s a hit amongst English speakers as well. True, Production IG aren’t the best when adapting manga and the director is a bit of a nobody but I really recommend keeping your eye on this one. I’ve never really liked shojo anime but I’ve found myself really looking forward to this one.

Movies and OVAs

Click here to view the embedded video.

The DVD for Summer Wars should be coming out sometime over the winter. It’s by the same folks who made Girl through Time, but I hope this time they make a better bloody ending then that disaster. The final episode of Time of Eveis coming out. I think it airs in September so now would be your chance to check the rest of this fantastic series on Crunchyroll. There’s a Shakugan no Shana OVA coming soon, as is extra episodes of Mahoromatic but neither of them is a full series. The Macross Frontier movieis screening November but it will be longer before anyone sees that. Ditto with those Eden movies, one comes out the end of November and the other in January. I really hope those movies cover the rest of the plot, I would hate to see such a great series come to a disappointing end. There’s also a Trigun movie which was said to air sometime 2009 but I’ve heard very little about that. In fact, the only movie that you are likely to see any time soon is the second Gurren Lagann movie, which looks like will be made of entirely new material judging by the way the first movie ended. Don’t quote me on that though. Finally, a pilot episode for an anime based off a Vocaloid song is coming out in September. Sounds stupid until you look at the homepage.

Black Rock Shooter. Looks pretty awesome doesn’t it?

Season Overview

The most obvious thing here is the huge amount of sequels. Normally this would leave me raging but this year had been keeping the sequel count to about 3 per season so an explosion at the end was to be expected. Disappointing, but expected nevertheless. One worrying sign is the lack of anime original material. The only thing in this entire list that is original material is Darker than Black and that’s a sequel anyway. We may be in the middle of a recession and companies don’t want to take risks but it’s been proved time and time again that anime original material has a far higher percentage chance of being brilliant. The best anime of this year so far was Eden, another anime original creation. However next season Aniplex and TV Tokyo are joining together to create a new timeslot called ‘Anime no Chikara’ which focus on creating original anime material so hopefully we can expect some quality come next year. One thing I’m rather relieved about is that the number of moe anime appears to be dropping. Yes, there is still a lot but hopefully this means moe saturation point has been met and we’ll start to see a decline. Or maybe that’s just due to the fact there’s no anime by Kyo Ani, Gonzo and only one JC Staff. Meh, it’s not the greatest season but there’s certainly enough there to keep you entertained. The spread is decent but, yet again, mecha fans are left in despair. WTF really, I though Code Grease’s popularity would spark plenty of copycats but we’ve gotten none whatsoever. The only proper mecha this year is Mazinger Z and that’s absolutely rubbish.

Final Roundup

F:Miracle Train, Sasameki Koto, sequels of boring first seasons

E:Seitokai no Ichizon, Sora no Otoshimono,

D:Winter Sonata, 11eyes, Kampfer, Romance of the Three Kingdoms

C:Sacred Blacksmith, Fairy Tail, Nyan Koi!, The Book of Bantorra

B:Kimi ni Todoke, Kuchu Buranko, Letter Bee, Kobato, Natsu no Arashi Season 2

A:Darker than Black: Comet of Gemini

As usual, I’m going to ask you what are you watching, but don’t you dare say ‘it all looks crap’ or else I’m breaking out that machete again.