The Cart Driver » Pantyshots everywhere

Winter 2012 Anime Season Preview

Scamp — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:54:34 +0000

Ya’ll ready for another round of Senjogahara Fascination?

Welcome to the world famous (not really) Cart Driver Season Preview. I usually kick off these posts with some sort of satirical mocking of the ‘everything sucks’ crowd, but since I shall be making a similar statement throughout the course of this post, it would perhaps be a touch hypocritical. So buckle in for this 6000 word long no wait come back you don’t have to read it all in one go!

Nisemonogatari

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You almost forget that, before the massive success of Madoka Magica, Shaft had another anime that embarrassed everyone else in sales. Now that Shaft have a considerable amount of dough in their vaults, they can finally focus on one project at a time instead of producing 2 anime every single bloody season. What also helps is that Bakemonogatari is, you know, actually very good. So hurrah for a sequel then? Well…hmm…you see, Shaft sequels, from Arakawa to Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei to Natsu no Arashi, have done nothing more than stagnate their respective franchises. Then there’s the fact Nisemonogatari’s story is based off Arararararagi’s sisters, who I felt only worked in the original because they were kept out the main story. They acted as a tool at the end of each arc to wake Arararararagi out of his ideal world where all the girls fell in love with him. Making them the main focus ruins that effect. Also from that trailer, I’m not sure how I feel about Senjogahara with short hair. That said, it is still Senjogahara, and there’s a guaranteed level of quality that comes with her brilliance. Ultimately I’m just being cautious, because Shaft sequels have burned me in the past, but this is still my most anticipated anime of the season.

Recorder and Backpack

A 4-koma adaptation eh? I’ve never really liked 4-koma adaptation myself, being barrages of repetitive jokes broken up by the occasional segment of girls being cute with no sense of narrative structure. But can Recorder and Backback break this trend? Firstly, does it have more than one joke? The premise is about a 12 year old boy who looks much older, and a high school girl who looks much younger. That’s a full two jokes! OK, good start. Is it more than just cute girls doing cute things? Yes, only half of the series is a cute girl doing cute things. The rest is big man doing cute things. OK, things are looking good, what else is there? Is it capable of breaking out of the 4-koma format and constructing a narrative? Hard to tell without actually watching the anime in question. The studio and staff aren’t much help either. The animation studio is called Seven, who have only previously made that dull 5-minute per episode skit Morita-san. The director has worked on quite a variety on different anime, from Haibane Remnei to Dance in the Vampire Bund, but he’s never directed something by himself, so not much help looking at his past portfolio. Honestly, not expecting much from this, and I doubt anyone else is, but sometimes these kinds of series can surprise if the creators really go crazy with their concept.

Daily Lives of Highschool Boys

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Seriously? This is a thing now? Cute boys doing cute things? Turns out Kimi to Boku was not just an unusual once off . Except it’s not really. It’s the exact same thing as cute girls doing cute things, except the target audience has changed. You know, I could respect fans of these types of anime if it was the relaxing nature of ordinary life that they enjoyed. If it was the cuteness of human interactions that they found appealing. It’s not my sort of thing, but I see the appeal. But that’s not it, is it? The only people I’ve seen who are fans of Kimi to Boku are girls and gay men. The K-ON/A-Channel/Lucky Star fans aren’t watching Kimi to Boku because it has cute men instead of cute girls, and vice versa. You’re all a bunch of fucking shallow morons, kept glued to your screens by nothing more than your most primal of instincts. You disgust me, I don’t even know why I—woah woah calm down Scamp calm down, forget to take your medication again, did you? Let’s try to be fairer on this new anime, right? OK fine. There’s actually a legitimate reason to be interested in this too, beyond the cute guys you bunch of vagina driven shallow twats ok that’s enough of that Scamp, calm down there lad …sorry. The director of Gintama and School Rumble is on this, which is pretty darn impressive as far as comedy resumes go. Of course, there’s no cute girls here, so you bunch of fucking halfwit shitfaces ok never mind moving onto the next anime

Black Rock Shooter

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Black Rock Shooter was originally nothing more than a Vocaloid song by Supercell with some accompanying artwork drawn by ~~Redjuice~~ Huke. The artwork inspired a crazy fan following, probably due to the fact it looked like a Dark and Edgy re-interpretation of Hatsune Miku. The popularity of it was so great that an OVA of Black Rock Shooter was produced, headed up by GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN (actually according to ANN it was directed by a different bloke altogether and GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN was just supervisor). It was 25% mute girls in black string bikinis having beautifully animated fights in a post apocalyptic bathroom, and 75% incredibly dull angtsy moeblob s’life. It didn’t exactly set the world alight, but Black Rock Shooter fans still hoovered it up, prompting the creation of this TV series. This time there’s no GREATEST ANIMATION DIRECTOR EVER YAMAKAN on board, but they instead decided to hire the rest of the key staff who worked together on SAVIOUR OF ANIME FRACTALE, including Mari Okada, the scriptwriter. Heck, even the director of this new incarnation of Black Rock Shooter was the same guy who directed the OVA. It does have Imaishi, the Gurren Lagann mastermind, doing the fight sequences. Which is cool and all, seeing his influence in the trailer, but it wasn’t the fight sequences that was the problem with the OVA. It was absolutely everything else.

Ultimately though, Satoshi Kon could rise from the dead to direct Black Rock Shooter and I’d still be inherently biased against it because it’s in Noitamina. Noitamina used to be a stronghold of anime that specifically weren’t aimed at the stereotypical early 20’s otaku male. But with Fractale, Ano Hana and Guilty Crown, the amount of anime in which a high school male lead has magical girl enter his life has been gradually on the uptake in that timeslot (for comparison, not a single Noitamina anime prior to Fractale had a high school male lead). Black Rock Shooter is the last straw. Everything the Noitamina timeslot had previously stood for is dead. Fuck this show.

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi

While I’ve been harsh on Natsume in the past, I suddenly find myself feeling charitable towards it. In a season as barren as this one looks like it will be, it’s nice to have something as reliably solid as Natsume poking around. Besides, the only reason I’m harsh on it in the first place is victim of circumstance. Because Brains Base are making Yet Another Bloody Natsume, that means they aren’t making sequels to all their other anime that need it more, most notably Durarara. Well OK, Natsume could be a better series. The characters, apart from Nyanko, are all rather dull, and Natsume himself still has this irritating tendency to break away from conversations to talk about the weather. But, behind all that, it still has an incredibly good sense of how to tell a story. So long as it doesn’t retread points it already finished up in previous seasons, then I’m more than happy to have Yet Another Bloody Natsume.

New Prince of Tennis

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Once upon a time there was an anime called Saint Seiya (bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this). Despite being a shounen anime aimed at teenage boys, Saint Seiya proved to be a massive hit with girls due to its cast of beautiful angsty men dressed up in skin tight leather plugsuits. It was then that anime producers realised that there was a female audience for shounen material. I’m sure Prince of Tennis wasn’t the first of these, but it’s certainly the most infamous. A shounen with absolutely no intentions of appealing to men and focusing its aim squarely at squealing fangirls.

I’ve had two experiences with this franchise in the past. My sister bought the first volume of the manga once, as a blind buy, and I can unequivocally say that it’s the worst manga we have in our rather large collection. Page after page of emotionless drivel as the main character has tennis matches while scores of bishies proclaim aloud how is this kid so good, with an added female character who serves no purpose for the (admittedly non-existent) narrative and is probably only there to give female fans a character to project into. My other experience was with the movie, which I’ll admit I only watched for terribad material. Suffice to say, with scenes like the above dinosaur apocalypse, it was several times more entertaining than that first volume of manga. Oh right, this new season? I think it’s a sequel. Whatever man, you guys don’t seriously watch Prince of Tennis, do you?

Rinne no Lagrange

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Did you know that, once upon a time, Xebec had ambition? Yeah I know, shocking isn’t it? Nowadays they are more well known for anime like To-Love-Ru and Ladies vs Butlers, but apparently producing Rio Rainbow Gate led the staff there to realise how low they had truly sunk and decided to actually try produce something of worth. So here we are, Rinne no Langrange. An anime original production with an admittedly quite interesting team behind it. Director Tatsuo Sato is most well known for Nadesico he made waaaay back in the day, as well as some other early 00’s series like Stellvia and Shingu. Thing is none of these series are…umm, particularly great. His proof of quality, Nadesico, is a full 16 years old by this stage. Plus he’s also directing Mini Skirt Space Pirates this season, so maybe his attention will be divided. That is, if you expect him to be actually expressing much creative control over this. He’s listed as ‘chief director’ with actual normal director being the guy who directed Heroic Age. Haven’t seen Heroic Age myself, and reviews have been kinda mixed (I believe it was the last time Xebec went all out and tried something ambitious). But since then he’s worked on some interesting stuff, most of which being Good Shaft Anime like Bakemonogatari and Arakawa. The script guy is top drawer too, working on everything from FMA: Brotherhood to Eden of the East to Darker than Black to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. If anything, the most off-putting part of this anime is the trailer. Why the pantyshots? Why does this feel like it’s inspired by Strike Witches? Why oh why the lack of noses on some of the characters? Are noses not considered moe or something?

Zero no Tsukaima Final

The fact that I can use the phrase “The original Shakugan no Shana clone” without irony goes to show how deep this problem runs. I’ll admit straight up here that I haven’t any of seen Zero no Tsukaima yet, but I’m going to hazard a guess at what it’s about. High school male lead with no distinguishing characteristics beyond the fact he’s kinda nice has tsundere girl with small breasts fall into his life and the male character gains some sort of special power because of this, that doesn’t, funnily enough, result in him gaining any more personality. Am I right? Actually no, from what I’ve heard, the main character here is a massive perv rather than being just kinda nice. Fucking swimming in originality here guys!

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes 2

I wonder why I cover sequels in season previews? There isn’t really any point. If you have seen the first season, you know what to expect from the second and don’t need me explaining what the deal is. If you haven’t seen the first season, there’s no point in reading previews because you will need to have seen the first season for context. I haven’t seen this anyway, so I don’t have anything to say, beyond perhaps marvelling that JC Staff are making an anime that isn’t a Shana clone!

Amagami SS+

I wonder why I cover sequels in season previews? There isn’t really any point. If you have seen the first season, you know what to expect from the second and don’t need me explaining…well this is eerily familiar. Besides, there is a point in explaining what the deal is here with this new season of Amagami, because the last season followed the unusual format of completely new timelines for each girl the main character chased. Copypasting from ANN “it will be an omnibus in which each heroine gets two episodes devoted to her. However, [the new season] will include more original story elements set after the events of the first season.” So there you go. No interest myself, I bailed after the first episode of last season, but good for all you guys who like this show. I at least appreciate the unique format this series attempted.

Mini Skirt Space Pirates

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The other anime Tatsuo Sato is working on this season, apart from Rinne no Langrange. The actual name is Moeretsu Pirates (which ANN is nice enough to inform me translates roughly to Bodacious Pirates), but the story is based on/inspired by the novel ‘Mini Skirt Space Pirates’, and that name is just so much cooler. This is the anime Sato is much more focused on rather than Langrange, where his job appears to be run into the office, yell at everyone for 5 minutes, then leave again. He’s full proper director on this one, as well as series composition. This series has been in production for a bloody long time too. Satelight announced they were animating this a full 4 years ago or something. I’m not sure whether this delay means they had extra time to iron out a perfect script, or if it’s because of disagreements that resulted in a botched production. There’s an almost old-school feel to this series, probably helped by the fact the original novels were written by one the guys who worked on Dirty Pair. It’s that kind of goofy anime space opera where you’d have to be a jaded cynic not to find the concept charming.

Taking a step back and looking at this season overall, the swing between memorable to barren really relies on whether Sato still has it. He has directed an anime more recently though, which I didn’t mention until now because it’s very different from his other space-themed series. He directed the 2008 anime Shigofumi. It was a bit full of itself and a touch pretentious, but it was otherwise a really well directed anime. If Mini Skirt Space Pirates and Rinne no Langrange can deliver, any talk of this season being lacklustre will be gone.

Dog X Me SS

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Based off a manga called (for those weaboos out there) Inu X Boku SS. So, as I always do, I checked out the first scanlated chapter of the manga. For some reason, I was under the impressions with would be a fanservicy comedy, as it runs in a shounen magazine. Which it is, but I mistook which fanservicey side it would be aiming at. The Dog in the title is the man, a butler who bows to his masters every whim, a generic female lead with some self-confidence issues. Yup, it’s shojo time! Reverse harem shojo time at that, as this girl has a variety of pretty boys protecting her. They’re all magical spirits or something. It is by David Production, that spin-off Gonzo studio who have done stuff like Ben-To and Level E, whom many people seem to like, but I’ve never really been able to get behind any of their works.

Listen to Me, Girls

I Am Your Father!

I remember when this anime was announced. It was at the time when Bunny Drop was airing. The synopsis was about a college student who has to raise his sisters’ children after she went missing on a downed plane. Sounds fairly similar to Bunny Drop, so maybe this too will be about the strong connections of family and the trials, difficulties but ultimately rewards of parenting. At least, that’s what I thought, until I saw the artwork. And I saw that the light novel was written by the same author who wrote Mayoi Neko Overrun, who also wrote for a few episodes of the Queens Blade anime. And my heart sunk. It’s the token pedobait anime of the season! They show up every 6 months or so. I mean, I’d like to believe that this anime won’t have a scene in which the main character walks in on his niece changing where upon she calls him a pervert and blushes profusely, but I’m not holding out hope.

BRAVE10

The bad: The synopsis includes the phrase “in Japan’s tumultuous Sengoku Era”, a line so tired and dull that Sea Slugs season previews have taken to ignoring the existence of any anime set in that time period. The good: The trailer indicates that this will be far from an accurate portrayal of said era. The only time I ever enjoy these kinds of anime is where they aren’t as dry as that one place in Chile where it hasn’t rained for a bajillion years. Stuff like Samurai Champloo. The bad: It’s fujoshi bait. I swear I saw half these characters in Hakuouki. What’s the bet that the person with the white hair in the promo pic is just an incredibly girly man? The ANN page for the manga has this hilarious picture of a man swinging a sword while proudly baring his smexy toned midriff. The director’s main previous work was the Vampire Knight series. The good: It would be rather hypocritical of me to dismiss an anime due to its sexual appeal not being to my own, especially after that rant earlier in this post. Besides, as I’ve said before, I often fare better with fujoshi anime than male otaku bait. The meh: Animation studio is a total newbie to the game. Gut feeling points to be a dull Hakouoki clone, but my gut feeling is normally wrong so it’s probably going to be the next Samurai Champloo or something.

Senhime Zesshou Symphogear

With the earth-shaking success of Hatsune Miku and the wave of popularity AKB48 are enjoying right now, idols are totally in with otaku culture. Symphogear is about two idols fighting of a mysterious bad guy using the powers of their voices, but really this is a platform for two aspiring idols to propel their careers. It’s not like this is the first time this has happened. I’ve done enough of those retro season previews to see this kind of stuff pop up time and time again through the ages. It’s not like this sort of stuff can’t end up good. That’s essentially part of how the Macross franchise was set up, and they work idols into their stories pretty well. But still, Symphogear is…well, total newbie studio, half of the staff members never having worked on anime before, nonsense sounding premise. My terribad antenna is responding.

Another

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Oh dear, not Another anime. Do we really need Another anime like this? I would recommend you watch Another anime rather than Rio Rainbow Gate.

Obligatory mucking about with the name out of the way, this is one of the few genuinely interesting anime out this season that isn’t a sequel. A quick check of the manga it’s based off (well, it’s based off a set of novels first, but there’s a manga too) and it’s that classic Japanese type of horror. Where everyone around you acts in slightly off and you get this feeling that you are completely alone. Animation studio is PA Works. Their works are limited to True Tears, Canaan, Angel Beats and Hanasaku Iroha. Asides from Canaan, which was a mess, all their works have been decently entertaining. Horror is new ground for them, so I’ll at least give them credit for experimenting. Director is Tsutomo Mizushima, director of…well, quite a lot of stuff. Hare Guu, XXXHolic, Squid Girl, Dokuro-chan, Big Windup, Genshiken OVA, a whole fuck ton of Shin-chan movies and so on and so forth. He’s better at comedy and, in my humble opinion, has never managed to come anywhere near close to his work on Hare Guu, which is over 10 years old now. What’s the most worrying thing here is his last attempt at directing a horror anime was the near universally reviled horrific mess that was Blood-C. But fuck it, let’s put that aside and be optimistic that he’ll work his…err, magic on yet Another anime. OK I swear I won’t use that wordplay again.

Ano Natsu de Matteru

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Over the course of the next month or so, plenty of other anime blogs will be releasing season previews of their own, and they may rank this as one of the more interesting anime of the season. Fair enough, it’s an anime original, which we could always do with more of. But everything about this just rubs me the wrong way. The creator is the same guy who wrote Onegai Teacher. At least, that’s what all the promo material has been proudly declaring. How about mention the fact he wrote the script for anime like Trigun or Honey and Clover or Big Windup or Infinite Ryvius? Why highlight the one massive turd on his resume? Also, it’s an anime original that went for the crazy new idea of being an adolescent romantic comedy. Thrilling stuff. Plus the last anime original that fell roughly into that category was Ano Hana. I know a lot of you like Ano Hana, but if you did you’re probably the kind of person who, if the anime consisted of a blue screen with the words “cry, you easily emotionally manipulated bitch”, would declare it a masterpiece and call people who didn’t cry to have no souls. Then there’s the watercolour promo artwork, which always rubs me the wrong way. Watercolour promo artwork means you might be kinda funny, but you’re really trying to be heartwarming and touching and will tug at your heartstrings and bleargh. I remember Sora no Woto did this, as did SAVIOUR OF ANIME FRACTALE. The cast list was released before who the director would be, always a sure sign that the creators of this have their priorities wrong. And then there’s JC Staff. What’s to bet the guy on the right is an ordinary bloke, maybe kind of nice, who happens to be really good at camerawork, while the girl on the left has some kind of magical power and appears into his life at the start of the story. But wait, instead of being flat chested, she has massive tits! Boy, we are sure swimming in fucking originality here!

Kill Me Baby

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Oh hi there JC Staff. What’s this? Another anime that’s not a Shana clone? Are you sure you guys are OK? Woah, it’s a 4-koma adaptation, is it? Trying to recover the respect you guys used to have back when you made Azumanga Daoih? Well, cycle through the 4-koma rules and requirements. Is it more than just cute girls being cute? It was serialised in the same magazine that ran K-ON and A-Channel, so that’s a nope. Does it have more than one joke in its repetoire? The story is about a girl who is a crappy ninja and her partner in crime. So nope, just one joke. Will it break free of the 4-koma format and be able to construct a cohesive narrative? Of course it won’t, because JC Staff are shit. Look, this is just kind of sad. JC Staff have 6 anime running next season. Bakuman and Shana are continuing from last season, along with the new Zero no Tsukaima, Milky Holmes, Ano Natsu and now this. Plus this will be the anime they put the least budget into, which must be pretty fucking embarrassing when you get a smaller budget than Bakuman. Bleh, JC Staff. It’s gotten to the stage where I’m more interested in Xebec’s new anime than yours.

High School DxD

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Boobies!

Welp, my work here is done.

No really, what do you want me to say? It’s a light novel adaptation about a pervy guy who gets embroiled in a situation with a large breasted and incredibly pretty magical girl. Along the way he shall meet various females, all of whom want to chomp on his meat and two veg, and there’s no point in watching it as it airs anyway because you’ll have to wait for the BD release to get rid of the censorship. Plus the animation studio doing this are the same guys who did Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka and, as I believe I’ve said many times before, there are few lines in existence more depressing than ‘from the creators of Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka’.

The Knight in the Area

Looking back over this post so far, I’ve made myself rather depressed. Do I even like anime anymore? Of course I bloody do. I’m just bummed out that my most anticipated anime from last season, Guilty Crown, turned into a pile of poo, so I’m scaling back the optimism this season. But let’s be happy and stuff for this new football anime. Sorry, I mean saawwcuurr. It’s based off a popular shonen manga that’s been running for 6 years now. It’s being adapted by Shin-Ei Animation, the guys who make all those ever-lasting series like Doraemon, Oishinbo and Crayon Shin-chan. Not quite sure what that means for this anime, maybe plans to be everlasting too? I checked out the manga and it was pretty good. A bit formulaic and shounen-y and, as psgels points out, does seem to be inspired a touch by Adachi (Cross Game, Touch). Far from a bad thing mind you. If you’re going to copy a sports mangaka, copy Adachi. Director isn’t up to much, even if he did work a bit on Gintama. Then again, these kinds of series tend to bring in new staff for each arc. My biggest worry is that nobody will sub the blasted thing, especially if it isn’t picked up for legal streaming. Anime fandom are a bunch of hopeless nerds who react to the sight of sports like the wicked witch of the west reacts to water, despite the fact they invariably end up enjoying the one sports anime they ever end up watching.

Aquarion EVOL

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Let us pretend for a second that there has never been an anime called Aquarion before. What we have here is an original mecha anime by the director of Macross Frontier, team up with some talented writers (and Mari Okada), with animation by Satelight and Yoko Kanno doing the music. Superstar line up if there ever was one. Problem is there has been an anime called Aquarion before. I’ve never seen it, and rather surprisingly never hear anyone talk about it either. Is it one of those early 00 classics like Infinite Ryvius or Wolf’s Rain where people have just sort of stopped talking about it because all that was needed to be said has been said, or does nobody talk about it because it was shit? So I went searching the internet for impressions and opinions and came to the conclusion that yes, Aquarion was shit. Bland, totally forgettable, mess of cliches without a single new idea. Sort of like Guilty Crown then oh ho ho. Good thing is this is a sequel in the same sense that Macross Frontier is a sequel. It’s set 12000 years after events of the original, which I found rather funny. Do you really have to go that far ahead in time to get away from the stink of the first season? Dissappointing perhaps to that one Aquarion fan out there who wanted to see the original characters, but a godsend to the rest of us who wanted to see if this team can produce something worthy of their names.

Movies and OVAs

Obligatory reminder that getting excited for movies coming out in Japan now is pointless as the rest of the world won’t see them until they are released on BD/DVD almost a year later. So all you gamers excited for the Dragon Age movie, all you cool people excited for the new Berserk movie, and all you losers excited for the K-ON movie, will have to wait. Instead, I’m going to highlight the anime movies that are coming out on BD/DVD over the next 3 months. Usual rules apply to OVAs too. No covering of simple DVD specials because there’s nothing more to say. If you really liked the Infinite Stratos anime, then the OVA is a little bit of extra fanservice for you.

Children Who Chase Voices

from Deep Below: 25/11

Definitely the most interesting movie of the lot. Shikai’s movie, coming out 25th November, so it’s probably already out for all you slow munchkins who aren’t subscribed to this blog on google reader yet (and now is the perfect time to learn how!). Speculating on whether it will be any good or not is a bit silly since as I’ve already seen it at a movie festival. It’s Shinkai abandoning his old formula (thank god) and trying to do a Ghibli. The big surprise is he does a rather good job of it, even though his fascination with clouds came along for the ride.

Lupin III: Blood Seal

Eternal Mermaid

Same TV Special episode that I talked about in the last season preview. Coming out 2nd December. No staff list in sight as of yet, although they did hire a bunch of new people for some of the characters voices. Most importantly was hiring a new person to voice Fujiko, because it was getting a bit silly when the voice of what was supposed to be an incredibly sexy lady was voiced by a 70 year old woman. She’s now voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro, probably most famous for voicing Celty in Durarara (a rather amusing person to be known for voicing considering Celty doesn’t exactly have a voice). I guess it’s a good fit, Fujiko is meant to sound sultry and sexy and her voice fits the bill fine. Oh what am I doing? You know I really have nothing to say when I start talking about the voice actors. Look, just watch Castle of Cagliostro if you want to check out the Lupin III franchise. I’ll give you a call if this TV Special turns out to be any good.

Kyousogiga

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There’s been some confusion surrounding this because it was listed on those charts that this is a TV Series. It’s not, it’s just a single episode web release thing. . The reason I’m giving it it attention is because the trailer looks awesome. It’s one of those imaginative short animation pieces that studios toss out every now and then. It’s being made by the Toei staff that normally make Precure stuff, except with a Yuasa inspired art style crossed with Summer Wars. No idea what to expect from it, and there’s always the chance it could be another Cencoroll where the trailer shows all the cool bits and the rest is dull, but these kinds of things are always worth checking out.

Ai no Kusabi 2012

Perhaps I should make a separate season preview for hentai one day. I know very little about the subject, but since when has that ever stopped people making season previews oh ho ho. The reason I bring this up is because Ai no Kusabi is a yaoi OVA, which is basically just porn for girls. I probably wouldn’t cover this sort of stuff, except Ai no Kusabi is kind of interesting. It’s a remake of the classic(?) 1992 yaoi OVA by the same name, except this time they’re extending it to 13 episodes long. That’s pretty big scale for a yaoi OVA. Plus the director also did an episode on Legend of Black Heaven, so clearly this will be the greatest yaoi series ever to grace the earth.

Ufotable OVAs

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These are the sort of projects animation studios throw up every now and then. There was the Young Animator Training Project that showed up earlier this year, which most people remember for the Oji-san no Lamp segment. There were also those two Sunrise CGI pieces, Koisento and Norageki, which weren’t particularly popular, but I liked them a lot. Now it’s ufotable’s turn, the studio who made Kara no Kyoukai and are currently working on Fate/Zero. First piece is Minori Scramble, the one featured in the trailer, about a girl who is afraid of penguins so her father builds a robot penguin to help her get over her phobia. It’s that kind of batty anime idea that I have a real soft spot for. Second piece is Gyo, which I know nothing about, but that single promo image that exists for it is striking enough to warrant checking out. Third piece is something called Yuri Seijin Naoko-san, which had a 10 minute OVA earlier this year and made hilarious jokes about how great child molestation is (hint: it wasn’t hilarious). There’s not a whole lot of info on them, but apparently the Gyo piece is meant to be an hour long, so hopefully that means the rest of them are that length too. We’ll see though, don’t quote me on that.

Sora no Kiseki

An OVA based off a JRPG. They show up every now and then. There’s also the continuation of the Tales of Symphonia series, another one of those JRPG adaptations. Because it’s just a OVA, they tend to be just for fans only. So I don’t really have anything else to say.

There are some other movies coming out, but they’re franchise movies that don’t hold my interest quite as much. Sengoku Basara is getting a movie, coming out 7 December. Rather more excitingly, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood is also getting a movie, coming out 8 February. Although from what I’ve heard, it’s just a boring old shounen flick where it has no effect on the personalities of the characters in question. Still, it’s FMA. There’s also the movie In the Forest of Firefly Lights coming out 22 February. This is technically a totally new film, but after watching it at the aformentioned movie festival, it’s basically a franchise movie for Natsume Yuujinchou. There’s also a brand new ToHeart OVA, but there’s always a new ToHeart OVA.

On a final note, ANN says that the new Code Geass Gaiden OVA is supposed to be airing on the 27th January. However that is because ANN are dirty liars. There has been no confirmed date for that eternally delayed OVA. Which is a shame, because I NEED TO KNOW IF HE REALLY IS THE CART DRIVER DAMNIT not really.

Maken-ki episode 1

Scamp — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 18:00:53 +0000

Including the next episode preview and mostly obscured shots with censorship, but not including nudity, bras, short shorts or anything that could not be reasonably classed as panties, I counted a grand total of 54 panty shots in this opening episode.

Fall 2011 Anime Season Preview

Scamp — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:47:59 +0000

This upcoming anime season sucks compared to my ridiculously high standards.
The only ones I’m looking forward to is this adaptation of a manga I’m reading that isn’t finished yet so I’ll complain about the adaptation having an original ending, and a sequel.
Is it my imagination, or has every season been getting worse since I started to become aware of every title coming out instead of the single stand-outs each year?

Copypaste this into every forum whenever you see someone complaining about the latest anime season being rubbish. Once you’ve done that, come back here for a less pessimistic and more in-depth surveillance of the upcoming season.

Chihayafuru

Madhouse have had their reputation dragged through the dirt recently. As if the Madhouse X Marvel fiasco wasn’t bad enough, their failure to create something worthwhile from Chaos;Head has been compounded by the quality White Fox have achieved with Steins;Gate (even though the chief director on Steins;Gate is a Madhouse veteran, but whatever). With that tumultuous period out of the way, here comes their latest anime about children playing card games AARRGHHH OK not quite. Chihayafuru is a josei manga about a classic Japanese card game where you match cards to poems. I read a bit of the manga and it feels less josei and more a girlier version of Hikaru no Go, which isn’t really a bad thing. They’ve brought aboard the director of Nana and Chobits aboard, so I’m quite looking forward to this. It’s nice to see Good Madhouse return.

Tamayura ~Hitotose~

Click here to view the embedded video.

There was an OVA of Tamayura a few months ago and I avoided it like it was the latest issue of Bestiality Monthly. This is director Junichi Sato, guy who did Aria, trying to replicate that feeling of ~healing~ anime, involving a bunch of girls being insufferably nice to each other while doing fuck all. I would probably die if I tried watching this, but good for you guys who like ~healing~ anime. Your only problem is Junichi Sato is directing a few anime this season, so a giant robot/mutant space creature/something fucking interesting might accidentally slip under his radar and into Tamayura.

Last Exile

Fam: The Silver Wing

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

No. This is going to be set in the same world but with different characters and new story

If I am to believe my own Top 30, the original Last Exile is my 12th favourite anime of all time. So obviously this paragraph should be nothing more than incoherent fanboying at the prospect of a new season, right? Well, not quite. You see, one of the best things about Last Exile was how complete it was. It covered every character, every aspect of the world, and explored the adventure from little kid with big dreams to world changing hero. There was nothing that needed to be added. Gonzo returning to Last Exile strikes me more of a studio desperately scrounging through their backlog to find something of theirs that is guaranteed to turn a profit. Now this obviously isn’t entirely true, otherwise they’d just stick to pumping out Strike Witches iterations over and over. They brought back most of the original staff, and I have faith that those guys wouldn’t return to Last Exile without having a good story to tell us. The trailer looks good too, capturing the fantastical adventurous element to the original I liked so much. Well, it did, until that generic J-Pop song started playing. I know people like Maaya Sakamoto and the prospect of her warbling fills you with so much glee that your ears start melting, but the original Last Exile opening song is one of my favourite of all time. To have that replaced with generic upbeat J-Pop is so… *le sigh* I’m just being nitpicky. I’ll remain upbeat about this new iteration for now. Cautious, but hopeful.

Phi Brain: God’s Puzzle

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I checked the Phi Brain ANN page, I was shocked to discover how much the original concept creator, Hajime Yatate, had done. Every from Cowboy Bebop to Code Geass to Mobile Suit Gundam to Votoms to Infinite Ryvius to Mai Hime to Escaflowne to…and then it finally dawned on me that Hajime Yatate is simply the name given to that den of pure evil that is the Sunrise boardroom. Anyways, Phi Brain is an original anime by Sunrise airing in NHK’s Educational TV station. That doesn’t means it will be simply educational fluff, the timeslot has previously held Dennou Coil amongst other things. Sunrise original in timeslot that veers away from otaku pandering sounds like a good combo to me. Then why am I not more excited? Maybe it’s the uninspiring trailer. Maybe because it’s Junichi Sato again, and I can’t help shake the feeling he’ll be concentrating more on his beloved ~healing~ anime Tamayura then he will on Phi Brain.

Un-Go

There’s a misnomer in anime fandom that says ‘because it is in Noitamina, it will be good’ (mainly a line touted by myself, but shut up). Un-Go is an anime by Bones with the key staff from the original Full Metal Alchemist, doing an adaptation of an old classic novel with their own modern take on it. I would be excited for this whether it was in Noitamina or not. If anything, the fact it is in Noitamina is irritating because that means it’s stuck to 11 episodes. On the flip side, no Noitamina would mean that these kinds of anime wouldn’t be produced in the first place. Anywho, after a stumbling start to the year with Fractale, Noitamina have regained their strength somewhat with No.6 and Bunny Drop, so I’m hoping they finish this year off with a bang (especially since 2012 gets instant flop status with Black Rock Shooter). Mind you, it’s the other Noitamina show this season I’m more interested in…

Guilty Crown

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve said this before, but it’s worth repeating again: Guilty Crown is like God came down and asked me what anime I want to see made (but only after he rejected my proposal for a 24 episode TV series by Studio Rikka). A story by the two key guys at Code Geass, being directed by the man who directed Death Note, with animation by Production IG who, by the trailer, appear to be channelling the work they did on Eden of the East. Awesome multiplied by Glorious to the power of Fuckwin. Unless you are the kind of individual who prefers more down-to-earth series with simpler aims, you boring sods. The only problem is this is in Noitamina, and therefore restricted to that accursed 11 episodes again. Or maybe they’ll let Guilty Crown run for 2 cours, seeing as they haven’t announced the second of winter’s Noitamina duo yet. “Hey guys, instead of letting Guilty Crown run for 2 cours, let’s go against the entire philosophy of this timeslot and run Black Rock Shooter!” Yeah, I’m totally not bitter or anything.

Mirai Nikki

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Mirai Nikki is an insanely popular manga about a diary that you can write the future in and YANDERE YANDERE YANDERE. Yeah, the fact that it has a yandere in it is all I ever seem to hear about it. So, for all you Mirai Nikki manga fans, prepare to weep tears of rage as you discover who is adapting it: asread. An animation studio so shit they don’t even capitalise their own name. Previously producers of Kiddy Girl And, the two Minami-ke sequels and both seasons Shuffle. Oh, and they brought back the director who did all those shows to adapt Mirai Nikki. Yes, the tears of you fanboys are delightful, if it wasn’t for the fact I was actually quite looking forward to this myself.

Bakuman Season 2

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

Yes

[sigh] Bakuman. When making that picture, I thought I would be oh so funny and scribble out that shitty female character. Then I realised I was probably scribbling out the wrong character, and should take my paintbrush and subject it’s digital ink all over Mashiro, the real reason I got sick of Bakuman. But then I might as well scribble out Takagi as well for adhering to Mashiro’s pratty ways. And then keep scribbling over the entire picture until all that’s left is Nizuma. I might as well check out this new season, in case some kind of miracle occurs and the Death Note creator I once knew and loved actually makes his appearance, but I might end up dropping it like an angry hedgehog. That has diarrhoea. And is on fire.

Mashiro-iro Symphony

Click here to view the embedded video.

Once upon a time, an animation studio with grand ambitions formed and tried to recapture the popularity of Cowboy Bebop, by making Samurai Champloo. Champloo was a pile of fun, ingenuity, wit and sheer unbridled coolness, and one of my favourite anime of all time. That was 2004. In the following years they tried to keep up this ambitious high quality, with anime like Ergo Proxy and Michiko to Hatchin. After 2008 though, they discovered this method wasn’t earning them enough money, so they gave up all pretence of quality and pumped out Sacred Blacksmith, a banal and dull fantasy show with the only redeeming factor being how hot the female characters were. Afterwards they adapted The World God Only Knows, an otaku in-joke panderfest manga with aspirations of parody but was really just another bland harem. Afterwards they made House of Five Leaves, a laid-back samurai anime for Noitamina, but it sold fuck all so they made another TWGOK. Next season, they’re doing Mashiro-iro Symphony, an adaptation of a visual novel by the man who also wrote Akane Iro Ni Somaru Saka. You are dead to me Manglobe.

Mobile Suit Gundam Age

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do I need to have seen the previous seasons?

No. This is a totally new story, world and characters

This latest Gundam doesn’t have the Gundam fanbase out there too happy. This is largely because…well no, it’s entirely because of the rather childish character designs. Apparently having a 14 year old Gundam pilot actually looking like a 14 year old boy is license to lose your shit. I couldn’t really care what the characters look like, but that’s mainly because I’m not a Gundam fan. Mind you, I can see where both sides are coming from. From the director of Sergent Frog movies, to the story being penned by the creator of Inazuma 11, to help from the animation studio and staff who made Danball Senki, Gundam Age has a younger audience set firmly in its cross hairs. DVD/BD exclusive Unicorn/IGLOO and fujioshi-bait Seed/00 have obviously not done much to bring in the younger generation. I’m certainly interested in seeing what a Gundam with a younger skew while trying to retain the shows largely serious tone looks like, but I can’t say I’m bouncing in my seat in anticipation either. It is 50 episodes long though, and I always like seeing big ambitious mecha anime. I just wish it wasn’t always more bloody Gundam.

I Don’t Have Many Friends

Click here to view the embedded video.

Prediction time! ‘I don’t have many friends’ will be touted as a a potential hit by certain light novel fans, while large swathes of the more elitist audience will remain sceptical. However, once the first episode airs, the more adventurous of anime fans will check it out and declare that, apart from a few kinks, ‘I don’t have many friends’ is a quality title about the loneliness of high teenage life and the anxiety and desire to fit in. Soon everyone jumps on the bandwagon, only for little things to start going wrong. As the anime proceeds beyond the first novel material, the original intent of the story starts to get lost. New female characters are introduced, and each one becomes less interested in being friends and more about wanting the male lead’s juicy manpiece. Soon the show starts introducing beach and hot spring episodes, leaning further and further into fanservice harem. The male lead starts accidentally undressing the female characters while falling onto them. Each character falls further away from what makes them unique and delve into cliche and stereotype, until finally the anime ends with some crowbarred attempt at conflict, no resolution and possibly some censored nudity. Call me back at Christmas when I’ve been proven correct.

C³

Click here to view the embedded video.

Wait! Before you go running off at the sight of Yet Another Shana Clone, take a look at the trailer. The animation is from Silver Link, whose previous outings have only been the Baka to Test series. Not exactly world beating material, but the animation style was certainly imaginative. Silver Link are a spin-off from Shaft, with the director of Natsu no Arashi and ef, so they’re a studio willing to actually use what animation is capable of doing. The other interesting fact is the guy in charge of the script also wrote the script for 8 episodes of Cowboy Bebop of all things, as well as plenty of other quality series like Hare Guu and Big Windup under his belt. Obviously you have to remind yourself that, yes, this is another Shana clone, and bears all the annoying fan-pandering near-pedo tropes that such a series often has. I read the first chapter of the manga, and it included an accidental falling onto childhood friends boobs. That all said, keep your eyes on this. Just in case.

Horizon on the Middle of Nowhere

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Between Gundam Age, Phi Brain and this, Sunrise sure are busy this season. Mind you, they’re really only Sunrise in name, with none of the usual Sunrise staff apparently working on this. It’s based off a light novel, but with stuff like giant robots and fight scenes and fantasy setting, I started to get my hopes up. Then the trailer included bouncy boobs, absurdly large spiral twin tails, and a curious lack of noses. Worried, I checked the staff list and found the series was being directed by the people behind Dragonaut, Saki and Strike Witches. The cast of prats who produced Gonzo’s dying breaths! Argh nooooo, fuck these guys and their phobia of animating noses!

Invasion?! Squid Girl

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

Yes. It hasn’t got much of a plot, but it will assume you already know the characters

I’ve seen in season previews that people like to have a little whine about sequels to shows they’ve never seen before. Which always struck me as a bit of a silly complaint. Unless the show is ridiculously long to get through, why don’t you just watch the first season before the new version? You only have the right to complain about sequels when you’ve seen the previous season of unambitious trivial anthropomorphised moeblob anime and know how crap it is. Ah shucks, I’m joking. I like Squid Girl. It’s nothing special, but it has a good sense of comedic timing de geso~

Kimi to Boku

JC Staff doing an anime about cute boys doing cute things…wait, what? What is this madness!?! Talk about crazy new ideas. However, from checking out the manga, in reality this is less a genderswapped Azumanga and more a generic shoujo with the bland eternally nice/shy female lead removed. It really was incredibly bland, but then I’ve been well documented to dislike shojo so take that with a pinch of salt. Director isn’t half bad, having previously done Elfen Lied and Sound of the Sky (Sora no Woto for you weeaboos out there), so I guess if bland shojo is your thing then you might as well check this out.

Persona 4 The Animation

Click here to view the embedded video.

And the award to the most stylish anime trailer I have ever seen in my 3 years of season previewing goes to. Wow, does that ever look awesome. Persona 4 is based off a rather popular video game by the same name. No matter how many people try to assure me that the game has a great story, the words ‘video game adaptation’ send warning lights flashing everywhere. Asides from often paper-thin plotlines, trying to adapt the unique story-telling environment in video games to anime is a daunting and difficult task, one that often requires ignoring parts of the source material, much to the annoyance of the fans. So upon whom has this task of adapting this most daunting of games fallen on? Seiji Kishi, previous director of Angel Beats, Sunred, Kamisama Dolls and Seto no Hanayome. Now many people don’t like Kishi for his total ignorance of tone, but to my ADD addled mind, it’s something I’ve never really minded in his works. I personally like him, but I think he’s better suited for comedies, where his leaping between tones is best used for humour. That said, the trailer should show that the man also has a keen sense of style. Give him a game that is already stylish game to adapt and we have one of the most interesting anime of the season.

Ben-To

Click here to view the embedded video.

Ben-to is about…oh look, I’ll just copypaste the synopsis

Satō goes to the supermarket one day and discovers a bento on sale at half price. Just as he reaches to grab it, he ends up on the floor unconscious. Satō has just entered the fierce, no-holds-barred “supermarket survival battle” for half-price bento

Yeah. It’s one of those nonsense school setting anime, like Baka to Test except without the promise of at least some neat animation. The studio doing this are David Production, whose previous works consist of Level E and Book of Bantorra. Neither of which are bad, I’ll grant them that. But in neither case did I feel they were improved significantly by the anime version. Of course, I’m speaking out of my ass here, not having read the source material for Bantorra or Level E, but whatever. I really have no idea what to make of this.

Fate/Zero

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

Probably yes. It’s a non-canon prequel, but will probably require knowledge of the characters to understand the importance of their actions.

Now this is a genuinely interesting project. The Fate/Zero novel is essentially a piece of professional fanfiction from the Fate/Stay Night universe. Not that your average fanfiction writer could get their work adapted into an anime with animation by ufotable (Kara no Kyoukai) and music by Yuki Kaijura. It’s written by Gen Urabochi, the Nitro+ VN games writer and recently famous for coming up with Madoka Magica. All this comes together in this one big budget production Fate/Zero The Anime. So in anticipation for this, I started watching Fate/Stay Night and was shocked by how incompetent it was. I lasted a measly 2 episodes. I’ll probably still give Fate/Zero a whirl though. It’s meant to be a prequel of sorts, so you can probably jump in with no knowledge of the canon. Also, Urabochi is a much more succinct and capable writer than nasu, the Fate/Stay Night writer, in my totally biased opinion, so I’d prefer to see his iteration of the story.

Working’!!

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

Yes. Again, not much of a plot here, but it will assume you know the characters

Stop making sequels to anime I don’t like. Why don’t you make a sequel to this anime I like that has nothing to do with the creators of anime that did get a sequel, and didn’t sell very well anyway etc. etc. Yeah, I don’t like Working. Or Wagnaria, if we feel like reverse-weeabooing the name. Funny how the American title sounds more weeaboo than the Japanese title.

Maji de Watashi

Click here to view the embedded video.

The game I play with eroge adaptations is find out how it is connected to Akane Iro Ni Somaru Saka so I can justify never having to watch it. Right, eroge company is MinaSoft. Their only previous eroge turned anime was They Are My Noble Masters, which I honestly thought wasn’t half bad. How about the animation company? Err, Maji de Watashi is made by Lerche, whose previous productions include nothing else whatsoever. Well huh, maybe this won’t be so bad after all. How about the director Keitaro Motonaga? Aha! Here we go. Director of Akane Iro Ni Somaru Saka, both TV series and OVA. Oh well, so much for that~

Shakugan no Shana III Final

Do I need to have seen the previous seasons?

Yes

Well, at least JC Staff have stopped pretending. Instead of simply releasing yet another batch of Shakugan no Shana clones, they’ve finally gone back and made the actual Shakugan no Shana. I notice they’re calling this Final. I wonder if that means that this will be the end of JC Staff produced Shana clones and they’ll start innovating and producing new and excitin-BWAHAHA ok I couldn’t keep a straight face typing that.

Maken-ki

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, how many pantyshots did you count? I got 12. Pretty impressive for a trailer that’s less than 2 minutes long. Once you go beyond 3 in a trailer, that says all you need to know about the anime in question.

Hunter X Hunter Brotherhood

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

No. This is a totally new remake

Madhouse took a look at Bones remaking Full Metal Alchemist and though “hey, we can do that too”. Now if you had told me Madhouse were remaking a manga adaptation that never finished, I would have leapt out of my chair and proclaimed “CLAYMORE!?!”. But nope, that would be far too obvious and make them far too much money. Instead they’re giving the Brotherhood treatment to Hunter X Hunter. They didn’t even animate the first season to this. Oh well, at least it’s a remake, which means I can jump straight in. I tried watching the original TV series but I couldn’t get past the first episode.

World’s First Love Season 2

Do I need to have seen the previous season?

Yes

Hey girls, isn’t rape adorable~! Forcing yourself onto a weaker individual is totally OK because they can’t control their emotions, and it’s OK so long as the receiver enjoys it in the end. That’s what true love is all about!

Lupin III Thing

Do I need to have seen the previous seasons?

No. Every Lupin III special is written to be accessible to newcomers

There were some people saying this would be a new Lupin III reboot TV series. It’s not, stop getting your hopes up. It’s just another one of those specials Lupin III has every year. There were some other rumours going around that it would be headed up by a combination of Takashi Koike (the Redline director) and some Gainax folks, but again that’s just more wishful thinking rather than being based off any concrete evidence. I am a Lupin III fan, but the prospect of a new special doesn’t fill me with delight when there’s still 30-odd specials and the TV series I’ve yet to watch. While the good thing about the Lupin III franchise is that every one of these specials are made to be instantly approachable, the bad thing is that which ones are good and which aren’t are total crapshoots. Wait until reviews of this come out before you think about jumping in. For now, just go watch Castle of Cagliostro.

Busou Shinki Moon Angel

Click here to view the embedded video.

Do you have a fetish for 6 inch high young teenage girls with robot joints wearing one-piece swimsuits? Well Japan has the cartoon for you! Oh Strike Witches, look what you’ve wrought.

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Battle Spirits: Heroes, Digimon Xros Wars – Toki wo Kakeru Shounen Hunter-tachi and Cross Fight B-Daman. I’m including them simply for completions sake. Yeah I know some of you folk out there like Digimon and are probably watching/watched Xros Wars. But I know fuck all about the franchise, so you’re better off searching elsewhere for information on it.

Movies

Normally I devote a measly single paragraph to movies, but this year I want to give some of these a bit more lipservice. Remember, while there are anime movies coming out in Japan this season, the rest of the world won’t see these until they come out on DVD/BD. With that in mind, I’m covering the anime movies that are coming out on DVD/BD over the next 3 months.

Towa no Quon

Click here to view the embedded video.

This has been out for a while now, but nobody has subbed the blasted thing yet. Towa no Quon is a movie series in the same vein as Break Blade. 6 episodes, each 50 minutes long and getting a theatrical release before being released on home video. Like Break Blade (and Kara no Kyokai before it) these are beautifully animated big budget productions. It’s animated by Bones and directed by Umanosuke Iida, who passed away before he could see the movie reach the big screen. Shame, he was a really talented guy, working on Cowboy Bebop to The Big O to Hellsing to 08th MS Team. Admittedly a lot of the trailer and from what I’ve been hearing about it sounds awfully generic, but deliver tried and true concepts with enough flair and care and you’ll have a quality productions. Now we just need someone to sub the blasted thing…

Mardock Scramble

First Compression

Click here to view the embedded video.

24th August

Feels like I’ve been writing about this thing’s release for ages now. Mardock Scramble is another one of these movie series projects. 3 movies long, it’s an adaptation of a novel by the same name. I’ve seen the movie already at a film festival and I really wasn’t that taken with it. It was all right, but delved into the unintentionally hilarious and stupid more than once. However the novel it’s been based off has gotten many rave reviews, so maybe I’ll turn out to be in the minority on this one.

There’s also Osamu Tezuka’s Buddha coming out on the 9th December, but that has gotten awful reviews so far, so I’m not particularly looking forward to that. There’s Fafner Heaven and Earth coming out on 21st September. So hurrah for that massive Fafner fanbase that exists out there…somewhere.

The readers have spoken part 2

Scamp — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 21:34:59 +0000

Terribad video? Sorry, still on holiday. Too busy rotting on buses and getting ~~drunk~~ tipsy by 1000 foot high cliffs to be doing any of that nonsense. So instead, here’s more responses to reader’s questions. Next post will be the last piece of responses I’ll be doing, so speak now or else forever hold your peace.

Tell me, light novel fans: Is there a trend in light novels that the first volume tends to be heavily story based, only for the later volumes to lose sight of what made it unique and delve further into trite cliche? That’s what I’m seeing in a lot of adaptations. They tend to lose sight of their unique qualities after the first 3 episodes. In my mind, it seems obvious why. Author sends in first volume with grand idea. Publisher loves it, publishes it, books gets popular, and author is asked to write more. Problem is, he doesn’t know where to take the story from here, and he’s not allowed to end it. So instead it’s padded out with the same bland sameyness every light novel turns into.

I still find it shocking that the latest big news in kids cartoon television is an anime propagating the glories of poaching. From the country that has serious problems with whale poaching, I really struggle to wrap my head around how Toriko was made.

I’m ashamed to admit the only Macross I’ve seen is Frontier and the first episode of the original Macross. Not that it was bad, but yikes was it ever dated.

Strangely, I get almost no commenter douche-baggery. You would think, what with me being rather undiplomatic, that I’d get far more. Even the ones I do get tend to be the type who say something like “this is funny because you’re so retarded”, which I don’t really mind because hey, at least you’re enjoying yourself.

Lurkers: Get out and make your voice heard if you have something to say…is what I’d like to say, but I know I’ve never left a comment on one of LittleKuriboh’s or Zero Punctuation’s videos, despite being a rather hopeless fanboy for both of them. Now this is partly because they get so many comments that mine would simply get lost in the heap, but it’s perhaps even more intimidating to comment on someone’s post that has far less comments. But that doesn’t mean you should follow my example. Stop lurking and get out there! Let your voice be heard!

Me trying to appear fair? I do not understand this suggestion. Fair to who? The creators? It’s hardly like Bakuman’s original author is reading my posts. I mean, I’d love it if the director of Steins;Gate read my posts about how he uses far too many dutch angles to the point that it ruins scenes where it would otherwise be effective and improve in his later works, but of course they don’t. Or am I supposed to be appearing fair to the fans? To that I just say: lol

As for how I got started blogging, I direct you to my About page.

I assume what you’re talking about here is that both BL and yuri aren’t aimed towards actual LGBT folks. They’re the products of tropes rather than actual real life romances, where rape = love is rife, and girls are apparently all insufferably nice to each other. So yeah, they exist. Can’t really say that more about either, because they aren’t genres I’m particularly fond and therefore don’t watch/read many.

This would essentially be a long list of “these things move, these pages don’t”.

How? I’m not sure ‘how’ I readjust expectations. The latest episode was better than expected, expectations go up. The latest episode was bad, expectations go down. I don’t do that deliberately, my mind just readjusts itself naturally. Some people subscribe to the school of thought that you should go into everything with low expectations because you will either be happily surprised or smug when proved correct. I see the logic, but having rock-bottom expectations means I don’t necessarily enjoy something as much as it probably deserves.

OK, first part: No, because I don’t want to step on people’s toes simply for the sake of stepping on people’s toes. Mikoto/Fangzhao/Flomu can get away with that because that’s his shtick. His internet persona is built up so that he can ‘get away’ with doing that (for a given value of ‘get away with’) and I’m glad people like him exist. Someone needs to give various parts of the blogosphere a kick up the hole every now and then. It’s just I don’t want to be that person. I’m too much of a pussy to do that so directly.

The ASIA thing is something I have had thought of before the OEG came into being. For those who don’t know, the Otaku Elimination Game were a group set up by a bunch of people who were really angry that people were calling themselves otaku when they really were just following some sort of mainstream ideal of what otaku meant, generated partly by Danny Choo. So they set up a site to critique various anime websites and give a verdict whether they were a true otaku or not. They were really just a bunch of trolls, only aiming to piss people off, but what took them by surprise was how many people asked to have their sites participate. Anime Bloggers are the type who are so starved for recognition that they’ll even sign up to a bashing contest if it means someone will tell them what they really think of their blog.

I think that alone shows that there is the demand out there for some kind of critiquing system like you’ve suggested. I’d add that you would only review blogs that ask to be reviewed, because there’s no point in offering criticism to a blogger that doesn’t want it. Also it might be a good idea to have a few anonymous panellists, because then they’ll be more likely to be blunt with their assessments. Will I run it? God no! I don’t want anymore meta projects on my hands. Too much hassle and drama. But good luck to the brave folk who do try set it up. I’ll be cheering on from the sidelines.

Also Gunbuster sucks.

I wrote about this back in those 80’s and 90’s OVA’s, but one thing I’ve noticed is the evolution of the panty shot. In the past, it would be a boring old pair of plain white panties, flashed briefly for a second in to the point that you find yourself wondering whether you’d even seen them and whether that was deliberate or not. The modern pantyshot is a full screen flash with a noise to imply that you’ve just seen panties, like the tinkling of a bell or something. It’s rather more blatant about the whole process.

Who?

OK OK, Fate/Zero talk then. I like Gen Urabochi, the author of Madoka Magica, Saya no Uta and Fate/Zero. The man can write really damn well. His writing is tight and succinct with well crafted purposes and themes. He doesn’t include redundant text for the most part and there’s a purpose to each story I’ve seen him write. He has two key problems though. One is that he can’t write comedy, which isn’t an issue so long as he doesn’t try to write comedy. The second is that he can’t write a character, only collections of ideals held together by plot points. This is where the Fate/Stay Night universe steps in. I think nasu’s writing is completely impenetrable, but he can write interesting characters. Combine the two and you get Saber written by someone who knows how to actually write.

Whut? I dunno what you talking about. Anime is fucking awesome. No really, I love this shit. Steins;Gate, Redline, Arrietty, Bunny Drop, Madoka fucking Magica. That’s just anime that have been released this year alone that I love. Fuck yeah anime!

Man, I am such a weeaboo…

Sofuteni episode 1

Scamp — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 15:06:42 +0000

I counted:

30 panty flashes. 5 of these were in the opening song. This is discounting the changing room scene where the characters were wearing only their underwear. This also discounts the one bra shot.
8 censorship animal heads: Half of which were during the changing room scene. Note that every animal head censor was then not counted as a pantyshot.
8 orgasmic moans: Or near-orgasmic sounds as someone was struggling to talk.

Studio: Toei

Synopsis:Set in primitive times, a baby with white skin is born into the world. As his skin color is different from the rest of the children around him, the baby is immediately disliked and alienated from the others. Deserted and left on his own, the baby is eventually picked up by an ape called Kitty and raised as her child. The baby, Ryuu, grows up to be a good man but at this moment, his mother is attacked and killed by Tirano. In order to defeat Tirano and also find his real mother, Ryuu decides to set off on his own journey. In the midst of his travels, he meets the siblings Ran and Don. With his new-found companions, Ryuu begins his battle against hardships and obstacles.

How dare ‘dem black people treat our white lead character so harshly! Do they not know he is superior to them? *cough* err, joking aside, I’m not sure if this is meant to be a commentary on racial divides or simply plain old racism. Japan isn’t the most xeno-friendly country. I have dream that one day the black jungle kids and white jungle kids will swing through the forests together. I have a dream, ladies and gentlemen.…too soon?

Afterword

I deliberately picked such an early year because there’s so few anime out. Makes my work easier. Well, shorter anyway, but certainly not easier. Especially considering how difficult it is to get any information on some of these anime. What did rather shock me was how many of these series existed on youtube. I would have linked to the videos there, but that would have been creating just a little bit of a time paradox. Even VHS and Betamax tapes didn’t exist in 1971.

Marvelous Melmo

My 80’s and early 90’s OVA splurge part 3

Scamp — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 14:15:19 +0000

More 80’s and early 90’s OVAs and even more smoggy city shots set in the night…wait, no. Actually not a single one of those types of OVA’s this time around. Just some experimental horror, terrible acting and more boobs. Because if there’s one thing that never changes from these OVAs, it’s the presence boobs.

Vampire Princess Miyu

1988–9 — 4 episodes

Most of these OVA’s I watched I either rented out or downloaded off BakaBT (awesome website btw, especially for older anime). My general rule was to start off watching the english dub and only switch over if the acting was dreadful. Sometimes the corniness of a poor dub just added to the whole 80’s OVA experience anyway, as was certainly the case for the hammy acting in JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. So I started watching the dub of Vampire Princess Miyu and the voice acting was so bad that the opening narration became the greatest bit of unintentional comedy I have ever seen. Just watch it. The way the guy drags out the Miyuuu gets me every time. The whole dub job remains at about the same level. I’m not sure if the actual episode was any good or even what it was about. I was too busy laughing at it.

Zillion Burning Night OVA

1988 — 1 episode

Have you ever watched that movie ‘The Princess Bride’? You know, the one with the line “I am Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die”. It was deliberately being incredibly stupid with its style of storytelling. That was Zillion Burning Night OVA, except I don’t think it ever realised how dumb it was being. It was quite amazing how it cycled through the cliches like clockwork, as though it was going through a checklist and ticking them off one by one. I’m not talking plot point cliches or anything minor like that. When I say Zillion was cliche, I mean every single line of dialogue. It was morbidly fascinating to watch. Even the mood changing humour I could have set my clock to. I don’t even remember what it was about, I was too busy thinking “now is the time the bad guy appears through a hole in the wall and announces “not so fast” but the main character totally ignores him oh look I was completely right”.

Twilight Q

1987 — 2 episodes

I’ve written about Twilight Q before. Don’t remember? Maybe this will jog your memory.

I don’t have anything to add I didn’t already say in the original post. Just remember that the two episodes are stand alone pieces with no connection to each other. The first episode is crap but the second one is cool. Plus, it has a plan turning into a giant fish. Is that not reason enough?

Memories

1995 — 3 episodes

Like Twilight Q, Memories is made up of unconnected stories put together in an anthology. The best way to talk about it is to simply cycle through each of the 3 episodes.

Magnetic Rose

It’s not that well known that this was Satoshi Kon’s first directorial work. Even better, it has Yoko Kanno doing the soundtrack, which gives the whole piece this feel of a mindfuck version of Cowboy Bebop. Despite being the best of the Memories collection, it’s unfortunately the one I can talk about the least because I watched this quite a few years ago now, before I knew it was part of Memories. It was only over Christmas did I finally get around to the other two pieces. So I’ll just leave it at this: if you like Satoshi Kon’s films (Millennium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers etc.), give Magnetic Rose a shot. It’s as competently put together as any of his other works.

Stink Bomb

Unlike Magnetic Rose, where you probably have to be a big stinkin’ elitist like myself to get the full enjoyment out of it, Stink Bomb is a much more accessible piece. It’s sorta Roujin Z lite in the sense it’s a comedy about a superweapon being controlled by an poor unassuming human running out of control as the military try to stop it rampaging across the countryside (I think it’s by the same director as well). The best thing about this episode is the gormless salaryman who has let this stink bomb loose across Japan, with no knowledge as to what he has done. It even works as a clever bit of social commentary as to how the cog in the corporate machine has no idea what he’s working on. Heck, the closest anyone gets to telling him what’s happening is when his granny calls out to him on a megaphone from a helicopter. But it’s not the social commentary you’re necessarily watching this for *he says, afraid he might have turned off the more casual fan*. You watch it because it’s a whole heap of fun. Then watch Roujin Z, because it’s Stink Bomb except better and with old man hackers.

Cannon Fodder

The shortest and strangest of the Memories collection, Cannon Fodder plays out like an episode of Kino’s Journey. Introduce a town where they have decided on a strange system how to run the place. It may not make sense from a logical standpoint, but the real appeal is working out what the message of the episode is. A world in which the greatest a child can hope for is to be the man who fires the cannon at empty space. It doesn’t work as well as Kino’s Journey though, for one simple reason: No Kino. What Kino does is ask the questions you want to ask. Get down to that layer behind the peoples psyche and understand why they do this. Nobody in Cannon Fodder has the purpose of asking the man why he works at the cannon place. It’s not the most damning of problems, but it does hold the whole thing back just a bit.

Everyday is Sunday

1990–2 — 6 episodes

There was an episode of Gintama where Gintoki and some other bloke were sitting in a maid cafe looking very bored. They were having a conversation about something or other but every now and then they would interrupt their conversation to say “oh, I saw panties” in a rather bored yet intrigued tone, like a potato picker who notices the latest potato he picks resembles the face of a famous politician. That’s what I was doing watching Everyday is Sunday. When it comes to pantyshots, newer anime draw attention to the fact they’ve just shown you up the girls skirt. There’s that little bell chime, the camera placement and lighting highlight the shot and often zoom right in, just in case you happened to miss them. With older anime, pantyshots tend to happen almost by accident when the girl is doing a somersault. Plus they’re generally the plain white ones rather than the striped or whatever pretty patterns modern day pantyshots have.

The only anime I can think of recently to take this approach was Ride Back. Unlike Ride Back though, where the pantyshots simply happened because the physics of riding a motorcycle robot with a dress on means it’s practically impossible not to flash your underwear to the world, Everyday is Sunday pantyshots felt like it was meant to be something the viewer craved. Which made it all the more weird when, in the very next episode, as was required by law, they had a full on extended boob shot. Times sure have changed since then when it comes to fanservice. Yeah, in case you hadn’t figured out already, there was nothing worthwhile to talk about with Everyday is Sunday. But I hope you enjoyed my piece on the evolution of the pantyshot regardless.

Occult Academy episode 10

Scamp — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:04:46 +0000

Now you know the way Occult Academy has this way of almost but not quite showing upskirt shots with Maya. We’re shown her crossing her legs at just the right angle so we get plenty of luscious Maya thigh but no underwear. Well, actually we do. In the opening. You guys all thought that was a shadow? Of course it isn’t, that’s Maya’s black underwear!

Clearing up the episode involving the snow ghost kid. I’m not sure about you lot, but there was something so annoyingly idealised about the whole scene. The kid is always happy and everyone is living a happy life. But then no, kid sits in a corner all sad as the wife complains about being at home. Then the dad did the worst of all: Told the kid that Santa wasn’t real. On Christmas Eve. I mean come on, use a bit of originality or something. Not that this is something Occult Academy is alone with. Kids in anime just aren’t depicted properly. They’re always bubbling balls of cuteness, energy and endearing. Do the writers not, you know, actually have kids? Or is this part of Japanese Kawaii culture where kids are warped into these cutesy idealised versions. I mean, kids are cute, but if you’re going to make them be cute, have them do so by actually acting like kids. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is Usio from Clannad After Story. Cute, but actually acted like a kid is supposed to act.

Or maybe Japanese kids act different to any I’ve seen. Maybe it’s part of Japanese culture for kids to look at older people for a second, then grin maniacally with their eyes closed, going ‘eehee’ then running off.

The conclusion of the arc still had an ‘awww’ factor to it, but it would have had more if I didn’t have grumpy hat on and was too busy thinking at what an unbelievable situation this was. I know it’s a stupid complaint when it comes to something as nonsensical as Occult Academy, but the whole ‘OMG Santa isn’t real’ thing got to me. It’s like ‘how can we make this scene as depressing as poss—wait a second…

STOP THE PRESS!!!

THE PLOT

THE PLOT HAS BEEN SIGHTED!

I REPEAT, THE PLOT HAS BEEN SIGHTED!

Holy crap! It’s finally returned. Were the past 8 episodes all there just leading up to this moment? Did we piss about for the majority of the show just so Maya could get over the betrayal of her father (as debatable a reason it might be and everything). But she’s now determined. In the previous episodes she was just joking. Running around after fake alien spacecrafts was just her way of trying to come to terms with her tsudere relationship with the occult.

I don’t believe it. I’m almost giddy with anticipation. I’m so amazed that the plot, the real, true to life plot, has actually come back into the show once again! They remembered that there was an imminent alien invasion and that perhaps they should do something about it. Maya remembered she had a book by her dad that would help he fight the alien whatever organisation (seriously, where did that book go after episode 2? I think she left it in the towel).

Wow, I’m still slightly in shock. I don’t think I can even come up with some wild theories I’m so amazed. I think I need to lie down. Here’s TK jamming on a keytar to compensate for my lack of wild and imaginative theories.

No anime is dropped forever 67–100

Scamp — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 10:30:06 +0000

No anime is dropped forever. However projects like these must come to an end at some time. All that’s left is a Tokyo Magnitude review and a final roundup. ‘But wait a goddarn second here’ I hear you say. ‘You said at the start of every single one of these posts that you had dropped somewhere in the region of 100 anime, and yet you’re stopping on 66? I call bullshit’. Well, that’s because the remaining anime on that massive dropped list consist of a single episode watched and nothing interesting to say about it. But hey, I said 100 anime so I might as well include them all. Prepare yourself for knee-jerk reactions galore!

009–1 — I vaguely remember a lesbian cyborg and bullet tits. Oh, and an absolutely terrible dub. That probably put me off more than the bullet tits

Amagami SS — If we kiss random body parts it should make us stand apart from other crappy dating sim adaptations, right?

Aoi Bungaku Series — I know, how dare I! All I remember is lifelessness and a worryingly Kurozuka-esque vibe without the fight scenes to distract from the dullness.

Asura Cryin’ — Let’s throw in as many things into the first episode to see if the viewer doesn’t notice how lacking this anime is and continue watching out of sheer confusion.

Basquash! - Has a fantastic ending song. However it’s been taken down off Youtube, which totally destroyed any interest I might have had in picking it up again.

Black Jack (2004) — For a guy known as the God of Manga, this was awfully uninspired.

Chu-Bra!! — Hey guys, I swear this is a touching story about teenage girls going through growing pains. It’s about love and friendship and the pains of youth. No really!

Hakuouki — You watched this just because it had hot guys, even though the lead girl was the most ineffectual and personality-less character in existence? You disappoint me girls.

Heroman — I can’t watch kids shows anymore. Even my old favourites back in the days of Cartoon Network. I doubt I could even watch Pokemon anymore.

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou — Loincloth flashes are the new panty flashes

Kaichou wa Maid-sama! — I hate shoujo

Kämpfer — If we reference the seiyuu then people will laugh. It’s like referencing other anime, except even less imaginative.

Kimi ga Nozomu Eien — Apparantly I watched the first episode of this. I remember a blue-haired girl swimming. I think there were cicadas, but then again there’s always fucking cicadas.

Kimi ni Todoke - I hate shojo mark 2

Ladies versus Butlers! — It is a point of increasing bafflement at how these things work as light novels. Do people get turned on by reading that the main character could see her undies?

Legend of Basara — Wasn’t actually that bad. But I decided to watch Berserk instead. No contest there unfortunately.

Martian Successor Nadesico — I’m pretty sure I watched the first episode of this waaaay back. I remember reading the comments on the youtube video it was on and people were laughing about a Sailor Moon reference. Obviously I missed it.

Mayoi Neko Overrun! — I hate this show. It made me realise how shallow the tsundere character can be made.

Needless — I’ve actually watched this first episode twice. It somehow managed to get even dumber on second viewing.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu — I remember the two main characters cracking jokes at each other and then giggling. I remained unamused. It was like having canned laughter in an unfunny American sitcom.

Omamori Himari — Booooooooobs

Ristorante Paradiso — So laid back I fell off my chair. I had to play the Black Lagoon opening song on repeat to wake myself up from this snore-fest

Saki — Wasn’t anywhere near as bad as I thought it would be. But still, this is what Gonzo started making? And was later followed by Strike Witches? You used to be great Gonzo *sobs*

Seikon no Qwaser — I watched the censored version the first time around. It was rather…misleading

Sengoku Basara — Not entirely sure why I had a negative reaction to burly guys beating each other up with added homoerotic tension. I usually love that sort of stuff

Skip Beat — I hate shojo mark 3

Taishou Yakyuu Musume — The show stopped being watchable when she stopped doing the musical.

Tears to Tiara — Generic fantasy blah blah

Tenjou Tenge — I think I’ll just watch the opening song a few hundred times more instead of watching the actual anime

Toaru Majutsu no Index — It had an average first episode in a season packed full of awesomeness. It didn’t stand a chance

Trinity Blood — To misquote MAL ‘if you liked Hellsing, then you will be thoroughly underwhelmed by Trinity Blood’.

Uraboku — Gaaaaay. They’re not even proper men. They’re a punch of prancy sissy boys.

White Album — I remember nothing. Wasn’t there singing in this or something?

Working!! — I hate lazy 4-koma adaptations

A poll? Oh sure, why not.

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

Ichiban Ushiro No Daimao episode 1

Scamp — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 11:03:18 +0000

Demon King something-or-other is one of these Harry Potter esque school life magical anime, reminiscent of Negima and so on. The lead character is mildly interesting, the animation is pretty clean cut and the music is surprisingly non-sucky. But it has that one thing that I’ve come to detest in anime: Pointless upskirt shots, and lots of them.

I mean, look at that. I don’t mind it when they have an imaginary flashforward to Demon King ripping off the clothes of beautiful women. I don’t see any problem with sexualising a scene with extra bonus shots when a girl is trying to seduce a guy. Nor do I even mind shower scenes or the like. Heck, I’m not that pushed if you have panty shots because a girl is leaping through the air with a skirt on. In fact, that’s almost preferable because you will naturally show off your underwear if you’re riding around on a Ride Back like Ogata Rin, otherwise you get bizarre anti-grav skirts like Kuniko in Shangri-La. But just showing a panty shot for the hell of things like this pisses me off. It’s the height of bloody laziness. Nothing needs to be happening, they just felt like showing you her ass.

I usually say that the first anime I watched weekly was Spice and Wolf in the Winter of 2008. That’s not actually true. The first anime I tried watching as it came out in Japan was that pile of crap called Rosario to Vampire. That’s like your first anime, the one you are meant to have loads of nostalgia for, your gateway drug, was actually the second anime you watched at the first was actually Futakoi. I have a lot of ill-feeling towards Rosario to Vampire because of that. You’ve ruined perfect story-telling properties of my anime fandom while simultaneously sucking horribly. Oh, and providing lots of ass shots for the sake of showing ass shots. She didn’t even need to move. You just get a nice helpful dosing of ass.

The censorship pirate-eye is strong in this one.

The actual anime itself isn’t exactly terrible. But fuck it, I’m not in the mood to sit through pointless lazy ass shots. Give me B Gata H Kei over this any day. At least she has a bloody excuse for ripping off her top.