Season Preview / Series Introduction

Fall 2009 Preview!

The Fall 2009 season is upon us, so here’s the seasonal preview of all the shows that’ll be premiering! As usual, I’ll try to watch the first episode of as many shows as I can within certain parameters (in other words, not those kiddie shows), and what I list here are the chances of me actually blogging something based on my initial impressions from promotional material. However, even if I list the chances for a show as good or guaranteed, it doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll stick with it for more than a few episodes unless it actually is good.

By no means does this list reflect every single anime series that is going to be aired, though I did try to be as comprehensive as I could. Check out MOON PHASE for an entire listing, syoboi’s calendar for specific airtimes, and Fansub Wiki’s Fall 2009 page for who’s tentatively subbing what.

Technical Note: All times are given in a 24-hour, relative-day format where times are extended to show which day they belong to. For instance, Friday morning at 1:30AM would become Thursday at 25:30 to show that the episode aired late Thursday night.

InuYasha -Kanketsu-hen- (The Final Act)
http://www.ytv.co.jp/inuyasha/
Premieres on October 3rd, 2009
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Saturdays at 23:30
Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Saturdays at 10:30
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
I don’t think this series needs much of an introduction, but just in case: InuYasha centers around a modern girl who gets thrown into the past and meets a half-demon, and it follows their quest to recover the shards of a powerful jewel. It’s a fun series, and the original broadcast covered up to volume 36 of the manga. The new series, which is bringing back the same Sunrise staff and cast, will cover up to the end of it. I watched and enjoyed a good portion of the original many years ago, but my memory is really, really fuzzy, and I’m pretty sure I didn’t watch the last couple of seasons of it, so I’ve been trying to read the manga to fill those holes. Basically what this means is that I’m going into the new series with no knowledge of what will happen, which is pretty much the same as I did for the Fullmetal Alchemist series running right now (and it’s worked out pretty well). The news that Do As Infinity will be performing the opening song just makes me even more excited to see it.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed
Kimi ni Todoke
http://www.ntv.co.jp/kiminitodoke/
Premieres on October 6th, 2009
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Tuesdays at 24:59
Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Tuesdays at 11:59
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
Production I.G‘s sole series for the season is popular shoujo manga Kimi ni Todoke. It follows a misunderstood girl who wants to get along with everyone in her class but is hindered by how creepy she sometimes looks, and the open and friendly boy she meets and starts to get along with. What little I’ve read of the manga has shown it to be a pretty well-written love story that does a great job conveying character emotions, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Production I.G adapts it since they’ve done so much great work in the past. The lead role is tailor made for Noto Mamiko too.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed

Note: This is a rather long and fairly comprehensive list of October shows. Much much more after the jump, including a bunch of promo videos.
Edit: I’ve added 11eyes, Shin Koihime Musou, Seitokai no Ichizon and Inuyasha promo videos.

Darker than BLACK / Series Introduction

Darker than BLACK 2 – CM3

 

A third commercial for the new Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini series aired after today’s episode of Basquash. This one focuses on the new girl Suou talking about the stars and has a nice piano piece in the background, but it’s again stuff that was already shown in the longer promo video that’s available on the official site.

Perhaps more important is the news that, based on a comment Kuwashima Houko made during an event last week, Ryuusei no Gemini might only be one season/cour long. I haven’t seen any official confirmation of this, but MOON PHASE seems to think that it’s one season as well, so it’s likely true.

Darker than BLACK / Series Introduction

Darker than BLACK 2 – CM2

 

A new commercial for Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini aired with this week’s episode of Basquash. This one revealed that the new girl is named Suou and that the initial setting will be Vladivostok, Russia, but I didn’t see anything in it that wasn’t already shown in the longer promo video that’s available on the official site. Assuming they go with a normal promotion strategy, there’s probably two more commercials in store before the premiere of the show, at least one of which will feature the new OP or ED. I’m hoping one of them will be a Rie fu song.

Bakemonogatari / Basquash! / Fullmetal Alchemist / Monogatari Series / Random Musings / Series Introduction / Suzumiya Haruhi

Loose Odds and Ends

  • As a reminder, there are no new episodes of Basquash or Fullmetal Alchemist this week because of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics. A new episode of Bakemonogatari, however, will be airing later today.
  • Speaking of Basquash, I really like the full version of the current ending song and have been listening to the newly released single all week. In contrast, I still don’t like the current Haruhi opening song and laughed when I saw how ridiculous the PV of it was. It certainly doesn’t make me think any better of Hirano Aya.
  • As much as I wanted to blog it because it’s a good series, I really can’t find the time for Sora no Manimani. School recently started again, and my final year of grad school is going to be a doozy. I would still recommend the show though (Jaalin likes it even more than I do).
  • A few people have asked me about my thoughts for the upcoming fall season, and while I haven’t done any significant research on it, my first impression was that it’s even more full of sequels than usual. There’s something like nine or ten of them out of less than thirty new shows, and it’s a shame there aren’t more completely original series. Regardless, I suspect I’ll definitely be watching Darker than BLACK, InuYasha, Railgun, and Kimi ni Todoke.
    • Darker than BLACK / Series Introduction

    Darker than BLACK 2 – CM

     

    There was a Darker than BLACK 2 – officially titled Darker than BLACK: Ryuusei no Gemini – commercial that aired with today’s episode of Basquash. As you can see above, it starts with a quick montage of stuff that happened in the final episode of the first series, including Hei’s line about how there is no longer any man named Li. Then comes the interesting part of the commercial, the much wilder looking Hei. It’s not a lot to go on (there are magazine spoilers that reveal more), but it’s exciting to me all the same, and I’m looking forward to the series. The fact that the commercial aired during Basquash today means that it’ll most likely be taking over that MBS timeslot come October, the same Thursday timeslot that the first series had.