Category: Series Introduction

The Spring season seemed to go by really fast, and now Summer is finally here! The selection is a little bit more limited than the Spring season, but there’s still around 20 new shows premiering, not including OVAs or kiddie stuff. 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 Summer 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.

Bakemonogatari http://www.bakemonogatari.com/ Premiere on July 3rd, 2009 Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Fridays at 23:00 Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Fridays at 10:00 Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi The first of SHAFT and director Shinbou Akiyuki‘s two summer series is about a high school guy who meets different girls in each of the story arcs, all of whom are have something supernatural going on with them. I know I haven’t been the biggest fan of SHAFT’s style over the past several seasons since it tends to favor comedy and inside jokes (with the exception of maybe ef), but I’ve heard good things about the novels that this is based on, and the promos for this series show some very high production quality, so I’m willing to give this a try. Odds I’ll Blog This: Good

CANAAN http://www.canaan.jp/ Premiere on July 4th, 2009 Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Saturdays at 22:30 Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Saturdays at 9:30 Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi The show I’m probably most excited about this upcoming season is CANAAN. It’s based on a scenario created by Type-Moon founders Nasu Kinoko and Takeuchi Takashi for the Wii game 428: Fuusasareta Shibuya de about an assassin-like girl in Shanghai going up against a crime organization whose leader was responsible for terrorism in Shibuya. It’s being produced by the P.A. Works team that did true tears, and the promo videos look great, but if that’s not enough, it’s got an A-list cast as well including Sakamoto Maaya, Sawashiro Miyuki, and Tanaka Rie. Basically, this show should have everything going for it in terms of production, story, and cast, and I’m definitely planning on watching it. Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed

Note: This is a rather long and fairly comprehensive list of July shows. Much much more after the jump, including a bunch of promo videos.