Category: Series Introduction

As the Fall and Winter shows are finishing, here’s a preview of the Spring 2009 shows premiering next week and beyond. There aren’t quite as many new shows premiering as last fall – 28 major titles not including kiddie stuff or OVAs – but that still leaves a huge variety of shows. And for once my schedule isn’t filled with continuing series, so theoretically I can watch something new for every day of the week (unlike this past Winter season when I had almost all of the Fall shows carrying over). As usual, I’ll try to watch the first episode of as many shows as I can within certain parameters (in other words, not the 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.

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 air-times, and Fansub Wiki’s Spring 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.

Queen’s Blade – Rurou no Senshi http://queensblade.tv/ Premiere on April 2nd, 2009 Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Thursdays at 08:00 Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Wednesdays at 19:00 Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi Queen’s Blade is about a competition to choose a beautiful queen, and all the contestants are big breasted warrior women. They threw in some tentacle monsters for good measure, making this probably the closest you can get to straight up hentai. Certainly the promos (see below) are filled with nudity and ridiculous character designs, including one character whose bra is a pair of hands formed by her hair. And given that ARMS and GENCO are producing this and AT-X is airing it, I suspect that it’ll turn out similarly to Ikkitousen: DD and GG, though it’s been announced that the AT-X version will indeed feature the nudity. All this is to say that I’m not expecting this show to be very deep, however in its defense, it’s got one helluva cast, from Hirano Aya to Kawasumi Ayako to Noto Mamiko to Tanaka Rie and Kugimiya Rie. I might watch an episode of this just to see how far they push the envelope, but there are too many other potentially good Thursday shows to take this one seriously. Odds I’ll Blog This: Poor

Eden of the East http://juiz.jp/ Premiere on April 9th, 2009 Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Thursdays at 24:45 Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Thursdays at 11:45 Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi If Ristorante Paradiso isn’t your thing and you want the series that truly looks like Honey and Clover, then look no further than Eden of the East because it’s got H&C’s mangaka Umino Chika doing character designs. And after seeing the trailer, it also happens to be one of the series I’m most excited about. Being animated by Production I.G, Eden of the East is an original story of a Japanese girl on a trip to America who gets saved by a naked guy in front of the White House. The guy, who is also Japanese, has no memories and carries only a gun and a cell phone with tons of money on it. The mystery deepens to involve terrorism and a missile attack on Tokyo. The trailer really, really impressed me, particularly their choice of music (I can already tell that I’m going to love the ED), so I’m really looking forward to seeing this. Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed

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