Season Preview / Series Introduction

Spring 2009 Preview!

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.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Fullmetal Alchemist – CM5

The fifth and likely final commercial for the new Fullmetal Alchemist series aired with today’s episode of Gundam 00. This one is narrated by Miki Shinichirou, the new voice actor of Roy Mustang (he also voices Lockon in Gundam 00). I would say that it’ll take some getting used to hearing him as Mustang, but given that it’s been so long since I’ve seen the original, I think I’ll adjust just fine. Anyway, what’s shown in this commercial gives the new series a rather dark feel, and since the trailer from the Tokyo Anime Fair looked pretty nice as well, I’m really looking forward to the premiere in two weeks.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Fullmetal Alchemist – CM4

 

Another two weeks and another new FMA commercial, this time with a lot of scenes from probably the first episode or episodes, including shots of Winry. It also featured the ending song 「嘘」 (Uso) by the group SID which sounds decent, but it’s hard to really tell with just a 15 second clip. I think this commercial may be a bit overshadowed though by the news that much of the cast for this new series is changing from the old one. Ed and Al will still be Paku Romi and Kugimiya Rie, but most of the rest of the cast is different, including the voice actors for Winry (now Takamoto Megumi), Mustang (now Miki Shinichirou), and even Lust (now Inoue Kikuko). Should be interesting to see how that works out.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Fullmetal Alchemist – CM3

 

The third commercial for the new Fullmetal Alchemist series aired with today’s episode of Gundam 00, and it showed some more footage of the new series, more exciting than the last commercial. Again, I’m not sure if it’s new footage since it’s been ages since I’ve seen the show, but this time there were a lot of the old characters shown including Mustang, Hughes, Armstrong, Hawkeye, Lust, and Gluttony, plus Al and Ed again. Fullmetal Alchemist is slated to replace Gundam 00 starting April 5th, 2009.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Fullmetal Alchemist – CM2

 

The second (by my count) commercial for the new Fullmetal Alchemist series aired with today’s episode of Gundam 00, and it shows some actual footage of the new series. At least, I think it’s new footage – it’s been ages since I watched FMA, so I honestly don’t remember. Either way, the images don’t reveal much and mainly show Ed and Al. It’s good to see those two in action again, and I’m looking forward to the new show even though it’s still two months away. Fullmetal Alchemist is slated to replace Gundam 00 starting April 5th, 2009.