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.

Season Preview / Series Introduction

Winter 2009 Preview!

Sorry this took so long to get written up – leaving for a week set me back a week in terms of working on this. Regardless, the new year is upon us and with it is another new season of anime. Since this isn’t a spring or fall season, there are relatively fewer new offerings, but that still leaves around 24 major titles, not including the kiddie shows and some long-running shows. As usual, I’ll try to watch the first episode of most shows 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 Winter 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.

RIDE BACK
http://www.rideback-anime.jp/
Premiere on January 11th, 2009
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Sundays at 24:00
Airtime in U.S. (EST, GMT-4): Sundays at 10:00
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
RIDE BACK is a very intriguing story about a time of great political turmoil in the not-so-distant future, but it focuses on a girl who was raised as a dancer and is attending a university. She accidentally gets involved with the Rideback club – Ridebacks are a cross of motor bike and mecha – and puts her dancing skills to use on a Rideback just as things start to erupt politically. The original manga is very good, and I’m really looking forward to this anime adaptation that’s being done by Madhouse and Digital Frontier and has Mizuki Nana in the lead role. Trillian is just as excited about this series as I am and might be blogging this instead of me since I have a fairly busy Sunday schedule.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Good
Hetalia Axis Powers
http://hetalia.com/
Premiere on January 24th, 2009
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Saturdays at 25:52
Airtime in U.S. (EST, GMT-4): Saturdays at 11:52
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo, AniDB, MyAnimeList, syoboi
It’s hard to describe Hetalia Axis Powers as anything but cute. Based on a popular webcomic, the series follows the adventures of the male personifications of various countries of the world, including the cowardly Italy and hard-working Germany, in a comedic parody of history (not always WWII-era and not always the Axis side). Studio DEEN is animating this, and each episode is only five minutes long, so it might be worth watching as just a quick dose of humor.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Decent

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