First Impressions / Series Introduction / Snapshots

Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo – 01

Summary:
It’s another beautiful spring morning. The forest of pink sakura blossoms radiates against the azure sky, the light breeze and sound of chirping birds comprising a symphonious melody. There’s a girl outside Wataru’s room, telling him to wake up. She’s quite persistent but remains politely outside his door.

Random Musings / Series Introduction

Random Musings – Tuesday Shows Over Drive

You remember that show called Over Drive that I briefly mentioned in my Spring 2007 Preview? I wasn’t very attracted to the cycling premise and didn’t think it would be any good. Well, I watched the first episode on a whim and was completely surprised at how un-sports-anime this show was. It was, for all intents and purposes, a show that seemed to be about a boy falling in love with a girl. The animation had its ups and downs, but there was a very quaint atmosphere with light music that I usually attribute to h-game adaptations or romance comedies. The cycling part of the anime didn’t play nearly as big a role as I would have thought. Now granted, I’m sure those sports parts will come out heavily later (note: I don’t plan on watching any more), but for this first episode, Over Drive gave off a completely different feeling.

As for the rest of what aired today, I got some time in during study breaks to watch some of the episodes that aired today. I say study breaks because I’m in the middle of my midterms right now (last one tomorrow), and I used up all my free time today to write up D.Gray-man and DEATH NOTE.
Sisters of Wellber: I had high hopes for this, but the episode turned out merely okay. Nothing really stood out for me, especially not the talking tank.
Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo: Surprisingly enough, I managed to get through the entire episode of Over Drive, but I couldn’t make it through 10 minutes of this. Jaalin’s writing up an entry about it though.
Claymore: This had plenty of blood and monsters, but like Wellber, the first episode was just okay. Mentar assures me that the story will get better fairly soon, and I trust him enough to keep watching a few more episodes.

Everything else I didn’t get a chance to see, but at the current moment, I’m leaning heavily towards just keeping D.Gray-man and DEATH NOTE as my two scheduled Tuesday shows.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Random Musings – Touka Gettan…

I wasn’t planning on blogging anything today because I have an exam to study for, but Touka Gettan deserves a mention. It’s a well-animated show that had some great music, but the plot made little to no sense. My friend wrote up some thoughts on his own site that close closely reflect how I feel about the show, so give it a look if you’re remotely interested.

El Cazador also aired today, and while the first episode wasn’t bad (Kajiura Yuki music and the FictionJunction Yuuka ED were great), I don’t think it’s something that I’d continue watching.

Tomorrow, however, is going to be a very busy day.

Season Preview / Series Introduction

Spring 2007 Preview!

Spring season is just around the corner, and there are a lot of new shows starting up. Before we get started, a few notes. As usual, I’ll 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 impression from promotional material. However, even if I list the chances for a show as good or guaranteed, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’ll stick with it for more than a few episodes. As it stands, Tuesdays and Sundays have a ton of promising shows, but I have to ultimately make a decision on what to and not to follow.

By no means does this list reflect all of the anime that are 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 AndrewLB’s Spring 2007 Wiki 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.

Darker than BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha-
http://www.d-black.net/
Premieres April 5th, 2007
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Thursdays at 25:25
Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Thursdays at 12:25
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
Darker Than BLACK is the show that will be replacing CODE GEASS in the Thursday late-night timeslot. It is being produced by BONES and shares much of the same production team that worked on Wolf’s Rain. Oh yea, and did I mention that Yoko Kanno will be composing the music, the opening song will be performed by abingdon boys school, and the ending will be by Rie fu? The story here revolves around a guy with special powers who works as a Contractor and is supported by an emotionless girl and the Hell’s Gate that appears in Tokyo. They’ve released a ton of promotional material on the official website, and it all made me quite excited about this show.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed
Lucky Star
http://www.lucky-ch.com/
Premieres April 8th, 2007
Airtime in Japan (JST, GMT+9): Sundays at 24:00
Airtime in U.S. (EDT, GMT-4): Sundays at 11:00
Information Links: ANN Encyclopedia, AnimeNfo
Lucky Star is a 24-episode Kyoto Animation work for spring and summer seasons to be directed by Suzumiya Haruhi director Yamamoto Hiroshi. It’s based on a humorous 4-koma, but I would assume that the episodes will have a story of some sort, much like Azumanga Daioh. Lucky Star centers around an athletic but lazy girl named Konata who loves anime and games – she’ll be voiced by Hirano Aya. If we want to draw some more Suzumiya Haruhi parallels, I find it ironic – perhaps intentional on KyoAni’s part – that Chihara Minori is voicing the quiet girl who doesn’t show emotions. In any case, I’m looking forward to a great comedy series by Kyoto Animation since I have a lot of confidence that they’ll do an amazing job with whatever they animate.
Odds I’ll Blog This: Guaranteed

Note: This is a rather long and fairly comprehensive list of the shows coming in April. Much much more after the jump, including the torrent link for promotional material.

First Impressions / Series Introduction

Hayate no Gotoku! – CM

As many of you may already know, it was confirmed last week that Hayate no Gotoku! (aka. Hayate the Combat Butler) is getting animated. For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Hayate no Gotoku! is about a boy named Ayasaki Hayate who is left with his parents’ massive debt after they abandoned him. In trying to kidnap a rich girl named Nagi for ransom money, Hayate mistakenly gives her the impression that he’s confessing his love. After a series of unlikely events, Nagi pays off Hayate’s debt for him, and he becomes her butler for the next 40 years to repay her. It’s a very amusing manga with some great chapter titles that make references to all kinds of popular anime.

The purpose of this commercial was to promote the special DVD with six minutes of footage and narration by Wakamoto Norio. Those six minutes are already available to see on Youtube, but the caveat is that it’s camcorder quality. On the commercial and on the promo video, you get a chance to hear the seiyuu as their characters, including Kugimiya Rie as Nagi. When I learned that she was going to be doing that voice, the first thing in my mind was whether or not they would repeat Shana/Yuuji and Louise/Saito by casting Hino Satoshi as Hayate. Unfortunately, that’s not the case and instead Shiraishi Ryoko will be voicing him. The other announced seiyuu are Tanaka Rie as Maria, Itou Shizuka as Hinagiku, Nabatame Hitomi as Yukiji, and Toriumi Kousuke as Himuro.

Hayate no Gotoku! is set to premiere sometime this year, but it does not yet have a specific air-date. It’s high on my list of anticipated anime, so hopefully the wait won’t be too long.