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Welcome to the second edition of the Random Curiosity season preview since its relocation to randomc.net. With every subsequent preview, I’ve been looking for little things that I can improve upon and this fall is no different. In addition to reformatting the series information to make it clearer, a list of OVAs that will be airing over the course of the season has been added at the very end. Continuing the trend set in the Summer 2010 Preview, the write-ups are now as “thoroughly concise” as possible in hopes of providing a good idea of what each new series is about. As always, all the information stems from first-hand research into the original source material (if any) and various Japanese sources, so a lot of it may be completely new to English-speaking fans. The twenty-seven new shows being previewed here are actually less than the thirty-two back in Spring 2010, however the information in this preview is much more comprehensive. IT’S OVER 9000! …words. (In fact, it’s over 13,000.)
Regular readers of the site probably already know that my tastes are fairly diverse, but a quick look at MyAnimeList should give everyone else an idea of my sixteen or so years of history with anime. With that in mind, please be aware that I’ll often watch mediocre and even controversial series for the sake of variety, or simply so that I can make an informed judgment at the end. However, I would only recommend such shows if you’ve seen something similar, enjoyed it to a certain degree, and know what you’re getting yourself into. I still have my usual genres, so it’s usually not too difficult for me to decide what to watch based on premise, art style, production, and cast (a big one for me) after going through some promotional material. For the purpose of this preview, I’ll try to identify what appeals to me about each series, in hopes that it will help you determine if it coincides with your own tastes.
By no means does this list reflect every single anime series that is going to be aired, though it’s meant to be as comprehensive as possible. Shows that stray far from the anime norm or are deemed oriented towards younger children are omitted, so check out MOON PHASE for an entire listing, syoboi’s calendar for specific air times, and Fansub Wiki’s page for who’s tentatively subbing what. This time around, I have included shows such as Battle Spirits and Pokemon after leaving Digimon Xros Wars out last season, but purposely left out the fourth season of Hetalia Axis Powers since its 5-min shorts don’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
Technical Note: The list is ordered by the date and time that the shows premiere. The links in the schedule will take you to a series’ corresponding entry and the “Top” links on the right will bring you back. You can also use the back/forward buttons in your browser to jump between links you’ve clicked. 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.
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It’s no Gundam nor CODE GEASS side-story, but it’s noteworthy how SUNRISE doesn’t plan to relinquish its 7am Sunday time slot on TV Asahi any time in the near future. After preoccupying it with two 50-episode adaptations of Bandai’s trading card game for the past two years, they’re back with a third one that will likely run just as long. The main protagonist from the current Battle Spirits Shounen Gekiha Dan, Bashin Dan (Ooura Fuyuka), makes his return in this sequel the very next week. This time, the story takes place two years after he was pulled into an alternate world, Gran Lolo, where Battle Spirits are more than drawings on a card game and actually summon real creatures to battle. Following the events there, he’s been prohibited from taking part in Battle Spirits tournaments and spends his days teaching beginners instead. However, he thirsts to battle with his life on the line again and enters a new world to do so. Clearly, this is a series targeted towards younger audiences, which leverages the same appeal seen in other trading card adaptations. That being the case, it’s not the type of show I would personally get into, but will note that it stars the likes of Kawasumi Ayako, Ono Daisuke, Kakihara Tetsuya, Itou Kanae, Endou Aya, and Satsuki Yukino. If I were a kid again, I could see myself waking up on Sunday mornings to watch a series like this, particularly with the way SUNRISE animates all the spirit battles in CG. When I was naive and didn’t know any better, stuff like that was always cool even if it didn’t look so great.
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In continuation of the Diamond and Pearl series (that was broken into multiple seasons for the North American release), Nintendo‘s Pocket Monster franchise is getting a sequel that finds Satoshi (Matsumoto Rika) and Pikachu (Ootani Ikue) on a new adventure in the Isshu region. As per the newly released Pokemon Black and White games that this series is based on, Satoshi comes across various never before seen Pokemon in this new region — one of the highlights of this latest endeavor. Brand new characters are introduced as well, along with notable seiyuu to voice them, namely a female trainer named Iris (Yuuki Aoi) and a male one named Dent (Miyano Mamoru). As for some older faces, the Team Rocket trio of Musashi, Kojirou, and Nyaasu (a.k.a. Jessie, James, and Meowth) are back with Hayashibara Megumi, Miki Shinichirou, and Inuyama Inuko reprising their roles respectively. Admittedly, I never got into one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises aside from catching some dubbed episodes on TV, but I’m not oblivious to the inherit popularity of it in Japan and overseas, particularly among younger generations. The release of the Black and White games did set records as the fastest Nintendo DS titles to reach one million pre-orders in Japan after all, so it’s probably safe to assume there will be viewers looking forward to this adaptation of it. If I had grown up watching the shows and playing the games, I’d probably be all over this newest series, but seeing as I didn’t, I won’t be getting into them now.
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For a series that needs no introduction to American comic book fans, nor even casual superhero ones thanks to the two Hollywood movies, the anime version of Iron Man would be it. In collaboration with Marvel, Madhouse studios is animating the story of the the extremely wealthy and ingenious engineer Tony Stark, who creates a makeshift powered suit of armor to escape kidnappers forcing him to build a weapon of mass destruction. He later builds a much better one and takes on the superhero persona Iron Man in his fight against corporate crime and terrorism. Exactly what will be covered in yet another East meets West project remains to be seen, but in all likelihood it will start from the very beginning to properly introduce Japanese audiences to the story. Incidentally, that is the goal of these 12-episode Marvel adaptations, as the company announced way back in 2008 that there will be four such series animated by Madhouse. Wolverine was the other one announced at the time and also saw some preliminary teaser material produced. Fujiwara Keiji has been cast to play Tony Stark, which is interesting because I can seriously picture him in that role. It’ll still be odd hearing Japanese voices coming from American superheros though (at least at first). While the production values seem good, I’m curious to see if this venture will be well received in Japan. In the past, home soil fans weren’t very receptive of foreign works invading their media space (e.g. Korean manga or XBox), so it leaves me wondering if high-profile American comics will be any different. Whatever the case, I plan to check this series out since it’s Madhouse at the helm and I enjoyed American superhero shows on a casual level growing up. However, whether or not I’ll watch it all the way through is up in the air.
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The sci-fi romantic comedy filled with slapstick ecchi humor sees a much deserved sequel and adds a new angeloid to the mix this time, Astraea (Fukuhara Kaori). If anyone’s been wondering if I was excited to hear that a sequel had been announced, you only need to refer to the Best of Anime 2009 post to see that I selected the original as my favorite comedy last year. While some people are instantly turned off by the premise of a voluptuous angelic android falling from the sky and into the lap of a fairly perverted male protagonist, the behavior of Sakurai Tomoki (Hoshi Souichirou) was so reminiscent of Ooe Kintarou in Golden Boy that I loved every minute of it. This series definitely isn’t meant to cater to those who can’t loosen up and take enjoyment from a lot of idiocy encompassing an unexpectedly sweet story (at times). One of the big charms of this series is the portrayal of Ikaros (Hayami Saori), who’s fairly clueless about the world and always has a somewhat sad look on her face. Coincidentally, it’s that innocence to her character that makes her so endearing and someone Tomoki won’t even take advantage of. On the comedic side of things, Tomoki’s relationship with Ikaros as her master puts an often hilarious spin on the moral, “with great power comes great responsibility.” Let us never forget the epic handcuff and flying pantsu episode that showed how awry things can go when that’s forgotten. A big driving factor of the humor also comes from Tomoki’s eccentric senior and head of the New World Discovery club, Sugata Eishirou (Tatsuhisa Suzuki), the daughter of a yakuza family, Satsukitane Mikako (Takagaki Ayahi), and his childhood friend that falls victim to a lot of his perversions, Mitsuki Sohara (Mina). The story last left off with the Master of the Sky sending Nymph (Nomizu Iori) to Earth to retrieve Ikaros, where she ends up being a victim of her own master’s sadistic ways. Nymph is eventually saved by Tomoki and the others, so now Astraea is sent down from the Synapse world to get rid of him for getting in the angels’ way. From the looks of it, Tomoki will bring Astraea around just like he did with Nymph by proving to be even dumber than she is. It looks like his harem’s going to keep building and I plan to watch it every step of the way.
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As the Super Robot Wars video games were a pivotal part of my childhood and what got me into the mecha genre of anime, the sentimental value alone has me looking forward to this second TV adaptation of the franchise. Developed by Banpresto, the long line of crossover turn-based strategy games featuring a plethora of licensed super and “real” robots (e.g. Gundams) is so utterly awesome that I not only played through several of them, but did so when my Japanese was so paltry that I couldn’t even grasp the story properly. Still, with my kana reading ability and complete understanding of game mechanics that I would later share with other fans on the GameFAQs message boards, it really didn’t matter because I had all the good guys from series such as Mazinger, Getter Robo, L-Gaim, Gundam, and Macross (later on) at my fingertips in their battle against all their enemies. In a clash of epic proportions, things got even better when the games shifted from Game Boy and Super Famicom to PlayStation and started featuring voiceovers by all the seiyuu from the shows. It was through these games that I got introduced to a lot of old and new mecha series alike and started seeking out their respective anime to watch. In the Original Generation (OG) GBA games this anime is based on, the story revolves around the original characters and their “Personal Trooper” robots that Banpresto introduced to their games. Taking place six months after the alien invasion by the Aerogaters and the conflict with the anti-government organization Divine Crusaders (DC) in Divine Wars, the Earth Federation has reformed under their new leader, Brian Midcrid. To prepare Earth for future threats, he makes the existence of aliens known to the world and devises the “Aegis Plan” to unite humanity and send weapons development into high gear. Leading those defenses are the SRX Team — Ryuusei Date (Miki Shinichirou), Rai F. Branstein (Okiayu Ryoutarou), and Kobayashi Aya (Touma Yumi) — who possess psychokinetic abilities (akin to being a Newtype), and the ATX Team — Nanbu Kyousuke (Morikawa Toshiyuki), Excellen Browning (Mizutani Yuuko), and Brooklyn Luckfield (Sugita Tomokazu) — in their ongoing conflict against the remnants of DC, unaware that a new alien threat even more powerful than the Aerogaters are approaching Earth. Even without Gundams and the other crossover series, the OG universe has more than enough story to hold its own in the mecha genre. While I never got around to finishing Divine Wars, I’m planning to dive right into this one based on what I know of the story already. I should mention that SRW is where I got the idea for the online alias I’ve been using for the past 15 years or so (shortened from “DivineSpirit”).
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From the creators of the widely popular Neon Genesis Evangelion and Gurren Lagann comes their latest original one, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt. Evidently a studio can get away with almost anything when they have titles under their belt showing what they’re capable of, as this series not only features an unusual title and cast of characters, but also an un-anime-like animation style reminiscent to those seen in American cartoons such as Powerpuff Girls. However, unlike those shows oriented towards kids, GAINAX is changing the way we perceive angels sent down from heaven to vanquish evil ghosts. Instead of your typical divine beings, Daten City is sent the Pansuto sisters (short for panty stocking), who happen to be two reject fallen angels. The blond-haired Panty (Ogasawara Arisa) gives off a refined celebrity-like feel with her beauty, but in reality is a sex-crazed slut. Her younger sister Stocking (Ise Mariya) is as cute as a doll with her long brown hair and gothic outfit, except when she opens her mouth and only foul and vulgar language can be heard. (I know, her hair looks black/purple to me too.) Neither are what they seem and not the least bit interested in doing the job they’ve been sent down to do, but prove to be a surprisingly powerful combination when they do. Using their angelic powers, the deadly duo transforms their panties and stockings into a gun and dual swords to dispatch ghosts before getting back to seeking out men and blogging about sweets respectively. The only one keeping them in check is a suspicious-looking priest with a ridiculous-sized afro, Garterbelt (Ishii Kouji), who receives instructions from the heavens with the help of his strange looking pet Chuck and passes them onto the two juvenile sisters. Throw in a high school geek named Brief (Yoshino Hiroyuki) who becomes infatuated with Panty and we have all the makings of another over-the-top series, albeit of a very different kind. Admittedly, I don’t see the appeal with the Americanized art style and the only thing that does have me somewhat interested is GAINAX’s involvement, but there are people out there sold on that reason alone. It’s like a moth to a flame, just like when Steve Jobs announces the next refresh of the iSomething. While I’m not ruling out the possibility that this series may turn out much better than it appears, I’m not inclined to find out first-hand.
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In yet another example of a light novel turned manga, turned anime, XEBEC and AT-X are bringing us another adaptation of the ecchi kind. Notable differences in MM are a new director and character designer, even though the characters themselves look strikingly similar to those seen in Kanokon and Ladies versus Butlers. The premise itself is a lot more telling about what this series will entail, as it follows high school student Sado Tarou (Fukuyama Jun) and his desire to overcome his masochistic fetish so that he can try to have a normal relationship with a girl. To that end, he seeks the help of his school’s Second Volunteer Club, which is headed by a senior with a superiority complex, Isurugi Mio (Taketatsu Ayana). What this translates to is setup with a girl who likes dishing it and a guy who likes taking it, which paves way for a lot of perverted slapstick type humor. If that weren’t bad enough (depending on how you look at it), Tarou’s older sister Shizuka (Asumi Kana) has a brother complex and his mother Tomoko (Oohara Sayaka) a son one. Tomoko looks unbelievably young for her age and actually competes with Shizuka for Tarou’s affection. Then there’s his classmates Yuuno Arashiko (Hayami Saori) who suffers from androphobia and Hayama Tatsukichi (Satou Rina) who likes to cross-dress, plus the school doctor Onigawara Michiru (Tanaka Rie) who likes to make cute girls cosplay, a genius who looks like a loli, and a lolicon who likes her. Just about every character is kind of messed up in this harem series, which seems to go by the ideology that if two wrongs don’t make a right, let’s try five or ten at once. Cast-wise, it’s pretty hard to ignore the seiyuu involved in this one, so I’m kind of inclined to check it out just to see how ecchi things gets. I did cover all of Kanokon here and watched all of Ladies versus Butlers, making MM a series I’d be fine watching just for the hell of it but would definitely pass up blogging in favor of something better.
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From the writer and illustrator of DEATH NOTE comes their other prominent work together, Bakuman, a manga about aspiring manga artists. Except now, it’s an anime by J.C. Staff about 14 year-old Mashiro Moritaka (Abe Atsushi) a.k.a. “Saikou”, who has a talent for drawing but no drive to do anything with it. His uncle was a “mangaka” who once had his work serialized in Weekly Shounen Jump and adapted into an anime, but passed away from overworking himself after it was canceled due to unpopularity. One day, his prodigy classmate Takagi Akito (Hino Satoshi) stumbles on a sketch he made of the girl he likes, Azuki Miho (Hayami Saori), and asks him to create manga with him. At first Moritaka refuses given what happened to his uncle; however, he later decides to do so when he learns that Miho likes him in return and is aspiring to be a seiyuu, and she accepts his sudden marriage proposal on the condition that she’ll star in an anime based on his work one day. It’s a bit of an unusual premise as it can easily be perceived as a mangaka using their struggles in their profession as inspiration for their work (and score a hot girl at the same time), but the story does extend well beyond Moritaka and Akito’s time in middle and high school. In its two year run so far, the manga has already been published into nine volumes and over a hundred chapters in the very Weekly Shounen Jump magazine the characters start off aspiring to get their work into. Of that material, it remains to be seen how much of it will be adapted in the 25 episodes planned. I never got into the manga myself so I’m inclined to check out this adaptation to see what all the buzz is about. It still comes off a bit too shounen-like with the way it actively encourages youngsters to pursue their dreams in life and not let ambitions in love go wayward, but I did enjoy Yakitate!! Japan‘s similar mannerism when it came to bread. To a certain degree, the believability in Bakuman’s storyline is something it has going for it too. It definitely caters to a different audience than the more slice of life, seinen-oriented Genshiken, since the introduction of a 16 year-old rival in the business, Nizuma Eiji (Okamoto Nobuhiko), provides some early tension amidst all the various other mangaka and industry individuals the two come across. Still the prospect of an aspiring seiyuu played by Saori piques my interest as does another Abe/Nobuhiko rivalry, so I’ll be checking out at least a few episodes to see if I get hooked.
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The touching story about “Letter Bee” mail carriers who use fragments of their heart to battle insect-like creatures known as Gaichuu picks up where it left off after a six month break. While my coverage of the first season kind of trailed off near the end, I did cover the finale after seeing where the story of Lag Seeing (Sawashiro Miyuki) and his search for his childhood mentor Gauche Suede (Fukuyama Jun) was headed. In particular, the appearance of Gauche as a marauder named Noir raised a lot of questions about his disappearance, as did his female companion Roda (Horie Yui) who is now in the form of a beautiful young girl. As the title of this sequel suggests, what happened to them is likely the cause of the anti-government organization “Reverse”, which Lag and his adorable dingo Niche (Fujimura Ayumi) should be running into more often now that they’re searching for answers. Given how the first season concluded with Gauche and Roda attacking Lag and Niche before walking off, I’ll definitely be following this sequel to find out exactly what’s going on too. Judging from the teaser of this sequel shown, it looks like the story will also delve further into the subplots of the various other Bees — another aspect that I’m looking forward to seeing. For those new to this series, it can be somewhat slow and episodic at times, but the perpetual night world of Amberground and overarching story about Gauche always kept me interested. In addition to the surreal setting, a lot of the letter deliveries can be surprisingly moving as well, which contrasts nicely with the more lighthearted side of the story. With the recent developments surrounding Gauche and the establishment of Reverse organization as an antagonist, things have taken a more serious turn for the better. Watching this is a given for me since the story just started getting really good, but I’m hesitant to commit to covering it this time around because the pacing has been seen to vary a lot week to week. I’ve learned all too well that the laid-back feel can be a double-edged sword from a blogging standpoint, so it’ll depend on how I feel about the other new series airing on the same day.
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Just as the 50-episode adaptation of Yumeiro Patissiere is about to draw to a close, an announcement was made that middle schooler and aspiring patissiere Amano Ichigo’s (Yuuki Aoi) days on Sunday morning TV would continue on. At this point, there hasn’t been too much revealed on the sequel itself (not even promo art until 09/26 according to the official site), except that it will involve Ichigo’s time in high school as she works on honing her skills to become a great patissiere like her grandmother was. For those unfamiliar with the series, it’s a shoujo series at heart and focuses on the creation of cakes and other sweets once a professional patissiere named Henri Lucas (Kishio Daisuke) notices Ichigo’s palate for them and invites her to St. Marie Academy to nourish her latent talent. Upon transferring, she immediately meets the three elite students of her class known as the “Sweets Princes” — Kashino Makoto (Okamoto Nobukhiko), Hanabusa Satsuki (Yonaga Tsubasa), and Andou Sennosuke (Hamazoe Shinya) — and is placed into a group with them despite being a complete novice. However, she’s able to improve over time with the help of a small fairy named Vanilla (Taketatsu Ayana) by her side, who is a Sweets Spirit from the Sweets Kingdom and has decided to partner up with Ichigo in her own goal to become a patissiere. In a lot of ways, this series reminds me of Yakitate!! Japan, albeit with cakes and spirits minus the wacky outbursts to appeal more to younger female audience. Due to these stark stylistic approaches, it never caught my attention when it started airing nor sounded like something I’d watch even when it did. One of the big things it has going for it is the starring cast of Aoi, Ayana, and Nobuhiko, but there is never really a shortage of shows for me to watch to consider this one for the seiyuu alone.
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Now here’s something you rarely see — an original BONES series taking over the highly coveted 5pm Sunday time slot, directed and written by the two guys who brought us the Ouran High School Host Club anime. Miyano Mamoru and Sakamoto Maaya are back as well, with the former taking on the lead role as 15 year-old Tsunashi Takuto, a.k.a. “Galactic Pretty Boy.” Sarcastically coined a “high school robot anime”, the series is a venture into foreign territory for Igarashi Takuya, who recently directed SOUL EATER, yet refreshing at the same time because he’s not constrained by what a robot anime “should be”. He didn’t want typical looking robot designs, hence the inhuman-like proportions of the ones we have in STAR DRIVER. The story itself depicts Takuto washing up on the shore of Southern Cross Island, where he’s hoping to enjoy a dazzling high school life. However, the island holds an ancient secret involving robots known as “Cybody” that can be unsealed by shrine maidens and form a pact with an individual. Normally, these robots can only be used in an alternate cyber space known as “Zero Time”, but an organization called “Kiraboshi Juuji Dan” is intent on elevating these Cybodies to a phase where they can be used outside of that dimension. Many of its members are students at Takuto’s school, who take on alter egos along with masks in Zero Time. Accompanied by his classmates Shindou Sugata (Fukuyama Jun) and Wako Agemaki (Hayami Saori), Takuto attempts to thwart those plans when they kidnap Agemaki because she’s a shrine maiden. Quite frankly, the premise reminded me a lot of SUNRISE’s original series, Mai-HiME and Mai-Otome, as it takes place at a school where nobody is quite who they seem. The differences are the Contracts are now termed “Apprivoiser” (French for “to tame”), the Childs are known as Cybodies, and the Robes are replaced by masks and lavish outfits. Even transformation sequences are here when characters move into Zero Time, during which Takuto gets the magical girl treatment. From the sound of it, the series will be as much about the high school relationships aspect that Igarashi is familiar with as it is the robot aspect that he isn’t. Given that is a new take on mecha, reminds me of Mai-HiME, and is an original series produced by BONES, I’ll definitely be getting into this one. Covering original works is always fun too, since nobody knows what to expect.
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A detective series that is worth taking notice of this season is “Psychic Detective Yakumo”, which features a story about a university student named Saitou Yakumo (Ono Daisuke), who possesses a crimson red left eye that allows him to see the spirits of the dead. Based off an ongoing mystery novel, the series has already been adapted into a live-action drama, stage plays, and two manga — one of which is a retelling and currently in publication. My immediate impression upon learning that is how this should translate fairly easily into a good anime if the plot was deemed good enough for a drama. After reading the first few chapters of the current manga, I can say first-hand that this does have the making of a good supernatural thriller. The fact that I couldn’t stop reading it until I found out how the first case came to a close should say something about how captivating the story is. Part of it is due to the somewhat cold relationship Yakumo has with the heroine of the story, Ozawa Haruka (Fujimura Ayumi). Their paths cross when she comes to his movie research club seeking help with her friend who’s been mysteriously hospitalized following a visit to an abandoned building on campus. She starts off distrusting him after seeing him fake clairvoyance to scam money out of some other students, but starts believing he can truly see ghosts when he brings up the death of her twin sister at the age of seven, an incident that has haunted her for the past thirteen years. During their investigation, Haruka learns that her sister’s always by her side watching over her and overcomes her feelings of guilt with Yakumo’s help. From that point on, she makes herself his assistant of sorts and together they get wrapped into various mysterious cases around the school. In addition to these incidents, there’s Yakumo’s dark past that makes things even more intriguing, such as how his mother once tried to kill him because of his creepy eye and has since disappeared. Other notable characters are a police detective named Gotou Kazutoshi (Touchi Hiroki), his subordinate Ishii Yuutarou (Kawashima Tokuyoshi), and the police chief’s daughter/journalist Hijikata Makoto (Toyoguchi Megumi). Produced by BEE TRAIN, the art style is similar to their work in Phantom due to the same character designer and looks great in my books. It’s a bit of a shame this series is only getting a 13 episode run with eight volumes of the novel out, but I’ll definitely be around to enjoy every mysterious minute of it.
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It should be no secret that I’m a fan of AIC productions now, so you can probably imagine my excitement over another comedy series they’re going to be adapting. This time, it’s of the female otaku variety, where 17 year-old Kousaka Kyousuke (Nakamura Yuuichi) stumbles on the fact that his 14 year-old younger sister Kirino (Taketatsu Ayana) whom he’s never gotten along with is secretly into eroge. The mere thought of having Yuuichi play another comedic role alongside Ayana sold this series on me already, since images of Okazaki Tomoya from CLANNAD as the older brother of Azu-nyan from K-ON filled my mind almost immediately. After learning of the premise, it got even better since Kirino has a somewhat cold and tsundere-like personality, which makes it even harder for Kyousuke to imagine that she has a cute otaku side to her. Throw in a no nonsense policeman father (Tachiki Fumihiko) with a mother who’s aware of her son’s porn magazines (Watanabe Akeno) and we have the makings of a household were there should never be a dull day. One aspect I find particularly amusing is how Kyousuke and Kirino’s friends are divided between their normal ones and their secret underground otaku ones with various nicknames. Among those, there are hints of a romance side of the series from Kyousuke’s plain-looking classmate, Tamura Manami (Satou Satomi), which I would imagine becomes more of a running joke than anything else. The rest of the support cast is nothing to scoff at, with Nabatame Hitomi, Hanazawa Kana, Hayami Saori, and Tamura Yukari being some of the big names among it. Judging from the promo video, the animation looks pretty crisp as well — akin to AIC’s work in Nyan Koi — so that’s definitely another big plus this adaptation has going for it. AIC producing comedy is always a big win in my books, which is why “Oreimo” and Sora no Otoshimono Forte are two new shows I’ll definitely be on top of this season.
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Thanks to the early broadcast premiere, I probably won’t have to say too much more about Hobby Japan‘s 40th anniversary original novel and figure series here. The short version is that it takes place in a fictional feudal/modern world where Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate remained in power and rule of the country was never fully restored to the Emperor. As such, the descendants of various famous samurai and swordsmiths remain in positions of power, many of which are now voluptuous and attractive females. The story follows one Yagyuu Mineakira (Hirakawa Daisuke) upon his arrival at Buou Gakuen Juku military school, where he was invited to attend by the student council. There, he runs into Sanada Yukimura (Kugimiya Rie) and Gotou Matabee (Kobayashi Yuu), who turn out to be members of the anti-Tokugawa faction, the Toyotomi clan, and decides to side with them over the coercive public morals committee (i.e. Toyotomi hunters) led by Hattori Hanzou Yoshinari (Gotou Saori). Not too long after, a mysterious girl (Yuuki Aoi) appears out of nowhere and affectionately addresses him as her older brother, kisses him, and then suddenly becomes what appears to be a menacing reincarnation of Yagyuu Jubei Mitsuyoshi. Now despite the global scale of the premise, this series is actually intended to be a romantic high school comedy at heart. Based on the first episode, the fan-service hasn’t been terribly detracting from the unique art style with thick borders and ink-splatter on feudal-looking backdrops. The ink-splatter in particular actually provides a convenient stylistic touch for censoring things on, though AT-X will likely be providing the uncensored version eight days later. In a lot of ways, this series is reminiscent of Arms studio’s work on adapting Hobby Japan’s Queen’s Blade franchise, which I actually found a lot better than even I was expecting. With the support cast comprised of Koshimizu Ami, Toyosaki Aki, Kotobuki Minako, Mizuhara Kaoru, and Sakurai Takahiro voicing these attractive character designs, I’ll be following their latest adaptation to see how it balances the interesting premise with the fan-service. I’m somewhat inclined to cover it as well, just so that it doesn’t get as quickly judged as its predecessor. If I do, it will likely be the censored version because it airs first and leaves something to the imagination.
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After announcing that a second season had been green-lit at the end of the first one, SHAFT is back at it three months later with the gag comedy about the wealthy corporate heir, Ichinomiya Kou (Kamiya Hiroshi), who lives and dies by the family motto to never be indebted to anyone for anything. The motto is taken to extremes thanks to his father Seki (Koyama Rikiya) ingraining it into his mind ever since he was a child, hence his currently lifestyle under Arakawa Bridge with a beautiful homeless girl named Nino (Sakamoto Maaya) after she saved his life. Better known as Riku by Nino and the other oddballs living by the riverside, Kou was nearly chased out of his completely absurd lifestyle once his serious no-nonsense father caught wind of it. After some underhanded dealings by their resident kappa Village Chief (Fujiwara Keiji) and Seki meeting Nino, that scare has since subsided and Riku’s life under the bridge continues on — this time with more Bridge in the title. Among the bizarre residents, there’s the star mask-wearing Hoshi (Sugita Tomokazu) who’s always at odds with Riku over Nino, the ex-mercenary Sister (Koyasu Takehito) who takes nukes very seriously, the middle-aged Shiro (Ootsuka Houchuu) obsessed with walking on white lines, the yakuza boss-like orphan girl Stella (Saitou Chiwa), the iron helmet brothers Tetsurou (Shintani Ryouko) and Tetsuo (Sanpei Yuuko) deathly afraid of the institutions after their psychic powers, the beautiful but unbelievably sadistic farm girl Maria (Sawashiro Miyuki), the klutzy gardener girl P-ko (Omigawa Chiaki), and the katana-wielding barber Last Samurai (Nakamura Yuuichi). Joining the mix this season is the huge Amazoness (Kobayashi Yuu). At no point were any of those character descriptions intended to sound normal, as they’re exactly what drives the humor in this series. Riku is often the victim of what’s considered normal and almost always winds up as the odd one out since common sense is nonexistent. I covered the first season back in spring and will be following this sequel since SHAFT’s been pretty faithful to the hilarious material in the manga. Director Shinbou Akiyuki actually supplements the material well with his stylistic touches, just like he did in Maria Holic, and his addition of metaphoric scenes help bring out the subtle love story between Riku and Nino. My only hesitation on blogging this over-the-top comedy with an all-star cast is that it wasn’t nearly as fun to write about as it was to watch. It may have been because I didn’t poke fun at things enough, but it’s still up against some heavy competition on Sundays.
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A series that was lost in the shuffle of the 16 new shows I covered during the site’s relaunch was Hakuouki, an adaptation of an Otomate romance adventure game targeted towards female audiences. As per my coverage of the first episode, the story revolves around late shogunate period, a.k.a. Bakumatsu, and a girl named Yukimura Chizuru (Kuwashima Houko) who travels to Kyoto in search of her missing father. Upon arriving, she is attacked by blood-thirsty demons and saved by the local Shinsengumi, who take her into custody because they’re searching for her father as well. She later stumbles upon their dark secret — the use of her father’s experimental elixir “Ochimizu” and its severe side-effect of transforming them into the very blood-thirsty demons that attacked her. First off, the depiction of Shinsengumi as bishounen shouldn’t sway anyone from checking this series out. Admittedly, I regret dropping coverage of the first season since it uses one of my favorite approaches in fictional storytelling — one built on top of non-fiction, similar to Senkou no Night Raid with World War II. The most notable aspect is that all the characters have the real names of the Shinsengumi samurai who actually patrolled the streets of Japan. The historic events they encountered are remarkably faithful as well, including betrayals, various incidents of bloodshed, and even the exact circumstances (e.g. assassinations) and locations of their deaths. The fictional twist is that some of them overcome death by drinking Ochimizu and continue their struggle against the Choshu and Satsuma domains. As supporters of the political slogan, “Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians”, the Satsuma clan is also portrayed as having members of true-blooded demon descent, who are after Chizuru due to her ties with them. During that fictional aspect of the story, the true Boshin War rages on between the Tokugawa shogunate and the pro-Imperial forces. The first season left off with the Shinsengumi suffering severe losses alongside the shogunate in the Battle of Toba-Fushimi, an incident that would eventually lead to their demise. It took me a while to brush up on my Japanese history to truly appreciate this series, but I was totally captivated by the powerful and moving struggle of the Shinsengumi once I did. For anyone who likes samurai, history, or is simply looking for a good story-driven show, I highly recommend checking this out. Studio DEEN has done some surprisingly good production work on it, plus the male cast stars the likes of Miki Shinichirou, Toriumi Kousuke, Yoshino Hiroyuki, and Morikubo Shoutarou. Given how the original season ended, I’m eagerly looking forward to this sequel and may even blog it without having done the first one.
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An adaptation of Sphere’s 2008 adult romantic simulation game is making its way to AT-X care of feel, the same studio that produced the very risqué kiss x sis. Now before anyone hops off prematurely, feel also happens to be the studio that worked on Nagasarete Airantou and the various Da Capo adaptations, so there’s always the possibility that they’ll keep this “clean.” The story here starts off tragically with the loss of Kasugano Haruka (Shimono Hiro) and his twin sister Sora’s (Taguchi Hiroko) parents in a traffic accident, which results in the two leaving the city life and returning to their small hometown Okukosome where their late grandfather lived. There, they begin their new lives together and are reunited with some childhood friends Haruka once played with. The relationships between the characters are the appeal with this one, as the game had five different possible endings. With Haruka at the center, there are a lot of the usual character stereotypes, including a cheerful shrine maiden, a rich ojou-sama, a class president, a senior swim club member, a clumsy maid, and a corporate elite who gave it all up for the simple life. That’s in addition to Haruka’s illness-prone, hikikomori, younger sister. Judging by the promotional material, I really can’t tell if this series will turn out to be a fairly innocent high school romance or a fan-service-filled affair. Normally these adaptations fall into the former even though the game is rated ages 18+ and the original cast reprises their roles without their eroge aliases, but the PV slipped in an uncensored scene at the end on top of some incestuous “developments” between Haruka and Sora. In addition, AT-X is one of only two stations airing this series, which suggests that feel can and likely will use the freedom that entails. Personally, I’m hoping that it falls somewhere in between, because it sees the return of the Hiro/Hiroko seiyuu combination from the ef series and gives off a similar feel. I honestly wouldn’t mind if nudity is included in a tasteful and sensual way to reflect the original source material, but I don’t want it to be excessive and take away from the makings of a potentially good romantic drama. Either way, I definitely plan to find out for myself since I like what I’ve seen and read about. Even if things deteriorate to fairly ecchi levels, I intend to see this one all the way through.
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At some point, mangaka Hoshino Lily figured it would be interesting to have a cultural clash between the westernization of Japan during the Meiji Restoration and the youkai (spirits) of Japanese folklore. With most youkai-related series taking place in modern day and revolving around high school teenagers, she goes one step further by centering her story around middle-aged men in the military. That’s right, we don’t have any students here; we have soldiers! Following Japan’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar and movement away from the Lunar calendar, a faction of youkai begin causing various problems for humanity to express their opposition to the change. To deal with these problems in hopes of a peaceful coexistence with “youjin” (as they’re referred to), the Japanese Army establishes the “Youjinshou” ministry and assigns three second lieutenants to it — Agemaki Kei (Sakurai Takahiro), Yoshinokazura Riken (Hino Satoshi), and Hanakiri Ganryuu (Kaji Yuuki). In cooperation, four half-youjin with human forms are sent from spirits’ side and together they tackle the problems with the rogue youjin. The appeal of this series undoubtedly stems from the female half-youjin, the tomboy Zakuro (Nakahara Mai), her gentle childhood friend Susukihotaru (Hanazawa Kana), and twin sisters Bonbori (Toyosaki Aki) and Hoozuki (Horie Yui), who pair up with the lieutenants to form teams. Cast-wise, it has everything going for it and is a huge draw for me with Horie Yui among them, whereas having J.C. Staff in charge of the animation production is another plus. The only thing I’m wary about is how generic it all comes off despite the setting and era change, so I’m on the fence about following this one. The promotional videos did get me slightly more interested, as did hearing a bit of sphere’s new single “MOON SIGNAL” that will be featured as the opening theme, so I’m leaning towards checking out at least a couple of episodes.
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A comedy of the cuter and more lighthearted variety is coming our way this season in “Invasion! Squid Girl.” As wacky and unsubstantial as the title may sound, the premise here involves well… a squid girl. Known as “Ika Musume” in Japanese, she takes on the form of a human with a squid-shaped head and hair that doubles as tentacles, and makes her way to the surface for the very first time, intent on single-handedly conquering mankind for polluting the ocean. With absolutely no understanding of the surface world and believing she’s only up against a thousand humans, Ika starts off by trying to take over the beach hut “Lemon” and making it her base, only to wind up being forced to work there by a high school girl named Aizawa Eiko (Fujimura Ayumi) for breaking a wall while demonstrating her powers. Thus begins her days of endless first experiences and working like a slave, as Eiko, her older sister Chizuru (Tanaka Rie), and their younger brother Takeru acknowledge her existence as a squid girl but don’t take her invasion threats seriously at all. Ika’s naivety and animosity towards humans drives a lot of the humor, as do her interactions with the aforementioned Aizawa siblings, the lifeguard Arashiyama Gorou (Nakamura Yuuichi), Eiko’s friend Nagatsuki Sanae (Itou Kanae), and a member of the American extraterrestrial countermeasure research division, Cyndi (Nabatame Hitomi). With Kanemoto Hisako starring as Ika in only her second leading role since Sora no Woto and doing comedy alongside Fujimura Ayumi and Tanaka Rie, I pretty much decided I’d be following this one when I saw some promo images. After reading the first volume of the manga, my positive impression of the series only improved more. A lot of the time the laughs come from the tsukkomi that Eiko provides in response to Ika’s stupid remarks, but at others it’s a lot more slapstick, such as Ika vomiting squid ink and Chizuru using it to serve squid ink spaghetti to their customers. In addition, there are various character nuances that lead to some pretty funny incidents, which includes Chizuru’s lightning fast hands and fighting ability, and Sanae’s love for Ika that reaches lesbian-type levels. I actually laughed a lot more than I thought I would at all the cute interactions, plus I could picture the seiyuu playing the characters in the various roles already, so my anticipation for this series has gone up a fair degree.
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Following the recent completion of the manga, the story about a high school boy who inadvertently gets engaged to a beautiful alien girl is getting another anime adaptation. Titled “More Trouble”, this sequel is slated to run a noticeably shorter 12 episodes and is likely going to animate the ending of the series. I haven’t seen confirmation on if this is indeed the case, but the timing would seem to suggest as much. Author Hasemi Saki and artist Yabuki Kentarou have a spin-off To LOVE-Ru manga series scheduled to start its run alongside this sequel, so there’s always the side-by-side promotional aspect as well. The cast from the original 26-episode series is back at it again, with Watanabe Akeno as our high school protagonist, Yuuki Rito, Tomatsu Haruka as the aforementioned alien, Lala Satalin Deviluke, Yahagi Sayuri as Rito’s real love interest, Sairenji Haruna, and Fukuen Misato as the blond-haired assassin, Konjiki no Yami. The one difference is that Toyosaki Aki will be taking over for Arai Satomi in the role of Peke, Lala’s clothing robot. This is undeniably a harem series first and foremost that succumbs to fan-service side of things more often than not, but does have a diverse range of characters to encompass the main love triangle between Rito, Lala, and Haruna. The first season left off with Rito trying to prove himself as a befitting husband to Lala’s father Gid, the almighty ruler of the universe who came to Earth threatening to destroy it. The story itself got somewhat sidetracked in the middle and concluded pretty open-endedly, leaving a lot to be desired when the epilogue rolled around. Still, it’s not a terrible series as far as harems go and had some pretty decent laughs amidst the large cast of characters played by notable seiyuu, plus marked one of Haruka’s major starring roles. For those reasons, I covered the original season when I started blogging in hopes of showcasing what it did have to offer. I’m not too keen on covering this sequel because it fell short of my expectations of a harem anime, but will definitely be watching it since followed the first one. It never hurts to have Haruka in a starring role either.
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In what comes off as an attempt to encourage hikikomori to break out of their lives of solitude and start interacting with real girls, the manga series about a hardcore gal game player who gets forced to do so is heading our way in an adaptation by Manglobe. Also known as “The World God Only Knows”, the story centers around high school student Katsuragi Keima (Shimono Hiro), who prefers the girls in games due to their refined behavior in various scenarios and wants absolutely nothing to do with the highly unpredictable real ones. As a result, he’s becomes known as the “Otoshigami” (lit. Falling God) among gamers for making ten thousand girls fall for him in over five thousand different titles. That in turn mistakenly attracts the attention of the denizens of hell, who are looking for help capturing runaway evil souls that hide in the emptiness of people’s hearts. Confident as the “God of Players” when it comes to 2D girls, Keima unknowingly accepts a contract with hell where he has to make real girls fall for him, filling their hearts with love and forcing the evil souls out so that they can be recaptured. Tasked to help him is a demon girl named Elsie (Itou Kanae), who will be beheaded along with him if the contract is breached. My immediate impression of the manga was that this series is a depiction of a geek’s dream come true, because Keima suddenly goes from being an arrogant yet ridiculed otaku to the ultimate player when he applies his understanding of game scenarios to win one girl after another. Keima still rubs me the wrong way with how he’s spiteful to girls and society in general like they’re the problem, but the series actually gets pretty funny when he’s forced to interact with them against his will and gets abused in the process. The unique take is that he’s surprisingly good at making girls fall for him with the help of Elsie and her cloth garment that can transform substances into other shapes and forms to set up the game-type situations he calls for. He even tackles each girl like she’s a 2D one and tries to take into account certain levels of unpredictability as well, until he can confidently declare that he “sees the ending.” In terms of production, it’s a bit unusual to see the studio behind Ergo Proxy, Samurai Champloo, and Sarai-ya Goyou take on a romantic comedy, but promising because they don’t lead productions very often but produce good work when they do. I’m pretty much set on watching this, though I’ll have to see how I feel about covering it.
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The collectible card game company Bushiroad that’s best known for its anime crossover one, Weiβ Schwarz, is having their original creation of cute female detectives adapted into an anime. At first glance, this is the type of show that makes one wonder what prompted an adaptation. On second glance, it still looks that way, so what caught my attention the most is that J.C. Staff is on board for the production. The title of the series actually comes from the male protagonist of the series, Kobayashi Opera, who’s in charge of the Milky Holmes detective team. In addition to the characters’ names parodying detectives from famous stories, the unique spin is that the girls possess “Toys”, which grant them unique special abilities that aids them in their investigations of bizarre cases. As a series that seems to emphasize the cuteness factor, those bizarre cases probably won’t match up to the ones seen in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro though. If the prospect of an almost magical girl-like detective series piques yours interest, then Milky Holmes is here to deliver in that regard. It’s directed by Moriwaki Makoto, who was in charge of a handful of Doraemon movies back in the day, and the promo video makes it look more like a legitimate series than the title had me thinking at first, but it’s still not something I plan on following. Had they not retained the relatively young and unknown cast from the PlayStation Portable game, they probably could have twisted my arm a bit by casting a bunch of my favorite female seiyuu, though realistically, that’s still a stretch given all the other choices I have this season.
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The Boys’ Love branch of visual novel game maker nitro+, Nitro+CHiRAL, is getting their 2005, ages 18+, PC eroge adapted into an anime this season. The story takes place in a post Third World War world, where Japan was left in a catastrophic state and in the process of rebuildng. However, a lot of internal unrest cause the country to split into two politically and a crime organization known as Vischio to take over the capital of Tokyo. In their home turf now known as Toshima, main protagonist Akira (Toriumi Kousuke) agrees to participate in a life and death battle game known as “Igura” in order to get acquitted of charges to a crime he doesn’t recall committing. In this twisted game, participants wear dog tags and the goal is to kill others for theirs and earn the right to challenge the leader of the Vischio to a duel. Guns aren’t allowed but other weapons are, and there are executioners out to maintain order with an iron fist. Along the way he encounters his childhood friend Keisuke (Sugita Tomokazu), a young boy named Rin (Fukuyama Jun), and a man touted to be the strongest in Igura, Shiki (Midorikawa Hikaru), as he tries to make sense of how he got into this game. In short, it’s the “good looking guys killing one another” demographic that this series targets, which supposedly slips in some hints of BL over the course of the story. From a bloody action-oriented perspective, it looks like this could become a dark horse of the season. As per the PlayStation 2 variation, the adult elements have been toned down to make the series acceptable to more audiences, suggesting that the dark and mysterious plot will become more prominent. As I haven’t played any of the games and the cast is almost completely devoid of female characters, I’ll have to test the waters to see if that’s indeed the case.
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In a series revolving around the Maruko shopping district of Ota, Tokyo, we find our high school protagonist Arashiyama Hotori (Omigawa Chiaki) working at a maid cafe that can barely be considered one. The shop’s manager, Isohata Uki (Sakurai Takahiro), recently converted it to a maid cafe on a complete whim after hearing that they seem to be popular nowadays. With no understanding of what a maid cafe entails, the change is far from successful in re-sparking the business, and Hotori is no help whatsoever with her rude and air-headed ways. However, Hotori’s childhood friend Sanada Hiroyuki (Irino Miyu) is one of the cafe’s few regular customers since he secretly likes her. Things get hilariously out of hand when Hotori’s classmate and honors student Tatsuno Toshiko (Yuuki Aoi) decides to work at Seaside because she happens to like Hiroyuki. This is a slice of life type of comedy series where a lot of the humor comes the daily interactions at cafe and the shopping district, plus Hotori’s homeroom math teacher Moriaki Natsuhiko (Sugita Tomokazu), whom she drives absolutely up the wall with her stupidity and love for detective novels. With SHAFT spearheading the production, this premise and setting reminds me a lot of Natsu no Arashi, from which a fair number of the seiyuu also starred in. I found the first volume of the manga a lot funnier than I thought it would be, so I’m looking forward to seeing Hotori’s stupidity realized through Chiaki, as well as Toshiko through Aoi in her quest to get Seaside on the right track and win over Hiroyuki. For whatever reason, Takahiro of Suzaku CODE GEASS fame was cast to play the old manager, but should prove to be quite a riot since she (he?) is always freaking out about how poorly Hotori treats their customers. Unsurprisingly, Shinbou Akiyuki serves as the director in this SHAFT adaptation, so it’ll be interesting to see how heavily his stylistic touches come into play. In addition to the gag-like laughs, the music produced by ROUND TABLE and opening theme performed by Sakamoto Maaya has my interest piqued enough to follow this one.
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The more convoluted and exposition-filled variety of “To Aru” is getting a second season and continues on with the story where science and magic clash. Set in the technologically advanced Academy City, the Level 0 esper Kamijou Touma (Abe Atsushi) reclaims his spot as the main protagonist, alongside Index (Iguchi Yuka) and the 103,000 forbidden magical books stored in her brain. After taking center stage in her own spin-off series, Misaka Mikoto (Satou Rina) goes back to more of a support role, allowing Touma and his almighty magic and psychic power canceling Imagine Breaker right-hand to take over. From the look of things, this sequel will have a lot of new faces introduced for the first time, but also sees the return of some key ones from the first season. For the familiar faces, this includes the Level 5 esper Accelerator (Okamoto Nobuhiko), the Misaka clone 20001 “Last Order” (Hidaka Rina), and members of Necessarius, Stiyl Magnus (Taniyama Kishou) and Kanzaki Kaori (Itou Shizuka). Things last left off with the conclusion of the arc involving Hyouka, so the stage is clear to dive right into any new arc right away. Where exactly the story will pick up from I don’t know, but I’m willing to bet it’ll have a lot of technobabble, long explanations, and most of all, endless preaching from Touma every step of the way. Despite what they may have some believe, this series actually has a lot going for it story-wise. On the production side, I’ve Sound will be doing the music again with an opening theme by Kawada Mami, while the ending one will be sung by Kurosaki Maon, who’s coming off her debut HIGHSCHOOL OF THE DEAD ending theme album. As expected of J.C. Staff in their bigger budget projects, the animation doesn’t disappoint, making this sequel a shoo-in for me to watch. I’m admittedly on the fence about covering it due to all the exposition it entails, but you can safely consider this a show I’ll be blogging unless I find someone else willing to do so on my behalf.
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When it comes to adaptations of adult visual novels, game developer August‘s Fortune Arterial doesn’t stray too far from the typical high school setting. The slightly different spin is that it takes place in the prestigious Western-styled Christian school, Shuuchikan Gakuin, located on Tamatsu Island where there’s a famous sakura tree-filled mountain and a millennium old spring. The story follows fifth-year (i.e. grade eleven) Hasekura Kouhei (Ono Daisuke), who’s grown tired of constantly changing schools due to his father’s job and decides to transfer to Shuuchikan for some stable dormatory life. It was everything that he was hoping it would be, except things start bustling right away when he meets a frail-looking junior, a mysterious classmate, a dorm leader lacking common sense, a worrisome and unreliable childhood friend, and an energetic and athletic student council vice-president, the last of which turns out to be a vampire. The vampire aspect itself doesn’t appear to be much more than a unique spin on one of the five main girls, so the focus as far as the game was concerned is to end up with one of them. Exactly which direction ZEXCS and feel plan to take the anime is anyone’s guess at the moment, but the appeal is evidently in the diverse range of female personalities. Back are the voices from the game to give life to those personalities, of which Nabatame Hitomi is the only really notable one outside of the eroge line of work. As such, there isn’t much of a cast to draw me into this one, nor much immediate appeal from the premise itself. Normally, I tend to favor clean romance/drama adaptations that stem from adult visual novels due to the interesting characters and decent plots they tend to have, but things feel a bit lacking in those areas in this case. To put it bluntly, it comes off a bit too generic even by my standards and doesn’t really have anything grabbing my interest after looking into it, so I can’t see myself getting into this one. Still, I plan to check out the first few episodes to hear the opening theme that Lia will be performing and to see if there’s anything that will capture my interest then.
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With Shiki continuing on this season, there is only one noitaminA time slot being freed up this time around. Taking the place of the Moyashimon drama is “Jellyfish Princess”, which has a bit of a unique art style but catches my attention because it’s produced by Brain’s Base — the studio that brought us Baccano and Durarara. In addition, the director of those two series, Oomori Takahiro, is also on board. Given the noitaminA programming block’s focus on diversifying anime demographics, I would have checked out this adaptation of an award-winning shoujo manga regardless though. The premise has already piqued my interest, since it involves female degenerates of society who live together in an all-women apartment building called Amamizukan. There, we find our jellyfish-loving protagonist Kurashita Tsukimi (Hanazawa Kana), amongst various other funjoshi and NEETs, who consider fashionable women their natural enemy and like to call themselves “Amars” — a play on the Japanese word for “nun” because they won’t be getting any time in bed. However, one day Tsukimi comes across a beautiful woman named Koibuchi Kuranosuke (Saiga Mitsuki) who saves a jellyfish, only to find out that she’s actually a full-fledged guy who’s cross-dressing to avoid succeeding his father’s occupation. As a shoujo manga, it feels wrong that the most attractive character isn’t even a girl, but that in itself is what makes Kuragehime refreshingly different at first glance. Instead of a bunch of unattractive male otaku, we have female ones, which is another example of taking the typical romantic comedy and flipping things around. I can’t say that’s something I see every season, so that alone warrants checking this series out in my books. The quirky character designs don’t bother me the least bit.
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Technical Note: OVAs are sorted by the date they are released. For series that have multiple episodes coming out over the course of the season, please refer to the Notes column for additional dates. More information on each OVA can be found on their respective websites, including promotional videos in some cases. Movie premiere dates are not included as they don’t mean a whole lot to viewers outside of Japan. This is why the Gundam 00 movie isn’t included for those wondering. DVD/BD releases of movies are however.
| Release Date | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 09/22 | Tales of Symphonia THE ANIMATION Tethe’alla Chapter Ep. 3 テイルズ オブ シンフォニア THE ANIMATION テセアラ編 第3巻 http://ova-tos.com/ |
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| 09/22 | Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san. | よんでますよ、アザゼルさん。 http://shop.kodansha.jp/bc/yoyaku/comics/azazel_5/ |
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| 09/23 | To Heart 2 adnext Ep. 1 http://aquaplus.jp/th2adnext/ |
Total Episodes: 2 |
| 09/24 | Princess Lover! First Volume | プリンセスラバー！ 上巻 http://www.el-soft.jp/ |
Ages 18+ OVA. 10/29: Volume 2 of 2. |
| 09/29 | Shakugan no Shana S Ep. 4 | 灼眼のシャナS 第4話 http://www.shakugan.com/ |
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| 09/30 | BLACK LAGOON Roberta’s Blood Trail 002 http://www.blacklagoon.jp/ |
01/07: Episode 003. 03/02: Episode 004. |
| 09/30 | Fate/stay night Unlimited Blade Works http://www.fatestaynight.jp/ |
DVD/BD movie release. |
| 10/03 | Tamayura | たまゆら http://www.tamayura.info/ |
By the ARIA staff. Eps 1 & 2. 11/07: Episode 3. 12/05: Episode 4. |
| 10/06 | Ganbare! Kieru na!! Shikiso Usuko-san | がんばれ！消えるな！！色素薄子さん http://www.lantis.jp/special/shikisousuko/ |
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| 10/07 | Gekijouban Macross Frontier ~Itsuwari no Utahime~ 劇場版 マクロスF 虚空歌姫 ～イツワリノウタヒメ～ http://www.macrossf.com/movie/blu_ray.html |
DVD/BD movie release. |
| 10/07 | Nougyou Musume! Ep. 0 Special | 農業ムスメ！第0話スペシャル http://www.agri-girl.jp/ |
3 minute pilot. |
| 10/08 | Yozakura Quartet ~Hoshi no Umi~ | 夜桜四重奏 ～ホシノウミ～ http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/yozakura/ |
Bundled with manga vol. 9. |
| 10/10 | Queen’s Blade Utsukushiki Toushi-tachi Ep. 3 | クイーンズブレイド 美しき闘士たち 第3話 http://www.at-x.com/program_detail/index.html/2619/top |
11/14: Episode 4. 12/12: Episode 5. |
| 10/15 | Katanagatari Ep. 10 | 刀語 第10話 http://www.katanagatari.com/ |
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| 10/20 | Seikon no Qwaser: Jotei no Shouzou | 聖痕のクェイサー 女帝の肖像 http://www.qwaser.jp/ |
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| 10/22 | Mayo elle Otoko no Ko | 迷elleオトコノ娘 http://mayoelle.com/ |
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| 10/23 | Hidamari Sketch x Hoshi Mittsu Special, First Half | ひだまりスケッチ×☆☆☆ 特別編 前編 http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/hidamari/ |
10/30: Second Half. |
| 10/28 | D.C. I&II P.S.P. RE-ANIMATED | ダ・カーポ I&II RE-ANIMATED http://circus.nandemo.gr.jp/common/dc12-p/ |
Bundled with PSP game. |
| 10/29 | “Bungaku Shoujo” Memoir II: Sora Mau Tenshi no Requiem “文学少女”メモワールII ソラ舞う天使の鎮魂曲（レクイエム） http://www.bungakushoujo.jp/ |
DVD release. |
| 10/29 | To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA | とある科学の超電磁砲OVA http://www.project-railgun.net/ |
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| 10/30 | Gundam Unicorn Ep. 2 | 機動戦士ガンダムUC 第2話 http://www.gundam-unicorn.net/ |
|
| 11/17 | Air Gear Kuro no Hane to Nemuru no Mori -Break on the sky- エア・ギア 黒の羽と眠りの森 -Break on the sky- http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/airgear/ |
Bundled with manga vol. 30. Animates “Ikki vs. Ringo” from vol. 16. |
| 11/17 | Aki Sora ~Yume no Naka~, Second Half | あきそら ～夢の中～ 下巻 http://akisora.jp/ |
|
| 11/17 | Koe de Oshigoto! take.1 | こえでおしごと！take.1 http://koegoto.com/ |
|
| 11/17 | Mahou Sensei Negima! ~Mou Hitotsu no Sekai~ Extra 魔法先生ネギま！～もうひとつの世界～ Extra http://negima.kc.kodansha.co.jp/ |
Bundled with manga vol. 32. |
| 11/22 | kiss x sis OAD 4 | キスxシス 第4話 http://kc.kodansha.co.jp/kiss_sis/ |
|
| 11/25 | Megane na Kanajo | 眼鏡なカノジョ http://meganenakanojo.com/ |
Episode 1 of 4. |
| 11/26 | Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha The Movie 1st | 魔法少女リリカルなのは The Movie 1st http://www.nanoha.com/ |
DVD/BD movie release. |
| 12/03 | kurenai OVA Ep. 2 | 紅 OVA 第2話 http://jumpsq.shueisha.co.jp/contents/kurenai-dvd/ |
Bundled with manga vol. 6. |
| 12/18 | Suzumiya Haruhi no Shoushitsu | 涼宮ハルヒの消失 http://haruhi.tv/fanclub/syoshitsu.html |
DVD/BD movie release. |
| 12/22 | Angel Beats! OVA | エンジェルビーツ！ OVA http://www.angelbeats.jp/ |
Extra episode incl. with DVD/BD vol 7. |
| 12/25 | Mobile Suit Gundam 00 -A wakening of the Trailblazer- 機動戦士ガンダム00 -A wakening of the Trailblazer- http://www.gundam00.net/ |
DVD/BD movie release. |
| Fall 2010 | Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu Ep. 2 | 今日、恋をはじめます 第2弾 http://www.sho-comi.com/sakuhin/kyokoi.html |
Bundled with manga vol. 10. |
| Fall 2010 | Mirai Nikki | 未来日記 http://www.kadokawa.co.jp/shop/sp/shop_sp_137.html |
Bundled with manga vol. 11. |
While there are fifteen shows I’m guaranteed to watch and three I’m most likely going to, I’m only completely committing to blogging two at the moment — Sora no Otoshimono Forte and Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai, a.k.a. Oreimo. I have a very good idea of the others I’ll probably be covering, but don’t want to get people’s hopes up in case that changes. The only series I’m currently following that looks like it will be carrying over to fall is Amagami SS on Thursdays, giving me a lot of freedom to pick up a good amount of new shows. Due to real life priority changes in recent months, I’m still aiming to reduce my blogging load even further to perhaps 7-9 shows, while adhering to the two shows per day limit I’ve imposed on myself. Ultimately, the decision comes down to when a series is airing respective to another one, so shows on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays have a good chance of being covered since they have little to no competition. Sundays and Fridays are bustling on the other hand, even more so than Thursdays which are generally the busiest day.
As for the new shows themselves, STAR DRIVER looks like it’ll be a series to watch this season due to the original story and the people involved. Shinrei Tantei Yakumo is another good one for those who like mysteries and supernatural incidents in a fairly darker setting. In terms of lighthearted comedies the aforementioned SoraOto and Oreimo are my personal picks, but I’m really inclined to cover Shinryaku! Ika Musume as well because I loved what I read in the manga. SHAFT is also providing two good comedies in Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru and their continuation of Arakawa Under the Bridge. Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai can probably be considered a good romantic comedy, and has ten volumes of manga out to back that up. As for a more dramatic and potentially fan-service variety of romance, Yosuga no Sora appears to be it. Having the studio behind kiss x sis will undoubtedly help in that regard, plus the fact that it only really airs on AT-X.
On the other end of the spectrum, a really hot shounen show that rivals the popularity of Naruto, Bleach, and One Piece is Bakuman, whose weekly manga in Shounen Jump has been running just as long as theirs. For mecha fans, you can’t really go wrong with Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector regardless of whether you had the same childhood attachment to it that I do. While it’s a given that To Aru Majutsu no Index II is a big title this season, the long-awaited Madhouse x Marvel Entertainment collaboration on Iron Man is a bit of a toss-up with the switchover to CG animation. In comparison, I’m actually looking forward to some of the sequels of series, namely Tegami Bachi REVERSE and Hakuouki Hekketsuroku. The latter had a pretty paltry following at best, but I strongly feel that it deserves much more attention than it’s gotten. Finally, I have my eye on Kuragehime because you can never go wrong with Brain’s Base and the noitaminA time slot. It’s hard to say how good it’ll turn out, but it’s original enough to catch my attention.
Anyway, I hope the above was an informative resource on the upcoming season, given the hundred or so hours I invested into this post over the past three weeks. I plan on posting a blogging schedule closer to the start of the season when I finalize things with the other writers. I’m also thinking about having another poll again, where readers can let us know what they’re looking forward to the most. The pre-season hype is always interesting to reflect back upon at the end of the season and gives me a good idea of people would like to see covered.
Notes:
– Crunchyroll will be simulcasting FORTUNE ARTERIAL Akai Yakusoku, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Otome Youkai Zakuro, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt, Sora no Otoshimono Forte, Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector, Tegami Bachi REVERSE, and Yumeiro Patissiere SP Professional.
– Nico Nico Douga will be streaming Hakuouki Hekketsuroku, Otome Youkai Zakuro, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai, STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto, Tantei Opera milky holmes, To Aru Majutsu no Index II, and Togainu no Chi. Every episode is available for free the first week, after which it changes into a paid service.
– FUNimation holds the North American rights to To Aru no Majutsu no Index, so there’s a chance they’ll be simulcasting season two.
Looks like a pretty good season for romantic comedies that are more on the comedy side.
Index 2 & Arakawa 2 woohoo!
most looking forward to togainu!!
The most anticipated preview this fall, even more so than the anime it lists, is here.
I must say, you really outdid yourself with this one. I need to give it a better look but overall, this has got to be the most impressive season preview I’ve seen yet. Seriously, all that hard work really is showing.
will be busy again this season will be watching
FORTUNE ARTERIAL Akai Yakusoku – m reading the manga
To Aru Majutsu no Index II – ToumaxMikoto nuff said
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai – anyone who plays galgames should watch this
Motto To LOVE-Ru – i missed this series and the manga more
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls – this has potential
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai – i blame this on Kodomo jikan for bringing me to the dark side but Kirino is just too cute!
Sora no Otoshimono f (Forte) – m just finishing up the first season just time for this one
my sister cant this be cute O_O
Huzah! New Season! :]
yay thanks Divine for the… most comprehensive anime preview post EVER! seriously…
well, looks like wouldn’t be watching a lot (Oreimo only I guess), but maybe for Sphere and Aqua Timez I would watch more. see lor, until the shows arrive…
I’m interested in see what animes get simulcasting besides the ones that we already know.
Intermittently failed to connect to the site even with the shoutbox disabled.
Anyway, Sora and Arakawa should be good. Sora’s showdown between the Uranus queen and Astraea should be good, though poor Nymph is totally outclassed by the 2 combat juggernauts
Hmmm it seems that the this years anime titles have not really been that great imo, this could be close to one of the worst years yet, the anime industry seems to running out of ideas.
Only ones looking forward to are sequels index (which isn’t the best) but i personally enjoyed it and Letter Bee (despite fact i haven’t finished first season).
And oh of course Pokemon lol :P, ill never forget those nostalgic days of watching the first Pokemon series. I am proud and grateful to say that I lived (and was at a perfect age at the time) through a golden period called Pokemon, those wasted days playing blue, silver and crystal and trading cards I do not regret one bit.
T_T been w8ting for long.. T_T good job. i really cried
This is awesome…Thanks for the hardwork you’ve put into this Divine! Really appreciated it!
There is actually a good deal of potential good shows to watch this season, wish i could say the same for last but, I’ll probably be watching a good deal of the ones you mentioned above.
Sora no Otoshimono f (Forte) – Comon flying pantsu nuff said.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt – I have a feeling this will be epic-ly funny.
MM! – Seen Kanokon and Ladie Battle so this is the next evolutionary step.
My sister is a Closet Otaku – The premise is nice and its AIC and AIC never has failed me.
Samurai Girls – Never liked Ikkitousen or those types of shows, but this can change it.
Yosuga no Sora – Really want to find the secret they are keeping to themselves. Wincest?!
To Love Ru – Because the first animated adaption was shit beyond garbage, needed a reboot.
The World God only Knows – Jun Fuk doing lelouche impressions while playing eroge = WIN
Index II – It’s about time, Railgun didn’t really do justice for me.
All these will be hits, I FORESEEN IT.
I should point out that Shimono Hiro stars in Kaminomi, not Fukuyama Jun.
ah sadness, It would be 10 times better if he did that roll though, from the manga his demeanor would seem like it.
Oh crap, I want to watch so many. Q_Q
SCREW UNIVERSITY STUDIES D::::
0MG! i’m going to watch every show that has AYANA TAKETATSU in it! XDD she’s taken a level of popularity since this ending season’s k-on!! XD surely on my watchlist: 0reimo, ika musume,kuragehime, OtoYouZaku(just bec. of sphere’s involvement) =3 ironman piques my interest,too. K-ON’s STILL MY LOVE though.BTW,divine, i sorta realized that we’re a tad similar in taste when it comes to anime..XDD i’m glad you’re gonna blog most of those that i like!
Omigawd, yay finally here 😀 Probably will watch everything minus a few, but oh man Fall is so much work coz it’s the biggest and haven’t had time to research and stuff. Oh, well holdiays next week so I can properly look at everything and find out casts of everything to make lists
Oh, right, I also love the usage of tables Divine 😀 Fantastic addition!
Hmm, let’s see:
*Iron Man- I enjoyed reading Marvel comics (thanks to my brothers). I better see despite I heard that some people didn’t quite like it because of the animation.
*Shinrei Tantei Yakumo- the story looks promising. I better see this.
*Otome Youkai Zakuro- just for the sake that Takahiro Sakurai is in it
*Togainu no Chi- I planned to play the game (Yes, I know that it’s a BL game and I happened to be a yaoi fangirl) and I’ve read the manga. I really going to check this out. I’ve read that the director is still keeping the BL elements in it.
eh? what happened to the shoutbox?!! it’s gone obviously..XP
Check at the announcements.
Not too impressed with the season but its’ writeup is very well done. Thanks a lot was an interesting read.
All the work you must have done for this is seriously showing.
And I didn’t expect to want to watch more than double than I had originally predicted.
So I’m looking forward to seeing what you’ll eventually blog. ~
More often than naught, I find it enjoyable to watch what you cover.
It makes things far more interesting in the long run.
Thanks Divine, looking forward to this fall season. I seem to have missed scouting some of the previews, Otome Youkai Zakuro took my by surprise it looked more drama romantic like than comedy.
Index 2, Otoshimono 2 and Arakawa 2 are the ones I’m guaranteed to watch. I’ll be looking into what else is out there, but I don’t wanna commit myself too much since I’ve still got a huge backlog of stuff.
I can’t wait for watch The World God only Knows, great manga so I hope the anime will be as great as the manga.
Arakawa2 is also on my list, liked the first season.
Imouto seems interesting too, like the fact that Nakamura also appear here (Tomoya Okazaki, Greed, Gray Fullbuster).
Iron Man is also on my list but not so interested in it.
Really waiting for october to come
wat does 26:30 mean? 0330?
It’s explained in the technical note. 26:30 means 2:30am in the early morning of the next day.
The reasoning for this is that people are expected to still be up the day before to watch it and not wake up at midnight to do so. In terms of scheduling, it’s considered the previous day’s show.
There are soooo many good animes this year! Loved the first season of Sora no Otoshimono (who didn’t? lol) so definitely watching the second season. MM!, Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai, and Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai seem pretty interesting. As for FORTUNE ARTERIAL and Milky Dectectives…we’ll see. I’m not really a fan of action and drama animes but I’ll give Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls and Yosunga no Sora a shot.
this is gunna be one hot season of anime c(:
Hey Divine where’s the Fall Preview? 😛
Show Spoiler ▼
Woot!
Add “Pokemon: Best wishes” to RandomC please please please!!!
Great preview, Divine! It’s so great!
Togainu no Chi is at the top of my list this season!
I’m also going to be checking out:
Arakawa 2
Best Wishes!
My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute
Star Driver
Yosuga no Sora
Shinryaku! Ika Musume
Kuragehime
You’ve done great work here Divine. Graphically it looks much better, and the effort you’ve put in is much appreciated. It definitely helps me get a grasp on each show.
Definitely checking out:
Sora no Otoshimono f
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector
Bakuman
Tegami Bachi REVERSE
Hakuouki Hekketsuroku
Star Driver
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
Motto To LOVE-Ru
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
Index II
… I feel as though my list will expand in the next couple of days.
Or hours for that matter.
What better way to waste a class lecture than decide my viewing schedule?
This should definitely be an interesting month for anime.
index + soraoto + arakawa + super robot wars = epic season ^^
It’s finally here! I know you said how the fall preview is worth the wait and man I gotta say, you did not disappoint. I like how you listed the upcoming OVAs by their release dates (it makes marking my calendar a lot easier ^^) and the overall impressions was also a nice touch. Thanks.
Definitely watching:
KamiNomi, Index II and Bakuman
Willing to try:
Yakumo (I need a good mystery and Shiki was not what I hoped)
Ore no Imouto (comedy is a plus and the quality looks amazing)
Star Driver (though the mecha is a bit disturbing and the transformation is uh..)
Here’s to an awesome Fall season.
Nice fall preview Divine, it sure is worth the wait. Index II, Oreimo & Sora: Forte will be the hit in this season for me =D.
Bakuman .
No love for Super Robot Wars? The moment I saw Weisritter and Alt Eisen kicking ass with Steel Beowulf playing in the background I knew I HAD to see this show. I’m just glad SRW is finally getting the quality production it deserves unlike that horrible OVA and the mediocre Divine Wars. It’s also nice to actually have a show with giant robots again after a couple of anime seasons without them. This show better not disappoint.
P.S. I love the new format of the preview, looks very orderly.
I must say that this season is probably the first in a long long time that I feel like I have more than 5 shows I might follow on a regular basis.Hell,I even feel like watching some Ironman now lol.Great lineup.
It’s in! 😀 Great work as always putting this together. This is a good reason for me to spread the page to all my friends, it attracts new readers.
Yay I’m so happy. I am so over the comedy romance ecchi scene.
There is mecha finally, I felt so empty for the last year or so and I don’t even remember what the last anime shown was categorised mecha either. Was it Asura Cryin or Code Geass? And some darker anime popping up as well. Atleast there will be something else to help fill in the time with Kuroshitsuji 2 finishing last week and only Shiki still around.
Another Yay for Tegami Bachi. Been waiting for that to continue!!!
So my list of wants are:
Super Robert
Tegami Bachi
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Otome Youkai Zakuro
Togainu no Chi
Yaiks! Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls & Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai.
Thank you so much for this detailed post. It was so great to be able to look at all the summaries and watch the previews all at one place. It looks like it will be a fairly good season-Im looking forward to at least 5 of the shows not to mention some good ones will be continuing from last season.
Probably not going to watch anything… I will try watching Index 2 (Index 1 was harrrd to watch) and the Railgun OVA. The Mirai Nikki OVA is also interesting.
But from the normal series that air this season only Index II, Bakuman and The World Only God Knows are interesting.
Meh season ;_;
Cant wait for Bakuman and the little sister one. Been following those 2 mangas’ for a while now lol
Couldn’t you PLEASE stop misspelling “Toaru” as “To Aru”? While the name can be read as “To Aru Majutsu no Index”, the official name (and the name that actually makes sense) is “Toaru Majutsu no Index”
I almost don’t even want to take this comment seriously, because it’s the romaji of Japanese you’re being anal about. Are you going to get on my case for writing “Mai-HiME” instead of “My-HiME” too? Besides, 「ある」 alone is 「或る」 and also means “a certain.” In the case of 「或る時」, I wouldn’t have a problem writing it as “aru toki” over “arutoki.” If you happen to a Japanese scholar though, please do enlighten me.
Serve his a$$ Divine lol. What a D-Bag. If your so anal about spelling what the hell does Uppfinnarn spell and sorry if I misspelled anything,NOT!!!
–and the whole room goes OOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH–
never expected Ali al sarshes voice Tony Stark Hell Yeah Ironman All the way…
Of course I will add Sora otoshimono Forte (Finally Super perverted teenager is back)
Arakawa under the bridge (I wanna see stella beat Kou again ^_^)
Bakuman (I will try this one but i never read Bakuman manga)
Motto To love ru (Lol… Rito and his harems)
HOOOOlY SHIT Divine your name comes from Divine Spirit??!! How come I never thought about it, I knew you were a SRW fan but I didn’t know you were that much fan.I’m also playing this since childhood, most of it on emulation though, first one I tried was SRW4 on snes, at that time I only knew about Grendizer, Mazinger, Getter and Gundam, all other robots were new for me.At that time I haven’t watched yet the original gundam, only gundam W so I only knew Amuro and Char by name, without really knowing their story.It was also the first time I heard many anime songs, one I’m still listening to frequently and you added to your random songs of the moment is The Winner.It’s also at that time that I fell in love with the Cybuster, It’s still my favorite robot ever.
I’ll watch the Inspectors for sure too, I’m watching the pv again and again everyday, I’m just waiting for Daizengar&Auseinseiter introduction where REAL MEN RIDE EACH OTHER for the first time in history.
And you forgot about the Mazinkaiser OVA in the list!! How could youuuuu.It’s gonna be fuckin awesome too ,Go check the PV.
Sorry for the paragraph about my life.
/Mecha fanboy mode off
Hmmm back to the preview
Show Spoiler ▼
If you read the entirety of my wall of text, you can guess that I’m a bit head over heels for Sakamoto Maaya,if there’s a show she’s in that I haven’t noticed please tell me.
Last but not least: Took my almost an hour to read your preview and type this Divine but it’s worth it.Big thanks and keep up the good work bro!!!
The “Spirit” part was a translation of the spell that grants three times damage, 「魂」 (Tamashii). “Divine” I picked up from Divine Crusaders, even though they happen to be the bad guys. My first SRW game was SRW3, but SRW4 was simply amazing when it came out. I played that game to death, 4-5 times through. Cybuster was also one of my favorite guys to use.
As for the Mazinkaiser OVA, it’s being screened at Anime Fes. “VS” on November 27th. The actual release won’t be until January 28th of next year, hence why it’s not included. I decided against including special event screenings for the same reason as movie premieres.
I understand clearly your name now thanks.Didn’t know about the screening and the actual release date about Mazinkaiser,thanks again.
Eww, I was a bit tired yesterday,to clarify things, I forgot to say that I thought Divine Spirit was a spirit command I didn’t know of.
Hmm, needs moar praise up in here.
Incredible job, read it all, grew a beard by the end.
Stole my joke though lol.
Credit goes to Kiiragi for giving me the idea for the Vegeta “it’s over 9000” joke.
It’s a lame joke anyways :T
Does anyone know if Deadman Wonderland is coming out this Fall? I heard it was supposed to..
MAL did have it down for this season however more recently updated it to 2011. I’m sure I read somewhere its planned for April. I was looking forward to watching it too.
Yosuga no Sora PV seems to give the feel that the adaptation won’t be fan-service orientated. The music is a huge hint, and the premise is set to be heavy and dramatic. Being the romance fan that I am, I can’t help but scrutinise the lack of serious romance-drama genres recently. The only decent one is True Tears which aired a while back. Akaneiro ni Somaru Saka was just horrible. So i’m expecting this one to be one of the better ones.
Woo, nice job as always dude. o: Yay Oreimo~
i wonder if that manga kurohime will ever have an anime adaption does anyone know?
nothing to my taste except Bakuman and Arakawa.
Thanks for the amazing preview. Too many shows, too little time.
I’ll likely be following oreimo, kami nomi, index, and sora. I really need to DL less.
The preview is incredible. Thank you very much for your hard work, Divine!
The ones I’m looking forward to are:
Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge
Bakuman
Hakuouki Hekketsuroku
Iron Man
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
Tegami Bachi Reverse
Yosuga no Sora
And here I was maintaining the naive hope that moe was a dying breed. *sigh*
I’ve been following the OreImo novel for nearly a year now and it just gets better and better.
At first glance this may sound like Nogizaka Haruka, but OreImo is just so much more believable. Chances of your sister being a closet otaku is just way higher than that ridiculously rich ojou-sama classmate of yours.
And most surprising of all, the main characters behave like normal siblings – they bicker amongst themselves but still back each other up, rather than get into erotic incestuous relationships (a role Ayana is no stranger to in kiss x sis).
Will be looking forward to Nakamura Yuuichi back in his Tomoya voice, while Ayana will play the closet-otaku sister. Will also be looking forward to Hanazawa Kana playing the foul-mouthed goth-loli Kuroneko. It’s not often you’ll hear Hanazawa spouting venom.
This lineup looks impressive. I am very disappointed that all the shows I am interested in have a “Good” to “Decent” chance of being blogged.
Hopefully, now that there are more bloggers.. the other shows will get some love too.
I like fan-service as much as the next person, but that seems to be the main focus on this site. It kind of wares me out. >.>
((PS. I am not trying to criticize Divine in any way, just sharing my thoughts. I have always loved this site, and think Divine’s work has always been impressive. It is not his fault he blogs about shows I (mostly) do not care about. It is all a matter of personal interest.))
My list for Fall:
Will watch:
Hakuouki Hekketsuroku
Togainu no Chi
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
Going to try:
MM!
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Yosuga no Sora
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
FORTUNE ARTERIAL Akai Yakusoku
Not going to watch:
Everything else!
I’ll be following Fortune Arterial, just for the reason that August Soft girls (drawn by their main artist Pekkan-kou) are just unbelievably cute, especially when they’re in “action” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
I am particularly mesmerized by its main heroine, the vampire girl Sendo Erika, who is the subject of many figures, posters and other memorabilia. (I don’t normally own anime figures, but got compelled to empty my wallet just to acquire a Erika dollfie just because of Erika. So yeah, I’m an August otaku, sue me. :p )
It’s a massive pity that August’s other famous work Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na was not as well known as it should have been thanks to the infamous “Cabbage of Doom” – now a by-word amongst otaku for poorly done animation.
http://bangin.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/%E3%83%A4%E3%82%B7%E3%82%AC%E3%83%8B%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8B%E3%83%A1yashigani-anime/
Hopefully Fortune Arterial will not suffer the same fate.
Apart from OreImo and Fortune Arterial, that leaves Index 2, which is a no-brainer, as I’ve seen the first series + Railgun.
That’s about it, as my schedule is quite busy. If I have time, I might check out Bakuman and even Iron Man.
Good work Divine. For some reason the site was down for me 🙁 grrr but now I’m in.
I’m a bit weary about Tegami, last season was good but that stretch at the end hurt the series a bit.
NINO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! eng’h said
Index will watch till the end even if Touma gets the wrong girl 😛
As previous seasons will watch episodes 1 and 2 of all shows and will drop accordingly, if necessary. But this season for sure will drop my watch ratio and my comments too … if I can hold it LoL
OMG! Thank you Divine for your huge efforts in writing up this preview! ^^
Good way to wrap up the year!
Looks like I need to watch first season of Sora no Otoshimono… Continue Railgun and maybe first season of To LOVE-Ru. Wow that’s a lot of episodes D:
Nevertheless, thanks for the Fall 2010 Preview. 😀
It’d be nice if in the “description boxes” you could write “sequel” or “new series” so that reader can see a quick reference.
Otherwise Thank You for the awesome preview! I look forward to it every season and I am a regular reader who come to Random Curiosity EVERY DAY.
my picks:
Hakuouki Hekketsuroku
History is my major, and this series has picked my curiosity. If there are any subs available, I’m in!
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
I like detective stories, and adding a bit of superntural fits me well. Plus I like BEETRAIN, as much as many fans bemoan them, since their girls with guns trilogy. (Maybe because I love girls with guns?)
Otome Youkai Zakuro
Military is another of my interests, and crossover with Yyukai world makes e expect some over the top fights. Anything goes from seals and swords to guns and grenades?
To Aru Majutsu no Index II
I loved both To aru… series, and I’m happy to see the (un)fortunate level zero psyker in action, and of course all his friends and acquaintances.
Rest of the season will be filled with continuations from summer one.
Aw, you didn’t mention Sugita Tomokazu in “MM!”! I know lots of people who will watch anything if he’s in it. (l-like me..)
Nice. BTW it’s “The World God Only Knows” not “The World Only God Knows”.
Thank you so much for this thorough preview of the fall season XD
The ones I’m looking forward to the most are Arakawa, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo and Tegami Bachi Reverse.
Wow, nice work.
I’ll be watching :
Sora no otoshimono S2
Letter Bee S2 (OH YEAHHH *____*)
INDEX SAISON 2 <3<3<3<3<3
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt
MM!
Bakuman
Star Driver
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Na
Machin samurai girls
Arakawa S2
Yosugo no Sora
Shinryaku! Ika Musume
To love ru S2
Togainu no Chi
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
Well it seems I wont be needing my social life this fall! I’ll probably be watching like 5-6 of these XD
Thanks for the amazing preview! ^-^
Going to watch:
Ironman.
Might Watch:
PSychic Detective – Well, the concept is interesting, but the trailer and its mainstream/commercial approach puts me off. Let’s just hope that it won’t be as bad and won’t suck as much as occult accademy did…
Yeh….thats pretty much it. Disappointing season, full of moeblob school life comedies :/
w0w the meter already reach 61M.
goingto watch
sora no otoshimono(the mysteries of Tomoki),
TWGOK(do you need to ask),
MM(just curious),
To aru Index 2(to continue from season 1 since i cant read japaneses novels)
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls (the first anime that was i seen in this season and got curios)
Star Driver
Bakuman
going to limit it for now.
i wonder when IS(infinity stratos) will come out ? can someone tell me
Thank you Divine!!!
My list:
New Fall Season Anime:
–Toaru Majutsu no Index II
–Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto
–Panty & Stocking w/ Garterbelt
–Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii wake ga nai
–Bakuman
–Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
–Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
–Togainu no Chi
–Yosuga no Sora
–Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
–Super Robot Taisen: The Inspector
–Sinryaku! Ika Musume!
–Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Girls
–Fortune Arterial: Akai Yakusoku
–Iron Man
–Motto To-LOVE-Ru
–Sora no Otoshimo: Forte
–MM!
Summer Season carry overs:
–Shiki
–Amagami SS
–Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
–Nurarihyon no Mago
OVAs and Movies:
–Fate/stay night: Unlimited Blade Works
–Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn (Episode 2)
–Break Blade 3: Kyoujin no Ato (if movie is released on DVD/BD in November)
–Black Lagoon: Roberta’s Blood Trail (Episode 2-4)
–Shakugan no Shana S (Episode 4)
–Toaru Kagaku no Railgun
–Princess Lover
Awesome job Divine, we seem to have similar tastes as usual:P.
Would the Super Robot Wars series make sense if we’ve never played, watched or heard of Super Robot Wars before i.e. is it a sequel series (like Code Geass R1 and R2) or just a second series under the same topic (like gundams or the multiple digimon series)?
You can just pick it up, it’s not a sequel and has it’s own unique story. Having played the games would probably offer nostalgic value and better understanding of the characters but aside from that it doesn’t mean much.
Oh, awesome! thanks for the reply
Ahh fall 2010 looks really good! I’m gonna check out…
-Sora no Otoshimono S2 [Astraea is going to be so funny]
-MM! [mostly because of Ayana Taketatsu.]
-Star Driver [those uniforms remind me a bit of Rosario to Vampire…]
-Ore no Imouto [chapters of the light novel were good + Ayana Taketatsu again!]
-Samurai Girls [Eh, girls with katanas is always cool with me.]
-Shinryaku! Ika Musume [Needed something light hearted & Kanata from Sora no Woto is a plus]
-To love Ru S2 [Gotta have my closure, manga and 1st season was EHH]
-The World God only Knows [Curious to see why the manga is so popular]
-Soredemo Machi [Hope it wont be TOO Shaft-y]
-Index S2 [Accelerator and Touma ass kicking + the Railgun girls. Hope the technobabble doesn’t get TOO confusing]
Was kinda hoping Nyan Koi S2 would be in the fall line up but AIC already has Sora and OreImo to play with. Doubt i’ll watch all of these at once. I might stall half after a couple episodes and watch the rest later.
Out with the old season, and in with the new!
Thanks for the fall preview divine. ^_^ It’s great as always.
I’ll definutely be watching Togainu no Chi, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Tegami Bachi Reverse and Hakuouki Hekketsuroku. Probably check out Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto and Otome Youkai Zakuro to.
It sucks that Akiko Yajima and Sanae Kobayashi aren’t in anything this season since they’re two of my favourite Seiyuu’s but at least Takahiro Sakurai, Hikaru Midorikawa and Takehito Koyasu are in some stuff.
Hell yes Bakuman and Star Driver.
Siiiick. Love ya as always Divine! 😉 Geez though, I’m interested in way too many shows this season… must cut back… must cut back…
Thanks for the detailed preview, Divine. Very well done and informative.
Been waiting for Oreimo ever since it was announced. Here’s hoping it’s only the first of two seasons. Also, Kirino’s mom doesn’t know about her hobby, unless they changed it in the anime. There’s no way they could tell her since everyone in the neighborhood would hear about it within a day.
From the eroge adaptations, both Yosuga no Sora and FA have great storylines and placed high on the yearly rankings. Whether or not that transfers over in the adaptation is another matter though.
Odd, I actually picked up that tidbit from Japanese wiki but the entry’s been changed. Thanks for the correction.
Iron Men, would have better Changes. If they “bend” it a little more Nippon.. Iron Mask, Face Armor = Big Bad Samurai Mask.. and so on… Likes they are trying the “Crowbar” Way again, and will fail
Bigger Shoulder parts, and a Cape.. Yes.. That should be enough “Nippon” 🙂
Oh i forgotten the Katana Baldes, inside his Arm Armors…
Oh man so many shows. I’ll be watching Index 2 and Arakawa 2 for sure.
There’s so much to read. I’m a little distracted at the moment so this may take me a while. Looking forward to it though!
So much goodness incoming!!!
Alright so the Fall season seems to have TOO much shows I want to check out (or will def be checking out) but what caught my eye more than all that (even including Gundam Unicorn) was the OVA for Air Gear. I’ve been dying to see a 2nd season and though not exactly the form of which I was thinking I’d see it again, it’s still exciting.
With this OVA, is it safe to assume a 2nd season might be in the works?
Who’s blogging Index II, Divine or Suzuku? Also, Divine, please don’t push yourself too hard.
Anyways, the entire first season of Index was exposition, but the second season won’t have that much, and the plot will flow much smoother. Admittedly, I don’t like Touma or Misaka that much, SO MORE ANIMATED ACCELERATOR FTW!
Guaranteed Watch List:
TO ARU MAJUTSU NO INDEX II HELL YEAH!
Bakuman
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge (the PV is AWESOME!! YEAH HOSHI GUITAR SOLO!)
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai
Kuragehime
Will try out:
Yosuga no Sora
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru
Oh sorry for the double post but one thought.
Panty and Stocking. You said in your description that the main “heroines” are the Pansuto Sisters. I don’t think Pansuto is short for Panty House. I think its a combination of Pantsu and Sutokkinngu. Thus Pan-Suto.
At least that’s what I believe.
I’m pretty sure pantyhose in Japanese is = Stocking.
It can mean both actually, but you’re right in this case about it being a wasei-eigo of “panty stocking.”
My must-watches are Index II(opinions vary, but I consider Touma to be the best protagonist ever. I can’t get enough of that guy. I even love his preaching because it’s not just bland idealism. It’s generally more talky because it’s pretty faithful to the novels) and TWGOK(Keima actually DOES slowly grow out of being a jerk as he interacts with the girls, or at least he becomes a better person on the inside. At this point he actively considers how to make them happy rather than how to capture them and get it over with.).
Oh, and OG2 getting animated has brought me all kinds of joy.
Omg, i cant wait. This fall season looks promising.
The season I’ve been waiting for !!!
Space, I need more space, 1 TB should do … ^^
So many anime releases for one season. O_O
D= I’m not sure if trying to follow multiple animes as they come out is the best idea for me. I’m behind on most of the shows I started through Summer Season.
At least, sequels are omitted unless I’ve seen the previous seasons. But still… wahhh.
24 hours in a day just isnt enough~!
I’ll only be watching:
– Yosuga no Sora
– Motto To LOVE-Ru
– Togainu no Chi
Most of the anime looks like crap, and even To-Love-Ru doesn’t look exciting, since the first series sucked. I’m only looking forward to Togainu no Chi since it looks interesting, though the Shounen Ai makes me a bit awry. The other two I’m just watching because there’s nothing else that looks even remotely interesting. This fall lineup is absolutely pathetic “-_-
What about TWOGK! Cant miss that. And index too, maybe.
I don’t like Harem’s and Index didn’t look bad, but I never really got into the first series 😐
its not really a harem though..
Weird I found out about Fortune Arterial manga before yesterday and read it, and today I find out its getting an anime. Its pretty cool but its something typical to expect of an anime/manga based on a game.
Meh, not a very good season for me -_-
Ill probably watch Star Driver, Super Robot Wars, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Iron Man, and Index -_-…
Oh, but I do want to note how much I appreciate all the time you put into this. Even though I don’t find most of the anime particularly exciting, I know how much work you must have put into this. Thanks ^__^
Holy Moly! To love ru, Sora no Otoshimono, Arakawa under the bridge x bridge? Cant wait anymore… shhesssh
Must watch:
Sora no Otoshimono f (Forte) Don’t need to explain
Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector All I can say is hopefully RYU-FUU WON, I still
remember my time against the inspector on SRW 4
took like more than 6 hr for each map in the last
few battles.
MM! | えむえむっ！ have the manga and is hilarious
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai Have manga is kind of cute
Yosuga no Sora | ヨスガノソラ Seen the manga, story is interesting
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai | Have manga, watch for hell of it
To Aru Majutsu no Index II No need for explain
To Heart 2 adnext
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun OVA
Gundam Unicorn Ep. 2
kiss x sis OAD 4
Aki Sora ~Yume no Naka~, Second Half
Might watch:
Bakuman not a big fan of death note but might check the first few episodes
STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto Manga is interesting but I still laugh at ” Galactic Pretty Boy ”
Shinrei Tantei Yakumo Enjoy drama hopefully is up to the standard of Ghost Hunt.
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls Ikkitousen Japanese version
Otome Youkai Zakuro check out first few episode for hell of it
Shinryaku! Ika Musume Look interesting
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru Might check it out
FORTUNE ARTERIAL Akai Yakusoku Surprisely I have the manga still don’t find it all that
interesting, but goner try a few episodes to see.
If I have time to kill I might try but overall not that interested:
Motto To LOVE-Ru for a harem anime, Love Ru are just a bit weak in term of
storyline, all it is are random fan service.
Tantei Opera milky holmes Not a big fan of Weiβ Schwarz
As for the rest I couldn’t care less.
Wow that’s one heck of a promising lineup this time. I’m looking forward to a lot of the shows, the past few seasons have been a bit lacking. Yosuga no Sora has my eye though. I managed to catch the incomplete translation of the VN before the project was axed. So far what I’ve seen was pretty promising. It seems like a straight up romance and slice of life VN as opposed to a fan service filled mess. There is some serious twin x twin incest potential though. However, it’s not done in cheaply in a LOL HAVE SOME INCEST manner that many other sibling related VN’s/animes do.
thank the gods! the site is back. i kept on trying to do an access but it always failed.i just slept it off.now i’m awake, i’m happy it’s back! have you figured out the problem? xDD TNX FOR THE PREVIEW! ANYWAY! CX
Yeah them Gainax fans must be fanatics… I mean it’s not like they have a steady track record of putting out quality animation or anything *sarcasm*. Meanwhile, half of stuff you guaranteed is generic moe/loli stuff.
Keyword there is “half.”
You make it sound like I wouldn’t watch shows like Evangelion if they’re available. Just because I’ll watch the more cliche shows doesn’t mean they’re the only things I’ll watch. I don’t get why people immediately jump to that conclusion. Besides, that type of outlook makes for a horrible blogger in my opinion.
But you’re doing the ame thing
Yeah man, you tell them! We should all watch classy stuff like Senkou no Night Raid. You watched that one right?!?
Save your breath it’s a well know fact that Divine indulges in generic crap, mwhy to you think he has Motto TLR as guaranteed, try not to take his posts or this blog seriously
If you don’t like what Divine blogs, THEN LEAVE!!! >:(
That good the information of the series
Definitively seran a success thank you very much for placing the information
Regards from santiago of chile
so many extreme fail shows its not funny we should find the writers and make a little holokaust called stupid people who have to die for the sake of anime that doesnt suck
going to be a busy fall season for me.. :3
Very pleased to hear the news about nico-nico. It’s nice to be able to support the creators without having to wait a week -__-
so many anime to watch ! plus now i have part time job plus busy school. damn, i hope i have some time, plus i have to finish gintama first. damn, i’m going to be busy. divine : i hope u dont take all the anime to blog or u will be exhaust. hope the 2 new members can help u out.
best regard.
first off thank you divine for this kickass preview of things to come keep up the great work desu PS. ummmm sorry if i kind of rushed u in making the fall preview
Anybody know anything about Yozakura Quartet ~Hoshi no Umi~? It’s supposed to be a reboot of the series that follows the manga, but I rather doubt that would be something they could be fit into an OVA.
It’s an adaptation of Rin’s arc, “Hoshi no Umi” arc from volume 6. Based on the trailer, the first OVA will be covering the standalone chapters and the start of the arc. Also, unlike recent manga-only OVA where the character designs look much more faithful to the source, this is the reverse where the TV series is actually more faithful and less bubbly…
When I saw the Pokemon one I was laughing really hard because I did not expect you to put that up there but that does make me happy because a lot of people won’t consider Pokemon an anime. For me anyway, it’s a Guaranteed to watch because even now at 21 years old, I still love and adore the series.
Anyway, this season has some pretty good stuff. Yosuga no Sora… haha, people are going for the twincest? Oreimo is pretty fun to so looking forward to that and many other stuff this season. I’m really surprised that Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai has an anime. One thing I’m worried about it though is the feel of “new girl of the week” although later on it goes back to some of them so hopefully they do a good job with that. FORTUNE ARTERIAL & Tegami Bachi REVERSE? Heck yeah!
He added that and Battle Spirits because of all the bitching he got last season for not putting in Digimon, which I found a bit odd as I didn’t think there were too many diehard fans of Saturday kid’s shows like Digimon and Pokemon that frequented the online anime community, but there you go.
As for Best Wishes itself, I’m a bit surprised they finally dumped Takeshi (Brock). He’s been with Ash ever since he came back from the Orange Islands in Johto. If only they’d bring back Kasumi (Misty), maybe I’d watch it. T.T
Digimon Xros is actually kicking ass right now in my book(its looks good if your a fan of Digimon). It was my anime show that I prefered over Pokemon instead. Although I did play the pokemon game (blue) when I was young it didn’t lured me into the pokemon craze though (perhaps maybe because I was not in japan).
BW is supposed to be a fresh start, so I find it nice how he’s traveling with two gym leaders like in the original series.
And what are they thinking for YumePati…
if you do want a Pokemon Best Wishes blog, go a head and check out http://pokenav.net/blogs.php?tag=Anime Not as good as randomc but I get my pokemon fix weekly.
I am looking forward to Panty and Stocking. Gurren Lagaan was probably the best anime I’ve ever watched. I know this is a completely new story but I’m sure Gainex will pull it off. I’m kind of disappointed in the Mecha anime, I’ve been looking forward to a good one since 00 ended.
Thanks again for all the hard work Divine! Like many, the season preview is what initially drew me to RC 2 years ago, and you just keep upping the quality and presentation of it.
I’m excited for the greater coverage (and diminished load on your part) as the new writers find their place on the site and Kiiragi,Prooof,and yourself continue to keep up the great work!
I’ll probably follow the first few episodes of the majority of shows listed aside from the kid oriented ones, so I’ll be counting on the RC community again this season in deciding what I’ll be sticking with!
Okay, Divine, I wasn’t able to get to any other page than the main one ALL DAY. And I’ve been having sporadic problems like that all week. Is there a problem with the webhost?
I’d like to think so, though they’re telling me I have too much traffic for my current setup. I’m not entirely convinced that’s the problem since things have been running smoothly for months, but have dished out more money to increase the memory as a precautionary thing.
At least a blogger like you replies on time. :3
Ugh too many shows to watch.
The preview for Index2 shows scenes from novels 7-13 (the first season was novels 1-6 of course).
Just looked through the ova’s, Yozakura Quartet and Koe de Oshigoto put a smile on my face.
And just as i thought there’s a big hype to Index II from the previous blog…I just found out that it’s not even guaranteed from blogging in RC. :((
I’m blogging it.
I’ll be following you closely, Suzuku. Expect mucho babbling! 😛
oh really!…that’s good then :)) i’ll looking forward to your post then new one! 😀
well there is a lot of good stuff here some good potential ill just have to see id say its too close to call-i am interested in the super robot wars one as i hope it will prompt bandai to sell the first series cheaper
Well, I’ll be watching MM!, Bakuman, Hakuouki Hekketsuroku, Star Driver, Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, Togainu no Chi, To Aru Majutsu no Index II and probably Oreimo and Otome Youkai Zakuro. As for OVAs I’ll definitely be watching ToS 3, Fate/Stay Night, Gundam Unicorn, Air Gear, Mirai Nikki, Haruhi and Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu.
Oh my. X.X when putting as a list that really is a lot. OTL
Good work on the preview. It’s so lovely~ <3
I’ll probably end up watching the shows you marked as Decent or higher (although I have quite a backlog of episodes from the summer season) with the exception of Supre Robot Taisen OG. I wasn’t too thrilled with most of the Summer season, but Fall looks really promising to me.
I’m really looking forward to the sequels to some anime that I liked quite a bit: Index II (and the Railgun OVA), Tegami Bachi, Hakuouki II, Arakawa II, and Sora no Otoshimono: Forte. Samurai Girls looked meh to me…. but I was really impressed by watching the pre-release, So I will definitely watch it.
I am a huge fan of the TWGOK manga, have been reading it for quite a while now. However I’m a bit worried that this will end up fairly bad when made into an anime (like Omamori Himari, sigh) but the fact that Manglobe is doing it gives me hope.
To imitate my adorable Hitoha-chan:
“OH…MY…GOD!!!”
This is going to be an awesome fall! We’re definitely PUMPED UP here about watching most of the shows! Anime and RC equals win! Action, romance, mystery, moe and utter cuteness? HELL YEAH!
I’m definitely gonna check out Star Driver, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru , and Kuragehime. Looks like a promising season.
Awesome preview!
I’ll be testing the waters with:
Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls
Ironman
MM
Star Driver
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
I’ll be going for a swim with:
Bakuman
Super Robot Taisen OG
Yozakura Quartet “Hoshi no Umi”
The World Only God Knows
To aru Majutsu no Index II (favorite show!)
Kinda sad Deadman Wonderland got pushed back to next year. :[
Great work on the preview. I look forward to the RC commentary every preseason and this is an awesome reference. Keep it up.
I’m glad Battle Spirits was given some mention. It just sad that no group will pick it up ;_;
This is really nice Divine, thanks for your hard work!
I’m definitely gonna check out Bakuman, Star Driver, Arakawa Bridge x Bridge, and Oreimo.
I’ll think about Shinrei Tantei Yakumo, Yosuga no Sora, Otome Youkai Zakuro, Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai, and Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru.
No Index because I’ve never seen season 1 🙁
So Many Sequels!! albeit good ones: SnO, Index II, toLove-ru ftw. maybe KamiNomi and most likely Oreimo and Hyakka Ryouran. Panty and Stocking looks…meh
– To Aru Majutsu no Index II (Nobunaga Asakura’s wish just got granted, LOL. Makes me wonder if he followed To Aru Kagaku no Railgun as well…)
– Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector (Trombe override!)
– Iron Man (For the heck of it… MADHOUSE ANIMATED THIS IN A CAVE! *beat* WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!)
Good thing they’re all on the same day. I might also check out Motto To-LOVE-Ru for the occasional ecchi fix. 😀
This season really really needed Deadman Wonderland, an action show that is mature in content. As usual it’s mostly a collection of light hearted stuff. It really needs a couple action shows. Not really anything that makes me really excited, maybe Bakuman, but that’s about it. It’s not that I need all action, but just something that seems like it has a brain.
Um, Index, Togainu, Star Driver, and Robot Taisen all fit into that category.
In your opinion maybe, but not in my mine.
Then what is your definition of an “action” show, because the several I listed are definitely action and not the least bit lighthearted, besides perhaps Star Driver with the flamboyant antics.
I read half a dozen fall previews by now, but RC’s one seems the best imo. Instead of copypasta summaries, Divine took the time to customize each one. Thanks for all your hard work.
Here’s a suggestion for the next preview. I’m not sure how big of a role the new bloggers will play on RC now but maybe let them have a few words in the previews? More opinions are always better.
I’m not a fan of this idea because I find too many voices in a single post hard to follow and remember who said what about which series. It just doesn’t flow very well, so I’d like to keep the previews focused on a single point of view from the person who did all the first-hand research.
I did tell the other writers that they’re welcome to post their thoughts in their own post based on what they know or got out of my preview, but no one really wants to do so given the time required.
Damn, this is the first season in a good while that I want to checkout more than half of the shows! I can’t really explain why, but they really tick the right spot for me. Might be quite troublesome now that I FINALLY just manage to get myself out of the ‘jobless recent-grad’ status…
(That is except Bakuman though. Despite what anyone say, the manga never has gotten me interested and some casual sexist elements annoy me a little.)
I’ve made my pre-list for this season.
@Divine
I’ll recommend three animes you won’t regret blogging and wasting time with this fall.
Kami nomi zo Shiru Sekai (The World God Only Knows) – this is only ongoing manga turned anime this fall along with the sequels I’m going to watch. I’ll skip Bakuman anime until its manga end.
Kuragehime – Interesting anime that I would definitely watch, more Konatas. Brainbase never falters. At least the guy that crossdress reminds me of two main protagonist from each different animes with both of them have the heart of the guy.
STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto – the only mecha series I would watch this fall. Bones is a huge plus.
Anime season aside, how’s the preview itself? 🙂
I like the OVA section and the tables! They make things so neat! I found it pretty amusing that your Preview was so friggin’ long that you had to add “Top” links in each show’s section. lol Not to mention it looks insanely clean compared to every other setup I’ve seen. Metanorn’s is absolute CRAAP compared to this.
I hate how they have it across multiple pages. Ugh.. it’s just a hassle and annoying to navigate. Scrolling a mile down doesn’t bother me in the least (especially when the writing feels so easy to read and take in) but did you purposely choose to keep everything in a one-page format or is that like.. tradition that you haven’t really thought much about? D: I love it and all and don’t want you to change your format.. I’m just curious, is all. :}
I honestly think that the new format is the best compared with the previous previews. I like the little box with all the relevant info and external links and like Shirt said, it just makes the whole thing look very organized and clear. On another note, I should mention that while I though the whole thing was well written as usual, I especially liked the Super Robot Wars OG: The Inspector entry ^_^ It struck me as the one you put the most care and thought in for some reason.
Also, Top button was a very nice touch, like the cherry on top if you will.
The single page format has always been around. It would actually be more troublesome to make it span multiple pages. I added the navigation links when I started doing the season previews just because mine were so much longer than Omni’s. Each entry can be considered a mini-post on its own, so when there are 27 like there are here, I figured the ability to jump around would make it easier to look stuff up.
The information box was the most notable change from previous previews. I wanted each entry to look like a card of sorts, with all the relevant information at the top, hence that change. Plus it makes the start of each entry much clearer in my opinion. As for the SRW entry, I have a long history with the franchise so it was pretty easy to write passionately about it. 🙂
I agree that multiple pages would be worse.
I find the schedule to be pretty neat and very convenient for me, now that i wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of finding out when each anime airs. And like many other readers, i find each entries to be very comprehensive and your thoughts on every show to be very handy as well. It really allows me to have an idea of the shows to look forward to.
My first impression of the information box was that it looks pretty cool, amusingly though, unlike many others, i personally find the old format without the tables to look better. Perhaps i’m too used to it i guess, or maybe i just have a weird tastes. Anyway i’m pretty sure that i’m the only one who thinks that way.
Anyway excellent work on the preview Divine. Will be looking forward to more posts of such quality in the future 😀
It seems the preview is a little too detailed for my taste in some series XD. I mean, you spoil some of the manga first volume end content in the Yakumo section. I agree with how you however with how you leave story synopsis on the sequel series since most people who follows those would have watched the first season.
About the OVA section, how about you give a little preview to the OVA too? It will give the reader an idea what to hunt in the OVA/movie section since some of the OVA/movie could actually qualify if its made into a TV series. If you think the OVA/movie preview gonna make the post too long, you could separate those in different post altogether. Sorry about the long comment and if it sound so preachy. It’s just an opinion of mine XD.
I try not to give away the actual details of how things happens, but feel there’s value in looking ahead a bit and providing a much better idea of what a series is about. In Yakumo’s case, I wanted to give a better sense of the supernatural aspect and emphasize how the story revolves around the two main characters when they team up.
In general, my goal is highlight the appeal of each of the series, which isn’t very apparent if I skimmed over the premise like most synposises out there. If someone takes a look at the user-submitted ones on ANN or MAL and a quick glance at the promo art (if any), I gather they wouldn’t know what to expect and wouldn’t be terribly interested.
For the purpose of a season preview, I look ahead two-three episodes ahead (figuratively speaking) so that people who aren’t sure about a series don’t have to themselves.
You have a point there. I personally didn’t mind being spoiled, so this style of preview suit me a lot since I don’t have that many time to follow anime anymore and can only follow select few which I think is the best, and this kind of preview further narrow the choice I have to make before watching the first several episode of a series, but I have seen a lot of people complain a lot about being spoiled about little things that doesn’t even have that many story impact. That’s why I made that comment earlier ^^.
I agree it’s a double-edged sword. However, my belief is that people seeking out a season preview want to know more about a series before diving into it (more so than they could find out at encyclopedia-type sites anyway). In addition to having all the information compiled in one place, the main goal of the preview is to help people informatively sift through what’s coming up.
I prefer this format with the table, one thing I like is that you always say who is the seiyuu of which character in a show, I’m a fan of various seiyuus but I’m pretty bad at remembering their names so the links are always a big plus for my memory.
I was originally against the idea of writing out all the character names, but realized it was a better way of introducing the seiyuu than saying, “This series stars…” every entry like a broken record. You probably noticed I switched to MAL for the links as well, simply because they have much better seiyuu pics than ANN.
Well, while i was readin it i could notice your change form a more personal style in your previews to a more concise and informative review. To be honest i thought since you’d be more punctual and descriptive, you’d loss some of your insight and reviews would lack of freshness in your previews. I think i was wrong beacause you’ve balanced it very good!!!!
Sorry abaout grammar mistakes. i’m kind of sick so i’m typing very fast.
I love the preview! Like lots of people, I like how everything is organized in boxes, and I LOVE how you’ve switched to MAL instead of ANN. MAL is just such an intuitive data base, and ANN is really a news site, so I think it works much better. And I like how you have links to lots of other websites as well. I also like the OVA/Movies section, but maybe next time you could add some pictures and MAL links. I wouldn’t write anything for them, but just to show some of the art and such. 🙂
The only problem with MAL is that its database isn’t very mature compared to ANN. This includes production staff and additional support characters down to the episodes they appear in. ANN is lacking as well, but still has more user information submitted simply because it’s been around longer.
As for the OVA/Movie list, I’ll keep that in mind for next time. I might include a thumbnail size image for each one. I’m just wary of how it’ll make the table even longer than it already is.
Definitely a lot of potentially good shows this fall. It wont be a boring 2010 ^^
Amazing Preview, enjoyed reading mostly, quick and easy links. It’s really Clean.
Good Job Divine
Bakuman and Mirai Nikki.
Fuck yeah.
TOS is good too.
–SO didn’t get first–
Divine. Your preview… *deep husky voice* ITWUZEPIIIIIIC! I read over all of the shows you wrote up about and unlike the last Preview, I understood more about the show. Your research definitely shows! It was like you were some kinda insider for each show. 😀 I definitely have to bow before your diligence and resourcefulness because it definitely enlightens people such as I, who know of little means to find out more (trustworthy/understandable) information of said shows. -_-
I’m definitely watching a lot of the shows this season. The ones you have a poor chance of blogging are likely the very shows I won’t be watching. Everything else is pretty much guaranteed in my book. Save for Letter Bee. I haven’t seen the first season. (The big eyes scare me.. And I haven’t been told anything that makes me want to watch it yet, y’know?)
Oreimo is the highlight for me, this season. And Arakawa. I was instantly charmed by the first season. Jokes that stuck with me for days.. and the OP and ED themes are complete technocrack. I can’t wait to see what the new OP and ED themes sound like. It’d be nice if the same two people did them again~ :]
Most of the OVA’s, I’ll watch. And the movies… Ahh, the movies. :3
Anyway, I’m absolutely overjoyed with your Fall Preview. You did a fabulous job with it and the content and depth of it is amazing. Wonder what Omni would say..? ^^d
In his exact words, Omni said, “Grats on finishing it.” I replied, “Thanks.”
I’m glad to hear you found it more informative than other previews you’ve read.
You make it sound as if your guys are War Vets. rofl
Awesome preview Divine! Much easier reading your in-depth synopsis on each show than searching the web.
I’m shock that there is a lot of shows this season that I’m gonna watch. Fall seasons gonna rock.
Awesome im so going to watch most of these series especially Star Driver it looks hilarious he even calls himself “King Bishounen!” 😀
It’s actually “Ginga Bishounen” which means “Galactic Pretty Boy”. Yeah, even worse than “King Bishounen”. :p
WOW
very detailed preview
Thanks!
I guess there’s no Anime no Chikara project this season. I’ve really enjoyed their stuff, but everyone needs a break.
Yeah, I’m a bit disappointed that there isn’t one either.
Good Luck Suzuku on blogging Index II. 😀
I’ve been dropping some series last summer due to work priorities.( i’ll be watching them next time, Hell knows.) But this fall, Index II and STAR DRIVER are my guaranteed watch together with Nurarihyon as replacement for HotD and Ookami.
again…wish the best for the bloggers of those series two this fall…i’ll be looking forward to your blogs. 😀
yup are few good shows this season 2
i choose like 7 but might drop after 2 episodes few :O
Ha! finally world god only knows animated! should be funny 🙂
Also Didn’t notice, KyoAni has none this season.
So what’s next for them?
very nice divine, much thankful for the preview 😀
As usual you always seem to have the best taste- maybe it’s because you always give everything a chance.
Loving the trailer for “Psychic Detective”. It will be hard for me not to compare it to “Ghost Hunt” , especially since the main male character has a similar attitude as “Naru-chan” but I love stories like this so who cares.
Great Preview thanks for the hard work really outdone yourself this time. I’m gonna watch Bakuman, STAR DRIVER, Index II and loads more have too much time xD
Fantastic job really. Such elaborateness in a clean manner really allowed me to easily choose which anime I would watch and wouldn’t watch.
On a side note, this preview is similar to the previous preview in the sense as there are too many anime Guaranteed for Odd’s I’ll WATCH This. Quite a bit of the shows this coming season has been publicised largely because of their mangas or light novels and they have hyped us up and expectant of it.. so it’s understandable in that sense that most of these shows are guaranteed.
Also, you did make up for it by adding the additional Odd’s I’ll BLOG This, which was a bit unbalanced as well, as there are only a few Guaranteed there. Is this for the purpose of allowing the other bloggers to cover those which you didn’t guarantee you’ll blog?
Is there no such thing as a 26 episode anime anymore?
Were Gurren Lagann and Code Geass the last ones?
SRW:OG is 26 episodes. Index II is 24.
Battle Spirits Brave and Yumepati are probably going to be 50 episodes again.
A lot of the other shows haven’t announced how long they’ll be, so it’s likely a handful will be in the 24-26 range as well.
ooh, okay. I became a little worried because every time I see an anime I’m interested in these days, it’s 12-13 episodes.
It’s actually been a long while since I’ve followed a 26 episode anime, whereas it used to be all the time. >_>
I’ll definitely check those out, though.
Just to add onto what Divine said, Star Driver will probably be 25 episodes. Bakuman is also 25 eps. I can see Togainu getting 24-26 as well.
I am gonna check out Otome Youkai Zakuro & Hakuouki Hekketsuroku.
Oreimo is a definite must watch and I’m excited about Sora no Otoshimono (S2) and Arakawa Under the Bridge! I’ll give Kami nomi.. a try just because I liked the manga. Remaining shows will be decided after I watch their first episodes.
And as always, thank you Divine for such a wonderful and organized Fall 2010 preview! 🙂
To Love Ru 2
Sora no Otoshimono 2
and FORTUNE ARTERIAL Akai Yakusoku
are my picks for the fall season.
And here I was thinking no one watched Hakuouki Hekketsuroku. Good list of shows … really tired of falling back on Naruto / Bleach.
Nice work on the promo vids … realized 10 minutes in .. those were even promo vid links … o_O
The OP song for To Love-Ru is addictive! Can’t wait to see the actual opening sequence along with it. 😀
life without k-on is a life without happiness :'(
Well if there’s any lesson from K-ON, its that good things come to an end but other good things start (this week’s episode) and life goes on
Well, there are at around ten series here that I’ll at least check out. I’m particularly interested in SoraOto S2, Index S2, OreImo and KamiNomi.
It’ll be interesting to see what kind of voice Hiro Shimono’s going to use in KamiNomi, since just looking at Keima I see him more with Jun Fukuyama’s voice.
Thanks again for the preview, Divine – far better than what can be found anywhere else 😀
Alright, lets try to post the compliment comment for the third time;
WOO! Amazing preview. I know I’m excited for the upcoming season. Thank you Divine for providing all of this information in one consolidated location (:
Ahhh, this list is really organized…It’s certainly easy on the eyes. =D Thanks again for this preview! There are so many shows I’m looking forward to this fall~ Ahh, this looks like a good season~ Looking forward to Panty and Stocking and Arakawa 2 the most ^^
On a side note, I miss the shoutbox. It was a nice way to interact with the other commenters. Will it be coming back after these “issues” are resolved?
*clapping hands at monitor* GOOD WORK SIR!! GOOD WORK!!
BTW- i find it hilarious that NO ONE knows when the latest HELLSING OAV will be released…better be before CHRISTMAS!!!!!
Thank you, this preview really helped me out. Keep up the awesome work! 🙂
Star Driver reminds me of gurren lagann with space battles , epic battle transformations and original mecha designs
Hmm I didn’t expect ‘my little sister can’t be this cute’ to be only comedy. Then again I shouldn’t be fooled by it’s name.
Ahhh, yes! Im in for some mecha anime. Never tried super robot wars…but I guess I’ll try this one since the trailer looked good. …including the other highschool mecha one too.
My likes are so diverse too I guess…
Im totally in for Yakumo!And might aswell see what happens next for Index.
And Ill try that BL one (togainu), and that samurai otome one(hakuoki), even that Yumeiro Patissire coz I love sweets lol….I never got the chance to read Bakuman so I’ll just take this chance to watch it. And Kuragehime only coz of the studio. 😛
i just found out that Astrea form Sora no Otoshimono will be voiced by Kaori Fukuhara, the one who voice Koromo Amae(saki) and Ada(Pandora Hearts). i guess i need not to worry
Can’t wait to hear her saying “baaaka baaaka” to tomoki ^^
And the smartest kid contest xD
Eww, this kind of production company-based comparison is only misleading. People that are actually the creators of series would come and go.
Hiroyuki Imaishi (director of Panty & Stocking series) cannot be held solely responsible for Evangelion series, however instead he did parent (director/character design/animation director) the batshit-not-oriented-towards-kids “Dead Leaves” OVA when he was working for Production I.G. I believe that tells more about what to expect than broad “GAINAX” label =)
Also Panty & Stocking has Masahiko Otsuka as co-director, so this seems more like: From the creators of the bizzare energetic Dead Leaves and FLCL ..
Pokemon and Ironman… Besides that there seem to be some pretty good anime.
By the way, i think you have a little mistake in the ova’s listing, Fate UNLIMITED BLADE WORKS isn’t an ova, it was a movie that premiered some months ago, they’re just selling the usual dvd/blu-ray format afterwards.
Yes, he knows that, he just decided to add movies along with the OVAs, which is why Haruhi is there as well. As for the air date, he decided to use DVD/BD release dates because that’s when the readers would actually be able to watch the movies.
Oh i see, sorry. i’ve had just a quick glance at the ova part so i didn’t notice.
Omg! It’s a good list.
omg Index Season 2
longest wait ever
but im 100% sure its gonna be the best show of the year!
good but not the best shows this season
I’m excited about Otome Youkai Zakuro !! thanks for the season preview!
Fresh New seasons
Cant Wait!!!!!!! ^_^
Oh my lawd, I’ll be watching pretty much all of these shows. Can’t wait to have so many animes to choose from. Seriously, my college work is so boring at the moment, and there’s just so little to watch online, so this season is gonna rock! For me at least……
sigh… only crap.. at least there is Bakuman and the mecha one
can’t wait for index 2
Fukuyama Jun is one of my favorite seiyu, and he’s voicing in three series? thats impressive
I’m already looking out for Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls, To Aru Majutsu no Index II, Bakuman, & Iron Man.
hi, Divine!
Do you have any idea when Hana-Saku Iroha! will be aired?
http://a.imageshack.us/img836/7791/hanasakuiroha.jpg
I’ve been waiting for that one…
So divine, approximately when will the poll be up? Like you, I really wanna see what anime other people are anticipating most and whether or not the anime will end up exceeding their expectations:D
would the anime Infinite Stratos be in winter 2010 schedule??
Divine, your preview is epic. I’m particularly a fan of your sheer lack of prejudice and tendency to look beyond the obvious.
Glad to hear you like it. One of my goals is to present each series in an impartial manner and highlight what it actually entails so that people can make informed decisions for themselves.
I really don’t understand comparison Bakuman with Bleach and Naruto. O.K.- Writers of Death Note went into another direction.. Besides, both popular shonen’s was longer on the stage than Bakuman…. O.k.That last autothematic popular manga shows that shonen can be without swords fight, boobs, and common sense. I agree that this season offers less interesting titles but everyone finds what he likes. I’ll surely see – 2 maybe 3 titles- and Bakuman will be one of them.
uh one week and the fall season will start
from the trailers the one i choose were all cool but never know
I’m definitely watching Tegami Bachi REVERSE! I appreciate your 100+ hours put into this season preview ^_^
looks like some of fall anime wont reach the story in manga from the total episode like Sora No Otoshimono(last read manga Chapter 40) and Kami nomi zo shiru sekai (Last Read Manga Chapter 103)
Any Chances on reviewing the Eden of the east Movies? i just want more people know about it, as Omni Reviewed the series like a year ago.
1st episode of Bakuman is out and its really good. Try and catch it. You won’t be disapointed.
K its all done:Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai,Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge and Yosuga no Sora are the only shows that are watchable this season, everything else is made for anime fans who just like chilly rainbows.
I didn’t notice this on the OVA chart.
Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha the Movie 1st = November 26th.
Added. Thanks.
Isn’t the next Break Blade movie coming out soon, too?
As noted in the preview, only DVD/BD releases of movies are included. The fourth Break Blade movie is scheduled to premiere in theaters on October 30th.
Anyone watch the unlimited blade works movie yet? Fate Stay Night is a classic that we can’t forget about. ^^