Posted by So Euphie finally proved to everyone she’s no Lacus clone, Light-o got his evil eye back, Chiaki got every woman in the audience fantasizing about his baton, and psychokaede hit her limit break and came one “USO DA” short of psychorena status. Not to mention Mayumi went full-blown Haruhi on a school…of fish. Sure, a lot of stuff happened these past two weeks, but it’s not doing it for me anymore. You know when you’re at a theme park on one of the less popular rollercoaster rides with no line, after the ride is over you ask the operator if you can just sit there and go again, rather than getting off, walking all the way around through the banisters, just to get back in the same seat? It’s kinda like that with the current season…it had its high points and low points, but now that it’s coming to an end, I don’t want to get back out and wait for it to start again – the next ride needs to start already!
So, thanks to Omni once again, we have an extensive list of the wannabes, the gonnabes, and the otherwise uninspired anime of the new season. So, which one is which? In yet another pointless and drunkenly conceived FreezeFrame, here’s my extremely biased and borderline prejudiced preview of the Spring shows that will surely dominate my life for the next several months.
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Hitohira http://www.hitohira.tv/ Premieres March 28th, 2007 A girl with self-confidence issues and chronic stage fright…in the drama club. Fans of the perpetual blush need look no further. At first glance, this show looks like crap, but that’s what I thought La Corda would be, and that actually turned out to be quite effective at igniting the shoujo flames that burn strong within me. She even looks like she could be Hino’s younger sister…moeee |
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Hayate no Gotoku! http://hayatenogotoku.com/ Premieres April 1st, 2007 It takes a pretty lonely girl to mistake a kidnapping for a proposal. It takes a twin-tailed loli with too much money and a talking pet tiger to accept that proposal. And, it takes the empress of tsundere, Kugimiya Rie, to physically and psychologically abuse him day after day. The show seems quite similar to previous jailbait He is My Master! but I have a feeling the sheer randomness and overbearing tsundere charm will separate this one. |
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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS http://www.nanoha.com/ Premieres April 1st, 2007 Going-to-hell-for-liking lolis in the first season became fair-game-jailbait lolis in the second season. Now, they’re legal? What’s the appeal? Fans of the previous series have adamantly pitched to me the legitimacy of the story and action beyond the appeal of the more perverse nature – and for the most part, I’ll believe them, as the few episodes I watched had good production quality. Will the loli appeal be replaced with some more “mature” charm? Odds of Fate’s black pantsu debut: Decent |
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Heroic Age http://www.xebec-inc.co.jp/anime/heroicage/ Premieres April 1st, 2007 |
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Seto no Hanayome http://www.setonohanayome.com/ Premieres April 1st, 2007 The Japanese moe version of Disney’s crustacean love drama? The website has a picture of a long-haired hottie holding a sword and wearing a school uniform with the skirt half-flipped up, with the text “High Tension Love Comedy of Gag & Love!!” superimposed on it – sounds like a winner to me. Just looking at the other shows the seiyuu of the main girl has done should give a good idea what kind of show it is – Ai Yori Aoshi, DearS, Magikano, Nurse With Komugi…one of those shows seldom hated on and usually remembered fondly. Odds of hottie putting sword to poor chap’s neck more than three times per episode: Guaranteed |
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Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/idolmaster/ Premieres April 2nd, 2007 I heard about this franchise from youtube videos highlighting some of the more “interesting scenes” from the Xbox360 version of the game. Y’know, the ones that take full advantage of the “interactive hand” when conversing with your favorite idol girls. Needless to say, I let out a squeal of fanboy ecstasy when I heard this was getting animated – as odd as its premise was…with the whole mecha idol thing (??). Oh well, hime/otome were good laughs, especially when I’m laughing at those that really enjoyed it. Odds of being named to RandomC’s Top Anime of 2007: If Otome can beat out Haruhi, Lucky Star doesn’t have a chance in hell |
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Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo http://www.konnyaku.tv/ Premieres April 3rd, 2007 Neither Omni’s description nor the website makes any indication of a male character in this h-game based anime. Is this the next logical step in the Maria-sama –> Strawberry Panic –> Nina x Euphemia continuum? The success of this show will depend on how twisted the yuri dynamic can get. Odds of a Jun-like FreezeFrame entry: Good |
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Wellber no Monogatari ~Sisters of Wellber~ http://www.avexmovie.jp/lineup/wellber/ Premieres April 3rd, 2007 Usually, if a cute girl is running away for some crime, it’s because she actually got framed for it and is trying to find out who set her up. Well, in this case, she actually stabbed the guy…while naked, no less. Sort of reminds me of Scrapped Princess, but with less magic and more guns. As Omni alluded to, the success of this show will be dependent on its pacing. Odds of Schnizel getting revenge for his stabbed brother Clovis: Probably next to none. Why is the woman always considered the victim in these things? Free Kobe! |
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Nagasarete Airantou http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/airantou/ Premieres April 4th, 2007 Girls Bravo was pretty sweet, with something like one guy for every twelve girls – Nagasarete ups the ante by dumping a single guy on an island with only girls who wear short skirts and otherwise fetish-attracting skin-flashing outfits worthy of a good design award (no photographs please) Any show with Horie Yui voicing the main girl will probably be pretty good, or at the very least a lot of fun (note: as much as I hate to admit, she’s not the main girl in Da Capo…travesty of a show). Odds of the guy sleeping by himself (by choice): Good |
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RomeoXJuliet http://www.romejuli.jp/ Premieres April 4th, 2007 I didn’t watch Gankutsuou because I couldn’t get my mind around the art style, but I’ve always been somewhat enamored with Shakespeare’s play and the many adaptations that have spawned from it. Seriously, it’s too awesome of a story to screw up. I don’t usually pick up serious stuff like this ever since Love Hina infected me with its slapstick humor and light hearted fun, but I have a feeling I’ll be looking forward to this every week. Odds of making it past episode six: Decent |
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Darker than BLACK -Kuro no Keiyakusha-
http://www.d-black.net/ |
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sola http://www.sola-project.com/ Premieres April 6th, 2007 Well, it definitely looks promising, but so did a certain other show that seemed mainly focused on animating the wind blowing through long wavy blonde hair. Lucky that the characters in sola have rather small chins. As long as this doesn’t turn into some girl showcasing shampoo commercial and sticks to a solid storyline with good pacing, I think this show may turn out to be a dark horse for one of the best anime of the season. Odds of me flaming this (multiple times): Good |
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Seirei no Moribito http://www.moribito.com/ Premieres April 7th, 2007 I don’t think anyone will question the technical superiority of this show, but I’m hoping this won’t turn into another one of those “cool bodyguard risking her life for some reject kid because he’s too worthless to move out the way of a spear flying slowly at him” shows. It’s like that one battle in Final Fantasy Tactics where you’re trying to protect Rafa from Marquis Elmdor and all he does is die, die, and die some more, followed by pained cries of frustration and a broken dualshock controller on the carpet amongst the shards of broken tv screen. Oh, and there’s a hag that looks like Yuu-baba. Odds the kid whines more than Shinji: Not sticking around long enough to find out |
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Lovely Complex http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/lovecom/ Premieres April 7th, 2007 Role reversal? I keep thinking back to that one episode of Singled Out where this shrimpy 5’4 guy got matched up with a 6’5 girl wearing heels…whewww that was a hoot. And if it was so ridiculously ridiculous in real life, imagine what it could be in anime – I’m looking for this show to carry the shoujo comedy load for this season. Odds of a tsundere boyfriend: I hope so? Or not. Whatever, it better be funny |
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Lucky Star http://www.lucky-ch.com/ Premieres April 8th, 2007 There are some self-evident and rather obvious things regarding anime. First, KyoAni reigns supreme. Secondly, Hirano Aya is the anime gods’ gift to the world. Third, 4-koma animes are always brilliantly done. Put all those together in a 24-episode package directed by the same guy who gave us Haruhi, and we have another impending armageddon poised to kindle the fanboy flames for months to come. Odds that I’ll turn into a LuckStar-tard: See above |
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Bokurano http://bokurano.jp/ Premieres April 8th, 2007 If this show turns out to be anything like Ender’s Game, well, I’m sold. There’s just something fascinating about traumatizing snotty precocious kids and exploiting them for political and financial gain because adults are too lazy and demand a minimum wage. I just hope the “game” they play is more of a battle simulation rather than something stupid like a board game. Odds of a Robin Williams Jumanji appearance: Poor |
So, where did all the harem animes go? There really doesn’t seem to be many outside of Nagaserete and maybe Hanayome. Has the paradigm shift really happened? While it may be too early to tell, the more serious nature of this season could be a sign of a change in the anime industry. Or maybe the harem genre just needs to take a season off to reinvent some new moe modes.
Bring back the trap!
-jaalin
For those of you who couldn’t tell, this is a joke post.
“Seto no Hanayome: Guaranteed”
I wonder how for how long, I read the first volume and even if its start was unique … well it was certainly falling into well known and used harem stereotypes by the time it ended.
Enjoy his “first kiss” … he he he he …
Now that I’ve had a chance to look at stuff, I’d say this is looking to be one of the best seasons to come along in a while. Of course, we won’t know how things play out till we get to see what’s been cooked up, but I find myself actually looking forward to this season ^^
Shining Tears Gone? >.
I felt that last season was fairly lackluster (though I’ve ony just started watching Geass and am enjoying that greatly). This season looks like it might have a few solid shows. I enjoy the occasional harem series but it’s good they seem to be taking a bit of a break. Lets hope that when they come back in full force, cause we all know they will, they’ll have some great stuff to work with.
This was a funny poost, I enjoyed it very much. ^.^
Quote*Odds of being named to RandomC’s Top Anime of 2007: If Otome can beat out Haruhi, Lucky Star doesn’t have a chance in hell
So true. Otome better than Haruhi, you must be joking. Both Haruhi’s (Ouran and TMOSH) where much and much better than Otome.
Quote*Odds of the guy sleeping by himself (by choice): Good
I lolled. Anime characters are crazy like that.
Nagasarete Airantou: GIRLS BRAVO IS NOT SWEET. IT WAS A COLLECTION OF PHYSICAL VIOLENCE MASQUERADING AS HUMOR. DON’T MESS WITH ME LIKE THAT. And I’m hoping there’s none of that in this show.
Yeah yeah. Harem anime causes too much depression in Japan. Plus it doesn’t sell outside of Japan. Mainly because half of them are based on h-games and made the wrong decision to not turn it into h-anime. Let’s see if the rest of these clowns learned their lessons from past seasons.
Sisters of Wellber
I see a good anime.
“Chiaki got every woman in the audience fantasizing about his baton”
LMAO
Any show with Horie Yui voicing the main girl will probably be pretty good, or at the very least a lot of fun (note: as much as I hate to admit, she’s not the main girl in Da Capo…travesty of a show).
Quoted…For…Mother…F**ing…Truth…!!! Took the words right outta my mouth.
Odds of being named to RandomC’s Top Anime of 2007: If Otome can beat out Haruhi, Lucky Star doesn’t have a chance in hell
XD
This is probably my favorite FF entry yet.
Sorry, April 1st is tomorrow. 🙂
LuckStar-tard in the making over here, too. (b^.^)b
o wow. after reading all this (while laughing my ass off) and trying to think of something to post, i came to the conclusion that it would be too long for me to talk about all that u wrote. so i just decided to simplify it onto one sentence.
U FUCKING OWN.
Eh. I’m looking forward to maybe two or three shows. Maybe Bokurano too. That will be either really good, or really bad. If it’s along the lines of Ender’s Game, good. If not, we’ll see.
Oh, and “Lacus clone” — was that intentional? XD
I have high expectations for Skullman, hope that you at least see the first episode.
Is this supposed to be funny?
“Idolmaster XENOGLOSSIA – Odds of being named to RandomC’s Top Anime of 2007: If Otome can beat out Haruhi, Lucky Star doesn’t have a chance in hell”
LOL, so true. Omni has a lousy taste in anime so don’t expect Lucky Star to beat Xenoglossia.
Combat Butler Hayate
I am looking forward it.
I loved the part that Hayato gets a sword and says “Hiten” (Mitsurugi no Ryu i believe lol) (It’s Copyrighted) hahahahaha xD.
Sorry for double post.
I HEARD AMAZING NEWS from OMNI….
HE SAID THAT HE IS GOING 2 WORK NON STOP JUST 2 PLEASE US o/
HE’S GOING 2 UPDATE ALL THOSE SERIES 10 Minutes after its RELEASE. Wow.
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Hahahahaha April Fools xD
ps: Coudnt Resist (No Hard Feelings)
@Airas
omg i think he just did that O.o
Is it just me or does the “Nagasarete Airantou” look like kiechi and belldandy?! (from Oh my goddess)
Any show with Horie Yui voicing the main girl will probably be pretty good, or at the very least a lot of fun (note: as much as I hate to admit, she’s not the main girl in Da Capo…travesty of a show).
Hahahaha. *claps*
where is blue dragon?
Question: Does anyone think that Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo might be an OtoBoku…?