天下制覇

From The New World
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/shinsekaiyori/
Studio: A-1
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres September 28th

Summary: 
In a desolate future, a group of kids go out wandering and come across an electronic databank telling them the truth of their world, the war between psychics and humans, and the dark ages that followed. Now knowing the truth, they’re drawn into the battle still going on.

Personal Thoughts:
Winner of the most promotional material of the season. There’s literally nearly an hour of just random stuff, like watching sketch art for it, or talk about how it’s interesting because it takes place… in the future. Anyway, A-1, someone who has never been in charge of actually directing a show before, and the esteemed writer in charge of handling such literary masterpieces as Bleach, Fairy Tail, and Prince of Tennis. Be still my beating heart. At least he’s already well-versed with handling teenagers with magic powers who will undoubtedly have to get through their challenges by believing in the power of each other. Oh, and there’s also apparently some form of hivemind psychic ant-mice or something, which is honestly the most interesting thing about this that I read. I also fear the abuse of Dvorak’s New World Symphony something fierce.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Fear the robomice

Scarlet Fragments
http://www.hiironokakera.tv/
Studio: DEEN
Genre: Pretty Boys
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres September 30th

Summary: 
Sequel series. Tamaki’s continuing adventures surrounded by her guardian pretty boys and fighting against terrible CG in order to protect the mountains.

Personal Thoughts: 
Oh, Deen. Deen, Deen, Deen. You and your cheap pretty boy shows with a doe-eyed protagonist (gender irrelevant) who stands there and gawks as all the manly (?) men save mostly from itself. I barely made it a single episode of the first season without falling asleep. Unless this one introduces a swarthy one wearing a tunic and a monocle, I’m so out.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
    
NEXT!      NEXT!     NEXT!

The Monster Next to Me
http://www.tk-anime.info/
Studio: Brains Base
Genre: Romance
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 1st

Summary: 
The story of the relationship between the cold, bookworm Mizutani, and the fiery troublemaker Yoshida.

Personal Thoughts: 
Wait. An antisocial girl and a boy who has trouble making friends but really wants to? And they get together? Stop the goddamned presses. Both the director and writer have done more than either of their fair shares of maudlin, poorly paced, strung-out messes with I think only one show between both of them that couldn’t have stood to have been at least 6 episodes shorter, if not more. What’s one more of those to stack on top? The PV does make it seem like… uh… anything besides what everything else does, but it mostly made me laugh with its terrible Engrish.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
Being a monster used to mean something.

Welcome to Godhood
http://www.mikagesha.com/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 1st

Summary: 
After being abandoned by her father and kicked out of her apartment, Nanami ends up living at a local shrine where she has to take on all the duties of being the local god, complete with her own followers and guardians.

Personal Thoughts: 
It’s never a good sign when a show’s promos are almost all pans over stills or stills with speedlines. It does have an interesting director (Fruits Basket, Jubei-chan), but for some reason, I don’t expect it to have middle-aged chainsaw-riding ninjas writing love letters in Portuguese to 14 year old girls. If he can bring a percent of his strange humor into this though, it could be turn out all right. The promos were unfortunately bland though.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

One divine offering.

Super Speed Tranformers Gyrozetter
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/gyrozetter/
Studio: A-1
Genre: Merchandising
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 2nd (very early morning)

Summary: 
In the near future, cars fitted with special AIs have revolutionized the entire automobile industry and allowed even children to drive. However, some of these AI cars are actually transforming robots and they’ll be needed to save the world.

Personal Thoughts: 
I don’t even understand the point of this. Okay, it’s Transformers again, but now based on actual cars. There’s even a Toyota GT 86 robot. Yeah, it is part of some bigger franchise encompassing games and a movie, but still… what? Are they hoping kids will go ask daddy to buy a Nissan so it’ll be like their transforming toy?

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Three Toyota Siroccos.

Jormungand: Perfect Order
http://www.jormungand.tv/
Studio: White Fox
Genre: Loco
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 2nd

Summary: 
Sequel series. Koko’s continuing adventure to achieve world peace by selling weapons to everybody be loco.

Personal Thoughts: 
Didn’t make it far into the first season, and with the same staff, I can’t imagine anything this would do could intrigue me enough to pick it up at this point. I remember it being really really really cheap and filled with CG cars and CG bridges. The PV, which included presumably the flashiest parts of the first season, did nothing to dissuade me from maintaining that belief.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
¡Con el dinero baila el perro!

Regardless of My Adolescent Delusions of Grandeur, I Want a Date!
http://www.anime-chu-2.com/
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Romance
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 3rd

Summary: 
Yuuta eventually grew out of his immaturity, put it behind him, and was enjoying his life, but gets pulled back into it when he comes across a girl who’s just like he used to be and gets stuck with her.

Personal Thoughts: 
Aah, Japan’s versions of Hot Topic residents. Wait until they get ahold of Twilight and learn how dreamy Edward is. “Even Vampyres Deserve Love!” Now that’d sell! Atrocious twist on the already tired premise aside, this has an interesting staff even aside from KyoAni. Unfortunately, it’s also the exact same staff as their last show (Ordinary Life). It’d be nice if they learned from that and went back to what they were both doing before which was working better, buuuut… I wouldn’t put money on it. Hopefully the pseudo-action will at least be enteretaining enough on an otherwise pretty dismal-looking day. There was a pre-airing event recently too. Apparently the first episode is all introduction and then the second is all flash. Well, at least one episode is.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

The anime equivilent of pretty colors and jangling keys.

Hayate the Combat Butler! – Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
http://www.hayate-project.com/
Studio: Manglobe
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 3rd

Summary: 
The continuing adventures of Nagi and her fighting butler, Hayate. This time, vs aliens!

Personal Thoughts: 
I almost feel bad for the Hayate franchise at this point. Began with Synergy, passed to JC Staff, now handed down to Manglobe who has put some genuinely awful staff in charge of it. Maybe since they’re just going off into the clouds instead of actually adapting something, Manglobe won’t do their traditional job of mucking up of everything. The fact that it airs on the black hole of Wednesdays is the best thing it has going for itself. And maybe the potential trainwreck factor, but Manglobe usually tends towards the slow collapse, not the flaming wreck.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
The scotch tape that holds this series together.

BTOOOM!
http://www.btooom.com/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 4th

Summary: 
Ryota’s one of the best online BTOOOM! players in the world, but one day, he wakes up on a mysterious island, living out the actual game. He has to fend off other players in order live longer enough for him to figure out what’s going on.

Personal Thoughts: 
Fantastically creative premise here. An online game where everybody uses grenades? Wow. How’d we come up with that idea? And kidnapping a bunch of nerds for a survival of the fittest fight just seems like something more fitting for a comedy. Why is the online game angle even part of this in the first place? To make sure the audience can go “I like games too! He’s just like me!”? Anywho, newbie director, prolific but uneven writer, and Madhouse is a crapshoot with production. I still have bad memories of their year of Marvel shows. The promos weren’t exactly breathtaking either. Bombs! On an island!

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Discriminatory against grenade people.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/hidamari/
Studio: Shaft
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 4th

Summary: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of Yuno, her quest to take a bath every single episode, and the lesbians around her.

Personal Thoughts: 
I don’t think there are any surprises left here in the fourth season. Miyako will still be wide, Nazuna will still be annoying, Yoshinoya will still get nowhere near enough screentime be squeaky, and Hiro will still be fat. It does air this season against a lot of competition and I struggled enough the last couple seasons to find anything to say about each episode though, so we’ll see. I bear it no ill will, but it is honestly often right up against that borderline between relaxing and simply flat out boring.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
        
Bath sponge or spongecake?

Armed War Maidens
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/busou/
Studio: 8-Bit
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 4th

Summary: 
 In the distant future, action figures have very advanced AIs and can be equipped with all kinds of weapons and armor. This is the story of one highschooler and his collection of girly mechanized action figures.

Personal Thoughts: 
This is based on Konami’s toy line of the same name which has already had one previous show based on it. This has Infinite Stratos’s studio and director, so at least it should have an idea of what to do with the premise. The terrible writer probably won’t help them though. Then again, making the ‘girls’ 6 inches tall and shrink-wrapped might help some of the more obnoxious parts of the whole magical fighting girlfriends thing… or make them incredibly creepy.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Primary predator: cellphone cats

The Civilization Blaster
http://www.zetsuen.net/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 4th

Summary: 
Mahiro’s family was mysteriously murdered a year ago and he thinks of nothing but revenge. One day, he finds a wooden doll that brings him into contact with a witch who promises her help if he’ll help her save the world in return.

Personal Thoughts: 
Ah. Here’s where Okada’s been hiding. And reunited with Canaan/Hanasaku Iroha’s director too? What joy! That should go to show how much I’m anticipating this. At least Okada’s consistent. Bad, but consistent. At least Bones usually makes pretty shows. Then again, the promotional material is many pointy-chinned men standing in wind and close-ups of eyes. I don’t think this one got Bones’s A-team.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
                                                                 
No, my sons. Your true destiny lies as princes of the forest.

K
http://k-project.jpn.com/
Studio: GoHands
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 4th

Summary: 
LIVE SIMULCAST ON ANIMAX!!!!! 

Personal Thoughts: 
Uh, yeah. Besides a promo from Animax which is entirely too excited about airing at the same time as Japan, there’s not any real information on this besides staff/cast, which aren’t the most impressive around, but not abysmal either. It does look slick as hell though. Of course, almost all of GoHands shows have had impressive promos and first episodes before dropping off severely, but as far as just promotional materials go, this one’s probably the leader of the pack for the season. Hopefully the characters and non-fighting parts won’t be abysmal.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
    
Classification remains unknown.

He’s My Brother, But That Doesn’t Matter if There’s Love, Right?
http://www.oniai.com/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 5th

Summary: 
After six years apart, Akito moves back in with his twin sister who is madly in love with him and doesn’t care what society, or he, has to say about it.

Personal Thoughts: 
Well, at least Silver Link has never been one known for sticking particularly close to the source material. They bring enough creative direction to the table to at least intrigue me to see what they’re going to do, although this isn’t their usual director and the promos do not look like they have Silver Link’s usual flair at all. It has Milky Holmes/Kampfer’s writer too, so that’s another blow towards “probably not going to be played straight.” Regardless, I can’t say that I look forward to yet another in the endless parade of shows about having sex with your sister, but maybe they’ll be able to overplay it enough to actually be a comedy instead of just more of the same old horrible schlock.

Preseason Swing Rating:
                        
Girls playing with balls.

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
http://wwws.warnerbros.co.jp/jojo-animation/
Studio: David Production
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 5th

Summary:
The story of Jonathon Joestar and his super powered batles against his adopted brother turned vampire, Dio Brando.

Personal Thoughts: 
A series that probably needs little introduction, but I for one will be lamenting the lack of Iggy the chihuahua since this will apparently be taking place in one of the other timeframes. Let’s throw a wet blanket on things now. It’s still David Production though, who is… not so good… with a rookie director who has barely even been around action shows, and the writer who was in charge of adapting Shana. And you know how I love Jump in general. The OVA got away with things for blasting along. I have severe doubts that this writer/studio will do the same for a full series this many years later.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

But can he defeat the Beachmaster?

TLR Darkness
http://www.j-toloveru.com/
Studio: Xebec
Genre: Boobs
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 5th

Summary: 
Sequel(ish) series. Momo’s continuing attempts to make every girl in the general vicinity bang a worthless eunuch.

Personal Thoughts: 
After a brief hiatus, here’s Xebec’s T&A specialist director back to do more T&A, same as the last TLR series too. I can’t say that I have any particular desire to jump into the show at this point and if the OVA specifically for this was any indication, all it’s really done is ramp up the viscosity of the ‘soap’ covering girls as well as the squirmings of moist thighs. I demand at least holographic robot space sharks or pants destroying lasers in addition to that.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

The exposed intimate parts of a girl.

More Goddamned Bakuman
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/bakuman/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Nothing
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 6th (very early morning)

Summary: 
The neverending Jump series about teenagers making a Jump series doing nothing.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same staff and studio as the last two, so I’ll just go ahead and assume that it’ll remain just as miserable. Here’s the same spoiler I gave for the last preview of it. The pacing and production will be terrible and it’s not going to end. It’s never going to end. Ever.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
         
“Dude, this crap is easy. What the hell?”

Little Busters
http://www.litbus-anime.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 6th

Summary: 
A group of friends who call themselves the Little Busters recruit a bunch of wacky girls to make a baseball team.

Personal Thoughts: 
Let’s just spoil this and get it out of the way. There’s a lot of pussy pounding. Bad director, a writer whose two biggest projects are Angelique and Shugo Chara, and JC Staff, whose stock has been in severe decline over the last few years. I think it might have a shot if it throws away all the terrible Key melodrama and deus ex machina entirely and focuses instead on cat abuse, especially given how ass-pully much of it is in LB. I give that about a 3% chance of actually happening. Hopefully it can at least remain silly and comedic enough before it leaps into the horrible horrible pool. Or god forbid, actually adapt something instead of cutting/pasting scripts across wildly different mediums.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Four fuzzy little devils.

Say “I Love You.”
http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/sukinayo/
Studio: ZEXCS
Genre: Romance
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 6th

Summary: 
Tachibana’s always been a loner, but one day she confronts the most popular boy in the school over a misunderstanding. He takes a liking to her and their romance begins to blossom.

Personal Thoughts: 
An interesting director/writer here (Hekiyoh, S;G, Strawberry Marshmallow). I can’t say that’s enough to overcome the bland and generic as hell wallflower romance premise though. I’m not sure what Zexcs is doing with this one either as it seems completely unlike their usual faire. Nothing in the promos gave me any particular reason to think it’ll be anything but what’s on the cover, so… uh… brace for a bunch of sparkly backgrounds, blushing, and standing shyly in the corner?

Preseason Swing Rating: 

I can think of other things to say that would get attention.

CØDE:BREAKER
http://www.code-breaker.jp/
Studio: Kinema Citrus
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 6th

Summary: 
Sakura witnesses a boy seemingly burning people in the streets, but later, it appears that nothing has happened. She confronts him when he transfers into his class and he reveals that he’s part of an agency that hunts down and kills super powered criminals that the regular law cannot manage.

Personal Thoughts: 
FMA2’s director and Kinema Citrus has certainly shown that they can animate action in the past, although they’ve never done a full actual TV series before. The promos haven’t looked too bad either. Of course, it is still yet another neverending series about sullen teenagers with super powers who learn the power of friendship though. It better damn well be flashy or bring something else to the table to even have a chance. They’re not even vampires either. Ha-rumph!

Preseason Swing Rating: 
              
One herd of moo cows.

Magi
http://www.project-magi.com/
Studio: A-1
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 7th (very early morning)

Summary: 
After spending almost his entire life trapped in a single room, Aladdin and his friend Ugo, a genie trapped in his flute, set out around the world looking for other trapped genies where he also learns about his true destiny.

Personal Thoughts: 
Weird staff here. RoD’s director and an old Sunrise writer (not to mention Qwaser’s creator). Plus it’s A-1, who has not long been associated with… how to say… consistency. It’s a primetime (in Japan at least) show, which puts it as probably slightly less mature than Pretty Cure and five times as likely to have screaming twelve year old boys as it’s particular brand of ‘humor.’ The promos look decently animated at least, but screaming children in shows and I have traditionally not exactly gotten on well.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Will not contain enough belly dancers.

Ixion Saga DT
http://ixion-saga-anime.jp/
Studio: Brains Base
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 7th

Summary: 
Kon suddenly finds himself transported to a fantasy world where he’s immediately embroiled in a war over the force of magic in the new world.

Personal Thoughts: 
This is part of Capcom’s all out media blitz promoting their upcoming game of the same name, and as such, that should give you a good idea of about what the point of this is and how much actual effort will be going into it. They should be making a new Breath of Fire instead of this anyway.  The promos already look like they came from about 2001 too. It has Gintama’s staff for some reason, so bully to it for that. Brains Base is nowhere near Sunrise in talent either. Not entirely sure how or why that translates to a generic fantasy RPG setup. Probably not very well.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
                        
Grinding weasels for XP.

Idol Action!
http://www.aikatsu.net/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Merchandising
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 8th (very early morning)

Summary: 
A bunch of budgeoning idols try to become super stars.

Personal Thoughts: 
This is based on an upcoming collectable card game where you buy cards, take them to the arcade, and then use them to play a game where you help virtual idols pass auditions. And there will be a 3DS game as part of the franchise a month later as well. I really don’t think that anything else needs to be said.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

Sakurasou’s Pet Girl
http://sakurasou.tv/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 8th

Summary: 
Kanada ended up living in a dorm full of strange people, but the weirdest is the girl who’s completely reliant on him for absolutely everything, so much so that she’s practically become his pet.

Personal Thoughts: 
Talk about a bankrupt premise, but hey, it’s the execution that matters. Which is why it’s a thrill knowing that Okada, patron saint of having no idea how to write anything but intros with inevitably melodramatic and awful endings, handling the writing. Plus a director whose only shows are Supernatural and Blue Lit. This is the kind of show that JC Staff has traditionally done best, but sure as hell not with this staff. Maybe Okada’s true talent lies in comedy instead of anything with a plot. Everything else seems incredibly generic and cliched and nothing I’ve seen or read has given me any glimmer of hope that it’d be otherwise. I can’t even imagine the original pitch meeting. “A story about a guy who moves into a dorm with a bunch of super wacky girls, but… ONE OF THEM IS HELPLESS WITHOUT HIM!” “Fantastic! I’ll take fifty!” And they say creativity is dead.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Punch The Monkey is back!

Girls Und Panzer
http://girls-und-panzer.jp/
Studio: Actas
Genre: Edutainment
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 8th

Summary: 
Tank driving’s become a national sport and a martial art. When Miho transfers to her new school, she’s forced to join their tank squad and compete.

Personal Thoughts: 
The director here’s certainly experienced at comedies but everything else he touches somehow also ends up a comedy too (Blood-C, Another). The writer’s prolific too, but the running theme between all her shows is “nothing happens extremely slowly.” (Marimite, Bakuman, K-On). The unimpressive promos contained more clarinets than they did tanks too, not that the idea of CG tanks trundling around really intrigued me that much. It has all the appeal of ritalined up girls in mecha, only they can just read off Wikipedia articles on tanks instead bothering to even make anything up on their own, and without even the sexuality or gunfighting of Upotte. Exciting.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Deutschland über alles!

Medaka Box Abnormal
http://medakabox.jp/
Studio: GAINAX
Genre: Stills
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 10th

Summary: 
Sequel series. The continued battle of the student council, led by superpowered Medaka, to help students in need.

Personal Thoughts: 
I made it through the first season, but I primarily blame that on Zombie’ssu being a sinkhole of disappointment week after week. Luckily, this is once again on Wednesdays up against Hayate and the KyoAni… thing. Same staff and studio so I can only assume it will remain extremely poorly made and if it was paced any slower, it’d be going backwards. If they learned from the first season, maybe. But they won’t learn. They never learn.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
A pair of abnormal boxes.

Psycho-Pass
http://psycho-pass.com/
Studio: Production IG
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 11th

Summary: 
Technology has developed far enough to be able to instantly measure and quantify someone’s emotions and personality. With this new technology comes a change in law enforcement. Police use Dominators, guns that automatically measure the target’s criminality and will either fire automatically or not at all.

Personal Thoughts: 
Winner of the worst promos of the season, even over the shows that have none. They’re released nearly half a dozen that are just screenshots of their website with strobe effects, plus one that’s nothing but a slow zoom of a CG gun. One of the two new noitaminA shows, so you know it already gives me hives. The director’s not much of anybody, although Urobuchi’s handling the writing (F/Z, Madoka). While I’m sure a plus to many, I can’t stand his general love of infodumping over characterization. The entire premise also seems like it’ll only make matters worse. This ain’t no Minority Report, bitch. We don’t need every damn single piece of machinery explained over and over again. Like too much air in a balloon! Then again, when the premise can be boiled down to “Cops wave guns at random people and sometimes shoot them without meaning to because Skynet says they’re criminals,” maybe it’s best to quit before you start.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
That’s a lot of popped collars for the ‘future.’

Robotics;Notes
http://roboticsnotes.jp/
Studio: Production IG
Genre: Drama
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 11th

Summary: 
In the near future, two highschool students decide to build a giant robot together.

Personal Thoughts: 
And the other noitaminA show. Reading up on the game was not promising. Nothing Happens: The Game was a recurring theme, so it fits right in with noitaminA already. Boring promos plus a newbie director other than the terrible season of Basara, so that probably cements it. I’m missing the part of the brain that attracts one to large robots anyway. But show me a costumed crime fighter in tights…

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Not Emperor of Japan approved.

Sei☆zon
http://seitokai-no-ichizon.com/
Studio: AIC
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres October 13th

Summary: 
Sequel series. The life and times of Ken and his attempts to build a harem out of his fellow student council members so everybody gets a happy ending.

Personal Thoughts: 
Aside from some mood whiplash at times, I really enjoyed the first season. However, this one is being handled by completely different people. A director who has done nothing but Reborn, and the same “Nothing ever happens in her shows” writer as a few other shows this season. AIC has been really inconsistent of late too, although it wouldn’t be too hard to be a step up in just straight up production from Deen. Hopefully they won’t ruin the charm and wit of the characters, but I fear the worst. Note that this doesn’t have a terrestrial broadcast. Episodes will be streaming on NicoNico.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
Three love manuals.