2013 Winter Anime Preview and White Elephant Gift Exchange

December 28th, 2012

Tis the season for light novel adaptations.

This only includes actual shows, not things with episodes under 5 minutes and/or made in Flash, of which there are a copious, copious number of this season. And yes, I’m aware that I’m cynical and very critical. I like that way more than working myself into a frenzy every season over a blurb, the website image, and 30 seconds (or less!) of promotional footage. If anything, I question how other people can know what they’re going to be rabid fans before even that much exists. I’m still going to give everything but some of the sequels/continuations a fair shot because I’m typically dead wrong about at least one thing per season and you never know who exactly is going to realize that the horrible premise should be treated as a joke and who’s going to copy the original’s script into the screenplay and then piss off for blow and whores.

As usual, I’ve collected all of the (useful) promos I could find. Anything that just pans over the camera over concept art and flashes up staff/cast names can sit in the corner and feel ashamed.

Depositfiles
Mediafire
Torrent

Cuticle Detective Inaba
http://www.cdinaba.com/
Studio: ZEXCS
Genre: Action/Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 4th

Summary: 
Inaba is a werewolf that can take on super powers depending on the hair color/cuticles of the person he bites. After leaving the police force, he opens his own detective agency in order to find his missing brother.

Personal Thoughts: 
While action/comedy is Zexcs’s bread and butter, this is a completely newbie director and GoHands’s writer (Princess Lover, SCO). The promo stuff was also incredibly cheap, but it looked like it might serve reasonably well as a comedy. Or at least contains a small child on a playground with a chainsaw. That’s often a promising sign. Or at least more promising than usual. Of course, there’s an even better chance that all the jokes will just be screamed at the screen as is SOP.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   

Helpless against skinks

Maoyuu
http://www.maoyu.jp/
Studio: ARMS
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 4th

Summary: 
The human and demon worlds have been at war, but when the greatest human hero reaches the demon queen, she surprises him by telling him that either side winning the war won’t help them. Instead, she proposes a deal with him. The two go into hiding together and try to reform both their worlds for the better. 

Personal Thoughts: 
The title’s a fusion of "maou" (demon king) and "yuusha" (hero), so if I wanted to be more contentious than I usually am, I could call it Demero, or maybe Demhe. Other languages are silly. Anywho. The core staff here is from BokuH of all things, so that’s already a poor sign. ARMS seems to have all but lost most of its (admittedly not ever great) animation talent in the last couple years too. It’ll probably just end up being yet another poorly produced fantasy adventure with male swordsman and female mage. If we’re lucky, they won’t end up with a pokemon sidekick and figthing Rezo for the fourth time.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
      
What of the orcs’ need for pillage and rape?

Minami-ke
http://www.starchild.co.jp/special/minami-ke/4/
Studio: feel
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 5th

Summary: 
Sequel series. The fourth season of the continuing adventures of the Minami sisters, their wacky friends, crossdressing acquaintances, and Hosaka.

Personal Thoughts: 
Brand new staff and studio for this season. Well, same studio as the OVA, but new staff regardless. feel’s actually been doing a mostly good job with animation lately, so it should at least be a step up from asread’s laziness. The director’s a mixed bag. Most recently OniAi which was dreadful, but also has some better stuff under his belt, although that veers more towards light hearted action (Hayate1, ZKC). The writer’s similarly a mixed bag, with both a number of good and bad things to their name, but they’re no stranger to comedy. After three seasons though, you’re probably in or out at this point.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Demum, veniunt porci

Caught In The Carnage Between My Girlfriend and My Childhood Friend
http://www.oreshura.net/
Studio: A-1
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 5th

Summary: 
Eita doesn’t believe in love after his parents divorced and just wants to be left alone. However, one day, a girl blackmails him into pretending to be her boyfriend for her own purposes, but his childhood friend, fiance, and ex-girlfriend aren’t about to give him up without a fight.

Personal Thoughts: 
Good god. Just reading the title exhausts me, to say nothing of the premise. Sadly, it’s not even the only godawful light novel "Outcast guy (through no fault of his own!) suddenly finds himself with more trim than a sheep shearing convention" blatant wish fulfillment disasters. Sure, every now and then, they just take the premise and run away with it, realizing that the whole thing is patently ridiculous and should be treated that way. That is not the common approach though. Fairly newbie director (Bunny Drop is it), and a prolific head writer, albeit very little of it is good and even less is comedy. And since it’s A-1, you can of course expect 75% of the budget to be in the first episode.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Four polished turds

Da Capo 3
http://www.hatsunejima.com/
Studio: Kazami Academy Animation Club
Genre: Romance
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 5th

Summary: 
While trying to uncover the mystery of the island’ magical sakura tree which lost its magic years ago, the newspaper club meets Sakura (from the previous Da Capos) and she shows them a dream of their pasts, long ago, and the promise that lead them to where they are now.

Personal Thoughts: 
Newbie director/head writer (same guy), but he does have a lot of experience with Shft. Maybe he picked up some of their better tricks. Or maybe not. The ‘studio’ is just a reference to the game’s school, but feel handled the animation for pretty much all the other Da Capos (barring some OVAs), so it’s a good bet that it’s them again. Speaking of which, I’ve never had a great fondness for the series, even though it does quasi-reinvent itself. This one does have a marginally better reputation than the others, but that could just be that it’s successfully driven its naysayers far enough away at this point. I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Less excitement than fondue, but twice the chance of diarrhea

The Strange Tales of Eight Dogs of the East
http://hakken-den.com/
Studio: Deen
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 5th

Summary: 
Five years ago, a mysterious plague decimated a small village and to keep it from spreading, the entire village was burnt to the ground. However, there were three survivors, but rumors spread that there was only truly one survivor who used a magical blade to bring the other two back to life. Because of that, the church is now hunting him.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same director and studio and Hakuouki and another Circus of the Traveling Men’s Pants setup too. The PVs were also full of moody bishies staring at the screen with their shirts half unbuttoned, so it looks pretty much like what the cover’s advertising. These girl-targeted Deen shows have traditionally been made on a shoe string budget with pacing to match a glacier trying to drive with its parking brake on. To summarize, no, I am not excited for it nor do I expect much.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Eight strange dogs

AKB0048
http://akb0048.jp/
Studio: Satelight
Genre: Idol Fellating
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 5th

Summary: 
Continuation from last spring. The continuing adventures of the futuristic idol group holding guerilla concerts to fight back against a world that has outlawed idols.

Personal Thoughts: 
The first (new) episode already had a pre-airing. Just flipping through it traumatized me enough with its bad CG dancing. My main memory of the two episodes of the first season that I did watch is that it was just a shameless promotion stunt for real life idol group AKB, idealizing them as the saviors of the world that every girl should want to be, along with an extremely staid and cliched cast that wouldn’t know entertainment from an electrical cord wrapped around their necks. I’m happy to keep it that way.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

True idols rip and tear

Senran Kagura
http://www.senran.tv/
Studio: Artland
Genre: Boobs
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 6th

Summary: 
Five ninjas train in school for justice to fight against the ninjas that are on the side of evil.

Personal Thoughts: 
Now here’s an odd duck. It’s based on a game that began as a sidescroller beat em up where damage basically equalled clothing lost, and is on its way to evolving into a Dynasty Warriors clone. The director’s from JC Staff (Shana, Aria TSA), and the writer’s done more than his fair share of these kinds of fanservice shows including Artland’s last foray into this subgenre, that show with a rainbow of hair colors, a dragon, kamen rider, and zero control over its writers after about episode 6. For the better, mind you. The PVs seem content to ignore the action and focus on badly animated groping/wetting though. Then again, its only competition on a slow weekend day is Idol High below. And Ixion, I guess. But my patience there has just about run out.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Four flouncy bouncy bags of fun

Love Live
http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Idol Fellating
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 6th

Summary: 
When their school was in danger of being shut down, a bunch of girls had an idea. They’d make their school famous, and attract enough new students so nobody would think of shutting it down anymore. And so, they decided to form their own idol group.

Personal Thoughts: 
Two shows about how great idols are in one season? Be still my beating heart. Sunrise is handling the animation at least and their muscle shows in the promotional stuff. Fewer good things can be said about the newbie director. The head writer’s also a crapshoot with lots of decent and less than decent things under his belt, most recently being Chuu2 which wasn’t exactly the best written thing (although it’s hard to say how much there was just the abysmal direction). Hopefully there’s a little more substance to the show than just cute girls jumping around and dancing, even if it’s just silly slapstick. Given how many shows stop at just the "cute girls" part though, I’m not holding my breath.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Spoiler: The final boss is the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Amnesia
http://www.anime-amnesia.com/
Studio: Brains Base
Genre: Thriller
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 7th

Summary: 
Orion is a magician traveling from another world. When transitioning into this one, he accidentally collided with a girl, erasing all of her memories and replacing them with himself. He offers to help her regain her memories and fix the problems he caused, but she can’t allow anybody to know what happened to her or her mind may become lost forever.

Personal Thoughts: 
This is another one of those girly PSP VNs that seem to be getting adaptations every season. A lot of the appeal of the game seems to be the mystery and tension of the situation, which would take some clever directing to bring out once you sever the direct connection of the player controlling her actions. Which brings us to the director of… Witchblade, Sacred Seven and… uh… Galaxy Angel’s first two (weakest) seasons? And a mediocre-at-best writer (Cat Gods, Sengoku Otome, Im@S). Oh, and the PV is quite cheap and generic as hell too.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Oh yeah. Work that brain.

Tale From The End of the Edo Era – Roman
http://www.roman-anime.com/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 7th

Summary: 
It’s the end of the Edo era. Natural disasters, upheaval, and chaos fill the land. Roman runs a relief store dedicated to helping people during the day, but at night, he runs a different kind of store where he’s a thief for the common man, taking back what was stolen from them.

Personal Thoughts: 
This is one of those pachinko machine-based ‘adaptations.’ There’s also been precious little promo material for it, so your guess is as good as mine. They’re really playing up the Lupin/Monkey Punch angle (he just did the character designs for the pachinko machine). The music they’ve advertised for it is practically half Lupin’s theme. Both the director and writer are weak, and TMS is middling at best as a studio too, so it doesn’t look great. Maybe they can take what they learned from Fujiko a little while back (not to mention all the yearly specials) and make an actual non-Lupin Lupin show without all the inane drug addled nonsense. Then again, it’s not up against much on Mondays.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Judge. Leave history to the true historical series.

The Unlimited
http://www.unlimited-zc.jp/
Studio: Manglobe
Genre: Action
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 7th

Summary: 
Prequel to Absolutely Lovely Children. Follows the story of its antagonist, Kyousuke, and his time in the war that made him come to believe in the superiority of metahumans.

Personal Thoughts: 
Ah, Manglobe. You can always be counted on to… fill your shows from top to bottom with insert songs to sell CDs. And not much else. I really did like the original series quite a bit back in the day. It was like X-Men crossbred with Power Puff Girls with Hard Gay making cameo appearances and Gonzo randomly inflicting themselves on various episodes. Taking it away from a decent studio, removing essentially all of the characters, and following Magneto’s origin story far from excites me though. But I suppose I have to watch it, if for no other reason than to really sink my teeth in and shake. At least the head writer did work on parts of the original series. Small comfort.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
How can one studio make so much of a mess out of so little?

Tamako Market
http://tamakomarket.com/
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Marketing
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 9th

Summary: 
The life and times of a girl that works at a mochi store.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same staff and studio as K-On, which judging from the promotional materials, is the only reason for its existence. Which is obvious anyway from the completely recycled character designs. As I was not… how to say… a fan…  of K-On, the pitch of "JUST LIKE K-ON, BUT WITH MOCHI!" fills me with churning bile. The promos have been pretty unimpressive too. Three of them are just swinging the camera around pictures from the website with a tinkling piano. So… uh… Yeah. Even on a slow Wednesday, I’m expecting just a knockoff of something I already had mostly disdain for.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
The mochi’s gone feral! The mochi’s gone feral!!!!

Good Job Club
http://www.ntv.co.jp/gj/
Studio: Dogakobo
Genre: Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 9th

Summary: 
Kyouya is a pacifist in all ways, never willing to stand up to anybody over anything. Because of that, he ends up being forcibly recruited into the ‘wacky’ Good Job Club filled with crazy girls.

Personal Thoughts: 
Oh boy. A light novel adaptation about an antisocial boy who joins an all girl club! How creative! Although, while based on an LN, that itself is gimmicky, split into 4 page short stories to try to imitate the four panel comic format I guess. Then again, I’m not sure how that makes it any different from other LNs though. Complete no-names for director and writer, and Dogakobo is firmly middle of the pack. I guess compared to all the others of its ilk this season, it appears to be the least focused on them all assuming gravitational orbits around his dick, but that’s not anticipation that you’re sensing from me.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Two tipsy reptalids

Sasami Doesn’t Try
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/sasami/
Studio: Shaft
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 10th

Summary: 
Sasami’s a shut-in who refuses to leave her home. However, her brother is absolutely devoted to her and does everything he can to be her eyes and ears to the outside world, even though his own life is filled with the chaos of three sisters who all look the opposite of their true ages all violently and enthusiastically after him.

Personal Thoughts: 
Ah, Shaft. Always hard to get a read on. Hopefully Shinbo got all his "Look at me and my CRAAAAZY directing awful staff management so here’s some photos of my desk and cards to be finished later" out of his system with the *monogatari special before the season started. The promos don’t look that Shafty at any rate, although the male lead’s face is permanently covered, so there’s not many chances for zoom-ins on eyes.. At least the bad kind. The writer’s at least experienced too, although equal parts good Shaft things and utterly forgotten Shaft things with a healthy smattering on both sides everywhere else too. Thursdays are pretty sparse this season, so it’s probably got a good chance as long as Shinbo can not spend half of every episode fellating himself.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
A pair of mammoth tanks

Kotoura
http://www.kotourasan.com/
Studio: AIC Classic
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 10th

Summary:
Kotoura looks normal, but is secretly telepathic. Because of that, she’s slowly found herself isolated from everyone else. When a boy named Manabe starts getting close to her though, she has a hard time getting rid of him and slowly begins making friends and returning to society.

Personal Thoughts: 
Despite the somewhat melodramatic blurb, all the promotional stuff is pretty colorful and looks like it’s mostly played off for giggles. The staff here (barring studio) is straight from Yuruyuri/Mitsudomoe/Miami-ke1, so they’ve got a lot of experience but traditionally have had trouble maintaining the creativity and energy through the entire run. All of those started well enough though, so it’s probably okay to be a little hopeful, at lesat for episodes 1-4. Classic is one of AIC’s weaker divisions though. Then again, I doubt the show will require that much effort. Of course, more never hurts.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
       
On with the wigglies

Vividred Operation
http://www.vividred.net/
Studio: A-1
Genre: Butts
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 10th (Pre-air special December 27th)

Summary: 
Five years ago, the invention of the Expression Engine brough an end to the world’s energy problems. However, an alien force has begun threatening Earth, so now barely panted girls need to take up arms to defend it.

Personal Thoughts: 
And so as Tamako Market was with K-On, this is with Strike Witches. Granted, these have short-shorts instead of no-shorts, but from the number of proctologist-view shots in the preview, the pitch appears to be the same. Well, and it’s A-1 too, but they’re practically the new Gonzo anyway when it comes to putting all their effort into the first episode and then pissing off to do body shots off Indonesian crossdressers. I don’t remember if I had a point, but it probably boils down to "I didn’t care for Strike Witches, and a bunch of zoomed in shots of asses aren’t going to change my mind." Fight some actual aliens or add something besides copious amounts of ass and maybe we’ll talk.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
    
Three shirtless panted girls

I Don’t Have Many Friends NEXT
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/haganai/
Studio: AIC Build
Genre: 555-DIAL-A-SINGLE
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 10th

Summary: 
Sequel series. Kodaka looked scary and so had no friends through no fault of his own, until he joined a club to make friends and within .5 episodes found himself drowning in muff.

Personal Thoughts: 
I believe that I’ve already mentioned my disdain for these kind of blatant wish fulfillment shows. At least magical powers have giant phallic swords or pants destroying lasers to fall back on instead of the ability to breathe and being the only penis in the show, not to mention the 20 minute jump from "Waaah. I’m all alone." to "Waaah. Everyone wants to screw me but I’m terrified of vaginas!" So what I’m getting at is that it can suck gravel, which I expect it to do anyway. With gusto.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

A pile of pussy plus a cock

Chihaya Full
http://www.ntv.co.jp/chihayafuru2/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: CG Cards
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 11th

Summary: 
Sequel series. Chihaya and her life centering around Japanese slap card poetry.

Personal Thoughts: 
Essentially the same staff and studio, so I’ll remain essentially uninterested. I’ve seen all kinds of platitudes thrown around about it, but what I remember watching was incredibly dull, slow, cheap, and generic. Also, mostly flashback. I’ve already had enough for a while of Yet Another Girly Teen Drama to jump in on yet another one halfway though. The extra ‘twist’ of adding CG cards does not change that.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Try playing the game with personae instead

Problem Children From Another World
http://www.mondaiji.tv/
Studio: Diomedea
Genre: Adventure
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres January 11th

Summary: 
Three teens with special powers end up transported into a fantasy world where they’re recruited as the last, desperate gamble to win a competition against a demon lord that began three years ago.

Personal Thoughts: 
I ran out of patience with the overblown LN title before reaching the end of the sentence, but rest assured that it’s even stupider than that. Another somewhat odd duck. Diomedea hasn’t traditionally done many action-oriented shows, but they really didn’t do that bad a job (production wise) of Campione at all. Or even the action parts of Polyphonica S for that matter. This is 7Arc’s action director too (Nanoha, Asura Cryin, Sekirei), so he knows his action when he’s got the budget for it. The writer I have less confidence in (Nyarlko/Amagami SS+). The promo didn’t look half bad either. Not great either mind you, but it’s always nice to see a cast that at least appears solid at first glance instead of a sniveling bunch of mewling, helpless children. I’m tenatively optimistic, at least moreso than most shows.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

The USS Missouri

Yet Another Pretty Cure
http://asahi.co.jp/precure/dokidoki_precure/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Merchandising
Cast/Staff Information
Premieres February 3rd

Summary: 
More and more and more and more and more Pretty Cure.

Personal Thoughts: 
Just the annual reboot/renewal of the franchise. This one’s theme is playing cards and the seven deadly sins or something. I’ll make some hapless Canadian watch it to punish them for their misbehavior and probably make fun of whatever crazy-ass ED they have this time, and then promptly forget that it exists for another year. Thus does the circle of life go endlessly on.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
        
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Final Thoughts:

After how hard last season was swinging around the melodrama-for-melodrama’s-sake sledgehammer, just about anything’s an improvement. I’m happy that everything’s very well spread out across the week, barring a completely empty Tuesday again. The sheer number of light novel adaptations with paragraphs for titles is a little disconcerting, but light hearted action’s where my tastes generally trend towards. While the promos and studios with those shows don’t inspire a whole lot of confidence, maybe they’ll have some more impressive bits that they’re saving up for Comiket to show off. Or have non-repugnant characters to fall back on, although again, after a month that seemed to be barely anything more than teenagers bemoaning being teenagers, it’ll probably take a week or two to snap back to a proper state of mind.

There’s also Young Justice starting back up (yet again) in mid January, assuming it doesn’t get yanked off the air at the last second again. I’ll figure out what to do with that when the time comes. Okay. All done. Go wild.

Posted in Season Preview | 29 Comments »

29 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • jingoi says:

    check out- Cuticle Detective Inaba, Minami-ke, Tale From The End of the Edo Era Roman, Sasami Doesn’t Try

    to watch- I Don’t Have Many Friends NEXT

    skim for fanservice scenes- Da Capo 3, Senran Kagura, Love Live, Tamako Market, Good Job Club, Kotoura, Vividred Operation, Problem Children From Another World

    Yet Another Pretty Cure is doujin fuel

  • ShuffleAir says:

    Meh. This season seems pretty plain I’ll check out mostly everything for surprises still.

    I’ll put my bets on Kotoura-san mainly for the staff though.

  • Chen says:

    That’s a surprisingly light season preview. Where’s all the zaniness Japan is known for? I’ve had it with the high school settings, club activities that spiral into non-events and idol groups that couldn’t be more wish-fulfilling if they’ve tried.

    Anime is dead etc.

  • CucarachaEnojada says:

    I hope that “Maoyuu” at least keep it’s plot(and i don’t mean the Useless Meat) close to the original LN.I give up wishing Ishida Akira’s designs on the characters already.But i will past the first episode,i read it 5(o more)times,1 for every manga that exist,+ the LN.And i’m missing 2 other versions,i think.

  • The Phantom says:

    Uggh I have horrible vibes for this season, Inaba, Maoyu and unlimited look decent, Haganai sounds decent but I still have to watch that first season which bored me to hell and have not been able to force me to see it yet.

    This season definitely looks as bad as last one if those shows fail, especially when the flagship of horrible anime is thrown into the mix this season, how the fuck is Da Capo getting so many seasons?.

  • Anonymous says:

    “I question how other people can know what they’re going to be rabid fans before even that much exists.”

    Songs will be sing about your legend.

    “If we’re lucky, they won’t end up with a pokemon sidekick and figthing Rezo for the fourth time.”

    If we’re lucky, they won’t end up with a third Season of merchant and kemonomimi eating apples and talking about rate exchange or simply put, doing nothing.

    “How can one studio make so much of a mess out of so little?”

    Kokoro Connect. Some things are just not meant to be animated.

    “JUST LIKE K-ON, BUT WITH MOCHI!”

    AND BOY! AND COCK! I wish Kyoani could turn into those moeblobs only to realize they can’t hold pencils anymore.

    Final Thoughts:
    It didn’t look so bad back then but reality is such a bitch.

  • Baby Choo Choo says:

    I’ll probably tune in for Minami-ke. Enjoyed the previous seasons for what they were. Nothing special, but still enjoyable.

    Other than that, this looks to be yet another season where I actively try to avoid as many shows as possible.

    Admittedly, I’d probably watch “I Don’t Have Many Friends NEXT” if they got rid of everyone except for Sena and Kodaka. All the other side characters aren’t completely terrible in my opinion, but the extremely bitchy childhood friend is probably one of the worst characters in anything I’ve ever seen. Every little damn thing about her is painfully annoying for any amount of time.

    I know I’ve gone on one my usual rants before about how much I also hate these wish fulfillment shows, but I feel like Sena and Kodaka are decent characters when they’re interacting and I could see myself watching a show (I say show, but I mean like an OVA or 2 maybe…lol) that’s strictly about them hanging out and doing whatever random crap they would do. But, sadly, it is what it is and what it is…well, you hit the nail on the head. It’s yet another crappy, creepy, blatant wish fulfillment show that strives to do nothing more than get it’s cast popular enough so they can throw them on body pillows later on down the road.

  • ark noir says:

    The little boy in most otaku’s want a drill to pierce the sky, but the one inside Aroduc’s screamed “yes, Ikkitousen Clone’ at Senran Kagura

    Incidentally I want Da Crapo 3 so I can rage at the strengthening of the bloodline through family copulation. ASAKURA’S WILL NOT DIE, THEY MULTIPLY!

  • Jack Flood says:

    I have fairly low standards, thus anime as a hobby, so much of this looks like fun to me. I’ll give most a three episode run before culling the herd. A few I have no interest in right off the bat:

    – Minami-ke: Thought the first couple of seasons were just fair.

    – Da Capo 3: Didn’t care for the first season.

    – AKB0048: Hate Idols.

    Other than those three, I’ll give the rest a spin. Many look bland. The lack of creativity coming out of Japan these days may be reflective of their economy and an unwillingness for many studios to try unproven story lines.

    =^.^=

    • It’s always risky to try something completely new. You could end up with Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Or you could end up with Fractale.

      Or you could decide “Sex sells” and do Senran Kagura, which is guaranteed to be profitable, even if it doesn’t hit it out of the park.

  • U.Renko says:

    Goddamit this season will suck
    (again)

  • Nazarielle says:

    “Kyouya is a pacifist in all ways, never willing to stand up to anybody over anything.”

    That’s not a pacifist, that’s a doormat.

  • Kunagisa says:

    I disagree with you on so many things but the previews are just so fun to read. The swing ratings are the best.

  • Kitsu says:

    Awesome season, like always japan make.
    I am sure we wiil have a lot fun, based japan

  • ZakuAbumi says:

    Not a single JUMP show around this time? The panic, Aroduc!

  • Jack Flood says:

    I always forget to say “thanks” for your Season previews, so thanks for taking the time to post your season previews.

  • Anonymous says:

    You should watch precure.

  • Kefit says:

    My picks:

    Friday
    Cuticle Detective Inaba – Zexcs action comedy? Sure I’ll give it a try. It’s got Hidaka too!!!!
    Maoyuu – No real interest, but I have friends who are going to force me to watch at least a couple of episodes.

    Saturday
    Minami-ke – Loved s1, just like everyone else. Somehow I doubt this fourth attempt will be as good as the original. But I gotta try it.
    Oreshura – The PV for this is actually pretty tightly put together. If that’s any indication of the actual show’s quality then this might be a cute little osananajimi series for a weirdo like me. Of course, it’s also an LN with an LN name so I’m expecting to be disappointed.
    Da Capo – The first Da Capo anime was a pretty important series in my burgeoning anime viewing life way back when. So I gotta keep watching all the new ones. This also features seiyuu Miyazaki Ui, who is awesome but basically never voices anything anymore.

    Wednesday
    Tamako Market – Gotta watch at least one episode to see how vapid and staid this is despite the assuredly beautiful production values.
    GJ Club – Huh what a 4koma LN? That sounds too absurd to be a thing. I just have to see how this actually works. Will probably immediately drop unless angels descend from the heavens.

    Thursday
    Sasami-san – Great high detail designs make me pretty interested, but I’m pretty sure the Shinbo will be too much for me after an ep or two. Shinbo has similar effects on me as it does on Aroduc.
    Kotoura-san – The concept sounds like it could be a cute little romance/slice of life show, but further research reveals it’s a 4koma. Still, Acchi Kocchi impressed me despite its 4koma roots. Guess I’ll give it a try.
    Vivired – This has the worst seiyuu cast I’ve seen in a long time if you ignore the idol wannabe seiyuu in AKB0048. Which is a shame, since I’m still going to be watching it for what appear to be some delicious visuals and action fun.
    Haganai 2 – Contractual obligation. s1 did have some decent stuff buried in the muck. I wonder how much more buried it will get in s2.
    Mondaiji-tachi – Decent staff, decent designs, and Nakajima + Nomizu as leads? I’m sold for at least a few episodes.

    Great, another season where I’m going to have a big gulf in the middle of my week. Not that it really matters, since I typically can’t watch any Friday or Saturday shows until the following week, haha. Some of these shows look like they might be fun little series if they don’t try too hard and everything lands right during production.

    Haha, who am I fooling. I watch enough anime to know that most of these will go to shit. But hey, there’s always a few surprises, and digging them out is half the fun!

  • Afrosquirrel says:

    The USS Missouri

    i do not understand

    Please clarify whether or not this show actually contains the USS Missouri so that I can know whether to bother with it or not.

  • Cartman says:

    Those working in SHAFT haves schizophrenia

  • Gorilla13 says:

    Wow… the winter season looks like shitte!

    Japan keeps sinking lower and lower. Guess the Dutch and the Venetians are celebrating right now for having new comrades to sink with them.

  • Anonymous says:

    …I’d run through haganaiNEXT just to take screenshots of sena’s rack. but I’m a perv like that, anyway.

  • Birdway says:

    Mondaiji-tachi and Haganai Next sounds decenet but the latter has that bitch of a chilhood friend with her drama included….

  • Yue says:

    Better go stream or download the first episodes of each show. Who knows, there might be gem in the pile rocks. ^^;

  • anise_punter says:

    This is the least excited I’ve been for a new season in a while. It does have Hosaka going for it, at least. Something will pleasantly surprise me, probably something that Aroduc caps and makes fun of.