天下制覇

Red Data Girl
http://rdg-anime.jp/
Studio: PA Works
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiered March 16th

Premise: 
Izumiko has a rare supernatural power but thinks of herself as just a socially awkward normal girl. Miyuki is supposed to be her protector, but he resents her. As she starts to mature and wants to be part of the modern world, her powers are also beginning to awaken.

Personal Thoughts:
Since the first couple episodes aired already, I get to cheat a little. Needless to say, whining about cutting your own bangs for the opening ten minutes was not an endearing way to begin. I let the second episode run too while I was working on stuff and only established that the characters still have no developed personalities. After forty minutes, the most exciting and emotional thing in the show was a haircut. I’d mock it more for that, but there’s an entire show this season based around death barbering. Which brings us right to…

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Two potato bombs.

Severing Crime Edge
http://crimeedge.com/
Studio: Gokumi
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Iwai is cursed and her hair can never be cut, until one day that she meets Kiri, a boy with magical scissors who always feel the urge to cut other people’s hair. When he cuts hers, he sparks an ancient competition to kill Iwai and now has to protect her.

Personal Thoughts:
Despite the inane premise, the promos are incredibly generic and fairly cheap, which is a little surprising since Gokumi’s usually been decent if unremarkable. It does have an interesting director (YamiBou, Touka Gettan, FSN). I don’t know what you get when you average those three. Same with the head writer (Horizon, Saki, Oreshura, Haganai, etc). Once you get past the hair cutting thing though, it really smells like just another magical girlfriend thing though and the promos weren’t promising much in the way of atmosphere, action, or even fetishized hair cutting.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
        
"And here we have the pinnacle of Japanese creativity."

Song of the Prince Seriously Love 2000%
http://utapri.tv/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Pretty Boys
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Sequel series. Haruka’s continuing adventure to become a songwriter in a music school, surrounded by male idols. Now with 1,000 more percentage.

Personal Thoughts: 
As I said for the first season, none of them have a monocle, no deal. same staff, same dead-eyed female, same Wakamoto in a pink suit, etc. I have vague memories of the music being decent, which is always useful for a show about musicians, but I also remember that the lead female’s main lines were "…", "Huh?" and "…Ah!" yet the bishie brigade flocked to her like she had a penis too. Maybe she did. I didn’t make it far enough for any kind of shocking reveal like that. I’d be really shocked if there were any reveals in the show period.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Cabbage. Just cabbage

Karneval
http://karneval-anime.com/
Studio: Manglobe
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres April 3rd

Premise: 
Nai is searching for someone while Gareki is a common thief. The two of them are framed for a crime and forced to join Circus, a clandestine government group that deals with things that the regular police can’t handle under the cover of being carnival performers.

Personal Thoughts: 
…And together they fight crime. Or monsters. Whichever. Manglobe’s Manglobe. I suppose after Unlimited last season, I shouldn’t make too much fun of them since the production was competent at least, but they still have far from a good track record. The staff’s nothing special either, plus the promos are somewhat underwhelming for things supposed to get you excited about the show. As much as I think it could be fun, all the moody pretty boys staring meaningfully at the screen somehow do not make me feel like it will be focusing on kicking butts and being clowns so much as brooding.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

One dice rabbit mafia

Working Demon King
http://maousama.jp/
Studio: White Fox
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Sadao had nearly conquered his world in the name of evil, but was defeated and thrown into modern Japan. Without any useful abilities left, all he can do is take on odd jobs and try to get by.

Personal Thoughts: 
Nobody on this staff should be allowed anywhere near a comedy, and White Fox has not impressed me with their abilities to actually animate instead of just drawing super ultra fancy backgrounds and CG cars. It’s also worth noting that the light novels it’s based on have only two volumes released, so they’re either going to be letting this awful staff make things up or be stretching everything out to absurd levels. Somehow, I doubt this show is going to turn out well.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Why are garden variety angels always more deadly than demon lords?

Galaxy Corps Majestic Prince
http://mjp-anime.jp/
Studio: Dogakobo/Orange
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Humans have left Earth and begun to colonize space, but they soon encounter a hostile alien species. Hitachi is a mech pilot known as a Prince, genetically engineered to fight on the front line and protect humanity.

Personal Thoughts: 
Dogakobo, what are you doing animating a mecha show? At least they appear to be at least semi-competent with the CG in the promos. Same director as Date a Live and a head writer primarily specializing in shows containing literally nothing (GuP, Seizon Lv2, Bakuman, etc). Neither are promising. Japanese mecha and the usual baggage of angsty teenagers, CG, and technobabble press usually aren’t my bag anyway, and this looks about as joyless and broody as it comes.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
We aliens come in peace!

My Youth Romantic Comedy is Wrong As Expected
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/oregairu/
Studio: Brain’s Base
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Hachiman has no friends and hates the very idea of youth, but is forced to join a club for helping people where he’s suddenly surrounded by beautiful girls.

Personal Thoughts: 
Don’t you just love official LN titles attempting to be English? Me? I’d just translate is as "Yeah, This is a Bad Romantic Comedy," because it works on so many levels. Godawful and generic light novel premise, right down to the gigantic title, antisocial lead, and club of beautiful girls fawning over him, combined with a newbie director, newbie writer, and a studio that has been mediocre at best in recent years. Perhaps the only ‘impressive’ thing about it is that they released a three minute trailer using only LN art and CG backgrounds. Now that inspires confidence! I’m hoping for a trainwreck, but I fear even that may be asking for too much ambition from this.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Nothing good this way comes

Photo Girlfriend
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/photokano/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Kazuya likes to take pictures of girls.

Personal Thoughts: 
With an astounding premise like that, it probably isn’t much of a surprise that it’s the spiritual successor to Kimikiss and Amagami, but with even less effort put into the premise, a few extra girls staring lustily at the screen, and the source being even more shameless. And no, that’s not some Japanee guy just being creepy. Shoving a camera into their nether regions is apparently a selling point. It is a different studio and staff from either of them, not that it’s a good staff and Madhouse does not traditionally put effort into anything but its action shows. Even then, it’s maybe 50/50. Anyway, I expect a bevy of generic girls fawning over a protagonist with the personality of a moist toilette, only without the moistness. Exciting.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Protagonist being played by Log

Devil Survivor 2
http://ds2a.jp/
Studio: Bridge
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Strange creatures called Septentriones begin appearing in Japan, bringing demons with them and causing destruction. Hibiki is one of 13 people who sign a pact to gain the power to fight back against the invaders.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same director as Persona4 and an experienced, although inconsistent head writer handling the adapting deal. The promo looks like it has a better handle on the art than P4 did, although Bridge’s main other show (Mitsudomoe) had great production for both the first episodes before the budget immediately took a swan dive into the pavement. Thursdays are looking fairly miserable though. I guess it just has to be better than everything else.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Jack Frost approved

Date a Live
http://date-a-live-anime.com/
Studio: AIC Plus+
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th 

Premise: 
Strange phenomenon called spacequakes begin to rock the world whenever a spirit appears in it. Itsuka is a seemingly normal teenager, but he discovers that he has the power to seal the spirits that are causing the spacequakes, but only if he can get them to open their hearts to him and fall in love.

Personal Thoughts: 
There’s a special pre-air streaming on Nico on the 30th, but the broadcast actually begins the next Friday on the 5th. The standout of the staff here is the head writer who is just godawful (Aria TSA, Merry). The director’s certainly prolific if nothing else and Thor only knows what you get with AIC, although Plus+ has not traditionally been one of their more talented divisions. Most of what I dug up about the source is that it tries to be everything and succeeds at next to nothing. The promos don’t look too bad though, or at the very least, not eminently dull. Hopefully they can make something either decent or laughable out of the hodgepodge of everything thrown together here.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
          
Instant show, just add warm bodies

The Flowers of Evil
http://akunohana-anime.jp/
Studio: ZEXCS
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Kasuga impulsively steals the gym clothes of a girl he has a crush on, but he’s caught by an antisocial classmate who uses it to blackmail him into being her personal amusement.

Personal Thoughts: 
The title comes from Baudelaire’s Fleurs du Mal, which the lead character is obsessed with. And fun story, I opened up a random chapter of the source, and it was him screaming in the rain in anguish as the two females fought over him. I’ve had… better first impressions, shall we say? The promo is also about 95% pictures of backgrounds, so they apparently have nothing they feel like showing off in the visuals either. At least it’s not written by Okada. Praise the little things.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Four fancy alpaca

Samurai Bride
http://www.hyakka-ryoran.tv/
Studio: Arms
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of Muneakira and his harem of samurai girls who get high off his spit and their collective inability to cover their thighs.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same director and studio, new writer handling adapting. That’s got to be an improvement, although most of anything would be. While the start of the first season was quite slick in a number of ways, especially directing, it dropped off very quickly to go nowhere very slowly before an abrupt and somewhat inane ending. It also had issues bouncing back and forth between being serious and comedic. If they can fix the writing problems and amp up the pace… a lot… it could be at least decent, and for an Arms show, that’s generally a win. Just hoping for a little eye candy and style really, something that Arms has not been doing particularly well lately.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

There’s good meat on this thing

Absolute Protector Leviathan
http://leviathan-anime.net/
Studio: Gonzo
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th 

Premise: 
Aquafall is a world of fantasy and magic until the day that meteorites begin falling from the sky bringing with them evil creatures that threaten the world. Syrup the fairy recruits girls from three of the dragon families to make a time to fight back and bring peace back to the world.

Personal Thoughts: 
Based on/advertising for a card game for phones, Gonzo, and pretty much no promotional material whatsoever, so there’s not really a whole lot to say at the moment other than making fun of Gonzo. Then again, they did do Slap Up Party back before they collapsed anyway, so maybe this is a step up. Well, it does have some weird staff involved (Overrun’s main director and Pokan’s head writer), although both have been in hibernation for a while. I’m not really sure what all of that put together means, but fairies have never been anything good.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Weak against borax

My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute
http://www.oreimo-anime.com/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Nothing
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of Kyousuke, his idol sister obsessed with brother-themed pornographic games, and her friends.

Personal Thoughts: 
Same staff, new studio. I don’t know how I finished the first season. Oh wait, it was to the mantra "At least it’s not Arakawa." That was a mistake. Production was poor, I hated every single self-absorbed bitchy character that it tried to foist off as likeable, and the only thing I remember happening in it period is the episode where she suddenly became an acclaimed author and then it was never mentioned ever again. Wait, there was also some techno during running or something? I think that and the ass shaking were the only parts that were animated too instead of slowly panned over or 10 minutes of talking on the phone. This franchise can rot in the bowels of Hades for all I care. Why yes, I do have a chip on my shoulder. About the only promising thing I can think of is going from AIC to A-1, meaning that maybe the opening episode will be animated before it drops off to nothing but half-animated whining heads again.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Two disapproving potatoes

Attack on Titan
http://www.shingeki.tv/
Studio: Wit Studio / Production IG
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise: 
In the far future, humanity lives inside cities surrounded by massive walls to protect themselves from Titans, gigantic creatures that suddenly appear and try to devour people. Aaron hates the Titans that keep everyone caged and wants to explore the world beyond the walls.

Personal Thoughts: 
Easily one of the more impressive promos for this season, although it has a kind of weird older flat style for the character art which when mixed with the CG lighting they’re using, occasionally makes characters gleam like they’re covered in a layer of salad dressing. Experienced writer and the director from HSotD, so he certainly knows how to do impressive action. I just hope it sticks to the action. He doesn’t seem to have boobs to fall back on to fill space this time around.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
    
15% chance of containing rather unfortunate jelly/bullet sequence

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
http://gargantia.jp/
Studio: Production IG
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 7th*

Premise: 
Red has grown up knowing nothing but war. During a battle, his mech is thrown through space and time and lands on a planet nearly entirely covered in water. The people there seem to be living in peace, so he has to try and build a new life for himself there despite having always lived in war.

Personal Thoughts: 
First off, Bandai’s giving away the first two episodes for free at the Anime Contents Expo on the 30th, but it doesn’t start broadcasting until the 7th. Second, that’s so not what verdurous means. It’s an original story and the promos are about 75% "Check out these setpieces!" with a chunk of the rest being CG robots bopping around, so there’s not much to say other than it looks kind of like Waterworld without the mutants and pirates. Urobuchi (Psycho Pass, Fate0, Madoka) is handling the writing though and I remain unconvinced that he knows how to write actual characters instead of proselytizing mouthpieces. Hopefully something happens in it besides "wow, peace." It seems like such a small order, and yet…

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Three fish knights

Crawl! Nyarlko
http://nyaruko.com/
Studio: Xebec
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 7th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventure of Mahiro and his harem of mostly Cthulhu-themed characters that live with him.

Personal Thoughts: 
While the first season started well, by the end, it was little more than an almost completely standard romantic comedy with some very, very weak lipservice to the Cthulhu mythos and jokes repeated with painfully dogged persistence. –Cthulhu reference– is really a space –media thing–. Wash, rinse, repeat. Same staff and studio, so I can only assume it’ll just continue treading the same tired ground that I had gotten sick of about four episodes into the first season. Who knows though, maybe Xebec learned something. Wouldn’t that be a laugh?

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Two true Lovecraftian horrors and one food supply

Bug Squad
http://www.mushibugyo.jp/
Studio: Seven Arcs
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 8th (very early morning)

Premise: 
Jinbee wants to be the best warrior in all of Japan and is overly enthusiastic about it, to the annoyance of everyone around him. He’s recruited by the Mushibugyou, a government agency that helps citizens in need.

Personal Thoughts: 
Okay, so it’s more like Bug Magistrates, but where’s the amusement in that title? Anyway, Seven Arcs, what are you doing? This isn’t even their normal staff. Instead, it’s an awful director and a head writer whose only real show to date was about sexualized trains. The screaming 14 year old primetime-targeted protagonist with "annoying" being right into his character type has long been a thorn in my brain and the shouty promo doesn’t help that, nor does half of it being speedlines. At least the characters are animated instead of drifting stills. I still wouldn’t expect much from it besides a headache from having to listen to shrieking teenagers.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

HRRRRRRRUNK

Hayate the Combat Butler – Cuties
http://www.hayate-project.com/
Studio: Manglobe
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 8th (Special on April 1st)

Premise: 
Yet another season of Hayate, the fighting butler eternally in debt and the girls that flock to him. This time, it’ll supposedly focus on a different character every episode.

Personal Thoughts: 
Isn’t it time to let Hayate die? Maybe that’s what they’re doing by giving it to Manglobe repeatedly. Rebooting it into a different gimmick so soon and with the same staff and studio as the last one doesn’t bode well. Also, last I heard, the most recent iteration had spawned a little sister for her and was going to eventually be about aliens or something? I don’t want to go back and look. That’s how I choose to remember it and nothing will persuade me otherwise.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
     
Half a dozen cuties

Arata The Legend
http://arata-anime.com/
Studio: Satelight / JM Animation
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 8th

Premise: 
Arata is an antisocial teenager who gets picked on a lot, but he suddenly switches places with another teenager named Arata in a magical world who has been framed for the assassination of the princess who rules over the world.

Personal Thoughts: 
The director’s only shows are Shugo Chara and Croisee, so I am not tremendously hopefuly that it will be able to live up to its premise of "loner teen in magic world, ends up the most specialist person ever, obtains magical sword, saves princess." Maybe if it has some flashy action to make up for it, but the promos look average at best, which means that the majority of it is likely Captain Angsty being grumpy and pissy about suddenly getting super powers and becoming the center of the universe before he learns to love again from his spunky and devoted useless female sidekick. Surprise me, Satelight.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
             
Grumble, grumble…

Yuyushiki
http://www.yuyushiki.net/
Studio: Kinema Citrus
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 9th

Premise: 
The life and times of a group of girls hanging out in their club.

Personal Thoughts: 
Another in the line of this season’s string of somewhat weird staffs. The title just comes from their names all beginning with "Yu." The director’s a nobody while the head writer has done a suspiciously high number of shows centered on angsty teenage males staring longingly into each other’s tortured eyes. So of course they’re perfectly suited for an utterly generically premised 4-panel comic adaptation. The promo shows little, so that’s about all I’ve got to say really. I doubt it’ll be as snappy and energetic as these kind of shows really need to be since they rarely ever are. Then again, nothing else at all is airing on Tuesdays this season.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

Fish in a box

Valvrave the Liberator
http://www.valvrave.com/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 11th

Premise: 
In the distant future after most of humanity has left Earth and moved into space, Haruto’s country acts as a buffer between two of the most powerful forces. When the peace breaks and one invades, he stumbles upon a powerful mech and becomes the protector of his friends and country.

Personal Thoughts: 
Since about 99% of the characters revealed so far have been classmates, somehow I have my doubts that the majority of this show will be action fighting space super times. It’s Sunrise, so there’s little danger of it looking poor, although this director doesn’t have much experience with action shows. And it is brought to us by the writer responsible for Geass and Guilty Crown, so you know already that this train will be skipping the rails in short order. Hopefully it produces a colorful explosion.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
 
Two M16A2s

A Certain Scientific Railgun
http://www.project-railgun.net/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Nothing
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres April 12th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of the electrical psychic fighting crime and/or lesbians.

Personal Thoughts: 
The first season was plodding, melodramatic, and spent at least 13 episodes doing literally nothing, focused on side characters whose only traits were the abilities to produce a keening whine then cry about how useless they were. Same staff and studio, so I expect more of the same. The only time it was entertaining was when it remembered that it was a show about characters with super powers which was sadly barely a quarter of the time. It better the hell be flashy to kick things off because I’m not predisposed to give it much more of a chance after how banal the previous iteration of it was.

Preseason Swing Rating: 
  
Three bloated atrocities

The Hentai Prince and the Stony Cat
http://www.henneko.jp/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 13th

Premise: 
After praying to a cat statue, all of Youto’s most candid thoughts start pouring out of his mouth and he can’t hold back his true self any more. Similarly, a girl named Tsukiko finds herself being unable to express anything inside her. The two of them team up to find the people who got the parts of them that were taken away and find a way to get them back.

Personal Thoughts:
Perverted male lead and emotionally stunted female lead have wacky adventures. Really going out on a limb here, JC Staff. Both the director and writer are essentially secondary JC Staff people without much of anything of note under their belts. The promos seem harmless enough, albeit rather generic and could easily be substituted into just about any JC Staff comedy from the last 10 years. Genericness not usually a particularly promising trait in a promo. I don’t know. It’ll probably be… average?

Preseason Swing Rating: 
   
Villified cats