Autumn Season Preview and Gaudy Chocolate Fondue Fountain

September 22nd, 2014

Why is it still summer here?

Standard disclaimers. OVAs, shows under 15 minutes, and things made entirely out of Flash or CGI are not listed here. Nobody has a good idea, myself included, of how things are going to turn out until they actually start airing. Not even me, and I’m so cool, I’m used as evidence against global warming. And yes, even if the source is awesome super amazingo for a whole volume or month. That’s typically the point where they settle in to routine and nothing changing ever anyway. Hell, I think things that just punted the source entirely have a better overall track records than those that consider it dogma. That could just as much have to do with Japan’s need to pad the hell out of every piece of media and not understand how adapting for another media works, resulting in padding on top of padding.

Anyway, I’m calling October 2nd the official start of the season. There are two shows that officially start before then (Terraformars on the 26th and Tribe Cool Crew on the 27th), but nothing else airs for the intervening four days. …Barring the inevitable pre-air webcast specials that always pop up out of nowhere. There have already been a few! …Which apparently nobody recorded. What the heck, Japan?

*ahem* Things are again sorted by day of the week they air, mostly because that’s how I think about them and how I have them arranged on my Survivor-like text file for the season I use to keep track of things. as usual, I plan on covering at least the first episode of everything below except for maybe the sequels to things I didn’t watch, but sometimes the mood strikes me.

I did a quick trawl for promos, CMs, etc this season. Only things with at least 1 second of animation count. Stop releasing text-only crawls or line art and calling that a promo, Japan. It’s probably not as comprehensive as the ones I’ve done in the past, but I’m a busy guy, yo. Let’s get this party started.

Mediafire
Torrent

Thursday

The Bookseller of Electric Town
http://umanohone.jp/
Studio: Shin-Ei
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 2nd

Premise:
Umio just began her new job working part time at a bookstore in the middle of the otaku hub alongside a wacky cast of coworkers.

Thoughts:
“Electric Town” is Akihabara’s nickname, and if you don’t know what Akihabara is, imagine Japan’s nerd mecca and ramp it up a degree or three. It’s more than a little worrying that about 75% of the PV is girls blushing and reaction faces overreacting. Don’t you have a single joke to show, or is blushing and screaming what you’re pinning all your hopes on? From a brief perusal of the source where the main jokes seem to be “Porn exists! *blush*” or “People look at porn! *blush*”  or “People buy porn! *blush*” it would seem possible. Shin-Ei’s not a power house of animation, so maybe they’re putting their best foot forward and wouldn’t that be depressing? The head writer here has shown some talent for comedy (Milky Holmes), but also has a lot of dogs under their belt. The director’s done Saint October (man, does anybody even remember that?) and nothing else. It really just looks like yet another of the ever-ballooning list of shows that go “We totally get otaku stuff, guys! Doujins and Touhous and NicoNico! See!?” before regurgitating yet another half-assed quasi-comedy that by and large forgets the comedy.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Books! *blush*

Amagi – Brilliant Park
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/amaburi/
Studio: Kyoto Animation
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 2nd

Premise:
Seiya considers himself a genius, able to do anything. A strange girl takes him to a run-down amusement park and challenges him to attract 100,000 visitors within two weeks or it’ll be shut down forever.

Thoughts:
I’ve made no attempts to conceal my disdain for KyoAni’s recent shenanigans with producing things so obviously over-engineered by a marketing department rather than human beings, and this has all the tell-tale signs that it’s yet another. Light novel adaptation, ‘wacky’ girls, promo full of “girl does a wacky thing and guy looks surprised” and scenery porn, etc. I do have some hope for this one though. For a big one, it’s not their more recent staff of ne’er do wells behind it, but a reunion of the key staff (LN source included) being FMP:Fumoffu, and the PV is not subtle in advertising that. Both director and especially the head writer have done a number of things with and without KyoAni that do commit all the sins mentioned, but maybe this is KyoAni’s attempt to recapture the spirit of 2003. Or maybe it’s yet another in their parade of soulless LN adaptations, a thin excuse for KyoAni to ponce on about true fanservice and attracting people as they wink and nudge the audience that they’re totally in on the ‘joke.’

Preseason Swing Rating:

Protagonist ponces like Ponce Pig

Gundam Reconguista in G
http://www.g-reco.net/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 2nd (One hour premiere)

Premise:
During a space pirate attack on an orbital elevator, Bellri takes control of G-Self, a technologically advanced mech that very few can pilot and ends up joining the pirates’ fight.

Thoughts:
The big thing about this is that the original creator of the Gundam series is coming back to direct it. As not-a-Gundam-fan, I shrug. It’s Sunrise, it’s supposed more Gundam than ever. I don’t expect there to be a lot of surprises in production strength, content, characters, or themes. They’re even going for a very retro look in the art style from the PVs, which clashes a bit amusingly with the CG space elevator. Gundam and its associated political, theological, and soap opera-y romance stuff is still not my bag, but I’m sure fans of the older series will be interested, and they’re trying to recapture nostalgia without even abusing Kickstarter. Shocking!

Preseason Swing Rating:

Classique gundams run on floppies.

White Box
http://www.shirobako-anime.com/
Studio: PA Works
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 9th

Premise: 
Five girls work together to make it big in animation, each in their own roles.

Thoughts: 
FYI, the term “white box” is to animation like “gold master” is to software. Another season, another PA Works show about girls being friends. This one does seem to have more of a comedy bend to it, and both director and writer have plenty of comedy experience, most recently working together on Genshiken’s second season and Joshiraku. They’re prolific though, so they’ve both done a whole lot of dogs too. The closest thing to a joke in the promo was the girls holding up donuts and yelling “donuts!” They could excel with PA Works’s production strength behind them, but none of that was shown in the promo and it kept prattling on about girls chasing their hopes and dreams; basically the same thing as every other PA Works shows for the last few years, only with somewhat less angst. Maybe.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Kiiiillll meeeeeee…

Psycho-Pass
http://psycho-pass.com/
Studio: Production IG/Tatsunoko
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 9th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The Sibyl system is capable of instantly judging the inherant criminality of a person. Police use its judgements to immediately and decisively administer justice.

Thoughts:
I remember hearing the buzz about the shocking twists being that the ‘perfect’ crimestopper was often wrong, and that it was run by a bunch of brains in jars, and was therefore… not perfect. This apparently took 22 episodes despite being obvious to everybody with half a working brain approximately three weeks before the first episode aired, and further driven home by being explicitly shown in the first episode. But boy, did they apparently stretch the lip service out. Didn’t even rise to the level of Minority Report’s staged-but-technically-true(ish)-predictions-as-long-as-you-don’t-think-about-them schtick. Just… some people are special. Cause… they’re special. Suffice it to say, nothing I have heard about it has made me reconsider going back to watch the world’s most incompetent detective hem and haw her way around as men exposit themselves all over her innocent, gaping brain.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Next shocking twist: The totalitarian society is a dystopia.

Your April Lie
http://www.kimiuso.jp/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 9th

Premise: 
Arima was a virtuoso until his mother died and he lost all interest in life. Years later, he meets a talented violinist. She makes him excited about music and life again. 

Thoughts: 
Ah. Here’s the melodramatic PA Works show, promo complete with opening over some scenery porn with cherry blossoms wafting in the breeze, eventually reaching the wondrous girl that all nature hails as the chosen one. All it was missing was for the world to be black and white before she appeared. Thanks, noitaminA! To be fair, A-1 has certainly had its arms in this brand of melodramatic teenagers poncing about until they discover the wonder of friendship spiel. Director’s a nobody, but the writer’s pretty funny as their resume consists of almost nothing but trashy T&A shows, most recently Blade Dance and Daimidaler. If that’s not a recipe for yet another one of Japan’s endless teenage melodramas featuring a melancholic boy and girl-Jesus discovering the wonder of life, I don’t know what is.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Full of spores.

I’ve Become Twin Tailed
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/ore_twi/
Studio: Production IMS
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 9th

Premise: 
Monsters appear from another dimension to drain the Earth’s energy for twin tails. Souji is given a device from a mysterious girl that transforms him into a twin tailed girl and lets him fight back to save the planet.

Thoughts: 
Briefly glancing through rumblings about the source (because of course it’s an LN adaptation), it’s geared as absurdist action in the vein of KoreZom, but it’s not the premise I find disheartening, it’s the staff. OreImo’s director and a writer who is no stranger to adapting light novels, but with it all being stuff like PapaKiki and Maoyuu, they’ve both shown a remarkable talent for filling space without anything except content, let alone action or humor. Even if the studio was stronger, I doubt these bozos have any idea what they’re doing whatsoever. The promo reflects that as well, being fairly run of the mill as well. I guess at least isn’t full of scenery porn or girls blushing and playing that off as somehow intriguing. What a rallying cry.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Swarm of hair monsters.

Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero
http://yuyuyu.tv/
Studio: Gokumi
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 16th (One hour premiere)

Premise:
Yuuna and friends are part of the Hero Club, a club dedicated to doing good.

Thoughts:
Hero is “yuusha,” so the title has a lot of “yu” in it! Syllabic repetition! The premise is identical to a billion other shows about girls in clubs. There’s supposedly some other ‘magic’ something going on, but there’s not even the slightest trace of that in any of the promotional material, so I’m considering it completely lip service. The promos were pretty unimpressive all around, not containing a single joke and just girls jumping around excitedly for a minute. Kishi’s taking a break from mass producing generic super powered action shows to go back to comedy, where he’s traditionally found more success (Carnival Phantasm, SetoHana). Then again, he also did Galaxy Angel Rune. Writer’s similarly prolific and worked on many of the same comedies as him. Gokumi’s pretty woeful as far as production is concerned, but I doubt a show like this needs a big budget. It has yet to show anything to indicate it’ll be something other than Girls Hang Out In a Club Show #174 though, so I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Preseason Swing Rating:

One overinflated onion.

Friday

Terra Formars
http://www.terraformars.tv/
Studio: Liden Films
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres Septermber 26th

Premise:
Humanity attempts to terraform Mars, but when they arrive, 500 years later, they discover the cockroaches have evolved into hostile and extremely dangerous creatures. The only way humans can fight back is by genetically modifying themselves.

Thoughts:
Get it? It’s like terraformers, but misspelled so it’s Terra for Mars, cause it’s… Earthlings for Mars! This isn’t the last brilliant title pun we’ll be seeing this season. I was largely unimpressed by the first OVA episode that acts as a prequel. It tried to start off with a jarring death which it then ruined by dragging it out for a few minutes and backloading a rape flashback on top of it for maximum… darkness? I guess that fits in with its Jump heritage alongside things like Brynhildr. This director (Blade & Soul, Shigurui, S;G) seems to have a hard time in general with understanding human emotion. The rest was similarly clumsily handled, slow moving, and poorly animated. I dread to think how unanimated the TV series will be.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Rarr! I’m a chameleon!

selector spread WIXOSS
http://selector-wixoss.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 3rd

Premise:
Continuation from spring. The continuing story of girls playing a card game that will supposedly grant their wishes, but actually has horrible consequences, such as creating a ruined world with melting ice cream monsters.

Thoughts:
Apparently from the chatter I’ve heard about the first set of episodes, it took a month to get to the revelation that bad things happen to those who lose, followed by another month to get to the stunning Monkey’s Paw twist, which I (and everyone else) called in the very first episode. That’s all par for the course when Okada’s writing for the last few years. I wouldn’t be surprised if she can’t orgasm unless surrounded by pictures of insecure teenagers crying due to the cruel world’s unfair machinations against them and their innocent dreams of having a family and/or friends. I didn’t make it anywhere close to that far. It had the subtlety of a sledgehammer yet tried to draw it out, and was less concerned with the premise as it was teenagers melodramatically piffing around. I’m not sure what’s left. Suffering porn for insecure teenagers?

Preseason Swing Rating:

A great big blob of insecurity, angst, and bad haircuts.

GARO – The Seal of Flames
http://garo-project.jp/ANIME/
Studio: MAPPA
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 3rd

Premise:
The Valiante Kingdom begins putting magic users to death. A knight flees with his infant son after his wife is killed and raises him to be Garo, the legendary Golden Knight. When the throne is usurped years later, the prince goes in search of the legendary hero.

Thoughts:
It means Fanged Wolf, but given the franchise’s long history and localization as such… Anyway. It’s technically not related to the main Garo continuity, but I’m not terribly familiar with it to begin with. It’s not exactly the most unique premise either, so the Garo name seems a bit tacked on. More concerning is the head writer (Attack on Titan, Jojo, Shana), not someone I would exactly say knows how to keep the story moving and exciting. MAPPA has shown some animation talent with Terrier in Residence during this last season, but the promos make it seem like all the action is going to be completely CGI and mainly posing, transforming, or jumping through flaming CGI logs. Not to mention clashing immensely with the flatter artistic style of the actual animation. None of that excites me. It just makes me wonder if all anybody’s going to do during the time it’s supposed to be hooking the audience is smack a few pieces of wood around.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Stop trying to make unnatural things go together, Japan.

Saturday

Tribe Cool Crew
http://www.tribecoolcrew.net/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Getting Served
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres September 27th (Evening)

Premise:
Haneru and Kanon bond over their mutual love of dancing. Together, they spread their love of dancing and compete in dance offs.

Thoughts:
Come on, Japan. Everyone knows that Bring It On is about fueling the cheerleader fetish field, not dancing. And especially not about kids who are 2 cool 4 skool, least of all one that appears to have pincers jutting out of his forehead. It’s a kid’s show with kid’s show people (Pokemon, Inazuma Eleven, Battle Spirits, etc) behind it. I just like to assume that Sunrise sends its animators to these kinds of things when they leave a mess in the break room. They of course all have special dance-related powers/specialties too. He jumps high and she’s… tall. We’re really phoning this one in, huh? Next!

Preseason Swing Rating:

This isn’t a cheerocracy!

Log Horizon
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/loghorizon/
Studio: Deen
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th (early morning)

Premise:
Continuation from last fall. The continuing adventures of a bunch of fantasy MMO players who find themselves trapped in the game. They form a guild, Log Horizon, to protect themselves and look for a way out.

Thoughts:
Studio change from Satelight to Deen, but same key staff. I excused myself very quickly from this series after the first episode began with poorly animated menu browsing ‘action’ and went from there into the obligatory 18 minute info dump explaining what MMOs were and posturing over dying in the game. I still don’t understand the rise of this subgenre. It’s the same as just regular fantasy, exception with a lot more faffing about the VR and a built-in way for the writer to make up whatever rules they feel like on the fly above and beyond magic. Supposedly, it becomes more political and continues info dumping game mechanics right through the whole thing. I inevitably see the phrase “world building.” The world exists to serve the characters and story. Why would you sacrifice precious time and effort on the latter to service the former? Make a damn guidebook if the exact placement of the Jefferies tubes is that important to you. It does get slight credit for not affixing some weird suffix or punctuation mark to indicate a new season. I have no idea what Japan’s obsession with that is.

Preseason Swing Rating:

It’s big. It’s heavy. It’s wood.

Magic Kaito 1412
http://www.ytv.co.jp/magickaito/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th (early morning)

Premise:
Kaito discovers that his dead father was actually the Kaito Kid, a famous thief who was murdered by a mysterious organization that was after the secret of immortality. He takes up his father’s mantle to thwart their schemes by finding and stealing a magical gem before they can.

Thoughts:
Kaito(u) is both “thief” and his name! Another hilarious title pun! The source is closely matched with its brother in publication, Detective Conan (written by the same person), and will be broadcast alongside it. There have been a number of specials on this in recent years which I’ve given cursory glances, but my brief impression of them was a pretty half-assed children’s Lupin. MØUSE did the same thing at half the length and with copious amounts of sex. Different staff and studio from those, being headed up by the illustrious wunderkind who brought us those masterpieces Coppelion and Angelique. So, you know, great.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

The King of the Magic Arrow and the Vanadis
http://www.madan-anime.jp/
Studio: Satelight
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th

Premise:
Seven warrior women, called Vanadis, each hold a powerful weapon from a dragon to rule over their lands. One of the Vanadis, named Eleonora, leads an invasion into Tigre’s lands. She defeats him, but agrees to let him live if he swears loyalty to her.

Thoughts:
I love how the promo and website look all dark and manly while the LN covers this is an adaptation of are all mostly naked girls flounting their tits or giving swords boob jobs. Hell, the second character listed on the website after Tigre is a maid named Titta. I’m sensing some disconnect. Who knows though? Maybe the producers looked at this and said “You know what’s cool? Battles and stuff! Tits are just the spice.” I really doubt it since the director/writer in charge is the genius behind LaGrange and Bodacious Space Pirates, shows largely characterized by a whole, whole lot of empty space. Satelight certainly could throw some of their production muscle behind it, but there’s a lot of things they completely half-ass too. Like Bodacious Space Pirates. An optimistic estimation is that it ends up as the season’s obligatory schlocky fantasy fanservice show in the vein of Machine Doll/Dragonar/Blade Dance.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Tits and asses.

Searching for the Lost Future
http://ushinawareta-mirai.com/
Studio: feel
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th

Premise: 
The astronomy club investigates all kinds of supposed paranormal occurances around the school. One day, a girl appears out of thin air on the school roof, completely naked.

Thoughts: 
Based on a visual novel and from a glance at its reception, a rather mediocre one even among the preponderance of ones featuring a guy, his male sidekick, and a bunch of girls all after his dick in a club that does nothing. Director’s been around (Future Diary and Shuffle probably most notable), but nothing I’d endorse, even drunk. The promos consist entirely of girls looking wistfully into the camera, no doubt ovulating at the mere thought of being near Blando McProtagonist. I was falling asleep trying to watch what was supposed to make me interested in the show, so not a good pre-first impression or sign of hope for the future.

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
The ass parade marches on.

Fate/stay night – Unlimited Blade Works
http://www.fate-sn.com/
Studio: UFOTable
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th

Premise:
Retelling of Fate/stay night focusing on Archer and Rin. Shirou is drawn into a magical battle royale among mages and the Servants under them, heroic legends summoned from history. The winner gets to make a wish on the Holy Grail.

Thoughts:
My first instinct was “Who asked for them to take the admittedly too-quickly-paced UBW movie and pad it out with twice the length of dialogue?” but apparently I did, so screw that guy. It still counts because apparently this will be a 26 episodes, so it’s not going to be just an extra five episodes to develop characters and themes (to be exceedingly optimistic), it’s going to be an extra eighteen with nearly an entire season likely being nearly identical to the previous adaptation with a different coat of paint. Granted, the promos are certainly some of the slickest this season and it does have some different key staff from F-Zero since that guy has moved on to Aldnoah, so perhaps it won’t suffer from the rampant CGI, distance shots, and dour talking heads that turned me off that. Still, I don’t see the reason for another “We’re sticking extra extra extra close to source this time and it’ll be sourcier than ever!” adaptation. If Japan was in charge of everything, we’d be setting up for a reboot of Lord of the Rings right now, only 12 movies long with an entire 90 minutes devoted solely to Tom Bombadil. Give me something different. Show that you understand what made the source good and build on that, not brag about how you’re getting ever closer to purging all thought from the adaptation process.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Doesn’t that mean we’re absurdly overdue for another Cutie Honey? And Burn Up?

Cross Ange – The Rondo of Angels and Dragons
http://crossange.com/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th

Premise: 
Those who can’t use mana aren’t considered people. Ange is a princess who learns that she can’t use mana. She’s forced out of her kingdom, and in her exile, discovers a group of people like her who use mechanical devices to fight a war against dragons from another dimension she knew nothing about.

Thoughts: 
The promos so needed some woman slapping another. At least they seemed to cover the bare minimum and understand that it’s the robots, dragons, and close-ups of women’s asses with flight suits wedgied so hard into them that it’d take the jaws of life to prise them free which are the selling points. Key staff have done precious little period, and nothing along these lines, so that doesn’t tell much, but then again it’s a Sunrise mech show with all the usual trappings that come with it. Monarchies have somehow come back in a big way in the distant future, everybody dresses like Victorians, and the camera is constantly shoved into someone’s crotch. I don’t know why dragons of all things, but production will probably be decent enough. Past that, who knows?

Preseason Swing Rating:

Robots are the natural enemy of dragons.

World Trigger
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/wt/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 4th (Evening)

Premise:
About five years ago a gate opened to another world and monsters called Neighbors began to come through that were impervious to human weapons. At the same time, super powered people appeared to fight them.

Thoughts:
Blegh. Saturday morning (Japan time), Toei, and Jump source. Not even the edgy jam-filled Jump that we seem to be getting tons of adaptations from these days. The worstest Jump, complete with power levels-but-not-really-cause-we-call-it-something-else-it’s-totally-different-guys. Director of such greats as Tenkai Knights and Battle Spirits, although the writer is more ecletic, being the Guilty Crown/Code Geass/Black Butler fellow. I doubt that a show like this will be featuring much of his creative… genius. That’s probably going to Trinity Seven instead. I think it’s safe to assume the worst, especially with no promotional stuff out there to say any different.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Moving on.

Mushishi
http://www.mushishi-anime.com/
Studio: Artland
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 18th

Premise: 
Continuation from spring. The continuing adventures of Ginko as he observes mystical occurances.

Thoughts: 
Nothing’s changed with staff or studio, so more of the same. Good if you like it, not so much if you don’t understand the appeal of endless shots of forest and people walking through it while someone narrates how mystical and wonderful some mundane thing is because it reminds them of something else whilst piano and violins swell with the sheer majesty of the wonder of nature. No points for guessing which camp I fall into. Maybe I need to start smoking salvia. My trump card is that I’ll be out of town on vacation and possibly drunk when it re-re premieres. Good enough excuse for me to not take a third swing at it.

Preseason Swing Rating:

It doesn’t exist if I don’t acknowledge it.

Sunday

Seven Deadly Sins
http://www.7-taizai.net/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 5th (Early morning)

Premise:
Seven demonic knights called the Deadly Sins were defeated by the Holy Knights. Ten years later, the Holy Knights revolt and begin tyrannically ruling the kingdom. The deposed princess’s only hope is to find the Deadly Sins and convince them to help her save the kingdom.

Thoughts:
Another October, another A-1 Pictures prime time fantasy adventure. Not Magi this time. We’ve moved on to a more Arthurian setting, but still operating under the same formula with the pervert protagonist who looks like a little kid going around groping things in quest for or through seven of something. None of the staff has worked on anything I have a strong liking for. Darker than Black is I suppose what’ll be of most interest to people which the head staff worked on together, but that was with Bones handling the production… and probably not comparable for a very large number of other reasons. There’s not much promotional material either, and what exists is fairly weak. But at least it contains boob honking. Huzzah.

Preseason Swing Rating:

87% less chance of belly dancers.

Le Fruit de la Grisaia
http://www.grisaia-anime.com/
Studio: 8-Bit
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 5th

Premise:
A school was created for troubled teenagers, but it’s equal part prison. Six people attend it, all with pasts that still haunt them.

Thoughts:
Based on a visual novel of some repute and notability. Director’s a nobody and the head writer is, well… the one who did such a fantastic job adapting things like Tokyo ESP, TWGOK, OreImo, etc. Not my first choice when trying to take something where the strength is in the writing, and doubly so if they’re going to be ambitious above trying to actually cover all of the girls since Grisaia has a bit more meat to it than schlock like Amagami or Bridge Over Ayumu’s Butt so the usual VN adaptation strategy of “dick around until the last two episodes, giving ten minutes to each character before putting together some half-assed ending out of spit and duct tape” probably won’t work. But I’m willing to bet that they’ll try!

Preseason Swing Rating:

Their vaginas are the fruit.

The Wolf Girl and the Black Prince
http://www.ookamishojo-anime.jp/
Studio: Tyo Animation
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 5th

Premise: 
Erika pretends to know a lot about romance. She takes a video of a random guy and claims to everyone that it’s her boyfriend. However, the guy ends up being a new student in her class. She begs him to not reveal her lie and he agrees, if she’ll obey him and be his dog.

Thoughts: 
This seems woeful all around. One of JC Staff’s awful drama directors in charge (Love Stage and Bakuman most recently) and Tyo doing the production. Promos were barely animated and covered in all your typical awful visual cliches for this kind of show; half-assed pastel backgrounds, sparkling pretty boys, and blushing because he loooooked at me. If this is the best foot they’re putting forward in 60 seconds to get people interested, I truly fear what they’re going to be putting out with an entire season to fill.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Costarring tofu mutt.

Method of the Sky
http://sora-no-method.jp/
Studio: Studio 3Hz
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 5th

Premise:
A group of girls made a wish, which changed their world, while above them floats a mysterious disc.

Thoughts:
The promos mainly consist of scenery porn, girls holding hands, girls crying, girls gasping in wonderment at the one clearly different girl, and girls dancing in a field of flowers. At least it’s not cherry blossoms. That’s not exactly a lot to go on (original work), yet I kind of already feel like I’ve gotten most of the story without looking any further. Director’s a weird fit (Needless, Maid Guy), but I guess he did Strawberry Panic too. One of the writers behind Kanon/sola is lurking in the shadows here, which just kind of seems to solidify things. If not for the sole male being relegated to the background, it’d easily be mistaken for a VN adaptation, and honestly, given the absolute nutter butter bloody clustermess of girls being friiiiiends every season, I don’t think a little penis or vagina lust would hurt things.

Preseason Swing Rating:

WE ARE WATCHING YOU

Gugure! Kokkuri
http://www.gugukoku.com/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 5th

Premise:
Kokkuri is summoned by a little girl and ends up haunting her, but she’s not afraid of him and he ends up taking care of her instead.

Thoughts:
“Kokkuri” is basically the Eastern equivalent of ouji boards. Learning time over. …And “gugure” isn’t really a word either, so… Anywho. Director’s done some comedy (Working’s second season, Sketchbook), but didn’t do a great job of either. It’s one of those four panel things that seem to usually give directors fits when it comes to putting things together into a coherent form. You’d think that’d at least make it easy to put together a promo for it with at least one joke, but they defaulted to mostly people making silly faces as per usual. Apparently those are the punchlines and all that’s left is to watch the show for the setups to them. 

Preseason Swing Rating:

i am groot.

Girlfriend (Beta)
http://girlfriend-kari-anime.jp/
Studio: Silver Link
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 12th

Premise: 
A bunch of simulated girls are horny and waiting for your cock.

Thoughts: 
This is based on a cellphone game where you pick one of around a hundred girls and then ‘date’ her. And by date, I of course mean, “do the same thing as you would if you were playing Farmville.” Press a button when it nags you, water the fields, and annoy your friends. So it’s basically Nintendogs mixed with one of those “Hang out with Kim Kardashian” games, which I feel makes it ten times sadder than either. And since the only promotional material they’ve announced so far, including what the content is going to be, is “has lots of girls!” with some shots of the game, I don’t think anybody at all, even on the production side, gives half a crap about it.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Relationship Status: Morbidly Desperate.

Monday

Mysterious Joker
http://s.mxtv.jp/joker/
Studio: Shin-Ei Animation
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 6th (Early morning)

Premise:
Mysterious Joker is a thief who travels around the world in search of adventure and treasure, using what appears to be magic to get away with his capers.

Thoughts:
One new kid’s thief show isn’t enough for this season, we must have two! None of the staff is interesting, although the director did do that OVA about having sex with your twin waaaay back when anime had gotten over Sister Princess incest fad and hadn’t yet reached OreImo’s incest fad. An incest lull, if you will. At least from the promos, it looks like it’s a pretty comical and gaggy kid’s show through and through instead of prattling on about believing in the heart of the cards/magic/yourself. That’s… something?

Preseason Swing Rating:

Weak against Tornado Blade.

Rage of Bahamut – Genesis
http://shingekinobahamut-genesis.jp/
Studio: MAPPA
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 6th

Premise: 
Long ago, the god-like Bahamut threatened to destroy the world. Humans, gods, and demons banded together and sealed it away, with the two halves of the key split between the gods and demons. Thousands of years later, a human girl steals the gods’ half of the seal. 

Thoughts: 
This is based on one of the eight billion cellphone CCGs out there. Apparently cellphone games are the new pachinko. At least MAPPA sort of knows how to make promos, although yeesh, all that silly CG and people posing. It does bear remembering that their high profile show last season (Terror in Res) took an absurd production hit after the first episode. Staff’s pretty nondescript. Director only really has Karas and T&B to his name, which I suppose had some decent action in places, and the writer has a goose egg. With luck, they have more in the tank than a bunch of CG city stomping and can maintain the action for more than an episode this time around. I’d be more optimistic if it wasn’t based on a bloody cellphone game.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Why are Japanese gods always incompetent?.

Pedally Wimps
http://yowapeda.com/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 6th

Premise: 
Continuation series from last October after a season off. Onoda is a wimpy nerd, but is surprisingly talented at biking and is forcibly conscripted into the cycling club.

Thoughts: 
I didn’t make it past the first episode of the first set. It kicked things off with pans and exposition before launching into the protagonist screaming about how socially inept he was. Neither staff nor studio has changed, so it’s safe to assume that it’ll still be the same group of dangerously pointy chins and stills on stills on speedlines on pans on stills. And like all Japanese sports shows, obsessing over minutia to try to cover up characters flatter than cardboard and grow slower than moss. What fun.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Pedal on, you hobos.

INOU-Battle in the Usually Daze
http://inou-anime.com/
Studio: Trigger
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 6th

Premise: 
One day, the members of the book club all discovered they have super powers, but nothing else happened. No villain appeared to fight. No danger threatened the world. And so their normal lives go on like they always have.

Thoughts: 
Key staff’s been around but never in charge of anything, and promos had more posing than anything else, so while they showed some animation, there wasn’t too much that excited. It’s not like there’s a lack of shows (even just LN adaptations) about magical teenagers going to school, or even ones just pretending to be magical. What I don’t understand is the fervor with which they declare “but nothing happens!” It strikes me as a brain fart someone would come up with while stoned before an editor says “Because that’s monumentally imbecilic.” If anything, it strikes me as a preemptive marketing ploy so they can say “What did you expect? Anything? We told you not to!” But since all you have to say is “A club with at least four girls and one guy” and they publish it, here we are. While a show like Seinfeld purports to be about nothing, it actually has 2-3 subplots per episode plus overarching things going on in addition to introducing soup nazis and Mulvas each episode. When a Japanese show claims that nothing will happen and it will go nowhere, I absolutely believe them.

Preseason Swing Rating:

 
This is the entire plot of three episodes.

Tuesday

Yona of the Dawn
http://www.marv.jp/special/yona/
Studio: Pierrot
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 7th

Premise: 
Yona is the only heir to the throne and in love with her cousin. He suddenly kills her father and seizes the throne. She flees with her bodyguard to find the four legendary dragons who will help her regain her throne.

Thoughts: 
Promo was not the most horrible thing, and after Tokyo Ghoul, I suppose that Pierrot may have found some small amount of talent hiding under the cushions, although most of it was fairly lacking. It’s all relative. Nobody on the key staff is associated with anything period. There’s still a bit too much of plaintive girl gaping in shocked silence at her cadre of pointy-chinned pretty boys for me, and doesn’t lead me to believe that the action they were showing off in the promo is actually going to be the main content. Anime’s already lousy with ‘tough’ girls surrounded by one to many attendant pretty boys in a light fantasy setting and I don’t see this contributing anything to that but more noise.  

Preseason Swing Rating:

GRONK

Trinity Seven
http://trinity-7.com/
Studio: Seven Arcs
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 7th

Premise:
Arata wakes up to a black sun and the revelation that he’s been transported to another world due to a magical disaster. To save his cousin from it, he enrolls in magic school and finds seven mages waiting for him, calling themselves Trinity Seven.

Thoughts:
It’s another of the harem magic school affairs, but there are a few things that stand out. Seven Arcs, for one, who has usually been adept at this kind of thing. The director (Index, Melody of Oblivion, Azumanga) and writer (Geass, Guilty Crown) are also of the mostly ambitious variety. Granted, it as often as not blows up in their faces, but you can’t get a truly spectacular train wreck without a little effort. On the other hand, the promos haven’t been very impressive and from cursory glances, it appears to go down that “secretly the overlord” path that Japan is in love with these days, so every single protagonist is half demon. This isn’t a bad staff to put at the helm to make something interesting out of it, but there’s just as good a chance that it’ll be a flaming wreck as decent as schlock.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Melons and melons and melons and melons and melons.

Wednesday

Gundam Build Fighters Try
http://gundam-bf.net/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Merchandising
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 8th (Early morning)

Premise: 
Sequel series. Seven years after the events of Gundam Build Fighters, the game has changed from solo fights using models of Gundams to teams of three. Three students join together to make a team and win the world championships.

Thoughts:
Get it? It’s called “Try” because there’s three people like “Tri” and also ’cause they TRY really hard! …Someone shoot me. Same writer as before, but new director. Regardless, I’m still not a 12 year old, nor do I paw at the screen for merchandise unless it’s at least 40 proof and flavored like strawberry lemonade, so I’ve disqualified myself already from its target audience. At least Sunrise means it has a slightly higher budget and more flashing lights to push its marked-up toys.

Preseason Swing Rating:

To be followed by Gundam Build Fighters Four Play.

The Shepherd of the Great Library
http://www.daito-anime.com/
Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 8th

Premise: 
Kyoutarou has dreamed of being able to read all the magic books in the world, but they’re locked in the magic library. The only way he can get in is to follow the shepherd’s instructions and bring happiness to the people around him.

Thoughts: 
The third of the visual novel adaptations of the season. Hoods continues to anti-impress by putting out a barely animated promo with misshapen jelly faces, but at least they’ve got the illustrious writer behind such greats as Linebarrel, Riddle, and the especially awful season of Last Exile handling adapting. I haven’t even heard anything good about what it’s based on to begin with. The highest praise seems to be “It sure is another game where you play a doormat that has sex with a bunch of ‘cute’ gimmicky girls all conveniently slotted into individual archetypes.” Be still my racing heart. 

Preseason Swing Rating:

But ye screw one sheep…

Chaika – The Coffin Princess
http://chaika-anime.jp/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 8th

Premise:
The continuing adventure of Chaika and friends, collecting the pieces of her father’s corpse while they’re hunted by the Man and a bunch of other Chaikas.

Thoughts:
The first season was mostly okay right up until the last arc became astonishingly awful, but it didn’t really make much of an impression otherwise. It had an above average budget for action and some decent direction behind it, but rarely put those to effective use. The characters were the weakest part, especially the Empire antagonists who spent the entire thing just hanging around wondering if they were doing the right thing besides a couple sparring matches with the protagonists. If it had a few more hills and valleys in the pacing and arcs (and allocation of the budget) or some actual character development, it could have really sung, or at least given more to discuss, but they didn’t take any chances and so ended up with nothing. They have the start of a decent cast and adventure plot, but they need to actually do something with them this season.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Functional, but nobody’s first choice if given options.

Parasyte
http://www.kiseiju.jp/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Thriller
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October 8th

Premise: 
Alien worms suddenly begin a silent invasion, burying into a human host’s brain and taking them over. The one that attacks Shinichi is forced into his arm instead. The two now share his body and must work together to survive, even while he tries to fight against the invasion.

Thoughts:
What this is based on ran for five years in the 90s, and has since experienced some kind of weird resurgence with multiple live action movies and this series. Maybe that means they’ll be willing to take some chances, trim the chuff and accentuate the good parts, whatever they might be. A bunch of shots in the promos were a bit… silly… for a show about body snatchers that turn heads into teethed flowers and then crunch faces. Madhouse is a crapshoot as far as production goes, but this looks like it’s probably one of the ones where they put a little more effort into. Key staff is… well, if you were hoping for a reunion of the people behind Uninhabited Planet Survive, then good news! If it doesn’t, then, uh… this guy directed Moyashimon, I guess? It seems like it’ll be probably okayish, at least assuming the protagonist isn’t the sniveling sack of piss he looks. …That’s a rather poor assumption in Japanese mediaville.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Guaranteed worm free.

Clouded Laughter
http://www.dontenniwarau.com/
Studio: Dogakobo
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres October ???

Premise: 
The age of samurai is coming to an end and carrying a sword is now illegal. Three brothers ferry criminals who refuse to obey the new order to an island prison, as well as hunt the criminals who escape. 

Thoughts: 
The site hasn’t updated for almost a month, no broadcast date is listed, and the only promotional material they’ve released is some colored in manga art… in March, but they tweeted yesterday saying “look forward to our tv series in October!” so I guess I’ll assume it exists in a consumable form and we’ll roll with it. I could very well be wrong. Newbie staff, Dogakobo’s mediocre at best and the last two times they tried to make action shows, they put out Majestic Prince, and Devils and Realists. Even assuming it actually exists and has not been forgotten by all involved, things do not look promising.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Team irrelevant.

Concluding Thoughts:

I’m just happy summer and all its oblivious nonsense is wrapping up. If I see “sublime” used to describe things that make absolutely no sense one more time… Besides the obvious one, this season also has very little of the “joy of rural life for self-importance ponces” that I oh so abhor. No Shaft either. What ever will all the stoners watch? And only one show written by Okada, which is a sequel? Truly we are living in the blessed times. Hopefully one or more of the very many action shows with a less-than-impressive promo was holding back, or continuing things like Chaika (or I guess Akame since that’s merrily continuing along) will finally get all their ducks in a row. Of course, after how woeful action was this season, especially in the later going, that’s not going to be a hard order to fill. Same goes for comedies after this season’s mess.

Posted in Season Preview | 26 Comments »

26 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Anonymous says:

    24 episodes of UBW? I can’t wait for the 3 episode-long explanations of how magic works!

  • Yue says:

    Girlfriend (Beta)
    Premise:
    A bunch of simulated girls are horny and waiting for your cock.

    FACEPALM

    (thank you for the PV links)

    More mecha action is always welcome:
    Gundam Reconguista in G – I want to see more exploding battleships
    Cross Ange – sexy women (no sexy men) with mechs and dragons

    These caught my interest:
    Madan Ou Vanadis – it feels like an action show, but I saw none
    Trinity Seven – perhaps there’s plot and interesting character relationships
    GARO – the armored suit is definitely impressive

    Aroduc’s secret guilty pleasure but won’t tell us otherwise:
    Fate/stay night – Unlimited Blade Works

  • Longhaul says:

    LOLopinions and all but honestly this will be an amazing season.

  • gin-sama says:

    IMHO, my top 5 fall anime of this year are:

    1. new season of Fate/Stay Night
    2. new season of Psycho Pass
    3. Magic Kaito
    4. Terra Formars
    5. Parasyte

  • Afrosquirrel says:

    I like the steadily increasing cynicism across the summaries. Next season, maybe you could go for a dadaist angle and see if anyone notices.

    UBW gets a free pass, and Cross Ange has Akiko Shikata singing the OP so I’ll stick with it until a single comes out at least. Probably will watch GBF too, Gundam is actually okay when it doesn’t take itself seriously.

    • Chipp says:

      > Cross Ange has Akiko Shikata singing the OP so I’ll stick with it until a single comes out at least.
      It actually has all BGM composed by Akiko.

      • Afrosquirrel says:

        Welp, guess I’ll be following it all the way through. Is there any chance of finding a version of the series without people talking? I could go for a silent-film style if Akiko was orchestrating.

  • elior1 says:

    @aurdoc what do you think about the anime which based on a tale Musume Ronja?do you think it have potential?

  • Anonymous says:

    Apply Aroduc process fomula:
    Hate, hate, hate, hate, hate, typemoon (possible exception), hate, hate, hate, hate, some lame ass show to appreciate, hate some more, and probably throw in a hand job somewhere in-between.

    Naturally hate in most of these cases is actually love, because Aroduc is such a goddamn tsundere about everything, and won’t admit his true feelings.

  • Hinano says:

    Girlfriend (Beta) is just a card game.
    I’m playing the Boyfriend (beta) one myself lol
    You collect cards that have mini “vn” scenarios but they’re as vapid as fuck with faceless protagonists. I think I just play it for my favorite seiyuu and I imagine Girlfriend (Beta) is popular for the same reason.

    Mobile card games are super popular in Japan so it’ll probably just be episodic tropes based on the random vapid card scenarios/personalities of the girls with no real beginning or end. It’s probably just a promotion to get people to play the game and blow more money on their card lotteries.

  • Sanjuro says:

    I really like the “Electric Town” manga. And yes, it is 90% reaction faces. But those reaction faces are sublime.

  • Kitsu says:

    I just need lesbians
    What show I supposed to watch?

  • shark0week0 says:

    All this bad taste.

  • Dragon says:

    Looking forward to Le Fruit de la Grisaia as I enjoyed the VN alot. I am curious as to how they will do it as a really big part of the game’s appeal and humor was in the MC’s internal monologue.

  • Neclord X says:

    I have a fetish for generic fantasy series, and there is a shiton of those this season, so I’m someway happy

  • jingoi says:

    ecchi – Bookseller, Amagi, White Box, Twin Tailed, Yuuki Yuuna, WIXOSS2, Tribe, LogS2, Vanadis, Searching, Cross Ange, Taizai, Grisaia, Method, Girlfriend, INOU, Yona, Trinity, Fighters Try(fights and tits), Shepherd, ChaikaS2

    watch – Psycho-Pass2, Mushishi,
    check – Reconguista, Terra, Kaito

    wait for dub – UBW (better have Mela Lee or no watch)
    the usual for me, the s*** gets viewed for its nude girls.

  • Shad3 says:

    Well, there are only few titles catching my attention.

    I’ll watch Cross Ange for the music. (Basically, I just want to hear more Shikata Akiko)
    I’m looking forward Grisaia and Vanadis, though, they are in danger of becoming talking head show….

    Grisaia’s appeal, as Dragon noted, lies in the protagonist monologue. as for Vanadis, the story actually contains only a small amount of action. The hero of the show uses bow, adversaries are either one-shot kill or one-shot miss, and more time is spent strategizing and army commanding, compared to straight duels. Not a good formula for action-y scenes.

  • someone says:

    Two Gundam series, Grisaia & Fate/Stay Night. That’s my fall season to watch. Everything else looks & sounds stupid.

  • Rz says:

    I lol’d at your commend on Grisaia no Kajitsu rating.

    And, nice review as usual aroduc.

  • FiluÅ› says:

    I wanted to download PVs from Mediafire but there are Parts 1,3 and 4 only… Or its just wrong filenames?