天下制覇

Majin Bone
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/majinbone/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Merchandising
Staff/Cast Information
Premiered April 1st (Very early morning)

Premise: 
Ryujin discovers the magical abilities to use Bone Cards to turn into Bone Fighter and now he and his Bone friends must protect the world from Dark Bone.

Personal Thoughts:
Good lord, it sounds sarcastic without even trying. If only the show was being done by Bones, but alas. If it wasn’t obvious already, it’s a primetime show for shilling some new Bandai card thing so besides giggling or drinking games about every time they say “bone”, it’s damned from the get go. The whole Bone fighting thing (good lord) is all in particularly ugly PS2-era CGI too, which may be a step up considering Toei’s typical poor animation. 

Preseason Swing Rating:

A warm cup of hell no.

Marvel Disk Wars: Avengers
http://www.disney.co.jp/diskwars/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Merchandising
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 2nd (Very early morning)

Premise: 
Using the DISK system, kids can summon heroes to fight the forces of evil. Mostly Loki.

Personal Thoughts:
Uh, yeah. Another weird Bandai thing featuring a bunch of spunky teenagers using the Avengers like pokemon where you hit the… thingies with other thingies and try to flip them over. Which means that this is basically an adaptation of Marvel Pogs. The Avengers are such whores. Although I am a little interested in seeing how badly Japan could do Spidey in something like this. On the other hand, maybe they’ll get the full pokemon treatment and they won’t be able to say anything but their names.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Welcome to die!

Blade and Soul
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/blade/
Studio: Gonzo
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Based on an MMO of the same name. An assassin and a remorseless killer travel together and have adventures or something.

Personal Thoughts: 
Don’t look at me. The extended synopsis is basically fanfiction about all the darkness every protagonist is struggling with and how they meet various oddly dressed people. Well, that and the back pain from the sacks of fat barely restrained by flimsy bits of string. None of the staff have any great deal of experience with these kinds of shows though, especially not recently. I guess the promo was… all right, if relying a bit heavily on CGI landscape whirling about… and only about 15 seconds of actual animation.

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
Slayed and bowl

The Kawai Complex Guide to Manors and Hostel Behavior
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/kawaisou/
Studio: Brain’s Base
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Usa moves into a new dorm full of wacky people and falls in love with one of them at first sight.

Personal Thoughts:
The actual title’s a pun that could be read as something along the lines of “We’re All Pathetic,” so that’s a fantastic start right there.  Same original creator as Love Lab as well, which didn’t last more than a few episodes of. Oddly, this is pretty much the same staff as Blood Lad. Comedy was not exactly the strong point there though, so removing the action and switching the ‘jokes’ from referencing Dragonball to… I don’t know, Love Hina? doesn’t seem like a strong push in the right direction.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Trouble brewing.

Riddle - Story of Devil
http://akuma-riddle.com/
Studio: Diomedea
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Haru is targeted by a dozen assassins, all posing as students at her school, but one of them becomes infatuated with her and betrays the others to protect her.

Personal Thoughts: 
It’s more than a little worrying when a show has a promo where the only animation is about 20 seconds of people talking on the phone. You don’t even hear what they’re saying, you just watch them talking on the phone. And then some CGI dice roll. Are you excited yet!? They did release another promo today showing a bit more, but not a lot. The staff is more promising than the promotional stuff, having the 7Arcs director (Nanoha, Sekirei, Dog Days, etc) who certainly can direct action well if Diomedea gives him a budget (about a 50/50 chance lately). The writer’s more… average, but at least not a red flag like someone like Okada would be.

Preseason Swing Rating:

¡Viva los huevos!

Selector Infected WIXOSS
http://selector-wixoss.com/
Studio: JC Staff
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 3rd

Premise: 
Lots of people play the WIXOSS card game, but certain WIXOSS cards are special, holding spirits in them. The Selectors who have these cards battle each other to have their wish granted.

Personal Thoughts:
Japan, we need to talk about these titles. And speaking of Okada, here she is again, because apparently she is now the melodramatic anchor around JC Staff’s neck. The promo is full of teenage girls crying and clutching themselves, so there’s little danger in her treading any new ground with this one, but now you can look forward to it with JC Staff’s animation muscle instead of Ordet’s! At least she and the director certainly have experience. Not that they need one for a premise like this. Yes, it is to shill a new children’s card game as well. That’s three this season and counting. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Infected meat

Mushishi
http://www.mushishi-anime.com/
Studio: Artland
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of Ginko, exploring mystical happening as he journeys.

Personal Thoughts: 
To probably the surprise of nobody since I start to get twitchy if a show goes 30 seconds without an explosion, knifing, or pie to the face, I wasn’t a great fan of the original series. It lost me pretty quickly by opening up with shots of bushes and straight up exposition and panning over stills to explain the case of the week as if it was an audio book and having to draw anything at all was cramping its style. It’s the same director and studio though, so good news I guess if you are a fan. Unless the first episodes involve someone knifing and exploding pie though, I wouldn’t count on it holding my attention.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Mystic creatures

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure
http://jojo-animation.com/
Studio: David
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 4th

Premise: 
Sequel(ish) series. The next generation of Jojo(s) versus the the vampire Dio, covering the most well-known chapter, the one with the Dreamcast fighter.

Personal Thoughts: 
No changes in the staff or studio, so it’s safe to expect more of the same. The same as the corny oblivious TV series that is, not the OVAs. I actually like the OVAs that this arc is based on, and not just for the violence against chihuahuas. The TV series made me cringe and feel like they were just using the source as storyboard, keyframes, script, and animation with nary a thought about how the medium of animation might be different in any way that didn’t involve someone screaming into a microphone.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Half a horse

Fairy Tail
http://www.fairytail-tv.com/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th (Very early morning)

Premise:
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of the members of the Fairy Tail guild of magic users.

Personal Thoughts:
This remains my main memory of the first episode waaaay back when. It apparently went on for another hundred and seventy, only to take a year off and force me to write this for its return. Screw you, Fairy Tail. Same staff, studio, etc. Supposedly picking right back up in its endless quest to… do whatever the hell they’re doing where it left off. I guess A-1 traded Satelight helping out with the animation for Bridge so it might be even more unanimated than before. If you’re lucky.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Away, foul beast

The Star-marked Dragonar
http://www.seikokutv.com/
Studio: C-Station
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Students who have formed contracts with dragons attend a special school. Ash has the mark of a contract and joins the school, but when his dragon is born, it emerges as a girl his age.

Personal Thoughts:
Also known as Dragonar Academy, again for reasons I don’t understand aside from them apparently attending a school. And this is the first of the utterly generic magical girlfriend light novel adaptations for the season. This is C-Station’s first time leading the production of something. The head writer’s… maybe okay (Problem Children, Nyarlko). The director less so (Kuroko’s Basketball). The promos made it clear that this is going to be all about the T&A, naked floating girls, panty shots, and ripping clothes, with only a couple maimed children in there for melodrama or whatever. That should be the spice on the top of action, or something to pass the time between fights, not the selling point itself, and when all you’ve got is “They ride dragons… and look at all these tits!” to advertise, that’s not a promising sign.

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
Two dick dragons

The Irregular at Magic High School
http://mahouka.jp/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Miyuki and Tatsuya, brother and sister, join a school for mages that’s separated into two groups depending on their test scores. She ends up in the top one while he ends up in the bottom.

Personal Thoughts: 
It’s really more of “dropout” or “failure” than irregular, but whatever, we can roll with it. Another of the light novel adaptation about going to magical school for magic people ilk. And of course, he’s actually a secret super genius with a very specific power or something. Probably the darkness living within him, as it invariably is. This has Horizon’s director, but Madhouse is no Sunrise. While I certainly wouldn’t be shocked if they put some effort and money and whatnot into it, I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t either. If they have, they certainly haven’t advertised much.

Preseason Swing Rating: 

BEES!

La Corda d’Oro – Blue ♪ Sky
http://www.ntv.co.jp/corda/
Studio: TYO Animation
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Kanade is a member of the orchestra club and there’s boooooys!

Personal Thoughts:
If you don’t include the ♪ in the title, you’re wrong. This is the third in the series and shares the same staff and studio (well, same child studio after merging), so if you’ve somehow forgotten that there have already been two of these, here’s an unfriendly reminder that there’ll now be a third. The game advertises that there’s up to a dozen different boys you can date, and wow, will you look at how unique they all are. Talk about spoiled for choice. It (probably) won’t have anybody swinging around on wires holding impromptu concerts though, which is now something I apparently judge these girly ‘romance’ things by, or monocles either, so it can go sit on a trumpet.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Four boxes of bread 

Still, The World is Beautiful
http://www.ntv.co.jp/soreseka/
Studio: Pierrot
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th

Premise: 
Nike, princess of the Rain Dukedom, is sent to the Sun Kingdom to marry its king for her land after losing to her sisters at rock paper scissors, but she discovers that he’s nothing more than a spoiled boy who wants to use her powers.

Personal Thoughts: 
Ew, Pierrot. Whatever talent it once had has long since fled or been absorbed into the soulless Shounen Jump whoredom department to work on one episode every two to three months. It’s their outstanding Naruto/Sonic X director too, apparently looking for things to do. The promo is like… 80% pans and about a third of that is pastel, sparkly, bubble backgrounds. I guess this season is a prolific one for girl romances. This one stands out from the others by having only one guy, and him being underage.

Preseason Swing Rating:

One gondola

Roughneck Sumo!! Matsutarou
http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/matsutaro/
Studio: Toei Animation
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 5th (Evening)

Premise: 
Matsutarou is stronger than anybody and his only weakness is his carefree personality. Also, he’s a sumo wrestler.

Personal Thoughts: 
The seventies were a simple time for premises. There actually hasn’t been much announced or any promotional material about this (at least at time of writing), but since it’s taking over Saint Seiya Omega’s timeslot with the same studio, it’s a safe bet that it’ll probably have much the same staff and the same goal of milking as many dollars and cents out of nostalgia as possible. I’m not a great fan of sports shows, let alone ones involving sweaty men rubbing each other, and the knowledge that it’ll most likely be going on years like a crowd of fat, sweaty zombies is the opposite of a hook.

Preseason Swing Rating:

A genetically enchanced lion

Baby Steps
http://www9.nhk.or.jp/anime/babysteps/
Studio: Pierrot
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th (Very early morning)

Premise:
Eiichirou decides he needs more exercise, so checks out tennis, loves it, and decides to become a pro.

Personal Thoughts:
No more sports shows. Please. At least it’s not Jump, just a Jump clone. Here’s the other big Naruto director too, so it’s nice to see Pierrot keeping them busy, I guess. Otherwise, they might get ideas. It pretty much just looks like Prince of Tennis, right down to the protagonist having a magical tennis power, but I guess the formula is changed by also have a girl. So you get some interminable romance too that will also never go anywhere or go past blushing and a damp handshake. Now that’s what Prince of Tennis was missing for me!

Preseason Swing Rating:

Praise Satan!

Haikyuu!!
http://www.j-haikyu.com/anime/index.html
Studio: Production IG
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th (Very early morning)

Premise: 
Hinata loves volleyball, but he was obliterated in his first real match by a star player. He joins the high school club to train and get revenge, only to find the guy there too.

Personal Thoughts: 
Rolling on with more fringe sports, and this time, it’s Jump. Great. Production IG at least is familiar with Jump sports nonsense involving hitting balls over nets from their flirtations with Prince of Tennis. I expect them to put about as much effort into this one as well, which is to say very, very, very little. The key staff has barely done anything, and certainly nothing noteworthy, even less so relevant for “pubescent boys play volleyball.” Could be worse. Could be curling.

Preseason Swing Rating:

♪ One of life’s simple joys is playing with the boys ♪

Daimidaler The Sound Robot
http://penguin-empire.com/
Studio: TNK
Genre: Action, Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise:
Kouchi can generate special particles to power a super robot, but only when he gropes girls. His robot is the best hope against the penguin robots of the evil Penguin Empire.

Personal Thoughts:
That’s sound as in “of sound mind”, although I imagine it’s probably pretty loud too. The animation in the promo stuff wasn’t that exciting, although it did have a penguin dickgun. I worry that by revealing that, the show may have already blown its load. Same staff and studio as High School DxD doing basically the same concept, but with robot penguins. They didn’t impress me with either the comedy nor the action (nor the T&A while we’re at it) of that and all they’re showing here so far are some clumsy robots trundling around. And dickguns. At least they’re not CGI.

Preseason Swing Rating:

‘Harmless’ penguins

Captain Earth
http://captain-earth.net/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise:
Daiji stumbles into strange building when an alarm goes off signaling that robotic invaders from space have arrived. He’s mistaken for the ‘captain’ and is dragged into the battle for the planet. Also, he has mysteries in his past.

Personal Thoughts:
Of course he has mysteries. God forbid any protagonist not and only deal with current events. I mainly harp on it because most of the promotional stuff involving actual characters is gravestones, people standing in the wind, or people looking constipated. There are better ways to advertise giant robot shows. Same staff as Star Driver, which I can’t remember what turned me off, but I suspect it was that the show was too fabulous. Nothing about this show strikes me as fabulous, but then what’s left? Robots and angst? I bet these things don’t even combine and form Captain Planet.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Burn them. Burn them all.

Mischief of the Gods
http://kamiaso-anime.com/
Studio: Brain’s Base
Genre: Romance
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise:
Yui, a regular girl, is recruited by Zeus to attend high school with a bunch of teenage gods and teach them about romance.

Personal Thoughts:
Does Japan not know of Zeus’s penchant for rape? But I guess these girly game things often have an unhealthy undercurrent of the doe-eyed, braindead protagonist being passed around between all the domineering pretty boys like a sack of meat. Ye lords, the promo is only about 40 seconds of animation and has almost all of them either leering at, brooding at, or just straight up mounting her. The staff may not be the same as Brain’s Base’s last two forays into this (Amnesia, Brother’s Conflict), but the new people they brought on have done enough of this kind of show to not expect anything other than what’s on the tin.

Preseason Swing Rating:

One thin metaphor for guarding the gates of anal virginity.

Brynhildr in the Darkness
http://www.vap.co.jp/gokukoku/
Studio: ARMS
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise: 
Murakami had a friend when he was young who was obsessed with aliens. She died in an accident that left him severely hurt and he vowed to find proof that aliens exist because of a promise he made to her. Years later, a girl with super powers joins his class that looks just like his dead friend.

Personal Thoughts: 
Despite the magical girlfriend and dark past, not a light novel adaptation, surprisingly enough. It is, however, Jump, which is a bit unusual for ARMS. The main two things to this director’s name are Reborn and the bad season of Seizon, so that’s yucky. The promo is pretty weak too. ARMS has probably used up all its money and talent for a season or two with Wiz Bars. It’s ARMS too, so half the promo is closeups of breasts and crotch. Even Queen’s Blade promos generally have some kind of action to fool you. This just has some minor violence against a rock.

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
Designated pussy tease of the season

Love Live!
http://www.lovelive-anime.jp/
Studio: Sunrise
Genre: Merchandising
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of the school idol group μ’s.

Personal Thoughts: 
I don’t understand why this has another season, but apparently it’s a thing. I was pretty bored and tired of the first season by the end of it and only really remember that there were alpacas at some point and a lot of rotoscoping. I remember being annoyed that it kept piling on more and more characters who had a personality right up until they joined the idol swarm, which in a way, could be a statement on the whole idol thing… if I believed that it had any awareness of that or that anime was capable of doing anything besides jerking off over how great idols are.

Preseason Swing Rating:
     
All the freshness and life of a pack of slumbering hippos

One Week Friends
http://oneweekfriends.com/
Studio: Brain’s Base
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premieres April 6th

Premise: 
Yuuki tries to make friends with a loner girl in his class, but she tells him that she forgets all her friends after a week. He vows to become her friend again, every week.

Personal Thoughts: 
Probably better translated as “Friends for a Week,” but eh. Japan. Oh, the melodrama. The promos bleed it from every oriface between teary-eyed girls and the standard girly pastel backgrounds. What it doesn’t have is any real animation, expecting just the depth of emotions to carry things. You’re not going to fondle my undercarriage like that, Japan, especially not with a gimmick that tries to explain away the lack of progression in these kinds of shows as a plot device. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
Meth’s a hell of a drug

If She Breaks the Flag
http://gaworare-anime.com/
Studio: Hoods Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 6th

Premise: 
Souta can see the ‘flags’ that determine a person’s destiny, but when he sees a death flag on himself, he needs to gather together a party to save his life.

Personal Thoughts:
Yet another one of those shows based on an LN that seems to be built around the singular concept of going “We recognize some piece of internet lingo!” in the same vein as that multiple choice thing. But this has Hoods handling it, ever the bottom of the barrel studio they are. I guess at least the promos have some animation, which seems like an unfortunate rarity for the season. They didn’t really do much to excite me or convince me that it was anything other than just typical LN harem schlock though. BELATED EDIT: 15 minutes of the first episode was out Monday. It’s… shrill.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Three disapproving dogs

Hero Bank
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/herobank/
Studio: TMS Entertainment
Genre: Merchandising
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 7th (Very early morning)

Premise: 
Kaito is suddenly saddled with a huge debt and has to play the internet game, Hero-Gi, to pay it off.

Personal Thoughts:
Ugh. Back to the stuff made to sell toys to children. This one’s basically the same as that bone thing at the start of the preview, including the ugly CGI battles, except that they’re shilling some Sega 3DS RPG. At least you don’t collect cards, just pseudo-cards. Apparently you can transform into a bunch of random cameos in it, so it’s made to shill a lot of things. Fantastic. Moving on. 

Preseason Swing Rating:

We are here to make money and sell out and stuff

Black Bullet
http://www.black-bullet.net/
Studio: Kinema Citrus
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 8th

Premise: 
A parasite called Gastrea has decimated the world. The survivors retreated within special walls to hold it at bay, but children begin to be born already infected with it and able to control it to use special powers, but only females. They’re paired with a Promoter to continue the fight against the Gastrea threatening humanity.

Personal Thoughts:
Another LN adaptation with a magical girlfriend. Kinema Citrus can be pretty good with the action and animation when they put their minds to it, but are usually more middle of the road. The promos were… okay, but a little too enamored of scenery shots and speedlines to get me excited. Both the director and head writer and relatively prolific with Monster being their main collaboration of note. Not too many action shows aimed at people about 12 though. It’s probably enough to be tentatively hopeful, especially compared to the rest of the new stuff on the list. 

Preseason Swing Rating:
   
A black ballet line

Soul Eater Not!
http://www.souleaternot.tv/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 8th

Premise: 
Spinoff of Soul Eater following a group of girls, one a living weapon, getting into hijinks in magic school.

Personal Thoughts:
Not exactly what I would have thought Soul Eater would spinoff into. If you thought Tari Tari was a runaway comedy, then good news, because it’s the same person doing the directing and writing. It’s Bones, so it’ll probably look okay despite the promo being fairly lacking. Removing the screaming adolescent boys is probably a step in the right direction, but I’m leery of the plan of “Soul Eater but without the action,” and I wasn’t even a fan in the first place. The way they go out of their way to show that the original characters are still arounds also gives the impression that this is just to keep the franchise alive and in a holding position instead of something anybody on the staff will be putting real effort into.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Rrrrrrrrrrraaaaarrrrrr!

No Game, No Life
http://ngnl.jp/
Studio: Madhouse
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 9th

Premise: 
Sora and Shiro are brother and sister who hate the real world but are unbeatable online. They’re summoned to a fantasy world where violence is prohibited and everything is decided by special games. The fate of the humans in the world depends on them.

Personal Thoughts:
So… pretty much the same as Problem Children only more gimmicky? Of course it’s an LN too. Madhouse is a crapshoot as to where they put effort, but from the promos, it looks like they’re putting at least some. Whether or not they keep it up, who knows. Whatever their recent love of bloom is though, they could stand to tone it down. The proliferance of explosions and guns also doesn’t sell the “no violence” premise very well. Inexperienced director, but the writer’s done some stuff I have somewhat warm feelings for. A lot of stuff I haven’t as well. The promos are easily some of the better ones for the season though, so fingers crossed.  

Preseason Swing Rating:

Beware the ides of delphinus

Chaika The Coffin Princess
http://chaika-anime.jp/
Studio: Bones
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 9th

Premise: 
After the war ended, ex-soldier Tohru began wandering. He comes upon a girl carrying a coffin and follows her, hoping to find new meaning to his life.

Personal Thoughts:
Yet another magical girlfriend light novel adaptation, from someone almost terrifyingly prolific (Outbreak Company, Macademy, Scrapped Princess, Polyphonica, and more). For a show about magical people with giant magical guns and magical horses, the promotional stuff was pretty lacking. I think Bones may be stretched a little thin this season with three shows. Staff’s kind of lackluster, but they have made these kinds of fantasy adventure shows before (Scrapped Princess for director, Tears to Tiara for writer) with… okay results I guess. It strikes me as likely ending up being a popcorn show, but we’ll see if they bring a little more than what the promo shows.

Preseason Swing Rating:
  
Three loyal companions

Great Revolution – Dai☆Shogun
http://daishogun-anime.jp/
Studio: JC Staff/ACGT
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 9th

Premise: 
In an alternate history, foreign ships were driven away from Japan by an ancient giant robot. The Meiji Restoration (reinstalling an emperor of Japan and modernization) never happened. Now there’s a lot of tits.

Personal Thoughts:
If you forget the ☆, you are wrong. Stars are a sure sign of a manly, robot, action show. As are all the tits. The promo is really cheap, but boy did they make sure there was a guy yelling at you and tits. It’s JC Staff’s action director, for weal or woe (Shana, Aria TSA, Slayers, etc). JC Staff has been pretty lame at everything but maudlin melodrama (and even that’s something I want to see disappear) since losing most of their talent to Silver Link though, especially when it comes to action. At least it’s not Okada, although the only thing this guy’s done that wasn’t for selling tops is the first season of Eureka Seven. Be still my mecha-despising heart.

Preseason Swing Rating:

But what about Mecha-Orochi?

Atelier Escha and Logy
http://atelier-ps3.jp/escha-logy/anime/
Studio: Gokumi
Genre: Adventure
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 10th

Premise: 
Logy joins Escha are both alchemists working in a remote village surrounded by the ruins of an ancient civilization, unexplored and full of mysteries.

Personal Thoughts:
As of writing, I’m still slowly making my way through the actual game. I need something to do while exercising, and playing “spot the bad translations” is one way to amuse myself. At least the show probably can’t annoy me in that way. Gokumi’s not exactly one of the stellar studios out there and the promos don’t exactly ooze excitement either. The staff’s not horrible though. Director’s a JC Staff guy (Ookami, Zero, Sky Girls) and the writer’s the same as Black Bullet’s and is… prolific with a lot of ups and downs. They could, in theory, put together a decent show maybe. It probably depends on how much of the central plot they focus on versus how much faffing they prefer, because while the game has much less faffing than most, it still faffs like faffing is fifty faffing percent off. I know which I’d bet on happening and I’m not excited to be forced to sit through faffing, especially not without being able to speed through it.

Preseason Swing Rating:

May only contain 1/8th the palette swaps of the game.

Did You Order a Rabbit?
http://www.gochiusa.com/
Studio: White Fox
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 10th

Premise: 
The Rabbit House cafe plays host to a number of strange girls.

Personal Thoughts:
Or “Is the Order a Rabbit?” if you want to go by their poor attempt at English. It’s based on a four panel comic thang, so yeah, that premise is about as far as it gets. Kudos to them for not using “five girls screw around at a club” and instead going with “five girls screw around at a cafe.” That’s a bold and creative move forward. White Fox is pretty low in my studio standings and the promo that was mostly pans over random scenery didn’t change my expectations for this. Who knows with comedy though? The writer’s at least a decent hand at it (Milky Holmes, Muromi, Kampfer, etc), but I cringe to think what those would have been like without any visual clout to back them up.

Preseason Swing Rating:

This is not the hausenpfeffer I asked for

Ping Pong
http://www.pingpong-anime.tv/
Studio: Tatsunoko Production
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 10th

Premise: 
Peco and Smile are friends with a talent for ping pong and their club instructor hopes to take them to a greater level of competitive play.

Personal Thoughts:
You see, his heart has been scarred and he can no longer smiiiiiiile. I think I may have already exhausted the amusement Yet Another Fringe Sport sport show will provide by looking at the live action movie version’s poster. It looks like one is sitting on the other while doing dramatic ponging. And then a guy comes to play them from China… named China. Oh, right, and because the promo was nothing but shots of scenery and rotoscoping. And it’s a noitaminA show. I can’t even count how many strikes that is. Like, three.  

Preseason Swing Rating:
 
Oh, the terror

Nanana’s Buried Treasure
http://www.nanana.tv/
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 10th

Premise: 
Yama runs away from home to a remote island where he comes upon the ghost of a girl who was killed ten years ago. While she was alive, she collected all kinds of strange and magical things from all over the world which are stashed all over the island that can help lead to her killer, but Yama’s not the only one searching for them.

Personal Thoughts:
Yet another magical girlfriend light novel adaptation, although weirdly, it’s on noitaminA. Not a particularly promising staff here. Director’s inexperienced, and the writer… well, last season he did Tokyo Ravens, Flamenco, and that show about ghosts masturbating in someone’s sister’s body. Digging deeper than that only gets worse. The promo’s pretty weak too, but at least there’s something other than stills and pans. With such creativity too, featuring not only a magical girlfriend, but a maid, antagonist in glasses, and girl in ridiculous hat.  

Preseason Swing Rating:

Put some real detectives on the case

Date A Live
http://date-a-live-anime.com/
Studio: AIC+
Genre: Action
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 11th

Premise: 
Sequel series. The continuing adventures of Shidou, who can seal the powers of interdimensional girls by seducing them.

Personal Thoughts:
I was never really a great fan of the first season and it limped badly to the finish line. Same staff/studio, etc. These kinds of shows typically flag really really badly in their second seasons though as they’ve already introduced the entire set of females and god help us if they ever do anything to disturb the status quo in any way, and every single character must always be involved in every event to do their token thing else they risk alienating absolute anybody. Then again, Fridays are generally pretty sparse and this season is no exception.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Primarily concerned with generating teenage wood

Mekaku City Actors
http://www.mekakucityactors.com/
Studio: Shaft
Genre: Drama
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April 12th

Premise: 
Kisaragi hasn’t left his room for two years, but when he spills soda on his keyboard, he’s forced out. The store he goes to is robbed and he runs into a group of teenagers with magical eye powers. They force him to join them.

Personal Thoughts:
This originally began its life as a series of Vocaloid songs of all things but has since become some manner of weird multimedia franchise. I guess that makes Shaft and Shinbo… some kind of fit. It’ll certainly take… something to stretch four minute songs out to entire episodes. Or even half episodes. I guess there’s room for a little creativity, which I might have had confidence in Shinbo to provide five years ago, but not so much these days. While they’ve released a bunch of promo stuff for it, all of it is basically “here’s the concept art for the character, and their VA saying a couple lines.” Not exactly inspiring.

Preseason Swing Rating:

Actually, how hasn’t there been a Vocaloid show yet?

Regular High School Girls Tried to Be Local Idols
http://www.tbs.co.jp/anime/locodol/
Studio: feel
Genre: Comedy
Staff/Cast Information
Premiers April ?????

Premise: 
Nanako and Yukari are small town idols doing small town idol things.

Personal Thoughts:
After announcing this, there hasn’t been much of anything. I’m not even sure it’s a real show and not some tiny little thing, but Feel’s been quiet lately and they don’t do many (any?) of those 3 minute affairs. In any case, 4 panel comic adaptation which are hit or miss (generally miss). The only thing of note about the staff is that the director has done an unusual number of terrible shows about sibling incest, but Otoboku may be the most notable thing between them. I’m not holding my breath that Yet Another Goddamned Idol Show is going to make any waves though. 

Preseason Swing Rating:

Wrong show