After looking at the characters in part 1 and then the show built around those characters in part 2, the third group of awards will focus on the extras in an anime; namely, the vocal work, music, and animation quality. These components aren’t among the core reasons why an anime is successful or not but they can exert a surprising amount of influence for either outcome.

Not that I’m implying correlation equals causation; maybe that’s something Okabe from Steins;Gate could study after he was done changing the world’s ruling power structure and defeating the secret organizations – he could study how integral are the vocal work, music, and animation quality towards an anime’s success or failure.

Best Male Seiyuu

Winner: Mamoru Miyano as Rintarou Okabe from Steins;Gate and Shinku Izumi from Dog Days

The best part of the rather uneven Star Driver was Mamoru Miyano’s vocal work for the main character, Takuto Tsunashi. As a result of that role, I decided this season that it was worth checking out both anime that he was voicing the main character, Dog Days and Steins;Gate. He was merely good as the Hero in Dog Days but that had more to do with limited nature of the role and the animators behind the show. The role as mad scientist in Steins;Gate gave him much more room to perform and he took advantage of that.

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Best Female Seiyuu

Winner: Aoi Yuuki  as Victorique from Gosick and Tooru from A Channel

Runner-up: Yuu Kobayashi as Mariya from Maria+Holic Alive and Undine from Yondemasu yo Azazel-san and Ruka Urushibara from Steins;Gate, Aya Hirano as Katja from Seikon no Qwaser II and Shizu Shidou from Maria+Holic Alive

The meteoric rise of Aya Hirano’s career opened many doors for her but it also attracted a lot of noise from detractors that sometimes makes it difficult to remember underneath everything Aya Hirano is a very good voice actress. Both of her roles this season were smaller then I’d like but combined they showed that she has it. As for Yuu Kobayashi, I’ve been a fan of her unique talent for awhile now. I like the wide assortment of voices that she can bring to a role and this season saw her utilizing many of those voices in her various roles. My favorite was the cross-dressing Mariya. However, the winner just had to go to Aoi Yuuki for carrying, not one, but two anime series she starred in with just her vocal work. If it wasn’t for her, I’d’ve dropped both Gosick and A Channel for being complete wastes of time. Instead, in the end, I found both decent enough shows.

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Best OP

Winner: Maria+Holic Alive

Runner-up: Nichijou, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, AnoHana

If this award was based solely on the song itself AnoHana would have won; I’ve had Aoi Shiori by Galileo Galilei on heavy repeat for weeks now. However, I also have to factor in the animation and how well the two work together to create the right mood for watching the episode. Using the full criteria, Maria+Holic Alive edges out the competition for the win.

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Best ED

Winner: AnoHana

Runner-up: Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Nichijou, Gosick

This time AnoHana does win, in part, because they did that thing where the ending song starts playing as the last climatic scene plays out before going to credits in just about every episode. So now I associate the song with all the best moments of the show and the song’s soothing, cathartic nature was perfect for the show’s ending.

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Best Background Music

Winner: Nichijou

Nichijou is just the latest in a long string of anime series by Kyoto Animation that feature stellar background music. I’m sure there were other series that had good background music but I can’t remember any other leaving much of an impression on me.

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Best Dressed Characters

Winner: Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Runner-up: Hyouge Mono

I’m slightly disappointed that Nichijou didn’t win this award; it might even be the first KyoAni series that didn’t place since I started giving this award out. There chances dimmed primarily because we don’t see many characters ever wearing non-school clothes. On the other hand, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, had a plethora of different outfits that the characters wore (having one of your main characters never attend school helps this); so, it was the obvious pick. Hyouge Mono earned the runner-up spot for it’s characters sporting a nice amount of wardrobe changes including the Demon King’s eclectic fashion sense.

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Best Animation Style

Winner:  Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko

Runner-up: Hanasaku Iroha

These last few years has seen the Shaft/Shinbou style of anime mature and hit that sweet spot of being just right for the series being animated. For Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko another layer was added – extremely attractive character designs. In most of Shaft/Shinbou series the characters will, at best, look decent but many series have down right fugly looking characters. (Natsu no Arashi is one example.) I actually like this since it will help make the characters seem more realistic but it’s a nice to see something new coming from them. Also working in Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko’s favor is Shaft/Shinbou creates the absolutely nicest night sky shots – no other animation company can match them.

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Best Animation

Winner: Nichijou

Runner-up: AnoHana, Hanasaku Iroha

As for the highest animation quality, Kyoto Animation is still incredibly hard to beat when they go all-out and this season no one could make this category a competitive one.

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Top Animation Studio

Winner: A-1 Pictures

Though with the frequency of financial home runs that A-1 Pictures has so quickly racked up along with consistently nice animation, Kyoto Animation may have a serious contender in the near future. (And yes, for the record, I loved the animation style to Birdy Season 2 and I continue to rank it as probably having the best done fights of any tv series that I’ve watched.)

The one weakness they’ve shown so far is not having a core group of directors that can ensure a consistent level of quality from their anime series. This season they had two series; the first, AnoHana, was directed by Tatsuyuki Nagai. Normally he directs for J.C. Staff and for them he’s directed Honey and Clover 2, Toradora, and Railgun. Their other series is Ao no Exorcist, directed by Tensai Okamura who’s done Wolf’s Rain and Darker Than Black (two series I haven’t seen yet but hear much praise for). By this point it should be obvious how much I liked AnoHana but Ao no Exorcist has been a small surprise itself; as a shounen-series-set-in-a-school-with-kids-who-have-special-powers, I wasn’t expected to particularly like it but I’ve come to enjoy my weekly doses of Ao no Exorcist.

So for fielding two hits for the spring season, A-1 Pictures gets the Top Animation Studio award.

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That’s it for part 3 of my spring 2011 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.

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Spring 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Spring 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and Misfit Awards
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #8 – #5
Spring 2011 Awards: Top 8 Anime – #4 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

When you watch anime there are always little moments that stick out to you.  Maybe the actors delivered a particularly funny line, the animators drew up an amazing action sequence, or the writers tug hard at your heartstrings.  In the interest of getting out of my writing rut, I’m going to share a few of my highlights from the last week.  Who knows, this might become “a thing”.  Over the past week, I particularly enjoyed some moments from Gosick, Nichijou, Steins;Gate, and AnoHana.

Gosick – Mighty Victorique

Some of you who went to school might have had those desks with the seat connected to the table.  If you ever tried to pick one of those up, you’d discover they’re a pretty hefty piece of furniture.  When they replaced the wooden desks at my school with new ones, they actually got heavier.  You would also find these desks to be a rather awkward lift.  None of this seems to matter to Victorique though…

See, this is what happens when you make the cute one angry.  She lifts a desk above her head that probably weighs as much as she does.  Then she throws it at you.  So what if Victorique could never really lift a desk?  That Avril also got hurt in the process is a nice bonus.  Geez, she’s annoying…

Nichijou – The Afro of Holding

I tend to wear pants all the time, and I prefer ones with really deep pockets.  I don’t carry a lot of stuff most of the time, but when I do, I like the convenience.  In particular, the pants I wear to conventions have large enough pockets to hold my camcorder.  Nichijou seems particularly proud of the hyperspace arsenal, which puts my pants to shame.  But none of them can hold a candle to this…

I firmly believe that afros are inherently funny, so this short scene was already off to a good start.  Not many people think about other uses for the ‘fro, though.  Just think of the convenience.  You can carry things in your hair!  On the other hand, try not to think about where that pancake has been…

Steins;Gate – Dirty Minds

Most of the time, sexual innuendo doesn’t give me much amusement.  It always seems like the lazy way out of a joke.  The situation or the story isn’t inherently funny, but if you plug sex into the equation, suddenly it’s hilarious!  Yeah, not really.  However, when a writer puts some effort into setting the joke up, even requiring past events to make it work, you can end up with this little gem…

If you don’t understand that line, then congratulations!  You’re innocent.  Of course, I might have just totally boned your innocence, and if so, I apologize.

AnoHana – Simple Pleasures

I’m grown up now.  I’m 22 years old, I’m about to graduate from college, and I’m gearing up for my first long-term professional job.  It’s time to enter “the real world.”  Life and its stresses can easily bog you down, especially under pressures to succeed and make ends meet every month.  Occasionally, you just need to relax…

Several of us in the aniblogosphere have written posts about Pokemon in the past.  Personally, it reminds me of carefree days when I’d sit there with Gameboy in hand, tracking down Pokemon with my Venusaur while waiting for the next episode to air.  It’s a silly little game, pointless even, but it’s comforting.  And sometimes, like in AnoHana, it’s the silly little victories with your friends that can mean the most to you.

With that, I’ve wrapped up my thoughts for the past week.  If you’ve got any highlights of your own, feel free to share them.  Hopefully, I’ll be back with more next week!

Well, I’ve managed to couple my lateness with getting a post up with my interest in the ideas and questions posed by other bloggers.  Maybe this’ll be a trend for the rest of the series.  For episode 7, I’m going to take a look at the prophecy the old guy gave to Kujo.  Flareknight wonders what it means for the couple.  I think he’s right, it very clearly points to their separation somewhere in World War II.  I also want to believe he’s right about the strength of Kujo’s character.  I don’t think he’d go back home to join the war effort despite his heritage.  So what else could possibly separate the seemingly inseparable pair?  Well, let’s expand world events in the war years.

You need to know a little about geography and world history in order to assemble the Chaos.  Sabure (or Sauville) is portrayed as a fictional country.  This can make it easy to forget it still has to sit on a map somewhere.  After all, they bill this series as occurring on planet Earth with the geography and time line seemingly intact.  If you recall, the anime places the territory “between” France and Italy.  That’s all well and good, but pay close attention to the map when they show you it at the beginning of the series.  Now look at a real map.  Do you see the problem yet?  They didn’t add land to Europe, they just redistributed it to make allowance for a new country.  The fictional land of Sabure is really the western border of Italy.  If you know anything at all about World War II, feel free to use the expletive of your choice now.

Yes, that’s right, Italy sides with Germany to form the Axis powers.  Specifically, they join as France starts to retreat into itself in the face of German advances.  Italy’s very first move is to try seizing some territory from their neighbors.  They aren’t very successful, as the resisting forces stop them at the Alpine Line.  For our purposes, it doesn’t really matter.  For Italy to reach the Line, they would have to roll over Sabure, where Kujo and Victorique live.  We already have a problem, and it only gets worse.

They do have the option of fleeing, but none of the options is particularly good.  If our heroes flee to France, they immediately end up in enemy territory.  Shortly after Italy’s stalled offensive, France surrenders to Germany.  They could alternatively head north to Switzerland, but the Swiss had very strict refugee policies during the war years.  They even turned some people away.  It’s possible the couple would have better odds in enemy territory.  Kujo’s background could also play against him.  The Pacific War theatre opens in 1941, and Kujo is a military man from Japan.  He’s not the most welcome person in Neutral or Allied territory, and there’d be a lot of pressure to contribute to the war effort in Axis territory.

The series would likely never get to this point in the time line so all we can do is speculate on what separates them.  However, there’s guiding point here.  Victorique and Kujo have no control over their situation.  They really can’t do anything in the face of the world around them going to hell in a hand basket.  With the open nature of this conclusion, I open the floor to you readers.  What do you think happens to split the couple?  Additionally, if you have a greater understanding of WWII than my admittedly amateur research, feel free to share it as well.

 

Well, I’m feeling well enough to get up to date on my anime and actually make a post, so here we are at week five of Gosick.  Last week, we had the addition of a mysterious transfer student, and this week, we find out her motivations.  It turns out she’s a fake, after a treasure stolen by a thief about eight years ago.  The treasure in question is Penny Black.  Supposedly, it’s a very rare stamp, and naturally the misprints go for even larger sums of money.  It’s the opportunity of a lifetime!  Or is it?  I’ve got a bit of research for you, so hold on to your hats and let’s get on with it.

Unlike the Queen Berry in the first arc, Penny Black actually exists.  In fact, it was the first stamp ever used for public postal services.  Back in the old days, the person receiving a letter would pay the postage.  Obviously, this didn’t sit well with some people, and so Sir Rowland Hill proposed a reform.  He suggested the person sending the letter should pay for it.  In 1840, he rolled implemented the stamp system, starting with the Penny Black.  The stamp featured the visage of Queen Victoria on a black background, and as the name implied, it cost one penny to purchase.  When you sent the letter, they would imprint a red void pattern on it to ensure people couldn’t reuse the stamps.  Lo and behold, modern postage is born!

However, this design had a fatal flaw.  If you’ve ever tried to put red on black yourself, then you would know stacking colors that way doesn’t work.  It’s really hard to see the added color.  Not only was it unnoticeable, but it also made tampering with sent stamps easier.  As a result, they stopped producing the stamp one year later in 1841.  They succeeded it with the Penny Red, which inverted the scheme by using red on the stamp and black for the void pattern.

Now you might think, “Wow, this stamp was only in production for such a short period of time, and it’s really old!  It must be worth a lot of money!”  Yes, you and everyone else might think that, if the British Antiques Roadshow is any indication.  That’s where you’d be wrong.  You see, they printed off a lot of stamps within that time period.  I mean a LOT.  Estimates peg the total production run at about 68 million stamps.  They further estimate 1.5 million still exist.  This is a problem.  For a stamp to be worth anything, it also has to be rare.  The latest rate I could find is about 3500 USD for a single, unused stamp, as was shown in Gosick.  I don’t know about you, but if I had another $3500, I’d be pretty happy.

However, this is the year 2011.  Gosick takes place in 1924.  Between now and then, inflation has increased the value of the USD by 1175%.  Every $1 then is worth $12.75 today.  We can reverse this calculation to guesstimate the value in the anime.  If everything remained perfectly stable, the stamp would be worth $275.  You could probably assume the price would be even lower, because collectibles like this also appreciate over time.  Now let’s put it into perspective.  The Bureau of Labor Statistics has some data on earnings during the 1920s.  I decided to figure it off the typesetter wages, to be generous.  In a year’s time, a typesetter could earn $2725.  A little more math tells you this stamp was worth a slightly over a month’s wages.  Not quite the windfall you might have in mind.

The one thing I wish I could find is the value of a misprinted Penny Black.  Absent information doesn’t mean misprints never existed.  It could potentially increase the value significantly.  However, consider a rare stamp that definitely went for quite a sum of money.  The Treskilling Yellow is a Swedish stamp from 1855, and it has a very valuable misprint.  Instead of coming out green as intended, it came out yellow.  The last recorded price comes from 1996, when it sold for around 2.3 million USD.  I don’t think I need to convert for you on this one.  Several other stamps exist with higher returns than Penny Black.  So why use it?  I don’t know.  Maybe it rolls off the tongue better.  Or, maybe it’s just the latest in a long line of fallacies that the first stamp is of necessity the best stamp.

For some other reading on period appropriateness, check out 2DT’s post on Victorique’s pipe.
For some actual review of this week’s episode, I’d suggest Emory Anime Club’s coverage.

Today I bring you a brief post with some recommended reading.  On this past week’s episode of Gosick, we found out the purpose of the Queen Berry.  Rather than working as a social experiment as I predicted, instead it served as a divination tool.  They used the results to predict which nations would band together and succeed in World War I.  Naturally, because this is an anime, they were right.  Some among you might scoff and reason that no one should ever put their faith in such things.  You’re probably right.  However, fortune-telling and its ilk were quite pervasive during the war years.

You see, we have a saying.  “There are no atheists in fox holes.”  The aphorism means that in times of great distress, and few things are more stressful than a war, all people will seek aid from a higher power.  A blanket assumption is a bit unreasonable.  However, I think we can say a large portion of people will look somewhere.  People want to know everything will turn out okay.  Some need reassurance while others may wish for guidance.  If “ordinary” people can’t give them the answers they want, then they would naturally turn to the extraordinary, whether divine or occult in origin.

Interest in the occult actually increased during World War I.  In their largest concentrations, police estimated over fifty practitioners of fortune-telling occupied a single metropolitan area.  The widespread adoption of it had authorities concerned.  It wasn’t just ordinary citizens turning to divination either.  Soldiers and high-ranking officers also paid them visits.  As I said, people wanted reassurance, and overall these fortune-tellers provided it exactly as advertised.  If you’d like a little more in-depth information, you can check out a passage from Witchcraft, Magic, and Culture by Owen Davies, pages 266-269.  It’s available as a free preview from Google Books.

As for Gosick’s next episode, I’ll be out-of-town all weekend at Ohayocon, so it’ll have to wait until I get back.  Have a nice weekend everyone!

This post is mostly in sparked by Tsuki over at the Emory Anime Club.  In his post on this episode, he brings up how he doesn’t like Victorique’s increasing dependence on Kujo.  I can understand.  I think some of us want to have a strong female lead that can take care of herself.  However, I think her dependence is natural and her actions logical given the situation.  I figured using Tsuki’s thoughts would be a good springboard to explore Victorique’s personality.

First, let’s tackle the fear aspect of her character.  One place she showed fear was around Ned Baxter, when he “died.”  You can note two important things about this outburst.  First, when Kujo came over to her, she immediately changed her composure and assumed control of the situation.  That isn’t the behavior of someone who is scared for her own wellbeing  Second, as AmberFebruary points out over at MAL, her outburst prevents Kujo from checking Ned’s neck for a pulse.  The tennis ball only stops the pulse to one arm, so the trick offers an obvious place to check: the wrist.  It worked really well on the kids, because they probably wouldn’t think to check elsewhere.  Kujo did.  Had he examined further, he would have learned Ned was still alive, and they all could have been in danger, as they were unarmed.

What’s more perplexing is her behavior when confronted by Maurice.  When he pulls a gun on the party, Julie and Ned react with shock.  Kujo, while a little more reserved, still has a change of complexion.  Victorique just stares at him.  In fact, the only reaction she even has is to call Maurice a fool when he finishes his little speech.  What you can see here is wildly inconsistent behavior.  It doesn’t make sense for her to show no sign of fear with a gun pointed at her head while trembling at other times.  At the very least, I don’t think she fears for herself or her own mortality.  Does she fear something else?

In this episode, we find out a very important aspect of Victorique’s past.  She’s the bastard daughter of a woman who’s considered dangerous by the government.  As a result, she’s lived a life of isolation.  Studies have shown isolation can increase a person’s cognitive state, and sure enough, she has a strong, deductive mind.   Living in a library allows her to harvest even more knowledge.  However, it also leaves her at a bit of a disadvantage.  It’s likely she rarely, if ever, had seen the outside world before their little adventure.  All the book learning in the world won’t fully prepare you for the real world.  This is why she reacts with such wonder to the world around her.  She has a bit of a dependence on Kujo here, because he actually has experience.  He’s also her only route out of the library.

Isolation has another price tag, though, and the payment is quite steep.  Most humans have a need for some kind of social interaction.  We want companionship.  Her life has blessed her with an incredibly sharp mind, but it has also cursed her with loneliness.  She doesn’t mention having any friends.  In her position, I doubt her family would have wanted her to interact with anyone.  This makes Kujo a very important person in her life.  He is likely her first real friend.  Given this, it’s no small wonder that the genuine fear she shows is not for herself, but for Kujo.  When Kujo carries her across the water, she’s realized he’s willing to place himself in harm’s way.  When Ned was playing dead, she was afraid he’d attack her friend.  When the boy decided to fight alone, she feared he might die.  How would you feel if you lost your only friend?

Surprise, surprise, the Queen Berry is a setup.  Upon boarding the ship, they eat a drugged meal and all fall unconscious.  Panic ensues, most of the people on board end up killing themselves by proxy, and we’re left with five people.  Finally, we learn what happened on the Queen Berry a decade ago when it went missing.  A group of people invited eleven children on board, with the intention of playing a kind of game, one that would determine their survival.

The game is multiplayer, with each player individually playing against every other player.  Each player can select one of two options, either trust or betrayal.  If both players trust each other, then both players will survive.  If one chooses betrayal, then he survives while his opponent dies.  If both choose to betray, then either one or both of them die.  From a game perspective, the last case’s outcome would be chosen at random.  When a player dies, everyone reevaluates their selections.  In the situation on the Queen Berry, 11 players exist.  This means there are 55 individual competitions going on from the start.

You might say, “But Rakuen, the obvious solution is for everyone to trust each other.  Then everyone survives!”  You would be right, if it were really so simple.  For this reason, the organizers introduce a disrupting event: someone dies.  Two problems are immediately apparent.  First, all of these children are from different countries and speak different languages, making communication difficult.  Second, when someone dies, guess what?  Yep, everyone might change their minds.  Maybe one of their companions is the killer.  As long as one person chooses betrayal toward any other person, the game will continue in a vicious cycle.

There are three ways for the game to end.  The first two are rather boring base cases.  Once you’re left with two people, one person can betray the other, winning the game.  Alternatively, both could choose to betray, ending with one or neither of them alive.  A far more interesting solution exists though.  If at any point in the game, everyone chooses to trust everyone else, the game ends barring another disruption.  Everyone remaining survives.  This could be any number of people, from two to all ten.  I think everyone has their own ideas for who survived.  Instead, let’s briefly reason why it happened in the first place.

Simply put, the game works as a social experiment.  It had two goals in mind.  First, it wanted to see who, if any, of the children would cooperate despite all the confusion.  A very simple method exists for generating mutual trust: save someone from death.  The person in danger is probably not dangerous, and the savior is probably not a killer.  Second, if anyone survived, what would they try to do with the lives they had “earned”?  Well, they would probably decide to take vengeance on the ones who turned their lives into a game.  Several social experiments in the early and mid-1900’s involved children as well, so using them isn’t terribly out of the ordinary.

For those of you keeping score at home, there’s two mystery references in this episode.  First, the original situation on the Queen Berry mirrors Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.  In both stories, a number of people are invited to a deserted area and setup to die.  However, in Christie’s work, one person orchestrated the deaths of all the others.  Second, Victorique’s ability to identify wine is similar to Sherlock Holmes’ ability to identify soil by the same means.

Well I’m pretty late to the party here because I got tied up in moderating for an event over the past week.  With that out of the way, I finally have an opportunity to write.  A lot of people have pointed out some of the obvious parallels between Gosick and the Sherlock Holmes fiction.  Victorique is a calm, passive, and analytical thinker, much like her counterpart Holmes, complete with a penchant for pulling out the iconic pipe while thinking.  Kazuya, on the other hand, has not quite shown the level of intelligence Dr. Watson had, but has shown infinitely more emotional personality and natural curiosity than his enigmatic companion.  However, there is also a parallel between this first episode and the first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet.

At the end of the story the two characters look at the local newspaper, the Echo, and see a portion of the article covering the crime they just solved.  The officers from Scotland Yard took all credit for the investigation.  In all likelihood, they will receive a testimonial for their services on the case.   Holmes doesn’t particularly care, in fact, he reasoned this outcome from the start.  Watson insists on publishing an account of the mystery on his own, though, because he feels Holmes deserves recognition.  In universe, this actually results in the printing of A Study in Scarlet.  Holmes reads the book and at the start of the second story reveals why he didn’t care about appearing in the newspaper.  He likes to work as a detective, but he doesn’t like the attention.  He chooses to work as the world’s “only unofficial detective.”

This rather tidily matches up with Gosick’s first episode.  Grevil barges in with a case he fails to solve, and Victorique not only corrects him, but presents him with the full solution.  Kazuya sees the article in the paper the next day, and storms into Grevil’s office to demand the girl get something.  Grevil throws him a bone, and Kazuya feels pretty proud of himself over it.  Victorique really doesn’t seem to care too much about it.  I imagine this has happened for some time, especially because the detective seems to have her in the palm of his hand.  Just like Holmes, she probably likes to stay under the radar.  She gets to exercise her mind solving cases without having to deal with the press and the accolades.  After doing the research on this, I’m interested in seeing whether any other episodes parallel one of Doyle’s works.

New season around the corner, or is it already here?, so let’s take a look at the lineup and choose five that look interesting to me. Gosick Last season I watched Milky Holmes for a detective anime, this coming season there’s Gosick to try! And this one looks to be a whole lot better at [...]

So the final TV anime season of 2010 is beginning to come to a close, which means we’re all looking forward to what’s ahead next year. Have a look at what we here at Borderline Hikikomori are (and aren’t) looking forward to for the coming winter season.

Based on these early looks, it looks like we have high expectations for the Noitamina shows – Fractale and Wandering Son. They are following up some amazing shows from this year in that time slot, after all, including my personal pick of 2010, The Tatami Galaxy. We’ve also caught on to the hype for Shaft’s original work Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica, as well as Gosick and Freezing which were adapted from a light novel series and a manga series respectively. For those who liked the first series, there are also sequels Kimi ni Todoke and Mitsudomoe to look forward to.

Fractale

Preview
So new I can’t find anything on it beyond the synopsis. Anyway, it looks like it’ll be an interesting adventure style series. It’s also in the Noitamina block, which means it at least warrants a look. I’ll be checking it out when it airs.
As Rakuen said, a mystery, but after this year’s The Tatami Galaxy and Jellyfish Princess, I’m paying more attention to Noitamina shows. That Ordet, the same studio behind the horrible Black Rock Shooter certainly doesn’t breed confidence.
Obviously this show’s animation looks awesome, and the concept isn’t that bad either. I am a bit worried that the whole rescue a girl storyline isn’t going to come off too well, and that the possibility for a whole lot of Meta posts exists for this show, but those are really minor concerns at this point. Plus, the Noitamina slots rarely let me down.
I have extremely high hopes for this. The staff are all top-notch, the concept sounds both fresh and interesting, the character designs are great, and the art in what little footage was shown in the preview was stunning. I’m heavily anticipating this, and I’m sure many others are as well.

Gosick

Preview
I’d say this is the series I’m looking forward to the most. Milky Holmes really didn’t do it for me as far as detective mysteries go. So now we’ve got the mysterious gothic lolita girl… who has a Holmes pipe? It’s got a nice setting too, taking place in 1920’s Europe. It looks like a take on Holmes and Watson, and I’m hoping this one goes places.
The setting is what draws me most to this show. I like that classical, rosy colored vision of rural 20s Europe. The plot sounds like pretty standard fare, but execution is always the key, of course. I’ll probably check out the first couple episodes, at least.
Nothing about this show really seems that bad. The animation looks nice, and it seems like there could be a good story ever week. But, they made that really bad pun, joke, or whatever you call it with the title, so for that reason alone, I’ve decided not to watch this. Plus, I’ll need the extra time next semester to study for my professional license.
I was extremely excited when I heard the news earlier this year that this was being animated. I then heard Bones was going to be animating, and I was practically jumping for joy. I’m a big fan of mystery series, and I’ve enjoyed what bits I’ve read of both the light novel of Gosick and the manga spun off from it. The cases involved are pretty classic whodunits, and the characters are interesting and have good potential for development. I know a few were disappointed with the trailer – the main criticism levied at it was that it felt “boring” – but I was anything but let down. The character designs have translated very well, I feel, to animation, and things look quite beautiful. The staff, too, is good. The director hasn’t done much aside from Heroman, which had a mixed reception, but the series composition, art director and animation director are strong. I’m really looking forward to this.

Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son)

Preview
Wow, the art style is quite something. It gives everything a very innocent, nostalgic feel. I’m drawn to this show based on the looks alone, but the promise of a mature take on the controversial subject matter of 5th grade transsexuals and that it’s in a Noitamina show makes this pretty much a must watch for me.
I really like the whole questioning your gender concept of this show and the preview made it seem like things were going to get pretty real. The only thing that really worries me is that having 5th graders dealing with these types of issues is going to seem a bit unrealistic. I watch this for sure, but there is no way I would try to blog this.
I’ve heard wonderful things about the manga, and I think Noitamina is the perfect time slot for this to air in. Even better, the very well-regarded Mari Okada is doing both series comp and the scripts. The director, Ei Aoki, is more of a mixed bag, helming Ga-Rei: Zero and the first Kara no Kyoukai movie, but also Girls Bravo. All three have very different feels to Hourou Musuko, too. In any case, I’m cautiously optimistic and very much looking forward to this. It will be wonderful to see gender identity presented as a main theme in an anime series, especially in one created by a manga-ka noted for her sensitivity and intelligence. As a side note, this is definitely a departure for AIC – the only series they produced this year that didn’t rely heavily on fanservice or moe was Ookami Kakushi.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Official Site
We’ve got Shaft and we’ve got Yuki Kajiura working together on an original anime project about a magical girl. What could possibly go wrong? Well, we’ve got bows and swords in the character artwork, so I imagine there’ll be action involved. I’ve just never been into magical girl anime though. I’ll see what other people think.
This has been getting a lot of hype recently. Given who’s working on it, I can see why. As a fan of Shaft and Shinbo, and as someone who loves the Hidamari Sketch series, I’m also pretty excited, but I’ve also never seen a magical girl anime I’ve liked. Just because of my skepticism of it despite my liking most of the big names associated with this show, I think this would be a fun show to blog. Plus, I’ve blogged some Shaft show for every season possible since I’ve been writing for Borderline Hikikomori.
Shaft has really been letting me down lately. Since it’s Shaft, I’d imagine that there would be some sort of special twist to this show, and that it won’t end up being some trumped up magic version of Hidamari Sketch, but you never know. How long now until the Bakemonogatari prequel?
There’s been a lot of hype surrounding this, and understandably so: Akiyuki Shinbo is directing a Shaft-produced original magical girl anime. Yuki Kajiura is doing the music, Ume Aoki is behind the original character designs, and the cast – Aoi Yuuki, Chiwa Saito, Eri Kitamura and Kaori Mizuhashi are the leads, and the mascot character is being played by Emiri Kato – is positively star studded. Promo material has been released at a steady rate, but we’ve yet to see a trailer with any actual footage. And given that this is original (and that Shinbo is directing), this could go absolutely anywhere. I’m not a big fan of Shaft, but this has certainly piqued my interest and Shinbo can be fantastic. Mostly, though, I’m immensely curious as to what this will be like, so I’ll jump in and give the series a go.

Freezing

Preview (Official Site)
The bleedin’ promotional materials give you panty shots and wrecked clothing. Watching the trailer really didn’t dissuade me from this position. If you want to watch buxom women beat the tar out of each other, this is the series for you this season. At least Infinite Stratos has really cool mecha…
Seems like yet another fairly generic scifi/fantasy show. The fanservice in the previews certainly doesn’t impress. I’ll pass.
While this show seems really similar to Infinite Stratos in concept and the amount of fan service, I’m going to give this one a shot for two reasons. First, the concept reminds me of Simoun, minus the yuri-ness, in that it is using the two people must work together to be successful theme. But more importantly, I want to see the pink haired, pig tailed girl with almost no clothes on.
I’m kind of a fan of the source material, but I’ll be the first to admit this is not for everyone: the fanservice is heavy and a large part of the series is busty girls beating each other up. (I think it says a lot that the series’ website features a series of minigames in which the aim is to knock clothes off various heroines) Nonetheless, I am a fan, and I am awaiting this with glee.
A couple of points to note about this adaptation. Firstly, the director is Takashi Watanabe, of Boogiepop Phantom, Slayers, and Full Metal Panic! fame, and Shana, Ikki Tousen, and Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou infamy. The screen composition guy is behind Ikki Tousen and both seasons of Index, while the screenplay guy did Queen’s Blade, Daimaou and Sekirei. Make of this what you will. Secondly, a plot in the manga only eventuates about thirty chapters in, and this is when things become really enjoyable and the early character development stuff becomes important. Anyway, a certain character is important in the turns the plot takes; she is not listed in the cast or character lists. Further, there seem to be some anime original characters (either that or they’re background characters who’ve been given names). I don’t know if this means a) we won’t get to the meat of the story, b) that this’ll be two cours long (and that said character will appear then), or c) that it means things will go in a completely different direction to manga. I don’t know what any of this means for the series, but I’m hoping for the best.

Beelzebub

Preview
Okay, so this series is on my radar as well. I like the delinquent character archetype, because it leaves so much room for character development. That he’s a delinquent who has to raise a child just puts more icing on the cake. This screams action comedy, which is perfect for me.
Hmm, tough high school guy is forced to raise a kid. Haven’t I seen this before? To be fair, this is a very common trope in all media, not just anime. The promotional material makes it look like it’ll be a wacky comedy. Nothing too compelling as far as I can see.
Too many shows have focused on some sort of devil king recently. Too many shows have focused on delinquents recently. Too many shows have focused on maids recently. So no, I’m not watching this.
The latest Shounen Jump series to get a Pierrot anime adaptation. I’ve known about the manga for a while, but have never really felt the desire to get into it. It sounds vaguely interesting, so I may feel a yen to give it the anime a try, but a couple of things are stacked against it. Firstly, I have a pretty bad record with Shounen Jump series, in both manga and anime form. Secondly, the two previous works of director Nobuhiro Takamoto’s I’ve checked out in the past – Ookami Kakushi and 07-Ghost – completely and utterly failed to captivate me, much as I wanted to like them. A probable miss for me, I think.

Yumekui Merry (Merry Dream Eater)

Preview
I know the magical girl falls on top of the protagonist trope has been played to death. Shoot, I’ve complained about it in the past. This just looks fun though. Merry Nightmare looks like she’d be right at home in a Disgaea game. And really, how can I say no to a war with cats? I’ll give it a shot.
Another girl-falls-in-boy’s-lap fantasy show by JC Staff? You’ll have to excuse me if I’m skeptical. I feel like JC Staff has gotten very good at pumping out these types of shows over the years, but they’ve yet to produce a good one. And the massive success of the Index franchise has only encouraged them to keep going, methinks. I’ll stay away.
Bar the usual cliches, the premise is interesting and the director of Casshern Sins is at the helm of the project. I also thought the trailer was very impressive; the art and animation looked gorgeous. If there’s good action and characterization here, I’ll definitely be on board. Checking this out.

Level E

Preview
The synopsis… I have no idea where this is going. However, it looks like the people who have read the source material are pretty vocal about liking it. A comedy with an amusing asshole of a prince… maybe.
Preview and synopsis don’t capture me. Looks like a generic scifi thriller. I’ll pass.
The concept doesn’t sound like my thing at all, and the trailer was unimpressive. Not interested in this.

Infinite Stratos

Preview
In just the first few seconds of the trailer you can tell this is already going to become a harem anime. However, I really like the design of their mecha suits, and if they can offer me some entertaining battles, I’ll probably tune in just for that. I suppose the obligatory TnA is extra.
This just seems like a whole lot of fan service that won’t let its characters get into any sort of drama that can’t just be fixed by some sort of reset ending. I suppose I could be wrong, and in that case I would likely go back and watch this at some point in the future, but this show just doesn’t seem to be breaking any new ground.
The PVs showed off an interesting visual style – a mix of very flat, angular looking characters and polished, CG-heavy mechs/armour, which actually worked quite fantastically – and some sleek action scenes. The staff and studio here are really interesting, too. We have studio 8-Bit making their debut, the director who did Macross Frontier, and the series composer who worked on the Key/KyoAni trilogy of Kanon, Clannad and Air. The school life/mecha action combination can be really enjoyable when done well, too, so I’ll give this a go.

Haiyoru Nyaruani: Remember My Love(craft-Sensei)

Official Site
Holy long title Batman! So we have a Cthulu deity who happens to enjoy the form of a pretty girl who ends up with, you guessed it, an ordinary high school student. I wonder, is “Did You Just Kiss Cthulu” a trope?
Seems all the cool legendary or fantastical characters are getting little girl representations. There’s the obvious (and surprisingly excellent) Strike Witches series, this season’s Squid Girl, and wasn’t there a show about Lubu from the Three Kingdoms a few years back? I couldn’t get into Squid Girl, and I’ll pass on this.
I watched the first episode of this, even though I wasn’t planning to, because it was only four minutes long. Essentially, it’s entirely mediocre. There’s nothing particularly good here, but nothing terrible either. Anyway, this is a gag show. Nothing is going to change, the characters won’t develop, the plot will be non-existent, etc. The character dynamics are good enough, though, and I think that’s the single most important thing in a show like this. But I doubt I’ll follow along.

Houkago no Pleiades

Official Site
My first reaction was to once again yell, “What the hell, Gainax?” My second reaction, upon seeing the staff list, could be summed up as “…huh.” We’ve got an episode director from FLCL, a concept artist from TTGL, and the designer of Hanamaru Kindergarten. Who knows, this might actually pull through somehow.
Gainax making a promotional anime for Subaru, the car company… well, Gainax certainly is a company that knows how to monetize its products. I haven’t been able to find any details on this show, but given Gainax’s history, unless it involves mechs in some form, it’s probably not gonna be very good.

Wolverine

Official Site
Last time I checked, Iron Man wasn’t doing too well, so I’ll pretty much pass on all of these Marvel shows.
I was hugely underwhelmed by Iron Man, so much so that I’ll proceed with much caution if end up trying any of the other Madhouse/Marvel collaborations. Anyway, I found that most of the community tended to share my views on that first project so, while I don’t intend to check out Wolverine, there’s a small chance I might be tempted to change my mind if reviews of it are glowing.

Kore wa Zombie Desu Ka? (Is this a Zombie?)

Preview
This looks like it’s trying to capitalize on the current zombie craze without actually using any of the things that makes zombies cool. Just another generic fantasy magical-girl-falls-into-boy’s-lap show from, as far as I can see. I’ll pass.
I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this “fight in my place against an evil organization” plot line before. Plus, do I want to watch something about zombies again? No?
The concept sounds like a lot of mindless fun to me, honestly. I mean, vampire ninjas, necromancers, zombies, magical girls and an “anti-magical girl system?” The art was displayed in the trailer was great, aside from the character art, which looked unpolished and strangely ugly. Staff-wise, the director has only previously helmed Macademi Wasshoi!, which I didn’t get into, while the series composition guy has done a truckload of ecchi series… but also Katanagatari, which was brilliant. Anyway, as I said before, this looks like it could be enjoyable, so I’ll check it out.

Rio -Rainbow Gate!-

Preview
This show really doesn’t have anything going for it, but I do like cards, so maybe?
Nothing in the promo material I’ve seen for this has really grabbed my attention, though series comp is good here. The tournament/quest-ish aspects that seem to be a part of the show could be interesting, but it looks as though this aspires to be more of a fanservice comedy. I doubt I’ll be watching.

Dragon Crisis

Official Site
The premise here is pretty cliche. The tweaks that have been made to the usual formula, however, were novel enough for me to consider checking this out. Then I heard Rie Kugimiya in the trailer, with her voice seemingly more irritating than ever before (I know! I didn’t think it was possible either!). I don’t know if there’s enough good here to counterbalance the cliches and Teh Rie, despite the fact that Hideyuki Kurata is doing series comp. I think he’s excellent, but, naturally, how good his adaptation work is depends on the source. I suppose he might be enough to get me to try to brave through a little of the series, though.

I Don’t Like You At All, Big Brother!

Official Site
Looks like it’s trying to cash in on the siscon fetish which, while very old, has seemingly exploded in popularity in mainstream anime in the past few years. Probably gonna be worthless.
The brocon trend continues. This really isn’t my thing. No thanks.

Starry Sky

Official Site
It seems as though all there is to this otome game adaptation is a reverse harem of bishies and a fantastic cast. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much beyond that. Perhaps with a good director I’d be more inclined to give the series a try, but Nobuhiro Takamoto is helming this (see Beelzebub). I don’t think I’ll be watching.

Kimi ni Todoke (Season 2)

Official Site
The first season started out as good, wholesome fun, but got frustrating toward the end as nothing kept happening. Maybe the 2nd season can provide more of that innocent entertainment while having the relationship actually advance. But the real question is, will Aya Hirano return to voice her character?
I loved the first season, except for five or six episodes that focused on Kurumi. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again. Aside from that, I am hoping for a little quicker pace this time around, but then again, if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. A must watch for sure.

Mitsudomoe (Season 2)

Official Site
Despite the first season being really crude at some points and that it recycled a lot of jokes, I laughed harder at this show than anything I’ve watched recently. Since it’s only 8 episodes, I’ll probably wait until it’s finished and marathon it.