No joke.

Recently, two franchises with a combined history of 89 years released trailers for their respective upcoming series and watching them back-to-back left me with a pair of broken cheeks as a grin the size of the moon spread from ear to ear.

If you can guess which two franchises I’m referring too before looking below then give yourself a gold star because you’re a winner in my books.

The first franchise is an anime series that will be airing this spring season (in less then a week’s time now) and is currently celebrating it’s 40th anniversary.

That’s right, Lupin the Third finally returns as a series. The last time Lupin had a series Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, the Cold War seemed like it would go on forever, and CDs were on the cutting edge of technology. Since then fans of the franchise have had to make do with a yearly TV special/movie; and, quite frankly, these specials did not have the space to develop Lupin and the whole franchise has slowly stagnated over time as a result.

Which is a shame but it looks like Lupin may, finally, be getting the rebirth that it deserves. We’ve already had the chance to hear the newly refreshed seiyuu cast last year for the most recent Lupin special and I particularly liked Miyuki Sawashiro’s Fujiko. There’s a new director – Sayo Yamamoto – who is best known for directing Michiko to Hatchin and a new script writer – Dai Sato – who has written for series such as Cowboy Bebop, GiTS:SAC,  and Eureka 7. They’ve also brought in Takeshi Koike to be the animation director. Yes, that Takeshi Koike; the guy that made Redline. And I almost forgot, series composition will be handled by Mari Okada, whose previous writing credits include Anohana, Toradora, The Book of Bantorra, Hanasaku Iroha, Aquarion Evol, and Hourou Musuko.

This Lupin series apparently is going to use younger versions of the characters then the standard ages used up to now. I don’t know if that means a true reboot will occur or what, but, as a minimum, even people unfamiliar with the Lupin franchise should be able to dive right in.

The second franchise is a year shy of celebrating it’s 50th anniversary and scheduled to return for a new season this fall.

Doctor Who, for those that don’t know, is a British science fiction TV series that follows a space and time-traveling alien (who looks 100% human) as he and a sidekick go looking for adventures and normally only find trouble.

It’s almost mind-boggling how long this show has been around; the very first episode aired the day after President Kennedy was assassinated. Unlike Lupin, though, it’s spent most of those 50 years running full series. The key in having the show run this long with the same main character is that every so often the current “Doctor Who” finds himself in a situation that would kill him and has to use his ability to “regenerate” and when he does he takes on a new appearance and slightly different personality.

I wish I could say that like Lupin, it will be possible for new viewers to jump right in with this new season but there’s never been a reboot in Doctor Who – so even those shows from the 1960’s are part of the canon and continuity of the show. There is, however, little need to watch the really old seasons to understand what’s currently happening. The best place to start is the first season that Doctor Who returned to TV after an absence – a total of six seasons to catch up on – or the bare minimum would be to start when the Doctor regenerates into his latest incarnation  – a total of two seasons to watch. For myself, I’ve seen every episode of the last two seasons and most of the previous four seasons so it’s completely possible to like the show without seeing the older seasons.

One of the scenes in this trailer for Doctor Who reminded me of a scene that bothered me in Guilty Crown. In the trailer Amy keeps accidentally firing her gun because she has her finger on the trigger when it should be resting on the guard around the trigger or completely off the gun until she intends to shoot. This is probably the most important thing to remember when handling a gun safely and was thoroughly drilled into me before I was even allowed to hold a gun. This reminded me of Guilty Crown because there was a scene were the loser male main character is taken to a firing range to learn how to shoot and his trainer never once points out this very basic safety rule to him. By this point my opinion of Guilty Crown had imploded and I kept hoping he’d shoot his foot off but that wasn’t to be. Either Production I.G. didn’t realize their mistake – which is hard to believe – or for some reason they couldn’t be bothered with animating his finger being off the trigger until he was ready to fire – which makes Production I.G. look really lazy. See the screenshot below.

I apologize for bringing up Guilty Crown. I should now rename the title of this post to “This Post Contains Nearly 90 Years of Awesomeness and A Mention to One of the Worst Anime Series of All-Time”. Speaking of Production I.G., is there anyone else out there that is unhappy that they will adapt the latest visual novel, Robotic;Notes, from the people who created the Steins;Gate visual novel? Didn’t White Fox do a good enough job with the Steins;Gate anime that they earned the right to handle Robotic;Notes?

And just like that, we’ve already reached the halfway point of the winter anime season. Normally, I’m with the other early adopters that have already cast their glance forward to the spring season at this point because I’m sick of everything remotely related to winter; however, this year the weather has apparently forgotten what “winter” means, sticking to a more early spring feel, and as a result I find myself feeling oddly worried that winter is slipping by too quickly. Heresy, I know.

The halfway point is a good place to rest for a moment and examine the season’s anime series. It’s been long enough that the slow-starting series have had time to find their own rhythm and long enough to see if those anime series that promised the moon in episode 1 have the stuff to deliver.

Since it’s me, I’ve going to rank the various series in worse-to-best order to provide another method of evaluation to augment the grades I’ll award each anime. Also, to provide a complete picture of this season, I’ll also cover those anime series that are carry-overs from the Fall season.

(22) – Guilty Crown

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 1/12  Epic Fail

Under normal circumstances I’d’ve dropped Guilty Crown a very long time ago but it’s not everyday that an anime comes along that fails as hard as Guilty Crown does. I saw an opportunity to finally find an anime that could compete with Kampfer for the title of worse anime ever (that I’ve seen/completed) and decided to see if I could finish watching it. The danger, though, in wasting my time with Guilty Crown is that it might, at some point, accidentally do something right and push it up to the merely failing level. Thankfully, Guilty Crown continues to confound me with how stupid it can be and remains on track to challenge Kampfer for worst anime ever.

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(21) – Baby, Please Kill Me (Dropped)

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 1/12  Epic Fail

Three episodes and I didn’t laugh once, not even a chuckle, guffaw, chortle or smirk; this is a death sentence for an anime like Baby, Please Kill Me because it’s supposed to be a comedy. I don’t know if I’ve ever watched a show this unfunny before.

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(20) – Inu x Boku SS

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 2/12  F

This anime makes me want to find a cute puppy and kick it. The puppy dog-like personality of the main character’s bodyguard towards the main character in Inu x Boku SS has to be one of the most painful things I’ve ever endured while watching anime. Almost equally repellent is the female main character who has fallen in love with this bodyguard because of his puppy dog-like obedience and devotion towards her. I should just drop this and end the pain but I still hope that david production (the animators who last did Ben-to and Level-E) can salvage the show somehow.

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(19) – Zero no Tsukaima Final

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 3/12  D

As if animating another season of the original Shana wasn’t enough for J.C. Staff they decided to double down and make another season of a series that most people flatteringly call a “Shana-clone”. And much like Shana at this point I’m just going to finish the series so I can see how it ends; not because I’m particularly that wrapped up in Zero’s Familiar but after trudging through three seasons what’s one more?

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(18) – Shakugan no Shana S.3

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 5/12  C+

Truthfully, I’m surprised Shana has been able to maintain this level of mediocrity; by rights, it should have either completely fallen apart or zoomed up to awesomeness by now. It’ll be interesting to see if J.C. Staff can maintain this equilibrium point as the series moves to the final showdown or will Shana finally get pushed to one of the two extreme states.

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(17) – Black Rock Shooter

Rating for episodes 1 to 2 – 6/12  B-

Rock bottom expectations and competition from the likes of Guilty Crown made the first two episodes of BRS a pleasant experience even though so far it’s an average effort all-around. With only 8 total episodes to work with, BRS can’t be lazy about advancing the plot or telling it’s story if it wants to avert a repeat of the disappointing performance of the OVA that came out earlier. If it will or not is a question whose answer is only a few weeks away.

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(16) – Persona 4

Rating for episodes 1 to 18 – 6/12  B-

The only time Persona 4 has been actually interesting to watch is those few episodes that would be considered “filler” because they have nothing to do with the mystery surrounding the disappearing people and the homicides. What does it say about an anime that prominently features an alternative world of fighting creatures and a string of mysterious deaths in the real world that the two-part episode where the viewer discovers how the main character spent his summer break is the high point of the first three-quarters of the show? I guess I shouldn’t be that surprised, Persona 4 is a video game adaptation after all.

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(15) – Rinne no Lagrange

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 7/12  B

Rinne no Lagrange is one of six anime series this season I’m watching that features either mecha or power suits or some type of metal ship and it’s been tough for this series to find its own unique appeal. So far this series is one of those shows that haven’t really done anything wrong but also really hasn’t done anything that great with itself and, as a result, finds itself just kinda hanging out in the middle. How Rinne no Lagrange turns out is something only time can tell at this point.

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(14) – Senhime Zesshou Symphogear

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 7/12  B

There are definite spots in which Senhime Zesshou Symphogear excels as an anime but there is almost an exactly opposite number of ways that it comes up short as an anime. I hate to say it but the easiest way to improve this anime would have been giving it a more substantial budget because it sounds shallow to say that it’s not pretty enough and yet, for a series based around fighting and singing, when those areas fizzle the whole series is hurt. The second biggest improvement would have come from an improved script to work from; it (like the whole show) has its great moments and its not-so-great moments. The end result, however, has been a fun series to watch and I remain hopeful for a strong finish.

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(13) – Phi Brain

Rating for episodes 1 to 19 – 8/12  B+

I was sure that Phi Brain was going to be an easy series to drop because the premise – an organization bent on solving the Divine Puzzle by raising and shaping a genius puzzle solver – is, frankly, rather silly and couldn’t possibly be any good. That moment where I threw my hands up in disgust over Phi Brain never happened though; instead, I continued watching and slowly I started seeing the charm of Phi Brain. Ultimately, it was the characters and how they fit together, develop and play off each other that made this series worth the watch. That and the plot has continued to cover new ground with each story arc and hasn’t yet started repeating itself. I’m still not ready to say Phi Brain is a “good” anime but it continues to beat my expectations.

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(12) – Amagami SS+ Plus

Rating for episodes 1 to 6 – 8/12  B+

I thought, like most people, that Amagami SS was a completed series and, like most people, I was surprised by the appearance of this second season. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the first Amagami SS series more than I probably should have but each story already had its ending. I wondered what the creators planned to do with another 12 episodes and was pleasantly surprised to see that they wanted to create a slice-of-life coda giving the viewers a glimpse of the characters after their happily ever after endings of the first series. As a slice-of-series it can’t match the likes of Natume but really, what can? Still, it’s an enjoyable fluff series that provides a nice counter-balance to the other more serious series currently airing.

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The second half should be out tomorrow.