We learn the truth about Homura, how this is at least the 5th time loop she’s in, in her desperate attempt to save Madoka. However, she still can’t defeat Walpurgis Night on her own, and in an attempt to save Homura and all other magical girls, Madoka makes the wish to erase all witches from the past and future everywhere in the universe before they come into being.

Madoka finally makes her wish

The price for Madoka’s wish is that she essentially becomes god, and is omnipresent everywhere at all times, meaning that no one can sense her presence, except for Homura, probably due to her ability to manipulate time, and for some reason Madoka’s younger brother Tatsuya.  Evil isn’t eliminated – witches are replaced by demons formed by some unknown means, and magical girls whose Soul Gem becomes too corrupted simply die instead of becoming a witch.  It appears like that magical girls that died fighting witches, such as Mami and Sakura were revived, but magical girls that died or became witches via other means, such as Sayaka, couldn’t be revived (or at least, still died via some other means in the altered universe).

This certainly was a new and creative anime series, at least for me.  It took a concept – that of the magical girl – and basically turned it on it’s head by making becoming a magical girl almost entirely negative. One’s wish in order to gain magic almost always backfired, and then they eventually turned into the very witches they fought against.  And the makers of the series didn’t decide to take some easy way out either, even though they probably could have with Homura being able to time travel. Even if Madoka is content with her sacrifice, it’s still a rather sad ending – if one could call becoming something of a god a sacrifice.  It doesn’t seem like she is all-powerful, just omnipresent, kind of like being a ghost, except existing everywhere at every time.

Perhaps my only criticism of Madoka’s wish was that she didn’t wish for magical girls to not exist at all. If the magical girls didn’t exist, then the witches wouldn’t either. Maybe she didn’t do that because she agreed with what Kyubey said, that without the magical girls, human civilization may not even exist, so magical girls still had to exist, they may still despair and die, but they wouldn’t turn into witches.

I think there are other causality problems as well. Would Sayaka really have become a magical girl had Madoka not existed? Would any number of magical girls become so with witches having not existed. Hell, would Homura become a magical girl without Madoka existing? I suppose there is a timeline where she still would have become one, or maybe she is still one because she was insulated from the changes due to her own magical powers. Kyubey (I think) also mentioned that he doesn’t have the power to bring back the dead (which seems to be the one limitation to his power) which is perhaps why anyone who died before can’t be brought back now – though it seemed like Sakura and Mami were back, so that doesn’t really explain it, unless they were brought back only because they died fighting witches, which no longer exist.  There are still contradictions. Are they enough to sour the show? No, I don’t think so, but I thought I would still note them.

I’m not sure I would go as far as saying this was one of the best series of all time, like what it’s rating on MAL suggests, but it was certainly pulled off well. You got drawn into the characters and cared for them, even characters like Sakura who initially you never thought you could like.  I perhaps didn’t get as emotionally attached as I otherwise might have, since I watched this over the course of two days instead of 3 or 4 months, but I still thought the ending was touching.  The storytelling was great, revealing just enough bits and pieces to keep you interested, but not revealing the whole story until well into the show.  That on top of what I said above – turning the genre on it’s head and not doing the “everyone is happy, yay!” ending does make this a show worth watching. One’s heart kind of sinks knowing that Madoka is basically removed from the world, and her friend Sayaka still isn’t saved, but sometimes winning just isn’t perfect.

So we finally discover the full truth behind the magical girls: It’s a process used by Kyubey aka. The Incubator in order to gather energy from the emotions from teen girls in order to prevent the heat death of the universe. As a result, all magical girls, eventually, become witches, and when that happens, Kyubey can gather their energy.  He is so intent on having Madoka become a magical girl because, with her latent power, she would provide an extraordinary amount of energy toward Kyubey’s goal.

Sayaka Reborn

As Sayaka and Homura noted, balance in the world has to be maintained, which means that the wish that is granted has to be repaid via an equal amount of negativity in that world, which is accomplished by the despair of the magical girls and the curses they cast once they become witches. The bigger the wish granted to become a magical girl, the more curses they cast as witches.

While Kyubey may have seemed cute and innocent at the start, it’s now clear he’s just using humanity to further his own goals, even going so far as to mislead Sakura into believing Sayaka could be saved, resulting in her death, putting Homura and Madoka in the position where, the only person who can save the city from Walpurgis Night is Madoka if she turns into a Magical Girl. If he can’t trick her into becoming a magical girl, then he’s going to try to coerce her into it by threatening everyone she loves with destruction if she doesn’t.

Speaking of Sakura, she’s come off as a bit better character in these episodes. In a way, she and Sayaka aren’t very different: they both made wishes to help others, only to have those wishes turn against them.  Sakura decided to turn her despair into a philosophy of doing things only for herself while Sayaka just gave up and became a witch.  In any case, as Sakura mentioned, the only time becoming a Magical Girl makes sense is if you have nowhere else to turn, such as when she was living in abject poverty or when Mami used her wish to save herself from death.

As for Homura, she appears to know everything because she’s able to use time manipulation. Whether that means she’s able to go back in time and “start over” whenever she fails, I’m not sure. All we know is that she’s from another timeline. She may not be able to go back in time within the same timeline, though she is able to pause time. One would think this will eventually come into play again in the final three episodes.

It seems likely that Madoka will eventually become a Magical Girl under some circumstances. For example one wish that was suggested by Kyubey (even though he said he couldn’t make suggestions before) was for her to become an omnipotent god. Perhaps with such a wish she could avoid the heat death of the universe herself, and perhaps change her fate of becoming a witch that way.

A new magical girl, Sakura, arrives in town to replace Mami, while at the same time Sayaka decides to become a magical girl in exchange for healing her disabled friend.  While Sayaka’s first battle goes OK, she is clearly outclassed by Sakura, who had no qualms about fighting her over Grief Seeds.  Homura asks Sakura to hold off on fighting until she can think of a peaceful solution but soon another confrontation takes place, and one of the secrets of being a magical girl are revealed…

The two newest Magical Girls in Town

It’s becoming pretty clear that things aren’t all that they seem.  Sakura, who appears to have been a Magical Girl for a while, had no clue that her soul was contained not within her body but within her Soul Gem, and she wasn’t particularly happy with it either.  It’s clear that, despite the straightforwardness of the initial deal (any wish in exchange for becoming a magical girl), Kyubey isn’t telling the whole story to potential magical girls when he asks them to become one.  And if he didn’t say anything about this, what else might he not be saying? His nonchalant attitude toward not revealing the whole truth, and his annoyance at the girls’ reactions when he does is also rather disturbing.

Sayaka has become quite hostile since becoming a magical girl, though I can’t particularly blame her in Sakura’s case, since she clearly is fine with witches killing people just to increase her own power.  However, now that some things have been revealed to her, I wonder if she’ll be a little less gung-ho about it.  It’s obvious that Homura knew the nature of the Soul Gem, which makes one wonder what else she might know. She doesn’t seem particularly keen on sharing, though, at least for the moment. She seems mostly intent on Madoka not becoming a magical girl, which appears to be becoming a wiser and wiser choice, despite Kyubey’s increasing pressure for her to become one whenever Madoka feels helpless.

There was a lot about regretting becoming a magical girl in episode 5.  I’m wondering if Sayaka will start regretting that decision soon the more she learns what it actually means. Also, I’m wondering if Homura’s wish had something to do with being all knowing.  She knew Kyubey was going after Madoka. She knows people’s names even though she just met them. She seems to be very knowledgeable about all the subjects at school She seems to know an awful lot about the nature of the magical girls, and what not. She clearly doesn’t know the future, since she was as shocked by Mami’s death as anyone else, but she seems to “know” more than you would otherwise expect.

This is the first of three new series from the winter and spring seasons I decided to go back and watch after the fact.  The reason I picked this one was largely from all the hype I read about it on twitter.  And, heck, it’s currently the #13 anime listed on MAL, so I thought I would give it a shot.  Despite my love for some other Magical Girl shows (see: Cardcaptor Sakura), my experience with other shows of that type have been less than stellar. I’m also skeptical of the loliness of some of the characters in the show art.  However, I’ll give this show a chance.

Not the Dream Job they Imagined

This series is certainly starting a lot darker than I was imagining it.  Most Magical Girl series seem pretty pretty cheerful. Sure, they face dangers and all, but you usually don’t see one of the magical girl buddies getting her head literally bitten off.  This series is also different in that, usually the magical girl will become the magical girl in the first episode, and then go off and do their magical girl thing.  In this case, it is almost like the series is about Madoka’s (and Sayaka’s) trips toward becoming magical girls (or not).

Both girls were hesitant about becoming magical girls to begin with since neither could really think of a wish to risk their lives over, and I would have to think that just became more of the case after the death of not just a magical girl, but their tutor Mami, happened right in front of them.  Homura’s attitude also seems to be from more than just not wanting rivals, though I suppose that could just be her personality.  We still haven’t found out what she wished for when becoming a magical girl yet, though.

Now that I’ve fully caught up on the shows I had been watching and blogging when I left off in February (even if they haven’t all been posted, the reviews have all been written and are in the queue), I thought I would go back and hit up some series from the winter and spring that looked interesting that I missed, as well as talk about what shows I was looking forward to in the summer 2011 season.

A look into what I've been up to for the past 5 months

As far as going back, even though i already had three series from the winter season that I was working through, how can I not go back and give my thoughts on Madoka Magica, given all the hype I’ve seen about it online?  It’s #13 on MAL and all so I think I’ll go back and see what all the hype was about.  I’ve kind of learned from experience that if I put off watching a series people are hyping until later, it may be quite a while until I actually do get around to watching it, so I thought I’d go back and do it while I had the chance.

I wanted at least two shows from the Spring 2011 season as well. I didn’t want something that would spill into the summer season, so I needed something that was 13 episodes or less, as a result, there were a couple 26 episode series that looked interesting that I skipped over.  Instead, I’m going for Moshidora and Ano Hana.  Ano Hana came based on a couple of recommendations, plus it looks like the most interesting  shorter show from the spring anyway. I’m picking Moshidora, partly because there aren’t many other interesting choices, and partly because it seems unusual: a management centric show, applied to baseball, targeted toward a middle aged audience.  It’s something different so I’ll give it a try.  I’ll run through these series in groups of 2 or 3 episodes just because they’ve all already finished airing at this point.

Now, as for the Summer 2011 season, I was debating between doing 2 and 3 shows, but since the two shows at the top of my list looked more serious, or at least not goofy, I decided I wanted to add a third goofy show to the list.  As a result, my list of shows for the summer are: No. 6, Usagi Drop, and Morita-san wa Mukuchi.  Usagi Drop looks, based on previews, to be the class of the summer shows, so I have high expectations for it. No. 6 ventures into a type of show that I typically don’t watch very often, but the premise seemed interesting enough to give it a try.  I’m hesitant about Morita-San, partly because almost everyone working on the show is green, and the trailer was kinda iffy regarding production values.  It’s also a 4-koma, which can make it very hit-or-miss.  However, it seemed like the best choice out of the possibly goofy shows, so I’ll give it a try, and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

To those of you who really want Madoka to become a mahou shoujo, I have to say shame on you. More to the point, you’re probably not the type of person I would want to hang out with. From the discussions that I’ve seen over the past few weeks, a lot of people seem to be focusing on the finer points of contract formation and minors. While this is certainly an interesting discussion, it is a red herring. Instead, a lot of things in this series have striking similarities to one of my favorite non anime shows, Law and Order: SVU. Unfortunately, Mariska Hargitay (or her partner, whatever that guy’s real name is) won’t be there to try and save the day.

With this foundation in mind, I suppose we could call Kyubey’s contract with Sayaka the proverbial scene of the crime. I mean he practically got to second base with her back in episode 5. But given the events of the past two episodes, it seems like he got much further than that as it relates to the soul gem revelation. The fact that was one of the best revelations in any show in some time aside, it did highlight the delayed reactions that some youths have sometimes in realizing what has happened to them. I mean how often in the media do we hear some politician or actress admit that he or she was abused 20 or 30 years after the fact. But because of the relatively short window of time this show seems to be taking place in, we have gotten a glimpse into some of the more immediate impacts.

As great and shocking as that final scene in episode 7 was, I thought that the much more heart breaking scene was the one in which Sayaka told Madoka she felt used, like a zombie, and could never be with Kyousuke with her current body. If this just didn’t scream abused victim to you I don’t know what would. The reaction of Kyouko’s father to Kyouko’s revelation also showed what kind of effect this type of event would have on someone’s family. While it does seem kind of strange that her family wouldn’t try and support her after she became a witch (or the equivalent), I thought that the fact that her father was some sort of priest covered this issue fairly well. Though I can’t speak to the culture of Japan, I do know that in the US, some families do stop communicating with their daughters after they get a little loose with their morals and eventually slip.

Sayaka getting help from the least qualified person there is.

Clearly, that scene in the dilapidated church highlighted this difference. Sayaka was still afraid of what was going to happen if someone, namely Kyousuke, found out about what had happened. On the flip flop, it seems Kyouko had come to some sort of peace with the past events in her (also, the big bag of apples is sure symbolic of something). That made Sayaka’s rejection of help all the more stunning, in that she really needed this form of “counseling”. Instead, it seems that instead of either forgetting about what happened, as I’ll discuss with Mami, or accepting it like Kyouko, she is just going to go crazy.

That’s all well and good you might say (or not I guess), but where does that leave Mami. Well, she is dead, and given this construct I wouldn’t expect to see her again. While the circumstances of her “agreement” with Kyubey are certainly unique when compared to the other girls, I think we can assume that Mami knew what happened to her. While, on the whole, Mami was relatively upbeat about the whole Mahou Shoujo thing, there were several instances in which she did say there were some bad things about the job. I suppose I could make the case that fighting witches for eternity in some parallel dimension correlates to living with the event for the rest of your life, but that seems fishy at best (If I wanted to take it further, many people on LO:SVU who were abused early on in life, do the same to others  in their life/i.e. maybe coming a witch themselves cough Sayaka cough, but that’s just a thought).

Still, we probably could see Mami’s mindset right before her death, reflected in the setting. As some others have pointed out, and at first I did not particularly notice, the scenery shifted from pointy needles to sweet treats. If I were a devote follower in all things symbolic, I’d say that this more than anything shows how Mami was trying to stop thinking about what had happened to her. We would later find out that she never knew the truth about the soul gems, indicating that she was still in denial if we’re using the SVU framework. But as we all know, Mami is dead. This highlights that once you taste that forbidden fruit, you can’t go back again.

There are probably other things in the series that could fit into this framework if I racked my brain for days on end, but there are also some other things that were included that seem to  have no meaning at this moment. Chief among these questions is what role Madoka’s mom will have?  Clearly, she is an important character in the building up of Madoka’s character, but it also seems that something else is going on behind the scenes, or has already happened some time ago. Further, Madoka’s family life has been given a fair amount of screen time, so I’d imagine that a possible reaction to Madoka becoming a mahou shoujo would be crucial to the outcome of the story.  The recent reappearance of Hitomi and her stated intention to confess to Kyousuke muddles up the pictures even more. I’d imagine that if Hitomi and Kyousuke end up getting together, that will pretty much make Kyousuke even with Kyubey in Sayaka’s mind, as people who have used her. Also, I haven’t even mentioned Homura once in this post, as she is her own can of worms.

So no, I don’t want to see Madoka become a magical girl, or at least not become magical for the wrong reasons.

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.