The final set of awards before going to my top shows of the season cover the music, vocal actors, and animation aspects of this season’s anime. Or the three parts to anime that are heavily dependent on the preferences of the individual viewer. 
Winner: Souichiro Hoshi as Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Masato Sakai as many roles from Blue Literature
I often wonder how much does a great character improve how I think of a seiyuu’s performance and, conversely, how much does a great job by the seiyuu go into improving that character. One way to separate the two is to look at other roles that the seiyuu has done and see if they’re consistent. In the case of Souichiro Hoshi, I adored his voice in Sengoku Basara when he played Sanada Yukimura (the hot-headed red guy) and in Phantom when he played the scheming brother Toru Shiga and I still remember another role he did as K1 from Higurashi. So, I have some confidence to say that Souichiro Hoshi does a great job injecting the right level of manliness into Tomoki’s character and thus earns the fall season Best Male Seiyuu award. Here’s a video of him singing from episode 10:
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Winner: Saori Hayami as Ikaros from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Satomi Arai as Kuroko from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
If I apply the same test to Saori Hayami, I find that I loved her voice as Kou, the shrine maiden, from Wagaya no Oinarisama and Saki from Eden of the East. And more importantly, for the purposes of this award, her work as Ikaros impressed me. Which I found odd at first because Ikaros comes off as very emotionally flat but thinking about it more, that might be the reason why I’m impressed with her work so much. Namely, Saori Hayami does such a good job making Ikaros feel emotionally detached and then does an equally great job voicing Ikaros as she tries to learn what it means to be human. So Saori Hayami wins this award and here’s a video of her singing from episode 10.
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Winner: Astro Fighter Sunred
Runner-up: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Sasameki Koto
A good crop of openings this season which made it hard to pick just one. Sunred squeaked past everyone else based on the superior use of the animation to channel the humor of the series and distill it down into a minute and half of hilarity.
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Winner: Sora No Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kemono no Souja Erin, Hetalia Axis Powers – America version
Sora no Otoshimono had a different ending song and completely different animation to accompany that song for each of it’s thirteen episodes. My favorite was the one that ran a blooper reel of “mistakes” made during the filming of the show. So for going well above-and-beyond what one expects for even the best anime, Sora no Otoshiomono easily wins this award.
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Winner: Blue Literature
Blue Literature holds the special place as the only anime that my sister has ever wanted the soundtrack album for. Of course, I can’t seem to find any information if one is going to released which is just my luck because I had the very same reaction to the background music as I watched this show the first time. My favorite piece was the one that the woman played at the beginning of Kokoro and elsewhere.
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Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
It was obvious that J.C. Staff received a large enough budget for Railgun that they could attend to all the small points. And a large wardrobe for it’s characters is definitely a small thing but it correlates well with high-quality anime. I also think it’s a great non-time consuming way to let the viewers know more about a character’s personality.
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Winner: Kimi ni Todoke
Runner-up: Blue Literature
The lovely animation style to Kimi ni Todoke made it a difficult show to drop but eye-candy does not automatically make a show a high quality one. So, eventually, I just couldn’t stand watching more of Kimi ni Todoke but that does not mean I would deny it an award that it deserves. And Kimi ni Todoke’s lovely, lush watercolor style does deserve this award.
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Winner: Blue Literature
Runner-up: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
While each story of Blue Literature displayed a varying amount of animation style which made it difficult to pick it for Best Animation Style, each and every story displayed a high level on animation quality. I’m not surprised by this because, after all, Madhouse animated Summer Wars, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, all of Satoshi Kon’s works, and a bevy of other high quality animated shows. It inched past Railgun mainly because Madhouse was able to make all the varied animation styles work.
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Winner: AIC
AIC is not one of the anime studios that get talked about often; they lack the star power that a Gainax, J.C. Staff, or Kyoto Animation has and at the same time they lack the negative attention that a Sunrise, Studio Deen, or Gonzo has. They’re probably best known for the Oh My Goddess franchise to most people though maybe some know them from animating Bamboo Blade, Asu no Yoichi, or Ga-Rei: Zero. This season they released four shows: Sora No Otoshimono, Sasameki Koto, Nyan Koi, Astro Fighter Sunred; and a glance at the awards I’ve given out so far sees all four getting mentioned and winning a fair number of them. The weakest show of the four, Nyan Koi, was still a pretty good show and better than much of the rest of this season’s shows. Therefore, they were the easy pick this season with Madhouse a very distant second.
Astro Fighter Sunred
Nyan Koi
Sasameki Koto
Sora no Otoshimono
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That’s it for part 3 of my summer 2009 anime awards. Stay tuned for my top overall picks of the season.
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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 1 – Cast and Character Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season
I remember complaining about this season and how weak it was, and it was a pretty weak season, but now that we’re into the second week of the winter season I look back at the list of shows and can’t help feeling a little sad that many of these shows have ended. I’m sure there’ll be shows this season that I’ll get attached to (Hanamaru Kindergarten is a strong possibility) but they’re not there yet. So, maybe, it’s a good thing that I waited this long to do my seasonal anime awards.
Below is a listing of the shows that I watched this season and are the pool from which the picks for all the awards are coming from. Also a reminder, I’ll try to keep spoilers to a minimum but there’ll be some because of how they’ll relate to specific awards and for the continuing shows, only the part of the series that ran during this season is under consideration for this season’s awards.
Carry-over shows watched this season (5): Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Cross Game, Kemono no Souja Erin, Hetalia Axis Powers, Umineko no Naku Koro ni
New shows watched this season (12): Natsu no Arashi! Season 2, Kobato, Sasameki Koto, Sora No Otoshimono, Nyan Koi, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun, Tatakau Shisho, Seitokai no Ichizon, Miracle Train, Trapeze, Blue Literature, Kampfer
Shows that got dropped (2): Kimi ni Todoke, The Sacred Blacksmith
Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin
Runner-up: Kobato from Kobato, Sumika Murasame from Sasameki Koto
There is no qualms this season about picking Erin as my best female main character and, truth be told, she pretty much blew everyone else away. She had always been an excellent character but it wasn’t until this season where she was able to step onto the world stage that she was able to shine at her full brilliance.
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Winner: Tomoki from Sora no Otoshimono
Runner-up: Kou from Cross Game
Tomoki was able to stop Kou’s quest for a three-peat as Best Male Main Character by pretty much being the most epic manly character in ages – running on the same level as say Kamina, Hosaka, or Maid Guy. He was so manly that even getting turned into a woman didn’t damper his burning manly soul.
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Winner: Kuroko, Uiharu, Saten from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
To Aru Kagaku no Railgun did a very good job of spreading the limelight out to all the characters so it almost feels like Kuroko, Uiharu, and Saten are on the same level as the main character – Misaka aka Railgun but I don’t quite think they’re on that level; hence, that’s why they’re showing up here. I tried to narrow my pick down to only one character but that proved impossible since I equally love all three characters for their strengths, weaknesses, personal motivations and quarks that so enriched the show and made it one of the best shows of the season.
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Winner: Nagi Ichinose from Nyan Koi
Runner-up: America from Hetalia Axis Powers
Nagi was to Nyan Koi as Hosaka was to Minami-ke and if that’s not a good enough reason for picking her then I don’t know what is.
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Winner: Erin and Ial from Kemono no Souja Erin
Up until the final half of the final episode this pair would have been more of a viewer pairing based on a handful of scenes that Erin and Ial were onscreen together but I’m almost positive that we are to conclude that they do in fact become a couple and marry in the future. The closest competition in this category was from Cross Game but with the addition of a new character there seemed to be a reshuffling of the couples/potential couples in Cross Game and it’s not entirely clear if the new pairings or the older ones will eventually win out. Personally, I like the idea of a Aoba and Azuma couple but I also still like the pairing of Aoba and Kou.
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Winner: Kuroko’s teleporting ability from To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Misaka’s Railgun ability is most definitely the flashiest power of the season but I just love what Kuroko can do with her teleporting ability. It may be that I’m surprised that Kuroko is more than just a joke character that she appeared to be after the first couple of episodes which helped make her ability more impressive than it is. However, at most, that’s probably just a very small part because there was multiple times where Kuroko was able to show off how cool being to teleport herself and others can be. And also, we’ve never really seen Kuroko get to go all out with her power like Misaka was able to do.
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Winner: Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
Runner-up: Cross Game, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
This season of Full Metal Alchemist saw many new and varied characters introduced to compliment an already great cast, both on the good side and on the evil side. And not only are these quality additions, these characters have pushed the show down very unexpected and delightful avenues. As someone who became very disappointed with Full Metal Alchemist after how the first show ended and consequently stopped reading the manga, I love that this series has rekindled all my excitement over this most worthy show.
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Winner: To Aru Kagaku no Railgun
Runner-up: Cross Game
One of the ways Railgun was miles better than Index was how well the characters were put together and how much time was focused on developing the cast. I don’t know if it’s strictly from the change in directors or if giving the original creator a second chance at getting the series right accounted for the difference but I love the changes and thrilled that Railgun will continue into the winter season. It’s a shame that the first two episodes will make many people drop the series and miss out on a finely crafted show.
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Winner: Erin from Kemono no Souja Erin
Erin wins this award again for pretty much all the same reasons why she won it during the summer season. What so impressed me was for every awesome thing she did as the hero that saves the day we could look back and remember the events that she had to endure and overcome to be able to do those awesome things.
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That’s the end of part 1; I hope to have the second part up within a day. Comments and feedback are always appreciated – I’d love to see what others would pick.
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Links to the other parts of my Fall 2009 Season Awards
Part 2 – Genre and Misfit Awards
Part 3 – VMA Awards
Part 4 – Top 8 Shows of the Fall Season
Blue Literature was super-awesome but outside the scope of this post 
The idea for this post came from the result of several shows from the season either over performing or under performing after my first impression post and my desire to ensure the readers of The Null Set knew of my updated (and more accurate) opinion of those shows.
Listed below are the fall shows that I wrote about, sorted by grade and I’m going to start at the top and work down, giving some final/almost final impressions and say how well my first impression of the show held up.
First Impression Score – 10.5/12 after 3 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 7/12 B
In Short – Every now and again the show lived up to the first season but those moments where few and far between
The first season of Arashi was a wonderful blend of comedy and drama that kept me enthralled and I was very excited about this season and after 3 episodes of this season, I was sure that this season would be another winner. It didn’t turn out that way; pretty much the entire rest of the season was fluffy comedy without the seriousness that helped make the first season so good. Now I don’t have anything against the fluffy comedy but what helped set this show apart from other shows was the time-travel aspect of the show and for this season, it was like this part was no longer important.
It really felt like Shaft was treading water with this season – not willing to finish the plot but desperate to fill the episode count up. This was a very disappointing turn for a show that I had felt was one of the overlooked gems of the year. I assume Shaft will be doing a third season and I will watch it because I like the characters but it’ll be far down on my list of priorities when it does air.
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First Impression Score – 9.8/12 after 3 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 10/12 A
In Short – Kobato’s slowly deepening story is just icing on an already delicious cake
This is one show that has started off strong and has kept on performing at the same high level. Kobato is still the charming, genki girl that warms our heart as she tries to help the people around her and that’s plenty to make this a must watch show. I can’t wait to see the second half of Kobato.
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First Impression Score – 9.6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11/12 A+
In Short – A character-driven and character-focused show that knew when to be serious and when to be funny
I waited awhile to write my first impression post for Sasameki Koto because I wanted to sure that the show was as good as I thought it was so my final impression of the show matched up with my first impression very closely. One of the reasons I really liked this show was how character driven and centered it was. The result was that the characters and their problems felt real and I wanted to see what happened to them. It would have rated even higher but the very non-ending ending was a bit of a letdown – easily remedied if AIC does a second season.
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First Impression Score – 8.4/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11.5/12 Near Perfect
In Short – Epic!
Remember in The Matrix how at the end when Neo had his powers fully awakened and he was operating on such a higher level than the agents that killing them was easier than squishing a bug. That was the level that Sora no Otoshimono was operating on by the final episodes. I feel sorry for all the fan service shows coming out in the coming seasons because I highly doubt any of them will hold a candle Sora no Otoshimono and I’ll have a hard time justifying the time spent on watching these inferior shows when I could rewatch Sora no Otoshimono. I also feel sorry for any other type of show that comes out that doesn’t display the creativity and energy that this mere fan service show was able to display. I’m really hoping 2010 brings another season of Tomoki and crew.
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First Impression Score – 7/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 3/12 D, dropped after 11 episodes
In Short – What could have been a great show was tripped up by the lack of a compelling story and reason to watch
I had hoped that something would come along that would shake up the show’s formula and make me want to watch this but that wasn’t the case. Instead the effort needed to watch the next episode became exponentially greater as the series continued and after 11 episodes it became too much and I dropped it for good. One of the big problems, I think, was that Kazehaya – the boy who likes Sadako and is the boy who Sadako likes – had about as much testosterone flowing in his veins as Mikuru from the Melancholy of Haruhi has. Another big problem was the complete lack of a realistic reason why the two of them hadn’t started dating by the end of episode 2.
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First Impression Score – 7/12 after 7 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 9/12 A-
In Short – Good characters but a somewhat weak story – the cat curse needed to be a more important component to the show
Nyan Koi slowly wormed it’s way into my heart; it wasn’t perfect but it was good enough. Yuu Kobayashi was one of this year’s best seiyuu and her character here – Nagi – was easily my favorite of the show and much like Hosaka from Minami-ke was able to put a smile on my face by just getting onscreen. A second season was confirmed at the end of the final episode and I’ll be sure to tune in when it airs.
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First Impression Score – 7/12 after 4 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 11.5/12 Near Perfect
In Short – Vastly superior to it’s parent show Index, Railgun finishes a year that has repeatedly show J.C. Staff at the top of it’s game
After 4 episodes of Railgun I wrote my first impression post and mentioned that the show had the potential to become a decent show. It turns out I was underestimating J.C. Staff by a large margin and Railgun turned into one of the best new shows of the season. One way to prove the prowess in the storytelling is to point out how both my sister and I felt that we should have completely hated Kuroko (the girl with an overly affectionate attachment to Railgun) but somehow neither of us did. I have high hopes for the second half of this series and I’m dying to see Uiharu’s power.
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First Impression Score – 6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 8/12 B+
In Short – Storytelling continues to be very disjointed which makes it hard to really get into but it also continues to be interesting and different
If the story arcs flowed together better and if the show had a better feeling of the overall story going somewhere, I think I’d be raving about it; instead, I’ve just been mildly positive about it. Watching Tatakau Shisho, or Armed Librarians, has been worth the time and I remain interested to see what happens as we move into the new season.
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First Impression Score – 6/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 7/12 B
In Short – At best Studio Deen can make a mildly entertaining show and Seitokai no Ichizon is Studio Deen at it’s best
From the time of my first impression post to the end Seitokai no Ichizon got a little better but it never really hit the zone like an A level show would. Slightly entertaining but very forgettable.
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First Impression Score – 5/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 4/12 C, dropped after 9 episodes
In Short – The completely generic show was completely generic and a waste of time (which makes it perfect for the domestic anime market, never mind Manglobe’s vastly superior Michiko to Hatchin remains unlicensed)
As long as it was relatively painless I was going to try to keep watching The Sacred Blacksmith but when my preferred sub group dropped it, I figured that I would take it as a sign to drop it for good since it didn’t show any improvement. And I’ve had absolutely no urge to pick it back up. If Manglobe wanted to do an anime on the cheap to try to make money there’s still plenty of good material that could have been adapted; they didn’t need to settle for the mediocre.
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First Impression Score – 4/12 after 6 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 5/12 C+
In Short – Never a great show, Miracle Train improved in the second half and at times was a pretty decent show
Another title that I said I’d drop but I kept watching and actually finished. There was one episode, I think it was the eleventh, that was genuinely good and I remember thinking if only the rest of the series could have been this good. This is in no way an endorsement to watch Miracle Train but I did want to say that it did get a little better later on.
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First Impression Score – 2.8/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 1/12 Epic Fail
In Short – Garbage
I finished this just so that I could have at least one really low series review. Watching Kampfer was about as much fun as getting a root canal without any Novocaine.
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First Impression Score – 2/12 after 5 episodes
Seasonal Ending Score – 6/12 B-
In Short – After finding some actual nice characters to feature and showing that there was some connection between the different people, Trapeze didn’t turn out as bad as I first thought it would
The second half resurgence to Trapeze was something I wanted to mention since I gave it such a low first impression score. I had thought that 5 episodes was enough to be sure that Trapeze lacked redeeming qualities but, of course, the next episode didn’t suck as much. Which lead to my continued watching of this show and I was shocked when, by the end, I was actually getting into the show. I credit how it was revealed that many of the patients where actually connected in some way and having more sympathetic patients to my increased liking of the show (and the Christmas episode didn’t hurt either). I’m actually on the cusp of recommending this to other people, especially if they’re looking for something a bit different. At the very least, I’d suggest giving this a shot if a person is looking for something different and won’t mind watching half the series before it starts to come together.
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Well that’s a general look at the fall season, expect my award picks shortly and my overall 2009 picks in a couple of weeks (I’m going to try to finish up a couple series from 2009 first).
Posted in anime, general anime interst, series review
Nyan Koi
These three shows are the final shows that I plan on reviewing for this season and I figured lets to them all together so I can be done already.
The Scores
Tatakau Shisho
Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 6/12 B-
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average
Seitokai no Ichizon
Average Rating: episodes 1-6 – 6/12 B-
Anticipation Level: 1/5 – Low
Nyan Koi
Average Rating: episodes 1-7 – 7/12 B
Anticipation Level: 2/5 – Below Average
Nyan Koi - In America, male fan service is considered art
The Story
Tatakau Shisho aka Armed Librarians is set in a world where a record of an entire person’s life is created in the form of a stone tablet and appears after the person has died; this tablet is known as a person’s book. These books get stored in a large repository and are guarded by the Librarians and they need to keep a careful watch on things because a religious cult has sprung up and it takes offense at the Librarians’ mission and the library itself.
Seitokai no Ichizon is a comedy show set around the daily lives of a high school’s student council. The four office holders are all female and each contain a set of character quirks that add to the comedy of the show and work against the natural desires of the fifth council member – a visual novel playing boy who earned his seat by being the top student in school and sees the four females as members of his personal harem.
Nyan Koi is a comedy show built around what happens after the main character disturbs a cat god’s shrine and is cursed to either help 100 cats or get turned into a cat. To help him out, he now has the ability to talk to and understand cats.
The Fine Print
Tataku Shisho has one of the most interesting premises this season and as a result I really want to like it. Sadly, I can’t say this show has been a great success because it does have it’s problems but it’s done just enough stuff right that it could end up in the good show pile. The show definitely has the pieces to be a good show but so far it’s storytelling hasn’t impressed me. It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean; I could point out that the first four episodes seem pretty unconnected to the later episodes or how the show kinda feels like a person is clicking between different programs and the programs doesn’t quite mesh well together but that doesn’t really explain what I mean – maybe the best way is to say it feels like the person putting together the story still needs to learn how to transition. I intend to continue watching because like I said, it’s different and I could use some variety this season.
Watching 40+ episodes of Hetalia lead me to the conclusion that Studio Deen can’t quite do comedy shows and Seitokai no Ichizon has confirmed this. It’s close to being a great show but it isn’t quite there. As a result, I find myself only mildly amused when I watch this show – maybe laughing once an episode. This level is fine for Hetalia because those episodes last 5 minutes but it doesn’t work when a show runs 22 minutes. I think part of Seitokai no Ichizon’s problem is that it’s too aware of the supposed formula this type of show is supposed to follow to ensure success and it slavishly follows that formula even if that means it becomes a lesser clone of another show, never finding something to make it unique. Or to put it another way, the show has no soul and will never become a real boy. I’ll continue watching, hoping to see some real creativity, but I’m not expecting it.
Nyan Koi shares something with To Aru Kagaku no Railgun – it’s getting progressively better as the season unfolds. I was all set to like this show because I love talking cats but a couple episodes in and I was moving this into the pile of shows that I might drop. Episode 4 was this show’s last chance and it was in this episode that Nagi – a very masculine girl who appreciates the beautiful femininity in other girls that she lacks – gets introduced and it’s been quickly moving into the “I like this show” category. Add the new characters that get introduced into the show in episode 6 (who know about the curse and have enough power to protect themselves) and it suddenly feels like the show’s working with all it’s gears and the comedy just flows easier. I still could critique the show a bit, for example, the main character has been rather lazy about helping the cats and I’d like to see the curse in action, if only to make him more serious about ending it. At this point, though, my critics are relatively minor compared to some of the other shows this season and who knows, if the show can sustain the quality that episode 7 displayed – it might just earn a spot on my top shows for the season. (And Jeff Lawson likes it too.)
Posted in anime, first impressions
Polaryzed – I’ve finished the first 3 episodes of this show and I must say that I think this series gets my Surprise Hit of the Season Award. Originally I had this on my pass list. Come on, a kid starts talking to cats and it’s supposed to be good?! Well, it IS! The characters are great and likable, the writing is good, the jokes are funny, it’s silly but not over the top, and the dialogues with Junpei and the cats are awesome. I’m definitely watching this one to the end.
It has a touch of romance, decent comedy that isn’t based purely on fan service, and the animation is crisp and, so far, consistent. Pairing wise, I’m definitely on the Junpei x Sumiyoshi boat. Kaede is kind of annoying and a little to perfect for my tastes. Give me an oppai tsundere tomboy any time over that. Based on the OP, there are a few more characters to get introduced (including what look like twins), so I hope it doesn’t turn out to be too much of a harem. Time will tell I guess. Check it out.
With the fall season starting in a couple of weeks, I figured it was about time for me to get this done.
Two things happened that delayed this post. The first was that I formed the opinion that there wasn’t much to look forward to in this season and, as a result, I didn’t feel excited enough to want to do this post. I still think this is probably the weakest looking season in at least a year but I also think there’s at least a few good shows. The other thing that delayed this post was that I became addicted to playing a video game – Europa Univeralis 3 – but after playing it for well over a week, I’ve started to burn the game interface onto my computer monitor (something I’ve been told is impossible to do) and I figured I need to get back to my neglected blog. By reading this, you can be assured that I finished writing this post but even right now, I really want to pick up where I left off with my game which was having the Polish empire kick the Mamluks out of the Mid-East.
My criteria for picking shows is the same as last time. I’m looking for which animation house is doing it, if the summary/source material sound very enticing and if one of my favorite seiyuus will be involved. This won’t turn up all the good shows of the season; Cross Game is an example from the spring season of a show that I missed until it’s great character driven story was pointed out to me – but, using this criteria, I normally get most of the shows that are worthwhile to watch.
Some other previews that I found helpful include these here: hashihime, Metanorn, Simplicity, Sea Slugs!, That Anime Blog and Rabbit Poets.
One group of shows that I won’t cover are sequels to shows that I haven’t watched or shows that I have watched but don’t intend to waste my time watching the sequel. For completeness sake I’ll mention them here:
And with that, I knock 25% of the new season’s shows from my radar. There’s probably a few good shows in there but if you’ve seen the first season, then you probably don’t need me to do more then mention their existence.
So with that out of the way, let’s head to preview/watchlist proper.
This first group is made up of the shows I’m really excited to see as well as being very good bets at being great – I’ll start calling them Tier 1 shows. Last season I had 3 Tier 1 shows: Taishou Yakyuu Musume, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, and Bakemonogatari. Two of the three where definite homeruns and the last one (Tokyo Magnitude 8.0) still turned out well. This time, there’s a total of one show in this first group and it’s a sequel, meaning that as long as it can hold up well it’s a guaranteed hit.
Director: Akiyuki Shinbo
Studio: SHAFT – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Maria+holic, Hidamari Sketch, Bakemonogatari
Seiyuu: Ryoko Shiraishi, Chiaki Omigawa, Yuko Sanpei, Ai Nonaka, Yui Horie
I was in the small minority of anime fans that actually watched the first season and I was treated to a surprising good show. I say surprisingly because even after watching the first episode – I was sure this show was a bomb. I couldn’t help but compare Natsu no Arashi to other shows from the SHAFT/Shinbou combo and the character designs looked so ugly and poor that I was sure it was reflection of the quality of the series. Then there was the first episode that I flat out hated. And it would have ended there if I was just a fan watching the show but since I want to be accurate with what I write for this blog I decided to watch a couple more episodes and it was a complete turnaround. True, I never got to the point of actually liking the character designs but the story reeled me in. I’ll spoil a bit of the first season in the hopes of getting more people interested in this show.
Arashi is a ghost of a high school girl that died in a WW2 air raid. Every summer something happens that allows her to take corporal form and thus she can enjoy the season in the small town that she lived in. And every summer she gets a job at The Ark (a small café) because it’s one of the few places that has not changed since the war. The show starts when a middle school aged boy, Yasaka, meets the older Arashi at The Ark and falls in love. Luckily for him, he “connects” with Arashi which allows the pair to time travel. What they do with this power ranges from visiting an arcade in 1980’s to saving people that Arashi knows will die in the air raids.
I liked how Natsu no Arashi was able to balance the comedy and seriousness that different aspects of the show had. I also liked how the time traveling allowed for a bit of reflection about how Japanese society has changed since the war years. The first season ended at a good point and it was obvious that it was going to get a sequel but I’m happy to see that it’s being done so soon. I just hope that the trouble SHAFT had during the summer with animating Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Bakemonogatari at the same time won’t spill over to this series
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The small number of shows that rank in the top tier when compared with last season is a bit of let down, especially since the summer season is traditionally thought of as an off-season.
The next group of shows rank a bit lower in my expectations but I still think these shows have a real possibility in being good shows and let’s call these Tier 2 shows. My picks for last season’s Tier 2 shows (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei S.3, Spice and Wolf II, Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Aoi Hana) turned up some real gems with the least one of the bunch (Umineko no Naku Koro ni) still was an enjoyable watch.
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Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Studio: AIC – Bamboo Blade, Oh! My Goddess, Asu no Yoichi, Ga:Rei – Zero –
Seiyuu: Shintaro Asanuma, Yuka Iguchi, Yu Kobayashi, Jun Fukuyama, Rina Satou
My “sleeper hit” senses tingled when I read the write up and looked at who was working on this one. The story is about a boy, Junpei Kosaka, who dislikes cats but accidentally angers the local cat deity. He is punished by this cat deity with the ability to understand cats and the task of fulfilling 100 wishes from cats with the penalty for failure being that he will get turned into a cat. A very promising summary since I absolutely love talking cats and this set-up provides a fertile field for comedic situations.
However, it’s important to remember that a set-up is just a set-up and without a good group of people working on the show – the show will still stink. In this department I like what I see. The director did the first season of Hayate, Zettai Karen Children and Getsumen Miina. The writer did the first season of Hayate and Ristorante Paradiso. And the studio is AIC, who doesn’t get a lot of credit but shows like Bamboo Blade, Asu no Yoichi, and Ga:Rei – Zero – show that it’s very capable of turning out a good show.
Aka: A Certain Scientific Railgun
Director: Tatsuyuki Nagai
Studio: J.C. Staff – Hatsukoi Limited, Toradora, Potemayo, Shana
Seiyuu: Atsushi Abe, Rina Satou, Kanae Itou, Satomi Arai, Aki Toyosaki
Last fall saw J.C. Staff adapt To Aru Majutsu no Index with mixed results. Outside of the initial few episodes, the only story arc that I really liked was the one that centered on Misaka Mikoto, the clones of Misaka Mikoto and the use of the clones in a science experiment. So the idea of more anime being made from this universe didn’t really excite me, even though J.C. Staff was going to use the spin-off series, To Aru Kagaku no Railgun that featured Misaka Mikoto.
If no changes had been made with the personal working on this show, I would have put this in a lower tier because I’d almost be positive that the show wouldn’t turn out that good; however, there has been some personal changes. This time around the director is the guy that did the second season of Honey and Clover as well as Toradora and the series composition is done by the person who did the second season Birdy as well as Asatte no Houkou. These two changes give me a fair amount of hope that the second season will be much improved. And I do hope it’s good because when J.C. Staff does an action series and that series “clicks”, like the second half of Shana 2, then it’s a truly enjoyable experience.
Director: Hiro Kaburaki
Studio: Production I.G. – Ghost in the Shell:SAC, Eden of the East, Kemono no Souja Erin
Seiyuu: Daisuke Namikawa, Mamiko Noto, Aya Hirano, Miyuki Sawashiro, Yuko Sanpei, Yuuichi Nakamura
The story for this one kinda reads like the premise of a female version of Toradora. Kuronuma Sawako is a typical high school girl that has a crush on a boy in her class and the desire to live a normal life but she has a problem. She, unfortunately, was born with a face that creeps people out, so much so that her nickname is Sadako – i.e. the super-creepy girl from The Ring. The series will, presumably, focus on how she works to overcome this obstacle and get her classmates to like her and win the heart of the guy she likes.
I don’t know if it’ll play out like Toradora but I do know that it’s a very rare day when Production I.G. misses with a show. Throw in a pretty strong vocal cast and I’m almost sure that this’ll turn out to be a hit.
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The third group of shows are ones that I think have a decent chance of being good shows but there’s too many variables involved to get really excited about them. These are the Tier 3 shows and last time I had 3 shows in this level – GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Needless, Canaan. For me there was only one winner out of that group and it wasn’t Needless or Canaan.
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Aka: The Sacred Blacksmith
Director: Masamitsu Hidaka
Studio: Manglobe – Michiko to Hatchin, Samurai Champloo
Seiyuu: Ayumi Fujimura, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Aki Toyosaki, Hideki Tasaka, Kazuhiko Inoue
The story to this one (ancient war on evil that supposedly sealed away the evil but it’s now on the loose so queue the band of plucky young would-be heroes) sounds fairly generic to me but even generic shows can sometimes be great. That fact alone wouldn’t be enough to get itself listed here but what does interest me is that Manglobe is doing this series. They don’t do many series but the ones they do always seem unique; so, while the shows sounds generic and the publicity pics make the animation style look ordinary, I think there’s a good chance that this show won’t be generic.
Director: Mitsuyuki Masuhara
Studio: Madhouse – Death Note, Kaiba, Kurozuka, Rideback
Seiyuu: Kana Hanazawa, Tetsu Inada, Chiwa Saito
I’ll start off by saying that I think I fall far from the target demographic of this show. Even from the summary of the show – Kobato is a sweet, perky, and really naïve but she’s charged with a mission to collect people’s sufferings in a mysterious bottle and she can’t fall in love with a boy she works with and who’s heart she must heal – it’s clear that this belongs to a genre I don’t really watch.
Astute readers will probably ask why I’m listing Kobato then. Well, there’s three reasons. The first is that I’ve picked up some of the giddy enthusiasm that other bloggers have over this title and it makes me want to see. The second is that Madhouse is doing this and, if the publicity shots are any indication, then this’ll be well-animated. The third is that I’ve been a life-long fan of marshmallow peeps (it’s not Easter without them) and it appears that Kobato likes them too since she’s got a blue peep handbag.
Those three things are good enough to get this show listed and pushed up to being the second listed of the third tier shows. And if the show can create good characters and stick to a story without too much filler – I might really like this show.
Here's my peeps!
Director: Yoon Suk-ho
Studio: G&G Entertainment and JM Animation
Seiyuu:
Apparently, this anime is based off of a Korean live action tv drama series that’s hugely popular in Japan and around the world. I’ve never heard of it, nor have I ever watched any Korean series so I have no real strong way to gauge if I should be looking forward to it. As a result, I have to use what other people say and from what I gather, Korean dramas are notorious for being tear-jerkers on the level of Clannad ~After Story~. I really liked Clannad so that makes me think I might enjoy this show. I probably would have ranked this higher if the anime was coming from an animation house I was familiar with or they where using voice actors I knew since that could help me gauge how well I could expect the adapting will be done. I probably shouldn’t worry since this type of project normally means that there’s been a lot of money put into the project to ensure that it’s a success.
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The fourth and final group of shows are the real wildcards of the season and – unsurprisingly at this point – are called Tier 4 shows. There might be a winner in this group but these titles will probably just struggle to become watchable. Last time, of the 3 Tier 4 shows that aired, Umi Monogatari and Sora no Manimani turned out to be pretty good. Which is why I think it’s important to give all the shows a fair shot by watching a couple of episodes before deciding if I’ll keep watching them or not.
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Aka: Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra
Director: Toshiya Shinohara
Studio: David Production – Ristorante Paradiso
Seiyuu: Romi Paku, Akira Ishida, Ayako Kawasumi, Miyu Irino, Miyuki Sawashiro
This is also where I put the wtf? shows of the season that interest me enough that I’ll watch them but I really have no idea what they’re about. This is one such series.
The Bantorra Library contains a repository of all humans that have died because when people die in this world, their essence is crystallized into the form of a “Book”. This library is maintained by an armed staff of librarians as various groups would like to get there hands on what’s inside. One such group turns a boy into a suicide bomber but instead of killing the top librarian, he falls in love and finds himself joining the world of the Armed Librarians.
I absolutely loved Ristorante Paradiso, the first series done by David Production and if they can do as good with this title as Ristorante Paradiso, then I’ll probably like this series a lot, especially since I like the idea of armed librarians (I want more Library War!). And the idea of a library full of people’s memories is a very interesting idea that I hope they do something cool with.
Director:
Studio: Beijing Glorious Animation and Future Planet
Seiyuu:
I realize that there’s been tons of adaptations of this already from many different angles (and videos games as well) but so far I haven’t been exposed to any yet which is a bit strange if I think about it because I love historical shows. So, I’m thinking I might just try to catch at least a few episodes to see what the hubbub is about in regards to this franchise.
This is going to run 52 episodes which almost made me decide against even giving this show a chance but then I remembered that I complained about Kemono no Souja Erin running for 50+ episodes back in my winter preview. If I come to like Romance of the Three Kingdoms like I did Kemono no Souja Erin then I’ll like that it’s going to run for awhile. Now I just got to hope someone actually subs this.
Director: Eiji Suganuma
Studio: AIC – Bamboo Blade, Oh! My Goddess, Asu no Yoichi, Ga:Rei – Zero –
Seiyuu: Ayahi Takagaki, Megumi Takamoto, Chiwa Saito, Emiri Katou
A yuri school romance show is probably all I need to say for most people to decide one way or the other if they’re going to catch this. I’m normally in the camp of not bothering if that’s the sole draw for a show (probably because asking me to suspense disbelief over having so many girls that like girls in one place is a bit too much) but I liked Aoi Hana and I’m currently giving AIC the benefit of the doubt on their shows based on recent successes that’ll continue until I get to one that I don’t like. So, I’ll be sure to watch at least a couple episodes and see how it turns out.
Aka: Heaven’s Lost Property
Director: Hisashi Saito
Studio: AIC – Bamboo Blade, Oh! My Goddess, Asu no Yoichi, Ga:Rei – Zero –
Seiyuu: Saori Hayami, Souichiro Hoshi, Ayahi Takagaki, Tatsuhisa Suzuki
I normally steer clear of shows when I get the impression that the show is just about how much fan-service can be crammed into it with no regard to trying to tell a coherent story – which is the feeling I get when I look at publicity pics of this show.
And I was about to pass it over except I noticed that the director of Bamboo Blade is directing this show. Now, I’d really much prefer a second season of Bamboo Blade but since I can’t have that (at least not yet), I’ll give this show a small chance to wow me because, while, I’m sure this’ll be full of fan-service, there’s a chance that it’ll have something that makes it worth watching.
Director: Yasuhiro Kuroda
Studio: Nomad – Rozen Maiden, Yozakura Quartet
Seiyuu: Marina Inoue, Yui Horie, Kaori Nazuka, Kana Asumi, Megumi Nakajima, Michiko Nomura, Yuko Goto
It’s not too often that I’ve read a manga before it’s made into an anime. The last time was Kannagi and I think knowledge of the manga hurt my liking of the anime since I didn’t like the additions the director (the guy that KyoAni fired over the lackluster start to Lucky Star) made. On second thought, saying that I read the manga to Kampfer is probably an overstatement; I looked at the first 10 chapters and I wasn’t impressed. If it’s adapting a manga that I’ve read, why not do FrankenFran, The World Only God Knows, or Rabbit Doubt?
The story is about a normal high school boy that one day wakes up and finds that he’s been changed to an attractive high school girl and is now a “Kampfer” and must now fight other Kampfers – though I can’t remember if they gave a reason why they had fight or why all Kamfers have to female.
My interest in catching this stems wholly from the fact that the seiyuu cast as a rather strong one (I just love Marina Inoue’s voice) and the slight interest to see if the anime adaptors can improve upon the manga. I’ve seen it done, Asu no Yoichi the manga was very forgettable but Asu no Yoichi the anime turned out pretty good.
Director: Kenichi Kasai
Studio: Yumeta – La Corda D’Oro ~primo passo~ , Neo Angelique Abyss
Seiyuu: Hiroshi Kamiya, Hiroyuki Yoshino, Miyu Irino, Daisuke Ono, Keiji Fujiwara, Masakazu Morita
A comedy show about Tokyo subway stations personified as beautiful guys? Why not? This is anime and even the bizarre can be used for inspiration. Umi Monogatari was based off of a line of pachinko machines and Hetalia Axis Powers used countries as people.
What does interest me is the director, Kenichi Kasai, who was last seen being the director for Aoi Hana and has also done Honey & Clover S1, KimiKiss, Nodame Cantabile. This seems to lend a level of quality to this show that makes it worth checking out.
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There’s a couple of series (Aoi Bungaku and Kuuchuu Buranko) that I can’t seem to find enough information about to see if they’re worth adding here but I might catch them later if someone subs them.
Also, I normally don’t mention OVAs but I did want to call attention to the 4 episode OVA that J.C. Staff is doing with the Shana franchise before they do a supposed final season of Shana. I’ve actually gotten to point that I miss this series so I’m glad to see that J.C. Staff is getting back to it.
So, there you go. Even with what I consider a weak slate of shows, I still manage to write a 3,800+ word preview and watchlist. I tried to highlight all the shows that I believe are worth highlighting but I’m sure I missed a few so check out my first impression posts when the new season starts to air (which is in about 10 days).
And if this list of shows don’t inspire a lot of interest and you’re looking for something to watch this season – you might want to try one of the great shows that will continue into this season:
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Finally, here’s a chart of all the series and OVAs that are running this season.
Awesome chart comes from here.
Posted in anime, season preview 
