Another year finished and another year the wannabe buzzards prognosticate the demise of anime even when the empirical data continues to defy their constructed narratives. I’d compare these people to climate scientists who close their eyes to the last decade plus of weather but I don’t want to get political here .

Instead I’ll point out that this year saw two young studios P.A. Works and Silver Fox create series which signaled their emergence as top quality anime studios. Also, this year saw two studios – Shaft and Brains Base –  take the plunge with original works and the resulting masterpieces pushed these already well-respected studios into the stratosphere.  Nor could it be forgotten how Kyoto Animation and Satelight, two veteran studios, stretched their creative legs and produce great series in genres that their not known for. Or how a quirky little studio, david production, that spun off from Gonzo a few years ago produced not one but two quirky quality series this year and finally attracted the attention of a large number of anime fans.

So, for those reasons and others, it’s easy to see that this was a banner year for anime –  one that I want to reminisce about and remember. There’s various formats that can be used to do so but the one I like involves ranking the anime in various categories because it just seems more orderly this way.

Before starting into the “nice” awards I first wanted to list the anime series that I watched from 2011 that are eligible for the various awards and to hand-out a few “not-so-nice” awards.

Winter Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (2): Star Driver, To Aru Majutsu no Index II

New shows watched this season (10): Fractale, Gosick, IS: Infinite Stratos, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Level E, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!, Moshidora, Rio – Rainbow Gate, Wolverine

Shows that got dropped (4): Dragon Crisis, Freezing, Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!, Yumekui Merry

Spring Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (1): Gosick

New shows watched this season (20): X-Men, Dog Days, Tiger and Bunny, Nichijou, Yondemasu yo Azazel-san, Hanasaku Iroha, Fireball Charming, Steins;Gate, Hyouge Mono, Hidan no Aria, A Channel, Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko, Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera, Maria+Holic Alive, Ao no Exorcist, The World God Only Knows II, Seikon no Qwaser II, C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control, Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai, Deadman Wonderland

Shows that got dropped (8): Hen Zemi, Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai, Hoshizora e Kakaru Hashi, Sengoku Otome – Momoiro Paradox, 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku, Sket Dance, Sofuteni, Astarotte no Omocha!

Summer Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (6): Ao no Exorcist, Hyouge Mono, Steins;Gate, Hanasaku Iroha, Tiger and Bunny, Nichijou

New shows watched this season (13): Mawaru Penguin Drum, Kamisama no Memo-chou, Dantalian no Shoka, Nekogami Yaoyorozu, R-15, Sacred Seven, Ikoku Meiro no Croisee, Natsume Yuujinchou 3, Yuruyuri, Kamisama Dolls, Blood-C, Mayo Chiki, Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Shows that got dropped (3): Usagi Drop, No. 6, The Idolm@ster

Fall Season

Carry-over shows watched this season (2): Hyouge Mono, Mawaru Penguin Drum

New shows watched this season (15): C3 – Cube×Cursed×Curious, Fate/Zero, Maji de Watashi ni Koi Shinasai!!, Kyoukai Senjou no Horizon, Hunter × Hunter, Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle, Tamayura – Hitotose, Chihayafuru, Persona 4, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Shakugan no Shana III (Final), Last Exile — Ginyoku no Fam, Ben-to, Un-Go, Guilty Crown

Shows that got dropped (3): Shinryaku!? Ika Musume, Working’!!, Mirai Nikki

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Total New Series Watched 2011:       78

Total New Series Completed:              53

Total New Series Dropped:                  18

Total New Continuing Series:             07

Now it’s time for the Anti-Awards. These are awards that the winners probably wouldn’t like winning and instead of spreading them out in the various parts, I’m going to put them here. Also, the awards will have a higher level of spoilers then  I normally use but I will still try to keep them to minimum.

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Best Half and Half

Winner:  Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
Runner-up: Blood-C

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko was improved by having Shaft/Shinbou adapt it but it was also hindered by being attached to Shaft/Shinbou. Hindered because so much of what Shaft/Shinbou does occurs admidst finding the fantastic in the common everyday hustle-n-bustle of life to the point of this being the expectation. There was Natsu no Arashi:  about a boy whose first crush is a girl he meets working in a café who just so happens to be a ghost of a girl who died in WWII. Sore de mo Machi wa Mawatteiru features a normal high school girl that encounters time travelers, aliens, and visits the afterlife. Bakemonogatari has a typical high school boy getting turned into a vampire (then mostly back to human) meeting gods, spirits, and curses. Arakawa Under the Bridge has a typical salary-man fall for a woman that lives under a bridge and declares that she is from Venus (and might actually be an alien). So, when Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko started with the main female character saying that she was an alien, this primed the viewers a certain way but then to throw this out for most of the series made it difficult to not compare it to other Shaft/Shinbou series and find it feeling a bit shallow.

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Worst Half and Half

Winner:  Fractale

Saying half of Fractale was okay is probably stretching it a bit but among all the problems that it had there were several good ideas and positive aspects floating about. It’s just that these ideas and aspects were very poorly put together and then buried under a mountain of incompetence. I’m still wondering how the creators were able to take one of my favorite voice actresses – the very talented Kana Hanazawa – and made her voice about as appealing as screeching fingernails on a blackboard.

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Most Disappointing Ending

Winner:  IS: Infinite Stratos

Why, oh, why did the creators of Infinite Stratos chicken out and try to tack on a boring “serious” ending to this show? Here’s how the show should have went – the climax should have been the reveal of Charlotte’s true gender and the build-up should have involved the generic male main character having to go to greater-and-greater lengths to hide the truth. It would have complimented the nature of the show much better and not have been such a letdown.

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Most Disappointing

Winner:  Guilty Crown

Any questions? Okay, moving on…

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Most in Need of Being Longer

Winner:  C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Runner-up: Un-Go

One can’t look over the year in anime without complaining about the episode counts that noitaminA series get. Un-Go actually accomplished a fair amount over it’s 11 episode run which allowed C to slip past to win this dubious award. C had some very interesting things to say but the silly CG battles and the compression artifacts from trying to squeeze C into 11 episodes just overwhelmed those interesting ideas.

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The You’re-Doing-It-Wrong Award

Winner:  R-15
Runner-up: Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Both of these shows should have been fun, light entertainment – perfect for the hot summer season – but both failed on a fundamental level and left the viewers saying, “you’re doing it wrong.” The bigger failure was on the part of R-15; the set-up was that this anime took place in a school of geniuses but somehow these “geniuses” were just a pack of boring, cliché characters. (And the one that plays the clarinet, if she’s such a genius then why does she spend the entire series practicing the same simple piece of music?)

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The Best Almost Good Series

Winner:  Dantalian no Shoka
Runner-up: C3 – Cube×Cursed×Curious

In different hands I think both of these series could have been fabulous. C3 probably needed more work to get there since the source material needed a touch of help and the style was trying too hard to look Shaftian without adding anything unique to the animation style. Dantalian no Shoka was so very close. More episodes would have helped but if that was unobtainable then trimming down the number of cases covered and focusing on fleshing these cases out and developing the characters probably would have been all it needed. Even so, Dantalian no Shoka was an interesting experiment in visual style that will probably help Gainax in the future be a better studio.

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The Series That Most Left Me Wondering “Why Did I Waste My Time Finishing This?”

Winner:  Deadman Wonderland
Runner-up: Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi had the characters and story of a really generic fan-service series and the low level of fan-service that’s typically found in a “serious” anime. Watching it every week left me confused and wondering when it would decide to fully commit to being one type of series or the other. This series was topped by Deadman Wonderland, however. I should have seen the signs early that the creators wanted to make a “dark” anime – like what all the cool kids are doing now – but lacked the ability and talent to do so. I even remember getting a chuckle over how the creators wanted to vilify private prisons but thought nothing of the implications to how the story would unfold. I did learn, though, when Mirai Nikki started resorting to implausible, silly turns-of-events to advance the story and I quickly dropped it.

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Best Series I Dropped

Winner:  Usagi Drop

Usagi Drop was, is, and will be on many lists as a top 10 anime for 2011. Not mines and that’s because I broke a personal rule I have about not checking out the source material before the end of an anime series. Objections to how it ends was just part of the reason for dropping it. The other part was watching a few more episodes after spoiling myself and seeing how the author clearly had the ending in mind when laying out the story and how she forced the characters into that path instead of allowing the characters to develop naturally and organically. Which is a shame, there was much to like about Usagi Drop.

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And on that note, let’s end part 0 and tomorrow I’ll put up part 1, the character awards.

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Top anime 2011 Awards Part 0: Introduction and Anti-Awards <- you are here
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 1: Cast and Character Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 2: Genre and General Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 3: VMA Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards Part 4: The Misfit Awards
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #13 – #7
Top anime 2011 Awards: Top 13 Anime – #6 – #1

Filed under: anime, awards

It’s still funny how they can show swimsuits like this and throw a streak of light glare to anything resembling underwear. I honestly cannot understand that reasoning…

Truth be told this is a pretty anemic season of new anime. There’s a couple really good shows with a couple more that have the potential but the majority of the new anime shows seem to be merely shooting for being generically average and, it turns out, many are having trouble reaching that feeble goal.

On the upside, I might actually have time to write more since I’ll definitely be spending less time this season watching anime .

(16) – Usagi Drop (Dropped)

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 2/12  F

With a heavy heart I have to start out with an anime that I was really looking forward too and thoroughly enjoyed over the first couple of episodes. This would easily be sitting in the top 5 right now if I didn’t break one of my personal rules about watching anime – never read the source material for a currently airing anime or upcoming anime until after the end of the anime series. I saw a spoiler about something that happens in the middle of the manga series which I thought was an ill-omen and, against my better judgment, I looked at how Usagi Drop ends and my head almost literally exploded. In a bad way. If the anime actually gets to the ending then Usagi Drop will go down as, quite possibly, the biggest troll anime ever. It’ll make Endless Eight look classy.

I tried to unsee what I saw and just enjoy the anime because I want to critique all anime independent of it’s relation to source material, personal bias, and assumptions but that’s a very difficult ideal to live up too and so I found myself examining every line of dialogue and action by the characters for how the ending will be justified. Then I tried to just force myself to keep watching but when a trip to the dentist becomes preferable to watching another episode then it’s time to move on. (I do have a nice dentist but it’s still the dentist.) I think this is the first time I’m hoping that the animators make up their own ending; maybe then, I’ll be able to finish Usagi Drop.

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(15) – R-15

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 3/12  D

By rights, I should be dropping R-15 since it’s not a very good show but there are extenuating circumstances that will give it a reprieve for a few episodes. AIC, the production company, had been on a real tear of late making well-polished, above average fan service/comedy/(fill in the blank) anime series and I was hoping to see this string continue. So, on the strength of past successes, it’s getting an extended shot but I don’t think it’ll make a difference in the end.

The biggest problem is there’s no pizzazz to the characters; for a school supposed full of geniuses, you’d think the students wouldn’t be so generic and boring. The comedy isn’t really there either but, in R-15’s defense, sometimes the comedy of a series takes awhile to get going. The censoring is also annoying; not because I actually want to see yet another pantsu shot but because using huge white bars to censor is inelegant, visually jarring, breaks all sense of immersion, needless, inconsistent with past shows by AIC, and a cheap trick to attempt to drive up sales which almost assuredly doesn’t actually work.

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(14) – No. 6 (Dropped)

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 4/12  C

For the preview of this anime season I mentioned how I was worried that Bones perpetual problems with pacing wasn’t going to mix well with the short 11 episode count that No. 6 was getting. As we near the halfway point, it appears those fears were justified. To be fair, there’s nothing glaringly wrong with No. 6, so far, that couldn’t be fixed with a proper episode count. However, for a show that’s almost at the halfway point there hasn’t been enough quality character development to make me actually care for any of the characters (except maybe the Mom) and the world building has been too shallow and featureless for me to actually care what the dark secret behind No. 6 is. For a much better take on this type of show, I recommend watching the live-action movie V For Vendetta.

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(13) – Nekogami Yaoyorozu

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 4/12  C

The other show from AIC this season and, while it’s a little better then R-15, Nekogami Yaoyorozu still falls dreadfully short of it’s potential. With the right execution this should have been an easy homerun for AIC but, like R-15, it creates a setting (this time about a disgraced cat-god that lives in the home of an antique dealer) and doesn’t seem interested in fully utilizing the setting or the characters. Compare that to Mayo Chiki which exploits it’s characters and setting to the maximum and is a much better anime because of it.

The last episode I watched, episode 4, was a definite step up in quality from the first 3 which might signal that Nekogami Yaoyorozu will improve with time (or it was a fluke ), so I’ll give this anime a few more episodes. Even if the show ultimately is a bust, the catchy opening song might just be enough to keep me watching until the end.

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(12) – The Idolm@ster (Dropped)

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 5/12  C+

The Idolm@ster performed at almost exactly the level I guessed it would going in, which is to say almost average. (A 6/12 B- is what I consider a completely average anime.) The first episode, with it’s documentary style setup, reminded me of The Office and momentarily gave me hope that the animators were going to do something different with this anime but the next two episodes dashed those hopes. There’s nothing really wrong with The Idolm@ster but there’s also nothing really compelling about it that makes me want or need to continue watching this 2 cour (season) anime.

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(11) – Sacred Seven

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 5/12  C+

Sacred Seven is another mediocre summer anime series that fells to deliver what the premise appears to promise. It’s failings are all the more apparent when compared with the other series Sunrise is currently animating – Tiger & Bunny. The characters here are weak, one-dimensional and cookie-cutter. The mechs are uninspiring and the action scenes are boring and the narrative flow so far has squandered much of it’s time that would have been better spent on building an interesting plot. The only reason I’m placing Sacred Seven this high is because of the value that the fansub group gg adds to Sacred Seven. There’s the one character’s trait of ending each sentence with oni which gg approximates by placing some variation of the word “hell” in the sentence. And there was episode 5 where they swapped the music out of the opening sequence and replaced it the song Riding Dirty which synced with the animation surprisingly well.

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(10) – Yuruyuri

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 5/12  C+

At one time knowing that the principal people behind Yuruyuri were who they are would have gotten me excited and would have ensured that I covered it in my seasonal preview. I absolutely love season 1 of Minami-ke, the first series of theirs that I watched, and I still consider it my top anime comedy. However, they eventually followed with 2 seasons of  another comedy series called Mitsudomoe and it wasn’t even close in terms of quality. So much so, that I decided that Minami-ke must have just been a lucky accident. This conclusion combined with an animation studio that doesn’t have much credibility for doing good anime and a yawn-inducing story kept me from listing it in my preview.

So why is it here?

In the end I figured I’d give it a chance, if only to confirm my conclusion and because I had the room to pick up another series because this season isn’t exactly overflowing with quality. The first few episodes where even worse then Mitsudomoe and I was prepared to drop it but decided to give it a few more episodes since by now I knew that I’d be dropping at least three other anime series in my already small pool of new anime series. I watched episode 4 and saw definite improvement and episode 5 showed improvement over episode 4 (even if they had to recycle a joke skit from episode 1 of Minami-ke). I still don’t much care for the cast except for the glasses-wearing, nose-bleed-over-imagined-fantasy character; she’s voiced by Aki Toyosaki, best known for voicing Yui from K-On!(!), and she’s doing it with such an over-the-top gusto that she steals every scene she’s in. It’s still not perfect, not by a long shot, but there’s some actual hope that Yuruyuri becomes a decent comedy series.

And a final point about Yuruyuri, I hope I’m not the only one who thinks the school uniforms look like they were designed to be maternity school uniforms.

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(9) – Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 6/12  B-

I have to be honest, I don’t know what to make of Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi nor do I have a good read on if it’ll end up being worth watching or not. In cases such as this I stick to the grade that all anime start out at – 6/12 B- – until it starts earning a higher or lower score. Most seasons these undefinable shows are far enough down my list that I don’t have to worry about the appearance of recommending them but this time Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi is ranked relatively high at number 9.

The basic gist of this anime is that the male main character (of high school age, naturally) made a deal many years ago with someone not human and as a result he’s given the ability to come back from death as many as 6 times over a 15 minute period before truly dying. Through various incidents he forgets all of this and lives a normal life until one fateful day.

What’s making it difficult to really measure this anime at this point  is that there’s many different thematic parts to Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi – comedic, fan-service, horror, and serious – and they really haven’t gelled together yet. And it’s being done by Zexcs, not the greatest studio to be handling an anime.

It’ll be interesting to see where Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi will end up by the end of this season.

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Part 2 will be coming in a day or in a week depending on if I can get it posted before I go on vacation or after I come back.

Filed under: anime, first impressions

One of the reasons I like to blog about anime is that it helps focus my thoughts about the anime I watch. This extends to doing these seasonal anime previews; not only do I hope it helps some people out there to try anime they might not have otherwise, I also discover series that I should try and other series I should pass over.

This season is shaping up to be potentially a very strong season, though the lack of a new Shaft series is kind of a disappointment.

Below are my picks for the Summer 2011 season, sorted by how good I think the show will turn out and broken into 4 broad tiers. Platinum Tier shows are those anime that I believe have a virtually 100% guarantee of being good. Sometimes I’m wrong like when Shaft/Shinbou stretches out the plot of a sequel (Natsu no Arashi 2 and Arakawa Under the Bridge 2) to, presumably, do a third series.  When that happens it’s always very disappointing. The next level is the Gold Tier. This level contains those shows that I think have a very good chance of being, at a minimum, “good” shows. Anime at this level usually miss out on being Platinum Tier because I don’t know enough about the source material or the studio animating it has been known for doing variable work or some other small thing that makes me less then fully certain. Silver tier shows still have a lot going for them but bigger potential problems start showing up. The problem might be in the source material, animation studio, or director and it’s a big enough one that I think the show could go either way. Bronze tier shows have something that makes me think it possibly could be a decent show but I’m not holding much hope. Sometimes there’s a surprisingly good show from this group.

If you want a second opinion about the upcoming shows try out the previews by Star Crossed Anime Blog and The Cart Driver and if you want the most complete coverage of all the new Summer anime go to hashihime’s always most excellent preview when it’s up (edit – here it is).

The final item of business before moving to the Summer preview/watch list is to mention the anime series that are continuing into this season that are worth a renewed look.

• Blue Exorcist – a fairly typical shounen series that has retained my attention
• Hyouge Mono – the subs are so slow but I’m really enjoying what I’ve seen so far
• Steins;Gate – I keep telling myself the ending is probably going to stink like Chaos;Head but it’s been really interesting so far
• Hanasaku Iroha – Still entertaining but the story is wandering a bit right now. Supposedly the second half introduces a more cohesive plot.
• Nichijou – After a few episodes this comedy has really dialed in on the laughs and leaves me in stitches week-in and week-out
• Tiger & Bunny – So far the plot’s been pretty decent and it’s well animated and been very entertaining

Two shows I’m not covering are Baka to Test to Shoukan­juu Ni! and Nur­ari­hyon no Mago 2 because they are sequels to shows that I didn’t watch (the later) or didn’t finish (the former).

Platinum Tier

Natsume Yuujin­chou San

Aka Natsume’s Book of Friends 3

Director: Takahiro Omori
Studio: Brains Base – Kamichu, Baccano, Durarara, Spice &Wolf 2, Kuragehime, Dororon Enma-kun Meramera

On my mental list of anime that I’d most want to see a sequel done, few shows rank higher then Natsume Yuujin-chou. In fact, only, FLCL, Kino’s Journey and maybe Haibane Renmei finish above and the chances are very slim that any of those three will ever get a sequel, sadly.

Natsume follows the adventure of Natsume, a high school student that’s struggled with the “gift” of being able to see and communicate with spirits (youkai). His grandmother had the same abiltiy and when she passes on at the beginning of the series, her “Book of Friends” is given to him as her last living relative. The book contains the true names of the many spirits that the grandmother fought and defeated during her life – a powerful artifact many humans and spirits would covet for the power it gives. Natsume, on the other hand, has no such desire; he merely wants to live a peaceful life without bothering those around him because of his unique ability. Which is near impossible and some of the dangers Natsume faces are quite deadly; so he’s lucky that he has a booze-drinking, grumpy, talking cat – Nyanko-sensei – to help protect his back.

The first season was light on plot and heavy on the mono no aware slice-of-life vibe with a pleasant dose of comedy. The execution was perfect; it was even able to work in that late summer/early fall melancholy feeling into the show by syncing the events of the episodes with when they first aired on television. The second season introduced the first hints of a real plot which explained why many people thought the second season felt different. This unresolved plot was one of the driving reasons for wanting a third season (and because it’s an all-around awesome show). I’m hoping the third season will pick up where the second season left off and delve deeper into the plot of the show. Natsume Yuujin­chou San is not to be missed.

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Usagi Drop

AKA Bunny Drop

Director: Kanta Kamei
Studio: Production I.G. – Ghost in the Shell:SAC, Eden of the East, Kemono no Souja Erin, Kimi ni Todoke, Sengoku Basara

Usagi Drop is about a 30 year bachelor who decides to take in the six year old illegitimate daughter of his grandfather after the grandfather dies and no one else in the family wants her. And then they go on Jerry Springer – just kidding. Between the studio, the trailer, it’s placement on the Noitamina timeslot, and it’s premise, this series has excellence written all over it. My gut tells me that this will be another winner of the season so I’m ranking Usagi Drop as high as I am. Though I haven’t checked out the source material like Scamp advises blog writers to do before writing a season preview. The only potential fly in the ointment is the director and other staff don’t come with the longest pedigree but I think the positives vastly outweigh the negatives here.

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Gold Tier

Kamisama Dolls

Director: Seiji Kishi
Studio: Brains Base – Kamichu, Baccano, Durarara, Spice &Wolf 2, Kuragehime, Dororon Enma-kun Meramera

Brains Base normally only does one series a season so it was surprising  to see them suddenly run three series this season. Not that I’m complaining, the chances of a random Brains Base series being good is much higher then just about every other studio.

Kamisama Dolls follows Kyouhei (he’s old enough to drink so he’s probably college age) who’s moved to Tokyo to get away from his hometown and his past but discovers a simple move is not enough when he finds a dead body and learns that the killer was someone he knew from his hometown and that his younger sister is on the murderer’s tail. To make matters worse, since every small town in Japan harbors some sort of dark secret – the people from his hometown worship some sort of weird gods that manifest in giant, creepy humanoid forms known as kukuri that people can command.

This earns top-billing in this section because the director, Seiji Kishi, did the first season of Tentai Senshi Sunred – one of best comedies of the past couple years, Seto no Hanayome – another funny comedy  and Angel Beats – whose only real problem was the scenario writer created a 48 episode anime and tried to shoe-horn it into 13 episodes.

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Neko­gami Yaoyorozu

Director: Hiroaki Sakurai
Studio: AIC PLUS+ – GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class, Asobi ni Iku yo!

Trying to keep track of which subsection of AIC did which anime can be quite a chore but it does help gauge expectations. Neko­gami Yaoyorozu is a product of AIC Plus+ which has produced two previous works: GA was a fun slice-of-life series about a group of high school art students that was somehow able to feel different then both Sketchbook and Hidemari Sketch and the other, Asobi ni Iku yo!, was a fun SF romp involving first contact with aliens. Both series really could use a sequel but instead we have Neko­gami Yaoyorozu which is a comedy series about a cat god that hangs out at an antique dealer’s store and presumably causes trouble.

I’m especially looking forward to this series because AIC has been a roll of late with a string of shows that have been well-produced, entertaining and often including just the right amount of ecchi fan service and their absence this season after a steady release of a couple series a season for the last couple years was clearly evident. (I’m guessing that AIC was working on the movie for Sora no Otoshimono which comes out this June and they didn’t have the time to do a TV series or two.)

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Mawaru PenguinDrum

Director: Kunihiko Ikuhara
Studio: Brains Base – Kamichu, Baccano, Durarara, Spice &Wolf 2, Kuragehime, Dororon Enma-kun Meramera

With essentially no real information about this anime except it’s director is Kunihiko Ikuhara – director of Revolutionary Girl Utena – that it’s being animated by Brains Base and is 24 episodes long, there’s no good reason why I’m putting this so high on my list outside of a gut feeling about it being good. I haven’t even actually seen Utena to know if being the guy that directed it means something good for the chances of this anime. On the other hand my gut is telling me this is going to be a good series and I agree.

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Silver Tier

No.6

Director: Kenji Nagasaki
Studio: Bones – Soul Eater, Xam’d: Lost Memories, Eureka 7, Full Metal Alchemist, Heroman, Star Driver, Gosick

The other Noitamina series of this season. A SF series set in the near future, No. 6 is about a boy that’s lives the golden lifestyle that being an elite student allows until he happens to rescue a boy that’s escaped from the under-city where all society’s rejects live and his life is forever changed.

As awesome as the potential for this to be an intelligent SF anime series there are two things that worry me. The first is this only appears to be 11 episodes long which isn’t exceedingly long to balance world-building, character development, and delivering a decent story. It can be done and in the right hands that’s no problem, which leads me to the second worry. Bones often has a problem with pacing and with it’s endings. So, I’m not very confident that they can make No. 6 into a good and successful anime. Though, as a minimum, it will be well-animated.

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Blood-C

Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Studio: Production I.G. – Ghost in the Shell:SAC, Eden of the East, Kemono no Souja Erin, Kimi ni Todoke, Sengoku Basara

Normally I’d pass on a sequel to a franchise I’m behind on but apparently prior knowledge isn’t imperative with this series. The only experience I have with Clamp series to this point is the recent Kobato, which was an all-around decent series, but I know they’ve been around a long time and they’re well-liked by many people. So, it’s difficult to really rank this as high as psgels did for Star Crossed Anime Blog but with Production I.G. and a talented staff, Blood-C will probably be a very watchable series.

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Ikoku Meiro no Croisee

Director: Kenji Yasuda
Studio: Satelight – Kiddy Grade, Guin Saga, Basquash, Fairy Tail

I love anime series set in past, it doesn’t matter the time period or the location. Half the reason I’m currently watching Gosick is for the setting (and the other half is Aoi Yuuki’s superb vocal work as the main character). I don’t think I’ve every completed or watched an anime series from Satelight; so, I don’t have that easy gauge of expectations like I have for other series. The trailer, however, looks like the animators aren’t skimping on the animation – an important consideration when watching a series for it’s setting. Therefore, I can pretty much guarantee that I’m going to be watching Ikoku Meiro no Croisee to the end, even if it’s not the best.

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Dantalian’s Library

Director: Yutaka Uemura
Studio: Gainax – Gurren Lagann, Hanamaru Kindergarten, Evangelion, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

On one hand this is Gainax, a name synonymous with epic awesomeness but on the other hand it’s only with original projects that Gainax really shines. On the other hand the premise (guy inherits grandfather’s mansion and the equivalent of Index from Index) could be interesting but on the other hand the source material is from the guy who wrote Asura Cryin’. And this isn’t first string Gainax or even apparently second-string Gainax and it’s only 13 episodes long which means capable hands are required to develop a good story in that span of time. It’s still worth a look but I’m going to hold my expectations down and hope they announce their next original series soon.

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R-15

Director: Munenori Nawa
Studio: AIC – Ore no Imouto, Amagami SS, Hourou Musuko, Sasameki Koto, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Strike Witches 2

To be clear, if anyone other then AIC was doing this series I almost certainly wouldn’t bother because the premise – high school student who writes ero novels but must hide this fact from his classmates – is very stupid sounding. However, as I mentioned earlier, AIC’s been on a streak lately, turning even a show like Ore no Imouto into something watchable, and I’m guessing there’s a decent chance they can do it again with R-15.

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Sacred Seven

Director: Yoshimitsu Ohashi
Studio: Sunrise – Tiger and Bunny, Code Geass, Gundam

I pay attention to any series that is an original production like Sacred Seven is. It’s where you find much of the very best anime (and also the worse – cough*Fractale*cough). I’m currently enjoying Tiger and Bunny and if this show can entertain on a similar level then it’s definitely worth watching.

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Bronze Tier

Kamisama no Memo-chou

Director: Katsushi Sakurabi
Studio: J.C. Staff – Hatsukoi Limited, Toradora, Potemayo, Shana, Index, Railgun, Milky Holmes

I still have a residual like of J.C. Staff based on some really great previous work but they’ve seem to sunk into a rut of late. It’s like they’re just going through the motions. For example, when was the last time J.C. Staff actually wowed anyone with their animation quality?

Kami-sama no Memo-chou is about a NEET detective girl (though wouldn’t being a detective count as employment, thereby invalidating being a NEET??) and a high school boy that’s her assistant. If there are decent mysteries to solve or they get to meet the Harlem Globetrotters then this could be a very watchable series. More then likely this’ll turn out to be just a meh series.

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The IdolM@ster

Director: Atsushi Nishigori
Studio: A-1 Pictures – Birdy the Mighty Decode, Ao no Exorcist, Occult Academy, Working!!, Sora no Woto, Kannagi

This is another case of being aware of some part of anime/manga/etc. fandom without being familiar with it. The IdolM@ster is based off a game where you manage the careers of 10 wannabe female idols. Yawn. The only redeeming feature is A-1 Pictures is animating this; so it’ll look good and theirs a chance that the content of the show will be at least entertaining.

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Itsuka Tenma no Kuro-Usagi

Director: Takashi Yamamoto
Studio: Zexcs  – Wagaya no Oinari-sama, Chrome Shelled Regios, Umi Monogatari, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (The Legend of Legendary Heroes)

There are actually worse studios then Zexcs to see attached to the production of an anime series but the chances of that series being anything higher then just “watchable” are very, very slim. (The chances for it falling below the line of “not worth your time”, however, are very high.) I’m guessing with such a crowded summer season, it’ll be very difficult not to drop this series but I wouldn’t mind being wrong.

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Mayo Chiki

Director: Keiichiro Kawaguchi
Studio: Feel  – Yosuga no Sora, kissxsis, Kanamemo, Nagasarete Airantou

At this point I feel like I’m really scrapping the bottom of the barrel but the last show I’m going to cover is Mayo Chiki. I like reverse-traps-hiding-their-genders-while-being-a-butler as much as the next person but it’s going to be tough for this show to convince me that I shouldn’t drop this after the first episode. I’m an open-minded guy; there’s always that chance.

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There’s my list. If I missed something that you think I’d like then, by all means, post a comment to suggest it. I still remember having Cross Game suggested to me in a comment on this blog and discovering one of my favorite shows of the year. I’d’ve never picked it up since it was technically a sport anime, a genre I don’t normally like.

Filed under: anime, season preview