Making a list of the new fall anime that I still have to write impressions for, I discovered that nine more needed covered – or slightly more than half – and I’d already taken the ones easy to talk about. I was on pace for the last impression posts written to be series review posts; clearly, something needed done, something drastic.

Like combining all 9 shows into one post and just write the most pertinent items for each show. Madness I know.

Arakawa Under the Bridge 2

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 12/12 Perfect

Anticipation Level: 5/5 Very High

The Shaft/Shinbou series following of a community of “interesting” people living under a bridge is back this season and I was equal parts excited and fearful at this prospect. I loved the first season and didn’t want a poorly done second season to drag the first season down but I really wanted to see the lovable cast of characters again and there were a few story threads that were not resolved that I’d like to see resolved. Imagine my relief when the second season picked right back up and immediately started to address the very story threads that I wanted see featured. Can we add mind reader to the list of Shinbou’s abilities? Maybe, but either way, the result has been I’ve been enjoying this season even more than the first season. Highly recommended.

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Hakuouki Hekketsuroku

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 5/12 C+

Anticipation Level: 1.5/5 Below Average to Low

Frankly, I was surprised that I finished the first season, Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan, since it was never a really good show. I might have received it better if I didn’t have to rely on what I learned from Rurouni Kenshin about the history of Japan in the 1860’s to explain the story and the characters to me. So maybe it wasn’t entirely the show’s fault for being less than stellar. I decided to give the second season a chance because I actually kinda knew the characters now and there was always the chance that the story of the show would finally start making sense and it was, at least, different from everything else I was watching. And Hakuouki Hekketsuroku has been slightly better in it’s second season. Now it looks like the constraining factor is having Studio Deen doing it; once again proving that Studio Deen is the best third-rate anime company out there. Recommended only to those anime fans that absolutely love historical anime; reverse harem fans will be disappointed to find that the guys here have a tendency to die.

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Hyakka Ryouran Samurai Girls

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 7/12 B

Anticipation Level: 1.5/5 Below Average to Low

Samurai Girls takes place in one of the most interesting settings of all new anime this season – an alternative history Japan where the Shogunate never fell and also did not lose WW2 because the Shogunate had the help of “Master Samurai,” people of extraordinary talent and battle prowess. Samurai Girls also has one of this season’s most interesting artistic styles.  It’s a shame that this setting and style is going to be, apparently, wasted on a boring fan service romantic comedy. Our hero is your typical generic young high school/college aged boy who has a female friend from childhood that’s clingy towards him, to us it’s obvious she wants to be his girlfriend, and gets thrown into a situation where a multitude of woman will fall for him. Seen it done many times already and done much better. Check out this season’s Sora No Otoshimono for just one better example. Even the fan service element is incredibly weak in comparison to other shows airing right now; seeing it included makes the show feel awkward and should just be removed. In it’s favor, Samurai Girls, does feature the vocal work of both Rie Kugimiya (who I’ve been really missing lately) and Yuu Kobayashi. It’s hard to recommend this to anyone other than Kugimiya and Kobayashi fans; if the story was a little better or if there was more fighting than I’d recommend it to people looking for that but right now it’s just not there.

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Kuragehime

Rating for episodes 1 to 3 – 11.5/12 Near Perfect

Anticipation Level: 4.5/5 High

The best way I can praise Kuragehime, aka Jellyfish Princess, is to say that it’s so good that I’m not angry at Brain’s Base (the animators) for doing it when they could be doing a third season of either Natsume Yuujinchou or Spice and Wolf or a second season of Baccano. It’s that good. The most striking thing about the anime is it’s storytelling; it’s so effortlessly perfect that it’s nearly invisible to the viewer without scrutiny. No “hey, it’s time for an info-dump,” or “hey, it’s time to the character’s back-story,” or “hey, don’t question this completely illogical turn-of-events, we need to get the plot moving,” or “hey, just accept these 1D cliché characters, there’s no time to flesh them out,” or “hey, don’t complain, these 2D characters are better than those cliché characters.” It doesn’t matter the show is about a group of adult female nerds and a flashy male cross-dresser, by almost everyone possible marker, Kuragehime is one of the best anime of the season and a definite must-watch for anyone who likens themselves an anime fan. I especially recommend it to those pessimists out there that believe anime is just becoming a vehicle to peddle moe junk.

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Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 7/12 B

Anticipation Level: 2/5 Below Average

I was set to really like this; I normally can’t get enough of anime that feature the supernatural, which is why I was able to enjoy Occult Academy as much as I was able to do, but Shinrei Tantei Yakumo left me cold. Five episodes in and I’m still waiting for Yakumo, the physic detective, to get an interesting supernatural case. I’ve been having trouble staying awake through the episodes and when I do, the show leaves no impression on me later. At least with Occult Academy, it was interesting and entertaining, even if it didn’t quite make sense. It’s hard to really dislike a show that leaves no impression which means I probably, really, should drop the score lower (to better reflect it’s quality) and drop it all-together (since I’m not even going to remember watching it later). Why couldn’t they just make Ghost Hunt 2?

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Star Driver

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 9/12 A-

Anticipation Level: 3/5 Average to Medium

Star Driver appears to be what happens when the people at Bones decide to create a new anime series at 4 AM after spending a long day animating other shows and then going out for a night of drinking and using other recreational drugs. It’s entertaining, well-drawn, exciting, unique and nearly incomprehensible. It might make sense at some later point but right now I don’t let it bother me since it doesn’t look like it’ll go the route of X’amd: Lost Memories, the last Bones original show. A measure of how odd this show is having the 20-something aged school nurse being into high school boys to the point of her having a book full of pictures of male students that she likes and having posters of young men on her wall at school and it didn’t even bother me. Recommended for those looking for something different with the jury still out on the merits of the plot/story.

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The World God Only Knows

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 8/12 B+

Anticipation Level: 2.5/5 Average

The story to TWGOK – obsessive visual novel playing H.S. boy tasked with getting “real girls” to fall in love with him – was never going to a great, compelling story but Manglobe, the animators in charge of adapting into an anime, are doing really good with squeezing every bit of entertainment out of the source material. If the entire series was as good as episode 4, it could have been one of the top shows and top comedies of the season but the episodes that focus on the girls that need “captured” by the main character just aren’t as interesting. Worth a look but don’t expect too much.

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To Aru Majutsu no Index II

Rating for episodes 1 to 4 – 6/12 B-

Anticipation Level: 2/5 Below Average

I have a hard time believing Index and Railgun come from the same person; they exist on two completely opposite planes of existence. It makes sense then that I have completely different reactions to the two series. Railgun is a great series and Index is not. The same problems that plagued the first Index appear again in Index 2; the characters are needlessly verbose with nothing interesting to say, stuff happens completely randomly or in a coincidentally nice way that leads to lazy storytelling and the characters aren’t likable (even Misaka is a pain here which is weird because she’s awesome in Railgun). I really should just drop this now but the opening suggests that all the characters from Railgun will make an appearance and I want to see them again.

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Yosuga no Sora

Rating for episodes 1 to 5 – 9/12 A-

Anticipation Level: 2/5 Below Average

Initially I didn’t like how Amagami SS was going the route of independent 4 episode arcs to cover each different path in the anime adaptation of the visual novel. It seemed like a cop-out but I’ve found in practice that it works nicely because the animators don’t have to make it look like the male main character can hang out with a half-dozen different girls at the same time. A side-effect of this novel structure is that it’s difficult to get tired of the show because the time investment for 4 episodes is much less than 26 or even 13 episodes. If I don’t like a particular match, I only to wait a couple of episodes and the focus will shift to a different match. Watching Amagami SS prepared me for the similarly constructed Yosuga no Sora. The pair also share scenes of rather explicit fan-service which I should mention to potential viewers. I’ve been on the fence about these scenes, they don’t add to my enjoyment of either series so they could clipped out but, at the same time, I like that they don’t censor it as a way to drive DVD sales. Neither of these shows, I realize, are especially great shows but the novel structure employed help ensure that I keep watching, at least for now. (This set-up also put my mind at ease about the brother-sister undertone the first episode had of Yosuga no Sora since if they do go that route, I can just elect to not watch those couple of episodes.)

Filed under: anime, first impressions

With the Summer season all but over and the Fall season starting within a week, now is a good time to start getting excited about the new anime shows that will take the baton from the Summer shows and attempt to win the hearts and minds of anime fans around the world.

If the Fall series succeed will only be answered in the course of the next few months but that doesn’t stop some, including myself, from trying their hand at prognosticating the results now. My gut tells me that this season will be a strong one, maybe even on par with this past Spring season (which was probably the best season for the last couple of years), and I want to get my somewhat educated guesses written down to see how I did later as well as push the adventurous souls out there to try an anime they probably wouldn’t otherwise.

Therefore, below are my picks for the Fall 2010 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 with last fall’s Natsu no Arashi 2 and 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, last fall I had Armed Librarians – The Book of Bantorra, Sasameki Koto, Sora no Otoshimono on this level and all three turned out great but that same season saw Kampfer and Miracle Train also start at this level but finish very poorly.

If you want a second opinion about the upcoming shows try out the previews by Ani no Miyako, Simplicity, The Deathseeker, That Anime Blog and Rabbit Poets and if you want the most complete coverage of all the new Fall anime, including OVAs go to hashihime’s most excellent preview.

The final item of business before moving to the Fall preview/watch list is the anime that are continuing into the Fall season that I’ve been watching and plan on watching in the upcoming season. The first is Katanagatari; it’s been awhile coming but we’re now down to the last three episodes and I’m excited to see how it ends. Next is Shiki. I love the atmosphere of this show and the animation quality but, so far, it’s been more build-up then anything else, though this season will finish the series so the plot should be getting good shortly. Amagami SS continues with three more stand-alone story arcs covering three different female characters. This show has been strangely watchable and I’m kind of looking forward to see what new weird scenes they can cram into this show. I was so sure that Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu (The Legend of the Legendary Heroes) was a comedy that I was really disappointed to find that it’s actually a straight-up medieval fantasy series. I’m not really a fantasy person but it’s been able to keep me mildly interested in the story with the vocal work being the thing I enjoy most from it.

Platinum Tier

Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

Director: Akiyuki Shinbou
Studio: SHAFT – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Maria+holic, Hidamari Sketch, Bakemonogatari

The second season of the anime that was my favorite of the spring season definitely deserves to place in the platinum tier. Arakawa Under the Bridge 2 gets top spot because it’s quirky mix of comedy and reflection on the important things in life was a perfect match for Shaft/Shinbou’s talents and I’m ecstatic over the chance to revisit the characters and setting. If making a person wish he could live under a bridge with Nino isn’t a good enough marker for a great show, I don’t what is.

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Sora no Otoshimono: Forte

Director: Hisashi Saitou
Studio: AIC A.S.T.A. – Bamboo Blade, Tentai Senshi Sunred, Sora no Otoshimono

The anime that completely surprised me by being both a fan-service show and an intelligent, inventive, fun show is getting a sequel and I’m positively giddy. If it can hold up to the first season, it’ll be one of the top shows of the season; if it can somehow surpass the first season, it’ll be one of the top shows of the year and probably “break” more then a few anime fans. It’s secret (which I wish more shows would pick up on) is that it works on many different levels. Heck, even the plot about the “heavenly” creatures that create the all-powerful angel servants pulls one in, if only because we want to see the main character defeat those the decadent and depraved “higher” beings.

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Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt

Director: Hiroyuki Imaishi
Studio: Gainax – Gurren Lagann, Hanamaru Kindergarten, Evangelion

I think this show is just going to be a really fun and awesome anime. This puts me, sadly, in a very small group of people. Which I don’t quite get, it’s Gainax and it’s the part of Gainax behind Gurren Lagann and, if the trailer is to be believed, it’s going to be high-energy and full of fighting with plenty of humor involved. Actually, I know why; I noticed in the past that if an anime falls outside of what’s considered “anime style” it’s instantly regarded with suspension. Happened with Sarai-ya Goyou, Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei, Kaiba, etc. and it’s happening here which I find funny because there’s always so much complaining about how anime is always the same.

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Gold Tier

Kuragehime

Director: Takahiro Oomori
Studio: Brains Base – Kamichu, Baccano, Durarara, Spice &Wolf 2, Natsume Yuujin-Chou

One of anime’s most consistently great studios is back this season with the latest show to be featured in the Noitamina anime block. The story for this one follows a young woman who’s an aspiring illustrator and lives in a female-only apartment complex. She gets a beautiful, fashionable woman to be her roommate and discovers her roommate isn’t quite what she appears to be. I have a very good idea what that means – “isn’t quite what she appears to be” – and, thanks to anime, I can’t wait to see if a trap is involved. I hope so and I hope there’s at least a little slice-of-life feel woven in somewhere. Brains Base does one of the best jobs with that relaxed, introspective, slice-of-life feel that I miss it when I go a season or two without it.

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Sorademo Machi wa Mawatteiru

Director: Akiyuki Shinbou
Studio: SHAFT – Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Maria+holic, Hidamari Sketch, Bakemonogatari

The second Shaft series this season features the story of a clumsy young woman that loves mysteries and works at a highly unsuccessful maid café. The set-up sounds like a good fit for Shaft/Shinbou and the trailer really gave off good vibes. I’m also excited to see Chiaki Omigawa (Maka from Soul Eater, Jun from Natsu no Arashi) voicing the main character. The sole reason I left this out of the top tier is because this is the second series that the perpetually under-funded and undermanned Shaft is working on and in the past it’s been difficult for Shaft to do 2 series at once. (Though, maybe, the success of Bakemonogatari has increased the coffers at Shaft which will translate to more help in finishing their work on time.)

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Bakuman

Director: Kenichi Kasai
Studio: J.C. Staff – Hatsukoi Limited, Toradora, Potemayo, Shana, Index, Railgun

One of the most talked about upcoming anime, Bakuman follows the story of two high school friends that decide to try to make it as manga artists with one of the main character’s love life and familial pride hanging in the balance. I was going to leave this in the silver tier except I caught that Kenichi Kasai (Honey and Clover S1, Aoi Hana) is going to help direct this.  That’s a pretty strong guarantee for the quality of Bakuman and enough to bump it up a level.

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Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

aka: Psychic Detective Yakumo

Director: Tomoyuki Kurokawa
Studio: Bee Train – Phantom, Blade of the Immortal, El Cazador de la Bruja

I don’t have a lot of experience with Bee Train but something about this anime makes me think it’ll turn out very good. It could be the premise of a supernatural detective with the ability to see ghosts that’s doing it or maybe it’s because Daisuke Ono is voicing the main character (and apparently doing the opening song) or both or neither. Whatever it is, let’s hope that Bee Train won’t completely flub in the final 30 seconds of the show like they did with Phantom.

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Silver Tier

Iron Man

Director: Yuuzou Satou
Studio: Madhouse – Death Note, Kaiba, Kurozuka, Rideback, Kobato, Rainbow, Tatami Galaxy

The trailer for this looks completely awesome and would normally make me really excited to watch it but I’ve noticed these cross-oceanic projects between the USA and Japan never seem to really work. Look at Heroman, for example. There is the potential for a decent show and, at the minimum, Marvel should have given Madhouse enough money to make the animation look very good. We’ll see very shortly.

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Star Driver: Kagayaki no Takuto

Director: Takuya Igarashi
Studio: Bones – Soul Eater, Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, X’amd, Heroman

Taking over for Sengoku Basara 2 in the Sunday early primetime spot is an original work by Bones named Star Driver. The placement ensures that it’ll look really pretty but I’m not a big mecha fan and Bones seems to have a problem with how it ends it’s shows. One would think that since they don’t have to adapt something for Star Driver how it ends wouldn’t be a problem but X’amd showed it’s still a problem that the viewers have to worry about.

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Toaru Majutsu no Index 2

Director: Hiroshi Nishikiori
Studio: J.C. Staff – Hatsukoi Limited, Toradora, Potemayo, Shana, Railgun

I really wish this was Railgun 2 instead of Index 2. The first season of Index was a pain to complete and I almost didn’t include this at all because I seriously doubted I could stand more Touma and the child teacher and Index. What saved this is the trailer showed both Uiharu and Saten from Railgun as well as the white-haired good bad guy (which was the best story arc) from the first season. It’s probably getting my hopes up but maybe this time it’ll be a better show.

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Bronze Tier

Kami Nomi zo Shiru Sekai

aka: The World Only God Knows

Director: Shigehito Takayanagi
Studio: Manglobe – Michiko to Hatchin, Samurai Champloo, Seiken no Blacksmith

This is a rare anime where I’ve read some of the manga before watching the anime. It didn’t blow me away but in the right hands, it could a decent show and sadly, I just don’t think Manglobe is the right hands. I’ve liked their high quality anime, Samurai Champloo and Michiko to Hatchin, but when they went slumming with Seiken no Blacksmith it flat-out stunk and TWOGK falls a bit outside of “high quality”. AIC was probably a better fit to squeeze the best possible anime from the source material. I guess it could have been worse, Xebec or Feel or Studio Deen could be the animators.

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Otome Youkai Zakuro

Director: Chiaki Kon
Studio: J.C. Staff – Hatsukoi Limited, Toradora, Potemayo, Shana, Index, Railgun

The story for this one really interested me. Namely, Otome Youkai Zakuro is set in an alternative 19th century Japan where humans and youkai (spirits or monsters) co-exist easily. The humans move to change the calendar to match that of the Western world and upset the youkai. To calm nerves, a goodwill mission is implemented featuring both humans and youkai and we end up with a historical, romantic comedy as a result. I’d’ve ranked this higher but I read that the manga writer for Otome Youkai Zakuro is primarily a BL written and that’s a genre I really don’t like. If the anime has BL elements or not is something that only the watching the anime can answer but for now, I’m keeping my anticipation low for this one.

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Ore no Imouto ga Kannani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

aka: My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute

Director: Kawaguchi Keiichirou
Studio: AIC – Onamori Himari, Mayoi Neko Overrun, Sasameki Koto, Amagami SS

The story for this one – a H.S. age boy has a younger sister who’s an otaku for little sister ero-games which somehow creates much hilarity  – actively turns me off but I find myself liking the character designs enough that I’m willing to give this show a couple episode chance. I’m probably going to hate it and then pretend I never watched it but there is always the slim chance it’s actually good.

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Hakuouki Hekketsuroku

Director: Osamu Yamasaki
Studio: Studio Deen – Hetalia, Higurashi, Seitokai no Ichizon, Giant Killing

The final show that I plan on catching is a sequel to the spring anime – Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan. It wasn’t a great show by any stretch of the word but I liked the setting (1860’s Japan and the Shinsengumi) and the voice acting. I mention it here for completeness sakes because there are very few out there that are even in the position to give this season a chance. Not that I can really find fault in anybody, Hakuouki: Shinsengumi Kitan was done by Studio Deen and there was so many other good shows to watch.

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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