Spring 2012 Season Preview

I’m sick of waiting for trailers! I’m getting this season preview out of the way before it burns a hole in my drafts folder >.< I’m also changing things up a bit and only commenting on the anime that I’ll be watching or trying out.  I always have a hard time coming up with things to say about anime that don’t interest me in the slightest, yet I don’t want to say a bunch of negative blab and be unfair to something I’ll never watch.

Scrumdiddlyumptious

Fushigi no Umi no Nadia (Digital Remaster)
I have already seen the show in its original quality, but I can’t help but jump back in for a re-watching of this beloved adventure anime.  This may have actually been the very first of its genre that I encountered.  Despite feeling like a show geared towards a younger type of audience, I was drawn in to its bright colors, the goofy humor of Jean, and Nadia’s exotic aloofness.  It had that feeling of those early morning cartoons that I so rarely was able to enjoy as a child.  Like a good number of adventure anime, it starts out full of bright-eyed vigor, then later gets pumped full of drama.  While it’s very easy for this transition to be handled poorly, Nadia does so seamlessly.

Eureka Seven Ao
The prequel had been on my radar for quite a while, especially so after watching Xam’d, which I loved and saw compared to Eureka Seven repeatedly.  I finally got around to watching it and am halfway through it at the moment.  If you follow me on twitter (hint, hint), you’ll have seen that I am enamored with the show so far.  Like Xam‘d, we start out with the more innocent adventure feel, then gradually start pushing the envelope with Renton’s realization that the Gekko isn’t just a group of fun-loving surfers–they’re terrorists in the government’s eyes, mercenaries, and killers.  I love the family-like atmosphere of the crew and how it changes along with Renton’s coming of age.  Although I have yet to finish the show, I’m already on board for the sequel, which looks to center on a young boy who most likely is the child of Renton and Eureka.  The same director is back, so I’m crossing my fingers that this sequel will follow in the steps of its predecessor.

Phi Brain 2nd Season
This show has a strange hold on me, since I’ve been watching it all through the first season with a reluctance that predicted a drop from the list at any moment.  And yet, I hung in there and kept watching.  It feels like the show pulled one on me and somehow worked, despite its many flaws, and that I would be doing it and myself a disservice by not finishing it out.  I greatly dislike the protagonist, his masochistic Solver addiction, and sadistic lack for care for his friends, particularly Nonoha.  At the point that the 1st season is at right now, I’m not surprised that most of his friends have abandoned him.  Heck, I would leave his sorry butt.  But, I want to know the result of the quest for the Divine Puzzle.  I want to see Rook’s “come to the light” moment.  I want to see all my predictions proved right.  Despite the puzzles being annoyingly hidden from the viewers with the solutions served up with expectations of awe and applause, I want to see the puzzle pieces of my guesses for plot direction slide into place.

Fate/Zero Part 2
Unlike Phi Brain, this anime has my full on approval and unshakeable loyalty.  I found the first part incredibly well crafted, with characters rivaling only a couple others of that year (including Steins;Gate and Nichijou) for best cast list.  I’m excited for more Rider and Waver, and hope Saber and Irisviel’s relationship blossoms in a way that forces Saber to take on a more active role, one that warrants her face gracing the posters for this series.  Along with Eureka Ao, the two head my list for most anticipated shows of the season.

Saki: Achiga-hen
I’m going to sound like a track on repeat, but once again I’m reminded of my feelings for Phi Brain.  I have no good reasons for wanting to watch Saki, except to say that I watched the first season and admittedly had a lot of fun with it.  I chalk it mostly up to my liking of game-centered anime, but I can’t deny the charming humor and yuri fan service of Saki‘s characters.  And even though this side story involves none of the original cast, save one as a reference, I still can’t help my curiosity.  Per Yumeka’s post about guilty pleasures, this most assuredly fits the bill for anime I don’t normally talk about or recommend.  Its blatant exultation in girl-on-girl love is so bad that it’s entertaining.  Watching this with another usually results in the two of us putting on ultra-girly voices, hugging one another, and exclaiming how lovely our breasts are.  Then follow that up with exaggerated arm flailing for mahjong pieces.  If I don’t have these to distract me in this prequel, I wonder what other route the anime will take.  I have a feeling we might end up with a K-ON! or YuruYuri look-a-like.

Taste Test

Ozuma
It’s not so much the description that pulled me in as much as the art.  It features an older style of character design, and gives off an aura of a possible classic in the making.  If you look at the original creator, Masumoto Leiji, you’ll hopefully remember Galaxy Express 999.  The synopsis also reminds me a little bit of Frank Herbert’s Dune series.  Another possibly promising addition is director Ikezoe Takahiro, who has worked on such great works as Dennou Coil, FMA: Brotherhood, Piano no Mori, and Xam’d.  What prevents me from getting too excited is that this appears to be only his second time heading an entire project, instead of working as episode director or in animation.  The only other work isn’t familiar to me at all and has average ratings.  The other director makes up for experience, but I am also unfamiliar with the majority of his works (excepting Rurouni Kenshin, and Samurai 7).

Uchuu Kyoudai: PV
Like Ozuma, Uchuu Kyoudai looks to be stepping up with a more mature face and original concept.  The offered quote for this anime states that “[t]he older brother should always be ahead of the younger one…” I’ve always found the order in families and even a group of similar-aged peers interesting.  I’m also reminded of the phrase (probably butchered), “Parents shouldn’t live to see their children die before them.”  As an only child who has only had a few exchange student sisters of the same age, I don’t really have that familial closeness with anyone other than my parents.  A good number of my childhood friends have moved on and away, and I keep in touch with only a select few, and always with extended periods of non-communication between each encounter.  So it stands to reason that I find sibling connections extremely fascinating.  I love that the competition circles around a childhood dream turned adult reality, and that our protagonist is in his early 30s.  I want him to succeed partly for the selfish reason of proving that I still have a promising future ahead of my current slump.

Tasogare Otome x Amnesia: PV
Another mixed with Ghost Hunt? Sure, I’m in.  I’m a bit of a sucker for supernatural anime featuring haunted buildings like houses, hospitals, and even schools.  Pretty much any building is terrifying when you walk in it alone at night (especially churches).  The description of this school also reminds me of those episodes in Ghost Hunt that take place in the demon-haunted mansion with multiple expansions built around the original structure.  There’s just something uncanny about mismatched buildings being up against one another.  You get the feeling that ghosts of one can cross over into the newer area, infecting everything and everyone.  And like in Another, I can’t help but be intrigued by the ethereal female lead.

Hyouka: PV
[inner monologue]
Why, hello, Mio! I didn’t realize you were featured in yet another high school anime.  And you’re in a classic literature club this time around.  Wait, this is a mystery? But, it looks like a romantic, slice-of-life school anime.
[/inner monologue ]

I’m not sure what the heck to think about this anime, seeing how it looks like a starry-eyed romance mixed with aspirations of detective grandeur.  The art style is very pretty, but obviously I wish I had the same hope for the story.  I’ll give this a try, but drop it if it goes the same way of Kamisama no Memo-chou.

Jormungand: PV
Being as how the the company is the still young White Fox, I can’t go off of their works alone to judge how successful Jormungand will be.  The director’s record is also all over the place, from the clever Katanagatari, to the highly acclaimed Legend of the Galactic Heroes, then to the abysmal works of School Days and Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka.  So disregarding both, the plot sounds pretty interesting, a sort of cross between anime Black Lagoon and film Lord of War.  Trust anime to have messed with my sex sense so much that I totally thought that the main character with the flowing white hair was a guy.  It turns out that it’s actually a woman, which is cool by me.  I like me some strong women.  I hope the twist doesn’t turn out that she’s actually the one responsible for the weapons dealt that killed Jonah’s family, because that would be, you know, lame.

Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan
This premise of this anime is about as ridiculous as I can imagine, some type of fantastical, adventure slice of life.  Magical girl A with no memory and personality lands herself in a mysterious land, is found by a baker boy, and is brought into his bakery with his pals with a vow to recover her past.  Meanwhile, super bad guys come a’searching for the special stone hanging around her neck.  It connected to some sister story called Shining Tears x Wind that sounds so all over the place, I don’t even want to consider it.  I am interested to see, however, that we’ll hopefully have the gorgeous artwork of Production I.G. hand-in-hand with the awesome character designs of Tony Taka.  Some of my favorite works by him include his tamer versions of the Stellvia cast, as well as Holo of Spice and Wolf.  I can’t say too much about the director’s experience since I’m familiar with a limited amount of the works, including Chrome Shelled Regios (which I thought was pretty bad), Rental Magica (so-so), Tsubasa Chronicle: Tori Kago no Kuni no Himegimi (again, just ok), and Noir (pretty good).  He does have some other ones on his record that I enjoy, but they’re ones in which he had minimal influence.

Natsuiro no Kiseki: PV
I guess I always gotta try at least one of these per season, yeah? There’s really not much out there about this anime in the form of summaries, but the PV does show a good amount of generic slice of life girl activity.  It feels like an anime made for the purpose of promoting its four seiyuu, who are members of the J-pop band, sphere.  Two of them also come from the main cast of K-ON! If you’re thinking the character design looks familiar, then you’re probably thinking of Index and Railgun, all of which include the same artist.  What’s keeping me on this is the director, who has headed some fun works like Fullmetal Alchemist, Hanamura Youchien, and UN-GO.  I’m hoping he can take this blah premise and insert some truly touching (emotionally, not physically) moments.

Hiiro no Kakera: PV
Good ol’ Marina’s list wouldn’t be complete without her seasonal reverse harem.  I’m usually more for a slightly brawnier build, but these guys are pretty enough for my fantasies.  The one thing I don’t like right now is how weak the female lead looks; I like mine with a bit more spunk.  I’m assuming she’ll get some backbone since the manga summary is a bit more telling and reveals a task that she must carry out along with her male companions.  Something I find kind of comical is that the director worked on Hetalia Axis Powers and Hetalia World Series.  They’re the only ones on his short record I recognize, so I’m wondering if there might be some tongue in cheek humor inserted here and there.

Sakamichi no Apollon: PV
A josei featuring the director of Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo and the musical giant, Kanno Yoko? This one is a no brainer.  Even the short PV alone was enough to get me excited for this, with its dance-inducing jazz beats and smooth art design.  I am of the opinion that there can never be enough josei anime, and I hope to add this to the woefully short list of some of my favorites (including Nodame Cantabile, Honey & Clover, NANA, Kuragehime, and Usagi Drop).  The three friends also look like an unlikely grouping, so I’m looking forward to seeing how jazz music is able to bring them together.  I’m almost equally as excited for the soundtrack as I am for the anime.

Tsuritama: PV
Daily Lives of High School Boys did wonders for my expectations out of boy slice of life, and it was with a renewed sense of hope that I viewed the trailer for Tsuritama.  The art is very reminiscent of Kyousogiga, with whimsical music to match.  Excepting one new voice actor, we have two and two for experience in Daily Lives and Kimi to Boku.  I’m hoping we get some of the craziness of Kyousogiga along with the parody of Daily Lives.

Zetman: PV
What we’ve got here looks to be another addition to our recent and ongoing superhero trend.  I originally wrote this off, but had my mind changed once I viewed the trailer and did a bit of research on the seiyuu involved.  The atmosphere and art style looks very dark, especially so when accompanied with a heavy chorus and percussion soundtrack.  I’m just hoping the violence and sexual content are scaled back instead of used as some sort of self-satisfied shocker (Deadman Wonderland, anyone?).  Actors include the voices behind Yagami Light, Kida Masaomi, Tachibana Kanade, Shiina Mayuri, and Edward Elric.

Trashed
It’s kind of ridiculous how many anime are airing this spring…

• Saint Seiya Omega
• Shiba Inuko-san
• Naruto SD: Rock Lee no Seishun Full-Power Ninden
• Ginga e Kickoff!
• Gakkatsu!
• Arashi no Yoru ni
• Sengoku Collection
• Jewelpet Kira Deko!
• Pretty Rhythm: Dear My Future
• Upotte!!
• Kuroko no Basuke
• Kikansha Thomas — LOLOL wut?
• Cardfight!! Vanguard: Second Series
• Kore wa Zombie desu ka? OF THE DEAD
• Acchi Kocchi
• Sankarea
• Haiyore! Nyaruko-san
• Medaka Box
• Kimi to Boku. 2
• Train Hero
• Yurumates
• Beyblade Zero-G
• Accel World
• Nazo no Kanojo X
• Shirokuma Cafe
• AKB0048
• Queen’s Blade Rebellion
• Koi-ken!