Winter 2013 Season Wrap

Yet another season ends, while another begins! Quite a few of the anime this season were late add-ins either because they were backlogged or because I overlooked them the first time around.  Many thanks to the people who convinced me to pick them up and catch up with everyone! So you see, I do take your recommendations into account any time through the year 🙂

While there isn’t really an order to the shows as I discuss them here, I do want to highlight Shirokuma Cafe, Minami-ke Tadaima, Shin Sekai Yori, and Girls and Panzer as being my personal favorites through these cold months.

Anime in the order that I discuss them:

• Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan
• Mondaijitachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo?
• Psycho-Pass
• Tamako Market
• Love Live!
• Kotoura-san
• Shin Sekai Yori
• Girls und Panzer
• Bakuman 3
• Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT
• AMNESIA
• Zetsuen no Tempest
• Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo
• Magi
• Maoyuu Maou Yuusha
• Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru
• Minami-ke Tadaima
• Shirokuma Cafe

Playing Grown Up in Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

Continuing on from the previous season, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo follows the lives of a special group of high school liberal arts students and the pursuit of their dreams.  Most aspects of what make this show memorable are ones that give a slight twist to conventional high school anime.  Instead of an average high school, Suimei is dedicated to the liberal arts.  The focused disciplines and dorm setting feel more like college than high school.   Sakurasou also regularly pits talent against hard work, though the two often overlap.  I don’t usually see this addressed in anime with younger characters, though the argument is one that crosses all ages.  An even more discussion-worthy detail is the anime’s seeming promotion of careers over personal relationships.  Again, I don’t usually see this in high school shows other than the usual dedication to studying.  Watching relationships fall apart because of a job or passion seems like an experience more likely to be portrayed in some josei drama.  Cast with high school boys and girls, set in a high school environment, and teeming with juvenile emotions, Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo is, for all intents and purposes, an anime by adults for adults in the adult world.

Fall 2012 Set Meal

Now a full month into the fall season, I’ve finally settled on which shows I’ll be watching from week to week.  I actually would like to include a few more, but my busy schedule means that some of them will have to be reserved for a slower time of year.  For now, I’ve got nine new series to add to my watch list, and boy is there a lot of fluff and romance in the air!