PinkuBentoBox

I spent a few minutes going over the massive list of shows starting next season in order to figure out which ones to keep an eye on. Since I’m sure everyone on the interwebs cares, I’m going to tell you all about it. There are a few that I’m definitely going to be watching, and then about as many again which caught my eye and I’ll be looking into and watching should they turn out to be good.

Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is a new show from Gainax. I’m pretty sure that it’s their first TV Anime since Konomini, which I liked even though everyone else seems to think it was awful. I should probably preface this by saying that, at one point in my life, I was a gigantic Evangelion fanboy. And by extension, a Gainax fan. As such, when Gainax announced Gurren Lagann last year, I was interested, though I couldn’t help asking what the fuck happened to Bushilord? It was announced what, four years ago now? Anyway, this has appealing character designs and the director of Dead Leaves, plus it’s Gianax. Expecting to be taken on an awesome thrill-ride which goes off the rails and falls towards a pit of lava and flaming angry ninjas at the end. That’s what Gainax does.

Continuing the theme of I-liked-stuff-everyone-hated, I also didn’t mind Noir (though I would love to sit down with a video editor and recut the whole thing, it really has some awful moments) and I quite enjoyed watching Madlax. I don’t know what it is, I guess it’s just that I like it when Bee Train and Yuki Kajiura team up. Bee Train without Yuki Kajiura is, generally speaking, not very good. In fact it is awful. Anyway, they have a new series in production, El Cazador de la Bruja. Apparently it’s about two women, one a younger girl and one a more experienced older woman, who together are looking for some item. Given that one is a bounty hunter, there will probably be guns involved. I guess if it aint’ broke, don’t fix it, right?

Claymore is an adaption of a manga series by Norihiro Yagi. Before anyone goes looking for scanlations, it’s licensed and in the process of being released by Viz. It also has the distinction of being one of a select few manga series that I’m actually buying. I actually hadn’t even heard of it until I saw the website for the Anime adaption. It’s a fantasy series (there’s a lot of Fantasy this year) with a dark setting that is very reminiscent of Berserk. The plot is reasonably simple - humanity is plagued by Youma, evil demons who can take on human form. To counter them, an elite cadre of part-human, part-youma girls who wield giant Claymores were gathered. The manga took a couple of volumes to really grab me in a big way, but once it did it really started to improve quickly. I’m expecting something similar with the anime. While the plot is very cliche, the execution sets it well apart from other, similar anime. If it’s adapted well, then this could be one of the better shows of the season.

A new contender for stupidest name ever emerges next season too. Engage Planet Kissdum. Despite the stupid name, this actually looks like it could be something well worth watching. It’s a mecha series which involves jet aircraft which may or may not transform. Looks a little like Macross? That’s probably because Shoji Kawamori is the mechanical designer. Additionally, the series composition and ‘chief director’ is Yasuchika Nagoka. The most important entry in his resume is that of Crest and Banner of the Stars. As an additional draw card, the OP is being provided by blast-from-the-past Two-Mix, who a lot of people will remember from Gundam Wing as being about the only part of the production which was awesome. They’ve had a lineup change though, as far as I know (they are now Two-Mix Delta). There’s not much info around on this yet, but I’m expecting good things. Especially since the last show that got Shoji Kawamori’s input was Eureka 7.

I will freely admit that when it comes to anime, I have extremely ecclectic taste. One of my deep, dark secrets is that I am totally fucking gay for Koge Donbo. Well, I would be if she was a man. And I’m more referring to her art. Anyway, the power of those massive, lipid pools of saccarine happiness that pass for eyes cannot be denied. DiGi Charat? Loved it. Pitaten? Awesome. Snow Fairy Sugar? All over it. Kamichama Karin? I will be in on the ground floor. It’s a cute story about Karin, an orphan girl who, through the powers of mahou shoujo plot devices, is able to become a goddess. Shades of Kamichu? Possibly so, but if so then those fuckers must have stolen the idea. Anyway, I am looking forward to this quite a bit.

To be honest, I know next to nothing about the Blue Dragon anime beyond that it is an anime adaption of the Xbox 360 game (which I want, August cannot come fast enough) rather than the current manga, which is brought to us by the man behind Death Note. I assume it’s traditional animation rather than 3D CG, but there’s been zero promo images that I’ve seen. Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of people slamming this because the character art is by Akira Toriyama. I guess it’s trendy to hate Dragonball Z now. Well, it’s worth keeping in mind that the plotline here was written by Hironobu “Final Fantasy” Sakaguchi, and that the last time Sakaguchi and Toriyama collaborated, they produced Chrono Trigger, one of the best-loved Japanese RPGs of all time. This whole project has me very interested, and since the game isn’t out until August in the US (and probably 2011 for PAL gamers) I’ll be all over this.

Kyoto Animation can do no wrong. They have been on a massive roll over the last two years. Fumoffu, Air, Full Metal Panic: The Second Raid, Haruhi, Kanon… these guys churn out gold. As such, I’m very interested to see how their newest production pans out. Lucky Star has been described as ‘moe genshiken’ to me a few times. That’s probably a result of the main character being a cute otaku girl. She plays games, buys dojinshi, watches anime and plays eroge. In other words, the perfect woman. The format of the original manga, as far as I know, is basically 4koma. Given that Kyoto Animation produced one of the funniest comedy series I’ve seen (Fumoffu) and the quality of the humor in their other works recently, I’m expecting this to be great. I’m sure it’s going to be a fantastic release for them after the final episodes of Kanon.

I was quite surprised a few months ago when ANN announced that there was a TV remake of Kao no Nai Tsuki (Surfaceless Moon / Moonlight Lady). The original was a 5-part Eroanime adapted from a eroge with art by Carnelian. Carnelian’s art is absolutely beautiful, and is a major drawcard for me, though very little of it ever gets animated, and rarely with the budget to do it justice. Anyway, I was a little disappointed to find out that the TV series, Touka Gettan, while apparently related, is in fact not a remake. It appears to have some of the characters (unfortunately not Suzuna) but I can’t figure out if it’s a side-story or a sequel/prequel. I’m assuming that it’s a spinoff / side story. Still, Carnelian art means that I’ll be there.

Finally amongst my definitely-watching shows is Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Strikers. I’m going to assume everyone’s familiar with this by now. If you’re not, go get the first two seasons right away. The first season starts out as a very by-the-book magical girl show. It takes about 4 episodes to pick up, and it isn’t until about the mid-point when Chrono shows up that things will suddenly begin to deviate from established formulas. The sequel, A’s, is arguably not even Magical Girl any more. Additionally, it’s awesome. When Strikers was announced a while back, I was massively excited. I have to admit that my excitement level has died off substantially since then, though.

This is probably going to go against what a lot of people have been saying in anticipation, but with every new tidbit of information I get more and more worried. The announcement of 26 episodes instead of 13 should make me say ‘twice the awesome’ but I’m worried that it’s simply indicating that the show’s producers have realised that they’re sitting on a goldmine and are going to extend things out, padding it with shitty, irrelevant filler in order to exploit the willing fans. It was inevitable that a new season would introduce new cast members, however I wasn’t expecting the addition of another four, plus a glut of supporting characters. This is really a worry for me. Nanoha had four principal characters, one being an antagonist. Nanoha A’s added another five and gave Arf a little more expansion, however there was a clear 5/5 split between the protagonists and antagonists. The problem is that by the end the lot of them had crossed over to join Nanoha’s growing army of friends. Now we’re adding another four important characters to a group that already numbers ten. It’s a glut of protagonists with no opposition.

Add to that the fact that a lot of the media recently has been focusing on two of these new four (Tiana and Subaru) as if they are more important characters than the established ones and I get even more worried. Especially when one of them has what to me looks like one of the most retarded gimmicks ever. Come on, roller blades and a power glove? It’s like 1989 all over again. What really worries me with the focus on these two is that they’re attached to Nanoha and Signum’s squad. This seems to indicate the strong possibility that Fate and Hayate will be pushed off to the side. To put it simply, if Fate gets shoved aside, I will stop watching. I don’t want to jinx things, but I’m getting a massive Gundam Seed Destiny vibe from what we know so far. My fears are probably completely baseless, but Destiny was such a swift kick in the balls to my anticipation that I’m very wary about getting excited about any sequel to a show I enjoyed a lot. I’ll still be giving it the benefit of the doubt and watching closely, but I wanted to get that out there.

I have quite a few shows I’m also interested in. Romeo & Juliet got bumped down to a maybe for me when I learned none of the Gankutsou team are involved, meaning this is probably Gonzotrash. Hayate the Combat Butler and Seto no Hanayome both look mildly entertaining. Idolmaster Xenoglossia and Polyphonica will probably be trainwrecks but they both appear to have nice art. I’ll probably watch Shining Tears if they pull off Tony’s art style properly. Guardian of the Sacred Spirit looks promising (GitS:SAC team). I would watch Bokurano if Gonzo’s influence is thoroughly offset by the pile of Ghibli refugees that are working on it. Sisters of Wellber looks interesting, and finally Skullman has a strong enough staff listing to make me give it a look. I also didn’t mention Ikkitousen Dragon Destiny and Moonlight Mile, as both have started, but I’m regularly watching and enjoying the former and the latter’s first episode was very intriguing, reminding me a lot of Planetes. Being reminded of Planetes is always a good thing.