PinkuBentoBox

I’m a bit late with this entry, but it’s become a bit of a tradition for me so I felt like doing this again. Next season starts in April, and it looks reasonable. There are a few that stand out as being must-watch and then quite a few that have piqued my interest.

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2

Website: http://www.geass.jp/
Okay, this one is pretty much a no-brainer. The first season was overall an excellent show (though to be fair not as good as some people hype it up to, it has some fairly significant flaws) and hopefully this season will be just as good. I really hope so. I don’t know why, but I get this horrible suspicion whenever I see any material about it that R2 will end up being a horrible trainwreck. I get the same vibes that I got from Gundam Seed Destiny and from Nanoha Strikers. I really hope I’m wrong.

Allison & Lillia

Website: http://allison-web.net/index2.html
I have high hopes for this. It’s an anime adaption of a series of light novels by the author who also wrote the excellent Kino’s Journey. I’m not completely abreast of this, but my understanding is that it’s set in a sort of fantasy world with tech that sits around the 1940s or so. It’s actually an adaption of two novel series - the first is focused on Allison, a 17-year-old airforce pilot, and the second is an adaption of the follow-up novels Lillia & Treize, which is focused on the children of the characters from the first series of novels. The anime is adapting both, with the first 13 episodes being Allison and the second 13 being Lillia & Treize. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Macross Frontier

Website: http://www.macrossf.com/
The last year or so has been a real revival for mecha anime. There’s been remakes and sequels to several classics (eg Reideen, Dancougar, Votoms), a return to form for Gainax with Gurren Lagann (which effectively crystallised what we love about Giant Robot anime) and then we were furnished with what has turned out to be hands down one of the best Gundam series produced. Not to be left behind, they’ve also decided to produce a new Macross TV series. By now probably everyone has seen the episode 1 preview that was posted a while back. When I saw that I actually decided to finally go back to the beginning and watch all of the various Macross shows back to back in preparation. I’m seriously hoping this one lives up to the legacy. And I seriously hope that whoever decides to fansub it doesn’t feel they have to stick fucking bouncy distracting karaoke all over the episodes - the shows are guaranteed to have musical bits and that worries me.

To Love-ru

Website: http://www.j-toloveru.com/
Yeah, generic shitty moe anime. Once again this is a case of I-know-it-will-suck-but-I-like-the-art. The title is a really stupid engrish pun that doesn’t make sense unless you’re Japanese - “trouble” in engrish would be toraburu, to-rabu-ru, with ‘rabu’ being engrish for “love”. Retarded. Just like this show should be, providing that the planets don’t somehow align and their mystical energies twist it into something decent. But I think that already happened to True Tears so I’m not holding my breath.

The Tower of Druaga - The Aegis of Uruk

Website: http://www.druaga-anime.com/
Long title is long. This is apparently an anime adaption of an old namco bandai hack & slash dungeon crawling RPG games. And speaking of needing the celestial energies of a planetary alignment to not be a steaming shit, this is being produced by Gonzo. I imagine that this will be generic, mediocre fantasy crap. However I’m still willing to give it the benefit of the doubt and watch a few episodes (a few because Gonzo are sneaky bastards and the first episodes of their shows are rarely a good measure of how the rest will be). On the upside the director’s the same one who gave us the remarkably un-sucky Last Exile and Full Metal Panic…

Kanokon

Website: http://www.kanokon.com/index-n.html
Cute animal girls who remove their clothes a lot. That’s pretty much it. The reasons for watching should be self-evident. Moving along.

P.S. not a furry.

Wagaya no Oinari-sama

Website: http://www.mediaworks.co.jp/contents/oinarisama/index.php
I really don’t know much about this, but it seems interesting enough to give it a look at least. Apparently it’s about a fox deity protecting some family or something. Sometimes it’s a foxgirl, sometimes it’s a foxboy.

P.S. not a gay furry.

Special A

Website: http://special-a.jp/
This appears to be more of a shoujo-oriented show from what I’m hearing. The setup is pretty similar to Karekano, involving a boy and a girl who are intellectual rivals but actually secretly crushing on each other. I gather that they’re in some ’special’ class for ’special’ kids (read: arrogant smarmy little shits who are far too smart for their own good). Generally speaking I kind of like good shoujo, so I’ll be watching.

Soul Eater

Website: http://www.souleater.tv/
Like a kind of bizzaro fusion of Bleach and Naruto as far as I can tell. The story revolves around teams of three Shinigami who are learning to use their weapons or something. God knows. Given that Naruto Shippuden has the pacing of a legless turtle I’ve been hoping that a decent shounen action show would come along so that I have something to switch my brain off and watch besides Bleach, and hopefully this is the ticket.

Real Drive

Website: http://www.ntv.co.jp/RD/index2.html
Information on what the hell this is is a bit scarce. However I can guarantee this is worth at least a look, the reason being that it’s Production I.G. doing a science fiction / cyberpunkish anime written by Masamune Shirow. Ghost in the Shell meets Serial Experiments Lain? I don’t think that we can handle the outbreak of sheer potential awesome that would give us. Anyway this could potentially be great. And complicated and no one will sub it.

Library War

Website: http://www.toshokan-sensou.com/
Another Production I.G. thing. Apparently it’s about a military organisation that fight against some evil secret society that is trying to destroy books that contain knowledge that it doesn’t approve of. I presume it’s anti-censorship or the like. Anyway, it’s running in the Noitamina timeslot, which has previously had excellent shows like Honey & Clover, Nodame Cantabile and Moyashimon, so that alone would indicate a certain sophistication which is reasonably attractive. Might be one to keep an eye on.

Kyouran Kazoku Nikki

Website: http://www.kyouran.jp/
A comedy show about a half-human special ops group who, in order to protect earth from various threats, must pretend to be a normal human family. I’m wondering how they go about explaining the catgirl. Or the Lion. This looks like it could be potential comedy gold.