April 2006 Anime
Jesus CHRIST, there’s a lot of anime airing in April - it’s especially exciting as I’m coming up to the two-year mark of anime blogging (however sporadically). There’s a phenomenal amount of new series starting, not to mention shows continuing. Could this revitalise my flagging interest in anime?
Well, maybe. I’m sure most of it will be crap as per usual, and I’m hopefully going to tighten up my standards with regards to shows I continue with past their first episodes - I have massively important Real Life commitments coming up which will take priority. But the sheer volume of new series means there’s a lot to choose from. As per usual, I’ve divided things up into categories of interest; who knows how things will turn out, but I do hope there’ll be some great stuff out there.
Note that I’ve not listed sequels and don’t plan on blogging any of them - I might watch Tsubasa season 2, but I never finished up the first season in a timely fashion and don’t expect much to have changed about how much wasted potential the show has.
Check out somewhere like Moonphase for a somewhat more complete list with links to official websites and all that jazz.
Actively Interested In (in no particular order)
Ouran High School Host Club - Bones + shoujo comedy + Maaya Sakamoto = potential awesomeness. Never read the manga but I have faith in this team.
Nana - I am about to watch the live action movie to see whether the property is worth my while, but with the massive amounts of hype around it I have faith it’s going to be interest. It certainly SOUNDS like my kind of shoujo.
.hack//Roots - I kinda liked .hack//Sign; it’s going to be hell to watch this raw, but hopefully Bee Train will have learnt some lessons to make it a little bit more exciting, even if the dialogue is fairly well written.
Yume Tsukai - apparently this is actually screwed up beyond belief, despite the perky webpage artwork, and it’s an interesting premise; too much lolicon, however, and I’ll be fleeing for the hills.
Zegapain - generic, badly animated mecha show, sure, but AKINO ARAI IS SINGING THE OPENING SONG. It MUST be good, right?
XXXHolic - CLAMP whoredom demands I watch this. The film is excellent, hopefully the series will be too.
Nishi no Yoki Majo Astraea Testament - the manga is pleasantly generic fantasy, but I rather enjoyed what little I’ve read of it; the directorial/scripting team is pretty weak, but Hikaru Nanase on music and HAL Film Maker animating means it should have SOME good qualities.
Saiunkoku Monogatari - Twelve Kingdoms fluffified, which will probably remove all that was good about Twelve Kingdoms, but I still think it could be good.
The Third - novel adaptation; I think WOWOW wants this to be the next Scrapped Princess, and despite knowing very little about this story I have some hopes for it.
Jyu-Oh-Sei - BONES + josei sci-fi = WIN. Nothing else to it.
Glass no Kantai - GONZO (boo) x Satelight (YAY!). The official site makes it look WONDERFUL. Very excited, despite how incomprehensible it will no doubt be.
Kiba - generic shounen action fantasy, but the artwork looks gorgeous
- I’m rather randomly excited about this.
Vaguely Curious
Digimon Savers - shut up, I like the Digimon anime, Digimon Tamers was a defining part of my A level years. Never saw Frontier, but this could be good - but then again, I might just be too old for it now. Yeah, sure.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu - comedy, but it’s a novel adaptation so might be okay.
Simoun - CG mecha and “lesbians” are an immediate turn-off for me, but who knows - the concept is at least a little interesting, even if the art is pretty fugly.
Utawarerumono - H-game adaptation, sure, but it looks like there is fantasy ass-kicking of a sort.
Gintama - didn’t like the manga much (shounen comedy, you know the drill) but it might work better as an anime.
Disgaea - not played the game and it’s partly comedy again, but should at least have a decent budget.
Air Gear - the roller-skating fighting premise is interesting, but will it turn out like TenTen? Possibly worse, given that Toei’s animating it…
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni - doujin game adaptation, will it be as slow as the Type Moon stuff has turned out to be?
Inukami! - mostly I think this will be shit, but the TV Tokyo promo image makes it looks kinda cool despite every other piece of promo art screaming “fanboy trash” at me.
Spider Riders - it’s Bee Train and Koichi Mashimo, I’m obliged to at least sample it; it’s got to be trash, though.
Witch Blade - typical Gonzo pap no doubt, but as it’s based on a US property it might be an interesting experiment.
Kirarin Revolution- the days of my watching treacley shoujo seem to be long past, but I’ll give the first episode a shot.
No Interest Whatsoever (but will no doubt watch the first episodes of some of them anyway)
Ningen Youkai Bem - retro remake with ugly character designs and a dull sounding plot.
Gakuen Heaven - I’ve played the game (DON’T ASK, FOR CHRIST’S SAKE DON’T ASK) and it’s typical reverse-harem dullness.
Soul Link - H-game adaptation, and looks pretty generic.
Yoshinaga-san Ie no Gargoyle - too many “cute” girls.
Black Lagoon - I don’t find mercenaries interesting. Seriously, that’s the only reason I’m not watching this, it sounds too gritty and real-world for my liking.
Himawari! - while I love Okama’s artwork, I can’t see any reason to watch this - plus it’s sponsored by Starchild, who seem to symbolise all I dislike about the anime industry.
Bakegyamon - does anyone actually know what the hell this is? It looks like some kind of card game anime…
Joshikosei - Azumanga with sex jokes = pass, I didn’t even like Azumanga.
Furakappa - know nothing about it.
Love Gechu Miracle Seiyuu Doodah - don’t know the title, don’t care, the first four words were enough of a turn-off.
Magical Pokaan - a mage, a vampire and a wolfgirl with “sexy” character designs fight evil? Sounds uber-generic and fanboy-pandering.
Ray the Animation - I’m not really a medical drama person.
Princess Princess - those aren’t men, I’m sorry. Cross-dressing shoujo comedy fun? Nah.
Himesama Goyoujin - I’ll be waiting to find out what this actually is before making any judgements - the title isn’t promising (Princess Bodyguard?) but Nomad have been surprising with Rozen Maiden so it might be interesting.
Sasami Club - I HATE AIC SO MUCH. This series is no exception.
Tokko - an anime based on a manga unpopular enough to got cancelled after only two volumes? Nah thanks.
March 15th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
“Zegapain - generic, badly animated mecha show, sure, but AKINO ARAI IS SINGING THE OPENING SONG.”
HOLY FUCK WHY DIDN’T I KNOW THIS EARLIER. Too obsessed with my own panderings. Thank you so so so so so so so so so so so so so so much. Yes!!
ZOMG, both the OP and ED are arranged by The Hisaaki Hogari.
Anyway, it’s possible the Good Side of Sunrise might be animating this, I dunno - the character designer’s worked at Ghibli, it might vaguely mean that they’ve commanded a better team, though it’s not always the case of course.
March 15th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
You should really play Disgaea at some point - whilst I pretty much agree about anime comedy shows, the game version is really, really funny (it has horse wiener jokes, for christs sake!), ergo I’m really looking forward to it. The shiney animation from the promo DVD kind of helps as well.
Other than that, it looks like a whole load of disinterest for me. I suppose I’ll need to check out .hack//ROOTS (given I’ve been through most the other .hack stuff) and xxxHolic (love the manga, not seen the movie yet), and maybe the Bones stuff and Air Gear. Zegapain might be interesting - I like giant robot fisticuffs more than I should - but the choice of director hardly invokes confidence in me. The rest I can’t seem to work up any interest in at all at the moment.
March 15th, 2006 at 7:17 pm
Spring New Series
If you’ve been wondering what new shows are coming for the Spring season, wonder no longer - Cinnamon Ass has a fairly comprehensive list. Since I usually try to catch at least the first episode or two of everything, it looks like I’m goi…
March 15th, 2006 at 8:04 pm
I’m definitely looking forward to Ouran High School just because the manga is simply hilarious. Not to mention filled with drool-worthy dudes. Hee.
Jyu-Oh-Sei should be very interesting too, with BONES on the helm. Plus Kazuya Nakai and Oguri SHun are two of the VAs. *fangirl moment*
I was big fan of Witch Blade the tv series, so I’m curious on the anime. I might give Airgear a go since I relatively enjoy the manga. I wish I were excited for XXXholic. Despite my excessive droolage on CLAMP’s gorgeous artwork, I’m a bit wary on the title. Hopefully, we’d see tight scripting and loads of beautiful music.
March 15th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Is xxxHolic the anime truly developed, planned, and drawn by CLAMP this time? Tsubasa Chronicle didn’t turn out too well with BeeTrain, in my opinion.
March 15th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
If Airgear TV follows the manga, all is well, but if it follows the same way Tenjou Tenge TV did, it will fail horribly. Seriously, why can’t anime companies just follow the damn manga storylines, instead of making up bullshit. If they try to trick people who don’t read the manga, theres no point, I hunt those people down and tell them the company didn’t follow the manga, go read it now!
March 15th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
henria - Nanase Ohgawa (CLAMP writer) is on staff for XXXHolic, but most of the production is by Production IG (Blood+, Otogizoushi, GitS SAC etc.)
Tsubasa’s problem isn’t the lack of CLAMP’s involvement per se, it’s more that Koichi Mashimo attempted to shoe-horn the manga into his traditional style - shounen fight manga doesn’t work properly unless it’s very kinetic and pacy, something which he doesn’t capture very well. The Tsubasa anime is, in my opinion, much better in its “dramatic” moments than the manga simply because of animation etc. lending more to it than you might otherwise get, and Sakura’s character is beefed up a bit. Plus the anime original episodes are really good because Mashimo tailors them to what he wants out of the show!
I’ve just noticed how many times I’ve used the word “generic” in the entry - bodes well for the season…
Anyway, I’ve digressed, but it seems that XXXHolic will be more “hands-on” for CLAMP, even if Tsubasa isn’t especially hands-off.
March 16th, 2006 at 12:24 am
Most of your “interested” list is my interested list, except for a few. I’ll be watching at least the first ep of Gakuen Heaven because, stupidly, my hope springs eternal.
Joshikosei really didn’t strike me as Azumanga with sex jokes at all. In fact, I really liked it because it struck me as really true to how I felt as a teenager, all girl school or no. So I’m looking forward to that one.
Last one that differs is Princess Princess. I was going to give this one a super-wide berth because male crossdressing comedies leave me cold 99% of the time. But when I read the manga, I found myself laughing despite myself. It almost gave me a vaguely Greenwood-ish vibe except with…more crossdressing. I’m really looking foward to it.
Lastly, a “sort of” warning about Yumetsukai. If your loli tolerance is super low, you might want to cross your fingers that they don’t animate the first arc of the series. On the other hand, I LOATHE loli, but I couldn’t help but like this series. I even managed to ignore the lolicon character. Of course, you milage may widely vary, but I just thought I’d throw that out there as someone who dislikes both “moe” and “loli”…
March 16th, 2006 at 4:20 am
Oh snap, I am so watching Glass no Kantai. Akira Ishida! The story doesn’t seem as bad as I thought it’d be. And the female lead looks vaguely like Silvia…
April 4th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Just a note on Ray, it’s more like 1/3 drama, 1/3 action, and 1/3 medical. It’s basically about a girl who was raised to sell her organs to the black market, and escapes after losing her eyes, which are replaced by a mysterious doctor. Since then, She started working as an underground doctor for criminals when the orginization she grew up in starts to hunt her down. It’s rather good actually.
Comment on tokko: The mangaka has had a strange obesession with writing short mangas lately, first tokko, now rose hip rose. It can be expected since he wrote gto, which goes on forever..
September 24th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
[…] Curiosity - Hopeless Sensei’s Anime Blog - Yummy Sushi Pajamas - Hop Step Jump - Memento - Cinnamon Ass - Matthew’s Anime Blog - Star Crossed - Unknighted […]