Fall Season ’08 Stuff

Alright, so I seem to have not upheld my promise of making that third post on Spring season stuff. God, I am an unreliable piece of shit. Anyway, here’s the tentative list of shows I’ll end up watching at least the first episode of, as well as the rest of the stuff. Plus comments. The contents of this will be based on the rather useful post on THAT Anime blog. Many thanks go to them for having to research all that.

Watch

CHAOS;HEAD
The visual novel was awesome, incorporating psychological horror-ish elements, gore, delusions (rofl), and science fiction (can anyone say quantum physics?). Hopefully the anime will be more of the same, though the staff is… somewhat disenheartening.
Hakushaku to Yousei
Watching just because it has Tomokazu Sugita.
Tales of the Abyss
My brother played this, and I ended up watching him when I was bored. Tear is love.
Gundam Balls
I watched this before, might as well keep going.
Hyakko
I’ve heard praise for the source material – a manga I believe – so I’ll be watching out of curiosity.
Kannagi
“Crazy Shrine Maidens.” Awesome.
Kemeko Deluxe
I read a bit of the manga (like, 2 chapters) and it wasn’t all that bad.
Yozakura Quartet
The manga’s awesome cover got to me, and I am watching this just to see how nice it might turn out.
Clannad ~After Story~
How could anyone not watch this?
Shikabane Hime: Aka
Gainax + Zombies = Awesome
Toradora!
Funny how my train of thought works: figure of Taiga comes out > I like the figure > Anime comes out > I am interested.

I dunno

To Aru Majutsu no Index
Seems familiar, but not quite.
Nodame Cantabile Paris-hen
Never finished the first season – ought to, but probably won’t.
Kurogane no Linebarrel
Gonzo again? Well, it seems to be their all-out show now, so I ought to do them the honor, at least.
Ga-rei-zero
Kinda meh premise, but whatever.
Macademi Wasshoi!
Yay lolis.
Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka
I remember seeing a bunch of CGs and stuff related to this, so my interest’s been piqued – at least on the story.
ef ~a tale of melodies.~
ef. I seriously need to watch the first season – it’s apparently fucking awesome.
Casshern SINS
Interesting premise, but kinda old-school-ish.
Kyou no Go no Ni
The humor was unintentionally sexual, and unintentionally funny.
Kurozuka
Seems to be action. Plus I love anachronistic characters.

Do not watch

Battle Spirits blahblahblah
kids show.
Tytania
not really into space battle stuff
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae
never saw the first two seasons. never will.
Stitch!
okay, this is just LOL
Vampire Knight Guilty
quit the first season.
Noramimi2
uh, what.
Rosario to Vampire CAPU2
more fanservice from Gonzo. except this time it’s not mecha-musume lolis with guns in military uniforms and kemonomimi, so no thanks.
Michiko To Hatchin
eh, not really interesting for me.
Skip Beat
not into full-shoujo stuff.
Kuroshitsuji
yay for shota.
Bihada Ichizoku
yeah, uh, skin beauty competitions. seriously.
Hokuto no Ken yaddayaddayadda
YOU’RE ALREADY DEAD.
Tentai Senshi Sunred
parody anime can be parody anime for all I care, but this just looks… awful. still a better choice than most others here though.
Junjou Romantica 2
non-shota version of hot dickings.
One Outs
baseball. meh.

Edit: Somehow, I have totally missed the typo on the title for days and days until Yamcha pointed it out. It’s fixed now, though links might get broken.

Stuff I’m Looking Forward to This Spring

Contrary to what I thought beforehand, there are actually a number of pretty interesting shows this coming Spring, the most notable of which (for me) I will list here in descending order, according to interest.

Kanokon
If you can’t tell from the previous post, I just got into the Kanokon manga (not the light novel though, which many claim is better, as elitists (such as I) would). Thanks to that, I am totally looking forward to the anime, even if it’s by XEBEC, with whom I’ve had a rather bad record with. Studio aside, I have no doubt that this will be one of those fanservicey shows which can either branch off into either randomness, or action-y stuff. Either way, I actually enjoy watching this sort of fluff, so it all works out. According to the site, the main three, Kouta, Chizuru, and Nozomu, will be voiced by Noto Mamiko, Kawasumi Ayako, and Takeuchi Miyuu. It seems that it’s Takeuchi’s first role, so no clue on her. However, Kawasumi Ayako and Noto Mamiko are cast as the main characters, and I’ll be damned if that isn’t awesome. Even if the latter is voicing a boy. Combine them with a story involving a fox deity and wolf deity constantly trying to jump a guy, and we ought to have an enjoyable show, or at least, that’s what I will continue to hope for until around the 5th of April.

To LOVEる
Just got into To Love-ru as well (a little earlier than Kanokon, so I’ve got less enthusiasm about it), but I’m pretty much watching the show for the same reason I’m watching Kanokon – delicious fanservice and boobs. The story is kinda stereotypical, which I guess can’t be fully avoided by a love-comedy like the manga. Coincidentally, XEBEC’s animating this too (they seem to have a penchant for this sorta stuff, I’d guess). No idea who the CVs are, because I got lazy to try and find out how to pronounce their names.

Wagaya no O-Inari-sama
This apparently translates into “Our Home’s Fox Deity” or something. I don’t remember who said it (just that he used to rave about it a lot, and that his blog is now dead), but the light novel is apparently really good. Also, Japan seems to have a fetish for fox and wolf deities now. Anyway, I’d probably watch this for kicks. It seems interesting, and I haven’t been spoiled on it in the slightest. No idea who’s doing it, nor who the the CVs are.

バンパイア騎士　～Vampire Knight～
Vampires + pretty girl. Sounds like a rehash of Zombie Loan, sans chokers. And with vampires. Not that it’s a bad thing though, but as with kure-nai and Druaga, this is a bit lower on the priorities. It’s by Studio DEEN too, so it may be good, or absolute shit.

S・A
Seems interesting; looks to be a school drama of sorts with a couple of characters competing to be the number one student in the school, or something. S・A apparently stands for Special・A, so I guess it fits with the theme. Unfortunately, it’s Gonzo X AIC. Which means it could go either way, at this moment.

Kamen no Maid Guy
I’d heard of this a long time ago, though I’ve forgotten the details of it. However, it has a MAID GUY. That is enough incentive to watch it. It is animated by MADHOUSE too, so that’s cool.

Druaga no Tou – The Animation
Looks to be some epic fantasy of sorts. The background and music have already drawn me in to this, though it’s not exactly enough proof that it’s a good show. It’s by GONZO too, so I’ll probably test the waters for a bit before actually dedicating some time to watch it.

Crystal Blaze -クリスタル ブライズ-
It’s an “adult-oriented mystery-story set in New York” so this should be interesting. Notable previous work by Studio Fantasia, the animation studio, would be Soukou no Strain, which, discounting the filler in the middle, was a good series in itself (though I’ve never actually finished it, thanks to data corruption). After a quick look through the staff page, I saw some awesome stuff: “メカニックデザイン／メカ作画監督 ■川原智弘 （『奏光のストレイン』 『ストラトス・フ ォー』）” and “音響監督 ■亀山俊樹 （『さよなら絶望先生』 『ひだまりスケッチ』『魔法少女リリカルなのはStrikerS』）” Judging from this, there may be mecha or anything “mechanical” in the show, which would be interesting. The Mechanics Designer also worked on Soukou no Strain and Stratos 4, the latter of which I rather enjoyed back in my days as a new fan. The other quote states that the sound director worked on Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei, Hidamari Sketch, and StrikerS. Totally awesome in itself. I’m not sure how the show itself will play out though, so I’ll just wait until it comes out.

紅 kure-nai
The premise goes something like “A mediator gets hired by rich loli to be her bodyguard / spouse and lives together with a bunch of other weirdos in a run-down apartment.” Totally makes no sense. At all. However, there is loli. And it’s done by Brains Base, which also animated the rather well-done Baccano!. I’ll be testing the waters with this one too.

図書館戦争 LIBRARY WAR
Seriously. It’s a fucking war, with fucking libraries. LIBRARIES. This must be awesome. It’s also showing in that Noitamina block (or whatever it’s called) so I can expect it to be at least somewhat educational. Production I.G. is doing this too, so it’s probably awesome already. Of course, you know, unless they throw in crazy philosophical bullshit like GITS or something.

Soul Eater
I dunno, I haven’t seen a Bones show in such a long time now, that I just want to watch one.

Stuff I skipped includes:

Kyou Kara Maou R – no interest.
Alison & Lilia – no interest.
Code Geass Season 2 – I never got to finish the first season.
Nabari no Ou – no interest.
Golgo13 – haha, what. I should try the game in my local arcade though.
Macross Frontier – not a fan.
Junjo Romatica – helloooo yaoi.
xxxHolic Tsugi – never watched the first season; not interested either.
Amatsuki – no interest.
Itazura no Kiss – okay, maybe.
Kyouran Kazoku Nikki – catgirls seem interesting, so maybe.
Telepathy Shoujo Ran – haha, wow. Perhaps.
Nijyuume no Musume – lazy to find info.

By the way, thanks to psgels of Star Crossed Anime Blog for compiling a list; I missed quite a number of series that his entry had.