Spring time is almost here, and that means it is time for another season of the animated cartoons. For the first time in several seasons, I am starting off this new season with a clean slate, no shows coming over from previous seasons, and only Space Brothers coming over from last year’s Spring season. Some big names return for this Spring, including Railgun, Nyaruko-san, and Ore no Imouto. They’ll be joined by some potential heavy-hitters, and everything else fit to print. Continue on for graphical chart form. I re-worked my chart format to be a little neater than before. Lemme know how that works out for you.
Aiura
Something about nothing. The ol’ Seinfeld-standby. If anything, it might prove to be amusing when it needs to be.
Aku no Hana
At first I wasn’t going to consider this, because it didn’t seem interesting, but then I got to looking at some of the manga when doing a GIS search for a cover photo, and wow, there is some fucked up stuff going on in there, and I think I need to be a part of that. I’m not sure how the anime will go down, and I’ll need to read the manga, but it looks intense.
Arata Kangatari
This one was an on-fence for me, but I decided to take a gamble because it had an almost Mai-HiME look to it in a way, but was one of those typical “cross-dimension” shows. Satelight has done some good stuff in the past, Macross Frontier, Ikoku Meiro no Croisée, Mouretsu Pirates, and Shugo Chara to name a few, alongside Lantis, which assisted Another, Azumanga Daioh, Chuunibyou demo Koi ga Shitai!, and god knows what else. I’ll take a gamble.
Ginga Kikoutai: Majestic Prince
Oh Dogakobo, you entertained us in the past with Yuru Yuri, Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru, and Koihime†Musou, but now you’re entering the mecha arena with a series almost SEED Destiny-like in nature.. oh wait, you have Hisashi Hirai working your character designs. Well now, ain’t this interesting? A non-Sunrise series by the man responsible for the character designs in SEED, SEED Destiny, Infinite Ryvius, s-CRY-ed, and Fafner of the Azure? Emo Shinn Mk.II anyone?
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W
I admit I did not like this show early on in the first season, but it started to grow on me as the episodes went by and in the end I rather liked it. Hopefully the second season continues to keep up the momentum and not fizzle out into just moe-mush or something-about-nothing.
Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko
Despite the name “Hentai” being in the title, which is sure to throw off most Americans because they don’t understand the Japanese love for multiple meanings of words, this show is more than likely going to end up being a SoL show of the JC Staff variety that will either be good, passable, or terrible depending on who you talk to. I like having a few light titles in my season.
Kakumeiki Valvrave
Speaking of mecha and Sunrise, Sunrise is firing off another attempt at an original mecha that isn’t Sacred Seven, which was one giant ball of disappointment. However, Okawara Kunio, mechanical designer for the original Mobile Suit Gundam and the most recent SEED, Destiny, and 00, among countless other titles, means we will get some pretty badass mech designs, with assistance from Washio Naohiro of TRON:Legacy fame. That alone makes me pretty excited to see what they will come up with, and they also have some good talent on music, inclding T.M Revolution, Angela, Mizuki Nana, and Elisa. Fuck me man, that is like a quadforce of fucking vocal power there, and I’m not really into J-Pop at all, they just have done fucking awesome OP/EDs before.
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai
Oh man, this show. It makes every weeaboo go apeshit over everything, because even though it’s not the best written, best executed, or best at anything, it’s consistent and offers a good entertainment experience, and goddamn Kuroneko man. She should have won Saimoe 2011. Fuck Madoka.
Photo Kano
Buy a camera. Take pictures of girls. Date them. Take more pictures. Like a boss.
Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
I recall a lot of people weren’t that keen on Railgun’s premiere in 2009, calling it lackluster where it could have counted, but I happened to enjoy it all the same. Index is a fantastic world that the novels really articulate well, and JC Staff perhaps hasn’t reflected it always well in the anime as they could, but it’s still pretty awesome. Railgun S will focus on the Sisters Arc from the Index novels, the Level 6 experiment with Accelerator. This means more Sisters and more Mikoto, and fuck I can’t not watch that. The OP/EDs better be fuck awesome too.
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru
Brains Base. Kamisama Dolls, Mawaru Penguindrum, and Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun. These are some among their collection of recent titles I’ve seen and enjoyed, and now they’re posed to do something similar to Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai or Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi, take an uninspired delinquent and surround him with pretty girls and functionally useless males. Well, it might be good. Who knows?
Yuyushiki
Three girls in the “Data Processing Club”. I can’t help but feel I am going to get Ai Mai Mi trolled again with this, because I can’t imagine how they adapted this into a full show, but I have not read the manga. Perhaps I should skim that and see what to expect.
Note that I am not picking up the new Hayate season this time around, because it is scheduled to be some kind of episodic “route” episodes that focus on each of the girls. Last season was pretty bad until the final episodes, and I’m holding out for something more, at least compared to the first seasons all those years ago. Dunno what the Staff’s issue is with that franchise.
Anyway, this should be 90% set going into the final weeks of the season. I’ll note any changes if they occur in a future post. The next few weeks starts the end of shows from Winter 2013, so prepare for final reviews.
Enjoy!
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