Upcoming Fall 2009 Yuri Anime

Here are all of the series premiering this coming fall! ^^



For the fun of it, I'm going to try to predict the quality of the fall 2009 yuri offerings. Series with reciprocated canon yuri will receive three asterisks (***), series with one-sided canon yuri (disregarding whether the yuri is any good ^^;) will recieve two asterisks, and series that have strong yuri possibility will receive one asterisk.

*** Sasameki Koto- Hands-down the most anticipated series for yuri fans this fall season!! A wonderful romantic comedy (judging from the manga) with a strong cast and a charismatic leading couple, starring a particularly excellent protagonist! ^^ (I wonder if I'm biased... lol) *waiting for a trailer*

** Queen's Blade Season 2- Damn. Studio ARMS is getting this sequel out quickly. Expect numerous slashable, yet unapologetically exploited women (including one siscon) who look like Hugh Hefner's vision of Dungeons and Dragons. If Sasameki Koto is the (probable) filet mignon served at a five star restaurant for yuri fans this fall, Queen's Blade is the fast food burger that got burned, dropped on the floor, and placed in the garbage to serve the flies.

** Shin Koihime Musou- Well...the first season (which I haven't finished) has yuri, but purely of the pervy fan service variety. Service isn't as rampant as in Queen's Blade (from what I've seen), but it contains moe and lolicon-type service, which makes me want to gag. (Or simply stop watching the series. *glares at Kanamemo*) For an anime adaptation of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms that won't make you feel dead inside, check out Beijing Glorious/Future Planet's more literary-minded 52 episode adaptation, also premiering this fall. ^^ (Hopefully it will adapt its source material faithfully without compromising its entertainment value, unlike Genji Monogatari Sennenki.)

**A Certain Scientific Railgun- A spin off from To Aru Majutsu no Index (A Certain Magical Index) which I watched the first few episodes of last fall. It wasn't bad, but not very interesting either. This series focuses on Mikoto Misaka, a young psychic living in a city dedicated to fostering the development of psychics. From what I've read about her, she falls for the male protagonist of the original series, so no yuri from her. But she attends an all-girls' school and has a clingy kouhai named Kuroko (shown to the right in the promo pic) who calls her "onee-sama." I looked Kuroko up and, lo and behold, she does develop a crush on Mikoto and get jealous of the guy Mikoto likes. Nothing I'll be running to see, but at least the original series didn't disgust me. It was just formulaic. I like the title, though.

* Kampfer- A boy turns into an attractive girl and gets stuck in a situation in which he must interact with many other attractive girls. Expect some yuri-ish shenanigans, but nothing good.

As far as non-yuri anime this fall:

When I saw the title Armed Librarians, I thought "Read or Die!!" Otherwise, it doesn't interest me.

I'm sure plenty of people are anticipating Madhouse's latest CLAMP series, Kobato. The series will undoubtedly look great, but the content will probably be as dull as it is in the manga. (Which I read two chapters of.)

InuYasha: Final Act is definitely the highest profile series premiering this fall. But. I stopped following InuYasha in middle school, and have no interest in watching it now (much less 21 tankoubon worth of material). I'll probably watch the final episode when it airs, so that I don't feel as much like I wasted the time I spent reading and watching it. ^^;

Kimi ni Todoke could be good. I've read a few chapters of the manga, and it's well-executed. But...I don't like the protagonist, Sawako. If any of my high school classmates had treated me the way Sawako's classmates treat her, I would have told them to go screw themselves and that I don't care what they think- not continually smile and try to curry favor with them. Her reactions just irritate me.... -_-; (Like Fruits Basket's Tohru Honda.)

I haven't seen the massively popular K-drama Winter Sonata, but the anime adaptation could be good also. It probably will might turn out to be maudlin and melodramatic (not in a good way; if you've watched romantic K-dramas, you know what I mean), but I like how (according to the advertising) it looks like the series is going to follow the characters into adulthood.

And those are my impressions for the upcoming fall anime season! ^^ For now, I'll just enjoy Aoi Hana, CANAAN, Saki, and Umineko no Naku Koro ni (which improved in episodes 3 and 4, although I still think that more time should have been spent establishing the characters' personalities before killing them off ^^;).

I'm going to watch episode 4 of Taishou Yakyuu Musume to see if it improves- otherwise, I'm dropping it. I've also sampled episodes 1-3 of Bakemonogatari, but the story execution felt flat to me (especially episode 3), even though the visuals are excellent. I've put watching Haruhi Suzumiya on hiatus until the "Endless Eight" arc finishes and, finally, I tried episode 1 of Umi Monogatari. It was cute and upbeat (as expected from Junichi Sato), but not very compelling. (Certainly not as good as Aria.)