07/01
An adaptation of a 4-koma about an elementary school girl who has a crush on a young man and pursues him relentlessly.
...This is aimed at grown men. Grown men who want to watch a series in which the entire premise is a little girl pursuing her crush on a grown man. Even if the little girl isn't sexualized at all in the actual manga and show, it's still sketchy.
Noteworthy Seiyuu:
Mitsuishi Kotono (Usagi in Sailor Moon)
Centuries from now, Earth has become inhabited by fairies- the pocket-sized kind who love sweets and make this series' protagonist look like she's tripping in the promo art. Our protagonist, Watashi, returns to her hometown after taking on the job of mediating human-fairy relations. Watashi learns that her new job isn't as easy as she thought it would be.
Going by the PV, this is meant to be an iyashikei (healing type) series, but I don't feel healed at all by watching these creepy little things.
Their faces NEVER MOVE.
Nakahara Mai (Strawberry Panic's Nagisa)
An adaptation of an otome adventure game, about the daughter of an organization with "mysterious powers" that rules a small island. The protagonist chooses a husband by making her suitors participate in a competition that she herself will compete in. I'm assuming she will only agree to marry whichever suitor can beat her in fighting prowess, kind of like Atalanta.
Seiyuu:
Noto Mamiko (Maria-sama ga Miteru's Shimako)
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)
An adaptation of a light novel that is itself a spin-off of the Muv-Luv Alternative visual novel. Because I'm lazy and don't care about this series at all, I'm quoting the Wikipedia explanation of its setting:
Muv-Luv Unlimited takes place in an alternate world to Extra, where aliens called BETA (an acronym for "Beings of the Extra Terrestrial origin which is Adversary of human race") have invaded and mankind fights back against the alien aggressors with giant robots called Senjutsuhokousentouki (戦術歩行戦闘機, Tactical Surface Fighter), usually referred to as simply Senjutsuki (戦術機), as almost all conventional weapons were ineffective.Promo streaming here.
The BETA first arrived on Earth in 1973 (in China and Canada) after arriving on the Moon in 1967 and being spotted on Mars in 1958. By 2001, the world population has been reduced to 1 billion people, and most of Europe and central Asia have been wiped out. The Soviet Union, though, is still around, operating out of Alaska. When the BETA first arrived in Japan in 1998, 36 million people were dead within a week.
Most of the major characters from the Extra timeline are present in Unlimited, except for the Unlimited world's Takeru, who is said to be dead, and Sumika, who does not seem to exist in the Unlimited timeline. The characters are, for the most part identical to their Extra counterparts, with the possible exception of Mikoto, who is now female.
In the sequel Muv-Luv Alternative, Takeru wakes up three years after the end of Unlimited to find himself back in his room. Although he first thinks that everything that had happened to him was a dream, he soon feels that something is wrong, and leaves the house to find that he has been sent back in time to the beginning of the events in Unlimited. Unwilling to accept the events at the end of Unlimited, he decides to help professor Kouzuki save the earth and mankind.
Seiyuu:
Nakahara Mai (Strawberry Panic's Nagisa)
Ono Daisuke (Kuroshitsuji's Sebastian)
Nabatame Hitomi (Strawberry Panic's Shizuma, Maria-sama ga Miteru's Eriko)
Ishihara Kaori (Rinne no Lagrange's Madoka)
Noto Mamiko (Maria-sama ga Miteru's Shimako)
Tanaka Rie (Azumanga Daioh's Yomi)
Nogawa Sakura (Azumanga Daioh's Kaori, Strawberry Panic's Tsubomi)
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel, Jormungand's Valmet)
Honda Takako (Hourou Musuko's Yuki, Kara no Kyoukai's Touko)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
Yay, more Lagrange! The first season was an unexpectedly fun take on the hoary old "teenager pilots a mech to save humanity" premise. But you probably already know if you're watching it or not.
Madoka x Lan fans will be happy with this season's PV. Update: Here's another PV.
Seiyuu:
Ishihara Kaori (Saki Achiga-hen's Ryuuka)
Seto Asami (Hourou Musuko's Takatsuki)
Kayano Ai (Mouretsu Pirates's Ai)
Noto Mamiko (Marimite's Shimako)
Nakajima Megumi (Macross Frontier's Ranka)
Tanaka Rie (Azumanga Daioh's Yomi)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)
Nanri Yuuka (Hourou Musuko's Chiba)
Ise Mariya (Yes! Precure 5's Urara)
P.A. Works's newest offering, about five high schoolers who have completely different hobbies but come together as friends because of music during their last summer in high school.
I'll give it a shot. PVs streaming here and here.
Seiyuu:
Seto Asami (Hourou Musuko's Takatsuki)
Takagaki Ayahi (Sasameki Koto's Sumi, Symphogear's Chris)
Hayami Saori (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Chihiro)
07/02
An adaptation of a josei manga that provides a "super-loose adaptation" of the Hyukunin Isshu poetry anthology that forms the basis of the karuta game.
Its premise is different enough for me to want to try it. Here's its PV.
Seiyuu:
Endo Aya (Macross Frontier's Sheryl)
Suwabe Junichi (Natsume Yuujinchou-shi's Seiji)
Hayami Saori (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Chihiro)
Kaji Yuuki (No. 6's Shion)
Kobayashi Sanae (Madlax's Madlax)
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel, Jormungand's Valmet)
You already know if you're watching more Yuruyuri. I didn't care for it, but clearly enough people did to get it a second season.
PVs here and here.
Seiyuu:
Ookubo Rumi (Suite Precure's Ako)
Toyosaki Aki (K-ON!'s Yui)
Taketatsu Ayana (K-ON!'s Azusa)
Katou Emiri (Sasameki Koto's Kiyori, Madoka Magica's Kyuubey)
Shiraishi Ryoko (Saki's Mako)
Goto Saori (Strawberry Panic's Momomi)
Yuuki Aoi (Madoka Magica's Madoka)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)
07/04
The latest series by studio Sunrise. Sakura lives a charmed life because she saps away other people's "happiness energy." To stop Sakura from doing that, a Poverty God named Momiji decides to kill her. Hijinks ensue.
This is clearly crap, but it seems to know that it is crap and have a high amount of dark humor. I still don't see myself following it, but I'll give it a try. PV streaming here.
Seiyuu:
Hanazawa Kana (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Mayu, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Tomatsu Haruka (Shiki's Megumi)
07/05
A gag comedy about the behind-the-scenes dressing room conversations among a group of female rakugo performers.
It looks "meh," but I'll try it anyway. PV available here.
Seiyuu:
Sakura Ayane (Hotarubi no Mori e's Hotaru)
Goto Saori (Strawberry Panic's Momomi)
Nanjou Yoshino (CANAAN's Maria, Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Hana)
An adaptation of an eroge about a boy who attends an elite school and runs for Student Council president to save the club he's in, the Food Research Club, from being abolished. Incidentally, the Food Research Club is almost entirely composed of cute girls.
Eh. PVs found here.
Seiyuu:
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)
Imai Asami (Steins;Gate's Kurisu)
Sanada Asami (K-ON!'s Sawako, Nanoha's Vita)
Ishimatsu Chiemi (Aoi Hana's Yasuko)
Mizuhashi Kaori (Hidamari Sketch's Miyako)
Oogata Megumi (Sailor Moon's Haruka)
Gibu Yuko (Aoi Hana's Akira)
Asakawa Yuu (Azumanga Daioh's Sakaki)
The much-anticipated return of one of Noitamina's most popular series. Admittedly, I still haven't seen its first season. It's one of those shows that I keep meaning to watch. ^_^; Moyashimon is a comedy about a college student who can see microorganisms with his naked eyes and communicate with them, as well as his friends.
PVs and three promotional animated shorts streaming here.
Seiyuu:
Noto Mamiko (Marimite's Shimako)
Saiga Mitsuki (Mai-Hime's Chie)
Sawashiro Miyuki (CANAAN's Canaan, Black Rock Shooter's Yomi)
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel, Jormungand's Valmet)
To inherit his family's fortune, Shougo must choose a bride at school. He transfers to a new school to do that and learns that he has a long lost sister attending that school. For some reason, he isn't able to find out who she is and doesn't transfer to a different school. Watch Shougo struggle to choose a bride while knowing that any choice could end with him getting the bullet in this Russian Roulette of a premise and sleeping with his sister. Or don't. That's what I'm going to do. PVs here and here.
Seiyuu:
Taketatsu Ayana (K-ON!'s Azusa)
Sakura Ayane (Hotarubi no Mori e's Hotaru)
Ishihara Kaori (Rinne no Lagrange's Madoka)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
This season's other Noitamina series. An adaptation of a josei manga focusing on a love triangle between a florist named Hazuki, his boss Rokka, and the ghost of Rokka's deceased husband Shimao.
I'm curious about how this story will play out. It could easily be hokey, but in the right hands, it could be poignant stuff. Its PVs (here and here) look good enough that I'm optimistic about it.
Seiyuu:
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Ohara Sayaka (Fate/Zero's Irisviel, Jormungand's Valmet)
Nakamura Yuuichi (Clannad's Tomoya)
07/06
A high school boy named Godou kills a god, gaining its powers. Together with a girl named Erica, Godou, now a "Campione" (god-killer) continues to battle against gods and other Campione.
*shrug* PV streaming here, just click the second banner.
Seiyuu:
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
Kitamura Eri (Madoka Magica's Sayaka)
Hanazawa Kana (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Mayu, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Ryousuke makes a contract with a frequently undressed Goddess of Death, unwittingly giving up his "erotic spirit" (i.e. his ability to be turned on). Now he must regain it.
At least it isn't pretending to be anything more than softcore porn. Pass for me. PV streaming here.
Seiyuu:
Endo Aya (Macross Frontier's Sheryl)
Ishihara Kaori (Rinne no Lagrange's Madoka)
Fukuen Misato (Hidamari Sketch's Natsume, Smile Precure's Miyuki)
Akatsuki returns to the real world from a world of magic, together with the daughter of a demon lord. PVs here and here.
Zzzzzzzzz.
Seiyuu:
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
Taketatsu Ayana (K-ON!'s Azusa)
Hanazawa Kana (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Mayu, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Ueda Kana (Marimite's Yumi)
Inoue Marina (Smile Precure's Nao)
Satou Rina (Railgun's Mikoto)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
07/07
The second season of a series about a middle school boy who unwittingly travels to a magical alternate world where everyone has animal ears and tails. It looks like he returned to his world at the end of the first season, and he's going back to the magical world at the beginning of this one.
I like this show's theme song ("Scarlet Knight" by Mizuki Nana), but I haven't seen a minute of the actual show. ^_^; I'm still not interested. PV streaming here.
Seiyuu:
Miyano Mamoru (Steins; Gate's Okabe)
Horie Yui (Aoi Hana's Kyouko, Hourou Musuko's Anna)
Koshimizu Ami (Marimite's Kanako)
Yuuki Aoi (Madoka Magica's Madoka)
Taketatsu Ayana (K-ON!'s Azusa)
Hanazawa Kana (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Mayu, Black Rock Shooter's Mato)
Asumi Kana (Hidamari Sketch's Yuuno)
Kotobuki Minako (K-ON!'s Mugi)
Mizuki Nana (Nanoha's Fate, Symphogear's Tsubasa)
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
Nagata Yoriko (K-ON!'s Jun)
A group of friends- three girls and two boys- accidentally switch bodies, causing love polygon hijinks.
Doesn't sound interesting. PV found here.
Seiyuu:
Toyosaki Aki (K-ON!'s Yui)
Sawashiro Miyuki (CANAAN's Canaan, Black Rock Shooter's Yomi)
Kanemoto Hisako (Sora no Woto's Kanata, Smile Precure's Yayoi)
Itou Shizuka (Marimite's Rei, Saki's Hisa, Jormungand's Koko)
The second season of Sunrise's newest hit, about a future in which people try to recreate history by following a book called Testament and are in the tech-heavy future equivalent of the Sengoku Era. In trying to save the girl he loves from being executed because of a political technicality, Horizon's protagonist sparks a war between those who want to follow Testament and those who would rather not.
The first season was more miss than hit for me, but I'm willing to give it another shot for the reasons explained here. (Not least of which is Horizon's lesbian couple.) PV streaming here. Update: New PV streaming here.
Seiyuu:
Fukuyama Jun (Code Geass's Lelouch)
Chihara Minori (Saki's Touka)
Shimizu Ai (Strawberry Panic's Tamao and Kizuna)
Koshimizu Ami (Marimite's Kanako)
Yuuki Aoi (Madoka Magica's Madoka)
Saito Chiwa (Madoka Magica's Homura)
Ono Daisuke (Kuroshitsuji's Sebastian)
Nazuka Kaori (Eureka Seven's Eureka)
Nakahara Mai (Strawberry Panic's Nagisa)
Inoue Marina (Smile Precure's Nao)
Asano Masumi (Ikki Tousen's Hakufu)
Toyoguchi Megumi (Marimite's Sei)
Kotobuki Minako (K-ON!'s Mugi)
Shiraishi Minoru (Lucky Star's Shiraishi Minoru)
Sawashiro Miyuki (CANAAN's Canaan, Black Rock Shooter's Yomi)
Saito Momoko (Saki's Momo)
Tanaka Rie (Azumanga Daioh's Yomi)
Morinaga Rika (Saki's Kana)
Shintani Ryoko (Mai-Hime's Aoi, Hidamari Sketch's Sae)
Shiraishi Ryoko (Saki's Mako)
Tamura Yukari (Nanoha)
Kobayashi Yuu (Saki's Yumi)
Sugita Tomokazu (Suzumiya Haruhi's Kyon)
Koyasu Takehito (Utena's Touga)
A programmer enters an MMO world called Swort Art Online. If you die in the game, you actually die, and the only way out after you begin is to finish the game.
Doesn't look interesting, even with a soundtrack by Kajiura Yuki.
Seiyuu:
Tomatsu Haruka (Shiki's Megumi)
Itou Kanae (Railgun's Saten)
Takagaki Ayahi (Sasameki Koto's Sumi, Symphogear's Chris)
Hayami Saori (Morita-san ha Mukuchi's Chihiro)
Taketatsu Ayana (K-ON!'s Azusa)
An adaptation of a fantasy mobile game- typical search dungeons for treasure, defeat monsters while you're there kind of game.
Pass.
Seiyuu:
Hikasa Youko (K-ON!'s Mio)
07/08
A sequel to the first two seasons of Hakuouki, an adaptation of an otome adventure game about a girl who joins the Shinsengumi after setting out to search for her missing father. There are also demons. I tried one episode of the first season. It was fine. Cool fight scenes, but nothing else that stuck out for better or worse.
Seiyuu:
Seki Tomokazu (Fate/Zero's Rider)
An ordinary high school boy gets pulled back to the Sengoku Era, where he finds that all of the historically famous warlords are women and Oda Nobunaga wants him to help her conquer the world. Sound familiar?
Pass. PVs here.
Seiyuu:
Itou Kanae (Railgun's Saten)
Katou Emiri (Sasameki Koto's Kiyori, Madoka Magica's Kyuubey)
Nabatame Hitomi (Strawberry Panic's Shizuma, Maria-sama ga Miteru's Eriko)
Noto Mamiko (Maria-sama ga Miteru's Shimako)
Fukuen Misato (Hidamari Sketch's Natsume, Smile Precure's Miyuki)
Sakurai Takahiro (Code Geass's Suzaku)
07/14
Itsuki wants to join his school's Astronomy Club, but accidentally joins the fujoshi club. Harem hijinks ensue.
Pass.
Seiyuu:
Asumi Kana (Hidamari Sketch's Yuuno)
Ise Mariya (Yes! Precure 5's Urara)
Nazuka Kaori (Eureka Seven's Eureka)
Satou Satomi (K-ON!'s Ritsu)
And that's it!
11 comments:
That faerie show, Jinrui ha Suitai Shimashita... just from watching the PV it strikes me as a terrifying take on the Harvest Moon game series with the 4 different colored faeries and the rural setting. But the creepy smile at 1:21 into the PV, animated headless plucked chickens, what looked like someone putting their finger under a sewing needle in a sewing machine, and, as you mentioned, the faeries are kinda creepy looking with their static faces... eesh, I'm both fascinated and horrified by it (which means I'll probably end up watching it).
Beyond that... I think I'm also going to give Tari Tari a try.
Also... did I count wrong or are there really "only" 3 harem shows on that list? (Though I count at least 4 adventure game adaptations).
@Steven- I might try it also, out of morbid curiosity.
I am, of course, watching Lagrange season 2. I expect Natsuyuki Rendezvous to be good, hope Horizon 2 will be better than Horizon 1, and will try Tari Tari, Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu, Yuruyuri season 2 (maybe I'll drunk-watch it or something), Binbougami ga! and Joshiraku.
Yup- the harem fans are really underserved this season, eh?
@Katherine~ I really want to watch Lagrange, your review of it, among others, has piqued my interest... but giant robots. I have an irrational aversion to giant robots. they just bother me. Same with high fantasy sword & sorcery type shows, though with those it's more of a "why am I watching this when I could be playing D&D or World of Darkness?" than anything else, which is why I haven't watched Fate/Zero yet despite a friend telling me I should (twice now) and having my interest towards it piqued.
Hmm... come to think of it Yuruyuri might be good for after my 45 minute walk home from work when I'm too tired to keep thinking or do much of anything.
I wonder if the creators of harem shows have simply run out of tropes to (re)use or if they're just biding their time to bombard people with.
Additional: Creepy faerie show aired on Crunchyroll today. It is indeed very creepy and ... mind warping.
@Steven- Understandable. We all have plot points that make us go "meh." That's why I'm not interested in Kokoro Connect- body switch plots usually bore me. Fate/Zero is technically an urban fantasy series rather than high fantasy, but it does have sword & sorcery-type elements, so I can't be like "This isn't the kind of show you're averse to at all!" (Although your friend's right- it's quite good.)
For that, Yuruyuri does fit the bill.
I have enjoyed harem shows- like Tenchi Muyo (granted, almost everyone likes Tenchi Muyo) and Kanon (the 2006 version)- but...yeah, 99.9999% of them are just a mind-numbing rehash of stale tropes.
Just watched Jinrui ha Suitai Shimashita. My assumption that it was trying to be an iyashikei with some unintentionally creepy quirkiness was so utterly wrong. It's more like anti-iyashikei. But I liked it. It was funny and, as you said, pretty much a mind screw. I'm intrigued enough to try the next episode.
@Katherine~ Well, Fate/Zero's in my Crunchyroll queue so someday I'll press the play button (I hope).
I've never watched Tenchi Muyo. Mainly because I got into anime around 2002 or 2003 and what I watched was influenced by two friends, one of whom would loan me his DVDs (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Moon Phase, Excel Saga) and the other of whom would tell me to go to X site and download Y series to watch.
I think the only harem show I've watched was Shuffle! and with that I had mostly convinced myself that it would end as a tragedy with the male protagonist dying somehow (also I was shipping Nerine and Lisianthus as a couple).
I'm curious to see if Jinrui ha Suitai Shimashita will deal with romance at all. I mean, there is certainly some adoration (of the puppy love kind) from the village girls towards our unnamed heroine. Given the situation with humanity's decline I can see two possible approaches: 1) Stringent heterosexuality for the express purpose of species survival. And 2) abject apathy. Humanity's on the decline anyway, no way to stop it, may as well not care who's doing it with who.
Though chances are that it won't be brought up at all, it's still something interesting to think about. How would we, as a species, react to the threat of extinction?
@Steven- Yay! ^^
Ooh, you're missing out if you haven't tried Tenchi Muyo. It's short, super-influential (not influential in a good way, but hey, not its fault that most of its successors suck), and a lot of fun. I haven't tried Shuffle.
Between 1) (a.k.a. the Handmaid's Tale Plan) and 2) (a.k.a. the Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou Plan), I like to think 2) would happen even though it's fatalistic. lol If we're going extinct with no way to stop it, we might as well enjoy our lives, after all. About 1), I initially thought "Hmm, one doesn't need to sleep with a member of the opposite sex to reproduce (with in vitro and all)," but then realized that if people face dying out as as species and the majority (or those in power) want to "encourage" people to have as many kids as possible asap, homosexuality probably would be viewed as "wasteful" (like, "You're sleeping with with someone of the same sex? Tsk, tsk, you could have been using that time to create a baby for the human cause!"), even with in vitro (or something similar), since it's more time-consuming, costlier, etc. (And the world of JhSS doesn't seem to have the technology for successful alternative methods of reproduction anyway.) It is interesting to consider. Jinrui ha Suitai Shimashita could, as you said, just not bring it up, but if it does, it would fit well with the show's themes.
@Katherine~ Eh, I'll put Tenchi Muyo on my "maybe sometime if I remember to get around to watching it" list. As for Shuffle... I can't really recommend it as a thing. The only slightly redeeming part of it is that one of the girls, near the end of the show, starts to show an interest in living her life on her own terms instead of revolving her life around the male lead ... and then it goes right back to having her trying to make him food. The version in my head was better.
I would also like to think that option 2 would happen in such an event but there would be those who either through an altruistic approach or one of defiance would want to see the human race stick it out for as long as possible and push heavily for option 1.
I actually was writing a story for national novel writing month last November (I got halfway to the goal before my computer tried to throttle itself and I got too far behind) that involved a bit of what you were thinking of there. Though it involved a remote space station situated ~150 light years away from the nearest inhabited planet and no faster than light travel so the governing body "encouraged" heterosexuality as a way of keeping the population stable, yes there was technology for homosexual couples to reproduce through but that was frowned upon because it would eat into the limited resources there. I really should finish that up sometime...
But I digress. Jinrui ha Suitai Shimashita certainly does have a lot of potential not just for being quirky and strange but also for bringing up issues that, though they may not be directly relevant to society today, are still relevant to society in general, such as the synthetic foods bit. I'm pretty confident that someday, to combat food shortages across the world, some clever person will figure out a way to synthesize food from garbage. Though hopefully without the frightening robot mascot.
@Steven- Yikes. Then yeah, I wll continue to avoid Shuffle.
Ah. :-) The novel you're working on sounds well thought out. Good luck finishing it!
"bringing up issues that, though they may not be directly relevant to society today, are still relevant to society in general"
I agree. So far, it's a surprisingly smart show.
I share your thoughts a lot, therefor I'd like to really vote for giving Binbougami ga! and Kokoro Connect a chance. Especially the first, it's hilarious. Kokoro Connect is actually not as bas as I thought it might be a bit meh. Just found your blog, already loving it!
@Nayu- Thank you! =) I'm glad you're enjoying my blog.
And thanks for the recs. Binbougami ga! is fun, 2 episodes in. (I just hope it lets the breast size gag die. It's getting really overused. ^_^;) And I agree- going by one episode (not trying any more), Kokoro Connect isn't bad.
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