Spring 2010 Anime Season: Part 1

The spring anime season's almost here! ^^ There are several upcoming shows that I'm interested in.

As with the past few seasons, I'll make my best guess estimate about what will be good or not-so-good this upcoming season. There are 27 shows listed in total. I'm only writing about the first 16 (in alphabetical order) in this post.

 

Angel Beats!- The plot superficially sounds like your typical Key school show (not an issue for me; I've enjoyed the Key game-based anime titles that I've seen so far) meets Kaori Yuki (bleh), with some gun action. Judging from the newest PV, if Angel Beats doesn't take itself too seriously, it could be a decent light action series. Plus, it'll be the first Visual Arts/Key story animated by a studio that isn't Kyoto Animation. (Unless you count One.) Edit: Whoops- my bad. I forgot about Toei's 2002 Kanon adaptation, and the Air and Clannad movies. -_-; (I saw the Air movie a few years ago, but I haven't seen the Clannad movie yet. I tried the first episode of Toei's Kanon a few years ago as well, but didn't finish it because it seemed like it was just going to play out the same story as KyoAni's version, only more condensed and with worse-looking art.)

 Arakawa under the bridge- I'm really interested in this one. It's a "denpa-kei gag comedy manga", in which "An upper-class young man named Kō "Riku" Ichinomiya meets a beautiful homeless girl named Nino from the banks of Arakawa River, where many of Tokyo's most unusual residents live," (as described in this ANN article). The denpa-kei sub-genre "revolves around quirky people's lives [wait, isn't that what pretty much every manga is trying to be? What makes this a unique sub-genre?]; the sub-genre is named after the premise that bizarre behaviors are caused by electromagnetic waves (denpa)." The story isn't really the draw for me. My three big draws are that: A) it's based on a manga by Nakamura Hikaru, the creator of Saint Oniisan (or Saint Young Men); B) it's going to be animated by SHAFT and directed by (surprise) Shinbo Akiyuki; and C) Sakamoto Maaya is playing Nino, the female lead. XD Kō will be played by Kamiya Hiroshi, and several of the other characters will be played by Saito Chiwa, long-time fan-favorite Koyasu Takehito, Fujiwara Keiji, and Sugita Tomokazu.

B Gata H Kei- "In the anime, Yukari Tamura will play the heroine Yamada, a virgin high school student who dreams of having 100 casual sex partners. However, she ends up targeting and pursuing only one boy," says ANN. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea, even though Noto Mamiko, Horie Yui, and Kobayashi Yuu will have roles in it.

Bakugan: New Vestroia- The second season of a kid's show that I haven't seen. Something about kids fighting with cards that summon monsters.

Giant Killing- A series based on a shounen manga about a ragtag soccer team that's struggling to stay in Japan's top soccer league and the coach who tries to inspire them to make a comeback. It could be a good series, but it'll be hard- this type of story has already been done to death.

 Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan- An adaptation of a romance adventure game, about "a female protagonist and the historical Shinsengumi samurai group [who all happen to be bishounen, wouldn't you know] in Kyoto during the 19th century." I'm not very interested in this one. It could be good, boring, or hilariously crappy bishounen-camp, like Miracle Train that I can poke fun at with my best friend for an episode or so before getting bored. (Maybe a combination of the three?)

Heroman- Sorry about the crappy pic. ^^; There isn't even a website up for this series yet... It's a collaboration between massively famous American comic creator Stan Lee and studio BONES. I'm not interested in the story (a boy named Joey finds a robot named "Heroman" who he can pilot "against evil threats") nearly as much as what the reception for this series will be like.

Hetalia Axis Powers season 3- Like the first two seasons, the third season of Hetalia will focus on different countries of the world (from what I saw of season 1, that pretty much means Japan, Europe, the U.S., and a strangely non-verbal China) anthromorphized as bishounen. While it was kind of funny to see France lusting after Britain, this series never appealed to me. As with previous seasons, it will only be available online. (It won't air on TV- so it probably doesn't belong on this list... but I decided to mention it because of its popularity.)

Hime Chen! Otogi Chikku Idol Lilpri- Another series created to market a card game based on a card game for kids, Lilpri is about "three elementary school girls who can change into idol princesses." Pass.

 Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou- Based on a light novel series about a boy who goes to a high school for magic users, learns that he will be the "Devil King" someday, and gets "resented by his studious female class head, desired by a girl with mysterious powers, and guarded by a beautiful female android." This looks like a winner. Here's the PV.

Ikki Tousen: Xtreme Xecutor- The fourth season of the massively trashy, but surprisingly entertaining Ikki Tousen franchise. A nsfw trailer can be seen here. Here's to Nabatame Hitomi returning as the yuri-riffic Kan'nu. (I still need to see season 3, though.)

Iron Man- The first of four series being produced by Madhouse based on Marvel superheroes. Even though it was initially reported that all four series would premiere this spring, Marvel later gave a press release stating that only the first of the four 12 episode series will premiere this spring, and it will (supposedly) include both Iron Man and Wolverine. (o_o ???) Marvel has a trailer here, in which only Iron Man appears. I'll check it out.

K-ON! season 2- More slice-of-life fun with the Light Music Club. ^^

Kaichou wa Maid-sama!- An adaptation of Fujiwara Hiro's popular shoujo manga, about "the student council head named Misaki Ayuzawa who despises the mostly male, slovenly population at her school, which was once an all-boys school. However, Misaki's most handsome schoolmate just discovered her secret — that she works afterschool at a maid café." I haven't read the manga, but I'll give this series a try. (And I'll try not to compare it to Kimi ni Todoke. -__-) Ueda Kana has a role as one of the side characters. The PV can be seen here.

Kiss x Sis- Pass.

That's it for now. ^^