...what are you watching...

Winter anime shows look distracting enough:

Returning:
Chihayafuru Season 2
Minami-ke Tadaima

New:
Maoyuu Maou Yuusha: boy meets demon...nothing new, but interesting trailer.
Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun: The manga used to be on many people's favorites list..I think there was a BL slant to the story, but never got into it. The trailer looks sadly bland.
Sasami-san@Ganbaranai: the trailer looks terrible, but it's SHAFT so I'll at least watch one episode.

Continuing:
Magi
Hunter x Hunter

After a sleep-inducing summer anime season of which I have yet to finish, here is my Fall list

Jojo's Bizarre Adventures: Hopefully David Production does not butcher this manga-to-anime series like Madhouse did to Zetman. Skimming through wiki, the story is pretty bizarre.

Psycho-Pass: Fate/Zero's creator is behind is anime, it should be watchable.

Magi: Anime-style Aladdin or something like that. Looks like a cute kid's show.

Ixion Saga DT: will watch one episode because of Studio Brains Base

Zetsuen no Tempest: will watch one episode because of Studio Bones

K|K: will watch one episode because of the title

This weekend was the unofficial start to summer. Blech hot weather, insects, reruns, half-naked strangers.

Thought winter was a slow time for anime, but it looks like slim pickings for this summer's season, too. Here's a quick list of the not-so-horrible-looking anime starting in July:
Natsuyuki Rendevous: Young man falls in love with a florist who has a spirit of her dead lover hanging around.

Sword Art Online: Big budget fantasy story whose characters look a bit boring.

Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi: The splash image is pretty.

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita - headless chickens

La storia della Arcana Famiglia: Based on some sort of harem/action game. Again, splash image looks attractive.

...Liking FT Island's acoustic jamming session. :)

Last Exile: Ginyoku no Fam 20-21/23! the end. Finally. Fam and Giselle rescue Sara from Luscinia's grasp. The purpose of the Grand Exile is revealed to be space vessels, not weapons. Luscinia wanted to achieve peace by being the bad guy (where have I seen this before). And the grand race is held. Claus is still in a wheelchair...very sad. I'm glad Fam did not win the race...she wasn't a very good character. I thought the animation production would have picked up these last few episodes, but the character animation was pretty poorly done. ~7/10 rating~ for a lackluster return. If Fam, Millia and Sara were in charge, I would have rather been in the collapsed Exile with Luscinia. Three naive characters who need character growth(a kick in the head) are too much for one series. Dio has a nice role in this series, but it isn't enough to save the series from the weak leads and weak story.

Hunter x Hunter 2012 25! Gon and friends meet Gotoh, the butler. He entertains them with a coin trick. They meet up with Killua. Time for the next arc!

Aquarion EVOL 13! Seven-way gattai to close the enemy's interdimensional gate. They kill off Jin..who was rather bland. Yunoha is cute. It's too bad she isn't the lead character. Though the quality of the show is really good, not caring what happens to any characters makes for a dull 20 minutes. Dropped.

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The spring season has started and on my list are:

Fate/Zero 2 - starts Saturday
Kimi to Boku 2 - starts tomorrow!
Sakamichi no Apollon - next week
Zetman - starts tomorrow
Jormungand
Tsuritama
Shirokuma Cafe
Accel World

Another year of brain-fluff. Here are the titles I would recommend.

Anime: Level E, Puella Magi Magica Madoka, Tiger & Bunny, No. 6, Natsume Yuujinchou San, Fate/Zero, Mawaru Penguindrum, Karigurashi no Arrietty, Hoshi o Ou Kodomo

Dramas: Dream High, Ouran High School Host Club

I read a bunch of new manga, but don't remember much of any. Reprints were great though: Kodansha USA's Sailormoon reprint is excellent along with Dark Horse's CLAMP omnibus releases.

Happy 2012! Cheers!

Hey, new anime series are starting next week...

My list to trim:
Natsume Yuujinchou Shi
Recorder to Randoseru - out of curiosity, it is an anime about the musical instrument
Nisemonogatari - the PV has too much fanservice
Aquarion Age Evol - do I need to watch the first series?
Brave 10 - harem of pretty boys
Another - no idea what this is about
Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou - Kimi to Boku on caffeine
Thermae Romae - about an architect of Japanese baths...Hiroshi Abe is in the live-action movie.
Black★Rock Shooter

Natsume Yuujinchou San 7! Natori x Nyanko <3 The good and bad thing about this series is that there are around 12 volumes of manga released, and it could probably keep going for another 12 and more. Reiko's background story always lingers, but Natsume doesn't seem to be in any hurry to give away all the youkai names, so there is no sense of urgency to the story. Matoba seems interested in Natsume, but doesn't seem to have a big take-over-the-world-need-to-defeat-good-guys mentality. I guess the laid-back storytelling is one of its appealing features. I wonder if they'll continue to throw in new seasons whenever they feel like it. Seems like Nyanko is an endless source of merchandise possibilities.

Fall list:
Hunter x Hunter: Of course.
Chihayafuru: Girl who plays cards
Guilty Crown: noitaminA and supercell
Un go: interesting promo image, meiji detective story
Kimi to Boku: thought the manga was boring, but maybe the anime will bring the characters to life in a more entertaining manner.
Last Exile: Fam: Of course.
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi S2: season 2? why not.
Gundam Age: eh.

Gonna add Mawaru Penguindrum to my anime list this summer. Brains Base and Lily Hoshino characters designs...and Penguins!

And the other shows on my watch list in order of anticipation:
Natsume Yuujinchou San
Usagi Drop
BLOOD-C
No. 6
Sacred Seven
Kami-sama no Memo-chou
Dantalian no Shoka

I haven't followed Eurovision, but this year's winning song is lacking interestingness.

Anyway, new summer anime:
Natsume Yuujinchou San - surprised this hasn't been licensed for DVD/Blu-ray release yet. It's fairly marketable. The manga is being sold by Viz and there's merchandising potential.

Usagi Drop - a slice-of-life story through Production I.G.
There's also a live-action movie being released soon, too. From the promo images, the production value looks like it will be on par with Kimi ni Todoke. This is about a young office worker who raises his deceased grandfather's surprise child...or something like that.

BLOOD-C - another Production I.G. anime, but I think they are relying on CLAMP and the Blood franchise to sell this one since the promo images don't have 'high quality' written on it.

No. 6 - based on a sci-fi novel with the Studio Bones.

Sacred Seven - Sunrise again with their magical boy shows.

Level E 7! The Color Rangers face the final boss, the Demon Lord.

And for upcoming anime...
Yay, more Nyanko-sensei! Natsume Yuujinchou will get a 3rd season.

And to watch this spring...?
Yondemasuyo, Azazel-san
X-men - how about the shoujo version this time around?
Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Hakairoku-hen
Tiger & Bunny - I'm pretty sure there's a yaoi manga with the same title that this is not based on.
Sekai-ichi Hatsukoi - the only yaoi offering this spring
C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control - interesting title
Steins; Gate
Deadman Wonderland