I took a bit of an unannounced hiatus due to exams, but now I’m back again for the moment, and have a few more posts planned for the next week or so, plus I’ll get around to replying to some comments on previous entries that I haven’t gotten around to yet.
The second version of the new anime chart for the upcoming Winter season is now available, and looks just marginally more substantial than the previous version, but sadly no more interesting. Winter is never the best time for new anime, but this is probably one of the worst I’ve seen for lack of potential. Most of the new shows look like generic otaku-centric rubbish.
The comments below get pretty snarky/rantish in parts, so if you’re easily offended by people who find otaku fanbait shows generally loathsome you might want to stop reading.
Durarara!! – stupid title aside, this one looks to be one of the few potentially good anime for the new season. I saw a little of Baccano!! and enjoyed it, and this looks like it could be a decent, solid action series. And even if the promise of a fun action show hadn’t hooked me, the headless Irish fairy part probably would.
Dance in the Vampire Bund – the title alone makes me want to go nowhere near this one, because I’m really sick of vampires. Also it appears to involve werewolves too, and that makes it even worse. However, this is Shaft and I really love Shaft shows so I’ll probably give it a try just on that.
Sora No Woto – what’s with the weird spelling? It’s the same in katakana as well. The character designs look very K-On! which doesn’t really do it any favours in my eyes, but the premise looks vaguely, maybe interesting so I’ll probably give it an episode or two and see how things turn out.
Hanamaru Kidergarten – preschoolers? Seriously, Gainax? I don’t like small children and I’m not usually much of a fan of ‘cute’ shows, so I’m not going anywhere near this one.
Qwaser of Stigmata – the first time I skimmed over the description for this one I thought it sounded like a terribly generic fantasy show with only the pretty art going for it. Then I realised that I had somehow skimmed over the breast milk part. I read through a few chapters of the manga out of morbid curiosity, and it was pretty much in line with my initial impressions – a generic fantasy series – except with a ridiculous ecchi gimmick thrown in to pull in the straight male otaku audience. As someone who has been a fantasy fan even longer than an anime fan this one doesn’t look creative enough to hold much appeal, let alone enough to overcome the whole ‘protagonist powers up on breast milk’ fanservice device.
Ookamikakushi – written by the same person behind Higurashi and Umineko, so this one goes straight onto my watch list. Hopefully it will be as entertaining as they are.
Omamori Himari – an ordinary high school boy and a cat-eared, sword-fighting spirit girl, plus a whole bunch of other cute girls. Well that doesn’t sound like half of the other anime produced in the last five years. No doubt this will get another season and several figures of each of the female cast members because no matter how clichéd and overused a concept like this is, it will no doubt draw in all the otaku guys it’s targeted at.
Chu-Bra!! – for some reason it’s practically a given now that any mind-numbingly stupid ecchi show – especially if it involves young girls – adapted from a manga is probably written by a woman. At least when they’re written by men they can be excused a little in the sense that they’ve never actually been young women. Then again, I think anybody – regardless of gender – could probably come to the conclusion that this is a stupid concept for a series. An underwear club? In middle school? I know it’s ‘just’ otaku fantasy, but this is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Katanagatari – the chart calls this one an OVA, while a lot of other places say it’s a TV anime, but it appears that it will be twelve 50(!)-minute OVAs. Either way since it’s from the same creator as Bakemonogatari (though sadly not adapted by Shaft) this one is on my watch list. The art style looks really interesting.
So essentially, bar a couple of potentially good shows, there’s very little I see as worth watching. Here’s hoping that the Spring season might bring something more creative and daring than this.
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