Thu Apr 2 2009, 07:07 PM
Eh, sorry about the lateness but the list has been updated to include the last few shows (except Fight Ippatsu!) with confirmed airing dates. The bulk of this season's shows air toward the end of the week, oh boy.
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Small note about Haruhi: it is airing in chronological order (Haruhi order). However, the interesting thing is that instead of having 14 episodes airing this season, it'll be 28 episodes. We'll have to see if KADOKAWA/KyoAni is trolling us again if they air Haruhi in the non-linear order after the first 14 episodes air or there's actually going to be the 2nd season mixed in with the first season's episodes.
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Just some thoughts in the order I watched as each series airs their first episodes, as such this reply will be continuously updated as I get through each series:
April 2nd: It has begun! Starting it off with bosoms and music; a.k.a fanservice and moe-service.
Queen's Blade: Uh, yeah. Since AT-X is airing this uncensored, there's a lot of ecchi, so it's borderline hentai...sort of. Err, I can't believe acid can come out from such a place. ARMS is animating this series (which has done a lot of hentai and crappy fan service shows) and it has one heck of a voice actor line up. To sum it up: fanservice (boobs) and the first episode finishes off with exploding boobies. I kid you not. (On another related note, DVD and Bluray pre-orders shot up the roof the moment it aired in Japan.)
Yeah, not sure if I'll be following this every week, maybe once in a while just for laughs - that exploding boob scene in the last few minutes was just hilarious. 12 episodes
K-ON!: I used to play the guitar (acoustic steel string) back in middle school and high school, so I can sorta relate to this anime. It lives up to the usual KyoAni expectations. The main character, Yui (see animated picture below), is a very cute and likeable character (walking blob of moe, as they call it) who is late for her first day of high school but is really an hour early (damn daylight savings!). After the school ceremony, she is bombarded with tons of club fliers that request that she join one of their clubs. She doesn't know which club to join as she fears of being labeled as a NEET.
Hirasawa Yui [200 KB]
Eventually, Yui notices a flier for the light music club, known as the K-ON! club, and soon joins the club as the guitarist with three other female club members, Ritsu (Drums), Tsugumi (Keyboards) and Mio (Bass). Although Yui can't play the guitar, the three encourage her to join, after a brief music performance showing Yui their talents (EDIT: they play an instrumental version of "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" or "Lend me your Wings", a 1971 B-side single. This song was featured at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998), because without a fourth member their light music club would not be recognized by the school. I spotted a nice reference relating to another music-related anime in there as well. Well played KyoAni, well played.
Animation wise, there is some jaggedness to it - i.e. how the characters walk - and some funky stuff with the hands; but I guess that's just how KyoAni wanted to style the characters. Funny, how the backdrops have better details than the characters themselves. Oh well, choice of the style they wish to convey the anime in - to each their own.
The OP and ED sequences are nice to listen to and nicely animated, however, I'm favoring the ED ("Don't say 'lazy'") more than the OP ("Cagayake! GIRLS"). I'm sure the OP will grow on me over time, though.
In any case, I will be following this series as it is refreshing and there's only three other anime series that I know that are about music, Detroit Metal City, Nodame Cantabile, and White Album, with the first two I need to watch at some point. 13 episodes
April 3rd: Making my way!
Hayate no Gotoku!!: Alright, the second season is a-go! The first episode pretty much starts the story off a month after Hayate becomes Nagi's butler and thus it re-introduces the plot, as said by the narrator, in summary (something about a 150 million yen debt-ridden butler) and characters, as shown by on-screen text, and the first crazy event is a school marathon that's oddly held on the first of February. A quick side note, this is in the manga and was appropriately chosen since almost all the characters are featured in that story arc. Nothing says athleticism more than having a nice marathon on a cold, wintery February afternoon. Even though the animation studio handling this second season is different than the first, it still maintained the general of Hayate, but I'm wondering where KOTOKO went since she did both the OP songs for the first season.
Not sure what to expect in this second iteration of Hayate because I didn't see any references, parodies or over-the-top humor yet, since it was just a re-introduction of all the characters along with some new ones (Ayumu's little brother) - but it still had some laughs (Max Heart Super Maids!). By the way, Hinagiku ED sequence is just awesome! Here's for more Hinagiku and Hamster (Ayumu) love! Well, I'll be sticking with this series as well, hopefully I'll recognize some parodies this time around, if any. INB4NAGI-TAN (Specials that J.C. Staff usually does). ?? episodes
Asura Cryin': Right, so the summary above in the list is quite short but pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. Tomoharu the main protagonist talks to a ghostly figure, a girl named Misao. As crazy as it may sound, they made it apparent when Tomo talked to Misao during the school opening ceremony and several classmates sitting around him looked at him as if he went mentally insane. The first episode was all centered on this mysterious box and when Tomo opens that box, while in a Mexican-stand off in the last few minutes of the show, darkness surrounded him and a mecha appeared. The first episode certainly brings up a fair number of questions and some of them are answered, but I didn't expect this to be a mecha show. Oh well, in any case I'll see how this series goes for a few more episodes. 13 episodes
April 4th Glass windows probably aren't the best cover and mecha basuke.
Valkyria Chronicles: Alright, so this takes place in an alternative reality WWII setting in a town known as Bruhl in the country of Gallia preparing for an imminent attack from Imperial forces. A female soldier known as Alicia hears word from one of her subordinates that there's a spy down by the riverside. The alleged spy, Welkin Gunther, explains that he was taking sketches of the trout residing in the river. Alicia doesn't believe him and takes him hostage, she also doesn't believe that Welkin has given her his real name since there was a famous war hero with the same last name. Eventually, Welkin escapes captivity and Alicia chases after him, where she soon finds out that Welkin is going to where his little sister is, but are then caught in enemy fire when they are discovered. As they both make their way inside the Gunther's house and meet Isara, Welkin's younger sister, they are surrounded by Imperial forces and are under heavy attack. The only heavy weapons they have against enemy forces are a box of grenades and a later revealed tank.
Alicia, who's voiced by Inoue Marina, easily put is a favorable character in Valkyria and it certainly does look like both she and Welkin are compatible with each other - so there's your romance aspect. Although I haven't had a grand experience with Tales of the Abyss (I still must somehow finish it) and Valkyria is also based on a game, I wasn't as confused or bombarded with RPG vocabulary (to note: Valkyria is a tactical RPG) and it made my watching experience so much better without it; only RPG vocabulary that will remain central to the story line is "ragnite ore" a vital yet powerful fuel resource. I hope Valkyria can fit the bill for this season, it certainly has a lot of potential going for it. The OP song by HIMEKA, who (as noted in the list above) won the competition to sing the theme song, was quite good; the ED was "cute" (at a lost for another word for it) with a flying pig walking around as it travels past various characters in chibi form. The watercolor/pencil sketch-like overlay used for the shadowing, the hair and the like makes the series itself visually appealing in an artistic way, in my opinion. 26 episodes.
Basquash: Take one part basketball and one part mecha and you have yourself a basketball mecha show. As crazy as it may sound, the concept of it is quite refreshing to see animated. In this series you have a young boy named Dan JD who's quite good at basketball and begins to wreck havoc by destroying television screens televising a live Bigfoot basketball match while avoiding Bigfoot police cars - hey, they even have to obey duck crossings! Dan has a problem with Bigfoot basketball because a Bigfoot-induced accident caused his younger sister to lose her ability to walk and tries any way possible to abolish Bigfoot basketball. He later meets with a girl, who he later recognizes through a dream going by the name of Miyuki - whom he liked when they were younger, who forces him to try controlling a Bigfoot which peaks his interests. Dan later goes under the pseudo name of Dunk Mask and participates in a rather boring Bigfoot basketball game where hardly any of the players showed any real skill until he showed up - while he also amazingly manages to avoid a group of police - until the very end when he destroys the basketball stadium and is sentenced to prison. A year later, Dan is released from prison thinking he completely abolished Bigfoot basketball, the first thing he notices is Bigfooted mechas playing basketball in the street. It turns out that Dan JD has become a legend for Bigfoot basketball.
I wasn't expecting very much from this series and was slightly curious to find out what it was all about. The visuals are certainly appealing and fluidly animated, since there was no OP song for this episode the ED song is catchy but OK, in my opinion. It looks like Dan may have a possible love triangle between Miyuki and a briefly introduced Sela later in the serious. If most of the series can be like the eye-opening first episode, I might continue watching Basquash for my weekly dose of sports action. 26 episodes
April 5th: The Elric brothers have returned, tiles competition, and what did I just watch!?
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: The remake of the original FMA series that will follow the manga closely, thus the small addition to the series name to differentiate between the original and the remake. I repeat, this is a remake, not a sequel, to follow more closely to the manga. Other than Ed and Al, there are a number of characters featured in this episode such as King Bradley (as well as spoiling his hidden power), Col. Mustang, Lt. Col. Hughes, Maj. Armstrong, Lust, and a few other characters appear. This first re-introduction of the series starts off with an original episode, taking place before Ed and Al head off to Lior, where everyone is chasing after Isaac, an ice alchemist with powers to spontaneously freeze and boil water - including the water content in the human body. The true beginning of FMA begins in the next episode with the history of two Elric brothers. The first episode has a good share of action to get folks back into the flow of the series, and it doesn't disappoint. On the humor side, it re-introduces everyone poking fun at Ed's height in comparison to Al ― folks mistaking Al as the Fullmetal Alchemist since he's bigger than Ed ― along with a few amusing moments ― Mustang calling Hughes an "annoying man".
For myself, I've seen a number of episodes here and there of the original run, in English no less, of FMA; so this is my first time watching this remake in its Japanese dub. I have to say, I'm joining the hundreds of people who probably wouldn't have known that Kugimiya Rie was voicing Al until you read the cast list; she definitely sounds VERY different from her usual roles in other series. On the music side, both OP "again" by YUI and ED "Uso (Lies)" by SID are very good with the former featured in a sequence featuring several characters in the series and the latter featured in a hand-drawn watercolor sketch sequence. I'm currently favoring the OP over the ED since it is a rather powerful song, about one's mistakes in life and trying to accept what has been done (perhaps a lyrical analyst can do better than I can, mere novice), that is perfect for the FMA series. By the way, full versions of both songs have been released prior to the series premiere and are out there for your enjoyment. Since I hardly have anything to watch on Sundays, FMA:B will surely and easily fill in a spot during my day until completion. Fullmetal Alchemist has returned! ?? episodes
Saki: Alright, I had to watch the Crunchyroll subs since I have absolutely no experience with mahjong. Yeah, I don't know what to say about this one once the mahjong vocabulary came in and the CR subs made me very lost as to what was happening on screen. Chow, Tsumo, Tsumo after a Kong. Maybe these terms you may already know but for the rest of us, it's going to be a bit of a struggle to get used to all these terminology and strategies. If you want more epicness in your mahjong anime, go watch Akagi; if you want to hear Kugimiya Rie's character talk about and eat tacos or want to see moe mahjong, watch Saki. I'll see how this goes for a few more episodes. ?? episodes
Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen: Don't ask why I watched this, I heard it was awesome beyond epic proportions. Well, it is true if you want to watch a series where there's explosions, fighting, fires, and the like. This first episode was more of a summary of the final battle that will occur at the end of the series, thus the next episode and ones after that will go back into the past and retell the story -- if you've watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, you can relate to a few similarities. Um, this episode was entirely random with the blurting of character names that randomly appear out of no where, explosions everywhere, screaming of attack moves (e.g. BIG BANG PUNCH! or BREAST FIRE!), and absurdly long names for mechas (e.g. Machine Beast Brocken V2 Schneider). Yeah...I have no clue what I just watched or what happened, just hot-blooded action and explosions. By the way, there's even female-gendered mecha molestation, oh-ho-ho! I'll end it off with stuff blowing up, explosions everywhere, going on forever. I will probably not complete this series unless if I want to have a random laugh at the sheer randomness and need a heavy dose of explosions and violence on a Wednesday afternoon. 26 episodes
April 6th: This one's a bit late one.
Sengoku Basara: This should have been put under April 1st, but I only started watching the new season offerings the day after. Well, if you're into 16th century Japanese history, particularly the Sengoku period, or just slightly curious about it, then perhaps Sengoku Basara is your ticket - even though its loosely based off of what actually occurred, minus the nuclear-like explosiveness as swords clash and over-the-top human strength. I have to say, the anime itself, like Shin Mazinger, has over the top action and, as mentioned in the previous sentence, the key individuals have strength that surpasses a regular human - hey, it is loosely based off of what actually happened, keep that in mind! Date Masamune in this anime uses English phrases, e.g. "let's party!", which I found odd until I found out that Date was interested in foriegn cultures and thus one of the few traits of his character is to randomly speak English. I also found that when Nobunaga Shingen (I suck at ancient Japanese history, apparently) and Yukimura were calling each other repeatedly that reminded me so much of the running gags in the first season of Minami-ke (Sensei! Ninomiya-kun! Sensei!! Ninomiya-kun!! Sensei!!!! Ninomiya-kun!!!!!!!). I'm not sure if I'll be following this anime through its entirety. If nothing else, it could also fit in with Shin Mazinger for that weekly dose of hot-blooded action. 12 episodes
April 9th: Carbon credits, the economy, and you!
Shangri-La: Alright, so I was expecting to hear the techno-babble that has been drilled into my head for the past two years about carbon dioxide gas emissions and carbon credits, but the first episode wasn't so bad. OK, if you haven't been exposed to what carbon dioxide does to the Earth's atmosphere, particularly the ozone, or what carbon credits are and why countries purchase these credits to offset their total carbon emissions, then perhaps the 2 minutes that this sort of stuff is discussed in this episode will make you lost as to what the heck they're talking about.
I'm reminded of hearing a segment on NPR about how the carbon market is a growing economic market where countries actively trade to offset their total carbon emissions by buying credits off of countries that pollute less. I found that this anime conveys what might happen several years down the road, where there's a bunch of government officials and workers continuously monitoring the carbon market and making note of any spikes or dips in a country's carbon emission. Well, the first episode has a fair share of questions and answers to shape things up, I might as well follow this since this is perhaps one of the very few anime series out there that addresses the environment. 24 episodes
April 10th: Little Johnny, Washington DC and Careless Mondays; Harem Romance Anime; Glasses-Man Man
Higashi no Eden: Perhaps my most anticipated anime series of this season is Higashi no Eden, or Eden of the East. I'm actually quite happy with the premiere of this series because 1.) it starts off in Washington DC; 2.) the English is much better than most other series; and 3.) the two lead characters, their voice actors, and character design. Yes, it starts off in Washington DC, which is 30 minutes from where I'm presently located and should be easily recognizable by anyone in the States who watches this series. The first episode features the usual tourist attractions: the White House, Washington Monument and recognizable buildings like Reagan National airport, the International Spy Museum (oooh! related to the anime!), oddly, the Department of Commerce on Constitution Ave. The English, I have to applaud the good job Production I.G did with getting native speakers of English to speak some of the roles e.g. the police officers, the food stand attendant, the neighboor, etc rather than having Japanese voice actors try their luck on saying a few phrases. The two lead characters, the shy yet likable Saki and the mysterious Akira, and it certainly does seem that both of them are compatible with each other.
There were a lot of hilarious moments, such as when Akira suddenly came out stark naked and asked if Saki was alright since she was about to be intervened by DC Metropolitan police officers near the White House; the scene when Akira stands in front of an embarrassed Saki; right outside a "CVS Phamcey" Akira is given a pair of pants from a nearby office worker; and when a DC Metro police officer asks Akira if he could show his "Johnny" and drops his drawers with another embarrassed Saki right next to him. I won't comment much on the animation or art because you just need one look at the OP and ED sequences to see how high the production quality is for this series; however I will comment that the art itself reminds me of Honey and Clover (which is no surprise since the manga-ka did design the characters). Speaking of which, the OP features a kinetic typography sequence intermittently revealing several quotes (one key quote is "The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power") with the featured song "Falling Down" by OASIS, an English rock band which does quite well. The ED features paper-animation of missile attacks with "futuristic imagination" by school food punishment is just a wonder to gaze at as the credits roll. I'll definitely follow this series faithfully until its completion, I just hope that this series will maintain itself over the course of the next 10 weeks and can continue to exceed my already high expectations of it. 11 episodes
Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity-: I won't comment on this one too much, so I'll just say: generic romance harem anime. Basically, this Goddess fights spiritual monsters until she seals herself and these spiritual, then 500 years later that seal is broken, not by any of the heavy construction machinery...noooo, but by a scooter bike - and all hell shall break loose over the course of the series. Said Goddess is formed in to a young girl's body then makes a promise with the guy that she will be his wife and the next morning she's roughly the guy's age now. Begin ecchi scenes, the harem, the romance, the comedy. Yeah, after watching the first episode, it still reminds me of Kanokon and Inukami! Hopefully this will have a more satisfying ending than Kanokon. I guess I'll be following this whenever I get a chance to watch for that dose of harem romance. 12 episodes
Ristorante Paradiso: One thing you'll notice in this anime: glasses. All the male characters featured in this anime has glasses. I'm pretty sure this anime will have the characters dealing with glasses. Glasses! Sure enough, it's all explained in the middle of the first episode. The setting takes place in a cozy, yet popular restaurant in Rome and all the employees there are older gentlemen wearing reading glasses, the reason being Nicoletta's, the main character, mother requested it to be so; the restaurant itself is owned by the her mother's husband. This series is very slice of life, so this genre may not be your cup of tea - but it certainly isn't boring. I was kind of uncomfortable with the opening sequence since it featured all the male characters with their reading glasses in different positions on their faces that sort of screams male harem. Thankfully, this isn't the case, since a few are married, one is looking for divorce, etc. Thing is, is that most of them are old men like ~50-60 and it also appears to be geared more toward girls. Well, this anime does have a rather powerful message: it makes you hungry. Animation-wise, it looks like it combines both drawn figures and CG art that makes the show very artistic in nature -- just like the food. 11 episodes
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Small note about Haruhi: it is airing in chronological order (Haruhi order). However, the interesting thing is that instead of having 14 episodes airing this season, it'll be 28 episodes. We'll have to see if KADOKAWA/KyoAni is trolling us again if they air Haruhi in the non-linear order after the first 14 episodes air or there's actually going to be the 2nd season mixed in with the first season's episodes.
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Just some thoughts in the order I watched as each series airs their first episodes, as such this reply will be continuously updated as I get through each series:
April 2nd: It has begun! Starting it off with bosoms and music; a.k.a fanservice and moe-service.
Queen's Blade: Uh, yeah. Since AT-X is airing this uncensored, there's a lot of ecchi, so it's borderline hentai...sort of. Err, I can't believe acid can come out from such a place. ARMS is animating this series (which has done a lot of hentai and crappy fan service shows) and it has one heck of a voice actor line up. To sum it up: fanservice (boobs) and the first episode finishes off with exploding boobies. I kid you not. (On another related note, DVD and Bluray pre-orders shot up the roof the moment it aired in Japan.)
Yeah, not sure if I'll be following this every week, maybe once in a while just for laughs - that exploding boob scene in the last few minutes was just hilarious. 12 episodes
K-ON!: I used to play the guitar (acoustic steel string) back in middle school and high school, so I can sorta relate to this anime. It lives up to the usual KyoAni expectations. The main character, Yui (see animated picture below), is a very cute and likeable character (walking blob of moe, as they call it) who is late for her first day of high school but is really an hour early (damn daylight savings!). After the school ceremony, she is bombarded with tons of club fliers that request that she join one of their clubs. She doesn't know which club to join as she fears of being labeled as a NEET.
Hirasawa Yui [200 KB]
![[Image: zu05s8.jpg]](http://i40.tinypic.com/zu05s8.jpg)
Eventually, Yui notices a flier for the light music club, known as the K-ON! club, and soon joins the club as the guitarist with three other female club members, Ritsu (Drums), Tsugumi (Keyboards) and Mio (Bass). Although Yui can't play the guitar, the three encourage her to join, after a brief music performance showing Yui their talents (EDIT: they play an instrumental version of "Tsubasa wo Kudasai" or "Lend me your Wings", a 1971 B-side single. This song was featured at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998), because without a fourth member their light music club would not be recognized by the school. I spotted a nice reference relating to another music-related anime in there as well. Well played KyoAni, well played.
Animation wise, there is some jaggedness to it - i.e. how the characters walk - and some funky stuff with the hands; but I guess that's just how KyoAni wanted to style the characters. Funny, how the backdrops have better details than the characters themselves. Oh well, choice of the style they wish to convey the anime in - to each their own.
The OP and ED sequences are nice to listen to and nicely animated, however, I'm favoring the ED ("Don't say 'lazy'") more than the OP ("Cagayake! GIRLS"). I'm sure the OP will grow on me over time, though.
In any case, I will be following this series as it is refreshing and there's only three other anime series that I know that are about music, Detroit Metal City, Nodame Cantabile, and White Album, with the first two I need to watch at some point. 13 episodes
April 3rd: Making my way!
Hayate no Gotoku!!: Alright, the second season is a-go! The first episode pretty much starts the story off a month after Hayate becomes Nagi's butler and thus it re-introduces the plot, as said by the narrator, in summary (something about a 150 million yen debt-ridden butler) and characters, as shown by on-screen text, and the first crazy event is a school marathon that's oddly held on the first of February. A quick side note, this is in the manga and was appropriately chosen since almost all the characters are featured in that story arc. Nothing says athleticism more than having a nice marathon on a cold, wintery February afternoon. Even though the animation studio handling this second season is different than the first, it still maintained the general of Hayate, but I'm wondering where KOTOKO went since she did both the OP songs for the first season.
Not sure what to expect in this second iteration of Hayate because I didn't see any references, parodies or over-the-top humor yet, since it was just a re-introduction of all the characters along with some new ones (Ayumu's little brother) - but it still had some laughs (Max Heart Super Maids!). By the way, Hinagiku ED sequence is just awesome! Here's for more Hinagiku and Hamster (Ayumu) love! Well, I'll be sticking with this series as well, hopefully I'll recognize some parodies this time around, if any. INB4NAGI-TAN (Specials that J.C. Staff usually does). ?? episodes
Asura Cryin': Right, so the summary above in the list is quite short but pretty much sums it up in a nutshell. Tomoharu the main protagonist talks to a ghostly figure, a girl named Misao. As crazy as it may sound, they made it apparent when Tomo talked to Misao during the school opening ceremony and several classmates sitting around him looked at him as if he went mentally insane. The first episode was all centered on this mysterious box and when Tomo opens that box, while in a Mexican-stand off in the last few minutes of the show, darkness surrounded him and a mecha appeared. The first episode certainly brings up a fair number of questions and some of them are answered, but I didn't expect this to be a mecha show. Oh well, in any case I'll see how this series goes for a few more episodes. 13 episodes
April 4th Glass windows probably aren't the best cover and mecha basuke.
Valkyria Chronicles: Alright, so this takes place in an alternative reality WWII setting in a town known as Bruhl in the country of Gallia preparing for an imminent attack from Imperial forces. A female soldier known as Alicia hears word from one of her subordinates that there's a spy down by the riverside. The alleged spy, Welkin Gunther, explains that he was taking sketches of the trout residing in the river. Alicia doesn't believe him and takes him hostage, she also doesn't believe that Welkin has given her his real name since there was a famous war hero with the same last name. Eventually, Welkin escapes captivity and Alicia chases after him, where she soon finds out that Welkin is going to where his little sister is, but are then caught in enemy fire when they are discovered. As they both make their way inside the Gunther's house and meet Isara, Welkin's younger sister, they are surrounded by Imperial forces and are under heavy attack. The only heavy weapons they have against enemy forces are a box of grenades and a later revealed tank.
Alicia, who's voiced by Inoue Marina, easily put is a favorable character in Valkyria and it certainly does look like both she and Welkin are compatible with each other - so there's your romance aspect. Although I haven't had a grand experience with Tales of the Abyss (I still must somehow finish it) and Valkyria is also based on a game, I wasn't as confused or bombarded with RPG vocabulary (to note: Valkyria is a tactical RPG) and it made my watching experience so much better without it; only RPG vocabulary that will remain central to the story line is "ragnite ore" a vital yet powerful fuel resource. I hope Valkyria can fit the bill for this season, it certainly has a lot of potential going for it. The OP song by HIMEKA, who (as noted in the list above) won the competition to sing the theme song, was quite good; the ED was "cute" (at a lost for another word for it) with a flying pig walking around as it travels past various characters in chibi form. The watercolor/pencil sketch-like overlay used for the shadowing, the hair and the like makes the series itself visually appealing in an artistic way, in my opinion. 26 episodes.
Basquash: Take one part basketball and one part mecha and you have yourself a basketball mecha show. As crazy as it may sound, the concept of it is quite refreshing to see animated. In this series you have a young boy named Dan JD who's quite good at basketball and begins to wreck havoc by destroying television screens televising a live Bigfoot basketball match while avoiding Bigfoot police cars - hey, they even have to obey duck crossings! Dan has a problem with Bigfoot basketball because a Bigfoot-induced accident caused his younger sister to lose her ability to walk and tries any way possible to abolish Bigfoot basketball. He later meets with a girl, who he later recognizes through a dream going by the name of Miyuki - whom he liked when they were younger, who forces him to try controlling a Bigfoot which peaks his interests. Dan later goes under the pseudo name of Dunk Mask and participates in a rather boring Bigfoot basketball game where hardly any of the players showed any real skill until he showed up - while he also amazingly manages to avoid a group of police - until the very end when he destroys the basketball stadium and is sentenced to prison. A year later, Dan is released from prison thinking he completely abolished Bigfoot basketball, the first thing he notices is Bigfooted mechas playing basketball in the street. It turns out that Dan JD has become a legend for Bigfoot basketball.
I wasn't expecting very much from this series and was slightly curious to find out what it was all about. The visuals are certainly appealing and fluidly animated, since there was no OP song for this episode the ED song is catchy but OK, in my opinion. It looks like Dan may have a possible love triangle between Miyuki and a briefly introduced Sela later in the serious. If most of the series can be like the eye-opening first episode, I might continue watching Basquash for my weekly dose of sports action. 26 episodes
April 5th: The Elric brothers have returned, tiles competition, and what did I just watch!?
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: The remake of the original FMA series that will follow the manga closely, thus the small addition to the series name to differentiate between the original and the remake. I repeat, this is a remake, not a sequel, to follow more closely to the manga. Other than Ed and Al, there are a number of characters featured in this episode such as King Bradley (as well as spoiling his hidden power), Col. Mustang, Lt. Col. Hughes, Maj. Armstrong, Lust, and a few other characters appear. This first re-introduction of the series starts off with an original episode, taking place before Ed and Al head off to Lior, where everyone is chasing after Isaac, an ice alchemist with powers to spontaneously freeze and boil water - including the water content in the human body. The true beginning of FMA begins in the next episode with the history of two Elric brothers. The first episode has a good share of action to get folks back into the flow of the series, and it doesn't disappoint. On the humor side, it re-introduces everyone poking fun at Ed's height in comparison to Al ― folks mistaking Al as the Fullmetal Alchemist since he's bigger than Ed ― along with a few amusing moments ― Mustang calling Hughes an "annoying man".
For myself, I've seen a number of episodes here and there of the original run, in English no less, of FMA; so this is my first time watching this remake in its Japanese dub. I have to say, I'm joining the hundreds of people who probably wouldn't have known that Kugimiya Rie was voicing Al until you read the cast list; she definitely sounds VERY different from her usual roles in other series. On the music side, both OP "again" by YUI and ED "Uso (Lies)" by SID are very good with the former featured in a sequence featuring several characters in the series and the latter featured in a hand-drawn watercolor sketch sequence. I'm currently favoring the OP over the ED since it is a rather powerful song, about one's mistakes in life and trying to accept what has been done (perhaps a lyrical analyst can do better than I can, mere novice), that is perfect for the FMA series. By the way, full versions of both songs have been released prior to the series premiere and are out there for your enjoyment. Since I hardly have anything to watch on Sundays, FMA:B will surely and easily fill in a spot during my day until completion. Fullmetal Alchemist has returned! ?? episodes
Saki: Alright, I had to watch the Crunchyroll subs since I have absolutely no experience with mahjong. Yeah, I don't know what to say about this one once the mahjong vocabulary came in and the CR subs made me very lost as to what was happening on screen. Chow, Tsumo, Tsumo after a Kong. Maybe these terms you may already know but for the rest of us, it's going to be a bit of a struggle to get used to all these terminology and strategies. If you want more epicness in your mahjong anime, go watch Akagi; if you want to hear Kugimiya Rie's character talk about and eat tacos or want to see moe mahjong, watch Saki. I'll see how this goes for a few more episodes. ?? episodes
Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen: Don't ask why I watched this, I heard it was awesome beyond epic proportions. Well, it is true if you want to watch a series where there's explosions, fighting, fires, and the like. This first episode was more of a summary of the final battle that will occur at the end of the series, thus the next episode and ones after that will go back into the past and retell the story -- if you've watched Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, you can relate to a few similarities. Um, this episode was entirely random with the blurting of character names that randomly appear out of no where, explosions everywhere, screaming of attack moves (e.g. BIG BANG PUNCH! or BREAST FIRE!), and absurdly long names for mechas (e.g. Machine Beast Brocken V2 Schneider). Yeah...I have no clue what I just watched or what happened, just hot-blooded action and explosions. By the way, there's even female-gendered mecha molestation, oh-ho-ho! I'll end it off with stuff blowing up, explosions everywhere, going on forever. I will probably not complete this series unless if I want to have a random laugh at the sheer randomness and need a heavy dose of explosions and violence on a Wednesday afternoon. 26 episodes
April 6th: This one's a bit late one.
Sengoku Basara: This should have been put under April 1st, but I only started watching the new season offerings the day after. Well, if you're into 16th century Japanese history, particularly the Sengoku period, or just slightly curious about it, then perhaps Sengoku Basara is your ticket - even though its loosely based off of what actually occurred, minus the nuclear-like explosiveness as swords clash and over-the-top human strength. I have to say, the anime itself, like Shin Mazinger, has over the top action and, as mentioned in the previous sentence, the key individuals have strength that surpasses a regular human - hey, it is loosely based off of what actually happened, keep that in mind! Date Masamune in this anime uses English phrases, e.g. "let's party!", which I found odd until I found out that Date was interested in foriegn cultures and thus one of the few traits of his character is to randomly speak English. I also found that when Nobunaga Shingen (I suck at ancient Japanese history, apparently) and Yukimura were calling each other repeatedly that reminded me so much of the running gags in the first season of Minami-ke (Sensei! Ninomiya-kun! Sensei!! Ninomiya-kun!! Sensei!!!! Ninomiya-kun!!!!!!!). I'm not sure if I'll be following this anime through its entirety. If nothing else, it could also fit in with Shin Mazinger for that weekly dose of hot-blooded action. 12 episodes
April 9th: Carbon credits, the economy, and you!
Shangri-La: Alright, so I was expecting to hear the techno-babble that has been drilled into my head for the past two years about carbon dioxide gas emissions and carbon credits, but the first episode wasn't so bad. OK, if you haven't been exposed to what carbon dioxide does to the Earth's atmosphere, particularly the ozone, or what carbon credits are and why countries purchase these credits to offset their total carbon emissions, then perhaps the 2 minutes that this sort of stuff is discussed in this episode will make you lost as to what the heck they're talking about.
I'm reminded of hearing a segment on NPR about how the carbon market is a growing economic market where countries actively trade to offset their total carbon emissions by buying credits off of countries that pollute less. I found that this anime conveys what might happen several years down the road, where there's a bunch of government officials and workers continuously monitoring the carbon market and making note of any spikes or dips in a country's carbon emission. Well, the first episode has a fair share of questions and answers to shape things up, I might as well follow this since this is perhaps one of the very few anime series out there that addresses the environment. 24 episodes
April 10th: Little Johnny, Washington DC and Careless Mondays; Harem Romance Anime; Glasses-Man Man
Higashi no Eden: Perhaps my most anticipated anime series of this season is Higashi no Eden, or Eden of the East. I'm actually quite happy with the premiere of this series because 1.) it starts off in Washington DC; 2.) the English is much better than most other series; and 3.) the two lead characters, their voice actors, and character design. Yes, it starts off in Washington DC, which is 30 minutes from where I'm presently located and should be easily recognizable by anyone in the States who watches this series. The first episode features the usual tourist attractions: the White House, Washington Monument and recognizable buildings like Reagan National airport, the International Spy Museum (oooh! related to the anime!), oddly, the Department of Commerce on Constitution Ave. The English, I have to applaud the good job Production I.G did with getting native speakers of English to speak some of the roles e.g. the police officers, the food stand attendant, the neighboor, etc rather than having Japanese voice actors try their luck on saying a few phrases. The two lead characters, the shy yet likable Saki and the mysterious Akira, and it certainly does seem that both of them are compatible with each other.
There were a lot of hilarious moments, such as when Akira suddenly came out stark naked and asked if Saki was alright since she was about to be intervened by DC Metropolitan police officers near the White House; the scene when Akira stands in front of an embarrassed Saki; right outside a "CVS Phamcey" Akira is given a pair of pants from a nearby office worker; and when a DC Metro police officer asks Akira if he could show his "Johnny" and drops his drawers with another embarrassed Saki right next to him. I won't comment much on the animation or art because you just need one look at the OP and ED sequences to see how high the production quality is for this series; however I will comment that the art itself reminds me of Honey and Clover (which is no surprise since the manga-ka did design the characters). Speaking of which, the OP features a kinetic typography sequence intermittently revealing several quotes (one key quote is "The abuse of greatness is when it disjoins remorse from power") with the featured song "Falling Down" by OASIS, an English rock band which does quite well. The ED features paper-animation of missile attacks with "futuristic imagination" by school food punishment is just a wonder to gaze at as the credits roll. I'll definitely follow this series faithfully until its completion, I just hope that this series will maintain itself over the course of the next 10 weeks and can continue to exceed my already high expectations of it. 11 episodes
Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity-: I won't comment on this one too much, so I'll just say: generic romance harem anime. Basically, this Goddess fights spiritual monsters until she seals herself and these spiritual, then 500 years later that seal is broken, not by any of the heavy construction machinery...noooo, but by a scooter bike - and all hell shall break loose over the course of the series. Said Goddess is formed in to a young girl's body then makes a promise with the guy that she will be his wife and the next morning she's roughly the guy's age now. Begin ecchi scenes, the harem, the romance, the comedy. Yeah, after watching the first episode, it still reminds me of Kanokon and Inukami! Hopefully this will have a more satisfying ending than Kanokon. I guess I'll be following this whenever I get a chance to watch for that dose of harem romance. 12 episodes
Ristorante Paradiso: One thing you'll notice in this anime: glasses. All the male characters featured in this anime has glasses. I'm pretty sure this anime will have the characters dealing with glasses. Glasses! Sure enough, it's all explained in the middle of the first episode. The setting takes place in a cozy, yet popular restaurant in Rome and all the employees there are older gentlemen wearing reading glasses, the reason being Nicoletta's, the main character, mother requested it to be so; the restaurant itself is owned by the her mother's husband. This series is very slice of life, so this genre may not be your cup of tea - but it certainly isn't boring. I was kind of uncomfortable with the opening sequence since it featured all the male characters with their reading glasses in different positions on their faces that sort of screams male harem. Thankfully, this isn't the case, since a few are married, one is looking for divorce, etc. Thing is, is that most of them are old men like ~50-60 and it also appears to be geared more toward girls. Well, this anime does have a rather powerful message: it makes you hungry. Animation-wise, it looks like it combines both drawn figures and CG art that makes the show very artistic in nature -- just like the food. 11 episodes
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