New Season - New Fansubs
As is typical during the start of a new broadcast season in Japan, I'll start sniping first ep releases of alot of new series. Not going to get overly longwinded with what I've sampled so far, I'll just give some overviews. Kodomo no Jikan. The manga ended up being dropped by Viz before it ever came out here in the states, because it's majorly over the top 3d arial combat lolicon on crack. The anime seems a little tamed down in comparison, and so far after watching the 1 ep OVA and the first episode, it might be funny enough to get past the creepiness. Minami Ke. Adapted from the popular 4 panel yonkoma manga of the same name, this looks to be merely a story about 3 very different sisters, in three different schools (High School, Middle School, Elementary School), behaving like sisters infested with azumanga genkiness. So far so good KimiKiss. This is your typical formulaic shoujo several guys/several girls budding romance thing. Blame my daughter...Some of these can be good (as I'm actually a closet shoujo freak at heart), but this one seems like about 30 other similar series I've seen so far. Moyashimon. This is an anime about....microbes.....focusing on a young college age student who can "see" microbes and identify them. Whodathunk microbes would smile, dance, and play board games?!? So far this is suprisingly good, if for no other reason that the strangeness of the premise. Shugo Chara. Yet another "magical girl" anime. Again, blame my daughter. So far 3 episodes deep it's been modestly funny, though I think even Brittany is tiring of it. Dragonnaut. This one is pretty hard to classify as 3 episodes deep I'm still not clear what the story is. It's a mecha/save the world type of series, but with a moderately complicated sub-plot that has yet to make itself clear. Bamboo Blade. Looks to be another sports anime, but at least this one is kendo (old school kendo/aikido student here). Hard to say after only 1 episode, so I'll stick it out for a while... Goshusho sama Ninomiya Kun. This is a slightly weird love triangle story centering around a combat trained yet indifferent to girls guy name Ninomiya. He gets roped into looking after a girl who is not only pretty, but not human. She's a succubus, who inadvertently attracts men and steals their energy. Ninomiya is almost immune, but not quite. Throw in a violent sister who threatens to send Ninomiya all sorts of places naked should he fail in his task, and the student council president who ends up being Ninomiya's maid......Well....this one is pretty ridiculous. :P Myself - Yourself. This is starting out as another formulaic "guy leaves town then comes back 5 years later" story, but there are hints of something darker going on, though the hints 3 eps deep are very subtle. I hope this one doesn't end up like "School Days" last season, which had a similar feel....and ended up with multiple murders as the close to the plot. Clannad. Brought to you by the creative director of Kanon, this feels like Kanon with different characters and a different subplot. Wee.....Yawn :P ef - A Tale Of Memories. I've watched two episodes of this story, which seems to focus around a girl and her medical condition (where she has no memory retention beyond 13 hours), and I still don't know where this one is going. Shakugan no Shana II. Second season. The first season was quite good, so I'm sticking this one out to the end. bleh...that's it so far. I haven't gotten brave enough to dive into the other dozen or so new ones....yet....
As is typical during the start of a new broadcast season in Japan, I'll start sniping first ep releases of alot of new series. Not going to get overly longwinded with what I've sampled so far, I'll just give some overviews. Kodomo no Jikan. The manga ended up being dropped by Viz before it ever came out here in the states, because it's majorly over the top 3d arial combat lolicon on crack. The anime seems a little tamed down in comparison, and so far after watching the 1 ep OVA and the first episode, it might be funny enough to get past the creepiness. Minami Ke. Adapted from the popular 4 panel yonkoma manga of the same name, this looks to be merely a story about 3 very different sisters, in three different schools (High School, Middle School, Elementary School), behaving like sisters infested with azumanga genkiness. So far so good KimiKiss. This is your typical formulaic shoujo several guys/several girls budding romance thing. Blame my daughter...Some of these can be good (as I'm actually a closet shoujo freak at heart), but this one seems like about 30 other similar series I've seen so far. Moyashimon. This is an anime about....microbes.....focusing on a young college age student who can "see" microbes and identify them. Whodathunk microbes would smile, dance, and play board games?!? So far this is suprisingly good, if for no other reason that the strangeness of the premise. Shugo Chara. Yet another "magical girl" anime. Again, blame my daughter. So far 3 episodes deep it's been modestly funny, though I think even Brittany is tiring of it. Dragonnaut. This one is pretty hard to classify as 3 episodes deep I'm still not clear what the story is. It's a mecha/save the world type of series, but with a moderately complicated sub-plot that has yet to make itself clear. Bamboo Blade. Looks to be another sports anime, but at least this one is kendo (old school kendo/aikido student here). Hard to say after only 1 episode, so I'll stick it out for a while... Goshusho sama Ninomiya Kun. This is a slightly weird love triangle story centering around a combat trained yet indifferent to girls guy name Ninomiya. He gets roped into looking after a girl who is not only pretty, but not human. She's a succubus, who inadvertently attracts men and steals their energy. Ninomiya is almost immune, but not quite. Throw in a violent sister who threatens to send Ninomiya all sorts of places naked should he fail in his task, and the student council president who ends up being Ninomiya's maid......Well....this one is pretty ridiculous. :P Myself - Yourself. This is starting out as another formulaic "guy leaves town then comes back 5 years later" story, but there are hints of something darker going on, though the hints 3 eps deep are very subtle. I hope this one doesn't end up like "School Days" last season, which had a similar feel....and ended up with multiple murders as the close to the plot. Clannad. Brought to you by the creative director of Kanon, this feels like Kanon with different characters and a different subplot. Wee.....Yawn :P ef - A Tale Of Memories. I've watched two episodes of this story, which seems to focus around a girl and her medical condition (where she has no memory retention beyond 13 hours), and I still don't know where this one is going. Shakugan no Shana II. Second season. The first season was quite good, so I'm sticking this one out to the end. bleh...that's it so far. I haven't gotten brave enough to dive into the other dozen or so new ones....yet....