"Hey there, Zaku, don't you think it's a bit lazy to go back to season previews and then do one this early in the game just because you can't figure out what else there is to write about?"
"No?"
Ah, well. So here we are. Note that I'm not exactly suffering from a writer's blockade or so but from laziness. There are about 200 posts in my draft section catching dust while crying about how hard it is to bear the burden of being unfinished and I will get to do some of them some day but for now, let's just say I'm far from the apex of my motivation. So why not do a season preview instead, about 6 weeks too early? Sounds fine to me!
On that note, this shit is about as uninformative as it can get and based on guesses and guesses alone. Let's all just keep in mind that I predicted Arakawa to be a realistic portrayal about the daily struggles of the homeless. Hah. Now that was embarrassing and there's a lesson to learn from that. Also, I took most of my information from a promo picture and a few sentences accurately or not so accurately summing up hardly anything other than the premise of a show which is little to go with. Heck, at this point, not even PVs apart from a very few, most of them involving moving stills from point A to point B, have been released. This can only go wrong.
With all that saidenjoy!
BlazBlue: Alter Memory: I own one of the PC games and so far, it has been holding the record for the game I've played the least. I think 15 minutes or so. Which, of course, is why I bought the VITA game which contains the PC game and surprisingly, I didn't like that one either. I guess this might turn out to be a nice action anime although the path "Game -> Anime" has been walked countless times before and rarely ever in a good way. The story didn't really grab me either, let alone the characters. I guess animation quality will make or break this.
Gundam Build Fighters: More Gundam. I don't care.
Kill-La-Kill: And here we have TTGL's spiritual successor. Done by TRIGGER, ergo the guys behind LWA and TTGL. The first was bad, the latter mediocre, meaning I'm not all too hyped for this. Yes, it will probably be splendidly animated but there's only so much animation can do if the rest isn't any convincing in the slightest and just incredibly underwhelming. With all that said, I dislike what I've seen from it so far. It does look better than TTGL and I want to get my hopes up high for this but I just don't see that happening.
Pok mon XY: This will very likely be the same as the previous 28 installments of the Pok mon franchise, ergo tedious, boring, dragged out, mundane and repetitive with the least amount of writing involved that might possibly diverge from the formula. Pikachu will go back to level 1, Ash will stay ten years old for all eternity and learn so many important, life-changing things from countless extras to be forgotten an episode afterwards but this time, the Pok mon will look even dumber than the previous generations'. Fantastic.
Kakumeiki Valvrave 2: Meh. The "first season" was just bad and bored me to great lengths and even though the short "trailer" for its "successor" (using entirely too many quotation marks here) looked half-interesting I'm sure you could have gotten the same results had you ripped out all the painstakingly stupid scenes that made me groan from season 1 and condensed into half a minute. So, needlessly long story short, this requires me to have faith in Valvrave - faith I don't have.
Meganebu: I think all the information on this just made me laugh and my stance on it very clear: "An anime adaptation of a drama CD revolving around a group of boys with glasses.". And: "DEEN". Most fujoshi anime are uninspired, boring drivel and with those golden conditions, I don't see this being an exception either.
Yozakura Quartet: Hana no Uta: I watched Nomad's first season of this and while it was mediocre, there are probably worse ways to spend your time with. I haven't watched the apparently gorgeously animated OVAs but this is a remake anyway, so who cares. Also, just like with the OVAs, they got Ryo-chimo (incredibly skilled off-model web-animator, also did some animation for Naruto and Noein) for the animation direction so I'm expecting great things from it as far as the animation is concerned and at least a not all-too-forgettable plot.
Sekai de Ichiban Tsuyoi Naritai: Sports anime #1 and easily the least interesting one. Tits-wrestling, hooray. Done by ARMS? All the better. So nay.
Yowamushi Pedal: Sports anime #2 and still not the most interesting thing. It does look like a kids show too even though the protagonist is an otaku. Eh, we'll see.
Kuroko no Basket S2: Sports anime #3 and now we're finally getting to the hot stuff. I very much liked the first season and it was a decent, tense watch so I see no reason why I should not watch this one.
Nagi no Asakura: I originally had some hopes for this. I mean, the promo art looked nice. Then we got more of it and bleh. Also P.A. Works x Okada. Expecting terribly written, insubstantial, melodramatic slice of life bullshit and we're probably going to get just that.
Unbreakable Machine Doll: Wow, are these characters glowing. Perhaps dolls are made of plutonium these days. Also, I dislike the art style. And it's based on a light novel. And only sounds so-so. Well, at least that's a so-so and not a nay-nay but what can one do.
Log Horizon: Light novelSAO premiseeh. Well, things could be worse. It could be SAO, for instance, which, thankfully, it isn't and just because a similar show has run its premise into the ground after two episodes doesn't mean another one will do the same. Or at least I hope so.
Freezing Vibration: I did not watch the first season nor do I have any plans of changing anything about that.
Infinite Stratos 2: I somehow made it through the first season without knowing why or how so I have next to no intentions of watching this cra- wait, what's that? A cute Russian girl? Wearing red tights? Likered. tights. Tights. But red. Oh, I fucking hate you for doing this to me.
Coppelion: Finally back from the grave. Now let's just hope Savanna Game and certain others will follow. Anyway, the premise is relatively interesting and it's easily one of the things that make it easier for you to get excited about although from what I've heard, it's just three girls walking around and doing stupid things. It's also done by GoHands even though at the very least, that means it'll probably be pretty (the Anime Expo material certainly was) and it seems to be less abusive of its filters than K was. Standards, I know.
White Album 2: I have not watched the predecessor and no intention of doing so.
Walkure Romanze: Stupid premise, based on a VN, otaku stuff, "begleiter", title consists of incorrect Germanyeah, no.
Golden Time: Well, on the upside, it's about college students and not teenagers. On the downside, there's the light novel tag (tending to indicate awful writing), it has amnesia as a plot element (see what's written in the former brackets) and last but not least, it's written by the Toradora! author, so it will probably contain more melodramatic, angsty yelling in the rain than I can endure.
Diamond no Ace: Sports anime #4 and there's little to say about this. It doesn't seem to aimed at children nor does it have any superpowers and since those are already out of the way, I guess it's a solid contender for one of the best shows of the season? Looks like a winner to me.
To Aru Hikuushi e no Koiuta: There was already a movie adaptation of the thing it's related to and it was decent. Incredibly unremarkable, sure, but I'm willing to take anything solid I can find and this doesn't seem to be bad either so hey, why not?
Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru: If the title's longer than my commentary, it must be bad. Also, that premise.
Diabolik Lovers: Much like every other otome game adaptation, this will be tasteless, boring, gay, uninspired and just plain unwatchable. Not holding my breath here in sheer anticipation, that's for sure.
pupa: Now this is an oddball and certainly not an uninteresting one. The art looks fairly nice and the premise basically warrants giving it a try. The director was in charge of Saraiya Goyou and the studio handling this is DEEN, so, uhyeah. We're probably in for a surprise or two with this one.
Phi Brain: Kami no Puzzle S3: Color me shocked, the antagonist isn't a pretty, white-haired boy this time but female? The fujoshis must be gouging their eyes out right now. Anyway, it's a decent kids anime that actually managed to get intense quite often instead of drowning me in badness and stupidity so I'm in for more.
Non Non Biyori: Cute girls living on the countryside. That's it. I think I almost yawned my way reading through the premise and if that's not a sign of it being yet another cursed healing anime then I don't know.
Galilei Donna: Oh, noitaminA. With an original anime, so hardly the block's strength. For what it's worth, this one actually looks half-interesting and the staff is said to be exceptionally talented. Other than that though, they have yet to sell me on it.
Samurai Flamenco: Yet another noitaminA original anime but this time, it's not targeted towards otaku but towards the fujoshi crowd. Once again, the staff's said to be promising and it does actually look half-interesting. Taking a look at the two promotional sentences and considering the fact that they have yet to "unmask" the writer though, I really hope Urobuchi won't be in charge of this. He always wanted to write a fujoshi show and taking into account how much noitaminA's producers wanted him to integrate fujoshi fanservice in P-Peh. Considering P-P was their most successful thing in quite a time, there are suspicions to be had. Several signs are pointing at him but I want to ignore them.
Magi S2: I dropped the first season after a few episodes because it was bad and I certainly didn't hear any more good things about it as it progressed. Also, Yoshino once again in charge of the script, that's so totally a no from me.
Strike the Blood: Half-interesting premise for a light novel adaptation and the protagonist seems to be unmotivated which is a good thing for those. Yes, that's all I have to say about this one.
Outbreak Company: Wins the award of the worst premise of the season, perhaps the entire year. If it's not satirical as heck - and it better be - I'll probably use this for future reference to point out what's wrong with this medium.
Tokyo Ravens: I think I've already seen a magazine scan of this and it looked neat. The premise doesn't sound all tooooo bad as well but light novels tend to ignore that anyway and do their own, not so pleasant thing.
Arpeggio of Blue Steel: Ars Nova: Ah, well. Cute girls being warships. Something I can get behind. From what I've heard, the manga's not all too bad and it doesn't seem to be your generic cute girls thing. It's also (the characters too) but that's less of a threat than one might think as SANZIGEN is very capable in regards to that. The first episode will certainly prove to be an interesting watch.
Hajime no Ippo S3: A friend of mine before watching it: "HAHAHA URE WATCHIN STOOPID SPORTS ANIME HOW LAME BUT LEMME WATCH IT ANYWAY TO TELL U HOW BAAAAAD IT IS!!"; And a few days later: "What, why are you twenty episodes behind me? What are you even doing, man?!".
That's the thing Ippo does to people. So yeah, sports anime #5 and easily the season's highlight.
Other things that might or might not make it onto the list: Space Dandy and season 2 of either Mushishi or Detroit Metal City. We'll see.
Which only leaves me with my final verdict. I think it's not a bad season. There are far less generic light novel atrocities or "cute girls not doing x but supposedly cute and comedic things instead!" shows around this time although yes, I do acknowledge those usually get announced later than other shows. Or at least that's the impression I've been getting so far. Several shows look outright fine and like they might be worth a try, noitaminA's back to being a wild card which might mean everything and nothing and if you're a fan of sports anime, then it's time for you to rejoice. Also, fucking Ippo. The saving graze should the rest fail miserably.
Full Post
No comments:
Post a Comment