A Look At Summer Season 09

Author: nova

She can be surprisingly observant at times.

It feels like only yesterday when the spring season started and now it’s coming to an end already. It sure is funny how time flies when you’re actually working for your living. I sure miss the times leeching on the tax money and pretending to go to school. But that’s another story. Before I will push out the season end overview, it’s time to once again have a good look at things to come. Since I don’t have the royal time to watch every damn thing airing out there, I have composed a list of series that have somehow gained my attention over the rest.

Bakemonogatari (SHAFT)

Description (AniDB):
Bakemonogatari centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjougahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi’s arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. After being threatened by her, Koyomi offers her help, and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire.

In each chapter of the series, he encounters a different heroine, each involved with a different “apparition”. The events of the previous chapters play an important role in the subsequent ones. The series primarily focuses on conversations between characters; it contains a fair number of parodies of other series, as well as Nisio Isin’s trademark wordplay and metahumor.

Personal thoughts:
Parodies? Wordplay? Metahumor? Sounds like a job for SHAFT! The setting of Bakemonogatari sounds interesting but I sure can’t shake the nasty feeling that there’s something similar here to a certain magical trainwreck. I’m quite positive it’ll turn out fine though, as Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei and Natsu no Arashi have well proved SHAFT’s ability in making adaptations. Yes, Bakemonogatari anime is an adaptation of a series of light novels under the same title, written by Nishio Ishin. I’m quite light-novel impaired so that doesn’t say much to me but I’m sure novelfags out there are more than willing to have their say on the matter sooner or later.

CANAAN (PA Works)

Description (Unknown source):
A present-day story about a detective, a young man, a virus researcher, a freelance writer, and a cat mascot character who are brought together by bizarre events with worldwide implications in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya.

Personal thoughts:
Adapted from a mystery visual novel, that’s all I really know. Might make a good match with Umineko and has Sawashiro Miyuki, so I’m in. Kara no Kyokai Lite? Sounds about right.

Cobra: Rokunin no Yuushi (Madhouse)

Description (Unknown source):
Cobra is a well known space pirate, but decides to change his face and clear all his memories. He becomes a common man with a common job and a boring life, but he starts remembering his true identity and begins new adventures.

Personal thoughts:
Talk about timing! The Elitist Bastards-panel at Desucon mentioned the original Cobra anime as something well worth watching and whaddya know, now there’s a new Cobra series coming from Madhouse. I was intending to dig up the original series just to see if the bastards were as elite as they claimed, but this sure has saved me some trouble.

Taishou Yakyuu no Musume (JC Staff)

Description (Unknown source):
Set in 1925, the story follows Koume and Akiki who decide to create a baseball team, in a Japan where not many teams exist. To reach their goal, they have to recruit more players and learn the basics of baseball.

Personal thoughts:
Is this JC Staff’s response to KyoAni’s K-ON! and GONZO’s Saki? Surely enough the past season has been dominated by club-themed high school girl moe, due to which JC Staff’s decent but more serious Hatsukoi Limited didn’t catch that much attention. So I guess now the studio has brought all guns to bear. In any case, I’m trying to keep the habit of having at least one series from each of the major studios on my watchlist and TYnM looks like a good candidate as far as JC Staff is concerned.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (BONES / Kinema Citrus)

Description (AniDB):
The premise of the story is the 70% or higher possibility that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake will occur in Tokyo in the next 30 years. The story depicts what would happen if a 8.0 earthquake tooks place.

The story will center on Mirai, a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo’s artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yutaka at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant. With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yutaka strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.

Personal thoughts:
I have always loved disaster and survival themes, thus Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is definitely one of my main highlights. Might even blog this.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (Studio DEEN)

Description (AniDB):
Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima (???, Rokkenjima). The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo’s assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo’s servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered.

Personal thoughts:
And Then There Were None done the Jap way, an anime adaptation of a mystery visual novel series by 07th Expansion. Since a whole bunch of manga has already been published of the franchise, an anime adaptation was only a question of time. A spiritual successor to Higurashi no Naku Koro ni that I loved so very much, Umineko will most likely feature the same menacing atmosphere and a funny-speaking loli with some weird and nasty things about her.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei (SHAFT)

Description:
The madness, despair, sharp satire and pitch-black humor continues as the world’s most negative teacher Itoshiki Nozomu and his class of unique personalities get another season of anime.

Personal thoughts:
In my case Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei was love at first sight. I’ve skimmed through two seasons and a couple OVAs of its grim humor and I’m definitely up for more. Keep it coming SHAFT.

That’s all for now, I’m amazed I could write up this much considering how beat I’ve been lately due to work. But I guess you have to pick either physical or mental stress and I’d rather have the former. To my fellow Finfags I wish merry Midsummer and congratulate you all on the feat you pulled on Drawball (old shit, yeah, but it’s not every day I see channel four getting a run for their buck).

Like winning in the lottery indeed!
I’m sure Mugi agrees.