First Look into Spring 2010 – Watchlist of Many Wonders

Don’t worry, I’m not dead yet! I just have a month left to pull off my final thesis and a bunch of shit I could’ve done semesters ago, but I didn’t. But since there’s only a couple weeks left of the winter 2010 season, I decided it was about time to have a look at what spring has to offer. Now it may be just me but it feels like there’s an increase in weird and just unorthodox series. Maybe that’s the next industry fad after moe, or at least so I would hope. But on with the topic, here are the candidates.

Angel Beats (PA Works)

Angel Beats is about a war against God in a school where dead people go, located in between Heaven and Hell as sort of a purgatory. A poor bastard called Otonashi joins in and gets involved in a fight between two factions within the school: an organization called SSS dedicated to fight against God and the student council charged with keeping the students in line. Sounds like some fucktarded mix of Baka to Test and Haibane Renmei but hurr durr, it’s Key. Also, Otonashi is voiced by Kamiya Hiroshi, so I expect him to be something more than just a faggot-ish harem lead.

I had sort of established that Key and KyoAni were pretty much inseparable butt pals, thus a show that has Key paired up with PA Works sure caught my eye. The change is quite evident from the numerous previews around Youtube. Whether that is for better or worse, remains to be seen – it’s hard to really judge the animation quality when the video is the size of a post stamp. However if I was to do that, I’d say it looks somewhat inferior to what I’ve seen KyoAni doing. That said, it doesn’t look all that bad either, but it’s too early to say. PA Works can do good if they want to – I still remember the excellent piece of teenage romance called True Tears (which is mentioned in one of the Angel Beats teasers, though it doesn’t have any of the same production crew). Interestingly the director is Kishi Seiji, whose resume mostly consists of comedy shows like Seto no Hanayome and Tentai Senshi Sunred. Knowing Key and considering the setting, Angel Beats is going to be a tough one to pull off, a dance on the edge of a knife between comedy and serious complicated shit. Knowing that I suppose a comedy-aligned director has a decent chance to master it and after Seto no Hanayome I have strong confidence in Kishi’s skill. Series composition is personally handled by Maeda Jun, the man behind many of Key’s acclaimed visual novels. Interestingly this is the first time Maeda himself is doing the composition – for AIR, Clannad and Kanon anime adaptations (all of which are based on VNs written by Maeda) KyoAni used Shimo Fumihiko. All this sounds very good as far as the storyline of Angel Beats is concerned. I’m mostly worried about the technical prowess of PA Works – they may not be able or willing to match KyoAni, but I really hope they won’t take that to heart and settle with doing a half-assed job.

Arakawa under the Bridge (SHAFT)

It’s about a successful businessman and a girl who thinks she’s a martian. Both somehow end up living under the same bridge. That’s pretty much all I could dig up about this show but it’s more than enough to warrant it a place on my list. A show like this just can’t not be awesome and SHAFT being in charge means that it’s going to be one trippy bag of chips.

House of Five Leaves (Manglobe)

One of the more interesting titles in addition to Arakawa, this one’s about a skilled swordsman Akitsu who due to his timid and naive personality gets fired time and time again. Desperate for a job, he is hired by a man named Yaichi as a bodyguard. Soon Yaichi turns out to be the leader of a gang of bandits called Five Leaves. Akitsu is reluctant to work for such a shady organization but is soon fascinated by the eccentric personalities of his new companions.

Sounds extremely interesting and I’ve learned to associate Manglobe with decent titles (Ergo Proxy, Michiko to Hatchin, Samurai Champloo). It’s also being directed and composed by Mochizuki Tomomi who did an awesome job with Zettai Shounen, and many of the other crew members were involved in producing Samurai Champloo. In the technical sense it looks all good, and the show’s people-centered approach is fascinating. Durarara!! in medieval Japan? Looking forward to it.

Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou (Artland)

Akuto Sai is admitted to Constant Magical Academy and aims to become a great magician to contribute to society. However, an aptitude test predicts his future occupation likely to be a Devil King, making him both feared and loved by his fellow students. In more ways than one it seems.

It’s not like I picked this because it sounds good. Quite on the contrary really and it doesn’t look that good in the technical department either. But hey, what would be a season without at least one no-brainer show?

K-ON!! (KyoAni)

Talk about no-brainers…I don’t think there’s much need for introductions here. KyoAni’s moe schoolgirl 4koma adaptation continues on to a second season. It’s like Hidamari Sketch really, if you’ve seen the first one, you already know whether you love or hate the continuation.

Senko no Night Raid (A-1 Pictures)

Now now, I sure didn’t expect to see a WWI-WWII-period series by Japs. Like almost all other former Axis powers, Japanese are quite silent about that period in history, in a desperate attempt to sweep it under the carpet and sit on it thinking it never happened. As such, I’m really surprised to see a show about that particular era. It makes Japs at least better than Germans who are still nose-deep in pretending that nothing happened. If you’re German, you weren’t supposed to read this. Sorry. Anyway, I didn’t find all that much info about this show other than what Chartfag had to say. It looks like it’s mainly about a spy organization called Sakura Kikan working for the Imperial Japanese Army in mainland China during the World War period. A-1 Pictures has the helm and it looks like a pretty big project, so I have high expectations for this one.

Working!! (A-1 Pictures)

A-1 continues in the field of cute girls and slice of life with amusingly named Working!!, this time going with a restaurant-setting. Takanashi Souta works part-time in a restaurant and has a bunch of weirdos as coworkers. Hilarity ensues, derp. Ristorante Paradiso for moefags? Mmmaybe.

Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei (Madhouse)

Another unusual-looking title, Yojo-han is a flashback-show about the early college days of an unnamed protagonist. This totally hits the spot as I’ve been going through a nostalgia-period myself recently, being on the verge of graduation. Interestingly it has Sakamoto Maaya in one of the lead roles. Looks like an interesting watch.

And that concludes the Spring season for me. But Noba, you say, there’s (insert any other than aforementioned title here)! You should totally watch it! Sorry kids, but I’m not fap-depraved, white trash, blind, gay, sportsfag or a manchild enough for this shit. Blame the fucker who told me to watch Seikon no Qwaser, that shit bored me to tears. Until next time!