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Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting for the Summer) Inu x Boku SS Highschool DxDLagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne-Bodacious Space Pirates (Moretsu Pirates)NisemonogatariPoyopoyoAnotherBrave 10Listen to Me, Girls! I'm Your Father!

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting for the Summer)

Cribbing heavily from Onegai Sensei and (apparently) AnoHana comes AnoNatsu, which begins with a spaceship landing on the head of our lead male and killing him. At least this time the resurrection process doesn't involve a gender swap...

Inu x Boku SS

Secret Service agents who seem more like butlers, demons, half-demons, and a bit of a war going on between the two. I certainly wasn't expecting that when I started watching this one...

Highschool DxD

Hopeless pervert high school boy is killed on his first date, when his girlfriend turns out to be a fallen angel, and is resurrected to serve the school demon. It is better than it sounds, surprisingly...

Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne-

Madoka's been hauled into an interstellar conflict, thank to her latent ability to pilot an Ovid - a mech with which she's uniquely bonded. Which is a revelation that could ruin most people's day - but not Madoka, who's far too genki for her own good...

Bodacious Space Pirates (Moretsu Pirates)

The name "Bodacious Space Pirates" paints a picture of something that could go epically wrong - but coming from the director of Nadesico, it's so far managing to avoid any real pitfalls...

Nisemonogatari

Since Bakemonogatari bowled me over, it shouldn't be any surprise that this is right at the top of my "most anticipated shows" list for the season. And it doesn't disappoint.

Poyopoyo

Akitaro Daichi returns after what seems to have been a rather long absence with a series of 3-minutes shorts about a very fat cat. Funnier than it sounds, trust me...

Another

In the name of all that is holy, stop letting Ali Project do anime themes. Please. Their screeching aside, Another seems to be an intriguing addition to the series, although with this first episode it's not giving much away,,,

Brave 10

Back to the feudal age for another story based on the adventures of Sanada Yukimura and his contemporaries - which would normally be enough for me to switch off right there. This interpretation isn't entirely without charm, though...

Listen to Me, Girls! I'm Your Father!

Actually, no, Yuuta Segawa is the uncle in this one, which is pitched as a "family romantic comedy". But let's not let details like that bother us. As long as the romance doesn't turn out to be a romance between Yuuta and his 14-year-old, not-blood-related, Yuuta-obsessed niece...

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Hidamari Sketch

Digital
Written by maehara
Friday, 27 January 2012 00:00
Tweet The idea behind Hidamari Sketch is simple enough - cute girls doing cute things, with not a hell of a lot of plot to get in the way. Which sounds like just the sort of thing to unwind to, but somehow it just didn't grab me... Add a comment
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Fruits Basket

R2 DVD Reviews
Written by maehara
Thursday, 26 January 2012 02:00
Tweet Picture the scene: you've recently been orphaned, your extended family doesn't want to take you in, and you're left with a choice between living in a tent, or with a family with a rather unusual curse. What do you do? If you're Tohru Honda, you choose the family with the curse - which of course brings some unexpected changes to her life, as she comes to term with the good and bad of the Sohma family... Add a comment
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Lagrange -The Flower of Rin-ne- - First Thoughts

Meanderings
Written by maehara
Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:37
Tweet When Madoka Kyono returns to the beach after rescuing a girl from drowning, she finds her school uniform missing. It's later returned to her by a strange girl who she runs into several more times over the coming days. Her name is Lan, and she eventually asks Madoka to pilot a robotic aircraft known as an Ovid at an offshore base. As Madoka touches the Ovid and experiences a flashback of sorts, an enemy Ovid from outer space appears and attacks the base, forcing Lan to reveal her true identity: she's an alien sent to protect Madoka and the Ovid. Here's something unusual: "Chief Director" on Lagrange, Tatsuo Sato (of Nadesico fame), is also Director on Bodacious Space Pirates. Quite what the difference between 'Director' and 'Chief Director' is, I'm not sure (Toshimasa Suzuki is credited as Lagrange's director), but Sato's dual roles gives an interesting point for comparison: Bodacious Space Pirates has spent its first three episodes slowly and carefully developing its cast and world; Lagrange takes the opposite approach of dropping its heroine straight into the shit, armed with an instinctive knowledge of everything she needs to know, and lets you work the rest out yourself. Both approaches have their fans - BSP's world-building seems to bore as many people as it impresses, while Lagrange's approach drops you straight into the action but with questions unanswered left, right and centre, and mileage seems to vary widely on which is the "best". It's an unfair comparison, though, as they're not quite the same beasts. Lagrange is going for a quick action fix with a limited amount of fanservice (what other purpose could Lan's "Wan" serve?), without the need to go into a lot of depth, and I suspect the truth behind the ability of Madoka and her comrades to instinctively pilot the Ovids will come out eventually anyway. There's a certain air of the mysterious about the Ovids and Lan anyway, and explaining too much up-front would take away from that. THE GOOD: Visually attractive, upbeat, fast-paced. It's all very positive to start with (in feel-good terms, rather than quality). Although when a lead character is called Madoka these days, I worry what they're about to put her through. THE BAD: Madoka's genkiness is overbearing, Lan's reticence is old, everything just seems to be a bit too convenient. It's not what you could call top-class storytelling. A lot of things still out for the jury to decide on, then, but I did find myself enjoying Lagrange. I do hope it starts to fill in the blanks sooner rather than later, though... Add a comment

Highschool DxD - First Thoughts

Meanderings
Written by maehara
Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:12
Tweet Issei Hyodo's high-school life hasn't been quite what he'd hoped: he'd enrolled in a formerly all-girls academy in the hope of forming a little harem around himself, but nearly 2 years later he's still depressingly single. But good fortune arrive in the form of Amano Yuma, who's been watching him from afar and wants to be his girlfriend - but, on their first date, she turns into a devil and stabs him in the stomach. Luckily, he's saved by flame-haired Rias Gremory, the buxom president of the school's Occult Research Club. Which is when things really start to get weird... Right. Off the bat: I was expecting to hate this, as the pre-season "hype" for it was not good. It's publicity also rubbed me up the wrong way, with talk of "normal, perverted boy" and "formerly all-girls school" invoking epic eyeroll before I ever got to see it. And then Funico picked it up for simulcast, honour demanded I at least check it out, and, y'know, it really isn't all that bad. With certain provisos. Explanation. I was talking about fanservice on Twitter before I got to the series: specifically, how fanservice does not equal quality - but that fanservice can, occasionally, make up for quality. Highschool DxD falls firmly into that category. There is a story here that could even come into play in a big way - the three-way war between devils, fallen angels, and angels of the more heavenly variety, and how Issei's "Sacred Gear" could have an effect on that - but for now, it's all about the t&a. Which is fine - it's done in a visually appealing way, and since I appreciate a good dose of gratuitous fanservice from time to time (and this is the only fanservice show that I've picked up so far this season), it works for me. I hope it'll kick into story mode before too long, because the setup for that is clearly there but, y'know: I'll probably stick with it anyway. THE GOOD: If you enjoy t&a shows, this should be right up your alley. It's heavy on the fanservice, but not in an entirely tasteless way. THE BAD: If you don't enjoy t&a shows, there's not much else here (so far) to give you any sort of reason to watch it. It's just a shame the Funico stream isn't the unedited version, but you can't have everything. In the "mindless fun" category, it's good enough to keep an eye on. Add a comment

Wagnaria'!! (Season 2)

Digital
Written by maehara
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 00:00
Tweet Dear Japan: Please come up with a better way of signifying second seasons than easily-missed punctuation marks. kthkbai. Wagnaria'!! (note the apostrophe, that's the important marker here) returns for another season of workplace based antics, and it seems that someone's rather keen to track down Yamada... Add a comment
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Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere

Digital
Written by maehara
Tuesday, 24 January 2012 11:57
Tweet Going into the autumn season, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere was probably one of my most anticipated new shows. Reliance on a backstory that the anime barely touched upon sadly leaves it a confusing mess, though... Add a comment
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