Autumn 2008

Edit: Casshern Sins, ef, and Rosario+Vampire

And now the actual owner of this blog shall give his view on this season's new anime series. And I don't understand why people call it fall, doesnt autumn sound so much nicer? Brings about the images of leaves falling and golden maple leaves and such. But then again, fall literally brings about images of leaves falling, so ya.

Firstly, WHY ARE THERE AROUND 37 NEW ANIME SERIES?!?!? And that's not taking into account ongoing series, e.g. soul eater, shounen (bleach, naruto), etc. But mainly that's because many anime series ended - Macross F (not that i watched it), Code Geass (spoiler: Spike and Akiko dies), D.gray-man (zomg finally ended only after 103 episodes).

Okay, so now that the introduction is complete. There are 11 series that I shall be following because it is a must-watch, 4 more that I should be watching if i get the chance to, and like 10 that i should be watching the first epi just to see how good/bad it is. Then i'll just mention the rest.

Warning: Slight spoilers ahead, read on at your own risk.

1.To Aru Majutsu no Index
Watched epi 1. Power levels are awesome, though sadly there's no one over 9000... Index is moe, main guy character's hair is wayy too spikey, shocking girl is shocking, and nice build-up for episode 2. So far the best of the 11 shows that I've actually watched one epi of.

2. Toradora!
I somehow like this show alot, but then again, i'm a sucker for romantic comedies. Other people think it's the generic kind of show, with the standard tsun, and i can't really deny it, but i still like it lol. Maybe it's the kugyuu power.

3. Tales of the Abyss
Looking at the characters remind me of a certain time period a while ago where tota figurines were the craze among a certain group of friends. I STILL HAVE ANISE. and luke, for that matter. Well, the first epi makes luke out to be some random spoilt brat, whose sole purpose in life is to spar with his sensei~. And tear is overpowered. Well, it just shows that aoe spells are highly effective when infiltrating a castle, and clearly there is a relationship between what social class you are from and your resistance to aoe sleeping spells. Well, moe "C.C" tear carried the show, so its quite high on my to-watch list. And it's the only series so far with ep 2 already out subbed. And I know tota is all nice and everyone loves it, BUT WHY ARE THERE 9 DIFFERENT SUBS OUT?!?!

4. Clannad After Story
Clannad. Enough said. Must watch. Tomo-pyon~

5. Akane Iro ni Somaru Saka
Kugyuu and Hirano Aya. What more can one ask for from an anime adaptation of a game? Well the main char's reputation seems like toradora's main char's one, but for different reasons altogether. And the grey haired girl is quite cute. Anyone else wondering how the president's hair will look like in real life?

6. Kuroshitsuji
Heard alot about it before actually watching the show, and it seems to be another hayate the combat butler, but with different animation style this time. The animation style kinda reminds me of a certain other series, but i just can't seem to figure out which one it is. Well, from what i heard, i was preparing for shota yaoi undertones in the first epi, but none really came out. Phew. Generally an interesting series I guess, doesnt hurt to follow.

7. Casshern Sins
The least rated (by me of course) of the top 11 anime shows this season, that I've watched the first epi of. It was supposedly quite "solid" and "good", according to a few friends, but i guess it turned out to be overrated. I was expecting maybe more awesome action scenes, and less overpowered protagonist, but then again maybe this isnt those type of shows. Also, I think it's because of the less-than-ideal setting at which i watched the show, which made the dark scenes quite hard to make out what is happening. So main things i dislike from this show's first epi - boring, overpowered, too dark to make out anything (but it's probably my fault for this), irritating dialoge after awhile (casshern, casshern, casshern CASSHERN x100). O wells, will follow just because it's on animania and because it's suppose to be better later on.

Hrmm I rewatched Casshern Sins on computer, and the contrast is much better. I can actually make out what is happening! Zomg. Bad TV contrast is bad. But still, that doesn't solve the problem of it being somewhat boring...

8. Linebarrels of Iron
Hard to say anything on this one, just that the production crew and voice actors/actresses are top-rated. Don't know how I'm gonna watch this though, hard to find it. I don't really have that much against gonzo, unlike 95% of the herd mentality anime community out there. They did tower of druaga just fine thank you. So, this will be an interesting pick. 1 of 4 shows from top 11 that i havent watched 1 epi of.

9. Vampire Knight Guilty
YESSS vampire knight again. Though vampire knight is meant to be a shoujo manga i think, with all the pretty boys and stuff. The concept is quite fun, vampires and different powers, the standard interesting set-up. I don't know why, but shows of characters each with a different special power is almost always fun to watch, including 300+ epis of shounen anime i think, but havent watched any of those so can't say much on the matter. This series has a really fast sequel, unlike tower of druaga *cough cough June/July 2009 cough cough*, or haruhi. Well, I havent watched epi 1, hope it turns out fine, after the shocking (err... quite shocking, but slightly predictable too) ending of season 1. Not many people i know are gonna follow this, mainly cause no one bothered to watch season 1, o well sucks to them.

10. ef - a tale of melodies
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS~SHAFT~SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. ef is awesome. But i heard it's gonna focus more on side characters, and less of Kei Shindou. Dammit. <3 Kei. And the song for the game OP was also damn good.

Watched the first epi. It was abit blur at certain points, especially the beginning, so i'm finding alternative sources and seeing if it's a problem during encoding (?) or with the raw itself. Anyways, this is sooo good that it has gone up to be number 1 in the to-watch list. The funky visuals never loses its appeal, and new gal character is awesome... But WHERE IS MY KEI?!?!

11. Chaos;Head
Don't know anything about this, but heard its really really good, so must watch lol. Maybe i'll post my thoughts and comments on this series when i've watched it.

And I'm too tired to write anything on the rest, so i'll just list them out.

12. Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae
Sequel must watch. Though i dont think i've watched season 2.

13. Skip Beat!
Pinku Shoujo manga wtf?

14. Mouryou no Hako
Screenshot looks awesome.

15. Hokuto no GAR Ken Roah Gaiden - Ten no Haoh
Infinite loop in arcade game is lol.

and that was the next 4, the rest are just random hit or miss shows, listed in no order of importance, its the order of date released.

16. Hakushaku to Yousei
Medieval

17. Hyakko
Slice of Life

18. Shikabane Hime Aka
Gainax

19. Yozakura Quartet
Superpower awesome...

20. GA-REI -zero-
Ghostbusters, now in anime-form!

21. Macademi Wasshoi!
Err... Roris?

22. Kyou no 5 no 2
Slice of Life apparently.

23. Kurozuka
Gar(?) Samurai

24. Tytania
Space. Lol?

25. Kemeko-DX
Rori number 2. I heard.

Okay, you'll never hear from me again, i'll be too busy trying to follow 98135789167 anime series. including backlog. GG.

P.S. Stuff I missed:

1. Gundam 00 Second Season
Imma not a gundam fan, and didnt watched first season, so too bad I'll have to miss this out. It's apparently one of the really really REALLY must watch shows this season, similar to code geass and stuff. O well, i shall forgo mechas for 2d girls. Yea.

2. Kannagi
I watched first epi of this, and it's crap. Maybe I'm expecting too much from this show, but ya the first epi was just boring throughout, and the girl isnt even moe enough for my liking. Though the OP is quite awesome, I would recommend it to anyone who loved the Seikan Hikou vid.

3. Rosario+Vampire CAPU2
I attempted to watch season 1, and ended up at.... epi.... 6? Dunno, it was so long ago. I actually record what i've watched of everything, but it's somewhere in my hdd and i'm lazy to hook it up so ya. I heard the producers actually used feedback productively and made a less fail anime. This is a must watch to anyone who hasnt seen bats being placed at very specific locations in an anime setting before. lol bats.

Though I didn't even complete season 1, i just started watching first epi for fun. New orange haired girl is introduced zomg. And i finally saw mizore in action, damn she is awesome. She's cool, in more ways than one lol. And purple-ness is nice. And she's a stalker o_O.