Well, after trying out some new things with the season preview format, I have come to the conclusion that I should just leave that shit to the pros and go the lazy route. Judge everything solely by the chart, only focus on what I want to see, and nothing else. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I did do some actual research on the anime beforehand, unlike some people who I won’t name. Still, I can’t say the research has done much to clear up my initial impressions when I first took a look at the chart.
The Flower of Evil
Holy shit. This manga is getting an anime adaptation? I am hyped. I am fucking hyped for this one. For those who don’t know, The Flower of Evil is…um…fucked up. It’s about this kid who basically gets enslaved by another girl because she’s a fucking psychopath. And no, it’s not one of those “comedic” master-slave relationships like Zero No Tsukaima. The shit the girl puts the boy through is nasty. And I mean nasty. Basically, it’s a more fucked up version of the Yuki-Yuno relationship in Future Diary. I was originally disappointed when I heard Zexcs was the studio behind this, but they got the director of Mushishi and Detroit Metal City to do the thing, plus Zexcs has been on my good side lately with Cuticle Detective Inaba. There’s no way in hell I’m not watching this.
Devil Survivor 2
I haven’t finished the game, despite owning it for a year or so, so I can’t say for certain how Devil Survivor 2′s story unfolds. With that said, I’m definitely interested in seeing it in animated form. Yeah it’s Seiji Kishi directing this, which means a bunch of comedic moments that either work to the show’s advantage or don’t. But I really did enjoy the Persona 4 anime, so who knows? Anyways, for those who don’t know, Devil Survivor 2 is about a bunch of high school students who discover a website that foretells people’s deaths…right before they nearly die themselves. Managing to cheat death, they suddenly get attacked by demons and discover that Japan has become overrun by them. By capturing these demons and teaming up with other people who can use them, they do their best to survive whilst figuring out what’s going on. It’s definitely something I’m going to check out, though I’m wary of Seiji Kishi’s out-of-place comedic moments entreating the fray.
Yondemasuyo Azazel-san S2
Fuck yeah I want more Azazel-san. Screw Girls Und Panzer, for this is Mizushima’s best anime hands down. The first season was some of the funniest shit (sorry) I ever saw to the point that it made my top 50 list. It’s shameless toilet humor that actually knows how to use the material effectively and its 13 minute-episodes meant that the episode almost always ended on a high note without any padding whatsoever. With that said, I’m well aware the second season could bomb due to the jokes not being as fresh as before. Still, I have hope. High hopes.
Attack on Titan
I never heard of the original manga before, so seeing this thing hyped to hell made me curious. So I looked into it a bit and discovered that it’s a story about a dying human race who are being hunted by giant monsters called Titans. Wait a minute, doesn’t that sound similar to the synopsis for Devil Survivor 2? Well, I don’t think the main character and his sister will be capturing Titans, so it’s pretty much just me stretching. Anyways, what I read of the manga didn’t excite me too much, but that’s mostly because action in manga doesn’t work on me anymore. The promo material looks great, I’ll admit, but I could say the same thing about K. Then again, I’m one of the few people who likes K, so yeah I’m good for this.
Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet
Another Production I.G. anime written by Butch Gen, huh? I really liked Psycho-Pass and whilst I’m not the biggest fun of Urobuchi’s style of writing, it’s always worth checking out an original anime, especially when it’s made by Production I.G. Anyways, the promo material makes it look like a typical teenage mecha show, which I’d like to see Urobuchi tackle. Hopefully, it’s more Psycho-Pass than Fate/Zero though, because otherwise I’m going to have to wait for an English dub. But yes, I do want to see this. Teenage mecha ain’t exactly my thing, but give me a lot of death and blood rather than the genericness that is Gurren Lagann, and maybe you’ll capture my interest. Anyways, the premise of the show is that a young soldier accidentally ends up on Earth during a battle and must learn to live a life of peace that contrasts with his years of fighting. Sounds kind of like Full Metal Panic, doesn’t it?
Everything Else
And…that’s about all I can give a good description on. Everything else I’ll give a shot, but I doubt they’ll do much to grab me. Here’s a few notes on the stuff that has my attention somewhat, but I can’t type out a full paragraph for them.
Crime Edge has a cool name, but it has the director of Fate/Stay Night involved. Whilst I don’t like Type-Moon in general, that anime’s problem had more to do with the abysmal directing rather than the actual content, and looking at his resume, he’s pretty terrible (only thing that looks good on his resume is that Yami-something yuri show that’s supposed to be really crazy). I did take a look at the manga and it looked like another Shana clone to me, except with hair-cutting, but we’ll see.
Despite never seeing the first season, I might check out OreImo just to see what all the fuss is about. I might also go back to Katangatari to see if it gets good, but that first episode was just so bad, so no guarantees.
Karneval is Manglobe, which is a studio whose only good work in my biased opinion is Samurai Champloo and maybe Michiko to Hatchin and House of Five Leaves. Everything else they’ve done has been terrible. I heard the Unlimited was alright, but I couldn’t make it past the first episode due to how awful it was. It’s also a shoujo, which rarely works for me.
Railgun and Hayate…yeah I don’t have much faith in those.
Red Data Girl has a premise that is way too vague for me to decipher. The only thing that interests me is that it’s PA Works and the director of Book of Bantorra is on it. I still haven’t seen Bantorra, but I heard it was really good.
Photo Kano is Madhouse doing a harem anime. Why Madhouse? Why?!
The only other series that catches my fancy is that original Sunrise mecha anime. Most of them like King Gainer and Sacred Seven have been pretty terrible though, and I doubt this anime will change things. Even Code Geass doesn’t hold up as well as it used to in my eyes, although I still like it.
Anything else? Well, if you were really probing me, there’s also that anime from Satelight that was originally written by the Fushigi Yuugi writer. Apparently it’s about some kid who gets transported from the past into modern-day Japan. Not the greatest premise, but it can work I guess. There’s also that Yamato anime. Never seen Yamato in my life, but I’m open to giving it a shot, as apparently you don’t need to see the other Yamato anime to enjoy it.
And as for whether I’ll check out that MS Gundam Seed Destiny thing, that would require me to care about Gundam.
Oh yeah, there are movies. But those have a really bad release schedule, so I’m not going to bother commenting on them. All I can say is that I will see the Code Geass one, Higurashi looks kind of fun, Aura has a cool poster, Detective Conan is Detective Conan, and despite never having finished the series, I’ll check out the Hanasaku Iroha movie when it gets subbed.
And that’s about all I can say regarding the Spring 2013 season. I’m all for getting surprised by something and I’m sure I’ll be watching more shit from this season than the Winter season, which was abysmal, but we’ll see, won’t we?
FK YA MORE FREAKING RAILGUN! HYPE HYPE HYPE HYPE…err I mean I can’t wait, but damn I am so happy because look at all the lovely GIANT robot anime! There is roughly what five mecha themed anime for the spring and besides the robots beating the crap out of each other I am looking forward to Attack on Titan, Hentai Prince and probably Samurai Girls s2 for my “mindless” needs xD
Attack of the Titian may prove to be promising hopefully it doesn’t turn out to so disjointed like Tetsuro Araki’s last big title Guilty Crown. It will have a ton of fluid animation and a great musical score to back up all the insane amounts of gore that the series will be dishing up in ten fold if it turns out like its manga counterpart. Have you seen Birdy the mighty decode or Corpse princess?
No I haven’t seen those. As for Attack on Titan, it’s based on previous source material, so hopefully it’s much better than Guilty Frown.
In Araki’s defence, that was the project he was stuck with after making the move from Madhouse to I.G. Not to mention the fact that Hiroyuki Yoshino wrote the script, so it never really stood a chance.
As long as Araki puts his Madhouse origins to use, Shingeki no Kyojin could end up as one of the best series this year. The manga is one of best ongoing titles currently out there, in my opinion, and the series composition is being handled by the same person who did JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure and Claymore.
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