Spring Season 2010 is quickly approaching so it’s time for my preliminary overview. As usual, I leave out all sequels and anime that aren’t worth mentioning in my book:
♦ Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei
Masaaki Yuasa (Kaiba, Kemonozume, Mind Game) finally gets another chance to show his talent, though this time it’s not an original project but based on a novel. The animation is produced by Madhouse and the character designer is once again Nobutake Ito who created absolutely lovely character models for “Youjou-han”, I’m sure they look just as great in motion. The script supervisor is a new face (at least in the anime industry), namely Makoto Ueda who has only written live-action films so far (such as the time-travel movie “Summer Time Machine Blues”). Overall, “Yojo-han Shinwa Taikei” seems to be the most promising series this season, I can’t wait to see Yuasa‘s imaginative directing again as well as the work of the countless talented artists he tends to work with. And since it airs in Fuji’s noitaminA slot it will hopefully get the recognition it deserves.
♦ Sarai-ya Goyou
The other noitaminA series of this season looks also extremely promising with veteran director Tomomi Mochizuki helming the project, Kazuto Nakazawa designing the characters and Studio Manglobe as animation producer. Furthermore, it’s based on a manga by Natsume Ono who is known for adult works like “Ristorante Paradiso” and “Not Simple”. While I think that it won’t have the same kind of creativity and exciting vision of Yuasa‘s new series, I still expect an interesting plot supported by moody direction and good animation.
♦ Senkou no Night Raid
In contrast to the first anime of the “Anime no Chikara” project (So-ra-no-wo-to), it seems like “Senkou no Night Raid” will do justice to the project’s concept of creating interesting and – above all – original anime. However, maybe A-1 Pictures deliberately chose a fan-pandering show like “So-ra-no-wo-to” for the beginning to compensate for possible losses of more risky endeavors? Who knows. In any case, this one seems like a show that has lots of potential, especially the novel setting (China in the 1930s) is something I’ve never seen before in anime. And also something I’ve never expected to see in anime since Japan’s role in East Asia during the pre-World War II period is a pretty delicate matter. I’m not too familiar with Jun Matsumoto work and don’t know what to expect on the directing side of things, but the nice character designs by Keigo Sasaki are definitely in its favor. And A-1 Pictures usually delivers solid quality so I guess it won’t fall flat production-wise.
♦ Angel Beats!
The premise doesn’t sound too exciting, I grant, but the involved people make me hope that “Angel Beats!” will be something worthwhile after all. Jun Maeda – who is undoubtedly a capable writer – is both the original creator and script supervisor, so I believe that the final outcome will be much better than the story description makes it sound. As far as the animation studio is concerned, I expect the same level of high quality as with P.A. Works‘ former anime. Or even better, since they obviously put even more effort into it. The character designs by Katsuzo Hirata are decent and move pretty well as evidenced by the trailer. Speaking of the PV, I really dig the music so I look forward to hearing more of it. Seiji Kishi helms the project, not the best choice but at least he has lots of experience with comedy.
♦ Rainbow – Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin
The story description sounds completely different from all the other stuff this season, which is of course a big plus. It seems to feature a fairly realistic and depressing setting with focus on the characters. I certainly can see some potential, the questions is if the staff is capable of making the best of it. I can’t say much about the director’s (Hiroshi Koujina) previous works, but I hope he knows how to handle this kind of material. And I guess Madhouse doesn’t put too much effort into this anime (as with most manga adaptions), meaning that the animation quality will probably be nothing to speak of.
♦ B Gata H Kei
I wasn’t particularly interested in this show until I heard that the team of Yusuke Yamamoto and Satoru Nishizono (Welcome to the NHK!) were going to be involved. Therefore, the result could be much better than one would expect due to the weird premise.
♦ Arakawa Under the Bridge
Finally, I get to see Yukihiro Miyamoto as series director again, and even on a series that isn’t “Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei”. He’s one of Shaft‘s best directors (right after Shinbou and Oonuma) and sure has some good sense for appealing staging, hence I hope to see him back in the episode director’s chair as well. In the case of “Maria Holic” it was the material that didn’t hold up very well, so let’s see what he and Shinbou can get out of a (seemingly) more interesting manga.
♦ HEROMAN
Well, it’s Bones animating a story by Stan Lee, so one could expect a nice change for once. However, truth be told, it doesn’t look too creative and seems to needlessly use all possible stereotypes, that’s why my expectations aren’t too high even if the production will apparently have the usual Bones quality.
♦ Kaichō wa Maid-sama!
Directed by Hiroaki Sakurai and produced by J.C. Staff. I don’t expect too much even though Sakurai is admittedly an experienced director.
♦ Working!
The first episode was nothing out of this world yet good enough to watch some more of it.
♦ Mayoi Neko Overrun!
I’m not too enthusiastic about this one, but since the director will reportedly change every episode, I suppose that there could be some decent work here and there. At least if AIC hired some talented directors for this project.
Ani no Miyako 
I was hoping for Heroman to be some semi-humoristic take on the mecha genre like Gainax did with Gurren Lagann. But looking at the trailer I just see a generic genre mash-up as well. Seems like they are aiming to have that show aired in the states in a regular children’s time slot without leaving a special impression among mecha fans. At least they could’ve made it embarrasingly wannabe-cool or something along the line to raise its entertaining trash factor.
I really appreciate Masaaki Yuasa’s oevres but I am a bit sceptical towards this new production. I grew tired of school related settings and it also makes me a bit sad that someone who created such a groundbreakingly original series like Kaiba needs to do school novel adaptations now. But that seems to be the countermeasure towards crisis: school novel/manga adaptations 😦
Don’t be too pessimistic about Yojo-han, we are talking about Yuasa after all. I’m sure that he wouldn’t direct such a series if he hadn’t any confidence in the source material. I guess it’s very likely that he himself chose the novel (maybe he likes it?). And in no way it’s going to be a typical school anime, just have a look at the trailer – full of Yuasa’s visual inventiveness and far from anything usually associated with generic school stuff (heck, or even anime in general). And besides, there aren’t too many anime depicting the life of an university student and even less with this kind of extraordinary approach.
I wouldn’t say that Yojo-han is some kind of countermeasure towards crisis as it’s obviously another very risky endeavor for Madhouse and something not many others could pull off these days. Anyhow, I’m very glad that Yuasa got the chance to create something meaningful yet again.
I think it’s not good if fancy visuals try to make up for a lackluster story. Kuchu Buranko for example tried so hard to look special but it all goes to waste if the plot has major weakpoints. In my opinion a visual style must be justified by the nature of the content, too.
If Yuasa really chose the novel by himself it must be great. But there’s also the possibility that Madhouse just wanted to be sure to have an already established fanbase from the novel.
Well, I don’t think that Madhouse would choose a not particularly well-known novel which was first published more than 5 years ago because of its fanbase, that’s why I’m pretty much sure that Yuasa chose the novel as he did back then with the Mind Game manga. I mean, if they really wanted to make profit, then they would adapt some recently popular bishoujo manga/eroge and not something the fewest otaku have ever heard of. Yojo-han airs in the noitaminA slot after all, so it’s aimed at a more general audience who don’t buy DVDs anyway. I believe that Madhouse just wants to give talented artist the chance to produce something meaningful, so we should be grateful that there’s still such a studio around.
Well, here we go! Spring 2010 has arrived and with it the possibilities of dashed high expectations and surprisingly raised-from-the-dead ones.
With the smattering of new releases now being aired, I’m looking forward to whittling down my “must-watch” list into somethng more manageable. If the first couple of offerings are any indication, it’ll be pretty easy LOL
Gone/dropped already are Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou; the blatant fanservice making it an easy first victim. I’m not against fanservice per se, but unnecessary upskirts and panty shots just make me feel pandered to and manipulated. B Gata H Kei ditto for the inane premise; I doubt that any redeeming subplots or twists will surface in it. IkkiTousen… I’ve already learned my lesson 😛
Medium-expectation shows are RAINBOW (etc), Working! (1st ep was decent enough), Kaichou wa Maid-sama! (seems harmless), Hakouki, and K-ON! S2 (where at least I know what I’ll be getting)…
High expectation shows: Senko no Night Raid, Yojo-Han, Arakawa, House of Five Leaves, Angel Beats! (as a rabid Jun Maeda-Key/Visual Arts fanboi), and Uragiri wa Boku nifktuednvhhwui- AGH when will they begin shortening these damn names!!!!!!
I feel satisfied if I can have around eight series a season to track; I expect to reach that number easily this Spring. That number, plus the remaining ongoing Winter shows should fill my anime-plate jjust nicely 🙂
Thanks for dropping by.
I didn’t bother with ‘Ichiban Ushiro no Dai Maou’ as it’s definitely the kind of cookie-cutter stuff that has been done way better before. I watched the first episode of B Gata H Kei, though. Despite being certainly nothing special at all, it was, nevertheless, somewhat watchable and had its fun moments. Maybe I’ll check out the second episode as well.
Oh, and be prepared for a somewhat different viewing experience when watching Masaaki Yuasa’s Yojo-han. I guess you haven’t watched any of his anime yet? They may be a bit off-putting at first as most anime fans are used to unity in their anime and dislike any divergence from the popular cookie-cutter designs, but that kind of mindset limits the possibilities of expression in animation. If you want to see what imaginative things Yuasa can do with a very loose approach to both designs and animation, then check out his masterpiece “Mind Game”. And it’s not only a great movie on the production side of things, the narratives rank among the best as well.
As for Angel Beats!: I wasn’t particularly fond of its first episode, but I have confidence in Maeda’s skills as writer so I’m willing to give it a few more episodes to develop.