Ah, summertime. That special time of year when the great outdoors become a hellish wasteland of skin cancer inducing sunlight and humidity levels so high you have to sort of wade around rather than walk. In short, it's horrible, and the only way to survive the experience is to sit inside in the air-conditioning and watch Japanese cartoons. Will this summer's crop help you pass the time or drive you screaming outside where certain doom awaits? Let's find out!
As ever, I'm using the Fansub Wiki listing of shows that are coming out this summer, where you can also find their respective air and release dates. So, if you want to know when any given show is coming out, there ya go.
Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari Episodes 4 and 5 - Hey, remember that Tenchi spin-off OVA series no one really cares about? Well, there's more of it out there if you're interested, which you aren't. So! Moving right along...
Kawa no Hikari - Based on a children's novel, this TV special is the presumably heartwarming story of a group of mice who are forced out of their home due to construction and go off in search of a new place to live. It sounds like a cross between Pon Poko and The Secret of N.I.M.H., except lame. Eh.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ - I'm kinda torn here. The director is the same guy who directed Kaleido Star and Princess Tutu and one of the screenwriters also worked on Kaleido Star. On the other hand, everyone else involved have worked on shows that are generally pretty dull and the character designs are kinda loli, so I dunno what to think. As for the show itself, it's about a couple of mermaids who meet a schoolgirl. It could go either way, really.
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! - More of the show about the office lady from another dimension who comes here to help bring zany hijinx to the downtrodden. When I first heard of this in the spring I thought it might be a fun sort of comedy, but now I'm getting the feeling that it's probably just crap.
Ukkari Pénélope 2nd Series - Based on the children's books by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben, Penelope is apparently a koala bear (I had to look her up) who has various adventures that will greatly appeal to the preschool set.
Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - I was more excited about this murder mystery anime (set inexplicably in the year 1986, unless it's just to ensure no one has a cell phone) until I learned that it was based on a doujin game by the Higurashi guy. On the other hand, the character designs are (with one invitable exception) not of the hyper-loli variety, so perhaps there's hope for this after all; the main problem I had with Higurashi was that all the little girls were so damn creepy. The Higurashi director is back for the occasion, so if you liked that, you'll probably like this.
Aoi Hana - Hot yuri action the way you like it! Or something. When a geeky glasses girl (mmmmmm, megane-ko) enters high school depressed from her last breakup, she re-connects with an old friend who is just starting at another local high school. Cue friendship and, hopefully, hot yuri action, even if only in doujinshi. Oh, and it's from the director of Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabille, so I'm totally there.
Needless - Holy shit, will you look at that! I don't even think I need to say anything else; something like this really speaks for itself. Okay, okay, so it's about how after World War III some folks get superpowers and proceed to beat each other up. It looks awesomely retarded and hopefully the staff (who didn't excite me, but who aren't awful or anything) let that complete stupidity shine through.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume - It's 1925 and two high school girls have decided to organize a baseball team. I'm sold. Oh, and it's from the guy who directed Genshiken! Granted, he hasn't directed anything else worth a damn, but that's okay. I'm still sold.
Bakemonogatari - Supernatural mystery of the week, featuring a guy who, if I read the incoherent ANN description correctly, is back to being human after a brief stint as a vampire. Hey, it could happen to anyone. The show is being brought to you by basically no one of note
Element Hunters - Okay, get this: In the future, various elements completely disappear from the planet, 90% of humanity dies off, and they discover there's an alternate dimension Earth that only kids under the age of 13 can reach. Admittedly, most boy's adventure shows are kinda dumb, but this one takes the cake. The guy writing the show has done some cool stuff (Black Heaven, Nadeisco) but he and the director are mostly responsible for a bunch of generic anime, so I'm not expecting much here.
Canaan - Based on the visual novel 428: Fūsasareta Shibuya De for the Wii (which means it really is a visual novel and not a porn game), it tells a story, to crib from ANN, "about a detective, a young man, a virus researcher, a freelance writer, and a cat mascot character who are brought together by bizarre events with worldwide implications in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya." Well, alright then. Famitsu gave the game a perfect score (for what that's worth), but apparently a lot of the appeal came from the way the story changed depending on the perspective you were viewing events from. I'm not sure I trust the folks doing the anime to really pull off Rashomon here; direction is from the guy who directed Sword of the Stranger and has had various duties on a lot of other cool projects, but series composition is by the woman who gave us shows like Toradora on the one hand and Kodomo no Jikan on the other, so, yeah. We'll see. If nothing else, it looks like we're guaranteed women wearing improbable outfits, for what that's worth.
Continued next post.
As ever, I'm using the Fansub Wiki listing of shows that are coming out this summer, where you can also find their respective air and release dates. So, if you want to know when any given show is coming out, there ya go.
Isekai no Seikishi Monogatari Episodes 4 and 5 - Hey, remember that Tenchi spin-off OVA series no one really cares about? Well, there's more of it out there if you're interested, which you aren't. So! Moving right along...
Kawa no Hikari - Based on a children's novel, this TV special is the presumably heartwarming story of a group of mice who are forced out of their home due to construction and go off in search of a new place to live. It sounds like a cross between Pon Poko and The Secret of N.I.M.H., except lame. Eh.
Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~ - I'm kinda torn here. The director is the same guy who directed Kaleido Star and Princess Tutu and one of the screenwriters also worked on Kaleido Star. On the other hand, everyone else involved have worked on shows that are generally pretty dull and the character designs are kinda loli, so I dunno what to think. As for the show itself, it's about a couple of mermaids who meet a schoolgirl. It could go either way, really.
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!! - More of the show about the office lady from another dimension who comes here to help bring zany hijinx to the downtrodden. When I first heard of this in the spring I thought it might be a fun sort of comedy, but now I'm getting the feeling that it's probably just crap.
Ukkari Pénélope 2nd Series - Based on the children's books by Anne Gutman and Georg Hallensleben, Penelope is apparently a koala bear (I had to look her up) who has various adventures that will greatly appeal to the preschool set.
Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - I was more excited about this murder mystery anime (set inexplicably in the year 1986, unless it's just to ensure no one has a cell phone) until I learned that it was based on a doujin game by the Higurashi guy. On the other hand, the character designs are (with one invitable exception) not of the hyper-loli variety, so perhaps there's hope for this after all; the main problem I had with Higurashi was that all the little girls were so damn creepy. The Higurashi director is back for the occasion, so if you liked that, you'll probably like this.
Aoi Hana - Hot yuri action the way you like it! Or something. When a geeky glasses girl (mmmmmm, megane-ko) enters high school depressed from her last breakup, she re-connects with an old friend who is just starting at another local high school. Cue friendship and, hopefully, hot yuri action, even if only in doujinshi. Oh, and it's from the director of Honey and Clover and Nodame Cantabille, so I'm totally there.
Needless - Holy shit, will you look at that! I don't even think I need to say anything else; something like this really speaks for itself. Okay, okay, so it's about how after World War III some folks get superpowers and proceed to beat each other up. It looks awesomely retarded and hopefully the staff (who didn't excite me, but who aren't awful or anything) let that complete stupidity shine through.
Taisho Yakyuu Musume - It's 1925 and two high school girls have decided to organize a baseball team. I'm sold. Oh, and it's from the guy who directed Genshiken! Granted, he hasn't directed anything else worth a damn, but that's okay. I'm still sold.
Bakemonogatari - Supernatural mystery of the week, featuring a guy who, if I read the incoherent ANN description correctly, is back to being human after a brief stint as a vampire. Hey, it could happen to anyone. The show is being brought to you by basically no one of note
Element Hunters - Okay, get this: In the future, various elements completely disappear from the planet, 90% of humanity dies off, and they discover there's an alternate dimension Earth that only kids under the age of 13 can reach. Admittedly, most boy's adventure shows are kinda dumb, but this one takes the cake. The guy writing the show has done some cool stuff (Black Heaven, Nadeisco) but he and the director are mostly responsible for a bunch of generic anime, so I'm not expecting much here.
Canaan - Based on the visual novel 428: Fūsasareta Shibuya De for the Wii (which means it really is a visual novel and not a porn game), it tells a story, to crib from ANN, "about a detective, a young man, a virus researcher, a freelance writer, and a cat mascot character who are brought together by bizarre events with worldwide implications in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya." Well, alright then. Famitsu gave the game a perfect score (for what that's worth), but apparently a lot of the appeal came from the way the story changed depending on the perspective you were viewing events from. I'm not sure I trust the folks doing the anime to really pull off Rashomon here; direction is from the guy who directed Sword of the Stranger and has had various duties on a lot of other cool projects, but series composition is by the woman who gave us shows like Toradora on the one hand and Kodomo no Jikan on the other, so, yeah. We'll see. If nothing else, it looks like we're guaranteed women wearing improbable outfits, for what that's worth.
Continued next post.
