The Kotatsu Fall 2011 Season Preview!

01 Sep 2011 6 Comments

by bobbierob in Season Preview Tags: 2011, BokuTomo, fall, Fate, Girl, ika, Mirai, Nikki, Preview, Season, shana, Squid, Tamayura, working, Zero

Well, as I’ve learned very well from the Summer preview, posting this about a day before the first show of the new season airs is not a very good idea, and kind of defeats the purpose a little.

That said, not every show of the new season is going to be in this preview (because there would be a LOT). Only the ones I am going to consider blogging/watching will be listed. There is still a few, but I’m not sure if it’s going to beat the Summer season in terms of numbers.

This picture is totally not an indication as to which show I’m looking forward to most.

I hope, for the Fall season, I won’t be watching upwards of 11 shows because they were all too good/funny to make fun of to drop (Kamimemo and Sacred Seven, respectively, just to name a couple). My plans for this season include cutting back on the number of shows covered per week (probably only going to be one less), and coming up with new ideas for other types of posts (such as reviews, or an editorial; I wanna try that sometime.)

Anyway, on with the preview!

Definitely Keeping:

These are the shows that I am definitely watching (but probably not blogging). In fact, I’ve been looking forward to the for quite a while now.

Working’!!

Go to youtube to enable subs

SAMUWAN (WAN! WAN!) SAMUWA-

Although that song is probably not going to be featured in the second season, it still brings a smile to my face. Needless to say, I am watching this because I watched and loved the first season of Working!! So, of course the promise of more Inami, more Yamada, and more Popura is a no-brainer, and too much to resist. Of course, Yamada is the most important out of all of them.

Watching? Guranteed. Blogging? Probably not, as I try to refrain from writing about sequels or slice-of-life comedies.

Shinryaku!? Ika Musume

This is literally the only season 2 PV I could find…..de geso

It’s back, de geso! I didn’t believe the claims that a second season was going to be made all those months ago when the first season ended, but being a slice of life there was plenty of opportunity for a continuation. If this show even has a fraction of the comedy and awesomeness of the first season, I’m on board for the entire ride.

Bring on the squid, de geso.

Watching? Of course! Blogging? Same reasons as above, it’s a sequel, and comedy is rather boring to write about.

Shakugan no Shana III

Again, the only full-length trailer I could find.

Oh, where to begin?  Shakugan no Shana is not only one of my favourite anime of all time, it is also one of the first. It was a while ago, before I was immersed in the “online fandom” and everything, basically meaning I knew next to nothing about anime in general (seiyuus, animation studios, and all that hype and memes and whatever). I don’t how I chanced upon it, but I do remember begging on of my friends to help find the second season at one point. That was how desperate I was. For me, Shana is one of those “personal classics”

I could go on and on about what the trailer reveals (not much), but one thing I must mention is how I have forgotten how badass Margery Daw is. And Shana, too. Also, it’s looking like Yuji isn’t going to be totally useless this time round, and may be able to fight for himself, instead of being protected by Shana all the time.

Gosh, so much to look forward to. Shana and Yuji fighting those Tomogara, Margery Daw and her hilarious book guy, maybe even Kazumi.

Bring on the (one and only original) tsundere loli.

Watching? Whaddya think?! Blogging? No episodics, but I may not be able to resist an all-out fanboying post. We shall see.

The Maybes

Even with all of the “maybes” and the “keepers” added together, the number of shows isn’t topping eight. I suppose this is for the best, for a number of reasons. One, I started the Summer Season with 11 shows, ended up dropping zero, and every week was a race against Thursday to finish up the backlog. Two, with September, there is school (obligatory groaning), and that probably means a lot less time to watch and blog anime, as compared to summer vacation.

So tl;dr: I’m cutting back. But only just a little.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai

I personally have no idea what this is, but I’ve heard from a lot of my acquaintances about the entertainment value of the light novels, on which this is based. Apparently, it’s some sort of gag comedy harem show about a guy who joins a club for people who don’t have friends. Rather dumb-sounding, I know, but it’s worth a shot, when people have told me to look past the outlandish premise. Character designs are nice, too.

Seiyuus of note: Kanae Itou (kyaa~), Kana Hanazawa (KYAAAAAA~), Misato Fukuen (hope she does the ED or something)

Fate/Zero

I did not like Fate/Stay Night. Not one bit. Sure, Rin had delicious zettai ryouiki, those fights between Saber and the various other Servants were pretty epic, and although my memory is pretty fuzzy, I’m sure they defeated that golden evil guy in the end. But, there was one thing that took it all, put it in a bag full of skunk carcasses, and tossed it into a cesspool. The main character, Shiro.

But, I digress. The main point here is that Fate/Stay Night was not very enjoyable for me, so why am I so excited about Fate/Zero? Get this:

Original Creator: Gen Urobuchi

Music: Yuki Kajiura

Sound familiar? Now, if I recall correctly, these two are definitely new to the team, meaning they were not there during Fate/Stay Night. Probably means that Fate/Zero is going to go a little differently. Also, animation for this prequel is done by a studio called “ufotable”. I’m pretty sure I haven’t watched a show produced by them before, but I guess we’ll just have to find out. What they did with the PV was pretty good-looking, so I suppose that’s a positive indication.

Mirai Nikki

This PV was probably released around the time the pilot OVA was bundled with the manga. It was during the Summer season when a “first ep preview” kind of thing was released. I watched it. It made no sense whatsoever.

The story is about a guy who has a cellphone that can tell the future. He is part of a game with eleven other opponents, and they must use their “future diaries” on their cell phone to eliminate each other. Eventually, he meets the female lead, and…..yeah.

I dunno. The premise sounds interesting, and I’m looking forward to now they are going to do the fights between the “players”. The pink-haired girl (who I am assuming is the female lead) looks pretty cute, and I’m betting that they’ll have to battle each other at the end. The “game” where these people have powerful cell phones and try to kill each other sounds kind of familiar. Heck, there’s even twelve players, too.

Tamayura ~hitotose~

At the time of writing, there is no PV available for this show. I will update this spot with the video as soon as it is released.

Sawatari Fu moves back to the childhood home of her late father to begin her first year of high school. She is very shy, but enjoys taking pictures with her father’s old camera. Eventually, she begins to make some friends in her school.

Now, I know this is coming across as a little boring, but for some reason, I get the feeling this is a nice, calming slice-of-life. Maybe throw in some drama in there, too. Seiyuus of note include Ayana Taketatsu and Kana Asumi. Maaya Sakamoto is doing the OP.

For some reason, “Sawatari Fu” comes across as an extremely HNNNGGGGHHHH-inducing name. Why? I have absolutely no idea.

Seiyuus of note: main character is voiced by Ayana Taketatsu. Not sure if that’s a good thing, but I suppose it couldn’t go too bad.

That’s It, Folks!

Going back, I count seven shows. However, unlike last season, there are a few I am definitely not dropping, and I don’t have such high expectations riding on the other ones such as BokuTomo and Tamayura. I suppose I’ll drop one or two and then pick up whatever the “community” is crazy about a few weeks into the season.

Speaking of what the community is crazy about, I need to get watching Steins;Gate.

With that, bobbierob out, de geso~