Summer 2009 Anime Season Preview

Before I knew it, the end of the Spring 2009 Anime season is coming to an end really soon, and that means it’s time to preview what will be airing in Summer season. Also I think I’m starting to lose my memories if it’s the Summer season that is a let down or another season. But looking back at last year’s Summer season there were some hits in the mix. So how does this year fair up? Read on to find out. All sources come from Moonphase and to check out who is subbing what, check out the Fansub Wiki.

Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~
Air Date: 24th June
Synopsis: The story centers on Marin and Urin, two sisters who live in the sea. One day, a beautiful ring falls in the middle of the sea, and Marin and Urin retrieve it. The two decide to leave their waterbound world for the first time to deliver the ring. After an arduous journey, they come across an isolated island where a high school girl named Kanon lives. The encounter between Marin and Kanon — the maiden of the sea and the maiden of the skies — awakens a hidden power as the world is threatened by an enveloping darkness.

Adun’s Thoughts: This is ZEXCS new series for the Summer season and given that I like most of their series, this will be something to look forward to. But what makes it much more interesting for me is that the director is Junichi Sato who is the director for the ARIA series. I don’t expect it to be ARIA, but I can sense that this will be a favourite for me this Summer season. Though the strange thing is that this series is based from a pachinko game. I may blog this series.

Mini’s Thoughts: The character designs look nice at least. I didn’t have any concrete opinion on this series until I scoped its trailer on Youtube; the hints of yuri and some magical-girl-esque transformation sequences are high points. I’ll leave this one to Adun since he’s the master of water anime around these parts.

Fight Ippatsu! Jūden-chan!!
Air Date: 25th June
Synopsis: The story revolves around Plug, a mysterious office lady from a parallel world to charge up “dejected” people.

Mini’s Thoughts: Original designs by Bow Ditama, of Mahoromatic and “late-night” manga fame? A ridiculously fanservice-laden and rather borderline trailer? A high-energy heroine with a pinball smile? Sign me up. The fact that I bought the Plug-chan figure during my first Japan trip may slightly influence my opinion.

Aoi Hana
Air Date: 1st July
Synopsis: Fumi Manjoume, an introverted, bookish teenage girl, is beginning her first year of high school at Matsuoka Girls’ High School. She enters the school year with her heart broken by a previous relationship. At about the same time, she reconnects with her best friend from ten years ago, Akira Okudaira, who is now attending Fujigatani Girls’ Academy as a first-year high school student. As they reconnect, they both deal with their own respective romantic problems, and help each other get through them.

Adun’s Thoughts: I’m not too sure on what to think about this series after reading the synopsis and the trailer doesn’t show that much either. I’m sure it’ll be something interesting though as this is another J.C Staff and Kasai Kenichi (who did the Nodame Cantabile and Honey & Clover series). I’ll give it a few eps and decide if I want to continue watching or not.

Mini’s Thoughts: I’ve read a bit of the manga, and if the anime is good enough to capture its essence, this series might be a sleeper hit on my priority list. The voice actors for the two main girls appear to be relatively new to the industry so it’ll be intriguing to see how they go.

NEEDLESS
Air Date: 2nd July
Synopsis: Year 2130 - after the third world war, large contaminated areas known as “Blackspots” formed all over Japan. Large Walls were used to quarantine off these “Blackspots”. In time, signs of inhabitance appeared within these wastelands. Among the survivors who had been abandoned inside the Blackspots, labeled as “those who were unneeded”, came forth possessors of uncanny abilities — Fire, wind, brute strength…they were defined by their supernatural abilities. Others, fearful of their powers, expelled them and named them Needless!

Adun’s Thoughts: The first thought that came to my mind when I saw the official site was Guren Lagann, mainly because I noticed drills. Anyway this looks to be a shounen type series and its good to see an action series in the mix of all the moé. Madhouse Studios is the one producing this so it should be good.

Mini’s Thoughts: No trailer? Non-accessible story and character areas on the official website? C’mon Madhouse, give me something to work with here.

Taisho Yakyuu Musume
Air Date: 2nd July
Synopsis: Set in 1925 (Taisho era) the story follows Koume and Akiki who decide to create a baseball team but have to recruit more players to reach their goals.

Adun’s Thoughts: I don’t have that much of an interest in baseball and the premise of the series doesn’t appeal to me either. However seeing the seiyuu list there are some notable names, and this is J.C Staff’s 2nd series for Summer. Most likely just give it a few episodes but I doubt I’ll continue watching.

Mini’s Thoughts: Full marks for an original premise. I’m getting some Strike Witches-esque vibes from this, and the presence of Mai Nakahara and Mamiko Noto in the voice cast is a definite plus. Checking out the first few episodes at least.

CANAAN
Air Date: 4th July
Synopsis: A present-day story 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.

Adun’s Thoughts: What can I say about this series other than some pretty high expectations. With character designs from TYPE-MOON, and animation studio and staff that worked on things such as GITS, Darker than Black, and true tears. Having a look at the trailer doesn’t reveal much but it’s certainly a series to have a look at in the Summer season.

Mini’s Thoughts: Sure the character designs by TYPE-MOON are easy on the eyes but I’m not a great fan of the po-faced action genre so I’ll give this a pass.

Princess Lover!
Air Date: 5th July
Synopsis: Main protagonist, Teppei is taken in by his grandfather after the unfortunate death of his parents. It turns out that Teppei’s grandfather is a force in the economic, high society world of Japan, and without a successor his grandfather makes him the legitimate heir. Thus Teppei is enrolled in such a prestigious school where students all belong to the highest castes of society. Charlotte and Sylvia are princesses of their respective nations, while Seika is a daughter and renowned model of the fashion world. Yuu is Teppei’s maid who serves him and goes to school with him as part of the Arima household.

Adun’s Thoughts: Yes another ero-game turned anime, but I read that the anime is supposedly not following the same premise as the game. However the first thing about the female characters was a Saber look-a-like. Anyway there certainly is a mix of different girls here and looking at the trailer does seem to make it look good. Although I will watch it, not terribly excited about it.

Mini’s Thoughts: Harem anime - now this is what I’m talking about. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this stereotypical genre. Cute girls, fun trailer. Unfortunately the male protagonist will probably be the typical “freaks out when he gets near a girl” type but I have to take what I can get. Making a pre-emptive “Seika is my waifu” declaration - incidentally she’s voiced by Emiri Katou, who was Sakuya in the Candy Boy ONAs (and some other character called Kagami, pfft).

Kanamemo
Air Date: 5th July
Synopsis: The story centers on Kana Nakamichi, a middle-school girl who had already lost her parents and just recently lost her only remaining relative, her grandmother. As a result, she ends up living and working at a newspaper delivery office. Everyone else living at the office are all charming, self-assertive bishōjo. The manga follows Kana’s daily life in the fast-paced yet joyous environment.

Mini’s Thoughts: Another genre I’ll never get tired of is the light-hearted daily life series, and Kanamemo definitely looks like I’ll fit the bill. A big plus point is the fact that Kana is voiced by none other than Aki Toyosaki, so I’ll be blessed with another 13 weeks of Yui-voice. If the trailer’s an accurate indicator, Kana appears to be very much like Yui, but with less airheadedness.

GA:Geijutsuka Art Design Class
Air Date: 6th July
Synopsis: Slice of life story revolves around 5 freshmen girls in a high school arts class.

Adun’s Thoughts: Initial impressions I get is Hidamari Sketch straight away. Not surprising since this is also coming from a 4-koma manga. Though there really isn’t a lot of info out there for this series but I’m sure Mini would be excited about this.

Mini’s Thoughts: You bet I’m excited! 110% full-steam-ahead no-begging-yer-pardons excited! I spotted the manga on a whim at Kings Comics during the last Free Comic Book Day sale and love it to bits. Adun isn’t too far off - GA is reminiscent of Hidamari Sketch, if Yuno was less skilled and more easily flustered (saying more would be a spoiler), and there were more madcap comedy antics going on. Kisaragi is such a darling, along with the rest of the cast. It is my fervent hope, however, that whoever fansubs GA will translate Professor’s name as “Professor” instead of leaving it as “Kyoujyu”.

Ōkami to Kōshinryō II
Air Date: 8th July
Synopsis: Continuation from first season.

Adun’s Thoughts: Really there’s no need for a synopsis of this series and by far this is the only series I REALLY look forward to this season. Leading up to the Summer season I’ve been rewatching the first season in beautiful Blu-ray quality and I look forward to more of Horo and Lawrence’s economic adventures with that hint of romance and slyness that we got from the first season.

Mini’s Thoughts: I haven’t even seen the first season of this series, and most likely never will thanks to a hard drive crash that occurred earlier in the week (thanks for nothing Seagate, you incompetent bastards) so there’s no point for me to watch this.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Air Date: 9th July
Synopsis: two siblings and a single mother trying to survive together after a massive earthquake hits Tokyo during the Summer vacation changing everyone’s lives forever.

Adun’s Thoughts: So this is BONES new series for Summer and seems to be an original story. An earthquake stricken Tokyo doesn’t sound all that appealing but I’m willing to give a BONES series a chance.

Mini’s Thoughts: The last BONES series I liked was Eureka Seven and that was substantially a fantastical story, unlike this more realistic series. If I wanted to look at a disaster I’d read more about Netanyahu’s sabotage of the Israel-Palestine peace process. Pass.

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou
Air Date: 11th July
Synopsis: Koyomi Morishita is a clumsy high school student who becomes the apprentice of Misa Anehara, a 25 year old graduate student who is one of the most powerful modern day magicians.

Mini’s Thoughts: This series is looking pretty good. There’s the main girl voiced by Ai Nonaka (Konoka! Kafuka! Imo-chan! Shima!). There’s a hot bespectacled teacher who uses cellphone magic. There’s a bunch of spell-flinging pyrotechnics. Could be a winner.

Adun’s Final Thoughts: At first I thought the Summer season would be a bit of a let down but there seems to be a few that perk my interest. Out of all listed here I think I’ll blog Umi Monogatari and maybe Wolf and Spice II. With Tayutama and Polyphonica Crimson S ending it only leaves me with Hayate No Gotoku!! to continue on. Seeing how I’ve gone since Spring season I think my limit is two series due to all the work of real life killing my free time.

Mini’s Final Thoughts: Much like Adun, I thought this season would be a wasteland, with only GA as the only series worth watching. I’ve since evaluated my options and will be adding Kanamemo and Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou as high-priority, with Princess Lover and Juuden-chan as mid-priority. Though if Seika proves to be super-moé, Princess Lover’s status will be elevated.

source by http://www.moemoerabu.net