Winter 2013 Anime Preview

Moe and romance comedy reigns supreme. I don’t hate moe anime, but sometimes there is too much of a good thing. As much as I like eating donuts, I can’t eat a full box of them T_T; I remember the days when I could completely look forward to all the moe anime offerings. >_O;;  In other news, I just purchased Nendoroid Hatsune Miku v2.0…. how many Mikus must I own?

This season is not so much bad as gives one the impression every studio bought the same anime color by numbers kit and were a little more liberal on what colors the numbers defined so as to be unique. At this point I am not even asking for anything good, or even something decent, I only want there to be a tiny bit of variety, anything not moe or romance comedy. That doesn’t seem like too much to ask, does it?

As usual, here’s a chart so follow along! And of course a preview from Random Curiosity!

Puchimasu! Puchi Idol Master (1/01 Tue)

Not sure if this will be a series of 5 min shorts or an actual series, but I wouldn’t mind taking a quick glance at seeing the idolmaster girls deal with their chibi counterparts!

Unless this is a carnival game all about shooting nendroids with a shotgun I see no point to this series.

Yama no Susume (01/02 Wed)

Just take a look at the character designs for this show, it’s so moe~ Another moe show that aims to cover another theme and perhaps popularize it. I don’t believe mountain climbing has been covered yet, but I’m pretty sure these lolis will capture the audience before the climbing even starts :3

Ran out of ideas for K-on type series with bands so why not try making a K-on in mountains? Sure seems like a logical progression to me.

Mangirl (1/02 Wed)

We already have Bakuman for our look in the manga industry, but now they’re going a bit further with this by covering the editors themselves. But really, they look more like an idol unit than manga editors. They have a better chance of selling a song than a manga magazine >_O;

Mommy when I grow up I don’t want to be a writer, I want to be an editor. Said the small child looking up to their parent with sparking innocent wonder in their eyes. Of course any parent would be so proud of any child that dreams big, and this series is of course aimed at those who aspire to do great things with their lives. Either that or they are just trying to make some cheap anime that uses cute female characters in an underused setting in an attempt to fool viewers into watching under the veil of originality. Could go either way, really.

Aimaimi (1/03 Thu)

From manga editors to manga club, I don’t think this will be too different from the anime above. Our cast consists of kids with chuunibyou, so another moe comedy to the list this season. So much moe this season…. so much….

Just what I wanted for Christmas, yet another slice of life school girls comedy, whatever would I do without the progressively lamer anime industry churning out the same cookie cutter show one, two, even three times every season.

Cuticle Tantei Inaba (1/04 Fri)

I’m used to a lot of different titles, but the combination of both the main character and the title of this anime just turns me off completely. Not to mention that there’s too much sausage in here.

An example of the now popular method of putting a bunch of random plot elements in a hat to decide what the next show will be about. The only downside to this method and indeed the part that saddens me, is how people actually appear to buy into and even enjoy this cost effective approach to story design.

Maou Maoyuu Yuusha (1/04 Fri)

I’m pleasantly surprised to see this on the list so soon. I’ve read a few chapters of this manga, and although I do definitely prefer the manga art style over this somewhat plain looking style we have for the anime, I do wonder if this animated version will capture the charm of its manga counterpart. It’s a bit like Spice and Wolf, but more entertaining due to its variety of characters.

Like Wanko while I did expect this series to get an anime eventually I am surprised at how soon it came. That said this is the only series this entire season that I am actually looking forward to. My only misgivings here are how the art doesn’t properly reflect the style of the series and how they will deal with the ending.

D.C. III ~ Da Capo III~ (1/05 Sat)

I wonder if they’ll ever stop this franchise xD

I wonder if people will ever get tired of watching / reading the same story over and over.

Ore to Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (1/05 Sat)

Ehh, I think I’ll pass on this one. It looks like another generic romantic comedy, and as usual, the main protagonist will end up building a harem of 3+ girls by the time this is over.

Oh my, pretend relationships as a prelude for something more oh how deep and dramatic this emotional love story sounds. *swoons*

Minami-ke Tadaima (1/05 Sat)

After the second season, I don’t see how this can get any worse. We’ve already gone past the worst adaptation/sequel… so I’m eagerly waiting to see my favorite group of sisters!

Ok, this was a fun series, I enjoyed it back when it was not trying to be redundant and milking the previous success. There really is only so much of the same plot that can be done in a slice of life comedy, keeping it past the expiration date just makes it more likely to leave a bitter taste at the end instead of a fond memory.

Hakkenden Touhou Hakken Ibun (1/05 Sat)

Based on the classic samurai novel… I do feel sorry for the author, seeing one of his characters dressed like that *points above* Can’t quite tell how this will end up, but this also looked BL to me before I read the description for this series xD;

Whether good or bad this series is unlikely to be anything special, while there is nothing inherently wrong with it from the start it does feel as though there is something lacking for it to be special.

Senran Kagura (1/06 Sun)

Ninja girls from a video game, and lots of fanservice! Need I say more? But hey, what other series have their girls doing high fives with their butts :3

The only thing worse than these shows are the fanbases they spawn.

Amnesia (1/07 mon)

I was a bit interested while reading up on the plot, but then I looked at the picture and realized that it’s an Otome anime. A girl with amnesia hanging out with all those guys in that picture… I’ll save this for the day I reincarnate into a twintail imouto. Or better yet, a wanko.

I’ll save this for the day I reincarnate as a weeaboo capable of finding something worth praising as the epitome of all creation in anything Japanese, just cuz.

The Unlimited Hyoubu Kyousuke (1/07 Mon)

I have some hopes for the protagonist of this series but whether or not the rest will match up and allow him to truly play the role of someone who is an actual person and not some goody two shoes happy go lucky love plus screaming overcomes all brain dead charge in without thinking protagonists most series idolize these days.

Senyu (1/08 Tue)

I don’t even need to read the plot summary to know that I’ll avoid this. I rather go back in time and rewatch the Digimon anime >_>;

I’m with Wanko on this one. It almost feels like I am staring down an anime version of Barney the purple dinosaur.

Tamako Market (1/09 Wed)

Finally, here we are with another of those K-ON clones. Yui and Azunyan, I’ll always see you in all these characters xD; Either way, I don’t mind seeing an anime cover rice cakes.. I could sure eat one right now.

If there was ever a need to question how bad K-on really was one need only look at the spinoffs that try to recreate the saddening success that took advantage of so many pitiful youths.

GJ-bu (1/09 Wed)

So we have an adaptation of the first “four-panel light novel”…. that sounds oddly interesting. But I can only handle so much moe anime, so I’ll have to see which ones will end up winning a spot on my watch list x_x;’

This makes what, half of this season fall under the moe comedy umbrella? Getting rather sick of the lack of variation these days, and what this means for other less popular mediums in the future.

Sasami-san @ Ganbaranai (1/10 Thu)

Not sure what they’re aiming for here, but we have a siscon of an older brother involved in a romantic comedy with three sisters, as his own younger hikkikomori imouto is spying on him through her “brother surveillance tool”. Standard stuff, I have yet to see anything that pops out from this.

This looks more like one giant advertisement for crappy Sony electronics than a legitimate series.

Vividred Operation (1/10 Thu)

I do believe we have a successor to Strike Witches… a group of lolis once again will have to fight off an alien force. And in order to do so, they must battle in buruma, various pantsu, and show the audience how detailed the animators can get their asses to look through that fabric. I think we have a winner here >_>;;

Not even going to bother anymore, I mean there is no point when the people who actually like pedantic garbage such as this and I will never see eye to eye.

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT (1/10 Thu)

I’m not exactly too excited about this series even though I did enjoy the first season. I do hope that they don’t fully go in the romance route as the events of the last season had changed the relationships of the club. I could use some more parodies and comedy in there :(

Not unexpected as it seems anything successful these days gets milked till the spinoffs no longer break even.

Kotoura-san (1/10 Thu)

This isn’t just a normal romance comedy, this is a romance comedy involving ESP! Honestly, I don’t know if that will help the show much, but it’s got something going for it.

The same show on repeat this season only this time with some esp overtones! yay…

Mondai-ji tachi ga Isekai Kara Kuru Desuyo? (1/11 Fri)

Another one of those ‘transported to an alternate world in order to defeat the demon king’ anime… looks like another moe show to me! It would have been better to watch another season of that ‘Hagure Yuusha’ anime. The protagonist from that anime  is a lot more fun to watch.

Simple and lacking anything to make it stand out, as Wanko said at least Hagure Yuusha had a good protagonist.

Beast Saga (1/13 Sun)

I’m feeling a bit of nostalgia as I look at the image for this series. I’m getting some Beast Wars: Transformers vibes from this anime, yet I don’t think I want to sit through another round of that.