Oldtaku: Anime for Grownups

It’s that time again – Fall 2008 season. So far this is a much better season than the last one was! Here’s Joe Chan’s List of Fall 2008 Anime.

Updated: Nov 17, 2008

Mini-rant: I guess I need to reprise my mission statement here after some outraged mail. This is not for people who love anime in general. You’ve just discovered it, it’s soooooo much better fthan South Park and you love it all, bless you for your enthusiasm. But this is a list of anime for jaded old people who’ve seen most of this crap a hundred times before, have read Nietzsche and Pollan and  Wolfe, and are desperate for anything truly new and exciting (though we’ll settle for Yozakura Quartet if the world won’t give us more goddamn Moyashimon).  Yes Toradora is cute school romance, but that is no longer sufficient, just as Terry Brooks or Robert Jordan are not a sufficient replacement for Tolkien.

So Far So Good:

• Detroit Metal City -Low-brow comedy about a Death Metal band. Centers on the disconnect between the lead char’s nebbish persona as himself and his king of demons persona as the lead singer/guitarist of the band.
• Hyakko – This looks to be the high school girl comedy this season. I like the designs a lot, it’s understated, and nothing happens but that’s okay. Think Maria-sama crossed with Best Student Council. Actually, something does finally happen but I won’t spoil it. Sadly, ep 2 has one of the worst cases of animation degradation I’ve ever seen. Seriously, I could draw better keyframes than that. Ep 3 is back up to snuff – for schoolgirl comedy anyhow.
• Michiko and Hatchin – This is trying overly hard to be the next Cowboy Bebop, including Kanno wannabe music, but it’s been so long since Bebop I’m willing to take that. Reminds me of Robert Rodriguez as well. After three eps this is still excellent. Imagine Bee Train stuff (Noir, Avenger, Madlax) done by someone with talent.
• Skip Beat – We haven’t had a good shojo love comedy since Love Complex. It’s a Cinderella story, with hard working plain earnest girl in love with a beatiful, talented(?) dickhead. That would have been hard to take for long (LoveCom was too straightforward), but there is a Twist.  This is definitely our new weekly shojo comedy series.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred – This came out of nowhere. This is a deranged little half-length gag show about a Sentai character. It’ll fill the gap nicely now that DMC is over.

Could be Okay:

• Ga-Rei Zero – Supernatural action that’s trying way too hard to be cool, but the ending guarantees you’ll at least watch the second episode. Update: Gah. Okay, so the 2nd ep doesn’t exactly cheap out, but doesn’t resolve things either. One more cliffhanger! By ep 4 this has calmed down into pretty standard school stuff. They’ve cheaped out by starting at the end.
• Kannagi – with the subtitle ‘Crazy Shrine Maidens’ I’m actually quite surprised the first ep was as good as it was.  The big risk is it degenerates into typical Seto no Hanayome domestic comedy.
• Toaru Majutsu no Index – This one makes me conflicted. The writing and music on this are both great. At its core it’s just another generic Square-Enix anime, but I hold out hope it can escape that.  Better than Shikabanehime anyhow.
• Yozakura Quartet – Supernatural action comedy.Think a more shoujo version of the early non-sucky Bleach. And I’m good with that. For some reason the first couple minutes are very forced exposition, but then it gets better. Still a little formulaic.

Special Circumstances:

• Kameko DX – This is your Pani Poni Dash for the season. A non-stop mix of non-sequiturs, fanservice, anime in-jokes (and even a Westworld reference, good lord!) and shallow insanity. Wherefore art thou, Excel Saga?
• Kuroshitsuji – If you liked Nabari no Ou, this is your token shoujou drama/comedy show for this season. Think girly Hellsing. Not as wretched as Trinity Blood at least.
• Kurozuka – There’s one of these every season. Loosely based on historical events, high quality dark art, Noh music and stylings, Drama, and injected supernatural elements (to me it’ll always be ‘Gasaraki style’). When the big guy dropped out of the sky and started hitting people with his staff I thought ‘I bet that’s Benkei’ and sure enough. So Yoshitsune with vampires. You know if you like this.
• One Outs – Baseball, but the (beautiful) players are (reluctantly?) after each others bats and balls. Then it turns into high gambling drama. Brendan Speer compares this one to Akagi with ‘the exact same snail’s pace pacing’.
• Tytania – Did you like Legend of Galactic Heroes? You must have this, now. If you’re unfamiliar, think giant space battles fought in 2D planes. They haven’t invented 3D space or computer targetting in the future, which is good because the ships have only token shields. The bridge of the Imperial flagship is a Victorian tea room (no, really!), everyone is impeccably attired, and the second thing mentioned about the Empire’s general is is how beautiful he is. Really, you’re in this for the political drama. Update: The LOGH fanatic I know calls this ‘LOGH for Dummies’.

Pass:

• Akane-iro no Somaru Saka – Not quite as bad as CHAOS: HEAD, but it’s every h-game and visual novel cliche rolled into one.  Complete with an ending ’surprise’ plot twist that makes it even more banal than I thought possible!  And girls whose hair has more personality than they do.  If there’s anything non-cliche about this it’s the fetish it has for girls’ knees.
• Akiba-chan – stop-motion maid dolls in Akihabara. This is painfully bad pandering. Yes I end up using that word a lot, but a lot of this crap is just so cynically aimed at stupidly hardcore otaku.
• Bihada Ichizoku – I actually rather liked the first ep of this over the top ridiculous anime about a family dedicated to having the best skin in Japan, but while this recognizes its ridiculousness, it doesn’t manage to surpass it, which would be necessary to keep watching.
• CHAOS: HEAD – Worst. Anime. This. Season. Porn game conversion. Most pathetic and unlikable male character ever (yes, worse than Welcome to the NHK). Yet all the beautiful girls (who happen to be serial killers) love him and are huge anime nerds. Hint: Even if you know the plot and execution are pathetic cliches, it doesn’t make it better when the hero constantly points out how pathetic they are.
• Earl and Fairy – This would be the Vampire Knight of the season except there’s already Vampire Knight this season for your generic bishonen action. Girl who can see fairies and dangerous beautiful angsty men with bare chests (add your own fairy joke here). You’d be far better off watching Natsume Yuujin Chou instead.
• Inazuma Eleven – Digimon meets Shaolin Soccer for young boys. Based on a video game.
• Kurogane no Linebarrels – So in this anime the huge dork who deserves and encourages the bullying he gets summons the giant robot by touching her breast while porn music plays. This is pretty typical GONZO – awful (meaning hugely obvious) 3D CG plus hi-res backgrounds plus high frame rate but crudely drawn 2D animation which will get progressively worse with each episode.  There’s some hint there might be more to the plot, but ugh.
• Kyou no Go no Ni (TV) – ’sexy’ fifth graders. No seriously, they took the exact same jokes from the OVA series and uglied up the character designs and pedo-ed up the characters. Say what?
• Macademi Wasshoi – Magical Pedo Harry Potter Academy. This one reeks of UFO Princess Valkyrie (including the obligatory nekomimi combat maid), so if you liked that you’ll like this.
• Mouryou no Hako (Box of Spirits) – Creepy, beautiful horror set just after WW II. Actually, it’s a bit hard to tell what’s going on from just the first episode, but I definitely want to see more. Update: wow, ep 2 was one of the worst letdowns ever. No more creepy, and the second half is just them driving around the entire time while name dropping people you don’t know at a half-assed attempt at exposition.
• Quiz Magic Academy OVA – this is just fanservice if you already like Konami’s game. If not there’s nothing for you here.
• Rosario to Vampire Season 2 – You know what you’re getting here. Panty shots and bad plots. Amusingly, half the stations that showed the first ep censored it due to the sheer number of crotch shots. Hadn’t they seen Strike Witches?
• Shikabanehime Aka – How do you fight dead people? With hot dead teen chicks, of course!  Again, well done but absolutely typical Square-Enix setup. I have to admit I love the OP.
• Tales of the Abyss – Yet Another Forumlaic Conversion of a console RPG to anime. I liked the game (Tear 4 Lyfe) and I still can’t watch this.
• Toradora – formula school romance about a guy with a mean face (but a heart of gold!) and a tsundere girl who happens to look just like Louise from Zero no Tsukaima. Pass unless you can’t resist sitcoms about misunderstandings or tsundere.