Oldtaku: Anime for Grownups

This is the winter of our discontent…  I’m actually going to fold Fall 2009 in to here, because while I think Winter is generally better than Fall was, Fall had two decent shows including one of my favorites.

So far so good:

• Bakemonogatari – This has the best visuals (reminiscent of Mononoke) and easily the best writing of any anime in the past couple years.  It will bore anyone who can’t appreciate those to tears.
• Eve no Jikan – Neat little six episode show about the possible societal impact of humanoid robots, and what if you couldn’t necessarily tell humans from robots? This is obviously a more polished followup to Mizu no Kotoba.
• Kimi ni Todoke – Your shoujo romance for the season. Like Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge (The Wallflower) but not so stupidly over the top. More believable and more touching.
• Kobato – A CLAMP anime in the Angelic Layer and Card Captor Sakura style. This is just flat out adorable if you can handle them shoe-horning some touching scene in at the end.
• Tentai Senshi Sunred Season 2 – I loved season 1, and this carries right on in the same style. It’s based on a 4 panel gag manga about a superhero and the evil organization he’s fighting. Completely tongue in cheek examination of what life as a superhero or evil villain is like when you have day to day concerns to worry about. And it’s written for adults.

Could be Worse:

• Aoi Bungaku – the classics of Japanese modern(?) literature, animated.  It starts with Ningen Shikkaku, which is a fine, fine choice. The animation is excellent, as you’d expect from Madhouse, but unfortunately the adaptation doesn’t live up to what I remember and makes it a bit too much Catcher in the Rye.  I’ll let MoeSucks elaborate, since I’m too lazy. Will watch ep 2, though.
• Higepiyo – fun little 5-minute shorts about a very manly chick by the Ebichu author.  Not nearly as risque, and the same sense of absurdity. The little moments where Higepiyo gets a dumb blissed out look on his face and makes this utterly content ‘Huuuuuuuu’ sound just make it for me.
• Nyan Koi – Okay, this is mostly standard high school romance, but while the opening animation would make you think this is just fanservice there’s almost none of it in the actual anime. High school boy gets cursed by a cat god and can suddenly speak to cats, who abuse him mercilessly. The lead girl is too oblivious for this to really be harem anime, which is a plus.
• Seitokai no Ichizon – High school comedy.  Closer to Pani Poni Dash than Azumanga Daioh.

Forget it:

• Kampfer – I was expecting Canaan, but it’s Ranma 1/2, Sekirei, and Kashimashi in a blender and puree. Boy who turns into a big-breasted combat maid – and of course the girl he loves is in love with his female form and doesn’t know they’re the same person. The usual harem cast.
• Kiddy Girl-and – As far as I can tell this is just a Kiddy Grade sequel.
• Seiken no Blacksmith – Generic fanservice fantasy. This season’s Zero no Tsukaima.
• Sora no Otoshimono – Big-breasted compliantly dumb wish fulfilling angel falls into life of nebbish loser and fulfills all his fantasies. Sounds familiar? This actually has a moment of promise when she obeys his wish to be ruler of the world by killing everyone else on the planet, but then they call a mulligan on it. I would be very surprised if second ep didn’t have another dark skinned angel showing up.

More of the Same:

• Darker than Black – Ryuusei no Gemini
• Dragonball Kai
• Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu – Purezza
• Queen’s Blade S2