Summer ‘07 Preview
June 23rd, 2007 by Shirukii
Summer is here! So I guess it’s time to follow the trend and throw out a preview post.
There are considerably less series premiering this season compared to spring, and although the line up in general doesn’t look as promising, there are a few series that have a potential to be really good depending on how well they emulate or follow up to their source material.
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School Days School Days is an H-Game adaptation that is well known for its many routes that are largely animated instead of still pictures with tons of text. But what made it even more famous is the obscenely gory BAD END sequences, ranging from rooftop suicide to severed jugular veins, it’s very much a love it or hate it approach, I happen to love it. I don’t expect the anime to match the levels of gore, but I’d hate to see it be cut out completely. School Days is without a doubt my most anticipated series of the summer. |
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Higurashi no Naku Koroni Kai Do you know Oyashiro-sama? Love them or hate them, the killer lolis are back for another season. I thought Higurashi started out great, although not as deep as many made it out to be. But then they hit the reset button again and again, and at that point it just became tedious. Supposedly the first season covered all but two arcs, so hopefully they take their time with those and don’t resort to spamming facial distortions every few minutes. |
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Zero no Tsukaima: Futatsuki no Kishi OH GOD I liked the first season of Tsukaima. Admittedly, the beginning was full of pointless fanservice, but I thought they wrapped things up rather nicely in the end. Rather than trying to build a deep plot, I’m half hoping that the show will degenerate into a free for all between Louise, Siesta, Kirche and that tavern whore. But I guess the story of what happened in the aftermath of last season wouldn’t be all that bad either. |
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Sky Girls A lot of people seem to have hated the OVA for Sky Girls. I actually thought it wasn’t that bad. The characters came off as a little generic, but that’s mainly because it was an OVA and there wasn’t much time to give them proper development. The mecha elements and plot foundations are no weaker than most mechas out there, so I don’t see where the hate is coming from. But I guess only time will tell if it was a good move to give it a dedicated series. |
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Bokusatsu Tenshi Dokuro-chan 2 The OVA/first season of Dokuro-chan was completely mind boggling. I sat there for the full hour and a half wondering what the hell I was watching, but at the same time kind of enjoying it. I don’t know if I’d call it slapstick humor, as frequent impaling and decapitation isn’t exactly slapstick, but it was pretty funny. I have no idea how they are going to continue the mess of a plot they built in the first season, so I’m going into this with no absolutely expectations. |
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Doujin Work Based off a 4-koma, this series is about a girl who dives into the world of doujinshi. The premise reminds me of Comic Party, and it’s similarly labeled as a comedy, if they’re anything alike I’ll probably end up loving this. The art style and character designs look passable, so hopefully they don’t screw this up. However, I have a strong feeling that a large portion of the show will be a stereotypical mad rush in preparation for Comiket. |
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Moetan A show about teaching otaku how to speak English using anime, manga and visual novel themed lessons. Reminds me of this. I’m on the fence about this show. On one hand it has the potential to be hilarious -IF- it doesn’t take itself seriously. But if it does, it’ll be made of lose and fail. I mean, people who use Japanese they’ve learned from anime in real life often sound like idiots, and it’s very much a two way street. |
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Nanatsuiro Drops A mahou shoujo series about a boy who seeks the help of a magical girl in his class after he drinks a strange drink that turns him into a stuffed bear when it’s dark. The only reason why I’m even considering watching this show is because of the numerous times it’s been mentioned. I’ll give it an episode or two to reel me in. If not, this will probably be the first series up on the chopping block. |
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With the end of the spring season, Death Note and Sola will be ending, opening two slots in my blogging schedule. StrikerS subs have been nonexistent for the past couple weeks so I may decide to stop blogging it in favor of a series from this season.
I’ll definitely be blogging School Days and probably Zero no Tsukaima as well. That leaves one more slot that needs to be filled, any suggestions are welcome, whether they’re on this list or not.
Also, does anyone know if the Kodomo no Jikan anime really does start this season? ANN lists its airing date as sometime in July 2007, but I’ve heard no hype about it in the anime blogging community nor on 4chan. With the amount of controversy surrounding the manga, the anime going under the radar seems highly unlikely. So I guess this is just a case of ANN listing a bogus release date?
An important point to note: my record for sorting the good anime from the bad in past season previews is abysmal, so if any of you readers out there think I’m crazy for not previewing ‘x’ series or that I’m an idiot for even considering watching ‘y’ series, don’t hesitate to say so!
Much of the information for this post was derived from: Random Curiosity, Moe Moe Rabu, and BasuGasu. Feel free to read their preview posts for information on series that haven’t been mentioned here.
Aside: Some (un?)fortunate news, I found a job! It will start on July 4th and is a full time placement, from 8-5. This means that I’ll have a lot less time to watch and blog anime, but unlike during school time, there’ll be no homework or studying to be done, so I don’t expect much of a change in the pace or volume of posts.
~ Shirukii ~
16 Responses to “Summer ‘07 Preview”
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As for Kodomo no Jikan, I read that there will be an OVA released with the next volume of the manga, but I don’t remember where I saw that info.
Hehe, I love your description of School Days. It makes me want to play that game too…
Oh, don’t worry about Higurashi getting rushed. There are going to be three arcs animated (two from the game and one anime-original) and the series will span 26 more episodes. :)
School days sounds good. Now I got to find the game lol and reach these “gory endings”. I might watch Moetan just to see how they teach English, might need it in the future if I teach English in Japan.
Congrats on getting a job. I also got a job recently and I found that by the time I get home, I’m pretty buggered to watch anime let alone blog it. But of course I’ll try to keep up with it but like you said, might not have time to blog anything.
@ Skh: Bah, OVA? I want my full length series =(
@ Sasa: There’s a translation project under way, but since it’s not a case of having to change the text logs, but rather somehow encode hardsubs into the game itself, progress is slow.
@ psgels: Sounds great. Although, anime original arc? Potential disaster there.
@ AS: School days should be decent at least, there’s quite a bit of hype to live up to. As for Moetan, I doubt that’s how they would teach English in Japan to normal children. Though, I hear that as long as you have an IQ equivalent to an inanimate sock, you can become a JET.
@ Adun: I’m going to try my best to keep up with the posting, but honestly, I won’t force myself. My writing comes out TERRIBLY when it’s forced, so I’ll spare everyone from that =( Hope you manage to find the balance between work and anime as well.
heh, i think i’ve never watched a non-action anime before, so i’m looking forward to your school days-blogging ^___^;;;
Sky Girls interest me, while all of the others seem “colorless” and bland. I wonder which anime will have the highest quality of animation/design as well as plot and characters.
@ twsl: Oh man, you’re missing out. Some of the best anime series are dramas or slice of life, things like Honey and Clover or ARIA.
@ Jo: School Days should be good, -IF- they stick to the source material well enough. Higurashi will probably be decent too, as long as they take their time and explain everything this time around.
@Shirukii
Absolutly right!!! Honey & Clover was great, both seasons!
@twsl
You never..really never saw a non-action anime before? Damn dude, you missed a lot out there. As example AIR, what a great show…really sad ending, but i loved it! It was the first time i had tears in my eyes! You better try some other genres too man, i garantee you won’t regret it.
>>hopefully they take their time with those and don’t resort to spamming facial distortions every few minutes.
Need I point out that the first season was shitty… when they took their time? The crap was all the stupid “humor” like the club and the toystore game tournament and so on. The reset button wouldn’t have hurt so bad if each arc had only been, say, 1.5 episodes long instead of the average 4 full of idiocy.
Also, Zero no Tsukaima is bad.
Also, ‘moetan’ alone is enough to make me puke. But to actually have some thing behind that ‘name’ is like… augh. Please excuse me whilst I School Days myself off a roof.
@ Karurosu: Ahh, I should have mentioned AIR, godly show that was.
@ lolikit: Yea, I forgot how boring that filler crap was. Most of the pleasure I got from Higurashi was trying to tell Shion and Mion apart.
I liked Zero no Tsukaima T_T it was my guilty pleasure of the season. I hope the smutty material from the novels works its way into the next season.
I doubt I’ll give Moetan more than one episode, unless it’s so pathetic that it ends up being funny, in which case I’ll watch for the lulz.
@Shirukii-Lol, was that a jab at my intelligence…that hurt. Well I have that IQ so I must be qualified lol.
LOL, oops, it wasn’t intended as an insult. It’s just the impression I get from hearsay. What I meant was that the requirements for getting accepted into the JET program were exaggeratedly low, but on the other hand, I hear quite often that getting an official teaching certificate in Japan can be quite difficult, much steeper than the NA equivalent anyways.
But I read your blog from time to time, and your English is definitely up to the task =P
But I still don’t think Moetan is going to be an accurate representation of how they teach English XD
@Shirukii-Don’t worry Shirukii, I know your intentions weren’t harmful. Ya, I hear anyone can get in as long as you know English, willing to accept Japanese customs, and graduate with a bachelors. I pretty much just want to go to get my otaku fill, teaching is a slight bonus to my ego lol. I read some Moetan and I know its not going to do well, but I might just bring English dub anime and manga to teach if I am allowed to do so.
Honey & Clover = Awesome
Nodame Cantabile = Awesome
AIR = Awesome
NANA = Drama
Total: Awesome
Congrats on the job!
Hmm…I know there are a few posts on Lucky Star but maybe a few more posts?
Also maybe checkout Darker than Black.