Guillotine

Now that I finally finished watching the first season I was able to add this to my fall anime watch list. After 2 episodes I’ll say that if you liked the first season you will enjoy the second as well. The storyline is very much in tune with the first season. The new show starts out in Russia several years after the events at the end of season one. Hei looks like a scruffy bum now, and is apparently doing odd jobs for the CIA.

All new characters are introduced with some of the old characters popping in now and then. Without giving too much away… Someone asked Funimation at their web panel recently if they were going to license Darker Than Black 2, and if they would re-use the original voice cast… Well… The way things are going after 2 episodes the voice casting might not be a concern. They might not need many of the cast from the first season. Apparently a lot has happened in the time between stories, and it looks like we will find out about those details in the form of flashbacks. It is obvious from the start that what Hei did at the end of the first season has caused the events that are happening now, and I suspect that deep down he wants to fix everything, but we’ll have to see how things go.

The new characters are quite likable, and there is plenty of action and suspense. A must watch show.

After 4 months of battling between 384 characters who made it into the main tournament the final showdown happened today between Yui Hirasawa (K-On!) and Taiga Aisaka (Toradora). By a margin of 54 votes Taiga Aisaka won the title.

There were a lot of interesting events in this tournament with probably one of the early shocks being that K-On’s Mio and her “moe moe kyun” was knocked out in the first round. Although Asuza and Yui both made it to the 3rd round it was a surprise that Yui wound up being the last character standing in Aisaka’s way if you consider all the K-On popularity polls this year either Mio or Asuza would have been expected.

Another surprise was that all of the Lucky Star characters were wiped out pretty early for the most part especially considering that Kagami won last year’s tournament. I don’t think any of them made it past the second round.

In the beginning it appeared that the girls from CLANNAD, Saki, and Haruhi were taking over the game, but as the rounds went on they slowly dropped away. Probably one of the strangest aspects of this year’s tournament was the fact that Haruhi Suzumiya and Yuki Nagato took each other out in the third round. You kinda figured that one of those two would make it to the semi – finals, but due to ties they wound up in the same bracket in a 3 way battle with Eruruu (Utawarerumono OVA) on the first day of round 3. If either one or the other had been in the round alone then the chances of winning would have been pretty high, but with the fans split the votes were as well, so they both wound up getting eliminated.

The quarter and semi-finals went pretty smoothly, but it became apparent that there were quite a few Saki characters still left with Aisaka and Yui sneaking in quietly among them. While I was cheering for Yui it was pretty much a given that Aisaka would win in the end. You can’t find an anime message board that her name doesn’t pop up on almost daily. The surprise to me was how close the final vote was… 54 votes… Couldn’t 55 more K-On fans vote? The other surprise is that Yui had the most votes over all throughout the tournament with 6515 votes to Aisaka’s 6408, but it’s kinda like the popular vote with U.S. Presidents… Nice to have, but it doesn’t determine a winner.

All that’s left to be done is wait for next year’s tournament. With the new Haruhi episodes and the Disappearance movie announced it looks like the SOS brigade will have at least a couple more years of eligibility for Saimoe. Should be fun to watch.

Thanks goes out to Moetron for their daily coverage of the event.

Links:

Saimoe Official Page (Japanese)

Saimoe English Site

It’s Mio!!! And it’s by Alter. As usual they make some of the most accurate figures. The detail on this one is amazing although the pose is kind of odd. This one will be available in December 2009, and has an MSRP of $88 US$

At least from the images I don’t see any logos on the Fender ’62 reissue bass. If I had the cash this, and the upcoming Yui would be mine. I also would like to see an Asuza hugging her Mustang.

Okay… Now on to part 2 of this season’s anime lineup. (Part one is here: Fall 2009 Anime Lineup Part 1)

For better or worse it seems CrunchyRoll pretty much owns this season. They have licensed at least half the shows that are being broadcast and simulcasting them from their site, and the anime download community is crying murder. Although… At this point it’s mostly the viewers themselves crying as I haven’t heard much complaining from the fansub groups. Possibly they are seeing this as a break, since during the summer season some of them had so many shows they were trying to sub that many were dropped, and several that have yet to be completed. Well… All that aside let’s get into the rest of the lineup.

Kimi Ni Todoke

This show is probably going to be the Bakemonogatari of this season. I don’t think many had high expectations from a romance comedy, but this show definitely makes it interesting. The main character Sawako is a high school girl plagued by the fact the she resembles the character Sadako from the film The Ring, so you can imagine how she is treated by fellow classmates. The most amusing part is that Sawako rather than always being upset by this coincidence uses her appearance to purposely scare her classmates, and she feels that if she doesn’t live up to their expectations then everyone will be disappointed. Kind of along the lines that being the most unpopular person in school carries it’s own type of fame. The main storyline of course revolves around the one boy who is not afraid of her, and how their relationship develops. The animation goes from being a very pastel kind of like Maria Sama or Aoi Hana, but switches to a very chibi style kinda like Fruits Basket throughout. It can throw you off a bit at first, but once you get used to it the show’s appearance is actually quite cool. This story though funny at times makes you wonder if you should be laughing or crying at the day to day events that make up Sawako’s life. Maybe a little of both? Fantastic show. If you like romantic comedies you have to check this one out. Even if you don’t like them it’s still a fun show.

Heaven’s Lost Property (Sora no Otoshimono)

Okay, so if an angel suddenly fell from the sky and offered you any wish you desired what would it be? Well… From the first episode we learn that world domination is not the best choice. This show is rather funny, but the ecchi content is far more interesting. The idea of a pet angel while not a new concept is handled in a slightly different way. Usually you would expect a character in a show like this to be pure and innocent, but in this case they made her out to be more like an airhead prostitute. Storyline is kinda so-so after the first  episode, but it’s a good show to watch to kill some time.

Sasameki Koto

After saying I wasn’t watching Aoi Hana last season, and then watching it anyway I figure I won’t try to fight it this time. I would say the show is typical yuri, but there is a twist in the fact that rather than the usual all-girl school setting this one occurs in a regular co-ed school. So the gist from the first episode… One girl likes another girl, but the other girl likes a boy, and the boy happens to like the first girl thus creating tension and misunderstandings. All the while the first girl’s best friend likes her, but hasn’t admitted that she does, or even that she is into girls in the first place. The potential for misunderstandings and strained relationships is high on this one. It also seems a bit less refined than similar shows which makes the story a bit more believable rather than forced at least so far. The chances for confrontations between the characters alone will be enough to keep me watching this.

Kaboto

Hmmm… This show looks like it’s going to be another magical girl show. Except the lack of the typical magical girl attire. And there’s another talking stuffed animal. How many is that this season??? I lost count. The show on it’s surface seems to be a very child oriented show like Shugo Chara, but that’s only on the surface. It is definitely not a show for kids. The stuffed dog has quite a foul mouth on him, and most of the storyline would be way too mature for children. It’s not a dirty show by any means, but more of an adult comedy spin on the magical girl genre. The jury is still out on whether the show is good or not, but it at least deserves a couple more episodes to see how things develop.

Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu 2: Purezza

I’d like to say this story starts where the previous season left off, but it kind of doesn’t. As usual with romantic comedies the second season pretty much assumes everything that happened during the last episode of the first season didn’t happen. In other words… The two main characters Haruka and Yuuto are right back to friend status. Oh well… That’s typical. The story seems fairly amusing so far, and I’m assuming at this point that it will get better as the season goes on since the first season was kind of slow to get going as well. There is a new maid character though, so that might be interesting. The one bothersome thing about the episode was the excessive censoring. I don’t mind if they cover up the naughty bits for broadcast, but when half the screen is whited out it kind of gets annoying. Hopefully this turns out to be as fun as the first season was.

11 Eyes

I’m still trying to figure this show out. It will probably take a few episodes to get what is going on, but so far there are parallel worlds, magic, blood, demons, swords, fighting, and… Pantsu. The characters are interesting although they could easily have been brought together from several existing animes just judging by appearance. As I mentioned the storyline is still somewhat vague after one episode, but could turn out to be quite a good show. Oh… And while there have been several appearances by stuffed animals none of them have spoken… Yet. If the penguin starts yapping this show instantly loses points.

There are a few shows that I’m not intending to follow at this point starting with Armed Librarians and The Sacred Blacksmith. I just find the story based on the summaries I’ve read to be something I wouldn’t find interesting, but that’s not to say I won’t give them a try if I get bored. Fairy Tail is another that I’m not planning to watch, but if the hype continues regarding this show then I might look into it. Miracle Train is not on my list for what should be obvious reasons… While I’m not scared or repulsed by shows about gay men it’s still not something that interests me enough to follow… Although gay girls are always fun to watch I’m discovering. Queen’s Blade 2 is not one I intend to watch as I still haven’t watched the first season, but if I ever get around to that then I’ll probably watch the second series too, but it’s not likely to happen this season. There are a few more show’s that I don’t intend to follow, but I can’t think of them all right now.

At this point I’m not intending to start Darker Than Black 2, but that’s only because I’m still watching the first season. Once I get finished with the last few episodes then I intend to pick this up. And it is probably “needless” to say that I will be following the second season of Needless. The first episode of which aired last week, and was quite awesome as usual.

There are also some good OVAs scheduled for the fall season. The Negima OVA has already been subbed and released, and one thing I can say is that it is much darker and more serious than any Negima anime that has been released to date. There is a Kanokon OVA, a Mahoromatic OVA, and also the second episode of the To Heart ADplus OVA that will all be released this fall.

Seriously… If you can’t find anything to watch this fall then there’s just no pleasing you at all. So many shows there’s got to be something for everyone in the mix.

And there you have it. After all the speculation and rumors coupled with the shock of Endless 8. It has been officially announced that The Disappearance Of Haruhi Suzumiya  will get a full length feature anime film in spring of 2010. The news was released as a teaser at the end of the final episode of this season’s re-air of The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya.

While it has been almost certain for some time that this novel will be animated it was always uncertain as to how. When the re-air began filling story gaps in the first season it became obvious that they were completing the story up to the point that Disappearance would begin, but whether it was getting a full season series or a film was the big question.

Kadokawa/Kyoto Animation may be some of the sneakiest companies around, but you gotta admit they know how to get publicity.

Update:

And here is the teaser: