Spring 2012 Preview

Image from Safebooru
It's that time again! While there isn't a lot of original material I'm looking forward to in the upcoming season, there are a lot of sequels and continuations to get excited about!

Disclaimer: The following is my personal opinion based on the information available and is subject to change throughout the upcoming season. None of the opinions expressed are directed at any individual. You are welcome to express your opinion in the comments section, but anything overwhelming negative (name calling, etc.) will be deleted.

This preview does not include: upcoming movies, OVA's, special episodes, sequels to shows that I have not seen the first season of (when seeing the first season is necessary to understand the plot), "kids" shows that I do not intend to watch, shows where there is little to no information available, re-releases, and shows intended to be shown on mobile platforms in Japan (such as cell phones).

Overall, please respect others' opinions and feel free to share what you're excited about in the comments below!

Fate/Zero 2
Genres: Action, Fantasy, Supernatural
Synopsis: The second half of Fate/Zero.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: The first half was excellent, and I'm excited to see where the next part will go. Definitely watching.


Kimi to Boku. 2
Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, School, Shounen, Slice of Life
Synopsis: The second half of Kimi to Boku.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: While it's no Daily Lives of High School Boys, this show really grew on me while I was blogging it, so I'm glad that more is on the way.


Eureka Seven AO
Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Mecha, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: The story is set on Okinawa's isolated island of Iwado, which has seen a growing movement advocating a return to an autonomous government. Ao Fukai, a 13-year-old boy with a missing father, lives on the island with an old doctor named Toshio and is about to enter middle school. Ao's mother was taken away a decade ago by unknown individuals. Naru Arata, Ao's 13-year-old childhood friend and the story's heroine, lives with her father, older sister, and grandmother. She has a "Yuta" power awakened within her due to an incident when she was young. A mysterious entity called "Secret" suddenly appears and launches an attack on the Scub Coral lifeform on the island. Ao launches a certain military FP called "Nirvash" aboard a Japanese military transport in his fervent desire to protect the island.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Apparently you don't need to see the first series to watch this one, but I get the feeling that it'll be similar to Last Exile, where you'll get a lot more out of it if you did see the original. Eureka Seven is on my to-watch list, so I'll see this season after I finish that.


Sankarea
Genres: Comedy, Ecchi, Horror, Romance, Shounen, Supernatural
Synopsis: Furuya's obsessed with zombies. He collects any figurines, watches any movie, and plays any game with the living dead, and is even only interested in zombie girls. When his cat dies, Furuya begins trying to raise it from the dead using an ancient book of the occult he bought from a shop. But what will happen when he sees the idol of a nearby all girl's school walking close to where he conducts his experiment, wishing to die and be reborn as a different person?
Thoughts/Will I watch it: It seems like it could be interesting, but the inclusion of "ecchi" in the genres always gives me pause... Plus, there's another zombie show airing this season... I'll give this one the three-episode test.


Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
Genres: Mystery, Horror, Romance, School, Shounen, Supernatural
Synopsis: A young woman, by some strange occurrence, was left to die alone in the former building of Seikyou Academy. Mysteriously, there is one person who can see her in ghost form: Niiya Teiichi, a freshman. Now they both seek to find out the reasoning behind her death, and what could have caused it.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Going by the synopsis alone, it just sounds like a slightly different take on the same story that we've been getting from Another. I'll check out the first episode to see if the differences make it interesting, but otherwise I'm pretty indifferent about this title.


Medaka Box
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Martial Arts, Romance, School, Shounen
Synopsis: Kurokami Medaka, a first year, is elected as Student Council President, and the first thing she does is establish a suggestion box, later dubbed by students the "Medaka Box." Medaka encourages students to submit any problem to the box without hesitation and promises to take on any issue from anyone.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I wasn't interested at all until I saw that NisiOisiN and Gainax are involved with this. If anyone can make this work, it's them. And even if they can't, I at least expect a hilarious trainwreck.


Phi Brain 2
Genres: Action, Game
Synopsis: Second season
Thoughts/Will I watch it: The first season has been ridiculous ("PUZZLES KILLED MY PARENTS") yet its characters have grown on me. It's the kind of show that knows it's ridiculous and just runs with it. If the second season turns out anything like the first, I'll definitely be watching.


Zetman
Genres: Action, Drama, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, Seinen
Synopsis: Jin is a strange kid with an angel mark on his hand. He lives a poor but peaceful life with his grandfather, along with the other destitute and abandoned vagabonds near the river. One day, his peaceful life changes when a strange monster named "player" appears, chopping off heads and killing everyone who appears in front of it.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: It looks like this is the action/gore show of the season. I'll be checking it out if it gets a legal stream.


Kuroko no Basket
Genres: Comedy, School, Shounen, Sports
Synopsis: Kuroko is a member from the legendary middle school basketball team known as "The Generation of Miracles", and while nobody seems to know about him, the main 5 players of the team all admit that he is a better player. When he joins the high school basketball team, everyone is surprised to find out that he is small, weak, and easy to miss. What is the secret that makes him so strong, and how will he help his high school team?
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Watching The Knight in the Area is good enough for me, so I'm going to pass on this one.


Sakamichi no Apollon
Genres: Drama, Historical, Romance, School, Slice of Life, Josei
Synopsis: Nishimi Kaoru has moved from city to city and school to school because of his father's job. So the first day at his new school was just routine for him. Being intellectual and the new transfer student, he has always been seen as an outcast and all Kaoru had to do was bear it until the next time he moved. But things were slightly different this time. First, he started to get close to the class president, Mukae Ritsuko, and, secondly, unlikely as it seemed, grew closer to Kawabuchi Sentaro. Sentaro was infamous for getting into fights, skipping class and was an overall bad boy. Strangely enough, the three of them find common ground in music, namely jazz, and Kaoru finds himself actually enjoying the new town.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: SAVING ANIME WITH JAZZ. I was impressed by the PV and hearing that this is going to be on noitaminA was icing on the cake. Definitely watching.


Uchuu Kyoudai
Genres: Sci-Fi, Space, Slice of Life, Seinen
Synopsis: One night in 2006, when they were young, the two brothers Mutta (born 1993) and Hibito (born 1996) saw what appeared to be a UFO heading for the moon. They decided that night to both become astronauts and travel out into space. In 2025, Hibito has become an astronaut, and he's going to go to the moon. Mutta ended up following a more traditional career path with an auto development company. However, Mutta just ruined his career through a violent altercation with his boss. Now, not only has he lost his job, he appears to be blacklisted in the entire industry. Maybe this is a rare opportunity for Mutta to once again chase his childhood dream and become an astronaut like his little brother!
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Sounds interesting. I'll give it a look if it gets streamed.


Ginga e Kickoff!
Genres: Shounen, Sports
Synopsis: The story follows a boy who was in a soccer team, but it was disbanded due to not enough players. However, after the boy meets a female professional soccer player, he aims to bring his soccer team back.
Thoughts/Will I watch it?: Same as what I said with the basketball anime; I'm already watching a soccer anime, and that's good enough for me.


Hyouka
Genres: Mystery
Synopsis: Oreki Hotaro is a high school boy, who always acts passively. One day, he enters "Koten Bu (Classic Literature Club)" as recommended by his elder sister. There he meets Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, and Ibara Mayaka. Chitanda is a calm beautiful girl but she turns into an embodiment of curiosity once she says, "I'm interested in it (Watashi, Kininarimasu)". Fukube is a smiling boy who excels in memory, but he never constructs his own deduction. Ibara is a short girl and is strict with others and herself. She loves Fukube, but he always dodges her approach. They begin to investigate a case that occurred 33 years ago. Hints of the mystery is buried in an old collection of works of the former members of Koten Club. The collection is titled "Hyouka".
Thoughts/Will I watch it?: Shows where high school kids solve mysteries have been cropping up a lot recently, huh...? I'm indifferent about this one at the moment. I may try the first episode if it gets simulcasted.


Upotte!!
Genres: Action, Comedy, Seinen
Synopsis: A teacher is looking for a school by the name of Seishou Academy, as he is a new transfer teacher for that school. Seishou Academy is known for having students with excellent marksmanship. However, he gets lost along the way and decides to look for someone who knows where the school is at a summer festival. He encounters a girl at a shooting range and finds her marksmanship skills to be professional. The girl tells the new teacher that she is an assault rifle, not a student. Her name is FNC and is an assault rifle of Seishou Academy. The new teacher attends school the next day to find students, including FNC, practicing shooting M16s and realizes that he has come to an unbelievable school. How will his experience be at Seishou Academy?
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Not for me. Pass.


Accel World
Genres: Action, Romance, School, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: One autumn day in 2046, Haruyuki has an encounter with Kuroyukihime, the prettiest girl in his school. For the middle school boy who is often bullied, the meeting changes his life. Through a mysterious piece of software from her, Haruyuki learns of the existence of the virtual Accel World. In that moment, the lowest of the "school caste" becomes "Burst Linker", a knight defending a princess.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I find the character designs for this really interesting, especially that of the main character, and the story looks good as well. I'm looking forward to this one.


Haiyoru! Nyaruko-san
Genres: Comedy, Parody, Sci-Fi
Synopsis: The story of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san centers around Nyaruko, a formless Cthulhu deity of chaos (Nyarlathotep) who can take on the shape of a seemingly ordinary silver-haired girl. Mahiro Yasaka is a normal high school boy who is chased by aliens one night, until Nyaruko saves him.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Oh yeah, this is that moe Cthulhu series. As far as I can tell, this isn't the sequel to the flash OVA but is a separate adaptation, so I included it on the list. But even with that weird story angle, I'm not hooked. Pass.


Kore wa Zombie desu ka? of the Dead
Genres: Action, Comedy, Ecchi, Magic
Synopsis: Second season.
Thought/Will I watch it: I enjoyed the heck out of the first season, and I'm really excited about this season. I'll be watching for sure.


Hirro no Kakera
Genres: Action, Romance
Synopsis: The protagonist is a teenage girl (Tamaki) who revisits a small village, she remembers from her childhood and gets caught up in her family's history and supernatural dangers surrounding it.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: The bishe show of the season. Even though I know it probably won't be that good... Why can't I look away?!


Mysterious Girlfriend X
Genres: Mystery, Ecchi, Romance, School, Seinen
Synopsis: One day, a strange transfer student appears before Tsubaki. Urabe Mikoto is an antisocial girl, whose hobby is just sleeping during class-breaks. One day, Tsubaki goes to wake her up and accidentally tastes her drool... And gets hooked on that! After that, he starts going out with her and gets to know her better. Her second hobby, as it turns out, is carrying around scissors in her panties and cutting paper into flowers...
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Uh... That first part of the synopsis is pretty gross... No thank you...


Saki: Achiga-hen - Episode of Side-A
Genres: Game, School, Slice of Life
Synopsis: The Achiga Girls' Academy in Nara once defeated regional mahjong powerhouse Bansei High School. It advanced into the national team semifinals but lost to the eventual champion, and the mahjong club was later disbanded. Six years later, elementary school student Shizuno Takakamo befriends transfer student Nodoka Haramura. The two eventually enter Achiga Girls', but Nodoka transfers out of the school in the second year. When Shizuno sees Nodoka on television the following year as the national middle school individual mahjong champion, she decides to revive Achiga's mahjong club.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I didn't see the original Saki, but I remember that it was pretty popular. It doesn't look like you have to see the first season to watch this one, but I'll wait and see what others say before I decide if I want to watch this one.


AKB0048
Genres: Music
Synopsis: In the beginning of the 21st century, a world war breaks out over interplanetary travel tech. The environment is pretty much destroyed so mankind leaves Earth and starts Star Calendar 00. Entertainment and songs become heavily regulated and eventually banned due to their power to move people, but a brave idol group puts on guerrilla performances in the name of a famous act from earlier times that sang to Earth's bitter end, AKB48. The illegal revival group's name is... AKB0048.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I'm not a fan of AKB48, so unless this ends up being the next Idolm@ster, I'll pass.


Ozuma
Genres: Sci-Fi
Synopsis: In the far future, the elevated irradiation from the sun has destroyed the environment of the earth and the birthrate of humans has drastically decreased. The government controls society with an army of cloned soldiers called "Ideal Children (IC)". Sam Coin is a trader in a desert. One day, he saves a beautiful woman Maya, who has been chased by Theseus, a corps of IC. He shelters her in his trade ship, but the destroyers of Theseus surround Sam and Maya.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Good stuff for Leijiverse fans. I'm still working through Harlock, so I'll have to take a pass for now.


Jormungand
Genres: Action, Adventure, Seinen
Synopsis: The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, a weapons corporation. As one of the company's unofficial weapon sellers, she secretly sells weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law enforcements as most of her work is actually illegal under international law. Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly composed of ex-military veterans. Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers. Jonah joins Koko as he wishes to find the arms dealer responsible for his family's death. What follows is Koko and her crews escapades around the world.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Sounds interesting, although I'm not too sure what to make of it yet. However, I've liked everything that White Fox has put out to date, so I'll be giving this a look.


Shiba Inuko-san
Genres: Comedy
Synopsis: Shibainuko-san is a 14-year-old girl who looks exactly like a Shiba Inu dog. One of her classmates, Ishibashi Chako, wonders about her appearance, but no one else thinks it is strange.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Looks like another five minute show. Also, I can't help but be reminded of this. Anyway, if it does end up being short, I might give it a look.

Cardfight Vanguard: Asia Circuit Hen
Genres: Action, Game, Shounen
Synopsis: Sequel to Cardfight!! Vanguard.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I actually have been really enjoying the first season of this, so I'm looking forward to the continuation. I'll explain myself when I write up a review of the first season. Anyway, definitely watching this.


Saint Seiya Omega
Genres: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Shounen
Synopsis: The first Saint Seiya TV series in 25 years. It will have an original story and new characters. The protagonist is Kohga, a 13-year-old bronze saint, who was raised by the goddess Athena. He admires the legendary gold saint Seiya and fights against the evil Mars.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I'm indifferent about this one as well. I never saw the original, although I know that it has its fans. I'll wait to see what others make of it.


Shining Hearts: Shiawase no Pan
Genres: Action, Fantasy
Synopsis: One day, a mysterious girl named Kaguya was washed ashore the island of Wyndaria after a great storm. She encounters Rick, a swordsman who wound up working at the island's bakery. Apparently, Kaguya is suffering from having lost her memories and emotions. In addition, the usually peaceful Wyndaria is now swarming with pirates who came seeking for the special spirit stone that is worn around Kaguya's neck. Knowing the situation, Rick and his co-workers, Nellis, Amyl, and Aerie decided to bring back peace to island and help Kaguya regain her lost memories and emotions.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Well, I like RPGs... Let's see if I like them in an anime format. It's worth a shot.


Sengoku Collection
Genres: Samurai
Synopsis: Anime adaptation of Konami's Sengoku Collection social networking service game, set in the tumultuous Sengoku Era of historical Japan, when military masters circle the figurative throne of Japan's first shogunate.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I... have no idea what make of this. What's next, Farmville the anime? I might watch the first episode just to see what it's like...


Achhi Kocchi
Genres: Romance, School, Seinen
Synopsis: Wouldn't you just love to poke in a relationship between two young high schoolers who have a subtle distance between each other? Of course you would. Tsumiki and Io have this subtle distance that anyone would want to jump in between just to bug them. That's what the other characters are there for. Tsumiki, being a tsundere and all, won't be honest about her feelings toward Io. Io on the other hand is unaware of Tsumiki's feelings, hence the subtle distance between the two. Now, let's watch these two and see what events await them...
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Sounds cute. I love these kind of relationship dynamics. Will watch if it gets a legal stream.


Yurumates 3D
Genres: Comedy, Slice of Life, Seinen
Synopsis: Yurume, an 18-year-old "ronin" and recent high school graduate, has high hopes of being accepted and attending Tokyo University. She moves into an apartment complex, the Maison du Wish, located on the outskirts of Tokyo where other ronins living there are studying for upcoming college acceptance exams.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: Those character designs are kinda... Anyway, here's another title I'm indifferent about, even though it's slice-of-life. I'll wait and see if the comedy side does deliver before deciding to watch it.


Natsuiro Kiseki
Genres: Slice of life
Synopsis: Original anime featuring the four members of Sphere as voice actresses.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: I almost didn't include this one due to a lack of an actual synopsis, but the PV seemed nice enough for something that appears to be slice of life. I'm also pretty fond of the director, who was responsible for the original FMA and UN-GO. I'll give it a look if it gets streamed.


Tsuritama
Genres: Sci-Fi
Synopsis: Yuki Sanada is a high school boy who cannot communicate with people well and doesn't have a single friend. He lives on Enoshima island with his French grandmother. One day, he meets a boy named Haru. Haru calls himself an alien who visited the Earth for fishing. Another high school boy, Natsuki, and a mysterious Indian, Akira, join the two and the island becomes the center of the event which determines the fate of the world.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: SAVING ANIME WITH FISHING/DUCKS. I'm excited for this noitaminA show as well.


Queen's Blade: Rebellion
Genres: Action, Adventure, Ecchi, Fantasy
Synopsis: After the 30th Queen's Blade, Claudette becomes the queen. At first, she governs the country well by abolishing the heavy taxes and the aristocracy. However, her reign turns into terrorism by power and the Queen's Blade is repealed. The Princess Knight of Rebellion, Annelotte organizes a rebel army and declares war against Claudette.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: . . . (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻


Shirokuma (Polar Bear) Cafe
Genres: Comedy
Synopsis: Comedy anime about a polar bear that runs a cafe with 3 regulars: a panda, a koala, and a penguin.
Thoughts/Will I watch it: SAVING ANIME WITH POLAR BEARS. Clearly this is the best thing ever. I'll definitely watch it if it gets a legal stream (since I don't think that anyone else would pick this up...)

Images from MAL and Google. Series information from MAL and Animucharts.