Fastforward to Spring 2008 With The Bunny Who Leapt Through Time

January 19th, 2008 usagijen

Last season, I initially planned to cook-up a comprehensive first impressions post on the fall animes I watched, but before I even got a glimpse of most of them, I already found myself joining the bandwagon of blogging Shugo Chara, KimiKiss, My Condolences Ninomiya-kun, and Suteki Tantei Labyrinth. In the end, my originally intended post never materialized. I dropped one show after another as time went by, leaving only KimiKiss (and the Shugo Chara manga, if that counts) in my current blogging schedule. I lost the passion and drive to blog Saiunkoku and Emily along the way as well, and up until now I’m still trying to rekindle that flame =__=

This time around, I decided to take it slow, to delight in what the Winter ‘08 animes has to offer, before deciding on which shows to blog. Despite how several shows piqued my interest, namely True Tears, Persona, Porfy no Nagai Tabi, Shigofumi, Spice and Wolf, Hatenkou Yuugi, Hakaba Kitarou and KimiAru, I can’t seem to bring myself to write about these shows. These animes struck a chord with me, but somehow, it wasn’t enough inspiration for a write-up (the KimiAru deep frying I did isn’t really a proper write-up, but just a random “lol”).

Winter’s Block is making me feel like a sad girl in the snow. It’s not you, winter animes, it’s me.

I’ve never been a good writer. If there’s one thing that blogging has really taught me, it’s that I should not have taken reading [English books] and writing for granted, during the “formative years” of my life. Sorry, mom, I now realize how foolish I am for not listening to your advice. But that’s not the point. The thing is, with the lack of ability to articulately express myself, especially for shows I can’t [fully] get into, I am not able to churn out a “worthwhile” post. With this, I come to the conclusion that the problem lies with me and my current Winter’s Block. The most plausible and convenient reason I can think of behind this phenomenon is that, I left my heart somewhere else, in the season of Spring~ yes that’s right. Deliberately or not, I found myself not wanting to become attached to the Winter shows, in light of what is to come in the next season. I feel like singing, “O Come All Ye Spring 2008 Animes” now, actually

My Newtype magazines just made this worse, as it allowed me to do some sort of “time leap”, and I became excited for what Spring ‘08 has to offer instead. I guess this also explains why I wasn’t able to cook up a Winter 2008 Anime “Menu” / Season Preview? Though I think I owe much of that to laziness, procrastination, and loneliness (bunnies need company to be able to GIVE IT ALL THEY’VE GOT, after all)

Having known the roots of my Winter’s Block, I obviously cannot go about proclaiming how the Winter season of animes suck. I’ve already lost the “right” to proclaim that with what I’ve mentioned thus far. If you’re looking for a guide for the Winter season of shows, I’m sorry to say that I cannot be a hermit bunny at this state of hibernation. And besides, there are other blogs out there which are more qualified for that, IMO. So instead of forcing myself to post about the current shows [halfheartedly], I’ll just stick to what I’ve already been doing and continue to look at what lies ahead, while not losing focus of the present (aka watching Winter shows, and blogging what I’m supposed to). Allow me then to guide you into the world of Spring! Wai~ So yeah, all this lengthy introduction is just to tell you guys, that I’ll be providing “Snapshots of Spring 2008″ in the coming months, as I scan pages from Newtype / Animedia, for the greater good. ^^;;;

Enjoy the pics~! Let’s all be happy and look forward to Spring! =3

I’ll be adding up more chunks of info about these upcoming shows as I get my lazy butt to write-up a summary for each of them >_<

Highly Anticipated Animes

(pardon the Shoujo fangirl bias ):

Neo Angelique Abyss
Official site

Neo Angelique is the newest installment to Koei’s Angelique games, and the only one I played so far. If I were to describe this in simple terms, it would be “Harukanaru Toki no Naka de: Victorian Style”. Instead of a miko, we have Angelique, the chosen one sent by the heavens~ who teams up with a group of bishies to save the world from evil. That’s roughly what its “plot” is, pretty cheesy and unoriginal, but I’m really biased for this because the game has a soft spot in my heart. As early as now, I can already predict many bloggers dropping this show from their watch this with simply one episode, just like the fate of Corda, but I will stand by this show through thick and thin, despite how others might label it as “crap” >3

For fangirls, especially, here’s a little pimping present to go with this, the translation for the ending dialogues of the characters in the game, which I did as a favor for someone in AS before (and whom I haven’t heard from ever since =[ ). This is gonna be cheesy, so prepare yourself xD
Show ▼

Special A
Official site

You can already tell I’m excited about this show, ever since I pimped it a few months back. While I’m a little apprehensive about the character designs, I don’t think that’ll ruin the fun and WAFF this anime has to offer. The “GONZO” involvement is what I’m worried about.
As for my highly anticipated animes which still haven’t been “fully” featured in Newtype (aka, no widespread pics):

Monochrome Factor
Official site

This is not what you think it is, naughty people

Based on a BL-ish fantasy manga, whose eyecandies and seemingly interesting premise is enough to make me anticipate this I’m gonna post some pics from the manga later on, or in my next posts

Vampire Knight

Yet another adaptation I pimped not so long ago. It’s Vampirilicious, what more can I say? =D It’s just, really angsty though… I’m gonna read the manga again and see how much I can fangirl over this. Another thing to note about this show is that Studio Deen is gonna work on it~

Toshokan Sensou
Official site

shounen manga vs anime vs shoujo manga, who’s the shoujo-est of them all?

Based on a novel by Hiro Aikawa, with two manga adaptations to date: a shoujo and a shounen version, running in Lala and Dengeki Daioh respectively.

Synopsis:

Set in the year 2019, where Japan has been dominated by the dictatorial Media Regulation Organization, who takes away people’s freedom of expression. The organization Library, an underground militia, steps out for an uprising to take back what they have lost.

There are several factors which make me all the more want to watch this: (1) Kaoru Iku (made a booboo with the name x__X), the strong female lead of the show, (2) the interesting premise, and the possibility of an epic battle, between the Library and the Media Regulation Organization, (3) possible romance development, and of course… (4) Production I.G.

This immediately became one of my anticipated shows in the coming season, right when I saw a chapter of the manga in Lala. I mean, I never thought it had some shoujo elements! XD I already ordered the first volume of the novel, and I really hope I can get into it, as much as I did with, say, Kaze no Stigma

Teaser pics:

Show ▼

Kurenai
Official site

A loli and a bodyguard. I think that sums this up From what I’ve seen in the novel and the PV, it’s going to be a heartwarming story about these two characters. And, here’s a teaser pic from the novel.

Aside from this, I’m also looking forward to Macross Frontier. Hayaotome is hawt. ’nuff said.

[Moderately] Anticipated Animes

Amatsuki
Official site

I’ll just go copy paste this summary from mangaupdates, as I’m still in lazy mode :))

History isn’t Tokidoki’s strong subject. He’s even forced to do make-up work at a high-tech history museum to bring up his failing grades. After losing an eye to a virtual reality monster in an Edo-period simulation, he finds himself unable to leave the game. Could it be real?

Interesting enough for me. And that guy over there is hawt +___+ Oh and we have another kickass girl too! This series draws me, for some reason. I blame it on the manga cover pic.

Junjou Romantica
Official site

It’s been quite some time since I’ve watched a BL anime, so I thought it won’t hurt to delve into this genre again, considering that the plethora of guys in the blogosphere will most likely run away from this show, unless for comedic satire I haven’t read the manga, but this synopsis I found just sparked my interest for this show even more (I think that might be bad >_<):

Misaki is suddenly having some unexpected and odd problems. What started as a need for some college entrance exam tutoring has somehow led him to being romanced by a suave older man who also happens to be his big brother’s best friend. Confused by all of his brand new emotions, Misaki struggles to deal with his suddenly very odd life. And if that wasn’t enough, his suitor, Usami, has plenty of issues of his own. A man-child who decorates his room in giant teddy bears and toys, Usami is a famous novelist who also writes steamy boys’ love novels on the side. When Misaki cracks open one of these books and reads sentences like “Misaki licks every inch of Usami’s hot body”…well, let’s just say that all hell breaks loose. And if one couple isn’t enough for you, Junjo Romantica focuses on three different sets of lovers, each with their own compelling stories. -blumanga

I just hope it won’t be a hardcore yaoi anime, like Papa to Kiss in the Dark, which I have forsaken even before I got to finish watching it.

Aside from this, I’m also looking forward to Himitsu Top Secret and Itazura na Kiss, both of which are shoujo manga adaptations. While Himitsu Top Secret seems to have a solid storyline, I’m dreading that it might be too disturbing for me to handle. Itazura na Kiss on the other hand will be fairly easy to follow (and to blog), a lighthearted shoujo anime, my dose of common shoujo romance fluff for this season, if ever.

Other interesting looking shows (at least for me) include Tower of Druaga (again, I hope GONZO doesn’t screw this), BUS GAMER, Nabari no Oh and 20 Mensou no Musume.

Additional Eyecandies:

Code Geass R2
Official site

If only I watched the first season of this, then it will be in my Highly Anticipated List as well. Sadly, I have yet to catch up on this backlogged title =/ It seems that Lulu’s brother is going to be introduced this season, together with a new set of wardrobe~

Kyou Kara Maoh 3rd season
Official site

I haven’t finished watching the first two seasons, so sadly, I won’t be following this. It’s actually a little blessing in disguise, since this means I can fangirl over the other shows instead xD

Soul Eater
Official site

I don’t know much about this except that it deals with Shinigamis and “Soul Eaters”. I haven’t read the manga, but I don’t think I’m gonna watch this anyways. I’m sure my baka anikis will watch this though… so I think I can just take a peek from time to time Ok, so I browsed through the manga, and among the first scenes I see is this, and then this. Oh but wait there’s more! It might, or might not really be a boobfest like Dragonaut, since the Soul Eater manga seemed to have toned it down in the later volumes, but I just don’t see any saving grace for me in this show =/ Oh, BONES, why did you not work on Special A instead~

Da Capo II S.S.
Official site

I have no intentions of touching this show… just scanned for this for the Da Capo fanboys out there who are looking forward to this second season, despite being labelled as an SS (sucky show) by others.

This list is still subject to changes, as I get to know more about the other upcoming shows, and see more eyecandies =3

P.S. Wow… I never intended to say anything about these shows but just pimp with pics. Talk about being inspired

Popularity: 15% [?]

Entry Filed under: Anime News, Site News