First a round-up of the Fall 2010 season:
Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru – best of the lot.  Even though the final episode wasn’t great.
Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii – Kirino learns to be a bit less obnoxious at the end, but an alternate ending may be presented in the DVD version! She still hasn’t been weaned away from her unacceptable hobby. Little that’s too embarrassing appears on screen in this series, mercifully.  There are several highlights, e.g. the sequence where a bratty child actress is pressurised into participating in a anime cosplay – and proceeds to totally ace it, and Kuroneko’s satiric and very funny manga featuring Kirino.
Yosuga no Sora – If you’re wondering what happens at the end, the answer is that it’s every bit as steamy as the rest of it. Now go take a cold shower.
Kuragehime – ends with all the situations suddenly resolved. A charming anime, except that the house-mates are just too weird. But they’re likewise too weird in the originating manga.
Otome Yokai Zakuro – continues to be charming, and we learn more about Zakuro’s background.
And now for the new season:
Starry Sky: Girl goes to previously all-male astronomy school. Awful, even if the don’t-care way they muddle astronomy and astrology doesn’t annoy you.
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (Magical Girl Madoka) : A typical magical-girl anime, but with some nice animation, especially in the CG magic bits. Â The heroine is a pre-teen. Â Promising.
IS: Infinite Stratos: romantic comedy adventure with mecha and some fanservice. Infinite Stratos (IS), is a weaponized exoskeleton system, almost exclusively piloted by females. Decently animated, but with some very familiar situations. Too early to tell if this will be silly but entertaining, or just silly.
Yumekui Merry (Dream Eater Merry) : When the real world and the world of dreams intersect, strange things happen. Could be worth following. There is contrasting animation for the real and dream worlds.
Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! (I’m not at all like that brother!) : A brother and sister fancy each other. Ecchi smut-fest comedy with few if any redeeming qualities.
Freezing: Aliens invading earth are countered by special force of female fighters. Â Implausible but stylishly animated battle-anime with lots of fan-service.
Gothic (ゴシック): Set in an imaginary European country, in 1924. Token Japanese schoolboy meets a brilliant and bossy blonde girl who solves gothic mysteries. Quite funny, adequate animation. Promising.
Kore wa Zombie desu ka? (Is this a Zombie?) : Daft and hilarious comedy about a schoolboy who is already a zombie as the series starts. Add a magical girl whose clothes disappear whenever her magic falters, a gay crayfish monster, and some skilfully delivered visual gags, and we have a potential hit. ROFL.
Cardfight!! Vanguard: About teenagers playing a fantasy battle card-game. I’m not a gamer – I found it uninteresting.
Hourou Musuko (Wandering Son) : This was widely anticipated as the “quality” anime of the season – another adaptation of a Shimura Takako manga – the other being the delicate drama “Aoi Hana”.  The first episode is animated in attractive pastel colours, but crams in introductions to quite a lot of characters, as well as letting us see already its awkward subject matter – cross-dressing among junior high school students. This is a sensitively handled  character drama – not a sensational or comic anime.  My recommendation is to stick with this one, unless the subject creeps you out, or you don’t care for character-based drama. If you’re confused, take a look at the online manga scanlation, which also reveals that the animators have jumped in at around chapter 30 of a 90+ chapter manga.
Level E: Earth is infested with aliens, all here for their different reasons, and the humans are the only ones who don’t know. Our hero soon finds out as he finds a stranded alien in his room. Quite amusing, with a half-decent script. Could be worth checking another episode to see if it’s going anywhere.
Beelzebub: I imagine the creator had a bad experience with a baby! I’m unimpressed though.
Wolverine: Ultra-violent superhero stuff, with glossy animation. Uninvolving, though.
Kimi ni Todoke 2 (Reaching You 2) : Eagerly awaited by those who loved the first series of this shoujo romantic comedy. 2011 episode #0 was a recap. In ep #1, it’s chocolate-giving day, and Sawako can’t quite screw up courage to give lovingly-made chocolates to Kazehaya, who hangs about in increasing disappointment. Â Give him the chocs already, girl! Worth a look.
Fractale: sci-fi anime, containing obvious homages to Miyazaki movies and Nadia Tv series. Much discussed, but sense of relief that it isn’t anything like Freezing or Onii-chan no Koto may cloud judgement. Â Worth a look.
Haiyoru! Nyaruanai Remember My Love(craft-sensei) Ultra-short 4-minute per episode series, overlooked by some commentators. Supposedly about aliens and deities and an ordinary schoolboy. Ist ep. contains little besides smutty dialogue.
Several of the 2011 series are licensed on Crunchyroll, with trailers and opening episodes.