Spring 2011 anime mid-season

Dororon Enma-kun
Dororon Enma-kun - new or original?

I have found several shows worthy of continued attention:

Hanasaku Iroha (Personal Growth ABC): The rural melodrama continues to charm, as the rather noisy Ohana tries her best to make her mark and get on with her teenage work-mates, who seem to have personality problems of their own.

Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae o Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai (We Still Don’t Know the Name of the Flower We Saw That Day): a.k.a. “Ano Hana.” The hero, encouraged by the ghostly Menma, contacts his former junior school buddies and tries to patch up their relationship. Seems his friends have problems of their own, related to Menma’s death.  Continues to be an interesting drama.

Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko (radio wave woman and laidback man): Bizarre moe comedy. The hero continues to try to sort out his weirdo and extremely cute-looking cousin while a couple of other girls take an interest in him. He also has to fend off his youthful-looking and very tactile auntie, who is nearly as flaky as her presumed child. Continues to be amusing, and interesting story-wise.

Kami Nomi 2 (The World God Only Knows 2): Gamer gets to grips with real girls. It’s still maintaining much of last year’s quality. In the latest episode, our hero is depressed by a particularly scornful real girl. However I just noticed that the school uniforms, scarlet last year, have become more brown.

Moshidora (Drucker in the Dugout): Full Japanese title is: Moshi Kōkō Yakyū no Joshi Manager ga Drucker no Management o Yondara (“What If the Female Manager of a High School Baseball Team Had Read Drucker’s ‘Management’?”). It’s about a high school girl who is “manager” of the school baseball team, and who while looking for a baseball manager’s book, picks up Peter Drucker’s business management classic, and tries to use it to help her manage the team and aim for the Koshien. The ideas are interesting, the characters and the play less so.  In terms of characters and game play, it was much inferior to an Adachi Mitsuru baseball anime, but the ideas were interesting. Which is why I watched the whole thing, 10 eps.

Hyouge Mono: Cynical historical comedy. Still watching this excellent series. Only 3 eps subbed so far.

Showa Monogatari: Still watching this period drama. Interesting how different these characters are from the present generation. The 20 year old son has no idea how to dress for a date and clearly has little experience of girls, and the mature-looking daughter is trailed when she goes out on her own. Only 2 episodes subbed so far.

Steins; gate: Time travel SF. I’m still watching. However the principal character continues to be a pillock and there has been little real development of the theme, so I’m losing hope.

C – The Money of Soul and Possibility Control: Supernatural drama. I watched 2 eps and found it fairly good if a bit over-imaginative, so am not actively following it at present.

Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera: Rude horror comedy based on Go Nagai original. Not bad, but I’m not following it.

Ao no Exorcist (Blue Exorcist): Orphan in care of exorcism- performing religious order discovers that he can “see things” and that he possesses a strange power. Saw impressive 1st episode. I’m not actively following it.

Gothic: A 26-episode series, set in 1924. The cute Victorique and her Watson-like foil Kazuya continue to amuse.

Hen Zemi (Strange Seminar): Watched 2 episodes. Amusing and well-crafted smut. I’m not actively following this – guess I need to be in the right mood…

The rest: Dropped.