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Once again, I am presenting an overview of the new anime season. So far, the pickings other than sequels seem rather slim.

 Interesting:

Mayuu Maou Yuusha: There is a long-running war between the humans and the demons. The Hero (that’s his name!) leaves his small band of adventurers and, alone, approaches the castle of the Demon King, intent on violence. He finds the place undefended. The Demon King turns out to be a young Queen who tries to acquaint him with the facts of life (in more senses than one!) She points out that the war has become economically necessary to both sides, and that an abrupt ending would cause severe economic dislocation, and result in further suffering and conflict. She wants the hero to join with her in bringing about a managed run-down of the war. The Hero is reluctant, despite his fascination with the Queen’s big bouncy breasts.
The economic aspect is definitely interesting, and the show has the director and writer of the popular economics-based Spice and Wolf, as well as the two principal voice actors. On the other hand, this show seems to have been dumbed down for the benefit of adolescent males. The opening looks very like a parody of RPG-based fantasy anime, and the Hero has a virginal panic whenever the busty Queen tries to touch him.

Hakkenden: Tohou Hakken Ibun: Forget everything you vaguely remember about the original Hakkenden: this is a period supernatural monster drama involving the Church, and set in ‘Black Ships’ era Japan. Diverting.

Bakumatsu Gijiden Roman: Roman is a phantom thief who steals from the rich the things they have stolen from the poor. This is a period comedy drama, set at the end of the Edo period, in the mid-19th century. The principal character looks just like Lupin III; not surprising as he’s by the same designer: Monkey Punch. The first episode was quite a lot of fun.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (Oreshura) My Girlfriend and Childhood Friend Fight Too Much: Wins the prize for the season’s longest title. Eita is a smart and high-scoring student who is determined to get into med. school. Ditched by his feckless parents, he wants nothing to do with school romance. His childhood friend Chiwa is clearly romantically interested in him. Enter transfer student Masuzu, a girl who is gorgeous and smart, but equally uninterested in romance, and tired of being pestered by love-struck male students. A girl who knows what she wants, she soon finds out about Eita’s fantasy delusions and uses his diary to blackmail Eita into being her pretend boyfriend.
Masuzu, gorgeous, clever, determined, and frankly not altogether nice, is an interesting character, and might prove a reason for watching this show, which promises to be an all-out harem comedy. The lively Chiwa is also engaging.[CR]

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai Next: Continuation of the popular harem comedy. I liked several of the characters in the first series. The series’ theme is the difficulty of making friends. The male lead is an unusually assertive character for this sort of show. First episode has Sena fooled into changing her hairstyle. Parts of the first three episodes seemed overly familiar, but I think this is because I read the same material in the ‘light novels’. Still fun.

Kotoura-san: Kotoura can read minds, but becomes lonely and rejected because people think she’s a nasty freak. At a new school she encounters a boy who likes her. The poor girl must be a bit dim, otherwise she’d sooner realise the disastrous consequences of blurting out other people’s secrets. Credibility problem, but strong theme.

Chihayafuru 2: Continuation of the enjoyable and well-made series about young players of karuta, the competitive card game based on classical Japanese poetry.
Still great.

Sasami-chan@Ganbaranai: Sasami-chan stays at home, slavishly tended by her older brother. She views the outside world only via a Brother Surveillance Tool on her computer. Meanwhile, three odd sisters seem to be romantically (or not) interested in Brother. Like Serial Experiments Lain on drugs. So weird it makes ‘Alice in Wonderland’ look normal.

Slightly interesting:

Tamako Market: Tamako’s family run a rice-ball shop. There’s also a supernatural talking bird that keeps sitting on her head. Cute comedy, even if it sounds like the output of an ideas-generating program 🙂

Vivid Red Operation: In a future Earth, energy problems have recently been solved by new technology and the world enjoys peace and plenty. An unknown enemy appears, targeting the power source. However, young Akane’s inventor grandfather, as well as inventing the power source, anticipated the invasion, and produced a counter-measure that only Akane can control. Credibility is zero and many elements are obviously borrowed from previous anime series, but Akane is an energetic and cute heroine (with cute hot-pants), and the animation, with its bright primary colours and crisp outlines, looks great. If it wasn’t for the obvious fan-service, I’d say that this show was ideal for kids rather than more sophisticated viewers.

Uninteresting:

but not necessarily bad, these mostly do no more than pander to popular tastes.
Yama no Susume: Short anime; school friendship antics. [CR]
Mangirl! No, it’s about young manga artists starting a magazine. Short anime.[CR]
Ai Mai Mi: mercifully short anime about school manga club. [CR]
Cuticle Tantei Inaba: Detective used to be a dog. Comedy.  [CR]
Da Capo III: Cute girls, fanservice.
AKB0048 Next Stage: Idol group spinoff.
Minami-ke Tadaima: Comedy with cute sisters, mild fanservice.
Senrun Kagura: Comedy with big-breasted ninja schoolgirls. Fanservice.
Love Live: Idol-singer themed school comedy. [CR]
Ishida to Asakura: Short anime. School comedy about male friendship. [CR]
Amnesia: Romance about a girl who loses her memory. Heroine is irritatingly helpless and passive. [CR]
The Unlimited: Violent esper action drama. Spinoff of ‘Zettai Karen Children.’ [CR]
Senyuu: Short anime. King sends descendants of a hero to fight demons. [CR]
GJ-Bu: The GJ (Good Job) school club has four members: three girls and one boy. The girls do cute and amusing things. About as interesting as watching paint dry.

[CR]= streamed on Crunchyroll.

Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun: (My Little Monster) The introverted loner female lead finds herself unwillingly involved with a fellow school student whose impulsive and violent behaviour gets him banned from school. When she is obliged to take some class notes to his home, he decides that he is in love with her. I like this, and I’ll be following it. Both the principal characters are rather sociopathic in their different ways 🙂
By the way, it’s on Crunchyroll.

Chuunibyou Demo Koi ga Shitai: Yuuta Togashi has just started senior high school, determined to leave behind his hideously embarrassing middle school self, in which he acted out dark fantasy game/cosplay roles in public. He encounters Rikka Takanashi, a classmate who is now living with her older sister right about Yuuta’s apartment. She unluckily finds Yuuta chucking out his dark fantasy gear and, as she is still in the middle of a public fantasy game/cosplay obsession, immediately seizes on him as a kindred spirit.
I quite liked it, though I don’t rate it as highly as Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun. The dark-side obsession reminds me of the hero’s cute little sister in Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, who was obsessed with the same sort of thing. Is this common with Japanese middle-schoolers, I wonder?

Kamisama Hajimemashita: Seventeen year old Nanami is evicted from her home when her deadbeat dad runs off after running up gambling debts. She rescues Mikage, an earth god, from a dog, and is pointed in the direction of a temple guarded by pale-haired bishii fox demon Tomoe. Tomoe is reluctant to take her in. It was quite fun, though I don’t rate it as highly as ‘Chuunibyou’ or ‘Kaibutsu-kun’ seen this week. Kamisama Hajimemashita did have an air of ‘seen this before’ i.e. homeless girl (tick) youkai (tick) pale-haired bishie supernatural being (tick). All the same, I’ll be watching it next week.

Zetsuen no Tempest: While the viewer gradually learns that magic is being used to unleash something unspeakably horrific, two high school friends, Mahiro Fuwa and Yoshino Takigawa are still caught up in an unsolved murder. Mahiro’s sister (and Yoshino’s secret love) Aki died a year before. This story has moody protagonists, action, gorgeous girls, mystery and magic. What else could one ask for? A must-watch. [on CR]

Suki-tte Ii na yo (Say you love me):
Tachibana Mei has spent her 16 years without making friends, or having a boyfriend. One day, a mild episode of harassment causes her to snap and drop-kick Yamato Kurosawa, the most popular boy in the school, who is standing next to the culprit. Evidently bored by girls who throw themselves at him, Kurosawa decides that Mei is ‘interesting’ and starts trying to befriend her. She repels these efforts. However Mei, who is quite a good-looking girl, has another admirer, a stalker. When the stalker follows Mei to a supermarket and loiters outside, the terrified girl phones Kurosawa and he rushes to her side. To discourage the stalker, Kurosawa kisses Mei.
This is one of the best-designed and animated TV anime I’ve seen, and it has a decent script. A must-see if you like school shoujo romance. Even if you don’t, check out an episode to see what it looks like.

Already it is looking like this season will have more new shows worth watching than the previous (summer) season.

Second League:

Code Breakers: Alpha high-school girl Sakurakouji Sakura is riding the bus one day, when she sees a cold-eyed bishii boy burning some people with a blue flame. I found this to be a strong supernatural drama mixed with lighter and more comical scenes, and looking quite promising till the scene near the end of the first episode, where Sakurakouji righteously takes on a gang of over a dozen large vicious adult thugs who are armed, don’t fear the police, and have already beaten up and killed people. Since she does not have any supernatural powers, this is just insane. The episode ends with a nasty twist in the tail.
I expect that I’ll watch the next episode to see if drama or implausibility wins out, and who asides from Ogami Rei is still alive at the end of #2.
Ixion Saga DT: The game geek hero finds himself in a fantasy world where the princess is a snarky 8 year old on her way to get married, and the royal maid is a cross-dressing man. It’s certainly a funny parody, and since it’s on Crunchyroll I’ll probably tune in again. But I suspect the novelty may wear off after a while.
Teekyuu: This comedy about a girls’ tennis club has very short episodes – about 2 mins IIRC. In the first episode two characters are on court with one of them demonstrating a startling lack of talent and enthusiasm. The character designs are nothing special. It’s quite amusing and ends before one has time to get bored.

Some New Anime you needn’t watch:

Shinsekai Yori: A serious sci-fi drama in which children with psi or telekinetic abilities are trained in special schools. To me it seemed rather lame, and more like a fantasy.
Btooom!: The hero, an unemployed young man who plays computer games all day, won’t look for work, and is rude to his mother, suddenly finds himself kidnapped and dropped into a real-life version of the Btooom game. The ‘bombs’ the characters use are just a species of hand grenade. They are unconvincingly variable in their lethal effect, and the viewer is far quicker than the hero to realise that some have timers.
It looks like each episode might highlight a different unloveable character.
Busou Shinki: The principal (sole?) novelty is that the fembots are only 150mm high. Otherwise we have a collection of familiar elements: High-schooler living alone (tick), female style robots (tick), violent aerial robot battle scenes (tick), transforming robots (tick), female characters in skimpy attire (tick), maid outfits (tick), vague sexual innuendo (tick), harem (tick). Added to that, there is no strong story yet, and the high-pitched voice acting is extremely irritating. Altogether, little incentive to continue watching.
Oni-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankenai yo ne!:
A sixteen-year old boy lives alone, till his long-absent sister of the same age arrives to live with him. Unfortunately she is obsessed with bro-con and is determined to have sex with him. So relentlessly and unfunnily awful that I stopped watching halfway through.
K: Two gangs with supernatural powers try to look cool and fight each other. I could not see any point to it at all, and only managed to watch half the episode.
To Love Ru Darkness: An unfortunate youth has three alien girls living with him, who subject him to sexual harassment. Far more tedious than it sounds. I switched off halfway through.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventures: It is the nineteenth century. A rich man is badly injured in a coach crash. He regains consciousness while a vile old man is robbing him, and mistakenly thinks that the man has helped him, and gives the man his address. When the old man dies, his equally vile son calls on the rich man and is invited to live with him. He immediately tries to break the spirit of the rich boy, JoJo, and take his place, but ultimately fails as JoJo grows in strength and resolution.
At least this one has a proper story, but it’s so disagreeable and full of unpleasant characters that I don’t want to watch any more of it.

Medaka Box – Abnormal: This season of the uninspired show about a super-capable class president includes a class of students who are ‘Abnormal’- in other words they have supernatural powers. Medaka is thought to be a candidate for the ‘Abnormal’ group. Cue lots of fighting. Medaka Box crossed with Dragonball Z does not a good anime make.

Robotic Notes: The school robot club has just two members, plus a half-completed giant robot project. The hyper-enthusiastic girl member wants to get school funding to complete the robot in time for a national robot festival. Like we care.

Psycho-Pass: In the future, criminal tendencies can be detected in humans by remote sensors. Those who score too highly are arrested for re-education or terminated on the spot. A newly qualified police lieutenant is pushed straight into a field operation without any induction, and is shocked when on the basis of sensor readings, the central computer directs her to terminate the victim of a kidnap/sexual assault case as well as the perpetrator.
a) it’s an implausible set-up
b) if she feels like that, why join the Stasi cops in the first place?

Girls und Panzer: Feeble school comedy with uninteresting characters and poor character designs (+ tanks).

In the end, Binbougami was the only show I stuck with and enjoyed right to the end. I dropped several okay but unexciting shows in favour of watching the televised 2012 Olympics. I finished all of Tari Tari and Kokoro Connect but it was barely worth the effort.
Space Brothers is still running, but it is so slow-paced that I’m tempted to keep up with it by watching every other episode – I don’t think I’d miss much plot.
Summary – the most disappointing season for some years.

I’ve now seen most of the new anime released in the first week. I wasn’t wholly won over by any of them, but several are not without merit.

Tari Tari: (Crunchyroll) I quite liked this, but then I have a weakness for any sort of slice-of-life drama. A girl resigns from school choir in a strop because they won’t let her perform (she messed up at last year’s concert.) Apart from the brown-haired one, the student characters seem too similar. I was amused by the girl nagging her father – did she take after her absent mother, one wonders? I was also amused by Crunchy’s subtitle tagging the pregnant teacher as “Miss” 🙂 Rating 4/5

Aracana Famiglia: (Crunchyroll) Arcana Famiglia is an organization with mysterious powers that has long protected a small Mediterranean island from pirates, foreign countries, and other threats. Felicita, a rather bad-ass girl, objects to the boss’s plan to marry her to the next head of the Famiglia. You don’t have to be very bright to realise that Famiglia is a reference to the Sicilian Mafia. This has lots of fantastical fighting in it. Frankly not my cup of tea, but it might be yours. Rating 2/5

Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita: (Crunchyroll) Several centuries in the future, mankind has shrunk to a few villages, being replaced by six-inch high humanoids resembling fairies or elves. The main character, a girl, is an envoy between the humans and the elves. One’s first impression is of tooth-rotting tweeness, but it turns out that the anime has a strong satirical spine. The humans are a useless lot who want our heroine to do everything for them, and in one scene the village meeting takes all evening to decide on a course of action that was proposed at the beginning. And the fairies have a junk-food factory that will put you off your lunch. Episode #2 confirms that this series is batshit crazy. Worth checking out. Rating 4/5

Chitose Get You!! : (Crunchyroll) Eleven-year old schoolgirl has a crush on a young man ten years older. It does not contain any explicit naughtiness but there seems something unwholesome about the concept. Runs for 4 minutes.

Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse: (aka Total Eclipse, Crunchyroll) Based on part of the Muv-Luv game universe, with an alternative near-present world. Aliens invade Earth and the humans fight back with weapons including mecha piloted by schoolgirls. Includes rivalry between two girls from different families. Bad news: I found the temptation to pick holes in the scenario irresistible: Wasn’t the whole point of the Meiji Restoration that a traditionalist Japan was unable to resist external pressures? If aliens invaded would we have any inhibition about nuking them in space, air, land or sea? Good news: A game backed anime featuring girls piloting mecha can’t fail? Rating 2/5

Chouyaku Hyakunin Isshu: Uta Koi: (aka Uta Koi, Crunchyroll). A series of comically-told period romance stories. The source is the same classic poetry anthology used in the poetry game played in ‘Chihayafuru’. It’s quite well done, with plenty of human interest, but I found the character designs rather off-putting – they’re anachronistic and not very Japanese – typical anime character designs rather than authentic period. One also notes the mores of the period – apparently the reaction to an important princess’ affair was more ‘tut tut’ than the furious and deadly reaction that would ensue in more uptight societies. Rating 4/5

Yuri Yuri 2: (Crunchyroll). Mildly ecchi goings-on with four middle school girls. Very trivial stuff. Same formula at the first season. I didn’t watch the first season either. Rating 1/5

Binbougami ga!: Sakura Ichiko is a beautiful, big-breasted, and self-centred girl whose blissful life comes from having too much good fortune – gained by sapping energy from other people. Enter the Binbougami (Poverty God) Binbada Momiji who tries to force her to use her energy to do good and restore the balance. A supernatural struggle between the two commences. A slightly novel concept, and quite amusing. Rating: 3/5

Natsuyuki Rendezvous: (Crunchyroll) Hazuki, a depressed young man, takes a part time job at a flower shop, because he has a crush on Rokka, the widow who owns the store. However he discovers a rival in the form of the ghost of Rokka’s husband. A promising comedy-drama featuring, for once, a cast of adult characters. Rating: 3.5/5

Moyashimon Returns: Sequel to a 2007 comic series featuring biochemistry. The hero is able to see microbes. The original was a great series, particularly for those not averse to learning something about fermentation and brewing etc, but the sequel, which carries on where the original left off, is a poor introduction. Rating 3/5

Koi tou Senkyou to Chocolate: The members of the Food Research Club at Takafuji Private Academy don’t do much except hang out and eat snacks. The leading candidate for student council president wants to abolish clubs like that. A fairly trivial scenario, bolstered by elements such as a spy/assasination sub-plot, a gay club-member, and a teacher who swigs draught beer fro the clubroom’s on-tap supply. It’s a mess. rating 2/5

Joshiraku: Absurdist comedy, apparently about five young women engaged in presenting rakugo. “Rakugo (落語?, literally “fallen words”) is a Japanese verbal entertainment. The lone storyteller (落語家 rakugoka?) sits on the stage, called the Kōza (高座?). Using only a paper fan (扇子, “sensu”) and a small cloth (手拭, “tenugui”) as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical story.” (Wikipedia). Despite subtitles, I was left with the feeling that some things just don’t translate. Rating 2/5

Kono Naka ni Hitori Imoutou ga Iru: A rich youth inherits his father’s fortune and business on condition that he attends a certain school and finds a future wife from among the young ladies there. It becomes clear that one of the girls intent on snaring him is his long-lost half-sister, but he doesn’t know which student is her. Lewd and un-original, rating 2/5

Dakura boku wa H ga dekinai: Sex-obsessed youth finds a damsel in distress getting soaked in the rain and takes her home. She stabs him in the chest, revealing herself as a supernatural being sent to gather souls. It turns out that she needs his sex energy to maintain her on Earth while she carries out her main mission. Contains overt sexual elements, not suitable for juveniles. Not very good, rating 2/5

Campione!: (Crunchyroll) Japanese youth tries to return a stone tablet to an address on a Mediterranean island, but meets a female magical knight and gets mixed up in the return to earth of troublesome ancient gods. A sexy witch instructs him to keep the tablet, and he soon mixes it with the warring gods. The first episode has well-paced action and some tolerably interesting characters. Rating 3/5

Hagure Yuusha ga Estetica: Maverick underwear-stealing hero Akatsuki has come back to the real world from a world of sword and magic where he defeated the demon king. He has smuggled the demon king’s daughter back with him.
An organization called Babel looks after people who have gone to other worlds and returned. Now it has to decide what to do with Akatsuki and other returners, who have gained special powers in those other worlds.
A most unusual opening, but it looks set to have a lot of the usual confrontations between adversaries with supernatural powers. Contains mild nudity and other naughtiness. Rating 3/5

Tanken Driland: Princess in RPG- type fantasy world decides that she’d rather run away and be a Hunter of lost treasure and artefacts. Looks like trivial stuff. rating 2/5

Sword Art Online: (Crunchyroll) Gaming nut Kirito gets the latest immersive RPG “Sword Art Online” and hooks it up, but soon discovers once inside the game that there is no “Exit” button. Worse, a sinister figure tells all players that the only way out is to complete all 100 levels, that failure means real-world death, and that back in the real world any attempt to pull off the game helmet will fatally zap the player’s brain. A strong scenario, but not a very plausible one (even if it got past Health and Safety, the bomb squad should be able to hack the helmets in under 24 hours). Rating 3/5

Kokoro Connect: (Crunchyroll) Five school students discover that some of their number have had a weird out-of-body experience as their souls swap bodies. Believability is an issue but the characterisation is okay. It’s also quite funny. Rating 3/5

Oda Nobuna no Yabou: (Crunchyroll) A high school boy is suddenly transported in time to a version of the Japanese Warring States period in which all the great lords are pretty young girls. Our hero begins to serve “Oda Nobuna” as the substitute for a vassal of hers who has died. Snore. This is the third series of recent months to use this idea. On the positive side, it appears that they are incorporating real historical names and some real history; for instance the name and nickname adopted by the boy belong to the most important post- Nobunaga warlord of all. It’s quite amusing, and if you look up the names it could serve as a history primer. [Or you could watch Hyouge Mono instead. ] rating 3/5

Hakuouki: Reimei-roku: (Crunchyroll) Third in the series of bishounen TV anime about the shinsengumi warriors, who actually existed around the time of the Meiji Restoration. This one goes back to the origins. There are no female characters so far. Expect angst and swordplay. Rating 3/5

Rinne no Lagrange: Flower Declaration of Your Heart Season 2: More of the engaging but slightly daft girl/robot series. First impression is that it’s maybe not quite as good as the first series, with the OP and ED changed for the sake of being different and a reset of the alien antics. Rating 3.5

So there you have it; several game-based series, several smutty series intent on titillating Japanese youths, and a few others of some merit.

You’ll note that much of the season so far is available on Crunchyroll in SD/480p/720p/1080p.