Winter 2011 (+Star Driver, Bakuman, & Index II) Final Impressions

Apologies for the delay. With all of the delays from the natural disasters keeping things back far enough that Madoka’s announced finale just had me put the whole thing off, it took a while to get around to this. It also took me a day just to sit down and watch Madoka and another to find the time to get around to this. Such a pain.

Starting with this season wrap-up, I’ll formally announce my show of the season. Usually I just mention it in the reviews and it just sorta gets lost in the walls of text. From here on out, it’ll be explicitly stated.

Winter 2011 Initial Impressions

I feel a bit like I’m jumping the gun on this one since I haven’t started everything I’m watching this season, but Houkago no Pleiades doesn’t start until February 1st, so it’s either now or in almost three weeks. Anywho, time to get started on what I’m watching this season.

Winter 2011 Chart v3… has been up for a while >.>;

There’s been a lot of confusion on my part this season when it comes to anime charts. Chartfag has been taking a break due to real life circumstances, but has unofficially passed the torch to (read: bothered him to do it instead) The Cart Driver. Unfortunately, I was having difficulty finding a finalized chart with premiere dates. Then I found one I had lying around from cowboybibimbop that was mostly done but didn’t have dates. Looking for the newest version, I found the completed chart I had been looking for.

And so, it’s that magical time of the season where I once again decide what I’m going to be watching in the upcoming anime season.

Haiyoru! Nyaruani: Remember My Love(craft-sensei) – Some kinda moe series about anthropomorphic Lovecraftian creatures. It apparently had some kind of ONA series earlier this year and the TV series will only consist of 4-minute episodes. Kind of disappointing given the potential of the concept. This one slipped by me and caused me to go looking for a new chart. Figures that at least one of the things I wanted to watch aired about a month before everything else. I’ll be checking it out later tonight (as well as the previous ONA series), but don’t expect any comments until the season proper starts and I get a chance to take in a bit of everything.

Rio: Rainbow Gate! – I really don’t know if I’m going to watch this one or not. Seems a little fanservicey, and I dunno about the content. Looks to have gambling and fighting to some degree, but I really don’t know if I care that much. We’ll see.

Kimi ni Todoke (2nd season) – Oh, hell yes. There’s no way I’m passing this one up. The first season was fantastic.

Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica – An original anime series by SHAFT with god-tier talent all around and hints of becoming srsbsns (like Nanoha maybe?). Can’t pass this up. This was originally rumored to be an Anime no Chikara project. That ended up not being the case, but the show itself ended up being true, and my excitement from the time I first heard that rumor is still going strong.

IS: Infinite Stratos – Not really sure why I want to watch this one. I had a reason before (I set it to Plan to Watch on my MAL at some point), but I forgot it. *Shrug* I guess I’ll find out when it starts. (It may be because it’s by the same studio that did the Macross Frontier movies.)

Gosick – Something about a gothic lolita girl who is amazing at solving mysteries (with deductive powers that allegedly rival Sherlock Holmes). I dunno much about the series, but it sounds like it has potential on the mystery factor alone. I’ve been a sucker for mystery series lately.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? – A boy gets killed and then revived by a necromancer as a zombie, then has to fight magical girls. I’m sorry, but that’s either the worst premise ever, or the best premise ever. I’m gonna find out which.

Fractale – I was going to watch this anyway because the premise sounded neat, but then I found out that the animation looked great and the lead male is voiced by Yuu Kobayashi, so now I can’t wait.

Yumekui Merry – *Shrug* Sounds interesting. I’m not expecting great things, but we’ll see. It’s a J.C. Staff series so it’ll either be pretty good or really bad, depending on how well they adapt it.

Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu! – Second season of Mitsudomoe. The first season was great, so I’ll be following the second for sure. Though if I had my choice of sequels for Summer 2010 shows, I’d have liked a second season of Seitokai Yakuindomo…

Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!! – Damn, these shows about little sisters and their older brothers have freaking long titles. Anyway, going to watch this one. Premise sounds good and we have a potential wincest (maybe) relationship in the making.

Houkago no Pleiades – Some thing Gainax is doing with Subaru (the car company). No idea what it is, not really sure I care. It’s Gainax, so I kinda have to watch it just to see what the hell the result will be.

I’m also going to watch these specials/OVAs:
– Mirai Nikki OVA (already did actually, was underwhelming)
– Angel Beats! Another Epilogue & Stairway to Heaven (**** yeah, Angel Beats!)
– MM!: SS (may as well, already watched through the series)
– Issho ni Training 026: Ofuro (shameless fanservice go)
– .hack//Quantum #1 (**** yeah, .hack)
– Kara no Kyoukai: Epilogue (KnK is great, Type-Moon is great)
– Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu ~Matsuri~ (can’t wait for season 2)
– Mitsudomoe (lots of upcoming Mitsudomoe)

I’d list the macross frontier movie as well, but let’s face it. I’m not going to watch a camrip of a movie I really want to see given how amazing it’ll look ripped from a blu-ray.

Well, that’ll do it. Probably nothing from me unless I decided to post something about my Christmas score or a Cross Edge review (if I ever finish it) until my Fall season final impressions. (I’ll be waiting on Zakuro and Arakawa to finish airing after Christmas.)