Pre-Viewing Impressions: Winter 2010/2011 Anime

Alrighty then, I know this post seems a little late given that one show starts in under a week, but there's a method to my madness, last season anime were added and removed from the lineup last minute thus making my post kind of inaccurate, so now the lineup should be pretty final. Also I've decided to improve this type of post a little: 1. I'm going to post the dates or at least rough dates that each anime will start, 2. I'm going to give you a link to the full chart with brief summaries of things that aren't on this list because they don't interest me. Honestly there's many for this season that seem good enough to enjoy, but nothing throughly "OMG THIS IS AWESOME!!!" worthy. So without further a due, lets get started cuz this'll probably be pretty long.

Haiyoru!: Airs December 11th

Basically this is about a shape-shifting demon who prefers to take the form of the ordinary silver-haired girl (how exactly is that ordinary? O.o) you see in that picture. Apparently the main protagonist is in trouble so she decides to save him. There really isn't much info beyond that. Personally I just wanna try this one out because I like the demon aspect of it, very rarely can you go wrong with an anime about demons...except for Disgaea, that was just a horrific steaming pile of shit. ANYWAY though XD Unlike Disgaea I don't think this one will suck, Disgaea was just one in a million. That and this anime seems to have the potential to turn into a cute, InuYasha-Esq romance, either that or it can turn out something like Bleach in the way that it's an ordinary male protagonist getting his ass saved by a not-so-ordinary female protagonist. Either way though, this doesn't seem bad, I think I'll at least give it it's fair shot.

Though I feel the need to point out the octopus in that girls hair, it sort of makes me wonder honestly O.o That's just a little strange. I mean is that some sort of new trend? Putting aquatic creatures in your hair? Or is it just in case she gets hungry?

Starry Sky: Airs December 23rd, Advanced Broadcast of eps 1-2 on December 11th

For anyone who recalls, this was in

my Fall 2010 list, this

was one of the ones

that was taken

from the lineup. Anyway, this is essentially a reverse harem very similar to that of Fruits Basket. The main female protagonist transfers to a new school that was, up until recently, an all-boys school. There she meets these 12 guys who are all the embodiment of their respective zodiac animal.

I can't exactly explain why I want to watch this, maybe because of the similarity to Fruits Basket which, while it was annoying at times, was very cute and pleasing to watch. Hoping this one will be just as cute, but minus the terribly annoying cry-baby for a female lead.

Beelzebub: Airs January 9th
Based on a Shounen Jump manga of the same name. This follows the story of the strongest delinquent at a delinquent school who sees a man floating downriver and decides to save him however once he's done so the man turns into an infant demon, son of the demon king or something. And so the kid has to raise this baby along with the baby's demon nanny Hilda.

Is Hilda just a stereotypical nanny name or what? That's just really strange. What else is strange is the fact that they drew strange-looking genitals on the baby O.o Not only is it strange to show a penis in anime, but it's strangely disproportionate, I mean it's balls are huge compared to the teeny penis.

Baby genitals aside though, personally there's nothing that seems particularly entertaining about this anime, but I'm trying it on a whim given that it has demons and it's from Shonen Jump, there's only a handful of Shonen Jump anime I really don't like. No matter how unappealing the story seems, Shonen Jump anime are just usually very good. Plus the girl holding the wooden bouken looks pretty cool and I'm always one for a good sword battle, especially if the combatants are girls without ecchi shots.

Dragon Crisis: Airs January 11th

These two kids steal a relic box from something called a 'black broker' and inside the box they find a dragon girl. Of course nothing is that simple, there are relic hunters of sorts, called the 'black organization', looking to capture the dragon girl so the male lead decides to use his relic protector powers to save her.

Seems interesting enough, though I've figured out that I'm much more open about trying new releases than stuff thats been out for a while...probably because my want to watch list is hovering around 100+. Anyway though, I may as well check this one out, I'm a fan of dragons in anime (though there's few good ones) and I'm a fan of fighting...though I do need to point out that the guy in the picture looks terribly weak. In fact he looks like someone who could potentially belong on my 'Pansy Male Leads' post, along with some others that I neglected to mention. I have a pretty good feeling about this one, plus, I'm seeing the potential for a really cute romance to develop here (Dragon/Human babies anyone? O.o).

Yumekui Merry: Airs January

With all the summaries I'm able to find I'm only able to find that this boy noticed he could see colored auras around people, then he started to have a weird dream about a war with cats, suddenly a strange girl falls on top of him. What annoys me about this is that a few months ago when this was originally announced, I was able to find a much cooler summary involving eating dreams and fighting bad spirits and nightmares and whatnot. Thats what made me wanna try it, I'm still going to on the hope that summary was true, because the whole war with cats bit just sounds strange O.o

Though that moon in the picture reminds me of a cross between the Soul Eater sun, and Taokaka of BlazBlue. That and I really like Merry's character design, it's pretty cool. Dunno what else to really say about this one cuz of the wole summary fiasco, but I just hope it's as cool as the old summary and picture make it look. The picture is really reminding me of Soul Eater for some reason...Soul Eater...Dream Eater...I wonder if there'll be similarities.

Fractale: Airs January 14th

On an island civilization the 'Fractale System' is crumbling. One day, somebody named Crane finds a girl named Phyrene, who disapears and leaves a pendant. Crane then teams up with another girl to find Phyrene and unravel the mystery of the 'Fractale System'.

One word there that makes me want to see this: mystery...or secret, depending on which summary you read, but either way it usually leads to a pretty decent series. Seems almost like Samurai Champloo though (God I hope not). Honestly I think this is the closest this season is gonna get to a mystery, so I hope it turns out good.

Gosick: Airs January 8th, Advanced Screening on December 27th

Ok never mind what I said about Fractale being the closest thing to a mystery this season. Taking place in a Victorian European country at an academy, horror stories and urban legends are all the rage. And at this academy there is one mysterious girl who rarely attends classes because she's either reading every book in the library or solving mysteries that even the best detectives can't crack.

As much as I absolutely loathe Victorian England-like settings...though her dress looks more of the Gothic age...whatever. Anyway, despite hating the setting I'm pretty eager to try this one out given that it's a mystery, probably my favorite genre of anime (besides Shounen) and books. Now if only they'd make a murder mystery anime involving a forensic pathologist. Anyway though, this seems pretty interesting, I love mysteries and it's pretty cool when child-prodigies are the ones solving them...despite that most child prodigies in anime are dicks and this chick doesn't look like she'll break that mold, but here's to hoping.

IS: Infinite Stratos: Airs January 7th

Despite being a mecha with potential ecchi, I'm in fact surprisingly excited for this one, probably tthe most excited out of the entire season. This is about a female dominated society (Yeah! Girl Power! XD) and this mecha-like battle armor called 'Infinite Stratos' can only be operated by women, however the main male lead is the only male ever to be able to operate one so he's basically forced to. Ya know what, in stead of talking about it I'll link you guys the trailer because that's what made me want to watch it with the flawless action and epic mecha fights!

Like I said the mecha fights seem great, the character designs are cool, there seems to be a touch of ecchi but nothing too horrific, and having females dominant in society is something new for an anime, actually girl power in general is something new for an anime. Really looking forward to this one, especially since it's rare that I like mechas, so hopefully this will break that trend like Code Geass did. Only thing I'm really sorta worried about is ecchi, this just seems like a show that would be really easy to mess up with all the damn ecchi.

Kore wa Zombie Desu ka: Airs January 11th

A kid is killed by a serial killer, then is resurrected as a zombie by a Necromancer who he then works for. However by doing this he somehow deprives a magical girl if her power, so he has to fight this magic organization in her place.

I must say I was skeptical when I saw the word zombie, because that usually implies stupid horror crap, however obviously by the picture, that is not the case here. In fact I like the character designs and it seems like a pretty good fantasy. That and ever since playing Wizard 101 for a time, I've taken a liking to Necromancers (death wizards, for those of you who don't know) and I gotta say, it's an interesting twist to lump a magical girl and a Necromancer together. Especially given that the one I'm assuming to be the magical girl, has a chainsaw O.o Now that's original. Actually talking about this one is making me pretty-damn excited to watch it, my only worry, as with Infinite Stratos is that it can easily turn itself into an ecchi, I mean just look at the black-haired girl. And actually the trailer seems super-awesome too, I've actually got pretty high hopes for this one.

Puella Magi: Airs January 7th

Honestly I have no idea what the heck this anime is about, other than magical girls, which is funny, because that's not something I generally like. I also don't generally like anything so cutesy, however I'm actually looking forward to this one depending on what they do with the actual plot.

Now, why I'm looking forward to this actually has nothing to do with the actual subject matter, or the character designs or anything else that I ever point out. It's simply that the black-haired girl is carrying a bow, that's extremely hard to find in anime and I love archery! So that's got me pretty excited for this one.

Though watch, with my luck it's gonna be totally shoujo and/or little kid-ish and stupid and it's gonna be unbearable to sit through and I wont wind up watching it anyway, that's just my hunch for this one given that I haven't the slightest idea what it'll be about.

Houkago no Pleiades: Aires Winter

Again, I haven't the slightest idea what this is going to be about, all I know is it's made by Gainax and the car company Subaru O.o That honestly is the only reason I want to see this is because I'm curious about what the heck a car company is doing making an anime, that and it makes me wonder if it'll be about cars in some way, because there's an annoying lack of car anime, other than Wangan Midnight, Initial D and Speed Racer. Basically it's just sheer curiosity that's driving me to watch this (pun intended, ha ha XD I'm so lame), that and I like the outfits of both the first and second girls in that picture.

So there you have it, the Winter 2011...or, well, most of it anyway, what I want to watch from it. As for the rest it can be found here , including OVA's, Movies and OAD's, the only things out of those I'm personally gonna try out are Supernatural and Goulart Knights. Though I must say I've realized I really don't like winter seasons very much in general cuz the start dates are all scattered, I like it better when they all start in the same week. Anyway though, here's hoping to a good season, comment and let me know what you think!