What I'm watching: Fall 2010 anime
This had been a weird new season and I'm not talking about the content of the shows here*. Things started off normal with Crunchyroll getting a number of shows, some I was interested in, some I was interested in because I'd have a legal way to view them, and then some I wasn't. So, all's normal there and then it gets odd. Animenewsnetwork gots two shows to simulcast as well (Oreimo and Togainu no Chi) and I tried out the first episode Oreimo and wanted to try a few more but someone hacked the servers and released the second one before the Japanese release and the simulcast was canceled for both shows (so I never even got to tryout TnC) and I decided to not follow Oreimo. During this was New York Anime Fest and everyone was expecting that Funimation would announce a few things, the new noitaminA show for sure and probably Star Driver since that had an official showing there. But there was nary a peep out of Funi and that left everyone pretty puzzled (since nothing was announced from them there's speculation it has to do with the impending sale but really who knows). I was a little surprised that Viz didn't try to simulcast Bakuman (since apparently Nura has been a big success for them and I know that Bakuman the manga has been selling well) but since their anime section has been weak for a while now it's not too surprising. I think The Anime Network did choose to stream something as well but nothing that interested me.
So, yeah, the short of the long of it is that I'm back to fansubs for some shows. However, I'm trying to only watch fansubs of shows I KNOW I'll buy and I've also decided that I'll watch fansubs of a show if it's over five years old and hasn't been licensed yet, hope I won't have to keep doing either of these for too much longer though!
Kuragehime: The new noitaminA show so of course I'm going to try it out, the timeslot is actually aimed (at least partially) at college aged women so it's almost a guarantee that I'll like it and I loved this. I knew the twist at the end of the first episode going in but I still laughed at the situation and really liked the characters. fansub
Otome Yokai Zakuro: I wasn't expecting anything good out of this but it's a decent, and very fluffy, shojo anime. I liked Kaicho wa maid-sama from the spring more but I stopped watching it when The Anime Network picked it up (apparently it went down the drain after that and the manga is much better) and I do want to watch more shojo anyway. It's not a huge investment of time to watch an episode a week while working on crafty stuff so for the moment I'm sticking with it. crunchyroll
Psychic Detective Yakumo: I was drawn into the show since a lot of Ghost Hunt fans liked the manga and there did seem to be a number of similarities between the shows. But I was just unimpressed, the pacing was awkward, nothing in the episode really surprised me and for a mystery-suspense show with an emphasis on the supernatural that's more than a bit necessary so I dropped it after the first episode. If it was streaming (and I was kinda expecting Funi to pick this up) I would probably continue with it but I see no reason to follow fansubs of it (manga scanlations are a different matter since I've heard the source material is much better and I want to take a peek at that sometime). fansub
Squid Girl: This wasn't even on my radar until I started seeing positive reviews for it and I like it alright, which is surprising since comedy usually isn't my thing. I do like how it's multi-segmented and since I speak a little Japanese now I kinda get the puns a little better (or at least understand where the English translations are coming from). So, like OYZ, one episode a week in the background isn't a huge investment for me so I'll stick with it now (I may stop watching it in the future to marathon it at a later date but for the moment I'll play it by ear). crunchyroll
Star Driver: It looked shiny, was made by Bones, so I went in expecting a fun mecha series. What I got was a cross between Code Geass and Gurren Laggan or apparently what Utena would've been liked if it has mechas instead of sword fights. Wow,I'm not sure if I'm in love with it yet but it's on my mind more than any other show this season, it does look good, and I'm pretty entertained with it. Think I'll stick with it for the moment. fansub
Tegami Bachi-Reverse: Of course I'm following this one, I love the manga and I loved the anime last year (when it wasn't messing around with fillers) and judging by the OP alone it's going to get very close to catching up with the manga. That means less fillers so I say bring it on! And this one has my favorite ED of the season so far, just a little sad like the series requires but a nice song. crunchyroll
The World God Only Knows: I tried this since I saw a lot of people who loved the series and said it was a parody of dating sims. When I compare it to Oreimo (which dealt also dealt with dating sims) I like Oreimo so much more since after three episodes TWGOK feels just like a mashup of dating sims in one anime. I've tried a visual novel or two (PG ones) and they don't seem to be for me anyway so I'll be dropping this. I will admit that this has probably the catchiest OP of the new season, the graphics don't quite work but the song itself is catchy (still not convinced it's actually Engrish however, it took a few listening to pick up on that). crunchyroll
So, I'll be following all of those except PDY and TWGOK in addition to a few shows that carried over from the summer season (Shiki, Legend of the Legendary Heroes and Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, but if that one goes beyond two cour there's a good chance I'll drop it). Bit disappointed this season since there don't seem to be any plot heavy episodes (Star Driver may or may not turn out that way and I do already know the plot of Tegami Bachi) but with fall break I've got a few friends who are going home and going to bring back some anime I want to watch so hopefully I won't be too bored. Considering that the winter anime cart just came out (pretty darn early too) and I'm only interested in three shows (out of 16 admittedly, the two new noitaminA shows and a new Bones show) it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of backlog watching between now and the spring.
*Although that's been a bit weird too, hell, Panty and Stocking with Gaterbelt takes up almost an entire season's weird quota in one episode apparently.
So, yeah, the short of the long of it is that I'm back to fansubs for some shows. However, I'm trying to only watch fansubs of shows I KNOW I'll buy and I've also decided that I'll watch fansubs of a show if it's over five years old and hasn't been licensed yet, hope I won't have to keep doing either of these for too much longer though!
Kuragehime: The new noitaminA show so of course I'm going to try it out, the timeslot is actually aimed (at least partially) at college aged women so it's almost a guarantee that I'll like it and I loved this. I knew the twist at the end of the first episode going in but I still laughed at the situation and really liked the characters. fansub
Otome Yokai Zakuro: I wasn't expecting anything good out of this but it's a decent, and very fluffy, shojo anime. I liked Kaicho wa maid-sama from the spring more but I stopped watching it when The Anime Network picked it up (apparently it went down the drain after that and the manga is much better) and I do want to watch more shojo anyway. It's not a huge investment of time to watch an episode a week while working on crafty stuff so for the moment I'm sticking with it. crunchyroll
Psychic Detective Yakumo: I was drawn into the show since a lot of Ghost Hunt fans liked the manga and there did seem to be a number of similarities between the shows. But I was just unimpressed, the pacing was awkward, nothing in the episode really surprised me and for a mystery-suspense show with an emphasis on the supernatural that's more than a bit necessary so I dropped it after the first episode. If it was streaming (and I was kinda expecting Funi to pick this up) I would probably continue with it but I see no reason to follow fansubs of it (manga scanlations are a different matter since I've heard the source material is much better and I want to take a peek at that sometime). fansub
Squid Girl: This wasn't even on my radar until I started seeing positive reviews for it and I like it alright, which is surprising since comedy usually isn't my thing. I do like how it's multi-segmented and since I speak a little Japanese now I kinda get the puns a little better (or at least understand where the English translations are coming from). So, like OYZ, one episode a week in the background isn't a huge investment for me so I'll stick with it now (I may stop watching it in the future to marathon it at a later date but for the moment I'll play it by ear). crunchyroll
Star Driver: It looked shiny, was made by Bones, so I went in expecting a fun mecha series. What I got was a cross between Code Geass and Gurren Laggan or apparently what Utena would've been liked if it has mechas instead of sword fights. Wow,I'm not sure if I'm in love with it yet but it's on my mind more than any other show this season, it does look good, and I'm pretty entertained with it. Think I'll stick with it for the moment. fansub
Tegami Bachi-Reverse: Of course I'm following this one, I love the manga and I loved the anime last year (when it wasn't messing around with fillers) and judging by the OP alone it's going to get very close to catching up with the manga. That means less fillers so I say bring it on! And this one has my favorite ED of the season so far, just a little sad like the series requires but a nice song. crunchyroll
The World God Only Knows: I tried this since I saw a lot of people who loved the series and said it was a parody of dating sims. When I compare it to Oreimo (which dealt also dealt with dating sims) I like Oreimo so much more since after three episodes TWGOK feels just like a mashup of dating sims in one anime. I've tried a visual novel or two (PG ones) and they don't seem to be for me anyway so I'll be dropping this. I will admit that this has probably the catchiest OP of the new season, the graphics don't quite work but the song itself is catchy (still not convinced it's actually Engrish however, it took a few listening to pick up on that). crunchyroll
So, I'll be following all of those except PDY and TWGOK in addition to a few shows that carried over from the summer season (Shiki, Legend of the Legendary Heroes and Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, but if that one goes beyond two cour there's a good chance I'll drop it). Bit disappointed this season since there don't seem to be any plot heavy episodes (Star Driver may or may not turn out that way and I do already know the plot of Tegami Bachi) but with fall break I've got a few friends who are going home and going to bring back some anime I want to watch so hopefully I won't be too bored. Considering that the winter anime cart just came out (pretty darn early too) and I'm only interested in three shows (out of 16 admittedly, the two new noitaminA shows and a new Bones show) it looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of backlog watching between now and the spring.
*Although that's been a bit weird too, hell, Panty and Stocking with Gaterbelt takes up almost an entire season's weird quota in one episode apparently.