pudgetronIt’s that time of year again; the snow has fallen, the mood is festive, shopping is temporarily a full contact sport, and young people turn to thoughts of the upcoming Winter anime season. Hoo boy, I hope you have an extra pair of pants nearby because this is going to be a big one.
Nisekoi is one that I have mentioned here and/or there on the site, whether on the podcast, or in this very column. The basic story is thus: Raku Ichijo, normal high school student if you can ignore him being the heir to a yakuza family, something he’s trying to do constantly. He loses his most valued possession, a pendant given to him by his first childhood sweetheart, one day when he runs into Chitoge Kirisaki, a new transfer student and despite her protests, she eventually helps him track it down, but needless to say they got off on the wrong foot. On top of all that stress, a new gang is trying to muscle in on his family’s turf. As it turns out, Raku’s father is old friends with the leader of this new gang in town and, in order to broker a truce between the groups and prevent a gang war, Raku agrees to pretend to date the daughter of his father’s old friend, who just so happens to be Chitoge Kirisaki.
This plot basically serves as the launch pad for the romantic-comedy-love-dodecahedron that follows, but it creates a framework for what is a very well done manga regardless, and I hope that it will be turned into a very well done anime.
Airing from January 11
Takamiya Honoka has won the lottery as far as a high school student is concerned and been placed next to Kagari Ayaka, the most popular and beautiful girl in the school. Problem is, he can’t even talk to her unless he wants to be assaulted by her rabid fan club, so he accepts to status quo and is content to bask in her presence. Then one day, the school clocktower gets dropped on him, Kagari swoops in on her flying broomstick and, after incinerating the monsters that also showed up, reveals that she is a witch, and it’s her mission to protect him.
Witchcraft Works is somewhat unique in how it derives its mythology, and if nothing else, I’m expecting the anime to be an interesting adaptation of the manga.
Airing from January 5
Setokai Yakuindomo * is, as you might expect, the sequel to Seitokai Yakuindomo which was originally released in the Summer 2010 anime season. The show follows Takatoshi Tsuda as he begins attending a former girls’ school that has just turned co-ed, so he’s one of like 12 guys in the entire school. On his first day, he gets confronted by the Student Council President, Shino Amakusa, about his uniform and gets shanghai’d into joining the student council as the resident male representative. It’s there he finds out that these girls are not the pure maidens that everyone would like to think they are… A screwball comedy based on a 4-koma.
This is one that I’ve been hoping for since I saw the first show. It doesn’t have much in the way of a plot admittedly, but the show is just so off the wall hilarious that it doesn’t matter. It also breaks the stereotype that female characters can’t be more perverted than male ones.
Airing from January 11
Shio Ogura is in a bit of a pickle. She’s stuck in a situation where she’s surrounded by monsters with no way out. Then government agents who fight with weapons infused with the spirits of historical figures, called E-gene Holders, show up to fight the monsters. Shio thinks all is well until her friend is in danger and she goes to save her, revealing herself to be an E-gene Holder after awakening the spirit of Oda Nobunaga. She then joins the agency with Nobunaga inhabiting a giant machine gun under the codename Nobunagun.
I don’t know much a bout this one to be honest. I just put this one in because the premise is so damn unique.
Airing from January 5
Tonari no Seki-Kun is based on a 4-koma manga following a schoolgirl named Yokoi who sits next to the titular Seki-kun. The entire manga is based on her observations of Seki-kun’s increasingly elaborate ways to pass the time in class, from playing with action figures to building a fully functional robot, all seemingly unnoticed by the teacher.
I’m not sure how this is going to be translated into an anime, as the entire manga is just different things Seki-kun is building/doing and there isn’t much else to go on. We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?
Airing from January 5
Silver Spoon 2 is the continuing story of Yugo Hachiken, the city boy who went to an agricultural high school to escape his overbearing parents and got in a little over his head.
There’s not much else to say other than I love this manga, and I loved the first season of the anime, so I think it follows that I will love this as well. And so should you.
Airing from January 9
Space Dandy is, simply put, about a dandy. In space. That’s kind of all I’ve got to go on right now. He goes around searching for new extra terrestrial life.
The unique thing about this show is that it’s premiering on Toonami, the Cartoon Network programming block set aside for western action-adventure cartoons and anime. It’s also being produced by Bones, and they do good work.
Airing from January 4
Kenji Kazama is considered a delinquent by most. He doesn’t mind, as he’d prefer to skip class and hang out with his two buddies all day anyway. His life changes forever when they wander into the room occupied by the Game Development Club however, and by the end of the day, Kenji has been “convinced” to join the club as well. Normally this wouldn’t be a major issue, as the club is occupied by four beautiful girls, but their beauty is hardly their most prominent feature as these particular girls are really fucking weird.
D-Frag! is classified as an oddball comedy, but to be honest, that genre comes nowhere close to being accurate. The manga is completely unexpected in the way it goes about it’s character interactions and the reader is left feeling more helpless to the situation than the very helpless Kazama. It’s an absolutely hilarious read, and I’m sure it will be an even more hilarious anime.
Airing from January 6
That’s what I decided would fit in this article. As always I encourage you to give everything a shot, as you might be surprised at what you enjoy. You can also go here to check stuff out for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
Add comment