Okay so one of my new year’s resolutions was:
In the first week of 2012, I will pick the Spring season anime I will watch and finish them quickly instead of dragging them out over a year,
Start off easy… The reason why I made this resolution was two-fold:
- I write for anime websites and I frequently come across trailers and plot synopses that intrigue me.
- I rarely start watching anime at the same time as others so when I visit favourite anime blogs I have to skip most content to avoid spoilers.
So here’s my Winter 2012 picks:
Rinne no Lagrange
Rinne no Largrange is a show that crosses girls and mecha in a collaboration between Production I.G. who are handling the story and Xebec who are producing it. Interestingly the car maker Nissan is providing robot designs.
Kamogawa City lies east of Tokyo next to the sea and this is where a young girl named Madoka lives. She is a proud girl with high spirits who helps people. One day she receives an unusual request, “Can you pilot a robot?” This request leads to a new life where she is part of a trio of mecha pilots defending the city from invaders from space
The production staff includes many industry veterans who have worked on a wide range of shows from Wolf’s Rain and Macross to Princess Jellyfish and Heroic Age. Interesting names include the overall director Tatsuo Satou who worked on Martian Successor Nadesico, while the character designs are by Takushige Norita who worked on Broken Blade and Chizuru Kobayashi who worked on Pandora Hearts. Screenplays were written by a team including Shoutaro Suga (Darker than Black) and Shigeru Morita (Gundam Seed, Blood+).
Kill Me Baby
After enjoying Soredemo and Haganai I’m more open to comedy anime and Kill Me Baby is near the top of my list.
Based on a four-panel comic strip Kill Me Baby follows air-head Yasuna and her classmate Sonya. Things might be normal if it weren’t for the fact that Sonya just happens to be an assassin who still has to go to school. Now Yasuna finds everyday life is disrupted by Sonya’s killer-instinct.
Another
This is the anime adaptation of Yuki Ayatsuji’s horror novel of the same name.
The story takes place in the Spring of 1998 at Yomiyama Kita middle school where a transfer student named Kouichi Sakakibara finds himself in a class under a curse which causes unavoidable death. It seems to be linked to the death of a student in the past but a code of silence has developed and a new beautiful but mysterious student named Mei Misaki.
The television anime has been produced by P.A. Works with big names in the production credits including Noizo Ito (Haruhi Suzumiya, Shakugan no Shana) working on character designs, Yuriko Ishii (Persona – trinity soul-) adapting those designs for animation, Ryou Higaki (Moribito – Guardian of the Spirit) handling the scripts and Tsutomu Mizushima (Blood-C) acting as director.
Gyo
I don’t like Junji Ito’s horror manga. I hate it. That’s how disturbing it is. When it comes to making nightmare fuel I place him next to David Lynch. I loved the live-action adaptation of Spiral and the prospect of an anime version of Gyo (Japanese for fish) is too much to resist!
A young couple visit the island of Okinawa to experience its beautiful beaches and balmy sunsets but get caught up in a land invasion by dead fish.
This anime is one of three works that has been animated by ufotable which will be released by Aniplex as part of their Anime Bunko project in February and it has been directed by Takayuki Hirao who was behind the highly acclaimed Kara no Kyoukai: Garden of Sinners.
Minori Scramble!
Minori Scramble, which is based on Mikage Chihaya’s manga, is the second anime coming from ufotable and released by Aniplex.
This slapstick science comedy centres on Tamaki Kakegawa, a girl who despises penguins. Her father is a penguin researcher and he’s constantly surrounded by them which explains the irrational hatred. Anyway to overcome her hatred of penguins Minori is drafted in. She just happens to be a penguinoid – penguin and android).
Okay this is hardly Oscar Wilde but I like Minori Scramble!
So far I have already watched Kyousogiga and I loved it and posted about it. So I’m part way to fulfilling my resolution! Will I last the course with the rest of these shows?
Genkinahito 