Autumn Anime 2005

August 30, 2005 | 19 Comments

While I wish that Honey and Clover can go on and on, like all good things, it will eventually have to end. Thankfully the Autumn Anime season is about to arrive soon. Having said that, as usual the pickings seem to be rather slim for me. Maybe I'm just bored with anime, or maybe I'm just a bit jaded after so many disappointing series these last few seasons, but either way, I'm not too excited about this season's offering. Well, maybe I'll change my mind later on but in the meantime, here are a few series which I may be interested in. As usual, the question is simple: which of these new series are you interested to watch? If there is a show that I haven't mentioned here, feel free to mention it. The full list of the new season can be obtained from Moonphase.

Rozen Maiden: Träumend
Official Site

Original Author: Peach Pit
Starting Date: 20th of October 2005
Station: TBS
Animation Studio: Nomad
Casts: Sanada Asami (Sakurada Jun), Sawashiro Miyuki (Shinku), Nogawa Sakura (Hinaichigo), Kuwatani Natsuko (Suiseiseki), Morinaga Rika (Souseiseki), Rikimaru Noriko (Sakurada Nori), Tanaka Rie (Suigintou), Gotou Saori (Barasuishou), Shimura Yumi (Canaria)
Music: Mitsumune Shinkichi
Opening Theme: Seishoujo Ryouiki by Ali Project
Ending Theme: Hikari no Rasenritsu by Kukui

Rozen Maiden Traumend is basically a continuation of its predecessor, Rozen Maiden, a series which chronicles the life Sakurada Jun, a Hikikomori sufferer whose life is changed when he encounters an strange doll called Shinku. The series offers a psychological look into Jun's own fears, a glimpse into Shinku's past, and a strange and mysterious doll battles called 'Alice's Game'. By the end of the first season, which only last for 12 episodes, only few of the storylines are resolved. This is mostly the one that deals with Jun's internal fears. The rest, however, are pretty much unresolved. We still don't know much about 'Alice's Game' apart from the conviction of the dolls that they'll turn into a perfect being called Alice if they win the battles. There is also little information about the origin of the battle and about the mysterious 'Father' character, who supposedly created the dolls but was never shown during the series.

Rozen Maiden was undoubtedly one of the biggest surprise of Autumn 2004 lineup. I personally followed the show without too much anticipation and was pleasantly surprised when the series turns out to be more interesting than I could have imagined. Unfortunately, this means that there will be a lot of expectations placed on this sequel. I certainly hope that a lot of the unanswered questions of the original series will be answered in this sequel. The thing that worries me, however, is the knowledge that this sequel will probably diverge quite a bit from the original manga due to an event that happened at the end of the first season. However, anyone who has been spoiled by the official site will probably think that this may not be such a big issue after all. I certainly hope that will be the case. This is one of the few series that I'm looking forward to see this season so I hope it will be as good as the original.

Paradise Kiss
Official Site

Original Author: Ai Yazawa
Starting Date: 13th of October 2005
Station: Fuji TV
Animation Studio: Madhouse
Character Design: Nobuteru Yuki
Casts: Yamada Yuu (Hayasaka Yukari), Hamada Kenji (Koizumi George), Matsumoto Marika (Sakurada Miwako), Mizutani Shunsuke (Nagase Arashi), Suzuka Chiharu (Isabella)
Opening Theme: Lonely in Gorgeous by Tommy february6

This is the series that will replace Honey and Clover on Fuji TV's Noitamina block this Autumn. To be honest, I'm not sure if I should be happy or annoyed about this. On the one hand, it seems to be a shoe-in for the Noitamina timeslot. On the other hand, the few character designs I've seen so far have not been good. As a side note, the animation house responsible for the anime is actually Madhouse instead of J.C.Staff. So in theory, this should have been a good adaptation especially since Nobuteru Yuki is responsible for the character design. This is why I hope that the few initial character designs are not a reflection of the final product. But then I remember how Tsubasa had a horrid initial character design and the final product doesn't stray far from it, so I can't help but being worried here. Having said that, if the animators can adapt this correctly, this could be an interesting series to follow this season.

The series itself is about a group of fashion design students who create their own design line called 'Paradise Kiss'. The story begins when the group needs a model to showcase their creations and settles down on an ice-queen type high school student called Yukari. Yukari at first is reluctant to associate herself with 'Paradise Kiss' members which consist of a Goth Lolita, a punk, a cassanova type of a guy, and a cross-dresser. Eventually, however, she starts to realise that despite their eccentricity, these people are quite nice. In addition to this, Yukari begins to realise that she hasn't been enjoying the life that she's lead so far and when she compares herself to these people, she wishes she can be more like them. The story then basically follows Yukari's experience as she become increasingly involved with the group and falls in love with the group's leader and lead fashion designer, George.

Mai Otome
Official Site

Starting Date & Time: 6th of October 2005, 1.30AM
Animation Studio: Sunrise
Casts: Kikuchi Mika (Arika Yumemiya), Koshimizu Ami (Nia Won), Yukana (Mashiro Blanc d'Vindblume), Chiba Saeko (Natsuki Krueger)
Music: Kajiura Yuki

As most people probably already aware of, this is some kind of an alternate universe take of the original series called Mai Hime. Mai Otome will apparently feature brand new original characters along with few existing ones in alternate roles. For example, Natsuki Kuga in this series is known as Natsuki Krueger, an entirely different character. The main character herself is Arika Yumemiya, a girl who comes to the Vindblume Kingdom to look for her parent and ends up wanting to become a part of Otome, a group of ladies who guard VIPs. I don't know why but for some reason, I have little interest in this one. The premise of a bunch of girls acting as protector of VIPs such as royal family doesn't sound interesting to me. In addition to this, I still remember the rather disappointing ending of the first series so I'm approaching this one with a lot of caution and will probably just watch this on the sideline as Mentar and everyone else do their mega recap-a-thon.

Blood+
Official Site

Starting Date: 8th of October 2005
Animation Studio: Production IG
Cast: Kitamura Eri (Otonashi Saya), Konishi Katsuyuki (Hagi), Yoshino Hiroyuki (Miyagusuku Kai), Yajima Akiko (Miyagusuku Riku), Ootsuka Yoshitada (Miyagusuku Jouji), Kosugi Juurouta (David), Nagasako Takashi (Luis), Kaida Yuko (Julia)
Music: Hans Zimmer

In this world, there are monsters called Chiropterans. They can change their appearance into that of a human being but the truth is, they are immortal and feed off the blood of the living. An organisation called 'Red Shield' has been fighting to exterminate the Chiropterans and the fight has now turned into a war. Otonashi Saya is a high-school girl who lives a peaceful life with her family. The only problem is that she can't seem to remember her life beyond that of the past year. One day, however, an event will destroy her happy life into pieces. Judging from these descriptions, it seems that the series is some kind of a sequel to the original movie produced by Production IG. I supposed this could be interesting but the problem is, I never found vampire to be that frightening of a creature. And in the midst of other pseudo-horror series (see Jigoku Shoujo and Mushishi) that this season offers, this one may not stand out amongst the pack.

Jigoku Shoujo
Official Site

Starting Date: 4th of October 2005
Animation Studio: Studio Deen
Cast: Noto Mamiko (Enma Ai), Matsukaze Masaya (Ichimoku Ren), Mizuki Nana (Tsugumi), Honda Takako (Hone Onna), Sugo Takayuki (Wanyuudou)
Opening Theme: Sakasama no Chou by SNoW
Ending Theme: Karinui by Mamiko Noto

Looks like a dark horse to me. This could turn out to be interesting or completely boring. This is a horror story about an internet occult called "Jigoku Tsushin" which allows its user to write the name of the person that they dislike on the message board. This will in effect call upon the Jigoku Shoujo, who will then take the hated person to Hell. The premise sounds like a combination of Death Note and that horrible horror film called Fear dot com although I hope it's more of the former instead of the later. This seems to be a rather unusual project especially with graphic style which reminds me of Gankutsuou. Having said that, I hope the story shares more similarity with Fatal Frame video game series instead of Gankutsuou. The trailer posted on the official site looks beautiful and eerie but doesn't give much indication about the story.

Other series

Cluster Edge
Starting Date: 4th of October 2005
Animation Studio: Sunrise
Cast: Shimono Hiro (Ageto Flowlight), Fukuyama Jun (Beryl Jasper), Kishio Daisuke (Von Ina Silva), Yoshino Hiroyuki (Chromium)
Opening Theme: Fly High by Surface

Judging from the summary on the official site, the premise of the series seems kind of exciting but I'd like to see the series before making further judgement. The story itself is about a boy called Ageto Flowlight. Ageto has just moved into "Cluster E.A", a famous school where the sons of many distinguished families from different country come to study. Ageto's bravery and kindness quickly wins the friendship of Beryl, an honour student at the school who is bored with his life. Unknown to Ageto, however, he was born with a secret power which can create some kind of miracle.

Mushishi
Original Author: Urushibara Yuki
Original manga serialised in: Afternoon Comics
Starting Date: October 2005

This is a unique supernatural manga series serialised in the monthly Afternoon anthology. The story is about Ginko, a 'Mushi-Shi' who travels from one area to another to help people who have problems with supernatural occurances. I honestly don't know how to describe this really well since the story is episodic like Kino no Tabi and uses a lot of Japanese mythology. The series certainly has some kind of eerie air to it and reminds me a lot of Boogiepop Phantom and Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari. I hope the series will get a good anime adaptation because I think this will be a refreshing offer for those who want something different from their anime.

Note:
Please do not make a direct-link to the images above. If you want to link, then point the link to this page instead. Do not redistribute the images above.

© memento 2003