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ローゼンメイデン 
It's hard to believe that Summer 2008 anime will be here soon. Unlike Spring, however, this time I don't have many anime that I'd like to watch, which is fine with me since I feel that I took a bit too much series this season to the point that it's hard to do anything else. Besides, most of the time things look interesting on a glance but when I really sit down and watch them, I realised that I didn't really want to watch the entire series. It's kind of scary with season like this one, where I only have small amount of selections. What will happen if I don't like any of them? Oh well, there are still several series from the previous season continuing (ie. Code Geass R2). Anyway, what do you think of this upcoming season and are you going to follow or at least watch several episodes of the new series? What are your choices/recommendations?
Source: Summer 2008 Anime Fansub Wiki
Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto: Natsu no Sora | |
 | Original Title: 「魔法遣いに大切なこと〜夏のソラ〜」 - Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto: Natsu no Sora |
Story: Unfortunately, I have no knowledge of the story whatsoever. The website is not completed yet so I can't get information from there. The manga is actually going to be released at the same time as the anime. If you watched the original, the new anime won't have her as the main character anime but instead a long-haired girl called Sora.
Interest: Medium/Low. The thing about the original Mahou ni Taisetsuna Koto (also known as Someday's Dreamer is that while the manga illustration looks beautiful, I felt that the story is mind-numbingly boring. I love slice of life series but a good slice of life series need interesting characters and I just feel that the original series didn't have that. Maybe I'll change my mind if I rewatch the series again now but it's really hard to motivate myself to do that since I don't think this new anime will have that much connection to the original. Speaking of the original, I hope HAL Filmmaker will have better luck in translating the manga's style to anime. J.C Staff didn't do a good job back then, IMO, which is strange because they actually achieved similar technique a few years later with Honey and Clover.
| Natsume Yuujin-chou (Natsume's Book of Friends) | |
 | Original Title: 「夏目友人帳」 - Natsume Yuujin-chou |
Story: No, it's not the new version of facebook although on a glance the story does sound like Mushishi meets Facebook/MySpace. Natsume is a kid who can see spirit just like his grandma, Reiko. When she was alive, Reiko didn't get along well with too many people. As a result, she spent the majority of her time harassing spirits. Those who lost against her has to obey her command and become her followers. In order to seal the contract, she wrote their names in her "Book of Friends" and has now passed over that book to her grandson. As a result, a never-ending list of spirits have now come after Natsume for revenge. Natsume and a cat spirit (who also wants the book for himself) work together everyday to released the spirits from the book and try not to get killed by the spirits.
Interest: Medium. I always find Facebook/MySpace to be rather useless and pointless. I mean you keep putting list of people that you've met at a party and for some reason decide to call them 'friends' even though you'll probably never talk to them again after that. Meanwhile, your list of 'friends' grow to a ridiculous proportion, making it hard to keep in contact with the real friends that you actually know well. The series is interesting to me because it deals with a lot of friendship/relationship tales, both sad and happy ones. Despite this, the series is anything but boring because both Natsume and Nyanko (the cat spirit) are equally rude and sarcastic so they provide some comedic moments from time to time. Plus, the cat has a rather dubious character and his action makes you wonder if he's actually an evil spirit.
The acting talent for the series are top-notch as well with Kamiya Hiroshi (Takemoto in Honey and Clover) providing the voice of Natsume and Inoue Kazuhiko (Kakashi in Naruto) providing the voice of Nyanko. The ED singer, Atari Kousuke, is a Japanese/Chinese mix and this is often reflected in his music style. He also has a unique but impressive voice. You can hear/watch him performing his previous songs, on the official website. I'll even drop S.A - Special A if this turns out to be good so I hope Brain Base (Kurenai was their latest work, if I remember correctly) doesn't disappoint with the animation. The PV posted on the official site is a bit discouraging for me because it shows a rather washed-out illustration style similar to Bleach early episodes instead of strong and distinct warm/cold color palettes like the one Mushishi used.
| Blade of the Immortal | |
 | Original Title: 「無限の住人」 - Mugen no Juunin |
Story: Manji is a samurai with an immortal life, a curse which was given to him by a 800 year-old nun called Yaobikuni for killing 100 people. The only way he can get rid of his eternal life is if he kills 1000 Evil people. While under the curse, however, he's got regeneration ability thanks to "Kessen-chu", a group of sacred bloodworms which sacrifice themselves everytime Manji is injured so that he can repair part of his body. Despite this, there are limits to the amount of injury that Kessen-chu can heal.
Interest: Low. I already have a series that I have to cover on Sunday and while the storyline sounds interesting, I'd rather just watch the series than blog it. Having said that, those who are interested will be keen to know that Seki Tomokazu will voice Manji. The animation will be done by Bee Train, which has a rather spotty record but let's see what they can do with this rather famous series.
Other series for your consideration:
Slayers Revolution (2nd of July)
I never watched the original Slayers series so I only know that the main characters is a girl called Lina and a blonde himbo called Gourry. The characters design don't look too hot in comparison to today's anime but it'd be a good series for those who love the original. Hayashibara Megumi fans will be pleased to know that she'd back to reprise the role of Lina Inverse.
Antique Bakery (3rd of July)
A shounen-ai tale of about four bakers. It's actually the new series for Noitamina segment in FUJI TV so at least it'd be good animation-wise. Plus, there are shots of all of those pastries to droll at.
Hidamari Sketch x365 (3rd of July)
A slice-of-life series about four young high-school girls and their school life. I didn't really like the first season and the character design didn't help the situation either. [Teaser Trailer]
Strike Witches (3rd of July)
Little girls are the only one who have magic to fight against a mysterious force. I remember reading some good reviews about it but I can't help but being skeptical since it's produced by GONZO. [Teaser Trailer]
Ryoko's case file (5th of July)
A graduate of Tokyo University is working as an investigator of paranormal activities at Tokyo Metropolitan Police. The character design looks rather old-style and for some reason reminds me of Coyote Ragtime Show.
Zero no Tsukaima: Princess no Rondo (6th of July)
I think this is the 3rd season of Zero no Tsukaima? I didn't like the few episodes of the original season that I watched and didn't even know that there was a 2nd season.
World Destruction~Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (7th of July)
A boy called Kirie has the power to destroy the world. Two factions, one good and one bad are fighting for him. This is one of those cross-genre products involving a game (NDS), an anime, and comic books. [Teaser Trailer]
Slayers, Natsume Yuujin-chou, Mahou tsukai..., and Ryoko's Case file are the ones I'm really interested in from your list. The one not on your list, Tetsuwan Birdy -Decode. Old school remake, I need to watch those ^___^
wooooww Summer 08 is gonna be so boring .... I seriously have no interest in those animes listed :O hmmm i'll stick to vampire knight and special a :(
hmmmm still hopin for that second season of claymore.
I think they should do anime version of top mangas ..... why not do an anime of millenium snow (OHHC author) or umm hana kimi but then it would be like ouran :(
Looking forward on watching Natsume Yuujin-chou, Mahou Tsukai, World Destruction, Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu and Chocolate Underground...
But I'm looking forward to Fall and Winter co'z there are more interesting new anime there...
Ugh. Why is there so much Bee Train hate? Everywhere I go it's nothing but how badly they suck. Okay, El Cazador was a flop and the second season of Tsubasa was meh, but this is also the studio that gave us Noir and .hack. Arguably two of the most influential series of the decade.
And Murder Princess didn't suck. Mad props to Tomoyuki Kurokawa.
Ok, that's it for my soapbox. This season it's, Blade of the Immortal, Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto ~Natsu no Sora~, Ryoko's Case and World Destruction. And Ultraviolet, for the lolz.
I'll also probably end up watching Slayers. It's just nostalgic, and tis the season for extra anime, at least till classes start up again
Not much catches my attanetion this season. I'll be watching Natsume Yuujin-chou, Antique Bakery and Zero no Tsukaima but compared to spring it's a measly amount.
I was interested in World Destruction...until I saw the preview.
>> but this is also the studio that gave us Noir and .hack. Arguably two of the most influential series of the decade.
Well, different strokes and all but I wouldn't call Noir and .hack "influential".
As for this season, I agree with others in that it's a pretty dry offering. I think I'll stick to video games for the time being until Autumn comes by with better offerings.
I might check out Natsume Yuujin-chou (Natsume's Book of Friends), just because the picture you posted looks kinda cool . . . but other than that, not much interests me. =/
Then again, I usually wait a while after some of the episodes have come out, and until other people/friends tell me, "You gotta watch so-and-so!" to decide what to watch and what not to. XD
So what's the difference between Manga and Anime, is just the name change if different parts of the world.
I might check out Natsume Yuujin-chou (Natsume's Book of Friends), just because the picture you posted looks kinda cool . .
I really recommend Natsume Yuujin-chou. Story-wise it's really good. Now it's all up to the anime to make it all perfect.
So what's the difference between Manga and Anime, is just the name change if different parts of the world.
Hi, welcome to the site. Manga is Japanese word for comic book and Anime is what they used to refer to any kind of animation. Some popular manga usually end up being animated just like Hollywood often adapted books into feature films.
*stunned at the lack of good anime* oh well, I guess we had a pretty good run this season so now it's back to lolicon/moe-con fest again.
Meh, I guess I'll check one of the two recommendations (Antique Bakery!!) but most of these do not interest me at all.
Well, this season doesn't look half as good as the Spring on did, but that one ended up being very good so I suppose it is hard to match.
Of all these, Blade of the Immortal looks the most interesting for me. I have a lot of friends who are crazy about the manga, so I would like to look into it and have a clue what they are talking about (I tried to read the manga, but I'm not good at following action scenes when they aren't actually moving).
I'd heard about World Destruction as well. It sounds interesting, with the various cross-products (I'm wondering if the game will get released in English). While it does sound a LOT like X by CLAMP, it has enough of my favourite seiyuu involved (Sakamoto Maaya and Miyano Mamoru) that I'll check it out.
Antique Bakery and Ryoko's Case File also sound interesting enough to check out as well.
Any good jdrama coming up?
Maybe Antique Bakery and blade of immortal. Natsume Yuujin-chou if it proves to be interesting. The rest is meh.
Maybe Natsume Yuujin-chou but summer '08 is so very barren, the only things I'll be keeping track of is Soul Eater and Code Geass R2.
Which is fine by me because spring '08= overload. Too many decent animes that I haven't been able to actually watch and so many mangas that have been put lower on my priorities because of it.
The new "Someday's Dreamers" series won't be very much like the previous one. Whether you think that's good or bad will depend on how much you liked the first one.
In the first one, Yume's magic is very reliable and her power level is off the charts. The series is about Yume learning to understand and accept the responsibility engendered in her power, and to understand that sometimes there will be people she cannot help, and problems she cannot solve. The first series stayed focused on that from beginning to end. All the seeming "day-in-the-life" stories represented Yume learning about all the ways magic could change people's lives, for good or ill. One of the things I was really glad of was that they didn't toss in a romantic interest for her.
This new series will be entirely different. The new heroine's magic is weak and unreliable, and apparently this one's going to be yet another high school romangst story, with some aspects of magic mixed in just to differentiate it from all the others. I'm expecting it to be terrible.
The show I'm looking forward to the most is Strike Witches. (And I predict that Litvyak turns out to be a trap.)
Nice to see you writing your preview. This season I'm pretty much going to follow Slayers Revolution , since I'm a great fan of the original series. I don't really agree with you about the character design, well, at least the scans looked better than what was at the website, but I'm quite skeptical about those latter ones, since they usually look like garbage most of time.
Other than that, Natsume Yuujin-chou might turn out interesting. The story isn't really that new, but if they can pull it off decently I'm sure it'll be a nice series to follow, plus, it's the same studio that worked on Kure-nai, one of my favourite anime series recently, so I'll be keeping an eye for it.
And Garten, you're not interested on Birdy The Mighty Decode? The story seems to be pretty fun, with the boy and girl fused on the same body, and the trailer they showed a good while ago was looking pretty good. Plus, it's A-1 Pictures, I can't help but think they're probably going to be one of greatest animation studios in the future, since they've been hiring really talented people recently (Yamamoto Yutaka comes to mind now) and, of course, they have the money to invest, which is something lacking on the industry.
Well, anyway, thanks for the previews, Garten! Keep up the good job ^_^
"Ryoko's case file" seems intriguing... love the detailed design - haven't seen a realistically-drawn series for a loooooooooooooooooong time. Hope they won't ruin it by having ridiculously large breasts on the girls...
Antique!!!! I love Yoshinaga Fumi's Antique Bakery! This was the first story I ever read by her and it's really wonderful. I think this series may be worth checking out in summer ^_^
I heard there's a Jigoku Shoujo season 3 on its way
Any chance of blogging it, garten? :)
I heard there's a Jigoku Shoujo season 3 on its way
Heh. That won't be until Autumn this year. And yeah, I might be blogging it.
Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto: Natsu no Sora,
Natsume Yuujin-chou, world destruction and Antique Bakery intrigue me. I probably won't end up watching Natsu no Sora, and I'm only Watching Antique Bakery to see if it's any good (because it's BL, and Junjou Romantica was quite good this season...). I've still got alot of last/this season I want to watch though ^_^
Hmm... I actually liked the manga of the original 'Mahou Tsukai', the artwork still strikes me as being one of more stunning I've seen, but I agree that J.C Staff's interpretation of the character designs in particular were edgier, and rather flat; but that said I still enjoyed the story - you need the right mood... in my case that meant a quiet night shift at work!
I'll look forward to the follow-up series, fingers crossed for better artwork... Noitamina series are always high on my list for at least a look-see, so 'Antique Bakery' is in... and I agree, 'Hidamari Sketch' was sleep-inducing. By the way, your description of 'World Destruction' carries a heavy spectre of Clamp's 'X' about it...
Thanks for the preview!
I've read Antique Bakery, and I'm curious to see how it translates into anime. There's a lot of storytelling told in bits and pieces, but it put itself together very well at the end. Honestly, the focus never struck me as strictly shounen-ai, but I can see how someone can think that that's all it's about. It seemed to me more or less a "coping with your life" kind of thing.
As for Slayers, the design might look dated, but I'm glad they're keeping with the old designs instead of updating to match every other anime out there. I did hear that this season won't be based on the novels, kind of like Try, but I could be wrong.
Natsume sounds interesting, and I was just getting a kick out of looking at the different interpretations of the main character in World Destruction for the game, anime, and manga. I dunno. Aside from Antique and Slayers, though, I'm not really sure what to follow. o.O
hmmmm...can't say that much this season lights me on fire. i only plan on following three of them: Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsuna Koto: Natsu no Sora, Natsume Yuujin-chou (Natsume's Book of Friends), and Nogizaka Haruka no Himitsu (i'm not sure you mentioned that one in this post).
it's kind of a shame, since i thought that the spring anime season this year was pretty weak, too. the fanservice overload is kind of killing me...o_O
I'm definitely looking forward to Natsume Yuujinchou! I've been following the manga and have greatly enjoyed it, since I'm a big fan of Midorikawa Yuki.
The "boy-who-can-see-spirits" theme is definitely a common one in anime and manga, but this series somehow brings something new to it. Natsume and the cat are absolutely hilarious, too, which is a plus. After watching the trailer, I'm definitely excited about this one.
"World Destruction~Sekai Bokumetsu no Rokunin (7th of July)
A boy called Kirie has the power to destroy the world. Two factions, one good and one bad are fighting for him. This is one of those cross-genre products involving a game (NDS), an anime, and comic books."
the characters look amazing and have very weird names... like theres a girl named mort and a dude named naja. btw it says " 7th of july " yet at the sites i watch anime theres no news of anything about world destruction coming out with episode 1.
(i watch at crunchyroll, veoh, and i torrent some animes)
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