Reviewed this week: Aria the Origination 12, Clannad 21-2, Darker than Black 26, Himawari!! 3, Kaiji 24m KgNE Next Season 2, Minami-ke Okawari 10-12, Mokke 19-23, Moyashimon Microbe Theatre Deluxe 1, Shigofumi 11, Spice and Wolf 13, Zoku SZS 6-7 …and in manga: Busou Renkin 39, HxH 274, Twin Spica vol 2 flashback 1
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It’s a unique opportunity to be able to post this on February 29th, which also happens to be the day when we girls can propose- possibly why they told me not to come to dancing on Fridays anymore. Reviewed this week: Aria 8, Himawari!! 2, Kaiji 20, Persona 6, Shion no Ou 17, Shounen Onmyouji 21-2, [...]
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Fellow anime fans, heed my words- never, ever let a massive backlog build up, for it will crush your very soul. Sadly, there is still much I have to catch up on, but in the meantime enjoy my coverage of what I have managed to get through since mid-December. Reviewed this week: Aria the Origination 1, [...]
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Decidedly, the word is that 2007 is not as exciting as 2006. We did not have Haruhi, we did not have Simoun, we did not have Black Lagoon. In fact, I'm going to talk about shows I didn't see in 2007 (and some that I did, but not like Haruhi, Simoun and Black Lagoon).
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Hinata Himawari has aspired to become a ninja ever since the day one saved her from a plane crash, and where better to train than at an all-girls kunoichi academy located in the Village of Mist? Even though all the other students are genetically engineered to be superior ninjas, Himawari is determined to make up [...]
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We begin this week with some shameless self-indulgence, as I list the figures I would like to get. Kureha: despite the unfortunate association with Shining Wind, I cannot help but want this. Himawari: I didn’t want this at first and it’s not normally the style of figure [...]
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Well, I know I was one of the few (only?) English-speaking fans who was absolutely in love with Himawari! when it ran, but that's all ok now. I can see the love in the form of the secon season they did, and the AMAZING Himawari figure that Max Factory is putting out. Oh, and good [...]
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Broadcast times and cast have been firmed up and now Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku wo is slated to begin Tuesday night April 3 at 26:15. I'll add it to my original season summary, but in brief, it appears to be the second harem-show-on-an-island of the new season, along with Nagasarete Airandou.The island's largest employer is pulling up stakes and the school dorm is almost empty, just our hero and some girls. Then suddenly a transfer student appears: one of the girls arrives back in her room to find a beautiful girl in her underwear resting on the bed. From a popular ero-game, with the PS2 version coming out in May. The hero is apparently a much more interesting character than the average harem lead.The director, Yabuki Tsutomu, did Keitai Shoujo and Happy Seven. Lead writer Nishizono Satoru does the same job on Happiness and Naruto Shippuden. Animation director Hanai Hirokazu animated the good-looking Kamisama Kazoku. The cast is an interesting mixture, with Koorogi Satomi (Himawari in Crayon Shin-chan), Orikasa Ai, Shinji Kawada (Mine in Nodame), and Nazuka Kaori (in a minor role), among others. The fact that Artland is involved also gives me hope.To get ready for the new season, which starts tonight (Wednesday night) with the promising Hitohira, take a look at my full season preview, and at the wonderful full preview done by Random Curiosity.
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Just for comparison with the previous post about anime popularity in Japan, here is a rough guide to the popularity of the new season's anime outside Japan. The index I'm using is the number of posts for each title on the AnimeSuki Forums.Clearly this is very rough, especially since half the shows haven't even been subbed yet (if they ever will be). Unsubbed shows in red:Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora 556Shuffle/Shuffle Memories 367+Manabi Straight 253Nodame Cantabile 238Venus Versus Virus 205Les Miserables 95Hidamari Sketch 69Deltora Quest 65Saint October 64Getsumen To Heiki Miina 56Yes! Precure 5 20Himawari!! 18Master of Epic 7Angelique 6Here, Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora is the clear favorite, with Shuffle! Memories second, and Nodame Cantabile very close to Manabi Straight for third place. For an unsubbed show, there is a lot of interest in Les Miserables, but many of those posts came before the show started.
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Most of the new shows have been airing for about a month now. Which of this season's shows are the most popular in Japan?Well, that's really two questions: which shows have the highest TV ratings? And: which shows are the most popular with anime otaku? TV ratings are always dominated by kids' shows and some shounen shows, shows that air either in early-evening prime time, or on weekend mornings. I'll get to them in a minute.But otaku tend to watch (or record) shows that air late at night. For them, the runaway favorite show of the new season is Gakuen Utopia Manabi Straight, which airs at 1:30 am Sunday nights.I'm basing this statement on the number of posts to 2channel, the most popular anime message board in Japan. It seems to represent a kind of mass-audience otaku opinion. Here is a list of the number of threads on 2channel for most of the new shows. Each thread represents about 1000 posts. When one thread fills up, a new thread is started: Manabi Straight 24 Hidamari Sketch 12 Yes! Precure 5 11 Shuffle/Shuffle Memories 9 Saint October 9 Kyoushirou to Towa no Sora 9 Nodame Cantabile 8 Master of Epic 6 Venus Versus Virus 5 Getsumen To Heiki Miina 5 Les Miserables 5 Deltora Quest 3 Himawari!! 3 Angelique 1 As you might expect, the top five shows all have moe appeal. But Manabi Straight has about twice as many posts as the next-most-popular show, Hidamari Sketch.Shoujo shows normally receive extremely short shrift on 2channel. NANA, after three seasons, still has only 12 threads. So I'm surprised how high Nodame Cantabile is ranked, it being based on a manga serialized in a shoujo magazine. The great cast and the staff of Honey & Clover seem to be giving it credibility. Angelique is closer to the normal ranking of shoujo shows on 2channel. I'm also struck by how highly anticipated the kids' magical-girl show Yes! Pretty Cure 5 was. Shows like this don't seem that popular outside Japan.Pretty Cure is also the one new show that has shown up in the top ten in TV ratings. It just began airing last week -- on Sunday mornings at 8:30 -- and debuted at #7 in the top ten, with a 7.4% share. That was even higher than its predecessor show, Pretty Cure Splash Star, which had a 6.8 for its final episode. It joins shows such as Sazae-san (21.7% rating), Crayon Shin-chan (10.9), Doraemon (9.8), Detective Conan (9.7), Kekkaishi (7.3) and One Piece (6.8) in last week's top ten.Among late-night anime, Nodame Cantabile had the highest-rated late-night first episode ever, with a 5.4% share, which went up to 5.5% the following week, but has dropped to 4.4% and 3.5% in succeeding weeks. Unfortunately, I have very partial data for other shows: Hidamari Sketch debuted with a 1.2% share, and Getsumen To Heiki Miina has varied between 1.7 and 2.3 in its first month. After Nodame, the top-rated late-night show seems to be Death Note (fall season, 1 am Tuesday nights), which varied between 2.3 and 3.3 over the month.TV ratings data for the top ten are from Video Research Ltd., and other ratings data are from a site that collates data posted on 2channel and elsewhere.
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