可愛い女の子と思った？残念！

What the hell happened while I was gone?!  Kurenai and Utawarerumono OVA’s?  Black Rock Shooter?  Kud Wafter visual novel?!!?

For years (circa early 2000), Spring and Fall have been the mainstay anime seasons each year.  It feels like that theory died with the ending of Code Geass and the explosion of Summer 2009!  There’s tons to watch and tons coming out this season.  I know I’m 3-4 weeks behind for a seasonal preliminary post, but I just need to go through everything before I resume weekly posting just because of all the options this season!  Not to mention we’re only going to to top it off with the internet explosion known as Comiket, which hopefully we’ll be getting extra coverage and review for with Darkslime over in Japan.

Sleeping-mouth-open-moe.  A personal favorite.

So let’s start with the most interesting entry into any anime season: The OVA’s.  Summer 2010 brings back a lot of of memories, particularly from Kurenai and Utawarerumono.  Desufag already went over the Black Lagoon OVA earlier this month, but I definitely wanted to touch on these two beauties myself.  Utawarerumono and Kurenai to me are both top-quality underrated shows as far as direction and plot.  To top that off, the Utawarerumono OVA featured my two favorite characters in the show, Touka and Aruuruu!

Moe-Furry-phile Samurai

Though the OVA itself didn’t have any respectable plot, it was nice to see the characters just being them again.  It reminded me I really really needed to finish the game.  I’ve always loved Touka like an older sister (or even mother), and Aruuruu always entertained me to no end.  The Evenkuragan clan is full of Loyalty, just what Orenji expects from any true woman!

Youthful energy and spirit!  Moe is the new Gar, discuss.

Over in the Kurenai OVA we got to see Murasaki with a new hairstyle, a bit of fanservice, and a little beat ‘em up.  Just another day in Kurenai.  OVA’s tend to follow this pattern of either making an episode that wouldn’t effect the series at all, takes place after or before the series, or the OVA (as original video adapation was supposed to be) is basically the whole series jampacked into 1-4 episodes to try and get support from a major studio to create a whole series.  I think Kurenai takes place after the series is over, but I’m not entirely sure.  Could anyone tell me if there is source material to make  a season two?  I don’t know anyone who watched the series that didn’t like it, you couldn’t get me to believe it wouldn’t make money.

Athletic Moe?

While it’s a bit of a long stretch comparison, having watched all of Lucky Star, Nanoha, and various series seeing two schoolgirls go about their day in an anime was nothing new to me.  It seems that the Black Rock Shooter OVA definitely won’t be the last of it’s series as a tremendous amount of time was spent on the buildup of the characters.  I’m not going to pretend the story was really good as it is solely and introductory work but I do like the style of the show.  The art, character designs, battle-scene transition and execution definitely shows BRS has all the tools to be a solid anime.  While Mato was my favorite part of th show (with her atheltic moe), I must say the most entertaining thing for me as a fighting gamer was that her counterpart was named “Yomi”.  It was also a huge plus in my book that this was a full length OVA, being about 2.5x as long as a normal anime episode.  I would definitely like to see more of that.

If this doesn’t melt your heart you are a soul-less, lost cause of humanity.

For those of you still loyal to Key (despite the escapade of Angel Beats), the sequel to Little Buster’s! featuring Kudryvaka, my precious granddaughter, was released recently as well.  Darkslime tells me his first day in Akihabara he was bombarded with advertisements of the most adorable little girl in the world and I couldn’t help but smile at his predicament.  That aside, Kudo definitely did have the most involved story in Little Busters! and Key’s decision to feature her seems to be well met.  It’ll be ages before we see a translation, so you better start brushing up on your Japanese.  On the bright side, I heard Little Busters! has re-entered translation, so you might see the full English patch sometime in the future.

Ace Combat of the Dead

I’d say we’re definitely off to a good start this summer.  I’ll save my thoughts on the conclusion to Bakemonogatari for another post, but the lineup seems really promising.  Highschool of the Dead is of course on everyone’s mind (as the adaptation has been long in the making), but right now I’m really looking forward to Amagami SS.  Having only four episodes per arc might seem a bit rushed, but I feel it’s going to be acceptable because with only four episodes per character we will definitely see smooth character progression.  Since more and more animes are only being approved for 12 episodes, maybe other animes can take from Amagami to learn adequate buildup in a short amount of time.

Too much or not enough?

And of course we’re due for our sequels of the season: The continuing K-ON!! and Strike Witches Season II.  The moe more Erica the better, in my opinion, and K-ON!! is still K-ON!!.  I don’t know if a 24 series expansion of K-ON!! was necessary (many feel a second season wasn’t), but Kyoto Animation is handling it very well.  The series hasn’t lost it’s touch or gone bland, but a full 24 episodes is starting to cause some stagnation and tiredness amongst the fanbase.  I think K-ON!! is at a point where whoever is watching it now is going to finish it and whoever isn’t has written off the series for life.  Atleast if there’s no potential for Season 3, Kyoto Animation can finally focus on something new or re-focus on one of their other franchises.

You’re being animated by J.C. Staff!!

Other good looking animes this season are Ookami-san, Sengoku Basara Season 2, the continuing Heroman, and Mitsudomoe.  From what I heard, Mitsudomoe was actually really comedic and Heroman is giving the fans what they want, but I haven’t personally kept up with either.  What I really want to get in on is Sengoku Basara season two…as soon as I finish season one…hopefully sometime this week.

>Never completed Basara.

What?  So I never finished Basara – did I ever claim to be a GAR blogger?  Maybe Kamina or Fattierob will write something about it before I catch up.  If I can say anything about it the opening is no where near as hype as season one’s.  In any event, Summer2k10 is definitely interesting – I’m really happy that if I feel like it I can drop Ookami-san and not have to write primarily a J.C.-Staff anime this season (railgun murdered me).  Like most J.C. Staff animes, I really like the characters but the direction is feeling lazy and not very grabbing.  Cheers to this anime season being driven by AIC with Strike Witches Season two and Amagami SS!  They’ve produced some of my favorite sleeper hits like Blue Gender in the past.

Sounds fun to me!