The -monogatari series could become one of the bigger ones in anime if this one plays out as well as its predecessor. There’s also that Kizumonogatari movie that’s still in development, so while that gets done, Shaft will jump to the 3rd -monogatari book following Araragi’s sisters. What’s great is that the staff is basically identical from Bakemonogatari, so zero concerns of how someone new will handle the series. This anime is SHAFT at its Shaftiest; all of the angles, all of the pop-up graphics, etc. are sure to make some people run away than embrace the weirdness, but the visual fidelity of Bakemono was incredible and it was quite effective at telling a story in addition to all of dialogue voiced by an all-star cast. If you have not seen Bakemonogatari, Nise might be alright to jump into and see if you like the series’ vibe.

I am not really into historical retellings like this anime. Although, It did grab my interest because Saizo is voiced by Ono Daisuke, who happens to be one of my favorite voice actors. Other than Ono Diasuke, there isn’t really much to say. The studio that is producing the work is new, so I don’t even know what to expect in terms of the quality of animation. Still, I will give it a chance because it does give off a Samurai 7 feeling, so it might be unexpectedly good. The trailer also shows off a lot of action, which is always a draw for me.

Cute girls, giant robots fighting mysterious enemies, and Production IG. Yeah, this looks and sounds like my kind of show. From the trailer, the mecha seems to be a mix between cg and handdrawn, but overall it looks good, if a bit unoriginal. Interestingly, this is set to be split into two 12 episode seasons aired separately.

Here we have Tatsuyuki Nagai, a guy who has directed Toradora, Honey & Clover II and most recently Ano Hana. Popular animes that all feature love stories, heartbreaks and so on, almost challenging its viewer not to become emotionally invested. We also have Onegai Teacher/Twins Yosuke Kuroda involved in what is a reuniting with Nagai and also character designer Masayoshi Tanaka. Oh, and JC Staff too. This all culminates what might be one of Winter’s most intriguing shows. Am I excited for this anime? Quite frankly, no. Does it have the chance to surprise me in the way Ano Hana did so early on? I’m admittedly placing doubt there. JC Staff isn’t the deterrent for me so much as the idea of yet another adolescent romantic comedy. I like Ano Hana; it was a good anime and I really liked the unique character designs for Menma and the others, but I’m really having trouble gaining interest in kind of in some sense watching the series again and surprisingly disappointing character designs as I find no appeal in them. Any kind of supernatural element this show might have would be a turn-off more than on.

PV’s are usually boring music montages of scenes from an upcoming anime, but for DLoHSB, they featured 5-minute sketches of typical days in the lives of the 3 main guys on the show. My favorite was the RPG parody with the image of Tadanuki holding a sword by the blade taking 5 damage; the mini-skirt ep was also a winner and the lyrics to the ED theme with self-aware lyrics. Episodes are apparently only 6 minutes, but this already looks way more interesting than past short-shows like Morita-san wa Mikuchi or Nyanpire. Don’t compare this to Fall 2011’s Kimi to Boku; this is much more like Spring 2011’s Nichijou which I’m sure will lead to Amuro enjoying this series. Also, director Shinji Takamatsu was the director for the first 100 episodes of Gintama, one anime steev is a big fan of. The voice cast will go a long way with this show, and Tomokazu Sugita heads that up as Hidenori along with other popular seiyuu like Kenichi Suzumura, Yoko Hikasa and Namikawa Daisuke having some key roles to play.

Ever since Flags last appeared on our podcast and mentioned this series I have kept it in the back of my mind as an anime to look out for, but honestly nothing has captivated me about it. The cast is filled with fairly unknown people and the crew has no well known tallent. The director, Tsutomou Mizushima, also directed xxxHolic, which means he has experince in working on supernatural horror, but he also directed Blood-Crap. Even the trailer doesn’t do anything to grab my attention. It is done by PA Works so I do expect the animation to be top notch, but I just don’t know what to think of this series yet. I won’t shoot it down, but my expectations will be fairly low.

Well, this can either be heartwarming and funny, or really creepy depending on how things play out. My first impression is that the two elder sisters aren’t blood related so that they can be put into romantic comedy situations with the main character Yuta. Sora is a tsundere, Miu is a capricious little devil, and Hina is of course there to be adorable. The series is listed as a comedy in the seinen genre, and it’s based on a light novel series. According to Steev and the rest, this is prime Amuro series material, so I’ll be keeping tabs on it to see if it gets the seal of approval.

When the OAV came out, all I knew was that vocaloid was a huge deal and that this was a big thing in the anime community. I came away from it feeling like the action stuff looked really great, but not totally enjoying the parallel world theme and also the lack of dialogue BRS and Dead Master have. It wasn’t a total hate for the school side of things as I felt that the dark, barren geometric realm of BRS could’ve done a little more to help out with balancing. Honestly, with only 8 episodes, there shouldn’t be any excuse for making half of the anime into easy school crap when people just want to see Black Rock Shooter fight.
I’ve been keeping up with the Black Rock Shooter news on Anivision, and with each press release, my thrill for an anime series takes a big hit. I’m not bothered that Ordet is coming back to do animation production since I enjoyed the action sequences of Black Rock Shooter, but the problem lies in what I’ve seen of trailers so far, which is rather average CGI use for action scenes. A huge deal breaker for this anime could be battle sequences lacking in comparison to the OAV, and I really hope I’m wrong there. Ryo’s back for music, all well and good considering the great music both in the OAV and also Guilty Crown, and more of huke’s character designs like Strength and I think Black Gold Saw will get a chance to show up. noitaminA picking up this show is certainly a headscratcher still to many, but it’s only 8 episodes and will be done and out before we can blink.

This series seems more like an Amuro series because it involves a loli and a body guard, but to be honest, I have heard a bunch about this series and my interest has been peaked. First off, this is being produced by David Productions, which brought us Ben-Tou and it is easily one of the best from the Fall 2011 season. Thus, even though this series looks like the generic loli-comedy it might actually prove to be something far better. Even thought my interest has been peaked, I do not have exceedingly high expectations for this anime, merely I am ready to check it out. Other than hearing some interesting things and being produced by David there isn’t much about the series that stands out, so I set my bar accordingly.

Not much is known about this series yet, but while looking into it I had the chance to read the first few chapters of the manga and what I found was both parts equally disturbing and arousing. The first chapter was about Aya Akabane and about how she lost her underwear while going to school. She didn’t even realize she had lost her underwear. Once she finds out she makes it her mission to steal her friends underwear which leads to them rolling down the hall into their class room ass up so everyone can see. Yes, that is what this series is. The following chapters show a plethora of nudity as one chapter she decides that her breasts are too small and she must find a way to make them bigger. Stupid? Yes, but something most guys will want to watch especially if the anime is done with the nudity, but I fear it will probably be horridly censored and we all will be waiting for the DVD releases. Aya is a very interesting lead as well because she is so over the top that it is very funny at times. Even censored this anime might be hilarious, which actually makes me pretty interested in this anime.