If I were steev or Xcom, I may be wondering why I’d watch this when Ixion Saga DT is already enough comedy fantasy, even though IS DT is a video game and not a true fantasy series. Senyuu will be another 5-minute situation and Ordet/Liden apparently had nothing good to show me in that short trailer while mixing it with the audio atrocity that was the theme song, so I’m can only presume that your expectations and mine are similarly next to nil. Will this save anime, Yamakan? WILL IT!

The reason I want to watch this show can pretty much be summed up in one word: KyoAni. They’re responsible for some of my favorite shows, and at this point they can do no wrong in my eyes. What makes Tamako Market interesting though is that it’s a completely original production and not an adaptation of any manga or light novel. In any case, I’m always up for some cute girls eating pounded rice, so bring on the mochi!

If Strike Witches popped into your head when you first looked at this, director Takamura Kazuhiro’s name is the reason why as he’s the director and co-story composer for this series (alongside Hiroyuki Yoshino of Gundam Seed Destiny infamy). The trailer included is mainly a character display showing off 14-year-old butts, which is a whole lot of what Strike Witches was; hell, even the description of the show including aliens is pretty similar. This is an original series being done by A-1 Pictures, but far from unique when I think about how Strike Witches had a plentiful cast of girls with their butts on the screen with regularity. It’s visual fidelity does look pretty solid and the character designs do look nice, so I’m hoping this can at most be a fun watch in the pretty chilly season of anime.

Yeah, I’m looking forward to this show. I really enjoyed the first season, and a big part of that are Buriki’s character designs. More than that, I’m just eager to see a continuation in the hopes that things will progress with the characters, but I’m not against more day to day antics. As with most sequels, if you didn’t like what came first, then stay away, but fans will know what to expect. Here’s to starting off 2013 with more Yozora and Sena backstory and foreshadowing…if you know what I mean.

I’m not sure what to think about this series just yet. It looks funny enough and it is being produced by Shaft with many of the staff that worked on Baka to Test, so it effeminately has potential. I do like a lot of shaft shows so I do hope this one turns out good. The only problem I foresee is that it looks like another one of these real world fantasy series, like Chu2Koi, which is the kind of show that doesn’t always resonate with me… I’ll be looking forward to this show no mater how it turns out, but I have my reservations.

Highschool club, strange powers, love comedy. Sounds like this has all the ingredients for the most original anime of all time. All sarcasm aside, I’ll be going into this with an open mind and not too high of expectations. I’m a sucker for anime rom-coms so this might turn out to be a pleasant surprise.

I thought Diomedea did at least an ok job on animating Campione, and admittedly it became a guilty pleasure watch for me in Summer ‘12. Mondai-Ji-tachi however brings me a trailer that presents itself as yet another dumb harem/action/fantasy series, and I’m having trouble locating redeeming qualities to provide some sort of hope that this can be a good time. The chief director is Keizou Kusakawa, who did directorial work for Campione, Dog Days and Sekirei, but even if I have a certain level of like and/or respect for those series, the source material doesn’t sound impressive enough and the trailer appears to display that mediocre quality pretty well.

Sequels are popping up a little more frequently than I’m used to with anime, especially when I think about the past 10+ years worth of series that I would’ve liked to seen more of. Even josei series like Chihayafuru, whose first series apparently wasn’t in the best TV time slot and was far from gangbusters in home video sales, is getting a sequel. The first series grew into one of my favorite Fall ‘11/Winter ‘12 series as Madhouse beautifully brought a manga about a card game to animated form. Along the way, the aspect I was most critical of early on (the actual playing of Karuta) got better thanks to new characters bringing in new playstyles and Madhouse creating a genuinely tense atmosphere for the competition. There’s also a shoujo element of the series that I’m expecting to get stronger focus, though I wouldn’t bet on anything truly coming to fruition. And remember everyone, #TeamTaichi.

Another year, another Precure. This is the tenth Precure series in as many years, and the series shows no sign of slowing down. After Smile revisited the five girl team last seen in Yes! Precure 5, DokiDoki seems to be going back to four girls, which seemed to be the status quo during Fresh, Heartcatch, and Suite. Apparently, each girl now has their own fairy animal for transformation, ala how it worked in Futariwa and Splash Star. From what little I’ve seen I like the designs for the girls in and out of Cure form.