Anime of the 112th United States Congress [Winter 2011]

[Falx]

I've seen promos for Freezing.

It looks super bad.

[blkmage]

30 second CM for Fractale

[Fish and Chips]

30 second CM for Fractale

First 15 Seconds: Cool concept art, bro.
Last 15 Seconds: Much better.

Most promising show of the season.

[Falx]

Well at least it looks pretty.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

More new anime!

[SIZE="4"]Level E[/SIZE]

Strangest thing I've heard all week.

[blkmage]

Hourou Musuko PV2, Madoka Magica CM with animation footage

[Falx]

So the first non-camrip versions of The Disappearance of Haruhi are appearing. I'm still waiting for a 720 version.

[blkmage]

New season's starting next week, so here's what Japan is expecting:

*1, Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season
*2, IS: Infinite Stratos
*3, Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu!
*4, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?
*5, Beelzebub
*6, Yumekui Merry
*7, Onii-chan no Koto nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara ne!!
*8, Gosick
*9, Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica
10, Wolverine
11, Hourou Musuko
12, Fractale
13, Freezing
14, Dragon Crisis!
15, Level E

And, so you can know when about during the week to check your whatevers:

Sunday
Onii-chan no Koto Nanka Zenzen Suki Janain Dakara Ne!! (01-09)
Mitsudomoe Zouryouchuu! (01-09)
Beelzebub (01-09)
Suite Precure (02-06)

Tuesday
Kore wa Zombie desuka? (01-11)
Dragon Crisis! (01-11)
Level E (01-11)
Rio RainbowGate! (01-04)

Wednesday
Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season (01-05)

Friday
Fractale (01-14)
Hourou Musuko (01-14)
Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica (01-07)
IS Infinite Stratos (01-07)
Yumekui Merry (01-07)
Starry Sky (12-23)
Wolverine (01-07)

Saturday
GOSICK (01-08)
Cardfight!! Vanguard (01-08)
Freezing (01-08)

[MightiMidget]

Do any of the legit sources have streaming rights yet? (Crunchyroll, Funi...) My computer got a virus (yay system reinstall...) and don't know if I missed anything in my newsfeed...

[Falx]

So far nothing is confirmed.

So far the only sure thing's are Madoka Magica and Fractale... nearly everything else I'm interested in will be on trial.

[blkmage]

Watching for sure: Kimi ni Todoke, Fractale, Madoka Magica, Hourou Musuko, GOSICK.

I'm going to be giving Starry Sky, Yumekui Merry, Level E, Kore wa Zombie desu ka?, Dragon Crisis, and Infinite Stratos at least one episode.

Also, I'm pretty happy that Kimi ni Todoke, a perfectly good and non-offensive shoujo series, is topping the anticipation chart.

[Falx]

Oh man right, I forgot about Kimi no Todoke. Definitely watching that.

Zombie looks like it could be good but I'm worried that the promos are hiding the level of fanservice. Merry will rise or fall depending on the plot I think, it looks fairly safe. Dragon Crisis also has the fanservice thing worrying me, plus I believe it's Studio DEEN, so yeah.

Level E will have to deliver the comedy, and the promo isn't assuring me that it will, regardless I'll give it a shot.

Beelzebub will be given a shot, the story sounds like it could be quite funny, but I haven't seen a single promo for it so I'm the most wary over that.

Gosick I'm not expecting much, but will be checking it out just in case.

Horou Musuko sounds like a heavy dramatic work and I'm not really into those. Looks amazing though.

Onii-chan and Freezing... haha yeah no. IS will be getting at least one episode, but the fanservice again is worrying. Rio looks incredibly boring so, no thanks.

[Atria35]

Beelzebub will be given a shot, the story sounds like it could be quite funny, but I haven't seen a single promo for it so I'm the most wary over that.

I've been reading the Beelzebub manga, and it's pretty good! It's more about delinquents than actually fighting, so.... It's like GTO with a lot less perversion/fanservice, or like Yankee-kun to Megane-Chan.

[ChristianKitsune]

Shows that I will be checking out:
Fractle- This looks like it will be a really soft and sweet anime. We'll see though, I'm judging from the animation itself and the slow motion fall of the girl and the blushing boy...

Level E- The animation looks really interesting?

SuperNatural- Because I have friends who LOVE the live action version, and I want to
see Sam and Dean in anime bishie format. xD

Starry Sky- Another Girl in a Man's World anime... XD those always entertain.

Go- Sick, Femme Sherlock Holmes but with powers? Innnteresting!

Dragon Crisis- Eh, it looks cute?

I want to check out Kimi no Todoke, I didn't realize this was already an anime ^^;

[MasterDias]

new GOSICK PV
As I said before, I've been looking forward to this quite a bit since I read the first novel.

and assorted other trailers:
Beelzebub
Level E
Dragon Crisis
Yumekui Merry
IS: Infinite Stratos

Do any of the legit sources have streaming rights yet? (Crunchyroll, Funi...) My computer got a virus (yay system reinstall...) and don't know if I missed anything in my newsfeed...

Keep an eye on this page here. Crunchyroll should start announcing shows in a few days, and they appear to have ten titles.

[MightiMidget]

Keep an eye on this page here. Crunchyroll should start announcing shows in a few days, and they appear to have ten titles.

Woot! thank you. =) I will be bookmarking that for sure.

Planning to definitely follow GOSICK, Fractale, Yumeki Merry (unless it's really bad, but it looks really fun...)--and probably Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica.

Will be keeping an eye on Beezlebub, Zombie one (also worried about fanservice), Level E and Hourou Musuko (Not entirely sure if I want to commit the level of emotional involvement for that).

But I'm always willing to try something else if the content doesn't sound terrible and it gets good reviews....so we'll see. =) I've officially come to be excited about new seasons though. Hehe.

[Falx]

Found this on a subber site, no idea if it's accurate or not:

CR insider info: Rio - Rainbows Gate, Mitsudome 2, Beelzebub, Kore wa Zombie Desuka, Gosick, Level E, Wandering Son, Dragon Crisis, Cardfight Vanguard, Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas

[blkmage]

The only surprising one on that list is Wandering Son, because it would imply that Funimation doesn't have an exclusive hold on noitaminA shows anymore.

[MasterDias]

...which is somewhat strange, since I have trouble believing that whatever contract Funimation had with noitaminA wasn't for a whole year at least. Well, we'll see what happens with Fractale.

[blkmage]

I was about to watch Rio: Rainbow Gate until I thought that I really didn't need to. There were many things I could have done instead, like fill out transcript request forms or copying and pasting bits of my resume into application forms.

Kimi ni Todoke 2nd Season started, though, and it was pretty much a recap. Y u do dis Production I.G.? At least the OP was nice.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

Found this on a subber site, no idea if it's accurate or not:

Proving true so far. Is Winter 2011 officially the "season of shounen" for Crunchy Roll? Beelzebub, Cardfight VG and both the old and new seasons of Lost Canvas.

I just hope Funi picks up Infinite Stratos.

[MightiMidget]

I'll definitely be watching Saint Seiya, because a friend of mine saw (I guess the old season? *blinks*) and loved it...so.

[TheSubtleDoctor]

I'll definitely be watching Saint Seiya, because a friend of mine saw (I guess the old season? *blinks*) and loved it...so.

I say "old," the first season of Lost Canvas was 2009/2010. CR is putting up that whole thing, and then streaming the new second season. Perhaps your friend saw the original Saint Seiya TV series from the 80s? Hopefully CR will pick up the streaming rights to the original if LC is popular. ADV/Sentai started to put the episodes out and only got through ep 50, and I don't think they have plans to release any of the rest (similar thing to Viz w/ Prince of Tennis, Hikaru no Go and Monster...though thankfully all those titles are streaming in their entirety).

[MightiMidget]

I say "old," the first season of Lost Canvas was 2009/2010. CR is putting up that whole thing, and then streaming the new second season. Perhaps your friend saw the original Saint Seiya TV series from the 80s? Hopefully CR will pick up the streaming rights to the original if LC is popular. ADV/Sentai started to put the episodes out and only got through ep 50, and I don't think they have plans to release any of the rest (similar thing to Viz w/ Prince of Tennis, Hikaru no Go and Monster...though thankfully all those titles are streaming in their entirety).

Oh, no. She saw the first season of the 2009. Though I have been noticing Viz has a habit of killing good shows with their dubs... ops:

[blkmage]

Madoka☆Magica confirmed for awesome. Will be back with more substantial thoughts after another watch or two, preferably with subs. My face is widening in anticipation.

[Falx]

It was good.

Really, really good. I wasn't expecting it to be dark and gritty from the promos!

IS: Infinite Stratos was surprisingly good as well. Substantially less fanservice than what I was expecting, although that might change. Can only hope it stays at this level. The animation is really good too.

[blkmage]

More on Madoka:

I think it hit my expectations on every count. The cast is fantastic and I was especially pleased with Homura, who is essentially Fate Testarossa and Senjougahara Hitagi rolled up into one character. The style was distinctly Shaft and Shinbo, which was something I was worried would be lost or toned down. Contrary to my fears, it has the same amount of that signature weirdness, pretty close to Bakemonogatari (and we all know how I feel about that show).

The character designs were also surprisingly well realized in animation, which I wasn't sure would work out as well when I was looking at static promo art. The music is absolutely phenomenal and, again, fits in with the show as much as it remains distinctly Kajiura. Finally, Urobuchi Gen might want to write a heartwarming tale, but it's pretty clear that won't necessarily mean an absence of his tendency to write incredibly dark stories.

And where it exceeded my expectations
[SPOILER]was in the sequence that's being described as a Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei OP. It was unexpected and it was fantastic. Hopefully, that's what all the encounters will look like, because it's incredibly distinctive. And finally, Magical Musket Miyako totally stole the show by the end. I was expecting great things from her since she's wielding a rifle, but I don't think I ever would have expected her to pull out an Unlimited Musket Works.[/SPOILER]
This show's got the Bakemonogatari/DRRR!!/Star Driver effect for me. Show of the season right here, for sure.

[MightiMidget]

Great...there goes my "I will watch less shows this season" resolution. xD Will have to try Infinite Stratos in addition to many other things. Looking for to Madoka though! It looksamazing. But first to finish Red Garden.

Though I think I take back Saint Seiya, gah, will have to watch that later when I can watch the first season.

[Falx]

Dream Eater Merry:

I'm not really sold on this, there's just something ever so slightly off about the animation. I think JC Staff are running into trouble trying to do this as well as Index at the same time. The plot only just started, but I'm not sold on that either. I guess I'll give it a shot, though.

[blkmage]

Both Infinite Stratos and Yumekui Merry were not as terrible as I expected. They were incredibly generic, however, but each in their own unique way. IS was generic in that it's pretty much a combination of tropes we've seen before over and over again. Yumekui Merry is generic in that it's just stuff that's happening that we're not getting explanations for. I'm expecting to drop these within a week or two.

GOSICK was also a bit underwhelming. I've heard good things about the light novels and it's a mystery, so I'm willing to stick it out for a bit longer. But, the production was surprisingly unimpressive for BONES. Also, I'm not really feeling the voice cast. I'd have thought that Aoi Yuuki would be perfect for this sort of role, but there's something that bugs me about her Victorique so far. And the main guy was worse. Looking at the drama CD cast made me sad, because that would've been a much, much better cast (Chiwa Saitou as Victorique and Irino Miyu as the main guy, at least). Also, I totally solved that murder when it was presented. I'm hoping the cases become more challenging, otherwise this is going to suck.