The Very Late Winter 2013 Season Preview

The season kicked off with “People from Tokyo say this, people for Osaka say that, aren’t they strange”

I’ll be perfectly honest and admit I’ve done no research on what shows are airing in the winter. In that spirit, I’ll try to preview them anyway based entirely on the title. Most of these shows have the plot in the title now, right?

Boku no Imouto wa Osaka Okan – oh, another little sister show, and she happens to be from Osaka. They probably sound different from normal Japanese people, and that’s probably the entire joke.

Saki: Achiga-hen – Episode of Side-A – I thought this had already ended. Anyway, more reinforcement of the fact that to play mahjong at a high level you need superpowers. I can’t see how this helps build support for the game.

Savanna Game – I recently started playing The Walking Dead and the main characters were trying to get to Savannah, so I’m going to assume it’s like that.

Tantei Opera Milky Holmes Alternative Two – Opera Kobayashi and the Raven of the Void – What kind of title is that? I bet it has a character named Opera Kobayashi and there’s some mystery involving a Raven from the void. Can I pick these plots out or what?

Puchimas! -Petit iDOLM@STER- – Having never seen Idolmaster, I’m the perfect person to watch this show. There can’t be too many references that would fly over my head, right? Actually, I’d only make things worse by guessing what happens.

Ai Mai Mi – Didn’t this air like 12 years ago? Oh wait, that was I My Me. I’m going to say it’s a sequel to that.

AKB0048 Next stage – I can’t wait until they get to Third stage, Special stage or Fifth stage by which time the CG will look like it was made by interns using a computer for the 2nd time in their lives. But for now, the publicity machine continues.

Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru – Unfortunately, I’ve read the manga of this. It does absolutely nothing special for a harem show. Even the chuunibyou girl is lame.

Minami-ke Tadaima – More of the same as before. Though the budget can’t get any lower without resorting to single frames per second. Maybe Hosaka can do the show sans shirt to save money.

Senran Kagura – This was a ninja game, right? They somehow have to turn this into a harem. Because that makes no sense at all.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman – That title indicates something period. I think I’d only like it if the main character were Roman, ala Thermae Romae or someone sent from the future. Now I’m haunted by the thought of Paolo di Canio being sent back to 17th century Japan.

Courtesy of Zettai Karen Children: The Unlimited – Hyoubu Kyousuke – Is that even a title? That first part is just a sponsorship thing, right? So really, it’s just The Unlimited. Hell, that could be anything. How about a Paul Thomas Anderson-esque plotless drama with characters interacting in related ways?

Senyuu – The short titles are always the hardest to guess. So I have to go with a generic show with generic characters and a generic plot in a generic world. That covers 80% of shows doesn’t it?

Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai NEXT – While this is just a continuation of Haganai, I think I’ll to something better for this preview. They all have powers like it’s Tiger & Bunny. So Rika can compel any pair of robots into having mecha sex, Kobato is literally a vampire fighting Maria who has powers to fight vampires. Sena is able to manipulate almost all men into doing her bidding, Yozora is able to trick anyone under Sena’s control into doing her bidding. Yukimura is able to generate any item needed for a situation because Kodaka has no powers at all. That works for me.

Sasami-san@Ganbaranai – That’s 2/3rds of an e-mail address. So that mean’s there’s some technology involved. So it’s more NEET worship. The main character should just get a job like everyone else. Why should I care about someone who chooses to live a life of luxury off of their family members? Oh, Shaft’s making it? Then I’m cool.

Mondai-Ji-tachi ga Isekai kara Kuru Sou Desu yo? – That title is long and it doesn’t contain imouto or Onii-chan. That means it’s really just a generic character-insert harem. That was easy.

Beast Saga – This has to be a little kid show. It’d be perfect for my entry in Fantasy Anime League in another quest for infamy. Beast Wars was the show with the Transformers, so this is probably the same thing without the transforming bit.

Hetalia: The Beautiful World – The greatest piece of social commentary in our time and we should be grateful that they continue to make this. I should be safe after that line.

GJ-bu – Something about a club, but I’m going to have to consult a special dictionary to determine what it is. I’ll go for #3 here because having been to Wisconsin Rapids, that’s exactly the type of thing that would happen there.

D.C. III ~Da Capo III~ – Another franchise that seems to be dragged out every few years, watched by no one and only resurfacing when the next eroge is made. So yes, this means more weird shit happening because of the tree.

Chihayafuru Second Season – Taichi gets embroiled in a performance enhancing drug scandal that rocks that karuta world. Chihaya then quits the game for good and becomes one of the country’s great actresses.

Hakkenden: Touhou Hakken Ibun – I don’t think this is a Touhou anime even though it is right there in the title. Screw it, this has to be the token BL title of the season.

Cuticle Detective Inaba – When Inaba isn’t solving mysteries, he’s busy getting his nails done. Few are as dedicated to effectively serving as hand-model/detectives as he is. This sounds so stupid.

gdgd Fairies Second Season – This is that really weird show that is like an acid trip each episode I believe. So I assume they drop off vials of LSD at every residence to be taken along with viewing this show.

Ishida to Asakura – This is going to seem really boring, but I think this may be a story that revolves around a character named Asakura and another one named Ishida. That may sound crazy.

Tamako Market – A re-imagining of the K-On universe where all of the girls try to join a club that tries to best perform small scale capitalism. They are unfortunately doomed to failure once the bigger chain moves in and steals all of their customers leaving them with lives full of poverty and misfortune.

Maoyuu Maou Yuusha – I know about this. The big hook for this show is not even bothering to name characters. So the Hero is named Hero. That should be excellent news for foreign entities hoping to sell this internationally.

Ganbare! Lulu Lolo – Just the title alone makes it seem like it’s destined to be blogged episodically at Oishii Anime. Probably a couple of cute characters trying very hard at stuff and failing. But being even cuter for it.

Kotoura-san – Not a very helpful title here. I think I’m about due to guess one of these as a shoujo romance with an odd hook.

Amnesia – I bet a character in this show has amnesia and has to figure out how to recover their memory. Not a very good title in my opinion.

Yama no Susume – This has to be a mountain climbing anime. Maybe it’s cute girls climbing Everest or Kilimanjaro. This could save the anime industry.

Mangirl! – This is obviously a smashing together of manga and girl, so that pretty much gives away the plot. Cute girls working on manga. That seems like a rather tired concept though.

Vividred Operation – Trying to take advantage of the popularity of Garupan this is probably another over the top “hilarious” girls going to war series. I just can’t see this one succeeding to that high standard.

Love Live! School idol project – I don’t think I can explain it better than the title. It’s an idol project, set at a school called Love Live. A great title there.

Train Hero – We all know this doesn’t actually exist. I’ll believe it when I watch the first episode and drop it afterwards.

Doki Doki! Pretty Cure – This will be the best PreCure series yet. I even told Kriz that it would be as I paid him off to express that opinion. It helps that he loves the franchise though. I think this is a sequel, so I really should watch some of the older ones.

So at the conclusion of this write up I got around to actually looking at the chart. Lots of not watching and plenty that I’m sure will be dropped (in red and yellow respectively)

For those scoring at home that’s 5 definite watches, 3 probably watches, and 14 probable drops.