For a moment there, I was deceived into thinking that the spring anime season this year would be a bust. Many other anime enthusiasts are lamenting the lack of quality programming on the comments section of fansub and download sites, which worried me. Turns out they either had very, very high expectations, were complaining too early in the season, or didn't know what good anime was really about.
It's true that I had to wade through a lot of titles and drop a bunch (mostly the three-minute shorts and the ones I think will be generic), but I still ended up with a long list of anime series that I will be watching (hopefully in a timely manner) this season. About a dozen of the titles below were sure-shots after just watching the first episodes for each.
Spring brings us the second seasons of Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?, Phi-Brain: Kami no Puzzle, Fate/Zero and Kimi to Boku. I am sorry to say I have yet to complete the first seasons of the last three. Yes, I know. Such sacrilege. Hopefully, the relatively light summer TV series season will give me time to watch my anime backlog from my 2011 fall anime picks. As for my 2012 winter fall anime lineup, I'm pretty much up to date(-ish).
There's also the sequel series Eureka Seven Ao, which should excite those who liked the original Eureka Seven series. Also, fans of the Lupin III will enjoy the prequel (and so not child-appropriate) Lupin III: Mine Fujiko no Iu Onna.
I had originally wanted to add Furusato Saisei: Nihon no Mukashi Banashi (Folktales from Japan) and Shirokuma Cafe, but with 20+ titles for a single season, I just had to drop those I think I can live without. Although the Panda in Shirokuma Cafe is pretty cute, even if he is a deadbeat.
Here is my list of selections from the Japan anime spring season.
Sakamichi no Apollon
The beginning of summer, 1966.
Because of his father's job situation, freshman high school student
Kaoru Nishimi moves by himself from Yokosuka to Kyushu to live with
relatives. Until then, Kaoru was an honor roll student who tended to
keep to himself, but meeting notorious bad boy Sentaro Kawabuchi starts
to change him. Through his devil-may-care classmate, Kaoru learns the
attractions of jazz and finds the first person he can call a "friend".
He also discovers how much fun it is to play music with a pal.
Uchuu Kyoudai
Once upon a time there were two brothers, Hibito and Mutta. Hibito, the younger brother, had been blessed with good luck since the day he was
born. Mutta, the elder, had always had bad luck. One day, looking up at
the night sky, the two brothers saw a UFO. This experience made them
both promise to become astronauts. In the year 2025, Hibito has kept his promise and is an astronaut who is
part of the first wave of people to live for an extended period of time
on the moon. Meanwhile, his older brother Mutta has been fired from his
job and is unemployed, but a message from his brother makes him decide
to start being an astronaut again. Unaware of his own talent, elder brother Mutta chases his dreams to get
back in front of his younger brother. 32-year-old Mutta will attempt the
astronaut candidate examinations to follow his brother Hibito to the
moon believing the words "The older brother should always be ahead of
the younger one..."
Tsuritama
Yuki Sanada is a high school boy who cannot communicate with people well and doesn't have a single friend. He lives on Enoshima island with his French grandmother. One day, he
meets a boy named Haru. Haru calls himself an alien who visited the
Earth for fishing. Another high school boy, Natsuki, and a mysterious Indian, Akira, join
the two and the island becomes the center of the event which determines
the fate of the world.
Accel World
The year is 2046. Haruyuki Arita is a young boy who finds himself on the
lowest social rungs of his school. Ashamed of his miserable life,
Haruyuki can only cope by indulging in virtual games. But that all
changes when Kuroyukihime, the most popular girl in school, introduces
him to a mysterious program called Brain Burst and a virtual reality
called the Accel World.
Sankarea
Furuya's not interested in the living, he's got zombies on the brain!
When Furuya's cat dies, he decides he's going to try and bring it back
to life. In the process, he stumbles across a girl whose failed
attempted suicide has turned her into a real zombie! What's Furuya going
to do now that the thing he loves the most is right in front of his
eyes?
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
After years of renovations and expansions, Seikyou Private School has become a maze, with areas that are sealed or long abandoned. One day first-year middle school student Teiichi Niiya gets lost in this
maze and by chance arrives at an old storage room. This is where he
meets Yuuko Kanoe, a mysterious girl who introduces herself as the ghost of
the old school building. For some unexplainable reason Niiya is the only
one able to see this spirit and she herself does not have any
recollection of the reasons or time of her death, nor any lingering
feelings about life itself. Curious about the circumstances of her death
the two create a paranormal investigation club and seek to find out the
truth about it and the many other mysteries surrounding the school.
Jormungand
The series follows Koko Hekmatyar, a young arms dealer who sells weapons under HCLI, a weapons corporation. As one of the company's unofficial weapon sellers, she secretly sells
weapons in many countries while avoiding the local authorities and law
enforcements as most of her work is actually illegal under international
law. Traveling with her is her team of bodyguards who are mostly
composed of ex-military veterans. Her latest addition to her crew is Jonah, a seemingly emotionless child
soldier who is skilled in combat yet ironically hates arms dealers.
Jonah joins Koko as he wishes to find the arms dealer responsible for
his family's death.
Eureka Seven Ao
The story is set on Okinawa's isolated island of Iwado, which has seen a
growing movement advocating a return to an autonomous government. Ao
Fukai, a 13-year-old boy with a missing father, lives on the island with
an old doctor named Toshio and is about to enter middle school. Ao's
mother was taken away a decade ago by unknown individuals. Naru Arata,
Ao's 13-year-old childhood friend and the story's heroine, lives with
her father, older sister, and grandmother. She has a "Yuta" power
awakened within her due to an incident when she was young. A mysterious entity called "Secret" suddenly appears and launches an
attack on the Scub Coral lifeform on the island. Ao launches a certain
military FP called "Nirvash" aboard a Japanese military transport in his
fervent desire to protect the island.
Kuroku no Basket
Kuroko is a member from the legendary middle school basketball team
known as "The Generation of Miracles", and while nobody seems to know
about him, the main 5 players of the team all admit that he is a better
player. When he joins the high school basketball team, everyone is
surprised to find out that he is small, weak, and easy to miss. What is
the secret that makes him so strong, and how will he help his high
school team?
Lupin III: Mine Fujiko no Iu Onna
What happened when Lupin III met Fujiko Mine for the first time?
Acchi Kocchi
Tsumiki and Io have a subtle distance that anyone would want to jump
in between of just to bug them, which is just what their friends are apt to do. Tsumiki, being a tsundere and all, won't be honest about her
feelings toward Io. Io on the other hand is unaware of Tsumiki's
feelings, hence the subtle distance between the two.
Nazo no Kanoj X
When the oddly peculiar Mikoto Urabe transfers into Akira Tsubaki's
class, he finds that life has thrown him the weirdest curve ball ever.
Because while Urabe may be an anti-social loner who sleeps on her desk,
carries a pair of scissors in her underwear and breaks out in sudden
fits of insane laughter, there's something about her that Tsubaki just
can't quite put his finger on. Until he accidentally puts his finger in
it, and suddenly the phrase "sharing spit with a girl" takes on an
entirely new meaning! Before he can wipe her drool off his face, Tsubaki
is mysteriously addicted to Urabe, which isn't half as strange as the
fact that she not only finds this normal, but already seems to have
plans for her new boyfriend.
Zetman
The story starts off with a face-off between two rival heroes, ZET and
ALPHAS, and then traces their origins - Jin Kanzaki, a young man with
the ability to transform into a superhuman being known as ZET, and Kouga
Amagi, a young man with a strong sense of justice who uses technology
to fight as ALPHAS. The fates of these two men and those around them intertwine as they
fight to protect mankind and destroy monstrous abominations known as
Players, who ironically are the creations of the Amagi Corporation, the
company founded by Kouga’s grandfather, Mitsugai Amagi.
Hyouka
Oreki Hotaro is minimalistic high school boy. One day, he joins the Classic Literature Club at his elder sister's request. There he meets Chitanda Eru, Fukube Satoshi, and Ibara Mayaka.
They begin to investigate a case that occurred 33 years ago. Hints of
the mystery are buried in an old collection of works of the former
members of Classics Club. The collection is titled "Hyouka."
Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? of the Dead
Aikawa Ayumu was revived as a zombie by the cute necromancer Eucliwood
Hellscythe. After the zany, madcap adventures in the first season of Kore wa Zombie Desu ka? ended, Ayumu thought his life might finally get back to
normal, or as normal as it can be for a zombie. However, destiny has
other plans for him. Some guys just can't catch a break.
Phi-Brain: Kami no Puzzle Season 2
The puzzles get tougher and even more deadly as Kaito Daimon continues
his battle against the power hungry Givers of the POG. And with one team
member already switching sides, will Kaito have what it takes to keep
solving the deadly puzzle traps put before him and reach the fabled
Puzzle of God? More importantly, will he be able to solve the puzzles
AND maintain his sanity?
Fate/Zero Season 2
Fate/Zero takes place 10 years prior to the events of Fate/Stay Night,
detailing the events of the 4th Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City.
Kimi to Boku Season 2
"No matter how many years go by, I'm sure we'll still be laughing together." Twins Yuta and Yuki, Kaname, and Shun have been childhood friends since
kindergarten. When transfer student Chizuru joins them, their five man
school life becomes all the more lively. Through the changing seasons,
the boys will find laughter, surprises, love, and new encounters waiting
for them.
Ozuma
In the far future, the elevated irradiation from
the sun has destroyed the environment of the earth and the birthrate of
humans has drastically decreased. The government controls society with
an army of cloned soldiers called "Ideal Children (IC)". Sam Coin is a
trader in a desert. One day, he saves a beautiful woman Maya, who has
been chased by Theseus, a corps of IC. He shelters her in his trade
ship, but the destroyers of Theseus surround Sam and Maya.
Natsuiro Kiseki
Natsumi, Saki, Yuka, and Ringo are best friends. They've grown up in an
old agricultural town, experiencing everything together, both happy and
sad. But one summer, they are visited by a miracle.
AKB0048
In the beginning of the 21st century, a world war breaks out over
interplanetary travel tech. The environment is pretty much destroyed so
mankind leaves Earth and starts Star Calendar 00. Entertainment and
songs become heavily regulated and eventually banned due to their power
to move people, but a brave idol group puts on guerrilla performances in
the name of a famous act from earlier times that sang to Earth's bitter
end, AKB48. The illegal revival group's name is... AKB0048.
All summaries and images from My Anime List.
Happy viewing!!Labels: Anime, Must-Watch, Spring, TV
