This Spring Season looks terrifying

March 22, 2009 at 12:16 am (Anime)

and I really wish the follow-up were “…ly AWESOME”. But sadly, no. I’ve heard the anime industry in Japan is not doing so well these days, this could be symptom or cause, who knows. I wonder if it’s just (what seems like) a huge volume increase in anime produced. Overextension?

Anyway, the spring season. Here are a few examples of its terrors:

Natsu no Arashi
This is another manga by the School Rumble mangaka, for whom I have quite a it of respect. I’ve read the beginning of it and it looked potentially pretty good. It felt like it could make a rather enchanting anime. So at first I saw this and was excited. Unfortunately, it’s getting SHAFTed. Oh well. I might watch it anyway; it’s possible the original material will be strong enough to have a screen presence behind all the unnecessary lens flares.

Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-Hen
Again, at first I was excited because I thought this was just a Mazinger Z remake, which would be GREAT (I mean like fucking nutrigrain bar GREAT), but apparently it’s not just a remake, it’s been re-imagined so that like the mechs all represent ancient Greek gods for some reason (Zeus is Z Mazinger). For some reason this sounds like a horrible idea to me; like they’re taking quintessential old robot anime and trying to make it serious business.

So what are the good studios doing, anyway?

Well, some people think Gonzo is a good studio; some people think it is a turd. I don’t have a strong opinion about Gonzo. Well they’re doing some mahjong anime, some fantasy adventure that looks like it’s on the wrong side of Sturgeon’s Law, and a post-apocalyptic tokyo anime that sounds eerily like Jyu Oh Sei.

KyoAni is doing another 4koma adaptation. We all saw how the last one of THOSE went. But then again, there’s a huge amount of talent in this studio, so I’ll check it out.

JC Staff appears to be busy with more Hayate (meh), and another lolicon romance.

Bones looks busy with their FMA remake (isn’t this a bit young for a remake?)

Madhouse is doing a historical / Romance of the Three Kingdoms thing that has uninspiring preview art.

annnnd GAINAX appears to be absent.

Usually Spring anime season is the best of the year, and has at least a dozen things I want to watch. There are maybe three here, and sadly, I think the surest bets for entertainment might be the remasted HD Dragonball rebroadcast, or the FMA rebroadcast. Which is pretty much saying the Spring has nothing new to offer.