Hi there I wanted to show you, which anime from the Fallseason of 2011 made it into my current watchlist and I also like to share my impressions about them, I will split this topic into two post, cause I haven’t found the motivation to write about all the shows at once. In part a I will talk about Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Fate/Zero, Gundam AGE and Tamayura: Hitotose.
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai
This great show is a comedy about making friends, it was made by studio AIC build who made such horrible things like Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai (haha I know how to make friends). Kodaka and Yozora are bad with making friends, and decide to make a club called The Neighbours’ Club, this club is ought to be for people without many friends. Like in Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai we have female characters that aren’t the cute and kind beings which we know from other anime, they are strong, quick witted characters with edges, but unlike Kirino they are no spoiled and annoying bitches XD
httpvh://youtu.be/q00Cpq4bSDg
Kodaka is considered as an delinquent because of his natural blonde hair, Yozora comes off as coldhearted and rude and Sena, well she’s popular with the boys for 2 plump reasons ;D, but she does not want such superficial friends especially not of the opposite gender. These are the club members in the first few episodes, judging from the opening more people will become members of the neighbour’s club. Yozora and Sena treat Kodaka in a normal way, but the two girls don’t really like eachother, I would say Yozora is the mean one in their relationship. Together the club members are doing quite entertaining club activities, even though the anime is not entirely used for comedy. Its also a good change that our male main character is no wimp unlike in most other shows of that kind. He also has a very cute goth loli sister ^-^ On a sidenote, it’s funny how AIC can reproduce the look of Shaft’s Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko so well, as far as I know the origin materials for both shows were illustrated by the same person. It doesn’t matter with studio had animated this show, the environmen and the characterdesign is very pretty and appealing.
Fate/Zero
After the Fate /Stay night anime adaption from 2006 and the Unlimited Blade Works movie from 2010, there is another anime adaption from probably one of the most awesome franchises out there. Fanboy? Yes, without Fail, I love this setting and Im happy that there is a new adaption of it now. The story takes place before the grail war of Fate/Stay night. Because of a different production team it appears darker and more mature than the previous storys with Shirou Emiya.
httpvh://youtu.be/ClOcpGVw08M
In case you slightly remember what happened during Fate/Stay night you might guess who will survive this holy grail war and who will not, but I try not to think too much about it, well but its also interesting to learn about the backgrounds of Fate and the different characters.
So far Fate/Zero left a very good impression, story and the characters are very well done and interesting. Masters as well as the servants have interesting personalities, even though the servants are a lot more likeable, none of the masters so far would get a sympathy award from me, everyone of them appears like he would sell their own children to get closer to get the grail. Most of them also use quite underhanded methods in this Grail War, so far I wouldn’t feel sorry for anyone of them. Ok, I guess I would feel sorry for Waver and temporary master Iriesveil.
Do you have a favorite Servant so far?
Well, Saber is Saber, but aside from that I like the snotty Gilgamesh and Rider is just awesome.
The animation quality looks very cool and the action scenes are staged very enthralling and appealing, the only downside of F-zero is, that you have to wait one week for a new episode.
Fate/Zero will be aired in two 13 episode long seasons, season two will be aired in April 2012.
Mobile Suit Gundam AGE
This is another anime from Gundam franchise, it feels like a mix of Battlestar Galactica and the older Gundam stuff. In A.G. 101 mankind lives peacefully on huge space colonies someday the colonies are attacked by unidentified Mechs called “Gafran“, the defence of the colony doesn’t work against the enemies, but fortunately attacks of the Gafran rarely occur. A survivor of the destroyed colony “Ovan” is main character Flit, a 13 year old boy who is a descendant of a family of famous mobile suit engineers. Flit is also a talented engineer and just finished his first Prototype, from the blueprints that his passed away mother gave him, a Gundam. When the Gafran attack the colony “Nora” Flit has to use his lightly equipped Gundam. With his advanced machine he was able to beat the small first wave of attackers, but the colony is already seriously damaged and lost. The people have to be evacuated with the help of the new battleship.
Some people said, that Gundam Ageis anime for kids, well there are three young teenagers in the cast. The setting itself seems to be quite interesting and promising, also the action scenes and animations are very good, so far I’ve enjoyed every episode.
Guilty Crown
In the near future a virus wiped out a part of the japanese population, the multi – national organization GHQ came to the rescue and stopped the virus, but in fact they just occupied Japan and now rule it with an iron fist. The wimp Shu is the main character of this story, when he came in contact with Inori, from the resistance group Undertaker his life changed dramatically.
httpvh://youtu.be/6cXknAXJap0
He accidently came in contact with a substance, that he transported for Undertaker, which was ought to be used by their leader. Now Shu is stronger and also can extract weapons from people of a certain age. Shu helps the resistance group in two missions, but he rather wants to live his safe and peaceful life, but he can’t step out any more, there’s no turning back. The pretty Inori transfers to his school and makes herself a home at his apartment, to protect him from GHQ.
Guilty Crown has a great, visually appealing animation style, there are great action scenes and super pretty girls ^^. The the plot seems to be a good shounen story, even though some people might have expected a more epic story without school comedy moments, but I like most of this show and will keep watching it. This show will have 22 episodes, might turn out quite good.
Tamayura: Hitotose
After the 4 very nice Tamayura Ova’s, a whole anime of Tamayura was adapted, you should have watched the Ova’s before watching the anime. The story centers around Potte, a passionate amateur photographer, her family and her friends. Some years ago the father of Potte died, after that sad event his wife moved to the seto islands along with Potte and her small brother Kou.
Looking through old photo albums always made Potte sad, because they reminded her of her passed away dad. As she noticed how her little brother happily looked through the albums, Potte realised that these old pictures are no sad memories at all, in fact they are memories of happy times, which they had with her dad. This experience made Potte interested in photography again.
httpvh://youtu.be/POPgKpvwdok
Now she also wants to capture happy memories and the magic of the moment with her pictures. She uses the old analog camera, Rollei 35S from her passed away father. Potte is a bit clumsy, but she makes up for it with her motivation and enthusiasm when taking pictures.
Tamayura is a slow paced slice of life show about the small happy things in life. It has a lot of likeable characters, like Potte’s three friends, Kaoru, Norie and Maon or the owner of the camera shop. With it’s nice animation style, the nice surrounding of seto islands and the moe look of the characters, the show creates a heartwarming and cozy atmosphere, I really love this anime.
Thx for your attention, do you have any shows you like to watch in Fall 2011 or was there a title which already caused some dissapointment in you? Just let me know.
Maybe I could make you interested in the one or the show, in case you aren’t already watching everything. in part b I will write about five more shows from this Fall Season 2011, stay tuned ^^
feal87
I love all these shown, except for Gundam age, it just doesn’t feel right, but maybe I’ll give a good look at it when the air will finish! 😛
wieselhead
Its actually not that bad, the enemies appear a bit plain at the moments because no pilots were shown,
but Im sure there will be more behind them, soon. The action is still very good in Gundam Age.
I like straight action anime ^^
exilehero
Of this list I’m definitely watching Haganai. I feel some sort of camaraderie with these socially inept people. Also it’s full of delicious meat. Also, zettai ryoiki, what’s not to like.
It seems i’m the only person ever to not have watched any Type Moon stuff. I’m holding off from Fate/Zero until I watch some of the back story.
I want to not dislike Gundam Age but I can’t. It’s just some silly misconception of mine. It just looks for little kids for some reason. I’ll probably watch it to break this stubbornness of mine.
Guilty Crown huh. I head a bunch of people really hype this up and then they were disappointed about it or something. Sounds interesting enough, I don’t know what people expected.
An anime about photography… You always make me want to watch stuff. You present them is really interesting ways haha. I’ll try to remember to watch this one.
wieselhead
Next to F-Zero Boku… is the show Im loking forward to watch every week , its very enjoyable 🙂
Fate/stay night isn’t bad as many people say, I liked it a lot. You should’n pass on F-Zero,
it’s an awesome anime, maybe the best of the year haha.
I luv mecha action and that is what Gundam Age delivers
Yeah Yeah a ultra hyped show, maybe people grow tired of shounen stories with high school setting XD
So far I like it, even though Shu is a damn wimp, at least the girls adorable characters.
Tamayura is quite nice, I like it a lot.
thx for the praise, thats what I wanted to achieve with this post =)
super rats
Fate/Zero is my favorite of this season. It’s actually the only show I’m not behind on. Though not my favorite servants, I think Assassin and Caster are so much more interesting this time around. The other two I think I’m going to continue are Guilty Crown and Last Exile: Fam.
wieselhead
So far its an fantastic anime show, in my opinion it is an highlight since a few years.
Good choices, I always try to pick less shows in each new season, but Im always end up with watching too much ^^
Miette-chan
I was apprehensive of Haganai at first, watched that episode 0 mainly because of the similar look to Denpa Onna. After the first episode I was hooked, I been really liking the the girls and guy of the Neighbors club.
I have yet to sit and watch Fate/Zero, not a fan but I liked Fate/Stay Night enough to give that universe a go. Plus it has the writer as Madoka and Saya no Uta which is a plus for me.
I’m liking what I’m seeing of Gundam AGE so far. All those complaints were unfounded if you ask me, it is a pretty straight forward Gundam show in my opinion. I do wonder if that will continue to be the case as it goes on.
wieselhead
The 0 episode was really really weird, but Im glad that this anime turned out like this.
The characters are great and the story is funny, but no nonsense comedy.
F-Zero is dam epic! ;D
Such straightforward action shows like Gundam Age are rare, Im glad the political aspect isn’t as prominent as in Gundam 00 ^^
AS
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai was one of the ones that interested me. Something “old” coming back was Shana and Ika Musume that I enjoy.
wieselhead
Hi AS, long time no see, how have you been?
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is a very enjoyable anime with likeable characters, my second favorite show after F-Zero.
Shana was quite confusing in the first few episodes, I might pick it up again after it had aired.
Fabrice
Guilty Crown and fate/zero are both the strong ones on my priority in the list above.
So Far both series has been incredible, and eye catching, those studio upped they game with the animation, fate/zero is pure awesomeness.. The animation budget must have cost a bomb.
Mirai Nikki would follow suit =)
wieselhead
haha Fate Zero is such a great show, it is hard to wait for a new episode every week.
The action scenes always make me jawdrop, so far every episode was fantastic.
Aside from my aversion torwards Shu, Guilty Crown is also quite nice ^^
Hope we will see this kind of action from the second episode more often in the future.
Duqs
Its actually not the prod team that made it darker (though it helps) but the writer who is… Gen Urobochi (he wrote the novels before Puella =D)
Anotehr enjoyable funfact is the Guilty Crown’s atmospehre seems to be similar to Code Geass (Mai-Hime, Gundam Seed -schoolboy pitted in an environment full of mechs), and that might be attributed to the fact that the writers for both series are one and the same (Hiroyuki Yoshino)
wieselhead
Oh I see, well I don’t really care about such details, but thx for the correction^^
Unfortunately Shu is not Lelouch haha
Persocom
I’m watching all of these (and enjoying them all) right now, aside from Gundam and I still haven’t started Guilty Crown, though I’ve been meaning to. This season is quite satisfying so far.
wieselhead
Ah I see^^ also no Gundam Age, it’s a cool actionshow so far.
I compariso with the previous season it’s really great stuff
tsurugiarashix
Nearly everything you name (expect Gundam) is on my list, lol.
wieselhead
Haha no Gundam Age watcher again, its not bad ^-^
Tier
Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai is my favorite show this season; I like the manga a lot and the anime adaptation is excellent. I’m looking forward to the relay novel episode.
Man, Fate/zero has a lot of talking. Watching the fight scene in episode 4, I thought I was watching an American football game, with all the analysis and instant replay and standing around. It’s very pretty but it does not seem like the animation studio understands the advantages of, well, animation.
My second favorite show is Kyokai Senjou no Horizon. It makes absolutely no sense but the characters are a lot of fun to watch, and their school outfits are awesome, too.
wieselhead
Boku… is a really enjoyable show, I like the three main characters and the funny things they are doing.
I would like to see a bit development between Yozora and Sena in the future ^^
Dialogue is a big aspect of this show, I like it 😀
I don’t really mind this kind of fighting animations, its still awesome
Ah it seems you like this kind of shows, the first ep was cool, but the second episode annoyed me that much, that I stopped halways.
Maybe I will give it another try after it had finished airing and I’ve read final impressions about it.
Nopy
This season has been the most impressive that I’ve seen in a long time. So far, the following series have made it onto my watchlist: Fate/Zero, Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai, Guilty Crown, Mirai Nikki, Last Exile: Fam the Silver Wing, and Shakugan no Shana 3.
wieselhead
The amount of very good and good shows is quite impressive this time, I don’t think the next seasons afterwards can surpass this.
somehow I can’t watch Shana at a weekly pace, I will rather marathon it after it had aired.
Aya
so far only follow Fate Zero, considering Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai soon and maybe shana but will watch after ended not so sure with that ah Gundam Age hmm better not touch those anymore ^^
wieselhead
F-Zero and Boku… are the best ones so far
I will put Shana on hold, it apperas not suited for weekly watching
Are you no friend of Gundam?
Hoshiko
I’m watching almost the same series you! Except for Gundam. From the above list, the one I really like the most is Tamayura Hitotose. I know it’s a bit slow but it’s overall heartwarming and enjoyable!
wieselhead
seems like Im the only Gundam watcher here, I feel lonely now XD
Tamayura is so lovely, I love heartwarming and slow paced shows like this.
tanohsimini
Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai, you disliked it that much XD?
Guilty Crown and haganai (boku wa tomoadachi ga sukunai) are on my favourite list. Also Ika musume and working!! I don’t know why but my love for the fate franchise is slowly dying>< maybe it's because shirou and saber were not paired up^^" as I love that bit of romance in the series. Fate/Zero has been interesting for me but I prefer Guilty Crown over it this season.
I watched tamayura and it really has that nice, slice of life feel which I enjoy when I'm tired from work XD I watched the OVAs as you have said and it was quite interesting.
I might give mobile suit gundam age a watch. Although it does give off that kiddy vibe^^"
wieselhead
Yeah the show made rage most of the time.
Kirino was super annoying, everything she did made me so angry, “argh! this stupid self centered bitch!”
Why wasn’t she hit by a car XD
Guilty Crown is good so far, I hope they won’t mess is up with this show in the end.
Romance is a good part in action shows and I can really understand your poin’t.
F-Zero is mainly dark and violent, but it has a nice epic flair and Im really enjoying it.
I wanted to start the second Ika Musume season somehow, but I couldn’t stand how mean everybody was to Squid Girl.
Are they less meant to her now? Working is good, but the repititive jokes about Poplars size are too annoying for me ^^
I don’t like if someone gets bullied,, you know.
Ah cool that you’ve watched it:) glad you could enjoy it.
Its not that kiddy, it reminds me more of old Gundam and mecha shows, theres a lot of action as well.
Psycho
In F/Zero my favorite is Berserker. I like the armor design. His Noble Phantasm is awesome too.
“Touch it and make it as my weapon.”
wieselhead
Haha the evil one, he looks very cool a bit like a Zylon ^^
I would like to see him speak a bit, his real character is quite a bit related to Sabers past.