As usual, the standard disclaimer: the winter anime season always sucks compared to the other three, so a lack of shows that you want to watch is not yet another sign that ZOMG ANIME IS DYING BECAUSE OF ALL THE STUPID LOLIPEDO MOE GARBAGE UGH WHY CAN’T THEY MAKE MORE GOOD ANIME LIKE GUNDAM WING AND INUYASHA. With that out of the way, here is the only thing you need to know about this season:
January 2
COBRA THE ANIMATION: For some reason, I had thought that this had gotten delayed yet again so I put off my preview post. After realizing it was out, I checked out the Crunchyroll version. Was this show always this terrible? Is this version like a complete defiling of some classic title or something? However, because it was so terrible I can probably enjoy it for the wrong reasons for a little while longer. The OP was pretty damn awesome, though.
January 4
Sora no Oto (ソ・ラ・ノ・ヲ・ト): Aw man, why did they have to uh, K-On-ify the original character designs? I liked that kinda/sorta Love Plus vibe!
Chuu-bra (ちゅーぶら!!): A web preview of the first episode of this came out, and let’s just say that this is no Naisho no Tsubomi.
January 5
Ladies vs. Butlers! (れでぃ×ばと！): First, to get this out of the way: MOAR LIEK LADIES VS. BUTTS AMIRITE? Anyway, with a name like “Ladies vs. Butlers”, I would have expected the source material to have been an otome game or shoujo manga or something. This thought was rapidly dispelled when I saw the cover of the light novel on display at Kinokuniya last month.
January 7
Dance in the Vampire Bund (ダンス イン ザ ヴァンパイアバンド): MOAR LIEK DANCE IN THE VAMPIRE BUTT AMIRITE?
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (バカとテストと召喚獣): This one wasn’t on my radar initially, but it’s supposed to come from a really funny light novel. I get the feeling that we won’t pay attention to it at first, but after the first episode I’ll end up being forced to watch it.
January 8
Durarara (デュラララ!!): If I had to gamble on which show this season would be the best one without doing any reading of the source material before they air, I can’t think of anything that would compete with this one. It’s got a great cast and most of the team behind Baccano.
January 9
Seikon no Qwaser (聖痕のクェイサー): Ladies and gentlemen (er, actually just gentlemen), here is your Queen’s Blade for this season. Also, you’ve heard it here first: breast milk is the new piss.
January 10
Hanamaru Kindergarten (はなまる幼稚園): Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you are), this series was serialized in Young Gangan rather than say, Comic LO. Thus, it’s more like Rugrats than uh, Rugrats fanfiction.
January 14
Nodame Cantabile: Finale (のだめカンタービレ フィナーレ): The first season was good, the second season was sloppy (good ol’ Chiaki Kon with another “winner”!), and at this point, I’m really just hoping that this show will provide a satisfying conclusion.
Unko-san Junjou-ha (うんこさん 純情派): MOAR LIEK…wait, nevermind. This is actually a show about poop. Literally. Watch it. When you see it, you’ll shit bricks.
January 25
Katanagatari (刀語): Despite being by Nisio Isin, Andrew Cunningham claims that the light novels are unreadably, mind-blowingly terrible. This can lead to one of two outcomes: the greatest adaptation ever if the show manages not to turn out like shit, or…yeah.
OVAs
The Legend of Koizumi (ムダヅモ無き改革): OBVIOUSLY this has the 2010 award for AWESOMENESS locked up, as you all have seen from the opening video.
Gundam Unicorn (機動戦士ガンダムUC): The release date keeps getting shifted around, but I’ll stick it here now and won’t bother to list it again for any subsequent seasons if the date gets bumped again. For the preview portion of this entry, let’s go with “OBVIOUSLY ‘Full Frontal’ has the 2010 Straight Cougar Memorial award locked up.”
WHY DO YOU MAKE AN ANIME ABOUT SHIT JAPAN WHY (屮ﾟДﾟ)屮
p.s. I’m not watching any of this shit. Long Live Hanasakeru Seishounen!
you mean hidasketch amirite kekekeekekekekekekeke??
I really liked the original artwork too. Kishida Mel ftw!
Predictably, I watch Gandamu
Maybe bad director and bad manga ending for Nodame will somehow transmogrify the finale into something amazing and mindblowing.
Probably not.
Thank you for recommending Qwaser to me.
Like lelangir.
Also, the only manga that has had a long serialization in LO is Mako-chan e-nikki, which is about as tame as Hanamaru youchien (just not quite as good).
And the trailer tells me that I won’t be enjoying Mudazumo nearly as much as I did Saki :p
This is the first time I saw the original soranowoto designs. Quite nice. The K-onification of it is sad.
Totalee
Not a very inspiring line-up, but… I used to like winter for having so few decent series to follow, now it’s like, there might be something good, but there’s more wtfisdisshit to rummage through.
Cue more time for other things.
@lelangir/mt-i
There are some film directors like Paul Thomas Anderson and Darren Aronfsky that for a while, I just hated and thought were beyond the pale, but eventually managed to make exactly the kind of film that they needed to make to win me over (There Will be Blood and The Wrestler, respectively). At this point, I can’t think of anything that Shinbo could do like this.
@blkmage
From what I’ve seen, the the new director HAS to be better than Kon. I’m proceeding cautiously.
@Baka-Raptor
Qwaser is way worse than Queen’s Blade, actually. There’s lots of really off-putting sexualized violence.
@Ryan A
I think my standard is one, MAYBE two winter shows. Looking over my older list, I don’t think I’ve ever watched more than two winter shows in a season.
Nodame Cantabile manga ending was… a bit disappointing IMO, but I’ll still watch it, after all its one of my favourite manga/anime/drama combo ^^. I think Chu-bra might be actually pretty decent and funny in its own way. Old Cobra = oldschool titties = instant win – new Cobra = notitties(probably) = no watch…
@Abi-kun
Dude, Cobra was LOADED with scantily-clad ladies!
@YHK
From what I’ve seen, all that’s left after the Putin arc is the (currently ongoing?) one where they fight the Pope and apparently, Hitler.
Well something’s gotta happen, so while winter season is going to be pretty lurkwarm, going to have to catch up with other things..
@ the disclaimer :
hey, they are making Inuyasha again!
Oh man that trailer for Mudazumo was awesome (they even worked in Junior on the Segway!). My only worry is, if Koizumi doesn’t fall into the Sea of Japan after blowing up the Taepodong missile, how will he lose his memory and be adopted by a Russian woman (and renamed Sasha), only to have it restored by the POWER OF MAHJONG? Because that was a pretty epic part of the manga. Also, the no-score limit game against Putin (played with tiles made of depleted Uranium) where Putin scored a QUADRILLION POINTS and then Koizumi scored a number I’m not even sure what to call (after a four page spread of his epic play) was one of the funniest fucking things I’ve ever seen. I’m babbling, but there’s obviously a wealth of source material to draw upon here.
MORE JEDI GOODNESS THIS SEASON!!!
Forget the Green Berets « ディエゴの日々
This season is so shite (although winter is always shite this is a particularly bad looking one) – thank god I have a HDD filled with unwatched older shows!
I thought Chiaki Kon was back to ruin Nodame again.
So, that have an anime about poop, but not one about Dango??? What’s wrong Japan????
…. I’m now blogging at least a few episodes of DitVB just so I can refer to it as “Dance in the Vampire Butt” (w/ proper copyright credit, of course.) Thank you for the mindscarring and lulz.
Unicorn gundams? What?
after watching ‘two girls and one cup’, i couldn’t bear to look at another poop in any format so screw unko-chan.
after watching ladies vs butlers loli tit squeezing,i think i’ll pass this season especially qwaser and those ‘M’ lolis that if they don’t get raeped, turn ‘S’
The first episode of Cobra looked a bit dull but the previous of the next one… that is a different story
. I’ll give it a shot but still think that scantily-clad would not equal nekkid 
.
Damn I mean preview…
The poop show… no… just no… And I had to google it and found a “Cast” preview. They even have a “black one with a little Afro….
There are no words, there may be no God….
I’ve seen nothing to look forward to so far, I’ll wait and find a few to watch later on in the season. I found 2 good ones from Caraniel, so there is always hope. But it’s getting slimmer every year.
There are a few series that I may be interested in in this season. Koizumi being the most promising one, of course. I am destined to love it.
Oh, right, bakatest (probably) and nodame will be seen. I’ll look at nutbladder season 3 as well. durarara is likely too.
I wish they’d K-ONify all sequels and new anime.
If they’d kept the original character designs I’d actually watch Sora noOto
I’d just like to point out that Kannagi featured K-On’s animation before K-On did.
I don’t know what’s worse fan boys getting turned on when girls are hit with bats/guitars/anything in distance to a male character liking it and then pissing their pants with a close up on their crotch, or getting all of your energy past the age of 10 months from breast milk.. I think I’m going to puke.
dan> I liked Kannagi though (well at least the episodes where they weren’t trying to be annoying like that one Sony episode) but K-on was literally just YAY MOE GIRLS YAY.
Plus Kannagi had some romance, K-on had nothing but brainless bitches trying to play some musical instruments
The thing is, K-On was always about cutesy girls playing instruments and Kannagi was always about, well, hijinks I guess, before an animation studio touched them with their dirty, dirty moe hands. Just as Sora no Woto is about… okay, I don’t know yet, but it seems sorta neat. In either case, I doubt that people who hated K-On would have loved the books if they had picked them up before, let alone now. The same goes with every single non-original animation out there (because there is no source for the non-originals, obviously).
Now, I’d find it making more sense if people said, “x director or y studio is behind it, I’m going to poke it with a very long stick. With a sharp metal point,” but it’s annoying to see “Sora no Woto has K-On moemoekyun character designs, I’m sooo not watching it!” when
1) this shouldn’t particularly matter, as above, if you really are “moe smoe! all I care about is the -insert something less superficial here-” (riiight, that’s why you like anime),
2) it seems tunnel-visioned into pointless, last-decade K-On haterade since just about no one cared about Kannagi enough to flavor their impressions of K-On. Or has the long-term memory (wee pop culture!) for it to flavor their impressions of Sora no Woto, and
3) because of how this industry seems to develop, all shows have super moe designs… if you compare them to shows a decade ago. Well not Koizumi and the poop one, but you know what I mean. Almost all. Uh. Most?
K-On was so last decade, anyway.
And no, I didn’t particularly like or dislike K-On, I see why people hated it, but I watched it all and generally laughed *with* it.
Wow that was long.
Also, out of curiosity I dug up your initial K-On impressions (Hinano) and you did reference Kannagi, so yeah my foot tastes AWESOME.
you eat your feet? ew
FYI I don’t pay attention to who directs what or draws what. I just know that anything by Kyoto Animation sucks now, and that SHAFT can suck a hairy one.
And don’t lie, you obviously like K-On that’s why you wrote that tl;dr comment raging about how dare I insult it lol.
POOP LOLLLLLLLL. The world is ending.
the only reason i can think of why gundam unicorn is getting shiffted might be due to the team felling shameful for the quality they created
Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu is actually really really funny lmao I can’t stop laughing
I watched the first episode and thoroughly enjoyed it.