screw spring season, gimme summer
Categories: anime, clannad, fanservice, moe, zero no tsukaima
Tagged: clannad, clannad:kyou, jigoku-shoujo, kemeko dx, moe:thighhighs, zero no tsukaima
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Since spring doesn’t look that promising, I’m already looking ahead to summer and fall.
Seems like there’s a lot of sequels on deck:
Zero no Tsukaima ~Princesses no Rondo~: Why is this getting a third season?! And why I am suddenly developing a strong craving for melonpan?! Though upshot is Mamiko Noto bringing us more Tiffania goodness.
Jigoku Shoujo Mitsuganae: Also why the hell are we getting more episodes? Can you believe that we’ll soon live in a world that has more episodes of “Ippen… shinde miru?” than Haruhi Suzumiya, Muteki Kanban Musume, and Potemayo combined? (Worse yet, there’s going to be three seasons of Ikkitousen before a third season of Minami-ke, which just had its fifth manga volume come out last week.)
Hidamari Sketch 360: Shaft + slice of life goes as well together as peanut butter and mayonnaise. Sure, some people develop a strong addiction to it, but, for others, “No thanks, I’ll take the crab juice.” The upshot is more Yuno bath scenes. Gotta love any anime that has a girl bathing as a daily “plot” point.
Clannad After Story: Supposed to be a direct sequel, but I’m not sure where they would go from there. I mean, there’s the sad route, the very sad route, or the very, very sad route. If it were me, I’d just reboot like Higurashi and go the Tomoyo route. Probably no surprise that Kyou, Tomoyo, and Kotomi-chan have 75% of the votes in the Clannad poll. Andohbytheway, doesn’t my prediction two years ago of 2010 for more Haruhi Suzumiya seem prophetic? Just swap out 52 episodes of Kanon for Clannad, and I pray to Kyrios that I don’t have to swap out Full Metal Panic for Lucky Star seasons 2 through 4.
Hayate the Combat Butler S2: 52 episodes wasn’t enough? More Maria goodness is coming.
Kodomo no Jikan: Also getting another season. Is this one really necessary? Or is this like the Rambo 4 of anime necessity?
And some promising new franchises:
Michiko to Hatchin: Buddy action series from Samurai Champloo team. Trailer seems promising.
Shina Dark: Five-tool prospect potentially ruined by Shaft. Ecchi comedy! Shaft does that about as well as the Miami Heat play basketball. But can’t beat Daisuke Ono as a demon that has 1,000 sacrificial virgins, yet doesn’t want to touch any of them? It’s like Itsuki and Hosaka at once.
Kemeko DX: Another five-tool prospect, but I have more hopes for this one since Hal (Aria) is the studio. Same director as Dokoro-chan doesn’t hurt either, and Rie Kugimiya continues her manifest destiny by voicing Misaki. (Yes, this seems more like a trailer for Smash Bros. than for an anime.)
67 Responses to “screw spring season, gimme summer”
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Mmmm, thigh meat. And KyoAni continues to torture us with lack of Sousuke / Kyon….
The world needs moar Tomoyo, period.
>>I mean, there’s the sad route, the very sad route, or the very, very sad route.
Which has a happy ending. Stop misleading people, please…
As for Haruhi, doesn’t KyoAni tend to animate series in the order they were announced?
And since Haruhi 2 was announced before Clannad After…
That girl in the suit is really cute.
>> But can’t beat Daisuke Ono as a demon that has 1,000 sacrificial virgins, yet doesn’t want to touch any of them? It’s like Itsuki and Hosaka at once.
The last part got me interested.
*gives Axel the dim look she normally reserves for his more ecchi periods*
I agree with Kaisos here, the gloom prediction isn’t really warranted, since all the sad parts of After Story actually lead to a happy ending.
And Fuko finally getting a significant role in the proceeding, instead of randomly haunting her friends at school…
Damn it, remember Jason, more Higurashi too.
Well, at least I know I’m watching Kemeko DX now.
Yes, I am easily swayed by cute girls in ridiculous “mecha” suits.
If you squint, Library Wars looks something like Read or Die, so that could be good too.
Yep, I forgot that we’re getting Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei too. It’s virtually guaranteed to feature Saikoroshi-hen and Daybreak. ^^
Same director as Dokuro-chan doesn’t hurt either.
Tsutomu Mizushima, who is also the director of the most awesome Hare+Guu – the highest-ranked non-J.C.Staff series in my favorites list! “It’s Guu!” was the first thing I thought when I saw Kemeko’s eyes. And the swallowing! Guu Director is the perfect fit for the bizarre action and romance of Kemeko DX. Kemeko will be win for sure.
Rie Kugimiya as Misaki Hayakawa doesn’t hurt either.
http://www.michikotohatchin.com/
That chick on the Michiko to hatchin homepage is totally a Yoko ripoff. Not only does she have the rifle, the bikini, and the pose, she’s got the vespa too?
That chick on the Michiko to hatchin homepage is totally a Yoko ripoff. Not only does she have the rifle, the bikini, and the pose, she’s got the vespa too?
That’s because Yomako-sensei is awesome.
well sadly angelina isnt gov and shaq isnt even running for pres. although he couldnt be worse than w.
could you imagine how much it would cost to remodel those doorways if he won though…
woah? Minami-ke is going to have a third season? Please please tell me its by Doumu if you weren’t joking DX
And yeah I’m really looking forward to Clannad After Story and everyone seems to be talking about Shina Dark right now so I’m beginning to get real curious about it…
that kemeko dx trailer is creepy as hell
Kemeko DX… as an anime… no way!! good thing the summer season looks so good… after my exams XD
Just a test run, ignore this comment.
lol
The only shows I’m looking forward to are Hidamari Sketch 365, Clannad: After Story, and I’ll force myself to watch ZNT…
>>>As for Haruhi, doesn’t KyoAni tend to animate series in the order they were announced?
Seeing as how KyoAni already animated some of After Story and the only thing we have of Haruhi S2 is that live action security tape, guess not.
>> woah? Minami-ke is going to have a third season?
Positive thinking! If you think something is going to happen, it’ll happen. It’s the basis of my “I don’t care anymore. Just shoot me. Etc etc” campaign.
>> Yep, I forgot that we’re getting Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni Rei too.
Knew I forgot something. I really want this new series to be a harem ecchi comedy. That’s Higurashi’s strength. We’ve seen mystery, horror, and generic action, and none of them really fit the series. It’s like watching the Spurs trying to run & gun when you know they’re a half-court team. I also want to see another studio pry Higurashi from Deen’s hands. I’d settle for Asread.
>> Which has a happy ending. Stop misleading people, please…
How is winding up with a girl that’s getting 7% of the votes a happy ending? That’s like seeing Paul Pierce win MVP over Kobe, LBJ, CP3, and Garnett.
thanks for kyou, btw. Needed her pic after that hell of a manga…
Just reading over at ANN that the third season of Zero will be getting a new director – Yuu Kou and Nahoko Hasegawa will be doing the series composition and screenplay (he did the script for Oh My Goddess and series composition for Hidamari Sketch) so maybe this season will turn out better or at least different.
How is winding up with a girl that’s getting 7% of the votes a happy ending?
It’s a happy ending because Tomoya, Nagisa, and the rest of the charactesr in the show get to live happily. That’s the definition of a happy ending, not the loser otakus who fapping over Megami scans getting the ships they want.
Again, Clannad was never meant to be some sort of Shuffle clone. You could get rid of every single girl except Nagisa and still do a decent job of getting across Key’s fundamental themes and storyline from the game. Meanwhile, what you’re asking for would be a fundamental failure of an adaptation by your own standards – “dance with the one who brought you”.
That picture of Kyou is further proof that she needs to win that poll.
Shina Dark feels like Disgaea. Let’s hope it ends better than Disgaea’s anime did.
Don’t we get Kyou-sensei in Clannad After? If I recall correctly, we have less of the other girls, but they are not all gone. (Poor Kotomi-chan?). Kyou I remember and of course Fuko. I’m not sure on Tomoyo. Ryou I think is in as a nurse. Kotomi seems absent. Maybe the family friend angle can remain intact for her. (Remember, “Bad ‘Good’ End” could lead to Tomoyo After if they make the series long enough, but still lead to the originals “True ‘Good’ End” by the final episode).
Forgot:
Isn’t Higurashi “Daybreak Arc” more or less an “ecchi” comedy version of the show? Saikoroshi-hen? I’ve not gone through it but I can imagine we only get Rika emo facial contortions due to the plot line.
No “killer” lolis here. Though “Daybreak” may have hints of them, depending on what the DEEN does. They might not be the best studio (seemingly they are one of the worse), but they provide us those killer lolis. Someone else might do a better job, but at least the cast looks better than their visual novel versions.
*sigh*
That will make it 5(!) seasons of Key dating sims animated, 2 seasons of Lucky Star and 1 season off since Haruhi. And after March Madness was won in her name as well.
I think KyoAni must be terrified of bad sequel syndrome for it. There can’t be any other explanation. Or they’re just planning on spending all the spring season working on the next dance routine.
In the meantime can we get a restraining order on Toei to keep them away from Planetarian and Little Busters? That seems to be like the red rag to the bull for KyoAni.
I’m looking forwa- mmm…kyou…thighs…meat…tsundere…
This comment was totally derailed by epic k- ah whatever, you all know by now.
srsly though. Spring looks like relative trash to me, which may actually be a good thing, maybe I can focus on my jump shot for a change, as opposed to searching for subs. Not to mention all the saved HD space. Chances are i’ll be on the road anyways. Works for me.
i see nipples….
erm..what was the topic?
Boxcutters as offensive weapons! The Kemeko uses one.
Kemeko DX looks awesome.
Gotta check Kemeko DX and Michiko to Hatchin. Watched Michiko trailer and Relax, take it easy started playing in my head
Shina Dark getting animated… I’m somewhat interested. The manga is enjoyable though it sure ain’t winning any awards. The Clannad sequel will naturally be on my list. And that Kemeko trailer is making me go O_o. I’m still hoping spring season will surprise me though things are looking grim.
Maybe KyoAni is scared because Haruhi probably isn’t going to be in about 1/4 to 1/2 of season 2 at all. I’m excited to seeing more future Mikuru myself
Easy there Hinode, I think it’s apparent that a lot of the readers of Jason’s blog don’t really care about the primary themes of the CLANNAD game the anime was based on, and simply want their moe, if the poll is any indication. So just accept the fact that YOU do, and try not to get into too much of a bunch about it. If they enjoy it for their unrealistic fantasies of pairings, let them play the game. The anime’s set up well enough, considering the often contrasting themes of each girl’s arc.
I myself care about the family and friendship themes (working the contrast angle: Tomoya’s family sucks, while everyone else either had a sort-of happy family or had friends to make up for such deficiencies) that were presented as well, but I don’t really complain much.
As for Higurashi Rei, I’m sure that Jason won’t be disappointed with Daybreak. Crazy hijinks concerning a swallowed magatama that makes the bearer of its OTHER half fall in love with you? Hmm…
I’m not complaining about Jason’s readers here though, but Jason himself – who, based on his previous posts, clearly knows better. He was willing to criticize even Kyoto’s adaptation of Haruhi for changing Lone Island Syndrome in a way to which one of his commentators described as
“Showing less Itsuki and more Haruhi fiddling around with her bra, shows both profound good taste and strong corporate courage.”
Heck, that was a change that didn’t even bother me (largely since I find the novel translations kinda bland compared to the anime… dunno if that’s the author’s fault or the translators’ there), but Jason clearly does care about adapting source material properly. But here he is, rewriting the definition of a happy ending because of shipping disagreements? He’s much smarter than that.
Changing the topic to Haruhi S2… by all logic it should be Kyoto’s next show and precede Clannad S2. It was announced first (by what, 9 months now?), it’ll sell more DVDs, Kyoto’s spent nearly two years alternating between Kadokawa properties and Key properties… I will be completely baffled if they schedule anything else before Disappearance. Well, unless it’s a genderbent version of the first season, but the internet would explode before I could muster a proper emotional response to a development like that.
Man, hinode, relax. Not worth raising your blood pressure for Nagisa. But I think you misunderstand. I’m not commenting on the source material to anime translation. When I said that picking Nagisa and her 7% fanbase is a non-optimal solution (i.e. the Paul Pierce), it was directed at Key who made her the end girl. (Also hence the birth of the Nayuki All-Stars.)
If Key made a popular girl or even a girl they liked the end girl, I wouldn’t have this complaint. But the interesting part is that Key went back to the Clannad universe and gave themselves a mulligan. When they did the sequel, they picked Tomoyo. Jun Maeda even noted that Tomoyo was his favorite… and he’s the lead scriptwriter for Clannad.
The fact that they choose to redo the ending for Tomoyo is an acknowledgment that even Key knew, “Yeah, we had no business picking Nagisa. We should have learned with Ayu.”
And, because of this, I regard Tomoyo After as perfectly legit source material. I can argue that you can pick whichever ending and still be true… only 24% to 7% of the readers right now agree with the Nagisa pick.
>> Just reading over at ANN that the third season of Zero will be getting a new director – Yuu Kou and Nahoko Hasegawa will be doing the series composition and screenplay (he did the script for Oh My Goddess and series composition for Hidamari Sketch) so maybe this season will turn out better or at least different.
Same people. Yuu Kou was the director for Futatsuki no Kishi, and Nahoko Hasegawa also did the scripts for it. Nahoko isn’t properly credited in ANN, but it’s clear on the official web site.
http://www.zero-tsukaima.com/c.....index.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.....hp?id=7451
The fact that they choose to redo the ending for Tomoyo is an acknowledgment that even Key knew, “Yeah, we had no business picking Nagisa. We should have learned with Ayu.â€
This isn’t what they did, though. Tomoyo After is a continuation of an alternate path; it’s very clearly not intended to be a redo or even a alternative to Nagisa Route/After Story as Clannad’s main story.
Nagisa’s story IS Clannad’s story, for better or worse, just like Misuzu’s story is Air’s story. You don’t have to like Misuzu more than the other two girls – or even to like Misuzu at all (which I can’t say I do) – to recognize what she’s in the center of the fundamental story. Everyone else in both games was there to play “variations on a theme” and to make the games sellable to the dating sim buying audience. But the story of Nagisa’s route is worth far more than just Nagisa, and you don’t have to like her the most (I don’t) to recognize or appreciate her route’s story for that.
Tomoyo After is in some ways artistically superior to Clannad; for one, they FINALLY ditched some of my least favorite Key storytelling tactics, but it’s still a different story with different fundamental themes. Admittedly they couldn’t totally distance from the vague family motif that the various Clannad arcs at least paid lip service to. But looking at the ending Key was clearly going for a different message than he did with Clannad, not “whoops, let’s rewrite this thing with a different girl”.
When they say that After Story is about family, they actually mean it for once; it’s not just a dating sim where all the girls’ troubles are vaguely related to their families. And that’s a story that I’m much more interested in seeing than the hojillion dating sim/harem/romance shows out there, even if they all involved girls a hundred times more interesting than Nagisa.
You know, it’s going to be awesome when Little Busters is animated.
We finally get a tsundere as the lead girl, but the tradeoff is a Yuji-esque male lead…
orz.
Hinode: Easy there, again, most of the READERS of Jason’s blog prefer either Kyou or Tomoyo, since that’s the type of moe that floats their boat. Literally. Maybe even Jason himself, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that, Tomoyo After aside (which was nice as a romance, but didn’t really do justice to family at all) Nagisa (and her eventual family) still gets the spotlight and finally gives the story focus, so maybe you can take comfort in that.
I played the game, and I’ve never really gravitated to any of the characters, but I DO agree that the After Story segment is the ‘real’ start of CLANNAD. Everything else was just window-dressing and, in the end, a means to find a better resolution.
It’s funny, since that little thing in Kotomi’s arc with the Superstring Theory of Parallel worlds turned into such a big deal, and segues well to the sad girl (you KNOW who she is by now) in the World of Illusion’s quest to collect manifestations of happiness. I consider the ‘universe’ of Tomoyo After as merely part of this, a means to an ultimate end, the happiness collected in that world going to create the miracle that girl wants to bring about.
And that, of course, is to save Nagisa.
So, please, a little calm.
1. Kyou
2. Fuko
3. Nagisa
4. Ryou
5. Kotomi
6. Tomoyo
IMHO
My Personal Rankings
1. Nagisa
2. Fuko
3. Tomoyo
Tie: Kyou/Kotomi/Ryou
I don’t know if Nagisa’s really only got a 7% fanbase. 7% on this blog, sure, but I think she’s got a big fanbase in other places. For example, in this scan of a popularity contest of unknown origin (I hope to god that link shows up properly), Nagisa is the only Clannad girl to crack the top 20. So while the readers of Derailed may not appreciate Nagisa, other people do. (The same people who still appreciate Jesus Yamato up until now, wtf?!)
you know what would solve our problems? if tomoya got it together with his entire harem.
the universe with self-implode with moe. still calculating if that’s a good or bad thing.
>>you know what would solve our problems? if tomoya got it together with his entire harem.
So, in other words, if Tomoya was Makoto Itou.
Or just following Maria’s advice.
person: I do believe that was from February’s Newtype.
tidal: Which is of course every prepubescent male’s (who incidentally make up a large number of the folks that adult visual novels pander to) fantasy. Which realy doesn’t work in real life, but hey, it’s a fantasy right? But I’m a girl, so what do I know about what goes on in the head of the menfolk…
Sorry, sarcasm level off a bit… Busy day at work really drained me.
And to approach the original topic again… it is a spring show, but I only just figured (thanks to an ANN news bit) that they have two clips for Blassreiter up on the official site. It sure looks pretty, but that might just be the 1st eps getting high budget. And it seems to be heavy on CGI for the mecha. A gonzo show, so I have my reservations.
Gah, the a-tag isn’t working properly… I’ll just paste the link in plaintext then:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.....ted-online
and direct link:
http://www.blassreiter.com/
I feel bad for Ryou. She’s in last place and her twin sister is in first.
It’s like the universe is trying to tell her that she sucks. Poor girl.
Higurashi as a harem comedy would be a great change of pace- I lost all interest in the last arc when they were trying to save Sextoko.
Animated Izumi from Kemeko FTW!- I’m getting Kirie from Girls Bravo flashbacks.
jjshaka: Unfortunately, Minagoroshi-hen/Massacre Chapter WASN’T the last arc. Had you watched longer, you’d have found that Matsuribayashi-hen/Festival-Accompanying Chapter was the series’ climactic arc, where the curse of June 1983 was broken once and for all. But then, you didn’t have the patience, hmm?
Higurashi Rei is, as mentioned before, likely going to be composed of Saikoroshi-hen, which is an epilogue to Matsuribayashi-hen/Miotsukushi-hen, set during September 1983, a month or so after the end of the Hinamizawa timeloop. Then of course, there’s Daybreak, which is a comedy chapter of sorts based on the Higurashi Daybreak game (Rena swallows magical magatama; hilarity ensues) that can be squeezed anywhere into the timeline (though obviously Takano and Tomitake won’t be present if placed after Matsuribayashi-hen).
Nagisa is a character I have not liked at the first sight, instead she have grown on me over time. To the point I feel like Tomoyo in one episode, as in I am glad it was her.
>> So, in other words, if Tomoya was Makoto Itou.
And god thanks it didn’t turn out that way. ONE School Days is just enough.
PS: The Magical Girl Kokoro OAV was loltastic tho. They even included the Nice Boat.
you know what would solve our problems? if tomoya got it together with his entire harem.
Alternatively, you could cut out the middleman (i.e. Tomoya) and just have a KyouxTomoyoxKotomi orgy in the gym shed. I’m pretty sure that would make the fanboys even happier than animating Kyou/Tomoyo arcs, albeit at the cost of having frothing Key staff go hunt down KyoAni with boxcutters.
It’s like the universe is trying to tell her that she sucks. Poor girl.
She deserves it for hogging most of the screentime in her sister’s arc. :(
I don’t know if Nagisa’s really only got a 7% fanbase. 7% on this blog, sure, but I think she’s got a big fanbase in other places.
We need a KyoAni Character Tournament!
Nagisa vs Ayu. Kyon vs Yuuichi. Kyou vs Haruhi.
And, let’s face it, that whole March Madness thing on this blog was just one big Kyoto Animation civil war. Let us detemine who is the best KyouAni character!
Mei has convinced me that these are the children of those killer lolis. She and her bother are Satako’s children (I was thinking Rika’s due to Mei’s voice, but that laugh and her antics makes her Satako’s. Also it explains her bother). Kotomi is Rika’s kid. She got the melonpan her mom wanted.
It is a delicious loli selling bread….
Actually Myssa Rei it was just the fact that it wasn’t as compelling as it had been . I believe that was a judgement on my part-shared by quite a few people who were casual viewers. I aslo kept watching it with diminished “interest”.
I did enjoyed the first season very much and look foward to the third.
By the way, I rather enjoyed your “hmm” at the end of my lack of patience- made me smile- thanks.
Edited the post to include 2 more upcoming sequels.
I was going to rant about how recently there’s been a lot of anime sequels, when it was so damn rare 5-10 years ago to see any sequels, but I got derailed browsing for Maria fan art.
jjshaka, if you watched through 30 episodes of Higurashi, no one should be telling you that you don’t have any patience. 30 episodes! That’s more than enough to form an opinion.
I like the end of Minagoroshi-hen arc, after the Satako business (which I didn’t mind as much). Episode 13 is what finally broke me on Rena (which can be clearly seen in the several posts on SaiGAR). After that we get more into what is really going on, plus Hanyuu. And Rena trying to take Hayuu home…plus briefly, bondage Rena (not a fetish of mine, but fairly obvious with how they tied her down). Also, for some of you, you get in series meido K1 (possibly even nekomimi-meido K1, I don’t remember clearly).
Jason: What S2 needs is more Maria and Hinagiku goodness, and slightly fewer episodes devoted to butler battles – Nekomimi, on the other hand, is welcome… preferably on the female cast. But Hayate has the chops (alas) to pull them off, so we’ll probably see him dressed in drag again.
More Hayate? Nice. Hopefully they’ll have enough ideas to carry… another 52 episodes? Or is there still enough manga to cover?
Northernshadows: they’re up to Vol 14 or 15 in Japan, and they ignored the manga for like 20-30 episodes of the 52 this season… and even then, they didn’t tap into material newer than volume 6, and left out most of THAT volume too. Volumes 4-5 were also mostly left alone, save for the “Titanic: With a Vengeance” episode which had Sakuya in Gothic Lolita fashion.
I think Hayate is turning into the new Keroro in where it just kinda does whatever it wants and is a different beast from the manga. But moar Hinagiku and moar Maria is always a good thing.
Jason: Alas, that is true. Worst part is, the anime Keroro at least manages to be entertaining when they deviate from the manga… whereas some of the Hayate episodes have been almost unwatchably boring. I fear we’ll get more Nagi-gets-jealous episodes and fewer appearances by Maria and Hina, the way things are going…
wtf@kodomo no jikan getting a new season… but more broken hayate, meido maria and more hinagiku is always a good thing :)
>>And, because of this, I regard Tomoyo After as perfectly legit source material. I can argue that you can pick whichever ending and still be true… only 24% to 7% of the readers right now agree with the Nagisa pick.
Well Jason I’ll have to disagree with what you’re saying. Tomoyo is indeed awesome, in fact my favorite, but Tomoyo After is NOT key saying that they screwed up picking Nagisa. It’s an alternate ending that wasn’t made with the intent to “replace” Clannad’s After Story.
Also Nagisa’s more popular then you might think. Sure only 7% of the readers of this blog prefer Nagisa over Kyou’s awesome tasty thigh meat. But if you look at other sources like here http://forums.animesuki.com/sh.....038;page=2
It seems like 60% of the people in the AS forum aprove of Nagisa, which is a bigger number then say 32%. Popularity changes depening one who you’re asking. I like Kyou but I still think the Nagisa end is win.
And now for our half time special
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrMtgd3gpqw