It's been a month since the new shows started. I've picked out 10 or so shows for this season but haven't the chance to watch too many of them. As usual, there's a few must-watch ones that I save up for later when I have time. For this season, it's Gundam 00 S2, CLANNAD AFTER STORY (I was hesitant since it's Nagisa-centric, but I decided to go for it anyway), Tales of the Abyss, Tytania, and Nodame Cantabile Paris.

Here's some thoughts on what I've seen so far for this season.

伯爵と妖精 (Hakushaku to Yousei) ep.1
I'm not terribly interested in the theme and only decided to pick up the show for the seiyuu; it's not often that I get to hear Midorikawa Hikaru as the male lead. The art is suitable for the story but too generic for me. I'll continue to watch this for the seiyuu and maybe see how the story turns out.

夜桜四重奏 (Yozakura Quartet) ep.1-2
I'm vaguely interested in the theme and decided to try the show out. Not familiar with the lead male and female seiyuu, but the cast seems pretty good and this is my first time hearing Fujita Saki not as Hatsune Miku. XD The art is clean and the pastel colour palette is pleasing to the eyes. The story seems promising. I'll be watching this.

黒執事 (Kuroshitsugi) ep.1-3
I read the first chapter of the manga at Iwase when they put it out as sample some time ago. Since it was grouped together with other maid and butler titles on the shelf, I didn't suspect it to be much different. I realized it's not that simple ten seconds into the anime. The art is good and the cast is great. Sakamoto Maaya is so good with her young boy act that I almost didn't recognize her. I'll be watching this.

喰霊-零- (Ga-Rei Zero) ep.1-3
I was anticipating this since I've read the first five volumes of the manga, then I realized that this is more like a prequel to the manga, hence the zero in the title. I was kind of lost while watching the first episode until the last few minutes, when Yomi showed up and killed everyone within seconds. I'm not familiar with Mizuhara Kaoru and not a fan of Chihara Minori's acting, but the cast is not bad, especially with Wakamoto Norio in the mix. I'm watching this one for sure.

Skip Beat! ep.1-5
I enjoy the manga so I immediately picked up this series when I found out that Miyano Mamoru and Konishi Katsuyuki are playing the male leads. The art is below average and has a dated look, but at least the human proportion is not so bad as the manga. Judging from the length of the still ongoing manga, the anime probably won't go far enough to touch on Kyouko's romance prospect (I vote for Sho x Kyouko, btw). I'll be watching this.

黒塚-KUROZUKA- ep.1-3
I decided to watch this when I found out Miyano Mamoru and Park Romi as the lead seiyuu, even though I knew nothing else about the show. The show turned out to be rather dark and, once you get past the confusing time jump, the setting changed to futuristic ruins which reminded me of the 2300 A.D. epoch in Chrono Trigger. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Kuwashima Houko as well as a few other seiyuu, which makes this show heavy on the seiyuu cast for me. I'm still not very clear on everything, but I'll find out by continue watching.

魍魎の匣 ep.1
This one was confusing from start to finish for me. While the seiyuu cast seems on the heavy side and the character design is done by CLAMP, the theme and overall tone is too creepy for me. As a general rule, I don't do horror or brutality genre. I didn't see any element in the first episode that would prompt me to continue, so I'm dropping this one.