2012年 夏アニメ

After the initial heat wave at the official start of the summer season, the summer anime will be upon us soon as well. As usual, I'm behind on the spring season anime. :Q

Pre-air impressions based on the intro PV on Niconico. Beware of long post.

TARI TARI
- P.A.WORKS's original anime, 'nuff said
- theme seems to be an ensemble for youthful periods
- seiyuu cast a mixture of leading newer ones and supporting veteran
= Watching

ソードアート・オンライン
- haven't read the original novel but have been interested in it for a long time
- music by Kajiura Yuki
- don't care for most of the female seiyuu cast but it'll depend on the pitch used
= Watching

カンピオーネ! ～まつろわぬ神々と神殺しの魔王～
- never heard of the original novel but this could be interesting
- character design rather mediocre; mostly newer seiyuu, will need to wait and see
- most ppl, including me, probably only remembered Madao's narration after watching the PV~ XD
= Probably watching but not with high expectation

夏雪ランデブー
- ....NTR type??!!
- but Wikipedia told me it's not, since the husband was dead to start with XD
- character design not my type, but really good seiyuu cast
= Watching

トータル・イクリプス
- never touched the MUV-LUV franchise, but this looks interesting, kinda GMP-like
- 3D rendered robots remind me of Aquarion
- pretty nice seiyuu cast
= Watching (will try to get in for the same-day ep.1 showing at AX)

織田信奈の野望
- been meaning to read the original novel since it's published, but never had the time
- don't care for most of the seiyuu cast, but the story itself is interesting
- animation by MADHOUSE so expect nice actions and movements
= Watching

ココロコネクト
- been meaning to read the original novel but never had the time; read the manga, though
- nice seiyuu cast, OP by eufonius
- just found out that the illustrator for the novel actually is a character designer at KyoAni; no wonder...
= Watching

恋と選挙とチョコレート
- adapted from an eroge
- average character design, nice male seiyuu cast, meh female seiyuu cast for playable girls
- ED by Ceui!
= Probably watching

じょしらく
- rakugo-themed gag anime so I'll likely not understanding anything
- not interested in the seiyuu cast
= Probably not watching

超訳百人一首 うた恋い。
- 100 poems-themed anime
- music partially by Mitsuda Yasunori!
- PV didn't list the cast but Wikipedia did, somewhat nice seiyuu cast
= Watching

えびてん 公立海老栖川高校天悶部
- all moe-type girl club anime...
= Not watching

人類は衰退しました
- never read the original novel and unsure of the theme presented in the PV
- appears to be healing-type anime, but there's probably something else lurking underneath
- only 2 seiyuu announced, which are both all right
= Undecided

この中に1人妹がいる
- not interested in this kind of younger sister-theme
= Not watching

はぐれ勇者の鬼畜美学
- given the heavy H-aspect of the original novel, I'm surprised it's adapted into an anime series
- there's already many "mysterious lights" in the PV, expect more in the real thing
- pretty nice seiyuu cast (無駄遣い)
= Watching

だから僕は、Hができない。
- I think the title clearly states the theme: H, and I didn't see any "mysterious light"
- the battle aspect seems interesting, though
- 2 leading seiyuu are nice
= Probably watching

もやしもん リターンズ
- 2nd season of a light-hearted germ-themed anime, 5 years after the 1st season aired
- かもすぞ～ XD
= Watching

ゆるゆり♪♪
- I don't watch all-girl light yuri
= Not watching

DOG DAYS'
- 2nd season of a light-hearted war game fantasy anime
= Watching

境界線上のホライゾンII
- 2nd season of an interesting anime with a steep learning curve
= Watching

輪廻のラグランジェ season 2
- 2nd season of an if-they-still-don't-put-in-hetero-parings-it'll-keep-being-boring anime
= Watching (blame the robots)

＜--no PV available for the rest, just one image & staff/cast info--＞
薄桜鬼 黎明録
- supposedly takes place prior to the main series; I hope Kuwashima-san is still in there somewhere...
= Watching

貧乏神が！
- music by Hamauzu Masashi!
- a JUMP anime by SUNRISE, not bad seiyuu cast
= Watching

アルカナ・ファミリア -La storia della Arcana Famiglia-
- nice seiyuu cast, seems interesting
= Watching

ちとせげっちゅ！！
- 5-min shorts featuring some loli(?)
= Not watching

探検ドリランド
- seems like some adventure series for kids
= Probably watching

Summary (total 25)
Watching: 19
Undecided: 1
Not watching: 5

Compare to the spring season, the summer season is pretty slow. Even with the multiple-cur shows from the previous seasons, it should still be all right... But there'll also be a 3-week blank where I won't be watching anything. XD

There are some series that I've been anticipating, but nothing that jumps up as a 本命. There are also quite a few titles that I'm anticipating for the fall season (CØDE:BREAKER, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun, K, Robotics;Notes, Bakuman, to name a few), which will be a tough season.

Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Starting from the spring season, I had decided to watch at least one older series during the period. If I don't make time for those series, they'll never get watched with so many new series coming out every season.

Haven't decided which series I'll be watching, but I have a few candidates in mind. Since I don't feel like sitting too close to the window in the summer, it'll be something not released on DVD in North America.

But before I get to any of that, I'll need to finish the spring anime first, of course...