I haven’t had as much trouble deciding what seasonal anime to watch as I’m having with this upcoming spring 2011 season. There’s only a few that I definitely want to watch and a bunch of others that sound good, but too many for me to watch all of them. So somehow I’m going to have to narrow down my choices…
The below five series are the ones that I’ll definitely be watching…
Hana Saku Iroha
The fairly new studio P.A. Works has been impressing me quite a bit with True Tears, Angel Beats!, and Canaan. This latest release of theirs sounds very promising as well. As is usual of their works, at first glance Iroha has pretty animation, nice character designs, and an intriguing story. And apparently, Haruka Tomatsu has a lead role in it (if I had continued my recent seiyuu list, she would probably be #11 or #12 ^^)
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[C] The Money of Soul and Possibility Control
Yet another series this season that Haruka Tomatsu will play a lead role in! The setting and plot of this series sounds excellent.
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Nichijou
I watched the episode 0 OVA of Nichijou and I didn’t particularly like it. However, my experience with slice-of-life anime has shown me that I usually don’t like the first episode and then subsequently fall in love with them as I watch more episodes (as was the case for Lucky Star, Azumanga Daioh, and K-ON!) I’m also a huge fan of Kyoto Animation and wouldn’t miss a chance to watch one of their new series. I did kind of like the 3rd act of episode 0 though the 2nd act confused me (this “professor” is a little girl and she has this other girl with a wind-up gear on her back that’s her servant and there’s a talking cat…explanation please?) Besides Minoru Shiraishi (as the cat! XD) I haven’t heard of any of the other Nichijou seiyuu so perhaps they’re hiring new talent? Anyway, I hope I end up loving Nichijou in the end like I did with Lucky Star and K-ON! =)
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The World God Only Knows 2
I was pleasantly surprised at how good season 1 of TWGOK ended up being, so of course I’ll be watching the second season.
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Ano Hi Mita Hana no Namae wo Bokutachi wa Mada Shiranai
Don’t let the long name of this series scare you (just call it AnoHana for short). The title translates to “We still don’t know the name of the flower we saw that day.” Like P.A. Works, I’ve grown to love A-1 Pictures as well and want to see more of them. The story sounds like it’ll be a pleasant show, and wow, a third series that Haruka Tomatsu will have a lead role in =D She’s certainly going to be busy this spring. Takahiro Sakurai as one of the male protagonists is an added bonus.
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After these five, I’m willing to add a few more spring ’11 shows to my watch list (since a whopping eight anime I’m currently watching will be ending in a few weeks). But geez, I just can’t decide which ones…
Tiger and Bunny
I haven’t watched a Sunrise series in a while, mostly because I’m not into Gundam. They have done two of my favorites, Inuyasha and Code Geass, and the story of Tiger and Bunny sounds interesting. Apparently it’s being called a mecha series so hopefully it won’t be too mecha-ish for my taste.
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Yondemasu yo, Azazel-san.
The main reason I’m interested in this one is because it’s by the well respected Production I.G. and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of their comedy series. But it might be too gag-oriented for me…we’ll see.
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Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
I’ve enjoyed all the visual novel adaptations I’ve seen and this one sounds pretty good. As long as they do what KyoAni does and make the anime version ecchi-free.
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Sket Dance
This sounds like a very fun series with great seiyuu to boot (Tomokazu Seki and Tomokazu Sugita =D) However, it’s based on a popular Shonen Jump manga that’s been running since 2007 – which means it’s likely to go on for years. Is it time for me to pick up another never-ending shonen series?
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Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko
Shaft has earned a ton of respect from me after Madoka. If it’s not too fan service-filled, this series sounds enjoyable.
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A Channel
Another slice-of-life comedy series based on a 4-koma manga. Usually I like these…but do I want to double dose and watch a show like this along with Nichijou?
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Hidan no Aria
I like J.C. Staff and Rie Kugimiya – but other than that nothing sounds special about this show…I don’t think.
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Ao no Exorcist
This one looks and sounds very cool. I could use a dark action show to go with the light, pretty shows I’ll be watching.
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Honto ni Atta! Reibai-sensei
This series sounds like so much fun if the humor isn’t too gag-filled or bizarre for my taste.
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Deadman Wonderland
Like Ao no Exorcist, Deadman Wonderland sounds like a good dark series to balance out all the light shows I’ll be watching. Kana Hanazawa and Romi Paku as the two lead characters is a plus!
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I don’t know why I’m having so much trouble picking series to watch this season when I usually don’t. Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments, but I’ll probably once again decide what additional spring ’11 shows to watch based on the overall blogsphere opinion once the first couple of episodes air for each (or if friends of mine are watching certain ones too). As usual, I’m not very picky when it comes to anime so I’m sure I’ll be satisfied with any of the series I’m considering watching =)
There’s a wholllllleeee bunch of shows that I want to watch this spring.
-Anything with Rie Kug.
-Anything SHAFT
-Apparently Deadman Wonderland is awesome
-Apparently Steins Gate is something like Chaos;HEAD (which I loved)
-Apparently The Money of Soul and Possibility Control is going to be awesome
-Apparently A Channel is going to be worse than K-On (so I’m not watching that at all)
-Anything with Exorcists is usually good in some way.
There’s like, three shows this season that have to do with exorcists – what’s up with that? XD But they sound cool. And I’m glad that Rie Kugimiya has at least one starring role in a show I’m interested in.
Well, I’m definitely looking out for C, Deadman Wonderland, and Showa Monogatari, though I’ll be sure to preview plenty of others as well. Reading The Cart Driver’s Spring 2011 Anime Season Preview and hashi’s Full Previews of 47 Spring Shows influenced my interests quite a bit :p
Whatever you choose, I hope to see your thoughts on them when they do air.
I usually don’t preview a show in any other way other than reading Cart Driver’s chart about them. I don’t even have any desire to look at trailers for some reason. I do sometimes check out other bloggers’ post about shows I’m curious about to help me decide what to watch. If you don’t already know, I’m very anal about dropping anime, so once I start one I’ll finish it XD
Interesting. Well, i’m afraid i will be of no help since the only anime i watch is on Funimation but they do sound interesting.
bye.
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Already posted my intended picks :D
Half of your picks made it onto my list as well. C, Nichijou, Deadman, Ao no Exorcist, and Ore-tachi are the main ones that caught my eye. Appleseed XIII as well.
Particular interest in Ao no Exorcist :D
I saw that you’re excited about Ao no Exorcist. There’s a chance I’ll pick it up =)
We picked pretty much the same shows, except I didn’t pick the World God Only Knows S2 and picked Moshidoro.
Moshidora looks good but I have some internal aversion to sports centered anime that I can’t shake off. Maybe one day.
Right now I’m keen on watching The World God Only Knows Season 2 and Appleseed XIII. Tiger and Bunny might be interesting because I haven’t watched a new mecha series in a while, although the character designs are a bit odd. That might be all I have brain space for, actually!
Tiger and Bunny is one of those shows where I’ll have to see more screencaps and blogsphere opinion about it once it starts before I’ll decide to watch it. If Sunrise makes it less like Gundam and more like Code Geass in terms of a mecha anime, I’ll be interested =D
I didn’t realize that the Spring 2011 anime lineup had been released already, so thanks for this post. XD Seems to be quite a few slice-of-life anime this time round, but your list of picks appears to be fairly well-balanced. Also there are lots of sequels this season, including 2 that I’ve been waiting for – Kaiji s2 and Gintama s2 – which are must-watches. As for the new stuff, I’ll probably eventually pick up AnoHana, Tiger and Bunny, A Channel, and possibly Deadman but we’ll see.
The World God Only Knows is the only sequel I’ll be watching since I haven’t seen Kaiji, Gintama, or any other prequels this season. A new thing that’s started is having a ton of one episode DVD or net-only episodes for random past series, like the recent one for K-ON!! and the upcoming one for Seitokai Yakuindomo. They’re hard to keep track of since they come out on different dates.
Oh, i have a question. How exactly do you get to watch all these shows becuase like i said before i only watch the anime on Funimation but that is mainly becuase i don’t know of any other places to watch anime. So, if you could answer that i’d be very greatful.
bye.
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Funimation might be steaming some of the series I mentioned in this post, but if you’ve never heard of Crunchyroll, I suggest checking it out. That’s the best official streaming site to watch anime and they always release subtitled versions of a handful of currently airing shows. If for some reason Crunchyroll doesn’t work for you, or if they haven’t licensed the show you’re looking for, you can search on bitorrent sites like Tokyo Toshokan and Nyaa Torrents. Someone always uploads everything on YouTube too.
Thanks!
bye.
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Thanks for the list! Spring is up already? wow… that was quick :S
I’ll download them all! And watch the fist episodes, see how it goes from there. Never know what anime may surprise. Thanks for the list again!
LOL, I’m the opposite in that I never “first episode taste test” new series. Once I start watching something I’ll stick to it unless it completely bores or disgusts me XD Fans tend to do one or the other.
Definitely checking out Nichijou even though the first impressions with the OVA are mixed… For the other shows, I’m still on the fence and haven’t decided what I should watch.
Iroha and Ore-tachi ni Tsubasa seem like series you would like. I could be wrong though :3
I’m having the same problem this season. Usually I want to watch one or two more than I can handle and since there usually ends up being something I pretty much forget to start or after one episode that’s never a problem. But this season I think it was 19 series total that I want to check out, although a few with a question mark to them about whether to watch them or not. My final tests for this year will be coming up in a bit more than a month too, no way am I going to have time for all of this x.x Choosing is way too hard x.x
I know, it’s so hard to pick among so many! That’s why I usually wait until a couple episodes of each air, look at screencaps and read some opinions, to get a better idea of which ones would be best for me.
That’s a really nice way of doing it, maybe I should try it sometime. I always get so excited though that I start watching at least most series right away XP
Like I said in my own preview post, I’ll be watching a good 20 series. Most of what’s in your top 5 is included in that, minus World God Only Knows 2, because I haven’t seen the first one, so it wouldn’t make much sense.