Anime Selection for Fall 2010 + Manga Snapshots

Lately, I feel like I have no time to do anything I really want to do. Work takes up at least 8 hrs a day, but that's really the norm for most of us anyway. So, I just wonder why I feel rushed, or why I can't finish anything I want to do. My manga updates are also incomplete, with seemingly too many titles to catch up to. Of course, reading manga isn't given the highest priority in most people's lives, but it is for me. Well, not the highest, but I do get around to reading them once every few months, so the backlog is incredible. Yes, it is a vicious cycle because I'll never get around to finishing them if I continue putting them off.

Ah, I am well delighted at the selection of the anime series this coming fall in Japan, but it just spells big trouble for the next month or so because I decided that I'll be following 8 titles.

バクマン。| Bakuman 。

A manga about aspiring manga artists. Not something that I usually gravitate to, but I was persuaded once I knew that this title is illustrated and written by the mind behind Death Note. I'll give it a proper shot.

薄桜鬼 碧血録 | Hakuouki Hekketsuroku

This is an anime adaptation of its PlayStation dating simulation game for girls, and it contains hawt guys (what did you expect?). Anyway, it takes place during the Tokugawa Shogunate era, apparently faithful to history, and the cast consists of non-fictional characters. So, at least it'll be educational ... I guess.

STAR DRIVER　輝きのタクト | STAR DRIVER Kagayaki no Takuto

I saw the character art and mecha ... and felt like gleaning over it. Buh. I know nothing much about the story line, except that several of my all-time favourite seiyuus are in the cast, that it will be directed and written by the peeps who brought us Ouran High School Host Club, and the studio responsible is none other than BONES. So, I will watch this unless it is undeniably and heart-wrenchingly crappy.

Pleeeease don't let it be so.

俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない | Ore no Imouto ga Konnani Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Now, this storyline is pretty interesting. A 17 year old high school kid finds out that his 14 year old sister is secretly into eroge. Good grief! Big seiyuu names involved. I'm watching this simply because I. Am. Very. Curious.

荒川アンダー ザ ブリッジ×ブリッジ | Arakawa Under the Bridge x Bridge

YESH! *pumps fist into air* I am so glad we didn't have to wait too long for the 2nd season! There is a God! (I mean that with all my heart, of course). Random days are back. I missed you, you crazy bunch of misfits.

咎狗の血 | Togainu no Chi

Adapted from its yaoi-infested PlayStation game, there are lots of blood, gore, killings, and politics set in a post-Third World War apocalyptic environment, with all my favourite male seiyuus in the cast. It's gladiator-like fighting - battle to the death. I mean, yaoi-based story with hawt guys. I am immediately sold intrigued. Ahem. Pictures relating to this series are strictly not meant for the uninitiated.

And I finally realise that Togainu no Chi is the series which this cosplayer is cosplaying for! Aaah. Mystery resolved.

 

それでも町は廻っている | Soredemo Machi wa Mawatteiru

To balance out all the 'darkness' from Togainu no Chi, I need a 'light' title. This one is about a girl working in a maid cafe, with a manager who doesn't know how to run one. Comedy setting. Slice of life genre. I love this genre the most, since it appeals to MY reality.

海月姫 ～くらげひめ～ | Kuragehime

Initially I wasn't interested in this one, since the character designs totally threw me off. But, because it is produced by Brain's Base, I'm having second thoughts. I adored its previous productions like Baccano and Durarara!!, so I'm tempted badly. Very badly. It's adapted from an award-winning shoujo manga, and features several girls living together in a women-only apartment who self-proclaimed themselves as enemies of fashionable women because ... well, to put it simply, they won't be 'having any' with the men, unlike the hawt ladies. Along comes the protagonist who is a beautiful lady, except that she's actually a he, who had to cross-dress to avoid succeeding his father's business. Hmmm. Not exactly the most original (I'm thinking along the lines of W-Juliet), but with a storyline like this and produced by Brain's Base, well, I'm adding this to my list.

* * * * * *

Hmmm. I have to say, in Kuroshitsuji, poor Sebby gets stabbed knowingly and has to suffer excruciating pain, even as a demon. Still, he does his work so elegantly as a butler too. I'm seeing a lot of recurring scenes in recent chapters across different titles, i.e. killings, blood, mangled corpses. All in all, urgh.

Sigh. Sometimes I don't like plots where one needs to choose duty over friendship, even though there were circumstances surrounding this one in Dance in The Vampire Bund. Tragedy over an innocent life used as a pawn by the higher powers at play. Realistically, it can happen, and has happened, and will happen. Maybe I need to start reading happier stuffs.