Fall 2013 Anime Season Preview

Today is the day that I will be doing a bit of a preview of the fall anime season of this year. The season is already underway, with several shows premiering this week, and at least one anime already having premiered. I’ll make a few comments on what to look out for this fall.

Generally, fall anime season is more of a mixed bag than summer. It usually has an impression of being a little light on the blockbusters, but also tends to have a few big shows that come on too. The same trend carries over to winter, and again that means a lot of shows deemed so-so, but a few that sneak up and are really great.

Diabolic Lovers is not in the “surprisingly good” camp. It’s probably more in the “surprisingly bad” camp. It premiered very early. It’s already up to episode three. Being that it premiered so early and is a simulcast with Crunchyroll, I was expecting that this was some fantastic show that everyone was just so eager to put out there. Instead it seems more like they were hoping it might get buried once the rest of the new season started rolling out. My opinion may not be the same as others, but that show is just absolutely terrible.

The main character is a girl whose “father”, who seems to likely be her adopted father, and is a priest, sent her to live in a mansion with six male vampires who at best are indifferent to her. Every episode so far it’s seemed like one of them was half a second away from killing or raping her. It is a very squeamish show to watch. If you’re one of those people who just feels compelled to see any show you start all the way to the end, stay far, far away from this show. You’re better off not making yourself watch it.

Copellion has got a lot of buzz more for the content of the story than the story itself. It’s based on a manga by the same name that came out several years ago. It’s about a trio of genetically engineered girls (I think it’s supposed to be from birth not just them drafted and thrown in a lab) who are travelling a devastated Tokyo.

The anime was announced a few years ago. It got delayed because of the earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear disaster that took place. That is mostly to do with the fact that the story centers on the fictional story of a nuclear disaster rendering nearly 90% of Tokyo uninhabitable. It can be understood that for a show whose primary audience is meant to be Japan, it would be seen as insensitive to air such a program in the immediate aftermath of what could have been life imitating art. It’s a sort of semi post-apocalyptic story as the girls navigate the city in search of any possible survivors or people they can help. The genetic treatments have supposedly given them some abilities, including much more enhanced resistance to radiation, such that they can walk about a still highly radioactive city without having to wear protective suits.

The show airs on Viz’s website on Wednesdays now. Episode 1 aired earlier this week. The art style is a little different from normal. It’s very similar to what you get with Uchoten Kazoku (The Eccentric Family); not identical style, but closer to that style than the style of the average anime. The story does seem very interesting, and it is supposed to be a top pick for the season, and I don’t see a reason to believe it won’t be top notch.

There are a few sequels out this season. Infinite Stratos has its second season out now. It’s one of those shows that could easily fall into the problem that High School DxD had last season, which is that it might try to go overboard on the eechi from season one. If it does, then it will be about as bad as DxD was. If not, then it can have the chance to be fairly good. I doubt it would be a top tier show, but it should be plenty entertaining.

Valvrave, my number one pick from the spring, is back for its continuation. There is a lot of high hopes and expectations on this one, so hopefully they can deliver on that. It could be hard, however, because of how much expectations are placed on the show. I think they can do it. There’s a lot of good plot lines waiting to be addressed, and with the quality of season one, there isn’t a lot of reason to suspect they can’t do the same again.

Phi Brain is in for season three. It has a similar general dynamic as that I assigned to Fantasia Doll over the summer, in that it seems caught between being a children’s show that is occasionally more mature, or a mature show that is often childish. I like puzzles in general, so I don’t mind it too much. It’s a much easier watch than Fantasia Doll was, so I am tentatively looking forward to it.

White Album 2 is also set to show this fall. I don’t remember actually watching season one, though I do somewhat recall that it was supposed to be a dramatic telling of a girl trying to become a singer, and contending with the harsh realities of life and the entertainment industry (or something like that). Think of it like Idolmaster minus the comedy and hijinks. It’s a part of that general niche, so you might be interested if you’ve seen the first season. I can’t say that I’ll watch it unless Crunchyroll or somebody has season one that I can run through.

Freezing has its second season debuting this fall. The first season took some liberties with the manga. Knowing what the manga is like the level of fan service in season one (not counting the OVAs) was fairly in line with the manga. The trick will be how they choose to resolve the inconsistencies with season one’s story and the manga, and whether they will continue trying to remain on target with the manga or devolve into even more fan service ecchi stuff to distract from the story. The overall story is good, but it’s only as good as the attention given to it. We’ll have to see where things go.

Kill la Kill is another show that has received a lot of attention. As there is no source material to judge on, it’s gotten much of its attention based on the names attached to it. As I’m sure I mentioned some long time ago, I don’t judge shows either way based on the names attached to them. As such all I can say is that the concept sounds interesting. But, I can’t really make a prejudgment because I haven’t seen anything of it yet, and have nothing of detail to read about it yet. Which is mostly fine. I don’t mind taking leaps of faith on shows like this, but that’s about all I can recommend right now.

Next to Valvrave, the anime I’m most looking forward to seeing is BlazBlue: Alter Memory. It’s the full anime adaptation of the story from the BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger game. It was a great game, and the animation sequences were fantastic. The story is expansive and lends itself well to being adapted into an anime. I’m very excited to see what they can do with it. It should be fun.

Well, that’s it. I clearly didn’t get to every anime for the season that is upon us. These are, however, the ones that have received the most attention, or that I have been able to catch a glimpse of already. In another couple weeks, once all the premieres are done, I’ve seen which a couple episodes, and I’ve made my final drops, I’ll be back with a list of every show that I will be watching this season, and that will be in my review at the end of the season.

For the month of October I will be sharing my picks for favorite Halloween songs each Friday. Here is this week's pick.