Anime reviews

The spring anime season shall be hot and humid, with a lot of interesting stuff coming out. Personally, to determine what I'll watch next season, I listen to my friends and randomly browse the animesuki forums. So yea, here's what I should be watching next season :

-Mahou shoujo lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
-Claymore
-Hayatenogotoku (Hayate the combat butler)
-El Cazador
-Tales of symphonia (Technically, this is an OVA, but it's coming out this spring)


Mahou shoujo lyrical Nanoha StrikerS
This is the follow up to Nanoha A's. It happens 10 years after A's. Nanoha, Fate and Hayate are grown up now (I can hear the lolicon crying) and work for the time-space administration bureau. They are joined by a new cast of little girls (lolicon rejoice!) who somehow get powers. The animation will be done by the same studio (Ivory) so expect the same amount of explosions and giant beams everywhere on the screen. Not much more is known about the story of this season, beside the fact that it follows the manga (which makes the link inbetween As and StrikerS). The op should hopefully be sung by the awesome Nana mizuki, which I just love.

Claymore
This one is an adaptation of a shonen jump manga of the same name. In a post-apocalyptic world (or maybe just a parallel world, I have no idea), monsters called the Yoma eat humans. They have shape-shifting abilities and thus are able to blend easily into society. Once they kill someone, they can steal his memories as well as his appearance. Fortunately, there are wandering mercenaries called the Claymore who take care of such vermin. The Claymores are females who have been genetically enhanced with monster genes, which makes them even stronger than the monsters. I know it sounds rather cliché, but what is interesting is that the more they use their powers, the more they become like the monsters. That is why they are more feared than loved by the villagers they help. I've read the first volume of the manga and I found it to be really interesting. The animation will be handled by studio Madhouse (Trigun, Tenjou tenge, Beck and so many more...), so I believe we can expect it to be rather good.

Hayate no gotoku (Hayate the combat butler)
I must admit, the name alone sold me on that one. Then I read the premise, and it is so incredibly silly that it just makes me want to watch it more. I'll simply quote from Anidb (which quotes from ANN it seems) :

16-year-old Hayate is really down on his luck. Because his unemployed parents are good-for-nothings who waste what money they have on gambling, Hayate had to start working at a young age to help out his family. Although such experience has made him inhumanly fast and tough and skilled at things boys aren`t normally skilled it, it has also left him in an awkward position, as his parents have racked up such a huge gambling debt that they have sold Hayate to the yakuza for the value of his organs. In a desperate attempt to avoid that fate, Hayate decides to become a “bad guy” and kidnap someone to be held for ransom, but his efforts to do so are mistaken as a confession of love by the girl he targets. When he helps save the (as it turns out) ultra-wealthy 13-year-old Nagi from real kidnappers, she takes him in and gives him a job as her new personal butler (and love interest) until he can pay off his debt. But Hayate is more attracted to Nagi`s beautiful teenage maid Maria, and head butler Klaus is initially disapproving of the boy with such a poor look. And then there`s Nagi`s pet Tama, who is also a force to be reckoned with.

It is based off a manga of the same name by Hata Kenjirou. On the musical side, the op will be sung by KOTOKO, which has a tendency to be loved by a lot of people, but I can't really classify her as a singer that I like.

El Cazador

Well, what can I say more about this than what mduo already told us? I have a tendency to like these kinds of "girls with guns" shows. Noir was my first anime ever and I have a bit of nostalgia toward it. Beside, Kajiura Yuki is usually excellent and I'm looking forward to what she'll give us this time around.

Tales of symphonia

Again, not much to say about this, beside the fact that it is the exact same story as the videogame. This one is coming out a bit later than the others, namely in June. The animation will be handled by ufotable (They're relatively unknown, but they have cooperated with other studios on a lot of projects.) and Colette Brunel will be voiced by none other than Nana Mizuki .

So that's pretty much what I'm looking forward to. There's also the second season on higurashi no naku koro ni coming out sometime this year, but I have no idea when, and we'd probably know it already if it was to be aired in spring. Now I just need to find something to help me wait until April...