Spring 2009 Anime Watchlist

With a little less than a month left until the official start of the spring season, I felt it was time to finally compile my anime watch list. Compared to this season it looks like I will be viewing more new anime but that won’t be a problem since several series from the fall and winter seasons that I am keeping track of will end in the following weeks. Anyways, onto my choices:

Definitely Watch

• K-ON! – K-ON! is about four high school girls who join their school’s light music club in order to save it from being abolished despite being the only members and not even knowing how to play instruments. Aside from this and the fact that Kyoto Animation is animating the show, I know nothing else about the story. However since I want to keep my perfect KyoAni anime watch streak going, I’ll end up watching it. I think I’ll be happy as long as I see some cool musical performances.
• Saki – The title character Saki is a high school first year who gets dragged into her school’s mahjong club. She is extremely skilled and surprises some of the other members by being able to break even after every round, a play style that she developed due to the fact that her family would get mad whenever she won so she would carefully lose on purpose. However she hates mahjong. Judging from the PV, this is going to be an overblown moe version of Akagi which for some strange reason in my mind sounds awesome.
• Hayate the Combat Butler! 2 (OVA) ~ Episode 0 / Hayate the Combat Butler! 2 – Since I am a fan of Hayate no Gotoku, it would make sense to watch the continuation. I expect more of the same but that’s not really a bad thing.
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei 2 & 3 – Just like last season Higurashi is once again the OVA I am most looking forward to. I really enjoyed the first episode of Rei (which I still need to write about) and all of its in-jokes and references and also the new songs especially Super scription of data. Episode 2 will start Saikoroshi-hen, the Dice-killing Chapter, which is one of the story’s I am least familiar with but I do know it happens after Matsuribayashi-hen and returns to being a dark story. I believe I know the basics of what goes on but I’ll refrain for the sake of spoilers.
• Candy Boy Episode 06 – More yuri is always welcome. I hope the next episode lives up to the deliciousness of the last one.
• Basquash! – With such a strange concept as basketball-playing robots, I have to at least see the first episode and hopefully I’ll like it. Also the mechs wear Nikes.
• ToLoveRU (OVA) – More mindless fanservice. I’ll probably watch this after a hard day’s worth of classes so I can vegetate.

Probably Watch

• Tayutama -Kiss on my Deity- – The story reminds me a little bit of Kannagi not to mention I love supernatural things so I’ll probably check this out. Art style is also similar to Goshuushou-sama Ninomiya-kun which was an unexpectedly fun watch.
• Shangri-La – The basic premise of the show is that global warming has caused Tokyo to become a tropical city and in order to reduce its temperature, it is reborn as the forest city Atlas but some anti-government guerrillas want to stop the forestation. With an interesting concept and character designs by Range Murata, this may be an interesting series.
• Natsu no Arashi! – Not really sure what this is about since the description is so vague but the fact that the story is from the same guy who did School Rumble and it is being animated by Shaft could have potential.
• Tears to Tiara – I am not particular interested in the anime as I am in possibly picking up the original visual novel. I figure that if I enjoy the anime than it is safe for me to waste even more time on the game which features TRPG elements.

May Watch

• Asura Cryin’ – A semi-serious action story based on a light novel about a guy haunted by a ghostly girl who seems to be his childhood friend. Though I know nothing else, this type of paranormal activity maybe enough to interest me and keep me entertained.
• PandoraHearts – I honestly don’t remember how I heard about this initially or why I was interested in it but I can’t get the name out of my head.

Will Watch Eventually

• Spice & Wolf II: Wolf and Amber Melancholy ~ Episode 0 – I watched the first few episodes of the first series but haven’t gotten around to finishing it yet so I’ll wait until I get through it. I did enjoy it though so finishing it shouldn’t be too hard.
• ToHeart2 adplus – I have the entire canon of the ToHeart anime but have yet to watch even a single episode so this will have to wait until whenever I finish everything else.

With the notable exception of Hayate no Gotoku, all the sequels I will be watching are limited to OVA releases leaving all the original content for the television series. In total I will be following as many as 10 new TV anime plus 5 OVA episodes which fits nicely since 10 or so television series I am currently watching will end soon. With little prior knowledge of many of these new shows, I don’t know how this season’s lineup will end up but hopefully it will be filled with many fun surprises.