Summer 2007 Preview: It won’t take much to make it better than 2005-6 combined

Yes, that Spring Preview (so important it has to be capitalised) wasn’t a one-off, because now I’m doing another one for summer, so that you can all read what you’ve read a hundred times before on other blogs.

As we all know, during the summer we are expected to be outside enjoying the sunshine and the like, and so the selection of anime offered to us is rather limited compared to the lush bounty of the spring and autumn seasons. Good summer series tend to be few and far between, and even ones that are mildly entertaining can be hard to find. Can this year break the trend, or is it going to be more of the same?

I’m not bothering with movies this time, I never seem to actually watch them.

• Buzzer Beater 2007: I hardly ever watch sports series, and I certainly haven’t bothered to touch the 2005 Buzzer Beater anime (why is it getting a remake so soon?). These futuristic basketball adventures will be left well alone.
• Kodomo no Jikan: I think we’ve all heard of this series by now thanks to the Great Manga Cancellation Incident of 2007, and to be honest, a precocious third-grader going after her 23 year old teacher never appealed to me. I might check out the manga thanks to all the controversy about it, but the anime won’t be tried unless I like the original.
• Soukou Kihei Votoms Pailsen Files: I don’t much about this series other than the existence of secret documents in the postwar era, but a quick glance at the character art reveals some depressing MANLY and generic designs. It also seems to be related to Armoured Trooper Votoms, a series almost as old as I am that looks to be typical retro eighties MANLINESS.
• Nanatsuiro Drops: A middle school boy gets turned into a plush sheep and needs help from a magical girl to collect the star droplets needed to turn back. As with most eroge adaptations, the artwork and prospect of light entertainment appeals to me, but then I remember the animation and story quality of Yoake and now Polyphonica, and I become reluctant to make the same mistake yet again.
• Zombie-Loan: If Rozen Maiden is Peach-Pit’s attempt at X, and DearS their rip-off of Chobits, then Zombie Loan may be Tokyo Babylon and xxxHOLiC, featuring a trio of people hunting down zombies. After the whole getting disillusioned with Rozen Maiden debacle, I’m somewhat reluctant to get too optimistic about this, but I’ll probably give it a try.
• School Days: Somehow I once ended up watching a couple of clips from the raw OVA on “you toube”, and it was awful in an “I can’t believe it could be this bad” sense, with a still shot of one girl watching a couple have sex off screen “Makoto…no…”, and then some violence. I guess a TV series has a chance to do the story in more depth, but is that really going to help?
• Doujin Work: I included this in the spring preview because I thought this was coming out ages ago, and in the meantime the reputation of 4koma-based anime has been smashed by Lucky Star. Even so, it just might have some Genshiken-esque potential, if I can ever be bothered to risk it.
• Code-E: Its title might be an unpleasant reminder of Code Geass, but can Code-E’s tale of a girl who can disrupt electronics when she gets nervous turn out to be more Dennou Coil than mere throwaway entertainment? I’m sceptical, but you never know.
• Kenko Zenrakei Suieibu Umisho: Sasa already said this, but the artwork is reminiscent of YKK, even if the story is nothing like it- instead, this is the tale of a boy who joins a swimming club filled with weirdoes, including that one girl who might just be someone he met in his past. It doesn’t sound like it will be top quality, but it could be fun.
• Mushi-Uta: The title may make it sound like some sort of Mushishi/Utawarerumono crossover, but in fact Mushi-Uta is a light novel adaptation about a breed of mushi that eats dreams. If only in memory of its similarly named second cousin, I must watch it.
• Sky Girls: A follow-up to last year’s OVA, this series sees lolis in mecha fighting giant worms. It sounds a bit generic and Simoun-like for its own good, and it may well only appeal to rabid mecha musume fans.
• Happy Happy Clover: Looks like a cutesy kids show- if only it actually had adult humour and was going to be the next Damekko Doubutsu.
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai: I got highly disillusioned with Higurashi by the end, so even though I once longed for the next two arcs to be animated, I’m not too enthused about this. Even so, I will probably end up at least starting it.
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: So, Hopeless Sensei gets his own anime series…or not. A comedy series about a pessimistic teacher and an optimistic student, SHAFT’s involvement means this could be the next Pani Poni Dash, which I enjoyed, or Negima!?…which I didn’t.
• Moetan: Whose idea was it to turn an English vocabulary guide into an anime? I mean seriously, what the hell is this going to be about? I guess it may be amusing, but it could also get old quickly.
• Zero no Tsukaima 2nd Series: Based on the fact that I could only bear two episodes of the first series before getting tired of the paper thin plot and characters, I won’t be watching this.
• Potemayo: The story of a girl who lives in the fridge, Potemayo is another 4-koma based series which just might be as enchanting as Binchou-tan, but which will probably be as throwaway as Adventures of Mini-Goddess.
• Mononoke: Based on the medicine seller from the third and best arc of Ayakashi, Mononoke loses points for being related to that boring series, but then gains them back for the distinctive art style, period setting and possibility similarity to Requiem from the Darkness.
• Shigurui: The historical setting tempts me, but the ultra-violence makes me wary that it will be a gorefest reminiscent of some of the more forgettable eighties and early nineties material. I may give it a try, but it’s far from a must-see.
• Tokyo Majin Gakuen Kenpuchou Tou Kenbu Hen: Another second season, and this time I didn’t even touch the first, so I’m hardly going to be watching this.
• Baccano: I need my historical series fix in every season, and it looks like this time around we’ll be heading to Prohibition-era America (ah, the memories of GCSE History are just flooding back). I already have hopes that this is not only going to be enjoyable, but will also offer solid parody material, just as Chevalier and Iroha did before it.

Extra: Last Season’s “Results”, aka, are previews meaningless after all?

Shows classified as blue: 14- 5 still watching, 4 dropped, 5 unwatched

Shows classified as black: 16- 3 still watching, 1 dropped, 12 unwatched

Shows classified as red: 21- 2 still watching, 2 dropped, 1 unaired, 16 unwatched.