Upcoming anime comments

Hey, a post about anime! Fancy that.

I'm not going to do one of those winter anime season previews, mostly because nearly all of the shows coming out these days are totally indistinguishable moe/harem comedies, but there are a few upcoming series that stand out from the pack, some for better reasons than others.




Ookami Kukeshi

This is an adaptation of a PSP game by "Ryukishi07"- apparently that's his actual name- the creator of Higurashi and When The Seagulls Cry. If you don't know about these properties, they're horror/psychological thriller series, also based on visual novel games. I've never seen them due almost entirely on the character designs. I don't think the designer actually knew what the plot of this was beforehand, because all of the characters are hyper cutesy moe blobs. I know it's a bit shallow to reject a series based on that, but I just can't take the story seriously when the characters look like something from Lucky Star.

Also, when they go insane they look like this:

 

Ookami Kukeshi is somewhat similar in terms of mis-matched character designs, but I'm interested because it looks to be going for a "town with a dark secret" plot, of which I am fond. The game was even published by Konami.

Seikon no Qwaser

Seikon no Qwasar (that's Japanese for "Seikon no Bullshit") is, as you can see from the image above, a dark fantasy action show featuring stylish character designs and fight scenes.

The plot focuses on St. Mihailov academy, an Eastern Orthodox boarding school in Japan. That's pretty interesting, and the series draws heavily from Orthodox themes and imagery. The two leads, Oribe Mafuyu and Tomo Yamanobe, get caught up in the struggle of Alexander, a silver haired boy who is a BullshitQwaser- a warrior who fights the Church for control of a sacred icon of the Virgin Mary said to contain the secrets of the universe. The Qwasers have abilities powered by Soma, or breast milk, linked to chemical elements. Alexander, for example, controls Iron and can shape metal into blades and.......

Wait, wait. Back up there a second.

The Qwasers use breast milk?

Huh. Well, maybe that's not so bad. I mean I guess if they just drink it from a cup it doesn't really matter where it comes from, right? It's not like this is a huge justification for fanservice, right? Let's see what Wikipedia says:

"Linked to this is the fact that the Soma is, in actuality, breast milk, and that the Qwasers have to replenish themselves by means of suckling it, a process which apparently derives pleasure and tires heavily those women who nurse them."

 Oh Japan, why must you torment us so?

So Ra No Wo To

Woah, that's some nice concept art! What's this about?

The story is set in the future on a land that, after being marred by long-lasting wars, has settled into quiet decline. Model and actress Juri Aikawa will play Kanata Kumika, a 15-year-old girl who fulfills her dream of enlisting in the army and joins a unit of five girls who protect a fortress. The girls also play music that reverberate across the skies over towns without people and seas without fish.

Sounds interesting! Let's watch the trailer. Arty plants, mysterious poetic ramblings..... this is like Kino's Journey. I can't wait to watch..... oh wait, the main characters look 10 years old.

Dear Japan: please, please stop with the moe thing.

I'll still give this one a chance, but come on! This doesn't look like it's trying to be otaku bait, so why design the characters like that?

Dance in the Vampire Bund

This one doesn't have an image associated with it because I can't find one I'm comfortable with posting, but just imagine there's a picture here of a gothic half-naked vampire girl.

The rather oddly named Dance in the Vampire Bund follows the exploits of Mina Tepes, queen of vampires. One day she publicly reveals the existence of vampires and establishes a Bund or independant city-state for them to live in in Japan (of course) by paying off the country's national debt with her huge fortune. The viewpoint character is Akira, a werewolf who serves as Mina's bodyguard.

Also, Mina ages really slowly so she looks like a child. And she runs around in a g-string most of the time for reasons that aren't explained.

The way the trailer was set up made it seem as if this was supposed to be creepy and disturbing, so I checked out a few chapters of the manga (I'm willing to give anything involving vampires that isn't like Twilight a shot these days). Unfortunately I never got to resolve the G-string issue because both of the main characters are annoying twats and I couldn't stand to read about them for more than a few pages.

Apparently the story is super deep and complex, but people have said the same thing about Kodomo no Jikan so I think you'll forgive me for not giving this the benefit of the doubt.