Anime Season Spring 2006

Well, it's that time of year again. Shana, Magikano, Kashimashi, Noein, Otome, and Canvas 2 are all finally over (the finales of the latter two are downloading as I type this). So, what's in store this season? Read on brutha.

Returning from last season:

Naruto – Apparently Ep. 182 is the last in a looooong year of filler crap. It better be…
Bleach – Like it's big sister (brother?) series, Bleach is in filler, but it looks like it'll be a while longer till it's over.
Fate/Stay Night – I was growing tired of the all-talk-no-action stuff. Then I saw ep 12 and wet myself. Saber=win.
Ergo Proxy – After the spectacular (and uber high quality encoded) first episode, the last few have been…lackluster, I suppose. I'm gonna keep at it, mostly because the chances that it'll be on [adult swim] between Bleach and Eurika Seven are about 100%, so I might as well watch it with a quality dub. Oh, did I forget to tell you that [as] picked up Bleach? My bad.

Returning from long ago:

School Rumble Season 2 – Win. I just finished watching the first season on a recommendation, and I'm positively excited for the sequel. Questions still need to be answered! (the most pressing of which: is Sara a lesbian? Hmmm…)
Ah! My Goddess Season 2 – The first season was on my download list for the longest time, and it's now on my buy list for R1 DVD's, alongside Mai-HiME. Why? I have no freekin clue, but it's awesome. MOAR BELLDANDY FTW!

New Series that I will be watching:

Strawberry Panic! – The first in many Yuri series this season. I hear it's like Maria-sama ga Miteru, only with actually girl-on-girl-ness. I never saw Maria-sama, but girl-on-girl-ness is always win.
Soul Link – I have no idea what it's about, but it looks good and the first ep reviews are positive, so it looks like a keeper.
Joshi Kosei GIRLS HIGH – like Azumanga, but with more panty shots. How can that not be awesome?
ZEGAPAIN – Sunrise might fuck up every once and a while (coughOtomecough) but when it comes to robots the house that made Gundam is king. This should hold me till GS3 (you know it's coming…)
.hack//Roots – .hack. Nuff said.

New Series that I might watch:

Kiba – Looks like standard shounen fair so far, which hasn't stopped me before, but I am running two shounen series already, so this might get the back burner. Maybe.
Simoun – More Yuri, only this time with a very weird twist: In the world that the story takes place in, all people are born female, and choose their gender at a certain age (I believe it's 15, but I could be wrong). Obviously, it's about a group of girls that have yet to decide their sex. It does have airplanes too…

Holy shit that's a lot of anime…oh wells, I'm sure I'll find another series or two to watch too :p. I might blog about the episodes themselves when someone gets around to subbing them (Kiba looks like the only one subbed so far) so look forward to that. Maybe.

In other anime relatedish news, both Hyde (from L'arc~en~ceil) and KOTOKO are dropping US albums in the near future. L'arc~en~ciel could make it here, but Hyde by himself…eh. KOTOKO's techno-pop doesn't sound like something the mainstream here would enjoy (although the entire Re-Sublimity single has been stuck in my head for like EVER). KOTOKO will be at A-Kon in Dallas this summer, so hopefully I'll be able to see that and get a taste of what she's doing here (the album is apparently called -hana-, which either means she's playing off the fact that she's japanese, or that the whole album is in japanese and it's for the american otaku. Still, her stuff is catchy…). And in totally anime related news, Naruto movie 2 will be out on DVD at the end of the month, there's a new Sousei no Aquarion project due this fall *crosses fingers new series*, and I'm still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the FMP! TSR OVA (yay for acronyms!) that is supposed to depict a day in the life of Tessa. Mmmm…Tessa…