Winter Season Preview Review

With the Winter season already started and shows just getting into their respective grooves, this will be a quick "what I'm watching" post. The usual season previews will start with the new 2015 Spring season. Instead of the usual chart, Anidb is a great resource to view upcoming anime from. Now let's look at some of shows that I'm interested in and am watching this Winter.

Parasyte - Animated by Madhouse and from the mangaka of Historie?! These two blurbs were at least a reason to watch the first episode. What followed were four episodes of great action, surprisingly mature psychological takes on things related to the show and what almost is a "buddy comedy" with lead character Shinichi and parasite Migi. Migi is voiced by often maligned Aya Hirano and it's good to see her getting big roles again. She brings a familiarity to Migi, which endears him to the viewer even while he is a parasite.

The music, while fitting and solid throughout, will turn some off. The show chooses to go with what some label as "dubstep" instead of a traditional soundtrack. In my opinion, the music fits, especially during the well animated fight scenes. I've caught myself tapping my foot and making a mental note to watch out for a song on the soundtrack. Parasyte is on its way to being a candidate for anime of the year and is a solidly written and animated show from Madhouse.

Trinity Seven - Seven Arcs has very few shows listed to its credit. The sequel to Dog Days is perhaps their best known work. Still, there is a charm to Trinity Seven that I can't overlook and it starts with the characters and their interaction. The male lead, Kasuga Arata is perverted, sure. But underneath his love of boobs and girls is a satisfyingly grounded main character who has a great deal of sarcasm to him. Shows like Trinity Seven, Highschool DxD or even So I can't play H, often take themselves too seriously.

Trinity Seven knows what it is and delivers each week. The show also boasts perhaps one of, if not my favorite character of the season in Levi Kazama. Levi is a slick talking, highly entertaining female ninja. The interactions between Levi and Arata, even Levi and the main cast are great. The other members of the predominantly female cast are also fun to see interact with Arata and each other. While the first four episodes have been a little heavy on the comedy, the show seems to be setting itself up for a "serious turn" later in the series.

Grisaia no Kajitsu - Ever watch a show and have your brain screaming out to you, going "Something is familiar, I have seen or heard this before!"? Well that was my case with Grisaia no Kajitsu. After wracking my brain, trying to find out what seemed so familiar, it hit me; The character designer. Watanabe Akio, perhaps most famous for his Bakemonogatari designs is the lead character designer for the show. While not on the Bakemonogatari hype train, I do like his character designs and they fit well in the feel of the show.

Grisaia is based on a highly acclaimed and fan regarded visual novel. The show itself, like Trinity Seven, has a refreshing male lead in Kazami Yuuji. Calm, cool, and calculated, Yuuji brings a different air to the show. The predominantly female cast also has their own quirks. With the show being set in a school for "different" youth, a Shuffle or Mirai Nikki "Yandere moment" always feels around the corner. Much like Trinity Seven(it's no coincidence while thinking of both shows one can draw many parallels), a female character stands out from the cast in Matsushima Michiru.

A bleached blonde, fake tsundere with a split personality, Michiru has had a large portion of the screen time so far in the series. Grisaia is off to a solid start, with the ever present dark cloud of "not all is as it seems" oppressively hovering over the series. While it might not live up to the acclaimed visual novel, I'm interested to see how it ends. 



Denki-Gai no Hon'ya-san - Comedy is often hard to get right. When it comes to anime, shows either do it ham handily or operate at a manic pace like Excel Saga. Denki-Gai has legitimately laughing comedy with a heart warming cast of characters. The varied cast of characters embody some form of fandom and work together in a book store. From the camera happy Kameko, to the zombie obsessed Fu Girl, the cast is very easy to take a liking to.

Outside of the cast, the comedy and references are spot on. With some lightly added romantic hints between characters, the show is also more than just your standard comedy. It's hard to talk in depth about Denki-Gai as it's best experienced as a comedy with the jokes left intact. I will say that it's the first show in a while that had me laughing multiple times per episode.

Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Ufotable, stop it, you're spoiling me. First Kara no Kyoukai, perhaps my favorite movie series and then an amazingly animated prequel to Fate/Stay Night in Fate/Zero? Those two entries alone would buy an animation company enough good will among fans for years. Now you're doing an updated Fate/Stay Night anime with the same production values as Fate/Zero and Kara no Kyoukai? Stop the tape, Game Over, flawless victory.

From the first four episodes, ufotable are masters at adapting Type Moon properties. Animation, voice acting, scenery, fight scenes, music, everything in this show is top notch. The big fight scene in episode three is something most shows would save for a finale. My only complaint is that this makes me wish for a ufotable take on Tsukihime, which seems to be a forgotten Type Moon property. There is nothing left to say about Fate, go watch it now, it's that good.

Shigatsu was Kimi no Uso - Nodame Cantabile, please report to the front desk, Nodame Cantabile, please report to the front desk. I kid, I kid Shigatsu was Kimi no Uso. Much like ufotable and Fate/Stay Night, A-1 Pictures is an animation company that renders any series they work on worth a look. I hate to heap too much praise on a show after four episodes, but this series is something special. This is the type of series that can get you reinvigorated for anime and watching anime as a whole.

There is so much energy in this show, from the music, to the concert and performance scenes, to how the characters move about themselves. Aside from the beautifully animated backgrounds and settings, A-1 Pictures has done an amazing job capturing the frenzied nature of classical music performances down to the individual piano keys and wires. The characters also add terrific energy to the show, especially a violinist, Miyazono Kaori. The rest of the cast has a great dynamic, although it feels like the show is setting up for a love triangle or for a tragic event based on the clues being dropped so far. Shigatsu was Kimi no Uso is definitely worth a watch and may reinvigorate your drive for anime.

Well, I hope you like the new feature and while there are other shows currently airing, these are six that I'm following weekly. It takes a special kind of show to make me follow weekly as for most I simply wait for their run to finish and then binge watch. This will be the case for shows like Argevollen and Hitsugi no Chaika.