Spring 2010 anime preview

Written by A. H. on 16 Mar 2010

After a decidedly quiet winter 2010 season that thankfully still brought us some great series, normal service is resumed for Japan's spring 2010 season as we find ourselves inundated with a veritable cornucopia of new shows to salivate over.  With so many new series, of course you'll want to know a little more about what to watch and what to avoid as we enter the heady days of spring, and thus here we are to provide our usual new season preview.  So, read on and learn more about the wide variety of shows coming to Japanese TV in the next few weeks.

Angel Beats

Key are already a pretty well-known entity for their visual novels in Japan, providing popular titles such as Clannad and Kanon which have also enjoyed successful anime adaptations.  However, Angel Beats is rather a different project the company, acting as a mixed-media vehicle which appeared as a light novel, manga, and now an anime.

P.A. Works have been tasked with bringing the world of Angel Beats to the small screen, with it introducing the story's world of the afterlife - An afterlife where you still have to go to school, if only to learn to give up your attachments to your previous life in the world of the living.  However, when the show's protagonist Otonashi meets a girl who leads an organisation which fights against God himself, things are only likely to get more interesting from that moment on.

Should I watch it? Between Key's history of producing fun and engrossing stories and P.A. Works tendency towards the visually stunning, this should be one of the big hits of the season.  The only surprise here is that it isn't Kyoto Animation handling animation duties, seeing as they've worked on both Clannad and Kanon in the past.

Arakawa Under the Bridge

Arakawa Under the Bridge began life as an bizarre yet amusing manga, and now it gets an anime series courtesy of who else but SHAFT, who seem like a perfect choice for this kind of thing.  The series itself is something of a chalk-and-cheese offering, telling the tale of a successful business executive named Kou and his developing relationship with a girl called Nino who lives under a bridge after the latter saves the former's life.

Should I watch it? If nothing else, this is probably the most "different" take on romantic comedy you'll see this season, if not this year.  Couple that with what seems to be a perfect match by handing the keys to the series to SHAFT's Akiyuki Shinbo, and this is one series that is rich in potential.

B Gata H Kei

Yamada is a high school girl who is also a virgin - So far so normal, except her desire in life is to have one hundred casual sex partners.  And they think that morals are a problem with UK teenagers....

That's pretty much all there is to say about this series, and doubtless you can make your own mind up about it from the concept of this manga-derived series alone.

Should I watch it? While reversing the age-old harem concept in anime is perhaps noteworthy, and this series looks set to travel towards more traditional romantic comedy territory, it's still going to be difficult to get past the initial premise of this show for many - Whether that difficulty will be justified remains to be seen, of course.

Bakugan Battle Brawlers - New Vestroia

Bakugan Battle Brawlers is something of a Pokemon for the current age, growing over recent years into a franchise that started life as an anime (with New Vestrola serving as its second series) which reached the US via the Cartoon Network cable channel before branching out into a game and action figures.  With a story revolving around a group of friends who have found metallic cards which fell from the sky and allow them to battle enemies, you probably get the picture as to how the show pans out from episode to episode.

Should I watch it? It all depends on whether you're already interested in this franchise or not, but for most of you reading this I'd wager that there's little to grab you here.

D.C. ~Da Capo~ Ext

Da Capo started life as an adult visual novel on the PC, featuring your typical story of high school romance and... well, having sex with as many girls as possible.  The game was later translated into two series on anime, and this newest Da Capo offering looks to extend and retell the Da Capo story for a new audience, or maybe just to titilate an existing one further.

Should I watch it? That all depends on whether you're a fan of Da Capo from its previous outings, and if not whether an adult game translated to anime floats your boat.  At least you can guess at what you'll be getting from this series if nothing else.