I just updated this season’s “Shorts Sequels and Kids Stuff” entry with a look at the very first (very raunchy) episode of Gokujyo.

I’m just updating quickly to mention that I have a close relative in the hospital, so updates may be spotty until the situation calms down. Thanks for your understanding.

So what has everyone been watching so far this season?

Brave 10

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: Studio Sakimakura

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Nami is a shrine maiden who becomes the victim of an assassination attempt. Her shrine was also destroyed by Tokugawa Ieyasu's men in the process. In the meantime, Lord Sanada Yukimura has been gathering ten warriors who might just have the power to change history. As these brave men join together, Nami's power begins to awaken.

Note: This post contains spoilers for the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica. If you haven't seen the series and care about being spoiled, it's probably better to skip this.

This post is dedicated to my friend LT, a passionate Mami-supporter.

In my previous entry, I talked about some reactions to Puella Magi Madoka Magica that described the characterization of the cast as, to put it politely, lacking in depth. I've seen the term "moeblob" bandied-about, which is at its heart a description of characters who lack personalities beyond what's required to provoke a reaction of "moe" in their audience. While this is a term I'd usually reserve for series that have no other purpose than to present cute characters to an otaku audience (unlike Madoka which actually has a fairly rich story to tell), I don't completely disagree with the term's use in this case - the characters in this series really aren't what I would call fully fleshed-out. That, however, doesn't mean that they lack stories worth telling.

Tomoe Mami is a character known primarily for having been killed three episodes into the anime's broadcast. While her death marked a startling turning point in the series, as a character she wasn't around long enough for the event to have the same kind of emotional weight as some of the events which occur in later episodes. She's become the target of a lot of posthumous speculation, and there have been theories that speculate that she was somehow working in conjunction with Kyubey to help entice innocent girls into becoming contract labor for his energy machine. Her death became a meme and her character remained a mystery. She's easy to overlook in lieu of characters who had more screen time and yet, like the other girls in Madoka, her existence serves as a strong symbol of something much bigger than the struggles of one character in one anime.

Mouretsu Pirates (Bodacious Space Pirates)

Number of Episodes: 26

Production Company: Satelight

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: High school student Kato Marika lives in a future where space travel is commonplace. One day she's informed that her father was once a space pirate, and that because of laws set down during a conflict a century ago his ship, the Bentenmaru, has now been passed to her.

Inu x Boku Secret Service

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: David Production

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: The high-security living quarters of Maison de Ayakashi are rumored to be haunted, when in fact the home is a specialized place for human beings with non-human ancestors to live. Shirakiin Ririchiyo decides to live in the house for the purpose of self-improvement, and at her beck-and-call is Soushi, who asks only to be her "dog."

Knight in the Area (Area no Kishi)

Number of Episodes: TBA

Production Company: Shin-Ei Animation

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Aizawa Kakeru doesn't believe that he has the skills to make it as a soccer player, so he keeps to the sidelines and manages his school's team. His brother Suguru who's skilled at the game thinks that Kakeru might have some hidden abilities that he's not accepting, which causes arguments between them.

I wanted to post a short update just to mention that the Shorts, Sequels and Kids Stuff post for Winter 2012 has been updated with a review of the first episode of Busou Chuugakusei Basketarmy under the "Shorts" header. I'd also like to mention that my lack of "Women in Anime" posting this week is due mostly to being unexpectedly busy, then deciding to wait until the following Wednesday to continue onward (for the sake of consistency). I did mention that the column's posting might be spotty until the season has calmed down a bit, so consider that my excuse.

Carry on.

Ano Natsu de Matteru (Waiting in the Summer)

Number of Episodes: 12

Production Company: J.C. Staff

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Brief Overview: Summer vacation becomes the beginning of a film project when Kaito gets caught in an explosion that he can't remember. His friends decide to join him in a Summer of movie-making where they learn about each other and their relationships to one-another.

Winter 2012 is noteworthy for being jam-packed with short-episode series and boasting quite a few sequels (some to series which haven't been on the air for a while, like Prince of Tennis). Here I'll preview the majority of them to determine which shorts are worth following and which sequels might inspire one to go back and pick up previous seasons. Just a few notes:

-The most recent Pretty Cure series doesn't start until February. If I see anything noteworthy about it at that time I will most likely just edit this post.

- Danball Senki is an ongoing kids series that I can't really find current subs for, so it may not get any coverage because of it.

- Daily Lives of High School Boys is actually a full-length series, rather than a series of shorts as I had first been led to believe, so it will be covered separately.

- Basketarmy doesn't appear to exist anywhere obtainable on the internet, so coverage may be forthcoming. Update: barely a day after this entry was posted, a video showed up, so a first episode review has been added.

- Gokujyo, which I'd previously dropped due to lack of any news, apparently is being broadcast this season, and it's a series of shorts; the first episode was reportedly not broadcast for reasons of self-restraint (which I assume means that it was too risqué).

Edit: The first episode of Gokujyo is finally available. Check out the review below.

With all those qualifiers out of the way, let's get to the shows!

Shorts

Recorder to Randsell (Recorder and Backpack)

Number of Episodes: 13 3-minute episodes

Production Company: Seven

ANN Encyclopedia Wikipedia Crunchyroll

Thoughts: (Based on episodes one and two) Atsushi is a fifth-grader who has the appearance of being in his late teens, while his older sister (who's in high school) looks like she's in elementary school. This, of course, causes all sorts of problems that lead to comedic situations.

The premise for this show is silly and its execution ends up being a little bit light on the laughs. The iffiest bits for me to deal with were the jokes that poked fun at Atsushi's physical maturity; one of Atsumi's classmates seems to have a crush on him, and Atsushi gets mistaken for a pervert at one point. While I'd say overall the show seems fairly innocent and, despite some misgivings I had about the premise at first, I think that it'll probably stay that way, something about these kinds of jokes rubs me the wrong way. (Also, doesn't it seem odd that Atsumi's friend has no idea that the large boy talking to her is her friend's younger brother? It seems like it'd be something worth mentioning to others).

I do have to give a shout-out to Kugimiya Rie, who turns in a subdued (and therefore more convincing and less annoying than normal) portrayal of Atsumi. I can only hope that this is a trend that continues into the future.

All-in-all, the first couple of episodes are pretty cute and inoffensive, but I'm not sure that I'd really call this a straight-up comedy. At best, the chuckles it provides are subtle, and it short run-time doesn't give the show enough leeway to set-up many extended jokes or running gags (aside from the main one, that is).