The first thing I’ve officially stopped watching from this young Winter 2012 anime season is Ano Natsu de Matteru. (Sentai plans to release it later this year as Waiting in the Summer.) It was not on my initially brief watchlist but it’s being simulcast on Crunchyroll so I figured I’d give it a shot. That lasted just two episodes.
Most of the characters don’t seem interesting to me, though I did like Lemon Yamano’s sense of humor and how Ichika continued to call Kaito’s older sister “Onee-chan-san”. I sense that Kanna’s jealousy about Ichika living with Kaito will build to an uncomfortable confrontation, which I would rather not watch. I would like to see what comes of the group’s film-making effort but not enough to hang around for 10 more episodes. I’m sure some people will enjoy this show – it’s just not for me.
The character designs reminded me of Toradora!, which is not surprised since it’s a J.C. Staff production and Masayoshi Tanaka also did character design for that series. Others have made comparisons to Onegai Teacher because of the redhead Ichika and Taraku Uon’s involvement – I’m familiar with the anime’s premise but haven’t actually watched it yet.
We’re well into 2011 so let’s look at how well or poorly I managed to hold to 
Ro-Kyu-Bu! seemed to get a bad rap as “loli basketball” out of the gate – the maid costumes and bath scene in episode 1 certainly didn’t help. I wasn’t expecting much out of the show when I started but I was surprised that I still want to finish it after seeing six episodes so far. The boys vs. girls match was entertaining to watch and there’s a good heart in the show as well.
Squid Girl‘s second season was comparable to its first run as it explored characters’ other traits like Chizuru’s fondness for jogging as well as the formation of the Invasion Club with Kiyomi and her schoolfriends.
