Five Spring Anime I’m Looking Forward To

The sun is out, flowers are blooming and the birds are chirping so it’s time for a slew of new anime to premiere in Japan. I’m actually gonna try to watch stuff this season because I want to stay somewhat current with what’s airing and being talked about. Anyway, here are five anime I am personally looking forward to watching next month.

5. Victoria Romance Emma 2nd Season

The first 12-episode season of this series ended with William riding a train out of town and presumably out of Emma’s life. I’d like to see how Emma handles the suave newcomer Hans and how William deals with being around Eleanor a lot more. Hakim, you better try to protect Emma! As long as there’s more 19th-century England stuff, my small thirst for historic anime will be sated.

4. Hayate the Combat Butler

I’ve been reading the first volume of the manga in between classes for the past month and enjoying its humor that mainly involves the gaps in communication, although the third-person storyteller narration was disorienting. It’s not a damn story book! I watched the trailer on YouTube and thought the battle scenes looked over-the-top but the “accidentally-walking-in-on-the-maid” and tsundere loli mistress parts came off better to me. The seiyuu who voiced Shiratori in Mahoraba (Ryoko Shirashi) is doing Hayate and apparently it’s in widescreen so it better live up to its 16:9 aspect ratio.

3. Hitohira

This school life comedy (based on the manga by Idumi Kirihara) deals with an nervous high school freshman, Mugi Asai, who gives up too easily and can’t make her own decisions. Shortly after she enters the school, she is invited to and subsequently joins the drama club. She will have to overcome her stage fright but the other members — club leader Nono Ichinose, Nono’s cheerful and active friend Risaki Nishida, and coolheaded Takashi Katsuragi — are sure to motivate her into performing in front of an audience. I got the picture and basic plot from Newtype USA because I couldn’t find many details anywhere else.

2. Darker than Black

The name itself is awesome (BTW, what IS darker than black?) but cool names alone do not make a series great. Upon hearing that Yoko Kanno is composing the music and Bones doing the animation, it starts to seem like it might be nice to watch but alas pretty sounding and looking stuff can still suck without the support of a story. Well, there’s this superhuman agent named Hei who handles his missions without remorse and a strange field in Tokyo called “Hell’s Gate” that has caused unusual phenomena for over ten years. People started gaining psychic abilities at the cost of compassion about the same time the Gates appeared (there’s another one called “Heaven’s Gate” in South America) and various intelligence agencies like the CIA and MI6 are trying to harness its powers. Definitely sounds like a cool sci-fi, spy thriller to me.

1. El Cazador de la Bruja

Ah, yes, the third part of Kouichi Mashimo’s “girls-with-guns” trilogy that began with Noir and continued with Madlax and will probably have some awkward shoujo-ai moments. This time, the continent involved is Latin America with possible emphasis on Mexico. Yuki Kaijura is back for musical scoring and once again, there is a pairing of an experienced gun-toting, 20-something woman with a troubled past and a naive teenage girl who ends up traveling with her. I loved Noir and liked Madlax but the latter had some stretches in logic; hopefully this installment will have a more coherent plot and different, interesting music from Kaijura aside from her usual stuff. Save for the obligatory “power-up” chant during the battle scenes, of course.

So it seems the battle for my attention this season comes down to a showdown involving two of my favorite composers (Kanno vs. Kaijura) and two of my favorite studios (Bones vs. Bee Train). Honestly, I hope both don’t suck but I also hope that I am caught by surprise this spring by something interesting, like sola or Seirei no Moribito.

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