While attending Fanime 2009 in late May, I recorded most of the panels I went to with the exceptions being Meet the Anime Vice Squad (forgot) and Nerd Courting (because it was 3 hours!). You may hear some rustling noises caused by when I was shifting around or, in the case of Carl Horn’s panels, flipping through the samples he gave the audience pass around.

Music during lead-ins: “Blue Little” by 10:32 (album: Ghostly Swim – link)

Editing Manga (by Carl Horn)

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Webcomics: Behind The Scenes

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Showa Fansabu: Owarinaki Tatakai (by Carl Horn & Ryan Gavigan)

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Create That Anime (by lolikit & friends)

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Anime by Parents (by Gilles Poitras)

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Carl Horn & Dark Horse Manga

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Smile! You’re on NicoNicoDouga

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Legal Anime in the US (by Richard Kekahuna)

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If you have any feedback, feel free to leave a comment or send an e-mail to podcast (at) nigorimasen (dawt) com.

A week ago, I wasn’t seriously considering travelling down to Anime Expo after last year’s long drive and feelings of fatigue afterward. But an hotel room offer came up recently from someone I know (not sure if I can say who) and since my family doesn’t have plans for the weekend, I decided to seize the opportunity. I pre-registered last night so unless I want to let my $65 go to waste, I’ll going to spend some time at the LACC next weekend.

Here is my preliminary schedule (subject to changes):

Thursday
10am: Digital Manga Publishing (will miss because I’ll be driving)
5pm: Nozomi Ent./Right Stuf
7:30pm: eigoMANGA
10pm-12am: TTGL Focus Panel and Documentary (missed this at Fanime)

Friday
9am: Bandai Ent.
11am: CMX
12pm: Aniplex or Yosuke Kuroda/Seiji Mizushima (leaning toward Aniplex)
***Why are these at the same time? ***
3:30pm: Viz Media
6pm: Without Watching the Anime: OPs & EDs (by Alex Leavitt)
9pm-12am: AMV Contest (list of finalists)

Saturday
9am: Indecent Otaku Comedy Hour (eh, why not?)
12:30pm: Funimation
5pm: Nozomi Premieres (maybe)
8pm: Oneechanbara movie (maybe)

Sunday
10am: Directors Guests of Honor Panel
11am: Crunchyroll
12pm: The Problem With Otaku (Alex Leavitt again)
1pm: Production I.G.
2pm: NIS America (if I’m not exhausted by then)

Then, GO HOME!

Among the guests of honor, there are some from whom I’d want to get autographs if possible. Yosuke Kuroda wrote the series structure for Madlax so I’m bringing vol. 1 of that. Seiji Mizushima directed FMA so I’m taking The Conqueror of Shambala, which warrants a re-watch since it’s been three years. (I could also bring Shaman King Uncut DVD, since he directed that as well.) Atsushi Nigori did the character design for Lagann so it’l what would be his item. Finally, Shigeru Kitayama is an industry guest helping Yasuhiro Nightow to promote the Trigun movie since he was producer for the TV series. He was also the producer for Koichi Mashimo’s “girls with guns” trilogy (Noir, Madlax, and El Cazador) so I’m taking Noir v.1. I won’t be heartbroken if I get none but I’d like to get at least one!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Regarding industry panels (because you know how I love to speculate about business affairs):
I’m expecting Aniplex to say something about Kannagi or Garden of Sinners (Kara no Kyokai) after reading omo’s post about their panel at Anime Boston. They’ll very likely mention the popularity of FMA Brotherhood despite that leak last month. Scott Green of AICN Anime said they also showed trailers of Guin Saga, Kuroshitsuji (Black Butler), the second Gurren Lagann movie, and Cencoroll.

Bandai will be focused on pushing Gundam 00 – they’ll have a focus panel and there – but they should also try to plug Hayate since the first DVD package comes out on July 21st. Viz will tout their IKKI Signature website as well as the Rin-ne simultaneous release and announce dates for more Signature titles either there or at Comic-Con.

For FUNimation, I’m expecting them to give more details about Burst Angel on Bluray and Nabari no Ou, the solicitations of which I wrote about last week. On FUNimation’s Soul Eater forum, there is a thread where someone heard from a rep at AnimeNEXT that the dub cast will be announced at AX. I wouldn’t surprised if that were true since they made a big deal about Ouran’s dub casting last year and since it’d be smart cross-promotion to release the first set around Yen Press’ October release of the 1st manga volume, something that may already be in motion (both company’s logos on this poster).

There are currently a bunch of undated series including some with “2009″ attached: Bamboo Blade, Blassreiter, Dragonaut, El Cazador, My Bride is a Mermaid (aka Seto no Hanayome), Oh! Edo Rocket (a Mizushima-directed show), and The Tower of Druaga. A few days ago, the company’s Twitter representative said street dates for El Cazador and Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne were November 2009 and early 2010, respectively, while reminding that both were subject to change like all street dates are.

I’m deciding (for now) to miss the Evangelion 1.0 dub premiere (Friday 5:30-7:45pm) for one of Alex’s panels but I don’t mind since I can always watch it later on DVD.

Notable companies I’ve noticed will be missing include ADV, Dark Horse, Kadokawa Pictures USA, and Tokyopop. Dark Horse and Tokyopop could be focusing on Comic-Con and Kadokawa USA is reportedly dissolving but I can’t come up a convenient excuse for ADV except for possibly having nothing to show. The combination of their panel at Anime Boston being a Q&A session with David Williams and the company lacking any new, non-previously published content coming down the pipe does not instill confidence in me. It does have something mildly promising in its Anime Network streaming service but I’m not sure if it can just rely on its back catalog.

Oh, and Media Blasters will have a table in the exhibition hall.

There’s going to be a fair number of other bloggers who are also going and I heard there was a meetup or something else in the works, though I don’t recall the details. Anyway, the drive-down begins Thursday morning so if you are attending AX 2009, I’ll see you that afternoon at the earliest!

Making sure the VCR is hooked up

Saturday 12pm – Showa Fansabu #
Carl Horn and Ryan Gavigan (mainly Carl) led off the panel by talking about how 2nd generation fans watched Robotech after school in the Bay Area. There were increasingly elaborate program books in the early ’80s, what Ryan called the “era of the synopsis”, in the form of Anime Resource Guides. Bay-Con ‘86 was the first convention Carl was aware of that operated on a 24-hour schedule. There was no fan subtitling at this point and Macs were used to format the resource guides.

The first fan subtitled thing was the Macross movie in 1986. Charging for copies was controversial and Carl thought it was wrong, that they should be distribute for free or not done at all. Animag went to print in Berkeley in 1987 and a few of those involved went to other projects like Studio Proteus. (Carl commented that the US perception of Japan at the time was like its perception of China today.) Issue 3 of Animag features an original Wings of Honneamise (”onamise”) cover that was drawn by Y. Sadamoto for $750. After noting that Honneamise was the only anime film Hiroyuki Yamaga made, Carl lamented the relative lack of focus by the anime industry to produce films over TV series. They passed around some of the resource guides and early copies of Animag.

Honneamise had a Hollywood premiere in February 1987, a month before the Japanese release. That was so the Japanese studio could use footage from America for advertisement in Japan. There were three weeks to make an English version and some significant changes were made like switching the enthusiasms of the main pilot and the girl. It took seven years for the film to make its money back.

Amiga 500 Interface

Carl’s first project was on the Amiga 500 with an episode of Lupin III second series. He got the script by photocopying it from someone else and you could see when watching the tape that the text wasn’t too readable on the screen and there was a white-line box laid over the image.

The Wings of Honneamise project used an Amiga 2000 and the video was run through that to a super beta. They were more readable than the Lupin ones. He showed off the film a few times at Pomona College in Nov. 1987 and later wrote letters to Tom Clancy and Steven Spielberg to see if they were interested in doing something with the film. After not hearing back from them, he had a “brilliant plan” to put it onto PBS. He talked with Ken Lawrence of KUHT in Houston and Ken was enthusiastic about it. Carl then wrote to Gainax in Japanese with “Giant X” on the letterhead in May 1993 and he later met Ken Iyadomi at Akon 4, who expressed Bandai’s interest in the title.

Saturday afternoon – Artists’ Alley #
After scoping the layout the previous day, I took a more measured journey through the aisles and bought some things.

Miss Shelby at her table

This print (by Miss Shelby) was the first thing I bought from Artists’ Alley.

Soon after that, I came around to the Life.1 Entertainment table where the guy (above) would give you a button if you let him take your picture. I agreed and he let me snap a photo of him as well. At the time, I told him I thought the bar over his eyes reminded me of the Polysics but I later realized I was wrong. But it does reminds me of something – anyone know what I might have been thinking of?

Another table I stopped at belonged to Lauren Smash, who handmakes plush animals & monsters and sells them on etsy.

I previously bought Hamthology Vol. 1 from Bryan Wong at AX last year and I saw him again at Fanime. I ended up buying Star Fruit, one of his older works (2006). I read it soon after while waiting for the Anime Vice panel to start and though it affected me a little emotionally, I found it to be fairly basic. I also purchased a bookmark from Alicia “Kat” Dillman, who thought I looked a little like the 10th Doctor (the brown jacket may have done it), got a sandwich button from a college friend, and awkwardly bought a small stone paperweight from this person.

Finally, I commissioned a $2 chibi sketch from this artist.

Saturday 5pm – Anime Vice Panel #

(from left) Ethan, Gia, and RedRoses

The panelists were main writer Gia, super user RedRoses, and Whiskey Media staffer Ethan. They posted a condensed video version of the panel, shot by Ethan with zoom sounds intact.

I asked about their screenshot policy (visible subtitles are not recommended) and what sort of features might be introduced to the site in the future. I received the first volume of 20th Century Boys vol. 1, which I read that night and found it “interesting though a little disorienting”.

Before the panel began, I contributed to the prize pile an Ichigo plush I had bought from a club auction a few years ago but no longer wanted and also some Tokyopop-branded bungie balls, which were among the last things to be grabbed.

Saturday 6pm – Dinner #

After the Anime Vice panel, I had dinner with Gia, Deb Aoki, and Emi at Il Fornaio down the street.

I had one of the specials, the Lasagna di Salmone, which was delicious. As a table, we had pizza and something else as appetizers and also got a few things off the dessert cart at the end. The conversation was good, too, with topics spanning from the Final Fantasy series to Tokyo Disneyland.

Saturday 8:15pm (arrived late) – Create That Anime #
Because of dinner, I arrived late to lolikit and his friends’ panel based around audience improvisation but managed to make it in time for some segments & the lightning round. I also shot some videos while sitting near the back, which I’ve embedded below.

Pantomime

The Lightning Round

Saturday 9pm – The Rest of the Night #

As you can see, the gaming area was bustling at around 9pm that night so…

I ended up going back to Stage Zero to watch another session of the Game Show to kill time before heading to see the Serious Business panel with some friends. Unfortunately, as I would find out after walking down to the panel room at 11pm, it had been cancelled and replaced with “How to Draw Manga/Portfolio Review”. Disappointed and tired, I went back up to the hotel room.

Here’s a vanity shot of my cosplay costume from Saturday.

(UPDATE 6/24 3:44PM PDT: Robert of his eponymous Anime Corner Store wrote a post [saw via scottfrye] saying they now have pretty much all the same items up for pre-order.)

GONZO anime Burst Angel is evidently getting a Blu-ray release on September 29th at a list price of $79.98. (TRSI’s pre-order price is currently $60.) It will have all 24 TV episodes and the Infinity OVA, just like its Viridian Collection release in June 2008, except now in high-definition.

Nabari no Ou will have its first 13-episode set come out on September 22nd at a typical $59.98 price point. The ninja action series was one of Funi’s New Show A Go Go licenses last December and the manga is currently being published by Yen Press.

Sgt. Frog (aka Keroro) Season 1 Part 1 comes out on Sept. 22nd. That date was announced during their main panel at Anime Next but not the “budget” list price of $39.98 for 12 episodes. That’s at the same level as their Shin-chan releases but this will be a hybrid release (remember their test episode from November?) unlike the dubbed only Shin-chan.

Other first-run releases include the second half of Big Windup! sliding home (TRSI; RACS) on Sept. 29th ($59.99 MSRP), 6 weeks after the first half; the second half of Kaze no Stigma dropping on Sept. 1st ($59.98 MSRP); and One Piece Season 2 Part 3 continuing the adventures of the Going Merry crew on Sept. 29th ($49.98 MSRP). RACS also has that One Piece box set listed, saying it contains episodes 79-91.

After having finished with their Dragon Ball GT and DBZ uncut box sets, Funi will give the same treatment to the original Dragon Ball series when they release the first season uncut DVD set on Sept. 15th for $49.98 MSRP, the same price point as their previous uncut box sets from the franchise.

I’ll wrap up talking about Funi with some former Geneon releases. On Sept. 29, a box set of Heat Guy J will come out at $49.98 MSRP (TRSI) and both Black Lagoon seasons are being repackaged into a single box set at $69.98 MSRP, also on Sept. 29 (RACS; TRSI). There will also be a number of repricings of their $69.98 Geneon box set reissues last year: Ergo Proxy on Sept. 29th (RACS; TRSI), Fate/stay night on Sept. 1st (RACS; TRSI), and Shakugan no Shana on Sept. 15th (RACS; TRSI).

Finally: there are some Nozomi releases of some decades-old series. The first of two Kimba the White Lion mini-collections come out at $49.98 MSRP on October 6th (link), the second Gigantor collection on Sept. 15 for $39.98 MSRP (link), and two mini-collections of Astro Boy, both on Oct. 6th at $49.98 MSRP apiece (set 1, set 2)

Whew, that was tiring to put together!

UPDATE 6/23 11:10 PM PDT: I later found out that Nozomi had issued separate press releases about the Kimba and Astro Boy mini-sets.

In trying to think of why I even enjoy watching anime and reading manga, I tried to avoid the easy path of “well, it’s different from standard Western fare” because I also take pleasure in watching American TV shows and movies while occasionally reading some fiction (usually not fantasy or romance). Then I read this post by Helen McCarthy where she phrased my feelings almost perfectly in her last two paragraphs. My consumption of Japanese cultural material is part of a broader effort to enhance my overall worldview. Everything I take in or come into contact with affects that layered understanding. The main reason why I don’t often watch or read things a second time through soon after the first time is because I would rather experience something new and stimulate new thoughts, ideas, and knowledge. That’s totally something a philosopher would say.

There is also a certain level of visual abstraction in animation and sequential comics, whether it be Japanese, Korean, Western, or otherwise – the basic difference between 2D vs. 3D, if you will. I would like to elucidate more on that subject sometime in the future but for now, I guess I’ll say that the art form’s core separation from realistic depiction allows for situations that are fantastical yet more believable than if the same were portrayed using pure physical actors and settings – computer graphics can help but it’s hard to get viewers to not recognize it as CG. Also: the form seems to let greater exaggeration, grace through fluidity of movement, and other aesthetic visual concepts be expressed.

How I’ve Changed Since The Start
One obvious way is I’m three years older now and I feel it. More positively, I feel like my writing has improved and matured but there is always room for improvement. I no longer feel the compulsion to write a post explaining why I’m away for the weekend nor to include a lot of links to screencaps I took while watching a particular episode.

I’m more confident after having been to five different conventions (Fanime twice and Sac-Anime three times) and managing to conduct a lengthy video interview at one of them. I still get a little nervous about asking people if I can record them answering questions, even if I do have a press badge, which may have to do with a reluctance to want to unnecessarily disturb people. But that still doesn’t make total sense since many artists and attendees are there to interact with others who share their interests and those there to promote their works would certainly welcome a little more publicity. I really need to get someone to tag along with me at cons in order to bolster my confidence (or hold a camera).

Unpublished Guidelines
I have never devised an “official” mission statement, motto, or slogan for this blog (except possibly “Don’t actually expect anything from me.”) and I doubt I’ll do so in the future. However, there are certain guidelines I usually follow in deciding whether or not to go through with writing on an idea and if so, when to finally click the “Publish” button:
1) I won’t compose it half-assedly (doing as much research, thinking, and proofreading as possible)
2) I have to truly believe in what I write, i.e., I need to be comfortable in defending what I said or admit any subtle lapses that may have caused misinterpretations.
3) If I choose to use any images, they should be somewhat tasteful. (I still have about mixed feelings about what I used here.)

I know these aren’t particularly unusual criteria but those are what I think about during compositions.

In the past six months, I have received a few review items from PR people so I decided to establish a policy of when I describe certain posts as “reviews”. Going forward, that term will only be attributed to material I have viewed on DVD, in dead-tree format, or in an otherwise “legal” way. Everything else may be marked under Impressions (if it’s the first X episodes of something), Commentary (if it’s about something in particular), or just its relevant category.

Maintaining single authorship
I have never put forth a call for authors because I think having other people write under me would affect the singular voice I’ve already established. (Whatever THAT is!) Also, I would have a hard time establishing a firm style guide because if I don’t try to restrict my own writings within frameworks, how would I be able to set guidelines for other writers? Writing alone also helped me avoid any arguments between staff members because, well, I’m the only one!

The two times I wrote short posts for Minimum Tempo were fine but I haven’t been compelled to submit anything since then because I have no gut feeling of exactly what sort of stuff would fit on there, except for possibly video game-related subjects. However, I might as well just write about those on here instead.

Self-Assessment of Reputation and Its Relative Importance
Even though I have maintained this blog for three years, I don’t feel like I’m an A-list aniblogger. Not that I would really want to be one because there would be more attention on me than I’d want to have. I’m less saddened by a post garnering zero comments than I might have been a year ago (that doesn’t preclude it occasionally grating me, though!) but that it still occurs frequently reminds me that I’m not a superstar in the aniblogging community or that I’m maybe not that good at provoking conversations.

I’ve become accustomed to using Twitter as a way to get pithy thoughts about ANYTHING out of my mind and onto someplace where I know it has the potential to seen by at least one person, but I have also been reticent to too often spell out entire posts or impressions of something I want to write up later, even if I never actually get around to publishing them. Gotta know when to be succinct and when to let the words flow out unconstrained by character count restrictions.

So…What Next?
There is a redesign in the works that has no set date on it except before 2010. I’ll go through my drafts this week and see if there’s any among them that are worth fleshing out; perhaps I’ll collate the remainders into a single post. Of course, I want to continue doing audio content through Reading Out Loud, the interview-focused Podcast and a possible new project of mashing up dub clips from a single series (video versions as well). I’d like to attend a convention outside my state – my ideal goal is Otakon because that’s the one I most identify with the east coast (NYAF is a close 2nd because they actually comp press passes) but Sakura-Con and Kumoricon are examples of relatively closer ones.

Oh, and I’ll keep writing about things that may only interest me because those thoughts need to get out into the world for me to feel like I can move on to something else.

Profile on Socrates

It’s split into five chapters that cover ancient philosophers including Thales, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Marcus Antonius; medieval philosophers such as Jesus (really?), Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, and Machiavelli; early modern philosophers like Luther, Michel de Montaigne, Bacon, Descartes, and Kant; “present-day” philosophers such as Sartre and Foucault; and Eastern philosophers like Confucius and Kitaro Nishida.

That last “pre-jump” Naruto box set will come out September 23rd and the first Shippuden disc a week later on September 29th. It was already obvious that the latter would be a hybrid release given how much Viz has already invested in dubbing the first series for television, and how popular those voice actors are, but I felt a little sad when I recalled that there will very likely not a cable broadcast of the series.

The relationship between anime companies and Cartoon Network has frayed over the past couple years and Viz has shifted its focus to digital distribution with virtual marketplaces like iTunes, Xbox Live/Zune Marketplace, and the PSN store and also on video portals such as Hulu. In fact, the first 113 episodes of Shippuden are currently available on Hulu and Crunchyroll in subtitled form. I don’t know when the dubbed episodes will appear online but I’m sure they would decide to focus on that than on the diminishing returns of cable broadcasting.

There is a slim chance that it would air on Cartoon Network but given the channel’s new focus on live-action programming like reality shows, it’s trending toward none. Programming decisions are based on audience estimates so if those shows pull in more eyeballs than what was occupying their Saturday night block, then that’s that.

The first “season” (12 episodes) of Honey and Clover, a series Viz had been trying to pitch to broadcasters at trade events for the past few years, will be released on September 22nd in hybrid format at a list price of $60 (lower at online retailers). This means we’ll finally hear an English dub in action – something I’ve been idly curious about for a while. Some roles have been revealed on the respective actors’ websites: Heather Halley as Hagumi and young Kaoru Morita, Julie Ann Taylor as Ayumi Yamada, and Yuri Lowenthal as Takamoto; Chris Kent has been added onto the series’ IMDb page as Shuuji Hanamoto.

The FUNimation Channel is supposed to run episodes of that, Monster, and Nana sometime this summer. There are still no details about a Monster video release, as far as I know.

Clicking on “Slayers” in that description took me to its Wikipedia article and I saw that Tokyopop has been publishing the light novels in America, the latest being number 8 in January 2008. However, there has been no word on when they might release the 9th through 15th novels. (You can read summaries of some of the novels here.) I checked Amazon and all eight are in-stock albeit in very low quantities, i.e. single-digit level. I liked the first 4 episodes of the anime, which I watched through Funimation’s free video offering and have been meaning to continue, so I decided to buy the first one to see if I would like it before hopefully continuing to the rest.

Along with ordering the first novel from Amazon this afternoon, I also bought Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals by Hiroki Azuma and 500 Essential Anime Movies: The Ultimate Guide by Helen McCarthy. I intend to write something about each of those in the future, likely to varying degrees.

P.S. I almost forgot to mention this post on Manga Life about how fans working together to express to Tokyopop their support of the novels’ publication and concern over rumors of its cancellation. I’m guessing it might have been posted in February 2006 based on this and some Internet Archive digging, which I had to conduct since Manga Life does not put clear dates on their posts.

It looks like Kodansha’s initial volumes of Akira will have a list price of US$24.99. That’s the same price as what Dark Horse sold volumes 1-3 at, although that rose to $27.95 for the 400-page volume 4 and the 416-page volume 5 and to $29.95 for the 440-page volume 6. I wonder if Kodansha will also raise the prices when it gets to that point – I hope they don’t, though.

Ghost in the Shell will street for a little bit more at $26.99 – Dark Horse’s trade paperbacks were $24.99 (Vol. 1 listings from 1995, 2004 2nd edition). I don’t know if Kodansha also has the rights to publish Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Processor Error, which Dark Horse put out fairly recently in trade paperback in October 2007 for $17.95.

Akira vol. 1 (368 pgs) – Oct. 13, 2009 [TRSI, Amazon]
Ghost in the Shell vol. 1 (352 pgs) – Oct. 13, 2009 [TRSI, Amazon]
Akira vol. 2 (304 pgs) – Jan. 12, 2010 [TRSI, Amazon]
Akira vol. 3 (spec. 288 pgs?) – Apr. 13, 2010 [TRSI]
Ghost in the Shell vol. 2 (spec. 312 pgs?) – Apr. 13, 2010 [TRSI]

The summer season of new anime is approaching and here are the premiering series I am interested in watching. (I looked at this for basic information.)

Umineko no Naku Koro ni [show site]
I only managed to get through eight episodes of Higurashi’s first season before putting it aside, annoyed by the rebooting and a little turned off by the violence. Since Umineko has a closed island situation and presumably fewer CRAZY EYES moments, I’ll give it a shot. The latest PV (via pKjd) shows a little bit of face contortion but the rest looks okay.

Taisho Yakyuu Musume (Taisho Baseball Girls) [show site]
It’s about baseball so I must try it out. It has the potential to be pedantic with many of the girls just picking up the sport but the 1925 (Taisho 14) setting might give it a different feel. The voice actress playing the bright-eyed Komue, Kanae Itou, is also voicing the similarly lively lead girl in Sora no Manimani.

Element Hunters [show site]
This could possibly be a sleeper hit for me because of a pedestrian interest in chemistry and the sciences in general. It deals with the chemical elements disappearing into another Earth on the other side of a dimensional wall, which a team of Element Hunters will try to breach in order to return the elements to their proper planet.

CANAAN [show site]
I saw some commercials for a live-action Wii adventure visual novel called 428 late last year and then quickly found out there would be an anime series by Type-Moon based on the scenario.

Sora no Manimani [show site]
It’s about Saku, a quiet bookish student, who moves back to his hometown as a high school freshman and gets brought into an astronomy club by Mihoshi, his childhood friend. I’ve had a passing fascination with the cosmos since childhood so that’s the initial pull for me. I currently have no expectations regarding the romantic comedy angle so we’ll see how that turns out.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 [show site]
Mildly interested in this one because it’s BONES, even though I am not too keen about plots that involve a group of characters trying to escape from something (e.g., The Happening, Cloverfield). Perhaps there will be some intangible that grabs me like chemistry between the three main characters, the initial disaster scene, or the overall tone.

Spice and Wolf II [show site]
I somehow only saw the first episode of the first season but didn’t continue despite liking it. I’m definitely still interested but I may or may not wait for season one to come out on DVD in December.

There are still a few series from this spring that I have yet to start and others I have only sampled so I’ll attempt to catch up those over the next month.