This anime season actually has a lot of promising series. I typically use reviews from Random Curiosity as well as user ratings from aniDB to determine which series I’ll try watching.
This season had quite a few picks. I’m only about 2-3 episodes in for most series.
Fate/Zero
This was actually my most anticipated series of this season. I was a huge fan of the original Fate/stay night. There’s a holy grail war and magicians summon heroes of the past and whoever wins gets their wish granted.
This is actually a prequel retelling the story of the previous holy grail war. The only 2 heroes that appear in both series is Arturia Pendragon and Gilgamesh. The remaining heroes look really fun and you get a glimpse of how Emiya Shiro came about. You also get to meet the kid-version of the magicians of the next holy grail war.
So far the battle scenes are excellently animated and the story is really fun.
Verdict: must watch
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
Persona 4 the Animation
I believe this series was derived from a video game. If not, it has a very strong feeling like it should be. High school students get sucked into this mysterious world, where they have these cards they can activate that they can control to fight other monsters.
For the first few episodes, you gather your team, and learn how the alternative world works. I got rather bored after the 2nd episode. Maybe I’ll have more context if I’ve had played the video game, or maybe the story will speed up after the introduction. I’ll probably revisit this again when the series completes.
Verdict: skip for now
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
Chihayafuru (ちはやふる)
The animation was extremely beautiful, but the character design just weirded me out. Even the guys in this series look like girls. Definitely a shoujo series. It follows a girl who wants to get good at some poem matching game, something I don’t really have any connections with, so this series isn’t for me.
Verdict: skip
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
Guilty Crown
Initially I thought this was going to be another mecha series (think GUNDAM), but so far it looks way more fun. A virus was released in Japan sometime ago the apocalypse occurred. They eventually found a vaccine and things are starting to return to normal.
You follow a boy that somehow gets mixed up with terrorists and obtains a DNA/gene altering drug that allows him to pull out voids (weapons/objects) from people. The weapons are definitely interesting and fun and the battle scenes are always a delight to watch. The main character is a bit wishy-washy, but it looks like he’s finally becoming more determined.
Verdict: watch
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
Last Exile ~Fam, The Silver Wing~ (ラストエグザイル-銀翼のファム-)
I was a big fan of the original Last Exile series and this new one doesn’t disappoint. It’s funny though, cause I don’t really remember much of the original series at. I had to actually Wikipedia it.
The only character you see so far that was from the original is Dio, which you weren’t sure survived or not in the previous series. You still have the the elements of air ships and battles which are always cool to watch.
The series begins with a nation trying to take over the entire world. You follow an orphan who grew up with pirates. When war begins to break out, she helped rescue the princess, and now she’s determined to get her nation back.
Verdict: must watch
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
UN-GO
This is a new detective series and I’m just not a fan of it. Not enough time is spent investigating and allowing the viewer to make the same deductions. And there’s this weird lady/alien that can transform to force someone to tell the truth? Then there’s this weird back story of how these revelations have to be kept secret in order to maintain peace, so the truth is never revealed to the public…
Verdict: skip for now
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB
Mirai Nikki (未来日記)
This show had a lot of promise, but I just can’t get myself to like the main character, which is always a bummer and a sign that I won’t enjoy the series. It had elements set up to be an awesome psychological thriller (e.g. Death Note), but I just find the main character annoying.
You learn that there are 10 or so cellphones that contain diaries of the future, but what they contain is different for each of the participants. The main character’s future diary contains what happens around him. Another character’s future diary contains what happens to the main character, and so on. God has said the only person remain standing will take his place and become God.
So some go off trying to kill the others, while others team up to prevent from being killed. They all have some clue of what will happen in the future and can change the future based on what they know. The premise just sounds amazing, having to outsmart the others based on what you know they know.
But I just can’t get over the fact the main character is annoying!
Verdict: skip for now
Resources: Random Curiosity / aniDB