It seems that my observation of the ‘Natsu no Arashi’ trailer isn’t the only one out there that has been voiced. Sankaku Complex is reporting that a number of fans have expressed their displeasure with the poor animation quality seen within the trailer comparing it to last season’s Asread disasterous (though I didn’t see near as many issues with that series as I did here) third season of ‘Minami-ke’.
Normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, an upcoming anime gets a horrible looking trailer. Unfortunate but it happens. But then I remembered a report on ANN a couple of days ago that reported a purported pay per post rumor. The rumor basically stated that a certain number of bloggers were being offered 1,000 yen Amazon certificates to write about the series after its premiere. The posts were to link to the main site, be up before April 2nd and include an invisible image tag in order to track the links. The rumor has yet to be confirmed in any official fashion but could it possible that Starchild and SHAFT already know that this is a terrible series and are trying to cover it up before the fact?
Yup, it’s definitely the spring season around the corner (though technically it has already started) as trailers are coming in like wildfire now. The first trailer to be posted today is for the upcoming series based on the children’s toy line from Sanrio, Jewelpets. And because I know you’re all DYING to see this one, here it is:
Why yes, it is going to be impossibly cute and sweet. How did you ever guess?In more spring premiere news, the promotional video shown at TAF for the upcoming series ‘Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood’ has been uploaded for fans to watch. The four minute gives fans its first real look at the new series beyond the fifty billion fifteen to thirty second commercials that were released over the last month or so. The video contains a ton of story and action footage finally giving fans a genuine reason to be excited about seeing Ed and Al again.
A couple of updates were posted while I was in the shower (naturally) but here they are. The official website for the upcoming drama ‘Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~’ has posted a new promotional video and commercial (both links require windows media player). They both essentially show the same animation though the promotional vid is a full two minutes long while the commercial is only thirty seconds. While I know I said I was skeptical at first due to less than amazing character designs… seeing more of this series via a preview has done wonders for that attitude. The Bee Train animated action series premieres April 2nd.
Also posted to their official website today is a new fifteen commercial for the upcoming sci-fi series ‘Shangri-la’ (click the green CM). I admit that the trailer doesn’t show much but seeing a teenage girl take out multiple military tanks with a giant boomerang looks very, very cool. The Gonzo animated series premieres April 5th with a streaming premiere on Crunchyroll soon after.
A whole slew of new television commercials have been uploaded over the last day ready for your enjoyment…
In the first two, both Saki and Natsu no Arashi have new fifteen second commercials. Neither trailer shows anything particularly impressive besides some character animation. Both of them are still worth checking out if you’re interested though. The Gonzo animated mahjong series premieres on Japanese television starting 4/5 and on Crunchyroll shortly after that. The sci-fi comedy romance Natsu no Arashi will premieres on 4/5 as well. Am I the only one who thinks that Natsu no Arashi has animation that makes it look like an older series? Something about it gives me flashbacks to anime produced in the 90’s or even early part of this century.
Lastly a new 90 second promotional video for the upcoming Asura Cryin has found its way online as well. The new PV features one of the themes (Spiral by Angela) and plenty of animation highlighting the story and characters. From what I can see there, my preview seems much more accurate now. What I believe you just saw were the beginnings of an action packed, fan service friendly harem-riffic new series. The Seven Arcs animated series gets its premiere April 2nd.
Tears to Tiara aka: ティアーズ・トゥ・ティアラ Genre: Fantasy Adventure Premiere Date: 4/5 Studio: White Fox Official Website
Story
Based on the original eroge (and subsequent recent tamed down PS3 re-release), the story for the anime seems that it will attempt to stay as close to the original story as possible. The girl in the hat you see in the trailer is Riannon, she lives with her tribe as their priestess with her brother who is the first soldier of the tribe (not first as in numerically, that’s his title). One night a dark wizard for the empire appears and kidnaps her attempting to use her as a living sacrifice for the dark god Arawn. Upon the awakening however, the completely misunderstood Arwan decides to make a new life for himself with Riannon and her tribe… despite the objections of her brother Arthur.
Escaping to his old kingdom, Avalon, the tribe attempts to make a new life while the empire and other forces attempt to disrupt their peace.
Artwork
This is where Tears to Tiara had me the most worried at first. Looking at the character artwork, it took me a long time to adjust to seeing the characters re-imagined from their PC versions. I mean, just compare the stark difference between the two versions:
The different is noticeable and honestly, at first when I looked at the new character artwork I preferred the older version. I thought that Riannon and Llyr both looked very stupid in their hats, Arwan looked much less imposing, Limwris just didn’t have the same charm and the list just went on. My excitement for this series started to wane quite a bit. Then I saw the trailer and I almost instantly felt better.
Looking at the characters as still images does nothing for the animation that White Fox is putting together for this series. Providing that they don’t decide to show off by overusing the computer animation (such as the overhead camera drop during one of the battle scenes), this will be a very fun series to watch because of how it looks.
Early Impressions
I’ve gone through a range of excitement levels when it comes to this series. At first I was excited to hear that it was getting an anime version, then I saw the character artwork and became nervous and now I’m excited again. The animation in this series looks very sharp and the story looks like it’s not going to stray from its roots so there’s little to fear there it seems.
The vocal cast is filled with talent as well; Toru Ohkawa (Roy Mustang in FMA) will be taking on the role of Arawn while being surrounded by Yuko Goto (Mikuru in Haruhi Suzumiya) as Riannon, Mai Nakahara (Nagisa in Clannad, Rena in Higurashi, Nola in Spice and Wolf) as Morgan, Kaori Nazuka (Nunnally in Code Geass) as Llyr, Rie Tanaka (Shuri in this season’s Asura Cryin, Maria in Hayate the Combat Butler, Yuri in Toradora) as Octavia and Ami Koshimizu (Kallen in Code Geass, Holo in Spice and Wolf) as Limwris. It’s hard to go wrong with that much talent in the booth but there’s still the matter of focusing all of that into a decent finished product and doing that will be Tomoki Kobayashi (Sola, Utawarerumono [also an eroge adaptation], Ichigo 100% OVA) in the director chair.
It will be interesting to see how the eroge story is adapted when it needs to be though. Throughout the course of the original game, Arawn manages to acquire at least eight wives in various ways (naturally he beds them all because he is a god after all). Of course the eroge moments are removed but will Arawn still get to collect his wives or will he be written as just getting married to Riannon? I’ll certainly be curious to see and I’m willing to bet an excited waiting audience does too.
There’s always a chance that this one could end up not living up to expectations but I think this one is going to be a pretty safe bet for the season.
ETA: The PS3 designs in the image above are essentially the same as the ones that will be featured in the anime which is why I included it.
A new fifteen second trailer has been posted to the ‘Hatsukoi Gentei ‘website. The new trailer doesn’t really give fans much to get excited about unfortunately. A small sample of the music plays along with some character shots but none of them even show character faces until the final image which fans have already seen. The J.C. Staff animated slice of life series about eight junior high girls premieres April 11th.
A new fifteen second trailer has been posted (click the light green circular button to see it) for the upcoming Episode 0 OVA that hits shelves on April 30th with ‘Okami to Kin no Mugiho’. The episode is a precursor to the second season which begins airing this summer. The trailer requires Windows Media Player and shows some nice character artwork but not much else.
Also new today is the latest trailer for the upcoming historical action series based on the game, Sengoku Basara (click PV Part 2). The new trailer is two minutes long and shows quite a bit of character animation as well as attack and fight sequences. Honestly though, I don’t think I’ve ever been less excited to see this series than I am right now. From where I’m standing, they are pushing the action way too hard and makes me wonder if they are compensating for a weak story. We’ll see soon enough, the Production I.G. animated series premieres April 1st.
Finally a new trailer for the giant mech Basketball series, Basquash. The new trailer gives audiences a new glimpse at the characters and some hints towards what the story is going to be but not much else. The characters still look like they fit the setting and it looks like the mech design is going to be interesting but little else about this series has really piqued my interest so far.
There aren’t any major details available at the moment but ANN is reporting that an Akikan OVA has been green lit for production. Why is anyone’s guess since the series was largely regarded as the biggest fail produced over the previous season. The series entire fan base consisted of people who liked it BECAUSE it was so terrible.
For those who lucked out and didn’t attempt to sit through it (I managed to get five episodes in before I finally had to give up), the romantic comedy follows a perverted high school student who is still a virgin (spend five minutes with the character that you’ll figure out why). After buying a soda one night he takes a drink only to have it turn into a beautiful blonde who he eventually names Melon. She is an akikan and is brought to her human form from the carbon dioxide given to her through kisses.
Sankaku Complex (link NSFW) is reporting a rumor that has started on the 2ch boards stating that a third season of ‘Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei’ will begin airing in July. The rumor has yet to be seconded by any official sources but the website has taken the liberty of tracking down every rumor started by this particular source and found them to be pretty reliable. The source doesn’t have a name but they have produced other rumors in the past which ended up being either completely true, close enough to count or are in a state of unknown.
So take this with a grain of salt but don’t be surprised if you see a third season announced sometime within the next one to three months. For those unaware of the hugely popular parody slice of life series, the story follows a deeply depressed person named Itoshiki Nozomu who becomes a high school teacher. In that class he meets the impossibly optimistic student Fuura Kafuka.
In what I am referring to as crazy spooky timing (I swear I had no idea that this CM had been released before I posted my season preview this week!), a new commercial aired earlier this week on Japanese television finally giving fans a long awaited better look at the upcoming musical comedy, ‘K-ON!’
The trailer is only 30 seconds long but finally fans are getting to see a lot more character artwork as well as hearing the seiyuu for the first time. Admittedly I’m still excited to see this series but after hearing the four leads… I have some concerns. Regardless, the new Kyoto Animation series hits Japanese airwaves April 2nd.
MTV has posted a new poster that found its way onto the official Imagi website which features a 2010 release date for the upcoming CGI version of ‘Gatchaman’ (Battle of the Planets in the US). There aren’t any other real details available but some of the initial artwork was also posted on the link. The film is being written by Paul Dini (Batman: The Animated Series, Lost). Hopefully Imagi doesn’t run into the same financial problems with this film that they have with Astroboy.
So what do you think? Are you excited about this one? I’m personally much more anxious to see what Imagi comes up with for this feature than I am about their Astroboy feature later this year. Especially after I see more of the images posted on the Imagi website .
It seems that my observation of the ‘Natsu no Arashi’ trailer isn’t the only one out there that has been voiced. Sankaku Complex is reporting that a number of fans have expressed their displeasure with the poor animation quality seen within the trailer comparing it to last season’s Asread disasterous (though I didn’t see near as many issues with that series as I did here) third season of ‘Minami-ke’.
