Obligatory Spring 2008 New Shows Thread

Might as well begin a tradition since I did create last season's thread. As usual, yoinking this from the fine folks at ADTRW.

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Spring season lineup

03/07 St. Seiya The Hades Chapter - Elysion Episode 1 - superheroes
03/14 Bus Gamer - Not an anime about buses; it's supposed to be about business (a fit of Engrish, it would seem). Then again it's apparently not really about business either, it's more like a fighting tournament with corporate secrets as prizes. Based on a short manga that apparently has some sort of cult status.
03/21 Kite Liberator - OVA, sequel to the (apparently very bloody) 1998 OVA "Kite" (it has been released in the US but only in a censored version). Apparently it's about a high school girl who goes around killing people with her alternate "angel of death" personality.

03/24 Ikuze! Gen-san - Seems kinda like a mix of Super Mario and Bob the Builder.
03/25 Kimi ga Nozomu Eien Next Season vol. 2
03/25 .hack//G.U. Trilogy - Even more of this? This one is a CG movie, it seems.
03/26 To Heart 2 Another Days - OVA. I don't think anyone except possibly Moogy actually watches this.
03/28 School Days: Magical Heart Kokoro-chan - Magical girl spinoff OVA of that Nice Boat show, starring Kokoro Katsura (Kotonoha's little sister) as the magical girl.
03/31 Chi's Sweet Home - About a cat
03/31 Hoshi no Umi no Amuri (Amuri in Star Ocean) vol.1 - OVA, airing on TV apparently. Has nothing to do with the Star Ocean series of games; apparently it's something about mermaids. Interestingly, the guy who writes and directs it also directed GaoGaiGar. I wonder what that means.

04/02 Yu-Gi-Ou 5D's - ...
04/02 Lupin III Green vs. Red - OVA about everyone's favorite thief.

04/03 Allison to Lilia (Allison and Lilia) - Madhouse makes an anime adaption of that guy's who wrote Kino's Journey other novel/manga. This one is about a female air force pilot in a fantasy world with 1930's technology and two cultures that have been at war for hundreds of years.
04/03 Kyou Kara Maou! Season 3 - MrVacBob says: "gay".
04/03 Macross Frontier - I think you should have heard of this. See the thread.
04/03 xxxHOLiC Tsugi - Another season of CLAMP characters doing CLAMP-related things.
04/03 To-Love-Ru - Some ecchi harem comedy thing complete with loser guy and girl from another planet. The name is supposed to be a really hilarious pun since the English word "trouble" written with kana would be "to-ra-bu-ru" which, if you drop the "ru", is the same as how you'd write "to love" ("to ra-bu").
04/03 Kure-nai - High school boy swears to protect 7-years old female heir to a powerful corporate syndicate. Allegedly it's kinda like a dark, violent and disturbing version of Hayate the Combat Butler, except the guy isn't a butler and doesn't have any superpowers. Actually scratch that, it's not like Hayate at all.

04/04 The Tower of Druaga ~the Aegis of URUK~ - Gonzo, spearheaded by the Last Exile/FMP S1 director and the author of the Full Metal Panic novels adapts a fantasy game series subtitled "The Recovery of Babylim" (sic).
04/04 Amatsuki - Shounen fantasy following the tried and trusted "guy gets thrown back to historic era, meets warrior girl who saves his life, makes new friends etc. etc." concept.

04/05 Kanokon - Romantic comedy fanservice harem show (read: smut). Guy transfers to new school, meets fox-girl and wolf-girl (voiced by Ayako Kawasumi and Mamiko Noto respectively, what a waste of talent. not because of the furries but because of the horribly generic lovecomedy format).
04/05 Da Capo II Second Season - Since I can't seem get the relationships between all the Da Capo things straight if my life depended on it, I had a fansubber friend who watches this kind of stuff sum it up for me: "Da Capo - Original. Da Capo SS - Da Capo lovely Season to capitalize on the first season. Da Capo II - Based on the second game. Da Capo II SS - Improved Da Capo II to make up for starring the wrong girl in the first season." They sure do like living up to the name of the franchise.
04/05 Kamen no Maid Guy (The Masked Maid Guy) - Comedy show that seems suspiciously like Hayate the Combat Butler, complete with crossdressing and everything. Was the Hayate manga created to poke fun at these things or is it the other way around?

04/06 Nabari no Ou (The King of Nabari) - High school student gets pulled into a fantasy world full of ninjas with hidden powers.
04/06 Internet Ghost PIPOPA - (apparently some gay Second Life thing)
04/06 Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion R2 - Another season of chess, mechas, Pizza Hut, mind control and badass characters. If you haven't watched the first season yet, you really should. (R2 is not a typo for S2, by the way.)
04/06 Zettai Karen Children (Absolutely Adorable Children) - Light comedy about three 10-year old girls with various superpowers (teleportation, psychokinesis and "psychometry", whatever that means) whom the government tries to use for various military purposes (not very successfully, to the annoyance of their caretaker lieutenant).
04/06 S-A ~Special-A~ - Based on a popular shoujo manga with the same name. The concept reminds me of early Kare Kano; girl sees guy as rival and wants to beat him, guy loves girl but she doesn't realize it.
04/06 Neo Angelique Abyss - Fantasy harem show but in reverse, one girl and a harem of pretty guys instead of moéblobs. A spinoff of this OVA.

04/07 Soul Eater - Shounen-ish action show involving shinigami/death gods/death spirits (seems like a hugely popular ingredient lately) and (allegedly) a rather twisted sense of humour.
04/07 Monochrome Factor - Based on a manga (licensed by Tokyopop) about some guy who becomes a "shadow creature" and gains various powers in order to maintain the balance of, uh, something. Some of the staff, including the director, also worked on the (in)famous shounen-ai show Loveless. Given the manga's pretty boy character designs, I'm not sure what conclusions we should draw from that.
04/07 Vampire Knight - Shoujo high school vampire show with the female protagonist being a "guardian" dedicated to upholding the balance between the vampires and the normal humans. Prone to lots of angsty forbidden romance. Based on the manga with the same name (licensed by Viz).
04/07 Wagaya no Oinari-sama - Based on a series of romance light novels that revolve around an ancient fox god dedicated to protecting a modern family. Said fox god can apparently switch genders for some reason. The character designs seem oddly familiar.

04/08 Uchi no San Shimai
04/08 Real Drive Sennou Chousashitsu - From Production I.G.'s department of Serious Cyberpunk Science Fiction Productions (featuring Masamune Shirow), we get... something that seems like a cross between Ghost in the Shell and Serial Experiments Lain (hi MVB). The director has a pretty interesting track record (Zipang, Chevalier d'Eon, You're Under Arrest, Hunter x Hunter, Rurouni Kenshin, other stuff).
04/08 Himitsu Top Secret - Based on a philosophical sci-fi suspense manga that follows a forensics team in a future world where, contrary to the name, nothing is really secret since brain scanning technology allows reading up to five years worth of the scanned person's memories, even if the person in question is dead. Adaption by Madhouse.

04/09 Crystal Blaze (Glass Maiden) - Mandoric says: "The upshot is that it's an attempt at a hard-boiled, allegedly older-targeted detective show set in a near-future fictional East Asian city; the image items, so to speak, are a Smith and Wesson model 29 revolver and an '80s Trans Am. Possibly cool, but probably pure fangirl bait." For some reason the official English title is "Glass Maiden" despite the "Japanese" title being English (but written with kana) in the first place.

04/10 Kaiba - Artfags, this is for you! Madhouse and Masaki Yuasa (the guy responsible for directing things like Mind Game, Kemonozume and Cat Soup) does something that is said to be a "science fiction love story". Be on lookout for the mindfucks.

04/11 Golgo 13 - For those of you who missed it, this is based on a monstrously long (debuted 1968) and very popular adult manga about a badass (the word doesn't really cover it though) assassin. The manga has gratuitous sex, drugs and violence, but it remains to be seen to what extent this will carry over to the TV version.

04/12 Kyouran Kazoku Nikki (Frenzied Family Journal) - ANN says: "Half-human special-ops unit masquerades as a family to save Earth". Has at least one catgirl; apparently it's a comedy show and not action.

04/25 Tsubomi's Secret vol. 1: "Keep the Baby a Secret" - OVA, based on a slice of life manga about a girl growing up and going through puberty (the "baby" thing in the title most likely refers to the pregnancy of the main character's mother).
04/26 Suna Dokei (Sand Chronicles) - Cinematic movie, based on a shoujo/slice-of-life manga. Teenage love, families falling apart, small town Japan.
04/30 Strait Jacket vol. 3

04/??? Nijuu-Mensou no Musume (The daughter of 20-faces) - Bones does an anime adaption of a manga about a female thief (voiced by Aya Hirano). Judging from the trailer, it seems to have lots of potential for gratuitous French. The name of the show (and the manga) literally means "daughter of 20-faces" where 20-faces is "The Fiend with 20 Faces", who apparently is a famous character from a series of (mostly unrelated but very popular) Japanese suspense novels. (update: I have bolded this on the insistence of RH.)
04/??? Toshokan Sensou (The Library War) - From Production I.G.'s department of productions we get "The Library War", a military science fiction anime about a group of people who fight to stop an organization dedicated to destroying offensive books deemed "harmful", directed by the guy responsible for Sisters of Wellber and airing in the Noitamina timeslot. (what)

04/??? Itazura na Kiss - Shoujo drama/comedy thing that follows genius guy and airheaded girl (supported by the guy's slightly deranged mother) over the course of several years.
04/??? Blassreiter - Nitro+ and guess who... *drumroll* ... GONZO cooperate to create another CG-animated mecha (?) show. It looks suspiciously like Dragonauts, except it's got motorcycles instead of dragons. This can't possibly end well. The trailer has some rather funky CG.

04/??? Gyagu Manga Biyori 3 - nonstop gags
04/??? Sugar Bunnies 2 - Sanrio toys gimmick.

04/??? Junjou Romantica - Harem (?) romance show... with only guys.
04/??? Fire Ball - Apparently Disney does some kind of CG thing produced in Japan. Other than that I have no idea.

05/30 Tsubomi's Secret vol. 2

06/27 Tsubomi's Secret vol. 3

Based on what I've taken a look at so far, Allison to Lilia is definitely going to be on my watch list because of the people involved. Furthermore, Madhouse is just one of those studios that's done really consistent work (for the most part) so I look forwards to seeing what they can do here.

Real Drive Sennou Chousashitsu will hook me in based on the subject matter in addition to the staff involved. and the same can be said for Himitsu Top Secret. It's been awhile since I've seen a mystery-type show as it is (since Monster actually).

Kaiba should be an interesting show, if for no reason than the mindfucks which appear to resonate with me on some level (hey, I thought Paprika was a decent movie) and Golgo might prove to be some decent action since I've been kind of starving for some good quality action after finishing up Shigurui.

Unfortunately, no Geass for me since I have the first season sitting on my hard drive begging to be watched. So until I get to it, it'll have to wait.

Anyhow, anything you guys are watching that you're looking forwards to that I could potentially look into?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Cetra

Suck that Zero no Tsukaima season 3 didn't make this season. Code Geass is really the only thing standing out for me right now but hopefully there will be some surprises like True Tears was this season.

And there sure is a lot of Yaoi shit in that list.

After the travesty that was ZnT2, do we really want a third season? Maybe it's just me, but the first season did a decent job of not taking itself too seriously, but when they did that for season 2...

I'm actually more puzzled by the fact that there seem to be a lot of Hayate no Gotoku lookalike shows recently. Did Hayate really spawn that genre or has it been there for quite some time and I just never noticed?

There's nowhere I can't reach.