AnimeDates.com - New In Japan

Kajiwara Sora is a sweet but very shy girl who carries her sketchbook with her everywhere and considers it to be her camera. While she admits its hard since they move, Sora’s favorite subjects are animals, especially a particular tubby cat that always manages to change its pose as soon as she begins to sketch. Sora joins her schools art club where she meets a whole new group of girls along with one particular young man who she seems to have a secret crush on. Their frustrated art teacher assigns them to draw something they find interesting, so the group all come up with some funny things they find interesting, but aren’t too sure how to draw them. It appears that the class will be given a new assignment each episode since the second one is entitled, “Everyday Scenery”. Sketchbook – Full Color is reminiscent of Azumanga Daioh, since the light-hearted humorous storyline revolves around a group of high school girls, all with very different personalities, but that all complement each other.

ef - a tale of memories

ef - a tale of memories , has two main separate yet similar storylines of two high school aged young men and the young women that meet in chance encounters. The episode begins with Asou Renji briefly meeting Shindou Chihiro at an abandoned train station. Later in the episode, after the other main story is revealed, Renji meets Chihiro again where they discover they both have an interest in novels; he like to read them and she wishes to write them. As promised, he meets her the next day and is taken aback by the very warm greeting she gives him. What he doesn’t know yet is that Chihiro suffers from a rare type of amnesia where her memory only lasts for 13 hours.

The other story features Hirono Hiro, a poor manga artist, who on Christmas Eve meets Miyamura Miyako after she “borrows” his bike to chase after a purse snatcher. Shortly after vowing to catch the thief, Miyako gives up the pursuit and her and Hiro hang out in the park together. Hiro was supposed to go to his best friend Kei’s small party but flakes since he is with Miyako. This setting of the young male torn between his female best friend and new love interest will most likely allow for some serious complications in upcoming episodes.

In between the two stories, two additional characters are briefly revealed, another young man and woman who are filming Christmas festivities in town for some unknown reason. While it is not clear how these characters fit in with the other storylines, it will be interesting to view how all three of these storylines come together.

Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun

Shungo is a high school student who lives alone in a large house until his mercenary sister Ryoko sends a pair of siblings, Mayu and Mikihiro Tsukimura, to live in his house. Ryoko and Mikihiro decide that Shungo would be the perfect person to help relieve Mayu of her androphobia, her fear of men. Mayu’s perfectly beautiful appearance turns men into zombies and she has the ability to make them pass out if they get too close. Her looks test Shungo’s morality but he promises to act like a gentleman, especially since Ryoko and Mikihiro warn him that one kiss with Mayu could end his life. It seems that Ryoko and Mikihiro have their own motives for bringing Shungo and Mayu together but only time will tell. While full of ecchi moments and the typical “sweet guy/innocent girl” formula, Goshushou-sama Ninomiya-kun has an original storyline and a high entertainment value.

Bamboo Blade

Toraji Ishida is an unmotivated slacker with mounting bills, a floundering dojo and now down to only one, although very enthusiastic student Kirino, in the kendo club at the high school where he works. He is not much of an instructor since he places his needs above those of his students. He has resorted to mooching off his old senpai who offers Ishida free meals at his father’s restaurant for a year if he can assemble a girls kendo team that can defeat his team.

Ishida enlists the help of some students to coerce Tamaki, a gifted female kendo swordsman to join the school’s club. Tamaki says that she is not interested, but Kirino drags her down to the dojo anyway. Tamaki changes her mind and decides to joins Ishida when she sees the old dojo bully picking on a weaker student and effortlessly defeats him.

Ghost Hound

As a child, Komori Tarou suffered an extremely traumatic event that resulted in his and his sister’s kidnapping and ultimately her death. Since then, he has suffered nympholepsy and bizarre dreams that reunite him with that event, but sometimes the dreams reenact differently. Tarou has been suffering from survivor’s guilt ever since his rescue, which is evident from his both conscious and unconscious obsession with his sister’s murder.

At school, Tarou encounters Makoto Ogami, known for his rough reputation and demeanor. Ogami appears to dislike Tarou, which is confirmed by the seemingly happy-go-lucky instigator, Masayuki Nakajima, who tries in vain to befriend both Tarou and Ogami.

Ghost Hound displays excellent animation especially in the dream and ghost sequences. The first episode provides just enough information while leaving plenty to ponder, such as what is the connection between the three boys and why does Tarou spend so much time tinkering with an old radio? Is he trying to contact his dead sister or something else…?

Moyashimon

Sawaki Tadayasu has the ability to see microorganisms and can even gage their emotions. Tadayasu and his best friend, Yuki Kei, are beginning their first day at the Agricultural University in Tokyo where they are becoming acclimated to their new way of life at a farm college, even though they are technically in Tokyo. People have always doubted Tadayasu’s talent of being able to actually see microorganisms with his naked eyes, even though Tadayasu sees this “gift” as having been a burden his whole life. Tadayusa and Kei soon meet one of the professors at the school, Itsuki Keizo, an eccentric laboratory researcher who informs them that he has been waiting for them and that since he knows Tadayasu’s grandfather, they will both become his students. Moyashimon is the most unique anime on TV in a long time - the talking microbes are hilarious and even cute at times.

Minami Ke

Minami Ke is about the daily lives of Haruka, Kana and Chiaki, three sisters who live together on their own and have each other to depend on for friendship, love and chores. Haruka, the oldest, appears to be about 17 and is the conservative mother figure, while Kana, about 15, is the hyperactive and clumsy middle child who acknowledges her clumsiness and lack of domestic skills, yet somehow uses this to her advantage. Chiaki, about 13, is the studious youngest child who Kana either talks down to for being the youngest, and therefore subordinate sibling, or as “Nee-sama” as a show of respect, depending on what she wants from her.

Minami Ke has some mildly ecchi moments and promises to provide plenty of awkward high school moments, especially with Kana around. This show fits into the typical “slice of life” anime mold and is a light-hearted addition for a typical viewer.

Prism Ark

After about a dozen years of peace, Wind Land is under attack by former enemies who never wanted the truce that King Gustav of Wind Land and its allies had imposed after several hundred years of fighting over religion. Now, Priecia, the daughter of the King, a young swordsman, Hyaweh and their comrades are left to battle the armies from the Sablum Empire.

Prism Ark takes place in Medieval Europe and even shows several of the real countries on the map. Wind Land takes the geographic place of Holland and Germany. The first episode dives right into a storyline while providing sufficient history of the characters and lands. Prism Ark mixes in a few elements of Inuyasha and Sailor Moon during their Crusade-like battles to give this show familiar anime themes. While the animation appears dated and the magic girls are over the top for the dark storyline of the show, the plot is intriguing.

Kimikiss pure rouge

Best friends Sanada Kouichi and Aihara Kazuki are reunited with their childhood friend Mizusawa Mao after she has returned from France, since her parents have agreed to let her live with Kouichi. Mao decided to return because she wanted to complete high school in Japan and is excited to return to her old friends. Both Kouichi and Kazuki are surprised to see how attractive Mao has become during her two years away, which leads to some tense moments for Kouichi since she is now living in his house. The first day of school brings all three of them encounters with possible love interests and it looks as though there will be some interesting love triangles facing them for the rest of their final year in high school.

Shakugan no Shana II

Please note that this does contain SPOILERS from the first season.

Shakugan no Shana II continues off immediately after the end of the first season and wastes no time diving into the new plot of the recently defeated Balle Masque. Sakai Yuji is continuing his life as a Torch...by living in the past. It seems there is a new Tomogara running around with the power to put people into a dream-like state where they live in a bizarre hybrid world between the past and present. Yuji is caught up in it and starts to unravel the mystery after meeting both Wilhelmina and Friagne in a relatively short timespan. All of this somehow relates to Balle Masque’s master plan and it’s up to Yuji and the powerful Flame Haze Shana to stop them.

Fans of the first season will have no problems diving right in. While much of the content in the first episode is repeated from the first season, the show already seems to be building towards another ferocious battle between Flame Haze and Guze no Tomogara.

Blue Drop

For the past five years Wakatake Mari has lived with her grandmother after a tragedy caused her to lose her parents, friends and memories. Mari’s grandmother decides that it is best if Mari goes to a boarding school where she can meet some friends, but Mari is reluctant to go and feels disowned. Mari meets a sweet but equally displaced feeling girl, Kouzuki Michiko, who admits that while she likes her fellow students she often feels nervous at the school since she comes from a working class family whereas the other students come from wealth. While meeting some of the students Mari has a strange encounter with a fellow student Senkoji Hagino. Hagino, who is admired by the others for being pretty and smart, slips into a trance and tries to strangle Mari although the others were not around and only returned after Mari broke free. Hagino seems to hold some answers to Mari’s mysterious past which we will soon find out.

Dragonaut: The Resonance

Kamishina Jin, the sole survivor of a fatal shuttle crash in which his family was killed, is rescued by a beautiful yet mysterious girl named Toa. After having been attacked by a demon-like monster, Jin was falling to his death when Toa swept him up to safety. Immediately, Jin feels relieved of the loneliness he has lived with for the past two years even though he doesn’t know anything about Toa yet. Meanwhile, the International Solar-system Development Agency (ISDA) is developing the “D-Project” which will hopefully save Earth from the impending doom of an asteroid; however they will soon face another threat from within the Earth itself.

Rental Magica

After his father’s disappearance seven years ago, high-school student Iba Itsuki has inherited his family business, Astral, which employs magicians to assist people with their problems of supernatural nature. While Itsuki is a good-natured and knowledgeable magician, he is also a coward who is reluctant to use his powers and often relies on his trusted employees to complete missions for their clients. However in the first episode, Iba proves that when the stakes are high, he is capable of leading his magicians into forming a strategic attack.

Rental Magica introduces a wide array of interesting characters from Nekoyashiki Ren, a Gin look-a-like from Bleach, who can use cat-like shinigami and is often shown with his cats, to Honami Takase Ambler, a magician who wears a witches hat and rides around on a broomstick. From the first episode, this show has the potential to be one of the most popular from this season.

Kaiji

Kaiji is an unemployed gambler who enjoys defacing luxury cars to relieve his frustrations over his pathetic life. During an extremely low point, he receives a knock at the door from an intimidating man who has come to collect on a loan from which Kaiji foolishly had cosigned for an old acquaintance. This man, Kazutaka Hyoudou, seems to know all about the kind of guy that Kaiji is and informs him that he knows that it was Kaiji who vandalized his BMW, since Kaiji nervously dropped so many clues. Kazutaka offers Kaiji a chance to relieve all of his debt by offering him a space on a gambling cruise in which those who win will walk away debt-free and with a fortune to keep for themselves. However, those who lose will be taken away to work their debts off for a couple years. Kaiji agrees to go on the ship, ironically called "Hope" for the chance to relieve his debt only to find the situation aboard the ship is far worse than any of the gamblers could have imagined.

Myself; Yourself

Sixteen year-old Hikada Sana has returned to his hometown after having moved to Tokyo five years ago. When he arrives, he meets with one of his childhood friends, Tomoko, who shows him into his apartment which is located in a building owned by her parents. Tomoko’s parents have promised Sana’s parents that they will look after him since he is living on his own now. Later that afternoon, he walks through the town and notices all the changes. As he is walking past a shrine, Sana notices and makes eye contact with a very pretty young woman, dressed in a shrine maiden outfit, but she leaves before he can talk to her. He then purchases a fortune scroll which to his dismay informs him he will soon have girl problems.

The next day at school, he is reunited with his friends who are happy to see him but ask why he has returned to town. Sana only reveals that he has his reasons when he again notices the girl from the shrine. He introduced himself while acknowledging that they had seen each other the day before. His friends looked surprised and before they can say anything, the girl slaps Sana and storms off. He then recognizes the bracelet as the one he had given his childhood friend Nanaka, five years earlier...

Clannad

Tomoya Okazaki is a somber yet kind third year high school student who befriends Nagisa, an even more somber girl who also has a sweet side. He first notices her as she appears to be speaking to an imaginary friend. Tomoya tells Nagisa that she should smile more to gain friends because so she won’t be so lonely, all the while he is pretty lonely and depressed on the inside. As Tomoyo walks home after meeting Nagisa’s happy-go-lucky parents, he reflects on his own family life which is only him and his unemployed and alcoholic father, who has been that way since Tomoyo’s mother died several years before. Suddenly, Nagisa appears seemingly out of thin air and offers to take Tomoyo away to “a place in a city where wishes come true”.

Clannad flashes between scenes at times with no explanation and also introduces two other side stories. One story is about another new female student who is admired for her looks and physical strength and another story feature a lonely girl who talks about her life in a world “that has ended”. The next few episodes will hopefully tie the storylines together.