Currently Airing Anime

[Smooth Criminal]

High School of the Dead 1- FINALLY something decent. That dudes childhood friend sure is a b!tch..... Especially there at the end after he saved her fking life.

That being said, Takashi seems pretty bad ass. If hope they keep him as the "calm and cool" one.

Dude, Rei is basically MADE for shit tier. Seriously, what a slut. Based on a chart from /a/ (few future characters named if you haven't picked up the manga):
God Tier: Saeko, Saya's father, and Kohta
Bro Tier: Takashi and Rika
Average Tier: Alice, Asami
Crap Tier: Saya and Shizuka (Seriously, Shizuka sucks. Useless and in the mall chapters, /* she almost let herself get raped */ .
Hitler Tier: Shidou
Woof: Zeke
Shit Tier: Rei

Haven't watched episode 1 yet, but from what I've experienced from the manga, I'd say this series is one hell of a guilty pleasure. The plot is absolutely stupid, I hoped for one second that it would have some genuinely interesting take to offer to the done-to-death idea of zombies; and I was let down in terms of that. They haven't really fleshed out where the plot is even going to go in the manga anyways. To my understanding, since it would take forever to reach the right number of chapters for them to survive until the summer and it would also be too hard for them to survive that long, the author stated that the characters will try to go to AUSTRALIA, the only place unaffected by the zombie crisis because it's in the southern hemisphere (paraphrase of what the author said here). So far, we haven't seen anything about them trying to go to Australia yet, and it's only been a week or two after the zombies began appearing. Still, pretty darn awesome action and blatant violence makes it pretty fun- not to mention fanservice.

Oh well, yeah- put this series down while you can if you're looking for a unique experience with a quality story.

For you, I'd say just stick with it as a no go.

[Salguod]

K-ON 14: Mugi and Ritsu are a nice couple. I enjoyed the episode but I can't stand Mugi's "omg I'm weird" parts. Just how many times are they going to do it? The ED is cool.

[Patchouli]

I want to believe.

[Kurtle]

Phoenix Wright anime???

I will watch.

What is with The Very Hungry Caterpillar? That was a children's book....

[madanthony]

Disregard that, I suck cock.
Wish I'd noticed helveticapapaya at the top.

[Salguod]

^It's fake, guys. /* Or were you just kidding..? */

Shiki 1: What the hell is this? What's with the whiny peach that is Megumi? What's with Yuuki? Is he supposed to be some sort of Japanese Edward? And the chins! How pointy can they get? And the hair. What's wrong with their hair? I was looking forward to this too. I'm not sure if I can sit through this even if the plot picks up, which I doubt will happen.

I liked the old people though.

Cat pomegranate One better save this season. Well, I still have to watch Durarara and Five Leaves, so it's okay I guess.

[Patchouli]

^It's fake, guys. /* Or were you just kidding..? */

Yeah, I put "I want to believe" at the bottom, but it's not noticeable since that annoying script on these forums puts all posts with images into a scrollable box. Rather useless, considering the fact that you can't really break the border on these forums, the image just continues beyond it, and it's easier to scroll the image without it. All that thing does is make it annoying to look at large images. Maybe madanthony would have been able to actually tell it was fake if could see the whole image.

At least make a box for the image itself rather than stick the whole post into a box.

[madanthony]

Nah, I'm just gullible and I feel ashamed. I should know better. I did notice the helveticapapaya on the first time through, but ignored it in my joy. I do need to get into the Franken Fran and Deadman Wonderland mangas though. It's only a matter of time for those adaptations. I also noticed the distinct lack of moe-sh'it, but shrugged it off thinking "they'll add it in to a later version, those shows don't need much prior notice". *Sigh* I want to believe too. On the plus side, I'm pleased to know there is such a thing as a manga about Vikings.

Spidey: the only person mad about the scrolling bar.

Shiki 1:
Dear god, it's like everywhere I look there's another bastard child of CLAMP and some shonen character I can't stand. Will continue to watch though.

[Patchouli]

Nah, I'm just gullible and I feel ashamed. I should know better. I did notice the helveticapapaya on the first time through, but ignored it in my joy. I do need to get into the Franken Fran and Deadman Wonderland mangas though. It's only a matter of time for those adaptations.

Deadman is set to have an anime, if I remember correctly. Franken Fran won't be getting an adaptation for a few reasons. One being it's probably too gorey for an adaptation, if there is one it'd probably be censored to hell. The other being the fact that the mangaka apparntly doesn't think anime adaptations would work for his kind of stories.

There was a Drama CD though. Fran is voiced by Ami Koshimizu, who uses her Horo voice from Spice and Wolf to vocalize Fran's lines. Surprisingly, Horo's voice works pretty well on Fran.

Spidey: the only person mad about the scrolling bar.

Some kind of Southperry meme aimed at forum newbies? Seem to see this pop up quite a lot.

[madanthony]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean. I can't think of anyone but the one person other than the one prone to full-blown pic dumps who would have something against the scroller. I imagine I'm not the only one who thinks the same way about you in regards to your preference for the scroller. Or are you referring to there being lots of people unhappy with it that I haven't seen? I could see the whole image just fine, I'm viewing on a 22" TV right now. I'm just an idiot.
I'm kind of ambivalent. Either way, I have to tilt my scroll wheel to scroll sideways. It's just a question of whether the whole page goes with it.

I also just noticed the insanely good line-up of animation studios up there. Nice touch.

Edit: Having read Butterfli's post regarding the block images, I understand and agree. My mouse allows you to tilt the scroll wheel left and right to scroll left and right. I didn't know you couldn't use the center click method with the new divblock. Disregard my previous statement, I still suck cocks.

[DrRusty]

omg franken fran

[Smooth Criminal]

Nah, I'm just gullible and I feel ashamed. I should know better. I did notice the helveticapapaya on the first time through, but ignored it in my joy. I do need to get into the Franken Fran and Deadman Wonderland mangas though. It's only a matter of time for those adaptations. I also noticed the distinct lack of moe-sh'it, but shrugged it off thinking "they'll add it in to a later version, those shows don't need much prior notice". *Sigh* I want to believe too. On the plus side, I'm pleased to know there is such a thing as a manga about Vikings.

Spidey: the only person mad about the scrolling bar.

Pick up Vinland Saga too, man. It's by the same author as Planetes, and although I haven't READ Planetes yet, the manga of Planetes was supposedly superior to even the already incredibly amazing anime. Do give this one some thought as well.

Also, since I bring up manga recommendations from that list, even though this one is not really going to air, is the seinen manga Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer. Although categorized as seinen, Biscuit Hammer is something of a really surreal non-mainstream shonen. On the surface, it's a pretty enjoyable manga with intense but "realistic" action, brilliant characterization, great art, a plot that sounds ridiculous but works, and GAR moments. Underneath, it has deep themes such as maturation and defining what it means to be an adult. Think of it as the lovechild of Gurren Lagann and FLCL. That being said, I'd LOVE the idea of Gainax taking helm of this series.

As for my reaction when I saw this chart, I died on the inside a little. I knew we'd NEVER get a season this good. Ever. Seto no Hanayome 2? Baccano 2? Vinland Saga? Onani Master Kurosawa? Biscuit Hammer? Persona 4? Phoenix Wright? Berserk Ultimate? Franken Fran? YOTSUBA&!?!! (That one's the biggest give away as to why it's fake without even noticing and seeing the top of the chart. Kiyohiko Azuma has directly said that the stories and style of Yotsuba&! wouldn't be able to work in an anime) I could go on listing the rest of the titles, but point is: it'd be an absolutely amazing season- and there's too little "crap" being released between. Also, I laughed pretty hard at "CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN".

Curious though, were the Shinichiro Watanabe thing and Lain one real at all? Or was it just a convincing enough image put in?

Also, yeah. I'm also pretty mad about the scrolling bar. Large comics can get pretty frustrating to read, and in the situation of images in general, I like to look at everything at once.

[madanthony]

Watanabe doesn't seem to working on anything. Dunno about the Lain knock.
You know I haven't seen Planetes? It's been at the top of my list for several months, but I haven't blitzkrieged any shows except Black Lagoon recently (Roberta's Blood Trail entertained me too much), just kept up with airing stuff.

[Patchouli]

Curious though, were the Shinichiro Watanabe thing and Lain one real at all? Or was it just a convincing enough image put in?

I dunno anout the Watanabe project, but Despera is indeed a real project. There's just no release date for it yet, nor is there a studio announced for it.

[DrRusty]

Amagami SS 2- Why is he sitting there watching her sleep? This dude's a creeper lol

and the drama is just way too....... dramatic

[Hanabira.Kage]

Having read the manga, all I can tell you is that Shiki takes quite awhile to get into things. It'll start off with people dying left and right, and Natsuno generally being a jerk.

He gets wayyy better later on, though. *hint hint*

If you REALLY want to know:

MAJOR Spoiler

The "Kanemasa" (i.e. the people that moved into the castle) are actually vampires. Well, one of them isn't...but whatever. Tatsumi is their most elite henchman, and appears to be some sort of werewolf-vampire hybrid thus making him unaffected by sunlight. Only a fraction of the people who end up killed by the vampires return from the grave as vampires, or as Seishin (and later Sunako as well) calls them, Shiki (literally "Corpse Demon"). Megumi becomes one of them...but still acts as frivolous as ever (there's a chapter that portrays the Shiki in a humorous fashion, Megumi being one of the main contributors to the humour). Natsuno's friend (forgot his name...) falls victim to a jealous Megumi, and he then feeds on Natsuno later on. By this point, Natsuno is already shown to not be that much of a jerk and loner. :)

Shiki tends to get a little confusing because it skips between Natsuno & Co. and the doctor quite often. Try not to get confused. :x

[Salguod]

Evangelion 2.22: Late to the party, so I didn't want to bump the thread. They really upped the fan service.

Spoiler

-Mari seems absolutely unnecessary; she probably could've been replaced by a dummy plug since it already got Unit 01 halfway to beast mode. Maybe she'd have a bigger role in upcoming films, but I'd prefer more screen time for Asuka.
-Asuka is the best. I'm disappointed they took out the Angel where Asuka and Shinji had to kill it together, but I guess her introduction was cool. I'm glad they replaced Touji with Asuka, but it was also cruel. I hope she comes back soon.
-I never liked Kaoru, but damn, that spear was awesome.
-I laughed at the Touji parts. Oh, he's going to pilot Eva 03! Nope, just stopping to eat.

Really enjoyed where the film took me. Can't wait for the next one.

[xBTAx]

Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaou 6-12: ...

What.

This was... not just rushed, but flat out weird during the end.There was too much going on and nowhere near enough explanation. Maybe if they had, you know, cut down the incredible amount of fan service, they would have had more time for plot.

Korone, though. She was the only reason I kept watching, and it was worth it for the most part. She deserves to be in something better than this.

Also, I thought the last scene was interesting, in that...

Spoiler

It actually makes a lot of sense- it's not like she altered the world itself. She just altered everyone's memories, which didn't change him from technically being a Demon Lord.

[Dyxanije]

Seitokai Yakuindomo 01:
Looks good enough to continue for a few more episodes, just hope that it doesn't get repetitive.

Strike Witches 2 01:
As good as I remember.

Digimon Xros Wars 01:
That was kind of cool. I liked the use of sound so far - Power of Melody, sound-based attacks, and Shoutmon. The usage of mechanical Digimon and the fusions somehow reminds me of Megazords.

Also, weren't the enemies really high leveled (or whatever the proper term is) in comparison to Shoutmon and company? The Xros Loader must be overpowered as hell.

[Smooth Criminal]

Occult Academy 1: It's pretty interesting. I wonder where this series will go.

Shiki 1: Boring. That wasn't much of an interesting catalyst for the plot to begin at all. The visions and dreams LOOKED cool, but that's about it- none of the events were really that interesting and I had no particular interest in the cast. I'm not really interested in this just yet, but I can only hope it gets better. Yeah, character designs are pretty darn ugly. I have a friend who when I showed them the shows from this season, they were pretty excited about seeing Shiki on the chart. Hopefully, it turns into something interesting.

Highschool of the Dead 1: This series has a pretty fucking top notch script, and some pretty well directed action. That was actually pretty exciting and interesting; and I can't wait for more of this show if it'll be as good as this episode. Especially when Kohta gets introduced next episode. It still has the obvious downsides that the manga has; but it's good fun.

Kuroshitsuji II 2: Sebastian and Ciel version of the opening had some pretty nice parts- the part with Grell was pretty cool. This episode was a pretty fairly pleasant filler to reintroduce the cast- nothing special, but it was still kind of nice. Lau is still awesome even if he didn't do much in this episode, and I'm glad he didn't die on the Cutty Sark. I like how even though Sebastian and Ciel supposedly killed him and Ranmao, he acts as if nothing had happened and still is the same guy who turns from serious to comedic. I'm also left wondering how the thing Sebastian stole from the Trancy mansion revived Ciel, why Alois and Claude had that item in the first place, and how Claude and Sebastian exactly know each other. The end of the episode seems to suggest that Ciel may have been revived as a demon since he didn't show up in the photograph (who would have known that the random filler last season about the servants trying to be useful for once would give information that would actually be useful?) Next episode is a badass comeback of Grell. I'm not sure if I saw things right when I watched the preview since I watched this episode in lousy quality, but did I see Madam Red show up? Gonna have to rewatch this later.

Ookami-san 2: It was cute, I'll give it that. Main character has shaped into something reminiscent of Jacuzzi Splot. Taiga look-alike is like any other J.C. Staff show tsundere.

Also, Japanese audience statistics coming through.

Dengeki announced the result of the online poll on the most anticipated anime to be aired this summer. The vote was carried out from June 10th -24th.

“Expectation” Ranking for Summer Titles in 2010
*1, Strike Witches 2
*2, Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakamatachi
*3, Sengoku Basara Ni
*4, Nurarihyon no Mago
*5, Amagami SS
*6, Digimon Xros Wars
*7, Sekirei ~Pure Engagement~
*8, Kuroshitsuji II
*9, Seitokai Yakuindomo
*10, Shiki
*11, Mitsudomoe
*12, Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu
*13, Highschool of the Dead
*14, Asobi ni Iku yo!
*15, Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin
*16, Shukufuku no Campanella

Curious how this chart stacks up to what you expected and how you feel right now (I think the list didn't count OVAs, so try to consider that too). I'm not sure where I stand JUST yet- I have to finish up the first season of Strike Witches (Which I'm loving, by the way. Oddly, the reason I like it isn't because of the fanservice. Anyways, from what Dyx and Lexy's blog have said, I'm sure I'll absolutely love this), and I haven't picked up Sengoku Basara at all; and those are supposed to be some of the better titles for the season. Right now, I'm enjoying Kuroshitsuji II, HSTOD (because HTOD sounds dumb), and Occult Academy the most.

As for what I'm expecting later in the summer later, the Black★Rock Shooter OVA might be interesting. Since you guys have already brought up Cat pomegranate One, I don't know if Cat pomegranate One will be all that great. The manga (which is about Vietnam instead of the Iran Hostage Crisis) was already listened in the U.S. under the name "Apocalypse Meow", and from what I've heard, it's an incredibly dull history lesson that just involves animals with guns as a gimmick. Not sure if I like.