Been really tied up with work and the holiday rush, but I think I’m just in time before the new season begins. Here’s a rough list of anime series airing this winter 2008/2009. As usual, batch lists of my first impressions will follow when the subs are released. Here’s the info I’ve been able to gather (listed in alphabetical order), though I might have missed a few others. All series in this list will start airing on January 2009.
Edit: Apparently, a few of the series will have/had a pre-airing stream during the final two weeks of December (like Maria Holic, Akikan and Kurokami)
The winter 2008/2009 preview list follows.
Akikan
More info – Official Site
Also known as Empty Can.
When: 01/03/2009
Synopsis: Akikan is the unlikely story of high school boy Kakeru Daichi, whose can of melon juice soda magically transforms into a human girl. More “akikan” girls begin appearing, each of them needing to be infused with carbon dioxide from kissing to survive. (from: Wikipedia)
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Asu no Yoichi!
More info – Official Site
Also known as Ashita no Yoichi!
When: 01/08/2009
Synopsis: A boy swordsman, Yoichi and his father stays in mountain training for his descent from the mountain. Yoichi comes to the city to lodge and stay with 4 beautiful sisters. A new more severe “training” regiment awaits him. (from: Baka-Updates Manga)
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Birdy the Mighty Decode: 02
More info – Official Site
Season 2 of Birdy The Mighty Decode.
When: 01/09/2009
Synopsis: Tsutomu Senkawa is an average high school kid who is busy studying for his senior entrance exams. Tsutomu goes out for some fresh air, after a hard day’s work studying for a big test, when he runs into a guy fleeing from a pretty young lady. The pursued man is actually an interplanetary criminal on the run from a Federation agent called Birdy Cephon Altera. Caught in the midst of this chase, Tsutomu gets thrown by the man at Birdy, which kills Tsutomu. Fortunately for Tsutomu, there is a way to keep him alive, although it comes at the price of discarding his body. He ends up merged into Birdy’s body. (from: ANN)
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Genji Monogatari Sennenki
More info – Official Site
When: 01/015/2009
The famed anime director Osamu Dezaki (Ashita no Joe, Aim For The Ace!, Lupin III movies) will debut his Genji Monogatari Sen-nen-ki Genji (The Tale of Genji: A Millennium-Old Journal: Genji) television anime version of a classic Japanese novel in January. The project originally began as an anime adaptation of Asakiyumemishi – The Tale of Genji, Waki Yamato’s historical shōjo manga retelling of the same novel about a motherless prince and his descendants. However, Dezaki decided that he wanted to bypass the manga version and write and direct a more direct interpretation of the original novel itself. The anime will celebrate the thousand-year anniversary of the original novel, although the exact date of its writing is unknown. (from: ANN)
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Hajime no Ippo: New Challenger
More info – Official Site
Sequel of Fighting Spirit
When: 01/06/2009
Synopsis: Ippo Makunouchi continues his boxing career and his goal on knowing the meaning of being strong, and the desire on fighting his idol Ichiro Miyata once again. Along him are pro boxers Takamura, Aoki and Kimura that each one of them aspire to their own dreams. (from: ANN)
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Hetalia Axis Powers
More info – Official Site
When: 01/24/2009
Synopsis: The “cynical gag” story mainly recounts the era between World War I and World War II, with the stereotypical characteristics of each country or region (particularly northern Italy) anthropomorphized as bishōnen. For example, Italia Veneziano is into pasta and women. Deutsch (Germany) loves potatoes and sausages, and Nippon is an otaku boy. Installments of the manga have jumped back and forth in setting from the ancient times to modern-day geopolitics. The manga’s title comes the Japanese words for “useless” (hetare) and Italy (Italia). (from: ANN)
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Kemono no Souja Erin
More info – Official Site
Also known as Kemono no Soujya, The Beast Player Erin, The Player of Beasts
When: 01/10/2009
It is an adaptation of Uehashi Nahoko‘s (the author of “Seirei no Moribito”) novel. This series will be animated by Production IG.
Synopsis: Centered around a girl who can control the greatest of beasts as if she was playing a musical instrument. However, she gets embroiled in a war for supremacy between kingdoms. (from: Baka-Updates Manga)
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Koukaku no Regios
More info – Official Site
Also known as Chrome Shelled Regios.
When: 01/10/2009
Synopsis: In this school fantasy story set in the distant future, creatures contaminated by pollution have overtaken the land, forcing humanity to live in isolated mobile cities called Regios. One such city named Czerni is a self-contained school in which freshman Reifon Aruseifu has just enrolled. Reifon reluctantly joins the 17th Martial Arts Studies Unit led by the third-year student Nina Antōku and embarks on a series of adventures. (from: Baka-Updates Manga)
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Kupu~ Mamegoma!
More info – Official Site
When: 01/10/2009
The official website of the San-X design and marketing firm has announced that its popular Mamegoma seal character will get its own weekly television anime series, Kupū~!! Mamegoma!, on January 10. The palm-sized “bean seal” character will star in its own anime along with the newly created Mamekawa family: the father, mother, big sister Akane, and little sister Yui. It will air as part of the larger Chibi Anime Gekijō (Tiny Animation Theater) program. (from: ANN)
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Kurokami: The Animation
More info – Official Site
When: 01/08/2009
Synopsis: The story revolves around an ordinary high school boy (game programmer in the manga) named Keita who gets caught in a battle being fought by Kuro. Kuro is a Tera Guardian — a Mototsumitama or a guardian who maintains the Coexistence Equilibrium. Kuro saves Keita’s life and regenerates a part of his body that Keita loses. [The anime has its own story direction with differences from the manga verison.] (from: ANN)
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Major (5th Season)
More info – Official Site
When: 01/10/2009
Synopsis: Shigeharu Honda is a Major League batter on the rise. His son Goro is a Little League pitcher who one day hopes to follow in his father’s footsteps. Momoko Hoshino is Goro’s schoolteacher, and the first woman Shigeharu has been interested in since the death of Goro’s mother. The destines of these three individuals will become intertwined as father and son experience both heartbreak and triumph on the baseball diamond. But when an unspeakable tragedy visits the family, it will take everything they have to pick up the pieces and reclaim their dreams. (from: ANN)
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Maria Holic
More info – Official Site
When: 01/04/2009
Synopsis: The story centers on a sophomore named Kanako who enrolls in all-girls school because she has a phobia of men and wants to find her destined yuri partner. She meets a captivating freshman named Mariya who fits her criteria — except her seemingly ideal mate happens to be a cross-dressing sadistic boy. (from: Wikipedia)
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Maria-sama ga Miteru (4th Season)
More info – Official Site
Also known as Maria Watches Over Us.
When: 01/03/2009
Synopsis: Maria-sama ga Miteru‘s story revolves around the students of the Lillian Girls’ Academy (a Catholic school), and can be considered character-driven, focusing on interactions between the characters rather than any sort of ongoing plot or goal to attain. At Lillian Girls’ School, there is a tradition known as the sœur system (sœur being French for “sister”), in which a second, or third-year student, the grande sœur (“big sister”), will give her rosary to a junior student, the petite sœur (“little sister”), and promise to look after them and guide them. (from: ANN)
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Minami-ke: Okaeri
More info – Official Site
When: 01/04/2009
Season 3 of Minami-Ke. It will be animated by Asread, who also adapted season 2 (Minami-Ke: Okawari)
Synopsis: The three Minami sisters (Haruka, Kana and Chiaki) live together, taking care of each other. With nobody to answer to but themselves and each other, the three sisters get up to some very odd shenanigans. (from: ANN)
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Rideback
More info – Official Site
When: 01/11/2009
The original manga ran in Shogakukan’s Ikki magazine from 2003 to 2008, and the 12-episode anime version will premiere in Japan on January.
Synopsis: In the year 2020, anti-government student movements are raging again. Having encountered a two-wheeled robot named “Rideback” modeled on a human being, Rin Ogata rides on the “Tetsuma”, and the world’s destiny begins to change! (from: Baka-Manga Updates)
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Sakuran BOY DT
More info – Official Site
When: 01/14/2009
A Flash-animated television series about a local costumed hero character. The name of the character is a wordplay on the Japanese translation for “cherry boy” — the Japanese slang for a male virgin — and the Sakuranbo television station in the northeastern Japanese city of Yamagata.
Synopsis: The story revolves around Satō-kun, an ordinary high school boy who transforms into Sakuran Boy DT to rescue the mayor’s daughter from the nefarious secret society Zaou. (from: ANN)
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Seto no Hanayome Gi (OVA)
More info – Official Site
Also known as My Bride is a Mermaid.
When: 01/04/2008
A two-episode original video animation entitled Jin was released on November 2008, along with the OVA ending theme single, “Mirai e Go”. The OVA’s opening theme single, “Zettai Otome,” was released on October 2008. A second OVA entitled Gi is scheduled for release on January 2009, along with its ending theme, “Kakehashi.”
Synopsis: (Taken from the TV series) A young boy gets saved from drowning by a mermaid but, according to mermaid law, if a human sees a mermaid’s true form, both have to be killed. The only solution to the problem is for him to marry her. But can they keep her secret from being found out. (from: ANN)
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Shikabane-hime Kuro
More info – Official Site
Also known as Corpse Princess.
Season 2 of Shikabane-hime.
When: 01/03/2009
Synopsis: The immortal girl, “Shikabane Hime,” has the mission to “kill” 108 corpses. It’s a contract she has between herself and the Buddhist monk, Keisei. After 108 corpses, she will finally get her happiness and go to heaven. (from: Baka-Updates Manga)
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Slayers EVOLUTION-R
More info – Official Site
Season 5 of the Slayers series, continuation of the previous Slayers Revolution
When: 01/12/2009
Hajime Kanzaka, the author of the original Slayers light novels, had already indicated that the ongoing Slayers Revolution television anime series was conceived as the first part of a storyline that will last half a year (with a break in between). Slayers Evolution-R will be the second part of the storyline. (from: ANN)
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Sora wo Kakeru Shoujo
More info – Official Site
Also known as The Girl Who Leapt Through Space (the Heavens); Sora Kake Girl. The project’s title is an apparent wordplay on Toki o Kakeru Shōjo or The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Yasutaka Tsutsui’s classic novel that was adapted into several live-action television series, live-action films, manga, and an acclaimed anime film.
When: 01/05/2009
Synopsis: The story is set in the year 311 of the Orbital Calendar, when humanity has migrated to countless colony clusters in space. A space colony girl named Akiha Shishidō encounters a malevolent artificial intelligence named Leopard that has been installed on a colony. Akiha is joined by an Inter-Colony Police officer named Itsuki Kannagi, a taciturn young girl named Honoka Kawai, and a robot named Imoko “Imo-chan” Shishidō. (from: ANN)
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Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai
More info – Official Site
Also known as The World Reflected in the Eyes of a Girl Looking Up at the Heavens
When: 01/13/2009
Synopsis: Kyoto Animation’s Munto video anime series will be remade as Sora o Miageru Shōjo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai television anime series (which Wiki says be a continuation of the previous Munto OVAs). The original fantasy anime centered on a seemingly ordinary girl named Yumemi who can see a magical world in the skies above our world, and the king named Munto who must find Yumemi to save his own world. (from: ANN)
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The Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk
More info – Official Site
Also known as Druaga no To ~the Sword of URUK~
When: 01/08/2009
Season 2 of The Tower of Druaga. It will continue the story of the first anime series (The Aegis of Uruk).
Synopsis: (Taken from season 1) The Summer of “Anu”: In a summer once every five years, demons in the mysterious Tower of Druaga lose their powers due to the magic spell cast by a god named “Anu”. King Gilgamesh, ruler of the kingdom Uruk, uses the appearance of demons as an excuse to invade the tower and find out the construct’s secrets. As 80 years passed, the Uruk army managed to fight back the demons and built a fortress city and safe haven on the very first floor of Druaga – Metz Kier. Thus begins the story of a warrior named Jil who, finding companions along the way, embarks on a quest for the fabled Blue Crystal Rod, a powerful artifact rumored to be in the highest floor of Druaga. However, other competitors, including the kingdom of Uruk itself, want the treasure, all for their own reasons. (from: ANN)
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Viper’s Creed
More info – Official Site
When: 01/06/2009
Synopsis: The story is set in the middle of the 21st century and revolves around the members of a private military company (PMC). There is uneasy tension between them and the regular military as they deal with terrorism and the aftermath of a war that caused massive environmental destruction.
Chief director Shinji Aramaki (Appleseed, Megazone 23 Part III, Madox-01) is working with director Hiroyuki Kanbe (Le Chevalier D’Eon, Chrono Crusade episode director) on the project. The animation studios AIC Spirits (Ga-Rei -Zero-, Tokko) and Digital Frontier (Resident Evil: Degeneration, Appleseed) are collaborating. Takaya Kuroda and Megumi Toyoguchi star as Saiki and Sakurako, respectively. (from: ANN)
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White Album
More info – Official Site
When: 01/03/2009
It is an anime adaptation of the adult romance simulation game of the same title by Leaf.
Synopsis: The White Album game centers around Tōya Fujī, a college student dating a rising idol singer named Yuki Morikawa. The game deals with the challenges to the couple’s relationship from the other people at Fujī’s college, Morikawa’s work, and elsewhere. (from: ANN)
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Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou
More info – Official Site
Season 2 of Natsume Yuujin-chou
When: 01/05/2009
Synopsis: Natsume Takashi has the ability to see spirits, which he has long kept secret. However, once he inherits a strange book that belonged to his deceased grandmother, Reiko, he discovers the reason why spirits surround him. Containing the names of these spirits, a binding contract was formed between the spirits and the owner of the book. Now, Natsume is determined to free the spirits and dissolve the contracts. With the help of a spirit cat, his days are filled trying to return the names to these spirits. (from: ANN)
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- Except for a couple of series, I don’t have a definite watchlist as of yet. In the meantime, based purely on the synopses and the looks of it, the titles which sound interesting to me are:
Will definitely watch…
- Zoku Natsume Yuujin-chou – I really liked the first season, so I’m definitely watching this one.
- Minami-Ke: Okaeri – Even though I prefer the adaptation by Domu rather than Asread’s, I’d still watch this for the sole reason that the sisters and the rest of the characters are fun to watch.
Will probably check out…
- Birdy the Mighty Decode: 02 – Because I saw the first season, which wasn’t so bad.
- Genji Monogatari Sennenki – Curious. I’ve only heard of/read about The Tale of Genji in passing. We might have tackled it in literature class, but I don’t think I paid attention. Seems to have quite a long and sorrowful story though, so I’m not so sure.
- Kemono no Souja Erin – Uehashi Nahoko wrote the novel it was adapted from (and I totally loved her other work, Seirei no Moribito). Plus, Production IG is working on this. It’s definitely worth checking out for me.
- Rideback – Animation looks nice. It’s mecha though, which I don’t usually watch. Oh well, I’ll check it out anyway.
- The Tower of Druaga: The Sword of Uruk – Because I sat through season 1. Might as well sit through this one too.
~ Which titles made your watchlist this season?
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As usual, thanks to Fansub Wiki where I got the Winter 2008/2009 series list. 🙂
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You might also want to check out:
awesome new animes for me to watch ty for the upload
episode 1 of Maria Holic is already out RAW!
so i cant wait for the other anime to come out.!
ty
Lol @ Akikan, that is some very creative writing!
Viper’s Creed caught my eye and I’ll most likely check out Kemono no Souja Erin too, not so sure about the others. Looking forward to your first impressions. =)
@ MrPr04Live: Thanks for the heads up! I’ll be waiting for the subs though, as well as the subs of other series since I post in bulk (haha, lazy me) So my impressions will most likely appear in January.
@ bebop: I had a hunch you’d be interested in Viper’s Creed. I kinda thought you’d check out Rideback too.
@ hazy: you got it rong! (about the subtitels) today when finally woke up and well i was looking for some animation to watch then a saw allready 3 animations out. 2 of them are already subbed. im so happy ^^ right now.
but some date are correct , only this time some of them are sooner then expect. so that is great .
Akikan is out subbed ep 1
Maria Holic is out subbed ep1
and Kurokami: The Animation is out RAW
i expect the other anime in 2009.
and the 3 animation if watched of the new season , are great so everyone got to watch it. thank you for the information about the new season.
but ty for your good web hosting. the info about the animation are really helpfull . ty alot.
your a great admin/host. ^^
oo sorry about the rong thing you were talking about your impressions of next year i didnt read it very wel because i feel like im in a hurry xD.
@ MrPr04Live: Haha, yep. No problem. ^_^
Ride Back is the most interesting out of the offerings this season for me. I’ll also watch Kemono any day.
Yay for 2nd season of Natsume Yuujinchou. More Sasada plz
@ schneider: Oooh, you’re the first Sasada fan I know! I’m hoping for more interaction with Natsume and his people friends, particularly that celebrity guy with the ability and the son of the temple priest (whose names escape me atm ^^;;)
Ride Back looks to be the top of the season for me, going by some very interesting descriptions I’ve read of it. Also, take note that it is not mecha in the traditional sense.
Maria Holic is great so far, being a show directed by Shinbo and done by studio SHAFT as well as being yuri (three of my favorite things!!!) other stuff looks interesting, but can’t be sure till I see it.
Z Mazinger (!)
Genji
Ride Back
Maria Holic (oh lord I’ve already started watching this)
@ 21stcenturydigitalboy: Ah, I see. I’ll keep that in mind before watching Rideback. Haven’t seen Maria Holic yet. I really like SHAFT’s visuals, but yuri is not my cup of tea.
@ ghostlightning: I’m a sucker for happy endings and comedies, so I’m still unsure of watching Genji. I guess we’ll see when it’s out.
I’m proceeding with caution with Maria Holic… If the sadist and yuri thing would be prevalent, I guess I have to drop it as well. I’m sad this winter… What I’m expecting a lot is spring XD. I didn’t watched almost all series that have sequels…*sigh* (except for one… birdy that is…)
For some reason, I’m really not looking forward to any of these shows. I only liked the first season of Minami-ke but I never bothered with season 2 so I wouldn’t know.
@ foomafoo: I’m quite looking forward to this spring too! *cough*LaCordaD’oro*cough ^_^
@ blissmo: I was basically only looking forward to Natsume, Minami-Ke and Erin. Wasn’t interested at Kurokami at first, but after seeing the first episode, I think it has potential.
Natsume for me. I’m also a fan of Hajime no Ippo so I might check that out ^^
@ shinji: Natsume FTW! I certainly wouldn’t mind if they ever decide to make a third season too. ^_^