I was so preoccupied with so many other things that the summer anime season totally slipped my mind! ^^; But they say it’s better late than never, no? So here’s a rough list of anime that will be airing this Summer 2009. I might have missed a few other titles, but either way, here’s the information I’ve been able to gather (listed in alphabetical order, by month). A couple of series will start airing in June while the rest will air in July. As usual, batch lists of my first impressions will follow when the subs are released.
OK, enough with the talk. Here’s the Summer 2009 anime preview list!
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- JUNE
Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan!!
More info – Official Site
When: 06/25/2009
Production: Studio Hibari
Cast includes: Takagaki Ayahi, Takahashi Hiroki, Fukuhara Kaori
Synopsis: The story revolves around Puragu or Jūden-chan, a mysterious office lady (OL) who came to our world from a parallel world to “charge up” dejected people. (from: ANN)
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Umi Monogatari ~Anata ga Ite Kureta Koto~
More info – Official Site
Also known as Sea Story.
When: 06/24/2009
Production: ZEXCS
Cast includes: Asumi Kana, Kotobuki Minako, Horie Yui
Synopsis: The “transforming magical girl action” story centers on Marin and Urin, two “pure” sisters who live alongside the fish in the sea, but yearn to be in the world beyond the water and above ground. One day, a beautiful ring falls in the middle of the sea, and Marin and Urin retrieve it. The two decide to leave their waterbound world for the first time to deliver the ring. After an arduous journey, they come across an isolated island where a high school girl named Kanon lives. The encounter between Marin and Kanon — the maiden of the sea and the maiden of the skies — awakens a hidden power as the world is threatened by an enveloping darkness. (from: ANN)
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- JULY
AIka Zero (OVA)
More info – Official Site
When: 07/05/2009
Production: Studio Fantasia
Cast includes: Koshimizu Ami, Ohtsuka Akio, Noto Mamiko
The first episode will get a special premiere on the AT-X premium television channel on July 5, before the August 25 DVD release.
The story of the young female agent-in-training takes place after the AIKa R-16: Virgin Mission prequel, but before the original Agent Aika video project. Noriyasu Yamauchi is designing the characters and supervising the animation in AIKa ZERO as he did for the earlier AIKa projects, but he is also directing this time. (from: ANN)
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Aoi Hana
More info – Official Site
Also known as Sweet Blue Flowers
When: 07/01/2009
Production: J.C. Staff
Cast includes: Nakahara Mai, Noto Mamiko, Gibu Yuko,
Synopsis: Fumi Manjoume, an introverted, bookish teenage girl, is beginning her first year of high school at Matsuoka Girls’ High School. She enters the school year with her heart broken by a previous relationship. At about the same time, she reconnects with her best friend from ten years ago, Akira Okudaira, who is now attending Fujigatani Girls’ Academy as a first-year high school student. As they reconnect, they both deal with their own respective romantic problems, and help each other get through them. (from: ANN)
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Bakemonogatari
More info – Official Site
Also known as Ghostory.
When:07/03/2009
Production: SHAFT
Cast includes: Kamiya Hiroshi, Horie Yui, Sakurai Takahiro
Synopsis: The story centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjōgahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi’s arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. After being threatened by her, Koyomi offers her help, and introduces her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire. The series tends to introduce only one new heroine per chapter, each involved with a different “apparition”. The events of the previous chapters play an important role in the subsequent ones. The series primarily focuses on conversations between characters; it contains a fair number of parodies of other series, as well as Nisio Isin’s trademark wordplay and metahumor. (from: Wikipedia)
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CANAAN
More info – Official Site
When: 07/04/2009
Production: PA Works
Cast includes: Sakamoto Maaya, Sawashiro Miyuki, Tomatsu Haruka, Tanaka Rie
Synopsis: The modern-day story centers on a group of people, from all walks of life, who are brought together in the Tokyo neighborhood of Shibuya by bizarre events with worldwide implications. (from: MAL)
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Element Hunters
More info – Official Site
When: 07/04/2009
Production: NHK Enterprises, HeeWon Entertainment
Cast includes: Enemoto Atsuko, Kuwashima Houko
Synopsis: In 2029, a large scale ground sinkage occurred in Mediterranean Sea and chemical elements such as oxygen, carbon, gold, molybdenite, and cobalt suddenly disappeared from the earth’s crust. Human population was decreased by 90% in sixty years. Researchers found out that the disappeared elements were drained into a planet “Nega Earth”, which located in different dimensions. To save the Earth, a special team “Element Hunter” is organized. All the members are under 14 years old because young and flexible brains are required to access to “Nega Earth”. (from: MAL)
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GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class
More info – Official Site
When: 07/06/2009
Production: AIC PLUS
Cast includes: Horie Yui, Tomatsu Haruka, Sawashiro Miyuki, Tokunaga Ai, Nazuka Kaori
It is an anime adaptation for Satoko Kiyuzuki’s GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class manga. The slice-of-life manga revolves around five freshman girls in a high school art class. The manga has been running in Heiwa Shuppan’s Comic Cute! magazine and later in Houbunsha’s Manga Time Kirara Carat since 2004, and two volumes have been compiled and published. (from: ANN)
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Hetalia Axis Powers – season 2 (ONA)
More info – Official Site
When: 07/24/2009
Production: Studio DEEN
Cast includes: Namikawa Daisuke, Takahashi Hiroki, Yasumoto Hiroki, Konishi Katsuyuki, Kisho Taniyama
Synopsis: The “cynical gag” manga and anime take the archetypal characteristics of about 20 countries and regions, and anthropomorphize them as (mostly) bishōnen characters. The story re-imagines various historical eras including World War I and II. 700,000 copies have been sold of the two published manga volumes since 2008. (from ANN)
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NEEDLESS
More info – Official Site
When: 07/02/2009
Production: Madhouse Studios
Cast includes: Endo Aya, Koyasu Takehito, Kitamura Eri, Katou Emiri, Taniyama Kisho, Minori Chihara
Synopsis: The action gag comedy with “bishōjo x violence” is set in 2130, when large swaths of Japan have been quarantined as polluted “Black Spots (BS)” in the aftermath of World War III. However, there are people who have settled behind the massive walls of the Black Spots, where they have developed mysterious powers. The city people on the outside have a label for the Black Spot people they have ostracized: “Needless.” (from: ANN)
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Princess Lover!
More info – Official Site
When: 07/05/2009
Production: GoHands
Cast includes: Terashima Takuma, Katou Emiri, Koyasu Takehito
An adaptation of Ricotta’s adult adventure game.
Synopsis: In the original game’s story, Teppei Arima is a second-year high school student who lost both of his parents in a traffic accident on their way home from a family trip. His grandfather, Isshin Arima, happens to wield the puppet strings in Japan’s vast economy and demands that Teppei becomes his successor as the head of the Arima Group. To prepare for his debut into high society, Teppei enrolls in an elite academy for the scions of the rich and powerful. (from: ANN)
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Sora no Manimani
More info – Official Site
When: 07/07/2009
Production: Studio Comet
Cast includes: Maeno Tomoaki, Kanae Ito, Tomatsu Haruka, Hayami Saori
Synopsis: In the story, Saku Ōyagi is a quiet bookworm who moves back to his former hometown as a high school freshman. He meets his childhood friend, Mihoshi Akeno, although a traumatic incident long ago had left their friendship in an awkward state. Despite this, Mihoshi brings Saku into the astronomy club she founded, and this sets the stage for the slapstick romantic comedy that ensues. (from: ANN)
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Spice and Wolf II
More info – Official Site
Spice and Wolf‘s 2nd season. Also known as Ookami to Koshinryou.
When: 07/08/2009
Production: Brain’s Base (season 1 was animated by IMAGIN)
Cast includes: Koshimizu Ami, Fukuyama Jun
General synopsis: Kraft Lawrence, a 25 year old peddler travelling from town to town selling and buying various things to make a living during a period much like Europe in the Middle Ages. One night when stopped at the town of Pasroe, he finds in his wagon a 250 year old pagan wolf deity girl named Holo. She appears to be that of a 15 year old girl, except for a wolf tail and ears. She introduces herself as the town’s goddess of harvest who has kept it blessed with good harvests of wheat for many years. Despite having the responsibility to watch over the town, she wants to go back to her homeland in the north called Yoitsu, she believes the people have already forsaken her anyway and that she has kept her promise to maintain the good harvests. She manages to bargain her way out of the village by making a deal with Lawrence to take her with him. As they travel, her wisdom helps increase his profits, but at the same time, her true nature draws unwanted attention from the church. (from: ANN)
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Taishou Yakyuu Musume
More info – Official Site
Also known as Taishou Era Baseball Girls.
When: 07/02/2009
Production: J.C. Staff
Cast includes: Ito Kanae, Nakahara Mai, Ueda Kana, Noto Mamiko, Hino Satoshi, Kitamura Eri
Synopsis: It is an adaptation of the light novels by Atsushi Kagurazaka. The two novels are set in 1925 when two 14-year-old Japanese high school girls named Koume and Shōko decide to start a baseball team in Japan where few baseball teams — male or female — exist at the time. First though, the two girls have no clue where to find nine players, how to use the equipment, and what even the rules are. (from: ANN)
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Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
More info – Official Site
When: 07/09/2009
Production: BONES, Kinema Citrus
Cast includes: Hanamura Satomi, Kaida Yuko, Kobayashi Yumiko
Synopsis: The series is set in Tokyo after an earthquake measuring 8.0 magnitude on the Richter scale shakes the city’s foundations and landscape, resulting in the Tokyo Tower, Rainbow Bridge and other noted landmarks falling. It will follow siblings Mirai and Yutaka, who were visiting a robot exhibition on Odaiba on the occasion of their summer holidays having just begun, as they struggle to reach their mother in their house in Setagaya, assisted by a female motorcycle deliverer named Mari. (from: Wikipedia)
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Umineko no Naku Koro ni
More info – Official Site
Also known as When Seagulls Cry; When They Cry — Seagulls.
When: 07/01/2009
Production: Studio DEEN
Cast includes: Ono Daisuke, Inoue Marina, Ohara Sayaka, Horie Yui
According to Wiki, it is an adaptation of a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion. The story focuses on a group of eighteen people on a secluded island for a period of two days, and the mysterious murders that befall most of the people. The goal of the game is to discern whether the murderer is human or of some other supernatural source. Umineko is the third title in the “When They Cry” series, preceded by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai.
Synopsis: Umineko no Naku Koro ni takes place in the year 1986, during the time frame of October 4 and October 5 on a secluded island named Rokkenjima. The head of a wealthy family named Kinzo Ushiromiya, who lives on and owns Rokkenjima, is near death, and eight of his family members arrive on the island to discuss how Kinzo’s assets will be divided once he is dead. Also on the island are three family members who live there, five of Kinzo’s servants, and his personal physician. After the eight family members arrive, a typhoon traps them on the island and shortly after people start to get mysteriously murdered. (from: ANN)
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Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou
More info – Official Site
Also known as Properly Learned Modern Magic.
When: 07/11/2009
Production: Nomad
Cast includes: Nonaka Ai, Tomatsu Haruka, Nabatame Hitomi
Synopsis: The story revolves around Koyomi Morishita, a clumsy high school freshman girl who is often mistaken for a grade-schooler because of her shortness. Koyomi becomes a disciple of Misa Anehara, a 25-year-old graduate student who happens to be one of the most powerful modern-day magicians. (from: ANN)
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Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
More info – Official Site
Sayonara Zetsubo Sensei‘s 3rd season.
When: 07/04/2009
Production: SHAFT
Cast includes: Kamiya Hiroshi, Nonaka Ai, Inoue Marina, Sawashiro Miyuki
Synopsis: Itoshiki Nozomu is the world’s most negative person. To his way of thinking, there is no hope or meaning in this existence. Even the three kanji of his name become the two-kanji word zetsubou, “despair”, when compressed. What an ironic twist of fate, then, that he becomes teacher to a class containing his precise opposite, the invincibly positive-minded Fuura Kafuka. (from: ANN)
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- Other than two titles, I don’t have a definite watchlist as of yet but in the meantime, based purely on the synopses and the looks of it, the titles which sound interesting to me are:
Will definitely watch…
- Spice and Wolf II – I liked season 1. It’s animated by a different studio this time though, so it might take some getting used to with the colors and stuff. I hope it turns out as well (or even better) than the first season.
- Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – I’m not done with season 2 yet though, so I’ll finish that first, then the OVAs. I’ll most likely get to watch this season 3 some time after it airs.
Will probably check out…
- Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 – The synopsis sounds dramatic, but interesting. It’s also taking the coveted noitaminA timeslot in Fuji TV, so I’m kinda curious that it might have great potential to be a good series. Being animated by BONES is also a plus in my book.
- Bakemonogatari – I’m not really into horror-ish stuff, but it says it has some humor in it and it sounds interesting. Plus, it’s a SHAFT production, so I’m at least sure to see some nice visuals. Who knows? I might even enjoy it as much as I did Ghost Hunt. ^^
- Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When Seasgulls Cry) – I’ve never seen any of the When They Cry series, but the mystery aspect is making me want to check this out. It has a pretty good cast list, and Studio DEEN ain’t so bad either.
- Taishou Yakyuu Musume – Sounds interesting. It’s a slice-of-life series about baseball with a solid cast list, and another J.C. Staff production. Might be worth checking out.
- Hetalia Axis Powers (season 2) – the characters are so adorable! Must catch up with season 1 soon (I’m sure I can finish it in one sitting as it takes only about 5 minutes per episode)
- CANAAN – Not much info about it so I’m not too sure what it’s all about. Looks like there’s action though, so I might check it out.
- GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class – Sounds like a nice laidback series.
- Sora no Manimani – It’s a slice-of-life, romantic comedy. Might be fun. Oh, and I’d get to hear Maeno Tomoaki again too. :3
~ Which titles made your watchlist this season?
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As usual, thanks to Fansub Wiki where I got the Summer 2009 series list.
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You might also wanna check out my other posts:
- Summer 2009 First Impressions – Batch 1
- Summer 2009 First Impressions – Batch 2
- Other anime season previews
i guess NEEDLESS is the best thing this summer could have offered us
i don’t know why i ever came out of hiding. what a terrible season line-up. the only thing i’ll end up watching will be hetalia and zan sayonara zetsubou sensei. -_-”
but oh! maeno tomoaki!!!
hi there ^^/
@ Animenerdz: Here’s to hoping we could find a surprisingly good series within the summer lineup.
@ bianks: welcome back! maeno tomoaki is always a good enough reason for me to at least take a peek at the series. 😉