Winter Season 2010-2011
Kimi ni Todoke S2
I loved the first season of this show and very pleased with the start of the second. Sawako continues to try to make friends and explore her blossoming love with Kazehaya. This shojo romance might be showered with blue bubbles and pink pentagons, but it will still capture your heart. It might be too sweet for some, it is still a wonderful show that everyone should give a chance. It feels a bit slow going, but that only adds to the mood of the show and helps tell the story. This is a definite watch for me. Sadly, it looks like it'll only be a 12 episode show this time. Boo.
IS: Infinite Stratos
I wasn't sure what to think about this show at first. It's obviously a harem and I'm not sure it will amount to one of the good ones. IMO, the good ones being Kanon (24 episode, 2006 release) and Clannad. The basic premise of the show is that a sort of bizarre Gundam type weapon was developed that only women can pilot, except for this guy, for some unknown reason. So he get shipped off to the training school to learn how to pilot these IS (Information Systems Infinite Stratos). Yeah, I'm not much of a fan of harems or "anti-harems" so I'm not sure what to think of this show, but I'll probably give it a couple more episodes before I tune out.
Yumekui Merry
So the only reason I tuned into this show was because of the cat reference. Um, yeah. It was interesting enough I suppose. This guy has the power to foretell people's dreams while he is plagued by strange nightmares that involve cats in boots chasing him. They warn him that the master is coming. Later that day, he enters the dream world without having fallen asleep to be attacked by some strange, powerful creature. The girl, Merry, attacks the creature to try and force him to take her where he came from. She gets upset when she fails and tries to get the guy to bring back the creature. It has a similar feel to Pandora Hearts, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing. I enjoyed Pandora Hearts, so maybe this one'll be alright too. Going to give it a few more episodes to find out.
GOSICK
I'm undecided on this show. It looks to be about some strange Sherlock Holmes type mystery show without much mystery or interest. It looks to be more about the "mysterious doll-girl" then actually solving mysteries. When they introduced the main girl of the show secluded in the top floor of the library and described her as a "doll" it reminded me too much of Rozen Maiden. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. Also the guy detective's hair style was utterly ridiculous and it bothered me. But again, going to give it a few more episodes before I throw in the towel.
Dragon Crisis!
...I really need to stop watching shows simply because they have cats, wolfs, or dragons in the title. No really. I do. And yet it doesn't matter as I always watch them anyways (*cough*Dragonaut*cough*). Boring guy gets up and goes to school like any other day. Then he's dragged out of class by his older cousin so they can hijack some bizarre item from some guys, which ends up being a briefcase carrying a girl dragon. Of course that's easy to confuse because dragons look exactly like humans until they mature. ...What? Really? Okay... The dragon can only speak two words: "Ryuuji" and "Suki" in the most annoying voice EVAR. Several panty shots and gravity defiant boob shots later, the main guy ends up living with both his cousin and the dragon-girl, who acts like a drug-addicted 2 year old. But because of there are dragons involved, I'm giving this show another episode. I don't know why I do this to myself sometimes....
Fractale
This show seems a bit confusing from the start. From what I can tell, the basic premise is that the computer system "Fractale" somehow provides everyone with what they need and makes everyone kinda lazy. The main character in the show lives with his parents' doppels, which I can only assume means they are copies of the real thing. We're not given many explanations at this point... He rescues a girl who was being chased by some weird kid and her goons. After some way overreacted (and I do mean way over the top) scenes of embarrassment, the girl disappears and leaves him a weird data crystal pin, which apparently stored another girl in it... Yeah, the show is pretty bizarre to say the least. It's also an anime original so I dunno how well it will do. I'll give it a few more episodes to see how it pans out.
Hourou Musuko
This is probably not a show for everyone. From the first episode, it looks like its about a boy and a girl who likes to cross dress. It has a soft, quiet feel about it and it takes itself very seriously. Not a comedy in the least. It's hard to say where they're going to take it right now but I think I will enjoy it. Mostly because of my own beliefs involving gender association from what I learned in my social psych class in college. But I hope to find a better sub group than what I'm watching now. Sadly, CrunchyRoll "licensed" it so a lot of good fansubs groups aren't picking it up. The one down side of the show that I picked up on immediately was the color tones. This is a very bright show and most of the colors used are light pastels. Probably fits the mood of the show, but I also noticed it, so it probably wasn't a good thing.
I think I've seen too much anime. A lot of the storylines just feel like mashups of things I've already seen. Finding good shows feels harder than it did before. I think I'm just getting pickier.