Spring 2008 Anime Previews

TITLE: Amatsuki
EPISODES: 13+
GENRE: adventure, fantasy, historical, samurai
LINKS: ANN, OFFICIAL
SUMMARY: A high schooler uses state-of-the-art museum technology that allows him to travel back to the Edo period only to end up trapped in time. There he meets another person who is in the same position as him and a female samurai who saves his life.

COMMENTS: I do so love my samurai animes.

TITLE: Vampire Knight
EPISODES: 13+
GENRE: supernatural, fantasy, vampires, romance
LINKS: ANN, TV-TOKYO, OFFICIAL
SUMMARY: (from ANN)Yuki's earliest memory is of a stormy night in winter, wherein she was attacked by a vampire... And then rescued by another. Now 10 years later, Yuki Cross, the adapted daughter of the headmaster of Cross Academy, has grown up and become a guardian of the vampire race, protecting her savior, Kaname, from discovery as he leads a group of vampires at the elite boarding school. But also at her side is Zero Kiryu, a childhood friend who’s hatred for the creatures that destroyed everything he held dear, is now determined never to trust them. This coexisting arrangement seems all well and good, but have the vampires truly renounced their murderous ways, or is there a darker truth behind their actions. Is Kaname's infatuation with Yuki the beginning of a forbidden romance, or is it something in her forgotten past that draws him to her. Because in this world of secrets, nothing is as it seems. And the price of misplaced trust may even be worse than death.

COMMENTS: Attractive character designs and intriguing story with the potential to be a sort of dark romance? But probably just a lot of angst. I don't mind. Angtsy vampires are just my thing.

TITLE: Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief (Nijuu-Mensou no Musume)
EPISODES: 22
GENRE: mystery, action
LINKS: ANN, Fuji Creative Corporation, OFFICIAL
SUMMARY: The adventures of a female thief.

COMMENTS: I am quite partial to thieves. I thoroughly enjoyed the Lupin series, both novel and anime version, so yeah. They must lead glamorous lives, these people, despite the danger.

TITLE: S.A. ~Special A~
EPISODES: 24
GENRE: romance, comedy, drama, school life
LINKS: ANN, GONZO, OFFICIAL
SUMMARY: Childhood rivals, Hikari and Kei, are still at it even in high school. But while Hikari considers Kei as a rival (and perhaps occasional friend), Kei loves Hikari. Only problem is Hikari is too dense to notice.

COMMENTS: It's like Kare-Kano! But without the dark undertones, probably.

TITLE: Mnemosyne ~ Daughters of Mnemosyne ~ (Mnemosyne no Musume-tachi) (OVA)
EPISODES: 6
GENRE: dark, supernatural, scifi, horror, mystery, mature
LINKS: ANN, OFFICIAL, XEBEC, TRAILER
SUMMARY: Private investigator Rin Asougi and her partner Mimi make it their job to look into various mysteries, from a seemingly harmless search for a lost cat to top-secret research projects. But their own secret which they hide are by far more sinister.

COMMENTS: It's not my usual cup of coffee but I have been following this. Maybe because it has a kind of dark appeal.

TITLE: Kite Liberator (OAV)
EPISODES: 1
GENRE: action, scifi, thriller
LINKS: ANN, OFFICIAL
SUMMARY: (from ANN) Years after the events that transpired in Kite, Sawa's whereabouts are a mystery. During this time, rumors of a new killer have begun to circulate the city. They call her the Angel of Death, an unfeeling assassin who eliminates her targets with grace and precision, leaving only a flurry of feathers as her calling card. What the public is unaware of is the fact that this notorious hitman is a actually a polite young lady named Monaka. Like her spiritual predecessor, Monaka has lost most of her family, and her father's duty as an astronaut keeps hims practically worlds apart. However, they are close despite the physical distances and Orudo promised his daughter that he would return. Until then, daily life for the timid and somewhat clumsy Monaka involves mostly school and her part time job as a waitress, but her nature completely changes once she receives an assignment.

COMMENTS: Uhm...Madlax?

Well, I'm definitely blogging about Kite Liberator. I am in fact downloading it now. Of Mnemosyne, I'm not too sure. I enjoy watching it but it's so graphic and dark that it's hard to take relatively clean screencaps. I'll be following Vampire Knight if the story holds. The rest, we'll see.