Short Synopsis: Natsume teams up with a bunny-youkai in order to get rid of an evil spirit.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
It’s really good to see this series back again, and I’m interested whether the second season will be able to top the first season. Unlike shows as Shikabane Hime and Birdy the Mighty, there’s no real clear distinction between the first and second season of this series, but this really is the point where the show is going to have to evolve.

I think that the episodic storylines have already hit their height with the Hotaru-episode, but there’s still plenty of potential left for when a big storyline appears, so I’m keeping my eye out for Natori. Until that happens, I’m going to enjoy the stories as they flesh out Natsume and Nyanko-sensei, along with the setting. And laugh at Nyanko-sensei’s antics, of course.

This episode definitely showed a side of the world that we haven’t seen yet: where do evil spirits come from? This episode shows that most spirits start out without any malicious intentions, but some sort of grudge can turn them into evil one. Just as how one act of kindness can have a huge impact on them, they’ll never forget an act of malice and these acts influence them very strongly. I’m not exactly sure about the difference between regular Youkai and things like Nyanko-sensei, who behave very un-youkai-like, though I think that that’s because he’d had a lot more to experience, whereas most Youkai simply stay at one spot.

This episode may have been a bit too cheesy at the end and one-sided on the environmentalism messages, but nevertheless Gen was an adorable character, especially since he spent most of the episode in the form of a snow bunny. ^^; I liked the comment that Nyanko made at the end of the episode: youkai aren’t as fragile as you’d think.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to continue with HorribleSubs’s releases for this series. Sure, it’s nice to watch this show with subtitles for once, but I miss Natsume Yuujinchou in HD. ^^;

Koukaku no Regios

Short Synopsis: Our lead character enters a school in a world where people have strange powers.
Chance of me Blogging: 50% (Might be interesting)
You know, this may not be the best series, but this was exactly what I’ve been looking for this season: originality. Sure, this episode was full of clichés, but for every bad idea, the creators seem to have included a good idea, and I’m interested to see where the creators can take this. This episode took place on two different places: a desert city that’s attacked by a huge monster and a strange kind of high school, and I especially liked the former, and I wonder how it’s going to tie in with the high school setting. The high school itself had all the necessary archetypes present, but that female lead felt refreshing and much less one-sided than I suspected. It’s also a nice touch: if you live in a world where everyone has powers, then there are of course people going to abuse them, especially if they’re bratty high school kids, and you need a bit of extra effort to keep these guys in check. So overall, I like this: there are lots of different characters despite the clichés and a lot of potential. The soundtrack is pumping, though the OP is going to suck.

Slayers Evolution-R

Short Synopsis: Our lead characters meet a strange talking armour.
Chance of me Blogging: 0% (Not after that first season)
I really wasn’t looking forward to watching this series. I planned to just watch it and drop it to get it over with. And then this series came and delivered the best episode of the new Slayers so far. Okay, so that may not say much, but for once I wasn’t bored out of my skull, the talking armour was actually quite funny and I laughed more in this episode than during the entire first season. I really don’t want to go through the same pain as the first season, but if it’s true that all Slayers get better in their second halves, it might be interesting to stick with it.

Ride Back

Short Synopsis: Our lead character accidentally gets to try a motorbike-mecha-thingie.
Chance of me Blogging: 90% (Madhouse Rocks!)
Well, that’s Madhouse: here it comes and delivered the without a doubt best first episode of all the new shows this season. Sure, the lead character is yet another one of those teenagers who accidentally gets to possess a super-weapon, but apart from that everything about this episode was superbly done. The art looks excellent and yet down to earth, the soundtrack fits the series exactly and the series has a number of very likable lead characters. I was immediately a fan of the female lead character, but the rest of the support cast are also defined and varied. This is promising to be one of the highlights of the Winter-season if the creators can keep this up.

Short Synopsis: Due to a stress, Yuki pays a surprise visit to Touya.
Overall Enjoyment Value: 7,5/10 (Good)
Ah, why not; I’m going to blog this series. It’s going to be a nice quick series from a genre that I usually don’t blog about. I’m able to blog three new series this season, and for the final one I was doubting between this one and Kemono no Souja Erin (I think it’s pretty obvious what the other two are going to be ^^;). I was at first edging for Erin, but then I changed my mind: White Album, while it may have some clichés in it, it’s way better executed than Erin. The problem with Trans Arts is that they’ve got an eye for new and fresh premises, but they don’t know squat about actually making a good story. I’ve been disappointed by them one too many times, especially considering that none of their series went really right so far.

I definitely know that I’m not good at blogging romance shows. With True Tears I kept switching sides after every single episode, and my experiment of blogging Macross Frontier turned into a complete disaster. Still, I’m going to take this chance again because these two episodes have been really well written. The creators have an eye for detail, and manage to get the best out of their actors. This show has subtlety, of which I’m a big fan of. It also brings Hirano Aya back to a role that actually FITS her: a subtle one. The Yuki here is reserved and not very confident of herself, and far away from the energetic characters that she usually plays and fails horribly at.

My biggest fear for this series is that it’s going to turn into some cheesy harem along the way, but I’ll remain confident for now. There are plenty of male characters so far with their own distinctive personalities, and I’m especially intrigued by Rina: something tells me that there’s much more to her than what we just saw of her: here she accompanies Yuki to see her boyfriend, and then she starts hitting on the guy behind her back.

It’s interesting how this show doesn’t seem to have a director, or either the director is so obscure that he/she wasn’t even mentioned on the show’s promos. In fact, most of the important staff members of this series have relatively little experience. This can be either incredibly bad (they don’t know many of the major pitfalls yet) or incredibly good (new ideas that current anime staff can’t think off). I’m really edging for the latter with White Album.