My picks for the 2012 Spring Anime season.
Clockwise, from top-left: Nazo no Kanojo, Nyaruko, Medaka, Saki Side-A, Acchi Kocchi, Tasogare Otome
It’s a new season and I’ve finally settled on my choices for the Spring. I don’t often meander far from legal streams and all (random Youtube availability notwithstanding), so I don’t have as full a roster to draw from as other, more ‘resourceful’ fans. But it’s more than enough to keep me entertained. And this season’s picks are:
Nazo no Kanojo X / Mysterious Girlfriend X:
This series has one of the weirdest hooks I’ve ever encountered. Some ‘curious’ guy decides to lap up a girl’s drool off a desk and he finds himself extremely sick until the girl decides to practically spoon-feed him globs of saliva after school each day. The concept alone is interesting and awkward enough to keep me watching, just to see how far they’ll take this situation that I can only label as “eyaaaaaaaghghghhh…” for the moment.
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san / The Crawling Nyarlko:
I’ll be honest. I watched the ONAs off of Crunchyroll on a larf just a few days before this series started airing and I was definitely impressed with the degree of utter nerd-dom this series achieves. Not only do you have an anime series that pokes fun at otaku, you have an anime series that personifies entities from Cthulu mythos. The main character, Nyaruko, is in fact a personification of Nyarlathotep, and there’s one for Cthuko as well. They poke fun at sanity points and everything. East meets west in this double dose of sheer geekiness.
Medaka Box:
To be 100% honest, the main reason I’m watching this series is to see Toyosaki Aki (K-ON!’s Yui) play a more confident, less-klutzy character (Medaka). I’m liking what I see so far, and it sort of reminds me of the Haruhi series, if Kyon actually cared enough to protect Haruhi instead of almost beating the crap out of her. Medaka, the titular character, is so sweet, skilled and confident that I think she’d almost pass for a Magical Girlfriend in the vein of Ah! My Goddess and the like.
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia / The Dusk Maiden of Amnesia:
It sounds like horror, it looks like horror, it has supernatural things going on and some creepy environments … and then you realize that the dead girl whose ghost is roaming the school is most embarrassed when strangers catch a glimpse of her corpse’s bare skeleton, calling it the utmost of one’s nakedness. That’s what this series has been to me for the first two episodes, and I absolutely love the humor. I really hope it keeps this stuff up.
Acchi Kocchi:
It’s deliciously moe. Like, really moe. And it has this.
Saki: Achiga-hen – Episode of Side-A:
Mouthful of a title, but it’s the continuation of Saki! Well, a side story with different characters. Nodoka is the link between them, though, and the fact that I saw all the characters from the first series in the opening sequence probably means good things for my scathing fandom. Need more Hisa.
A Certain Judgment-al Anime Review 
I’m probably going to wait until AFTER Nazo no Kanojo X is over before watching it. I’ve heard good things about it from the few episodes that have already aired, but the whole premise turns me off too much.
I like what I saw in The Dusk Maiden of Amnesia, though I haven’t seen the third episode yet. I found the first episode to be extremely hilarious and brilliantly directed. While the second episode wasn’t nearly as good, it was still enticing and funny.
Medaka Box is a show I keep telling myself to sit down and try, but I haven’t actually seen anything past episode one. What do you think of the show?
Kanojo feels really hit or miss. Like you said, the premise is pretty contentious … What keeps me watching really is the mysterious air of the titular girlfriend. The series is aptly named.
Medaka is something I enjoy but at the moment is just another slice of life comedy, and nothing special. I just happen to soak up that genre combination like a sponge, so I’m content with its performance so far.
Not going to pick up Fate/Zero S2? It was an anime I was fairly sure most people would pick up (if they watched F/Z S1).
I recommend Accel World for more Aki Toyosaki goodness, by the way. ;D
And that’s just the problem! I’ve seen only one episode of Stay/Night and none of Zero S1!
Oh well, I never actually watched Fate Stay/Night. xD
But Accel World!
I forgot about Accel World. I’ll have to add that one, I think! Streaming on Hulu, so perfect!
Aki-chan’s character there’s really amazing. 8D
Of your picks, the only one I’m watching consistently is Dusk Maiden of Amnesia — I went in expecting horror and also fell in love with the quirky humor and the well-directed first episode (re-showing the first seven minutes of the show from a different angle was a ballsy move that paid off). I also liked Medaka Box but will probably leave it until the season’s over and watch it all in one go. The only other show I’m watching week-to-week this season is Kuroko’s Basketball. It looks like standard sports anime but it takes a unique twist when it comes to the main character. Worth a shot, unless you absolutely can’t stand sports anime.
I went in with the same expectations for Dusk Maiden and ended up equally as surprised. I agree it was a pretty ballsy move to run with the same footage during two scenes, but it actually worked out for that episode … and I think only that episode. In such a short series run, tossing another one into the mix might quickly spiral toward Eight Endless nonsense.
My experience with sports series is odd. I actually prefer the ‘clean’ look of black and white manga panels for sports series because I find that it makes things really ‘epic,’ but I can’t stand how a lot of them fall into those ‘1 page panels’ to advance the action. Especially if it’s an on-going series, cause that just makes things drag. ;p
Hm, the only sports manga I actually read all the way through was Prince of Tennis which, let’s be honest, is hardly an accurate depiction of the sport. It was difficult to get bored when people were doing flips and curving tennis balls around the laws of physics. But yeah, I can definitely see how static “cool pose” shots can just makes things take longer instead of advancing the match.
Oh, realism is totally not a factor for me as far as sports series are concerned. I don’t actually play or actively watch any myself, so unreal physics and having mystical powers aren’t much of a problem.