1 When the first few episodes were so slow, this is what I was afraid of.

On the other hand, as I expected, solve one mystery, two more pop up. Is the significance of the uniform that Grunhilde is signaling a usurpation of the throne -- that only the Emperor may be uniformed on board a Serenity warship?  How does a non-FTL spaceship have the ability to escape into subspace?  Why did it effectively pick sides by suddenly powering up, opening its doors for the Bentenmaru only, and then escape?  And who is the cute military girl we're starting to see in the background, with a different uniform from the rest?

2 One possibility that occurred to me was that this happens each generation. The succession is settled via a treasure hunt, and whichever princess gets to it, and inside it, becomes sanctified as the next queen.

And that's why 17 different Serenity expeditions over however long have been involved in trying to find it. In fact they have found it, again and again.

That's also why Gruier said that if necessary, the ghost ship would come to her. She firmly believes it is her destiny to become the next ruler.

3 I didn't think of that, but I'm not sure it's the case. Gruier seemed shocked at the uniform and asked Grunhilde if she realized she was being manipulated. Also, if it's a contest, it seems the sides/resources are uneven.  The military is heavily backing the younger princess, while the older has a shoestring to work with.  This bespeaks a serious level of factionalism, perhaps just short of civil war.  Oh wait, that was a couple of episodes ago, when Serenity held a shooting match inside the Morningstar system.   

Gruier also seemed upset over speculation that the home front was being left defenseless while the majority of the fleet was off ghost hunting.   I suspect that if there is such a contest and she wins there's going to be hell to pay.  What I don't understand is how it would be enforced... if the military is heavily backing Grunhilde, what is the macguffin Gruier could potentially bring back to say "I won, I'm the queen," such that they'd have to recognize it?  Or is the confrontation in the previews their attempt to grab it after Gruier has supposedly won?

4 I like how the writers keep putting in little details that I wouldn't have missed if they were gone, but that add to the "realism" of the show.  For example,when the princess returns to the bridge, we both see and hear Misa hand-cranking the hatch open.  With many of the ship's systems still off-line, it had to be opened manually.  Later, when Marika heard that the ghost ship was going back into hyperspace, she immediately ordered the ship secured, even though it was "docked" at the time.

5 I wonder if the Galactic Empire is trying to use Grunhilde, to put her on the throne and to make a puppet out of her. Gruier is trying to maintain a greater degree of autonomy for Serenity. Gruier is senior, and presumably is the legitimate heir, so making Grunhilde the next monarch involves a coup of some kind, which the GE is supporting surreptitiously.

I don't find any of this all that convincing for the simple reason that I can't figure out what the hell the Ghost Ship has to do with any of it. Once we see what it is that Gruier seeks, and presumably finds, in the next episode then maybe it'll be more clear.

For all I know, it's going to turn out that the Dogisians are behind it all.

6 In fact, with the way they've been miserly about plot exposition, I bet that even after we see Gruier accomplish whatever she's after on the Ghost Ship, that we still won't know what the hell is going on. I figure we've got at least two more episodes in this plot arc, maybe even three, and we won't get any kind of explanation of it until the last one.

I'm to the point of thinking of looking around online for spoilers, descriptions of the books. Maybe I'll try looking them up on the Japanese version of Wikipedia.

Or the Japanese side of Amazon.

7

I did some looking around, and I still don't know what's going on. What I did figure out is that this is all part of the second book.

The third book is an entirely different story -- and it may be a lot of fun, if I understand what I read. It isn't going to be anything like as serious as this arc. And the Yacht Club is going to feature highly in it.

8

Here's a discussion of book three: It isn't really all that much of a spoiler, because it's the kind of story which will be fun even if you know what's coming.

Bentenmaru takes on a job to transport some sort of animal to a hospital ship. But it gets loose, and spreads around some kind of disease. It isn't a very serious disease, but it means that Bentenmaru is placed under quarantine.

The problem is that the during the quarantine they won't be able to perform any pirate boarding actions, and it will last long enough for them to go over their performance deadline and lose the Letter of Marque.

Marika is going to recruit the Yacht Club to do Pirate Cosplay (the title of the book). Bentenmaru will lead a two-ship pirate flotilla, under authority of Marika's Letter of Marque, with Marika in overall command. (She has to be. Everyone has to be working for her in order for it to be legal.)

Bentenmaru will take care of any mock-fighting. But the boarding action will be handled by the Yacht Club, using Odette II.

I'm not sure if Marika is on Bentenmaru during the quarantine, or if they do that transport mission without her. It'd be more fun if she is on Odette II, and leads the cosplay boarding action. (And if she's on the ground during the botched hospital job, then likely Kane and Misa are too, and they both will also be on Odette II.)

I think it'll only happen once, but that will be enough to satisfy the letter of the law, and the Letter of Marque won't be revoked before the end of the quarantine.

It sounds like it'll be a goofy story, and maybe Marika will recruit Mami to be one of the cosplayers. We all want to see Mami out in space, don't we?

9

And the Yacht Club is going to feature highly in it.

So far, the Yacht Club appears to involved in more illegal activity than the pirates...

10 As long as Marika's running the operation, it won't be illegal!

11 I'm also disappointed with the pacing.  Things are being stretched out, and we're no longer getting filler that is as useful for development as we did in the first few episodes.
My thoughts on the significance of the uniform:
A member of the royal family commanding a warship is probably a violation of Galactic Empire law.  Brunhilde may be expecting to find something on the Queen Serenity that will let her get away with it, or that is worth the risk of open rebellion.

12 This is definitely a series for "mainlining" through.  It'd help a bit, though you wouldn't notice a lot of the little details.  Which is something of an issue, as this is a "little details" anime.

And the details do give away most of what is going on:

- Gruier may be ahead of Grunhilde in succession, but she's obviously been displaced by some machinations.  Otherwise, she wouldn't have snuck onto the Bentenmaru in the first place.  (Didn't they say there were 7 planets in the Serenity kingdom?  Might be 1 princess per)

- A main part of the fleet is away, which includes 17 ships (so the total fleet is probably under 75 ships), so this is obviously of huge importance to someone.  Being a move by the GU makes a lot of sense, which explains some of Gruier's dialogue earlier in the arc.

- Gruier is the "rightful heir" in some manner.  The line about talking "on the ship" definitely implies that Gruier knows that Grunhilde doesn't have actual access.  Preventing Gruier from getting to the ship was actually very important.  Which is also why it closed up its doors and headed into subspace.

- It's very likely the actual "royal family" is on the ship.  If they have status abilities and work in "subspace", it's very likely that the actual passage of time is far, far shorter for the crew of the Golden Ghost Ship.   Which also means Marika is going to be probably 1-2 weeks late getting back to class.  She's going to get hell for that.

- Per some posts from Light Novel readers, they've foreshadowed the reveal and everything else, you just have to look closely for the details.

- The episodes titles are out, so it should almost all be resolved in ep 12.  That should end this arc.

But, most of the fun of this series is the little details of what everyone is doing, such as:
- Kane backing the ship in, at combat speeds.  You don't leave a hostile port with your weapons facing away from your enemies.

- Marika having Gruier use the Captain's chair to talk to Grunhilde.  That had nothing to do with where she sat.  She needed time to assess the situation and formulate a combat plan. 

- Cleaning your weapons before combat.  Subtle, little but oh, so accurate. 

- The crew compliment appears to be around 50.

- Intra-system FTL.  Always the way to show get ahead of your opponent.  Wish more space combat series would use this trick, it solves a lot of problems.

- They just needed to wait about 2 minutes to come out of FTL, haha.

- Marika giving combat announcements like it's being done over the school intercom.  Love that little bit.

- Schnitzer apparently doesn't need a space suit, per the preview.  He's a cyborg, after all.

13 I also liked

the way the crew was shown to be securing everything, tying it down.  Another one of those nice touches.

14 We also saw a cute use of everyday technology--the "physical" email.

So far, the show's strengths are those touches; it's definitely not the pacing. 

15 For book 3, I'm pretty sure Marika is with the boarding party, based on this picture I linked in my post on the book/chapter titles.

-j

16 Sudden thought: maybe they'll skip book 3. If it isn't essential to continuity, it could be released separately as an OVA.

Or maybe they're just saving up room for the onsen episode, the beach episode, the panty-thief ninja episode, ...

-j

17 Man, I hope you're wrong.

1 It seems they've been doing this since this past February:

http://underwater.nyaatorrents.org/

2 Yeah, it's a trifle annoying.  I'm also not happy about people using UDP trackers only, since they're all on port 80, which my ISP blocks specifically for UDP connections, claiming it's what they use for network management.

(Also, they seem to have throttling on UDP connections on other ports, my torrents now run FASTER if I turn uTP off.  Either that or they're hacking the bandwidth management of uTP, which I doubt.)

Call it SOPA/PIPA chilling effects...  BTJunkie also shut down their torrent database.

1 Man, you're so polite. My first thought was "suck it up".

2 Well, Marika couldn't be so crude to her customer, a princess, for fear of getting fired from the job and alienating the Kingdom of Serenity forever. Besides, she's not like that.

3 Besides the customer-service angle, Marika is very status-conscious. Gruelle being a princess is a big deal to her, making it all the more satisfying when she doesn't hesitate to make that command decision. In the cafeteria, she can be a schoolgirl apologizing for being over-familiar; on the bridge, her priorities shift.

-j

4 Steven said:
       "(Maybe I should rename the site Chizumatic Pirates.)"

Only if you want me to start calling you "Jason Miao,"

5 I have a suspicion that this event foreshadows a situation where Gruier herself will have to make a hard decision. And she'll do it, and take the hard choice. She won't wimp out.

During the battle, she spent a lot of time watching Marika, and obviously what she was marking was the way Marika seemed so solid. Marika didn't panic. She made hard decisions, snapped out orders, and did everything that makes a good leader good.

I think Gruier is learning from this. She's spent her whole life learning to be a princess, but it may be that she's never really been in the position of having to make life-and-death decisions.

6 Well, if you're in the mood for some piracy:  If you were to become a space pirate, which member of the Bentenmaru crew would you be?  Choose by character traits, skills sets, or both.

7 I don't think I'd really be any of them. I'm not cool enough.

1 I'm of the opinion that Akamatsu must be dying of an incurable disease and had to end it while he could still draw.

Either that, or this is the worst case of authorial miscarriage ever.

2 My own opinion is that it's simple fatigue. I sure hope you're wrong about the disease!

3 Never followed it, but I'm curious about this Chisame, what did he do to her?

4 She ended up as Hikikomori, a complete social isolate.

5 Chisame had a lot of the fire of Asuna, without the sheer power.  Her artifact card was related to her secret persona as a cos-playing internet advice diva, so it was of limited use in the magic world.  Highly tsundere, she nevertheless took it on herself to watch out for Negi when the party was split up by Fate at the beginning of the magic world arc. To have her retreat into her shell was entirely possible, but terribly disappointing.

I really had her marked as Negi's favorite once Asuna was DQ'd by being his aunt.   I suspect she was Akamatsu's planned match, but when he cut the series short he lost the opportunity to build up to it gradually -- so, rather than pick one and anger the fans of the rest, he came up with the hikkimori ending off the cuff.

1 Yes, please.  Though I'd pay more for it if there's any sign of some Tank Witches during the land battle that's shown...

2 Wonderduck, if the flying witches wear no pants, and have propellers on their feet, doesn't that imply that land-based witches would...

3

Siergen, there are pictures of the tank witches around. They first appeared in one of the light novels, which was about ground combat.

I'm trying to figure out where that land battle was happening. It certainly wasn't North Africa. I'm thinking it may be the Orussia nest. Or maybe it's a new one. Whatever it is, Venizia is within its range, because we see images of battles over the Venizia canals.

4 Oh, yeah. And as to what the tank witches look like? The bottom part looks a lot like the bottom of Robby the Robot, if you remember him.

5 If you're interested, a Tank Witch can be seen right here.  

6 One thing I noticed is that some of the ships had German crosses and paint schemes.  I didn't have time to compare stills to historical photos, but I'm wondering if their flair for Japanese ship/plane pr0n extends to the German fleet as well?  Could that be the Bismark? 

Also, based on the tank's paint scheme and five-pointed stars, I suspect those were supposed to be Liberion (American) troops/tanks, and the attention to detail definitely did not include them.

7 Bah.  Jumped the gun.  Re-watching  I see British battleships.  The Liberion tanks are definitely Shermans, one quite obviously with a Ma Deuce mounted on top.  I don't recognize the tanks at 0:14, but the paint scheme suggests German or Russian.  At 0:23 that's definitely a German Tiger (Mk.1) tank in the front (although the driver's view-slot is a bit different), and a Sherman behind it.

So yes, they're being largely accurate with non-Japanese ordnance as well.

1 Amazing the hair didn't break.

Or did it?

2 They do a good job packing them. There are two form-fitting plastic clamshells which connect together with the figurine in between. The clamshells are rectangular on the outside and fit the box. So things like Hakufu's ahouge (which is what I assume you're referring to) do not get broken in shipment.

3 Actually, it's spelled ahoge. Sorry.

4

They're all like that (from the reputable/big-name manufacturers, at least).  Breakage in transit is pretty close to impossible, short of running over the box with a forklift.

I've got this figure of Fate, and none of the hair/scythe/etc bits were in danger inside the box.

5 This guy always includes pictures of the figurines in the packages and with the box removed. Here's one example.

1 Grr - my internet connection is sluggish the last couple days, and CrunchyRoll won't stream more a couple seconds before stalling for me.  I may have to wait till a fansub is available...

2 A couple of points: when the mystery of Gruier's biometrics being loaded on the Serenity sensors was discussed, she started looking really upset, and Marika quickly changed the subject. I think she suspects exactly what we're speculating.  Also the conversation about why it worked involved Gruier commenting, "I believe this is how the royal family has managed to maintain Serenity's independence." 

Presumably from the Galactic Empire, but did she mean "total independence from the GE" or "maintain political cohesion after conquest?"   If they're politically independent, then are the Corbacks under-gunned due to a galactic Washington Treaty, or do they lack the heavy industry and tech needed to build superior ships?  Note that their seven planets were described as "paradise" planets, not "industrial powerhouses."  Is Serenity the Switzerland of the galaxy? 

I still think it's really odd how a supposedly civilian conversion can be armed and armored so heavily as to be able to take on pure military ships.  Something's still odd here, on both the political and military fronts.

3 If Serenity has been building its own ships, why do they look like the Corbacks belonging to Sea of the Morningstar?

There isn't anything particularly special about that shape, which would cause Serenity ship engineers to use it, and in fact in some ways it's a rather poor design: too much surface per volume, long and narrow so the angular momentum is high and the ship can't turn as fast, things like that.

A different possibility is that it's like pirate captains, or maybe like Monte Carlo used to be. Until about 10 years ago, there was a treaty in place between France and Monte Carlo that Monte Carlo would remain independent as long as a member of the Grimaldi dynasty reigned. If the ruler ever died without a successor, then Monte Carlo would become part of France.

That got changed in a new treaty a few years back. But suppose that Serenity has a similar situation with the Galactic Empire, where it can maintain a higher degree of independence as long as certain genetic individuals reign. Serenity has been sneaking through another crack in the regulations by cloning their rulers, and Gruier is the latest one.

I don't think that's what's going on, but it's an interesting idea, isn't it? How the Ghost Ship fits into all this is beyond me, though. What I think does seem clear is that there's a power struggle on Serenity. Grunhilde, the younger sister, seems to be trying to replace Gruier as heir apparent, or something like that. I suspect that will all become much more clear next episode, when we see Grunhilde and Gruier talk to each other.

4

As confusing as some things are right now, I think we're being given honest clues that will all fit together and make sense after the fact.  I don't think this show is going to "cheat" with resolutions pulled out of left field.

I really enjoyed seeing a pirate attack from the viewpoint of the "victim's" crew.  Their admiration for the pirate's "professionalism" was hilarious.  And aside from her horrible laugh, I thought Chiaki did pretty good.  Also, really liked the "look" of the bedrooms. Very retro!  (Someone did question the starfield through Marika's "window."  Considering the conditions they were flying through, I wonder if that was a projection?)

5 Regards Design questions:

I still think it's really odd how a supposedly civilian conversion can be armed and armored so heavily as to be able to take on pure military ships.  Something's still odd here, on both the political and military fronts.

  In the episode where the Odette2 encountered the "ghost ship" the ship is initially identified as a 'Pleiades Class Battleship'. I note that the Alcyon's schematic is very close to Benten Maru and Barbarossa. This indicates that at least those two ships might actually be pre-war battlewagons that have been maintained as auxiliaries. Kane also mentions offhand that "ghost ships" like Alcyon are seen in this area all the time.

The boneyard Marika did her prefire and marksmanship training in had several similar ships that looked like they had crashed or been deliberately scuttled there (they were nose down).  IF we assume that the powers have had something like the Washington Naval Treaty foisted upon them, and they had to crap their frontline forces in favor of vessels that are essentially like coast guard cutters of varying sizes, then the pirates become a  very interesting loophole indeed, especially if the converted merchantmen were quietly swapped out with (or always were) frontline ships like Alcyon that had "disappeared" mysteriously. Remember that the original 7 were reportedly quite surprisingly  effective for privateers.

Remember too that Sea of Morningstar kept the Odette 2 hiding in plain sight as a schoolship and maintained its EW/ECM system at state of the art levels for a century.  I imagine that the yacht club (and others) are actually analogous to Germany's  Paramilitary Sports Union. 

Also: One thing the Corbacks would likely be very good at is heat dispersal.

6 Chikaki wasn't terrible...They LOVED it.

7

When I was watching this on Crunchyroll, I was confused by something that happened near the end of the episode. Just after exchanging fire with the two Corbacks, Bentenmaru was boogying, and the Corbacks tried to fire backwards at them, but something stopped it.

I just figured it out. Just as they were leaving, Bentenmaru dumped chaff, and it fouled up the Corback gunfire. That's pretty awesome.

They also foreshadowed it. In the training simulator in ep 6, one of the things Marika ordered was to dump chaff.

For those not familiar with it, chaff is carefully-cut pieces of aluminum foil. In WWII the Allies used the code name "Window" for it.

8 Now we know that the pirates are capable of actual combat, and not just the entertainment "attacks" that they perform for cruise ships.  I wonder...will we see a pirate ship attack a cruise ship for real, say to recover a stolen item or rescue a kidnap victim?

9

I think it unlikely, in fact. But if it were needed, they probably could do a good job. The boarding parties we've seen have been carrying  downgraded weapons when they've been doing their entertainment attacks, but if it really comes to it, they seem able to fight pretty seriously.

When Bentenmaru took delivery of that package from Serenity, Schnitzer put his gun down, and then powered up four glowing spots on his chest. And the two men standing next to him did the same -- except that one of them had six spots instead of four. I'm guessing that they're cyborgs, too, altbeit not quite as much of a rebuild as he is.

And there were another fifteen of them, in three squads of five, back guarding various doors nearby ready to defend against a Serenity boarding action, or to come forward and help Marika's group if it were required. They didn't look like they were playing around.

I have a suspicion that everyone that has been accepted to be part of the boarding team is like that. I've stopped tthinking of them as entertainers and started thinking of them as Pirate Marines. It may not be the case that absolutely every one of them is a cyborg, but every one of them is a serious fighter and capable of doing it for real if it is needed.

I imagine that one of Schnitzer's duties is to test and train those guys, and he won't accept anyone not up to his standards. And if they are cyborgs, so much the better.

10 I had to figure it out about the chaff, too -- but it's a credit to the writers and director that they'll leave things like this for us TO figure out.  They're telling an intelligent story.  They're assuming intelligent viewers. (Now, THERE's a gutsy move for ya.)

11 Siergen, spoiler tags, please!

12 Sorry - I can't edit the old post - can you add them, or blow it all away and let me report?

13

Siergen posted:

Based on the Ghost Ship briefing under the airport in episode 9, we know that it originally traveled at sub-light speeds, and had no "inertial control" (it probably spun to generate artificial gravity).

Based on how fast it's been traveling between star systems recently, it probably has faster-than-light drives now (or it just travels at "the speed of plot"). It is also much longer along it's apparent spin access, suggesting a much larger population now. More people and more space may mean an intrinsic industrial capacity. It's choice of course suggests it is trying very hard to not be found.

Based on the princess' unusual arrival method, and the later combat between Serenity ships, it's likely that the princess is caught up in a political power struggle. Her urgent mission (she left without her data files) suggests that she was losing that struggle.

I suggest that the Ghost Ship carries some sort of shadow government for Serenity.  This secret government may be using it as a base to build a revolutionary fleet. The princess is trying to find it to plead her case in person regarding the power struggle back on her home planet.

14 Just finished it.  Steven pointed out already the point I wanted to make, about Gruier possibly being a clone (guess it's okay to speculate since it wasn't tagged out.)

My speculation is that the Ghost Ship, being a Generation ship, might ACTUALLY be a bit more "Compact" in its capacity than cold-sleep pods.  It might actually contain a genetic databank and the cloning machine.  I think Gruier's quest is that she actually wants to be a "Normal" girl, and not the Princess any more.

I laughed when I saw Ubu suggest that the Corbacks are Coast Guard "Cutters".  After all, they do look like flying Bowie Knives.

15  For this kind of post, I treat everything "below the fold" as being potential spoilers and don't usually tag them as such.

1 Shame there's no Yotsuba anime; that would be perfect.

2 Naruto would be great for the 9-year-old, but not for the 4-year-old.

3 I proposed AzuDai before I finished reading your post.  Whoops.

Pixy has the right of it with Yotsuba, though.  What sort of demands could Kiyohiko Azuma be making???

4 I understand that he doesn't want it to be made into an anime in the first place.

5

I have a suspicion he's a bit like Waterson. He doesn't want vast wealth, and he doesn't want the hassle. Having been through the production process once, he doesn't seem to want to go through it again.

It's his choice; we have to respect it.

6 Respect it, yes.  Believe it's wrong and pray every night that he comes to his senses, also yes.

7 Tell you what, every time I get a new volume of Yotsuba&! I am flat-out amazed at the artwork.

Having made my own silly attempts at drawing manga I can see how much work has gone into just about everything.  The guy hardly uses any screentone; just about everything is drawn!

I vote for "hope and pray he comes to his senses" too.

8 I suggest Ultra Maniac. It's pretty light, there's magic, inanity, and save for one scene with an over eager butler, there's nothing scary about it. Tried and tested with my daughters, who were about 8 and 6 at the time. The show's maybe 4 or 5 years old now, but it'll hold up well enough.

9 Don't tell me, tell him!

1 Probably zurui: ç‹¡ã„

2  Hmmm. That doesn't really seem right, at least for when Uiharu used it.

3 Not having the context, I can't speak for Uiharu, but Marika is definitely saying "zurui". My big dictionary has two separate meanings: "sly; cunning; crafty; foxy; slick" and "unfair; foul; dishonest". One of the examples given is "zurui koto wo shite katsu" = "to win unfairly". A related word is "zuru-yasumi" = "truancy; playing hooky".

-j

4 I cannot distinguish those sounds. Always thought it was "tsurui".

5

Ep 3 of Railgun has Saten and Uiharu visiting the Gardens of Education, the neighborhood where Tokiwadai Middle School is located. Academy City is a police state, of course, and access to the Gardens of Education is strictly limited. The only reason that Saten and Uiharu are permitted to visit is that Kuroko invited them. (I don't think it was "Kuroko, member of Judgement"; I think it was just "Kuroko, attendee of Tokiwadai Middle School".)

The four of them are going to visit a particular Italian bakery to get dessert. But on the way, Saten slips and falls in a puddle and gets soaked.

So Kuroko loans Saten a set of her own clothing, i.e. a Tokiwadai uniform. Uiharu is a fangrrl; it's a running joke that she idolizes rich girls, including pretty much everyone in Tokiwadai. After Saten has finished changing, Uiharu sulks a bit and says, "It's not fair. Saten gets to wear a Tokiwadai uniform and I don't."

That's where she used the word.

My mnemonic summary of ep 3 is "Eyebrow girl", just in case you don't remember it very well. And it was the fact that she was wearing a Tokiwadai uniform that got Saten attacked.

Thanks, all; I'm going to add zurui to my "Next Hundred".

6 I also submitted an update to JMdict with the "unfair" meaning; GG4 is a standard reference, so they should accept it without much debate.

-j

1 Hey, Upotte is coming out!

2 I nominate AKB0048 for next season's Wonderduck recap!

-j

3 Given how AKB0048 is from the same guy who did Macross 7...Why not?

4 I may look at Naruto SD.

5 Tasogare no Otome should at least give you some good screenshots.

6

As usual, there are several series which invoke the "They can't really be doing such a thing, can they?" response.

Upotte is kind of like that for me. My first reaction was, "It's Akikan, except with guns." That's just based on the blurb; I know nothing at all about the show. But how do you create a worthwhile multi-episode show about moe anthropomorphizations of firearms? It's the mecha-musume fetish taken to its illogical extreme.

AKB0048 sounds to me like a complete train wreck. It's a high concept show, which begins with the concept, "Wow! We got AKB48 to agree to do the voices for an anime. Now what do we do with them?"

I dunno; "heroic idols" is almost an oxymoron to me, despite the amazingly large number of shows which have been based on it (e.g. the Pretty Cure franchise).

7 I'm not arguing that it's any good or anything. I just had a friend point me to the manga a while back, and I read a volume and got a few chuckles out of it. I'll probably take a look just to see what direction they take it, but there's plenty of potential for suck.

Then again, Strike Witches turned out okay even though it got a double dose of say-what? premise ("Girls who are gender-swapped historical fighter pilots with leg units based on WW2 planes? Who never wear pants? Really, now...")

I'll probably look at the SD Naruto one as well. I generally enjoy SD parodies and there's a lot of comic potential to tap there...

8

Upotte sounds to me like a one-trick pony. It would work pretty well for a one- or two-episode OVA. I can't see how it could work for a series.

But you're right about Strike Witches. That was at least as stupid of a concept, and they did make it work.

9 Sakura Taizen had an idol troupe that fought using mecha. There was even a Western cartoon series where anthropomorphic hippos (or dinos) moonlighted as crime fighters in a Big-O like faux-1930 setting.

10 Well, I could quibble that the girls in Sakura Wars weren't really idols, but I guess they were. You got me; I liked that show.

11 Steven, I'm surprised you didn't mention anything about the Saki spinoff!

I'm all for Train Hero to be the recap, actually... that sounds completely stupid.

12 I don't understand why they'd do a Saki spinoff instead of just finishing Saki.

13 And it's a yet another studio, too. Can't wait for Saki Final by Kyoto Ani in Spring 2013.

14 Accel World - YES!!

15 Surprisingly little this season. I'll watch the second season of Zombie, and probably give Hyou-ka and Yurumates a go, though neither seems especially interesting. Then, I might watch some of the shows the fansub groups I follow pick up.

16 AKB did the voices for an anime once, Project ICE.
It was a disaster. 

17 BTW, no Dog Days 2. It's going to be a long wait.

18 I wonder what happened to that one?

19 Nothing interesting on the official Dog Days site since the release of the Yukikaze pillow cover. No release dates or progress reports.

-j