I am a bit delayed in writing this now, but hopefully it’s worth mentioning to those of you out there the few series that I have interest in during this particular anime season.
First of all they have finally gotten something real going again with “Haruhi”.
There is now a 13 episode TV series (halfway done) version of “Phantom of Inferno” which was previously adapted into a 3 episode OVA series as well. The work is not great in any of its iterations, but I have a place in my heart for it. The new series is annoying titled “Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~.”
“Asura Cryin” might also only be 13 episodes, but since it’s adapted from an ongoing light novel series there will likely be further installments as long as it does well enough. Zero no Tsukaima followed a pattern of 3 separate 13 episode tv series (which reminds me that I still haven’t watched the third one in its entirety), and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same happened with this work. I wouldn’t mind if those involved decided to diverge the work, but I’m not familiar with the original work so I wouldn’t notice unless the anime just never ends.
Finally the one series that I certainly should not have remained silent about for so long is “Shin Mazinger Shougeki Z-hen.” This is also known as “true mazinger Z” but I find it significant that it’s “shougeki z chapter” (shougeki is hard to translate in a title since it basically means “impact” in the sense of a crash) instead of “shougeki true mazinger.” Then again that might just be playing into the spirit of hyperbole which surrounds the series. In the first place it’s hard to tell just how far Nagai (original creator Go Nagai) is involved with the work, but it doesn’t seem like it’s to the point of the work really being the true story as he wishes it was. That means that “true” is hyperbole in the first place, so making it seem like there might be a “great chapter” or a “kaizer chapter” is a likely trick. If nothing else the series is directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa and it’s almost impossible for him to see a series through to its maximum length or secure a sequel. I’m not very happy with the ridiculous first episode since I’m a firm believer in maintaining chronological order (Tenjyou Tenge would have been over 5 years ago if Oh! Great had done that), but hey… boys will be boys.
