Autumn 2012

*Includes spoilers. All media credits go to their owners.*

So most of the new shows have aired by now - some even have a second episode out - and like any self-proclaimed anime specialist, I too am now going to dive into the world of striking metaphors and clever wordsmithing!
Just kidding.
Let the expert opinions be given by obsessive fanatics. I'll do the good honest normal people version of what impressions the new shows left on me. 
I'll be using a primary version of something I like to call the HAI or Hopes-for-Anime Indicator and even though it sounds pseudo-fancy, it's just the weighted average of what I think works or doesn't work in the new anime. It spares me the trouble of having to address all the major aspects of a show in word, especially if I'm going to watch around 30 of them. I expect the method to be improved by the beginning of the Spring anime season 2013, but for now I'll stick to what I've come up with. I've focused on the ones I liked best, but it's possible to see the full list here.

Haru and Shizuku

Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun  
8,7 (of 10)

...also known as My Little Monster, is exactly what it says it is - a show about a monster. Well, except his name is Haru and he is handsome, strong, surprisingly emotional ... and a genius. He's also wild, unstoppable and extremely impulsive, which puzzles the dryly rational heroine Shizuku to the core. As much as Shizuku may want to focus on her studies, she gets completely caught up in the little monster's pace after a teacher bribes her to take Haru some handouts and he decides they are friends. Because she brought him his homework. Duh. Obviously.

But things don't stop there as by the end of the first episode there have already been confessions of love, violence towards Shizuku's face, a change of heart and even a kiss. Watching one episode of this show feels like you've watched an entire season or at least a full length movie. But during the entire time it keeps you glued to the screen since the humor and absurdly comical situations pop out at any thinkable moment. 
Now I'm not your typical school romance fan - rather, I avoid these shows as much as possible. But this one starts off very strong, providing some captivating characters and a quickly evolving story which spices up the usual school and romance anime. Also, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun brings funny instead of awkward and embarrassing. What's there not to love!
Whereas the animation isn't anything special, it manages to keep up with the dynamic style of the rest of the show. All in all - lots and lots of potential, but whenever a show premiers this well, the question becomes: Will it be able to keep it up?

Btooom! 

Ryouta and Himiko

8,2 (of 10)

Everyone probably has that one friend who still lives at home with his mom, doesn't work or go to school and spends his days engulfed in video games. Well that's exactly where this anime starts off and with your typical gamer-gets-thrown-into-game setting, Ryouta, whose sole life has been pwning n00bs in the shooter game Btooom!, suddenly wakes up on an island equipped with a bomb pouch and no clue how he got there. 
Although it sounds like almost any other anime of the sort, from .//hack to the latest addition Sword Art Online, I found Btooom! pretty captivating. The majority of action in the first episode takes place in the main character's head - as there is no one else to talk to - and yet the authors manage to skillfully create a rich background and a spot on personality. For the first time, Ryouta is forced to think about what he is actually doing in the game he so loves and whether it's a healthy thing to be throwing bombs at people.

Somehow they've managed to display him as scared and confused as anyone would be when stranded on an island where other bloodthirsty 'players' are lurking, but he's not as a complete wuss. There is naturally the obligatory moral dilemma about killing people but luckily it doesn't drag on.
Visually it's nothing mind blastingly special, but the details and scenery are done rather well and all in all it rises well above average. Looking forward to the rest of the show and hoping it won't become a random action anime.

Shinsekai Yori
8,0 (of 10)

Shinsekai Yori

Shinsekai Yori, or From the New World as it is translated, appears to be the obligatory messed up sci-fi/mystery/post apocalyptic show of the season. Although it places somewhere below NGE on the level of crazy, the show brings together bits and pieces from a world that is strange and hard for us to understand. In the beginning we are shown a regular view of the modern world where suddenly people and things get torn apart. Then we teleport into the future where scenes of a Shintoistic/Buddhistic ritual take place - and at the same time we are shown a girl who 'has the Spirit of Adulthood come upon her'. That's when you know this one is mental enough to be the apple of the eye for all the critics.
As for the rest of us, the lack of structure might bring confusion and loss of interest instead of wrapping us into a mystical world of supernatural and horror. A good slowly unravelling structure is vital to a show with so many thorough aspects and unlike Steins;Gate, Mushi-shi and FMA: Brotherhood, this one seems to leap from one topic to the other, leaving many things laying around like horses you forgot to draw all the legs to as a child. So they're just spasming there on the ground. Horrible.
With that said, From the New World offers a great variety of topics along with the edge of spookiness, characteristic scenery and the hope of something great evolving from all the crazy. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the entire thing.

K
7,9 (of 10) 

Not entirely sure what the K stands for (okay? kool kids?), but the anime itself is packed with extraordinary visuals and lots of 'ubercool' characters. Actually, it gets rather ridiculous how many kakkoii guys they've managed to shove in there. And the visual side is clearly what the show is counting on, as the rest of the story just does not seem to evolve during the first episode. There are hints of a mildly interesting story - and there's magic, so it can't be all that bad. We are shown a gang of cool guys, whom you can see above, and a happy-go-lucky school kid, who might not belong to that school at all. For most of the show they are just shown to run their own errands and only in the last few minutes do these two stories clash. Oddly enough, those last few minutes make you want to know more and find out why the cool guys are after the school kid.
All in all, amazing visuals, not a lot of story, but somehow the potential makes up for it. Let's hope it actually does.
 
Wooser no Sono Higurashi

Wooser

7,8 (of 10)

He looks kind of cute but he's blunt and brutal and shameless - which also makes the short series extremely likable. Wooser, the yellow rabbit-like thingy to the right, ------------------>
is the main character of Wooser no Sono Higurashi or Wooser's Hand-to-Mouth Life. In a few minutes he displays some serious narcissism, his love for meat and, being surrounded by young girls, I'd say a fair amount of perversion. Still, Wooser is a funny little fellow and although there is no plot whatsoever and the entire thing is put together from random bits, it's plenty to give you a good laugh. Now add to that the magnificent voice of Mamoru Miyano in the style of Hououin Kyouma and it becomes just unstoppable! Well hopefully.
 
Zetsuen no Tempest
7,7 (of 10)

Zetsuen no Tempest

It's only once in a while that I hear anything as ridiculous as the phrase 'Civilization Blaster'. What the hell is that?? It sounds like the mixture of a nuclear bomb and a confetti gun. But that's exactly what Zetsuen no Tempest or Blast of Tempest has been given as the full title: The Civilization Blaster. Well, be that as it may, this show is bringing everything possible to a fantasy anime - magic, guns, love, murder, poetry, a mysterious disease, a strange cult - the full package. Actually, it goes to the extent where you start wondering if someone is maybe overdoing it. But strangely enough, Zetsuen no Tempest seems to have the potential to pull it off - everything is fused and blended pretty naturally, everything has a reason, a consequence and next to magic, it's still a world that we know. Will it be a Code-Geass-style win or a Guilty-Crown-style failed attempt?
By the way, the visual is pretty nice - including teleportation magic and the scenery. The addition of Shakespeare's poetry might have been pushing it though. Well, let's hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

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I have more grains to spill next Friday. In the meanwhile share your opinion - which of the new ones did you enjoy most?