Animes of interest for Spring 06 season

The spring 06 animes are coming up next month and here's my selection of those which I will watch. Of course, I'll try to cover them on this blog but as you can see, I'm not having much progress with the Winter animes so there's a lot of backlog to be cleared in the meantime.

Joushi Kousei (Senior High School Girls)
I have a soft spot for the gakuen setting stories so this being set in a senior high school which touches on the problems and daily experiences of these school girls grabs my attention. According to what I've read from the official website, the characters are quite unique and distinctive so it shouldn't be a problem trying to distinguish between these girls. I just hope that it wouldn't be something like Okusama wa Joushi Kousei where the kawaii-ness of the girls is overly emphasized thus making the story repetitive and unrealistic. And of course, if the girls come across as those who keep having strange fantasies about the guys they like, I may shun this anime at the fastest possible speed too. Looks like there is a high possibility that I may drop this before it ends?

Ray The Animation
The storyline sounds very interesting where there's a brilliant surgeon and a nameless girl who has the ability to see through people's bodies after she receives an eyeball through an operation. The duo are also involved with a secret organisation. This smells like a conspiracy theory type of story and I love to solve mysteries. As to whether it will be good enough to keep me tuned in to the end, I can't tell yet. Familiar voices in the seiyuu lineup include Takahashi Hiroki (Tenipuri) and Namikawa Daisuke (Tenipuri, Hachikuro) and Takahashi is one the leads for this anime. It will be fun to see him playing a serious role for a change as compared to the cheerful and bubbly Eiji in Tenipuri.

TOKKO (Special Agent)
This is based on the manga by Fujisawa Tooru who was famous for his hit manga GTO which also had drama and movie adaptaions. Based on the summary, the story combines action and mystery plus love stories embedded within. Well, it's another title which I don't know the story beforehand so this will probably increase the enjoyment level. By the way, this comes with a R-15 rating so I anticipate that there will be a siginificant amount of violence or nudity which warrants such a category listing. Well, as long as these are in line with the requirements of the plot and not meant as a ploy to create hype, I'm perfectly fine with it. Again, the official website is still not fully functional so I have no way of seeng the seiyuu lineup and more details of the storyline yet. Nevertheless, the graphic seems to be a pretty good quality so I hope that the animation would not disappoint me.

Juuousei (Star of the Beast King)
Initially, I wasn't too keen on this title but after knowing that the seiyuu lineup features first timer seiyuu Domoto Koichi from KinKi Kids and Oguri Shun who has prior experience in Fullmetal Alchemist's movie, it's obvious how much effort FujiTV is putting in this production. By the way, this anime is also in the same timeslot as where Paradise Kiss and Hachikuro were shown. I'm the type who does decide on whether to watch an anime based on the seiyuu lineup. Even though I may not really like Domoto Koichi that much, having him around drives up the novelty index and it's worth checking out how well he does and if the theme song is nice. As for Oguri Shun, I'm impressed with his performance for FMA so I have faith that he can do relatively well.

NANA
One of the most widely anticipated animes for next season because the movie was a big hit last year and the manga is still being serialised. Of course, the manga series is so popular that it can be regarded as a social phenomenon. I've never watched the movie nor read the manga so I know nuts about the storyline. I guess this helps in a sense since I won't be making comparisons and criticise the anime as much as a production which I know well. I'm dying to find out what the hype is all about so I'll be checking this out come April. The official website is not up yet so I have no idea how the seiyuu lineup looks like. However, I read the news before that the two female seiyuus playing the two NANAs were chosen from an open audition and their names did not ring a bell to me. Guess it's because I pay more attention to the male seiyuus and the list of female seiyuus I like is still very limited. By the way, I wonder if it's just me but I notice that Yazawa Ai's characters tend to be pencil-thin to the point that it doesn't seem that realistic in real-life.

Ouran Koukou Hosuto Bu (The Host Club of Ouran Senior High School
I've not read the manga before so I'm approaching this title without any preset views about the adaptation. What got me interested was the storyline which suggests that a lot of humour is in store. These days, I tend to prefer stories which either make me laugh or think about the underlying themes. Besides that, I get the inkling that there will be romantic links between the lead character Haruhi and the guys in the Host Club. By the way, based on the images on the official website, Suou Tamaki and Ootori Kyouya catch my eye the most but this may change after I know more about them through the anime. Oh, before I forget, Suzumura Kenichi who last appeared in Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora as Yuuichi is acting as the twin elder brother Hitachiin Hikaru.

Gakuen Heaven (School Heaven)
Frankly speaking, I've never been a fan of yaoi or boy's love type of animes/manga so I have my reservations about watching this anime which is based on a boy's love game. However, what got me interested enough to give this a try are two reasons. First of all, in the seiyuu lineup, there are some familiar names who also happen to be my favourites i.e. Okiayu Ryoutarou (Tennis no Oujisama, Fullmetal Alchemist, Marmalade Boy) and Kamiya Hiroshi (Hachimitsu to Clover). Secondly, the story seems to be rather interesting. I'm just hoping that the boy's love aspect will not form the main emphasis of the series or else I think I may just drop it if it's too much for me to bear. Last but not least, I have to admit that the design of the characters are appealing to me so I'm prepared to give this a try and see how it turns out.