Animes to watch in Autumn 2006

As usual, here's the list of animes I will watch for the upcoming autumn 2006 season. I know I've not been posting my reviews as often as I would have liked, primarily due to my personal commitments but I'll try to catch up as much as possible.

1) Death Note
NTV, Tuesdays, 24:56, Starting from 3 Oct
This is the No.1 most anticipated anime for me this season. Without doubt. Being a fan of the manga, I've been looking forward to watching the real-life movies and the anime. I can hardly wait to watch the anime which starts today! Frankly speaking, I'm more of a fan of L rather than Light because I didn't like how Light had changed towards the later stage of the story. Initially, I did agree with some of his views and applauded him for his intelligence and wits but I guess L won me over at the end of the day. Nevertheless, I'm still looking forward to their battle of wits played out on TV even though I know the developments quite well. The thing is, this anime has only 37 episodes so this means that Melo and Near may not get to appear in the anime. And this just goes to show that the anime will not show the entire storyline of the manga?

2) D Gray-man
TV Tokyo, Tuesdays, 1800, Starting from 3 Oct
I've heard a lot about this manga but was never interested in it at all. Then a colleague strongly suggested this to me again. After watching the trailer, I decided that it's time to give this a shot and see if it matches the accolades I've heard about this. I'm usually not too receptive to stories which have a strong sci-fi feel but seeing Okiayu Ryoutarou, Sakurai Takahiro and Konishi Katsuyuki's names in the cast list gives me added motivation to try it out, at least for a couple of episodes.

3) Ghost Hunt
TV Tokyo, Tuesdays, 0100, Starting from 3 Oct
Although I'm usually not too interested in ghost films, the trailer seems quite interesting. Hopefully, it's not a episodic type of story where there's minimal focus on the main characters, their relationships and reasons for forming this organisation to resolve supernatural happenings. Character-design looks quite good too. There are only 2 familiar names in the cast to me i.e. Hamada Kenji and Kugimiya Rie who played George in Paradise Kiss and Al in Fullmetal Alchemist.

4) Shounen Onmyoji
Kansai TV, Tuesdays, 26:15, Starting from 3 Oct
I have a deep interest in Abe Seimei ever since watching Otogizoushi and this has also led to a fascination with the Heian period. This anime happens to satisfy my interest in both areas although the focus is on a 13-year-old kid who is still a half-baked onmyouji under the tutelage of Abe Seimei. The interesting thing here is that Seimei will change from an old man image to a young man at times as and when he likes so I'm looking forward to seeing that. Besides that, I see many familiar seiyuus names here including Kaida Yuki who plays the lead character Abe Masahiro, Konishi Katsuyuki, Ishida Akira, Takahashi Hiroki, Suzumura Kenichi, Minagawa Junko and Seki Toshihiko which increases the level of anticipation I have towards this anime.

5) Bakumatsu Kikansetsu Iroha ni Hoheto
GyaO, Fridays, 12 noon, Starting from 6 Oct
It's kind of similar to the anime below in the sense that this is set in the olden days and there's fighting involved. However, this anime is set at the Bakumatsu era marked by chaos and the characters involved have an ultimate aim of sealing the "Dagger of the Tyrant" instead of fighting monsters. Character-design looks quite refined and appealing too. Last but not least, seeing the names of Suwabe Junichi and Namikawa Daisuke is also enough temptation to get me interested in this title. I just hope that the story will be good enough to sustain my interest and the fighting scenes done properly which I believe will make a siginificant portion of the plot.

6) Tenpo Ibun Ayakashi Ayashi
MBS / TBS, Saturdays, 1800, Starting from 7 Oct
The story is set during Tenpo 14th year when the streets of Edo are infested by monsters from the other world. A group of warriors gather to fight these supernatural creatures and are conferred the title of Ayashi. Besides the story which seems quite interesting, I see a number of my favourite seiyuus in the cast list i.e. Fujiwara Keiji and Ueda Yuji which increases the level of interest I have in this anime. The characters also have distinct traits e.g. a man who has only one arm and some special powers to fight the creatures after wandering into the other world by mistake so I think the development of each individual character is also something worth checking out which should prevent the story from being something solely based on fighting monsters.

7) Jigoku Shoujo Futakomori
MBS / Animax, Saturdays, 26:55, Starting from 7 Oct
This is the sequel of the Jigoku Shoujo series whereby we have Enma Ai and her associates dishing out punishment to the people whose names are entered into the Jigoku Shoujo website by those who nurse a grudge against them. Although I'm quite bored with the same format over time, I think further development and exploration into the main characters like Ai, Shibata Hajime and Tsugumi would be essential in determining whether I will finish watching this anime.

8) Hataraki-man
FujiTV, Thursdays, 24:45, Starting from 12 Oct
Apparently, this is a very popular manga by Anno Moyoko which I believe should have heard about. The main character is Matsukata Hiroko who loves to work and is so passionate about her career that she's nicknamed Hataraki-man (Working Man) by her colleagues at Shuukan Jidai. Besides having to cope with gender discrimination, Hiroko also has to deal with people who do not see her rationale for working so hard and manage her relationship with her boyfriend, Yamashiro Shinji whom she can easily forget about when work is concerned. This looks like a very realistic type of anime which shows society trends to a certain extent and distinguishes it from many of the fictional or far-fetched fantasy stories we've been seeing a lot of these days. By the way, this is the anime which takes over from Hachimitsu to Clover in the Noitamina slot and it will only run for 11 episodes before Nodame Cantabile comes on next Jan.

9) Bartender
FujiTV, Saturdays, 26:25, Starting from 14 Oct
In a bar named Eden Hall located in Ginza, genius bartender Sasakura Ryuu who has the nickname of "Kami no Gurasu" (The glass of God) attracts many customers with his unique cocktails which seems to have the unexplainable power of helping them solve their problems. Sasakura is a bartender who has won awards overseas but little is known about his background or his private life. Joining him as the regular cast for this anime is Kurushima Miwa, the granddaughter of Kurushima Taizo who owns Hotel Cardinal. Miwa manages the bar department of the hotel and becomes a close friend of Sasakura as a result of her constant visits to Eden Hall.

10) Kekkaishi
NTV, Mondays, 1900, Starting from 16 Oct
The trailer on the official site was what got me interested in this anime. I remember hearing about the manga before but didn't know much about the storyline. To summarise, there are two families i.e. the Sumimura and Yukimura clans which are entrusted with the task of protecting the land of Torimori. However, due to the dispute over who is the real successor to continue with this task, both families have been at loggerheads for the past 400 years. As such, the young successors-to-be i.e. Sumimura Yoshimori and Yukimura Tokine are also not spared from this feud. However, things change when Tokine saves Yoshimori from harm and suffers serious injuries as a result. This makes Yoshimori vow to protect Tokine and marks the beginning of his journey to get better and win the heart of Tokine who's 2 years older than him.

11) Mahou Shokudou Chara Pontan
WOWOW, Tuesdays to Thursdays, 8.08am, Starting from 1 Nov
This is an original animation produced by WOWOW with food as the theme. The cuisine featured in the anime is meant to be simple enough for everyone to reproduce in their home kitchens so the recipes will also published in the lifestyle information magazine, "Orange Page" for viewers' reference. In short, this anime is set in a world where monsters and magicians co-exist and there's a restaurant by the name of "Chara Pontan". Here, customers with all sorts of problems seem to have a strange affinity with Chara Pontan managed by a young girl and a cuisine magician of few words and come here for special dishes which inevitably helps them solve the issues bugging them. As such, there will be different guests for every episode.

What interests me is the fact that they have food which is capable of being reproduced in reality so this lends a realistic touch to the anime whereby the setting seems a bit far-fetched. Although the design of the characters leave much to be desired, I'm hoping that the storyline and recipes will make up for that. The only issue is whether I can get hold of this anime though.