In contrast to a sports-packed Saturday, Sunday’s lineup consisted mainly of more laid-back fare. Which in no way necessitates a drop in quality. At least, I believe all genres are created equal before they get executed by a particular staff. Today’s slate ended up being fairly satisfying.
I’m pretty ok with Yozakura Quartet getting its second crack at TV anime this season. It’s a series with a lot of potential; if nothing else, the power to produce machine guns out of thin air that fire when you say bang-bang is a unique one. But the manga is a repetitive criminally slow-paced monthly, the first anime was a hopelessly melodramatic show that failed to top 1000 in average volume sales, and the second, OVA-based anime was a thinly-veiled sakuga showcase. It’s a series that definitely could get over the hump, and clearly people care enough to keep trying.
But why? I’ve got no financial explanation. Given that its season 1 sales were less than borderline and the OVA failed to chart, the fact that it’s still getting anime is impressive and puts it in a very small circle. It’s not that the new series has been promoting the manga like a Blue Exorcist or an Inu x Boku SS either; the 7th volume in 2009 and the 13th volume in 2013 logged near-identical 70,000 volume sales totals. The most popular installment on myanimelist is only about 800th in popularity, so I doubt it’s even a max-money license show. It’s probably one of the 5 or 10 least explicable sequels to be made in the past 10 years. If I ever find out an definitive answer to this question, even if that answer is “passion project funded by the mangaka or the studio”, expect that to be its own article. But right now, there really isn’t one.
Last up this Saturday is a pair of mismatched sequels; one to a fun sports show that I expect is going to make up the middle of a three-show sports power triad, and the sequel to one of the most spectacularly derailed, NTR-rich plots I’ve ever known.
Saturday’s slate is, as usual, packed. It’s also, in a less usual twist, clogged to the brim with sports. I’m saving Kuroko s2 for the nightcap, and for now going over the two adaptations of KMA-winning sports manga, old and new.
I’m not in any way expecting this Friday to replace Gatchaman Crowds’ level of performance from last season. Kyokai no Kanata and Coppelion are already pulling the bulk of the week’s power hitting closer to Wednesday, but it’d be nice to have at least one show for every day of the week pulling its own weight.
I already covered the part of Thursday I was looking forward to. Long story short, it could have been better. Here’s hoping there’s a sleeper in the other two shows, though there’s a reason I didn’t watch them first.
Wednesday was in many ways an unusually strong opening day. Thursday, by contrast, is usually expected to be one of the heavy hitters, largely because it’s the non-weekend day with the largest number of open timeslots. noitaminA doesn’t bring its heavy guns until next week, but there’s still some [nominally] A-list fare on the block.
It’s that time of quarter again! We’ve got a very interesting Fall season that’s coming out swinging this week, and there’s no better way to pay our respects to a season with potential deep sleepers like Tokyo Ravens and Gingitsune than to cavalierly turn them into race horses. We’re making mad bets on the Fall 2013 Season, Vegas-style!
Animetics 