… Well. Looks like ripoffs, ripoffs and more ripoffs this season, with only a few potential gems among the usual shmuck. We all seem to disagree on what the gems might be, though…

Summer series totals (according to our most up-to-date info and the image above: 10 OVAs, 20 new TV series, and 4 sequel TV series.

Aoi Hana
starts 7/1, JC Staff

CJ: Yuri, even the sweet and fluffy kind, really isn’t my thing. Looks like a decent show, though, if it doesn’t end up going 2 miles per hour the whole season.
Janette: The art style in the preview makes me want to try this.
Crisu: Looks very artistic.  The animation will be good; it’s up to the story itself — I’ll be optimistic.

Bakemonogatari
13 episodes? starts 7/3,  SHAFT

CJ: Short stories with some kind of supernatural vampire twist? Yeah, whatever. The only thing that’s got me giving it a chance is that it’s SHAFT, and I want to watch something of theirs that’s not outright comedy. Maybe this’ll be decent.
Rakuen: Looking up the information on this intrigues me.  It seems to be episodic with the episodes connected together into one overarching plot.  Which, yeah, sounds like an odd observation to make, but it made sense in my head.
Janette: Shaft? Check. Interconnecting stories? Check. Fantasy? Check. Incredibly hot girl in the preview? Checkcheckcheckcheck.

Canaan
starts 7/4, PA Works

CJ: The character designs look epic, and it’s based on an epic game. Epic win potential. I’ll give it a chance, though the concept doesn’t thrill me that much.
Janette: This has potential. Or will be dumb.
Rakuen: I don’t even know what to think of this one. The character grouping is essentially like making an anime milkshake, and I’m only really a fan of chocolate.

Cobra: Rokunin no Yushi
starts 7/4, Magic Bus
(Admin note: Rumor now has it that the series’ premiere has been pushed back to Winter ‘09/’10, but we’ll cover this anyway since it hasn’t been confirmed.)

CJ: IT’S CHUCK NORIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS
Rakuen: This seems like… a silly premise.  Self-induced amnesia?  Really?  I don’t know, I just feel like someone who’s an infamous space pirate wouldn’t just up and one day decided to forget about it, never mind people would probably recognize him.
Janette: …is that firetruck red spandex? Is that a Nintendo DS in his pocket, or is he happy to see to see me?

Element Hunters
starts 7/4, HeeWon Entertainment

Crisu: I wonder how in-depth the show will go with the elements.  Are we going to learn merely about how gases are different from liquids?  Or will we also learn about positive and negative charges?  What bout covalent versus ionic bonding?  Is it going to have a “Sailor Says” at the end of it where the heroes teach the kids now to neutralize an acid should they ever encounter a spill at home?  … Looks cute anyway.
CJ: Pros: Teaches chemistry. Cons: Promotes anorexia and is a little kids’ show. Nuts.
Rakuen: If you think this series intends to make chemistry fun, you’d be right.  Not really interested.

GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class
13 episodes, starts July 6, AIC

CJ: Ripping off Hidamari Sketch and Sketchbook ~full color’S~ in the same go? That takes talent.
Janette: Not my thing, but I can imagine this one being fairly popular this season.
Rakuen: Maybe it’s an academic’s theme instead?  We’re trying to make art class fun now.  Except I can get behind a comedy slice-of-life.
Crisu: Gotta have your cute one somewhere.  I’m interested in the painting theory.

Hetalia Axis Powers 2
13 episodes, starts in July, Studio DEEN

CJ: I know nothing about the series except one of the absolutely adorable character songs. BO~KU~ HE~TA~RI~AAAAAAA~~~
Crisu: “Pasta”?  That’s still all I’ve ever heard of the first season.  Sounds cute, though; with all the world conflict going on, being able to laugh at it a little is nice.
Rakuen: I didn’t watch Hetalia 1.  A few friends of mine insist that it’s good, so I might check it out in the near future.  It’s doubtful that I’ll be motivated to catch up on this one, though.
Janette: I never watched beyond the first episode…but my sister just asked me to download the series so we can watch it together, and I assume we’ll do it for this one too. I don’t care whether the show is good or not, I just like any show my sister is willing to watch with me.

Kanamemo
starts 7/5, Feel

CJ: It’s… So moe… I can feel my brain bleeding already.
Janette: Counts the cliches you can find by looking at the promo art alone. Um…how about all of them?
Crisu: I guess I’m still biased towards slice-of-life-ish series, as they’re easier to watch casually for me.  This one looks like it could catch on.

NEEDLESS
starts 7/2,

CJ: My thoughts exactly.
Janette: Get off the caplocks, kthx. Only CJ looks cool when she’s doing that.
Rakuen: Classic massive disaster spawns curious powers formula.  Think Scryed.  I actually liked Scryed, so I might check this out just to see what it’s about, but I don’t see myself hanging on to it.

Princess Lover
starts 7/5, GoHands

CJ: AND WTF IS WITH THE BLATANT SABER RIPOFF
Janette: …the promo art does not match the description.
Crisu: character designs look a little bit over the top.  I mean not like Saki’s Nodoka over-the-top or Kanokon, but something nags me that there are a lot of unnecessary things in this show.
Rakuen: Obligatory eroge port is obligatory.  Moving on…

Seitokai no Ichizon
starts in July, Studio DEEN
(Admin note: This one’s not fully confirmed for a Summer ‘09 air date, especially since we can’t seem to find a website for it…)

Rakuen: What is it with finding no useful information on anime series this season?  Seems to be a student council, seems to be in the harem style, and seems to be a comedy. Whatever, I suppose I’ll check it out.
Janette: I honesty have no clue what to make of this.
CJ: Another dumb, uninspired concept for the morons among us…

Sora no Manimani
starts 7/7, Studio Comet

CJ: This looks rather uninspired too. I mean, yay, it’s a high school girl and a childhood friend and a dumb club and WHO THE HECK CARES!!
Rakuen: The anime that tries to make astronomy fun?  Is there some kind of science theme going on this season?
Crisu: Looks great for shoujo fans.  The astonomy element should make things even dreamier for them.

Spice and Wolf II
13 episodes? starts 7/8, Brains Base

Janette: I’ve actually always wanted to see the first season of this.
Rakuen: I really wasn’t that much of a fan, but I’ll probably end up watching parts of it with a friend of mine.  It’s very meh for me.
Crisu: Episode 00 was a super, super treat.  All hail the tail.  And her cute little ears, too.  More character interaction and development instead of economics, please, and you’ll have a winner.

Taishou Yakyuu Musume
starts 7/2, J.C. Staff

CJ: BASEBALL. And it actually looks… cool. No adaptations of  ’80s manga here! I’ll give it a shot.
Janette: Um…yes please? After Cross Game, I’ve completely fallen in love with baseball in anime.
Rakuen: Baseball with girls. I have no idea on the source material, but it seems like this series should be ripe for comedy.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
26 episodes? starts 7/9,  Studio Bones

CJ: People already seem to be hating on this one, and I’ll admit, the concept seems a bit trite. However, with Studio Bones running the show, it has potential. If they don’t sacrifice their superior character development for plot, I’m watching at least a few episodes.
Rakuen: Tokyo gets destroyed yet again, this time by a massive earthquake.  It’s somewhat interesting, I did the research and it seems that Tokyo is due for a powerful quake in the next few decades.  Might be worthwhile.
Crisu: Since I don’t live near a fault line, I’m unfortunately not as sensitive as others as to what real distaster an earthquake can be.  But this presentation sounds like it has a lot of potential to be really gripping — I hope the drama is done right and not too overdone or underplayed.

Umi Monogatari
26 episodes? starts 6/24, Zexcs

CJ: Boobs and romance? Feh… though something about it gives vibes of Uta Kata. Gets one episode to hook me.
Janette: So basically an anime verison of The Little Mermaid? I’d actually like to see a good mermaid anime. And no, those singing mermaids were not good anime.
Rakuen: It’s a series spun off of… designs on pachinko machines.  You know what, I’m not even going to come up with a joke, I think it’s already done it by itself.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni
26 episodes? starts 7/1, Studio DEEN

Rakuen: From the creators of Higurashi.  Curiously, it’s missing the Horror tag on Wikipedia, so I wonder if that means the violence and such is toned down in comparison.  I’ll probably look for a review elsewhere before deciding to watch.
CJ: The highly anticipated Higurashi-esque murder mystery series from 07th Expansion! And it’s got Phoenix Wright poses! I’d hit that Watching!
Janette: Heck yeah! I’m a little familiar with the game, and watching Higurashi, so super super excited for this.
Crisu: I haven’t sat down to play the game yet, but so many friends are spazzing out over it, I really do have to watch this.  And I loved Higurashi, too.  Gossip says Umineko won’t disappoint.

Winter Sonata
26 episodes, starts in July, Real Thing

CJ: YES PLZ. I have only heard good things about the Korean drama this is based on. Bring on the sobfests~
Janette: …has anyone else wondered what’s WINTER Sonata doing airing in sumer?
Rakuen: It’s an anime adaptation of a Korean love story.  I can deal with dramatic series, but I’m not much for series that are based largely around romance, so I’ll be passing unless someone force feeds it to me…

Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou
starts 7/11, Nomad

CJ: This doesn’t look horrible… just mediocre. Maybe if the “graduate student” character has some depth I’ll give it a go.
Janette: Magicians? I think I’m going to give it a chance for that one magic word alone.
Rakuen: All I can find on this is that it’s based in a school and it has to do with magic.  Seems like an infinitely less interesting vision of Index, but what do I know?
Crisu: I do find myself judging the series pretty heavily on the one or two promo art shots and a brief synopsis.  It’s skewed, but I guess that’s how busy people do it, so first impressions are absolute.  This one attracts me with the hair colors.  x.x  And hey, some more futuristic magic it looks like.  Index had its fast and slow parts – maybe this one will have better pacing.

Zan Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei
13 episodes, starts in July, SHAFT

Rakuen: I swear I’m going to catch up on this series eventually!  Would be a watch if I hadn’t missed the entire last season.
CJ: Eh, never got into it, partly because season one’s OP gave me the heebie-jeebies. @_@;;
Crisu: I enjoy satire and punny humor, but somehow the series lost me last season.  x.x  Maybe it was TOO random.  At least I’ll still hear from others about what crazy reference they think up next.
Janette: I have to be blunt and honest, and while there are many people I know and love who enjoy this show, I think it’s sick that this show has gotten as much attention as it has. The fact that it’s about a man so deep in despair that he’s trying to kill himself is not funny, and should not not be played for laughs.

(Admin note: Information beneath each title goes in the order [# of episodes], [airing start month/date], [studio name]. Since there were surprisingly few confirmed series length availible this season, we often had to omit that information or make a best guess. Guesses are based on past studio history, or in the case of sequels, previous series length. All info is subject to change except for the studios, which obviously have a very slim chance of changing. If any major changes occur, we’ll try to update that here ASAP.)