Winter 2013 anime preview

Written by A. H. on 18 Dec 2012

I realise it's a bit clichéd to say so, but boy has 2012 gone fast, and if there's one moment in time when we have to accept that a new year is almost upon us it's that moment where we start writing our first new anime season preview guide for 2013.

Typically speaking, the winter season isn't one of the year's most illustrious, but with over thirty shows airing for winter 2013 there's no shortage of new anime to choose from.  But what should we be looking forward to?  This, of course, is where our preview guide (hopefully) comes in handy... so, without further ado, let's glance over the potential highs and lows of this coming winter season!

Ai Mai Mi

You can't have a new anime season without at least one four-panel manga adaptation, and we get one in early for this season with Ai Mai Mi, a nonsensical comedy series that follows four girls who belong to a manga club but spend more time dealing with alien invasions and other outlandish goings-on than they actually do drawing.

Should I watch it?  Four-panel manga adaptations fail more often than they succeed with some notable exceptions, and without a big-name studio attached to this project it feels like it'll probably end up in the "also-rans" category unless you're a massive fan of absurdist humour.

AKB0048 Next Stage

Transplanting the music of AKB48 into a futuristic sci-fi setting was always going to be an odd proposition, and AKB0048 was thus suitably weird, telling as it did its anime original story of a universe where entertainment is banned, leaving the idol group AKB0048 to fight to bring their music to the world via guerrilla concerts laced with mecha, glowstick missiles and light saber microphones - I kid you not.  With its story not resolved at the end of the first season, the series returns this winter as Satelight bring us to the "Next Stage" of the story of Nagisa and her fellow AKB0048 wannabes.

Should I watch it?  Crazy and occasionally fan service-led though it was, AKB0048 was a messy but fun series that perhaps took itself too seriously at times but still quite frequently delivered on its premise.  You'll need to have seen the first season of the show to understand the intricacies of its story, but assuming that you enjoyed that ride you'll want to be on-board for more of the same to see where the show is ultimately headed.

Amnesia

Brain's Base try their hand at an otome game adaptation this winter via Amnesia, the tale of a girl who (as the title suggests) wakes up finding herself without any memories of her past.  Luckily for her, she quickly encounters a boy claiming to be a spirit here to help her collect her memories - memories that she'll need to recall soon giving that a man claiming to be her boyfriend puts in an appearance.

Should I watch it?  It seems like a pretty by the numbers otome game adaptation, but if that is your kind of thing then you can at least be assured of Brain's Base doing a decent job of bringing the source material to the small screen.

Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman

Another increasingly common area for anime adaptations to mime these days is the pachinko game, which brings us to Bakumatsu Gijinden Roman, a TMS Entertainment series based upon just such a game and notable for the fact that its character designs come from none other than Monkey Punch, the creator of Lupin III.  The show's story centres around Roman, an assistant by day but a phantom thief who by night, stealing back items for those who have had them unjustly taken away against the backdrop of the end of the shogun's rule over Japan.

Should I watch it?  In spite of its origins, the involvement of Monkey Punch and a slightly Lupin-esuqe concept actually makes this sound pretty interesting - it may fall flat on its face, but it certainly sounds like an idea with legs so might be worth a peek.

Beast Saga

One of this season's "blatant toy commercial" anime outings is Beast Saga - the story of a distant planet where three tribes fight to protect the elemental power sources in their possession, and a story that just so happens to be backed up by Takara Tomy toys and games.

Should I watch it?  One for the kids maybe, but don't blame me when they start asking for toys you can't buy over here.