I have been meaning to watch Ideon for awhile now, so might as well start now when there are no major video game releases for awhile...

Back in the 80's mecha intros were all about manliness, a very different style from more recent mecha (think Gundam 00 S2 ed).

Ideon is probably one of the ugliest mechas I have ever seen, though hard to make combining mecha look good I suppose.

Apparently their war cry also summons the war god, Amuro.

Except this time with a mutant squirrel instead of a robotic sphere.

Ugliest pilot helmet ever.

Amuro with a 'fro.

Have to love Tomino, people get wrecked.

Their mecha remind me of Macross' Regults.

I like how the mecha can beat tanks fairly easy but are easy prey for the lightsaber wielding Bes.

The proverbial hot knife through butter.

Source Amazon.co.jp.

Source Amazon.co.jp.

Sengoku Basara

Release Date: 04/01/2009

Director: Itsuro Kawasaki

Kawasaki directed both “Rental Magica” and currently airing “Regios”. I can’t say either of those series were better than ok, so we will have to see.
Side note: Honami-han made me much more interested in “Rental Magica” than it otherwise warranted…she needs a GK =/.

Animation Team: Production I.G

Music: It looks like music is being produced by flyingDOG.

flyingDog is a major producer of anime music, they produced the soundtrack for “Macross F”, which was awesome.

Seiyuu:
Date Masamune : Kazuya Nakai – Zoro (”One Piece”) , Mugen (”Samurai Champloo”)
Oda Nobunaga: Norio Wakamoto – Charles Brittania (”Code Geass”)
Sanada Yukimura : Souichiro Hoshi – Brera (”Macross F”), Kira (”Gundam Seed”)

Wakamoto is one of my favorite male seiyuu, whose range of ability is wide. His performance as Charles in “Code Geass” was great and he made Onsokumaru from “Ninin ga Shinobuden”  hilarious. Casting him as Oda Nobunaga will do a lot to make this series even more enjoyable. That being said Japanese historical anime tend to not fare too well in the States because they often assume a certain amount of knowledgen. The flash back arc in “Tenjo Tenge” made foreigners scratch their heads, while natives, I imagine, recognized what was going on.

More Information: AniDB. ANN.
Extras: Wallpaper. Trailers.

Queen`s Blade: Rurou no Senshi

Release Date: 04/02/2009

Director: Kinji Yoshimoto

Unsurprisingly they have hired a hentai director for this series. He directed “Night Shift Nurses:Experiment” and did character design for “La Blue Girl”. Apparently he also directed “Genshiken S2″, which slightly raises my interest in this.

Production: GENCO

GENCO has done production on quite a few well done series. Both “Toradora” and “Maria Holic” are recent productions of theirs. They also produced “Nodame Cantabile,” “Honey and Clover,” and “Genshiken.” So at the very least they have an eye for popular series.

Animation Team: ARMS

ARMS has done quite a few hentai titles (”KITE”) but was also responsible for “Genshiken S2″. Not really sure how animation will stack on this one, It seemed alright in “Genshiken S2″ but we will have to see.

Seiyuu:
Claudette: Atsuko Tanaka – Motoko Kusanagi(”Ghost in the Shell”)
Nanael: Aya Hirano – Haruhi-sama (”Haruhi no Yuutsu”)
Leina: Ayako Kawasumi – Nodame (”Nodame Cantabile”)
Tomoe: Mamiko Noto – Yakumo Tsukamoto (”School Rumble”)

For whatever else this series will be, they brought out the seiyuu powerhouses for this show. Chances are talking bad about this show might just get you stoned in some part of the internet.

Commentary: For my part I will give it a chance, but I am not so sure about the armor design in this show. I have no idea how she keeps that metal plate on her chest. At the very least it isn’t as immediately annoyingly. Claymore’s sword design was pathetic, which inevitably made me drop the manga.

More Information: AniDB. ANN.
Extras: Trailer. Official Site has wallpapers if you click special (Flash only websites are lame).

Asura Cryin’

Release Date: 04/02/2009

Director: Keizou Kusakawa

Kusakawa has done quite a bit, he directed ‘Nanoha” as well as it’s subsequent sequels. He has also directed “Tsukuyomi: Moonphase,” “Sekirei” and “Triangle Heart.” That being said, “Sekirei” was a horrible anime and “Moonphase” was merely average.

Producer: Starchild Records

Starchild has a huge list of hits under its belt both musically and anime wise. Anime music production of note are “Neon Genesis Evangeleion,” “FLCL,” and “Toradora.”

The OP/ED are done by angela who also did the OP/ED for “Stelvia” and “Fafner” both of which were pretty good.

Animation Team: Seven Arc (”Sekirei,” “Nanoha,” “White Album”)

We can probably expect decent animation though nothing spectacular. I haven’t seen “Nanoha” to comment but their work seems to be appropriate for dramas containing a little bit of action, though I hope they don’t try the photoshop filter nonsense they have been pulling in “White Album.”

Seiyuu:
Tomoharu Natsume: Miyu Irino – Saji Crossroad(”Gundam 00″) , Sena (”Eyeshield 21″)
Kanade Takatsuki: Ai Nonoka – Shima Katase (”Stellvia of the Universe”)

Guessing by the seiyuu choice, Tomoharu will be a wimp who will be bullied in the beginning before attaining godlike powers.

More Information: AniDB. ANN.
Extras: Trailer.

This is an actual scene, not an eyecatch.

Animation was very pretty throughout the series, even though they did reuse images for fight scenes quite a bit,especially, towards the end of the series. The final episode showed quite a few budget saving clips, though it is to be expected that towards the end that they would be running a bit low on cash.

As gar as bishounen get.

The Seiyuu did a fantastic job here. Yuko Minaguchi did a great job as Ringo, especially the final scene which was fantastic. Toru Furuya did a great job as usual, he is type-casted to low-key slightly depressed characters, and his performance with Casshern shows why. Kenji Utsumi did a pretty good job as Braiking Boss, though he didn’t really have that much screen time in this show.

Move over Bison.

私は死になる。

I loved the ending scene. Set to: A Path by Nami Miyahara (who was also Lyuze) which also apeared in episode 8 was a great scene setter. The ending provided closure to the series and an “everything is set right” feel to the show.

A girl and her dog.

There were only a few points left at the end that bothered me.

At one point Casshern and the others found a stone that had some connection to Luna, but it was never expounded on beyond Oji will be researching it.

The creators of the show did not provide a clear division on who was human or robot. Often robots would bleed or cry, so it was impossible for the audience to decide what they were unless it was explicitly stated. I ended up just deciding that everyone who looked human was a cyborg.

Friender is supposed to be able to breathe fire!

Judgment: 7/10. Too many of the episodes were meaningless and the action scenes lacked any sense of urgency since the main character is, well you know, immortal. Even the final fight with Braiking Boss was quickly over and only enough to whet the tongue. I realize that this is not a shounen anime per se but that does not mean I wouldn’t like to see Braiking Boss lay down the law for a few minutes.

Don't feel bad, my numbers are arbitrary.