By: Danielle Judka
Mahou Sensou (Airs January 10, 2014)
By the folks at Madhouse, this show is supposed to be action packed with magical goodness and school life drama. The preview introduces our protagonist, Takeshi Nanase, with this “dark and brooding past” and a wish to live a normal life. While he and those around him have special powers, Takeshi’s0 fate in particular is unique and will supposedly shake the lives of those around him. This anime is based off its novelization and the currently running manga adaptation. I didn’t pick up the series until recently, so I can’t really say if the series is looking to be excellent or not. But it’s pretty hard to mess up anime about magic powers. Most of the time they are just nice to watch. So give it try and see how you like it!
Action, School Life, Fantasy, Magic
Strange+ (Airs January 10, 2014)
I don’t know much about this series, other than that it is hilarious. I never heard of the studio Seven, but from what I saw, they produce some nice looking stuff. The voice acting seems excellent, so this show has some excellent potential. The show focuses on the comedic antics of a detective agency. While our protagonist, Kou, tries finding his brother, he ends up working there as well. There’s not much to go off on, but it’s worth a shot.
Comedy, Slice of Life, Adventure
Wizard Barriesters: Benmashi Cecil (Airs January 13, 2014)
To be honest, I read the title of the show as “Wizard Baristas” and expected a show about battling baristas…but I guess I’m not getting that. The preview left me craving for so much more, especially because the transition from insane amounts of action to revealing our female lead running to school late was executed so well that I needed to see more. While I am not familiar with the studio Arms, they did bring us “Genshiken,” “Ikkkitousen,” and “Queen’s Blade.” We return to the theme of magic users coexisting with humans, except this time there is a police force that goes after illegal magic users and brings them to court. While I hope most of the show isn’t “catch bad guy A” and “go to court with bad guy,” that’s looking to be the case. I hope I’m wrong, though. Our female lead, Cecil, is particularly special for being the youngest of a group called “Benmashi,” a group of magic defenders.
Action, Magic, Supernatural
Nisekoi (Airs January 11, 2014)
I love Nisekoi, and it’s about time they finally got around to animating it. Having SHAFT as the animation studio means I’ll probably be seeing some funky impressions on this series as well, and I applaud them for making things unique. As a JUMP title that takes place in high school, all the drama and comedy you could think of probably will happen in this series. The cast is colorful, the comedy is everywhere, and for sure, with the bountiful amounts source material, we are bound to have an excellent show.
Shounen, Comedy, Romance
Sugar Soldier (Airs January 14, 2014)
Is it sad that I forgot that I was reading this until I heard it was going to be animated? To be honest the content of the manga was not all that great, and of all the shoujo titles that I would have LOVED to see animated, this is not one of them. The focus on this show is our female lead, Makoto, who lives in the shadow of her hotshot super model sister. Makoto is determined to shine in her high school life, but too bad for her, her sister just so happens to start attending the same school as her – oh, the drama! From what I know, this series will be very short and sweet, as it should be seeing as there’s quite a lack of content for them to actually go upon.
Shoujo
image source: http://www.entravity.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/winter-2014-anime.jpg
