Fall 2010 Anime Impressions – Ore no Imouto ga Konna ni Kawaii Wake ga Nai

Also known as Ore no Imouto, Oreimo, and My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute.

Quietly AIC has been putting a string of hits together over the last year and a half that has pushed them from an all-right anime studio to one of the top-tier studios. It was this new found credibility and good-looking character designs that convinced me to try this show out since the premise actively turned me off. How’d it do? The answer could be shocking or maybe it’s not.

Spring 2010 Anime Impressions – Mayoi Neko Overrun

AIC is one of those animation studios that really puzzle me. Most larger animation studios have multiple animation teams that can work concurrently but AIC seems like the only animation studio that so formerly breaks it down; there’s AIC, AIC Plus+, AIC Spirits, and AIC A.S.T.A.. Each sub-studio has done good work, for example, AIC A.S.T.A. was responsible for the excellent comedies Tenshi Senshi Sunred, Sora no Otoshimono (which is getting a second season and was just licensed 🙂 ) and Bamboo Blade. AIC Plus+ with the slice-of-life/comedy G.A. Art Design Class and AIC Spirits with Ga-Rei: Zero. Of these studios AIC A.S.T.A. has been the most consistently good studio and the most inconsistent has been AIC. They did very well with Sasameki Koto, Asu no Yoichi!, but only  slightly good work with Nyan Koi and yawn-inducing work with Ookami Kakushi. With Mayoi Neko Overrun being produced by AIC, this makes prognosticating the quality extremely difficult but it was worth a look.

Top Picks – Fall 2009 Anime, Part 3: VMA Awards

The final set of awards before going to my top shows of the season cover the music, vocal actors, and animation aspects of this season’s anime. Or the three parts to anime that are heavily dependent on the preferences of the individual viewer. 🙂

Shock of the Season – Asu no Yoichi is a Pretty Good Show

When I say pretty good, I mean just that. It’s been an entertaining show that’s kept my attention well beyond what the generic harem-esque premise should have been capable of. Now, I’m not saying that it deserves to be ranked up with the excellent shows of the season like Toradora but it’s definitely no where near the bottom. In fact, I’d place Asu no Yoichi above several current shows like Maria+holic that should have been able to leave Asu no Yoichi in the dust but haven’t. I decided to figure out, if I could, exactly why this show has been so successful. (Manga and Anime spoilers ahead.)