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It seemed like only yesterday that we were talking about the winter lineup, and here we are a month away from the beginning of the fall season. Whereas last season was, overall, a lot of new shows or adaptations, this season starts off with quite a large variety of sequels, along with some original IPs that seem interesting enough.

There are too many shows airing next season, you’ll probably only like a couple, if you’re lucky, so why go through the trouble when we can do it for you? Read on to avoid having to watch a single second of a show plagued of gratuitous moe fan service, no actual plot and empty characters… you know, unless that’s your kinda thing.

Full Metal Alchemist

This is not the second season of the anime, but rather a series reboot, this time sticking closer to the manga. This tells the story of of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who try to bring back their dead mother using alchemy. They screw up, and Edward loses his arm, while Al loses his entire body, and ends up getting his soul placed in a suit of armor. Thus begins their quest to find the Philosopher’s Stone, to repair their bodies.

The first anime adaptation was close enough to the manga adaptation and only started to veer from the manga plot in the second half of the series, so one could wonder how different this show will be at the beginning. One thing is certain, though. This is bound to be one of the best shows of the season, given the quality of the manga

• Genre: Fantasy
• Studio: BONES
• You’ll like this if you liked: Scrapped Princess, other BONES series
• Air Date: April 5th on TBS
• [WEBSITE]

K-ON!

This announcement came somewhat out of the blue. Instead of announcing something all the fans wanted like more Haruhi, Kyoto Animation come out with K-ON!

An anime adaptation of a 4koma manga about a group of 4 girls trying to revive their school’s music club despite not knowing how to play music well or read sheet music. KyoAni seems to have a knack for choosing good titles to work on, so we can probably bet on this being good, or at least the inevitable character CDs will be.

• Genre: Slice of Life, Music
• Studio: Kyoto Animation
• You’ll like this if you liked: Nodame Cantibile, BECK
• Air Date: April on TBS
• [WEBSITE]

Hayate no Gotoku Season 2

The sequel to everyone’s favorite butler with a poor face, Ayasaki Hayate. In order to pay back a 150 million yen debt, Hayate must work for Nagi Springfield as a butler. This show basically revolves around parodies of older anime and manga, and is very episodic in nature. The first season was a whole 52 episodes, so  one could wonder if they’re going to make it last that long this time around. There’s an OVA that is out as of March 6th, and the second season picks up in April. Unlike the first season, which was done by SynergySP, this season is being handled by JC Staff

• Genre: Harem, Parody
• Studio: JC Staff
• You’ll like this if you liked: Excel Saga, Cromartie High
• Air Date: April 3rd on TV Tokyo
• [WEBSITE]

Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom~

This is the next iteration in Bee Train’s seemingly endless girls-with-guns series of works. This time around   we’re getting an anime adaptation of the 2000 visual novel Phantom of Inferno, by the guys at Nitro Plus(behind Chaos;Head and Sayo no Uta). It follows the story of a 15 year old Japanese boy who gets kidnapped after witnessing the assassination of a journalist by Inferno, a girl who’s part of a group of assassins. He’s forced to work with her on various jobs.

The Visual Novel came out a way back, but there were two very distinct paths, one going more for a mystery aspect, and another for the romantic side. My bet would be on them going for the mystery aspect, but knowing that Bee Train’s brainstorming sessions are based on alcohol, who knows.

• Genre: Action,Mystery,Romance(?
• Studio: Bee Train
• You’ll like this if you liked: Madlax, Noir
• Air Date: April 2nd on TV Tokyo
• [WEBSITE]

Dragonball Z Remastered

Akira Toriyama’s classic tale of Son Goku and company is getting a remastering this April. While this won’t ever convince someone who wasn’t a fan of the old series to watch it, this will be fun for those were fans back in the day or those who were interested in seeing what the fuss is all about. The series is being re-edited so that it will be a bit shorter (perhaps this time around, 30 minutes on Namek might only last 5 episodes instead of 10), and is being broadcast in HD.

• Genre: Action
• Studio: Toei Animation
• You’ll like this if you liked: Naruto, Dragonball
• Air Date: April 5th on Fuji TV

Eden of the East

Production IG, behind the Ghost in the Shell movies and series along with Toshokan Sensou, are premiering  Eden of the East, an original IP, this April.

In 2011, 3 months after “Careless Monday”, a terrorist attack in Japan that causes no casualties, Saki Morimi is visiting the USA for a graduation trip. But after getting in a bit of a scuffle in DC, she gets saved by another Japanese man, Akira Takizawa, an amnesiac who is stark naked with only a gun and a cell phone with 8.2 billion yen of credit.

Production IG is very well known for the animation quality of its works, and Eden of the East’s director (Kenji Kamiyama) was also behind the GiTS series, with character designs by Honey and Clover‘s Chika Umino.

Granted, a lot of IG’s shows could be classified as “boring”, but for those who enjoy shows with some political depth(maybe to the detriment of the pacing of the show), Eden of the Easy will likely be enjoyable.

• Genre: Action, Political
• Studio: Production IG
• You’ll like this if you liked: Ghost in the Shell, Guardian of the Spirit
• Air Date: April 9th
• [WEBSITE]

Natsu no Arashi

13-year-old Hajime Yasaka meets Sayako “Arashi” Arashiyama, an older high school girl, in a coffee shop  while on vacation. During this meeting, someone shoes up to bring Arashi back to her family. Hajime protects her, and she’s rather grateful of this. However, Hajime soon finds out something quite shocking in seeing Arashi in a 40 year old picture… looking exactly the same. Turns out that she’s a ghost from the past.

The manga was done by Jin Kobayashi of School Rumble fame, but it has a slightly more “normal” feel to it despite the premise. SHAFT is handling the adaptation, so we shouldn’t have many worries.

• Genre: Romantic Comedy
• Studio: SHAFT
• You’ll like this if you liked: School Rumble, Kamichu
• Air Date: April 5th
• [WEBSITE]

OVA continuations

Many shows end up getting OVAs instead of a full season. Here’s a list of the more important ones coming out this season.

• To Love-Ru   (April 3rd)
• Koihime Musou  (April 1st)
• Spice and Wolf  (April 30th)
• Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei (March 25th and May)
• Ichigo Mashimaro (March 25th)
• Tsubasa  (April 25th)
• xxxHolic (May 5th)

Honorable Mentions

Not all shows have that much information out there yet, but they seem to have promise. Here’s a list of shows to watch out for:

• Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: A battle between two heroes from some of the longest running series ever.
• Ristorante Paradiso: A girl ends up working in her stepfather’s restaurant.
• Basquash: In the future, a kid plays a game of basketball against giant robots
• Saki: A girl who hates mahjong despite being good at it joins her school’s mahjong club
• Queens Blade: Girls with giant breasts fighting each other. This season’s Sekirei.

Overall, this season is looking pretty exciting. Sure, we’re a little lacking on the harem/Visual Novel adaptation side, but what we get in return is the continuation of several excellent series and a couple of new shows from some of anime’s biggest industry giants. Too bad we couldn’t have a a certain sequel to accompany us.  So, what are you looking forward to watching this season? Is there something that we forgot to talk about? Let us know in the comments!