Summer 2008 Watch List

[niko]

I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record, with all this anime yammering lately.  It's better than not posting at all, I guess. :)

So far, Summer has much slimmer pickings than with Spring, but there are still a few that I'm excited for, and a few others that I'll at least check out:

June 21
Telepathy Shoujo Ran - Seems like a fairly good-natured, slice-of-life-ish sort of show with a paranormal twist.  Will either be very boring or rather charming.

July 1
Ultraviolet: Code 044 - Not expecting this to be of long-term interest, but it has the novelty factor of being a twist on a western franchise.

July 3
Antique Bakery -  Yay! YAYAYAYAYAYAY! Between this and the Greenwood live-action (see below), Summer 2008 makes me very, very happy.  I just noticed that Miki Shinichiro is playing Ono, which is not a casting choice I would have expected, but I think it will work very well.  Happy days. :)

July 5
Ryoko's Case Files - My third one I'm looking forward to, mainly for the character designs.  Narumi Kakinouchi did the character designs for the novels/manga (?) of this series, and I have an artbook of her work for it.  I quite liked the artbook, even though I knew nothing about the series, so I was pleased to see an anime for it on the schedule.

July 7
Natsume Yuujinchou - I'm not really keen on the whole spiritualist sort of tone, but the character designs are nice and it looks like it has some high production values, so it's worth a look.

World Destruction - Looks fantasy-ish, so it'll get a shot. :)

Unknown Dates
Here is Greenwood (live action) - Massive, ear-shattering squee!  Check out the cast: http://www.greenwood-tv.com/   The guy playing Hasukawa is just about the most adorable thing *ever*.  Greenwood is one of my favorite series and I've always been rather sad that the manga-ka never really did much else, as I think her comedic sense in Greenwood was absolutely *brilliant*.  I've always gotten a little weepy in the pit of my stomach when I've thought about there being so little canon for these wonderful characters.  So, it's a huge thrill to have it come back, even if I am a bit leery of live-action adaptations.

Chocolate Underground - A bit of a kooky premise (chocolate is outlawed, so some teens start a smuggling operation), which could be hit or miss (or both at once... see Library Wars).  But the look of the show kinda puts me in mind of Bruno & Boots type school-days hijinx, which gives it a little extra appeal.