Himitsu Top Secret
Reiko Shimizu’s mystery manga gets an adaptation from Madhouse. Yet another show with little in the way of amazing staff, however it’s a mystery show and Iwa Ni Hana is excited by it so I will check it. I’m hoping with all these shows directed by folks with little in the way of amazing back catalogues that we’ll get some talent breaking out, though I’ve not got my hopes up though as most have mediocre non-direction credits too.
Library War
This is going in the successful noitaminA slot in April, so I’m expecting a well made series. It’s from Production IG (is that 3 shows so far this spring?) and it’s far more appealing than RS or xxxHolic to me. This is possibly the show where we may get a talent noticed. Director Takayuki Hamana was on Hakkenden, Jin-Roh and Yuasa’s Vampiyan Kids pilot, but has been entrenched in Prince of Tennis lately, only getting out to do the Sisters of Wellber series (are these any good btw?). The noitaminA shows have been successfully filling the gap between otaku fodder and kids/family shows, and this shouldn’t be any different.
BLASSREITER
More Gonzo. More Shadow Monsters. These shadow monsters are people who turn into demons at will. Goddamn it, now I want a new Devilman series more than ever.
As much as I rip on GONZO, at least they actually post trailers themselves on Youtube, rather than paranoidly remove all potential promotion for their product from the site. From watching the BLASSREITER trailer I have to say it looks tech demo-tastic, which is one of GONZO’s many bad habits.
Nijuu Menzou Musume aka Chiko, Heiress of the Phantom Thief
Again BONES are doing two new series concurrently, last year they had Darker Than Black and Skullman running and DtB suffered. This is a co-production with Telecom, who have plenty of swell credits of their own. This is Ranpo Edogawa pillaging along the lines of Detective Conan’s Kaito Kid. The director is Telecom veteran Nobuo Tomizawa who recently did the far better than you’d ever expect, Ramen Fighter Miki, as well as various Telecom works from Japan, the US and beyond.