Fall 2011 Anime -- Impressions

Chihayafuru

Here are my personal reactions to most of the new shows. Fate/Zero, Horizon, and Boku ha Tomodachi ga Sukunai ("Haganai") are the most popular shows with anime watchers in Japan and overseas.

But my own favorite shows are Chihayafuru, Kimi to Boku, Ben-Tou, Guilty Crown, Haganai, and Last Exile. Mirai Nikki is pretty powerful, too.

Anyway, here's the list, in alphabetical order, with some comments:

● Ad-lib Anime Laboratory -- Katou Emiri, Fukuhara Kaori, and a guest (Sakurai Takahiro and Kobayashi Yuu, so far) ad-lib lines from which a short anime is then made. Highly enjoyable for watching the seiyuus work, but the anime produced aren't that interesting.
● Ben-Tou -- Absurdly hilarious story about supermarket battles over half-price bentos. No, really. Yuuki Aoi is terrific as the fujoshi battle-watcher. So is Kayano Ai as the vicious class president. Good work also from Ise Mariya and Shimono Hiro. Sleeper hit.
● Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai  -- Friendless misfits of various kinds create a club whose aim is to make friends. Funny and well produced. One of the most popular shows of the season.

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Fall Anime Popularity in Japan and in the West

Here's a quick tabulation of posts that gives some idea of how popular the various fall anime are in Japan and abroad.

Fate/Zero is the clear winner in Japan -- although Shana may be a close competitor. It's not possible to tell how many of its 242 threads of posts are for earlier series.

Gundam AGE seems to be far more interesting to posters abroad than it is in Japan. Horizon and Persona 4 are a bit more popular in Japan than overseas.

Anyway, here are the figures:

2channel (thousand-post threads)

Fate/Zero	100
Horizon	56
Persona 4	50
Haganai	38
Ika Musume	36
Gundam AGE	33
HunterxHunter	24
Guilty Crown	22
Last Exile Fam	20
Ben-Tou	16
Chihayafuru	12
C3	11
Mashiro-iro Symphony	11
Majikoi	10
Tamayura Hitotose	8
Maken-ki	6
Kimi to Boku	6
Un-Go	5
gdgd Fairies	5
Phi Brain	3

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