Anime Kip is Watching: Spring Already?

What a great spring for anime it is! Normally I can find one hit a season, but this season is packed with so many unique and exciting series! Not just moe crap and vampires, or moe-crap-vampires!

This December saw an anniversary preview for an upcoming MACROSS Frontier series, that began airing this April. You know this series from the Nyan Nyan video that has been posted in the chat... like... a dozen times or more. MACROSS Frontier is a beautiful series. The animation is so stunning, it nearly does look real. There is a whole cast of outstanding and unforgettable characters developing already amidst a lot of sweet battle action.
And who doesn't love our Nyan Nyan girl, Lanka, with her quirky attitude and tender sweetness... and squishy... hampster slash cellphone slash whatever device? I wholeheartedly believe that the MACROSS team intentionally orchestrated the Nyan Nyan dance to become an internet meme, à la the Haruhi dance, and others, by the way. And why not? It's given the series a lot of attention already. Check out the score done by Yoko Kanno also, the battles are set beautifully to the music played in each scene.

A short while ago I recommended, The Tower of Druaga. While the series did change direction some from the first episode, it's still a medievalish series about a party of fighters trying to take out an oppressive god from power... but it's no longer a campy, RPG-hinting series. Curse you Gonzo. You do this every time! Still looks pretty okay, though! Keep your eyes on it. I still don't understand the opening theme...

Another new anime, Allison and Lillia, has appeared. The series reminds me of Kino's Journey, but maybe a little more mellow, and a lot more Miyazaki like. A LOT more Miyazaki like. Take a look and you'll see why.
The series involves two young friends who live on a planet where the nations are divided in two on one large continent. The two nations are at war with each other, but have recently reached an armistice. Allison and her friend Wil believe they can locate a treasure that may end the war, but it will involve a long journey, all the way into enemy territory. Beautiful scenes and a relaxing beat with lots of adventure make this an exciting shonen/shojo series.

As well, ZOKU! Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei will close another excellent season soon. That's still the greatest series of all time, that will never make it on to DVD outside of Japan. But, all in all, this is an excellent season to enjoy anime! My congrats to the anime companies for turning out a couple more great series, all at once! I'm going to be busy watching them all!

Oh, and there's one more series out there that I haven't seen. A short one: Shi's Sweet Home, about a cat who loses its mother, that comes to live with another family, with all the cutesey-wootsey and tear-jerking you can fit into two minutes. Could this be the same Shi from Shii's song?