Kusada finally breaks. Better hang on, kid.

With a few exceptions, most of the shows I watched last season bear one thing in common: very few anime fans from my corner of the Internet (the best and worst of whom can be found at #raspberryheaven) would give them a chance. Even Hatsukoi Limited, which I previously mentioned is the best show from the spring 2009 season, attracted relatively few followers. (Most were too busy watching K-On! and searching for Mio fan art.) Those that actually watched Hatsukoi Limited instead of merely asking, "What's so great about another school romance show?" found a combination of light comedy and whimsical tales of first love so deftly executed I have no reservations naming it the top show of the season ahead of the initial (and already controversial) episodes of the second season of Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu.

Yuki looks bored, even for Yuki.

Haruhi II still secures second, and will presumably do well during the summer 2009 season, even if (or in my view, especially if) there really are eight episodes of "Endless Eight." That would be awesome, particularly if it drives conventional-thinking fans into sending Kyoto Animation furious letters with death threats which they can include in a The End of Haruhi movie that makes little sense but includes a bitchin' fight scene. (I secretly hope there are 15,514 episodes of "Endless Eight," and that the entire ordeal is somehow Yuki's fault and not Haruhi's at all.) I bet all the people who can't stand "Endless Eight" are the same people who skip OPs and EDs.

Natalie Portman from Leon joins the Phantom cast.

Nobody ever believes me, but Phantom ~Requiem for the Phantom is actually really good—good enough to finish third for spring 2009 (and currently lead summer 2009). Bee Train influences are obvious, but this is not El Cazador de la Bruja or Madlax. For one thing, there's a male lead. Moreover, none of the female leads have displayed any signs of lesbianism. In fact, Ein apparently really likes getting oil massages from creepy old guys. Bio Concerto is worth its weight in gold, people. I'm telling you.

Aoba, you're not even trying.

A lot of people won't watch sports anime in general or baseball anime in particular. Cross Game is at its best when it's not about baseball, to tell you the truth. I enjoy it a great deal more than Touch and what I've read of H2, but the actual baseball games in Cross Game are not as compelling as the slice-of-life stories about Kou and Aoba.

You're not exactly facing the Taisho Yakyuu Musume team now, Goro.

Major season five takes the fifth spot. I'm still watching it as there are still unsubbed episodes, but I won't be including it with the summer 2009 lineup. [Update: Advanced to fifth place after episode 120.] Assuming the fifth season is the final season of Major, I have to say this was an excellent series and I really appreciate the epic nature of the show, following Goro from childhood to adulthood. Were I to include all five seasons of Major as one work, it would easily take the top spot. Incidentally, Shimizu Kaoru still leads in the Girl of the Year rankings for 2009. This one is going to be a boat race.

Takako contemplates the future of Kannagi.

The Kannagi episode 14 OVA is every bit as good as the series. That it only places sixth should tell you just how good the competition is this time around. I hope Kannagi gets a second season.

There's a storm brewing, Peach-han.

Fresh Pretty Cure ranks seventh, but has moved up quite a bit in the summer 2009 rankings due to the fully awesome Cure Passion arc, currently underway. This is another show nobody but Precure fans seem willing to watch, but the Setsuna/Love friendship really is compelling. Every episode recently has had the kind of OH SHIT moments typically attributed to shounen jive or cheesy Gundam switcheroos. Speaking of shounen jive, Fresh Pretty Cure is very light on the "standing around talking instead of fighting" bits, and when Love cuts loose, she starts out in a normal voice but gets exponentially louder and faster (it's awesome, trust me) until you think she's about to ace someone square in the face. There is too much beam spamming, though, but episode 23 is expected to include brutal fisticuffs, so we're back to the basics. Kickass.

Needs more Ana Coppola, Black Custom.

Eighth goes to the second OVA episode of Ichigo Mashimaro Encore. This series also really could use another season. It remains entertaining and funny, and definitely does not deserve the extra baggage that keeps many people from watching it.

If Alice isn't happy, no one's happy.

Pandora Hearts is good, but weird, so anyone that might watch it probably is watching it already, and no amount of cajoling will convince anyone else to give it a try, alas. I can understand why it doesn't have broader appeal.

Ed doesn't seem to obsess about his height as much this time.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood would have fared better if it hadn't felt like watching a really long clip show. It should also do better in the rankings this summer as it diverges more from the first anime. Curiously, I'll watch countless episodes of "Endless Eight" but the deja vu sensation of the early Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood episodes really turned me off. Or maybe it's because Brotherhood halved Winry's cup size. Could be.

Asahina's daily life.

The Melancholy of Haruhi-chan got a lot better as the season went on, but it's still not as good as Petit Eva or the various Marimite specials, for example.

No! Keep your damn dirty hands off Kotori's hat!

The second episode of Da Capo: If came out during spring 2009. Pity it wasn't as good as the first installment. Then again, no Kotori arc is ever going to seem satisfying as long as Junichi remains such a putz.

I'm still amazed Mamiko Noto voiced Tomoe as a straight-up serious character.

Queen's Blade is what it is. I think it would have been infinitely better if Tomoe (the miko character) had—for no discernible reason—gone the entire series without getting naked.

Say "cheese."

Asura Cryin' faded a bit, or at least my interest did. I like all the colors, though. [Update: The end of Asura Cryin' got really shounen and kinda stopped being fun at all. Why can't it just be about humping your ghost girlfriend and every once in a while robot fights? I guess I won't be watching the second season, alas.]

Say "cheese."

Nyoron Churuya-san started out funny, but got a little tiresome towards the end, whereas its Haruhi-chan counterpart managed to improve and keep me looking forward to Haruhi II.

"Chi's!"

Good Lord, there were a lot of shows spring season. And I'm not just saying that because I watched a hundred-some episodes of Chi's Sweet Home so I could start Chi's New Address. Even with three-minute episodes, that is a lot of Chi. I could be burned out on all the kittenness, but Chi's New Address doesn't seem as good as Chi's Sweet Home. Needs more bear cat, for one thing. I also keep waiting for Chi to finally age, but for the time being she remains Yotsuba in kitten form.

Needs more Tamaki.

The first episode of To Heart 2 ad plus wasn't very good. It's pretty forgettable, alas.

I would have kept watching K-On! had it replaced Mio with Yomi.

I didn't drop any shows aside from the following series I previously mentioned: Eden of the East (8) > Shin Mazinger Z (3) > Saki (2) > Valkyria Chronicles (3) > K-On! (4) > Higepiyo (3) > Shangri-La (1).

Needs more Perrine-H. Clostermann.

I should probably exclude OVAs from future such lists. I already leave off movies. Besides, it's not possible to "drop" a movie or a one-episode OVA. Well, I guess unless one abandons it midway. I probably should have done that with The Sky Crawlers. That movie should have had a Strike Witches crossover wherein the 501st Joint Fighter Wing wipes them all out in five minutes and the movie ends. Sheesh. The damn thing felt like it was 15,513 fortnights long. (Yes, I know. Yes, I know that too.)

Sakamoto takes an early lead.

It only took me five minutes of Strike Witches TV to dislike Miyafuji. On the other hand, I'll fully support the Chiba Saeko witch in anything she does because she's doing That Voice—plus smacking Miyafuji around unnecessarily hard.

Wasn't this a Venus Versus Virus shtick?

I'm no big fan of eye patches, but having one doesn't stop Sakamoto from being the front runner. I'm also no fan of animal ears and tails, but thankfully the witches don't have them all the time.

I think the glow means someone's about to get whaled on.

And even though I've only seen one episode of Strike Witches so far, I'm going to go ahead and say the show really should be about Ayako's character from Sky Girls slipping through a Final Countdown vortex and landing in the Strike Witches universe. Then the rest of the show could be about mahou no-jo Otoha trying to fit in with the rest of the crew and fighting Neuroi whatchamacallits while trying to get home. And then a mid-season Eika guest spot. Yeah.

Eika from Sky Girls.

Perrine-H. Clostermann and Yoshika Miyafuji from Strike Witches.

Sentou Yousei Shoujo Tasukete! Mave-chan.

Having seen all three, I can say that the Strike Witches prelude has a superior score, and is better in that it has propeller and machine gun sound effects, but is otherwise inferior to Sky Girls in nearly all other aspects. However, the comparison is somewhat academic because Sentou Yousei Shoujo Tasukete! Mave-chan owns them both.

A UFO from Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu A.K.A. UFO BOOBS.

Just so you know... THRUST VECTORING? Passé. The new stardard for air supremacy is FOLK DANCING.

FOLK DANCING RULES THE SKIES. THIS BABY CAN TURN ON A DIME, UFO BOOBS STYLE.

On a more serious note, I find Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu to be an underrated OAV. Much of the directing is very well done, and is reminiscent of Futakoi Alternative and some episodes of Evangelion (mostly in the establishing shots and scene transitions). It appears the director might be relatively inexperienced, but I'd definitely be interested in seeing more of Naoyuki Itou's work.

The last few episodes have taken the show into kind of a dark place, so I'm also curious as to whether episode six will end on a complete downer.

Iriya and Asaba

I guess I should expand a bit for people unfamiliar with the show. Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu seemed like a cute enough fanservice show. The promo art was mostly cheesecake. Hence, I started referring to it as UFO BOOBS because there was no way I was going to remember its proper title, Iriya no Sora, UFO no Natsu.

The first episode had the kind of fanservice you might expect from a show with this art style, including brief nudity. Of course, it also had schoolkids packing submachine guns....

Since then, the show has gotten somewhat bloody, and a bit brutal at times. It's good, but some viewers may find it disturbing. To my knowledge, this is a six-episode OAV, with the final episode due shortly. It doesn't look as if it's going to end on a happy note, but as a credit to the show, I think I would be equally satisfied with either a happy or a depressing ending.

Daicon girl

Episode 15 of The Melody of Oblivion contained a Daicon reference.

Daicon reference in The Melody of Oblivion

This is not the first time a Gainax show has paid homage to this Daicon icon. As you'll recall, FLCL had Haruko sky-surfing on her bass while wearing a similar outfit.

Daicon reference in FLCL

For the record, Playboy bunnies sky-surfing on huge broadswords and fighting giant robots is like the best idea, ever.

All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku is a lesser known anime that's deserves way more love.

The basic premise of the original six-episode OAV is that scientist-dad has split from his wife and her military hardware family business, making off with their son and scientist-dad's android masterpiece.

Kyusaku, Ryunouke, and cat

While they're on the lam (actually while taking a piss), the kid adopts a stray cat.

Unfortunately, the cat dies after they're attacked by one of the wife's attack helicopters.

Poison-1

No problem. Scientist dad implants the brain of the cat into the android and pawns the whole package off as a high school girl.

Nuku Nuku

By the way there are plenty of the traditional anime idioms to be found here, such as the waterfall crying, the laughing eyes, and what not, but the anime on a whole does look pretty good.

Nuku Nuku pounding on Poison-1

Nuku Nuku takes a stand against the wife and her cronies so she, the boy, and scientist-dad can all live like a normal family.

All anime robots girls are required to have these ear-things

There are mecha, and giant robots, and fairly discrete fan service, and did I mention a near-indestructible high school girl robot with the brain of a cat?

Kyouko and Arisa

Sealing the deal is the the voice acting of Megumi Hayashibara (as Nuku Nuku) and Aya Hisakawa (as Arisa, the more war-mongering of the two henchmen).

Kyouko, Akiko, and Arisa

Incidentally, the wife's henchmen are fucking cool, and it's not just the killer helmets.

Akiko and Kyusaku

Episode Three features the mom trying to be domestic and traditional a la Aoi from Ai Yori Aoshi. This episode is especially hilarious. If it has any weakness at all it's that the henchmen aren't in it as much.

All six episodes of the first All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku OAV are available on one R1 DVD by ADV. There are some shitty fansubs floating around, and I do know a DVD rip was posted to USENET a few months ago. But c'mon, six episodes on one DVD—it's totally worth it.

There are also later OAVs, but I haven't seen them so I can't attest to their quality. The original OAV, though, is excellent.