Durarara!!
The episodes are adapted from the light novels of the same name written by Ryohgo Narita and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. The series follows several people in Ikebukuro: Celty Sturluson, a dullahan working as an underground courier while looking for her lost head, an internet-based anonymous gang called Dollars, and the chaos that unfolds around the most dangerous people in Ikebukuro.
Dance In The Vampire Bund
The story revolves around Mina Ţepeş, princess-ruler of all vampires, and her "protector," Akira. Like other vampires, Mina has been in hiding with her people for many years. Seeking to end centuries of isolation, Mina gains permission to create a special district for vampires, "The Bund", off the coast of Japan by paying off the national debt of the Japanese government. Mina then reveals to the world the existence of vampires and her desire for both races to live together. Tensions, however, run high as fearful humans and extremist vampire factions begin to interfere with Mina's wish for peace with the human world.
Anime: Heroman
Heroman looks every bit like the ground-breaking collaboration that it is. Created by legendary comic book creator Stan Lee and produced by BONES, it shows traits distinctive of both American and Japanese animation style, generating an effect somewhat similar to those Cartoon Network shows which are American-made but emulate anime style. It features mecha but with a more American comic book approach, has all of the characters speaking in Japanese even though it is a purely American setting, and uses Japanese sensibilities about character design quirks (especially hair, although the one character's stylish crutches are neat) and animation shortcuts (though the action scenes are nicely-animated and it has some flawless CG integration) while portraying American houses, neighborhoods, streets, and typical school apparel with reasonable accuracy. It even has Stan Lee carrying on his longtime tradition of making cameo appearances in movies and animation based on his creations; he's the old guy at the counter in the diner where Joey works.
Anime: Ichiban Ushiro no Daimaō
Poor Akuto Sai. He transfers to a prestigious magic academy to pursue a goal of bettering society by becoming a High Priest, and even makes friend with a like-minded warrior-girl classmate on the transport there, only to discover, according to a magical scanner, that he is destined to become a demon lord – and every time he tries to do something to deny it, he only unwittingly sticks his foot in his mouth. He even unwittingly embarrasses Hattori, the warrior-girl, so thoroughly that she attacks him twice, apparently not learning after the first time that Akuto can also unwittingly toss around an awful lot of power if harried. Two more girls step into the picture before the episode's end, too, but time runs out before we can learn about them.
Anime: Angel Beats!
The story is set in an afterlife which looks suspiciously like a behemoth (by Japanese standards) boarding school for high school students. In this setting one can't die anymore, but failure to resist Angel (an odd girl who calls herself the Class President and is only paused by automatic weapon fire) results in one getting “erased” - or at least that is what amnesiac high school student Otonashi is told by Yuri, the leader of the “battlefront” against Angel; one of the running jokes of the first episode is that this anti-Angel group cannot settle on a name for itself. Otonashi naturally regards the situation with trepidation, but he quickly learns the hard way that a) he will not stay dead if killed, and b) Angel, for all her harmless appearance and demeanor, is not someone to be trifled with. The rest he will have to sort out with time.
Anime: Hakuōki
The legendary Shinsengumi of 1860s Kyoto have frequently been fare for portrayal in some anime or another, often with highly creative interpretations; this supernatural-tinged, bishonen-oriented take is merely the latest approach. In this version, a young woman named Chizuru Yukimura has come to Kyoto disguised as a boy to find her father, a doctor of Western medicine who had come to Kyoto a few months earlier but had suddenly ceased contact with her after a time. In the process she runs afoul of outlaws and some monstrously-transformed warriors, who are quickly dispatched by actual Shinsengumi members. Chizuru soon finds herself under the Shinsengumi's “supervision” (read: house arrest) when they discover that she is the daughter of a man that they have been looking for themselves since his place of work burned down a month earlier.
Anime: House of Five Leaves
A small summary what this anime is about. Masanosuke is a ronin who's seriously down on his luck; he's been fired by his boss and doesn't have much to his name. His fate changes when he meets Yaichi, who inexplicably hires him on as a bodyguard. Turns out the enigmatic, seemingly carefree Yaichi is part of a small, mysterious band of noble robbers called The Five Leaves, and Yaichi wants Masanosuke – physically imposing but lacking in bravado, still hung up on the Samurai ethos – to join them.
Anime: Senkō no Night Raid
The main characters, there appear to be four of them, are a group of super-powered special agents working for the Japanese military in Shanghai during the early part of the Chinese civil war. The first episode focuses mostly on a night-time extraction mission where the viewer gets a glimpse of the agents' special powers. The rest of the episode is mostly dedicated to set-up and well crafted expository dialog that makes it clear that Night Raid is not likely to be a fast-paced, action-only adventure. This is going to be a thinking man's (or woman's) show with deep political intrigue and unexpected plot twists, occasionally punctuated by explosive action sequences. I will post a more elaborate review once I have seen a couple of episodes.
