The spring 2013 season of anime is underway, and CrunchyRoll has killed it in terms of snatching up licenses. I’ve already picked a few of them up to watch, check out my initial thoughts below.

Note: All of these series can be found on the CrunchyRoll Spring Lineup Page.

Shingeki No Kyojin/Attack on Titan

Check out Attack on Titan on CrunchyRoll.

That style. That setting. That over the top awesome acrobatic titan fighting gear. If I only watched one series this year, this would be it.

It looks like the studio is rearranging the story to be more chronological compared to the manga, and in doing so if fleshing some of the characters out a bit more.  As long as it manages to pile on the heaping amounts of despair the source material delivered, I’ll be happy.

Continuing: Hunter X Hunter

This coming week marks the start of the Chimera Ant arc. This is big news. I was a fan of the original HxH run (I’m a sucker for tradition cell animation), but Madhouse Studio has done a great job at updating the series, and I can’t wait to see their approach to one of the most disturbing arcs in shonen history.

Aku No Hana/Flowers of Evil

Rotoscoped anime? I’m game. No demons, robots, or over powered main characters here. Just pure awkward and psychological high school drama.

Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet

I hope we get more of the space action that filled the first 15 minutes. Still yet, the water planet (Spoiler: IT’S EARTH!) makes for an interesting setting. Because the one thing I thought Water World was missing was a giant pilot-able death machine.

Valvrave the Liberator

I have no idea what is going on after just watching the first episode, but it seems like this series is going to have giant robots and get dark and I like it.

Severing Crime Edge

So the main character is obsessed with cutting hair and meets a girl whose hair can not be cut. Except by his special scissors. Okay I’m not so sure about this…BUT WAIT his scissors were used as a murder weapon in the past!  And now he must fight off other crazies with murder weapons. Sold.

Devil Survivor 2 THE ANIMATION

A catastrophic event has hit Japan (read: Demons have invaded Japan! AGAIN!).  Their last line of defense are a group of people who can summon their own demons through a cell phone app. Could be fun.

Arata

Seems like your standard “Main Character transported to alternate/fantasy world where he can weld a special power that will save said world from turmoil” kind of show. Except with a body swapped trope thrown in for good measure. Will probably watch while waiting for the other shows.

Majestic Prince

It’s sort of like Gundam Wing/00 but instead of being awesome the main team of pilots are all scrubs. Not sure if this show is going to try to be serious, will wait and see.

What series will you be watching?

Wow, it’s finished, and all I can say is, it’s been an incredible and awesome ride!

Read The List Episode 24 – Null & Void [Part 2]

Thanks to everyone who has read and showed support for the last couple of years!

A few fun stats (here’s the stats midway):

• The List now weighs in at approximately 83,500 words
• Average episode length is 3,480 words apeice
• Estimated body count (only discretely mentioned): 63 - up 40 from the halfway point.
• Occurrences of the word beam:  144
• Occurrences of the word nade:  92
• Occurrences of the word void:  23
• Occurrences of the word blood:  92
• Occurrences of the word explode/explosion:  51

Because I can’t help myself:  The end….or is it?

In this episode, all your questions are answered. Okay, only some of your questions are answered, because I’ve got to leave some threads hanging for part 2, right?

Read The List Episode 23 – Null & Void (Part 1)

Yep, this is the first part of the series finale, which should wrap up the story for Levi Cole’s super-hero assassinating hi-jinks.

In this episode, Levi Cole is tortured and dies! Just kidding! Or am I?

Read The List Episode 22: Inside Man

Another step closer to the real Levi Cole. Next release should be the special two part series finale – thanks for sticking with it for so long!

Levi vs Cortege vs Arachnos. In this three way bout, someone’s bound to die:

Read The List Episode 21: The Precinct

Generally while writing, I have a pretty good idea of where I want the characters to end up, and have a higher level outline to help get to that point. As I work my way to that point, the outline morphs to match the actions of the characters and the world.  Sometimes, though, the characters dictate a pretty large deviation from my plans – usually for the better.  This episode an instance of just that, with me coming to a realization at the same time as Levi, and I think it expands Arachnos’s character a little bit.  And thus, we have the sky yacht adventures!

Lacy (my wife) came up with the awesome idea of making some of our own wall art for our dinosaur themed nursery (We’re having a boy by the way! Have I mentioned that yet? We’re pretty stoked!). She did some super cute fabric/stitch dinos, and suggest video game style dinos for me. I loved the idea, and spent a couple weeks brushing up on my pixel art and making these bad boys. Above you can see the original pixel size (64 x 64 for each one), and here they are a little blown up:

Note the raptor is more likely a Deinonychus or Utahraptor at that size - the more you know★!

Tyrannosaurus is kind of doing a little shuffle or something.

Happy Triceratops dude.

That awkward moment where I haven’t officially introduced two of the remaining members of the Superior Six (or is it the Superior Four now?). Will Vignette and Synapse finally get some air time?  Find out, in episode 20 of The List!

Read The List Episode 20: New Recruits

Things are starting to come to a head.  I’ve got two more episodes planned, and then a series finale that I might split into two parts to get an even 24 episodes – if it makes sense to split it up, that is. Thanks to all my readers for sticking with it this long!

Part 2 of Martial Law!  Will this be the end of the Sin Coalition? Will Cortege get her vengeance on Arachnos?  Find out all this and more, in episode 19 of The List!

Read The List Episode 19: Martial Law (Part 2)

Will be working hard to deliver the next handful of episodes in a fashionable time frame (only 4 or 5 more to go!).  Also, one of the fans has started his own spin off series Cause and Effect, about a normal man whose life is heavily changed by the ongoing fight between Levi and the supers.  Give it a look!

Just when things are starting to culminate, I hit you with a to be continued.

Read The List Episode 18: Martial Law (Part 1)

Now with 100% more super hero on super villain action!

Sort of back on schedule, here’s this month’s episode of The List!

Read The List Episode 17 – Prison Break

Coincidentally, we just started watching the television series of the same name. I only ripped it off a little.  So far it’s doing a decent job of filling the void left by Breaking Bad and Sherlock, but what happens when they actually break out of prison?  The way I’d do it is put them in a larger, more complex and more heavily guarded prison each season to step up the ante.  And then in the end, when they break out of the last prison, they find they are in an even bigger prison.  PRISONCEPTION.