January Summary: The Cycle Starts Again

Note: This will be stickied as the main post for a while, other new posts will be below this one.

Well, the monthly summaries are back! I really enjoyed doing these as it gave me a good post to talk about all of the current series i’m watching. Overall, Winter has been quite solid: only one really weak series and a couple of decent to meh ones. I’m going to be a little more in-depth with this summary, plus 10 new series have joined the 5 still airing fall series for a grand total of 15!

Ano Natsu de Matteru – 04

Short Summary: Kaito and Ichika find ways to approach each other after what happened at the train station, while they meet Tetsurou’s sister Manami. They eventually go back to their regular selves. After the final exams, the beginning of “that summer” starts.

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi – 05

Short Summary: A flashback to Natsume’s middle school days, from his perspective and that of Ogata Yuriko. She had visited a shrine when she saw a sleeping Natsume and tried to wake up only for him to get startled and kicked her. Afterwards, Ogata gets to learn more about Natsume and the youkai that attacked him on the day she met him. The youkai was only interested in taunting Natsume, there was no curse or threat of death to be made because the youkai didn’t like him. His role was to protect the shrine and to take a suffering meant for a human, like protecting Ogata from being hit by a car in the present day. Natsume says that he had a great time there and he wishes Ogata the best.

Area no Kishi – 04

Short Summary: Kakeru continues to refuse to play soccer after the accident, but once again “Grey” challenges him to a game taking advantage of his weakness. Grey is revealed to be Seven and tells Kakeru that Suguru asked her to challenge him to use his left leg. He runs home and into Suguru’s room when he finds his diary on the table. He reads it and finally understands the meaning of why Suguru gave Kakeru his heart: he had found the knight of the penalty area, his brother. Kakeru is determined to use his second chance at life to achieve the dream that his brother wanted.

Senki Zesshou Symphogear – 04

Short Summary: A brief look into Kanade’s past and her relationship with Tsubasa. Meanwhile, the new Symphogear user, Setsuin Chris, in the Neushtan(?) armor attacks Tsubasa but her real intention is to take Hibiki. Struggling to hold her own, Tsubasa releases her swan song heavily damaging Chris and almost dying from using the song. Hibiki realizes that she needs to be stronger and can’t rely on others – namely Kanade and Tsubasa – to constantly watch out for her. She seeks Genjuurou’s help to become stronger while struggling on whether to tell Miku about her Symphogear powers.

Inu x Boku SS – 03

Short Summary: An episode centered on Ririchiyo’s past with her reasons of being a proto-tsundere. Soushi tries his best to work with Ririchiyo but her confusing personality keeps him at a distance. Ririchiyo attends her first day of high school, in the same class as Karuta. An upcoming party at the Ayakashi Mansion and some new characters arrive after the ending.

Ano Natsu de Matteru – 03

Short Summary:  Alot of misunderstandings with regards to Kaito and Ichika, Kaito and Kanna, Tetsurou and Mio though the latter two issues are instigated by the aspiring troll, Remon. Kaito accidentally reveals that he has feelings for Ichika.

Fate/Prototype – 01

Well, this is interesting. A “what-if” short OVA about the origins of Fate/Stay night if Saber was to be male and the main character was to be female. Even if this was a very short “trailer” of sorts, i actually quite enjoyed seeing a new perspective on the Fate/series waiting for part 2 of Fate/Zero and almost complete with the F/SN visual novel. What we have here is Ayaka Sajou (Kana Hanazawa) who’s father and sister fought in the Holy Grail Wars in the past. She feels that she’s too inexperienced to participate in the war, but that doesn’t stop Lancer (Kazuya Nakai) and Faan Sakureido (Takehito Koyasu) from trying to drag her into it. Much like Shirou’s accidental summoning of Saber, we see almost the exact same thing unfold with a impressive entrance by Saber (Takahiro Sakurai). Tons of screenshots below the fold!

Natsume Yuujinchou Shi – 04

Short Summary: Yobito, a youkai who can mimic the voice of anyone asks Natsume to help him summon Karikami, another youkai who can repair a letter that was left by a young woman named Touko at a small shrine. Yobito tells Natsume the story of how he came to know Touko. Afterwards, Karikami repairs the letter in exchange for getting his name back from the Book of Friends. When Yobito asks Natsume to read it as he cannot understand human writing, Natsume smiles and tells Yobito what she wrote: “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

Inu x Boku SS – 02

Short Summary: Ririchiyo continues her new life at the Ayakashi-don with Soushi, while reaching out to him in her own way. Another episode with wacky antics, misunderstandings, sparkly bishies and a heartwarming last scene.