I Watch Cartoon Porn for the Porn – Autumn 2007

I don’t know about you but I am shallow. Like a duck. Like algebra. Like sunshine raining down…on uncovered SKIN THAT IS! But I don’t go so far as anime fandom, on the whole, goes. Character is a literary term as well as the thing it refers to. I like my PVC figures reasonably proportioned and appropriately clothed, thank you very much. But I figured a tack to do a listing of this season’s best should take form by who, and not what anime, is worth watching for.

Mao Mizusawa – Kimi Kiss Pure Rouge – It’s no surprise that a trip to your local doujin/fanart depository should give quite a few hits of her. Kimi Kiss, itself, was somewhat popular a couple years back. Mao is no Saber but she has her fair share of admirers. I’m not sure what, maybe it’s a mix of that cuteness and a subtle maturity which hits off well for her? Is it the braided twin-tails? If I were to compare, she would be a lot like Tama-nee from To-Heart 2, but Mao is not as…sinister. In the anime she’s pitched as a returning osananajimi who came back transformed drastically, and I guess that explains a lot. Kimikiss is a character-driven romance story with drama-plot elements, so we’ll see more development for Mao down the road.

Liumei Wong (Wang Liumi) – Gundam 00 – I know someone whose name is 1 character off hers. But there is no one I know with a body like hers. And it’s not just that; her dress is two-thirds of what’s killer about this complete package of Chinese hotness. It’s very well designed from top to bottom. The prints are Kero-chan-Check worthy, so are those flower-pedal buttons that comes off not as old fashion but appropriately modern. OK I got to stop making these puns now. Oh, and of course the unforgettable low cut down her back. It’s not a big surprise that there’s a figure of this fine figure, already in production. Unfortunately we’ve only had a couple glimpses of Wang and I don’t think we’ll see her too much until her time is ripe for some Gundam action. I’d put money down that soon enough we’ll see her in the pilot seat of something.

Mayu Tsukimura – Goushuushosama Ninomiyakun – Apron Dress FTW. It’s not a pinafore, it’s not an apron, it’s a dress. But it works just the same… We don’t know much about this earnestly innocent succubus besides that what she thinks as appropriate maiden-like behavior is a major turn-on for…high school boys. I suppose that’s excusable because some high school boys are turned on with even less. Or more. Hormones and all. But being an anime Goushuushosama Ninomiya-kun distinctively relies on genre tropes to show the absurdity of our Mayu-chan in a new world of male lust. Oh, being a light novel adaptation I don’t think we’ll see much in terms of fanart right now. But soon enough at this rate…

Michiko Kouzuki – Blue Drop ~ Tenshitachi no Gikyoku – She’s the “Good Girl” archetype for the season. The bar is set high, as well–she may be timid but she is very single minded with accomplishing what she has to do. Actually she (and how Blue Drop portraits her) is one of the best thing about the show itself–like how she sprints down the lawn of the school, or blurt out her feelings for Hagino. Plus, wow, Yukino Satsuki is just awesome. The short ponytail also works wonder here, even if generally she’s a plain meganekko kind of a build.

Kureha Akabane – Night Wizard the Animation – She’s the warm, childhood friend of the protagonists’ potential love interest that welcomed the protagonist to her first day of school. Dressed in miko outfit (with…a pair of Sketchers? PWN) all day, at school, at home, at work–she’s pretty much the quintessential happy nun archetype. And it shows in battle too–capable but unable to do what the main characters do. Nonetheless her charming personality and Night Wizard’s mix of classic Shintoism in modern Akiba sci-tech warfare of fantasy make Kureha stands out above the crowd.

Tomoyo Sakagami – CLANNAD – The quiet, Mai Kawasumi type… Well there’s a lot said already everywhere about CLANNAD, so I’ll get to the point. Our Tomoyo is a little bit of a mean bitch, which supposedly suits Houko Kuwashima’s acting but the cool and violent mix has always been her bag anyways. What’s key is sort of ironic–CLANNAD the anime will pay CLANNAD fans plenty of Tomoyo service but we won’t see her story unfold fully (I guess). But the full story for Tomoyo Sakagami contained in CLANNAD game finishes in Tomoyo After, as you may have heard. And that would be the thing to watch for. If CLANNAD anime does well, who knows?

Yuuri Kitajima – Dragonaut ~ the Resonance – Sometimes it’s good to admit to being somewhat infantile. The first new anime girl of the season goes naked for you, and you put her name on your blog? That’s like a cliché harem plot device. In this case, Dragonaut has a lot to offer along that line, even if it comes in the shell of a cold and ends-driven mad scientist. A Gonzo original, you can’t really expect a whole lot out of Professor Kitajima, but conservative estimates suggest Kitajima has a whole lot already. Any more it would be obscene and gravity defying.

Runner-Ups:

Amu Hinamori – Shugo Chara – A stereotypical Pre-Cure era magical girl, Peach Pit lays it thick on her (and her sister) their brand of fashion. Hit or miss it’s up to you, but this massive tsunderella would probably be the only draw to a modern magical girl show. On the flip side, modern magical girls don’t hit home runs if they fall out of their lolicon-drawing market segment as Amu squarely is not.

Tieria Erde – Gundam 00 – Tieria is a male character, but the character design of Gundam 00, Yun Kouga, hits a home run, IMO, to bring that Saint Seiya style of modern bishounen-ism back in display. Sure, your typical military fanboy probably can’t stand how Tieria carries a purse or looks just like a girl half the time, but he’s got some fine hair. Actually, the same can be said of Gundam 00’s prophetic captain Big Hair, Sumeragi Ri Noriega. She’s not quite a whole paragraph even with the drinking in just one episode, but she’s another one to look out for in this coming season.

Adilicia Ren Mathers – Rental Magica – Take what you love about characters like Alicia Florence or Layla Hamilton, and install a more evil but tease-happy personality with a giant magical fish, and you get a bit of what Adilicia is like in Rental Magica. As of one episode we don’t know what’s going on with her, besides those hair drills and her mature and domineering presence. I personally dig Mikako Takahashi’s take on this tsundere-ish character. Similarly, Kana Ueda pulls her half-kansai Mikan voice for Rental Magica’s Honami Takase Ambler, a Japanese person who practices Irish witchcraft…? But that seifuku + broom combo is pretty delicious. Honami is not as eye catching, but she has that older sister charm which complements Adilicia well.

Toa – Dragonaut ~ the Resonance – Anemone, meet Eureka. Oh, add boobs. And Minorin.

Mizuki Hibara – Mokke – When you’re a little, energetic child living in the countryside, there’s a lot to do outdoors. It’s kind of sad to see that the premise of Mokke is the repeat victimization of this innocent person. Nana Mizuki plays the youthful Mizuki, who probably will spend a lot of time cheering Shizuru Hibara, Mizuki’s older sister, for saving her again and again. And to remind her life isn’t all that bad being poorvictimized by funky Japanese monsters.

That’s it for now. There are probably a few that I am missing out on, but this is hard work…