On the winter 2011 season - generic anime are generic.

[Gjallarhorn]

Sharing this because of how painfully true it is, via Sankaku Complex.

Vertical (anime): Gosick, Infinite Stratos, Freezing, Yumekui Merry, Kore wa Zombie?, Dragon Crisis, Madoka, Oniichan no Koto.
Horizontal (category): Harsh heroine, Useless male protagonist, School setting

An exception can be made for Madoka, which has a useless female protagonist.



An unfortunate sign of the current state of the anime industry; the large majority of series in recent years using at least two of these categories as major focal points, though all three seems to be the standard.

Also of an interesting note is the very similar design of all the "useless male protagonists".

[Nanobyte]

Hmmm...? What anime is the first image on the fourth row?

[Gjallarhorn]

Hmmm...? What anime is the first image on the fourth row?

"Vertical (anime): Gosick, Infinite Stratos, Freezing, Yumekui Merry, Kore wa Zombie? Dragon Crisis, Madoka, Oniichan no Koto."

[Nanobyte]

Sorry about that, I need to lrn2read.
Those all look kinda cute. The third row however looks kinda stereotypical.

[FluffyDango]

There is alot of average animes on the winter season, it`s probably going to be that way on the spring season too.

[wizz-o-matic]

I stopped expecting a long time ago ....
animation of Onichan no Koto looks decent, art is similar to manga .... but don't want to ruin my manga with anime >_>; Same with Yumekui Merry .....

[Lily Rock]

>Dragon Crisis
>Seeing the cute girl
>Hears her voice is Taiga/Louise
>Dude's named Ryuji
>wtf?
Atleast that show I find abit interesting, altough I haven't watched another show much related. :P

[.Sev]

From these animes that I have watched so far... It's not looking good. Would it really be so hard to at least come up with an original character? And not pick a personality from the "tried and true" list of personalities? Please? Exactly like you pointed out, we've seen the "Useless Male Protagonist" bit... How many times?

[Zombie Panda]

From these animes that I have watched so far... It's not looking good. Would it really be so hard to at least come up with an original character? And not pick a personality from the "tried and true" list of personalities? Please?

But that would take effort. Heaven forbid they step away from, as you say, the 'tried and true' formula to make something unique and interesting. Almost to the point where unless it's a continuation of something I like, I don't hold out much hope for new shows.

[brianwuzhere]

Apparently, no one here has watched Level E yet. But half of these shows do have redeeming merits. Gosick has its mystery, Yumekui Merry is imaginative, Kore wa Zombie Desu ka is funny enough so far, Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica is done by SHAFT and Dragon Crisis has some pretty nice animation. The others I'm just watching for the lulz.

[FluffyDango]

I`m checking out just about everyone of the animes airing this winter :P
Gonna check out Level E at some point too. But I found another Level anime on MAL, so is Level E a second season?

[brianwuzhere]

No, Level E is a completely different anime altogether. Excluding maybe Fractale or Hourou Musuko, it had the most solid first episode for me and the creator is the author of works such as Yu Yu Hakusho and Hunter X Hunter.

[FluffyDango]

That Hourou Musuko was special :P
Well if you have an open mind, you`ll enjoy and not be an a** about it.
It was pretty down to earth, not generic.
The art style reminded me of Aoi Hana.

So this is the 14`th anime of this season I`m watching :P

[Gjallarhorn]

That Hourou Musuko was special :P
Well if you have an open mind, you`ll enjoy and not be an a** about it.
It was pretty down to earth, not generic.
The art style reminded me of Aoi Hana.

So this is the 14`th anime of this season I`m watching :P

The manga for Aoi Hana and Hourou Musuko are both by Shimura Takako; she's been working on both series at the same time for years.