2009 New Anime First Glance: Munto TV and White Album

Many of the new 2009 anime have started airing already, and while there are a few standouts, like the two mentioned in the previous post and the two in this post, the selection has been rather docile. Most notably is that the highlight series of this winter season seem to be carryovers from the previous season, with shows like CLANNAD After Story (no shortage of OMG! moments), Toradora!, Gundam 00 S2, and sequel seasons like Minami-ke Okaeri, Druaga The Sword of URUK, Hajime no Ippo (superb) and Maria-sama ga Miteru (<3).

Oh well. I’m pretty picky when it comes to anime and it’s always like this at the start of new seasons, but by the end there’s always a couple of surprises. Two of the early frontrunners in this category appears to be Munto and White Album:
 
 
 
        Sora wo Miageru Shoujo no Hitomi ni Utsuru Sekai aka Munto TV
Translated, the title is something along the lines of “The World Reflected in the Eyes of a Girl Looking Up at the Heavens” - which, coincidentally, is a pretty decent summary of the show. For sanity’s sake, let’s just call it Munto TV. It’s a TV version of a two-episode OVA series dating back to 2003 (episode 1) and 2005 (episode 2), aptly named “Munto”. It’s pretty standard fantasy fare - it involves Yumemi, a normal girl living a normal life, but she’s able to see in plain sight the presence of another world above - understandably, it creeps her out, especially when some dragonball-looking guy who talks like he’s hot stuff drops down to pay her a visit. Spoilers aside, it’s a nice story with great visuals, and while the animation can’t be considered top-notch (I guess KyoAni has their hands full with CLANNAD), it’s effective enough to not distract. Yumemi’s voice is real cute too! The only glaring issue right now is that the first couple episodes have almost been exact copies of the original OVA series, which raises the question of how much new material is going to be in this TV series. Since they’re all slaving away over at KyoAni working hard hardly working on Haruhi, one has to wonder if they have enough staff members to cope…

 
        White Album
Every season there’s usually one of these mature romantic drama shows - they’re always well animated, boast a strong cast, and always have some dumbass guy who just happens to be at the center of some crazy love triangle that can be easily solved if he could just make up his damn mind. In the past, we’ve had Kimi ga Nozomu Eien, School Days, and last season there was True Tears, about a scrub and his hot cousin and his inexplicably *weird* girlfriend, and now with White Album we got Hirano Aya voicing a startup idol and her smoking hot celebrity senpai. And some tomboyish chick on a bike. Ahh, it makes so little sense, but I keep watching for the weekly train wreck. It’s funny to see the approach White Album takes compared to the typical harem anime (Shuffle, Da Capo) - the relationship dynamics are pretty much the same, but the whole direction and mood as played out through the animation, music, and general cinematography somehow make the subject matter seem more severe. Given the reception that shows like these typically get, White Album is shaping up to be one of the most popular shows of the season…!