Bakemonogatari

Bakemonogatari (化物語, lit. Ghostory, a portmanteau of ghost and story) is a Japanese light novel series written by Japanese novelist NisiOisiN and illustrated by Taiwanese illustrator VOFan; the series is published by Kodansha under the Kodansha Box imprint. The story centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who has recently survived a vampire attack, and finds himself mixed up with all kinds of apparitions; gods, ghosts, myths, and spirits. The series is made into an anime in July 2009.

Bakemonogatari, volume one 化物語(上) 11.2006		Hitagi Crab (ひたぎクラブ), episodes 1, 2 Mayoi Snail (まよいマイマイ), episodes 3 Suruga Monkey (するがモンキー)
Bakemonogatari, volume two 化物語(下) 12.2006		Nadeko Snake (なでこスネイク) Tsubasa Cat (つばさキャット)
Kizumonogatari 傷物語 07.2008		Koyomi Vamp (こよみヴァンプ)
Nisemonogatari, volume one 偽物語(上) 09.2008		Karen Bee (かれんビー)
Nisemonogatari, volume two 偽物語(下) 06.2009		Tsukihi Phoenix (つきひフェニックス)
Kabukimonogatari 傾物語 ??.2010
Nekomonogatari 猫物語 ??.2010

The anime series was announced in April 2008 and started broadcasting in July 3, 2009 on Tokyo MX. The series is part of Kodansha's Nisio Isin Anime Project and is produced by SHAFT, directed by Akiyuki Shinbo with an assistant of Tatsuya Oishi, written by Fuyashi Tou and featuring a character designs by Akio Watanabe based on VOFan's original concepts. The music for the series is produced by Satoru Kousaki under the supervision of Yota Tsuruoka. The theme song for the series, titled "Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari" (君の知らない物語, lit. The Story You Don't Know) is produced by Supercell with a scheduled release in August 12, 2009. The series is scheduled to be 15 episodes long but will broadcast only the first 12 episodes. The remaining episodes will be distributed on the official website.

Bakemonogatari centers on Koyomi Araragi, a third year high school student who is almost human again after briefly becoming a vampire. One day, a classmate named Hitagi Senjougahara, who infamously never talks to anyone, falls down the stairs into Koyomi's arms. He discovers that Hitagi weighs next to nothing, in defiance of physics. After being threatened by her, Koyomi offers his help by introducing her to Meme Oshino, a middle-aged homeless man who helped him stop being a vampire.

The series tends to introduce only one new heroine per chapter, each involved with a different "apparition". The events of the previous chapters play an important role in the subsequent ones. The series primarily focuses on conversations between characters; it contains a fair number of parodies of other series, as well as NisiOisiN's trademark wordplay and metahumor.

阿良々木・暦 (Araragi Koyomi)

VA: Kamiya Hiroshi

Koyomi, the main character of the story, is a third year high school student who is close to failing every class except math. Shortly before the novel begins, he was attacked by vampire during spring break, and became a vampire himself. Although Meme Oshino helped him become human again, there are a few lingering side effects; he can see in the dark, and he heals faster than the average human. He is still scared of morning sunlight even though it no longer has any effect on him. He started dating Hitagi at the end of Mayoi Snail.

戦場ヶ原・ひたぎ (Senjougahara Hitagi)

VA: Saito Chiwa

Hitagi, the main character of Hitagi Crab, is a weak-looking girl with an "incurable disease". She is in the same class as Koyomi, but he has almost never heard her speak. When she was in the first year of high school, she encountered a mysterious crab, after which she became weightless. Ever since, she has avoided contact with everyone else, threatening everyone who discovers her secret. She called herself a tsundere and always speak in abusive style. At the end of Mayoi Snail, she admitted she has feelings for Koyomi.

八九寺・真宵 (Hachikuji Mayoi)

VA: Katou Emiri

Mayoi, the main character of Mayoi Snail, is a fifth-grade elementary school girl. She always carries around a big backpack, wears a hair-band, and has her hair in ponytails. Koyomi met her in a park on Mother's Day and offered to help her find her mother's home. She later reveals that, due to a Snail, they can never reach their destination and will always be lost. She makes a lot of spelling mistakes and has a habit of misspelling Koyomi's name. Her family name before their parents got divorce was Tsunade (綱手).

神原・駿河 (Kanbaru Suruga)

VA: Sawashiro Miyuki

Suruga, the main character of Suruga Monkey, is Koyomi's underclassman, ace of the school's basketball team and one of Hitagi's acquaintances from back in junior high school. Immediately after she entered senior high school, she became aware of Hitagi's secret and was threatened by her, just like Koyomi was. She's an admitted lesbian, fujoshi, lolicon and masochist. Back in elementary school, she inherited the Monkey's Paw from her mother. She started stalking Koyomi after she discovered he was dating Hitagi.

千石・撫子 (Sengoku Nadeko)

VA: Hanezawa Kana

Nadeko, the main character of Nadeko Snake, is Koyomi’s sister’s friend back in elementary school. She always wears a waist pouch; always cast her eyes downward, have her bangs covering her eyes, not talk much and can be easily amused. Koyomi plays with her a lot whenever she visited his house after being invited by his sisters. Her friend put a curse on her over a love affair, and was going to die until Koyomi found out and offers her his help.

羽川・翼 (Hanekawa Tsubasa)

VA: Horie Yui

Tsubasa, the main character of Tsubasa Cat, is Koyomi's classmate and the class president. Koyomi describe her as "the class president of all class presidents". Prior to the novel begins; she was possessed by bakeneko during a Golden Week due to stress over her family. Although it has since been resolved with the help of Shinobu at a cost of her memories, the problems emerged again right before the school festival because of different stress.

忍野・メメ (Oshino Meme)

VA: Takahiro Sakurai

Meme is a middle-aged man who lives in an abandoned building. Koyomi calls him "psychedelic aloha guy". Being an expert in apparitions field, he solves Koyomi and others' problems, although with compensation.

忍野・忍 (Oshino Shinobu)

VA: Hirano Aya

Shinobu is a girl who lives with Meme in the abolished building. She appears to be an eight year old girl, but she was originally a beautiful vampire who had lived for more than 500 years. After the events at the end of Koyomi Vamp, she was left in a weakened condition with no powers or traces of her original personality and therefore have to abandon her "Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade" (キスショット・アセロラオリオン・ハートアンダーブレード) name. She was named Shinobu by Meme at the beginning of Hitagi Crab, suggesting her kanji name Shinobu (忍), having "heart" (心) under "blade" (刃), matches with her original personality.

阿良々木・火憐 (Araragi Karen)

VA: Kitamura Eri

Karen, the main character of Karen Bee, is one of Koyomi's sisters. She's older than Tsukihi and always doing outdoor activities.

阿良々木・月火 (Araragi Tsukihi)

VA: Iguchi Yuka

Tsukihi, the main character of Tsukihi Phoenix, is one of Koyomi's sisters. She's the youngest of Araragi family. Unlike her sister, Karen, she is always doing indoor activities.

Since I am tired of transcoding and processing the images, the write-up is basically copy-past from wikipedia; I'll add more info as the series unfolds and then when I go through the novels in autumn, hopefully ;) For now enjoy the show on your iPhone XD

[iPhone-Raws] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
[iPhone-Subs] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
A/V Source: Zero-Raws, Subs Source: TBA

Read more!

CANAAN

I bet that almost everyone is not anymore oblivious about the new work from TYPE-MOON. CANAAN is based on an extra animated scenario (well ... sort of) that Takeuchi/Nasu team worked on for the "live-action" visual novel 428. If you're also not familiar with the game, no worries the series can be enjoyed without knowing anything, but you can spoil yourself at Akihabara Channel, where EvoSpace has generously provided a detailed summary of both the game and the extra scenario on Canaan and Alphard ... well the rest is quite spoilerish ;) Interested? Read, watch & listen more on:

1. Background & Development
2. Art & Animation
3. VAs, BGM & OP/ED
4. Characters & Plot
5. iPhone Torrents

CANAAN
aka 428
AniDB, ANN, Official, Thread@AnimeSuki, TV-Tropes, Preview
Studio: P.A. Works
Directed by: Ando Masahiro
Character Designs by: Sekiguchi Kanami
Original Character Designs by: Takeuchi Takashi (of TYPE-MOON)
Original Game by: Chunsoft, Sega (just in case you've never heard of it)
Original Scenario by: Nasu Kinoko (of TYPE-MOON)
Series Composition by: Okada Mari
Sawashiro Miyuki (Canaan), Sakamoto Maaya (Alphard), Nanjou Yoshino (Maria)
Tanaka Rie (Liang-Qi), Tomatsu Haruka (Yun²), Minagawa Junko (Natsume), Noto Mamiko (Hakkoo)
Hamada Kenji (Minoru), Oukawa Toru (Kamingusu), Hirata Hiroaki (Sentana)

Background & Development

The series was known in its initial planning stages as 428 The Animation when it was first announced in Newtype's October 2008 issue and by Sega at the 2008 Tokyo Games Show, where a trailer for the series was aired and announced as an adaptation of Type-Moon's original scenario for the game. The title was subsequently changed in December of the same year to CANAAN, with Sega also announcing that they would host a booth for the series in the 2008 Winter Comiket, where DVDs featuring specials and trailers for the show, packaged with a booklet featuring original character designs by Takashi Takeuchi and completed animation designs by animator Kanami Sekiguchi would be featured, along with CDs of the theme song, "Arousing Soul", performed by Faylan. [From wikipedia, but I can assure you it is fairly accurate for a change]

Art & Animation

Judging from the first couple of episodes, animation is top quality, even challenging Rakkyo, despite one being a TV show and the other a series of movies. Especially, the action scenes are fluid, well directed and choreographed, something quite rare even for action anime. The character designs are beautiful, very detailed and distict. Also with the exception of Canaan, they are quite different from what Takenuchi usually draws, though still very distinctive of his style. Another amazing feature is the atention to detail on background art, which depicts Shanghai very realistically, as well as the animation of crowds and the fluid integration of 3D CG.

VAs, BGM & OP/ED

Voice acting is also well done, but this is expected considering the names involved. Also I must applaud the inclusion of Chinese and English in many occasions which adds to the suspension of disbelief, especially for non-Japanese viewers. Finally, apart from the three theme songs, the BGM is very fitting and varies scene from scene.

Comiket Promo: "Arousing Soul" by Faylan

Opening Theme: "Mind as Judgement" by Faylan

Ending Theme: "My heaven" by Annabel

Characters & Plot

The atmosphere of the show is somewhat bleak, it will remind to many Black Lagoon, though because of the brighter pallette used and due to the philosophical stance of certain characters, it acts as an offset and balances the mood. The characters themselves are interesting and the main cast seems to have a lot of potential, but with only 13 episodes planned, do not expect a lot (if any at all) development. Putting that aside, the psychology of the main cast is explored through the events and interractive dialog instead of blatant and dull exposition.

iPhone Torrents
[iPhone-Raws] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
[iPhone-Subs] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
A/V Source: Zero-Raws, Subs Source: gg
Note that only when they become available internationally, I will kill the links ;)

Read more!