A new season of anime

Now that the first episodes of all the new anime (at least of those that I want to watch) have come out, let me give my opinions:

Basquash!

The basic premise here is giant mecha playing basketball. Sounded like a crappy game to play to me, but the main character agrees with it. It looks like it will create some interesting dynamics, and I haven't disliked the first two episodes.

Cross Game

An anime about baseball. I was told to watch the first episode by someone in an anime IRC channel I was in. It was, well, interesting: to say anything more would force me to ruin the ending of the first episode. I'm not sure I want to continue watching this, though, but I'll need the second episode to make up my mind, as the first one is just the back story.

Dragon Ball Kai

This is Dragon Ball Z, remastered and recut. If you've only ever heard the English voice actors, it might be worth peeking at the first episode to hear what the Japanese people sound like. I was hoping this version might avoid some of the pacing issues of the original, but it didn't seem faster. I may pick up a few episodes towards the end more, to see if the painfully long battles are any shorter.

Eden of the East

Person A is a Japanese tourist visiting Washington, D.C., where she attempts to throw some coins in the White House fountain (bad idea). Person B is stark naked, has no memories, and has a gun and a cell phone in his hands. His appearance incidentally saves person A. I'm not sure what the plot is exactly, but it looks set to be an excellent anime. Highly realistic portrayal of D.C., and the English in there actually sounds like native English speakers.

Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood

Another anime adaptation of the manga, except this is supposed to be a bit more faithful. The first one diverged rapidly and strongly (e.g., Bradley is Wrath in the manga but Pride in the anime...), and I strongly disliked the anime's version of the story. Here, the first episode is 100% filler, so you'll lose nothing if you don't watch it. If it's more faithful to the manga, it's in plotline but not order of exposition: the second episode pretty much recounts Ed and Al's history until they become state alchemists. And I like the opening theme too, in both animation and music.

Guin Saga

This didn't feel captivating enough for me. The main characters are the twin prince (coward fighter) and princess (somewhat prophetic) of a presumably now-nonexistent kingdom, and a warrior named Guin with the head of a leopard. I'm extrapolating from one episode, but the plot seems mildly formulaic, and it looks like there will be pacing issues.

Phantom ~Requiem of Phantom~

Two stellar assassins whose memories before being forced into the assassination business were wiped. First scenes are practically screaming "we ripped this off from James Bond." The plot is not exactly breaking new ground here. Strong motif of puppetry here, so it's not hard to guess where this is going to go. Still, it's the journey that's interesting. Oh yeah, good theme music, too.

Shangri-La

This takes place in the not-so-distant future in a world ravaged by global warming. Main protagonist draws the attention of the We're More Powerful Than the Government Corporation, so the plot will probably go in the "time to overthrow the dystopian government" direction. You can pinpoint the major people by the end of the first episode, but the story still sounds moderately interesting: I detect some hints of anti-environmentalism here. There's also the most convincing transvestite I've ever seen.

Tears to Tiara

This would be another fantasy anime. I ended up with a really bad video (the audio and video were out of sync), but it still seemed interesting enough: I'll be waiting for episode 2.

Valkyria Chronicles

This anime is based off of a game and is more or less a WWI-esque historical anime. The first episode does stretch the mind in believability a little bit, but it should be fine if such moments disappear after character introductions. A cursory reading of Wikipedia informs me that the most prominent character in episode 1, also the most airheaded character met so far, is not the main character, so it should be safe, in any case.