Fall 2012 Previews – The Best Season of All Time

Apparently no-one found the real preview post that was hidden in this one, so I decided to just make it easily accessible instead.

Right, it’s that time of the year again. Another new anime season is about to start which means a ton of new series will be airing, doing its best to live up to our demands of new and shiny things. So let us take a look of the anime fall season of 2012!

Welp, I forgot there is only one series airing this season.

Hidamari Sketch x Honeycomb
12-13? Episodes | Comedy, Slice of Life | Manga | Shaft | 2012

As probably the master of the “slice of life” genre, Hidamari Sketch is a wonder to watch. Now reaching its fourth season, although with enough OVA episodes in-between the seasons to actually call this the fifth, Hidamari is finally back to bless the world once more.

What sets Hidamari apart from others in the genre is, in addition to being adapted by studio Shaft and thus being abstract and stuff, is that it goes further than just being cutesy. I would like to re-direct you to this wonderful post over at Altair & Vega for further reading if you are interested in in-depth thoughts: “The Sigh of Ume Aoki: Anime and the Irretrievable Past“.

To sum it up, Hidamari is also about growing up, realizing that everything will not stay the same. What we have in store for us in the future is the inevitable separation when the third-year students, Sae and Hiro, graduate before everyone else in the Hidamari Apartments. Our characters reflect on this matter, trying enjoying their time together to the fullest. When, in the third season, our characters each advanced a class and new students appeared, it became even more apparent that this indeed is not like any other slice of life series out there.

Of course, it also helps that it is so dang heartwarming you cannot help but want to stay by the characters’ side. Studio Shaft has done a terrific job adapting Hidamari, always keeping things fresh with a great pacing and not strictly following the manga page-by-page as many adaptations tend to do. Besides, let us be honest here, who the heck does not love abstract art when cute girls are doing cute things?