This season rocks too, though.

As for the offensive stuff this season… well if you don’t like Fight Ippatsu! Juuden-chan! then you’re probably suffering from a lack of aluminum bats upside the head.

So far, the only “crap” this season is Needless, and hoo boy is it shit. The rest of the stuff is mediocre at worst and excellent at best, and that’s a pretty damn good season.

About Aoi Hana: I’m actually not quite sure where it’s going either. We’re halfway into the series and I still don’t know what Akira’s sexual orientation is. I feel like she’s still more straight than gay, so I’m wondering how Kasai is going to pull the loose threads together. That being said, I do feel that Aoi Hana is a lot more realistic than, say, Marimite, simply because I have to ask the question of “Is this character actually gay?” instead of assuming right off the bat that men simply don’t exist within the series. I do like the art, the atmopshere is very nice and it’s generally a very relaxed show.

I haven’t been following anything else, but I’d say that Summer 09 is a lot stronger than anything else we’ve seen in a while. That being said, I want to see what Yamakan can whip up for Angel Beats (which I’m calling his personal middle finger to Kyoani for firing him >_>) before I call Bakemongatari the best show of the year.

I came back after doing some growing up and a few years in college. I caught up with a lot of great series that I missed, especially Mushishi and Honey and Clover, shows that were airing when I was still somewhat involved (masterpieces, yes, Sorrow, yes). But this time I also wanted to stay on top of the game, keeping up with Aoi Hana, Tokyo Magnitude, Bakemonogatari, Canaan, and FMA: Brotherhood (the first three I enjoy tremendously). For the first time, watching mediocrity wasn’t too bad of a thing, especially week-by-week and simultaneously with other superb shows. You could learn a lot. It’s pathetic to read on some boards that anime is not worth a damn anymore. Maybe these folks live far away from civilization, are actually partly illiterate, or haven’t heard of BitTorrent.

Unfortunately, I’ll never get the Haruhi craze. Maybe it’s because I watched it in chronological order. But even then, I think it has something to do with the year. This season I found a handful of shows I really like. I hope that continues.

If anything, I’m watching the most titles for this season, compared to previous seasons (as I only watch one or two titles faithfully).

As far as Spring 2006 is concerned, it was Higurashi that took me in (although I watched that a month after it ended).

Although, I already have my sights set on the next season which seems to look not too shabby to me after looking at the current preview of the possible lineup for it, thus far. I do agree with your comment on Kemono no Souja Erin being an excellent show, since it seems to have a more authentic charm to it and the cast seems lovable enough. My only concern with the show is how it will wrap up its plot points, etc since the show is past the halfway point already. Still, the experience for it has been enjoyable enough, so I have faith in this one to finish properly .