The leader in keeping my interest this season is Jormungand. Seriously. This series follows the exploits of a totally whacked, or very smart, young woman arms dealer and her band of merry killers. The arms dealer's name is Koko Heckmatyar ("her name is Koko; she is loco, I say "oh. no."") At the start of the series she has recently added a psychologically warped, small boy soldier named Jonah to her band. Koko and Jonah are shown in this picture. Because of his past, Jonah hates arms dealers so the story of how he became a member of Koko's band is not fully revealed yet. So far the basic story line is following Koko and her group around the world and into and out of her arms deals with some of the scum of the world. I have no idea where this series will go, but I suspect it's going to be deeper than the surface story. And it's definitely keeping me interested.
My second favorite series so far is a crazy-fun series named Tsuritama. Tsuritama is about fishing. Yes, I said fishing. That's on the surface anyway. It's really about friendship and relationships, but it's going to be a hoot getting there. The main character, Yuki (red hair in picture), is a high shchool kid with zero ability to socialize. He is accosted one day by a self-proclaimed alien (uchujin desu!) named Haru (blond kid), and his life is turned upside down. Haru invites himself to live with Yuki, and convinces Yuki to learning to fish. Yuki and Haru are taught to fish by an unsocial boy in their class named Natsuki who has family problems. The three boys are followed around by an Indian guy named Akira who wears a turban and carries around a large white duck named Tapioca. Akira knows Haru is an alien and he is tailing him for an unknown secret organization, but he ends up being more part of their group. I don't know where this one will go, but it's going to be fun getting there. Many things here are just silly and make you laugh. Yet there's enough story line and emotion to keep you from getting bored.
The next series is Eureka Seven Ao. I had to try this one because I watched and liked the original Eureka Seven. This series is a sequel to the original, with the main character, Ao, being the original Eureka's son. Ao is an orphan who was raised by an old doctor named Toshio. The series takes place on earth, rather than whatever planet the original was on, but the infamous scub coral is here on earth wrecking havoc. It's a different manner of havoc than the scub coral in the original series, but havoc none the less. The scub coral uprisings are handled by a group called Generation Blue, and Ao joins a part of Generation Blue called Pied Piper. Watching this series feels a little like coming home because the animation style and characters feel so nostalgic. Ao and his childhood friend Naru are like a reverse Renton and Eureka. So this is a mecha series, but the original Eureka Seven didn't sacrifice plot and character development to show off the mecha, so I have some hope this one won't either. 
The last one I'll talk about today is a series called Sankarea. This series is about zombies - a boy with a zombie fetish and a girl who is a zombie. Chihiro lives in a temple and has a zombie fetish. When his cat is hit by a car and killed he develops a potion that brings the cat back to life - or anyway into a zombie type existence. While developing the potion he meets Sanka Rea. Rea is a girl Chihiro's age who has been abused by her father all her life. She wants to die, as the only means of escape she can see. When Chihiro develops his potion she drinks it without him knowing. She thinks it didn't work, but later when trying to escape her father, she falls to her death, and comes back as a zombie. This series is a little fan-servicey, but still interesting enough to keep me watching. We'll see if that stays true. They're doing episodes right now of difficulties associated with living with a zombie and of living as a zombie. I'm hopeful the series will stay interesting.So those are the four series I like best so far of the new season. I hope they pan out.
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