Forgive me for not editing, but I'm too lazy to do it after losing my entire post yesterday. I try to never talk about anime as if I'm being objective about it. If I don't like an anime it's only because it doesn't suit my taste. I'm not one of those people who thinks an anime is garbage because I don't like it:
Soul Link 1 (okay - 5.3):
Since this anime is based off a Navel game like Shuffle! I'm wondering if the same one or two game character designers worked on this also. It sure looks like it. Sometimes Nao gives me flashbacks of Asa's younger sister (Shuffle!). I thought the episode was "okay", but it was kind of disappointing to me. First of all the animation budget is nowhere near as high as Shuffle's was. It's not a cheap budget, but it's only an "average" TV series budget. So even though the game's character designs looked good, the anime makers weren't able to take advantage of them as much as they could.
I'm disappointed that the main character's voice sounds so wimpy and several scenes in there were pretty cliched. When I see BIG cliched scenes it makes me think that the writers weren't clever enough to come up with anything else to joke about.
Things I did like:
1. Koyasu Takehito's appearance. When you hear his voice, you can usually guess what kind of character he's going to be playing.
2. Nao looked kinda nice there at the end. The animation for her part at the end was well done.
Overall: I'm going to set my sights lower for this show. I'll still watch it, but I won't expect anything special from it anymore. I'll get my "special" requirements from another series instead.
Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu 1 (mediocre - 4.0):
http://www.haruhi.tv/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3508 ... aruhi.html
Wow...I didn't care for this at all. This just isn't for me whatsoever. Some of the posters I've read really love it. You just need a sense of humor that's completely the opposite of mine. Someone compared this to Monty Python. I can see some comparisons. This gave me that "What the hell is going on" feeling. I thought I had gotten the wrong anime. The opening song is sung intentionally bad. Two of the seiyuu sound like they were in Shuffle!
The amateur home video parody might end up being much loved by many, but I get motion sickness (headache and feeling queasy) when the camera is moving around like that (like the "Friday Night Lights" movie I seen in the theater). Some scenes reminded me of Otaku no Video. I'm sure there's clever writing in there, but I'm going to be watching something else.
Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle 1 (watching it raw - okay/fair - 5.2):
http://www.garkun.com/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3549 ... san_c.html
The opening song reminds me of the anime openings I used to hear all the time back in 1995-1996. This is a hard anime to watch raw because there's so much dialog in it. It seems to involve a talking gargoyle statue that can move about on it's own. The talking of the gargoyle is the center of many of the jokes. The way it speaks reminds me of the dry humor that was employed by that leopard sidekick of Mahoro's and the deadpan talking helmet in Sadamitsu.
I'm going to have to read subtitles to see how much I like this. At this point I feel it's "okay", but not "good" enough to be a "regular watch" yet.
Utawarerumono 1 (okay - 5.4):
http://www.utaware.net/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,1731 ... _mono.html
The animation for Utawarerumono is how I was hoping that Soul Link was going to look like. Eruru is awfully cute.

For awhile I actually thought that her seiyuu was voiced by Ayako Kawasumi, but it turned out to be Ryoka Yuzuki. Not too much happened in this episode. It was mostly an introduction to the fantasy world they live in, but I liked it enough to make this my first "regular watch" of the season.
And yeah...it was based off a game. I'm not sure how much romantic elements were in the game, but I'm pretty sure it had some.
Strawberry Panic 1 (okay - 5.3):
http://www.strawberrypanic.com/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3634 ... _pani.html
The first episode of Strawberry Panic felt like the beginning of Maria-sama and the beginning of Kannaduki no Miko mixed together. But of course Maria-sama is shoujo. Strawberry Panic is shounen/seinen, so the shoujo-ai elements are more obvious in it. The laidback violin background music reminds me of the violin music in the easygoing scenes of Kagihime.
Strawberry Panic takes place at a Catholic girl's school and has a large cast just like Maria-sama, but has a couple first episode story situations of Kannaduki no Miko. I watched the first ?five episodes Maria-sama and stopped after that because it wasn't quite interesting enough to me to continue watching it. I'll see if Strawberry Panic will be the same way. How much I like this show will depend on how much I like the characters and how much I like the stories involving them. This is not the type of anime I watch for the action scenes.
Girl's High School Students 1 (okay/fair- 5.2):
http://www.girls-high.net/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6024
This anime has the most in-your-face fanservice that I ever recall seeing in a regular-school-life non-adult anime.

The jokes seemed "okay". They didn't seem too clever or funny to me. The preview for the next episode gives me bad feelings about where this series is heading. I think I'm only going to watch one episode of this. There are just too many other shows out there this season for me to be watching this particular one.
Highlights:
1. Mamiko Noto's voice.
2. It was kind neat how the anime's characters looked like KITE/Mezzo characters in the closing sequence.
I skimmed through KIBA 1, but it didn't seem interesting enough for me to see any of it. **shrugs**
School Rumble second term 1 (fair - 5.1):
I've always wanted to get into this series, but I've never been able to. Sadly most of the humor just isn't that funny to me. Oh well. What can I say? I know I'm in the minority on this seres, but there's nothing that I can I do.
Poka Poka Mori no Rascal 1 (poor - 3.0):Okay...sorry. It's impossible for me to watch this. It's only three and a half minutes long, but it's about cute super-deformed animals talking to each other.
Love Get-Chu ~Miracle Seiyuu Hakusho~ - 01 (mediocre - 4.2):
http://galgame.jp/anime.html
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3523 ... u___m.html
This is another anime about seiyuu. My dislike of performance and creative arts subject matter in anime continues. I won't be watching any more of this because I have no interest in the subject matter and the non-performance story segments are not involving enough for me to overcome my dislike of the genre.
Makai Senki Disgaea 1 (fair - 5.1):
Supposedly this anime is not copying how the beginning of the game went and fans of the game are disappointed by the first episode. Not knowing anything about the game itself, all I can say is I liked the first half of this. I was ready to make it a regular watch, but then the second half ruined it for me. Now I'm not even sure if I'm going to watch the next episode. I don't think the first episode was terribly great.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 1 (fair - 5.1):
http://www.oyashirosama.com/web/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3458 ... no_na.html
I didn't like this episode too much either. This is supposed to be a long series though so I'll hold out for more episodes before dropping it.
The good points I got from episode:
1. I love cute girls that carry cleavers. Bwaa Haa Haa!!
2. Eventually this series is going to turn dark so the tone is not going to be the same as this episode.
The bad points:
1. In this episode ALL the girls are HAPPY and GENKI. Happy and genki girl's are just about never my favorite characters from a game.
2. This episode was fairly wacky. I know they're doing this to offset the later dark tone, but I still didn't enjoy it.
3. The beginning part apparently had to be censored due to violence.
Gintama 1 (mediocre - 4.0):
http://www.sunrise-inc.co.jp/gintama/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3663 ... ntama.html
This series in some ways reminds me of UFO Princess Valkyrie. That's because in this anime after the aliens arrived during the Japanese Edo period you have a mix of the futuristic and primitive technologies. You also have non-human "creatures" mingling with regular human beings. So in effect anything goes plotwise. It's a real jumbled mess, but Gintama has a lot of fun with it. One guy sports a yellow afro while a Shinsen Gumi member uses a bazooka. People run around in Edo clothing brandishing their swords while flying cars and skyscrapers hit the city view.
I'm not going to watch anymore of this because it's just too weird, wacky and unfunny for me. None of the characters caught my eye whatsoever.
.hack//Roots 1 (okay - 5.4):
http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/anime/hack_roots/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6248
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3643 ... roots.html
This was decently interesting to me if a bit slow for a first episode. As with the other ".hack" series I've seen, I liked the character designs. This will be only my fourth "regular" watch so far out of the twelve anime I've seen so far.
Simoun 1 (okay/fair - 5.2):
http://www.simoun.tv/
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3640 ... imoun.html
The air battle scenes were well done and the character designs are pretty detailed. The girl's EYES are amazing. On the other hand, I usually don't finish watching anime stories involving war AND military themes. I'll see how it goes.
Inukami! 1 (okay/fair - 5.2):
http://inukami.jp/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6077
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3536 ... kami_.html
More dog girl anime.

This doesn't really remind me of anything, but if I was FORCED to choose I would say it slightly makes me think of a cross between Ghost Sweeper Mikami and Urusei Yatsura. The main guy has ecchi on the brain and the female lead acts a bit like a mischievous sprite at times (hence the Urusei Yatsura comparison). They fight "spiritual" villains. The animation quality is above average for a "comedic" TV anime series. Many of the jokes are on the ecchi/suggestive/dirty side. I will probably keep watching this for now. I don't think it's great, but like Magikano, it's amusing enough for me to keep watching.
Witchblade 1 (okay - 5.4):
http://www.witchblade.jp/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=4284
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3597 ... blade.html
Looks like this is going to be one of the popular shows of the season. Gonzo worked on this. It made me think a bit of "Kurau: Phantom Memory" since I'm completely unfamiliar with the Witchblade universe. I'll see how long I'll keep watching it. It's not bad, but it's not the type of anime I usually watch these days.
Magipoka (Renkin San Kyu Magical? Pokaan) 1 (mediocre - 4.1):
http://www.magipoka.com/top.html
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3592 ... _kyu_.html
Four "supernatural" young girls doing a bunch of crazy, wacky magical/vampire stuff with a couple pantsu jokes thrown in. Not my kind of humor.
Spider Riders 1 (mediocre - 3.8 ) :
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3645 ... ers__.html
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6316
This is about what I expected since this was based off a children's book series. It's the type of anime that is shown on Saturday mornings. But I thought I would check it out just for the heck of it.
I skimmed through Princess Princess 1. From what I heard the manga hardly had any shounen ai in it while the anime is trying to emphsize bishounen and add shounen ai. From what I seen, the anime did appear quite funny (but supposedly a lot less funny than the manga). But I'm not going to be watching this since the anime version is aimed more at fangirls than me.
Ray 1 (so-so - 4.8 ) :
http://ray.tv/
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclo ... hp?id=6163
http://www.animenfo.com/animetitle,3558 ... imati.html
This appears to be a spinoff of Blackjack. It's not bad. It's just that didn't interest me very much.
So to summarize:
1. Utawarerumono 1 (okay - 5.4) - Not bad so far. Eruru is cute.
2. .hack//Roots 1 (okay - 5.4) - Looks like it has upside.
3. Witchblade 1 (okay - 5.4): I like it, but I'm not into the genre too much.
4. Soul Link 1 (okay - 5.3) - Disappointing, but I'll still watch it.
5. Strawberry Panic 1 (okay - 5.3) - Not sure how long I'll be watching this.
6. Inukami! 1 (okay/fair - 5.2): "Dirty" humor. Not too great, but I'll watch it for now.
7. Yoshinaga-san chi no Gargoyle 1 (watching it raw - okay/fair - 5.2) - Kind of fun. Maybe.
8. Simoun 1 (okay/fair - 5.2) - Not bad, but I'm still iffy on it.
9. Girl's High School Students 1 (okay/fair- 5.2) - Loads of fanservice. Not much into the humor.
10. School Rumble second term 1 (fair - 5.1) - Just can't get into it. Gomen.
11. Makai Senki Disgaea 1 (fair - 5.1) - Disappointing first episode for many - including me.
12. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 1 (fair - 5.1) - I expect to like this more later when the tone turn dark (I hope).
13. Princess Princess 1 (fair - 5.0) - Not bad, but too bishounen for me.
14. Ray (so-so - 4.8 ) - Not interested in the story.
15. Love Get-Chu ~Miracle Seiyuu Hakusho~ - 01 (mediocre - 4.2) - Not into "performance" anime.
16. Magipoka (Renkin San Kyu Magical? Pokaan) 1 (mediocre - 4.1): Not my kind of wacky humor.
17. Gintama 1 (mediocre - 4.0) - Not into this everything-goes anime.
18. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yutsu 1 (mediocre - 4.0) - I'm not into this type of humor.
19. Spider Riders 1 (mediocre - 3.8 )
That's twenty anime down (counting Kiba, but not counting Poka Poka Mori no Rascal) and only thirty four to go.