Guess what guys, it's that time of year again! The time of year where Gaben lowers the prices on everything and all the money you planned to spend on things like "food" and "central heating" instead goes to pay for Santa to bring you Dishonored's GOTY Edition! It's only $13! How could you pass up that deal? It certainly beats stomping over the bodies of retail workers and crazed mothers to get $5 off that new XSbone4 or whatever you kids are playing these days.

Rather than deal with the hassle of having to shop for people, why not curl up in a warm blanket with a nice hot cup of hot cocoa, and enjoy some anime? Maybe if you're really good, you'll get a visit from the three ghosts of Xmas, and they'll be magical girls! Not me though, I don't get that option. My own holiday came and went much earlier this year.

Seriously though, there's a handful of anime involving girl ghosts, giant robots, and girl ghosts who are also giant robots. Also, lots of magic flying around. So there should be something here that catches your eye. Or you could keep watching Kill la Kill and Samurai Flamenco. Those should be entertaining.

As always, remember that these previews are highly subjective and not meant to be taken seriously. If you want serious previews of animu, there are other blogs/sites for them.

[pics will be added later as the upload thing is being annoying today]

• 12/20 Pupipo-!:A 5th grade girl and her pink monster friend. They fight evil spirits.
• 12/31 Burning Wind Ocean Earth Samurai Lord (Neppu Kairiku Bushi Road): Some mecha card game tie-in anime, though the mecha designs are expected to be really good at least.
• 12/31 Double Circle: CG robots fighting each other in a double-dutch tournament for control of what's left of Japan after the remaning landmass that still exists above the new sealine has been broken into double circles. Okay, only the first part of that sentence is true.
• 01/04 Robot Girls Z: 10 minute shorts by Toei Animation about Go Nagai robot-themed girls fighting each other. If you don't know who Go Nagai is you should probably not watch this show.
• 01/04 Future Card -BuddyFight-: Okay so I got this totally original idea for anime, you're gonna love it: There's this boy, he's named Yugi, but he fights bad guys with the power of friendship contained in a special deck of cards...HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

• 01/04 Space Dandy: Shinchiro Watanabe (Director: Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo), Dai Sato (Script: Eureka Seven, GITS:SAC), and studio BONES developing a new space opera adventure. Space Dandy is about "a dandy guy in the space." Named Dandy. He is partnered with a space-cat named Meow, and a glorified roomba named QT. They zip around the galaxy in their spaceship in an homage to old pulp sci-fi adventures. Even better, it will be airing simultaneously stateside on Adult Swim with an English dub track for those of you who don't want to read subtitles! There is no excuse for you to not watch this show now.
• 01/05 Buddy Complex: Another notch on the "mech show that isn't Gundam," belt for Studio Sunrise, revolving around the buddy system. Well, that puts the Power of Friendship front-and-center. Also I think there's a ghost girl involved.
• 01/05 Everyone Gather! Falcom Academy (Minna Atsumare! Falcom Gakuen): Honestly I don't know what this is so I'm just going to borrow some words from the GB wiki that no one reads: Captain Falcom is the star of all the F-Zero games. Originally from the mechanized trade city of Port Town, he has won a great number of Grand Prix events; however, Falcom is also an accomplished bounty hunter that pursues dangerous criminals across the entire galaxy.
• 01/05 NobunaGun: Gatling Gun infused with the soul of the legendary Oda Nobunaga and wielded by a high schooler who fights monsters. I'm also expecting high-schoolers with Vasili's Mosin-Nagant, D'artagnan's Saber and Moses Wooden Stick + Matzah Shield while we're at it.
• 01/05 My Neighbor Seki (Tonari no Seki-kun): A series of 10 minute shorts about a girl named Yokoi who keeps getting distracted by her classmate Seki as he plays a series of increasingly complex games at his desk, but only she seems to notice. I actually found the manga light-hearted and funny, so this might be an amusing show to watch.
• 01/05 Witchcraft Works: Stop me if you've heard this one before: loser dude with almost no redeeming qualities crushes on the most beautiful girl in his class who seems to be smuggling sandbags under her shirt. One day, she saves him from danger, then hangs on to him everywhere. In a twist, she's the real hero and he's the princess who has to be protected.
• 01/06 Love Song for a Certain Pilot (To Aru Hikuushi e no Koi-Uta): Light Novel adaptation about a deposed prince who flies around in a plane. I choose to believe it's a story about what really happened to Amelia Earheart.
• 01/06 D-Frag!: A wanna-be delinquent is kidnapped/forced into joining a club of bizarre girls from the (Temp) Game Creator Club. They barely do anything involving Game Creation. Whether or not you like this show depends are your tolerance for Japanese "manzai" comedy, but I'm just surprised this manga got an adaptation at all.
• 01/07 Wooser’s Hand-to-Mouth Life (Season 2) (Wooser no sono Higurashi (Season 2)): Jeeves and Wooster attempt to live out their true lives on the mean streets of Kabuki-cho. Dr. Gregory House returns to his role as the actor Hugh Laurie.
• 01/08 Youkai Watch: 3DS game being adapted into an anime, where a kid discovers a mysterious watch in an old capsule toy vending machine, which allows him to see monsters. He teams up with a ghost butler and a demon cat to fight them.
• 01/08 Chuu-2 Koi! Season 2: Boy trying to grow out of his middle-school fanfiction stuck with girl trapped in her own delusions who won't let him forget it. I'd recommend it if you want the same humor as WataMote but less cringing throughout each episode.
• 01/08 My Big Sister has Arrived (Onee-chan ga Kita): 3 minute episode shorts about a 13 year old boy who gets a new big sister with creepy intentions and you know what I'm just going to stop right there.
• 01/09 Unconfirmed & In-Progress (Mikakunin de Shinkoukei): No, that’s what it’s actually called. Girl founds out on her sixteenth birthday that she's betrothed to a boy her age, who then moves into her home from the countryside with his younger sister. Hilarity ensues?
• 01/09 Magical Warfare (Mahou Sensou): Magical girl reveals she turned an ordinary schoolboy into a magical dude to fight magic battles with evil magicans. Or something. I choose to believe that it's a longer version of WIZARD BATTLE.

• 01/09 Sakura Trick: Comedy with lesbian schoolgirls doing things.
• 01/09 Pupa: The anime that was delayed from last season and unfortunately not forever. Do not watch it.
• 01/10 Wake Up, Girls!: Like Idolm@ster but not, about a producer-san recruiting idorus to save his failing production company. Being produced both as a TV and a film simultaneously.
• 01/15 Inari, KonKon, Koi Iroha.: Girl has a crush on a boy, but boy is in love with another girl and hates the former after being humiliated by her. Girl #1 saves a magical fox who grants her one wish, and her wish is...to become girl #2? Hilarity ensues.
• 01/09 Silver Spoon (Season 2): More chill adventures of city boy in a farming school, loosely based on Hiromu Arakawa's (Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood) own experiences growing up on the family farm. Unfortunately, the first season's director jumped ship to focus on Sword Art Online because money.
• 01/11 Fake Love (Nisekoi): Schoolboy from yakuza family forced into relationship with girl from rival yakuza family. Turns into annoying harem "comedy" thing where same boy trying to find out which girl he made a love promise with 10 years ago. I'm still mad that this manga is going strong while Double Arts got cancelled before its time, but I guess that's where the sales are.
• 01/09 Z/X -Zillions of Enemy X- Ignition: Card battle game show but with people from alternate dimensions this time.
• 01/09 Cool-Headed Houzuki (Houzuki no Reitetsu): Dark comedy based on a manga nominated for the Taisho Manga Awards in 2012. The assistant to the King of Hell tries to keep things running smoothly so Hell doesn't freeze over and his boss doesn't fire him. So it's like a Japanese Dilbert comic with a less-stupid Pointy-Haired Boss, I think.
• 01/15 Maken-ki! Two: If you have seen any anime involving schools, fighting, and/or girls in paper-thin clothing, you have already seen this anime. Trust me on this one.
• 01/11 World Conquest ~Zvezda of Intrigue~ (Sekai Seifuku ~Bouryaku no Zvezda~): Original anime by A-1 Pictures. It's being directed by Tensai Okamura (Darker Than Black). It follows a secret society bent on world conquest, led by a half-naked little girl. This is what you're doing instead of a Season 3 of DtB, Okamura? For fuck's sake.
• 01/12 Wizard Barristers: Benmashi Cecil: Based on the title alone, finally my crossover fanfiction involving Harry Potter and Law and Order: UK has come to fruition! The main character is a public defender for mages accused of magical crimes. If the magic judges don't wear those powdered wigs in episode 1 then I am dropping this show.
• 01/04 Seitokai Yakuindomo *: GET IT? IT'S A CHEAP JAPANESE JOKE ABOUT SEX! Also about how the smartest girl is a midget. There, now you have heard all the dialogue..I'm still going to watch it though. Fuck.
• 01/?? Soni Ani -Super Sonico The Animation-: Nitroplus mascot anime about Sanic Hegehog n hsi adventturs. [note: DocHaus fell asleep on his keyboard halfway through typing this summary]
• 01/?? Hamatora: In a world where there exist special powers called “minor miracles”, a detective agency called Hamatora investigates a serial murderer involving people who carry these genes. Apparently another mixed-media franchise involving a video game, with Seiji Kishi directing (Persona 4 and Danganronpa adaptations) I expect no less.

• 01/10 No-rin: Someone trying to muscle in on Arakawa's turf? A farm boy obsessively follows a sexy idol who suddenly quits the biz, then quits farm school himself in depression. He is convinced to come back when he discovers said idol has transferred in! Hilarious antics ensue! Shin Oonuma (Baka Test, among others) directing and Silver Link producing, so expect some Shaft-lite antics.
• 01/04 Lately, My Little Sister has been a Bit Strange (Saikin, Imouto no Yousu ga Chotto Okashii nda ga): Little sister possessed by a ghost girl who wants to enter Heaven by forcing the sister to start coming on to her not-blood related brother, which in turn will...you know what? Just watch Dusk Maiden of Amnesia instead and forget this anime exists.
• 01/05 Stray Gods (Noragami): Bullied schoolgirl finds help from a minor demigod in the form of a boy wearing a jersey after seeing his phone number scrawled on the inside of a bathroom stall. Despite that setup, it's [probably] not going to be about "having a good time."
• 01/05 Saki: Zenkoku-hen: The continuing adventures of lesbian schoolgirls who play Mahjong.
• 01/05 Nobunaga the Fool: SPACE!Joan of Arc and SPACE!Leonardo da Vinci team up to fight with SPACE!Oda Nobunaga while in search of some SPACE!Jesus. Also there are mechs. DID I MENTION SPACE?
• 01/09 GO! GO! 575: SEGA threw enough money at the artist behind OreImo (that "other" implied incest series) to create characters to represent their Vocaloid-like game where players create haikus and a girly voice recites them back. I guess the Best Girl will appear as DLC in the new Sonic and SEGA All-Stars game.
• 01/?? Strange+: A kid comes to a slum, discovers that his older brother runs a private detective firm. The original manga is apparently pretty chill, based off some 4koma I haven't read.
• 02/?? Happiness Charge PreCure!: Something something magical girls again.
• ??/?? Sailor Moon: 20th Anniversary Anime (Name Pending): New anime for the 20th anniversary of Sailor Moon that may or may not actually appear in this season, as it's been delayed so many times before. Right up there with Code Geass: Akito Part 2 with being stuck in development hell.

Winter 2013/2014 Movies/OVAs to watch for:

• 12/07 Lupin the Third vs Detective Conan: The Movie The TV special was a real letdown as it focused too much on other characters nobody cared about. Hopefully the movie will be better, but I doubt it.
• [already released?] Ghost in the Shell: ARISE - Border 2: Ghost Whispers The GITS alternate universe series continues. This time, a mysterious hacker takes control of Tokyo's traffic network and a military unit accused of war crimes tries to prove their innocence. This one's got a lot more action than the first, if that's your thing.
• 12/29 Destructive Dangerous Foolish Girls - Amazing Twins -, OVA Episode 1 (Zetsumetsu Kigu Shoujo -Amazing Twins-, OVA Episode 1) 2-part OVA thing involving magical girls and one of them is a ghost sister or something. Junichi Sato (Sailor Moon) directing and Mari Okada (Hanasaku Iroha) writing. Could be worth a watch?
• 12/31 Sword Art Online: Extra Edition Bonus episode of the show that forever ruined Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for me.
• 01/04 Mushishi Special One-hour special Mushi-shi episode, about a wandering old-timey spiritual doctor who solves mysteries in old-timey Japan. If you haven't seen this show already, do so. You'll find it on Hulu.
• 01/25 The Idolm@ster Movie I know some of you duders have played the game before.
• 02/01 Live action Haganai movie Didn't know this was a thing until now.
• 02/08 Tiger & Bunny - The Rising: Until/unless someone feels like slapping down fat stacks of cash for a season two, this is the best you're going to get for Japan's love letter to western superheroes.
• 02/08 BUDDHA 2 Based on the Osamu Tezuka manga about the OG Buddha's life story.
• 02/?? Bodacious Space Pirates the Film The film sequel to the TV series with the very '80s name.
• 03/?? Gundam Unicorn, Episode 07 After years and years, this series is wrapping up. Unless it doesn't.

As always, tell me how right I am or what I missed in the comments.