===== Descriptions of our shows for Fall 2006, courtesy of David F. Smith ===== ONGOING FEATURES The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Haruhi is bored. Haruhi is crazy. Haruhi may be God. Haruhi and her club of freaks press-ganged at random get together for baseball and murder and rock 'n' roll. Very, very funny. Fourteen episodes. Black Lagoon: On the cover of the Black Lagoon manga, it says in big letters, "BADDEST MOTHERFUCKERS IN ASIAN SEA." A hapless rookie middle-manager gets kidnapped by Indonesian pirates in the pay of Russian ex-military mafiosi. Subsequently, lots of things get shot and blown up. Twelve episodes. Honey and Clover: Tokyo art students continue to fumble their way through romance and early adult life. This semester, we find out what Morita does for money. No, it's not what you think it is. We'll have the remaining 10 episodes of the original TV series, plus the "Chapter F" and "Chapter L" episodes (two more eps tacked on the Japanese home video releases), plus the first two episodes of the ongoing sequel series. IRREGULAR FEATURES Ouran High School Host Club: The lone poor scholarship student at a hoity-toity private academy falls in with the prettyboys who run the school host club. Shoujo comedy with lots of personality in its animation. We'll watch four episodes, including the one with Takehito Koyasu as a bisexual drag queen gay-bar host(ess). Welcome to the NHK: A sad-sack loser hides out in his apartment and gradually descends into madness. Merciless mockery of a variety of easy targets, including the porn-obsessed and socially deficient fanboy. Four episodes. Dai Mahou Touge: Magical princess Punie battles evil on Earth with her supernatural powers and mastery of submission wrestling. Contains Oishinbo jokes, among many other in-references. Two episodes. Coyote Ragtime Show: A famous interstellar criminal breaks out of jail to find buried treasure on a nearly-doomed planet. He's pursued by a gluttonous, massively stacked lady cop and a squad of the mafia's twelve loli-goth android paratroopers. Two episodes. Ghost in the Shell Solid State Society: Feature-length sequel to the GITS television series, which will hopefully be subtitled in time for us to show it the fifth week of the semester. If not, we'll find something else, or swap in Spirited Away. Mahjong Legend Akagi: On a dark and stormy night in 1958, a teenage mahjong genius plays for his life against the yakuza. Dead-serious, wonderfully overblown, with distinctive art and music. Three episodes. FLAG: Contemporary, down-to-earth drama following the life of a photojournalist, from the director of Armored Trooper Votoms. You don't know what I'm talking about when I say Armored Trooper Votoms, but it's good, trust me. Three episodes. Kemonozume: Highly stylized show about man-eating demons from Studio 4 Degrees, the outfit that did Mind Game and many other cult favorites. Two episodes. Gallery Fake: More adventures in art theft and restoration. One episode (the only one that's been subtitled in the last, I dunno, eighteen months). Spirited Away: The modern fantasy classic that finally let Hayao Miyazaki break big in America. Maybe you've already seen it, but now you get to see it again. Nasu -- Summer in Andalusia: Andalusia's in Spain, if you didn't know. This is a new short film in the Ghibli style, a sports drama about a Japanese competitor in an international bicycle race. Project Blue Earth SOS: Another new short OVA/movie, this time a '30s pulp sci-fi throwback. Scientist adventurers defend the earth with fantastically wacky machinery. Seems to have a kinda Godzilla-meets-Doc-Savage thing going on. Gokusen live-action: Two more episodes from the second live-action drama series about a yakuza princess teaching high school. This new series introduces a new class of thugs for her to keep in line. XXXholic: The new CLAMP TV adaptation, which appears to focus on opium-smoking and other similarly decadent practices. The visual style could also be neatly described as "decadent." Two episodes. Trinity Blood: Gothsploitation TV action series. Absurdly pretty secret agents for the Vatican kill alien vampires from Romania. Two episodes. Gag Manga Biyori: Adapted from a four-panel gag strip, these are ten-minute episodes of whacko absurd comedy. We'll show two sets of two episodes each. Jyo-ou-sei: Or however you're supposed to romanize it. Very sharp-looking sci-fi about twin brothers stranded on a prison planet dominated by carnivorous vegetation. Two episodes. Gokinjyo Monogatari: Prequel in spirit to Paradise Kiss, albeit a lot more light-hearted. Cute shoujo comedy covering the trendy life in Tokyo. Two episodes. Mushishi: Because everyone digs it, two more episodes of mystery/adventure/supernatural National Geographic documentary. Numbers five and six, if you're counting.