Descriptions of the shows for COUP Fall 2007:

Regular Features:

Darker Than Black - A decade ago a mysterious gate appeared in Tokyo causing
the landscape to change and the sky to show strange constellations.  At the
same time, people known as Contractors begin to attain strange powers.
Today, they're used as agents of various world powers who are still trying
to understand the Hell's Gate phenomenon. This is a serious paranormal
action show along the lines of Heroes or the X-Men, with a soundtrack by
Yoko Kanno.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rv5hSt9oic

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagaan - In a bizzare futuristic underground
civilizaiton, you're bound to have at least one 14 year old kid who finds a
chunky robot that looks like a giant head and happens to open with the
mysterious drill bit he found, who joins up with women with huge rifles and
the like to fight other robots.  The end result is a train wreck between
FLCL and Mazinger Z, courtesy of our friends at GAINAX.  It kicks ass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdDNU01_B_U

Nodame Cantabille - Our heroine is an eccentric (read: deeply weird) woman
attending a music college where she longs to eat delicious food and pursues
the affections of Chiaki, an uptight would-be conductor who's having none of
it.  Will Nodame realize the potential of her quirky piano style?  Will
Chiaki overcome his fear of flying and travel to Europe to study?  Will
there be wacky romantic comedy hijinx in every episode?  You bet there will.
Gyabo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_Sux_rgYNM

Rotating shows:

Sayonara Zetsubo-sensei - A suicidal high-school teacher is befriended by
one of his cheerful, utterly deluded students who utterly fails to be
bothered by his gloomy lectures.  Cue a superior black comedy with a
wonderful sense of old-fashioned style.  Based on the Kodansha Manga Award
winning comic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWWMej1Ra2o

Bokurano - A group of teenagers attending summer camp find a man working in
a nearby grotto.  He claims to be a programmer and convinces them all to
test the game he's working...which just happens to coincide with giant
robots appearing.  Think Ender's Game with mecha.  Uninstall!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05p646nlYS0

Set no Hanayome - Our hapless hero is saved from drowning by a mermaid, but
unfortunatly humans aren't allowed to see mermaids and live, unless they
marry into the family.  The yakuza family, that is.  Cue wacky hijinx and
gags ripped straight out of Urusei Yatsura.

Natsuki Crisis - An oh-so-80s two-part OVA series about a high-school
martial artist and her transfer student rival who spend a lot of time
beating the holy hell out of people.  No YouTube link, but just envision
women kicking the shit out of thugs and you get the idea.

Paprika - Satoshi "Pagan God" Kon's latest feature film is about new
technology that allows psychologists to interact with their patient's dreams
and how things go straight to hell when someone steals the technology and
starts to abuse it.  Visually astonishing with vivid, surreal dream imagery,
a pulsating electornic soundtrack, and Kon's typically superior
storytelling.  Crucial viewing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqg3Sw3s9Wg

Toward the Terra - In the far future humanity allow themselves to be ruled
by computers, saving their pitchforks instead for the new race of psychic
humans known as the Mu.  When our hero learns he's psychic, he runs away to
join the Mu and their quest to find a homeworld.  All bound for mu mu land!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH_dCrTZNn0

Denno Coil - Short version: Ghibliesque augmented reality.  Long version: In
the near future everyone wears VR sunglasses that display virtual images
over everyday reality.  Cue a gaggle of teenage hackers having fun with the
tech and trying to avoid attention of the network administrators, as it
were.  From the director of The Cat Returns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbFTjfvGFRA

Ookiku Furikabutte - Our hero, a deeply neurotic pitcher, leaves behind his
traumatic middle school experiences by going out to the sticks for high
school, where he finds himself on the team learning how to pitch like hell
and grow a spine.  Okay, so he's a bit Shinji, but despite this it's a damn
fine baseball series.  Based on the Kodansha Manga Award and Tezuka Osamu
Cultural Prize winning comic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULkZ018JKAU

Tetsuko no Tabi - Autobiographical tales of adventures across Japan with a
raging train otaku.  That's it.  There's this guy who's completely obsessed
with trains and the writer and his editor go hang out with him occasionally.
Trains, trains, trains, trains, trains.  It's totally freakin' awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iad2s3cGj34

Sgt. Frog Movie - When incompetent aliens attempt to invade Earth, we're
safe from conquest thanks to the friendship between a boy and a Gundam
fanatic frog.  This incredibly popular series is very silly, drips pop
culture references, and is a hoot and a half.  In their first feature film
outing, it looks like Keroro's home planet has sent serious reinforcements
who may actually get the job done.  Oops.  General Mom is gonna be pissed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv9N56DY2fc

Hellsing OVAs - Hellsing is a terrifically violent series about good guy
vampires and the organization they belong to that attempts to rid the world
of bad guy vampires.  It's pretty great.  You may have seen the Hellsing TV
series.  It was lame.  However, the OVAs follow the manga very closely and
therefore rock.  Did I mention that these were fantastically violent?
You'll love it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJIA4VnB108

Charge!! Otokojuku - Goofy late-80s comedy series about a school where big
burly thugs have discipline beaten into them by bigger burlier teachers,
with the goal of teaching the students the type of cheerleading you see in
the game Ouendan.  No, really.  It's a hoot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8koptoXSLz4

Dai Mahou Touge - Our heroine is a fairy princess from the magic kingdom who
has come to Earth to learn of our ways.  It's just like Minky Momo, except
that she's the completely insane mistress of submission wrestling whose cute
mascot comes from a village full of brutal thugs and whose antics tend to
threaten all life on Earth.  It's wonderful.  Lyrical Tokarev, kill them
all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtGV2zsi-x4

Genshiken - COUP: The Animated Series.  No, really, it's about a college
anime club and what loveable dorks they are.  Wildly funny if you've spent
any amount of time whatsoever hanging out with a bunch of fans, which seems
likely if you're still coming to meetings as of late November.  The OVA
opening isn't nearly as good as the TV opening, so I'll cheat and give you
the latter instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoe5zpfRenQ

Patarillo - Absurdist early-80s comedy about the brat ruler of Marinera, the
world's richest nation (with twin primary exports of diamonds and orchids),
his long-suffering bodyguard from MI6 (Jack Bancoran, aka "The Bishounen
Killer"), and their adventures in a series where every male in the show is
gay.  It's deeply surreal and very funny.  However, the question still
remains: Who killed Cock Robin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb1CwFPrchA&mode=related&search=

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time - After our heroine is in a train accident
she learns that she has the ability to travel backwards in time and alter
events.  After using her powers to do things like cheat on tests and avoid
being late for school she realizes that she may be having a bit more of an
effect on things than she thought.  Whoops.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxhF1BDrYTM

Damn, that's a fine looking line-up we've got there.

Phil