Choyaku Hyakuninisshu : Uta Koi.
 

http://cdn01.animenewsnetwork.com/im...54/uta-koi.jpg

Original creator : Kei Sugita
Director : Kenichi Kasai
Series Composition : Tomoko Konparu
Character Design : Aki Tsunaki
Animation Production : TYO Animations
Production : NAS
Plot summary : The manga tells the "super-liberal interpretation" of the Hyakuninisshu anthology compiled during Japan's Heian period of 100 romantic poems from 100 different poets such as The Tale of Genji's Murasaki Shikibu. The poems are also used as the basis for the karuta card game.

Note : Media Factory began publishing the manga in 2010. The third volume will be published on April 20.

ANOTHER josei? Good.

Just 3 volumes so far of the manga? Bad.

The premise sounds interesting enough, obviously reminds me of Chihayafuru, which is a good thing. Yet, the setting is in the past.

I was just about to say the image reminds me of Heian period lol. I'll check this out I'm a huge sucker for romance ^-^"

Adding some more info~!





That's a pretty impressive staff list for josei lovers, if 3gatsu no Lion ever get an anime, I wouldn't mind this (barring character designer). As for what's Hyakunin Isshu, here's the wiki exerpt:
Base on the promo material and title, I expect epic music and light-hearted romance with slices of comedy. Summer's looking even better than Spring for me at the moment.

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2ch leaked cast, looks somewhat believable (the person leaked several things that at least one was confirmed from Newtype elsewhere).Confirmed!

Looks like pretty solid cast. While conventional wisdom seems to indicate that Natsuyuki Rendez-vous would be the josei of the season, but this seems to be more on my wavelength~~~ I'm still not too convinced that the character designer's a good fit, so still very much anticipating on the music composer.

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Finally took a look at the manga, got even more interested.

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Website updated!!!

http://puu.sh/tNAB

Music composers are Mitsuda Yasunori and Kirioka Maki; both are prolific video game music composers. Sound director is Motoyama Satoshi, who has done few series that I like quite a bit (most recently Brave 10 and Symphogear). I think Mitsuda is huge for Chrono Trigger fame, but I have only ever bought 3-5 games in my life so ... EITHER WAY, officially as hyped as a monkey drinking banana coffee now!

I'm very interested in this series! The music already sounds fantastic and I've heard good things about the manga too.

At first I thought it was another sotry about Hikaru Genji. :heh: As a josei fan I was excited but watching the PV... the animation is weird, and those thick black borders get on my nerves.

I just love animes that portrait the old culture of Japan... the nobility and the ladies..... Nice to wait for such kind of anime since Tale of Genji...

This is from the same studio behind Miracle Train. I wouldn't expect much in terms of production values.

Looking forward to this, should be a nice watch while I wait for chihayafuru S2

TYO/Hal film maker always manages to surprise me with what they can do with a limited budget

AHHHHHHHHHHHH I LOVE THIS!!!! Hilarious, romantic, and beautiful!

While I wished that rest of the show had OP's animation, but considering the PV looked kinda funky, I'm glad the actual episode could capture the manga's essence so well. Pretty satisfied base on Ep1. Yay!!!

EDIT: Though the story is a bit stereotypic of gender roles, so if you're offended by that then you probably won't be able to enjoy this (but keep in mind the time period for this).

lol they started off with the poem western fans are probably most familiar with :p

It was a fun watch but so far the thing that's stood out the most is the OP rather than the episode itself,never really got into the story but since we'll be getting different sories every week i'll be wiling to give it another chance next week.

Well, as a fan of Chihaya-furu, they just have to start with THAT poem. I say props to them, as it certainly caught my attention.

That said, I liked the older brother story more. Hiroko was so adorable as a true Yamato Nadeshiko. Thing is, I think I'm too heavily influenced by NTR that when older brother said to welcome his younger brother, I can't get NTR out of my head considering younger brother is a playboy. :heh:

Regardless, I think I'm hooked now. I know that the stories are only loosely based on the actual history of the poems, but hey, if it's interesting, might as well know some backstory and familiarize myself a bit more with the poems of karuta (Chihayafuru 2nd season is coming soon after all)

Crunchyroll announced today that it will stream "Utakoi" beginning July 2 at 10 pm PDT for its premium members. Free members need to wait a week. Stream will be available to the following territories: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-new...-utakoi-anime]

Takaiko & Narihira love story was nice.
So if I got this right, each episode will be a new story?
Not really sure if I'll be watching this... probably not.

Two things kept distracting me from truly getting into the first episode. One was the thick black lines edging the character outlines. The lines kept reminding me of a Hana Barbara cartoon or when Disney first started using the Xerox copy method of reproducing character designs back in the late sixties. (Think Jungle Book or 101 Dalmatians.) The second distraction was watching the characters walk around while the intricate patterns on their clothing remained completely static. But when I could tear myself away from the distractions to focus on the stories, I enjoyed myself. These 2 stories were surprisingly funny and touching. I don't normally go in for unrelated or loosely related short stories, so we'll see how long I last with this series though. Finally, the ED song, talk about coming out of left field. :heh:

Haha, they started with Chihayaburu. I had a huge grin on my face when Nahihira started reciting it.

The two stories were surprisingly humorous. I expected them to be more bittersweet, given the theme of some of the poems. Perhaps the following stories will have a different mood. Either way, this series should be a pleasant watch.

I like the visuals of the show. It vaguely reminded of Mononoke. The animation was in no way impressive but it was good enough for this type of anime.

I was surprised that the 2 stories are not full of drama and angst ( I have this mentality that a forbidden love set in the ancient times never ends well). It's actually quite light-hearted, not too heavy.

I think I might need some time to get used to the animation, but Utakoi's animation is not the most peculiar I have come across (Mononoke is the winner), so it's a good thing that it probably won't bother me for long.

I really liked this from beginning to end.

I quite liked the animation style, thick black outlines and all. I think it worked well with the material, and I thought the material was good - it didn't take itself too seriously and was quite amusing at times.

Yes, they picked a good one to start off with. I almost cheered.

This goes on my must watch list.

Read some Tale of Genji. The Heian period was not like other "ancient times." Liaisons were fairly common, it appears.

Actually, I could do with some more drama here, myself. But I believe the manga treats everything in a light and rather arch way.

The animation didn't bother me. I admired the way they could produce something lovely on the cheap. The unmoving patterns on clothing I got used to in Gankutsuou. The way they drew Narihira's body was good.

Anther problem I have is that so far, I haven't encountered a character I really liked. Narihira's self-satisfied smirk puts me off. I even found the wonderful Hayami Saori's voice somewhat harsh here as his lover. Yukihira was a bit of a nonentity, and his wife had a fake expression. I wonder if her story will continue.... She's played by Kobayashi Sanae, however, which is a good thing. And Narihira is played by Suwabe Junichi, which is a wonderful thing.

But I am happy to have a show set in Heian times. Unfortunately, maybe we are getting a bit of the true shallowness of that age, which great literature like the Genji helps me gloss over.