Bamboo Blade:
Comedy/Action sports anime. The premise of the story is that the struggling teacher/kendo club manager, Toraji Ishida (aka Kojiro), makes a bet with his senpai on who has the stronger all girl kendo team. He quickly scrambles to put together this team, because he’ll have a free meal ticket for a year if he wins. It looks like the first few episodes will focus on his attempts to recruit and train the girls to fight. It was a fun episode and I’ll keep up with this series. 8/10

Blue Drop:
Weird sci-fi shoujo-ai show. The first episode didn’t really tell enough to give a summary. Get it if you like shoujo-ai stuff. It did have some nice production values, but the plot just didn’t draw me in. I probably won’t keep up with this show. 4/10

Clannad:
Yes, the Key show that everyone has been waiting for is good. So far the first episode left me underwhelmed, but things are bound to change. Perhaps Kanon and Air just set the bar too high. Recommended if you liked the aforementioned Key visual novels or h-game anime in general. 8.5/10

ef- a tale of memories:
The directing style is a bit odd and the characters designs are kind of funky. The animation is VERY artistic which suits Hirono’s manga-ka job. ef- a tale of memories looks like it will be a good bishoujo game adaptation. I recommend it if you like h-game adaptations or stylistic art direction. One of this season’s must-watch shows. 9/10