Ask John: Who Are the Girls on the AnimeNation Banner?

Question:
Who are the three girls on the current banner at the top of the AnimeNation main page, and what can you tell me about them?

Answer:
The three gals on the top of the AnimeNation page at the present time seem to be generating a lot of interest. From left to right, they are Rindou Ayaka of Seraphim Call, Yurika Misumaru of Nadesico, and Shaolin of Mamotte! Shugogetten.

Seraphim Call was a 12 episode life-sim TV series from Sunrise which aired on Japanese television from October to December of 1999. The series featured character designs by Aoi Nanase, known for her illustrations for Samurai Spirits and her manga serial Angel/Dust. The selling point of the series was that each of the first 11 episodes would feature a different female main character, an entirely different genre and an original ending theme song. The twelfth episode would then feature all 11 girls together in a single episode. In reality, the series is simply a life-sim (life simulation) series. Some episodes introduced a minor sci-fi or comedy element, but the overall genre description for all of the episodes is undeniably realistic drama. Because the series was a short one, and not one that was intended to create a big fan following, very little merchandise for the series was created. Each episode had its own CD soundtrack, and the series was released on DVD and as a limited edition laserdisc boxed set that came with a large color calendar and illustration book.

I don’t think it’s necessary to go into much detail on Nadesico since the show is currently being released in the US by AD Vision.

Mamotte! Shugogetten was a 22 episode TV series from October 1998 and is currently being released in Japan as a follow-up 6 episode OAV series. The simplest way to describe Shugogetten is as a slapstick comedy version of Ah! My Goddess.

Some discussion on the banner girls, and fan reviews of Shugogetten have been posted to the AnimeNation forum.