Something for the magical girl crowd (but more slice-of-life IMO) is “Figure 17 – Tsubasa & Hikaru”. It is very, very nice (in the original sense of the word) and has all the usual prequisites (at least one parent dead, having to transfer schools, loosing friends, etc.); although her father doesn’t really seem to care about Tsubasa, which makes him appear quite mean (or ignorant). I’m still not quite sure about the target audience for this, as even I was scared of the (quite original) monster in episode 1… ^_^

Another more interesting (and mature) new series is “Wolf’s Rain” by BONES. Post-something (most likely apocalyptic), very well animated and intriguing, it seems to be about a group of wolves who are disguising as / hiding among humans (as they’re long thought to be extinct) looking for their “paradise”. There also is the “flower” (girl?) with the scary blood-red eyes… And lots of other things, which make it very, very interesting!

I’ve found “Yokohama Shopping Log” (+ new OAV) and quite like it, but you (most likely) won’t because it’s soooooo slow and nothing happens, but I definitely do!

“Mahou Tsukai ni Taisetsu na Koto” seems one of the more interesting new anime out in 2003. 16-year old magic apprentice from country-side starts training in Tokyo (which is exactly as it is today if you ignore the common-place magic). The nipples are a bit unsettling, though… ^_^

And after having finished the project, I watched the rest (i.e. episodes 09-13) of “Haibane-Renmei” (Charcoal Feathers Federation) and they managed to pull it off very nicely! Kudos to Yoshitoshi Abe and Tokoro Tomokazu for an excellent series (which not everyone will like…) that took me by surprise. Thanks to the fan-subbers as well… ^_^