Here's a roundup of what I've seen from the Spring '10 season of anime, a few weeks after everybody stopped caring.
-B Gata H Kei- The story is for this one is a high school girl trying to sleep with 100 guys, but she can't seem to get the first one under her belt. If the previous sentence didn't make you roll your eyes, then this might be for you. This is when usually somebody would post a long rant about how crap like this is ruining the anime industry and how pandering the otaku isn't going to get us anywhere, but Masaaki Yuasa got to make another anime series, so I won't do any of that. Thing looks like it was made in MS Paint, though.
-Heroman- I would like this one a lot more had I watched it when I was a few years younger. Now I'm older and more cynical in every respect, so I just don't get much of anything out of it. There was some nice animation with Heroman running in the first episode, and the two cuts in the OP where Joey's grandma is dancing and later on when there's a guys swinging a guitar. Aside from that, there wasn't anything of note. BONES puts out above-average quality for their TV shows, but that doesn't make the animation by itself all that spectacular. The bar is being set pretty low by everybody else.
-Rainbow - Nisha Rokubō no Shichinin- Potentially mature and heartbreaking material is handled with the subtlety of a shonen action manga. Not that I don't like shonen manga, but it has its place and it's not here. Tragedy porn in the same vein as Elfen Lied. Less moe and more pedophiles in this one, however. And the ED is a guilty pleasure of mine. Seriously, give it a listen.
-House of Five Leaves- This show feels comfortable in wandering around aimlessly. I can't say that I find the main character to be interesting and the show has so far managed to do a poor job jumping back and forth between past and present, but I'm still watching. The overall mood and setting is what makes me keep on coming back. It's a good choice if you want a change of pace.
-The Tatami Galaxy (Yojō-Han Shinwa Taikei)- After the crazy plot twist at the end of the first episode, the series has still managed to maintain its quality through its following two episodes. For episode 2, Akitoshi Yokoyama comes back to work with Yuasa to provide us with another story involving a character with a strange fetish (nowhere as weird as Kaiba ep. 2, though). Norio Matsumoto, Shingo Yamashita, and Hiroki (or is it Hironori?) Tanaka did the Key Animation for this one with Shouko Nishigaki as the Animation Director. From what I can gather, Tanaka and Yamashita did the first half, while Matsumoto did most of the second half with Tanaka helping out. I haven't rewatched this episode as of yet, but I was excited to see Matsumoto again. The last work he did before this one was Princess Lover ep. 9. I've been hoping that his absence from the scene meant that he was working on another Naruto episode, but he popped up here first. I guess there's still a chance he'll come up during the current arc in Shippuden.
Tanaka is an animator that's really made a name for himself in a very short amount of time. He first appeared in Beet the Vandel Buster 6 years ago and ever since he's been at it non-stop. He's done a few solo episodes as an animator (School Days ep. 6, Saki ep. 20), along with appearing in a ton of other stuff. The first time I encountered him was in Naruto Shippuden ep. 131, where he was the Animation Director along with doing some KA himself. Yokoyama was also at the helm of that episode and it's one of the best Naruto episodes out there. Animators from Kaiba were brought in to help out that one, so you know what to expect in terms of quality.
The consensus as to why Tanaka's done so much in so little time is that his animation style itself--characterized by random drawings to get the character from point A to point B-- is the key to allowing the amount of work he's done. That and being really young and all the stamina that comes with it. Here's a good example of his stuff:
Episode 3 of The Tatami Galaxy featured Ryoutarou Makihara being the storyboarder/animation director (along with Naoyuki Asano)/director, along with doing some KA. I first saw Makihara in episode 11 of Kaiba. The highlight for me was the nice chase at the beginning of the episode. It takes place in between these tight spaces and it gives off a nice sense of claustrophobia-- taking your breath away like any good chase should. That left quite an impression on me, so I looked forward to whatever he would work in the future. The overall quality in this episode is the same as the last two- with a nice mix of colors, live-action shots and very solid framing throughout that makes the transition from one cut to the next seamless. Which is a plus since the dialogue is still going by at the speed of light.
You really need to train to read that fast. Normally I wouldn't mind watching a Yuasa show subbed (it's the only way I've been able to watch them so far), but a dub would be nice for this one. Make it happen, eh, FUNimation?