Fall Season 2018 Preview

What happens when the anime season ends? That’s when the anime season begins. You would think that after all these years of this I would stop being surprised at a brand new anime season hitting faster than expected but it’s just one of those things you constantly underestimate.

Now last season we had a decent run with some stand out shows and this would normally be the point where I tell you that the next season coming also has potential greats in it. But this time I am afraid I cannot say that for I have done the research and this season is truly barren. There may be a few alright shows here and a new Jojo is always welcome but everything else is just bottom of the barrel. If those original shows don’t turn out to have merit this could very well be the worst season of anime we have had in a long time. Considering that is coming from me of all people that should at least give you an idea of the quality we are dealing with.

So same rules apply, I will check out all the source material I can to give an idea for what we are in for and there is a poll below for you to vote on what you wish to be covered this season.

Once again thanks to Mario for images, some previews and layout help and Wooper and Lenlo for editing.

The sequels/Shorts I don’t care about

Fairy Tail (2018) (sequel)
Bakutsuri Bar Hunter
Devidol! (short)
Souten no Ken: REGENESIS 2 (sequel)
Grimms Notes (???)
Gurazeni 2 (sequel)
Gyakuten Saiban: Sono “Shinjitsu”, Igi Ari! 2 (sequel)
Himote House (short)
Hora, Mimi ga Mieteru yo! (short)
Hoshi no Shima no Nyanko TV (short)
Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin (sequel)
Jingai-san no Yome (short)
Kira Kira Happy ★ Hirake! Cocotama (sequel)
Okoshiyasu, Chitose-chan (short)
The iDOLM@STER: Side M: Wake Atte Mini! (short)
Pingu in the City 2 (2018) (short)
Seizei Gambare Mahou Shoujo Kurumi 2 (sequel)
Senran Kagura SHINOVI MASTER -Tokyo Youma-hen- (sequel)
Shuudengo, Capsule Hotel de, Joushi ni Binetsu Tsutawaru Yoru (short)
Sono Toki, Kanojo wa. (short)
Space Battleship Tiramisu II (short)
Sword Art Online: Alicization (sequel)
Toaru Majutsu no Index III (sequel)
Tokyo Ghoul:re 2 (sequel)

Series I don’t care about

Akanesasu Shoujo

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Studio: Dandelion Animation Studio
Director: Jin Tamamura
Script/Series composer: Shougo Yasukawa
Source: Video Game
October, 2018. Girls who live in a provincial city perform a certain ritual. The girls are in the “Crystal Radio Club.” It is an interest circle that Asuka Tsuchimiya, a girl known for her cheerfulness, started with friends in her high school. That ritual was considered just an urban legend. However, with several conditions coincidentally falling into place, it stops being fun and games…

I originally had some hope that this would be a kind of horror anime but the trailer unfortunately confirmed that it wasn’t. What this does seem to be is a mixture of a cute girls doing cute things club and supernatural battle anime. Not to mention it’s for a smartphone app so likely another gacha game. The director was previously involved with A Sister’s All You Need, and the scenario writer hasn’t done much to write home about. I honestly wouldn’t expect much from this.

Anima Yell!

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Studio: Doga Kobo
Director: Masako Sato
Script/Series composer: Fumihiko Shimo
Source: Manga
The story follows Kohane Hatoya, a 1st year high school student who is a bit clumsy and scared of heights but who has a very bubbly and outgoing personality. Kohane decides to join the cheerleading club to try to make friends and overcome her weaknesses.

It’s a 4-koma manga with four cute girls in a club so you know the drill. Quickfire gags and cute girls being all cute and shit. I’ve only seen two chapters of this but already this feels too much like many, many things I have seen before. The cheerleading aspect is pretty much superfluous and can be interchanged with any school activity you so desire. The characters are copy pastes of the same archetypes you have in these kinds of series, and while these chapters were short, I found my eyes glazing over before I finished. My taste for humor has never been all that compatible with anime but even then I feel this series just isn’t really funny. To me this is an anime to fill a quota for an anime season. We gotta have a cute girls doing cute things show so let’s slap something together to just tick that box.

Bakumatsu

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Studio:Studio Deen
Director: Masaki Watanabe
Script/Series composer: Masahiro Yokotani
Source: Video Game
Kyoto, Japan. The heroine meets a man who gives her a pocket watch somehow leading to a Torii in a shrine, and suddenly it warps her into the Bakumatsu period. In the world of where there is such a difference in importance of value, she tries to find a way to go back. When she meets a man who has crossed time and says, “I will live for you,” a love story between the two blossoms.

Looks to be another one of those Edo period pretty boy catch-em-all deals, a category which surprisingly has more entries than two. Trailer doesn’t give much to go on and it’s clearly a marketing campaign for a mobile app hoping to get a new influx of whales. It could by some surprise be better than it looks but I truly hold no expectations.

Beelzebub-jou no Okinimesu mama

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Studio: LIDENFILMS
Director: Minato Kazuto
Script/Series composer: Yoriko Tomita
Source: Manga
Murin lands his dream job with the demon king he’s always held in awe, but when his tenure begins, it turns out the demon king isn’t quite what he expected…

It’s a 4-koma manga so it’s mainly made up of quick gags. No translation from what I can see, but looking at some raws I don’t need a translation to get the general gist of the premise. The big joke is that the big scary demon king is a hot defenseless girl and the male character keeps getting turned on by her and being embarrassed. As it’s a gag manga expect the romance to go nowhere despite baiting you into thinking it will. And the humor is mainly variations on the same joke. I say give this a pass.

Conception: Ore no Kodomo wo Undekure!

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Studio: Gonzo
Director: Keitarou Motonaga
Script/Series composer: Yuuko Kakihara
Source: Video Game
The story of the game revolves around Itsuki Yuuge, a high school student who finds out on the day of his graduation ceremony that his cousin and childhood friend Mahiru is pregnant. Immediately afterward, Itsuki and Mahiru are taken to a magical world called Granvania, which is currently being invaded by monsters. The only people who can fight and exorcise the monsters are the “star children,” and the star children can only be produced by the 12 “shrine maidens of the constellations.” In order to defeat the monsters and return to his own world, Itsuki must father the star children with the maidens.

My first reaction upon hearing about this adaption was two words, “But why?” And indeed, why? Normally with video game adaptations it’s because it’s an advertisement for a new game or a mobile game looking to get more players for sweet gacha money. So anime adaptations of Persona 5 and Granblue make perfect sense. This however is not a gacha game or a new game. This is an adaption of a game from 2012 so I suppose it’s to advertise the remaster for PS4. But still…why? This certainly doesn’t look to hide some masterpiece of storytelling that needs to be expressed in anime form and the story synopsis alone raises some eyebrows. I was thinking of getting the sequel on Steam just to get an idea about this series but honestly I have serious doubts about this being anything significant. Video game adaptations can already be shaky but this looks like it could only be so-bad-it’s-good territory at best.

Dakaretai Otoko Ichii ni Odosarete Imasu

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Studio: CloverWorks
Director: Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Script/Series composer: Yoshimi Narita
Source: Manga
Takato Saijyo has reigned as the idol industry’s “Most Huggable” for five years, that is, until freshman actor Junta Azumaya. Takato was always considered brusque while Azumaya’s smile is winning over admirers by comparison. The whole fiasco drives Takuto to over indulge in alcohol and his actions catch the attention of the last person he wants to see. To his surprise, Azumaya uses this new info to blackmail Takuto for physical affection.

Why am I reading yaoi manga for this preview? Sometimes it’s painful being thorough. At least I can say with absolute certainty that this isn’t for me for this is indeed hard yaoi. It’s not like a realistic gay relationship but more the highly romanticized version with ukes and semes and all that other stuff. Half the first chapter was basically sex so god only knows how they plan to adapt this. I say this one is only for those with a particular interest in yaoi and a hard pass for anyone else.

Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san

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Studio: DLE
Director: Owl Todoroki
Script/Series composer: Shin Okashima
Source: Web Manga
The comedy manga’s story centers on a skeleton named Honda who works in a bookstore. Hilarity ensues daily in his work at the shop’s manga counter.

I wonder why Skulduggery Pleasant has a job as a convenience store worker, maybe work at the sanctuary dried up… (I wonder if anyone will get that without googling…) Anyway as much as I would like this to be an adaption of a book series I am quite fond of, it seems to be a simple screwball comedy – one that happens to have the most limited animation you could think of. The manga isn’t translated so nothing to go off there. The be all and end all for this is whether it will be funny. Considering my general reaction to anime comedy, I don’t think this will be for me.

Gakuen Basara

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Studio: Brain’s Base
Director: Minoru Ohara
Script/Series composer: Koji Miura
Source: Manga
The Gakuen Basara school battle comedy parody reimagines the Warring States Era warriors of CAPCOM’s action game franchise as rival students in a modern high school. Date Masamune and Sanada Yukimura battle to replace Toyotomi Hideyoshi as the next student council president.

I imagine the conversation went something like this: “Hey, how do we make an interesting anime out of an action game?” “I know, why don’t we remove the time period, the action, the story and then stick them in a modern high school?” “Genius, I can smell the money now!” I don’t understand the constant fascination with high school. Maybe because the working environment in Japan is so hellish that working moderately in school seems like a utopia? At least when Fate does some weird spinoff it’s at least different, like an off the rails skit show or even a cooking show (which is oddly better than it has any right to be) rather than just shoving characters into a high school to do all the things that all other high school anime do. It’s a spinoff of a game that doesn’t need to exist and I am quite honestly confident in saying no one wants this.

Han-Gyaku-Sei Million Arthur

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Studio: J.C.Staff
Director: Satou Mitsutoshi
Script/Series composer: Tamai Tsuyoshi
Source: Video Game
Based on Square Enix’s massively multi-player online role-playing game.

A video game adaptation, and of an MMO at that. Oh wait, it’s not a console MMO but a smartphone MMO. The general rule of thumb is that video game adaptations are weaker than LN, VN or manga adaptations. Not to say there haven’t been good adaptations, but they are quite few. Off the top of my mind I can think of Gungrave and…well just Gungrave. But this is a smartphone game on top of that, for which there have been no good adaptations. The director acted as an episode director plenty of times but this is the first time he’s in the main seat. Series composer has worked on Pastel Memories, Momo Kyun Sword and…Bikini Warriors. Well that doesn’t sound good. The game itself isn’t out yet so naturally this is a glorified advertisement and on top of that the previous games in the series have not had favorable reviews. I say pass on this one.

Kitsune no Koe

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Studio: Yumeta Company
Director: Koujin Ochi
Script/Series composer: Yoshimi Narita
Source: Manga
A poor but talented high school boy named Hu Li (whose name is pronounced very similarly to the term for “fox” in Chinese). He is a “ghost” singer/songwriter for the popular and narcissistic boy idol Kong Que (pronounced very similarly to “peacock” in Chinese), who is very handsome but can barely sing. Hu always wear a fox mask to hide his large facial scar caused by a traffic accident. He also uses a screen name “Mr. Fox” to publish his music online.

Mario: Have you ever heard of Yumeta Company? Well I haven’t either. Yumeta Company produced some forgotten anime in the 00s and quickly disappeared; the only show it produced recently is Akkun no Kanojo, which is a short. That sure doesn’t bring confidence, and the same can be said for the show’s staff and its source material. The director was responsible for some episode of Detective Conan and not much else recently. Manhua adaptations have never truly wowed me. The PV looks below par and gives me the impression of a soap opera with these two guys rising to the top of the Chinese idol industry. Actually, I’d rather prefer it to be a soap opera because then it would have some form. This one is destined to be forgettable.

Merc Storia: Mukiryoku no Shounen to Bin no Naka no Shoujo

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Studio: Encourage Films
Director: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Script/Series composer: Fumitoshi Oizaki
Source: Video Game
Merc Storia takes places in a world where humans and monsters coexist. The protagonist, Yuu, is a healer apprentice and possesses the ability to tame monsters. In a quest to regain the memories of Merc, a girl confined in a bottle, the pair embarks on a journey.

Another smartphone gacha game huh? I truly have no idea who has the time to play all these gacha games, for I’ve got my hands full just playing Fate Grand Order. So it’s basically the same as any other Gacha game in this preview, a glorified advertisement for a new soul-sucking phone game that hopes to rob your wallet in exchange for virtual currency to spend on waifus. With the closure of a lot of Visual Novel companies, I fear that these smartphone games are slowly killing the industry with gambling that’s totally not gambling but 100% gambling. Anyway, the director/screenwriter have done nothing of worth, nor has the studio. The animation in the trailer looks fairly shoddy and cheap along with the simplistic character designs. Willing to bet this will not be worth your time.

Ore ga Suki nano wa Imouto dakedo Imouto ja nai

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Studio: NAZ
Director: Hiroyuki Furukawa
Script/Series composer: N/A
Source: Light Novel
Suzuka Nagami is a beautiful third-year middle school student who has excellent grades and is the student council president. She wrote a novel about a little sister who dotes on her older brother, and the the novel wins a light novel award. After they discuss the matter, Yuu is the one who debuts as a proxy light novel author instead of Suzuka, under the pen name Chikai Towano.

CURSE YOU EROMANGA SENSEI! CURSE YOU! Really, why do we have yet another anime about another brother who wants to bang his sister and has some light novel author involved. Seriously this is strange, it’s the fourth anime in this regard to have light novels involved and that includes Oreimo. In that regard the premise is the same: brother finds out the sister’s secret, secret brings them closer together, then awkward incest. Story for the ages so now let’s throw it into a fire and summon Cthulhu to end us all.

Release the Spyce

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Studio: Lay-duce
Director: You Saitou
Script/Series composer: Takahiro
Source: Original
The series is about a girl named Momo who attends high school at the city of Sorasaki. However, she is secretly a member of Tsukikage, an intelligence agency that protects people. As a new member of the agency, she works alongside her colleagues including her senior Yuki and friends. Together, they work to establish peace in the city.

Mario: I’m guilty of loving this cute-girls-do-spy-things trend that emerged with Princess Principal. You know, the type of cute spies who say, “We’re spies!” with pride, while still attending high school just like normal girls would. Lay-duce is the studio responsible for Magi: Sinbad no Bouken (which is quite successful) and Classroom Crisis (which is middling at best), so they’re not the most reliable studio. The director doesn’t fare well either since this is his first major project. The series composer is the original creator of Akame ga Kill and Shoujo-tachi wa Kouya wo Mezasu. The PVs don’t tell you much in terms of plot, but do their damndest to sell you the ‘cool’ factor. Coolness it sure has, but it needs more than that to maintain our interest.

RErideD: Tokigoe no Derrida

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Studio: Geek Toys
Director: Takuya Satou
Script/Series composer: Kenji Konuta
Source: Original
The year is 2050. A young engineer named Derrida Yvain became famous thanks to his contribution to the development of the “Autonomous Machine DZ” at Rebuild, the manufacturing company founded by his father. One day, Derrida and his colleague Nathan discover a flaw in the DZs and try to warn their boss, but are ignored. Although Derrida and Nathan are aware of the danger, they reluctantly decide to put off taking any measures, and instead go to Nathan’s daughter Mage’s birthday party. The next day, after enjoying a peaceful day, Derrida and Nathan are suddenly attacked by unknown forces. At the end of the escape, Derrida falls into a cold sleep machine and 10 years later, he wakes up to a devastated world in the middle of a war.

Mario: I must say, we can tell Abe Yoshitoshi’s character designs from miles away. As a fan of his classic works that include Lain, Haibane Renmei, and Texhnolyze, his involvement alone makes this one already worth checking out. Add to that we have Satou Takuya, the one who was responsible for the original Steins;Gate as the director, and you know you can expect great things from this show. The PVs, however, look dull and uninspired and the first four episodes that were available online (which I haven’t watched) received overwhelmingly negative reception. Still, hard sci-fi is something of a rarity these days (a sad fact indeed), and a passion project from these two sci-fi mammoths means that even if by some bad chance it’s a shipwreck, it would still be a fascinating shipwreck.

Sora to Umi no Aida

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Studio: TMS Entertainment
Director: Atsushi Nigorikawa
Script/Series composer: Takashi Yamada
Source: Game
The story is set in Onomichi, Hiroshima in the year 20XX. Fish disappear from the sea around the world and only whales live in the ocean. The Ministry of Fishery decides to set up giant experimental Universe Fish Tanks in space. The Onomichi Universe Fishery Union is established and begins to train space fishermen. Female fishermen are in demand due to the strengthening of an equal employment law for men and women. Six new female space fishermen are selected, and the story centers on supporting their growth.

Well that certainly is a creative premise. I actually could be rather interested in this, but how could you make a game about…oh…it’s another smartphone game. Good god, is this the new isekai/idol plague? I count at least five smartphone game adaptations this season alone. From the trailer it looks like this show will mainly be focused on cute girls doing cute things with some occasional mecha fighting tuna. While the setup does sound interesting I feel that the majority of this show isn’t going to be for me. Plus the fact that there has yet to be a single good anime adaption of a smartphone game, at least to my knowledge. This could be decent thanks to the setting but otherwise it just looks rather forgettable.

SSSS.GRIDMAN

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Studio: Trigger
Director: Akira Amemiya
Script/Series composer: Keiichi Hasegawa
Source: Original
Yuta Hibiki awakens with amnesia and the ability see things that others cannot. He first encounters a Gridman in the reflection of his friend Rikka Takarada’s computer and it tells him to “Remember his calling,” but Yuta doesn’t understand what this means. Later, in the distance, he sees an extremely large monster but it doesn’t move. It’s only when Yuta gets to school that the two sightings make sense: a monster attacks and the hero Yuta saw in the computer screen pulls him within the computer and transforms Yuta into a giant hero named Gridman.

Once upon a time I would be giving a Trigger anime a free pass because it was a Trigger anime. However with the recent quality of their anime I find myself past that point. There has been too much of a reliance on their legacy and I think the tipping point was when Planet With turned out to be the best Trigger anime ever made…and that anime wasn’t made by Trigger. In fact no anime made by Trigger has even captured the spirit of Gurren Lagann, as sad as it is to admit that. Gridman is another multi-studio collaboration with the main director absent and I find myself somewhat hesitant about this. Plus from the looks of things the giant robots are in CGI which I am very much not a fan of, especially for Trigger. The trailer for it looks fine I guess but the writer is the guy who wrote Bahamut’s first season and a lot of Kamen rider. The director only directed Trigger’s short anime Inferno Cop and Ninja Slayer. To me this doesn’t look like the show that’s going to save anime, nor do I believe that Trigger will ever save anime again.

Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken

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Studio: 8-bit
Director: Yasuhito Kikuchi
Script/Series composer: Kazuyuki Fudeyasu
Source: Light Novel
Lonely thirty-seven-year-old Satoru Mikami is stuck in a dead-end job, unhappy with his mundane life, but after dying at the hands of a robber, he awakens to a fresh start in a fantasy realm…as a slime monster! As he acclimates to his goopy new existence, his exploits with the other monsters set off a chain of events that will change his new world forever!

It’s an isekai story. Really, do you need to know more than that? It’s your Overlord, Smartphone, Knights and magic, How Not to Summon a Demon Lord, etc etc. It’s your usual story of some self-insert getting sent/reincarnated to another world and having everything handed to him on a silver platter. The world has pointless RPG mechanics which are never given an explanation. The main gimmick of this one is that the main character is reborn as a slime creature and has to level up to become a badass. But have no fear, that happens pretty fast and he gets a human form before you know it, essentially taking away its only original point. Sigh…look, it’s fine. There are certainly worse isekai stories and this will scratch an itch for those looking for one. Isekai is inevitable at this point but I wish we could at least get the more interesting ones adapted like Ascendance of a Bookworm, Mushoku Tensei or hell, a much deserved second season of Re:Zero. It may be better to check out the isekai about the girl being reincarnated as a spider instead as that one is at least more interesting than this (but later down the line it starts to degrade). If you want an isekai series then here’s your fix, but for anyone else this has nothing that would surprise you.

Tonari no Kyuuketsuki-san

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Studio: Studio Gokumi
Director: Noriaki Akitaya
Script/Series composer: Tatsuya Takahashi
Source: 4-koma Manga
The modern-day vampire comedy centers on high school girl Amano, who was saved from a strange incident by a vampire girl named Sophie Twilight, and has been interested in her ever since. Akari arrives at her house uninvited and the two start to live together. Although a vampire, Sophie never attacks humans, but purchases blood and anime goods via mail and lives a modern life.

Cute girls being all cute and shit. Oh, and one of them is a vampire. Not like an Alucard vampire, but rather the non-threatening cute girl with bat wings and fangs variant. That is all, there is nothing new. You wanna see cute girls, here you go. You want yuri undertones, yep it’s got them. You want something harmless, fluffy and mindless to take your mind off the current state of the world and your own inevitable death? This is for you. Me though, I got stuff to do.

Uchi no Maid ga Uzasugiru!

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Studio: Doga Kobo
Director: Masahiko Oota
Script/Series composer: Takashi Aoshima
Source: Manga
Having lost her mother at a young age, Misha Takanashi, a second grader with Russian blood, now lives with her Japanese father. Tsubame Kamoi, formerly a Self‐Defense Force officer, comes to the Takanashi household as a housekeeper. This is a home comedy where Kamoi, a hardcore lolicon, attempts to get near Misha as she tries to fight against her.

Oh boy. Well for those who thought that the relationship in Happy Sugar Life was unsettling due to the age gap, let me point to this show and say, “Well at least it isn’t that!” The main thing this series uses as comedy is the complete lack of common sense of the air force girl and her excessive lolicon tendencies. Basically imagine of Roberta from Black Lagoon was airheaded and obsessed with a little girl and then you have this show. It honestly feels like a show that’s trying to appeal to those with rather specific kinks, namely lolicons and those who like their women packing rock hard abs. At best some might watch past the first episode out of curiosity but I doubt anyone will continue beyond that.

Ulysses: Jeanne d’Arc to Renkin no Kishi

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Studio: AXsiZ
Director: Shin Itagaki
Script/Series composer: Ryunosuke Kingetsu
Source: Light Novel
The story is set in the 15th century, during the Hundred Years’ War between France and England over the succession to the French throne. Montmorency, the son of a noble, immerses himself in the studies of magic and alchemy at a royal knight training school. However, following France’s crushing defeat at Agincourt, the school is dissolved. Having lost everything and now a wanted man, Montmorency, who had just become an alchemist, encounters a mysterious village girl named Jehanne.

I don’t have a translated source for this one, but from everything I’ve seen of the trailers and illustrations, this looks like some hot garbage. Welcome to a light novel story based on Jeanne d’Arc where Jeanne is loli, everybody is shooting magic laser beams, and the 15th century threw away any prudeness and had women wear revealing dresses where the girls’ giant boobs could flop out any second. The only bastardization of Jeanne d’Arc I accept is Fate’s Jeanne, thank you very much. The trailer itself has this Montmorency guy making out with Jeanne for christ’s sake. Historically accurate Jeanne would likely bash him over the head for that. It’s not so much the bastardization of history that has me rather dismissive because I like Fate, and that would make me quite the hypocrite. It’s more the bastardization of history to make something so utterly trashy and uninspired. I doubt the author looked beyond a Wikipedia page (if he even looked at a Wikipedia page) when writing the novel. This is basically looking to be typical light novel trash level – avoid like the plague unless this happens to be your kind of trash.

Yagate Kimi ni Naru

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Studio: Troyca
Director: Makoto Katou
Script/Series composer: Jukki Hanada
Source: Manga
Yuu has always loved shoujo manga and awaits the day she gets a love confession that sends her heart aflutter with bubbles and blushes, and yet when a junior high classmate confesses his feelings to her…she feels nothing. Disappointed and confused, Yuu enters high school still unsure how to respond. That’s when Yuu sees the beautiful student council president Nanami turn down a suitor with such maturity that she’s inspired to ask her for help. But when the next person to confess to Yuu is Nanami herself, has her shoujo romance finally begun?

The good news is that unlike Citrus, this is about a lesbian relationship that isn’t rapey. The bad news is that boy…it’s one of those romance anime. You know the ones, the constant dance of will they won’t they. Where one of them is into the other but the other is lukewarm, only for the first person to move on and the other person to realize that oh no they actually did love them and now they can’t get them to change their mind. Back and forth, never getting to the point. I actually jumped ahead 30 chapters to see if anything changed and it turns out, nope. These kinds of shows are frustrating to me cause I just prefer it to get to the point instead of dancing in circles. But of course if it did then what would the show be about? If you have a particular fondness for shoujo or yuri this might be your thing, but otherwise I say it’s watchable but nothing worth getting excited about.

Series I am middling on

DOUBLE DECKER! Doug & Kirill

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Studio: Sunrise
Director: Takeshi Furuta
Script/Series composer: Tomohiro Suzuki
Source: Original
The city state of Lisvalletta. Two suns rise above this city, and the people here live peaceful lives, but in the shadows crime and illegal drugs run rampant. Among them is the dangerous, highly lethal drug “Anthem” which casts a dark shadow over the city. The SEVEN-O Special Crime Investigation Unit specializes in cracking down on Anthem. This unit operates in two man “buddy” teams in what’s called the “Double Decker System” to tackle the problem. Doug Billingham is a seasoned investigator, and joining him is Kirill Vrubel, whose abilities are mysterious and unknown.

Mario: Set in the same universe as Tiger & Bunny, do you need me to say more? The vivid world-building, attractive character designs, and spectacular action sequences have always been Tiger & Bunny’s strongest points, and you can expect the same with this spinoff. With Sunrise again as a studio behind it, you can pretty much rest assured that this one will be a visual blockbuster. It remains to be seen whether or not this new installment has what it takes to stand out from its inspiration. The first episode is already out (which I haven’t touched), which featured a cameo from the old cast. So yeah it’s all connected, but I hope we don’t see a lot of the old cast. No need for prior knowledge either, so if you want an all out comedy action show that isn’t Jojo, bookmark this one for your watchlist.

Goblin Slayer

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Studio: White Fox
Director: Takaharu Ozaki
Script/Series composer: Hideyuki Kurata
Source: Light Novel
A young priestess has formed her first adventuring party, but almost immediately they find themselves in distress. It’s the Goblin Slayer who comes to their rescue—a man who’s dedicated his life to the extermination of all goblins, by any means necessary. And when rumors of his feats begin to circulate, there’s no telling who might come calling next…

If I was a betting man I would put my money down on this being the star of the season. Part of the reason is due to the rest of the season being subpar but also this one has quite a number of fans. From what I have read I would consider it fine though I am not a fan myself, but it does have a lot of problematic elements. I appreciate that this series takes inspiration straight from Dungeons and Dragons lore and mechanics over RPG mechanics, but sadly the story still embances a lot of light novel cliches which have infested the genre. So yes, our main character does have a full harem of girls despite the fact that he literally only talks about killing goblins and never shows his face. The main character though is a big draw to the series due to him being a goblin-killing Batman (even having a spinoff prequel manga called “Year One”), though many have compared him to the Slayer from Doom for his pure unbridled devotion to killing Goblins. On that I will say I do at least like the core concept of showing that even the lowest level monsters from a game could be a serious blight to humanity if they actually existed but the execution is rather…trashy. I could call this a feminist’s nightmare because this series has rape. Lots and lots of rape. So much rape. Our core antagonist is categorized by the fact that their sole means of increasing their numbers is by kidnapping and raping a lot of human women. I admit that it makes them certainly hateable antagonists for sure, but even someone like myself who doesn’t quite get as hung up on these kinds of things as others might find the amount of it in Goblin Slayer to be more than a little excessive. Maybe White Fox can find a means to tone it down. Director did Girls’ Last Tour so that’s a plus, but he also recently directed the new Persona 5 Animation which I don’t remember being too impressive. We got the series composer of Hero Academia and countless others which can range from good to bad. Looking at things I can be fairly confident in saying this will be one of the more popular shows this season. For better or for worse.

Golden Kamuy 2

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Studio: Geno Studio
Director: Hitoshi Nanba
Script/Series composer: Noboru Takagi
Source: Manga
The second season of Golden Kamuy

Mario: Truth be told this doesn’t qualify as part of a ‘seasonal preview,’ since Golden Kamuy’s first season is still fresh in everyone’s minds and the end of season 1 didn’t conclude the story at all. This season functions more as a second cour so anyone who was already onboard pretty much knows what to expect. The staff remains the same, and you’d expect the same production values, too (hopefully they improve the bear). One remaining question is whether this season can get to the end of the story. Considering how the show is much more interested in putting Sugimoto and Asirpa into goofy side-villain arcs, I have my doubts. Personally, while I don’t see myself blogging it come next season, I will keep tabs on it since the gold hunt around snowy Hokkaido is just too exciting to ignore.

Hinomaru-Zumou

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Studio: Gonzo
Director: Kounosuke Uda
Script/Series composer: N/A
Source: Manga
It is a divine ritual, a martial art, a combat sport—it’s sumo!! A “small” new student, Ushio Hinomaru, appears before the weak little sumo club of Oodachi High School! The words “big” and “heavy” are the rules to this sport, which does not fit this newbie any inch, but this guy goes and does what…!? Ushio and the small sumo club climbs its way to the top!

This is pretty much what you expect. A sports anime that treats its sport like it’s the center of the world. I say this a lot, but much like any other sports anime, it’s fine but formulaic. Everything you see here has been seen before. Only difference is the sport. Thus like any other sports anime, it’s going to show the startup of things and then get cut off before it truly gets going. There are well over a hundred chapters of this manga and a one cour adaptation is most certainly not going to cover all of them. Even if it did I am certain that the series is in the usual sports purgatory where nothing moves forward. Again it’s fine for what it is, and I admit that learning about sumo could be interesting, but otherwise it’s just another sports anime.

Ingress

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Studio: Craftar
Director: Yuuhei Sakuragi
Script/Series composer: N/A
Source: Video Game
This world around you is not what it seems. Our future is at stake, and you must choose a side. A mysterious energy has been unearthed by a team of scientists in Europe. The origin and purpose of this force is unknown, but some researchers believe it is influencing the way we think. We must control it or it will control us. “The Enlightened” seek to embrace the power that this energy may bestow upon us. “The Resistance” struggle to defend, and protect what’s left of our humanity.

Boy do I have no idea what to think of this one. The premise looks somewhat interesting – I for one appreciate the lack of “high school,” though I really should stop using that as a point of favor for an anime. The animation is fully 3D CGI and looking to be on the level of Kado which was pretty good. The director hasn’t done anything else before this so this is his first anime. The curious point of this happens to be the game that’s being adapted. You are likely familiar with a company called Niantic, whether you know it or not. They happen to be the company that made Pokemon GO which became a massive fad at one point. Ingress is another one of their games and like Pokemon GO, it’s location based so I have no idea what kind of story they are going to make out of this. The studio is also quite new, this being their first TV animation series. I am somewhat curious about this show, but at the same time quite skeptical. The game is questionable, the CGI isn’t gunning for Land of the Lustrous quality (which can be awkward), and the staff and studio are a bit too new to the industry. Ultimately it’s just one to judge when it comes out.

Irozuku Sekai no Ashita kara

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Studio: P.A. Works
Director: Toshiya Shinohara
Script/Series composer: Yuuko Kakihara
Source: Original
Set in the city of Nagasaki, the story takes place in a world where a miniscule amount of magic remains in everyday life. Hitomi Tsukishiro is a 17-year-old descendant of a witch family who grew up with stale emotions, as she lost her sense of color at a very young age. Feeling sorry for her granddaughter’s future, Kohaku, a great witch, sends Hitomi to past, the year 2018. Through exchanges with her 17-year-old grandmother and her club members, the story follows Hitomi’s growth as a person.

Mario: P.A. Works is keeping themselves busy with another gorgeous-looking original anime. While last season they produced Sirius the Jaeger, an original about the road-well-trodden concept of vampires and werewolves, this time their new one tastes and sounds awfully like a light-novel adaptation. Obscure title? Check. High school? Check. Dreamy premise? Check. Still, there’s a lot to look forward to beyond that. P.A. Works’ original shows have always been fascinating to say the least (well, except maybe Glasslip). As you can expect from their shows, the visuals look great. Some of you might not like the character designs but I really dig it. About the staff, we are in good hands here as Toshiya Shinohara previously directed Nagi no Asukara and the series composer did a fantastic job with Tsuki ga Kirei last year. It’s looking to be one of the more promising shows of the next season.

Karakuri Circus

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Studio: Studio VOLN
Director: Satoshi Nishimura
Script/Series composer: Toshiki Inoue
Source: Manga
The protagonist, Masaru, has just inherited a big fortune after the death of his father. However, people are trying to get their hands on it by any means necessary, even if it means killing him. Narumi helped Masaru to avoid being kidnapped after fighting some weird guys. He found out that they’re not humans but wooden puppets with amazing strength. After a hard fight, Narumi was forced to admit that he’s no opponent for them, and just when he started to think that Masaru would be captured, Shirogane, Masaru’s watcher, arrives from France with a weapon, the puppet Arlequin.

I originally thought this was a MAPPA production and was about to say they they were on some crusade to dig up obscure shounen manga to adapt but we have a different studio this time. Admittedly this studio did act as producers on Ushio to Tora which happens to be a work by the same author of this series. The first PV I saw actually got me rather interested in the show but on checking the manga out I was disappointed to see it was more stereotypical shounen than a creepy circus battle manga. There is not much to say about it, really like Ushio to Tora it’s traditional shounen through and through with all the positives and negatives that come with it. My general impression of what I read was that it was fine. I wasn’t bored but there wasn’t anything that excelled in the story or got me hugely invested. Perhaps if I gave it more chapters for the story to truly begin then it might have gone in a more interesting direction but I just didn’t have the time to go that far. I would say if you were a fan of old shounen or this author’s work then this could be worth checking out.

Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru

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Studio: Production I.G
Director: Kazuya Nomura
Script/Series composer: Kohei Kiyasu
Source: Novel
Kakeru, a former elite runner at high school, is chased for stealing food. He is saved by a Kansei University student Haiji, who is also a runner. Haiji persuades Kakeru to live in the old apartment “Chikuseisou” where he plans to team up with fellow residents to enter Hakone Ekiden Marathon, one of the most prominent university races in Japan. Kakeru soon finds out that all of the residents except for Haiji and himself are complete novices.

An anime adaption of a novel written a decade ago – one has to wonder who exactly decides this stuff. It’s the same author behind the book which was made into the anime adaption The Great Passage. (You know, that anime about making a dictionary which was apparently pretty good but nobody watched it.) I tried finding a translation of the novel or manga adaption of it and came up empty. I might have missed a translation somewhere but regardless this just looks alright to me. The premise seems pretty standard for a sports anime and even at its best I feel like it will be fairly laid back watching. Not something that blows minds but rather something that makes decent entertainment. The director hasn’t directed anything of note unless you like Robotics;Notes or Joker Game. The series composer surprisingly is a former voice actor and this is his first time doing series composition. Eh, could be alright I guess.

Kishuku Gakkou no Juliet

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Studio: LINDENFILMS
Director: Seiki Takuno
Script/Series composer: N/A
Source: Manga
The story takes place at Grigio Academy Boarding School where students come from two rivaling countries known as the “Black Dogs” and “White Cats”. Persia and Inuzaka are leaders of their perspective dorms but they are secretly in love with each other. Now, they must keep their relationship a secret from other dorm mates while trying to avoid trouble.

I remember reading about this one a while back and my general impression is that it’s okay. One aspect of it I found rather annoying was the tendency to gather a harem around the lead despite the fact that the main heroine has been ironclad decided. Otherwise it’s just a show about these two trying to meet up secretly to have romantic moments while pretending to fight just to appease onlookers. I say there are those of you who could enjoy it but I found it just got tiring after a while when I saw the relationship was going nowhere.

Radiant

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Studio: Lerche
Director: Seiji Kishi
Script/Series composer: Makoto Uezu
Source: Comic Book
Seth is an aspiring sorcerer from the Pompo Hills area. Like all wizards, he is an “infected”: one of the few living beings who survived the contact of the Nemesis, these creatures fallen from the sky that contaminate and decimate all those they touch. His apparent immunity made him choose a path which seemed to him to be all the more appropriate: to become a Hunter and to fight the Nemesis. But more than that, Seth wants to engage in a quest that goes beyond the simple hunt for monsters… He wants to find the Radiant, their presumed cradle. Surrounded by a faction of sorcerers, he traveled the world in search of the Radiant, under the terrible eye of the Inquisition…

An anime adaption of a French comic, I will be damned. I was about to give Lerche a pat on the back but then I went to read the comic and believe me, if you handed this comic to me and said it was a Japanese manga then I wouldn’t doubt it for a second. It’s clear this fellow takes massive inspiration from Japanese shounen manga, particularly One Piece and Fairy Tail. Looking at the first five chapters it’s a decent read, its main flaw being that it’s a stereotypical shounen regardless of where it originated from. That said, I hear word about the story becoming more of its own thing in the second volume. The animation in the trailer looks fine and it could be a decent watch.

Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl-senpai no Yume wo Minai

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Studio: CloverWorks
Director: Soichi Masui
Script/Series composer: Masahiro Yokotani
Source: Light Novel
There’s a rumor about a mysterious phenomenon call “puberty syndrome.” For example, Sakuta Azusagawa is a high school student who suddenly sees a bunny girl appear in front of him. The girl is Mai Sakurajima, Sakuta’s upperclassman and also a famous actress who has gone on hiatus from the entertainment industry. For some reason, the people around Mai cannot see her bunny-girl figure. Sakuta sets out to solve this mystery, and as he spends time with Mai, he learns her secret feelings. Other heroines who have “puberty syndrome” start to appear in front of Sakuta.

This is a rather weird one but I give it credit for a few things. One is the way that the main character looks bland but has actual character. If anything he really sells the story for me because even when light novel cliches happen to him, he doesn’t react in the manner you would expect. His banter with the other characters in the story is pretty fun, even if the girls act a bit stupid at times so he can be snarky. The main aspect of the story revolves around this “puberty syndrome” which is a kind of strange supernatural power certain people obtain, usually through some kind of trauma. These supernatural powers aren’t exactly the convenient kind but are rather troublesome, like manifesting physical injuries from cyberbullying, so the main protagonist generally has to act as a makeshift psychiatrist. Overall it’s not a bad story and better than most light novels that tend to get adaptations. We have the director of Scrapped Princess, Chaika: Coffin Princess and Sakura Quest. The series composer’s past work is too inconsistent to get an idea of his skill. Considering how weak the season is I figure this will be one of the better things to watch if adapted correctly.

Thunderbolt Fantasy 2

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Studio: N/A
Director: N/A
Script/Series composer: Gen Urobuchi
Source: Original
“I like you. You have balls. I LIKE BALLS.”

Mario: If you have followed this blog for few years, you know that I’m a big fan of this most ‘original’ anime. ‘Original’ because it’s not technically an anime, well, it’s not technically an animation to begin with (so much so that MAL refuses to list the series in its database). Thunderbolt Fantasy is inspired by Taiwanese puppetry and if you’re like me… yeah I don’t know what the heck that is either. What I do know is, Gen Urobuchi succeeds in creating many goddamn fun characters, with their over-designed appearances, their mannerisms, their deadpan faces (quite literally) and most importantly, their campy dialogue. Add those to a story that defies cliche at every turn and you have yourself a very good time. Based on the PV, our two main characters will appear again with a new supporting cast. If you can get past the strangeness (or put it this way: the dizziness) of puppetry fighting, you’re in for quite a treat here.

Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu

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Studio: Kyoto Animation
Director: Takuya Yamakura
Script/Series composer: Michiko Yokote
Source: Novel
Minato played Japanese archery in middle school, but after a certain incident, he ran away from the sport. In high school, Minato meets new friends, and together as part of their school’s archery club they aim to win the prefectural tournament.

Mario: Love them or hate them, KyoAni has been very consistent in selecting their projects, sometimes to a fault. This novel (not LN) won a prize at the Kyoto Animation Award competition in 2016, and from reading the synopsis plus watching the PVs, it sounds and tastes exactly like KyoAni with matching flavor. It’s another Free-variation, not only from its concept “cute boys playing competitive sports,” but also from the staff behind it. Takuya Yamakura, from the height of Animation Do (KyoAni’s Osaka branch), takes this up as his first anime project and many crew members are first-timers too. There’s no translated version available online but I hardly think it matters in this case. In addition, I feel that the PV tries too hard to mimicking the sound of archery, which sounds nice but a bit too much. Expect a solid, but not spectacular level of production quality from this one.

Zombieland Saga

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Studio: MAPPA
Director: Munehisa Sakai
Script/Series composer: Shigeru Murakoshi
Source: Original
Same old morning, same old music, same old self.
The normality of seven girls is shattered in an instant.
The culprit? Zombies, wriggling around even in death…
Without any say in the matter, the girls wander into the “Greatest x Worst Zombie World.” They only have one wish.
“We want to live.”
This is the story of the miracle these girls make a reality.

It would be rather neat if this was somehow connected with the movie Zombieland but survey deems that unlikely. I will admit that out of the originals in this season this is one of the more promising ones, but it has a pretty core problem. That being that zombies have been done. Everything about zombies has been done. Everything that could be done with zombies has already been done. There is nothing this series can bring to the table. It’s not even the first anime about a zombie apocalypse, and I’m having serious doubts it could beat out School Live or HOTD. It gets points for having distinctive character designs, though it looks like there is some idol aspect from the trailer which I don’t appreciate. I am willing to give it a chance but this idea just seems dead on arrival, trying to cash in on a trend that already ended years ago. The director did two One Piece movies and that’s about it. The series composer’s resume is equally sparse, having only written for two Garo animes. I really want to give this the benefit of the doubt but even at its best, it’s just another zombie story.

Series I do look forward to

JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken: Ougon no Kaze

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Studio: David Production
Director: Naokatsu Tsuya
Script/Series composer: Yasuko Kobayashi
Source: meme
The original manga continues the story from the previous entries in Araki’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure manga, when Jotaro asks Koichi to travel to Naples to investigate a person known as Haruno Shiobana, whose real name is later revealed as Giorno Giovanna. The story then follows Giorno in his goal to rise to the top of the Passione mafia group and turn it into a band of honorable thieves.

Normally when it would come to another series getting a fourth anime adaption (five if you consider Stardust two seasons), I would be rather exasperated as I feel that any anime that needs beyond a hundred episodes to tell a story is pushing it a little. Jojo however is the gift that keeps giving and I will take as many seasons of it as I can get. For David Production has finally stopped making terrible alternative anime and gone back to their grand mission of adapting every part of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. I truly am looking forward to this one even if I believe it’s supposed to be one of the weaker parts of the series if I have word of mouth right. I think if you have already watched this show to this point then you are looking forward to it as much as I am. God knows what insanity Araki will dream up next.