Wooper: Last season, I couldn’t even scrape together 10 shows to preview, but this time we’re doing more than 20. The number one reason for that is variety, since there are fewer fantasy anime on offer this spring, leaving room for a bit more of everything else. Mystery fans will be pleased to learn that there are several entries in the genre kicking off this April, while action enthusiasts have a gorgeous remake, a high profile spinoff, and even a Shinichiro Watanabe original to look forward to. Speaking of originals, there are more airing this season than usual; several of them are sci-fi, including a new Gundam that looks like nothing the franchise has ever produced. And the craziest thing is that there are a handful of promising projects we couldn’t even squeeze into this post, though you might find some of their titles in the poll at the bottom. Let us know what you’ll be watching this spring – my list threatens to be longer than it has been in years, and I hope yours is looking good, too.

Middling Expectations

Apocalypse Hotel

Studio: CygamesPictures
Director: Kana Shundou
Series composition: Shigeru Murakoshi
Source: Original

The Premise: The robotic staff of a Ginza hotel await their first guest since the disappearance of the human race.

Wooper: An original series from a studio known mostly for gacha adaptations? Now that’s a change I can get behind. Not a lot of concrete info has been released about Apocalypse Hotel – even auto-translating the dialogue in the trailer mostly yields talk about the importance of emotions – but there’s something inherently appealing about post-apocalyptic tales that has me interested in this one. The background art of an overgrown Ginza district looks pretty, and the PV’s periodic shots of ruined robots beg the question of just what the hotel staff went through to keep their workplace operational. Staff-wise, I’m not concerned about the first-time series director, as she’s been in the industry for nearly two decades; it’s Shigeru Murakoshi on script duty that worries me, since he’s overseen some major falloffs in recent years (Taiso Zamurai and especially last year’s Ninja Kamui). Still, his experience with original works (including the more warmly received Zombie Land Saga) ought to be helpful, and even if the show’s writing suffers its own apocalypse midway through, I’m hoping for a decent start.

Lenlo: Lenlo also endorses this one as something to keep an eye on, as any Original always has a shot at being great, even from the most unexpected of places, and the general setting and idea of the show look interesting.

Continue reading “Spring 2025 Season Preview” →

Wooper: Thanks for clicking on what may be Star Crossed Anime’s shortest season preview ever! We’ve got just one author handling things this time, and he is looking forward to shockingly few shows this winter. Of the dozen sequels that will begin airing in January, none of them are of interest to me; only one two of the eight nine upcoming isekai series look remotely watchable; and all the school-based rom-coms seem bound for the dustbin of anime history. These opinions stem in part from my time-weathered perspective as a fan, so maybe you readers can salvage my early 2025 by voting for some gems in our quarterly poll, which you’ll find at the end of this post. And hey, if the season turns out to be truly irredeemable, there’s always our backlogs to work on!

Middling Expectations

Akuyaku Reijou Tensei Ojisan

Studio: Ajia-do
Director: Tetsuya Takeuchi
Series composition: Shingo Irie
Source: Manga

The Premise: A middle-aged civil servant is reborn as the villainess of an otome game his daughter used to play.

As mentioned above, there are nine isekai anime airing this season, but “From Bureaucrat to Villainess” is one of only two that interest me. Rather than some high school loser, the subject of its reincarnation plot is a 52 year old man, and what’s more, he’s trapped in the body of a teenage girl, whose previously arrogant reputation he works to reverse upon his rebirth. I haven’t sampled the manga, but it seems clear from the PV that all the usual otome trappings will appear here: a student council full of beautiful boys (all of whom will fall in love with the newly possessed villainess), a kindly but not particularly charismatic heroine, the aforementioned villainess sporting massive blonde ringlets, etc. Whether or not the comedy of the protagonist’s body/mind mismatch amuses me, I’ll still be interested due to the involvement of director Tetsuya Takeuchi, who’s played critical roles on recent series like Hinamatsuri and Tengoku Daimakyou. This is his first time heading up a TV anime, but he previously occupied the director’s chair on the Yuri Seijin Naoko-san OVAs from the early 2010s, which are still revered in Japan for their ambitious animation. My guess is that Takeuchi’s name has enough pull to attract a solid team for Akuyaku Reijou’s production, so I look forward to some visual flourishes here and there in the opening episodes.

Continue reading “Winter 2025 Season Preview” →

Lenlo: Hello all, and welcome to another seasonal preview! We’re looking at the last season of the year, with plenty of anime to look forward to. Personally I’m keeping my expectations low, so that if they somehow wind up being good I’ll be pleasantly surprised. No use getting my hopes up when I’ve been burned multiple times before with these, right? Anyways, Wooper and I have returned once again to take a look at the upcoming shows and see what might be worth paying attention to, so let’s dive right in!

Wooper: The “What will you be watching?” poll is at the end of the post again this time. Don’t forget to let us know what you’re anticipating after you’ve perused the season preview (or before, if you’ve already done your research!).

Garbage Fire

BLEACH: Thousand-Year Blood War – The Conflict

Studio: Pierrot Films
Directors: Tomohisa Taguchi, Hikaru Murata
Series composition: Tomohisa Taguchi, Masaki Hiramatsu
Source: Manga

The Premise: Part 3 of the final arc of Bleach: Thousand Year Blood War.

Lenlo: So this may be a bit blasphemous, but I have… negative hopes for this last part of Bleach. We’ve already seen writing issues in the past two parts, nonsensical plot twists, constant escalation, absurd character writing. And with what I remember from the manga, it’s only going to get worse from here. Really the only possible redeeming factor for this season will be the action set pieces, which Bleach has occasionally done well with like with Yamamoto vs Yhwach, some of the Squad Zero stuff and parts of the Kenpachi fight. When Bleach has the desire to be, it’s pretty great action. The issue is that I have no faith in Pierrot and their team to want to do that. Maybe I’m just salty about how the manga ended, maybe I’m not giving them enough credit. But the nice thing about setting my expectations this low is that whatever they do manage will probably end up as a pleasant surprise. And that’s the best Bleach can hope for at this point.

Continue reading “Fall 2024 Season Preview” →

Lenlo: Hello all, welcome to our first Season Preview since my retirement from consistent content! I told you things would still happen, just not on a weekly schedule. Well this is the first of that! And as if in celebration, both Amun and Wooper are here to help me out. So go ahead and take a look at what you can expect from the Summer 2024 season!

Wooper: Poll’s at the bottom this time, folks – it’s cleaner that way! Once you’ve voted, don’t miss Lenlo’s post on what else you can expect from the blog in the coming weeks and months.

Middling Expectations

Quality Assurance in Another World

Studios: 100studio, Palette
Director: Kei Umabiki
Series composition: Shougo Yasukawa
Source: Manga

The Premise: A debugger attempts to fix a poorly programmed JRPG from inside the game, even after all his co-workers have given up.

Wooper: I am a board-certified isekai hater, but something about this show caught my eye as I was combing through the upcoming seasonal chart. At first it was the poster, with its stocky red-haired protagonist and nightmarish blob monster, both of which are nice departures from the genre’s myriad Kirito lookalikes and Dragon Quest-aping slimes. Then it was curiosity about the director, whose experience working on comedies like Gintama and Iruma-kun may serve him well on a series that, based on the PV, understands just how silly it is. Unfortunately, the same PV reveals Quality Assurance to be a visually modest affair, so if the writing fails to elevate its “stuck in a video game” premise, this thing will swiftly be forgotten. I’m hoping, though, that the conceit of someone trying to debug a crappy MMO from within will allow for some amusing metacommentary. Usually I’m punished for my optimism when it comes to this subgenre, but maybe this time will be different?

Lenlo: Like Wooper, this being an Isekai has caused it to immediately lose most of my interest. And unlike Wooper, I’m actually not a fan of Gintama and Iruma-kun, so the director didn’t catch my interest much either. But watching the PV… That “dragon” design, and the world at large, did. It doesn’t feel like Quality Assurance is taking itself too seriously, is willing to have some fun with it and not have all the usual isekai tropes, which is probably for the best. I’m not expecting much, but like Wooper, it’s at least earned me checking it out.

Amun: Iruma-kun catching strays (I still love you). I’ll be watching this.

Continue reading “Summer 2024 Season Preview” →

Wooper: A few weeks ago, I messaged the other Star Crossed writers and signaled my intent to return for the start of the upcoming spring season. The reason? It looked like a promising crop of shows! Sure, there are five titles containing the dreaded I-word (the same number as last season), but there are also a plethora of new manga adaptations from sources both popular and acclaimed. They include two big-name shounen properties (one running in WSJ, the other in Jump+), a teenage romance set beneath the stars, a post-apocalyptic adventure series, an idol-themed revenge tale, and a uniquely compassionate take on high school life. There are plenty of sequels and spin-offs to look forward to, as well – we’re talking Demon Slayer, Dr. Stone, Gundam, KonoSuba, Ousama Ranking, and… Pokemon without Ash Ketchum?! I really am too old for this whole anime thing, huh? Still, the stuff at the top end of this season’s lineup was intriguing enough to rouse me from my slumber, so I’ll be helping out for the first half of April. First impressions will begin soon – in the meantime, let us know what you’re excited for this spring by voting in the poll below.

Continue reading “Spring 2023 Season Preview” →

Lenlo: Merry Christmas everyone! Or, depending on when you read this, Happy New Year! Some of you might be wondering why I am the only one on this preview this time. I’m wondering that to. Everyone’s pretty busy, yet I’m the one attending weddings and shit. Lazy bastards. Anyways, I won’t lie, this season isn’t looking to exciting. Part of that is that nothing would look exciting after that Fall season. From Mob Psycho to Gundam Mercury, Bleach to SpyxFamily, lots of big stuff there. Even things I don’t personally like, such as Chainsaw Man, are blowin up the internet. Suffice to say, Winter can’t match that. But it does have a few gems sprinkled in to at least make it worth checking out. Vinland Saga returns for its long awaited 2nd season, while Nier and Trigun are both making long awaited returns to the medium. On top of that, there’s a number of new contenders that have the potential to be great. Will any of them reach that potential? Probably not. But I can dream damnit! Enough with the preamble though, lets dive into some series shall we?

What the Hell

My Life as Inukai-san’s Dog

Studio: Quad
Director: Takashi Yasudo
Series composition: Unknown
Source: Manga

The Premise: Man who is horny on main gets turned into a dog so he can be pampered by his crush.

Lenlo: Now look… I will admit that this is purely on the list because of horny. It’s just curiosity I swear! I want to know just how horny this thing can get. Considering the PV has her stripping in front of him and putting her between her legs to bathe him, I’m imagining a lot. But can we go even further. Why do they blush? Why do they get all flustered? Are they going to fuck this dog? I don’t know! But I kind of need to know. I need to see just how god damn degenerate anime can get. Because the original creator for this series is a hentai artist. They make doujins, that’s all they do. So how the hell this got picked up for an anime I will never know. But I want to know… Fuck… Am I the degenerate now?

Middling Expectations

Spy Classroom

Studio: feel.
Director: Keiichirou Kawaguchi
Series composition: Shinichi Inozume
Source: Light Novel

The Premise: Conflict-ravaged nations now deploy covert waifu operatives instead of missiles. Follow a team of absolutely hopeless girls as they try their best to complete… the Impossible Mission.

Lenlo: I won’t lie, this looks like your pretty standard “What setting can we throw cute girls into this time” sort of show. The opening PV seemed more intent on making sure we knew all of our available waifu options than it did introducing any kind of plot or narrative. On top of that, it doesn’t even look that good visually. Lots of dark shots, flat lighting, standard anime designs. The only reason it’s on this list is because I like spies, and I think the spy setting has a lot of potential that anime isn’t really tapping into with all of these shows. Maybe, in some hope against hope, Spy Classroom will do something cool. But I’m not holding out much hope for it to be frank.

Continue reading “Winter 2023 Season Preview” →