Wooper: Having been pummeled with multiple snowstorms this past winter, I’ve been ready for spring’s arrival for a while now – and not only as a reprieve from the weather, as series after exciting series have converged to make this one of my most anticipated seasons since I began writing for Star Crossed. The headliners include a two cour adaptation of Hiromu Arakawa’s new series, a pair of fourth seasons for two isekai stalwarts (not covered here, though they hardly need the help), and the long-awaited final entrant in modern fantasy manga’s Big Three. What’s most interesting about this spring, though, is its wide range of second tier shows, which pull from classic comics about wine tasting and financial mind games, as well as next gen works about rakugo and graffiti. Both veteran directors and young hopefuls are represented in the preview below, which has me feeling uncommonly optimistic about the state of anime. Will enough of our picks pan out to justify that enthusiasm? First Impressions are just over a week away, so we’ll find out soon enough!

Middling Expectations

Agents of the Four Seasons:
Dance of Spring

Studio: Wit
Director: Ken Yamamoto
Series composition: Ayumu Hisao
Source: Light novel

The Premise: The Agent of Spring and her trusted guardian embark on a journey to usher in Yamato’s first spring in ten years.

I typically avoid using series’ in-universe terminology when summarizing their premises, but there’s no way to do that for Agents of the Four Seasons, a modern fantasy with a plot entirely defined by its worldbuilding. There’s a creation myth setup, with a personified Winter creating Spring, Summer and Autumn, each of whom grant their power to humans called Agents (hence the title), who usher in their respective seasons through song and dance. This sounded pretty good to me until I honed in on the “modern” in modern fantasy – the technology here is so contemporary that the PV features a fight scene set at an airfield. I can’t really envision a story this folkloric taking place in a world with central heating, but I’ll still give Agents a shot, as it’s directed by Ken Yamamoto, who demonstrated a mastery of winter scenery in his Pokemon short series “Hisuian Snow.” The major selling point for most people here will be the author of the source material: Kana Akatsuki, who also wrote Violet Evergarden. I wasn’t a big fan of that show, but this is a separate work by a different creative team, so it may offer some surprises.

Continue reading “Spring 2026 Season Preview” →

Wooper: Having spent the lead-up to our recent 2000s retrospective looking backward, it’s time for us to return our gaze to the immediate future, as another annual anime cycle is about to begin. As with most modern seasons, there are loads of new entries in existing franchises to fawn over, and as with most of our previews, I’m excited for very few of them (though I’ll shout out an additional handful after the jump). Even if they’re not increasing in number year over year, it feels as though these continuations are taking up more and more space; case in point, there is just one (1) new original series premiering between January and March this year. That’s not enough to make me write off this winter altogether, though, since it’s got a trio of manga adaptations that I’ve been awaiting for a while. Maybe you’re looking forward to one of them too, or something else entirely – let us know in the poll at the end of this post (or leave a comment if you’ve already got your sights set on spring!).

Middling Expectations

Fate/strange Fake

Studio: A-1 Pictures
Directors: Shun Enokido & Takahito Sakazume
Series composition: Daisuke Oohigashi
Source: Light novel

The Premise: Masters and Servants clash once more in a false Holy Grail War engineered by the American government.

I’ve never finished a Fate/series – even Zero, the most accessible of the bunch, lost my interest before I reached the end of the second cour. The franchise’s VN roots result in such voluminous dialogue that its anime adaptations, for all their good looks, cause my eyes to glaze over. I watched Strange Fake’s 2023 prequel “Whispers of the Dawn” just the other day, and its hour-long run time felt like twice that, requiring that I constantly shift in my chair to maintain consciousness until the end. There’s no “but” coming, either, as I’ll begin watching Strange Fake in a week or so, only to inevitably drop it shortly thereafter. That said, the aforementioned prequel was visually impeccable, so it seems to have been the right call to give Fate/Apocrypha action directors Enokido and Sakazume the reins to this new show. Effects-heavy combat is one thing, but if Whispers is any indication, their team also has character animation on lock. The production schedule thus far has been unhurried, as well, with Strange Fake’s first episode having aired a year ago, and its second debuting at an in-person event last August. I’m sure that’s been annoying for Fate superfans, but they haven’t much longer to wait before the series begins in earnest – I’ll join them for as many episodes as I can before sleep claims me.

Continue reading “Winter 2026 Season Preview” →

Wooper: Our final season preview of 2025 looks a lot like our first, in that it’s much shorter than average. That’s not to say this fall will be entirely lacking in excitement – most of this year’s coolest non-continuations just so happened to air in spring and summer. It’s the headliners that most folks are fiending for this October: Spy x Family (its third season), My Hero Academia (its last season), One Punch Man (its last chance). Rather than pontificate about those juggernauts, I’ve got thoughts on some of the fall’s odds and ends, including a pair of upcoming anthologies that are also my two most anticipated series of the season. Whether you’re into big sequels or the smaller stuff, vote for whatever you like in the poll at the bottom of this post, and we’ll see you in a week for another round of first impressions.

Middling Expectations

Chitose Is in the Ramune Bottle

Studio: Feel
Director: Yuuji Tokuno
Series composition: Naruhisa Arakawa
Source: Light novel

The Premise: A narcissistic teenager must entice one of his shut-in haters to return to school in order to maintain his high social standing.

Light novels about male high schoolers surrounded by their haremettes are a dime a dozen, and I don’t have a strong reason to suspect that Chiramune will be any different. To be clear, I do have a reason, just not a good one: from the synopses I’ve read, the title character is supposed to be more extroverted than your average protagonist in his position. That makes him different from the avalanche of Literally Me dudes in these types of stories (your 8-mans and Kiyo-pons and such), but it also opens the door for him to be worshiped rather than properly characterized. This will be a split cour adaptation, so the production company is confident it’ll be a success, but unless Chitose’s swarm of fangirls do their part to keep his ego in check, I doubt I’ll even make it through the first cour. The real reason I’ll be sampling Chiramune is to witness Yuuji Tokuno’s directorial debut, as he’s headed up some impressive episodes of other series in the past few years, Shin Samurai-den Yaiba’s action-packed sixth installment chief among them. The PV looks good, so hopefully it indicates an overall level of polish brought by Tokuno and his team.

Continue reading “Fall 2025 Season Preview” →

Wooper: The temperature is currently in the mid 90s where I live (that’s 34 degrees for all you Celsius enjoyers) and shows no signs of coming down, so I’ve vowed to leave my house as little as possible until this heat wave breaks. I might have gone nuts without a few dozen new anime to preoccupy me, but as luck would have it, the summer season is nearly here. While it’s more sequel-heavy than last spring, a good amount of variety still awaits us this July, including a smattering of adventure shows, several promising comedies, and a pair of daring sci-fi adaptations at the top of the heap. Lenlo has joined me to preview his two most anticipated shows, as well, so read on at your leisure, and let us know what you’re most excited for via the poll at the end of the post!

Middling Expectations

Bullet/Bullet

Studios: E&H Production, Gaga
Director: Seong-Hu Park
Series composition: Aki Kindaichi
Source: Original

The Premise: A teenager, a robot, and a polar bear are drawn into a resistance movement amidst a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

To tell the truth, my expectations for Seong-Hu Park’s new work can’t even be described as “middling.” A more appropriate adjective might be “meager,” or perhaps “microscopic.” Ninja Kamui, his new studio’s debut series, was reduced to a punchline after a poorly-received change of direction, and his recent adaptation of the Eiichiro Oda one-shot “Monsters” was so dull that I couldn’t make it through the full half hour. Now he and E&H Production are back with a post-apocalyptic resistance tale, the plot for which reportedly took Park a decade to finalize – though given his previous stuff’s lack of emphasis on narrative, that may not be as impressive as it sounds. Based on the PV, the story will likely evolve from its GetBackers-inspired beginnings into a race across the show’s wasteland setting, as “Bullet” seems to be the name given by the protagonist to his hot rod. Personally, I’m less curious about him and his car, and more interested in his robot companion with four personalities (each of which will be voiced by a different actor), plus the talking polar bear who will complete their trio. If those two (or five) can lend a bit of color to this grayish-brown world, Bullet/Bullet’s opening episodes may hold some appeal. For the series as a whole, though, I’m less than optimistic.

Continue reading “Summer 2025 Season Preview” →

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” →