Lenlo: A new site, a new season, and the first Season Preview on our new domain. Auspicious. Unlike the last season though, which was filled to the brim with sequels, there are surprisingly few this Winter. Though the ones we do have are high profile, such as the 4th season of Haikyuu!! or the third season of Railgun. Not to be outdone, the new adaptations have some up and coming manga such as Runway de Waratte or recently ended classics like Dorohedoro. And none of this is even mentioning the movies such as Made in Abyss’s sequel movie, or the series continuing from last season such as My Hero Academia.

Suffice to say, there’s a lot worth taking a peek at here if you have the time. And if not? Well, that’s why the 5 of us are here. To do our best to give you the scoop on everything anime for Winter 2020. So go ahead, take a look, and if you see anything you like make sure to let us know by voting in the poll below. I can tell you right now, I at least don’t know what I am going to cover yet, so you would help me immensely. Without further ado, in we go.

ALREADY AIRED

Plunderer

Studio: GEEKTOYS
Director: Hiroyuki Kanbe
Series composition: Masashi Suzuki
Source: Manga

Amun: Plunderer made the ambitious move of releasing not one, but two episodes early to try and drum up some interest and get ahead of the pack. However…they forgot to make an even halfway decent anime. From the studio that brought you Hensuki, which exceeded the absolute dog-tier (anyone who watched it understands) expectations, comes an absolute travesty of a first episode (I’m not watching the second). The premise is actually decent enough – everyone is counting something of vital importance. When this count hits 0, you go to hell – but the count can also go up, so you try and maximize it to avoid dying. Nice premise, how hard can that be to do right?

Apparently, pretty hard. We have the obvious lecher with a heart of gold (of course) with the naive on-a-quest girl, who also has her number in her inner thigh. Of course. Assisted, invariably, by the H-cup barkeep. Alright. Throw in an obvious small time baddie trying to take advantage of naive girl, when lecher comes and saves the day and is super powered….okay, you know how this goes. The problem isn’t so much we’ve seen it before…it’s that all the wrong lessons were learned from shows like Gintama or…whatever else they were watching (One Piece maybe?). This isn’t self-aware or humorous, it doesn’t even attempt plot foreplay – this episode reminds me of Sacred Beasts from two seasons ago, but at least that had a quarter-way interesting heroine. All this rant to say – this is lukewarm garbage to be avoided.

 

MIDDLING EXPECTATIONS

Hatena☆Illusion

Studio: Children’s Playground Entertainment
Director: Shin Matsuo
Series composition: Tatsuya Takahashi
Source: Light Novel

Mario: One interesting note regarding Hatena Illusion is that its light novels are penned by the late Tomohiro Matsu (Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father). The novels themselves are unfinished in the wake of his passing, and the trailer gives nothing away except for the character designs, which I admit please my eyes. Now, I can’t say that I am fond of Tomohiro Matsu’s sources (his Märchen Mädchen for example is such a mess), and the director is a key-animator-turned-director, so I don’t bet much on this show, sadly.

Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita.

Studio: Zero-G
Director: Tooru Kitahata
Series composition: Rintarou Ikeda
Source: Manga

Wooper: I thought about omitting this series from the preview, but it’s a romcom starring post-grad students, which is at least different from anime’s typical high school fare. Rikei ga Koi stars a bunch of impossibly attractive scientists, the hottest of whom confesses her love to a bespectacled bishounen in her department. He’s not satisfied with her subjective proclamation, however, so both of them set about trying to quantify love, with mildly amusing results. 2018’s Wotakoi is the most obvious point of comparison, since it also starred working adults. Though I wasn’t a fan of that series, many others were, and I doubt Rikekoi will clear the bar set by that show. The staff and studio are hardly worth mentioning – this is just an adaptation meant to increase awareness of the manga, it seems. Still, it’s got cute girls (and boys) in lab coats, and the editing, voice acting, and music might conspire to create something watchable here.

Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga

Studio: Studio Pierrot
Director: Hidetoshi Takahashi
Series composition: Maruo Kyouzuka
Source: Manga

Mario: Apparently the anime medium just has a thing for Oda Nobunaga. After cute girl Oda and young-face Oda, now we have Oda reincarnated in modern-day Japan as a cute dog. If that synopsis appeals to you then you’ll likely get something out of this show. This series will be a mixture of “a dog who acts like Oda Nobunaga” and “several dogs who pretend to be famous figures but in truth they are still dogs” antics. Studio Pierrot is adapting it so I hope it’s not a long running one, and the director only directed an OVA of Tenchi Muyou before this, so I’m not holding out hope for this one. It could provide some amusement but I don’t see it going anywhere beyond that.

Kuutei Dragons

Studio: Polygon Pictures
Director: Tadahiro Yoshihira
Series composition: Makoto Uezu
Source: Manga

Wooper: I’m more lenient on Polygon Pictures than the average anime fan. Only two of their previous works (Ronja, the Robber’s Daughter and Ajin) have been to my taste, but their 3DCG doesn’t make my eyes burn like it does for so many others. When you factor in the dragon-hunting premise of this new series, going with a CG studio makes sense, as animating its airships and tentacled beasts would be far more time-consuming than a TV anime’s production schedule allows. I read the first 100 pages of the manga to see what we might be in for, and discovered a detailed steampunk world inhabited by the sort of people you might find in a boilerplate fantasy series. Underwhelming characters animated with computers is a recipe for disappointment, but the series’ concept is too cool not to mention. Flying down ziplines to drive lances into the backs of squid-like dragons is something you’re not going to see outside of anime – we’ll see if Polygon can make the most of the opportunity.

Kyokou Suiri

Studio: Brain’s Base
Director: Keiji Gotou
Series composition: Noboru Takagi
Source: Manga

Wooper: I listed “Manga” as the source for this adaptation, since that’s where I assume the anime will get its inspiration, but Kyokou Suiri was originally a novel. In checking out the manga, one of my biggest takeaways was its wordiness, so its point of origin makes sense. There’s quite an emphasis on the dialogue between its posh female protagonist and her much taller, plain-spoken love interest. This is a mystery series, and its relatively rare genre coupled with the banter between its main characters reminded me a bit of Gosick. Kyokou Suiri (localized as In/Spectre) is also a supernatural series, though, and that’s what’s most interesting to me about the whole thing. Our main girl is a “goddess of wisdom” who mediates disputes between youkai, and the best bits of the PV are the moments when cute little monsters pop onto the screen. Of course, the series will also feature grotesque beasts and action scenes, and I’m not sure I trust Keiji Gotou or present-day Brain’s Base to do right by those aspects of the show. Early 2010s Brain Base would have had me hyped, but as things stand today, I’m just mildly curious.

Heya Camp△

Studio: C-Station
Director: Masato Jinbo
Series composition: Mutsumi Itou
Source: Manga

Mario: A bit of clarification here: Heya Camp is not a second season of Yuru Camp, but rather a short spin-off from the same characters in a club room (TL note: “Heya” means room). So right off the bat, I can say that the main appeal from the original – the soothing feel of camping – is not going to happen here. The other appeal though, which is the chemistry between the various members, is coming back in full force based on the preview, so you bet I will be checking this one out as well. A new director takes charge (Isekai Shokudou, Senryuu Shoujo – thumbs up) but then again it’s a spin-off so it’s not compulsory viewing. You can wait for the second season and a new movie instead.

Somali to Mori no Kamisama

Studio: Satelight
Director: Kenji Yasuda
Series composition: Mariko Mochizuki
Source: Manga

Wooper: The end of Somali’s PV features a promise: “At the end of their journey, you will cry.” This bold claim, plus a young central character and a forest packed with strange and frightening animal/plant life, will no doubt draw comparisons to Made in Abyss. Somali is being produced by Satelight, though, whose recent attempts to do anything not titled “Macross” or “Symphogear” have been disastrous. There are two things that make me hopeful for this project, though. The first is the creature designs, which have been translated into anime form reasonably well. There are bipedal reptiles with ram’s horns, miniature dinosaurs with crystals growing from their snouts, and all manner of other strange animals that run the world in place of humans. That’s the second thing that intrigues me; the young central character I mentioned before is one of the last surviving humans, whose identity is protected by a masterless golem. The loneliness inherent to each of their situations could result in a strong bond between the two – it had better, really, since the show’s animation and effects work will be mid-tier at best.

Amun: Winter looks pretty bleak – Somali to Mori No Kamisama is one of the few shows that has at least piqued my interest. While the creator hasn’t done much else of note….actually, no one else has done much. Art Director is pretty unknown, and the director has had small roles on shows I’ve never heard of. However, that doesn’t stop me from being excited about the premise! The potential upside is a Kino’s Journey meets Natsume’s Book of Friends – that’s right in my strike zone. The downside is we might have an underanimated mess that gets bogged down halfway through and beats the same troupes to death. Given how Winter’s shaping up – I’m really hoping for the former.

 

SHOWS WE’RE ANTICIPATING

Oshi ga Budoukan Ittekuretara Shinu

Studio: 8-bit
Director: Yuusuke Yamamoto
Series composition: Hitomi Mieno
Source: Manga

Mario: This show has one thing going for it: the experienced staff behind the project. The director Yuusuke Yamamoto has directed a ton of anime previously, chief among them Welcome to the NHK, B-gata H Kei, and Shounen Maid. The series composer, too, has a proven track record of many well-balanced shows such as After the Rain, Amanchu, and Flying Witch. It’s the story that I’m not confident about, mostly because there’s little information about the plot, or any manga source that I could find. The synopsis – a story about a girl who is obsessed with her idol – could go in any direction from psychological drama to full-on yuri to melodramatic, and based on the previews, it’s heading for the latter. Many manga-readers say it’s “frustrating” because the plot keeps the main characters far away for stupid reasons, which of course, reminds me of Domestic Girlfriend. I will check the first episode to see how it performs and whether or not it’s as melodramatic as people say.

Runway de Waratte

Studio: Ezola
Director: Nobuyoshi Nagayama
Series composition: Touko Machida
Source: Manga

Mario: You might remember this new Studio Ezola for Happy Sugar Life, and except for the short Are You Lost?, Runway de Warette is their only project so far. It’s a good thing that while reading the synopsis it reminds me a bit of my old favorite Princess Jellyfish: fashion scene, female protagonist who has detrimental traits, and the “prince” who can compliment her good qualities. The manga source has gained some warm reviews. From the PV, the art style looks quite clean but nothing stellar. The director has directed every show from Ezola and the series composer is a veteran who was behind some shaky works pacing-wise (7 Seeds, Caligula, Amagami SS), and amusingly she scripted some episodes of Princess Jellyfish herself. While I don’t think it will reach the level of greatness of Jellyfish, it could serve as a sleeper hit.

Natsunagu

Studio: TBA
Director: Yasuyuki Honda
Series composition: Domeshi
Source: Original

Mario: The conception of this short anime sure is an interesting one, but not unheard of. The anime is funded by and set in Kumamoto Prefecture, and is intended to support the prefecture’s rebuilding and revival efforts after the 2016 earthquakes. No trailer has surfaced as of yet, but the simple but gorgeous promotional art has my attention. The synopsis promises heart-warming tales as the main character meets up with eccentric locals who have been affected by the earthquakes. Definitely one to look out for.

Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei

Studio: Shuka
Director: Tarou Iwasaki
Series composition: Mariko Kunisawa
Source: Novel

Mario: Upon reading the synopsis I figured that the show would be something along the lines of Beautiful Bones – mystery cases based solely on the merits of extensive knowledge of specific objects – this time, gems. The PV, however, gives a much more gentle atmosphere and seems to focus more on the character drama, as opposed to solving the mysteries. It makes sense then that the director was behind One Week Friends and Amaama to Inazuma; both have decent character writing. Shuka is known for late-Natsume’s Book of Friends and late-Durarara and 91 Days, so for me they are a solid bunch. I don’t see this show breaking any ground, but it still has some merits that we need to pay attention to.

Amun: I’m going to elbow my way in and comment on this one. We’ve seen a deluge of niche anime cropping up for every industry from jet-skis to air rifles – now comes gems. As Mario pointed out though, this has the director from One Week Friends, which was a flawed but decent overall effort. Throw in Shuka whose work on Natsume’s Book of Friends was PRETTY good (seasons 5-6 are probably half a cut below the previous seasons) and 91 Days, which was well done from a production standpoint – now I’m interested. Add in my childhood interest in gemology – this one I’m going to give a few episodes at least.

5-toubun no Hanayome 2

Studio: TBA
Director: TBA
Series composition: TBA
Source: Manga

Mario: Despite my initial skepticism, the first season was such a blast. It’s fun while never straying far from the genre’s formula, and its biggest strength is how these five girls and our main boy remain fleshed-out with such solid chemistry – not only with the boy but between them as well. The main cause for worry then, is the absolute lack of promotion for this second season. No trailer, no announcement on the staff’s front, heck, we don’t even know for sure if Tezuka Productions will be back for this sequel (though it’s very likely). The manga has reached its end, but again it’s up in the air whether this can adapt the source to its completion. I have my pick for the final girl here, but I don’t want to be spoiled – and anyway, it’s fun to see how the anime gets there, not just the end result.

Amun: If you’re not on team Miku, you’re on the wrong team.

Editor’s note: 5-toubun season 2 was merely rumored to air in January. More recent information suggests a summer or even fall 2020 release.

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

Studio: Lerche
Director: Masaomi Andou
Series composition: Yasuhiro Nakanishi
Source: Manga

Mario: One of the more popular manga adaptations of this season, the source manga has gathered quite a number of fans, and looking at the trailers, there are good reasons to be optimistic. The art, for example, looks classy with the bright color palette. The first few chapters that I read offer some light fun to its supernatural themes, although I’ve heard that later on, the story gets more serious and emotional. The director has many solid shows under his belt – chief amongst them are Scum’s Wish, Kanata no Astra, White Album 2, and a minor show but it gives me hope that he will nail the art design: Hakumei to Mikochi. Series composer is responsible for Kaguya-sama. This looks to be a decent pick and has a potential to break out in this admittedly sparse season.

Pet

Studio: Geno Studio
Director: Takahiro Oomori
Series composition: Sadayuki Murai
Source: Manga

Wooper: I wrote about Pet in last season’s preview, but it’s making a second appearance after being delayed until January. From the look of the multiple PVs that have come out since then, the wait was worth it, as the show’s portrayal of psychic combat is highly imaginative. Giant eyeballs fused into the walls, limbs being torn from people’s bodies in silhouette, half-human and half-goldfish hybrids – this show has it all. Pet seems as though it will play with time and space in a way that previous Geno Studio project Kokkoku did. Unfortunately, it also shares key staff members with that series, including animation director Masaki Hinata. I’m not sufficiently acquainted with his work to claim he’s responsible for that show’s visual decline, but his supervision of the recent trainwreck Shoumetsu Toshi certainly isn’t an encouragement. Being a series that aims to depict true psychological warfare, Pet will live and die by its imagery; hopefully the animation
holds out long enough that it doesn’t distract from the art direction.

ID: Invaded

Studio: NAZ
Director: Ei Aoki
Series composition: Outarou Maijou
Source: Original

Mario: Out of all the synopses I read for this preview, this one remains the biggest question mark. “The virtual world of ID: Invaded is full of tumbling, floating houses, colliding masses of land, and disappearing structures” certainly piques my interest, and that doesn’t account for the fact that this show presents itself as a mystery show. The trailer looks pretty ambiguous with some impressive shots, but I am not too sure about its CG. The closest point of comparison for me is RErideD, which was a big mess. However, Ei Aoki is a talent that we need to pay attention to – he directed fantasy/action shows before such as Fate/Zero, Aldnoah.Zero, and Re:Creators, but my favorite out of his works is the coming-of-age story Wandering Son. The script writer penned The Dragon Dentist so it’s looking promising on the staff front. One last interesting note is that Studio NAZ is behind it, which is quite weird considering that Ei Aoki was one of the main founders of Troyca – makes me wonder what’s really going on behind the scenes.

Magia Record: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica Gaiden

Studio: Shaft
Director: Gekidan Inu Curry
Series composition: Gekidan Inu Curry
Source: Game

Wooper: Everybody and their pet incubator has seen Madoka at this point, so it needs no introduction. The question is, what’s the deal with this spinoff? It’s based on a mobile game set in the Madoka universe, and will be written and directed by Gekidan Inu Curry, the art duo responsible for the witch’s labyrinths in the original series. They’ve never headed up a project like this before, so the inexperience factor will certainly be at play here. Not knowing the story of the mobile game, my guess is that it will be more combat-focused than the 2011 series, giving this new installment extra opportunities to show off Inu Curry’s twisted fairy tale landscapes. The series director from the original, Yukihiro Miyamoto, is back as an assistant director for Magia Record, so the show ought to retain its oppressive mood, even if it doesn’t go Full Urobuchi in its themes and dialogue. The most glaring change, in my opinion, will be the music, since Yuki Kajiura isn’t attached to the project. This is a spinoff in the truest sense – it makes use of the same world, but will otherwise look and sound very different. I’m sure it’ll be criticized to hell and back for those differences, but I’m certainly looking forward to that crucial first episode next month.

 

HIGHEST EXPECTATIONS

Haikyuu!! To the Top

Studio: Production I.G
Director: Masako Sakou
Series composition: Taku Kishimoto
Source: Manga

Mario: Well, at this point Haikyuu needs no introduction. It’s a sports show done right. While it’s one of those shows that relies on the genre’s conventions, it does that with grace. The animation for this show is so far beyond what any other sports anime gets. It’s good news then that the staff is returning for this season after their success with Run with the Wind. Well, actually the main director is changing, but I don’t expect it to be a big issue. This season will focus on our favorite boys competing at the National Tournament, so the stakes are higher than ever. If you’ve already seen it then you know full well what to expect. Hop in.

Dorohedoro

Studio: MAPPA
Director: Yuuichiro Hayashi
Series composition: Hiroshi Seko
Source: Manga

Wooper: This promises to be the bloodiest, grimiest show of the season, and likely of the year. Even having read the first volume of the manga, I can’t tell you what the larger plot of the series is, but I know it stars a man with a lizard’s head who fights mages that travel through the doors from Monsters, Inc. I know that the main female character will, at some point, cut a guy’s brain out of his skull with a swipe of her spear, then catch it in a baseball cap. And I know that I’m looking forward to the anime, despite the CG they’re using for lizardman’s character, because the background art is to die for. While the manga’s messy panels have their appeal, the consistent grittiness of the TV series’ art design aims to tie everything together. It provides an authentic home for the hodgepodge of filth, violence, magic and blood present in the comic, which is no small feat given how strange Dorohedoro truly is. Plus, Wataru Takagi (perhaps best known as Onizuka from GTO) is voicing the main character! Anybody else excited for that last fact? Just me? Fine.

Eizouken ni wa Te wo Dasu na!

Studio: Science SARU
Director: Masaaki Yuasa
Series composition: Masaaki Yuasa
Source: Manga

Wooper: A new Yuasa joint to kick off the new decade in anime? You’d better believe this has my highest expectations. Granted, I hardly know a thing about the manga, and there are a hundred potential pitfalls its premise of three girls teaming up to make an anime, but just look at the setting! It’s a modern seaside town crammed full of angular buildings, lovingly drawn and brimming with adventure. Check out the simple, rounded features of the characters, whose expressiveness is sure to push their artistic passion through to the audience. And oh man, pull up the PV and listen to Oorutaichi’s accompaniment, with its watery guitar chords and yelpy vocal snippets. The track had me bobbing in my seat the very first time I heard it. Yuasa has worked with this guy once before on Kick-Heart, and what struck me about his work was the way he used the human voice as an instrument. He’ll probably be a bit more reserved this time, but if we’re treated to similarly playful electronic music over Science SARU’s splendid animation, Eizouken will be AOTS material, easy.

 

Anime Movie Previews

Mario: Normally the Winter season is a quiet time for anime movie releases, and this year is no exception. What makes up for the lack of numbers is a pair of TV-sequels from two of the most talked about shows in recent years, Made in Abyss and Shirobako. And any season that has MiB and Shirobako in the same column is pretty much a good season for me (then again, we’ll have to wait for a good half a year for them to be available online). Let’s check them out:

Kyochuu Rettou Movie

Studio: Passione
Director: Naoyuki Tatsuwa
Script: Shigeru Morita
Source: Manga
Release Date: 10 January 2020

Mario: I can’t tell which is worse: the awful CG insects in the trailer, the horribly bland facial expressions of the characters, the implied tentacle rape or the absolute lack of information regarding this movie’s staff. For those of you who are interested, there’s a 20-minute Kyochuu Rettou OVA which came out 6 months ago that received terrible reception. The plot itself is B-movie at best: a group of kids stranded on an island full of giant insects. The question now is whether it’ll be a so-bad-it’s-good kind of movie. Based on the PV it certainly might.

Made in Abyss: Dawn of the Deep Soul

Studio: Kinema Citrus
Director: Masayuki Kojima
Script: Hideyuki Kurata
Source: Manga
Release Date: 17 January 2020

HelghastKillzone: Released back in Summer 2017, this was probably was one of the best anime in the past decade with Ghibli-like background artwork, an unreal soundtrack from Kevin Penkin and a fully realized world that didn’t hold anything back into its adventure into the abyss. After two recap movies, the sequel is finally coming in a theatrical release and I think that is the perfect format for the next arc. With the manga ongoing, there simply isn’t enough material to justify another standard TV series and Kinema Citrus can pour all their efforts into a single high quality project. For manga readers, this will be the long-awaited visual adaptation of what is widely considered the pinnacle of the story. For the rest of you, who have only experienced the anime, the fifth layer is going to make the fourth layer look like a joke.

Ongaku

Studio: TBA
Director: Kenji Iwaisawa
Script: TBA
Source: Manga
Release Date: January 2020

Mario: Ongaku, in one word, is low-key. It’s based on a one-shot manga with very simple character designs, as of yet there is no studio announcement or any staff name attached except for the first-time director, and the manga is the mangaka’s first project as well. Sounds like a disaster, right? Except that the PV makes full use of its simple art design for a stylistic look and expressive animation. The use of sound (since this story is about them being in a band) is quite solid in the trailer. Sort of reminds me of the “ugliness” in Ping Pong the animation, but of course linking this film to one of the finest achievements in anime last decade is gonna work to its detriment. Ongaku is destined to be an under-the-radar pick, so its best shot is to pick up some limited but passionate fans along the way.

Shirobako Movie

Studio: P.A. Works
Director: Tsutomu Mizushima
Script: Michiko Yomote
Source: Original
Release Date: 29 February 2020

Mario: The long-awaited sequel to the beloved Shirobako has its official release date. The original anime has been a fan favorite for most of us, spreading not only knowledge about the inside of anime production, but also the love of making and consuming anime as a medium. It’s great news that all the original staff is coming back for this movie, which is supposed to be a direct sequel to the 2014 series. We again follow 5 girls through different roles in anime, and it promises to be another solid workplace drama with heart. For those who are new to anime, I couldn’t think of a better one to start to appreciate the anime medium.