Welcome to the first post looking forward to the new season! Why the first post? Because there’s too many good shows coming down the pike, so sequels will get their own post. This looks like it’s going to be a busy season.
So, hit the jump and let’s start.
As is my usual habit here at the Lounge, these aren’t necessarily in any particular order. It’s pretty easy to sort by broad bands, but kinda pointless to sort in details.
The shows that I am anticipating are in bold, shows my wife and I are anticipating together are in bold italics.
That being said… Let’s dive in!
Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san
Meet Kiyo and Sumire, two friends from Aomori who came to Kyoto in hopes of becoming maiko. While Sumire successfully fulfills her dream, Kiyo is not so lucky… or talented. Instead, her gift is in her culinary skills, which she uses to help support Sumire and the other maiko.
Source: LiveChart.ME
Cooking, and maybe a hint of found family? I wouldn’t say either are exactly like catnip for Derek… But they’re both genres I’m strongly interested in.
Sadly, this has not been announced for streaming yet.
Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun
Fumiya Tomozaki is a high school student who is one of Japan’s best gamers, but in reality, he is alone. He has always insisted, “Life is a horrible game.” One day, he meets Aoi Hinami, a perfect heroine of the school. She says to him, “Take this game called ‘life’ seriously!” Is life a horrible game or a great game? Under Hinami’s guidance, a life strategy by a high school student who is a bottom-tier character is about to begin!
Source: Crunchyroll
Nerd romance and an outcast (?) seeking to improve his station in life. It’s probably not going to be another Oregairu, but it sounds interesting enough.
Streaming on: Funimation
Kumo desu ga, Nani ka?
I, the protagonist, was just an ordinary high school girl, but suddenly I was reincarnated as a spider monster in a fantasy world. Not only that, but I awakened in a dungeon filled with vicious monsters. Armed with only my human knowledge and my overwhelming positivity, I’m forced to use spiderwebs and traps to defeat far stronger monsters just to stay alive… So begins the labyrinth survival story of a girl with incredible mental strength living as one of the lowest-ranked beasts!
Source: Crunchyroll
Widely touted as the isekai of the season… And it looks cute enough, so, sure, why not? It can’t possibly be worse than Slime, and I made it through two cours of that. (I won’t be back for the 2nd season however, one was quite enough thank you.)
Streaming on Crunchyroll
Idoly Pride
To become an idol, I shed blood, sweat, and tears. Even so, I push on. I want to shine. I want to earn it. I want to become number one. I want to smile. I want to make my dreams come true. I want to look back at a sea of people. I want to be noticed. I want to find it. I want to overcome obstacles. I have only pride inside my chest.
Source: MAL
No one is in the spotlight from the beginning. Everyone is weak. Only those who do not break will reach the highest peak to become an idol. This is the story of idols who face big dreams and harsh reality.
Looks to be this season’s most promising idol show, and if there is a genre that’s catnip for Derek… it’s idol shows. It’s also one of the genres I tend to be most critical of. So hard to get right, or even decent. So easy to go generic or muck up entirely.
No streaming source announced.
The idol adjacent Gekidol (Funi) is also on my list, as is Idolls! (which has neither a stream nor a summary announced yet).
Horimiya
A sweet “aww”-inspiring tale of school life begins!!
Source: Yen Press
At school, Kyouko Hori is known for being smart, attractive, and popular. On the other hand, her classmate, the boring, gloomy Izumi Miyamura tends to get painted as a “loser fanboy.” But when a liberally pierced and tattooed (not to mention downright gorgeous) Miyamura appears unexpectedly on the doorstep of secretly plain-Jane homebody Hori, these two similarly dissimilar teenagers discover that there are multiple sides to every story…and person!
Slice-of-life, school life, two things that interest me… Especially slice-of-life. It’s been a while since we had a decent show along these lines, so crossing my fingers. The manga is available in English, and that’s usually a positive sign!
Streaming on: Funimation.
Ura Sekai Picnic
Moments from death, Sorawo is saved by the mysterious Toriko in the world of the Otherside. Entranced by its beauty, she discovers that this dimension is inhabited by monsters once thought imaginary. Joining with Toriko in her search for a missing friend, they set out to explore this nightmare realm and maybe make a little money. What they encounter could bring enlightenment—or drive them mad!
Source: Funimation
I actually scrolled past this one a couple of times as I was looking at the various shows on offer… And then I noticed the tags: Adventure – Fantasy – Mystery – Sci-Fi – Yuri. Wait. What?
I’d already mentally tagged Picnic as “go ahead and check out” just based on the description. But now I think I’m going to elevate it to “anticipated” just because it’s not the typical schoolgirl romance. It would be nice if the protagonists were more mature, but I can’t find anything that makes it clear one way or the other.
Streaming on: Funimation.
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Anyhow, I think that covers the shows that I’m actually anticipating. (There’s a couple just below the line, but they don’t have streams announced…) As usual, this is not an exhaustive list. There’s a raftload that I plan to check out when they air (assuming they get a stream). As is usually, the next couple of weeks are going to be busy.
I’m also working on Part 2 of this post, covering the sequels. Look for that Sunday or Monday.
Looking at the season chart for Winter 2021, what non-sequels are you looking forward to the most? Drop a comment and let’s chat!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
The Maiko anime has made it near the top of my anticipation pile. I adore the art, and like the music, though the animation looks a little odd in the PV I watched (no idea if it’s the same one you linked, because that’s not available in my region).
Tomozaki-kun is an anime I have my eyes on, but cautiously. The summary reads a lot like textbook advice that never works. Life sucks – not if you take it seriously. That could be great, or it could be insufferable world-view propaganda. Shows usually end up somewhere in the middle. But that’s the stort of stuff that, if unlucky, can ruin an otherwise good show for me (see Orange).
Kumo desu ga has me a little worried with its CGI, but I’m curious, and it’s Yuki Aoi in the titular role, which is perfect. I’ll watch Slime. I like the show; I watched the OVAs, too.
Horimiya: I’ve seen a four-episode disjointed OVA back in the days, and I really, really liked what I’ve seen. Looking forward to this one, though I’ll take some getting used to the prettied up and more generic character designs.
Ura Sekai Picnic falls into the cautiously curious category for me, but what I’ve heard from people, the predominant genre is actually SF, so who knows, maybe?
Yeah, this season has a lot of potential; a lot of it is sequels, though.
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Maiko-san has been on my radar for a long time… I think it’s the one show I’ll be really annoyed if it fails to stream somewhere.
There’s a couple of shows that are heavy on the CGI, and I agree with your worries. Unless you really put a lot of work into it, it doesn’t work. In general, it’s not really ready for prime-time.
We’ve had several good yuri tales of late (Bloom, Adachi), but I’m ready for something that breaks the mold. So being predominantly SF is (to me) a good sign.
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Horimiya is one of those titles like One Punch Man that started as a webcomic and later got picked up and redone as a professional manga. The OVA episodes were adaptations of the webcomic, janky artwork and all – this version is adapting the manga. I saw the OVAs first back in the day, and enjoyed them enough that it got me to pick up the manga, which I liked even more. So yeah, definitely looking forward to this one.
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