It’s that time again! Opening day for baseball was yesterday, opening day for anime is tomorrow, and that means it’s spring! Time for a new anime season and anticipating what’s just around the corner.
Hit the jump and let’s look at what I have hopes for come the new season!
The shows that I’m watching are in bold, shows my wife and I are watching together are in bold italics, strikethrough marks dropped shows and (*) marks shows that are watched but not regularly reviewed.
Usually I limit my anticipation posts to around ten shows… That’s not going to work quite so well this time around because I have six shows anticipated that are sequels/remakes/franchises! So, I’m gonna skim some stuff early one to leave more energy and room for later stuff.
I’m also not going to rank my “most anticipated” because frankly, that’s going to be too hard with this batch.
Sound! Euphonium 3
I have to admit as much a fan as I am of Euph, I’ve got concerns here. The anime is described as covering “Kumiko’s 3rd year” – but how much of the year? Their 1st year took two seasons. The movie covering the 2nd year kinda sucked because it tried to put an entire year into 100 minutes.
Very glad it’s back, but also hoping they do it right.
Laid Back Camp Season 3
Yuru Camp also falls into the “highly anticipated but with concerns” category. This time, it’s the staff changes… New almost everyone. I’m not one of the folks weirded out about the changes to the character designs though, as they’re much closer to the manga designs than S1 and S2.
Also my absolute favorite scene, Rin and Ayano on the chain bridge, will be in this season… Crossing my fingers and toes and hoping they do it justice.
Will they reach the firewood gathering chapter(s)? Those are outstanding, but going to be hard to get right.
KONOSUBA -God’s blessing on this wonderful world! 3
My Hero Academia Season 7
Konasuba – can lightning strike a third time, especially after it kinda faded at the end of the second season?
My Hero Academia – left us on a hell of an emotional cliffhanger at the end of S6. Please, please don’t give us the usual meaningless intro episode. Let’s get right into it this time.
Otherwise, not really much to say about either.
THE iDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS
So far, this franchise is 2 and 2… Two solid or at least decent shows (the OG and Million Live) and two not so good shows (Cinderella Girls and U149). But I remain a fan of the concept and the franchise.
But damm iDOLM@STER, you’d think a franchise of that size would care more about the animation quality. I do not care for this trend towards CGI and especially CGI music performances. It’s just not ready for prime time.
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf
And last but not least – the one the biggest shoes to fill. The one most likely to be the center of Discourse.
I’m going to take a positive stance here. The trailer shows a lot of what looks like business activity, and that’s one of the core elements of Spice. But the series will live and die by how well they handle and Lawrence and Holo’s evolving relationship. *Crossing fingers*
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So, that’s the last of the anticipated sequels and reboots… On to the new stuff!
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Music Shows: (AKA catnip for Derek)
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night
GIRLS BAND CRY
OK, I admit I’m putting Jellyfish here because I don’t know where in the hell else to put it… It’s got a piano in the trailer, so it’s going under music. And I don’t really know what it’s going to be about. But the trailer calls out to me.
Girls looks pretty generic and has awful animation… But girls, music, Derek can’t resist at least giving it the ol’ three episode try.
Sports!
Oblivion Battery
Tonbo!
Oblivion Battery‘s attraction should be obvious – I can’t resist a baseball anime after all.
Tonbo is more a shot in the dark, but from what little can be gleaned from the trailer I like her character. And I’m kinda getting Naru (Barakamon) vibes, but maybe that’s just me.
Bartender: Kami no Glass
I am a fan of shows like Midnight Diner and Samurai Gourmet where food is central to the plot, but not the focus of the plot. (If that makes sense.) And the trailer has really strong Midnight Diner vibes…
The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio
This would be this season’s “CG___” show… And it’s at least idol adjacent, which is solidly my jam, so it goes on the list. It doesn’t really feel like a music show so much, which is why it’s down here.
Though, being character driven, it’s going to have to land on its feet early. A lot of shows blow that badly.
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With these twelve shows, plus the usual raftload right below the “anticipated” level, and we have the makings of a potentially very busy season. And that’s not even including those I’ll be checking out because why not?
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So, what are you looking forward to this season? Has Spring sprung yet in your neck of the woods? (Just barely here…)
Drop a comment and let’s chat about all that or anything else that catches your interest!
Apprentice Mages Lounge. 
I mentioned it elsewhere, but I might as well put them here.
Wonderful Pretty Cure! – This is a really strong entry into the PreCure franchise, and of course it goes on all year long.
Urusei Yatsura – I like the reboot, and I think it’s funny. I’ll keep going.
Spice and Wolf: merchant meets the wise wolf – Yeah, crossing fingers. Looks good, though.
BARTENDER Glass of God – I’m giving this a speculative go based on the positive buzz I’ve heard. No idea if I’ll last long.
Laid-Back Camp Δ Season 3 – We shall see, but the series hasn’t let me down yet. Like, not even a little, and not even in the short-episode Room Camp spinoff.
Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night – So, my understanding is that this is a slice of life style drama set in Shibuya. Kinda looking forward to it.
Tonari no Yōkai-san – Assuming we get it here. I like these kinds of Japanese urban (well, rural) fantasy stories, and this one is about a cat. Gonna have to overcome the inevitable Totoro comparisons, but that’s like A Sign of Affection had to avoid A Silent Voice comparisons.
Unnamed Memory – Saw it, liked the idea of a romance witch fantasy, thought I’d give it the three-ep try.
Mysterious Disappearances – Another “if we get it here” one. I like supernatural mysteries, though the description of the main character as “busty” has me looking sideways at it. We’ll see.
Black Butler -Public School Arc- – I know I was probably the only person who liked Black Butler II, and I still haven’t seen Book of Circus or Book of Murder, but I’ll give it a try.
Whisper Me a Love Song – Yuri romance. I haven’t had a lot of luck with these (Citrus did not work for me at all, to pick a notable example), but I keep trying.
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Yeah, as I said, Spicy Wolf has big shoes to fill, so also crossing fingers.
Whisper Me a Love Song – pretty high on my “curious but not anticipating” list, though it probably should be higher… I’ve had pretty good luck with Yuri romance, particularly Bloom Into You and Adachi and Shimamura. (The latter has excruciately slow pacing, it’s something of an acquired taste.) Citrus was just garbage from end to end and I have no idea why I stuck with it.
From what you said about Jellyfish on the Facebook group, it’s moved higher on my anticipation list. Slice-of-life CGDCT is right in my wheelhouse (as everyone knows).
My wife likes Black Butler and is seriously looking forward to the new season. But generally I’m not a fan of out-and-out supernatural shows… Which why me being such a fan of The Witch and The Beast is so unusual.
Overall, looks like we might have significant overlap this season, which is kinda unusual.
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From what I’ve heard, I really should give Bloom into You a try one of these days. You say that Adachi and Shimamura is also worthwhile?
I didn’t even tell you other things about Jellyfish that pretty much guarantee it’s a “you” show.
The Witch and the Beast surprised me a lot. It started out and I almost dismissed it as just another shounen fight show, but there’s something about it. I think that it’s the refusal to treat the witches as villains, but yet to keep them as hazardous to the public. Much more complex moral calculus than a show like that normally has. Definitely my surprise of the season, even if it didn’t really make the top 3. To be clear, the top 3 for me were Frieren, Sasaki and Peeps, and Banished from the Hero’s Party, but I mostly expected those.
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Mm, as I think about it, it’s difficult to say whether I preferred Banished to A Sign of Affection. Both were really good. Either way, The Witch and the Beast didn’t make the top 4 either.
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Hm, my top 5 would probably be:
Frieren > Apothecary Diaries > Sengoku Youko > Dangers in My Heart > Undead Unluck
All those other shows would probably be somehwere near the middle for me:
Witch and the Beast was okay. I mostly liked its style, but I found Gideau annoying from beginning to end, and I found the story nothing special either way (not good, not bad).
A Sign of Affection is one of the better shows that feel too… idealised for me to fully enjoy. Surprisingly, my favourite seen was love interest confronting jealous childhood friend (and I like neither character much).
I enjoyed both Sasaki and Peeps and Banished form the Heroes party more than either of those shows, but not enough to raise it out of the middle field (which had many, many shows this season).
I’ve been surprisingly fond of two shows:
Level 99 Villainess (too lazy to google the real name): Which combined being overpowered with being a well-meaning but socially inept dork.
And Instant Death Ability: which took the overpowered skill, then took the cool fighting stuff out of it. It’s quite surprising how much they managed to do with what should have been incredibly dull and repetitive. Also, a rare uncanny valley protagonist. Who knows what he is? He’s not human, and I don’t think he fully understands life. He certainly never feels bad for killing. He’s written a lot like a toddler with an instant death ability, but not quite.
Now that I think of it, both these shows have, in their very own way, a kind of dead-pan humour that appeals to me. (Sadly the Instant Death show also has a mildly annoying “loudness” to some of the characters and is thus the lesser of the two shows, by a tier I’d say.)
It was a really good season for me.
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From what I hear, if I’d watched it Apothecary Diaries would have been high on my lists, too. It’s in my “to get to” list.
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Adachi and Shimamura is well worth checking out, but it’s… kinda different. And the pacing makes Non Non Byori look like Formula One racing by comparison. But otherwise, yes, if you’re interested in Yuri romance, Bloom should be high on your list.
If Jellyfish doesn’t live up to your teasers, you and I are gonna have words. :) :) :)
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Honestly, I have little to say about the sequels. Obviously, I’ve been out of MHA for a long while now, but I’ll watch the rest. I expect to enjoy them, but nothing’s that special for me. They all come with diminishing returns; Konosuba the least, but then it was always lowest in my priorities.
Spice and Wolf… I hear it’s going to be 2-cour, and from the trailer, I’d say it’s pretty close to what I remember. So I expect we’re getting a retread of seasons one and two (with some skipped material that made a third season hard, or so I hear). I have no doubt I’ll enjoy it, but I’m not sure how much I need it, since the original was great to begin with. If we get a second season, though… the old anime left us in a *very* interesting spot.
I’m currently a bit miffed that Sengoku Youko is ending. I thought it was going to be a three-cour. I do sincerely hope this means a split cour, or at the very least that the rest isn’t cancelled. The *real* show starts after this arc… (But even if it doesn’t continue, I’m grateful we got what we got. It was a great adaption.)
I’m going to skip Bartender. Is this a reboot of the older anime? In any case, I have a bit of an issue when a show puts alcohol front and centre like this. I tried to watch the old show of the same name, but didn’t last long. Pity. I’m sure if I could get over my hang-ups, I’d like the shows (both seasons). Heared nothing but good things.
As usual, I haven’t really gone in depth into what’s on offer; I’ll click on play when shows appear. That’s the most fun way for me, so I have only one real non-sequel I’m excited about:
Tonari no Youkai san. This show looks gorgeous. I do get ghibli vibes, but even more it reminds me of Kamichu for setting, maybe with a hint of Tamayura for story vibes. This show will have to mess up hard for me not to like it.
Then, there are shows I’m curious about. There’s this isekai that starts with “Tensei Shitara…” but doesn’t continue with “Slime” (which also comes back next season). It’s likely perfectly standard fare, but I like the art style. Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru could be cute; the trailer’s nice. Henjin no Saladbowl could be anything from annoying ecchi to fun absurdist; we’ll see. I’ve heard good things about Karasu wa Aruji wo Erabsnai, so who knows. And I’m also curious about Jellyfish (which you mentioned). But again, I’ll click play on lots of shows.
For what it’s worth, I actually preferred Cinderella Girls to the original Idolm@ster, and I haven’t watched anything else in the franchise. (I did try to watch the boy idol show, but didn’t get far.) I totally missed that there was one this season. I suppose the franchise gets caught in my auto-filter at this point.
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iDOLM@STER caught my eye, because (as you know) I’m a sucker for music shows as well as a fan of the franchise. Can’t believe I forgot to mention Side-M though… A rare male group show that I enjoyed even though it was middling overall. A good part of that is that is was unapologetically about the guys, so many male music shows are reverse harems and bad reverse harems at that. I just can’t generally get into otome.
For more on Jellyfish, see my reply to Chris. tl;dr: The more I hear, the further up my list it moves.
I don’t recall where the original Spice and Wolf left us… I pondered a rewatch in preparation, but decided that wouldn’t be a good idea and wouldn’t let the remake stand on it’s own. The prep watching I did was Euph. But I’m such a fan I needed little excuse for a rewatch anyhow.
I somehow missed that Jiisan Baasan Wakagaeru had a trailer (no trailer and no synopsis on Livechart), and now that’s going on the “anticipation list”. Especially since my wife and I are in that age range…
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Okay, I just have to alert people to Shuumatsu train. I’ve always liked the animals in the trailer, but that’s pretty much all I liked, so it was a very low priority show for me. But… this is far weirder than I could ever have expected, and there’s a solid emotional throughline beneath it all. Too early to tell (and certainly no details if anyone’s going to watch it; it’s best to go in unprepared – I briefly thought they posted the wrong show for a moment…). I will not talk about his furhter; not even about my favourite scene – which is just a few seconds, but which I liked a *lot*.
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I’ve checked it out, and it was… interesting. Will have more to say in my first impressions post (today or tomorrow).
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