With Fall 2016 drawing to a close, and the premieres starting in just over a week… it’s time to look forward to Winter 2017 and new anime. I try not to get too excited, because you never can tell whether or not they’re going to get picked up… But it’s still fun to think about it.
Eagerly Anticipating – shows I can’t wait to see:
Konasuba 2: More comic adventures, more explosions (but only once a day!), and maybe more Aqua being eaten by a frog… What’s not to like? “Trapped in another world” (especially a gamified one) is a genre that’s about been done to death, but Konasuba’s comedic take is very refreshing. The first season was laugh-out-loud funny with fun characters and some nice dramatic touches, I look forward to more.
Looking Forward To – shows I’m interested in checking out for one reason or another:
Fuuka: Honestly, I can’t put my finger on why I’m looking forward to Fuuka. Maybe it’s because the female lead reminds me somehow of Ritsu from Kawai Complex. (A character I liked and an anime I enjoyed.) Maybe it’s because 2016 was bereft of any decent romances and I’m starved for one. Whatever the cause, I feel compelled to look forward to it.
Little Witch Academia: I enjoyed the OVA and the movie, while the premise is rather generic, the characterizations and writing were a cut above. The movie especially was a nice blend of comedy and drama. But… The PVs make it look like the anime will be a reboot of the story rather than a continuation, and that moves it down a notch from Eagerly Anticipating to Looking Forward To. LWA will live or die by whether or not it can maintain the charm of the originals and not drop into being a generic school comedy – only with witches.
Piace: Watashi no Italian: I didn’t care much for the manga… which seems kind of odd to say for a show in the Looking Forward To category doesn’t it? Mostly I didn’t like the extraordinarily slow pace. (By the end of the first volume, they were still introducing characters.) But it has the bones of a wacky workplace comedy, if only they can tighten the pacing. Plus I just can’t resist at least checking out anime about food. These two things together bump it up from “Sure, whatever”.
Sure, whatever – shows that might be good, or might be on the fast train to Dropsville:
Akiba’s Trip: Honestly, I’m checking this out mostly because the OP is sung by Earphones, the voice actress idol unit formed by the main cast from Seiyu’s Life!.
BanG Dream!: In the wake of the over-the-top success of Love Live! and the more modest success of Wake Up Girls!, mixed media idol projects are slowly becoming A Thing and BanG Dream! is the latest of those to make the leap to anime… At least for me, they’ve been a very mixed bag though. The announced plot (girl who dreams of being an idol finds her instrument, meets other girls with similar dreams, and they set off down the rocky road to stardom) doesn’t exactly excite me either. But I love idol anime, so I can’t resist at least checking it out.
Idol Jihen: A world where political parties are formed by idol units to fight back against a corrupt government and “save the smiles of the people”… Sounds like someone decided to file the serial numbers off of AKB0048, slap on a coat of fresh paint and see if it sells. As with BanG Dream!, I can’t resist at least checking out idol anime, otherwise meh as I didn’t much care for AKB0048.
Seiren: Romance/comedy… An original project and the PV’s are playing it close to the chest, so we don’t know too much about the plot. I’m checking it out mostly “just in case”.
Scum’s Wish: Highly anticipated by many… But the one chapter of the manga I’ve managed to read so far left me mostly meh so it drops to the “Sure, Whatever” category. It may rise, or drop off entirely between now and the premiere depending on whether I get a chance to read more and how I feel about. Or I may just skip the rest of the manga and let the anime speak for itself.
Urara Meirochou: On the list mostly because it has the chance to be my CGDCT of the season.
Because of the Crunchy/Funi partnership, it will be interesting to see how the announcements are handled… In the past Funimation dropped all the shows on us at once, leaving the exact schedule for later. Crunchyroll on the other hand typically spaces their announcements out, leaving us in the dark. Sometimes their announcement has come only hours before the show drops. Two incompatible styles, but (at least theoretically) one set of announcements.
Two things I’m not happy about are Netflix and Amazon, who are going to get at least one show each this season. Netflix doesn’t really understand that the anime community they’re trying to woo is built around weekly simulcasts and pushes everything into their binge watching model. Amazon… Amazon is the big elephant in the room. After the disaster that was Battery, they’re trying to pretend the Noitamina deal never went down. We still don’t have a legal stream of Fall 2016’s Great Passage, and Amazon will get the much-anticipated Scum’s Wish for Winter 2017 (and Saekano for Spring 2017). I don’t know how long the deal runs for, but this season and whether or not they stream Scum’s Wish as scheduled could make or break their relationship with anime fandom for the forseeable future. (And they’re already in rough waters because of the cost.)
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