Yes, it’s that time again. Rather than going through with what I’ve started / dropped, though, let me just talk about the stuff that I’m pretty sure I’m watching for this season.
But First … a micro-Rant
Before I jump into that, I need to vent for just a moment. One of the … ostensibly positive things about the Crunchimation+Funiroll merge was that there’d be a broader collection of shows that they got to scoop up per-season, right?
WRONG!!!!
This season, Crunchimation got seriously boned on what they were able to grab licenses for. So much so, that I’m dowright miffed. I’m not saying that Crunchimation got a bad collection, but there’s some really nice shows that I really would like to see, all of which went over to HiDive. And, no, I don’t particularly want to get another streaming subscription just so I can watch them. [The shows in particular that I’m missing being able to see, in no particular order, are: The Eminence in Shadow, Reincarnated as a Sword, Urusei-FUCKING-Yatsura!!! (Yeah, this one hurts a lot), Akiba Maid War, Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time, Love Flops, Bibliophile Princess, My Master Has No Tail, The Little Lies We All Tell, and Encouragement of Climb.
I’m not saying I’d want to watch the full season of all of them, but that’s a not-insignificant chunk of the major anime series this season. Yeah, yeah … it’s only $4.99 (USD) / month. It’s still pretty damn annoying, though.
What I’m Watching
Ok. So now let me talk about the stuff I am or expect to be watching for the season. As always, this is in no particular order.
Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These
This continues the remake of LotGH. I hadn’t watched the original series, but I really like this version and have watched it pretty much as it comes out. The spaceships and battles are all CGI’ed, which, given the scale and complexity of a lot of this, I can absolutely understand and am not hating on in the slightest. Since science-fiction is very much my thing, and military SF is one of my favorite subgenres, this makes me a happy viewer.
Uzaki-Chan Wants to Hang Out! (Season 2)
I’m actually still getting caught up with S1 of this – it was a Funimation title, and so I’m watching the S1 episodes to then roll right into S2. It’s a fun romcom-ish slice-of-life show with what could easily be known as a couple of “adorkables”. Enjoying S1 and I’ve no doubts that S2 will carry that through.
Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer (2nd Cour)
[For those of you who are unaware, in anime terms, a “cour” is a (calender) season, vs a show season. So this is still S1 of LatBH, but it’s the second cour (run of 12-13 episodes).] The animation remains as lackluster as from the first cour (as expected). I’ll admit that the show is starting to get boring. I honestly don’t know if I’ll hold out for the remainder of it.
Raven of the Inner Palace
I am LOVING this show. Seriously … the animation is freaking gorgeous and the story so far, just in two episodes, is riveting. It’s Chinese-dynastic politics and intrigue with some magic mixed in as well. My only complaint is that the character / cast lists are messed up as hell, at least compared with the subtitles for character names. One odd thing (sort of?) is that the titular Raven, voiced by Saku Mizuno, manages to give of some serious Akari Kitou (my favorite-ish voice actress these days) vibes. This, on the whole, is a good thing, though.
BOCCHI THE ROCK!
Another great show — even though I only saw the first episode. Now, I’ve never had any sort of social anxiety. I just (for a variety of reasons that I won’t get into now) never really developed a good set of social skills. So I can really identify, at least somewhat, with the loner girl in school who took up playing a guitar just so she could carry it around and hope someone would talk to her about it. This is both funny and utterly heartwarming. Another favorite for me this season.
Chainsaw Man
Here we have it … the elephant in the room for this season. This show has been hyped out the wazoo damn near everywhere. I saw Ep 1 and … I have to say … I’m kinda “eh” on the show. I won’t deny that it’s spectacularly animated. This may very well just be more a matter of me not really feeling all that interested in the story than anything else. I’m sure I’ll watch at least a few more episodes, but I may very well (probably much to the shock and horror of “real” anime fans) drop it mid-season.
SPY x FAMILY (Season 2)
Yep, the Forgers are back and continuing more of the Cold-War-ish fake family spy story. If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past year or so (or just don’t know much about anime), the three main characters are: Lloyd, a spy from (in-universe) West Germany, who’s on a mission in (in-universe) East Germany; Yor, his fake wife (who is an East German assassin); and Anya, his fake young daughter (who happens to have telepathy and can read everyone’s minds).
With the exception of the Anya (who knows everything about what’s going on, but only has a 6-yr old’s understanding of any of it), no one knows the “real” story of anyone else. [Oh, and to make it even better, the two main adults, Lloyd and Yor, are voiced by the same voice actors who did Hachiman and Yukino in OreGairu. They really do make such a splendid couple.
Beast Tamer
This is a bit of an odd one. It’s a combination fantasy + slice-of-life + harem. The main character is a massively OP “Beast Tamer ” (cue credits), but he, of course, doesn’t realize he is. [In that regard, it sort of gives off “Last Dungeon Boonies” vibes.] He’s kicked out of the Hero™’s party, because they think he’s terribly underpowered. He then goes on his own adventuring spree and proceeds to out-perform anyone’s possible expectations for what someone with the “Beast Tamer” class can do. I’m two episodes in and enjoying it. From what I’ve seen, with E3, he starts expanding the harem.
I’m the Villainess, So I’m Taming the Final Boss
[Side note – if the title of a show is very long and seems to have the entire premise described … the original source material is probably a Japanese Light Novel.]
This is yet-another (?) series about someone who’s been isekai‘ed into a dating simulator game and, again, as the villainess. A previous one of this type was “My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!” which was a heck of a lot of fun. This one looks to be just as much, although with a bit of a different take on it. In “Next Life”, the main character tries to avoid her eventual downfall by befriending every “main” character in the “game” – both male and female. This time, the main character didn’t figure it out until “too” late (when her “doom flag” has started to be flown). So, rathe than allowing herself to be tossed to the wolves, she decides to woo (and marry) the Demon Lord, thus preventing the direct reason she dies in-game. Looking good, some nice humor and even a bit of … side-character technological min-maxing by making use of “discarded” people.
Do It Yourself!!
I just flat out LIKE this show. The main character, Yua, is a kinda helpless girl who can’t seem to avoid injuring herself. But, through the usual weird set of circumstances, a girl who you wouldn’t normally want to trust with a foam hammer joins her school’s DIY club to save the club (from being disbanded due to low membership), learn how to actually do stuff, and also develop the inevitable friend-circle. Sweet and adorable and the about of “character” that comes through just from Yua’s visual design is astonishingly good
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
Oh, yeah, baby! Giant mecha are BACK!!! This is the first new Mobile Suit Gundam series in quite a while. And it’s “Yet Another”™ Gundam Timeline. But you don’t hear me complaining. Nope, nope, nope. I am absolutely here for this! And I’m also looking forward to when the related Gunpla are released. Bandai / Sunrise’s last mecha attempt (non-Gundam – AMAIM Warrior at the Borderline) failed pretty hard. The story was garbage and while some of the mecha looked cool, they just didn’t do enough with any of it. So, back to basics it is.
More than a Married Couple, but Not Lovers
Rom-com slice of life with an odd premise – high-school students doing a randomly-assigned-partner “marriage simulation” … in real life. So, of course the nerd gets paired with the utterly hot gyaru, while the girl he’s got a massive crush on gets paired with the guy that the gyaru has a massive crush on. “Let the hilarities ensue!” I haven’t watched the second episode yet, but I really liked the first one, so I’m definitely looking forward to watching this.
Bottom Line
Not counting continuing shows (or ones that I’ll be “continuing” after I catch up – Uzaki-Chan), my so-far “Top 3” are, in some order, definitely: Raven of the Inner Palace, Bocchi the Rock, and Do It Yourself. I’m sure that Chainsaw Man will probably obliterate everything else (which isn’t CSM, that is), but I’m just not the shounen fan that I used to be. Sure, I like a cool shounen series as much as almost anyone, but, these days, I’m generally much more of a rom-com / slice-of-life kinda guy.
And I’m ok with that.
