This winter season was a bit odd in the sense that we had a fairly good run with some enjoyable
shows!
Out of the ones I was most excited for, there were several that followed through with the
entertainment that they promised.
Youjo Senki I watched out of the gate every week when I could, I enjoyed Tanya’s constant
struggles with a world that was against her despite not exactly being a likeable character.
Lieutenant, you didn't know this was going to happen...
You didn't send them there to die right?
ACCA had an extremely slow start but to my relief put the pedal to the metal
in the second half, and it gave us one of the most kickass intro of the year so far.
We also had great shows that I wasn’t even paying attention to at the start: Interviews
Interviews with Monster Girls and Miss Kobayashi being particular highlights for me, but never got
around to Little Witch Academia yet because Netflix doesn’t understand anime fans.
Kemono Friends was an extremely surprising piece of entertainment for me, though I appear
to be in the minority.
And then Konosuba…
well it was...
A thing.
Not as good as I was expecting, and this is coming from someone who said that S1 was the best anime
of 2016.
But I should have known better.
Winter 2017 was actually a pretty good season to kick off the new year in a period where
the number of quality shows are few and far between the rest.
But enough about the PAST!
We need to start looking TOWARDS THE FUTURE!
So after combing over the chart for this upcoming season I have gathered together the anime
that I am currently the most excited for.
So Ladies, Gentlemen, and others, I present My Most Anticipated anime, of Spring 2017.
Let’s Jam.
ATTACK ON TITAN S2 + MY HERO ACADEMIA S2
Let’s just make this easier on ourselves
by combining two of the most obvious.
I enjoyed the both of these first seasons, they were highly popular when they originally
came out, and by all accounts they should be great entries to this season.
I fiddled with the idea of not having them on this list, because you know they are very obvious and popular,
But I figured that that would be a disservice.
Because I am truly excited for both of them, and I can’t want to finally not have to block
out as many spoilers from people who have read the manga.
Now, of course, if you forced me to choose between the two as to which I’m excited for more…well
I’d have to go for MHA.
Mostly because it’s been four years since Titan, and my overall excitement for the series
has wavered in that time.
When it aired it had that kind of magic to it because it felt different and new, but
the shock factor that defined the show for me has since worn away.
It was a series where death was a constant threat to every character, mysteries that were intriguing,
and a main character who is carried by others despite possessing the stereotypical shounen
fighting spirit, Attack on Titan season 2 I’m approaching with a bit more skepticism
than last time.
With this new season, to make up for lost time it really needs to hit home and give
us a reason why we’ve waited for so long, yet end in a way that doesn’t leave us hanging.
The same rule applies to MHA as well, but considering the state of the source material
that seems unlikely.
ALICE TO ZOUROKU This is a series I’m expecting to fill my
slice of life gap for a while, despite you know not actually being part of that genre.
It’s listed more as an adventure / mystery series about a young girl that has the power
to materialise things from her imagination, and after escaping some kind of scientific
lab she runs into an older man who may or may not help her.
It’s an intriguing premise that I hope ends up going somewhere but we’ll see.
The reason I was thinking it might scratch my Slice of Life Itch is because of its director,
who I know as the director of Kamisama no Memochou and more recently
Flying Witch from last year, which was a beautiful series if you haven’t checked it out yet.
Downside is that he also directed an anime that I cannot remember and probably doesn’t exist.
So I am slightly skeptical.
However my skepticism is not enough to stop me from being completely excited for…
SAGRADA RESET A large section of the populace of a small
town near the ocean all have magical powers.
From being able to enter the minds of cats, to the more extreme power of being able to
reset time back several days.
and the story seems
to revolve around two teenagers who have powers that synergize well together.
It give off this really weird feeling of craziness in its premise, and anything involving manipulating
time is difficult to pull off but the thing that makes me heavily optimistic is that it’s
being handled by David Production.
Yes, the same David Production behind JoJo.
OH SHIT.
Now unfortunately the studio is the only connection to JoJo, and looking at the PV I doubt we
are going to get anything near that kind of insanity.
But David has been doing JoJo almost exclusively since 2014 only taking on other projects like
Planetarian and a monster hunter adaptation while they were also finishing off the second
half of Diamond.
So I’m excited to see them tackle more genres beyond the one that made them the most well-known.
Plus I’m sucker for anything involving Time Travel so I hope I’m just not going to be
disappointed.
Re:CREATORS This originally did not strike me on the outset
as a show I might be interested in.
The synopsis wasn’t that intriguing and the art gave off the “standard modern light
novel fantasy” vibe.
Which, don’t get me wrong can be good, but have a tendency to be more “meh” than
anything.
Then of course I glanced at the staff list.
It’s being directed by Ei Aoki, of Fate/Zero and Garden of Sinners movie 1 fame, the
music is handled by Hiroyuki Sawano who I think needs no real introduction after composing
the score for every single hyped anime of its season such as Attack on Titan, Kill la
Kill, Guilty Crown, and Attack on Mononoke-Baccano.
Finally, the original story was written by Rei Hiroe, who was the original creator of
Black Lagoon.
Holy Crap, please don’t suck, please don’t suck, please don’t suck…
The biggest worry though is that it shares many of the team who worked on Aldnoah.Zero
and that’s a show that had several….well problems with it, to put it lightly.
[EUROBEAT INTENSIFIES]
[AND SUCH IS A MYSTERY]
[Seriously though why have I not reviewed Initial D yet?]
Problems that I hope we don’t see re-surface.
I can hope though that they won’t everything will be fine and Re:Creators will be in contention
for best of season.
Of course, it has to be better than his last directorial work which I like to think
be the case. Maybe. We'll see.
and finally: SAKURA QUEST
Now some of you might look at this excitement that I have for this show
and peg it down solely to be me being a huge fan of Shirobako from 2015.
Same Studio, same character and animation designer, similar story of working women except
it’s about a tourism agency instead of an anime studio.
BUT this is not the only reason!
Like I would be lying if I said that was not a factor, but it’s all that PLUS: The series
is being directed by Souichi Masui.
Why do I care about Souichi Masui?
Because he directed Scrapped Princess, one of my favourite fantasy series from the early
2000’s and I want to see more of his work.
I want to see him do THIS project in particular, because I remember the cheerful banter between
characters in Scrapped Princess and if that kind of direction gets applied here I think
that the series will be a definite highlight for me.
I really like seeing shows with a very clear, definite and achievable goal from the start.
Like a project or even a tournament, something that can be done in a set amount of time.
Mostly because I feel this will help push things towards a favorable conclusion instead
of leaving things open.
Sakura Quest has this feeling for me so I have high hopes for it.
As usual I also hope, and fully expect a series not on this list to come out of the woodwork
and surprise me.
This list was only compiled on staff information and promotional materials which may not be
indicative of the final products.
So with luck we’ll have a season even better than I’m currently expecting it to be.
We have a lot of anime to watch, so let’s get to it shall we?
Wait…
I feel like there’s an anime I'm missing...
and anime that’s also airing this season, but I can’t...SHIT
I can't remember what anime it is…
Eh, I can't remember.
Anyways, ladies, gentlemen, and others, stay frosty.