Traditionally I’ve done a video every three months or so as a “Most Anticipated” list for
every upcoming season, however it’s hard to anticipate some of these when the first
episodes are already out.
But I really had to talk about HeroAca last week ok?
So that took precedence or basically everything else.
But here we are!
Once again at the start of hopefully another glorious season of anime with many good options
before us.
Out of those I wanted to take a few minutes to outline some of the series that I have
my eye on, and perhaps some that you haven’t noticed yet.
So without much ado, here’s my Top 5 Anime to watch this season or something!
We’ll workshop a better title later it’ll be great I swear.
To keep with the tradition of a Top 5 list I’m not going to go beyond that despite
the large amount of shows that end up airing this season.
However I if there was a 6th show to add to this list it would be
Black Clover, which is my Honorable mention.
We're gonna go with that.
Black Clover has a lot of pre-season hype behind it, the staff is mostly solid, and I can dig
a new fantasy-esk anime if it ends up doing some cool shit.
It’s just not in the top 5 because I’m curious as to what these other shows offer more.
Could be wrong though, could be best of season, who knows.
MOVING ON!
First up, Houseki no Kuni or Land of the Lustrous.
The story summary is rather vague, and I’m curious about the director choice and what
that could mean for where this show ends up going as prior to this he was the director of
School Live and GATE.
But the thing that most stands out to me is actually the PV.
Specifically the clips used in the show show that have 3D animation.
Which is to say...all of it.
Fully 3D anime has indeed been something that’s been more and more common as of late but I
have always hesitated when talking about it because I’m still not convinced that 3D
is at the point yet where it does a better job than traditional animation.
That could be the old man talking of course, but with recent outings like Berserk
turning out like they did I do have some examples to back up that reasoning.
But what I really want out of a show like Land of the Lustrous is for it to be an example
of the opposite.
I’ve been waiting for a 3D anime to come along and blow me away with either its style
or presentation.
This could be it.
Next up, Juuni Taisen!
From the original creator of the Monogatari series and the director of the Future Diary
comes a series that…..holy shit.
This looks... this looks good.
One of the advantages about the delay that it took with this particular video is that the first
episode of Juuni Taisen is already available, and while having a 12 character Battle Royale
death match isn’t necessarily a new concept, it’s been a few years since we’ve
gotten one.
Especially one that starts off this strong.
What we know is that some kind of organization or such set up a 12 [Actually 10] combatant tournament where
the winner gets one wish of their choosing, then the tournament starts and we get to watch
the fireworks.
Sound familiar?
Difference being that the presentation of the plot is somewhat different from similar
stories of the past.
When those shows started off they had a clear and very obvious protagonist to cheer for Juuni
Taisen doesn’t, and it hasen't yet decided which of its 12 [again 10] mains will be taking the lead for
the majority of the show.
If any of them do.
Which personally is extremely enticing to me.
To know that no character has any kind of plot armor makes a battle royale of this nature
far more exciting then what we’ve had previously.
I for one cannot wait for this show to continue.
Girls Last Tour is a show that I've put on this list for various reasons.
One, White Fox is on a very short list of anime studios that I will watch anything from
because even if I don’t necessarily like how some of their stories are told per-say
I have yet to not be entertained in some fashion by their shows.
Two: it’s character designs are reminding me somewhat of last season’s Made in Abyss
if it was crossed with Hidamari Sketch, which sounds like an odd combination but I want
to see where it goes.
Also Made in Abyss was a series that ended far too soon and has left a kind of void in
my heart right now.
Finally, that the itch of a world building adventure series hasn’t been scratched for
me in a long while.
Apparently the series following two young girls who are traveling in some kind of post-apocalyptic
wasteland just trying to survive.
But because of its Art Style I’m not lead to believe that the series will be an utterly
depressing one or one that laments the consequences of war or anything like that.
But it seems to be just some kind of feel good series with two little rays of sunshine
in a bleak land of despair and honestly I feel like that’s something I need right
now.
Though really, the whole itch scratching with a world building adventure didn’t need to
happen this season because we also have: Kino’s Journey.
If you’ve never watched the original Kino’s Journey….well as much as I highly recommend
it and it sits somewhere as one of my favorite anime of all time, It’s one that visually hasn’t aged
well and that might bother some people.
On top of being from the era of 4:3, (Not that it’s stopping the Eureka Seven movies
am I rite?) it also had this weird almost like interlaced television lines throughout,
like a really bad filter was placed there for who knows what reason.
Anyways the new series has neither of that, with increased production values but still
the same story.
We haven’t gotten any kind of confirmation that the new Kino’s Journey will include
any of the stories from the previous series.
The original material has plenty to work with and Kino has always been rather episodic in
nature so to have no repeating storylines from the original animation would not be surprising,
but at the same time we’ve gotten no confirmation that they are NOT re-making things.
Personally I’m hoping for the former, as this series is only billed as having 12 episodes,
same as last time, and I honestly would prefer newer material that we haven’t seen animated
over the stuff already available.
Either way I’ve been freaking stoked about new Kino for a while, almost as much as this
next series: The Ancient Magus Bride
Over the past 12 months out of any anime that I have ever been excited for there are two
that have topped the list, firstly after watching Violet Evergarden at Anime Expo my hype levels
for that show when it airs next season (possibly year) is massive, but the other is The Ancient Magus Bride.
It started out as an extremely well-produced OVA series about a young girl who ends up
being thrust into a world of the supernatural.
But it’s presented, or at least that OVA is presented, as a prequel to the story that will eventually unfold.
It’s been 13 months since the initial OVA episode was released, with the second of three
coming out in March and the final in September, and every time I felt like screaming because
I wanted more.
Magus bride was to me a series that I would kill to have entirely completed in front of
me right now so I can watch it all in one go, it gave me this fulfilling adrenaline
like feeling of watching it that only made the crash that much harder when the episode finished.
But now, finally and thankfully we have the continuing story of Chise and the strange
magician with a skeletal beast head and
OH MY GOD I AM SO READY FOR THIS YOU HAVE NO IDEA.
Any kind of description of the plot that I could give you would be for the most part
pointless because I doubt I could do it justice in such a short period of time, that the OVA
could not cover better.
and it is still available over on crunchyroll so if you haven’t gotten around to it yet now
would be the perfect time.
So those are the 5 anime of this season that I am going to be watching the most intently.
If I missed something that you think is worth watching let me know down in the comments.
As always I’d like to thank my patreons for supporting these videos as without you
they would not be possible.
In particular I’d like to thank Calhounboy, Siri Yamiko, Viktor Ekmark, Joshua Garcia,
Hedrel Leon, Bing Thio and Robert Chumsae for being especially awesome.
So until next time ladies, gentlemen and others, stay frosty.