This is it.
We are getting down to the wire here for 2018 – what has been one of the absolute best
years for anime in recent memory – and now we start the final season.
The final three months where we can finally start to piece together our Best of Year lists,
our favorites, and give praise to those deserving of it because, with this season, all of this
year’s shows should be laid bare before us.
But of course I’m getting ahead of myself.
Today, we are not looking at the best of 2018, no, not yet.
But we are looking at what I hope to be possible contenders that are airing for this coming
season.
These are shows I hope will somehow be able to rise to the top of this year’s admittedly
amazing crop of shows and leave this year off on an extremely good note.
So without further ado, ladies, gentlemen, and others, my name is Arkada and today it’s
Glass Reflection’s Top Anticipated Anime for Fall 2018.
Let’s jam.
Staring off with some honorable mentions, this season brings back more Sword Art Online
(like we needed it), more Fairy Tail with its supposed last season (which I’ll believe
when it ends), and HOLY SHIT INDEX III?
Wow, yeah, talk about shows getting new seasons out of nowhere this year.
Man.
I can’t get too excited about Index III through because I still have the first season
on Blu-ray in shrink wrap on my shelf and it’s been there for like two years.
Maybe this will give me an excuse to finally get around to it.
But now let's just get over to the list proper, were we are going to begin with our good friends over at White
Fox.
Goblin Slayer is about a priestess who begins an adventuring party in a fantasy world and
comes across the "name drop" Goblin Slayer who is very good at one thing.
I think you might be able to guess what that is.
Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be isekai as White Fox has already given us that with
Re;Zero, but this particular kind of fantasy setting is one we’ve been seeing quite a
bit.
I’m leaning heavily on the studio itself for my excitement level here.
White Fox has very rarely let me down with other show’s I’ve enjoyed.
This is not to say that the staff is bad, and I'm praying on the studio, no...
In fact, we have the director for Girls Last Tour helming it and the music will be provided
by the same composer who already did the music this year for Golden Kamuy and Comic Girls,
along with working with Director Ozaki on Girls Last Tour previously.
Speaking of Golden Kamuy, that’s our number 2!
My review on season one went up just recently, please check that out when you can, but the
end of season one, left us in a bit of a weird spot narratively, in that
we didn’t really have a narrative end for it rather than just the show….stopping.
The final episode of season one felt like any other episode and that to me is a horrible
way to end a series, but thankfully with this second season we can expect to get all the
adventure, and hijinks, and not-so-subtle gourmet content that the series has been known
for.
With luck, we’ll also get a narrative conclusion or an announcement for a third season as well.
That would be great.
K, thanks.
Next is a personal one that I don’t think other people to be as excited for as I am.
Also, with its first 4 episodes already released it’s not hard to think I might be adding
this just a bit too late.
Re Ri D, ReRideded....
RErideD is a series that doesn’t have a fully known studio behind it, but instead
is riding (heh) on its staff.
Now the series itself is taking place in possibly our future, and on top of that it deals with
a guy that got cryogenically frozen unwillingly and also a girl he used to know that seems
to travel through time to leave him messages.
Now the interesting thing about its staff, considering it’s a series that somehow involves
time travel or some kind of similar science, is that the show’s director Takuya Sato
was also the director of the best time travel anime ever made: Steins;Gate.
Although that was an adaptation and this is an original series, so there’s more that
can creatively happen since they don’t have an original material, but also there is nothing to fall back on.
I was even more excited to hear that Yoshitoshi ABe was providing the original character designs…the
downside is that while the original designs were done by ABe, I’m finding it hard to
see those designs in the actual designs used in the show.
The first few episodes are out already and personally they have given me pause, but I’m
still hopeful enough for the series as a whole to leave it a spot on this list.
Here’s one that I don’t think has been claimed by any streaming service, but I’m
still excited to watch it whenever it becomes available: SSSS.Gridman!
This one will appear on a lot of people’s radar for one of two reasons: either because
it’s a reboot of a 90’s Tokusatsu series, and these shows have their dedicated fan base
that will be thrilled by this, or because it’s the latest outing by Studio Trigger,
a name which I feel becomes more and more hilarious with each new somewhat controversial
series they help to produce.
On the one hand, I think Gridman might follow heavily the footsteps left behind by the original,
just now in 2D animation with some more modern themes to make up for the time jump.
Or, with Trigger being Trigger, those could just be the expectations they plan to completely
blow out of the water.
Either way, I expect it to be a fantastic spectacle – which doesn’t necessarily
mean it’ll be good, just entertaining – which is all I’m asking for, really.
Second to last on our top list for this season is another series that I’m not sure
is getting streamed, but we can hope.
The title is kind of long, but it roughly translates to “So Many Colors in the Future
– What a Wonderful World”, which I’m sure will be given a nickname eventually.
This series comes onto the list for 3 reasons.
1) PA Works, like White Fox, is a studio that rarely has let me down, but I can say that
even when I haven’t been all that entranced by their narratives, the production values
usually make up for it.
Like, for example, the case of a series by the name of Nagi no Asakura, a series which
also shares a director with this new work.
Now as far as story, in this series we have a witch from the future who is emotionally
distant and apparently lost her sense of colour when she was little.
Her grandmother, feeling sorry for her, decides the best response is to send her back in time
to experience life….with the grandmother’s 17-year-old self.
There’s supposed to be magic, high-school highjinks (that hopefully won’t be stale
on landing), and more than likely (given the director of the series) emotions will run
wild, even if they don’t immediately come from our protagonist.
This last one should come as no surprise.
Yes, the 5th part of JoJo is here.
Do I honestly need to explain why it’s here?
Even after all this time?
By now, I have no doubt that all of you watching this have made up your mind one way or another
on JoJo as a whole.
You either love it, tolerate it, or somehow have escaped watching or knowing much about
it despite its prevalence since Part 1 first aired several years back.
But I am a fan of JoJo, if that hasn’t already been made obvious by the videos I’ve done
on the series.
Even though I will fully admit that I’m not yet caught up with the series, as I’m
still watching Diamond, that doesn’t stop me from being excited as hell for this new
series.
“But Ark!
If you are such a fan, why are you still behind?”
The answer to that is easy.
I do not look forward to living in a world where I don’t have another JoJo episode
to watch.
It’ll happen eventually, but I’ve been delaying it as long as possible and now with
this new season, that effort is made all the easier.
So even if I don't watch it immediately, as it airs this season, I can still be excited as heck for JoJo Part 5.
So there you have it.
There are a few other shows that I considered adding to this list, ones involving slimes
and bunny girls, but perhaps in future seasons if I were to change the name of this list,
they might get included in a more official capacity.
This is mostly because I really can’t say I’m anticipating them, more just curious
about them.
We’ll have to see if that curiosity leads anywhere.
As far as the actual list went, with luck some of these will turn out to be very successful,
and possibly some shows I missed will end up getting into the limelight and blowing
us all away.
What out of these shows do you think you might be watching?
What did I miss that I very obviously shouldn’t have?
Let me know down in the comments!
A very special thank you to my patrons who make these videos possible and support what
I do here.
It’s very much appreciated.
And an even bigger thank you to patrons Calhoonboy, Siri Yamiko, Victor Ekmark, Ryefan Boneapart,
Rune Jachobson, Joshua Garcia and Devon North for being extremely awesome.
Until next time – ladies, gentlemen, and others – watch more anime! and stay frosty.