Anime Winter Season: Top Picks

So first post of a brand new year and where better to start than with a look at the upcoming season of anime. In basically the exact same form as my Fall review, you’ll find below my picks for the next few months and the reasons behind it.

So without further ado let’s start by looking at the sequel series I’m picking up:

KONO SUBARASHII SEKAI NI SHUKUFUK WO! 2

Otherwise known as Kono Suba, this anime was a personal favourite of last year. It takes the “trapped in a fantasy world” genre and flips it on its head with the aim of comedy, and good god does it work well. It’s one of the funniest things I’ve had the pleasure of watching. I see no reason that the sequel season won’t continue along the same lines, as the first didn’t really end, just sort of culminated in the promise of more.

The first episode is set to air January 12^th

LITTLE WITCH ACADEMIA

So I would hesitate to call it a sequel, because I believe it’s going to be a full restart told from the beginning of Akko Kagari enrolment at the Luna Nova Magical Academy. To quickly summarise though, Little Witch Academia is a set of 2 anime OVA’s detailing a very Harry Potter-esq magic school for witches. It focuses on 3 obvious outcasts and the random adventures they get into it and both shorts are incredibly well made. This is something that was just screaming out for a full series and at last Netflix swooped into provide. This was on my list faster than anything else really.

The first episode is set to air January 9^th

And that’s it for sequel stuff so onto the next section, THE USUAL STUFF. Prepare for a lot of my usual Slice-of-life stuff.

DEMI-CHAN WA KATARITAI

The set up for this is that a biology teacher is in charge of teaching 3 young demi-humans. And that’s it. It seems like it can go one of two ways. A slow burning character piece that shows the growth of the teacher and how the 3 children effect his growth (a favourite plot line of mine) or it could just turn into a gag a week thing as he struggles to keep their attention in class. My guess is it’s probably gonna be a balance of both with more of a trend towards gag a week. Just because that’s easier to do. But I’m hopeful here.

The first episode is set to air January 8^th

KOBOYASHI-SAN CHI NO MAID DRAGON

Moving forward with the theme of Demi-Humans, we have a very obvious straight man/funny man duo here, with a humble office woman paired up with a ‘kooky’ dragon that is trying to repay a debt through being their maid. The PV seems funny, and seeing as I don’t speak an ounce of Japanese and there were no subtitles, that means at least the tone and timing seem on point. IT’s worth a shot either way, I am hankering for more comedy anime.

The first episode is set to air on January 12^th

GABRIEL DROPOUT

An angel on a mission to bring love gets horribly distracted by turning into an otaku. It obviously will walk the fine line between being good and awful. But that’s what chances are for, and I’m sure it won’t be that bad. It’s at least a plot hook I haven’t seen before so maybe something new will come out of it.

The first episode is set to air on January 9^th

KUZU NO HONKAI

And to veer away from this slice-of-life comedy and into romance. Two students suffering the pangs of unrequited love turn to a relationship with each other to fill the void. IT seems like it could offer some interesting character moments and far too many emotions. Maybe providing something a little bit more serious in this sea of comedy I seem to be picking up.

The first episode is set to air on January 13^th

NYANKO DAYS

And now we are back to cutesy filled waters. I haven’t even looked up anything for this past the poster and short one line synopsis “Tomoko is a shy girl who comes home from school and is greeted by her three (personified) cats, Ma, Ro, and Shi.” I’m thinking this will be show I can just switch off to and enjoy some mindlessly Moe stuff.

The first episode is set to air January 8^th

The next section is me going out of my usual comfort zone. Completely motivated that I skipped over Yuri on Ice this season and didn’t hop on that bandwagon till it ended. Which I am incredibly ashamed about, because it was AMAZING

ACCA: 13-KU KANSATSU-KA

Ah politics. I think the closest I’ve come to a thriller anime was Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood so maybe it’s time I looked into a thing about the various admin departments of a country and the guy that oversees them all. The PV doesn’t really give me much to run on. Seems like it’s trying a little hard to be cool. But the animation is a little different and I think there is room for something deeper to appear.

The first episode is set to air January 10^th

CHOU SHOUNEN TANTEIDAN NEO

Literally the only reason I’m picking this show is because of its animation style. That’s it. I don’ even know what it’s about other then maybe a kid solving mysteries.

The first episode is set to air January 2^nd

Finally we move into the home stretch, and enter the last section of my choices, the THESE SEEM SO REDICULOUS I HAVE TO WATCH section. They will probably be awful, but I just have to find out.

FUUKA

It’s a romance anime about a guy that REALLY loves twitter…… but the main love interest breaks his phone on their first meeting so he can’t tweet anymore. This is so ridiculous and I love it. I just have to know how vapid and moronic the main character is, and how much they misinterpret twitter. Should be good for a drunken laugh.

The first episode is set to air January 7^th

SPIRITPACT

This one seems very over the top, a dead exorcist teams up with an alive one to-do exorcism stuff. IT will probably have all bang and no buck. Full of spectacle and nothing else. So good popcorn fodder, and I need at least one of those each season to act as a pallet cleanser. And a comparison of the worst to make everything seem better.

The first episode is set to air January 7^th

So there we go, 11 shows to welcom in the new year. Ranging from ones i know i’ll like, to ones i’ll most likely hate should be a good time for all. So here to a good year full to the brim of blogging (if all goes to plan I should have a large backlog to keep me going strong for a few months so look forward to more western centered posts mixed in with a this steady stream of anime content)