The schedule. The season could be an absolute banger. Thank Zodd, as the last one was embarrassingly bad outside of our lord and savior Vinland Saga.
I forgot to praise the multiple Emmy winning Love, Death & Robots by Netflix the last time. Why can´t their anime output be more like their toons and Amazon´s Undone is equally worth your time. It stars Alita from that ok-ish movie every anime weirdo can´t shut up about. She actually got a good and emotionally layered script this time! Make it a success and give me S02 you weirdoes.

Beastars The manga´s one of a kind art is great from the start and only comparable to Blacksad but the first few school-bound volumes have a lot of narrative sand in the tank. I only returned to the series after it won 2 major awards in 2018 and am fairly happy that I did. The current story is still all over the place and overreliant on coincidences and melodrama to create forced tension in about every 2nd chapter but enough of it is legitimately good. So I now keep reading for the plot and not just for the art. The released CG animation looks really good btw.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These “S02” The movie trilogy got repackaged into 12 eps. outside of Japan and here they are. Sieg, mein Kaiser! 8/10

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal The manga speaks for itself at this point. It´s too long, too meandering at times, too fetishistic, etc. but it´s also one of the best chanbara manga of all time. Go and read it now. The new sequel is equally worth your time. The manga already had 2 solid adaptations through the 1 cour anime from the 00s and Takashi Miike´s live-action film. This one has trouble written all over it though due to the involvement of LIDENFILMS. Their last “full adaptation” of a long-running classic Seinen lead to the last gasps of the Berserk Saga Project, aside from the fact that the studio still has to produce even one actually good show. Terra Formars and Arslan Senki equally collapsed despite drowning in material to adapt... sigh. Don´t be shocked if the anime drops drastically in quality after 3 eps. at the most.

Obsolete The Youtube original (lol) is written by Urobutcher so the story is bound to be total rubbish. I’ll check it out for the art regardless. Gritty mech shows, about actual adults no less, have gotten pretty rare after all.

Star Wars Resistance S02 This is still a real anime and one of the few interesting Polygon Pictures productions. (Transformers: Robots in Disguise is their best work btw.) S01 had a huge problem with filler and this is already the last season, so we now officially know which of the 3 CG SW shows won´t stand the test of time. The trailer had some strong concepts, so the series could finish strong. It also needs to start strong for me to stick around, as we already know that it can´t affect the canon.

Lupin III: The First is the one interesting movie on the docket unless I count the LOGH trilogy above. Who knows if the script will work, a bit of a problem with the franchise, but the CG animation looks stunning. Japan might have officially figured out how to do good looking CG on a budget somewhere during 2017/18.
Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai lastly got 2 new OVAs to fill that JoJo hole till Part 6. This run adapts the oldest and the newest chapter. The Run especially is a laughing riot as it´s about a fitness Chad.

Last edited by residentgrigo at 12:52 pm, Jan 3 2020

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

All the interesting looking shows outside of Obsolete aired at least their pilots (Obsolete comes out in December) and the “professional AMV” anthology Sound & Fury by Netflix sucked at visual storytelling and more importantly features subpar music. Lol. No wonder they didn´t market it.

Babylon 6/10 The only reason I stuck around was Amazon´s usual decision to release ep. 1-3 at once and the 3rd one showed some promise, so ep. 4 will decide if I stick around or not. Paranoid Agents, GitS 2ND Gig and a bunch of books told almost this exact plot much better and the show´s meager animation budget makes it look unprofessional and often off-model. I also don´t get why a web anime about gritty cops decided to keep all the violence and sex off-screen. I´ll admit that this book adaptation feels like it targets adults, which is pretty rare these days. It´s also better than the author’s other adapted work Kado. What was that one even about? Let´s hope that Amazon didn´t trick me into bining nonsense, as they would be 0/2 this season. 6/10

Beastars The manga´s opening arc is even more tedious than I remembered. Especially if I consider how little any of this will mater in the long run and how different the manga becomes over time. The similarly themed Blacksad and Fables make all of this look easy but the story will start to go somewhere halfway through the season, so I hope that Orange has money to produce more than 1 cour. Especially if i consider how good the show looks. This is TV budget CG animation at its finest! Stick though the meandering school life portion in the meantime and have fun with the worst female lead in years. She will only grow more irritating by the volume. I can´t believe that a woman came up with her characterization. 6/10 for now, about a 7/10 once the cour finishes but the best stuff comes even later.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu: Die Neue These S02 It´s a miracle that the worst version of LOGH, unless the abandoned 90s manga counts, is still good and will likely close off my yearly anime top 5. A truly timeless tale. 8/10

Mugen no Juunin: Immortal The 2008 anime from Bee Train of all people is now officially the best out of the 3 adaptations. Wow, just wow. Ep. 1 of the reboot corresponds to ep. 1-3, ep. 2 mercifully settled on only ep. 4-5 and ep. 3 corresponds to ep. 8-9. You read that right, the reboot already skipped a storyline. Most scenes with the main villain Anotsu are further cut or abbreviated and the backstories of the leads and Makie are rushed like crazy. The eclectic direction and the meager animation budget aren´t helping either. You could argue that last anime changed things around but Liden Films still rushed through 200 pages in 2 eps. and then though another 200 in ep. 3, while skipping 120 pages in-between. Argh. I may stick around as i want to see some of the later stuff come to life but a world of hurt is upon us if I consider that this was their best foot forward. Let´s see if they are mad enough to stuff 30 volumes into 24 eps. All signs point to yes… You've done it again Liden Films! Another classic wasted. Don´t watch this anime if you haven´t read the manga, as its 100% impossible to follow otherwise. 5/10 with room to drop further.

Star Wars Resistance is again the best looking TV anime of the year but the story is still spinning its wheels after 2 eps. I am officially done until the finale early next year. Better luck next time Lucasfilm. The Clone Wars S07 here we come! 6/10

Vinland Saga goes on.
So do BoJack Horseman, Harley Quinn, HarmonQuest, Rick and Morty, South Park, The Dragon Prince and The Simpsons.

The anime-influenced Seis Manos (7/10) was alright but the writing and especially the animation will need an upgrade next season and Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal (9/10) is the best film/show of 2019. Animation distilled to its essence. 6 seasons and a movie, please.
The next season could feature 2 good adaptations and both are CG anime. I luckily enjoy CG.

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I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

Since you didn't mention it, I'll add that I'm somewhat looking forward to being disappointed by Psycho-Pass S3. Interesting setting, but just not good at all after season 1.

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