The shedule. First an addendum to last season. B: The Beginning and the utterly unrecommended A.I.C.O. - Incarnation again proved that Netflix is treating it´s anime catalogue as dumping ground for cheap licenses and this mess can only improve if they bother to produce actual "originals". So i have no reason to bother with their Macross clone this season. On to happier things:

Devils Line, Major 2nd and Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii are all fairly solid but none kept my interest for too long.

3D Kanojo is a curios case. Its starts of surprisingly well and the second half is such a drag that I ended up writing a MU review. Cutting the 12 volumes tale (it was that long!?!) to a 12 episode core could work. Maybe.

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory The anime comes a decade too late, the â??bestâ?? arcs are all adapted and even these don´t quite hold up anymore. Flip though the Sigma manga if you want to see the ending, as 12 eps. won´t be enough to reach it by far.

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Die Neue These Kaikou The new LOGH manga is a masterpiece, IG certainly took their time and the preview trailer looks great. My only concert is the incomprehensible release schedule for the project, as sequel films seem to follow the show. Weird and the gaiden stuff looks to be untouched too.

Golden Kamuy frankly confused me for at least 2 volumes until I finally settled into the bizarre tone and enjoyed this borderline original ride. Who knows if the rookie studio can pull this adaptation off but they could have one of the best adventure anime in years on their hands if they do.

Lupin the 3rd: Part 5 Part 4 had a better first then second half, so I wouldn´t mind fewer but more consistent episodes.

Megalo Box Ashita no Joe is one of the finest comics of all time yet I don´t get how this relates. Having TMS do the animation sound promising and the trailer is great. Color me intrigued.

Piano no Mori is a weird case. It has all the marks of a classic but never lives up to it. The 2nd half is the less engaging but this is hardly a concern now. Who will seriously want to cover all 26 volumes though?

Steins;Gate 0 I liked but didn´t love the first adaptation. So far so good and the epilogue OVA ended on a very satisfying note. The film sequel was only ok though and this sequel game relies on ret-cons and rehashes to keeps the franchise going. I obviously hope for the best but don´t expect much.

My interest for Persona 5 and Tokyo Ghoul:re is finally nonexistent, as the usual hack studios are at it. Especially if I consider that both have inferior narratives to previous entries in their respective franchises. Get the source material instead.

The 2nd ep. of Attack on Titan: Lost Girls should conclude the Annie arc, so feel free to stop here. Batman Ninja (an actual anime!) also has me both worried and intrigued. The trailer was meh, suffered a low frame-rate and the writer is hit or miss. Yet IGN gave an advanced screening a 9,7/10 and the character designs are a 10/10. DC´s latest original toon film Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay was lastly a home-run and even got to finally earn the R-rating with through the roof gore.

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

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu/LOGH - undoubtedly the biggest title of the season. While the previews give me the impression of a well-funded and well-made (as expected from IG) adaptation, I'm not sold on the bishounen-esque style. The ships and environments look great, but the characters look rather different than they did in the original OVA. I'm not sure how well such a departure is going to sit with old fans. I can't help but expect to be disappointed when comparing it to the 110 episode masterpiece.

Golden Kamuy - looks like it has potential. A lot of entries in the action genre this season, but this looks like the most promising (new) one.

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii - please be a good rom-com.

Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai - please be a good rom-com.

"People don't change, they just give in."Kubera is the best.同人音楽 (doujin music)

All the pilots aired, so let´s do this. The team behind Piano no Mori apparently decided to adapt 26 volumes within 12 episodes instead of doing justice or improving on the worthwhile early volumes. Just watch the anime film and spare yourself the CGi hands. This seems to be the theme of this season. Rushing though manga adaptations with some of the lowest animation budgets in recent memory. Persona 5´s pilot was slightly more competent than expected, yet there is no way the show can work and the other FMP put about 3 minutes of content into 20. Filler already?

3D Kanojo´s color pallet ain´t the best and who knows haw the show will use it´s 12 ep. limit. Still, focusing on these mostly worthwhile early stores with a solid original ending could make this an improvement on the overlong manga. 6-7/10

Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu Die Neue These Kaikou IG certainly reached into the pockets as the gorgeous production reaches OVA levels. The new VAs try their best to live up to the best vocal assembly of all time and the new score is perfect. The problem is that this re-adaptation utterly fails to establish the setting and any of the characters. How are new viewers supposed to become and engaged? Why would they care once the death toll starts to rack up? Why is S02 a film trilogy? I had fun watching both eps. but they hardly stand on their own. Go for the new manga and obviously the OVA first to see how perfection looks like. 7,5/10 and I can´t see this production improving.

Golden Kamuy´s animation is substandard at best and the CG animals redefine the word awkward. The score and VA are good though, the violence is left intact and the adaptation most importantly sticks to the manga. The show´s abysmal budget will sadly weight the production down but let´s all be glad most of it is in 2D. 7,5/10

Lupin the 3rd: Part 5 look great and started off perfectly fine until Felicity 2.0 appeared halfway thought the pilot. Part 4´s waify already didn´t work but who wants to watch the gang babysit an emotionally stunted emo hacker for half a year? The deep web ravings towards the end (I used it, it´s boring) were even more bizarre, so I looked up the head writer. It´s Ichiro Okouchi. The "genius" behind the Berserk films, Code Trainwreck, Devilman Crybaby, Valvrape and other delight. Urgh. Ep.2 proved to be filler and the next one looks to be filler too. I think I am done. 5/10

Megalo Box is hard to process. The bizarre diesel punk boxing is already not working and the show failed to give basic introductions to the main cast. They kind of show up and randomly reenact iconic moment from the best comic the 60s gave us. I honestly don´t know what TMS is trying here. Read the manga or at least watch the 2 surprisingly competent compilation films before continuing with the show. The title fight in ep. 2 is great and had me thinking I was too harsh but the cliche parade that followed only dug the hole deeper. I don´t think that the head writer got the manga. The high production levels will keep me around for a bit but this anime could have been sooo much better. 6/10

Steins;Gate 0 The opening scenes had me wondering if White Fox again improved on the source material and somehow drained blood from a stone. Not that the 1st VN was bad, just inferior to the anime. Yet the episode went on and it became very clear to me that this as much a cash grab as the now dead-to-canon film. S02 is even a double retread thanks to the film. A bit if Lost tried the we have to go back to the island plot twice in a row while refusing to push the plot or characters forward. After the show reached its natural conclusion! I know how this goes on due to the faster paced manga so I will call it quits here before I start to wonder if the first series was a fluke. Just as the endless Haruhi Suzumiya sequels and alternate... whatevers made me do. 5/10

So this kinda sucks. At least 2 of the new shows seem good enough to see all the way though, yet one is borderline ugly while the other puts production value above all else. The lack of worthwhile (semi)-original content bothers me the most but the amount of substandard adaptations this season is unacceptable. So much wasted potential.

All my ongoing anime are done and DuckTales, Steven Universe, Teen Titans Go (maybe on break due to the film) and The Simpsons remain. Most run on irregular schedules, so not even the reliable US can save me this season, and the April fool´s episode of the FLCL revival was sadly kinda meh.

Forgot: The current Constantine: City of Demons shorts are pretty cool and the best Constantine adaptation yet. A proper toon film would still have been preferable.

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