[url]http://anichart.net/spring[/url]

Well, time for our regular look and thoughts on the upcoming anime season. I'm seeing lots of shows that pique my interest this spring.

• Sakamoto Desu ga
• Big Order
• Bungo Stray Dogs
• Boku no Hero Academia
• Flying Witch
• Ace Attorney
• Joker Game
• Koutetsujou no Kabaneri
• Kuromukuro
• Sinbad Days
• Mayoiga
• Ushio to Tora 2
• Kuma Miko
• Kiznaiver
• Re:zero

I like the Macross series but after watching the special preview, I'm not sure about this one.

Praying for a good Re:Zero adaption. I'll give everything a try probably, except for Flying Witch and Boku Hero. Seems like a potentially solid season to me.

It looks like it's a good anime season. Will probably check most of them and keep watching the ones I like. 🤣

This week's favorites:

• Golden Kamui

ççççççç[Ô.Ô] tsutopodus© will eat your manga and steal your cats!

I recently read that anime revenue went down for 2 years in a row. Some can be blamed on a changing market but drowning us with low budged midnight shows, aka. infomercials, has started to take it´s toll. On to the shows and i can´t spot a theme:

Flying Witch A Ran to Haiiro no Sekai anime would have been preferable but this manga is also proving to be the real deal due to a strong feeling of time & place and a good take on magic. Fans of YKK and the Mono No Aware ecstatic will love it.

Gyakuten Saiban I finished every Ace Attorney game besides Dai Gyakuten Saiban (the fan translation is nearly finished) and expect the show to suffer from the same problems Takashi Miike´s decent film did. Or most game to anime translation in general. The mediums are just too different for direct adaptations by no-names but we will see.

Gundam UC RE: 0096: i fond the original OVA to be utterly forgettable and dislike the heavy amount of 00s-esque retcons to the UC. The Bande Dessinée titled manga remake is the best adaptation of the originating novels, so read them instead. The string of aggressively average Gundam TV shows thus goes on but i still have more of The Origin / Thunderbolt to look forward to.

Joker Game The thematic is interesting but most, if not all (?), pre-World War II shows tuned out to be rather average in the past. IG´s assigned staff is a capable team but they are unproven with original material. Dark horse candidate No.1

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable my only certified lock and the best part of the franchise after III and VII. The direct prequel may have been where the manga finally got to justify the titular "Bizarre" and VI is crazier but keep your tinfoil hats @ the ready nonetheless. You will need them!

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri: The studio behind Titan, who are otherwise a mess, cloned it with a steampunk setting to fully control the rights. The also hired the "writer" of the Bersek films, Code Geass, the incomprehensible film version of the glorious RahXephon, Negima!, the severely dumbed down Planetes anime and Valvrape. A certified dumpster fire in the making but will it entertain? I could use a good laugh, courtesy of Amazon Prime.

Kuromukuro An original sci-fi show from a capable director and an unknown writer. Does anyone else remember when every anime needed to feature mechs in the 00s? Even The Count of Monte Cristo operated one! A bit like ESP in 80s. Dark horse candidate No.2

Macross Delta: The original show should have skipped the questionable 3rd act, so i prefer the classic film version, but it helped to establish "serious" TV anime while starting the career of Hideaki Anno and many more. The sleep inducing Macross II öppled nice had the decency to go out of cannon. Macross Plus is the best OVA of all time. Macross 7 was unwatchable but at least gave us on of the finest OSTs ever. Macross Zero´s and Frontier script´s fell apart as both went on but crazy high production values and general competence still made both enjoyable. Don´t ask me what the convoluted Frontier remake films were for though. All thus had something to offer, which brings me to Delta´s pilot. It was borderline unwatchable and is the first badly animated entry since Macross 7. Even the songs sucked (WTF?) and the promotional materiel reveals this show for what it is. A way to keep the marketing train going and a clear cut Waifu / Husbando commercial. I could bitch about the magical elements, the cringe worthy character designs and ...stop. Shōji Kawamori finally managed to gain complete control and now went full George Lucas on us. Help me James Wan, your Robotech is my only hope!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Season III The 90s show is a mess and aged abysmally so i will never understand the internet backlash for this much needed manga re-adaptation. The animation budget could be higher but i would sell a kidney if my favorites could get an equally accurate TV treatment. The dvds barely sell and the streaming numbers are low-ish but the manga again became a bestseller and both now constantly receive coverage from non-anime sites, so i consider this project to be one of the most important advertisement for the medium in years.

Terraformars Revenge The previous show had it´s problems and some can be blamed on the manga but we got a new team for the sequel. The new head writer is a borderline hack but this show should work if they just adapts the source material. The manga managed to shake off the early growing pains it this point and really started to deliver. I call it Gantz 2.0.

Uchuu Patrol Luluco these shorts will celebrate the 5 year anniversary of Trigger´s establishment. I am frankly not that impressed with their output (Ninja Slayer is the one show i truly like) but you never know.

A lot of potentially good adaptations and 2 original shows look promising, so i am continuously optimistic for this season! Only RS Keikaku: Rebirth Storage and Under the Dog look noteworthy the in the barren OVA / film wasteland.
(The recent Justice League vs. Teen Titans was OK btw. Young Justice fans should have fun due to the strong characterizations, despite the lame story.)
See you when all had a chance to air.

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

Forgot to check the new stuff until now, but I guess it's a fairly interesting season.

Gyakuten Saiban fans have been for a treat for the past year or so. DGS + AA6 + anime adaptation. What more can we ask for? I'm hoping the anime would not stray from the characters who made the cases enjoyable. Either way, I am very ecstatic. 😃

JJBA: Diamond is Unbreakable is my most favorite arc (as well as Steel Ball Run) from the series. I can't wait for my man Okuyasu to get animated finally.

Some others I'll probably try watching:

• Sakamoto desu ga?
• Joker Game

Whether we fall by ambition, blood, or lust,
Like diamonds, we are cut with our own dust.

It's a great anime season. In the winter season, I only watched like 3 or 4 shows.

My to watch list (probably will drop a few halfway but there's still a lot for me, more than all other previous seasons):

Gyakuten Saiban
Endride
12 Sai
Joker Game
Bungō Stray Dogs
Twin Star Exorcists
Shounen Maid
Sakamoto
Tanaka-kun is Always Listless
Mayoiga
Super Lovers (not because I am into step-bro shota yaoi. Voice actors of the twin brothers FTW. Will drop if it gets boring).

Yay, did I say voice actors (seiyuu) for the win? 😀

I'll probably check out most of the originals like Koutetsujou no Kabaneri, Kiznaivers (Trigger!!!), Mayoiga, Macross Delta, and play the waiting game for the rest.

Isn´t it crazy that this season´s only (child) pr0n is a Yaoi series? An actual Yaoi and not Shounen-Ai on Japanes TV / US streaming (take that trolls who constantly cry censorship!), oh my but i will stick to Queer as Folk. YMBLA / NAMBLA: +1, Humanity: 0 yet it´s funny to see the tables turn for a change and worse exists... On to the Kumite survivors:

Brotherhood: Final Fantasy XV (7,5?/10) starts in media res and has less fluid animation then expected. The protagonists are well define and the next episode should bring the action. The whole deal may turn out to be a slightly pointless side-story but the game itself looks good, despite the lackluster new demo. The Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV CG prequel film has me excited too as the team´s Advent Children Complete is one of the few good videogame adaptations.

Flying Witch (7,5/10) The pilot is a direct adaptation and that´s the problem as of now.
The manga started equally fine yet slightly pointless BUT good things are around the corner. The characters will soon develop distinct personalities and a memorable cast will form. The same goes for the treatment of magic. The final product will be a 8,5/10 and the best Mono no aware show since the 2nd season of Mushishi. Or the only good one?

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable (8,5/10) Unsurprisingly another 1 to 1 adaption. The LSD color pallet is a stroke of genius and compliments the eccentricity of Part IV. The opening arc isn´t a true representation of how the overall show will turn out as it looks like more of Part III and this crazy detective story couldn´t be more different. The manga is a bit too long so i would give the complete adaptation a 8/10. Part VIII is a re-imagining of IV btw. so it can be read immediately thereafter.

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri (7,5/10) Neither the studio nor the animation block are a reason to be excited and the writer is the definition of a lunatic. The trainwreck i feared (and hoped for?) didn´t occur but the episode nearly featured one. The pilot is well directed and has phenomenal sound design / music so i am cautiously optimistic but wouldn´t be surprised if the show went up in flames soon. The badly done paranoia and the as of now bland characters have me worried already. Many noticed that Wit obviously self-plagiarized Titan but calling it a Shounen version of Alan Moore´s Crossed +100 is more appropriate. Post-apocalyptic zombie-trains, steampunk and all. Not that Wit´s employees read it but that comic had me excited from day 1 and i will drop the show the second it starts to go off the rails. Code Geass R2 was the All Star Batman & Robin of anime and Ichiro Okouchi only got worse from there. No more!

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon Crystal: Season III (7,5/10) appears to have gotten a better reception by having the production values of the Dvd releases of the previous seasons from the start (the new-ish staff is a non-issue to me). Or those who never read the manga finally noticed that the pacing and writing actual got to them?

Terraformars Revenge (7,5?/10) I don´t quite know what to say. The shows starts during an arc and has to re-explain stuff for new viewers but will they actually appear? The too bright color pallet and the lower quality animation are slightly weird and i noticed a tone down in content that doesn´t look like censorship. The reboot sequel (a re-quel?) basically fixes issue with the 1st season by creating new ones. I will stick around to see if maters improve and the 2nd episode was "better" but the manga (8,5/10) is one of the best action series in years and deserves a rounded adaptation. I wonder how the new Gantz CG film will turn out?

All my ongoing anime ended. Robot Chicken, The Simpsons (the Boyhood rip-off is still the only good ep.) and Teen Titans Go! remain.
How did the 30 min. long remake of the 5 min. long She and Her Cat offer less narrative satisfaction? 1st world emo nonsense... They should have expanded Someone's Gaze instead. I also finally saw The Boy and the Beast (8,5/10). It´s the directors best film or his most rounded and next season will have The Killing Joke film from DC 😀 .
I usual skip direct adaptation, especially if animation won´t add anything, so i will sit out Flying Witch and Sailor Moon. Who knows about Terraformars so JoJo may turn out be the only newcomer for me besides Wit´s ticking time bomb about overproduced zombie-trains.
5 good TV shows and 1 ONA. Not bad, eh? See you next season cowboy and let´s cross our fingers for Berserk.

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