Spring 2017 Anime Season Preview and Expectations

Holy smokes, the spring 2017 anime season began today. Where did time go?! Also, did I really not publish anything since the Winter Season Preview? Turns out that is the case. Real life was busy, mood was low. But things are looking up, finally. Anyway, it’s time to look towards the new season, and put behind us a season where I watched literally nothing, though I looked forward to quite a bit.

As always, in these posts I cover shows I plan to follow, or have thoughts on why I will not follow them, or considered following and decided not to. As always, I try to strike a balance between giving you enough information on the show, and telling you why I think it is or isn’t worth watching. Shows ordered by day, and by expectation within the day, as that affects pick status. The “Almost In” category describes shows that I’d pick up in prior seasons, but decided to put aside in order to make more time for backlog, after growing unhappy with how many of the shows I pick up ending up “not worth the time”, let alone “good”.
Much space is given to the people involved with a show, as premises are easy, but execution is hard, and it’s people who are in charge of that. You’re likelier to end up with good shows that way.

Most of the information about the shows can be had from the helpful Neregate Chart, and what I’ve happened to see on various sites, such as The Cart Driver. Check them out if you want more information, or information on shows I didn’t cover (such as follow-ups to shows I don’t watch). I planned to write only when I really had something to say this time, but turns out, as always, I had a lot to say.

Sunday:

Uchouten Kazoku 2nd Season / The Eccentric Family 2nd Season – Uchouten Kazoku was my 7th favourite anime series in the very strong year of 2013. And although I didn’t dedicate an entire piece to it, I did touch on its storytelling in my piece on Kyousougiga (Capital Craze). It was a story about loss, and family, and trying to fall in love. It got very emotional at times, while being silly, or ponderous in others. A good show. A second season? I’m watching, you can bet on it. Of special note is that season 1’s Series Composer Suga Shoutarou (OreGairu, Isshuukan Friends) is not working on the second season, but has been replaced by Higaki Ryou, who worked on the first season’s script, and also worked on Kuromukuro, Another, and Dimension W. Feels like a definite downgrade. Also, for those who don’t know, it’s based on novels by the same author as The Tatami Galaxy.

You can read my notes for the first season here, which are much shorter than my usual notes, as I only wrote them after watching an episode and not as it aired – didn’t want anything to get between me and the show.
Interest Rating: 2.5/3. A more serious yet not overwhelmingly so show. Comfy and emotional, no idea what the second season is about, but I’ll check it out. I do hope the change in Series Composer won’t be detrimental.
Airing Date: April 9th.

Alice to Zouroku / Alice & Zouroku – A facility that experiments on children with the ability to turn their imagination into reality. One girl escapes, and an old man takes her in. Though many hoped the show might focus on the slice of life aspect, people who’ve read the manga say the mystery and adventure aspect was the focus there. Well, we’ll see.

The series is directed by Sakurabi Katsushi, who worked on Rescue Wings, Gunparade, Tsukihime, Betrayal Knows my Name, and the more recent Lostorage Incited WIXOSS and Flying Rage. I guess we’ll see how it turns out. Takayama Fumihiko (Aoi Hana, Gunparade, Patlabor WXIII, Rescue Wings, and Sword of the Stranger). Those two worked on two shows nobody remembers together, which again, no clue what to make of it. But they both worked in the industry before, including on solid stuff, and the premise looks interesting enough, so I think it might be worth a shot. Really digging the art-style as well, reminds me of something between Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid and Usagi Drop. The CCG is awful though.
Interest Rating: 1.25/3. Will have to see where the show goes, and the people in charge are just “okay”. Borderline “Almost made it in,” but hadn’t watched anime in a while so I’m feeling generous.
Airing Date: April 2nd. Slice-of-life Preview, Action-Mystery Preview.

Little Witch Academia – A continuing show. Due to various circumstances I hadn’t watched it yet, but I plan to catch up this season. You can read my thoughts on this show which is one I was very much looking forward to in the Winter Preview post.

Almost In:

ID-0 – We don’t know what this show is about. We know it’s going to be fully CGI and will be Directed by Taniguchi Gorou (Code Geass, Gun x Sword, PlanetES, and sCRYed), while Series Composition will be handled by Kuroda Yousuke (Ano Natsu de Matteru, Boku no Hero Academia, Btooom!, Gungrave, Honey and Clover, Highschool of the Dead, Madlax, Infinite Ryvius, Trigun, and more). I know I always say you should judge a show by the people working on it first and foremost, since it’s much likelier to be an indication of how good it’ll be than the premise, but I can wait and see what others have to say about it. But it is handled by very capable people, even if it’s fully-CG.
Interest Rating: 1.5/3. Interest due to involved people, but it’s more of an “Academic Interest” due to the situation. Oh, it’s been picked up by Netflix, so you’ll either have to wait patiently, or use less than legitimate means to watch it weekly. I’ll be keeping an eye on this one though.
Airing Date: April 9th. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Tsugumomo – Just another ecchi harem RomCom of a boy whom all the girls fall for, and whom a magical girl falls onto him one day and moves in with him. The usual. Nothing to recommend it over any others.

Souryo to Majiwaru Shikiyoku no Yoru ni… – This anime is marked as “Josei”, meaning aimed at older women. Josei anime are often really good. This is a short. The director does nothing but hentai. It’s about a priest who gets drunk in a class reunion with a girl he used to like… Yeah, no.

Overall Sunday Thoughts: Overall, a nice day. Slice of life adventure, mystery and drama, and slice of life drama. There’s also something for ecchi lovers, but it seems like Sunday is a good day for those who like somewhat more serious shows but which aren’t too serious. 2-3 shows is also a perfect amount, without being overwhelmed like the weekend can do to you. Something for everyone? Maybe not, but definitely more than enough for me.

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Monday:

Almost In:

Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho / Grimoire of Zero – A beastman helps a witch recover a grimoire that was stolen from her in exchange for being turned into a human. This Light Novel adaptation has nothing outstanding about it, either good or bad, so it’s going to wait by the sidelines until it proves itself as better than the other shows I picked up. Of note, it’s directed by Hirakawa Tetsuo, who was an Assistant Director on the very interesting Aku no Hana (Flowers of Evil). Series Composer? Unknown.
Interest Rating: 1/3. Another action fantasy show.
Airing Date: April 10th. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Warau Salesman New / Laughing Salesman New – Helmed by mostly inexperienced or working-on-shorts staff, this is a reboot of a show from the early 90s, about a salesman who gives people their “Heart’s Desire,” but who punishes them should they cheat on him. Don’t see much to go by yet. Premise seems like it might be interesting enough, but will have to see how it’s executed, whether it’s a short or not, too mean, too funny, too… well, not a lot to go by, and not much of anything to pique my interest.

Frame Arms Girl – This season’s “I’m not even going to pretend I’m anything more than a commercial” is a commercial for a mech kit, about a girl who receives the line’s first kit, opens it, and has a small mech-girl following her. A shame it’s directed by a decent Director, Kawaguchi Keiichirou, who worked on SKET Dance and Minemaki-ke. Oh, he also worked on Phantasy Star Online 2 the Animation. Guess he’s trapped making anime commercials now.

Overall Monday Thoughts: Monday is a day where I’m usually busy with real life obligations and come back home late. I usually come back tired. It’s nice for me to have an empty day with nothing to watch. Grimoire of Zero might be good enough to beat some of the other shows I’m watching, but it’ll need to really be quite something for me to disturb this day to pick it up. Monday seems quite empty, even if you’d like to spend more time on series, there just isn’t the content for it.

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Tuesday:

Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka? / What do you do at the end of the world? Are you busy? Will you save us? – Oh boy, this might be the silliest Light Novel name to date, or at least off of the top of my mind, that I know of. The shortened version is the unfortunate SukaSuka. Anyway, this show’s premise and tone most reminds me of last year’s Grimgar. Action fantasy light novel world, but with thoughts and ruminations on what it means to fight to save the world, with the main protagonist taking a father figure to a host of girls who fight to save the world from a threat that’s been terrorizing it for the past 500 years. This definitely seems like a different take on action fantasy, more as using it as a dressing for an entirely different sort of show. It might be too slow to be flat-out enjoyable (Grimgar definitely suffered from that), but it sure looks interesting.

Oh yeah, Series Composition is handled by the original creator of the LN, while the Director is Wada Junichi, whose only full-series credit to date is The Melancholy of Nagato Yuki-chan, but who worked on some of my favourite episodes of Gosick.
Interest Rating: 2.5/3. Fatherly figure to girls who go and risk their lives, who is also the last survivor of his race, now 500 years in the future? I’ll bite.
Airing Date: April 11th. Preview.

Fukumenkei Noise / Anonymous Noise – A young girl falls in love with a boy. The boy moves away. The young girl falls in love with another boy, who also moves away. Now in high school, the three are reunited. Music-themed shoujo romantic drama, based on a well-reviewed manga. Directed by Takahashi Hideya whose only full-series direction to date had been for Keijo!!!!!!, err, yeah. Series Composition is handled by Mieno Hitomi, who handled Akagami no Shirayuki Hime, Amanchu!, Flying Witch, and Noragami. I like romantic series. I’m going to give this a try.
Interest Rating: 2/3. Shoujo romance, which unlike most doesn’t seem based on something with very unwholesome undertones? It’s been a while, I’m in.
Airing Date: April 11th. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Natsume Yuujinchou Roku / Natsume’s Book of Friends 6th Season – Natsume’s Book of Friends is a nice show that is worth watching. I watch an episode a day of it during my lunch breaks at work. I’m currently halfway through the 4th Season. I’ll watch this show, but not as it airs, unless I happen to catch up, which might not happen (I don’t work daily). Thought I’d still make a small mention of the show here, cause it’s worth it. A small show, full of small moments. Comfy.

Rokudenashi Majutsu Koushi to Akashic Records / Akashic Records of Bastard Magic Instructor– They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but when it comes to Light Novel-based anime, you often can. A magic academy series featuring one male surrounded by a bunch of girls wearing skimpy outfits, with everyone looking down on him. Except this time he’s the teacher and they the students. This is Director Kazuto Minato’s only known credit. He is joined by experienced Series Composer Machida Touko (Amagami SS+, Amnesia, DRAMAtical Murder, Endride, Hitsugi no Chaika, Lucky Star, The IDOLM2STER, and others.
Interest Rating: 0/3. I don’t see any real reason to watch this, based on currently known information, unless you need your seasonal Magical Academy Fights and Girls fix. It does seem like it might have a bit more comedy than the other series. Maybe.
Airing Date: April 4th. Preview.

Overall Tuesday Thoughts: Good, but slow day. Natsume is a show you don’t have to watch as it airs, and where being stressed about it beats the whole point. The other two series also seem like they’d be relatively slow. Three or even two slow shows for one day might end up feeling a bit oppressive, but hey, I always say we need more such shows, the least I could do is watch them. Hopefully they’ll be good enough for me to keep watching them, though.

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Wednesday:

Sakura Quest – “Slice of life comedy drama” is basically P.A. Works’ byname, aside from when they do romance. My favourite P.A. Works show of recent years has been Shirobako, which I picked as my favourite show of 2015, and also wrote a big editorial I really liked about. Shirobako was a show about adulthood, showing young adults. No, not teenager young adults, but those adults who just stepped into the real world of gainful employment. Sakura Quest seems cut from the same cloth, covering five young girls who are hired to promote a failing town across Japan, as a spot of tourism, to try and revitalize it. A year in the life of young adults, downsized communities which are a real issue in Japan. Sounds promising. I’m in. From week 1, unlike Shirobako which I only picked five weeks in. Also, the main character looks suspiciously similar to Aoi. The preview does draw attention to two of P.A. Works’ best shows, Shirobako and Hanasaku Iroha.

Masui Souichi (Scrapped Princess, Chaika) is on direction, while Yokotani Masahiro (All Out!, Beelzebub, Free!, Maria-Holic, ReZero, and Shimoneta) is on series composition. Both are talented, but both seem to deal more with comedy than “real life slice of life”, so it might be best to keep an open mind rather than expect Shirobako Season 2.
Interest Rating: 2.5/3. P.A. Works has an uneven track record, but capable people, a show about adults and adult-life? That’s not very common in anime, but tends to be some of my favourite stuff when done well.
Airing Date: April 5th. Preview.

Almost In:

Sakurada Reset / Sagrada Reset – A small town where most of the population has special powers. Two highschoolers make up a team that carries out missions from above. She has the ability to reset the last three days, and he has the ability to remember those three days. The premise sounds like it could be interesting, but it doesn’t seem very interesting in actuality with what they did with it. This is one of those “P.A. Works style shows, the bad sort.” Luckily, P.A. Works is giving us their good stuff this season.

Director Kawatsura Shinya directed Kokoro Connect, Non Non Biyori, Stella no Mahou, and Tanaka-kun is Always Listless. Kokoro Connect might seem promising, but I’ll let others figure this one for me.
Interest Rating: 1/3. I can already see the Sakurasou-san vibes. Slow show, with a nice idea but underwhelming execution. There’s some hope here, but not enough for an immediate pick-up.
Airing Date: April 5th. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations – I liked Naruto, but it got dragged out so badly in anime to keep milking the cow. Heck, they introduced new filler material after the manga concluded. I wrote about it way back, but if you care for Naruto or Boruto, just read the manga. Save yourself the anguish.

Kenka Banchou Otome: Girl Beats Boys – I’m bringing this up just because of how different it is? 10 minute episodes, based on a Visual Novel, an orphan girl is asked by her long-lost twin brother to take his place in the biggest delinquent boy school, and they’re also secretly heirs to a powerful yakuza family. Her goal: To become the boss of the school, while also trying to find love. Sure sounds like the convoluted VN storyline you’re used to.

Busou Shoujo Machiavellianism / Armed Girl’s Machiavellism– Trope-list the anime, sort of. Ex-girls’ school, now girls wield swords to protect themselves from boys. Delinquent boys are sent for rehabilitation to this school, where they’re rehabilitated by being forced to dress and act as girls. The backward nature of this show is through the roof. Pass.

Overall Wednesday Thoughts: Wednesday, like Monday, is a day I tend to be busy in. One meaty show, and the possibility Sakura Quest will be “meaty” is quite high, is more than enough. I actually think I got out of Wednesday with a light load, and there really is something for most people here. I can see more people picking up Sakurada Reset, shounen lovers will pick up Boruto, and well, Machiavellism’s fans know who they are. A good day, where almost everyone should find something to keep them happy.

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Thursday:

Didn’t Make It In:

Renai Boukun / Love Tyrant – Death Note, but Kiss Note, if the Cupid writes your name in it, you must kiss or die. And then a boy has both a cupid and a yandere falling for him, hijinks ensue. From the director of Anitore! (the soft-porn exercise shorts). Pass, but I know many readers like their silly comedies, so I’m listing it for them.

Clockwork Planet – Tell me if you heard this before, a malehigh school dropout, a sexy female android literally drops on him, and now they live together. Oh yeah, it’s from the author of No Game, No Life, Kamiya Yuu. Directed by Nagasawa Tsuyoshi, who almost only worked on ecchi-related stuff, including multiple OVAs about 5th grader ecchi. That’s all I needed to hear. I guess it’s worth mentioning the Series Composer worked on Shiki, though nothing else of note. Oh yeah, the previews spend more time showing mechanical gears and still shots than they do anime. Not very reassuring. This feels like it’s going to be an unmitigated catastrophe of a show.

Tsuki ga Kirei / As the Moon, so Beautiful – Anime original about falling in love and understanding others as Junior High School seniors. Sounds like a fine idea (though I’d rather the characters be a tad older), except, it’s directed by Kishi Seiji, who is totally tone-deaf when it doesn’t come to anime, and even his comedy tends to be quite shouty. He worked on shows such as Assassination Classroom, Danganronpa, Hamatora, and Humanity Has Declined. Aside from the last of these, I hated everything of his I watched. I guess he also worked on Angel Beats!, which had really good comedy, and really bad everything else.

Overall Thursday Thoughts: Another day where I pick up nothing! Something tells me Love Tyrant and Tsuki ga Kirei will both be relatively popular. Others are much more tolerant of Kishi Seiji’s tone, while harem RomComs are all the rage, though I’d rather get mine with a bit more romance and little less gag-humor, I guess, maybe? But still, more time for me to work on my backlog and non-anime stuff, woo!

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Friday:

Shingeki no Bahamut: Virgin Soul / Rage of Bahamut: Virgin Soul – Not only was the first season of this show one of the most fun shows of 2014, it was also one of the most surprising, showing that Mobage (mobile game) based anime don’t have to be terrible. It was an energetic swashbuckling adventure that reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean’s first installment more than anything else. It had a weak spell in the middle, but I enjoyed the show, and the cast were all great. Well, now it’s 10 years later in-world, but the cast is (almost) all back, and the new main character seems to be able to transform into a dragon or something. I don’t care. I want to have fun.

Director Satou Keiichi is reprising his roal, though Series Composer moved from Hasegawa Keiichi to Ooishi Shizuka, for whom it is a first credit. She does however have a very long entry on IMDB, working on TV-mini-series dramas. Hopefully she’ll handle anime series composition well. It does bear mentioning that unlike Granblue Fantasy, the other show based on Cygames’ property, we have actual credits for writing here.
Interest Rating: 2.5/3. FAVAAAAARO! KAISAR! Rita! Yeah. I’m fanning out. That’s fun, sometimes. I do hope the new Series Composer who is new to anime will handle it fine.
Airing Date: April 7th. Preview.

Seikaisuru Kado / Kado: The Right Answer – Toei is dipping their toe into the full-CGI series. The premise sounds pretty familiar for quite a few Hollywood films (especially The Day The Earth Stood Still), but not for anime. An airplane is taken into an alien structure that appears midair. In the cube, an alien that declares he will intervene in Japanese internal-affairs. On the airplane, a cabinet member tasked with dealing with policy planning. This is an actual sci-fi structure, and while I’m sure I may miss quite a few of the allegories relating to current Japanese affairs and past ones (assuming there’ll be any, which after watching Concrete Revolutio and looking at the history of Sci-Fi as a genre, I am indeed assuming), I still want to see where they take it.

Director Murata Kazuya worked on Code Geass as Assistant Director, did storyboards for Dennou Coil and Eureka Seven, and directed Suisei no Gargantia. It sounds like he likes sci-fi.
Interest Rating: 2.5/3. Hey, I’d be interested in a book or film based on this premise, and the director seems more than decent. As a big sci-fi fan, I’m intrigued.
Airing Date: April 7th. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Hinako Note – This season’s “cute girls being cute” form of slice of life. I’m not a fan of such shows, but here you go. About a girl who attracts animals so is hired to be a scarecrow, by attracting animals away from fields. Seems like there’d also be a maid cafe involved. You know, the usual.

Sin: Nanatsu no Taizai / The 7 Deadly Sins – I’m just putting this here so you won’t mistakenly think it’s a sequel to the 2014 “Nanatsu no Taizai” action adventure show. This is a fanservice show. Like Queen’s Blade. From the director of Queen’s Blade.

Overall Friday Thoughts: A speculative pick, and a safe popcorn pick. One of those two will deliver for sure. If I’m lucky, both will. Kado might be good enough as fodder for thought even if the show isn’t good or interesting enough as a show, but I like it when Toei can do weird things, such as Gatchaman Crowds, one of my all-time favourite series. Friday nights are always reserved for family dinners, and I usually happen to get migraines on Fridays, so not having too much here is a good thing.

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Saturday:

Boku no Hero Academia 2nd Season / My Hero Academia 2nd Season – My Hero Academia’s first season was fun, it had some great action sequences, some touching mentorship or underdog moments, and was overall fun and engaging to watch. The problem was that the pacing was way too slow in order to pad the material, and we received roughly 8 episodes’ worth of content stretched across 13, which made the action and heart-touching sequences both slightly lesser. Still, it was fun to watch, and I’ll keep watching. Same staff as the first season.
Interest Rating: 2/3. A fun little shounonsense show. The pacing issues, should they continue (which they likely will) mean it’s not going to be great, but will be solid fun.
Airing Date: April 1st.

Atom: The Beginning – For those who don’t know, Atom is Astro-Boy’s name. This series is based on a 2014 manga chronicling the creation of Astro-Boy, the greatest android to be made, and is directed by Satou Tatsuo (Martian Successor Nadesico, Cat Soup, Shigofumi, Stellvia of the Universe and Bodacous Space Pirates) and Motohiro Katsuyuki (Psycho-Pass 1st Season, and the movie). Series Composition is handled by Fujisaku Junichi, who worked on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Beast Player Erin, and Blood-C/Blood+.

I wasn’t originally going to pick it up, but damn, I’ve been convinced by the people working on this. My only real experience with Astro Boy is the Pluto manga, which is quite good, but this should work as a stand-alone.
Interest Rating: 2/3. The people involved in this show made some of the better shows I’ve watched. The manga was also written in part by Tezuka Osamu’s (the original creator of Astro-Boy) son, Tezuka Makoto. I’m in.
Airing Date: April 15th. Preview.

Eromanga-Sensei – One of my favourite genres is RomCom. For all that was wrong with it, I actually really enjoyed OreImo (My Little Sister Can’t Be This Cute) a lot, episode to episode. I enjoyed the characters and their interactions, and found the show relatively funny (and no, I didn’t agree with its messages). This show is based on the next work by OreImo’s creator, Fushimi Tsukasa. He vowed his next work will not have the publications stop it from entering the “Incest Route”. Well, he sort of cheated, as the preview for this show several times states the two siblings at the center of this show, high school students who write and illustrate a Light Novel (again, like OreImo’s protagonist), are not blood-related. Gee, I wonder where it will go.

Director Takeshita Rouhei worked on the popular Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun (The Monthly Nozaki-Kun), while Series Composer Takahashi Tatsuya worked on the abominable BlazBlue anime, Kiniro Mosaic, Koukaku no Pandora, Netoge no Yume, Rewrite, and the iDOLM@STER Cinderella Girls. An alright team.
Interest Rating: 2/3. I like RomComs. I think this one will be moderately funny. I’ll stick with it so long it is.
Airing Date: April 8th. Preview.

Shingeki no Kyojin 2nd Season / Attack on Titan Second Season – The blockbuster anime of 2013 was a great 16 anime series, that was sadly stretched to fill 25 episodes. As a result, characters stood and shouted and often seemed less than normal, due to having to stand and shout, and stand and shout, just to stretch things on. But the content that was there was mostly fine. I actually wonder how the second season will do in terms of popularity, because it’s been 4 years since the first season, and the zeitgeist might have moved on, though I suspect it’d do just fine, as more and more people get into anime through shows just as its first season.

You can read my editorial on the first season here. I wished I could’ve liked the show more than I did, but here’s to hoping this season would be hobbled slightly less by how much material they have to adapt.
Interest Rating: 1.5/3. The material is uneven, the directors are uneven, but it can be a lot of fun.
Airing Date: April 1st.

Re:Creators – This one has an interesting premise, for an anime. What if the characters from stories told by humanity actually are real, and come over to our world, the world of their creators, to punish us for dragging them through their sorrowful existences? I have no idea where they’d take it, seems more of a shounonsense, but the premise is interesting enough to check out.

Director Aoki Ei directed Aldnoah Zero and Ga-Rei Zero. Even if I didn’t care for either, the directing wasn’t the problem. Assistant Director Katou Makoto directed the mediocre Sakuraso-san (Beautiful Bones), and the Script is handled by Hiroe Rei, the mangaka behind Black Lagoon.
Interest Rating: 1.5/3. Interesting premise, capable people, even if it’ll likely be wasted, one can hope!
Airing Date: April 8th. Preview.

Almost In:

Granblue Fantasy the Animation – An anime based on a mobile game by Cygames, the company behind Shingeki no Bahamut, which was a surprisingly good show from 2014, and without that show proving mobile-based games can be alright, I’d have probably written this show off immediately. Unlike that show though, this show’s script is attributed simply to “Cygames”, rather than any actual Series Composer whose name we know, which is troubling. Directour Itou Yuuki directed Nanona ViVid and was an Assistant Director on Vividred Operation, while this is Co-Director Kurata Ayako’s “debut”. There’s really not much to go by here.

Of note, the series looks good visually, as is usually expected from A-1 Studios, and is packed full of top-tier voice actors. Story? Your regular coming of age magical powers save the girl, fight off the evil empire high fantasy action, which I actually like.
Interest Rating: 1.5/3. Fool that I am, high fantasy action is one of my favourite genres. But I might just wait and hear what others have to say, since the people involved have basically nothing to recommend them.
Airing Date: April 1st. Preview.

Didn’t Make It In:

Gin no Guardian / The Silver Guardian – This season’s anime based on Chinese online manga, this time about kids trapped in a video game. Two directors who between them only directed one full series (Blue Drop) and Series Composer who worked on Kiddy Grade and Uta Kara. The Chinese manga adaptations have all been crap thus far, and this doesn’t seem to be any better.

Overall Saturday Thoughts: Wow, Saturday is stacked. Most of the shows seem to be of the shounen variety, action with some male-directed RomComs, but it seems like it’ll run the gamut from silly and lighthearted to serious and grim. I actually like shounonsense a lot, I just don’t enjoy watching them weekly as much. This day seems like it’s made just for me, though I might put some series here on hold and marathon them later, provided I get more time later, hue. I think Saturday has some safe picks, and some experimental picks, but the people involved in most of these shows seem at least capable of delivering perfectly serviceable popcorn shows. A good relaxation day from serious stuff.

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Overall Season Thoughts:

13 shows on my docket, of which 5 are continuing or returning shows (also counting Little Witch Academia). That’s not that many shows, especially as the season begins, and I tend to drop shows quite quickly by the third week, but I’m extremely busy in real life right now, especially from now until mid-May, where I have to work on my thesis, and 3 massive papers. Mid-May onward will become much busier at work, but my self-time will become more open. It’s a good thing half of those shows are shows I don’t want to write notes about, as they fall squarely under shounonsense, and writing notes on those shows just pokes the holes that watching them weekly has even deeper.

Still, I’m really liking what I’m seeing this season, I have at least one romantic drama, one romantic comedy, a bunch of action shows, and, a bunch of dramas or “real life slice of life” series to watch, topped off by a sci-fi show. Not to mention, there are a couple of “almost in” shows that show great promise. This season is an embarrassment of riches.

I just need to find time to actually visit my backlog, and get some blogging done. I missed blogging, so I will make sure to release content. I mean, most of my Gatchaman Crowds Insight content is written, I just need to find the time to shape it up. And no, I didn’t forget Concrete Revolutio, and the write-up I plan on JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and more. Please stay tuned.

Under-the-Radar Shows: Oh yeah, I want to point out some shows that I think easily flew under people’s radars, but whose premises and/or staff demand they get another look: ID-0, Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasu ka? Isogashii desu ka? Sukutte Moratte Ii desu ka?, Seikaisuru Kado, and Atom: The Beginning.

Which shows are you excited for? Anything you think will be terrible but can’t avoid checking out? Anything you’d like to see me cover in particular?