How in the world are we bumped up against October already? As usual, due to my real-life commitments and day job, I’m left playing catch-up with this past season’s anime. But I suppose that doesn’t mean I can’t look ahead towards the anime I’ll be catching up with in another three months or so! These posts are meant to be all in fun; while I usually have some ideas about what I’m likely to enjoy, I’m almost always surprised in one way or another. Last season I was pleasantly caught off-guard by Planet With, for example – a show that I had very little awareness of prior to the beginning of the season.
This post should not be taken as a blanket endorsement of the anime series listed below; each and every one of them has the potential to misrepresent itself in ways that only become evident upon actual viewing. It’s really fun to get excited, though! I think we always need reminders that anime is worth getting excited about, and there’s always something good to watch.
Note: I’m using the current Western titles of these series to the best of my ability and as they appear in various anime news and information outlets, in the hopes that they’ll be easy to find when the simulcast info comes out. That doesn’t mean the official titles won’t be somewhat different than listed.
Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – Golden Wind
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: Crunchyroll (Licensed by VIZ Media)
At one time I thought I was falling off of the Jojo train; I wasn’t all that interested in Stardust Crusaders and only watched maybe a quarter of it before stopping (I plan to finish it someday, though; I’m even buying the Blu-ray sets). Then Diamond is Unbreakable rolled around and suddenly all the things I originally liked about the story – the humor, the way it embraced its own brand of logic, the ridiculous characters that were easy to love – came rushing back to me. I learned later that while part 3 is the most famous story arc, there are a persistent group of fans like myself who actually prefer part 4.
Now after a couple years of rest, we’re staring down the muzzle of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind, the fifth part of this weird series that can best be described as absurdist shounen action entertainment. As someone who’s never read much the manga, all I really know to expect from this new season is bright colors, goofy memorable characters, and perhaps an unusually good sense of how to be entertaining even when doing so defies logic. I hear there have been a few directorial changes as far as the staff is concerned, though it’s difficult to predict how much of an effect this might have on the end product as compared to previous seasons. I’ve also heard that the story line for part 5 is especially over-the-top (or convoluted, or weird, depending on your tolerance). I guess it remains to be seen whether it will hit with me or not. At least for now I’m still very excited for this one.
Double Decker: Doug & Kirill
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: Crunchyroll (with a Funimation simuldub)
I realize this is a bit of an anti-climax since I’ve seen the first episode already (read my review here!) and already have a taste of what the show might be like. Originally when I’d heard that a sequel to Tiger & Bunny was in the works I was sort of disappointed to discover that it wasn’t a direct continuation of the adventures of our favorite heroic odd couple. Once I watched the first episode of Double Decker, though, I began to get a sense of how broad and rich the setting was and its potential ability to be able to tell stories of other characters – even those who don’t participate in the Hero TV branded hijinks of T&B. Sometimes more of the same is great, but I’m often more impressed when a creative team can take a good idea and utilize it in a new way.
I’m also happy with the gender balance of the series. I mean, check out that key art! I’m crossing my fingers that the women in this series will have as much development as the two men whose names are on the marquee, but I’m already impressed by how the different characters look and carry themselves in the image. I’m excited to see what sort of exciting adventures they might have.
Golden Kamuy: Season 2
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: Crunchyroll (with a Funimation simuldub)
Golden Kamuy isn’t my typical fare and the first season definitely has a few issues – most of them boil down to the animation quality (I won’t harp on it, but the CG bear was a strange choice). Though I’m not particularly into violence or “gritty” stories, there are aspects of this series I really like. While I have no frame of reference to say whether it’s accurate or not, I like to believe that the series’ window into Ainu culture is well-intentioned and roughly true to life. I like that Asirpa, despite her youth, is strong and knowledgeable. I also enjoy the setting, because despite having to be cajoled into reading all the standard survivalist stories as a kid in elementary school, now that I’m an adult I actually find them kind of interesting. This is also not a historical time and place that many Japanese anime utilize, so I appreciate it for that.
Though I expect this season to advance the story some more, I’m hoping it doesn’t entirely abandon one of my favorite aspects of the series – the scenes of characters preparing and eating recipes made with wild game meat. Whatever the other content, it’s hard for me to resist watching a show about food!
Bloom Into You
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: HIDIVE
Most of the series I’ve mentioned so far have had a certain masculine, action-y bent to them. It’s been a while since I’ve watched something with a little softness and romance, let alone something with obvious yuri overtones. I don’t necessarily have anything against yuri romance, but I find that, in a lot of cases, the atmosphere and content seems aimed more at an assumed-male audience for their pleasure and consumption rather than truly representative of real same-sex relationships.
While I understand that the romantic aspect to this series might be a misdirect to some extent (I know next to nothing about it but I’ve read commentary to that effect), I feel drawn in by the kind of golden-hour atmosphere its PV conveys. Whether the two characters’ relationship is truly a romance or a close friendship, either way I feel a lot of warmth emanating from this series. Considering that a lot of what I’ve been watching lately has been sort of violent, spooky, or emotionally-intense, this might be a really nice change of pace.
Release the Spyce
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: TBA (Licensed by Sentai Filmworks, so likely HIDIVE)
Saying the title of this anime causes me to experience visions of Kyle Maclachlan in Dune. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’ll say that watching the trailer reminded me of the snippets of Exodus (a completely fabricated anime series) we see throughout the first cour of Shirobako. It’s difficult to articulate whether that’s actually a good or a bad thing, but it’s definitely an awesome thing in my book. The impression I get from what I’ve seen so far is that this is kind of a less-serious cousin to Princess Principal, complete with action, goofy costumes, cute characters, and moé hijinks. Yes, I could do without the hijinks, but I’m also not overly worried about them either.
I don’t like to dwell on this point too much because it’s certainly not a sure-fire indicator of quality, but I do appreciate that this is an anime-original production. While people working in any medium can have good or bad ideas, sometimes the act of creating something to work in a particular medium gives it a little bit of a boost since it’s allowed to exist within its native habitat so-to-speak. When so many anime are cut short or forced into time frames that don’t work well to tell their story, it’s nice to know when a story was constructed to fit into a 12 or 13 episode framework from the get-go.
Girl in Twilight
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: TBA (Licensed by Sentai Filmworks, so likely HIDIVE)
Here we have yet another anime-original series, this time a sci-fi story that appears to deal with alternate or parallel universes in some form or fashion. Though a lot of the anime that was popular when I was just becoming a fan could be categorized as sci-fi, I feel like that’s less the case nowadays. It’s difficult to tell from the previews whether this series will actually deal directly with hard sci-fi concepts, or whether that’s a framework for a more character-based story. To be honest, I’m not sure that it really matters as long as the end result is entertaining.
I’m glad to see another anime series with an apparent all-female cast that isn’t necessarily just another story about girls sitting around in a club room getting into trouble. Again, there’s always the looming question of “who was this made for?” but whether I’m the intended audience or not, I can appreciate girls “doing” rather than just “being.”
Run With the Wind
Episodes: 23
Streaming: TBA
To be honest, all I needed to know about this series is that it’s based on a novel by the author of The Great Passage – the best anime series about dictionary creation I can think of (if you know of another one, please let me know!). What I loved about The Great Passage was its inherent sense of humanity and its joy for the love of language. This series focuses on marathon running, namely a super-marathon of over 100 miles. While running itself is likely more fulfilling for those doing it than those watching from the sidelines (I wouldn’t know – I make it a point never to run unless I really have to), I suspect that this series is more about the process of preparation and conditioning for such a long run, as well as the relationships formed along the way.
If the PV is to be trusted, the animation looks sort of delicate and sensitive, if that makes sense. Not focused on making the running seem “action-y,” but in tune with capturing the movement of the characters. My only real apprehension is that the series seems very male-dominant; I happen to know more women than men who do long-distance running. I also know that male coming-of-age stories are perennially popular though, and I get good feelings from this one.
Tsurune: Kazemai Koukou Kyuudou-bu
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: TBA
Call me basic, but I find it difficult to resist the prospect of a beautifully-animated Kyoto Animation series blending an interesting sport with a cast of cute high school guys. Since the third season of Free! ended up being so jam-packed full of characters and story lines that it became difficult to concentrate on any one thing in particular, I’m sort of hoping that this series will be back-to-basics and more focused.
While the characters all have fairly archetypal appearances (I think the glasses character is the cutest, in my humble opinion), I like the sense of elegance the show projects. I especially liked the part in the subtitled PV where the character draws back his bow – the scene is so quiet that all you can hear is the pull of the bowstring and the creak of the wood as it bends. While I definitely live for character drama and generally really enjoy series where boys and men are shown to be gentle and sensitive, it’s those small, subtle details that always remind me of how powerful anime can be.
One Day Outing Chronicle Leader
ANN Encyclopedia (N/A)
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: TBA
I know very little about this anime serious aside from the fact that, much like Mr. Tonegawa: Middle Management Blues, it’s based on a spin-off of the Kaiji manga and features a side character. I might be strange in that I find Nobuyuki Fukumoto’s stories (and their related spin-offs created by others) to be just the right blend of testosterone and mortal strife to be interesting. They go way beyond toxic masculinity into completely bonkers realms of masochism; sometimes they’re also really funny, too.
Supposedly the first episode of this is going to take over the Mr. Tonegawa time slot on October 9th… no word on whether it’s just a one-shot, and ongoing series, or if this upcoming broadcast is a special preview of some sort. But since I’ve been enjoying Mr. Tonegawa now that I’ve watched some more of it, I thought it worth mentioning despite having such minimal information. Considering that the key image is covered in different types of food, I feel as though they’re trying to entice me specifically to watch it.
I’ve heard other writers lament (already) that this seems like it’ll be a crummy season for new anime. While I will say that there are fewer series that are leaping out at me as “sure bets,” I feel like there’s plenty to look forward to even if some of these turn out to be total duds.
Let me know what Autumn anime you’re looking forward to in the comments – and happy viewing!