In a shock to almost no one, the long forecasted demise of anime did not occur during the recently completed Winter 2019 season. Instead, we got another solid season of anime made more impressive because the winter season, like the summer season, is considered an off-season for the industry. And I almost missed it because of my shoddy time management skills and because of a certain slime-tastic video game.
I knew I needed to prepare for Kingdom Hearts III because it’d been 13 years since I last played Kingdom Hearts II and the only side title I’d played was Chain of Memories. When I got my PS4 for Christmas 2017 I figured I had plenty of time and kept putting this preparation off so I could play other titles for the first time like The Last of Us and the Uncharted series and Horizon Zero Dawn. January 2019 rolled around and I realized I only had a few weeks before the release of Kingdom Hearts III; so, I frantically threw myself at the Kingdom Hearts 1.5, 2.5, and 2.8 collections. I was able to complete all three minus Chain of Memories (I decided to skip this one) and Dream Drop Distance (ran out of time) at the cost of having basically no time to watch anime or read and having to lose an hour or two of sleep per night. Then I had to platinum Kingdom Hearts III because it only seemed proper. At this point it was mid-February and my brain was in sore need of sleep and I needed to decompress from the Kingdom Hearts binge I’d been on. The obvious answer to me today is that I should have dived into the new anime season I’d neglected, maybe pick up a good book or get some quality sleeping in; instead, I decided to pop in Dragon Quest 11 and promptly got severely attached to it and there went another month.
At this point, it would have been easier to just skip the season. I’m stubborn, though, and there were several shows that piqued my interest. I finally put the PS4 down and started to catch up on what I missed and I’m glad I did. As I said earlier, this was another solid season of anime that contained a number of stand-out series. There were a couple of series I would have liked to give a chance to (My Roommate is a Cat and The Quintessential Quintuplets), but, I didn’t quite have the time to.
So, while I can’t quite call this a full overview of the season, it’s pretty close.
Return to Sender for More Polishing
Neither of the first two series I’m going to mention are terrible series. In fact, there are elements in both that, if handled better and focused on while de-emphasizing their shlocky bits, would have turned them into must-watch series. The first is the very popular series The Rising of the Shield Hero (Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari) and the second is the practically forgotten from the start series The Magnificent Kotobuki (Kouya no Kotobuki Hikoutai).
One potential upside of the current Isekai glut is that someone could develop a genuinely novel angle and turns their story into a legitimately good story that can transcend the limitations found in most series of this sub-genre. At it’s start, Shield seems to signal an interest in exploring the political ramifications of people from our world taking positions of power in a fantasy world at a medieval level of civilization. I found myself initially drawn to this angle because it really hasn’t been explored in the Isekai anime that I’ve seen. Halfway through it’s 2 cour run and I’m disappointed to see that Shield does not have the patience or the mettle to focus on this interesting angle. Instead, these almost vestigial bits of story are pushed aside so the main character can assemble a growing stable of underage haremettes and reasons to dislike “The Man”.
I feel that if The Magnificent Kotobuki had scaled down the scope of it’s story and had better used it’s interesting setting then it would have turned out to be a much better series. As it stands, it’s only worth watching if one is interested in watching Japanese WWII era planes dogfight. The show buries, until halfway through it’s 12 episode run, the fact it takes place on a planet that was once connected via some type of wormhole to a world similar to our Earth and received an influx of technology and culture from Japan during WWII. The show also decided to introduce a big bad villain bent on power and dominance in it’s final third and this turn was not handled well – it was rushed and this villainous character didn’t and couldn’t sell this turn to the dramatic. A series more focused on it’s characters and letting these characters create the story would have made for a better show.
Best Sequel of the Season
Mob Psycho 100 II did not have much competition for the title of best sequel this season, but, that’s not to say I was overly excited to see Mob Psycho 100 getting a sequel. Since the original Full Metal Alchemist, I find the ability of the Bones animation studio to tell a masterful story often lags behind their ability to create masterful animation. There are exceptions; one example is the movie Sword of the Stranger. It is an all around masterpiece that is criminally underwatched and is probably their best work. So, I wasn’t surprised when the first season of Mob Psycho 100 didn’t quite click with me; the animation was gorgeous – as expected – but the story seemed once again to lag behind. It took an epic effort by Reigen to keep me somewhat interested in the story because Mob was too much like a blob to contribute much.
The second season of Mob Psycho 100 went and quite conclusively proved I was wrong about Mob. He was just a bit of a slow starter and needed time to develop a number of important friendships and be exposed to the problems of growing up and living the life of a powerful esper before he could confidently articulate, through his actions, the kindness, modesty, and compassion that were always integral to Mob’s personality. I never expected watching Mob Psycho 100 to be the heartwarming experience that the second season turned out to be. Mob is definitely one of my favorite characters of the season, if not year. And this season of Mob Psycho 100 joins Sword of the Stranger as the only shows from Bones that I have given a perfect score to.
It Got Better
I don’t like the idea of the three episode test (or the single episode test) because not every show can so neatly present why it’s a good show within that time frame. And sometimes the creators do harm to their series by cramming stuff in those early episodes in a bid to pass these tests. Of course, most people, myself included, can’t devote the time to try every anime that comes out each season; but, I try to keep watching a show until it does something that convinces me I can and maybe should drop the show.
The original light novels of Boogiepop and Others (Boogiepop wa Warawanai) helped create the light novel market 20 years ago and influenced later authors such as the ones behind the Monogatari franchise and Steins;Gate. This was reason enough for me to give the show a chance and, yet, if I was adhering to the single or three episode test, I might have dropped this series. Boogiepop is a far different creature then that of the standard light novel of today. It does not go the route of lazy exposition dumps at the beginning to explain it’s setting, characters, and character motivations and the anime also did not help itself when it condensed it’s first story arc into three episodes. I wasn’t, however, going to punish a series that decides to treat it’s audience with a bit of respect and faith and after a few more episodes I began to see what made the light novels the influential work they are. It was the characters that needed a bit longer to gel in my brain and once they did, I saw how this weird urban paranormal/sci-fi series was anchored to it’s characters and how it’s characters drove the story and, suddenly, I realized I was watching one of the season’s best series. Aoi Yuuki’s superlative vocal work as Boogiepop also needs to mentioned; I’d argue it’s worth watching the series just to hear her.
Another work that fits this “it gets better” is the fall carryover series Run with the Wind (Kaze ga Tsuyoku Fuiteiru). I always had faith that this series was going to turn out good. My faith was tested, though, at the beginning when Haiji had to use every ethical and unethical tool at his disposal to browbeat the other nine members of the dorm that were surprised to learn that they’d been drafted for their college running club into staying and competing in the Hakone Ekiden Marathon. I found it a touch uncomfortable and was relieved when the cast slowly found their own reasons to race in this marathon. This second half was just about flawless as it did turn out to be the great character driven sports anime I knew it would become. Run with the Wind is going to be tough to dislodge from keeping the title of best sports anime of 2019. Let’s see if the upcoming spring season’s sports anime Mix is up for the challenge.
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Let’s call that enough for now, part 2 should be up in a day or two. Tune back in to see which shows I name the Best New Series of the season and the Best Continuing Series of the season.
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The Null Set 