Spring 2018 Anime Preview

The Winter 2018 anime season was amazing. Violet Evergarden, Yuru Camp△, Koi wa Ameagari no You ni, Sora yori mo Tooi Basho, and 3-gatsu no Lion 2 all presented convincing arguments why they were not only the season’s best shows but deserved to rank at the top of the year’s best shows. And that was not the extent of the good shows from this season. Others worth mentioning included Kokkoku. It was a weird Seinen series, but, I liked watching the family interactions and was glad to see the show end on a happy note. Hakata Tonkotsu Ramens turned out to be a decent clone of Durarara!!. And Darling in the FranXX has been slowly creeping upwards as the show teases the mysteries behind it’s strange world; I’m expecting this show to explode in it’s second half and compete for the title of best spring anime.

In lieu of spending time being depressed about the passing of the Winter 2018 season, I decided to get a jump on trying to figure out what new series will be the worth watching in the upcoming Spring 2018 season.

The eleven series I list below are the series from the upcoming season that I believe will be worth watching.

Spring 2015 Anime Preview and Predicting The Top Anime of the Next Season

The Spring 2015 anime season is just around the bend and there’s a ton of new series on the way to hopefully fill the holes in our hearts left from all the great winter series.

Instead of a dry listing of all the various anime series that will be coming out, I’m going to take a stab at guessing which series will be the top anime series of season. Last summer I did a preview like this and it was funny to see what I got right and what I didn’t. I failed to include Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun, Futsuu no Joshikousei ga [Locodol] Yatte Mita, Ao Haru Ride, and Sabagebu! on my countdown. I also had Sailor Moon: Crystal picked to be my #6 anime and Glasslip as my #9.

So, I guess the takeaway is that the following list will probably be wrong, hilariously so, but that’s okay. I’ll laugh at myself later as well. And to lead this countdown off is …

Summer 2014 Anime Season Preview

The spring season is thankfully almost over. I’m not calling it the worst season in recent memory but I do know I routinely had trouble finding worthy series to fill all 5 spots on my weekly Anime Power Ranking ballot for the first time ever, even with watching more then 20 airing series. The biggest disappointment of the season has been JoJo. I appreciate a manga author taking risks by shifting time periods and main characters and powers like Hirohiko Araki has done with JoJo; however, Japanese Jojo and company (not including grandpa Jojo) are the weakest and blandest cast of the franchise and the bad guy of the week format does not allow any of the villains to really become memorable. I’m only going to continue watching because grandpa Jojo is still around; if something happens to him then I think I’m going to sit JoJo out until the next part gets adapted.

That’s enough dwelling on the past. Let’s turn our attention to the near future with the new season of anime. It looks like a pretty good season of anime.

I don’t mind laughing at myself; so, instead of merely listing all the new series or just the series I’m interested in, I’m going to predict which new anime series will rank in my top 10 of the summer 2014 season and revisit this list when we get to end of the season. I’m going to attempt to get this list right and pat myself on the back for my prognostication skills but I suspect its going to be hilariously wrong.

So, coming in at number 1, the anime I think will be the best new anime of summer is …

Spring 2013 Anime Preview and Watch List

I like to say that every season of anime has a different character to itself then the preceding seasons but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such an extreme change as the coming spring season appears to herald.

For the record, that’s not a bad thing because I think keeping an open mind about what I watch is one of the main reasons why I have not gotten bored of anime.

One of the reasons this spring season already feels different is the lack of several prominent (or, at least, frequent contributing) animation studios sitting this season out – Kyoto Animation, Shaft, Bones, Diomedea, Silver Link, and Studio Deen – amongst others. Another reason is the noitaminA time slot will be re-airing Katanagatari instead of offering one or two new series as has been the case for several years now.

Then there’s the mix of genres of the new series versus the old. There are several mecha series this season, for instance, along with several more SF-themed series. There’s also a relative dearth of new slice-of-life (and slice-of-life/something else) series; this season has only Danchi Tomoo filling the space where, for example, last spring season was filled with Natsuiro Kiseki, Hyouka, Mysterious Girlfriend X, Sakamichi no Apollon, and Space Brothers.

Another interesting observation I noticed, not that it will necessarily impact the feel of the season, is there are three series being helmed by first time directors – Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko, Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru, and Photo Kano. Normally there might be one series a season helmed by a first time director; so, it’ll be interesting to see how these series turn out and impact the feeling of this season.

Okay that’s enough rambling; let’s get to the list. 🙂

Winter 2013 Anime Preview and Watch List

Remember when KyoAni’s Kanon looked good.

I think I can, I think I can. After a few misfires, for the first time since the Summer 2011 season, I’m finally back with a seasonal anime preview. 🙂 The purpose of this post has always been twofold. The first is for those reading this so that they might watch a series that might not otherwise. The second is for me because when I don’t make this post I always feel a little lost when the new season comes and I haven’t made any decisions on what to watch and what to definitely not watch.

The Fall season was a very strong season and many of these most excellent anime series are continuing into the Winter season so even if there was nothing new that will be good, there’s still plenty to watch; but, there’s going to be at least a few new hits. Read on to see my picks.

This Post Contains Nearly 90 Years of Awesomeness

No joke.

Recently, two franchises with a combined history of 89 years released trailers for their respective upcoming series and watching them back-to-back left me with a pair of broken cheeks as a grin the size of the moon spread from ear to ear.

If you can guess which two franchises I’m referring too before looking below then give yourself a gold star because you’re a winner in my books. 🙂