I’ve spent the last week or so trying to finalize (at least for this round) how I’d like to handle all the new anime coming out. For those of you who were with me through S1E1’s previous incarnations, you’ll remember that I made it my goal to watch at least an episode of each new series that came out each season, offer my comments, and decide if it was worth watching or not. Occasionally I’d follow-up at the close of the season to review the anime I completed. Most of those anime were those which I was enjoying, so I didn’t have a lot of overly critical things to say about them. This approach is fine and dandy, but it’s certainly no longer unique and to be quite honest, it’s very time-consuming. It also forced me to watch a lot of really terrible stuff – anime with extreme front-loaded, nasty fanservice, gorenography, and (worst of all), unapologetic mediocrity (I’m kidding about that one). I still think it’s good to have a well-thought-out opinion on things I don’t like, but I no longer thinks it’s necessary to go looking for that kind of stuff. I know I had a lot of readers at one point who liked reading my negative reviews, but I don’t have much interest in adding to my gray hairs by watching really terrible anime just for others’ benefit.
I’m going to give something a try this time around and see how it works. I’ve had a week or so to suss out what I think are the more appealing and less appealing (to me) anime series for the Winter 2016 season. I’m going to try and focus on those for preview-writing/early impressions and end up with a list of anime I plan to keep up with on a weekly basis (probably not through weekly episode reviews as I don’t think they’re necessary for me to write, but I’ll try to keep up with watching them). I’ve used both “official” previews of early episodes (from ANN, The Fandom Post, and other “news” sites) as well as unofficial sources (friends and acquaintances, other blogs, etc.) to come to my decisions on where to focus and what to eliminate from my view outright. If anyone out there has a *compelling* reason as to why one of the shows on my dump list is at least worth checking-out, by all means leave a comment and let me know. But I think it will take a lot to convince me to take that extra time out of my day, so really think about it.
Here’s my current to-check-out list (including items from my “Some Things I’m Anticipating This Season” post from the other day):
Shorts
- Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko: Everything Flows – details are sparse on this, including when and how it will be broadcast, so this one’s iffy for right now. The original She and Her Cat was a charming short included on the DVD for Voices of a Distant Star, Makoto Shinkai’s breakthrough OVA which was released in the early 2000’s. Shinkai has sort of a spotty record in my eyes – the way he handles visuals is beautiful and distinctive, and his background art makes great wallpapers, but the larger-scale his stories try to be, the less successful they are, in my opinion. This may be a return to something more intimate and I can definitely get behind that.
- Ojisan to Marshmallow – I could certainly end up being wrong, but the premise of this show sounded kind of cute to me. I’m kind of a sucker for any anime that involves characters that are of an adult age, since I’m not getting any younger and it’s pretty rare.
- Oshiete Galko-san – Anime about groups of teenage girls are all over the place, but I’m always willing to give one a try. Especially since it’s a small investment and it sounds like it might be kind of crass, which I find funny on occasion (it depends a lot on the tone and the exact subject matter, though).
- Sekko Boys – Likewise, I’m also willing to try out shows that feature really bizarro takes on bishounen anime. The guys in this anime are literally statues (or busts, more technically). How weird! I’m hoping it’s funny.
- Yamishibai Season 3 – This is one of my favorite little “short and spooky” anime. The quality of each episode varies widely, and some of them are downright silly, but some are also pretty darned terrifying.
TV Anime
- Ajin – You can read some previous thoughts here.
- Dagashi Kashi – I have a difficult time resisting a show that’s food-related, even if that’s likely not the actual focus. I’m hearing that this show might be a little “manic pixie dream girl-ish” but I thought it might be worth a look anyway.
- ERASED (Boku Dake ga Inai Machi) – You can read some previous thoughts here. I’m especially looking forward to this considering the really stellar reviews the first episode has been getting. The only negative comments I’ve really seen have been from people who are familiar with the source material, but I’m the type of person who prefers that adaptations mix things up a bit so that doesn’t deter me.
- Dimension W – This hadn’t been on my radar previously, but I’ve heard it being referred to as one of the next potential “mainstream” series and that makes me kind of curious about it.
- Haruchika – you can read some previous thoughts here. Reactions have been mixed thus far but a lot of them have been calling it “boring” which probably means that I’m going to like it. I’m also understanding that one of the main characters is gay or bi, which makes me interested to see how they’re characterized. I’m hoping someone from the LGBT community will pick up on the show and offer their opinion on that as well.
- Lupin III Season 4 – I was kind of wondering exactly when we’d get this over here since it broadcast in Italy back in 2015 (Spring?) and unofficial versions were nowhere to be found. So even though it’s a little out of season I wanted to include it somehow.
- Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinju – You can read some previous thoughts here. I’ve already seen the first episode of this show and am working on my first simulcast review of it for The Fandom Post (I was busy over the weekend and it was just released on Friday with little fanfare, so I didn’t get a decent start on it until a couple days later). This is the one series I’ll be able to promise weekly reviews for. It starts with a double episode and I’m really liking what I’ve seen thus far. It offers some insight into a Japanese performance art that isn’t very well known in the West and I’m always up for something like that. Also, adult characters!
Borderline Stuff and Sequels (aka “low priority”)
- Musaigen no Phantom World – It’s KyoAni… it’s also a pretty standard light novel premise with a decent amount of fanservice according to every account I’ve read (and seen – there are plenty of gifs already of a certain limbo scene that has to be seen to be believed). I like to give KyoAni series a chance for their animation, but I suspect that won’t keep me occupied for long.
- Prince of Stride: Alternative – This season’s bishounen sports series. By all accounts thus far it’s pretty average, but I’m hoping that it’ll be funny and over-the-top enough to be entertaining in a fujoshi-bait sort of way.
- Active Raid – I can’t get a read on this one. It might be a totally silly buddy cop show, it might be taking itself too seriously, the reactions are completely mixed. In those cases I think it’s worthwhile to take a stab at it if time allows.
- Snow White with the Red Hair Season 2 – You can read my previous thoughts here. This is one of a couple of series from Summer that I want to finish but haven’t yet, so that will have to happen before I give any opinions on the second half.
- Gate Season 2 – you can read my previous thoughts here. Similarly, I didn’t make time to finish this one either. But I want to! One day it will finally happen.
- Durarara X2 Ketsu – And boy oh boy, I’m behind on watching this show. It’s not from lack of interest – unlike a lot of other fans, I actually enjoyed what I saw of the first new cour back in early 2015. I’ve just been lazy about making time for it, as usual. It’s so easy to get distracted by the brand new shinies!
Hopefully with this plan in place, I can check out series methodically and have constructive things to write about them. Here’s to hoping!