It’s that time again – time to look ahead at the wonderful potential of the season to come. Once again the Northern Hemisphere, and specifically my part of the United States, is entering into a snowy deep-freeze. While there’s little reason to brave the outdoors (unless you like skiing, ice-fishing, sledding, or skating… which I don’t), it’s a great time to stay in the house under a blanket, watching all the wonderful animated content that Japan has to offer.
As usual, I want to be clear in stating that this is just a preview; aside from sequels or anime for which I’ve experienced the source material, I don’t have much to base my opinions on other that my sense for what I might personally like. I’m usually disappointed by a few of my picks, and there are often several anime that fly completely under my radar, but which later turn out to be favorites. Much like the week between Christmas and New Year’s, the time between anticipating new anime and finding out about its reality is a magical time of being suspended in a state of perpetual possibilities. Whether it pans out exactly as anticipated is probably not even that important, to be honest.
Note: As with my previous posts on this subject, I’m using the Western (English) titles when possible, though those sometimes don’t solidify until after simulcasts are announced.
Boogiepop and Others
Episodes: TBA (Possibly 12)
Streaming: TBA
Boogiepop Phantom is one of those anime series that was popular for a time early on in my fandom adulthood, but which I never really got the chance to watch (though I own a copy… maybe I should get on that). Much like some other famous series from the time period, like Serial Experiments: Lain or Paranoia Agent, it seemed to combine the mysteriousness of urban legends with the realities of modern life, the dissonance between the two resulting in a type of psychological terror that helped define the anime tone of those days.
Now the novel series which begat the original anime is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and we’re lucky enough to get a brand new anime series out of it. What’s got me excited, probably more so than the potential to recapture some of the emotions from that period of my own anime fandom, is that the series is directed by Shingo Natsume. After One Punch Man and ACCA:13, it’s clear that he has the ability to attract and to draw out the talents of the animators around him. While great animation is almost never the only building block of a great anime series, it definitely doesn’t hurt.
The first episode (a 1-hour special) is slated to air on January 4th, 2019.
Mob Psycho 100 II
Episodes: TBA (likely 1-cour)
Streaming: Crunchyroll
The first season of Mob was one of my recent favorites. The quirky comedy, loose character designs, and excellent animation got me in the door, but what got me to stick around and take notice were the themes of the series, centered around maturity and the noblesse oblige of those with certain types of visible talents. I think we live in a world where oftentimes being academically talented is praised to the point that gifted individuals start to believe that they’re better than others (I certainly suffered from this at points in my life). Mob Psycho 100 is full to the brim with goons who have psycho-kinetic talents, the types of abilities that set them apart from average humans. And yet, as we learn from Reigen (one of my favorite anime “father figures”), to think that one talent is better than the myriad others human beings posses is foolish, rude, and childish.
While I thought the first season ended well enough to stand on its own, I’m definitely not disappointed that we’re getting more. I haven’t read any of the manga, so I don’t have any solid expectations as far as the direction of the story itself. My hope is that the second season retains the thematic focus of the first, and that through it all, Mob himself remains a kind, gentle boy, living as normal a life as he can (even if thugs and spirits are after him constantly).
The first episode airs on January 7th.
Dororo
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: Amazon Prime
There was a point in the past where it felt as though there wasn’t a lot of interest in classic anime. By “classic,” I’m referring to anime produced earlier than the 1980’s – there isn’t really that much of it to begin with, to my knowledge, and besides a few internationally popular titles, there isn’t enough of a nostalgia factor for many fans to revisit the few that there are. I downloaded a couple of episodes of the original, black-and-white, 1969 Dororo series when one of the many fly-by-night fan-sub groups decided to post some episodes, and I was fascinated by it – not just because it was based on an Osamu Tezuka story, but because the content was kind of dark. Eventually I think that series was released on Blu-ray, but for a long time I thought it would never see the light of day around these parts.
I’m a big fan of re-makes done well; I think a re-made series can take the best elements from the original and tailor the content to reflect issues of the modern era. The story of a vengeful young man on a quest to retrieve 48 of his missing body parts might seem a little bit too supernatural to really comment on modern-day issues, but ultimately even if this is just the retelling of a classic story, I’ll probably find it pretty interesting.
The first episode airs on January 7th.
Kakegurui xx
Episodes: TBA (likely 1-cour)
Streaming: Netflix
The first season of Kakegurui is a series I consider one of my “trash favorites” from the past year or so. I can’t really argue against its problems, but in spite of them all I love the show anyway. The aspect of the series that kind of pulled me over to the dark side was that the main character was simply so compelling. Jabami-san is always a bit of a mystery; all we really learn about her is that she comes from money and she loves to gamble for the pure joy of laying everything on the line. But rather than simply destroy the lives of those around her, if they’re willing she welcomes them over to her side of the fence, into a high-stakes betting world that could become heaven or hell depending on the results.
I fully expect this to be another Netflix late-cast, so me noting it here is really just an acknowledgement that it exists and that I’ll be able to get around to it at some later time. But I’ll definitely be looking forward to revisiting this utterly horny take on ridiculous high-stakes gambling, and letting Jabami-san lead the way.
The first episode airs on January 8th.
The Promised Neverland
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: Crunchyroll and Hulu
I’ve been burned many a time by the anime hype train, especially when it comes to anime that potentially has some violent or horrific content. A lot of series that promise some kind of thoughtful commentary to go with their dark leanings end up just being gratuitous and shocking to me. Not every anime has to have a “point,” but I don’t like being led to believe that something might have an interesting thing to say when in fact it’s just gory and its shock value is its true asset. In this case, though, I’ve read some very interesting essays about the manga that have managed to pique my interest about the story. The feeling it gives me is something akin to how I felt about Attack on Titan before I watched it, and that’s turned out to be a favorite of mine.
I’m always ready for a shounen series starring a girl, too. While I think the demographic markers that define manga magazines in Japan tend to break down a bit by the time they’re compiled in tankobon volumes and translated for the Western market, I do think there’s something to be said about a story that’s aimed at boys but which features a girl. It at least shows youngsters that heroism isn’t restricted by gender. In any case, I think this will be an interesting show to watch, and since it’s so high-profile, I suspect it will be pretty nice to look at, too.
The first episode airs on January 10th.
Dōkyonin wa Hiza, Tokidoki, Atama no Ue
Episodes: 12
Streaming: TBA
While I’m always down for some serious, thought-provoking, literary anime, I also love the lighter things in life. Cute and fluffy is absolutely just as valid as anything else, in my book. I also love cats (I’m sure if my cat could talk she’d complain about how much I dote on her). So it only stands to reason that I’d be drawn to an anime series about a reasonably-attractive, bookish guy and his cute, mischievous cat.
There’s usually at least one series each season that I watch just to experience those sweet iyashi-kei feels, and I really hope that this series is able to scratch that itch for me this go-around. It’s hard to go wrong with nice guys and cats, honestly!
…Just let me have this. 😉
The first episode airs on January 9th.
The Magnificent Kotobuki
Episodes: TBA
Streaming: TBA
I always like to end these posts with something a little bit questionable. Something that probably won’t end up being great, but might turn out to be kind of fun anyway. It’s obvious from the trailers that this series is going to employ the same sort of hybrid CG/traditional animation used in Kado: The Right Answer, which didn’t always look especially good but which I learned to mostly tolerate after a while. Its characters also sport some very unique fashions, which look somewhat uncomfortable (and perhaps a little revealing) for the type of environment they’re in. It’s got all the markers of a silly action show about a group of girls, and those sometimes seem to run on the mediocre side. So why call this series out when its attributes are so questionable?
Mostly what I’m relying on is Tsutomu Mizushima’s directorial talents, and the (perhaps unintentional) meta-humor that comes from his involvement in a series about girls flying airplanes. Mizushima directed Shirobako, which in addition to being a fun and informative series about the animation industry, also featured a show-within-a-show called “Third Aerial Girls Squad” about, you guessed it, girls flying airplanes to fight a terrifying menace. He also directed Girls und Panzer, so it could be said he just has a talent for handling shows about girls doing vaguely militaristic activities. Of the 2 series this season revolving around girls flying airplanes (the other being Girly Air Force) I have slightly more positive feelings toward this one, for what it’s worth.
The first episode airs on January 13th.
Those are some of the series I’m looking forward to in January. How about you? Let me know if there’s something that you can’t wait to start watching!