You may recall a fairly silly post I wrote a few months back about how to write (and find a good) season preview. Well, with other anibloggers’ season previews starting to come out and more and more trailers for fall’s shows hitting the net, I got back into that same over-exuberant spirit for this week’s Aniwords. I’ll admit it’s a fairly fluffy post to read, but that’s more or less just the way I wrote it. And its core, “A Foolproof Guide to Getting Hyped for Next Season’s Anime” really does walk you through the way I approach each new season.
Bonus Content~
As I continue to stick to my silly self-ordained philosophy of No Season Previews, your bonus content for this week is a quick run down of the shows I’m looking forward to for the spring season. Usually I get at least one ask.fm question about this, but it hasn’t shown up yet so I’ll put it all here and then I can link to it for juicy blog views.
* Comet Lucifer: The super cool video I thought was a trailer turned out to just be a promotional music video (ala the super cute Engaged to the Unidentified mv), with the anime’s key visual boasting a robot and GASP a boy, so we all know where this is not going. It’s not going to be a super atmospheric aesthetic-focused space exploration show like I wanted it to be. Oh well. Still gonna give it a try!
* Concrete Revolutio: It’s a BONES original and I love BONES—great visual aesthetic with BONES’ inconsistent storytelling seems to be a great combination. Apparently there’s also a plot summary out there for the show, but I haven’t read it so I ain’t got the foggiest what it might be about (don’t ruin my streak now!).
* Garo: The first Garo escapade into animeland was a huge success as far as I’m concerned, so definitely up for another go, especially with a female protagonist. Not a huge fan of the character designs from what I’ve seen, but I’m waiting until I see them in motion to give a real verdict.
* Gochiusa S2: I once swore an oath to myself that I would never go a season without at least one moe show on my roster—having a sequel to a reasonably good one makes that oath easy to keep (although, in my opinion, Gochiusa isn’t quite as good as, say, Kinmoza).
* Haikyuu!! 2: Oh man, oh man, I’m excited for this little show to be back! It’s by far my favorite pure sports series that I’ve ever watched, and having it back thanks to fujoshi buying power is yet another piece of evidence in their favor for having better taste than the mainstream male otaku crowd. Volleyballllllllll…
* Heavy Object: I’ve always wanted to watch an anime about rocks…
* Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans: I don’t think I’ve gushed about my love for Mari Okada as much on here as I do on Twitter, but let me tell you guys—I really, really like Mari Okada. Watching her tackle a storied franchise like Gundam is gonna be a whole heckuva a lot of fun for me, whether we get super competent Okada or kind of crazy Okada.
* K: Return of Kings: A throwback to my very early anime-watching days, K was the very first anime I watched weekly (before I even knew what anime really was). It wasn’t a great show, but I enjoyed it quite a lot and like the characters enough to be intrigued by the prospect of a new season. The interim movie was just alright, so here’s hoping GoHands puts together a solid storywriting team for this one.
* Noragami Aragoto: I’ve actually got two separate pieces in the works on Noragami‘s first season right now (one for Otaku Review and one for here), and I’m pretty excited to see what I’ve been told is the manga’s best arc animated. Plus, this is just a good cast of characters, so having them back is great.
* One Punch Man: Because it’s probably the single biggest anime airing this season. No personal investment in it, though.
* Owarimonogatari: In all honesty, I’m sincerely hoping it’s just another 4-5 episode arc, not a full season. I love the heck out of the franchise, but watching it in chunks is the best way to go and I don’t anticipate avoiding spoilers on a weekly basis being much fun at all.
* Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umattieru: I dunno, the key visual was pretty and the plot synopsis sounds fairly intriguing. Hoping for the best.
* Subete ga F ni Naru: Looks weird, and it’s noitaminA, so weird in that case could potentially mean good!
* Utawarerumono Itsuwari no Kamen: My obligatory seasonal light novel flier. I swear, one of these will turn out to be really good one time and people will praise me for my astounding foresight.
* Star-Mu: A shoujo about male idols with pretty designs? I’m so in.
So, that’s 15 shows to start with, which is nowhere near as bad as last season was (although I’m sure I’ll end up trying out a few more). Here’s hoping it’s a great season, but it’s not like this season’s been all that awful (more on that tomorrow).
Mage in a Barrel 
I got hyped for the upcoming season by seeing all the bad stuff/stuff I have no interest with, which means more time for backlog diving.
…but seriously, haven’t looked that closely at the Fall line-up. Will probably see Young Black Jack and one or two of the mystery/detective shows (seems like there’s unusually high number of these nowadays!)
“As I continue to stick to my silly self-ordained philosophy of No Season Previews…”
It’s okay to be young and judgmental, but it’s even more okay to completely swallow the words said during that period :p
“It’s not going to be a super atmospheric aesthetic-focused space exploration show like I wanted it to be”
Twin Spica, bless. Even got a great female MC to boot.
(also Planetes, but I’m sure everybody heard of that one)
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I honestly think I’m just keeping it up to spite my future self that will inevitably go back on this ideology.
Young Black Jack‘s one of those that’s just missing the cut. Might be one of those that I give a shot once I’ve dropped some stuff off my initial list.
And thanks for the recommendation of Twin Spica! Cool name, maybe I’ll check it out soon (aka eventually….)
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“oh though gentle souls!” –> “oh ye gentle souls!”
“Thou” is singular.
Shows I’m looking forward to…
…none.
There’s nothing whatsoever that catches my immediate interest. There are a couple of shows I know I’m going to watch (mostly seconds, such as Noragami, Gochiusa, and even Owari no Seraph), but that’s it.
A few shows have me curious. Kagewani, Sakurako, and that highschool comedy based on Attack on Titan come to mind. Of these, I Sakurako has the best chance to actually interest in me.
A couple of trailers were pretty, but I’ve already forgotten which they were. This is going to be a very open season. (For comparison: This season I had Working!, Shimoneta and Gakkou Gurashi to look forward to.) But open seasons are lots of fun at the start; fewer expectations usually mean more pleasant surprises. ^_^
(PS: I’m not going to watch K. First season wasn’t bad, just ultimately boring.)
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Man, I’m sure glad I have someone around to keep me on the straight and narrow when I go for the tongue-in-cheek pretentious tone.
Hey, if you’re not looking forward to anything, it means you have fewer expectations to be met and/or dashed. Hope you have fun with the new season.
And I don’t blame you for not going back to K. I didn’t find it boring, but even back in my non-critic days I found myself a bit perturbed by the narrative’s flaws.
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Tongue-in-cheek pretentious tone grammar mishaps are the one thing that summon my red pen. I usually don’t care.
Also, I typed “though” rather than “thou” when quoting you. This follows the principle that there will always be at least one mistake in the language you use to correct someone else’s grammar.
Life. We live it.
And, yes, open seasons like next one usually have the highest number of pleasant surprises.
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First since I do The Greenlit Anime (CR) I am already have a handle on most of the shows and read all kinds of annoucements !
My Fall unedited list is 55 shows ( Of course it wiil be culled Down) 4 Ongoing / 4 ongoing Dubs / 6 shorts / 50 OVAS ( Note tentative if they aare found ) 32 Movies ( Again if they are found )
So I am an exceotion to the rule but I go even beyond that! I dont even think of being let down as you have seen from my thoughts about Winter and Spring !
Also I point out VA’s/ Studios etc as the anime goes along because there is no way to do that in advance!
I try to find You Tube Bloggers that have good Previews OF Course ANN / CR / FUNI etc have previews !
A new tool if Ifind a match on upcomig anime and the manga / and the manga catches me I tend to be more into it ! I remember early before summer started warning people abour school live thunking it was Moe ! It turned out yo be a great success even with the rewwrites !
I have for the past two seasons watched at least the debut of about 90% of the shows and try to go at least 3 on the borderline ! BTW I didnt drop anything and glad because some shows have picked up midway like Charlotte So I am not sure about the 3 EP rule or even beyond that!
A PS note how is summer awful ?? Wait until you see my week 9 ranks I have a 4-way tie for first and 2nd ! And there was some great OVA’s which never get into the discussion about a season and kinda of a shame .
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MY bad I need a correction for above ! WEEK 9
3 shows Tied for First / 4 shows tied for 2nd / 4 shows tied for 3rd !
Much more substance/ and ess hot air than The Presidental Race !
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Haha, well you seem to be able to get something out of almost everything you watch, which is cool! Not all of us are like that, so we have to be a little more discerning. It sounds like you do a whole bunch of research, or at least just a lot of gathering feedback from different places, which I think is pretty neat.
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I don’t even start looking at the new shows until Crunchy/Funi start announcing their lineups…
Though fall/winter watching schedule is going to be busy with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, Doctor Who, and Heroes Reborn in the mix.
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I don’t blame you, because unless something’s really exceptional and Funi gets it, I tend to just forget about a lot of Funi’s stuff because it’s such a pain to watch.
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This is the time before the season starts where I find myself staring at the vague and haphazardly translated promo blurbs on anichart and wishing they were written by someone who could actually tell us something useful. Next month’s meeting for my anime club is dedicated to fall previews, so I’ll be watching a lot of trailers this month to decide which ones to show them, and I’ll probably end up picking most of my list based on the most interesting trailers and whatever CR acquires. That’s been my typical pattern when there’s not a lot attracting my interest in advance. I’m mildly interested in Heavy Object and Lance N Masques at this point, but not enough to follow them to Funi if that’s where they go. The one upcoming fall release that I have had marked to watch for quite a while now is Magical Suite Prism Nana, but that’s an OVA project.
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Oh, right—I always forget that you have to deal with picking things for your club, so just going slapdash the way I do probably isn’t as useful a strategy for you as it is for me. Good luck with all of that!
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I think I’m interested in fewer shows for Fall than I was for Summer. But I’m also intentionally looking into fewer shows because I’ve really been enjoying putting off my watch schedule to do some binging lately. I want to leave room for that in future.
I am genuinely excited about:
Noragami Aragoto- Because of course!
Lupin III L’avventura Italiana- The Castle of Cagliostro was one of the first anime movies I saw and I loved it. I’ve been watching Lupin III on CR lately as well. It’s so much fun.
Attack on Titan Junior High- Yes, I’m one of those people. A genuine AoT fangirl. This looks like it will be hilarious and adorable.
One-Punch Man- Not familiar with the manga, but I tend to like shonen action series. From the hype and the premise this looks like it will be awesome.
I am planning to try:
Young Black Jack- Seems like an interesting premise and I can probably pick it up without having seen the original since it’s a prequel.
Concrete Revolutio- You had me at “age of gods”.
Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen- I like fantasy. My question is, do I need to watch the first series before watching this? I can’t tell if this is a continuation or a separate story.
Sakurako-san no Ashimoto ni wa Shitai ga Umatteiru- I’ll try any mystery series.
K: Return of Kings- Started watching the first season the other day and so far it is confusing, but interesting. Plus, it has a bunch of my favorite voice actors.
Kagewani- Sounds like it might be a monster series from the point of view of a scientist trying to figure out a mystery. If so, I’m in.
Ore ga Ojou-sama Gakkou ni “Shomin Sample” Toshite Gets♥Sareta Ken- Could be funny or could be a stupid harem show. (Could be both!) I’ll just have to see.
High School Star Musical- Well, I enjoy Uta Pri so I’ll give this a shot. It all depends on the characters for me.
Comet Lucifer- Premise sounds interesting.
Onsen Yousei Hakone-chan- Looks like it might be cute.
I’m also going to try out the first season of Kindaichi at some point to see if I want to watch the second. This is the problem with only having started to watch simulcasts within the last year and a bit. A lot of the shows coming out tend to be sequels to shows I haven’t watched. So second seasons might end up getting put off if I can’t manage to get through the first seasons in time. (I made sure I watched Noragami earlier this year, though!)
I’ll also be continuing GATE and Fairy Tail.
This is still a lot of shows to try, but less than last season. Onward toward Autumn!
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@Utawarerumono: I don’t know this for a fact, but judging by the preview it appears to be a completely separate story that only shares the setting.
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Yeah, One Punch Man is like The Big Deal of the coming season. The manga is apparently smashingly popular, has great art, and is overall a really well-received thing whose anime adaptation has been a long time coming. So, yeah, I think it’s definitely something to be excited about.
I liked AoT quite a lot, but not quite enough to be interested in a chibi high school iteration of it. I hope people who do watch it find it enjoyable, though!
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I love that your Light Novel flier isn’t based off of a Light Novel, and that you have another speculative Light Novel (Sakurako-san) in the list. And even Sakurako-san is cheating, at that. It’ isn’t even set at a magic academy! It isn’t even a harem! Granted, your devotion to No Research means you are not aware of this, so it’s all good. Anyway, if you want a real crappy LN series that’s gonna be Actually Pretty Enjoyable But Don’t Tell Anybody, my bet is split between Lance and Masques and Taimadou Gakuen 35 Shiken Shoutai. The first may be fun, the second may be fun, if you catch my drift.
Anyways, I’m looking forward to the noitaminA mystery too. Hopefully it can fill the mystery hole that Ranpo Kittan left in my heart. Wasn’t a fan of Gochiusa the first go-around, so I’m feeling that Komori-san show as my potential cute girls fluff of the season.
Sorry, getting off-track again. Heavy Object: Bless, I am just not sure this show is gonna be about rocks. I mean I’d be hella hyped if it was, because like you I am so totally into rocks, but I feel like we’re being mislead here. Think about it; there are so many other non-rock objects which are heavy. Sheet-metal, cattle, the very earth itself, all of these things could potentially be the “Heavy Object” for which this show is named. Also Heavy Object is based off of a “Light” novel? Does that not seem suspect to you? How can a light novel be heavy?? Something deeper is going on here. Something… heavier. Who knows how deep this rabbit hole goes? I certainly don’t, but I am excited to find out.
Also thanks to this god damn post I am listening to the Mikanunin OP on repeat I hope you are satisfied.
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Oh, hey, look who’s back!
And yeah, no research done means I really haven’t the foggiest about the details of individuals shows besides ones I’ve somehow come to acquire knowledge on from where ever. Although I do remember my light novel flier being based off of a VN, so hey, I’m keeping my quota! Something about the general vibe of Utaware— just makes me feel like it might be a good thing. No basis for this suspicion, of course.
Also, the idea that Heavy Object could be about other heavy things besides rocks seems absurd to me since rocks are the heaviest type of thing I know of.
And the Mikakunin OP is fantastic (listen to the drum track, it’s sooo good), so you’re welcome.
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