Spring is in the air, Covid vaccines has started up across the globe. If you’re in a country with its shit together that is. Anime Blogger is not considered an “””essential worker””” so instead I have to stay inside and watch anime. Thankfully there’s a new season of anime coming out and it’s time for Scamp and his world renowned Anime Season Preview to teach you all about what’s hot and what’s not – this time with plot descriptions and succinct final verdicts with emoticons. We’re living in the future baby! I may have been writing these season previews since 2008 and have not missed a single one in that time, but that doesn’t mean I can’t evolve.

To Your Eternity

It, a mysterious immortal being, is sent to the Earth with no emotions nor identity. However, It is able to take the shape of those around that have a strong impetus. At first, It is a sphere. Then, It imitates the form of a rock. As the temperature drops and snow falls atop the moss, It inherits the moss. When an injured, lone wolf comes limping by and lays down to die, It takes on the form of the animal. Finally, It gains consciousness and begins to traverse the empty tundra until It meets a boy. The boy lives alone in a ghost town, which the adults abandoned long ago in search of the paradise said to exist far beyond the endless sea of white tundra. However, their efforts were for naught, and now the boy is in a critical state. Acquiring the form of the boy, It sets off on a never-ending journey, in search of new experiences, places, and people.

This is definitely the critical darling of the season. To Your Eternity is already a highly regarded manga by the same author of A Silent Voice. The closest thing I could compare it to would be Mushishi, a calm vibe of a traveler with horror imagery, but in reality it defies categorisation. It’s not exactly a laugh-a-minute endeavor from what little I read of the manga, but I can at least confirm that I buy the hype. The staff appear to be a weird mix of ex-Naruto Shippuden staff with studio Brains Base, who haven’t done much of note lately. They appear to have lost whatever identity they had back in the Durarara days. That isn’t to say I don’t think this isn’t in capable hands. It has already been delayed 6 months thanks to Covid and the trailer looks good, perfectly capturing the tone of the manga. I’m pretty excited for it and at the very least it feels like the surest bet for something to watch next season.

Verdict: Excited ✨

Don’t Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro

High schooler Hayase Nagatoro loves to spend her free time doing one thing, and that is to bully her Senpai! After Nagatoro and her friends stumble upon the aspiring artist’s drawings, they find enjoyment in mercilessly bullying the timid Senpai. Nagatoro resolves to continue her cruel game and visits him daily so that she can force Senpai into doing whatever interests her at the time, especially if it makes him uncomfortable. Slightly aroused by and somewhat fearful of Nagatoro, Senpai is constantly roped into her antics as his interests, hobbies, appearance, and even personality are used against him as she entertains herself at his expense. As time goes on, Senpai realizes that he doesn’t dislike Nagatoro’s presence, and the two of them develop an uneasy friendship as one patiently puts up with the antics of the other.

I ended up being so fascinated by the manga I read the entire first volume and wrote a blog post on it. It’s a controversial title as it’s similar to Teasing Master Takagi-san, but waaaaay more mean-spirited to the point of being actually difficult to read. The second-hand embarrassment I felt while reading it reminded me of Watamote of all things. I kinda loved it, but I loved it as a psychological horror manga rather that some cute romance that other people who read the manga see it as. It does turn into a more cute romance, so I guess those people are correct, but it also feels unhealthy given how the story opens with her intentionally making the main dude cry multiple times in extremely vindictive fashion. I know it’s also supposed to be a semi-fetish thing (the author started the character as a porn-doujin-adjacent thing next to all the Naruto porn he drew), but that’s easier to swallow as a concept before the romance turns genuine. This is part of why the manga has a bit of a reputation already, which unfortunately has turned it into the Latest Cultural Warzone. At least according to the chuds who are all prepared to switch from their Uzaki-chan avatars to Nagatoro because it triggers the libs or something. So tread carefully on that front. Don’t engage the chuds and don’t feed the culture wars.

Verdict: Will watch ✔

Shaman King

Shamans are extraordinary individuals with the ability to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and gods, which are invisible to ordinary people. The Shaman Fight—a prestigious tournament pitting shamans from all over the world against each other—is held every five hundred years, where the winner is crowned Shaman King. This title allows the current incumbent to call upon the Great Spirit and shape the world as they see fit. Finding himself late for class one night, Manta Oyamada, an ordinary middle school student, decides to take a shortcut through the local cemetery. Noticing him, a lone boy sitting on a gravestone invites Manta to stargaze with “them.” Realizing that “them” refers to the boy and his ghostly friends, Manta flees the terror. Later, the boy introduces himself as You Asakura, a Shaman-in-training, and demonstrates his powers by teaming up with the ghost of six-hundred-year-old samurai Amidamaru to save Manta from a group of thugs. You befriends Manta due to his ability to see spirits, and with the help of Amidamaru, they set out to accomplish You’s goal of becoming the next Shaman King.

I understand that going back to popular anime to remake them is hardly a new thing. It also definitely works best for series where the original adaptation was done before the manga ended. See Fullmetal Alchemist, Fruits Basket, Hunter X Hunter (although let’s be honest, that manga is never ending). We live in a new age where anime don’t have to air all at once and long-running shounen series can simply take a break to let the manga catch up, even if that takes a decade to adapt the entire thing. This is all A Good Thing. I’m just a little surprised it’s Shaman King of all things getting a remake. It was decently popular in its day, but wasn’t exactly critically acclaimed, especially when compared to the other series I mentioned earlier. I guess it has a better argument for being remade than Sorcerous Stabber Orphen and that got remade for some god knows reason. The staff looks all right and the trailer seems lively enough, but my bigger issue has more to do with who they think the target audience is? Shounens have always been more for teenagers, and something like Shaman King feels like it would be dismissed as A Thing Old People Liked. Maybe I’m wrong though, watch Shaman King turn into the secret biggest thing like so many other shounen series randomly do.

Verdict: Might watch 👀

86

The Republic of San Magnolia. For a long time, this country has been besieged by its neighbor, the Giadian Empire, which created a series of unmanned drones called the Legion. After years of painstaking research, the Republic finally developed autonomous drones of their own, turning the one-sided struggle into a war without casualties—or at least, that’s what the government claims. In truth, there is no such thing as a bloodless war. Beyond the fortified walls protecting the eighty-five Republic territories lies the “nonexistent” Eighty-Sixth Sector. The young men and women of this forsaken land are branded the Eighty-Six and, stripped of their humanity, pilot the “unmanned” weapons into battle… Shinn directs the actions of a detachment of young Eighty-Sixers while on the battlefield. Lena is a “handler” who commands the detachment from the remote rear with the help of special communication. The farewell story of the severe and sad struggle of these two begins!

Light Novels and I have a troubled relationship. It’s not a complete loss you must understand – this isn’t like my relationship with eroge or otome games where I can safely dismiss everything. I have liked plenty of light novel adaptations in the past including, but not limited to, Tanya the Evil, Baccano, Spice and Wolf, Kino’s Journey, Full Metal Panic, Re:Zero and so on. The problem has more to do with how easily excitable the medium gets when something gets popular and they all follow in lockstep. The latest trend, which has now being going on for so long that it’s hard to call a trend anymore, is isekai all set in the same medieval fantasy RPG. Which is part of the reason why I’m excited by 86 (an annoyingly difficult title to google). It’s unique! Or at least unique within the light novel sphere. Two-tiered society turning soldiers into disposable military fodder who drive badass spider mech tanks, and all directed by a military general with truly phenomenal thighs if the promo material is anything to go by. The trailer looks good and the staff put together by A-1 Pictures for this is very promising, the highlight of which is Hiroyuki Sawano on the music. Haven’t heard of him? OK how about Kill la Kill, Attack on Titan, Promare? Yeah. The novels themselves have some pretty good reviews, including from people who aren’t regular light novel readers so their brains haven’t been poisoned. It’s a bit grim and edgy, but I like grim and edgy if done well so that’s not a turnoff for me. Grim, thighs and spider tanks are basically a perfect trio of things to get me excited for something.

Verdict: Excited ✨

Farewell, My Dear Cramer

With no soccer accomplishments to speak of during the entirety of Sumire Suou’s junior high school years, the young wing gets an odd offer. Suou’s main rival, Midori Soshizaki, invites her to join up on the same team in high school, with a promise that she’ll never let Suou “play alone.” It’s an earnest offer, but the question is whether Suou will take her up on it. Thus the curtain opens on a story that collects an enormous cast of individual soccer-playing personalities!

Farewell, My Dear Cramer is by the author of Your Lie in April. “Hurrah”, I hear you cheer. “I loved the touching story of Your Lie in April, it made me emotional”. But a loud “boo” comes down from the rafters where a foul creature lives. Named Scamp, this anime blogger cried in vain “Your Lie in April sucked massive donkey dick, piece of giant melodramatic trash”. But then you read the manga for Cramer and it turns out this isn’t melodrama central but instead more of a shounen sports anime (which can often get fairly melodramatic too but look bear with me). “Oh no, that’s not what I want” cry the crowd. But the creature in the rafters was pleased, for it liked the odd shounen sports anime if done well, and the manga did seem to be reasonably well made. It also had a Balotelli “Why Always Me” reference, which it appreciated. But then the trailer came out and was clearly trying to ape the style of Your Lie in April and make it far more melodramatic and less sports-focused than the manga was. The crowd were ecstatic. “Huzzah” they cheered, and started to throw rocks at the creature in the rafters, who skulked off to a corner never to be seen again. Then everyone saw the animation studio was Liden Films and since Liden Films are probably the worst studio around and regularly drag down good source material, everyone left unhappy.

Verdict: Might watch 👀

Vivy: Fluorite Eye’s Song

Nierland—an A.I complex theme park where dreams, hopes, and science intermingle. Created as the first-ever autonomous humanoid A.I, Vivy acts as an A.I cast for the establishment. To fulfill her mission of making everyone happy through songs, she continues to take the stage and perform with all her heart. However, the theme park was still lacking in popularity. One day, an A.I named Matsumoto appears before Vivy and explains that he has travelled from 100 years into the future, with the mission to correct history with Vivy and prevent the war between A.I and humanity that is set to take place 100 years later. What sort of future will the encounter of two A.I with different missions redraw? This is the story of A.I destroying A.I. A.I diva Vivy’s 100-year journey begins.

Studio Wit made every season of Attack on Titan up until the latest one, where they suddenly and dramatically bowed out. They claimed the work schedule being requested of them was impossible to keep up with. I admittedly can’t say I’ve noticed too big of a drop in quality in Titan’s animation this season, but I also know of how utterly fucked the conditions for animators are in Japan so I have a lot of respect for that move made by Wit. Instead they appear to have been working on this anime original show: Vivy. It’s a sci-fi action show with an AI android Idol as the main character. It strikes me as being a kind of cyberpunky Macross. As much as I have a lot of time for anything Wit does, and will naturally check out anything anime original, I’m having a hard time getting my expectations up. The actual staff listed aren’t super inspiring and the person credited with writing the story wrote Chaos;Child which is….well, Visual Novel fans claim is really good, but visual novel fans also claim Grisaia has a good story and Nasu is a competent writer so I trust them as much as a trust a cow not to shit in a field.

Verdict: Will watch ✔

Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood

The year is 1931. Prince Tokugawa Yoshinobu is 94 years old and holds absolute control over Japan. Remnants of the Meiji era’s culture can be seen around the city, but scientific technology and Japanese esoteric cosmology Onmyodo are also developing, exuding a sense of modernity. Yet lurking behind the glitz is Kuchinawa, a dissident group planning the assassination of the prince, and effectively the fall of the regime. Tasked to extinguish these dissidents is Nue, the government’s secret executioner group. Sawa Yukimura, who works for this organization, suffered from an early age at the hands of the Kuchinawa boss. Her entire family was murdered and she dedicated her life to avenging their death.

Did you like Madhouse anime of the late 00s? That era of Casshern Sins, Monster, Kurozuka, Mouryou no Hako, One Outs, Rideback, Aoi Bungaku, Rainbow, even Death Note etc? Well this is not that, but it certainly reminds me of that era of Madhouse. Very serious, slightly historical bent with a lot of violence and adult characters. Which is I’m down for. Give me murderous demon turn-of-the-century ladies in kimonos. But I’m not super confident in it actually being good, which feels especially bad to say for yet another anime original series. I think it’s the completely new studio combined with a director who I think is actively bad. His previous main titles, K and Mardock Scramble, clearly had a lot of effort put into them, but if anything their relative shittyness makes him look even worse as you can’t blame budget constraints. And the less said about his latest series, Dies Irae, the better.

Verdict: Will watch ✔

Way of the House Husband

“Immortal Tatsu,” the legendary yakuza who single-handedly defeated a rival gang with a lead pipe, is a name known to strike fear in both hardened police officers and vicious criminals. Soon after his sudden disappearance, he resurfaces with a slight change in profession. Now equipped with an apron, Tatsu has given up violence and is trying to make an honest living as a house husband. While adapting to mundane household tasks, Tatsu finds that being a house husband has its own challenges, from the battlefield known as supermarket sales to failures in the kitchen. Despite living peacefully, misunderstandings seem to follow him left and right. Gokushufudou follows the daily life of the comically serious ex-yakuza as he leaves behind his dangerous previous life to become a stay-at-home husband.

Something that infuriates me is when people get angry when an anime adaptation is not a complete 1-to-1 recreation of the manga. I understand why people say that, especially when they got new fuel for that fire with the Promised Neverland sequel, but that request doesn’t allow the anime medium to do what it does best. However for as frustrated as I get with Western fans about this, from reading interviews with directors in Japan it sounds like it is even more prevalent a complaint over there, to the point where sometimes directors boast that their anime is a 1-to-1 recreation of the manga. Take this to its logical conclusion and you get Way of the House Husband. A legitimately really good manga series being adapted with a style so horrid that even the worst hentai look better than. I’ve seen flash-animated series like Skull-faced Bookseller Honda-san that look better than whatever the fuck this is trying to do. And you get the staff on the anime saying this style was deliberate because they felt they couldn’t recreate the manga any other way? Either they are lying to cover for the lack of time and resources they were given to make the anime, or they’ve all spontaneously spouted brain worms.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Tokyo Revengers

Takemichi Hanagaki’s life is at an all-time low. Just when he thought it couldn’t get worse, he finds out that Hinata Tachibana, his ex-girlfriend, was murdered by the Tokyo Manji Gang: a group of vicious criminals that has been disturbing society’s peace for quite some time. Wondering where it all went wrong, Takemichi suddenly finds himself travelling through time, ending up 12 years in the past—when he was still in a relationship with Hinata. Realizing he has a chance to save her, Takemichi resolves to infiltrate the Tokyo Manji Gang and climb the ranks in order to rewrite the future and save Hinata from her tragic fate.

First thing to note that the trailer put out by Crunchyroll is unintentionally hilarious. Did they not get the voice actor’s lines recorded in time but had to put out the trailer without them? That would explain why the trailer was all talking heads with no actual sounds except random rock music. But even with the talking heads working as intended, you’d think they’d shove in a few more action shots to demonstrate that the animators have done more than draw ridiculous hairdos and animate lip flaps. Trailer aside, the manga is a classic gangster manga that feels like its ripped from the early 90s, back when pompadours were a thing in Japan. Even the character designs look like they come from an earlier time, despite the manga only starting in 2017. The original manga is notable for having a swastika in its title. No really, it’s an old religious symbol meaning prosperity and still used today to denote temples. You see the swastika all over temples and shrines in Japan, which I’ll admit never stopped being weird when I was travelling there. Back to the manga itself though. It’s not bad and has an interesting time travel twist to the story, so I could have seen it work with a competent adaptation that really leaned into the style. But Liden Films are doing the adaptation and they, as has been previously established, suck. So yeah, not much hope in this one from me.

Verdict: Might watch 👀

Mars Red

Mars Red takes place in 1923, and vampires have existed for quite a while. But now, the number of vampires is increasing and a mysterious, artificial blood source called Ascra has appeared. The Japanese government, in turn, creates “Code Zero,” an unit within the army tasked with taking down the vampiric forces. And what better way to track vampires than by using vampires? Created by Lieutenant General Nakajima, this unit has historically been in the business of information war, but has been re-assigned to solve the vampire crisis.

This makes for an interesting contrast with Tokyo Revengers. When reading the manga adaptation of Mars Red, I came away with the same feeling I had after Revengers: That any anime adaptation really needs to lean into the style to be successful. Well Mars Red definitely does that judging by the trailer. Signal MD are a fairly new studio, but they span off from Production IG, one of the better anime studios out there, and it shares a lot of the same DNA from its original studio. Mars Red was originally a stage play interestingly enough, which I suppose makes sense. If I know anything about modern Japanese stage productions, it’s that they live on their handsome men (or handsome women) in dashing vaguely military-esque outfits. Also I enjoyed the main character quite a bit in the manga, although that was because she was a reporter and I am hopelessly predictable.

Verdict: Will watch ✔

The World Ends With You The Animation

Neku Sakuraba, a 15-year-old boy with a hobby for music and graffiti, wakes up in what seems to be the Shibuya shopping district of Tokyo, Japan. With no idea why he’s there, he opens his hand to realize he is holding a strange black pin. After flipping it with his hand, the thoughts of the people surrounding him begins to flow into his head at once. Surprised, Neku discovers he is able to read the minds of others and assumes it has something to do with the black pin he is holding. A cell phone starts to ring in his pocket, and he can’t tell whether it is his or not. A text message appears: “Reach 104. You have 60 minutes. Fail, and face erasure. -The Reapers.” After discovering he can’t delete the message, a timer of 60 minutes imprints onto his right hand. Neku is in Shibuya to play the “Reapers’ Game,” which spans a total of seven days. All Players of the Reapers’ Game have a black pin with a skull embedded on it.

Come on anime fans, we have completed this dance many times before. Adaptation of popular JRPG gets anime. People get really excited because they like the JRPG. Anime comes out and it’s not very good. Fans blame the adaptation no matter what because they cannot accept that the story and writing were maybe never that good and was structured towards gameplay progression and not story reasoning. I’ll give credit at least to the anime keeping the rather unique visual style of the games, but come guys. Don’t do this to yourselves. It never turns out good and you’re just setting yourself up for disappointment.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Shadows House

Faceless shadow nobles living in a vast mansion, attended by living dolls who spend much of their time cleaning up the soot endlessly emitted by their mysterious masters. Follow the story of Emilyko, a young and cheerful living doll, as she learns her duties serving as the attendant for Kate Shadow-sama.

Shadows House is a pretty neat little thing. It’s very low-key gothic, what with the Victorian-era noble dresses and décor with classic French maids and elaborate dolls and secret societies. Cloverworks are one of the more exciting newer anime studios out there so having them behind the helm is promising. I do want to emphasize the low-key aspect. This is not Hellsing with little goth girls. So if you’re not down for the slow burn then this might not be for you. But I’m certainly intrigued.

Verdict: Excited ✨

Dragon Goes House-Hunting

When a dragon fails to live up to the fearsome standards set for him, his family kicks him out. He embarks on a quest to find a new home, but soon finds that life on the road is no place for a cowardly beast of legend. In a fantasy world full of elves, dwarves, and other mythical creatures, where everyone wants a piece of him—literally!—the frustrations of house-hunting reach a whole new level.

Of all the manga for upcoming anime this season I read the first chapter of, my favourite was…well, it was Nagatoro, but that’s because I’m trash. But after that the manga I took to most was Dragon Goes House-Hunting. It’s just incredibly charming, naturally funny and had bare harpy tits. There’s not much more than what the plot description says: A dragon wants to buy a house. It works because the dragon himself is so endearingly pathetic. The poor guy just wants a nice little place to settle down and live his life and yet keeps getting hunted for his valuable dragon parts! It’s the second Signal MD anime of the season, which is pretty surprising. I don’t envy their job on this either as having to animate a nervous yet fully detailed scaly dragon is a tough task. But hey, the source material is strong enough that I’m excited. They did have to remove the bare harpy tits though, but I suppose we can’t have everything.

Verdict: Excited ✨

Mashiro no Oto

Shamisen is a traditional Japanese musical instrument that looks similar to a guitar. Teenager Sawamura Setsu’s grandfather who raised him and his older brother Wakana, recently passed away. His grandfather was one of the greatest Shamisen players and the two siblings grew up listening to him play and learning to play the instrument. Since their grandfather’s death, Setsu dropped out of high school, moved to Tokyo and has been drifting, not knowing what to do besides play his Shamisen. That’s when his successful and rich mother, Umeko, storms into his life and tries to shape Setsu up. She enrolls him back into high school, but little does Setsu know that he is about to rediscover his passion for Shamisen.

This is a classic melodramatic shoujo. Angsty boy looking very serious with bad social skills who sits around with his one thing he’s good at and the wind blows by as d-r-a-m-a happens in the background as people yell at each other with tears in their eyes and their overwhelming feelings. Yeah you know the drill. This is by the same director and studio that did Takagi-san, which ended up being quite a successful little show. It wasn’t exactly the greatest animated thing in the world (to be fair, it didn’t really need to be) and the lackluster animation appears to have continued into this show. But I’m also a bad judge since this is absolutely not my genre. I do have one specific complaint though: It would have been nice if the music for the OP used the shamisen. You know, the instrument this entire anime is supposed to be about? Reminds me of Welcome to the Ballroom not playing the actual ballroom dance music during the dance scenes. Do you even know what it is you’re adapting?

Verdict: No interest ❌

Godzilla Singular Point

This series features an original story, which depicts the young geniuses Mei Kamino, a female researcher, and Yun Arikawa, a male engineer, as they take on an unprecedented threat with their companions. When danger comes up from the depths, only young geniuses Mei, Yun, and their team can face the threat in Godzilla Singular Point!

If you are the type of person who thinks CG anime are a sign of the end times and ruining the entire industry, then I imagine you have a bone to pick with Netflix since they appear to be helping fund a lot CG anime these days. I am slightly on your side in the anti-CG anime crusade, but I make an exception for Studio Orange. They have a track record of actually good-looking CG anime like Land of the Lustrous (sequel plz), Beastars and now Godzilla Singular Point. Despite being a dirty weeb, there’s large parts of Japanese pop culture that I’m not that into, and kaiju is one of them. But hey, this looks neat and I’m certainly willing to give it a go, even if the fact the main character looking like Gintoki from Gintama is throwing me off.

Verdict: Will watch ✔

Burning Kabaddi

First-year high schooler Tatsuya Yoigoshi, the former ace of a junior high school soccer team who has come to dislike sports, receives an invitation to join the Kabaddi club. Initially mocking the idea of Kabaddi, he takes an interest after watching an intense competition akin to martial arts at a practice session.

I’ll give them this: Making a sports anime from kabbadi is certainly original. That’s about where my praise ends. The manga is dull with inherently unlikable characters, substitute kabbadi for any sport and it is indistinguishable from every other mediocre sports anime, and the animation in the trailer looks awful.

Verdict: No interest ❌

I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level

Suddenly dying from overwork, salarywoman Azusa Aizawa finds herself before an angel, who allows her to reincarnate into a new world as an immortal witch, where she spends her days killing slimes for money on an otherwise eternal vacation. But even the minimal experience points from slimes will add up after hundreds of years, and Azusa discovers that she accidentally reached the maximum level! Fearing that her strong abilities will attract work and force her back to a life of overexertion, she decides to hide her strength in order to preserve her peaceful lifestyle. Despite her efforts, tales of the max level “Witch of the Plateau” spread across the land, and a proud dragon named Raika shows up looking to test their strength against her. Even though Azusa defeats and befriends Raika, problems arise as both friends and foes come looking for the secluded witch.

I’ve found that if we are doomed to live in a world with isekai light novels infesting the landscape, I prefer the ones with female leads. They tend to avoid some of the less savory elements of other light novel titles, like the freedom from consequence for your sexual depravity that seems to be many other isekai titles main reason for existing *cough* Jobless Reincarnation *cough*. This one has been a minor hit in light novel spheres too. It’s….fine? I dunno, I’m not totally sold on these isekai where the character goes to another world with the goal of living a peaceful life. It’s not like there’s no conflict in them – this isn’t like the old iyashikei trend where the entire goal was to have no drama whatsoever. These are more intended as comedy pieces with minor issues that all get sorted out by the end of the episode. I just find them a little dull is all. Same with the “overpowered main character in an isekai” trope, which achieves the same end result in there being no real conflict or tension.

Verdict: Might watch 👀

Edens Zero

At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, Rebecca and her cat companion Happy appear at the park’s front gates. Little do these newcomers know that this is the first human contact Granbell has had in a hundred years! As Shiki stumbles his way into making new friends, his former neighbors stir at an opportunity for a robo-rebellion… And when his old homeland becomes too dangerous, Shiki must join Rebecca and Happy on their spaceship and escape into the boundless cosmos.

A few weeks ago I was tasked with naming the most generic shounen action series. After mulling over the question for a bit, I eventually settled on Fairy Tail. Edens Zero comes to us from the same author and I think he’s trying to defeat his old series in the most generic shounen action series competition. It even manages the good parts of the Generic Shounen, such as a wildly imaginative and colourful setting with some neat world-building ideas in there. And then we get the other parts of the Generic Shounen, including shallow writing with jokes that consist of shouting and a plot thread solved by the power of friendship. Also there’s a joke where the main guy accidentally grabs the girl’s tit in the first chapter. Yup.

Verdict: No interest ❌

A Romantic Comedy Where the Childhood Friend Absolutely Will Not Lose

My childhood friend Shida Kuroha seems to have feelings for me. She lives next door, and is small and cute. With an outgoing character, she’s the caring Onee-san type, this being one of her greatest strengths. …But, I already have my first love, the beautiful idol of our school, and the award-winning author, Kachi Shirokusa! Thinking about it rationally, I should have no chances with her, but, while walking home from school, she only talks to me, with a smile even! I might actually have a chance, don’t you think?! Or so I thought, but then I heard that Shirokusa already has a boyfriend, and my life took a turn for the worse. I want to die. Why is it not me?! Even though she was my first love… As I was drowning in despair and depression, Kuroha whispered. —If it’s that tough for you, then how about we get revenge? The best revenge ever, that is~

With the wild success of isekai, light novels have forgotten about their old port of call: High school harem pick-your-archetype-to-cheer-for comedies! Maybe the success of the Quintessential Quintuplets manga will bring these series back? I bitch about isekai, but having read a bit of the manga adaptation and seen the trailer for this, I will happily take 10 more years of isekai. I don’t really get the appeal of this to be honest. The titles implies a genre-savvy, self-referential mockery of these harem romcom tropes, but it plays everything completely straight. Maybe it’s just for people who like this garbage but just wants the assurance before reading that the best girl wins?

Verdict: No interest ❌

It’s Disgusting to Call This Love

Once you fall for someone, you can’t stop the love. A strange encounter spurs the meeting of Amakusa Ryou, a high spec businessman who is loose with women, and his high school sister’s best friend, Arima Ichika. From there, he falls madly in love. On one hand, he approaches her with almost too straight-forward methods, while she responds simply disgusted, insulting him without hesitation… and he takes it as her way of showing love. This is a romantic comedy about a twisted elite employee and a normal otaku high school girl.

Grab your copy of Lolita and put on your latest Woody Allen movie because it’s time to talk about Older Men Getting It On With Highschool Girls! It’s not that there is no way to tell a story about a guy who wants to get it on with a highschool girl, which is what this is about. But it’s a difficult line to walk and Japan does not get the benefit of the doubt on this. Especially in this case where the tone appears to be “haha this guy is creepy but also his love is genuine and that’s kinda cute haha” so that’s a big fat nope from me.

Verdict: No interest ❌

I Shave My Beard. Then I Pick Up a High School Girl

Office worker Yoshida has been crushing on his coworker, Airi Gotou, for five years. Despite finally scoring a date with her, his confession is promptly rejected. Drunk and disappointed, he stumbles home, only to find a high school girl sitting on the side of the road. The girl, needing a place to stay the night, attempts to seduce Yoshida. Despite rejecting her advances, he nevertheless invites her into his apartment. The next morning, the girl, introducing herself as Sayu Ogiwara, reveals that she has run away from Hokkaido all the way to Tokyo. During her six-month spree, she continually traded sexual favors for a roof over her head. Yoshida, however, remains unswayed by her seduction. Instead, he has her do a different kind of work—one that entails washing dishes and doing laundry. And so, a touching relationship between a heartbroken adult and a runaway high school girl begins.

What’s that? A second anime about a dude and a highschool girl potentially getting it on? Wow Japan you really are spoiling us with your dubious relationships! This time she comes onto him and he, like the noble and brave soul that he is, turns her down. Despite these hawt highschool titties yeah let’s zoom the camera into those hawt highschool titties that you’re turning down. This one is at least more obviously trashy than the previous title, which is playing it off as light comedy and vaguely romantic. I’ve found I’m more forgiving of something obviously trashy. No need to condone your kinks. Except when your kink is picking up desperate horny highschool girls.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Combatants Will Be Dispatched

Always bring a gun to a sword fight! With world domination nearly in their grasp, the Supreme Leaders of the Kisaragi Corporation—an underground criminal group turned evil megacorp—have decided to try their hands at interstellar conquest. A quick dice roll nominates their chief operative, Combat Agent Six, to be the one to explore an alien planet…and the first thing he does when he gets there is change the sacred incantation for a holy ritual to the most embarrassing thing he can think of. But evil deeds are business as usual for Kisaragi operatives, so if Six wants a promotion and a raise, he’ll have to work much harder than that! For starters, he’ll have to do something about the other group of villains on the planet, who are calling themselves the “Demon Lord’s Army” or whatever. After all, this world doesn’t need two evil organizations!

This comes to us from the same author who wrote Konosuba and that one anime about the wrestler who opens a pet shop in an isekai world. He’s a popular author and I’ve really tried to get into his works, and I know comedy is the most subjective of mediums. But man I do not find his work funny at all. I really do find it actively mean-spirited and shallow. The light novel has had next to zero fanfare from what I’ve seen despite being by the same author so Konosuba might be his one-hit wonder. Or two hit wonder since I think he wrote Isekai Quartet, but that might be cheating.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Pretty Boy Detective Club

Mayumi Dojima, a second-year student at the exclusive Yubiwa Academy middle school, has lost something—a star she glimpsed just once, ten long years ago. But help is on the way, in the form of the unofficial, secretive, and thoroughly mysterious Pretty Boy Detective Club! Rumored to solve problems within the school (most of which they themselves might as well created) for reasons aesthetic rather than financial, these five gorgeous boys sweep Mayumi into their world of excitement, danger, and overwhelming beauty.

You know what studio I love? Shaft! Specifically the Shaft of the 2010s. The Shaft of the 2000s was interesting but flawed. The Shaft of the 2010s gave us Monogatari, Madoka Magica, March Comes in Like a Lion, some of my favourite and most innovative anime of the past decade. They’ve been very quiet lately with their main director Akiyuki Shinbo doing not very much of late. His return is extremely exciting for me, and hearing he’s going to pair up with the Monogatari author Nisioisin is intriguing. So what is this latest novel Shaft are putting out? Pretty Boy Detective Club? Umm….OK no Scamp don’t judge, go check out the first volume aaaaand this is complete garbage. What the fuck Shinbo? The best you could come up with is some awful Ouran High School clone? I might end up watching the first episode and hating myself because I want more Shaft but fuck me why does the return have to be this depressing?

Verdict: Might watch 👀

Bakuten!!

The story follows Shoutarou Futaba, a boy who’s fascinated with men’s rhythmic gymnastics and enrolled at the Ao High School to join the school’s team. The story follows a team of unique seniors and Yoshiya Misato, a classmate who’s famous in high school rhythmic gymnastics tournaments, who run together toward one goal.

Cute boys do rhythmic gymnastics! After the wild successes of Free and Yuri on Ice, studios have taken the lesson that if you grab a bunch of cute boys and have them play a sport then it will sell gangbusters. Although the creators of Bakuten appear to have missed the memo of the anime needing a little more…shall we say, animation put into it? Free and Yuri on Ice had a lot of that, you can’t cheap out on your cute boys and expect your audience to not care!

Verdict: No interest ❌

Super Cub

Second year high school student Koguma doesn’t lead a very interesting life. She has no parents, and no friends nor hobbies to keep her daily life busy. One day, she acquires a second-hand Honda Super Cub motorcycle and rides it to school. As time goes by, not only does Koguma have a new adventurous life, but she also forges precious friendships thanks to her precious little motorcycle.

There’s not much to this. Girl has nothing. Gets small motorbike. Girl now has nothing except her motorbike. Girl now happy. I’ve used the term “low-key” a few times during this post, but it’s hard to get more low-key than this. I did end up having a weird connection to the trailer though. The calming piano music, shots of Japan suburbia, girl on her motorbike, telling a nice little story. I kinda want the whole anime to be like this. Like a Peter and the Wolf style story told through music. No voices, no other ambient noises, just using the musical instruments to tell the story about a girl and her motorbike. I’d watch that.

Verdict: Might watch 👀

The Saint’s Magic Power is Omnipotent

Sei, a 20-year-old office worker, is whisked away to a whole new world. Unfortunately for Sei, the ritual that summoned her—meant to produce a “Saint” who would banish the dark magic—brought two people over instead of one. And everyone prefers the second girl over Sei?! But this is just fine by Sei, who leaves the royal palace to set up shop making potions and cosmetics with her newfound magic. Business is booming, and this might not be such a bad life, after all…as long as her supposed Sainthood doesn’t come back to haunt her.

I know I’ve said I prefer the isekai stories with female leads, but that’s because they tend to be less obviously driven by a desire to be surrounded by hot anime girls. But when you write the same story and surround the lead by hot anime boys then that’s just the same shit different gender.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Full Dive: The Ultimate Next-Gen Full Dive RPG Is Even Shittier than Real Life!

In an unexpected turn of events, dull high school student Hiro Yuuki obtains the full dive role-playing game Kiwame Quest. Created by the best of technology, the game claims to take “reality to its extremes,” from stunning graphics, NPCs’ behavior, to the scent of vegetation, and even the sensation of wind brushing against the skin—everything was the result of an ultimate workmanship. Except, the game is a little too realistic and messy to clear. Kiwame Quest features over ten quadrillion flags and reflects the players’ real-life physical abilities in the game. Being hit in the game also hurts in real life and slash wounds take days to heal. The only reward here is the sense of accomplishment. Conquer the most stressful game in history that can’t be played casually!

And the award for the worst character designs of the season goes to….

Let’s Make a Mug Too

Verdict: No interest ❌

The city of Tajimi, located in the southern part of Gifu Prefecture, Japan, is famous for Mino earthenware. The city is dotted with historical pottery producers and ceramic art museums. It has facilities where you can try your hand at making pottery, and many restaurants that serve food on Minoware dishes. The story begins when a high school girl moves to a shopping street in Tajimi. Many encounters await her, friends, town folk, ceramic art, etc. What will she discover in a town famous for ceramic?

This is one of those anime made to promote tourism in a Japanese city, or at least tangentially related to doing that. In this case it’s for an area with a big history in pottery, hence an anime about girls making mugs. I mean, it worked for Zombieland Saga. I watched that and now want to go to that fried chicken place in Saga.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Cestvs: The Roman Fighter

54 AD. Cestus, a young boy orphaned by the Roman empire and made a slave, is placed into a training school for pugilists. It is here that he begins his journey to defy fate and fight for his own freedom.

I put this here as a useful point of comparison for the Godzilla anime. Godzilla has decent CG animation. This does not. Why do so many CG anime still look like late PS2-era games?

Verdict: No interest ❌

Fairy Ranmaru ~I Will Help Your Heart~

Set in a world of cruelty and heartbreak, Fairy Ranmaru: Anata no Kokoro Otasuke Shimasu follows five young men who work at the mysterious “Bar F” and who offer to heal the hearts of their clients, wiping away their tears and causing smiles to bloom like flowers. They take no payment… aside from stealing their clients’ hearts.

Please look at their magical boy outfits. They are truly incredible. Dudes just chilling with their massive schlongs on full display, that’s real alpha behavior.

Verdict: No interest ❌

Sequels

Despite being arguably the biggest show of the season and one of the few sequels I intend to watch, My Hero Academia is probably the least interesting sequel to talk about. We are on season 5. There’s nothing new here. If this was over 10 years ago we wouldn’t be in this position as the entire show would have just aired in one long run. Makes me wonder if it’s even worth covering in a season preview – I don’t talk about One Piece every time it enters a new arc for example. But yeah, more My Hero Academia incoming. I hope it’s better than the previous season. I feel it been going downhill since the excellent season 2.

As for more interesting sequels, the other one I’m definitely watching is Megalo Box. It’s exciting when an anime original series gets a sequel as it shows the big risk paid off. I don’t think Megalo Box needed a sequel per say, but hey it was cool and stylish and I’ll take more. Zombieland Saga was another anime original series that took off and became a surprise success. This one I’m less interested in checking out the sequel for. I liked season 1 at the start when it was more weird, but then it became a standard idol anime except with zombies…which I know makes it sound extremely different, but trust me it’s not. It does have the distinction of the only anime to have been held up in British Parliament thanks to Trans Icon Lily Hoshikawa demanding Terfs shut the fuck up. So while I may not watch season 2, I’m happy it exists if only for that.

Hetalia World Stars is shocking in the sense that apparently they still think there’s an audience out there for Hetalia. I actually quite liked Hetalia once upon a time, but let me tell you if anyone has ever told you to not let a fandom ruin a franchise for you, introduce them to Hetalia fandom. Only fans I’ve ever met where a not-insignificant number of them were holocaust deniers. Bringing back Fruits Basket seemed to work though, as we are now on its final season of the reboot. It could prompt more shoujo manga being adapted, but more likely producers will think this is a one-off and instead get more cheaply produced idol boy anime. Iruma-kun is getting a sequel, which is neat, as it’s a show I’ve been meaning to go back to. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime has some little spinoff called Slime Diaries as something you can watch between seasons. There’s also Moriarty the Patriot which errrr exists. How Not to Summon a Demon Lord is back for those who thought modern isekai stories needed much more sex slavery. Battle Athletess still has a truly baffling second S in the title and wait why the fuck are we getting a Battle Athletess anime in 2021 what the hell? Is there so few good yuri manga out there that you’re picking up a not particular good anime from 20 years ago to make a sequel of? Finally SSSS.Gridman is getting a spinoff called SSSS.Dynazenon but it appears to be focused on cute boys this time and since people only watched the first season to see hawt lady thighs then I imagine it is of no interest to anybody no I will not be taking any questions this season preview is over.