Fantasy Anime League spring 2013 edition – Watch my co-writers be crushed yet again

It’s that time again. Since we had quite a bit of fun doing the Fantasy Anime League posts last time, Shinmaru and Inushinde decided that they wanted to get their asses handed to them this season too. For those not in the know, FAL works a lot like those fantasy sports leagues that are all the rage amongst nerds disguising themselves as sports fans. You pick a team of anime airing next season, with two benched titles, and watch as they rack up points. The points are decided primarily on how many people on MAL are watching it, along with a bunch of other contributing factors. Basically it’s a test of how well you can predict popularity of upcoming season’s anime. You can join fairly easily if you have a MAL account. Post your team in the comments if you too are taking part.

Also dancing. Because that’s what I’ll be doing on their graves.

Scamp

Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru
Hataraku Maou-sama
Karneval (TV)
Shingeki no Kyojin
Suisei no Gargantia
Bench: Kakumeiki Valvrave
Bench: Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko

Being easily the champ of The Cart Driver competitors last time around, competing with Inushinde and Shinmaru is barely a challenge for me anymore. Instead the challenge is can I go one better than last year’s second place finish. To do that, I’ll obviously need Attack on Ti-sorry, weeaboo names because we’re on MAL. I’ll need Shingeki no Kyojin on my team. If you don’t have that on your team this year, it’s either because you forgot or you’re not playing properly.

Things get a bit trickier after that. Gargantia feels like a safe pick. Yeah, Production IG mecha series with previous acclaimed writer Robotic;Notes didn’t do so hot last year, but the trailers for Gargantia look great compared to the slightly worrying R;N ones, so I’ll continue to bank on Butch Gen. Karneval looks to be the bishie laden show that will rally the female audience, what with the manga being inexplicably popular. Similarly for Henneko, which also has a bafflingly large fanbase for the manga despite being shit. But you know, MAL and taste.

The other 3 are largely wildcards. Sunrise are due a big mecha hit, and Valvrave looks to have potential. Hataraku Maou-sama and Yahari whatever are there as solid looking light novel crap that will inevitably garner a half decent audience. The big title missing from this list is Railgun S, but have you fools not learned from last season and Bakuman 3? Do you not think that 70+ episodes of previous series might be perhaps a large hurdle preventing Railgun S from growing in popularity enough? Yes I know two of them are just the Index series, but do you think that will matter to the newbies? Railgun will not be a big hitter, just you wait and see.

Shinmaru

Karneval
Shingeki no Kyojin
Date A Live
Yahari Ore no Seishun Love Come wa Machigatteiru.
Hataraku Maou-sama!
Bench: Toaru Kagaku no Railgun S
Bench: Hentai Ouji to Warawanai Neko

Oh, Scamp, so quick to belittle from atop the ivory tower. Railgun is in a solidly favorable position from my view. Watching those two shitty seasons of Index isn’t required; jumping right into Railgun isn’t particularly difficult. I’m not expecting it to be one of the season’s heaviest hitters, but a show that can be substituted in and pull in good numbers after a week or two? That’s a solid risk to take, especially Index as a whole is much bigger on MAL than Bakuman. Have fun weeping when Railgun’s raking in the points, Scamp.

We do agree on several shows, however; the one difference in our starting lineups is my insertion of Date A Live over Gargantia, which is admittedly a title that was on my short list of shows to include for a while. For the purposes of this game, though, I feel slightly more confident in Date A Live’s cadre of ladies. If Gargantia were to take off, though, I wouldn’t be surprised. I had another tough choice between Maou-sama and Devil Survivor, but video game adaptations are pretty spotty, in my experience, so I went with the former since it has a simple premise that lends itself to romance and comedy. An appealing, popular combination!

The others on my list are down to the logic of “people like looking at good lookin’ stuff,” whether that stuff is dudes, ladies or teenagers wrecking giants.

Inushinde

To Aru Kagaku no Railgun S
Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love: 2000%
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W
Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride
Hayate no Gotoku! Cuties
Bench: Not relevant
Bench: Not relevant

The astute among you might notice a recurring theme in my choices: They’re all sequels to shows of varying quality. I chose nothing but sequels, because I’m morbidly curious to see just how far a list with one of the inexorable Hayate sequels can get without getting tearfully put down behind a shed, and I wouldn’t dare put it on a roster that didn’t have some kind of theme framed around shows that provide a second helping of mediocrity.

However, there is some thought put into the order, by using the ancient secret of looking at the members that plan to watch it, and arranging the results in the order of where MAL’s taste tends to skew. What with Railgun being one of the more anticipated sequels, and UtaPri being shoujo harem tripe with inexplicable popularity that made it bound for a second season, those two would have made it onto my regular list without the need for this horrible gimmick. Then there’s Nyaruko-san that, while nobody drooled over it, drew in more than enough people to warrant the sequel maybe being put on a bench slot if one was feeling lucky. After that, things get a bit hazy and I rely more on guesswork than actual observation. Samurai Bride is looking to be trashy shit, but Highschool DxD was eaten up, and that was the trashiest of trashy shit. Hayate no Gotoku sequel is a Hayate no Gotoku sequel, so I’m probably going to hate myself for thinking that adding it to my lineup would be a larf.

Do I expect to win with this roster? No, not really. I don’t even expect to beat Shinmaru, the eternal lowbar, since Shingeki no Kyoujin and Karneval are looking to be popular enough by themselves to stomp my five meager choices into the dust. Still, at least this way I can count on the fact that nobody will drop a perfectly good show just because the characters went gay for each other in episode eight, taking my chances of victory with them. Not that I’m bitter or anything.