Spring 2024 Anime Season Preview

Way back in 2007, young anime fan Scamp spotted this image on an anime website. It caught my eye and I went to look it up, only to discover it hadn’t aired yet. The preview plot description though talked about a fantasy series focused on more down-to-earth mercantilism and low-key travel than swords and sorcery. That combined with the cute girl in the promo material captured my interest, and I kept tabs on it until it aired. I became a big Horo-sorry, Holo guy, and now wanted to know everything there was about other upcoming anime for the spring 2008 anime season. This led me to anime blogs doing season previews, which led to me wanting to write my own season previews as I hunted down info on all the upcoming anime. That was the start of the now 16-year-path of writing season previews. I believe this is the 63rd anime season preview I’ve written?

Welcome to the new Cart Driver anime blog. It’s 2008 all over again and there’s a new Spice and Wolf coming out.

Kaiju No.8

Studio: Production IG

With the highest kaiju-emergence rates in the world, Japan is no stranger to attack by deadly monsters. Enter the Japan Defense Force, a military organization tasked with the neutralization of kaiju. Kafka Hibino, a kaiju-corpse cleanup man, has always dreamed of joining the force. But when he gets another shot at achieving his childhood dream, he undergoes an unexpected transformation. How can he fight kaiju now that he’s become one himself?!

This is our completely obvious big shounen hit property of the season. Kaiju No.8 has been a very popular Jump title for a while now, and for the animation they went and got Production IG. It has a genuinely unique setup too. Yeah sure it eventually becomes crack combat team with superpowers fighting giant monsters, but whatever, it has an adult main character so that’s nice. I’m actually not that keen on the director, who has been around a while but doesn’t have a single anime to his name I would call “good”. Afterlost, Buzzer Beater, Onihei, Supernatural the Animation yes they really made a Supernatural anime. I guess Blood Lad wasn’t terrible? Oh who am I kidding, I haven’t even heard of some of these, I doubt you have either. I feel like it would be hard to mess this one up with Production IG and extremely well-regarded source material. Then again, I do love cursing stuff.

Verdict: Anime Award For Most Obvious Hit of the Season That You Need On Your Fantasy Anime League Team

Spice and Wolf: Merchant meets the wise wolf

Studio: Passione

Lawrence is a traveling merchant selling various goods from a horse-drawn cart. One day, he arrives at a village and meets a beautiful girl with the ears and tail of an animal! Her name is Holo the Wisewolf and she brings bountiful harvests. She wishes to return to her homeland, and Lawrence offers to take her. Now, the once-lonely merchant and the once-lonely wisewolf begin their journey north.

Gosh, it’s really happening huh. I’m old enough that I watched Spice and Wolf as it was coming out. In fact, it was the first anime I ever watched while it was still airing in Japan. Yes I am an original, first generation, Horo-sorry, Holo waifu guy. I’m not sure how much it holds up though. I have a sneaking suspicion some of the economics in it were very surface level. I was about to go back to it as part of my anime rewatch project, but then they dropped the trailer for this remake.

So, as an original Horo-sorry, Holo stan, how do I feel about this remake? Eh, it looks fine? Holo’s design has garnered some criticism for its more baby-face look, and the studio previously has not done much of note. Yuri is my Job, Harem in the Labyrinth of Another World, Interspecies Reviewers. Honestly, Interspecies Reviewers might be the best thing on their resume, unless you want to go back way to 2014 and Rokka (still a little disappointed that never got a sequel). Interspecies Reviewers might even have some relevance to Spice and Wolf since that too was about evaluating business opportunities and girls with animal ears.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Bankrupt Scamp Because This Means a New Batch of Holo Figurines and He’s Still Eyeing That One of Holo Wearing an Alsace Dress

Code Geass: Dakkan no Rozé

Studio: Sunrise

idk I can’t find a plot description anywhere.

Hah, they’re really digging into the well of Anime Scamp Watched Over 15 Years Ago And Has Strong Feelings About. So, what is this new Code Geass thing? It’s a string of 4 movies as a spinoff. No plot description anywhere so I have no idea how this fits into the canon and I didn’t see any recognizable characters, but those sure are some Clamp character designs. The director has done great work like Witchblade, Sacred Seven, Kokkoku and ok so maybe he hasn’t done great work. But the scriptwriter has done Princess Principal, which was Perfectly OK! Wooh, excitement! Speaking of Kokkoku, it has an OP by Miyavi, which is cool. Not that who is doing the OP really tells you much, but I just don’t have a whole lot to go off here. Dissatisfying preview I know, but more Code Geass is certainly something cool…I think? Do I actually want more Code Geass?

Verdict: Anime Award For Most Likely to Disappoint Scamp Incredibly and Finally Force Him to Look At the Dodgy Politics of Code Geass

GO! GO! Loser Ranger!

Studio: Yostar Pictures

When the Monster Army invaded Earth thirteen years ago, the Divine Dragon Rangers rose up to stop them! With the war raging on, these great heroes are mankind’s last hope! …or are they? In truth, the invaders were subjugated within a year, forced to continue to crank out a monster a week for the Rangers to crush in front of their adoring fans! But one monster has had enough. Something has to change! He’ll rebel against the might of the Dragon Rangers and destroy them all…from the inside!

I read the first chapter of the manga for every anime coming out in a new season – or at least the ones I can get my grubby pirate hands on. Of everything I read, this was by far my favourite. Fun setup, actual emotional hook to get you to root for the main character. Cool art, unique idea, solid writing, even got to me a little. It’s by the author of Quintessential Quintuplets of all things. Now I don’t think I even watched one episode of that, but by all accounts for a series that was a vehicle for Best Girl arguments, it was supposedly pretty good. So imagine what they can do with a series that I’m actually digging the setup for?

It’s the director of Tiger and Bunny and Rage of Bahamut, which you can definitely see in the visual stylings. I’ve got my problems with both anime, but mostly in the story department. The studio is Yostar Studio, who don’t have a whole lot under their belt, mostly just being Arknights. But where they’ve really made their name is making stupidly high quality animations for phone games like the aforementioned Arknights and Azur Lane. I could shit talk those games all I want, but those trailers do look pretty amazing, so it’s exciting to see them jump into a full anime series. The trailer looks good, the staff and studio are promising, and I like the source material. This is the anime I’m looking forward to the most.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime That Will Make Scamp Go Back and Watch Quintuplets Harem Anime

Mysterious Disappearances

Studio: Zero-G

An aspiring novelist teams up with an enigmatic colleague to solve supernatural urban mysteries! Ogawa Sumireko is a busty bookstore clerk who wants to become a novelist after some writing success in her youth. When strange occurrences start cropping up around the city, she teams up with her flirtatious co-worker Adashino Ren to look into them. But Ren is hiding a secret of his own! With their combined skills of occult knowledge, what will they discover as they investigate?

This series has a hold over me somehow. I think it’s the eyebrows? I thought the source material seemed all right if you’re into your urban mystery ghost story type of stories. The only problem is the main character having boobs that make my back hurt just looking at them. They’re huge! Like actual G-cup size. Anyways, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the studio. Zero-G have mostly done garbage, and not in a “well maybe they were given only bad source material” sort of way. The trailer doesn’t look awful or anything, but there’s a few shots that made me hmmmm. The director is…interesting? He’s been around for ages, being the chief director of Ranma back in the day. His output since then has been errrr well, did you like Pupa?

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Contain Steamy Censored Shower Shot in the First Episode

The Grimm Variations

Studio: Wit Studio

Once upon a time, brothers Jacob and Wilhelm collected fairy tales from across the land and made them into a book. They also had a much younger sister, the innocent and curious Charlotte, who they loved very much. One day, while the brothers were telling Charlotte a fairy tale like usual, they saw that she had a somewhat melancholy look on her face. She asked them, “Do you suppose they really lived happily ever after?” The pages of Grimms’ Fairy Tales, written by Jacob and Wilhelm, are now presented from the unique perspective of Charlotte, who sees the stories quite differently from her brothers.

I advise watching the trailer for this one. It’s completely nuts. Clamp character designs go hard for this. They are extremely loosely based on Grimm Fairy Tales, but with as much in common with the originals as porn parodies do. It has Wit Studio doing the animation, which really comes across in the trailer. But the detail that I’m really interested in is the one staff member they have revealed: Michiko Yokote. I’ve sung her praise a bajillion times in these season previews, but she’s been around for ages having worked everything from Cowboy Bebop to Call of the Night and so many more in between. Why I keep my eye on her is she has a habit of elevating everything she works on. Stuff that should not have been any good ended up being perfectly watchable, and sometimes even great. Squid Girl, Takagi-san, Prison School, Onimai, Osomatsu-san, Saiki K, Shirobako. She’s great and this appears to be her writing this whole thing by herself. That’s exciting! I’m so here for Michiko Yotoke writing a bunch of weird fairy tales. Genuinely excited by this one. I do hope it doesn’t disappear completely. Sometimes Netflix anime can do that.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to be Passed Over for Best Character Designs at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards Despite the Fact it Should Obviously Win

The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio

Studio: Connect

Yuuhi Yugure and Yasumi Utatane, high school classmates and co-hosts of a weekly radio program, paint a picture-perfect friendship for their listeners. Yet, in reality, they couldn’t be more different. Their off-air dynamic is a whirlwind of chaos and insults. As their tumultuous relationship unfolds, they navigate the turbulent waters of friendship and rivalry in the cutthroat realm of showbiz.

There was something to the manga from what I read. The core concept of these two voice actors who hate each other having to do a radio show in character together is a genuinely neat idea, and you catch a glimpse of that in the trailer. It reminded me a little of some of the more cynical, down-to-earth idol anime, like Oshi no Ko or the rather under-watched Girlish Number. It’s a genre I’ve found myself more open to recently. Unfortunately despite some positive vibes from the source material, I don’t think this trailer looks particularly good. The voice actors aren’t really selling the roles, the animation looks meh, the studio isn’t very good (woo Ayakashi Triangle…), and the director has done Dungeon Pick Up Artist aaaand…errr, Chaos Dragon? With good staff and studio, I could have seen myself picking this one up, but right now my expectations are low.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Proudly Maintaining the Modern Trend of Kogals Long May Their Reign Continue

Jellyfish Can’t Swim in the Night

Studio: Doga Kobo

“I want to find what I enjoy.” Shibuya is a city full of identity. It is here on Shibuya’s late night streets that illustrator Mahiru Kozuki, former idol Kano Yamanouchi, Vtuber Kiui Watase and composer Mei Kim Anouk Takanashi — four young women who are slightly outside the world — join together and form an anonymous artist group called JELEE. “I” also want to shine like someone else. If it’s not me but “we” then we might be able to shine.

Clara!

Tequila!

Anyway, congrats to all you older folks who get the Jellyfish reference. This though isn’t about crossdressers, but instead about a girl idol group. Not the type I like where it has that edge of cynicism, but more typical idol stories. Because I have a deadened blackened heart, I don’t have the patience for these types of more upbeat idol stories. I also don’t like Dogakobo very much, since they do a lot of cute girls doing cute things anime with major sameface syndrome. The writer wrote Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki and the director did Eromanga Sensei, if you want an indication of the type of staff they’re going for with this. It’s a shame since I do try to check out anime original projects, but this is going the opposite direction of anything I would want to see in an anime.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to be Praised by Sakuga Fans Despite Actual Content Being Garbage

Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again

Studio: Gekkou

The story of Jii-san Baa-san Wakagaeru follows Shouzou and Ine, an elderly couple who are living a quiet life in a farming village in Aomori Prefecture. After eating a mysterious apple that they discover on their apple farm, Shozo and Ine spontaneously regain their youth, but even after being reinvigorated they continue to live life at a grandparent-ly pace.

On the positive side, this features Mamiko Noto hamming up the most rural-ass Japanese accent you have ever heard. On the negative side, unfortunately the manga didn’t really do much for me. I thought it could be sweet and funny about regaining your youth but with old person sensibilities, but almost every joke in the first few chapters were about how everybody was now horny for their younger versions. When even the granddaughter is horny, you’ve got a problem. The studio doesn’t have a whole lot under their belt either. I mean, how sold were you by My One Hit Kill Sister? It did have an incredible ED song – genuinely one of the best of the past several years. Maybe they’re secretly super talented and they’ll turn this anime about people being horny for grandpa into an all-time classic?

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Make You Look for Old Pictures of Your Grandparents to See If They Were Hot and Then Feel Ashamed That You Did That

Wind Breaker

Studio: Cloverworks

Where the average scores are the lowest, but the fights are the strongest. Furin High School is renowned as a super school of delinquents. Haruka Sakura, a first-year student, came from outside the city to fight to the top. However, Furin High School has become a group that protects the town called the “Chime of the Wind Breaker” – Bofurin. The heroic legend of high school delinquent Sakura begins here!

I just can’t with the name. Did anyone point out to the author what Breaking Wind means? Especially when a bunch of the early promo material featured the main character squatting over the camera and it was like noooo don’t go wind breaking there argh! It actually has very good staff on it. Cloverworks are a studio with issues, mostly when it comes to overworking their staff and not planning their workload properly (the double-barrel hit of Wonder Egg Priority and Promised Neverland S2 proved that). But some of the stuff they’ve made have been incredibly well done! Shadows House, Spy X Family, Bocchi the Rock. They’re a really good studio! The director doesn’t have a whole lot of head director roles – mostly just Fate/Grand Order – but some of the anime he’s worked on as an animation director have been really good. Plus he’s got some good staff behind him, like the script-writer for stuff like Mob Psycho, Attack on Titan, Vinland Saga. OK fine those were all great manga to begin with, but it does take some skill to translate that to the anime itself.

My only problem is the manga itself. Which unfortunately I thought was really lackluster. It’s one of those delinquent fighting manga, but lacked much of a hook or an edge that made it stick out. The staff and studio means I’ll at least check it out, but I dunno, the manga gave me nothing to grab onto.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Least Likely to Have a Good Fart Joke Despite It Being Right There

Train to the End of the World

Studio: EMT Squared

In a town in a not-so-ordinary countryside, there is a big and strange occurrence happening to its residents. But a young girl named Shizuru Chikura has a strong desire to see her lost friend again. Shizuru and three other girls board an abandoned train, and they set out to the outside world, where survival is not certain. They’ll discover what awaits them at the last stop of the “Doomsday Train.”

Mizushima! I’m not saying everything Mizushima touches is gold. I mean, some of the anime he touched includes Mayoiga or Blood-C or Another or look, let’s just say it’s good when he’s not doing horror anime. But some of the stuff he’s done are anime way, way, way better than they had absolutely any right to be. Girls und Panzer and Shirbako being the two big ones. Oh, and to top it off, the script writer is the one and only Michiko Yokote. You know, Michiko! You know Michiko? Goddamnit, it wasn’t even that long ago in this season preview that I was raving about her, back from the Grimm Fairy Tales section. Yes, her! Now you remember. She’s great!

So we have a great core staff working on it. What about the anime’s story itself? It’s an anime original project, which is very exciting. I can’t really make head nor tails of the plot. Is it a post-apocalypse? Is the train a metaphor? Trailer looks very cartoony and bubbly, which is fun. Not sure on the studio. EMT Squared’s catalogue so far has almost entirely been a long string of truly awful, bottom-of-the-barrel isekai adaptations. The kind of which you see and go “they really do make too many anime when this is the garbage that’s being made”. But maybe with something original, they’ll actually have staff who want to put the effort in and won’t feel like their souls are leaving their body through their digital pens?

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Have a Random Horror Episode That is Terrible and Doesn’t Fit with the Rest of the Series

The Fable

Studio: Tezuka Productions

When you’re the infamous prodigy hitman known only as “Fable,” many things come easy. Being a normal person, however, isn’t one of them. In fact, being told that he can’t kill anyone for a while may just be the hardest job Fable’s ever taken…

You know how every bad interaction you have with a person starts with “I’m not usually conspiracy-minded, but…”? Well, I’m here to tell you that I’m not usually conspiracy-minded, but researching for The Fable sent me down a weird path. The director is the original director for Armored Trooper Votoms. Cool, so what has he done recently. Well…the square root of fuck all in literal decades. Possibly because he’s in his 80s. Why is he directing this random TV anime? He’s not listed as a chief director or anything either with someone under him, like it’s a mentorship thing. Just the normal director. The trailer looks bad with basically no movement beyond lip flaps and the occasional head turn. Tezuka Production are doing the animation, and they’ve shipped some true dross in the past. The animation for Endo and Kobayashi Live was so bad in the first episode there were shots that made me burst out laughing.

…is this a scam? Maybe “scam” is unfair, but is this an anime with little intent in being good and mostly existing as a way to get your old buddies paid? I don’t understand it at all. At least Under Ninja, a similar series from last year that was actually the same studio, had some directorial vision behind it. I don’t understand this one at all.

Verdict: Anime Award For Probably Being a Front for the Yakuza Somehow

Sand Land: The Series

Studio: Sunrise

In the far future, war has destroyed the entire Earth, leaving only a barren wasteland where the supply of water is controlled by the greedy king. In search of a long-lost lake, Sheriff Rao asked the king of the demons for help…and got the king’s son, Beelzebub, and his assistant, Thief. Together the unlikely trio sets off across the desert, facing dragons, bandits and the deadliest foe of all… the King’s army itself! The first half of the SAND LAND: THE SERIES anime, episodes one to six, are titled “Akuma no Ooji” and is based on the film adaptation with some new footage, it will premiere alongside episode seven, which is the first episode of a brand-new arc titled “Tenshi no Yuusha”.

Adaptation of a single-volume Akira Toriyama manga from over two decades ago. They’ve really gone all-out with this, including a movie, TV series, and a brand new game. I’m not really sure what they saw in this kinda obscure, came-and-went manga. I know it’s Akira Toriyama and all, but here you go. The movie didn’t really perform in Japan when it came out, and the first batch of episodes for the anime have come out to very little fanfare, possibly due to the CG animation (which doesn’t even look that bad tbh, but whatever, anime fans and CG animation). What changes the complexion here of course is the recent death of Akira Toriyama. I wonder if the spike of interest will get a bunch of people to check out the upcoming game and maybe this anime as well? Only if they’re good though, which I’m not sure I have much confidence in right now.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime With More Non-Anime Fan Watchers than Anime-Fan Watchers

Kuramerukagari + Kurayukaba

Studio: Team OneOne

In the coal mining town crowded with small-scale miners, known as the “Hakoniwa”, there is a girl named Kagari who runs a map shop, and her childhood friend Yuya, who dreams of breaking free from the “Hakoniwa” and the ever-changing labyrinth-like tow. Lately, suspicious “sinkhole accidents” occurring frequently in the town begin to encroach on their daily lives. Will Kagari be able to overcome this situation and determine the fate of the town? Beyond the challenges, the girl will grow up a bit today.

All right, bear with me on this one, because it’s a long story to explain why I’ve got two movies here, but worth it because the anime looks cool. So the director and creator is a bloke called Shigeyoshi Tsukahara. He mostly did solo-directed artsy flash anime back in the day, the kind of stuff that ran in museums. People liked his work, so he ran a crowdfunding project to get this off the ground, which went 3x over its target goal. Storywise it’s taisho-steampunk detective story, which is definitely unique.

So, why are there two movies? Well, the first movie, Kurayukaba, is his own story. The second is because from the side with the steel chair comes Ryougo Narita of all people, the author of Baccano and Durarara, and decides to write his own story for this world. I have no idea how that happens, but I guess they thought the story was cool, so now that’s also getting a movie at the same time as the original Kurayukaba movie. They’re both running on Crunchyroll so we do actually get to see them too. The trailer looks neat, I like Narita, and it’s nice to see these sorts of movies actually get streaming releases.

Verdict: Anime Award For Most Likely to Get You Elitist Cred When You Say It Was Your Anime of the Year

Unnamed Memory

Studio: Engi

“My wish as champion is for you to descend the tower and be my wife.” Climbing a deadly tower, Oscar seeks the power of its master, the Witch of the Azure Moon. He hopes her incredible magic can break a curse that will kill any woman he takes for a wife. When the prince sees how beautiful Tinasha is, though, he has a better idea-since she’s surely strong enough to survive his curse, she should just marry him instead! Tinasha isn’t keen on the idea, but agrees to live with Oscar in the royal castle for a year while researching the spell placed on the prince. The witch’s pretty face hides several lifetimes of dark secrets, however-secrets that begin resurfacing…

In the long list of fantasy light novel adaptations, this one at least seems to have its heart in the right place. It’s a very straightforward fantasy story about knights and witches and towers and what have you. The staff and studio aren’t particularly exciting with their most notable work being Uzaki-chan. Trailer has a lot going on, but I dunno. There’s a lot of anime airing this season that I am actually looking forward to. I feel like this is one of those fantasy anime that just sorta slip away, like the The Faraway Paladin, where there’s nothing particularly wrong with them, they just fail to stick out.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime You Will Watch the Entire Way Through Because It Was Never Quite Bad Enough to be Worth Dropping

Dead Dead Demon’s Dededededestruction

Studio: Production +h

The Japan Self-Defense Forces are still looking for a way to combat the alien threat, but so far conventional weapons have had no effect. Maybe it’s time to try something unconventional. Meanwhile, Kadode Koyama and her best friend avidly track the aliens’ movements on social media and less enthusiastically study for college entrance exams. When the end of the world looms overhead, you learn to take things one step at a time.

An Inio Asano manga finally getting an anime. You thought it would be Punpun or Solanin, but nope. I’ve heard a lot about Dededede Destruction over the years. It’s really well regarded and won some prestigious awards, so it’s nice to see it getting an anime. Not a TV series though, but a pair of movies, the first of which just came out a week ago, with the second out in a few months. The studio is pretty new, having only really done The Orbital Children (which was fine I guess from a visual standpoint). Director is meh, and the trailer didn’t do much for me, especially considering it’s a movie so they usually have more space to flex their visual muscles. Maybe the strengths of the source material will pull it up? There’s a lot of neat-looking anime movies coming out over these next few months, so I like to put them into season previews in the hopes anime fans actually pay attention to them.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Garner a Response of “Wait They Made An Anime of That? Why Did Nobody Tell Me?” From One Manga Reader You Know

Gods’ Games We Play

Studio: LidenFilms

In their (overabundance of) free time, the gods grew bored and decided to create challenging battles of wits to spice things up! Their opponent? Humanity! A select few players called “apostles” meet the gods on the spiritual realm’s playing field to beat the deities at their own games. A former god named Leoleshea has woken after sleeping for thousands of years, and her first demand is to meet “this era’s very best player!” She is introduced to Fay, an acclaimed rookie apostle. Together, they plan to challenge the gods and win the ultimate prize, but no one in human history has managed to clear ten games—because the gods can be capricious, outrageous, and sometimes downright incomprehensible! In the face of absurdity, what can the apostles do but enjoy the contest to its fullest?

I’ve seen this described as being similar to No Game No Life, except with less isekai and incest. Which is great! It’s also No Game No Life with less interesting visuals, which is less good. Lidenfilms are a studio I don’t have much time for usually, although they did do Call of the Night. So maybe good staff could elevate this? Then you look at the trailer and staff list and go ok maybe not. The author also did Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, which is an anime that definitely exists yes I definitely remember that one coming out yup I sure have seen people talk about it ever since it ended and what the fuck it got a sequel how in the fuck? No really, how?

Verdict: Anime Award For Not Being a Sequel to No Game No Life

An Archdemon’s Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride

Studio: Brains Base

Zagan might be the most feared evil sorcerer, but when it comes to social interactions, he’s the most inept. All those days studying the dark arts won’t help him when he falls in love at first sight with Nephelia, the beautiful elven slave, and spends his entire fortune to purchase her. With no clue how to talk to each other, the awkward arrangement for a bumbling sorcerer and timid elf begins.

What I found especially funny about this is it was originally called “slave elf bride” but, as seen with Chained Soldier, there have clearly been voices in the ears of Japanese producers that putting the word “slave” in your title is generally not a good idea when it’s being pushed abroad. Not that this is some slavery fetish isekai classic – although it’s certainly playing on the trope of purchasing your sex slave elf. Instead it’s more like that one about Teaching a Princess to do Naughty Things where it played off the idea of being raunchy only to reveal it’s about as fluffy as a box of ducklings. This is more attempting to be a cute romance. Which…eh? Maybe that’s your thing? Despite the risque premise, it ends up being too safe and fluffy to the point of being boring, and there’s not much else to write home about with the staff.

Verdict: Anime Award For Being Referenced Later as Being One Of the First Wave of Elf Anime That Will Soon Consume Us All

A Condition Called Love

Studio: East Fish Studio

Hotaru Hinase is a first-year in high school that has a great family and wonderful friends, but not much luck when it comes to romance. One day, she happens to see the hot boy from the class next door, Hananoi, get dumped. Seeing Hananoi standing in the middle of a park all alone, Hotaru decides to hand him an umbrella. That little act causes Hananoi to ask her out soon after. What does love even mean? What does it mean to be in love? Hotaru is flustered at suddenly being asked out by Hananoi, who has an endless amount of love for the person he loves and wants to do everything he can for them. This is a story about first love between a girl who doesn’t understand romantic love and a boy that may be a bit too heavy-handed when it comes to love.

This one has quite a number of people excited about it, and I guess I understand why. Shoujo anime aren’t exactly flooding the market, even if the numbers are going up slightly compared to 10 years ago. Still, this is an incredibly bland, nondescript highschool shoujo romance. I don’t really have much to say beyond that.

Verdict: Anime Award For Proving That Yes We Totally Do Make Shoujo Anime Sometimes Look There Was This One And Errr Well I’m Sure There Were More

Mission: Yozakura Family

Studio: Silver Link

Taiyou Asano is a super shy high school student and the only person he can talk to is his childhood friend, Mutsumi Yozakura. It turns out that Mutsumi is the daughter of the ultimate spy family! Even worse, Mutsumi is being harassed by her overprotective, nightmare of a brother, Kyouichirou. What drastic steps will Taiyou have to take to save Mutsumi?! A spy family comedy – the mission begins!

Shounen Jump titles are weird. I genuinely can never tell which ones are going to be good or not based on fan reactions. It used to be that they got excited over literally all of them no matter how good, so you saw a massive fanbase for fucking Black Clover of all things. But then you got Undead Unluck, which was fantastic, but had little to no fanfare. Now we have Yokazura Family, which has little fanfare, but in this case seems like it justifies the little fanfair because the writing is really bad and artwork not really holding up its end of the bargain.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Have the Manga Cancelled Soon After the Anime Ends

Whisper Me a Love Song

Studio: Cloudhearts, Yokohama Animation Lab

After performing a song at her school’s opening ceremony, musician Yori Asanagi receives an apparent love confession from freshman Himari Kino. But just as Yori decides she wants to return Himari’s feelings, Himari reveals that she did not “love” her, but “admires” her! But you can’t unring a bell once struck, and Yori is determined to make Himari fall for her, not just her music. Will their hearts ever beat as one, or will their love fall out of tune?

I remember reading a line on Twitter that extremely stereotypical romantic situations suddenly become OK in their mind once it becomes gay. Like two people forced to spend the night together and they’re straight? Yawn. But it’s two men? And there’s only one bed? OMG peak fiction etc. Anyway, I think about that line when I see bland yuri adaptations like this.

Verdict: Anime Award For Favourite Anime of Teen Girls Who Haven’t Figured It Out Yet

Blue Archive The Animation

Studio: Yostar Pictures, Studio Candy Box

The anime will adapt the “Countermeasures Committee” arc. The city’s academies are divided into their own districts and are considered mostly independent. The General Student Council acts as governing board to manage the academies as a whole. However, the group’s ability to govern has come to halt since the mysterious disappearance of the General Student Council president. Countless issues have begun to surface throughout Kivotos in the absence of the president’s leadership. To avoid disaster, the General Student Council requests assistance from the Federal Investigation Club, otherwise known as Schale. In fact, Schale is the city’s newest club and the last to be approved before the president’s disappearance. To accomplish its task, Schale relies on the guidance of a Sensei who can help them resolve the incidents around Kivotos.

Yeah of course I’ve heard about Blue Archive. It’s hard to miss if you’re poking around weeb merch spaces. It’s the latest gatcha game with cute girls that makes money hand over fist. I don’t get it, since they’re not even girls who are secretly battleships. Thankfully it looks like Yostar are putting more effort behind Loser Ranger than this, judging by trailer. They didn’t even put the dark skinned maid girl in any of the trailers. It’s like they don’t even understand their own material.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely To Get 50 Different Sequels And Somehow Still Not Feature the Dark Skinned Maid Girl in Promo Material

Girls Band Cry

Studio: Toei Animation

The main character drops out of high school in her second year, and aims at entering a university while working alone in Tokyo. A girl is betrayed by her friends and doesn’t know what to do. Another girl is abandoned by her parents, and tries to survive in the city by doing part-time jobs. This world lets us down all the time. Nothing goes as planned. But we want something that we can continue to like. We believe there’s a place where we belong. That’s why we sing

I guess this is a thing now? Full CG girl band shows? Yeah you could point to the huge success of Bocchi the Rock, but these sorts of things have been bubbling up under the surface for a while. They just don’t enjoy the same success abroad. Band Dream It’s MyGo is the real inflection point, since that was full CG too, and supposedly really good. Although the real one to blame here is Love Live from their CG idol performances. This is even made by a bunch of the staff behind Love Live Sunshine. The CG looks weird though. There’s an uncanny valley about the shots of her poking away on her phone screen.

Verdict: Anime Award For Most Likely To Feature Everywhere in Akihabara Leaving You as a Tourist Baffled As You Hadn’t Heard Of It Since This Season Preview

Vampire Dormitory

Studio: Studio Blanc

“I want to become your thrall…!” A crossdressing girl and doting vampire’s dangerous cohabitation is about to begin! After losing her parents and being abandoned by her relatives, Mito is left all alone in the world. When she’s kicked out of the restaurant where she works with no money and no place to live, she is taken in by Ruka, a vampire. In exchange for giving Ruka her blood as his “food,” she ends up living with him in a boys’ dorm full of beautiful boys with unique personalities…?!

Hilariously trashy. It’s like if Diabolik Lovers was your kind of thing, but you didn’t like the bit where the guy wearing the fedora threw you in the pool and called you a bitch.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Drop You In a Pool and Call You a Bitch While Wearing a Fedora

Studio Apartment, Good Lighting, Angel Included

Studio: Okuruto Noboru

Shintarou Tokumitsu is a high schooler living all alone, but things take an unexpected turn when a girl named Towa shows up on his balcony! Not only is she incredibly pure and sweet, but there’s something different about her—something… divine. Just who is Shintarou’s new roommate, and what adorable high jinks lie in store?!

Top quality name, I’ll give it that. Otherwise it’s the kind of thing 14-year-old Scamp would have watched because he was a horny teenage boy and magical girlfriend angel with a soft voice was exactly the kind of garbage I ate up.

Verdict: Anime Award For Teen Scamp’s Favourite of the Season

Viral Hit

Studio: Okuruto Noboru

Scrawny high school student Hobin Yu is probably the last guy you’d expect to star in a NewTube channel that revolves around fighting. But after following some advice from a mysterious NewTube channel, Hobin is soon knocking out guys stronger than him and raking in more money than he could have ever dreamed of. Can Hobin keep this up, or will he eventually meet his match?

I really did not expect Tower of God to be the peak of Korean webtoons back when I watched. Something about every single webtoon I’ve read has turned me off hardcore. The terrible art, the paper-thin characters, the awful pacing. Power-scaling without character growth is my new latest gripe. They’re clearly here to stay though after the incredible success of Solo Levelling. I don’t like this new future. Bring back the isekai. Some of them were good!

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime That Gets Randomly Referenced in Distant Corners of the Internet Where They Keep All The Baki Fans

Highspeed Étoile

Studio: Studio A-Cat

The show follows the character Rin Rindou. Rin once had a dream of becoming a ballet dancer, but had to give up on that dream due to an injury. Afterward she became a NEET and a gamer who lived in her grandmother’s house. But one day she is suddenly thrown into the world of racing. The anime takes place in the near future, where the latest technology has made it so vehicles can travel at 500 km/h (about 310 mph) safely and securely. A next-generation race event called NEX Race is born, which changes the world of racing. NEX Racing features AI control support and a “Revolburst” mechanism. A newcomer named Rin Rindou will make her debut in NEX Race, and will further revolutionize the sport.

“I want to make an anime about motor car racing!”
“Sorry, no can do.”
“What if I make it about cute girls?”
“OK maybe we can make something happen, but the funding…”
“We’ll make it full CG!”
“Well I dunno…”
“The girls all have the most absurd hairstyles imaginable!
“Deal!”

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Have The Characters Plastered on a Formula E Car

A Salad Bowl of Eccentrics

Studio: Studio Comet, SynergySP

Sousuke Kaburaya, an impoverished detective, met Sara, a princess from another world with magical powers. Sara began living with Sousuke, and she quickly adjusted to life in modern Japan. Meanwhile, Livia, a female knight who came from the same world as Sara, found herself lost and homeless, but surprisingly enjoyed her days here. These two people, who live a positive life despite their situation, began to have an impact on Sousuke and the other oddballs in the neighborhood, including a devilish lawyer, a divorce agent, and a cult leader.

I almost plopped this into the isekai section, but I don’t think putting reverse-isakai in there would be fair to how bland the real isekai anime are. It’s by the author of Haganai and A Sister’s All You Need if you want some indication of the author quality. With character designs by Kantoku, the guy who did the designs for Hentai Prince and Stony Cat, and Sasaki and Peeps, whose character designs I’ve never liked because he makes all the girls look like they’re 6 years old.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Feature a Salad What Do You Want From Me I’m Running Out of Awards

Astro Note

Studio: Telecom Animation Film

Takumi, a gifted chef, was just let go from his job. He lands a gig at an old boarding house called Astro-sou, but hesitates to accept after learning he must also live there full-time. That is until he meets the beautiful and charming caretaker, Mira, and he’s sold. The two begin to work together and their connection deepens. But Mira has a secret: she isn’t from this world!

I’m confused by this one. It’s an anime original project that doesn’t really have a unique selling point. Guy falls for hot house caretaker who is actually an alien. The animation looks fun in the trailer I guess? Do they think the world is ready for extreme curled ends like the lady in the trailer has? The studio is a no-name studio, and while it has some industry veterans on it, there’s nobody who really sticks out. Maybe they just really want to make a romcom and there wasn’t something obvious to adapt? I know this is a weird thing to focus on, but normally there’s a clear reason why an anime is being made. Popular source material, cross-promotion, highly-regarded creator or studio, outside funding from somewhere, jumping on an industry trend. This one has left me confused.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Have an Animation Collapse By Episode 8

Tadaima, Okaeri

Studio: Studio Deen

Masaki Fujiyoshi is a stay-at-home spouse and parent. He has fought long and hard with feelings of being a burden to his loving husband, Hiromu, due to his status as an omega—and the difficulty they faced to achieve this domesticity. When their son, Hikari, was born, the family moved to an area better suited for raising children. Despite their newfound domestic bliss, the family’s ties to their past are in tatters. There are people they left behind to pursue the creation of their happy family, and when they begin to return, Masaki and Hiromu aren’t quite sure they have good intentions.

No! You are not going to make me explain the Omegaverse to you! God fucking damnit why do I have to learn about this stuff! It’s a whole series of yaoi stories set in a world where every man has their pre-determined role, whether that be alpha male or beta male or omega or whatever. It’s cursed for a couple of reasons, not least of all being the reinforcement of these brainrot alpha-male gender roles. I am not exploring this any more, for I fear what’s down this path.

Verdict: Anime Award For Nothing The Omegaverse Does Not Deserve Any Awards

The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master

Studio: Studio Pierrot

In the world of flying crow-humans, trouble is brewing… YUKIYA is the lackluster second son of a regional boss in the North House territory. His younger brother has overtaken him in academics. He is no good at sword battle, either. Not that this ever bothers him. So it comes as a shock when this boy, who claims to have no ambition whatsoever, is the one chosen to attend the Imperial Prince in Court–. What awaits YUKIYA and his new master is intrigue, murder, a mysterious drug, and invasion from an unexpected enemy. Can they save the world of Yatagarasu (three-legged crows of Japanese myth)?

This crow series is a very popular novel series, with this anime for some reason starting with the second novel? It’s a medieval Asian imperial court drama, like Apothecary Diaries, but with a greater focus on hot dudes. It has the director of Yuru Camp doing the directing, which is a surprisingly good get for the series. Shame Studio Pierrot isn’t a particularly good studio nowadays. Trailer looks, while not bad, a bit below average (although series like Frieren have raised the bar so absurdly high nowadays it makes it hard to go back to the more mundane series like this). I imagine if you’re really into your inner court dramas, this might be pretty good. What I read of the manga adaptation wasn’t awful or anything.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to be Completely Dwarfed in Popularity By Its Live Action Version

Oblivion Battery

Studio: Mappa

Iron-armed pitcher, Haruka Kiyomine, and the shrewd catcher, Kei Kaname, AKA the “Skilled General,” were considered to be an unrivaled, monstrous battery duo in the middle-school baseball world. They were both scouted by various powerhouse high schools across the nation, but somehow, they both ended up at Tokyo Municipal Kotesashi High School, which wasn’t known for baseball at all. On top of that, other star players who had lost to that duo in the past and completely strayed from baseball coincidentally also enrolled at that school, and… Their meeting sets everything into motion once again. Their high school baseball story begins now!

I cannot stress enough just how awful the character designs and artwork in the manga were. They looked like titans!

ARGH! What’s maddening is it’s Mappa doing the adaptation. What’s even more maddening is for some godforsaken reason this is the third anime Michiko Yokote is credited on. My only hope is that she just jotted some shit down on a napkin then ran off to do the other, way more interesting looking anime, leaving the Mappa staff to slave away and be overworked yet again.

Verdict: Anime Award For Highest Body Count of the Season

Rinkai!

Studio: TMS Entertainment

The story centers on the sport of women’s cycling, which debuted in Japan shortly after World War II. However, organized competitions folded after just 15 years and laid dormant for several decades. Then the Rinkai! League launched to revive the sport.

God bless the anime staff who are put on random cycling anime that never garner an audience.

Verdict: Anime Award For Highest Anime Most Likely to Have Bicycles I Dunno The Season Preview is Nearly Over

Tonari no Youkai-san

Studio: LidenFilms

 In the rural town of Engamori, the mountain breeze often blows. Everyday life there is mysterious, filled with monsters, humans, and gods coexisting side by side. They live each day with their own joys and worries in their hearts. Buchio lived as a cat until he was 20 years old and was reborn as a nekomata. Mutsumi is a human being who lives a positive life even though she is concerned about her missing father. Jiro is a crow tengu who has been protecting this town for generations. A slightly mysterious and gentle story of connections that occur in the daily life of a relaxing and heart-warming country town.

I like the crow guy wearing a baseball cap. You know the edgy crow guy from My Hero Academia? It’s like if he had a less ambitious older brother who just wanted to move to the countryside and become a farmer. He’s very proud of his little brother but doesn’t regret his decision to move out of the city ever.

Verdict: Mamoru Hosoda Presents Anime Award For Making People Realise They Are a Furry

My Oni Girl

Studio: Studio Colorido

Yearning to get along with others and not be disliked, first-year high school student Hiiragi finds himself unable to say no whenever someone requests something of him. One summer day, while unsuccessfully carrying out yet another request, he encounters an oni girl named Tsumugi, who has come to the human world to search for her mother. She does whatever she pleases and is the complete opposite of Hiiragi. Snow mysteriously begins to fall… and their adventure begins.

Netflix announced these string of movies with Studio Colorido back in 2020 and it’s been a deal I’ve never entirely understood. A Whisker Away and Drifting Home were the previous two, and I don’t think either of them have exactly taken off in popularity. I have my doubts My Oni Girl will either. It’s not even like Studio Colorido are a bad studio either. They did Burn the Witch adaptation, which was really cool and very well animated. Make a Burn the Witch TV Series please. I want more of Bruno Bangknife and Ninny Spankhole.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely To Be Reviewed More By Non-Anime Outlets Than Anime Ones

Oi! Tonbo!

Studio: OLM

Igarashi was disqualified as a pro golfer after a certain “incident” and thus moved to Kagoshima Prefecture’s Tokara Islands to step out of the limelight. On these islands known as “Japan’s last unexplored wilderness,” he encounters a naive girl named Tonbo.

I don’t know how we’ve reached this point, but we have two golf anime airing this season. Birdie Wing has started a trend. Now we need a kolf anime about a kogal who is also an elf who got transported to another world. Guaranteed success I’m telling you. Anyways, Ai Tonbo is the first and the one I think most likely to win the “nobody watched this” award, although it does have something to the premise. Guy moving to remote island. Meets native girl who likes golf. Teaches her golf. There’s something to it, even if visually this looks very simple. It’s evidently going for some daytime TV audience and for kids given it has the director of Beyblade.

Verdict: Anime Award For Second Most Popular Golf Anime of the Season

Rising Impact

Studio: Lay-duce

A young boy, Gawain, lives in a mountainous, rural area with an incredible love for baseball and making the ball really fly. One day he runs into a visitor to the small area and she introduces him to a sport that can really make a ball take to flight: golf! It just takes one shot and Gawain is hooked. With his grandpa’s approval he sets off to Tokyo with this mysterious woman to learn all he can about golf, encountering many colorful characters and obstacles along the way.

The second golf anime of the season. I can only assume the only reason Netflix funded this is because it’s by the author of Seven Deadly Sins, and that series must have done really well on their platform.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely for Netflix to Forget They Licensed

Shin Yaranaika

Studio: Anime Tokyo

A prep school student “Masaki Michishita” is running as fast as he can to the restroom in the park when he catches sight of a nice guy “Takakazu Abe” sitting on a bench. Their gazes overlap. Abe asked Michishita if he wanted to play with him and invited him to a brief wrestling match. Michishita, who has a weakness for nice guys, readily follows him and …… their great adventure begins!

Do the kids even know about Yaranaika these days? The original online manga shitpost – fitting given the original title was Kuso Miso Technique, literally Shit Soup Technique. For those too young to remember, it was a scat yaoi doujin that became a meme title in early Japanese internet and people loved to post the orgasm faces in random other scenarios. That, combined with the dude unzipping his front while saying “ya want it” or “yaranaika” became one of the earlier Japanese internet memes. Anyways, this is clearly just a shitpost and I’m not even convinced it’s coming out, but I included it anyway because I wanted to put the Shit Soup Anime above this upcoming section.

Verdict: Anime Award For Anime Most Likely to Make Old Fans Reference Desu Desu Desu Desu Desu Desu

ISEKAI SECTION

I’m bored of writing about samey isekai anime, so I’ve just taken to slapping them all in one section nowadays. Not all of these are strict isekai, but they are all certainly in the spirit of one and I’m not giving these the benefit of the doubt anymore.

• The New Gate is about going into a video game world and being unable to log out. It’s such a direct copy of Sword Art Online it’s pretty funny, while also being some 10 years too late. It’s so behind the times that we already passed the real-world dates Sword Art Online was supposed to take place in.
• I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince So I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability is the most disturbing one of them all. Not because there’s much wrong with the story. It’s standard power fantasy. It’s the character design of the reincarnated prince. Japan does not get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how they design their anime children anymore, and there was a distinct feeling of squick when reading the first chapter of this and how they drew the main boy and his flapping shorts. Someone is trying to attract shota weirdos.
• Chillin’ in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers is somehow a power fantasy, magical girlfriend, and calm life in the countryside-style isekai all in one.
• As a Reincarnated Aristocrat, I’ll Use My Appraisal Skill to Rise in the World isn’t really as bad as these other series. More in the vein of that desu wa desu wa desu waaaa Tearmoon Empire anime from last year, where it’s about recruiting people so your empire doesn’t collapse. Still stays here though, because it’s still about being reborn as a noble with a ~cheato skillu~.
• Re:Monster is the anime most likely to cause culture wars. Guy wakes up as a weak goblin, then proceeds to power up for 100 chapters. Bonus points for rape featuring within 10 pages. I remember seeing this as a highly rated series ages ago when looking for hot new titles to put on my fake seasonal charts, and in retrospect so many of those series portended the deluge of terrible isekai power fantasies with awful politics we get today. I specifically remember Re:Monster featured alongside Shield Hero.
• The Banished Former Hero Lives as He Pleases I forget what this one is about, and honestly I can’t be bothered looking it up.

Sequels

Unfortunately a light season for me on the sequel front. There is a Blue Lock movie, and I do like me some soccer battle royale, but this is about Nagi and the boy he NTR’d, so I’m just not that interested. The best part about their characters is the betrayal and following mental breakdown. As for everything else:

• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Hashira Training Arc (calling sequels “training arc” doesn’t inspire confidence)
• KONOSUBA -God’s Blessing on This Wonderful World! 3
• Mushoku Tensei: Jobless Reincarnation Season 2 Cour 2 (speaking of anime highly rated on those old rankings I pulled for fake seasonal chart purposes that foretold our current isekai predicament)
• Tensei Shitara Slime Datta Ken 3rd Season
• Boku no Hero Academia 7 (I can’t tell if this one truly fell off or not in popularity. I was done with it by season 5, and it seemed like a lot of other people were too, but there may be a silent majority still sticking with this to the end)
• Black Butler: Public School Arc (their school uniforms have top hats, actual peak anime right here)
• Sound! Euphonium Season 3
• The Irregular at Magic High School Season 3 (sasuga onii-sama)
• The Misfit of Demon King Academy II Cour 2
• Laid-Back Camp Season 3 (on course to win an award at the Animoo Chat discord’s end of year award ceremony for the third year running, probably for Best Drip again)
• Date A Live V
• BARTENDER Glass of God (the fact this got a sequel is truly remarkable and genuinely hilarious, I can’t even be mad)
• THE iDOLM@STER SHINY COLORS
• The Duke of Death and His Maid Season 3