Spring is here and there are at last count 57 new shows debuting, along with several continuations. Yes, you read that correctly 57. 57? Is anime now nothing more than ketchup, a mass-produced commodity that can come in 57 varieties? And that is not even counting the shows which are either (seemingly) endless or had their run extended for one more season. So, here we (Greg Smith, Bryan Morton and Brian Threlkeld) begin a two-part look at the new season. First, we’re going to try to watch as many Episode 1s as we can stomach and give our quick thoughts about what should—and shouldn’t—be on everyone’s viewing schedules for this season. Then in Part 2 (coming soon!), we plan to discuss the subject that has to be going through many people’s minds: is this level of production sustainable?
Part 1—The Triage
This is where we try to give you, loyal reader, a quick’n’easy guide to what’s worth bothering with. More detailed reviews of many of these shows will be posted elsewhere on the site, if something piques your curiosity. We’re going to go through the shows, starting with shows which are definite keepers and work our way down to those we all think should be booted from your viewing list as soon as possible. We don’t all agree on where shows rank, so they’re included in each category based upon the majority opinion. Where there is no consensus at all, we’ve placed them at the end, along with shows which were only able to be seen by one reviewer (we’re not supermen).
KEEPERS
Sound! Euphonium (Crunchyroll on Tuesdays)
BM: – KEEP – KyoAni’s ‘cute girls doing cute things’ show for the season. In general, this type of show is getting ever more hit-and-miss through overexposure, and every season they have to pass a higher bar for me to stick with them. So far at least this one has hit the right notes for me (geddit?). The antics of band practical joker Asuka help a lot with that – she steals the show in her minute or so of her appearance – while the show also seems to be winning the race for best selection of reaction faces. These things are important. Likely to keep with it.
GBS: – KEEP – Asuka is nuts, therefore I love her. The show itself is concert band meets K-On! with elements almost of iyashikei gentleness thrown in during the quieter moments. Kumiko is a nice lead. I liked it.
BCT: – KEEP – KyoAni girls and high school band. Probably can’t go wrong if you’re inclined to the former. But, at least as much because there probably won’t be a lot of romance or pleading, earnest angst, this show about music…might actually be about music. (And weird girls being cute. Cute girls being weird?)
Ghost in the Shell: ARISE – Alternative Architecture (FUNimation on Sundays)
BM: – KEEP – Like there was ever any doubt. The latest incarnation of Ghost in the Shell was originally a 4-feature OVA series, but has now been recut and extended into a 10-episode TV series. It has a notably different visual style from its predecessors, at least as far as character designs are concerned, but after that is very much the show I knew and loved back in the Stand Alone Complex days. Which makes it pretty much essential viewing.
GBS: – KEEP – It’s definitely the Major and her crew again, though provided with new banter and bickering that makes it seem like they are just getting to know each other and haven’t yet coalesced into the cyber team of all cyber teams. But there is enough of the old magic, the right mixture of action and well-timed narrative surprises to make this an intriguing beginning. So, I’ll dive deeper.
BCT: – KEEP– If you had avoided the Arise OVA series, as I did, this re-cut of that story (with additions) into a regular TV series does indeed feel like a comfortable return to the mode of the Stand Alone Complex series, without having to worry how the re-adaptation will work. It’s the same short-bursts of action interspersed with what always seemed to me unnecessarily abstruse technobabble, but then that’s always been the curious enjoyment of GitS, when an action piece serves as an exclamation point for some concept. So, more of that—though this incarnation doesn’t entirely avoid the inescapable awkwardness of presenting a prequel story that features more sophisticated real-world concepts than its “sequel” made a decade earlier. (Same time, Arise resonates more because ideas from SAC still have solid resonance with today’s world.)
My Love Story!! (Crunchyroll on Wednesdays)
GBS: – KEEP – So, we have what is perhaps the most unusual shoujo “heroine”…a gigantic lunk of a guy (Takeo Gouda) who looks on the fast track to becoming a sumo wrestler…or a yakuza thug…but is actually just a very straightforward and honest manboy. One day, he helps out a cute and tiny little high school girl (Rinko Yamato) and she seems very grateful. Giant lug, though, thinks she is in love with his good friend, the traditionally good-looking Sunakawa. Expect misunderstandings. Probably going to be chock full of shoujo cliches…but the protagonist is just such an anomaly…I may stick with this.
BCT: – KEEP – Not my favorite premise to begin a relationship show with, the damsel in distress, but following in a folk tale sort of mode as this does, it’s maybe fitting. And a story with such a solid shoujo pedigree swinging its perspective to the big ugly guy with a heart of gold, while not a first in the genre, is a nice concept, and certainly a nice shift from the last several top-shelf shoujo adaptations. (It is nice having one back in the lineup, by the way.) And those classic Kunihiko Hamada character designs, from Rinko’s bright shoujo-rific eyes to Takeo’s shuffling mother—love it. It’ll be a two-cour series, so I do worry about how long or thorough the typical “misunderstanding” will go in defining it, but for the moment, it’s one of the freshest shows on the docket.
BM: – KEEP – Takeo is big and, purely on appearances, scary. His best friend Sunkawa, on the other hand, is just the sort that the ladies usually fall for, so Takeo’s gotten used to being in Sunkawa’s shadow to a certain extent. Until he saves a girl from a train groping incident, leading to her taking an interest in him – if only he’d notice, his love life would be on the up. The one shoujo show of the season, this is sweet, lighthearted, and a lot of fun to watch. Sure, it’ll be based on misunderstandings – standard fare for shoujo – but it has the advantage of Takeo being a genuinely nice guy, and not, I dunno, threatening the lead girl with rape as some shoujo male leads have been known to do. That’s a definite plus, and I’ll be keeping an eye on this one.
