A couple times a month, the Fandom Post community suggests and votes on a new top five list about something in anime, most often from the current season. It’s our way of highlighting something fun or interesting or strange—or even meaningful—about what’s airing now, or about anime in general.
Most of us aren’t oddsmakers—we would mistake Bayesian probability as something about how a giant robot is powered—but like most anime fans we like to make predictions about almost anything in the medium and its industry, as much as possible, to anyone listening. Of course, they don’t count for much unless you make them at the beginning of the year. So here we are: five predictions about anime for 2016.
Except for one choice, as predictions go these are less what our group of fans predict will happen this year than what they’d like to see happen. Sometimes, as our first choice illustrates, those two things may in fact align, however. So keep your hopes up!
Note: “Likelihood” ratings based on zero statistical reasoning whatsoever. But then that goes for our predictions in general.
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#5 – Tie: Right Stuf/Nozomi Entertainment will license Tamayura: More Aggressive / Funimation will release a Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Collectors Edition
Prediction: You tried one, why not another? Likelihood: 4 FaPos. Nozomi Entertainment licensed and released the first season (including the original OVA series) of Junichi Sato’s 2011 photography-is-moe Tamayura in 2015. The second season, Tamayura: More Aggressive, was produced in 2014. If following the pattern, we may not expect the license of that second part until two years from now…but we’re optimistic they’ll want to keep the momentum going. As for Funimation, they released to great acclaim a massive collector’s edition of the first season of Fullmetal Alchemist, also last year. The second part, Brotherhood, seems like a good bet right now in this still very popular franchise.
#4: Sentai Filmworks will license Encouragement of Climb
Prediction: We Love Shorts! Likelihood: 3 FaPos. Among short-form anime fans, few series not about cats or dogs have been as beloved and respected as Encouragement of Climb, about four girls becoming friends amid the shared pursuit of hiking and related outdoor activities. Its first season in 2013 included 12 brief 5-minute episodes, but its second season, in late 2014, was made with a 15-minute run time, and a full 24-episode slate, expanding the storytelling to literal new heights while still retaining its short poetic charm. Why Sentai? They’re about the only company angling in the direction of licensing in the popular but mostly ignored short format, with their recent licenses of Tonari no Seki-kun (My Neighbor Seki), another popular short also from 2014, and Wakaba*Girl, from just last year. There are several other shorts that would make any number of people happy, but EoC is the one most of us are clamoring for right now.
#3: One Punch Man will join the Toonami line-up
Prediction: Peas in a pod. Likelihood: 4 FaPos. Cartoon Network’s still popular adult action block, Toonami, loves, well, action. One Punch Man is one of the most popular and original and entertaining shounen/seinen action shows in years, across a wide viewership. There’s often a spirited argument among Toonami viewers about what next will appear on the block; this one, currently licensed by Viz, is little challenged.
#2: Not one male MC will have sex with a single harem member in 2016
Prediction: The sky is blue. Likelihood: 5 FaPos. By far our boldest prediction for 2016. Little to be said here, if you’ve been watching these sorts of shows for the past several decades.
#1: Right Stuf will announce/release more titles on Blu-ray
Prediction: Right Stuf and BD sitting-in-a-tree… Likelihood: 3 FaPos. Fandom was sure last year, as they had for several before, that Right Stuf would not announce one of their licensed titles for a Blu-ray release. They hoped. But they did not believe. Not given the storied reticence of RS’s president, Shawne Kleckner, or any of his representatives, to offer any positive hints to the matter. But announce they did, last July, at AnimeExpo, for Revolutionary Girl Utena, which they had acquired for a remastered DVD release only a few years ago, and Mobile Suit Gundam, which is part of their release partnership with Sunrise. Now those same observers, propelling this to our first choice by a large margin, are feeling like gamblers on a hot streak.
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Join us next time for Best Anime About Being Transported to Another World. Or something like that. To have a say in what makes it on that list, and the next list after that, check out the forum thread, read up on the rules, and join the Fandom Post Anime List Project today!
