The first week of the new anime season is finally over, but that doesn’t mean that there no new anime to talk about. After watching quite a bit more this weekend, here’s a look at five more new series starting this autumn. And hopefully I have my audio volume set correctly this time!
If you want to watch my thoughts rather than read them, be sure to check out the video on my youtube channel linked above, where you can also watch the first part, and my Loot Anime unboxing videos.
First up we have the delayed start to a series that looks too sweet for words, Magic of Stella.
Tamaki Honda is a new girl starting high school, and she’s a bit of a country hick. She has a very pronounced accent (something that is quite a theme this season) and is a bit overwhelmed by the new experiences ahead of her, especially as her new school is overflowing with more clubs than a poker tournament.
Both Tamaki and her friend Yumine are artsy girls, but whilst Yumine has a clear idea of what she wants to do with her art, (usually involving two guys and a whole lot of subtext), Tamaki is a little more unsure. She tries a game by the doujin games club (called the SNS club, but more on that later) and is surprised that it came from people just a couple of years older than her. Inspired with an idea of what she wants to do, she joins up.
The SNS club, or the ‘Some dead fish eyes, Not enough sun, Shuttle run Club’ (apparently there’s some story behind it, but it’s never explained), are an odd bunch of girls, but they all seem nice in their own unique way. From the pessimistic programmer/director, to the easily-inspired writer, and the often overlooked composer, the girls all have their own personality quirks, which I’m sure we’ll get in to in the coming weeks.
There have been a lot of ‘creative’ series in recent years. I think the superb Shirobako was one of the starting points for a lot of these series. Along with How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend it clearly inspired if not the creators of these series, the money-men behind funding anime based on them to get out their chequebooks and give us all a more in-depth look into the industry, but professional and amateur.
Magic of Stella is looking to be a very cute series, potentially with a lot in common with last season’s New Game, which is by no means not a welcome connection, as that series was a whole lot of fun. The pastel style of the animation is an interesting touch, but it works here as there’s not a whole lot of excitement or movement at the moment and it is looking to be a nice replacement for a Monday evening relaxation series.
It’s currently airing on Daisuki, every Monday. 
Next up, we move on to a show that I can only describe as interesting, Flip Flappers.
I’m not quite sure how to start on this one. It’s a very uniquely looking series, where our two lead girls are shown in completely opposite lights.
You have the studious and normal girl Kokona, studying hard at a normal school, and going home normally, until things start to get a bit strange, and then you have the strange girl Papika, who we first see surfing through the sky on a sky-surfboard, seemingly invisible to most people, but not Kokona.
The meeting between the two girls later in the first episode really shows up their differences. Papika is super cheerful and pushy, whilst all Kokona wants to do is get home at the end of a day in school. At times, Papika comes across as almost animalistic in her approach, which further increases her oddity.
At this point, cue the strange robot thing… TT-392.
If you had even a slightest idea where this was going, well good news – just like the rest of us, you don’t any more. What follows can only really be considered to be an acid trip through a sweet snow-scape full of frozen tree-beasts and silly fun. The two girls grow to be friendly with each other, and towards the end of it, even though she hasn’t come to terms with Papika’s strangeness, Kokona unleashes some unknown power of her own, to save the day.
At the end of the first episode, normally I have some idea of where a series wants to go, but with this one, I’m not sure. There is a lot of yuri subtext here, but then again it’s a cute series with two cute main female leads. I’d be worried if I didn’t see some yuri subtext, but other than that, I suppose it could go in similar strange exploration directions to what Humanity Has Declined did a few years ago.
If you want to experience this for yourself, check it out on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.
In every anime season, there’s always that one show that focuses on the two main selling points for a certain type of demographic. And Keijo really does take that literally and the point, by supplying a sports anime where the weapons of choice are literally tits and asses.
Also called “Hip Whip Girl”, Keijo is a sport where young women compete to thrust their competitors into the water, using only the previously mentioned body parts.
Yes, this is seriously as ridiculous as it sounds.
But in the world of Keijo, it’s a serious business, and one that provides a huge prize pool that our lead girl Nozomi Kaminashi has her eyes on. She’s very much in it for the money, not to say she doesn’t like the competitive aspects as well.
In episode 1 we’re also introduced to a whole array of secondary characters who are sure to become both friends with Nozomi, but also rivals at various points, most of which are shown to be superior to Nozomi at the sport, but show that Nozomi has some hidden potential that she is sure to unlock at the right moment each time.
The fights are really what people will be watching this series for, as let’s face it, personality comes second when it’s about how capable you are of forcing your ass into another ass and showing that your chest is best and can beat the rest.
I’m not sure of how much more of this I can take, but once you get beyond the stupid premise, it feels like there’s a decent sports series hiding beneath the covers. If it gets a chance to show this, I have no doubt that Keijo could be very good – but it all depends on how long you are willing to wait for that pay-out.
Keijo is streaming on Crunchyroll on Thursdays.
Next up is Long Riders, the latest show to take the “K-ON!” approach to cute girls joining a club, and only really changing the characters and setting.
Sometimes this isn’t a bad thing. Earlier in the year we had the fantastic Bakuon series, which took the formula to the world of motorcycles, but Long Riders repeats this and does so but without the horsepower to push the idea forward.
One thing that is interesting, but not really shown as much in the artwork, is that Long Riders actually takes place in a college, not a high school like K-On and Bakuon. This isn’t really shown in the series however, as the girls could easily have been in high school given how they’re designed.
Our lead girl this time out is Ami Kurata, a not-too-smart girl with a seemingly intelligent little sister, who finds something that catches her eye. She learns about the world of bicycles. However unlike the aforementioned series, bikes aren’t really something that seems out-of-place to a person, so they have to find some extra draw to bikes that wasn’t needed with light music or motorcycles. The draw this time is that Ami finds one girls’ folding bike to be cute.
Yep, she gets in to cycling as she finds a bike cute.
We then enter the magical world of cycling, with a tutorial on how not to take a trip on the bike. Don’t go tired. Don’t go hungry. And don’t go all-guns-a-blazing…
Though strangely do go without helmets. I don’t recall seeing a single helmet in the series, which distracted me a bit, as I’d think a show about riding a bike wouldn’t want to fall off at the first leg.
It’s hard to watch Long Riders without drawing comparisons to its predecessors, but that’s helped even less by the fact that the other lead girl Aoi, is basically Mio from K-On. I know Mio has a lot of commonly used design points in anime, but there’s no two ways about it, Aoi is Mio.
I’m not sure what I think of Long Riders really. It’s a fun little series, but not one that has originality on its side. You can draw comparisons not only between K-On and Bakuon, but also the recent Yowamushi Pedal series.
If you want to try out the series for yourself, be sure to look out for it on Daisuki on Saturdays.
Finally for today, we have Poco’s Udon World.
Not a theme park, but a slice of life series featuring a young man returning to his hometown, who finds a kid hiding in his family’s now-closed Udon restaurant.
There’s not really much more to say in terms of premise, but this looks to be a real sweet iyashikei series where Souta, our main character, learns to love Udon again along with the energetic young Poco.
Poco actually has a secret of his own, he’s a tanuki transformed into a little kid, something we learn towards the end of the first episode, but not something that is a huge spoiler, given it’s all over the credits and the promo material for this series.
If you want to relax on a weekend and just melt into a puddle of smiles, Poco’s Udon World is definitely looking like your best bet. Poco is simply adorable, very much a childlike character of a similar level to Clannad’s Ushio, and Bunny Drop’s Rin.
Bunny Drop in particular looks to be an apt comparison for this series, as both feature professionals suddenly meeting a young child, and having a life changing experience with them.
This is by far the best first episode so far this season, and that includes Sound Euphonium and Vivid Strike, both of which I really enjoyed. The only thing that came close was Izetta, but the drama has to make way for the smiles when Poco’s Udon World is available!
Try Poco’s Udon World yourself at Crunchyroll every Saturday.
And that’s another five series ticked off. There are still a few more series I want to try, so hopefully I’ll be back with one more preview video later in the week. Until then, thanks again for reading, remember to take a look at my Youtube channel for more, and let me know what shows you recommend in the comments.
