Get ready to see this anime girl’s face everywhere.
Welcome to Day with The Cart Driver’s world-renowned anime season preview! This time we’re covering the fall 2022 season, and for those of you here from the future, yes this is the season Chainsaw Man came out. Normally I like to lead these posts with some dumb joke image that amuses me, but for this season I’m slapping a Chainsaw Man image so future me going through season previews will see this image and instantly be able to place where he was.
Of course there’s more than Chainsaw Man this season. It might actually be one of the most stacked anime seasons of all time – or at least if you’re a shounen fan it certainly is. But to get the obvious one out of the way first…
Chainsaw Man
Denji is a teenage boy living with a Chainsaw Devil named Pochita. Due to the debt his father left behind, he has been living a rock-bottom life while repaying his debt by harvesting devil corpses with Pochita. One day, Denji is betrayed and killed. As his consciousness fades, he makes a contract with Pochita and gets revived as “Chainsaw Man” — a man with a devil’s heart.
I don’t think we, as a society, are prepared for how utterly gigantic the Chainsaw Man anime is going to be. It’s a rare case of a manga property that has blown up in mainstream circles long before any anime was announced. It’s a shounen powerhouse that’s also beloved by critics. I can’t think of any manga this huge before the anime came out, and I’ve been doing these season previews for 14 years. The closest would be Attack on Titan, and even Titan wasn’t this big. I don’t think it could have been when you consider anime simply wasn’t as big back then as it is now, a growth that is in part due to how utterly massive the Titan anime ended up being.
What I’m saying is to be prepared for Chainsaw Man to show up everywhere. Expect references to show up in advertisem*nts for insurance companies. Expect politicians to namedrop it. Expect it in mainstream late night talk shows. Expect it to turn up in illicit advertisem*nts on shady websites blatantly ripping off its character designs. Expect to get randomly blindsided by your grandparents saying they decided to try watching this Chainsaw Man show.
As for the show itself, honestly I barely know what it’s about. I’ve intentionally avoided learning anything about it since I knew it would get an anime eventually. It wasn’t until I read the plot description while putting this preview together did I learn it’s not about competitive hedge trimming, as I had built up in my head. It’s Mappa doing the adaptation and following on from the style from Jujutsu Kaisen, which ended up being a huge success so it’s hard to argue with the decision. What I say hardly matters though. It’s going to be huge. You will not be able to avoid it.
Blue Lock
After a disastrous defeat at the 2018 World Cup, Japan’s team struggles to regroup. But what’s missing? An absolute Ace Striker, who can guide them to the win. The Japan Football Union is hell-bent on creating a striker who hungers for goals and thirsts for victory, and who can be the decisive instrument in turning around a losing match…and to do so, they’ve gathered 300 of Japan’s best and brightest youth players. Who will emerge to lead the team…and will they be able to out-muscle and out-ego everyone who stands in their way?
There have been a bunch of shounen sports shows that never catch on with worldwide audiences. Even in the specific category of football anime, there’s been a few lately, including a pretty decent one in Ao Ashi. But the Blue Lock manga managed to strike gold and get way more coverage, interest, and hype than any other with the ingenious idea having their sports anime be written by a guy who usually does slasher psychological horror. A guy who looks at sports manga and decides what it needs to become is Football Battle Royale.
Reading the first chapter of the manga was interesting. It has the façade of a shounen sports manga but just feels ever so slightly off. Possibly because it goes out of the way to say the power of friendship and teamwork is why you all suck, and you need to be selfish and bloodthirsty to win. This season is weird in that everything looks tiny relative to Chainsaw Man, but in any other season, Blue Lock would be a big hit manga destined to explode on the anime stage.
I’m not so sure on the staff since 8-Bit are mostly a studio of trashy light novels and visual novel adaptations, and the director has basically no directorial jobs under his belt. However the director did do episode directing for Haikyuu, which is the gold standard when it comes shounen sports anime, so it’s hard to argue with the decision. And yeah, 8-Bit’s history is mostly trashy, but lately they’ve mostly been adapting Reincarnated as a Slime, which is really well made as far as trashy light novel adaptations go. It’s not Wit Studio or anything, but it seems to be in safe enough hands.
The Eminence in Shadow
Even in his past life, Cid’s dream wasn’t to become a protagonist or a final boss. He’d rather lie low as a minor character until it’s prime time to reveal he’s a mastermind…or at least, do the next best thing-pretend to be one! And now that he’s been reborn into another world, he’s ready to set the perfect conditions to live out his dreams to the fullest. Armed with his overactive imagination, Cid jokingly recruits members to his organization and makes up a whole backstory about an evil cult that they need to take down. Well, as luck would have it, these imaginary adversaries turn out to be the real deal-and everyone knows the truth but him!
You know me. Well, actually maybe you don’t. Hello, I’m Scamp, the internet anime reviewer who has been doing this thing for far too long because nobody told me to stop yet. There, now you know me a little. You should also know about me that I’m not exactly a fan of the latest isekai trend. It used to be full-blown hatred, but lately I’ve had the realisation that when it comes to anime trends, isekai is way better than trends of the past. The harem era of the early 00s. The moeblob boom that coincided with the economic collapse and I swear society doesn’t put enough emphasis on Kanon 06’s responsibility for the great recession, instead pinning the blame on “subprime mortgages”. Then there was the imouto craze of the early 10s. Yes, we really had a few years of fetishizing little sisters. In the wake of that, yes I will gladly run arms out into the world of isekai.
Much like the main character of Eminence in Shadow ran arms out into the face of an oncoming Truck-kun on his way to the isekai world (oh boy was that a good transition Scamp, damn it’s almost like you’ve been doing this thing for a long time). The shtick for Eminence in Shadow is the main character doesn’t want to be the hero or the villain, but the shadowy figure controlling the world from the sidelines. It’s not an especially great gimmick since you are just another overpowered isekai protagonist in a generic fantasy RPG world, but the manga hit upon making it a slapstick chuuni comedy that really worked for me.
There’s just a small problem. There are two versions of Eminence in Shadow. There’s the slapstick comedy the manga leaned into, which is the Good Version. Then there’s the edgy chuuni power fantasy, which the original light novel is more about. Basically every review I read highlighted that the manga was the much better version. However the trailer was more about the edgy chuuni fantasy than the comedic side. The trailer looked well made for what it’s worth, but very bland visually, being indistinguishable from million other light novel adaptation. You needed to lean into the shadowy theme, take some more inspiration from something like Death Note. There’s a good anime in here if they knew what made it good. But they seem to want to make an isekai power fantasy, of which we have roughly 5 million every season and is completely unremarkable as a result.
Urusei Yatsura
Lum, the gorgeous daughter of an invading race of Oni Aliens is smitten with High School student Ataru Moroboshi. A dedicated womanizer, Ataru is unfazed by Lum’s fierce electric shock attacks and continues his daily hunt for pretty girls. With a host of other unique characters, including classmate Shinobu, elegant shrine maiden Sakura, Lum’s best friend’s Oyuki, Benten and Ran, Buddhist Monk Cherry, Ten, the little brat, heir to a wealthy family Shuutaro Mendou and the secretly female beauty Ryunosuke.
We had a discussion in the discord group – oh yeah, we have a discord group! Come hang out if you’re not a member. We discuss important anime topics, like who is the definitive, ur-anime waifu girl. We landed on Lum being the definitive example. Cutey Honey predates her, but she doesn’t compare to the significance and widespread adoption of our tiger-bikini alien chick. Lum, and Urusei Yatsura, were hugely influential back in the day, and it’s surprising they haven’t tried to bring it back before now. They’ve got David Production on it with the director of Jojo’s Part 5, which makes sense from a “bring back an old manga” perspective. Also the director did Keijo from a “good anime about boobies” perspective, so they’ve got all their bases covered.
I did watch one episode of Urusei Yatsura years ago but didn’t think much of it. Much more recently I saw clips from the long lost jokey English dub done by the BBC of all things, which is worth checking out clips from for its pure Britishness. This remake is a pretty remarkable undertaking. A 52 episode Noitamina anime across 4 split-cours taking 2 years to complete. I saw some anime industry insiders mentioning grumbling inside studios about overwork specifically about this project, but “anime industry is overworked” isn’t exactly news. At least they do split-cours now I guess? The trailer looked all right too, it had a unique look that suited it. I’m not sure if I’ll like this, but I’m fascinated by its existence that requires me to watch it.
Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury
A.S. (Ad Stella) 122― An era when a multitude of corporations have entered space and built a huge economic system. A lone girl from the remote planet Mercury transfers to the Asticassia School of Technology, run by the Beneritt Group which dominates the mobile suit industry. Her name is Suletta Mercury. With a scarlet light burning in her pure heart, this girl walks step by step through a new world.
It’s an honest-to-god new Gundam. New AU Gundam at that (Alternate Universe for those non-Gundam folks out there, to distinguish it from the timeline that contains Char). It’s also the first Gundam with a female protagonist, but that’s one of those things they highlight that only makes you think “wait, have they seriously never had a female protagonist for a Gundam before”. They aired a prologue episode on YouTube, which is a full 25-minute thing and definitely worth watching. It’s pretty good, very serious, and very Gundam. Holds a new record for the youngest age they start a Gundam protagonist piloting a giant robot, which is impressive.
I’m not falling over myself in excitement though. Yeah I want more science fiction anime and more giant robots in anime. Ever since the isekai takeover and the success of Attack on Titan, fantasy has been the name of the game. It’s just that there have been a lot of false dawns for mecha this past decade, including from Sunrise. It’s got a bunch of the staff from Code Geass, because of course it has, it’s the biggest mecha anime of the past 20 years. But those staff went to help write other grand action anime that didn’t hit, like Valvrave and Kabaneri.
Plus there’s the part where, despite my love of anime sci-fi, I haven’t liked an AU Gundam since….ever? Char-timeline Gundam sure, I’ve enjoyed plenty of those. And I haven’t seen all the AU Gundams, notably missing Turn A. But from 00 to Seed to Iron Blooded Orphans to even the beloved G Gundam, I’ve never loved an AU Gundam. Still, the prologue was a decent start, so maybe this will break the losing streak for me?
My Master Has No Tail
In Japan’s Taishou era (1912–1926), Mameda is a shape-shifting tanuki girl who dreams of becoming human. Mame transforms her outward appearance into a pretty raven-haired human girl and heads to the bustling city of Osaka. However, people instantly see through Mameda’s guise, and one beautiful woman ruthlessly says to the dejected Mameda, “Go back where you came from.” As it turns out, that woman named Bunko is herself a supernatural creature who transformed herself into a rakugo (comic storytelling) storyteller. Mameda begs Bunko to become her master and teach her the ways of playing a human.
This anime will probably disappear under the pile of a shockingly stacked season of some of the heaviest hitting anime in a long time. So I’m here to highlight this cute little manga adaptation and say: Hey, check this thing out! It’s about a tanuki who moves to Osaka to try play tricks on humans, fails, but falls in love with a Rakugo performer while she’s there. It’s cute and funny and got a lot of heart from what little I read of it and you should check it out!
That’s…kind of all I have to say? It’s being done by Lidenfilms, a studio I have had a massive bone to pick with in the past for doing shoddy adaptations of material I should have liked, and it’s not like the trailers for this look amazing. But they look fine, and Lidenfilms are just off the incredibly good Call of the Night, so they’ve earned some wiggle room in my eyes. Staff aren’t much to write home about, but the scriptwriter did help write the scripts for Rakugo Shinjuu, which is a good sign. Look, I’m not promising the world. I’m promising a nice, heartfelt, history comedy series about rakugo. There’s a good testicl*s joke in the first chapter, does that sell it for you?
Reincarnated as a Sword
Some isekai protagonists are reincarnated as powerful warriors or skilled wizards, but our protagonist was reborn in another life as a sentient sword! He’s taken up by Fran, a desperate girl fleeing evil-doers intent on selling her into slavery. With her new weapon’s help and guidance, she’s able to strike down her captors and secure her freedom. Together, this unconventional master-student duo embark on an epic journey to liberate those in need and exact justice on the cruel of heart.
The thing about isekai versus old trends in anime is the idea behind isekai stories isn’t inherently bad. “Character gets transported to a fantasy world” is a concept ripe for all sorts of interesting takes. Yeah a lot of them are boring, samey, garbage, that are just a self-insert power fantasy in a bland fantasy RPG where the character starts talking about stats and skill trees, but it’s not inherently bad due to the premise.
“OK sure, but the slavery” I hear you say. And sure, you have a point. It’s a bit alarming how many isekai anime have the main character get himself a hot slave chick with animal ears at some point. Wouldn’t it be nice if the hot anime girl with animal ears was the main character that kills her slaver? Well, that’s sort of what Reincarnated as a Sword is about, at least at the start where she finds the isekai protagonist sword and kills the slavers. Except then it changes to the sword’s perspective and he starts going on about stats and skill trees and I lost interest instantly. But hey, points for not celebrating sex slavery I guess?
Shinobi no Ittoki
The story follows the all-too-ordinary Ittoki Sakuraba, who suddenly learns he’s the heir to a long line of ninjas after surviving an attack from the rival Koga clan. In order to survive, Ittoki learns to become a ninja of the Iga clan and joins the ongoing conflict.
Troyca are a studio that confuses me. They were set up by Ei Aoki after his huge success with Fate/Zero, with its first title being the ambitious, original mecha anime Aldnoah Zero. The problem, it turned out, was Ei Aoki isn’t actually a good director and a studio built in his vision by his buddies put out ambitious yet creatively dull anime. Which is what I get when I see this Shinobi anime. It’s about going to ninja school and stuff, except this will naturally get you compared to Naruto. I’m not exactly a Naruto fan, but something I’ve always appreciated about it was the imagination and care gone into designing its world. Meanwhile this anime looks like like the blandest, most unoriginal setting around, without anything to make it stick out from its peers.
This anime doesn’t have Ei Aoki anywhere on the staff, but this director did work on some unremarkable previous Troyca anime like Re:Creators and Beautiful Bones, so it comes from the same lineage. The studio confuses me because it’s so creatively staid. It’s not like they’re phoning it in either. It’s not pumping out samey isekai where they know they are making repetitive trash. These anime really seem like passion projects, yet come out the other end looking this bland. I don’t get it.
I’m the Villainess so I’m Taming the Final Boss
When Aileen, the Duke’s daughter, regains her memories of her past life, she realizes she’s barreling toward ruin at full speed. Searching for any way out of her hopeless situation, the method she chooses is to capture the heart of the last boss–the Demon Lord Claude!
It’s another one of those villainess light novels. You know, the isekai where the main girl wakes up in the role as a villainess in an otome game she’s played and has to use her knowledge of the game to avert disaster? Yes, we are at the stage where highly specific isekai plot descriptions like this are already being re-used. Dig into the world of light novels and you’ll find even more of these. It’s not quite at the level of “isekai where the main character wants a slow life working as a pharmacist so opens a nice little potions shop” where they’ve managed to have at least 3 of those adapted into anime so far, but we’re getting there.
Honestly what I read of this wasn’t that bad either. It’s instantly recognizable as being similar to My Next Life as a Villainess in tone and story, but it was amusing enough. I liked the final boss guy, and the lead has guts which I enjoyed. The trailer was uninspiring though and the studio have exclusively done forgettable light novel adaptations in their short lifetime so not much else to see here.
Raven of the Inner Palace
Deep within the inner palace lives a special consort who does not serve the emperor despite her position as a consort. She is known as the Raven Consort. People who have seen her say she looks like an old women, while others say she looks like a young girl. Stories tell of her use of mysterious arts, and how she can take on any request, be it death curses or finding lost things. Koushun, the current emperor, goes to visit the Raven Consort with that intention. Without knowing that their fated meeting will become a taboo that will overturn history.
There was a report from Crunchyroll earlier this year where they said shoujo anime overperform due to lack of supply. There’s a lack of anime aimed at women. It’s something I’ve been thinking of recently as I’ve been going through my old favourite anime, which happen to include a bunch of titles from the golden age of Noitamina when they exclusively aired anime for older ladies. What is Noitamina airing today? Call of the Night, which I like a lot, but it’s also very much a horny waifu bait anime. Don’t worry, I’m sure this season Noitamina aren’t making another horny waifu bait anime! Let’s see, for the fall season they’ve got…oh…Urusei Yatsura. Never mind!
Of course what appeals to ladies is a bit more varied than just “shoujo”. For example, those villainess isekai run in seinen publications in Japan but do way better with ladies in the west. Plus I’ve definitely seen a lot of ladies really like Call of the Night, so maybe Noitamina know better than me. Anyways, Raven of the Inner Palace. It’s a light novel about a consort for an emperor while wearing just the most fabulous makeup. They spent so much time designing the lead’s makeup they had no time left to make any of the male characters look visually distinct at all.
Seriously, the trailer did a fantastic job of making this anime look very boring, apart from the stupendous makeup. Bandai Namco Pictures isn’t much of a studio. More of a generic corporate production house with no identity. Yeah they recently made Birdie Wing, aka best anime of the year, but it’s not like Birdie Wing was well animated. The last time we got a shoujo political intrigue adaptation with a dodgy looking trailer, we got maybe the most disappointing anime of the decade in Requiem for the Rose King, so forgive me if I can’t get excited for this.
Do It Yourself!!
Building furniture and friendships have a lot in common. Intention, effort, and hard work are needed for both crafts. This is a story of girls in a DIY club building both as they carve out their futures. None of it comes easy, but that doesn’t stop any of ’em. Furniture, friendships, and the future—they’re building it all with their own hands!
My main hope for this anime is to include a shot in the OP where the words of the title appear on screen while it says the name in Engrish while the anime girls all present the words and then cheer. That has some real solid meme potential right there. It’s a great tool for any twitter thread replies. For the show itself, idk it’s some cute girls doing cute things anime, which I have been informed is so common that modern anime fans shorten it to CGDCT, with the cute thing in this title being handiwork. It has a weirdly well-animated trailer because they didn’t spend the entire budget on extraordinary makeup.
Play it Cool, Guys
Enter: a bunch of cool guys who look like they got that unapproachable swag. But let’s be real—that’s not the true them. They’re just a bunch of dorks who’ve got the act down pat. So sit back, grab some popcorn and enjoy watching a bunch of goofy guys try to look cool all day every day.
Reading the manga to this felt like a highly specific callout to me. I do all the things these extremely cool guys do in this show. I trip over my own feet, forget to hit the button to cross the road, leave my wallet in random places, and generally be a huge klutz. Yet nobody thinks I’m cool and handsome as a result. It’s being directed by Chiaki Kon, whose name is a blast from the past for me, and whose latest history has been immensely depressing. Maybe she’s good at what she does, but how would you know when you’re told by the author to animate Way of the House Husband like it’s a papercraft cutouts with no movement?
Bocchi the Rock!
Gotou Hitori is a high school girl who starting learning to playing the guitar because she dreams of being in a band, but she’s so shy that she hasn’t made a single friend. However, her dream might come true after she meets Ijichi Nijika, a girl who plays the drums and is looking for a new guitarist for her band.
I was taken aback when I saw the studio doing this. It’s our friends at Cloverworks! I thought the trailer looked rather well animated. I’ve had disparaging things to say about Cloverworks in the past, but it has more to do with their working conditions and my desire for the industry to not work their animators to the bone. Their end product usually looks extremely good, at least for the first half of the show.
Not that I have any interest in Bocchi the Rock personally. It’s a cute girls start a band show, and the trailer has everything you could possibly expect from that plot description. This did make me realise K-ON is 13 years old and is now officially an Old Anime. The creators animators for Bocchi the Rock probably grew up watching K-ON and wanted to make something like that. The director is only 29, he’s younger than me!
More than a Couple, Less than Lovers
Third-year high school student Jirou Yakuin hoped to partner with Shiori Sakurazaka of the same class in the mandatory “Couple Practical” course. In this practical, students must demonstrate that they have the necessary skillset to live with a partner of the opposite sex while presenting a certain level of harmony to the video surveillance that grades them. Unfortunately, random chance put his slightly subdued self into the practical with the person polar opposite to him, the gyaru Akari Watanabe. Akari on the other hand hoped to be paired with her crush Minami Tenjin. Their hopes are doubly dashed when they find out that Shiori and Minami are assigned together. Thus, they reluctantly decide to cooperate to reach the top ten, which would give them the right to exchange partners if both couples agree. To that end, Jirou steals Akari’s first kiss without realizing what he’d done, while giving a hurried good-bye kiss.
That might be the worst designed gyaru girl of all time, and I’m someone who usually loves the gyaru girls. But the more important detail I want to highlight is from the plot description: The “couple practical”. When reading the manga, it sounded like one of those hair-brain schemed invented by the dystopic Japan’s government as a way to solve the nation’s low birthrate crisis. They can’t send Shinzo Abe around to young adults houses armed with a shotgun demanding they f*ck anymore, so this is the next best thing. Except the manga never made any reference to why this couple practical exists, leading me to the conclusion that this actually happens in Japan now and just hasn’t been mentioned before.
Why can’t they solve the ageing population crisis by loosening immigration restrictions and let foreigners in? It’s not like you can’t make a good horny manga off that premise. Picture this: You’re a young teacher who teaches Japanese to immigrants and refugees, but your class is full of young, attractive, 20-something foreign ladies who all want to find a Japanese husband. Full of romcom hijinks! Hire me Japan. Or hire me an artist so I can make this wet dream a reality.
Bibliophile Princess
When book-loving Lady Elianna spots Prince Christopher—her betrothed in name only—consorting with another noble lady, she realizes the recent rumors must be true. The prince has someone he truly loves, which means the annulment of their engagement is both inevitable and fast-approaching. What she doesn’t realize is that this is merely a surface ripple—one of many where the truth runs deep, in a conspiracy surpassing her imagination!
This serves as a nice contrast to Raven in the Inner Palace. When reading Raven, I struggled to get into it, but it was clear there was a lot going on and maybe a good adaptation could capture the mystery in this royal court. Bibliophile Princess, meanwhile, was the most hilariously extra shoujo bollocks I’ve maybe ever read. “I’m just a plain girl” says clearly beautiful shy girl with long hair and roses exploding behind her, who just likes reading books. “Oh no dear I’m clearly just a player” says beautiful prince with roses exploding behind him but reveals to have feelings for her. The flower petals were hilarious, every character introduction had an entire garden explode behind them. It wasn’t good in the slightest, but it was very unintentionally funny. Apparently there’s political intrigue here too, but the only thing I’m intrigued by is where they get all the petals from.
Beast Tamer
Because Rain was a weak and simple beast tamer, he was expelled from the hero’s group but that didn’t stop his desire to be an adventurer. By taking simple quests afterwards he has a destined encounter with a strong cat girl.
Here’s the thing about isekai: It’s not the isekai part that’s the problem. It’s what they do once they get to the isekai world that’s the problem. Case in point: Beast Tamer. It’s not an isekai. It just features an overpowered main character in a generic fantasy RPG world who gets a harem of slave girls with animal ears. Sorry, not slave girls. Beast girls. Who have to listen to what he says. And he effectively owns them. As if there’s any difference.
I’ve Somehow Gotten Stronger When I Improved My Farm-Related Skills
Al Wayne loves farming — and we don’t mean the video game sim. He wants to be a literal farmer, but in the process of improving his agriculture skills, he somehow winds up maxing out his overall character stats! He’s superpowered in the most unexpected of ways with abilities even the strongest of heroes would envy. Alas, all he wants is an idyllic farmer’s life, but with demons and monsters invading the realm, Al may have to take up the mantle of hero just to keep his dreams from withering away!
I might need to call a moritorium on isekai hate. Again, it’s not the isekai that’s the problem. It’s the overpowered characters in generic fantasy RPG that’s the problem. Maybe that’s why Re:Zero is actually pretty good despite seemingly following all the same tropes as every other sh*tty isekai. Because the main character isn’t overpowered at all. Farm Skills isn’t exactly awful either. There is something kinda funny about a guy who just wants to farm his tomatoes but the queen of the land wants him to be his bodyguard. But it’s bland, generic, and very similar to all these other generic RPG overpowered stories. It can still be a power-fantasy wish fulfilment if your dream power fantasy is to be able to relax in the countryside.
Love Flops
The story centers on Asahi Kashiwagi, a student who one morning runs into a series of unusual accidents the way to school — all in accordance with a vague television fortune he watched that morning, and all culminating with an unfortunate encounter with a girl. Coincidentally, all the girls he meets are new students or teachers at his school. Asahi’s prior knowledge of the girls earns him the suspicion of Yoshio, a self-proclaimed “friend of Asahi.” After school, he finds a love letter in his shoe locker, telling him to come to the cherry blossom tree behind school, again according to his morning fortune. Asahi heads to the cherry blossom tree to see what awaits him.
I’m annoyed at the promo art because it made me think this series was something more dramatic than it was. No, it’s a shounen harem romcom. A completely unremarkable one at that. Moving on.
Futoku no Guild
Kikuru Madan, is a monster hunter with excellent performance, because of his particular job in the forest, but he decided to quit it because of fear wasting his own youth…
Reading the manga was a shock. It starts off like any other generic fantasy RPG with overpowered protagonist. And then the female character gets sexually assaulted by the monsters they meet. Apparently this happens in every chapter? Then I realised the title translates to Guild of Depravity and it made more sense.
Akiba Maid War
Spring 1999. Admiring and wanting to be a cute maid, a young girl comes to Akihabara. The end-of-the-century “Akiba” is filled with a wide variety of maids. The maid cafe “Ton Tokoton,” commonly known as “Butagoya” (Pig Hut), is open today as well! I was in a panic because the new maid who had joined the store with me was quite unpredictable. Maids, trainers, and other Akihabara life forms appear as well, and the red bat swings into action! This is a full-fledged maid’s work struggle diary, given to all masters and ladies. “We are waiting for you to come home, boo.”
I was watching the trailers for all the anime coming out next season with the wife and we started this trailer. A maid appeared on the screen with a grumpy scowl on her face and, before I could say anything, the wife said “that one’s your favourite huh”. We stopped watching the trailer there because quite frankly I couldn’t handle being brutally attacked like that anymore.
Management of Novice Alchemist
For a lonely orphan, there is almost only one career path to success. That is to get a national qualification as an alchemist. After graduating from the Royal Alchemist Training Academy, which requires nothing but ability, Sarasa is presented with the rights to a store by her master. After being sent off by her generous mentor, Sarasa sets off on her journey, dreaming of a slightly elegant life as an alchemist, but upon arrival, she is shocked to find that the countryside is even more rural than she had imagined. However, even in such a place, she has to manage a store somehow to make a living.
Remember when earlier I joked about how there are multiple anime about going to a fantasy RPG world and opening a pharmacy and having a slow relaxing life in the countryside? I wrote all that before I realised this anime was coming out. OK it’s not an isekai, but as we’ve established, the isekai isn’t the important part. Also yeah it’s an alchemy shop, but “alchemy shop” means they sell potions, and potions are fantasy RPG medicine so yeah it’s a pharmacy.
Eternal Boys
“The Mature Idol Project” The latest project proposed by Manpuku Etertainment productions, in a bid to revive the company. Experienced in the successes and failures of the business world, 6 middle-aged men now face the many hurdles of age and physical ability, whilst pursuing their goal to become idols. In an effort to prove that old dogs can learn new tricks, and that you can still learn to shine no matter your age. These middle-aged men, and the end of their ropes, are taking a stand!
I’m immensely amused by the plot for this. It’s just another idol anime, but all the idols are dudes in their late 30s and 40s. Yeah, you go get ’em guys! Am I going to watch it? f*ck no, it’s still an idol anime. But I wish them all the best in their exciting midlife crisis.
Four People Lie in Their Own Way
Each girl has at least one secret. Rikka, Chiyo, Sekine, and Tsubasa are four good friends in the same class. But each one has a ridiculous secrets…!?
This is by a relatively new studio whose main previous work was Banished from the Hero’s Party. Google Translate translated the title of their studio as Studio Flood, which is an OK name I guess. It’s just a shame that every English website translates their name as Studio Flad, a name that made me spurt my drink out my nose when I read it. Honestly the trailer looked all right so maybe our new favourite Studio Flad will produce something great here. One of my favourite new studios lately was Studio Nut, so maybe the quality of new anime studios is directly connected to how silly their names are.
My Life After I Became a Dummy Head Microphone One Morning
The slapstick comedy revolves around a protagonist who was reincarnated into a dummy head microphone (a microphone embedded in a fake human head to faithfully record the aural ambience). That dummy head microphone happens to be used by Yuri and other high school girls in an ASMR club, who have their sights set on the “ASMR Koushien” high school championships.
I am literally only including this one because it has the phrase “ASMR Koushien” and I find that deeply funny.
Sequels
I feel we need to start with Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War. Bleach used to be absolutely f*cking massive. Bleach + Naruto were talked about in the same breath as all-encompassing shounen properties that overshadowed everything else, with One Piece thrown in with them sometimes. New anime fans would get sucked into the maw of neverending shounens and anime fandom shriveled around them. Except eventually though Bleach and Naruto ended, while One Piece got to over 1000 episodes in length and became too large for new fans to get into and One Piece fans became their own separate fandom.
When Naruto ended, I remember there being a massive outpouring of emotion. People who hadn’t watched the show in years showed up to say “aww Naruto, you were so important to me”. Naruto ending was an event. When Bleach ended, the overwhelming reaction I saw was “phew, it’s about time they killed this”. Very few people seemed sad to see it end, with people saying it should have ended years ago. Now with it coming back, I’m suddenly seeing a huge amount of excitement for this Bleach return. Did everyone forget their feelings when it was finally killed off and they’re setting themselves up for disappointment? Or is Bleach so old that all the fans I’m seeing watched the show when they were 12 and had sh*t taste?
I won’t write that much about all the other sequels. Bleach was just bothering me. For everything else shounen, we have the return of Spy X Family, which I’m happy to see. I hope we get more of Bill Watkins, age 6, dodgeball champion and son of totally-not-M Bison. It’s still early enough that I haven’t gotten tired of the story. Which I can’t say for My Hero Academia, which is now on season 6. This will be the first time I’m not watching a new My Hero season after I realised the only episodes of the show I had enjoyed in the past 2 seasons were the joke ones with Gentle Criminal. At least I know My Hero is still a massively popular shounen property. I didn’t realise people were still watching Yowamushi Pedal, but here it is with a new season. I guess it’s like how we’re still getting Prince of Tennis anime. Sports boys fangirls can really carry a series for a long time.
Outside the world of shounens, we have the return of To Your Eternity, a series that had an excellent first half and then sorta petered out. I’ve heard some weird things about where the manga goes from here, so I do want to see what happens. I maintain that the first 12 episodes are genuinely excellent. But if there’s a series I’m definitely watching, it’s Golden Kamuy. I have issues with the way they’ve adapted this series, but by the time we reached season 3 it seemed like the creators found their groove. Plus the manga recently ended, so there’s a very reasonable chance the anime actually reaches the end. Still terrible music choices, but you can’t win them all.
Jumping into comedy sequels, get ready to roll your eyes at chuds online as Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out gets a sequel. I’m not sure why this series attracted culture warriors more than any other anime, but it you could reliably guess that anyone with an Uzaki-chan avatar would also complain about politics in video games. That said, the fact that the sequel’s subtitle is ω is incredibly funny so all is forgiven. Welcome to Demon School Iruma-kun is on its third season, so good for it. I keep meaning to go back to it since I liked what I saw, but at this stage 3 seasons might be too intimidating for my weakling body. sh*tpost central Pop Team Epic is also returning. I can’t wait to see what highly elaborate skit they create based off a single panel from the manga.
For fans of Good Anime, Pui Pui Molcar is getting a sequel. For fans of bad anime, KanColle is getting a sequel, several years after the original. Considering the original came too late to capitalise on the popularity of the game and had been eclipsed by Azur Lane, this sequel is amazingly late because even Azur Lane is old news now. I don’t even know what the most popular gatcha game is now. Is it still Fate/Verse? Horse Girls? Blue Archive? Speaking of missing when the series was popular by an abnormally long time, Muv-Luv Alternative is getting a season 2. In my head the original season was an NFT scam so I’m shocked it’s getting more.
Cleaning up the rest of the season, we have more of the Legend of the Galactic Heroes remake. I’ve heard from some folks that it’s actually good, and its getting long enough that it’s starting to approach the absurd length of the original, so I’ve been considering jumping into it. Peter Grill and the Philosopher’s Time I’m shocked is getting more anime because I swear nobody watched it. They still haven’t made it an actual p*rno yet so they’re making the same mistakes of the original. Yama no Susume, Idolish7 and Megaton-kyuu Musashi are all anime I know basically nothing about, but they’re getting sequels so good for them I guess? Finally there’s going to be more of the Tiger and Bunny remake. There must be people watching this, right? They must all exist in corners of the internet I don’t inhabit. For as big as season 1 was, I swear this dropped off the face of the earth. Please make your sequels in a timely fashion anime producers, thanks!
