This anime season has been jam-packed. Never since last spring has a spring season ever been so springy. But there’s just too much to watch! What are you gonna do? Finals are coming up, class sign ups are on their way and summer is just around the corner. Well do I have an array of shows for you to watch! These are the ones I am personally keeping up with, as well as some others that might pique your interest, (But “Ninjago Dragons Rising” Season 3 has been really good so far also so if you care check that out). Ok, let’s go!
First of all: Just gonna squish a bunch of continuing from last season here.
“Windbreaker” season 2 starts right where they left off with large crowds of angry teenage boys fighting each other in a warehouse, with each and every member of Furin high schools first year class getting to show off their moves in close combat, as well as Sakura finally taking responsibility as a leader for his class. Needless to say that Cloverworks (the GOATS) have got themselves another banger season of High School Boys Being Helpful Until They Need to Start Punching People.
The historical fiction mystery drama “Apothecary Diaries” season 2 continues into this spring with more personal risks and revealed (eye looking emoji) revelations that are only just the beginning for Maomao and Jinshi. OLM and TOHO Studios are once again knocking it out of the park with one of the best dramas this side of anime, hell, this half of television.
“Shoshime: How To Be Ordinary” season 2 continues to be a picturesque mystery with another opening that goes beyond animation and into a cinephilic appreciation of seemingly abstract imagery. The show itself will still stay within a 2.39:1 aspect ratio to keep that dinematic feeling throughout the episode. With every action being one step closer to the mystery either being solved (or created in front of our very eyes) it continues to be one of the most engaging small town mystery shows I’ve seen. (ALSO LAPIN TRACK IS DOING AN ANIME ADAPTATION OF MY FAVORITE ROMANCE MANGA, “YOU AND I ARE POLAR OPPOSITES” NEXT YEAR SO KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THAT PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE).
Alright time to get into the new stuff (yipeeee).
“Your Forma” is a detective sci-fi mystery show from Geno Studio (of Golden Kamuy fame) focusing on a series of attacks from the newest android model that eats, drinks, sleeps and acts in many other ways like us humans. Our lead is the ever so focused and robotic Electronic Investigator, Echika Hieda and her cheeky android assistant Harold Lucraft, as they figure out the mystery behind attacks against and by androids just like Harold. The world is well–realized and futuristic, and the details within the environments breathe life into the most dull spaces. Using the “Your Forma” method to explore people’s memories gives the viewer a look into one of the most abstract yet fully realized methods of searching someone’s mind for memories they didn’t even know they had. I’m looking forward to seeing how this mystery concludes.
“WitchWatch” from Bibury Animation Studios is the hotly anticipated anime adaptation of the manga with the same name about the ditzy loose canon teenage witch Nico Wakatsuki returning to her childhood neighborhood and getting into shenanigans with her childhood friend, crush, housemate (oooooh) guardian and straight man Morihito “Moi” Otogi. He himself is a half ogre with incredible strength that he has dedicated to use to protect Nico and not screw up his freshman high school year. Both go terribly wrong. This is an anime with as high a production value in its animation as it does in its jokes. I swear this is one of the prettiest and imaginative comedies out there this year, and it’s one I surely would hate to see someone ignore after an amazing and only watching half an episode – I’M TALKING TO YOU MOE! YOU BETTER BE READING THIS!
“My Hero Academia: Vigilantes” is a comic book inspired Bones Film anime set in the My Hero Academia world before the events of the main show. It focuses on a trio of people working together to stop the spread of instant villains popping up around the city. But since they aren’t officially licensed heroes in a world full of them, they don’t exactly stand out. We’ve got The Crawler, a college kid with a part-time job who can glide on surfaces at a moderate speed, Pop Step, a micro internet celeb with a street idol gig who can hop from any surface pretty high, and Knuckle Duster. He has no superpowers. He is a hobo Batman with knuckle dusters. It is a story about self discovery and change that centers around The Crawler and his path to figuring out what it truly means to be a hero. And the OP is a banger of an earworm. It is totally going off in my head at every moment of the day.
“Anne Shirley” is the new Anne of Green Gables anime adaptation by The Answer Studio, and its landscapes and scenery are so beautiful they made me cry. I wish the Prince Edward Isles were real. I am watching it with my mom, and so should you. Anyone who grew up with Anne will find something to enjoy in this production. Whether it be the expressive squash and stretch of Anne with an E herself, the voice action and minute details in everyone’s expressions, or just like I said, the landscape of the totally fictional Prince Edwards Isles being so picturesque it feels like it popped straight out of Anne’s own imagination. The show is scheduled for 24 episodes, so enjoy the small town adventure as it continues into your summer vacation.
Finally, the last show (of the seasonals) that I’m watching is the surprise from China’s Bili Bili studio of Link Click fame: that being “To Be A Hero X.” Taking the style of Arcane, mixing in some Super Heroes gaining their powers literally by the public perception and adding some CHEMICAL TWO DEE MIXED MEDIA ANIMATION and you have yourself one of the most unique pieces of animation this side of the year. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the most ambitious piece of animation this whole year. After Nice, the premiere hero of this company, dies of a mysterious suicide, the guy who makes all the ad campaigns for him is forced to take his role as the hero. From this point forward people are trying to figure out if that really is Nice, what with his behavior not covering all the areas the company would be aware of (personal relationships and the such). We also learn about how other heroes came to be and how some have suffered from the public’s perception forcing them to be something they don’t want to be anymore. It is a fast paced jam packed series of events that can only be seen to believe, and believing is truly something to be valued in the public eye.
Anime is cool. Read “Kindergarten Wars.” Have a wonderful summer!
