Spring 2018 First Impressions

Why are there so many series airing this season? It’s completely unfair for every other season that is going to air shows this year. I won’t say all of them are on that abounding level of awesome that goes beyond some of the shows that aired last season, but there are some that are legitimately great and a lot of others that are on that above average threshold. That being said, this is a season that has way too many series that I am interested in. As a strange turn of events, I am glad that Netflix took away a couple of shows for this season. I had to cut down the list of anime I am watching for sanity reasons. If a series wasn’t something that I was completely sure about or didn’t fill a particular niche of mine, like mech shows for instance, then it wouldn’t make it on my watch list. I also tried to make my list as diverse as possible too, because I don’t want to watch the same sorts of shows all the time. That would be boring.  Then again, each action series and even mech series are completely different from each other. Surprise! Yay diversity.

I think that’s enough of an intro, let’s talk about some shows.

My Hero Academia S3

It’s my Hero Academia, what am I supposed to say? At this moment, I don’t think that this arc has kicinto full gear, so it’s not at any of the emotional peaks of season two yet, but there are signs that some heavy things are going to happen. Like, maybe next episode? I also like how the little boy that appeared is going to challenge Deku’s beliefs in the hero system. Especially since Deku has no method of convincing this boy in any way now. The fact that this truth is there makes their relationship so interesting. I feel like I already know what direction little arc is going to go, but I am interested in how MHA handles it. Maybe they aren’t going to go the direction I think it is and that would be great. This show hasn’t scared me completely wrong yet.

Magical Girl Site

At this moment, I’m not completely sure where my thoughts are for this show yet. The abuse in the first episode was a little too much, but it’s lessened too. In some ways, this anime has some ideas and plots that Madoka Magica has covered. I mean, our protagonists is protected by a mysterious girl that has a time stop ability, there is a doom event in the future that is vaguely alluded too, and each of their abilities is slowly killing them in some way. Am I missing something here? At the same time, I think Magical Girl Site is going somewhere different. I may be completely wrong about this, but I think this commentary about people’s alternative lives versus what people see in the day time.  I don’t have any evidence to support this yet besides the idol character and her abilities that come with her magical stick panties. Yes, magical underwear. If this show goes in an interesting direction, I will definitely write a post about it in the future.

Gundam Build Divers

This show is yet another edition of an anime commercial centered around Gundam models but with virtual reality. It’s a show for kids, because this show tells you to only be online for two hours so you can finish your homework. There are also some blatant fanservice kinds of scenes revolving around series models, forcing the protagonist kid’s stalker girl into different Gundam outfits, and just general character avatars in general. I don’t know about this one guys. The plot is all over the place and each story beat is obviously enough to see miles away without a telescope. Still, I think that I going to stick with this one. There are signs that it’s improving. I hope that I am not completely wrong about this. One this thing gets a plot other than random world building missions, I’m sure this one will be at least ok. If not, then I won’t watch this series’ second cour. Simple as that.

Megalo Box

Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of Tomorrow’s Joe comes Megalobox. Boy it is amazing! Its an anime centered around a dark alley boxer who is not a citizen and gets by from throwing matches against people who have no actual hope of winning an actual match at the right time. (Yes, the boxers fight with mechanized arms). The boxer, who eventually names himself Joe, gets bored from this bottom feeder life style and is hoping to live up to higher expectations by jumping into the cities massive boxing competition. I love this anime guys. I know that it’s not too amazing from a character level or a plot level, but from a world building, art design, and animation perspective, it’s amazing. It’s also feels like nostalgia because the character designs are very early 2000’s and this feels like it should have aired on Toonami back then as well. So basically, this one is meant for me. So good guys.

Golden Kamuy

This show is centered around an invincible soldier that survived the Japanese-Russo war with a lot of scaring and an Ainu girl that knows the natural of the land itself. On the backs of several escaped prisoners is a piece of a tattoed map, tattooed by some crazy guy, that leads to a massive pile of gold. It’s up to our two main characters to find all of these prisoners, put the pieces together, and collect the gold. As with all of these sorts of stories, they have an army that is after the gold as well. Kind of Indiana Jones like in that way. Despite some questionable animation values, this show is a lot of fun. I love seeing these two interact and I like the setting. Going to continue watching this one.

Hinamatsuri

OMG, how am I supposed to describe this one? Ummm, just going to talk about this one very quickly. So basically, a psychic girl appears out of nowhere from a mysterious land before a rich yakuza member. Shenanigins ensue. Yeah, that’s where I am going with this. The production values of this show aren’t the best from an animation perspective, but you can feel the girl’s psychic powers and the character and setting designs are well detailed and unique. Also, show’s comedic timing is great. I will continue watching this one and recommend this show for others as well. It’s that piece of relaxation and humor I need after watching Magical Girl Site and Fullmetal Panic.

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi

This show is centered around a female college student that can see spirits, but is forcibly abducted into the spirit realm to marry an attractive male ogre in order to complete the debt forced upon the college student’s grandpa. Of course, this college student refuses to marry this ogre, so she wants to work it off in the spiritual realm. The beginning plot is her exploring this interesting world and the beginnings of her opening a diner for during members of the spiritual realm to eat food and thus earn money toward her debt. This show is a little slow for me at the moment, but I like all the concepts that have been put at the forefront. I plan on watching it every Monday, because it is surprisingly soothing. It helps me to cool down on the worst day of the week. The production values are questionable, because there are a lot of focused in shots of characters lip flaps when each person is talking, but I feel like Studio Gonzo is picking and choosing where to put their production values.

Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

Here is my romantic comedy for the reason. I have tried some others, and they weren’t for me. But this one? Great and very relatable for me, because this centers around otaku adults in the work place. The show starts with our mid-twenties female protagonist waking up late after staying past midnight doing whatever otaku things she was doing. Thus, the first episode is an introduction episode that shows off the rest of the cast and puts each of them in a good spot in the work place. So you know, female protagonist’s childhood friend, an incredibly attractive female boss that is also into otaku things, and another character that is an otaku but not on the other three’s level. That’s the cast so far. So far, so good. The only weak point is that this licensed by amazon, so I don’t know when these episodes will drop.

The Legend of the Galactic Heroes: The New Thesis – Encounter

Oh hey, do you guys remember hearing about that famous grand sprawling space epic that came out in the 80’s? Well, here is the remake in much more digestible form. You know what? It’s really good. All the ships look amazing, all the character designs are very distinct, which is great considering that there are tons of characters, and the story is the same as the beginning part of the original Legend of the Galactic Heroes series and told just as well or even better then before. Production IG obviously put a lot of work into this anime and I like it quite a bit.

Lupin the Third: Part 5

I can only say about that this show is just more Lupin, but in the technology age. The whole lupin gang is back, but the cast includes a hacker girl hikkimori. I was honestly bored by her at first, but there is an interesting connection between her and Lupin that somehow works. That being said, the production values aren’t as good as Part 4 and the theme song rendition isn’t as good either, but both of those things are still pretty solid compared to normal anime stuff. The plot elements are decent so far as well. So many good things here.

Space Battleship Tiramisu

This show is a short made out of seven-minute episodes centered around some crazy concepst in space mech shows which aren’t usually focused on. Things like what happens if you get food caught floating around a cockpit and what would it be like if a mech pilot was a recluse millennial that wants to be left alone. That being said, I’m glad that this one is a short.  I know that I would get incredibly bored with it if that wasn’t the case. I think it’s worth watching just to see what the weekly gags are. Seven minutes of space comedy is a good thing as well.

Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory

I’m not going to talk about this one in detail, because I don’t think you should watch this one unless you’ve seen the previous seasons. This show is back baby. After being gone for over a decade, this show is back and it doesn’t seem like it’s changed at all. Maybe there was a technology change, but it’s still an incredibly well done in that it’s barely noticeable except when mechs turn invisible. The CG models are some of best that I’ve seen in anime. I wish it was all hand drawn, but this is the second-best option.  It’s so good, because Invisible Victory feels like the first season just with the intensity ramped up a bit. That’s about it. I’m so excited that there is more Fullmetal Panic to watch.

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What shows are you watching this season? Am I missing out on anything good? I want to know, because I might drop a show or two along the way. If that was the case, I would have some gaps to fill.