Spring 2019 Anime in Review

Looking back at everything that aired this past season, I think it was a more then decent season. It had some cool remakes that I can’t help but say that I enjoyed, some more experimental anime by some creative prodigies (curse you Netflix for taking Carol and Tuesday), and just some series that carry a lot of love and affection with them. Just having some shows to watch is more then enough reason for me to call any season at least decent and I think that Spring 2019 exceeded that ranking. Especially since there are some shows that I find enjoyment in continuing into the summer. I’m pretty happy about that fact.

I guess I have to talk about those shows a little bit as well, don’t I? Let’s talk about those first.

-Series at the Halfway Point-

Fruits Basket (2019)

From the quality of this first cour alone, I am so excited about the fact that this one is going to end up being 63 episodes in total. I’m honestly trying to think of major execution flaws that happened so far and the best that I’ve got is that it feels like Fruits Basket has dug into it’s story yet and I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. This first cour has been a lot of solid table setting by exploring it’s characters in a realistic way and inserting plot elements and relationships for what is to come next. At least, that’s how I see it. I have no knowledge of how Fruits Basket will continue from here.

Demon Slayer

I feel like I am looking at Demon Slayer more under a microscope then just watching it for some reason. That reason being I think it is much better at telling a story through atmosphere and visuals then it is through conventional means. Maybe these are the ravings of a complete mad man and/or Gundam fan, but I know the fundamentals of this world and it’s characters through expressions and how they act, not how they are as a person or some major elements of lore in this anime until it’s the right time for us to receive the information.

As an example, I know that Tanjiro has powers. I just don’t know any of the specifics of his powers so he can pull out any trick in his book whenever which means there isn’t any real tension. There is no consistency with his powers that allows me to know when he really is tapped out. Still, I love the art, the unique abilities on display, and such. I just wish that there was a little more for me. Once again, it’s the most minimal way that a shonen anime could be a shonen anime. I’ll continue watching under my microscope until it’s finished I think.

-Completed Series-

Since I didn’t watch a large abundance of anime this season, that means that this section won’t be as large as it usually is. Now that I think about it, this second is probably going to be shorter next season isn’t it? Well, that is something to think about in the future and not right now.

One show that I am not going to place anywhere is Miru Tights because I’ve been watching it and not sure how to fully describe the experience of what goes on in that anime accurately at all. I’m not sure where I would place it because it’s a fetish anime about girls wearing certain types of clothes. Where do you place that? My mind is completely blown about this short anime existing in the first place. Still, I feel like I need to comment on it because I’m somehow intrigued by it. Maybe I should write about when it finishes? I don’t know.

A Handy Guide for how I feel about shows:

–Watch These Right Now: Seasonal Favorites; Highly Recommend.
-Then These Next: Maybe not as high quality as the first category, but still pretty enjoyable.
-Ok: What it says on the tin, maybe preferable for those who are into the genre the show is from.
-Can’t Recommend: I’m not even sure why I am watching it besides learning something from it.

-Watch These Right Now-

Dororo (2019)

Except for the opening episodes of the second cour, I feel like I have been constantly in awe of this anime just existing. As a retelling of manga and an anime from a long time ago, Dororo just hit everything out of the park. From it’s meaningful story telling, to it’s complex situations it presents, to stellar bits of animation, to how well the show uses colors, Dororo just rocks. It’s an anime series about the people in between a rock and a hard place in war times and I feel like the messages from this show are very important right now.

Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2

I’ve found myself almost constantly at the edge of my seat when watching this season. The action was always on point, the drama felt real because we’ve been with these characters for almost sixty episodes, and somehow characters that haven’t felt relatable at all, like Levi, suddenly do. The first half of this cour was completely nuts and the reveals and backstory of this entire anime was ground breaking. At first, I wasn’t sure about how it was using holocaust imagery because that seemed like a bad call, but as long as Attack on Titan pushes towards freedom for the oppressed, I’m game for it. (No spoilers please.)

-Then These-

JoJo Part 5

I still have nine episodes before finishing up this season, but I feel like I am able to make a call about how I feel about this anime from the 36 that I’ve seen up to this point. At least, that’s how I feel. Honestly, my opinions about JoJo haven’t changed that much so far. It’s mostly been “go here, fight opponents, get the thing, repeat” for most of Part 5’s run so far and that isn’t the most interesting way to run a series though.

Still, it has lead to a wide variety of locations and infinitely variable fights that only JoJo can do, so that has more then keeping me going. Then the characters are still lack luster, but I feel like I know them a lot more then I did before. Their interactions around each other are golden and the main villain is far more interesting then I thought he would be. So many complex things to think about. I hope more people survive this ordeal then the amount that I think are going to survive, zero.

Senryu Girl

I can’t help but feel the warmness from this show every time I think about it. It is a simple show just centered on Eiji, a bully, and Nanako, a shy girl who talks through Senryu, slowly forming a relationship with all their pushy friends trying to get them together. I was originally going to rank this show lower, but the last two episodes just blew everything out of the park and I enjoyed it too much.

Sarazanmai

I feel like a lot of thematic and story elements that Sarazanmai started with didn’t make it through the final cut of this eleven episode series, like the boxes, but what we got was emotional and powerful. I do wish that this series was at least two cours and Ikuhara was able to completely tell the story that he wanted to because you have to make concessions and cuts when writing a one cour anime. Still, I like a lot of the things that made it through. Are three boys were given enough time to be explored, the strength and weaknesses of people being connected to each other was decently talked about, and the shear spectacle, aside from stock footage, was amazing to look at. I am still not sure how I compare Yuri Kuma Arashi and this one, but I feel like they are close together in my eyes.

No OK or Can’t Recommend Sections This Time Around

From this post onward, I am going to try a new feature to keep up with what anime I’ve really liked so far. Hopefully this feature will help me track of shows that I really, really liked from this year and help make an end of year post faster then I did this time. Who knows, everything can changed. It’s weird and stuff.

Top Anime from 2019 so far (Unranked):

-Run With the Wind
-Mob Psycho 100 S2
-Dororo
-Attack on Titan S3 P2