Fall 2016 Anime

I was going to do a general preview but it turned out that this season is like half originals and I couldn't find much for most of the adaptations. So, commentary on select titles instead:

All Out

What I read of it had a sort of energetic cheerfulness to it that I normally associate more with casts full of girls than with guys. Actually fairly good

Brave Witches

New characters but same staff. Should be welcoming to fans both new and old

Classicaloid

Directed by the Gintama/Osomatsu-san guy

Drifters

From the Hellsing mangaka, and retains much of the stylishness. Way more plot, though. There's a lot of emphasis on the overall strategy and how they're working towards it. It's a tale of conquest

Downsides: Hirano's sense of humour remains terrible and there's some troubling sexist undertones^note The only major female character gets sexually harassed constantly, and the rest are all villains or rape victims. I also wasn't particularly impressed by the OVA version, but I'm certain there's people that disagree with that

Flip Flappers

Not a Trigger production. I can understand being confused, but the studio is 3Hz (who's history is fine, so that's not an issue)

Girlish Number

The big thing here is that this is being written by the My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU guy. I do wonder how much of his fandom is into idols, though

Idol Memories

Aikatsu for adults, near as I can tell. Aside from a slight sci-fi theme, this looks like it means there's a bit more fanservice and yuri subtext. And the main villain is a Char for some goddamn reason

Keijo

It's a goofy shounen sports series with a lot of fanservice. The fanservice is enough that you won't want to watch this where anyone can see, but too goofy and, frankly, tame to be particularly arousing. Also, I found the manga near unreadable

Lostorage incited WIXOSS

I'm not sure if this is in continuity with the earlier series, but I'm pretty certain that it won't require knowledge of them

Staff is new. Can't say they're promising, but they're not terribly unpromising, either

Nazotokine

Probably shorts. "Puzzle-solving" and the cute mascot make me think this is aimed at kids, attractive girl in form-fitting outfit makes me question that

Occultic;Nine

No, this isn't part of the science-adventures series that Steins Gate belongs to. It is from the same author, though. Not that this means much— Steins Gate is an outlier on Shikura's long, mediocre career. I mean, it could be great, but I wouldn't put money on it

Shuumatsu no Izetta

Okay, this one is weird— We have no idea who's making it! Staff and cast are typically among the first things announced, but here we are with PVs and an airdate but nothing on the production side. Actually weird enough that I can't tell if it's a bad sign or why it might happening^note Best (if still not terribly likely) guess is a disgraced director trying to hide their involvement. It does seem like something Yamakan might make...

Soushin Shoujo Matoi

Director's previous works are Celestial Method and Strawberry Panic. So I'm pretty certain this'll be fairly gay^note Celestial Method gave me the impression that the writer wasn't intending any yuri, but the direction added it in anyway via meaningful gazes, voice acting, etc.. I'd expect moderate drama over despair or pure fluff, but can't say anything for sure

Udon no Kuni no Kin-iro Kemari

ANN insists on calling this "Poco's Udon World" and I don't know why^note It's not a translation (that'd be "The Blond Furball of the Udon Country"), it's not an alternate title, and it hasn't been licensed anywhere that I know of. Anyway, from what I read of it (the first chapter), I don't think this'll be too heavy on the food side of things. Main worry is that the manga's art is pretty striking and the anime can't really translate that well

Oh, and the dad has the same voice as Amaama To Inazuma's

Vivid Strike

This has much of the cast of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Vivid but there's currently no legal way to watch the anime^note never got licensed outside of Japan or a home release in it, so they probably won't assume much familiarity with it. Maybe

Staff-wise we have the same writer as always^note not sure this is a good thing; I get the impression he lost interest with the series after A's but the director of the later Dog Days seasons. He's typically a comedy director and has mixed results outside of it

Yuri!!! on Ice

Director has solid enough credentials— Michiko To Hatchin and Lupin III The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. Problem: She's also in charge of the writing, which is almost never a good sign

edited 1st Sep '16 1:33:59 AM by Hylarn

Can't forget the eight exclamation points in the title of "Keijo!!!!!!!!".

Pingpong

This is basically a shounen sports series with the characters of a CGDCT one. Watch it if you're looking sports or yuri subtext, not comedy

Oh, and Shuumatsu no Izetta did get it's cast and staff announced, but none of it is unusual. Don't know what was with the hold-up

edited 3rd Sep '16 2:19:08 AM by Hylarn

Well at least there is no way it could be worse than that other ping pong anime.

I hope you're not talking about Ping Pong.

I sure hope so. OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY.

Ping Pong: The Animation was the best.

Did somebody say something bad about a Masaaki Yuasa show?

*...*

BRING ME THEM. I WILL CRUSH THEM.

It really sucked and they needed to fire their character designer and animator because that was eye bleedingly BAD.

edited 6th Sep '16 9:42:05 AM by Memers

Alright guys it's time to act like elitist artsy snobs and mob this guy!

No, It was pure Sakuga in motion. Just because it's art wasn't to your liking, doesn't mean it was bad from an animation standpoint.

Much as I would love to hound a dude for an opinion they have the right to, let's talk fall anime.

Poco's Udon World (ANN is calling it that, why not). Next to Yuuri on Ice, I might be pumped about thatone the most. "Toddlercore" (Barakamon, Usagi Drop mynermynerr, Sweetness and Lightning, something I've forgotten) anime are usually super well recieved. Sweetness and Lightning did the same formula, and I love that series to death.

Uh, this season seems rather weak. Yhe only thing that isn't a new season or a spin off that caught my attention is "Drifters" , and even with them, it's maybe 4 or 5 shows. Nothing else seems worthwhile.

I guess I'll have more time freed up this fall.

Everything has airdates and most everything has PVs. Now we just wait for a bit

Umm... No one's gonna watch 3-gatsu no Lion? It's about a 17 year old who plays shogi for a living and how his life goes after moving out of his foster home. Or Natsume Yuujinchou for lovers of the supernatural genre? Anyone?

Okay. -sits on a corner-

Pokemon Generations, the successor to Pokemon Origins has been announced:

They are only 3 to 5 minute shorts, but it looks pretty and varied in what stories they want to tell.

edited 13th Sep '16 8:24:01 AM by Demongodofchaos2

Of the stuff I have seen, the ones I am interested in most are Brave Witches, Touken Ranbu, Okusama season 2, Flip Floppers, Monster Hunter Stories and Nobunaga no Shinobi. I might look at Stella no Mahou.

Of course I'm going to watch it: love the manga and having Shaft as the studio has me confident it will be an interesting adaptation.

I'm interested in Watashi Ga Motete Dousunda, or as I like to call it, The One Harem I Enjoy For Being Such And Not In Spite Of It. The PV tells me they have changed nothing but colouring from the manga; which is good for the bishounen and bishoujo, but not so good for any other body build. The slightly overweight protagonist is drawn as a blob with a face. It's a sad case of Crippling Overspecialisation in art; they can look to Genshiken or Kuragehime for how to animate a range of body types.

What?! I completely missed it in the list. ._.

I haven't read it for a while, but last I remember it was pretty decent.

Re Zero's Adaptation made me into a total White Fox fan, so I might give their first original series, Matoi The Sacred Slayer a shot.

Having an action director from the One-Punch Man team helps, too.

Other then that, I don't know what will hold my interest this season.

@Memers: Ugly isn't the same as bad. It just means you have a different objective in mind. Most anime character designs are idealised and softened, occupying a glamorous unreality. Ping Pong, by contrast, sets out to tell an extremely grounded, human story, and that means that the characters need to feel human and unglamourised, warts and all (sometimes literally). It also makes the extravagant visual metaphors that the show uses to heighten it's story stand out all the more - these characters are people just like us, and their lives revolve around paddling a plastic ball back and forth all day, but to them, their struggle is epic.

I also don't quite understand what you mean by 'bad animation'. To me, bad animation is that which distracts from what a story is trying to convey visually - overuse of still frames and stock footage, body language that's either nonexistent or mismatched to what's being said, and action that's hard to follow or unconvincingly weightless. Ping Pong's animation style is loose but effective, letting its characters stretch and bounce in a way that lends exaggerated impact to their actions and emotions but still makes it completely clear what's going on, and using clever, imaginative, and technically complex shots with lots of moving parts to add to the emotional power of an extremely mundane story (that's not a criticism of the show's writing, mind you, only an acknowledgement that it tells a much smaller, lower-stakes story than a lot of other anime).

Seeing Dream Festival getting animated is a headscratcher to me since that Idolish7 and The Idolm@ster Side M are owned by the same parent company, existed for a longer time and far more popular. That said, I am excited for it and wondered how it would compare to Aikatsu!. Hopefully it will be on par with Idol Memories, which is another one comparable to it.

edited 20th Sep '16 8:20:01 AM by murazrai

Random Curiosity's Fall 2016 Preview is up.

And my picks are much leaner than usual for this season.

Yeah, this season is really meh. It's the largest season in years apparently, yet I find myself interested in way less shows than normally.