Fall 2019 anime

ACTORS -Songs Connection-

Cute boys doing cute things and singing, I guess. Somewhat concerning: A) There's eleven characters announced so far (though promotional material suggests it'll mostly focus on three of them) B) The director/writer has a history of putting out mediocre anime

Azur Lane

It's an anime based on the most successful of the blatant Kantai Collection knockoffs. We don't really have much information it beyond a repetition of the game's premise—There were creepy ship girls attacking, humans made thir own to drive them back, international tensions happened, and now the axis and allies are at odds. I'm not sure this actually means it'll be following the game's plot, though; my understanding is that the plot was basically abandoned early on, and it's getting by entirely on events now

Fate/Grand Order -Absolute Demonic Front Babylonia-

More Fate! This time based on the most liked part of the franchise's most popular (if not best written) entry. The catch here is that this arc takes place towards the end of the first major Myth Arc and while I understand it to be fairly stand-alone, I'm not sure how much effort they'll put into making it comprehensible for anime-onlys

Stand My Heroes: Piece of Truth

Adapted from an otome puzzle game about being a narc? Points for creativity there, I guess. Anyway, while this has decent staff, the fact that it has 22 announced characters has me concerned about how coherent it will be

Z/X Code reunion

This is theoretically adapted froma a manga of the same name, but that seems unlikely given that it went on indefinite hiatus after a year or so. It does seem to be spinoff of ZX Ignition of sorts, since one of the characters is the same in both. Probably not required viewing, though. In any case, I'd expect cute girls, some fantasy action, and probably fanservice

Sequels and remakes (that I have something to say about)

Mugen no Juunin -Immortal-

So Blade of the Immortal is getting a remake. Or possibly just continuing on past what was adapted the first time? Not really clear on that. Said to be a complete adaptation, though, which'll be interesting regardless, what with the manga having 30 volumes. At least the director has a good history with this sort of material

If you're not familiar with it, it's one of those dark seinen action series. Death, dismemberment, rape, few truly sympathetic characters, the works. One of the more popular of it's kind, but I don't think it'll change your mind if you're not into that sort of thing

Gundam Build Divers Re:RISE

Still has that director everybody seems to hate, but it does have a new writer with a decent resume. Did the good Sengoku Basara seasons, at least

Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle

Yes, that weird thing set in the real world is enough for me to count this as a sequel (or technically prequel?). Anyway, this is an adaptation of the first three "episodes" of the game (plus an original one), comprising the Oracle arc. My understanding is that this is the best part of the game's story, but the game isn't really noted for the strength of it's story in the first place. Not sure if there's much here for non-fans

Psycho-Pass 3

Oh hey, it's time for the third season of that anime that said everything it had to offer in the first season, now that the four movies have had their run

...Cynicism aside, we don't know much about this one beyond it featuring a new main pair. Director's the same as ever, but no word on who's involved in the writing

Shokugeki no Soma

This should be covering the end of the Central arc. Generally considered fairly bad, but at least it's closure. Might go a bit farther and include the final arc of the manga? Generally considered god-awful, though

There is enough isekai to justify it getting it's own section

High School Prodigies Have it Easy Even in Another World

AKA ChoYoyu. This might sound like it'd be interesting even if it does turn out to be another power fantasy—You've got a bunch of big personalities to bounce off of each other and the new world, after all! But no. The focus stays pretty firmly on the super high school level politician and his big titty elf gf, and neither of those two are terribly interesting or unusual. The rest of the kids are there as his cheat/harem

Also one of the first things that happens in the story is a defence of Japanese remilitarization, so expect right-wing politics

The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious

Sort of a reverse KonoSuba? The main character is a sensible goddess trying to help out an overpowered but weird hero. Not as mean-spirited, though

Hataage! Kemonomichi

From the author of KonoSuba, but doesn't feel too much like it. Rather warm-hearted, with a genuine love for animals and an embarassing but nice main character

Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi dette Itta yo ne!

AKA NouKin, AKA Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!, AKA God Bless Me?...

So with isekai that have the character actually reincarnate and not just pop up in a new world body intact things tend to go one of two ways: This backstory is used to explain why they're overpowered and maybe the general direction they're taking in life and is otherwise irrelevant, or everybody is inexplicably cool with the most competent person they know being a preteen (Or both. Looking at you, Knight's & Magic). This is is the former!

Uh, so the series itself is basically cute girls doing cute things, but in a generic isekai setting. ...I don't really like it very much. It doesn't really do much new, and having a definite focus character doesn't help with the character interactions the genre is founded on (plus there's some weird pacing issues, including a flashback right as we're getting to know the cast). Fans loudly insist that the only reason anyone might dislike the series is that they've been reading the no-good very bad manga version, but I've seen exactly the same complaints about both?

Staff is good, though. Director of Yuruyuri, Sababegu, Gabriel Dropout, and a bunch of other good comedies, along with his pet writer

Honzuki no Gekokujou

So that stuff a bit above about reincarnation? This one is the latter

This one isn't like any other isekai I've come across (or much otaku-oriented media in general). It's very... literary? Much slower paced than we normally get with these stories, no flashy magic, the main character doesn't always get her way, that sort of thing. I rather enjoy it

Completely new stuff

Hoshiai no Sora

Looks like a slice of life drama with some sports. Director has some decent credits to his name, most notably Excaflowne. But he's also writing, which doesn't always turn out well. He did do this before with Noein, which I remember liking but can't say if it's held up

Kabukichou Sherlock

An original mystery/comedy that has the Sherlock Holmes name slapped on it because I guess that's easier than trying to sell something entirely new. Advertising is emphasizing how "weird" the characters of the setting are, which feels like it has potential for Unfortunate Implications. The writer has worked on some pretty solid suspence/mystery anime, but doesn't have much history with comedy, so it'll be interesting to see how this turns out

Kandagawa Jet Girls

There's a game involved but it's not out yet, so I'm putting this here. So, it's trash. Don't get me wrong, I like the odd bit of trash, it can be quite fun. But this looks really low budget, and what's the point of a fanservice series if it can't make the characters look good?

Tokunana

More properly Keishichou Tokumubu Tokushu Kyouakuhan Taisaku Shitsu Dainanaka, but I can't seriously expect anyone to call it that. Not much to go on as far as directing goes, but the writer is the guy that did Fate/Apocrypha. ...Nearly everything I liked about Fate/Apocrypha was originally from someone else^note The servants, masters, and general idea behind the war all existed well before they decided to have Higashide turn it into an LN

That which remains

Ahiru no Sora

Sports drama! Emphasis on "drama". This is about the characters first and foremost. Actually reminds me a lot of Kono Oto Tomare!

Assassins Pride

No, there's no apostrophe in that title. Anyway, while it uses a lot of generic LN setting elements, the story goes it's own way pretty quickly. No harem, but decent amounts of intrigue and character development

And, no, I don't know why the girls are in fetish wear

Babylon

...It's a thriller? Can't find much on the original work. From the guy who did Kado, though whether or not that's a good thing is up to you

Beastars

Okay, this is an odd one. About furries, which is unusual enough for Japan. It's also a fairly dark look at the concept, stars a weird, quiet wolf, and has an impressionistic art style. It's pretty good! But not at all what most people think of when anime or manga come up

I have no idea whether this'll get dropped all at once like Revisions or held hostage for an indeterminate amount of time like the other +Ultra shows

Chuubyou Gekihatsu Boy

I can't find much on the LNs this is based on, but it's definitely about boys with chuunibyou. The staff suggests that it's a comedy. The cast is set up like a reverse harem. Beyond that I don't really know. Yes, I checked the original song. It is absolutely no help

Houkago Saikoro Club

Not a sports anime. This is iyashikei. Cute laid-back, kinda boring. It involves a lot of euro games, but from what I've seen doesn't really them expect knowledge of them or try to tech you how to play

Mairimashita! Iruma-kun

Fun little shounen comedy. Good-hearted young boy thrown into a crazy situation and making the best of it. Reminds me of Hayate no Gotoku

No Guns Life

A thriller set in a cyberpunk dystopia. Not as weird as the gun-head might make you think. Also not quite as hardboiled as the artstyle might make you think—The main character's softer side comes out fairly often

Ore wo Suki na no wa Omae Dake ka yo

"OreSuki" for short. So, all of the summaries I've seen of this are... not wrong, but pretty misleading. See, they leave out that the protagonist is a massive phony who's been acting nice to these girls because he wants in their panties. This is what the story is about. The whole thing is distinctly unpleasant, oddly boring, and doesn't have anywhere near as much clever LN dialogue as you'd likely expect

Pet

I can't really find much on it, but given that they've been putting more effort into promoting the stage play and it's pretty boy actors than the anime, I think it's safe to assume that this is aimed at females

Rifle is Beautiful

It has cute girls. They do cute things, and shoot beam rifles. I wasn't too terribly impressed by what I read of the manga, but with 4koma adaptations the quality of the source material generally isn't terribly important

Val x Love

Also known as Koi × Ikusa. It's a battle-harem series. My main take-away from looking at the manga is that Asakura Ryousuke is great at drawing softcore porn and kinda bad at everything else involved in making manga. Turning it into an anime will probably improve it, but I don't get the impression that it has a terribly high ceiling on it's narrative quality

Assorted notes

• The latest YGO series is ending. Apparently there's another one being worked on, but it's not clear when it's coming out (probably not October)
• The new Pokemon anime is... not Sword and Shield. Something set in all regions, and the logo makes it look like it'll be connected to the reboot movies. Beyond that it's anyone's guess what they're doing, and we're not getting any news until it's almost time for it to start