I was asked by DMWonder on Twitter whether I was going to do a anime I’m looking forward to post for the Spring season. As a general rule I just kind of wait until the season starts because when I do look ahead, I get excited about an anime and then realise it didn’t come out somewhere I could watch it anyway which leads to disappointment. That or I get hyped for something that then fails to deliver and again, disappointment.
So to avoid disappointment, I have taken the bury head in sand approach to seasonal viewing and while it is impossible to avoid hearing some of the titles coming out as other bloggers and anime fans on twitter share their thoughts on the upcoming season, I don’t go digging for more information until the season starts. Still, after I was asked this question, I got curious.
To make a not so thrilling story shorter, I went and had a look at MAL’s list of what was coming out in the spring and so here we are with me listing the top 5 anime I’m anticipating. If they don’t come out on services I use or they suck, I never made this list. Just saying.
However, though a lot of my readers have already shared their lists on their blogs, I’d love to know what Spring titles you are looking forward to, so be sure to leave us a comment below.
Honourable Mentions:
There are a few. These are titles that I kind of thought might be interesting but until you see how the first episode goes there’s really no way to tell. On this list I’ll add: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Fairy Gone. Both look like they could be really interesting, but they could also both fall completely flat depending on how the ideas come together.
Number 5: Shoumetsu Toshi
I don’t know what it is that is really grabbing my attention about this one. Maybe it’s just the opening line of the synopsis where it says a city just disappeared. Whichever way, something about this one kept grabbing my attention. That said, it lists a game as its source and that may or may not be a problem, but I’m still going to be hopeful about this one.
Number 4: Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin
Alright, this one is just asking for it to flog big time, but the write up on this one looks interesting and that supernatural label always gets my attention even if I sometimes regret it after the fact. Throw in youkai and potential exorcists and you at least have me looking for your first episode ready to enjoy. Whether I will or not remains to be seen but this one seems like it should be right up my alley.
Number 3: Bungo Stray Dogs Season 3
While this isn’t one of my favourite franchises, Bungo Stray Dogs has enough fairly awesome moments (particularly the start of season 2) to keep my attention. Visually it is always a spectacle and the powers are really cool. While I’d like a bit more from the story some times and find the focus on Atsushi a little less than thrilling when there are so many better characters in the show, I must say I still had a bit of a smile when I saw this was coming back.
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Number 2: Attack on Titan Season 3 Part 2
Weird that I thought I’d be dropping Attack on Titan when season 3 started. But part one of this managed to get me really excited for the story again and even made me appreciate a lot of the characters more and so here I am getting hyped for a part two. Let’s hope it holds up because this one has got a lot of hype around it and just being okay won’t really be enough to stave off disappointment.
Number 1: Fruits Basket
I was completely in love with the original series of this, though always found the art style and the incomplete nature of the story a little frustrating. This was one that I looked up the manga online because I had to know what happened next but ended up realising there were quite a few changes. With all of that said, this one had been on my list of anime I wanted a reboot for, for a very long time and finally getting a reboot is incredibly exciting. I will definitely be watching this anime during Spring.
Thank-you for reading 100 Word Anime.
Join the discussion in the comments.
Karandi James
Kimetsu no Yaiba and Fairy Gone these are the two am really looking forward to personally.
I’m currently compiling my list of serials I want to (at the very least) watch the pilots for. I think Fruits Basket will be the number one, or close to it, for many watchers this season. I know it definitely will be one mine.
A lot of people have wanted another anime of Fruits Basket for a very long time. It’s going to get a lot of people checking it out but its also got high expectations riding on it. It will be interesting to see if it manages to deliver.
I’m going to wholeheartedly hope that it does!
I’m going with Fairy Gone and Carole & Tuesday. I am very excited.
I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to Carole & Tuesday or not. It is getting a lot of positive buzz but the write up didn’t really grab me.
I always take the ” bury head in sand” approach. Otherwise, I’d have wasted a lot of time on anime that were all hype and no creativity. Since I am not trying to review new stuff, I have no need to watch any anime until there is some evidence of its quality.
People who NEED to review the new stuff quickly for their blogging readership may not have this luxury. I feel for you.
What really bugs me? Anime that have not yet been released and yet I’m seeing reviews and even MAL ratings based on hope, speculation and a supporting manga or visual novel. How often do we see great manga turned into dreck? Or reviewer hype based on pure speculation? “Revues” based just on PVs and corporate press releases?
But then, I’m never the person to upgrade my Windows the instant a new release is available, either. In fact, I usually wait until support for my current version is going to be turned off.
Yeah, I don’t understand ratings or reviews of things before they are finished. I’ve seen reviews for shows still airing this season and while you can probably make a sound judgement on a show based on half the run time, there are too many anime that bring things together in the end or just fall apart in the final episodes of a season for me to ever want to review something that isn’t finished at least a season and that I haven’t watched all the episodes of.
There are occasional shows I’ll fall in love with from the first episode. But I’d just review those episodes and express my hope it continues on as well.
So so excited for Bungo Stray Dogs and Fruits Basket! I feel like this is Christmas!
I think I’ll feel that way when the next season of DanMachi comes out. I’m super excited for that.
Still, a Fruits Basket reboot I’ve wanted forever is definitely enough to keep me excited about the new anime season.
Will be interesting to see how Fruits Basket goes. The mangaka herself had more input into this version’s development, after she famously clashed with the director of the first anime version over several of his decisions including the voice casting and character designs. I hope I can watch it, but I won’t be able to if it’s Funi exclusive (no website subscription).
The one series that I’m definitely going to check out (if it ends up on CR or Amazon) is Kono Oto Tomare, where I’ve heard very positive word-of-mouth regarding the manga. Other than that there are a few shows I’m mildly curious about but not sold on yet, and none of the sequels are for any franchises that I’m still watching.
I’m really curious to see how Fruits Basket goes. I ended up disappointed with Sailor Moon Crystal even though it was apparently closer to the manga. It’s watchable and all but didn’t manage to really grab me the way the original anime did. Though, with Fruits Basket I did end up reading (or at least skim reading) the manga to find out what happened so I already know what kinds of differences to expect. Really curious as to how it will go.
I wonder how much of the disappointment was because it could never measure up to the nostalgia you had for the original?
Oh, a lot. Nostalgia weighed heavily on Sailor Moon viewing. And while I didn’t see Fruits Basket until I was an adult, it is something I became immensely fond of even without an actual ending so comparing the new anime to the old is inevitable.
I never saw the original Sailor Moon or read the manga and I was still disappointed in Crystal. Sometimes a poor anime production is just a poor production.
That said, I’m the type who usually prefers not to see that old classic get remade at all. Anime does seem to have a better track record with remakes than Hollywood at least (for every SMC or Berserk 2016 we also seem to get our fair share of Hunter x Hunter 2011s and Dororos), but if I’m going to watch a remake I want to see it bring something new to the table, exploring the story from other angles or building off the existing material and hopefully elevating it somehow. Too many remakes are content to be nothing but nostalgia-fueled paint-by-numbers retreads that just want to make a quick buck off the fans of the original without making any effort to freshen up the story or try anything remotely creative with it.
A bigger issue I have with remakes is completely changing what I liked about the original property. I was a huge fan of the original Battlestar Galactica series but couldn’t stand what they did to it in the remake. It might have ended up being a good show in its own right but my brain wouldn’t stop screaming that it wasn’t Battlestar and so I ended up just not watching it.
Oh, totally. As a lifelong fan of Star Trek TOS (and to a lesser extent TNG), don’t ever get me started on JJ Abrams’ so-called “Star Trek,” because you’ll never hear the end of it. A good remake doesn’t slavishly imitate the original, but it shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater, either.
Nostalgia was certainly a part of the problem… But then, so was the animation quality (or lack thereof) and the absence of meaningful character development.
Fairy Gone is one I’m leaning towards too. I’m only planning on watching two series live and will binge the rest later. Doing the A to Z challenge has reminded me how much I enjoy immersing myself into a series. I’ve already decided not to watch AoT and One Punch Man until I can watch the whole season.
I may end up watching a bunch of episode 1s before making a final decision.
That’s usually what I do – watch the first episode and see what sticks. Usually be episode three I’ve made a decision. My real issue will be which ones I can watch while travelling and I may just need to pick up shows and binge the first few weeks once I get back.
My four episode format was supposed to be the middle ground between watching seasonally and bingeing, but I’m realizing I enjoy them so much more when I go through the whole thing. My worry with watching a load of episode ones is I’ll want to keep more going…
I enjoy a good binge watch but usually with something I’ve seen before. I really don’t mind episodic viewing for most shows as it gives me a week to think about what is happening and what might happen next. There are however some anime where I find watching them weekly kind of tiresome and I know I’d probably enjoy them more if I did just binge because the pacing would work better.
I do the same with manga. I read thirteen volumes of AoT back to back and did the same for Akame ga Kill and nine for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon. Having to read the next 13 AoT on a semi monthly basis isn’t nearly as exciting. I like to fully dive in to the worlds.