The new streaming season has fully set in! And as such I’ve tried a grand total of ten brand new shows! Not all will make it through the first pass, however…
The Morose Mononokean
Story:
Hanae Ashiya makes a rather large error one day when he assists a youkai on the side of the road. An act of kindness it may have been, but it throws him into the world of exorcism.
Flavor:
Bland. This show doesn’t seem to offer anything anime fans haven’t already seen in shows like xxxHolic or Book of Friends. In fact, those shows might have done it better, although it might be too hasty to make such a call this soon. Regardless, the characters in this show aren’t offensive or annoying as of yet, but they don’t have much appeal either. I foresee this one being a very tame and tasteless ride if the first two episodes are anything to go on.
New episodes every Sunday morning
Orange
Story:
High schooler Naho receives a letter from herself in the future instructing her to not make more than a few mistakes she will regret later…
Flavor:
Sweet but with an unpleasant aftertaste. I used to be a super shy kid. I used to never talk to anyone. It took years to overcome my mental hangups and sometimes I still struggle with them. The heroine of this anime is what I used to be times ten. She’s not just shy, she’s near crippling with it. Since I used to be this way, it makes it very frustrating to watch as I feel the anxiety levels I used to have returning to me just watching Naho make mistake after mistake. Honestly, she’s just too much like how I used to be and it makes watching this anime really confusing and uncomfortable for me. So while the story and characters aren’t all that bad yet or anything, this might be dropped if it continues to make my skin crawl this badly. It’s nothing against the creators. It’s just a clash with me personally.
New episodes every Sunday morning
Sweetness & Lightening
Story:
Kohei is a single father of a very energetic little girl who loves food. Unfortunately his own cooking skills aren’t the best. Enter one of his own students, Kotori, who offers to learn how to cook alongside him and his daughter.
Flavor:
Sweet. This show is almost too sugary, but due to the serious background of Kohei’s wife having recently passed away, the sweetness is not only balanced, but very welcome. The show, so far, hasn’t gotten too dark or serious and it fits considering how a preschooler is one of the leads. As someone who has worked with that age group on and off for years, I find this show pretty accurate and actually a pleasant experience overall. So long as no unnecessary drama pops up, this could be a good one.
New episodes every Monday morning
Taboo Tattoo
Story:
When Seigi saves a seemingly homeless man from some street thugs, he gets a strange “tattoo” as a reward. Little does he realize that what is etched onto his hand unlocks incredible, and very dangerous, power.
Flavor:
Sour. And I don’t mean the good sour candy I can eat in one sitting, I mean that off brand stuff from the dollar store that looks sketchy as hell. This show has a very high violence level and more than a few indecent fanservice scenes in only the first two episodes. I have a bad feeling that, although the plot is getting some political intrigue that could shake things up nicely, this show might be either a drop or WZ-ed for the blood and sexual situations. A shame as, while the set up is dull enough, the world showed some promise.
New episodes every Monday morning
Amanchu!
Story:
Futaba Oki has just moved to a small seaside town and her timid nature makes it hard for her to make friends. Luckily she’s sitting right next to one of the town’s most outgoing girls, who also just so happens to be a scuba nerd.
Flavor:
Home cooked. This show, so far, doesn’t put anything new or strange on the table, but what’s there is cooked well. It’s nothing to rave about, the characters are pretty standard and the plot is mostly shy girl gains a friend, so there’s little going on. That said, it fulfills its goal as a show well and doesn’t seem to be trying to be what it isn’t. This is a slice-of-life that’s perfectly content remaining so.
New episodes every Friday morning
Alderamin on the Sky
Story:
Iwata Soroku is a lazy genius who hates war. Unfortunately for him, when a princess sneaks onto his ship everything gets far more complicated.
Flavor:
Spiced. This show was actually far better than I expected. At least, thus far. The world is fully built and the politics sound. The personalities are pretty believable as well. The real question will be if character progression will be constant or if it will dissolve into the usual button-masher like storylines common in these kinds of shows (see Arslan for what I mean).
New episodes every Friday morning
Qualidea Code
Story:
When the world is attacked by Unknowns, children are kept in a cold sleep for a time in the future when things become stable. Years later they are awoken to find they now have powers to assist them in keeping their fragile world safe.
Flavor:
Decent, but not the freshest ingredients. While the music is pretty good in this show, as well as the animation, the characters themselves are pretty common stereotypes. In this show’s defense, at least the dialog flows well despite having such a routine cast. Even so, the entire idea is so overdone that this show is going to have a hard time making a name for itself. Especially when it resorts to getting all the girls in bikinis as soon as the second episode. That’s not a good sign for a show.
New episodes every Saturday morning
B-Project
Story:
Sumisora Tsubasa recently landed a job as a new A&R for a music studio. Her job may prove to be quite the effort as she is managing three different boy bands back-to-back.
Flavor:
Bland. This is a pretty stereotypical shoujo title. So far there’s little unique about this, although the setup makes that rather obvious, honestly. Especially as the heroine knows next to nothing about music. These kind of setups, where the heroine is a well-meaning, but clueless person, are obnoxious because they keep the “heroine” from being, well, a hero character. They’re never “good” at much of anything besides being positive. I find that demeaning. Girls can be super good at things. We can be better at them than guys. Please, anime creators, give me a heroine who is an expert in her field. PLEASE!
Well, yes, anyway, if I get too busy this will end up as a drop, but seeing as it’s just bland and not super offensive, it’ll stick around. For now.
New episodes every Saturday morning
Ange Vierge
Story:
Magic girls good. Aliens bad.
Flavor:
Garbage. This show is so much crap. In addition to the first five minutes having more clichés and stereotypes than some shows have in their entire run, the rest of the episode is spent with the – entirely female – cast being BUTT FREAKIN’ NAKED. If this show doesn’t get tagged correctly (which it probably won’t since it’s on Crunchyroll), I might make a WZ for it just for anyone trying to look it up later. But, yeah, this show is garbage and it has been dropped and I may be a wee bit upset at the fact that this turd got funded and I’m still waiting on the next season of Yona of the Dawn.
Who cares when new episodes show up cause this show is craaaaaap
Hitorinoshita – The Outcast
Story:
Something about the dead rising again and people having supernatural abilities.
Flavor:
Slimy. While I can see that someone had some good ideas as to an intriguing story, they used a real mish-mash of ingredients and it makes for a rather gross taste. The story starts out convoluted as names and places are thrown around willy-nilly as if the audience should already know them. The dialog is stiff and awkward, as is the supposed “comic relief,” which just feels forced and out of place. Then there’s the animation. Good lord. At times it seems high quality, but the quality randomly drops to a very messy, incomplete level. I have a feeling time restraints, budget and a bad mix of very different animation studios is the culprit here. In some cases the frames don’t even match up. For example, in one scene the lead looks to one side, but there’s nothing there. A jump later and he’s looking at the opposite side where there’s a dead body. So, in other words, the close up cut made the eyes go the wrong way. Considering how bad just one episode was on all of this, I have no desire to see any more. This show has been soundly dropped.
New episodes every Saturday morning. Though it hardly matters as this is another drop.
So I started out with a solid ten shows and here we are, only one to two episodes in, and only eight shows are left on my list, with far fewer than that getting good marks. Time will tell how long they stick around…
What are y’all watching this season? Run into anything good thus far? What do you think of these shows?
What's In My Anime? 