Fireworks are in the air.
Spring 2017 Anime. Oh My.
Typically my anime season goes something like this:
- Cherry-pick 3-4 shows that I’m excited for or look good
- Get excited for these 3-4 shows
- Watch as many first episodes of anything that I can
- Drop shows as they under-perform or disappoint
- End up raving about 1-2 shows that were not on my list to begin with
- Rinse
- Repeat
I’m really hoping that this season is going to be different. Mainly because of Boruto, but also because of Hero Academia S2. I’ve got some hopes for Shingeki no Kyojin, but fuck me, it’s been sooo long.
I still have yet to finish the Naruto run. Last I knew someone had cast Infinite Filler on the series and I never looked to see if the producers had managed to dispel that particular genjutsu.
And then, there it was: Boruto. An anime about the next generation of ninja. I’m an unapologetic Naruto fan, but I’m not a big enough fan to keep tabs on it once it goes to filler. About once a year I look to see if it’s out of filler and then shotgun a bunch of episodes. I’ll follow week to week until filler happens again and the cycle repeats. I’m about 3 months shy of my time to check on it.
My excited-about shows for this season are:
- Boruto
- Boku no Hero S2
- Berserk
- Granblue Fantasy
However, an Ep01 surprise so far has been Alice to Zouroku. It’s a little bit of Elfen Lied with a little bit of Nanoha/Mai Hime and I’m hoping a little bit of Usagi Drop.
By July I may be singing a different story altogether, just like normal.
Anime 404
Yūki Yūna wa Yūsha de Aru (Yuki Yuna is a Hero)
Yeah it’s three years old. Yeah I’m a little late to this party. Don’t care. It showed up on Netflix so I watched it. Don’t make my mistake.
Yuna is a show that I would encourage all aspiring anime writers to watch. Not because it does anything correctly, but because if this mash-up of every other anime you’ve seen in this genre can get picked up, drawn and aired yours can as well.
Demi-chan wa Kataritai (Interviews With Monster Girls)
Demi-chan is your typical slice-of-school-life series that really doesn’t stretch much as far as that theme goes. It doesn’t break any boundaries and you could even call it formulaic to an extent. Group of characters get thrown together and friendships happen. You’ve seen that before. You’ll see that again. Let’s move on.
Youjo Senki (The Saga of Tanya the Evil)
Try to explain the plot of Youjo Senki to a non-anime watcher. It’s nearly impossible without sounding like a raving maniac. The premise of the show should never work, and yet it does. It works. It works well. It’s my favorite series of the season by a long shot and I can’t say I really know why.