Seasonal Anime Report: Spring 2018
The spring season of anime has come to an end, with remaining shows for the most part wrapping up this Saturday. Spring 2018 was on the quiet side, at least in terms of new original anime, but there was a handful of big name sequels airing to keep fans satisfied. Here's what I've been up to during this anime season.
What I Watched Airing This Season
Darling in the FranXX
Continuing from a strong first half that aired over the winter, Darling in the FranXX set up a large hype following, with many expecting this Trigger and A-1 Pictures anime to be a revival of the mecha genre. With mecha continuing to be more and more of a niche genre- a far cry from its glory days -what better a studio than Trigger, who is composed of ex-Gainax staff of Gunbuster, Evangelion, and Gurren Lagann fame, to bring back a resurgence in popularity? It certainly looked that way during Winter 2018, with interesting character developments, and a strong dark plot exploring the themes of humanity, love, marriage, and procreation. Every mystery and twist had setup Darling in the FranXX for a strong, ambitious ending. So how did that carry on in the spring? Well, it was doing fine up until about the last 4 episodes, and then the rest was utter disappointment and wasted potential. The animation and voice acting continued to be incredibly solid, but it's like Trigger never really had an ending planned and decided to just wing it by falling back on the endings to other shows they've done. Seriously, take the endings of nearly every Gainax and Trigger anime, make them less than half as hype, sprinkle in some questionable time skips, slap in a epilogue that over stays its welcome, and you've got yourself the closing arc of Darling in the FranXX. Overall, it's not necessarily a bad anime, just incredibly disappointing.
6/10
I ended up watching this without having any prior knowledge as to what I was getting into. It was on a late night on Netflix that Aggressive Retsuko appeared as the main banner. I was feeling a quick binge, and I was baited in by the short episode times, and images of a cute character, designed by the Hello Kitty company, bellowing into a mic with full death metal makeup. In terms of comedy, it tends to lean too hard into "haha that's so relatable" jokes, but if you're into workplace humor it's at least above average. The character design and animation serves its purpose well, and the Japanese voice acting really makes the show (English is meh). The death metal bits are pretty decent too. Definitely worth the binge and I look forward to Netflix picking up more short, fun ONA/OVA series like Aggressive Retsuko.
7/10
As far as romance plots go, Tada-kun wa Koi wo Shinai is bearable with its tropes and drama, but lends itself more to its comedy than its romantic developments anyways. The show has a decent setup for a love triangle, and not only do the main characters have strong backstories and understandable motivations, but the side characters are just as unique and enjoyable as well. That being said, the "ocean" of characters is more wide than it is deep. I feel like there is plenty of space for each of the characters develop and have their own interesting stories and romances, but the anime never really digs deep into it beyond establishing. In general, the romance could have benefit from the anime being longer than a standard 13 episodes, but that's just how things are with seasonal anime. Overall a fun and enjoyable watch, and the ending is at least cute if not a little rushed and awkwardly dramatic.7/10
This show is damn funny, and definitely the hardest I've laughed at an anime since Konosuba's second season. Honestly though, how could a comedy about a Yakuza member dealing with taking care of a psychic girl from another world, not be funny? Or what about another psychic girl from another world, hunting for the first psychic girl, and then ending up stranded and becoming a part of the homeless lifestyle in Japan? Or what about a girl who is one of the brightest in her school that gets forced into moonlighting as a bartender? Hinamatsuri has no shortage of ridiculous, yet very organic, comedic situations to play off of through out the 12 epsisodes. Every joke is well rounded, and well timed, and excels at what you would expect from the humor that Japan does best. The only real shortcoming of the anime is that it does little to progress the overarching plot established in the very first episode, to the point that it feels like the plot doesn't really matter until it randomly decides to show up. If you're in the mood for a strong comedy anime, I would definitely recommend checking Hinamatsuri out. Crossing my fingers for a second season.
8/10
Boku no Hero Academia 3rd Season
BnHA is such a consistently incredible series and continues to be going into its third season. It is the perfect culmination of shounen tropes, much like Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was, and is easily one of the greatest things to come out of this generation of the superhero genre in popular culture. Every episode and character serves a strong purpose in the long term, and it's crazy to think that the "first act" of BnHA has only just finished, especially when you look back on each of the arcs that have happened to build up to the "first act" finale. I love the stuff with Midoriya and All Might, and really love the gradual introduction of the villains. This season in particular has been absolute perfection, and as long as things continue that way as it airs during Summer 2018, I'm feeling a 10. If you are not watching this series, you are missing out.
Still Airing
Steins;Gate 0
For those who have seen Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0 is a sequel that occurs IN BETWEEN the finale of Steins;Gate, on a worldline where Okabe Rintaro gives up on his mission to reach a worldline beyond Steins;Gate. If you haven't watched Steins;Gate, I cannot recommend watching it enough times; it is the single greatest show involving time travel I have ever seen. I am a huge Steins;Gate fan, and I've watched the first season multiple times as well as played the visual novel it's based on completely (all endings). For Steins;Gate 0, the English version of the visual novel did not officially release until around just after the third episode had aired, and I could not resist playing through it to completion as well. Which means I already know what to expect in terms of overall plot for this show. The adaption to anime has been incredible though, and I've really enjoyed seeing the anime original scenes and figuring out how the anime has structured the multiple endings from the VN to a single plot line. The sequel continues to excel in the same ways that Steins;Gate did, despite being under different directors, and I'm looking forward to how it continues to excite going into Summer 2018.
Still Airing
What I Am Watching Next Season
As BnHA and Steins;Gate 0 continues, here's what I'm currently planning to watch for the new Summer 2018 season. I sometimes will pickup other anime if I have enough time, and there's enough buzz around one that I'm not already watching.
Hanebado!
I can't say I was expecting to ever watch an anime about badminton, but after seeing a clip of the first episode of Hanebado! on Reddit, I had to check it out. The animation in this anime is, so far, stunning and incredibly fluid. It even has strong use of CGI in it, which although becoming more common, is still rare to see being used appropriately. Plot seems interesting, albeit a tad melodramatic to begin, but I honestly could go for an excessively dramatic sports anime right now. I hope the quality continues!
Overlord III
I binged the first two seasons of Overlord recently, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. I love the idea of an MMORPG world becoming real, with the NPCs being coming sentient. Following Momonga, a max level player trapped in this world, on his path to world domination as the over powered undead wizard has been entertaining to say the least. Overlord is a really well paced, interesting, and fun fantasy action anime. I expect more of the same going into the third season.
Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3
I was not all that impressed by the first season of Attack on Titan as many other people were; I felt it suffered a lot from poor pacing. The second season, however, was a vast improvement and maintained the most intense parts of season one consistently, while having a good balance of politics and flashbacks. I'm expecting the intensity to continue to ramp up, as well as more surprising developments about the true nature of Titans, and more intrigue into some of the betrayal going on in within, and beyond the walls.
Grand Blue
I got current with the manga out of curiosity to see what was so great about a comedy about deep sea diving. Now I understand what makes diving so great. Truly Grand Blue is a diving manga for the ages, and I'm excited to see how well the diving gets adapted to anime. Did I mention Grand Blue is about a diving club? Prepare yourself for lots of diving... and drinking excessively while wearing as little clothes as possible. Can't wait to dive straight into this one and chugging pure absinthe after each episode hahahaha. College life sure is peaceful.
FLCL Progressive
FLCL was one of the first anime that got me into anime, back when I was just starting. Something about the wacky, experimental, and confusing plot is just super charming and interesting. That being said, FLCL was experimental for the 90's and doesn't really seem like a good fit for a 2010's sequel. I'm still going to watch it because I love FLCL, but my expectations going in are pretty low.
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