It’s that time again, when Japan rolls out a brand-new selection of titles for all tastes, featuring the brilliant creativity we’ve come to expect, alongside… um… well… a lot of copycats.
Okay, I’ll be honest with you, this season doesn’t look very good. But there are a few potential gems here, and lots of room for pleasant surprises. As always, click through on the titles to check out the official sites with more art and promo videos.
The premise: A college student is reborn in an alternate fantasy world where mass production of books does not yet exist, and resolves to become a librarian.
Derivative factor: Light novel adaptation
The buzz: Sure, this is Alternate Fantasy World Rebirth Story #1,542,934, but this one looks kind of wholesome and upbeat.
Premiere: October 2
Assassins Pride [sic]
The premise: A young nobleman in a world with a magic-based aristocracy is instructed to tutor a young noblewoman, and kill her if she has no magical talent.
Derivative factor: Light novel adaptation
The buzz: Middling. The novels allegedly aren’t too bad, even if the hero looks awfully generic.
Premiere: October 10
The premise: Female representations of WWII battleships fight in battle and also have everyday life hijinks.
Derivative factor: Video game adaptations
The buzz: Even for an adaptation of a mobile game, this looks baaaaaad.
Premiere: October 3
The premise: In a world of anthopomorphic animals, a wolf is nervous about joining his high school drama club.
Derivative factor: Manga adaptation
The buzz: The source manga is a cultural satire which has won numerous awards, but promo videos are creeping everyone out.
Premiere: October 8
The premise: A swordsman cursed with immortality makes a deal that will let him die if he kills 100 evil men for every innocent man he has killed.
Derivative factor: Manga re-adaptation
The buzz: This is going to be really cool, as long as your definition of “cool” has room for a lot of gore.
Premiere: October 10
Didn’t I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!
The premise: A teenager is reborn in an alternate fantasy world, after asking to be average in her next life. Of course she isn’t.
Derivative factor: Light novel adaptation
The buzz: Oh god it’s another one of these whyyyyyy
Premiere: October 7
The Hero is Overpowered But Overly Cautious
The premise: Exactly what it says on the tin.
Derivative factor: Light novel adaptation
The buzz: There’s some comic potential here, at least. OTOH, get ready for cringey levels of fanservice.
Premiere: October 2
High School Prodigies Have It Easy Even In Another World
The premise: Seven genius high-schoolers die in a plane crash and are reborn in an alternate fantasy world, where they continue to be geniuses.
Derivative factor: Light novel adaptation
The buzz: Oh god it’s another one of these whyyyyyy (x7)
Premiere: October 3
The premise: A man who can’t remember his old life or why he’s been converted into a cyborg with a gun for a head subsists as a detective for hire.
Derivative factor: Manga adaptation
The buzz: Well, hello, original ideas and terrific-looking animation! Likely to be one of the standouts of the season, if it isn’t too weird for you.
Premiere: October 10
Phantasy Star Online 2: Episode Oracle
The premise: A colony fleet defends itself from attacking monsters.
Derivative factor: Remake of, or sequel to, video game adaptation
The buzz: The first anime based on this video game was memorably terrible even for a video game adaptation. So at least it’s got a low bar for success?
Premiere: October 7
The premise: Further happenings in a world with total surveillance technology.
Derivative factor: Sequel
The buzz: The first season of Psycho-Pass was widely liked, but the second is regarded as a huge step down. Who knows.
Premiere: October TBA
The premise: A professional wrestler is summoned to an alternate fantasy world to kill magical beasts, but refuses and winds up opening a pet shop instead.
Derivative factor: Manga adaptation
The buzz: Here’s another one aiming for comedy, but unlike The Hero Is Overpowered, it feels completely ready to embrace (or, indeed, bearhug) the outright absurdity of the situation.
Premiere: October 2
Special Crime Investigation Unit – Special 7
The premise: A police unit battles cultists who worship ancient dragons that once ruled the world.
Derivative factor: Original
The buzz: Moderately optimistic. It’s an original, the production values look decent, and most importantly, it’s not about a vaguely medieval fantasy world. (Though there does appear to be an elf.)
Premiere: October 6
Tenka Hyakken (The Hundred Swords, Flowers of Heaven)
The premise: Female anthropomorphizations of famous swords fight in an alternate Meiji era (around the year 1900).
Derivative factor: Outgrowth of multimedia franchise
The buzz: None really.
Premiere: October 13
Welcome to Demon School, Iruma-kun
The premise: A 14-year-old boy is sold to demons, but a demon adopts him as a grandson and sends him to school.
Derivative factor: Manga adaptation
The buzz: The manga is well-liked, and though this isn’t grabbing a lot of attention right now, it might be a sleeper hit.
Premiere: October 5
And this season in continuing adaptations:
- Radiant — More of France’s extremely tropey homage to the shōnen adventure genre. (October 2)
- Granblue Fantasy the Animation — The first time around was hardly a standout, but the overall franchise is doing well, so there’s money for another try. (October 4)
- Fairy Gone — I hated the premiere, reviewers who had to watch the whole season hated the whole thing, but apparently someone liked this. (October 6)
- Sword Art Online — One of the most durable light-novel franchises moves onward. Starting in the middle isn’t very newbie-friendly (though you might enjoy a spinoff). (October 10)
- My Hero Academia — Continuing adventures of an apprentice superhero. I covered the first season of it, but it eventually fell off the list due to being simply a well-executed collection of standard tropes, and featuring one of the more memorably terrible “humorous” harassers. (Reportedly Mineta is still a major character so no, not going back to this.) (October 12)
No Guns Life is easily the top of my list for this season right now, and if I had to pick one of the RPG-like world shows, I think I’d most like to take a look at Rise Up! Animal Road. But I do expect right now to wind up being very grateful that Dr. Stone is continuing on to the end of the year.
What are you looking forward to?
