Tag: Update

Sixth Fall 2018 Review

Sixth Fall 2018 Review

Introduction

Today’s post is going to be different from anything else I’ve done before. As you may be aware, I’m currently doing episodic reviews for five seasonal anime, with Wednesday and Thursday left blank for other miscellaneous posts (the schedule chart can be found below).

  • Sunday – Boruto
  • Monday – That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
  • Tuesday – SAO: Alicization
  • Wednesday – ???
  • Thursday – ???
  • Friday – JoJo’s Part 5
  • Saturday – Goblin Slayer

While I like this seasonal schedule more than the bulk post on Sundays that I did for the previous two seasons, it’s not the best when I actually want to talk about more series than there are days in the week. So, with that in mind, I want to add a sixth seasonal episodic review to take either the Wednesday or Thursday slot.

Now, you may be thinking, “I hope DoubleSama picks [insert your favorite seasonal anime here] to fill this new slot,” and that’s exactly where you come into play. I’ve decided to let my readers pick which anime fills the new slot.

But, that doesn’t mean you get free reign. There are currently seven series I’m watching this season which I’m not already writing about on a weekly basis, and of those seven I’ve narrowed the choices down to four (because that’s the number of choices I can put in a Twitter poll).

So, if your favorite seasonal anime didn’t make the shortlist, I’m sorry, but if it’s something I’m currently watching, you can still look forward to a final review of it once the season comes to an end. As for the Twitter poll, I’ll have a link to it at the end of this post.

To make things more interesting though, I won’t simply end this post here. Instead, I’ll be giving a short summary of each anime which will be featured in the poll, along with an explanation of why I want to write about it. Hopefully this will help to inform your decision because you’ll see my thought process as well.

But, that’s not all! I’ll also be going through the three anime which were cut from the list and explaining why I didn’t think they were good candidates for this new episodic slot. So without further adieu, let’s get take a look at the candidates.

The Final Four

The first choice is My Sister, My Writer, which some of you may recognize as one of the series featured in yesterday’s The Imouto Epidemic. Make no mistake, just because this anime made it onto my shortlist doesn’t mean it isn’t the worst series I’m watching this season, because it definitely is.

The series is your standard imouto genre anime in which the younger sister is in love with her brother, and they probably end up together. However, the twist this time around is that the sister is an imouto genre light novel author and her brother is her public stand-in.

Despite it being bad, it has the potential to be great (but it won’t be). If this series is chosen, then you can expect a mixture of emotions and viewpoints each week.

On one hand there’s the bad art/animation and appalling scene composition. On the other the series is actually funny at times and appears to work as social commentary on the state of anime and specifically the imouto genre, albeit most likely unintentionally.

I can’t think of another anime which has made me feel so conflicted between what it seems to be trying to say and what it’s actually doing. It’s been said that Eromanga Sensei was a modern masterpiece, but My Sister, My Writer has just shifted the entire meta of trash.

Next up we have Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, which as you can probably tell from the title, is a light novel adaptation. I think it’s safe to say that this is the sleeper hit of the season, although I think it’s starting to come out of the shadows by this point.

If bad anime like My Sister, My Writer aren’t for you, then Bunny Girl Senpai may be the better choice since it’s currently my pick for best anime of the season; sorry, Goblin Slayer and JoJo’s fans. I’m a sucker for good character writing, and that’s what this series has going for it.

The best way I can describe the plot is by saying it’s a diet version of the Monogatari Series. Anyone who’s spent a decent amount of time around this blot should know by now that the Monogatari series is my all-time favorite, so of course I’m interested in a series which is basically the same thing.

However, it may be more accurate to say it’s a mixture of Monogatari and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It has a good protagonist with a dry sense of humor, wordplay (my favorite), a great heroine, supernatural phenomenon, and of course, drama.

So, as I mentioned, this would be the opposite pick compared to My Sister, My Writer. If you want to read my complaints, then pick then pick that one, if you want to read me fangirling, then pick this one.

The third choice is the wildcard in the form of studio Trigger’s SSSS.Gridman. I knew My Sister, My Writer was going to be bad before starting it, and once I watched the first episode of Bunny Girl, I knew it was going to be great, but Gridman is a bit different.

It’s a super robot mecha series which takes inspiration from the old super sentai series in which live action superheroes fight monsters in miniature cities to make them look bigger than they really are. And, since it’s Trigger, it’s probably going to get even weirder than it already is.

SSSS.Gridman anime logo
SSSS.Gridman Anime Logo

I wasn’t sure how it was going to be going in, because Trigger series are kind of hit or miss for me, but I was severely unimpressed by the first episode. That said, the next two episodes really built up the characters, plot, and basically everything else.

If you’re looking to read about a series which is likely to evolve over the course of the season, then this is the pick for you. I didn’t like the series to start, I’m enjoying it now, and since it’s Trigger, it’s anyone’s guess how my feelings towards it will change with each passing episode.

As a mecha anime, this also doesn’t fall into my usual territory, so if you’d like to read something different, that may be another reason to pick this series over the other options. But, it’s also the only action anime on this list, and action/shounen anime are pretty popular on my blog.

The final option is the “safe bet” as it were. Ms. Vampire who lives in my neighborhood is a yuri, moe series about a girl who lives with an otaku vampire. I knew it was going to be good going in, and it hasn’t disappointed nor surprised me yet.

Of all the choices listed, this would probably be the hardest one for me to do some sort of breakdown/analysis of, so if this is chosen, expect it to be more about the comedy and how it makes me feel.

Really, if you just want to see more moe content, then you should pick this option. Since shounen series are the big draw to my blog, that’s typically what I write about the most, so moe content like this tends to get lost and forgotten.

If this choice wins and then does well, you can probably expect more moe, slice of life content in the future, because while I don’t write about it often, that doesn’t mean I don’t watch it.

Runners-Up

Skull-face Bookseller Honda-san is the first of the series which didn’t quite make the cut. It’s a half-length series about your average guy who works in a manga/light novel shop, oh, and he has a skull for a face.

The series has pretty good humor, it’s got wacky characters and situations, although they do all seem to be taken from actual experiences the author had in his own life, and it’s fairly informative as well. However, the fact that it’s only half-length is why I decided to cut it from the list.

By half-length, what I mean are that the episodes are 11 minutes long rather than the standard 22. This has its own benefits, but it’s much easier for me to write worthwhile content about a 22-minute episodes compared to an 11-minute one, and that’s what it really came down to.

The next series to get cut is Between the Sky and Sea. I originally started watching this series after reading the description of it on Crunchyroll and thinking that it sounds so stupid that it must actually be good.

So, instead of trying to explain it to you myself, here’s what Crunchyroll has to say about it:

“Fish suddenly disappeared on Earth. The Ministry of Fisheries has initiated the experimental program of creating ‘Aquatic Orbs’, farming fish in encapsulated bodies of water in space. Six girls are selected as candidates to become fishers who will go into space to catch new species of fish. From Onomichi City to the cosmos, this is the story of aspiring girls aiming to be Space Fishers!”

So, as it turns out, it’s not actually amazing, but instead just an average anime with a plot that makes no sense. It’s essentially Love Live!, but with a worse plot, which is something I’ll touch on more in my eventual review of the series as a whole, but that’s why it was cut from the list.

Just like Love Live!, the plot doesn’t really matter. At the end of the day, this is just a series about high school girls being friends, and it’s pretty hard to write something meaningful about that every single week.

The last of the three series to be cut from the shortlist is UzaMaid! This is a slice of life comedy about a former JSDF pilot turned maid who has an obsession with the small Russian girl whom she babysits.

While I enjoy UzaMaid!, it, like Ms. Vampire, isn’t anything particularly special. With that in mind, the only reason this series didn’t make the cut is because I opted for Ms. Vampire over it, and didn’t want to have two series which fill the same role as final options.

Conclusion

So, now that I’ve explained each of the four options, and the three series which didn’t quite make the cut, it’s up to you to decide which anime gets added as the sixth seasonal episodic review. The poll is available here and will be open until 11:30am EST on October 31st.

If you enjoyed this post or found it helpful in any way, let me know by clicking the like button down below. You can also leave a comment to tell me which series you’re watching this season, and maybe I’ll add them to my PTW list if I’m not watching them already.

Finally, follow me on Twitter @DoubleSama if you’d like to receive notifications every time a new post goes live, or if you don’t want to miss out on future polls. There’s also a new DoubleSama.com Discord server which is open to everyone, and a Patreon page if you’d like to be even more involved with the site.