2018 left me with an op-ed that the Darlifra stans absolutely loved…and me unnecessarily going a little loopy over Revue Starlight. On the plus side, it did bring us all some truly amazing shows (Hisone & Masotan, Yuru Camp, SSSS Gridman, Bloom Into You, Aggretsuko, Violet Evergarden, Harukana Receive). Soooo…this season we’re going to do things a little differently. It began as a passing idea in conversation, then grew into a “let’s-definitely-do-this!” project.
I’ve left my show choices a little out of my hands this time. As well as my regular classic/out-of-season show, Justin has chosen a show, Kuuki has chosen a show, and I have chosen one. I think this came around when we joked that it seemed like every season left me despairing over at least one show in some form. Whether this will be a thing we’ll do in the future remains to be seen; I mean, it all depends on whether I like these choices or not.
But I’ll tell you something…at first glance, it looks like my OASG colleagues have picked some pretty cool shows!
Girly Air Force (Kuuki’s choice)
Begins: Thursday. January. 10
(Available on Crunchyroll)
Okay, so I might need a little help with this one.
To put it bluntly, this is a ‘girls-fly-ships-to-save-us-from-the-scary-alien-bad-guys’ show, not unlike the Strike Witches franchise. I originally thought that this was an adaptation of a mobage, but it was in fact a light novel series.
These mysterious aliens are called the Zai, and so to fight them off, humanity builds advanced aircraft called Daughters, along with the fighting mechanism called Anima, which are made to look like human girls. Could you call this a semi-harem show? I mean, the story itself focuses on a young boy, Kei, who dreams of being a pilot himself. How will he fight off all of these pretty girls who are all fighting for his heart?
I’m afraid that’s all I kind of know about this. Should be funny to hear how/if these girls and boys handle their English though – as far as I know, fighter pilots in Japan are required to give instructions in English whilst flying. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong there, though.
Domestic Girlfriend (My choice)
Begins: Friday. January. 11
(Available on HIDIVE)
This is, apparently, an adaptation of a long-running manga, but since manga is something I don’t follow so much, this is the first I’ve heard of this.
Regular high school kid Natsuo has a huge crush on his beautiful teacher Hina Tachibana, but after a mixer party his friends organize, he ends up spending the night with another girl called Rui. But soon after this all happens, Natsuo learns that his father is remarrying, and that Natsuo is due to have 2 new step-sisters live with them…only these two step-sisters aren’t quite what he expected. One is Rui, the cynical and moody girl he slept with, and the other is none other than his teacher Hina!
This sounds like a very…cliched story, I know, and to be honest, I’m not really expecting anything spectacular from this. So why did it interest me? Well I will be honest – a few shows caught my eye this season (The Promised Neverland, Kemurikusa, even this weird Boogiepop comeback show), but as they all seemed to have rather complex (or bizarre) plots, I think I just wanted to stick to something a little…simpler?
Well…let’s all see how this ends up.
The Magnificent Kotobuki (Justin’s choice)
Begins: Sunday. January. 13
(Available on HIDIVE)
So while I’m watching harem girls fighting weird aliens on one side, I have this other flying girls show that Justin picked. And it has this whole fantasy vibe about it that really interests me, and reminds me a lot of Sora no Woto.
Set in a barren frontier that may be set in the past, present or future, the Kotobuki Squadron are a group of mercenaries with classic Hayabusa fighter planes. They all have personalities that clash with each other…and I think that it’ll be this atmosphere that will be the main focus of the show, instead of the action that takes place as they fly in the air fighting and protecting whoever and whatever.
The PVs I’ve seen for this have really impressed me, and so I’m quite looking forward to watching this one.
…and those are my three shows. I’m well aware that sequels for Kakegurui, Mob Psycho 100 and The Piano Forest come out this season, plus Boogiepop has decided to come back with a vengeance (why I’m not entirely sure…). Oh, and there’s also the sequel to Kemono Friends that remains controversial since the original director plus a lot of other original staff will not be returning. So instead, let’s all revel in the original show. You guys did pick it as my classic/out-of-season show for this season after all.
Kemono Friends
(Available on Crunchyroll)
In case you don’t know the story, I’ll go through it briefly. Japari Park is home to a vast array of animals and creatures: endangered, extinct and legendary. Thanks to a substance called Sandstar, many of these animals have been anthropomorphized into humanoid girls called Friends. One such Friend, Serval, finds a human girl with amnesia, and decides to help her on her mission to find out who she is and where she came from.
By the way, I will be avoiding any kind of coverage of Kemono Friends 2 as I go through watching this. Some people will only be hate-watching it anyway.
Will we carry on with this project in the future? Like I said, it all depends if my sanity is still intact by the end of March. But seriously, 2019 looks like it will keep us weebs very entertained and excited. Sword Art Online carries on, Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, Haikyuu!, One Punch Man and Chihayafuru will all be back with new seasons, Fruits Basket is to get a reboot, Netflix is upping its game with some new ‘original’ shows/acquired licenses…what’s not to like? Personally, I’m super-hyped for one show coming out in the spring on Netflix, Carole and Tuesday, which looks like it might be getting a simulcast, just as Violet Evergarden did at the beginning of 2018. Let’s just hope that the US and Australia aren’t left behind in Netflix simulcasts this time.
So…have we done the right thing? Has leaving these show choices largely out of my hands a good idea? Also, what will you be watching as 2019 begins. Do you think Netflix upping their game in terms of releasing anime is a good thing? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…