A new year comes, and I am looking at these upcoming four seasons with a clearer mind…hopefully. I’m praying that none of the shows I pick to cover here for Otaku Theater ends up the way of some from last year, and even if they do, I will write with my head and not let emotions get the better of me. Seeing what I’ve picked out for this Winter season though, I’m very optimistic that that won’t be happening any time soon.
In fact, as I’ve had a brief look at what 2023 as a whole could bring us, I’m optimistic. But I’m taking that optimism with a hint of caution. So far I’ve seen some cool yuri shows I like the look of, and an upcoming hyped project from Dogakobo sounds interesting too, so does one of P.A Works’. There’s also the Love Live! spin-off show that was originally an April Fool’s joke but turned out to be the real deal; a fantasy show with Yohane as the main character. I should perhaps remind Justin to bonk me on the head more anytime I make a foolish show pick. But now isn’t the time to worry about that, here are the shows I will be reviewing the upcoming season.
Tomo-chan is a Girl!
Studio: Lay-duce
Begins: January. 04
(Available on Crunchyroll)
I often end up picking out school rom coms. My last one was When Will Ayumu Make His Move? which had a shogi theme. It took a while for me to really get into it, and it ultimately became an enjoyable watch. Tomo-chan is a Girl! looks like it’s going to be some no-nonsense rom com. Believe me, considering the crazy year I’ve had, sometimes a no-nonsense show can do me some good.
Tomboy high-schooler Tomo Aizawa is finally able to tell her childhood friend Junichiro Kubota that she has a crush on him. Unfortunately, the confession ends up being something that goes right over his head. Jun has always thought of Tomo as a bro, and only realized she was a girl in junior high. So how will she be able to win his heart, not as a bro, but as a girlfriend?
I already get the feeling that Tomo-chan is a Girl! might rely on some atypical gender traits and jokes. In recent times, we’ve had some successful shows where gender has become irrelevant to who the character is; one big example being Najimi in Komi Can’t Communicate!, who isn’t given a gender in the show. With Tomo being the tomboy she is, I think she might have to turn to other girls in her class to swat her up on how to win an oblivious boy’s heart. What makes matters worse is that there is a third wheel in the story; Jun’s ex-girlfriend Misuzu Gondo, who will no doubt be putting a spanner in the works of Tomo’s plans.
I may talk a lot of smack about the endless school rom coms that come each season, but deep down I do enjoy them. I picked out When Will Ayumu Make His Move? because I was curious about the character designs and the shogi theme, and it’s the same here. I want to know how this tomboy will be able to win this oblivious boy’s heart and show him that she is not just ‘one of the bros’ like he has always thought.
After some more researching, it seems that this is something a lot of fans have been waiting for. This is an adaptation of a 4-koma manga, and so whether the show will rely more on short sketches or an ongoing story is something we’ll have to look out for. Rie Takahashi will be voicing Tomo, and I’m eager to see what kind of voice she’ll put out. She recently voiced the main lead in Netflix’s Romantic Killer. In that, a geek girl is forced by a malevolent being to find a boyfriend and does everything she can to fight it. Being able to switch from different levels of voice is something I’m confident she will be able to do. Interestingly, the show will also feature the voice of Sally Amaki, as British student Carol Olston. An upcoming VA who has done a fair amount of shows, but she is better known for being the English voice for Kiriko in Overwatch 2. She will apparently be doing Carol’s voice in the English dub as well, which is getting a simultaneous release. I’m glad that we might not be getting any Engrish, but whether this British student will end up having an American accent is something else.
Alright, am I just being picky or overhyped over the possibility of a British accent in my anime? So far I’ve only really heard them in the K-on! movie and for Mari Illustrious Makinami in the Evangelion Rebuild movies. I won’t be watching the English dub, so I’m going to have to find out whether Carol will have an American accent instead via other means. Perhaps I should place more concern in my next show pick instead…
NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a
Studio: A-1 Pictures
Begins: January. 07
(Available on Crunchyroll)
The announcement of this game adaptation was very well-received. How would the YoRHa units be animated onscreen? Would the show stick closely to the story that the game told? Would it give us only one of the endings, or drip feed us with all of them? Curiously, A-1 Pictures have been extremely quiet about this show, and are leaving us in some real suspense. I would think a lot of us who will be watching this know the story of Nier: Automata anyway, and as it does have multiple endings, I’ll give a taster to those who don’t really know the game.
Set in the year 11945, a proxy war goes on between the human-made androids and a machine army from another world. YoRHa androids are commanded from The Bunker, an orbiting space station, and work with the humans and older androids living on the surface. The story focuses on three YoRHa units in particular (2B, 9S and A2), although we haven’t really been told which one will be focused on the most. There’s even rumors that this adaptation (Ver 1.1a) may be the first in a planned project of several. Whether I’ll choose to cover them as well though remains to be seen.
I’m not going to lie when I say I have some concerns. Not every video game adaptation has been great. And considering that there is such a high bar when it comes to adapting Nier: Automata, viewers are no doubt going to be desperate to look for any tiny little flaws in the show, whether it be story or characters or animation. Voices from the game will be coming back to do voices in the show thankfully; Yui Ishikawa, Natsuki Hanae and Aoi Yuuki will be back to play 2B, 9S and Pascal respectively. No word yet on who will come back for the English dub, but considering how devoted Kira Buckland was to her role as 2B in the game, it would shock a lot of people if she was recast.
But I go back to not-so-great video game adaptations. There hasn’t been a great Final Fantasy anime show, and the recent adaptation of Persona 5 didn’t go as well as people hoped it would. We should place hope in A-1 Pictures though, as they are working closely with the game producers and are bringing back original voices. As mentioned, the game has multiple endings, and it’s possible that this show is but one of many more to come. The studio have everything they need; a deep and philosophical story, fast-paced action scenes to please lots of people, and character designs we grew to love from the game. It’s just a matter of whether they are able to combine them all together to make a video game adaptation that is actually a great one, and not just a meh one.
It’s definitely going to be weird to see Nier: Automata‘s characters in animated form, but there’s one thing that is nagging me. What if a show like this turns out not to be what people had hoped? People adore the game, and would certainly hate to have a poor anime ruin it. I doubt that Yoko Taro would care though; while he loves the story he created, he seems very content with the royalties he will be most certainly getting from this. From what we have seen in trailers and promo material, the studio are going for a more ‘cinematic’ look in the show; understandable as anything cutesy-looking would ruin this show completely. However there’s still a part of me that this overemphasis on the show looking as cinematic as possible may make the show look ridiculous. The jury is out on this; people are going to either really like this adaptation, or really hate it.
In/Spectre Season 2
Studio: Brain’s Base
Begins: January. 08
(Available on Crunchyroll)
Picking season 1 of this way back when would not have been something I’d have done before, and so returning to this show for its second season is something else. But I really did find In/Spectre a fun watch in the end. That season focused a lot on solving the case behind the ghost of a dead idol who was causing havoc in the city. It turned out that her immense power was generated through the internet, and a website that a cousin of main lead Kuro created. I’ll admit that it did get a little complicated to watch at times, but it was still visually stunning. And so what will season 2 give us?
Season 1 ended with the cousin, Rikka, saying she’d be back to find both Kuro and Kotoko. She has the same supernatural powers as Kuro, but is desperate to become human again. After being forced to consume yokai flesh, they are both unable to die. So it’s very likely that the next chapter will have her using her wild imagination to conjure up a more powerful demon that could make her human once more.
But the glue of the show is the relationship between Kuro and Kotoko. To those who aren’t familiar with the story, Kotoko serves as an intermediary between the real world and the supernatural one. She became a ‘goddess of wisdom’ and sacrificed one eye and one leg in the process. And she is also completely smitten with Kuro, who has so far had no interest in her outside of professional work. This second season might change all that though. Rikka will be back, and Kotoko has already said that she feels it is her ‘duty’ to stop her.
Watching the first season, I was worried that too much focus was on this dead idol demon case, but looking back now I see the real story is how Kuro and Kotoko are going to deal with Rikka and how to stop her before she kills Kotoko, which is very possible. I’m really looking forward to coming back to this show as it’s been a long while since I’ve seen Kuro and Kotoko be total dorks. I do wish that I knew more about what this season will give; I don’t know the original story, you see. But the complete mystery is what has drawn me to it. And because I enjoyed the original season, I know that we’ll be seeing plenty more of what I loved before.
Dorohedoro
Studio: MAPPA
(Available on Netflix)
Often times, my out-of-season pick is an easy one, but this time around, the poll was close. This show came out on top in the end though, by only a handful of votes. I’ve seen it advertised plenty of times while browsing through Netflix, but know next to nothing about it. I have a good friend who adores it, so I guess if I’m stuck on what is going on, I can turn to them.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world, in a favela-style city known only as ‘The Hole’, a group of sorcerers from another realm have been taking people off the streets and using them as guinea pigs for their experiments. One such unlucky person is Caiman, who wakes up with a reptile head and bad amnesia. He acquaints himself with the girl who finds him, restaurant owner Nikaido, to find the sorcerer who put the curse on Caiman and kill them.
Dorohedoro is only a few years old, and from what I have seen so far in promo videos and trailers, I can see that a lot of critics have praised it for its stylish art direction and authentic character design. It definitely has a style of art that I don’t actively look for when I pick out shows for Otaku Theater, which would explain why I didn’t pick it out when it came out. Even though it came out in the Winter season then, it didn’t make it onto Netflix until that May. They go on to call it violent, surreal and absurdly funny all at once; all of that has somehow made me itching to get into this some more. As I say, this is the kind of show I would not have probably picked when it originally came out, but now I hear so many awesome things about it, I’ve just gotten so curious now.
Fingers crossed that I’ve made some wise choices for 2023. When it comes to Tomo-chan is a Girl!, I’m expecting some simple no-nonsense fun rom com action, but the onus is going to be on A-1 Pictures, and how they’re going to handle adapting Nier: Automata. It is either going to be really awesome or a complete cringe-fest. We don’t want the latter of course, but considering how much effort they seem to be putting in to make it as authentic as what the game delivered, things look good right now. And so the Winter season begins.