In the last anime season, both Justin and Kuuki got a say in the shows I watched. That ‘experiment’ sort of worked out as it didn’t leave me totally tearing my hair out over shows, however it’s something we probably won’t be doing again anytime soon. Back to normal this time, and so if I rage and whine and complain over how bad a show is, I have no one to blame but myself…
I’ve had to drop one show at the 11th hour: Carole & Tuesday. While it is getting a release in April, it seems that only Netflix Japan (as well as other Japanese TV networks) are getting it, and it probably won’t arrive in the West until the 2-cour show is over, which’ll be the Fall at the very earliest. A real shame, as it’s a show I’ve been looking forward to since it was announced whenever it was last year. This is also Shinichiro Watanabe’s newest work, and he brought in a lot of big names to make it, but it’s curious that it’s a show that’ll likely be shadowed by the big franchise shows coming out this Spring (not to mention the fact that Netflix have acquired the license for it). No point getting depressed over it though; time to talk about what I am watching.
(Carole & Tuesday begins on Wednesday. April. 10, if you’re interested…)
Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
Begins: Friday. April. 05
(Available on Crunchyroll & VRV)
An anime adaptation of a manga about social anxiety, from the newbie studio behind the feel-good success story of last summer, Harukana Receive. I’ll be treating this with care; as someone who had social anxiety bad as a schoolchild, I’m hoping they won’t do what happened in Watamote, where the condition was ridiculed and laughed at. We’ll see.
Hitori Bocchi is our girl with extreme social anxiety; she can’t talk to other people, she cramps up when she pushes herself too hard, and even goes as far as vomits when she’s in a bind. She’s about to start middle school, and the only friend she does have is at another school.
This means she has to find people to talk to and to get along with, and fast. This show looks like a relatively harmless moeblob that just happens to have a central topic that is close to my heart. While a show like Watamote took its main protagonist, an already unlikable girl, and made her even more unlikable, I trust this newbie studio to do the right thing here.
Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (We Never Learn)
Begins: Sunday. April. 07
(Available on Crunchyroll, Funimation & Hulu)
Since I’m going to be avoiding all the big franchises that are coming this season (One Punch Man, Fruits Basket, Attack on Titan, etc.), it was actually rather difficult to find some shows that could interest me. This one is also rather under-the-radar and leaves me a little curious on what it could be like.
Nariyuki is a third-year devoted to studies, despite not having the best grades. When he learns of a special scholarship that covers his college tuition fees, he seizes at the chance, and to his surprise, gets accepted. The catch is that he must tutor some classmates of his at subjects they are hopeless at.
I’ve only recently qualified as a TEFL teacher myself (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), so the topic of this particular show might just hit home more than I thought. It’s not like I’m going to be taking notes from whatever style of teaching Nariyuki chooses to do; this does look a bit like a school harem kind of show anyway, so it could either become a rather funny watch or a rather cringeworthy watch.
Sarazanmai
Begins: Thursday. April. 11
(Available on Crunchyroll & Anime on Demand)
Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop, Samurai Champloo) isn’t the only legend to return this season; Kunihiko Ikuhara (Revolutionary Girl Utena, Sailor Moon, Yuri Kuma Arashi) is back too, with more surreal weirdness.
This show highlights 3 middle school students – Kazuki, Toi and Enta – who are all confronted by a kappa-like creature who goes on to turn them into kappa and gives them a mission: to collect special organs from zombies in the city they live in. While all this is going on, two policemen – Reo and Mabu – have their own bizarre life mission to complete.
This story sounds a lot like how one of Ikuhara’s earlier works, Mawaru Penguindrum, began; two brothers are given a weird mission in order to save the life of their younger sister, only to confront even weirder things along the way. I felt that that story got a bit convoluted when its second cour began, and it’s my least-liked Ikuhara work. This show is only 11 episodes long, so it’ll be curious to see how he does this. His last show, Yuri Kuma Arashi, is a show I recommend greatly, by the way…
Yes I realize that I’m doing more shows than I normally do; I’m even doing not one but two classic/out-of-season shows. Both of these ones are more recent though; one from Fall of last year, and the other only from last season…and both of them are ones I kicked myself for not picking for this column.
Rascal Does not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai
(Available on Crunchyroll)
Sakuta Azusagawa has a rumor going around him at school, that he’s some kind of delinquent. The rumor doesn’t bother him, since he knows it isn’t true; what does end up bothering him is the other rumor, of a phenomenon called ‘puberty syndrome’. One day he comes across a bunny girl at the public library who other members of the public mysteriously cannot see; it turns out to be Mai Sakurajima, his upperclassman who also happens to be a child actress on hiatus. While he solves this mystery and spends time with her, other people come to him who also appear to have this ‘puberty syndrome’ phenomenon.
This was the runaway success story of the Fall 2018 anime season, and I kick myself for not picking to watch it for this column at the time. I get the chance to watch it now though, just as I get the chance to watch this other runaway success story…this other show was something from the Winter 2019 season…
Kaguya-sama: Love is War
(Available on Crunchyroll)
At the incredibly prestigious Shuichin Academy, two members of the Student Council, Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane, are portrayed as the idols of the school. Both of them have the grades, the wealth and the influence. But with all of this comes a massive amount of pride, and when they both develop feelings for each other, this pride of theirs just gets in their way, and they both end up battling each other…to see who will confess first.
This show had the kind of story seen elsewhere, but from an outsiders point-of-view, it appears that a mixture of character design, witty script and the show’s narrator that made it so well-liked. I hadn’t seen any of it, as I was too caught up with watching Domestic Girlfriend, The Magnificent Kotobuki, Girly Air Force and Kemono Friends to get around to seeing this, and so I’m very happy that I now get around to seeing what all the fuss around this show is about.
Some of these shows start pretty early, so expect some write-ups of these soonish. In the meantime…
What shows have caught your interest this Spring? Are you going to pick the big franchises? Will you be catching up on shows you’ve missed? Feel free to hit that like button and air your opinions in the comments below…