It’s that time again, folks. With the winter season entering its final act, it’s time to set our eyes forward to the upcoming season, and start pinning our hopes of anime redemption on whatever shows await beyond the horizon. After a relatively reserved winter season, this spring promises some long-awaited revivals, beloved continuations, and high-profile adaptations, along with a variety of more tentatively exciting productions. There’s no single obvious pick, but plenty of reasons to be excited for what’s on the way. As usual, I won’t be running down the names and synopses for every single upcoming show – you can find out show premises on any site like MAL, and check out the full list of shows over at anichart. I’ll just be focusing on my own personal list – the shows I myself am looking out for, along with the presumably tangible reasons I’m excited for them. Plotted out in vague order of my own hype, let’s break down what stars await in the spring season!

My Hero Academia S3

The obviousness of my first pick does not in any way diminish my excitement for it. My Hero Academia is a terrific shounen manga, and after a so-so first season, its adaptation rallied with a terrific season two that captured all the greatest qualities of its source material. With the show’s third season maintaining the same reliable Bones team, I expect the execution to remain just as strong here – and on top of that, the material this season will be adapting is actually a solid tier above the second season’s arcs. Season three will be covering some of the most thrilling and emotionally satisfying arcs I’ve seen in shounen manga, and if this adaptation can do them justice, it’ll easily be the event of the season.

Here’s the MHA PV!

Golden Kamui

Following in the heels of the established heavyweight, Golden Kamui is the fire-eyed young challenger, a highly awaited adaptation of another beloved manga property. Golden Kamui is a blockbuster manga that marries vivid action to an engaging and well-explored period piece concept. I’m not necessarily sold on the full staff of this one, but the manga is lauded enough that it’s still easily worth a look. If you’re looking for a more grounded style of action-drama, Golden Kamui looks like an easy pick.

You can check out the show PV here.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes

Finishing up my obvious sequel/adaptation roundup, the original Legend of the Galactic Heroes has gained an almost mystical aura among western fandom, often referred to as one of the quietly best anime of all time. Having read the first novel in the LoGH franchise, I can sorta see why – the story is a grounded and satisfying space opera written on a massive scale, populated by immediately intriguing and fun-to-follow leads. I’m not sure whether the team responsible for Kuroku’s Basketball will necessarily do the source material justice, but that source material is regarded highly enough for LoGH to be worth a look regardless.

Here’s the PV.

Hisone to Maso-tan

Jumping from adaptations to an intriguing anime original, Hisone to Maso-tan is blessed with a terrific staff that range from Gainax veterans like Shinji Higuchi to Macross godfather Shoji Kawamori, along with the inconsistent but very talented Mari Okada on series composition. The show also has very unique character designs and a strange, seemingly loaded premise, apparently marrying wartime drama to a story about a big dopey dragon. I’m still not precisely sure what Hisone to Maso-tan is, but whatever it is, I’m ready for it.

You can find its PV here.

Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love

Tada Doesn’t Fall in Love is another anime original bolstered by strong staff, chief among them being its director Mitsue Yamazaki. After honing her skills directing many great episodes of Mawaru Penguindrum, Yamazaki headlined the phenomenal Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun, along with some shows that simply fell in the wrong genre spaces to really break through in western fandom. Tada seems like a somewhat more romantic follow-up to Nozaki-kun, and though Doga Kobo isn’t the animation powerhouse it once was, the studio is still blessed with some wonderfully talented animators. There’s a high chance Tada will be charming everyone the moment it airs.

You can check out the PV here.

Hinamatsuri

I’m keeping my hopes low for this one, though there are certainly reasons to be excited. Based on a relatively well-received comedy manga, Hinamatsuri looks like the kind of farcical thing I don’t always necessarily enjoy, but I’m tempted by its terrific director Kei Okawa. Okawa’s direction was a key component of Oregairu’s phenomenal second season, and his eye for character acting seems just as well-suited to a personality-based comedy as it was to a character drama. Comedies are always a coin flip, but the staff is there.

Here’s the PV.

Wotaku no Koi wa Mizukashii

I don’t really know anything about Wotaku’s source material, and outside of the pleasant but unremarkable momokuri, I don’t really have much experience with its director, either. My interest in this one really does just come down to the premise: a workplace romantic drama about actual adult characters sounds like a swell time. The fact that the premise seems to imply the main source of conflict will be “dating an otaku” definitely lessens my interest, as that places it much closer to your standard anime premise, but I still can’t skip basically any romance that isn’t about friggin’ teenagers.

Here’s the PV.

Persona 5

My expectations for Persona 5 are frankly pretty minimal. While I loved the game, the strength of the original actually makes me a bit less excited for this adaptation – after all, I didn’t spend the game thinking “I sure wish this story were being told as an anime,” I spent it appreciating how well the story being told was tailored to the medium it was already being told in. Persona games just don’t naturally translate to clean anime scripts, and the franchise doesn’t really have a great adaptation track record, anyway. That said, I still love Persona 5’s characters, and adaptation director Masashi Ishihama’s work on Shinsekai Yori gives me at least one reason to think this could be good. Persona 5 would need a bold adaptation to shine, but the material is there.

Here’s the Persona PV.

Megalo Box

And down here at the bottom, we run into some utter question marks. Megalo Box is billed as a fiftieth anniversary Ashita no Joe title, but our knowledge of its staff is basically non-existent. The only thing we have to go off is its intriguing PV, which demonstrates at least some compelling art design. Whether the show’s unique aesthetic and Ashita no Joe legacy translate into a watchable experience is anyone’s guess, but it’s at least worth a second glance.

You can check out that PV here.

And that about covers it for me! There are certainly other shows with glimmers of potential, like Shoji Kawamori’s Juushinki Pandora, but this list pretty much covers everything I myself am at all excited for. Of course, I’m just one dude, and there’s plenty else coming up in a variety of other genre pallets. Let me know what you’re all looking forward to down below!