Well folks, the time has come again. With basically every spring premiere on the books, and me having watched them all in some misguided pursuit of cartoon enlightenment, we can at last run down the hits, misses, and egregious humanitarian crimes of the spring anime season. Though to be honest, the international tragedies were actually in pretty short supply this time – this was a premiere season defined by consistency, and low on outliers in either the positive or negative direction. That’s not to say there’s nothing worth watching, though; there’s actually a pretty wide array of respectable premieres in all sorts of genres, along with a couple genuine gems.
As usual, I’ll be breaking down my evaluations into a vague tier list, and keeping my blurbs fairly brief, while also linking to all of my lengthier reviews over at the preview guide. This isn’t meant to be an authoritative ranking of quality or anything – I mean, these are just first episodes, pretty much any of these productions could surprise us (except for AFTERLOST). In light of that, I’ll be returning to the most simultaneously telling and useless of evaluation metrics – silly anime gifs, the only true currency in our apocalyptic age. Starting with the best of shows and happiest of anime gifs, let’s run this whole damn season down!
Tier One: Mio Loves Pillow
As the first Kunihiko Ikuhara production since Yurikuma Arashi, my expectations for Sarazanmai were sky-high coming into this season. Yet for all that, I still wasn’t prepared for quite how energetic, creative, and just plain beautiful this premiere would be. Sarazanmai’s premiere merges the approachability of Penguindrum’s modern setting to a swirling fantasy concerning kappas and desires, offering a debut that was equally stuffed with absurd gross-out humor, intimate character beats, and gorgeous transformation sequences. Motifs and symbols like the emphasis on connection and prominent Amazon-styled delivery boxes lead me to assume we’ll be tackling the commodification of our identities in the internet age, but themes aside, this premiere was thrilling and beautifully animated and altogether a ridiculously entertaining time. Kunihiko Ikuhara is back in force.
Carole & Tuesday
You could have called Sarazanmai and Carole topping this list from many months off, and for good reason – Kunihiko Ikuhara and Shinichiro Watanabe are two of the greatest directors in anime history, and nearly everything they touch is gold. Watanabe’s own latest production offers all the urgency, atmosphere, and beauty you expect from his shows, building up a believable bond between its young heroines while letting the larger mechanics of its Martian society be illustrated incidentally, over the course of their journeys. The show’s evocative lighting and intimate, observant cinematography naturally convey the beginnings of a formative artistic bond, with the growing friendship between Carole and Tuesday coming through clearly even just in their body language. To be honest, my only real complaint with this episode was that dang CG Gibson, but considering how good the rest of this was, I guess I can forgive them for not animating the guitar.
Tier Two: Chaika is Pleased
Based on an acclaimed Shonen Jump manga and adapted by the generally reliable ufotable, Demon Slayer had plenty of advantages entering this season, and it certainly didn’t put them to waste. One of this series’ greatest advantages is its forbidding, mountainous setting, and this premiere did a great job of making the audience really feel the stark brutality of survival in this world. With occasional CG-heavy pans counterbalanced by the show’s sketchy, expressive linework, Demon Slayer has both a great narrative hook and a strong aesthetic, its narrative successfully leaning on the clear bond between its lead siblings. It’s also pretty easily the best action vehicle of the season, so if you’re looking for more battles than just JoJo this season, Demon Slayer’s your pick.
Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu
Hitoribocchi manages to find a happy medium between warm, fluffy slice of life and brutal, anxiety-driven cringe comedy, illustrating the trials of its incredibly anxious heroine with a sharp ear for comedy and a whole bunch of heart. This season is pretty low on strong slice of life shows, and Hitoribocchi is not only the best of the bunch, it’s also a sympathetic portrait of social anxiety that feels somewhat like a less mean-spirited Watamote. Merge all that with the show’s altogether attractive production, and you end up with my easy pick for the best comedy/slice of life of the season.
This revival of an ‘00s shoujo classic was another of my top picks entering the season, and its premiere didn’t disappoint. The show’s animation is somewhat limited, but its use of lighting and detailed background art still give it a strong sense of atmosphere, while its formidable heroine Tohru already seems like a character who’s impossible not to root for. Reasonable production values plus a great protagonist and a strong fantasy conceit equals an eminently watchable production.
Mitsuru Adachi may only do one thing, but goddamnit is he good at doing it. The acclaimed mangaka is responsible for one of my all-time favorite manga, Cross Game, and Mix is looking to be a similarly engaging story of baseball, youth, and discovering yourself through commitment to a team. His stories are a masterclass in narrative structure, character writing, and sports drama, and Mix’s reserved pacing and ambitious scope seem to indicate it’ll be a true epic of a story. If you want to see a master of sports manga ply his trade, get the heck on Mix.
Tier Three: Takane Versus Popcorn
Fairy gone’s premise made me assume it’d be a regrettable “grim for the sake of it” sort of action show, but it actually turned out to be a perfectly reasonable dark fantasy premiere. Though its murky lighting and CG monsters didn’t thrill me, this episode was fast-paced and reasonably scripted, with some decent action scenes and a whole bunch of pretty backgrounds. If you enjoy more American-influenced action like Rage of Bahamut, it’s probably worth a glance.
On the other hand, if comedy-tinged scifi adventures like Double Decker or Space Dandy are more your speed, RobiHachi seems like the place to be. The show’s hyperactive energy, kaleidoscopic color scheme, and punchy gags all make for a pretty entertaining ride, even if the overarching scenario is a little thinly written. If the titular Robi and Hachi can develop a strong rapport, this could be a very reasonable show.
Though it’s yet another production conceived as a tie-in for a phone game, NAMUAMIDABUTSU! manages to rise above its genre by virtue of actually being pretty darn funny. There are a bunch of strong culture clash gags pitting a bunch of stuffy buddhas against the conveniences of the modern world, and the art design is remarkably strong for a show like this. It probably still won’t have much appeal outside of fans of its source material, but I appreciate when shows like this are kind enough to actually be pretty good, instead of serving as the punishment I’ve earned for my terrible life choices.
After two straight seasons of catering to the sexual predation enthusiast demographic, it was wonderful to see studio Doga Kobo return to making fluffy and irreverent shows that don’t also make my skin crawl. Senko-san’s whole gimmick is “what if there were a tiny fox grandma who lived at your apartment and asked how your day was, wouldn’t that be pretty cool.” God bless anime.
Tier Four: Aoba Takes A Nap
Congrats folks, we’ve reached the tier of shows like BOKUBEN, which is an altogether pleasant and visually appealing romantic comedy with no genuinely good jokes. BOKUBEN not being funny is a bit of a dealbreaker, but I otherwise had a perfectly reasonable time with this fairly warm-hearted drama. If it leans more into its character relationships than its gags, it could be a pretty fine series.
Though it will theoretically evolve into a more traditional high school club drama, this premiere was a fairly focused and effective character story contrasting two very different boys, and demonstrated a welcome commitment to convincingly selling their initial bond. This show is pretty humble production-wise, but its writing seems a tier above these club dramas’ usual standard.
Midnight Occult Civil Servants
Midnight Occult Civil Servants is so Just Okay it’s almost impossible to write about. How was the show’s dialogue? Pretty okay, I guess. Does it have a strong premise? I mean, the premise is okay. How about the visual design? Okay on the whole, though some elements are more or less okay than others. The show’s fundamental qualities are entirely neutral, so if “a passable execution of a moderately clever urban fantasy concept with a so-so amount of energy” sounds exciting, this is probably the show for you.
Wise Man’s Grandchild is apparently the love child of anime’s two most recent seasonal fads, the “magical high school” subgenre and the “trapped in another world” subgenre. Like most shows in both of these genres, it is entirely derivative, too steeped in videogame terminology to ever feel convincing as a fantasy, and mostly just a vehicle for young anime fans to feel competent and powerful. Also like most shows in both of these genres, it will prove itself entirely critic-proof, and soon be replaced by an equally successful copy of itself. But hey, at least it’s got some funny faces!
As it turns out, when you remove One Punch Man’s stunning animation, you’re left with a repetitive and emotionally inert gag comedy. I guess that’s one punch Saitama didn’t see coming.
Tier Five: Elsie is Inconsolable
This season is pretty light on girls-in-clubs shows, and the weakness of those we do have isn’t really helping things. Cinderella Nine seems to want to be “Love Live but baseball,” but tragically failed to realize that Love Live’s strength is entirely contained in its creative, energetic direction and extremely snappy comedy. Cinderella Nine is visually inert and can’t tell a joke, so it’s basically just Love Live plus baseball minus Love Live, and also minus baseball.
As one of the founding texts in the Terrible Anime That Superfans Tell Us We’re Not Allowed to Critique Unless We Experience the Flawless Visual Novel First genre, I had pretty specific expectations for YU-NO, and I was not disappointed.
I’m not sure I’ve ever watched a show where every component of its composition so clearly wanted to be elsewhere. AFTERLOST’s backgrounds desperately wish they were in a PS2 racing game, its character designs long to return to their How To Draw Manga roots, and even its lighting was kinda phoning it in. As for the writing, let’s just say it’s mostly about about a big calamity called LOST, and largely takes place AFTER that.
Alright, I think that’s everything! Honestly, the bottom of this season’s barrel was so inoffensive that I can’t even feign exhaustion here. Sometimes anime isn’t so bad! Though I only consider the top two truly “must-see” properties this time, basically everything in the next two categories was perfectly reasonable, and I didn’t have to clarify my position on slavery (it’s bad) even once this time. I hope you’ve found a new show to try out within my ramblings, and look forward to watching these anime grow and flourish. Here’s to another season of excellent cartoons!