Oh my god, what the fuck, what week is it? Week eleven of the winter season? Jesus fuck, these preview articles are supposed to go out on week nine, what am I even previewing at this point. The shows aren’t actually out yet, right? Okay, good, we’ve got some time. Great. I’m slipping, but we’ve got some time. We can work with this.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today, we’ll be turning our eyes towards the spring anime season, as I highlight the productions that most caught my interest. I am admittedly not that much of a seasonal anime watcher at this point – it basically takes something of Wonder Egg Priority’s caliber to truly demand my attention, so I’m not expecting to keep up with all these weekly. What I’m instead pinning down here is simply potential – shows that, through their source material or staff pedigree, seem like they might appeal to someone like me. If you’re looking for the full list of shows and synopses, you can check out anichart for all of that – this list comes pre-narrowed, and will mostly just cover what about each show stuck out to me. Without further ado, let’s preview the god dang spring season!

My Hero Academia S5

It seems kinda silly to highlight a fifth season in a preview post, but hey, My Hero’s coming back. The show remains a reliably entertaining action spectacle, elevated somewhat by its charming ensemble cast, as well as Bones’ formidable production team. The greatest threat to My Hero Academia’s fifth season might well be My Hero Academia’s own success – with a third feature film debuting this summer, it’s likely that season five’s production was crunched in the same way as season four. But hey, it’s still My Hero, and the material this season will be adapting is a lot of fun. It should be a good time.

Here’s the PV.

To Your Eternity

While I’d like to say I’m excited for To Your Eternity, the truth is I’m more anxious than elated. The source material is praised quite highly, which doesn’t surprise me, considering it’s Yoshitoki Oima’s followup to A Silent Voice. On the other hand, the actual anime’s production has been delayed several times, and quite likely suffered disastrously from the disruption of COVID. Additionally, the production team itself just doesn’t seem very strong; the director’s career isn’t particularly distinguished, and Brain’s Base haven’t been a noteworthy production studio for over a decade now. I would very much like for To Your Eternity to be good, but I’m not holding my breath for this one.

SSSS.Dynazenon

Hiroyuki Imaishi defines his ethos as “Sex and Violence with Mach Speed,” which neatly encapsulates a sphere of anime that holds zero interest for me. Because of this, Trigger shows are rarely my sort of thing – but the exceptions, where the studio’s post-Gainax staff meet a story of genuine warmth and sensitivity, tend to really thrill me. So it went for 2018’s terrific SSSS.Gridman, and this spring, Gridman’s key staff are reuniting for Dynazenon. Gridman managed an extraordinary balance of atmospheric character drama and epic kaiju battles, and if Dynazenon simply maintains the strengths of its predecessor, I’ll be a very happy man.

Here’s the PV.

Godzilla: Singular Point

The kaiju spectacles continue with Godzilla: Singular Point, a seriously intriguing Netflix coproduction. If you want to combine traditionally animated action with giant CG monsters, you could do a lot worse than commissioning Bones for the traditional part and Orange for the CG. And beyond its base studio pedigree, director Atsushi Takahashi has quite the impressive resume, with credits running from Gainax and Yuasa productions to four goddamn Paranoia Agent storyboards. I’m frequently underwhelmed by the ways Netflix attempts to sanitize and homogenize anime for their audience, but Singular Point seems like a pretty great combo.

Here’s the PV.

Megalobox Season Two

Megalobox’s first season was a resoundingly pretty good action-sports vehicle, with plenty of style, but not too much narrative substance under the hood. Given most of the key staff are carrying over from the first season, I expect Megalobox Season Two to be more of the same: polished, reasonably entertaining sports action that fades from memory pretty much as soon as you’ve watched it. Nothing wrong with enjoying some light popcorn once in a while!

Here’s the PV.

Joran: The Princess of Snow and Blood

I frankly don’t have much staff-related justification for being intrigued by this one. That said, it did well to survive my initial “Book Cover Challenge,” wherein I stare at a show’s poster and instantly determine if it gets tossed in the refuse pile with the other harems and isekais and whatnot. After that, I checked out the trailer, and discovered both a generally refined tone/aesthetic, as well as some pleasantly distinctive action animation. Not much to go on, I know, but at the very least it’s not a story about a boy who gets transported to a magical realm where he can grope women.

Here’s the PV.

And I think that covers it for me! Honestly, I still haven’t covered the elephant in the room: Evangelion 3.0 + 1.0 is out in theaters, and here I am sitting in my room, utterly not watching it. But while waiting for that blessed delivery, it still looks like we’re in for some fine entertainment over the coming months. I hope you’ve found a pick or two that looks interesting, and let me know what shows I’ve shamefully overlooked!