Spring 2018 Season Preview

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!

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes – Episode 56

Legend of the Galactic Heroes doesn’t impress its worldview on the viewer through single dramatic speeches, or rousing moments in the heat of battle. It’s constructed not as a war epic, but as a historical chronicle, and its cynicism towards the great acts of men carries the great fatigue only a long-view perspective can bring. Men may inspire others to action, and even rule over their fellows for a time. Men can commit great and terrible acts, and their names can occasionally become renowned enough to be remembered. But men die, and the world moves on. History is larger than our capacity to make it.

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Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Volume 1 – Review

This week I got around to the first volume of Legend of the Galactic Heroes! I enjoyed the book overall, though the prose was anything but graceful. The series’ best qualities are likely its scope and its anger – Legend of the Galactic Heroes tackles war and governance on a massive scale, and there is not one hint of glamour in its portrayal of combat. People die senselessly and in large numbers, and that’s just how war is. I appreciate that; plenty of stories in anime and elsewhere tend to make halfhearted gestures towards condemning violence while actually celebrating it, but Legend of the Galactic Heroes doesn’t indulge in any of that. It’s a very angry book.

You can check out my full review over at ANN, or my notes below!

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